chocolate and sweat pants

Sometimes I wish people would pay me to do things like see how long I can wear sweat pants. 

Or see how long I can live on chocolate and popcorn.

Or see how long I can waste time not writing books.

But no one is paying me to do those things, thank goodness. And I am trying my hardest to do the opposite–wear real clothes, eat vegetables and maybe write a book.

Today was a step in the right direction. I did wear sweat pants all day. I also found a chocolate egg under my bed BUT I read through my entire WIP which has now hit the 40,000 word mark. 

Forty thousand words! And I’m not even close to being done! This is a big deal for me because my first book was about three words and my second was five. My third is a few more. Like twenty. I’m not trying to write more words, by the way, it just keeps happening.

So this is exciting.

But there are problems.

Problem #1: I don’t know what should happen next and everything I try feels wrong.

Problem #2: I think maybe I just need to mess around in the 40,000 words I already have to figure out what needs to happen in the last fourth of the book but then I’m worried I’ll mess around too much and make things worse.

Problem #3: I have a sinking feeling that besides the ending, the whole book needs something more. A new layer. Or a few new layers. And in order to do that, I’m going to have to tear the whole thing apart, throw things out, move other things around, all to make room for some new elements that might not work. 

Problem #4: I may be lazy. Because I don’t want to do it.

Tomorrow my goal is to mess things up.

I may start a new document so it doesn’t feel as painful.

Where are you in your WIP?  

Air, Water, Fire, and Earth – by Debbie Nance

One of the gals in my upcoming WIFYR novel workshop introduced our group to a beauty expert, Carol Tuttle, who has a program called Dressing Your Truth to help women define their beauty as each fits into one of four categories corresponding to nature. The gal who told us about this idea, uses the definitions from DYT when writing character descriptions to make her characters realistic. I thought it sounded like an interesting concept so signed up at https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#label/4+types+-+Carol+Tuttle/1449578050baf6f9 to learn about the four types of beauty.

It’s always fun to do this stuff, right? BTW, are you a personality color red, yellow, blue or white? (I think those were the choices.) And/or are you a spring, summer, winter, or fall person for clothing color choices? This kind of thing is all over FB right now, which cartoon character are you, which Jane Austin character are you, which fantasy character are you, etc. Lots of fun!

Anyway, the first thing I learned was that DYT is based on the four elements of air, water, fire, and earth. And the beauty expert people are completely serious. They dole out the information in small amounts to ensure each reader takes the time to figure out where her beauty within comes from. I’m sure this is or could be helpful information for many people. I’m just not one who spends much time on studying the outfits I wear each day or doing my makeup, etc.—maybe I should be, maybe I will be after I finally watch all the videos.

Well, I watched the first video and when I realized I couldn’t access more info until they sent me the next video the following day, I didn’t check my email from DYT again until I knew I’d have a few. I found out that makes me a type 3—simply because I skipped to the section to determine what type I was. Type 3’s want results and can be pushy—sounds like me, huh?!

Anyway, if you’re interested, check it out. If you’re like me and can’t watch all the videos then here’s the short version:

Words that describe each dominant Type in human nature
Type 1 Air: random, disconnected, buoyant, crisp, free, fresh, bright, brilliant, upbeat
Type 2 Water: soft, connected, subtle, relaxed, blended, comfortable, elegant, muted
Type 3 Fire: angular, substantial, sure, textured, rich, dynamic, swift, irregular
Type 4 Earth: bold, clean, regal, simple, precise, structured, clear, reflective, high-contrast, keen

More descriptions: According to DYT, applying the energy of the 4 Types to water, and this is what you’ll see…
Type 1 Air: bubbling, boiling, evaporating, moving upward and outward
Type 2 Water: connected, flowing river, running smoothly, moving steadily
Type 3 Fire: pushing forcefully, like a faucet or waterfall, moving forward
Type 4 Earth: standing still like an ice cube or reflecting pond, with little movement

According to DYT, we are what Type we are and we can’t and shouldn’t try to change. We should just realize what our strength are, and go from there so that our inner beauty can really shine. What do you think of this concept?

Does this help you when thinking about describing a certain character in your novel?

What Type are you?

Do you think most successful writers are one particular Type?

And P.S. I got TW revised and sent a query yesterday!