Space, The First Frontier for Writers. (AKA, another super-late post, Sorry!)

Sorry for the radio silence this week, guys. Chalk it up to another super late post tally.

To make it up to you, I can only offer this one simple image that I think we can all relate to. It pretty much sums up this week for me:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/476326098070182263/


Want more where that came from along with witty motivation and cool idea starters? Check me out on Pinterest!

Three Ways to Improve Stale Dialogue

There's a couple of bird feeders out my window by my desk. All day I stare out and watch the hierarchy of birds congregate.

First, the feeders are mostly taken over by chickadees and finches. Mourning doves flutter from the trees to the ground, catching and plucking seeds and nuts cast out of the feeders. Then, the cardinals wake and they take over, scaring away all but the bravest and most camouflaged small birds. But, as we learned from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, there's always a bigger fish...I mean bird.

A giant woodpecker flutters in during the hottest part of the day and scares every bird - even the bullying cardinals. He's so big, he has to hang from the bottom of the feeder and lift his head up and around to get to the seeds.

This hierarchy is fascinating (and sometimes distracting) to watch. However, it also reveals a lot about character. The little birds line up along the bird feeder pole, waiting for an open perch. They peck at each other and squawk to get the other birds to move out of the way. Sometimes, there are even mid-air fights for perches.

Of course, you've always got your quiet mourning doves at the base of the feeders, eating contentedly from the ground.

All this witnessing of wild birds got me thinking about dialogue. It is arguably one of - if not the - most important aspect of fiction writing. Dialogue allows you to characterize your main and sub characters. It reveals setting and plot and red herrings. It can do it all -- including go horribly, horribly wrong.

If dialogue is stale and uninteresting, chances are people are going to put down your book and agents won't offer representation.

No one wants that. So, here are three ways to improve your dialogue and make it more dynamic and interesting:

1. Sub-context: Using sub-context is one of my favorite dialogue hacks. Basically, you make the conversation about what isn't said. So, your characters could be discussing a family trip they're planning, but the conversation is actually about how dysfunctional the family is and how absent the father has always been.

Ex: 
Sam: I'm glad you're actually going to make this camping trip. That's a first in, what, six years?
Dad: It's the first time you've planned something interesting.
Sam: Niagara Falls, sharp shooting practice, crystal caves - those weren't interesting?
Dad: How about we stick to the important stuff this time? A real RV. Running water that isn't from a waterfall. Being together.
Sam: If we don't kill each other before this is over.

2. Make it funny: Humor is one of those illusive but essential parts of novels. Agents always say they want it, readers crave it, but it's difficult to nail. However, humor can really punch your dialogue to the next level. Usually, it works best if one of your characters is the sarcastic one-liner. Think Han Solo in Star Wars. It keeps things interesting and gives the other characters ideas off which to springboard important plot information.

Ex:
Bodhi: I can't believe Sir Hangnon turned Minen into a pig.
Josh: It fits him.
Rocky: If only he kept the snout when he came back. It would have helped him keep his long nose out of our business. 

3. Shut your characters up: Believe it or not, there's more information conveyed by what isn't said than by what is. Readers are perceptive because this is most often the type of dialogue we experience in real life. Humans keep their emotional cards close to their chests and they rarely say everything that they mean. Your characters should do the same. So, rather than revert to stale dialogue, try having your characters emote through action.

Ex:
Hannah: See? Carving pumpkins wasn't so bad. Now we just have to do the other one for the second stoop-
Gill: I've really got to get going.
Hannah traced her fingers over the side of the pumpkin. She sighed, then laid the plastic carving tool on the table and picked up her purse.

Most importantly, never use dialogue to tell your reader anything. Dialogue is a tool meant to show, and that's when it's at its most magical. Allow your characters to speak freely, and to hold back what they might want to say instead. It allows your reader to uncover the character naturally without being told what to feel and who to believe.

It also makes the story much more interesting - think of the misconceptions that could come about from things left unsaid. Think of the mid-air fights for feeder perches. Dialogue reveals the inner most depths of a character, and when done correctly, allows for insanity to ensue.

What To Do When You Hate Your Novel

This being my first post of the new year, I wanted to say something really positive. But I've heard from a lot of my writer friends lately that they've been in a funk. That novel they've been working on that seemed so promising and lovely...now they hate it.

Literally, hate it.

Like, think of it and groan. Look over a terrible paragraph or two and cry. Want to chuck your laptop out the window, kind of hate.

They think, why has this happened, it was going so well? Great, now I've wasted four months of my life on this thing that sucks.

I've been there. I've thought those same thoughts. The thing to remember is, this happens to all of us. As creative people, we doubt ourselves. This is beneficial because it stops us from doing something crazy - like quitting our careers and trying to write the next great American novel on a mountain in Tibet. It is also the driving force behind revision - because we want our work to be the best it can be, which means it needs to be better than the draft I wrote the first time around.

However, self-doubt can also be crushing. It can make you hate your work for really no reason whatsoever. Maybe your own voice annoys you. Maybe you can't riddle out the meaning of a scene. It's so frustrating that soon, you tell yourself you've never been an artist at all. You suck at writing and you should stop writing this novel right now.

What I'll tell you, faithful blog reader, is exactly what I tell my friends when they're in this funk. This is entirely normal behavior, but please, take a break.

First, you need to know that most every writer goes through this - especially with long materials like novels. Sooner or later, you will hate it - either from reading and rereading it too many times or out of frustration with your muse, but it will happen.

Now, it's important that you don't then delete the whole thing, burn your hard drive and spend all your savings on a new car you don't need. What you must do is set writing down for a moment and take a break. Go to the coffee shop for a few hours. Lock yourself in your room and reread Harry Potter. Go sky diving. Take a month or two and travel and meet new friends. Take a year and don't worry about writing.

If you're truly meant to write - if it's something you MUST do - you will always come back to it, and it will be waiting for you. Because, at this point, writing has chosen you as much as you have chosen it.

However, if writing truly does give you unneeded stress and torture, perhaps it hasn't chosen you after all. Perhaps you're not meant to be tortured by it.

For most of us who do the research on blogs and internet videos about the craft, and for those of us who've lost sleep pounding away at the keys in a fit of sheer elation, we're stuck in the writing life forever. Embrace it. But sometimes you can embrace it too strongly and smother the poor thing. This is when you need to take a break. Whether it's an hour or two years, do what you have to do to love writing again.

I promise it's worth it.

Just don't - whatever you do - delete your hard drive in a fit of rage.

Bringing in 2016 with Lofty Goals

Hi all!

2016 is just days away and it's about time we started thinking about goals again. While it's great to have goals year round, there's something really exciting about starting the new year with a plan.

Many of us set personal goals: we want to lose weight, quit sugar, save more money for retirement...so on and so forth. But when was the last time you set a professional goal for yourself?

I surely can't think of it.

So, this New Year, along with my personal goal, I'm also going to set a professional goal. And it's a big one.


Drum roll please.......

I'M GOING TO WRITE A NOVEL THIS YEAR.

Whew, I said it. No, I BLOGGED it, which makes it more real.

Now, this won't be my first novel. In fact, I've written five novels/novel length projects since committing to writing as my profession, but the other day I was thinking about how I haven't written something fun (like fiction, essays, or poems) in a few weeks. My life has simply been too chaotic with everything else going on. I'm sure you can relate.

That also got me thinking about my big novels that I've written in the past and how they really need to be revised.

So, that led me to the conclusion that I MUST write another novel in 2016. I currently have no idea what it will be about, who the characters are, or even where it takes place. I know nothing other than the fact that I will write it sometime this year.

The universe will give me the idea when it's ready and I am too. I'm sure of that. In the meantime, I'm screaming out into the void of everything saying, THIS is my year. Let's get this novel going.

Do you have any writing goals for 2016? Shout them into the aether of the universe by sharing them in the comments section.

Forcing the Muse

My schedule didn't allow me to participate in NANOWRIMO this year, but I do have a handful of friends who undertook the challenge. My conversations with them has led me to understand one very important thing: Sometimes the muse doesn't come willingly. Sometimes you have to drag it.

One friend of mine sat looking at her computer screen for the first four days of November, slowly falling behind in her word count. She fretted over the fact she had no concept, no characters, no setting, and no plot line.

Her imagination was an empty void.

"I would have quit," I admitted sheepishly to her. "Not writing, of course, but I would have quit NANOWRIMO. Obviously, it wasn't my year."

The beautiful thing is: she didn't take my advice.

On the fifth day, frustrated and crying, she began writing down absolute nonsense.

My headphones are red. The cord is longer than I think it should be. I have a sugar skull eraser. I don't wish to use it in case I erase off the face.

Pages and pages of nonsense ensued. Two lattes were downed and refilled. Somewhere, along the way, her muse remembered how to walk, then run.

By the end of the week she had a character and a novel plot. Her setting unfolded and she caught up, then surpassed her word count goals.

All of us have been here at some point - staring for days, thinking it's finally happened, we've finally lost our ability to write creatively. In fact, as I write this blog post, I'm in that boat. I've been sick for three weeks and with the surroundings of a new state, new house, and new job, I haven't had much time to devote to writing. Now throw in the holidays and it's like my muse no longer exists.

What I'll have to do next, and what you'll likely have to do eventually too, is force the muse. I'm going to have to get her out of her recliner, walking and remembering what writing feels like and how easily ideas can flow. I'm going to have to make her recall the beauty and the freedom in writing.

And while I won't be NANOWRIMOing anytime soon, I'm hoping a new short story or novel flows forth. I'm not giving up until it does.

The Importance of a Writing Group

I've talked about writing groups in the past, but I wanted to reiterate their importance once again for any new blog followers who came on in the past few months.

When I was young and first writing, I didn't think writing groups were necessary. Why would I want to take time away from my own writing to review and critique other people's work. Also, if I didn't find a group that wrote solely within my genre, why bother? They're not going to know the subtle nuances I'm trying to achieve.

And then I joined a writing group.

I was 18 when I attended my first group session. It was a face-to-face session attended by roughly 3-4 different members every month. We shared pages a few weeks prior and then brought our notes for each other to some coffee shop here or there around Wisconsin.

There wasn't a single writer in that group that also wrote YA.

I absolutely loved it.

Sure, they might not have known everything about the YA genre, just as I sure as heck didn't know that much about memoirs at the time, but what young me had failed to notice is that I was surrounded by other serious writers. These were writers who put their fingers to the keys and plugged out pages of content every month for other serious writers to read. I grew in my knowledge of the craft in general  and I made some amazing friends.

Now that I've moved cross-country, I've joined another writing group (by the prodding of one of the original Wisconsin face-to-face members) that takes place entirely online. Rather than meeting for coffee, we have monthly quotas to fill (2 submission and 4 critiques per month) that keep all of us plugging away at our work. We stay in contact through email and Facebook and the occasional bi-yearly get together somewhere in the USA.

This format of a writing group has also helped me exponentially. Not only does the online format offer writers from all over the world membership, but it also allows me to read a variety of genres. I get feedback from a diverse group of readers and I give my own unique feedback to them.

Also, when I'm having a rough month and am unable to find time, energy, or inspiration to write, it helps to simply sit down with my laptop and a mug of tea and read the work of my writing group companions.

They inspire me to go back to my own work.

They help me improve that work.

Basically, writing groups are important because they force us to be who we are: writers.

I suggest, no matter your age, that you find a group that fits you. It may take a little while, but don't be discouraged, once you have them, you can never let them go.

Why It's Important To Ride Out The Storm

I recently wrote a short story with a pretty great plot (as long as my writing group isn't lying to me) that all stemmed from one simple thing: Brainstorming.

Remember in elementary school when your teacher would set aside ten minutes a day for you to brainstorm new ideas for your writing journal or so you could come up with a slightly more creative approach to your essay on the Underground Railroad? I sure do. A good 80% of the time, it worked, too.

And yet, very few writers brainstorm daily or even when they're out of ideas.

Instead, we wait around for inspiration to strike. We do laundry, we go to the store, we sit and stare at a blank screen at the coffee shop. We think, "It'll happen. I'll just ignore it and it'll come forward like a shy deer." When a smidgen of an idea does finally come, we usually stop it before it grows to its full potential. We outline it and worry about the characters to fill the idea, but we never let the idea grow crazy and wild before trimming it back. We wish it to grow inside our defined little box of "my genre" and "things I write".

But if brainstorming proved to be so beneficial as children, why do we so easily turn our backs on it?

The answer is, because it can be difficult.

It's scary to go unbridled into the lightning and thunder. It's dark most of the time. What if we can't come up with any ideas? What if we come up with a ton and they all suck?

These are questions everyone has asked before brainstorming.

And it's true: sometimes, nothing happens.

However, other times bad ideas turn not so bad. They grow and shift and change with each strike of lightning - illuminating themselves a little more to the writer.

I've personally set a goal to brainstorm at least once per week. Rather than getting stuck on my writing and going off to make cookies, grocery shop, or watch Project Runway (admit it, you've been there), I force my creative muscles to flex. I sit down with a timer, gluing my fingers to the keys and my butt to the seat.

And you know what? It works. Pretty soon ideas come and characters show themselves and plots unravel. Pretty soon my brain stops procrastinating and shrieking like a tired two year-old and it starts to have some fun.

That's why we got into this in the first place - it's why we do what we do - because we find writing intoxicatingly fun and we can't stop.

So, next time you're at your rope's end and you want to throw your hands up in frustration, try brainstorming. It may give you a new idea for a poem or novel, or it may help you riddle through the portion of your work-in-progress that has you at a standstill.

Need a new idea? Brainstorm.

Can't think of a title? Brainstorm.

Have an extra ten minutes while the soup boils? Brainstorm.

Incredible things happen when you give your creativity slack like that. You'll bring up things you never thought imaginable. They're all right there in your head, waiting for you to get out of the way so they can be seen.

What To Do When the Muse Escapes You

It's a very busy time of year for many of us. School is back in session, summer vacations are over and gone, the days are getting shorter - ugh! With all of this and the stress of normal, everyday life, sometimes our writing falls to the back burner.

Even best laid plans often come out misshapen. You want to write over lunch but there's a twenty minute line in the cafeteria, so you only have a few moments to scarf down food. You want to write right away in the morning, but your alarm clock doesn't sound. You want to write before bed, but your kids aren't used to school-time bedtimes and fighting their energy has you up until midnight.

No matter who you are or what your situation is, these kinds of setbacks in our writing life definitely take a toll. After a week of thwarted plans, you're often too exhausted to write while family watches the football game. And when an early bedtime arises, you take sleep over getting another sentence into your novel.

I get it. I've been there too.

If this is sounding a whole lot like your life, I urge you to check out a brand new muse.

This sounds like more work, you say, but no. You needn't create her.

Instead, pop over to Pulp Literature and check out their "A Message From Your Muse" page. Here, you can sign up for a daily message from the muse either emailed to your inbox, or follow her on Twitter to keep excess emails thin.

Her gems of knowledge and encouragement have made me smile and lifted my writing spirits on countless occasions. I hope her musey effects help you as well.

Literary Goodies (A Gift List for Writers)

It's almost back to school time, and you know what that means? Shopping. And you know what shopping means? Buying ourselves presents, of course!

(Or maybe that's just my logic but, oh well!)

So this week, I'm lightening up on the writing advice and instead bringing you a list of my favorite literary inspired gifts for yourself or the writer you know. Hold on to your wallets, literary scholars, here we go!

1. Let's start with the most expensive and the most epic pick first. It's the Luxury Club Library Bookcase Chair by Alexander Love Designs in Brooklyn, NY. You can find it on ETSY. Wouldn't this be the best chair to sit in, surrounded by your love of books, your literary idols, your favorite tomes? Now picture yourself with a mug of coffee in one hand and your laptop poised on your lap, bursting with perfect prose. It's an ideal world in the Bookcase Chair. I just know it is. However, it will set you back about $2,950.00. So....put it on the list for when you get your first publishing advance :)

2. This next gift is a recent find of mine, but I absolutely LOVE this company and their wit. It's the Soap for Writer's Block by Whiskey River Soap Co. The site's description of the soap is amazing:
 " If this soap doesn’t help you churn out regurgitated ideas and probably a vampire, I’ll eat my hat. It’s a fedora, by the way. Cool vampires wear fedoras now. Put that in your crack pipe and smoke it. Or in your book. Either way, you’re gonna need this soap ASAP. Your ideas are terrible."
Another of my favorite, definitely fueled to writers, is the Soap for Introverts. It's "a handcrafted bar dyed with a blend of nonconfrontational ocean blues. And we didn’t bother scenting it. Because seriously, it’s not like you’re going anywhere anyway, right?" 
They also churn out soaps to help you get into character like the Soap for Evil Dictators scented with the plight of the people, Soap for Geeks, and Soap for Hipsters.
Feeling a little dry after all this talk of bathing? Whiskey River Soap Co. makes all their scents into candles, because who has the time to stop wallowing in their own writer's block for a shower? Simply light, lean back, and let the ideas flow.

3. We've covered places to sit and things to smell, but every writer needs something to wear (that isn't pajamas). Here enters Appraising Pages and their shop of wonderful book-inspired t-shirts, jewelry, and extras (like this Albus Dumbledore banner). My favorite, and one that I've really been wanting to buy - HINT HINT gift givers in my life - is their Support Authors tee. Nothing says "I'm a starving artist" like daily encouragement of complete strangers to buy our books. Self-aggrandizing? Maybe. A beautiful option to wear to the store other than holey cotton shorts and a plaid shirt? Yes.

4. Need a little motivation? Check out Steal Like and Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon at Amazon. It's a great read for anyone who's looking to navigate creativity and creation in the digital age, anyone who needs to defend "where they got their ideas" to family members, and for those who are plum out of ideas.

5. Finally, the last gift on the list is something useful to eating and drinking the hours away while you rework that plot point in chapter three. I'm talking specifically of the mugs from The Literary Gift Company. Now, The Literary Gift Company isn't limited to mugs. They also sell apparel, jewelry, housewares, stationary, books, cards, and reading accessories. Pretty much a writers dream, right? Well, it gets better. Their mugs include the Penguin classics like Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Grammar Mugs, and mugs that ask you please Go Away, I'm Writing and come with chocolate, so you won't have to leave your writing spot all day. Best of all, though, they carry Personalized Book Cover Mugs, where you choose the title and the author's name. I'm sure this was created to please those who love Penguin books they don't carry in their other listings, but really, we'd use it for ourselves. "The Great American Novel by Alyssa Nedbal"? I could work with that. So keep writing and keep this mug handy. You thought you wouldn't survive to see your book hit the classics shelf, but now you don't have to wait and hope. You can simply order.

Get Up, Get Motivated, and Write

It's no secret that I am in love with Asheville, North Carolina. If you've ever checked out my Pinterest page, you know that I have an extensive board dedicated entirely to Asheville. I first visited Asheville in March of 2014, when I wrote you this post about my Southeastern vacation. And then there was this post a little over a month ago referring to my move to North Carolina.

What you may not know is that I fell so completely in love with Asheville during my 2014 trip that I (with the help of my mom) convinced my entire family to move to North Carolina with me. My grandparents went first, then finally my parents' house sold and my mom, dad, brother and I moved. However, there was one little kink in my plan: no one else loved Asheville like I did.

So, instead of moving straight to my utopia, I landed an hour and a half away in a suburb of Charlotte. It's great here, don't get me wrong - the weather is blisteringly awesome, and I'm having a lot of fun decorating my new room and taking evening trips to Charlotte - but it isn't Asheville.

When I heard that the HGTV Urban Oasis 2015 was located in Asheville, NC - my Asheville, NC! - I set a countdown widget and waited for the first day I could begin entering. Since that day, I've logged on to the Urban Oasis site everyday and entered to win my perfect dream home in my perfect dream location.

As soon as I turn my computer on - before I begin writing or blogging or searching Pinterest - I go to the site and enter myself into the drawing for the Urban Oasis.

And that routine got me thinking...what if we applied this sort of routine to writing life? If you're truly dedicated to writing, if it's what you long for and desire above everything else is to write, then why not make it the start of your day, every day?

Before you check your email - write a sentence.

Before you heat your tea - write a paragraph.

Before you walk out the door for your commute - write a phrase, a period, a word - anything!

If it's your dream, if it's something you want with all your heart, then why shouldn't you make it happen in any way that you can?

John McPhee once did an interview with The Paris Review where he said,

"put a drop in a bucket every day, after three hundred and sixty-five days, the bucket's going to have some water in it."

Writing takes dedication and motivation. It takes getting up early and staying up way too late. Sometimes, it takes sneaking a sentence in here and there whenever you can, just so you can move that story farther along.

But the more you do it, the more it repays you. In the end you could have a wonderful piece that's ready for publication. You could have a whole novel or an epic poem. You could be walking away with your own dream house.

Document and Forget

****Important Blog Info****

Next Tuesday is the closing date for my Wisconsin house. The closing is in the morning and then we start the long drive with four people, three vehicles, two trailers, two rabbits, one dog, a dozen house plants, and our essential belongings through most of the Eastern US until we reach North Carolina. 

This means that it will literally be impossible for me to blog next week on Tuesday. 

Sorry in advance, guys. Thanks for understanding. 

#                    #                    #

With that established, let's get down to business today. 

A few weeks ago my cell phone contract came up for renewal. I went to the cell phone store, waited almost three hours, paid out an entire pay check worth of funds, and finally left with a new phone. This upgrade was a massive switch for me. I was going from an Android Razar to the iPhone 5S. 

It took me awhile to get used to the new graphics, the new home screen, and, of course, Safari. Heck, let's face it, I'm still not very comfortable with where everything is located, but I'm getting better at using it on a daily basis. 

The other day, I turned on my old Droid to sort through the thousands of Notes I stored on it. Because switching my old pictures onto my iPhone was easy, but Notes was a whole 'nother story. I started at the top, wading through vegan smoothie recipes concocted during three a.m. moments of clarity, ideas for new paintings, cool character names I read or heard, hundreds of notes on novels and stories in progress. full poems written during lunch breaks, pointless rants I wrote when I needed to vent about that rude customer or this horrible boss, and lists of old grocery needs. However, the most important notes I found were titled simply "STORY IDEA". There were three. I expected to type them into a Word Document on my laptop and file them away for a later time when I needed a break from a novel revision or couldn't get a new story idea brainstormed. The first two I transferred over with no problem. One was an interesting exchange of dialogue I overheard while making someone's pizza that had blossomed into a possible literary story. The other was a link to a scientific study on genes and a possible sci-fi story idea. 

But the third made me stop. It was a mere five word sentence - probably a news story I had heard while walking past a newscast on TV. It was so short, that, had I written it out on a piece of paper, I probably would have thrown it away thinking it was nothing. 

What the note contained was so inspirational, I abandoned my Droid transfer and started writing a story around that idea. 

The moral of this anecdote is that I had completely forgotten about the original event that sparked the STORY IDEA note. I had completely forgotten that a story idea like that had ever crossed my mind. If it weren't for that five word sentence, I would never have written the story I'm currently working on. 

So, while I'm moving cross-country, I want you to start a Notes file on your own cell phone (or, if you're more old school, feel free to keep a pad of paper and pen in your bag) - just make sure you have something with you so that, when you walk past the TODAY show story in the hospital lobby and hear a weird tidbit about a remote county in Ohio, or your overhear a strange conversation between two women also waiting for their lattes, you can write it down. You don't have to have a story idea right at that moment. Just write down anything that makes you really listen or take notice. Document and forget. 

Then, when you come back to it weeks, months, or years later, it will effect you. Because it will be the right time for your note to spark an idea. It will be the push you need to start something new or to take up your old writing hobby.

Notice everything.

Write it down. 

Keep it safe. 

Moving House and Home

Sorry about the late post, and about the brevity this week. I do have good news to share, though...............my house is under contract and I will be moving!

This is exciting, frightening, and exhilarating. It is also throwing my writing routine for a serious loop. So I must ask that you bare with me through the next month or two as I pack up, move, and then resettle. I will post as much as I can and be as helpful as possible through this time.

In related writing news: I'm currently revising. Revising what you ask? Oh, it feels like everything. Poems, my YA novel, every short story I have, some work for children - the list goes on. In many ways, it feels as if those little contained worlds are reworking their homes as well. Some of them are simply remodeling or repainting and others are moving cross-country just like me.

I've revised some pieces so many times, the paper is thin and translucent from where I've erased and erased over new and better ideas.

Who knows, maybe I need to take my own advice and let it all sit in a cardboard box as I move. Then, when I unpack, not only will I be in a new creative space, I'll be in a new state of mind.

And then all the right diction and plot points will fall right into place.

In the meantime, write as often as you can, as unbridled as you can, and with as much love and joy as possible. Write because you can't stop. Write because it's who you are.

I Wanna See You Write Brave (Challenge Post)

My schedule has been hectic, to say the least. It seems like everyday I have less and less time to do the essentials like washing dishes and taking care of my buns, let alone fit in adequate time for yoga and writing.

So, this week I want to post a challenge:

No matter who you are, where you are, and what you have going on, I want you to submit something for publication.

Dig out an old poem from your underwear drawer. Uncover a flash fiction file from your hard drive. Or ruffle up the final draft of your novel in progress.

Then, revise and edit it. It should have been sitting long enough by now that you can see it with fresh eyes. Reread, tweak, fix, and polish.

Finally, find a market for your work and submit it. Maybe it's a new startup lit mag. Maybe you decide to go for the magazine of your dreams or the agent you always admired. Maybe you shoot for inclusion in a friend's weekly fiction mailer. Whatever the market, get that manuscript out there.

Because, really, what's the worst that can happen? You get rejected? Pff! It's happened before and it'll happen again. You can take it.

Maybe, just maybe, this will be the time you get constructive feedback. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the time you're accepted.

Whether you take this challenge the week I post this blog entry, two months from now, or three years from now, make the commitment to submit. Because you'll never be a published writer if you don't put yourself out there.

Take the challenge. Be brave. Submit your writing.

Dialogue Woes

I'm back from my southern vacation. Half of me is glad to be home 1) with my rabbit 2) in my usual routine, and 3) at my job/with my friends again. The other half of me really wishes all these lovely reasons existed in North Carolina right now and I wouldn't have to come back to Wisconsin cold ever again.

It was while contemplating this ambiguity in my own life that I jumped into revising my YA novel and noticed just how convoluted the dialogue in the opening scene was. Yes, that's right - THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF MY MANUSCRIPT - was confusing.

After quickly thanking my mind for forgetting whatever kind of 'artistic statement' I was previously trying to pull off in that dialogue pre-vacation, I got down to a major overhaul.

Now, it's no secret that I struggle with beginnings. (See this post "Beginnings, The Bane of My Existence" as evidence.) But this time, it was different. I knew I was starting in the right place. My inciting incident was clear and defined and I had a complete grasp on it. I had worked tirelessly pre-vacation to make sure it was not-quite-as-subtle for readers.

But reading it over post-vacation, I noticed just how crappy - yes, downright crappy - the dialogue was. I couldn't even make out what the inciting incident was around all the convoluted dialogue. In the scene, the protagonist is having a conversation with her boss about her performance at work. Seems simple enough, right?

Obviously not for pre-vacation me.

When the protagonist spoke, the response from the other character didn't relate at all to what the protagonist had just said.

If I dramatize it, it looked something like this:

"I hate grilled cheese sandwiches," she said.

"Well, if you jumped off cliffs a little more often, maybe you wouldn't have that problem," he said.

Makes no sense, right?

Then, the stage directions (the things happening around the protagonist, or the action of the characters in the scene) were just as convoluted. Sweat was dripping, noses were being wiped, time and space itself was shifting in the dust motes around the refrigerator between every exchange.

Between the confusing dialogue and the excess amount of direction, I'm surprised any of my beta readers got through it at all.

But here's the lesson I want everyone to get from this:

I first tried to fix the dialogue by replacing and rewriting on the old pre-vacation version. However, I kept looking ahead to see, "what I really needed to keep" and "what passages were really beautiful".

It wasn't until I opened a new computer document and wrote the dialogue from scratch that I had a breakthrough. It wasn't until I let my characters free from their dust mote surroundings and artsy, thesaurus-heavy dialogue that the true magic of dialogue burst free. Suddenly, without me worrying about how I would fit in the burnt coffee metaphor, my dialogue and stage business basically fixed themselves. The characters interacted, the dialogue flowed, what stage business occurred was important and interesting, and most crucially, not distracting.


So, if you're stressed and tired and on the verge of tears over a section of manuscript - take a break, forget your intentions, and when you come back, start fresh. It'll be hard, but remember - that original version will always be there. Where else can you take the story? What other great things can you do?

Planning The Perfect Routine (or, when bunnies are bound to attack)

It was a whopping 50 degrees here in northern Wisconsin and felt downright hot outside. Such a departure from the previous -20 degree nights and 5 degree days. We actually popped a window and felt warm, fresh air for the first time since September.

Spring, for me, means the arrival of warmer weather, puddles, and happier dispositions. It also marks my annual "getting out of here" vacation.

I'll be gone all next week (hint, hint: no new blog post next week - take a break for yourself, too) catching some much needed warmer temps in the southern portion of the USA.

To prepare for this trip, I had to write something new. A care instruction sheet for the person watching my rabbit while I'm away.

It was not more than a page and consisted mostly of bullet points detailing her morning, afternoon, and evening routines, and yet, it was one of the most important pieces I'd ever written. Without this care instruction sheet, the bunny-sitter would have no idea how to properly care for Bun. Without being able to read through her routine, the sitter would not understand why Bun was biting his ankles profusely at seven o'clock in the evening. Without a perfectly understandable and direct care sheet, the unneeded stress inflicted upon the sitter and my Bun would be immense.

And it hit me that something so mundane as writing out a daily routine could mean a great deal if done improperly.

In the moment I reread the care instructions before printing a few copies (in case the first copy was lost, then the backup lost, and the backup's backup lost) I thought of my protagonists daily routines. No doubt he/she has one. Perhaps it's like my rabbit's and takes up, in single spaced font, an entire page. Perhaps their routine is less of an all-day occurrence and more of a morning ritual and bedtime custom.

Perhaps your protagonists lives are so unpredictable that they are reduced to single days in a week - I do laundry on Saturday...I eat fish on Fridays...I get coffee the first Monday of every month...no post on Sundays.

Whatever it is, your protagonists, like my Bun, expect their daily routine to go uninterrupted. And it is when there is an interruption that we have a story on our hands.


So, here's the steps I want you to take:

1. Write down your protagonist's daily routine. If it was the best, most predictable week of their lives, what would they do in the morning, afternoon, and evening of every day? What would their "normal" look like.

2. Implement your inciting incident. What throws the routine out of whack?

3. Document how this will interrupt the protagonist's natural flow of their routine. How will they react to this? What will they do to get things back to their normal?


Trust me, it's one thing to think you know their routine and quite another to have it sitting in front of you. When writing out Bun's routine, I'd thought it'd be simple: feed her this food at this time, clean her soiled litter box, give her cuddles, etc. But actually writing it out in detail caused me to truly focus on how much of a scientific method we have to our coexistence. Your protagonists will have this as well if you intend to make them real, tangible, believable people.

As the weather warms and you air out your house, take the time to stop and air out your novel and its main characters, too. Dive deep into what makes them them. If you do it now, it'll save you a lot of headaches down the road when you're revising for the umpteenth time and still can't get Janet's reaction to event X down pat, or when you're on a twenty-hour car ride to another state and the rabbit sitter can't find the correct bag of veg in the fridge to feed your starving Bun.

Do your planning now. Reap the rewards and relaxation later.

Don't be Discouraged. We're all Different!

I recently purchased a meditation CD to (hopefully) get myself in a routine with meditation. Until now, I thought meditation was done one way: You sit down, shut up, and find some inner peace already.

But the CD changed my mind. Upon it, the instructor (Yogi Cameron) helped me to understand that just as there are different personalities amongst people, there are also different meditation styles. Some do best with visualization, some with gazing, some need to count or chant or connect themselves to a deity.

Not only am I now a better meditater, but I also realized that I could connect this understanding with writing.

We all write differently. Some outline and some write with abandon by the seat of their pants. Some can't move on before every word in every sentence is perfect, and others spend years polishing what used to be a crappy first draft. Some drink when they write, others listen to music, and still others need complete solitude and silence.

So how in the world do we all expect to come about writing the same way?

Every writing book and professor you will obtain in your lifetime details a particular method for THEM. That's why so many children become discouraged early on with writing. Their teachers tell them that there is one way to write (the way that works best for the instructor) and if the child can't find his own path, he will quit.

And we want to be successful.

Knowing this, how do you find your correct writing niche for success? First, like meditation, you have to know yourself.

Do you like lists and organization? Outlines may be best for you.

Are you the most creative person you know? Try writing organically, or "from the seat of your pants".

Don't like commitments? Stick to short stories rather than long, difficult novels.

Do you live your life in metaphors? Try writing literary.

There's no tried and true method that will work for everyone. Because we are all different. So don't worry if your style is different from your best friend's. Don't be discouraged if she finishes a novel before you. And don't worry about choosing the wrong style in the beginning.

As the years roll on, we all change. And our methods may need to change as well.

Pick one method. Try it. Didn't work? Go with another.

Find the one that works for you and you alone.


P.S. If you're also interested in meditation, this is the CD I purchased. It's amazing. I recommend it. http://www.meditatewithyc.com/

Merry Christmas, Writer Brain!

Happy December, everyone! Can you believe we're almost through with another year? Where did the time go?

I don't know about you, but with all the stress of the holiday season, family get-togethers, the cold, the snow, the food.....my writing has been a little uninspired as of late.

But do you know the perfect remedy? Critiques.

Yes, critiques.

And though receiving critiques is a wondrous, helpful experience, giving critiques can be just as or more helpful to your writing. For instance, if you're stuck in a writing rut, critique something you wouldn't normally read - like nonfiction or poetry. The sheer act of getting back into the writing brain can spark you back to normal, or give you ideas as to what your next project might be.

So, if you can, carve out some time this month to get back into your critique group or to find a new critique group to be a part of.

It'll be the best gift you give yourself and other writers.

Revision: focus not on what you're losing, but on what you're bound to gain.

I had one of those moments the other day - you know the ones where you're dealing with two completely different problems and then BAM! they both have surprisingly the same solution. Here were my dilemmas:

1. A friend of mine was told by her writing group that the beginning of her story needs major revision. She had me read the first chapter as well, and I agreed that a change would be for the better. However, she confided that the thought of revising what she already had (and which was, as she pointed out, fine) sent her into hour long bouts of petrified terror. How did I convince her that revision would not ruin her story but make it great?

2. I've been living a vegetarian lifestyle for over a year, and now am making the transition to veganism. We're talking no milk, eggs, butter, cheese, honey, or any beauty or home products that aren't cruelty free. Having grown up in a traditional steak-and-potatoes type of family, I needed a way to counteract their questions as to why this lifestyle was right for me. Especially when my mother looked at me with glossy eyes and said, "But...cheesecake!" How did I convince them that I was passionate about my decision, even though it went against what they had taught me growing up?

Over a bowl of oatmeal, the answer hit me - focus not on what you're losing, but on what you're bound to gain.

That's right. Instead of saying, "I really miss that cheesecake and I can never eat it again," think instead, "I'm going to eat this delicious vegan double chocolate smoothie!"

And for that revision-stuck friend of mine, I told her not to focus on a few beautiful sentences she'll lose by revising chapter one, but on the possibilities of what she could gain. A better insight into her protagonist, a well paced first chapter, a first sentence that kicks the breath right out of the agent that sets eyes on it, etc.

Because if you're too scared to change what you have, you'll never know if something else - even if it's difficult and takes a lot of your time - is infinitely better.

So I urge you this week, take a chance within your writing or your life (both, perhaps?)! See what kinds of wondrous new possibilities are out there that can propel you in the direction you wish to go.

When To Cheat On Your Writing

Have you ever read more than one book at a time? You start one from your to-read shelf, then find another lying around you had promised the next read, and then when you pass a book store an unexpected fantastic book just pops out at you and you have to buy it and read it immediately. Before you know it, you're reading five books at one time.

And you feel like a cheat don't you?

I always do. It's like I've committed myself to the first book, then the second, now the third and after a while I feel like I'm having affairs on all of them. I'm a dirty reader.

I never used to have this problem when I was younger and had hours of reading time on my hands. But now that jobs, cooking, cleaning, snow removal, and writing have taken up so much of my time, it feels like I never read fast enough. Perhaps that's why I crave to start new books all the time. My body and mind are used to the newness every few weeks, and even though I can't keep up, I start new ones anyway.

I'm trying to break this habit, but there are so many good books out there that need to be read. So many authors I would adore and stories I need to fantasize about.

And now this bad habit of reading too many books at once has leaked into my writing. I've got a YA manuscript that needs massive revision, a memoir I'm rewriting, a short story in progress, a YA series that's unfinished and sitting in a cluster of outlines on my desktop, and I feel the need to add in a new MG book to write. All these open projects have made writing daunting. Where do I start? Which novel gets my attention today? Do I want to write or revise? Both? Neither?

Much like the reading of too many novels in tandem, writing a wide variety at the same time can be troublesome. But I've also found that it can help, too. For instance, if I know I need to write but the words just aren't coming, I pop over to a revision project and work on that for an hour or so until I'm in a writing frame of mind. On the flip side, if I'm frustrated with how many keys my fingers have pounded today, I can always sweep through an already written chapter and improve it.

Just like reading, writing in tandem can be just as beneficial as you feel it is detrimental. So don't feel like you're cheating on those other books or your other stories. In a roundabout way, they're all getting help. As long as you promise to write every day, eventually everything will get finished.

Will they all have the same dedication each day? No.
  
Will they all be completed on a set deadline? Probably not.

Will you be a writer? Definitely.

Will you one day finish them all (and then some more)? Heck yeah.

Let Go or Be Dragged

In American culture we're so used to beating ourselves up over the smallest things. You know, when you sneak a few M&M's from the work shared candy bowl and then have to write it in your food journal to forever document your self loathing?

Writing - and really any artistic venture - is no exception. You pulled extra hours at work, went to the kids' soccer game, had to scrounge something up for dinner, and then passed out to do it all over again tomorrow - without writing a word. Even when we make just one sentence happen in a day, we feel like failures.

Really, if we accept life and its challenges, we'd be freer to write when the time presented itself. Gone would be the self loathing and the hate of our inability to function as writers. Instead, our minds would be clear and our inspiration running high - ready to rush in whenever we're ready to accept it.

So free the muse and the worry of yet another part of life. Be free to write again.

And now I leave you this hectic week in my own life, with an inspirational picture from Pinterest:

From http://www.pinterest.com/pin/476326098061537069/