Welcome Guest Mona Hodgson

Dr. Quinn Time: What I’m Learning About Dedication

 By Mona Hodgson

Hi Seekerville! Thanks for the invitation. It’s great to be here porch-sitting with you again. Any Dr. Quinn fans in our midst?

Remaining true to our annual tradition, the summer of 1996, my friend Shirley and I loaded the back of my Jeep and headed to a cabin in Northern Arizona. I would write and she would work on her music. That year, however, we encountered a big problem. No, it wasn’t a bear on the trail, the squirrels in the attic, the midnight mice, or a skunk on the porch.                      

Our two-day getaway to the cabin swallowed a Saturday. Saturday night was DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN night, and the modest cabin didn’t allow for TV viewing.

Don’t get me wrong—Shirley and I are all about retreating from noise, the hectic pace of small town life, and breathing in the pine-scented tranquility the mountains offer, but miss viewing Dr. Quinn (Jane Seymour) and Sully (Joe Lando) in “real time?” No way! 

We had to find a place with good television reception. The nearest town was about thirty miles away. Never mind that we’d be driving back to the cabin in the dark, in the land of roaming bears and deer and elk.

This was before televisions lined the walls of most eateries. Where, oh where, could we go to catch up with the unstoppable Dr. Michaela “Mike” Quinn and mountain man Bryon Sully?  Department stores that sold televisions? Sports bars? Uh, not the kind of shows they broadcast.

Ah ha! Hospital rooms have televisions. Yep. Off we went to the hospital to search for an empty room with a TV. With no time to spare, we settled into the outpatient waiting room, and were swept away into historic Colorado Springs with the beloved cast of DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN.

Who goes to all that trouble, leaves the comfort of a cabin getaway for a TV show?

Someone who is dedicated. Whether  it is time, energy, or finances, we are willing to invest in those things about which we are most passionate.
Writing. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, how would you rate your passion for writing?

You want to write article, children’s book, or novel. But it’s almost as if life pitches a tent on top of your literary creativity and sets up camp.

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You would write more, if life didn’t get in the way. I hear you.
Many of us work at home with life spinning all around us. Others of us also work outside the home. Family-life rides tandem with our dream of building a career as an author. Due to health issues, my hubby retired seven years ago and is, for the most part, a stay-at-home man. I travel regularly to speak at schools, conferences, and women’s retreats. My only grandchild in the United States lives only an hour away. I am a caregiver for my mother, a victim of Alzheimer’s Disease, and her ailing husband. And so on. Your own list of responsibilities is compelling and long.  Is writing one of them? It is, for me.
So how do I set aside blocks of time for the writing process?

Drum roll please!

I don’t give away time unnecessarily and I don’t discount the all important wedges of time.

I’d been under the impression that I couldn’t write a novel with distraction; that I needed big chunks of solitude in order to complete a full-length story worth publishing. Such expectations set us up for procrastination.

Time is an issue, no doubt about it. You and I are both pulled in a myriad of directions, and that can take place all within a five minute period. We face many opportunities to serve others, the church, the community, the world. All of them good causes. Some of them even great. So how do we choose?

Warning: here comes the dreaded “P” word. Priorities take precedence over any number of time-munchers. We will make time for those activities we consider most important. Where did writing land on your scale of 1 to 10?

Can someone else send out the flyers for the food bank? Serve on the Valentine’s banquet committee? Host the weekly Bible study? Manage the mailing list for your quarterly e-Newsletter? Dot. Dot. Dot. Next time you get a phone call, an email, or a text asking you to do this or that, stop and think. Think about your motivation for saying yes. Then think about saying no if the activity wouldn’t be the best use of your time.

Time Wedges  

I do have a “work” schedule. One I refer to as “fluid.” Yesterday, I edited this blog post while Sophie shampooed and rolled my mom’s hair. After sitting beside Mom at the hair dryer, I took her to lunch then helped her switch out her purse to a small sling-style bag. That was the best use of my time. I also frequently find myself in hospital rooms and doctor’s waiting rooms. I have learned to savor all the bits and blocks of writing time I have and I’m figuring out how to draw the best out of them.

Writing on the Go 

1) I know when I need to go somewhere else to write. A place with white noise works well for me these days. McDonalds. Starbucks. When I crave a quieter atmosphere, the library wins.
2) I carry writing work with me. My motto: Have tote bag, file folder, AlphaSmart and/or laptop—will travel. I keep my tote stocked with index cards, extra batteries for my AlphaSmart, a notepad, and a nut bar. Depending upon what I’m working on and what stage I’m at in the project, I might add research material I want to read or organize, character sketches I need to fill in, a hard copy proposal or chapters I want to edit.

Writing in a Pinch
I’m prepared to fill those wedges of writing time with activities that don’t necessarily require big blocks of uninterrupted minutes or hours. Research, outlining, character interviews, proposal components, editing scenes or chapters, drafting a query letter, studying possible markets, etc. can all be done more readily in snippets of time, which leaves any blocks open for storytelling.

Writing Settled In By tending to some of the pre-writing and the business side of writing on the go or in the pinches of time, I’m better prepared to sit down at the keyboard and get to the writing that requires a more concentrated chunk of time. Also, having those smaller tasks out of the way or at least lined up for writing on the go or writing in a pinch, I’m in a better frame of mind to leap back into my story.

There you have it—a few my secrets.

Happy writing! Oh, and happy reading. J

It was a dreary day when DR. QUINN: MEDICINE WOMAN was cancelled. But fast forward to 2012. I’m still fascinated with the role of female physicians in the 1800’s, so it’s no wonder then that Colorado doctor, Susan Anderson known as Doc Susie, serves as my “real life” character in The Bride Wore Blue, Book Three in The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series.

MONA HODGSON is the author of Two Brides Too Many, Too Rich for a Bride, The Bride Wore Blue, and Twice a Bride (October 2012), all four books in The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series (WaterBrook Multnomah). You can learn more about Mona and her books at www.monahodgson.com and connect with her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/#!/Author.Mona

GUEST MONA HODGSON: THE TRUTH IN FICTION

Many of my closest friends are liars. But they might prefer the title storyteller extraordinaire. Tale-weavers. And whether the literary yarn they spin is set in an actual place or based upon real life events and historical characters, they are authors of fiction. I am too. And as novelists, we have chosen to write fiction, not fact. But even so, is the story we weave truly and completely made up?
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Not the best stories. All compelling fiction resonates with readers. Why? Because the best stories are rich in truth.
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Why has Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell camped on bestsellers’ lists? Why has it inspired movies and spin-offs? Why is Gone with the Wind a classic? Because the story told the truth. Even though Scarlet’s tale wasn’t necessarily formed in actual reality, the setting and characters, action and themes offer a tapestry of honesty that can make a work of fiction feel more real, at times, than life itself.
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You and I can tell the truth in our novels too. Using those four central threads of fiction, you and I can create an honest story world and premise that will provide a platform for truth. I say we take a longer look at how we might best use them to deepen the realness of our fiction.
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SETTING
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As the backdrop for the action, the setting anchors your story in time and place. How can setting add truth to your fiction? You and I are affected by the location in which we find ourselves. We react to our setting on physical, emotional, mental, and perhaps even a spiritual level. Sometimes we’re aware of our reactions, other times they take place in our subconscious. .
Where is your story set? At a plantation in Georgia? Tell me more. Actually, it’s Tara, a cotton plantation Scarlet’s father named after the hill of Tara, once the capital of the High King of ancient Ireland. When? Through the Civil War and into the reconstruction period. That’s more like it.
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The time period in which your story unfolds has everything to do with the setting. And that’s true whether it plays out in a historical time and place or whether it’s contemporary. Setting isn’t limited to a pin on a map, but also provides a cultural, social, and political context in which the characters act, interact, and react. Consider the West Coast of America in contrast to the South. Ireland in the1600s and the USA in that same time period. What about settings where women are finally able to vote? And post 9/11? These events will be considered and remembered differently, depending upon the setting and situation in which the characters experience them.
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So think about it . . . what is your main character’s surface and gut-level reaction to the details and fullness of their setting? If you and I are being true to the time and place, a clearly defined setting will impact our characters, and, consequently our readers because they will recognize honesty in the setting.
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CHARACTERS
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Scarlet O’Hara was fake only when she chose to be to serve her purposes. Otherwise, she was one of the most “real” characters we’ll find in literature. An individual through and through, Scarlet was bathed in the truth of human nature—replete with strengths and weaknesses, self-centered pursuits and dogged determination in the company of tragedy.
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In his book, Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass says, “Inner conflict is what makes a character truly memorable.” I would add that a character’s inner conflict is what invokes honesty.
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Margaret Mitchell imbued Scarlett, a multi-dimensional character, with a clearly defined goal—to win Ashley’s heart, and then to save Tara and win Rhett Butler back. We watched Scarlett’s desires unfold and change and deepen, along with the setting in which she found herself.
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How do you draw truth out of your character? We saw it with Scarlet. It’s through the fascination and friction inherent in human relationships (fictional ones included) that reveals true character. And that’s true whether those secondary characters are love interests, antagonists, sidekicks, or mentors. They provide a means for the reader to see the main character’s vulnerabilities and strengths.
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So what does your character want? What must he or she achieve or overcome? Why? Where lies their motivation? What is at risk if he or she doesn’t meet their goal? What will happen if their objective changes?
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If you “flesh out” the character and her journey and outcome, you’ll be writing truth in
fiction.
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ACTION
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The story plot consists of a series of actions inspired by a character’s goal and motivation, driven by the interactions with others, and deepened by the roadblocks they face, which may in part be inherent to the setting they find themselves in.
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For instance, Two Brides Too Many, Book One in my Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series, is set in a mining camp in Colorado in the late 1890s. There are many truths intrinsic to the time, place, and culture of the Wild West mining camps. Ore fever, most definitely. Prostitutes, certainly. In that time period, most of those towns were still made of wood. Those that were went up in flames at least once and, most of them, many times before the town’s people chose to rebuild using brick and stone. Kat Sinclair encounters one of those fires in Cripple Creek, which serves as a key plot point in her journey, fueling action on her part and on the secondary characters with whom she interacts.
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Here’s what Donald Maass had to say about plot, “What is plot if not an account of the many complications thrown in the way of your hero? Complication can be inner, psychological, and private, or they can be external, unprovoked, and public.”
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Basically, plotting is the action your character takes to overcome the obstacles and work through the conflict that stands in the way of him or her reaching their goal. Gone with the Wind is resplendent with such action.
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Have you used setting honestly in plotting your story? Is there truth in the reactions and actions of your character?
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THEME
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The theme provides the walk-away value in the story. What central truth do you want your readers to recognize in the setting, the characters, and the action and take with them when they close your book?
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In Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot That Grips Readers from Start to Finish, James Scott Bell writes, “Develop your characters fully and set them in the story world where their values will conflict with each other. Allow your characters to struggle naturally and passionately. Theme will emerge without effort.”
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Margaret Mitchell didn’t break into the story to tell us the themes of Gone with the Wind. Through setting, characters, and action, she showed us triumph over tragedy and there is strength in love. In Two Brides Too Many, I showed God making a way through the wilderness for those who placed their trust in Him.
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The message or moral of your story will only ring true when your characters carry the theme with them on their journey from goal through conflict to resolution. In his book, Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass adds, “If authentic, theme is not something apart from story, but something intrinsic to it. It is not embedded, but rather emerges.”
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What truth about themselves, the world, God, and others will your reader take with them after reading your story?
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Where is the truth in fiction? Yes, it is in the details. But it is birthed deep within you—the writer. I’m trying to dig deep to create stories rich in authentic settings, characters, action, and themes. Join me?
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1. Think about the books you’ve read. To what book do you attribute honesty, a certain truth in the storytelling?
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2. What aspect—setting, character, action, or theme do you feel contributed most to the story’s honesty? How?
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Leave comment today (and your email address) and be eligible to be entered in a drawing for a copy of Two Brides Too Many!

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MONA HODGSON is the author of Two Brides Too Many (May 2010) and Too Rich for a Bride (October 2010, available exclusively at Walmart), the first two books in the Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series (WaterBrook Multnomah). Her writing credits also include 28 children’s books, Real Girls of the Bible: A Devotional, Bedtime in the Southwest, and four Princess Twins books. You can follow Mona here at Twitter and become a Facebook fan at the Mona Hodgson Fan Page. To read the first chapter of Two Brides Too Many, go to http://www.monahodgson.com/, click on Mona’s Novels then on Sneak Peek.