Category Archives: Writing Tips

Write It Down – Ask Alice Saturday

Kindle Bargain, Storytelling, Writing Tips,

Idea LampQuestion. What is your biggest mistake as a writer?  Answer. Sometimes I don’t write important things down.

 I know this has happened to you too because it happens to everybody. You have a knock-your-socks-off idea. It’s so good you are blown away. You can hardly believe this super great fortune has been given to you.

What has been given is a thing of perfect beauty and elegant symmetry. Best of all – it is just right for you and what you need to accomplish. I call it the Idea from Heaven. Because nothing short of paradise could deliver such a priceless gem.

This concept has struck you so deeply and moved you so profoundly you are certain beyond any possible uncertainty it has imprinted on your psyche forever. All the same you know you should write it down immediately.

But for some reason – often fairly trivial – that notetaking moment isn’t altogether convenient at this particular moment in time. You don’t intend to put it off for long – only until whatever you’re into right now is out of the way.

Besides – this is the Idea from Heaven. The bolt of lightning that has zigzagged across the deepest blue of blue skies. You absolutely will not forget it… Except you do forget it.

You look for it – maybe only minutes later – and it is gone gone gone. You search and search. You employ every memory jogger trick and technique you’ve ever heard of but all you can recall is the feeling.

All that remains is a whiff of the euphoria this once-in-what-feels-like-forever idea carried with it. Everything else has disappeared – evaporated – turned invisible like the words on those plastic-faced pads I had when I was a kid.

Maybe you had one too. You write or draw or doodle on the surface. Then you pull off the plastic covering and every mark goes with it. Finito forever. The true tabula rasa.

This is what happened to the notion that was bound to catapult you to the stars but has now flitted off – like a fickle tease – to another imagination never to return. Brain science may have a theory or twelve about this phenomenon. Or maybe the universe if just screwing with you.

Whatever the explanation the upshot is always the same – at least for me. I’m plunged into mourning. The Kubler-Ross five stages of adjusting to great loss lie ahead. And it is all my fault because all I had to do was write the damned words down. But I did not.

This happens to me less these days. I’ve learned to value these brainstorms as I do the ornaments that festoon the branches of my holiday tree. Those ornaments were made by my grandchildren and I accord them the love and attention and tender care they deserve.

I write my brainstorms down – even if I have to resort to my Idea Lamp. Because the goddess of creativity is a jealous gal and if I don’t do due diligence when gifted by her – she will get me good.

So – WRITE IT DOWN. And always remember that the only thing worse than great loss is those blankity-blank five stages of grief.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com.

                                                                             RR

 My eBook A WRONG WAY HOME – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 1 – is FREE online. My 13th novel   A YEAR OF SUMMER SHADOWS – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book #2 – is available too. Find them both – along with my other titles – at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B000APC22E. I wrote their ideas down.

 

 

Conference Heat Hits Riverton Streets – Riverton Road Monday

Kindle Bargain, Romantic, Writing Tips, ,

Heat Wave imageI spent the past weekend at the New Jersey Romance Writers Conference and I learned a lot. I learned to steam up the heat index of my Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series.

I’m not saying my previous books aren’t hot. In A Year of Summer Shadows Mark and Hailey cook in her kitchen so slam-bang hard the pots and pans are rattling off the shelves. And in A Wrong Way Home Matt and Kara warm the spring buds to bursting in more than the garden.

Still – on Friday night when I listened to my dear friend Anne Walradt read excerpts from the Put Your Heart in a Book and Golden Leaf contest winners – I knew it was time to hit the hot-stuff button until my readers beg for mercy.

That must have been noodling in my head all night long because I woke up Saturday morning and wrote a scene that had my own home fires burning. This scene appears in A Villain for Vanessa – Riverton Road Romance Series Book 3- Bobby and Vanessa’s Story which will be coming – pun entirely intended – soon.

I’m going to see how much I dare excerpt from that scene here. But – I warn you – if sexy situations are not your cup of tea stop reading now.

The roaring winds and yesterday’s rain had done their worst. Colored leaves lay in a blanket of slick stems and soggy points among the tangle of exposed roots beneath the tall, broad tree nearest to her car. Vanessa needed to think about the tangle she was in personally and how to extricate herself.

Instead, she found herself catapulted into the tangle of herself and Bobby in each other’s arms on the Kalli porch. He’d pulled her close and surrounded her with a power she hadn’t anticipated. He was usually careful not to overstep, but he wasn’t careful last night. He hadn’t so much moved past the boundary of propriety between them as he’d crushed it beneath his feet and lifted her into a place that was only him – his scent, his breath, his mouth, his everything.

He held her so tight she couldn’t have pushed him away if she wanted to, and she didn’t want to. She’d wanted more of him, every inch of his body, with no coats or jeans or sweaters in between. She longed to see him that way, naked against her, and herself just as naked pressing into him. She longed for that now.

Vanessa hadn’t put her gloves back on after leaving Wilson’s store. Her hands should be chilled to the bone, but they were hot. She breathed deep, long breaths as her fingers edged her coat aside and wandered over her thigh. She knew that wouldn’t be enough.

She engaged both hands, grabbing the waistband and snap of her pants, pulling them open and pushing the zipper down. Her fingertips were against her bare skin, flaming skin on flaming skin, moving downward beneath the flimsy fabric of her panties until she found the place she needed desperately to touch.

She reached between the….

Okay. That’s as far as I think I should go here. My guess is you get the direction I’m drifting toward. I will simply close by saying this. As the scene continues – a lot more than the autumn leaves whirl wild and end up wet.

RR

A WRONG WAY HOME – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 1 – the eBook – is FREE at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T9RVGGC. It is also FREE at Barnes & Noble and iTunes and KOBO and other online platforms. A YEAR OF SUMMER SHADOWS – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book #2 – is available at those same platforms including http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZBOTH5O. These are my 12th and 13th novels and I keep delivering the heat in number 14. Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com.

 

Open for Business – Orr What? Wednesday

Kindle Bargain, Writers Life, Writing Tips,

Open SignFall is here. New beginnings. I need that. Summer was jam-packed and fun-filled. The grandkids were here. Birthdays were honored with lots of chocolate cake. A 43rd wedding anniversary was celebrated. A vacation trip was made. Lots of excuses to be slothful on the work side.

Now slothful must end as we all open for business again. A hint of sharpness in the air and an equally sharp jab in the psyche tell us this is true. For me that means being on here with messages more regularly and reaffirming my writing discipline too.

We can find lots of excuses for avoiding the latter well into the new season. My go-to excuse is to blame the story I’m writing. I tell myself something is standing in the way of my getting on with it. I stop in my tracks and stare at that barrier as if it were impenetrable.

Have you ever experienced this road block syndrome? I’ll bet you have. It happens to everybody. And not just writers by the way. By the grace of God I’m not going through this myself right now. I’m shedding the summer slow-down for sure but I don’t feel blocked.

Unfortunately a dear friend of mine does. I hope she won’t mind if I pass on to you what I said to her not long ago – with some edits. Just in case you might be facing a road block or end up facing one in the future. Here’s my advice about that.

Believe me. You will get yourself and your work together. In the meantime you must not let yourself be encumbered by worry and agitation. Getting and staying unencumbered are among my personal themes as we begin this rejuvenating season. I invite you to share them.

Those two things in particular – worry and agitation – are what we need to jettison. We all carry too much of both and are equally weighed down and worked up by them. That’s not good for our work or for ourselves as humans deserving of joy in this life.

You will find the inspiration you need. You will find the pieces of your story because they are in your imagination waiting to be found. And when you put them together they will fit. Put each piece into words with passion in them and they will fit perfectly. Or perfectly enough.

I don’t mean to go all Pollyanna on you and pretend this is an easy task. Creativity is a re-assemblage of elements already within us into something new. This exercise may have a high PITA factor but it is definitely worth the effort.

So – Do It Anyway. The result will make you glad you did. The result will be that you’re Open for Business.

RR

A WRONG WAY HOME – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 1 – the eBook – is FREE at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T9RVGGC. It is also FREE at Barnes & Noble and iTunes and KOBO and other online platforms. A YEAR OF SUMMER SHADOWS – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book #2 – is available at those same platforms including http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZBOTH5O. These are my 12th and 13th novels and I’m currently open for business on number 14. Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com.