October 12, 2011

“Life is difficult,” wrote M. Scott Peck in his famous book The Road Less Traveled. “This … is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it… Once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

I’d like to amend Peck’s quote to say that “the writing life is difficult.” And once that truth is accepted, “the fact that it is difficult no longer matters.”

The Fantasy

I imagine we all start out on the writing journey with a fantasy of what the writing life will be like. I know I did thirty years ago–and it’s been a fantasy that I clung to tenaciously for far too many years.

My own fantasy involved uninterrupted hours every day to write (after first journaling and then doing some creative writing exercises to ensure the writing would simply “flow”.) My fantasy included the books selling themselves without my help. I expected to reach a time when I’d never have to write anything without having a (lucrative) contract in hand. I also dreamed of writing by longhand in the fragrant garden of a thatched-roof English cottage. Sad to say, the cottage part was the only thing I recognized as pure fantasy. I figured everything else was just a matter of time.

Fast forward thirty years and forty published books later…

I love my office in Texas, but it’s a far cry from a thatched-roof cottage. And unless you write from Walden’s Pond, I don’t see how anyone manages to have uninterrupted hours every day to write. Juggling my roles as wife, mother, Nana, daughter, sister, friend, writer and ministry leader means fighting for writing time daily. Each role, at one time or another, has meant dealing with loss, conflict, disappointment, and/or illness-big time and energy eaters. And because of the changes within the publishing industry–in large part due to the economy and online social marketing demands–there’s no such thing anymore as an author who doesn’t help market their work.

It No Longer Matters

So where’s the silver lining around this black cloud? Simply this. Clinging to my fantasy life of a writer meant that every time reality intruded, I was disappointed or shocked or disillusioned–and tempted to quit. Lots of angst and wasted energy. As long as I was convinced that the writing life could be simple and require little work, I was irritated with reality. I made silent demands that this imperfect writing life go away!

• Truth #1: The writing life will always be difficult.
• Truth #2: It doesn’t really matter.
• Truth #3: All things worth having (family, good health, writing life) are difficult sometimes.
• Truth #4: We can do difficult things!

Accept Reality

Don’t miss the key point of the blog today. This is not a “downer” message. It’s a truth message–which will set you free. For me, it’s like having kids. Raising a family was the most difficult, time-consuming, challenging thing I’ve done in the last thirty-five years. It has also been the most rewarding, most fun, most gratifying thing I’ve ever done. It’s the same with the writing life. It’s been difficult, but I can’t imagine a career more rewarding than this. After many years, it does get easier--but I would never say it’s easy.

It’s okay to give up the fantasy that someday your writing life will be easy and smooth and not require you to grow or struggle anymore. You really don’t need the fantasy to keep you moving forward. “The fact that it is difficult no longer matters.”

That being the case, what fantasy about the writing life do you suspect you need to let go of?

June 1, 2011

“There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”

~~Ken Blanchard, author of the best seller The One Minute Manager

Without a 100% commitment to anything, you spend so much time (and energy!) every day deciding whether or not to keep the commitment. If you’re truly interested in writing–but not 100% committed–you probably fight with yourself nearly every day over whether or not to stick to your writing disciplines.

I’ve been fighting this for about thirty years. Long enough! It’s high time the writing and marketing (necessary these days if you want to have a writing career) became absolute non-negotiables.

No Matter What?

What if we lived the rest of our lives the way we live our writing life? Instead of the “should I write today, or shouldn’t I write?” daily hassle, we’d be fighting nearly everything! But we don’t. We make 100% decisions all the time. Examples:

• I never pass a bank or gas station and fight with myself about whether to pull in and rob them. I don’t steal. Ever. And I don’t intend to. So I don’t have to waste time and energy thinking about it.
• I don’t agonize over every attractive person I see and fight with myself about whether to initiate some illicit relationship. I don’t cheat. Ever. And I don’t intend to. So I don’t have to waste time and energy thinking about it.
• I don’t agonize over whether to brush my teeth after I eat breakfast. I don’t want my teeth to rot. Ever. And I don’t waste time and energy thinking about it.

Make That Commitment

We all have things we’ve made 100% commitments to: exercise programs, drinking water, tucking our kids into bed every night, not swearing, getting to bed by eleven, praying…you name it. Isn’t it time we made our writing commitments 100% too?

And you know the kicker? Studies have proven that it’s actually far easier to keep a 100% commitment than a partial commitment. Have you ever found that to be true?

April 15, 2011

Excitement gets us started on a novel. Enthusiasm rekindles (usually) near the finish as momentum picks up and we see the end in sight.

But what about the miserable middle? What about that time where you feel like you’re on a treadmill that’s not moving any closer to the finish line?

[Point of clarity: I don't mean when you write the middle chapters of a novel. I'm talking about getting through the middle months (or years) of writing a novel. The beginning part is where you write your rough draft. The ending is where you polish and proofread and submit it.]

The middle is everything else–and it’s a lot of work!

Characteristics of the Middle

The middle is where the rubber meets the road, in my opinion. Pretty much everyone can write a rough draft of a novel. If you join NaNoWriMo, you can accomplish that rough draft in a month or less. Likewise, pretty much everyone can proofread and tweak a nearly finished novel. It’s nitpicky (and a bit boring sometimes), but not that hard.

But the middle months? This is where your craft (or lack thereof) shows. The middle months of revising can be depressing as you read your rough draft. Mine always stink–and every time they stink far worse than I am expecting. I’m not sure why I’m still surprised, except maybe I dreamed that one day my rough drafts wouldn’t be so…well…rough.

What Have I Done?

The middle can also be depressing–or maybe overwhelming is a better word–because you can’t see the end. You may have started the novel with a clear idea of where it was going to go, but either (1) it took off in another direction that you now question, or (2) it followed your outline and now you don’t like how it turned out. You’ve lost the thrill of writing a rough draft or just the thrill of the original idea. Now it looks like one big mess.

Many writers quit during the middle months. It’s a time when you learn what you don’t know. (“I can’t write dialogue that sounds like real people!” “I can’t figure out what’s wrong with this opening or where to put the backstory!” “I don’t know how much research to do for my historical novel.”) When the amount of work that is needed looks overwhelming, many writers scrap that project and begin (with excitement) something new.

Is there anything wrong with that? Not really–as long as you realize that this new project will also have a middle to get through. And if you don’t get through middles, you’ll never get to the end–and be published.

Getting Through

On vacation I was able to finish reading The Soul Tells a Story by Vinita Hampton Wright. Here was one of her suggestions for the difficult middle:

“Creative work is multifaceted enough that it’s possible to find rest within it by shifting tasks. Maybe I can’t face the really right-brained creative work today, so this is a perfect time to go back to another section and do some rigorous editing. Switching back and forth between various tasks is perfectly fine for that long middle phase.”

I found this to be great advice on our trip.

Put It Into Practice

I took along my novel to work on if there was time, and thanks to the flight delays, there was. We had to sit in airports for hours–which I don’t mind at all now that I don’t travel with small children. When it was noisy or I was distracted, I worked on a bit of the setting, adding details from my research and from some new brochures I picked up.

When I had a couple of uninterrupted hours (e.g. husband returning the rental car), I had the quiet room to myself and buckled down to do some more intensive “internal work” on the heroine. Since I have a single-spaced six-page list of revision changes to make, I have plenty of big and little jobs to choose from. There’s always something that looks doable and appealing.

The long middles used to feel overwhelming to me. Occasionally they still do when a novel is giving me fits. For the most part, though, I enjoy the variety of the middle. You get to deepen characters, paint detailed settings, etc. which is much more fun to me than checking for misplaced commas.

How do you feel about the middle of projects? And has it changed over the years?

October 29, 2010

I don’t know how many of you have pig-out weekends with wake-up calls on Monday morning, but this week I had both. So I read a few motivational articles online for getting myself back on track.

It struck me that getting fit and getting published have a lot in common. The problems that derail us and the solutions proposed by the “experts” can almost be interchanged!

• For example, if you want to lose weight and get in shape, fitnss experts say that a support system of some kind is necessary. (Writers need it too.)
• Interval training is recommended for fitness–short bursts of focused work, then lighter periods for recovery. (This works best for my writing schedule as well.)
• Fitness experts recommend keeping track of your calories consumed and miles run. (Writers recommend keeping track of words and pages written.)
• Certainly to succeed in both areas, you need daily disciplines (consistency).
• And in both arenas, “slow and steady wins the race,” rather than days of self-torture followed by taking several weeks off.
• Both fitness experts and published writers recommend journaling, both for dealing with emotional issues that can throw you off your goals, as well as “before-during-after” journals for dealing with special blocks and temptations.
• Fitness gurus tell you how to deal with those loved ones who (perhaps unconsciously) try to sabotage your weight-loss progress. I’ve written about that issue myself, pertaining to writing.
• Fitness experts talk about the changes you need to make daily, and how you must think of them as “lifestyle changes” if you want to be successful. (Writers, also, must make changes in lifestyle that need to be permanent instead of lasting only until a deadline is met.)
• Diet instructors caution against using your calories on junk food and feeding the body little nutritional value. (As a writer, I have to force myself to lay aside my junk food mysteries sometimes in order to feed my mind something more literary and challenging.)
• To be successful in either endeavor, you need to stop those negative, defeatist thoughts and be optimistic.
• There are also times to deal with where you do everything right but get disappointing results (follow your food plan and exercise daily, yet gain a pound–OR write daily and submit, yet get rejected.)

Where’s My Motivation?

I realized that if I can master these general habits and mindsets, I can conquer all my fitness issues AND my writing issues! I just need to find the motivation.

In case you think your own motivation is lost, enjoy “Where Does Your Motivation Go When You Lose It?” The suggestions work equally well for developing fitness OR writing habits.

And if you have time, please leave a short comment sharing a way that YOU fire up your smoldering motivation. We’re all in this together!

June 21, 2010

In one of my favorite writing books (Escaping into the Open: The Art of Writing True by Elizabeth Berg), there’s a chapter on writing myths that the author says you should ignore.

I was reading the list and nodding and “Amen!”-ing my agreement all the way up to Myth #8. It said to ignore the warning that “you have to be disciplined to be a writer.”

Shocking!

I recoiled. Such blasphemy! How could she claim that writers didn’t need self-discipline? “Everyone” knew you needed to discipline yourself to write every day, to study markets, to read in your field. How could she say that? It went against my deeply ingrained beliefs.

And yet…as I read on, her words resonated with me much more than I would have believed possible. If you don’t need to be disciplined, what do you need? She wrote:

“What have to be is in love. With writing. Not with ideas about what to write; not with daydreams about what you’re going to do when you’re sucessful. You have to be in love with writing itself, with the solitary and satisfying act of sitting down and watching something you hold in your head and your heart quietly transform itself into words on a page.”

Major Paradigm Shift

Hmm…You don’t have to be disciplined–but instead, you have to be in love with the act of writing. For some reason, that rings true for me.

Of my 34 published middle-grade books, I can’t think of a single one that I had to “make myself” sit down and write. Yes, I ran into occasional rough spots. Yes, sometimes I felt physically or emotionally shot, so writing wasn’t as much fun on those days. But I didn’t have to discipline myself to write. In each case, I had a story I was burning to tell, and I couldn’t wait for naptime when I could immerse myself in my fictional world–where I could make life turn out like I wanted, like it should be.

Fueled from Within

In the early years, the inner passion for writing fueled me–not discipline imposed from the outside. I think Ms. Berg just may be onto something here! Maybe on the days we can’t make ourselves write, we should check our passion quota about our current project.

Passion for writing versus self-discipline–I think I need to investigate this further! Is it one or the other–or both?

How about You?

What does “being in love with your writing” look like for you? Can you describe one of its attributes? If so, please leave a comment!

May 19, 2010

A few weeks ago in “Find a Need and Fill It” I asked for your input concerning the topics you find most helpful in this blog.

Thank you all for the responses! It’s been very helpful. The requests fell into three main categories. Since I blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, that made it easy for me. From now on, this will be my general blogging schedule so that I can cover each topic area regularly.

What You Can Expect

Monday = Inner Motivation (includes:)

• fears–all kinds!
• discipline
• focus
• goals
• rejection
• lack of motivation
• encouragement
• a writer’s dream life
• procrastination
• working with our “inner editor”
• enjoying writing more
• perseverance
• creative inspiration
• writer’s block

Wednesday = Outer Challenges (includes:)

• setting boundaries
• time management
• distractions
• discipline
• writing schedules
• goal setting
• balancing writing with chaos in life
• balancing day jobs with writing
• our writing needs (vs. “their” needs)
• self-defeating behaviors

Friday = Tips ‘n’ Tricks of the Trade (includes:)

• specific genre help
• writing books I’ve found helpful
• blogs I find useful
• classes I’ve taken
• voice (writer’s and character’s)
• critique groups
• conferences
• working with publishers
• marketing–all kinds
• considering the audience when writing
• dealing with publishers who don’t respond
• finding good markets
• developing depth in writing
• selling “unique” pieces instead of jumping on the bandwagon

Thanks for Your Input

All your feedback has been immensely helpful in organizing future blog posts and making sure I cover topics you want to hear about and find useful. If I missed anything on these lists, feel free to let me know!

May 10, 2010

When I’m frustrated, it’s usually a sign that I’m trying to control something I can’t control. This can be a person or a situation or an event. The process can churn your mind into mush until you can’t think.

On the other hand, making a 180-degree switch and focusing on the things I can control (self-control) is the fastest way out of frustration. This concept certainly applies to your writing life.

Words of Wisdom

Remember the Serenity Prayer? It goes like this: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

How about reducing frustration with your writing life by applying that wisdom to your career? Here are some things to accept that you cannot change:

• How long it takes to get a response from editors and agents
• Rejections
• Editors moving before buying the manuscript they asked to see
• Size of print runs
• Reviews
• Publisher’s budget for your book’s publicity and promotion

Trying to change anything on the above list is a sure-fire route to frustration and wanting to quit.

However, do you have courage to change the things you can? Here are some:

• Giving yourself positive feedback and affirmations
• Reading positive books on the writing life
• Studying writing craft books
• Writing more hours
• Reading more books in the genre where you want to publish
• Attending local, state, regional and national conferences you can afford
• Joining or forming a critique group

Wisdom to Know the Difference

If you’re battling frustration and discouragement with the writing life, chances are good that you’re trying to control something beyond your control. It will make you crazy! The fastest way back to sanity is to concentrate on what you can control about the writing life.

Choose anything from that second list–or share an additional idea in the comments below–and get on with becoming a better writer. In the end, that’s all you can do–and it will be enough.

March 19, 2010

Getting into the writing habit is difficult, especially in the early years of writing. Our lives are full to overflowing already, so where can we possibly fit in some writing? How can we form a consistent writing habit when our schedules change from day to day, depending on our obligations?

Believe it or not, you have more time to write than you think. Keep a time log, tracking how you spend your time for a few days or a week. If you do, you’ll spot “down” time that you use for other things which could be snagged for your writing.

Redirect Your Time

When my kids were very young, I desperately wanted to write. I realized that instead of catching up on laundry and chores during their afternoon naps, I could write. Instead of making beds and doing dishes during the morning half hour of “Mr. Rogers,” I could write. Instead of thumbing through ragged magazines for twenty minutes every Friday afternoon while my daughter got her allergy shots, I could write.

Bed making and dishes and laundry could be done while little ones milled around. I chose to write instead when they didn’t need me. That “nap-Mr. Rogers-allergy shot” schedule became my writing routine until my youngest went to kindergarten. By that time, Atheneum had published my first five middle grade novels.

Hidden Time

“But I really don’t have any free time!” you might truly think. I challenge you to study your schedule very closely. Everyone has pockets of “down” time during the day. It may vary from day to day, but usually it is consistent weekly. (For example, you may sit in the pick-up line at your daughter’s elementary school every afternoon for fifteen minutes. Instead of listening to the radio, write.)

You might free up some time by doubling up on your mindless activities. Most of us multi-tasked before the word became popular, but if you’re not, try it. While supper is cooking, don’t watch the news; pay those bills or wrap those birthday gifts, and free up a half hour in the evening to write. If you want to write YA novels, listen to those young adult books on tape while you walk your dog. You’ll be doing your “market research” for an hour, freeing up an hour later to write.

Get It in Writing

Write down whatever pockets of time that you discover can be used for your writing. Even if it’s only fifteen-minute chunks, note them. You can write an amazing amount in ten or fifteen minutes at a time-and it adds up. You may find these chunks in the “between times.” You might have a bit of time between when the kids get on the school bus and you have to leave for work. Or between your day job and supper, you may have half an hour that you wait on a child at ball practice. (I wrote a lot sitting in bleachers waiting for children at practice.)

Write all these pockets of time down on a weekly schedule and write it on your daily calendar. Make it a habit. Perhaps on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, you write half an hour before work, plus daily you write fifteen minutes before cooking supper, and Saturday morning you write an hour while the kids watch cartoons. That’s four hours of writing in a week, just in the free bits and pieces. Since many of us started writing while caring for small children and/or holding down a day job, this kind of weekly schedule may be the best you can do for a while.

And that’s fine!

Time-Honored Tradition

The highest percentage of today’s famous, best-selling authors admit that their writing schedules were exactly like this in the early years. But they had that “burning desire to write” too. And that desire is what motivates us to find those pockets of time, give them to our writing, schedule it daily, and follow through.

You can find time to write, whether it’s early morning, during your noon hour, late at night, during commutes, or in catch-as-catch-can bits throughout the day. You must integrate writing into your existing routine for it to work.

Schedules make writing a habit, which in turn makes it a permanent part of your lifestyle.

December 16, 2009

While the Christmas season may have put a crimp in your writing schedule (it has mine!), it’s not too soon to be thinking about writing in the new year. With that in mind, I’m repeating some advice from a writer who knows what she’s talking about–and is well worth listening to. Heeeeere’s Jane!

Telling It Like It Is

Two years ago at a workshop, award-winning writer Jane Yolen made a statement that stunned the group of fourteen published writers who attended. Before the workshop, Jane had read and critiqued chapters submitted by each writer.

When she handed back the critiqued manuscripts, she said (paraphrased), “Half of you here have as much talent as I do. About one-fourth of you probably have more talent than I do.” (Imagine fourteen mouths dropping open in disbelief.) “But,” Jane added, looking around the circle of writers, “I guarantee you that I write more than any of you.”

Quantity AND Quality

She claimed it was a big key to her immense success. If we wanted to grow as writers, she advised us to write every single day, even for just half an hour, and for two reasons. One was to keep our minds immersed in our writing projects. The second—the most important to me—was that daily writing should improve the quality of our writing.

I had signed up for the workshop, hoping to find the “magic key” I needed to bring my writing up a notch or two. And there it was: write more. If you want to bring your writing up to the next level, write more. If you want to improve in your handling of the English language and all its creative components, write more. If you want to publish more, fall in love with writing again, and feel like a “real writer,” write more.

How Much and When?

The workshop weekend also included a private 15-minute critique with Jane. We were allowed to ask anything we liked. Among other things, I wanted to know her writing schedule—especially as I knew from her online journal that she traveled extensively to speak and she was (like most mothers and grandmothers) very involved with her family.

Come to find out, Jane does write a lot—and read a lot—but it wasn’t some horrendous schedule like ones I’d heard about. I had half expected another “I get up at 3 a.m. and write for twelve hours, seven days a week” explanation for her prolific output. But that wasn’t the case.

She got to her desk at a decent time, maybe around 8 or 9, did some email and checked a few things, then got to work. If my memory is correct, she said she worked till mid-afternoon or so on those days she was home to write. She wasn’t a hermit though—she frequently had meetings and dinners with friends.

She travels to speak many days out of the average month. She deals with family and life issues like everyone else. Still, I believed her statement about writing more than all of us was probably true. She has a huge number of published books of the highest award quality to show for it.

Start Where You Are

Sure, many of us can’t write five hours every day. There are full-time day jobs, children and grandchildren underfoot, sick parents to care for, etc. But to improve in our writing, we all need to start somewhere. We’re just talking about writing more. Writing more for you might be increasing from two hours per week to three, or increasing daily writing time by fifteen minutes.

So what’s the big deal about writing more? Well, it’s been shown that more hours spent writing equals more quantity equals better quality. “Writing more” certainly produces more quantity: more stories, articles, books, plays. But I think the often overlooked “plus” of writing more is that your quality goes up.

Real Results

In the month after the workshop, I wrote more “new words” and did more revising than probably in the previous six months.  The drafts got cleaner, and descriptive language started to flow, with less effort on my part. (Sometimes it even surprised me, since similes and metaphors have never come willingly to my typing fingers.)

I hope to get closer and closer to Jane’s advice about writing every day. As Susan Shaughnessy says in Walking on Alligators, “Writers are those who write…Days off are deadly. One follows another, and all too soon fears creep back in. Nothing is as easily delayed as writing.”

One of my writing goals for 2010 is simply to write a lot more. In these final days of 2009, I’ll be exploring strategies to do that.

October 2, 2009

After posting about dismounting your dead horses on Wednesday, a reader asked about putting some “horses out to pasture” so she could work on her NaNoWriMo book. Another reader asked what NaNoWriMo was.

So today, before I leave for a writers’ conference, I thought I’d post links to last year’s NaNoWriMo information. Some explain how NaNoWriMo is run; others show challenges along the way so you can prepare for them.

Plan Ahead Now

The truth is (for me, at least) unless I spend October getting reading for National Novel Writing Month in November, I bomb. One year I didn’t make it very far. One year I completed the 50,000 words, but the manuscript wasn’t worth saving–only the idea was salvaged.

This year I’m preparing now for November. I will dismount a couple of dead horses, plus work through a couple of plot issues on the new novel I’m outlining. By the time November 1 rolls around, I want to be ready to the point that I can produce (God willing) a viable draft of a novel by the end of November.

Check These Out and Join Me!

NaNoWriMo: What Is It?

NaNoWriMo Kick-Off!

NaNoWriMo: Surviving Week One

NaNoWriMo Update: Week Three

NaNoWriMo Results

Anybody else going to try the challenge this year?

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