Lori Devoti, paranormal romance and urban fantasy author

As some of you may know, I have a yahoo group called PlotSpot. It isn’t a real active loop, but every now and then we have some interesting and useful conversations. To encourage more of those, I’m lining up guest speakers. :) Our first speaker is going to be Karen Wiesner author of First Draft in 30 Days. Membership in Plotspot is free–so if you are interested in joining just follow the instructions in the annoucement below.

October 25, 2005 (all day), Karen Wiesner www.karenwiesner.com and
www.firstdraftin30days.com will be providing a workshop based on her
bestselling writing reference FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS on the PlotSpot
listserv, the place to bounce plot, GMC, archetype, and other story ideas
off other genre writers. Only members of the list will be allowed to
participate. To subscribe to the list, send a request to
plotspot-owner@yahoogroups.com/. You must include a note, stating that you
want to subscribe to the Plotspot group. For more information about the
group, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/plotspot/.

To coincide with Karen’s Plotspot appearance on October 25th, she’ll be
giving away an autographed copy of FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS as well as
winner’s choice of any of her current releases. Winner must be a member
(set to receive mail) of Plotspot. Prize winner will be chosen by the
listowner at the conclusion of Karen’s workshop.

Oh, if there is anyone out there who would like to do a guest appearance let me know!!

Lori

It has been so busy around here–birthdays, back to school, family visits, my hubby getting a new job (so insurance/doctor changes), writing. Yeah, I’ve even been writing. Thursday I wrote 21 pages on a paranormal hen lit proposal. Friday 15 pages. I had to take Saturday basically off because we had company, so only 3 pages and then Sunday, I finished the first three chapters. Exhausting.

I think 21 pages is about a record for me. Actually, it is kind of enlightening how easy it is to do if you do two things. 1.) turn off the editor. This is something we all talk about, but it is hard to do. And 2.) have the book plotted out and clear in your head. The better you have things thought out, the easier it is to just sit down and write.

Okay, but is it decent? I think so. I will admit it took more tweaking than things I written at a slower pace, but overall it was still faster to write it quick and then tweak more.

So, are there any power writers out there? NaNo Writers? Does it work for you?

With school back in, my house is again being flooded with adorable art. But where to put it? We have a wall in our basement, in addition to the refrigerator, but it’s not enough. So, I’ve decided to share it with the world-or at least the three people who read this blog. :)

First entry by my daughter.

So a friend and I have been batting around the whole “high concept” idea for a couple days. This certainly isn’t a new topic. When I first discovered the online community of writers a couple years ago, plenty of them were discussing it then. Many of them confident they not only understood it, but had completely conquered it. I think most of them are still confused.

The classic example of high concept is Jurassic Park. Man opens amusement park with real, live cloned dinosaurs. Short and sweet it tells you what the book is about AND that it is something new and different. This is where I think most writers get lost. Having a high concept book doesn’t just mean you can boil it down to 25 words or less. High concept ideas are hard–at least for most of us. They have to be something that grabs you. Something that when you hear it, you think, Gee, I wish I thought of that. That’s brilliant.

So, if you want to write high concept–and more and more that’s all agents and editors want to see–or if you want to test to see if your book is high concept, here’s a link for you. I think it explains it better than about any article I’ve read to date.

How happy are we? A new season of Survivor. Yeehaw.

In other news, I’m exhausted. The last couple of weeks I’ve been completely occupied to adjusting to the new fall schedule–in my life that is, not TV. :) I’ve also had birthday parties to plan. Oriental Trading is having a free shipping special right now–lucky timing for me.

I finished my proposal I had been working on. I wanted to have it done by Sept. 1, but didn’t make it. It just wasn’t coming together. First I realized, hello, my protagonist had no goal. Then the main male character just wasn’t coming clear in my mind. Finally, though, I think I got it. It’s my first try at a paranormal chick lit. I’ve already started on a second one, that to be honest, I think is stronger. Yesterday was my first day working on it and I cranked out ten pages without even pausing. I love it when that happens. That’s how writing Love is All You Need (pig in a poke to me) was.

That’s it for now. I’m going to try and get back into the swing of blogging. I’ve been a tad lax lately. :) Till later!

Lori

Nora Roberts is matching gifts given to Habitat for Humanity through the 20th. For details on how to get her to match your funds, go to this link.

Lori

I came across this program at ebay and thought it might interest some of you. You can sell your stuff on ebay and designate some or all of the proceeds to be donated to charity–including hurricane relief. Here’s the link. :)

Lori