Charlotte Rains Dixon

An Aid To Kicking it in Your Writing

This is a book review for which I did not receive compensation, but did receive a free copy of the book.

"I would go as far as and I could and hit a wall, my own imagined limitations.  And then I met a fellow who gave me his secret, and it was pretty simple.  When you hit a wall, just kick it in."  Patti Smith

Such is the advice that playwright Sam Shepard gave to singer, writer and all-around awesome person Patti Smith and it is this same advice that inspired Barbara Abercrombie's book of writing exercises and prompts.

The book is called Kicking in the Wall: A Year of Writing Exercises, Prompts, and Quotes to Help You Break Through Your Blocks and Reach Your Writing Goals.  At the top of each page, you'll find an inspirational quote on writing and then two or three writing prompts.  Abercrombie encourages writers to spend five minutes on each prompt.  At the end of the book, she includes examples of exercises completed by her students--which gives inspiration to see how far-ranging you can go in just five minutes.

Here's a sample of some of her prompts:

--Write what you know of your parents' courtsthip.  Is there one common story, or are their two versions?  Or more? Or no stories?

--Write about an apology that failed.

--Write what you are.  Start with "I am..."

--Write about a transformation you once had.  Or need to have now.

--Write an opening of a scene with someone asking a question about a pair of shoes.

As you can see, this book is not a book that you read for information on writing, there's none of that in it.  Rather, this is a book you keep beside your computer and use when you get stuck.  So often we writers tend to stare off into space when we're blocked, when really the best thing to do is figure out a way to get writing again. 

Prompts and exercises can be very useful to get words on the page, and I recommend using them in a variety of ways, which is why I think this book can be very helpful for writers from beginner to professional.  (I have my own page of prompts, which you can access here.  Mine are of a bit different type, simple made-up sentences which encourage creative responses.)

Kicking in the Wall is due out May 13th.

Do you use writing prompts to jump-start your work?

 

Guest Post: Writing my Fingers to the Bones

Today we have a guest post from mystery writer J.D. Frost.  Regular readers of this blog will recognize J.D. as a loyal reader and commenter.  J.D. is currently working on at least two, and despite my constant entreatries, he does not at the moment have a website or blog I can point you to read.   I was thrilled when I read his guest post submission because he shares a lot of wisdom in it.  So here you go:

Writing my Fingers to the Bones

by J.D. Frost

Television is more addictive than potato chips ever pretended to be. For a while we didn’t watch ours. I put it in the spare bedroom, nailed the door shut and taped black plastic film over the opening. You know how it creeps around the edges of the door, like that incessant fog in those late-night monster flicks. You can’t be too careful.

But somehow my wife saw an episode of Bones and, to my horror, she liked it! When Christmas 2012 came around, instead of an electric hand vac, I bought her DVDs of the first season. Now every night at ten—more regular than most things in my life—we watch an episode on her computer. We are now on season five.

At first, determined not to let those Hollywood tricksters take the edge off my piercing intellect (clearing throat), I only cast a sideways glance at the screen. I might as well have been staring at a swinging watch, for the show soon had me under its spell.  That left me wondering how to elicit that same wide-eyed concentration from my readers. I flipped on my analytical switch and came up with a list.

♦Make your characters strong. Temperance Brennan, aka Bones, longs for a world ruled purely by science. Underneath, she is very fragile, but that is a side she steadfastly guards. Booth, her FBI sidekick, is a rock of reliability. He has a sense of humor, but is also quick with a gun and a business attitude when needed. Angela is socially wise; Hodgins is quick to anger, a bit insecure because of his small stature. As episodes progress, nuances emerge but the gist of each character is carved in stone.

♦Write in scenes. Charlotte has suggested this many times. When I think of scene in Bones, I think of locale: the crime scene, the lab, the Royal Diner.…

♦Write scenes within the scenes. After the remains are found, the arrival of Temperance and Booth is a scene within the scene. As they approach the body, they banter about something totally unrelated to the deceased. Keep in mind that though the location may be exotic and very busy, what we are really interested in is what they say.

♦Conflict—doesn’t every writer’s cousin talk about the importance of this? A famous writer, whose name I can’t recall, once said: Everybody wants something. A doorman wishes to leave early. A cook hopes his diners enjoy their food. The desires of each character influence how they interact with the major players. To generate sizzle put two major characters on a colision course.

Don’t feel too guilty about digging your TV out of the spare bedroom. If your partner screams at you, demanding to know why you aren’t writing, trying to earn that 7¢ ebook royalty, tell them it’s research.

J.D. Frost is a mystery writer from near the Rocket City.

Image by angelrravelor from everystockphoto.

When You're Distracted From Your Writing

Last week was tough: the bombing in Boston, explosion in Texas, the shootout and manhunt for the Boston suspects, earthquake in China, on and on.

I was horrified, and spent much of my day sending prayers and good thoughts to all those affected--and I was riveted to the news. 

Some people turn off the TV and internet in such situations.  Not me--I'll have the TV on and be sitting in front of it with my computer, checking both.  Following the news and gathering information is how I process awful events. 

(I'm pretty sure I got this from my Dad--he was always the first one out the door to see what was going on when a siren sounded and he was known to take his daughters to observe big news events like fires, several of which I remember vividly to this day.)

But sitting in front of the television does not get the writing done.  And even when I turned it off and repaired to my office, it was challenging to turn off the thoughts about what was happening.  Or stop myself from looking up the latest updates on the interwebs.

What's a writer to do?

I have a few ideas:

1.  Know thyself.  Are you, like me, someone who needs to know what is going on?  Or do you thrive when you are oblivious?  If the latter, turn things off.  Period.  If the former, try setting time limits--15 minutes of browsing the news and then its off to work for an hour.

2.  Ground yourself.  Nothing changes your demeanor--emotional and physical--by taking a few deep breaths.  You can do this anytime, anywhere throughout the day.  (The trick, of course, is remembering to do it.)  When you get upset, breathe deeply and return to work.

3.  Feel what you're feeling.  In our rush to make ourselves feel better (and get back to work) we sometimes suppress our true feelings.  This might make us feel better for awhile, but, alas, those feelings have a tendency to pop up all over again if we don't deal with them.

4.  Inhale love and light.  This is a variant of #2.  With your feet flat on the ground, visualize rays of golden light coming in through your feet up to your heart.  Now imagine golden rays of light coming in through your crown chakra and meeting in your heart.  You can then use this to nourish yourself in a time of need or send loves to others who are in distress.  (I'm not sure where this came from originally, but I got it from Anne Presuel.)

5.  Connect with others.  Yeah, I know.  You're supposed to be writing.  But are you getting any writing done while you sit there and fret?  I think not.  You might do better to take a bit of time to call or email a friend, or get on social media, and process some of your feelings.

I've written on this before, because it's an issue that constantly pops up.  Other posts I've done on this topic:

Dealing with Distraction

How to Keep Writing Through Holidays and Other Distractions

Do you have a favorite way to deal with distraction?  You'd be helping all of us out if you shared it in the comments.

 Photo by Rennett Stowe.

Why Connection is Important to Writers and Others

So it turns out that connection is way more crazy important than we might have thought.

This probably doesn't come as a huge surprise to writers.  After all, communication is inherent in connection, and we're all about communication.

It's why we blog.

It's why we write novels.

It's why we read the writing of others.

Connection turns out to be a powerful theme in my novel, Emma Jean's Bad Behavior, and it is also the topic of a guest post that I have over at Pomogolightly, Beverly Army Williams' blog today.    Hop on over there and give it a read!

Photo by pixelstar.

This Series on Writing Fast Will Blow Your Creative Mind--and Inspire You

This morning, thanks to Karen Woodward, I was introduced to a series on ghostwriting a novel in 10 days by Dean Wesley Smith.

Yes, I said 10 days.  As in, writing a full, complete novel in 10 days.

Dean Wesley Smith is ghosting a novel contracted by a major publisher for an author who is a bestseller and whose name would be recognizable to all of us.  (Yes, the world of ghostwriting is sometimes a shady place.)

He's set himself the goal of finishing the novel in 10 days, and along the way, he is documenting his progress with regular updates to his blog.  It's really worth reading.  Here are the posts so far:

Day one.

Day two.

And you might want to read this one as well:

Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: Writing Fast.

When Smith says he writes fast, he means it--he gets up, gets to the computer (he uses two--one with no internet access and thus no temptations) and gets to work.  It appears that he writes in bursts, knocking off a 1000 words or so before taking a break to eat or answer email (at the second computer) or what have you. And then he rinses and repeats, on and on throughout the day.

But here's the deal: he's writing.  Not endlessly revising, not thinking about writing, not wondering if his work is any good (confidence is not this man's problem), but writing. 

I think we can all learn a lesson from this.  I know reading his posts  inspired me and afterwards, I polished off the first draft of a short story I'd been agonizing over.  I'm sure I spend way too much time pondering deep thoughts and not actually writing. Even if we don't want to emulate every aspect of his practice, we can learn from parts of it.

Oh yeah, and guess what?  He starts out with no idea where he's going.  And he doesn't rewrite.  This draft will be it.

Freakin' incredible.

Here are things I noted/wondered about as I read:

--When does he take a shower?

--When does he exercise?

--He has a wife to cook for him.  Or someone.  Dinner magically appears.

--He probaby has a house cleaner as well.  There's no attention paid to such mundane matters.

--He's able to set his own schedule (stay up until wee hours of the morning, sleep until 1 PM).

But even with all that being said, his accomplishment is amazing.

What do you think?  Does this appeal to you or do you think he's a hack (he's got a gazillion novels to his credit)?  Do you write slow or fast?  I'd love it if you left a comment.

Two Crucial Writing Tools

Sometimes the tools I use as a writer are so integral to my work that it doesn't occur to me to write about them.

Even though writing about writing is part of what I do.

Tool Number One: The Book Journal

Case in point: On Saturday, the local writing group I co-lead hied ourselves off to a mountain cabin for a snowy (yay) day-long mini-retreat.  (Thanks, Renee, for the use of your wonderful place.)  In the course of our discussions that day, the idea of keeping a journal or some kind of notebook in which to write about your novel (not on it) came up.

And apparently, I was the only one who did this.  Which flabbergasted me, because I could not live without this tool.  I'm constantly scribbling notes about my characters, plot, setting and so on.  Thoughts I have when I wake up in the middle of the night but don't have time to put into play.  An idea for the end of the story.  And so on.

Let me repeat: I could not live without some kind of notebook to corrall ongoing ideas for my novel. But it's so much a part of my process I never think about mentioning it.  I just thought everyone did this.

If you don't do this, I recommend you start.   You'll find it a wonderful way to get your brilliance out of your mind and onto paper when you don't have time to actually work on your book.  Along the same lines, another thing I sometimes do is open a "notes file" on the computer in which to dump ideas about a project.  This might work as well or better for you.

By the way, John Steinbeck kept journals about his ongoing writing projects. You can read about one of them here on Amazon.

So that's tool number one.

Tool Number Two: The Hold File

This tool also came out in discussion on Saturday: the hold file.   I create one for each project and label it as such: Hold for Blue Sky, Hold for Emma Jean, and so on.  Then, when I delete something I copy and paste it to the hold file.  This is handy in case you want to put something you deleted back in.

Though mostly that never happens.  But what does happen is that the hold file allows you to feel okay about deleting stuff, because you know that should you mourn that fabulous sentence too much, you can always retreive it.  I'm working on revising an old short story and I've cut five pages from it--all of which are safely stored in my hold file so that I can access them when I panic.

So those are my two crucial tools that it never occurs to me to mention.  What are yours?  Tell us about them in the comments--it helps other writers so much.

Working With a Writing Group, Writing Coach, or Beta Readers

So, the time has come to get some feedback on your writing.

You've worked hard on this novel, committing to a regular writing schedule to get it done, and you've rewritten and revised until it is shiny like a precious jewel.

Or, so you think.  But who can be sure until your cherished gem has seen the light of day?  What you need are other readers to weigh in on your work.  Every writer can benefit from letting trusted readers look at their work before starting the submitting process.

Your Options

There are several ways you can approach finding readers for your writing:

1.  Take a class.  Many community colleges offer extension classes in writing, and lots of writers also teach privately.  Refer to the Google to locate classes that suit you. Classes can be a great way to learn, but the format may not allow a lot of personal attention for your writing.

2.  Join a writing group.  Critique groups abound!  Many of them are quite good and can be very helpful to your career--my novel would not have been published without the input of my group!  These groups will meet on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis, and read short excerpts each session. It may take you a few tries to find the right one for you, but keep at it.

3.  Send it out to beta readers.  Many writers prefer to get an idea of how the whole book reads--and thus will select trusted beta readers to send their novel to.  You can find beta readers through friends, family members, and other writers. 

4.  Hire a coach.  Working one-on-one with a mentor or a coach can be a fabulous way to get feedback on your work and light a fire to write in your belly.  Each coach will work in a slightly different manner, and most will happily schedule a time to discuss their practices with you.

Okay, so you've decided on one of these options.  What should you expect? How can you best get ready for this new stage of your writing?

How to Prepare

1.  Investigate your commitment.  You've successfully written, so obviously you're committed to the craft.  But are you truly committed to learning the most that you possibly can about your work?  Are you ready to take the time that any of these options will require? 

2.  Be ready to listen.  In many MFA workshops, the format requires the person whose work is being discussed to sit quietly without making any comments herself.  No defending, not rationalizing, no ifs and buts.  Even if your group or coach or class does not require this, its a good rule of thumb--you might miss some good points if you're busy talking about your work.

3.  Maintain an open mind.  Your initial reaction to the feedback might be negative, but it can be difficult to listen to criticism, however well-intentioned of your work. Try to stay open to the suggestions others give you.  In the moment, you may not like them, but back at your desk you might just see some value there.

4.  Don't let emotions cloud your vision. Emotions easily get in the way.  No matter what anybody says, our writing is personal--very personal.  And when someone is picking it apart, it can feel like your baby is being destroyed.  Remember, if you've found the right group, class or coach, they have your writing's best interests at heart.

5.  Be ready to step it up.  Any one of these options will result in an increased clarity on the page.  Be prepared to improve your writing.  Be prepared to learn all kinds of things about yourself, too!

Which way do you choose to share your work?  What do you like or not like about it?  Please comment!

Photo by clarita.

 

Help a Fellow Writer in Need--Book Bomb Today

David Farland is the author of over 50 novels and also a writing teacher to some big names, such as Stephenie Meyer, the author, of course, of the Twilight series and The Host.

His son, Ben Wolverton, was seriously injured recently and is in the hospital in a coma.  Here's the family's description of his condition:

Ben Wolverton, age 16, was in a tragic long-boarding accident on Wednesday the 4th, 2013. He suffers from severe brain trauma, a cracked skull, broken pelvis and tail bone, burnt knees, bruised lungs, broken ear drums, road rash, pneumonia, and is currently in a coma. His family has no insurance.

Note that last line: no insurance.  This is going to be a very expensive medical journey for them.

But you can help.  How?  Today the family is hosting a Book Bomb.  A Book Bomb is when all books sold on a specific day go to help a specific cause, in this case, Ben's care. 

Go here to find out more details on the Book Bomb. You can buy Farland's fantasy novel, Nightingale, or his book on writing called Million Dollar Outlines, which is what I'm going to buy.

If you want to flat-out donate to this worthy effort, go here.

For information on Ben's condition and his recovery, go here.

Let's all help a fellow writer out!

Interview About Emma Jean

Good Morning.

How does that cup of coffee you've got clutched in your hand taste?  Wouldn't it be even zestier if you had some scintillating reading material to accompany it?

Yes?

I have just the thing for you.

I've got an interview up today over at Jessica Nottingham's blog, Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile, in which I invent a movie tagline for Emma Jean, talk about my favorite part of being an author, name the one book I always reread, and more!

Check it out here, and be sure to say hi in the comments while you are there.  Then stick around to read more of Jessica's posts, she's got all kinds of good stuff on books and authors.

Photo by Adrian Sampson.

Trust the Reader

I was on the phone with one of my writing coaching clients (who just so happens to be a kick-ass SciFi adventure writer).

"I'm enjoying your book," he said.

I thanked him.

"I think my wife is enjoying it even more.  She keeps stealing it from me."

I allowed as how this didn't surprise me, seeing as how the novel is most definitely women's fiction and my client's book is more of a rough-and-tumble type romp.

"She told me last night that she thinks she's just gotten to a place in the book where she is less irritated with Emma Jean and is beginning to see her change."

I loved hearing this, because it means that my client's wife got Emma Jean.  Yes, Emma Jean is self-absorbed to the point of cluelessness at the start (I believe one reviewer said she "wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her") but there's also a deep woundedness inside her that makes her act this way.

I've always trusted my readers to get that. To get irritated with her, and want to shake some sense into her but still be willing to go on her journey with her--because they understand that she will transform at the end.

I'm not going to give away the ending by saying how she transforms, but suffice it to say she does transform.  That's what I love about women's fiction--its characters go on journeys of transformation.

The funny thing is, I had numerous agents tell me that Emma Jean was too "unrelatable."  And yet, over and over again, I get comments from people who tell me how much they love her, how they empathize with her, how they know someone just like her.

I'm glad I trusted the reader.

In what ways have you learned to trust the reader?

Making the Magic Happen: Committing to a Writing Schedule

Writing is magic.

We think up an idea, and put it on the page.  Whole worlds spring to life beneath our fingers.  And all we need to do this, at base, is a pen and paper.  Oh, sure, a typewriter or computer helps, but if worse came to worse you could do without one and still write.

What you do have to come up with is time to make the magic happen.  You have to sit at your desk, or your arm chair, or in the coffee shop, and put words on the page.  And that takes time.

And that is where many of us falter.  Me, too.  I struggle with finding time just like everyone else.  But lately I've realized that all my important non-writing activities stretch to fill the time I allot them.  So, if I give myself all day to read three manuscripts, that's how long it will probably take me.  And if I give myself all day to read said manuscripts, I won't get any writing done.

And therein lies the problem.

With the necessity of doing marketing around my book release, many days this winter I became a writer who didn't write.  Well, there were blog posts.  And there were guest posts and interviews and ariticles, all of which I love.

But in my heart of hearts, its not the same as working on fiction.  And if a fiction writer is how I identify myself, if that is what I truly want to be, then I need to find time to work on it consistently.

I used to get up and work on it first thing in the morning.  But that schedule no longer works for me--I simply have too many emails and other internet chores pulling on me to allow me to focus.  I'd sort of pretend I was writing and actually get about 20 minutes in.  Not conducive to making progress on a WIP.  I was working on it, but in fits and starts--a stolen moment here, a bit of time there.

Last week, in my travels around the web, I read an interview with an author said that she wrote every morning from 9 to noon.  (I wish I knew who this was or where I read it, but I can't remember.)  This struck me like a thunderbolt.  Bad cliche, sorry, but it did.  I realized that if I put myself on a schedule like that, I'd actually get my writing done. 

And so I did.  I'm now writing from 9 to noon every day.  I'm showered and at my desk by 9 AM.  No more stretching internet time until 8 AM, then working on the crossword puzzle for awhile and getting in the shower when I felt like it.  (Hey, its the benefit of working at home.)  Nope, I'm ready to write at 9 AM sharp.  And I'm getting a ton done.

What I wasn't so sure about was getting everything else done, but so far that hasn't been a problem at all.  I've always harped on said that when you make your passion your priority, everything else magically falls into place.  And it is true.  I'm simply much more focused.  Plus, the high that comes from fiction writing follows me all day, allowing me to power through dumb chores and errands with joy. 

I really can't describe how profound this change feels. 

I've got an exciting new ghostwriting job coming up, and a couple other things in the works, so we'll see how I stick to the schedule when those come in.  But in the meantime, don't call me in the morning, because I'll be writing.

Do you schedule writing time?  Are you able to stick to it?  What works for you?

Do You Need to Return to the Basics in Your Writing?

After all the hoopla over the publication of Emma Jean, (which really is ongoing, I'm just still getting used to it being a part of my life) I returned to my WIP with great joy.  Nothing makes me happier than working regularly on fiction.  I may have mentioned this once or twice over the course of this blog's life.

And yet.  When I re-read my WIP, I realized I had some problems.  Like, BIG problems.  Plot and story problems.  Huge holes in the backstory (because, um, I didn't know it).  Characters I didn't get.  And so on.  I had written about 180 pages.  Up to page 70, the work was fairly solid.  But from then on, I was pantsing like crazy, and it showed.

Concurrently, I've been teaching my Get Your Novel Written Now class.One thing I harp on talk about a lot in that class is going back to the basics.  As in, novel writing is a long-haul project, and odds are good you're going to get lost somewhere along the way.  When you do, your best bet is to go back to the basics.

The fundamentals of fiction.

I took my own advice.   Read a book on outlining and thought deep thoughts about plot and story.  Applied those deep thoughts to the loose outline I had partially created.  Watched the story come back to life.  Danced a jig.

All of which reminded me of the benefits of going back to the basics.

Perhaps you need to, also.  Are you stalled in an area of your novel or memoir?  Then turn your attention backwards.  Let's review the fundamentals of fiction and then you can figure out which area you need to return to and focus on.  And, please, bear in mind, mention "fundamentals of fiction" to ten different novelists and you'll get ten different lists of fundamentals.  But, over the years, I've researched and thought and researched some more and boiled them down to these five.  You can quibble if you want.  Go ahead, do it.  I'll be happy to debate it with you.  But these are the five that make sense to me, so I'm going with it.

• Character
• Story
• Setting
• Theme
• Style

Let's look at them one by one, and think how paying some more attention to these fundamentals may help boost your WIP.

1.  Character.  The starting point of story, to me, is character, as in characters in conflict.  Characters who have real desires, needs and fears.  There are so many different ways you can get to know your characters through filling out dossiers and histories (a bunch of them are mentioned here.  Do you know your characters?  Did you take time to find out about them in depth before you started writing?  If not, maybe its time to do that now. 

2.  Story.  Story is what happens in your novel.  Plot is how you arrange it for the reader.  Well, anyway, that's one defnition.  There's a ton of others, but for our purposes today, you could do worse than to think about it that way.  Do you know where you're going in your story?  Do you need to? (Some do some don't.) If you're unclear, perhaps you need to do some outlining.

3.  Setting.  Where the novel takes place, duh, and also so much more--weather, time, the things your characters surround themselves with.   Sometimes when I'm writing and something isn't quite right, I look at setting.  It can make an enormous difference if you're in the wrong place. 

4.  Theme.  Broadly, what your story is about.  I'm a fan of the it-will-come-out-as-you-write school of them and premise, because thinking about it makes my head feel like it will explode.  (I find this somewhat hard to believe, but in all the years I've written this blog, I've never written a post about theme.  Can you tell it's not my strong suit?  I think I better put this topic on my future blog post list, just to challenge myself.)

5.  Style.   Breathe a sigh of relief--this fundamental of fiction is not something you need to fuss about too much while you still working on the initial drafts of your novel.  Style is how you put words together on the page, and much of it comes at the end, when you check over you use of commas, choose strong verbs, and so on.  HOWEVER, you can train yourself to make good writing style choices as you write, and this is a good idea.

It is my belief that you have the novel writer's intution and you'll know which fundamental you need to go back to do and ponder if you get stuck.  I know and love my characters well, for instance, but I knew I needed some crucial parts of their backstory that would tie directly to my plot.  It can feel like you're wasting time when you take time to go back to the basics, but it will pay off for you in the end.

I promise.

So, tell me--which basic do you need to focus on ? Or is everything going along swimmingly for you? Either way, please share in the comments.

***Struggling with a writer's block that feels deep and scary and not something that can be dealt with by going back to the basics?  I love helping writers get back on track.  Go here to read about my services. 

Photo by mconnors.

How to Make Yourself Feel Better When The Writing (or your Life) is Not Going Well

We've all been there.  (Some of us are there much more than others.)  The miserable writing session when the idea won't come, when no words appear on the page, when nothing works, no matter how hard you try.

It sucks.

And just as a gloriously wonderful writing session can make the world glow with a special light, a bad one (or a series of bad ones), can make the world a dark and depressing place.  And that's no way to live.  It really isn't, because it's not going to help your writing.  At all. 

Now, I'm not advocating that we all adopt a Pollyanna attitude, no matter what problems we face.  I get that many of us are enduring difficulties that make it hard to be cheerful.  What I am proposing is that life is better when you look at it with a glass-half-full approach, and your writing will be, too.  Because wallowing in weepiness for an extended period of time ultimately doesn't work.

And so I have gathered some hints to help you drag yourself out of the muck.  Again, these are all based on personal experience.  I've been there.  I still go there.  But I'm much better able to change my mood these days.  It takes work, but it's worth it.  So here you go.

1.  Feel it. So often when we feel something negative, we immediately gloss over it and attempt to cover it up.  But when you do that, the emotion tends to pop up somewhere else, at an even worse time.  Surprisingly, the fastest way out is often through.  Feel the emotion fully.  Magnify it, even.  Immerse yourself in it.  This won't feel good--but that's the point. The more fully you can feel the pain, the faster you can get through it.

2.  Forgive and release.  I'm fascinated with the process of letting go, surrendering, or releasing, whatever you want to call it.  It sounds so easy--just release it!--but in actual practice it is anything but.  What I've learned lately is that adding forgiveness to the mix hastens the releasing process.  Forgive yourself for your belief that you're a lousy writer.  Forgive yourself for your idea that you'll never finish this damn novel.  Forgive yourself for the belief that you are anything less than an amazing writer.  And don't forget to forgive anyone who might have convinced you of this in the first place while you're at it.

3.  Renew your vision.  You know that dream you have of becoming a best-selling novelist?  Now's the time to envision it again.  You probably lost sight of it while you were busy beating yourself up about what a crappy writer you are.  Connect with it again, in all the 3-D, technicolor glory you can muster.

4.  Send love.  Close your eyes and imagine gold and silver light in your heart center.  Now send it out--to anyone who made you feel bad about your writing, anybody who rejected you, even to the writing itself.  Love is the most powerful force in the universe.  Use it for the good of your creativity.  And use it creatively.

5.  Go write.  Right now, or as soon as you can. Writing will make you feel better than anything.

What's your favorite technique for making yourself feel better?  Leave a comment, so we all can benefit.

Image by Steven Fernadez, under Creative Commons 2.5 license.

Adventures with Book Reviews

In my continuing effort to be as transparent as possible about the publishing process, today our topic is book reviews.

As in, how to get some.

This will be a short post, because I'm not yet adept at this skill, apparently.  Kidding, at least about the short post part.

But book reviews are important because they sell books.  There are several places to get your book reviewed:

• Amazon
• Goodreads
• Other book sites such as Shelfari and a gazillion I don't know
• Book review bloggers

And, yeah, I know there's more places, like sites where you can buy reviews, but I'm not going to focus on them today.  I'm going to focus on book blogger reviewers.  Who are, as far as I can tell, very overworked and under appreciated.  They get inundated with requests to review books, probably mostly from people they've never heard of, and once they agree, they have to read the book and then write a review.

I don't know about you, but I think writing reviews is hard.  I ran a book review blog for awhile and took it down when it got overwhelming, which happened in about three months.  The minute I put that baby up (and bear in mind, it had like, 2 readers) I was bowled over by how publicists, authors and others hit me up for reviews.  Actually, I thought it was great and said yes to nearly every request, because--free books!  What's not to like?  But then you have to read them, and think about them, and write about them in a coherent way.  And give your opinion.  And this all takes time.  I always felt like I was behind with my reading, and half the time I was reading because I had to for the blog, not because I wanted to.

(By the way, every once in awhile publishers find me on this blog and ask me to review a book.  I've got a really good one coming up soon.  Well, I think its going to be good, I don't actually have the book yet.)

And my experience in running a book review site was a few years ago, before the current self publishing boom.  Which I gather has increased requests for book reviews exponentially, given the number of book review sites which will not consider self-published novels.  (Most of them are very clear that they have nothing against self-published novels, they just have to draw the line somewhere.)

I have to tell you, this process reminds me a lot of the process of submitting the book in the first place.  Yeah, bad news.  You have to go through it all again.  For real.  Not kidding.

So here's the process I'm going through:

1.  Research sites.  My publisher sent me a list of over 700 sites, and I've come up with lists through my own research.  This is a time-consuming part of the process.  You have to go to the blog and check it out.  Is it still current?  Does it cover your genre?  What is their review policy? I'm finding many, many blogs that are no longer accepting books for review, most temporarily, because they are so inundated.  And often I land on one that hasn't published in months.  I get this, because it happened with my book review site.  I just couldn't handle it anymore.

2.  Query them.  There's that dreaded word--query, the one you thought you'd never ever hear again once you were published.  Ha! I have a standard letter I use which I personalize for each blogger I write.  Part of this, for me, is to try to feel okay about asking complete strangers to do something for you--read your book and review it.   Of course, they get a free book, but they have to do a fair amount of work for that book.  In terms of man-hours, they'd probably be better off just to buy it.

3.  Wait for the replies to inundate your inbox.  Um, this part hasn't happened for me yet.  I've probably sent out 15 requests and gotten back....wait for it...one reply.  (Which was a yes, and its a good site.  This blogger is overwhelmed with review requests, but is going to interview me.  I will promote the hell out of her interview, I can tell you that!)

So that's the process, and as you can tell, I've not mastered it.  I think I feel more comfortable with guest posts, in that I take on part of the work--the writing of the post itself.  But I'm going to keep going with this review process in spare moments and see what happens.

What's your experience with reviews--both getting them and giving them?  Also, do book reviews influence what you read?  Where do you read most of your reviews?

**Are you struggling with even getting to the point of publishing, i.e., with your writing?  The best way to improve your writing skills is to work one on one with a mentor.  Like me!  I offer a variety of services around coaching writers, and you can check them out here.

Photo by austinevan.

7 Tips for a Fabulous Book Reading

I did my first in-person reading of Emma Jean's Bad Behavior last night (I did one on the telephone, which was a bit trippy, for the virtual release party).  It was at at local coffee shop and I'm happy to report that it went really well.   People laughed in all the right places and after the initial rush you get when you stand up in front of a group, I relaxed and settled into it.

I've done a lot of public speaking, presenting workshops on various aspects of writing, and yet reading my own work is a bit of a different beast.  While I've read pieces in manuscript form through the years, now I'm getting used to reading from an actual book.  I thought you might like a few tips.  (I'm probably writing these nearly as much for myself, as a reminder, as for you.)  Because once you are published, and maybe even before, you will get asked to read.

1.  Plan your reading.  Figure out what you are going to read.  I've gone to lovely readings where the author read in an organized flow, segueing from a piece of chapter one, to chapter three and further in, which can give a good idea of a book.  When I tried to do this, it was a disaster--I got confused, and I wrote the book.  So I settled with several passages with chapter one and that worked great.  If you are reading in chunks, be sure to provide connecting information to your audience--and plan it out ahead of time.

2.  Plan your attire.  This sounds vain, but it isn't, really, because you are going to have a roomful of eyes on you and you don't want to be fussing with pulling your shirt down while they watch.  Last night I chose one of those cardigans with long tails in the front precisely so that I didn't have to worry if my stomach was hanging out.  (I thought if I wore my Spanx I wouldn't be able to breathe.  See #5.)

3.  Suss out the location.  Check it out ahead of time.  The coffee shop where I read has a regular Thursday evening reading series and I'd been there a couple times to hear friends read.  I knew there was no podium and that I'd be speaking into a standing microphone.  And I knew this meant that I was going to have do practice reading with my book held in front of my face.   See next tip.

4.  Practice, practice, practice.  This is far and away my most important advice.  Practicing will give you confidence, the confidence that comes from familiarity with your material. It will alert you to potential minefields--the word you've never been sure exactly how to pronounce, the swear word that might not be appropriate for your audience, the sex scene you might want to save for another venue.  Your work sounds different when you read it aloud--do it ahead of time to find potential problems.

5.  Breathe.  Once you've walked onstage, try to remember to take a deep breath.  As mentioned early, there is a rush of energy that comes in the act of getting yourself up in front of others and it can make it hard to catch your breath.  Nerves make you breathe faster, too.  This didn't happen to me last night, but it has in the past, and then I struggled to overcome my shallow breathing.

6.  Make eye contact.  Look up at your audience once in awhile, instead of keeping your nose buried in the book or manuscript.  This was something I could have done better last night, but since I was reading from my book with no podium, I had to wear reading glasses and it was awkward to peer over them.

7.  Enjoy.  You might not be able to actually utilize this tip until you've done a few readings and gotten used to them.  But you will feel the rush of relief when you are done, and people are applauding.  Soak it in!

 Your turn.  Do you have any tips for readings?  Do you enjoy them, or dread them?

(And by the way, if you feel so moved to buy a copy of Emma Jean you can find info on online outlets here.)

 Photo by svilen001.

True Confessions: I'm a Plotter, Not a Pantser

It has come to my attention recently that I am a plotter, not a pantser.

In case you're not familiar with these terms, here's a rundown:

A plotter is someone who, well, plots.  He figures out the story ahead of time, outlining plot, designing characters, making copious notes.

A pantser flies by the seat of her pants, getting an idea for a story and flying with it.

It pains me to admit that I fall squarely into the plotter category.  Why does it pain me?  Because of my romantic image of writing, which I must admit is pure romance and very little reality.  It goes something like this: you get an idea one day.  Eureka!  It's brilliant!  Has the makings of a bestseller! And then you sit down at your computer, which is in your office overlooking a white sand beach, of course.  And you start typing.  Out pops the novel, which is then sent to a publisher post haste and voila, it becomes a bestseller, while you loll on the afore-mentioned beach.

I know.  I've been a professional writer forever, and I still fall prey in my mind to this fairy tale image of the writing life.  (If I'm still victimized by it, imagine how many others, newbies and pros alike are too.) The reality is that writing is hard work.  Wonderful work but hard work. 

And for me, if I allow myself to waft about and follow an idea anywhere I take it, i.e., the pantsing model of writing, there's no bestseller at the end.  Rather, disaster ensues and I get a lot of loose ends that go nowhere and a stalled novel.  Case in point: my WIP. It is strong for 70 pages, which happen to coincide with the 70 pages I had vaguely outlined.  After that, it all goes to hell.  And it's the after that part that I've lately been shoring up with a real outline.

Okay, let's be clear.  When I say "real outline" I'm not talking about the formal outline you learned to create in school.  (Are they still teaching that?) I never could figure out how those worked.  What I'm talking about is a document that reflects the fact that you have a firm idea where you are going.  This document could be a loose list, as it is so often to me.  It could be an elaborate road map complete with pictures.  I don't care.  I just think you'll do better at writing your novel with some kind of guide.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for magic happening in a novel, such as when a character walks on.  An example of that happened as I was writing Emma Jean's Bad Behavior.  One of my favorite characters, a young girl named Ava, appeared one day and started talking.  But, for me, this is more likely to happen when I know where I am, when I have a framework to bump up against.

I'm also much more likely to make forward progress when I know where I'm going next. The best way to make forward progress on a novel is to always have a place to go next.  Ernest Hemingway was famous for stopping his work sessions in the middle of a sentence so he'd have a good starting point the next session.  The reason this story is told so often is because it's useful advice.

Besides my loose outline, I also write up character dossiers of varying degrees of complexity.   I'm currently going back to the well with this one in my WIP as well.  There were bits and pieces of backstory that I knew were important but hadn't figured out yet.  Once I figured them out, they changed not only the story but the character's motivations as well. 

And all this work got me VERY excited about my novel again.  I've got a bit more outlining and planning to do, and then I'll be back at very soon, which makes me very happy. 

So, there.  That's my confession.  I'm a plotter.  And proud of it.

What about you?  Which camp do you fall into?  (And don't worry, if you're a pantser, please let us know why and how it works for you.  I love hearing what works for people.)

**A lot of this is the kind of thing I talk about in my Get Your Novel Written Now class, which is currently underway.  (No link, as we're far enough in I didn't think anyone would want to join, and so I took it down.) The class runs five weeks and covers all the basics of writing a novel.  I'm actually thinking about running it again in June, in an expanded version, in which we'd have two calls a month: one informational, one Q & A, plus we'd actually write and get critiqued throughout the program.  There would also be a forum in which to share ideas, and the ups and downs of the process.  How does that sound?  Email me or leave a comment if you are interested or have ideas about such a program.

Photo by KrzystofB.

Mindset of the Wealthy Writer

I was going to write about plotting versus pantsing this morning, but then the idea for this post grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go.  So here we are....(and look for the other post later this week).

Let me be clear at the outset.  I'm not wealthy, at least as far as finances go.  But I am ridiculously wealthy as far as all the other important things in life go.  I've got wonderful friends and family, a house to live in, a car that always starts (knock on wood), access to health care, both traditional and alternative, food in my belly on a regular basis, and more.  That more being two main things: I get to be a creative writer every day of my life and I enjoy freedom and independence.

Yeah, some days I'd like to earn a bit more money.  But if its for me in this life to enjoy wealth in other arenas of my life, so be it.  I know there are many others who don't share my blessings.   Here's the deal, I only enjoy my freedom and independence when I'm actively and energetically writing as regularly as possible.

And so, for me (and I suspect for many others), everything else follows from that one activity, writing.  When we're writing we're wealthy.  When we're not, we're poor.

I like this way of looking at wealth, I realize, because it puts the emphasis where it belongs, on the process rather than the product. 

Are you following me?  Am I making sense?

If all of this does indeed describe the wealthy writer, then it makes sense that the mindset of the wealthy writer is one that enables him or her to write regularly and with ease.  And who knows, that just might lead to financial wealth some day down the road, too.  (It could happen.  And by keeping your mind on the process, it will be more likely to happen.  Because you will be working to master your craft, not focusing on the end result.)

So here are some ideas on maintaining that mindset, in no particular order:

1.  Expect big things.  Decide that its going to happen and maintain that expectation.  Instead of moaning and groaning about how hard it is to find time to write, tell yourself that it's easy.  And while you're at it, remind yourself that when you do make it to the page, you'll write with grace and ease.

2. Trust, that the above will happen.  Writing involves huge buckets of trust.  It just does.  Trust that the words will continue to come.  Trust that is you have a bad writing session, the next one will be good.  Trust that your story will come together in shining glory.

3.  Be grateful.  Thank the lord or whomever you prefer every damn day that you get to be a writer.  It's the best job in the world, even if you're only practicing it a few minutes a day.

4.  Banish negative thoughts.  Yeah, I sound like Pollyanna.  So what?  Negative thoughts are creativity killers, period, and it takes discipline and diligence to pay attention to them and turn them around.  It is especially difficult after a lousy writing session like the one I had earlier this morning.  But do it anyway.  Nobody said writing was going to be easy.

5.  Give it all up and get it all back.  That's one of my favorite sayings, from Alan Cohen, and it's true.  You find yourself in a ball of worry--about where the next check is coming from, about where the next words for your WIP are coming from, about everything.  Give it up.  Release it.  And see what happens.  Just do it.  When you really, truly release your worries, magic happens.

6.  Words in, words out.  I swear to God this is true for me.  When I'm disgorging words onto the page, it is as if I need to inhale tons of them inside me.  The more I read, the more I write.  And the better I write, because as I read I'm learning the tropes of writing.  This is true for wherever you are along the writing road.

7.  Enjoy it already.  Writing is too hard not to be enjoyed, period.  Quit getting all angsty over it and relax and write.

How do you create a wealthy writer mindset?  Is being wealthy all about money for you, or is it something else?  Please leave a comment and let us know.

Photo by ctoocheck.

Win the Publishing Game: 7 Steps to Getting Published

It's the holy grail, the reason so many of us write: publication.  Whether you're writing a book, or an article, or a poem, everyone wants their work to see the light of day.  After all, if you're writing, there's an assumption that some day, somewhere, somebody will read your work.  If nobody does, the process feels incomplete.

And, really?  It's not so hard.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.  I just fell off my chair because I laughed so much.

Because while the steps to follow are not particularly hard, getting your book (or article, or poem) to the right person at the right time can be a challenge.   Rejections ensue.  We get discouraged.  But then we pick ourselves right back up and do it again, right?  

I hope so.  Because a huge part of this business is playing a numbers game.  As in, sending your work out over and over and over again. Here are the rules of the game to follow:

1.  Write an awesome book.   Work that baby the best you know how.  Edit it and revise and rewrite until you are so proud of your work you could just burst.  Because your ego might a few times during this process, and its helpful to feel secure that you've done your very best.

2.  Package it correctly.  As in, learn standard formatting, which does not include, um, single spacing.  I have actually been at writer's conferences where people raised their hands and asked if sending in hand-written manuscripts was okay.  This was quite a few years ago, but still.  Imagine.  If you don't know how to format ask the Google.  It knows everything.

3. Do your research.  This article assumes you'll be submitting books to traditional publishers and/or small presses.  If you're hitting up traditional publishers, this means you'll be going through an agent first.  And agents have certain things they are looking for, as do small presses.  It is up to you to figure this out.  Do not send a non-fiction query to an agent that only accepts fiction, and vice-versa.  C'mon, you're smart, you can figure this out.

4. Follow instructions to the letter.  I don't do well at this--I'm the sort of person who gets a new gadget and starts pressing buttons rather than reading instructions.  But in the case of the publishing world, you want to read up on exactly what they want you to send them and then do just that.  Don't send your full manuscript when they've asked for five pages.  Don't send an email query when they've requested only snail mail submissions (rare these days, but it still happens).  Send exactly what they ask for.

5.  Think good thoughts.  Really, mindset is three-quarters of the battle in this game.  Stay as positive as you can throughout the process.  When you get a rejection--and unless you are God, you will--take a few minutes to weep and wail and then get over it and send out to the next agent in line.  (By the way, forget that crap about no simultaneous submissions.  You could be 89 when you get published otherwise.)

6.  Keep track.  I mean of your submissions.  Though this can be difficult, since some agents refuse to deign to respond to queries if they are not interested.  (This is a pet peeve of mine, because it is just plain rude.  How hard is it to hit reply and say no thanks?)  But I remember getting confused, as some agency descriptions sound similar, as to which agents I had queried, even though I kept good records.

7.  Rinse and repeat.  For as long as it takes.  Once your manuscript is finished your job, at least part of the time, is to send out ships and see what comes back.  You should always have at least 5-10 queries out.  Take heart--there are a lot of agencies, and a lot of publishers.  You could play this game for a long time.

And then will come the day when you win!  The day when an agent emails you and says she would like to represent you or a publisher emails and says they want to bring out your book.  And then it is all worth it.  Trust me.

How many times have you sent out your book?

Photo by elvinstar.

A New Wrinkle on a Lifelong Love Affair

I've been a reader all my life.  I'm sure you have, too, since if you're reading this blog, it's because you're interested in writing.  And if you're interested in writing, odds are good that you came to your love of writing through reading.

Maybe you, like me, usually have something like five books that you're reading at one time.  (I always have at least one novel going, maybe two.  And probably for sure something on spirituality.  Maybe another on self-help, and often a business or other non-fiction book as well.)

Perhaps you, like me, enjoy nothing better than an afternoon spent reading a juicy novel by the fire, or a late night when you're kept awake turning the pages of a mystery.

I wonder, too, if, over the last few years, you've not had as much time to read.  It's been the case for me.  Life got busy with children, then grandchildren, career, friends, housework, you name it.  And my lifelong love affair with reading was threatened.  It wasn't that I wasn't reading, because I always, always, always have a book going.  It was just that I wasn't reading as much.

But all that has changed.

Because I bought a Kindle. And it has revolutionized my reading world.  Already, since just last week, I've finished one full novel and am halfway through a second.  Plus, I've read sample chapters of two others and begun another one.

I've done more reading in the past few days than I've accomplished in the last month.

There's something amazingly simple about picking the little tablet up, turning it on, and reading a few pages when I have a spare five minutes.  The device makes me read faster.  I'm a visual scanner, meaning I take in a whole paragraph or sentence at a glance (which is why I'm worthless if someone spells a word or reads me a string of numbers--I need to see the whole), and something about the size of the Kindle's screen enables me to inhale words in huge gulps.

I love it.

And it is good for my writing, as well.  Reading is part of the job description for any writer, and it is an excellent way to teach yourself to write.  You could do worse than to begin your education by sitting down and reading 100 works in the genre you wish to write in.  When I read, it's almost as if the words I inhale rearrange themselves inside me and spit themselves back out on the page.  I think I've written more on my novel in the few days I've had the Kindle than I have this entire year.

Words in, words out.  It's magic. 

It puzzles me why the publishing world is so threatened by the digital revolution.  Anything that makes people read more should be considered a good thing, right? One would think so.  Another benefit to the Kindle or its pals is the ease with which you can order books.  One click and there you are, ready to read.   This is a fantastic, thing, people.

I bought the absolute cheapest Kindle available, the one with special offers and ads on it, because I wasn't sure I was going to like it.  Turns out I even love the ads, which have introduced me to a new author already.  For the record, the special deals generally feature classic authors like Paul Bowles or C.S. Lewis, so its not a bunch of crap by any stretch of the imagination.

One caveat: think hard about what you want your tablet to do.  After much thought, I realized that what I really wanted was to read on the device, period.  Which is why, despite the siren song of the Ipad, I didn't bite.  And now I'm glad, because if I had a full-fledged Ipad, I'd be checking my email or reading HuffPost.  I know myself.  I am weak.  I succumb to such temptations easily.

So that's my story about my new love affair.

How do you read--on an Ereader or with a traditional book?

10 Ways To Return to Writing Regularly

True confession: I haven't been writing.

Okay, that's not exactly true.  I've been writing blog posts, guest posts, interviews and comments on my client's work.  I've been writing in my journal every morning.  But I haven't been writing writing.  I haven't been working on my WIP.

Until this week.

In my case, I had a wonderful reason not to be writing: my novel, Emma Jean's Bad Behavior, was recently released and I got caught up in the hoopla surrounding that.  But in the past, I've gotten distracted for the most mundane of reasons: all the events of day-to-day life.  There's just no two ways about it, it's easy to get distracted from your writing. 

But this week, as I said, I've started back into working on my WIP.  It took me awhile, but I'm back.  Watch out world!  It didn't happen all at once, however.  I don't think it ever does.  Getting back to writing regularly is  a process.   I found ways to ease myself back into it, which I share with you here:

1. Download Scrivener.  This writing software for writers is intuitive and helpful--who knew such a thing was possible? I'm still playing around with it, going through the tutorial, but I think it's going to be wonderful.  And I feel like I just got a new toy at Christmas, which alone is worth it because it makes me want to go play with it.  You can get a free 30-day trial here.

2. Direct your thoughts.  Consciously tell yourself to think about your novel, as in when you are driving, when you are vacuuming, when you are walking the dog.  It's also especially good to do this when you're thinking negative thoughts about how you're not writing.  Direct those thoughts to pondering character or plot instead.

3.  Take notes.  I'm a huge fan of jotting things down, because it leads to more jotting and before you know it you're in the middle of writing a scene.  Put all the ideas you get from #3 onto paper.  The other thing that happens is that ideas breed with each other, like rabbits.   Soon you'll have so many of them you'll be at the page writing.

4.  Familiarize yourself.  On the most basic level, this is about getting accustomed to working on the novel again.  Remember where the files are stored on your computer, stare at your vision board, recall where you were in the manuscript when last you wrote.

5.  Take micro action.  Now that you've gotten oriented again, set yourself a very small task.  Like, opening one file.  I'm not kidding.  Set yourself up for one tiny action and call it good.  This is a way of tricking yourself back into interacting with the work regularly.

6. Research.  Reconnecting with the ideas and topics of your novel can get you excited about it again.  Make a Pinterest board for actresses who might play your character or locations in your novel. Do a Google search for that obscure subject that fascinated when you began. Look for images of your settings.

7.  Use bursts.  Feeling ready to write?  Okay!  Set a timer for 30 minutes and do nothing else but write until the buzzer goes off.  This means no surfing the internet, no looking at email, no chatting on the phone, no getting up to get more coffee.  At the end of 30 minutes, you get to take a break.  Then start the process over again.

8.  Read!  Nothing makes me want to write more than reading.  I just got a Kindle (last person on the planet to do so, I know) and I'm amazed at how it enables me to devour books.  Which, in turn, makes me want to cover pages with words.  Most of us come to writing because we love reading so much, so use that impulse to propel your work.

9.  Reread.  While you're in a reading mode, go reread your WIP.  From the beginning.  Immerse yourself fully in the world you've created so that you can go forth and make it come even more alive.

10.  Create a vessel. Commit to a schedule of some sort.  Now, I am the first one to struggle with this--I end up rebelling against myself.  But when I wrote Emma Jean, I rose every day at 5 to work on it before the day began.  When I wrote my previous (unpublished) novel, I was earning my MFA and I had deadlines for 35-50 pages every week.  Each of these examples enabled me to complete a novel.

So there you have it--my rundown of how to get back to writing regularly.  Have you tried any of these, or something else?  What works best for you?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments.