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Personal Space, Automatic Writing and The Plot Thickens

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Photo credit: mariya_m at Pixabay.

Hey all, welcome back! It’s been quite a week and while I meant to post on Friday, life happens. But here we are and happy to see you all!

A few things in case you are new here…first, welcome to the site. Hope you like your visit and that you’ll check out the ‘new posts’ tab to catch up to see what has been going on around here. Also, I don’t like to add links to the posts themselves, so be sure to check the bottom of the posts to find any relevant links. I was never one for inundating a post with external links. For me, they take away from what the post is about and is distracting, again this is just me. (If that makes any sense.) You can also find my social, shops and more on the right hand side of the page (or under the post if you scroll on the phone). Hope you will check them out while you’re here and be sure to hit the subscribe bar to the right or the pop up at the bottom to add your email so you can get updates on new posts. 🙂

Now that’s out of the way, let’s get to it!

If you know me here, you know I read a lot. Like a lot. One of the things I have taken to doing is carrying a book with me a la Rory Gilmore. For those who may not know the reference, in the old show Gilmore Girls, the daughter Rory famously carried a book with her wherever she went, including her junior dance. While I’m not that over the top, (and way past my junior dance years), I do carry a book to all of my medical appointments. Today included. I knew I’d have a lot of wait time, so instead of playing on the phone, I pulled out my book. It’s always a stress reliever. Let’s face it, going to the doctor or going for medical tests can be stressful. Why not ease that stress by diving into a good story?

I’m not a kindle or ereader person, I’m strictly a paperback girl, well, woman. While I was at one of the medical buildings in town today, I went to a nice, quiet spot in their cafe that was closed at the time, made myself comfy and got back into the story. And then…

Please picture the scene: an open area with tables and chairs, where the staff and visitors there can eat, grab coffee, maybe have a little meeting. But the cafe closes right after lunch, yet they keep the seats available for anyone who would like to use them until the building closes. I found a nice spot near the windows where I’d be able to see when my ride showed up, let out a big contented sigh and thought about how nice it was to just be by myself with my book.

Just me and my book.

A gentleman walked in and out of all the empty tables in the place, he decides to sit one away from me. At first I thought he was just going to sit there. However, he seemed a little high strung, not being able to sit still and getting up and down and scraping his chair along the floor each time. Again, this was a medical building, all kinds of tests and procedures are done there so I can sympathize if the guy was nervous about something. Then a friend of his shows up. Turns out, they were just meeting there to catch up on some things. They were loud, they kept jumping up and walking around and very loud. In my head I’m thinking, ’I was there first and just keeping to myself.’ The old me? I would have sat there, too embarrassed to get up and end up reading the same sentence over and over again not being able to concentrate. Now? I grabbed my book and the rest of my stuff, got up and as I walked past them, thanked them for ruining a nice moment of my day.

I will never understand why people do such things. The speakerphone calls in the store so we can all hear them. (Heard all about someone’s hemorrhoid surgery in cvs one time.), coming up right next to you when standing in line (I miss the 6ft rule from the covid days) or sitting right next to a person when there are a hundred empty seats in a movie theater or a cafe. I wasn’t bothering anyone, just sitting and reading a rather moving scene in my book and honestly, trying not to tear up as I did so because I was in public and yet, I was the one who moved. I’m thinking of carrying an air horn with me so the next time this happens? I just hit it and make the others move along. Just something to think about.

Anywhoo, enough of that. Sorry for the vent but this therapy, sorry, blog, helps me work stuff out before I get to my writing sessions! 😬

Speaking of, I’ve finally gotten off the second edits of the chapters I’ve written so far. I’m now 32 chapters in and still going strong. As I said in my last post, some of these chapters are short and may end up being combined with others, so don’t let the number fool you just yet.

However, I hit the scenes I’ve been dying to get to for about two weeks. I knew they were coming up, knew the general way they were going to go and yet even I was surprised with how they’ve been writing themselves!

If you’ve ever heard the term ‘automatic writing’, when someone puts pen to paper (or fingers on a keyboard) and just lets the writing go where it will? That is how I tend to write. I know how I want to start the scene, I know the locations and then I just go. Last night in particular, I came up with something I wasn’t expecting and it fit so perfectly into the whole dynamic of the story that it invaded my dreams while I slept and has been on a constant replay in my head all day. I have no idea where this part of the story came from but I am so glad it did. It really helped me tie in a character that has been giving me a lot of trouble incorporating into the storyline.

I also came up with a plot twist that I’ve been trying to figure out and it has also been a problem trying to work into the whole book. All of a sudden it came to me and I was able to introduce the beginning of it last night and now it’s a matter of weaving into the rest of the story and seeing how it will work itself out. This, my friends, is the fun part for me.

After all of the research I’ve been doing for this and all of the build up to get to this point, now is when it gets interesting. I can’t wait to see how this story will develop further and where this automatic writing will take me tonight. Of course all this being said, when I go into what I wrote last night to edit and refresh my memory to get me back into it so I can write the next chapter, it may turn out to be pure crap. It’s happened before it will happen again. I get excited that the story flowed effortlessly and then when I reread it the next night, I wonder if I was on to something to come up with such nonsense. What I love though are the days when I go back in and find that I’ve actually written something that is worth reading. Worth the time it took. Worth the pain of typing as my fingers fly across my beloved keyboard. (For those new here, I have a strange attachment to my keyboard.)

Sometimes the blocks disappear. Sometimes the words come when you least expect it. And sometimes you have to hold your tone when someone invades your personal space. But you know what it can add up to? A new blog post! Ha!

And that is where I will leave you for today. Thanks so much for joining me along for this crazy ride and again, I’m going to throw some links below for you to check out. 

Until next time my friends…

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Click on my linktree to follow me on social, shop my linktree shop and find gifts designed by me for readers and writers alike: linktr.ee/promosocially 

(you’ll find my keyboard linked in the shop as well)

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Current book: On Second Thought by Kristan Higgins (click on the title to see)

If you don’t know her books, you can start out with If You Only Knew and Good Luck With That. While not technically a series, these books take place in the same town and involve characters from all of them. I found this out by accident and love when I discover that a new find is related to this town. (They are also based in an area near where I grew up so makes them that much more special to me.) Again, click on the titles to check them out.

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If you’ve made it this far, I thank you and will see you next time. 🙂

Storyline, Re-Editing and Chapter Length Issues

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Photo credit: StockSnap on Pixabay

Hey guys, welcome back! Hope everyone is doing well out there. So happy to see this blog growing a larger audience. I’m hoping that means that what I talk about here is resonating with you all and that means so much.

Let’s get to it shall we?

Ok so, yesterday I finished re-editing the first 28 chapters of the current book that I’m working on. Boy was I happy I did it! First of all, I read the first 10 with fresh eyes as it’s been a while since I revisited what I had written. I’ll admit, (and yes I’m sure there is extreme bias here) but I am loving this story. I am currently in my romcom era in reading, so to be able to surprise myself with writing my first one and making myself laugh in places, has been a nice surprise. It is the first time I’m attempting this genre and I think I may have a new calling. Do I sound a bit too overconfident? Absolutely! I have never talked this way about anything I’ve ever written before and I’ll admit, a lot of it is out of pure fear. I think because I have a lot riding on this book. After all, I’ve been talking about it here since the beginning! If I don’t do well with it, I’ll have more than egg on my face (and with egg prices being what they are, that’s a pretty expensive embarrassment). I think the fact that I’m writing characters from my heart is helping. There’s a little reality in many of the character traits of the group involved and let’s face it, don’t we all write what we know? I mean, isn’t that rule #1?!

So maybe it’s not the book itself I’m excited about, but rather the characters because I’ve been spending so much time with them. Annnnd I really need to get out of the house more. 

While doing the edits, I have discovered a few other things…number one is that I found that I wrote something twice but in two very different ways.

I’ve discussed being a ‘pantser’ writer, (one who writes by the seat of their pants letting the story flow, rather than using an outline), this can cause overlapping scenes sometimes. I wrote a very meaningful scene early on and then later in the book, did the same thing but in a more lighthearted way. So I had to rewrite and cut a whole bunch out there and choose which I liked better. I won’t give it away, but I think how I resolved it fit perfectly with the tone of the character development.

The second thing I’ve found is that some of the chapters seem very short. I’ve found this to be a fast read and that can be both good and bad. So the question now becomes, do I combine chapters to make them longer or not?

Right now, I personally like the way each chapter ends. I’d almost rather leave them the length they are as they have a natural progression to their ending. Small chapters are not necessarily bad, of course. Ironically, as I discovered this in my own work, I started reading a new book which has, and I am not joking here, chapters that are literally 3 pages long. So here I am re-editing and discovering that many of my own chapter’s are 11 pages in length and I’m thinking, well, maybe they should be longer. But if this already published book that is in my hands has MANY chapters of maybe 3 pages, why am I so worried? Every day it’s something new to think about.

After doing these edits, I’m finally back into the writing stage. This story that has been flowing out of me for months, is now finding it hard to resurface. I think I just need to get back into the routine of actually writing, although I did do a lot of REwriting during the second edit phase. However, picking the story back up is proving to be a challenge. 

Where do I want it to go now? Is the conflict enough? Will it build to something completely different? Inquiring minds want to know!

This book, while a romcom, is also one with heart. There are issues in it that are near and dear to my heart and have some edge to it as well. (No not smut, I’m not at that point, well…yet. lol) I address an issue in this that I feel needs a voice. So while it has its sweet and funny moments, there are others to remind us all that no matter what, real life can rear its ugly head and bring us back to reality while in a ‘happy bubble.’

After all, even Disney princess movies have their turmoil to overcome before the happy ending and tiaras are dolled out, right?

I’ve also been surprised at the amount of research I’m doing for this book. Now, I’m a research junkie. I love it. I’ve used that particular talent for both my own endeavors as well as helping others. Especially when it came to writing my history pieces (see menu bar above for those links). But creating authenticity with some of this storyline has had me Googling things that, well, make a lot of writing memes what they are. I also value Google Earth for helping figure out some locations and distances, etc. There is a lot more to writing a story than just writing it and I don’t think a lot of people get that. While yes, a lot can be made up, if you are using real life places or issues, the research must be done.

Anywhoo, this process has been cathartic. Both writing the book and documenting the process here. By blogging about it, it is keeping me grounded as far as keeping me on track and it also helps when I go to write the next chapter later on. As I write here, my mind either figures out my next move or suddenly discovers that I need to go back and redo something I’ve previously written. The old ‘distraction’ move as it were. Quick example, with my health issues, I have twitches in my hands. (Sucks when typing.) My neurologist gave me an exercise to stop them…when my left hand twitches badly, I do finger movements with my right hand and the twitching stops. The brain is so focused on the conscious hand movements that it lets go of my twitches. Same thing applies here. When I’m writing about writing, I get more story ideas. Crazy? Yes. Helpful? Also yes! So I thank you for letting me vent a lot of this out here, it’s been great for the process all around.

(All hail someecards)

One more thing to add to this post…I officially announce that I’ve added a TikTok for this site. Will I post every day? Hell no. I post when it moves me, just like I do with my other accounts for my jewelry and Etsy businesses. I just wanted to have something fun that I could add, connect with other readers, #booktok-ers as well as other authors. Those who get it. The link is in my linktree which I always add below my posts. 🙂

So that is where I will leave you today. I thank you as always for joining me here and I really hope you connect with what I’m writing about and if you do, I hope you’ll share this site. It would be so great to have this keep growing. (and growing)

Until next time…Cheers All! 🙂

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For my social links, shops and more: linktr.ee/promosocially

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Be sure to check out the links on the right side of the site. You’ll find my shop with fun merch for the writers and readers as well as my blank journals on Amazon…all of these are designed by me!

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For my jewelry and other business links, all can be found: linktr.ee/stuffwefind and linktr.ee/stuffwemade hope you’ll check them out!

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Follow me by email (upper right side blue button) to get notified of new posts and updates.

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If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much and I’ll see you next time! 🙂

Editing, Escapism and Writing Fail

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Photo credit: Danikrabonekonek on PIxabay.

Hey guys, welcome back! Hope you are enjoying the new look of the place. I’ve been trying to make sure that all the links have been updated and may soon start a TikTok that will also reflect the new name, but I’m not rushing to do that. Still a lot going on, so stay tuned.

Speaking of, this week I had a medical test done. Now, I’m pretty much used to every kind of test there is because the last 9 years alone has had me glowing in the dark from all the stuff that’s been done to me. But this one, I’ve had before and it is one I knew would be painful as hell. (I almost punched one doctor in the face and the next time I screamed until my throat hurt. But I digress…) So I haven’t really slept in weeks since they told me I had to have it done. Thankfully, it went better than expected, I wanted to hug the doctor who did it and I may even have some answers that no one else has been able to pinpoint, so, yay! In the meantime, I’ve been such a basket case about this I made myself a little sick. (Like cold sickness, not the regular nonsense going on in my life.)

Why am I sharing this? Because, this is a reminder to you…take care of yourself! Yes, it’s ok to worry about things. But not sleeping, not eating properly and just plain being a mental mess can lead to other ookie feelings. (Yes, that is a medical term I just made up.) I was barely functional the next day and I decided that it was some cosmic way of telling me, it was time for an unplug day!

I turned off all my devices and just read, for hours. Finished the second half of the book I had started over the weekend and got about a third into a new one. It felt great! Just me, the quiet and escaping into the lives of others was just what I needed. I know not everyone can take that much time to do this of course. Some have kids or hectic schedules. However, I’m throwing forth the challenge to you, to take at least one day a month and for an hour, two hours, or however long you can, just unplug. You don’t have to read of course. That is my personal escapism. Go for a walk, a bike ride, get ice cream, hell, take a nap! Just do something that makes you happy without looking at a screen. Summer is here, why not go swimming or go exploring your own town. You may discover an area you never knew about or stumble on a historic marker you never spotted before. Unplugging can feel so good and there is actually a part of me, after doing this, that regrets it when I turn the phone back on. There are times I’m just not in the mood to face real life again. So days like that? I may just shut it back off, pick my book back up and escape some more.

As for the other days? Well, I’ve been doing a great deal of editing the first chapters of the book. I’ve written 28 so far, but for continuity’s sake, I needed to go back and see if I had mentioned something in a previous chapter. So I decided to take the opportunity and re-edit the early chapters and go from there. SO GLAD I DID!

I stumbled on a major mistake I never realized I had made! I screwed up the entire timeline. There is a way to fix it, but I’m having trouble getting it done. I need to insert a new chapter but one that flows with the rest of the story. One that fits in seamlessly so that my readers aren’t aware that the chapter in question was never a part of the original manuscript. One that is stressing me out and mocking me every time I go to write it.

I was on such a roll with this book. Averaging about a chapter a day/every other day. Editing as I went. Story flowing. It was going well…a little too well. Normally I just write a chapter. It comes to me, I write it, I’m done. It’s just how my process works. But having to go back 20 chapters to insert a scenario that wasn’t meant to be a part of the story? Ugh. I had the feeling I was going to stumble at some point. Hit a speed bump and move on. Wasn’t expecting a major storyline snafu. And really, when in life do we ever get to use the word ‘snafu’?

I’ve now lost momentum on the higher chapters and will be editing the entire thing leading up to where I left off. I’m now hoping that will inspire where the story leads next. I’ve been making notes along the way to be sure that the storyline doesn’t get skipped over in such a way again. At least I get to spend more time with these characters I’ve truly grown to love.

The moral of this particular story? Editing is done for a reason. Not just spelling errors. Obvious? Maybe. When it happens to you? It’s a revelation! One that calls for another unplug day. See how it all comes full circle? (See how I can make anything into a reading session?)

And that is where I am leaving you today. We all have crazy weeks. This one was just a drop in the bucket for me. But stepping back, reevaluating things, unplugging and fueling the creative energies are all just a part of life. Right? 🙂

Hope you got something out of this post and so happy you’re here. Thanks for coming back and if it’s your first time visiting, welcome!!!

Until next time folks…Cheers!

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Check out my links in the sidebar where you’ll find my official New Chapter Cove shop, (see pics for examples of merch), you can follow this blog by email and more. Just look to the right!

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To follow me on social and find my other links: linktr.ee/promosocially

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Thanks for getting this far! See you soon. 🙂

New Week, New Month, New Name!

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New logo! New url is: NewChapterCove.com

Hey guys, welcome back!! Well, it is official…there is a new name for my site! Welcome all to New Chapter Cove! Woo hoo!!! (And yes, there are a lot of exclamation points. I’m excited.)

Last week I had let it drop that I was going to be changing the name, (and url) but I was waiting for June to begin to do so. Well, here we are and it’s time to usher in the new era for this site.

In case you missed the last post, I’ll do a brief rehash of why the name change has occurred: I had started the site originally when I was doing social media marketing consulting and content writing.  I wanted to make it a resource for other writers to come and find places where they could submit their work, a notion I still have yet to include here. (Sorry.) 

However, now it’s years later, the site has evolved to include documenting more of my writing journey and I wanted a name that would reflect that. Thus, New Chapter Cove was born! There’s always a new chapter to be written, read and every day is a new chapter in life. Why cove? Because my favorite place in my city is the cove area by the water. It all just fits. 

So I welcome you to the New Chapter!

I will address one thing, in last week’s post, I mentioned that it would be called ‘next chapter cove’ and while that was the plan and the logo was made, when I was reconfiguring the settings, I accidentally typed ‘new’ while I was registering the url and well, things happen. So while I am a little mad at myself for blowing the name a little, New Chapter is growing on me and I hope it will grow on you as well. 🙂

And that is where I will leave you for today. Just wanted to make the official announcement and let you know that the change has been made. I hope you will continue to follow me here and more posts, as always, to come.

Thanks for being here and here’s to the New Chapter!

Until next time…Cheers!!

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For my social, shop links and more: linktr.ee/promosocially

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For other links, check the right side of the page!

Thanks for being here. See you next time. 🙂

Odd question, Changes Coming and Oh yeah,I’m Back!

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Photo credit: JillWellington on Pixabay.

Hey guys, welcome back! Yes, I’m back as well! I have been MIA for the last week because, well, life happens. Thankfully, it was almost all good. I just couldn’t find the motivation to write a post instead and kept on writing my new book. However, I’m here and hopefully, so are you!

It has been an interesting time around these parts and so happy because I got to see a friend from elementary school I hadn’t seen in over 40 years! We were the two in class who were always in trouble for laughing, passing notes (yes, paper notes) and just could never keep a straight face when we were together. We found each other on Facebook and have been trying for quite some time for a meetup and last weekend, it finally happened! I’ve pretty much been smiling since. We picked up right where we left off, still making each other laugh and had a great time. So I hope you will take this as inspiration to reach out to someone you’ve been thinking about for a while. We are only here for a short time, make each moment count!!

While I’m talking about moments, I’ve been using many to work on the rebranding of this site. I’m sure you’ve noticed the changes in the look of the site and a new name is in fact coming. I’ve already created the logo and the new url and site name will reflect it as well. I’m very excited about this change as it will be much more relevant to the current one that I chose many years ago. My original name, CCSocialCreative was born out of my social media management era when I was working for someone else then went to consulting and had many different plans for this site. I now introduce the new name coming: New Chapter Cove!

New logo!

Why this particular name? Because the term ‘new chapter’ refers to both my writing journey, reading journey and every new day presents a new chapter in life as well. Cove? Well, that is from my favorite place in my town and I wanted to incorporate it somehow. (Could it be that my romance novel era is seeping into my subconscious? After all, a whole lot of romance titles have the word ‘cove’ in it. Nah, it’s about my favorite place here.)

The new name and url will be implemented in the coming days, so if you suddenly see updates with a different name, it’s just me being me. 🙂

I’m sure there are questions out there, several I’m sure I’ve been asking myself. However, I’d like to address some odd ones in regards to my writing and kind of wondering if anyone else has had this asked of them as well. During the writing of both my first book and the one I’m currently writing, the most asked question has been, “how long will it be?” I find this to be the strangest of all the questions. When I handed out the first six chapters of my first book to a few friends and family members to get some feedback, most asked this question. I first took it as an insult. After all, were the first six chapters that bad that they didn’t want me to continue? But after thinking about it, a couple of them asked this even before they read it! So my next thought was, why ask this? This time around, I’m now 27 chapters in (yay me) and it’s happening again.

Since I’ve already established here that I do not use an outline when I write and am known as a ‘pantser’ writer, meaning, I let the story take me where it wants to go, I’m still baffled by the question. After all, the last few novels I’ve read have all been different lengths…the longest being well over 40 chapters with the shortest just 26. We write until the story has an ending. If it looks like it will continue, well, that’s what ‘series’ writing is about! I think for me though, I’d never go up to a songwriter, an artist or another creative and say, ‘so you still have more to go’ or ‘how long will it take for you to finish?’ I also have had, ‘where did you come up with the character names?’ That one though, I can see. After all, when we create worlds, we also have to create names and personalities for the people you are reading about besides the story. However, I think what I find most interesting is who asks what questions.

Again, several closest to me have asked about length. One or two about names. But when I was at a party last month, I sat and talked to someone I hadn’t seen for a while and when we were talking about the new book, this woman was the ONLY person to ask me what it was about! Wouldn’t that be the most obvious question to ask a writer? I certainly think so. Just as I would ask that songwriter, ‘what is your inspiration behind the lyrics’ or a screenwriter, ‘what is the new movie about?’ I would never think to ask,‘how long will it be?’ I’m baffled and yet, I keep writing. Because that’s what I do.

Anyway, I had to get that out and as I’ve said in previous posts, this blog can sometimes be a sort of therapy for me and yes, I now feel better.

And that is where I will leave you for this week. I will try once again for multiple posts in the coming weeks and as always, hope that someone out there got something from this ramble of mine. I appreciate you guys so much and thanks for sticking with me!

Until next time…Cheers!

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To follow and shop with me, all of my links connected to this site can be found here:

Linktr.ee/PromoSocially 

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That’s it. No more links this week. Have a great weekend! 🙂