Yeah, the Rainbow Romance Writers. It sparked some bitchiness of the "oh, you're freakin' kidding me!" variety on the RWA-PAN loop, but that got shot down as the ignorant crap it was in a heartbeat.

It was officially announced on May 1.

And Gud, we can totally do more cheerleading if you want it!

I was just feeling bad that I was doing 4 and 5 back to back posts. I welcome encouragement and advice though, there is a long ways to go.

I'm really impressed with what you're doing.

That's easy to say when you're not reading it. :) Actually, I don't feel as bad about it as I thought I would even if I'm still skeptical about the quality. However it turns out, it will still be an accomplishment just to do it.

However it turns out, it will still be an accomplishment just to do it.

And like they say, you can't revise the blank page. It's excellent to get it *out* and then tweak and polish and move stuff around.

Smart Bitches had an item that RWA now has a GLBT chapter.

There's nothing I can contribute to this, but I did manage to figure out what the RWA TLA means.

I have character in my story who I kinda thought of as gay, but it really has no impact on the story if he is or not and I can't see wasting words on it because it just wouldn't be all that interesting. As I've developed the story I ended up with another character who could be gay even though I never envisioned her that way before. Since that case would be interesting I'm tempted to leave that open but sprinkle in a few tidbits that kinda sorta might imply it, but nothing explicit enough to nail it down. That way I wouldn't have to really decide.

It's so very different from the way I write.

Just out of curiosity, how so?

Um. I tend to be what they call a seat-of-the-pants type. I hate to outline, because sometimes when I figure out too much of the story, I get bored with it and don't want to actually write it anymore.

I also don't write the same kind of thing you do, so the focus is a little different. I tend to write fairly close-in perspective, either first person or third limited to maybe two people. And I'll skip around, write scenes as they come and then, well, wedge them in later. Sometimes when I'm writing, since it's usually about some sort of very personal character experience, I'm writing simply to figure out what the story is, you know?

I started out with a single idea, I wanted the villain of the story to start out as the leader of the good guys and I wanted him to win in the middle in a decisive manner. Hence a horrific body count among the early characters. The the story would be about one or two character picking up the pieces while the whole world starts falling apart.

My first attempt was torrmented by inadequate planning, my characters just wandered off into pointlessness.

This time I have enough of a framework that I always know where I'm going even though I'm always tweaking the stuff in between. It seems to be working well for me.

Most of the major plot destinations I pretty much have visualized in my head like movie clips. There are so many moving parts however, that I have to outline to keep everything consistent. Once outlined, I just sort of visualize it and just try to describe what is going on in my head. I feel sort of like I'm watching a really long movie.

Amy's style makes me twitch just thinking about it but her end results are so great, it just serves as a wonderful example of what works for the individual writer.

Me, I'm also seat of the pants, but I'm very, very linear-- I have to write beginning to end. And I'm probably not so much seat of the pants, even because I've thought the story through so thoroughly, it's like I have it outlined in my head.

Usually, I'll write about 5-6 chapters, then as things start coalescing, I'll stop to write a chapter to chapter outline, if only so I don't forget certain tidbits I want to add in later.

I do make notes, just to clarify. Weird notes, sort of thought bubbles, about scenes or plot points, and like Barb that happens as I get closer to understanding where the story is going.

One thing I always have to do is go back and make sure I didn't lost the thread, especially in a romance -- see that the heroine still wants what she wanted in the beginning, or that certain conflicts got resolved.

It's all very messy and vague, but it usually works for me. I have learned that I do need a first draft I can then go over and tweak.

But I have writer friends who make, no kidding, color-coded charts, notecards, chapter-by-chapter, scene-by-scene outlines, character worksheets, the whole nine. That just ... baffles me. I like to brainstorm just with some ideas, sort of telling the initial story to myself, but that's about it.

And thank you, Barb. ::blushes::

But I have writer friends who make, no kidding, color-coded charts, notecards, chapter-by-chapter, scene-by-scene outlines, character worksheets, the whole nine.

::shudders::