Join other authors working on Nanowrimo this month.  Register at Sun Prairie Public Library link to meet authors and share experiences:   https://sunprairie.librarymarket.com/events/nanowrimo-writing-break-1.​

I know writing fiction requires conflict.  Conflict moves the story along and helps define characters and plot.  I know these things.
 
And yet.  During Covid 19 I have struggled to write conflict into the draft of my fourth novel manuscript.  I had the help of three beta readers and they concurred the initial draft was “vanilla”.  I read the manuscript front to back after receiving this consensus feedback.  The beta readers were right.  It was a nice story but what my protagonist, Rowan Daly, desperately wanted was a mystery.

I was lucky that two of the beta readers suggested the opportunity for conflict in the relationship between Rowan and Lucas.  I accepted the challenge and spiced up their relationship and added two opposite views of what each character wanted in the relationship.

Nothing special about a boy/girl conflict.  It happens.  Where else could I add conflict?  I was stymied.

Covid 19 has brought about such drastic changes in everyday life and the relentless cultural and political conflict in our country made me want to play ostrich – not write more conflict.  I did find a workaround.  I used historical events to create conflict.  For example, how instituting the draft in World War II changed life for young adults.
I’m waiting for feedback from my publisher.  I sense I may have a lot of work to do in the next few months.
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How are you handling conflict – in fiction or in life?    

Monday October 19th 10:30 am Jennifer Uphoff Gray – Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Forward Theater
 
Monday November 2nd 10:30 am Michael Herold – Co-Founder of Forward Theater and professional actor.  Performed in virtual production of Lifespan of a Fact
 
Monday November 16th 10:30 am Sandy Kintner – Member Sun Prairie Civic Theater Board of Directors, actor and director.
 
Monday December 7th. 10:30 am Dr. Iva Ugrcic, Co-Founder of LunArt Festival, professional musician, teacher. 
 
Live stream www.sunprairiemediacenter.com or tune in to 103.5 FM
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I begin with a caveat.  These comments are based on only my experience.  I don’t believe I have a bias and I freely admit my own short comings.
 
I like to developmental audit.  I hate to edit for grammar, style, readability and other technical edits.  I decided I needed to take on the task of the technical edits myself rather than turning it over to someone else and paying for the service.  I’m aware of a number of software packages designed to be author friendly and guide a person through these unpleasant tasks.

I spent weeks researching various programs, reading reviews and independent appraisals.  I decided to purchase prowritingaid.com.  They offered a basic package for $79 for a year access to the app.  I thought that was a reasonable investment in myself.
After opening the app I learned it was designed to edit only 30 pages.  My draft novel is about 260 pages.  If the advertising included this fact, I missed it.  I thought I could maybe review 30 pages at a time and work my way through the draft.  Nope.  Didn’t work.  The limit was cast in stone like Excalibur.    Prowritingaid.com offers a lifetime license with unlimited pages for review.  I swallowed my pride and spent another $239.00 for the lifetime license.

 I ran the summary report which was useful and pointed me in the direction of specific improvements.  I thought I could whip through the grammar report in short order.  I had over 500 grammar mistakes.  When I reviewed the list of mistakes I learned the program somehow converted the first letter of many words to a ‘dash’ and I had to remove each dash.  Rubbish.

Next I ran the ‘sticky sentences’ report.  I had over 400 sticky sentences.  A sticky sentence is one with too many “connecting” words that don’t serve a purpose.  I found this report useful but tedious.  Because I reviewed the entire document rather than just 30 pages when I made a correction the program would freeze.  It took me about 30 hours to make corrections.
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My writing was improved by correcting sticky sentences but the process was like pulling teeth without novocaine. My conclusion is the software was designed to work on small pieces – 30 pages or less – not an 80,000 word manuscript.
Have you tried editing software to improve your draft?  If yes, please let me know.

​One of the memories stuck in my mind from the 2008 crash is how people began selling their items on the front lawn.  Sometimes folks sold luxury items like snowmobiles.  Sometimes there were items that had been stored in the garage for years after kids moved out of the house like bicycles.  Other items included old clothes, kitchen items and etc.
 
By the item sold you could tell how badly money was needed when cars were for sale or farmers sold farm implements like plows and planters.  Taking state roads on road trips there were miles and miles of ‘For Sale’ signs.
 
With Covid 19 it’s happening again.  On highway N south of my house a pick-up truck with boat trailer and boat and been parked near the road for at least two months.  Homes in my neighborhood are up for sale too – my guess is people can’t make the mortgage payment.
 
I don’t need any fancy economic statistics to tell me how bad it is for people in our country.  I just count the number of ‘For Sale’ signs in the front yard.
 
Are you keeping your head above water during the Covid-19 economic crisis?  

In these dark days of Covid 19 I have found the need to take a hiatus – twice.  I finished the rough draft manuscript of my fourth novel, The Mostly True Story of Ronan Daly, on May 24th.  I didn’t look at it again until July 10th – 47 days.  I have asked three people to serve as beta readers.  The first didn’t have any comment – sad.  The second honed in on one small detail and gave general feedback that more conflict would help.  The third made excellent developmental editing comments that I am using on a re-write of the manuscript.

I wanted to jump into editing and purchased ProWritingAid after reading many reviews of the editing software.  I was immediately frustrated because it only edits 300 words at a time.  With +77,000 words it could take a lifetime to edit.  I spent nearly $300 upgrading to the lifetime subscription to ProWritingAid.  I was able to review the entire manuscript and have a detailed report of the corrections needed.  However, it is tedious work and I haven’t had the discipline to begin the process.

On July 10th I began reading the manuscript for a developmental edit, which is the most important to me.  I read the manuscript in just two days and was disappointed.  I felt the story was vanilla and not very interesting.  I agreed completely with Beta Reader #3.  I have spent a lot of time reflecting on how I can add conflict to the story, give the protagonist something that she must have, and change the ending.  I’ve taken notes for myself but haven’t yet had the courage to open up the document and begin re-writing and I can’t figure out what’s holding me back.

The second hiatus I’ve had is from posting a blog weekly.  The well ran dry on ideas for content.  It happens.  I decided to not post in July and see what would happen to my website stats.  I decided the measure I would use is page visits.  The number of page visits dropped about 200 from the previous month but I still had about 2100 page visits in July.  The most number of visits were in March – 4490.  The number of visits varies a lot.
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The haunting question is – did the number of visits drop in July because I didn’t post a weekly blog?  I should have posited that question in my mind before beginning the experiment – but I didn’t.  The honest answer is I don’t know.  My right brain begs for a causal relationship but can’t prove it. 
  
My left brain wants to be creative and expressive and not worry about how many visits my blog gets.  Taking a month off allowed me to regenerate and content ideas are flowing freely again.  I still haven’t decided how frequently I will post or if I will follow a schedule like every Wednesday post.  I do know I need to express myself but the details of how often to post or to have a schedule I’ve decided not to worry about – at least for now.
So, dear readers, have you taken a hiatus?   

All authors – even James Paterson – must market/promote their novels.  Most of us must learn these skills in addition to the tools of modern marketing, especially the myriad forms of social media.  For a long time it’s been my contention that the skills/talent needed to write a novel are radically different from those needed to market your work once published.  This was my rationale (read excuse) to explain why so many independent authors struggle with marketing and find it as appealing as eating prunes.

Recently, I’ve had a change of heart.  To be an author the once essential ingredient you must have is that you want to be read. What’s the point of writing if your work isn’t read?

My new approach is to forget about the idea of marketing.  My approach now is that I want to share my personal story as a writer and I want to share my fiction with readers.  I completely reject the notion that the purpose is to sell books.
My idea is that if I share my story and my work and readers find interest – the books will sell.  If they don’t sell, I accept that and it isn’t a rejection of me or my work.  An author can’t afford to take it personally otherwise we would all end up in little rooms with no windows.

I won’t market any longer.  I will share my story and my work in as many ways as possible.
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Do you have a story to tell?

​Waunakee Public Library
 
June Author Visit
6/22/2020
 
 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Waunakee Public Library
 
Please join me for the June Author Visit: 
 
Sun Prairie resident and local author, Rex Owens, will discuss his trilogy – The Irish Troubles Series: Murphy's Troubles; Out of Darkness and Dead Reckoning.  His work explores our motives for the life choices we make through his characters living midst the political turmoil of modern day Ireland. His themes include guilt, atonement and contrition.  
 
This event will be hosted on Zoom. To join this event, follow this link:
https://zoom.us/j/5121927987
 
Meeting ID: 512 192 7987
Event Type(s): Adult Event
 

Part of our family live about an hour from our home and before covid (the new b.c. time reference) we saw our 9 and 6 year old grandsons about once a week.  In the time of covid (toc) we haven’t seen them for 12 weeks.  Well, that’s not entirely accurate.  We have had “face time” with a fine little app called duo.  It’s not the same but we made it work.
 
We spent this past Sunday afternoon with the boys.  We planned simple activities like kite flying, bubbles, soccer, frisbee and toss the ball.  I want to share some of the insights of our grandchildren.
 
Our 9 year old wanted to understand that it had been 12 weeks since we were together when before we saw each other weekly.  He needed to put our fun afternoon into perspective.
 
We started by putting the kites together and I botched putting together the kite for the 9 year old while the six year old took off on his own, running the length of the soccer field, screaming all the way with bright red cheeks on the hot, humid afternoon in the sun.  The six year old returned where I continued to struggle with his brother’s kite and offered to let his brother fly his kite for a while.  Thank heavens.  The six year old wanted to play with the bubbles.  We played the game to see who could pop the most bubbles.  Of course he won, he is much more agile than me.
 
The 6 year old decided he wanted his kite back so the 9 year old asked me to play one on one soccer.  He wanted to play to the score of 10.  I told him I couldn’t play that long and we played to the score of 2.  I learned he had some tricky moves and scored first.  I caught him not paying attention and scored second.  The 6 year old didn’t want to miss the fun and joined my team.  The 9 year old drove to the next and scored.  He won the game and it was time for a water break.

The 9 year year old wanted to play catch with the ball while the 9 year old took another turn at kite flying.  Before long both the 9 year old and gram joined us playing catch.  The 6 year old wanted to direct who would throw the ball and who would receive and it became complex.  The 9 year old finally shouted – “oh let’s just throw the ball.”  We then threw the ball in a circle and became faster and faster, we all laughed.  The 6 year old shouted “Go Team Family.”
My soul and heart were refreshed.
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We are planning an overnight stay over late in June.  I can’t wait.