The story, or not

This was a though one. What kind of story could I tell with my protagonist and my beautiful castle?

Horror was out of the question. Historical takes waaaay too much research. and I'm brutally lazy.

So what were my options? I finally decided to try my hand at mystery, with a dash of romance, and paranormal. I know this can change at any time during the process, but at least I had a "might work" kind of thing going.

My first question after I felt satified with the genre was: What kind of girl would my protagonist have to be to get involved in a mystery?

I built her life in my mind, making only a few notes in my MS (manuscript) I want to keep this blog as spoiler free as possible, so I won't go in too deep. Let's just say she's a happy girl.

Now, since I want, no, crave romance, I need to find a love interest. Someone that can rattle her world a little (read: A LOT).

Back to Google (lots of hours passing)................ and I'm back.

WAIT WHAT?? Okay, my mind didn't want to find a love interest. It gave me the first person my MC (main character) meets at the beginning of the book. Sometimes you've got to roll with the punches and accept what you get.

I introduce to you, Jonathan Michaels. A kind, and strange, 9 year old boy.

The fact that my mind threw me a name is a nice change, and it helped me get to the core question.

WHY would my protagonist keep going?

I returned to the search for a LI (love interest) and found........

Not your everyday hottie, but there's something about him. Time to pick my brain, to pick his brain.

- Izzy

The Idea!

It always starts with an idea. Something that tickles in the back of your head. It can be brought on by a smell, a word, the act of decorating a christmas tree. Yes, pretty much anything.

For me, the trigger was a castle. 

As I clicked through another Facebook promted "this will amaze you" site, this picture stopped me dead in my tracks. Curious, I did an image search to find out more about this place. 

I fell in love. It sounds corny, but that's the truth. 

Problem is, I can't write, or at least I haven't tried writing, about places. Having a house as the main character of a story might work in horror movies /books, but I'm a paranormal/romance writer. 

My heart sank, knowing I could never make this castle justice. That it would, at most, be the background of my story. So I forced the feeling into a dark corner of my heart, and went about my day.

But... I couldn't let it go. The idea of... something... was still ripping at the back of my head, wanting to come out and play. 

So I sat down, pushed my WIP (work in progress) aside and started my search for a protagonist to a non existent story. 

After an hour or so scanning images on Google, I found her. My heroine to be.

Now what? What was she going to do? What earth shattering experience would she have in that castle that was worthy of writing about?

As stated earlier, horror is not a genre I'm comfortable with. Neither is sci-fi or pure romance. I want action, adventure, and of course, the paranormal. 

Now, it was time to find a story. 

- Izzy

The process of writing.

I'm one of those people who loathe the solitairy work of a writer. I want to share my project, my thoughts, my hopes and fears. So I'm going to use this blog to, not only show my work, but write about the dark moments, and the bright ones.

I'll try to keep as open as possible about what I'm doing and hopefully you'll tag along.

Now, I know this blog was originally meant for our wonderful little writing group, but seeing as life takes over for most of our members, I'll let the group thirve on Facebook, and use this blog for my own selfish reasons.. =P

For anyone wanting to join the group, it's still open and everyone is welcome.

So.. In my next post I'll cover the basics of me setting up a writing project. From idea, to word outline. Hope to see you then.

- Izzy

A lot is going on

It's been very quiet from me lately, and I do apologize, but there's been an abundance of life going on lately. I'm not complaining, life is awesome. I just felt I should step in here and let you know I'm not dead.

Have a few shares for you. The wonderful onestopforwriters has finally opened up its doors. *happy squeal* Go check it out.

I'm also the Team Leader for the awesome Kirk Clan. It's the street team for authors A&E Kirk. Two wonderful women, who write YA paranormal romance. If you haven't yet, I suggest you check out their books on Amazon. They're releasing their third book shortly, and I, for one, can't wait.

I'm also doing proofreading, I'm a project leader for The Black Knight supporters, Lot's of things going on, as I said, but I love it.

If you're interested in joining the Kirk Clan, click here. 

Writing Prompt Death Dive

None of our members managed to start/finish the writing prompt, which is fine. =) We came up with really good excuses, and used our creative sides that way.

I have now decided that our next prompt will be a witty/weird competition. Where I'll make sure to reward our winner with some helpful books.

To stretch our writing muscles I challange you to write in a different pov (point of view) than you normally do. I prefer to write in 1st person pov, so I'll be trying out 3rd person pov this time. Yikes. Don't worry, it's not a rule, just a side challange for anyone who wants to try something new.

I will put up the prompt, and the rules by the end of the week.

- Izzy

Friday

Whoopsie!! 

I almost wrote this blog post in Swedish. Bah! Let's assume Izzy has a lot on her mind, and bear with her.

Okay. 

Friday will be the start of our first Writing Prompt. I will post it here on the blog, and in our FB Group.

The rules are as follows. 

1. Keep it under 1000 words. 

2. Use Google Docs, so everyone can read, and comment on it. 

3. When you comment, be nice and constructive. (Or I will pound on you. )

4. These are more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. (Except 3. Nr 3 is a rule)


The writing prompts will run for a week, giving everyone enough time to plan and write the prompt, without having to sacrifice a virgin to get the time to do it. You are not obligated to participate. (Big words hurt Izzy's head)

If you have problems reading about sex, please let me know, so we can send appropriate short stories/prompts/novels. (If your story contains sex, please state so in title). We do try to respect everyone's boundries, but we need to know where yours are. 
None of the prompts will be erotically angled, so don't worry. 

Anything you need me to cover, clear up or totally annihilate, just let me know. 





- Izzy

Hello, and welcome to our blog.

As Rookie Writers there's always been a search for companions and friends, or even strangers, to share your work with, to lend a hand while the process is ongoing.
Well.... Here we are. It's our intention to get you as much help as possible, guide you to fun places and, most importantly, find you a group of like minded people to chat with, about what a Rookie Writer's life is all about.

In future posts we'll make sure to include links to various writing sites, to have competitions for everyone, with the chance to win books, posters or even a little stuffed animal.

Anything goes in the world of writing, so we hope you'll enjoy it here, and bear with us as we traverse the unknown, to us, territory of blogging.

Hugs

- Pencil Biters