A Little Bit of Progress

 Welcome! I'm so glad you're here because victories should be shared, right? Keep reading to see what I'm talking about. 

Author Journey: A Little Bit of Progress

So last week, I shared that the titles I hoped to use were set up in my Scrivener files. This week, I wanted to start working on characters to people my stories. I managed to create one. He's interesting... I don't know how much of what I wrote down will actually carry over into the story, but he looks like a person and feels like a person...somewhat. I'm wondering if I'm heading the right direction with my character choice and variety. Time will tell, I suppose.

I'm trying out a new program to help me with plotting. I don't usually need that because I'm pretty good at jotting stories down when it comes to fantasy. But for basic fiction? I'm not so sure of my ability there. Modern life confuses me more often than it doesn't and the insane amount of unintended hurt that goes on breaks my heart. And knowing myself, I might fall into that last category. I don't want that kind of headache while writing, nor that kind of result once the story is done. But how do you balance the need for reality and the obvious fact that a fiction story is completely made-up. How do I do it in a way that people can really get into the story? 

So I'm fighting my way past that uncertainty about the genre while trying to get some planning done on specific stories. If I can nail down about ten main characters and ten basic scenarios, I think that'll get me into the right mindset. 

So that new program... I'd heard about Plottr a good while back. I want to say they sponsored Nano one year. I looked into it, but thought it was too expensive, especially since I was writing a super comfortable genre at the time and didn't really see how it could help me more than the programs I already had. So far, I like the versatility and the options available to craft stories. I've only scratched the surface, it seems, so as I learn the program details, I'll share my findings. 

Below, you can see the character planning page. They allow you to use several different character building methods to fill in the blanks quite nicely. I find that knowing my characters well means that when I write them, they'll come out looking natural. Half the stuff I packed into this character's sheet probably won't even show up in the story, but it all works together to make him who he is. 

Writer's Life: Good Things and Sad Things

Well, there was a mix of good and sad happenings over the past week. Two of our little kittens were doing well. We lost one during the day. We think she bumbled her way into the yard and a predator got her. The rest were fine until the end of the week when we had to leave them outside of the kennel for the night. The next morning, they were gone. No trace. So probably the barn owls had a hearty meal. The only bright side to that would be the fact that the barn owls are thriving out here. And "beasties gotta eat," so to almost speak. 

A good thing that's happening is that I'm able to sing with the music group at our church. I hate to say worship team, because the whole service is worship, but yeah. It's been fun so far and I look forward to using the gifts God has given me with this great group of people. 

Book Shelf: Currently Reading

I don't have any reviews ready to share with you this week, but I thought I'd share the ones I'm currently reading. 

• Duties of Christian Fellowship: A Manual for Church Members by John Owen
• Show Me a Reunion (Cowboy Crossing Romances #10) by Alexa Verde

Duties of Christian Fellowship is a short book. One of the young men at our church who is training to become a minister recommended this book to us during one of our Sunday night classes months ago. I'm just now getting started but I look forward to learning more about what I need to be doing as part of the body of believers at my church. I'm going to take it one rule at a time (the book's divided that way) so I can really take in what I'm reading and hopefully, it'll stick. 

Show Me a Reunion is one of a long series of books. They're interesting enough to keep me reading, but none of them have really rated quite the full five stars. This one is getting really intense, though. It might make it all the way, depending on a few things. 

I'd recommend the first to anyone who belongs to a congregation made up of those who believe in the accuracy and inerrancy of the Bible. Otherwise, I don't think this book would be useful to you. 

The second book I'd recommend to anyone looking for an easy romance which is clean and does seem to grab the attention rather well. 

 Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you found this post entertaining and/or useful. You can always let me know what you think in the comment section or one of my social media pages. I try to share the blog link on them, though I think I missed it last week. 

Please visit again next weekend!

Until next time,
Keep turning pages...