“You are not finished when you lose, you are finished when you quit.”~quote from daughter Elise's private basketball coach, Bobby, back in the day. 

That wise man was full of inspiration not only for our struggling girls who needed all the help they could get, but also their long-suffering moms (and a few dads) looking on from the sidelines every Saturday morning for seemingly endless months. But they did end. Not the life lessons, though. Many times I have thought of Bobby's encouragement and forged ahead with my own dreams, like writing novels and pursuing publication. Even now, when the going gets tough, I think back. In the end, basketball, like so much else, is a mind game. Success is all about believing. Don't give up on anything or anyone you truly love. You are, however, allowed to choose, and if necessary alter, which course of action to follow.

Bobby also said, "When you are behind, don't give up; when you are ahead, don't let up." He had a great selection of motivational quotes. Much needed and appreciated.

Here's one I came across:
“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon…must inevitably come to pass!” ~ Paul J. Meyer

Allison Brennan and Goofy Talk Motivation.
 
  Good morning, Allison! I'm so glad you could visit with us again. It's almost chilly enough to use the fireplace for a while.

Thanks to Mary and the gang for having me back here in my pink fuzzy slippers! (Actually, I have Goofy slippers – see?)

Oh, I like them! So cute! 

Goofy might be a little dim-witted, but he’s the eternal optimist and is the first to help his friends and strangers with their problem. His help might create more problems, but his heart is in the right place.

I think a lot about motivation when I write because motivation can change sentiment about a character from love to hate, from respect to despise. While we may wince at what happens to Goofy when his “help” puts him or others in jeopardy, or makes the situation worse, we appreciate him because we know he was helping out of the right motivation.

Consider a thief. On the surface, we don’t like thieves. They steal other people’s stuff for their own personal gain, often causing hardship for the victim. I’m sure many of us have been robbed, either something small (car radio—I’ve had three stolen in my lifetime) or large (our identity, for example, our every valuable item in our home. My credit card number has been taken I don’t know how many times, at least five, and while I file all the papers and get my money back through the bank’s fraud unit, think of the added costs we all pay in added fees because of the greed of others.)

But what if the thief was trying to right a wrong? Taking from a bad guy to give to the good guys? (Robin Hood anyone?) Or what if the thief needed the money to pay for his daughter’s operation? Or to steal a weapon that fell into the wrong hands? The act may in and of itself be wrong, and the character may need to face punishment for his crimes, but if we want readers to like the character, then we need to give them a motivation that readers understand and relate to. Especially if the character doing the bad thing is your hero or heroine.

Motivation for villains is just as important. I don’t like stereotypical villains who kill for the sake of killing, or rape blondes because his prostitute mother was a blonde. I want meat to their motivation – even if I don’t agree with it. Why do they do what they do? Are they conflicted? Why? Do they have remorse or are they a true sociopath? How do they justify their actions? I often give a workshop called the Villain’s Journey taken from a line in Christopher Vogler’s The Writers Journey: “The villain is the hero of his own journey.”

Yes, yes, yes. And because of that, I know that the villain’s motivation is just as important as any other character – in fact, more important because they are the foundation of any suspense novel.

 

In my indie romantic suspense, Murder in the River City, I have a heroine who isn’t a cop, she isn’t a P.I., she doesn’t have any training to stop bad guys. Already I had a problem because I didn’t want her to be Too Stupid To Live. (Aside: one of the reasons I rarely write female characters who aren’t in law enforcement is because I don’t think most women would dive head-first into dangerous situations unless they had the training and background for it.) Anyway, I had to make Shauna’s motivation for getting involved logical, in character, and responsible. Even though her involvement is going to, ultimately, put her in danger.

In my upcoming Lucy Kincaid thriller Stalked, I had a hard time with the villain’s motivation. It was one of the few books I’ve written without the villain’s POV, and therefore I didn’t have head-time for the reader to understand why he/she did what he/she did. The motivation had to be discovered by Lucy through investigation and research, and make sense to both Lucy and the reader in order for the FBI to find and stop the killer.

I’ve written stories where the villain elicited sympathy among readers. In Tempting Evil, Aaron Doherty had a truly sad upbringing, where his mother wanted a perfect son, and often left him with friends or family or even borderline strangers so she could live the life she wanted. When his grandparents wanted to be his legal guardians, she refused and took him away, never letting him go back to the only home he’d felt safe and loved. Yet, he was always trying to please her, to make her love him. None of this justifies his actions, but hopefully readers understand how he went from a loving little boy to an erotomaniac who created fantasies around real-life celebrities.

What are some strong motivations you’ve seen on television or read about in books? Weak motivations? Share your thoughts and I’m giving away a digital copy of my indie-published Murder in the River City to one lucky commenter!

Every writer has a dream, but bringing it into the realm of reality is the hard part.

I haven't always known that I wanted to be a writer. That dream didn't speak inside me until a few years ago. Reading was my first love. I've enjoyed the wonder of books since...well, before I was born. At least I did according to my mother. She is an avid reader of true story magazines and often read out loud to me while I lay nestled in her stomach. She even told me that whenever she changed the inflection of her voice, I'd kick as if I'd gotten excited about something. While I think I was probably responding to her voice rather than the story, the sentiment is touching.

I jumped into writing with full force. After I started on a story, I joined a critique group. I went to the first meeting expecting to hear that my story was wonderful, better than a Nora Roberts novel. Boy, did I get a reality check that day. Instead of hearing tons of praises, I learned I had a fatal attraction to adjectives and was seriously comma challenged.

While my heart was broken, I was also excited. This wasn't the end but the beginning. I could work with constructive feedback. It was something that would move me closer to making my dream a reality. So I hung in there through all the rejections until I made my first sale. Ironically, it was to True Story magazine. Go figure. Next I sold a story to Wild Rose Press, which is due out soon.

I'm grateful for those two sales. They justify the small still voice that lives inside me. YOU CAN DO IT, it says every time my dream wavers like a mirage. So no matter what anyone says, never, never, never let go of your dream. And remember the fear of rejection is temporary, but the feeling you get from seeing your name in print lasts forever.

What started you on the road to publication? Post a comment and share.

It's almost that time again. Are you ready? Can you take it? Have you tried it? Do you even know what NaNo is? November is National Novel Writing Month. NaNo for short. You clear the decks, come up with an idea and write. No excuses, no stopping, no revisions, just write for the entire month. Every day for a month you write. The goal is to complete 50,000 words, a complete first draft of a new novel. NaNo is not for the faint of heart. NaNo tests your staying power. It challenges you commitment. NaNo can become an obsession, a fire in your being that decrees you have to write.

My first experience with NaNo came several years ago and it was, I guess, what jump-started my desire to write.

You see, I'd given up writing several years before. Call it burn-out, disillusionment or life getting in the way. Whatever it was, it crippled my writing career. Like so many of my fellow writers, I came to the craft young, uninhibited and idealistic. I threw myself into the process at the deep end and promptly sank to the bottom of the writing pool. I allowed rejection to rob me of the pleasure of writing. My eager, tender, idealistic self was too thin-skinned for the real world of writing. The writing world passed me by while I sat on the sidelines. Of course, there were other things at play in my life that took away my writing time. The marriages and divorces of each of my children, the birth of my grandchild, earning two college degrees and building a career in education all played a role. But those things could not have stopped me from writing, had I not lost the spark than made we want to write in the first place.

NaNo was the thing that put the spark back into my desire to write. I ran across an article on the internet about it. When I read it I remembered the thrill of putting words on paper, the pleasure of crafting a story, the love of writing. For that month, I pushed all the daily events aside and I wrote. Every day, day in and day out, for the month of November. I didn't worry about getting it right, I wrote. I didn't worry about "the rules," I wrote. When the month ended I was able to type "the end" and print out a completed first draft of a novel. It was nothing short of magic!

The thrill was back, the sparkle was back, the pleasure was back. And the rest, as they say, is history! Scarlet was back!

NaNo anyone?

Meet my friend Pam, a writer and member of my critique group and future NYT Bestselling Author. I invited her here today to discuss how she stays inspired to keep writing.

When asked how she handles writing problems, here's what she said.

I always look for motivation and inspiration from others. Therefore, I agree with author Amy Tan when she says, “The kind of imagination I use in writing, when I try to lose control of consciousness, works very much like a dream.”

Like Amy, I believe a person’s subconscious is a powerful tool. If consciously applied, it can help solve almost any problem. And not just possible plotting issues, but all the worries and heartaches humans encounter on a daily basis. Our dilemma though is how do we tap into this virtual goldmine? Most of our bodily functions are performed on a subconscious level. We breathe without doing anything. Our heart beats, kidneys and liver filter, and eyes blink without us having to lift a pinkie.

So how do we reach this state of subconsciousness that hordes all the answers?
For me, it’s nothing more than getting a good night’s sleep. Right before I doze off, I concentrate on my problem. I even write it down because that what most experts say is the smart thing to do. I believe the magic happens while I dream about the situation. The answer doesn’t always come the next morning. Sometimes days pass before the light bulb in my mind flashes on. But one thing is true--it always does come on.

Give it a try and see what happens.

Bio: Pam writes sensual romantic suspense and paranormal, and in 2007 sold a short story to True Romance magazine. Currently, she is a 2008 Daphne du Maurier contest finalist.