All About the Writing

No Rest for the Writer

I tried to take a day off from writing this weekend.  I needed a chance to retreat from all the things bedeviling me in other areas of life.  I mean, one day off wasn't too much to ask, was it?  I'd definitely earned it with all the word count I'd put in this week, not to mention plotting and analyzing and multiple blog posts.

It was a great plan.  It just didn't work.

I was relaxing in the bathtub, thinking how brilliant it was to escape from all the mental activities.  However, my brain kept tapping me, saying, "You know, if your heroine heard this, she would realize that.  And she needs to know that, in order to grow before the HEA."

I kinda waved my hand, sloshing water everywhere as I answered, "Yeah, yeah, contact me later. I'm not working today."

But maybe water works on ideas for the WIP like it does on those movie gremlins – you don't want to get them wet, because then they multiply.  Pretty soon I was mentally editing this scene, and adding a line or two to that scene, then right after that an idea for a blog post appeared and. . .

There went my planned day off.

Not that I'm complaining.  It just made me realize how integral writing is to my life. 

Writing doesn't go away.  It may disappear for a while, but it always comes back stronger, kind of like the tide going out and then returning as a tsunami.  There are other days when the urge to write is like a sneeze that keeps building up but never actually turns into a sneeze, as if the words are stuck inside. 

How can you have the urge to write and not be able to write?

I don't have any profound advice for you today, except to say if writing is in your blood, you will find a way around all the obstacles, especially the ones YOU erect, consciously or unconsciously. 

If it really matters, you'll write, whether the conditions are just perfect the way you like, or whether you have to ask the restaurant hostess for a box of crayons when an idea hits. 

The words will come forth, and in their own perverse way, they're likely to choose the moment when you're drifting off to sleep after an exhausting day, or when you're stuck in a grocery line without a scrap of paper (until you get your receipt).

It's a sort of madness, writing is.  If you're a writer, though, you learn to embrace it, and you welcome all the crazy, wacky insanity it creates. 

Do you take planned days off from writing?  How do you handle it?  Are you always ready to write when the ideas hit?

A couple of announcements:

Fellow pirate Maureen O. Betita is celebrating the release of her very first book, The Kraken's Mirror, at the Romance Writer's Revenge today.  Stop by and join the festivities!  You can also read the interview I did with her here.

There's a special guest this Thursday, February 3^rd.  Make sure you stop by when Jack from Robyn Carr's Virgin River series of books will be here telling us what it's like to be the bartender in a small town.  He may have a few secrets to spill, and one lucky commenter will win a copy of Wild Man River.

How to Create the (Less Than) Perfect Hero

When we start out as writers, and we're in the first throes of creating our heroes, we can get a little power-mad.   

We have the ability to construct a man with washboard abs who is willing to use them to do our laundry.  He'll also listen to you—no, scratch that—he'll read your mind, so you won't ever have to ask him to stop at the store on the way home from a hard day rescuing kidnapped journalists in a third-world country.  He'll bring you a venti mocha and a pint of ice cream, while reassuring you that you don't look fat in those jeans.

Naturally he can go all night long. . .which is important when someone is reading your favorite book aloud to you.

Doesn't he sound perfect?  He is.  Because he's a fantasy.  He's not a heroic character. 

A hero is actually the vital link between fantasy and reality.  A hero has more of the fantasy characteristics that we dream about, but he also has the need, and the willingness, to grow into his awesomeness by learning and changing along the way. 

This is what will make him not only lovable, but readable.

So how do we go about making this kind of man?

Cindy R. Wilson, at The Writer's Alley blog, wrote a post titled "Tall, Dark and Wrong", where she discusses several things we can do to make our characters interesting, yet less-than-perfect.  Here's a suggestion I liked:

So if you know where you want your characters to be (spiritually, emotionally, etc.) by the end of the story, try to place your main character far from that at the beginning of the story.

What I like about this is you still get to go through the "Build-A-Hunk" process, picking and choosing all the attributes your hero will possess at the end of the story.  Only now you'll also tear off a corner of his heart, put a little ding in his stoic facade, and scuff him up with some issues he'll need to resolve. 

Think of it as going from Point A(fter) to Point B(efore). 

Once you know where your hero will end up, you have a much better idea of where he needs to start, as well as the challenges you need to create for him to face on his journey.

What methods do you have to take the perfection off your heroes?  Spill your secrets!  Give examples.  We're all taking notes. 

5 Things I Learned About Writing by Watching Football

When I was younger, I used to watch football on TV every Sunday.  We planned "the game" into our schedule like it was a holy ritual, with chips and soda our sacrament.  When the season was over, we didn't know what to do with that extra day in the week.  It was like being released from a religious vow.

Last month, I had the opportunity to watch the New England Patriots kick some football butt on TV.  It was the first time in a long while since I'd done that, and it filled me with nostalgia, making me realize how much I miss the whole Sunday ritual.

However, it didn't take long before I noticed some interesting parallels between a game of football and writing.

You can read the rest of the post at Romance Writer's Revenge.

If Only I Had All Day to Write

This is every writer's lament.

We're convinced our writing lives would be perfection if only we had hour upon hour to indulge our creativity, free from the draining jobs that keep us out of debtors' prison.

This goal buoyed me through many jobs that seemed intent on breaking my spirit, if I didn't break somebody's head first.  I would gaze wistfully into the distance, fantasizing of that day when I could tap away at the keyboard, writing at least one manuscript a day while whistling a happy tune. 

Unfortunately, all of us have a tendency to glamorize jobs that we only see from the outside.

I used to be a Tasting Room Manager at a winery, and I can't even count how many times I heard, "It must be nice to drink wine all day".  I nodded and agreed, because that really does sound delightful.  However, it wasn't part of MY job, even though my customers thought so.  My staff and I worked our butts off to give every customer a pleasant experience while THEY drank wine.  (Okay, we might have had a sip at the end of the day, but hey, by then we really deserved it.)

So it's likely we've glamorized the job of full-time writer, and we should examine exactly WHY we want that occupation.

1.       It proves we're a writer

If we're spending all day being a writer, then we must be a writer.  Right?  

Wrong. 

You're a writer because you write.  You have ideas that swirl through your brain twenty-four hours a day, not just when your muse blows into town.  You create plots and characters and you write them down, form them into exciting stories, and edit and revise until they are irresistible page-turners.

If you need to prove to anyone that you're a writer, just whip out your manuscripts, and your rejection letters, and your battered heart that keeps on beating hopefully even when the goal of publication seems as far away as Mars.

So what's another reason we want to write full-time?

2.       More time to write

After an exhausting workday, it's daunting to keep the energy level up high enough to pour our heart and soul into a masterpiece.  It's like coming home to another full-time job.  

But let's face it.  Having more time to write is no guarantee that it'll actually get used for writing. 

Avoiding, procrastinating, and "getting ready to write" take up a lot more of a writer's day than whipping out a couple thousand words.  Anyone who's done NaNo knows that the daily 1667 word count takes at most a couple of hours of sitting at the keyboard.  However, dragging ourselves to the computer can take at least four times that, not to mention eighteen times the energy.

We accomplish more writing in short bursts of time.  Most of us have had to write at least some of our stories that way, stealing lunch hours, or squeezing in a few sentences here and there.  It actually keeps us focused on what we need to write.  We don't have time to let our attention, or our muse, wander.

Also, the prospect of several uninterrupted hours of writing frightens many people when they finally get it.  For some, it can be even more restricting than too little time, and they freeze up.  They can't write a single word.   

Haven't you heard the best way to get something done is to give it to someone who has too much to do?  It's the same way with writing. 

So what is it, really, that is so appealing about writing full-time?

3.       Freedom

This is what it really boils down to.  Writing full-time is like an endless supply of snow days.  We can stay home in our jammies, drink coffee, and write bestsellers day after day.

It's not that we want more time.  We just want the freedom to decide how we spend those unfettered hours each and every day. 

We get to be our own bosses.  Nobody is breathing down our neck, telling us what to do, or the best way to do it.  Ahhh.  Now that is the definition of bliss.

But there's a down side to all this freedom. 

It's tempting to stay in your jammies too long, and then family members pinch their nose while asking when you last showered, and you have to study your calendar before giving an accurate answer.  It's been so long since you left the house, the neighbor kids have nicknamed you Boo Radley, but as a cautionary tale, not a literary homage.

At some point you're going to run out of coffee, and as far as I know, Starbucks hasn't started room service for residences.  Even though they totally should. 

Even worse, discipline can desert you.  If you think your muse is fickle, discipline has commitment issues that requires prolonged therapy.

So if you can't write full-time yet, don't despair.  It may be on the horizon, and until that moment arrives, your writing efforts now are preparing you for it. 

You don't need the validation that you're a writer, and you already know how to make use of short bursts of writing time.  Best of all, you have the freedom to write stories that help others escape the tedium of their daily work life. 

Only a writer who has lived that existence can appreciate what a gift that is.

What appeals to you about writing full-time?  Have you been a full-time writer?  If so, what words of wisdom can you share? 

If You Give A Mouse Some Dog Food

A blog I've been enjoying the past few weeks is called "Pointless Stories", and it's by one of my friends on Twitter, @agirlandherblog. 

She tweeted one day about a mouse that was causing her a great deal of trouble, and then she detailed these incidents in a series of funny blog posts.  I giggled and commiserated, because it is not fun to have to deal with mice, even though they seem to be everywhere lately.

Her stories are engaging and entertaining, and, even though I am not a "mouse person", my sympathies are starting to swell for this critter that is outsmarting the humans.

Maybe it's the adorable pics she uses to accompany her mouse-terpiece posts. Or maybe it's just the way she describes, in such a fun way, all the different methods for trying to humanely rid themselves of a stowaway in their house.

I think you'll enjoy the series (the last one had me cackling like a madwoman).  I just hope there are more mouse tales to enjoy in the future.  It just goes to show you the appeal of storytelling, no matter what the venue, or topic. 

So here they are, in order:

There's A Mouse in My House

Mouse Update

Super Mouse Made A Friend

What blogs do you like to read for pure entertainment?  Let's share the fun!

The Year of Fun

Do you remember that Mary Poppins song, "A Spoonful of Sugar"?  It has lyrics that state, with utter seriousness, "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun." 

Ack.  I wish I could agree with that.  I remember singing that song, quite cheerfully, as a Girl Scout, while we were tricked into doing some yucky chore like peeling a thousand pounds of potatoes or picking up litter for a ninety-mile stretch of highway.

Maybe it wasn't quite that bad.  Sometimes memories can be unreliable.  And maybe it was the first clue that work isn't all that great if you have to sing a song about how wonderful it is.

I also remember the combination of work and songs when I had my first real job, at the ROTC summer camp, when I was right out of high school.  The soldiers doing PT (physical training) outside would sing something called "Sound Off" to keep them running together in formation.  It's a military type of limerick, complete with a variety of humorous lyrics, some of them probably made up on the fly.  It generally starts with the phrase, "I don't know but I've been told", but I have to stop there since a) I can't remember the details, and b) clever as they are, they're probably unprintable.  (Sorry.)

Now that I'm thinking about it, I guess it is possible to have fun while doing something onerous, or filled with drudgery, or even worse, that's "good for you".

Since we can't get rid of the yucky work stuff, and since I believe we deserve more fun, I have decided that 2011 shall be "The Year of Fun".  I actually did this by accident, in a comment to a previous poster.  But I realized it was the underpinning to a lot of my hopes for this year.  

I'm aware we're getting a bit of a late start, what with it being mid-January (already).  But once we get the hang of what fun is actually like, and how to incorporate it into our daily lives, we can proclaim next year as "The Year of More Fun".  We'll even make a note on the calendar to start it on January 1. 

As my part of the celebration, I plan to post some things for Wildcard Wednesdays that I consider fun, or silly, or worthy of a belly laugh.  Hopefully they'll bring a little smile into your day, and inspire you to tackle work with a lighter heart. 

Before you know it, we'll have another year under our belts.  But if we do it right, this year will be a lot of fun to look back on.

When Muses Act Bad

It's hard to have patience with my muse Endora sometimes.

She will not be tamed, and I have come to grips with that.  I've bemoaned described our relationship before, so if you care to know more, feel free to mosey over here.

It still irks me when she goes off on her little jaunts.  Mainly because she doesn't announce that she's leaving.  She just disappears, in a puff of smoke.  I'm left behind, thinking she's just demonstrating she's in charge, and then when I finally realize she's gone, I have to fumble around and try to figure out how to work through the scene she promised to help me with. 

I always know she's coming back—eventually—but I never know when.

And it's that uncertainty that makes me slide just a little closer to maniacal behavior.

When I've decided it's time to gather up a posse to track her down, she shows up, smirking at my discomfort.  I allow it, though, because Endora brings back the best presents. It's like she's been on a literary fact-finding mission.  Her carry-on bag is filled to the brim with great bits of dialogue, and plot twists, and epic black moments.  I shriek with delight, clapping my hands as she drops each unexpected marvel into my lap. 

The trick is to remain patient while she's gone.  (Hah!)  I tap away at the laptop, taking notes, which I've come to believe is a sort of Muse-y Morse code, letting Endora know what I need her to pick up while she's on her travels.  I scribble in my notebooks, telling myself I'm "working" even though at times it feels like I'm merely draining the ink from my pens.

It's a strange co-dependency Endora and I have.  We often shout at each other, "You're nothing without me!", which is semi-true.  I need her to aid my creative efforts, to spark the fire of ideas in my brain, while, without me, she would have nowhere for these monumental ideas to be expressed. 

It's a partnership, one that makes us better than the sum of our parts.  It's the same with our heroes and heroines.  They are fine people individually, quite admirable, with qualities we envy.  It's one of the many reasons they believe they don't need each other.  But when they are together, they have a chance to do so much more, and it's inspiring when they finally reach that conclusion.

Endora and I are like that.  I may snarl at her when she returns from her unexcused absences, but only so I don't fall at her feet with weepy gratitude.  I can't let her know how much I love her.  Just like she can't let me know how she is seduced by the stories I create for her entertainment.

It's a beautiful thing.

Does your muse drive you crazy?  What does he/she do to redeem themselves?  What special tricks do you have for dealing with them?

It's Playtime!

Now that we're adults, we don't allow ourselves enough time for play.  

I remember reading years ago how cats are hardwired to have a certain amount of play in their day.  They need it, and if they don't get it, they become all wacko. 

Since I'm not a cat person, I wouldn't be able to differentiate when they're being wacko due to a playtime deficiency, as opposed to their other kooky antics, so I'm happy to defer to the cat behavior experts on this one.

I like this concept though.  I think a lot of our procrastination tactics could be reduced if we gave ourselves permission to play.  Instead, we try to deny ourselves that pleasure because we have so much work to accomplish.  We avoid what we should be doing, and sneak in something we WANT to do, but then we feel guilty about it, so we don't end up enjoying an activity that was supposed to be fun.   

I have a poster by Mary Anne Radmacher on my wall that says:

"A reminder.  Some days are simply meant for playing." 

In one way it's sad that we even need a reminder.  But on the other hand, it's great that we can slap our foreheads and say, "Oh yeah! I need to play!"  

Here's a radical idea.  What if we penciled in at least an hour a day for nothing else but playing?

Dealer's choice too. It could be yakking with your Twitter friends, or a rousing game of solitaire on the laptop, or painting your fingernails.  Whatever it is that makes you feel free, like a little kid, knowing that you've got one entire hour to spend the way that you decide.

Don't think about how you SHOULD spend it.  Think instead how you WANT to use that time. 

You are being proactive, not procrastinating.

So let's set aside our writing tasks and have a play date.  Or at least a play hour.  For those of you who can't give in to having fun, I'll let you count it as "research".  This time.  But remember, this is designed to keep you from going wacko, so technically it's like medicine.  It's good for you.

Here's a good place to start.  Paper dolls, online!  Just click on "Dress Up Dolls" and you'll have a chance to dress (and I suppose, undress) a Regency era gentleman and lady.  They are in separate rooms, so no hanky panky can happen once you've got them half-dressed.  There is also an 18th century woman, as well as the main character from the book SOULLESS by Gail Carriger.  (What an imaginative bit of marketing that is, by the way.)

Have some fun today, and see what it does to inspire your writing.  I expect a full report on what you did with your hour of playtime!

Wait, That Can't Be Right

Some readers are such sticklers for accuracy they will stop reading, or even throw a book against the wall, if information isn't presented properly. 

And when I say, "throw a book against the wall", I am of course talking about print books.  I'm not sure how one expresses disgust with an e-book.  I would guess the book would be deleted, but how is the vehemence expressed?  Holding the delete key longer than necessary? Scowling while doing so?  Making a pretend throwing movement and THEN hitting the delete key?

Reading is obviously a subjective activity, which is why I frequently love a book that everyone else ignores, and why I'm puzzled when everyone loves something I find less interesting than the owners' manual of my curling iron.

So I'm intrigued by what will make a reader respond a certain way when it comes to inaccuracies.

You can read the rest of this post at Romance Writers Revenge, so stop by and discuss how you feel about this topic!

Setbacks = Character Growth

I am in the midst of analyzing my current WIP so I can turn it from a bunch of wildly amusing scenes into a cohesive, emotionally engrossing reading experience.

One of the things I do at this stage is create a list I call "Setbacks and Growth Points".

If a story doesn't have setbacks for the character, it's not all that interesting.  Unfortunately, character growth isn't like the rest of the changes that happen to our body from birth to death.  The body is programmed to grow, so it can pretty much progress even if we resist it every step of the way.

Character growth occurs, however, when there is a challenge or obstacle to overcome. It requires active participation, which may be why we as humans try to avoid it.    

I am well aware what I need to change about myself, but hey, it's easier to sit on the couch and eat Reese's peanut butter cups instead.  (I did choose the mini ones, which have fewer calories, so it's practically a diet food.  Add in all the calories I burn by ripping off the outer foil AND that brown paper lining, and I've got quite the impressive training regimen.)

What would happen, though, if a car crashed through my living room wall while I was sitting on my couch avoiding character growth?  I'd have to make a choice, and that choice would determine what kind of character traits I possess, as well as what I value in life.

It's the same with our characters.  I'm sure they would be perfectly happy to go from Point A to Point B without all that messy "inciting incident" and "black moment" stuff.  It's inconvenient, not always a lot of fun, and it gets in the way of what they had planned for their lives.  They're probably mumbling under their breath, "Hey, this is who I am, and if you don't like me, that's too damn bad".

But there's no story there. 

How does your character respond when things don't go his way?  Does he throw his hands in the air and say, "Oh well!"  Or does he grit his teeth and find another way to accomplish his goal?  These are things we discover when we force our characters to make choices they would normally avoid.  It reveals what they are truly made of when we put them under pressure to act.

When I'm working on my WIP, I make a list of the setbacks each character experiences, or should experience, in the story.  I try to relate these to the "needs improvement" areas of my character's personality, the aspects that need to change before they reach the end of the book.  It's a good way to see if I've left out a step in their development, or if the progression doesn't make sense the way I've currently arranged it.

It's hard to be mean to our characters.  I know that.  The only way I can make myself do it is to tell them, "I'm doing this for your own good". 

They may reach their goal or they may not.  Most likely their goal will change along the way.  But when they finally do reach Point B, they are going to be a better, and different, person than when they set out at Point A, anticipating an easy journey. 

And they've got me, and their setbacks, to thank for that.