Writer-In-Progress

I’m a huge fan of life coaches, especially Cheryl Richardson and Martha Beck. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything from either of these ladies that didn’t make sense to some part of my life.

In the July issue of Oprah Magazine, Martha’s “Advice, etc.” column shows that she’s not only a very funny writer (which you can pick up by reading her books as well), she’s got some serious insight into human emotions, most notably in this article, regret.

I wasn’t reading for any particular reason other than I like her stuff, but when I got to the second step, “Separate regret’s basic ingredients”, it struck me that this isn’t only a blueprint of human emotion, it’s also one of our fictional characters’ emotions.

That second step alone is worth its weight in gold when it comes to figuring out what our characters are feeling. Rather than lump “anger” or “happiness” or “remorse” into a one-word description in our stories, we’d be far better served (and get to the heart and meat of the character, which in turn deepens the reader’s reaction and emotional engagement) to figure out what elements go into that emotion for that character at that point in time. Not only will it add depth to the story and character, it might even lend itself to a few scenes or a future action that can highlight the problem (remember, show, don’t tell).

If your character is angry, why is she angry? It isn’t enough to know she’s angry because someone backed into her new car. One character might be angry because the car represents her life savings and now she has to find a way to pay for repairs. Another might be angry because the person who backed into her was driving drunk, and her brother was killed by a drunk driver. (ooooh, backstory and emotion. Like that!). A third might be angry because the accident is making her late for the most important court date of her lawyer career. And a fourth might be mad because he was borrowing the car from dad…without mentioning it to dad that he was leaving. Four characters, four stories, four drastically different points of view…from one emotion.

Read the article for a more in-depth presentation of what I’m trying to summarize. What it really comes down is…..Get to the root of your problem and infuse your stories with the detail you discover. Your readers will thank you for it.

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Yesterday while awaiting the start of my yoga class, I overheard a conversation between two older women I didn’t know, but, judged on their interaction, must have known each other. Here’s the gist:

Lady 1: “Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you. What are you up to?”

Lady 2: “Not much. After class, I’ve got a meeting with my writing group.”

Lady 1: “I didn’t know you were a writer. What do you write?”

Lady 2: “Oh, well, um, I, you know, well. I wrote one poem about six years ago and it was published.”

Lady 1: “Neat. So what do you do with your writing group?”

Lady 2: “Well, we write stuff. And share stuff. Well, I don’t really write, but I just visit with them. I think about writing. I’m not really that good at writing.”

Lady 1: “That’s nice. Sounds fun. So where can I find your writing?”

Lady 2: “Um, oh, well. Um, well, there’s not too much. Just the poem. There are three places, but the websites are long. You probably won’t remember.”

Lady 1: “Can I just Google your name? Or the name of the poem? What’s the title of the poem?”

Lady 2: “Oh, dear. No, it was over six years ago. One of the websites is, um, well, I think…www.blahbeddyblah.blah.com…”

Lady 1: (after three deep breaths, a confused look then a relieved look when the instructor came into the class): “Well, it was nice seeing you again. Have fun at your…writing…meeting. Have a good class.”

===

It took everything in me not to get up, shake the “writer” and plop her down on her purple mat. Two things about the interaction really hacked me off:

1) If you’re a writer, don’t be a wimp about it. No “oh, well, um..er…and I…but I’m not good enough because I’m not published…blahblahblah” crap. This might sound a little harsh, and even judgmental, but I feel justified in saying it because I was once in that very position.

I loved writing, wrote a number of short stories and six novels that were just not meant to be published. I hardly ever admitted in public that I was a writer, and when I did, I beat around the bush. Part a lack of confidence, part a mental equation of publishing=true writer, I wanted validation from someone else that I was a writer. Once I realized that no one was going to pat my hand and say, “Oh, honey, you *ARE* a real writer!”, I got the courage, in small increments, to admit without remorse that I was a writer. It eventually led to my first national feature, just from confidently sharing that I was a writer.

I told my son about the two ladies and he couldn’t understand why I wanted to shake the lady right out of Hero’s pose. I likened it to this example: No one else underestimates themselves like writers (especially unpubs). I have never met a lawyer or teacher or retail sales clerk who introduces themselves like: “Oh, I sorta do law and represent some people but I haven’t won a million dollar case yet, so I’m just dabbling in law,” or, “Um, I, uh, well, I teach kids, but they’re not really that great and don’t have college scholarships or anything,” or, “I like to sell stuff, but just little things like perfume and handbags. I’m not really a salesperson because I haven’t sold a ten-carat diamond bracelet yet.”

Hello?! If you’re a writer, you’re a writer. Practice in front of a mirror if you have to, or with a friend. Don’t be the Cowardly Lion of writing.

Oh, and the second thought: (lol)

2) On the other hand, if Miss Writing Example isn’t writing, only wrote one poem six years ago and hangs out with other writers for fun but doesn’t really write anything, either get your butt writing or quit calling yourself a writer. Yes, harsh again, but it hacks me off to no end that “being a writer” is more about “hanging out with writers” than “writing”. I call myself a baker, and, if you ask anyone around me, I’m always baking something. Cookies, bread, currently trying to win a cookbook contest with my secret peanut butter dessert…I don’t call myself a baker because I read cookbooks or hang out at a bakery and admire the croissant flakes.

Now, I know I have a different (read: more opinionated opinion) on this issue than other writers. I know because it’s come up different times in different groups of writers, and it just makes me mad. I don’t know why, it shouldn’t be my concern if someone says they’re a writer but they don’t write. (That’s like me claiming to be a math wiz when the last math problem I finished (incorrectly, most likely) was in geometry class in 1987. ) It just does.

So the bottom line is this: If you’re a writer, admit you’re a writer. If you’re a wimp, don’t admit that you’re a wimp by admitting that you’re a writer when you don’t write. Thank you!

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• Filed in Your Writing Career

Ok, you’re right. I should be working on the final edit for the business article…since it is due tomorrow. All I have to do is clean it up, so no worries. Geez. You’re as bad as mom. (Ok, maybe not *that* bad…) (I’m kidding, mom!)

Instead, I’m running amok online, engrossed in my favorite internet past time: reading the blogs of other writers. Lord, we’re all so much alike it’s almost scary. (Actually, it’s quite comforting).

You’ll never guess what I found! A post about me and my writing blog! Crazy, huh? Joe Wallace, the intrepid author of the Freelance-Zone.com blog not only mentioned Writer In Progress, but gave us quite a nice post. I sure wasn’t expecting that. In fact, when I pulled down his recent posts in my Firefox reader and saw “Writer In Progress” I worried someone was stealing my identity …lol.

Anyways, the post gave me an unexpected boost. I have admired Joe’s blog for some time, always look forward to reading and know that I’ll find something new that will either have me thinking or acting toward a writing goal. I really like his take on all things writing and editing, and especially admire his ability to call things as he sees is instead of trying to sound all nice (it’s a curse I cannot break. I wish I could bring myself to use “idiots”, “WTF”, “bastards” and “dolts” in my writing observations). Maybe I can work on that….

You really should stop over and check out his recent “Confessions of an Editor” series to understand just how ridiculous (unprofessional and wannabe) writers can be. Don’t worry, we won’t expect you back in time for dinner. Wander the halls and poke around the corners–I guarantee you’ll find all kinds of great stuff over there.

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Just got a link from a colleague about a story & accompanying poll at MSNBC regarding romance novels & thought I’d share.

The article focuses on Danielle Steel’s latest release….and a poll asking if you read “bodice rippers”. Of course I voted that I did, and of course I left a snarky comment about the greatness of the genre, too. I despise general media’s upturned nose at romance!

If you like romance in the least (as a reader or writer), check out the article and poll for yourself:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25191970/

The poll is about halfway down the page, past the cover shot of her newest release.

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Sometimes I get overwhelmed by thought. I occasionally wonder if it’s because I’m creative and have trouble focusing at times or if it’s just human nature. For example…

This week I’ve been in the middle of two articles due on the same day (as you may have noted..lol). One was finished (I rarely draft nonfiction) Monday, and the other I just finished last night. Since I cannot, for the life of me, edit worth a crap on the computer, I printed them off around eleven and went to bed to approach them with a fresh eye today.

After a great walk with the dog around 7, I felt the pressure mounting to get these two pieces done and finished. Now. Right now, this instant. Two days, two days, two days is what my logical brain kept saying as I made breakfast and did a bit of cleaning. They’re done, they’re done, they’re done, my creative brain replied as I put away dishes and pulled out boxes of plastic silverware for a party we’re having tomorrow. As much as I disliked it, the logical brain just kept pounding away until the panic started to grow.

Hoping for relief, I edited the writing article. Super-easy-peasy. A few (ok, one) typos, a couple of synonyms and a reworded sentence later, I zipped it off to the editor…and made logical brain happy. He immediately shut his stupid mouth and the panic melted away. I think he thinks he got one up on me…logic is always trying to gain the upper hand in my creative life, but I refuse to allow it.

I’m sure I’ll hear from him again soon enough, however. I’m still awaiting a phone call for a statistic I’d like to use in the biz article, and if my source doesn’t return my call today, old logic will certainly have something to say about that. Why can’t he just be quiet..for once?

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• Filed in BethWorld

True to form, the pity party must have just cleaned out all kinds of stuff that’s kept me from writing to my potential for the last few days. I managed to finish not one, but both articles today AND start scene 2 of chapter one.

Maybe I should have pity parties more often LOL. Let’s hope the good vibes keep coming tomorrow when I work on a few more article ideas and blog brainstorming!

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• Filed in Random Writing Stuff

I woke early this morning without having gotten much sleep (par for the course on Sunday nights, who knows why?), had a nine a.m. appointment, then came home and relaxed for a bit with my dog on the patio.

I took my fiction notebook with me, since a snippet of self-revealing dialogue from my hero has been running around in my brain and I thought I’d try to capture it. It’s one of those snippets that’s too strong to be forgotten, the second scene in chapter 1, so I just let it go and relaxed.

Soon, I felt fully in the grip of a pity party. A couple of things have been weighing heavily on my mind recently, none of which are related to writing, but all of which have been gaining momentum as I shove them to the back of my brain and valiantly forge on through life. Wah, wah, wah, poor me. X is happening in this part of my life, Y already happened…yadda yadda. Don’t tell me you don’t have these moments (unless you’re not human).

Since I spent almost three hours on Saturday in my first yoga class in six months (so, so good to be back in Hero’s pose and scaring others with Lion’s pose), I thought I’d do the proper Buddhist approach and sit with my feelings. I don’t know if sitting=wallowing, but I did a bang-up job of it. I boo-hoo’ed and sniffled, whined and moaned (to myself, didn’t want to scare the dog), did some creative visualization to rid myself of some of the crappier thoughts.

I finished with a bit of meditation, striving for that “blue sky mind” I like to get to when things get too fast or overwhelming to me. Now, I must admit that I love meditation and enjoy the challenge of it. I also tend to think I’m good at it (at which time I usually get snowed under by all kinds of stuff that gets in the way of blue-sky mind)–but not today. Instead of letting thoughts pass by like feathers on the wind, a lump of reality planted its round little butt in the middle of my meditation and refused to get up and leave.

Writing. In particular, two deadlines I have this week.

I tried pushing past, letting the thoughts go. I’m not concerned with the pieces–they’re both pieces I’m passionate about. I’ve outlined one and finished the first draft of the second, and will most likely have them both done by the end of today or tomorrow, but my mind didn’t want to hear any of that.

Writing. Ideas, thoughts, structure. Publishing, emotion, voice, character. Like little mice on the proverbial wheels, all of the elements of writing attacked my brain and started doing that little thing they always do when inside my mind: creating sparks and energy.

I fought the thoughts for a while, then relented. When I opened my eyes, I discovered that not only was my pity party a distant memory, but that I had a smile on my face and paragraphs assaulting me from every angle. I was refreshed and refocused, and all I had to do was lie in the lawn chair for a few minutes.

I have these “moments” (aka pity parties) now and then, and nothing ever seems to bring me back up out of the doldrums like writing. Of course, if you have any experience at all with writing yourself, you’ll know implicitly that writing will send you to those doldrums, too, and sometimes keep pushing your head back down under the water, but eventually the pressure lessens, the creativity opens and the words flow. I can’t explain it much more than that…it always comes back to the writing.

How about you? Do you ever feel like writing=life? How does writing affect you? I know I’m not the only one and am always curious to see how creativity manifests itself in the lives of others. Such an interesting topic…

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• Filed in Random Writing Stuff

Just got wind of a new market you might be interested in:

HCI Books, the Life Issues Publisher, published the first of many New York Times bestsellers in 1983 and is the original publisher of the phenomenal Chicken Soup for the Soul® series.

Named the #1 Self-Help Publisher by Publishers Weekly, we are guided by the philosophy that we “publish people, not books” and we consider anthologies a core pillar of our publishing program.

Each title in the ULTIMATE series features

• talented writers who express the texture and nuances of everyday life
• full-color photography that tells a story without words
• the insight and knowledge of top experts and mentors in specific topics of interest to readers

We’re looking for “slice-of-life” stories and photos that are inspirational, motivational, humorous or thought-provoking. Here’s what’s looming, please don’t procrastinate – we’re already evaluating stories (thank you if you’ve already sent one!):

submission deadline June 30, 2008(*) The Ultimate Christmas (pub date Nov 2008)
submission deadline July 31, 2008 The Ultimate Teacher (pub date Feb 2009)
submission deadline August 31, 2008 The Ultimate Mom (pub date March 2009)
submission deadline September 30, 2008 The Ultimate Dad (pub date April 2009)

All the details you’ll need (e.g. what we pay, our guidelines, book synopses, and a full list of titles in development) can be found at http://www.ultimatehcibooks.com.

Visit the link above for all the details….and happy writing!

Beth

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I started this week with very high hopes for my creative (fiction) writing.

When the SeriousWriters met on June 1, I had the grand idea of challenging my friend Katy to a little writing competition. She’s starting a new story, I’m starting a new story, and figured we could both use a kick in the pants. I proposed a challenge, and we refined it to be a race to 5K. The first one there wins (we never did choose a reward and punishment..hmmm). We were to start Monday and write with wild abandon until one of us crossed that threshold.

I was mentally prepped to go. I’d spent most of last week brainstorming and outlining the first two scenes of chapter one, nailed down all types of details I need to know before starting (especially names, which have changed), and was practically salivating on Sunday afternoon, forcing myself to not touch my Alphasmart under threat of death. True, I had to attend an out-of-town funeral on Monday, but it was an hour away, and that’d give me ample time to light up the keys with the bar scene.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to happen. Insomnia struck Sunday night for some reason (probably thinking I had school Monday…), and I woke up in time to walk the dog and get dressed. Took the alphasmart, but car rides always put me to sleep if I’m the least bit drowsy, so I woke up just in time for the church.

I did do a little more brainstorming on the way home, but not much.

Tuesday, I had a morning appointment then nothing…writing until early afternoon when we were to head south for a baseball game. I did manage to type the first few paragraphs, but nothing as I’d hoped.

Today was a vet’s appointment, more cleaning…only to have the hub&son invite friends over to swim, which required a house cleaning. Cleaned the house, friends didn’t show. I’m here….no creative writing done. I did manage to sit down and fully brainstorm two nonfiction articles due on the same day next week, however.

Tomorrow I have zero plans. Nothing, except for getting up to walk the dog around six am. Oh, and I’m meeting the SeriousWriters for coffee. Yikes. I just hope Katy’s had some busy days at work so I don’t look like a total timewaster…maybe I can crank out something in the morning….

I still have high hopes for the story and the challenge. Just might take more time than I’d planned (isn’t that the way with writing?!)

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• Filed in Writer's Life

Beth Morrissey is a fellow freelance author with a great, insightful post today on her blog listing ideas for making more money–go check it out!

Money Matters: Making More at Beth Morrissey’s Hell or High Water blog.

If nothing there gets you excited…well, we can’t help. I’m guessing you’ll have a ton of ideas after reading her list!

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• Filed in Writing Resources