Jessica Ferguson

Author, Writing Coach, Speaker

Writing Under Pressure

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I’ve been racing toward my goals, working on two manuscripts at once. That’s new for me, but it’s working … sort of. I guess.

My first fifty pages of a mystery are ready to send to the Killer Nashville Claymore contest. Deadline is June 1st and thankfully, I can email my pages.

The romance I pitched to Harlequin is sloshing along. I’ll devote more time and intensity to it starting tomorrow. I hope to have it completed within the next two or three weeks. At least, that’s my new goal. I devoted my six hours at the library yesterday to the contest entry. Seems a little weird, doesn’t it, that I wouldn’t devote that valuable time to the novel requested by an editor. All I can say is … my reasoning skills are sometimes skewed.  

We’re constantly under tornado watches here in Oklahoma. I find it difficult to concentrate on much of anything. The local news is filled with profiles of the people from Moore who experienced devastation last week. Depressing but uplifting too. There were a lot of heroes.

Hubby and I went to Half-Price Books over the weekend. Browsing the writing books, I came across an interesting paragraph in Writing Under Pressure, The Quick Writing Process by Sanford Kaye.

Sanford Kaye is head of the writing program at Curry College. He is author of Writing under Pressure and Writing as a Lifelong Skill as well as a contributor on memoir writing to NOW WRITE! He has taught writing at MIT, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Blue Hills Writing Institute, where he teaches advanced memoir. He was honored for 25 years of teaching at the Extension School in 2005 and received the James E. Conway Excellence in Teaching Writing Award in 1996.

Writing Under Pressure is geared toward writing academic papers and essays.  I suppose much of what Sanford says can be adapted to novel writing too. While a lot of what he proposes is over my head, the following spoke to me, gave me something to think about as I muddle through my novel.

“No amount of planning can make the reader hear the music in your mind, or see the abstract design you perceive as you look out over a cranberry bog coming to fruition in late September.  Writing can convey certain things well, and others not at all.”

Care to comment on the above paragraph? How hard do you work/plan to convey important scenes and settings in your novels or short stories?

Deadly Storms in Oklahoma

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By now, you’re all watching the horrific results from the tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma yesterday. From watching my Channel 9 weather app on my iPhone, the area had two days of tornados. Thankfully, I was in Louisiana, enjoying our monthly visit and celebrating our daughter’s 30th birthday–early.

Yesterday (Monday) we traveled back to Yukon. We always travel Highway 69 out of NE Texas to Gainesville and get on I-35 toward OKC. A couple of months ago, a friend told us about a ‘short-cut’ turning off I-35 on Hwy. 9 and heading toward Newcastle so that we don’t have to drive through Norman or OKC. Traffic is always terrible so we’ve enjoyed trekking the back roads.

When we came through yesterday, we knew Oklahoma was expecting more horrible weather. Once we got through Ardmore, I turned on my weather app and we listened and saw the tornado hit Moore. We came through Paul’s Valley not long BEFORE a tornado was sighted there too. We drove through Newcastle AFTER the tornado hit there.

Living in Oklahoma has been a blessing in many ways: I have many writer friends. We have a wonderful church. It’s also been terrifying–especially when you read about its history of tornados, and see what happened in Moore yesterday.

Homes and businesses were destroyed. Schools were hit. Children died. How does one ever recover from losing a child in such a horrific manner?

If you’d like to help people in Moore, Oklahoma, you can text the word FOOD to 32333.  A ten dollar donation will be sent to help the victims and that ten dollars will be added to your cell phone bill. If you’d rather not do that, then pray. That’s the best thing you can do for the people who have lost loved ones and everything they own.

As I write this, it’s hailing here–thundering and getting dark. We’re expecting storms all this week. 
All prayers welcome.

Blogger or Worpress?

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Today I blogged at the Scrimshaw Doll site. You can read Life Outside the Book here, and please, leave a comment. Blog posts get pretty lonely without comments. No comments make the blogger feel as if no one liked what they had to say.

I have to conjure up a good amount of patience to post on WordPress. For sure, it challenges me! I agree with most of you–Wordpress blogs look wonderful, very professional, but give me simple any day of the week. Maybe I’m just used to my home here. I can breeze right through arranging my posts with pics and urls. Days later, if I spot a typo or want to rearrange a sentence, cut or add, I can do it over and over with no problems. I have no idea how that affects people who automatically get my posts in their emailbox. (Anyone out there?) Do they get multiple copies? The first with errors?


I have friends who have moved their blogging home to WordPress. That seems like desertion to me. Guess I’m too sentimental.

If you’ve started over with your blogging after failed attempts or … just because … tell us about it. Why does one choose WordPress over Blogger? Why does one leave one or the other after years of blogging to start anew?

Do You Have a Writing Plan?

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I’m so behind in blogging that I should really do my own A to Z just to keep myself on track. Here’s what I’ve been doing:


Reading the galleys to The Last Daughter. I think if I have to read this story one more time, I’ll tear my hair out. I love my characters and the story, but I’m ready to move on. I can’t read through a manuscript (even a published book) without wanting to make changes! I believe I still have one more read-through after these galleys. Arghh!

Revising the first fifty pages for my Killer Nashville contest entry. Deadline is June 1st. I may not make it! If you’d like to enter the Claymore contest (you do NOT have to attend the conference to enter) check it out.

Every Thursday I have a Beth Moore Bible study on Daniel. If you’re familiar with Beth Moore, you know there’s daily homework. This is my second time to take the Daniel course. It’s fabulous. Of course, all her studies are.

Now, for my big news: some of you know I pitched to a Harlequin editor on Wednesday. This was the Happily Ever After pitch in a chat room, much like speed dating. We read the bios of three editors and had to choose the one we thought would be interested in our story. That alone was tricky! Then, we perfected a pitch in 100 words or less. There was no chit chat or questions asked in the chat room. Response from the editor would be one of the following:

Check one: __I’ll cry if you don’t send me your manuscript (requested full)
__I’d like to get to know your manuscript better (requested proposal)
__I’m not sure if there’s a spark between your manuscript and me, but I’m willing to give it a chance to convince me (requested synopsis)
__There’s just no connection between your manuscript and me (no request, but isn’t it great to know the idea won’t work before you spend time writing it?)

The editor I chose responded to my pitch with “I’ll cry if you don’t send me your manuscript.” She requested the FULL and said the story sounded unique.

When we signed up for this event, we had to specify how much of our novel was finished.  I said I had a 36,000 word very rough draft completed. Okay, so now that I’ve lived with this rough draft for awhile, and worked on a synopsis, I better know the direction I want to go with the book. Thankfully, I tailored the pitch in the right direction and pinpointed the conflict but I feel panicked about revising it FAST.

Common sense tells me to get the manuscript finished and to the editor as soon as possible. I have 36,000 words. I need 55,000 words at the minimum. Each chapter (with the exception of the first two) has to be rewritten–revised, fleshed out, some chapters even have to be completely changed. Here’s a picture of my rough draft with Love Inspired guidelines visible so I can refer to them often. 

I need some direction: Suggest a workable writing plan and/or some tips that will help me finish this book. My weaknesses are: setting, description, deep editing so any help you can give me in these three areas will be appreciated. If I use any of your suggestions, I’ll dedicate the book to you–if it sells.

I’m sloshing through but I’m working at the pace of a sick snail so if you want to share a writing plan, feel free! And give me a deadline too. I love deadlines!

A to Z Challenge Reflections

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As you can see, I took a few days to recuperate from the A to Z Challenge. While participating, I let a lot of things slide. I think I’ve proved to myself that I’m one of those people who have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time. Maybe not that bad, but I tend to over-focus at times–especially when it comes to A to Z.

I lived and breathed A to Z this year. Probably because I shared so much of myself and my family. I didn’t intend to focus on my quirky memoirs but once I chose that first word–Ancestor–that was it. I was hooked. I began to get bored with my own postings when repetition crept in. If you were bored too, I apologize.

My first post was written the night before posting; the second one was too. After that I wrote each the morning of. I put myself through the proverbial wringer, forcing myself to think and write fast. Why? Because I tend to do the opposite: slow-mo. I take too much time to think and plan.

I’ve always envied newspaper reporters from the old movies. They get a story, rush to the newsroom and crank it out. I loved how they two-finger-typed it then yanked it out of the old fashioned Underwood without even ripping the paper. So… that was in my head. Write the story (the blog post) fast.

The A to Z Challenge is an excellent opportunity to grow our followers, but it’s much more than that. We have an opportunity to learn, and train ourselves in a number of areas: writing fast, research, networking, socializing and making friends, meeting deadlines, self-discovery, self-discipline … and learning from others.

For me, the real challenge is hopping around visiting the blogs of others. I got behind and never fully caught up. My apologies to all my A to Z friends.

I treasure the A to Z Challenge. I’m already looking forward to next year! Much love and laughter forever to Arlee Bird for such a brilliant April party.  

Can you tell me what you learned or discovered about yourself during this 2013 A to Z Challenge? Why did you sign up to participate? Share!

Z is for Zing

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Today is the last day of the A to Z Challenge. This year’s challenge was really laced with ZING! Zing means a lively, zestful quality; zest, vigor, animation, force, vitality, etc.  Every blogsite I visited had zing.

When I read the definition, I wondered about other things in my life that have ZING so I made a list and thought I’d share with you.

My marriage, my daughter and–believe it or not, after delving into my so-called memoirs, my family.

Sometimes, my cooking–even when it falls flat!

My driving–especially when I’m thinking about writing–just ask my husband.

My pastor, my SS teacher … wait, my entire church!

My dreams have zing. Just ask my husband!

When we went home this past weekend, I noticed my cactus flower was blooming. Definitely some Zing!

I conclude … I’m surrounded by ZING!

Now that A to Z Challenge is over, I hope to concentrate on putting more ZING into my writing. More description, visual setting, stronger conflict and characterization … and ACTIVE verbs.

What have you learned from A to Z — as a participant or as a reader? Share. How can we put more ZING in our writing and in our lives?

Y is for Yukon

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Last year for the A to Z Challenge, Y stood for Yukon, Oklahoma. I blogged about the little town and I’ll take the opportunity to blog about it again. After all, we’ve lived here a year now.

Yukon has been a great place for us. It’s small. We can be anywhere in five or ten minutes. We can see Oklahoma City from our apartment complex. I posted last year that Dale Robertson lived here when in fact, he didn’t. He did once. Maybe his family still owns land here–I don’t know. Our senior citizen center is named after him and his picture is in our library. A few weeks ago, Dale passed away in California. I’ve spent a year hoping to spot him in grocery stores, coffee shops, libraries when all the time he’s been in California.

 I remember watching Wells Fargo with my dad. Rest in peace, Dale.

I drive up and down Garth Brooks Blvd to shop at Hastings, Target and WalMart and go to Jimmy’s Egg. On Tuesdays, I drive into Mustang (about five minutes away) and meet a friend at the library. We write from 9 am to 2 pm. We take our lunch and sit in the foyer at a table to eat and visit. I wrote my novella at the Mustang Library. I just received the galleys to proof; you can see my cover at the right. The Mustang Library has great writing vibes.

We attend a wonderful church in Yukon. Discovery Church is the friendliest I’ve ever attended. Love and laughter oozes from its members. We visited two other churches before we settled there. Sad that one has to shop around for a church–a good fit. Discovery is the only church I’ve ever attended that I felt people truly liked and cared about us–and not just on Sunday. If I ended up in the hospital, I know without a doubt, people would be praying for me and coming to see me. I’ve never had the comfort of that thought.

Yukon will be a sweet memory when we move back to Louisiana in June. While we’re looking forward to being near our daughter again, being in our home instead of an apartment, Louisiana will be like starting over–searching for a church, getting used to the oppressive weather, settling in … trying to fit in–once again.

We’ve moved a number of times in our married life. Yukon became home fast, and we’ll miss it.

How often have you moved in your life? Any place you’d like to go back to or regret leaving? How do places you’ve lived play into your writing?

X is for Xerophilous

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While browsing through the dictionary trying to figure out what to write about, I came across the word xerophilous which means capable of thriving in a hot, dry climate. Xerophilous pertains to plants and animals, but it reminded me of my mother. She was always hot. We didn’t have central air in our little four room house (2 bedrooms, a living room and a small kitchen. Do we count the bathroom as a real room?) We had window units and they were powerful. I stayed bundled up while Mom sat in a sleeveless house dress.

Of course, by the time I started getting hot, she had the heat blasting during the summer because she was cold.

Funny how we daughters swap places with our mothers. Or become more like them. The other day I told Mom that every time I looked in the mirror, she stared back at me. She thought that was hilarious! She always liked to laugh … still does.

Did your family play practical jokes? Get tickled in church or the library? Share something super-funny that you remember about your family.

W is for Writing

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When I signed up for A to Z Challenge this year, I had no idea what I wanted to write about. I planned to wing it—the way I did last year. But as soon as I sat down to write that first post, my theme became apparent: I’d write about my childhood and my family. I’ve had fun blogging about my loved ones, but I’m ready to move on and talk about writing again. Family Time is growing old and boring for me. And I’m beginning to repeat myself. I don’t like repetition!

So W is for Writing. This is what I’ve been doing alongside A to Z.
I wrote a short story specifically for Woman’s World. This time I got off my ‘duff’ and put it in the mail. I’m waiting … waiting … waiting … just like in the old days. Complete with SASE.  Woman’s World doesn’t take email submissions.

I’m also working on a pitch to a Harlequin editor on May 8th. This will be sort of like speed dating: I pitch in 100 words or less and they tell me immediately whether they want to see a synopsis, a proposal or the complete novel. I really like this idea. This is the instant gratification thingie working. I’m pretty nervous about it, even though I have the pitch ready. I’ve been working on the first three chapters of the manuscript just in case the editor requests it. It’s a straight inspirational romance—no mystery or suspense. And I still have to write the synopsis. Arrghh!

My mind is working constantly on other things—revising, re-plotting, wondering if anything is any good. There’s so much I want to revamp. I don’t want to give up on any of my stories—even when I know I should move on to something fresh.

My novella came to me so easily. I wish all my stories came that fast—that complete. They don’t. I struggle.

Tell me about your writing. Do you have anything with an agent or editor? Or do you plan to ePub? Do you like today’s publishing world and how things have changed? Tell us about it.

Here’s a market for you just in case you don’t have anything to do:

Family Circle Magazine is now accepting submissions for their 2013 Fiction Contest. Submit your previously unpublished short story of no more than 2,500 words by September 16, 2013. There is no fee to enter and you could win the grand prize of $1,000 and publication in the magazine, plus other prizes. For all the details go here.

V is for Victory, Victorious

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V is Victory, Victorious.  Normally when I hear the word VictoryI burst into song. Really! Just ask my husband and daughter.
O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

I love the old hymns—we rarely sing them anymore and I miss them.

We had a victorious trip yesterday. I drove the entire ten hours. I normally do. Hubby can read and nap in a moving vehicle; I can’t because I’ll get car sick, so I drive…and plot. At one point, I heard him talking. I replied, “Say that again, I wasn’t listening—I was blogging.” He gets nervous when I’m lost in writing thoughts while driving.

After six hours on the road, we stopped off to visit my mom. I’m always filled with dread at how she might respond, how she’ll look. Where her mind might be. Another victory! She was alert, smiling and had quick come-backs to our teasing. She enjoyed talking about the past since that’s all she can remember, but even the past is a little hazy. She commented that she sewed a lot for me when I was a kid, made all my clothes. She did. I had “Mom Originals” with shoes to match. Remember, she was a perfectionist. I was often written up in our school newspaper because of what I wore: “Jessica looked like the breath of spring in  her yellow dress with the tiny blue and pink flowers. The yellow t-strap sandals were the perfect accessory.” Or something of the sort.

I asked Mom if she remembered making a bird costume for me, sewing feathers to material. I was glad I had a picture on my iPhone to jog her memory. When I went through her home, I was able to snap pics of other pics so I could email them to myself. I’m second from the right.

Mom also talked about how she used to sit in the car waiting for me to get finished with my piano lessons. Her memory is a little distorted there. Mom never waited on much of anything. She was the originalmulti-tasker and always wanted to accomplish several things at once. While I struggled with chords and Mrs. Brown the piano teacher, Mom was at the grocery store, or drug store, or running errands for a friend–or all three! I was the one who sat at the curb waiting when my lesson was over.

When we got to Louisiana, we were blessed by a visit from our daughter bearing a mother’s day gift, and we stayed up late talking. I slept until 8:00 a.m. this morning! Sure felt good. We’ll head back to see Mom on Saturday for another walk down memory lane.

What did you do when you were a kid? Take dancing or piano lessons? Play basketball, football or baseball? Write poems or your first novel? How were your parents involved in your young life and activities?