Writing Inspiration Wednesday

So, who's the aspiring novelist writing over 5,000 words in under 12 hours?

Yep, that's me. I turned off Gilmore Girls last night at 9 pm and wrote until 11:30 pm, went to bed, woke up again at 6:30, starting writing at 7:30 and started work at 8:45 am. It was like a huge breath of air that I just let go of and voila, out came story.

I am over 17k words and feeling great. Yes, the story is rough and I probably used one or two words like a zillion times, but I'm even able to watch for -ly descriptors now and am having fun avoiding them.

So happy writing Wednesday!

From Monica Wood's The Pocket Muse,

There is a special throne in heaven
for poets, who labor in obscurity.
The rest of us harbor an unexpressed hope for fame
and glory.
You might be tempted to write for a market.
You might be tempted to ride the crest of a trend.
That kind of writing is about as stable
and fulfilling as day trading.

Write what moves you.
Write what interests you.
Write what frightens you.
Write what thrills you.
Take a cue from the poets,
bless their underfunded little hearts.

Gadget Girl Tuesday

Back in the saddle again . . .

I really could get used to those nice long weekends, you know? I enjoyed my moratorium on work, hosted my brother (he and hubby golfed twice), watched stupid movies (Blades of Glory definitely qualifies), and ate great food. I need to go to the gym!

Today I'm back glorifying Firefox yet again. I know, everyone is probably saying enough already, but there's a swell add-on that I think I've used more than any other.

Session Manager is a nifty little deal that basically saves your browsing for you. Say you're online using Firefox (what else would you be using to browse, hm?) and you've got four (or seven) tabs open and the power goes out, or your computer decides to restart on its own (my computer is nearing death and does this), or you close your browser window and click okay to close all of your tabs (I have not done this in a while, but it has happened). You can use Session Manager to find it all again. Once your computer reboots (if it was shut down in the middle), Session Manager asks which browsing session you would like to pull up. If you manually shut down Firefox and want to remember where you were, before you shut it down, go up to Tools > Session Manager > Save Session and then shut down your computer. When you start Firefox back up, Session Manager will ask which session you want to continue browsing.

A very handy way to deal with Firefox. It has saved me a lot of time.

In other news: The novel race is under way. I'm rapidly heading to 25k (my goal for this week) and having a blast. It's a busy week for us this week because of jobs and a huge party we're having (25 of hubby's coworkers and their significant others!!!) on Friday, so if I blog every day, I will impress myself.

Happy Tuesday from rainy Seattle.

Friday Fiver

1. We're getting gorgeous weather in Seattle. Wednesday night we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island for dinner at the very much anticipated Four Swallows restaurant and it was delicious. The fourteen of us got an t-shaped table and the conversation never lagged once. It was a perfect day and was a great sight to see Bainbridge come into view and then on the return trip the city lights of Seattle dazzled us.

2. Great meeting, great time with fellow employees, and great to meet those who came in from London.

3. My bro comes in today for golf with hubby and to eat food, watch stupid television, and generally hang out. I can't wait.

4. Stayed at a swank hotel downtown. The first day I arrived I ran across the street to Seattle's Arundel Books and found an obscure Jacques Barzun book (1971) on writing for five dollars, which is a major score. In between meetings, dinners, talking, and sleeping, I managed to read a bit and I got inspired. More on that next week.

5. The novel challenge begins Monday and I'm ready to go! Will spend this weekend finishing up my notes on plot and once Monday's here, it is go time!

Happy weekend to all.

Gadget Girl Tuesday

I'm going to use the Gadget Girl heading until someone comes and takes it away by force. For those who are new, no, I don't claim this for myself specifically.

Anyway, do you use iTunes to listen to your music on your computer?

Check out the Mac OS X Hints article giving a"Perfect" setting featured on Merlin Mann's 43 Folders.

People have grabbed the screen shot and used the settings for their own iTunes. Interested?

Merlin also has the settings summarized with a link to the original article:

Open the equalizer, and from the pop-up menu, select “Make Preset.” Call it “Perfect,” because it is, and set the following levels, from left to right (skip the Preamp section):
db +3, +6, +9, +7, +6, +5, +7, +9, +11, +8 db

I'm off for a few days to a conference. Talk to you Friday.

Monday Book Rec

It's a classic, yes, and better if you can manage to attend one of his two-day seminars in LA or NYC, but Robert McKee's Story is one of those books that will inspire your writing even if you just read the first 75 pages.

A daunting book (just because the hardcover is thick), but a smooth read and one that enlightens you on each page. Ever wonder why some movies just don't do it for you? It's probably their plotting (archplot, miniplot, antiplot, or nonplot).

On the advice of a friend, I'm only reading this book before I plunge back into my novel work for the Novel Success Team Fall Writing Challenge that starts next week. I believe one can get too caught up in the how-to process and neglect the actual writing.

The sun is back out today in Seattle, the I-5 construction is complete, and teachers are back to school today readying their classrooms.

Happy Monday!

Friday Fiver

1. Hubby is negotiating for a great job! Which means we get to stay here! Very exciting and brings such relief.

2. What a whirlwind week! I've not been home all week as usual and I can tell. The job/freelance work/writing is fine, but the messy piles have grown. Getting ready for London, baby!

3. Met up with Jen, my fiction writing buddy, up at the Lodge in B-vue yesterday for a great chat. It always inspires me, plus I then found a great sale at Banana and got home in record time even with all the construction going on.

4. We're hosting all of hubby's team in two weeks (like 25 people!) and I'm so not ready. It's the big "goodbye" for this account and it's sad to see everyone headed out to their new jobs. Times are a-changing.

5. School has begun or will begin and that means I've got some studying to do too. This summer put me a bit behind with my study goals, but I intend to catch up quickly this fall.

Happy weekend! Happy birthday, Mom!

Talking 'Bout Resistance, Willis.

Well, have I had a week of it. This had nothing to do with the job or the freelance. The job actually was fantastic and has been loads of fun. The freelance is back down to a dull roar. The writing is actually going well too.

The Resistance has to do with being in the middle of friends fighting. Never mind that the friends are scattered all over the United States, but they had a get-together last week (that I had to miss) and major drama happened.

The timing of the inciting events just sucked, and the weekend was overshadowed by angry words and a whole lot of drama (on both sides) and I got drawn in to try and make peace by those who were not active participants, but who were significantly affected and stood watching on the sidelines.

It brought to mind some of my favorite parts of my book on resistance: The War of Art,

"Cruelty to others is a form of Resistance, as is the willing endurance of cruelty from others. . . . Creating soap operas in our lives is a symptom of Resistance. . . .

A victim act is a form of passive agression. It seeks to achieve gratification not by honest work or a contribution made out of one's experience or insight or love, but by the manipulation of others through silent (and not-so-silent) threat. The victim compels others to come to his rescue or to behave as he wishes by holding them hostage to the prospect of his further meltdown, or simply by threatening to make their lives so miserable that they do what he wants.

This will not be resolved anytime soon, and that's okay. A member of the group has left and perhaps others are preparing to go as well as a form of protest. That is fine. I believe everyone has a right to do as they please. It's a free country. I know they leave because certain behavior by the group just has gotten out of control. I've seen the behavior and the passive-agressive downright mean actions of a few people did not help the situation. But again, I believe everyone has a right to do as they please.

I just think we're a bit too developed as a society (not to mention friends for almost five years now) to be reverting to such low, insipid attacks. I am scunnered by it this morning (great scottish word, right?).

It just really smacks of Resistance to me. What in our lives are we avoiding by acting like this?

Remember, Steven Pressfield said it best in his prologue to War of Art:

You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture. Ever seen one his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement but I'll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas.

Take down Resistance and just let it go.

Writing Inspiration Wednesday

Before I inspire everyone to drop everything they are doing right now in order to write, I wanted to point out a helpful comment I received yesterday from someone at Feedburner/Google.

Don wrote,

actually, feedburner is a publisher service not an rss reader. we help pubs optimize their rss feed, get analytics and if they want, insert ads. we deliver content to all the different places that consume rss feeds - websites, itunes, services like bloglines and my yahoo, etc.

so, it's not and either / or with bloglines.

See, I told you I'm not technically a Gadget Girl.

Thanks, Don, for your help in figuring this out. I got it now! I will check out the link you provided too!

In writing stuff, big news from a fellow writer buddy. Allison Winn Scotch just sold her second novel! She'll be writing it in our Novel Success Team Fall Challenge that runs from Labor Day to Halloween while I finish my YA novel draft. A whole bunch of FLX folks are joining us too. Should be great fun!

So, with that good news, this was good writing inspiration for me this week:

Routine Maintenance Schedule for the Writing Life

Once a week: Skip to the next part of whatever you're working on, no matter how stuck you feel.
Once a month: Write all day without talking to anybody.
Every three months: Send something out for publications, just to keep your hand in.
Every six months: Clean your workspace: Pitch obsolete files, lumpen drafts, rejection slips, leaky pens, old mail. Clear away the dross, and you'll be able to think more clearly.
Once a year: Take a chunk of time, whatever you can afford--three full days, minimum--and go someplace where your writing will not be disturbed except for eating and sleeping.

from Monica Wood's The Pocket Muse

Gadget Girl Tuesday

Okay, so someone said that I qualified because I keep up with all this stuff. I say that I'm not quite there yet.

I don't have an iPhone.

And today's Gadget Girl rec is just one of those foundational things to survive on the Internet. An RSS feed.

I use Bloglines, although Feedburner is a good one as well.

Anyway, this is a simple way to keep track of blogs and other updated content sites without having to troll through a blog roll on a daily basis. If you look up on to the right of the url that is this blog, you'll see an orange RSS feed button. If you sign up for either Bloglines or Feedburner, you can then use that orange feed button to subscribe to this blog.

Now, other people swear by del.icio.us to keep track of numerous sites. But del.icio.us is a bookmarklet tool, not an RSS feed. So if you don't want to subscribe to this blog, but want to tag it, use del.icio.us instead.

I use both on a daily basis. Sometimes I want to just tag a site into a category; other times, I want to keep up with the newest content.

I recommend both.

Once you get those working for you, you'll never run out of stuff to look at online, as if that was ever a problem to begin with.

Monday Book Rec

If you have not read any of the Hinges of History series written by historian and thinker, Thomas Cahill, you're missing out.

The first book, How The Irish Saved Civilization, stands on its own two feet and is worth reading more than once.

The second book,
The Gifts of the Jews, is an interesting look at Jewish culture and its singular impact on the West.

The third book,
Desire of the Everlasting Hills, talks about Jesus, both biblical and historical.

The fourth book,
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter, is my current read.

The fifth book,
Mysteries of the Middle Ages, is my next read.

A great series, one worth exploring, written by a truly great writer and thinker.

Friday Fiver.

1. I'm on the laptop this morning because we are getting all our carpets cleaned. Luckily, our neighbor does this professionally and we get the culdesac discount. Yippee!

2. However, I'm tired because I spent most of last evening moving furniture from carpeted areas to hardwood areas. Our house is a mess, but it's always good to clean for fall. (I guess I'm not much of a spring cleaner then, hm.)

3. Novel Success Team Writing Challenge begins on Monday and goes until October 31. I plan to finish a draft, my friend Allison plans to finish, and I think other writers also have plans to give it a go. Plus, if we don't finish by then, we can use NanoWrimo to finish!

4. This has been a very exhausting week because of a multitude of things: work issues and stress, interviews galore for hubby (which is a great thing!), and lots of house cleaning chores completed (gutters, pressure washing of deck, driveway, sidewalks, and flagstone patios). We're having friends over for some fun tonight!

5. I will have to leave process behind in order to finish my draft in the Novel Success Team Writing Challenge. I may never learn process in this novel writing game, but the goal is to simply complete a draft right now, not become Janet Evanovich overnight.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday Resistance

And I'm back with another few good thoughts about Resistance (and we have lived it this week; one thing after another after another after another).

Resistance has no strength of its own. Every ounce of juice it possesses comes from us. We feed it with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer Resistance.

Or this:

When a writer begins to overcome her Resistance--in other words, when she actually starts to write--she may find that those close to her begin acting strangely. They may become moody or sullen, they may get sick; they may accuse the writer of "changing," of "not being the person she was." The closer these people are to the awakening writer, the more bizarrely they will act and the more emotion they will put behind their actions.

They are trying to sabotage her.

The reason is that they are struggling, consciously or unconsciously, against their own Resistance. The awakening writer's success becomes a reproach to them. If she can beat these demons, why can't they?

Often close friends (or colleagues, families, couples) will enter into tacit compacts whereby each individual pledges (unconsciously) to remain mired in the same slough in which she and all her cronies have become so comfortable. The highest treason a crab can commit is to make a leap for the rim of the bucket.

The awakening artist must be ruthless, not only with herself, but with others. Once you make your break, you can't turn around for your buddy who catches his trouser leg on the barbed wire. The best thing you can do for that friend (and he'd tell you this himself, if he really is your friend) is to get over the wall and keep motating. The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.

Writing Inspiration Wednesday

My writing prompt for this morning is:

In Making Shapely Fiction, the witty and wonderful Jerome Stern cautions against writing the "bathtub story." A bathtub story opens with the protagonist taking a bath (or occupying a similar confined space). During this bath, the protagonist thinks of, ruminates upon, wonders about, and analyzes the past, present, and future, but he never gets out of the bathtub.

At some point, somebody in your story has to do something. How about now?

(from Monica Wood's The Pocket Muse: Ideas & Inspirations for Writing)

Now go write!

Nifty Firefox Widget

If you haven't heard of Stumble Upon, you're in for a surprise.

It's a whole 'nother world on the Internet.

Stumble Upon is a widget you plug into Firefox that asks you to check off your interests from a list of choices (writing, books, design, shopping, fashion; some of my picks) and it nests a Stumble! button into your Firefox browser header. Whenever you're bored online (LOL), just press the Stumble! button and it sends you to a web site that guaranteed to be interesting.

A few of my Stumbles from today:

Fashion/Craft

Journalism

Web 2.0

Religion

Free Books

Writing

Head here: Mozilla to download Firefox and the Stumble Upon add-on.

You'll be glad you did.

Book Rec Monday

So, whoever said learning something new was hard knew what they were talking about (What you talking about, Willis?)

They say it takes 10,000 hours of study and practice to become a master. And I believe it. I've now spent a week in my new "fiction craft" school and have learned so much, but know I have a ton more to learn. I realized I needed to read more widely in my chosen genre (YA) and so headed to B&N with my birthday gift card to do some damage. But the YA aisle bewildered me. What was good? I knew a lot of the names, but not enough.

That's where Nancy Pearl, former Seattle librarian, saved the day. Her books,

Book Lust



More Book Lust



and Book Crush



are the most inspiring, interesting, intriguing, and helpful books for die-hard book buyers and readers today. I didn't have my copy of Book Crush with me, but quickly found a copy at B&N and used it to traverse my way through the YA aisle. It worked! I came home with a bag full of the type of YA I'm writing (the best of the best) and a list of books to find online that my local brick and mortar B&N didn't carry.

It you're frustrated by trips to the bookstore and want some great recs to read, check out Pearl's recommendations.

So this week, I'm studying craft and studying my chosen genre. I am definitely on the right track!

Keep moving forward!

Friday Fiver.

1. Interstate 5 northbound in Seattle will be reduced to one lane effective today through August 29. It is recommended that you avoid I-5 north before Tacoma as the traffic jam will be extreme (if drivers don't get off the freeway during this time). You've been duly warned.

2. We're waiting on a job opp in Boise, and looking at job opps in Oregon as well (Beaverton). Thus the house sell prep continues this weekend and next week (Todd has vacation for 10 days). We may not know anything for a few months yet. We're cutting it close!

3. Job is becoming much more interactive with the London colleagues (I love this!). The Department of Corrections (as we call ourselves in production) is a great group of people. I'm honored to be part of the team.

4. Writing is full steam ahead. Lots of thinking and writing work done this week and more to go. Working on a creating a writing life, which means putting up strict boundaries around my writing and what I'm interested in.

5. Thinking about our next house: do we want town or country? Must think more on that.

Resistance Again

Resistance has reared its ugly head.

Today I name "Anti-Resistance" Thursday. It will be a weekly item.
So even if you find this blog only once a week, try to get here on Thursday, okay?
From War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Resistance Is Infallible

Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North--meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.
We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action we must follow before all others.
Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.

Keep moving forward. Face your resistance head on.

Lower Your Threshold

I'm very tough on myself. I have extremely high expectations of what I can accomplish in a week's time, even in a day's time. Last night, I realized that I need to lower my threshold and give myself some breathing time. When I write out a task list for my writing or studying, I need to take it down a notch, usually by a third, or sometimes a half. There is just no excuse for me to try and keep up with the fastest producers in literature. Sure Anthony Trollope could write a legible 250 words in 15 minutes, but that may not work for me right now.

I'm learning to slow down and focus on the scene at hand in my novel. To really discover the one event in each scene that gives the writing a pulse, a rhythm, that basically makes it come to life.

I realized this week that my writing is a lot of events tumbling around together, but there is no coherent event that gives it a pulse.

Thus, I've got to slow it down, get the pulse, and move on from there.

Must get to the day job. Lots going on this week.

Keep moving forward.

The Writing Life

All I did was glance out the window yesterday afternoon and saw two people talking on the sidewalk. It prompted an entire short story!

That's the kind of inspiration Sandra Scofield's nifty little tome, The Scene Book, has provided to me. I'm realizing that the building blocks of good writing are one part inspiration, two parts craft. After receiving such helpful feedback from my critique group, I have decided my craft is sorely lacking. Scofield pushes craft in her book, and it's not easy by any means. However, it is inspiring and I am determined to push myself to become better.

And who knows, some short stories may just be submitted to publishers first!

Keeping moving forward.

Cancel Texas

Yep, we are not moving to Texas. I'm so relieved you cannot even begin to know. I'm bummed for hubby, but so so so so so happy that I don't have to move there. No offense to Texans, but I just don't like your state. Been there, visited, and that's enough for me. I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, where it's green and rainy, and the ocean is just over there and yes we get slugs and lots of weeds, but this is home. (I know many Texans can't stand the PNW; so we're even now.)

Now we have no idea where we may have to move. But the relief is palpable even now as I think about it and I am happy to go to Portland or Colorado or somewhere farther north in Washington. No worries now.

Buh-bye, Texas. Hasta la vista, Dallas.

Had a great weekend away. I turned another year older while sitting on the beach soaking up the rays. Wonderful! I also ate too much incredible food and laughed and talked and laughed some more. My baby niece is so adorable and she likes to laugh too. So we got along splendidly.

In freelance news: Writing like a fiend. Studying fiction craft and writing short stories constantly in between reading Chekhov's short story collection (it is the abridged volume, yes). Also have a stack of movies to watch in order to "novelize" scenes: a great craft builder. Getting ready to dive into Steven Pressfield's novels on Greece and Rome (have them on hold at the library). Have a few job offers to respond to and a lot of style guide work for my job, plus copyediting work headed to me this week as well. Lots to do and ready to go!

Still learning about resistance and how to say "no" when under too much pressure. This is vital to learn. If you haven't read Steven Pressfield's War of Art, please get it and read it. An amazing (very short) read full of incredible truth.

Onward forward.

Go Back To the Book

I confess, I've been chased around this week by the big R word: resistance. (If you've read any of the blog in the past six months, you'll know that I'm a rabid fan of Steven Pressfield's War of Art, which deals with the resistance you feel when aspiring to higher callings, i.e., writing or artistic endeavors.)

So guess what has been carried around with me all week long? Yep, Pressfield has been regular company in those darkest of moments. I know why I'm letting resistance chase me; it's a big week for hubby and me. We will find out how the next 15 months will shake out; one way or the other.

So, I tend to bury my head into style guide issues and freelance work and after dinner, I lapse into fiction land. It may be "sticking my head in the sand," but it sure works. I'm staying sane and Pressfield reminds me daily that this resistance thing can be conquered, if you truly desire to break through.

And I do.

Up to 14k on the fiction and we're headed out tomorrow for the weekend, but I will still be writing. Have no fear.

And remember, resistance is your true north. Whatever you're getting the most flack for, that is probably what you're supposed to be doing.

Keep moving forward.

And The Curtain Falls On July

Can you believe it?

Not me. I'm still blissfully in denial. I have another month of summer before August gets here. Wake me up when it's September, okay?

On a more serious note, I wrote 2,000 more words on my novel last night. So we're at 12,000 words (yes, I keep going backward, because I'm tossing out sections along the way). No more tossing sections from here on though. Need to just finish a draft and then we can edit.

Lots of style guide work to do today on the job and then some freelance stuff that I need to finish before I head out Thursday/Friday.

I can't wait!

Have a great Tuesday!

Monday Again

Great weekend! Hope everyone had a great one as well. I've been so MIA lately on this blog. I will try and interact better in August.

First thing: short week due to vacation; only Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday posts.

Then, it's Shark Week on the Discovery Channel; don't forget.

As for me, we still are in limbo on the move/job for hubby sitch. I am hanging in there and feel great after we accomplished so much this weekend in the yard and house. Pulled out a dead tree and cleared out some dead plants (our winter killed off a lot of our growth) and we made the rounds at the nurseries to choose new ones, plus we decided on our plan to redo the side yard. Should work! If we sell, we'll be ready; plus if we don't sell, it will look great! I decluttered more too. A big help for a home sale is decluttering. Even though we might be completely moved out by the time we put this house on the market.

Writing is going great. This week is another 10k week on the novel WIP. I may not have time for crits, so still waiting on that until later today. Started reading a collection of Anton Chekhov's short stories. Fabulous. You haven't lived until you've read some of those.

Also found a great link to some great short stories out there:

Short Story Vault

Onward forward!

Friday Fiver.

1. Sunshine is out today. Gorgeous. This is the PNW at its best.

2. We are waiting to hear on several job opps for hubby. I am beyond worrying; it's more like an out-of-body experience now. Whatever happens will just happen.

3. Lots of job-job work to do. Love it. Lots of freelance work too. I'm not sure how that happened. Luckily, it's all my fav clients and the best projects I could hope for. Makes summer evenings delightful.

4. Victoria Beckham is my new celebrity crush. "That's so major" is my new saying, and I hope I don't bug my British coworkers too much by saying it.

5. Yard work weekend. My Mom gave me some great tips on making it quick and easy. I'm so stoked (word of the day, sorry).

Hope your Friday is going well. Enjoy the weekend!

Onward forward.

Upgrading Firefox.

If you haven't taken time to download Mozilla Firefox, you are missing out. And if you haven't looked at the add-ons available for Firefox, get over there NOW.

Mozilla Firefox

Del.icio.us
Twitter
FoxyTunes

Seriously, people, it will change your life.

ETA: Just got an email from a headhunter. Nordstrom needs a full-time contract fill-in copyeditor to cover a maternity leave in Seattle. Anyone interested? It's a great position.

In Praise of Editors.

Going along with this Salon piece, I have a few words to add.

I am gratified by the editing I've received this week by several people. First up, my editor for these two articles I just turned in. I felt buoyed, not sunk; inspired, not chastised. I have a few rewrite issues to deal with but what a great experience! Kamiya, the author of the Salon piece, is right when he says,

"Good editors work with and not against a writer. They calibrate how aggressively they edit according to how good the writer is, how good the piece is, the type of piece it is, the kind of relationship they have with the writer, how tight the deadline is, and what mood they're in. But an editor's primary responsibility is not to the writer but to the reader. He or she must be ruthlessly dedicated to making the piece stronger. Since this is ultimately a subjective judgment, and quite a tricky one, a good editor needs to be as self-confident as a writer."

And the second set of editors is my critique group (I know, they don't think of themselves as editors, just as crit buddies, but they were so helpful; I'm not sure they really know how much) who took the first 2000 words of my fledgling novel and went through it line by line.

Seriously, I think heaven opened up and I saw the light. Not that I know exactly how to fix it, but I know that it's fixable and that's half the battle.

So, cheers to editors, crit groups, and to editors again.

It is the most fun to be edited when you are in fact an editor, I think. I've spent too many years editing everyone else without even knowing how good it feels and how cathartic it can be.

Try it! Send your work out there. It's so worth it!

Onward, forward!

Theme statements

Jack Hart's book, Writer's Coach, had a great tip on approaching writing assignments.

Write a theme statement.

Hart says,

"I always start every piece of writing I do by thinking about what is the core thing that I really want to say. And the first thing that I always write is theme -- the word theme, t-h-e-m-e, colon -- and then try to come up with a theme statement that is a simple subject-predicate-object sentence that is my core idea."

Great idea, right?

It works! Try it.

Onward, forward.

Monday Fiver.

1. Yes, I read HP7. Took me less than 7 hours on Saturday and it was good. Very good. No more info in case readers have not finished (like my hubby and friend, J).

2. We started packing and cleaning in preparation to sell. Heard from our realtor on Saturday and all that matters now is Todd's interviews. Send him good vibes, please.

3. Still raining up here. Makes it easier to weed, but harder to clean pine needles from our back yard. This will be fun.

4. Two articles are done and going in today. 2000-word section of WIP has been posted to crit group (finally, I am so slow doing this; forgive me crit group friends)

5. Packing up my office first; something slightly freeing about making my focus solely fiction for the next 15 months. I will sell a novel in 2008 with my writing goal buddy, Jen. We will! She's way ahead of me though, so I am striving to catch up!

My entire family is now home safe from Afghanistan and Iraq and no one else will be going over. You have no idea the relief it is to post this. Prayers for those who are still serving. We love and miss you.

Onward, forward.

Harry Potter Eve.

No Friday Fiver today, we'll do that Monday in honor of this momentous occasion. It's not everyday the final installment of HP comes out.

Yes, I'm getting caught up in the HP frenzy. I'm so sorry. I read Michiko Kukatani's review featured in yesterday's Publisher's Lunch Daily and can't wait to get my hands on that book.

In the meantime, I loaded up on books by the historian Thomas Cahill from my friendly local library, saving 80 bucks, which is already in savings. (I read that if you save 80 bucks by not buying books, add 20 bucks to it and save that each month for 40 years you will have half a million dollars?) Yes, I'm strange, get used to it. Not that I'm a money freak, but I already pay taxes for the library here and it seems silly to continue buying every book. That said, I have already decided that a few of these books should probably be on my bookshelf permanently, but it can wait until we're settled in another house elsewhere (yes, we are still thinking of moving).

So yesterday afternoon after work, I was working on my two articles that are due Monday and reading Jack Hart's book on writing and was making some serious progress, when it struck me.

I'm a writer.

Not just in spirit only or because I have a writing assignment. These assignments are the first of many and that officially makes me a writer.

It was a great feeling. And I have to say it sure helps when editing for my job. I have such empathy for the authors of these monographs that we're working on. I don't want to hurt their words, which has always been the case, I so want to make them better.

My job and freelance work dovetail beautifully. It's a good thing.

Happy Friday! Long live the Order of the Phoenix.

Fedex Woes.

Spent the morning chasing a Fedex package around. Not happy with Kinko's employees who so casually let me do so.

All is well now.

Lots of writing to do today. Working on an article and hoping to get through a phone interview without draining my recorder batteries again.

Met good friends, S and G, who are visiting Seattle from Tampa, last night for a lovely dinner at Cafe Champagne off Alaskan Way. Thank goodness S is a native French speaker so she could translate the menu for us. Delicious food all-around, right up to the chocolate-hazelnut mousse with fresh strawberries for dessert. I want to go back soon!

Weather is improving; not raining today at least. (Good for S who is wandering around the arboretum and conservatory outdoors today; wish I could join you, S! Enjoy!)

I love summer in Seattle. Nippy enough for a light sweater and city jeans, but warm enough that the rain feels so good. :)

Keep moving forward.

Jack Hart Is A Genius

Reading the first of my library books (see library widget post of last week) that I picked up without ever talking to a human! King County is very automated.

Jack Hart, editor at the Oregonian in Portland, Oregon wrote A Writer's Coach, which is a fantastic book.

Some great tips on writing and writer's block and beginning a writing project (any writing project, for that matter).

I am really enjoying it and delighted that once I'm done with it I don't have to find a place for it on my overcrowded bookshelves!

It's still raining here. I'm in today finishing a glossary, starting a new project, and writing a first draft on an article that's due Monday.

Onward!

Rain, Rain Go Away

What is it with July in the PNW? Yes, folks, it rains year-round in Seattle. It's very gray and overcast out there today; almost chilly.

A great day to polish off a few projects and make some progress on my to-do list.

In writing news: I'm feeling a need to just keep writing and deal with it later. Must be my mood. I did find top-notch editorial coaches last night, so now to get ready for them. Need to just write today and let it be.

My mood matches the weather. I am off to rectify that right now.

Keep moving forward.

Still Flying

Spent the weekend with family and it was great fun. Picking blueberries at Roman's with baby niece, bbq with family, relaxed meandering walk in the evening cool, then church out under the oak trees at my folks' church (Calvary Chapel Corvallis). Lunch at the Mexican joint and then everyone tore off to their own separate agendas: naps, paperwork, driving north on 1-5 back home.

But the biggest development is my successful meeting late Friday afternoon with my new fiction writing buddy. I came away so inspired I missed my exit on 167 south and had to double back. We are planning to sell our novels in 2008 together. I have to catch up quite a bit with Jen, but it can be done. I have decided which manuscript I'm focusing on and now will find a fiction coach to help me rework my story. This will keep me on track and focused and I'm so excited!

It is the most incredible experience to meet a fellow fiction writer to bounce ideas and goals off of. Writing is such a solitary experience that I had long despaired of finding such a person locally. Well, local or not, Jen has inspired me more than I can even write on this blog.

You know what I'll be doing in my free-time hours!

Must dash to finish the work so I can write!

Friday Fiver.

1. Still thinking about Harry Potter (saw the movie on opening night) and surmising how book 7 will turn out. It's so much fun!

2. Wiped out by last night at 7 pm. Too many early morning/late night combos and a lot of being put on the spot with work. I feel great today.

3. We're headed to see the baby niece tonight. Can't wait. She's so cute.

4. Major query team rally this weekend (I will be sending out a lot of queries and LOIs today/Monday). Time to step it up.

5. Big project just about outta here. Majority of it is done, just the glossary left, and a missing appendix file. The next one is here now and due shortly, so here we go.

Have a great weekend! Happy writing!

Still Overly Warm

Harry Potter 5 was fantastic. Probably my favorite so far. Harry has humility! He finally realizes his destiny and it scares the crap outta him.

Welcome to life.

A must-see movie this summer, even if you have to go rent the first four and watch them quickly to see it on the big screen. Fantastic. To see the Ministry of Magic come to life and how they handled Professor Umbridge. Great job, fantastic job, kudos to all who made that movie.

Okay, to the writing: Back in the saddle again. I definitely missed it these past five days. I start to wilt without my writing. I am working on my articles, accepting some editing work from my favorite clients, and finished Francine Prose's excellent book "Reading Like A Writer" (her chapter on Chekhov alone made buying the book worthwhile).

Finishing up the other big project today (the glossary has a hang-up and will have to be next week), meeting with a new client at Kent Station, and reading and writing!

Keep Moving Forward

Hot Sun.

Yep, we're scorching out here in the PNW. We love it, but we're very warm, so if you'll excuse me, I'm off to sit in front of the fan to work on projects, and off later tonight to sit in an air-conditioned theater to see Harry Potter. Cannot wait!

Not much progress on anything, but I'll be back today. Work has been kicking me in the rear and I am glad to say a major project is out the door. Another one goes this week and then I'll be feeling good!

I'll leave you with a link to Galleycat and their profile on Harry Potter's U.S. editor, but scroll down to see my Backspace colleague, Sara Gruen, looking laidback and cool. Go Sara!

ETA: I've recently been appointed by Backspace (www.bksp.org) as their content editor. I'm proud to be a part of a such a quality organization and to be in the company of such esteemed writers!

Enjoy the sun!

Amazon versus Library

In light of our impending move, I've been working really hard to not buy books (our shelves are burgeoning already and groaning from the triple shelving system I've implemented to keep books off the floors) and because have a King County library card, why not? Thus, my dilemma has been how to make sure I can remember books from Amazon while on my library web site adding books to my wish list.

Jon Udell's handy Library BookMarklet saved the day (from 43 Folders; see blogroll) and my sanity.

With this simple plug-in for Firefox (IE is possible, but is a tad bit more complicated), you can quickly search Amazon for books you are interested in, and then once on the Amazon page of the book you want (ISBN must be in the url), the Library bookmarklet captures the URL and plugs it in your library search page, basically making cut and paste unnecessary. And for me, this technology helps make my library wish list grow much faster, plus, since we're taxpayers of King County, the books are free! (Luckily, King County is a large library system and the books that are available number into infinity; all right, so maybe not.)

Also, if you are ever in downtown Seattle, just go inside and visit the Rem Koolhaas-designed Seattle library. It will blow your mind.)

Seattle Public Library


So kudos to Jon Udell.
Library Bookmarklet screencast
Library Bookmarklet Generator

Fun Birthday Weekend

It was birthday weekend over here. Todd's was Saturday, and a friend's was Sunday. We spent most of the day on Saturday out and about: stopping at Home Depot for Todd's present, eating out for his birthday lunch/dinner, and than spending the rest of the day in the theater to see Ratatouille and Transformers, both of which were pretty good. Todd was delighted, even through his terrible allergies this year, and all in all it was a great day.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day wrestling down 24 pages of references for a project for work. The job stuff ebbs and flows for sure and I intend to make sure that everything gets done on time and well, instead of just simply clocking my hours. So I worked yesterday. It wasn't bad. I had a icy Coke, Todd was home (sleeping because of all his allergy meds he took), and it was a beautiful day with a breeze blowing in the windows. Love days like that.

So, my two writing assignments are here and fantastic fun. I cannot wait to work on these. I am finishing up a freelance editing project all week in the evenings and once it's out of here, another project shows up. :)

I read a lot in the past week, finishing about three books. I am deep into three more and hope to finish those this week. It's all research, yes.

We've got three weeks to go until we know for sure about Texas. I'm excited and completely freaked out of my mind.

Keep writing!

Friday Fiver.

1. The weather has been amazing. Love it! This weekend (hubby's birthday) should be fun. I think we'll see the Transformers movie, eat way too much Trader Joe's key lime pie, and go birthday gift shopping.

2. Writing assignments are here! They are super-duper. I am really excited. This is going to be so much fun.

3. Way too much work to do. Job buried me, freelance work is going too slowly. Grrrr.

4. Feeling more organized on the writing home front, however. I do have a book proposal idea to turn in in the next few days. Excited about that.

5. Really getting pumped up for London in the fall. My manager welcomed a visit while we are there. It would be fun to stop in at the office and meet everyone. We'll see. So far, we have way too much to cram into a week anyway.

Have a great weekend!

Progress.

Fireworks were good; food was great; company was better. Back to work today.

I did make some serious progress with writing projects this week. I have two essays I've been polishing and I am sending them out to markets. I picked up two magazine writing assignments this week and I am sending some book ideas to an editor at a major publisher to present to her editorial board. Fingers crossed that I get some positive feedback.

I've determined to short-circuit some processes. I believe a writing process should encompass the shortest distance from here (idea) to there (publication/payment). Thus I've decided that I will move quickly to get to the next stage of feedback. The point is that if I'm stuck and it's not at a feedback stage, I need to push it forward as quickly as possible. The only time I'm waiting is when someone else is making a decision and those waiting times should be spent concocting new ideas.

Good stuff. And it's working, because I'm making progress.

Keep moving forward.

Happy Fourth!

I'm really late with this blog post today. It's odd to not have to be on a conference call or have a zillion things to do on a Wednesday. This day is usually one of my most productive.

I am listening to DJ Tiesto all day. He remixes classical pieces and to me, these feel so patriotic and pensive. Very appropriate for today's celebration of freedom. I saw on a sign yesterday "Home of the free, BECAUSE of the brave."

Hear, hear.

Thank you, men and women of our armed forces. Thank you, families of these brave souls. Thank you all for your sacrifice. You are beloved and prayed for constantly. Come home soon!

Have a wonderful and safe holiday today. And for those in the Pacific Northwest, drink plenty of water. It's gonna be a scorcher. 95 here. Woohoo. I'm off to sit in the sprinkler for a while before we head off to our buffet of parties.

Have a great 4th!

Marie Antoinette and the iPhone

Two things on my mind.

I watched Marie Antoinette for the third time. Yes, a bit obsessive, I know. But if you haven't seen it yet, read Antonia Fraser's book too. Start reading the book and then watch the corresponding parts of the movie. The story comes alive. Marie Antoinette lives and breathes in our world, and I, for one, really (finally) grasped the raw power of revolution and its dangerous "slippery slope." Marie Antoinette was a tragic figure, raised for one purpose, and not even considered until just before her marriage as a probable queen. Her life was sacrificed for Austria and then for France.

The iPhone reviews are starting to show up on the Apple forum. A technology writer I know has a compendium of the problem areas on his blog: Erik Sherman

I will definitely be waiting for the second or third model of the phone. Thank goodness for my Blackberry, which does everything except play music and locate the closest smoothie place. Using it does make waiting for a usable iPhone much easier.

Two hours of conference calls today so far and it's only 9 am. Learning a lot and really excited once again to be in this spot.

Finished five books over the weekend and last night. I am making progress on my reading list.

Keep Moving Forward.

Accomplished

We reformatted the iTunes computer over the weekend. What a task. I vacuumed out the garage on Saturday and then started to paint lawn furniture, but that turned into a bigger task than expected because really we needed to sand off the four other layers of paint and give it a new base coat. So, the chairs are sanded and clean and tonight I'll prime them and tomorrow night I'll paint them. They'll be ready for the big 4th of July party, I hope!

In writing news, I came up with multiple essay topics and began to work on the first of them. I came up with two very good book proposal topics and began to work on one of those. I also finished Ferriss' 4-Hour Workweek in a record two hours and feel so much better about moving to Texas in the fall. We can do this. I'm almost done with Annie Dillard's On Writing and Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies. Really enjoying both of those books.

We went through a neighbor's open house yesterday, only 200 square feet larger than our home, same age, almost identical house plan, just as private and large of a backyard. The price is fair (but a great indicator for our possible selling price) and they will get it, but it may take a bit of time. Housing prices have not dropped, but rather than 65% of homes selling here, just 30% sell now.

So different from when we were in the market trying to buy. What a circus that was. We put an offer in just 7 hours after the house was on the market. We were the first ones to see it. They accepted our offer (full price) and signed an agreement on Friday about noon and we set off to an out-of-town wedding that weekend. Monday we returned to find out that a bidding war had begun for our home and people were offering thousands more on top of the full price to get it away from us. Our sellers were loyal and stayed with us. We're very grateful. We still just really love this home and if we do have to sell, it will be with a bit of regret and sadness. We've really customized several things to just how we like it, and while of course, we'll just do similar things to the next house, this is our first home.

Off to study work style guides and AMA today. An important editorial meeting discussing them is tomorrow and I want to be on my toes!

Probably work on an essay, the book proposal, and the fiction later today.

Keep moving forward.

Friday Fiver.

1. Off to a late afternoon chat at Starbucks at the Lodge with a fellow writer; although she's much more successful than I am at this writing thing. I've also got a Nordstrom gc and a J.Crew gc burning holes in my pocket.

2. Transition for me to take more responsibility at my job has begun. I'm nervous, but excited. I really love my job. It's more wonderful than even I imagined it would be.

3. I'm totally clearing my brain out with Quicksilver and iGTD. What an amazing set of widgets.

4. M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water was fantastical and yet I have to say "eh." It wasn't my style, although Paul Giamatti was incredible as usual.

5. I like books: reading, planning, and writing them. This is becoming obvious to me. My writing of shorter pieces will only support my book addiction.

Up for this weekend: lots of reading. I have a pile of books that I need to just sit down and read. Probably some weeding in the yard too.

Keep Moving Forward!

More tech talk.

So, I don't have to use what I wrote in Ruby just to use Quicksilver with iGTD, but if I want to back up my iGTD, I need to do so. Fine. For now, my .Mac will back up for me.

Or not, if I continue to figure out how all this works together.

So, for those who wrote to say they were not sure what I was talking about, here's an example of how I'm using my Macbook as my to-do list.

Before, using OmniOutliner and kGTD, I would type a task into the program, but I was in the program and my mind would immediately go blank. Staring at a to-do list that demands lots of organization upfront will make me go blank every time!

Now, I can be typing in another program, Word or Adobe or even checking email and I just press the command key (on a Mac) and my Quicksilver box pops up. I can quickly type @ followed by six custom categories I've picked. I'll use @Fiction as my example. So I type that, then a space and then the task I want to file into my Fiction subfolder. So, @Fiction Prepare a 200-word section of my in-progress novel to send to my writers group--that's it! And then press enter. That task is automatically filed into iGTD into the correct folder and I can forget about it. I have another category @Home and I just added a reminder to myself to call my sister about a paint color. It's one less thing on my mind and I can trust that iGTD will keep it for me. Plus, with Growl, I can assign it a time and start and end date and Growl (as well as iCal) will remind me about it later.

Does that help?

What kind of free programs can you find that will help you streamline your work and to-do lists?

Technology to Write With

The beauty of a Mac is in all the widgets that can do countless things automatically for you. I've just started reading Timothy Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek and have downloaded the new (to me, at least) iGTD program to go with Quicksilver, because between David Allen's Getting Things Done and Ferriss' 4-Hour Workweek, I realized yesterday, I waste way too much time in trivial administrative tasks. I also have too much in my head. I need technology to help me. (You can do this too, just go over there . . . see my blog roll? There you go. Now click on 43 Folders!)

I'm even starting to program in Ruby, which astonishes me to no end in order to get Quicksilver, iGTD, and Growl to work together on my Macbook to automate my to-do list. This is going to be great!

But first, some back story: Last week I began putting together a writing notebook to organize my writing life. Well, I quickly found out that I didn't want to write down every single task, because it took too long. I didn't want to record each query on a paper form; again, it took too long. So I figured out how to configure the Mac widgets. If I get it to work right today, I can be in the middle of another project (surfing the web, backing my data up to .Mac, writing), and suddenly, as I remember a task, I can call up the Quicksilver widget, type in the task, and if I did my Ruby programming right, that task will automatically be filed into my iGTD exactly where I want it.

Life is good. I may have to email my Ruby expert over in North Carolina though, because me writing Ruby? This is so not me.

Keep Moving Forward.

Writing and Walking.

I'm thoroughly inspired by Chip Scanlon again this morning. (He's got good stuff!).

Also, get this.

I'm out running a bajillion errands yesterday afternoon after work, in masses of Seattle traffic, trying to not get my brain sucked out by the inane commute radio talk and I get a brainstorm. Something my sister said to me sets me off on this idea for an essay on change. Usually, writing notes while driving is not wise for me, so I kept repeating key phrases to myself and then pulled into the post office parking lot and grabbed the index cards that Anne Lamott suggested writers keep everywhere (cars, bedside tables, back pocket on a walk, etc.) and I was able to capture not just one essay idea, but two. Just from quickly jotting two key phrases down on their respective cards. I literally danced into the post office to mail my Netflix movie (Friends with Money with Jennifer Aniston--skip it--trust me) and to check my po box.

I felt in control of the flow of ideas. This is huge.

I'm working very hard on process over here (with help from Boice and other authors) and this was a major breakthrough for me.

Now off to write those essays! I got a list of essay markets the other day.

Keep Moving Forward.

Oh, To Write All Day

Have you ever color-coded your hours in a day? It's shocking to realize how much time you waste.

So I should have plenty of writing time during the day according to my color codes. It sure doesn't seem like it, after a 40-minute conference call this morning and other phone calls and getting my work ready today.

But, I am reading Boice again.

1. Use brief, daily sessions (even 5-10 minutes in the midst of daily schedules) as times for deliberate exercises of revising, annotating, and reorganizing your notes. This time is not usually meant for entering new notes; it is more for noticing and planning.

2. During these brief sessions, experiment with schemes for organizing ideas into diagrams and themes that can become outlines and/or plot lines for manuscripts. Draw actual designs and maps to see how things fit together; use free writing to find out what themes you can express.

3. Make a conscious effort to delay closure in these sessions. Practice patience by spending more times at playful reconfiguring, particularly at times when patterns and themes seem settled upon. Post a sign, like Kafka's that says "Wait."

4. If you get stuck organizing your ideas, work up a second, related project; the cross-transfer of ideas may help unblock you. Or the experience might convince you that the first project is abandonable.

5. Set deadlines for cutoff points where, ready or not, you will go public with your working materials. While you should caution your friends and colleagues that your ideas are still formative, you can legimately ask for useful feedback about what works and doesn't in your schemes. In particular, solicit coments about what you have done well (compliments are valuable) and about what you might do better: Have you missed something? Are you right in suspecting that some ideas aren't fully developed or interconnected at one point or another? Does the organization seem obvious, or involving?

6. If you want to work at the task of collecting on your computer, find someone knowledgeable about software packages (de.lic.ious for Mac/PC, Quicksilver for Mac only, both are free!) that file materials and ease the task of accessing and rearranging them. But at the same time, set firm limits on time invested per day in learning and practicing computer technologies; both software and journal keeping have remarkable potential for engaging writers in habits that become ends in themselves.

I love this!

Keep Moving Forward.

Monday Morning Blue.

I got to have my 5-mo-old niece (and her mom, my sister, and dad, as well as my other sister) for a weekend visit. We went to the horse races on Friday night and then out shopping on Saturday and it was so fun that Monday morning seems rather blah. I mean, there's no cooing, drooling darling to giggle at this morning.

Today starts the Freelance Success Summer Query Challenge that will run into August. This is when a bunch of professional writers (I think around 40 or so) divide into teams and write blizzards of magazine article or essay queries or letters of introduction (LOIs) to new magazines or corporate writing prospects for points. The most points wins the challenge.

It is usually a heady time, with us writers taking huge risks and sending half-baked query ideas out to as many markets as possible (at least for me). But a lot of writers actually get a lot of writing business from these and end up surpassing monthly or yearly goals.

As for me, I'm concentrating mostly on essays, book reviews, and corporate clients, with the occasional article query thrown in. (I am still not a 30-minute query writer yet.) My natural writing style is the essay and book review, so I hope to sell all those essays I've been working on this spring.

My quick point earner will be the corporate work, however. I intend to contact multiple corporate clients for my bulk points.

I just have to work really hard for the morning and half of the afternoon for my daily work and then the rest of the day I can write. Einstein did this in his patent office job. He was able to complete all his patent work in just two hours in the morning and spent the rest of the day on his own experiments and writing. He won the Nobel prize while still employed at the patent office.

Keep moving forward.

Friday Fiver

1. New query challenge starts Monday and I'm not ready for it. Still working on some research for the queries I intend to send out. Yikes! But I'm on Leah's team. Woohoo!

2. Got to have donuts for breakfast. Love this, but it is really so bad for me. Luckily that's the only sugar I've had this week.

3. No books bought this week. Didn't buy anything as a matter of fact, so put the saved money into my SEP. Woohoo!

4. Found my King Co library card. This is really good news because I will be there a lot in the next eight weeks.

5. Got my passport in record time, which will help reduce the stress this summer as we prepare for London in September.

I may be called upon to go to London on occasion during the next year on business. Fine by me!

Keep moving forward. Off to work on my research.

New book highlighted by Chip Scanlon

Great post today on developing a theme for a piece and it highlights a new book that is getting raves in the press.

Sons of Mississippi

Also, a writer friend has started a frugal living blog.

Leah Ingram

Yes, busy day. Still writing, but my thoughts are so scattered because I am working out a writing schedule for my summer.

Did finally get to watch Marie Antoinette from Netflix and absolutely LOVED it. I read multiple books about her this past winter, so seeing her come to life (even if I cannot stand Kirsten Dunst) was fantastic and Versailles is gorgeous. Kirsten did a good job, but I still can't stand it when she talks. She is a perfect image of Marie Antoinette though, and I did like Sofia Coppola's approach. Very good.

Keep Moving Forward.

More from Boice.

Busy today. So I'll give you a great quote found at the start of Boice's chapter 2.

To capture what you experience and sort it out . . . you must set up a file. . . . Whenever you feel strongly about events or ideas you must try not to let them pass from your mind, but instead to formulate them for your files and in so doing draw out their implication, show yourself how foolish these feelings or ideas are, or how they might be articulated into productive shape. The file also helps you build up the habit of writing. You cannot "keep your hand in" if you do not write something at least every week.

(C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination [2])

Which will serve as a great segue into the persuasive writing thoughts I wanted to write about.

Keep Moving Forward.

The Roots of Marketing

All hail Cicero.

In How the Irish Saved Civilization, author Thomas Cahill outlines how the great literature was passed on to us by Irish monks who acted as scribes, but his discussion on Cicero caught my eye.

But we are made uncomfortable and bored by Cicero's elaborately coaching us in all the tricks of his trade--the many techniques for convincing others to act the way we want them to. For Cicero, "to speak from the heart" would be the rashest foolishness; one must always speak from calculation: What do I want to see happen here? What are the desire of my audience? How can I motivate them to do my will? How shall I disguise my weakest arguments? How [shall I] dazzle my listeners to they are no longer able to reason matters through independently?

Cahill continues,

The techniques of the successful politician, the methods of modern advertising--the whole panoply of persuasion is to be found in Cicero. The figure closest to him in our own age might be Dale Carnegie, who advised that every single word and gesture be calculated to "win" and "influence." However squeamish such advice may make us, to the ancients it made perfect sense.

What does this mean for writers?

More on Cahill tomorrow.

Write Before You're Ready

Okay, so this is harder than it sounds. And I overwrite by hundreds of words. Four pages of crap later, I think I hear something in the writing that could serve as a lead.

Other writers struggle with this: Susan Wise Bauer (see blogroll) wrote a million words for her first book in her four-book series, cutting about half of them; Anne Lamott writes page after page after page of sardonic comments for a single restaurant review, and then cuts it all out mercilessly in her next draft. It's that flinging of the spaghetti onto the cupboards in order to see what sticks.

For me, it's anal retentiveness. What comes out is what I suppose people expect me to say and then once that's out, I realize what I truly wanted to say.

For example, hubby is filling out an application for this training program and must answer five questions. The first of the questions are strained, forced, and generic. Then he gets going on question three and I'm impressed (and I already knew all the information anyway).

It's just how humans download, fling, and crap all over the page until the real deal shows up and connects, sticks, or is washed in the gentle cycle, leaving the gold nugget of expression that actually says something.

So go and write. Even if you scrape all that gunk off eventually, you will begin to see a glimmer of gold in there. I promise.

Keep moving forward.

Writing A Bit At A Time

So am reading for 15 minutes this morning out of my Anne Lamott book (current inspiration book) and just relaxing and letting my brain wander and I remembered something from ten years ago that was pivotal to the essay I'm writing (this essay will be developed into a book, so I really needed to remember these events).

I captured the idea with a quick 100-word section into the word document I've set up for this essay.

I am now sitting here grinning from ear to ear.

This is how it is done, folks. This is how Anne L writes, how every single writer I know gets the beef that is their writing.

And today there are donuts and I cleaned my office last night. So I'm feeling great.

Happy Friday. I'm off to work on a paper for my job and after work meeting a fellow writer buddy to talk shop

Have a great weekend.

More About Writing

Loving this book by Boice. Between he and Anne Lamott, I actually wrote yesterday (and it wasn't bad) and I am ready to write more today.

More from Boice,

[There are] two common ways of motivating ourselves to write, waiting and then working under deadlines, [which] speak volumes about writing problems. The first way, waiting for inspiration and mood, symptomizes the most innocent understanding about finding motivation: the belief that good writing must be spontaneous. And so writers wait, passively, for the inspiration that would suddenly make them want to write. The most common result of passive waiting is barrenness. Tillie Olsen, author of Silences, provides an unusually memorable description of waiting and not writing:

“These are not natural silences—what Keats called agonie ennuyeuse (the tedious agony)—that necessary time for renewal, lying fallow, gestation, in the cycle of creation. The silences I speak of here are unnatural: the unnatural thwarting of what struggles to come into being, but cannot. In the old, the obvious parallels: when the seed strikes stone; the soil will not sustain; the spring is false; the time is drought or blight or infestation; the frost comes premature."

Olsen also hints at origins. What begins as a natural silence often becomes an unnatural silence because passive waiting invites blocking. The longer we wait without readying and motivating ourselves, the greater the tendency to lose ideas, momentum, and confidence. And as unfruitful delays grow, so does dependence on tense, impatient, and unrealiable spurts of motivation that foster eventual barrenness and disappointment.

Doesn't that feel horribly familiar? The waiting and passive sitting as you think about the huge process of writing or think you have "to be ready" to write.

Boice's rule #2: Begin before feeling fully ready or inspired (because motivation comes most reliably in the wake of involvement).

I am so at rule #2.

Keep writing.

Writing calm.

I love how Robert Boice opens his book, How Writers Journey From Comfort and Fluency,

It was such an environment--a comfortable home, a fragrant garden, an evening walk with gay sisters, an encouraging word from a father who praised and peddled her manuscripts--that put into Jane Austen's novels a fresh air of peace, health, and goodwill, and that gives to her unhurried readers a quiet satisfaction hardly to be found in any other novels. She had learned that the day itself is blessing enough.

(Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Napoleon)

And then Boice continues,

When we write with both calm and confidence at hand, we work in an ideal state of motivation, one marked by patience and enthusiasm much like Jane Austen's. Without this combination, writers too seldom find their work appealing and comforting; instead, they force writing with a hurried pace, a lagging confidence, and a lingering malaise. As a rule, poorly motivated writers remain ambivalent about writing and inconsistent at turning intentions into actions. The result is misery, silence, or both.

I find even this first paragraph a breath of fresh air. I hear endless stories about scrambling writers working their last nerve trying to finish a book, essay, story, or copy project. They talk about sweating blood and they delight in being miserable. I always wonder about those kind of reports, similar to what ran in the New York Observer a few weeks ago: My Book Deal Ruined My Life.

I read the piece, but was a bit disgusted at these authors' myopic egotistical blatherings.

I kept saying, "yes, but you are writing a book!" and wondered if they truly hated it that much.

I get a lot of comments on this blog that I choose not to publish and a few came in yesterday scoffing at my claims that people should take a few moments from each day to write rather than holing themselves up in a room for months at a time (similar to the writers featured in the Observer story).

I'm only chronicling my journey through writing. If you need to be more miserable than me, go for it. But don't try to convince me how to write a book, go write one.

More writing talk tomorrow.

A Writer Can Change?

So I'm reading Robert Boice's How Writers Journey to Comfort and Fluency: A Psychological Adventure and low and behold, a writer can change how they approach writing.

In the words of my British colleagues, brilliant.

Everything I've been spouting about on this blog in the past three months is certifiably true. You don't get an uninterrupted stretch of time to be a genius. Genius is snatching time from other things. You don't suddenly sit down and create a masterpiece; you work solidly on a masterpiece for an extended period of time (think J.R.R. Tolkien). You don't change the world by talking about the writing you intend to do; you only do anything substantial for the world by actually writing it.

So with that, I am off to write.

Keep Moving Forward.

Exciting Weekend

So, is Tony Soprano still alive? Is Paris Hilton still in jail, or secretly staying at her mansion under police supervision?

What a great way to sum up the weekend.

I don't care.

I drove out of state to visit my niece (and her mom and dad, my sister and her hubby). It was a great visit and my niece is growing up too fast. I made great time getting home last night, which was a wonderful improvement over Friday's solid traffic jam.

Chip Scanlon highlights his summer reads here from 2004. I'm still inspired.

I'm reading a lot of books right now. Probably one of my biggest lists this year so far. But this month I will have a ton of reading time, so I'm looking forward to making steady progress.

Writing update tomorrow!

Isn't There Any Real News Today?

Besides Paris Hilton?

So she got herself out of jail and back home. Although the fact that the court is dragging her back in about 45 minutes is quite humorous. But, methinks everyone is too obsessed with Hollywood trashlets.

Moving on . . .

Chip Scanlon over at Poynter highlights Anton Chekhov's advice on writing (he influenced many writers, including Mansfield, Hemingway, Joyce, and Raymond Carver) and his advice became the precursor for Strunk and White's handy little book The Elements of Style. Chip's review is well worth a read, for any writer, whether just a blog or a full-blown writing career.

Scanlon on Chekhov

Do You Procrastinate?

Here's an interesting procrastination test:

Procrastination Central

I scored 30 out of 100. I'm a below average procrastinator, which surprised me very much. I think I may be too hard on myself with my to-do list. I do need to work on my goal lists and "granulating" down my big projects into doable-size pieces.

Cool, yes?

My Inability to Write

Oh the genius of Anne Lamott!

"Not that my mother is not a real person, but whenever I show her a copy of my latest book, she gets sort of quiet and teary, and you can tell that what she's feeling is "Oh, honey, did you make that yourself?" like it's my handprint in clay--which I suppose in many ways it is."

(from Bird by Bird)

I'm reading two of Anne's books for the one-thousandth time (Bird by Bird and Traveling Mercies) and oohing and aahing all over again. After reading Anne Lamott, I stand mute, with nothing to say . . . or write, for that matter. Everything is quiet. But then I think, "hey, I need something to aspire to, don't I?"

Of course! The difficulty for me is describing things like she does--learning to write in such a way that people want to run up to her, grasp her hand, pump it furiously, hoping to gain some of her wisdom the longer they are in contact with this master of art.

It's a tall order, after reading such a writer. How the heck am I going to do this?

Ah yes. Anne reminds me.

". . . [A]ll I have to do is to write down as much as I can se through a one-inch picture frame."

(also from Bird by Bird)

Keep Moving Forward.

Busy day.

I need to update my WIP meter.

Just working on an essay and waiting for a promised article assignment to come through.

Cake

10,111 / 70,000 (14.4%)

Keep Moving Forward.

Reading to Writing Ratio

Interesting tidbit on the MFA from Seattle Pacific U from Nancy's blog.

He suggests we aim for 100 pages of reading at a minimum for every 100 words of writing!

That is an incredible standard. A tall order even for this reader.

The Hills Are Alive

I'm officially addicted to Pandora.com. Any song you've ever loved is available. Even some songs you've never heard for that matter.

It's overcast and gray in Seattle today. Everyone's kind of disappointed. But it's a good way to keep the students focused on school. Because of all the weather we had this past winter, they have an extra week of school this month!

I just got off the phone with my boss and am waiting for my first batch of work. I'm really excited to get started. While I wait I am reviewing their style guide and starting to read the new American Medical Style Guide, 10th edition. I have put this off for, oh I don't know, two months?

Last night worked on an essay and began slowly reviewing the 11,000 words I've alrady written on my WIP. I need to make new WIP meters. I'll do that today.

Hubby and I are talking about being overwhelmed right now. (We both are a bit with school.) I went back to the War of Art, but also remembered I need to lower the theshold and quit trying to be amazing. A little bit each day is the goal.

Keep moving forward.

Lost in the Intranet.

Today is my first day on the job as a full-time medical copyeditor for a publishing company in London, England. I am on a team of editors working on a joint project between the London publisher and a large American medical company in the United States. The only thing changing is that I now work for the London company and not myself. Otherwise, I still work from home, during the same hours, using my own computer, but for one company instead of several.

Isn't that a great change? It was a bit nerve-wracking for me, because after twelve years of freelancing, I spent the past two weeks turning down project after project. (Also, to make this change easier, I raised my freelancing rates considerably and that helped the freelance project offers slow down.) I still have a few very good copyediting clients and I can still fit them in during my non-employed hours.

So, I made that transition. Whew. Now, I'm blundering about on the London company intranet and downloading style guides and handbooks and figuring out the process. We have a ton of work to do this year. I'm really excited to be on the team (they are scattered throughout the United States and England and Scotland). And of course, delighted to be doing medical copyediting (my favorite thing as an editor).

Onto my free-time favorite things: writing and school.

The writing has begun. I am so rusty at this. I can tell that I've spent too many of my recent hours copyediting like a mad woman. I stare at the blank page (a client has asked me to write catalog copy for a new travel alarm clock) and I blank. And I mean completely; there is nothing in there to draw from. But I woke up this morning with the copy half-written in my head; bless a good night's sleep!

I will get better and faster at this writing thing because I'm not going to be cramming in copyediting (70 hour weeks the past month to finish everything before today), and that is so very good for my brain. I'm also studying my pile of college exam textbooks and hope to take my first test in July.

Off to study style guides. I will update my WIP word counts later today. I was able to add quite a bit to Cake today.

Keep Moving Forward.