Learn from Everyone, Compare to No One…

 

“Be a sponge.” ~ That was the best advice I had ever been given by a professor. Learn from everyone, anyone, all the time. If you don’t stay open to knowledge, you won’t grow in any métier.

“Be yourself.” ~ Another advice gem, but one I’ve fought with over the years simply because I have always walked to the beat of a different drummer, always slightly out of step with the “norm.”

But as the years have wandered by, I’ve come to see that both pieces of advice are crucial if you want to be the best artist you can be, and create stellar works, not as a rarity, but at a regular pace. Harper Lee despised that very American tradition of readers asking, “What’s next?” But reality shows that art is voraciously consumed, and especially when it is good, so that dream of the Great American Novel had better be pluralized, or you’ll be seen as that scornful “One hit wonder,” which is cool, I guess. But if you asked rocker, Peter Frampton, or Harper Lee, they may have a different take.

"How does this pertain to Writers Block?" you ask. Simple.

Learn, grow, without horse blinders.

Create with those blinders on.

Comparing yourself to others will have you stop creating so fast your head will spin.

Comparison can be the death knell of an artist.

Yes, your idolized writers are great. They’ve made wonderful works. But they are not you and your works. They could no more create you than you could re-create them.

I happen to be a fan of Herman Wouk. His WWII epic, Winds of War, enraptured me. It may be the only fictional work that truly took my imagination hostage and allowed me to exist back in those harrowing years with characters who reminded me so of my parents and their generation.

But I had to accept that I would never write exactly like Wouk. I did write a WWII epic, but it’s written in my style, my take on that slice of life. It reads not like Wouk. It reads like me. As it turns out, when asked, Wouk had criticisms of Winds of War, as I have criticisms of AIR (to be published in December of this year, here’s hoping). No artist is ever completely satisfied with their own work. But great artists know when they’ve given their all. Comparison by others is never injected into that success equation. We artists do OUR BEST with the knowledge and skill we have at that particular moment in time, and we give that work to the world, and we ACCEPT that piece of art exists as it should as a time capsule of a particular artist who happens to be YOU, and you alone.

Once I learned to accept this fact— and yes, holy heck, am I a slow learner! — that I AM different from the norm and that is a GOOD thing, I stopped fighting to be somebody else! I accepted Wouk as being Wouk and me, Thompson, as being Thompson, and although I learned heaps from Wouk, I created as Thompson. I accepted that I am different from Wouk and every other artist alive or dead. I accept that I am different because I am an artist, and I am an artist because I am different. You cannot separate the two.

ADVICE FOR YOU, oh newbie book hack: STOP comparing yourself to others, only learn from them. Elevate your skill, but create inside yourself.

FACT: You will never be anyone else but you. You will only create what YOU create. It wouldn’t matter how many times you slobbered over others’ works. You will never create like them. Accept this fact. Acceptance of this will STOP Writers Block in its tracks, for those seemingly insurmountable hurdles of being like someone else will be gone. You will use skills you’ve learned from all those other greats to create YOU, your works, with YOUR expression, with YOUR message.

HOMEWORK: Don’t take decades like me to wise up to this fact. Accept being you now. Keep your ears to the ground and your eyes open to learn. Then, with the skills you’ve acquired, go off somewhere alone and create YOU. Accept the fact that is all you can create. And know the world is waiting not for those other greats. It is waiting for YOU — YOUR work. YOUR art. YOUR beautiful take on life.

And that, simply put, is the rarest gem of them all. Only you hold that bobble. Are you now willing to start writing as YOU, so we readers can take a peek at your singularly shimmering jewel?

Okay then. YOU, start pounding those keys today.

Story Brainstorm - Sink that Writers Block Boat...

 

Your mind's eye saw the start of your tale.

You motored along... click-clacking away with wild abandon...

Then, your fingers stopped. You stared at the screen. Your mind went blank. The cursor blinked on, and off, and on, and off, and OH, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!, and off...

You knew it. The chickens finally came home to roost. You have nothing. You're an imposter. A writer wannabe. Your plot creation brain you thought you had hung a sign on your synapse door, reading, Gone Fishing.

 

Crikey. Just when stuff was getting good, too. Janey was almost up the hill. She could see the lighthouse in the distance. The black silhouette shape menacing her,  pursuing her, was gaining speed...

Annnnnnd, yep, there it was. Nothing.

• This is NOT the time to berate yourself. This is NOT the time to berate Janey. She's doing her best with what you've given her, which is zilch. She should jump off the page and hit you with something hard and sharp.
  
• This is not the time to swear; although, I won't hold it against you if you do (says me, the drunken cursing sailor).
• This IS THE TIME to brainstorm. NOT to quit. NOT to bash your tale or your characters or your creativity, or look derisively at your pet who's made a bed in that pile of printer paper, blaming that poor wee fur ball for your mis-tale-deeds.

As I've said before, you can't make it out of a dark forested tale if you don't know your way.

Dos:

• Shut down that laptop.
• Pull out a sheet of paper and your favorite pen.
• And start brainstorming... scribbling down every insane thought that comes your way, vis-à-vis Janey and that lighthouse, and her menacing pursuer.

Instructions:

• Do this top-of-mind exercise for at least 30 minutes.
• List Action - Cause - Effect outcomes for each idea.

Example: 

• Idea #1: Janey turns around - picks up a fieldstone - throws it at her pursuer > and misses. Ugh.
• Idea #2: Janey hides under a bush - waits for the pursuer to run by > they run by, she's in the clear! Oops, the pursuer smells her Chanel No. 5 she sprayed on herself this morning in the hopes she'd bump into Rex at the hardware store > pursuer finds, her, takes that fieldstone, and bashes it over her head. Ugh.
• Idea #3: Janey stops dead in her tracks, waits for the pursuer to catch up. She sees it's Rex from the hardware store. They run into the lighthouse, hand in hand, and make passionate goo-goo eyes at one another. > Aww.... that's the one!

(Psst: Rex is a lousy kisser, and he doesn't know a Philips from a Robinson. Methinks, this tale isn't going to end well for Janey. ;-) )

What I Need You To Do:

• Brainstorm with this Action - Cause - Effect exercise into AT LEAST 50% of your book.
• Yes, no plot point is carved in stone. You can alter at any time. But it will force your brain to CARVE A PATH to safely get your writer self out of that dark forest tale.

The Juicy Benefit: Your fingers will not be able to keep up with those brand-new visuals inside your head. You will be a story-telling master of your new plot world!

Now, the only thing that'll make you curse is the regret you have at not taking that high school typing class more seriously (Okay, that may be just me. I'm the only typing organism I know who mastered the fingering and as soon as I passed the course, returned to my two-finger pounding... sigh...)

HOMEWORK: If this is you today, STOP STARING AT THE SCREEN, shut down the laptop, and start brainstorming. Consider this the exercise you need to find that compass or GPS to get you and your characters through this exciting adventure. 

• ASSUME you'll discard 80% of those brainstormed ideas, keeping 20. 
• Write each subsequent plot point down on real or virtual cue cards.
• Start flipping those cards in the order in which the tale unfolds in the book.
• Keep doing this until you run out of cards, then repeat the brainstorm process, until you type The End.

Don't make your writer life harder than it already is. KNOW WHERE you're going. 

This is a general carved-out path for you to follow that WILL STILL ALLOW for on-the-spot creativity, but will NOT get you lost in that plot forest or drowning in that leaky Writers Block boat.

Being a writer doesn't assume that by laying fingers on keys the Story Gods will bleed a wondrous tale onto the page for you, simple-dimple. Maybe that's your uber-romantic notion of this career, but that's Hollywood versus reality.

Your New Mantra: YOU NEED TO KNOW WHERE TO GO. Say it with me, now,  three times... la-dee-da! Get up from your chair and do the mantra dance! I'll wait.

Now, with those newly minted plot cards in hand, go and storm your world. 

That leaky Writers Block boat has gone out to sea. Oops, there it goes, stern first, into the drink. Glub, glub, bubble bursts... so sad. (DIE! DIE, I say!)

STOP the Wandering Writer Mind – Your Clue to Get to Work

 

Your book draft isn’t done… but you’re searching the web for book cover artists.

Your book draft isn’t done… but you’re researching editors.

Your book draft isn’t done… but you’re lining up podcast shows.

Your book draft isn’t done… but you’re purchasing author merch.

 

Sound familiar?

Two words for you: STOP IT.

 

The ONLY way you can better your writing habit is by recognizing the activities which take your writing off track. One is the Wandering Writing Mind. This animal has the eyesight of an eagle at 5,000 feet for anything new 'n' shiny, anything easier than writing, that'll waylay your goal of completing that draft. 

And I mean anything. Seriously, ANY. THING. The actions of a waylaid writer can be hilarious to watch, if they weren’t so sad.

Triggers. You’ve heard that oft-used buzzword. Well, consider this a trigger, a clue, for you to recognize, so you can...

• STOP what you’re doing.
• Realize this is an escape mechanism you sub-consciously employ.
• Realign your activity back to that draft.
• And leaving the escape until AFTER your writing session is done for the day. 

From the outside, people think a writer's life is blessed. Considering the mental exhaustion suffered by a writer after a decent writing session is had, it's maybe more of a cursed life. But hey, we're writers. We can't be anything else. We've tried. We've failed. So, we write, cursed or not.

For a personal example, consider myself, and today…

My house is a 4-alarm mess. I mean, dust bunnies pairing up with dust mites, dancing to the rousing beat of a mariachi flea band. Shoveling, jack-hammering out the dirt may be a more productive way to clean this disaster area than the old vac and dust routine.

I had to get the rec room done today (long, boring story), BUT I ALSO had to complete my weekly social media activities and articles, like this one. (FYI, cleaning for me doesn’t just mean the superficial vac ‘n’ dust. It usually means moving furniture and fumigating the diabolical paw print slime my family leaves in their slovenly wake, in the month I choose not to get off my butt and clean (also long, boring story).

It took me 4 hours to complete the rec room.

My muscles are sore. I'm dusty and dirty, and dead beat. All I WANT to do is veg in front of the TV.

But I KNOW that’s MY CLUE. I’m trying to ESCAPE from my writing work, which also demands my attention.

Minus a severe illness, hospitalization or a fun bout of simply bleeding out and croaking, I KNOW there is NO EXCUSE to not get my writing done each work day. NO. EXCUSE.

• Nothing new 'n' shiny. 
• Not a romp to the mall or drinks with a friend.
• Not working in my yard or the garage or playing a video game or lazing in a bubble bath.

Nothing beyond doing my work is the accepted task before me.

So, here I am, dirty, dusty, housework icky me, completing my writing To-Dos for Tuesday.

Afterwards, I can do what I want, even if that means only a shower and collapsing into a bed coma. But that escape pairing is AFTER finishing my writing work. I recognize my escape clue, and I work IN SPITE of it. I know it's just my urge to escape the hard writing work I need to do.

HOMEWORK: Today, make a list of all the triggers/"clues" you find yourself up against when you should be writing on that draft of yours. Put that list by your laptop or near your phone, or near the coffee machine… anywhere where it’ll remind you that you’re falling for that ESCAPE trigger, and to STOP IT, and return to your writing work at hand.

There’s a time for work and there’s a time for play. Remember your priorities. Put that work horse BEFORE the play cart, not the other way around. Your book draft, and your guilty conscience, will thank you.

Now, excuse me while I head to the shower and delouse. ;-)

Writer Voice - Write You, Not Them...

 

New writers... they're a special breed.

Coming off eons of notebook navel-gazing scribbles and polished pro reading... these new scribes KNOW what's good and what's not, and by gum, they'll write freakishly polished first drafts, or not write at all! If The New Yorker or the New York Times don't hire them on the spot after just their first article flying into the ether, then, at least, their first Pulitzer Prize will arrive by UPS later today. Yes. Right out of the gate. They will be THAT good.

I love new writers. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Full of vim and vinegar. And hopes higher than Everest (with deadly literary crevasses as deep, but don't tell these gleeful souls).

The Newbie Writer Secret Recipe: they've read everything their favorite writer has ever written, and they have that pro scribe's literary voice DOWN COLD. These freshly brewed hacks will explode onto the word crafting scene as Idol Scribe 2.0. They even bought the smoking jacket and cravat their fav writer wears! There's nothing to stop their stratospheric popularity now, boy. One typed out word, and their accolades and riches await.

Did I mention I just WUV newbie writers?

~~~

Author Vignette:

For years, newbie writer, Hunter S. Thompson, typed out passages from F. Scott Fitzgerald's works in an attempt to morph into being Scott. Hunter often said that as Fitz examined, and wrote from inside, the well-heeled world, he, Hunter, committed literary B & E into that same world. And anyone who reads these two writers side by side will wholeheartedly agree. Their writer voices couldn't be farther apart if they tried, even if they shared the same deathly love affair with booze.

~~~

Stories like this wane and waft all over the place, where a fan dives deep into their idol's world, to emulate, to inhale that world. But although mechanics and line style can be well refined in following the greats, more often than not their voice is never found within those well-celebrated pages.

Why, you ask?

Because they are Them, and you are You. And you'll not be each other, ever.

New writers are frequently paralyzed by this need to BE somebody else. This is probably why they began to scribble in those notebooks in their teens.

They think to themselves, "If only I did this, or said things this way, or bought that, or travelled there, or drank here, or schmoozed with whomever my idol sidled up to..."

STOP.

STOP thinking, doing that.

You're wasting time and money you do NOT have for a quest that can never be fulfilled.

Hint: The world does NOT NEED another Them. We already have Them. We NEED YOU.

That one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable YOU.

We need YOUR viewpoint on our human experience. We need your heart, emotions, intellect and drive.

Yes, at first, as the newbie writer you are, your literary You will come with many mechanical warts, but over time and much practice, you will open our eyes and professionally deliver something we could have never received from those already celebrated Them's, not if we hunted for said for a million years. 

Scary Fact: Your word gifts will only last as long as you do, and every moment you're wasting trying to suppress them to be Them is time you're stealing from us — your future reader fans.

HOMEWORK: STOP trying to be someone you're not. Sit down, and start pounding those keys, expecting, nay DEMANDING, your literary warts to show, so you can correct and learn from them, and get ever closer to the stellar You, we're dying to read.

Moral of the Fitzgerald/Thompson Twinning Writer Voice Tale: both ended up married to the bottle, losing their ability to write, and dying a pathetic death well before their time. I guess that's something that's aptly copied over from idol to fan. Yay. (Not.)

First Line, First Page — STOP Obsessing, START a Campfire Tale...

I swear…

So-called online experts want to scare the poo-poo out of new writers with their pressure-mounted one-liners, like, “Your first sentence, your first page, must be stellar!”

A new writer reads this, and thinks, Man, the last thing I ever did that was stellar was accidentally fly my HUUUUGE dragon kite near an airport, and get a fine for messing with incoming jet traffic. (Okay, this maybe a true story, and may not be your story. I’m saying no more…)

The last thing a struggling writer needs to read are words like the above, which passive-aggressively hint at, “Write perfectly, you heathen hack, or you’ll be forever tarred and feathered by all in the literary universe!”

The ONE thing I’ve learned about the literary world is there exists queer ducks in it who, in the act of attempting to help new writers, achieve the exact opposite.

Fact No.1: EVERY DRAFT OF EVERY STORY EVER WRITTEN IN CRAP.

I don’t care if you’re Joe Nobody or Ernest Hemingway.

I don’t care if you’re invisible on social media or are an influencer from hell.

I don’t even care if this is your first time at the literary bat, or you own the damn bat.

YOU WILL WRITE DRAFT CRAP. ACCEPT IT. EMBRACE IT. LIVE IT.

Soooo…

Instead of obsessing about creating that so-called perfect first line or perfect first page that’ll get you a book contract with a zillion dollar advance, plunk your creative mind down in front of that figurative campfire over there, and tell those campfire listeners a story. An honest to goodness story.

Don’t obsess about word choice.

Don’t try to shock and awe.

Begin your tale like you would if your friends were gathered around you, eager to hear your wondrous flight of fancy.

Sit down, and start plunking out the words that fit with the starting scene you visualize in your mind’s eye: Where are we? Who is there? What’s happening? Who is saying what to whom?

Chances are that what you’ve seen will end up typing out just right without you obsessing over anything. Either way, plunk it out, and leave it alone. It’ll ferment behind the scenes as you continue writing the story.

Your first line, first page, “perfectness” (hey, I’m a word weaver. I can make up words if I wanna) can come later in the edit and Read Out Loud phases. Right now, it’s all about your tale and how you are seeing it unfold, and nothing else.

Don’t let first line, first page article writers intimidate you into not writing at all.

Instead, wonder how many rewrites they undertook in drafting that article.

And wonder how supremely crapola-filled that initial draft was.

A HINT: if you’re having problems typing out the words, leave the laptop, and say the story out loud to yourself while recording it on your device. Replay it, and see what words you used, and type those down as a start,

THE KEY: When that first page is filled, LEAVE IT ALONE. Continue writing your story to The End, and then after you've let the finished story breathe for a couple of weeks, return to that first line, first page, and edit. Chances are now that the whole story is written, you’ll have a much better grasp of how to perfect that line and that page, obsession-free, stress-free.

HOMEWORK: If you’re first line, first page obsessing right now, STOP it, DROP it, and type on.

You need to write this tale to The End. Without reaching The End, that first line, first page perfection is moot.

Type on......

Mapping the Plot Forest to Escape the Book Beast...

 

Oh, happy day!

I’ve packed my sack. I’ve donned by sturdy boots. And I’m off to wander around my book’s Plot Forest… WHEEE!!!

The warm sunshine on my face.

The soft breeze…

I trek here, snoop there. It’s a wonderland of story ideas I can gather as plot treasure…

I sit down on the lush grass and I examine them all!

Hacking out words of awe, following each avenue, until…

Storm clouds brew.

Sky closes in.

A growing growling emanates from within the plot forest.

A big, old, hairy bruit — the Mighty Book Beast — lumbers up behind me!

I run! I run in circles! I run into dead ends! Round and round and back and forth, the Book Beast gaining on me with every step!

Fear, abject plot forest fear, topples me, and I roll, roll, roll down the craggy hill. Beaten and bruised, I gather my wits and my limbs, and I break free of that nebulous, nefarious forest, never to return again.

~~~

Yup. *insert look of disdain at you happy-go-UNlucky hapless plot forest trekkers*

~~~

Who in their hair-brained mind enters a literal or literary forest without a map? Who? Who, I say? Those whose desiccated bones are found years later in the mire and muck, their carcass splayed out on the dry, dusty pages the Unfinished Book Beast gnawed on that serene sunny afternoon when you were romping around your plot forest without a care in the world like some lobotomized Walmart greeter.

~~~

• IF you’re new to book writing.
• IF you haven’t yet finished one book, much less many.
• IF you haven’t a clue about what it takes to create a complete, well-formulated story plot, with highs and lows — action tension and narrative pause beats.

Then what in the fricken fairyland are you doing gallivanting in a world in which you haven’t a clue to safely traverse?

Yes. Expert writers, who know their genre plot line backwards and forwards, can begin and end their tales without much prior mapping, but that skill level can take years of experience with umpteen finished books under their arms.

If you’re new to book writing, here’s a Fun Fact: YOU AIN’T THEM.

Yeah, yeah, slay me, your one and only realistic Messenger, like I haven’t been slayed by other newbies before…

As an example, I’ll give ya a short Don’t Do This tale…

Recently, I started a brand-new series, entering into the murder mystery genre world. It's a venture customized for online readers who want light and airy, Pringles potato chip addicted tales of mayhem fun.

I dove into this project before taking a break after finishing a very complex WWII literary epic-length work. I was mentally exhausted. That state hampered my reasoning, and in taking on this series, I began to write in a desperation mode that is not normally me, by beginning the four-book tale with only a bare-bones plot line.

That slip-shod preparation has made finishing Book One a far more tedious, far more edit unfriendly exercise, taking me many months to finish when it should have only taken me one.

I know better.

I’ve always prepared at least 80% of my scenes before I've plunked even one laptop key.

But in my desperation to finish this new project, I threw my brain out the window, and with it any semblance of order and expediency in finishing the first book.

Yep. Even an old dog needs to RELEARN old tricks. Seriously. If you look up the word, pathetic, you’ll see my dumb-as-a-post mug blithely smiling back at you.

Fact: There is no getting around mapping out your book. I don’t care if it’s fiction or non. I don’t care if it’s 50 grand or 500. Before you slam those laptop keys, know where in the heck you’re going, realizing your book's outlined scenes are equivalent to having a map in any forest you plan on escaping alive.

HOMEWORK: Today, if you’re stuck, if you’ve stopped writing because you haven’t a clue as to what to write next, STOP Writing, and START Mapping. Outline on cards what happens in each scene, what characters are there, and how that scene forwards the fiction tale or non-fiction thesis. There is no way around this pre-writing exercise if you're new to the book writing game or have taken on a new genre.

Do NOT listen to the so-called Pantsers out there. For every book they plunk out in a micro-instant, sky-high on their wayward glee, picture their post draft future bogged down like a trapped animal in an editorial quagmire that will take forever to clear, or cost big bucks in pro-editor fees.

The best quality/time/cost-effective way to finish a book? Start with a complete map. A universal rule of thumb Yours Truly sadly forgot on her way down Desperation Alley. *slapping myself with something hard and sharp*

My Book Two: Heck, yeah, that baby will have a V-8, 3D plot map that will glisten gloriously in the warm sunshine when I next trek through the plot forest. It’ll come with Book Beast Bear Spray, too, it’ll be that good.

My Plot Map Heaven... so grand...
 

Writing Breaks - STOP to Go Faster...

 

Cookie Breaks. Everyone needs them. Those who require them most rarely partake.

This last fall, I wrote like a prosaic slave, trying to attempt something never before tried — to write an entire genre book draft in under 3 months.

I did it. It almost killed me. Not because doing so is that dangerous, but because my brain had never geared up for that kind of speed.

My prior works were research heavy, filled with facts and high symbolism. Literary, all the way. I wrapped real, historical events or icons or ideals around a fictitious tale. The quickest I had managed to complete a book draft was 5.5 months, and that was only because the first 50,000 words were hacked out in Nanowrimo.

After finishing my fourth literary novel, this time a WWII epic length work, and without taking a break when that work took over 2 years of research and close to 5 years to complete, I (stupidly?) chose to start a murder mystery genre series.

Without. A. Break.

Oh, yes, thank you, reader, for offering me the DUNCE CAP >>>

to wear as I sit on a stool in the corner of my office, utterly ashamed and embarrassed. You're a pal. Feel free to throw rotten tomatoes at me.

Long story, made pathetically longer...

Nearing Christmas, I would try to plunk out new words on the draft or edit the manuscript, and each sentence was an exercise in mental torture. I was slow to write, slow to think, and exhausted before I began each day.

Then, because my brain was made by Sanyo and not Sony, it finally dawned on me. I need a break. *enter the loudest Homer Simpson DOH! you have ever heard*

And so, after that light bulb lit, I dropped everything, and did nothing cerebral over Christmas. And I mean NOTHING. I allowed my brain to go into hibernation. 

I didn't even think about my works, which for me while in the draft phase is very abnormal.

While relaxing, I'd watch great old movies or cool documentaries or decorate the house. Anything and everything NOT associated with writing. Probably the first time I had taken a break since 2016.

And I won't lie, it felt darnnn guuud!

 

Sometimes, a writer needs to know when taking a break from writing is the fastest way to write. 

Now, don't get me wrong... using a break as an excuse not to write is, well, not right.

You have a conscience.

You know when you're conning yourself.

Writers are the best con artists going. We can contrive wild reasons for NOT writing.

What I'm talking about here is writer exhaustion, when to keep writing becomes a detriment to getting works done.

Backstory: Having chosen to write a commercial genre series, I now belong to a like-minded writers group whose members seemingly NEVER take breaks. These weirdo automatons can barf out thousands of words per day, every day, most likely 'til they die. That fact is awesome, and if I'm honest, rather disturbing... hey, I'm human.

My hopeful outlook on this Mensa-level group: I'm sure as I get more practice writing faster — literally completing an entire genre series in less than a year — the effort will feel less exhausting, and I'll be able to produce more over the long run. 

I know I'm in another deep learning curve. The only out I have is genre demands very little research or facts digging. All it requires is an imagination and consistency, and speed.

My BIG error: not taking a break after that hugely difficult WWII epic. 

My error is a gift to you >>>

Take a break after completing a book. I had done that for all my previous works, but somehow lost my head after this last one, and stupidly entered into a brand-new learning curve without so much as coming up for air, which is hilarious, as my last book was titled, AIR. It's swell how I can be so utterly dumb on so many levels.

Yep, my furry wittle writers, even I, the Great STOP Now Writing Girl Guru, can monumentally screw up. You're welcome.

~~~

Now, it's 2022. A brand-new year with a brand-new outlook.

My resolutions are thus:

1) take breaks already, Ms. Perfect Idiot.

2) get done what you can get done in a day, and no more. After all, by now, I'm statistically closer to death than I am to achieving perfection. I know. Hard pill to swallow. But swallow that Vitamin Reality Pill, I must, and then I need to take a nap. I'll feel better in the morning.

3) compare your progress not to others, but to your own abilities, and leave Mr. Guilt Trip at the door. It's -20 outside right now. That hairy beast will die of hypothermia soon enough.

~~~

Even slightly old dogs need to learn slightly new tricks. And at least I know I'll never be too old to learn. Maybe this newfound awareness is the best Christmas gift I received this year. Now, if I could only find my scissors. This bow won't budge!

A Writer Bad Day? Find a Way...

Last week, I had my flu shot. Ordinarily, I have little to no reaction to those shots, but this time, I was hit with quite severe symptoms that had my physical energy/brain power drained to nil.

Since then, it's been a daily uphill battle to do anything — house chores, errands, never mind crafting word tales.

But guess what? Unless I'm in a coma or bleeding out, a serious writer has to try to work through just about anything. Even sheer exhaustion.

If I stop for even a minute, my urge to abandon my laptop and collapse into bed is great. The problem with that idea is that it isn't restful, as I know I should be writing.

Is this writer's guilt? Youbetcha! I should be grateful I suffer from said.

If you plan on taking your book writing to a professional, level, you have to dig deep down into your grit barrel, and find a way to write on. You are the only person who will chastise you for not writing. Being punished, or not, for writing is a moot issue. If you don't write on your WIP, who will? Every word, every paragraph, every book — it's all down to you.

So, on those days — and let's face it, we all have them — when you feel like the scum UNDER pond scum, and you'd rather have the bamboo nail torture than rise out of bed and pound those keys, 

DO IT ANYWAY. 

DO IT IN SPITE. 

As Nike, says, "Just do it."

• write one sentence, one paragraph, or set a timer for even 5 minutes of writing.
• ROL — Read Out Loud — edit your draft, or red pen edit for 5 minutes.
• if you can't get out of bed, do some Google research you've been putting off, and make notes on said on your cell phone.
  

Even if you don't get much done, get SOMETHING done.

Put off other duties — chores, errands, etc. — to get something done on your book. There is always tomorrow for those other things. Ask family, friends to give you even 5 minutes to get something done. Life is not always about Them. Sometimes, it has to be about You, too.

When you do finally collapse in your bed to rest, you'll feel far less like pond scum, and your book is that much closer to being finished.

A Tangential Surprise: you find you are made of some seriously tough stuff, having weathered the storm. That kind of self-awareness goes a long way to building your confidence as a serious wordsmith, for if you can work through literary hell, working through literary heaven will be a breeze.

To be a writer is an extremely difficult mind game. Daily, you have to beat yourself at that game, and reject all doubts, fears and shortcomings, personal and professional. And that game is played whether you're in fine spirits or drowning in exhaustion.

HOMEWORK: If you happen upon a "pond scum" day, read over this post, get out of bed, and try again. You can do it. I know you can. You wouldn't be reading me if you weren't dead serious about this métier. I got up to write this post. So can you write on your book. Let's do this together.

The Importance of Writer To-Do Lists...

 

Yes.

I know.

Today's topic is not sexy or romantic or adventurous in any way. It may have only come in above watching paint try. But it's an exercise that few new writers complete, and before you can complete your writing goals, you need to know what they are, on a daily basis.

A writing To-Do list is the key.

It's a psychological contract with yourself — yes, there's that shrink-think again... — forcing you to a) decide what can be achieved each day on your book, and b) list those To-Do's in their most crucial order, so no deadline, manufactured or real, will be missed.

Hold on! Don't X me out yet! Get back here! 

This isn't rocket science. You seriously think I'd be doing it, if it were? But it truly is important IF you want that book of yours done.

This exercise does NOT entail a great big ugly effort on your part. In fact, the easier you can formulate it, the better. NO sticky notes. NO knitting string. NO Excel sheets. NO graphs. NO charts. NO nothing complex. PULEEZZZ, we writers have enough headaches! 

I just downloaded the free and easy to use Color Note app on my cell phone. The simpler the note, the better. In this exercise, FEWER bells and whistles is best.

Start with the date:

• then add each To-Do on its own line
• only use a few words to describe each To-Do
  
• line up from most crucial to least or,
• quicker ones at the start, longer ones at the end
  
• and only have, at most, three writing To-Do's set up for each day
  
• or the amount of To-Dos you know you can reasonably complete in your writing session

Don'ts:

• Don't over pile the To-Dos
• Don't assume it takes less time to complete each task; it'll take more. Double the time needed.

Do's:

• At the end of each writing day, delete/line out the tasks you've completed
• Re-evaluate the time it took to complete those tasks
• Move the uncompleted task(s) to the next available writing session

Sunday's:

• If your writing work week begins on a Monday, use Sunday to plot out a week-long To-Do list
• Attempt to spread the bigger projects out, paired with smaller To-Do's
• Segment those big projects into doable daily sections

This exercise should only take you a few minutes, at most, but it will save you so much time and wasted energy and the stress that comes from Decision Fatigue. Yes, DF is a real thing. If you have to make too many decisions in a day, on top of the word choice decisions every writer has to make to even formulate one sentence, that fatigue will set in, and that pathetic choo-choo train will stop at Writer's Block Corners, if you get my drift.

So, eliminate the Big Picture decisions with your To-Do List!

 

I can wake up and look like a zombie (hey, no joke), glance down at my list, and know exactly what I'll be doing once the caffeine kicks in. I don't have to hum and haw about what needs doing. I simply start completing those To-Do's.

Back to that psychological contract...

1. If you put your tasks down in writing, it has your mind re-think their importance. If you leave those tasks up in your head, they never become a real thing; hence, you never take them seriously, and they never get done.
   
2. By putting your tasks down on paper, virtual or real, it frees you up from the cyclical worrying that will keep you awake at night when your mind and body needs to rest. You assume that the moment you write those tasks down, you're free to stop thinking about them for the night. You know you'll see that list again come the morning. It's a way of not taking your work home with you, so to speak.

HOMEWORK: Tonight, formulate your list. Don't overload that list. Assume it'll take you twice as long to complete each task. Over time, you'll better gauge the time it will take. And at week's end, set up the daily tasks as you see them ironing out for the next week.

If you do this one simple thing, and keep doing it, your book will get done, quicker than you ever thought possible, and without that choo-choo train stopping at Writer's Block Corners. 

Don't stop there. The station food is horrible, and the station master is a meanie. ;-)

Writing - A Job Like Any Other...

 

The very best advice I received many years ago was from a prolific writer, who, being Scottish, pulled no punches, and that was exactly what I needed. No romantic BS. No cuddly positive thinking on how to be a serious writer.

"Show up to work."

That was it. That was all he said. But those four words forever altered my mindset. I realized that if I truly planned on being a novelist, I had better pull up my britches and get to work. Nothing less than that mindset would do because, picture the reverse...

Boss: Where are you, Barbie? You didn't show up for work today.

Me: Uh, well, *yawn*... I got up 'n' everything, but after breakfast, I just didn't feel inspired enough to go to work. I'll come in once I feel more "creative."

Boss: Okay. Then, I don't feel inspired enough to pay you. B-bye.

You could say to me in retort that writing a book isn't work; it's your passion.

Okay, then I'd say in counter, what do you plan to do with that book? Print one copy and use is as your own personal bathroom literature? Cool, if that's the case, but...

Chances are you're writing that book in some form to distribute to the masses for some kind of equal trade, be it company/personal reputation augmentation or for pure sales. And if any of these options are true, let me welcome you to your new job... as a writer!

As with any other career in existence on this Blue Marble, at some point you have to decide to commit, and clock in for work. To look at a career any other way is to look not at a career, but a hobby. Plain and simple. Hobbies are cool, but they never pay the bills. I could wax more poetic here, but I'm taking a page from the Scottish writer's book — less BS is better.

So... rain or shine, or your dog ate your pages, or you sneezed on them from a cold, sooner or later, you need to drag your butt in front of the page and start working to create that product for trade.

Likewise, the other ditty writers know well is, "Inspiration finds you working." It's become a long held adage because it's true.

Some days, I can wake up, and feel like 4-star poo-poo, but once I drag my carcass to the keyboard, the stinky feel lifts and my writer brain engages, and in mere minutes I forget I felt like poo-poo at all. Fact.

Believe me when I say that writing requires a mind shift more than it requires anything else. Once you realize writing is a career, your perspective on the work changes, and you take your effort more seriously. In other words, you COMMIT to the endeavor. A waffler, you are no more.

HOMEWORK: Let that sentence, "Show up for work" sink in, and starting today, begin to look at that book you want to complete as a product to trade to benefit your reader, and you. Once you allow your mindset to see this métier as a job commitment, your habits will follow along, too, and you as your own boss won't fire your butt.

Okay then, shall we? PUNCH THAT TIME CLOCK! We have words to weave...