Need structure? Want to find camaraderie? Tired of writing in solitude? Join our virtual office space. At TPR someone is always in the cubicle next to you.

Here's how the practice room works:

First of all, EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

At the given date and time (weekly schedule posted below), meet at post 1. It appears 30 minutes in advance of the hour (barring unusual circumstances), giving us a chance to set our goals in the comments. Declare your goal. Work toward furthering your project; word counting, revision, or whatever it needs - you decide.

Post 2: WE ARE UNPLUGGED! announces our hour. During that time, we write! The rules: no procrastinations. Please feel free to make tea or stand on your head as needed.

When the time is up, Post 3 appears with a chat box and we will get a chance to converse, or you can comment old-style to tell us what you got done! We are dying to know!

Read about a typical first time here. I make the schedule every Sunday. It will remain up in the side bar until I post the next week's schedule (feel free to make requests for particular times in the comments - I take them into serious consideration). All additions will be noted in in the side bar. Come back and check it often. (The schedule times are listed in Eastern Time Zone but the blog posts in Central - Tina's time zone. Our visitors are from all over the map.)

Please email me with questions, comments, or just to introduce yourself! tina dot laurel at gmail dot com

Don't forget to sign the guestbook at the bottom of the page!


Apr 15, 2010

Reconvention!

So, let us know what happened?

27 comments:

  1. I started with my map. Just a big squiggle across a large sheet of bumwad. But then I got a lot done chapter 9.

    How about you all?

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  2. I actually decided to work on the underlying motivations of each characters, and their driving forces. Where they are coming from. It was good.

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  3. HK, How do you do that? By hand? Lists? Interviews?

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  4. I missed tea and macaroons? Bummer!

    Hahaha, Tina - that map sounds a lot like mine!! Glad you got stuff done on Ch. 9!

    I was pretty darned successful today (although I did have to break to do a load of laundry, dress the kids and convince them to go out and play). Figured out how to connect most of my dots, and I'll finish completing my outline as soon as I'm done chatting here. :D

    Feeling optimistic for the first time in weeks!!

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  5. Heather, that sounds awesome... I want to know how you did it, too!

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  6. Marisa! That is fantastic. Sometimes getting kids outside is the hardest part! That is so cool.
    I love when you stop and are still prepared to do more. So connected dots sound fabulous.

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  7. It actually sounds pretty boring--I just wrote a paragraph about what motivated each character, and why they were like that--what backstory made their motivations so concrete. What drives their conversation and actions.

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  8. I do think the optimism is part of the phenomena. Is this your YA you are working on, Marisa?

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  9. Thanks, Tina!

    I'm mostly happy because a lot of the scenes I've deleted, I'll be able to pick apart and use in other places... which makes me feel like less of a mess :) I love when I can scramble stuff I've written and have them work even better than before.

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  10. But it was really worthwhile--most of it I already knew, but it was stuff that I needed to pay attention to each and every time that they spoke and acted.

    I even did minor characters.

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  11. H- That is not boring. I just want to know how to do it myself. Do you do that for minor characters as well?

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  12. I think that optimism is a side effect of unplugging--the knowledge that writing doesn't have to be painful, and that the story is progressing...

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  13. T--LOL--check my last comment re:minor characters.

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  14. Yes, its my YA I'm working on. Its a mess... but it has potential, I think (read: hope!).


    Heather, that doesn't sound boring! I think I need to do something like that today, before I write anymore.

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  15. Marisa--I'm passing you a cup of tea and the plate of macaroons

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  16. Yay! thanks, Heather! I need some!

    And lunch... this morning went by fast!

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  17. I love putting the jumble back together. I know totally jinx, H! And I'm so glad we are doing this together. I so care about your novels potential, Marisa! H, I'm going to work on motivation too.

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  18. The interesting thing about the motivations is that the backstory for the main characters is talked about in the course of the novel, but the backstory for the minor characters is unknown--and that was the new stuff for me, too. I, as the author needed to know what happened in their past that made them act the way they do, even though the reader will never find out.

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  19. Okay, we should try again early next week. Because later is WIBIJ. Maybe Monday?

    And Elana wants to have an evening one. Anybody else ever write in the evening?

    Go have lunch!

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  20. H. It is one of the many crazy things about being a writer. All the things that never get said. My brain is full of that crap.

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  21. Monday works for me. And I can try an evening one, depending on the day of the week, and my kids and bedtime. I usually do all my writing at night (my husband often works until ten, so I write from 7 - when the kids are in bed - until my husband gets home)

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  22. This has been fun! I love knowing I'm not writing alone!

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  23. I hate missing everything. I was so meant to be a trust fund kid. Damn stork.

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  24. You still have it in you. Get redelivered.

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