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Writer's First Aid: a Medicine Chest of Hope--to ease the pains of the writing life and help make your writing dreams come true.
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In less than two months, it will be 2013. Now is the time to set some goals for the new year.
First, take an honest look at what you’ve accomplished in 2012, both in your writing skills and your writing business (marketing).
With that answer in front of you (in writing), answer this: how will you get from where you are to where you want to be?
Get It In Writing
In “writing life” workshops, I’ve used an exercise to help you get to where you want to be. I recommend buying a spiral notebook for these exercises. You want a place to keep your notes and ideas about your goals.
Allow yourself two or three hours to work on these three exercises. Do them alone, or with your writing group. I work on something similar every December as I think ahead to the coming year.
1) Honestly assess where you are in your writing and illustrating career. Consider and answer these questions in writing.
- How many hours per week do you actually practice your craft? (Use a timer.)
- How many books/stories/articles do you read in an average month (of the type you want to write)?
- How many queries per month do you send out, if you’re a nonfiction writer?
- Do you have a daily writing practice of some kind, such as journaling or writing exercises from a list of prompts?
2) Visualize (and write down in great detail) your ideal writing life. Describe a perfect writing routine, the physical writing environment of your dreams, your image of wonderful family support, etc. We all have an ideal image in our minds of the perfect writing life. Write it down. (Mine involves such things as porch swings, hot chocolate, journaling, and reading Jane Austen on breaks.)
3) List three things you would attempt to write if you knew you could not fail. Image yourself in your ideal writing life. There are no risks here, no rejections, no bad reviews or bad writing days. If you knew everything you’d write would sell, what kind of writing would bring you satisfaction and fulfillment? Dream bigger than you’ve ever allowed yourself to dream before.
An old adage says “plan your work, and work your plan.” That’s especially appropriate for goal-setting. Don’t wait until New Year’s Day to get goals. Plan for success in 2013 NOW.
[P.S. If this post sounded familiar, it is. I've got some kind of bug, so this is a repeat from two years ago. It's still good advice for this time of year! I follow this plan yearly, and each year my writing life is getting closer to my dream described in Step 2. It works!]
Writers all need encouragement sometimes. These articles should give your weekend a boost.
I know you’ve heard it before, but it’s probably time to be reminded: “3 P’s for Writers: Perseverance, Persistence, and Patience.” You’re not alone with things going wrong, enduring delays that aren’t your fault, and other discouraging circumstances. But the writing prize ONLY goes to those who hang tough!
Were you sure at some point that you were called to be a writer? Do you struggle some days to maintain that belief? Then you’ll enjoy “Called to Write.”
Although this article is entitled “Five Reasons Why You May Never Get Published,” this agent’s advice shows you things that you DO have control over.
“Creative output must begin with creative input.” (Thomas Kinkade)
Are You a Starving Artist?
Children’s book author Katherine Paterson once said that she didn’t believe in writer’s block. In her experience, the panic of a blank page or blank computer screen came from writer starvation.
Are you a writer facing the new year, but stuck with old ideas? Do you find it difficult to think of fresh ideas to write about? Do you find it really hard to think of new approaches in revising your stories?
Kinkade’s answer? “The the first thing to do is to fill your mind and heart with sights, sounds, ideas, images, experiences.” But how?
Take Yourself on a Date
What are some choices?
- Get outside, for one thing, and really look at the world around you. Look up close at things, like a small child does.
- Read everything around you.
- Go to thought-provoking movies.
- If you surf the web, choose sites that feed your mind with new images.
I love those virtual cameras set up in famous cities. I like to watch the ones in England and soak up what’s happening in real time. You might enjoy science sites or virtual tours of museums. When you’re short on time or money or energy or freedom to leave home, the online virtual opportunities can fill that need. [NOTE: see the end of the post for how to find links to virtual webcams like this. You can zoom in close on the parts that interest you.]
Too often, in the hurry and flurry of living our lives, we writers fish our ponds till they’re empty. Take a break today–short or long–and spend some time purposefully restocking your pond.
Just For Fun
When looking for virtual cameras, Google the place you’d like to see. For example, since I love England, I Googled “London webcam” and found some neat sites around England. Examples:
Just Google your subject plus the word webcam.
If you’re a starving artist/writer, don’t wait another day. Even if you have to “virtually visit” places of interest, start refilling your pond today.
You’ll be amazed at how this will spark your creativity!
[The following is an article from a newsletter by children's writer, Sherryl Clark, author of more than 50 books for children, middle-graders, and teens. Information at the end tells how you can sign up for her newsletter--and get the free Tough Guide pictured on the left.]
THE ART OF REVISION
Writers seem to fall into two categories: those who hate the first draft and love the slow, detailed pleasure of revision, and those who love the rush and excitement of the first draft and hate revision.
Many of us balk at revision. I’ve heard writers vow that their work comes out so well the first time, they never need more than one draft. None of those writers are published, by the way!
If you’re serious about getting your work noticed by editors, the revision stage is where your work will truly reach its full potential. The problem is – how can you approach rewriting so that it becomes constructive, enhancing and problem-solving? It’s part of your craft, so it needs a coherent strategy.
1. You have to read critically – that means read other published work. Books and stories in your genre or form, books outside your genre, any book that might give you a great or bad example of writing. Any book that does a good job of something you struggle with (at the moment, I’m working on deepening character – how to do this with a character who has a very hard outer shell). Read to see how accomplished writers work with words, with character, with plot, with theme. Stop reading just to put yourself to sleep at night and start reading as a writer. Learn from it. If you can’t see what makes a great novel great, you’d better study it some more.
2. Decide on the best way to put distance between you and your writing. That might mean putting your story or novel away for a week, a month, a year, until you can look at it with a critical eye, and not fall in love with your own words again. It might mean reading it out loud to yourself, or onto a tape. It might mean psyching yourself into another mental realm and pretending that the novel wasn’t written by you. Whatever works for you, whatever leads to you being able to cut ruthlessly or see where there are gaps and shallowness.
3. Learn to separate the stages of revision. Understand that there is structural revision (the big picture stuff) and revision on a paragraph by paragraph basis. And then there is line editing, on a word by word basis. That’s where most people trim and tighten. Understand the difference between re-visioning and revision. Re-visioning means re-imagining your novel, seeing it in a new light, seeing other possibilities for it. That’s where distance helps. It’s also where mental space helps – it’s almost a re-dreaming of your story, and that’s not going to happen in half an hour, crammed into the end of the day.
4. Acknowledge to yourself, no matter how hard it might be, that fiddling around the edges and changing a few things here and there is not rewriting. True rewriting is retyping the whole thing from scratch, writing it as a new piece of work. You may refer to the original – some people don’t even do that. [NOTE FROM KRISTI HERE: I am a detailed outliner and planner ahead of time, so this very rarely is necessary in my own revisions. If you don't outline, though, re-doing from scratch is very often needed.]
5. Only give it to a trusted reader or critique partner/group when you are sure you have done everything you possibly can, or are capable of at this point, to make it the best you can. Don’t ask people to critique something that you know you can still work on, or something that is OK for plot but you haven’t done the line editing. Why should they spend their time on your punctuation and grammar? Think about what you want or need from the critique. If you want to know if the voice works, say so. Ditto for plot, character, pacing. Make the best use of your critique person’s time and energy.
6. Take your critiques seriously. Don’t say, “Oh, they weren’t good readers, they just didn’t get what I was trying to do.” If that’s the case, that’s your fault, not theirs. Take heed of all comments, consider them seriously. Some may be of no use to you. Most should at least raise the question of “Did I do that well enough? Why has that comment been made?” Don’t take any critique personally. It’s not about you, it’s about the story.
7. If you have revised and revised and revised, learn to see when enough is enough. Do you want to revise again because you’re too scared to send it out? Or do you really think another revision will help? If you are up to Draft 15, ask yourself what you are doing. Have you really done 15 drafts, or 15 “picking at the edges”? If the story isn’t working after 15 drafts, you need to work out why not. You may have to abandon the story. It has still taught you an immense amount along the way. If you have to, let it go. Don’t hang everything on one manuscript. Write more. That’s what writers do.
8. If you revised a bit, sent it out and have 20 rejections, you have to make a decision. It’s probably not publishable in its present state, but maybe only 100 rejections will convince you – how honest are you being about it? Is it fabulous? Is it a manuscript that sings? Or is it competent? Does it need another big revision? Suck it up. Do it. Or start something new.
Note: If it’s a story that just won’t leave you alone, you probably need to keep working on it. Otherwise it’ll give you nightmares, interrupt your daydreams and intrude on your other writing.
9. How do you know when your revision is finished? Obviously, when it is accepted for publication (but then your editor will want more revisions!). Often you will get to the stage where you know in your heart it is the best you can possibly make it. If you’re still not sure, put it away again for at least a month, then re-read it. How does it make you feel? Are there still bits that niggle at you, however much you try to deny it? Or do you feel totally happy with it?
Revising is a large part of the craft of writing. If you tackle it the same way you tackle learning to write better, you’ll take a huge step towards your publishing dream.
I plan to write an article very soon on the micro-revision techniques I teach in the classroom. Stay tuned!
[Sherryl Clark has been teaching writing for over 20 years, and has published more than 50 books for children, young adults and poetry readers. Her teaching website is at www.ebooks4writers.com where you can sign up for her writers' newsletter.]
A book published in 2008 made the claim that, in order to be great in any field, you needed to put in about 10,000 hours of practice. It applied to musicians and writers and doctors–anyone wanting to get better in their chosen field.
However, in a recent newsletter by Scott Young, he pointed out that the author’s research has been misinterpreted. (The book was Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell.)
Young makes a very good point, one I had suspected for a long time. It isn’t just about putting in the hours working. It is about practicing our craft.
Aren’t They the Same Thing?
Working and practicing are NOT the same thing. That’s why 10,000 hours of writing might turn one writer into a mega seller, and the other writer might still be unknown.
What you do with those 10,000 hours (or however many you spend writing) makes a lot of difference.
Work vs. Practice
What is the difference between work and practice? According to Young,
Many professionals confuse the two, and as a result their skills stagnate even though they’re investing considerable time.
Elite athletes don’t get better at their sport just by playing a lot of games. They do drills. Drills are highly focused activities designed to rapidly build proficiency in one minor detail of their sport.
Violinists don’t play every song start to finish to practice. Instead they identify the hardest sections and practice them endlessly until they’ve mastered them.
Yet, when we want to be a better programmer, writer or designer, what do we do? We just work. We don’t practice the highly specific, immediate-feedback oriented tasks necessary to cultivate mastery.
The fix is simple: if you want to get better you need to adopt the mentality of an elite athlete or musician and actually practice (as opposed to just work).
Get the Most from Your Writing Time
None of us have much time to waste. We want to make the precious hours we save for writing really count. How do we do that?
First, much of your writing time will be working time (planning and writing rough drafts and revising).
However, you’d be wise, if you want to be published and build an audience and sell lots of books, to set aside a portion (the bigger, the better) of your time for honest-to-goodness practice. Like the pianist and violinist who practice the hard parts over and over, we writers need to do the same thing.
Tasks to Master
We probably all could name several writing areas where we are weak. If we don’t know, we can ask our critique people. These are the areas to practice.
For example, one of my weak areas is writing figurative language. If I think of one original figure of speech per book, I’m doing well. So what’s my plan?
I’m going to take regular time to practice, using Cindy Rogers’ excellent book, Word Magic for Writers, which is chock full of exercises in every chapter. For feedback, I’ll probably ask a writer friend to look at my exercises (a writer who is especially good at figurative language).
Target Your Practice Time
If we spend our writing time doing the same kind of writing in the same kind of way, we can’t expect to improve very quickly. But if our practice time is intentional–if we target specific weak skill areas–we’ll make observable progress.
How about you? Is there one specific area you could study that would make a big difference in your writing? Or two or three areas that could become goals for 2013? Please share!
How does a writer cope with the often inevitable, painful jagged edges of her broken dreams and failed hopes?
If you’ve ever asked yourself that question, take heart. I found one answer this week in a long (and particularly good) article.
The Seven Stages of Publishing Grief (or Hello Darkness, My Old Friend) by Robin LaFevers takes writers into, through (and back out of) the special grief process that all writers experience (usually more than once.) The stages rang true to me. See if they do for you.
The author cautions you not to get stuck in the first four stages–good advice–but to keep moving on through to the happier ending.
You might want to print out this article for future reference. While the writing life isn’t all broken dreams and failed hopes, it does contain a fair amount of it. Learning how to grieve it–then move on to productive work again–is a vital writing skill.
Writing students, those I critique, and people in my writing workshops will sometimes question whether it is ethical to encourage fledgling writers.
Why?
Because the path to publication isn’t easy, and they will experience a lot of rejection along the way, and the “odds” are stacked against them. That’s all true.
So why encourage new writers to persevere?
I do it because they all honestly have a chance. Of course, some students turn out to be sprinters only. They write a bit, give it their all, get tired, and quit. Some, though, turn out to be marathon runners, in it for the long haul. They experience the pain of rejection and the exhaustion of the uphill climb as well–but they don’t quit. That is often the deciding factor.
Separating the Men from the Boys
Can writing teachers and workshop leaders predict who will eventually cross the finish line? I used to think so, but experience has taught me otherwise.
I am saddened by the talented writers who quit easily. I am even more often encouraged by the medium-talented writers who hang in there and get published. And even though students ask, I can’t predict, based on someone’s early writing, if they have that necessary stick-to-it-iveness to succeed in the writing life. Mostly it’s a character issue–not a talent issue.
False Encouragement?
As Ralph Keys says in The Writer’s Book of Hope: Getting from Frustration to Publication, I try to encourage all new writers, but that is not the same as praising mediocre work.
Those of you who have been my students or have paid for a critique know that I critique thoroughly. But you can give tough critiques–showing ways to improve the work–without being discouraging. You give “honest reassurance,” says John Gardner in On Becoming a Novelist.
The Biggest Writer Hurdle
The major difference I see between those who quit and those who are persistent is their “acceptance of rejection.” That may sound like a contradiction of terms, but it’s critical to your survival as a writer.
Accept the fact that you’ll get rejected. Often. All during your writing career. I’ve sold 42 books at this point, but I still get rejections. Rejected proposals, rejected books, rejections from people I’ve sold to before. It happens to all published writers. It’s part of the writing life AND IT’S NOT PERSONAL.
In Unstoppable Women: Achieve Any Breakthrough Goal in 30 Days, Cynthia Kersey talks about this rejection. (And it doesn’t just happen to writers.) She says, “Rejection comes with the territory when we’re selling anything, whether it’s a project, a product, an idea, or ourselves. Everyone isn’t going to ‘get it’ or be interested in what we’re offering. So what! When we accept that ‘no’ is a natural part of the process, we can easily move past each rejection until someone does say yes.”
Your Decision
Marathoner or sprinter–which one are you? Do your writing habits support your choice? If not, what changes do you need to make in your training in order to carry your writing over the finish line?
Make a list–and make one tiny change today.
Because my toddler granddaughter is with me this week, I’ve been reviewing some “time management” ideas.
Usually, with grandkids, I let everything go while they’re here. But this week I have deadlines and need to work. So it’s time to re-learn some lessons!
I started with my own blog to see what has worked for me in the past. Maybe you could use the review too.
Relearning some lessons:
Where’s My Time Go? Do you feel as if you’re forever running to catch up and keep up? Is finding any time at all to write a challenge for you? If so, you’ll need to simplify your life—choose what really matters—and slow your pace. But HOW?
The Scheduling Habit 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?
I hope this review helps you re-instate some “slipped” writing habits. It’s helped me! But now…some little voice is calling me!
One of my daughters once said that I single-handedly kept the how-to genre alive. It could be true.
Writing how-to books alone fill six book cases in my office.
There are how-to’s of every writerly variety. How to plot. How to write dialogue. How to survive rejection. How to find your muse. How to write your life experiences. How to journal. How to…
You get the idea.
A Forever Student
I have felt vaguely guilty over the years that I buy and read so many how-to books on writing. It’s not the money spent. I buy most books used for very little money (so that I can own them and mark them up.) Or I put them on my Christmas list.
I think the guilt comes from something else. For one thing, it feels like an admission that I still don’t “get it.” And I wonder sometimes if I read to avoid the actual writing.
I’m Not Alone!
Then I read Confessions of a “How-To” Junkie and found a kindred soul. As Keith Cronin said,
…the shopworn advice to “just write the best book you can and the rest will fall into place” really doesn’t begin to prepare a writer for the job of creating truly marketable fiction.
and
Ever since I started getting serious about writing, I’ve been an avid reader and collector of “how-to” books on writing. While some artists cling fiercely to the notion of being “self-taught,” I’ve always felt there’s a lot to gain from exploring the opinions and insights of those who are further along in the game. Even now, as a published author…my appetite for books on the craft of writing hasn’t diminished. In fact, I’m currently reading three of them…
Current Reading
Like Cronin, I’m currently reading three how-to books, and you can tell what they’re about from their titles. They are:
All are very good, and I’m learning new things that I can actually use.
Care to share what writing books you’re reading now? And if you have a classic favorite–the kind of book you re-read and mark up–mention that too.
I have found some of my favorite writing books through suggestions made in the comments section of this blog. Thanks in advance from this how-to junkie!
Your book is written. It’s accepted. It’s published!
And now you, the writer, are done. Time to sit back, relax in the sun, and snooze.
Not quite.
Connecting with Readers
Writers are expected to do some of the marketing, and that means connecting with potential readers.
Thanks to the Internet, it’s inexpensive (and often free). And thanks to people who “have been there, done that” already, a wealth of information is available to you, the newly published writer.
Help from the Web
Below are five articles that can show you the way and help you get started! Here goes…
Are you thinking of starting a newsletter? Do you need something fancy and in color? Or do writers prefer straight text without the bells and whistles? “Criticism Turned to Self Reflection: What Style for Newsletters?” is a discussion of both sides, plus six links to free (or nearly free) newsletter services.
“4 Tips to an Effective Email List Opt-in Box” gives you a practical strategy to use on your website for “capturing” people’s email addresses (with their permission, of course). You will want such a list if you plan to send out a newsletter or announcement of new books published. Once you have an opt-in box, you want people to sign up! “Building a Mailing List – Drive Traffic to your Opt-In” tells you in detail (ten ideas!) how to accomplish this.
“SEVEN WAYS TO BUILD A PLATFORM THROUGH BLOGGING” is written by an agent and former social media marketer. She gives easy to understand, tried-and-tested ways to blog so that people read your posts and respond.
“Postcards Aren’t Just for Making People Envious of Your Vacation” tells how one author made good use of postcards of her upcoming novels when she went to a national conference, giving them away on a publicity table, handing them to friends, editors and agents. They look impressive to me, and I like what she included.
That should keep you busy this weekend! If you have a minute, share with us the “connecting” you’ve done that you believe has been the most helpful.
Do you keep a journal specifically for each novel you write? I don’t, but I’m glad some writers do.
I’m even more glad that they willingly share their soul-baring angst with us.
Eye Opener
One of my favorite mystery writers is internationally bestselling author, Elizabeth George, writer of the Inspector Lynley books that have been made into Masterpiece Mystery movies. She writes “literary mysteries,” that excellent combination of fast-paced, intricately plotted whodunits and fully realized 3D characters in “you are right there” settings. The fact that they are set in England is the icing on the cake for me.
Lately I’ve been re-reading Elizabeth George’s excellent writing book, Write Away: One Novelist’s Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life. Throughout the book, she shares snippets from her work-in-progress journals.
In Her Own Words
At the time of this book’s writing, she had had thirteen novels published. (She has twenty-one now, if I counted right.) Keep that in mind as you read her journal entries (below) of her feelings about writing and the writing life.
“I’m trying to work for an hour each day. That’s all I can demand of myself…I became so incapacitated by fear that I was having trouble getting out of bed in the morning. I finally resorted to saying, ‘These are only words and I will not let words defeat me’ in order to get up and get to work. Thus I struggled to the end of the novel.”
and
“I have a love-hate relationship with the writing life. I wouldn’t wish to have any other kind of life…and on the other hand, I wish it were easier. And it never is…I would never have believed it would take such effort.”
If award-winning, mega-selling writers feel this way when creating fiction (and how I bless her for her honesty!), then it should come as no surprise if you and I also feel this way. Apparently it is common to those who strive to write fiction with excellence.
One Answer
Successful career authors find ways to work with and work around these fears and insecurities. Let me share Elizabeth George’s words of wisdom. If it resonates with you as it does with me, you’ll want to buy her book.
“Every writer has to develop her own process: what works for her time and time again. Having no process is like having no craft…Having no process puts you at enormous risk because writing becomes a threat instead of a joy, something that you are terrified to begin each day because you are at the mercy of a Muse that you do not understand how to beckon. If I had no process and no craft to fall back on, I would be paralyzed with fear every morning and, frankly, I see no fun in that.”
She outlines her 14-step process in the book. It makes good sense to me, and it’s similar to the steps I often now follow when writing a novel.
We All Do It Differently
Each writer has his/her own way of doing things. What your process is like doesn’t really matter–if it works for you. However, do find out what kind of process produces your best work. How?
That’s one big value of keeping a novel-in-progress journal (notes to yourself about the novel and your feelings and the problems or successes you have with it). You have, when finished, a complete description of your writing process!
Analyze Your Notes
You’ll have concrete information. You’ll know how much planning you did, what order you worked on things, what time of day and what places produced the most writing…your process. You can then repeat what worked for you–and eliminate what didn’t.
You can also later read all those angst-filled passages and realize you survived those writing days just fine. It will help when they roll around again–when you start your next novel!
How about YOU? Do these journal entries ring any bells for you? Is this ever your experience?
I love writing books! This new Donald Maas writing book sounds like one that I want to add to my study list.
This blog interview, Take Five: Donald Maass on His New Book, Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling, with agent Maas talks about how to write exciting, gripping, page-turning books in a literary way.
Best of Both Worlds
I love literary books (e.g. Anne of Green Gables, those books known for their beautiful language), and I love gripping stories of all kinds. The best books have both.
Exciting stories with cardboard characters, flat dialogue, and no figures of speech, however, are boring to me. When I find an author (either for children or adults) who is able to combine beautiful language and exceptional storytelling, I read everything by him/her that I can find. (I’m doing that right now with an author I discovered this summer–I’m on her sixth novel.)
Some Highlights
A bit of the blurb copy from Amazon promises that in this book you will learn how to:
- Create fiction that transcends genre, conjures characters who look and feel more “real” than real people, and shows readers the work around them in new ways.
- Infuse every page with an electric current of emotional appeal and micro-tension.
- Harness the power of parallels, symbols, metaphors, and more to illuminate your novel in a lasting way.
- Develop a personalized method of writing that works for you.
That’s the kind of book I want to write. That’s the kind of novel I’m trying to write this fall.
I think I’ll click right over to Amazon.com and get a copy.
During the conference I attended last week, I must have asked thirty people how their editor and agent “pitching” appointments went.
Many of the writers were told to go ahead and submit their full manuscripts. Joy!
Even more, though, had flaws and mistakes pointed out in their summaries and synopses…things that needed to change before the story would be considered.
Constructive Criticism
The flaws included such fixable things as:
- the manuscript was 20,000 words too short for the genre
- the manuscript was told from an unworkable POV
- the plot sagged instead of rising to a recognizable climax
- the historical setting didn’t sound authentic
Reactions and Responses
What I found most interesting were the writers’ responses to the news that their manuscripts had flaws that needed work.
They included many reactions:
- Some denied that there was any big need for revision. They decided to ignore the editor’s or agent’s comments. Every writer except one was an unpublished writer too, so I’m not sure what they were basing their denial on.
- Some writers admitted that the flaw was there–a few had already guessed it–but they took the news so personally that their self-esteem was flattened. They left the conference depressed–not a good state for revising.
- Some defended their mistake or flaw. One writer who had pitched an idea for a genre that the editor didn’t publish argued that they should! She defended her choice of publisher, claiming that they needed to think outside the box.
The Solution
Yes, it’s hard to hear that your idea needs a major overhaul to be publishable. None of us enjoys hearing that. What’s the answer? Eric Maisel in Fearless Creating says this:
“What are any of us to do? Abandon the work or complete it, learn from the experience, cry, forgive ourselves, and move on…Now dry your eyes. There’s work to be done.”
Yes, it’s true that editors, agents and publishers can be wrong. We love to hear such stories of rejected manuscripts that went on to publication (with no change) and hit bestseller status–even becoming classics.
However, says Nava Atlas in The Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life:
“There are certainly many other instances in which writers refuse to take any constructive criticism and cling to the notion that their freshman efforts are brilliant and beyond reproach. This creates a ‘me versus them’ mindset that’s never constructive.”
What if you’re willing to fix your writing mistakes, but you don’t know how? What if you freeze or block at the revision an agent or editor has requested? These words from award-winning Elizabeth George in Write Away might point the way for you:
“Why do [writers] reach sudden dead ends? Why do they become afflicted by the dread writer’s block? I believe it’s because they … don’t have enough craft in their repertoire. Put another way, they have no toolbox to root through to repair a mistake in the house they’re trying to build.”
You may not have the right tools in your toolbox, but you can get them. (Example: if your problem is the story lacking conflict or a climax, study books on plotting until you figure out the problem.)
How About You?
I’m curious. What do YOU do when you get the “fix this” message about your fiction?
Do you have any tips or special survival strategies for this?
Do you want to enjoy the experience of writing more?
I’m always looking for ways to do that. With that in mind, enjoy the following articles, absorb their wisdom, and love your writing even more!
Check These Out
I found “Rebuilding My Optimism Muscle” very encouraging, and I think you will too. It’s full of good advice, and her description of how dreams build and fall and rebuild is so very true.
Encouraging good news for us “oldies” who worry that young people barely read anymore… From “Good News“:
Okay, admit it. You’ve accused the younger generation of practically having their thumbs permanently affixed to gamepads, right? Or if not gaming, you expect them to be found texting or talking on their iPhones. Thumb dexterity is at an all time high and we wonder what this is going to mean for the future of books…[Well, guess what?] Generation Y, those born between 1979 and 1989, spent the most money on books in 2011, taking over long-held book-buying leadership from Baby Boomers.
“4 Ways to Rev Up Your Creative Writing Engine” will help you rejuvenate.
There’s no way you can soar through a plot problem or find the perfect word when you’re dull of mind. Here are my four offerings to recharge your creative juices.
Staying Happy
Now that you’re enjoying your writing more, I want you to stay that way. With that in mind, here are “7 Freelance Writing Scams and How to Fight Them”. These are not seven specific companies, but seven strategies being used on unwary writers. Don’t be one of them!
Why bother trying to enjoy your writing more? Simple. A happier writer is a more productive writer.
I returned last night from an exhausting and EXHILARATING writer’s conference in Dallas.
One session I attended was called “Live Free. Write Free.” I came away from that session knowing what I had to do.
Respecting Property Lines
You can read books about setting boundaries. You can preach boundary setting to others. (I do that very well.)
But unless you are willing to do the hard (and often unpopular) work of setting and enforcing boundaries, it’s all for naught.
Biting the Bullet
I got very encouraging news from a couple of editors at the conference, and I came home with lots of work to do. But I also knew that until I set one particular boundary (on myself first, and then with another party), I would never have the mental energy I needed to complete the projects I had promised.
So I did it. I spoke up and set necessary boundaries. And now I’m ready to “write free.”
And because of the post-conference, adrenaline-letdown exhaustion, I am going to re-run an article now. “Finding Energy to Pursue Goals” deals in more detail with the subject of boundary setting to protect your writing energy.
Go for it!
Here are Friday’s offerings: a six-part plotting series, all short articles, very practical and helpful; plus several apps to make your writing life easier, more productive, and portable!
Make your weekend productive in a fun way. Take these articles with you!
First…
Are you working on your contest entries? If so, check out this weekend’s offering. It’s a little mini-seminar on fixing plot problems:
- Part 1 – Your Premise Isn’t Compelling
- Part 2 – How To Fix a Weak Opening
- Part 3 – A Lack of Goals
- Part 4 – Is Your Conflict Strong Enough?
- Part 5 - Raising The Stakes
- Part 6 - Your Plot Moves Too Slowly ~ 5 Tips To Help Improve Your Story’s Pacing
And Second…
If you love apps, check out these five: What’s App-ening? Using Apps to Write Everywhere
“Nowadays we’re always on the move, even if we work at home. Whether we’re making a quick run to the local Starbucks or picking up the kids from school, life never stops and waits around for us to catch up. As writers, our craft can suffer from this constant hustle bustle, but there are plenty of apps that allow your writing to move along, as well, even as you continue your busy life.”
Enjoy your weekend!
First we talked about the anxiety stirred up when it’s time to start a writing project. Then we talked about four causes of this “weakened mind anxiety,” a term coined by Eric Maisel in Fearless Creating.
The next obvious question is: what do we do about it?
As it turns out, we do many things in order to make ourselves create. Some are appropriate and helpful. Others, however, are not. Let’s mention those first.
Unhelpful Responses
Things we do that get us writing, but do NOT help in the long run, may include:
- Beat yourself into submission with “shoulds.” Call yourself names and force yourself into your office.
- Find fortitude (or relaxation) in heavy doses of chocolate, caffeine, or other drugs to dampen the anxiety enough to work.
- Narrowly focus on something do-able, perhaps something you’ve done before that can be “tweaked” or modified, instead of creating something new.
- Rationalizing an interest in shallow commercial work that seems to sell better in today’s culture instead of producing what is true and deep and sincere.
I think we’d all agree that those solutions are temporary, at best. You also rarely enjoy the writing process when you choose such a “getting started” method.
Helpful Solutions for Writing Anxiety
There are 22 techniques in Mastering Creative Anxiety (Maisel), but I will only list a handful of things you can try. If anxiety over getting started is a big problem for you, I’d recommend getting both of his books. The sample solutions I list may not apply to your particular problem.
1. It’s here to stay.
“Embrace the idea that sitting there and doing the actual work of creating provokes anxiety. Accept it.” (Mastering Creative Anxiety) This may sound like bad news, but it was rather a relief to me. I could stop thinking there was something wrong with me for feeling anxious. “Do not hope for the process to be different,” Maisel says. Instead, learn anxiety-management tools. In other words, the feeling won’t kill us–we can learn tools to overcome it and write anyway.
2. Power Thoughts
Physical relaxation coupled with power thougths can drastically lower your anxiety level and help you slip right into writing. (Don’t discount this till you try it. My first reaction was, “Oh this is hokey.” But after it worked for me, I was impressed!) First, learn to breathe deeply, five counts when breathing in and five counts when breathing out. Then write out some power thoughts to contradict the neagative thoughts you’ve been telling yourself. Say the first half of the sentence to yourself when breathing in, and the second half when beathing out.
Sentences like this along with the slow, deep breathing can work wonders:
- (I am equal) (to this challenge.)
- (I am called) (to write.)
- (I can do) (hard things.)
- (Anxiety can’t) (hurt me.)
- (I write) (with ease.)
Begin using these daily as part of your anxiety-management program.
3. Get Physical!
Discharge your built-up anxiety with physical activity. Stretch, run around the block, or jog in place. (Of if you have a treadmill desk like mine, rev it up faster for a few minutes.) Don’t sit and brood and grow more anxious.
4. Develop an “artist’s discipline.”
Do you want to develop discipline as a writer? Understand that an artist’s discipline is a different kind of discipline. We think of discipline like doing an exercise program daily or disciplining ourselves to show up for our day job on time. However, for a writer “there is only one discipline, the discipline of creating regularly even while anxious,” says Maisel. Learn the tools!
So…Where’s the Hitch?
Can you master creative anxiety instead of it mastering you? Maisel says yes–but there’s a condition.
“Anxiety mastery requires that you actually do the work of managing and reducing your anxiety. It is not enough to have a refined sense of why and when you become anxious: you must then do something.”
Because I don’t want to plagiarize his books, I won’t list more of Maisel’s solutions. But they include lifestyle changes, behavioral changes, changing the way you think, various relaxation and guided imagery techniques, “detachment” training and identifying those things that trigger writer’s anxiety in you.
As Anna Held Audette said,
“There are probably as many ways to get started as there are ways of chasing the blues. Use anything that works even if it seems ridiculous or not what an artist does.”
If getting started writing troubles you to a significant degree, take steps to change as much of the anxiety as you can. Yes, a certain amount appears to be inherent in the writing process, but it’s up to us if we let it cripple us–or if we choose to use it as a springboard for writing growth.
This will be short–but sweet. I want to share a resource with you that I love.
I’ve moaned and groaned in the past about marketing. I’ve bought marketing books, only to find that they were geared more to adult writers or suggested ideas I couldn’t afford.
But last month I bought an ebook that lived up to its name called How to Promote Your Children’s Book: Tips, Tricks, and Secrets to Create a Bestseller by Katie Davis, an author and illustrator. She also does podcasts, a blog, a newsletter, and webinars on marketing children’s books.
Worth Your Money
Here’s the Amazon blurb:
Children’s author/illustrator Katie Davis has written a comprehensive guide in an easy, conversational style with 30 chapters chock full of practical advice, including plotting your strategy, using social media, how to grow your mailing list, and how to use videos in ways in addition to book trailers. There are unexpected ideas to promote a book and a huge list of Do’s and Don’ts shared by well known published authors. Every chapter is stocked with real life examples of how published authors and illustrators succeeded with creative and unique ways to promote their own books. There are even examples of ideas that didn’t work. Every contributor is linked, the sources and resources are just a click away, too. Each chapter ends with a homework assignment designed to motivate and kickstart the reader on the path to promote his or her book, helping to build a career writing children’s books.
Sometimes she runs sales, so check that out.
Even if you pay full price–I did–this ebook is well worth it.
Last week we talked about “weakened mind anxiety” and what that feels like.
Symptoms that rear their ugly heads just before you try to write include fatigue, foggy brain, depression and an urge to cry/sleep/watch TV/surf the ‘Net. (from Fearless Creating by Eric Maisel)
What’s the Problem?
Before we talk about solutions, I think it would be helpful to explore why we experience so much anxiety when trying to do creative work. For me, at least, understanding is half the battle.
Mastering Creative Anxiety (another book by Eric Maisel) talks about various reasons this occurs. One or more (or all of them!) may apply to you. As with most ailments, different causes require different solutions.
1. Desire for Excellence
We love books. We love to read. We have stories we’ve treasured since childhood. We have high standards when it comes to what we like to read.
We doubt the quality of our work as we measure it against these high standards and strive to make our work excellent. We know the quality of writing we dream of producing. The gap between our desire and what we actually write causes high anxiety.
2. Negative Self-Talk
Our thoughts dictate, to a large degree, what our anxiety level is on any given day. Think thoughts like “I’ll always be mediocre” or “I’ll never sell another book” or “I have no idea what I’m doing,” and you’ll procrastinate into a major writing block.
Thoughts like this are not just “unhelpful.” They are damaging to a huge degree, pulling us further down in a black hole.
3. The Creative Process Itself
I had never thought of this, but Maisel is so right when he talks about the creative process being exactly the opposite of how we spend the rest of our days, so it goes against the grain.
As he points out, our entire days are spent trying to avoid mistakes and “get it right.” You get up at the right time, you eat the right foods (or try to), drive on the right side of the road, use your computer correctly so it doesn’t malfunction, etc. Your whole day and mind are aimed at not making mistakes and avoiding unnecessary risks. Maisel points out:
“Then, somehow, you must shift from that way of being and thinking to a radically different state, one in which mistakes and messes are not only possible and probable but downright guaranteed. Of course that makes you anxious!”
4. Procrastinating
Procrastination produces anxiety. We feel immobilized and trapped by our own resistance. It erodes our self-image.
Whatever caused us initially to block only grows with procrastination. It is, says Maisel,
“a classic vicious cycle, in which our new anxiety prevents us from dealing with whatever provoked our initial anxiety and caused us to procrastinate.”
The Good News
Now that we’ve defined and described weakened mind anxiety, and we’ve considered the main causes, we’ll be ready next week to discuss the anxiety-management skills that can defeat it!
Writing to an editor’s specifications is the first hurdle that any writer must clear on the track to publication.
Yet, repeatedly editors say that the majority of manuscripts they receive do not match their guidelines and specifications.
That’s a huge waste of time and energy for both writers and editors.
The Answer? Contests!
Writing contests also have exact specifications, and that’s why it can be helpful for writers to enter contests as often as they can. Contests are excellent professional training experiences.
The current Institute contest is: A short story for teens, 13-14, in any subgenre, including speculative fiction, issue-based, contemporary, historical, adventure, humor, etc. The story should be no longer than 1,500 words. Deadline is October 31.
Be sure to follow the contest rules closely!
Tips on Winning Writing Contests
Would you like to put yourself near the front of the line in this contest? Then before you even sketch out your idea, read Jan Fields’ article “Ten Tips for Contest Entries.” You’ll be glad you did.
Enter the current contest soon! Good luck!
For the past week, I’ve been suffering from “weakened mind anxiety,” according to Eric Miasel’s Fearless Creating. It’s the anxiety that comes when you begin a piece of work.
It’s not the anxiety that comes from choosing an idea. It’s not anxiety from developing characters and plot. It’s not anxiety produced by setting some deadlines.
It’s the anxiety that grips us when we try to actually begin the writing—and what can prevent us from ever getting started.
Symptoms of Weakened Mind Anxiety
How do you know if you have weakened mind anxiety? (Don’t be alarmed if all these symptoms feel familiar. There are some very workable solutions we’ll talk about later.)
Symptoms of “weakened mind anxiety” can be experienced as:
- Fatigue
- Heaviness
- Fog in the brain
- Depression
- Apathy
- Boredom
- Emptiness
- Dullness
- Stupidity
- Desire to cry/sleep/watch TV/surf the Internet
All the symptoms—and I experienced most of them every day last week—do not mean you’re a failure, or the story isn’t ready to be written, or that you’re not a “real” writer. They are simply the physical and mental consequences of anxiety.
As Maisel says, “Your mind has weakened in the face of the difficulties you believe will engulf you if and when you begin.”
We’re In This One Together
The inexperienced wannabe writer and the experienced published writer both go through this. It’s not because you’re a beginner. And it may not happen all the time. I never, ever have this issue with nonfiction.
Nonfiction feels like term papers from school, and those were always easy for me, so I expect nonfiction to be easier. It’s just something to sit down and do. But for me—and many of my fellow writers—spinning a fiction tale out of thin air feels as comfortable as bungee jumping.
What’s a Writer To Do?
There are inappropriate (and harmful) ways to treat this weakened mind anxiety. There are also appropriate (and helpful) ways to treat it. (We’ll talk about both cases next week.)
However, not writing is not a solution—not if you’re called to write and it’s your dream. As Fran Lebowitz said,
“Not writing is probably the most exhausting profession I’ve ever encountered. It takes it out of you. It’s very psychically wearing not to write—I mean if you’re supposed to be writing.”
Maisel says when you feel like this that your mind has lost its muscle tone. I love that image. Next week we’ll talk about getting rid of that mind flab—and getting it back in shape to create.
As authors (both traditionally published and self-published), we are constantly told to market more, better and faster.
The three protests I hear most often about this are:
1) I don’t have the money to sink into publicity tours, posters, bookmarks, etc.
2) I don’t have the time to do all that marketing, nor can I afford to hire a publicist to do this for me.
3) Ugh. Marketing is so “boring” and uncreative.
Is This You?
If you feel this way about marketing your book, I have some good news for you. I came across an article called “How to Market Your Book on a Budget,” and the ideas are quite fun, easy (even for introverts), and very economical.
The first part of the article shows links to five other articles by the author. This is a series on marketing she did a year ago. Following those five links are three more ideas, in detail and with photos. [The additional ideas are fun! You might want to read them first.]
Two-Fold Purpose
When you have a minute this weekend, open a notebook or Word document, then read through the whole series plus her new additional ideas. Take notes of things you’d be willing to try. By the time you’ve done that, you should have a working publicity plan.
You’ll use it yourself, plus you can include it in proposals since editors today want to see your publicity plans for your book. This should give you quite a list–and it won’t break the bank!
Recent events–the economic recession plus all the changes in publishing–have left many writers in a quandary. Is being a writer still a viable option to earn a living?
To quell the rising panic, it helps me to remember that things have always gone in cycles. This isn’t the first time of upheaval, and it’s likely that it won’t be the last.
Publishing Drought
In my thirty years of being published, I’ve had two very dry periods. One five-year period when I sold nothing happened in the 90s. Another three-year dry period of nothingness happened with the last five years.
It might help you to know what I did during those times to stay financially afloat and keep on writing.
A Previous Recession
When my book career began in the 80′s, I had five or six relatively easy years with my editor Gail at Atheneum. We did eleven hardcovers together before Gail lost her job in a corporate take-over and downsizing. The publishing industry then was a lot like it is today.
At that time, I got two manuscripts back. Within six months, all my books went out of print–so there was almost no royalty income then. My last two books in a Christian series were not published either. (I found out much later that this happened to a lot of writers.)
This horror was followed by five years of no new books, sending out proposals, rewriting proposals, writing queries, and spending a ton on postage and photocopying costs when I was making zilch on my book writing. (There was no online writing then, no email submissions, etc.)
Getting Out of the Slump
Then in a bookstore I found a book called Making It On Your Own: Surviving and Thriving on the Ups and Downs of Being Your Own Boss by Paul and Sarah Edwards. In the marketing section, a statement leaped off the page. This one piece of advice jump-started my disappearing career. “You need to experiment until you discover what particular combination of your skills and abilities at what price will be valuable to what group of people within the current economic realities.”
It said to experiment, so I tried different things to see what might work. The following year I wrote a story for an anthology, entered several contests, did some short manuscripts for children’s magazines, wrote some writers’ articles. I created a new workshop on revision and did eighteen months’ of school visits with it.
Time to Evaluate
The next step recommended by the book was to use the 80/20 Principle on your experiments. So I sat down with paper and pencil and analyzed: “What 20% of my work has generated 80% of my income?” In other words, what strategies had worked for me? Where should I be putting the bulk of my energy to survive this financial writing slump?
Well, I had bombed on contests and all fifteen short stories; I did sell the story to the anthology; my fastest response and most money, though, came from writing articles for magazines and doing the revision workshop. More than 80% of my income was coming from that 20% of my work. So (while I contintued to write my middle-grade fiction novels) I concentrated on those two things to pay the bills.
Surviving the Tough Times
During that time, some nonfiction articles became a series for Children’s Writer, which turned into ideas for “Support Room” articles when I became the Institute‘s first web editor. A few years later, those ideas sparked my book, Writer’s First Aid, as well as several articles for the SCBWI Bulletin.
The slump eventually ended, as it will again for writers struggling in the current recession. After five years of selling no books, I sold four of my middle-grade novels in one year. If I had quit writing my fiction during that recession, I would have had nothing to sell when publishers started buying again.
So during the slump five years ago, I did the same thing: found ways to stay afloat to pay some bills (mostly educational writing), but also kept writing middle-grade fiction and studying and learning. Last year I finally sold two of the books, one of them being More Writer’s First Aid.
Writing slumps will come and go in cycles. Don’t stop writing in the dry periods. Instead remember that old adage: This too shall pass.
Today’s offerings are an eclectic assortment of articles: posts on time management, being more creative, avoiding scams and scare tactics, and how to hang onto your writing dreams.
Grab your cup of coffee or Diet Coke and read on!
“Get Creative on Demand” says “you have to be able to turn on your creativity like it’s a faucet. Why? Because most of us have other responsibilities in our lives that often interfere with our writing time. This means we must make the most of every minute we can steal away to do our writing.”
“How to Effectively Create More Time to Write” is something most of us need training in. “With an already packed schedule of work, family/social obligations, and that pesky to-do list that never seems to get any shorter, making time to write is not only difficult, but sometimes feels like an impossibility.” Where does your time go? You may be surprised.
“LendInk, Author Activism, and the Need for Critical Thinking” from Writer Beware highlights a recent Internet mess that we need to be aware of. “Ignorance and lack of investigation are also what lead writers into the arms of scammers.” ALSO read the whole post. The last half deals with another related subject that you need to take to heart. Her final paragraph says: “We live in highly polarized times. That’s as true in publishing as it is in politics–and, I think, as reflective of the fear of a future that, as much as we would like it to be clear and certain, offers no assurances but the certainty of upheaval. In such a situation, it’s more essential than ever to think critically, investigate carefully, and act deliberately. And to be wary of received wisdom, or anything masquerading as such.” [And that includes anything I say!]
“Are You Really Meant to Be a Writer?” gives some very practical ideas on how to hang onto your dreams during the wannabe-published years.
“Mette Ivie Harrison on How to Find Time to Write” will blow you away, so I saved this one till last. Read it and be inspired!
About ten years ago, someone said to me, “You write fiction because you can’t handle the real world.”
I was stunned by the accusation. For one thing, my fictional characters were very real to me! And I tackled real situations in my books–often based on actual events. From my childhood on, I’d learned a lot of truth about the human condition from reading fiction. In many cases, I learned more from fiction than from observing my real world.
Do Facts Equal Truth?
In Madeleine L’Engle {Herself}: Reflections on a Writing Life, the Newbery-award winner wrote about “the truth of art”: “Once when I suggested to a student that he go to the encyclopedia when he wanted to look up a fact, he asked me, ‘But can’t I find truth in stories too?’ My reply: ‘Who said anything about truth? I told you to look up facts in the encyclopedia. When you’re looking for truth, then look in art, in poetry, in story, in painting and music.’ Now this student was doing no more than making the mistake of many of his elders, confusing provable fact with truth, and then fearing truth enough to try to discount it. If I want to search for the truth of the human heart, I’m more apt to go to Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov than a book on anatomy.”
I think that people who discount fiction don’t really understand it–or haven’t read much of it. They don’t grasp the power of story to carry truth. They have a bit of a superior attitude, as if reading a biography or a book on unclogging your sink has more merit than a novel.
Truth Learned in Fiction
I still have most of my favorite childhood books, and I still re-read some of them. I loved sharing them with my daughters, and I now love sharing them with my grandchildren. Some truths are universal and timeless (like the lessons on friendship learned from Charlotte’s Web.)
My all-time favorite children’s book was Little Women. I learned a lot of important truths from the March family: how to love deeply, how to grieve a loss and go on, and how to feed the imagination. (I expect the writing “bug” bit me then, as I watched Jo March toiling away in the attic over her stories.) I learned that writers wrote about what they knew.
Life Lessons
If you have a minute, leave a comment and share a book or two from your own childhood that impacted you–and tell why. What truths do you remembering learning in fiction?
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