Writer Wednesday! Some Web Tools For Writers

Today I'm going to give you a few websites that offer some tools for writers. Check them out!

Write or Die
http://writeordie.com
Get those words on paper! This website will help you do it. If you're not getting your words down on paper, it will make scary noises at you. Try it.

Agent Query
http://www.agentquery.com
Looking for an agent? This website is a terrific tool for writers. It helps you find an agent based on lots of different factors, you can look them up based on genre,

Writers Digest
http://www.writersdigest.com
Writer's Digest has loads of great articles, great series, and different workshops and classes you can sign up for. There is also a hard copy publication available in bookstores. Definitely worth looking into!

Baby Names
http://www.babynames.com
Need some character names? Want to use some name symbolism? Search names here!

9 Tools No Serious Online Writer Should Be Without
http://blog.crazyegg.com
The title says it all. Check out some of these websites!

Enjoy!

The Dog We Saved, Who Saved Us

Molly was my first dog. Today is her birthday. She would have been twelve. Here is the short version of Molly's story.

My mom and her best friend, Mary had an agreement, "If anything ever happens to me, you'll take Molly, right?" Of course she would, but whenever you make an agreement like that, you never expect that you'll be taken up on it.

It was the first week of March 2009.

Mary had come down with the flu, my mom dropped medicine off to her on Saturday morning. On Tuesday morning, Mary didn't show up to work. When she didn't answer her phone, her co-workers thought they'd better drop by the house. It had recently snowed, and when they arrived, they noticed that the yard was void of footprints; the dog had not been let out. There was no answer at the door. The cops were called.

Me and Molly looking at the ducks at the bay.

When they found her, she was in her rocking chair, all of Molly's toy's piled in her lap. I heard that Mary had passed away on Saturday or Sunday, leaving poor Molly alone in the home for two to three days. Molly was a very smart, very modest, very particular dog. She had gotten into her dog food, and gone to the bathroom in the house, which, now that I know that dog, I'm sure were last resorts, as the thoughts of breaking into her food or making in the house were horrifying to her -- in addition to the fact that her master had passed away.

I was sitting at my desk, tying bows onto Easter candy bags at work when the phone rang. When big, bad things happen, the exact words tend to become a blur, but she said something along the lines of "Mary died, when you get home, we will have a dog." What kind of a dog? "A black lab." Oh no. I was afraid of big dogs, and now there would be one living in my house.

I took this photo of Molly, minutes before
I got the news about Michelle's passing.

When I got home and I saw that pup in my living room, it was love at first sight; I never once was afraid of her. We'd never had a dog, it was new of all of us, including Molly. She'd gone from living with one woman to a household of six, three of whom were men.

Molly came into our lives when we needed her the most. My grandmother passed away a few months before, and then my mom had to deal with the loss of her best friend, and little did I know, less than a month later, my best friend would pass away unexpectedly. The night after Michelle died, Molly knew how sad I was, and even though we'd only had her for a month, she stayed by my side. Molly and I were best-human-dog friends.


We had Molly for four great years. Unfortunately, we found out she had cancer in January of 2013. She lost her battle that April, less than two weeks after the four year anniversary of the loss of my best friend (April is a very bad month). I still miss her all the time, it's funny how a dog becomes another member of your family, and how you miss them as much as you miss a person. Anyone who has ever loved a pet will understand.

This is obviously just the tip of the iceberg on this story, but because it's Ms. Molly Girl's birthday, I just wanted to mention it.

Happy Birthday, Molly Dog. I miss you little girl!

Q&A: Where do you get your inspiration to write?

Thank you, Paul Taubman, for tonight's question: "Where do you get your inspiration to write?"

I'm going to share an embarrassing anecdote that explains where I get my inspiration from (and then I  ramble on a little longer)

So, at our final Thesis session, our teacher, David,  shared a rather horrible fact with us. I can't remember the exact percentage, but it was outrageously high....but the number of students who walk out of their final thesis class and never write again. I seriously could not believe this (though I trust him, and I know he's right! And I've spoken to people since, and I see it....and it's just like...what?!). He asked a general question to the class, what was going to make us keep writing? Nobody spoke up.

(And though I use quotes, please know I don't remember the exact words....!)
David: "Jackie?"
Me: "Um....Well, I want to get my book published."
David: "Well everyone want's that, what are you going to do to keep yourself writing?"
And okay, I had been prepared for this question, so prepared. We had to write up a career plan, including the factors that will keep us from writing, and what we'll do to keep ourselves writing, and I started working on it as soon as it was assigned. But, of course, I am the least articulate person I know when put on the spot, my brain goes completely blank. To me though, the truth is, I am going to get my series published. At that moment, all I could say was how badly I wanted it, and how that alone is enough. But why do you want it so badly? Was the question.
"Well, it's a long story." I turned to Linda who has been one of my confidants and besties in the program, and she knows the story. I think David offered to explain it, but I kind of wanted to tell everyone. And then I started crying. AGHHHHHH. I don't cry in public. But I love those ladies and David. So it turned out to be okay.

So, the long story.... That's my inspiration, and the heart of this anecdote, so here it goes (and this is much more in depth than the version told to my class).

Back when I was eighteen, I was headed off to college, and I made a friend, Michelle. She was like a big sister to me, we became best friends. We wrote stories together; she would read all of my stuff and give her very honest (sometimes irritating) feedback, and I would do the same for her. She would always share her characters with me; I think she liked seeing them go through my creative writing classes and come out in various stories (which she always got to fact-check and scrutinize the plausibility, consistency, and anything else she had in mind). We literally wrote every single day. Starting at 8pm (on a normal day, sometimes all day if neither of us were busy), until we went to bed, we would write out scenes, brainstorm new ideas, gossip about characters as though they were real people, and have arguments over the stupidest things ever. It was our lives. Our plan: take our extensive story ideas, and turn them into some mega-awesome-over-dramatic-magic-filled TV show, sell it, and become famous. Haha. Right? Like that was really going to happen. One (or two) can dream.

And then just after midnight, early morning, April 5, 2009, we signed off, and planned to chat tomorrow to pick up where we left off. Little did I know, when I said 'NN' and signed off AIM, it would be the last time we would ever write, brainstorm, fight, discuss, or say 'ttyl.' In the early morning hours she suffered a severe asthma attack that caused her to pass away.

And now, I won't go into all of the details, but basically, I could not deal with losing my best friend and writing buddy of seven years. I actually, right away, picked a few of our characters, and just started writing, every night, at 8pm, to keep myself from going crazy, but that didn't last too long before I plunged into an awful funk, that lasted a very long time, and involved me not writing.

About a year or so down the line, some things happened in my life, and I had some good influences that suggested I really return back to writing our characters. So, when I was able to come back to it on my own, I decided I had to write her characters. I needed to start putting together stories with them, and one of those stories turned into a novel, which blossomed into a series, and who knows what else. But I've gotten off track.

The new plan: write these characters to honor her memory. Through their stories, her memory will live on. And those who know her characters already, should love the stories, at least, I hope I have done/will continue to do her characters justice. 

Later, in 2010, I decided to get my Master of Arts in Writing. I wanted to write this story out, I wanted to get the best possible help while doing so, and, by some freak accident, I got into the Johns Hopkins University Masters of Arts in Writing program.

When I started my first class, I thought, "God, you are way too stupid to be in this program, you will never make any friends because they're all super smart, and you should probably quit." And I might have come home from class once or twice and "cried because because I'm so dumb," haha. Turns out, some of my favorite people stemmed from that class. In fact, I met one of my major cheerleaders and writer buddies, Michelle Madow, in that class, as well as the frequently mentioned Mrs. Simoni-Wastila.

I'll write another entry later this month to gush on about why I love JHU and our program so, so much, but for now, I'll say, I gained so much, in so many facets of my life, it was worth every single penny. My book is currently going through revisions, revisions I am staying on top of, and will continue to work on until it's finished and out to agents, and then publishers, and then your hands.

So, to answer, my inspiration? Mine and Michelle's characters. And will I keep writing? You can bet on that.

Thanks for reading.

"Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge"

So for today's entry into the blog challenge, I have to admit that I am going to have to cheat a little. I came down with some kind of a virus last night that involves severe dizziness, and the inability to type up a blog entry. So, for today's entry, I am actually referring you to another article you MUST read. It is called Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge and it is written by Betty Flowers. It discusses the revision process and is a must read for all writers: http://www.ut-ie.com/b/b_flowers.html thank you.

Why does all my dialogue sound stupid?

To continue from yesterday's questions posed by my friend, Heather, here is one about dialogue (my favorite thing to write!)

Heather: Why does all my dialogue sound stupid?

First of all, I laughed when I got this question, mostly because it probably doesn't sound stupid.

In my opinion, dialogue sounds "stupid" when:

a) It's not realistic enough.
b) It's too realistic.

Here are some things to think about...