Category: GKP Writing News

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GKP Writing News

Finding Writing Time

So many happenings occur in spring, I’m having trouble finding writing time. I know, excuses, excuses. Except it’s true.

My does are having spring kids. This year I have four bottle babies. The barn needs cleaning out again and it rains every two or three days.

That makes gardening difficult as the dirt is now mud. The only good thing is the lack of frost. I was tired of putting blankets over the tomato and pepper plants.

The wildflowers are blooming. I do have that ongoing botany project needing pictures. It is tiresome to get out on the hills and have rain start. Digital cameras hate to get wet.

So do I.

rain makes finding writing time easier
Well, the novel I’m supposed to be working on is about a flood and its aftermath. The weather seems to be reminding me. Our neck of the Ozarks has been getting rain every two or three days for over a month. The south pasture has standing water several inches deep along the hill above it which is different. Even the garden with its gravelly soil is getting muddy.

What excuses do you have?

Your excuses are likely as true as mine. At least we tell ourselves they are.

And it is so easy to keep putting off our writing. Until writing becomes little more than a vague dream.

Enough already!

It is Writing Time!

Repeat after me: Finding Writing Time is possible. I will make the time. I will use the time for writing.

What will I write? I have two projects competing for my attention.

My botany project is running hot right now because I am bringing in so many new pictures. This year I am participating in a citizen science project putting up plant pictures.

Virginia bluebells are one of the many Ozark wildflowers blooming
The many Ozark wildflowers like these Virginia bluebells make finding writing time harder. So many of these plants are spring ephemerals, blooming for a short time in the spring, setting seed and vanishing. The botany project makes heading out with the camera valid, but no writing gets done.

The downside is how much time it takes. The upside is the incentive to get out to take the pictures and a chance to have some help identifying some I don’t know.

The allure of the botany project is how easy it is to do the pages. Each plant page has pictures and a single sentence.

My novel is complicated. I’m about half through the draft and it’s getting sticky. It digs up emotions.

Finding writing time is only part of the problem. Tackling the tough parts of writing is part of it too.

Several Ozark wildflowers are essay subjects in “Exploring the Ozark Hills“.

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GKP Writing News

Doing Research

Making up a draft is easy when the writer just writes with no regard for facts. The problem with that comes when the book is out to readers who quickly spot all the mistakes. Before doing the final draft, doing research is vital.

That much is obvious, I suppose. My problem is that I spot all the places I need to be doing research while I am supposed to be writing that rough draft. And I don’t get the writing done.

Most people would say doing research isn’t a problem. Just Google it.

Except it is a problem for me as I live in a dead zone which officially does not exist. I can’t ‘just Google it’.

I do have one advantage. I’ve lived in many places and done lots of things. Each place, each job, every person and happening from my past is a source of information.

Memory can play tricks. And times change. So, I may use the past to write the draft. Then double checking by doing research is a good back up.

In my present novel this has come into play. I have one character who carries all his financial information with him in a briefcase. What information needs to be in the briefcase?

My past experiences with finances, good and bad, let me come up with a credible list. I went with that to write that chapter. Then I asked a professional and got confirmation of my list.

The next hurdle will be beyond my experience. I will write the scenes from what little I know to start with. This will let me know what questions and information I will need. Then I will ask a professional.

I suppose I could ‘just Google it’ and get the information. Asking a professional takes the guess work out of the equation. And that is the point of doing research.

Sometimes the research requires drawing a map as for “Capri Capers“.

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GKP Writing News

Flood Novel Starting

Writing about a flood:

What would you do if you were stranded by a flood for two or three weeks? Your phone, your electricity and water are off. Your road is blocked by fallen trees. Your world is only a hilltop surrounded by flood waters.

Could you survive?

This is the basic plot of the novel I am writing on right now.

Of course, there are other factors involved. Her husband is a problem even though he is off driving a truck. She must face her own insecurities.

As a homesteader, she has livestock and flood damage to keep her busy.

Ozark creek in flood
Would you dare to step into this raging current? In my novel Mindy must do so in spite of the dangers of being swept away and drowned.

The novel is a partially done draft right now. I don’t know how the story ends yet. I don’t have a title yet.

What I do have is another rewrite and edit as I delve deeper into the story and Mindy’s emotions. If I can’t feel the emotions, I can’t make them real on the page. And that makes writing the draft hard as I must sink into the story while I am writing and dig my way out to go on with my day.

Reading:

Those who have visited my site before know I do a fair amount of reading every year. I post reviews and ratings on Goodreads under Karen GoatKeeper, averaging over 70 books a year.

At present I am reading the last Mrs. Pollifax novel, “Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled”. This is a thriller series starring, obviously, Mrs. Emily Pollifax.

Mrs. P was in her sixties and bored with nothing but club meetings and raising prize winning geraniums. Her teenage dream was to be a spy, so she went to Washington, D.C., and applied for a spying job at the CIA.

Through accidental mistaken identity, Mrs. P got her chance and the series was born. It’s lots of fun reading, especially for older women.

My other book is “A Drake At the Door” which is interesting, but disappointing as it is more about raising cut flowers than about the animals mentioned on the cover. The drake doesn’t appear until the last fifty pages.