flickr credit: AJC1

Is it rude to say you’re unavailable so you can stay home and write?

You’ve wanted to do it. The weekend comes along, you’re finally going to get some writing time in. Then, BAM! A third cousin’s girlfriend’s mother’s birthday party is Saturday. And you have to bring a gift.

Hey, family’s important. I try to take time for family whenever possible. But free time has been even harder to come by lately.

I started working full-time hours at the start of the year and gradually saw my writing productivity shrink. At this point, I’m happy if I get in any writing at all during the week. The weekend doesn’t automatically mean writing time, of course. It means laundry, shopping, and yes, maybe a family event.

So I eagerly read an article at Writer Unboxed on writing while working a full-time job. A paying full-time job, that is. Writers know writing is itself a full-time job. We’re just hoping to get paid …someday.

The article had a couple of tips — basically, write first thing in the morning, schedule religiously, or get so excitedly about your story you don’t want to do much else. Read it if you’re struggling with the same issue.

There were a couple of links to articles, both of which said, again, to schedule maniacally; one of them also suggested to keep a notebook handy for those moments of inspiration.

I was left a bit underwhelmed, frankly. All of this was nothing I hadn’t heard before, not only in the context of working full-time while writing. Nothing about how to actually make time, find time, or make best use of your limited time. I can schedule down to the minute. But I’m still going to be getting home at six in the evening (if I’m lucky).

I need a bit more. And I’m asking for suggestions. Anyone who works full-time, or even full-time mommies who have their hands full 24/7, I ask, beg, plead, for ways I can try to fit writing into my day, if not daily, then most days of the week.

A couple of limitations

I already get up a couple of hours before work each morning to exercise. To also fit in writing time in the morning would mean getting up at hours I would term “ungodly.” Not quite an option (yet).

I get home about 6 pm. Finish with dinner about 7 or 7:30. I do not watch TV most evenings (unless I really need some brain-dead time). But I actually don’t have the ability to write when I’m tired. I know, it’s a real handicap for a writer. But something in my brain shuts off, and it won’t give me any more words. So I generally have till 10 pm, latest. That’s, what, 2 hours a night, max.

Give me your best shot.

This post Writing and Working Full Time – Really? appeared first on Monica T. Rodriguez.

Weekend Writing Warriors

I’m back to posting for Weekend Writing Warriors! I’ve been using snippets from my WIP currently called STOPPING BULLETS. My main character is a young woman, Justine, with a talent for stopping bullets and moving other things with her mind. She lives a secretive life to avoid becoming a lab rat somewhere.

I’ll continue from my last post (in late March), where Quinn refused to leave and asked Justine what happened. (For the full story so far, see my past SSS posts! The first one is here.) For context, the last lines of the previous post were “Okay, this was not good. I had to get out of there.”

Here are the next eight sentences in the scene:

This is a work in progress, so with that in mind, I welcome your comments!

This post Weekend Writing Warriors: 12 May appeared first on Monica T. Rodriguez.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a short story by authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, meant to tide over their fans last year until the next Pendergast book came out. It’s a short but thrilling tale, where Pendergast tells a ghost story of sorts–his personal ghosts. It’s just the sort of story you’d imagine lurking in Pendergast’s past. The view into his childhood is revealing, especially his thoughts on his brother. He seems to genuinely regret his behavior towards his brother. And, most telling, he gives the impression he’s still a bit frightened by what he saw in that house. Extraction offers a bit of insight into how the character of Agent Pendergast became the man we read about.

A nice tidbit for reading in the dark!

View all my reviews

This post Review: Extraction by Preston and Child appeared first on Monica T. Rodriguez.

flickr credit: footage

I’m baa-aaaack. Yes, April became a sort of unannounced hiatus. I’m sorry I never formally announced that I wouldn’t be posting. At least I had good reason — the best reason, actually. I’ve been writing! I’m deep into revising my novel, STOPPING BULLETS. Every moment I get, I’m typing away.

I wish I had a great word count to report. I made some good progress in early April. Then came The Epiphany. A tiny realization of something I had missed, and then another, and soon I had to accept that the whole second half of my story needed to be reworked. So while I had nearly reached the halfway point in revising the story, most of April was spent reworking the rest (and some of the earlier parts I had already revised — and I added more new scenes!).

I continue to call this a revision, since I do have a first draft. But so much has changed, so many new scenes are being written and planned for, that it’s nearly an entirely new draft. It’s certainly not the same story I first wrote. Oh, well, it’s exponentially better than the first first draft, so I’m not really worried — except about how long it’s taking!

I’m going to continue working on my novel, so my posting may be sporadic. I will participate in Weekend Writing Warriors, so you can expect to see more of the story unfold. I have many reviews to post. And if I can manage it, I will post more character interviews, so you can meet more of the characters that populate the world of STOPPING BULLETS.

Thanks for your patience! If there’s a particular topic you’d like to hear about, a particular character from my novel you’d like to know more about, please leave a comment!

This post I’ve returned! appeared first on Monica T. Rodriguez.

Weekend Writing Warriors

Welcome to this week’s Weekend Writing Warriors post. I’ve been using snippets from my WIP currently called STOPPING BULLETS. My main character is a young woman, Justine, with a talent for stopping bullets and moving other things with her mind. She lives a secretive life to avoid becoming a lab rat somewhere.

I’ll continue from last week, where the shooter ran off, then after pocketing a bullet casing, Justine realized Quinn was closer to her than she’d realized. (For the full story so far, see my past SSS posts! The first one is here.) Here are the next eight sentences in the scene:

This is a work in progress, so with that in mind, I welcome your comments!

This post Weekend Writing Warriors: 31 March appeared first on Monica T. Rodriguez.

flickr credit: Leonrw

As promised, I’m posting the character interview with Detective Quinn Duncan, an important secondary character in my WIP, currently titled STOPPING BULLETS. Last week, I discussed the problems I encountered summing up his personality, which revealed the weaknesses in my understanding of the character.

The character interview, used by many fiction writers, is a great tool for character development, as you put your head into the character’s mind, and if you’re lucky, you’ll learn things about your character you might not have otherwise. If your characters aren’t speaking to you, you might try interviewing them in this way. May get them to open up.

Here’s my interview with Quinn Duncan:

Anxious, confused.

Upstate NY by car, up the thruway.

I would provide for my sister Erin, and maybe get my brother’s debts cleared.

I’d get really tired of it, really fast, especially if it was too emotional. I would try to tolerate it if there were others around, but maybe I’d leave. Otherwise, I’ll just get cranky.

Some take-out leftovers and leftovers from the chicken Marsala I cooked last night. On my floor, probably shoes, there’s a nice carpet. On my nightstand, I have a biography of Frank Cullotta. In my garbage? Probably take-out containers, beer bottles.

Probably running in Central Park with my dog, Sully. Unless I have to work.

To the bar to hang out, mostly with other cops. I go alone. Casual t-shirt and jeans.

Easy would be things from college, stuff from my old girlfriend. Hard, things of my mom, my dad, family stuff.

What smell does you associate with your childhood kitchen? Why?

Food burning — my mom was always burning the food! She wasn’t too great a cook.

My mother. I wish she could see me as a cop. I wish we’d had more time. 

When my mom gave me her wedding ring. That’s when I really knew she was going to die.

I don’t know if I despise anyone. I really resent whoever got my brother hooked on gambling.

My temper. In others, dishonesty. I hate when people lie to me.

Loyalty.

Honesty’s the most important thing.

Chastity.

Watching someone you love die slowly.

When it benefits the person or someone else, especially for work.

Batman.

Fellow NYPD, especially 9-11 responders.

My sister Erin.

Very old or at least quickly, with loved ones close.

Either a scientist that cures cancer, or a superhero that cleans up the criminals of the city, like Batman.

It’s not who you are, but what you do that defines you. Yeah, that’s Batman, too.

That’s all from Quinn for now! Have any questions or comments about Quinn? Ask away!

This post Character Introduction, part 2 appeared first on Monica T. Rodriguez.

Weekend Writing Warriors

I want to thank all those who visited for Weekend Writing Warriors last week! I appreciate all the feedback. I’ve been posting from my WIP currently called STOPPING BULLETS. My main character is a young woman, Justine, with a talent for stopping bullets and moving other things with her mind. She lives a secretive life to avoid becoming a lab rat somewhere.

I’ll continue from last week, where we saw the shooter’s reaction to what Justine had just done. (For the full story so far, see my past SSS posts! The first one is here.) Here are the next eight sentences in the scene:

This is a work in progress, so with that in mind, I welcome your comments!

This post Weekend Writing Warriors: 24 March appeared first on Monica T. Rodriguez.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have a mixed review for Gideon’s Corpse. The story began right where Gideon’s Sword left off, updating a bit for those who might not have read the first. But after a few chapters, there was a huge information dump of basically all of Gideon’s backstory, even of information they’d already given the reader. And it went on and on. I found it annoying, not so much because I knew the information from the previous book, but because it repeated info we’d already gotten in this book. Plus it was all dumped in one block. Very unlike the authors.

One problem with the first half of the book: the scenario was there was an Islamic terrorist. I thought, Really? You couldn’t be more original? It’s the easiest and most overdone idea in crime fiction these days. And then the cliché ramped up—Islamic terrorists with a nuclear bomb. Yawn.

Eventually there were clues that the cliché setup of the radicalized Islamic convert-turned-terrorist was some sort of red herring, and I began to have hope for the story. But I would have been happier to get some of those hints earlier, if only to avoid the feeling I was reading a cliché, cookie-cutter storyline.

I was not amused by the chainsaw fight, though. It was too horror-flick like, bordering on the ridiculous. And I have a high tolerance in fiction. If you establish something as acceptable, I’ll usually go along with it. Perhaps that was the problem. Gideon was supposed to be kind of average, if more intelligent than most. Nothing in his background said he’d be able to swing chainsaws with a cult nut.

However, midway through the story, with a sudden and unexpected plot twist, the story became suspenseful, unpredictable, and more interesting. Many times I could not guess how Gideon would get himself out of the situation he’d gotten into. It was strange. The second half of the book was the caliber I’d come to expect from Preston and Child. Not sure what happened for the first half. The only problem I had after that was the closing chapter. It was rather hokey and sentimental, and I felt, unnecessary. I kept expecting a paragraph to be the last line, and then there was more (I listened to the audiobook).

So, a mixed, ambiguous review. Not even sure how many stars to give this one. The first half is about a two star, but the second half would be at least three and a half, maybe four.

Overall, I have to say, can’t wait for the next book in the Pendergast series.

View all my reviews

This post Review: Gideon’s Corpse, Preston and Child appeared first on Monica T. Rodriguez.

flickr credit: c@rljones

A few weeks ago I introduced my main character, Justine Bernard, from my novel STOPPING BULLETS. Today I want to introduce one of the few people Justine might actually call a friend, a detective with NYPD, Quinn Duncan.

I got quite the surprise in writing this post. As important this secondary character is, it turned out I didn’t know him like I thought I did.

Character Description Number 1

First I wrote up these few sentences that I thought described him:

He’s an NYPD detective who deals with facts and evidence. Quinn Duncan has no patience for, well, most things. Just ask his brother, Cayden. Couldn’t ever keep that kid out of trouble. And yet Quinn finds himself too often in a similar position with his captain, when he’s gone off doing things his own way again.

But this description didn’t get to the heart of who Quinn was or even deal with his main problem in this story.

Character Description Number 2

I tried again, with a shift in focus.

Detective Quinn Duncan is just trying to do his job, find a murderer, and maybe catch the eye of the waitress at the diner, Justine. If he can manage to ignore the fact that he probably should arrest his brother, Cayden—for just about anything—and that his new partner just slows him down, he might be able to focus on his work.

But his case leads him to bigger fish than he expected, Justine disappears, and it may all be tied to the impossible thing he saw, with his own eyes, that Justine denies ever happened.

Quinn Duncan likes evidence and facts—and Justine, despite the fact that he’s sure she’s lying to him. He even asks his brother to keep an eye on her for him. Maybe that’ll keep the kid out of trouble. He sure never could.

Well, that’s just awful. And too long. It’s still missing a good chunk of Quinn’s personality.

After a few more tries, I realized my problem: I didn’t know him. I couldn’t properly sum up this character because my grasp of him was incomplete. For all I knew about him, his family life, his past, I didn’t have a good idea of who he was.

A Lesson for All Writers

These interviews that you might conduct with your character are more than just neat games to decide what her favorite color is. If you ask the right questions, you can uncover who she is. And that leads to a more fully developed character on the page.

Detective Quinn Duncan’s latest case is odd, but it gives him an excuse to talk to the waitress, Justine, so he doesn’t complain. But then his ordered and logical world is turned upside down when, instead of being shot and killed one night, he witnesses the impossible.

After that, he’s sure of nothing. Justine disappears. His case reveals connections that shouldn’t exist. And those he trusts, and those he doesn’t, are showing their true colors.

There, that’s a bit better. I still think I have more to learn about this character. My next strategy is to begin writing “character journals.” I’m writing journal entries in the voice of the characters. It’s great for developing a unique voice for a character. If you’re having trouble getting a clear picture of who your characters are, you might want to try it.

Since this post in long enough already, I’ll save the character interview I “conducted” with Quinn Duncan for next week. It’s a great tool for every fiction writer!

How do you get to know your characters? Do you use specific tools to help you develop them or let them develop as you write?

This post Another Character Introduction, part 1 appeared first on Monica T. Rodriguez.

Weekend Writing Warriors

I want to thank all those who visited for my Weekend Writing Warriors entry a couple of weeks ago! It was great getting all that feedback. A lovely group of people as well! I’ve been posting every week, but last week I forgot to post my link on the WeWriWa homepage! If you want to catch up with the eight you missed from last week, they’re here.

I’ve been posting from my WIP currently called STOPPING BULLETS. My main character is a young woman, Justine, with a talent for stopping bullets and moving other things with her mind. She lives a secretive life to avoid becoming a lab rat somewhere.

I’ll continue from last week, where we hear a few lines of what goes through Justine’s mind as she stops the bullet that had been headed for Quinn. (For the full story so far, see my past SSS posts! The first one is here.). Here are the next eight sentences in the scene. The “he” is the man who just fired the gun:

This is a work in progress, so with that in mind, I welcome your comments!

And let me say Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all those who celebrate it!

This post Weekend Writing Warriors: 17 March appeared first on Monica T. Rodriguez.