Tag Archive for: Plotting the Character-Driven Novel

Book Excerpt–Motivating Yourself to Write

/in /by
by Linda Rodriguez
It’s that time at
the beginning of a new year when people make resolutions for
self-improvement. Writers often make resolutions to find time to
write. I posted a blog about that recently here.


Even when this
resolution is successful and the writer creates a workable writing
schedule, such a resolution often ultimately fails because often
writers have more trouble motivating themselves to actually write
during the time they’ve scheduled than in finding or making the time
to write. In fact, one of the reasons we as writers so often find
ourselves over-committed and without dedicated time to write is due
to our procrastination and lack of motivation.

So, as my 2017 New
Year’s gift to all my writer friends out there, here to help with
that problem is an excerpt from my new writing book, Plotting the
Character-Driven Novel, available in ebook and trade paperback
here.



Motivating
Yourself to Write
The
trick is to motivate yourself to actually write in that time slot
you’ve created. Most of us find it easier to disappoint ourselves
than to disappoint other people, so if you can find a buddy or
partner to help keep you accountable, that’s a great way to
overcome that difficulty. Perhaps you two can call, text, or email
each other every writing day with goals before your writing time and
what you accomplished after that time is over. Or a group of writer
friends on Facebook can do this for each other. I know a number of
writers who post their day’s time spent writing or page totals on
Facebook, and get lots of positive feedback from their writer friends
for it—or consolation if they’ve missed their goal.
It’s
also important to set regular rewards for yourself for completing
planned segments of writing tasks. Putting your feet up with a cup of
tea and a special treat. Spending time reading a book you’ve wanted
to read. Buying yourself a book you want. Buying nice pens or blank
notebooks or whatever desk/office gizmo you’ve been wanting or
needing. Buying materials you’ve wanted for a craft project and–as
a later reward–giving yourself time to work on that project. Lunch
with one or more friends. Make a list of small, medium, and large
rewards for fulfilling various writing commitments.
Also,
schedule some creative refill time into each week and month. Take a
walking or library or bookstore or art gallery or museum break every
week, even if it’s only for thirty minutes. Take a nice blank book
(one of your rewards) and a nice pen (another reward) and visit a
lake, park, nature preserve, or riverside, just walking and sitting
and writing with no stated purpose. Describe in writing what you see,
what you feel, what you’re thinking, what you want to write someday
or otherwise do someday.
If
you’re serious about writing, reclaim your power. Would you treat
your car the way you treat yourself? No, you would make sure it had
as much quality fuel as it needed. You would buy new tires for it
when they were needed. You would check its oil and get it regular
tune-ups and other routine maintenance. You would do all of this
because you know these things are important to keep it functioning at
its peak. Show yourself as much consideration as you do your car. No
car will run on empty, and neither do writers.
Make
time to remember how to dream, and make time to bring those dreams
into reality. Visualize your successful life as a writer, and then
plan that change. Exercise your change muscles first by making small,
unimportant, non-threatening changes in private areas. Learn to make
a habit of changing things you are unhappy with—in your job, your
home, your relationships, yourself. Envision the life you want to
lead. Write it down. Check in with it often. Analyze problems. Get
back on the horse when you fall off, and fix the problems that led
you to fumble your plans or work routine. It’s always an ongoing
process. No one’s perfect, but the only way you can truly fail is
if you stop for good.

Linda Rodriguez Bio
Linda Rodriguez’s book, Plotting the
Character-Driven Novel is based on her popular workshop. Every
Family Doubt, her fourth mystery featuring Cherokee campus police
chief, Skeet Bannion, will appear in June, 2017. Her three earlier
Skeet novels—Every Hidden Fear, Every Broken Trust,
and Every Last Secret—and
her books of poetry—Skin Hunger
and Heart’s Migration—have
received critical recognition and awards, such as Malice
Domestic Best First Novel, International Latino Book Award, Latina
Book Club Best Book of 2014, Midwest Voices & Visions, Elvira
Cordero Cisneros Award, Thorpe Menn Award, and Ragdale and Macondo
fellowships. Her short story, “The Good Neighbor,”
published in the anthology, Kansas City Noir, has been
optioned for film.

Book Excerpt-To Find Time to Write Your Novel, You Must Make Time to Write

/in /by
by Linda Rodriguez

This is an excerpt from my new book on writing, Plotting the Character-Driven Novel. 

https://www.amazon.com/Plotting-Character-driven-Novel-Linda-Rodriguez/dp/097912915X

I wanted to give you a taste of what it’s like. As I explain on the very first page:  “Writing a novel
requires several things—time, motivation, the willingness to keep
learning the craft of fiction, and an ability or process to access
your creative thoughts. We’ll deal with the first two in this
chapter briefly since they’re mostly beyond the purview of this
book, and the rest of the book will concern itself with elements of
the craft of fiction and a process for accessing your own inner
knowledge of your novel by freewriting, brainstorming by yourself,
and thinking on paper. I will be including samples of actual work
documents I have used with this process to create published novels in
order to give you examples of how these techniques and tools work—and
also to show that behind those perfect books you pick up at the
bookstore lies a great deal of hard work, messy process, and flailing
around. This book is designed to help you keep the flailing around to
the minimum.”


So, this is from the first section of the book.


To Find Time to
Write Your Novel, You Must Make Time to Write

How
do you find time to write the novels which are your vocation in the
midst of job and career demands, family and housework demands,
community and societal demands? When everyone else expects so much
from you that there’s nothing left for your own dreams, what can
you do about it?

First,
we have to change our terminology from “finding time to write” to
“making time to write.” The sad truth is that no one finds time
to write. There aren’t big pockets of time just lying around
waiting to be picked up and used in most of our lives. For most of
us, we’ll have to give up some comfort or pleasure to make real
time to write—in some cases, to make any bits of time to write at
all.

The
first step is to make the decision to own your own life. Time is not
a commodity–the time we’re talking about is the substance of your
life. When it’s gone, so are you. If you want to write anything,
you have to claim your own life and find out what you want.

How
do you find those pieces of time and the regular schedule for writing
that leads to a body of work? The trick is to create order and make a
tourniquet for a time hemorrhage, but first you must destroy all of
those ‘shoulds’ and ‘what will people thinks’ that are standing in
your way. Make it easy on yourself by asking for help and accepting
help when it’s offered to you. Take the time to de-stress. When
you’re not frazzled by stress, you’ll find it easier to set
limits and boundaries and hold to them.

Whenever
you find your desk or day becoming chaotic, take time to reorganize.
It will repay in more time that you can steal for your illicit love
affair with the novel. To make sure you stay on track with those
things that absolutely must be done, make a brief list of the way
your time was spent at the end of each day and week. Check it for
places where you abandoned time reserved for writing or other truly
necessary tasks to engage with lower priority urgencies or comfort
activities. After a disastrous day, sit down with a notebook and
figure out how to handle things differently if you face the same
situations again. Review the situation and just what happened step by
step, pinpointing the spot(s) at which you could and should have made
a different decision or taken a stand against someone else’s urgency
with your time. Figure out a strategy for dealing with this situation
when it next arises, and write it down. Then forget the day and
relax.

Worrying
about the myriad things, some great but most small to tiny, that we
must take care of wears us down. When you find yourself doing this
rather than being able to write or revise the passage you want to
work on, keep an ongoing master list and write down each task or
obligation the moment you think about it. Get it out of your head and
onto paper to free your mind and stop the energy drain. Then, later,
you can decide which tasks can be delegated to someone else and
arrange the remaining tasks in the order that will allow them to be
done quickest and most easily.

We
can also free up energy by developing habits and systems to take care
of the mindless stuff. We already do this every day, brushing teeth,
driving to work, without having to make decisions for each tiny
action that comprises these tasks. Develop a system for handling
things that recur, and stick with it for twenty-one days. Then it
will be a habit, and you can forget it and set your mind free to be
more creative.

Much
time use is sheer habit. Work smarter. Find the ways in which you
want and need to spend time. Steal those minutes and hours from
low-priority tasks. Break down everything on your to-do list into
small tasks and estimate the minimum time to accomplish them. (Double
all time estimates!) Schedule into your calendar. If they won’t all
fit in the time allotted, then something must go. Nothing is fixed in
stone–renegotiate and eliminate whatever you can. Of the rest, what
can you successfully delegate? It pays to invest time (and money, if
possible) in training someone to do it.

Become
assertive. Don’t be afraid to approach someone with a request, and
don’t take it personally if they refuse you. Learn to say ‘no’
kindly and firmly and to receive a ‘no’ without letting it affect
your self-esteem or your relationship. Be secure.

Author
of many published novels and teacher of writing, Holly Lisle, says it
the best way I’ve ever seen it. “Realize that real writers who
write multiple books and who make a living at it have systems they
use. A process for brainstorming, a consistent way of outlining a
story, a certain number of words or pages a day, a way of plotting, a
way of revising, a way of finishing. Writing is work. It doesn’t fall
out of your head by magic. It doesn’t just happen because you want it
to.”


Linda Rodriguez’s book, Plotting the
Character-Driven Novel is based on her popular workshop. Every
Family Doubt, her fourth mystery featuring Cherokee campus police
chief, Skeet Bannion, will appear in June, 2017. Her three earlier
Skeet novels—Every Hidden Fear, Every Broken Trust,
and Every Last Secret—and
her books of poetry—Skin Hunger
and Heart’s Migration—have
received critical recognition and awards, such as Malice
Domestic Best First Novel, International Latino Book Award, Latina
Book Club Best Book of 2014, Midwest Voices & Visions, Elvira
Cordero Cisneros Award, Thorpe Menn Award, and Ragdale and Macondo
fellowships. Her short story, “The Good Neighbor,”
published in the anthology, Kansas City Noir, has been
optioned for film.

Something Different in a New Book

/in /by
by Linda Rodriguez

I don’t do many promotional posts, so I
hope you’ll bear with this one. I have a new book coming November
30th, something different from my poetry or novels. For many years,
I’ve taught writing workshops and classes in person and online. A
number of people across the nation have asked that I write books on
the topics of my classes because they don’t live close enough to take
one and are not in the national organization for which I teach my
online classes (to members only). Next month, my first writing book,
Plotting the Character-Driven Novel, will be published by
Scapegoat Press, and it’s available for pre-orders now (though I
notice only the trade paperback is up right now—it will be available in ebook, as well).

I’m excited by this new type of book
baby. We are planning a whole series of these writing books—next
year one on revising the novel. It’s been a very different process
from writing either poetry or fiction. Here’s the lovely write-up the
publisher has done for the book.

In Plotting the Character-Driven
Novel, Linda Rodriguez turns her sought-after writing course on
using depth of character as a springboard to a strong plot into a
book designed to help the aspiring writer who wants to tell a story
made compelling by the truth and complexity of its characters. She
provides examples of actual documents she has used in creating her
own award-winning books to demonstrate the methods she teaches.

Great plot springs from character and
the motivations each character has for taking or not taking action.
How do you use character as the
springboard to a strong plot that draws its complexity from the
motivations of its characters?

What are the hidden fears and desires
of each major character, what happens when these are frustrated, and
how do they intersect and confl ict with one another?

What are the secrets this character is
hiding even from him/herself? What will this character tell you about
her/himself if given the chance?

Through asking these kinds of questions
of your characters, you will learn to create an exciting and
complex plot, building from the
integrity of the characters you create.

Praise for Linda
Rodriguez’s novels

“Cherokee heritage and the often very
painful legacy of secrets have long been hallmarks of this excellent
series. They are present in great detail here in this complex and
multilayered novel.” —Kevin R. Tipple

“This suspenseful and sensitive tale
of small town secrets is captivating from page one. An absolute
page-turner!” —Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha, Anthony and Mary
Higgins Clark award-winning author

“Engrossing” —Library Journal
“Her latest not only fulfi lls its predecessor’s promise but
also furthers Skeet’s story in ways that will have readers eager
for her next case.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Rodriguez’s energetic storytelling
and attention to character prove she is an author who should have a
bright future.” —Oline H. Cogdill, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“Fans of Nevada Barr and Sara
Paretsky will relish Linda Rodriguez’s stellar debut. Her sleuth,
Skeet Bannion, is a keeper.” —Julia Spencer-Fleming, New York
Times bestselling author of One Was a Soldier


Praise for Linda’s
“Plotting the Character-Driven Novel” Workshop

“Thank you for a wonderful class that
was perfect. The lessons were invaluable.” –Nancy R.

“I learned so much and have some
great new tools for plotting.” –Holly T.

“I now have an arsenal of tools to
tackle that MS.” –Susan B.

“The exercises you gave us provided
me with lots of tools to help with plot and character.” –Nancy E.

“Your exercises really helped! I had
thought I knew my main character pretty well before, but now I know
her so much better. It’s no longer so daunting a task to work on
the book!” –Betty P.

“You have given me so much to help me
write this first book.” – Mary B.

“Your workshop was very inspirational
and helpful. Now, if you could just show up at my house every morning
and make me sit down to write, that would be great!” –Cheryl J.
LINDA RODRIGUEZ’s first novel, Every
Last Secret, won the St. Martin’s/ Malice Domestic Best First
Traditional Mystery Novel Competition. Her novel, Every Broken
Trust, was a Las Comadres National Latino Book Club selection,
took 2nd place in the International Latino Book Awards, and was a
finalist for the Premio Aztlán Literary Award. Her third novel,
Every Hidden Fear, was a Latina Book Club Best Book of 2014, a
selection of Las Comadres National Latino Book Club, and received a
2014 ArtsKC Fund Inspiration Award. Her fourth Skeet Bannion novel,
Every Family Doubt, will be published in June 2017. Visit her
Web site at http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com