Perfectly Postitive Monday #4

  In the spirit of positivity, I will try (and sometimes fail) to post something positive and true on Mondays. Because Monday is the day you need positive thinking the most. 

I have insomnia. This post is coming to you at 5:26am, because I haven't slept a wink. So I'm a little cranky.Now on to the mother effin' positivity. 

 Writing Life...

Last month I reached an absolute impasse with my novel at chapter nine, because I forgot something that I learned from my writerly hero, Jennifer Crusie:
  

Internal conflict can help describe character arc but it can’t move story. External conflict moves story. Internal conflict is just a character staring into space, thinking hard.

From chapter nine on, everything I wrote ended up being for a later point in the book.  My characters had chemistry and history but they also had nothing to fight for. Which gives them nothing to lose. Also my hero is too nice.

So I started weaving in a plot point that's been debated in my writing group. My characters were BFFs since childhood. Then at sixteen, Adelia hit it and quit it, for lack of a better phrase. So it's fourteen years later and I think my hero is still a bit angry. Not roaring, alpha male angry. But still holding onto that pain and resentful of her suddenly appearing. My group felt like this wasn't believable or empathetic. Usually I bow to the wisdom of the ladies, but in this case, I'm disagreeing. So rewrote the initial confrontation between the hero and heroine and upped the ante by having him not be Prince Charming. He's conflicted. Which still isn't plot, but it's getting somewhere. So yay! I'm calling it a win.

The Rest of Life...

• My coworker bought me a flying pig from the greeting card store that dances to the Cupid Shuffle because I she knows I collect flying pigs.I cradled it like a baby and made everyone watch it dance. 

• Re-watched season six of Supernatural and discovered that its not as awful as I remembered, provided you fast forward through everything except Soulless Sam being an oversexed sociopath. Which is fun to type and even more fun to watch. 

• In February, we paid off our credit cards and started saving for the down payment on a house!

• It's March now so winter has to be at least half over. I'll take it. 

Shit I love

Kelly Clarkson's song, Chivas. It's a love letter to whiskey and a hate letter to an ex-boyfriend. Magical.

Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra Ice Cream

The books that kept me company the past couple weeks.

Soulless Sammy

What makes you joyful on this fine Monday?

No More Excuses

I wanted to write something funny here. I really did.

But yesterday at my job, we got the emergency text that there was a gunman on campus. Our building went into lock-down and everyone was encouraged to stay inside and away from windows. It turned out to be someone carrying a ceremonial rifle for ROTC. So in a world of sad news, it was the best possible outcome; a mistake. No one was hurt and the lock-down lasted all of ten minutes because of how quickly the police swooped in.

But it scared the bejesus out of me. I called my mom. I called my husband. I ate a pile of chocolate. Then I sat down last night and went into overdrive prepping my social media presence for my writing career and making notes on how to fix my novel.

I feel silly getting all schmaltzy but allow me to speak almost exclusively in cliche for a moment. This life is short and unpredictably. Live your dreams, people. Don't wait for the right moment to come. Make NOW the right moment.

In that regard, I highly recommend any artists or writers out there to read this fantastic blog post by Kristen Lamb: Setbacks, Success, Excuses, Oh MY! The Truth About Publishing & Myths About Muses

Don't make excuses. If you have a dream, get started today.