WFMAD Day 3

 

First, a standing ovation, please for the unfreakingbelievable Diana Nyad!!

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After she swam 103 miles in 53 hours (without sleep or a shark cage or fins), Ms. Incredible said, "…you are never too old to chase your dreams."

That's why you're here. That's why you're trying to get into the habit of taking just 15 minutes a day, every day to write, Even if… no, especially if at some point in the last two days, you didn't write. 

I'm not going to scold you, but if you want, I can brew a cup of tea. And scones, they always help when you hate yourself for not-writing.

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Doesn't that look nice?

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OK, maybe that was a little over the top.

The point of these 15 minutes a day goes a little deeper than you might imagine.

1. It forces you to reexamine how you choose to spend your time.

2. It makes you be honest with yourself about how important the writing dream is to you.

3. It teaches you that you do not need 8-hour stretches of completely free time that magically coincide with an Internet outage and you feeling so inspired, you swear the Muse is nibbling on your earlobe.

4. By touching base with your creative self every single day, you make your life about one billion times easier in those precious, rare moments when you have an hour or three to focus on your story. 

Have you missed a day? STOP WORRYING ABOUT IT. We're not going to kick you off the team. Here, have some more tea.

Instead of freaking out about whatever it was that got in the way of your fifteen minutes, just start writing. OK?

Today's non-fiction prompt: If this is truly day 3 for you, write about what the last couple of writing sessions have felt like. Harder than you thought? Easier? Why? If you haven't quite gotten the hang of taking those 15 minutes, write about what got in the way and how you feel about it. 

Today's fiction prompt: Pretend your character is trying something crazy, something lonely, like swimming from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage at age 64. Alternate between the extreme physical nature of the challenge ans the character's thoughts. Change up the activity and character as you see fit.

Fifteen minutes. More if you want, but just fifteen minutes spent writing today could change your entire life.

Scribble… scribble… scribble…

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WFMAD – Day 2 – Your Abundance of Time

 

You're back!!! Yay!

Congratulations to everyone who started yesterday and welcome to the newcomers. Thanks to all who took the time to post a comment or something that they wrote yesterday. Was it harder than you thought or easier to take those fifteen minutes? (Note: the first day is the easiest. But don't worry. We can do this.)

 

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This is the problem, right? You want to write, you yearn to write, but there is never enough time. Your job sucks up eight hours a day minimum, and your commute, and then there is the grocery shopping, and the kids have to be picked up, etc., etc., etc. Or maybe you're a full-time student and all your teachers expect you to do 80 million hours of work every night. Or your family needs you 25 hours a day. Or you're already a published author and the need to stay active on social media and fuel the publicity machine and remind the world that you're alive steals every waking moment. (Yeah, that last one is aimed at me! Now you know what I allow to get in the way of my writing time.)

Blah, Blah. Blah.

 

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Do you want to write that book or do you want to talk about writing that book?

Life is complicated and hard. That will never change, so save your breath and stop whining about it. I know that you're wasting at least fifteen minutes a day farting around on the Internet. How does reading People.com improve your life and get you closer to fulfilling your writing dream? Did playing Candy Crush help you write any pages last month? 

Our brains are wired to enjoy the false sense of accomplishment that we get from clicking on things as we scurry around cyberspace like hamsters smoking crack. Our compulsion to click on listicles about cats is rooted in the same brain wiring that makes people play nickle slots at seedy casinos for hours on end. 

 

start today

 

YOU HAVE AN ABUNDANCE OF TIME. 

I know you have fifteen minutes. That's all you have to do today. Write for fifteen minutes and promise that you will write for fifteen minutes tomorrow. This month is about putting your dream first and giving yourself permission to make it happen. TURN OFF THE INTERNET AND WRITE BECAUSE IT WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY!!

Today's non-fiction prompt: What is your favorite time waster? Be specific: write down the websites and what you get out of spending time on them. The television shows and movies that you've watched in the last movies. The phone calls, coffee dates, lunches, or evenings out that robbed you of time you'd like to have back. What time of day are you most likely to engage in these time wasters and why? THAT IS YOUR WRITING TIME!! When you're done responding to this prompt, set an alarm for tomorrow's writing time.

Today's fiction prompt: Write an internal monologue of a character in which s/he rationalizes and justifies which websites s/he visits. Start with websites that have a strong connection to the character's work and/or life, then follow the path down the rabbit hole until your character is doing something silly (like playing Candy Crush). Is change possible? What will it take for that character to change?

Fifteen minutes. More if you want, but just fifteen minutes spent writing today could change your entire life.

Scribble… scribble… scribble…

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WFMAD – Day 1 – Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

WELCOME TO THE 6TH ANNUAL

WRITE FIFTEEN MINUTES A DAY (WFMAD)

CHALLENGE! 

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This is for you if you want to write.

If you struggle to find time to write.

If you want to get ready for NaNoWriMo in November.

If you are wicked insecure about your writing ability.

And if you are a gifted and skilled procrastinator.

 

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The rules of the WFMAD Challenge are simple.

  1. Commit to write for 15 minutes every single day this month.
  2. Write, just like you promised yourself.
  3. There is no Rule #3. Life is already too complicated. Two rules are easy to remember. The point is to get you to write, not bog you down with silly regulations.

 

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How does this work?

Things are going to be a little different his year. For starters, we're doing it in September, not August (which we started doing the year my mom died), and not July, which was the original month for WFMAD. This year's challenge was moved because a) I'm busy working n the next book (ASHES), and b) my new YA novel, THE IMPOSSIBLE KNIFE OF MEMORY comes out in January and I'm already busy with early publicity chores, and c) our son got married in August, so life has been more hectic than usual.

I'll post a blog every day. It will have some writing prompts and not-so-gentle reminders that you PROMISED to write for 15 minutes. YOU SWORE AN OATH! This is boot-camp for your writing discipline, my friends. There is no whining in boot camp. No excuses. Just writing. And random outbursts of dancing.

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Where Do I Sign Up?

No sign-ups, although in years past, writers have double-dog-dared their writer friends to join them in the Challenge. I suggest a high-stakes bet with your friend, if you choose to do that.

 

Do I Have To Respond To Your Prompts?

Hell, no! Write what you want, write what the little voice in your head is whispering. But if you are stuck, try out the prompt.

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How Can You Tell If I Am Doing It?

I can’t. It’s between you and your Muse, unless you tell your friends or leave a note in the Comments section of my blog. (I must admit, I like it when people do that.) Sometimes people post their day’s writing in the Comments section. (I like that, too.)

You are accountable only to yourself, ever, for the amount of time you choose to spend writing. Or if you blow it off. This is a good place to begin the daily discipline, and to get in the habit of that accountability. Here you are with friends who understand the struggle. Feel free to tell us all about your writing challenges, or ask me questions in the Comments section.

 

What if I screw up and miss a day? Or a week?

Then you start over! Don't waste any more time beating yourself up about lost writing opportunities. There are only three situations that should ever interfere with your writing: you have a new baby, you are sick enough to be in a hospital, or you are caring for someone who is that ill, and someone you love has recently died. HOWEVER…. all three of these situations evoke powerful feelings and if you could write even one sentance a day when you are in the middle of them, it would be awesome.

 

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HELP! I'm totally blocked! I can't think of anything to write!

You've come to the write, I mean right, place.

Today's non-fiction prompt: Write about why you are afraid to write. What is your worst writing nightmare? What is the worst thing that can happen if you send 15 minutes a day, every day for the rest of this month, writing? 

Today's fiction prompt: Write a silly fable about two cows. Cow #1 follows her dream of being a performance artist. Cow #2 dreams of being a performance artist, but lacks the courage to try. You can see where I'm headed with this, can't you?

Fifteen minutes. More if you want, but just fifteen minutes spent writing today could change your entire life.

Scribble… scribble… scribble…

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What Are You Waiting For? – WFMAD Day 31

 

We’re here!!

The end of WFMAD, Year 5. How was it?

Writing this blog every day turned out to be good discipline for me. I have been a wretched excuse for a blogger in the past year. A blog post is an essay. I would rather work on my novels than write an essay several times a week. But I seem to have no problem posted to Twitter, or to Tumblr, or to Facebook. No essays required there, I guess.

It takes me an average of about four hours to write a WFMAD blog. (Now you know why it takes me so long to write a novel.) I deliberately did not review my previous WFMAD blogs, but I realize that I may have unintentionally replicated some topics. For those of you who have been following for five years, my apologies.

I’m not sure if I’m going to do this again next year because of exactly that issue; there are only so many things one can say about this bizarre little practice of dreaming up worlds and then committing them to paper. I’m thinking about writing a small e-book that would contain whatever it is I think I know about trying to combine life and writing. Not sure.

Would you rather see the e-book or will you be here in August 2013, waiting for the next blog entry?

What did I do this month? Good question.

Along with writing this blog, I’ve been working on my YA novel every day. And we welcomed our first grandchild into the world this month. And we almost finished the mammoth house renovation project that has consumed the past 18 months. And I went to a lot of doctors and I kept the gardens almost weed-free and took care of various and sundry matters for various and sundry relatives and friends.  Took a quick trip to Montreal. Answered a lot of email. Read some great books. Watched Olympics. Ate astounding tomatoes.

Life happens whether you are writing or not. You don’t have to wait for the right time, or that Muse-blessed idea or a fellowship to a writing colony or a winning lottery ticket or anything. You just have to give yourself permission to take seriously your writing dream.

Do you dare?

Why the hell not?

Is it not better to to have tried – to have lived and loved and failed…. but laughed – than to never have lived at all?

You can do this. You have permission.

I double-dog-dare you.

 

Today’s Quote

“Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent.”

Neil Gaiman

 

Today’s prompt: How many days did you write this month? What happened to take you off track? How did you feel about that? What did you do the next day to change things? Looking at the next four months, what time of day is the best time for your to write? (You only need fifteen minutes! Write on the toilet, for cripes sakes!)  What writing project do you want to finish before August 1, 2013?

 

Scribble…scribble…scribble…

Whose Story Is it? WFMAD Day 30

 

Google Analytics tells me that this blog is read by people all over the world. Hello, Egypt! Hello, Germany! Hello, Brasil!

Today I am going to focus on an issue central to life in the United States, so I beg forgiveness of those readers who don’t live here. I would, of course, love their opinions about this post, because I imagine their perspective on what I’m about to say would be fascinating.

Ready?

A lot of white people in the US don’t know they’re white. They think they just are, they think they are the default setting.

Am I talking about you? Might be. Are you white? Do you realize how relatively easy your life has been when compared to people from non-Caucasian backgrounds? Do you understand the phrase “white privilege?”

If the answer to that last question is “not sure or “no,” do yourself a favor and read this classic essay by Peggy McIntosh.

White people have had a whole lot of blood on their hands for the last four hundred years. It is not my intent to address that right now. I want to focus on storytelling. Specifically, white writers writing outside their (dominant) culture.

This brings up the larger question: whose story can you tell?

How should we write about people whose experience is different than ours? Is it appropriate to write from the perspective of a different gender, a different sexual orientation? What about religion? What about age? What about someone from a different ethnic background or culture or country?

I believe the answer is yes.

I believe that artists are called to be humble and lower their own sense of self so that they can be open to the experience of others and transform that into their art.

I believe that artists are called to lead the culture, not to wait until it’s safe to take a stand.

I’ve written from the male perspective (Twisted, Forge), from the African-American perspective during the American Revolution (Chains, Forge), and about children in different countries (a non-fiction book about Saudi Arabia, and my first picture book, Ndito Runs, about a Kenyan girl).

I was criticized by both white and black Americans for Chains and Forge, though not as much as I thought I’d be. The criticism from some white people has been along the lines of “Why do you have to write about that slavery stuff? That was over a long time ago. We’ll never move the country forward if people like you keep bringing it up.” The criticism from a few black people was that these are not my stories to tell.

The reason America struggles so much with the evil of racism is that we’ve never had the courage to study the history of our slavery and deal with its legacy. I’m the Queen Of The Elephant in the Room, folks. I’m going to keep on talking and writing about things that make us uncomfortable.

There is not much I can say to change the opinion of people who think that I shouldn’t write from a slave’s POV because I’m white. No doubt there is a long and painful history behind that opinion. White people have been stealing stories (and music, and dance, and etc.) for as long as we’ve been stealing peoples and nations. I respect that opinion, but I disagree with it. I thought and prayed a long time before I wrote those two books. I spoke to friends and educators of all backgrounds  trying to figure out if and how I could write from the perspective of Colonial-era slaves.

I decided, in the end, that it was my story, too. Slavery is not only an African-American experience. Slavery is an American experience. If I, a middle class white female writer, with all the privileges that entails, could not find a way into the hearts and souls of Isabel and Curzon, then there could be no hope for my country. But to do the job well and responsibly, I had to research the topic like no one ever had before, and then have historians comb over my manuscript to make sure I got it right.

Researching the experiences of other people means checking your assumptions at the door. You need to seek out primary sources that were composed and controlled by the people you seek. You must study the broader world of your character so that when you come across “facts” you can analyze them within the context of their time and space, and with a critical view toward the source of the data. You have to be willing to approach people who know more than you do and ask for their guidance and help. And you must listen to them.

We read to understand people whose lives are different than our own. Some writers will feel called to write about people who are unlike themselves.

You can do it, but you must do it with humility, respect, and a lot more research than you realize.

There are two bloggers you simply must read if you are thinking about writing characters from non-white backgrounds. The first is Debbie Reese, who is tribally enrolled at Nambe Pueblo. A former professor in American Indian Studies, Debbie is currently working on a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science with the goal of establishing a library and tribal archive at Nambe. Her wonderful blog, American Indians in Children’s Literature  looks at the way Native Americans are portrayed and represented in children’s literature.

Debbie writes: “Though I am certain that no author ever sets out to deliberately misrepresent who we are in his or her writing, it happens over and over again. Information is the only way to counter those misrepresentations. On American Indians in Children’s Literature, I publish analyses of children’s books, lesson plans, films, and other items related to the topic of American Indians and/or how we this topic is taught in school. “

Her blog is a wealth of information. To start, check out “Authenticity and Sensitivity: Goals for writing and reviewing books with Native American themes,” which she wrote for School Library Journal.

Thank you, Debbie, for encouraging me to write about this topic today!

The other blogger is my friend and wonderful author, Mitali Perkins. You should be reading her blog anyway, if you want to publish for children. But her posts Ten Tips About Writing Race In Novels  and her  “writing race checklist” are very good tools.

Sci-fi and fantasy author Nisi Shawl has a great post, Transracial Writing for the Sincere. And the almighty and ever-amazing Cynthia Leitich Smith (yes, she of one of the best children’s literature websites out there) wrote an “It’s Complicated” post about writing outside your culture.

I suspect I’ll be writing more about this once WFMAD is over, but this is a good start to an important and complex topic. If you know of other websites or resources that would be helpful for folks looking to write outside their own experience, please let me know in the comments section.

Today’s Quote

“You just keep the words coming. No trick to it at all if the writing is in you. Nothing will come if you haven’t got the stuff. It comes natural or it doesn’t come at all. Everything comes; the people, the place, the story, and you just act like the fella feeding the corn shucker. Keep moving about and filling.”

William Faulkner 

Today’s prompt: What kind of character would you feel completely unable to write about? Why? List five things that would start you on the path to understanding that character well enough to start writing.

 

Scribble…scribble…scribble…