@sloanebcollins What Makes a Hero Tick? #PlottingPrincesses #amwriting #AlphaHeroes #Supernatural #JensenAckles #JaredPadalecki #MFRWorg

I love reading books with Alpha heroes.  It’s much easier for me to write about female characters, and how they think, than to write male characters.  I’ve started watching TV shows more carefully in the hopes of figuring out how to best write men that SHOW what’s going on with them, what they are thinking, how they act, rather than TELL. 

I’ve come about 10 years late to the Supernatural phenomenon, and now I’m hooked (and I mean HOOKED).  Having loved Jared Padalecki's character on Gilmore Girls, Sammy immediately became my favorite.  But the more I’ve been watching the reruns, the more I see the internal angst that Dean (Jensen Ackles) has. I’m fascinated by their relationship on screen, and completely charmed that they are best friends in real life.

I started watching the reruns from 2009 a couple months ago, but am now watching the first season, and it's interesting to see how the characters have grown over the years.  So here's my take on it.

How to THRIVE not Just Survive!

Kat's 5 Step Plan to THRIVE - Not Just Survive

Surviving

Did you notice that this year we didn't hear much talk about New Year’s resolutions? Could it be that people are already maxed out, carrying enough burdens? It seems to me, a lot of us are barely coping with life as it is. For many people the goal for next year is simply survival.

Surviving is something I’m very familiar with.

I spent much of my life in survival mode; surviving a lifelong battle with my weak immune system, the death of my mother when I was not yet fourteen, a difficult home life after that. After I got married I had multiple miscarriages, and we have a son with severe illness. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. I know how to survive.

As writers many of us face nearly impossible deadlines and a rigorous appearance and social media schedule. It’s easy to lose our balance and slip into survival mode. But I want to do more than just survive – I want to THRIVE.

THRIVE

But how do we switch from survival mode to THRIVE-AL mode (new word)? How can we thrive amidst all the stress and busyness of our high-octane lifestyle?

School Supplies -- Office Supplies -- My Addiction

Yes, August is upon us and soon it will be back to school time. Time to start thinking about new clothes, new shoes and school supplies. Getting my new school supplies was always the highlight of getting ready to go back to school.

Even now I seem to have this fetish thing with office supply stores. You walk in and automatically I start getting excited and thinking what do I need. There’s a smell that just says spend money now. Automatically, I grab a basket and start to fill it up and this stuff ain’t cheap.

On my desk at home, you will see an electric pencil sharpener. An electric stapler – love it. A cute little posted note purse, a timer and a beautiful paperweight given to me by an old friend.

Inside the desk drawers are organized with my trays and I have one whole drawer of posted notes. Yes, that’s right. Love the posted notes. A writers must have.

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along: Readers versus Writers

There has been so much discussion lately about readers trashing writers that I wanted to take today to jump in and say how much I appreciate my readers. Without you, I would still be writing, but there would be no one who relates to my point of view. No one who enjoyed my characters and my story. I need you.

Let’s face it, a writer can’t help but put a big chunk of herself in a novel. I have received some of the nicest reviews and yes, they affect me emotionally. I’ve had readers make me feel wonderful with tears of joy and occasionally comments that left me frustrated.

As a writer, I want to spend my time focusing on the next story, not on whether or not the book was formatted correctly or even whether or not all the commas are in the right spots. (I hate commas, I truly do.) I’m interested in getting the movie that is playing in my head down on the page. I pay people to format the book correctly, and I pay a free-lance editor to make certain all those pesky commas land in the right spot.

When Amazon sends me a notice saying someone said there is an error on page 1374, I take it seriously. I make the changes and upload the book again. But there is a small part of me that wonders…did you do this when it was a New York Publisher?

The Great Hunt for Readers

Some of the Plotting Princesses attended the RomCon Convention, and have been talking about what a great experience it was spending three days with readers. For those who don’t know, RomCon is a romance readers convention. A place where women who love romance novels get together for a weekend. There were silly games, contests, meeting authors and a book signing. Mainly there was just a lot of fun attending events.

As a writer, you want to interact with readers, but sometimes they’re hard to find. I’ve done book signings where there were a few readers lined up, and I’ve done them when I sat there all alone and smiled thinking I’m so uncomfortable, I just wish this hour would end. People will walk by gaze at you and think, oh my God, she wants me to purchase something from her. You can see the panic in their eyes, right before they run.

LET'S ALL WRITE TOGETHER -- By Kathy Ivan

We've had a lot of author interview posts and getting to know a bunch of new people lately, plus lots of blogs about writing and craft; so I thought we'd do something a little bit different and kind of fun today.

We're going to do what's called Round Robin writing. It's fun, quick and easy and everybody gets to participate. The rules are fairly simple and I'm listing them here.

1. Read the scene below—it's very short.

2. In the comments section, leave a comment continuing the scene in your own way. Please only write a maximum of 3 lines in your comment.

3. The next person should read the continued scene in the comments section. Then starting with the last comment posted, they CONTINUE THE SCENE, again writing no more than a maximum of 3 lines in their comment.

4. Each person who visits the blog continues the scene, writing their 1 to 3 line comment, advancing the story. You can take the story in any direction you want with your comments, but remember, you are trying to advance the story that is being written (not start something new). You can add in a suspense element, paranormal element, a sci-fi element, a steampunk element, whatever you'd like.

5. PLEASE and I can't stress this enough, PLEASE KEEP YOUR SCENE PG RATED. No explicit sex scenes for this round robin.

6. Feel free to come back as many times throughout the day as you would like, adding additional posts and continuing the scene/story.

Everybody is invited to participate. Whether you are a reader or a writer, we encourage you to leave a comment and add to the story. We all have vivid imaginations; let's see where they take us.

SCENE:
The loud roar of the speedboat's engine drowned out all conversation, though occasional laughter could be heard from the party's guests. A water skier zipped and whirled through the swirling wake behind the boat, one hand holding the tow line while waving frantically with the other.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT. . .by Kathy Ivan

We've had a lot of author interview posts and getting to know a bunch of new people lately, plus lots of blogs about writing and craft; so I thought we'd try something a little bit different and kind of fun today.

We're going to do what's called Round Robin writing. It's fun, quick and easy and everybody gets to participate. The rules are fairly simple and I'm listing them here.

1. Read the scene below—it's very short.

2. In the comments section, leave a comment continuing the scene in your own way. Please only write a maximum of 3 lines in your comment.

3. The next person should read the scene below and the comments. Then starting with the last comment posted, they CONTINUE THE SCENE, again writing no more than a maximum of 3 lines in their comment.

IT'S MORE THAN GOBBLE, GOBBLE by Kathy Ivan

Thanksgiving's a rather special day for me. It's more than just stuffing my stomach full of delicious foods, watching too much TV, and napping away the afternoon. Thanksgiving is that time of year when I try to take a moment and reflect on what has happened to me; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I'm always grateful when the good outweighs the bad and/or the ugly. I have so much to be thankful for this year. In the last two years, so much has happened to me as a writer. I had my first book accepted by Carina Press and published—a feat I was beginning to believe would never happen. I was asked to participate in a group of writers, meeting at a fellow writer's home (big thanks Vicki), to help be an encouragement to other writers as well as work on our craft, provide moral support and just generally be there for each other through all the ups and downs.

This group soon became known as the Plotting Princesses. We meet twice a year, have some terrific food, fun, do workshops, writing exercises, brainstorm works for each other—in other words we're there for every member of the PP's.

WHAT'S MY LINE? by Kathy Ivan

As writers and readers we are emotionally moved by words. Words make us happy. They make us angry. They make us think. We can be moved to tears, to laughter. We can even be moved to throw the book against the wall when it disappoints or angers us. But in every single case, without question, words make us FEEL.

Here are a few books that have memorable lines. I've put the book and author following it, but how many of you could have quoted the title and author even without the prompt?

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness . . ." (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens)

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." (Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier)