Thank you again for this insightful and fun article. I wish you the best of luck on your novel and I hope the characters benefit from your role as supreme overlord.

First, I would like to say congrats and excellent job. I am not a writer or even that much of a reader, but I enjoyed the article a lot. If I can get Kristen out of bed I will show her the article and I am sure she will love it too!

Second, I hope the wedding was an extremely happy and love filled day for you and I wish I could have been there to see it!

With love from Kristen and I,
Matt

I’m sorry I took so long to get to this for you, but I have been swamped at work. It sounds like getting to post on here was a big privilege, so congrats, sonny boy.

I whole-heartedly agree with your premise here — that as we tackle any accomplishment in life (including writing), we should implement a master-plan, following the example of The Great Master-Planner. Everything is better when we follow in His footsteps!

So, now, hi-ho, hi-ho. As usual, it’s off to work I go. I might note that I did thoroughly enjoy getting off work to participate in my Carrie Dee Darling’s (a.k.a. Carol, Rini, Care-Care, daughter-extraordinaire) and your wedding — special thanks to George & Janet for hosting it. And, I even get to take off a little early tonight to see our Terri Lea (middle sister) walk for her diploma! Whoo-hoo!

Take care. LUVZ
Mommy

J. K. Rowling appears to use the same strategy – I understand she chose to work on just two projects until one “grabbed” her in the same way her modestly successful (!) first project did.

That seems to be a good approach for those blessed with literary godhood (or any other creative inclinations). If the play’s the thing, then *completing* the play must be the *main* thing!

Great post, by the way.

@Jeanne. I appreciate your praise. I just hope I earned it. And don’t worry. I try to do everything I do in an engaging way! Otherwise, the car won’t start!

@Elizabeth, remind me to get a peek at one of those extensive planning pieces. I think I could pick up some tips!

@ Jessica I’m so glad it resonated with you. You’re already a step ahead of where I was. I had awesome situation, deep characters, bold initial conflicts… I just had no idea what to do with them! The moment when I sat back and said “I have a plot. I know how this is going to end!!” was a real celebratory turning point!

@Sabre Shameless plug? You’d better know what words mean before you use them. And you can’t know what shameless means if you don’t know the meaning of the word shame!!

Actually, Sabre has a great site, and I am glad she offered up to everyone. There are some really nice little gems on there and it is all very well organized by genre and writing type. I highly recommend checking it out. (And don’t forget to leave comments! We all love comments and critiques!!)

Still sorry I missed your wedding. The pictures look beautiful.

Remember who inspired you to plan out all your chapters beforehand with your fiance’s Google Spreadsheet of Awesomeness. Everyone has to find their own amount of planning to do to fit their writing style, but it IS important that everyone has SOME planning, so you make an excellent point with this.

I wish I could have been a guest blogger for this, but I’m thinking about just picking the creative writing journals back up and continuing on with that before sharing any of them… We have some beautiful journals at Barnes & Noble.

Anyway, hon, have fun being a god. As Miss Jocks told me when she signed my copy of her book, I’m off to embrace my inner goddess and (hopefully soon) finish chapter ten.

By the way, anyone who is interested in looking at more of Jace’s stuff online, I feel this is the perfect time to insert a shameless plug for my own website for creative writers: Creative Writing Workshop. It has Jace’s completed novel in its entirety for all to enjoy/critique.