Post-From-the-Past, January Archives

"There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes." --William Makepeace Thackeray

Thackeray's quote resonates with me as I enter my tenth year of blogging. Ten years! And over the years, the number of blog posts--and thousands of thoughts I didn't even know I had--has grown, now numbering 440. So in this, my tenth year, I thought I'd go back in the archives and highlight a post-from-the-past each month. A re-post, yes, a revisit, a re-encounter...

Traveling then back to the records of January 2012:
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Sunday, January 1, 2012

Aim, Shoot, Bull's Eye: Targets for a New Year

 "It's the sheer act of writing, more than anything else, that makes a writer." --John Gardner

Call it semantics, but I've decided to set writing "targets" rather than resolutions for the new year. The "dart board"--what I'm aiming for--is to write every day. No matter how much, how little--my goal is to hit at least one of four targets every day. Each is represented by the graduated concentric circles of a dart board. (I wish I could diagram this, but such design skills aren't in my repertoire yet!) 

The four targets include:

1. The Bull's Eye: Write 1000 words. I hope to hit this mark more often than not in this new year. But that is the real prize, and often hard to attain. So if circumstances--like life's challenges away from the computer--preclude this then I'll aim for...

2. The Inside Ring: Write two pages. Linda Sue Park, author of the 2002 Newbery Medal Winner A Single Shard, in an interview over at Cuppa Jolie, said: "My most valuable tip came from Katherine Paterson, who wrote in an essay about how she tries to finish 2 pages a day. I read that when I was starting work on my first novel, and it was a huge light-bulb moment. I thought, I can do that! I don't know if I can ever write a whole novel, but I sure as heck can write 2 pages a day. I've written every single one of my novels that way, and I'm positive I never would have written even one if I hadn't read that tip." Still and all, though, if time is at a premium on a busy day, I will at least shoot for...

3. The Middle Ring: Write for 15 minutes. Dan Goodwin, at Coach Creative, says: "Create every day and you get used to starting creative sessions quickly and easily. They become a routine, a habit, and you begin before you've had a chance to procrastinate. The less often you create, the harder it becomes to get started, and the more excuses and 'urgent' tasks that have to be done before you create begin to stack up...(so) start today, set aside 15 minutes, make an appointment with your creativity, and write it down. Do the same tomorrow." Yet, being realistic, on days I can't even do that I will at least...

4. The Outer Ring: Write ten words. This from Mary E. Pearson, on a guest post at Dear Editor: "When I feel like I can't move forward, I will do all kinds of things to help me keep going, like...Trick myself. I sit down to write and tell myself I only have to write ten words and then I can get up and do whatever I want guilt-free. TEN. That's all. But I have to do it every day." She says it's amazing how allowing yourself ten simple words more often than not jumpstarts the writing process and you end up writing more than you thought you would.

So there you have it, my targets for 2012. Every day, hit at least one. Now my aim might be poor at the beginning. After all, I haven't been all that consistent in the past. But with practice, who knows what will come. I'm looking forward to finding out.

What are your writing targets for the new year?

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And returning to the present, I recommend an article posted by Mary Carroll Moore: Your Writing Life: The Benefits of an End-of-Year Review. Ms. Moore, whose tag line to her blog is "How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book," poses questions to ask ourselves in review, questions such as what did I want to have happen with my writing life this past year? what steps did I take to bring that about? what was my biggest ah-ha moment? my actual accomplishments? where did I find the most satisfaction or joy? Good reading here, with a proposed review process that I'm now in the middle of. You might want to check it out. 

Happy reviewing, goal-setting, and target shooting in 2019!

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Under Construction: Stories and Writing Goals

January 2017

"If your work-in-progress is like a house under construction, you know the real strength lies in what you can't see: the foundation, the supports, the wiring..." --Heather Webb

New year, new writing goals and dreams. Where do we start? What gets our attention first? How do we build on whatever progress has already been made? Do we have a plan?

I gave this some thought as the new year unfolded, with consideration toward writing goals and projected progress for the months ahead. I also pulled together random notes and journal entries on my WIP, discovering along the way that quite a bit more groundwork has already been laid out for that WIP than I realized. Happy days.

Has this ever happened to you? You pull out journals. You open notebooks of research. You review character sketches you forgot you had and setting details that are like new all over again. You make a list then of where you are and where you'd like to be, and suddenly you see your story more clearly. Even if you're more of a panster than a plotter, you stumble upon a likely outline. Like a fresh wind blowing or a green shoot sprouting from a stone wall in the dead of winter (which I discovered coming in from a walk the other day), you feel a renewed sense of encouragement. Let the writing jump to life--your story under construction is in better shape than you thought.

Build on that.

Comparing the writing of a novel to that of building a house is not a new concept, but it is a helpful analogy. For example:

1. Draw up a blueprint. Heather Webb (quoted above) writes on this concept in Blueprints for a Better Book (February 2017 Writer's Digest). She suggests starting with a working pitch, a synopsis, scene outlines, character profiles, timelines, storyboards.

2. Frame your project. K.M. Weiland in 7 steps to Creating a Flexible Outline for Any Story addresses both the panster and the plotter by linking the power of the outline with a mindset of flexibility and discovery. Her steps to the story's framework consist of 1. crafting your premise; 2. sketching out scene ideas; 3. interviewing your characters; 4. exploring your settings; 5. writing your complete outline; 6. then condensing your outline and 7. putting your outline into action. "Remember," she concludes, "your outline is a map showing you the route to your destination, but that doesn't mean it is the only route." For our purposes can we say the outline is our frame but we can rearrange walls if we so choose. Happily I can say I've progressed already to #7.

3. Gather Tools. William Holland in his online article How to Write a Novel: A Blueprint for Success lists the basics: working title, working genre, working point of view, high impact summary, main characters, setting, character conflicts, character goals and motivation, plot conflicts. Again, nothing new to the writer already on the job site, but always a good review. You don't want to discover part way into the project that you're missing an important tool.

4. Build on the plan. Karen Wiesner in Your Novel Blueprint adds to the structure with her Story Plan Checklist. She writes, "The Story Plan Checklist can ensure cohesion between character, setting and plot." This list builds on Holland's tools above, adding such concepts as external and internal monologues, story sparks, and symbolic elements.

5. Show up for the job. This is what I'm all about in this new year. I was happy to see the progress I've made, but I want to make more. Jane Friedman helps us to stay the course when she writes about Do You Know What You're Capable Of? at WriterUnboxed. She references NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) but her words can apply to any of us. She says "...any...challenge that you might set for yourself...gives you the space to figure out how you'll develop the habit or discipline of showing up, day after day, to get the work done...You learn to just get on with the work, and put in the miles, regardless of what's happening around you, and before you know it, it's been two loops around the trail." Or another chapter. Or a finished book. My good friend and writing partner Connie has made it her goal to write at least one sentence a day this year--a worthy goal for a busy writer. All stories get written one sentence at a time!

The year is new, and promising. It's time to roll up the sleeves, gather tools, and see what words we will cement together, what stories we will build. Are you ready?

And guess what? You don't have to secure a builder's permit. You've had permission all along!

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New Year, New Draft: 14 Tips to Grow It

photo courtesy pixabay

"I hate first drafts, and it never gets easier. People always wonder what kind of superhero power they'd like to have. I wanted the ability for someone to just open up my brain and take out the entire first draft and lay it down in front of me so I can just focus on the second, third, and fourth drafts." --Judy Blume

We had all five grandkids in the house over the recent holidays in different stages, different combinations, different numbers of days. Happy times (well, except for the flu bug that visited some family members--we could have done without that), albeit messy. Let me count the ways: legos, bristle blocks, books, puzzles, markers, scissors, glue, Whoonu game chips, all that wrapping paper, random lost socks, and spilled flour during a cookie baking session. But I wouldn't have it any other way! Planting seeds in the soil of family is always a good thing.

Can I be as positive in this new year about the new draft I've decided to tackle--I mean really tackle and not just talk about? It promises to be messy, too. In preparation, I "dug up" tips to help me weed through its mess--which I offer to you, too, hoping they'll help you in turn.

14 Tips to Help Grow That First (Messy) Draft

1. Put Your Boots On. You know it'll be messy. You face knee-deep frustration and feelings of inadequacy. But there's a first step. START. Like Pixar's Emma Coates says: "Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you'll never share it with anyone."

2. Plant the Seeds.  Put down words and let them germinate. Don't edit. Don't stew. Sow seeds you will later fix. "The first draft is just you telling yourself the story." --Terry Pratchett

3. Get Your Hands Dirty. Hubby used to watch Master Gardener Rebecca Kolls talk about gardening on TV. He especially liked her signature sign-off: "Get out there and get your hands dirty." Same with our first draft. We just have to dig in no matter how unpromising the pages seem at first. Darcy Pattison explains her process in Awful First Draft: It's Hard to Trust the Process this way: "Most of all, I remember: the purpose of the first draft is to figure out what story you are telling. The purpose of all other drafts is to figure out the most dramatic way to tell that story...I am trusting the process and writing a really lousy first draft."

4. Go With the Wind. Elizabeth Sims, in Writer's Digest's Get Messy With Your First Draft says it this way: 'learn to love anarchy.' She explains, "Ignore the sequence while writing your first draft...Nothing is as freeing as writing what comes to mind next, not necessarily what must come next...the first execution of your ideas must be as unfettered as possible. Which will result in--yes!--some crap: false starts, pretentiousness, clunky images and cliches. Fine. Get them out now. They'll contaminate the good stuff only until you get around to your second draft."

5. Greet the Sun. This is one of my main targets this year. In Write That First Draft: 6 Ways to Generate Material for Your Book, Huffington Post's Lisa Tener says make the time: "You want to talk bills? Kids? Out-of-town guests, day jobs, commutes? At times it seems life was designed explicitly to obstruct us from writing...So when I do manage to set time aside to write, I stick to it. I keep my writing appointments." And what about penciling in that time first thing in the morning? Will Self makes a point: "I prefer to write as soon as possible after waking, so that the oneiric inscape is still present to me." (Okay, I admit, I had to look this one up. Oneiric [adj]: of or having to do with dreams; inscape [n]: an interior view or scene.)

6. Thin the Rows. In other words, don't worry about length the first time through. "I generally write a first draft that's pretty lean," Nora Roberts is quoted as saying. "Just get the story down."

7. Shovel. I love this quote by Shannon Hale: "I'm writing my first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles." Keep shoveling!

8. Shake it Out. Elizabeth Sims again (see #4): "Get Loose. Relax, physically and mentally. If, as I do, you write your first drafts longhand, consider your pen a paintbrush. Hold it relaxed in your hand and move it from your shoulder instead of with your fingers. Your whole arm will move freely, and you'll pour out the words...Legibility is overrated. Remember that."

9. Plow. As in plow on through, surprises await. "Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised." --John Steinbeck

10. Water. It's okay to step away, take a breath, let the story work its magic in the subconscious. Ernest Hemingway advocated reading during such breaks: "When I was writing, it was necessary for me to read after I had written. If you kept thinking about it, you would lose the thing you were writing before you could go on with it the next day...I had learned already never to empty the well of my writing but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it." Go to the well of reading. It will help.

11. Water Some More. Annie Dillard, from her book The Writing Life, admonishes: "One of the few things I know about writing is this, spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a  later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water."

12. Enjoy the Fruit. Have fun! Again, from Tener (above): "This probably seems like the most obvious one. If you're having fun, if you're experiencing the joy of discovery at all, then that freshness and excitement will be contained in the work you are creating. If you've made the time, you know how many other things you could be doing, but tonight or today you get to write. There's fun to be had. It is up to you to have it."

13. Harvest. It's simple wisdom, but as Julie Musil said in her blog post Why a Messy First Draft is a Great Thing: "A messy first draft means you've finished a book." Yes!

So where does this bring us? Why, to...hope for the second draft.

14. Celebrate the Bounty. Messy first drafts offer more than we first think. As Sims concludes, "If you practice looseness and receptivity when writing your first draft, the day will come during revisions when you realize you have a surplus of good writing to sort through." Good to know! Like rain on parched fields, there's hope in what we planted, propelling us to the next step.

So slog through that first draft. Don't let it get you down. And one last word of advice: "The first draft reveals the art, revision reveals the artist" (Michael Lee). So, in the next few months, I'm wearing my boots and getting my hands dirty in the mess of my first draft--and then on to the second. How about you? Are you ready to dig in and grow something with words, too?

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Reach: 300 Posts Celebration and Giveaway!

"When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either." --Leo Burnett

on Badlands Trail, Miami Whitewater Forest
September 2014

I can't believe it. I hit a milestone and almost missed it. This is my 301st blog post.  Recognizing the big 300 almost passed me by.

But it's never too late, right?

Who would have thought when I started this blogging experiment almost five years ago that I would stay the course and still be here today? That's not to say I'm projecting forever. The day may come when the journey takes a fork in the road, energies are diverted in a different direction, but I do know that the reach has already gone further than I ever thought it would. And I don't believe I've come up with a handful of mud either!

The idea has made me consider the idea of reach--and reach's cousins: dream, desire, and risk. A little googling (isn't it amazing the new words that are added to our vocabularies each year that we'd never have considered before?) I came up with the following inspirational thoughts:

"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I'm possible'." --Audrey Hepburn

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." --T.S. Eliot

"Sometimes you just have to jump out the window and grow wings on the way down." --Ray Bradbury

"I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." --Thomas Edison

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world." --Harriet Tubman

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." --C.S. Lewis
(my personal favorite :-)

"The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise." --Maya Angelou

'It's impossible,' said pride.
'It's risky,' said experience.
'It's pointless,' said reason.
'Give it a try,' whispered the heart.' --Unknown

"You had the power all along, my dear." --Glinda, the Good Witch, The Wizard of Oz

To celebrate the number 300, we'll do this:

1. Share links of 300-lists. (Considered coming up with my own list of 300-somethings, but reality set in and I nixed that idea--too big a reach right now!) Some lists from others to consider:

300 Greatest Films

300 Most Frequent Words Used in Children's Books

300 Reasons to Be Happy

300 Things Dr. George Washington Carver Invented from Peanuts (a partial list)

300 Top Christian Blogs on Ministry

300 Things to Do Once in a Lifetime (The Ultimate Bucket List)

300 Positive Words to Describe Your Children

2. Sponsor a celebratory give-away! Kicked around different ideas here, too, but settled on this: to one lucky commenter a $30 Amazon gift card will be sent your way! $3 wasn't a big enough celebration. $300 (as in 300 posts) was...ummm...too much of a reach! So 30's a good compromise.

Like previous giveaways here, all you have to do is comment along with a contact email address, and you will be eligible for the drawing. Deadline is this time next week, Tuesday, October 7. (I considered Monday, October 27--since that will be the 300th day of the year!--but that's too long to wait.)

300 posts of fun, of meeting people, of stretching, reaching, learning, engaging. That's what I'm celebrating. Hope you'll celebrate with me.

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For Mondays: 12 Motivating Quotes to Start the Week

photo courtesy Bergadder at Pixabay.com

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

A few thoughts on the power of the word one, as in: one thing leads to another. You find a quote that inspires, a beautiful photo (hats off to this photographer, isn't it a beautiful scene?), more quotes and you're off on a quest. What have others said on the subject of "one"?
 
"Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall." --Oliver Goldsmith

"Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea." --Jim Rohn

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." --Thomas A. Edison

"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." --Abraham Lincoln

"Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music." --Ronald Reagan

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one." --Mark Twain

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." --Robert Brault

"Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back. Remember that and be very gentle with yourself." --Julia Cameron

"One song can change a moment, one idea can change a world, one step can start a journey, but a prayer can change even the impossible." --Unknown

In the same spirit of the word one:

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." --Martin Luther King Jr.

And: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." --Lao Tzu, Chinese Philosopher (604 BC-531 BC).

[Wordsense suggests that this familiar quote might also be interpreted: "The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet."]

Anything here speak to where you are at the moment in your work? Any favorite inspirational thoughts you might add? What is one thing that helps you stay the course?

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10 Things Writers Have in Common with Woodpeckers

"The woodpecker might have to go." 
Courtesy of christianfunnypictures

Okay, I finally got a walk in this morning before getting blasted with yet another wave of snow (3"-5" predicted again tonight). What freedom I felt. How invigorating was the crisp air. What a refreshing chance to see something besides the four walls of the house. 

Then, lo and behold, I looked up and saw...a woodpecker. And the bright discovery added a bonus to my walk: inspiration. Here was this red-capped, feathered creature out in the cold, too, another survivor of this never-ending winter, and a fragile little guy faithfully doing his thing--pecking away and getting results.

So, as you might have already guessed, I was inspired to look closer at the life of a woodpecker. Not surprisingly, I found some things writers have in common with him.

10 Things Writers Have in Common with Woodpeckers

1. "Woodpeckers can peck up to 20 times per second, or a total of 8,000-12,000 times per day." How many keyboard keys do we peck (tap) in a day?
2. "Many woodpeckers have barbed tongues that help them extract bugs from trees and holes." What tools do we have to extract just the right words out of our heads?
3. "The woodpecker also has a very long tongue, up to four inches long in some species, with a glue-like substance on the tip for catching insects." Do we have the ability to stick with a project?
4. "The woodpecker's strong, pointed beak acts as both a chisel and a crow bar to remove bark and find hiding insects." Do we have a strong nose for the story, a drilling focus, and crowbar tenacity to pull it all out in its best form?
5. "Most woodpeckers have zygodactyl feet, which means they have toes facing the front and toes facing the back to help them grip trees vertically." What helps us grip our... ahem... backsides to our chairs and stay there until the work is done?
6. "They use those toes with their stiff tail feathers to brace on trees as they climb." Do we have as stiff a backbone to see the project through?
7. "Feathers that look like bristles on the nostrils of the woodpecker prevent inhalation of wood particles." Okay, this might be a stretch, but how do we put on blinders to block out the distractions when we are in the 'zone' and the words are flowing?
8. "Woodpeckers have a unique flying pattern: three wing flaps are followed with gliding." Have we found our rhythm? Mixing writing and living (defined as cherishing relationships, maintaining myriad responsibilities, etc etc )...sometimes it seems like one suffers at the hands of the other. Yet we desire to keep things in balance, don't we?
9. And speaking of relationships, "woodpeckers are monogamous (one mate for a lifetime)." You could say 'family' is important to the woodpecker, too!
10.  "Woodpeckers eat primarily insects, along with fruit, acorns and nuts." Well, writers might want to substitute chocolate for insects and acorns, but otherwise fruits and nuts sound good.

I did find one way, however, that woodpeckers are different than writers:
1. "Woodpeckers don't get headaches from pecking. They have reinforced skulls structured to spread the impact force, and their brains are tightly cushioned and protected." Are our skulls as cushioned in the event we bang our heads on our desks in our most frustrated sessions?!

Have you ever considered your affinity with the woodpecker? Any comparisons you can think of that wasn't touched on here? Would you throw the woodpecker off the ark???

"Even the woodpecker owes his success to the fact that he uses his head and keeps pecking away until he finishes the job he starts." --Coleman Cox

Sources for facts on woodpeckers:
Basic Facts About Woodpeckers
Woodpecker Trivia
Woodpecker Facts
Why Woodpeckers Don't Get Concussions

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4 Writing Lessons from a Praying Mantis (and Isaac Asimov)

view from the window October 2013

"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success--but only if you persist." --Isaac Asimov

One week it was hummingbirds out our porch room window. This past week the fascination--especially for the kids, cousins aged five, three, and almost three who played practically nonstop through a four-day visit--came in the form of one of the strangest of insect creatures, the praying mantis. "Come, look!" we said. "See if you can find the praying mantis among the vines."

An up-close encounter with the praying mantis coupled with discovering the above quote (thank you, Isaac!) elicited a chuckle. Parallels popped to mind between the strange insect, the quote, and the writer's life. Bear with me :-)

1. "You must keep sending work out..." A perfect camouflage cover, our cardinal creeper vine has the same same green hue as the mantis. The stick-like figure fades from view in its tangled shoots and leaves--never to be seen unless one intentionally focuses on it. Sort of like that manuscript buried in the bottom of the file drawer.

2. "You must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer..." You do know, don't you, that the female praying mantis is known for sometimes eating the male after mating? Don't let that manuscript lay in the drawer for fear it will eat its own head off!

3. "You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one..." The praying mantis can turn its head 180 degrees. It also can scan its surroundings with two large compound eyes and three other simple eyes located between them (fact source: National Geographic). A writer would do well to emulate a praying mantis' observation skills, both in researching markets and in working on the next project--details, details, details.

4. "If you have  talent, you will receive some measure of success--but only if you persist..." The praying mantis, named for the bent position of its front legs, suggests a prayerful pose. Ah, a little talent and persistence as Isaac Asimov says and--my addition to the equation--maybe a little prayer? For me, it's one of the most important needs of a writer since, ultimately, success is a gift to be thankful for. So my goals for the upcoming week? Get that manuscript out of the drawer. Query with persistence. Attack the WIP. Attempt a poetry prompt or two to encourage the words to come. And pray.

Lessons from a praying mantis? You bet.

Any other parallels you see? Is there an insect you take inspiration from?

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Writing is Like a River

"Writing is like a river--the words are ever-flowing. You may have heard of writer's block, but that only means a writer took his raft out of the river. The solution is to get back into the water. Pick a thought--any thought--and write about it. Instant solution. No more block." --Linda Jo Martin

Have your words been flowing freely down the writing river lately, or does your raft need relaunching? To what would you compare the writing life?

Hope the week ahead carries you to many new and exciting writing worlds...

Photo inspiration: a view of the Ohio River from the banks of small-town Aurora, Indiana, just yesterday. 

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Progress: Inch-by-Inch

"All I know is that if I sit there long enough, something will happen." --Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

Starting a new project often stirs up trepidation in a writer. Doubts arise, negatives nag, the blank page looks so...well, empty. Where's the joy, the anticipation--the discovery?

The answer lies in taking it an inch at a time. And literally using a one-inch picture frame as a reminder. This is another gem of an idea from Anne Lamott in her book Bird by Bird.

"What I do at this point," she writes, "as the panic mounts and the jungle drums begin beating and I realize that the well has run dry and that my future is behind me and I'm going to have to get a job only I'm completely unemployable, is to stop. First I try to breathe...and I finally notice the one-inch picture frame that I put on my desk to remind me of short assignments.

"It reminds me that all I have to do is write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame. This is all I have to bite off for the time being....after I've completely exhausted myself, I remember to pick up the one-inch piece of my story to tell, one small scene, one memory, one exchange...finish this one short assignment."

I'm taking this advice to heart and now have my own one-inch frame close by to remind me. Go away, nags and doubts. I have a plan. All I have to do is think small assignment and concentrate in the moment on it.

What's your plan to stick to your project until its completion? Any tricks up your sleeve, or inch-by-inch secrets?

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Broccoli and Intuition

"Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level." 
                                                                                                                 --Joyce Brothers

photo: scx.hu

A group of us friends get together periodically for a meal and movie, hosting in our homes in turn. We've done this for so long, toddlers have grown up and gotten married. Sometime ago we decided to do themed dinners--starting with international meals where everyone brought a dish linked to a chosen country. From that idea we moved to more unusual themes. For example, for this last get-together our hostess emailed: "It's the middle of winter, and we need a little sunshine. Let's do 'lemon and lime.'"

For my part I researched and came up with an elaborate recipe called "lemon spaghetti." It involved said spaghetti, steamed broccoli, carrots, and red bell peppers, and a lemon-yogurt dressing. And then I came down with a nasty head cold. My instincts told me I was not going to be able to go, let alone make this dish.

Hubby (who was not sick) stepped up. "Can I adapt the recipe, make something easy?" he asked. "That way I can take a dish when I go." We settled on steamed broccoli with sauteed garlic and a splash of lemon juice. Sufficient for the occasion and, it turns out, well received.

I only share this because the incident reminded me of a favorite passage from Anne Lamott's popular book on writing, Bird by Bird, in the chapter called (fittingly), "Broccoli." 

She writes: "There's an old Mel  Brooks routine...where the psychiatrist tells his patient, 'Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli will tell you how to eat it.' And when I first tell my students this, they look at me as if things have clearly begun to deteriorate. But it is as important a concept in writing as it is in real life. It means, of course, that when you don't know what to do, when you don't know whether your character would do this or that, you get quiet and try to hear that still small voice inside. It will tell you what to do..."

In other words, rely on your "intuition."

Intuition (n.)--"the act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; a perceptive insight."

Ms. Lamott goes on to say that intuition, however, won't kick in if we quit too soon. You sit down, she says, at say 9:15 a.m. and you only have your rational mind to guide you. Then, if you're having a bad day, you crash and burn within a half hour and give up. But "if you stick it out, the image or situation might come to you that would wedge the door open for a character, after which you would only have to get out of the way. Because then the character could come forward and speak and might say something important...and your plot might suddenly fall into place."

"You get your confidence and intuition back," she adds, "by trusting yourself. You get your intuition back when you make space for it...You might have to coax it (since intuition is "a little shy")...(but) try to calm down, get quiet, breathe, and listen...Train yourself to hear that small inner voice."

Tips then on tapping into our intuition:

Stay in chair.

Don't quit.

Stick it out.

Trust yourself.

Make space.

Get quiet.

Breathe.

Listen.

And, in conclusion, "Listen to your broccoli. Maybe it will know what to do. Then, if you've worked in good faith for a couple of hours but cannot hear it today, have some lunch."

Ha. Did you know you could learn so much about writing by embracing a hunk of broccoli? How much do you depend on intuition in your writing? Have you consciously tried to train yourself to hear that small inner voice? Have you given your intuition a name?

Next assignment: Name your intuition, and tell us why that name "speaks" to you!

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Photo-A-Day: December

"How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?" --Dr. Seuss

Not only did December seemingly get here before June this year, so did the new year the way the last twelve months flew by. Was it the same for you?

Yet as this year closes and another begins, milestones are noted and memories are catalogued. And in particular, my photo-a-day challenge comes to an end. Wow. So hard to believe it really got done. I surprised myself, really. Didn't have much confidence going in, I guess. But, the results?

366 days (Leap year, remember?) minus 4 equals 362 pictures. Well, many more than that actually since some days I took multiple pictures and chose one from the lot, but I did it. I only missed those four days total. Two because (ahem) I forgot. And two because I misplaced my camera. It had fallen out of my purse into the backseat of the car, and we couldn't locate it for awhile. Good intentions are good but life happens! Other than that, I looked forward to the moment each day that I picked up the camera. Some days I pocketed it as I went for my walk. Some days I was in the right place at the right time and had it handy. Some days--particularly on our fantastic November trip--I couldn't stop snapping photos. And then there were the late nights, just before going to bed, that I realized I had *almost* forgotten and so hit the deadline just before the night turned to the next day.

I found I loved the challenge. It was a great deal of fun. And as I snapped today's photo, the last of the last, I found myself feeling a bit  nostalgic. "You mean it's over already?"

Well, not really. I have all these things to carry with me from the experience like inspiration on:

Detail. Patterns. Texture. Contrast. Serendipity. Surprise. Ideas. Visualization. 

Light and Shadow. Wonder. Nuance. The Unexpected. Focal Point. 

Particularization. Emotion. A Character's World. Insight. Tributes. Whimsy. 

Potpourri. Travel and Story. Fairy Tales.

Along the way I learned about nurturing the creative side, waking up to beauty in the simple things, the value of trying something new, perseverance. All lessons that will carry over into a new year's writing projects, too.

I'm still contemplating what might be my challenge for the new year. It will involve writing, of course, and reading. It should incorporate stretching--as in reaching for a new level--and passion. We'll see what ideas gel in the next few days.

In the meantime, here is the final photo-a-day gallery. You'll see that there was much to celebrate this month, including the birth of our second granddaughter, born 12/12/12, and special family time. Hope you enjoy. And thanks for stopping in with wishes to each and everyone for a wonderful, creative, and happy new year!

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Haiku, Part Two

"Poetry...is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what was seen during a moment." --Carl Sandburg

Fellow blogger Cathy (Words, World and Wings) challenged me in my last post, 8 Ways Haiku Helps Fiction Writers.

"Well," she commented, "I think we'd all love to read some of your haiku, so bring it on! :-)"

OK, time to get my feet wet. Although I don't profess to be a poet, this exercise in the past few months has strengthened my writing in various ways, including nudging me to be more observant AND prompting me to write a little each day. It's getting to be (hurray!) a bit of a habit.

And so, because writers need to get their writing out there--and our writing buddies are great support--I'm going to come out of my cave and share.

Samples of what I've written in the past two months:

New Day

Frenzied rain sheets whip.

Stinging pellets strike leaf, limb.

Shiver. Storm passes.

Reconciliation

Parched ground laps up rain.

Eddies form, rivulets wash.

Forgiveness quenches.

Grace

Hummingbird hovers.

Red blossom dip, shimmer. Gone.

Beauty-blessed moment.

Reunion

Soft night air. Breezes

float, catching whispers on way.

Kind words make stars shine.

Vulnerability

Gossamer threads in

blue-sky bowl. God's filaments

weave fragile hearts strong.

On the Ohio

Lights from coal plant blast

darkness, scattering glass-shard

sparkles downriver.

A Neighbor's Story

German children bike

north into Holland, nineteen

thirties' innocence.

Smiles, everyone! (And thanks, Cathy, for your encouragement :-)

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A Quiet Pause

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the 

end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'" --Mary Anne Rademacher-Hershey

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Restart the Engine: Revving up the R's

"Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by." --Carl Sandburg

Confession time: I've not been reading much. I've not been writing much.

A marathoner runs. A musician makes music. An artist creates. A writer reads. A writer writes.

For sure, there are times of allowances. Times of necessity. The unexpected. Loved ones in hospitals, nurturing times, reaching out times. Being available. Assisting. Caring. A writer after all is a real person and family member first. This past week was such a time over this way, and I'm glad I could be where I was to help.

But now...what? Well, it's time. Time to reevaluate. Time to reassess. Time to ramp up the reading, and reset the writing goals. Reach out the hands and recover the time when it runs by. Time to revisit the joy.

Summer may be all about recreation, reunions, relaxing, recharging. It's also a time (can you hear the engine starting up??) to:

Regroup.
Re-up.
Re-commit.
Restart.
Rebound.
Re-invest.
Re-ignite.
Re-create.

That's what I'll be doing this week, revving up the r's...

What about you--how's the summer writing going for you? Or not...

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All in a Day's Work

Photo: Microsoft Office Clipart

"I turn sentences around. That's my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning." --Philip Roth

Sound familiar? Don't we all have days (weeks) like this? Maybe the upcoming week will be better. Hope so. Good luck!

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7 Writing Tips from The Princess and the Pea

"Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch." --Hans Christian Andersen

"Ouch!" I was almost out the door for a morning walk when I was forced to take off a shoe. "There you are," I said as I pulled out a tiny piece of grit. "I knew I felt something." The rock was so small it could hardly be seen, but big enough to cause a lot of grief--sort of like the princess and the pea.

Remember that story, The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen? Paraphrased it goes something like this: Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess, but she'd have to be a real princess. He travelled all over to find her, with no success. Then one stormy night, there was a knock on the castle door. When the King went to find out who made such racket he discovered a wet, bedraggled girl seeking shelter--and who claimed to be a princess. Though the Queen doubted the girl's story, she ushered her in. She had a plan of course. She would put a tiny pea in the girl's bed that night--a bed made of a stack of twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. After all, a real princess would surely feel the pea because everyone knows princesses have delicate skin. The next morning the girl proclaimed she hadn't slept all night. Something somewhere under the mattresses had kept her awake. See, she had bruises to prove it. The prince was overjoyed--here was a real princess! They married and lived happily ever after. And the pea? They put in in the Royal Museum where it is to this day, unless someone has stolen it. (You may read Hans' original story here at Childhood Reading.)

Hans Christian Andersen's story lives on. And, since one thing leads to another, I gave thought to this story, and how we writers might draw tips from it to aid us in our storytelling lives. I came up with the following seven:

1. Books are like princesses--the writing of them is a goal worth searching for, and pursuing.

2. Don't give up hope in your efforts to write that princess, no matter the storms that threaten to stop the progress. A King may open the door when you least expect it.

3. Squelch the Queen's doubts that say the idea will probably come up empty anyway, so why even try?

4. Let any irritating "peas" (you know, like rejections, less-than-perfect critiques, yet another late night session to make the words flow just right) only spur you on to doing better.

5. Trust through the bruises that your real jewel of a story will one day see the light.

6. Take it all the way to the altar--commmit to it, and do what it takes to make it work.

7. Preserve the memory of those irritating peas that helped get you where you are, so that you don't have to lose sleep over the same problems the next time!

Now I'm thinking of checking into some of HCA's other stories to see what I can glean (a list of his 168 titles can be found here)--like Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Little Match Girl, and The Ugly Duckling. He was quite the storyteller (1802-1875)--a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories.

Just goes to show, writers help other writers no matter the genre, era, or number of years apart.

Got a favorite HCA story? Any writer's analogy that has struck a cord with you this week? 

The Writer's Journey, From a Turtle's POV

"And the turtles, of course...all the turtles are free, as turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be." --Dr. Seuss, Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories

I would have seen it this morning on my walk anyway, but twice I was alerted to the little turtle's presence before I got that far. First, by my neighbor Pat, who was coming the other way. "There's a turtle in the road back there," she said. "I'm afraid it's going to get hit by a car." Then another neighbor drove by, slowed down, and told me the same thing. So I was ready. And there it was, moseying across the pavement, head held high, taking the journey one slow step at a time. It was certainly in a precarious situation.

"Come on, buddy," I said, "let's help get you across." And I moved the creature into the grass at the side of the road, marveling all the while at the striking pattern imprinted across the hard shell.

Then, as we writers are apt to do, I considered the turtle's journey--and compared it to the writer's life. You probably already know what's coming, another of those corny analogies. But here goes...

The Writer's Journey From a Turtle's POV

1. You gotta' stick your neck out if you're going to get anywhere.
2. Start. And keep going, one step at a time, no matter how slow the pace.
3. Don't stop in the middle of the road. If you do, you'll never get where you want to go.
4. Stay focused, patient and persistent. A little bit of luck wouldn't hurt either.
5. Let friends pick you up when you find yourself in a tough spot.
6. Remember your pattern is unique, and you add your own little bit of beauty to the world.
7. Catch your breath and rest, if need be, when you get to the other side--especially if you get shook up (think "querying process"!). Then move on to new adventures, the next story to write.

Do you feel like a turtle sometimes? What advice would you give to a writer who's plodding along?

*photo courtesy of sxc.hu/

On Scraps and Ambivalence, Itches and Perseverance

If you are struggling with what you

should be writing, look at your scraps.

Encoded there are the themes and subjects you

should be grappling with as a writer. --Betsy Lerner

I've been doing just such a thing this past week--sorting through my scraps. And nearly drowning in them, actually.

The thing is, my scraps have been accumulating for years. Clippings here, manila folders there, boxes of articles torn from magazines waiting to be revisited. But with the advent of a new year, one in which I plan to finally embark on my next MG historical fiction, I decided it was time to put on wading boots, jump in, and pull all the scraps together in some kind of order. After all, the sea of research goes on forever, but the time comes to put a hold on research and begin to write. I just need to know I can find what I'm looking for when the thought hits me.

It's been a long week, but I now have six new notebooks of compiled scraps to show for my efforts:

• On Plot and Storytelling
• Character Sketches and Journaling
• Photo File with Visuals, Idea Triggers, and Character Suggestions
• Local History of Targeted Era
• Biographies and Human Interest, Inspirational Stories of Overcoming Adversity
• Odds and Ends: Names, Motives, Descriptions, Family Trees

Not only that, but the week culminated in a one-sentence story summary, a developing story arc, and determination to get something down on that first page. After all, the first page--so blank and empty--is often our biggest obstacle.

"The ambivalent writer," Betsy Lerner notes in her classic book on writing, The Forest for the Trees, "can't hear himself think, can't commit to a single vision, can't stop wondering if six other directions aren't the right ones to take. The ambivalent writer confuses procrastination with research. He can't hear through the static to find the one true voice."

She also says, "(But) If the voices keep calling, if the itch remains, no matter how punishing the work or inhospitable the world, then you must persevere."

Sorting through my scraps has validated some of my loves: history, real people's inspiring stories, stories of courage and hope, children's fiction, the writing process itself. It has helped provide vision, direction, and voice for my newest work--and hopefully has also silenced those pesky troublemakers, ambivalence and procrastination. But the best news of the week? The itch to jump in and get going is stronger than ever. And only perseverance will scratch that kind of itch.

The Challenge is on.

What do your scraps reveal about your writing?