Once you boil an egg you cannot use it to make a scrambled egg, and if you scramble an egg you cannot unscramble it. Lucky for you this is not a lesson on cooking. And I'm not a Chef.

Ever been really happy with yourself for writing? For getting your story from point A to point B to reach point C successfully? Yes? No? Well, that was me yesterday or, it'll be a few days ago, by the time you read this very educational newsletter.

I had nothing! Zero ideas, even less inspiration, and the deadline loomed. So I scrambled and unscrambled - because you can do that with words! Not with eggs, no. I threw in things left and right. Characters floated in and out of that story, random thoughts found a place as a paragraph or two and lo and behold, I reached the end. I also felt I needed more room to elaborate but hey! It's done. Beginning, middle, and end. Yay, me. A well deserved pat on the back for accomplishing something I didn't know how to go about at all in the beginning.

Did I think my story was perfect?

Oh, yes! I mean, it took four days to write 2000 words. It's perfect no matter what anyone says. It stays just the way it is. But then things start to nag at me. I'm good at ignoring them. Brush them off. Until I get that one review that slaps me silly, clears that God complex I've got going on and tells me how it really is. You know the kind I'm talking about. Much needed, too.

Let's sum a few things up that I saw and fully ignored. I'll call it the Junk Section!

Emotional aspect - character involvement - explaining it properly

Be clear when describing character's emotions or what kind of emotions they're reading from others. When you do that, your reader won't question your writing abilities or the need to ask you to explain how you got to a specific emotion without the right tools. If your character is angry, let them be angry. But if they're not and another character misreads the signs, what other emotion comes close to it? Don't just throw out things like I do. Do better!

Don't write a scene as if you're taking part in it

If your characters are a bit tipsy, it should reflect in their body language, their behavior, their speech. Not your writing. You're not taking part in it. Remember that! Just because there's a party going on doesn't mean you're invited. You're that weird kid standing outside looking in. That's all. You do not cross that threshold.

My favorite: Make the story believable

Something that is common sense, but hey. Sometimes we just need material. Even if it's from a junk yard. Let's say you scare the life out of me and now I'm afraid for my life, I'm very uneasy. I don't trust you, obviously. Last thing I want is you close to me. Which brings us to the obvious. Just because I had the hots for you doesn't mean that being threatened with a knife then kissed senseless erases all those emotions within a few seconds or minutes. Not even hours! My mind screamed, "But the word count!" My mind was wrong. Make it believable no matter how hard it makes things.

Another Junk Yard grab - the tools/items of a threat:

I wasn't very subtle in the story. I didn't know how to scare my character. I went from 'great' to 'what am I thinking' within a split second. But I kept it, knowingly. I knew that it didn't fit there. Wrong story, wrong time, wrong place, wrong tool. Yet it sat there. It's nice and dandy to keep it until you figure out a better option. It's okay. But, please, when you read your own story and know that what you wrote is simply too much because it doesn't quite add up, remove it. Find a different way. Another solution.

So here we are. The first mystery of the year and I botched it. At least I can completely unscramble it and if I'm lucky, I can make a hard boiled egg out of it.

'til next time!
~ Gaby