Terescia's thoughts and such.

So, I attended the Lori Foster Reader Writer Get Together this past weekend in Ohio. I surprised myself by actually talking to people and enjoying it. Yeah, I like writing because it’s a solitary pursuit. However, the time comes occasionally when I really need to get out and talk to other writers face to face. Body language is important to a writer. How else will I portray my characters’ emotions in those instances when I’m in another character’s head? So, I have to mingle every once in a while to remind myself of the nuances of body language.

I did all that and more. I met many great authors, got to chat about and discover new books I would love to read, and spend time with friends I haven’t had a chance to see in a while. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Best of all, I found the entire get together/conference to be highly motivating.

I must say, reading makes me want to write so bad I can taste the words in my mouth. I get this sensation in my stomach that feels like nerves but has more in common with a heart attack than an upset stomach. My chest feels tight and my breathing turns shallow. It’s a very physical sensation and I love it and I hate it. The spring winds up and I’m torn between the desire to keep reading or to just set my book aside and go at it on my own computer with my own work. I know some authors say that they avoid reading other people’s work when they’re writing but if I did that, I might lose some of my best motivation for creating my own worlds. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve ever found yourself trying to increase your writing productivity, read this:

If you don’t have passion and purpose, greater productivity won’t help you

If you want to write, but aren’t sure what’s holding you back, maybe you’re on the wrong track.

This post spoke to me today (and it’s not audio, so it’s a big deal to me). Having passion for your work is essential to a fiction writer, simply because it’s so easy to not write. What’s holding you back? Lack of true passion for what you’re doing? If you think you’re having trouble sticking to your goals now, just wait until you’re answering to someone for your work.

Your passion must push you to work even when you don’t want to.

If you’re having trouble writing, are you writing the right thing? Does your current work in progress have a hold on you? Is it keeping you up at night as you work out plot details, and are you growing right along with your characters? Are you thinking about your book even when you don’t want to think about it? Are you consumed by the desire to finish what you’ve started?

The truth is, work is work, but how much sweeter it is when you’re filled with a passionate desire to do that work.

Here’s a really interesting link for anyone who suffering from a lack of inspiration. This writing prompt generator is on a site dedicated to writing for children, but I didn’t get childish ideas while I was playing around with it! Try it out.

Tell me, do writing prompts help you when you’re not feeling the love of writing?

People who fail to write novels don’t do it by sitting in front of a blank page for days without writing anything. They do it by feeding the cat, going out to buy something they need for their apartment, meeting a friend for coffee, checking email. “I don’t have time to work,” they say. And they don’t; they’ve made sure of that.

–Paul Graham

How many writers do you know who regularly blame menial tasks for their lack of progress on their manuscripts? Do you ever feel sympathy because you share the same problems with time and energy?

Have you ever thought that the problem might not be that you have too much to do? It might instead be that you’re procrastinating.

Do you have a favorite television show? How often have you put off watching that program so that you could wash the dishes or catch up the laundry? I’d chance to say that it isn’t all that often.

As long as you treat your writing as a hobby–as something less important than the menial household chores you’re happy to put off when it suits you–you’ll never successfully complete a manuscript–whether it’s your first or your third.

Do you find writer’s groups helpful? I’m a member of many groups, but the truth is, I don’t receive email for most of those groups. I want access when I need it, but I don’t want the day-to-day hassle of 200 emails in my inbox.

My writer’s group, HEA Writers Group, is much more lenient than others, because I don’t worry about what topics we discuss. But then again, it’s a very small group at the moment.

How do you feel about the rules that many of the popular writer’s groups use to control the group? Are they necessary, or do you believe they’re a hinderance to discussion?
I would love feedback on this issue.

Also, join my writer’s group at Google Groups for email discussion of writing for publication. It’s a low volume group. Discussion of goals, quotas, useful articles, writing techniques, etc are welcome. Treat it as a motivational tool. :-)

I’m trying out the trackbacks. Who knows if I’m using them correctly, because although I’ve had a blog for over a year, I rarely do more than post entries and read other peoples’ posts.

Heather tagged me with an interesting question (and if I’m using “tagged” in the wrong context you can tell me, but it’s unlikely I’ll ever get it right). She asks, “Why is writing so hard sometimes?”

I don’t know. More often than not, for me, writing is hard. If I knew how to make it easy, ever, I’d sell the idea for a million and retire for a couple of years. (A million doesn’t go as far these days as it used to, does it?)

Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes it’s like looking in a mirror and seeing a stranger. Whether standing behind you or beside you, it is you and you wonder how you got there, because you thought you were here. And then there are the days when you know who you are, but you don’t, and you wonder. Do I know what I’m doing? Do I know who I am when I’m not writing?

If you can answer yes, you’re lucky, and you shouldn’t forget that. But if you answered no, then you’re like me and that’s not such a bad place to be.

But it can be better.

I’m not a philosopher, far from it. But I know a few tricks when it comes to writing.

If you’re a member of a lot of writing listserves, go no mail and mean it. Don’t visit the web interface and read the messages you’re not getting, because you don’t want to see what other authors are saying. You need freedom to remember why you’re a writer and freedom to think your own thoughts. Sure you learn from these other authors, and sure you enjoy their company, but if you don’t concentrate on yourself, you might forget who you are and why you do what you do. How can you write what’s in your heart and in your head if you don’t even know who you are when you’re not someone else?

If you have a critique partner or a critique group, choose to keep it all to yourself for a change. Don’t talk about it, don’t write about it in email, or in any other fashion. You’ve always been told to share, but in this instance you want to be stingy and keep what’s you close to yourself.

Don’t post excerpts for anyone to see. Posting is committing and committing is for later. You need your space and you need air, and you certainly don’t need someone breathing down your neck for more.

Remember to laugh, because laughing is as fun as writing should be. Even that which is hard is good, and running from a beehive with your friends is terrifying until you’ve gotten away. And then you laugh until you cry and roll around on the grass, and wasn’t that the best day you ever had?

If you take writing too seriously maybe you’re not taking it seriously enough. If it’s a forever kind of thing you want from this you’ll have to let go. You can’t live in the moment forever and the future doesn’t exist. You have to want it today and tomorrow and yesterday, but if you do, you’re going to lose yourself, because when is life about work and how does living take second place to something else? It shouldn’t and you should remember this when your son asks you to look at his project because the next time you look he’ll be gone.

Take it one moment at a time and remember that one moment isn’t all you get. Your lifetime is full of moments and when you remember that you’ll realize tomorrow is tomorrow and today is today and you do have to live in the moment after all. But that isn’t so bad, because you’re not waiting for tomorrow. Tomorrow is waiting for you.

For those people who believe you have to force yourself to work through just about anything: It’s easy to understand your own processes but almost impossible to understand another’s. Even I find myself thinking a friend’s method can’t be right, can’t be the best way, because I know my way is best. Only the truth is, my way is best for me, and maybe not even that. My way is best for me sometimes, and my other ways are best for me at other times.

Today, I can’t concentrate on working, because I’ve had some bad news about my grandfather. It’s not the worst possible news, but it could be at any time, and that keeps my mind from settling on anything long enough to focus. And without focus, I’m not worth much.

My ability (my need) to focus on one thing to the exclusion of all else is my greatest strength (and my most damning weakness) as a writer. Because if the thing I’m focused on is not my writing for the day, then my writing isn’t going to get done.

I’ve tried to change my ways, for too long. There’s a point you reach when you have to stop working against your natural tendencies and starting working with them. I think I’ve reached that point. But I’ve also noticed that it’s just as hard to set up a method based on something you know and feel but can’t quite understand as it is to set up a method you think should work but never does.

Tell me to sit in my chair and write and I’ll ignore you. I’ve learned my lessons about writing, and for me, if I force myself to write when I can’t, I hate writing. I hate it with enough passion to avoid it as long as possible. And then I write, and I realize how much I love to write. How much I depend on it to keep me balanced.

Okay, I just read my last post, and thank goodness I didn’t say anything too embarrassing. ;-)

Today, I had the commute, and instead of letting myself drive comatose, I plotted. It’s interesting the kinds of things a person can come up with in an hour, but I am trying to remember Elmore Leonard’s words, paraphrasing here: I try to leave out the parts people skip.

Leave out the boring parts, in other words. It makes for a much tighter story. :-)

Something I read in Lawrence Block’s Telling Lies for Fun & Profit has stuck with me this last week. “Submit relentlessly” he says. It kinda makes me feel guilty that I only submitted my last book to about 4 people before I set it aside. It was necessary though, because I discovered a major problem with the beginning that I must fix before I send it out again–and yes, I will send it out again!

But there’s the whole wanting to finish my current project before I go back to the previous. Unfortunately, the current project is taking much longer than I’d planned!

I’ve recently made some resolutions and I feel good about them. Change is difficult, much more difficult in real life than in fiction, I believe. But I intend to take this seriously, and we’ll see how I’m doing in a few weeks.