Happy Cupcake Award

Coming in a bit late here. Huge thanks to the lovely Lacey Devlin for nominating me for a Happy Cupcake Award. Really brightened up my day I tell ya. Just what I needed to focus on the positive.

Okay, so the 10 Things That Make Me Happy in no particular order:

1. My gorgeous and supportive hubby. He loves me, he spoils me, he puts up with my flaws...what more could a woman want?
2. Writing. When I'm writing regularly, I'm happy. When I don't because Real Life gets in the way, I get cranky.
3. Reading. There's nothing better than getting swept away in the fictional world of a book for a few hours and forgetting about all your troubles in the process.
4. My ECO Reader. Love my e-reader. I can download the new Harlequin Mills and Boon releases on the first of the month and read them straight away ('cos I'm impatient). Also solved my problem of lack of storage.
5. Reality TV. Love it, love it, love it. Of course, I am discerning about what I watch on telly. My faves are Survivor (ooh! Heroes vs Villains is the best!), So You Think You Can Dance, MasterChef, My Kitchen Rules.
6. Our house. After years of living in private rental accommodation, one year ago we managed to finally buy our own home. It was a dream come true.
7. Reading blogs of authors and aspiring authors. I love reading all your blogs so keep the posts coming! Gives me another reason to procrastinate :)
8. Fridays. After having worked full-time hours for more than a year, I'm thrilled to have my Fridays off once again.
9. Going for a walk on a sunny day at the nearby lake. Bliss :)
10. Dessert. I always look at the menu and pick out dessert first. 'Nuff said.


Because I'm posting this so late, if you're reading this blog post consider yourself tagged for this award. Come on - share with us the things that make you happy.

When Life Imitates Art

I know I've been silent for awhile. That's because Real Life got in the way in February. I've still been reading blogs but I needed some time out, like an injured animal needs to lick its wounds. With lots of other things happening, I still managed to do most of the homework in Laurie Schnebly Campbell's fantastic Plotting Via Motivation online course. I'm signed up to do her Masterclass: From Plot to Finish mid-March and I can't wait.

First, just some info on what I got out of the course. From someone who has been primarily a pantser, planning prior to starting the WIP was a foreign world to me. Sure, I've done some of that in my Category Writing Course but I had already started the WIP. Laurie's online course was challenging but rewarding. Now I've learnt that some preparation goes a long way. Figuring out the character's motivation from the start allows you to form a plot that rings true to their motivation from start to finish. I like the idea of having a road map to guide me during the writing of my WIP. Laurie's also a fantastic teacher, and I'm planning to do some more of her online courses this year.

Now to the reason for the title of this blog post. Earlier in the month I had a family life and death emergency which was sudden, shocking and unexpected. To maintain the privacy of the person involved, I won't detail specifics of the emergency here. It turned my world upside down, and has made me feel like I'm walking on a tightrope since. The eerie thing is, this incident mimicked exactly what my heroine in my current WIP is going through. Coincidence or did my subconcious know something was wrong all along? Who knows? Regardless, at the time I felt I couldn't continue with my WIP because it was too painful, too close to home. But now I feel that I need to write this story more than ever. To bring this subject with all its stigma out into the glaring light of day. And now I personally know what my heroine is feeling because I've lived through those feelings. As painful as it is, writing about the emotions involved will be true and authentic. And I know, without a doubt, that her motivation is realistic.

And my hero? I've blogged before about the issues with his motivation and the hook. But now I think I've got him pegged. A number of things contributed to this - Donna Alward's fabulous advice, applying Laurie's exercises and asking 'Why?' until I got to the core of his motivation, and referring to The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines to assign an archetype to my hero. Well, one major archetype with added flavours of a couple of other archetypes.

Finally, I feel I can move on with this project. After being stymied for so long, the frustration and self doubt were starting to eat away at me. And deep down, I knew not completing this WIP would compound and magnify the self doubt even more.

Afterall, I can't exactly submit something that's not written now, can I?