Creativity Block

If you write, you’ve likely experienced writer’s block a time or twenty. It’s part of the journey, one of the things we have to find ways to work through. I like to change the location of where I write, maybe take a notebook and pencil down to the beach or a coffee shop. Anything to get my brain in gear.

Writer’s block has not been a problem for me so far this year, mostly thanks to the genius of Cara Michaels and #WIP500. I have written every day this year, no problem filling up page after page on my new WIP. The issue I’ve run into is that the words are there, but they are void of imagination.

I am officially suffering from creativity block. I mentally ball up the pages I’ve typed and chunk them into a tall metal waste basket saying, ‘Garbage, garbage, ridiculous garbage.’ Some of it reads like an article for a newspaper specializing in how paint dries.

In an effort to work through the creativity block, just as I do with writer’s block, I found a few helpful sites. Check them out if you find yourself in this dusty, dry place with me:

http://lauragraceweldon.com/2011/04/27/16-ways-to-spark-creativity/

https://sites.google.com/site/scottdistillery/dumblittlewritingtricksthatwork

http://makeyourblog.net/blogging/200-ways-to-spark-creativity

Over the next few weeks I am going to put some of these tips and ideas to the test. I’ll let you know how it goes!

What ways do you get your creativity rolling?

Lillie

*Cartoon Source

Plans for 2012

This is not a post about my New Year’s resolutions. This is about my plans for 2012. I’m excited about what this year has to offer. And, like Angie Richmond, I don't like the idea of making resolutions that will be left in January. I am a planner, though, so this should work out just fine.

Plans for 2012:

1: I will buy my first Aston Martin.  

1: I would like to enter at least one writing contest. I’ve never done this, but it should be a great way to work on my short fiction. May even try to tackle a short story, my nemesis.

Here are links to some upcoming writing contests if you’re interested:

www.gemini-magazine.com/poetryopen.html

http://hootreview.com

www.themedullareview.com/Oblongata_Contest.html

june.english@btinternet.com

www.ecoartsawards.com

www.amyfound.org/amy_writing_awards/amy_writing_awards.html

www.ruminatemagazine.com/submit/contests/nonfiction/

http://christopherprofeta.webs.com/writingcontests.htm

2: This was my first year participating in NaNoWriMo. I am so glad that I did. I won, and along the way met some amazing writers and writing buddies. In 2012, I plan to edit my Nano story, that I fell so much in love with.

Some amazing bloggers who motivate me to write on Twitter:

Angie Richmond - @write_me_happy

Steven Watson - @ashviper

Jo-Ann Teal - @jtvancouver

Angela Goff - @Angela_Goff

Natasha Guadalupe - @GirlWriter

3: I have joined up with Cara Micheals for WIP500. Her idea is that we make a commitment to write at least 500 words a day on a writing project. I love this idea! For WIP500, I will be working on a brand new story.

4: Last year I didn’t read near the books I would’ve liked. For this year, I have a list of books I hope to read that I plan to continue to add to throughout the year. Twenty books is the plan.

5: When I jog regularly I feel amazing, my writing is better, and I’m all around happier. So, in 2012 I plan to jog more. The goal for 2012 is 1000 miles.

Here’s to a 2012 filled with writing, editing, jogging, and new adventures.

Five Sentence Fiction will start back up this week on Thursday. Join in the fun!

Happy New Year!

Lillie

NaNoWriMo Prepared!

National Novel Writing Month is a new and exciting experience for me. I finished my first novel earlier this year. The first draft took much longer than 30 days, but I feel ready for the challenge of NaNoWriMo. The impending time crunch forced me to evaluate my writing process. I have completed a detailed outline, and have a clear vision of my novel, beginning, middle and end. Normally, I approach writing with a make it up as I go attitude, so the planning was daunting to me at first.

However, now that I have the outline, character profiles, and index cards full of random information, I feel more prepared to write this NaNoWriMo novel than anything I’ve ever written. I may just be a truly reformed ‘pantser’ now! I participate in a weekly writing prompt called Write on Wednesday. A few of us, who are taking on NaNoWriMo, were asked to write a short blurb on how we were preparing for the experience. Check out what the others are saying here.

If you’re planning to write 50,000 words in the month of November, I’d love to know what your plans and hopes for the experience are. Also, if you’re looking for ways to work on your writing each week be sure to check out Write on Wednesday and Five Sentence Fiction. It’s a great group of writers who will give you feedback and encouragement on your writing.

Bad Writing is Good

“If you don't allow yourself the possibility of writing something very, very bad, it would be hard to write something very good.”

Steven Galloway

I have a nasty habit of taking myself too seriously. Or, rather, taking my writing too seriously. I don’t always have to have on matching socks, the most fashionable shirts, or be in touch with hot trends. I’m perfectly fine with my awkwardness. If I trip on my way into the store, that’s okay. Sometimes the pavement gets in my way. Cooking is always an experiment, and I will certainly fail at math without a calculator. Those things I’m at peace with. I’m flawed. Who isn’t?

But, until recently, I was unable to laugh at my writing. Well, unless I was sure I had written something full of comic genius. That quote by Steven Galloway is something every writer should have in 25pt Times New Roman painted on the wall above their desk.

I have notebooks full of ramblings and notes on novels I would like to write. For years, I carried around the idea for my first novel in my head, afraid that if I sat down to write it I would mess it up. It was such a beautiful story, with characters I loved, as long as it was in my head. I didn’t trust myself to recreate the plotting and dialogue without losing some of the spark in translation.

Then, life stepped in. In 2009, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. That’s not exactly something anyone wants to hear, but it is what it is. Everyone has something they deal with. Anyway, I’ve figured out, mostly, how to live with this disease and have adjusted my life accordingly.

I am certain, without the MS, I may have never written that first novel. I had to quit working for a while to get my symptoms under control. In the span of that year I wrote down all of the action that had been stored in my brain for the past five years. The sense of satisfaction in finishing that novel is without equal. It’s hardly literary genius, I am constantly thinking of things that need work, and my query letter is still a painful work in progress, but I am no longer a girl with just an idea, I have a completed manuscript. I am now working on my second, where I am putting all the lessons of what-not-to-do that I learned from the first novel to good use.

Embracing Chaos

I am an absolute control freak. I need things just so in order to function properly. There are times when I let my control issues keep me from writing. Seemingly simple things will throw me off. Like if the desk isn’t as clean as I’d like, the curor is blinking too fast - almost mocking, or the dictionary is sitting on top of the thesaurus. When clearly the thesaurus should be on top because it’s smaller; That’s just how the universe meant things to be.

There are other things, outside of the harmony of my writing space, that keep me from writing. Conflict in my life, from a bad day at work to a nasty note from the mailman about where I park my car, can throw my whole writing mood askew. I’ve been fostering a Daschund for the past month, and today his adoptive parents took him home. He is a very special dog that will make an excellent addition to their family. I’m heartbroken that he’s gone, but I know he will be well taken care of.

So, today as I let myself shed a tear or twenty over this precious dog leaving, I realized that real life and emotions are what make writing great. It’s not about everything being perfect. How boring would that book be? If I embrace the chaos, harness it’s power, it will just enhance my writing rather than hurt. I must get over my need for everything to be just so and write through the irritation, anger, or tears.

I’m curious if there are things that keep you from writing? And, if so, what do you do about it?

No Sycophants Allowed!

When I began the process of finding an agent I purchased a book called Putting Your Passion into Print, by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to be published. It is as entertaining as it is educational.

One of my favorite entries in the book is about getting feedback on your manuscript. Should you let other people read it? Who should you let read it? What do you expect from them? They sum it up by saying, “stay away from obsequious sycophants! The last thing you want is people telling you your proposal/manuscript is good when it’s not. Be sure to let people know you want the you’ve-got-a-wart truth.”

I was reminded of the American Idol hopefuls who faithfully line up for hours each year only to be turned down. I always wonder why their support system failed them? Where were the friends and family to say, “we love you, but maybe this isn't your thing. Let's find what you are amazing at. Or, let's get you some lessons.” If any of my brother’s ever set their sights on going on national TV and singing, I would have to dash their dreams firmly. Musical talent is a gene that was left out of my family’s make-up, sadly. However, that doesn’t stop us from singing! We just restrict it to the shower, car, or one drink too many karaoke night.

With this in mind, I have only let three people read my entire manuscript. I was careful to choose people I felt would be honest, even if it hurt. Because, this is my dream, and I’d never want to put my name on tone deaf writing. While I would always recommend listening with an open mind to anyone’s suggestions or concerns about your writing, it’s also important not to lose your voice trying to follow everyone’s advice. Take the critiques, learn from them, use them, but stay true to yourself at the same time. At least, that’s what I’m trying to do.

So, who do you get feeback from?

What's in a Name?

I spend a lot of time thinking about what to name my characters. Sometimes certain names stick out for different reasons. It can be that a name conjures up images of a sweet, caring person or a not so sweet, caring person. If a character changes as I write, perhaps turns evil, when at the start they were meant to be a neutral character, I change their name.

Researching names, what they mean, what time period they were most popular is fun to me. I really enjoy that part of my research when writing. But, I’ve often wondered if all the time spent on names is time well spent. When I read books the names are important to me, too. If I don’t like the name, sometimes I will change it in my head. If the name is difficult to say, I will shorten it.

I’m curious if other readers or writers have these name issues? Do you ever read books where the name just doesn’t fit for you? Or, do you ever change the names of characters while reading a book?

What I Write

When it comes to reading, I am a fan of just about everything. I have dozens of favorite authors. Some of my favorites are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dean Koontz, Sandra Brown and Heather Graham. But, I have been influenced in my own writing by so many others. When I read now it’s part entertainment, part education. As I read through books I jot down things that interest me, new words, new ways to structure sentences or chapters. By the end of the book I’ve thought of half a dozen ways the query letter for the book would have been written.

While my reading tastes vary, I am most comfortable writing Romantic Suspense. A true sucker for romance, I wouldn’t know how to write an entire book without it. I enjoy the process of building the relationship and the way love can make a strong character even stronger. But, the suspense is just as important to me. Each time I come up with a new idea for a novel, the first focus and thought is about the antagonist. What kind of villain will they be? What will their motivation be? And, most importantly, how will they change my main characters? How will they make them stronger, and how will they be overcome?

Currently, I’m working on a novel set on Amelia Island, FL. The romance comes from a broken, seemingly irreparable, relationship. Their biggest hurdle is a life changing secret. However, like in most romantic suspense novels, the chaos surrounding them eventually paves the road to rebuilding the broken relationship. What’s fun about writing is that even when the very base of the novel seems ordinary, it’s your characters and how they get where they’re going that make it extraordinary. I am drawn to funky characters and characters who are a little bit unusual. Who have issues and quirks, but strong moral compasses and goals.

At the end of it all I want my novel to be one that a reader can get lost in. The characters should become a reader's friends and enemies. I love when I finish reading a book and miss the characters. That’s my hope for anyone who reads my writing.

When is it enough?

For years when I had a thought I would jot down a sentence or two in my blue and pink “novel” notebook. I wrote about who my characters were, their favorite things, things that made them cringe and the things their hearts yearned for most. Even before I had written the first chapter the novel was a part of me. When I finally had the opportunity to sit down and write and write and write it was amazing. Most of the time the words flowed easily and chapter after chapter piled up neatly because I knew these people very well; I knew their story as well as my own and I was excited to share their lives.

About ten months after I wrote the opening sentence I had a complete manuscript. But, it was my first and, being a novice, I had many doubts and insecurities about my writing. Was it enough? Enough words, enough description, enough to hold a reader’s interest? So, for the next few months I revised and rewrote. I even changed one of the character’s names. Some days this novel was all I could think about. I wanted everyone I know to read it and give me feedback.

It took a long time for me to decide it was truly finished. At least finished for me. I know the revising process will start again when an agent, editor or publisher gets their hands on it, but that is something I’m very much looking forward to being involved with. Right now, it feels like I started a new job and worked for 18 months without my boss telling me how I am doing, where I need improvement and where my strengths lie. I still think about those characters and that novel, but now my focus is on my second story. I am only five chapters in and I already know this novel is stronger than the first. More than anything I hope to have each novel I write published, but in the end if my first novel, Ella and Riley’s story, becomes the best lesson in novel writing I ever had I will consider my time spent on that manuscript an overwhelming success.

Always Write!

At times I have a problem silencing the writer. For example, I can be in line at the local supermarket and I’m studying the cashier. What kind of character would they be? What are their goals, quirks and weaknesses? In my mind I’m running dialogue between this cashier, who I’ve named Melanie, and her best friend. Melanie found five thousand dollars cash in her husband’s tackle box. She knew fishing couldn’t be that costly a hobby so why would he have this kind of cash? For two months straight they’ve struggled to pay the power bill, among other things, so why was he holding out? They must be after him again. She hopes they won't have to move.

The story is cut off when the cashier politely reminds me that I have to hit YES on the card reader to accept the purchase. I’m holding up the line. Again. Sometimes I get lost between where reality begins and fiction ends. It’s a thin, thin line. Inspiration is everywhere. The next great character could be sitting on the bench beside you at the bus stop.

For this reason, people sometimes view me as shy and maybe even a bit antisocial. When really they would be right, but not because I’m afraid of people or because I dislike people. Quite the opposite; I study people. They fascinate me. My family would simply say that I’m weird, but show me one writer who’s not a little, well, different. But, we’re okay with that. One of my favorite things to say is “I’m much better on paper.” It happens to be true. Most of the time I feel socially awkward, even a little out of place, because there aren’t many situations where I’m not writing in my head, creating dialogue to go with a new idea that just hit me.

Last year I had the amazing opportunity to hear Sandra Brown speak in Savannah, GA. She is hands down one of my favorite authors. So, when she said she can’t always silence the writer in her head I decided maybe it wasn’t such a problem after all.