Simply Writing

The nitty gritty of writing is first and foremost about simply writing. that’s it in its most basic, essential core: WRITE.

The term “simply writing” may seem like an oxymoron because writing is comprised of so many steps, so much effort, so much mental energy, and so much time. And too often we get bogged down in all that we think writing is – the word choice, perspective, tenses, grammar, cohesion… We get overwhelmed by the potential of being read or the fear of not being read, the approval or disapproval of our work… We stop ourselves before we even get started!

Sure, all these things and more make up the nitty gritty details of producing a piece of writing, but first, you simply have to WRITE. Bring your mind to a screeching halt and silence all the crap that is clanging around in your head; strip yourself of all that burdensome baggage and just WRITE.

Go back to the phrase “simply writing” and notice that it is active.

Writing: n. “the act of a person or thing that writes” (dictionary.com)

Simply: adverb. “in a simple manner; clearly and easily… wholly, absolutely … sincerely” (dictionary.com)

Simply writing is the act of free-flowing pen on paper. Release yourself to the free-flowing pen because that is uncensored thought, ideas, images. It is the absolutely and sincerely of simply that gives life to the act of writing.

Simply writing is the essence of the nitty gritty of writing because the act of writing wholly, absolutely, and sincerely, is where you discover yourself and all your powers and limitations. And wish such self-discovery also comes the discovery of powers beyond yourself – powers without limitations. I’m talking about the inspiration and the unfolding of creating that surprises even you – the one who holds the pen. That free-flowing pen takes off and comes alive and you become both observer and participant in one.

You can’t plan or orchestrate this experience, you can only show up. And this is precisely what I mean when I say that the most basic aspect of the nitty gritty of writing is simply writing: you show up ready to engage; you take the pen and begin to dance. That’s it. You do this regularly and the stuff you want to write about multiplies over and over. Your skills get better, the dance picks up speed and before you know it, you are performing complex movements beyond your dreams.

You will eventually deal with all that other nitty gritty stuff later, but first and foremost, WRITE: get in the act of simply writing.

Reverb 10

Anyone looking for some really good writing prompts to close out the year 2010 should check out

Reverb 10. 

Especially if you enjoy looking back and reflecting on the year past as a way to transition into the new one, you will really like this site. Reverb 10 is “an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next. Use the end of your year as an opportunity to reflect on what's happened, and to send out reverberations for the year ahead. With Reverb 10 - and the 31 prompts our authors have created for you - you'll have support on your journey” (from the Reverb10 website).

               

There is a daily prompt (but you aren’t too late to get in on this) to help you reflect, process, and evaluate your 2010, each one written by a different author. For example, the prompt for December 15 (by Patti Digh) is called “5 Minutes” and reads like this:

Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.

Did anyone see 60 Minutes this week? There was a piece about memory. Dr. James McGaugh is doing a study on what he calls “Super Autobiographical Memory”. This is a condition in which the people who have this are able to remember everything about every day of their lives. Leslie Stahl who did the interview could pick any random day from even decades ago and the people could tell the day of the week and recall what they did as if it was only yesterday.

Can you imagine?

To date, Dr. McGaugh only has 6 subjects. It is no surprise that “Super Autobiographical Memory” is rare: most of us have to think really hard to recall most things, and even then, we can’t possibly remember everything.

I like this prompt because the act of going back in time to find the events that were most significant, and then recording them, is what helps to seal them in our memories. By doing this, not only do we capture and record meaningful moments to add to our legacy, we also place them more securely in our minds for future pleasure. I find such memories are like a treasure trove of defense tools when negative emotions rise up and threaten to dominate my interpretation of my life.

Anyway, check out Reverb 10 for this and 30 other great writing prompts!

Writing Tools: Planning and Preparing

I gave my blogging group homework at our last meeting: have a private brainstorm session with yourself and list as many potential blog post titles as you can (at least 15). My purpose was to motivate production and to give them tools to do that. I also wanted to help them find direction to more clearly define their blogs’ theme and their audience.

They joked about getting homework: YUCK! And some balked at the number 15, but in the end, they accepted it.

Later, as I was thinking about the assignment, I realized it is relevant to all writers and that my follow-up should be posted here on the Nitty Gritty of Writing:

Writing requires discipline and practice. Let’s be honest, those things aren’t fun. They run counter to human nature. I write best when I am ignited with inspiration. It feels as if I’ve been spewed from my own body and picked up by the muse on her magic carpet and we are speeding around the world. What a thrill! My pen dances frantically across the pages of my journal and my soul giggles like a child. The stuff I write on these magic adventures is usually pretty good because it comes as a gift from Inspiration; I am just the lucky one who gets to present it.

But it’s not always like that. Such Inspiration is like having a date with God; the rest of writing is the nitty gritty stuff like all the nitty gritty stuff in daily living. Whether you like it or not, for example, you have to do the laundry and vacuum the floor. Writing is the same. In order to write well, we have to do it regularly, whether inspired or not.

DISCIPLINE. STRUCTURE. REVISING. PLANNING. PRACTICE.

None of these things come naturally for me! But what I have discovered is that they result in better skills and a higher quality product. This summarized the nitty gritty of writing.

So here is my point: do the homework even if Inspiration hasn’t yet arrived. Write to your prompts even if what you write is crap. Ask for Inspiration again and write some more, even if Inspiration is still elusive. Why? Because it is the act of writing that fertilizes the ground and truly welcomes Inspiration. Writing is your part in preparing the landing strip for the muse to alight. Prove to her that you are worthy of her presence, not by creating great stuff, but by creating. 

Passionate About Writing

This passion to write is nothing new; it isn’t a sudden gust of inspiration or a sprinkling of Muse kisses – it’s just the way I was made. I am an introvert with a mad drive to express myself, an active thinker with ideas that spin one another into new and unexpected shapes, a visionary who sees and hears layers upon layers of images and sounds, an enthusiast for words and the process of assembling them into both structured forms and chaotic storms. Because of these qualities, I am first and foremost a writer. I have always known these things about myself, but only began to claim the truth after establishing myself in a career, only to opt out of it in the name of “saving my sanity”.

I believe that ultimately we all have to answer to the passions that are uniquely ours – those passions that make you hear your own heartbeat, the passions that keep your blood pumping. We all know this as children, though we may not know how to name them when we are so young. We are dreamers in the teen years and proclaim this wisdom to “follow your heart” with loud aplomb. Some of us keep that mantra close to our living even in our early adulthood, but little by little, the passions get relegated to the category of “hobby”; they get squelched down into our hearts where voices are silenced. Somehow we think such passions are merely childish dreams. Some of us learn to function quite well with passions packed away in bone marrow. We learn to manage because it seems to be the “right thing to do”. We are afraid of looking straight on at those passions because we can’t bear to face the pain of acknowledging that we have allowed them to dwindle so.

But I couldn’t look away. Insanity rose in strong defense of the soul when I ignored my passion. The passion to write keeps gripping me, pulling me away from the center of the world and forcing me into my own seclusion where I am compelled to write, driven to write, desperate to write. Feeding this passion welcomes the Muse who brings gifts. I know this now because I made a dramatic escape from my career and plummeted into depression where I was once again reunited with my voice.

When I found my voice I found myself, and when I found myself, I became honest. Honesty made me whole; not complete, but whole.

After two years of solitude and full time writing (it wasn’t all freedom because I wrote for others in order to make money), I have returned to the career. I can feel the hairs on my head popping and turning gray for the days are far too stressful. The circumstances of career demand conformity to a world where the passions are viewed as frivolous and childish. The voice of Satan rumbles in my head with a steady rise in intensity like an on-coming train: your passion must die; your passion must die. It threatens to drown out the sound of my own voice – the sound of truth.

The right thing to do is to draw a line at the end of each day and leave the work of the career in its own container. The right thing to do is to “follow my heart” and declare that truth with loud aplomb! The right thing to do is to feel the wind beneath my wings and say YES! to the shower of kisses from my Muse!

And so it is that I honor the truth that I know is right for me: the right thing to do is to write.

WRITE

WRITE

New Art

This week I got two new painting done by local artist Phoebe Wantz, owner of a new gallery in town called Art and Soul.

I first saw the paintings in May of this year. It was one of those magical moments: I walked in and of all the paintings on the walls, those two jumped out at me and called my name. I had to have them! I made payments all through the summer and finally, this week, I could claim them.

The pictures are beautiful, whimsical, and fun. They describe elements of my own spirit. They now hang in my office adding to the creative essence of the space.

Two of my mantras, 1) support local artists; and 2) nurture the Creative Spirit, are made manifest by this purchase. Having these pictures is a validation of my own creativity. I have them because I spontaneously reacted to the authenticity of the Creative Spirit that lives in me.

The addition to my office décor is so much more than a choice of wall hangings: it is a growing pulse of self-knowledge, self-honoring, and self-confidence that I steadily gain by being true to who I am: 

I am a writer. 

Nurturing the Creative Spirit

Several of my friends are working through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way online. One of the underlying themes in Cameron’s book is total emersion in art – all kinds of art. She also promotes what she calls “artist’s dates”. These are things you do to nurture the Creative Spirit. I worked through Cameron’s book more than 15 years ago and am still changed by several of her strategies and ideas. Allowing yourself to be open to inspiration and moved by the creative energies of others is indeed as basic and necessary to your own Creative Spirit as the act of creating. Since reading The Artist’s Way I have made it a point to seek art and opportunities to be in the midst of art and its creators. Sometimes it isn’t easy to make the effort to go out; it is often too easy to get caught up in the details and demands of regular life and to think of nurturing the soul as a “luxury”. Luxury activities usually get pushed to the bottom of the “to do” list. I’ve made a conscious decision to try and keep them at the top and even better, to make them a part of life and not something on a list of things I gotta do.

On the first Thursday of every month, our downtown shops and galleries stay open until 9:00 pm. This past Thursday I was really too tired to go to the “Art Walk” and could easily have just gone home to veg out alone in front of the TV. Fortunately my friend Sandi was already planning to take me so I had an extra boost to compliment my personal commitment to fostering the blessings of art in my life. She picked me up at work. I hopped into her car, tossed my shoes into the back seat and off we went.

Plates of hot brie, flaky cheese bread, gourmet dips and salsas made from ingredients grown by local organic farmers awaited us in the middle of one art gallery after another. The walls of each venue pulsated with creative energy from works made with metals, fibers, paints, and more. the streets were filled with student artists and their works, vendors of all kinds of wares, musicians, and even our friend Sherita was set up reading Tarot cards. Wine-tasting complimented hugs from old friends who in turn, introduced us to new friends.

When I lived in southern Kyushu in Japan, there was an outdoor public bathing place high in the mountains where my best friend, Kyoko and I loved to go with our children. The bathing pools were built into the side of the mountain so that as we sat in the steamy waters, we had a front row seat to God’s art show. At one end of the largest pool there was a waterfall. Oh how I loved to sit beneath it and feel the shower of the natural spring beat down on my head and blanket my whole being with cleansing renewal.

The first Thursday Art Walk was a comparable shower of the Creative Spirit – an energy that stimulates all the senses, beating down into the cerebral center and then penetrating into the soul.

We writers must court the arts in all aspects of our lives for this deliberate intention is what nurtures the soul and opens the gate to free the stores we were born to tell. 

Creating...

You are Worth the Time!
Please watch this because you ARE worth the time. I am thinking a lot about the act of creating these days and this absolutely fits that thought.

Balancing the day job with writing works in progress

I started a new job in the working world 6 weeks ago – you know, a job outside the home. For 2 years, I’ve been a full-time writer, making money writing articles, reports, and documents for clients. Now I’m teaching English as a Second Language at the university. When I took the teaching job, I was worried about how I could keep up with my writing. I knew I would have to cut back, but I was determined not to give it up all together because I’d worked so hard to build my repertoire and establish myself with my clients.

I only had one week between the time when the position was offered to me and when the job actually started. I spent that week doing reflective assessments of my work, my clients, and my income during my morning time. Then I wrote like crazy in the afternoons to get ahead with some of the projects I wanted to keep. This helped to secure my mind on what I could realistically do and to let go of the things I no longer needed to do for the income.

Now, 6 weeks into my day job, I realize that in essence, nothing has changed: the bulk of my time is spent doing work for the sake of bringing in money; personal writing happens only because of time management and my commitment to it. In both cases, the work that provides income has to come first, but it’s the personal works in progress that drives my inner most passion to write.

When I was dependent on my writing for all my income, I was keenly aware that writing for myself was taking away from writing time that would be paid. Now the two are more clearly separated: I go to an office at the university and classrooms to make money; I fulfill my writing desires at home and outside by the river. This frees me up considerably and writing is once again my playground!

The day job is chaotic and stressful. Some days I think it’s OK; other days I wonder if I can survive. But my final conclusion is that at least for now, this is exactly where I need to be.

The past 2 years of writing for clients served to establish good writing habits, self-motivation and self-discipline, speed, accuracy, good research skills and quick assessment skills, it helped to build confidence and it provided an excellent training ground for online writing, technical stuff, how to be resourceful, and how to make money writing.

In this new chapter of my life, I am ready and able to focus on my dream projects – those works in progress that have been stacked on my desk for way too long. Inspiration is beginning to rumble beneath the surface. I know this because my works in progress are hanging around my consciousness like dancing spirits preparing for a feast.

You too, can revive those old works in progress: put your day job in perspective and don’t bring it home with you. Clear your mind when you leave and let the writing festivities begin!

Why Writers Need to be Organized

We produce. 

We produce. 

And we produce some more. 

We get inspired and write; 

some things get finished, most do not. 

We set pieces aside with the intention to return to them, 

but often, 

when we try to go back, we can’t find them.

There are journals and stories and poems and growing piles of great ideas. Before we even realize what is happening, we suddenly find ourselves in a tangle of storylines, as if being choked by weeds.

Yes, weeds. 

All those things we write, no matter how great they are, become weeds when they turn into piles that cannot be deciphered. Eventually they grow up around us like an untamed garden. The very life of our work can be choked by the sheer volume of our wonderful productions. Where is that masterpiece I was working on two years ago? Where are my roses??

Let’s run with this garden and weeds imagery here for a moment – would you ever plant a tomato and a rose seed in the same hole? No. And yet, we write grocery lists and poetry in the same notebook. That’s OK, but only for a short time being. We have to maintain our garden – pull out the weeds, throw them away, and prune our vines. We have to because that is the only way visitors will want to come. And let’s be honest, don’t we ultimately want to attract “visitors” (readers)?

So rip out those old “to do” lists and throw away the ramblings that once helped to clear your head. Put finished stories in labeled folders, works in progress in easy-to-reach files, works ready to submit on top of your desk to serve as nagging reminders to send them out. Put poetry in folders categorized by themes and ideas in a special “IDEA” container.

Spend the time to do this and keep up with it regularly so your mind can be supple and sponge-like to absorb new ideas. Free up your physical space so you can free up your mind because 

a writer with a free mind is most productive!

Blogging Intensive: Concluding Review

What a wonderful week we have had! Five of us shared in a total of 12 hours of intensive blogging lessons. As participatns set up new blogs, we learned about the Blogger platform – the dashboard, settings, design, how to compose, edit, save, and publish; how to follow, leave comments, and subscribe. We learned how to link and how to upload pictures and videos. We brainstormed for ideas and followed up by writing out drafts of posts, profiles, and bio-boxes. We learned about gadgets – whaqt they are, how to find them and how to put them on our blogs. As we learned about SEO, article writing, and how to build traffic, we explored various examples already on the web and various sites to upload and publish promotional articles. We talked about the value of online and blogging communities and participated in some as practice.

We stayed focused on our work making the most efficient use of our time. It was an amazing and energetic dynamic because we learned about each other as well, but never allowed personal interjections to stray us from the main focus of learning about blogging.

Thank you, Ladies, for a wonderful, productive week! Thank you for your meaningful input and questions and for all your enthusiasm. I am especially greatful that you have joined me in this endeavor.

I look forward to our monthly gatherings and continued learning. Until we meet again, blog on!

Comments I received from the workshop:

I am having fun with blogging, thanks for the help with it!!

Thank you so much, River, for teaching us during our blogging workshop. You did a fantastic job. Our group will be posting a lot and making links to others because of your efforts. You are the best.

Your blogging contributions are priceless. I look at my blog a new way thanks to you. I
got my book in the mail called: The Everything Blogging Book by Aliza
Risdahl. I will share it with you. 

Participants' Blogs

Words from the Parsonage
Sandi's Impressions
Scrappy Grams
Crafty Cupcake

Writers Write

When introduced to a new acquaintance who exclaimed, “oh, are you a writer?” a friend recently commented that “writers write”. Her statement was a preface to her main point that no, because she hasn’t been writing much lately, she isn’t really a writer. I merely observed this exchange and rode along as the conversation move on to other things, but the phrase, “writers write” lingered in my mind for several days thereafter.


It’s true: writers do write. We are compelled to write. It seems we might suffocate and die of we don’t put voice to all those thoughts in our head and all those sensations that stir in our souls. We love the feel of pens between fingers that never seem to move fast enough, and our eyes pop wide with the trill ignited by the smell of a new notebook. We write when we should be listening (or cooking or cleaning or mowing the lawn…); we write when we can’t sleep. We write in the car with the light turns red; we write in our heads when no paper can be found. Yes, writers write.


But I have to say, there are times when writers don’t write. I call it incubation. It isn’t a conscious thinking of a project or an active searching for the right words; incubation is often silent, dark, and it may feel stale. Nonetheless, incubation is necessary for writers to eventually be able to write. Sometimes incubation is meditative and reflective and when incubation is in this stage, you can actually feel the tender life of your writing being silently nurtured. Most often however, incubation takes place in the unnoticed parts of your heart and brain when you are so busy doing life that your notebooks are closed and your pens are… where are they!? (Yes, this question stirs panic.)


Here’s the thing: writers will eventually return to these busy times in their memories and when life slows down then the epiphanies are revealed. When this happens, you realize you’ve been incubating and the muse alights on all the moments of your days and suddenly, you are again writing frantically.


My point here is not to give you permission to resolve yourself t the idea of writing as a fantasy or a luxury and therefore shy away from the identity that you are a writer, but rather to claim your title and simply the stale season in the writing life.


Know that you are in a stale season because you are busy incubating and anticipate the birth of beautiful new stories that will one day emerge from these busy, hectic days. Yes, writers write, but not always. My friend’s comment made me know that she isn’t a writer wannabe, but truly a writer in incubation.

Getting my House in Order

My sister is really good at organizing and decorating rooms. She is an expert. She has training. But beyond that, or rather, before that, she has natural talent. Connie has this amazing ability to blend practical with creative expression. That just flabbergasts me because I tend to think of those two as oil and water, and personally, I find it difficult to think of those two words in the same day, let alone the same concept!

I am always impressed when I see her work, but the last time I saw her in action, I had an epiphany. You see, she is creative; she breathes and bleeds creative ideas. You can’t look at her without seeing the features of her physical being in the same way that she can’t look at space without seeing a kaleidoscope of colors and images and all that magic. The creative stuff just happens simply because she is who she is. I get that because that’s how writing is for me.

The last time I witnessed her at work, I saw those two parts of her as separate components: the creative juices that lubricate and fuel the engine, her methodical thinking, and the engine that makes her excel in her work. It was like suddenly seeing the red and blue that make purple.

The epiphany I got was that I can do that, too! Hell, no, I can’t choose colors and I can’t arrange my furniture so that is actually usable. I can’t even alphabetize my files. But I can bring my methodical thinking skills to the forefront of my work because the creative stuff is just who I am. It just happens.

So I started thinking that if I consider my career as my house full of rooms – projects – I can tackle each one like Connie does rooms. There is the “kitchen”, the room where I create the products that provide my income, the fuel for living. And then there is the “garage” where I keep my tools. The “family room” is for all those family projects and the “living room” is for personal writing. The “guest room” is where I focus on marketing and promotion to get new clients. And the “bathroom”, well, I have to have a place to eliminate waste and keep myself clean and presentable.

My career has a house but it doesn’t have a “home”, my stuff is everywhere and it isn’t very inviting. Watching Connie work made me realize that I need to first do some basic house cleaning – put things where they belong. Then I need to employ the methodical thinking skills to 1) identify problems; 2) identify how I work and what I really need; 3) purge the junk; 4) brainstorm for solutions; and 5) organize instinctively. Then I need to live in it for a few months and then reevaluate to see what still needs to be changed. (I added that last step because I have a hard time with final conclusions.)

OK. I need to go work in the “kitchen” now for awhile.

Meeting with Sisters In Crime

Last Saturday I gave a presentation to the Indiana chapter of Sisters in Crime. I talked about what I do: write articles for online clients. My aim was to show them how much content there is online, thus demonstrate the infinite number of possibilities to be paid for writing. The second part of my agenda was to show them how although writing articles may seem irrelevant to their passion, writing crime and mystery stories, these are many intangible rewards that all lead to improved research and writing skills and increased creative and critical thinking skills. Their reception and responses told me that what I offered them was both interesting and meaningful.

To my delightful surprise, however, the experience was more interesting and meaningful to me than I could have ever imagined!

I have mentioned here before how writing is such an isolated and lonely experience. Well, being around so many professionally accomplished writers was just the surge of colleague interaction I have been needing. I sat in on their business meeting before giving my talk and was excited by the energy in the room! Collaboration, efficiency, friendly candor, the exchange of information and the sharing of resources all inspired me with hope and renewed enthusiasm for my own work and unreached dreams.

They had a lot to cover in that business meeting because next month, they will host a launch party for their new anthology: Mayhem at the Brickyard, coming out to coincide with the Indianapolis 500. Because it is an Indianapolis-based group, they’ve written mysteries that center on the racing theme. This is their second anthology. The first, released one year ago, is titled Racing Can Be Murder. Both books can be purchased online at Amazon and ordered through Barnes and Noble and Borders book stores. Both books are published by Blue River Press and distributed by Cardinal Publishers Group.

As some of us shared lunch together after my presentation, I learned more about their group and in particular, about those who sat around the big round table. A microbiologist, a lawyer, a teacher in the state prison, a forensic artist, a psychologist, a retired physicist /publisher, and a psychic all talked about recent projects, each interjecting pieces of their own areas of expertise as “what if” prompts to fuel the conversation. It was a feast for the imagination!

And I came away more resolved than ever to pursue the company of fascinating people.

My conclusion is this: every day week the extraordinary in all that you encounter because it is there!

Links

Sisters in Crime Inc.

Sisters in Crime - Indiana Chapter

The Excited Writer

“… the first thing a writer should be is excited.”

n -- Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury is right on target! A writer has to have passion. The act of writing is tedious, gruesome, laborious, incredibly time-consuming, agonizing, painfully difficult, and down-right horrible if you don’t have passion for your topic or the act of writing.

I am using passion here as an equal synonym for excitement. A writer simply has to be excited or the pen simply does not move!

To be excited does not necessarily mean to be happy. Excited means there is heightened energy about something. It means there is interest, usually a vested interest, in something. It means you care very much about something for one or more (usually more) reasons. So I fully agree with Mr. Bradbury: a writer should be excited and this really has to come first.

When people tell me that they love to write, but they just don’t know what to write about, I’m somewhat miffed. My first thought is, are you kidding me?! And my second thought is, wow, you either don’t have much passion or you’ve buried it so deep inside that you’re all clogged up in your soul.

I’m not usually so brutally honest as to blurt those thoughts out in the air where the person who has just confessed an embarrassing secret to me can hear them, though. Instead, I usually start asking questions that are aimed at discovering some semblance of excitement. I disguise my questions so the person doesn’t even know we are talking about writing anymore. My camouflaging transition goes something like this: yeah, I know what you mean…. it’s hard sometimes… Then we talk about basketball or dogs; a new restaurant in town; music; painting a room; taking a trip; kids; maybe even politics. I dig and prod until I find some hint of excitement because I always believe it is there… And it is!

Here’s the thing: humans have thoughts, ideas, opinions, feelings, and in there, we have excitement. Something gets your goat. What is it? Whatever it is that boils your blood and causes your voice to rise in conversation is the source of your passion.

To be excited about something can mean that you are really happy and are experiencing some kind of euphoria; but more often than not, you get excited about an injustice of some sort. Whatever it is, Ray Bradbury is suggesting that this passion is what initiates the movement of expression for a writer. I am suggesting that we have this unrealistic ideal about writing that it has to be pretty, or nice, so we think we can’t write about that rise in emotion that is ignited by anger or pain. No! Writing is about being real and being honest about that realness. So my contention is that we are excited, but we don’t always recognize it because it isn’t always pretty.

My challenge to you is to look inside and find that excitement. Then rip it out of its hiding place and slam it onto the page! Be brave; be bold. Write it raw and let its stench consume you. Write it raw and let the emotions overcome you. Write it raw and ride on its momentum. Write it, because as you do so, you will discover and claim for your very own this excitement that tells you without a doubt that you are a writer!

The Writing Process - organized

I’ve never been diagnosed with ADD, but I definitely don’t have a long attention span. I know this about myself and so I have learned to focus my concentration for the duration of its limit and then welcome a productive break. The trick is to be able to get back to the work after the break!

For years I suffered with the clutter of unfinished projects until I finally figured out how to utilize the stops to my advantage and restart in a timely manner. The first step (after lovingly recognizing my own personal limitations) is to see projects as geometrically shaped pieces that when fit together, make my completed project.

I know that I can work really well for about an hour and fifteen minutes to two hours. After that I’m just dilly-dallying around and wasting time. I find that what gets done in each hour or so of quality time is a big enough chunk of material to qualify as one of the shapes in the end product.

The second step is to have all my materials organized, easily accessible, and easily transportable. What works for me is to have what I call a “portable office” or my “office in a bag”. I have a simple bag that is big enough to hold manila folders and my hard-backed journal, but not so big that things get swallowed up inside it. The bag opens out completely – this is an important feature), and has individual pockets for the following: 1) pens/pencils; 2) reading glasses; 3) postit notes; 4) paper clips; 5) thumb drives. These items need to be separated for me so that I don’t waste time or mental energy digging through one big generic pocket to find what I need. A cluttered bag leads to a cluttered mind and this is way more distracting than most of us will admit.
And distraction is defeating.
I usually work on several projects at a time, so I keep everything related to one project is a separate manila folder. Inside each folder the papers are grouped and paper-clipped together in the following manner: a) the original assignment and notes from the client; b) the original draft; c) research, resources and references. Note: in order to keep from cluttering my mind, I never keep more than 5 project manila folders at a time in my “portable office”.
For each chunk of concentrated time, I aim to work on only one project. Which project gets my attention is determined first by deadline, and second by inspiration. Inspiration always takes precedence however, whenever it gets a whirlwind of energy, and just between you and me, this is the real gem of a writer’s life – the exhilarating high is magnified by it spontaneous and unexpected arrival. You absolutely must honor inspiration!
So back to organization: I believe that because of the power of inspiration, and because of its unpredictability, you’ve got to be highly organized so you can work under the shelter of discipline in a steady manner. This way, when inspiration sweeps down and takes you on a flight, you are free to go without missing any important deadlines.
One more note about the manila folders: I mentioned that I never keep more than 5 project folders in my bag at a time. The word “project” is underlined to differentiate it from the other 3 folders that go everywhere with me: 1) Planning; 2) Inspiration; and 3) scrap paper.
The Planning Folder is where I keep my lists. I list what I have to do each day; I list what I intend to do; I list what I hope to do eventually; and I list all the things I simply want to remember, at least for awhile. For all you perfectionists out there, I have to warn you, as soon as you start doing something on your list, you will realized there are many more steps involved in that one task than you originally thought, so your lists will grow, often in sloppy, eclectic ways: that’s OK!
The Inspiration Folder is full of words, phrases, images, paragraphs and snippets of stuff that have no particular beginning, middle or end. There is no pressure attached to the things in the Inspiration Folder. These are like pretty shells you pick up on the beach – maybe I’ll do something with them and maybe I won’t, but they are my treasures.
The scrap paper folder is, well, I think this is self explanatory. A writer would rather be caught dead without her underwear on before being caught anywhere in the world without some paper!
So think about this stuff when you are doing other things this week. Give yourself about an hour at a time over the duration of several days and get your writing bag in order. Believe me, its well worth your time!

Write Before You Speak!

How many great ideas have you had that never get written? Like a first impression, inspiration really only gets one chance. That’s why I’m a firm believer in selfishly hoarding and protecting all great ideas! I never share them, no matter how excited I am when they pop into my head.

I have found over the years that if I talk about an idea before I write it, it requires tremendous labor to put it on the page. And then, once written, I’m stunned by its crappy appearance. It’s dry, dull, dead. It’s stilted, stale. And there is no return, not way to go back and redo it. No amount of scratching, waiting, editing, or rewriting will ever bring back the charm and magic of that initial great idea.

When editing another writer’s work, I do so with questions. “What do you mean here?” “What does this feel like?” “What is the character thinking now?” “Why…?” Inevitably the author wants to tell me all about it, right then and there as soon as they see my questions. I understand this desire. It’s only natural. We writers spend so much time in isolation that it’s really hard to resist the energy that flows between two passionate souls. And when it comes to our writing, yeah, our souls are unleashed in a playground of passions.

But hold back! Grab the passion and run to your favorite hide-out where you can break free – totally free – like belting out your favorite rock songs in the shower. Run! Bunker down! And Write!

These are not rhetorical questions, however. I really do want the author to answer them. In fact, I hope that the questions inspire elaborate answers that then trigger more questions! Play with the ideas; play with the words; play to your heart’s content, but for now, play alone!

Whatever you do, don’t answer any questions about your work with words that speak through your voice! Use instead the silent words inside your head, the words that can only come alive on the blank page. Trust me, these words are much better than the words that stumble out of your mouth.

If you want to be a writer, write first and speak last (or, in some cases, don’t speak at all). If you want to be a writer, shut up, sit down, and WRITE!