A Lull

In the midst of icing cupcakes like hydrangeas (for my sister’s bridal shower…I’m no Martha Stewart), re-facing my fireplace, and making sticky-note collages of my walls (see Monday’s post), I’ve been beating myself up a little bit. That’s because, while I was trying all sorts of new things and getting a lot accomplished, I wasn’t getting anything written. Or revised. Or brainstormed. Or even thought about planning to write down maybe some day.

It wasn’t writer’s block. Or that I was too busy (I mean, I was, but I did that to myself). Or that I didn’t have anything to write about.

I just hit a writing lull. That was something new.

A few years ago, I took a writing course from the local community college. The teacher called me one of the most prolific writers he’s ever met. With a few members from that course and a few more picked up at conferences along the way, I started a critique group. We meet every three weeks and at almost every meeting, I have something new to critique. Until lately. This lull was very new. And, for me, new things can be a little scary.

So I tried to let my brain figure out what was going on while I busied my hands. I did things like removing the crumbling mortar from my basement’s foundation block and filling it back in, buying a number of used doors and refinishing them for the basement (which is not even close to door-ready), and volunteering for a leadership position in Mister’s play group. These things were new. But they didn’t scare me. Instead, with each new thing my hands did, my energy renewed. 

So I approached my writing with the same idea: try something new. I applied for the Rutgers One-on-One Plus conference. It was something I’d never done before. And I got in. I tried a different technique for revision. And it is helping. I even had a scene for a new story idea in a totally new genre (YA probably) eek out (gulp).

My hands seemed to know what my writing brain didn’t: to get out of a lull, I need to try something new.

So I’m trying something else new. I’m not going to beat myself up when my writing isn’t as productive as I’m used to. I’m going to go with the flow, let it work out, and try something new.  

Related Links:

6 Ways Out of a Writing Slump by Darcy Pattison: http://www.darcypattison.com/writing-life/6-ways-out-of-writing-slump/

Blog post on when to stop writing by K. M. Weiland: http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/2013/05/5-reasons-you-should-stop-writing.html

 

 

 

Something New

Hi. Remember me? If not check out this post and this page. And here are some new things I recently discovered about myself:

I can ice cupcakes to look like hydrangeas (thanks to Rosie Cake Diva and youtube)

Fall makes me nostalgic.

I like having a preschooler much better than having an infant.

I really, really love peanut butter.

Creating anything, like my other work-in-progress my fireplace surround, is fulfilling.

When I upgrade my phone, I need one with a better camera.

Curious George entertains me almost as much as he entertains Mister.

I like the smell of honeysuckle blossoms, but I do not like the vine they grow on.

I need a bigger wall.

Okay, I know the orange color is awful. And, yes, the room is actually painted that color, but hopefully not for long. Let’s get past that, shall we? Why the bigger wall? On to the post.

I sit down with my Kindle copy of Martha Alderson’s The Plot Whisperer (discovered in Darcy Pattison’s article How To Diagnose Your Novel’s Strengths and Weaknesses), Mister’s Crayola markers, and every color Post-it note in the house. I’m determined to diagnose the problems in the 19th (yes 19th!) draft of my work-in-progress and I’ve got to do it fast. Rutgers One-on-One Plus is less than two months away. 

I follow Ms. Alderson’s procedures for identifying the turning points, action plot, character emotional development, and theme. Soon I’ve got something that looks like the picture above.A beautifully visual representation of my manuscript. With some holes. See the yellow notes? Those are the areas that need work. But the good news is that now I know where they are.

What new thing (writing related or not) have you tried lately that really worked? What new thing are you planning to try soon?

 

If You Can’t Say Something Nice

…don’t say anything at all. Remember that saying?

I first remember Thumper’s mother reminding him of it in the movie Bambi. As young as I was when I watched it,  the saying made sense. It still does. That’s why my blog has been quiet. It’s not that I can’t say anything nice. It’s just that, on a writing blog, I think there’s a different kind of nice. And that’s what I can’t do right now.

When I started this blog, I wanted to offer comfort and guidance to other writers, because writing is hard! I also wanted to hone my writing skills with the little anecdotes on the Monday posts, helping me observe and record the moment-to-moment everyday stuff that makes stories interesting. Lately, I haven’t been able to do any of those things. I haven’t been able to saying anything “nice.”

I’ve been working on a lot of revisions lately that have me spending a lot of time in my own head. I’m analyzing, re-plotting, re-developing characters, and re-writing. I can’t seem to get out of my head and write from the heart, or at least the unconscious, when it comes to the blog. My posts have been labored. Head-heavy. And that doesn’t help any of us.

So, I’m going to take a (short) break from blogging until I can get out of my own head enough to say something nice. Best of luck with your own writing journey.

 

Not Normal

So I tried something new this week. Water Pong Wednesday. And it flopped. Granted, I think I chose too hard of a challenge. As much as I love palindromes, it is hard to come up with them off the top of your head! I would like to try another Water Pong Wednesday next month, because I do think it could be fun, but I’ll just have to choose a better challenge. Thanks salsanpeeps (otherwise known as Husband) for thinking of the palindromes. You win! And Mary, the Keep Calm and Paddle On (answer: KAYAK) magnet is yours if you’d like it.

If you’re curious, here are the five-, six-, and seven-letter palindromes (if not, scroll down for the Friday post on discovering new characters):

Five-

civic

kayak

level

madam

radar (this one actually has an interesting history, starting as an acronym, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar

refer

rotor

sagas

sexes

shahs

solos

tenet

Six-

pull-up

redder

Seven-

deified

repaper

reviver

rotator

Now on to the response to Monday’s post.

My characters introduce themselves to me. Sound nuts? It probably is. And I love it. Here’s how it works:

Usually while my hands or my brain is busy with something else, I’ll hear an unmistakable voice from somewhere inside my own head. I rush to grab something to write on and with and write furiously. I try not to think or move, except for my hand on the page. I’m not even sure I breathe until the character is “finished.”

My first character, Mabel, introduced herself in a college course. I wrote this in the margins of my class notes:

Sometimes there are rules.  They aren’t written down or hung on the wall, but you still have to follow them.  One is not using your school scissors to cut someone’s hair.  Also, girls like pink and dolls.  I don’t follow that rule.  I don’t follow most rules actually.  I’ll tell you more about that later.

I am a tomboy, and you can spot a tomboy from a mile away.  I’m always the one in what some moms would call play clothes: comfortable pants with room to move around; layered shirts for hot and cold control; tennis shoes ready for a race at a moment’s notice; and never, ever any tights.  The tomboy uniform helps me do things like move with lightning fast speed, hit a home run, or climb a tree.

I held on to this introduction for three years before trying to write the story. So even after the character is introduced, the hard work isn’t done. In fact, I’m still revising this story.

After I wrote Mabel’s book, I was afraid that her voice might be the only one I’d ever hear. Then Biz came along. Here is her introduction: 

My name is Elizabeth, but as long as I can remember, everyone has called me Biz. Not Liz or Izzy or Beth. Just Biz. My mom says it fits because I’ve always been busy and Biz sounds like busy. I try to tell her that doesn’t work because busy is B-U-S-Y and Biz is B-I-Z. She tells me I’ll understand what she means someday. I don’t know when someday is but I’m already tired of waiting. Someday my slightly used little sister will be old enough to do more than drool in my books. Someday I’ll be able to ride the bus to school like a normal kid and I won’t have to vacuum the ants off my sister Marcy’s front seat before I get in. Someday, if I’m lucky, I might get to use my brain to do something more than just ace history tests. But it isn’t someday. It’s just Tuesday and I’m just Biz.

I think Biz is becoming the main character of a mystery I’ve been taking notes on and finally just started (I’m 139 words in! Only tens of thousands more to go!)

And just last week, another character introduced herself. As I told my husband, she is a tough one (I deleted her profanity for the sake of the blog):

It is bad enough that I’m a teenager with a baby sister. It’s worse that she was born nine months from my birthday. Exactly. Like I can’t count. I can just picture my parents being all like “aww remember when she was conceived and now she’s a young lady.” Puke. What’s even worse is that my mom thought the occasion would be a good time to have “the talk.” Yeah. That talk. About eight years too late, I think. And she kept using words like “beautiful” and “holy”. She wouldn’t last ten minutes in the back of the bus.

This was the first character whose introduction came more in the form of question and answer. I still have a lot of questions to “ask” her and I have no idea what her story is, but I think she’s got a lot of potential.

It amazes me that all three of these voices, and all three of these characters, came from me. And, at least in the case of Mabel so far, that I can keep “hearing” the unique voice for the duration of an entire manuscript. Maybe I’m not normal. Then again, maybe I am.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said: “Writers aren’t exactly people … they’re a whole lot of people trying to become one person.”

And E.L. Doctorow said: “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.”

Well, at least if I’m not normal, then I’m in good company.

Related Links:

An interesting pondering about writing and voices from Vivienne Courtoise: http://viviennecourtoise.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-hear-voices.html

A guest post from Susan Bearman on the Write it Sideways blog on harnessing the voices: http://writeitsideways.com/hearing-voices-maybe-youre-a-writer/

 

 

 

Rule Breaker

Writing is difficult. Fun, but difficult. Kind of like being a kid. That must be why both have rules. And sometimes they aren’t that different. But, more about that later.

First, I’d like to talk about another thing that has rules. A writing contest. Susanna Leonard Hill’s In Just Spring writing contest to be exact. Here is my entry:

Spring Was Not Here

Spring was not here.

I put on my boots and went outside anyway.

Spring has puddles

and green grass

and mud.

Outside had snowflakes

and brown grass

and no mud.

Spring was really not here.

“Wait up!” I called.

I tried to get the snowflakes. One by one they melted and disappeared.

“Do you want to play catch?” my neighbor yelled.

It was fun, but our ball got soggy.

“Watch me,” called my sister doing headstands in the grass.

I am not as good at headstands as my sister. Soon, my knees and elbows were green.

“Let’s play tag,” I said.

The slippery ground made it tricky.

“Take off those muddy boots before you come inside,” my mother said.

Then I knew spring was here at last.

Here are the rules:

1. Write a children’s story, in poetry or prose, maximum 350
words (I’m under with 131).

2. The story must be about something that really says “SPRING” to
you – something that really makes you feel that spring is here!

3.The last line must be “[Character Name] knew Spring was really here!” or
“[Character Name] knew Spring was here at last!”  (You can also write in first
person if you want – e.g. I knew Spring was really here…. and present tense is
fine too.)

How did I do?

Now, on to the post.

I was a rule-follower as a kid. I’m the same way as an adult. It is probably why my chapter book character is a rule breaker. Like when she eats all of the cookies for her Blossoms troop’s (similar to Girl Scouts) sale. Or when she sticks a spider in her adversary’s pocket, leading to an itchy spider bite.

But that doesn’t mean I necessarily like rules. It used to drive me nuts as a kid when my friends didn’t have to wear a coat and I did. Or that they had a later bedtime. What made it worse was that, when I complained to my mother, she said, “I’m not so-an-so’s mother.”

I know now what she was trying to tell me: that every family has different rules because every parent is just trying to do what is best for their kids. Mister is probably going to hate that I won’t let him climb up the slides at the playground or have his toys at the dinner table.

Maybe like every family, every writer has different rules too. But I would guess they aren’t too far off from kids’ rules. Especially ones like:

Be polite.

Listen.

Keep your hands and feet to yourself.

Tell the truth.

Clean up.

Help out.

And here is how they apply to writing:

Be polite– don’t put down your ideas. Even the silliest idea might have merit. Even when it doesn’t, writing down the silly ideas gives the good ideas the courage to come out.

Listen– when something is speaking from within, drop everything and write it down!

Keep your hands and feet to yourself– no violence is to be used against drafts. Cut if you must, but save everything.

Tell the truth– write what is true for your story, but keep it true to real life. Even fantasy has things that are relatable and true even in an entirely made-up world.

Clean up– revision is vital. Sometimes the more people who help, the easier it is.

Help out– join a critique group, go to conferences, enter contests (like Susanna Leonard Hill’s), and help another writing. I’d almost guarantee that what you’ll get out of it will be more than you put in.

Other writing activities also apply (even Mary’s rules for writing, well…rules!):

You won’t truly feel like a super controlling behavior obsessed “mom” (in my case) until you try to write down all the rules. We are having someone new watch the dogs, so I sent her the girls’ schedule, feeding instructions, suggested activities and emergency contact information. Despite the fact that my pets are fairly mild mannered, my “rules” ran to 4 pages (and that was without instructions for brushing the cat’s teeth — I figured I’m not paying this woman enough to perform that particular task). YIKES! I’m a nut…

My writing rules for this project were pretty standard: note deadline (date of trip); write up rules(listen); hand them off to DH for proofreading/revision(help out); walk through them (literally) for a few days and make note of things I had missed(be polite and tell the truth); revise rules (clean up); send draft to caregiver; meet with caregiver so she can warm up to both the rules and the pets(keep your hands and feet to yourself); hope for the best.

Maybe “hope for the best” is the most important rule of all.

 

Rules

I pull in the parking space at the grocery store and start fishing around for my necessities: list, keys, cell phone, gum…

“Are you going to walk or ride in the cart?” I ask Mister, peeking back in the rear view mirror.

“I’m going to walk,” he tells me. “The rules are…”

I stop rummaging around and turn around to look at him.

“You’re right,” I tell him. “We have to go over the rules. What are the rules in the store?”

“Hold on to the cart.”

“Or…” I prompt.

“Or a hand. And don’t touch anything.”

“That’s right. Unless Mum asks you to.”

That part finished, Mister starts struggling to get out of his car seat. He’s ready. I get my things together and get going.

This little blurb from this morning may make me seem like a structure nut. A super controlling behavior obsessed mom. A dictator. I’m not. Or at least I think I’m not. I’ve just learned, with my share of the hard way, that Mister does better when we talk about the rules before we do something new. Even if that something is only new because we haven’t done it since last week. Or yesterday. Or five minutes ago.

That got me thinking. Is my writing better when I follow the rules? Knowing that they are probably different for everyone, just like Mister’s rules in the grocery store, what are my rules for writing?

What are the guidelines you write by? Please share your “rules” for storytelling in the comments below.

And if you’re having trouble figuring out what your rules are, check out these other resources on the rules for storytelling:

Pixar’s rules of storytelling: www.aerogrammestudio.com/2013/03/07/pixars-22-rules-of-storytelling

Neil Gaiman’s eight rules of writing: www.aerogrammestudio.com/2013/02/28/neil-gaimans-eight-rules-of-writing

 

Writing Age

There are many indications (the music selection in my car, that I know PBS’ show line-up, and the number of picture book texts that I have memorized, as well as the ones mentioned in the earlier post) that I’ve reached the age of MOTHER. But this isn’t a bad thing. More like a necessary thing. An adaptation that makes me, well, not to be dramatic but, survive as a mother.

The same sort of rite of passage thing happens with most things in life. Especially growing up. And writing. Prepare for the parallel.

I’ve been writing seriously (though I dabbled 7 years ago) for about four years. That could mean my writing age is four. But, of course, I don’t think it is that simple.

I also published my first book as an ebook. That could mean my writing age is technological. Still not that simple.

When I finished the first draft of my chapter book, I thought it was great! I submitted it to a few publishers and agents. And, of course, I got rejections. I didn’t know any better. I was a writing infant.

Bruised by the rejections and not sure where to go next, I put the draft away for a while. For a nap, if you will. When I felt ready, I pulled the draft back out again and took it to my new critique group. I took notes on what they said and made some of the changes that they recommended, but I still wanted to do it my way. When more submissions led to more rejections, I felt like tantruming. I was a writing toddler.

I just wasn’t ready to make the changes I needed to make in order to grow up completely. I put the draft away again and focused on learning all I could about writing. I went to school. And I was a writing child.

Now, ironically on my thirteenth draft, I’m on the verge of young-adulthood. I’m making big changes and finding my identity. Some days everything is smooth and cooperative while others are tumultuous.

I only hope I have the patience to see this project through as far as I’ll need to go, though I do hope it is just to adulthood or middle age and not death.

I realize that with each new project, I’ll probably start again as an infant. And that I might have to go back and forth between child and toddler or between child and young-adult as I find my way. Still, it is encouraging to think that I am growing. It may be the one time aging isn’t so bad.

More on writing age:

Richard Hartwell shares how his writing has aged on the National Writing Project: http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/118

A post on Writinghood about how to evolve as a writer: http://writinghood.com/writing/evolving-as-a-writer-the-steps-towards-perfection/

From a guest post by Natalie Whipple on Kristan Hoffman’s blog, The (De)Evolution of a Writer:

 

Adaptations

There’s a commercial out there that I used to see when I actually watched TV. I don’t remember the concept or even who was advertising, but the commercial ended with the line, “having a baby changes everything.” I’m very aware of this in my personal life, but I didn’t realize, until lately, that having a baby has changed my writing life. And the changes are deeper than just going from handwriting to writing on the computer or adding my “(insert something funny)” note when I can’t think of something good.

A few weeks ago, I met the multi-talented Bethany Hensel through a member of my critique group. Later, we connected on twitter (@B_Twon13) and I mentioned something about working on notes for a young adult novel while writing a couple of chapters of my middle grade series. She then asked if I can work on multiple projects at once. My first reaction was “no way!” But when I thought about it, I realized that I do actually work on multiple things at once. I do because I have to.

Now I write during Sesame Street when I used to need quiet, think about plot development while cooking or driving when I used to need to sit and focus, and write at night when my brain used to be too tired. I’m growing as a writer. Or I’m adapting as one. It is a primitive comparison, but I guess I’ve adapted to writing in my new, motherly condition the way an animal adapts to changes in environment. I haven’t noticed how I’ve changed my habits, until I was asked about them, when I realized that I’ve found a new way to write that works for me.

I’m also starting to allow my writing to go places it has never gone before. I usually stick with light and funny work because it doesn’t make me uncomfortable. Lately, I think because of the new levels of emotion Mister has made me feel, I’ve been working on going deeper into my history and within myself to find material for my writing.

Perhaps this is a good time to reflect: What adaptations to your work habits have you made because of life changes? Have they made you a better writer? What isn’t working for you? How could it be changed? My hope is that we all will find a writing process that works for each of us, so we can tell our stories.

More on work habits:

http://shine.yahoo.com/secrets-to-your-success/9-bad-habits-8212-break-them-213700737.html

http://www.tinhouse.com/blog/14981/super-sad-true-habits-of-highly-effective-writers-part-1.html

http://www.flavorwire.com/193101/weird-writing-habits-of-famous-authors