Writer-In-Progress

I read. A lot. In fact, my 8th grade language arts class considers me the biggest nerd they’ve ever met, because when they’re reading something, I’m always reading with them. I wear that title like a badge of honor

One topic I love reading about is how other disciplines and areas of life view creativity and the writing process. What a treat today to find an article by Vicky White, a Feng Shui guru I totally admire on how the creative process can be enhanced by some good, simple Feng Shui actions.

Even if you don’t know Feng Shui (I’m no expert), it’s really good, solid, smart advice on how to get unstuck and get your writing back on track. I can’t wait to implement a few of her ideas in my writing space soon.

Read it yourself: Green Skies and Purple Cows…Connect to Your Creative Muse at Vicky White’s Life Design Strategies blog.

Have you ever tried Feng Shui-ing your creative space? What helps get your creativity moving? We’d love to know! Leave a comment…

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• Filed in Writer's Life, Writing Freebies & Fun

I’ll admit it–I’m envious of logos. Not all logos, and let me say that I love my own website logo (that fab purple fountain pen) created by the wonderful Jo Piraneo at GlassSlipperWebDesign.com. But there’s something really cool about all types of logos that speak to you with just an image.

Since the only thing I can draw well are, well, nothing, I’m doubly envious of artistic folks who can whip up something pretty with just words. So the post at FreelanceSwitch.com on the logo designing process fascinated me. There’s a lot of talk these days in the writing world about establishing a brand and one of the best ways to do that is with a logo or an idea of what you want folks to think of when they think of you.

Even if you’re not shopping for a brand or logo, the insight into the creative process of logo-creation is fascinating.

What are your favorite logos?Do share! I’m always up for some good visual candy!

Pop over to FreelanceSwitch.com for a visit and some thoughts on how to create your own logo or refresh your author brand:

Dissecting the Logo Design Creation Process by Angela Ferraro-Fanning at FreelanceSwitch.com

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• Filed in Your Writing Career

I think you guys were an inspiration yesterday. For whatever reason, after I ranted about the pages, I went back, picked an idea and tried writing about it just to get something moving. I ended up with about a paragraph’s worth of “writing” (a real paragraph, not the two-sentence run-on that constitutes a paragraph in the mind of my 7th graders), and an urge to play with an idea for my heroine.

Twenty minutes later I reluctantly put away my notebook to head to school. Success!

Today while walking Omar (my girl dog with a boy’s name), I had a thought directly related to the heroine and something she said to the hero. Came home, grabbed the notebook and captured FIVE PAGES of writing. The first one is morning page stuff, dream notes, a song I woke up with in my head (do you ever do that?), and one line from my heroine to my hero in the first or second scene of the book: “Stop that! I hardly know you!”

Little does she know (time travel that it is) that they do, in fact, know each other. Quite well, as a matter of fact…lol.

Just stopping by to thank you and see how your writing is going today/this week. How’s the work coming?

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• Filed in Writer's Life

Yeah, so what if I quoted Barry Manilow? It’s my blog!

I’m having a hard time getting in the swing of writing after camp. I have plenty to do: two articles due next week and an essay to send off to an editor for consideration, but with the pre-school year hype and nervousness of settling into a new classroom, I’m finding focus and motivation tough. I want to write, I just can’t muster the motivation.

I know this strikes more than just little old me. How do you deal with it? I’d love some suggestions….

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• Filed in Writer's Life

Part psychology, part motivation, part insight, Roland Fishman’s article is a fascinating study in the creative mind. Pour a cup of coffee and spend a little time thinking about the creative life:

The Creative Process by Roland Fishman

Happy Creative Processing,
Beth

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I came home from an inspirational (ok, also my first) writer’s retreat this weekend with a finished ten-page article in my hip pocket that just needs revising and a good query letter to find its way into a glossy writer’s magazine and the fuel to get cracking on that short story I’ve been stalled on a for a few weeks. But first I had a speed bump in the road to creative and harmonious bliss…

My thesis proposal.

I still like using the word thesis, even though it’s dated and, when combined with my recent stories of how my Barry Manilow CD collection was stolen from my car (no joke…I can’t smile without them), makes me sound about as hip as an 8 Track player. Somehow thesis makes me feel scholarly and educated when the truth is that my ability to write makes it slightly easier to pass total bullcrap by in literature reviews and research design essays that dot my path to the MA Ed. I’d better finish by next fall. To say I’m completing my thesis sounds impressive. To say I’m finishing my final project sounds like I’m waiting for mom to pick up a posterboard and markers on the way home from work so I can get out the glue and glitter. Call me old fashioned. Everyone else does!

But back to the roadblock. I came home from school yesterday (the job), raring and barely able to contain my creative energies toward cleaning up the article and starting a killer query (don’t hate me because I like writing queries), but had one slight hitch in the process: my thesis proposal is due today. And I still had the methodology to finish.

Yikes.

Nothing takes the wind out of a creative writer’s sails than having to write something academic and dry. Luckily, I’d finished a portion of my methodology for my midterm so it was a matter of cutting, pasting and adding in more details. Not the details I liked, though. But the good student in me persevered, limited my action verbs and told instead of showed.

I like to think that the academic writing teaches me exactly what not to do in fiction. I’m sure it does. But what it’s done for sure is tossed a wrench in my creativity. You know, like the person who tries to drive a stick for the first time and you hear that bone-rattling grind of gears when they just don’t quite master the clutch? That’s how my creative mind is working now. Crunched gears.

Here’s hoping a sunny day in Ohio is the oil I need to get out of this bind…

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• Filed in BethWorld