Christina Suzann Nelson

I have a habit. You could easily call it an addiction. Maybe a calling…yeah, that sounds better.

It’s novel writing. I love it and I can’t stop. Not a problem, right? Well, no, but it can be a spendy habit-addiction-calling. There are the conferences (I love them so much), the professional memberships, the books on craft, and the books just to read, the paper, and the ink.

I’m married to an amazing man who fully supports me in my quest to follow this dream, but he’s also an accountant. He knows very well that the output does not equal the income. I’m confident this is a temporary issue. In fact I’ve got my cell phone on me right now if any editors are reading this and would like to call about a book deal. Really…Now would be fine.

Until the phone rings, and maybe even after that, I’ve decided to implement Freelance Fridays. I’ll be committing a chunk of time each Friday to query letters, article writing, and short-story writing. Feel free to offer suggestions.

Question of the day:

For the rest of you novel-writing junkies, what do you do to support the habit?

Image: Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Today I’m feeling very much like the mother of a stubborn teenage daughter. No, my girls aren’t teens yet and Anne isn’t really my daughter, or for that matter, a teenager. She’s my newest protagonist. I’ve worked with quite a few protagonists and not one of them has given me the trouble that Anne has.

The last couple days I’ve been so frustrated with her. Every time I start to put her story into my computer it doesn’t ring true. Yesterday I sat her aside and worked on scenes from another character’s point of view. I’m pleased to report that Svenson is much kinder to me. My fingers often have trouble keeping up with the flow of his story.

So I hopped into the shower this morning (a perfect place to holler at your characters where no one thinks you’re crazy) and started pondering what I should do with Anne. How could I make her comply with my will? Then the memories hit. I remember behaving much like Anne when I was a teenager. My reasoning was that I KNEW (as all teenage girls know) that my mother just didn’t understand me. Hm. Could it be possible that I need to get to know Anne? Maybe she isn’t who I’ve been making her out to be.

The twist is that I’ve never spent so much time in the development of a character before I put her on the page as I have with Anne. I took personality tests from her point of view. I studied the characteristics of her personality. I…Well it doesn’t really matter does it? Anne isn’t the girl I thought she was. So today I go back to the page. The first thing I’ll do is delete Anne’s scenes. When her pages are again blank, I’ll write her story. From HER point of view.

Image: Robert Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The group at My Book Therapy really know how to have fun. They hosted a pizza party on the roof of the hotel Friday night. The view was amazing. I hope you can get a sense of it from the photo below. That’s the St. Louis Arch peeking over the wall.

 We enjoyed fun drinks and some of the yummiest pizza, then the program began. Rachel Hauk, Susan May Warren, James Rubart, and Karen Ball entertained us with their own version of “Who’s Line is it Anyway?”

Heidi Main, Sheila Covey, and Kimberly Buckner

Me and Kimberly

The evening finished with sparkly microphones and 80s music. What more could you ask for?