Breaking Through

I feel like I've finally gotten through the roadblock that has been slowing down my progress on my manuscript. I've gotten several chapters finished the past few days, and I'm feeling more excited about working on the project.

One thing that really helped was that I sat down and re-evaluated my characters. I'm a major plotter, but I don't think I'd had given my characters enough say in what would happen to them. I typed out a list of the following for my hero and heroine and found some things I'd believed about them needed to change:

External Goal
Internal / Emotional Goal
Lie he/she believes
Emotional Strength
How all these things would affect his/her relationships (including the romantic relationship in the story)

Something about typing all of this information out helped me see the weaknesses in my story. Hopefully, I can keep the momentum going.

I also think it helped that I bought myself a new package of Pilot G-2 07 pens :) Whatever works, right?

How about you? Do you ever have to stop in the middle of the project and re-evaluate everything? Do you have a favorite pen?

Writing Process, Romance Writer, Alison Stone

I'm excited to introduce you to romance author, Alison Stone.

Thanks so much, Julie, for hosting me. I’m very excited my second book, Too Close to Home, will be release on August 7^th in eBook format. Before I get to the short blurb and excerpt, I’d love to share a little bit about my writing process. 

Years ago, when I first started writing, I would haunt writers’ websites to learn more about how they actually got to the business of writing books. I was looking for some magic formula. I soon learned each writer’s process was as different as the writer. 


I’m still fascinated with the writing process as I continually hone mine. Some days, my time “at work” seems to include a vicious cycle of checking e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook. (Lather, rinse, repeat.) However, somehow along the way, a germ of an idea grows into a full-length novel. It’s amazing really when I consider all the time I invest in the sport of procrastination.


However, I find procrastination to be more draining than just getting down to the business of work. Usually opening the file and getting started is the most difficult challenge of the day. But once that is done, the ideas (usually) begin to flow. I still struggle with this, but I find it helps to set a time limit on the Internet.


The organized half of my brain longs to have a detailed outline of the entire novel before I write the first word. I used to let this stop me in my tracks, causing me to go days without writing because I didn’t want to write the wrong thing. Then gradually over the course of writing many books and through trial and error, I realized the best ideas come during the creative act of writing.  I have to allow myself the freedom to write garbage to get to the good stuff. Before, I was allowing perfectionism to stop me from writing because I was too afraid my writing wouldn’t be good enough. But good enough for whom? I’m the only one reading the first rough draft. I can fix that, right?


Now, I find if I have a general story idea and a few plot points, it’s enough to get the creative juices flowing. From there I’ll write a few scenes and I’m amazed at how the creative mind works. I’ll write as far as I can. When I hit a roadblock, I’ll start free writing in a separate document and see what I come up with. The ideas never fail to amaze me. I certainly wouldn’t have come up with these ideas if I hadn’t sat down and put my fingers on the keyboard.


I can’t claim to write “clean” first drafts. No, my work requires a lot of revisions. I enjoy the revision process because now I have a true sense of the characters and the plot because I sat down and did the work. I got the story down on the page. There’s no magic formula.


If you’re a writer, are you ever surprised by the turn of events in your story when you finally just sit down and let the story flow? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section. Happy writing!


BIO: Alison Stone graduated with a degree in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech. After working in Corporate America for a number of years, she retired to raise her young family. Soon the writing bug bit. After years of conferences, critique groups and writing, Alison achieved her dream of becoming a published author. She claims it was easier to earn her engineering degree. Too Close to Home is her second novel. To learn more about Alison Stone please visit www.AlisonStone.com. She’s also chatty on Twitter @Alison_Stone.

I’m thrilled to announce my second release, Too Close To Home, due out August 7^th. Here is the blurb: 

They say you can never go home. If you do, better watch your back.

Ten years ago, after her father’s gruesome death was ruled a suicide, Kathryn McNabb left her hometown, vowing never to return. And never to let anything—business or personal—break her heart.

Now an overachieving manufacturing engineer, she thrives on order, control and solitude. But an unexpected inheritance makes her the co-owner of the company her father founded, forcing her to face the ghosts of her past. Including Ben Nowak, childhood friend, secret crush, and son of the man who ruined her father.

Ben hadn’t planned on returning home either, but with his own father’s death it falls to him to continue the family legacy. When he learns Kathryn plans to sell the plant out from under him, his quest takes on new urgency—Midport Industries is the main source of jobs in town.

Butting heads strike sparks of attraction that entangle business and pleasure into a hopeless knot. And someone is watching. Someone with a darker reason to prevent the deal from going through. Someone desperate enough to kill…

Warning: Beware of the shadows, disgruntled employees, and childhood crushes all grown up.

Amazon Link

Barnes & Noble Link 

A Roadmap for Your Story

This month I'm presenting on the topic of outlining at my local ACFW chapter meeting. I'm an extremely detailed, aka obsessive, plotter. I'm planning to teach how anyone from a seat-of-the-pants writer to a plotter can use my system to organize their novel, either before they begin (for plotters) or as a tool for editing (for SOTP writers).

So I'm coming to you for help. If you were hearing a presentation on plotting, what would you be interested in learning? Would you like to see examples? Would you like to do some hands-on exercises? What questions would you have about the process of plotting?

The Writing Process

Today, I'm over at Working Writers talking about my writing process. I'd love to see you all there.

How I Outline

I’m spending the next week putting the finishing touches on my plot outline before I begin writing the first draft of book number three. I thought I’d give you a glimpse into my process.

I sold my last two books off synopses. So, I’ve already brainstormed, and I have a general structure for the book. I like to go further by creating an outline that tells me exactly what I’m going to write for each scene. I do this by creating a detailed spreadsheet that I use as the blueprint for my book.

I label the columns of my spreadsheet “Chapter,” “Scene Summary,” “POV,” “Setting,” “Goal/Reaction,” “Conflict/Dilemma,” and “Disaster/Decision.” If you don’t understand the significance of the last three columns, you should definitely check out Randy Ingermanson’s article on scenes and sequels.

Each row represents a scene in my novel. The novels I write for Heartsong are between 45,000 and 50,000 words. My scenes tend to be about 1,000 words long. I plan for two scenes per chapter (usually one in the hero’s POV and one in the heroine’s POV). Therefore, I have around 25 chapters and approximately 50 rows. Everyone writes different chapter and scene lengths; this is simply what works best for me.

Are you still with me?

I have additional sheets in my spreadsheet for the heroine’s profile and the hero’s profile. There’s also a sheet that includes miscellaneous information including my theme or story question, setting information, and any other details I need to track.

My novel tends to deviate a lot from this spreadsheet, and I almost always have to go back and revise it during the writing or editing stage. So why do I spend all this time on the spreadsheet? There are three reasons.

1. It forces me to take a close look and answer questions about my book before I start writing, which saves me time in the end.
2. When I’m working on the rough draft, it helps me dive straight into writing when I open my WIP.
3. During the editing stage, I can go back to the spreadsheet and look at my entire book in only a few pages.

If you’d like a copy of my spreadsheet, send me an email at julie (at) juliejarnagin (dot) com. I’d be happy to share it.

What’s your process? Pantsers, does my process sound crazy to you?