The Greatest Thing in Life

I have a whole beautiful batch of pictures Todd took yesterday at Rainier National Park. What an amazing mountain. We even spotted climbers headed to Camp Muir from the lookout.

All the snow melt yesterday had the waterfalls in the streams running full! It is my favorite part of spring in the mountains. The roar of water as it thunders down from glacier ice packs. And it's clear blue water. I could even see the very old water in the glaciers glinting blue in the sun way up toward the summit. Incredible.

It was a very nice day of vacation. We drove everywhere we could in the park and then got out and hiked a bit. So much flooding damage that we couldn't go past Paradise, but we'll be back after the snow melts and they can see the total damage that happened last winter. And after the roads are repaired and reopened.

We live so close! We'll be back to hike and camp for sure.

It was a great day. Today, back to work and then tonight is Pirates 3! I can't wait.

Keep moving forward.

Hello? Anybody Home?

My writing muse is bewildered with me this week. She's trying to tell me (I picture some Julia Roberts' Tink character, so bear with me) what to write next and I'm not listening. It's one of those weeks. Everything conspires to keep me from the writing. They say taking a new job is one of the most stressful things in a person's life. Yep. I agree. But it will be so worth it!

I'm heading out today to hike Mt. Rainier with hubby. We're scouting camping spots for this summer!

Keep moving forward!

Cultural Literacy.

Thinking a lot about engaging with our culture lately. I know people who don't read fiction (who don't know the difference between fiction and non-fiction) and yet attempt to change our culture.

Please excuse me while I go laugh out loud.

This is not the way to change anything. If you don't yearn for cultural literacy, and then seek to find out how people view the world (from their viewpoint, not yours), you'll get nowhere.

Please don't settle, people. When we think we've got a grasp on our culture and don't have to read fiction (and non-fiction) in order to know how to interact with other people . . . because we know it all already . . . we need to wake up. We are deceiving ourselves. I didn't say it. E.D. Hirsch Jr. did. Read the book.

Keep moving forward.

Striving For Perfect

So, hubby is finishing a class paper for his last class and I get to edit (I'm delighted to help him in this way; his professors have no idea that he's married to a professional writer and editor) and last night I started to edit his fine writing that talks about how Henry Ford exhibited or did not exhibit the 21 Laws of Leadership in building Ford Motor into a powerhouse company. I started to developmentally advise him on how to make this stronger here, how to soften his intention here, and he stopped me and said "hey, you don't have to make this perfect. I'll take a B. We don't have to get 100% every time."

And I took a breath and relaxed.

What is it with me? I am going to have to lower my expectation threshold significantly in the next few weeks due to a huge change in my business and focus. I'm going to have to calm down and quit trying to make everything perfect.

I run at such high levels that I am a bit concerned that I will know how to slow down.

As a writer though, especially one who HAS TO THINK to write, this is so vital. When faced with multiple projects and magazine queries and novel writing, it is so easy (for me) to just take it all on and try to conquer the goals I've set up by brute force. That is not the power of a writer.

Someone told me a long time ago, "If you can't beat it straight up, just be a heck of a lot smarter."

I think THAT is a writer. I can't do all the goals I have AND write amazing prose. I have to choose. Well, I've already chosen. And now in the next two weeks, I will be learning how to DO that. On a daily basis.

I learn something all the time. I'm so glad.

Keep moving forward.

A New Day.

No, I'm not singing Celine Dion songs on this blog. It really is a new day. Hubby finished the first draft of his final school paper. He's off golfing to celebrate. In the rain.

My writing work has begun in earnest again. Book reviews, essays, non-fiction, fiction. I'm excited and will be sharing more on this blog in the coming days.

Writing is thinking, you know. If you're trying to write something and you find yourself having a hard time thinking, you need to step back and think before writing. Does that make sense?

Especially in non-fiction, it's not so much about the news (I'm talking about expository or persuasive writing, not so much journalism) as about expressing your viewpoint about the subject. People appreciate a strong viewpoint that has something to say. Even if it's contentious, people would rather hear it said strong than "I think . . ." or "If I could say . . ."

So write firmly, with conviction, and keep moving forward.

I sure am.

Finally, it's Friday!

You've got to click over and see pictures of my girl, Allison Winn Scotch at her first Borders book signing. She wrote a great book! And she's a Mom! And knows how to juggle!

Allison's book signing in New York

I am so glad it's Friday. For one thing, the work is headed out of here! Woohoo! For another thing, the end is in sight.

I love the end. I love when the end is in sight and things are starting to wrap up. But, and this is funny, I also love thinking about the end when I'm in the middle of it all. You know "once I get all this done, then . . ."

I used to relish being in the middle of everything (I still do to some extent), but I'm changing. I love being in the middle of a writing project, I love the thrill of research and taking notes, but I have to have many endings. Short bursts of energy, followed by "wow, look what I finished."

It's kind of a curse, actuallyl. You see, I share Martha Stewart's birthday and she's the same way. She does projects and has short acomplishments that she calls instant gratification. When planting a new garden, painting a room, cooking a meal, when she accomplishes something, it spurs her on to accomplish more.

That's me! That's me! (waving my hand frantically at you)

I'm the same way. It's been interesting to apply that to life as a writer. I think it comes from the daily writing hour I get in the early mornings. (This week, everything is haywire!) I am already looking forward to Monday when I can get back to my WIP.

Have a great weekend! Keep Moving Forward!

Heads up!

Whew. Lots of phone time today. I'm worn out and ready to quit talking and start work. Yeah sure. It's only 2 pm already.

Anyway, lots going on, not much I can share about, but exciting and very cool prospects ahead for this girl. I'm really psyched!

Have not had writing time this week as a result of the chemistry textbook I have been buried in. Seriously, I edited all afternoon yesterday on it and when hubby came home I looked at him like "who are you?"

I'd forgotten what day it was. That's deep.

Just a few more chapters and it's outta here. I can't wait. Not that the author hasn't been a dream, but it's not my thing. Ugh.

I'll have progress on the WIP next week! Oooo, and news.

Here. There. Where?

So it's one of those days. I took a personality test that all of us writers are taking (some writer got a press release on it this morning) and I'm a full-blown visionary. Well, I knew that, but seeing it in print, knowing that it's true. Kinda takes the wind out of your sails.

I mean, it's a good thing and all, but gee, now I know why it's so hard to live day by day and to stick to a plan.

Sure, I can stick to a plan, but by this time tomorrow, I will have different viewpoints about how to go about that plan.

Being a visionary is necessary for my work: writing, planning, process management. But it's detrimental to getting that work finished. I get bogged down in the middle.

There, I said it. I'm bogged down in the middle of multiple client projects, ideas for multiple personal writing projects, and deciding the best approach to it all.

It wears me out. But this is me. This is who I am.

Today's question is no longer between a and b, but between c and d, dropping plan e, but thinking through what choosing c or d will mean to my plans for c.

Confused yet?

Me too.

This is my brain. Thus, I'm troubled by this visionary thing. It sounds all cool and inspiring, but try making decisions with this brain. Try getting ahead on your deadlines with this brain. Try keeping the plan the same from week to week with this brain. Impossible.

And they said my Myers-Briggs personality, INFP, was that of a writer who could change the world.

Inside my head is laughter. Sorry.

Keep moving forward.

Short-Term Memory

The attack of the short-term memory snatcher has begun in earnest. I am still juggling six projects, but making headway on them, finally.

However, I am working on this one project that has been going for a while and I look and can't remember why I handled those references that way, when I'm sure I knew to handle them another way.

Whatever.

The sunshine has been out now for over 24 hours and we are loving it. It feels so good to have the sunshine (warm sunshine) again.

I've been reading in snatches (just like the writing) and read Alice Hoffman's Incantation yesterday that I picked up at the Scholastic Book Fair over the weekend. Wow. Blew me away. A very short book that is packed full of the emotion of so much. A riveting and perfect coming-of-age story. Jodi Picoult reads Hoffman voraciously and I had started one of her books years ago, but never finished. I am now another voracious Hoffman reader. I recommend!

Writing is wavering between 11,000 and 12,000 words this week. We may get up past 15,000 rather quickly and end higher than anticipated. I've got to make Lenora and Cassie clash and "un-interact" this week in their peculiar mother-daughter way. I'm really feeling this story.

If you have a Twitter account, please friend me (see Twitter sidebar box). Just another thing to get addicted to, but addicted I am!

Keep Moving Forward.

Clarity.

So how come other people can point out in your life what you just can't see?

It's the theme of countless books, movies, plays (Two Gentlemen of Verona by Shakespeare), and everyday life.

I am bewildered and a bit overwhelmed with my to-do list. Six projects running concurrently and enough going haywire in them to completely mess me up on a regular basis. I keep revising my to-do list and figuring out exactly what I should do first: earliest due dates, work that I hate that is bugging me the most.

But I get into the middle of it and get muddled again. It is a hourly battle to stay on task right now and I'm not sure why.

I have seen a glimpse of where I'm going (writing and learning and limiting my copyediting), but I have to get through this to-do list first, before I can jump in gleefully to my next thing.

I think that may be the real problem. We always think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, don't we?

I know I do.

So my task today is to write, keep to my to-do list, and to floss. And to not pick up my tomorrow tasks, no matter how badly I want to.

Progress on the WIP continues, heading to 15k this week and beyond.

Keep moving forward.

What Fun To See Your Name In Print.

So, my copy of Allison Winn Scotch's The Department of Lost and Found arrived last night and I gleamed with delight. This book is special. Allison is cool, a fabulous person that I look up to. She is a terrific writer and her first book is no disappointment, plus I'm in the acknowledgments (right back at ya, A!), which just warms my heart.

Our novel writing group, Novel Success Team (NST) through Freelance Success is amazing. Koren, who started it, Marie, who took it to greater heights, and Allison, Jen, Judy, and Jacqui, plus everyone who continues to be a part of it has just helped me become a better and better writer.

Cheers, AWS!

(and if you haven't purchased TDLF yet, what are you waiting for? It's a great read. And an important book in the fight against breast cancer.)

It's Friday, I'm over 10k on my WIP and headed to 12k today. I am finishing up multiple projects today and tomorrow and am going to enjoy this weekend.

Todd is applying for a job in Miami. I'm freaking out.

Keep Moving Forward.

Juggling Multiple Projects.

That's a Civil War-era fort that guarded Maine's capital and Bath, the ship-building mecca during those years.

As for today's blog title, I sound like a broken record when it comes to juggling multiple projects and clients.

Perhaps because I'm learning it so much myself.

I think it's particularly relevant when one writes books. We all wish for sabbaticals or writing fellowships that would enable us to write, undeterred, for hours and days at a time.

That's the dream.

In truth, I think better writing comes from those quick moments snatched from the jam-packed schedule of daily life. Fresh inspiration, juicy dialogue, limited time . . . all these elements help to create. I think it was Annie Dillard and Anne Lamott who both stated that writers tend to start too big at the beginning. Anne L. talks about a one-inch picture frame. Annie D. talked about her time at a writing colony and how she just sat and stared out the window, or was that Flannery O'Connor? Anyway, the point is that we need to learn to take those half-hours for writing, even more so when there is just no way to take a month-long sabbatical. Some of the best prose and poetry was written in amazing situations.

How amazing is your life today? Anything like mine? Finishing up multiple projects, doublechecking and rechecking to make sure nothing is missed, and longing to just go sit in the sunshine and read.

That will come soon enough. For now, I'm snatching time to write. My WIP count is up toward 9k and will go over 10k today. I should update my WIP counters.

Keep Moving Forward.

Mid-week roundup.

A few things today. Links to books that you MUST read, interesting work tidbits, and progress on the WIP!

First up is my buddy Allison Winn Scotch's new novel that released yesterday.



What Came Down Today

From Publishers Weekly
Some side-effects of cancer treatment are pretty fabulous in magazine writer Scotch's debut novel. Natalie Miller, a driven 30-year-old senior aideto a woman senator from New York, is having a rough time: just days after she's diagnosed with breast cancer, her cheating live-in boyfriend ditches her. She's feeling gloomy, then, when she begins chemo. (Her hunky and sweet gynecologist, Zach, is a mitigating factor.) Though the election is six weeks away, Natalie is ordered to stay home, where she writes in her diary (excerpts appear throughout) and becomes addicted to The Price Is Right while an ambitious junior aide takes over her job. Natalie battles through rounds of chemo and a mastectomy until, out of the blue, an old love, up-and-coming rocker Jake, comes back to take care of her. He seems intent on making things work, but Natalie's long-simmering (and seemingly requited) attraction to Zach only intensifies. Meanwhile, Natalie's journalist friend Sally lands her first big story: an exposé of Natalie's boss. Her loyalties on the line and her cancer on the wane, Natalie makes some tough choices about the postcancer person she wants to be. Character development is secondary to the affirmative message in this bonbon of a cancer book. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

I intend to post a review this month. Great book (I read an advanced reader copy) and a great Mother's Day, graduation, birthday, summer read gift.

Second item is that I have added a new author to my blogroll: Susan Wise Bauer, author of multiple books (I now work for her publisher; more about that in a minute), including world history, cultural literacy, and classical homeschooling. Her blog link is insightful, interesting, and Dr. Bauer is a writer worth knowing.

I'm currently reading her current volume 1 of her four-volume history series:
The History of the Ancient World.

For those who don't know, I was homeschooled for a while during my childhood, back in the day when it was illegal in Oregon! So my parents registered me into a Washington shelter school and I have a high school diploma.

However, I learned more during those five semesters than I did in the other 11.75 years of school. I don't think I'll homeschool my own children, but I will supplement their learning.

And I hope to never stop learning. I read voraciously (as you know from this blog) and I am beginning my studies to finish college. I don't have much to do before I can get to my goal (MFA from Seattle Pacific), but I have to study hard. Dr. Bauer was an motivating factor in my ability to start studying to return to school. Her book, Well-Educated Mind, provided the motivation, and the start of my desire to return to collegiate learning.

I'm working on a fun project for W.W. Norton (Bauer's publisher): collected plays of Shakespeare. I admit I've never read the Two Gentlemen of Verona all the way through before. It's a fun project and the Norton folks are great.

In WIP news, heading up to 7k today. I had a brainstorm (inspired by Jodi Picoult) and I know what I want to do for the next 7k or so. A very cool feeling.

How are you doing today? I hope well! Happy Wednesday!

Keep moving forward!

I'm so glad I'm well.

It's very good to be well again. I feel so much better in body and in spirit. I'm so glad to be headed away from the illness rather than back to it, you have no idea!

Lots going on around here. I keep plodding through the piles of editing. The sooner I finish my daily tasks, the sooner I can read what I want. However, multiple projects are taking longer than anticipated. That's okay. I'll just keep at it.

Wrote yesterday on Chapter 2 of the WIP. I am just now headed to 5k words because I deleted multiple pages in a quick revision yesterday. I threw spaghetti up on the wall to see what stuck and some fell down. :)

I'm really enjoying the writing on this round. I did a major outline and spent months thinking about the story before writing. There is a great difference. I know many writers don't advocate spending months thinking, but I'm still new. I've written three novels, all unsold and being such a process queen, I felt that doing the same thing over and over without changing anything was a bit insane. Actually that is the true definition of insanity. So that change this time is making a difference.

My goal is to outline quickly (within 60 days) for my first draft on the next book and then write a first draft after letting it breathe for 30 days. A first draft will probably take two to four months in all. Thus, my goal is to write two books per year beginning in 2008.

I'll keep you posted on how I do!

Keep Moving Forward!

Hey, I thought April rain meant May flowers.

Yup, raining today in Seattle. I'm used to that, but it's been a hard winter for us, so I'm ready for sunshine.

Or perhaps the weather knows that I have too much work in May and it's saving the good weather for June when I can enjoy it.

Great quote this morning by the late, great David Halberstam (who was killed in a car crash last month) "Being a professional means doing the things you love on the days you don't want to do them."

Halberstam was a Pulitzer Prize winner and at his death was working on multiple books, I'm so sad to say. The world has lost a great, great writer.

His quote rings true today, for me. I love what I do. LOVE it. I just have had so many days of late that were like waking up on the wrong side of the bed. And freelancers don't get sick leave, mind you.

But, I feel much better after a weekend with family and friends and I feel confident that I can accomplish what needs to be done today. With joy. That's my job today.

Is there something you're avoiding doing today? Having a hard time finding the joy to do it?

Keep Moving Forward.

Update on my writing.

I wrote every single day this week (and flossed, which is a total coup).

I have 5k on the new WIP (Let Them Eat Cake) and I'm having a great time. Someone described writing a first draft as "throwing spaghetti up against the cabinets to see what sticks" and I LOVE that approach. It really makes sense to me. I'm totally exploring my story idea this week: pushing limits, testing theories, finding out how the people interact with each other. Great fun.

Next week, I'll be posting an updated Curio project space for the project and you can see how things have progressed.

Have a fun weekend. Do something creative and fun and don't forget to keep moving forward.

Busy Thursday.

I have been on the phone all morning it seems. Lots of appointments. So glad for a cordless headset.

Today I'm thinking a lot about change. As humans, we seem to run from change or we run toward change. I think everyone is a mix. Sometimes, we crave a chance to mix it up; other times, we just want everything to stay the same for awhile so life can calm down.

I'm feeling the winds of change over my business, as I've talked about here before. I've thought long and hard about it, because I would just hate to wake up one morning in the future and realize that everything is different, wishing I could turn back time. I think that's a real fear of mine. Is this the right decision or the wrong decision?

I think that's where faith really comes into play. (Faith in whatever; lots of people have faith, and not just religious faith. I do , however, mean religious faith for my particular situation.) Do I have the strength (faith) to make a decision about this issue? Do I have enough faith to trust that even if I regret it later, I can still live with the consequences? (That sounds so dire; it's just a change in my business focus, really, folks.)

So, big decisions and deep thoughts today. I'm grateful for the advice of friends and family, grateful for my own reckoning powers, and grateful that I believe that I will be guided in this decision. I'm not making it alone.

Keep Moving Forward.

Mid-Week Report.

So, this WIP is really running off the inspiration of George Eliot's Middlemarch.

I'm so inspired by Jane Smiley's example (she recently redid Boccaccio's Decameron in her recent book, Ten Days in the Hills), that I have been reading her 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, and I realized this week that my book is going to be inspird by Middlemarch. It's about people influenced by their community and what happens as a result. I love how Smiley juxtaposed Middlemarch against Vanity Fair.

I'm on track this week. Writing, flossing, editing, making progress. I am just doing a little each day and it's keeping me on track.

Don't try and do too much this week. I really believe keeping it simple and steady wins the race.

Keep moving forward.

May Day.

They are bringing VICTORIA magazine back.

At least that's the word on the street. PRNewswire reported it yesterday. Hearst wil co-publish with a smaller Southern publishing company. Do you know how glad I am of this? I am so ready for that magazine to come back. It inspired me endlessly and was each month, without fail, a thing of beauty.

I'm writing (and flossing) and taking time out to enjoy beauty today (looking through back issues of the old VICTORIA for inspiration). It is May. The warm months are here after such a long winter and we are ready.

I have so much weeding to do in the backyard, but now that May is here, it can finally be done.

There's nothing like May. It heralds the start of a brand new season. I feel the winter illness and cold beginning to melt away.

Keep moving forward.

Simply Monday.

Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Yes, I'm learning this lesson all over again. It is so easy to get swept up into the multitude of plans and events that life brings each day. All that matters to a writer is that I write. It is not a quick writing sprint that creates a book, but a daily pace won over many weeks and months of lap after lap.

How often we forget this? You cannot build a masterpiece (book, painting, business, city, whatever) in a day. It takes consistent pacing and time to build something great.

I can't believe how often I forget this and jump ahead, determined to finish something quickly. I always regret it. Always.

My lesson for today: just live today. Write today (and, just for me), floss today.

Keep Moving Forward.