SwordMistress's profile

“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. Plot is observed after the fact rather than before. It cannot precede action. That is all plot should ever be. It is human desire let run, running and reaching a goal. It cannot be mechanical. It can only be dynamic.”

Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing.

        I took a long round-about way to get here, but I finally feel like I am doing what I was meant to do. I wrote stories on and off through my life. But at some point in my teen years I decided that writing was too hard of a field to break into so naturally, I choose a much easier field to break into. I went to college and earned a B.A. degree…

“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. Plot is observed after the fact rather than before. It cannot precede action. That is all plot should ever be. It is human desire let run, running and reaching a goal. It cannot be mechanical. It can only be dynamic.”

Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing.

        I took a long round-about way to get here, but I finally feel like I am doing what I was meant to do. I wrote stories on and off through my life. But at some point in my teen years I decided that writing was too hard of a field to break into so naturally, I choose a much easier field to break into. I went to college and earned a B.A. degree in theatre. Don’t ask, I can’t even to begin to imagine how I reasoned that out.

        Two Master’s Degrees in other areas and several jobs (that I hated) later here I am back to writing. At first I thought I would write horror because that’s what I read for years. But, what I was currently reading was fantasy. Then one morning (about 4:00 a.m.) my son woke out of a dream. The dream gave me an idea for a novel. I was so excited that I got up and ran down the stairs in search of paper and pen, which was a very long way from my bed. It takes a lot to get me out of bed in the middle of the night. I wrote down a few ideas and the next day (or later that morning actually) I started the novel. I wrote everyday and completed the first draft of Into The Master’s Lair in three months. That was about three years ago.

        Since then, I have been working on: revisions, I have completed a first draft of the sequel, and half way through the third book in that series, I have also completed the first draft another novel. Now I am trying to focus on getting Into The Master’s Lair ready to send to an agent.

        My husband and I run a business out of our home. My time is divided between helping him, taking care of my two boys (a one year old, and a four year old) and writing. I am also an avid reader. I tend to read four to six novels at a time. Lately I have also been reading books on writing. The books I found the most helpful so far were:

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown& Dave King
Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas
Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maas
The Complete Guide to Editing Your Own Fiction by Michael Seidman