I’m just going to give up counting the weeks. The number doesn’t matter; the plan does. So here we go.
This week is Create – tackling the writing nook. It’s called the writing nook, but its function goes beyond writing. It’s where I read. It’s where I organize and coordinate the schedules of my life. It’s where I store my sewing machine (although I really don’t like it there, so that might change soon). As areas of the apartment go, this is the one that gets the most attention, because 1) it’s where I spend most of my time and 2) it’s where I work, so it has to stay functional and organized. Because sanity. In fact, technically, I’ve already started on this area, because fixing one thing in the living room snowballed into rearranging all the bookshelves in the room, most of which are in the writing nook.
When I sit down at my desk, this is the reminder that greets me:
Equally important reminders, but let’s focus on the larger one.
I have only seen this quote in these exact words on Pinterest and in Aiki Finthart’s The Yu Dragon, which apparently you can get for free on Amazon today, but the sentiment is most often attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche (although here’s a fun investigation into its actual origins, if you’re interested). At any rate, it is important for me to remember that while what I’m creating might not have an immediate, obvious product, that doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile or that it’s not beautiful. It is important for me to remember that despite input from ambitious, results-oriented friends (which is not a bad way to be…generally speaking), my life and goals don’t have to look like theirs in order to be fulfilling. Maybe this is taking some liberties with this quote, but that’s the reminder it gives me lately.
It also reminds me to keep dancing, both figuratively and literally.
This week is not just about cleaning and organizing. This week is about honoring what the space is meant for – creating.
This week’s plan is:
Get back into the habit of a 15-minute free write every morning. I used to do this regularly, and not only was I more alert and less harried by the time I got to work, I also got more writing done than I do now. And it just so happens that a 15-minute daily free write is my assignment in Story 101 this week. Bonus!
Finish reorganizing bookshelves. The end is in sight. It’s very exciting. I might actually have room to grow (which is both dangerous and fantastic information).
Figure out what to do with the luxurious, newly empty space on my desk, now that I’ve moved the smaller reading lamp (which I never used in this space, as I have a large one right behind the chair) to the bedroom. It seems like that would be the perfect spot for all the different journals I am using, but we’ll see.
File/shred all the papers from the end of the spring semester.
Speaking of filing…figure out something there. I want to have a space in the file for fabric, but first I have to deal with the utter chaos that currently lurks behind those opaque, closed drawers.
Work on my cork board. I am trying to cover the back of my kitchen armoire with wine corks. At first, I was overwhelmed by how many corks that would take, but as it turns out, my friends and I drink tons of wine, so it should be completely covered by the end of the year. My short-term goal is to use all the corks I have by the time I have my July 4/sorta-mid-project party.
A quick look at my calendar tells me that this is supposed to be Week Five of my Getting It Together project. I am not doing Week Five this week. I have not finished the kitchen yet. Halfway through Week Five, I am still working on Week Four, and of all the weeks, this is the one that I want to finish completely before moving on.
There are reasons for this delay that I could not have foreseen at the onset of the project. The main reason is that I suddenly took on a summer class that started last week. That eats up two nights a week and many hours of prep time that I didn’t have scheduled before. The second reason is that I have been uncharacteristically hyper-social the last few weeks. I am used to seeing people and having people over, but I had plans every single night last week. I don’t actually remember the last evening I spent at home, which means it’s been at least a couple of weeks. I love time with friends, but I need a certain measure of solitude like I need air.
These are the reasons that I am exhausted. This is not an acceptable state for summer. It is not acceptable to me that my system is so shot that I slept through three alarms this morning, despite having gone to bed earlier than usual. I’ve been sleeping through alarms a lot lately, but I usually wake up at my regular schedule on my own. That didn’t happen today. What did happen today was a moderate anxiety attack (meaning that thankfully, it was more just hyperventilating with the subsequent lightheadedness and nausea than the usual oh-god-oh-god-my-heart-is-exploding) and a spontaneous hour and a half vacation from the morning at the desk when I finally woke up and realized it was 9:00 a.m., and I wasn’t there yet.
This is a warning sign, and I’m taking it seriously.
The summer is for resting and regrouping. Yes, I have this big project planned, but it’s planned over twelve weeks. So it’s a leisurely project, and I’m glad. A big part of getting it together is self-care. I can’t get it together if I can’t recognize when I need to take a little time off for leisure.
So this is me admitting that I need a couple of days of leisure in my life right now.
Yesterday, I got coverage for the some desk time, thinking that I could use the time off to catch up and be on the original schedule of the project and get a lot of writing done. I planned to use the time off to work extra hard for five days straight and get ahead of schedule. I had a ridiculous to-do list. I’m not sure it allowed for sleep.
But leisure is priority right now. Starting tonight, I’m giving myself a five-day weekend. I’m using three days vacation from the day job. I’m not canceling class tomorrow night, but that might be the only thing I do tomorrow.
Friday is a total rest day. I am making no plans (for those of you who have just tuned in, this is a Big Deal). I will do only what I want to do. I might read; I might write; I might even do some dishes or laundry. I might go to the library or to a coffee shop. I might spend the whole day on the Internet (although I’m not convinced that counts as rest). Or I might sleep in, watch TV, eat lunch, take a nap, watch more TV, stare out the window a while, and then go back to bed. I am erasing all expectations for Friday.
Saturday through Monday are my regrouping days. I am a scheduled person, but for the schedule to work, I also have to remember that I am an introverted person, so let’s see if we can dial down the anxiety by not having something out-of-house scheduled for every single night (self, are you listening?!). I still have a to-do list, but unlike the list I just tossed in the garbage, it’s actually sane. It includes things like this:
Finish Week Four; post recap.
Rework project schedule; post plan for next step.
Update writing calendar through the end of August.
Update budget.
Plan meals for next few weeks – especially lunches. Make grocery lists for each week.
Go to church Sunday.
Go drink wine with Supper Club Sunday night.
It is a list of tasks that will smooth things out and make life after the break easier. Easier is good. Easier is necessary.
I love this May. May is usually crazy and full of transition. And this one was, too, to an extent. But the weather has been unseasonably cool and gorgeous:
And my day job is Summer Housing (i.e., working with college students) instead of Summer Conferences (i.e., working with minors…who…I’m sure it’s different when they’re your own…but working with other people’s children makes me never want to find out). So I had a fantastic May and a fantastic start to summer.
How May makes me feel. This cat understands me.
Here’s what I’m into this month:
To write:
I started my Getting it Together series on the blog. I am enjoying the food. I am tolerating the cleaning. My entryway is giving me fits. I hope the rest of the rooms aren’t this much of a struggle.
My favorite post that I wrote this month was Badger. It was good to talk about it, and I think I was fair enough. It’s hard to be fair when you’re telling your side of the story.
To read:
Summer (and perhaps my Getting It Together project) have me dreaming up food ideas and being drawn to ideas that others have dreamed up. So I read cookbooks and foodie memoirs and foodie fiction even more than usual.
There are not many books that I read and then need to go immediately and buy because I can’t stand the thought of being without it. A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg is one such book. This is my favorite book that I’ve read this year. It’s a treasure. And arugula salad with dark chocolate bits? Pretty much the best idea ever.
I also readKeepers by Kathy Brennan and Caroline Campion. Most of the book is meat-intensive, which I am not, but I will end up buying it for the sauces alone. I’m a sucker for a sauce.
To watch:
I have continued my obsession with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I will probably end up buying it by the end of the summer. Such great characters. Such amazing one-liners.
I have also watched Chocolat four times. Because chocolate. And France. And Johnny Depp. I will probably watch it four more times before I return it to the library. Because I checked out the book, so I’ll need to watch it again after I finish the book. NEED.
To hear:
I’ve been writing and scheduling posts for What Not to Say, so I’ve been listening to my WNTS station on Spotify. Maybe not safe for work, depending on your workplace.
To eat:
May has been DELICIOUS. As part of my Getting It Together series, I’m going through some of Mom’s recipes, so May has tasted like my childhood. There was cavatini (which is basically pasta, sauce, ground beef, pepperoni, and cheese, all in one glorious dish), chicken salad, and sausage balls. I’ve also made a couple of loaves of beer bread, which makes fantastic toast for breakfast. Food at my house has been so good that I haven’t even wanted to go out, which is unusual for me, but it was a nice change.
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.
We were close. And we both knew that the love between us was uneven. We both knew that I loved him more than he loved me. We knew that one day this would bite us. But it seemed a shame to cut ties and run – to ruin everything over my silly little broken heart.
When he started spending less time with me and more time with the woman who would become his wife, I didn’t handle it graciously.
Heh. That’s putting it mildly.
I acted like a lunatic.
I was angry and scared, because I realized that I had this whole life planned that wasn’t going to happen. I understood how badgers feel when they get caught in a trap, and they know they’re never getting out alive, but they refuse to lie still and die. They fight it until they’re dead.
So I fought. I pleaded. I argued. I was manipulative and vicious. I refused to be her friend (even though she’s a perfectly nice person), and I refused to listen to anyone who tried to smooth things over (even though they were only trying to help).
I wrote a multiple-page letter detailing why he would be better off with me.
For the first time in my life, I was proud of something I had written, and not because someone else told me that it was good. There were no pretty bows to tie up the loose ends. No healthy conclusion reached, no lesson learned, no silver lining on the rain cloud. It was just opening a vein and bleeding on the pages.
For the first time in my life, I did not betray myself in order to keep the peace.
For the first time in my life, I felt like a writer.
And when he read my letter – the very soul of me, poured out in ink and tears – and put steel in his gaze as he responded simply, “No,” I asked to have it back.
The letter – and the heart it represented – didn’t belong to him anymore.
There are very few moments in my life that I can point to and say, “That one – that’s the moment it happened,” but that curt “No,” is one of them. In that moment, the boy who saw me more clearly than anyone had ever seen me before lost his right to do so.
Part of me wishes that I could go back in time and handle things differently. I would be calmer and more reasonable. I would behave sensibly, with wisdom beyond my years. I would bear the torture of not being chosen with dignity. I would protect the mutual part of the love between us that was our friendship. Of course, this part of me, knowing the boy wouldn’t really love me back, would be too petrified of falling in love with him to get close enough to have that amazing friendship in the first place. I would advise others against acting like a lunatic.
Part of me is sorry.
Another part of me, however, understands the badger. The badger wanted what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to say so. The badger fought, because she had a right to be happy. The badger argued, because she could not fathom how anyone graced with her love could possibly turn it down. The badger is actually grateful to the boy for standing up for what he wanted and for the cruel way he did it – for that shining moment of asshattery that made everything so clear. But being grateful doesn’t mean that the badger can abide such foolishness.
Another part of me is the badger, and the badger’s not sorry.
So everything is getting Instagrammed. EVERYTHING.
And I also added the Pinterest app. Apparently, I’ve decided that I’m done with ever being productive again.
Here’s what I was into during April when I managed to tear myself away from my phone.
To write:
I wrote about 25,000 words on my What Not to Say project (which now has its own blog space for the pieces that are public-ready-ish). I’m excited to start this back up again. It’s been a few years. I like adding new things and seeing how my writing has changed as I edit.
I read Lean In. I have feelings, and not all of them are positive. But I read it. I’ll probably buy it, if for no other reason than her fantastic source section. The chapter on mentoring was a work of art.
My favorite book I read in April was The Giver. I am looking forward to reading the other books in the series.
To watch:
April starts end-of-the-year madness at the residence hall and in my classes. So I watch more TV than usual. The only thing I’ve been watching, though, is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Four seasons of Buffy in one month. I feel like a bad Joss Whedon fan, because this is the first time I’ve watched it. Impressions so far:
Willow is my favorite.
Spike is a close second. “You made a bear! Undo it! Undo it!” HILARIOUS.
According to BuzzFeed, I’m Giles. Acceptable.
Riley is boring. Just so, so dull. I’m ready for him to leave. I don’t even care how.
To hear:
This is a short list. Crazy times at work mean silence is happiness at home. In fact, this might be a non-existent list. I can’t even think of one thing I have listened to.
To eat:
I have really been into guacamole this month. I just can’t get enough of it. I will drive through just to get guacamole and chips. I’ve mostly made it at home, though – just an avocado, a tomato, a little cumin, a little cayenne, and a healthy squeeze of lime juice. Happy.
And that’s what my diet usually looks like when the weather gets hot (for me, hot = above 75). Fresh vegetables and fruits. I forgot how much energy this gives me.
This month might be slow (-er than usual) around here. I have a couple of places where I’m guest posting, and I will still do a couple of link-ups. Or I will procrastinate and end up writing here more often. Whatever happens, the reason is that I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo. I have a goal of 75,000 words for the month on an old-but-new-again project called What Not to Say. It’s a commentary on the things that folks, trying to be helpful, say to single people that actually aren’t that helpful at all. It has its own blog space, because eventually I want it to become a community project, as my experience as a single person, vast and wondrous as it may be, is still just one person’s experience, and as self-important as I am, I don’t really know how to market what would essentially be a manual on how to get along with me.
So I’m spending a lot of time that I’m in front of a computer typing furiously toward 75,000 words, and I’m spending the time I’m not in front of a computer scribbling furiously in this lovely journal:
(My journal, my self)
I started this project years ago. I stopped because it made me angry. All. The. Time. I couldn’t let go of the anger that these memories were stirring up in me. And it’s good to vent – to get emotion out so that it doesn’t consume you. But when you vent (and vent…and vent…), and you are still angry, it’s not healthy.
So I stopped.
I was scared mid-February when I started getting the urge to pick it up again. I didn’t want to go back to that place. I especially didn’t want to go back to that place during the end of the school year, because that tends to be an annoying season to me anyway (see last post), and I didn’t want to fuel the fire.
Then it wouldn’t let me sleep. I would wake up with words, and I would not be able to fight them. At first, there were snippets that I could save as notes on my phone. Now, they’re whole chunks of text that would take forever to type out on Margaux’s touch screen, so I get up and type or scribble in the middle of the night. This project has become my life again.
But now it’s different. I’m different.
Jennifer Upton said, “You can’t see beauty if you’re bitter,” and it clicked. I was anxious about pursuing beauty this year, but it has prepared me for writing something that has been a source of hurt to me. It has prepared me to reframe my experiences – to say the true things while still acknowledging loving intent and leaving us a place to go from here.
So if you don’t see me a lot this month, that’s where I’ll be. Clicking.
“I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.”
“People without hope not only don’t write novels, but what is more to the point, they don’t read them.”
“I don’t deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.”
“Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. There’s many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”
“Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn’t try to write fiction. It’s not a grand enough job for you.”
“The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock — to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures.”
Yesterday, I turned 39. And like the good 39-year-old I am, I spent the entire day at home in yoga pants and drinking coffee and cocktails (only because I had no wine in the house to complete the stereotype). I also spent the entire day listening to this song, courtesy of a friend from high school (thanks, Carolyn!) who posted it on my Facebook page:
It was sweet of my first fandom to serenade me. Hello there, fellas. Happy birthday to me indeed.
When I sang it, though, it kept morphing into New Edition’s cover of Earth Angel.
Acceptable.
My Facebook flist is fantastic. I spent a lot of time basking in their overwhelming well-wishing. If you had told me twenty years ago that I would ever get this excited over something on a computer screen, I would not have believed you. It made my day.
Then I had to go buy a pear tart. HAD to.
The picture is fuzzy because my hand was shaking with excitement (or perhaps an even higher dose of caffeine than usual).
I did some editing. I edited a chapter of Fishbowl. Then I got stuck on a phrase and had to put it aside. This gave me time to map out my chapters in the order I want them to appear in the finished manuscript. So that’s what I did. One thing led to another.
AND NOW I HAVE THE WHOLE BOOK OUTLINED.
I know how it ends. And more importantly, I know how I’m getting there.
If you are not jumping up and down right now in celebration of me, you clearly didn’t read it right. Go back. Read it again. I’ll wait.
Do you feel it? Do you get my ecstasy?
(If you don’t, you should totally lie to me and just nod.)
Last night, I hung out at Tammy and Matt’s. We had pizza (goat cheese pesto pizza from TJ’s – FAVORITE) and soda and made super-rich brownies:
“We should add chocolate chips to it.”
“Okay!”
“And some rum.”
“Bring it.”
I like the way my sister thinks.
Then we watched Saving Mr. Banks. Such a good movie. See it if you haven’t. It’s already available on Amazon Prime.
This morning, I returned to work, and Jillian made this sign to prolong the merriment.
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.
M. Suzanne Terry 