Last week’s post How to Write While Dealing with Holiday Madness was more practical, but this week’s entry in our How I Write series, is all fancy. The questions posed was, “If you could spend a day with any one of your characters, who would it be and why? What would you do?”
This question was difficult for me and I kept putting off writing this post as I didn’t want to show favoritism or some such nonsense. I have to admit, I quickly discarded all my heroines, but one. She’s a veritable tomboy and much like me when I was younger, except she has a ton more confidence on her side. I figured I’d pretty much already grown up with her in many ways, so it was off to whittle down the list of heroes.
All of my heroes have something attractive about them, and they’re all quite dashing and fashionable. James, the duke, would be far too imposing and he’s a bit on the arrogant side. He’s also a bit of a starched shirt, as well. He needed someone playful like his friend, Hugh, the Viscount Barrington to offset his stiffer personality.
I suspect spending the day with the Viscount Barrington would prove both the most fun, and the most useful. He’s the class clown type and looking for attention. However, he’s also just coy enough, that unless you’re extremely close to him, you’d never know the real reasons why. He’s always been a thorn in my side because he refuses to open up and spill his secrets. Perhaps by the end of the day, he would open up or at least let something slip and I’d gain some insight into his personal demons.
As for what we’d do… I think taking a picnic and driving down to Richmond would be a wonderful way to start the day. He’s a dab hand with the reins and he owns a pair of prime goers that would make the miles fly past. Besides, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, right? Feed him well, settle in for a long coze in the warm sunshine and I suspect with a few leading questions, I could get him to open up. I know he’s got an interesting story lurking there, I just need an opening. His armor is strong and has many patches reinforcing the spots where chinks had once been made.
I would also have to be on the watch for his tricks. He’s known for pranks that can be biting to those he dislikes, but I don’t think I’ve done anything to get on his bad side, so I should be safe. After all, it’s just another way he pushes people away when they get too close or annoy him by being hypocritical. I’d be understanding and gentle with him, but then again, maybe that’s part of the problem and why he’s not sharing… I’ve been too nice to him and haven’t pushed him hard enough with the tough questions.
I better go prepare a sumptuous picnic and work on my list of questions for him… asking everything I want to know might take a while. Perhaps I should plan to stop at an inn on the way back to Town.
After all, who wouldn’t want to spend a day and a night with this fellow?
Narayan Fergal O'Connor, an inspiration for Viscount Barrington.
YOUR TURN: If you could spend a day with a fictional character (one of yours if you write, someone else’s if you don’t), who would it be and why? What would you do?
And if you’d like to read about who the rest of my group would spend the day with, you can find their blogs here:
This week, my accountability group is writing about “Holiday Plans and Are You Writing?” Last week, we blogged about the topic of “Where do you stand?” in terms of our writer’s journeys. The entries are part of our How I Write series.
Ya know, I’ve always wondered about Chris Baty’s sanity for picking November for NaNoWriMo. Then I think, “Student, not mother!” and nod to myself and keep going. My plans on the NaNo front went well for the first week and then I hit a wall. Having kids home sick from school on a revolving basis this week didn’t help either. I’ve been trying not to catch whatever they’ve had, but my focus and motivation has been completely shot in the whole process.
I enjoy the holiday season, but I’m always looking forward to the restful and relaxing aspects of it more than the hustle and bustle. I was sickened by seeing Christmas decorations up in the stores before Halloween weekend. The idea of Black Friday sends me to the corner to curl up in a whimpering ball. Cyber Monday is more my speed, but I try to spread it out through the month of November and the first week or two of December.
While I was growing up, the Holidays always meant food, family and travel. Thanksgiving has always meant a lot on my dad’s side of the family which traces its roots to the Mayflower and beyond. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole with the pineapple and marshmallows, fresh yeast rolls, Apple Harvest Cake and pumpkin pie have always had our table groaning. But last November 1st, DH and I gave up grains, legumes, potatoes and most white sugar. Thanksgiving felt kinda funky. Not as funky as the year we went to his uncle’s in NYC and didn’t have turkey, but a huge pork roast. My Puritan roots were shocked, but I survived. Christmas dinner is usually a replay of Thanksgiving as well.
The biggest take away here is that our routine shifted and we survived. I HATE change and new things. But I’m learning lots of new tricks as I work on trying to build up my discipline and continue to improve my craft while balancing it with the bustling life around me. I think I’ve learned that I can’t throw all my hopes and dreams into the single biggest writing month of the year (NaNoWriMo), not and still maintain any resemblance to balance and sanity.
So about those promised tips in the title… They may sound sarcastic in places, they may be a little tongue-in-cheek in others, but they are all things that I’ve found that help me and to me are worth trading money for time and sanity in some cases. Your mileage may vary, but do what you can to keep your creative tanks full.
How I Write While Dealing With Holiday Madness:
Consider an Online Christmas — All your ordering can be done between writing breaks and many offer gift wrapping options. And really, who has time to wrap? We seriously considered saying it was an Amazon themed Christmas one year and the boxes would have been deemed as acceptable. Saves your gas and time and sanity! Ok, maybe not the most carbon conscious option, but it still has appeal. Just don’t hand your kids scotch-taped boxes and tell them to wrap their own presents. I HATED not knowing what was in those boxes until Christmas Day. (*waves* Hi, Mother!)
Add Writing Time to your Wish List — You won’t get it if you don’t ask for it. And if you ask nicely in advance, I’ve found people are more likely to respect your time and space. I also find that just taking it by getting up earlier than everyone else works wonders. They get to feel superior because they slept in so late, and you get a quiet house to yourself — until they get up. At which point, feel free to direct this hapless soul that has wandered into your creative space to dump the ingredients for dinner in the crockpot to let you finish this section.
Decide What Matters Most — Only YOU can answer this one. Plan according to your priorities and don’t feel guilty about it. If you have a family, next summer consider talking about what people enjoy doing most during the winter holidays and adjust your traditions to drop ones that no one likes or try new ones that appeal to your family’s values and tastes. If something doesn’t work for you, make a note of it so you don’t repeat it next year.
Make Ahead Meals — Dump chicken is a staple in my freezer. Buy a bargain tray of boneless skinless chicken breasts or thicker pork chops. Buy a couple bottles of BBQ, Italian Dressing, Ranch Dressing and some quart-sized ziploc freezer bags. For my family of 4, I put 4 breasts or equivalent servings of chops in a ziploc. Then add approximately 3/4 cup of the BBQ, Italian or Ranch Dressing (I also add some minced garlic and some black pepper to this one). Zip and freeze flat. You can bake one of those suckers from frozen at 350˚F for 50-60 minutes and get two solid 25 minute writing sprints in while it cooks. It marinates as it freezes and also more if you let it thaw first, but honestly, who remembers to do that in time?!
Make Sacrifices to the Crockery Gods — I can’t tell you how many times throwing something into the crockpot in the morning has saved my bacon! Look for simple recipes with 5 ingredients or less, dump chicken and pork loins work well for this too. Most of dinner cooks while you’re doing your thing. Husbands and teens CAN be taught to dump the ingredients in. They may claim to have forgotten how the next time, but this is where all that practice at being a persistent writer comes pays off!
Pamper Yourself — De-stress by relaxing. Curl up and read a book. Go see a movie. Go get a mani-pedi if that’s your thing. You’re running around doing everything for everyone else right now, right? Hopefully, they won’t forget you deserve to be pampered and treated like royalty, but… yeah. Trust me on this one. You’ll feel better for giving yourself a treat like this in the middle of the chaos.
Holiday Parties, Concerts, & Get Togethers — Don’t let them get you down. They’re a great opportunity for people watching! If you see or overhear something you’re afraid you’ll forget, slip into the bathroom and pull out your trusty notebook or smart phone or whatever and note it down for later! Same thing goes for that Aha! moment that strikes you in the middle of the concert… don’t lose it!
Say ‘NO!’ When Appropriate — You know your deadlines and obligations. Don’t short-change your own goals just because every family on the block has invited you over for some eggnog and carols. You know the connections you can’t miss, but you’re not lying if you say you have other plans and what you mean is you want to write. Give yourself the gift of time for yourself.
Houseguests — Whether you have them or are one… be sure to schedule downtime for everyone. Some may need more than others.
Remember Why You Celebrate— To me, this is the most important one… if my writing slips, it slips. If my holiday prep slips, it slips. I’d much rather spend time with the people I love having a good time than run around like a chicken with its head cut off, scrambling to get everything done and feel miserable about it.
YOUR TURN: With the holidays’ coming up, what are you holiday plans? What are your favorite holiday food traditions? And how are you plan to balance your creative endeavors with your real life obligations? Or are you taking a break?
And if you’d like to read about how the rest of my group approaches their research, you can find their blogs here:
Last week’s post on How We Buckle Down and Focus on Our Writing, another entry in our How I Write series, really got me thinking since it didn’t seem like I was physcially or mentally able to sit down and focus this past week. The result was the topic that I challenged my accountability group to answer this week: Where are you now? Where is that, in comparison to where you were six months ago? A year? Five years, ten? How have your goals changed? What would you do differently?”
10 Years Ago
We were living two time zones east in Austin, TX. We had two pre-schoolers at that point who kept me busy. Somehow, I was still active with LegendMUD: coding, designing areas, writing quests, descriptions and dialogue for the computer-controlled characters. This was basically a text adventure game that spanned three eras of time and attempted to present “History as it was thought to be at the time.” This meant magic worked according to myth and legends and you could run into virtual versions of many historical figures or even take an active role in those same myths, legends and historical events. I was also doing technical writing as well as doing op-ed and more explanatory pieces surrounding updates and the community. We were well-connected to a diverse group of friends and colleagues in the area.
5 Years Ago
When we moved to San Diego, CA, and basically ripped apart our social fabric once again. We signed the kids up for scouts so they could benefit from the programs and get to know other kids in their school as we didn’t live in the same neighborhood. I was reading up to 2-3books a week while waiting to pick them up from school. I was also no longer involved with LegendMUD but bored as just a player on another game and I was looking for a creative outlet. At this point most of my energy was going into making my son’s Cub Scout experience worthwhile.
4 Years Ago
The next summer, I picked up DH’s copy of Becoming A Writer by Dorothea Brande. I swear, she spoke to me across the decades. She lit a fire under my butt and I couldn’t ignore her. I found the Romance Divas writing forum while looking for information on how to get started and chewed my way through DH’s books on craft, soaking up everything I could. It was at RD that I met Bria Quinlan and Jodi Henley. These two people are still inspirational and influential today. In fall 2007, I started Beneath His Touch, writing for hours in the chat challenges. Thus began my journey of alternating rounds of craft study & bouts of writing.
This cycle continued as a sort of holding pattern as we also dealt with our son’s recurring migraine and sinus issues which led to a quarter of independent study, that stopped my writing dead in its tracks. That was two years ago. I’m slowly recovering and gaining momentum as you’ll see below.
1 Year Ago
Last year, in the week before Thanksgiving, we decided to start house hunting as our lease was up at the end of the year. We found a house, closed on it and were moved in by the second week in February. Silly me, at this point, I was also trying to finish a draft of the full novel I’d started in the fall of 2007 (BHT) and finalizing my goals for 2011. Revealed was stuck at a weird half-way point and the heroine wasn’t very sympathetic. The overall plot was in place, but the hero’s side of the story was mostly missing. And I have a handful of other false starts that I can’t just toss out, because the characters want their stories told. Now, if anyone knows how to keep them quiet while I focus on a particular pair at a time, my life would be so much easier.
6 Months Ago
My oldest promoted from Middle School to High school and I took the plunge to join both RWA National and the local San Diego Chapter. I’ve slowly been pushing myself out of my comfort zone, but I’m still reluctant to push myself. It’s getting easier, especially when I look back like this and see how much I have been able to do. I also finished a round of polish on the full novel I started in 2007 & prepared my first submission to a literary agent. My local RWASD chaptermates are also good about pushing me. I mentioned I needed to start submitting and get my PRO membership. They kept asking if I’d done it yet. Then it was hugs & cheering and “Have you submitted your PRO app yet?” See? They support and propel you along. They’re awesome like that.
Where Am I now?
Many days, I don’t feel like I’ve come that far, but I’m now a recognized PRO member of RWA which means I’ve made a submission and am actively working toward publication. I still haven’t heard back, but their automated receipt was enough! I’m also reworking Revealed and turning it into what it was intended to be instead of taking easy and lazy ways in regard to characters and their reactions and decisions. It’s still the same essential story, but it reads so much better. It’s always a good thing when you can see the strength of the heroine instead of wanting to slap her for being a constant watering pot. I’ve also joined an online chapter of RWA , The Beau Monde Chapter, which specializes in the Regency Era, and boy am I soaking up lots of Town Bronze there! More importantly, instead of feeling like I was spinning my wheels with the same two stories, I started another one to see what I’d learned and to try a slightly different approach. I’ve run into a brick wall, but I think that was just because I called it a NaNo project and got discouraged when I couldn’t hit the numbers. But, I’m not giving up on it!
How have my goals changed?
In the past four years, I’ve moved from writing simply to amuse myself to wanting to see my book on a shelf and treating it more like an actual business. I even have real business cards. My goals are SMARTer. They’re more realistic, more structured, and I’m much more conscious of the longer term goals on a week-by-week basis thanks to my accountability group. My goals are also more public and more ambitious. I’ll be attending the RWA National Conference in Anaheim next summer. You’ll notice my real name is now attached to my writing and social media. I haven’t been laughed at yet for saying I want to write Regency Romance novels. Most people think it’s pretty cool.
What would I do differently?
I definitely would have joined RWA sooner for the support, especially at the local level. I really wish I’d taken both days of Bob Mayer’s Warrior Writer workshop, but I’m glad I decided on the day based on his Who Dares Wins book over the day dedicated to our stories. I needed to hear the bit about stepping out of our comfort zones and that’s where I met Pamela Moran and M. A. Taylor, who cemented my decision to join RWA & RWASD. And yes, I should have listened to them and joined then, not waited two more years. I do wish I’d been more serious about trying to reach a daily or weekly quota that worked with my writing cycle, but that’s something I don’t have to label as a regret, but can take and work toward that in my 2012 goals and beyond.
YOUR TURN: Can you see your growth and progress toward your goals? Are you happy with where you are now? When’s the last time you did something for the first time?
And if you’d like to read about how the rest of my group approaches their research, you can find their blogs here:
This week my accountability group is blogging about how we buckle down and focus on our writing to inspire our creativity as a few of us are participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo challenge. Last week’s post on research strategies and sources is also part of our How I Write series.
The title of this post is a play on words: both in the sense that it rises from within and finding that sphere of focus that lures the muse out into action. I find my creativity bubbles best when I can control my ability to narrow my focus, limit distractions and have something to hold me accountable. This post is a bit of an expansion on the one we did a while back called “Getting Down to Business” which looked at the routines we rely on to settle into writing.
Narrow Focus to improve Creativity
I’ve always been able to hyper-focus on something that interests me or is mind-numbingly tedious. Give me a good book, a puzzle to solve or get me into the zone with a sewing project or organizing data or text and I can tune out the world. I’d probably get in trouble for this, but my husband has the same ability, perhaps more so. It’s not unusual for one of us to walk up behind the other, ask a question and be ignored until we forcibly insert ourselves into the other’s attention bubble.
I know I used to drive my roommate nuts in college. In order to study, I’d turn on music to drown out the noise from the rest of the hall. Unfortunately for her, what worked best for me was loud and obnoxious like Run D.M.C or The Violent Femmes. I knew them well enough that I could tune them out as well and they provided excellent coverage for any noise on the floor.
Lately, for writing, I’ve found that I can’t listen to music with lyrics if I’m trying to write down new words of my own. Does. Not. Work. Doesn’t matter how well I know it or not, it’s distracting. My solution? Instrumental music. Preferably Peter Gabriel’s Passion soundtrack. There’s just something about the building rhythm of the percussion on those tracks that intensifies from the beginning through to the end of the hour simply pulls me along and the words with it.
The song in the video below is a great example of how the music builds throughout. If you have any suggestions for stuff that sounds similar, please let me know! I’ve found Japanese drumming to be VERY close to what I’m looking for, but I’m always looking for new stuff too!
My next album of choice is the soundtrack from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for similar reasons. I usually get pulled out of my zone when the song “A Love Before Time” comes up. I often skip both the English and the Mandarin versions because of this, but at least they’re at the end. I’ve also listened to some other instrumentals pieces, but nothing works as well for me as the Gabriel soundtrack.
Limit Distractions to Creativity
I’m horrible about distractions. I’ve always needed to take frequent breaks and rest/refocus my eyes as I’m far sighted and hate my glasses. This usually means looking out the window. Hummingbirds are a HUGE distraction. But any movement in my peripheral vision will pull me out. I’d probably do better with blinders than headphones. I used to write with headphones (more as a signal to the other parents waiting) during my kids’ martial arts practices, but I lost that hour of writing time when they gave that up.
A ringing phone drives me nuts. It has to be answered by the second ring or it kills me. I could probably turn it off, but I feel I need to be available in case school calls about one of the kids. With CallerID there’s no excuse other than being unable to stand the sound of it ringing not to ignore calls I don’t need to take. If only the telemarketers were as trainable as everyone else to respect my “office hours”.
Trying to work when the kids are home is just asking to be interrupted. They’re teens, so they should be self-sufficient by now. Honestly, they mostly are… but as any mom knows, as soon as your attention is directed elsewhere, like to a phone call or something you’d like to do for yourself… BAM! There they are, like magic. This is why my writing time usually falls during the day between dropping them off at school and picking them up again. You can imagine the havoc this plays with my ability to focus when my son is home with a migraine, especially when he missed an entire quarter when they knocked him down daily and then we did home-study for a quarter. Luckily, he’s doing much better this year. Although he has missed a few days here and there, it’s not constant. I also find working in the mornings on weekends before anyone else is up to be a good time.
Staying Accountable
So that brings me to the internet. I’m my own worst distraction some days. There was a running joke in college about “Study breaks” which really translated into “I need to take a break from the fun and study”. I always do better knowing someone else is working “with” me. Or at least at the same time. This is also a holdover from college where my now-husband would force me to work and more importantly finish my undergrad thesis by saying “If I have to work, so do you.” So I did.
These last two factors are why chat challenges work so well for me. I find I work best with 20-30 minute “sprints” with a few minutes between to refocus my eyes, check-in with whomever I’m working with and be accountable for how my time was spent. The #1k1hr challenges on twitter are too long and I find myself drifting away from the task to randomly surf. I don’t think I could use one of the internet blocking programs because I frequently look something up for research and go right back to writing. Research like that doesn’t usually pull me away from the project for long, it’s undirected or unspecific research that is dangerous.
Deadlines and I are not good acquaintances yet. This is one of the reasons I keep coming back to NaNoWriMo. Some days are better than others for productivity, but I feel like I need to be doing this on a consistent basis. I’ve tried writing trackers and such, and unless I’m already dialed into the project, it’s not a motivator. But knowing so many others are working toward the same goal? Yeah, that speaks to me and I can’t always ignore the call.
YOUR TURN: How do you shut it all off and just focus? Do you play music to block the world? Do you shut yourself into a room for a few hours? Can you manage it while surrounded by others?
And if you’d like to read about how the rest of my group approaches their research, you can find their blogs here:
This week my accountability group is blogging about how we flesh out/develop a fiction character for our stories. Last week’s post on our bookshelves and influential authors is also part of our How I Write series.
In order to answer the question about HOW, I think I need to share what character depth & complexity mean to me. I enjoy reading rich characters, ones who feel like real people, albeit a bit larger than life, but real. I think authors can make this happen through a variety of tools available to them. It bothers me when characters are flat or indistinguishable from one another, even and especially secondary characters. I read for the emotional journey and flat characters just don’t cut it for me as a reader, whatever the plot may be.
I was pondering how to pull this post together and find meaningful photos to use for it when I thought about my daughter’s interests in anime and cosplay (costume play or dressing up and getting into the character of your favorite roles). She’s been enthusiastically gathering materials to portray a number of different characters lately. Putting together a Halloween costume or working with big visual symbols of someone else’s character instead of coming up with your own is a bit easier, but you also employ the same essential steps. You start with the basics and then dress it up with all the bells and whistles until you’re happy with it.
The BASICS
The Basics: What Absolutely Defines Your Character
For me, the basics of any given character are those things that make them uniquely themselves. If you took any of those things away, they wouldn’t be the same person, right? At first, they may feel a bit two-dimensional and you’ll want to build on that, but you need a good base. I don’t tend to go in any particular order once I have the general idea of my character in mind. Go where your interest and whimsy take you.
GMC — I’ve never read Deb Dixon‘s Goals, Motivation, Conflict (GMC), but I’ve heard it recommended enough times that I probably should read it over at some point to get it from the source. But I do try to include some of the concepts when creating and then developing the characters for my stories. Characters have to have WANTS and NEEDS as well as CONFLICTS or at least some OBSTACLES to reach them. Otherwise, it’s not interesting or satisfying and I think these fall under the basics of what you need to write a story. Without them, well, it’s just gonna flop around on the page.
Establishing Connections — Michael Hauge recommends using at least 2 of the 5 following ways to establishing rapport between your main character and your audience:
1) likeability — a nice person
2) skill/expertise — they are good at something
3) sympathetic — the victim of some undeserved misfortune
4) funny — not always an appropriate choice, depending on your genre
5) jeopardy — they are in danger of loss of anything of vital importance
These ways are meant to be used at the beginning of your story with your protagonist, but I think they can also be useful to pull readers closer to any character, especially your supporting secondary cast who will have a lot of time on stage.
Strengths/Weaknesses — Knowing your character’s strengths and weaknesses are ways to make sure you’re taking them on a story arc that changes. Not all characters have to, but it’s often more interesting to me if either the hero, the heroine or both of them learn something and grow as people during the course of the story. Knowing their strengths and weaknesses also makes it easier to test your characters and place effective obstacles in their path.
At Least 5 Whys — This tool is most helpful in figuring out motivations for goals and so many other things. Never stop at the first answer you think of. One way to avoid writing clichés is to brainstorm and dig down deeper, don’t settle for the first thing that comes to mind. Let your inner toddler have free reign with this one!
Biggest Fear & how you will make them face it — this one is a bit more tied to plot development, but I think it’s important when you’re fleshing out the character. This may be part and parcel of the next item, but knowing it before you get too far along can be helpful in figuring out ways you can torture your protagonist that will actually move the plot along in ways that should engage your reader in that emotional roller coaster.
Finally, Jodi Henley‘s idea of a Core Event is another concept that I’ve come to view as essential to character development. She explains this much better on her blog and in her workshops, but it is essentially what happened to make this person who they are when you begin their story. It is NOT the inciting incident. It’s most likely backstory that colors their perceptions of the world and the people around them. It is what drives how they make decisions and react under stress.
BELLS & WHISTLES
Bells & Whistles: What touches add depth, complexity & believability?
This is where the fun comes in. Also the depth, the complexity and the versimilitude. Oh, yeah. I used that big word. The sum of all these little details are what make the characters even more unique and memorable. I’m sure we all have friends who have “THAT” laugh. You know the one. Or that aunt or uncle who has always used that same tired greeting that makes you cringe since you were old enough to remember?
Tics, expressions, rituals, habits — These can be nervous or verbal tics. Pick a few from each category and ONLY use them for one character. Give them each their own voice and personality.
Friends, possessions & pets — Who was it who said we are defined by what and whom we surround ourselves? Definitely have friends and acquaintances make observations about your other characters, especially your main characters. Are they showing their true selves to the world or does the reader get a special perspective on them?
Some of these things may seem small and frivolous in comparison to the items you use when building your character’s identity, but little things we can easily picture in our heads are sticky. Think about Sherlock Holmes’ deerstalker and his pipe. And no one would ever mistake Wolverine with his claws out for Cyclops. Ok, those are swinging back into the world of comics, anime and cosplay, but it’s an easy visual example.
WHAT I DON’T USE
Character Sheets — You’ve seen the ones: star sign, height, weight, occupation, model of car driven, all full of useless trivia that probably won’t make a difference in how your character will react to the things you need them to. Oh, and I always read them with much amusement considering I write historical fiction. I don’t think I’d find them very useful even if I wrote contemporaries.
Stereotypes/Archetypes — Ok, I TRY not to use stereotypes and I was re-introduced to the notion of using archetypes again this summer, but I’m not sure that I’ll ever dig too deeply in that direction as something to build a foundation on. Some people may find them useful, but I also think the temptation to slide back into stereotype is too strong for me.
And if you’d like to read about how the rest of my group develops their characters, you can find their blogs here:
“Is writer’s block real or a myth and how do you deal with it?”
I believe writer’s block is a real phenomenon. Ok, probably not as literal as the wall in the picture above, but it can feel that way some days.
However, I don’t think writer’s block is necessarily a bad thing that you must sit and bang your head against. It’s merely a signal. Your muse, or your well of creativity, hasn’t abandoned you, it’s just undernourished. Ok, so if you don’t subscribe to the whole muse thing, think of it this way…
Your subconscious and your conscious mind are in total agreement here. You don’t know what’s going to happen next. And until you step back, stop banging your head against the problem, nothing’s going to be resolved in a pretty fashion that you’re going to be happy with in the long run.
So, what can we do once we’ve recognized this signal?
Read: What should you read? ANYthing and EVERYthing that interests you. Read for fun. Read to soak up the skills of the author. Read aloud if you want. Just luxuriate in the words. Let them wash over you. Even reading something that sucks can inspire you to do better. Reading up on the craft of writing helps me think about how I’m putting the words together and gives new ideas to try.
Relax: Take some time for yourself. Pamper yourself. Listen to some music. Take a nap. Reconnect with friends.
Play: Do something you enjoy, just for yourself and for the heck of it. Get down on the floor and play with the kids (borrow someone else’s if you need to and they’ll thank you!) Spend some time pursuing a different hobby.
Exist: This one is harder to explain. It’s similar to meditation, in that your focus is on something repetitive and preferably wordless. Exercise, playing an instrument, knitting, doing the dishes, gardening, walking, showering or soaking in the tub can all fit the bill. Be yourself as much as you can be, and step beyond that. Sounds corny, but works for many and gets the words flowing.
The main thing that all those things have in common is they are ways to refill your creative well and give your subconscious time to work through the question of “What next?”. Writing or any other creative endeavor can be a drain on us. We really need to take time to find balance (one of the things my accountability group focuses on) to give us the time to step back and plan (even if only subconsciously) instead of always running full tilt at the keyboard.
I find I work best when I can routinely cycle between cramming stuff into my brain and then later dumping stuff back out on the page. Others may not find that works for them, or they need a much shorter and less distinctive cycle to feed their muses.
Another thing you can try is a little different in that it’s not a refilling, but more of a rebooting or flushing action.
Write: You can use a journal to dump out all the crap your subconscious is wrestling with and save it for later. Experiment with a new technique. Something new. Something mundane. Writing exercises or writing prompts may help spark your creativity too.
Your Turn: Share how you maintain balance and refill your creative well in the comments below.
And if you’d like to read about what the rest of my group thinks about writer’s block and how they deal with it, you can find their blogs here:
Last week, we shared our Writing Routines. This week for our “How I Write” series, my accountability group is sharing what inspires us. What inspires us? What do we turn to for inspiration when we’re having trouble starting a project? What keeps us going? How do we make it through to the end of a project?
Why does one idea survive when others wither?
Serious questions for such an important topic. However, serious is the one thing I usually can’t be if I’m staring down a new project.
I need to feel like I’m having fun. To feel like I’m in love with the project. Surfing through stock photos or even photos of celebs is usually good for getting in some eye candy and finding possible hero material. Just taking a pad of paper and sitting outside or flopping on my bed, or anywhere really as long as it’s a different location helps. It can’t feel like W.O.R.K.
Music also helps. My husband and I have a huge music collection. And it’s quite eclectic. I’ve gotten story ideas from some of the song lyrics and some of the titles. How odd is that when I can’t write with music with lyrics playing? Of course, going to a live show also always helps refill the creativity well.
You wouldn’t think taking time away from creative work to slog through text books on the craft of writing would help fuel my creative side, but it works with my cyclic routine. I stuff my brain full of enough theory and other people’s prose and eventually, I just need to sit down and work on something of my own. With writing craft, it means I get to play with a new idea or technique. With reading other fiction, I don’t always stick to the genre I write, Regency-set Historical Romances, but venture out into science-fiction, fantasy, young adult, paranormal or contemporary romance. I’ve also been known to sit and read a variety of the non-fiction books that DH leaves laying around. They’re always good for some pop-psy or pop-sci tidbits I wouldn’t have searched out on my own.
As far as inspiring me to sit down and put words on the page. That first day is the hardest. The second day is close behind. I have to have a roadmap, some kind of outline. The more I know about a story beforehand, the easier it is for me to tease out the smaller details along the way and let my characters surprise me. The best methods I’ve found to get BICHOK — butt in chair, hands on keyboard — is to use a timer and a chat room. I’ve always done better knowing someone else is working beside me, even if they’re working on something different.
I blame my DH for that. Back in college, I had to finish my thesis. He said, “If I have to work, so do you.” Yeah, I’m a crack procrastinator from way back. This work ethic carried through to when we worked at the same company making computer games. It drove me nuts when I got my own office and I couldn’t tell if anyone else was working without having to get up and go see. In the same office, he could be surfing the web, but it felt like he was focused, so I felt the need to focus on my own work. This is why the internet has been my link to sanity and adult conversation as well as a motivating force during my years as a stay at home mom and to get me through two projects start to finish.
Of course, there are the projects started and never finished. My mom today told me how proud she was that I finished a novel and submitted it into to an agent. Yes, my mom knows me from way back too. She’s seen WAY too many creative projects started and never finished. I think the difference with these two novels is that I love the ideas behind them, the characters in them and the people I’ve met along the journey since I introduced these characters to each other.
Writing may be a solitary occupation, but that doesn’t mean we ever have to be alone while we’re working!
To see what inspires a few of my fellow writers, visit their websites, below:
Last week, we shared our Writing Caves. This week for our “How I Write” series, we chose to focus on our writing process. Not the big overall picture, that could be a book in itself, right? But rather the mechanics of sitting down to write and what rituals or routines we have to prepare ourselves and get into the zone.
The Usual Suspects
The first thing I have to do is clear my email. This usually involves nearly wearing out my delete key, but often there’s some keepers. Next, I open up iTunes and if I’m going to add some serious word count or do a journal entry, I pull up my playlist for either Peter Gabriel’s Passion or the soundtrack for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I can’t do new words with lyrics. I like Passion because it’s an hour long and it builds in tempo and intensity the entire time. That’s been my go to album for focus since college.
Once I’m settled in my chair with a bottle of water, I open up Excel for my spreadsheets and Word for the actual manuscript. Once I’m ready to dig in, I open up online-stopwatch, a great little flash timer that Bria Quinlan turned me on to. I think I wore out 2 or 3 regular kitchen timers by that point. It’s great! It only startles me if I’m using headphones to listen to music and concentrate when I’d take my laptop to work at the martial arts studio. So, 20 minutes on the virtual clock and I’m ready to go.
That’s it in a nutshell. Everything’s meant to focus me inward instead of looking around at all the shiny. I can’t unplug my phone in case one of the kids needs me from school and I’ve NEVER been someone who can listen to a ringing phone. Yes, we have an answering machine. Yes, I even have caller-id so I could screen my calls. But most of the time it’s more distracting to have it ring and listen to the message than to just answer it.
If I’m doing edits on a story, I usually settle into the recliner with printed pages (for my own stuff) or my laptop (for my CP’s stuff) with a bottle or two of water. Likewise, if I’m doing pre-writing work, I’ll take a pencil and note paper and start scribbling there.
As far as a schedule or when I do my best work… I usually work in the mornings to get things done and out of the way. This also happens to coincide when kids and husbands sleep in on weekends and vacations. That way they don’t have to feel like they’re interrupting me and I don’t get frustrated with interruptions. It also means I can spend the rest of the day with them writing-guilt free. When I first started writing again in 2007, I was writing a lot in the evenings and at night. Homework has gotten harder to help with and everyone needs to go to bed earlier these days, so that hasn’t happened in a while.
I’m in the process of settling back into the “kids are in school routine” and need to look at my writing schedule and make it more efficient. Learning to juggle all the moving parts of this endeavor is quite a challenge, but it’s keeping me out of trouble for now.
What routines and rituals do you rely on? Can you settle in to focus even if you don’t/can’t go through the motions of getting down to business?
To see how a few of my friends write, you can visit their websites, below:
If someone had asked me how to spread your wings a couple years ago, I would have had no idea how to answer them. One of the most painful things to do as a writer, or maybe it’s just me as an introvert, is to move out of an established comfort zone. This year has been a series of those kinds of steps for me. I joined RWA, I’ve entered contests, placed and won bids on critiques or just asked different people for their thoughts on my writing. I have several other steps planned for the rest of the year, but I know it’s not going to get any easier.
So how have I managed to force myself out of my cocoon and out of my comfort zone?
1) Setting small yet attainable goals. Breaking bigger goals down into smaller ones help make it not feel so overwhelming. Telling yourself you only have to do one small thing deflates the importance and takes some of the scary out of the task.
2) Sneaking up on those goals. Baby steps help here too. In preparation for sending off a submission packet to an agent, I’ve done a lot of similar yet different things this year. In bidding on critique donations, I ended up sending 3 chapters to a published author. Yeah, that was harder than sending it to someone I know online. However, I know that when I go to hit send on a submission, it’ll be easier for the practice.
3) Realizing no one else can do these things for me. If I want to be a published author, these goals are on that path and I’ll have to tackle them at some point. Each step takes me closer to that goal and each step so far has gotten easier. Maybe it’s just looking back that makes the previous steps look so much smaller, like when you stand at the top of the stairs cut into a mountainside and look down at where you started climbing.
What kinds of things do you find yourself doing to push yourself and spread your wings?
I think my parents messed up when I was born. My middle name should have been ‘procrastination’ instead of what they wrote down on the form at the hospital.
Unfortunately, even knowing that the longer something is put off the harder it becomes to start doesn’t seem to prevent me from falling into those same ruts of routine. Thanks to Toni Sue for prompting me to look at this blog and question why I haven’t been giving it any attention for so long.
Have I run out of things to say? Nope. I just haven’t had the energy to pry them out of my head and plop them down on the page. Having my son out of school this year for 5 months really took its toll on me. It’s not a good excuse, and I wasn’t really looking for an excuse, but I can pinpoint when he started the independent study program as the point where my free time vanished.
Why I say I wasn’t looking for an excuse and that’s not a good one is that he went back to the traditional campus at the end of March. *flips through her calendar* Uh.. yeah… So… what have I been doing the past two months? A heckuva lot of nothing. Nothing meaningful anyway.
I’ve been stuck in a very passive rut. Barely reactive, forget proactive. What really sucks is that it’s not just writing that’s suffered, but pretty much everything. I’ve tried to keep up with a bare minimum of requirements, but honestly, there’s not much spark in anything right now.
Back at the beginning of May, I started working through The Weekend Novelist by Robert J. Ray and Bret Norris. This has been helpful in sneaking back up on writing, but it’s still feeling a bit more like a chore than fun. I suspect I may need to cut out all my passive entertainment during the day and just play around with my characters again for a while. Anything to get the wheels back on track and find a routine that works for me.
Am I insane for thinking this can work just as I switch gears from school year to summer vacation mode? We’ll see. Something’s gotta give.
