what makes your writing heart go wild?

happy valentine's day to you all!

my writing heart has been a little weak since finishing FIXING SHELBY.


lately my writing time has consisted of the following:

• checking emails for agent responses
• checking twitter
• checking emails for agent responses
• emailing erica
• rewriting my query
• refreshing inbox...again (do i need to repeat why?)
• reading blog posts (not commenting often because frequently i'm one-handed-one arm is full of baby--he's beautiful and sweet and lovable and amazing btw!)
• writing the next chapter in TTM (erica and christy's novel)
• opening up one WIP after another, rereading what's already been typed, refreshing inbox....(uh huh)
• ???  staring blankly at the wall
• reading CP's manuscript (not critiquing as much as i should be--one-handed again)
• critiquing at QT (much less frequently than two months ago)
• rewriting my query

so as you can see, other than TTM, not much is getting accomplished. bah.

not
so
very
productive

my writing heart flatlined.

at first i thought it was because i was in revision/critiquer mode and having a hard time getting back into writer mode.

that wasn't it.

then i thought it was rejection anxiety.

nope.

i finally know what is causing the freeze on my fingertips!!!

it's not for lack of ideas.  i have plots all set and ready to be written.  so--why couldn't i open up my documents and get going?  was it because i couldn't decide which project i wanted to do more? 

unh unh.

the REAL problem was lack of character understanding. 

rewind a year.  this is exactly why i had to table SOLSTICE (novel #1).  i still think it's a great story idea.  the reason it didn't work was because i didn't have a strong connection to my protagonist.  i didn't know her well enough. 

the reason i wrote FIXING SHELBY rather quickly was because the story was based on her character.  i felt her, knew her.  the feeling i conjured up when i wrote was her voice, not just excitement for the events in the story. 

the two projects i've been going back and forth between could be great, but i just don't know those characters well enough yet.

so tonight, i remembered a project i thought up a long while ago.  immediately, i felt that character. 
ding ding ding ding.  i found a winning project!

what makes your writing heart go pitter patter and skip a beat?

what motivates you more?  characters or events?