Andi prompted our writing group this week to talk about lists. I am a list fiend. I love making lists. As someone who is not naturally grand at organization, lists (and extensive training from my mother, who is the list queen) have been my salvation in that area. My genes are missing that one little nugget of an otherwise pristine INTJ personality. I love anything that makes me look good at something for which I have almost no natural talent.
Many of my lists are kept on my phone. I keep a running grocery/home list of things I need so that I can grab them if I’m out and happen upon them so that I don’t have to make an extra trip later. I also keep a list of books I want to read and gift ideas for friends (also something that doesn’t come naturally to me, so I grab all the help I can get). I keep lists of story ideas and blog posts ideas. These lists have saved me from a lot of wasted time, frustration, and writer’s block, and unlike paper lists, which I will surely misplace or leave at home/work or douse with coffee, I always have them.
A few of my lists are old-school, written lists. At the beginning of every season (you can take the girl off the farm…), I make a master list of meals before I put them on my food calendar in my kitchen. Then I file it away with recipes (or notes on where I stashed the recipe online). It makes meal-planning super easy.
If I am making a special trip to the store for a specific event, I sometimes write the list out by hand. I’m not sure why. It could be nostalgia, or it could just be because I’m using my Pinterest app for ingredients and don’t want to keep flipping back over to the notes. These lists sometimes show up in my art journal, because they tell their own story. For instance, this list is for the first testing of Feast recipes. It’s a notable moment for me. It also might be my most favorite grocery list I’ve ever made.
Happy.
I also write out goal lists. I have yearly goals, which I divide into quarterly goals, which I divide into weekly task lists. There is something about seeing a goal written in my own writing that makes it mean more to me. It’s weightier. I can’t blame anyone else for pushing it on me. It’s mine. I can tell, because it’s written in my own scrawl. It’s more satisfying to cross them off when they’re finished, too. I used to separate writing goals and work goals and personal goals, but now I put them all in one place, which has helped me be more realistic.
Do you make lists? Are they a help or a hindrance to you?
This week is crazy. I am finishing up my 31 Days series. I am getting the next installment of Fishbowl ready to send to Andi for editing. I am also doing all the NaNoPrep that I didn’t do this weekend, because I was busy learning crochet and Italian, eating soup, and buying books. That involves completing my outline (I’m going to try to be a planner instead of a pantser this year…we’ll see how that goes), meal planning, and delegating some tasks that would use the time I need to spend writing.
Oh, and I also have two other jobs.
So this week, the movement will happen, but it will have to be fast.
I can do ten minutes of ballet, kickboxing, boot camp, yoga, or Pilates, and then I can move on to one of the other ten million things on my to-do list. I’m going to do the ballet part today.
If you are strapped for time, I recommend this video.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go conquer my week.
My gut reaction to “we” is to feel left out. I’ve been part of that magical twosome, whether romantic or otherwise, that gives me a rant-listener, a breakfast partner, a perpetual plus-one, and a person who will call me out when I’m siding with the melodrama in my head. I also know what it’s like to go from “we” to “just me…again.” It’s not pretty, even when it’s for a good reason or for the best. That transition makes me want to make friends with more of these:
There’s always a new “we,” and if I don’t remember to say that, I am only telling half the story. God always gives me a new “we.”
I am a textbook introvert. Read any list on how to approach those who need solitude to recharge their energy, and you’re pretty much reading a manual on how to get along with me. But I also have a pesky characteristic called connectedness. I see patterns in everything, and I see how they work together. Give me a minute, and I can tell you how everyone’s actions affect everyone else. This can make me annoying at parties (or at work…or to the unfortunate soul sitting next to me on the bus when I first read the article that is going to piss me off that day…). I was once given an actual soapbox as a gift – partially as a nod to my fondness for standing upon them and partially as a jab at my physical shortness (to which I replied, “I don’t need height – I have minions.”). Connectedness is inherently communal. So while community may not exactly energize me, it does seem to be a habitual, necessary occurrence in my life.
I have a lot of “we’s” –
Online writer communities – I can never get away with not writing, not with Story Sessions and Andilit on the prowl.
Supper Club – Bonded by our love of food, reading, and TV, this is a group who is not afraid to hear what I really think and is not afraid to tell me what they really think.
Christ the Servant Lutheran Church – I’m new to them, so we’re still figuring each other out. But they couldn’t be kinder or more welcoming, and I am learning a lot. It’s nice to find a place where I feel both safe and challenged. Also, they let me be on their outreach team. My first task? Taking inventory of our current coffee supplies and figuring out a budget for us to move toward being more intentional with fair trade purchases. And when I said no to working with the children (I love many specific children individually, but in packs or running about in public, they kinda freak me out. I blame working daycare.), they listened. The first time. I’m so happy.
Various friends I met through Christ Fellowship and The-Church-Formerly-Known-As-Normal-Street (after all this time, I still don’t know the current name of the group. Wow.) – Even though I am no longer meeting with them on Sundays, these are still the people I would call in an emergency. When I think of my very best friends, in Denton and beyond, I can trace almost all of them back to one (or both – love you, Steph) of these groups.
Maggie and Michelle – They get their own space. They are often my first sounding board and my first readers. If you looked at the text messages on my phone, you would see that over half the total messages I send are to one or both of them. If I ever become obnoxiously wealthy, the first thing I’m going to do is pay off my student loan. The second thing I’m going to do is buy each of them a house and hire Maggie as my personal assistant and Michelle as my social media coordinator so that they can move back to Denton. So, start making plans, you two.
My family – This is the part where I get weepy with gratitude. My family is my greatest support. My family is the reason I can’t say mean things about Republicans in general (even though the loud, extreme ones in the media really have it coming). My conservative parents, sister, and brother-in-law are the most generous, most helpful, most supportive, most responsible, kindest, bravest, funniest, and just all around BEST people I know. I am who I am because of them, and I will be who I’m becoming because of them. I am lucky, lucky, lucky.
I might not have a plus-one right now, but that’s okay. Because I have a plus-twenty.
This week has been a cornucopia of madness, so today’s post is accomplishing several goals.
Last week’s assignment from Story 101 was to write something out of your comfort zone. I chose form poetry, because my poetry doesn’t generally like to follow the rules. My sonnet is giving me fits. So hello, haiku.
It is not easy to define what support looks like in practice. It might seem easy. Then you meet people and discover that they often find it difficult to take others’ needs into account when they are deciding how they are going to behave in life. This might surprise you, but it probably shouldn’t, as you are people, too, and have probably not centered your own life around what the general “other” needs.
It’s even more complicated when you’ve been burned. When you thought what you had was support but found out that what was really going on there was agenda. Or when you had an agreement, and that agreement was not honored. Or when you really did have support – one that you thought would last forever – right up until the moment that it ended.
Today, I want to talk about two places I’ve found support and what that looks like. I want to talk about two of my online writing communities.
I also want to invite you to join us, because, dear reader-writer-friend, I want you to have support, too. If any of this interests you, follow the links to find out how you can get involved.
The first online writing community I joined was the writing community at Andilit. It was created by Andi Cumbo-Floyd who wrote The Slaves Have Names (click and buy – you know you wanna) about the people who were enslaved on the land where she grew up. I am boggled, both by the enormous amount of research it took to tell as much of their story as possible and by the humble grace and beauty with which she tells it.
I joined because I had this scrap of a manuscript, and I needed fresh eyes. What I found exceeded (and continues to exceed) my expectations.
I get monthly editing for up to five pages of work from a professional editor. Five pages is a drop in the bucket as far as a full manuscript goes, but for the turtle-esque pace with which I edit my own work to the point that I am willing to let another human being see it, this works out perfectly. I am saving up for a grand editing once the manuscript is totally finished (and if you are looking for such an editor, I highly recommend Andi), but it’s great to have help along the way as well.
I also get monthly editing from a workshop of others in the group for up to five pages. This was the part that scared me when I first joined, because I tend to helicopter-parent my characters. They’ve been through so much already; I want to protect them from judgment. But as with most overzealous protection, this doesn’t help them grow, so I begrudgingly submitted pieces for workshop. It has been a godsend. It’s a critique, but from nice, friendly people who write very different things but are still enthusiastic in their desire to help you make your work better, and they expect the same from you. It doesn’t mean the critique doesn’t ever hurt, but it hurts in the good kind of way, like having sore legs the day after a challenging run.
In addition to all of this, Andi facilitates a private Facebook group for members where we post articles or posts on writing that we find, our own blog posts, and anything else writers might find helpful to their craft. She ends out weekly writing prompts to keep us from getting stuck. Andi teaches several online courses at reasonable rates. She also lives on a farm where she is hosting a writer’s retreat in July (another thing I’ll be saving toward so that I don’t miss it again next year).
The second online writing community I joined was Story Sessions. I meandered into Story Sessions via Elora’s blog after I read Every Shattered Thing (go ahead, click and buy – I’ll wait) and thus had the insatiable urge to read everything she has ever or will ever write. I feel almost as protective of her main character as I do of mine.
There are many options for membership. All of them, however, include a private Facebook group and private members-only content on the website, weekly writing prompts, a monthly newsletter, and story coaching with trained coaches. There are e-courses offered (I’m in the summer session of Story 101 now, and it is glorious) as well as various collectives (mini-courses on a variety of topics), virtual retreats, movie nights, and an annual in-person retreat. We also meet in person in more casual groups on a regular basis, because we just can’t help ourselves.
My favorite thing about Story Sessions are the write-ins. This might sound funny to members, because my crazy schedule doesn’t allow me to engage in them very often, but I LOVE them. Many of the blog posts I’ve written in the last year of which I am most proud (and all of the blog series I’ve started) were birthed at a Story Sessions write-in. On a weekly basis, members are invited to an online Fuze meeting where we are given prompts, time to write, and an opportunity to read what came out of that time to the other people attending the session.
All that I have said is just a small taste of what you would get from membership in these groups. These words don’t do them justice, because the people in these groups are my friends, and when have words ever done a friend justice? I have read many a snotty piece on how Internet relationships aren’t real relationships, but I can’t help but wonder where those authors are looking. I know online relationships can be real, because I experience them. And while it’s even better when we have a chance to get together in person, the foundation of our friendships started via the Internet, and they flourish there.
I love these people. Mercy, how I love them.
I would consider myself lucky to have just found one such community, but I have two. If you are a writer/artist in need of support, give us a try.
Oxford Dictionaries defines binge as “a short period devoted to indulging in an activity to excess, especially drinking alcohol or eating.” Mirriam-Webster defines it as “a short period of time when you do too much of something.”
I find these definitions rife with judgment, but maybe I’m reading too much into the definition (or not enough into the word – that is certainly a possibility).
Certainly it is possible to eat or drink (or do anything else) too much. If one makes doing so a habit, one might even find oneself in need of some sort of treatment. There’s no doubt that this word – binge – might be triggering to some, and with good reason. Moderation is generally a friend.
But when Andi prompted our writing community to reflect on the word binge this week, excess and too much were not the ideas that came to mind.
You see, what I binge on is TV. There is an element of escape to this. I admit that sometimes, I’m re-watching old episodes of Big Bang Theorybecause I am avoiding doing something productive (because humorous as it may be, this is not the show to watch for deep character development).
(The Gilmore Girls understand me.)
But most of the time, watching television is productive for me. A couple of weekends ago, for example, I spent the whole weekend curled up on the couch with the pups I was dog-sitting enjoying an Orange is the New Black marathon. 48 hours, two full seasons. Lots of popcorn.
And it was good for me.
I binge on story. I binge on characters. I like seeing how other people develop plot and show-don’t-tell personalities. I like stewing in the tension of not really liking a main character (Piper Chapman, I’m looking at you). I like it when seemingly random happenings appear later and branch into a whole new storyline (see the entire series of Arrested Development).
Could I get this same thing from reading books? I could, and I do. But unless it’s the book we’re discussing in book club that month, or it is a book I’m reading for class, the insights I glean from reading tend to remain as solitary insights. I love this, and it is valuable, but the beauty of television is that it gives me the opportunity to engage in discussion in real time. If learning story and character are a classroom, books are the texts and television is the in-class discussion.
Television affords me the opportunity to engage in the social aspect of learning. Again, books can do this as well, but they take more time. Television is almost immediate. My Twitter feed lights up when a beloved character finally gets the job/relationship/etc. that s/he wants. When a series premiere or finale happens, a quick internet search (or let’s be real – the people whose blogs I follow specifically because we share favorite shows) gives me speedy commentary on how well the writers and performers met our expectations and hopes for the episode.
This commentary is not limited to online fandom. When I was in grad school, I attended a panel at national conference on the feminist themes in Ally McBeal. I wrote papers on Ally McBeal (although my papers tended to focus more on how well the show handled the topic of loneliness and less on the feminism in the show, as that had already been widely discussed, leaving little exigence for further exploration). And if you’re bored some time, go to Google and type in “television after 9/11 site:.edu” (or just click on the link there), and see what pops up.
I can only imagine the multitude of hours of binge-watching it took to gather the information to write those papers. If my own experience is any indication, there are a lot of people who need to get to a therapist to discuss their worrisome indulgence in this excess behavior.
Or maybe – maybe – not all binges are bad. Maybe “too much” is sometimes just enough.
One day, and already 51 likes. I feel like Sally Field:
Anyway…on to the tour…
Upon what are you working?
I have two major projects going right now, and I hope to have the manuscripts for both completed by the end of the year.
The first is a work of fiction called Fishbowl. Fishbowl was a NaNoWriMo project from a few years ago that was meant to just be a novella or a series of short stories. Then I fell in love with the main characters and couldn’t stop writing about them. I still can’t stop. I have most of the chapters mapped out (which is unusual for me – I’m a big ol’ pantser), and I should have at least a full first draft finished by late September.
The second is What Not to Say. It started as a series of rants when I was blogging on livejournal, and it has taken on a life of its own. Now it has its own blog, and I am hoping to eventually make it a community project, because my single life experience, vast as it might be, is still only one person’s experience, and there’s a lot more to say out there than what I can say. It might be a really big book. Maybe with several volumes.
I also have a couple of exciting things going on in this blog space, as well as another one on the horizon.
This summer, I have taken on a project called Getting It Together. I want to take advantage of the extra time I have with my lighter work schedule and get into some good habits, like cooking regularly (instead of driving through Whataburger five times a week) and keeping the apartment clean and organized (so that I can have company over without having to devote the entire day prior to the event feverishly making it presentable). I am on Week Three. It’s been both easier and harder than I imagined it would be.
I love good coffee – this surprises no one. I also love road trips. I don’t always get good coffee when I go on road trips, though. So I’m in cahoots with my good friend Stefanie from Coffee2Conversation to remedy this situation. We are both hosting a Coffee Shop Road Trip Series, so if you have a great local shop that you would love to highlight, send me a submission (your own blog space not required)! In September, I will be launching a similar series on restaurant/bars, because I love supporting local places, even when I’m traveling.
How does your work differ from others in the genre?
I’m not sure yet where Fishbowl fits into the general fiction genre. The main character is telling the story after his death, so I guess that’s unusual. I am fighting the urge to insert my own musings about what happens after one dies into it and trying to let Bob just figure it out as he goes. I think that makes the story stronger than it would be if I were trying to Get A Point Across. Marketing for the book will probably include a disclaimer and reminder that this is a work of fiction, so do not email me if Bob’s experience doesn’t fit your personal beliefs or philosophy. I’m very protective of Bob, and I am likely to respond accordingly. Also…fiction.
What Not To Say is different from what I’ve read in the rant/advice genre in that there is hope infused into the angst. It’s not a you’re-a-terrible-person/friend-and-this-is-why manifesto. Its purpose is to mend bridges rather than burn them. There’s a fine line between confrontation and condemnation, so I am being quite needy with my editors to make sure I stay on the confrontation side.
Why do you write what you write?
This blog is a place for me to use my own voice. I think it’s important to have a space to do that whenever one is writing fiction. It makes it easier to compare the two to see if it’s really my characters talking (good) or if I’m just using them to channel my own voice (not good). I will tell personal stories occasionally or respond to something going on in the news or on the Internet (although my mulling process usually takes so long it’s not really news anymore by the time I write about it). But mostly, I’m talking about my everyday life. I also participate in link-ups and synchroblogs, because one of my favorite things about blogging is the potential to interact with others in the blogosphere.
I write fiction because I love reading fiction. My most precious dream is that someday I will meet someone who tells me that Fishbowl is their favorite book. Okay, I’ll settle for being ONE of their favorites (but if we’re being real here – I really want to be THE favorite).
I write What Not to Say because of the time-honored advice to write what you know. I know being single. I know it way more than I would like to know it. I have things to say about it, and I want to hear what others from all levels of single experience have to say about it.
How does your writing process work?
I have to write every day, or I fall out of the habit. And then it’s a month later, and my works in progress are no longer than they were the previous month. I try to write for at least an hour a day. For a while, I tried to get up an hour early and write, but those hours started to look like a sad girl clutching a coffee cup and staring hopelessly into a blank screen with the cursor blinking mockery at her. Morning person, I am not.
So now I write in the evening. Most days, writing starts around 8:00 p.m., after I have had time to get home, eat supper, and take care of all the things that I “need” to do and that I would use as an excuse not to write. On teaching nights or nights when I have plans with friends, however, writing starts closer to 10:30 p.m. It makes for a late bedtime, but I’m willing to miss sleep for my craft. And really, I’m a night owl, so I don’t usually fall asleep before midnight anyway, whether I’m writing or not. Might as well be writing.
I write quickly, but I edit slowly. So I can churn out a first draft as fast as lightning. Then it will be a week before I’m satisfied enough with it to let anyone else see it. Editors are usually seeing – at minimum – a third draft.
Now the way this is supposed to work is that I am to tag other bloggers. But it took me so long to do it, I’m pretty sure most of them have already answered these questions. And some of them might not want to. So no pressure – just free press – but feel free to answer these questions if you want and comment with the link to your post. And go read Michelle Woodman, JoAnne Silvia, Jennifer Seay, Sharry Miller, and Stefanie Goodman.
March is my favorite month. October is a close second, but it cannot compare to March, because March is my birth month! The thing I was into the most was turning 39. I received both yoga pants and wine as gifts, and I appreciated them, so clearly I am right on schedule with fulfilling the stereotype.
Winter persisted into the first week of the month and royally screwed up my class schedule, but I can’t even be mad about it. It turned Spring Break into two weeks for me at the school where I teach, since I’m only there on Mondays.
Story Sessions had its first Story Feast (in-person meeting of local peeps), and ours was a small feast, but Marvia and I had fun hanging out at La Madeleine.
I got to spend a little time with Mom and Dad over break. Mom had her first cataract surgery, so I went along to keep Dad company while he waited.
I took care of my friends’ dogs while they were out of town for about half a week. While I was there, I had an uncomfortable realization. One of the dogs was dumb and needy but the sweetest dog in the world, and the other was smart and funny but also kind of an asshole. I was dog-sitting every guy I’ve ever dated or liked.
Oh, and I got an iPhone. This will be the first phone with a data plan I have had (I know, welcome to the 21st century, and I can stop churning my own butter now). I haven’t activated it yet, but I do have active plans to become addicted to Instagram.
Those are the highlights. Here’s what was playing in the background.
To write:
I have Fishbowl mapped out. I put the chapters in order. I know how it’s going to end, and I know how I’m going to get there. This is huge.
I have an idea that’s been brewing a while concerning the things people say to single people (and specifically, what I could stand for them NOT to say. . . just ever again). So April, I’m going to write it out. I’m going to bleed 2,500 words a day to see if I have enough words to start another project. This could easily become a community project in the future, but for now, I’m going to see what I have to say about it.
My two favorite posts I wrote this month:
– My link-up piece for The Girls We Once Were, called Renaissance Girl.
– Stephen King’s 11/22/63. Whose idea was it to have an 800+ page book for book club? Oh, right. Mine. Well, I share the blame. I guess we all chose it. It’s a quick read, though, for 800 pages. Because Stephen King.
Goodreads tells me that I am 11 books behind schedule on my reading challenge (100 books) for the year. I would exclaim, “800 pages!” but that first book I read this year was really just a transcript of a speech, so I’m going to call it even. I am trying to remember that I catch up in the summer and not let Goodreads psych me out. And maybe I could also remember that the world won’t end if I only read 90 books this year.
Some gorgeous things were written on the Internet this month. These are my favorites:
The Internet has also been a tough place to be this month. Lord, have mercy.
To watch:
Three words –
House.
Of.
Cards.
I watched both seasons in three days. I couldn’t look away.
I am avoiding Psych and Scandal spoilers. I’ll watch them after the semester’s over, when I can devote the appropriate measure of time to them. I think I’m actually going to start Psych over and watch from the first season. That will give this season time to come out on DVD so that I can have it for my very own. I love that show.
I finally saw Catching Fire. I liked it just as much as I liked the first one. As much as I like the story, I feel that I should have more to say about it, but no.
I had a nice time this weekend re-watching one of my favorite movies – Under the Tuscan Sun – and drinking wine and eating my weight in pasta.
But my favorite thing that I saw this month? Veronica Mars, of course. These were the highlights for me (and I don’t think any of them are spoilery):
– Veronica is back with the old school pop culture references – “You weren’t planning on carrying me through the airport, were you?”
– “You should only wear this.” Both times.
– Logan leaning against the car. Rewind and pause.
– Dax Shepard cameo, for the win.
– Mac’s hair. If I could pull off short hair at all, this is the haircut I would wear forever.
There were so many other things I loved about it, but any time you could spend reading about them would be better spent watching it.
To hear:
The Be Course has me dancing as a spiritual practice and also eating very fattening things so that my spiritual practice needs to take on some movement lest I gain 50 pounds during the class. So music has been mostly house and trip hop. My neighbors don’t even know what to do with me.
To eat:
I have had a lot of baked goods this month (observe the pear tart above). Brownies, cookies, cake. I am in a constant state of sugar high. This has to stop. Of course, it’s chocolate chip cookie week in our e-course, and I’m a very good student. . .
During the dog-sitting/House-of-Cards-watching days, I developed an unholy affinity for peanut butter puff cereal. I enjoy both the Mother’s and the EnviroKidz (yes, with a z) versions of this treat. As with all sugar-laced cereals, I try to mix it with plain Cheerios or plain puffed corn or wheat, but I have had at least one bowl a day for the last half of the month.
On Saturday, I took the marinara that was left over from supper club and mixed it with browned sausage. I shaved a liberal dose of Parmesan over the top and put it on pasta. So simple, yet so perfect when paired with birthday wine.
This week’s prompt for our writing community at Andilit is to write out ten pieces of advice that I would give myself as a writer.
I do love a good list. I’m writing this to me, but maybe you’ll see something that applies to you, too. Disclaimer: if you are looking for advice from a writer who has actually published something…then you should go read that (Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird or Stephen King’s On Writing are my top recommendations), because brilliant as I may be, I’m not there yet.
1. Get it together!
My schedule is crazy, so if I don’t plan, it doesn’t matter how many story ideas or “I should write a blog post about that” I have. If I don’t plan, writing doesn’t happen. Schedule writing time, but don’t stop there. Schedule specific blog posts by topic and date. Write ahead so that when something comes up on that day, all that is left to do is copy, paste, and click publish. Organize writing time into specific sections for each WIP, self-editing, editing for friends, blogging, and poetry, or, because I know me, I know that I will spend the whole time writing ranty posts that, while fun, will not get that manuscript finished this year.
2. Have different editors for different days.
I need tough criticism. Most days, that’s the kind of critique I want. But some days, when Bob (Fishbowl’s main character) is feeling particularly fragile, I just want to protect and defend him, even when he says stupid things that directly contradict what he said two weeks/chapters ago. So on those days, I need to read feedback from people who love Bob almost as much as I do. There are all sorts of tips out there on the kind of critiques that will make your work better, but I don’t think there’s just one kind that helps. I teach public speaking, so I’ve had to give a lot of feedback, and I know that hard critique doesn’t mean it’s bad – it just means that it could be better. But I also have a mean inner critic and dark seasons, so sometimes I need the outside voices to tell me all the good things so I can remember that I’m not a total hack and that there’s no need to host a Fishbowl bonfire. And because I hope that my book will be read by lots of different people once it’s published, it just makes sense to get feedback from lots of different people before it’s published. I like to think of it as collecting preliminary ratings.
3. Learn the difference between distraction and inspiration.
When I take a writing class that is prompt-intensive with lots of deadlines and designed for people who need help getting started, I get distracted by the socializing and the prompts and my compulsive need to be the best student ever, and I don’t actually write anything toward the projects I already have started. When I participate in NaNoWriMo, I focus and write like the wind. When I watch Friends, I’m just vegging out. When I watch Firefly or Gilmore Girls, I end up pausing it so that I can rewrite some dialogue on a piece that hasn’t been working. I can’t tell anyone else what their distractions or inspirations are, and I imagine that they differ wildly from mine. But I know what distraction and inspiration look like. If it spurns you to create, it’s an inspiration. If it spurns you to nap, it’s a distraction. I’m not saying eliminate the distractions, because sleep (and by association, whatever gets you there) is important, but inspirations should outnumber them. And if any of them leave you no time to write, see #1.
4. Write every day. That means all the days. Is it a day? Then write at some point during it.
Failure to do this is how I end up at the end of the month with little more to show for it than I had at the beginning of the month. Having made the schedule (all things circle back to #1), stick to it. If I skip a day, that’s a day I get nothing done. Obviously. But it also makes it exponentially easier to skip the next day. And the next. And then it’s Friday night, and that’s one more week that I’ve delayed finishing all that I’ve started. That’s one more week that I’ll never get back.
5. Set goals, and tell someone about them.
Since I keep going back to #1, I’ll pause and let you know where the things on the schedule come from. I make goals. The most helpful thing to me about the community Andi facilitates is that every Monday, we set goals for the week. And every Friday, she checks in and asks how those goals are going. She doesn’t let us get away with just making plans. She comes back and says, “So…those things you meant to do. Did you do them?” Have someone who does that for you.
6. Every once in a while, let a polar bear walk through.
Confession: I didn’t watch Lost until it was finished and came out on DVD. I stand by my decision to do so, because it gave me angst, and I would not have survived the week-to-week (not to mention season-to-season) wait. Many things have stuck with me about the show, but this scene is one of my favorites:
I can see the writers sitting around, wondering where to go next with the crazy plot lines on this shows. I imagine that it’s 4:00 in the morning, and nothing new or fresh is coming to any of them. Then one of them says, “What if they were chased by a polar bear?” and because they’re filming in Hawaii, the rest of the writers look at this person like she or he has lost her or his mind. Then, because it is 4:00 in the morning, and losing one’s mind is the normal thing to do at that time, it starts to sound like a good idea. And that’s how polar bears wind up on Lost, sparking dialogue and becoming part of a memorable scene.
I don’t actually know if this episode was written by multiple people, or if so, where the sun was when they wrote it. I just know that sometimes, you have to throw a polar bear into the mix. I mean, it can be a penguin. Or a car crash. Or an unexpected visitor. But don’t be afraid to surprise everyone. Especially yourself.
7. Read all the things.
Read Elmore Leonard to learn how to write dialogue. Read Robert Jordan to learn foreshadowing (specifically, how to act like you’re dropping a plot point and then pick it up four hundred pages later). Read Twilight and Bridges of Madison County to remind yourself that even if you and all the Internet hate it, someone will like it enough to make a damn movie out of it. Read other people’s work, because that’s how you learn. Read other people’s work, because you want others to read your work. I don’t trust writers who don’t read.
8. Don’t be stingy.
If you want people to read and edit your work, return the favor or pay them to do it. It’s rude to ask people to work for free, and editing is W.O.R.K.
9. Speaking of people…have some.
I never stuck to a writing schedule before I joined my online writing communities via Andilit and Story Sessions. I didn’t start my manuscript until I admitted to friends that I wanted to be a writer, and they called me on it by saying, “So…what have you written?” I can make a goal and really mean it at the time, but I will let myself off the hook when something easier with more instant gratification comes up if I’m the only one who knows about it. Knowing that others will ask how it’s going is sometimes the only thing that keeps it going.
10. If you break every rule, don’t dwell. Move on.
I read lists like this, and I am tempted to say, “Oh, there’s all the things I’m doing wrong.” Then I focus on how wrong I’m doing things. I give it a good, long ponder.
All my other distractions put together don’t waste as much time and energy as this does.
Obsessing over doing it wrong is doing it wrong. It’s good to know what trips you up. It’s good to recognize distractions. But self-awareness is the means, not the end. Letting mistakes stop the process is like looking in a mirror, noticing you have jam on your face, and letting it stay there. Wipe it off, and then put the mirror down and go on with your day.
I have the honor today of guest posting over at Andi Cumbo’s blog while she’s in the final countdown week before her wedding.
I write almost every day. Writing is the only way that I’ve figured out how to get my charming friends who live in my head to come into the world and play without making me look like a crazy person. I don’t always write well, but I write easily.
M. Suzanne Terry 