Writing Wednesday: Neil Gaiman's Make Good Art Speech

Instead of a post about writing, I am sharing Neil Gaiman's Make Good Art Speech (plus, I'm out of town for a week). I only recently saw this speech, that I believe made the rounds a year ago. It is AMAZING! Well worth the 20 minute watch. My advice - stop checking facebook, turn off the TV, whatever, and spend the time watching this video. There is so much in here about following any of your creative dreams.

Neil Gaimon's Make Good Art Speech:

This speech is being made into a book that is set to be released on May 14. I know I'll be at the store looking for it. Thank you Mr. Gaiman for your timeless advice.

Writing Wednesday: Napowrimo is Finished!

So I did it - I wrote a poem a day for the month of April. 30 poems in 30 days. Yeah!!!! Huzzah to everyone who participated in National Poetry Writing Month.

There were many days when I didn't think I would do it, that I hated this challenge or tried to convince myself that just one day off wouldn't hurt. Somehow, though, I didn't succumb and wrote anyway (I think something else possessed me). And once I got started, it wasn't so bad and I always managed to write something. The poetry prompts at Napowrimo sure helped, though there were days when they didn't work for me and I had to come up with my own, or google some.

I must stress that, in my case, I use the term poem lightly. Some of what I wrote is terrible; however, I decided to post them on my blog anyway, maybe in solidarity with all of the other people participating in National Poetry Writing Month, and maybe because I think it's important to show that first drafts are just that, first drafts. I decided to cut myself some slack and be okay with bad and mediocre poems. I was happy to see glimmers of something else, something more substantial in some of them, so soon, after a break, I will return to my poems to see what I can do with them.

One of the other things I really enjoyed about this whole thing was reading other people's work, some of which I loved. It was a bonus to discover so many new blogs and great writers.

Congratulations everyone who wrote poems in April. This was a fun challenge and certainly got me using a different part of my brain.

Now, back to editing....

Writing Wednesday: Why Do You Write?

I absolute love writing. It feels freeing, and often like I'm channeling something. There is a fun creative energy that consumes me and takes over my life - kind of like the picture above. It feels amazing.

For many years, I didn't write, or only wrote essays for university. There was very little creativity there, or maybe there was, but of a different kind.

Then, a few years ago I took a creative muse course from the lovely and talented Janet Whitehead (feel free to check her out, she does on line and skype as well as in person classes) and started exploring with writing. Things seemed to come together, my thoughts gelled into fun ideas and poems; it was beautiful.

Later that year, a friend introduced me to Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month - check them out too, I can't say enough good about them) and I wrote a 50,000 word novel in a month. It was frantic and terrible writing and incredibly empowering. Since then, I've written several novels and am now working on editing.

I realize from all of this that, even though I didn't always know that I wanted to write, I always knew that I wanted a creative outlet, but didn't know how to go about it. Writing has done this for me, and has even led me to other creative pursuits. And I'm determined to break the next barrier and even get one of my novels out there for others to read (could be a little self sabotage involving why I have four unedited novels...).

So, why do you write? When did you start? Have you always wanted to write? What do you love most about it?

Writing Wednesday: Thinking of Self Publishing

I feel like the end might be in sight for finishing my Antigone: The True Story manuscript. Soon, I will have some decisions to make - primarily, whether to start sending out query letters or to self publish.

I always thought I'd go the traditional route and send out queries. Self publishing sounded like too much risk, work and expense. But, obviously, things are changing.  A lot of great articles about self publishing have come across my path lately and they have started me thinking. This one, in particular, was good: Hugh Howey: Self Publishing is Good - And Great for Writers. A lot of what he says makes sense. I know that I've certainly softened my views on self publishing. That and there are some great self published books out there.

Of course there is the fear and overwhelm about being on the hook for everything - cover design, editing, proof reading, formatting, marketing. However, there is also a certain excitement with this as well.

I know how important good editing, copy and book design are and I don't have a lot of experience in these things, nor do I have a lot of money to spend on them (though I firmly believe in paying people for their work, but bartering is good too).

Has anyone out there self published? Do you have resources or stories to share? Ideas? Advice? I would love to hear from you so please comment or link up your blog/website.

Writing Wednesday: Writing A Poem a Day is Hard

Writing a poem a day is HARD, much harder than I expected it to be. I am a huge fan of Nanowrimo and can usually write 2000 words a day when properly motivated, but a poem a day? Even a short one? Well, this is turning out to be a different kind of challenge for me.

Part of it is the lack of flexibility. With Nano, you could take a day off, or only write a little bit, but make up for it later in a great show of writing frenzy. At times, the novel takes on its own momentum and almost writes itself.

A poem a day is much more disciplined. And it uses a different part of my brain. Which is good. Which is why I chose not to join Camp Nano this month and do Napowrimo instead.

I also need a different kind of head space to write a poem - it's a struggle to come up with a unique idea and form and carry it out every day. With novel writing it is different. Even when I don't know what to write, there is usually some logical thing to do next, or I can have characters bash around together until something happens. With poetry, I have to make it all happen. Though, I must say, the prompts help. And I do write random words or ideas down until something solidifies.

Also, in the past, I only wrote poems when inspired. I'd have a niggling in my brain, an urge to write something that wouldn't go away, so I'd write it all down and move on. With Napowrimo, I've been writing a poem every day, whether I feel like it or not.

And, today is only the 10th day! It's been a long road to write the nine poems that I've posted so far. It's been hard to post them. Again, with the novel writing, I write bad first drafts and I know it, I don't show them to anyone until I've edited for months. I feel raw and exposed posting these poems every day.

I would love to hear from others writing Napowrimo or taking on other writing challenges and hear how you are doing.

If you are interested in Napowrimo, click here for the link.

Writing Wednesday: National Poetry Month

On April 1 I found out it was National Poetry Month and that, in celebration, several organizations were doing challenges to write a poem a day for April. Instinctively, this felt like a fun thing to do. In fact, it was synchronicity because I was just thinking that I'd like to write more poetry after concentrating on novel writing for so long.

So, I took the leap and decided to join National Poetry Writing Month. This looks like a fun and informal challenge modeled on National Novel Writing Month. They provide a daily prompt and you can choose to use them or not, but the idea is to write poetry. Some people (like me) are posting on their blogs, others are not. In the spirit of writing without doing too much editing, I will post even really bad poems, along with the ones I like. The idea is to get the juices flowing.

At the same time, I am editing my last Nanowrimo novel, Fatal, which is a mythological fantasy about Clytemnestra (ancient Greek, sister to the famous Helen of Troy). This has been a fun book to write, full of vengeance, murder, affairs... Definitely an adult book this time. My stumbling block this week was that my program, for some inexplicable reason, did not save the changes I had made for at least a day. I had done a lot of work that day, adding scenes and generally fixing up the grammar, etc. I got briefly frustrated, then went back to another section that I knew needed some work.

I would love to connect with other people writing poetry or editing their books. How is it going? Have you written something lately that you're happy with? Something you think is terrible? Feel free to connect up in the comments.

Writing Wednesday: Baby Steps

Writing a novel, for me at least, is an exciting, fun, inspiring, arduous, frustrating, tedious process. There are so many emotions, but, ultimately, writing is something that feeds my soul. Be that as it may, it can be difficult to get motivated sometimes, especially when it comes to editing and rewriting.

Something that has worked remarkably is to set up writing times to hold space with another person. For about two years now, I call my friend Janet at around 9am and check in with her. I then hang up and set a timer for 20 minutes and I write or work on my book in some way. So does Janet. When the timer goes off, I call her again.

No matter what else happens that day, I've worked on my book, got my thoughts going, engaged my subconscious, done something that a writer would do. More often than not, I continue working after that 20 minutes, but the important thing is that I got started, which if often the hardest part. To be honest, this has changed recently due to various circumstances, but I still feel accountable to work at least 20 minutes a day. It has now become a habit.

This simple baby step has resulted in my novel, Antigone: The True Story, being edited enough to send to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards and making it to the quarter finals (even though I think it needs another part added now and am working on that...). It is nearly finished the editing stages and will be ready to send out into the great big world of agents and publishers soon. And it is thanks to baby steps taken consistently - or even mostly consistently.

And, as for my friend Janet, her book that she's been working on for nearly 7 years is almost done! She's just doing some final work to get it ready for her beta readers. Yeah for baby steps!

I would love to hear from other writers what works for them? How do you keep motivated and working, even when you don't feel like it?

Writing Wednesday: Support and Gratitude

Last week I talked about my novel making it to the quarter finals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition and how overwhelmed I felt just reading the reviewer's generous feedback (I'm still speechless when I think about it). But this week brought a whole new round of things to be grateful for.

In, what was to me, a bold move, I posted the link to the Amazon.com page where people can read the first three chapters of my book as part of the ABNA competition (you can find it here). A dear friend of mine (Hope of Hope-Full Universe, an amazing artist, you should check out her page), reposted the link. One of her friends, a reporter for our local newspaper, saw the link and immediately emailed me, asking me to call her the next day. My heart started thumping.

The next day, in what I thought was an audacious move, I actually called the reporter back. I told her that I didn't think this was particularly newsworthy because it was only the quarter finals. She asked me how many people had entered the competition. Ten thousand, I replied. And how many are in it now? she asked. Five hundred, I answered. This is newsworthy, she said. So we did a quick interview and arranged for a photographer for the next day (my first thought was EEK, my house is a mess, can we meet at Starbucks?).  I sent her the Amazon link, my synopsis, etc. Within an hour she emailed me back and asked it it was okay to print the entire first chapter in the paper because she loved it and thought her readers would too, and could we make it the Saturday Spotlight?

Ummm, okay.... My heart raced. I thought this was all good experience for when I actually publish a book, right? So I cleaned up for the photographer, who was lovely and took lots of pictures and told me I was photogenic (smile - I was so nervous).

On Friday night I was checking out the on line version of the paper and saw my article! It was such a surprise. There I was, a nice picture of me, some stuff about the competition, etc, and my first chapter. (You can find the article here.) I was thrilled. I sent my husband out to get the paper, thinking they'd changed their mind about the date, but I wasn't in the print version.

Saturday morning, my husband went and got the paper for me. You're definitely in this one, he said, and showed me the paper. On the front page, right under where it says Kamloops Daily News, was a headline blaring: "Is this the next JK Rowling? We hope so." And there was my picture beside it, saying where the article was. I was floored. JK Rowling????

I opened the paper to the Entertainment section and there I was. I mean, THERE I WAS. A picture of me, just me, taking up the whole page, again with the JK Rowling headline. I almost fell over. I turned the page, and there I was again, the picture and the article from on-line, taking up most of the second page. Wow. Needless to say, I am still stunned.

One of the most important things I've realized about all this is it so wonderful to live in such an amazingly supportive community like Kamloops. Even if I get no further in this competition, I will appreciate and treasure that. And the extraordinary friends who understood when seeing the article in print like that, with that particular headline, made me cry. Why being linked to JK Rowling was crazy enough, but why the "We hope so" after it was even more meaningful. And all of the people who have phoned and emailed to say they loved the chapter, they want more, and is there a way they can help me in this competition? I am incredibly lucky to know that I have people behind me, cheering me on - it's been declared on the front page of our paper. Most people don't get such obvious and public encouragement, especially so early on. I would like to publicly thank The Kamloops Daily News, Catherine Litt, the reporter, and Murray Mitchell, the photographer, for this.

Writing Wednesday, Lots to Celebrate

This has been a really good week for me, writing wise. First off, I made it to the quarter finalist round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award!!!!

I entered with my novel, Antigone: The True Story, and I'm so excited to have made it this far that I had to go look at the list several times just to make sure that my name was really on the list.

Two Amazon Vine reviewers read the first 5000 words and commented on it. They said that it was "flawless", "the descriptive narration was excellent and the plot line strong", and it "will fascinate most readers." The quote that I'm most floored by is: "Outstanding introduction by an extraordinarily talented author. Targeted for a 'young adult' audience, I believe that it will call out to a wide age range. I am looking forward to its release!" Honestly, I am speechless and overwhelmed, even embarrassed to post all this here (but I'm also so excited and want to share).

If anyone would like to read the excerpt, you can go to Amazon and download it (for free) by clicking on this link. The next round will be announced on April 16 when each category will be whittled down from 100 to 25. For this round, someone from Publishers Weekly will read the whole thing. Eek.

Since entering the contest, however, I have decided to add to the novel because the ending was niggling at me, so have been frantically working on Part III.  I set a goal recently to write a minimum of 1500 words a day minimum until it is done, hopefully bashing out the rest of the rough draft by March 15. So far, I've had 9 days in a row where I've met my goal, and this is despite my brain trying to sabotage me (ie, it's daylight savings and you've lost an hour, Sunday's don't count, the kids are home sick, I didn't get a good night's sleep...). I'm happy to say that having my goal has kept me going through all of that. I've been using Scrivener, and there's even a little bar graph thingy that tells you how far you need to go at any given moment. I'm really visual, so this works for me.

So, two amazing things this week: making the quarter finals and the end is in sight on my rough draft of Part III. I would love to hear from others how your creative projects are going. How do you stay on target? What have you got to celebrate?

Writing Wednesday

As I drove home from dropping my kids at school this morning, I thought I'd make a new meme for myself called Writing Wednesday, where I could update on progress in my writing, share writing, tips, procrastinate from writing.... It is also the day my writing group, Some Good Karma and Some Bad Writing, meets so it seemed synchronistic.

Right now, I am actually involved in two projects, finishing up a novel that I started awhile ago and writing a collaborative novel with two others from my writer's group. My priority is finishing up my novel, Antigone: The True Story (my young adult mythological fiction). It's a book that I thought was finished, that I thought would be part of a trilogy, but that idea kept niggling at me. I decided what it actually needed was another part at the end, and for it to be a stand alone book.

I started writing the final section of the book in November after I finished my Nano novel, but had to stop when I gave myself tendonitis. Yuck! Yes, tendonitis from writing too much. I ended up taking a break from writing and going to physiotherapy for my arm. Things are feeling better now, so I'm back writing. However, I had lost the flow and voice of the book, so it was hard to get back into it. I also, honestly, wasn't sure how I wanted the book to end (and am still not positive - hopefully it reveals itself soon).

I was discussing this with a friend about two weeks ago, who also happens to be an amazing life and creativity coach, and she started to ask me questions. When did I want to finish? How many words did I think were left? What needed to happen? What if I gave myself permission to write absolute crap?

Something clicked in my brain. So, I thought I needed about 20,000 more words and I wanted it done by spring break (March 15). That gave me a month, 5000 words a week, which really shouldn't have been a problem after completing Nano in November. My friend upped the ante by offering to buy me lunch if I met my goal. Nothing like accountability and motivation!

I went back to my novel and read the last few chapters I wrote to get back into the voice, fussed around a bit (a lot), but did get some writing done. Not 5000 words a week though. Now it is a week and a half left to the deadline and I still have well over 10,000 words to write. We creative types sure like to go down to the wire with our deadlines, don't we?

On Monday, I decided to chunk it out and set a daily goal of 1500 words, which should get me to my goal on time. I'm using Scrivener, so I even figured out how to set daily writing targets. So far, so good.

And now, I'll even share a brief excerpt from what I wrote yesterday that I kind of liked:

“Can’t I? Why do you always have to make things so difficult? Why don’t you ever just do as you are told. No one will fault you for doing nothing this time. The heavens know that no one else would consider defying my father in this. None of those advisers can talk him out of this, no one will protect you from him.”
“I am not defying your father, but am following the gods.”

I would love to hear from other writers (or creatives) about their processes, writing, progress... What works for you? What do you do when you lose "the flow"? How do you stay accountable? Have you written something lately that you love? Feel free to put your links in the comments and I'll check them out.