Mentors I Have or Haven’t Known

Last week in my accountability group’s HOW I WRITE series, I talked about why I love historical romance. This week we’re talking about our mentors, whether they realize they influence us or not.

Mentors Who Are Aware They’re Mentoring

My local San Diego RWA chapter has a great image it shares with its members. The image is a powerful one of one hand reaching forward and another reaching back. No matter your progress along your writer’s journey, there’s someone ahead of you who can lend a helping hand and someone else who may be just starting out that you could help in return. As a PRO member, I fall squarely in the middle of the pack. I may not always feel like I have a lot to offer in terms of writing, but I’m always willing to help where I can.

I first met Jodi Henley at Romance Divas. She very helpfully absolutely shredded my newbie offering in the critique forum. Since then, I’ve had many aha moments while chatting with her, reading her critiques for other people, and reading her blog. This quote from Galileo Galilei sums up my best experiences with reading Jodi’s pearls of wisdom:

“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.”

You’re still here? I’m surprised you’re not off reading everything on her blog. I’ll be here when you get back.

So many things we hear, read, even experience, don’t sink in and click until we’re ready to hear them or are ready to recognize how it fits in with our own world views. One of the things I love about Jodi is how she makes me think.

I also consider my accountability group as mentors as well. There’s always something to be learned with this group, whether it’s about writing, balancing life, setting goals, or something completely random, the ladies listed at the bottom of this post are truly inspirational and supportive. I also still mentally include Bria Quinlan in this group she started. Thank you all. Again, there’s this wonderful feeling of being able to reach out and find helping hands.

Certainly not least of all is my husband. What can I say, I’ll follow him anywhere. He’s a super creative guy: MFA in poetry, and competent in art, fiction, music, game design and I can’t think of anyone who’d be as patient as he has been to put up with reading some of my horrendous first drafts without falling down laughing. It was his books on writing that caught my interest and introduced me to the person who actually set me off on this writer’s journey.

Mentors Who May Not Be Aware They’re Mentoring

I credit Dorothea Brande as setting me on this journey because after reading her book, On Becoming A Writer, I was bitten by the bug. Her voice cut across the decades and spoke directly to me. She believes in me all over again each time I re-read those pages. She’s my go to confidence booster and somehow, she also manages to say something new each time (sound like something Galileo said?) despite having written the book in the 1930s.

I also regularly read the blogs of the following people:
Kristen Lamb
Anna DeStefano
Joanna Bourne (especially her Technical Topics posts!)
James Scott Bell (his craft of writing books are wonderful and very straightforward!)
Scott Myers (Go Into The Story)

Each of them have provided a different lens to look through and discover new facets about writing or myself. I may never be able to thank them in person, but their insights and assistance are appreciated all the same.

Then there are the authors of everything I read. It’s hard to read for pure pleasure any more. I’m always thinking about story structure or character arcs and trying to figure out just how the author managed to wring such emotion out of a particular scene.

Everyone I interact with on social media has also had a hand in shaping who I am as a person, as a writer, as an artist. It doesn’t take a lot — pointing out a cool site, showing off an interesting photgraph, relating a personal experience, offering an opinion in the comments section, an offhand tip to others with similar interests — those all count!

I guess I’ve just been thinking a lot about who I can/should be reaching forward to and how I can be reaching back to lend a hand. So, c’mon… take my hand. It’s gonna be an interesting trip!

If you’d like to read more about who the rest of the group considers their mentors, you can find their blogs here:

* Alexia Reed * Kimberly Farris*
* Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford * Emma G. Delaney *

Your Turn: Who do you consider your biggest influencers? Do you consider yourself influential to others?

5 Steps from Dreams to Completed Goals

Last week in my accountability group’s HOW I WRITE series, we posted 5 Things That Made Us Smile that week. This week’s topic is “Share tips on how you successfully set and completed goals.”

I had a very specific set of writing goals in mind for last year and this year, with the RWA National convention in Anaheim for 2012. I’ve felt like I wasn’t getting any farther on my own and I needed some extra guidance and cheerleaders along the way. So that’s what 2011 was all about. Moving forward with taking baby steps so I didn’t freak myself out.

A few of my 2011 goals were intended to up my writing game (not in terms of craft, but in networking and path to publication):

1. Complete my manuscript (BHT for those following along).
2. Join Romance Writers of America (nat’l, RWASD, & Beau Monde chapter)
3. Submit my manuscript to at least ONE agent.
4. Apply for RWA PRO status.

1. Separate Dreams From Goals.

Dreams are good. They’re the moon and the stars. The most important thing to remember is that they have to be YOUR dreams and goals. If you’re doing them for someone else or they don’t exactly line up with your values, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Take the time to think about who you are, what you want, and why you want it. Don’t rush figuring those things out.

Dream: I want to be published author and see my book on the shelf.
Goal: This year, I want to complete the first draft of a 90k Regency Set Historical Romance novel that’s suitable for Avon Books.

Dream: I want to take amazing photographs on purpose.
Goal: This year, I will publicly do a 366 (It’s leap year!) Photo Challenge with a couple of friends to improve composition and learn to use my camera without relying on the AUTO setting.

Dream: We want a comfortable retirement.
Goal: We need to accumulate X amount of money by a certain date in order to get a return on the principle that’s equal to our current income.

With the dreams, there are many paths I could take to get there, most of them involving a whole lotta luck. The goasl, if they’re good ones, are going to be much more precise and can be broken down into tasks. A dream is what you want, but a goal is what you need to do to move toward your dreams.

2. WRITE S.M.A.R.T. Goals.

Have someone who knows you and what you’re trying to accomplish go over them and sanity check them. Skimping on this step just sets you up for failure. You can rationalize anything if you aren’t crystal clear about what you want to accomplish and you’ll find all sorts of loopholes, especially if you don’t write them down. Another thing that writing them down and putting them through this checklist can do is find and resolve conflicting goals. I don’t have exact dates for these goals above, but on my master copy, they had precise dates of which they were to be accomplished. I don’t think I went over by more than a week on any of them.

Are the goals [S]pecific? How are you going to accomplish it, if you don’t know exactly what you want to do?
Are they [M]easurable? How are you going to know if you’ve done enough to complete it?
Are they [A]ttainable? How are you going to achieve this goal? What steps do you need to take?
Are they [R]ealistic? This is where having a partner in crime or accountability helps most. We often bite off more than we can chew and they’ll call us on it.
Are they [T]imely and/or time limited? Do you need to do it now? How long do you have to do it for? Do you have a deadline? Even a self-imposed one is better than leaving it open ended. Make sure you know of any other steps that must be completed first.

3. Group Similar Goals.

Make sure you have all the steps necessary and the order in which they need to be done to achieve what you want.

I knew I wanted to be in the PRO groups for RWA in 2012. This means on the PRO mailing loops, attending the PRO breakfasts for my local chapter before meetings, and going to the PRO Retreat in Anaheim. I couldn’t just do those goals in any old order. Ok, the first two I could, but 1 definitely had to come before 3 and 2 before 4. A nice neat little stack of dominoes, if you will. They just tend to fall in slow motion.

You should also be thinking in terms of SHORT TERM GOALS and LONG TERM GOALS. You may also have some medium range goals in there as well. It’s often helpful to pick a date 5 or 10 years in the future and dream big, but true. Then, start dividing that time frame up… What do you have to accomplish to reach the that big goal in half that time? In a quarter of that time? In the next two years? In the next year? In six months from now?

4. Keep Moving Forward.

Keep your goals list handy. Check it frequently. When you’ve completed one task/goal on your list, move on to the next one. Celebrate your victory, but don’t lose your forward momentum. Love that motto from Meet the Robinsons.

One thing with keeping tasks/goals in a logical order for completion is that you don’t have to backtrack. Even if you aren’t planning to accomplish the next step in the current month, quarter, year, 5 years or decade, you should still know what you’re going to need to do to get where you want to be. You need to be prepare if your world suddenly shifts beneath you and you’re left without a plan? Or worse, you have a plan, but it’s irrelevant. By having a forward-looking plan that stretches out farther than you think is necessary, you give yourself something to work towards and you just might find you have to readjust. Likewise, the ground can shift and suddenly you’re back to square one with certain goals. Pick yourself up, dust off the plan and get moving. You’ve already decided you want to be somewhere better. Every journey begins with that first step. Take it.

5. But, Don’t Look Down!

Why do we set goals for ourselves anyway? We want to grow, to improve, to enjoy life more. If you shoot for the moon and miss, you’ll still be among the stars. Trite, but usually true. One way to set your goals up for positive change and increase your chances of success is to frame them in positive terms. “Losing weight” always seems to fail… why? It’s not will power, genetics or even that extra slice of cake. Ok, it probably IS the cake, but that’s a different argument. The problem is that it’s a NEGATIVE goal. Look at the wording… LOSE that’s not a positive word. If you want to lose weight you need to think of it terms of what you’ll be gaining and then find the steps to accomplish that.

If you are trying to set goals that push beyond your comfort zone, you need to sneak up on them. Make progress at a rate you’re comfortable with. If I can push myself to do something once, the next time is easier because it lacks the apprehension and built up fear the next time. This is why I made a goals of submitting to at least ONE agent. I gave myself permission to set the bar VERY low and not build expectations into the goal.

One of the PRO Liasons in my local chapter said to me today: “Just like, when you’re climbing up high, don’t look down. Keep looking forward so you don’t get overwhelmed by how far up you are.” I’m really trying not to think how fast things are moving, so I can keep up. Lots of metaphors would fit here — gotta keep those plates spinning!

YOUR TURN: What tried ‘n true tips would you recommend for setting and achieving goals?

And if you’d like to read more about goal setting tips from the rest of my group this week, you can find their blogs here:

* Alexia Reed * Kimberly Farris*
* Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford * Emma G. Delaney *

Transitions: 2011 to 2012

Last time, our How I Write series, we talked about which books we’d include in a time capsule for 2011. This time, we’re looking at the other side of the calendar and all the introspection and planning that comes with the beginning of a new year. The questions posed were “What did you accomplish in 2011? What one thing about last year would you change? And What are your goals for 2012?” This isn’t a new topic for my accountability group, we start assessing the current year and how we want to change and revise and plan for the coming year with SMART goals back in November.

2011 Accomplishments

I joined RWA at the national and local levels and also joined the regency era specialty chapter, the Beau Monde. I also finished BHT and submitted it to a literary agent. I haven’t heard back but it was enough to get my PRO status for RWA.

A photo of our new house. — We're homeowners again!

We bought a new house at the beginning of the year and have made significant progress on settling in and making it ours.

I made an effort to listen to music on a regular basis and got in at least 60 hours each month. I also got a new digital camera for my birthday and have been playing with it with good results. I also made an effort to reconnect with two of my friends and had brunch with them once a month.

As a family, we managed to do something together for each major holiday/vacation, saw our daughter promote from 8th grade and enter high school and celebrated DH’s 40th birthday. There were trips to D.C./Philly/NYC, L.A. and Jacksonville for educational enrichment, fun and family.

this was about half of what I’d hoped to accomplish but when it’s all listed out it sounds like a lot, considering all the usual health and chaotic interruptions.

What Needs to Change?

Less drifting along and more focus. Like water, I’m prone to take the path of least resistance. My accountability group and several members in my local RWA Chapter are amazing at prodding me along and give me the courage to move forward. I don’t have any good excuses for not chasing what I want.

2012 Goals

So, my big, hairy, audacious goals for 2012… I have more goals than what I’m laying out here, but most of them would bore you to tears. You probably won’t care if we get our bookshelves organized, if I treat myself to a spa day every 3 months, or if I make my annual donation to Juvenile Diabetes Research. Balance is important, but I feel my writing has suffered from having my attention pulled elsewhere or just drifting because I didn’t have clear paths to follow. 2012 is a year to change that.

Without further dithering on, here’s what I’m willing to stand up here and say, THIS is what I WILL accomplish this year:

Attend the Nations RWA Conference in Anaheim in July. This is a HUGE for me. I’m not good with crowds or new situations. Eep.
Have 2 mss out to agents & contests by the end of the year. Gotta justify my PRO pin and you can’t get a yes by never asking!
Migrate my online identity to my name instead of my blog name or a nickname. Again, this is very hard for me, but needs done if I want to be taken seriously.
Stop lurking and participate with other writers and with local people who energize us. One of the ways I’ll be pushing myself to interact with other writers is doing interviews here on the blog. Expect the majority to be Regency Romance, but I have a couple Victorian writers in mind that I think you’ll love too.
Participate in a 365 Photo Project for 2012. Look for weekly summaries soon!

You should feel to pester me about any and all of the above if you haven’t sensed any movement from my cave in a while! Seriously.

YOUR TURN: How are you challenging yourself this year?

If you’d like to see what my friends accomplished in 2011 and have planned for 2012, you can find their blogs here:

* Alexia Reed * Kimberly Farris *
* Danie Ford * Emma G. Delaney * Angeleque Ford *

All I Want For Christmas…

Last week, our How I Write series delved into our planning process, and since we’re all writers, we focused on plotting. Which inevitably led to my post on Plotting via Spreadsheets – Don’t Be Trapped in the Box.

This week we were asked, “What’s on your writer’s wish list for Santa?”

A children's form letter that has been filled out reads "Dear Santa, This year I have been ( ) Very Good (X) Not So Good At Times and would really like to find a time clock, an industrial-sized tube of super glue to insure some quality BICHOK time, and a large dose of confidence so I can finish this novel! under my Christmas tree please. Here's a picture to show you what I mean: Than you so much, Kristen." — Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season!

YOUR TURN: What’s on your wish list for self-improvement and career-building for this coming year?

And if you’d like to see what’s on my friend’s writer’s wish list, you can find their blogs here:

* Alexia Reed * Kimberly Farris *
* Danie Ford * Emma G. Delaney * Angeleque Ford *

A Day In The Viscount’s Company

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?

A photo of Narayan Fergal O'Connor, an inspiration for Viscount Barrington. — 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:

* Alexia Reed * Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford *
* Emma G. Delaney * Kimberly Farris *

How to Write While Dealing With Holiday Madness

Photo of a Christmas Tree with eclectic ornaments. — A typical Koster Christmas tree.

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:

* Alexia Reed * Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford *
* Emma G. Delaney * Kimberly Farris *

Looking Back to Look Forward

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:

* Alexia Reed * Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford *
* Emma G. Delaney * Kimberly Farris *

Creativity Bubbles

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:

* Alexia Reed * Danie Ford * Emma G. Delaney *
* Angeleque Ford * Kimberly Farris *

Inspiration!

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?

Single bloom among several spent ones. — 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:

* Alexia Reed * Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford *
* Emma G. Delaney * Kimberly Farris *

Getting Down to Business

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.

What I usually have open when I'm writing. — 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:

* Alexia Reed * Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford *
* Emma G. Delaney * Kimberly Farris *