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WFMAD Day 13 – Alone Together

Such a strange thing writing is, don’t you think?

Visions of other people and other worlds swim in your head until you have no choice but to write them down. Then you have the burning need to have someone else read what you’ve written, so you embark on the rocky path to publication.

The writing life is at once filled with companionship – all those characters in your head – and often quite lonely, because you are essentially alone for nearly all of your working hours. (I’m talking about the creating part, not things like book tour.)

For many people, this is lonely. Not for me.

I love the solitude, but even for people like me, its good to make time to be in the company of other writers. Creativity expands exponentially when creative people hang out with each other.

If you haven’t joined networks or support groups for writers like SCBWI, do it today. Look for writing conferences or retreats or workshops in your area. Find yourself some writing buddies who share your commitment to your dream and make time to work together.

Not just manuscript critiquing or meeting for coffee so you can trade news about which editor has moved where. Set up time with your writing friends so you can write together.

It helps to come up with a couple of guidelines before you start; how much talking is allowed, how long will the writing go on, will you share what you’ve written after the quiet time or just go straight to the gossip and pastry portion of your get-together.

Who can you write with this weekend?

Ready….

“WRITE. FINISH THINGS. KEEP WRITING.” Neil Gaiman’s advice for aspiring writers.

Set…. After you make this weekend’s writing date, find a quiet spot and make the world go away.

Today’s prompt: Your character finds a box hidden at the back of her closet. Inside it are things from her childhood that someone saved for her. What is in the box? (Hint – focus on the way things smell.) OR If you found a box of items from your childhood, what would it contain?

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble!!!

 

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WFMAD Day 12 – Mindfulness Part 2

Do you flow? Do your words flow?

I’m talking about “flow” as it is used by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who wrote Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. In an interview in 1996, he defined flow as “Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”

Sounds like writing, doesn’t it?

(I just heard a voice in the peanut gallery shout, “It sounds like writing sometimes!”)

Agreed. If we were all guaranteed that every writing experience would flow, we would do little else besides write.

I’ve found that when I am writing every day (even if it’s only for an hour or so) the number of days in which I experience flow increases substantially. When I pick at the writing less often, I have more frustrating experiences.

Professor Csikszentmihalyi also said this: “Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason. “

What do you think?

Ready….

“Poetry is the art of saying what you mean but disguising it.” Diane Wakoski

Set… Find your quiet place, lock the door. The world can wait.

Today’s prompt: You are going to mash-up a poem with a weather proverb and see what happens.

1. Choose your proverb.

2. Take a few words from “Dublinesque” by Philip Larkin and insert them into the proverb. Make up a character who says that proverb and explain why he or she says it. Have fun!

Scribble…Scribble…Scribble!!!

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WFMAD Day 11 – we interrupt this blog

I was going to blather on more about the state of flow and mindfulness today, but the universe had other plans.

Every once in a while something happens in the news that you can use in your writing, whether its in your Work In Progress or in free-writing.

What am I talking about? The Jet Blue flight attendant, Steve Slater, who reached his breaking point with a rule-breaking, rude passenger, deployed the emergency chute, grabbed a beer and left the airplane.

Is your character going to do that?

Probably not.

But it is a great example of the reaction of a person who is under pressure.

Anyone can behave well when life is going swimmingly. It’s the choices that people make under pressure that give you the most insight into who they really are. Sometimes it takes tremendous pressure or drastic change for a person to learn about herself.

Writers sometimes care so deeply about their characters that they hesitate to make the going too tough for them. The early drafts of SPEAK all featured pathetically lame endings because I didn’t want the main character to have to be traumatized even more than she already was.

It took a while but I finally figured out that I had to (rather literally) back Melinda into a corner to force her to fight her fear and find her voice.

Got that?

Ready…

“Write about what you’re afraid of.” Donald Barthelme

Set… Turn off the phone, Internet, and inner critic who doesn’t want you to make waves.

Today’s prompt: Craft a scene in which your character is backed into a corner, pushed against the wall, driven to the brink. Force her into an emotional reaction that is the sort of thing she has never done before. What will she do? Why? What does this tell you about her that you didn’t know before?

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble!!!

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WFMAD Day 10 – Mindfulness Part 1

I love reading about neuroscience.

I know. It’s not the thing that you admit often in public. But the truth is that I read more non-fiction than fiction, and one of my favorite things to read about are books that explore the human brain.

This is all connected to writing, of course.

I am fascinated by how Brain contains memory and imagination and emotion and the ability to walk and chew gum at the same time. I doubt that our science is even close to understanding the Great Gray Matter yet and I am looking forward to the next fifty years of bunkings and debunkings of new theories.

What does this have to do with WFMAD? Not a lot, except that the Eagles are playing the Jaguars on Friday night. This means it’s time for us to get our cable hooked up again.

We have cable TV for two reasons: NFL football and college basketball. We turn off the cable from the end of March Madness to the beginning of NFL pre-season in mid-August. Why? We find it gives time for the things that we really care about; reading, family time, running, camping, and working in the garden. We have many avenues to get news information. If there is a show or documentary that we are interested in, we can always watch it on Hulu or some other such thing. What we avoid is that time suck that happens when you turn on the TV ( you know, just to see what’s on) and two hours later you find yourself drooling in the corner of the couch, surrounded by potato chip crumbs, your thumb compulsively clicking channels.

We have one television in our house and it is down in the basement, so that when TV season is upon us, it takes effort and mindfulness to go all the way down there and turn the darn thing on. This also removes the mind-numbing habit that many people have of leaving the television on for background noise. During football and basketball season we make a habit of watching the games we are excited about. We also try to remain mindful about not fall into the trap of turning it on just because it is there.

Should you kick your TV to the curb? I don’t know… should you? People are often shocked when they find out that I’ve written eight novels, three picture books, a young readers series and spent way more than a thousand days traveling in the past twelve years. I think a lot of that was accomplished because I don’t spend much time watching TV. On the other hand, I know some people work well with a TV muttering in the corner. I guess the trick is to be clear about which of your habits support your artistic dream and which ones interfere with it.

 

Ready…

“Making, unmaking, remaking, and transforming herself; that is the job of a writer.” Joyce Carol Oates.

Set… turn off the TV, phone, and the other devices that get in the way of your creativity.

Today’s prompt: you get a choice today.

1) If you have a Work In Progress, interview one of the secondary characters about the main character. Be open to allowing the secondary character to go off on a rant and tell you things you didn’t know before.

2) If you don’t have a WIP, write a scene about a kid trying to learn how to ride a bicycle. Alone. You can choose to write from the perspective of the kid, or an adult who is watching the scene.

Scribble…Scribble…Scribble!!!

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WFMAD Day 9 – gunpowder and sunscreen

I spent the weekend in a haze of gunpowder and sunscreen, visiting the largest American Revolution reenactment in New England at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

 

I visited this reenactment a couple of years ago when I was scouting out scenes for FORGE. In some ways, writing historical fiction might be easier than writing contemporary fiction. OK, not easier, exactly. Definitely more time consuming. And more maddening.

But you can make no assumptions when writing historical fiction; no assumptions about, say, how people pulled on their socks, or when they ate their breakfast, or how they greeted old friends.

In an early draft I’ll sketch a scene like “Curzon is seen by Trumbull. Tries to run. Is caught. Confrontation. Officer intervenes. Enlistment scene.” At first I picture this in a modern context. Once I have the actions and motivations of my characters, I do the primary source research that will enable me to write the scene in a manner that is as historically accurate as possible.

Visiting reenactments helps, but is not the key to all my problems. Because I can’t assume that the reenactors are getting it right. (If you allow other people to do your research, I can guarantee you’ll get burned.) But watching the reenactors has helped spark my imagination and set me on the path to some great scenes.

Ready…

Here is a poem for you, written by Emily Dickinson. Read it out loud a couple of times.

"Luck is not chance --
It's Toil --
Fortune's expensive smile
Is earned --
The Father of the Mine
Is that old-fashioned Coin
We spurned --"

Set… turn off the phone, step away from the internet, and the tell the world you’ll be back in fifteen minutes. Or an hour.

Today’s prompt: Think of a scene or a story that you want to write, but that requires a lot of research. Jot down the central idea in a sentance or two. (If you can’t think of anything off the top of your head, consult the list you made yesterday.)

If you had all of the time and the money that you needed, how would you research this story? Be as detailed and specific as you can.

Bonus prompt: When your fifteen minutes is up, hop on the internet and see if you can find affordable and time-reasonable alternatives to your research ideas. For example, you may not be able to spend a week hiking in the Abruzzo region of Italy, but you can track down people who lived there, seek out Italian documentaries, contact photographers who have been there. I find that if I write a rough draft of a scene, then write the specific questions I need answered (What was the procedure for enlisting Continental soldiers in the fall of 1777? What was the promised pay? Term of enlistment? What evidence is there that these rules were broken? Where can I find actual enlistment documents? Who has studied enlistments in the period surrounding the Battles of Saratoga?) it motivates me to actually do the research. And then I can write.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble!!!