Back to Business...uh, well....

So this month we're talking about writing itself, and publishing, right? I probably had something bigger and grander planned for this post, but then, well, life happened. My husband had to have surgery, and instead of having time to write this up yesterday, I wound up waiting for the hospital to find my husband a room post-op. For three hours. After spending the morning in the waiting room waiting for him to come out of surgery. Shot the whole day.

Maybe that's a lesson right there. Life happens. Writing is not a 9-5 job for most authors I know, although many of us wish it could be (there are days I do too, but I actually like my job). I have a goal of 500 words per day. Not a huge amount, but when you hate writing first drafts like I do -- I am a champion reviser-- sometimes those words feel like pulling teeth. And I'm kind of in a funk right now. Graduate School ended in the beginning of December, and there were the holidays, and all this other stuff, and I had given myself permission to wait until January 1 to dive back into writing.

And then...well, stuff gets in the way. And now I'm turning into a champion procrastinator. I've tried to write some  every day, but I think I've made the 500 words, like, once. I'm just not feeling it, and I'm easily distracted. I think I need to go back to the beginning and read over the whole first 25,000 words and find the story again. Yeah, like I have time for that.

What was I saying...oh yeah. My advice for writers -- be flexible. Don't throw up your hands in despair if the time you set aside for writing gets eaten up by life's crap. I finally DID have time to work on my manuscript yesterday (and should have done it while waiting in the hospital, but there were too many distractions, and I had a book to read), and it was during my son's basketball practice. I find those times ideal for writing, when I have to be somewhere and not engaged with what's going on. But sometimes that's what you have to do to get it done.

Some people can sleep anywhere, I have learned to write anywhere. And now it really IS back to business for me. I have three books to work on this year, and one new edition to get out into the world. No more time for distractions.

Look, shiny!

You mean I actually have to write?

This is something I struggle with as a writer - that sounds rather like an oxymoron doesn't it?

I'm good (maybe even great) at a lot of things writers have to do:

1)  Plotting - I love deciding where my story is going to take place, who the characters will be and what the struggles will be.  It's something I've actually gotten much better at over the years.

2) Promotion - I enjoy meeting new people at conferences, teaching online classes, touring blogs. Interviewing people on my blog.  It connects me to readers on more than a "buy my book" level and I think that's very important.

3) Editing - I would have to say while this isn't my favorite part of the process, I find it much easier than writing itself.  I'm not an author who is attached to every word or phrase.  I'm not even emotionally attached to certain plot devices even though I love that piece.  Ultimately I trust my editors to have the knowledge of what their readers expect from the house as well as my work.

 And then there's Writing - This is the painful part for me.  I'm not talking about the first 30 pages here.  I'm talking about the transition between scenes,keeping sex scenes fresh and which POV do I write from?  I tend to over think this part of the process - a lot. 

If I hit a bump at all here - I tend to avoid it.  I've tried all the tricks to put my butt-in-chair and type.  Fake deadlines, write or do housework, force myself to sit there and stare at the screen for an hour.  It just doesn't work for me.  And of course with a day-job it's a lot easier for me set writing aside as an excuse that I'm tired, don't have time, etc.

I'm not a Write-or-Die writer.  I truly admire those who have to write.  Of course I'm sure they have their own troubles with this business but it's unlikely writing is one of them. :)

Once I do actually sit down - I can usually stay there for a full eight hours finally having the ambition to finish or get close to it.  I love typing "THE END", because then I get to move onto: Plotting, Editing or Promotion.

Who knew to be a successful writer...you actually had to write?  :)

Pinterest!

My newest online obsession. At first I thought, "Pff. Why in the world would anyone spend their time flipping through someone else's photo album?" I don't consider myself especially visually oriented, so I dismissed the idea.

After I'd heard about it a dozen times, though, I registered. On a whim. And have subsequently lost hours.

HOURS of my life that I'll never get back. Hours I consider, if not well spent, then at least charmingly entertained.

I've giggled at the funnies, had tears start in my eyes at the touching, been awed by the breathtaking, and followed all kinds of links to new and unusual places.

For those of you who are woefully behind the times, Pinterest is a site where people can make their own public albums of things they've seen around the web that catch their eye. If you had a big pinboard at home where you tack up all the pictures that you've cut out of magazines, or ideas for things you always mean to do or get, that's basically what Pinterest is about. It's a giant, virtual pinboard. The best part is that you get to see what everyone else is pinning, too! So you end up following their pinboards because they find the coolest stuff for you to pin onto your own board. Then you follow the pinboards that *they're* pinning and so on and so on until it turns into a giant Pinterest Prell commercial. (If you're too young to get that reference, I don't want to know.)

I started out with two boards of my own. One for my covers because, hey, that's part of my job description, and one for everything else.

Last night, I had to add two more boards, bringing my total up to ... ok, I went to see how many boards I had and got lost for half an hour. Thirteen boards.

Libraries - pictures of bookshelves, bookstores, book collections, and yes, libraries.

Keep Calm - my collection of "Keep Calm and ..." sayings and posters.

Books Worth Reading - covers of my favorite classics and keepers.

Bookfessions - sayings about reading, literature, readers and books.

Readers - pictures of readers, famous and not. Who knew that Marilyn Monroe was an avid reader?

Steampunk - duh. Of course I have a Steampunk file.

Writer Gear - sayings and doodads about and for the writer's life.

Myths That Move Me - anything that reminds me of a story I once heard, including mythology, folklore and fairytales.

Picturesque - at first, this was my catchall for things that caught my eye for their beauty. Now, I'm trying to keep it to photos of nature.

Random Great Stuff - funnies and Sherlock and Nathan Fillion.

My covers - I can't tell you how thrilled I was when someone repinned one of my covers!

And my two newest boards, Beautiful Fashions - because people keep pinning gorgeous dresses and stunning jewelry - and Luscious Noms - because people keep pinning pictures of food and my keyboard is getting all drooly.

It's actually been a great way to get to know people, too. Who knew that some of my friends were such fashionistas? Or that they had an abiding interest in cakes or trees or astronomy or all kinds of cool stuff? Sure, I could be writing or folding laundry instead of surfing Pinterest, but let's get real. The world needs more pictures of Nathan Fillion.

Want to see my pretties? Check out my Pinterest boards!

Creativity, Resistance, and Fear

Writers are creative people. Of course, we aren’t the only ones. People are creative people. Except we aren’t always as creative as we want to be; as we feel, deep down, that we can be. There are as many reasons for this as there have been people. Probably more. There are many books, movies, articles, and art about getting past the fear that stops us. Two of the books are by Steven Pressfield. I got Do the Work as a free Kindle edition, then went out and the hard copies of both Do the Work and The War of Art. Why? Because these books are life changing.

We’ve all experienced some type of creative block. We have all ducked our creative natures for TV, housework, sleep. Procrastination has killed more cat stories than curiosity ever thought about. We all know we procrastinate, we joke about it. But it’s easier to stop a speeding locomotive than to get ourselves past that to the stuff that we want to do.

Pressfield calls this block “resistance,” and that’s exactly what it feels like. Like the resistance against movement in a swimming pool, or the resistance when you try to push together the same poles of a magnet. His books name this enemy and tells us, all creative people, how to fight resistance and do “our work”—the thing that is creative or that will advance us physically, spiritually, morally, ethically, etc.

Some memorable quotes, for me at least, from Do the Work are:

“Resistance is a repelling force. It’s negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.”

“Everyone who has a body experiences Resistance.”

“Resistance’s goal is not to wound or disable. Resistance aims to kill.”

How to get past resistance?

“Forget rational thought. Play. Play like a child.”

And the opposite of resistance? Assistance.

“Assistance is the universal, immutable force of creative manifestation, whose role since the Big Bang has been to translate potential into being to convert dreams into reality.”

Finally,

“When we experience panic it means we’re about to cross a threshold. We’re posed on the doorstep of a higher plane.”

And before you start thinking of me as a Pressfield fanatic (OK, a little), let me point out that he is far from the only person with a book about blocked creativity. There are many. Another life changing one for me is Ralph Keyes’s The Courage to Write. This book is in large part responsible for my being a published author. Some of my favorite quotes from this book are:

“Writers by definition talk behind other people’s backs.”

“Before they can convey honest feeling to others, writers must be honest with themselves.”

“Its psychic demands make writing an exercise in courage little different from climbing a sheer granite cliff or skiing down a steep slope.”

And my absolute favorite”

“If you’re not scared, you’re not writing.”

Have a great, creative weekend!

Cheryel
www.cheryelhutton.com