All posts by NewEngland_Muse

I'm a traditionally and self published author. I write in the genre of children and YA at the moment but working my way up to adults. I'm a sports loving, photo taking gal who loves to sing/dance to my own enjoyment. I love to laugh even at myself. I am also owned by 8 birds and 2 hamsters, and yes they know it. :)
Blog, Dedication, Emotions, People, Ramblings

Dedication

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Have you ever wondered what kind of impact you make on others? I know I do. With my insecurities of how I come across it always amazes me when people tell me what they think- that is in a good way.

My good friend Lisa, who is from one of my writers groups, told me that I bring energy and lightness to the meetings and it is certainly missed when I am not there. Me, energy and lightness?

My friend Gina, who I meet with weekly to talk about life and also writing, has told me on numerous occasions that I motivate and inspire her by my personality. Me, someone who motivates and inspires others?

I consider myself an average run of the mill person. I try to treat people like I want to be treated. Do I accomplish this all the time, of course not. But to hear people tell me positive things they see about me does make me feel good.

It is probably why I try to tell people what I think about them, when they are making a difference in a positive way. Everyone needs that boost, that certain lift to say hey I am not that bad.

Through Twitter and other avenues I have come across some wonderful writers. Some who are quickly becoming friends and people I care about. This has open me up to a world of people who just have taken me in and let me blossom personality wise and for that I am grateful.

The reason for this post is as follows. A friend of mine, Nancy, is about to release another book and she placed me in her dedication page.

My first thought was OH MY GOSH HOW FREAKEN AWESOME IS THAT? That I made an impact to be placed in a dedication page made me speechless. Well ok not entirely speechless but you all get the idea.  We never know what kind of effect we will have on people, positive or negative. Until we are actually told or we can visually see it we may never know.

So the moral of this is to let people know what you think. Let them know what they mean to you, how being around them has helped you. It does not cost a dime. The rewards will be a smile and the person feeling good inside. That is priceless.

Author, Blog, Books, Character Developement, Creative Writing, Writing, Writing Advice

Character Development

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My class “ Character Development” started Monday night. The class was amazing and I have six more to go. Learning how to make our characters strong, believable, lovable, loathed, and focused is something we all should strive for as writers. For as an avid reader, I want to fall in love with my character or hate them so badly I want to see how the book ends. Most times I follow through with the liking of a character. There are some books by the time it ends I wish the one I fell for would just go away as my alliances has shifted to the villain who is suddenly amazing.

If we just stick to the physical aspect of what our characters look like ,while we may describe them so well our readers can image them in their minds, you can only go so far with looks. Well that is what they say right? So invest in your characters, go to the root of what makes them who they are, what they are and why I should as a reader get so invested in this one person. For if you don’t chances are the book will not be read

So the instructor asked how strong were our characters in our book? Do they make the reader get invested in them relatively soon or does it drag on? The format my professor suggested was very simple and something I am sure most of you are all aware of.

Who? Where? What? How? When? Why?

Simple enough but then break it down even further. Who did what where and how did they do it and why? Or you can say how did it happen to this other character that is in the book? The possibilities are endless depending how big your cast is in the book.

So in my mind I mentally went through the two books I am trying to get published and did the math so to speak to see if the characters in those books matched up to the rigor of those six questions.

Fortunately they did, and I did not even know I was doing it correctly. I was happily surprised. For in those two books the main characters I broke down to the core. Not just the physical aspects of what they looked liked. But I talked about their character: weakness, likes, fears, hopes,goals,strengths and so on. I started each character from birth and worked my way up. By doing that you give your person the best chance of working whether it is to be loved or hated. Without that, for me as a reader, the book no matter how well written, will be either read and honestly reviewed or just not read at all.

Each class I will share what I have learned, in hopes I can pass on some insight to others so we can all somehow improve our craft.

Blog, Laid back, Life, purse, Rants

Purses

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As a female I have a few purses. Granted not the gazillions most girls have. I have under five at last check. One of my favorite ones is a big light green purse that only has one pocket on the side to put small items , otherwise it is a free for all. Just dump what you want to put in and go on your merry way. The other one is a smaller bag that is nice enough to use for functions, church and to look at least presentable.

With a bigger bag there is always the issue of trying to find one item in a big bag for there is no order to a bag with no pockets. Yet here is my dilemma. My smaller purse that has two small pockets on the inside and two on the outside gives me major grief. For me to find anything in it, I have to literally dump everything out to find a chap stick, nail clippers and so on. While my bigger pale green hippie looking bag I can find anything within mere seconds of looking for it.

What gives? Logically to me anyway it seems if it is smaller and has pockets I should have no issue but yet every single time I try to find something I mutter to myself. It always ends up with me promising myself that I will go back to my big free for all purse and yet I don’t. My family is so use to me fuss about this topic they have learned to ignore when it happens and just walk away. I live with smart men I suspect.

As a trained scientist I have yet to figure out what the problem but now at this point the matter is becoming mute. It is just another mystery of life. For trying to be presentable I will go with the smaller bag and for the days that is does not matter or I don’t care I will go the hippie route.