Lisa Writing Wild

When my four year old son was little, he was obsessed with The Wiggles and Sesame Street like most kids. In the past few months he's changed quite a bit. Instead of cartoons (which he does watch occasionally), he'd rather watch Michael Jackson concerts, documentaries on the Titanic or any show on Discovery or the History Channel. We go to the library 2-3 times a week for books and videos. Most of his books lately consist of Michael Jackson, oragami, maps of the world, weather-related incidents (tornados, hurricanes, etc.), and the human body. I LOVE this curious little boy I have.   This morning he woke up and asked if we could open his piggy bank and take out some of his money and go shopping. We took out $11 and he told me what he wanted to spend it on: a Statue of Liberty snowglobe. I took him to three Goodwill-type stores and he made a beeline for the home items at every one. Forget the toys, this kid wants ceramic houses, snowglobes and statues. He kept tellin...

Because I switched from screenwriting to novel writing, I already have a million ideas for movies, but not many for novels. And not only did I go to novel writing, but YA novel writing. I've had one idea I've been working on for a while, and I plan to use it for NaNoWriMo this year. I took my son to a library about 20 minutes away today. During the drive my mind wandered to new YA ideas, of which I have none. While checking out at the library, I noticed a good-looking guy with two little kids. He was checking out ahead of me and flirting with the woman behind the counter, who were in their fifties. They were all blushing and giggling like teenagers. It was fun to watch. He walked out ahead of me and it turned out he'd parked next to me. He let me put my son in my car first, then loaded his girls into his van. The whole time he kept glancing at me, but I ignored him. He smiled out his driver's window when I backed out. On the way home I kept thinking, what kind of ...

I like to write funny characters who do embarrassing things. Mostly because then I'm just writing about myself. I do embarrassing things all the time, and I sometimes think like a twelve year old boy (per my husband...Thanks, hon!). What characters are the most fun for you to write?

I started doing this thing lately where as soon as my alarm goes off and I hit snooze, I let my mind drift to my current WIP. Because my conscious isn't awake yet, all sorts of ideas flow through my brain. Mostly bad ones, but some good. I can't recall any dreams I've had where I've used the ideas. But I do remember a dream I had when I thought I came up with the BEST IDEA EVER! I was stuck on a part of my novel where I needed a guy to give the girl he likes something special. I wanted it to be small but have significance. I was thinking some sort of jewelry or something that could be engraved. That night I dreamt that the guy gave the girl Mighty Mouse. He actually handed her this little cartoon character and she was thrilled. I woke up in the middle of the night and thought this was such a great idea, that I actually woke my husband up and told him I'd solved my writing dilema. The next morning when we woke up he asked, "What was the great idea you had?...

Everywhere I look there's talk of school starting, fall on its way and the summer winding down. This was our first summer in our new house and it was wonderful. We met lots of neighbors, cooked outside more often than not and my four year old finally made friends. Lots and lots of friends. I started work on a new YA novel and started rewrites on an old one. I met a great new writing friend and also finished my writing room (which I'm not using right now due to the humidity up there. Oh yeah, and the bats). We went swimming more than we ever have, hit about ten different ice cream places consistantly and still kept up with the festivals. We tore down a small tree, planted sunflowers, tomatoes and a watermelon. I learned how to use a weed wacker (not yet without huring my shins), trim bushes to the point I'm vibrating when it's off and we still argue whose turn it is to mow the lawn because we both want to do it. I prettied up our living room with grown-up stuff,...

I have lots of writing books on my bookshelf. Lots. And some I haven't even read yet. I was talking to a writing friend tonight about Stephen King's On Writing . She just started reading it and I've read it twice and listened to it on CD twice. While that book is definitely on my must-read list for writers, I'm not sure if it's my favorite. When I was writing screenplays, I love Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! books. I wish they made a formula-type book like that for novels. At least I haven't found one yet. What is your favorite book on writing?

Everyone loves to receive compliments. You can be going about your day, maybe grocery shopping, when suddenly someone says, "Excuse me, I love your haircut!" That would totally make my day! So why not make someone elses day? I started thinking about this the other day when my dad and I ran into a girl that used to work for my brother. The last time I had seen her she was nine months pregnant and about to pop. The other day (her baby is well over a year now) when we ran into her, she looked fantastic. Really good. We made small talk about our kids then went our ways. Out in the car with my dad a few minutes later we both said how great she looked. But why didn't I tell her that? I know if she had said that to me it would have made me feel great. I felt even worse because it sounded like she was having a rough time with her kids. Someone telling her how great she looked might have lifted her spirits, if even for a little while. I'm going to try to compliment at...

Like a lot of writers, I'm curious how other writers do things. I am not a writer who can go to a coffee shop or bookstore cafe and write. I wish I could, but I end up looking at everyone else and eavesdropping. The eavesdropping is good for dialogue, but not necessarily for my story. Since we moved into our new house, I finally have my own writing room , but I rarely get to use it. Since it's in the attic it's much too hot to use right now. Even though I have an air conditioner up there, by the time I remember to turn it on I either don't have the time to write when it's cool, or I forget about turning it on all together. Plus one of the main problems right now is that we have bats in the attic:( Also, I can't leave my four year old in the living room or playroom while I'm up on the third floor. I set up a desk in my son's playroom with my laptop hoping to get more writing done. And I'm writing a lot more than I was. I leave my WIP open in Wor...

For the past few years I've worked strictly on screenplays. I've read countless books and articles, and listened to hundreds of podcasts. Now that I'm working on novels, I'm realizing they don't seem much different. Obviously there's a lot less writing in a script, but the story rules seem the same. Has anyone else gone from writing screenplays to novels? Ever use a screenplay-type formula for a book?

Check out I Write Like and find out which famous writer you write like. It's a fun distraction!

I discovered something yesterday. Rewrites are a lot more fun than I thought they'd be. I mean, most of the hard work is already done. It's like I have this long thin line that is the plot and now, with rewrites, I'm just adding hills to punch it up. Of course, I say they're fun now. At the beginning. Maybe I'll reread this post in a few weeks when I'm knee-deep in them and just want to toss the entire thing out.  What about you? Do you like or loathe rewrites?

Why, why, why is this a TV show? Who are these people? I know I'm behind the times because I haven't seen an episode until last night, but come on! I have no idea how old these girls are, but they look like they're in their forties (not that that's old!). And why are they orange ? I'm embarrassed they're Italian. They are the stereotypical Italian idiots. I can't believe there are actual people like that walking around. The girls look like whores and they guys look like a bunch of guidos. I just can't believe this show is popular and people actually watch it enough to keep it popular. Are these the kinds of people our kids are looking up to?