December 31, 2007

Memorize This!
If you want a writing life that you’ve never had, you’ll have to do things that you’ve never done—and do them consistently. (Copy the preceding sentence, tape it to your computer, and read it many times daily.)

(If you haven’t read “Set 2008 Writing Goals Now” and “Make the Writing Dreams Come True,” stop and read them now. They’re short, but today’s blog builds on the previous two.)

If you want a rich writing life, cut out time wasters and replace them with reading—and reading a lot. Otherwise our creative wells run dry. Also socialize with a purpose more often (SCBWI conferences, critique groups, book discussion groups, book store readings, lunch with writers.)

Be determined to create new ways of working and thinking. This involves both doing different things AND doing things differently. For example, if you want editors and agents to react to you differently, you’ll have to act differently. You may have to do different things (attend conferences, ask questions) or do things differently (write gutsier queries, research the agency better.)

You must also think differently. Yes, making dreams come true is hard—but you can do hard things! Yes, success takes time—but you can develop patience! Change how you view yourself. Determination to make changes won’t be worth much without an accompanying belief in your ability to do so. If you already hold down a job or have children, you already know how to be patient, delay gratification and work hard. Just apply those same attitudes to your writing!

(Look for the next installment tomorrow.)

December 28, 2007

A writer from my critique group sent me a link to an excellent article today, and I want to pass it along to you. As we think about writing more in 2008, we need to consider the new habits we should develop–and probably a few old ones we need to drop. Daphne Gray-Grant’s article on “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Writers” will give you a lot of food for thought.

Read the article–study it–journal about it. Then make your own list of habits you want to develop in 2008 to further your writing career.

December 26, 2007

I hope your Christmas Day was one blessed with family and friends and the joy of the day. We hadn’t planned to be traveling during Christmas this year, but at the last minute when some of our kids couldn’t make it here, we ended up driving six hours each way to see them. As I packed, I thought back to my own recent post on writing while traveling and decided to practice what I preached! So I packed the laptop and my novel notes and we took off.

Did I like working on a laptop in the front seat of a compact car? No. I don’t like typing with my elbows close to my waist or trying to find angles where the sun won’t glint off the screen. Happily, we were driving in the dark a good bit of the time, so the sun wasn’t a huge problem. Did I like writing with the radio blaring? No–I like total quiet to write. Despite the less-than-ideal writing conditions, I was able to write a whole chapter on the way there and half a chapter on the way home. That was about 4,200 new words of a rough draft. If I hadn’t written, what would I have done otherwise? Daydreamed. Napped. Stared out the window. Read more–although I still managed to read a lot.

Besides getting the words down, the writing done in the car will be very helpful to me later today. When I sit down to write, I won’t have to go back and see what I wrote three days ago and try to remember the emotions of that scene or where I was headed with it. It’s still fresh in my mind from writing in the car last night. I can pick up where I left off with little trouble. (By the way, I readily admit that writing with no small children in the car is MUCH easier! When my children were little and I didn’t own a laptop, my writing in the car was done with pencil and notebook, using a flashlight after dark. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!)

All our best laid plans for setting up a writing schedule can go out the window in a moment. We don’t live on islands, but instead in families that require our flexibility. So learn to build that flexibility into your writing life. By all means, have a set schedule and a favorite place that is most conducive for your writing. But learn to go with the flow too–and fit the writing in whenever and wherever you can. Later, you’ll be glad you did!

December 22, 2007

Last night and today I continued to think about how to write more in 2008. I didn’t actually write though. We had our very young grandkids here overnight for a Christmas hot dog and marshmallow roast in the fireplace, lots of play, and making memories. I could write tonight, but I’m too tired! If you have a family–whether it’s preschoolers and toddlers like I had when I started writing, or grandkids like I have now–it’s something you have to consider when trying to write more. It’s a balancing act, especially if your family comes first in your heart, as mine does. It’s no good putting the writing before your family and then living in guilt. The guilt will short circuit your writing and create a solid writer’s block. So, how can you make more time to write without short-changing your family? In future blogs, I’ll share what worked for me when I needed to combine raising children, teaching, and writing magazine pieces and books. It’s a juggling act!

In the second Glimmer Train Guide to Writing Fiction (2007), the volume called Inspiration and Discipline, an interesting point was made. A mother/writer was asked about balancing family and writing. In part, she made this observation: “It’s very hard. There’s no way of glossing it over. It’s very, very difficult. At this point, my children are grown, but still they’re–of course–more important than my work. And that’s how it is… I sometimes think back through history: Were there any great women writers with children? I’ve been unable to find any. Of course, the way history is written, we don’t know…but those whom we know didn’t have children and families.” I had never thought about that, but my favorite female writers (Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, and others) were single women without children.

What do you think is the reason behind that fact? Is it merely the time needed to raise a family, preventing you giving enough time to the writing? Or is it that both writing and raising children take the same kind of dedication, love, focus, and sheer energy? Can babies and bylines mix? Or if you try to do both, do both suffer? I don’t think either has to suffer, although there are only 24 hours in anyone’s day. I’ll talk more this month about families and writing, but I welcome your insights too. In our quest to write more in 2008, we don’t want our families suffering for it. And they won’t have to!

December 21, 2007

As we head into 2008 with the determination to write more, we can’t overlook the subject of the distractions that derail us. I know you have good intentions to write more. I do too. But unless we master the things and people that distract us, we’ll have trouble getting much writing done. Since being online to blog and read other people’s blogs can become a distraction for me, I’ll get off now! For more about this ongoing challenge, see my article “Dealing with Distractions” on Right-Writing.com.

December 19, 2007

In 2007 I had several deadlines to meet in order to finish writing a middle grade mystery series to be released next May. So, in contemplating ways to write more in 2008, I decided first to add up the actual number of words I’d written this year. It was a LOT less that I had guessed. I had finished the short middle grade books and written two proposals. That’s all. I tried to figure out why, but couldn’t. I had had no major interruptions this year–no deaths or divorces, no horrible illnesses, no new grandbabies. In other words, no real excuses! We had moved to a new house, but that’s a minor thing in the scheme of things.

There was no getting around it. Between the times I turned in manuscripts or submitted the proposals, I must have wasted a lot of writing time. While I was waiting for the next deadline to creep closer, while I was waiting to see what would happen with the proposals, I must have done everything but write. Waiting well is an art that I need to relearn.

Jane Yolen’s advice to write daily (my 12/14 blog) if you want to write more and write better is key. And it’s what we need to do while we’re waiting to hear back from editors. Taking a short break is refreshing. A break that lasts weeks or months is deadly to our writing. We can’t allow ourselves to get caught up in the angst of waiting to hear from editors or agents. We need to turn that emotional energy to writing our next (and better) manuscript.

If writing while you wait is a challenge for you, see my article “Waiting! Waiting!” on Terry Whalin’s website Right-Writing.com.

December 16, 2007

In keeping with our December discussion about writing more in 2008, let’s talk about group challenges and friendly contests. (See the list of upcoming challenges at the end of this post.) For several years I’ve heard about National Novel Writing Month (which takes place every November), but this is the first year I’ve participated. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in the month. The National Novel Writing Month website has grown to where thousands of writers worldwide participate. There you’ll find radio pep talks, places to sign up for supportive emails, an email program and profile set-up so you can get to know the other participants (in your home area and around the world), special outside events, hundreds of forums, and more. Each day you post the number of words written that day.

Did I succeed at writing 50,000 new words in November? No, I didn’t. I was gone some and didn’t get a lot done over Thanksgiving weekend. I also started my new novel a bit prematurely and had to take several days out to re-do some plotting. However, I DID manage to write over 19,000 new words on a novel that had been “sitting on the back burner” of my mind for four years. I also revised about 10,000 words of that novel after re-plotting. I hope to participate in NaNoWriMo again next year, but I will spend more time outlining ahead of time so I can hit the floor running on November 1.

If you missed NaNoWriMo last month, are you stuck on your own till next November? Not at all! They have a page called I wrote a novel–now what? There you will find other NaNoWriMo challenges and spin-off challenges for throughout the year. I’ll list a few of them below. (You can find others at the link above for writers of films, comics, and songs.) Read through them, think about your writing projects for 2008, and choose several challenges. These are really motivating, whether you are working with a contract deadline or not. They are especially helpful if you are trying to meet a personal deadline. Both the challenge and companionship are worth a million bucks!

Which challenges below will you be signing up for?

NaNovFinMo - National Novel Finishing Month (December). Goal: 30,000 words.
JaNoWriMo - January Novel Writing Month (January). Goal: 50,000 words, or whatever goal you set.
NaNoEdMo - National Novel Editing Month (March). Goal: Commit to 50 hours of novel editing. JulNoWriMo - July Novel Writing Month (July). Goal: 50,000 words for a new or unfinished manuscript.
Book in a Week - (Begins on the Monday of the first full week of each month, lasts one week). Goal: Write a novel.
NaNoMangO - The artist’s alternative to NaNoWriMo (November). Goal: Draw 30 pages of sequential art in one month.
AugNoWriMo - August Novel Writing Month (August). Goal: Write a novel in one month.
NaNoPubYe - National Novel Publishing Year (Year-Round). Goal: Get that NaNoWriMo novel ready for publication!