Margaret Telsch-Williams' Blog

The Name Change

2012-02-07T10:36:00.002-05:00

In case you've been here before and suddenly your world has been turned upside down and you think you're losing your mind because this lady won't use commas fear not! It's okay. You're in the same place you used to be in when you recognized everything but now it's all very different and somehow smells better.

What am I talking about? (I don'tknow, I'munder the weather andmy spacebar is still actingup.)

Actually, I do know, I've changed the name of my blog from Confessions of a Fiction Writer to, simply put, Margaret Telsch-Williams' Blog.

While I love to write about writing, and talk about writing, and sing about writing, and dream about critiquing writing (true story), I think the old title was restricting all of the wonderful things I wanted to say to you fantastic readers all because the title of the blog told me not to. Not about writing somehow equalled, don't share.

So, tah-dah, here's the new shebang blog, just like the old one, but with more me.

Whatdya think?

The Names of It

2012-01-24T08:44:00.000-05:00

First, I'm sorry I've neglected you, lovely reader, with my absence. You're the apple of my eye and I promise never to do it again.

Now, last week was beyond weird, strange, boring, frustrating, and full of a lot of nothing. To be honest, I had some of the worst PMS and was working on edits. For the record:

PMS + edits = a bitch about words

I then cried to my sister (who lives 600 miles away) through private message about my woes and "Aunt Flow," and as a way to make myself feel better, started trash talking Flow and calling her evil names. Many messages later, there was quite an impressive collection of disgusting and vulgar nicknames for ye ol' period and I was feeling a million times happier.

Even now when I look back over our list I start laughing so hard tears come to my eyes. They are some of the funniest, most awful names, but the measure of how much my sister ~~indulges~~ cheers me is so worth any gross out factor.

Below follows a few samples from our sick little list, our Names of It, just in case you need some cheering up yourself and aren't easily offended.

Don't read it if you're:
1.) a dude who shies away from such female matters [i.e. my husband], or
2.) a chick with finer tastes who doesn't like to acknowledge "things" go on "down there."

Thanks for reading!

Shark week
Naughty trousers
Rosy Underpants
The scarlet let-her (do whatever she wants)
The grimy centerpiece
Taking the red eye flight to grumpville
Red snapper
The rotten fruit basket
Devil's leavin's
Liquid death
Red witch of vagville
The dirty spitball
Drooly guts

Flash Fiction: The Business of Remembering

2012-01-21T10:57:00.002-05:00

Just a bit of flash for you. Not prompted by anything other than trying to condense a character's back story -- for my own good -- who will probably never see the light of day. Sometimes, things like this are the only thing you have left of an entire novel. Writers are weird.

The Business of Remembering

Cynthia remembered standing in the kitchen braiding pigtailswhen Grandma’s phone rang. She remembered freckles across her mom’s nose. She imagined747s shattering over the Atlantic, and pictured freckles dissolving into bubblesand plane fragments. Mothers existed in photos. On television children deservedhugs. That wasn’t real life.

She might’ve steadied if her father refused the drink. Yearsbroke him. Empty bottles consumed counter tops. He sent the bullet from templeto temple. No one adopts eight year olds.

Editing and Other Labor Intensive Jobs

2012-01-09T22:16:00.000-05:00

So, I'm currently editing the first draft of la novel tentatively titled A Burning Spirit. I'm also still trying to come up with a title that sticks for longer than a few happy days. I swear I'm just going to start calling it my witchy book and then you will all know what I'm talking about without me giving it a title.

As always, I find editing to be the real meat and potatoes of "writing." There's just so much work involved and while it is work to clean up sentences that were no more birthed from you as much as they just fell out while you were on your way somewhere, I love the challenge of the job.

This witchy book, huh, you like? Anyway, this witchy book is actually the fourth novel I've written and the first that I have loved from start to finish during the writing of the first draft and I'm still in love with it now that I'm editing. While I'm no idiot, and I know damn well, this feeling might fade away by the time I'm line editing, right now it feels like momentum and potential. I still want to be in the same room with Elsbeth, the main character, and I still crush on the boys, the innocent Andrew and horrific Hopkins, for so many different reasons.

So, that's where I am: buckling down, choosing to work on my novel, and editing to make it a better tale for you to some day pick up in the store or download and really enjoy the ride whether it be on a broom, a team of black oxen, or otherwise.

Judging Books By Their Covers

2012-01-06T18:17:00.000-05:00

Although I tend to talk about writing a lot here on my blog, you may not realize I'm a major reader too. I know, I know, like a real person, right? I lay in bed at night, knees tipped to the sky, cat lying on my feet, and flip the actual pages of books or press the button to turn pages on my old school Kindle sans ads and touch screens.

I read quite a wide variety of books and I'm often in more than one book at a time. I also take advantage of my local library, which is fantastic beyond belief, for both my print and digital books to keep costs down. I'm a starving writer, I NEED my library to support my habit. Currently on my nightstand I have Shangai Girls by Lisa See, Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft's comic issue #5 of Severed, The Help from Katherine Stockett, Fables: Book Three by Bill Willingham, and Tom Franklin's richly-verbed Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. In bed is the safest place for me to read since that means my child and the cats are already asleep, so my time is quiet and mine. But why do I pick up these books and what's sucking me in?

Sometimes I pick up a book because others have recommended it from their readings (Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love) or there's a lot of buzz going around about it coming out and my interest is peaked (The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern). Other times, as is the case for Lisa See, I picked up Snow Flower and the Secret Fan because I kept seeing her name and her books all over my library and in bookstores and I was curious. Other times still, I read a book because it is an author I adore [author read: Toni Morrison, adore read: want to be].

Then there is the other way, the reason for this post, that I spot the cover of a book and I just wonder what is going on in those pages. Some books, based on their cover (and let's face it, people get paid to worry about snagging readers based on the cover alone) and only their cover, I'm turned off completely without looking up the plot or reading the inside flap of the dust jacket.

Other books, however, get me interested just by their cover and I either read into the plot to see if I want to read it, or I go ahead and turn to page one to get started. These books have just the right title with just the right cover. These are books, I believe, that get better sales just because they have appeal. Let's face it, you can wrap the same story in two covers (such as a second edition) and suddenly you're buying based on the look of the cover.

In The Help, for example, I prefer the cover with the birds on it as opposed to the one with the movie shot of the women sitting at a bench. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan has a green cover with a lone, small open fan, or you can pick the larger open fan which covers the majority of a girl's face. I'm all over the one with the partial face and the green cover leaves something to be desired.

So, all of that being said, I thought I might share some beautiful covers from time to time with you as I spot them just for fun. The first comes from an awesome looking book called Women Travelers: A Century of Trailblazing Adventures, 1850-1950.

The second I saw this coffee table book I fell in love with the cover. A job well done for the book designers! It's intriguing and wild, composed and juxtaposed. The inside of the book and the stories there of real women traveling the world was just a deliciously good to read.

Are there any beautiful covers you've seen lately? Share away.

Flash Fiction: The 22nd Coming

2011-12-30T21:17:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Chris for today’s six word prompt:“Traveler,Cadence, Management, France, Gonads, and Turkish Chocolate Candy.”

The 22nd Coming

Travelers camefrom all over the world; their footsteps tromped a broken cadence across thedesert floor. Men from France, Germany, China, even Venezuela, all to rewardhim with gifts of jasmine flower garlands, leather sandals, and Turkishchocolate candies in the shape of gonads.

The managementteam said this would be bigger than the Pitt and Aniston break-up. Shericesquealed about his PR campaign to his agent and wouldn’t let up about thenecessity of having a row of seven camels in the background of the photo shoot.If this man from Kenya was going to insist he was not only the son of God, butalso the sole heir to the late George Lucas fortune, then nothing could stopthem from riding his coattails all the way to the bank.

If you want to offer a short sentenceor six word suggestion to be turned into a 100-150 word story, then click “Like” on my Facebook writer page and leave a comment under the newest Call for Flash Fiction.

Don't Be Afraid To Be the Someone Else

2011-12-19T22:15:00.003-05:00

Sometimes you get into ruts of who people think you are, who you think you are, and the perception of you from people who barely know you. Most of my life I've been seen as witty. I hated this for a long time until I realized how to use that sharp tongue to my advantage.
I've also been seen as serious. I was a serious child. Today I've found ways to bridge the gap between that wit, which is hilarious at times, to serious, which is highly functional in a bazillion ways.

Also, I didn't write much as a child, but now writing is my passion and career as an adult. Before I could pass myself off as a writer to friends and family, however, I had to decide to be just that. I had to make the choice to call myself a writer. I had to be someone else to everyone I knew so they would finally see me that way.

Being someone else means releasing the old stereotype of you and embracing that element you want to be.

In my stories, most of the time, if I don't include this character, I think of her. She's a bohemian gypsy with prophesy. She probably wears lots of purple and brown skirts and clinky jewelry. She's always there guiding me. She helps make choices with me. Call her a muse if you want, but when I kept brushing her off, not calling myself a writer, she kept coming back to the surface story after story.
Before I gave her the time of day, I thought I just wrote some things, some bad short stories, some good poetry, but I wasn't a "writer." And, to be honest, for as long as I thought that, no one else thought I was a "writer" either.

You cannot be afraid to be the someone else you wish to be.

I am a writer. Period. That is my stance and not everyone will "get" that. Even today, some people in my life still don't understand me or this process, but every now and then someone, family or friend, will make a statement that tells me they have owned the idea that this is who I am. Because I made the leap to be the someone else, they now see it as fact.

You shouldn't fear the creative element inside of you. Ridicule. Doubt. Uncertainty. You're going to experience those anyway, but at least you can enter each day with a tag on your shirt that reads, "Hello, I Am An Artist."

Flash Fiction: Hindsight

2011-12-16T07:03:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Brain for today’s six word prompt: "Velociraptor, Congruent, Plight, Instantaneous,Dirge, and Foolhardy."

Hindsight

The dirge wenton. The trumpet sighs carrying over the rain-soaked, bowed heads. Perhaps ifthey weren’t all so foolhardy none of this would have happened. They could havelived their whole lives never dressed in black, never having ridden in limoswith purple flags attached to the hood. The same way they were congruent togoing with the flow in the past, today they slosh through the mud in heels, cryout loud, say clichéd phrases reserved for times like these, and talk about howhe’ll never be forgotten. Their plight, like the velociraptor and T-rex, wasinstantaneous. One minute you’re cruising, sixty maybe seventy miles per hour,singing at the top of your lungs, and the next…the car doesn’t make it aroundthe bend. Driving on pavement or grass all feels the same at that speed.

If you want to offer a short sentence or six word suggestion to be turned into a 100-150 word story, then click “Like” on my Facebook writer page and leave a comment under the newest Call for Flash Fiction.

Flash Fiction: The Political Streak

2011-12-09T10:54:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Liz for today’s prompt: "Troy Mason is planning to streak at a political fundraiser..."

The Political Streak

Sure, there had been times when he questioned his motives, his upbringing. Hell, he thought the rest of the world might benefit from a little loosening up, but for Troy Mason, these were actions you wanted to do, not that you did. That was…until the 2008 election. Then he started thinking differently.

Today, the archway of red, white, and blue balloons led down an aisle which opened up to a podium draped with a flag. At the podium stood Governor Ficklin, unfolding lies and a toothy smile. If ever there was a man that deserved an interruption, it was Ficklin.

Troy crouched behind a “Heart of America” banner, pulled his shirt over his head, and slipped the elastic band of his sweatpants and boxers down to his ankles. In one motion, he leapt to his feet and tore off down the carpeted aisle, determined to make the evening news.

If you want to offer a short sentence or six word suggestion to be turned into a 100-150 word story, then click “Like” on my Facebook writer page and leave a comment under the newest Call for Flash Fiction.

Flash Fiction Mission

2011-12-02T10:10:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone! After a day off from writing following the craziness that is NaNoWriMo, I wanted to shift into some shorter pieces just for you. My dream would be to post all kinds of stories on the blog for you to be able to read my work, but alas, I want to sell those awesome, share-worthy stories to publishers, so I don't feel comfortable sharing publicly (and for free) what I want to sell the first printing rights to in the future.

So, I had an idea to do flash fiction for you. The flash fiction I'm thinking about is typically under 100 to 150 words and gives you enough of a story to get in and get out. The best flash fiction is, by far, Hemingway's six word story: "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn." Good, right?

I also thought that I'd like to know what you want to see. With that in mind, I'm exclusively asking only the followers/likers of my Facebook fan page (not just friends) to tell me what they want to read either in a basic summary, or in four to six keywords.

If you haven't done so yet, click "Like" to the right of this post (just above "I Tend to Write About These Things) and then head over to the page to leave a comment on the post about this saying what you want to see me tackle. I'll pick the one or three that I think I can master, write the story, and post it here on the blog for all the world to see.

All right, put your thinking cap on and give me your thoughts. (It's okay to make me work for it, so have fun.)

Day 30: Celebrating Victory

2011-11-30T20:05:00.000-05:00

Today is the last day of the 2011 NaNoWriMo. A mere 50,000 words and you are a NaNoWriMo winner!!!!

My hope if you're reading this is that you are a NaNoVicTo.
I finished my word count goal last night and when you cross that finish line it is time to celebrate.

Do something tomorrow that has nothing to do with writing, no matter if it's a walk, a few hours with a good book, a long bath, attend a sporting event, do a major workout to get your blood pumping again, or chase stray children down the street.

Whatever it is, do it. Celebrate your success to lead you onward to more writing and editing in the future.

How will you celebrate?

Day 29: The Post-NaNo Ritual You Need to Know About

2011-11-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

It's winner's eve today. Tomorrow is the day you've won or not, and like your mother always told you, if you tried your best then that was good enough. Today's goal is 48,333 and then you're almost finished.
If you haven't hit today's goal, then you'll want to push today so you're not toeing the line at ten minutes to midnight on the 30th. If you're like most everyone else I know that's still writing, seeing this goal met somehow fuels you through the last 1,667 words. You will become like some crazy motivated train that would be going 100 miles an hour if it wasn't for this steep hill of words and plot.

I say, climb it. What's on the other side is totally worth it.

Since I know you'll be too busy celebrating tomorrow to think of things like this, I wanted to share my post-nano rituals with you to guard yourself against yourself. (I can tell by the way you're sitting that you've lost a document or two in your day.)

1) Save a copy of your novel to a disk, USB flash drive, or cloud (frankly I don't know what these clouds are, but hey, if you do, save it there.)

2) Email a copy of the document to yourself at an Internet held account. For example, I use MS Outlook for the majority of my mail, but I don't know how to check that mail when I don't have my laptop with me, so I email my document to my less used gmail account for safe keeping. Google offers gmail for free, so there's no reason not to do something like this.

3) Print. The nerdy nerd in me who might own a Staples customer rewards card (discount card, NOT credit card) might go onto the Staples website, upload her document to be printed, and she may go to the store, pay the $15, and pick up a physical printed copy. This is a cheaper ink option for me and I don't have to babysit my printer and hand feed it paper every five to ten pages. This copy, of course, is the rough draft which needs major work, not a manuscript to be shared. This gives me a hard copy to stash, edit, and make plot notes on when I don't want to be in front of the computer, but do want to work.

4) Wine or margaritas. Self-explanatory.

There you have it. Have a great winner's eve day!

Day 25: The Beginning of the End

2011-11-25T11:30:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are. We're doing it. We're shifting from the Middle of the story and into the End. With a word count goal of 41,666 today, you are officially in the last 10,000 words of this year's novel.

By the End of your story you should be thinking of all those loose ties you've put out there and considering the best possible climax to the story that lets your character be challenged and either succeed for fail as the story deems fit.

Writing the End is a really motivating portion of novel writing because the action and events that have taken place have all built to this point. You can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel and it only gets brighter the more words you put down on the page.

While it is invigorating, it's also bittersweet. There are only five days left of NaNoWriMo, the crazy, ridiculous adventure that comes just once a year. Savor the feelings you have about your story in these last days and give your readers the best possible climax and ending you can to leave them wanting more and loving the time they spent with you.

How do you plan to celebrate on December 1st?

Day 24: Happy Thanksgiving! Get Back to Work

2011-11-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

It's turkey day!!! I'm traveling all over creation for the next three days, literally eating a Thanksgiving meal three days in a row including the day I'm the host and chef. Not only will I be stuffed, but also, I'll be behind in my writing if I don't get a jump on it.

The T-day word count goal is 40,000. Sadly, the goal will not wait for you, so while it's nice to relax and digest, Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to practice asserting your writing self and stepping away (before, after, or during the day) to work.

While it seems cruel for NaNo to sit on top of Thanksgiving, it actually helps you. The more you see yourself as a writer that NEEDS to write, no matter the day, the more others will too. Your adoring family will kiss you on the cheeks, say, "We'll see you in an hour, dear," and then they will go on doing what they do while you do what you do.

What's your favorite part of Thanksgiving?

Day 28: Are We There Yet?

2011-11-23T20:04:00.001-05:00

Here we are, Day 28, and the word count goal is 46,666. If you're close, but not there yet, then this is the time for final pushes. Reach down deep, grab the beating heart of the writer inside you, spike it down onto the floor, and go for the finish line.
As for me, I'm sitting at 48,119 words and I couldn't be happier. This progress leaves me especially happy considering that my first NaNo year left me writing over 10,000 words on November 30th, but by God I was finishing that sucker.

Learning from that old frustration, I'll actually hit 50K either tonight or tomorrow and that is just as great a feeling as powering through up until midnight on the 30th.

As you work, make sure you backup your story, turn on some motivational music, and get the words down on the page. This isn't the time for taking a few hours to think about the plot, this is the time to push and push hard.

Also, don't forget to validate your word count when you reach the finish line (find this under "edit your novel"), and pat yourself on the back.

Are you sailing on through or busting your butt?

Day 27: The Sprint to the Finish

2011-11-23T20:03:00.003-05:00

Today's word goal is 45,000. Yes. When you hit this day's goal, you have only 5,000 words left to write this month.

While I know by now the pure exhaustion of NaNo is wearing you away (it sure is for me), consider the fact that you have written 45,000 words already. Forty-five thousand! Five is practically a piece of cake. You can do it. Take this last day of this last weekend of this month and rock the hell out of it.

Don't give up. Write.

This is the sprint to the finish and I challenge you to do it, no matter if you're ahead in your words or behind. This is the time for making the choice to see your story through to the end and beyond. Whether you have more plot than 50,000 words can handle or you're coming up short, hitting the 50K, validating your word count on the NaNo site, and seeing your little bar light up purple is a great feeling.

Take this day. Write. Fulfill the goal you set before November 1st.

What's keeping you going? (Coffee is an understood answer.)

Day 26: Always Choose Your Story

2011-11-23T20:03:00.001-05:00

Day 26 brings with it a word count of 43,333 words. I ended the night just over 44K.

For the second time in NaNo this year, I ran out of time for writing and I had to choose between writing a blog post or writing on my story, and for the second time, I chose my story.

Always choose your story!

This is how you take the push of writing (working through plot problems, unruly characters, dragging scenes, forgotten items, etc.) and turn it into an outright shove.

This shove will take you from the person that types along, but stalls when things get difficult and uncertain, to the person that writes and does because it is who you are. Your novel will thank you.

So, as we head into the final stretch, are you prepared to shove?

Day 23: Writing Experience and the Only Way to Get It

2011-11-23T09:54:00.001-05:00

I'm sitting pretty going into NaNo Day 23 with a word count goal of 38,333. I had a break through in plot which I shared yesterday and I a great writing session followed. I wrote a new scene and really felt everything working and coming together. How did I know? Experience. I've written (and read) enough bad stories and lacking scenes to know when they are bad and lacking.

For me, writing is a lot like hockey. You think it's going to be hard to skate on a thin metal blade on slippery ice, but if you understand the blade and gain experience with it, then it isn't anything more than practice and time before you're taking off on the ice. Just like there are misconceptions about writing, a skate blade is also misunderstood. The blade isn't a single, knife-like point touching the ice, but more of an upright rectangle with the middle curved upward. Because of this shape, a blade actually has two sides: the inner edge and the outer edge.

The inner edge (basic storytelling) is relatively easy. It's there, right under you, you lean in either direction, the edge gains pressure, and you spin in that direction. The only real difficulty of the inner edge is having the inner thigh strength (determination to write) to control it.

The outer edge (word choice, pacing, characters, etc.) is much more difficult. Lean too far on that outer edge without enough momentum and you're on your ass on the ice. Don't lean enough and you have no grip whatsoever. Mastering the outer edge takes practice and time, just like mastering these more difficult aspects of writing. Through these things, you start to trust yourself to move.

It's that simple: Practice + Time = Experience

Once you've gained experience, you're ready to carry the puck, check people into the boards, and throw snow in a goalie's face without even thinking about your blades because your body and mind instinctively know how to skate. You can feel it. The same happens when you write. There's a sense you have when a scene is working or not working. Experience not only gives you this sense, but also tells you why something works or doesn't.

Even if you're struggling right now, I hope you remember that anytime you are writing you're working on your experience.

Day 22: Talk it Out

2011-11-22T08:01:00.001-05:00

Today's goal is 36,666 words and I'm going strong now that I'm over a complete plot block on my story.

When I finished writing last night, I knew exactly what scene was next, but when I looked things over this morning I thought, that's all well and good for today's writing, but I don't know what's going to happen after that. My main character, Elsbeth is somewhere around L, M, N, then there's a huge gap of ignorance and unknown, and I know what is going to happen around Y, and Z.

So I did what any respectable author who is sure of themselves 100% of the time would do. I did something else. I stepped away from the story and cleaned house to prepare for the holidays. I moved away, got distance, cleansed, etc.

This didn't exactly help. Sure, it made me less tied to the story, less invested for an hour, but I came back, sat down, and still didn't have any ideas. And then I talked it out. I told my husband everything I knew and then said, "but here's this huge gap, what do I do?" He, being a helpful and honest soul said, "I have no idea, can I get back to work now."

So I talked it out with myself, and continued to flip the situation over, look at the underside, discuss the antagonist's view point, the secondary character's views, Elsbeth's goals, and then, I knew what needed to be done: Elsbeth needed to go somewhere.

Then I talked to myself about where, what, why, how, who (that journalism class really pays for itself sometimes) and the more I processed the information aloud, the more the blanks started to fill themselves in. Now I have a sense of direction again and I know what Elsbeth will be told in the scene I write today that will push her to go to this new place.

If you're finding yourself stuck thinking about your story, then I hope you'll try just saying it out in the open and see what muses you bring to your door.

Have a tip about solving plot blocks? I'd love to hear them.

Day 21: Blah

2011-11-21T07:30:00.001-05:00

So I started this post on Day 21, but life got away from me and seeing how this week is Thanksgiving in the US, I needed a turkey in my fridge and a few other things. The word count for this day is 35,000.
For the record, I did hit the daily goal and chose working on my novel over my blog. Sad, I know, but in the end, it really is a better choice.

Also, the fact that I wanted to label this post Day 25 speaks for itself in the exhaustion department. This is the stuff NaNo is about; if you aren't writing until you're exhausted, then you aren't really tired.

For me, seeing that we're only 15,000 words away from the end of this crazy month is also thrilling. My plan is for this novel, currently called Smoke (but that will change), is to reach around 80,000 words by the time I'm done, so NaNo is not the end of the road, but knowing I'm 50K in is a huge boost compared to the zero words I had on October 31. (Yep, that was one sentence.)

So, while I'm exhausted and excited and tired and brain dead, I'm still loving the process of NaNo and the determination and willingness that is required to get from here to there. This is why we do this, and when we're done we have something to show for our hard work.

What's been the hardest part of NaNo for you?

Day 20: The Downside of Cast Lists

2011-11-20T21:12:00.001-05:00

Good evening, writing buddies. Today's Nano goal is 33,333 words. I love this word count for both it's simplicity and how much closer we're getting to 50K.
Over the course of this month, I've had to come to terms with a problem regarding my writing that affects all months of the year. This problem is the downside of cast lists. If you don't know what a cast list is, I'll tell you. When you have an idea in your mind of a character, you make the next leap and think of a celebrity or other famous person who would "be" this character.

For example, your main character is a young guy who jokes around all the time, dark hair, but has a serious side. I'd go Jimmy Fallon, Paul Rudd, or Donald Glover. Then you decide he's a little chubby -- switch it over to Seth Rogen or Jonah Hill. Find that part in your mind that knows their face as your character and go with it.

Once you have the entire character list picked, then, when you're writing your story you can refer back to your perception of these people for your characters and even flip through pictures of them online when you need inspiration.

The downside of this is that my celebrity cast "bad guy," who needs to be rough and gruff, also does voice work in television commercials. When I hear his commercials come on TV while writing, suddenly my vicious and torturous bad guy turns to the softy who really wants you to enjoy batteries or cars or soup.

I don't really know where I'm going with this I suppose other than to tell you to watch out for running into your cast in ways you don't want to see them. If you want the psycho crazy Angelina Jolie from Girl, Interrupted, then don't watch The Tourist where she'll be more sophisticated and glamorous.

How's that novel of yours coming? I think I'm getting slap happy from blogging every day.

Day 19: You Look Like Shit, Get Some Rest

2011-11-19T22:05:00.001-05:00

My dear, dear, beautiful/handsome writers of the Nano Kingdom. If you're still with me (which, I'll be honest, I'm seeing less and less people writing by now) then your word count goal today is 31,666.

On days one through seven, I am the most enthusiastic writer you've ever seen. I'm giddy and excited, thrilled be working on the story I've been researching and plotting all summer and fall.

Days eight through fourteen become the meat of the meal. We separate the men from the boys, so to speak, and the strong, committed, determined ones continue onward while others perish in our dust.

By days fifteen through now, I'm honestly starting to realize the late nights writing to hit my goal are catching up with me. Day 19 has been my toughest day yet this month. I always find this kind of day somewhere in week three, maybe a little ahead, maybe a little after actual Day 19, but it's always hiding there for me.

I've come to call this day the you-look-like-shit,-get-some-rest day. We've been writing and writing, and, like hour eight into a twelve hour road trip, there's no turning back. I don't get discouraged by these days when they come, but I do think it's important to note when the word count slows to a drip. Even though I'm still enthused about my story this year, the pacing, lackluster and stagnant word choices, and stale air are quickly surrounding my motivation. Shoot, whole sentences sometimes get really, really long. I'm not coming at the story "fresh" anymore, but I have enough experience to know this is part of it, so here's what I do:

I sit down. I write.

Everything will be cleaned and polished later. Whether I'm on my third cup of coffee at nine o'clock at night doesn't really matter. As long as I'm giving my best effort and at the minimum getting the heart of the story out there, I can go back later and change the "started to run" to "ran" and the "is changing" to "changes."

Best case scenario, you aren't feeling this at all. Second best, you are and are getting over it and continuing. Worst case? You quit writing and reading anything about NaNo in week one when you realized it was hard, in which case, you aren't reading this either.

How doin's?

Day 18: Flying High at 30,000 Words

2011-11-18T07:19:00.001-05:00

Today's goal in NaNoLand is 30,000 words. 30,000!!!! This is an amazing feat for starting at zero only 18 days ago.

Hitting 30,000 words is a confirmation that your hard work, day after day, is not only piling up, but also turning into a massive collection. This isn't some little story idea that maybe you will write some day. This is the commitment you've made to yourself and kept.

Take a minute to acknowledge how awesome that aspect of you is and just soak up the satisfaction.

By 30,000 words, your story should be coming right along. Sometimes the pace of the story alone and the action involved and the characters' wants start to drive you to your computer or notebook each day to write more and more.

30K is also 3/5ths of the way done with this crazy whirlwind of a writing adventure you either started planning months ago, or decided to do somewhere near the end of October. These wacko commitments we make to ourselves to write novels in months and tell our friends about (or keep a secret for fear of ridicule), these are the commitments character is built on.

When you "win" with 50K, you can look back and be proud of who you chose to be in November.

What inspires you in your own writing? Leave comments below.

Day 17: Giving Your Characters a Hard Time

2011-11-17T19:29:00.001-05:00

Day 17 and the goal for word count is 28,333. I hope you're keeping up. I slipped back by 667 words yesterday, but I'll make it up today.

By now you may be feeling like your story is getting out of hand, is playing everything just right, or you're falling in the middle. Sometimes your characters comply and sometimes they show you sides you didn't know they even had. No matter what they're doing, if you want to make your novel interesting, I hope you're giving your characters a hard time.

My daughter is doing the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program this year. She's eight and had a story she wanted to tell of a girl in the woods with her siblings. Other than that basic information, she didn't know what to do with the story. Here's what I told her:

Think about what you want your character to do. What is their goal? Know that about your main character, get familiar with them.Think of how they will acheive their goal and what they want to do about it. Then, you as the author, make it difficult for the main character to do this. This may mean the character needs to change their goals, or do something else before they can acheive their primary goal. Whatever it is, make it hard for them, but not impossible.

For example, last night my main character, Elsbeth, needed to escape from having been kidnapped. I wanted her to slip out the window. Done. There's her goal.

Instead of letting it be that easy, however, I wrote her peeking to see if the coast was clear one last time, and this time the antagonist, Hopkins, is standing in the doorway and lunges after her. She still makes her escape (that is the plot afterall), but this way there was a lot more tension, action, and drama than originally planned.

If you're thinking your plot is going blah-ville or your characters are just milling about, then it might be time to shake things up for them and make getting from A to B a rougher road.

What's the worst you've done to your characters to give them a hard time?

Day 16: Ten Ways to Avoid Writing Fatigue

2011-11-16T07:16:00.001-05:00

Hello Naners, today's word count goal is 26,667 and we're halfway through this crazy month. This is also about the time I start to feel writing fatigue kicking in. I'm loving my story, my plot, my characters, and yet, I'm exhausted trying to keep up with it all.

Fatigue, I assure you, is normal. These are those "pushing through" times I often talk about.

So, I thought I'd give you a treat and provide ten ways to avoid writing fatigue. You can do one or all of these and then come back to your story feeling renewed and refreshed for that heavy word count.

Stretch. Do yoga. Dance around your living room making a stupid sound.
Read a few pages of your favorite fiction book, even if you've read it before.
Play a board game with anyone.
Take a long walk and rather than thinking about the story, think about what's around you or what's for dinner.
Watch a sitcom or drama on TV.
Take a hot shower or bath.
Doodle on a sheet of paper for ten minutes.
Close your eyes and just breathe deeply and slowly, adverbly. Meditation can be powerful even if for just five minutes.
Snack on a fruit to take advantage of the natural sugars.
Draw a picture of a pirate farting on salad. (That's an inside joke and family favorite in my house, but a challenge nonetheless.)

I hope any of these help you limber up and refocus yourself so you can crank out scene after scene without letting you or your story go stale.

Which one did you like the most? Leave comments below.

Day 15: Halfway Party

2011-11-14T21:33:00.001-05:00

This is it folks, day 15, the official halfway mark. 25,000 words is a lot for anyone.

If you're at this milestone, you should feel fantastic to be on target for finishing NaNoWriteMo by the end of the month.

You've put aside less urgent tasks to focus on yourself and your goals and your story. You've done the thing others haven't or are struggling to prioritize. I have hopes that each of you have also felt this pulsating drive to sit down and do the work during NaNo because it needed to be done for you.

Think of Michelangelo waking up in the morning thinking,"Man, I don't want to climb that scaffolding and lie on my back with my arms in the air, but damn, this ceiling isn't going to paint itself." And so he went...and he laid on his back and he painted.

If we could all at least tap into this ideal that we do what needs to be done even when it's not easy because it is what we do, what we want, and what we're made of, then the world would be an amazing place. If you aren't up for a challenge, then what you doing trying to write anything?

As I've always said, writers aren't storytellers, we're word laborers. The beauty of NaNo is that we labor together. I think just knowing that a bazillion other people around the globe are typing in their new word counts right along with you should count for something. There's creativity zipping through the air each night and I like to think if I reached up I could touch the sparkling underbelly as it floats by.

How did you decide to do NaNo? Leave comments below (after you celebrate 25K words).

Day 14: Halfway Eve and Routines

2011-11-14T21:18:00.001-05:00

So here we are, sitting at Halfway Eve. (I like eves a lot if you haven't noticed already.) Today's word goal is 23,333, which means tomorrow we'll be pushing past the big 25K.

Halfway through NaNoWhaMo and we're still alive.

I will state for the record that the last few weeks have been relative hell for me, so much so that I've nicknamed a new sixty-one day month in my mind called Octember where just horrible, horrible shit goes down. During times like Octember, the writing of a novel is kind of like icing on cupcakes at this point, but I'm actually finding relief in the practice and routine of it.

Normally, in ante-NaNo and post-NaNo times, I'm writing my words and working on stories and novel outlines, but the pace is my own. I come and go with fiction work like it's Momma's house and I'm home for the summer to visit friends.

NaNoWriMo tosses me, mentally, into another realm of work and drive that I don't experience during the other eleven months of the year, (I swear it's the stats meter that does it), and drops me off in this place where holding a solid routine and pushing through when I'm exhausted isn't just a smart practice, but a necessity.

I hope that by now you have found a routine that works for you which you are able to execute each day, whether it's for 1,000 words here and 1,000 there, or the whole chunk in one sitting. Whatever it is, go with it, complete your novel, and imagine how good it could feel to carry this creative routine into December and beyond.

What's your routine look like? Leave comments below.

Day 13: Pushing Beyond Problems of Your Novel Writing Experience

2011-11-13T09:58:00.001-05:00

NaNo day 13 brings us to a goal of 21,666 words. This is nearly halfway to the finish line. If you're there with me, then take a small moment to be proud of yourself. If you're with me in spirit, then keep pushing.

I have a lot of friends in the middle of NaNoCraZo that are falling short of the word count by thousands as this point, but where they lack words, they make up for it in spirit. None of these lovely ladies are giving up. They share their deficit with the group, and then they push on. One woman in particular had zero words on Day 8, but she's writing in the morning before her children wake up and again in the evening, and is now around 14,000 words. I believe she'll make it because she's willing to do the work.

Whether your limitation is not having the stamina to hit the goal each day, or not finding enough plot elements, or unsupportive family members, or dealing with computer problems, the only option you have (if you truly want this) is to push onward and write.

Here's an example:

Mylaptopkeyboard has decided that it will onlygive me thespacebar whenitdecides Ishould have thespace bar. This notonly makes readinganythingI'm typing difficult, butalso really screws witha wordcountgoal becuase what my writingprogramis sayingI've writtenis actuallymuchlarger once I go back inand add thespaces,which takesup a lot oftime.

That is really frustrating! But, I push forward. I whine to my husband about how old my computer is and then I, to quote my sister, put my big girl panties on and deal with it. I write anyway, and then I backtrack to the beginning of that day's work and I add spaces, one at a time.

If you want to have a finished first draft (aka: rough draft) by the end of this month, then you will muster the strength and desire to push through anything.

What have you pushed through to keep your novel going? Leave comments below.

Day 12: How to Prioritize Your Writing and Writing Time

2011-11-12T13:00:00.001-05:00

Hey, guys. Sorry I can't do a new blog post tonight. I need to write.

Today's goal is 20,000 and I'd want to get there.

See how I did that?

Day 11: Sometimes Life Happens

2011-11-11T21:48:00.001-05:00

Today is Day 11. We should be sitting pretty at 18,333 words, and sometimes...life happens...even in the middle of novel writing.

I'll summarize my day: Wake up, cold house, broken furnace, furnace repairmen, talk about cats, giant furnace bill, charge it, child comes home, "Let's go to my school tonight and watch a movie," no school -- pizza delivery and stay home, deal?, deal, pizza, yeah, phone call, your child won a contest but you forgot a form, no problem -- email or mail?, bring it to your house?, in car multiplication tables times 4, find a dark house in the dark, old man falls over backward in street, eeeeeeerrrttttt!, form to lady, yeah, congrats, thanks, Barnes and Noble, the books are gone and there are toys everywhere, WTF, mommy my throat hurts, sa-what?, home, heat = good, ugh, still need to write.

This, the above and aforementioned BS, is the shit that happens when you're trying to write a novel.

These are not roadblocks.

These are obstacles.

Go around them.

Sit down.

Focus.

Write.

The world doesn't care if you're writing a novel or not. That's not the world's job. It's your job. Like the classic parenting advice: If you wait for the right time to write a novel, then you'll never do it.

How's your BS going and how are you keeping it from interrupting your writing?

Day 10: The End of the Story's Beginning

2011-11-10T08:53:00.002-05:00

All right, NaNers, today's word count goal is 16,666 words. That's a big chunk of change. That also means we're a third of the way into our novel projects.

The first third, for those who are into basic storytelling diagrams equals The Beginning of your story. By now a reader should be able to identify the main character(s), know what it is they are trying to achieve, know where they are, and be rooting for them to succeed in their goal.

This also means by today (or yesterday, or tomorrow, roughly), your story should be taking a turn into the realm of The Middle. You should be starting to see some heavy action or plot twists going on, some momentum should be building toward something, and your main character(s) should be starting to see either flaws in their plan or be hitting road blocks which are preventing them from reaching their goals.

The Middle is the sweet spot of a lot of novels. If the world you've created and the characters you're writing are interesting and intriguing, then a reader can truly fall in love with your work in this area of Middle. A reader will go along for the ride, take the twists and turns, and be excited when they have time to stay up at night turning the pages, hitting the end of a chapter, and continuing to read even though they're exhausted and have to work in the morning. The Middle is purely captivating.

So, if you're finding yourself still in Introductionland, then I'm telling you now to turn the corner and start letting heavier action take place. If you think the reader still needs to know X, Y, Z before you move forward, then you'd better learn to sprinkle that information in with the action or your reader is going to get bored from exposition without tension, or drama, or shifts in the story.

The good news: you're the author of this story. If there aren't twists or tension in the near future for your story by now, then it's your job to create them.

What's been the biggest surprise in your story so far?

Day 9: Turn Your Writing Struggle into Your Strength

2011-11-09T20:18:00.002-05:00

It's Day 9 in NaNoVille and today's goal is 15,000 words. This is a great milestone and I hope you eat a big bowl of ice cream and do a little hip shaking kind of dance in the shower if you've made it this far. 15,000 words is awesome!
This can also be a little scary as plots start to crumble and you start to feel a little less than sure about what it is you're tyring to do in November. I urge you to keep going. NaNo is more than just word count. Sure, word count is the core goal of the month, but there's more to this whirlwind than just the words.

This month NaNo is also teaching you about motivation, perseverance, digging deep, and finishing what you start. You're learning to value your writing time, to carve out space for it, and you're gaining the experience of seeing what writing a full first draft is like (whether you've done it before or not, each novel is different).

Turn your struggle into your strength.

Write with abandon.

Don't judge your story. Don't judge your work. Don't focus on any other version of your story (the plot in your head or in the imaginary future finished bestseller) other than the one you are creating right now.

If your story's not working, then make something happen. No rule says you're stuck sitting in a dirty apartment eating old pizza with your main character listening to their thoughts. This is fiction. Make something happen. Challenge your characters, your setting, the tension between characters. As my sister says, "It's your baby, you rock it."

What was your 15K celebration?

Day 8: Your Novel is Dough

2011-11-08T18:12:00.002-05:00

Day 8 brings with it a word count goal of 13,333. I haven't touched my novel yet today, but if this counts (and I think it does), I did think about my novel at three in the morning last night when I couldn't sleep for about an hour. I was trying to dig deeper into my antagonist's motivations to get a better sense of his goals. You have to dig deep like this during the first draft as well as during revisions. It's how you cook the story into something great.

Then, I was talking with my mother earlier today about this whole NaNoWhyMe and had an epiphany about first drafts. Because I'm not stingy with epiphanies, I thought I would share it with you as well.

If you're getting frustrated with the fluffiness or blandness of your first draft novel right about now, then there's something you need to remember: your first draft is dough and that's what it is supposed to be.

You're in the process of adding ingredients (flour, milk, sugar, salt, eggs)[characters, plot, action, pacing] and mixing them together. The only possible thing you're going to get when you do this is dough. It's mushy, sticky, doesn't have any set shape, and doesn't taste very good. Expect this. Embrace it.

A finished novel, one you have spent time revising (not just line editing) and reworking into a good story, now that is bread. Bread is the deliciousness others can sink their teeth into and really chew. If you make good enough bread, it will also nourish and fill your readers, and leave them wanting more.

In short, don't get discouraged if your first draft is doughy. There is a lot going on there. The ingredients are blending, liquid and dried parts are becoming a homogeneous mixture, and the dough is rising. These are all things you want to have happen in November. That is the point of NaNoWriMo or any other first draft process. Go with it. Later on you can punch the dough down, knead it, and bake it into an edible loaf.

What's the hardest part of writing your NaNo first draft for you so far?

Day 7: Week 2 Eve (and I'm a little crazy)

2011-11-07T21:47:00.002-05:00

By midnight tonight your word count should be soaring at or above 11667. I'm running out of steam around 11,383...how freaking sad is that. It's not the story, it's me. Let this be a lesson to all NaNonians out there, don't get a cold and change the clocks back at the same time, it will really mess with you.

But, aha, this is about you. You are 1) fantastic, 2) clearly a selective reader to choose such a blog as this, and 3) hopefully not sick and changing your clock.

Wait, this is about NaNoWhoZat. This is about Day 7 and what all that means for writers like us when we're on Day 7. It's kind of like this, "oh my gosh, I've written so much. Can't I have a break? Please? But, I'm sick and I had to change the clock. Please. How can it only be 9:30 at night? It clearly feels like 10:30. Wait. What day is it? Etc., etc., etc."

The important, inspirational thing is down here (I wrote this part earlier thinking I would write the intro after a refreshing I'm-too-tired-to-write nap):

At this point in NaNo you are on the verge. You are getting ready to fall off the edge of "Maybe-someday" and into "Now." Now is the time and place where you are actually writing a novel.

This isn't a pipe dream. This isn't the thing you say to co-workers that you want to achieve in the future. This is you, here and now, in the thick moment of writing a novel.

Week 2 is a special time in NaNo whether this is your first year or not. This is when the meat of the story starts to really stew and fall off the bone. You are seeing your characters and commitment through and should be proud of that.

While I'm not making any promises it will be easy, because it certainly won't, I do promise that you will feel something unlatch inside of you this week that makes you sit up a little straighter and appreciate yourself as a real writer. I hope you feel this moment, but if you don't, trust me, it happened.

What's your problem? Leave comments, sick remedies, and funny words below.

Day 6: Milestone Celebrations

2011-11-06T15:09:00.001-05:00

Hello, little Wrimos, this is a day to make a small celebration in honor of yourself. By midnight tonight, provided you're writing 1667 words every day, you should see your odometer of words roll over 10,000.

I am siting at 9325 after having written 700some words this morning and cannot wait. I've already bought a celebratory bottle of Dr. Pepper (one of my few vices and cheaper than my favorite wine) and plan to chill tonight before the rush of a new work week hits me in the morning.

While this small, meager amount of 10,000 words is only a fifth of the way to finished, if you don't celebrate the milestones as you pass them, you might not appreciate the journey you're on with your novel and your writing. If you overlook 10K, shrug your shoulders, and move on, then what's the point? Each 10,000 should give you pause and encourage you to continue forward, whether it's the first 10,000 or 110,000.

Sure, you might just want to tell your story, or have hopes to publish your novel and have it become a bestseller, but the road to a finished novel is paved in actual words, not wants.

So, throw yourself a tiny party today (after you hit the big 10K, of course), take a long bath, drink some wine or soda you normally deprive yourself of, eat the rest of the Halloween candy, or dance a gig in the middle of your house while yodeling. I might even hula hoop today! Whatever it is, have fun with it, enjoy the moment, and then get back to work on that story tomorrow.

How will you celebrate the milestone?

Day 5: Weekend Frenzy

2011-11-05T18:41:00.002-04:00

Today's NaNo word count goal is 8333. I'm up to 7104 so far, but I haven't written yet today, so expect that number to come up as I take Elsbeth, my main character, to jail and torture her. Seriously.

If you're an experienced WriMo, you'll be Writing More than the minimum 1667 words per day this weekend. The weekend, for most of us, is prime time to take advantage of "non-work" days and crank out your story in large quantities.

If you can manage it, adding excess words now will do a few things for you.

You'll be that much further ahead in your plot outline (if you made one) than anticipated for Days 5 and 6.
You'll have wiggle room for days where you just come up short in the motivation or words department. This may or may not be a day you're stuffed with turkey, for those in the US.
You can sleep sounder at nigh during the week.
Bragging rights, duh.
You'll not only amaze yourself that you beat the word count goal, but also you can use the sense of accomplishment to fuel your writing over the next few days.

Now, on the off chance that you don't live in a cave by yourself with a pile of dried bear meat, a coffee maker, and an internet connection and actually have to have a real life, then don't (DON'T) beat yourself up if you don't get ahead of the game over the weekend. The daily recommended minimum is 1667 to hit your 50K in one month. Going beyond that is strickly for your own sense of pride and the unleashing of in-your-face-isms.

Truth or dare: How many times have you thought about hanging it up and writing something else in November?

Day 4: The Devil is Shaking Up Your Story

2011-11-04T21:15:00.000-04:00

Today's NaNo word count goal is 6666. {The Omen anyone?}

It's 9pm (Eastern time) and I have written nothing yet.

Zero. Words. Period.

I don't have to tell you that feels awful. Fear not! I'm going to get my word count in as soon as my child is lying in her bed.

By around Day 4 any weaknesses in the foundation of your story might start shaking things up. This is normal and to be expected. Demonic possession is the name of the NaNo game. Seriously, this shaky ground can actually be because of many things up to and including: low self-confidence, a weak story, boring characters, a lack of tension, excess description, too little action, etc.

The good news is that ALL of this is fixable with time and perseverance. (Two out of four written scenes for me are less than stellar. I make a note, something like, "where's the f-ing action?" and move on. I'll amp things up during the second draft.)

I urge you to also keep going. This first week is the introduction to the school of hard knocks. This is the week when all of the drop-outs drop out. Keep going. If you don't push through to the other side now, then you'll never know if you are capable of pushing through Week 2 or the horrors that make up Week 3. Seriously. Horrors. Not kidding here. Horrors.

What ways are you finding make writing through NaNo easier? [Coffee/wine/water and music are helping me out.]

Day 3: NaNo Brings It

2011-11-04T08:40:00.003-04:00

By day 3 your word count should be rocking at 5000+ words. I hit my target around 5200something. How are you holding up?
I'll be honest, NaNo tried to throw me a curve ball in Day 3, but I still met the word goal. The curve ball involved my being exhausted and the time already being late at night. For the record, my brain fries easily at night, but rather than being a well rested NaNoLoSer in the morning, I stayed up to get my story on the page. By "get" I mean "extract." It was downright painful to work. Even though I knew exactly where the story was headed and I was enthused about writing this scene, my mind and my fingers were having none of it.

Sentences started to look at lot like this: Elsbethw aited in hte roomunti lthe moon slide out from behind the cloudes,

Me writing late at night is the equivalent of driving drunk through a crowded mall. Bad shit is just going to happen. The beauty of NaNoWriMo, however, is that these horribly typed words, tense slips of verbs, and bad punctuation don't matter. I'll edit the sucker later. What matters is that we know Elsbeth is waiting for the moon in her room. Done. I can fix my dead-brain-typing issues in December.

If you've having trouble with things like this, I urge you to keep going and worry about editing later. So long as the story is flowing/extracted, you're still going to get a first draft of a novel written.

Is your story still headed where you thought it would be going? I'd love to hear about it.

Day 2: Great, Gross Things That Need Names

2011-11-02T21:32:00.001-04:00

It's NaNo day 2 and your word count goal by today is 3,333. Are you there yet? I hit 3726 and my brain has shut down.

For me, the best part/surprise of the day was a scene I wrote about a crazy, old woman hysterically chanting and doing freaky witchy things. When I wrote about her, I actually sat there cringing and pulling my face away from the computer, and yet, I couldn't stop typing this scene.

It was truly fantastic. I was so fully engaged in the process that this nasty, leaf spitting woman was actually getting to me.

I don't know if you've had these experiences in your writing before, but I hope you have. If you haven't, I hope you have one this year, this month. They don't come around often, but when they are there, they are bitter and delicious at the same time.

We need a name for moments like these. Thoughts?

Day 1: A NaNoWriMo Cautionary Tale

2011-11-01T19:05:00.000-04:00

Today is day one of NaNoWriMo and I have a bit of advice for those just starting their novels (newbies and experienced WriMos).

First, your word count for today should hit at least 1666 if you're planning on writing every day. At the moment of writing this, I'm hitting 1255 words right now with my first plotted "day 1" scene complete. (Once my child goes to bed, the remaining words will take care of themselves.)

Second, don't pad your novel with unnecessary words just for the sake of jacking up your word count. To my mind, this word inflation is a rookie mistake. If you pad your words now with fillers (over the top descriptions, excess dialogue, adverbs) just to watch the NaNo meter grow and to flex in front of your writer friends and scream, "Yeah, baby," then after November you'll be crying as you painstakingly go back into the word-bloated, thin-storied novel and try to trim the fat.

While I know you want to see productivity this month, I caution you that productivity in the form of hard editing later on isn't actually a climb upward, but more of a sideways trail. You'll do much better for yourself and your novel to take your time, choose the correct words for the job, and create a better story the first time around. This will also prove a valuable skill when you write the first drafts of other projects which don't take place during NaNoWriMo when word count isn't the goal.

I'd love to hear how your NaNo experience is going. Leave comments below.

Don't Let the Wish Grow Cold

2011-10-31T17:46:00.001-04:00

Well, here we are, sitting around, twiddling our thumbs, and waiting for midnight to come for the official start of this year's NaNoWriMo. (If you aren't part of this, but want to make the attempt at writing a novel in a month, it's not too late to sign up at the NaNoWriMo website.)
As with NaNo and any other creative endeavor, a little encouragement goes a long way.

If at all possible, surround yourself with the types of people (family, friends, online acquaintances) that support you. In my experience, even knowing one person is watching your back and wants you to succeed can be a stronger fuel than 100 naysayers you want to prove wrong.

There will always be those who "caution" you against falling flat on your face. These people are quite frankly afraid to see you succeed because trying so hard at something non-standard isn't their bag. I don't know of any artist who hasn't had to overcome some "friendly advice" of people who aren't interested in trying harder than the average.

If you're going to make your dream a reality and you're going to do crazy, off the wall things, like write a novel in a month or make the declaration to achieve something no one else around you has done, then be prepared to shed from your creative living space the "helpful warnings" as well as those who speak them.

When you look back on this month of November, or back on any project you set out to do, you want to see yourself as the person who did. The person who gave their all and completed the task. If you're starting out with NaNo for the first time this year, or if you've tried before and didn't "win," then know that I think this is your year. This is your year to sit back on December 1st and say, "Hot damn, I did it," and glow with an inner light you may not be familiar with.

If you have no one else in your life to support you, know that I support you. Know that you can do this. Be determined to achieve your goals. As the Evil Queen instructs Snow White before biting the apple, "Don't let the wish grow cold."

How are You with Zombies?

2011-10-29T10:48:00.000-04:00

In two days it's Halloween and I'm dying (hehe) to talk zombies. I often have projects that I'm currently working on or revising, and then I have projects that are my "back burner" pieces. Without saying too much about the back burner stuff (mostly because I don't want to jinx myself) I have a small book I'm gathering info for that is about zombies.

Now, to be fair, you can't really write anything about zombies until you've established an ideology about them and have some ground rules for how you believe they operate. To me, a zombie wants your brains, flesh, blood and they might groan a lot. That's the basic zombie.

If you read enough zombie tales, however, you learn the rules are more complex. Zombies can't live/exist where it's cold because they would freeze. Zombies can live/exist underwater since they don't require air. Some zombies move fast, some zombies move slow. Some zombies hear very well, while it seems others don't hear a thing, etc.

So, I thought I'd ask you for your thoughts on zombies. If you can't think of anything about them specifically, then tell me what would scare you about them. What's the worst situation to be in? Is a fast or slow zombie scarier? If you were at home and the zombies were gathering outside, what's the first thing you would do?

15 Ways to Make the Most of Snippets of Writing Time

2011-10-28T09:00:00.000-04:00

I often wait for that moment when I have the chance to work on fiction. You know the moment, when it's quiet, when I'm fully engaged, when I don't have errands to run? These moments don't come on their own unless you make time for them intentionally. However, there are a million little times that could be better spent and some of us are failing to see them as writing opportunities.

Jeff Goins suggests not writing a lot, but writing often and believes 30 minutes a day is more valuable than a 5 hour stretch once a week. I agree. So, what do you do with those small chunks of time when you may or may not feel immediately in a "writing mode" but you have the sliver of time to write?

If you're at a total loss for ideas, here are fifteen ways to make the most of your snippets of writing time:

5 - 10 Minutes
Five to ten minutes may not feel like enough time to get any really work done, but if you have an idea of what you want to accomplish, then these small chunks can add up to real progress.

Write a transition scene that progresses your character forward from one action element to another
Free write about your main character or antagonist to find out their motivations or thoughts on a situation or other character
Write a piece of flash fiction in less than 100 words
Flesh out a setting for a scene you haven't written yet
Write a scene with only the dialogue and plan to fill in the beats and descriptions later

15 - 20 Minutes
A speedy twenty minutes can fly by when you're writing, but it is enough time to accomplish a lot if you use every minute of it.

Rewrite a scene you know isn't working
Create a new short story with just one location, two to three characters, and one problem
Skip ahead in a stalled story to a scene you know you want to include and roughly know what will happen
Write a letter from one character to another to unclog a blocked plot line and get ideas flowing
Write a scene you're struggling with from a new point of view to get ideas of how to fix it

25 - 30 Minutes

To my mind twenty-five to thirty minutes of time is the perfect quantity because it gives enough time to get deep into your work without lasting so long you become restless or need breaks.

Write the outline for a single large scene, a series of chapters, or a long short story you have ideas for
Write a chapter for your novel from beginning to end without stopping or double checking information in previous chapters
Write a short story in a genre you've never tried, using a character you wouldn't normally write about or sympathize with
Write the first chapter for a story you've been thinking about that isn't your current work in progress to get fresh juices flowing
Look around in a public place and write about a person you see there, creating their fictional life story

Tell me your quick tips for writing time snippets in the comments section below.

Gearing Up For NaNoWriMo 2011

2011-10-26T08:38:00.000-04:00

It's the end of October and that can mean only one thing: NaNo is coming.

For those of you who don't know the NaNoWriMo challenge is to write 50,000 words (that's a lot) in the month of November. You "win" the challenge if you hit that goal and you instantly feel equal exhaustion and invigoration at the same time on December 1st. This is my fourth year doing NaNo (I've "won" each time) and I've never been more prepared with a plot and outline than this year.

While I'm normally the mainstream/literary fiction girl, this year I'm leaning into fantasy. The novel, currently titled "Smoke," involves magic, witchcraft, warlocks, curses, love, longing, demons, burning at the stake, and an ancient cat. My hope is that the book is fantasy but reads well even for those who don't normally read about witches or vampires or zombies. (Don't we all love a good zombie?)

If you're doing NaNo, feel free to "buddy" me. I'm under the username "mtelsch" and I'll be writing everyday.

Writing in the Shadow of Depression

2011-10-24T22:08:00.002-04:00

I'm going to be brutally honest right now, and not just because I have "something to say," but because I think this needs to be shared aloud.

Last week was pretty shitty for me. I had a bazillion deadlines. I was a giant grouch with a worry addiction. I lost sleep, my appetite, and my sense of self. I went through the wringer and it sucked, plain and simple, suckola, suckaroo, blah, blah, blah. I kept all of this between myself, my husband, and my sister.

I don't want sympathy, a shoulder, or even a lying consolation saying everything is okay.

Don't give me those things.

As writers we have these weeks. They come. They go.

I'm a writer who knows I have suffered in the past (and probably will suffer in the future) with clinical severe depression brought on from traumatic experiences I'll probably never share publicly. Depression is...well...depression. I can recognize that beast's shadow and I can see him coming from a mile away.

That was last week. A week in the shadow, and now I'm pushing forward again. I've learned to cope.

This week, the boulder of issues is still resting squarely on my chest, but the cloud has lifted slightly and I'm back to seeing through the darkness instead of being blinded by it. That's me. I didn't write any fiction last week either. That's the truth.

So many of the people online share the ups of the roller coaster and put on a show like they never look down because they're just too busy smiling, but that's not me. I love writing. I love talking about writing and getting better at it. I love helping people with their writing, and helping them improve, but I'm not going to lie to you and say, "You'll never have a bad day so long as you're working on something you love."

That's just not the case.

Now, it's true that not complaining about living your dream is part of The Writer's Code, but I'm not complaining here; I'm laying my heart on the line. I'm exposing the inside of the forbidden fruit so you can recognize the bitter seeds when you bite into them.

I want you to do well and be happy. I want you to write a thousand words and then write a thousand more. I want you to know that when you crash on the side of this dark road and flip your vehicle that I'll come flip it back over with you and tell you, "Yeah, that curve gets everyone," because it does.

If this post offers nothing else, then let it offer this: there are horrible weeks out there waiting for you in front of the sun, some strung together, some waiting alone, but you were constructed to weather those storms. Do not give up. Do not give in. Do not let the beast keep you for longer than you intended to stay.

You have somewhere to be that doesn't involve this address where you currently lay your head.

How to Edit Ruthlessly - Part 3: Smash

2011-10-23T21:48:00.002-04:00

With editing ruthlessly comes the moment you know you can be objective andyou know what is and isn’t working in your story/novel since you’ve cased thejoint, now it’s time to smash and grab. This post, obviously, covers thesmash.

Smash in ruthless editing entails crushing every nasty part of your work in orderto leave behind a stronger story. To quote William Faulkner, “In writing,you must kill all your darlings.”

Check back at your list from casing the joint and pick out all of the negative aspectsabout your story. Was that secondary character worth the time you’re givinghim? Did the setting suck the life out of your tale? Were there long periods ofstorytelling without any progression (physical, mental, emotional, orotherwise)?

Chuck ‘em.

Get rid of the crap that is weighing your story down. If you can’t dare topart with it you are either A) avoiding the inevitable, or B) need to changethe problem element so dramatically it appears different.

Believe me, I have tried both of these options with bitter results andsuccesses, so you have to question if the item you’re hanging onto for dearlife is really worth the trouble because this bomb may still blow up in yourface.

As you smash (or alter) the negative elements you discovered in Part 2,watch out for how the elements you’re keeping look. You want to avoidrepetitive words, weak verbs [was, got, had, look, etc.], areas wheredescription is over the top heavy, using too many flashbacks to the point thereader can’t stay engaged in the story at hand, and periods of dialogue that goon and on without attribution, leaving the reader lost.

This smash phase I also refer to as “tightening” and “straining.” Howeffectively you can smash the problem areas of your tale will reflect in thestrength of what is left in your wake. Remember, your story is not obligated tomake you feel better, the story is for your reader to enjoy, so make itgood. Likewise, you aren’t obligated to keep every word you’ve ever put intothe story, and hanging onto those words simply because they’ve been written isn’thelping you.

Be honest with yourself and be willing to open your palm to let some of thestory fall through. You can’t pan for gold without sifting through a lot ofuseless sand.

Was smashing easy or hard for you? Leave your thought in the commentssection below.

Looking Forward to Rejections

2011-10-19T23:18:00.000-04:00

So this isn't my official, official Wednesday post, but I wanted to share that I just submitted a guest post for an amazing writing blog I'll tell you all about later. (See how I'm using delayed gratification as a story telling device? I actually just don't want to jinx myself and suddenly be seen as a failure to all of you, but hey, I'm human, so there you go.)
Back to the post! This guest post is about using your rejections as a measure of your success and how your rejections are actually being good to you.

I'm excited about this post in particular because I think there are too many could-have-been writers out there that quit before they really got started and hopefully this will keep some more of us good guys in the ring fighting. I hope you have your rejections ready when I do the "big reveal" to tell you where to read the entire piece. As my daughter used to say when she was little, "so cited!"

Desire to Be the Wind and Write Like a Storm

2011-10-18T09:05:00.000-04:00

The subject of how others view you came up the other day. The word someone said about me was "industrious." After I said, "Huh?" she explained that I'm always in the thick of it, writing, submitting, working.

My reply was something along the lines of, "My God, it feels like I'm a scattered mess inside most of the time." I make lists of projects and ideas on slips of paper or spreadsheets just to get them out of my head to keep the mental clutter down. I also have a horrible memory ever since my daughter was born, so writing things down is crucial to juggling multiple projects and plots.

Then it occurred to me that my friend sees the whole, fully formed tornado of me during times when I feel like the wind, tossing tree limbs around and riping roofs off houses in random order. I have learned, however, that as a creative person you have to desire to be the wind and here's why:
The wind is the ultimate writer. The wind can plow forward through towns and states without regard for borders and none of it is an obstacle. When you're the wind, you toss aside cars, knock over billboards, alter the way other people see the world, but other than gray and flying soil, to you it's all a mess. Despite how organized you try to be, there are times when you are a mess of a storm, and the quantity of stories and chapters you can create are unlimited.

The good news is that while you're caught up in air pressure and cold breezes are blowing your workspace to bits, hail pelting your desk, everyone else is stepping back and finally seeing the tornado.

Many writers aren't taken seriously by their family and friends. They don't see you working or researching, mostly because these things must be done alone, and when they ask how it's going, you say, "Good" because you know they wouldn't understand. A visible storm of writing, however, to the point someone says you're industrious, tells you it's being noticed.

Writing like a storm means you have an impact.

You have an impact even if your writing life feels like a mess. It's strewn everywhere, it clobbers your thoughts when you're "not working,"and the new ideas don't stop forming just because your mental space for projects and stories is exceeding full.

It feels like a mess because when you are the wind you can't see the tornado. You are incapable of seeing the full scope of your energies and this is probably a good thing. If we had that sliver of time to take a look for ourselves, we might become awestruck, dumbfounded, and frozen in place and not know exactly how to run back into a spiralling funnel which can just as easily suck you up as spit you out.

It's better to be the extreme force than the byproduct and as writers or artists or any kind of creator, a tornado of productivity and heart is a much more powerful tool for carving our names on this world.

Do you desire to be the wind? Have you been the storm? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

How to Edit Ruthlessly - Part 2: Casing the Joint

2011-10-14T13:18:00.002-04:00

In Part 1 of the How to Edit Ruthlessly series, I ended by making sureyou are able to look at your work objectively. Now that you’re objective anddon’t care about the story’s feelings, it’s time to break the story apart toreveal the blueprint of what’s going on here.

Before you can go crashing into the doors of your story, however, you’llneed to Case the Joint – check out the structure, look for the high dollaritems, and note the security cameras. Casing the Joint gives you an overall honest assessment of how your story looks and whether or not you're being effective in telling your tale. This is how to go about doing it.

Make a list of the following things and write down your objective thoughtsabout them (good, bad, and indifferent). This can read like a laundry list orlike a journal entry.

Is the plot working?

Do all of the scenes matter?

Are there scenes that could be cut and it doesn’t change the story?

Are there boring scenes?

Does the setting even matter?

Is your main character interesting?

How do you think people should feel toward the main character?

Do you feel that way toward the main character?

Do the relationships of the characters matter?

Is the story too crowded with characters to follow with ease?

What is driving the main character – what is his or her goal?

Is there any point to the ending or does the story fizzle or fade withoutmeaning or purpose?

Are descriptions sprinkled throughout the story or poured on?

Is the antagonist believable or just a jerk for the sake of being anantagonist?

What is driving the antagonist – what is his or her goal?

Are there chunks of the story where you get bored?

Does each chapter or scene add tension or advance the story forward?

Is the biggest climax of the story coming in the middle or beginning insteadof the end?

Are you using a lot of flashbacks?

What do you just know isn’t working but are afraid to cut?

What do you love about the story?

When you make this list, keep your ideal reader and the less than idealhater in your mind. You want to fall in between those two. Add more elements tothe list as you think of them and write your thoughts.

Casing the joint and journaling like this is going to give you a chance to writefreely about the work “off the record.” Nothing that you write in this step isgoing to go into your draft, you’re safe here, but it can reveal areas you hadn’tconsidered and point out the flaws.

You cannot edit ruthlessly unless you get down into the filth and fantastic of your story.

Reach in deep untilyour knuckles are covered in muck and see what comes up. By the end of Casingthe Joint you should have about a 50/50 to a 30/70 kind of ratio going onbetween frustrations and successes. Too much negative and you might not be ableto fix it, too much positive and I’m going to be worried you’re not ruthlessenough.

Keep casing the joint until you feel safe enough to run into the story with roundsin the chamber yelling and screaming for everybody to get down. Once you’reready for this, you’re ready to Smash and Grab.

How did your ratio come out? How ruthless are you? Share your thoughts inthe comments below.

The Best Writing Program for All Writers

2011-10-12T15:00:00.000-04:00

The world of computer gadgets, programs, and apps is HUGEright now with no signs of slowing down. For writers this means keeping up withtrends and streamlining our process under the pressure to crank out bestsellers(we hope) at an alarming rate. “Publish or be forgotten!” the world yells inour faces, and we yell back, “Give me a program to make this easier.”

There are beta products, programs that store researchinformation beside your text, templates that make navigating novels simplified,and meters (God, how I love a good chart) to tell us if we’ve hit our wordcount for the day, week, or month. But how do we know which program is thebest? And what is a good program for a beginning writer or a bestselling author?

The quest for the best program for all writers leads to one basicneed: Writers want to know what program is going to draw us away from the struggleof outlines, chapters, plot structure, and character bios, while also marking wherewe love the story and the places where we anticipate work.

This quest is why I have a friend who actively searches for thebest program all the time. She tells me about downloading these one-word namedapplications (names no one can pronounce until you’ve heard an expert say it)and she uses them for a few days or weeks, and then the search is back on for a“better fit.”

When we chat about these “writing tools,” she speaks aboutthem like she's looking for the Holy Grail. It's as if she expects some magical thing tohappen when her world and this ideal program's world collide that will suddenlyforce words to spew out her fingers and everything will read polished, errorfree, and rich with characters and plot.

I don't have the heart to tell her, although I must for thesake of The Writer’s Code, that there is no better writing program thansitting down in the chair every day and actually writing.

If a program works to draw you to your chair, then great. Ifit isn’t getting you writing because you’re fiddling with the settings andreading a 200 page tutorial on The Greatest Writing Program Ever Created 1.0,then forget it.

You must keep in mind always that you do the work.Not the program.

If the program or app or gadget eases the process then gofor it, you have my full support. Just don't spend more hours looking for, downloading, and figuring out how to use the program, than you do writing with it.

As for me, I chart ideas on thecomputer (MS Word) or I make a spreadsheet (MS Excel) about my plot, my characters, short story titles that arrive in the middle of the night, just to keep it all organized. Then, inevitablysome driving force urges me to put an actual pen, (you know, with ink), into myhand and write my plots, my research notes, etc. in front of my face. I like tohave something tangible to flip through when I'm actively typing my fiction work rather thantoggling between documents which is what I do with my freelance writing. That's me.

The real key in all of this is that the best writing programis whatever works for you. The end goal, after all is not to have thebest app, it’s to have written (past tense) something really worthwhile thatyou love. Otherwise all of the downloads and product reviews and celebrityendorsements mean nothing. Don’t let the search for the best program delay you inreaching the finish line with your writing.

Share your thoughts in the comments below. Feel free togush about a program you like or tell me who makes your favorite pen (I’m on azebra pen kick myself).

The 15 Rules of The Writer’s Code

2011-10-11T20:12:00.000-04:00

Just so we're all perfectly clear exactly what is expected of us now that we've decided to be writers.

Don't plagiarize.
Read more than you write.
Read outside your genre.
Make time to write.
Hold yourself accountable for writing.
Be honest with yourself about your writing strengths and weaknesses.
Be honest with others about their writing strengths and weaknesses (if asked).
Provide fair feedback in critiques to receive fair feedback.
Be objective about your work.
Edit your work (more than once) and be willing to make (huge) changes.
Know your voice.
Trust your instincts.
Give back to the writing community.
Don't complain about following your dream.
Support and encourage yourself as much as others.

What rules would you include? Leave your Writer’s Code rulesin the comments section below.

Reaching Down Deep to Find Your Motivation

2011-10-10T07:06:00.000-04:00

My husband, who is also a writer, has no problem with self-motivation. He wakes, he works, he creates. I on the other hand, need to "get my pilot light lit," as I call it. I need to get up and stand kindling together in a tee pee shape, stuff wads of newspaper inside, and strike wet matches until the fire begins to burn. When the usable material finally catches I'm ready to fuel a bonfire of ideas, stories, essays, novels, non-fiction articles, you name it -- let's burn.

Unfortunately, there are those times when the burning desire to write doesn't make an appearance no matter how much you drag that match across the surface of the box. It needs to be coaxed out of hiding, like a scared cat from a drainage pipe. Try as you may, nothing seems to get Point A (your ass) to Point B (your project). This is when you need to reach down deep.

To reach down deep you have to recognize there is an element inside of you that is capable of cooking great things if only you can get the pilot light lit. It is a secret piece to the creative puzzle that is nestled into your core, hidden at the base of your spine, or huddled inside the chambers of your heart. Perhaps it looks like an emerald, maybe a droplet of water, a horseshoe, a star.

Whatever you imagine this shape, it is made from the same material all the great authors and artists of generations before us have used for their motivations. More than acknowledging that fact, you must know this:

The chunk of motivation which will lead to your greatest creation is already present inside of you.

You may not be able to feel it, although some days you get to brush up against it, and you may not be able to hear it, even though it speaks to you as you work, but it is there.

Noticed or not. Recognized or not. Believed in or not. It waits for you there.

Some particle of greatness is crouching there, and even on the days when you think it's going to take a lot of coffee, or wine, or bad TV, or a hot shower to get anything usable to surface, it is there, pulsating, waiting for its moment.

So go ahead. Reach down deep. Close your eyes and feel for this element within you -- this piece of tinder that wants to desperately to bloom into flames. Reach for it, draw it forward, and click the lighter.

How to Edit Ruthlessly - Part 1: A Plan

2011-10-07T12:56:00.002-04:00

As fiction writers (or freelancers or poets) there's a lot of talk aboutwriting, finding time to write, “how to” books on writing, writing styles,voice, point of view, making good on that novel you have ideas for, and thelist goes on into the distance. What I see a lack of are the editing tips,advice, and guidance.

As I've said before, I believe editing and revision make up 90% of thewriting process. So why is the majority focusing on the 10%?

The first 10% (when you’re actively writing your first draft) is the fleshybody of the story. It’s a very essential piece. Many wannabe writers don’t makeit beyond this stage. That’s why there are so many reference books about thisstage – to tap into the “starters.”

The much smaller pool of late-night, coffee-drinking, self-talking,aloud-groaning, speed-typing “finishers” are the ones who need to worry aboutthe other 90% of the process.

You want to be a finisher.

But then what? Where are the self-help books now? Who’s going to guide younow? That’s where knowing how to edit ruthlessly on your own comes in handy. Ifthe first draft is the body of the story, then in ruthless editing you have theopportunity (yes, opportunity) to break things down to a muscular, skeletal, oreven cellular level. Don't worry, I'll tell you how.

For you to learn about editing ruthlessly, I’ve divided the method into fourmajor chunks which I’ll distribute to you in parts to make reading easier:A Plan, Casing the Joint, Smash, and Grab. Basically, you’re going to shoplift yourstory.

To explain, there's a name the retail business (where I spent my collegeyears working) for a method of shoplifting called "smash and grab."This is the kind of event where the bad guys (we’ll put them in black skimasks, black clothes, and banana yellow sneakers just to add some visuals here)crash through the glass front doors of a department store, rush inside to thesales floor, grab as much high dollar stuff as close to the door as possible,and run like hell. It’s dramatic and intentional. It gets the job done and donefast. They are ruthless.

Like our robbers, the start to any heist begins with Part 1: A Plan. Youneed a plan before you can even think about Casing the Joint, Smashing orGrabbing. Luckily, to generate your plan in fiction editing takes only one (MAJOR)step and it instantly weeds out the faint of heart.

You must become objective.

You have to forget you wrote the first draft of this story in front of you.

Let it go. It is not your baby. You are not here to fulfill some duty touphold your own ego of how good a first draft you have written. You are notobligated to like, dislike, love, or hate this story.

~~You must become objective.~~

Do you think the banana yellow sneaker team gives a crap about the salesclerk who’s had a bad day? No. You cannot worry about what the story will thinkof you in the morning.

If you cannot do this crucial step, then you’ll never be able to editruthlessly and any of the other steps in the process (Casing the Joint, Smash,Grab) won’t matter and you won’t be able to use them effectively.

*(Test your objectivity, if you’re unsure, by sharing the story with a friendand telling them someone else wrote it. Have a discussion about it, get thathonest feedback, and see how hurt your feelings are. If they’re not hurt inlight of your friend’s negative comments, then you’re ready.)

Are you ready to be ruthless? Leave questions and comments below.

The All Important "Platform"

2011-10-05T15:00:00.000-04:00

The buzz around Ye Ol' Water Cooler these days is "platform." This is a word that's been floating around for a while now in the writing and social media communities, and while I kind of shield my eyes from these things (knowing damn well I shouldn't), it is vitally important if you have any hopes of showing the world who you are. Want to get started?

Jeff Goins recently wrote a piece about Why Building a Platform is Essential and How to Do It which is pretty useful in terms of defining the whole platform issue and what the point of it all is.

While I'll admit I'm on the bottom rung of this little ladder, I think it's important information to share from one writer to another so we can each put our best foot forward. While the platform isn't going to be the thing to sell your manuscript (the manuscript sells the manuscript) I'm sure being able to offer up a million page views, Twitter followers, and Facebook friends doesn't hurt sales potential.

Rachelle Gardner takes things a few steps forward with her 10 Tidbits About Author Platforms over at her blog too. To put it bluntly (which is how I prefer agents to be) she basically says don't worry about the platform if you aren't interested in selling any of these books you've been writing. True.

I like the analogy of the platform being the stage on which you stand as an author. I think then the kind of audience you draw to your performance is key, and knowing who those people are is essential to drawing them. That being said, the real work then is making sure you know what kind of production you want to put on and managing how you advertise the show.

How are you going to tell the audience the show is coming? How will they know if they want to go see it? All of this rests on your platform. Luckily, there won't be a pop quiz on this stuff, but it is up to you to create it, to dream it up and make it real. Otherwise, it just won't happen.
For me, I need to give my "platform" some thought and chart out some goals so I have some sense of direction before I leap off the diving board. Gardner offers up the 500 Facebook fans and 15,000/month page views goal and I think nothing is more convincing of how it takes time and energy and effort to build a platform than those numbers.

What about you? Tell me about your platform in the comments below.

Reading Notes: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

2011-10-04T16:00:00.000-04:00

If there is ever a life or death debate about "world building" in writing it can be resolved with The Night Circus. I've never read a book so rich and full with visual elements without going overboard with description. The feel and texture of this circus and the people involved are spectacular and solid. Thanks to Erin Morgenstern's ability to sprinkle visual information, rather than layer it, the world of The Night Circus comes alive and everything else about the story is enhanced because of it.

The magical element of The Night Circus is captivating and fresh with each trick and new creation and I can picture hundreds of "dreamers" lined up in their red scarves to buy a sequel book or movie ticket. Morgenstern also succeeds beautifully in setting the tale across years and bringing the timelines together expertly at the end. The story is active and present without growing intense, making for a great, quick read even for those who might say they don't read that much.

(Disclaimer: As always, my Reading Notes are reserved for bringing to lightand pointing out the strengths and positive aspects of books and their authors.While I have negative opinions, sometimes strong ones, I won't be sharing thenegatives of other writers’ published work here because it’s not productive andI'm not in the business of looking like an asshole or burning bridges.)

You're Not Alone, But You Do Have to Work There

2011-10-03T10:21:00.000-04:00

It occurred to me how solitary writing is (not a new concept by any means) and how much this can lead to the idea that we're all floating around out here, alone, typing up stories by ourselves.

You should just know: you're not alone.

No, I can't write your shit for you, and you can't write my shit for me, and a critique group can't make something work that isn't working, BUT you're a part of a collection of other alone people who work like you, and that should mean something.

Other writers all over the world sit around: alone. We think up stories by ourselves and draw them out of the air on our own.

(Don't confuse alone with lonely.)

I like to think when I'm by myself typing away that aside from the characters which keep me company during these hours, that there are a lot of other writers also committing themselves to this alone time. As I'm writing and chipping away at a plot, so are a hundred or thousand other writers in that same moment and we're actively creating something in the world that didn't exist before.

We're not alone at all even though we write in different cities, states, or continents, but this is our office; an office for one.

So, when your hair is ripped out and the coffee cup is empty save for the sticky residue ring along the inside, and you can't force characters to move that aren't meant to walk, while we're not there with you, we're all here for you. We're all here -- writing.

Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

How to Know Your Work is Ready for Submission

2011-09-30T08:31:00.000-04:00

When it comes down to being a writer, if you aren't wholly in it for the joy and pain of fiction, there is inevitably a time when you must submit your work. Whether to a publication, an agent, or a publisher, your writing, your flesh and blood final draft versions of stories that fell out of your head, have to leave the nest and you have to watch from the front door and see if they have wings. But how do you know your stories, novels, essays, poems are ready?

The truth is: you never do. Not 100% anyway. But your gut and your heart and some writerly know how can tell you if what you have is a diamond ready for fitting into a ring, or just a shiny stone only you like. Luckily, there are ways to gauge your submissions before they disappear into the clouds of submission land and give yourself a reality check to know if your work is ready for submissions.

Have you given the story more than one revision? A majority of my stories have been read and tweaked upwards of 15 to 20 times, and that's being conservative. If you gain nothing else from this entire post, hell this entire website, hear this: your first draft is crap, revise it. Yes, there will be some good things coming out of your work, but the first, second, or even third draft is NOT ready to be submitted anywhere.

Have you let others (who aren't your relatives) read and critique the work? The people you have read your work represent your potential readers and what they think can tell you what a potential publisher or agent thinks. Don't brush off strong negative reactions to your work, they may be the red light you need to revise the story more before sending it out.

What is your gut telling you? Seriously, your "gut feeling" is a strong signal to telling you whether that story is ready. If you're sick to your stomach over the idea of submission, then it's time to revise again. If you're nervous to click "Send," then revise. If you're so excited to submit your work you're coming unglued, then submit with reckless abandon.

Have you read and reread the guidelines, submission instructions, and formatting requirements from the publisher/agent? Have you followed them? If you think your submission doesn't need to conform to the agent or publisher's rules because it's "too good," then you have serious problems. Writing involves passion and storytelling, but there is also a series of hoops to jump through when it comes to publishing. If you aren't a good listener, if you don't work well with others, if you can't follow the rules, then the publishing machine has no use for you.

Do you like the work you've created? Are you happy after you read the piece and feel positively about it? If your heart is not in it, and you don't particularly care for or about the story, then why would you expect anyone else to? Only submit work you feel confident in and that you, yourself would want to read.

What have previous submission places said about that piece? If you've submitted the story somewhere else in the past, then their level of rejection can push you in a new direction. Rejections which say, "A little too over the top," or, "Not enough tension to publish at this time," are clues to tell you exactly where the deficiencies lie in your tale. Work from these comments (if you're lucky enough to get them) to strengthen your work before sending it out again.

Are there other ways you use to determine if your work is ready? Leave comments below and tell me about your submission experiences.

Mistake #124 Not Following Your Heart

2011-09-17T13:41:00.000-04:00

I'm a fairly regular reader to the blog What Not To Do As a Writer written by the ever talented and sailor-mouthed Lisa Kilian. On her blog she lists all of the possible mistakes a writer can/could/will make, some of which we've all learned by experience. Lisa's blog has been one of the few voices on the internet to speak to other writers and admit that on some days: it all sucks, and on other days: you suck.

This week she posted that she's "going rogue" and no longer going to update her site anymore, although nothing will be taken down. Her life and dreams are leading her in another direction and I think I'd like to tip my hat to her and say, in tribute, that Mistake #124 should be Not Following Your Heart.

There's no unwritten rule that says she must continue a blog into eternity and her heart is pulling her in a new blog direction. While there are unwritten rules which suggest turning your back on social media and blogging about writing will kill you as an author, I think Lisa is making the right decision. If she's not feeling it anymore, then why put herself through blogging constantly about something she's no longer driven to write about. None of us want to read the blogs of people who have lost the enthusiasm to blog. That's like eating pie the baker says is "good enough."

A mistake any writer or person can make is to turn their back on themselves while leaving everyone else satisfied.

I'd rather have someone flip me their middle finger and look to their own new and ever changing passions than continue nodding and saying yes about something they don't care about or care to write about anymore. What if JK Rowling decided around book four that she didn't care about wizards anymore but continued anyway? Wouldn't the story have suffered? And wouldn't we all call her out on it and say to our friends, "Yeah, read the first three books, but you don't need to know how it ends."

If you're not passionate about whatever you're doing anymore, then you need to get your ass off this train without worrying what everyone else thinks.

"Everyone else," the group, the cult, the fam, the friends: They don't matter as much as the person inside of you that needs to feel recharged rather than burnt out. It doesn't matter what I think about you moving to Nepal to study a third type of elephant, or what I think if you're wanting to start a jazzercize club for pregnant women over 50, and it doesn't matter what I think if you want to go to beauty school. What do you want?

What do you (as the only person in your skin and in your mind) want your footprint in the sand to leave behind? Do you even want your foot in the sand? I congratulate Lisa on her choice to shut down this beautiful running train and decide to step off. I hope we all have the courage to follow our hearts and not make a big mistake.

Remembering What This Writing Thing is All About

2011-09-06T20:21:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to share something with you real quick and I'm not even going to count it as my "weekly" (I use this term loosely) post. I really like author Ann Patchett, especially "The Patron Saint of Liars." Her stories work for me and her style of writing resonates with me most of the time. A few days ago I happened to see in my library's catalog that she had a non-fiction book called "What Now?" which is a commencement speech she gave.

What the hay, I picked it up. Less than 100 pages, large print, lots of pictures. What could it take, twenty, maybe thirty minutes to read? Yeah, I blew through that book like a tornado through a trailer park, but the weight of what she offered can't be measured. The best part by far was this nugget I transcribed and pasted below. I hope you like it and find it as powerful as I do.

“I learned the most from sticking with my dream even when all signs told me it was time to let go. I came to understand that fiction writing is like duck hunting. You go to the right place at the right time with the right dog. You get into the water before dawn, wearing a little protective gear, then you stand behind some reeds and wait for the story to present itself. This is not to say you are passive. You choose the place and the day. You pick the gun and the dog. You have the desire to blow the duck apart for reasons that are entirely your own. But you have to be willing to accept not what you wanted to have happen, but what happens. You have to write the story you find in the circumstances you’ve created, because more often than not the ducks don’t show up. The hunters in the next blind begin to argue, and you realize they’re in love. You see a snake swimming in your direction. Your dog beings to shiver and whine, and you start to think about this gun that belonged to your father. By the time you get out of the marsh you will have written a novel so devoid of ducks it will shock you.”

~ Ann Patchett, “What Now?”

I wish for all of us to have fantastic, duck-less novels some day. Cheers.

Creating a Story Outline

2011-09-01T21:25:00.000-04:00

I'm currently working on an idea for a new novel which I plan to write in November. While I'm not scribbling any words on the page until November first, a la NaNoWriMo, I am rigorously plotting the tale and doing research on my subject matter ahead of time so I know what to write when the time comes.

I like to write as a mix of planned plotting (outlines) and discovery writing. I may know what's going to happen next in a general sense, but the details come during the writing of the scene. I might know what one character will say, for sure, 100%, and will have written the quote down on a scrap of paper, but I might not know what the other character's reaction will be, not entirely anyway.

When I've made outlines in the past it's just been a kind of boom, boom, boom list.
1. Cynthia falls.
2. Kevin comforts her.
3. They fight about the doctor's bill.
Stuff like that. While this gets me so far, these plots tend to lack in subplotting and then when I realize I've left Character C out completely it's like bringing the dogs in through a cat door to navigate the other characters around the fall and doctor's visit.

This time, however, I'm going for a more clarified approach as I'm still honing my writing as well as my outlines. I'm forming this new outline to look like a list of scenes similar to watching a movie. If we don't need to know Cynthia woke up, ate two eggs, and drank OJ, then it's not going into the outline. Plain and true, it's not a genuine scene.

The scenes are then numbered (1, 2, 3, etc.) and beside these numbers I'll put which chapter they fell into as I wrote, since some scenes happen within the same chapter. Along with each scene I include what's going to happen and why it's important to the main character, or how it changes him or her. If it doesn't make a difference or they don't change, then, again, it's not a scene.

This is a good start, I think.

I've also been looking around the web for a few ideas and even asked my critique group about it. For NaNo, things are condensed. I'm looking at thirty chunks of 2000 words and trying to figure out where Point B even fits into the mess of each day's needed writing words. I don't know if you've ever done this kind of work before, but I should get an embroidered merit badge for outlining once it's all said and done.

The point is: Everyone has their own methods and frankly I'm still searching for mine. JK Rowling has her own style of outline. It's up my alley in terms of detail and knowing your plot thoroughly. Meanwhile, Joanna Penn writes her outlines for scenes a little more sparingly. This method appeals to the discovery writer in me, but I need to know more than a few scenes out.

The greatest fact about these outlines is that they are your guide; a talking cricket to lead you down the right pathway and discourage needless scenes. My best advice?

1. Use what works for you. If you don't like that method, try another. Keep trying until you find the one in a million fit that allows your stories to pulsate with character. Some methods are extensive, filling spreadsheets with details right down to what your character's favorite Jello flavor is. Other methods are brief one liners where all you'll know if who is in the room.

2. Be willing to change your method, to tweak it into a new constellation. If you like knowing the chapter number, then add it in. If you find you need a column to tell you what month or year that part of the story happens in, add it. If you suddenly realize you like only knowing the bare bones of the scene, then forget about jotting down the details of architecture and let it come to you organically when you write it. No one person's way has to be your way. Adjust theirs or make up your own. It's fiction, right? Make it up.

3. (And most important.) Write. Don't focus all of your energy on the outline, A solid outline, rich with twists, turns, and cliffhanging ends of chapters isn't readable. You can plot all day, but unless you're writing it, then you're still sitting at the starting line and everyone else has sped ahead leaving dirt in your teeth and all the water cups will be gone at the next pit stop.

Also, going along with writing the actual story, be flexible enough to alter the outline for the sake of the story. If you've plotted a scene that doesn't work, and for any reason your gut is screaming that it won't work, then adjust the outline and fix or remove the scene. The way I see it, the outline is the skeleton or bones of the story, but it's up to you to write in the muscle and give the tale some meat. No one wants to chew on the bone. No matter what method you choose, go with it, invest your heart, and write the story.

Changing the Endings of Stories

2011-08-25T14:33:00.000-04:00

A few months ago I submitted a short story to my critique group. A sorrowful tale, really, about a simple man alone in his house waiting for his family to return home. While everyone agreed they liked the story and successfully pointed and laughed as they ripped out my had-s, was-s, started to-s, and look-s, the majority of the group also pointed my attention to a plot element I placed in the center of the story. This detail, they said, held my ending. But how could that be, obviously it showed itself in the center of the story?

Nope. Sorry, folks. The group followed their gut and knew when the story really hit home with them. I know that this is true because a critique group (and I hope you have one) is an entity all on its own and has the ears of a reader and the mind of a writer. If they don't tell you to fix something now, then your future readers will put your work down faster than middle school boys put down each other's moms.

After looking over the story I was able to pull the information from the middle, that bit of character revelation I spilled too early, and work it into the ending. Now, that all sounds really easy, but it wasn't. I had to find a way to transition that middle/end into the end/end, and where I did the middlectomy there was a gaping hole in the story that needed to be smoothed. It took a lot of work, and the whole time I wanted to make sure the tone of the story remained intact.

My challenge for you this week, therefore, is to take that story -- the one you feel has potential but can't seem to put your finger on the problem -- and see if your ending isn't lurking further ahead. The trick here is that you have to be able to see your "complete" story as pieces of a whole, like a skeleton's ribcage working building along that uniting spine. If a rib or two is out of place, you need to both be able to recognize it and fix it. X-ray technician and surgeon in one. That's your job as the designated writer. Feel the story with your gut and see where you relate to the character the most. That just might be your finale. Good luck!

The 5 Question Test: Are you are writer, or aren't you?

2011-08-18T21:05:00.000-04:00

Recently, I've had the honor to see how far I have come as a writer and I have to say, it's really trippy.

In a few separate occasions I had conversations with other writers who were either beginners or writers who've been at this game longer than I, but are apparently a touch more resistant to change. In each of these situations it occurred to me that I have come so far since my early days of writing horrible slop (and thinking it could be huge), that I probably would shred my old self to bits in a workshop with everything I've learned over time and with experience. (To be clear, even in my old college workshop days I loved being told what was wrong with my writing because it felt like progress.)

That being said, I've come up with a quick yes/no kind of questionnaire for you to see if you've grown as a writer from that school level punk with a chip on their shoulder because you've read old literature. Hopefully, you've overcome yourself and a few other bad habits and pass without much trouble.

1.) Do you write with regularity?
You can't be a writer unless you're actually pulling words. This doesn't have to mean you're aiming for a specific word count or writing every single day at 5am on the nose, but regularity. Let's say, more than once a week.

2.) Do you read with regularity?
This is key. Reading teaches you how others have used writing to get where you want to be. If you're not reading, then you don't even know what to aspire to or who you're up against in terms of skill. Between published works and my critique group I probably read more than I write.

3.) Do you still think the first draft is the hardest part?
To me, a finished story or novel consisted of 10% first draft writing and 90% revision work. Scenes you didn't even think of in the first draft process may need to be added in, or entire characters may need to get kicked out, and that all happens in revision.

4.) When you share your work and receive feedback, do you think the other person is wrong 100% of the time?
Don't kid yourself. I'm certain you have screwed up something royally in some story. Time to swallow your pride, say, "Thank you for reading it," and get back to work.

5.) Are you in it for the story and not yourself?
If you're thinking that writing a quick story or novel will skyrocket you to success, then you're dead wrong. You have to be here because you love the story so much that you want nothing else than spend 90% of your time revising the damn thing. If you want fame, then look elsewhere, it's not going to be quick or easy from the page.

How did you do? My hope is that you'll now realize that you too have graduated from wanna-be writer to full-fledged-trying-like-hell-to-make-this-work writer.

Any other questions you think should be on the quiz? Let me know how you realized you've grown in the comments.

Your Literary Shelf Life

2011-08-01T17:33:00.000-04:00

I have an assignment for you. One that takes you away from the screen you're in front of right now (you know, the box where your friends are?) and sends you out into the world. Don't worry this won't be hard and I'll even ease you, calm your nerves, pat your little head while I tell you a story about me. If you want a story about someone else, so somewhere else. Right?

But this is about me and you, mostly me, but also mostly you. I'm worried about my literary shelf life and I don't know that you've even thought about yours. Now, that's not to say I think I'm tough shit or anything, and I'm not talking about those 15 minutes of fame everyone else has. I'm talking about your works' actual, physical, and very real life on the shelf.

I have this little, stupid thing I do, that I'm not embarrassed by or trying to hide, anytime I'm in a bookstore or library. It just is and it's what I do, so here you go. I, being that my last name is Telsch-Williams, head to the fiction section and track down the T's. Then I find the Te's. Get where I'm going with this? I find the exact spot, the direct pinpointed location, where my book(s) should one day belong. I slip a hand in between the cool covers of the books there, sometimes paperback and sometimes hardcover, and wiggle my fingers around in that slot.

This is my writings' home. This is the place where anyone that is interested in my writing will one day look (hopefully), and this is the spot where they will find me. I check out either side of my hand, see who the neighbors are. Half the time, depending on location, I've never heard of either of these authors and that's totally okay with me. I just take it all in. This is where my books will sleep when the store is locked and the lights are low. I also like to see how high or low "my" shelf is. I love a good eye-level house. Perfect for haphazard encounters with readers who aren't looking for you, but find you by chance.

I drag my hand back away and leave a slim gap between the books, step back, and just enjoy the sight of this space waiting for me to finish writing, submit stories, be rejected, get accepted, be published. And in all this time, that opening will wait for me. My spot. My words. One day. So, my assignment for you is to go find your literary shelf life, your bit of hallowed ground, and take it all in. This is the spot you should be thinking of on those days when you're unsure of your plot, hate your protagonist, and think a marathon of Community is a better idea than living your dream. This is also the spot you should be thinking of on the days when your fingers ache from typing and you can't stop the prose from coming. Then, after you've cased the shelf, come back and let me know how you like your new digs.

Writing on the Road

2011-06-07T09:09:00.000-04:00

I'm just a few days away from a beautiful vacation that is long overdue. We're going to one of my most favorite spots in the world for the standard rest and relaxation where we play outside, eat, read, chat, swim in the ocean, play board games, do art, and cook together as a family and I love this time. There also is no phone, television, or Internet. In my opinion, this is the stuff dreams are made of.

When you get somewhere like this, where the outside world is finally and thankfully closed off, you have the supreme opportunity to just be. Now, I don't mean you're sitting around like a lump, bored out of your mind, I mean that you are finally being you and you alone, free from Facebook, or clicking that you "like" tacos, or LOLing about something you saw on the news. Being unplugged is our most natural state, and while I know a lot of people (even in my own family), who would need a day of electronic detox before they could enjoy it, getting away from it all really is the best way to recharge your human battery.

For me, this includes taking my laptop and getting some uninterrupted time working on fiction. There's no way I'm going to suddenly get an email that just has to be answered, or receive a phone call from someone who 'just wants to chat' when I'm in the middle of writing. If you're anything like me and the rest of the writing world, then you already know that writing time is prime real estate that is easily undersold to quick trips to the store, taking the car to the shop, or the time when your child is suddenly sick and up all night.

Nothing makes me feel more whole and optimistic about the projects I'm working on than when I'm away from home base and out of sight, earshot, email's reach and no one can get to me and my writing. While there will not be hours and hours of unending time for typing up a story or revising a chapter, the key is that when I do snag that single hour, it will be a fully devoted hour to nothing but my craft and my story. I'm hoping you have some kind of sanctuary to run to just like this.

A Story of Revision

2011-05-31T12:49:00.000-04:00

I have this little story that only a handful of people have read. All in all, everyone agrees there's something good going on here, but I couldn't seem to put my finger on what wasn't working. The character was solid, a little narrative heavy, but only one guy is seen in the story, so I let that slide. I just didn't have a sense of where to take this ball of 90% and turn it into 100%. So, then I submitted it to my critique group. Like a white flag going up in a war zone, they spotted the issue and immediately everyone in the group recognized the problem. I had the story's beginning, middle, end, but I had jumbled it up and a portion I felt was middle material, they unanimously agreed belonged as the hook at the end.

It's times like this when you have to take your pride out of your chest. Remove ye ol' ego from your body and set it on the table behind you, drape a blanket over it like a sleeping bird in a cage, and turn around and go back to work. I totally saw their point, I just hated the amount of cutting, slicing, mending and glueing that would need to be done to make the middle the end and the end turn into the almost end.

There I was, author of this 3,000 word story about five or six pages long, staring down the barrel of 26 pages of rewrite information, notes, comments, little stars *** and these guys ~~ and other suggestions like, "this sentence adds nothing to the story. Cut." Sure, there were parts of the story they loved, the same parts I loved, but they saw the white flag and pointed it out in front of everyone. This is when I usually quote the movie Abyys and say, "It's alright, we knew we were going to see this" and shrug off the scratch to let it heal.

All good writers (and bad writers) need to be told when they fail, where they fail, how they fail, and why they fail, and if you are a good writer you'll let the sting subside, toss some vinegar on it, and get back to work. For the last month I've been actively converting the mass of suggestions into a story that is stronger, more deeply felt, and more long lasting than the original and it's all because I faced into the flame that is the revision process. If you can learn to do this, nothing will prevent your writing from growing or stop you from finding your full and true potential.

Finding "It" Again

2011-04-26T11:44:00.000-04:00

So, here I am and I really want to make excuses for why I haven't posted anything in what feels like forever, but I'm not going to make excuses. I should probably also come up with one excuse for why I tend to start blog sentences with words like "so" or "well," but I won't do that either. Like an ever curling and crashing wave, life sometimes pulls you away from the beaches of writing and sometimes washes you ashore to be stranded in your own mind -- caught up in characters and plots and dialogue and descriptions -- and I find you have to go with the flow [cliche, I know] and not fight it.

I haven't been a good fiction writer or critiquer for my group for a few weeks, but I have been reading, and reading, and reading. I'm currently wrapped up in Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, Tinkers by Paul Harding, and O'Pioneers by Willa Cather all as the same time, snagging time for each book here and there, always reading, always absorbing tact and method and style.

However, while I am a happy reader with these three very different stories and ways to present them, I miss being neck deep in my fiction writing. I think there's no coincidence that my mood is directly proportional to how much fiction I write and while there are days I'm so frustrated with a story I could jump off a cliff, the feeling of having written is unbeatable. My bad non-writing moods may also have to do with how I start to mentally diss on myself that I haven't written. You know the tape you play in your head about what you should be doing? Yeah, that's the one. I won't tell you what mine sounds like, but it's very difinitely a well-played and broken record.

The good news is that as writers we're not obligated to wait until January 1st or even NaNoWriMo to write. We can write anytime we want so long as we have our own story to tell and the drive to sit the hell down and do it. Everyday is a new opportunity to create and destroy (depending on your plot) and if something is not working we have the right to quietly throw it all in the trash and never tell a soul. If you're like me you have more story ideas in your head than you could possibly write in the next year, so focusing your energy is key. My task right now is to find that writing spark again, the "it" that makes my project exciting again or pops out words like a slot machine when it spews coins. A writer needs that "it" factor to get the work done and without "it" we're all just readers.

My Cat Can Help Your Writing

2011-03-16T09:45:00.002-04:00

I have a cat. Her name is Azriel. Probably fifty percent of the time when she's sleeping she wants to be under a blanket. If I'm in the bed, she's under the covers sleeping between my knees. If I'm on the couch she's either under the covers on my lap or under the blanket on the cushion next to me using my leg as a pillow. It is very cute and I'm not even one of those "puppies and kitties and baby owls are cute" kind of girls. She's also the softest cat in the universe, but that's another story that involves rabbit jealousy and resentment.

Here's the part that pertains to you "the writer." Every time Azriel, or Azzy for short, or AZ when we go clubbing, wants to come snuggle under blankets she jumps up onto the blanket. She picks at the covers with her paw, pulling small bits with her claw to dig at it, and meows at me. See, she doesn't want to get herself under the covers, she wants me to lift the blanket so she can crawl into the cave under the covers.

So, being the pet parent that I am, I see her picking, clawing, and hear those gritty meows and I lift the blanket up to make an entrance to the cave. Nine times out of ten Azzy is standing on the blanket, making it difficult to lift and forcing the "cave" of warmth to look smaller than it is. If she gets a clue and steps the first half of her body into the dark hole in front of her, suddenly, because she moved off the blanket, the area she wants to be in magically increases. As she moves her back end off the blanket to go under, the cave multiplies and amazingly the space of safety is just the right size for her to crawl into and lay down for a four hour nap.

Isn't it funny how this stupid cat story with her stupid blanket is just like your writing life? The very thing you want so desperately to get to is trapped under the weight of your own self and you're the reason the entrance to your goals looks so damn small and impossible to achieve. Deep right? We all know we want to be in that blanket of published writer. We want to get under there and feel warm and safe and spend the rest of our lives under those covers.

Somehow we fail to realize how much we are standing in our own way, whether it's excuses about not having time to write, or thinking you need someone else to help hold you accountable. There isn't always going to be someone there to lift the entrance to your future, so all the picking and clawing and crying isn't going to get you anywhere. For today, I challenge you to step out of your own way and get off of your writing goals because you're squishing them and there's no way you're going to get in there unless you move.

Reading Notes: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2011-03-15T21:57:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to say that 1) I'm alive and writing, and 2) I finally finished Water for Elephants after a month or two of not having time to read and then waiting for my purchased copy to come in the mail after the library copy had to go back.

Here are my notes: it was amazing!!!
Here are the extended notes:

The freshness of Gruen's writing kept the pace going and going and going and piling on the tension, emotion, drama, and passion. The majority of the story is set along a train circus in 1931 and you don't leave the grit and sweat of a working traveling circus at any point. The flow of the story is kept vivid with the help of amazing black and white photos of actual circus scenes of the era accompanying each chapter that pertains to the 1931 portion of the story.

The tale is humbling, exciting, and the ending is fitting of the story to the last line. This is one of the best "literary fiction" stories I've read that doesn't lead with heavy emotion, thought processes, or description but action, action, action paired with deep meaning and a love of the characters. Loved it!

Remembering the Basics

2011-03-09T08:53:00.000-05:00

The Friedrich Agency recently posted an article listing the writing advice they gave to an aspiring 13 year old boy. I think this is a great list to remember the basics of what it is we writers are supposed to be doing -- reading other authors and keeping ourselves well rounded. It's short, sweet, and to the point. Have a look for yourself.

Writing Anyway

2011-03-07T15:54:00.000-05:00

The past two weeks have been unusually rough for a whole host of reasons I won't go into which include not getting any actual fiction written. Right now my biggest challenge is submitting my novel Reading Glasses chapter by chapter to my writing group. I love them. They tell you when it works and when it doesn't. And when 60% of the group said they didn't care for the main character, I had to sit up straight in my chair and take it, full force in the face that this protagonist wasn't likable enough. So, back to the drawing board I went to remold this woman into someone the reader will want to follow into the depths of hell, otherwise when she goes there the reader might think she deserves it (which isn't my intention).

Here's the tricky bit and the part you don't learn about in any writing class. You can get trapped in the in between of knowing what isn't working and where you want to be, but feel powerless to climb out of the muck of writing quicksand on your own. Like any brainiac with an eye for distractors I made a scene chart for Reading Glasses -- a new one. I plotted each point of tension, each building of drama, and each climactic point I could. I rewrote the entire first chapter and changed how the qualities of my main character were being portrayed while still carrying the basic plot of the story. Instead of a bitch, she was more gracious. Instead of always getting the last word, I made her stumble because of what she said.

And then I shut down. I stared at my chart of what was supposed to happen next and then I stared at it some more. I was frozen. Trapped in the what should or shouldn't happen to my character next. I had to get away from my own mind and I had to do it quick if I was ever going to write another thing again. All the while my husband is saying I should work on another project all together, which of course, makes me think that's a good idea instead of facing my fears and writing my way out of my character problem.

Well, I finally just told my brain to shut up and I got to work. It wasn't fantastic, but it was progress. I had about enough energy to pop the cork off the writing wine, but as I write this, I have yet to actually tip the bottle and get the good stuff to pour out. The fact that the new writing wasn't that good doesn't scare me anywhere near as much as not writing at all, so I'll take the dry rotted cork any day. I hope you're able to do the same and take the bad writing as a good sign that the good writing isn't far away. When you can do that, it's a step in the right direction.

Dips and Spinning and Demons, Oh My!

2011-02-10T21:28:00.001-05:00

I'll say it. Today was a vicious day. What started so small and unassuming turned into this festering puss ball of unfinished work and distractions. I had about 15 projects on my desk (meaning my laptop since my desk is my lap these days) and only about three or four items had been completed by lunch time. This is not progress. I plugged away, pushed, shoved, bribed, all of the above, and when we sat down for dinner it felt like I had gotten nowhere.

That's when I realized I kept taking dips. Dipping into one project, moving away, and dipping into another. Have you ever done this? Are we crazy? I was working in small bites round and round, but never getting any one thing really pushed in the right direction. My sister and I call this spinning -- you have all this momentum and movement, yet you're not actually moving forward. If this one day was bad, it would be okay, but that seems to have been the theme for the week and no one let me in on it. Suckaroo.

*Not actual demon.

It's like I was distracting myself, "oh, shiny," and going back to the document from an hour earlier only to leap frog over to something else ten minutes later. Like I was being possessed by some writing demon that didn't approve of final drafts or rereading pieces to edit them. Perhaps this demon needs to be named for the times when I do this, or perhaps he deserves to go nameless through the room as it makes messes of my work. Oh, wait! Let me open a new document and we can make a list to name him... Suggestions?

7 Ways to Make Inspiration Come to You

2011-02-09T10:58:00.000-05:00

As a writer, what inspires you? Is it a great book you just finished reading? Did you sit at the park and "people watch" during your lunch break and get some ideas there? Were you meditating on margaritas to set the inner writer free? It's always interesting where different authors get their ideas. Some get more ideas the more they write, while others draw a blank in front of the page but excel after taking a jog to get the creative juices flowing.

I know I tend to find inspiration in examining life and relationships. I think about how people relate to each other, how they talk to each other, whether or not they touch, etc. If I want an idea for a story sometimes I think about or go to public places, the mall, the movie theater, the park. Sometimes just being alone and engaging in the five senses will spark some creativity. Other times I hear some bit of dialogue or read a line and a couple of paired words really grab me and that prompt is enough to build a story around.

Is your mind still blank? Here are seven other suggestions that might provide a spark you can turn into a fire.

1. Watch a film, read a book, or listen to a CD that puts you in the mood for writing or sets the tone for the writing you need to do. I find there are some stories that have a soundtrack and listening to a specific CD while I work on them adds to the experience.

2. Take a walk. Think about writing as you stroll down the street. This is a great way to work out plot holes, dialogue issues, or character backstories.

3. Take a walk. Don't think about writing at all. Be present in the moment to observe the sounds of running water or birds, the look of sunlight filtering through trees, or even the smell of the earth under fallen leaves.

4. "Business lunch." Take yourself out to eat alone or with a writer friend. Giving yourself a break from the computer or pen and paper and shutting to doors on your writer's mindset can often give you the freedom to let new information in that the internal editor wasn't allowing.

5. Free write like no one is watching. Open a new document or pull out a scrap piece of paper and write as fast as you can all the horrible things you can't write into your current story. If you're working on a romance novel, then quickly zip out a 500 word scene of someone stumbling in on a murder in progress. Write high-tech science fiction? Give yourself a 300 word description of an open meadow at sunrise.

6. Keep a journal. Often writing about the thoughts in your head and sorting through them can release that part of you that has been trying to be inspired but couldn't under all the clutter in your mind. Whether you write in a journal every day or only when you need to sort out plot points and characters, a lot can be uncovered in the process.

7. Exercise. Sitting still for hours on end can be exhausting, but while your brain is working a mile a minute, your legs, back, arms, heart, and core are in reality just sitting around going unused. Regular exercise can push your body and turn off your brain for a while. More than likely this will also improve your sleep. (See how I assume you're not getting enough sleep? Most of us aren't.)

Wherever you find your muse the important thing to remember is to keep writing whether they find you today or not. There will be days without inspiration but that doesn't mean it won't come to you. Once you realize where to find your inspiration, remember to go back to that place often to make the inspiration come to you.

Now it's your turn. Share where you find your inspiration in the comments section.

Confessions: Small Complaint about the Kindle

2011-02-07T10:24:00.001-05:00

My dad gave me a Kindle for Christmas. I love it. It made me want to cry just opening it because it's something that I've considered getting, but would never buy for myself. With a child you stop thinking anything over about $25 is worthy of your own wants, so it wouldn't have ever happened. Since then I've downloaded a bazillion free titles and even a couple of games my daughter and I can play together. I've also been checking out a few samples of books that I'm not sure I want to read. A sample gives you the first however many pages of a book without purchase (like standing in the bookstore)--enough to wet your whistle or turn you off entirely from buying the book.

Well, I was thinking about Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I've read other stuff by Hurston, but wasn't sure about getting this one since I would have to pay for it. So, I downloaded the sample with introduction by Edwidge Danticat (who I also enjoy as an author). Here's the problem: 100% of the sample is the introduction! I'd like to think someone at the wheel could make it so samples were the actual text of the story and not the first physical pages of the book, but I know that ship sailed with computer automation in control of just about everything these days.

I'm not mad, just disappointed. It's no secret Amazon has had some questionable issues in the past like selling pedophile how-to books and allowing authors to post 43 positive reviews of their own books to boost their star rating, but this is disappointing on a different front. If I went into an ice cream shop and wanted a sample they wouldn't show me the cone, they would give me some of the ice cream. Likewise, I don't want to sample an introduction to a literary work, I want to sample the actual work. Granted, this is the first sample where this has been a problem, but something tells me it won't be the last...

Critique Groups: The Writing Mirror You Need

2011-02-03T09:47:00.000-05:00

I applied and was accepted into a writing critique group last week thanks to some amazing information from a very inspiring writer. I cannot begin to tell you how thankful I am for this group and how remarkable they are at picking apart a story or chapter and guiding the rebuilding process.

To be clear, this isn't my first writing group. I was a part of several workshops through both undergrad and grad school, and knew what I liked and what I didn't. My problem over the last few years has been trying to find a group of writers that wanted to publish and who were tough with their critiques. If you ever want to get better at your writing, then you need a set of people that are willing to tell you when you're holding back, writing crap, or blowing the reader away with crisp dialogue or realistic description.

This is where a critique group can be amazing, because a writing group is the equivalent of holding up a mirror to your writing. You're going to see your own errors in other members' stories, you're going to get called on it when you haven't given something your all, and your going to, as a consequence of it all, keep plot, character, voice, and other aspects of story in the forefront of your mind as you work.

If you feel like you're writing in a vacuum and don't know if your story is really coming across the way you think it is, then it might just be time to start looking for a group that will be that mirror or reality.

How Editing Will Make You a Better First Draft Writer

2011-01-24T10:23:00.001-05:00

Author Anne Lamott says in her book "Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" that you have to understand you're going to write "shitty first drafts." It's as inevitable as the sun rising or spilling something on your shirt right before a big presentation. You will also, because of those horrible first drafts, have to revise your writing. Revision is a necessity and anyone who thinks publishable work happens on the first draft level has a lot to learn about writing or is kidding themselves.

The process of revision can be grouped into at least two categories which will require more than two passes over your manuscript. The two categories are as follows: edit for story and edit for clarity. Edit for story sounds deceptively simple, but what it requires is looking over this thing you have created and deciding what is worthy of staying and what desperately needs to get kicked out. This can include changing characters, filling plot holes, killing off characters, changing scene locations, pushing the story forward in places where it drags, or adding more emotional pull or impact to your characters as well as a slew of other things. Your gut and good writing friends can tell you what's wrong with the story and then your job is to fix it.

After you have edited for story and deleted pages, paragraphs, even continents from your manuscript you should know without a doubt what is staying in. Then you can edit for clarity. This involves the painful task of line editing your work as best introduced by Aimee L. Salter in her Self-Editing series as seek and destroy missions. You search your story for unnecessary words, poor grammar, verb tense inconsistencies, etc., all of which will tighten your work for clarity and make the story more clear and accessible for the reader.

Now, that's a lot of work, you say, and it is. A lot of work which can take days, weeks, months, and even years with the right or wrong author and the right or wrong story. Taking all of this into consideration, wouldn't it just be easier if you wrote a better first draft? It's true, revision makes you realize how much you want to be a better first drafter. If you aren't challenging yourself with revisions, then you can't possibly grow as a writer. My father told me once that life is the opposite of school: you take the test and then you learn the lesson. This also applies to writing since revision work can teach you more about fresh, first draft writing than actually doing the first draft writing can.

For example, if you realize through the revision process that you use the word "just" too much and every time you turn around you've put "just" in the dialogue, the exposition, descriptions, and so on, I guarantee you're going to quit writing "just" so damn much on the next story you write because you're sick of seeing the thing and having to delete or replace it a million times. My problem, as you can see by the beginning of this paragraph, is using run on sentences. My new job, therefore, in first draft writing is to write shorter, precise, more direct sentences.

I promise you if you put on your armor and go into battle with your manuscript to fix both story and clarity you will become a better first draft writer because you will be made aware of what you're doing. Man is programmed to learn from mistakes, so take this opportunity to use the lengthy, tedious, yet rewarding revision process as your teacher for how to conscientiously construct a better first draft.

The Word of the Day: Tighten

2011-01-20T08:52:00.000-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, step right up and meet the most sensational beast the world has ever seen. A remarkable feat, magical and mysterious. I give you a human being that can turn into a puddle. That's right, a puddle. As she stands before you, looking very solid and able to challenge gravity, at any moment she can transform into a gelatinous liquid mass sliding around on the floor with no real sense of direction.

Okay, okay. You'll have to forgive the introduction here. I've been reading Water for Elephants and I'm feeling a little circus-y. I've also been revising the novel Reading Glasses (or so it is called until I can find it a new name) that has great, great potential and apparently a lot of excess fat. Somehow, portions of this excess didn't stand out to me as much in previous revisions and now it's like I can't not see the problem. So, the word of the day around my writing world is: tighten.

I need to cut out anything in the manuscript that doesn't need to be there and take all the necessary information and incorporate it where it can feel more organic to the story to appear less like exposition. This is the tricky part: the finding places for things that don't seem to have places.

So we tighten, bring the story in close, and strain it for pulp. This, of all things, is actually the part I like a little more than creating the first draft although it is by far much harder.

If you haven't looked over your own stories with the word "tighten" in your head, you should. You may just find there are sentences, portions of dialogue, even whole paragraphs that don't really impact your story in one way or another. Even a few of the lines you think are useful you may find fall into that classic "tell" category where you should have been "show"ing.

I challenge you to highlight all of these useless/misused lines, slap post-it notes on your pages, or underline the offenders and take care of them as soon as possible.

If you can learn to tighten, you can make a stronger, more concentrated story with more impact, depth of character, and meaning than the watered down version you started with. So, set up the big tent, bring in the animals, the fat lady, the bearded lady, the trapeze artist, and then tell everyone to leave that doesn't have any business being there. Tighten!

Do you have the gusto to tighten? Have you strained your story? Leave comments below.

Lee Martin has something to say to you...

2011-01-19T19:32:00.000-05:00

...and I couldn't have said it better myself. No really. I couldn't.
This is some g reat advice for writers! Never forget we remember characters not plots.

Writer's Re-Treat: Baked Apples

2011-01-18T19:21:00.000-05:00

I've been busting my butt today at the computer and I thought it was time for a break so I threw a few ingredients together for a writing treat. It turned out so well I thought I'd share it with you. You've worked hard, right? You've written pages upon pages for your big project. You deserve a break, yes, you do.

The baked apples are a perfect little reward for good writing that is great on cold nights with a cup of coffee or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Toss it together, throw it in the oven, get back to writing and in 20 minutes you have a great writer's re-treat.

*Don't make this recipe if you aren't writing or you'll be stricken with guilt.

Preheat oven to 375F.
Grease a loaf pan.
Chop two Granny Smith apples and put in the pan.
In a bowl, crush a cup of corn flakes (or other cereal) and mix with two tablespoons sugar and a half teaspoon cinnamon.
Sprinkle the mix over your apples. Set pats of butter (two tablespoons total) over the mix.
Put in oven uncovered and bake for 20 minutes.

Titles, Titles Everywhere

2011-01-17T21:14:00.000-05:00

Over the holiday madness, as I was going mad myself I had two really strong titles hit me that I had to write down immediately. I don’t know if this has ever happened to you before, but I have no clue what the stories that are attached to these titles are and that’s kind of scary. The good news is that, if I do say so myself, these are two damn good titles and I knew right away that at least one of them has to become a novel, not a short story. The bad news is that I’m not sharing them with you. You’ll have to think of your own good titles.

What I find the most interesting of all this is the fill-in-the-blank mentality I’m now in with the stronger of the two titles. I’m thinking about this new character and piecing his life and plot together in a very backwards (to me) way. I’m learning about a brand new character and trying to find out what makes him tick before I even know what happens/happened to him.

I usually keep a running document on my computer and a notebook in my purse so anytime something hits me I can jot it down quickly before it disappears. If you don’t do this already, then you should start. I’ve caught accents, bits of dialogue, descriptions, thoughts, and characters going throughout my day and having had a place to put these immediately was key to working with it later. Without my running documents, these new titles, and the really good one, might not have been held onto and this amazing story that’s now brewing in my mind wouldn’t be “slouching toward Bethlehem to be born.”

Writing is Like Wine, or Writing Needs Wine Some Days

2011-01-11T17:54:00.000-05:00

My husband and I have been sampling wines here and there as we have the budget and taste for it for the last six to eight months. I'm learning a lot about actually tasting the different wines and finding out why a wine is good or not good. Hands down, so far my favorite is a red from a local vineyard from my hometown. But here's the point, I'm finding that writing is pretty much the same as tasting the wine. You have to pick apart your words to figure out what's good and what's bad. Sometimes the story is too good to drink and others it's so bad you want to pour it down the drain but secretly fear the story will come back and haunt you in the middle of the night so you don't.

So I've been learning about wine and writing about made up characters, some of which I like and others I don't and it's all become this flowing oneness between the wine and the writing. That sounds flowery, I know, and with hints of citrus and a velvety finish with no aftertaste, but hey. The comparison has been made. Wine sits to ferment, your story should sit to ferment. Some wine is bitter and dry, others soft and delicate. Same goes for the stories we love to read and write.

In graduate school I took a journalism class from a woman that worked at the newspaper. She said a co-worker would become so consumed by deadlines and pressure as she neared a project's end that her eye would start to twitch. This, naturally, is pretty distracting. The woman would bring whiskey to work with her and take a shot to calm her eye down and give her the peace to work. Now, without going over the top, I can attest to the effectiveness of a good glass of wine next to my laptop every couple of months when I need it to get the creative juices flowing.

A good, slowly sipped wine does something that loosens the writer's block for me on really bad days just enough that some light comes through the cracks of the bolted doors and suddenly I know I can get back to that writing place again. I'm not saying you have to drink to write, and I'm certainly not encouraging the stigma of drunken writers, I'm just saying that I have found there are some wines you really like and some stories that really work and they may or may not be found simultaneously.

Hey, some people smoke. Some people snort cocaine. Some people watch celebrity TV. I wine and write.

Reading Notes: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

2011-01-11T10:21:00.000-05:00

*A quick note about notes: I've debated for sometime about whether I want to mention any closing thoughts on books as I finish them. While I don't want anything I say to appear as a book review, I thought I could share my thoughts just to say how I liked it and what really drew me in or turned me off. Simple enough, right? That being said:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
I was captivated by this book both for story and characterization. While the style is definitely that of the age in which it was written, once the character's mental state gets rolling downward, there's no stopping from becoming part of the character's life. Plath's character is justified, rationalizing, and two-faced all at the same time while still being sympathetic, and that is hard to craft. I found Plath's use of language and ability to describe the world around her character so clearly through her character's eyes remarkable. I've never seen a writer stay so consistent with who their character is at their core while always challenging and altering that character's mental state. Genius.

A Confession about Dewey

2011-01-01T15:42:00.000-05:00

Okay, I have to admit something that I'm not ashamed of, but wouldn't otherwise share. I received a Barnes and Noble gift card for Christmas from my brother-in-law. I'm thrilled. I love gift cards. I love Barnes and Noble. The problem with me and gift cards is that I've always been the person to really weigh my options and be sure to make the best possible choice before spending anything.
So...I wandered the store for 30 minutes and couldn't find much of anything I just had to have (mostly because I just received a Kindle from my dad and it's already full of books). Then, I had a little light go off in my head that said, "hey, Margaret, why don't you look at the writing books?"
"Okay," I said and then stood there completely paralyzed like a dog waiting for the go ahead to eat the bone on its nose. I know I've mentioned my love of the library before. Well, I honestly stood in the middle of Barnes and Noble on a horribly busy day thinking, "where is the 808 section?"
That's right, I'm fully converted to the Dewey Decimal system. Confession made.

Welcome to 2011

2011-01-01T15:26:00.000-05:00

Just a quick Happy New Year to all. I hope everyone reads as much as they want, writes as much as they can, and enjoys the time we have together. For me New Year's day is kind of like Thanksgiving as I reflect on all that I have going right in my life and find ways to foster that feeling into the other elements that are a little less than ideal.
By now I'm about 80% done setting my goals (not resolutions) and look forward to kicking some literary ass and taking some names this year with writing, revisions, and submissions. I hope you have as much inspiration and gusto to do the same. Enjoy this day and the others still in front of you in 2011!

Why No One Needs Resolutions

2010-12-30T10:58:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is the last day of the year and by this time everyone around me and on TV is talking about resolutions. Everyone decides to quit doing something or start doing something else. Then, by February, all bets are off and everyone has gone back to “normal.” Resolutions are only good with follow through, motivation, accountability, and reward. Anyone can say they want to lose ten pounds. I can say that and probably could afford to lose more than that, but saying it and doing it are two different beasts of burden all together. One is a cute little kitty that looks appealing and fluffy. The other is a vicious lion with blood streaking through its fur and zebra skin still dangling from its teeth as it growls and swipes at the sky with its red tinged claws out.

Here’s the thing: I love chocolate zebras too much to commit to such as ridiculous concept as focusing on weight loss. I want to be healthy, not obsessed with scales. I want to clean my house more regularly, but I’m not sacrificing time with my child to sweep floors every day. I don’t want a resolution that you say today and forget tomorrow and neither should you. I want a goal. A goal is measurable and just out of reach but attainable. A resolution is like wishing on a star and then being disappointed when the payoff is just as thin and see-through as the wish itself.

My goal, therefore, in 2011 is to write more. Duh, right? But by that I mean a specific amount of words per day (500) or stories per month (4) as well as time spent revising “that novel I’ve been working on” (Stewie Griffin’s voice would be appropriate here) every Wednesday for two to three hours minimum and on weekend mornings.

I write how-to articles all day long and by the evening when “fiction time” is waiting for me to show up I’m exhausted. My challenge is the juggling of time and the reward will be having a larger body of work to weed through for submissions.

So take this time to give yourself a final holiday gift: a written down goal with set points to hit each day or week. Screw the resolution and set a goal. With a goal in place where you know the challenge and you know the reward, you’re going to be more likely to succeed than with a flimsy resolution that won’t even hold up through the middle of January. So, what’s your 2011 Goal?

The Big Annual Breakup

2010-12-20T17:44:00.002-05:00

I’ve come to realize NaNoWriMo is like a bad boyfriend. You go running around having a great time and things are pretty hot and heavy. You’re seeing each other every day, but not to the point that you’re sick of seeing them, and then, in an instant, it’s December first. Your boyfriend, Nano, has broken up with you, again. He’s gone; the dates, the late nights together, the time spent talking about your feelings/thoughts/characters, and even the cute way he used to count your words with a bar graph. The relationship is all gone.

In November I was invited to speak at a local high school where my brother teaches English to the kids that actually have aspirations to go to college. After learning that this year was my third year doing Nano, one of the students asked me why I liked it. First I thought, who said I “liked” it? I just do it. But the answer I gave said it all: I like to watch the word count bar go up. That’s it, the bar. I’m in love with a visual measure of writing progress.

Hi, my name is Margaret and I like statistics.

The problem with this fact is that now I need a Nano app or download or something to keep that fire lit during the other eleven months of the year. Nano fuels my motivation in the same way pushing the gas pedal makes your car go faster. I’ve never had the self-motivation thing down and, to be brutally honest, I have even asked God for flashing neon lights at times to tell me what it is that I’m supposed to be doing, thinking that would spur me forward. I hate to be the one to tell you, but there are no “sit down and write, moron” flashing signs out there.

So here I am almost at the end of December and I’ve written one story all month long when I wrote twenty some stories in November alone. Now, I’ve tried to rationalize and say to myself that it was burnout, that the breakup took so much out of me that not writing in December is “okay.” Don’t let me tell myself that. There’s no way writing a lot is an excuse for writing nothing later. So what’s the solution? I’m going to get back on that horse and ride, and my new horse’s name is January.

Sending the Fledglings Out of the Nest

2010-12-09T22:08:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I send out the first of many fiction submissions in almost a year. Hey, life happens. Am I a little nervous? Well, yeah. Of course I am, however the business of writing involves a lot of rejections before you start getting acceptances so I'd rather start getting material out there and receiving rejections already so I can get that much closer to an acceptance.

The best thing about this is that I already know exactly what story I'm going to start revising next and I already know exactly where I'm going to send it. This makes things much more steady, holding the wheel and steering straight ahead, not looking back or getting distracted. I wish these little stories luck, and while I hope for but don't expect instant publications, I look forward to the critiques (from those who give them) to keep pushing my craft and sending these little birds of stories out into the world.

NaNoWriMo 2010 is complete

2010-11-29T20:56:00.001-05:00

Here I am, victorious to my word count beast and I'm thrilled to death to get so many good stories out of NaNo (25 is now my new total for the 52 Story Pick Up). If I could I'd lay in the sand somewhere (because I don't like snow) and run my arms and legs back and forth to make an angel, I would.

There's both a sense of accomplishment and relief that comes from writing so many words in such a ridiculously short period of time that confirms you must be crazy to do such a thing. So here I am...TA DA! Done!

So, do I take a break? Hell yeah! I'll give myself a few days to let the fingers cool and then the real challenge begins. Writing more new material and revising what I have. My hopes are to clean up one story at a time and send it out into the world like a little fledgling bird hoping one day it will fly back to me with a check in its beak instead of a rejection letter, but only time, energy, and revision will tell.

This clip is for me, but you can use it too.

2010-11-23T08:25:00.000-05:00

I love Elisabeth Gilbert's writing style in Eat, Pray, Love, but I'm afraid a lot of people probably don't know she's written other stuff. Her collection of short stories, Pilgrims, in particular is a set of slice-of-life stories that are really amazing in construction and characterization, and they motivate me to get closer to my characters to tell their stories. That being said, anytime I need a boost of writing or a pep talk I turn to this clip of Gilbert and I'm washed with inspiration and enthusiasm to get writing. So here it is, this clip is for me, but you can use it too. If you're a writer, this may be the best 20 minutes of your day and it's so worth it.

Through Story 20

2010-11-23T08:17:00.001-05:00

I'm writing, and I'm writing, and I'm writing. I have to be honest I'm ready for NaNoWriMo to be over. I really am just so I can have a couple days of a break. This is however a marathon, not a sprint, and that's true for NaNo as well as writing as a whole.
As for progress, I'm getting a lot of stories written and about half of them I feel really positive about without having had a chance to revise yet. That's my bread and butter; the revision process. It's taken years to get to the point that I really trust my own judgement to revise my work and know what isn't working, but for now it's those "shitty first drafts" to quote Anne Lamott, that I need to get out from under me. So, until next time, but for now I have to get writing.

Story 4 & 5: Cows, Birth, Houses, Death

2010-11-07T13:28:00.002-05:00

I'm clumping stories four and five together because I wrote each of them back to back in two days. Not because I'm trying to force things, but because I'm trying to force things for the NaNoWriMo challenge. Story four focused on a girl in the snow heading out to retrieve a wandering cow. It was...okay. It's not literary gold, but there were some good lines in there. As the story goes she finds the cow and it promptly begins giving birth in the middle of the snow just as a bear is seen roaming nearby. With some heavy revision, this story could turn into something.

Story five went much better as a tale about three older teenagers heading to an abandoned house and roaming around inside. As the story unfolded I was pleasantly surprise by a tie in that the house was one of the teenager's mother's house growing up and he was looking for something specific as his mother had recently committed suicide. There was a lot more grit to this story and a lot of meat to work with when you factor in childhood memories, death, what home means, etc..

I say I was surprised about this story because, as many writers know, a lot of the time you have no idea where your story is going and where it will take you. Characters suddenly start doing things you didn't know they were going to do, like lunge at one another and start a fist fight or clam up and stay silent. That's the kind of stuff that a first draft is all about; letting the story tell itself. While I love to plot out stories ahead of time so I know where I'm trying to get to, I find it's easier to not fight your characters when they start doing something unexpected. Just let them go, let them explore and you can clean up, clarify and cut information in your revisions.

Story 3: The thing I thought I wouldn't do but I'm doing.

2010-11-02T08:34:00.001-04:00

So story 3 is done and lacking. Not completely lacking, but something is missing that's for sure. However, what story 3 is or isn't, has nothing to do with this post. Here, I'll give you a little back history: in case you haven't heard of it there is a thing called National Novel Writing Month (aka: nanowrimo) that happens in November. Through http://www.nanowrimo.org/ you set up a free account and for 30 days you write 50,000 words which should be a good start for anyone with a plot line and desire to write a novel.

I've done nanowrimo for two years in 2008 and 2009 and each time came away from November with 50K words and exhaustion. Over this last year I've been toying around with whether or not I would do it again or just chill. If I did it my plan was to write 15 short stories, not one story, and compile them around a central theme. Well, I decided that I wouldn't do it. No, I'm not going to come up with the plots ahead of time and set the goal for stories, character ideas, etc., so I would be ready for typing come November 1st.

And then November 1st came and I couldn't resist the temptation to track my word count and get stories written. The only thing I don't like about this is that I don't have anything plotted out. Don't get me wrong, I like free writing and seeing where it takes me, but if/when I'm really honest with myself, my best writing is when I know where I'm going with my characters so I'm kind of in short story freefall here. Either way, the good news is that I'm writing and by the end of November I should have at least 15 more stories to add to my 52 Story Pick Up tally.

Story 2: South Western Flare Up??

2010-10-25T22:28:00.001-04:00

My second story in the 52 Story Pick Up is a little odd bird about a girl leaving Arizona to find herself. What makes this a challenge for me is that I've never been there, so my trusted atlas which doesn't even have a cover anymore has been my best friend through it all so I can get the main character from point A to point B literally. I can't say the story is a failure just yet, but I never like it when my own interest is waining before I have a chance to figure out what it's about.

That's where the road trip came into play and I love that about writing. Here's the girl and here's her stuff and all of this sucks, so I put her in the car and she (and I) haven't looked back since. What was a painful "what is going on" kind of rocky beginning brought about some really good stuff and in spite of hitting the 2000 words count for the 52SPU (that's short for whatever the heck it is that I'm doing here) I'm still not done with this character now that she's crossing the border into New Mexico via my atlas.

We'll see where she goes, until then let the breeze of heat and sand flip your hair into tangles as you hang your head out the window.

Story 1: Dream Stealing?

2010-10-08T20:21:00.000-04:00

I woke up with this dream stuck in my head that gave way to my first story in the 52 Story Pick Up. I don't know about you, but I have mixed feelings about writing from dreams. Most of the time you feel like you're working on a 100 piece puzzle with only about 10 pieces and this massive sense that the rest of the puzzle was really, really good. Other times I feel like writing from dreams is stealing from the part of my brain that hasn't yet rotted from too much chocolate or from never being able to get a bath uninterrupted since my daughter was born.

All of this is beside the point. My dream involved the following tidbits: four miniature giraffes, slapping floorboards with your hand, and magic. Oh, and a "bad" guy that favored the looks of the voodoo villain from Disney's The Princess and the Frog. Of course, when I wrote my story it was much more fabulous than these puzzle pieces and I never for a minute second-guessed the direction of my story. Yeah, right.

The crux of the matter is this: I wrote fiction again. I gave myself the much needed break from the bill paying freelance work and got to flex some of my more creative muscles again. I haven't titled the new story yet, which is odd because that's normally my first steps, but I'm not concerned. After about five rewrites this magic giraffe, floor slapping story might just be a good little read.

That funny feeling that death may want to meet you: the birth of 52 Story Pick Up

2010-10-04T21:14:00.001-04:00

I turned 32 this past week. I didn't do anything special other than eat cake after every meal and take a little time off from my freelance work, but by the end of the day I found myself feeling, well, very mortal. I got this thing going in my mind that said, "hey, where in the hell is your life going?" And then the idea that I may die tomorrow flooded in and that my legacy I leave to the world would likely be a small one. Now that's okay, I don't expect grandiose things; I'm well beyond my college "conquer the world" mindset, but I want to leave something behind that reflects my work here on this rock. With this in mind, I created a plan...

Over the course of the next year (by the time I hit 33, God willing) I want to write a short story every week and submit at least one of those stories a month to a publisher. Big, huh? So each week as I post my progress it should include phrases like "things are going great" or "can't get to sleep I'm thinking about writing so much" and NOT "didn't get my story done" or "been too busy." Slap me if that starts.

So, feel free to follow along (I may give you the run down of how each story went) or pick up your pen/open your laptop and join me in writing a story a week. Nothing large, just a bare minimum of 2000 words with a beginning, middle, and end arranged in any order you like. This will be what I'd like to call 52 Story Pick Up-we'll see how this goes. Who's with me? Arhhh!

A Swift Kick in the Pants

2010-09-27T13:35:00.000-04:00

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. That's the saying right? Let me just say, a whole lot of life has been happening and nowhere near enough fiction writing. As I think I've said before, I do freelance writing as my "day job" and fiction on the side. This is proving a fatal experience for my spirit and as freelancing work rises, the lifeblood of fiction drops. My freelance job is draining me and there's been no recharge. This doesn't make one happy.

So, since I'm turning 32 in two days, I'm determined to get back on track (since I may die soon). I say this in jest, of course we all "may" die soon, but every birthday is when I kind of glance behind me and this year I was none too pleased at what I saw on the fiction writing front. That being said, I'm going to storm into my brain and give it a big shake down. I'm tossing out all the old furniture, turning the lights up, and cleaning this place from top to bottom.

It's like when I was little and my mom would clean the house and then say something like, "there are going to be a lot of changes around here because this house will never look like that again." Only I'm going to tell my brain that. I'm going to put myself on lockdown if I have to! In the next couple of days I'm going to come up with a plan for the year ahead where fiction is concerned and by God I'm going to hit my goals and flip off freelance writing when I need to. Not that freelance is bad, it's not, it pays my bills, but I end up writing about installing fence posts until midnight instead of working on my writing. This will be big and there will be casualties, but story writing needs to get back on the front burner. I'll let you know what I come up with asap. Any suggestions?

Quick Tip: Plotting Plots

2010-07-19T18:51:00.000-04:00

A practice which can be best used "before" you start writing your story, but also helps if you've already begun the next great American novel is to plot your plots. Now, before you go googling for downloadable plot spreadsheets, let me tell you a little something. All you need is a piece of paper and a pencil. The other stuff is fine, and you may find a big worksheet that is perfect for how you like to write, but I will caution you to not get caught up in gadgets and gizmos or you may not be able to work as well when they aren't available.

The bare bones version is this: when you plot your plot, write down in order of appearance all of the major twists and turns of your story. Make note of huge revelations, the conflicts, the unexpected events that happen to your main character and what he/she does about it. Get it all on paper, to the best of your ability, exactly what it is that happens in your story and then look for problems. Search for holes in your plot as well as gaps of time in your story where you notice nothing really is happening between page 50 and page 100. Let this be your guide for adding more bulk or removing excess from your story.

Ants and Other Distractions

2010-07-18T20:25:00.000-04:00

I sit down to write at my trusty laptop. It’s dark. It’s always dark (to me) in my living room thanks to the tacky 50’s era metal awning which covers over half the window. My solution during the daytime anyway is to open the front door and let the light pour in through the screen door. Light is a good thing until you see a battalion of mini-ants trailing from the corner of the door all the way to your daughter’s chair where she sometimes sits and eats snacks when watching TV.

Let me make something clear: this is not okay with me. I attack with Lysol kitchen spray and the ants die on contact. I toss the chair into the front lawn and grab an old cleaning rag to begin wiping up the hundred dead bodies of ants gone too soon. (This isn’t entirely true. When I say I “tossed” the chair onto the “lawn” what I really did was set the chair on the porch, but that’s how writing is. “Tossing” something into the yard sounds much more actionable than “setting” the chair down gingerly on the porch. But I’m getting distracted here…)

After wiping up the carnage I stay down there, on my hands and knees, hunting for more ants. The ones that dare to show themselves are quickly squashed under my finger and dropped back down to the floor lifeless. Ant snipering takes quite a bit of time. Once I’m convinced there are no more ants left in this world I rise, sweep up the twisted dead, and throw them in the garbage.

I sit down to write at my trusty laptop. By now an hour has passed and I don’t have any time to write left. The ants, in their own way, still defeated me. They still invaded and stole my time. This is not just how this week has been, but it’s the symptom of an all too common problem with writers: allowing yourself to be distracted. To get really effective writing sessions you have to ignore the ants.

With each writing session you have to train your mind to let the phone ring, let tidal waves crash against the windows, let that episode of NCIS go unwatched because you have more important things to do. When you do get really good at avoiding distractions, be careful because something or someone will come along that you don’t even recognize for the distraction it is. If you aren’t careful, the next thing you know you’ll be ankle deep in sewer backup.

Quick Tip: Saving Your Work

2010-07-12T19:02:00.001-04:00

Never, never, never, never, never forget to save your work when you are doing your rough draft and revision writing on a computer. While you can save to your hard drive, to top that off, please, always, always, always, always, always save a backup copy of your work somewhere on a floppy disk (yep, I just dated myself) or a USB flash drive. I try to update my flash drive weekly, every Wednesday to be specific.

Want a little extra security? When working on a large project, like novel revisions or a collection of stories or articles, be sure to email yourself a copy of your work to an email address you have access to from any computer terminal. While I use a lot of email addresses, I usually send a copy of my big projects to my GMail account. That way, no matter what happens to my beloved laptop or flash drive, I can run to the library and log in to my email and retrieve my documents.

Floods and Dry Spells

2010-07-10T09:29:00.000-04:00

A lot of authors will tell you they just sit in the same chair everyday and write for the same amount of time every day and the magic just happens. This isn’t always the way it goes for the rest of us. While I have no doubt that making appointments to write is necessary, helpful, and effective since you can come away from each writing session with a sense of accomplishment, that doesn’t take into account floods and dry spells.

I’ll tackle floods first since they are the more rewarding of the two. You know the floods I’m talking about when your story is on your mind all day: driving the car, buying groceries, sitting at work. You just have your characters with your everywhere you go and when you sit down with your notebook/computer the words just come and come without end. You can write for hours without exhaustion or frustration. Floods are a beautiful rare thing for some writers and a regular occurrence for others, but either way, no matter how frequent, a flood can fuel the writing fire like nothing else and writing in the moment is invigorating.

Dry spells on the other hand are hard to handle and seldom produce “good” writing. The story feels lackluster, you think the plot is failing, and you couldn’t care less if all of your characters went the mass suicide route and jumped off the same bridge together cursing your name on their way down to the ice cold water below. Dry spells make it hard to sit down in your chair at the same time everyday because you feel like you’ve lost the spark that writing ignites. You can, however, force your way through a dry spell by…writing.

Dry spell writing may be uninspired, feel multi-directional or going nowhere, and generally sucks in a variety of ways, but, if you stick with it, after a period of time (hours, days, weeks) you’ll find yourself on the other side of a dry spell and you’ll be writing again. My best advice is to exploit the hell out of floods and write every second you have that you want to and push through the dry spells with writing rather than letting them stop you in your literary tracks. Either way, you’ll have something down on paper and no matter the circumstance, flood or dry spell, it will need revision.

Quick Tip: Timed Writing

2010-07-08T09:10:00.000-04:00

If you're having trouble cranking out that masterpiece, one technique I like to use is timed writing exercises. Give yourself 10, 30, even 60 minutes where all you do is write without interruption or distraction. This may mean writing with the door locked, the phone taken off the hook, and your email alert put on mute. Whatever it takes, do it.

Try to make the environment around you disappear so you can focus 100% of your energy to the story, journal entry, chapter, or poem. Keep a piece of scrap paper nearby so when you remember you need to buy onions at the grocery store you can quickly jot it down and throw the thought out of your head, then get back to your writing. Time your writing and see just how nice it is to hone in on your creative juice.