Riley Adams's Blog, page 227

Hope y'all have a great Monday.  I'm in a couple of different places today, so hope you can pop by and say hi at one of them, if you have a second.

First up, I'm interviewed by the incomparable Jean Henry Mead on Mysterious Writers.  Jean covered a variety of topics from why I choose to write senior sleuths to how I got my agent.

It's also my post day for the Inkspot blog, the group blog for Midnight Ink authors.  Today I'm talking about my experience with the first outline (really a...

Here are writing links that I've posted to Twitter for the past week. If you're looking for a particular topic, just plug in your keyword into the search box at the top left-hand corner of the blog (on the black header right above my blog name…next to the Blogger symbol…the small search window is next to the magnifying glass) and the roundup with your subject will come up. To narrow your search down on the page, do a CTRL+F, type your subject, and hit enter.

Review of the Kindle 3...

For a little while I was in the dark (which seems to happen a lot). But then I noticed a particular pattern to conversations I was having with my daughter's friends' parents.

"Elizabeth! I heard the funniest thing the other day when your daughter came over to play. She said you listen to 'old lady music!' She kept talking about the kind of stuff you listen to on the radio in the car and I was just cracking up!"

It took me several weeks of random playdates for me to realize that my...

I was at my primary care doctor's office on Wednesday for a check-up and blood-work. (Fun-fun!) Anticipating the long wait I usually have at the doctor, I came armed with not just a notebook and pencil, but a book I was using for research, my laptop, and some ideas I had for plot development. Yes, I was multi-tasking…again.

Since I'd kept myself busy, I'm not exactly sure how much time passed while I waited in the exam room. I'm guessing it was a lot of time because the doctor hurried in...

The last few weeks have been really crazy for me. I've been working on a November deadline, working on revisions for a separate project, volunteering for Scouts, and trying to make sure the kids have everything they need for the start of school.

And, actually, I've gotten a lot done. If I run an errand, I can I hurry in the house from the grocery store, put everything away, and immediately plop down and start writing—that's just out of necessity, since I don't have any time to waste on a t...

Monday afternoon seemed specially engineered to make me crazy.

It started early in the afternoon. And we'll substitute "snap" for all the bad words that I thought during those six hours.

I was in the kitchen when I looked at the clock. What?? That couldn't be the time! I was supposed to be volunteering for the Girl Scouts at the festival booth…now. Snap!

Daughter was still in pajamas. Snap! And she hadn't eaten anything. I was wandering around in glasses and no makeup. I put my...

Over a week ago, I wrote a post about figuring out what your specialty is as a writer—realizing what you're especially good at writing and then writing it.

But I think it's also helpful to be able to look at our story with enough objectivity to determine the strengths within a manuscript, too. That requires us to narrow it down even a little farther than our general strengths.

I know that my characters are my strengths.

But which characters are strongest?

Early in a manuscript, I ...

When I'm working on a book, I spend a lot of time in the story's world.

I hang out with my imaginary friends. I think about what they'd do in different situations. I wonder what makes them tick.

I frequently think about my storyline and characters' personalities as I drive the car around town, brush my teeth, or run the vacuum.

To come up with a good story, we do have to immerse ourselves in it. It takes a lot of time to think about all the different aspects that make up the book.

B...

Here are writing links that I've posted to Twitter for the past week. If you're looking for a particular topic, just plug in your keyword into the search box at the top left-hand corner of the blog (on the black header right above my blog name…next to the Blogger symbol…the small search window is next to the magnifying glass) and the roundup with your subject will come up. To narrow your search down on the page, do a CTRL+F, type your subject, and hit enter.

Tips to streamline your...

Are you creative in lots of different ways? Or is your creativity specific to writing?

Some of the most dreaded words I hear are "Let's ask Elizabeth, since she's the creative one."

Ack!

Because, really, I'm creative in only a couple of ways. I don't come up to creative solutions for problems. I don't have creative ideas for crafts. If you're designing a bulletin board for a classroom I have absolutely no suggestions for you. I can't come up with creative decorating ideas for your...