Saturday Writers

Anyone who knows me should be aware that I’m more than a little bit superstitious. Anything can be interpreted as a “sign” of something telling me what to do. A cosmic message urging me in one direction or another. Fate. Everything happens for a reason. Karma. Well, you get the idea.

It’s not like I can’t make my own decisions. Sure, I read my horoscope… occasionally. But I don’t let it determine my activities for the day. Not much anyway. Sometimes. Okay, ever so often that darn horoscope is just too accurate to be ignored! The Cosmos has predetermined my destiny and I’m just along for the ride…I only wish I had a handbook to tell me the rules and regulations regarding that ride and what to expect on this journey. Oh well, I’ll just buckle my safety belt and try to enjoy the adventure.

Recently, Karma sent me a couple of little in-your-face messages. It was up to me to decide to ignore those messages or pay attention.

My first message came in the form of a nasty looking mole. Big, ugly, ominous. That mole told me my days in tanning beds had finally caught up to me. I was scared! I skipped over the first two stages of grief and landed squarely on stage #3 – bargaining. I started begging: if this ends up okay I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that, I’m going to be a better person, I’m going to make some changes… yada, yada, yada.

Doctor told me what has become a familiar horror story lately…”when you get older, your body changes and these are quite common, harmless” yada, yada, yada. Yuck!

Did I stick to the promises I made during that whole bargaining scenario?

Nope.

Second message came last week.

My mammogram showed a big nasty spot. They called. Wanted to run more tests. My heart started jack-hammering in my chest. The bargaining started again.

Test came back okay. I got the same speech, “when you get older, body changes, this is quite common, harmless”…you know the rest of the story.

Did I stick to the promises I made during that whole bargaining scenario?

I kinda think I did this time. I went out and bought a new car!

I made a change. Did something I’d been putting off, waiting for some other time to do, too scared to take the leap, afraid it would turn out bad.

That new car – I named her Maxine, by the way – has changed my life! I have self confidence I haven’t had in a long time. I feel powerful. The whole experience (and buying a car IS a wild roller coaster ride) made me look at other areas in my life where I needed to get busy. Things I’d been putting off for too long.

Then I got right back on a story – one of many – I’d been working on. I’d been discouraged because it wasn’t going anywhere and I didn’t know how to proceed so I’d almost given up on it.

You know what? Giving up on it wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I needed to keep going. Even if what I was writing turned out to be garbage later on, at least I was writing. And that is what second, third and even fourth revisions are for. You can’t revise something that isn’t there.

I entered a writing contest recently, spent the last three months waiting to hear back from the panel of judges. It was torture. I counted the days. Would they say my work was good? Would they trash it and tell me I should give it up? Did my whole future as a writer depend on what their comments were?

Luckily, I have just enough faith in myself to believe I have a future as a (published) writer. The judges had some constructive comments to make. I needed somebody – an impartial, experienced group of writers – to take a look at my work and boost my self confidence.  And that’s what I got. They were able to see where my weak parts were but at the same time tell me good things about my writing. They encouraged me to keep writing and told me I was good. 

So I’d been slacking off on my writing the past few months, waiting for these judges to tell me how to proceed. Now that I have a solid understanding where to start, I’m excited again. I can’t wait to get started and get my stories out there.

Look out world! Barnes and Noble better make some room on their Bestseller book shelves! There’s a new published author heading their way and they’re going to want to keep her bestsellers in stock!

Serendipity is an interesting thing. It’s when you find valuable or agreeable things that you weren’t looking for. I experienced serendipity this week, though I didn’t realize it until today.

Instance #1

I blogged about the need for writing practice over on Learn to Write Fiction a couple weeks ago.

There’s a theory that 10,000 hours of practice is required to become a world-class expert in anything. There are some caveats to this, of course.

You can’t just randomly do an activity for 10,000 hours and suddenly you’re an expert. The 10,000 hours have to be engaged in meaningful, deliberate practice where the person is actively trying to improve.

Instance #2

This week I picked up a copy of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. His book presents a theory that it isn’t just 10,000 hours that make an expert, though that is necessary. He adds that there are often instances of great opportunity in the lives of these experts-opportunities that propelled them forward toward expert status.

This makes sense in the publishing world where there are many examples of excellent writing that doesn’t get published and examples of mediocre writing that does. The opportunities that come your way are more often the result of luck than anything else. Right place, right time, right person syndrome.

Instance #3

Penelope Trunk blogged about time being more important toward achieving expert status than talent. We think of the talented people as being assured of expert status some day and we envy them for starting out with an advantage.

But scientists are starting to discover that it isn’t talent that assures expert status. Yes, it confers an advantage, but not a guarantee. Instead, “you need to work every single day at being great at that one thing if you want to be great.” The New York Times emphasizes the need for immediate feedback, as well..

Serendipity Thoughts

All of this has come together in my brain this week and I think about what it means for writers. Here are my conclusions:

Having a natural talent for writing doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a best-selling author. That means there’s hope for writers who weren’t born with the writing gene.

Deliberate, focused practice is required to get really good at something. 10,000 hours is the recommended target based on studies of experts in multiple fields including sports, science, music, art, math, finance and hobbies. This means setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.

You need to really love the thing you want to be expert at, otherwise you won’t put in the 10,000 hours of hard work needed to get very good at it.

Luck still plays a large part in becoming a best-selling author. You can’t control luck or opportunities, but you can prepare yourself and your writing to be ready when luck strikes.

Your Turn

Do you really love writing? Enough to get up early, stay up late, skip fun activities, work every spare minute, dissect and study other novels, revise constantly, solicit critiques and incorporate the feedback, write, write more, write better?

Do you spend your writing time in deliberate, focused practice, always striving to get better?

Do you prepare yourself to be ready for publishing opportunities by meeting other writers, attending conferences, following news in the publishing industry, and submitting your best work over and over again?

Most people think social networking websites are a waste of time or for hooking up.  In my youth that meant something entirely different but, I digress.  Yes, you can while away the hours with meaningless chatter but, you can also learn things.  I have.

I’ve spent time on LinkedIn, LiveJournal, MySpace and FaceBook, fun and believe it or not informative.  I don’t mean what Aunt so and so is up to, yes, nice to know but there’s more to it than that.  I fought setting up both of the later pages, finally giving in and along came Twitter.  I couldn’t see the point in joining.  I mean really, who wants to read snippets of my day in 40 characters or less?  Reading my attempts at blogging are bad enough, right?  Oh wait, you’re reading this aren’t you?  Ooops.

Cheryl—you guessed it, the super talented chick who follows me every month—said, ‘Give it a try, you’ll be surprised.’  I gave in and have to admit I am surprised.  Surprised that people actually follow me—besides my Saturday Writers cohorts—hell, I’ve even got a few published writers reading my prattle.

Most of those I follow are industry professionals. Other writers, agents, editors, publishers ect.  Most of them willingly answer questions when asked.  Don’t ask them what the secret to becoming published is, by now you should know.  Butt in chair, fingers on keyboard!  Don’t try to get them to read your WIP or ask personal questions that are none of your business.  Things like that are just rude and unprofessional.

I’m not afraid to ask questions—I have and have received answers—I just find myself learning more by reading the tidbits they toss us.  Some of these little gems I’ve marked as favorites and I’ll share a few with you.

Yasmine Galenorn—I use “said” as little as possible. And I hardly ever use any other dialog tags. I use action to denote who’s speaking. For ex: “You actually kissed the zombie?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Yeah, it was gross.” He shuddered.

Rachel Vincent—My fight scenes must be written in layers. 1st: the blow by blow. 2nd: the pain and reactions. 3rd: internal thoughts. 4th: goings on around.

Laurell K. Hamilton—One of Hamilton’s rules of writing is: The more fantastic thing you expect a reader to believe the more real your reality better be.

Laurell K. Hamilton—Ray Bradbury said, “The muse cannot resist a working writer.” Sit down and write anything see if it breaks something loose. The worst thing you can possibly do is sit & stare at the blank screen, or paper, writing anything is more productive.

The obsession factor runs high with all of these sites, as said before you can lose yourself in them.  Will power is a must when using any or all of them.  Think of them as the carrot at the end of the stick, hit your goal and you are allowed to look.  If inspiration runs low set a timer and do a little reading, something may take spark.  When the timer goes off close the window so you won’t be tempted to peek and get back to work.

Now it’s your turn.  What if any social networking sites do you frequent?  Do you fall into the waste of time camp or do you find them useful?  Don’t be shy.  Share your opinions and what you’ve learned!  I’m listening, I mean reading…

My nine month old granddaughter, Alexa Reese, started walking this week.  I still am in awe of how fast babies learn and grow.  In less than one year she has gone from being a newborn infant who only knew to cry to get her needs met to feeding herself, communicating her feelings of unconditional love for her Mommy and Daddy to her delight for almost everything new she accomplishes.  It’s wonderful to watch and all of us are very proud of her. 

 The first of the year I turned in my writing goals to my writing chapter president.  Those goals came easy because I love writing and my dream is to be published.  All these goals will move me closer to accomplishing that dream.  At the end of next year the president will pull out the list and everyone in the chapter who reached their goals will receive awards if they reached those goals.  I reached all my goals last year and I’m looking forward to reaching them this year.  She made sure the goals we listed were goals we could control the outcome, goals we alone were responsible for attaining.

As for personal goals I had a hard time with these.  I came up with usual ones, losing weight and getting healthy, making more money.  I have some written on paper and some hanging on the wall in my office.  I can say as of almost the end of January I haven’t accomplished anything towards obtaining my personal goals.   I remember the passing thought of not making goals this year.  I remember thinking I could just be satisfied with the way I am and what I have.  After all, my life is comfortable.  I have pretty much everything I have ever really needed.  I have a good job, a nice house, a wonderful husband and family.  Then I saw my granddaughter walking.  I had to ask myself how could I take my life, health and time with my family for granted.  Just because I’m a grandmother doesn’t mean I’m that old.  I’m still healthy enough to exercise every day.  I still have many years ahead to accomplish lots of good things.  How could I just not care or even try to make a difference or believe I could make a difference in the way my life is lived?  I lectured myself, gave myself a pep talk, rewrote my goals and all I can say now is that I have eleven more months to accomplish them.  Thanks Alexa Reese.

I’ve never considered myself much of a “spiritual” person, but I do have a certain form of faith running through my veins.

I have faith that my vacuum cleaner will quit on me on the day I need to clean the house for guests arriving the next day.

I have faith that my car will get a flat tire soon after quipping that I haven’t had a flat tire in a while.

I have faith that I’ll get a big zit on the tip of my nose on the day I need to have professional – expensive – photos taken of me.

All sarcasm aside, there are things in which I hold strong beliefs – or faith. I believe in Fate, that things happen for a reason. 

It is this faith that caused me to sit up and pay attention when something happened in my life this week.

I was getting ready for work one day when a loud, glass shattering crash echoed through my tiny home. Searching room-by-room, I located the cause of commotion in my bedroom. A large glass framed painting had fallen from a closet shelf, landing on my bed and shattering into tiny – but potentially deadly – pieces. The very bed where I had, only minutes previously, been sleeping peacefully.

After carefully cleaning up the sharp shards of glass, I thought long and hard about why this had happened.

Clearly – in my mind - someone was sending me a message. An extreme way of getting my attention, but effective. What was on that shelf  immediately beneath the picture that possibly could have caused it to slide off?

My Quija board.

One simply does not ignore a message from one’s Quija board!

I only wish the message were more clearly defined. Thus, I’m left to interpret the message on my own, and I have a theory. Strangely enough, it relates to a story idea I’d been tossing around in my head for a while now.

The story involves a teenaged girl with the ability to see ghosts,  who inadvertently brings back an evil spirit while playing with a Quija board…in the back room of a funeral home…with a group of friends. The spirit makes his appearance by shattering the glass in all the paintings hanging in the room.

Freaky enough coincidence for you? It got my attention!

And why did it fall on my bed? I take it as a message to “put the story to bed” or finish it.

The message doesn’t end there. My dead father came to me in a dream last night. The dream was strange, disturbing, and confusing – as dreams can often be – so I looked it up in my dream interpretation book…every home should have one of these books.

Without going into too much detail about my dream, my book’s interpretation goes like this: I have choices available to me that will help me control my life but I am feeling constrained by a job that I hate but have to keep so I can pay the bills. I have a lot of hard work ahead of me, am impatiently waiting for something to happen and fear losing control of the direction my choices will take me.

Translation: I want to quit my hateful job so I can concentrate on getting this story (and many others) finished and published, but am living with the fear of failure.

WHEW! Pretty good, huh?

No wonder life as a writer has enormous appeal to me! I have imagination to burn, can put a creative spin on any situation, and firmly believe you need to pay attention to the messages life sends you. If you’re not listening, life will smack you up side the head to get your attention…or drop a sheet of glass on you and visit you in a dream!

Now…I’ve got a story I need to get to work on…

All day yesterday on Twitter, people were posting their thoughts with the hashtag #tenyearsago. They were remembering and highlighting where they were ten years ago and how their life had changed since then.

As a writer, I’ve come a long way in ten years. I wrote a lot of words in those years. I completed several NaNoWriMo novels. I participated in several online writing communities and real-life writing groups. I read many books on writing and applied them to my stories. I made new writer friends. I started a website about writing.

And in those ten years I learned a lot about myself and my writing. Some of the things I learned…

• Strong emotion can drive a short story. It’s actually one of the best inspirations for a story.
• Regular writing practice makes the words flow easier. Julia Cameron’s morning pages are a good way to incorporate daily writing practice into your life.
• There are two kinds of books published about writing – “How to” books on craft and books that motivate you to write. You can learn from both, but the best way to improve your writing skill is by just writing.
• If you push through to the end of a story, even one that you don’t like anymore, you can learn more from finishing it, then abandoning it for a new story.

How far have you come with your writing in the last ten years? What have you learned?

In a few days we’ll be tossing 2009 off like an old pair of shoes and slipping into 2010.  Blinded by all its shinny newness we forget you have to break it in, wear it a bit before it becomes comfortable.  We’ll even glance longingly at the old year, but there’s no going back.

This sudden feeling of nostalgia is brought on by a conversation I had with one of my co-Saturday Writers, Natalie.  We were discussing her latest work, something she’d written ages ago and decided to refine.  I’ll let her fill you in on the specifics, if and when she’s ready.

Just like time, stories evolve. Something once thought a lost cause can evolve into something workable.  My own longing for the past as well as my pack-rat habits have worked to my advantage.  Many of my failed starts and old research have evolved into my current work.

Disenchanted started out as an epic fantasy. My main character just wasn’t into the whole awe inspiring history I’d built or the breathtaking landscape I’d set the story in.  I won’t even mention her less than enthusiastic feelings toward the lack of modern conveniences.

I tried–I really tried–to make it work but it just didn’t fit.  There was no hope of breaking it in, making it comfortable.  I tried new viewpoint characters, but my original main just kept pacing around in my head.  I tried new ‘bad guys’ but she still wasn’t interested.  I tried new plot lines but she would just stand there checking out her nails.  I tried new settings but all she would do is lament about Iowa.  The day I caught her fiddling with another character’s hair was when it clicked.

“It’s about time you clued in,” she said.  “Write what you know.”

I was able to use most of my research and character notes.  Only two original characters survived, others were added or changed to fit.  The setting and basic plot were changed.  My epic fantasy became a contemporary fantasy.
This would have never been possible if I hadn’t kept the first attempts and all my research.  Natalie’s current work would never have become what it is if she had trashed the first story.

With 2010 right around the corner it’s time for something new, but don’t toss out the old.  As you begin breaking it in look back fondly at 2009 and hoard those memories and experiences.  You never know when you’ll have need of them.

So, recently I’ve jumped genres. Not just a little skip-type jump, but a long-jump type jump. Over a hurdle, across a body of water, onto a moving target. For the last __ years, I’ve written what I most enjoyed reading: romantic comedy, women’s fiction with a humorous tone, sometimes spy thriller stuff, but nothing angsty, nothing uber dramatic, rarely anything traumatic.

And then two months ago, BAM!!!! I got smacked upside the head with a plot that wouldn’t leave me alone. It wasn’t in a genre I’d ever really read, it was dark, it was twisty, it was at times even gross. I can’t stop working on it.

With this new project came a new need: first, information, about psychotic behaviors, mental conditions, criminal tendencies, police procedure. A secondary need, no less important, has been the knowledge that someone else out there has these twisty, dark, creepy, gross thoughts and they’re allowed – no, encouraged – to put them on paper; no one comes by with a one-way ticket to the “Are you a future ax murderer?” all-inclusive hotel.

I’ve found the answer to both my new needs in similar places: online communities. RWA’s Kiss of Death chapter is home to lots and lots of women who are having similar disturbing thoughts, so that was a great place to start. But I’ve also found non-membership-based resources, such as the CrimeWriter  Yahoo group. These ladies and gentlemen are there to do nothing but address “How would I…” “What if…” “Is this possible…” questions. Many have law enforcement backgrounds. One or two seem to be psychology-minded (is that redundant?). So far I’ve learned just by reading the answers to other’s questions. I know I have a lot of catching up to do, coming late to the suspense/thriller party, but this is the most fun I’ve had learning in a LONG time!

The lesson for me? Don’t hide from the dark side. Embrace it. Pick at it. Scrape off the scabs. See what’s around that next dark corner. As my plotting partner said, “This is the best thing I’ve read of yours, ever!” Maybe going where we think we shouldn’t go is the best thing we can do for our writing. Especially when we go there with such good company!

I am a NaNo Failure this year. Yep, I didn’t complete 50,000 words on my novel. I topped out at just over 12,000.

The reason I failed this year (after winning several years in the past) is because I had too many other projects of higher priority already going on in November.

I knew this when I started and still chose to sign up for NaNo. I was temporarily optimistic and somehow thought I would get it all done. I didn’t.

The smarter thing to do would have been to NOT sign up for another commitment. Not until I was actually ready to devote time to my novel. Because this novel deserves to be my number 1 priority. As does your novel.

Sure, you can write a novel in among a dozen other activities in your life, but it is hard. Hard to split your attention among so many priorities and hard to give your novel the attention it deserves.

My New Plan

I still plan to write my novel, but obviously it won’t be done in November. Instead, I’m going to borrow a page from Holly Lisle’s strategy book. She’s been writing a novel, a book of her heart, amid her other deadlines at the rate of 250-500 words a day. That’s only 1-2 pages. She’s deliberately taking it slow for a couple of reasons.

1. She has several other projects going on, including other book deadlines, so she can’t devote a solid block of time to getting this one special novel written.

2. She wants to demonstrate that you can complete a novel at a slow, steady pace. 250 words a day does add up to a novel over the long run.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

So that’s what I’m going to do. Set myself to writing 250 words a day on this novel. Even with so many other projects going on in my life, I can manage to write 250 words. If I already know what I’m going to write, that’s about 10 minutes of writing.

I can manage 10 minutes of writing each day. And so can you.

Care to join me?

We spend every Thanksgiving with my in-laws and I’m asked to bring turkey cookies.  No, they aren’t made with turkey, just decadent butter cookies shaped that way.  The mother-in-law claims it’s because the nephews ask for them.  In truth, it’s the adults I see nibbling at them throughout the day, especially my mother-in-law’s sister.  Last year she came clean, saying she looks forward to them, her guilty pleasure.

As I rolled out the dough, it got me thinking.  These cookies and fantasy have a lot in common.  Like the mother-in-law and the cookies, most people assume fantasy is just for kids.  Not all fantasy books are for children and adults can enjoy even those that are.  I’ll admit to loving many books geared toward young adult and juvenile.

I know being a geek is cool now days, but when I was younger reading fantasy or scifi pretty much torched your social life.  Trekkies and Tolkien fans were looked upon as a social caste all their own.  Even the lower echelons of high school society looked down on the readers of scifi and fantasy.  Funny thing is many of those same bashers had fired a laser or yielded a sword of power.  Like my mother-in-law’s sister and the cookies, those books were their guilty pleasure.

Both scifi and fantasy have become more mainstream over the years.  It’s okay to carry one around in your pocket or read them in public.  I have to say some of this acceptance is due to another bastard genre, romance.  Romance comes in many flavors.  It has introduced things like the paranormal or futuristic to readers who would have never picked them up otherwise.

If you look closely you will find touches of the fantastic in many genres.  You probably just didn’t recognize it at the time.  From scientific discoveries and futuristic settings to myth and lore, all veiled in the literary or mainstream.

As an example how many of you have read a book where the main character, a dead little girl tells her story?  To me this book borders on the fantastic but is shelved in mainstream.  What about all you Stephen King lovers?  Anne Rice?  Alice Hoffman?  How about Heather Graham or Nora Roberts?

Browse the shelves of your local library or bookstore.  It’s no longer contained, caged in one section.  Instead it’s spreading, giving readers what they want and need.  From a trip into the farthest reaches of the galaxy to sexy monsters and super heroes, an escape from reality even if it is just for three hundred pages.

Some will continue to hide these books behind paper bag covers or the guise of another genre, never admitting their trips to these other worlds.  But that’s okay.  Sometimes we need to keep things to ourselves, making it special.  A sweet escape from reality, our guilty pleasure.

This Thanksgiving I’m thankful for all the authors who have made my not-so-guilty pleasure possible.