Tag: writing discipline

 

 

On Twitter and Facebook I’ve started to take writing-related questions that I’ll answer here. If you have one, feel free to leave it in the Comments section.

Question 1: Please explain your daily routine, how you revise, how you balance professional demands (deadlines etc) with creative/artistic satisfaction.

Answer: I am still looking for the answer!! I got serious about writing in 1992. I had my first book published in 1996. I quit my day job in 2002, and started supporting my family only with income from writing and speaking.

It’s been hard. Way harder than I thought it would be. But maybe that’s good, because it has helped me develop pretty decent work habits.

My daily routine over the years has ebbed and flowed depending on how many kids were living at home, how many parents we were taking care of, whether I was divorced or married, where I lived, and how many weeks/year I was on the road. Right now my routine is fairly simple. I wake up around 5am. Two days a week I spend the morning taking my father to the gym and breakfast, then doing chores and errands for him. The other mornings I try to get out to my writing cottage by 6am. Right now I am working very hard on my new YA, so I write as long as I can, usually until dinner time. I’m bummed because I haven’t had as much time as I’d like for running or gardening this summer, but I really want to get this finished ASAP.

The creative/artistic satisfaction is still there, even though the burden of producing can sometimes feel overwhelming. I wouldn’t be able to work this hard if it were not for the moments of magic, the times when I lost myself in the story and surfaced an hour or four later, without a clear memory of having typed the last ten pages. The satisfaction is enhanced when I get feedback from readers who connect with the story the same way I did when I was writing it.

The revision process? That’s an answer for another day!

Today’s Quote 

“Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.” 
― Flannery O’Connor

 Today’s Prompt: Write about the time your mother really dressed up. Everything. All the details. All the secrets. All of the dreams and the sadness that you can dredge up.

 

Scribble… scribble… scribble…

 

 

As writers, we play “what if” all day long. “What if” drives every decision about characters and plot twists. It is probably the tool we use the most.

Sometimes the “what if” tool becomes the bewitched broom of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and winds up terrifying and controlling us instead of the other way around. We turn the “what if” on the quality of our work too early … and make ourselves miserable. What if this actually sucks? What if I never get published? What if everyone secretly thinks I am wasting my time? What if I AM wasting my time?????

I hate it when my brain does that to me.

There is a time and place for taking a giant step backwards and cooling critiquing the quality of your work. When is that? ONE: when you are revising, and TWO: when you are trying to figure out if your story or novel or whatever is good enough to submit.

NOT when you are trying to get into the daily groove of writing, or when you are looking for the door that will open the magic of a story.

When Doubt and Desperation creep into your brain and try to cannibalize your imagination, pick up something handy, like a burning torch or a double-headed axe, and drive them back into the shadows where they belong.

Today’s Quote

“It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.”

Virginia Woolf

 

Today’s Prompt: You (or a character) are trapped in a looming disaster. You are given a few minutes to find and carry one thing out of your house. All the of the people and animals that live with you are safe. All of your documentation; insurance paperwork, medical records, etc. have also been accounted for.

What is the first thing you choose and why?

You get to the front door and stop. You put down your first choice and run back and get a second item. Why? What is it?

Be sure to describe both the physical details and the emotional significance of the item.

 

Scribble… scribble… scribble…

 

 Image by Michael Howell

 

Those days when the words flow are magical, aren’t they?

The days when the words don’t flow? When all you hear is the hot wind blowing down the canyon, evil spirits laughing at you? They are hell.

Everyone has days like this. They can be managed. They can be endured and overcome. You will crawl your way out of the desert and drink deep again from the well of inspiration.

When the hot winds blow and I have sand in my brain instead of ideas, I will do one or all of the following:

1. Read a book written by an author I love

2. Go for a walk

3. Read poetry

4. Go for a run

5. Weep. Pout. Curse the sky. Stomp my feet.

6. Draw

7. Take the character who is giving me the most trouble and writing outrageous scenes with her/him. This kind of scene will have nothing to do with the book I’m writing, but is designed to help me get to know a character better.

 

Today’s Quote

“I’ve learned just to go to my room and plug away. It doesn’t take very long for most writers to realise that if you wait until the day you are inspired and feel like writing you’ll never do it at all.”

Anne Tyler

Today’s Prompt: This one starts with writing a few short lists.

Step 1 – write the names of three kids from your childhood (these do not have to be children you knew well or even liked).

Step 2 – write down five smells.

Step 3 – choose  a simple story idea. Don’t have one? Borrow one of these:  Surprise Party, Talking Roses, Exploding Toilet, Bus Breakdown, Burning Pancakes, Girl Scout Troop in Revolt.

Step 4 – Combine the elements from Steps 1-3 and write about the mixture for 15 minutes.

  Scribble… scribble… scribble…

(Image from PostSecret)

 

I have two external scars of note. The one on my left arm is about 3.5 inches long, the one on my right shoulder is a little longer.  I got them both ten years ago this week, when a meticulous surgeon did a great job cutting out the scary melanomas that grew there.

There is much, much more to the story, of course, but I’m going to keep those cards close to my chest until the time comes to spread them out in a novel.

Realizing that I have made the ten-year mark (not completely clean, alas; I had a pre-melanoma removed last year… but clean enough to celebrate!) made me think about the power of setting to evoke strong characterization and conflict potential.

Ready?

 

 Today’s quote

“I think all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it.”

William Carlos Williams

 

Today’s prompt: Write a scene in a doctor’s office. It can be one from your own life. One that you imagine a relative went through. It could be a famous person, stripped down and wrapped in a paper gown, about to get The News. Try to alternate the patient’s thoughts with details from the room. Introduce other characters; nurses, other patents, medical students, the doctor, the patient’s beloved companion, the person the character sees in the mirror. You don’t necessarily have to tell the reader exactly what is wrong with the character. Draw out the tension. Let the reader add his own tension that inevitably comes into play in this setting.

 

 Scribble… scribble… scribble…

 

I spent the weekend with my daughter Meredith in Montreal, Canada. The stated goal of the trip was to watch the Philadelphia Union soccer team play the Montreal Impact, but it wound up being (as all good trips do) much more complex and fun.

WRITING NOTE – Travel is very, very good for your Muse. The change of scenery and stimulation feeds your soul and fills your well. Writers are very sensitive to language and I believe that being exposed to a foreign language stimulates your brain, too.

Not only did we watch the game (Philly lost, despite our loud and raucous cheering), but we got to explore the site of the 1974 Olympics, visited a tiny part of the that city’s great Botanical Garden, rode the subway, mangled a lot of French, ate poutine, and a grilled cheese and duck sandwich, drank a little wine, and enjoyed a divine lunch in an outdoors garden courtyard.

The best part was sharing it with my daughter and laughing constantly. We came home with the need to schedule another get-away weekend immediately!

And now it is back to writing!

 

Today’s Quote

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” 
― Jane Yolen

 

Today’s Prompt: For fifteen minutes – without stopping – you will write about all of the ideas and characters and feelings and memories and dreams and people that you want to write books about for the next fifty years.

NOTE – I find this easier when I am playing music very loudly in my headphones. The noise helps drown out the cackling laughter of my Inner Bitch who makes fun of me when I dream big.

 

  Scribble… scribble… scribble…