My writing plan for 2020 worked really well until about mid-March when Covid-19 became the only topic of conversation with everyone I know. That's when I discovered - or rediscovered - that I don't work very well at home. 

Instead of being able to go out and sit in a library or a cafe and work uninterrupted for several hours, I'm at home with all the things I've been avoiding for the last several months. I'm still avoiding all those things. It's just that being at home puts those things in the front of my head. I can't avoid looking at my desk which has several piles of papers and books more than a foot deep. I can't avoid noticing the storages boxes of painting equipment I've left open on my office floor because I might need them for the next project. 

Just the thought of having to sort through every single piece of paper is enough to do my head in. 

It means I've run away into my head, but not in a productive way. I'm reading. Mostly I'm reading romance, and most of that is MM romance. I've also just begun a biography on a Deputy US Marshall from the 1890s. A fascinating life and a very tough man.

All this means my writing projects are going nowhere quickly. 

Morrison & Mackenzie (1930s historical romance): I've created a scene map to check the structure as it isn't working the way it should. That's it. All I need to do is put all the scenes up on my plotting wall and work out where the dips are so I can plan what needs to go there but it hasn't happened yet.

Tangled up in Blue anthology: This is moving forward slowly, mainly because the other authors are relying on me. One of the authors has just completed a continuity check and now we all have lists of things to fix. I'll get that done over the next week. We've also been talking about the cover and working out what we want.

The murder mystery: haven't looked at it. Instead I've been working (intermittently) on another fantasy story, one I started years ago but put aside because it wasn't working. When I picked it up again it was obvious why it wasn't working. I had too many POV characters and I was switching between adult POV and child POV. I've decided to write it as a YA fantasy and remove the adult POV completely. Already it's working better and I've identified missing scenes at the beginning that are needed for the child's POV but were irrelevant from the adult's. 

Now Easter is over and my back is beginning to settle, I'm hoping to do more work on these projects. For right now, sending a couple of emails and doing this blog has used up my sitting time for the morning. 

My personal life has changed significantly in recent years, specifically with an increase in family responsibilities. This has meant I've had to try to fit my writing in around a lot of things that have felt more demanding.

I have struggled to find balance and finally admitted to myself that I simply didn't have time to do all the things I needed to and wanted to. Not without falling into a screaming heap. Something had to give.

I've made a commitment to reduce my work load. That was the only thing that had any flexibility in it. I'm not going to skimp on the attention my family needs. They always come first.

This year, as a trial, I'll be working four days a week. I'm planning my day off to be focused solely on writing, and I'll factor in another half to one day over the weekend.

My writing goals for 2020 reflect that optimistic plan. I have a LOT to do this year.

2020 GOALS

1. Crit Kristen’s novel (end Jan 2020)
2. Crit Reid’s novel (April 2020)
3. Finish The Satin Bowerbird (end March 2020) - contemporary romance
4. Finish Morrison and Mackenzie (end April 2020) - historical romance
5. Finish The Spotted Dog (end June 2020) - cozy mystery
6. Finish cover submission for The Satin Bowerbird (end February 2020)
7. Source submission options for Morrison and Mackenzie and The Spotted Dog (May 2020)
8. Submit Morrison and Mackenzie and/or The Spotted Dog (end June 2020)
9. QWC course (pref. Year of the Edit if available or other editing options)
10. NaNoEdMo (March)
11. Camp NaNo (June/July) to 30000 words
12. NaNoWriMo to 30000 words
13. Finish Contact and edit (by end January 2021) - young adult fantasy

My weekly plan looks something like this:
​

Dragon God has been uploaded and is now available for preorder at the following sites. Release date is 5 February 2020.

Barnes and Noble
 
Apple Books

Kobo

It's also available at:

Overdrive
Tolino
Baker & Taylor

Coming soon:
Scribd
24Symbols
Amazon Kindle
Bibliotheca
​Hoopla

It's taken me a long time but I've finally managed to get Dragon God converted, with images, and ready for release. 

I had a lot of trouble getting the images to convert. I finally managed to get the map into the book, but the music still wouldn't show. In the end, I cut my losses. I've taken the music out of the book and will offer that separately on my website, as a publication celebration on 5 February, when the book is released.

I'm really excited about getting Dragon God out there. It begins with the crossing of the two moons at the end of Warrior Pledge, but most of the story takes place a few months after. We get to spend time with some of the people in Warrior Pledge (Fisher is the main character). You might not notice it, we also meet the main character for the next book in the series.

Dragon God is a fantasy story of taking responsibility for your life and making right the mistakes of your past.

Fisher has lived a life of hardship and horror and made many decisions that harmed others. He now has an opportunity for a new life, a new beginning, where he can live in harmony with the world and the people in it. When he discovers an elixir he helped create is killing innocent people, he knows his only way to freedom is to destroy the sources of the elixir. He must confront the circumstances of his childhood and his banishment from the city of his birth in order to prevent more deaths. Unfortunately, the destruction of his past lingers and everywhere Fisher goes fire and death follow. It takes an encounter with the Dragon King, who reveals Fisher’s true nature, and the love of a dragon god for Fisher to embrace who he truly is and begin to move forward. 

As soon as I have a link for preorder, I'll add it here, and on other social media sites.

As part of my personal push to get back into writing, I decided to attend GenreCon. It's a fascinating experience, seeing so many authors in one place, all excited about their genre.

The sessions so far have been really interesting. Kate Forsyth was presented a fascinating keynote. I love her outlook on both life and writing. 

The panel on Social Media was fascinating. Hearing how different people manage their social media activity got me thinking about how my social activity has died over the last couple of years, while other things had been more important. The speakers Aiki Flinthart, Kate Forsyth, and Kevin Klehr presented a lot of practical ways to maintain a social media presence without it being overwhelming. 

As part of the package, I also signed up for lunch. I haven't had a lunchbox lunch for quite a while. The image is AbFab's Ploughman's Lunch: light, refreshing and satisfying.

It's amazing how time gets away when you're distracted. Just after my last post (15/9/18) a member of my family was in a serious accident. We're very lucky in that he's breathing and walking--two things that were at risk at the time--but it meant my writing and everything associated with it was put on hold. It's taken me this long to come back.

So, where am I up to now?

Dragon God: the sequel to Warrior Pledge is edited and ready to roll and I'm just starting the process toward self-publishing that title. It was finished last year but put on hold, along with everything else. I'll advertise a release date once I work out how the whole self-pub thing works.

In Another Life: the contract with Escape Publishing ran its course and I have my rights back for this title. I've been preparing it for self-publishing as well. I just need to find the perfect cover for it. I know exactly what I want, it's just a matter of deciding if it's viable or if I need to find something else. 

New stories:

1. I have a vintage romance novella completed and currently being edited. It's set in Ipswich (QLD, Aus) in 1931 in the midst of a diphtheria break-out and explores the difficulties and inevitability of re-imagining the family in the face of loss and societal and legal restrictions. Working title is Morrison and Mackenzie. 
2. I'm also working on a novella as part of an anthology with a couple of other authors. It's been both a fun activity and a steep learning curve. Trying to make all the stories fit together while remaining autonomous has been a challenge. First draft is done and we're going through all the joint scenes to make sure there are no clashes. Working title for this story is The Satin Bowerbird. 
3. I've begun a murder mystery novella. It was going to be a short story but it took me 3800 words to introduce the main characters, the victim and the suspects. I still have no dead body. And I have twelve characters on the first page, so it needs major editing already, before I can move forward. I've called it The Spotted Dog and am working on it between editing runs of the others. 

Something new:
I've decided to take up painting and am going to design a cover for The Satin Bowerbird anthology, Tangled up in Blue. We'll see if it's successful.

The picture:
I took the picture at the Carnival of Flowers in Toowoomba, QLD last weekend. It's a festival that's held every spring and we try to get up there for it if we can. I'm thinking I'd like to paint this one. 

There are two answers to the question: a short answer and a long one.

The short answer:
Kill them. If the writer can’t relate to them, they won’t portray that character as a three-dimensional being and the reader won’t relate to them either.

1. Take them out. Remove them. Cut their scenes completely.
2. If the scenes are necessary, combine that character with another character if you can, so that one character does the lot.
3. If you can’t do that, replace them with someone who works.

The long answer:
If the character is your main character, you have a greater problem. You need to work out why your character isn’t working, and fix it. I use a gateaux approach to this problem: layers, upon layers.

1. Go back to the character’s Goal, Motivation, Conflict (GMC) statements. If you don’t have any, write them.
2. Make sure the GMCs dovetail into the plot. If your plot doesn’t support your character’s conflict, or strain their motivation, there’s no reason for that character to be in that book.
3. Make sure your plot provides lots of opportunities for your character to show their strengths and weaknesses.
   1. If all they’re doing is stepping through the plot points, with action and response related only to the plot, not the character, the reader (and the writer) aren’t going to have any opportunity to get to know them.
4. Your character has to be more involved in the plot than the reader.
   1. There has to be personal risk for them. Make it happen.
5. Check your writing.
   1. Read through all the action scenes involving your character.
      1. What do their actions tell you about them?
      2. Why do they react the way they do?
   2. If your character is a POV character, find all their introspection.
      1. What do their thoughts tell you about them? Do they waffle? Are their thoughts related to the plot?
      2. Do they go round and round on one particular problem without moving forward at all?
      3. Make them work out how to fix their problems, then stick to it.
      4. If they must revisit the same thing, make sure they’ve moved forward a little bit at least, or that there’s a believable trigger that sends them back to where they started from.
   3. Look for passive verbs, long sections of beautiful prose that don’t advance the plot—anything that slows the action.
      1. Remove them.
      2. Rewrite it so it’s more closely linked to the action.
      3. If the writing is too beautiful for you to change it or delete it, remove it from the story and make it into a promotional post on cut scenes.

Now it’s time for me to take my own advice. The main character in one of my stories has a tendency to cycle through the same old problems without moving forward. It’s got to the stage in the story where I’m rolling my eyes and telling him to build a bridge and get over it—and I created him.

Once a month, I host a write-in. This month, a fellow writer suggested I write a series of blogs addressing writerly problems. Today’s topic is knowing your characters.

Most writers know all about creating character profiles and writing GMC (Goal, motivation, conflict). They know that characters need believable backgrounds and both internal and external conflict. Yet I still read books where the writer has mixed up the characters’ names because they can’t remember who’s talking or whose head they’re in.

They don’t know their characters.

As a reader, that’s really irritating. It makes me think the author doesn’t care enough about their characters to know them properly and doesn’t care enough about their book to double check all those things and make sure it’s right. The fact that the book has generally gone through several rounds of editing and no one has picked it up tells me that the characters being confused are too similar to each other.

So how do you know when you know your character well enough that you won’t get them mixed up or forget who they are?

Many years ago, my writer friend attended a workshop run by Gary Crew who said he knew the character when he could hear his voice. Other authors might say they know their characters when they can see their walk or the way their eyes crinkle at the corners when they smile. That last description has been overused in the last three books I’ve read (one series by one author) to describe one of the major characters – a different one in each book.

For me, I rarely know my characters thoroughly enough to finish writing a book until I’ve written at least three chapters. It doesn’t matter if the chapters are from their point of view, or another character’s. What matters is that I learn how my character walks, talks, responds to other people and situations, and how they do those things differently to everyone else in the book.

By the end of three chapters, I’ve begun to think about my characters as real people. Their personalities have settled and their reactions to things that happen in the book match that. By the end of three chapters, I’ve worked out where the holes are in the character profile and how I need to change the character background or plot to account for the way the character responds to situations.

Of course, most of those three chapters end up on the bin, but at least I know who my character is.

One example of this process is Heath in Warrior Pledge. The book opens with Checa sitting on the mountainside watching the sunrise, waiting for Heath to arrive. Heath’s arrival is much anticipated and heralded by nature with as much fanfare as the new day. He bursts onto the scene in a bubble of joy which swings mercurially through hurt to anger. The scene shows Heath’s personality perfectly and lets the reader know exactly who he is and how he might respond to things that happen during the book.

That scene was one of the last scenes I wrote in the first draft.

I needed to write myself into Heath before I could portray him so accurately.

A challenge for you:
With the next book you read, make a note of when you thought you saw the true personality of the main character. Did you see it straight away? Was it revealed in a series of carefully or brilliantly scheduled actions? Were you told what the character was like, but he never lived up to the promise, always feeling two dimensional?

Which of those books did you like best?

A while ago, I agreed to do an interview for someone else's blog. For a number of reasons, that interview was never posted, so I decided to share it here. I've edited it to reflect the current status of my works-in-progress.

The Interview:How did you start writing ‘GENRE’.I’ve never really had an interest in writing literary fiction. Literary fiction doesn’t provide the escape from reality that I read fiction for. I don’t look for realism or esoteric philosophical musings. If I want that sort of thing, I’ll read research papers on the topic. Fiction, for me is an escape, and that means genre.
 
I’ve always been interested in writing but never seriously considered a career as a fiction writer until, as an adult, I read several books in a row that were really badly written, yet still managed to be published. I decided I could do better than that, or if I couldn’t, at least I’d have a better understanding of the process and more compassion for writers.
 
It turns out that writing a book isn’t as easy as I’d originally thought. My academic writing history actually hindered my development as a fiction author because academic writing requires precision and proof, and is passive. Fiction writing has a different sort of precision, needs to feel believable but doesn’t always need the proof of it, and is most effective when it’s active. My first dozen or so stories have long since been relegated to the ‘too dreadful to ever look at again’ folder, but they got me hooked.
 
I don’t like not being able to do something so I keep working on it until I know I can do it. Some things I stop once I know I’d be able to do it well if I practiced enough. Other things, I keep working on because I love it. Writing is one of those things.
 
Plotter or pantster?By personality, I’m a pantster, but it only works well with short stories and short novellas. With anything longer, the multiple plot elements and more complicated character arcs mean there are a lot of things for me to keep track of and to make sure I resolve before the end of the story. That means I have to write things down and keep track of them.
 
Learning to be a plotter has been a years-long process (I’m still working on it). I began adding achievable elements and going to classes and workshops to learn the skills I’d need to be able to do it well. I’m still not a complete plotter, but I do now write from a fluid outline and I know what the main story arc is before I begin. There are still lots of things I have to make up as I go along but I have fewer random things thrown in at the end of the book just because I think it’ll be fun to do so.
 
What are three things you have on your writing desk?My desk is not tidy. The most common response from anyone who sees my desk is to ask for a garbage bin. The second most common response is for them to immediately turn around and leave the room. Three things most people would see and take note of on my desk are:

• A purple unicorn. My daughter painted the model when she was in school and gave it to me because she knew I’d love it.
• A stack of dictionaries and thesauri. I use online dictionaries and thesauri a lot, but I also have my print editions. There’s an old one from the 1960s that has a lot of words in it that modern dictionaries don’t. It’s really useful when I write historical stories.
• A calendar. I keep track of my day-to-day appointments etc on my phone. The paper one is primarily to keep track of when I’ve paid particular recurring bills so I don’t have to go online and check that I’ve done it. I also write other reminders to myself for things I need to do while I’m at the computer. The calendar is the first thing I check when I sit down at my desk so I know if there’s anything I need to do before I begin writing. It also has images. Last year’s calendar was Dr Who in cartoon form. This year’s is Floriade, a spring festival in Canberra, so I’ll have lots of photos of tulips to look at.
  
  

Tell us a little about your new release. What character in the book really spoke to you?Warrior Pledge is a fantasy story that explores the themes of self-worth and true love in a world at risk of invasion. Checa and Heath are in love but can’t complete their Mate-Bond for various political reasons that threaten their lives if they do. They’re under threat of invasion and believe the legend of the Warrior Pledge is the only thing that will save their people.
 
A couple of things the blurb doesn’t mention are the dragons that LOVE adventure and that one of the main characters (not one of the romantic interests) can change gender at will. That was fun to write!
 
Checa is the main character in the book. He’s a tortured soul—literally. I love his strength and his honour, but I had some problems making sure I wrote his motivations clearly. It took a few rewrites to get Checa right, so that readers would also see how strong he is and how wonderful.
 
Finish this sentence: I write because ____...I write because I have people in my head doing things that I have to write down before I can think clearly. I write because somewhere out there, there are people who need to read something that will tell them they’re okay just the way they are. I write because my stories might bring other people joy, or escape, or something else they need to maintain balance in their lives. I write because if I don’t my family comes to me and threatens to lock me in my office until I write something and can behave like a nice person again. I write because it’s the perfect excuse to avoid doing housework. There are many reasons why I write. Some are important reasons, some are ridiculous. They all mean something to me and keep me writing.
 
What is your favorite type of character to write about?I have a couple of favourite types of characters and they tend to fit well together.
 
The first one is The Tortured Soul. This person has had to deal with some kind of trauma in their past which influences the way they interact with others in the present. They either can’t see their worth or have decided they don’t want to risk sharing themselves with anyone. There’s lots of potential for angst with this sort of character. Checa is this sort of character, and he’s noble with it.
 
The second type of character is the lonely one craving his own true love. He’s lonely even if he’s surrounded by friends and family, and he’s a romantic, whether he’s prepared to admit it or not. In a lot of cases, he’s just an ordinary guy with his own personality quirks, who knows himself reasonably well, but still learns a lot about himself as he gets to know the one who’ll be his love. Heath fits this character trope. He’s comfortable with who he is. He even knows who his true love is, but he can’t achieve nirvana because Checa won’t accept it. Even once they’ve Bonded, tied to each other for eternity, Heath doubts Checa’s commitment.
 
What is the sexiest scene you ever wrote?Every sex scene I write is sexy for its own reasons and in its own way. For me, I need to get the balance of emotions written around the sex and the physical aspects of it right. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes not so much.
 
A gentle sex scene that has stayed with me was the beach scene with David and Bernard in The Courage to Love. It’s 1920, they’re in a public place, risking arrest and jail time, and they simply can’t help expressing their love for each other.
 
A different sex scene that is just as powerful but more raw than the one from The Courage to Love is the cave scene with Checa and Heath in Warrior Pledge. Heath demands Checa take him, love him, never leave him. Checa gives him everything he can but can’t complete the Bond because it would risk Heath’s life. The way their need batters against the barriers to happiness gets me every time.
 
What is next on your writerly horizon? I’m currently editing (again) the sequel to Warrior Pledge. I took six months to write and, so far, eight months to edit.
 
Dragon God is the story of Fisher, whom we met in Warrior Pledge. Fisher is branded a traitor for kidnapping Rim and Ardelle in Warrior Pledge so he flees to the Lonely Isles in the south. He’s immediately arrested and incarcerated where he meets Gaelan, the dragon god. The two men escape and, through a series of tragedies, Fisher realizes he has to return to the land of his birth or thousands of people will die and he’ll be responsible. Risking his life to save others is a new thing for Fisher, and he’s not always happy that he’s decided to do it. Luckily Gaelan is there to help.
 
The dragons introduced in Warrior Pledge play a greater part in this story, at least the concept of them does, and of course Gaelan is the dragon god. I’ve really enjoyed working out how they’re born from rock and what special powers they have. 
 
Warrior Pledge is available from:
Dreamspinner Press
Amazon
 
Author Bio:
E E Montgomery wants the world to be a better place, with equality and acceptance for all. Her philosophy is: We can’t change the world but we can change our small part of it and, in that way, influence the whole. Writing stories that show people finding their own ‘better place’ is part of E E Montgomery’s own small contribution.
 
Thankfully, there’s never a shortage of inspiration for stories that show people growing in their acceptance and love of themselves and others. A dedicated people-watcher, E E finds stories everywhere. In a cafe, a cemetery, a book on space exploration or on the news, there’ll be a story of personal growth, love, and unconditional acceptance there somewhere.
 
Author Links:
Web, blog and free short stories: www.eemontgomery.com
Email: eemontgomery11@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ewynelaine.montgomery
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EEMontgomery1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5347023.E_E_Montgomery
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/E-E-Montgomery/e/B008LO3SBA/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eemontgomery11/
Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/AuthorArcade/e-e-montgomery
Escape Publishing: http://www.escapepublishing.com.au/author/ee-montgomery

​Every now and then, I decide I need to shake myself up and try harder with my writing. I want to break out of any mold that has begun to form and keep my writing fresh—without losing my voice. I have a group of friends who are only too happy to join me with that.
 
This week we wrote poems about ourselves where nothing is true. Responses ranged from naughty limericks to teenage-angst free verse, to shape-shifter odes. The next time we meet up, we have to bring along something very different.
 
Our task:
 
Take someone else's poem and use those words (and only those words) to create a vignette that has nothing to do with the original poem.
 
So far, I've created a table listing all the words and what part of speech they are. 
 
I’ve posted my poem on the Free Stories page.
 
Below is my table from the poem I’m dissecting.