Finding Inspiration

Friends, do you ever struggle to find inspiration?

Whether or not you're a writer, it's important that we feel inspired at times. It might be that you find the perfect recipe to try, and that inspires you to whip up a yummy meal for your family. Maybe you see some wildflowers on a walk and pick a few to put in a vase near where you do your crafting, and that bunch of flowers inspires you to work an extra half hour on whichever craft is in the works.

For me, nearly anything can be inspirational depending on the moment.

Lately, I've been binge watching a couple of seasons of the TV show House, about a team of doctors who specialize in diagnostics. While there are some aspects of the show I don't particularly like, there are many that I enjoy. I like the quirky, damaged, manipulative Dr. Gregory House, because he cherishes figuring out the puzzles that are his patients and his coworkers. I like the cases the team tries to solve, because they're often more complex than they first appear, and there's usually some big twist I never saw coming. I like the fact that story is a huge part of every episode and that there are usually two or three threads that get woven together each time.

While I've been enjoying the show, I've also been analyzing it from a storyteller's perspective. What works? What doesn't? Which twists did I see coming? Which blindsided me? How were props used? How was House's sarcastic sense of humor used well, and when did it come off as completely rude, and how did the writers and actor find the right balance between the two?

These, and many more, are all things a writer watches for in shows, movies, books, and real life as they're contemplating the stories in their own minds that they're trying to put down on paper (or in a computer document).

These, and many more, are the things that have inspired me the past couple of weeks.

The Source of Hope

This week has completely gotten away from me, apparently. Here I sit on a Wednesday night, realizing that I have yet to post any sort of a blog article, which I like to have done and ready for you on Monday mornings.

I'm also realizing that I haven't even thought about what ought to be in this week's post.

You know what I do when I don't know what to do?

I go back to God's Word.

How could I not? That's my Source for Truth. Hope. Comfort. Direction. Guidance. Love. Faith. Encouragement.

So let's revisit some verses from earlier this year. Enjoy! And please share some favorites of your own in the comments.

Color-Coded Editing {with Guest Victoria Minks}

Friends, the article you've been eagerly awaiting (I hope) is finally here. Please welcome our guest, Victoria Minks. I enjoyed her book Jonas & Olivia, and I've enjoyed her color-coded editing process, which she's sharing with us today.

We're going to be diving into Color-Coded Editing today!

This is a process I use during the revision stages of editing, all the way through the first phase of line-by-line editing.

For some background, my basic routine usually goes something like this: 

1. Plan my basic novel outline, theme, mood, etc. Some novels require more planning, some I just jump right in!
2. Write the rough draft. The "just get it on paper" draft. 
3. Now is the time for 2nd drafts, rewrites, 3rd drafts, or what have you. This is when I really get the book nailed down. Sometimes a novel is pretty good to go and doesn't need this stage, but let's be honest-- most of them do!
4. Once I have the main substance there, it's on to Color-Coded Editing! (Explained further in this post, with all the how-to in applying it to your methods!)
5. After going through that Color-Coded Editing Process, it's on to basic line-by-line editing.
6. Then it's proofreading. Multiple times. 
7. Then on to Alpha and Beta Readers, and then you move into the stages of publishing!

To preface: I first read something similar to this in the "Now What?" stages of the National Novel Writing Month blog years ago. However, I've tweaked it a lot and so it's quite different from what first gave me the idea. I'm not a huge fan of editing--but this method makes me actually look forward to it.

It's broken up into simple steps with different colors for each one. I use colored pens and underline or circle sections, using a pencil or a regular black pen to write notes in the margins or on sticky notes that I attach to the paper. But if you're a highlighter kind of person, you could definitely use that instead, and of course, feel free to switch up the colors. I just use what I have on hand, and have a personal system for what color goes to what editing step, but you can, of course, adapt it.

Step One: 

1. If you've just finished your book, set it aside for at least a week. I like to go for about a month. This allows you to look at your novel with fresh eyes. If you haven't written in it for a while, you're going to print out your book (I do it on a single side of the paper to offer more space to write notes on the backs). I can hear some people saying: "But, why can't I use my super amazing high-technology for this technique?". It's true, even my laptop+ stylus pen is capable of doing this process all digitally, and if you REALLY want to, go for it. Here's why I think it's important to do it on paper though:
   1. Having a different format allows you to look at it from a different perspective. Fresh eyes mean you'll see things you didn't see before. 
   2. There's more room for the natural flow of scribbles, notes, and doodles. It's all part of the process that I feel is easier on paper-- that brain dump that just is always a little more organic on paper than with technology.
   3. It's also super exciting and motivating to see your novel in print form, even if it is double-spaced, single-sided letter-sized paper. Your words sitting in front of you in a stack is just so amazing.
2. Back to the main point after that little detour! Now you're going to read through the whole thing... if you can, in one sitting. If not, just as soon as possible. Don't try editing at all during this time, unless you printed out the copy with sections you already planned on deleting. For instance, if you happened to write it during NaNoWriMo and you put in a monologue about the weather just to add words, knowing you'd take it out later for publishing-- cross through those now with a red pen. Also, if you notice a character that wanders around with no purpose, give a quick note about them as well. Other than those kinds of things though, refrain from editing! This stage is to just get a feel for your book.

Step Two: By this time, you probably have an idea of what you got right and what you got wrong in your draft. But as I said, don't randomly attack the thing with scribbled-y red ink. If you go back to the beginning, grab an aqua pen. You're going to read through the book again, this time focusing on emotions/tension/reactions, etc. What places make you laugh? cry? feel suspense? Are there no emotions when there should be? Or maybe the wrong ones? Did your character act or say something out of their norm? Is their behavior too melodramatic? Too stoic? This is the time to go through and mark with your aqua pen all the feels (or where there should be some). Make sure that you're following what your character's responses would be, not what yours would be.

Step Three:  Grab an orange pen, and this time you're going to read through it again, looking for places where you're bored, confused, there are plot holes or inconsistencies. If you need to fact-check various things in your book, this is the time to put a little asterisk or something besides those things to check later.

Step Four: 

1. Stop now and reevaluate. You will probably want to change some more major things here. After this step, I realized I needed to rewrite the entire ending for Jonas and Olivia. If you have huge scenes that need to be changed which will take the book in an entirely different direction, or you need to get rid of or fix a character you noticed was there for no good reason (noticed in Step One) go ahead and do that now.
2. To eliminate the need of having to reprint everything again, just write these things on the backs of the pages or on extra notebook paper--unless it's a really big change that involves thousands of words--then stick to the computer. :) This is the time to fix big plot changes, flat characters, tension, reactions, emotions, etc.
3. If you had to rewrite a lot in this stage, you may want to go back to the beginning steps and hit those sections with the previous colors of editing, just to make sure the new parts get the same quality of editing.

Step Five: Take a purple pen and read through your manuscript, this time searching out your descriptions. Not enough? Purple pen to the rescue. Too much? Cross some out. Not written to your satisfaction? Melodramatic? Cliche? Cheesy? Purple pen. Anything that has to do with descriptions tackle now.

Step Six: This time, with a pink pen, check your dialogue. Mark the passages with too little dialogue, and the places with an overabundance. Mark where you lose track of who's speaking, or if too many sentences start with "I". All your dialogue problems should be fixed in this step.

Step Seven: Read through your book again, this time with a green pen. You're going to check now for places where you could use 1 word in place of 10, where words are repeated too closely together, where you use the word in the wrong context and that sort of thing. This is getting more into the details, and by now you probably have a rainbow-inked manuscript, but don't worry--you're close to the end!

Once you finish Step Seven, you're going to have a book full of different colored markings, sticky notes, and scribbled memos. This is the time now to go through your novel on the computer, fixing all the things you marked in the manuscript. By the time you're done, your book will be much better and should be ready for the line-by-line editing stage.

Don't worry if this color-coded editing process takes a long time. That's ok, as long as you don't stop for months in-between stages. (That can make you forget things about the book that you need to keep in mind while editing). Each step may take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, depending on how much you need to fix, how long the book is, how much time you have to work on it at once, etc. That's the beauty of this method though-- because it is smaller steps covering the whole novel, rather than trying to remember everything to look out for and crawling through the book, it is super adaptable to whatever schedule works for you. It not only gets editing done in logical steps, but you won't have to worry that you've forgotten important details from chapter two when you're trying to edit chapter forty-seven. 

If you use this technique, I would love to see it! Post your colorful manuscript on your Instagram with the hashtag #fearlesscolorcodedediting for a chance to be featured on our IG story spotlights! 

Stay Fearless!

Victoria

Trust is a Choice

Trust.

It’s not always easy. Being human, we very often like to have “control” of our lives. Funny thing is that it’s only a façade. True control of circumstances is not ours to have. But something we can control is our perspective during anything we face.

Will we be afraid and angry and aggressive and violent?

Will we choose kindness, encouragement, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and faith?

Will we choose to trust God even when life falls apart around us?

The Card {a short story}

Scalding tea wasn’t fun to wear on one’s shirt, but it was better than frying another keyboard. Marla grabbed her “It’s definitely a Monday!” mug from her lap and settled it back atop the round coaster not too far from her shiny, new keyboard on her cubicle’s desk. With her other hand, she pulled the cotton material away from her stomach, which immediately felt the relief of cool, fresh air that whooshed at her from the fan she had blowing from a corner of the desk.

Earlier, she’d been freezing and had to pull on two sweaters. Why did her hormones have to choose today to go wacky? It wasn’t like she had a meeting in—she checked her wristwatch—Goodness!—only eight minutes or anything.

She grabbed one of her sweaters and blotted at the spot on her shirt and the few clusters of damp dots on her calf-length skirt. With that task done as best she could in a pinch, she tossed the sweater under her desk to reclaim later and focused on sending the right document to the communal printer across the large room. She pulled on her other sweater—thankfully, she’d not used the one with buttons to mop up her mess—and it did a decent job of hiding the majority of the stain that might or might not come out in the wash. After sticking her swollen feet back into her two-inch pumps, she spun her chair halfway around and rose.

Two steps forward and her ankle gave out, rolling to the right. She caught her balance with flailing arms, but the pain radiating through her leg with each new step indicated she’d be grabbing ice on her way back to her desk after the meeting.

This meeting was crucial, life or death for her year's to-do list really. Yet, she was having a horrible day from top to bottom. Honestly, what else could go—

This is the Day - a short story

Here's another short story that's inspired by YOU, my faithful readers. (See this article for the contest and entry that inspired this particular story.)

Copyright 2018 by Andrea Renee Cox. This story may not be copied or reprinted without prior written consent.

This is the Day

inspired by Caitlyn Santi

“… and that little monster bit me when I was trying to take his vitals.”

Lena slammed the first of two doors on her coworker’s grumbling. She’d had just as rough a time as he—though, she hadn’t been on the receiving end of a teeth chomping—during the work at an apartment-building fire. At least they’d finally been released to come back to the station, where they’d been for the last hour, sanitizing and restocking the bus.

She angled an irritated gaze his direction. “Mark, I get it. You got bitten, it hurt. Move on.”

“I don’t think you’re getting it.”

The next door banged shut even louder. “I get it just fine. We both had a rough day. If you don’t mind, I’d like to go clock out and enjoy what’s left of the waning daylight.”

“Want to go to dinner?”

A skeptical look shot to her face before she could halt it. “That’s, what? The fiftieth time you’ve asked me out this year?”

“Oh, at least.”

Five Things to Do When You're Stumped on Article Ideas

Here are five things to do when you can’t think of what to write for your next blog article.

1. Cruise Twitter or Facebook or any other social media site.

Most posts are simple tidbits into random people’s lives or self-promotions about the latest books, movies, products, etc., but they can make you smile or inspire you to find words of your own. I like cruising Pinterest on occasion, and every now and then I find a new type of dessert or crock pot dish to try. Once I taste the results, if it turns out delicious, it feels like I didn’t completely waste my time online. Haha.

2. Watch classic movies on TCM.

I’ve found quite a few gems on Turner Classic Movies, and the hosts give interesting facts and trivia about movies, directors, writers, actors, etc. Some of the information is a ton more than I’d care to know, but most of the time I enjoy learning what they have to share with the viewers. It’s always fun to see some old favorites, but it’s also entertaining to find new-to-me classic movies that pique my interest and inspire me to keep plugging away at storytelling.

Skyscraping - a short story

I'm busy this month on an editing job, but I took out a bit of time to express my creativity. The result of that is this second short story inspired by YOU. (See this article for further details.) Let me know in the comments what you think about this one.

*Copyright 2018 by Andrea Renee Cox

Skyscraping

inspired by Gabriellyn Gidman

A large cage with a squawking bird in it was shoved into Adrienne Stanton’s arms, causing her to fumble the huge stack of stuffed file folders she’d been carrying. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

Jacqueline Bronson swept her long, straightened brown hair off her shoulder with a manicured hand. Her perfectly-tweezed eyebrows arched in a menacing way. “I don’t care. My ex gave it to me—as if that was a good two-month anniversary gift—but we broke up last night, and I don’t want it anymore. Get rid of it.” She spun on her super-high heel and stalked back to her desk. The gray material of her power suit didn’t dare wrinkle when she perched on her high-end arm chair. No cheap rolling chairs for Ms. Bronson!

She glanced up with narrowed eyes. “What are you waiting for?” She gave her fingers a flick. “Shoo. Go!”

And the Winner Is...

by Andrea Renee Cox

Last week, I asked for your help in deciding which story to work on for the rest of June. To recap, here were the choices:

Option #1

A woman wakes up in a hospital unable to remember anything about herself, but the doctor recognizes her immediately – only he doesn’t want to tell her the truth.

Option #2

Several ladies head out on a cross-country road trip, but each one’s secrets cause problems along the way.

Option #3

A former singer hides out with her daughter in a quaint horse town, but a stranded journalist thinks she could be just the story he needs to revive his stalled-out career.

Do you have a favorite in mind?

And the winner is...

Losing Interest?

by Andrea Renee Cox

Over on Facebook, LouAnn Christie recently asked if authors ever lose interest in the books they’re writing. This got me thinking about my process and how many projects I’ve worked on. Have I ever lost interest in a project I was working on?

The short answer is, “Not really.”

But that doesn’t really explain it well.

Least Expected

by Andrea Renee Cox

Inspiration can take you by surprise.

This last week, I was planning on getting back to my revisions after taking a few days off to recharge for the upcoming tutoring season. I watched a little Hallmark Channel during my break, and a commercial for a new series inspired me. Not to get back to my revisions, but rather to begin something completely out of my comfort zone.

Happy Verses

by Andrea Renee Cox

Have you ever needed a pick-me-up but didn’t know where to find it?

I’ve been in that same situation many times. Over the years, though, I’ve discovered a great source for that boost of energy or change in attitude. This source is available 24/7.

When I’m down in the dumps, I open up my Bible and read the “happy” verses. They don’t necessarily have the word “happy” in them, but they cheer me up just like saying that word does.

Sandhill Dreams by Cara Putman

by Andrea Renee Cox

In the midst of my crazy schedule, I recently found time to read a Heartsong Presents novel by Cara Putman. I've been a fan of hers ever since I read Shadowed by Grace (see my review of that one here), but I'm still working on collecting and reading her backlog of stories.

Sandhill Dreams might be the second in a series (I didn't know that when I read it), but it stands on it's own quite well too.

Like Never Before by Melissa Tagg

by Andrea Renee Cox

Although I’ve looked forward to Like Never Before by Melissa Tagg for a full year, I couldn’t have imagined just how incredible it is. This book blew me away, and here’s why:

Melissa Tagg just went to a new emotional and spiritual depth with this one.

Be My Guest: Lori Benton

by Andrea Renee Cox

Last year I read Lori Benton's novel The Wood's Edge and was blown away by its complexity. (See my review.) As we get closer to the release of its sequel, A Flight of Arrows, I thought it would be a nice treat for Lori to hang out with us here at Writing to Inspire.

Where Inspiration Finds You

by Lori Benton

True or False: A writer (or artist or musician) can accomplish a lot of creative work without the benefit of inspiration.

Be My Guest: Vannetta Chapman

by Andrea Renee Cox

I'm excited to host Vannetta Chapman today. Recently I enjoyed one of her books (see my review of Murder Freshly Baked) so much I invited her to write a little something for you today. Hope you find inspiration in these tips she shares!

4 Tips to Find Inspiration

by Vannetta Chapman

I’m so happy to visit Writing to Inspire today and talk about what inspires me to write. My upcoming release is Joshua’s Mission. There were a lot of different things that inspired me to write this book, but I’m going to focus on the big one, the reason that I write—to spread hope and confidence in God’s grace. Stephen King said that “Art should be a place of  hope.” I love that, and I think it’s particularly true in our modern world.  So what inspires me to sit down in front of my Mac every day and hammer out another 10 pages?

NaNoWriMo... in January?

by Andrea Renee Cox

Hey, friends! How are you settling in to the new year?

One of my work schedules has begun again, but the other one has been delayed. Instead of seeing this in a negative light, I'm choosing to see the positives. For one thing, it frees up some much-needed time to finish the novel I started back in November for NaNoWriMo. Is it possible to have a miniature National Novel Writing Month in January? I'm sure going to try! I'm hoping and praying to be able to finish this first draft by the end of this month.

Be My Guest: Susan Page Davis

by Andrea Renee Cox

It is my pleasure to introduce you to this month's guest, Susan Page Davis. She has written over sixty books, and today she shares a glimpse of what inspires the stories she authors. If you enjoy her article, please check out some of her books (my personal favorite is Marie). You'll be really glad you did!

Historical Inspiration

by Susan Page Davis

A lot of my inspiration comes from the past. I love reading true history, and often I’ll read about an event that sparks an idea for a story. It might be a shipwreck, a robbery, or an old-fashioned celebration. I’ll think, what if this turned out a bit differently? And I’m off.

Bit O' Inspiration: Part Three

by Andrea Renee Cox

So I almost forgot to post this. It's midnight Sunday night/Monday morning as I type this, so please excuse any typos.

One thing on my mind today:

Spiritual Battles

Bit O' Inspiration: Part Two

by Andrea Renee Cox

One thing on my mind today:

The Dallas Stars

My favorite hockey team is playing well to start their season. As of Sunday afternoon, they hold the best record in the entire NHL, at 12-3-0 (for those of you who aren't hockey fans, that's twelve wins, three losses, and zero overtime losses).