Sunday, March 27, 2011
Archive of ‘BethWorld’ category
Original titles are overrated…lol.
I know the posts have been sparing over the last week or two. These two grad classes (dumb idea, two classes the same semester, even if one is online and the other real-life) are excellent for the thinking they inspire but not so excellent in terms of leaving me time to have a life. But one is drawing to a close soon–good news!
The last week, though, my mind hasn’t been on any of that class work. It’s been focused on a couple of discussions I’ve had with author colleagues about the nature of writing. Not the business/selling/publishing point of view, but the idea of what actually makes a writer a writer. These were separate conversations with two people who didn’t know each other but both got me on the tangent of thinking (again–if you read this blog at all you’ll know I harp on this often) about the process of writing BETWEEN the sales and publishing.
So many people get a bug in their brain that they want to be a writer because they see the fruition of our work: a new book sold, a booksigning with other authors, keynote speeches at a conference, an agent hawking our manuscript to New York publishers, our websites crowing our successes–but I was struck by how little these “wannabe” authors (not the colleagues but people they have met) have a true grip on the things we do BETWEEN these events to put ourselves in the position of selling, signing and speaking. There’s this notion of if I just sit down for a couple of weeks, all day every day, I will write a best-seller, get the same treatment and have the same success as (my favorite authors)–and for those of us who’ve spent our lives writing, that’s about as true as believing you’ll become an NBA player if you start on your high school varsity team.
It’s the work in between those pinnacles that makes us the writer, not being able to shout to the masses from those pinnacles. I’m not belittling those grand moments in any way–I’m all for publishing (lol).
Which brings me, in my usual long-winded-thought fashion, to the point of my (slightly pilfered) post title. The common belief is that selling work makes a writer a writer, but I am under the belief that writing daily makes a writer a writer. Highly effective writers have one commonality despite genre, sales numbers, personal levels of fame and societal popularity: the one habit of highly effective writers is, quite simply, that they write daily (or at least almost daily.)
What do you think about this? Agree, disagree, think I fell out of a coconut tree and banged my head on the sand? I’m curious to know what you believe delineates a writer from an effective writer.Think about it, leave me a comment. Then get back to writing, not blog commenting 
Friday, March 18, 2011
All The Reasons I *Can* Write
As promised, to follow up on that little gem of self-doubt I posted Wednesday about All the Reasons I Can’t Write, today’s post is dedicated to the opposite: all the reasons I can and should write.
I wasn’t in a bad mindset when I wrote the Can’t post. In fact, I was in a very good, very creative and receptive mindset, which is all the difference. When you bemoan your writing skills and abilities from a negative point of view, you’re only going to make them seem all the more real to you, and what your mind perceives as real it assumes as real–even when it isn’t. So why torture yourself when you’re feeling bad by telling yourself more reasons you need to feel bad about your writing?
It was enlightening, almost entertaining, to see all the excuses I gave for not writing memoir and essay. Some of those reasons were so ridiculous that I practically smiled as I typed them (I wrote the actual list back in August and just unearthed it). I want to dive into a little bit deeper analysis of those negative ideas at some point–but in the meantime, here’s my counterargument for all the reasons I can write.
All The Reasons I Can (And Should Be) Writing
- I see patterns in language most people do not.
- Every life event happens for a reason.
- People like my writing.
- I need to discipline myself to be more creative.
- Lemons.
- There are so many markets out there for my work.
- I am funny. My life is nowhere near normal.
- I think up great beginnings.
- I always feel an urge to tell a story about events.
- I want to honor those people in my life who make the most difference with stories.
- I am very good at writing shorter pieces.
- Not only am I a teacher, my life is a teacher.
- I have so many memories it would be a shame not to share them.
- Friends often ask when my next piece is coming out.
- I won the first memoir contest I entered so I must be good at it.
Your turn. Why are you still writing? What keeps you going on the piece you’re working on when all other voices tell you to stop? What are your writing truths?
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Special Place of No Deadlines
I’m in a unique time-burp right now: a place without deadlines. I’ve got freelance pieces on the calendar, but nothing pressing at the moment (I schedule lightly during the school year), I sent out my last due piece two weeks ago, and I just finished edits on a short piece this past weekend.
I’m living on no deadlines or obligations at this moment in time. What an odd feeling.
If I had to compare it, it’d be like being left alone in a candy store with a fifty burning a hole in my pocket–good and bad elements to this. On the good side, I can start something new. Those ideas that have been haunting me around every corner: the article on voice, the essay on cake, the memoir on Easter candy…they’re all there, ready to dive into. I can’t speak for all writers, but for myself, that moment of being able to begin a new piece, pen perched on the first line of a clean, blank page, is absolute bliss for me. I love most parts of the writing process for different reasons, but there’s a charge of electric adrenaline when I get to start something new. Also on the good side is that there’s no ‘dread’ of perfection that always seem to creep in near the end of deadlines.
On the flip side, there are TOO many choices. Do I work toward my freelance, my nonfiction or my book-writing goal? Do I start something with the potential to be published soon or that will factor into a bigger piece, a possible book down the road? There are so many questions in this candy store that I’ve just stood in the aisle for the better part of 30 minutes lost in the swirl of color and promise of sugary sweetness without making the first move toward anything in particular.
And that fifty bucks is still burning a hole in my pocket.
What about you? What do you do in those unusually rare moments between deadlines, when you’ve got a day or two to breathe before launching into something new, expected or promised? I’d like to hear that you’re as overwhelmed and paralyzed into inaction as me…LOL…. So ‘fess up: what do you do in your special place of no deadlines?
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Where Does Your Writing Come From?
I’m reading Martha Beck’s “Finding Your Own North Star” (again) and am struck by her thought that we humans operate, in essence, from two distinct points of view: our essential self and our social self.
When our essential selves–that part of us tht lives from passion and seeks out the pure joy in the experience of life, the self that wants to do big and amazing and grand things–and our social selves–the skils and actions and behaviors we assume to get us moving in the direction of achieiving the dreams of our essential selves–are in alignment, we can’t be stopped. When the connection between the two is clear, strong and working as one, life is beyond good.
But what about when they’re not? What if your social self keeps you chained to a job that you hate just for the paycheck? Or your essential self stays hidden beneath a pile of meaningless to-do work that you find little, if any, excitement in? This disconnect can wreak major havoc and lead to somethink akin to sleep-walking through life.
I’m interested in this idea (an idea I fully support) from the perspective of the writer. So often, we find ourselves feeling mentally challenged and sometimes even reluctant to face the page, to get words down, to send out our work, to make pitch appointments, and that can disrupt our forward motion toward our goals of becoming published at whatever level we decide equates to success for us. Is this disconnect because our essential selves don’t move toward writing or because our social selves are going about the writing process in the wrong way? Are we feeling creatively empty because the social self has an expectation to publish books–a social representation of our work–a product–or because we would rather be writing nonfiction or memoir or fantasy or mysteries instead of the genre we’re in? Do we blame writer’s block for our inability to put words onto paper because our social self has heard that excuse umpteen times, or do we attempt to write out our frustrations instead of working on our novels because we know that we can uncover a glimmer of excitement if we just weed out the negativity?
The question, then, becomes more “where are you writing from” rather than a “why are you writing”? When you’re feeling frustrated with writing, is it the process or the product impeding your progress? Is it a disconnect between your actions and your true, essential desires? More importantly, how do you get back to writing from your true, essential self when the social self causes problems?
Are you writing from your essential self or your social self? And what does your essential self *really* want from your writing actions? I’d love to know.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Writing, Zen and You
A friend of mine has been going through a lot of complicated relationship issues (non-writing) and has been struggling with emotionally distancing himself from a situation he’s not likely to ever resolve the way he wants to because of a multitude of factors. I picked up on the pattern of how he is forever obsessing either about the things he did in the past or the fact that he doesn’t feel much hope for the future of the relationship, and this lead me to ask how often he lives in the moment.
Years ago when I worked at a Yoga studio, I had the extreme fortune of working with a gifted zen meditation teacher and through discipline, incorporated several of her meditation techniques for living in the moment into my daily life (and writing process) and somewhat take for granted that I am able to shut off/shut out the real world when necessary to get things accomplished–including writing. I wanted him to think about living in the moment, about blocking out all those painful emotions and thoughts to get through the hard parts of life, or at least give it the old college try.
His reply–this is a person I’ve been friends with since the age of 11–really surprised me: “I have never lived for the moment for one single day of my life.” He said he’s always mentally reliving the past or freaking out about the future but has never stopped to see the beauty of the moment right now.
Naturally, as I processed this, I started thinking to writing–and I wonder how many writers suffer from this inability to just suspend themselves in the beauty of the moment(s) they are given to write and …well…just write…instead of wasting that time worrying about what they finished in the past, what they can’t do as writers, what they’re not doing as writers–or filling themselves with a fear about the future of their writing.
Do you spend your daily writing time ( you *do* have a daily writing time, don’t you?) lost in thought over things that have nothing to do with the work in front of you? How often do you face the page and find an inability to focus because of something else going on in a different area of your life? To be successful (however you define success for your own self and career, not just in terms of selling lots of books) in writing–or any creative endeavor, really–you have to train your mind to create a safe, comfortable, warm, nurturing space IN YOUR MIND from which to work on a regular basis. If you show up to the page and allow the worry, fear and just general life-junk to clutter your thought processes while you’re trying to create, you’re going to end up on a fast train to nowhere. That fast train–aka life–will derail you quicker than any writing obstacle can. If you never allow yourself the luxurious necessity of creatively absorbed moments, you’ll be stuck in those past vs. future thoughts.
And writing happens in the now. There’s no two ways about it.
If you’ve never thought on this before, what are your thoughts now? Or, if you’re successful at leaving the real world at bay while you create, what advice would you give writers who have a hard time suspending themselves from reality to write? I’m curious to see what you think on this. Writing is much a state of mind as it is a physical act–so how do you get yourself into that creative frame of mind?
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Where To Start Your Weekend Writing?
The more writers I meet, the more writers I meet who have day jobs and aren’t fortunate enough (or so we think) to be able to devote all day, every day to writing. (You do know that’s a fallacy/fantasy, don’t you?) So we do the next best thing we know how: we try to squeeze bits of writing in our daily schedules as much as time allows, and plan for big chunks of writing to take place on the weekends.
Whether it’s giving attention to our blogs, cranking out another entire chapter or editing half of our WIP, those weekend hours devoted to the art and craft of writing are where we find our passion rekindled for creating–where we find the mojo to keep us focused on writing through yet another hectic work-week from which we often have to take time away from pursuing our passions.
Here’s where the question lies: are you just hoping your weekend will be full of writing? or are you actively planning your writing projects during the week? If you’re a weekend pantser (writing by the seat of your pants) and you actually get work accomplished that way–KEEP IT UP! That approach works for some, not others. If you plan for writing and actually sit down and write–KEEP IT UP! The strength of your planning is working for you.
So, I’m talking to all the rest of you who are wanting to write and have the time/space/energy/mental power to write but just never quite get your writing done (this excludes those of us taken from writing to put out fires that need attending. That happens). If you’re a writer who looks forward to your weekends for furthering your craft, and your time slips by without pen to paper, here’s a question:
Why?
What’s going on that trumps your creative wishes? One of the most common issues I hear writers discuss is that they don’t know where to start. They want to do this at the same time they’re doing that, and they want to start this chapter but need to edit this. Essentially, they’re spending all their time in procrastination, not creation.
How do we defeat this? You’re going to slap yourself in the forehead for this one, but it’s a simple solution: write. When you can’t focus your writing energies to know where to start, write about it. I guarantee, 1000%, that in the process of writing down what issue you’re facing with getting back into your writing, you will unlock the key to starting. I promise. Instead of thinking and dwelling in the land of thought, move your fingers into the land of action. We’re writers. We think with our pens and paper, right? So if you’re stuck there in the middle, attempting to find the starting thread, write about the confusion.
This advice has served me well. It’s how I get things done. We’ve all heard writing begets writing. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy piece to get us going, either. A few short words journaled in a notebook will often bring a clarity that hours of mental chasing cannot. Get out a pen and get down to what you want to be doing–writing.
How do you get yourself into action when your brain would rather procrastinate about writing? Do you write or have some other trick up your sleeve? I’d like to know (wouldn’t we all!) how you solve that dilemma. Share!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
In a World Without Books, Would You Still Write?
I’m a big believer in the value of dreams, and the one I had last night is no different:
I dreamed there were no books. No magazines, no print material, no papers or Kindles or eReaders on iPhones, no internet browsing, nothing to read. Period.
After a quick stumble in the dark to my Kindle, which was still happily charging, I stopped hyperventilating and thought about this for a while.
No books meant no reading. That part made me almost hyperventilate again. That dream was far worse than the one I get when I eat chocolate right before bedtime and inevitably dream of a devil chasing me, or a devil in my closet of the room at my mom’s house where I grew up. Not good stuff. You can take the ‘no books, no reading’ whereever you’d like in terms of reading (oddly enough, I just recalled my post from yesterday on writers needing to read. Hmmm…)
But what my mind really played with was the idea that if there were no books, there would also be no writers. (No *published* writers, I should say. I believe that anyone who writes completed work is a writer and those who publish are published–I don’t believe you have to be published to be a writer) Sure, folks would still write–I also believe that’s a part of our spirit and our essence, stronger in some than others, and to deny it is to put ourselves through misery–but would YOU be one of those?
Think about that (the former statement, not the latter): if there were no books, what would you do? Would you continue to write? Or just find some other way to engage yourself in the world? What I really mean to ask is this: do you enjoy the process of writing enough WITHOUT the potential for publication to simply write for the sake of writing, to immerse yourself in the process?You know I’m a huge proponent on enjoying the process of writing as much as the publication aspect. After all, you’re spending twice the amount of time (or more) in the process of writing–you’d better enjoy it (given fluctuations of mood, of course. Even I who love writing have crappy writing days) because you’re not always guaranteed a publishable product.
If your response was yes, that’s a good thing. If you replied no, or you’re not quite sure, the real question for you is: how can you get it to a yes? What would you need to change in your writing process to get you to find it a more enjoyable way to spend your time if the possibility of publication didn’t exist.
I’m curious what you think. No, not about my ability to remember my dreams with crystal-clarity or that crazy chocolate devil (never eat before you go to bed!), but if the process of writing is enough within, in-and-of-itself for you to find pleasure in, if there were a world without published works–and how that would affect your writing process.
Leave me a comment & let’s see what you think
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
#NaNoWriMo Day 17: Signs I’m In Too Deep
NaNoWriMo seems such an unassuming challenge on the surface. Spend your November working on a new manuscript and pack in 50,000 words by the first of December.
Not necessarily easy, but doable, right?
Doable, yes. But there’s a mindset to working NaNo that begins on the fringes of your life and soon works itself into the fabric of your daily life. My usual NaNo MO is a morning session of about 1k words, a day of teaching middle school English, and an evening session of about 1K. That break in the middle is a refreshing change of pace and helps me look differently at my evening session than I did in the morning. Sort of like resetting the iPod with hopes of it working better.
But sometimes the reset doesn’t take place and I’m left to live my day with NaNo Brain. I haven’t quite determined how often this has happened over the past few weeks, but I have discovered its obvious existence in my life.
Signs I’m In NaNo Too Deep and stuck in NaNo Brain?
*counting every single word I Skype with my son about his college coursework, upcoming exams and Thanksgiving break before I hit ‘send’. And counting the words like they matter.
*typing an email to a co-worker so quickly that the last letter of one word becomes the first letter of the next word, and not stopping to correct my error because I fear Dr. Wicked’s Write or Die is going to start making my screen blink from inactivity.
*creating a worksheet on the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World and getting frustrated with the Word toolbar for *not* giving me a little wordcount box when I repeatedly right-click on ‘Tools’ on a district computer that does not allow the action.
There’ve been a few more examples, but I’ll spare you the agony. How about you? Does NaNo happen to get in your brain and rewire the common-sense creative synaptic connections in your brain? I’m totally OK if not. I’m used to being like this but it is an interesting phenomena…
(353 words in this blog post. Can I count those, too?)
Monday, October 11, 2010
Picture This: My WIP Collage
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I’m always and forever telling you about my collages and story vision boards, but it struck me that I haven’t really ever *shown* them to you (at least not that I recall, and I’m not going back over 5 years of blog posts to find out LOL).
So I thought I’d give you a little treat today for putting up with me: a picture (via my camera phone–pretty good if I say so myself) of the collage I’m working on for my current WIP–the food memoir. I originally started this a year or so ago at a writing retreat but had only a smattering of photos. Yesterday I pulled out my stack of magazines and just leafed through. I need some energy and focus in my work on this book and visuals tend to motivate and energize me.
Each one of these pictures is significant and linked almost instantly to a childhood food memory for me. Pretty cool how that happens. The ice cream reminded me of my aunt who let us eat junk food on the weekends at her house while watching TV mom never let us watch. The berries are all reminiscent of picking summer fruits with grandma along fence rows in the country. The chili is one of mom’s specialties, the veggies have stories all their own from our garden…I could go on but I’ll save it.
I’m excited by this. So excited that some of the structural problems I’m having with the book itself worked themselves out after working on the collage, and I just feel excited to see these photos when I walk in my writing room. It’s not done (the collage) yet–my plan is to add to it in bits and pieces as photos strike me with essay ideas. I like the dynamic nature of it all.
Do you collage or do story/vision boards for your WIPs? I’d love to hear about them…
Friday, September 24, 2010
(Mental) Games Writers Play
I’m reading (and enjoying immensely) The Memoir Book by Patti Miller. It’s actually a part of my new ‘project’, but I started it a while ago and just wanted to revisit since I didn’t finish.
I was struck by a passage on page 14 and wondered what other writers thought. Here’s the passage:
” To jump over this one [the mental argument of whether anyone will want to read your particular memoir/memoir topic] you must ask yourself not ‘Does anyone want to read it?’ but ‘Do I want to write it?”
My questions are these:
Do you ever deal with this thought? (oddly, I never do. I just write to write.)
If so, how do you get past it to get to the writing?
If not, why?
If you heard another writer lamenting this, what would you offer as advice to counter it?
Just curious.
It's pretty simple, really. I'm a writer who loves writing about writing, and sharing all the tricks of the trade with other writers. And when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. I have a hunch you know what I mean :)