“Except the unexpected and never, ever expect anything.”
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“Except the unexpected and never, ever expect anything.”
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What gets you on the page, stage, or wherever you wish your art to flourish? I hope you’ll find the time to get out there today and do it.
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As I sit here, grumbling that I have a blog post due and I’m sick and would rather be in bed, I’m reminded yet again of the power of the little: one small step can, over time, add up to big progress.
What do I mean?
I’m facilitating a workshop using Julia Cameron’s book, FINDING WATER. Sundays are the day I post the new week’s essay and discussion-starter. Today, though, I’m dealing with a cold that seems to want to suck all my energy out of my nose.
After fighting with it for a while, I cracked open the book and the words on the page jumped out at me: “What small step can I take today?” I don’t have to write a huge essay, just grist for the mill. I just have to start the conversation and keep the ball moving. A small tap will do.
Rachel and I are celebrating the release of our novel, TIGER TIGER, from Samhain Publishing. At times, we had to remind ourselves to just focus on the next right step. Finish one chapter. Edit one section. Draft the synopsis. These small steps can add up to a novel.
So, dear reader, I offer this to you. What small step can you take in the direction of your own art?
But what does that mean for Writer Wednesday?
Here are some of the questions I tried to answer as I worked on the redesign:
This fight can be won. I just need to stay alert, attentive, and consistent with my efforts. The fruits of these labors will be well worth the effort. Now excuse me while I go work on a story.
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The frustrating this is that many months ago I wrote with furious intensity at every opportunity. Pages of notebooks filled up with penned stories that I later transferred to computer. Sheets of print-outs stacked on the passenger seat of my sedan allowed editing at long traffic lights. I’d reread while on the NordicTrack making further, if sometimes difficult to decipher, notes of improvement.
Minor elements twined together to sprout unforeseen branches for ever-growing characters. I began to feel as if I’d been possessed by some benevolent spirit sharing stories from the afterlife. Now, when I have more time to devote to writing than ever, the field is barren.
Enough of the self indulgent puns, however. As a wise friend pointed out, life ebbs and flows like the tide (Thanks for that uplifting remark, A. Catherine Noon! What goes out must come in, eh?). The author in me seems to be stuck in winter, but no season lasts forever (Okay, one more pun).
I’m going to try starting fresh each morning, perhaps assigning each weekday with a particular goal. Mondays could be devoted to reading those short stories moldering in a binder. Tuesdays can be spent working on blog material, which I’ve neglected. Wednesday might be time to develop new ideas, whether for a virgin project or an unfinished one.
Before I go on, let’s just say that I’ll have to find what works. In the meantime, I hope you don’t stagnate in whatever you desire to achieve.
Now let’s go create!
Maybe I’ll scribble down a Haiku before logging off…
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Lots has been written on the benefits of vacation and how to take one, where to go, what to do, etc. etc. ad nauseum infinitum.
So how come nobody talks about coming back from a vacation and how to get back into the swing of things? It’s the beginning of June and almost the Summer Solstice and I’d rather hide under my bed and nap.
So, in honor of napping, let’s discuss summer reading!
TIGER TIGER is available now for pre-order from Samhain Publishing and will be out officially on July 23rd. The most exciting part of this book, for me, is them trying to find the killer. They know it’s a tiger, and they know it’s not one of Neal’s men, but they have trouble finding the actual perpetrator. It was fun trying to figure out how to hide some of the clues and reveal others, and decide when to do it. You’ll have to tell us if it “worked” for the story or not.
In the meantime, I’m going to go hide under a pillow with my kitten. Enjoy!
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“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
– E.E. Cummings
My links: Blog | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | LinkedIn | Pandora
Knoontime Knitting: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Ravelry
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The Writer Zen Garden: The Writers Retreat Blog | Forum | Facebook | Twitter
Team Blogs: Nightlight | Nightlight FB Page | Beyond the Veil | BtV FB Page | LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers | LGBTFFW FB Page
Publishers: Samhain Publishing | Torquere Press
Check out BURNING BRIGHT, available from Samhain Publishing.
Check out EMERALD FIRE, available from Torquere Books.
Check out “Taking a Chance“, available from Torquere Books.
Check out COOK LIKE A WRITER , available from Barnes and Noble.
Watch for TIGER TIGER, coming July 23, 2013, from Samhain Publishing.
I am considering changing my career and have gone back to the basics, which for me, is What Color Is Your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles (which, if you haven’t read it or it’s been awhile, go pick up the new version, it’s awesome). In the very first chapter, he writes about Hope and how to find it.
I think he’s right-on. You can read his book for his four keys to finding hope because they’re well worth reading – regardless of where you are on your career path. But for my purposes here, I wanted to highlight his first point: make sure you have at least two alternatives in every situation.
We’ve talked about this kind of mindset on Writer’s Retreat before. Darla’s Keeping the Faith and my own Power to the People are two recent examples. Writing is, by its nature, a solitary pursuit and it’s critical to keeping the fingers moving on the keyboard that we keep the right mindset. I don’t know if “right” is exactly the word I want, more likely it’s “effective” as in, “does what I’m doing work to keep me on the page?” If it does, great, if not, try something else. And that, Dear Reader, is where having alternatives comes in handy.
For example, let’s say we’re writing a story about Jake and Luke. Jake is a biker and Luke is a day trader. What happens if we make Jake a suburban cyclist instead? Or what if Luke is a child counselor? What if Luke is Lydia? What if they’re brother and sister, instead of a romantic partnership?
It makes sense from a battle standpoint, as well. There’s an old saying, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” How does a strategist prevail, then? By having a backup plan, contingency plan, whatever you want to call it. Figure it’s your Zombie Apocalypse Survival Plan. It doesn’t matter what you call it, it matters that you have it.
After all, having a plan to survive the apocalypse means you have to hope that you will survive the apocalypse, eh?
See why hope is so important?
I decided that an excuse was in order to share this iconic and heartwarming image of spring. So here is my resulting thought, that writers need to be like this duck. We ought to be on constant lookout, though not in search of the dangers for which she scanned.