Category Archives: Writer’s Journal

May 28, 2013 · 12:35 pm

Loosing The Dogs of Social Media


353503I’ve been a  FB ‘Like’ fan of Anne Rice’s for some time. Though not always in agreement with her take on life, I have, until recently, appreciated her desire to provoke her fans into action on subjects she herself is passionate about. Now if I share Anne’s passion for whatever topic she’s posted that day, I read on. But if I don’t it simply goes the way of all the other posts I’m either tired of hearing about, not interested in, don’t share the same level of passion for or are just plain offended by – ignored or spammed.

Generally Anne’s unread posts fall somewhere within those parameters. Except for a couple of weeks ago when I followed the thread of her comment to Kayleigh Hebertson, aka Ms. Articulate, who had come across one of her vampire books – “Pandora” – at a second-hand store. It seems the blogger in question was looking for a book to use in some art project and purchased it with the intent of ripping out its pages (the sacrilegious desecration  of  any book  sends chills down my spine). I can’t remember why, but prior to tearing it apart she elected to read the book then write of very honest and candid response on what she thought about it.

Sounds pretty innocuous right? Author writes story. Story gets published (albeit fifteen years ago). Book gets found in used bookstore, read by unfamiliar reader, and viola – receives a review (very much like moa). Not a great review, but not an ugly one either. And admittedly the reader, being unfamiliar with Rice’s vamperic characterizations, missed a few key elements that are the hallmark of her work. But really, isn’t that part of the life of any writer? Some like what you write, other’s don’t. Some get it, other’s not so much.  So you learn to savor the good reviews and either use the one bad ones as a catalyst to improve your stories or tear them up for fireplace fuel. Either way they’re both useful.

Now why did this story catch my attention? Why take time out of my own writing schedule to comment on something as trifling as one persons opinion about anther author’s work? Don’t I have enough things to write about  that I don’t need to sit down and pound out a response to something as seemingly insignificant as an famous authors response to a little known blogger?253347_10151662481040452_1268361199_n

Well let me ask you, the reader, this. Why, of all the reviews that Anne Rice has received, and will probably continue to receive, did she highlight one obscure blogger honest enough to say she didn’t like “Pandora”? Why single out a gal because her impressions of the vampire genre, which in all likelihood has been shaped more by YA  that it has by Baby Boomer’s, challenges Anne’s humanization of them? Is the author so worried about what kind of impact this one review will have on the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of other reviews? Is her ego that fragile that it can’t take one not so great review? After all these years? And if that’s the case, why subject herself to the bad when I’m sure she is undulated with so many good?

These were some of the questions rattling around my head. And the more I thought about Rice’s response to the bloggers review on her book, the angrier I found myself getting. And the angrier I found myself getting, the more I decided that I couldn’t stay quiet about an author who, in my not so humble opinion, has used her voice and considerable influence in the internet community to unleash the hounds of hell on someone far less known or influential. (Even the blogger was intuitive enough to think her response strange.)

Now you might ask, “How did Anne unleash the hounds of hell?” “Did she actually go to the bloggers page and write a comment?” “Did she post a scathing article on her Timeline linking it with the bloggers post?” She didn’t have to. All she had to do to release the Internet Furies was go on her Timeline, mention the review, add the link, and let the chips fall where they may.

Authors like Anne Rice, who know the power of the pen, also know the power of fan loyalty. And let me assure my readers  no one has a wider, more loyal fan base than she does. It’s why she is as socially engaged on Facebook as she is. It’s why she does her own author PR. It’s why she can drop a pebble in the social media pond then stand back and watch the sharks feed. And it’s why quiet frankly, I find such passive abuse of power far from flattering.

If Rice feels like she must comb the internet for reviews, or entertain the not so subtle CIA like actions of  her followers, then at least have the decency to go and engage the poor creature in a conversation herself, rather than sit back let the social feeding frenzy do it for her.

There are umpteen million things I like about Anne Rice as an author. There are also umpteen million things I don’t. But until now it wasn’t personal. Now?  Now  I’m having a hard time separating the authors  lack of social integrity with the quality of her work. Maybe in my case ignorance would have been bliss – for me. But what about the blogger who got slammed for using her blog to write about her life and the things she does and doesn’t like? It wasn’t like she went over to Anne’s blog and used its very public forum to take an emotional dump. Even her counter response to Rice’s pit-bulls very rude and occasionally insane remarks was restrained and courteous.

Yes I know that I’m always raving about author loyalty and how I believe one bad book doesn’t define the quality of those to follow. And yes I’ve got a real issue with people using social media as their personal soap box to rant about others. But isn’t there a time when even people as socially non-confrontational as myself need to stand up and say “Are you kidding? Was it really necessary to turn the dogs loose on someone just because they don’t like your fictional characters or call into question your portrayal of that particular genre or subject? Shouldn’t an author of Anne Rice’s caliber be leading us wannabe writer’s into greatness by setting an example of benevolent social integrity rather than author pettiness?

I’d like to think so. I’d also like to think that had Ms. Rice really thought about what kind of legacy this sort of public display of bad PR leaves behind, she would not have done it – but rather censored those fans who tried. Anne Rice was a pioneer in the humanization of the vampire genre and a bridge building forerunner between fantasy and regular fiction. I would hate to see  her burn it.

So for the time being I feel compelled to remove Ann from the list of authors I’d most like to immolate.  That doesn’t mean that I won’t change my mind or that this one incident will blacklist her from my bookshelves. But it does mean that the lesson I most learned here is when reader’s give an author the power to influence the world, they need to use it sparingly and use it wisely. It takes a long time to get to the top but only seconds to fall to the bottom.

Additional Links to this story:


http://www.dailydot.com/culture/anne-rice-pandora-review-backlash/


http://www.dailydot.com/culture/anne-rice-pandora-review-backlash/


http://www.dailydot.com/culture/anne-rice-pandora-review-backlash/

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August 29, 2012 · 12:10 pm

Seeds of Greatness | Finding an Author’s Novel Idea


How many of us grew up with this incurable itch to write, but often found ourselves at a complete loss where to begin? Or if we did have an idea, we couldn’t seem to corral our thoughts long enough to shape it into a story.

Having grown up with my nose buried in one writing genre or another, I wrote my own fair share of short stories and morbid poetry.  Truth to tell, if I wasn’t  fixated on elves, dragons, and damsels in distress,  you could probably find me lost somewhere on the isle of Dark Knights of the Soul, or other equally disturbing realms of mystery. By the age of fifteen,  I was completely convinced that God had made a critical error in time trajectory,  and sent me to  live two-hundred years too far into the future.

But short stories and dark poetry didn’t really prepare me for a two hundred fifty or three hundred page novel. It’s one thing to write a short story about a boy who died and came back as an ant; it’s an entirely different beast to turn it into full length novel that will leave the reader wanting more.

“I don’t believe that a writer “gets” (takes into the head) an “idea” (some sort of mental object) “from” somewhere, and then turns it into words, and writes them on paper. At least in my experience, it doesn’t work that way. The stuff has to be transformed into oneself, it has to be composted(sic), before it can grow into a story. (Ursula Le Guin, American novelist and essayist)

So how do writers come up with ideas for novels? Is there a book somewhere that gives one thousand and one story ideas? Are there websites dedicated to feeding our need to create something…anything?

I’m an avid follower of Fantasy Fiction, and have immersed my psych in authors such as Terry Brooks, JRR Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Edgar Rice Burroughs, R.A.Salvadore and  Jim Butcher, and find most of my own story ideas rooted in similar worlds as theirs. But what if I were drawing a blank, and  no matter how much I read, watched movies or fantasized about living on a different planet or dimension of time,  I couldn’t come up with anything I thought worthy of telling?

As you know, when in doubt  I find going to those who have proven themselves successful is the quickest way to get the answer without a lot of rabbit trails like my own.  So I decided to begin the journey with a few quotes from GrammerAbout.com: “Where Do Writers Find Their Ideas?”

My standard answer is “I don’t know where they come from, but I know where they come to, they come to my desk.” If I’m not there, they go away again, so you’ve got to sit and think. (Philip Pullman, English writer)

“From you,” I say. The crowd laughs. I look at the woman asking the question; she seems innocent enough. I continue. “I get them from looking at the world we live in, from reading the paper, watching the news. It seems as though what I write is often extreme, but in truth it happens every day.” (A. M. Homes, American novelist and short story writer)

Now before you throw your hands up in the air in frustration, it would behoove you and I  to give some thought to these highly successful author’s words. Whether we like it or not, genuine ideas , though germinated from the seeds of what we read, see or think about, will always produce the best fruit when allowed to marinate in the juices of our own souls.

I once read a review in which the book critic accused Terry Brooks of trying to imitate JRR Tolkien with his Shanara world. Well the seeds of Terry’s  original idea may have begun with Tolkien (as have the works of thousands of other authors), but the fruit is definitely Brooks. Over the years his stories and characters  have evolved into beings as unique as the DNA of their creator.

But let’s say that you’re not ready to trust to your gut instincts yet,  and would feel better if someone handed you something a little more concrete. Well, if that’s the case, then let’s make our first stop with author, painter and speaker, Natalie Goldberg,  and see what she has to say in her book,  “Writing Down the Bones; Freeing the Writer Within”.

  • Keep a writer’s journal to jot thoughts, feelings or sensations throughout the day.
  • Free writing: write about a memory, color or picture you’ve seen.
  • Events that have impacted your life; birth, death, marriage, divorce. (I have a writer friend you turned a challenging time in her personal life into a novel about Alzheimer.)
  • Jot down your dreams, walk in the park, or the conversation overheard in a coffee shop or restaurant.

But what if keeping a journal and spinning yarns from random thoughts doesn’t float your boat? If your like me and  looking for something with a little more meat on it,  you could go to Glen C. Strathy‘s @ ”How To Write a Book.com, who offers up the following advice;

“Writing a novel takes a lot of time and effort. You’re going to live with the characters and the world you create for a long time. So don’t choose an idea you will get bored with or grow to resent after a while. Instead, look for writing ideas you can be passionate about – ones that are meaningful to you, that you will have fun working with, that you can feel proud to have written.”

Here’s some of his idea garnering tips:

  • Jot down which novels or stories you enjoy reading and watching. Make a note of the:
    • Genre: What is your niche? Where do you find yourself going back to again and again: Crime, suspense, espionage, romance, fantasy etc.
    • Character types: Heroine, villain’s, underdogs, misfits, rich and famous, poor, action figures.
    • Problems: What types of problems to like to solve? Mystery, scientific, economic, social injustice, terrorism, YA, paranormal?
    • Protagonists: Do you like male or female, young or old, human or alien?
    • Antagonists: mean, ugly, pretty, sweetly evil or blandly good?
    • Theme: What kind of values do your characters have in common. What motivates or drives them?
  • Use plot summaries: Read plot summaries from other books, stories, TV Guides, films. ( Internet Movie Database)
    http://www.imdb.com
    ,     change one or two points and spin a story summary of your own off of it.

    • Create multiple scenarios, ideas from it. Write up a summary of your own idea.
  • Real Life.:  Natural disasters, life events, political issues, social or economical issues.

Another  possibility is one that this writer has recently been experimenting with;  using random 500 word prompts, and weaving them into an ongoing story.  Beginning with an idea I took from Terry Brooks’,  “Word and Void” series,  I’ve began writing  a story about a post- apocalyptic world, using the prompts as a way  to flush the story out. The plot, characters and conflict are mine; but the journey is influenced by the prompts themselves.

So far I’ve found it to be a lot of fun.

So where do you go for your writing ideas?

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August 13, 2012 · 12:00 pm

Niche|Nesting|Or Simply Living Out Loud


If you’re like me,  and  happen to fall into the ninety-nine point nine, nine, nine  percent of all emerging authors, at some point or another,  you’ve  had to have found yourself with a fresh cup of coffee,  staring at the blinking cursor on your laptop  thinking,  “What’s my writing niche?”

As emerging authors, we all wrestle with what area or genre  we want to work in.  Some may have been intuitively born with this mystical ‘knowing’, while others found it by sticking their toes in more than one watering hole.  But how do you and I go about finding where our place is on this highly populated Mountain of Authorship? And once found, just what in the heck are we supposed to do with it?

Since the starting point for most of my own life is always asking questions and finding answers, I decided to start digging this one out by asking the obvious:

What is an author’s niche?

According to online Urban Dictionary:   Niche  1. A position or activity that particularly suits somebody’s talents and personality or that somebody can make his or her own.

Oxford Online Dictionary says the origin  of the word niche is: early 17th century: from French, literally ‘recess’, from nicher ‘make a nest’, based on Latin nidus ‘nest’

For some authors like E. E. Orme and Anita Diamant, this nesting  flows out of their the passion to tell someone else’s story. For others such as James A Levine, Alexandria Szeman and Kimberly Rae, it’s the need to bring attention to the social elephants standing within our communities and homes.  And then there are those like Jane Freidman who find their nesting niche helping you and I write about ours.

In NRichford‘ s post “Top Five Ways to Find Your Writing Niche” for List My 5,  the author shares that it’s our passion that determines one’s niche, “If you can’t put your heart into it, you probably aren’t passionate enough to write about it.”

In part I’d have to agree. It is possible to write about a lot of things, but to write them in such a way that our words are capable of immersing the reader into a voyeuristic experience of the characters or experiences we’re writing about…that can only be transmitted through passion; coupled of course with a tremendous amount of experience and skill.

How do I find my niche?

In my guest post Writing Your Passion, I said that finding our  niche is no more difficult than paying attention to …”Whatever it is that makes us want to fight back, stand up and scream “Hell yeah! “, or simply be the buffer for someone else, is a clue to what it is that has given birth to your passion.

According to author, professor, and copy editor, Sharon K. Owen finding one’s niche or genre “… is always the hardest for the writer but basically effects all the others.”

But what if we enjoy reading a variety of subjects and not just anyone in particular? That in and of itself, might make settling on just one in particular, a bit of a challenge.  And another thought; what if, like myself, you realize that to read just one genre becomes rather incestuous, and limits the resources you have to draw upon.

NRichord believes that another way for emerging authors to identify their niche is“…If your writing excites you and gets you motivated for the day, you can be pretty sure its (sic) one of your real interests. But, if you wake up thinking about what you “need” to write today, there’s a good chance you haven’t identified your real interests. Find something that energizes you and you will energize your readers, too.”

Unlike a pet, friend, or relative, our niche isn’t’ something we can simply jump in the car and get away from. It will influence everything we see, think, and often, dream about. It’s the thing that moves us, keeps us awake at night and causes everyone you know (except for other writers) to think your nuts.

What do you do with your niche?

So now that we’ve finally located what it is that drives our souls, how do take that and begin to apply it to writing? The obvious answer would be, use it to write what you know.

But is that really the right answer?

Maybe a better application would be to use it to experiment with a variety of genre, prose or mediums. Why limit ourselves to just one thing like romance, horror, mystery or social injustice.  What if we took this impetus out for a number of test drives, applying it in a variety of ways, until we find the creative cog that fits our wheel?

“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten,  either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.”- Benjamin Franklin

This writer is passionate about God, but I don’t believe limiting myself to just that one topic does either the passion or the subject much justice. I’d hate to think that someone who is unlimited in own His ability to think and create, would want to limit any of us in ours.

So instead of listing all the ways you and I can use our niche, what if we released ourselves to try out as many watering holes as we can find. Maybe spend some time doing freelance articles (C. Hope Clark maintains that learning to write on a deadline is excellent training for learning to write a book), writing poetry, entering various contests (in a variety of genre of course) or writing both a novel and a non-fiction.

Another really challenging exercise, and one this writer is always stretched by, is doing ghost blogging for someone else. Just the discipline of writing in someone else’s voice, style and mission helps hone  writing skills for my own stuff.

I think becoming a writer is more than just finding a niche,  putting words up on a white screen, or in a high school composition book. It’s more than the novels we read or the movies we watch. I believe that finding our niche is more about finding whatever it is that holds our universe together, and then discovering the media(s) that simply lets us live that life-giving expression,  out loud.

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August 1, 2012 · 12:00 pm

Slaying Monsters | & Changing Our Minds


Growing up on a farm, our family was overly large (numbers, not mass), my parents were blue-collar workers and there wasn’t a lot of money for things like going to the movies or taking the kids to Disney Land. So the entertainment on Friday night at our house was homemade fudge, popcorn,  and movies like “The Monster From The Black Lagoon”, “Dracula”, and of course “The Mummy”.

For the other six days it was Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Edgar Rice Burroughs. The one made me scared to go to bed; the other beckoned me to become the hero that slew them all.

From literature to film, from history to modern-day viral feeds, we are bombarded with the opinions and belief systems of others. Many of us grew up being influenced by folklore, mythology, religion and philosophy as the interpreters of cultural events both past, present and future.

And more recently we’ve added; YouTube, reality TV, news casters and biased journalism – all of whom report on the world through the lens and paradigm of whatever corporate monolith is footing the bill.

It’s interesting to look back on our lives and trace our actions to our thoughts, our thoughts to what we’ve been taught and what we’ve been taught to the cultural media we took it from. How many of us believe what we believe, not because we came to these conclusions through our own personal journey of seeking, knocking and finding, but through vicariously absorbing what we’ve seen, read or heard from other‘s?

When someone told us that the wall was white, did we just nod our heads in all the right places and accept that it must be so, or did we say, “Hey! Wait a minute. I’ve got a pocket knife here, so let’s scrap some of this paint off and see if the wall really is white.”

I’ve discovered over the years, that the real monsters are not the ones hiding under my bed, or the big screen, or internet browser of my lap top. It’s not loud mouth reality stars or biased new casters, political leaders or even the disturbing legislation of whatever current leadership is trying to rob us of our rights under the guise of keeping the citizens of our wonderful nation healthy and safe.

No the real monster is the one in my own head that tells me not to ask whether the things I believe are  true,   or question  why I even believe them in the first place.  It’s all those little voices denying the need to be willing to have my mind changed – screaming that even admitting such a thing is too frightening to consider.

Real monsters live within ourselves, and they need to be slain every day of our lives; because let’s face it, the true hero’s in our story are the ones who aren’t afraid to look a monster in the eye and yell ‘Boo’!

What monsters did you grow up with that needed slaying?

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July 25, 2012 · 3:55 pm

Nightmare’s | Barium Mixes and Stolen Manuscripts


Having to temporarily put aside writing your book or novel in pursuit of the need to pay your bills can get frustrating, if not right out snarky. I don’t know about you, but I find myself waking in the middle of the night from dreams in which I am chained to my laptop, bright lights shining in my eyes, the rhythmic sound of water dripping on cement, and someone bending over my shoulder saying, ”Ve hav taken your manuscript, and you vil not get it back until you hav done exactly as we hav told you. Ya? You understand?”

Heart pounding in my chest, hands shaking, I reach out and turn on the bedside lamp, and find not cement, bright lights and an evil presence hovering over me but textured walls; their eggshell dull white a reminder that the only way I’m ever going to afford to paint them something else, is to start earning more than the moment by moment, bill by bill existence I’m currently in.

Now I’m so depressed I find myself tempted to crawl into Rex’s hamster cage and get on the wheel of nine to five jobs.

The saving grace, I force myself to go back over the litany of just how much I hate nine to five jobs (I’d rather do six to three, or twelve to nine, in sweats with a fine cup of joe at my elbow), and how, after busting my butt to get my certification in the medical field, I realized staring at people’s digestive charts all day was similar to dying by asphyxiation.  Slow and painful.

Don’t get me wrong. I admire people who are genuinely compassionate enough to care about my internal combustion, and am willing to spend eight to ten hours out of everyday looking at mine and thousands of others.  I’m just not one of them.

So while I whine about how little time I have to spend on either of my books at this point, I console myself with the knowledge that the time I spend blogging, ghost blogging and submitting articles, is in and of itself  an investment in a much better future than barium mixes, IBS, enemas and gastroscopic investigations I left behind.

And since I won’t get back to sleep now for a couple of hours, I decide to beat the Nazi nightmare at its own game, dig around on my flash drive, and sneak in a few hours to work on my neglected  manuscript.

From the laptop of an uncensored dreamer,

SSpjut

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July 16, 2012 · 12:00 pm

Soup Cans | Hamster Wheels | And a Writer Called Rex


What One Writer Did To Get Off the Hamster Wheel of Publishing

In the world of emerging authors (as well as  those who have already emerged),  the pressure to meet the deadlines of magazines, editors, publisher’s, and ultimately the reader, can often be as brutal as child birth without drugs. Until the work is finished, all our thoughts and energy are channeled into the demands of someone else and there is no way out until it’s delivered.

And like that painfully fought for child, the challenges of authorship will not end once the prose is delivered and the promotional tour is done.  Just the opposite. Our hard won reprieve will only last a short while before we discover that it’s time to begin the whole process all over again.

Whether it is a five-hundred word article or a full length novel, the rewards for such emotional, physical and intellectual taxing demands are short lived, and mandates that we take up the fight over and over again if we are to succeed.

 Much like the hamster “Rex” in Janet Evanovich’s  “Stephanie Plum’s”  kitchen, we are either in the soup can, butts to the air, plotting and typing away,  or we are running on an endless wheel of performance,  getting off only long enough to crank out the next required piece of work.

Or so we’re told.

In an article for indiereader.com,  seven time author Jessica Parks, shares how she finally decided to get off the hamster wheel of traditional authorship,  and begin re-defining her own rules for writing, publishing and selling novels.

After being turned down for her YA book, Relatively Famous, (a manuscript editors had given her lots of positive feedback on) and novel, Flat Out Love, Jessica began to question whether staying on her current path was right for her. “I was at a loss for what to do. I couldn’t keep writing books without selling them. What if the next thing I wrote flopped? I took a risk, in many ways, and wrote Flat-Out Love. It was the first book that completely came from my heart, and it was a book that ignored all the industry rules. I knew in the back of my head that I could self-publish it, but at the time it seemed like that would have been an admission of defeat.

I spent months thinking that I needed a big publisher in order to be a writer, to legitimately carry that “author” title. To validate me, and to validate Flat-Out Love. I needed a publisher to print my books and stick a silly publishing house emblem on the side of a hard copy. They were the only way to give my books mass distribution, and having them back me would mean that readers would know my book was good…It turns out that I was entirely wrong. I was missing what I really wanted. “

It was after having Flat-Out-Love turned down by the very editors who claimed is was a strong piece of work, that she finally decided she’d had enough, and took her writing career back into her own hands.

“One of the major reasons that I write is to connect with readers, not publishers. The truth is that I couldn’t care less whether New York editors and publishers like me. I don’t want to write for them. I want to write for you. The other undeniable truth is that readers could care less that my books aren’t put out by a big publisher.”

So what about feeling pressured to go back into the hamster cage of tradition?

“Indie authors are writing for our readers, not for publishers and what they think will sell… I can assure you that freedom fuels creativity, risk-taking, and passion. We get to bring you our stories in the way we want to tell them, without the dilution and sculpting from publishing houses. And the fans? Oh, the fans are simply unbelievable. We are so directly connected to them, and the ease of communication and feedback is unparalleled. I’m learning what readers want, and I can incorporate that into my work without worrying that an editor will nix all the good stuff. Their support and enthusiasm breathes life into days when I feel particularly challenged.”

So, am I advocating that emerging authors abandon the Twin Peaks of Author and Publisher in pursuit of a ‘hamster free’ writing zone?

Maybe! Or maybe what I’m really advocating is that one size publishing does not fit all, and if you’re feeling discouraged about getting your work published, then you might want to join writers like Jessica Park and get on board the freedom train of indie publishing too.

Just sayin’…!

From the laptop of an uncensored dreamer,

SSpjut

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July 11, 2012 · 12:00 pm

Reversing Roles Without Turn Signals


Picture sitting in front of your computer, a steamy cup of ‘joe’ at your elbow and the scent of blueberry bagel slathered in cream cheese wafting gently beneath your nose.  You’ve been up for several hours and the story that has been withholding itself from you since the day before yesterday has finally conceded to make the twenty inch drop from your head to the key board beneath your fingertips.

Wildly your fingers fly over its painted keys, their rat-a-tat-tat message suddenly reminding you of the scene from “You’ve Got Mail” where Frank Navasky is trying to justify to Kathleen Kelly his purchase of yet another Olympic Rapid deLuxe typewriter. A secret smile back lights your eyes as the moment gives you pause and forces you to acknowledge,  that if really pressed, there are days you could probably stunt double that scene.

Let’s face it,  when your over forty nostalgia kicks in whether you like it or not, and the moments when the past seems grander than the present are coming at you faster and faster every day.

 But the professional in you knows better than to give into the time robbing bandits of distraction, so you lose the smile, suck in that extra ten pounds you put on during your spring coma and lean into that story for all your worth. Time flies and before you know it the coffee’s gone cold, the cream cheese is beginning to resemble a dried up watering hole, and you are blissfully lost within the vortex of the creative muse.

This is why that soft tapping sound on your office door goes unnoticed until finally, in desperation, the person on the other side opens it just enough to poke their silvery grey head through and ask, “Are you busy right now? I’ve got a problem on my computer and it won’t let me do that thing you told me I needed to do before …what was it you told me I was supposed to do?”

Without any conscious thought on your part a sigh escapes your lips as you feel yourself brutally pulled out of the zone. Within seconds your grasp on the muse is loosed and all she has brought with her is gone. A childish explant of frustration finds its way from between clenched jaws; and just as quick you silently thank God that your mother is all but deaf and therefore  didn’t hear you say what you would have keel hauled your own child for.

In what seemed like only yesterday,  we were asking our parents advice and watching them pose with the grandchildren for the family photo shoot. The next day we are doling out their medications, helping them negotiate the highway of doctor visits – memory specialist – colon councilors and cardio magicians. Without either of us being aware of how or when, the role between ourselves and our parents has become reversed and no one bothered to inquire if either of us minded.

I don’t know about yours, but it’s been a challenge for mine. Raised during the depression, taught to be independent, hardworking, tax paying citizens as well as upright Republicans, they are now struggling to remember where they put the car keys, if today is Monday or Friday and how did the coffee pot get out on the back porch?

Who would have thought that these pillars of strength and bastions of wisdom would find themselves so dependent upon their grown children? Was there any warning or indication that Godly living and faithful parenting would reward their later years with beginning dementia and failing autoimmune systems?

Don’t get me wrong. I may sigh and murmur when I’m in the zone and my mother needs to stop what I’m doing in order to show her how to turn off her Yahoo account, but it only takes a minute to remember that these two individuals who can no longer navigate their way down freeways and through roundabouts are still the same individuals who believed in me even when I struggled to believe in myself.

So I get up from my desk, go slay the dragon on my mom’s computer and remind myself that the muse is still trapped within my head, and if I’m patient, she and her friends will find their way back to my keyboard sooner than later.

From the laptop of an uncensored dreamer

SSpjut

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June 27, 2012 · 6:00 am

Why Writer’s Don’t Have Real Jobs


How many times have we heard Uncle Carl or Aunt Suzie make the statement (while holding a copy of an article we’ve just had excepted by a respectable online magazine) “That’s nice sweet heart. But when are you going to get a real job?”

Whatever foolish sense of elation we might have experienced while first flashing our shiny icon of recognition, soon begins to evaporate almost as quickly as the ice at the bottom of Uncle Carl’s two-fingered glass of bourbon.

If we chose to behave nicely, we’ll smile one of those practiced cardboard smiles that reach as far as the bridge of our nose, lift the acceptance letter out of their hands and reply, “It’s just a matter of time Uncle Carl. Just a matter of time.”

But if we’re feeling a tad less nice, we might let the not so nice part of our personality out for a bit of fun and frolic. Of course the repercussions to that sort of response may be more than we’d like to deal with later on.

Be that as it may, I’m pretty confident that every emerging author (as well as those who have already emerged and are now breathing fresh air), has at one time or another, been  party to the ego crushing,  good intention, family member,   patronizing statement about the need for them to get a real job.

For this emerging author, the trip down the lane of good old family advise happens at regular three-month intervals (or every time we all gather for holidays or either parents birthday).  And almost without fail, the scenario is fairly predictable.

All the uncles, sister’s, brothers and children that work for a large, local company dominate the first hour to hour and half,  talking about the latest mechanics snafu, assemble glitch or excessive increase in pay for benefits.

Once that has run its natural course, they then shift gears and discuss lesser corporate members who may not hold as lofty a job position as the rest, yet still manage to hold their own when it comes to 401K’s, PTO and PTTO.

Naively I used to think that all I need do in order to avoid the spotlight of the ‘unemployed’ was keep them talking about themselves long enough that they would eventually forget me.

But after multiple failed attempts at this attention diverting tactic, I’ve finally had to put on the big girl panties, tighten my Wonder Woman  belt and take their derision like the super hero I want to be.  With a Venti Starbucks in my right hand and no visible means of weaponry within reach, I take my stand against unions, patronizing family members and really bad cafeteria coffee.

And while I face off against the overwhelming evidence against why I should put aside my silly notions of writing for a living, I try to keep this one thing in mind; I am happier sitting at home in my PJ’s with a cup of very fine coffee in one hand and my mechanical pencil in the other, than any one of them.

Am I suggesting that it wouldn’t be nice to make 100K a year, drive a new Tundra or go to Hawaii for a quick get away? Not even. But I am suggesting that if it comes down to chosing between doing the thing I love and working in a job where the only thing I can look forward to are the 6 weeks I can get away from it, then I’ll take the PJ’s and Venti any day.

Writers may not have real jobs, but I would bet my last Starbucks that those who do write for a living because they can’t imagine themselves doing anything else, will die knowing that the life they lived they loved.

From the laptop of an uncensored dreamer

SSpjut

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June 20, 2012 · 6:00 am

Kick Start Your Writing


When I first began to take writing as a serious lifestyle, I treated it as I treat all things; with A-Type Personality All or Nothing zeal. I made sure my pink stainless steel Starbuck mug was full, the computer was on and the wireless mouse had new batteries loaded into it’s who ha!

Then with the intensity of an internet hacker I began to search and ferret out any and everything I could find on the craft of creating a novel. Starting at the obvious sources such as WD (which in turn gave me a list of over 100 Best Websites For Writer’s pdf), I then moved onto the Writer’s Craft, Writer Unboxed, Grammar Girl,  Duotrope’s Digest, Writing.com and Funds For Writer’s to name just a few. 

And of course I couldn’t leave out my first love, the Sno-isle Library system where  I checked out: Orson Card Scott’s ‘How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy; Janet Burroway‘s ‘Writing Fiction; A Guide To Narrative Craft; Sol Steins ‘Solutions For Novelists’, and ‘Solutions For Writer’s; William Noble‘s ‘Three Rules For Writing A Novel’, Shut Up! He Explained’ and Conflict, Action and Suspense as well as The Everything Grammar and Style book by Susan Thurman. 

Now besides having offering me an overwhelmingly huge amount of information to digest, they also had several key themes that consistently ran through each: Write, write, and write; Read, read, read and use prompts to Kick Start the process.  Ugh! 

Prompts? You mean those random, off the wall, bullet point thoughts and one line statements seasoned writer’s are always recommending to emerging writers as one of the many necessary evils needed in the tool box for honing our craft?  

I don’t know about anyone else, but I knew that my own talent was certainly not in any need of such childish things, so instead of heeding their wisdom, I tossed it on the same garbage heap with ‘outline’, ‘character back-story’ and ‘plot-line’. 

On the back side of recovering my brains, I have to say that eating crow (even with the microbrew of humiliation) is a painful swallow. But I did – eventually. After joining a writers group (which was another recommendation I had to dig out of the garbage heap of pride and arrogance) and discovering that I would be required to produce the fruit of said prompt every other week.  

Fear, trembling and lots of anti-acids. Oh yeah! Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee>then lots and lots of anti-acids. 

Now you’re probably thinking, “Stop being such a Windy-Whiner! Just put on the big girl panties and start writing (like real writer’s do).” And you’re right. It was time to grow up, sharpen that keyboard and start typing out something brilliant in 500 words or less.  And so I did (well I don’t know how brilliant it was, but it was definitely under 500 words), every other week, for the last eight months. 

And they were right. Every emerging writer (and probably those who emerged a long time ago) needs to keep writing prompts in the top tray of their tool box. 

Why? Because being forced to write about something within a 500 word parameter helps you hone your word count, tighten your content, bolster your writing style and say more with less.  It  expands the creativity of your right brain while allowing the left side to administer, makes you crawl out of the shoe box of easy commitment as well as giving you a reason to attend the next  meet-up (if for no other reason  than to wring the neck of the person who thought the prompt up in the first place).  

Since committing myself to at least two prompts a month I’ve found a niche of creativity within me that I didn’t know I had. Fact is several weeks ago I discovered that with enough caffeine, chocolate and Holy Spirit unction, I can even write on subjects completely foreign to life on planet Shawn without falling apart.  

So if you’ve never written on a prompt, or practiced funneling your thoughts into something less than 500 words, I would highly recommend sights like Writer’s Digest, Be-A-Better-Writer, Creative Writing Prompts>Ideas for Writers or The Write Source.  Each offers prompts to stretch the mind expand the process and help you find the key hole to your imagination. 

So……what is the craziest prompt you’ve ever had to write on? How did it stretch your skills as a writer? 

From the laptop of an uncensored dreamer

SSpjut

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June 13, 2012 · 4:19 pm

Unlocking Your Inner Child


Finding the key that unlocks the door to our inner child is all part of the journey of writing. Whether we are free lancing articles for the NYT, submitting flash fiction for multiple magazines or working on a novel, the challenge is still going to be the same. Sooner or later you and I will find ourselves staring at a white screen and blinking cursor with an approaching deadline that has us unconsciously consuming more ant-acids than any human being should. 

In her June 2012 post, Write Anywhere #42: Splash Pad, author, blogger and self-proclaimed recovering pessimist Kristin Nador asks the question, What do you do when you can’t shake the clouds (referring to the clouds in your heart and not over your head)? In it she addresses the issue of what to do when we, as writers,  are feeling grey, tired or unproductive. 

It isn’t that we don’t have great ideas or that we have nothing to say (in general those who are in the creative arts have more to say and express about themselves and others than there is media on which to do it with). But with all that creativity afoot we reach a point in the process where the mind stalls, the creative tide goes out and we find ourselves with either nothing to say or absolutely no idea how to say it. 

Ann Liu, in her blog site marketingbyann.com said this about writer’s block …it is the patron demon of the blank page. Sometimes you may think you know EXACTLY what you’re going to write, but as soon as that evil white screen appears before you, your mind goes completely blank, nothing then. 

Within every person lives both the left brain of the analytical adult (the one who behaves responsibly, reasons rationally and remembers to take the trash out on time) and the right brain of the capricious child (the younger us who knows that skies are not always above, mountains are really covered in cotton candy and fish are the messengers of the gods). But as we passed over the great divide between our childhood to our adulthood,  we allowed ourselves to be conned into believing that it was time to grow up and put away childish things. To cut the apron strings to our inner child and become the man or woman we are told we should be. 

And so the open breeze-way that used to exist between the right side of our brain ( intuitive, creative, free-flowing thoughts and images) and the left side (rational, index card filing administrator) was walled up and a door labeled MATURITY was put in its place.  

Albert Einstein said this about our forced abandonment of childish ways,  The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

The painter Pablo Picasso said, Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. Even Jesus of Nazareth told those who gathered to listen,  that unless they became like little children they wouldn’t be able to understand, let alone enter into the kingdom of heaven. 

So how do we go about accessing this inner child of creativity? What kinds of keys will it take to unlock the door and wedge it open so that we can once again enjoy the sense of joyful abandonment and creative imagery we once experienced as little kids?  

Author and poet  EE Orme  recently shared her thoughts on how she taps into her inner child’s creative pen, Going close to the source which created me and asking for guidance is a powerful way to open the mind and heart to new thoughts and ideas… has helped shape whole sections of my books ….There is limitless possibility in silence, in being present in the moment, in listening to that creative well-spring from which all things are nourished.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” Insignificants is relative…creativity is imperative…go forth and create. 

For childlike  lawyer turned author Terry Brooks (creator of The Sword of Shanara series), shares this in his autobiographical book, Lessons From A Writing Life: Sometimes the Magic Works about accessing his own inner muse or inner child, …when my family and friends discover I am not listening to them or they catch me staring off into space, I can’t do a thing about it, because that’s just the way I am. It is the way all writers are I suspect. The muse whispers to you when she chooses, and you can’t tell her to come back later, because you quickly learn in this business that she might not come back at all. 

Like many of us, these writer’s have had to learn where to find the keys that unlock the door to their inner child, and once opened, keep it that way. For EE Orme it is getting cozy with her Creator, with other’s it is going for a long drive or listening to music. For Kristin Nador who compares her lack of creativity to a cloud hanging over her heart, it is leaving her work and going to a local park where she can observe firsthand what it means to once again be like a little child.

For this writer it is closing out the program, getting up from her desk and doing something completely unrelated to whatever blog, article or book I’m currently working on. Cooking, gardening or reading is just a couple of the keys that unlock my inner child. Getting together with friends, watching a movie or day dreaming about living in a house on Cannon Beach, Oregon are a few more. 

What we do to unlock our inner child is not as important as recognizing that without he or she, we are like ships without rudders, inventors without passion. Unless we intentionally find the key that releases the god like creativity within us, what we produce will be more like death than life. And at the end of the day, is that really what any of us want? 

So what is it that unlocks your inner child?   Is it going to a concert, walking on the beach, letting your hair down and shaken it with friends or maybe like EE Orme,  getting off somewhere quiet and getting in touch with the inner voice of your spirit? Why not share your thoughts with the rest of us;  who knows, your’s might be the key that helps someone else unlock their own inner child.

 

When a person is lucky enough to live inside of a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pain of this world disappears. For as long as the story goes on, the reality no longer exists. Paul Auster

 

From the laptop of an uncensored dreamer,

SSpjut

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