How to use this Page

1. Choose a theme. Trees, collage, landscapes. If you have a themed sketchbook or journal, you don't have to spend too much time thinking about what should go on the first page. The answer is obvious: a tree, a collage, or a landscape!
2. Work on that first drawing carefully--then paste it in! It's a bit of a cheat, but if you work on a separate piece of paper rather than the actual sketchbook, some of the pressure to be perfect will disappear. You can do this with your writing too.
3. Collage the covers, both inside and out. I love doing this because it not only can form my theme and color palette, but it also lets me relax into the creative process in a fun and purposeful way.
4. Call the first page "practice" and label it as such. I once heard author Sid Fleischman say that if your plot has a hole, point to it. I've always found this to be excellent writing advice, and one that works just as well for drawing, too. For instance, if that first-page drawing really is a mess, call it a caricature, or your own personal take on Cubism, etc. Spell it out with Sharpie and let the whole world know.
5. Ask someone else for an idea--and let them try it out first. This has always been fun. Ask your friends what you should draw, and then give them the sketchbook to start things off.
6. Use the first page to list creative goals. There, that was easy! Kind of like a built-in Table of Contents.
7. Choose a specific medium for the book. So much about making art is about making choices. Unlike writing, where you basically choose to write with a fountain pen, ballpoint, or a computer, art choices are so boundless it's easy to freeze up and choose nothing at all. That's another reason why I've made my list of mediums to use each month--less dithering means more drawing/painting.
8. Start in the middle! Break new ground--start in the middle. Who says life starts on page one anyway?
9. Paint in some backgrounds, random shapes and colors. Often the results will be so surprising you can't stop yourself from drawing on top of them. 
10. Don't use a sketchbook. Seriously. While a bound sketchbook can be a handy tool, if you find it too big to fill, use single sheets of paper. One benefit of this approach is you can always bind the pages later, and in an order that shows off your work or tells your story in a way that is particularly pleasing to you.
11. Carry your sketchbook or journal everywhere--let it get a little worn and beat-up. Once you've dropped it or spilled some coffee on a few pages, the novelty and newness will soon wear off. Mayonnaise on the first page works great, too.
12. Buy two! One for good (that you promise yourself you will never use) and one for practice and playing. There, the "good one" can sit on the shelf and look pretty. The other one is to totally make beautiful with your own style, personality, and wonderful words and pictures. Gosh, you might even use that other journal one day too!

• A map of where you currently live.
• A favorite place you lived in the past.
• Your childhood room, play area, or classroom.
• A vision quest.
• Where your pet travels every day: a known or imagined route!
• A vacation locale; either one you remember or are currently visiting, or one you've always dreamed of seeing.
• One or more settings from your work-in-progress or from a book you've already published.
• A fantasy world. Again this could be inspired by literature, perhaps a book you've read or are reading.
• Your writing space or art studio.
• Your garden--both the one you have and/or the one you want. (An added benefit to a landscape map is that it can help you decide what to plant when the season's right.)
• How you got to where you are in life; and where you want to go from here.
• An actual, real-life map--one you like just as it is, or one you alter, adding your own notes, illustrations and warnings: "Here be monsters!"

• Actually turn a map into an art journal. Cut or fold it into a "book"; lightly gesso the pages so the map imagery still shows through; sew or staple the pages, and you have an instant journal. If you have too many thin pages, you might like to gesso some together to give them added strength. Makes a great gift too!
• If you decide to illustrate your WIP journal or notebook with a map, why not just go ahead and add the map to your published text? I did this with The Great Scarab Scam, my Egyptian mystery for young readers.
• How about adding the same map(s) to your book trailer too?
• Scan your illustrated map and turn it into a transfer for a T-shirt, tote bag, or cushion.
• Turn it into a greeting card.
• Or a party invitation with full directions on how to reach the party.
• Cut up a copy of the map like a jigsaw puzzle and paste the pieces in various places throughout your journal.
• Frame it as a "treasure map" to put on your wall for daily affirmation and help in accomplishing your goals.
• Sell it! Local historical societies or tourist boards might love having a colorful and whimsical map directing visitors to important sites.
• Include an illustrated map with your next holiday group letter.
• Encourage your children or students to make their own maps. A fun and educational activity for everyone!

• Yourself as a child.
• Your current self.
• Someone who has hurt your feelings at any time in the past or present.
• Your current manuscript or WIP.
• A project you are trying to complete but that keeps eluding you.
• Your muse.
• A favorite or influential teacher.
• Someone who told you that you "can't" do something.
• A pet.
• Your inner critic or editor.
• An actual editor (who rejected your work?)
• A thank you--to yourself, the world, anyone to whom you feel grateful.
• Your readers.
• Your favorite author.

• Before you begin, decide on the color of your paper and/or ink. If you're writing a letter to paste into your journal, you can write on good quality stationery, newsprint, a recycled drawing , or even a greeting card you love. Have fun choosing.
• What are your feelings as you write the letter? Are you feeling sad, joyous, or confused? What colors reflect those feelings? What images?
• Sometimes underlining or circling key nouns or phrases will give you ideas for objects or emotions to draw into the body of your letter.
• Collage is a great (and easy) way to get started illustrating. Whether you want to collage the borders of your letter, or insert tiny pics mid-sentence, or between paragraphs, you can't go wrong.
• Doodles: hearts, zigzags, squiggles. . . any and everywhere!
• Try tracing small pictures you can then copy or just cut out and glue into the body of your letter. Tracing isn't "cheating" and can help to boost your confidence if you feel nervous about drawing.
• Choose a theme to follow throughout the letter, e.g., flowers, sea shells, food, shoes, cats. . . .whatever takes your fancy.
• If a blank page is intimidating, first paint a watercolor wash in your favorite color(s) onto the paper. Many times you'll end up with interesting cloud-like formations and subtle designs you weren't expecting. Let the paper dry and then write and draw following the trail of new-found designs.
• The Verithin(R) brand of colored pencils works nicely for drawing small, colorful pictures with plenty of detail.
• Try using metallic colored pencils. Besides gold and silver, there are many glittery choices available in shades of blue, pink, green, etc. (Metallic gel pens work good too, but can be smear if you're not super-careful. I personally prefer the pencils.)
• Stickers! They're not just for kids anymore. I love the vintage-inspired ones you can easily purchase from any craft and hobby store. You don't even need glue and scissors for these!

1. Publishing my Gothic romance novel, Overtaken in both paperback and Kindle editions.
2. Creating the book trailer for Overtaken.
3. I sold my house (a miracle in this current market).
4. Moved into a rental condo--and I love it. No maintenance. No gardening. No "what if I want to sell it?"
5. My day job moved into spacious new premises.
6. Although I had a great little studio at my old house, I now have a new space three times bigger.
7. I participated in National Novel Writing Month, and reached my 50K goal!
8. Took a fantastic 3-day screenwriting seminar aka "screenwriting boot camp" and learned that writing a screenplay is just as difficult as I thought it was, LOL.
9. I also took a 6-week oil pastel class and found my true north. I absolutely adore oil pastels now--especially Sennelier brand.
10. Went camping in an RV for the very first time--and found out I love RVs. Will have to do this one again very soon.
11. Prepared two manuscripts for 2013 submission: my nonfiction book, A Pet Owner's Book of Days, and a new novel, The Abyssal Plain.
12. Kept up with this blog and had two fantastic giveaways. Big congratulations to my winners!

• Morning pages. Legal pads are particularly good for morning pages. I usually will write my pages for at least a week, give them a quick read-through over the weekend, follow up with any notes I need to keep in a more permanent form, and then tear everything up and toss. Easy!
• Blog Ideas. During the day I often get an idea I want to share via my blog. So it's good to have a dedicated place to jot it down and even expand on the theme whether I'm blogging that day or not. Added benefit: doing this has helped me blog more consistently.
• Freewriting. I am a great believer in writing practice and working from prompts as much as possible. None of this is guaranteed to be great writing, or even usable writing, but more often than not I will come up with a scene for my current WIP, or a character or premise I'd like to use in the future. After I've filled up every line and reached the cardboard backing, I can either add my pre-punched pages to a specific WIP binder, or simply file the pages away in various places for later use.
• Poetry. I like to keep poetry separate from prose. Not only am I using a different voice when I write poetry, but it also just makes everything easier to find when I do file or transcribe the pages.
• The Novel WIP. My current fiction WIP is already transcribed and printed in manuscript format, but now I'm going through the massive job of re-reading and taking notes on the text. Keeping these together in a single pad/place has been helpful as I go chapter by chapter, page by page, line by line to look for inconsistencies,  plot glitches, and places where I could use more foreshadowing, action, or description.
• The Screenplay WIP. This is where I keep absolutely everything that occurs to me re: my screenplay WIP. It's a place where I can over-write and put in all the emotional/mental content and back story my heart desires--all the things that aren't supposed to go in my actual script. These are valuable notes when it comes to trying to get the most out of the least amount of acceptable page- and word counts.
• Marketing. At least once a day I try to do something that adds to my marketing efforts. Whether it's simply making a list of potential reviewers, or discovering new blogs to read and comment on, this is where I put my notes and information. I also use this particular pad for practicing my synopses, queries, and cover letters.
• Fiction Ideas in General. They just won't stop!  And in order to get on with my day and keep them quietly in one place, I've given them their very own pad. Whew.

• Animal fur, hair, hide, and skin.
• Fabric swatches.
• Architecture: structure, decorative detailing, even the random plaster and stucco work.
• Plant material, e.g., seed pods, bark, leaves, fungi.
• Seashells.
• NASA photos of star formation.
• Antique books with their intricate borders and covers.
• Wallpaper.
• Gift wrap.
• Ceramic dinnerware, good China plates, tea sets.
• Lace, ribbon, and braided sewing trims.
• Jewelry.

• What patterns do I fall into too easily?
• How could I create some new patterns for myself?
• What about the patterns I create for my characters--how can I make them more interesting, lively, and surprising?
• When I write, draw, or paint, am I focusing enough on the overall pattern of the actual piece? How can I improve or work on this?
• Is there an artist, writer, or mentor I'd like to pattern my own work/life upon?
• What would happen if I didn't have any patterns to follow?

    As long as I have lived in Georgia, (eleven years now), the state has suffered from drought. I don't remember what a green lawn looks like.  My yard (and everyone else's) has turned cornflake brown, with lots of bald spots. Lake levels have dropped until people with "lakefront homes" now have "mud front homes." Fourth of July often includes a ban on fireworks.  Even sparklers feel hazardous when everything around you has turned to kindling.

    The writing life has it's dry spells, too.  We all have them, even though we don't like to admit it.  After all, we are writers. This is what we do.We are supposed to be endless founts of creativity. We are "supposed" to write every day. When we don't, we feel guilty. OK, I feel guilty.  For me, not writing is in the same league with not working out and eating junk food.  A few days of not writing and I come down with a bad case of brain fog.

    My first experience with a dry writing well came at the end of my MFA program at Vermont College. After two years and four drafts,  I thought I had finished Yankee Girl. (Wrong. I had another two years and three drafts to go.) Feeling very pleased with myself I jumped right into a new novel.  I had a setting and some characters so I thought I was good to go.  I wrote the first couple of chapters and sent them off to my faculty mentor, Randy Powell for critique.

   Randy made his usual cogent comments on the writing, but ended his last letter with a comment I thought odd at the time. Sometimes, after a big project like Yankee Girl, he wrote, it's good to let the creative well refill. What was he talking about?

   A year and another "finished" novel later, I figured out what he meant.  I had three hundred pages of writing; I didn't have three hundred pages of a novel.  I'd pushed myself to write a novel, when I really didn't have a novel in me at the time.  Sigh. Fortunately, by then I was working with an editor on yet another revision of Yankee Girl. From those three hundred pages (which are still lurking in  my hard drive) I learned to let a story simmer on a back burner awhile. Writing Yankee Girl drained me, emotionally and creatively. I should have given myself some time off. I should have let my well refill, as Randy had suggested.

    However, time off can turn into goofing off.  You can't just sit around waiting for rain to refill your well.  The trick is to keep writing, keep priming the pump until you get your mojo back.

    I should know. I am halfway through my current work-in-progress.  For a variety of reasons, I am too creatively pooped out to do the story justice, right now.  So what am I doing?

   Writing this blog, for one thing. Knowing that I will be talking to you all every other Monday has kept me going.  I am also lucky enough to have a series of Young Writer's Workshops lined up for this school year.  Working with students always energizes me.

   But what if you don't write a blog or have a continuous supply of workshops and school visits to keep you sharp?   What if you don't have the time or energy to journal for even fifteen minutes?

Recently I blogged about Mari McCarthy’s e-book Start Journaling and Change Your Life in 7 Days.  Since then, I’ve used my journal to focus on my audience before I write.  Who are they? How are they different from me?  What are they going to demand from this piece?  How might  this differ from my expectations?


While that works for shorter nonfiction projects, I’ve been writing a longer piece of teen fiction, sending my editor an outline and then a draft.  I’d journaled about audience for the outline.  When it came time to write the story, I focused on what the story is all about – my characters.


I needed to do this because, based on my outline, my editor found my protagonist unsympathetic.  She gave me tips on how to change this, but I had trouble starting the story. Nothing sounded right.  I had to find my character’s voice while writing the story in 3rd person.  I turned to my journal.


When I sat down to journal that morning, I asked what my character would have to say about being called unsympathetic.   I decided to let him speak for himself and write the journal entry in his first person POV.  Let’s just say that this particular teen had plenty to say, starting with the fact the he didn’t ask for anyone’s sympathy.  He hadn’t created the story problem, but everyone expected him to fix it.  We should shut up and let him do it his way. He was freaked out and scared and we weren’t helping.


As the author, I knew most of this.  Laying it down in his own words helped me find his voice and get into the story. Soon I had a rough draft, but his brother, the antagonist, was flat.


His story had to come through as well.  Sure, he was messing up his younger brother’s life, but it isn’t something he planned to do. He hates needing help from his baby brother.  He hates what has happened to him.  He’s angry.  Who catches the brunt of this anger? His brother.  Deal with it.


Again, these were things I knew, but in journaling for him I found the character’s voice. His dialogue tightened to the point of being tense, terse and rude – nothing that would keep him up at night.


If you’re having problems nailing a piece of fiction, journal.

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