“Spanking the muse”

More busy days with my day-job, so I’m sorry these blog posts are coming slowly. But not it’s Friday night, work is over for the week, laundry is folded — almost — and I’m sitting in front of Becoming Jane, laptop on my lap and glass of wine by my side. Ahhh

Here’s number two of my posts from the North Texas SCBWI conference last weekend. Illustrator David Diaz, who won the Caldecott Medal (and he told us it is an actual medal, that’s quite heavy) for the picture book Smoky Night, talked about writer’s block and what he called, “spanking the muse.”

David’s amusing talk gave some interesting insight in the ways in which writers and illustrators deal with those times when they have trouble creating. Prior to the conference, he did a (non)scientific study on Facebook and found that many creative types use many things to bring on the muse, with alcohol rated quite high.

But from David’s advice from the study, here are a few tips:

• Focus - on what you’re trying to achieve
• Change your medium – write with pen and paper if you’re used to a computer
• Slow down or speed up – too much technique can kill creativity; let it flow
• Move your butt – go for a walk or something to change your environment
• Feed your head - nurture your inner creative person by providing creative things (David said he spends much time combing magazines for inspiration)
• Embrace your inner dinker – allow yourself the freedom to dinker (David’s word for procrastinate) as long it opens you up to let the muse come in

David showed a number of quotes about the muse, and here are my two favorites:

“One reason I don’t suffer writer’s block is that I don’t wait for the muse. I summon her at need.” — Piers Anthony

“I have a wonderful muse called alimony.” — Dick Shaap

I love both of these, and I think they both have the same message: Make your own muse.

I’m going off David’s talk now, but I’m a believer making your own muse. I used to write whenever I had the time, and I got writer’s block often. But since I made the commitment to write every day, writer’s block hasn’t been as much of a problem, and my muse mostly stays close by. To me, the muse will give to you whatever you give to her (him or it). Inspiration comes when you’re living your story, writing every day and keeping the characters in your head as much as often when you’re not actively writing. Do that, and you’ll always have somewhere to go in the story, because your characters will always be taking you somewhere.

Robert McKee, author of Story, said the key to overcoming writer’s block is research. For me, whether you’re actually researching some aspect of your story or simply thinking about your story and actively writing, it’s one and the same. Both keep your muse at your side.

One of the best talks I’ve seen on creativity (as well as David’s, of course) is from Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Love, Pray. I’ve linked to it before, but I think it’s worth mentioning again. And this time I found the code so I could actually embed the video. It’s about 20 minutes, but it’s worth watching; you won’t be disappointed.

How’s your muse treating you?

Write On!

Inspiration in a difficult week

Sorry that I’ve been absent from this blog for most of this week. I’ve been absent from most things.

My husband and I had a loss Wednesday morning when our dog passed away. It was quick, which was a good thing, but it was a terrible shock for us.

My husband and I don’t have children yet, but Newton was our child, our boy. He acted like a very hairy five-year-old with a limited vocabulary. He even loved opening presents at Christmas. He went just about everywhere with us that dogs could go, and his absence has been very difficult to deal with.

Newtie is also the inspiration behind my Sir Newton books (the picture is the promotional photo we gave to kids at book signings), and when he died, I couldn’t imagine working on another book. I had a lot of plans for these books. During the last year, I’ve focused on my novels in an effort to get those moving along with an agent and publishers, so the next book in the series, Sir Newton’s Color Me Florida, has been sitting in my computer mostly done. I planned to finish it when I had more time, and I planned to expand the series to every state in the U.S. as well as every Caribbean island and then the world, each one following the same pattern as the first two and providing funds to local children’s charities in each area the books describe. With my real Sir Newton gone, I couldn’t imagine doing another book. But my husband said, “You have to keep doing them for him.”

You see, one of the amazing things about Newtie was how happy he was. He was always wagging his tail, even the day before he died, he was wagging his tail, bright eyed, tongue hanging out. The amazing thing about this is that Newtie had a lot of health problems throughout his life, but, to quote his vet, “to look at him, you’d never know he had been sick.”

Newton was born with a herniated diaphragm; part of his intenstines rested in his chest cavity, keeping his right lung partly closed. When we adopted him, Newtie had been on the streets of South Central, Los Angeles, for a few months, we estimate. He had horrible mange and a rotting ear (we have pictures and they’re not pretty). He was three days away from being euthanized at the pound, because no one would adopt a dog in this state, when a rescue worker with the Much Love organization picked him up. The group paid for all his vet bills to get him fixed up then found him a foster home, which happened to be some friends of ours. I went with our friend to pick him up, a hairless dog except for a little white mohawk with the best and most friendly personality of any dog I had ever met in a situation like that. I was immediately smitten.

Newton quickly became a part of our family, and was with us for around five years. He enlived our lives more than I can describe, and everyone who met him called him “the happy dog.”

Last year, he was diagnosed with cancer. I prayed and prayed for him, for my boy, and God answered my prayers. After his first round of chemo, Newt was in remission the following morning. He had had tumors the size of golf balls under his mouth, but when we woke up the next morning, they were competely gone. Our vet had told us it would take a couple weeks to see a difference, best case scenario a few days. But he was in full remission the morning after.

We continued his full treatment and, as happens with chemo, Newtie lost a lot of hair again. But he started growing his hair back two months before he was done with his chemo treatment, which the vet kept saying was “amazing.”

His vet continued to be impressed with Newt’s recovery, and his follow up tests since he finished chemo were clean. Then a couple weeks ago, Newtie started to show signs of something being off. He was still wagging his tail and squeeking his toys and running up and down the stairs like a puppy, though. On Tuesday, I took him to the vet for some tests. They thought maybe his cancer had returned, and the next day, I had planned to get the results and see where we went from there. That night, I prayed again. I prayed and prayed that God would take care of him, to take care of my boy. After Newton passed away around 6:30 the next morning, my husband said God did answer my prayers; He did take care of Newton. He made it quick and relatively painless. That is a comfort. Newton was a very special dog — and I’m quoting my vet, so you know I’m not being biased (although I don’t mind if you think I am biased, because I am) — and he had had enough problems in his life. He didn’t deserve any more pain.

Comfort as it was, however, it’s still very hard to so suddenly have him not in our lives.

So, I’ve been pretty much feeling in a coma for the last few days. I had emails sitting in my inbox waiting to be answered. I haven’t done anything on my books. I haven’t even looked at my blog. Then, yesterday, my husband and I were talking about Newt — again — and remembering how happy he was all the time despite all the hardships he had to deal with during his life. And it was then that I realized that Newton was much better than me. I have none of the health problems he had, and although I’m generally very happy, I have my worries, concerns, over really small things. When Newton died, I didn’t feel like doing anything, not even one of my favorite things: writing. I want to be a novelist full time, to tell stories all the time, but when he died, I didn’t care about it. It just seemed like it didn’t matter.

But remembering Newt’s tail swinging back and forth, and his shining eyes as his pink tongue hung out of his mouth, his running around and squeeking his toy even though he only had one and a half good lungs, I realized that remembering is much better than mourning. Remembering all the wonderful things he did is the best way to honor him. And to aim to be as happy as him no matter what is the best way to be.

My husband encouraged me to return the emails I needed to return today, some from prospective agents, so I did, with images of Newtie wagging his tail at my feet.

Things will never be the same without our Newtie, our Sir Newton (who often lived up to his pen name), but I’m getting back on my horse, so to speak, and trying to remember that he wouldn’t worry or be sad; he’d smile and wag his tail.

This blog post is for him.

Write On

Goals keep you motivated

• Current word count: 35,826
• New words written: 539
• Words til goal: 4,174 / 188 words a day til the end of September

I’m almost at the end of this novel, and it’s exciting. In the chapter I just started, a bunch of questions from earlier will be answered; it’s an ah ha moment. Then I have the climactic battle chapter and the wrap-up chapter and it’s done.

I’m a list person. When I have a lot of things to do, I like to write lists and get the satisfaction of crossing items off when they’re done. So, for me, one of the things that I think has really motivated me the most during the writing of this novel is the word counts I’ve been putting at the top of each blog post. After each writing session, I’m itching to be able to cross off what I did that morning, so to speak.

And lately, one of the biggest motivations for me has been seeing  the “words a day til the end of September” number going down. This is how many words I have to write each day to make my goal of finishing the novel by the end of September. It’s the “words til goal” number (my goal being 40K) divided by the number of days left until the end of September (a date I aimed for after being imspired by other bloggers aiming for the same date). Today is the first day that number is less than 200.

Each day that I write more than my necessary goal, the lower that “words a day til the end of September” number gets and the more of a reality it becomes that I will make — or even exceed — my goal. I’m now hoping I’ll be finished the book by the end of this week, but this week could be busy, so I’m not sure I’ll achieve that. We’ll see. I’m still way ahead for my end of September goal, and that keeps me motivated.

I think making goals like this is a great way to keep yourself accountable with your writing, but make sure the goals are doable, and keep long-term goals and short-term, even every day goals like this. Each day that you achieve your daily goal will make you feel good and hungry to achieve another one. Before you know it, you’ll have finished another novel.

What are your short- and long-term goals?

Write On!

Never feel alone as a writer

Current word count: 22,588

New words written: 729

Words til goal: 17,412 / 415 words a day til the end of September

Another good writing day. I’m waiting the well to dry up! hahaha Hopefully, not til I’m done.

Writing is very solitary work. It’s just you, a computer or notebook and your story in your head. It’s great to have others that you can bounce ideas off of, but, sometimes that can be difficult as everybody has their own lives and no one else is as obsessed about our book as we are.

But as much as we’re the only one who can actually write our story, we are not alone as writers, and that has never been more clear to me than yesterday when I was catching up on some blog reading. We have friends on the blogosphere who are going through the exact things we are going through.

In blogs online, writers are talking about their experiences from all different levels, like Will (21st Century Paperback Writer blog), who posted a comment on my blog post yesterday and is a long-time reader who’s currently outlining his first novel; Brit (Dream the Dream blog), who’s currently working on her first novel; Katie Anderson (Plot This blog with Sarah Francis Hardy), who like me has written and revised her novel and is seeking an agent; Beverly (Prana Island of Witches blog), who has just signed with an agent; and Shelli (Market My Words blog), who has a number of books already in the market.

In the blogosphere, we’re not alone, no matter where we are on the writing road. And no matter what, we can always find help, comfort and encouragment in the experiences of others.

So, build up a set of go-to blogs, keep adding to the list whenever you find new ones, and anytime you feel alone, start browsing and reading. We’re all going through the same things in front of our computers.

And if you ever feel like you need help with anything, I think I speak for all bloggers by saying, just reach out. Post a comment saying what you’re feeling. You won’t be alone.

If you want help in setting up a go-to set of blogs, check out the ones listed on the right. And if you’ve got favorites you think I should add, post them in the comments.

Write On!

Losing inspiration

To be honest, I don’t have any great inspiration to share today and my inspiration has been limited for a few weeks, which is why you haven’t heard from me much lately. I think I know the reason: burn out. I’m tired. My early morning writing sessions are wonderful, and I hate not having them, but I don’t really want to go bed at 9 and when I go for a few weeks with constant 5am to 6am wake up times, it starts to take a toll after awhile.

I think the other reason I’m feeling burned out is because I’ve been trying to keep up with two projects. With everything to do with my day-job taking up most of my brain, the rest is getting squeezed a bit too much with the reworking of my first novel and the first draft of my second. I’ve been pleased with my progress, but I’m going to take a break this week. I’m going to cut back to just one project again.

This weekend I folded chapter 22 of my first novel into chapter 23, which proved challenging I think mostly because my brain was too tired to think much so I moved paragraphs around probably fifteen times to get the right flow. Then this morning I reworked chapters 24 and 25, which didn’t need much work, although I did find a much better chapter break.

I’ve got seven chapters left in my first novel to revise, so I’m going to stick with them until they’re done then go back to the new novel. My brain needs a rest from all this multi-tasking.

Oh, there’s also this picture book I’ve been revising in my critique group and the next meeting is a week from today. I guess I’m down to two projects.

What are you working on?

Write On!

Quotes to inspire us

So there I was, in my last post, saying how helpful it is to write everyday. That was on July 7. July 8, I slept in and didn’t write. July 9, I wrote — Yay! But today, July 10, I’m up early but sadly to work, not write. I’m not sure I’ll be able to write today. Oh well. We keep going.

Current word count: 11,063

Words written yesterday: 363

Words to goal: 28,937/ 349 words a day til end of September

From time to time, I discover new writing-related blogs, from writers, editors, agents and publishers and add them to my blog roll. My most recent is by Michael Hyatt, CEO of publishing house Thomas Nelson, Inc. The cool thing is he has two, one regular blog and one, called Resources,  for short snippets about things he finds useful. My favorites in his Resources posts are the quotes, and the one that stuck out to me the other day was by Helen Keller:

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” –Helen Keller

So, when you’re toiling away at your novel, suffering through rejections and doubts, think that this is all part of your journey, strengthening your soul.

Here’s another:

“The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.” –Old Chinese proverb

This is probably what keeps gamblers continuing to play even after big losses, but for writers, where any loss is only experience gained, this thought can help us keep up our motivation.

Hyatt has lots of other good quotes on the page — I love the one on avoiding writing from P.J. O’Rourke, but it’s long, so I’ll let you click over to read it — so, if you ever need some inspiration, head over there and browse away.

How’s your writing coming?

Write On!

Terry Pratchett – Alzheimer’s and writing

If you haven’t read a Terry Pratchett book, stop reading this, run to your nearest bookstore, buy one and spend the rest of the day devouring it. His books are hilarious, thought-provoking and all around wonderful.

I just looked up his website this morning and found out that he has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. This isn’t new news; I guess it was announced last year, but it’s new to me, and sad. Pratchett has written many, many, many novels, including the fabulous Discworld series and so funny Good Omens with recent Newberry Honor winner Neil Gaiman. And I hope there will be many more.

Pratchett says he hopes for the same. In a speech he gave to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust Conference last year (he gave them $1 million for Alzheimer’s research and points out the Alzheimer’s research has only 3% of the funds that cancer has, yet he knows of three people who have survived brain tumors and not one person has survived Alzheimer’s), Prachett says he wants to be around long enough to find a cure because he wants to keep on writing. Interestingly, he says that although small things have begun to challenge him, and he has voluntarily given up his driving license, his writing has not been affected. The words and stories are still swimming around in his brain as much as ever, but now he’s a little slower on the keyboard.

Terry Pratchett was always an inspiration to me because of his writing. Now, he’s even more an inspiration to me as he struggles to continue writing. There’s a lot we can learn from him.

There’s a great interview with Pratchett on his website with the author talking about story making. He says that wanting to write a story about pirates isn’t enough. You have to add more detail to make it more interesting and a story worth telling. I’ve embedded it below too.

Also, if you’d like to follow his example and donate to Alzheimer’s research (it doesn’t have to be $1 million ), here’s the Alzheimer’s Research Trust UK donation page and here’s the U.S. Alzheimer’s Association donation page.

Here’s the interview:

The origin of creativity

TED.com has a video of a great talk from author Elizabeth Gilbert about nurturing creativity. She talks about where creativity comes from and how in today’s society, when an author or creative person achieves a certain amount of success, there’s enormous pressure to do even better next time. Gilbert can attest after the huge (she calls it “freakish”) success of her Eat, Pray, Love. To relieve some of the pressure, she suggests that we stop thinking of successful creative types as geniuses (with the need to constantly repeat the genius) and instead adopt some of the ideas of the Greeks and Romans, who believed that creativity was a gift from the gods (thereby taking some of the pressure off us). Of course, Elizabeth Gilbert says it all much better than me, so I recommend taking 20 minutes and watching the video.

I totally agree with what Elizabeth’s saying. Sure we work hard at our writing, and we grow our talent and skills, but there’s more to creativity than that. And in my experience, that more is God. I believe that God gives us all gifts when we are born, and we can choose to use them, build on them, or not. And He can help, but we have to ask. That’s free will.

I also think He gives us nudges, pokes to get us going in the right direction. And hopefully we’re open to them, and if we follow through, follow His will, then everything’s beautiful — still work, but beautiful nonetheless.

When I got the idea for the Sir Newton books, I did nothing with it. I thought it was a good idea, but frankly, honestly, I was scared to do anything with it, to take a chance of failing. So I didn’t do anything. Then one day, when I was walking to work, the idea popped into my head again, but not a simple, “Hi, remember me?” It was like a tornado. The idea burrowed into my head and exploded into a heap of other ideas, about how the books would look, what kind of content they would have, why they would sell, etc. It felt as though something was shouting at me: ”Hey, I gave you this great idea a while back, and you’re not doing anything with it. Here’s what it could be. Do something with it.” Needless to say, I did something with it and they have been a success.

More recently, I was doing the structural revision of my novel and I was revising a part that had made me stuck for days. I just couldn’t think of a good way to fix the problem, and I had gone over it and over it. My plan was to stop torturing myself and take a break for a couple days in the hope that inspiration would strike. But that night, I was at our local church sitting in our Adoration chapel (I was raised Catholic), and I was talking to Our Lord and telling Him the problems I was having. I asked Him to help and basically said that I believed God had given me the idea for this novel, but if I was going to do it well, I needed His help, because I couldn’t figure it out on my own. Despite planning to take a break on the revision, the next morning, I woke up early with the solution in my head. I jumped on my computer and had the problem solved in an hour, and not only was it solved, but I got all these other great ideas. Thank you, God.

A family friend who’s a priest told me once that I should pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance before I start writing every day. I don’t. I always forget. But I do pray about my writing regularly, and when I do, I can see the change in the work.

What drives your creativity?

Write On!

More on persistence in writing

Yesterday I wrote about Lynn Viehl’s journey to the New York Times bestseller list and how it reminded me that persistence is one of the most important things to have when pursuing a writing career.

Last night, as I was doing more research on prospective agents, I found two posts that tell anecdotes that prove that persistence really is key.

First up is a guest blog post from literary agent Edward Necarsulmer IV, McIntosh & Otis Inc., on Lyons Literary LLC agent Jonathon Lyons‘ blog. Necarsulmer’s post is from 2007, but it might as well have been from yesterday. He tells the story of a client’s book that he had a hard time selling and how it finally found a home when an editor read it and called it a “gem.” Here’s an excerpt from Necarsulmer’s guest post:

The reason I tell this story is not to encourage Hail Mary submissions to as many editors as possible, but rather as a reminder of what an enormous part perseverance and individual editorial subjectivity play in our business today.

Second is a more recent post from author Toni McGee Causey, who wrote about persistence on the Murderati blog. McGee Causey’s post talks about when to quit (or not; click the link and have a read), using British singing sensation Susan Boyle, who I’m sure you’ve seen on YouTube (the clip made me cry) and author Christie Craig, who, as McGee Causey tells us, showed a room full of conference attendees her thousands of rejection letters. Thousands! (You’ll have to scroll down the blog post to read the story, but it’s worth it.) Here’s an excerpt:

Christie became the definition… of tenacity. Determination. She has talent, and the skill to put it to good use.

Here’s another excerpt, this time about McGee Causey’s own rise to publishing success:

…When I got that phone call about the offer, it was a soaring feeling, like the audience suddenly coming to its feet on that second line of Susan Boyle’s performance. Almost twenty years to the day after I’d first sent out my first non-fiction piece. It wasn’t overnight. I’d worked two jobs, gone back to school, was mom to two boys, helped run a construction company, and wrote in the wee hours of the night when everyone was asleep, because I dreamed a dream. I wanted it. I wanted it enough to not sleep that extra hour, to take the notebook with me to the kids’ practice, to skip out on movies or TV shows.

That’s persistence. That’s what sets apart the successful and the not successful – I truly believe this. Lots of people have talent, but not the drive to see it through. Lots of people can start a novel, but never finish it. Lots of people have dreams, but don’t want to put in the work to make them come true. It is work, and it demands sacrifices. But if you’re persistent, it will happen.

Write On!

Writing quotes

I love writing quotes (quotes about writing, not writing them myself), those pithy phrases that inspire us and make us smile and think. I read some fun ones from author J.A. Konrath on his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog. He uploaded them on Jan. 24, but I’m a little behind on my blog reading. Click here for his full post — the quotes start about halfway down. Here are my favorites:

There’s a word for a writer who never gives up — published.

This one inspires me and makes me want to dig into my writing.

Praise is like candy. We love it, but it isn’t good for us. You can only improve by being told what’s wrong.

Very true. Thicken your skin, take your writing to a critique group and just listen. Don’t defend your work; just listen. Some of what you hear you won’t agree with, but take it all in and make changes according to what you feel is right.

Anyone looking for you can find you. Get them to find you when they’re looking for something else.

Maybe not necessarily for the not yet published, but for those of us in the market, great advice. Konrath offers advice on how on his blog too.

Write when you can. Finish what you start. Edit what you finish. Submit what you’ve edited. Repeat.

Sounds simple. The only thing I’d change is that, in our busy lifestyles, “write when you can” could mean that you haven’t typed a word in months. If writing is important to you, don’t let that happen. I’d change that beginning part to “Write as much as you can.”

We’re in the same boat. Start rowing.

If you’ve been to a writing critique group, conference, on an online chat board, or anywhere that other writers gather, you know how true this quote is. I’m involved in children’s writing groups, and I can tell you, it’s definitely true. Everyone is friendly and helpful. Everyone wants to help each other. At our critique group, writers come even if they have nothing new to get critiqued. They come just to offer support for other writers. I don’t know if it’s true for other genre groups, but I’d guess it is. Writing is solitary, but you’re not alone.

Check out all of Konrath’s quotes here.

What are your favorite writing quotes?

Write On!

P.S. If you haven’t yet, check out our Community Story — which we all can add to. Thanks to Jamie who added the story’s next sentence in the comments. Click here to see what he wrote and post what you think should come next.