What Gets You Writing?

I wake up to an overcast sky that drapes over everything like a fuzzy gray blanket.  Coffee is brewing downstairs, its aroma pulling me out of bed like the cartoon finger wafting in the air.  There is a dampness in the air that tells of the cold winter to come, bidding goodbye to the blithe heat of summer.  Though there are tasks to be done- lunches to be made, children to be fed, clothed, and sent to school- I feel the ache inside me that longs for black on white; words on a page.  

I got to thinking this morning, are there certain cues that call forth the writer in me?  In all of us?  I can tell you that cloudy days make me want to write exponentially more than sunny ones.  I get far more writing done in winter than in summer, suggesting that the writer-hermit in me is a seasonal one.  Certain smells can cue ideas as well; coffee is a definite trigger, but fire, rain, fresh-baked cookies, and wet dirt are all aromas that get the writing gears turning in my brain.  Moods can sway my motivation to write as well.  When I am overjoyed, I don't feel the urge to write as much as when I am wistful or melancholy.  Places can be triggers, too.  For some reason, I always get ideas for stories or poems while driving in the car, especially in the morning when my mind is clear.

It's kind of fun to be introspective about the process every now and again.  Figuring out your own triggers and cues could help you become more productive in your writing.  If you know you are more inclined in the morning than the evening, try to clear your morning to allow yourself time.  If you are more seasonally-minded as I am, try not to stress yourself out in the summer when the words just aren't flowing.  If that piece of apple pie sends your mind down avenues you can't help exploring, then stock up on pie and have a slice during your writing periods.

I've offered up my own triggers that get me writing; now I'm curious about yours.  What gets you writing?

The Importance of Not Writing and Literary Fitness

In my time away from the blog, I have had something of an epiphany.  It has been quite a long time since I last posted, and I apologize for that fact.  The Perfect Storm came together and wreaked havoc over my life for a couple weeks, but it has since dissipated and the sun shines once again.  A move, a health emergency, and technical difficulties all contributed to my absence.  I hadn't really realized how dependent I was on the internet until I was without it for ten days.  I hardly knew what to do with myself during the times I would normally be blogging or contributing to weekly writing prompts.  I actually reverted back to a notebook and pen for a week.  It was excruciating.

But enough excuses.  Onto the epiphany.  When the green light finally blinked at me on my modem, signaling I was once again connected digitally to that giant world wide web out there, I sat down and cranked out three thousand words-worth of stories, comments, and other public posts in about two hours.  It's such a wonderful feeling when the words just spill out of you, isn't it?  In all my excitement, I realized that taking some time away from the usual writing exercises had helped those creative juices to build up inside me until they poured out onto the page like literary kool-aid.

I have always believed that the writing mind is a muscle that needs to be exercised and toned just like any other muscle.  The same old boring workout, day after day, will keep it in shape.  I will always be able to write something, just as our muscles will always be able to perform average tasks like walking.  But the lesson I'm learning is that walking every single day for the rest of my life is boring.  Unless I take time out to absorb the world around me and let that creative kool-aid build up again, my writing muscles won't be able to do amazing things like yoga, kettle ball, or even that zumba thing I'm always hearing about.  (By the way, what the heck is zumba, anyway?)

Taking time away from the norm and letting current events sink in and marinate for a while is a good thing.  It helps us elevate our writing from the doldrums of "fine" and "nice".  I don't ever want my writing to be described as fine or nice.  That is boring, plain old vanilla, and vanilla is not what gets published.  I want to at least rise to Moose Tracks status.  (I apologize to all the vanilla lovers out there.  It's just not for me.)

NaPoWriMo... Say What?

It's National Poetry Month!

Are you ready for it?  Have you cleared your schedules and set aside some time each day this month?  Have you stocked up on coffee, tea, No. 2 pencils, or whatever else you find essential to your poetry writing process?  Every year, April rolls in and I can hardly contain my excitement.  For me, this is a time to put whatever marathon projects I have been slugging away at aside and enjoy the fresh perspective of a poem a day.  That's right, it's a 30 poems in 30 days challenge.  

There are oodles and oodles of blogs, websites, and other sources on the interweb where you can share your poems each day this month.  Some of them also offer poetry prompts each day to get your gears turning.  My personal favorite is the Writers' Digest Poetic Asides Blog.  Or, if you're not into sharing, keep them to yourself.  Whatever suits your fancy.  But do participate.  It's lots of fun and can give you a fresh perspective, not only on life, but on your writing projects that you may be so immersed in that you can't see the forest for the trees.

Here's one to get you started.  Enjoy and happy poeming!

Virgin snow
encasing my toes
as I blot
pristine white
with these bygone impressions
of my origin

Road Trip Wednesday: Best Book of March

It's Road Trip Wednesday Time

This week's question on YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday is:

What was the best book you read in March?

Oh, decisions!  How will I ever choose?  Oh wait, this is easy.  I would love to project an aura of Wonder Woman to you all and boast about how I've read twelve books this month in addition to spring cleaning my entire house, finishing my own novel, and discovering the cure for childhood boredom.  Unfortunately, none of those things happened in the month of March.  Perhaps in April...

Anyway, I really only read one book this past month, so I suppose it gets my vote.  It was really good and deserves to be best of March in my opinion.  The book was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  Not really a YA book, I know, but hey, it's slim pickins around here!  I love the dark and edgy tone that is just dripping with wit and suspense.  I would definitely recommend it.

This question is a great reminder of the importance of reading as a writer.  I am a firm believer that if you continually read good writing, it will begin to rub off on you.  If you surround yourself with crap or with no writing at all, that's probably all that will come out when you write: crap, or nothing at all.  So immerse yourself in great literature of all kinds and further your craft.  Happy Wednesday.

10 Reasons Your Non-Writer Friends and Family Think You're Crazy

     1.  Sometimes you enter the bedroom, laptop under your arm and a thermos of coffee in your hand, and despite the screaming children and a pleading husband, you emerge hours later without any idea what's going on
   
     2.  While you are writing on your computer, you unknowingly start squinting at the screen and  lean closer and closer until you are inches away and when your loving (concerned) husband asks what you are doing, you snap at him for disrupting your concentration

     3.  Your darling child has to ask you what's for lunch seven times before it actually sinks in

     4.  You find yourself staring into space while out and about, and while you know that you are plotting out your story or thinking up good dialogue, the lady picking out a bunch of bananas at the grocery store does not and shoots you an "Are you supposed to be out of your straight jacket and among the public by yourself?" kind of look.

     5.  You gradually become more irritable and begin to resemble something of a troll.  You realize this is more true than a joke when you find you would actually prefer to remain holed-up in a cave somewhere until you finish the manuscript.

     6.  Your friend or family member asks you what you think of the new Pope and you reply, "Wait, what?  I didn't know we had a new Pope."

     7.  You spend most of your day having entire conversations with people that don't really exist

     8.  You start asking random questions of people like, "Honey what is that thingy called that you pull down with your thumb on the back of a gun?" or "Is it possible to build an entire complex underground beneath a skyscraper?"

     9.  You begin to show complete disregard for personal hygiene as well as social norms like mealtimes, appropriate dress in a public setting (you mean I can't wear my sweatpants six days a week???), etc.

     10.  Even though you know that your eight month-old baby wakes up at or before 5am every morning like clockwork, you stupidly stay awake into the wee hours of the morning writing and then are completely dumbfounded as to how you only managed to get three hours of sleep (this could also have something to do with #5)

To Outline or Not To Outline... Is It Really a Question?

The old debate of outlining vs. not outlining has been carrying on since the dawn of the novel.  (At least it seems that way.  I wasn't really around then, so I'm not positive.)  There are those who claim outlining is a necessity for any well-written novel.  It provides the structure needed to achieve the key elements of plot.  Without it, a writer is lost in an endless sea of dead-ends and over-explored sub-plots.  On the other side, there are the free-thinkers.  I must admit, I have always believed myself to be a member of this camp.  The ones that believe an outline feels kind of like being straight-jacketed and trapped inside a very small box.  Claustrophobic feelings arise and keep the writer from experiencing the creative environment they need to write.

With my latest project, however, I found myself craving the unthinkable: STRUCTURE.  Rules; something to give me a good swift kick when I started rambling off-course or shine a beacon of light when I got lost and couldn't see a way out.  Another bonus I discovered along the outlining trail: I was no longer restrained by the shackles of chronology.  Since I vaguely knew where my story was going, I could write whatever scene I felt like writing on a particular day.  It was strangely liberating.

The fact is, a novel needs structure.  Otherwise, what you have is a hot literary mess.  But the actual process of outlining can be incredibly intimidating.  It was for me, anyway.  I discovered a way to tone down the intimidation and I would like to share it with you.

You will need: a pack of 3x5 index cards or some other small scraps of paper

First, and most importantly, brew a heaping pot of strong coffee or tea.  It is essential to the creative process.  (Not really, but just go with it.)

In the early, brainstorming and listening for ideas stage of your storytelling, write down one specific note or idea about the story on each note card or scrap of paper.  Your ideas could be actions, a specific detail about a character or setting, a phrase one of your characters says, or a broader direction the story is going in.  Write down all the ideas you have.  Anything and everything.  Don't think it will be relevant or help your outline at all?  Stop analyzing and just write it down!

Once you have all your ideas written down, you can start arranging the note cards into a timeline of events.  Note that this will be a continuing process and you will most likely be adding many more cards to the timeline along the way.  It is also important to note that I started doing this on my bed, only to have the entire thing crash in on itself when I got up.  Learn from my mistake and start on a hard, flat surface like the kitchen table or the floor.  If you find yourself overwhelmed with a huge stack of cards, try sorting them into the three acts of your story: at or near the beginning, at or near the middle, and at or near the end.  That way you can sort each separate pile into a more manageable timeline of its own.

If you are having trouble making decisions on when certain events should be taking place, just make your best guess.  That is the beauty of this type of outlining: nothing is permanent.  If you change your mind, you can just rearrange the cards.  It's like the commitment-phobes' guide to outlining.

Now read through your timeline and mull it over.  Does it sound like a structured story?  Then the writing can begin, my friend.  Does it lack continuity and sound more like bits and pieces of several different stories?  Maybe you need to spend more time listening to your ideas and brainstorming where to go with them.  If you are thinking of writing your story out of chronological order, you can rearrange the cards based on the order of events you have in your head.

This less intimidating style of outlining really helped me, a self-proclaimed organic writer, structure my story into something that resembled a plot line.  If you are still one of those radicals that can't handle the confinement of any type of outline, so be it.  Live free and write organically.  For the rest of you, just give it a shot.  What have you got to lose?  (besides a messy storyline or none at all)

By the way, check out this awesome example of why outlining is kind of essential to a novel by Larry Brooks.  It may blow your organic writing mind.

He Said, She Said: Finding the Balance of Good Dialogue

5 Things to Remember When Writing Dialogue

Dialogue is such an important part of a novel.  It shapes characters, saying more about them than descriptions ever could.  It is also a much subtler way to hint at certain traits you want the reader to pick up on without painstakingly spelling it out.  Dialogue, when it's done right, can enrich your story and build depth.  It can also damage it beyond all repair.  So where is the balance?  

I read an article about an editor sharing some pointers to writers once.  It was so long ago I couldn't even tell you who the editor was, but the point of it really stuck with me.  One of the tips she shared was about dialogue.  She said that the first thing some of her agent friends would look at when picking up a proposed manuscript was how much white space was on the pages.  Before even reading a word of it, they would flip through and decide whether or not there was too much or too little blank space.  If it wasn't a good ratio, they would toss it aside, without even giving it a chance.

Scary, right?  To think that the amount of dialogue in your story has that much influence right out of the gate?  Well, don't despair.  I've got a few tips that can help make your dialogue the best it can be.

     1.  Scene vs. Summary 

Throughout your story, some pieces of the plot will be detailed scenes and others will be summaries or reflection.  Part of the balance of good dialogue is knowing when to pull the reader into a scene and include lots of juicy dialogue and when to summarize or reflect upon the less active parts.  If you tend to write lots of dialogue in your story, it may be beneficial to pull out some of the less dynamic scenes and summarize them for the reader.  If you are the opposite and tend to write very little dialogue, try to pinpoint some crucial parts of the story to expand on in a scene with lots of important dialogue.  It's good to follow a dynamic scene with some summary or reflection.

2.   TV Speak vs. Real People Speak

While watching many of the latest sitcoms and dramas, I have noticed that the characters on tv have a very special language that is not used anywhere else.  I like to refer to it as TV Speak.  It is the unending, witty banter that assaults my ears every time I watch and sometimes makes me want to throw things at the tv.  If you haven't already figured it out, I will let you in on the secret: real people in everyday life DO NOT TALK LIKE THAT.  Yes, sometimes it is more potent than everyday language, but I find it downright annoying.  So please, do not feel that because you are putting a story out there in public view for all to see, that you must use TV Speak.  Maybe it's just me, but I find that the more real a character seems, the more it pulls me deeper into the story.  (It's not just me, by the way.  It's agents, editors, publishers, and most of the general public, too)  So take some time to listen to real people having real conversations in the real world.  Your characters will thank you for it.

3.   He Said, She Said

When writing a scene, it is important to make it clear who is saying what in a conversation.  The easiest and most commonly used way to distinguish the speaker is by using the word said.  Use it too often, i.e. after every single voiced comment, and the reader is bombarded by an army of saids, disrupting the otherwise pleasant flow of language in the story.  Use it too sparingly and the reader may become utterly confused.  Once again, the all-important concept of balance comes into play.  When two people are speaking, you can establish the "he said, she said" with their first comments.  After that, it's not really necessary to continue with "he said" after every comment.  We, the intelligent readers, can figure out the ABAB talking scheme for ourselves.  Once you write in some narration, though, you should re-establish who is talking again.  When you have more than two people speaking to each other, it's important to sprinkle a healthy dose of saids, just enough to keep us from losing track of who is speaking.

4.   Said Substitutes

Other words, such as replied, answered, or asked, can be substituted for said. Approach this concept with caution, though.  If you find that your characters are chortling, bellowing, or snickering, you have waded past the safe zone and into the deep end of horribly cliched, bad dialogue.  Just. Don't. Do it.  Be frugal with your said substitutes or you will end up slowing down your story significantly.

5.   Name-Calling

One of my biggest pet-peeves in reading dialogue is when the speakers, whether familiar with each other or not, use each others' names every single time they speak.  Here, let me show you:

"Henry, I told you to take out the garbage yesterday."

"But Aunt Jenna, I'm meeting some friends."

"No, Henry.  You need to take out the garbage now."

"You're so mean Aunt Jenna."

Ick.  It is annoying, unrealistic, and just plain unnatural.  Another pointer about this same passage: Don't allow your characters to address each other by their titles all the time either.  How often do you address your aunts, uncles, or doctors like that?  That's what I thought.  

Dialogue is a tricky medium and using it correctly is essential to a successful novel.  I hope these pointers help you writers out there as they have helped me.  Happy dialoguing!

Literary Adultery & Brand Spankin' New Ideas

I was routinely going about my day on Tuesday, putting a dent in the seemingly insurmountable pile of laundry when it hit me.

BOOM.

Just like that, I was forcibly knocked upside the head with a new idea for a story.  While I did feel committed to my current project and wanted to prevent any jealousy issues, this new idea was just that: new.  It was shiny and enticing and calling out to me like that last piece of cake, sitting lonely on the counter.  How could I possibly resist?

So that's where I have been for the last two days- huddled in the corner with my laptop, living out my own literary tryst.  I can't help feeling a little guilty, since I haven't worked on the project that I've been faithfully tied to for two years at all.  What will it think?  When I go back to it, which I inevitably will, will it even want me anymore? 

Ok, enough melodrama.  But it did make me think; is there a policy on what to do with new ideas when you are knee-deep in a current project?  Should they be forgotten so as to focus on the task at hand?  Or should they be given your full attention so as not to forget what could be the next great idea?  I think a strategy somewhere in the middle would work best for me.  I don't want to lose it in the clutter of my mind, but I also don't want to forget where I was going with my first idea.  I wrote down about twenty pages or so to give me plenty to go on when I am finished with this project and ready to tackle another.

Now I'd better give my neglected first-manuscript some attention before it leaves me altogether.

What do you all do when an idea strikes in the middle of something else?

The Craptastic Early Years: When Taste Exceeds Talent

Just to recap: I have been working on this book for about two years now.  I took almost a whole year to explore the concept and characters, and then began the actual writing about a year ago.  Why has it taken so long, you ask?  Because I move at the pace of a sloth; to get into the mindset of writing and shut out the laundry piling up, dishes in the sink, crumbs on the counters, toys on the floor and dust on every piece of furniture we own takes a herculean amount of effort for me.  Needless to say, I would be elated to finish this draft and put some space between us.  (My neglected house and family would be just as elated, I'm sure)

So when I sit down to write and find that the only thing coming out of me is pure garbage spewed onto the page, I get upset; so upset that I cannot continue.  I then decide, to the dismay of writing gurus everywhere, to go back and reread some of the story.  What do I find?

MORE CRAP.

Pure word vomit, splattered everywhere.  Hello, my name is Amy, and right now I hate everything I have written.  What I really want to do is delete the entire thing and start over from scratch.  Thankfully, my better judgement stepped in and directed me, instead, to some wonderful resources on the interweb.

I consulted the wise Jane Friedman and her plethora of writing advice.   I found a post titled, "You Hate Your Writing?  That's A Good Sign" and lit up at the happy coincidence.  She describes a video series on YouTube from Ira Glass on story telling.  I dutifully clicked on the link and watched the series.  I would highly recommend watching this, whether you are a writer in crisis or not. 

He is talking about broadcasting in particular, but it does apply to any creative endeavor, really.  He says that when you are just starting out in the creative process, what you are producing is crap.  This is normal to produce crap and everyone does.  You have to push through the crap to get to the good stuff.  He also says that the fact that you know it's crap is a good sign.  Your taste is good, if not great, and that is what made you jump into the creative fray to begin with.  You can see, with your good taste, that what you are producing is not living up to that and disappointing you.  With practice, you will close the gap between taste and talent, but for now, be satisfied in the garbage and don't give up.

I cannot tell you how uplifting it was to come across this.  I knew, starting out, that I wasn't going to just type excellence on my computer every day and finish a perfect book instantly.  But when you're stuck in the middle of a long process, it can be hard to see any kind of closure and push through to get to it.

If you are in a similar place this morning and feel you would rather claw your eyes out than continue writing the same trash you have been writing since, oh, the first time you picked up a pen, know that you are not alone in your craptastic early years and that it just means you have exceptional taste.

Why Poetry=Better Prose

I have been writing poetry ever since I can remember and before I really even knew what it was.  Only recently did I delve into the world of novel writing.  When I did, it was exhilarating.  You mean I get to describe in drawn-out detail all my characters’ thoughts, emotions, sensations, tiny infinitesimal movements, etc.?  But then I reached page thirty of boring description and backstory and got stuck.  I stared at the blinking cursor on the screen like a Neanderthal for days.  It was like writers’ block times a hundred.  So, how did I get over it, you ask?

I wrote poetry.

Lots of it.  I put the novel aside and relished in the focus of writing a finite poem.  And it helped SO MUCH. 

Poetry is on a much smaller scale than fiction and requires more focus.  You have to be very selective about your words to stay within the structure of the poem.  And it is usually about a very specific idea or moment.  When writing a novel, it is so easy to get lost in the moment and forget where you are going in the story until later on.  Then you have to go back and sort through the mess a hundred times to tidy it up. 

A poem has a set structure that you must constantly be aware of during the process.  And yes, I am aware that there is such a thing as free verse poetry that does not conform to rhyming or scheme of any kind.  Even then, you must be resourceful and think of many different ways to say things before deciding on the one that works with the theme.

Another aspect that is extremely helpful is that, in order to write a good poem, you must fail.  Many times over.  To make the most impact, you must try out word after word after word until you can settle on the most dynamic.  You must write entire lines that you find beautiful and are proud of and then cross them out because they don’t fit right.  What you learn from this is how to work through the writers’ block and come out the other side, ready to write again. 

So if you are like me and experience writers’ block more often than you would like to admit, my advice is this: write a poem.  A sonnet, limerick, rondeau, or sestina could be exactly what you need to tone your writing muscles and become a lean, mean, writing machine. 

Happy poeming, everyone!