Black Screen of Death

Yep that was me on Friday, August 9, 2024. I lost access to 25 chapters of my second draft i.e. the one before final clean edit before sending it out to a formal editor. I searched everywhere on my back-up drive no luck. I've got the first 45 finished chapters printed out on PAPER as I went along writing,  but luckily, I stll have my rough draft with my story ideas, plot points, and characters on a backup drive. I bought a new computer. 

Learning MS365, which hides things you can do under new ribbons and names. such as the narrator speech bubble that is now hidden under the review ribbon. I guess I'll find out where the other s are on the ribbons as I format my book for ePub. but they can't fool this old DOS gal lol. 

People ask me how to write a book. I'm a plotter, and probably a plodder, too. I start with a Shawn Coyne 1 page story grid on a legal size piece of paper, then I go to a James Scott Bell 3 Act one Page Outline that fits on an 8.5 x 11 inch paper, pamphlet style. It includes plot points, and I write a very brief , one paragraph per chapter of what happens in the story. I constantly use it as a guide. 

Quilting is also one of my interests besides reading two or three books every night before I go to bed. I'm a book shark, not worm. Then I fill in the chapters, so I have each chapter outlined on one a one page draft:no punctuation, no grammar, no spelling, just ideas, and thoughts thrown on a page as they flit through my brain using J. Thorn's one page per chapter 3 act scheme. I find writing by hand in all sorts of places but not in my office on a computer, stops the dreaded staring at a blank page. I use funny and thoughtful quotes as writing prompts. I dictate my hand-written notes into Dragon Naturally speaking. I might skip this step on my next draft of Book 4, thanks to David Gaughran, who recommended a pad that reads hand writing: reMarkable. 

As I write a book, it reminds me of quilting, which is another of my interests. I flesh out the chapters with characters,  emotions, senses, conflict, choices, and consequences. Because every choice we make in real life, good or bad, has consequences many years down the road. Once I get to the editorial session, I use Pro-write  and finally I use a dry, dull robot to read my story aloud. If he doesn't bore me after reading my story at least fifty times, I feel it's ready to send to an editor. I also use feedback from my ARC readers. So if you'd like a preview, send me an email to martyknox4@gmail.com. I'm extremely protective of anyone's email and will not send anything unless you are interested. See European rules.

I'm fascinated how people write. I was pleasantly surprised to find one of my favorite craft authors, Mindy Quigly (great cozy mystery) and Rachel Ayala (writes romantic suspense) writes similar to me. Also J. Thorn has been invaluable for Craft. 

Giving pansters. or as Joanna says. discovery writers a nod,:My Kiwi's the SPA girls, and the best podcasts on writing, Joanna Penn on craft and life. Writes like me. Here's where I verge off into the land of discovery writing. I often move chapters around in Scrivner, a wonderful, priced, easy-to-use outline software program.  I change character names, add twists, and I rarely know who-dun-it until about chapter 38. Yikes!.  

My second book Murder @ the Black Mesa Salon was published in March 2020,  yes, that March 2020. Besides everything that happened since my last blog in the naive year of March 2020.including COVID 19, which I haven't caught yet. 

I started the rough draft of Murder @ the Black Mesa Dance Book 3, in the fall of 2020, Then I was in a roll over car accident that broke my L3, a brain bleed, a blood clot, and broken ribs, so I was laid up for 6 months recovering.  After COVID 19 I started writing Book three. I had a terrible dry spell where I absolutely could not write one word. An unknown month long virus (coughing my brains out) in February 2024 (Not Covid, not valley fever. not RSV, not Flu A or B. and not pneumonia) gave me an appreciation of good health, which is worth more money than all the gold in the world. 

I attended my favorite writers retreat in March 2024 at Neosho Missouri and wrote 8000 words in one weekend. I got a renewal of life in Arizona for two months in the Spring while visiting my oldest daughter. Finished 20 chapters. I visited my favorite places: Payson, Strawberry, Mesa, Scottsdale. We  couldn't go back to Flagstaff, Holbrook, Snowflahe, nor Show Low because of fire danger at the end of April. The main highway to the Grand Canyon was shut down. I even went to a Poison Pen bookstore author signing in Scottsdale with terrific historical mystery writer Ryhs Bowen. 

So how did I break my dry spell? I began journalling every day after I moved into my youngest daughter's house for two years after my accident. This year I sold my old house, bought a new home across the street from my youngest daughter, where my kids, grandkids, and great grandkids visit me daily. , and I have been writing a chapter a day in my new environment. Since 2020, I've had 2 grandkids, a joy, and 2 great grandkids, more joy, two marriages in the family, and another one soon. 

Maybe I was depressed after COVID. I lost a wonderful editor, four cousins I had known since childhood, and had friends who also lost family members. A lot of writers' meetings went virtual, which I have enjoyed because it doesn't tie you down to one place or time zone. I recently watched a wonderful zoom talk on Grand Canyon Sisters in Crime in Arizona when I was at my son's house in Virginia celebrating a brand new baby boy grandchild. We all have survived older and wiser, hopefully with gratitude and hope for our children. Stay safe, keep your wits about you, and good will for your future.