My friend Angie and I were just discussing this, and I thought it was interesting enough to blog about.

Her hubby is home sick today, and felt well enough to come downstairs and turn on the television, which of course she found incredibly disruptive since she’s an editor and likes to work without distraction, and a movie on t.v. is incredibly distracting when you’re trying to edit a book or answer emails.

Not that I’m deliberately picking on her hubby. Mine does the same thing to me. He might not turn on the tv, but if he’s home and I’m working, his mere presence is distracting (sorry, darlin’. Not your fault. :giggle: )

I think it’s because our ‘people’ (our people being husbands, wives, partners, significant others, children, friends, etc.) don’t really understand what it is that we do and how exactly we do it.

For example, when I’m working on a book, or a proposal for a book, every second of my time is not hands on the keyboard typing away. A lot of it is staring out the window or staring off into space. To my husband, that means I’m either done or not working. Um….no. It means I’m working out a difficult plot point, trying to figure out where to go next in the scene I’m writing, trying to figure out exactly how to start the next scene, trying to choreograph a love scene, or working out dialogue in my head. Or I’m devleoping a proposal for a one/two/three book series, and thinking about plot threads. So ‘thinking’ means staring off into space. My brain is working…my fingers might not be.

Sometimes I’ll step away from the laptop entirely, go sit down or even lay down on the couch. Not to turn on the tv, but just to change the environment. I find it really helps to clear my head. That’s when I tend to figure out a problem in my book. Again, I’m not taking a nap–I’m working. (Well, unless I fall asleep…then I’m taking a nap :giggle: ).

Sometimes I’ll get bogged down in what I’m writing, or it’s not going the way I want it to, so I’ll switch off and check email or blogs or go to a website. Just a minute or two of clearing my head really helps. Then it’s back to the book. I also have severe writer ADD. I can’t write all day long without a break. I’m constantly switching from book to email to blogs to IM to Twitter to book to email to blogs to IM to Twitter to book. Hey, it works for me. And it’s probably because I do this alone. It’s nice to stop every few minutes and remind myself that there are other people out there.

However, the mere presence of another person physically present in my ‘working environment’ tends to disrupt my routine, because I feel like I need to be ‘typing’ the entire time to prove my productivity. It’s very disconcerting and annoying as hell. I know I work all day. It’s just not work that can be seen all the time.

I know, weird huh? At least Angie understands me :doglick:

I bought the first season of the TV Series, 24, and watched it this week. I mainly bought it for research purposes because I’m plotting a romantic suspense, action adventure series, and I’d heard such great things about 24 and knew it would be the perfect series to use as research.

So while watching 24 episodes, this is what I’ve learned:

1. If your federal agent hero is going to break the law–and I mean some serious federal laws–you’d better have a damn good way to get him out of trouble once you’ve gotten him into trouble, otherwise he’s looking at some serious jail time.

2. It’s great to have a good idea to start a storyline…but you’d better have enough of a storyline to carry you through 1 or 2 or 3 books or more. Which means more than hero and heroine fall in love, face danger and get out of it. There has to be something more. A lot more.

3. The good guys can’t all be good, and the bad guys can’t all be bad. Shades of gray…always shades of gray.

4. If you’re going to have a crack team of agents, having the bad guys kill off a bunch of them makes your crack team look inept. You’d better have a different way to move your plot along without killing off half your team and making your hero look stupid.

5. Surprise bad guys and surprise good guys rock. The element of surprise rocks. Never do what the viewer (or reader) thinks you’re going to do. Rock their world.

6. Think logically. Plan every avenue. If the bad guys escape in an easy fashion, your crack team of super agents once again look inept. This might mean doing something bad to good people to make it work. But make it work without making your team look stupid. (See #4)

7. Don’t recycle the same plot device over and over and over and over and over again. This irritates the viewer (or reader)

8. Visceral reactions rock, whether they’re good ones or bad ones. Viewers (or readers) love to love or hate a character or characters. Everyone in the story doesn’t have to be loved.

9. And jumping off from #8 is…imperfection. Make your characters flawed. Flawed characters are real characters. They’ll make mistakes. Sometimes huge mistakes. It’s how they rebound from those mistakes that will endear them to the viewer (or reader).

10. Guns, firepower, and lots of it. Blow shit up. Seriously. We are talking action here. :giggle:

Bonus – If you’re going to face off with the bad guy and you have a gun in your hand—for all that is holy, SHOOT HIM. Don’t wave the gun at him and talk to him. Don’t threaten him and tell him to back away. Shoot the sonofabitch over and over again until the freakin clip is empty. Otherwise he’s going to find a way to take the gun away from you and then one of two things is going to happen: 1) you’ll have the gun pointed at you, or 2) he’s going to shoot you. Then I’ll be forced to yell at the television and call you a dumbass. And really…you don’t want me to do that. :giggle:

Now, onto Season 2 of 24 and plotting this new series. Oh, and I’m still writing a novella. Lots to do around here.

And hey, if you have anything to add to the above, feel free.