More on Transitions

What I'm reading: The Fortuneteller's Lay, by Lara Dien

Don't forget, Lynda Hilburn is giving away a copy of one of her books to a commenter on her Tuesday post. Scroll down and read yesterday's post, leave a comment there, and then come on back. You have until 5 PM Mountain time tonight. Lynda will select a winner, and I'll announce it tomorrow.

The cabinets arrived yesterday afternoon. Contractors will begin installation today—they promised to have all the base cabinets in kitchen and baths installed in time for the countertop people to come measure for the template on Monday. Today, the closet people are supposed to be installing our office shelving. I'm eagerly awaiting that phase, so I can start putting things away. It should start feeling more like an office and less like a storage room. Can't wait to go shopping for real furniture.

Yesterday I was talking about transitions, and how important it is to make smooth changes when you switch POV characters. But transitions are important even if you're not shifting POV.

Handling Transitions

What I'm reading: Better Late than Never, by Savannah Stuart

Thanks to Lynda for her intriguing post yesterday. Don't forget, she's giving away a copy of one of her books to a commenter. Scroll down and read yesterday's post, leave a comment there, and then come on back. You have until Thursday. Lynda will select a winner, and I'll announce it on Friday.

Last week, I mentioned transitions, and how everything has to flow.
In our house, we have small areas of tile at the entry doors and in front of the two fireplaces. The rest of the flooring is newly installed ¾ inch hardwood. One of the challenges the contractors faced was making sure the transition between tile and wood was smooth, because the new hardwood was thicker than the pre-existing laminate flooring.

In your manuscript, you have to decide how you're going to get from one place to the next. My writing style tends to be write it, then juggle it. The danger is that things will get choppy. I don't want my tile mixed in with the wood.

Connecting the Dots

Quick house progress: after two quiet days, the workers were back at floor installation yesterday. The noise of power saws and power guns, the pounding of rubber mallet on floorboard getting it into place, and their radio. The smell of sawdust, of burnt wood when they cut the bottoms off trim so the new floor would fit, and of varnish, where they were redoing the door jambs. It's not quite familiar enough to be background noise. But the cabinet people called, and they'll deliver the new cabinets for kitchen and bathrooms next week. It's rare that I'm lucky enough to get in on the early end of a window.

As for writing…

Every now and then, there's a scene that absolutely refuses to get from opening to closing in a straightforward fashion. I just got up close and personal with one of them—for over two days.

I had my starting plot points, there were only two characters in the scene (and one was asleep for most of it), and I had a reasonable idea of where it should end.

As I worked on it, however, it was more like a connect-the-dots picture, but without any numbers telling you what the next dot should be. Sort of like this one--with an entirely different way to get the right picture.

Skill Sets and Transitions

No new wildlife—I think the construction noise freaked them out. Hummingbirds are fearless, however—they don't even wait until you hang up the feeder.


Construction update. Tile laid in one of the entries and in front of the fireplace. The darker tile is going to look good with the lighter oak. Hall bathroom gutted and ready for tile tomorrow, along with the other entry (if they did them both the same day, we wouldn't be able to get out of the house until they set). They're discovering extra work due to strange techniques used by the previous owners. I thought things would be quiet, but they got out power saws and power screwdrivers and power noisemakers in general. And … drum roll … we have a Dumpster! Yes, Dumpster is a trademark, just like Kleenex, so it has to be capitalized.

As I listened to the workers dealing with laying the tile, I started thinking about layers of skill sets for characters. Depending on our upbringing and experience, we might consider those who work in 'blue collar' trades as people who work with their hands, not their brains. I know the focus on my generation was to get a college degree and work in an office, rising the corporate ladder.

Slight digression here...

Transitions, Detours and POV

First -- Glad to see so many new followers. Welcome! There's coffee and brownies on the sideboard, so help yourself. And Cleo – thanks so much for being my guest yesterday, and for all the great responses. You're definitely among friends here, and I hope you'll visit often. How many readers tried or will try those recipes?

Today should be the last day of painting, except for touch-ups as some of the demolition/replacement work takes place. I'll be glad to be finished with paint fumes for a while.

I've talked about writing environments, and those things that get a writer into the zone. Maybe it's the right playlist, or the right chair, or turning off the e-mail. Whatever it is, for many of us, we want it to "feel" right when we write.