How to Change: Love What You Hate

I’ve been reading this great book lately, Change Anything: the New Science of Personal Success, by Kerry Patterson & co. Thus far, I have to say I’m impressed—both because of the scientific research they reference (yeah, I’m a science geek) and because the tenets they propose feel true.

Love what you hate.

That’s one of the paths to change they describe. Sounds counterintuitive, right? Until I start thinking about my life and the places where I have successfully created a change. Never once did I succeed because I browbeat, shamed, badgered, or guilted myself into it.* Nope, change occurred when I started to focus on the positive.

Read more >>

Where (and How) to Find a Critique Group

This week, I’m blogging over at the Wild Writers on finding a critique group. Head on over for loads of resources on the how’s and where’s of finding like-minded writers to inspire and encourage you on your writing journey. Hope to see you there!

PS: Sorry the link was broken earlier today! It should work now :)

Tuesday Ten: Signs You’re Not Writing Enough

Since Friday’s post challenged you to take yourself seriously as a writer—by investing time, money, and energy on your career—this week’s list offers a list of signs that you aren’t spending enough time on your writing life.

And because I think quizzes are fun, I’ve included a the test-yourself component. Pick the answers that best it your situation—and feel free to use these oh-so-scientific results to support your Writing Diagnosis!

1. Daydreaming about plot problems is seriously impacting your ability to function in daily activities.

  A: Ouch, don’t let my significant other see this—totally me! 
  B: Occasionally, but I’ve got it under control.
  C: Daydreaming? What’s that?

Read more >>

Community (from thewildwriters.com)

My friend and critique partner, Laura, wrote about community and how it helps as we wrestle with questions like Am I a real writer? Don’t “real” writers earn money? How can I justify spending the money to take another class/attend another conference/fill-in-the-blank when I haven’t actually published anything yet? I hope you find her answer as inspiring as I do:

Community

The long haul

For many writers, especially those who started seriously pursuing publication decades ago, the Holy Grail, the mark of being a “real” writer, is having a book published by one of the big New York publishing houses. Being a writer who’s been seriously pursuing this marker of success for twelve years, with a first attempt at it some twenty-five years ago, there have been many times along the way when I’ve felt like a failure. For the last four years people have been telling me I’m “so close.”

I doubt I would have stuck with it this long, no matter how strong the calling, if I hadn’t had critique groups along the way. I co-founded a group twenty years ago that offered primarily support and encouragement, as we were all beginning to learn our craft. Several years later, after finding the Rocky Mountain Chapter of SCBWI, I helped to start another group focused on children’s writing, which led me to the Wild Writers.

To read the rest of this post, please visit my critique group’s cooperative blog at www.thewildwriters.com.

Do You Take Yourself Seriously?

Earlier this week I wrote about the skills it takes to succeed as a writer—and the ability to take yourself seriously as a writer was #1 on the list. It’s the foundation on which everything else rests. If you don’t take your writing career seriously, it’s darned hard to justify spending the time and energy you’ll need to grow as a writer.

Read more >>

Tuesday Ten: Skills Every Writer Needs

What does it take to succeed as a writer? The answer might surprise you. You don’t necessarily need an agent, although an agent can be helpful; you don’t necessarily need to be a genius with words, although that helps, too; you don’t even need an MA in writing, although if you do have one of those, I'm insanely jealous.

 

How do I know what you need to succeed? Well, I don’t. Not exactly. But I do know that my personal growth as a writer has been dependent on certain key skills…and I bet you might find some of those skills helpful, too.

Read more >>

Tuesday Ten: Deadline Tricks to Boost Productivity

Last week, I wrote about the power of deadlines to improve your writing productivity. And that’s great—if you have an editor waiting for your finished manuscript. But what if you don’t? How can you make deadlines work for you?

Here are some tactics that have worked for me:

Step 1: Find Motivation/Inspiration

Read more >>

The Power of Deadlines

Deadlines: the bane of the writer's existence, right? At least, that's what you'd think to hear us complain sometimes...but I think we may be missing an important benefit of the world of deadlines. Deadlines can be a pain, sure, but they can also be a terrific tool to boost your focus and productivity.

In this way, writing is analogous to running: you can’t improve your speed and stamina by running the same route at the same speed day after day after day. If you want to become stronger, faster, better, you need to do sprints and long distance runs and hill intervals. You need to push yourself.

In the writing world, deadlines give you that extra push.

Here are some benefits of the Dedlinus dreadicus, otherwise known as the common deadline:

Read more >>

Tuesday Ten: Tips for the Time-Strapped Writer

Writers: we have this tendency to be perpetually short on time.

Do any of these describe you?

• Writer + Stay-at-home parent (a full-time job)
• Writer + Teacher (another full-time job!)
• Writer + Full-time wage-earner (elsewhere)
• Writer + Writer—that is, you have a second (bill-paying) writing career
• Writer + Caregiver (okay, all of these “second jobs” can be full time)
• Writer + Full-time volunteer
• Writer + _____________ (I’m sure there are other possibilities I haven’t mentioned, so please fill in the blank!)

Read more >>

Grammar Byte: How to Write With Style—the Guide

This week, my writing life is consumed by questions of commas, hyphens, en & em dashes, ellipses, and the width of a “thin space”. In other words: copy editing!

Before you groan and roll your eyes and click “back” on your browser—copy editing is an important tool in every writer’s (and student’s) toolbox. An afternoon copy edit might not be your idea of a good time,* but chances are pretty good that if you write, at some point you’ll have to smooth out the rough edges of misplaced modifiers and dangling participles and comma usage in your writing.

When you do, you’ll be copy editing. And it doesn’t have to be painful…if you know the right tool for the job:

Read more >>

Writers’ Burnout Quiz: Do You Need a Break?

When I last posted, I was deep in rewrite-mode, the write-until-your-eyes-blur-and-then-get-up-early-and-do-it-again sort of rewrite. I was trying to meet a deadline and, due to a family crisis or three (don't those always happen at the most inopportune moments?), operating on a limited time schedule.

I met my deadline (yay!).

And then left on vacation—in Cozumel (double yay!) where, unlike my lovely friend Charissa, I did not even attempt to blog.

 
In fact, I barely wrote at all. Not even on my shiny-new-can't-wait-to-work-on-it work-in-progress which, if you've followed me for long, you know is a little weird. I'm all about writing everywhere, practicing writing in all sorts of situations, finding inspiration in (and taking notes on) new settings, experiences, and people.*

And those things are important, but sometimes your muse doesn't need to work harder or try harder. Sometimes your muse needs time to refresh, recharge, and rejuvenate.

Try this handy-dandy quiz** to rate your need for a break vs a self-administered kick in the butt. 

Read more >>

The Writing Life: Using the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

If you’ve stopped by my blog lately, you’ve probably noticed that things have been a bit quiet. Between a sick kiddo and an exceptionally large amount of freelance work, my blogging time has been sadly limited.

I’ve also had little time to write—but I’ve been so busy "living life” that without realizing it, I’ve filled up with ideas and inspiration that are now itching to emerge on the page. I’ve been collecting bits and pieces over the past weeks: characters, settings, conversations, emotions and how I experienced them physically. I feel like my creative pond has been restocked, even though I wouldn’t have expected a time of stress and busy-ness to recharge or refresh my muse.

Read more >>

The Writer’s Survival Mode

Kelly James-Enger has a rule for never missing a freelance writing deadline: she never, ever, ever accepts more work than she can handle.

 

So far, that's seldom been an issue for me. I mean, I stay plenty busy, but most of the mix consists of my own, more flexible projects—books, queries, article ideas, reading (mustn’t forget the reading pile). Not so at the moment. Right now, I'm swamped. I’ve had a steady stream of freelance work this year plus a host of unexpected family-related things, and (like a true freelancer who is dependent on work for bread), darned if I'm going to ask for anyone to cover my freelance projects unless I can't complete them.

Except that burnout ain't such a great thing, either.

Read more >>

Finals! (and Other Teenage Troubles)

FINALS. They have descended on our kids—and, therefore, on the entire household, a week of exams preceded by what seems like two months of building stress, final projects, deadlines, and kids with too little sleep. It brings back memories of my own high school career—the intense emotions of being a teenager coupled with the stress that comes with knowing that what I did mattered, like, for the rest of my life. Teens are in that awkward middle place where they want to be in charge of their own lives—and yet, at the same time, they don’t. Being in charge is scary. Being grown-up is scary. The stakes are starting to get higher.

Read more >>

How Plot Development Is Like Navigating a Maze

It struck me, as I was working my way through my latest first draft, that plot development is very much like navigating a maze…

*Photo courtesy of Mecookie on Flickr Creative Commons

…and the similarities give some insight into how to tackle a tricky plot problem.

• A methodical approach can work—but sometimes you just have to go for it. As an avid “plotter,” I usually know in advance the course I want my book to take. There are moments, though, when the muse tugs me off the beaten track. I always follow!
• Sometimes you have to go down dead ends. No matter how well you’ve planned your route, sometimes the only way to know a particular path leads to a dead end is to go there…and sometimes the only way to know a scene doesn’t fit is to write it. Those efforts aren’t wasted: now you know where *not* to go!

Read more >>

Writing from Your Character’s Point of View: 5 Guidelines

In my current work-in-progress, I’m writing from the POV of a 12-year-old boy. As I wrote earlier, finding his voice has been a challenge! And since I’m writing in first person, I have to stay in that voice ALL THE TIME—when he speaks, when he thinks, even in the details I include when describing setting and other characters.

*Photo courtesy of exfordy on Flickr Creative Commons

Despite my love of writing flowery description, 12-year-old Elliot probably won’t think about the way light reflects golden from the many-paned window, and even he does happen to notice flowers growing alongside the path, he certainly won’t know that they’re tiger lilies unless I’ve already shown him to have a love of horticulture. (He doesn’t. He loves squirrels.)

I never get voice perfect on a first draft, but keeping the following guidelines in mind can help me get closer. On a rewrite, these guidelines help me analyze whether the voice is consistent and believable—or whether it strays into author-speak.

Five Guidelines for Writing Character’s POV

Read more >>

Care and Feeding of the Discouraged Writer

Jami Gold's recent post Have You Ever Been Tempted to Give Up? is thought-provoking and true. In a weird way, it’s encouraging to realize that even published, successful authors struggle with this question.

Jamie’s post ends with a question: “What pushes you to the edge of giving up (lack of time, rejections, something else)?  What things help motivate and encourage you (a support system, wanting to prove something, finding successes wherever you can)? ” Visit her blog to see what other writers have to say.

Have I ever been tempted to give up? Absolutely! As has every writer in my critique group. As has every writer I know personally. And yet, most of us don’t. What keeps us going? I think the answer depends on why we’re tempted to quit, the way different illnesses respond to different treatments.

Read more >>

5 Tips for Getting Back in the Groove

Spring Break! Those two words take me back to memories of school—and a few days’ freedom from it. What do you think when you hear those words? Sunshine? Beaches? Sleeping in?

This year, our Spring Break involved four days of camping, hiking, and biking in the desert of Moab, Utah, where it rained and snowed and didn’t fit the typical Spring Break imaginings. No high-speed internet, no cell phone coverage, no electricity…just lots of time to explore, read, play card games, and hang out. And it was wonderful.

But now here I am, back at my desk, trying to figure out what the heck I was working on when I left. I’ve written before of the importance of keeping your writing momentum—but everyone has those times when, for whatever reason, you’ve had to take a break from the page. How do you get back in the groove?

Read more >>

Ten Reasons to Practice Freewriting

Many writers I know think of freewriting as writer-style therapy—a way to get worries out of your head and onto the page. However, freewriting has so many more applications. The Faculty Leadership for Writing Initiative at the University of Nebreska-Lincoln defines it as “an invention strategy where students write for a certain amount of time for the purpose of generating ideas…”

Great. But what does “generating ideas” really mean? The truth is that I don’t *want* new story ideas when I’m supposed to be editing my current work-in-progress. New story ideas = distractions, so if that’s your view of freewriting, you’ll probably shove it on the shelf until you’re ready for a new project (or a new therapy session…) And that would be a shame, because freewriting has a lot to offer writers at all stages and skill levels.

Read more >>

Seven Strategies to Keep Momentum When You Don’t Have Time to Write

Over the past week, I’ve had a flood of freelance and contract writing—which is wonderful and fun, but makes it much more difficult to maintain momentum on my work-in-progress (WIP). Back in January, blogger Jill Kemerer wrote about how momentum is vital to success. 

I wholeheartedly agree. When I lose momentum on a project, I often dread returning to it. I know it will take me days to get rolling again, and I’ll be plagued by the ghosts of ideas that I meant to write but can’t quite grasp anymore. So how do you keep writing momentum when your time is limited?

Here are a few tricks that have worked for me:

Read more >>