WordWranglers

A couple of weeks ago, I shared that I'd been a reading kick--still kicking and reading. And writing. But I wanted to share some lessons I've learned through reading recently.

A) I don't want to be judged for something I did or who I was when I was a teenager. I've read a couple of romances that hinge on a mistake the hero made as a teenager. Ditching the girl at the prom and showing up ten years later or letting his rich family bash his girl and call her a money-hungry slut.

Sure. These are horrible things. But, they were TEENAGERS. I think holding a grudge against something that was said or done as a teenager a decade ago shows a worse character trait than the offensive act done then. I mean, I don't want to be judged for something I said in my teens, twenties, thirties, or possibly yesterday--let's be honest, stupidity doesn't stop because we age. 

B) Today Jordan has a dentist appointment or "Dental surgery" as she keeps telling me. She's having her one remaining wisdom tooth pulled because It's broken through. Do you know how many times in the past week I've heard about it?

I've read books like that. Where they repeat something over and over until they convince the reader or the character that it's true or valid or right.

C) Communication is vital. Most of us are writers--so why do we write characters who refuse to talk to each other? Sometimes the plot totally hinges on if the couple had a real, meaningful conversation that would clear up the misconceptions they keep thinking that other person in the relationship is thinking. It's soap-opera dialogue. Talk people!

Okay, that's all I got--anyone else read anything that made them light bulb?

Liz and I have something in common. Well, something aside from 1) writing romance and 2) being WordWranglers and 3) being friends. We like to quilt. Although, I'll wager that Liz is much better than I am.

A corner that doesn't quite match up? Doesn't bug me. It bugs the bejayjay out of my MIL, who's a master quilter...and I've talked quilting with Liz and I think she and my MIL are of like minds on this one.

My latest project was a softbook quilt - you know, fabric books? Yeah, but instead of making a book, I lay out the 'pages' as quilt squares and create readable art (in my humble opinion). I love this quilt, its for my niece, who just turned 3 and is a bit of a messy princess, just like the girl in this book.

Now, the big problems - I actually sewed one row upside down - were fixed. Ripped out, resewn. Sigh. But the small issues - like that one teeeeeny strip that was a millimeter off being perfect center? Yeah, I left it. My MIL got twitchy but I didn't rip it out.

"I don't know how you can do that. . .it's not perfect!" she wailed.

I just smiled. Because I've learned that there are things to stress out over and things to let go. As a writer, we have to do that. My fourth book, What a Texas Girl Dreams, releases next month. I love it. Absolutely. But I know if I opened that file, I would find things I wanted to change - little tweaks here and there. Nothing that would massively change the book and not necessarily things that would make the book better. So I don't open that file. Or any of the edits files. For any of my books.

Instead, when I finish a book, I put it in a folder marked COMPLETE and it goes into a little hidey-hole in my larger Documents folder, where it can live in peace.

Like the finished quilt to the right, it's better off out of my hands at this point. Because it is as perfect as I can make it, and it's time to start another project. Tell another story. Sew another quilt.

How do you let go of your projects?

    The other Word Wranglers come up with the best analogies. I’ll read their posts—especially D’Ann’s—and I’ll wonder where she can possibly go with that. And boom, there it is again. Crap, I’ll think, why can’t I come up with things like that.

Have you noticed that once the sexual tension is over in a television show, the ratings drop? I may be showing my age, but does anyone remember the shows Moonlighting and Who's the boss? Once the main characters did the deed, it was like the writers had nothing else to write about. The hero/heroine acted like they got bored with the relationship after sex. And I got bored too.

But I noticed that doesn't seem to happen in books. There are tons of series out there that leave readers salivating for the next story. Some of them involve secondary characters from previous books, and some of them don't. But there's always something there that draws us back. Something that makes us want to see if the main characters really lived happily ever after.

I'll be the first to admit it. I'm a series junky. Books, not tv shows. What's your favorite series? Books or tv.