So many book ideas, so little time!

Even though I've written over 15 books, I've only just begun my publishing journey. I scribble in notebooks, fall asleep planning scenes, daydream about moving scenes. It sounds like I'm a crazy person, but my fellow writers suggest it's a common issue.

My creative process starts with a snippet of an idea, usually something scratches my psyche until it keeps me up at night, forces me to put pen to paper, or type feverish notes on the computer. And because I have several books in different stages of completion, I get spurts of inspiration. Once it's fizzled out, I move back to another half-started project.

A lot of my non-writing friends don't realize the "shiny" aspects of my working writing brain. I love plotting, trying fresh ways of plotting, putting my characters through rough terrain, up mountains, down valleys, until the end of the book when we're all rung out and ready for a break.

Learning to edit has been my greatest challenge through COVID-19. It's why I have so many books written but few published. Editing is not my favorite part, however, I'm learning to shape the book the way my brain sees it.

Yes, there is a disconnect between what my brain sees and what's on the page. Shocking, I know, I can't believe it either!

But after several different methods of editing, I'm learning how to make my writing more descriptive, clearer for a younger audience, and help my words stand out.

The idea that kids enjoy stories that stretch their imagination to the limits is why I like to show them my world of Charlie and his quail buddies.

Because my life with a Great Dane was so entertaining and had humorous stories I'd tell my family and friends.

"You should've seen Charlie the other day..." was how I started chats with girlfriends. By the end of our visit, we'd be wiping our eyes and holding our stomachs.

My joys of that time are relived every time I read a Charlie story, start a new Charlie story, or talk to my Reader Group about Charlie and his quail buddies.

So what do you do if you have so many ideas you don't know where to start. Well, for me, it's about collecting the ideas so I don't lose them. I have a nasty habit of scribbling ideas on a piece of paper and then adding them to an old envelope I've hole punched and added to my story binder.

I have a few of those binders. My Work in Progress story binder has idea snippets for each story. My Charlie Series binder, which gets fuller every day, has three completed stories inside and grown to a 3" binder.

The envelope idea saved me grief after losing my little pieces of paper. I tried to go to a spiral notebook and keep the partial notes in the binder. This method works if I'm working on a big scene or freewriting to get an idea fleshed out.

Because I'm working on my next Charlie story (4th to Forget) I've got several envelopes full of ideas which I'm using to plot now that I'm prepping the story. I plan to write it for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November.

If you don't know what it is, here's a quick note. The idea is every November you try to write 50,000 words within 30 days. If you want to join me for the yearly activity, go to nanowrimo.org to sign up, and add me as a writing buddy.

If it seems like a daunting project, please know that if you plot out your story, it will help you fulfill your 1,667 words a day commitment to the event.

Also, note this is a competition, but it's not against another person, it's against yourself, or that's how I've looked at it. This will be my third year entering the event and I've loved it each time.

What NaNoWriMo means to me is... the commitment to my story. My commitment to getting another story written after I spend a few weeks (Prep-tober = October) prepping the plot of my next story.

The goal is 50,000 words, but to me it's so much more. The goal is to complete the story, have my characters tell me what to write, tell me where they want to go, and where the story needs to go.

I can plot it all I want but when I get in the zone, the story heads in the direction the characters take me, I'm just the vehicle.

I strongly believe that NaNoWriMo is my way of storytelling without limits. I've always been a fast typist so I'm not worried about the daily word count, I usually write more than that in a day. I've pushed myself to write as much as I can in one sitting, forcing myself to get the scene finished before I leave my writing session.

Where most of the word count can be done in an hour, I realized my "writing zone" starts within the second half of the session. Let me explain.

When I sit down to write the next scene, I usually have to start by putting the idea of the scene at the top. Then I start typing. If I don't get into the scene within the first few minutes, then it's not happening and I move on to the next scene.

Sometimes the inspiration for a scene comes from last night's bedtime falling asleep routine (where I run through a scene in my head as I'm trying to fall asleep). Which means it's not in order, but whatever my brain wanted to work on at that moment.

If that's where I start during my writing session, I can usually flesh it out and get 1,667 words quickly, but if I hit the 'zone' then it might be several thousands of words later that I finish the scene after letting the character take me where they want.

It's the beauty of the Plantser world (between Plotter and Panster), you can plot all you want, but when you sit down to write the story, the characters (if you know them well enough) lead the way. You're the vehicle to get them to the page. They tell you where to go, rather than the other way around.

I've seen it with my Charlie story. I plot where he's going, for example, slithering under the fence into the alley, but Charlie tells me who's with him, what they say, what they see, even what they smell (since he's a Great Dane, he uses his nose a lot).

That's the beauty of hitting the 'zone', you get the characters to the place and they do the rest. And being the first draft, it doesn't matter how bad it is, you'll fix it during editing.

I've learned to enjoy editing more than I thought I would. I take my words and shape them into clear ideas of what my characters say, what they do, and take out the boring stuff.

The best way to bore a reader, put too much detail. They are smart, your readers. They know about cell phones and how they work, you don't have to describe it to them. You don't have to tell them the character can walk and chew gum, they probably got that part.

What you need to tell them is how the character deals with a situation. Save the good details for those parts. Pull the reader in with enough detail to keep their imagination filling in blanks, and tell them what needs to be there, leaving out the obvious.

For me, writing about Charlie, the Mystery-Solving Great Dane & His Quick Traveling Partners, has been a joy because I get to showcase his idiosyncrasies while downplaying the boring dog qualities.

And that's why I enjoy writing middle grade books for kids ages 8-10. My imagination and fill-in-the-blanks world that I live in, helps kids grasp the idea of what it's like to hang out with Charlie & his Quail Buddies.

If you're interested in a copy of Charlie 1st to Find, click here.

If you want to download some freebies and play along with Charlie & his Quail Buddies, click here.

If you want to read some of my short stories, click here.

Happy Reading!