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Hi folks, well, I guess you can tell that the writing has not been going so well this week.

Oh, my gosh, I want to toss all my work-in-progress books out the window right now. I'm not going to do it, but the feeling is there. I'd don't know if I can write a great first chapter. I can write a perfectly adequate first chapter, but a stupendous sizzling first chapter seems to be beyond my grasp.

A first chapter is really the last chapter of a book. It serves as the cornerstones. Most people create that last chapter after they have set a whole universe in motion. The first chapter makes the promise, hooks the reader, and sets the bar for what is to come. I can square up my books, but it's nothing fancy, like my house, a big brown box of a house. It's design is truly the "cardboard box." I want more, but it's all I can seem to achieve.

I have little advice for you this week. Howl at the moon. Kick against the pricks, ouch!. Hit the wall. But don't give up. One thing you might want to do to get past this is bump in the road is to envision what it's like on the other side of that wall. Remember that feelings are fickle, and next week, eh, this will be a forgotten memory. Last of all, be nice to yourself.

I copied this off a petroglyph at the Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico. Writing books is like this. I call my doodle, "Juggling Guy".



Remember: ©Molly Blaisdell, all rights reserved. If you want to use my cool doodles, ask permission first. It is so wrong to take people's doodles without permission!

The playlist hit this week is Brendan James and "The Other Side". Yes, the journey makes us stronger.



And last, a quote to tuck in your heart for the week.

Hear the other side. St. Augustine

I'm going to wrap up my series on Beginnings this week and will start up a new one next week. Please post topics you would like to know more about, and I will surely let you have my two cents.

Today I want to encourage you to zip some creativity into your first chapter language this week. You've got a nifty plot going with a winning hero, and now it's time to brush in the details. Yes, you might want to head over to your poetry tool box and add some imagery and emotion through your word choice.

Think onomatopoeia. Add some words that make noise. So, sigh a melancholy air release or bang, bash, and boink away! Zoinks, Batman! This is great in picture books but you might be surprised to find that YA authors slip in noises too to spice up that first chapter.

Don't stop with making some noise. Chip in some alliteration and assonance along with that onomatopoeia. Add some simile and metaphor. Pull out your classical rhetoric textbook and check out those figures again. Or just head over to The Forest of Rhetoric. I go there regularly to toss on some genius.

Don't go crazy overboard! Nobody wants a little salad with their croutons.

Yes, you are going to fine tooth comb that first chapter and you are going to strike every boring word. You aren't going to run or walk anywhere. You'll dash, dive, saunter or tiptoe. You will make that first chapter the most sparkly writing ever. I know you will.

Whew! You've got lots of work ahead. Good luck as you go forward. After all this you should have a fantabulous first chapter.

Still no doodles. Waiting on the computer fairies to wave their magic wands and heal my sick, sick laptop.

My playlist hit is Josh Radin and "No Envy, No Fear."


My quote for the week:

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. Ann Frank