I am trying to chip away at this mean old case of writer's block I've got going on. It's just not feasible to say "Alright, I'm powering through and going to write X number of words every day!" Because my mind shuts down, I don't write anything, and every passing day I get more and more discouraged.
So for now I'm just trying to think about writing every day. This sounds incredibly lame--okay, it is incredibly lame. But it's working! I've been pondering a new world for just about 5 minutes every day for the past week, and I'm finally feeling the beginnings of the stirrings of inspiration way in the back of my mind.
Huzzah!
Now I am printing out a beat sheet and going to start a skeleton plot structure. That's all. Not going to pressure myself into starting any writing, or any real character creation or in-depth world building. Just a basic plot, and we'll see what comes after that.
It's not much, but I'll take anything at this point.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
An Unexpected Inverse Relationship
Obviously I have been struggling a lot with my writing lately. Writer's block is painful for a whole host of reasons. I think the worst is the doubts that creep in--why am I doing this? Can I do this? Why should I do this if I am going months without writing? But at the same time, not writing sucks. I want to be writing, even when I am having strong aversions to actually writing.
So the natural thing to do is try to examine the root cause of the writer's block. In my case, this is something that comes and goes without rhyme or reason. In this instance I can probably pin it down to the upheaval of my personal life--moving across the country, starting a new job, getting divorced, struggling to define what I really want in life. But that's not very helpful as I can't exactly change any of those things. So I find myself pondering a connection that I have previously noted on many occasions.
The more I exercise, the less I write.
It makes no sense. It's not an issue of time management. For the past couple months I've had nothing but time, to the point where I manage to spend a surprising amount of time lying on the couch staring at the wall. So if I'm not sacrificing my writing time to work out, why do the two affect each other so much?
I can only postulate that they both somehow serve a similar purpose for me mentally. When you're out on a 4 mile run, there is plenty of time to think. To relax, let your stress melt away. And then you don't need to pour your stress into a fantastical adventure in far off lands. I have no idea if this is true or not, but I first noticed this trend in college and have seen it play out many times before.
In fact, I've been thinking about writing this post for 2 weeks, and I am sitting here finally writing it only after skipping my work out yesterday and not having worked out since Thursday. (A connection I didn't even notice until I had already started writing the post.)
So what to do about it? I love to exercise. I want to stay healthy, and I really enjoy it. But I love to write. I want to leave my mark on the world in the form of the written word.
I wish I had an answer.
So the natural thing to do is try to examine the root cause of the writer's block. In my case, this is something that comes and goes without rhyme or reason. In this instance I can probably pin it down to the upheaval of my personal life--moving across the country, starting a new job, getting divorced, struggling to define what I really want in life. But that's not very helpful as I can't exactly change any of those things. So I find myself pondering a connection that I have previously noted on many occasions.
The more I exercise, the less I write.
It makes no sense. It's not an issue of time management. For the past couple months I've had nothing but time, to the point where I manage to spend a surprising amount of time lying on the couch staring at the wall. So if I'm not sacrificing my writing time to work out, why do the two affect each other so much?
I can only postulate that they both somehow serve a similar purpose for me mentally. When you're out on a 4 mile run, there is plenty of time to think. To relax, let your stress melt away. And then you don't need to pour your stress into a fantastical adventure in far off lands. I have no idea if this is true or not, but I first noticed this trend in college and have seen it play out many times before.
In fact, I've been thinking about writing this post for 2 weeks, and I am sitting here finally writing it only after skipping my work out yesterday and not having worked out since Thursday. (A connection I didn't even notice until I had already started writing the post.)
So what to do about it? I love to exercise. I want to stay healthy, and I really enjoy it. But I love to write. I want to leave my mark on the world in the form of the written word.
I wish I had an answer.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
May 2011 Wrap-Up
I don't even know if it is worth it to post a monthly recap. It can be summed up in this: nothing.
I would post something optimistic about June, but my heart wouldn't be in it. At this point, I just hope I can get any words.
Words written: 988.
Yup. Less than 1k words in an entire month during which I wasn't even working. I fail. I feel really pessimistic about my writing future right now.
I would post something optimistic about June, but my heart wouldn't be in it. At this point, I just hope I can get any words.
Words written: 988.
Yup. Less than 1k words in an entire month during which I wasn't even working. I fail. I feel really pessimistic about my writing future right now.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
April 2011 Wrap-Up
Well, April didn't turn out quite like I was expecting. I had oodles of freetime, there were times when I literally spent an hour lying in bed staring at the ceiling. And yet still--no words. No nothing.
Guess going through a separation (and soon divorce) doesn't encourage those creative juices! So my total was dismal. I think that Novel 4 is done-for. It's excruciating to write, I think it's coming out boring and affected, and I haven't got any excitement to even finish it. I won't think of it as a waste of 17k words, though! I like to think that I've learned and improved from it.
On the bright side, I dug back into Novel 1, and I still think it has promise! Want to finish this overhaul and then will be querying seriously.
Words written: 2,008.
Guess going through a separation (and soon divorce) doesn't encourage those creative juices! So my total was dismal. I think that Novel 4 is done-for. It's excruciating to write, I think it's coming out boring and affected, and I haven't got any excitement to even finish it. I won't think of it as a waste of 17k words, though! I like to think that I've learned and improved from it.
On the bright side, I dug back into Novel 1, and I still think it has promise! Want to finish this overhaul and then will be querying seriously.
Words written: 2,008.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Blast From the Past
I just found an old school assignment in one of my "memory" boxes filled with odds and ends. We had to write our own obituaries--I believe it was in 6th or 7th grade. It's so funny to remember what a little silly I was, and to see how some things never change! I didn't fix any of the errors, and I just wish I could make the font show the sparkly, blue gel pen it was written with!
Nora Bailey: Author of our age
Nora Anne Bailey was born on September 7, 1987 in Madison, WI. At 7 years of age she moved to Decorah, IA where she attended elementary, middle, and high school. In 2006 [apparently I didn't do my math very well, because I was a class of 2005 grad!] she moved to Massachussetts to attended Harvard University.
After four years at Harvard, Nora began to pursue her lifelong goal: to become an author. Her first book is called Down to the Meadow and is a delightful book. After its publication, she churned out many more favorites such as: Devestation on Pine Street, Dettenburg is Dead, Living at Pine Grove [I had a thing for pine, I guess?], and Last Call for Honor. By 2014, Nora had become a well known and well loved author. She lived in the suburbs of Chicago, IL with her two cats, Literature and Creativity [puke, I'm sorry, fictional cats!]. She wrote about one or two novels a year until 2022 when she wrote her most well known book The First Word.
At the age of thirty-seven [I was a little off...like 15 years.] she married [name redacted] and had one child, Chloe [This was before I realized it was an option to not have kids!]. Nora continued to write until the age of 76. She died at the age of 76 on July 27, 2064 in a carplane accident.
She remains one of the world’s most famous author and her books continue to captivate readers of all ages. May she rest in peace.
Ah, naive younger Nora! But still, reminds me that I really don't have any other major dreams in life except being an author, so I probably should get off my ass and get writing!
Nora Bailey: Author of our age
Nora Anne Bailey was born on September 7, 1987 in Madison, WI. At 7 years of age she moved to Decorah, IA where she attended elementary, middle, and high school. In 2006 [apparently I didn't do my math very well, because I was a class of 2005 grad!] she moved to Massachussetts to attended Harvard University.
After four years at Harvard, Nora began to pursue her lifelong goal: to become an author. Her first book is called Down to the Meadow and is a delightful book. After its publication, she churned out many more favorites such as: Devestation on Pine Street, Dettenburg is Dead, Living at Pine Grove [I had a thing for pine, I guess?], and Last Call for Honor. By 2014, Nora had become a well known and well loved author. She lived in the suburbs of Chicago, IL with her two cats, Literature and Creativity [puke, I'm sorry, fictional cats!]. She wrote about one or two novels a year until 2022 when she wrote her most well known book The First Word.
At the age of thirty-seven [I was a little off...like 15 years.] she married [name redacted] and had one child, Chloe [This was before I realized it was an option to not have kids!]. Nora continued to write until the age of 76. She died at the age of 76 on July 27, 2064 in a carplane accident.
She remains one of the world’s most famous author and her books continue to captivate readers of all ages. May she rest in peace.
Ah, naive younger Nora! But still, reminds me that I really don't have any other major dreams in life except being an author, so I probably should get off my ass and get writing!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
March 2011 Wrap-Up
About the only good thing that can be said for March was that it was better than February.
Words written: 4,765.
Then again, I knew this month would be rough with moving and everything. April, on the other hand, should be a treasure trove! Of course, I'm sitting at zero right now--but that is about to change as soon as I finish this blog post!
I will be finishing up my move this week, and then I am going to have bundles of free time. And hopefully the determination to actually use that free time productively! My goal is 15,000 words. That's only 500 a day, so this isn't a big step up in terms of goals for the year, but it will be such a huge improvement over the past few months that I'll be thrilled!
Words written: 4,765.
Then again, I knew this month would be rough with moving and everything. April, on the other hand, should be a treasure trove! Of course, I'm sitting at zero right now--but that is about to change as soon as I finish this blog post!
I will be finishing up my move this week, and then I am going to have bundles of free time. And hopefully the determination to actually use that free time productively! My goal is 15,000 words. That's only 500 a day, so this isn't a big step up in terms of goals for the year, but it will be such a huge improvement over the past few months that I'll be thrilled!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Learning From the Mistakes of Others
If you haven't seen this meltdown by an indie author, I highly encourage you to check it out. (http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html)
Perfect example of why people don't always take writers seriously. Truly shocking behavior, I think we can all learn a valuable lesson from this. One, always make sure you are sending out the best possible product. Can you imagine sending a query to an agent and then quickly backpedaling with "Oh no, that was the wrong copy, please read this instead?" I'd imagine that's instant form rejection territory. And two, no matter how precious your work is to you, you can't protect it forever.
Not everyone will like your writing. Or my writing. But on the bright side, we're in good company. There is not a single author in the world that isn't disliked by somebody.
So keep doing your thing, working hard, being professional, and writing for yourself, not everyone else.
Perfect example of why people don't always take writers seriously. Truly shocking behavior, I think we can all learn a valuable lesson from this. One, always make sure you are sending out the best possible product. Can you imagine sending a query to an agent and then quickly backpedaling with "Oh no, that was the wrong copy, please read this instead?" I'd imagine that's instant form rejection territory. And two, no matter how precious your work is to you, you can't protect it forever.
Not everyone will like your writing. Or my writing. But on the bright side, we're in good company. There is not a single author in the world that isn't disliked by somebody.
So keep doing your thing, working hard, being professional, and writing for yourself, not everyone else.
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