Here it is finally March 1st! I'm not a winter person and I'm thrilled that Spring is around the corner. Winter this year has really played with my emotions, which has resulted in writing frustrations and fears.

Someone told me once, "If you write for everyone but yourself, you've left out the most important reader." How true. I became a writer because I loved it, because I loved to read, because I was shy and preferred writing my thoughts than sharing them out loud. Yet lately I've found myself writing with a tired muse sitting on my shoulder, wondering when I'm going to wise up and get back to loving it for the joy of writing more than the sales possibility and the needed money.

Heard a great speaker this weekend, Chris Eboch from New Mexico, talk about plot and character, about being mean to your character. I definitely learned new things or things I'd already been aware but not doing and got some ideas for my work in progress. Also interesting that this is the topic of my article coming out in the June issue of The Writer, about plot writers versus character writers. We all have to have both in our writing, but some of us lean heavier one way or the other and have to learn to work on the weaker side. My stronger side is plot and story, whereas I struggle with getting the depth to my characters that is needed.

Do you come up with a plot first and insert characters or a character and build a story around them? In children's books you have strong characters such as June B. Jones and Fancy Nancy for younger ages. Many YA books are more about character. Or do you come up with a story idea first and create a character to go with it?

This week is filled with scary trip to the dentist today for daughter and painful tooth, car problem to be diagnosed and fixed, doctor appointment to be rescheduled because of these 2 things, dealing with driver's license office, and so on. All very non-creative, and in fact creativity zapping things.

My goal is to find one thing in this week's craziness to use in an essay or part of a story or subject to write about. Think about what you can get out of your week as it goes along. How will it be grist for your writing?