“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” —Mark Twain
Reading and Writing
No ‘rithmetic today. Sorry to disappoint. Time for confessions again, I’ve not been reading. I don’t know about others, but when I’m not reading, I’m not writing well.
Let me take that back…I’m reading. My Google reader is full of the blogs, business and writing sites I plow through weekly, but aside from that, and a few magazines, I’ve been woefully deficit. The bad thing? I’m a reader. A real reader who tears through a series of books in no time and always has a dictionary on her lap, a highlighter and pencil for margin notes.
After logging into my Goodreads account tonight, I noticed that I had set a year challenge and was *gulp* only 95 books away from my goal. Unfortunately, my goal was 100 books. That’s right, I’ve only read five books. I’m sure I’ve read more, but I’ve only noted five as-read.
Who am I? Let me tell you, I am the woman that Andrea from Great Thoughts, is going to be giving hell. She’s asked me to participate in her book club Twitter party November 17th for Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman. In fact, I’m using that book as a way to kick off my “get back to reading campaign”.
Not reading has kept me from escaping in the way only reading allows. I’m not taking downtime from writing to actually absorb other great writers in a form that isn’t a blog post.
I also think I’m burned out on some of my favorite authors, either that or they’ve switched genres. My happy time used to be heading to the bookstore and just browsing the shelves for hours. The first and last day of school for my son — that was my time, to breathe in the former and gird myself with the latter.
After logging off, I’m crawling in bed with a large glass of water, my reading tools and a book. After all, everyone needs inspiration.
What are you reading? I’m always looking for great new books, or old books I’ve forgotten. Tell me so I can catch up and maybe get close to my goal!
Writing takes practice…
Writing well takes practice. A lot of practice. Let’s just say that I am guilty of not practicing like I should and my writing is suffering. There is now flo. It feels stilted and forced.
My writing is definitely suffering. I work and communicate with women who are magnificent writers every single day of my life. While I know we all can’t have “killer content” all of the time, I feel inferior.
Even now, I am fighting the urge to let things “flow” and pick everything apart.
Could it be the stack of rejections I have had? Or is the people who want me to write, but for “exposure”. I’m sorry, but PIE or paid in exposure doesn’t pay the bills.
Part of it is my own damn procrastination. I don’t take the time I want to write. It’s my choices, but my day to day keeps me extraordinarily busy. That also includes writing and content creation, but I’m doing a lot on the business side of writing and content.
What a tangled web we weave.
This weekend, I am taking time to sit in my bedroom, with a notebook and perfectly sharpened pencils. Starting off my page with whatever pops in my head. Free writing is perfect to get the juices flowing and I feel is essential to get me out of this, for lack of a better word, funk.
I’m hoping to find balance and presence in myself and my writing. That’s when I am happiest, when my creative juices are flowing.
It’s time to practice what I preach.
Writing: Work versus Pleasure
I write for pleasure as well as for work. There are times that the work writing, which I love, takes over so much t that I don’t want to do it; since I am missing out writing more creatively. It’s all creative, don’t get me wrong, but it’s the part of my brain that my imagination runs wild in that whines.
My happiest times are when I am weaving a new storyline. The actual process of putting it together and letting the words flow organically and unadulterated. Before the editing. Everything is fresh, fun and it’s at this point in the creative process that you don’t have to worry about punctuation, grammar, and whether you need a semi-colon here or a comma there.
Tonight, I am writing for work and trying to make it as pleasurable as possible. Throwing in creative twists and turns, while editing out the excess and unnecessary.
How do you do it? When it’s down to the nitty gritty and you need to edit the dickens out of it and not lose your mind?
Writing and happy
I’m happy. Funny how when you say a word over and over, it sounds odd, slightly off key. But, that’s how my thinking has been. Off key. Forced. Just like my writing. There are other words. Contrived. Trite. Stilted. Rigid. Soulless.
Yeah, it sucks.
Change in routine has been making my writing not only better, but more organic. It is once again flowing seamlessly. You could say that my creative juices are finally flowing again, instead of trickling. Writing makes me human. Pent up emotions are released, creative angst flows out of my body and becomes tangible. My vast imagination takes hold of whatever daydreams I have been carrying around with me and makes them into something concrete.
Words. Those words are concrete. Solid, meant to be busted with the sledge hammer of editing. Only to be made smooth again, by patching or removing and laying new cement to dry perfectly.
Or until I get the urge to bust it again….
A form letter is better than nothing….
Well, I finally heard back from the agent regarding my book. A nice form letter that says “you aren’t the right fit”, “keep trying”, etc., etc., etc. Believe it or not, I am not upset at all.
It was good to get that letter. At least someone out there read what I wrote and gave me something tangible to push me harder. My resolve has only gotten stronger. I believe in myself and I will make it. Writing is in my soul, it leads me places deep inside my imagination and makes me feel alive and vital.
One of these days, I will walk into a bookstore and pick up a copy of my book. You just wait and see. Because I will keep working harder, working better and tweaking along the way, until the day that I get the acceptance letter in the mail.
What will I do then? I will keep on writing. Because a writers work is never done.
Productivity Boosting
I have been noticing a trend in my productivity. If I am at home, I just don’t have any lately. There are too many distractions. For a writer, that is like the of death. Admittedly, I am pretty confident when I say that many of us look for distractions when we feel that the quill is working as well as we would like. Or to avoid things, like editing, filling in the story so that you get more than the gist of it.
<p><a href=”http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=252″>Image: Gregory Szarkiewicz / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>
Today? I am writing this little ditty from a Starbucks. Tuesday? Dilworth Coffee–a local joint with amazing coffee. Yesterday? My friends office. She is a paralegal working for one attorney. It was quiet, peaceful and ultra productive. How productive? I wrote 5 blogs, edited and posted them in less than two hours.
That my friends is a rock and roll moment.
Now, I have to redo my house. Or redo my mindset. What do I keep finding that is so distracting? Many things. Laundry, vacuuming, the window I look out is dirty and needs to be cleaned. Anything! Guess I need to get started on my spring cleaning and just get over it. Ignore my house and not my work.
It really is difficult though. I think part of it is the solitude we experience as a writer. No one there. No real background noises. The only life is the sounds of the birds chirping and my fingers pounding the keys. That being said, I will make myself a list here and now to try and follow to keep me focused, because my husbands eyes may start to cross when he sees my coffee bill.
- Remember that my house is also my office and that I have set work hours in the morning.
- Keep those set hours.
- Make a timesheet? So that I keep track of my writing.
- Set goals, such as word counts.
- When I feel stuck, free-write. It will get the juices flowing.
- Support my friends in the writing community who are out there doing the same thing, day in, day out.
- Blog here more often. I put this site on my business cards for a reason. No slacking!
That’s it for now. Let’s see how I work it all out.
Kenny Rogers–My Advice Guru
I am singing the “Gambler” by Kenny Rogers right now. “You’ve gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em…”.
Why?
Well, Kenny is singing about gambling, I am singing about submissions. I sent a book over 4 months ago and haven’t heard anything back. The turn around time was 3-4 months. Now, they could be extremely busy, but I think that I am folding my cards on this one and sending it to another publisher. It was an exclusive submission and I don’t want it to be held up any longer.
Come to thing about it, I will review the book again, see if there are any edits needed. While the book is as tight as I feel it will ever be, I will give it a good once over and let it talk to me.
Quick update
I am giving a quick update! First, thank you B.J. for my writing award. Trust me, I am going to be handing my own out.
We have had the “crud”. I don’t know what you call it, but between stomach viruses and colds that closely mirror the flu, it’s been rough 6 weeks in the Frame household.
Luckily, I am feeling better, starting to write again and even outlined my first chapter book!
There will be more to come over the next week, but thank you for hanging in there and being so patient with me.
Inspiration
The great thing about writing is that I can find inspiration in places that aren’t necessarily inspirational. Today, I am finding it my hair salon.
How? Well, school is out listening to the kids in here today talk makes me realize that the non-fiction educational book that I am writing is not only needed, but necessary.
It inspires me to work harder, longer and more intelligently. I am gaining new insight and feeling more confident about the material.
I love the feeling that I am on the right track with this.
