by Susan A. Black
If you are anything like the vast majority of writers in the business today, you will no doubt curse the vast majority of external stimuli right down to the very ground when it comes to the matter of distracting you from your paper-thin level of focus. Of course, it is rather simple to become so engrossed in a piece of epically interesting work to the point where the rest of the world is filtered out to a pleasing blur, but when the really tedious work fills your day, your mind will always be looking for the slightest reason to divert your concentration and, it has to be said, will usually do a pretty good job of it too!
Sadly, there is still no magic pill available to relieve writer’s block in an instant, or at least none available on the this side of the law, but such is not to say there aren’t a few other ways of using what would normally be the bane of your existence to your advantage. The key to the whole situation is simply a brief modification of attitude, which will be explained…
The simple fact of the matter is that nobody else can cure your writer’s block of disinterest in your project because it is entirely psychological and confined to your own mind. Furthermore, knowing it is all in your mind can often make the problem worse as it is human nature to sit and dwell of it. However, an article published recently gave some simple tips to get back on track and, well let’s just say so far so good!
The long and short of the matter is taking whatever it is that it plaguing your progress and turning into a positive. For example, general writer’s block where your brain seems to set in stone is a good indication that the poor thing is going to blow a fuse – so give it a rest. Sure, you might eat up 20 minutes on a quick walk but you might also waste two hours beating yourself up in front of a blank screen if you don’t!
In times of high stress and no pages flowing forth, never use the ‘Too busy to take a phone-call’ line as you might be doing yourself a huge injustice. The same applies as above; a 20 minute call will do you the world of good compared to another relentlessly unsatisfying spell at the desk. And who knows, the person on the other end may just be the inspiration you were looking for.
This goes on to include all friends, family members, kids and so on – all of whom may have a unique insight into the topic you’re hacking away at without you even knowing about it. Indeed, a 12 year-old may have little insights into the history leading up to the popularization of Women’s Lib, but that doesn’t mean he won’t have an insightful and potentially golden opinion on the current way of things. New perspectives breed new life, so use them!
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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By: Robyn Chausse,
on 7/23/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writer inspiration, writing styles, writing goals, writers tips, writing ideas, Robyn Chausse, Shiny Penny Syndrome, writing advice, writing life, writing process, Add a tag
(C) Copyright wow-womenonwriting.com
Visit WOW! Women On Writing for lively interviews and how-tos. Check out WOW!'s Classroom and learn something new. Find jobs on the Freelance Job Board. Enter the Quarterly Flash Fiction Contest. Open Now!
By: MP,
on 7/22/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: genres, writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, Jo Barney, Add a tag
Steampunk is Not for Me
by Jo Barney
Graffiti Grandma is out to three agents. Wednesday Club, the script, is entered in a contest and is sent to two producers, and Solarium just got its twentieth rejection, one more to go. I don't know where Mom, my hockey novel, is. Its cards have escaped my card file. Marshall, the miniature horse, has not made it into the card file yet. He's romping around in SASE land. I've thrown all of my literary children to the winds. Likely, they'll never return. "Just not right for me," their epitaphs will read somewhere out there in the ether.
The only thing for me to do now is write something new. Margaret is shuffling in the wings of this computer. She's seventy-six, straight bodied, aching in only several non-essential parts, and she doesn't know what she's in for. This old lady is going to be manipulated, mulled, cut into pieces, disdained, wept over, and then, if she's like the rest of my literary offspring, laid to rest in my Zip for someone to find when I myself lie in the same sort of quiet place.
I sometimes think how angry I will be if my human children, posthumously for me, discover my Zip storage system, send out its quiet occupants, and make a million dollars in movie rights, and at just the right time for their retirements. I'll really be pissed. If one can be in that condition sans bodily components.
My timing has always been off. I wrote of sad divorces in the early 80's, a few years after most of the debris from the free love decade infiltrated stolid 50's marriages. Then Umarried Woman and Jill Clayburgh took all the wind out of my muse's sails.
I described of the travails of being single with children just after Jane Smileys Ordinary Love came out and said it all for me. Elizabeth Berg covered the drives of singleness: sex, loneliness, missteps in choosing while very needy, even as I was being driven all over the map and not writing.
One of my novels dealt with foundering young sons when my own sons headed out into the world. Research into the genre revealed that not only Salinger but Brad Easton Ellis and Jay McInerney, even if I disliked their books, got into a young mans psyche a lot better than a mother could.
Remarriage, oh god, with children, led to six unpublished articles, right about the time Joanne Trollope Viking wrote Other Peoples Children and dissected a stepmother role as precisely as it can be done.
I can write as well as a few of these authors. I just need to find my niche before someone else does. What will sell three years from now? What will be at the front edge of the next wave? I don't do vampires and I get too depressed with dystopic scenes. Who wants to eat a friend's finger? Or sacrifice a person you've just had sex with?
Wait! I can imagine that, sort of. Perhaps I can create a new genre, a hybrid combination of romance, mystery, fantasy, dystopia, and chick lit.
I Googled "genres" and found one that might be work, slightly adjusted: Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story. The modus operandi seems to be the use of a normal story to simply explain difficult and/or dark parts of human life.
I will call my new genre Geriatric Bildungsroman. Coming-of-old-age stories. I know its been done, but not by me yet, not the way I'm thinking about Margaret.
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By: MP,
on 7/8/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writer inspiration, guest post, Friday Speak Out, Jan Marquart, Add a tag
by Jan Marquart
When I was eight years old, I wrote my first story. I wanted my father to read it but he didn’t, so I stopped writing. That sometimes happens to new writers. Lucky for me, I was encouraged to pick up a pen again when I was in college. I had a friend named Tammy who told me to buy a journal and write so I could become my own best friend. I haven’t looked back since. I’ve written almost every day since 1972 and completed 88 journals in the process. By writing every day, my writing life expanded over the years and I have now published over a dozen articles and eight books.
Writing is healing for me. It keeps me on my emotional toes. After studying philosophy at UCSC and reading book after book about the men and women who wanted to understand the human mind and soul, I wanted to make my life matter by doing the same. Writing allows me to speak from a deep internal place that nothing else gets close to.
My writing started out with tea in the morning and progressed to carrying my journal in my purse. I found that writing out the ideas, feelings and events of my day helped me to stay mindful and focused. Needless to say, my purses got bigger to accommodate my journals. Then I found that if I wrote before I went to bed it helped me to sleep better. Before I knew it, I was writing several times a day.
Writing is not for sissies. It takes repeated action. But just 10 minutes a day helps your writing grow on its own so that all you have to do is follow the pen. I’m not saying that what you write about will always be easy. Pens feel good in the hand and when I’m unable to come up with a topic on my own I look out the window and write about the weather. We have weather every day and the weather is different from day to day so it always presents a good model for the pen. I don’t use the computer when I write in my journals because I like the feel of the pen and the texture of the paper in my hand.
Write at all costs, no matter what. Find a path that works for you. Just keep the pen moving.
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Jan Marquart’s latest release is Voices from the Land, a historical novel about settlers who form a new town in the Southwest after the Emancipation Proclamation. Visit Jan at www.awareliving.net and join her fans on Facebook.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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(C) Copyright wow-womenonwriting.com
Visit WOW! Women On Writing for lively interviews and how-tos. Check out WOW!'s Classroom and learn something new. Find jobs on the Freelance Job Board. Enter the Quarterly Flash Fiction Contest. Open Now!
By: MP,
on 6/24/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writer inspiration, inner critic, doubt, Friday Speak Out, Sandy Grayson, fear, Add a tag
Who's Running Your Show?
by Sandy Grason
You may have heard me say “your Inner Wisdom whispers and your Inner Critic yells”. What I mean by this is when I first heard the whisper of my Inner Wisdom it said “write a book”, but immediately my Inner Critic piped in and said;
I wish I could tell you that I've conquered my Inner Critic, stomped her out, smashed her with my powerful-Rock Star-Hot Mogul-ness. I hate to report that she is alive and well and she usually is loudest when I'm standing in the wings getting ready to head on stage, the person introducing me is reading my fabulous bio, listing all the wonderful things I've accomplished, blah, blah, blah.... all I hear is “If they could have seen you having a meltdown in the parking lot with your kids last week, oh they would be REALLY impressed...”
1. Be Willing to Suck. As I mentioned, my Inner Critic likes to tell me that I'm doing “it” wrong. It doesn't matter what it is, there's that critical voice, always chiming in, judging everything, looking for the problem or the reasons why I'll never be able to succeed. I got a note from a reader recently telling me the story of her sister who finally, finally finished her screenplay. When she asked her sister how she managed to accomplish this her sister replied “I was willing to suck at it!” That's the game your Inner Critic plays, judging you harshly until you just give up rather than doing something that is less than perfect. So go ahead! Be willing to Suck! It will change your life!
2. Shut Your Mouth. And your phone, your television, your radio off for a little while. Be quiet for at least 10 minutes every day. You don't have to DO anything during this time. Reconnect with yourself. It's hard to hear your Inner Wisdom when you've got lots of other voices competing for air time in your head. Shut everything off and just sit quietly. Or listen to some favorite music. Go outside and put your feet in the sand or the grass (or the snow?). Stare at the sky, move clouds with your mind, rock in a rocking chair, swing on a swing. Do this everyday for 10 minutes. Watch the magic unfold.
By: MP,
on 6/17/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, Rochelle Melander, Add a tag
Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.
--Norman Mailer
I live in a college neighborhood. On any given night, I can hear the voices of partying college students until into the wee hours of morning. Most days, the neighbors blast their music at a decibel beyond my comfort level. As I write this tip, I have both kids home with me. One is in the back room, just a few feet from my office, watching television while she gets her early morning bolus of Pediasure. My son bops in and out of my office with questions about the day, the week, the universe and rock music. I have five of these tips to write before we leave for vacation. I hope to get at least two done today, despite the noise. No problem. Really.
It used to be that a little noise felled me. Poor sleep and constant interruptions gave me good excuses not to write. Almost any distraction could give me a fresh case of writer's block. No more. This summer, I decided to take a no excuses approach to writing. I write at least twenty minutes a day, five days a week. Whether I write writing tips, scenes for my new novel, or a poem--I write daily. No matter what. This commitment to no-excuses writing has cured writer's block for me. (No kidding!)
Writers write. You do not need the perfect office space, a huge stretch of time, or complete silence. All you need is twenty minutes and the desire to put words to paper no matter what. No excuse is good enough to keep you from writing what is inside you. My challenge to you this week, dear readers: accept no excuses from yourself. Write every day no matter what. Make writing something you do without bother or brouhaha, like brushing your teeth or having breakfast. Once you can manage that, you'll be the "real writer" Mailer talks about.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"?
Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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(C) Copyright wow-womenonwriting.com
Visit WOW! Women On Writing for lively interviews and how-tos. Check out WOW!'s Classroom and learn something new. Find jobs on the Freelance Job Board. Enter the Quarterly Flash Fiction Contest. Open Now!
By: MP,
on 5/27/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Jewel Punzalan Allen, writing for newspapers, op-ed columns, writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, Add a tag
How I Landed An Op-Ed Gig
by Jewel Punzalan Allen
If someone would have said a year ago I would be writing an op-ed column for our local paper, I’d have laughed. Op-ed columns are either written by political science majors who know the timeline, down to the minute, of the current conflict in Bahrain, or they are professors slash lawyers slash experts. I’m neither.
More importantly, op-ed columns aren’t for the weak of heart. Since I’m not the bravest of writers, I didn’t think I’d make a good candidate. I bite my nails over every e-mail I send out. I lose sleep over blog posts. Heck, I even agonize over the wording on our shopping list.
So when my local paper turned down my column proposal two months ago and asked if I could write an op-ed piece every other week instead, I nearly had a panic attack.
I hadn’t written a letter to an editor in years, how could I even consider writing 550-word opinions? How exactly does one go about writing an op-ed? Can an op-ed be meandering and gentle like my blog posts?
Just like any thorough researcher, I googled “how to write an op-ed”. I discovered that op-eds were not meandering and gentle essays. You have to get straight to the point. You have to take a stand on an issue. You have to develop a thick skin. Tough, but not impossible. More worrisome was, I couldn’t see myself coming up with 104 fresh topics in a year.
And yet the op-ed siren’s song kept calling to me. Surely the editor thought I had potential or he wouldn’t have asked. Besides, what was the worst thing that could happen? That I would elicit a barrage of hate mail? (That I would be so lucky to have readers!) That I would have nothing to say? (My husband would say I can be pretty opinionated.) That I would get facts wrong and look like a doofus? (Well, that wouldn’t be the first time as a journalist.)
Before I could change my mind, I e-mailed back the editor that I would do it. So far, I’ve surprised myself. I can sustain a coherent thought in 550 words. I can form a strong opinion and support it.
There are other bonuses: I pay attention to the world in general. I sit in airports and notice sailors saying goodbye to their families (my last column). I take a stand on hometown issues. I don’t need to write about Bahrain, but I can write about things that matter to me as a mom right in my backyard. I can give a voice to women and racial minorities. Just for the fun of it, I sprinkle anecdotes that read like snippets from a short story, full of detail. I get fan mail (okay, so it’s comments from my Facebook friends, but still). Best of all, I get paid to do it.
I think it’s one of the best ways to train as a writer. Just my humble opinion, of course.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look
By: MP,
on 5/24/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: WOW Classes, Kelly L. Stone, WOW instructor, finding time to write, time management, writer inspiration, Add a tag
Time Management for Writers
by Kelly L. Stone
One of the primary questions I am asked by aspiring authors is “where do you find time to write?” Most people already know that the answer is you don’t have time, you make time. But making time to write in what feels like an already crammed schedule isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Unless you try counting.
Let me explain.
It is a scientific fact that whenever you start counting the number of times you do a certain behavior, that behavior will either increase or decrease in frequency depending on what you want it to do. So one way to track how often you are doing a behavior is to count it.
Let’s say you have a suspicion that time spent on social networking sites is eating into time that you could be writing instead. How can you tell for sure? Get out a pen and paper and start counting how many hours you spend each day on social sites. One person in my writing classes did this and discovered she was spending 3 hours a day on social networking sites, and this was after working a day job! And she wondered why she never had time to write!
This can be done for anything activity that you want to eliminate, compress, or delegate in order to make time to write: tv watching, checking your email, internet surfing (under the guise of *research*), talking on the phone, going shopping, checking for loose change beneath the sofa cushions, and so forth.
An easy way to find out where you can shoehorn writing into any schedule, no matter how busy, is to use what I call the 24-Hour Time Budget™. It’s simple. Simply track every minute of your day for a few days; I suggest a typical weekday and weekend day for starters. This exercise is similar to writing down every penny you spend in order to get a handle on where your money is going; the goal is for you to see where you are “spending” your time in order to wedge in some writing. After a few days, you’ll have an overview of where the bulk of your time is going. Then you can scrutinize the budget to see where you can eliminate, compress, rearrange, or delegate some activities and fit in writing time, instead.
Don’t be surprised if you find, like my former student, that you spend a lot more time in non-essential activities than you thought you did. (The average person watches more than 4 hours of television a night.) Just lop off some hours on the social networking sites and focus on your WIP instead.
Leave a comment letting me know where you discovered you’re spending all your time, and be entered into a drawing to win a TIME TO WRITE or THINKING WRITE lecture packet. Two winners will be selected from a random drawing.
***
Kelly is also a WOW! Women on Writing Classroom instructor. Her interactive workshop EMPOWER YOUR MUSE, EMPOWER YOUR WRITING SELF starts Monday, June 6th. Click he
By: MP,
on 5/20/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: getting published, fear, writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, Christina Kapp, Add a tag
by Christina Kapp
This winter Vida: Women in the Literary Arts published some interesting statistics concerning the inequality of publications among men and women in several major literary publications. Whether you write literary fiction or not, it’s worth looking at because it raises some interesting questions about the behaviors of women writers versus men, and can be as inspiring as it is depressing.
Clearly men are being published in greater number than women, so the obvious question is: Are editors truly male biased, or is something else going on here? Can there really be this much disparity in today’s publishing culture?
In a response to Vida’s statistics Tin House editor Rob Spillman blogged, “Male authors, in the face of rejection, are much more likely to submit more work, (and sooner) than their female peers. This is true even when the female author is explicitly requested to send more work.” What Spillman’s response suggests is that it may very well be less about editorial bias than simply about submission numbers. If women aren’t submitting as aggressively as men and there are fewer submissions by women, it stands to reason that we’re likely to be published less often. Sounds obvious enough, but is this really the case? Are we, as women, placing ourselves at a distinct disadvantage by distrusting our work and not submitting enough or responding to requests for more work? Are we self-discriminating because the number of submissions it can take to get a piece published simply overwhelm us?
For any writer, male or female, it is worth looking at our level of confidence in our writing and our commitment to getting our work out. Crafting an exceptional story is hard, but being dedicated and thick-skinned enough to understand that rejection is simply part of the process of publication, and not necessarily a commentary on the writing, may actually be harder. Are we up to the challenge on both fronts? Are we ready to push back against the statistics by putting fear aside on the basis that our work is just as good?
I hope so. I know I have been guilty of being too careful, nervous, or hesitant with my submission strategy. I’ll admit it. I am nothing if not completely insecure, and I know that it affects my ability to get my work published. I have been that woman who receives a kind rejection asking for more work and puts it aside, thinking, “someday I’ll have exactly the right piece for this one, but not now,” or “I’ve been rejected three times in three years. They just don’t like my work.” I know I shouldn’t, but I do take rejection personally. I feel all those terrible things: disappointment, frustration, embarrassment, shame. Why? I don’t know. Maybe it’s hard-wired. Maybe I’m self-defeating. However, I thank both Vita and Tin House for sharing these statistics and being so open about what is going on beyond my computer screen in the larger world of literary publishing. I hope we can all learn something from it, and press on with a renewed sense of purpose and optimism.
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By: MP,
on 5/13/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Authors, writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, female authors, Babette Hughes, Add a tag
Why I Write
by Babette Hughes
People who know that I write for love and not money probably think there’s something wrong with my moorings. They don’t quite comprehend that writing can be an end in itself, even a profoundly rewarding one. In fact, writing goes into the making of a good life.
A good life, for me at least, means making connections with the world around me. It means a heightened awareness of people with sensitivity to all sorts of subtle shadings. It means an existence without murkiness. The discipline of writing conditions the mind for this kind of life. It has enabled me to develop a tri-dimensional or stereoscopic habit.
The women in my life become more defined over time in their own uniqueness, and, as I write, I feel a sisterhood blossom like spring flowers. We are wives, widows, daughters, mothers, sisters, grandmothers, and aunts. We run houses and businesses, we nurture babies and husbands, and we take care of parents. We garden and run for Congress as we listen and console. Writing reveals these fulfilling, frustrating, and satisfying roles to me in a new dimension, exciting my imagination.
When I sit down to write, I change places with fate. I am its master at last. For a little while I am no longer one of millions dominated by forces outside my control--I become truly omnipotent. What could be sweeter? I create my characters and make things happen or not happen to them. I make them happy or sad. I look at life from a few steps back, as if viewing a painting. I fashion, manipulate, and maneuver. I know what is going to happen because I make it happen.
We women are a mixed lot--invincible and vulnerable, independent and needy, insecure and powerful. I have tried, in my writing, to understand and celebrate the gloriously complicated lives of women for my own and my readers’ discovery. To me, this is the supreme function of all writing. It is no easy calling, but its rewards go so far beyond the mundane that I hope to practice it for as many years as I have left on earth.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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By: MP,
on 4/8/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Melisaa Aiello, writer, fear, writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, Add a tag
Writer? Me?
by Melissa Aiello
“Hello, my name is Melissa and I’m a recovering doubter.”
How I wish for a 12 step program to treat the disease of doubt. Wouldn’t it be grand to have a support group for wayward souls who fight tooth and nail to avoid using “writer” when describing themselves, simply because they lack confidence? They being me.
“I can’t believe you don’t think you’re a writer” said a friend recently, with raised eyebrows and pitying look that screams, “Seriously, how could you STILL doubt yourself. You are driving your friends crazy!”
Easy, because I don’t see myself reflected in what I read: blog pages filled with witty, SMART prose and novelist’s who string words into characters that walk, talk, breathe AND follow a plot! It’s magic to me and I feel incapable of that sort of conjuring. The real clincher is I don’t even know if I WANT to do it. I haven’t nursed a passion to write since I was a child. I have not dreamt of being a novelist, journalist or poet. Doesn’t that revelation have “YOU ARE NOT A WRITER” written all over it?
Yet, words form armies in my head that pummel away at my brain until I put them on paper. If I can’t write an idea down right away, it runs the risk of being lost forever--mainly because recent thyroid surgery has left my brain frustratingly fuzzy. And those lost ideas make me sad, because I wanted them to live.
My ultimate underlying issue is fear. Having family and friends tell me what a good writer I am is not enough, in my world view, to pursue it. It is not enough to stick my toes outside my comfort zone and test the waters – there might be sharks in there, ya know! My huge admiration for real writers prevents me from trying to be like them--I don’t feel worthy.
And now here I am, laying myself out for public display. Encouraged by past Speak Out posts I am hoping my ‘dream’ and ‘passion’ will finally reveal themselves to me. Will it be academic writing or travel? Should I explore journalism or try to resurrect my dormant blog? The ‘what’ and ‘how’ are still unclear. What I do know is that writing flash fiction stories helps me heal and keeps me moving forward.
Perhaps I do have that support group I mentioned earlier and maybe I should listen to them more--those friends of mine. Whether I am able to discover the courage to call myself a writer, or not, I will start by saying the word out loud to the other me that I see in the mirror each morning. It’s a start.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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By: Robyn Chausse,
on 3/31/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writing process, writer inspiration, Robyn Chausse, You've Got My Style, Add a tag
- Create your character profiles.
- Write your outline.
- Create a flow chart to mark the arc of the story.
- Write your story.
- Make sure you have 'X' percentage of dialog, etc...
until they showed up, so I got stuck.(C) Copyright wow-womenonwriting.com
Visit WOW! Women On Writing for lively interviews and how-tos. Check out WOW!'s Classroom and learn something new. Find jobs on the Freelance Job Board. Enter the Quarterly Flash Fiction Contest. Open Now!
By: MP,
on 3/8/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writing workshops, writer inspiration, flash fiction contest winner, first place winner, Fall 2010 Flash Fiction Contest, Cynthia Larsen, Add a tag
This story began as a workshop piece for Roxanna Robinson’s class at the Wesleyan Writer’s Conference in the spring of 2010. A Cup of Coffee is Cynthia’s first publication.
interview by Marcia Peterson
WOW: Congratulations on winning first place in our Fall 2010 writing contest! How do you feel?
Cynthia: Thanks for asking, Marcia! I was really excited that my story was chosen. And surprised. This is my first publication, so it feels especially valuable to me. I was on vacation with my family when I found out, and quickly ordered up a round of mimosas to toast my achievement. But before we put down our glasses, my sister won $1000.00 in bingo and stole my moment! Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! Of course, she was forced to buy drinks for the rest of the trip, so I feel like I got even.
WOW: I'm no stranger to those Brady Bunch references! Can you tell us what encouraged the idea behind your story, A Cup of Coffee?
Cynthia: Most of my stories start with visuals. I pictured a woman, sitting in a diner, waiting for a man. I was interested in the idea that life-altering decisions can be made so quickly. In the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee.
WOW: You did a great job--it was very moving. What was the editing process like for the story, which began as a workshop piece for a class?
Cynthia: A Cup of Coffee started as a one-page character sketch for Roxanna Robinson’s workshop at the Wesleyan Writers Conference. Originally I had a bit of Ray’s back-story in it, which I think crowded the story. So I took that part out, which enabled me to flesh Caroline out a bit more. Even though the story didn’t change much, there was a lot of tweaking. That’s the challenge of flash, trying to squeeze out all of the extra air.
WOW: We’d love to know more about your writing routines, especially since you have three children. Could you tell us when and where you usually write? Do you have favorite tools or habits that get you going?
Cynthia: My writing habits change as my life changes. When my kids were little, I went through a period of time where I got up every day at 5 am to write. And I am not a morning person. Mainly I have become a hoarder of time. I don’t say ‘free time,’ because when you have three kids and two part-time jobs those two words do not co-exist. When my youngest daughter started pre-school, instead of usin
By: MP,
on 3/4/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: feminism, writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, Maria Rainier, Add a tag
by Maria Rainier
My story is not a new one. It begins in the kitchen, where I’m listening to Ella Fitzgerald as I prepare lunch while running the dishwasher, making vegetable stock, cleaning out the refrigerator with baking soda, and waiting for the washer to stop rumbling so I know to switch the clothes to the dryer. My laptop with my half-written (half unwritten) manuscript puts itself to sleep.
After lunch, I seal the leftovers in container while my significant other returns to work. I promise him it’s no trouble. (I don’t know I’m lying.)
Then, the dishwasher is done; I put the dishes away. The vegetable stock starts to spit; I lower the heat. I clean the fridge. I decide to line-dry the clothes to save money, although it takes twenty minutes instead of two. Hours later, I’m sewing up a hole in my significant other’s shirt and another day goes by without another chapter written.
When I realize what’s happening, I drop the pot of vegetable stock and scream, “What is this, 1935?”
Simone
Somewhere between scrubbing the bathtub and making homemade laundry detergent, I remember Simone de Beauvoir. In her book, The Second Sex, she mourns that although women made strides in the second wave of feminism, she became “expected to also be a woman, and she has to add the duties of her professional study to those implied in her femininity.”
To help me make time to write, my significant other begins splitting chores with me, 50/50. Eventually, I realize that even if he insisted on fairness, I still don’t feel adequate as a writer or as a woman. In my mind, I have to be both, but both are full-time jobs. If I can’t do all the chores, I’m not a good woman. If I can’t find time to publish something, I’m not a writer. Halfway doing both makes me feel guilty all the time. Meanwhile, men in traditional families like mine only have one job—their job—in a society that’s made hunting and defending the family against bears and rival clans moot.
Virginia
I read A Room of One’s Own twice in college and wrote my senior thesis on gender prejudice. I’m nothing if not a feminist. Still, I find myself struggling to this day to be a writer and a woman. I consistently find myself trying to do more than my share around the house. Sometimes, when I let slip to my stay-at-home-mom friends that I let my significant other do the dishes, they look at me as if I told them I beat him with a shovel.
It’s an ongoing battle, but as women writers, we must hold tight our right to be both. Often, we ourselves are our greatest adversaries.
I’ll finish the way Virginia did, because every speech must end with a peroration. “Remember your responsibilities.” She’s not talking about the dishes. Remember, instead, “how much depends on you, and what an influence you can exert upon the future.”
Write on.
* * *
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By: MP,
on 2/25/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: parenting, writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, Julie Duffy, Add a tag
Potty Tales: How Toilet Training Made Me a Writer Again
by Julie Duffy
“I dun wanna!!”
A moment before, I had been hunkered down on the hardwood floor, gazing at him adoringly as the afternoon sunlight sparked the reds and golds in my beautiful son’s impossibly long eyelashes.
Now I was trying to keep the words “half Nelson” from flitting through my mind as I, um, encouraged him to stay on the potty.
I couldn’t give up. Not again. But I knew this little boy was far more persistent than I. We had tried watching TV while we waited. We had read all the books and sung all the songs.
In desperation I began to vamp, “Once upon a time, there was a little boy named...”
He stopped struggling and looked around for the book. When I announced that the boy in the story had the same name as he did, well, you should have seen those eyes widen--they half-filled his baby face.
He sat perfectly still. He relaxed.
I fought down a decade-long case of writer’s block and took one step into the story.
The Birth And Death of a Writer
I was like most of you: a writer from my earliest age. I scribbled before I could write. While other nine-year olds were struggling to put together six sentences I was gleefully writing six-page epics, stopping only because the teacher snatched the notebook away and sent me home. I wrote for fun. I had a poem published in an anthology at 10, and at 12 I would tell anyone who asked that I was going to be A Writer.
And then it all went wrong.
At secondary school I suffered the double-whammy of Discovering Boys and being forced into inept analyses of great works of English literature. And it only got worse at university. Studying the great works of great writers in the hallowed halls of an ancient university it became crystal clear: I could never be a writer. I was tongue-tied, insignificant and deeply unworthy.
Desperation: The Mother of Accomplishment
But now? In my desperation to entertain the boy, I had created a fan.
Now I was staring at an upturned face, rapt, uncritical, waiting to be carried away on the next wave of the adventure. Now, if the pace was lagging, if the story was boring, if the words were too complicated, my audience threatened to get up and walk away (and create a ‘cleaning opportunity’ I could live without).
Now, if my story was good, he stayed on the potty. I was motivated, he was enthralled.
And I realized that I could tell stories. I told them at potty-time, at bed-time, to divert tantrums, on walks and in the car. They didn’t have to be ground-breaking or literary or trendy. They had to capture the imagination of one person. And, I reasoned, if I could hold the attention of this small, squirmy boy, then I must be one helluva writer.
And with that, I began to write again.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and
By: MP,
on 2/18/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Patricia Caviglia, writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, Add a tag
Living the Dream
I am a writer. I did not always know it or accept it. As an only and lonely young child, I told myself many stories. I created them, wrote them in my mind, and edited them. They provided hours of entertainment. I discovered an appreciation for reading around age thirteen: I read my first novel, a romance story. I can’t remember how many pages it was, but I remember thinking it was a monster of a book. I never thought I would get through it. In fact, the only reason I borrowed it from the library was to read the juicy scenes. I was curious! I became curious about the story too. That is when my love of reading and writing began.
I devoured novels and was inspired to write everything from scripts to poetry. In a Chemistry class, I even wrote an ode to the atom. Reading and writing are what I did. By the time I entered university, I made sure that I could write the best papers possible. After all, writing was my talent. I would honor it. Enough professors expressed how much they enjoyed reading my well written essays that I know I received higher marks than I deserved on some papers.
Why then did I not pursue writing as a career until my thirties? Few people ever suggested it. The most important person was my mother. She believed I should do something important and highly remunerated. Creativity and art were not considered options. Eventually, I stopped being creative on paper and reverted to being creative in my head. It is in my nature to write. I cannot stop the flow of characters and stories. I have tried.
Before I became a mother, so many parents told me that children would change my life. They always made it sound negative like a burden. Perhaps they did not mean it that way or perhaps I misunderstood them. However, I found that my daughter’s birth gave me focus. In a way, I became more selfish. I stopped stifling myself and unleashed a novella upon the world. Between the Tweeting, the Facebook sharing, the blogging, and the story writing, I am writing more than I ever have before. I never seem to stop. Some days, it feels like there aren’t enough letters in the alphabet for all these words that keep spewing out of me. Some days, I write so much I do not want to talk. Other times, I should write about one thing (like right now, I should be working on a short story contest entry), but I find myself wanting to work on something entirely different (this blog post).
What is amazing is that I am living a dream I never allowed myself to believe could be a reality until I became a mother. As a mother, I am my daughter’s primary example of what a woman should be – courageous enough to believe in herself and pursue her dreams.
* * *
Patricia Caviglia is a mom, a writer and a full-time railroader. Her first published work, a young adult novella, is entitled Masks.
Website: http://www.patriciacaviglia.com/
Blog: http://masksthebook.wordpress.com/
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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By: MP,
on 1/26/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writing tips, Marcia Peterson, writer inspiration, New Years writing Resolutions, Add a tag
by Marcia Peterson
If you made writing resolutions for the New Year, don’t abandon them now, as the first month comes to a close. Use the following strategies to help you keep the promises you made to yourself. Your writing success this year is worth it!
1. Record your progress. Log your daily word count, self-promotion actions or whatever marker relates most to the resolutions you’ve set. It helps to make it fun, using wall charts, smart phone apps or even a picture of a thermometer that you fill in with colored ink as you make progress toward your goal. Chronicling your efforts is motivating when you’re doing well (it’s so fun to see the path of progress) and also when you’re slacking off (you’ll want to fill in the spaces with good work).
2. Get other people involved. Announce your goals to someone else and now you’re accountable for your declarations. Try to arrange regular check-ins, which will keep you motivated to keep on top of your work. It’s also more enjoyable to work on your resolutions with a friend, or perhaps a team of friends.
3. Put up reminders. When building a new habit, such as increased writing output or regular marketing efforts, it helps to remind yourself of what you need to do each day. Put up notes on your mirror, your car dashboard, or your refrigerator. You can also use alarm clocks, online calendars, or cell phone messages to keep you on track. Maybe a friend would even be willing to call or e-mail you at certain times of day to check in on your progress.
4. Take some action. If your goals overwhelm you at any point, remember that small actions amount to big results over time. Can you do one thing today toward your goal? Could you write for just fifteen minutes this evening? Don’t give up on your resolutions when you’re feeling discouraged or time crunched. Take a little step or complete just a part of project.
5. Set up monthly reviews. Just like kids get reports cards, we should too. Periodically evaluate your progress on your resolutions and give yourself a grade on each one. What’s working well? What could you improve on? It’s up to you how often you want to check in with yourself—perhaps monthly to be sure you’re on course. Each time you review your efforts to date, think about how to make the remainder of the year even better.
6. Adjust and adapt. Life gets busy and personal goals sometimes aren’t met. But, it’s never too late to regroup and get back on track if you need to. Just dive back in to the plan you originally set up, or make alterations to your resolutions that fit better. Forgive yourself for any perceived failures and move on. There’s plenty of time left!
7. Reward yourself. On the other hand, be sure to recognize and honor all the good work you’re doing. Create a system that offers frequent rewards, so that doing the work becomes more fun. Small but desirable prizes for reaching mini goals provide extra motivation to get the job done. Acknowledge your good work and treat yourself nicely!
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You can maintain your New Year’s resolutions with the right strategies to keep you on track. Keep thinking about where you’ll be at the end of the year, when you’ve reached all of your goals. It’s exciting, and you can look forward to this
By: MP,
on 1/25/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Marcia Peterson, writer inspiration, flash fiction contest winner, writer interviews, Karen Simmonds, Summer 2010 Flash Fiction Contest, Add a tag
Find out more about Karen by visiting her website: http://www.westminsterhallandchapel.com/.
interview by Marcia Peterson
WOW: Congratulations on placing in the Top 10 with two stories, an amazing accomplishment! What inspired you to enter the contest?
Karen: Thanks so much! A friend of mine in my writer's group, more fearless than I, told me about the contest and that I should enter. In addition, I was annoyed with myself for hardly ever sending out my work, always thinking it could be better, etc. So what if it can be better--how much better? I have seen stories that are overworked and that flowed better on the second draft than the fourth or fifth. Sometimes the inner critic needs to be bound and gagged.
WOW: Both of your entries were fantastic. Can you tell us what encouraged the ideas behind your stories, 1974 and Vessel?
Karen: "Vessel" was inspired by my twenty-seven yr. old pregnant daughter. Seeing her with her hand on her belly, the devotion already there, made me wonder what kind of person could perpetrate fraud on unsuspecting couples and fail to form such an attachment themselves. It occurred to me that there could be something more going on there, something altruistic. It was an interesting character study, to be sure. Human motivation is such an amazing thing.
"1974" was reminiscent of my childhood years. I was more like the tom-boy character but had a little of the social awkwardness as well. I really wanted to explore those fleeting friendships we all had when we were young and had trouble truly defining. How and why do they start and, even more inexplicably, how and why do they end? It's such a joyful time of life, but also painful and confusing. Whoever says being a kid is easy may have forgotten a few things along the way.
WOW: Have you always enjoyed the genre, and how did you learn to write great flash fiction?
Karen: I've always been drawn to the challenge of making the most of my words. Flash Fiction is defini
By: MP,
on 1/21/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writer inspiration, getting ideas, Friday Speak Out, Joanne DeMaio, blog photos, Add a tag
How to Break a Blog Fever
by Joanne DeMaio
But for writers, our blogs should consistently shine. Day after day, week after week, no matter what the blog theme, new posts must be written regularly, all while maintaining major writing projects. This is when writer angst raises its head. The cry “What can I blog about?” often rings across the blogosphere.
As easy, and fun, as that, you’ve got several new posts in those images ready to keep your blog chugging along. Here’s how. Take your blog’s theme, whether it’s sharing a writing journey, finding happiness, or learning to cook, and project it onto the pictures. Then ask yourself how some aspect of writing, or happiness, or cooking, is paralleled in the images. When you look at a photograph closely, you’ll be amazed at the connections you can make.
By: MP,
on 9/10/2010
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, Linda Rhinehart Neas, Add a tag
Writing and Balance
by Linda Rhinehart Neas
Balance is a tenuous dance we all do to remain on what Buddhist call, “the center path.” At times, it seems that the slightest push can send us reeling into the gullies of despair, confusion or fear. Writing is the ballast that keeps me coming back to center.
Plagued early in life by disease, poverty and abuse, I became a tenacious survivor thanks to a mother who loved literature, especially poetry. She planted a seed deep within the fertile fields of my soul. Watered and feed by both the local librarian, who sent my first poem into the Hornbook Children’s Contest, and by several gifted educators, my love for the written word germinated and bloomed.
By the time I was in high school, I knew I was a writer. However, for a brief time, I stopped writing daily. I had shared a love poem with my boyfriend and he corrected my spelling and syntax. I was devastated. In the fog that most abuse victims live in, I thought he was “helping” me realize that I was not a poet. After all, I was not a college student. How could I hope to compete in the real world?
The Muse, however, had other ideas. I continued to have inspirational moments when entire poems came rushing out of my solar plexus onto paper, which happened when my first daughter was born. Motherhood was fertile ground - deep, dark and full of possibilities.
But it wasn’t until one morning, as I rub the pregnant bulge of my soon to be third daughter, watching my two oldest daughters play, that I truly understood my calling. On the table was the Officer’s Wives Newsletter, which I edited on a remote SAC base in the Great Lakes. If I could do that, why not write professionally?
The news of another military confrontation loomed in the media. It was fodder for my first professionally published article.
“Let There Be Peace,” appeared in the Boston Globe. The respected professionals at The Globe deemed my work worthy of print, and they paid me! I began writing in earnest.
Eventually, the local newspaper weekly newspaper offered me my own column. The column allowed me to keep honing my craft.
Once my daughters were in school, I turned my attention to inspiring others to write. The persona of “The Poetry Lady” was born. I began giving poetry readings in the local schools, at the historical society, and for fundraisers to help women’s organizations. I helped teachers become inspired to teach poetry to their classes.
Recently, I returned to school to finish a BA and M.Ed. Walking across the dais to receive my diploma, a dream was not only been realized, it was validated. My entire life had led me to this moment, to this realization, that I cannot live without writing.
Writing is the lifeblood that fuels my soul. It is the silence between the beats of my heart. It is the outstretched hand in times of need. It is the essence of this being I call, “Me.”
* * *
Linda M. Rhinehart Neas has written extensively in various venues, publishing and performing her work throughout New England.
Her first complete book of poems, Winter of the Soul, was published in February 2008. Gogo’s Dream: Discovering Swaziland, a collection of poems dedicated to those who work to aid the peoples of Swaziland was published this year. All proceeds from the sale of Gogo’s Dream go directly to Possible Dreams International.
By: MP,
on 8/20/2010
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, web presence, Julie Ann Lindsey, Add a tag
Get in the Game
by Julie Anne Lindsey
For every thoughtful commenter on this board, there are probably more than 50 regular lurkers. I know this because I was one of them. While there is value in lurking, there is also a season for it. Eventually though, the time comes to get out of the shadows and get involved.
Initially, lurking allows new writers to learn. We learn about the publishing culture, about ways to succeed or fail, how to write a query, and how to research an agent, and then stalk them successfully. Those are all valuable lessons for a writer, but the problem comes when we eventually learn every nuance, fear and dream of our favorite agent crush, but they never learn a single thing about us.
Imagine that you are an agent reading hundreds of queries day after day. It would become very difficult to really think about the people on the other side of those queries, though I’m sure that agents do try. Now, think about this, the agent could get to the bottom of your query and see your name, and a light bulb could go on. What if she recognized it? That agent could say, “Awesome Aspiring Writer, I know her. That’s the writer who regularly adds profound inspiration and insightful comments to my blog posts,” or “Awesome Aspiring Writer, I’ve seen her blog. That girl just makes me smile.” Now, the agent may be inclined to give the practically anonymous query one more read, maybe even with a bias towards a personality that she already knows she could work with. This is a wonderful side effect of a good web presence. Wouldn’t you like to have that scenario unfold? I would.
You see, there is a time for lurking, and learning, but there is also a time to step out and make a name for yourself. So, I ask you, “Isn’t it time to get in the game?” Speak out Fridays at Wow! is just one fabulous opportunity for unpublished authors speak up. So, whip up a post for consideration here, take a deep breath, and send it. Take a chance. You’ve earned it. Get in the game.
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Julie Anne Lindsey is a wife, a homeschooling mother of 3, and all around caffeine addict. She is an unpublished author, avid reader and obsessive writer. Julie is blogging her journey to publication at Musings from the Slush Pile, where she also shares personal experience, book reviews and opening chapters from her works.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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By: MP,
on 8/13/2010
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Heather Humphrey, parenting, writing time, writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, Add a tag
My Writing Time is Non-Negotiable
by Heather Humphrey
The sign on my bedroom door is a sticky note on which I've scrawled "I'm Writing, GO AWAY!" It's proven to be a wildly ineffective tool. One of the 3 other residents I share this space with will see the note and either walk away loudly dejected or timidly tap at the door, with flagrant disregard for their lives. Lucky for them, my cohabitants are the people I love most in the world, my two teenagers and my husband. So whether I'm stuck and feeling like the only person on the planet ever to experience writers block or I'm having a stream of fortune with cleverly crafted sentences simply flying across the page, chances are pretty good that I'm not going to kill one of my little interrupters. I will definitely threaten to, but never actually perform the act. My therapist assures me that it is normal to wish ill for those who disregard the need for occasional solitude.
The CBS Sunday morning program interviewed the adult children of Erma Bombeck this past Mother's Day. They claim they knew when mother was writing and not to disturb her. "Mommy has a deadline, we must leave her alone!" How nice for her. I bet if she were alive for the interview her story would be different. I prefer to picture her sitting at her writing desk with a shiny dagger within reach and wielding it wildly with a primal scream when one of her little interruptions dared to tap at her door.
It's ok to sequester yourself and expect to be allowed the time to write. Time and space to allow creativity to flourish and burst forth is essential to writing. Practicing our craft and nurturing our works in progress are what keep us sane and more pleasant to be around. The only way to be fulfilled as a writer, is to write. Seeing our work through drafts, edits, rewrites and to completion is what feeds our soul. Can't get a minute for yourself? Respect your writer self enough to do what you need. Rent a room down the block, drive to that abandoned house in the woods that everyone thinks is haunted, borrow a room from a relative, set up camp at the bagel shop. Where ever you go; write, write, and write.
It's taken a while to take my writing seriously enough to feel worthy of these shining moments of solitude. Getting it into my head that my role as writer is just as important as my other roles was an arduous task only made possible with a lot of coaching from my therapist. But here I am, a fierce protector of my writing time, wielding my silver dagger and perfecting my banshee scream. While distraction is inevitable when you are blessed to have a family, you can still be Mom/Wife/Dog Walker/ & Writer. Use some of the creativity that makes you a wonderful writer to bust the distraction factor. How do you deal with distraction?
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Heather Humphrey lives in Upstate New York with her 2 teenagers, husband and dog Lucy. Unpublished [so far ;0)] writer & regular contributor at http://www.examiner.com/x-39272-Binghamton-WorkLife-Balance-Examiner. She is currently working on a collection of poetry and short stories.
Heather Blogs at http://bigred909.wordpress.com/ and http://papergirl-bigred909.blogspot.com/.
Friend her on facebook at https://register.facebook.com/heather.humphrey3.
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By: MP,
on 7/30/2010
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writer inspiration, attitude, Friday Speak Out, Vanessa Nix Anthony, Add a tag
by Vanessa Nix Anthony
My son reminds me most everyday that attitude is everything. Through his actions (his ability to recover from a bad fall with just a quick snuggle) and through his reactions to my temperament. I find that on days that I am stressed out, pushing to meet deadline, he cries out more for my attention. The more I try to quickly placate and send him on his way, the less contented he is. But the days when I successfully remain present in the moment and flexible to what the day brings the smoother things run.
Today, I sat down to work at 7am and though I took a break for lunch, I pretty much worked straight through the day. Juno had his daddy to keep him company. But at 3pm today, when I got up from my chair to use the bathroom, my nearly two-year-old son waved goodbye to my computer, clapped his hands and gave me an excited grin of anticipation. I knew that was it. Mama had to take a break and spend some time with her baby.
I sat down on the floor and he ran over grinning. He wrapped his arms around my neck and gave me a big hug and a kiss. He was grateful for my attention -- that I had heard him. We spent a good amount of time playing, putting puzzles together- giggling and chatting, just sharing time together. I got a much needed break, a good stretch on the floor and some really great time with my son. He got to know that he’s a priority and that I will stop down and take a break to be with him.
I did a lot today: research, queries, blog entries- even this piece. I also got to share in some fun and in some home-cooked meals around our kitchen table.
Were there still things looming on my to-do list at the end of the day? Sure. Would I have liked to do more research, gotten my desk drawers organized or the baby book up-to-date? Yes. A hike would have been nice, too or working on my knitting or a myriad of other things. But there are only so many hours in each day.
I could look at all that I did NOT accomplish today and be miserable. I could have been more rigid and said, "Mama needs to work right now, honey." I would have gotten more done but I wouldn't be any more satisfied with my day or my life.
My hubby and I have a kind of ritual we do. We didn't plan it or sit down and come up this—it happened quite naturally and continues on today. Before we drift off to sleep, one of us will say, "I had good day with you, hon," and the other will answer back. Soon we are listing the things that made the day so good. It falls from our lips, effortlessly. Usually, these things seem simple or plain to the untrained ear: "kept the house picked up," "got such and such a project done," "lunch or dinner was great," "the walk was nice," or "Juno did the funniest thing."
Nothing special, some would say, but I to me it's the most special. Happiness doesn't live, in the highest of highs. It's not winning a million dollars (though that would be nice) or driving a fancy car or having some inordinate amount of power. True happiness lives in the little moments—how you spot them and what you make of them. In this, each day holds the key to bliss and these little moments, strung together, bring true joy.
If you ask me if I am satisfied today or most days, I will tell you unreservedly, yes.
It was one of the best.
* * *
Vanessa Nix Anthony is a freelance writer who contributes to a variety of magazines, newspapers and online media outlets nationwide. She also writes a resource blog for Portland area writers called
By: MP,
on 3/19/2010
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Anna Miller, writer inspiration, Friday Speak Out, Add a tag
Where Do Writers Go For Inspiration?
by Anna Miller
Writing has been my profession for a while now, but it has always been a passion for as long as I can remember. From school essays to writing short stories and poems for the school magazine and local book club, I would take part in all of them with an enthusiasm that my friends considered somewhat unnatural – they were not the bookish kind and did not understand the intensity I showed towards my paperback friends. I was never at a loss for words when asked to write, I always had something to write about, and long or short, I always loved the result of my creative expression. In short, I was my biggest fan and I had never heard of writer’s block let alone experienced it.
Well, that sure changed when I started writing for a living--I found that in a few years’ time, there were many times when I became disillusioned with writing and other times when I just could not pen a single sentence without hating it. In the old days, it would have been the equivalent of crumpled sheets of paper lying strewn around my writing table, but today, it’s more a case of banging the keyboard when you’re frustrated at the words not flowing freely. Every writer has faced this situation more than once during their careers – they’re stuck in a rut and short of inspiration, and cannot write even though they want to. So where do they go for inspiration?
In my experience, I’ve found that the following things work when you’re looking to rejuvenate your creativity and breathe a whiff of fresh air into your writing:
• Broadening your horizons: When you expand your repertoire of activities, you grow as a writer because you learn much more about life than when confined to your desk and computer all day long. The first time I felt a mental block, I took a break from work and went out to sign up for tennis lessons. A few hours of this game every day, and I felt like a new person. I didn’t switch on my notebook for a week, not until I felt I was ready to write again. This time, the words were at my command and ready to do my bidding. So when you feel you need inspiration, just look around for other things that interest you. You’ll be back in the saddle sooner than you think.
• Write about something else: If inspiration is what is lacking, try changing the subject you normally write about. If technology is your cup of tea, switch to coffee for a change and take on health or education or anything else you feel passionate or know about. Alternatively, start a personal blog where you can write about anything and everything that interests you. The point is that you must not write for your career’s sake; instead, you must write for your own. When you feel your confidence returning after a few well-written pieces, you’re ready to get back to writing as a profession.
• Take time off: And finally, it’s best to just take time off from work to go do your own thing when you feel the dearth of inspiration. You’re probably just overworked and your brain is too tired to think anymore. So what you really need is some rest and rejuvenation, after which you’ll be good to go once again.
Image courtesy of http://www.bmpl.lib.me.us/writer.jpg
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Anna Miller is a staff writer for degree online . A native Houstonian, deep in the heart of Texas, she brings a friendlin
By: Sondra Santos LaBrie,
on 1/1/2008
Blog: Happy Healthy Hip Parenting (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Over the holiday, there was a plethora of mail that had been stacked up, waiting for me to read (and discard). I browsed through it all (mostly) but was very excited to discover some interesting lists in the NAIBA Newsletter:
GREAT BOOKSTORE WEBSITES:
Beauty and the Book (Jefferson, TX)
The Bookloft (Great Barrington, MA)
Book Soup (Hollywood, CA)
Breathe Books (Baltimore, MD)
Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers (Farmington, MN)
Fountain Bookstore (Richmond, VA)
McNally Robinson Booksellers (New York, NY)
Village Books (Bellingham, WA)
Wordsmiths Books (Decatur, GA)
BOOKSELLERS BLOGS:
Rachel & Benn of Atomic Books (Baltimore, MD)
Megan Sullivan of Harvard Bookstore (Cambridge MA): Bookdwarf
Lori Kauffman of Brookline Booksmith (Brookline, MA): Brookline Blogsmith
Arsen Kashkashian of Boulder Bookstore (Boulder, CO): Kash's Book Corner
Jessica Stockton Bagnulo of McNally Robinson (New York, NY): The Written Nerd
Lauretta Nagel of Constellation Books (Resisterstown, MD): Constellation Books' NEW BLOG
And because I don't have enough to do (and read), I'm always interested in discovering new sites and resources. If you're a bookseller who blogs or have a great bookstore website to share, post the link in a comment here, or send me the link directly. I'm happy to include your blog or site in a future posting.
Happy New Year!
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I have this syndrome. I encounter tons of article ideas and write down blog post topics whenever I can, but have yet to sit down and actually finish them.
This post is a slap in the face - but a good one! I'm going to go work on those ideas today. :)
I definitely relate to this post. Just yesterday, I tried to organize all of my scraps of paper, newspaper clippings and napkins, all containing the promise of something wonderful.
What a neat metaphor!
There are many sayings and uses of the penny image. This reminds me of a saying to the effect of "see a penny, pick it up, all day long you will have good luck!"
I will continue to keep the penny image up front!
It is reassuring to know that I am not the only writer experiencing this syndrome.
Thanks!
So nice to hear from all of you! It is comforting to realize this is not a personal defect, just the mark of a creative mind :)