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Tag: Writing

Tips about writing, suggestions for better writing, how to write.

Update Rownd 2 April 11 #row80

I didn’t report on Sunday because I had an Easter themed blog up for a hop. So today covers an entire week.

The challenge is turning out to be a wonderful encouragement for me. The people have been helpful and kind, and I’m gaining discipline in my writing.

At 2pm, I get offline and take one solid hour without interruptions, and write. It often stretches into longer periods. During that hour, I create new work. The other time periods are for editing and tweaking.

It isn’t as hard to write as I thought it would be. For whatever reason, I thought it would be hard for me to be creative while a clock was ticking, but I’ve been surprised each time the alarm goes off and the time is up. I’m always eager to get back to it once I reset the alarm.

I’m enjoying writing again, and that is the biggest surprise of all. I’ve written four chapters, edited multiple pages, written six blog articles, critiqued three chapters for my crit group, and created a video for my company. I also studied a book on how to write non-fiction. A productive week, and one whose lessons I look forward to repeating. Thanks to the Row80 crew for putting this idea into practice.

Kayelle Allen is an award-winning, multi-published author. Her heroes and heroines include badass immortals, warriors who purr, and agents who find the unfindable–or hide it forever. She is known for unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, and unforgettable passion.

Fun New Software for Zip #amwriting

Pro Writing Aid

I’ve been enjoying a new piece of software called Pro Writing Aid. It’s my favorite price: Free. You need at least 200 words for the program to work, but since I’m working on a novel, that isn’t a problem for me.

Click the title under the logo to try it out. It opens in a new window. No worries about your material ending up anywhere else. You can clear the page when you leave, but it doesn’t keep any information if you don’t.

Below is its analysis summary of this article. Click the image to see it full sized.

Click to view in larger size.

Once you paste in your material, click Analyze, and watch the magic happen. This program gives you words that are homynyms, shows you alliteration, sentence length variations, diction issues, sticky sentences (cumbersome or full of phrases), and much more. Each section is shown in its own neat window. Click the tab sections on the left to open the page and see the text.

I keep my document open and make changes to it while referring to the website. When I’m satisfied, I copy, clear the old data, paste the new, and analyze again. Sometimes I find things that it notes are not really “issues.” For example, it tags the word “said” as a dialog tag, even if I’m not using it that way in context. I might have written, “She said you were wrong.” That’s not a tag, but the software only catches the word said. It also picks up growled, whispered, and other such words. These can be helpful catches. Just be aware that now and then, it may be taking them out of context.

Nothing beats a good critique partner or beta reader. Mine are worth far more than gold. But in a pinch, this little program is a great help.

Kayelle Allen is an award-winning, multi-published author. Her heroes and heroines include badass immortals, warriors who purr, and agents who find the unfindable–or hide it forever. She is known for unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, and unforgettable passion.

Rownd Two Throwback Twitter Party #Row80

Retro Turntable.

When I heard this was Rownd Two, I kept looking at that word and wondering what was wrong with it. Finally realized it was not Round but Rownd and that bothered me. I’m one of those writers who has to make things perfect before moving to the next step. Which is why I need the ROW80 program. It helps me move on and stop looking at the step I’m on now. Click here for more on ROW80.

I tend to edit and nitpick rather than create. Well, this afternoon I wrote about three pages of a hot scene because I was able to stop playing with details and just get the words on the page. Knowing I had to commit a solid hour to writing made a huge difference. When the timer went off, I was stunned. I was just getting into it! Can’t wait to get back and finish the scene.

Today’s theme is for the Twitter party is retro. I picked a turntable as my image because I have turned around the way I do things. I am a fairly modern person, so a retro theme idea was not easy for me. I write Science Fiction Romance, and I’m usually the one who tries new software and programs first. My friends come to me to figure out how to make things work. 😉

So here’s how to do a ROW80 Twitter party for those of you who want to know! What is a Twitter party? This is where we all stop in to the #ROW80 hashtag all day long and play and party together?sharing news, pictures, music, and merriment. It?s going to be a great time! Come over to Twitter, put in the hashtag, and then visit all the fun sites that feature throwback themes and talk about writing. That’s it. Hard? Nah! Fun? You betcha.

Look for me on Twitter. I’ll be the one in the 70’s glam garb. Try not to get glitter on yourself, okay? 😉

Do you need a way to get past writer’s block, or solve a problem? What is it? What’s holding up your writing?

Kayelle Allen is an award-winning, multi-published author. Her heroes and heroines include badass immortals, warriors who purr, and agents who find the unfindable–or hide it forever. She is known for unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, and unforgettable passion.

PayPal, Immortals, Teenagers, and the Election

No Sex.
What do PayPal, immortals, teenagers, and the election have in common? Followed the PayPal censorship controversy much? PayPal is a company that acts as a go-between to protect your identity online. You give this supposedly highly secure financial company your credit card and bank information, and they provide you with a means to purchase safely online. The merchant never has access to your credit card info. This means an entrepreneur who has an idea or product to sell can install some code on his or her website, hook up to PayPal, and sell internationally within minutes. You can take credit cards without having to invest in ultra-secure servers. PayPal takes the risk for you.
They, however, have decided that certain material is now too “high-risk.” The internet commerce giant has decreed it will no longer permit its services to be used to purchase certain types of erotic material. Among the list are books containing BDSM, incest, “pseudo-incest,” “barely legal,” bestiality, and rape.
The definitions of these has been given many times, but for clarity, and in case you’re new to the conflict, “pseudo-incest” covers people who are not related by blood but by marriage (step brothers/sisters of a blended family, stepson/stepmother, etc.), and “barely legal” is someone of legal age to have sex, meaning eighteen and nineteen year-olds. None of this material is new to the world. Oedipus wrote about incest thousands of years ago. The Marquis de Sade wrote about BDSM (bondage, discipline, and sado-masochism — the term actually comes from his name) but PayPal has decreed it will no longer pay for this material. It claims it’s being pressured by credit card companies. The credit card companies have, so far, been mute on the subject.
The “barely legal” material includes May-December love stories. PayPal doesn’t want to pay for these because… well, I have no idea why. Maybe they think people aged eighteen and nineteen aren’t capable of making solid decisions. Odd, that they are old enough to vote and go to war, but we can’t write about them falling in love unless it’s with someone their own age. At what point is the December lover supposedly too old for the May lover? Ten years? Twenty? Fifty? I’m not sure there’s a scale, but imagine how out-of-kilter it might be if the December lover were immortal.
Bestiality – sexual activity between a person and an animal – includes stories (according to PayPal) with were-characters. Shape shifters, werewolves, werebears, were-anything. No petting of the lover’s head while in shifted form; no sex while in animal form, no playful biting or nibbling. Nothing that might cause arousal while referring to the beast within. Pretty much the entire reason to write erotic were-type books and characters is taboo.
The internet giant has not only said it won’t permit you to buy books with these topics, it will also confiscate funds of the booksellers and publishers who provide them. This means even if you don’t write these books, but your publisher provides them, or you sell your books through a bookseller who does, PayPal can confiscate their funds, depriving you of your livelihood. Your recourse? Moving to another publisher or bookseller is about your only choice, because fighting with PayPal over lost revenue could take months, or even years. They are not covered by the FDIC and are not required even to respond to your complaint. Their terms of service say they will reply within 180 days (six months), and at that point, their decision is final. You do not get a phone number to call. You get an email. There is little you can do. If you can’t survive for six months to a year without income, and you depend on getting paid by companies that provide this material, you are out of luck if PayPal follows through on its threat.
Which brings me to the crux of this article. I write about the Sempervians, immortals who manipulate current events to steer humanity towards various outcomes they desire. For example, a Sempervian might cause a fire in a seed warehouse, or cripple a shipping company with bad gas, making it impossible to ship seed on time. A failed corn crop pushes a farmer into buying his next year’s seed on credit instead of with profits. A few years of “bad luck” and failed crops, and he defaults on the loan, losing his farm. A big farming company owned by the Sempervian buys his land on the cheap, makes it part of a conglomerate, and sells corn for less, making a huge profit, and over time, changing the face of agriculture. What does this have to do with censorship and PayPal?
Just Plain No.
Imagine you want to influence an election during a year when ultra-conservatives are on the ticket, up against a liberal. What kinds of things might swing the vote toward the liberals? What do Americans cherish and fear losing? Crops? Books? No. It’s freedom. If a financial institution can decide for us what kinds of books we’re allowed to write, read, and buy, then we are handing over our freedom in exchange for convenient purchases online. At what point does our freedom mean more than convenience and safety? What would make a person get out and vote for someone who is likely to stand up for your freedom? Someone who speaks well and looks good in a suit? Or a controversy that sparks outrage and determination to fight for what you have a legal write to read, write, and buy?
My Sempervians are not unlike the Illuminati. They move in the background, changing small things in the Tarthian Empire, influencing the populace to act in ways that benefit them and achieve their long-term goals. They’re immortal. They have all the time in the world. In America, who is in the background, moving the small things that change our freedoms? Whose goals are achieved by PayPal suddenly taking a stand against specific details in erotic literature that it has (up to now) turned a blind eye to? Where is America headed, and to what end? PayPal, immortals, teenagers, and the election — they may have more in common than meets the eye.
What do you think will happen next in this controversy? Who is the enemy, and who is on your side?
Kayelle Allen is an award-winning, multi-published author. Her heroes and heroines include badass immortals, warriors who purr, and agents who find the unfindable–or hide it forever. She is known for unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, and unforgettable passion.

Mind Maps or Why I am Not a Pantser

A Mind Map of my Work in Progress.

I’ve discovered (the hard way) that unless I have a solid plot my book ideas fizzle. I am not a pantser. I recently got a program called Freemind that is “mind map” software. You start with a central idea, and keep clicking to create new “bubbles” or trains of thought, writing down a bit to capture the idea and then moving to the next point. I’m not an “outliney” kind of person either, so making one never worked for me. But for some reason, this program helps me capture my racing thoughts fast enough that I can get them down before they’re gone. When I get an idea it springs whole into my head and I can’t put it on paper fast enough.


Click either image in this post to see them in a larger size.

My character Alitus Vivaldi started as a walk on part because I needed someone to deliver a bit of news to the Empress in her big scene. I kept calling him “her assistant” and after about six times, I realized I needed to name him. The moment I had his name I had all of him. His backstory, his life, his goals, everything. He ended up getting his own book and being a major player in my overall series of trilogies that link together. When things like that happen, it’s hard to record it all. This program has been a real blessing to me. Five years ago I might not have been ready for it, but now, I can’t imagine how I’d get through a plot without it. It’s literally saved me hundreds of frustrating hours of work. My current wip is in its sixth rewrite, and I think this will be its last because of the program. It’s Java based, and it’s produced by Sourceforge, which made Audacity.
One leg of the above mind map.

I used Freemind to come up with ideas for a non-fiction book I’m doing on how to write dialogue. Once I saw the possibilities, I started a mind map for my wip and within days, had mapped out the entire thing, solving my dilemma over the ending and plot problems. My editor had sent me some good info which helped, and between the two, it made a big difference. I attached a print of the dialogue thing, showing just one leg of the basic “topic” mind map. When you open the whole thing, it’s so huge you have to move it around the screen to see it all. I’m doing one for each aspect of the book, and then will work on putting down the details. This program exports as jpg, png, flash, html, java, pdf, open office, and more. I can export it as open office, then save it as rtf, and open it in Word as an outline. I’m amazed that I can write this way. I’d never have thought of doing it but came across the idea in a book I was reading and decided to Google mind map software and see what I could find. This one was free so I figured what the heck. I’ll give it a go. I’m quite visual — I’m stimulated by visual images and inspired by pictures, so this turns out to be ideal for me.
Once I start with a solid idea of where I’m going, and a purpose to accomplish, the random ideas seem to flow better. A mind map seems to be just what I need.

Want to try the product? Go here to download it. Let me know what you think! http://freemind.sourceforge.net

Kayelle Allen is an award-winning, multi-published author. Her heroes and heroines include badass immortals, warriors who purr, and agents who find the unfindable–or hide it forever. She is known for unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, and unforgettable passion.

It’s the Weekend and I…

Relaxing on the Weekend.

Finish this sentence. It’s the weekend, and I… Depending on what weekend and what’s going on in my life, it could be anything from “have a class to attend” to “will be in class.”

Weekends are my busiest times. My Yahoo groups are jumping Saturdays and Sundays. On Romance Lives Forever, it’s promo weekend, so I’m approving messages and/or reading them. My moderator, Jean Paquin, takes care of most moderating duties for me (and God bless her abundantly for it). But I do check the group frequently and respond when I see messages in queue.

Marketing for Romance Writers gets a lot of attention as well. Many authors have day jobs and therefore are busy online on the weekends. They drop into MFRW for a quick piece of advice, or they read a message that asks for help and they take a minute to respond. It’s a wonderful group, and the volunteer staff is terrific. I love each of them for their caring attitudes and service.

This weekend, I’m updating my website and working on a book trailer. Next weekend I have a class to attend. I’m learning how to create and play a role-playing game. This is research for a book series. The game I play is called Imagine, and I’m fortunate that the player group I hang out with meets in the basement of the Imagine creator’s house. Talk about a unique learning opportunity! And of course, I’ll be writing.

What do you do on the weekends?

Kayelle Allen is an award-winning, multi-published author. Her heroes and heroines include badass immortals, warriors who purr, and agents who find the unfindable–or hide it forever. She is known for unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, and unforgettable passion.

Flashing the Fiction

Good Writing.

Flash fiction is a short piece, often less than 500 words. I have three flashes from a challenge I did with fellow authors that I’m sharing today, each under 100 words. I hope you enjoy them. Each is a complete scene or story.

– – –

Waiting
Just a little more … don?t stop. Don?t stop! Need this so bad. Need this. Please – don?t – stop.
A little bit more. Come on, come on, that?s it. Let it go. Give it up. So close. Almost there. He blew out the breath he?d been holding and took another one, hands shaking.
Been waiting for this – been wanting it, so, so damn bad. He licked his lips.
I should?ve started so much earlier, taken more time, gotten all of it ready. Oh! Yes. Yes…. here it comes!
The last little bit of ketchup landed on his fries.
– – –
Helping
She spread her thighs wider and slid down a little. ?There. Can you get it in now??
?No. Not yet.? He hooched over to the right, grunting a bit as he pushed harder. ?Hold still.?
?Hurry up, baby.?
?I?m trying!? He shifted his shoulders, angled one foot against the ground for better leverage. ?It?s almost within the hole. Just a little…?
?Do it harder! I can?t keep this up.?
?Hold on, baby. Hold on.? He wiped sweat from his brow. The heat rose. Fingertips slick with lubricant, he rubbed the opening. With a click, the car?s axle slid into place.
– – –
Red
So much for avoiding a hard-on and embarrassing myself. She?s wearing red. Again.
I needed her to wear one more red dress to haunt my memories. This one was sleeveless, baring perfectly formed arms, strong and feminine. Strapless too, revealing skin the color of mahogany cream.
A man doesn?t stand a chance with her in that dress. Long, slinky, shiny, scarlet. Oh, God. It looks– wet.
Her mouth was the same red, her lips plump, like she?d just been kissed. Like she?d run her tongue across them. Like she was wanting him.
Is she wet anywhere else?
Damn, damn, damn.
– – –
So… how do you like my flashes? =^_^=
Kayelle Allen is an award-winning, multi-published author. Her heroes and heroines include badass immortals, warriors who purr, and agents who find the unfindable–or hide it forever. She is known for unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, and unforgettable passion.

What’s New in M/M? Authors Share Their Books

Share Your Book Details.

Welcome to the monthly share feature. On or about the 24th of each month, I’ll be asking fellow authors to share their blurbs and buy links in the comments section of my blog.

This month, the focus is on M/M. If you have a book of the male-male persuasion (in any genre), feel free to share it here.

We’d like to see:
Author:
Book title:
Publisher:
Genre:
Blurb:
Buy Links:

Readers are welcome to leave questions or comments. We’d love to hear from everyone.

Kayelle Allen is an award-winning, multi-published author. Her heroes and heroines include badass immortals, warriors who purr, and agents who find the unfindable–or hide it forever. She is known for unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, and unforgettable passion.

Today’s The Day – A Flash Writing Challenge

I’m a Writer.
This is from a flash witing challenge and is reprinted in full on this blog.
– – –
Every day, I get up and I look in the mirror, and I say, “My name is Chris, and I’m a writer. Today’s the day, baby! I’m gonna be famous.” As you can see, I don’t just talk to myself; I lie to myself.
Yeah, well today, I quit. Writing, not lying.
Here’s why. The last line of my editor’s letter said, “Make it more heartwarming, and it’ll sell.”
Heartwarming? I’ll give him heartwarming! How many hours did I sit here, at his suggestion no less, staring at the screen, trying to come up with ways to increase action? Okay, so now you’ve got your slam-bam action. There’s a crisis on every page. And he wants “heartwarming.”
I’m an action writer. Heartburn is more like it.
My hero’s a player, smart, in great shape, face and body like one of those models from New York. He can do anything. Problem is, he’s all mouth. You know the type. Knows everything, and makes sure you hear about it. Here’s one of his lines. “I’m so much more intelligent than most of my friends that they don’t seem to like me. Apparently, they have ego problems.”
How do you make a guy like that heartwarming?
He’s a spy. Carries an arsenal in his pants, in more ways than one. Kills for a living. Crude and rude. Think Dirty Harry meets James Bond. What does this editor want, Dirty Harry meets Love Story? Cute little warm fuzzies all over the place? My poor hero would puke.
I can see it now: “Love means never having to say I’m Bond. James Bond.”
My friends would laugh themselves silly. Hmmm. Wait a second. What if I made it a comedy? I could do comedy. Dirty Harry meets Love Story… I could call it “Dirty Love Story.” Yeah… I kind of like that. Maybe the hero’s got a thing for love stories. Reads women’s erotica on the sly, to find out what women really want in bed. Yeah! That could work. That’s heartwarming, isn’t it?
I gotta go find a pen. Today’s the day, baby! I’m gonna be famous.
Kayelle Allen is an award-winning, multi-published author. Her heroes and heroines include badass immortals, warriors who purr, and agents who find the unfindable–or hide it forever. She is known for unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, and unforgettable passion.