Writer-In-Progress

I don’t know about all of my creative friends, but there are days I struggle with writing, creating, getting into the right mindset for writing and feeling my writing is more than just a pile of pig poop drawing flies in the hot summer sun.

Fortunately, at this moment, I’m not in that mindset. But I am sorta struggling with a direction to take in terms of my writing. I’ve got three large irons in the fire and at the moment, I’m grappling with the quality of my memoir and essay writing. Now, granted, this might have something to do with the contest rejection I received over the weekend, but rejections don’t normally send me spinning–I take rejection as a sign that my piece wasn’t meant to be wherever I sent it, and I send it out again.

But my memoir work seems to be what I’m questioning most now–for whatever reason. I thought that since I’m in a good, positive frame of mind right now, I’d investigate the reasons why I think I can’t write memoir. Now, kids, be sure you try this at home, but NOT (absolutely NOT) when you are in a negative frame of mind. It’s not the right perspective, and you will do serious damage to your creative soul if you explore your writing psyche while you’re already kicked to the curb. Save it for a time when things are going well, when you feel positive. It adds a certain amount of levity as well as perspective to the exercise–and really, you can get a better grip on why your excuses are really, quite lame

All The Reasons I Can’t (Or Shouldn’t) Write Memoir:

• I don’ t know how.
• Not enough memories or life experiences.
• Nothing interesting ever happens to me.
• My truth may hurt others.
• I can’t write for more than an hour at a time.
• I can’t finish essays/memoir pieces.
• I don’t know any publishers, agents or editors.
• I can’t always find the truth in the piece.
• I can’t always find the universality in the piece.
• It’s hard to tell the truth.
• All of my friends write romance; I don’t have any memoir friends.
• I’m never sure which piece to work on.
• I’m not published in full-length fiction.
• I can’t sustain a book of memoir.
• I don’t have enough memories for a full-length book.
• Teaching crunches my time for 180 days a year.
• I am so afraid of incompletion I may never start writing.
• I won the first memoir contest I entered so I’m a one-hit wonder.

Fascinating. I actually wrote this list back at the start of the school year–August–but the idea really resonated with me today as I whined about not knowing what to work on. As I typed some of these, the immediate untruth about them (“I can’t write more than an hour at a time”) struck me. I’m truthfully tempted to write a series of blog posts on each one of these to debunk their assumed power over my creative thought process.

I may do that. In the meantime, I think I will also write a list of all the reasons I can write. Let’s see where that takes me. What about you? What excuses are you giving yourself that limit your creativity?

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I come across links to some of the *best* blog posts on writing via Twitter. Instead of hogging them all, like I did with that bag of Hershey Kisses last week, I think I’ll start sharing them on Tuesday. (Blog posts, not chocolate. Sorry…)

Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorites:

from Darcy Pattison’s Fiction Notes Blog: Character checklist: http://tinyurl.com/yzwo9op

from Freelance Folder.com’s Blog: 7 Tips for Using Your LinkedIn Profile to Land Great Projects http://bit.ly/hsBCnP

from Liz Michalski at Writers Unboxed blog: Full Boil or Slow Simmer? (on the writing process)  http://bit.ly/ej875o

from  Natania Barron’s blog: Six Ways Twitter Can Make You A Better Writer: http://t.co/CcP7gPI

from Kristen Lamb’s Blog: Non-Fiction and Using Your Uniqueness to Become an Expert http://bit.ly/fLe0fq

from Julie Isaac’s The Writing Spirit blog: How to Write Daily (Or Meet Whatever Writing Goal You Set) More Easily http://blog.writingspirit.com/2010/11/write-daily-part-1.html

Stop by these great blogs. Read one, read ‘em all. Tell ‘em I sent ya. Then, get yourself on Twitter to find more great reading of your own! (and Tweet me up while you’re there: @Buckeye_BethM)

Any of these posts really strike a chord with you? Which ones? Why? I’d love to hear your thoughts…

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I just spent a few minutes trying to find the post where I’d mentioned how I swear some writing topics & ideas are synergistic, meaning several people write about them in a close timeframe. It’s happened to me before, and it’s just happened to me again. (I can’t find the post but I’m going to bore you with my story anyway!)

Maybe this one wasn’t karmic in nature. I like to think it was my intellect as a writer coming to the surface before someone else (whom I admire) wrote a similar article.

I’m a huge, huge fan of Chris Bibey’s Freelance Writing blog, so imagine my surprise when I hopped over for a dose and found a post (almost eerily) similar to a two-article series I just finished for the Writer2Writer.com ezine this month. Same topic, same advice (though mine spans two columns). Wild!

Check it out for yourself and tell me how crazy this is:

My articles, from May and June:

4 Ways to Get Freelance Writing Jobs, Part 1: Online Jobs

4 Ways to Get Freelance Writing Jobs, Part 2: Real-Life Jobs

and Chris’ post today:

How to Find More Freelance Writing Clients Next Month

Tell me that’s not a little bit funky!

I just hope no one is working on a novel with my unique theme…

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…and thank god, none too soon.

I actually re-read the story (not my usual M.O. in reviewing books) to see exactly what it was that I didn’t like so much. I discovered, aside from the crappy editing (for example, the hero asks a question, the heroine has three lines of internal thought, then a one-word response in quotation marks attached to the end of her thought…ack!!), I was disappointed that the author failed to deliver the premise.

The story started strong and romantic, but a few pages in, we get zinged with a gratuitous (and vivid/graphic) sex thought by the heroine–in the MIDDLE of a fight scene between the hero and her (bully) friend. Nothing the heroine had said, thought or done up to this point in the book was remotely graphic/erotic. Sensual, yes. But I swear (and didn’t write, though I wanted to), that it was as if the graphic thoughts were randomly inserted as if to make this story salable as an erotica.

Shame, too. Had such potential as a simple romance. Ah, well. I just signed up for three more books to review. One contemporary and two paranormal time travels. I’m hoping the ugly baby was the only one of the summer and that the rest of the reviews are smooth sailing.

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So what if it’s true I just squandered away the last half-hour playing online? I found the funnest place to mess around in a long time.

Doesn’t hurt that it’s related to the best show known to mankind…aka the Simpsons.

Here’s the rub: upload a photo of yourself and it’ll Simpsonize you. I think it’s a little dark for me, but it’s still cute…

Simpsonize yourself at: http://simpsonizeme.com/

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This is entirely too funny. Someone is too creative for their own good!

(Yeah, so it’s from 2006. Still funny)

How Did I End Up on the Cover of this Romance Novel?

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The best part of being a fiction writer is discovering the story.

The worst part of being a fiction writer is discovering the story requires you to tell the story in ways you try to avoid because they scare you.

The current WIP was initially a very short story idea–no more than 20 pages. However, as I’ve played with it, it’s gotten bigger. Part of the appeal of the short short to me is that novel-length still scares me a little. I mean, try writing six of them and getting nowhere. After a while, and success at a shorter length, it makes sense to stick with what’s working.

Oh, but no. I had to get this idea, had to start working on it and figure out where it’s going. I get bits and pieces at a time, and that keeps me happy and writing. But once I figured out the hero’s main problem, there was a slight possibility that his current problem (which stems from a past tragedy) could trigger a mushroom cloud of emotion, requiring a deeper, more complex story line than I could possibly cover in twenty pages.

I gave up on the 20 pages thing before I started to write. Novella, I convinced myself, and continued plotting, blissfully happy that I could manage the length with the story I had.

My walk & plot session on Friday, however, turned the tables on me. Damned if I didn’t know from the start that his emotional plot line is going to require his past tragedy on center stage. Over an hour of walking and plotting, and only one conclusion: the story can’t be the story without his action today to overcome the tragedy of yesterday.

Oh, well. I’ve plotted a novel (or six) before, I can do it again. I just wish I didn’t hear that sarcastic laughter in the back of my head saying….I told you so….

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I put off the ugly baby review for another day. Just can’t get the gumption to write something I don’t want to write.

But I have been working today. I judged two contest entries for my local RWA chapter as a discrepancy judge. One was ….not an ugly baby but…. and the other was almost perfect. Loved the story, the style and the premise. Not to mention the h/h tension. I think I’ll be reading that as a published novel some day….

I’ve also been plotting the current WIP. I’m taking a different route on this one: tarot cards. Yeah, I know–I know nothing about them other than they’re pretty. But I’m taking an online course by a very talented Tarot reader & novelist who is one of the best online instructors I’ve had. I’ve been toying with my hero’s issues over the past few days, and tonight when I drew his Call to Action card, things started to fall into place. An English professor who hates the classics and finds myth overrated…that’s the tortured soul I’ve been hearing about!

I also got a nice bit of news earlier this evening. An online article I wrote for a diabetes magazine was selected for the print version, due out in July or August. Just gotta get ‘em a bio and photo. My favorite part of the writing process…

Off to draw a card for my heroine’s Call to Action. I could do this all night…well, if I knew anything else about Tarot cards, I could…lol

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Actually, this was going to be my pre-Martha Beck post but I tend to get a little excited when I find real-life stuff that relates to writing.

This post is all writing-related.

I’ve been reading a book for a review. I used to do a lot of reviewing but cut back about a year ago. This one’s a fiction title I’m doing for a review site I work with. I was intrigued by the premise, so I took it off the shelf. It’s an erotica, which I don’t mind reviewing, just have to post under the pen name. It’s a novella, so it was a quick (one-night) read.

And that’s about the only good stuff I can say about it.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not the sub-genre. I’ve read some fan-tabulous erotica authors (Angela Knight, JC Wilder, Rosemary Laurey come to mind, for starters). It’s the book itself. It comes from a great, popular publisher that I’ve read tons of stuff from, and almost always like. As I mentioned, I LOVED the premise.

But the story sucked.

I couldn’t bring myself to care about the characters. All the heroine did was sob about her ex (boyfriend, husband. I forget) and feel sorry for herself. While that happens in life, if it happens in fiction, it should be a spoonful with a purpose, not a cup full to be dumped. As for the hero, I was told repeatedly how sexy he was, and occasionally shown how sexy he was (although any character younger than my 29 year-old brother doesn’t qualify as “sexy”, he qualifies as “a kid”). He didn’t come across as true male because of a few of his actions, but that was a minor offense.

The story goes along nicely, if blandly. The heroine is a simple lady, not a sensual thought in her head. But when the hero is introduced, it’s like Mrs. Jekyll and Hyde. Stuff happens to the heroine that literally shocked me out of the story. Not what happened–I can handle that. More of how out-of-character-for-the-character-I’d-just-been-reading it was.

Think: Miss Beadle in “Little House on the Prairie” (the first teacher) turns into Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone’s alter-ego in “Basic Instinct”)..then back again.

Freaky, huh? That’s a pretty good assessment. (I know. Take a little time to think that one over…LOL). Over and over and over. Just s*x for the sake of s*x, not the sake of furthering plot or character.

Well, that was my reading night. To make matters worse, the book was HORRIBLY (or, quite possibly, not at all) edited. Tense shifts, point of view changes, the hero internalizing thoughts the heroine should have had…it took everything in me not to pull out the red pen and edit the damn thing as I read.

At the end, I was so disheartened. I loved the premise. Still do. But the quality of writing, the depth of emotion, the story delivery fell so short I feel like I completely wasted those hours of my life and should demand a refund.

The worst part about this is that I still have to write a review. Mind you, I’ve written not-so-favorable reviews before (only one that I actually recall). I completely document the reasons why, because I don’t believe writers should be criticized (their stories, anyway) without solid proof, but I also don’t believe people should spend money on a story that is more of a brainstorming session without structure.

Since getting my own story published, I’ve developed an extra sensitivity to the whole review process. Waiting for those first reviews can make you want to throw up. (at least me). I don’t want to make anyone feel bad about their work, but this one is truly worse than the bag of forgotten lettuce I found in the back of the fridge last week.

Stories are our babies. We fuss and play with them for weeks or months in our minds before we let them into the world. Who wants to hear they have an ugly baby? I’m going to need extra help with this one…

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Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

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