When The Words Won’t Come

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

If you’ve read this blog at all you may know that I’m not a huge believer in writer’s block. I (mostly) think it’s an excuse for when you don’t want to write, don’t have the time, characters won’t play nice, can’t form a coherent sentence, fill in the blank here. (Okay, okay, don’t throw tomatoes at me)

But I’m serious. I treat writing like a job, which means that I have to get the words out or I won’t get paid (because that’s pretty much it.) Some days that’s easier than others. A lot easier.

For the last two months, the words are not flowing well. And when they do, well….let’s just say I’m not always very happy with them. It’s been hard. It’s been a slog. And, it hasn’t been all that fun. At least not all the time.

But that’s okay because it can’t be fun ALL the time, can it?

There have been a few moments where I’ve wanted to quit, press delete and curl up under the covers in my bed. Because that would be easier. But I didn’t. And I won’t. This too shall pass.

I know for me the words aren’t coming easy because I’ve had a tough spring. The last few months ahve been emotional and draining and it’s hard to put life and love into your fictional characters when it’s all you can do some days to give it to your real life “characters”.

It will pass. And I’ll keep plowing through. And even if I have to rewrite the first half of this book, I will finish it. And then I’ll write another one.

Because that’s what I do.

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Have you experienced a time when the words just won’t come? Share?

Posted in Writing Process | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Why I’m Giving Up Blogging

Posted on May 23, 2012 by

Okay, I’m not giving up blogging all together. I could never leave my Wordbitches, but I am leaving my personal blog behind. I know that most of you don’t even realize I have a personal blog and that’s mostly because I haven’t promoted it (like at all). I’ll explain why in a bit.

Most of the current advice out there right now is that writers must have a social media presence and usually this means a blog. Without a blog, how can you build a following of readers for your books. I do believe that having a blog and a presence online can only help an author. So why am I giving up my blog? A few reasons…

1. Not enough time. Life is busy. Yes, it’s busy for everyone, and I do agree that we can make time if we truly desire too. Even if it’s only a few hours a week. I do agree that I could have used more of my evening time for blogging, especially if a post only took me an hour to write. But here’s part of my problem. One post takes me hours to write. Usually the time is taken up with the thinking of an interesting idea to post, the writing, the editing, finding the picture, etc… I can’t seem to just ‘whip them off’. Non-fiction blog writing does not come naturally to me. It seemed to be taking a disproportionately large chunk of my available writing time.

2. Losing my daydreams. But really, it wasn’t the day to day task of finding the ‘Butt In Chair’ time to write a post that really sucked the life out of me. I managed to get my posts out. I was proud that I found time to do it all. But my novel suffered. My creativity was way down and it took me a long time to figure out why. Rather than the actual writing time, it was the time I spent thinking about the blog that hurt my novel. It was more about the off-time, the in-between moments, the time I spent thinking about my blog that stole my creativity. (I’m talking about the times when your subconscious, or daydreaming mind works on a problem, or creates stories.) For me this happens when I’m in the shower, cooking, driving or standing in a line for any reason. My mind wanders and it usually wanders in the direction of my story. But not lately. Not since I started my blog. Now all of these moments were (unconsciously) dedicated to my blog. My brain no longer percolated story ideas, but tried desperately to come up with interesting blog posts. I think this is hard for me because of the following reason.

3. Social Media is a Big Cocktail Party without Booze. You see, I’m an Introvert. (Big Surprise!) and spending time on social media (like twitter, facebook, blogging) is a bit like being at a work cocktail party, where you’re in the middle of a group of strangers, trying to be witty on-demand, and forcing yourself to hold a smile, when all you want to do is grab a glass of champagne and chug-a-lug, before running to a corner with the rest of the bottle and a tray of appy’s, where you can people-watch and stuff your face. (What? Isn’t that a normal reaction to a party? Who doesn’t love to people watch while drinking champagne?)

So every time I went to write a blog post I would take a deep breath and mentally prepare myself, as if I was going to walk into the spotlight in the middle of that cocktail party. And yes, I know that hardly anyone reads my blog. I purposely didn’t advertise it hoping that would help, but the feeling of being center stage didn’t stop. Once I’d written a post, my psyche needed a recovery time of a day or so, but then I’d start thinking about what I was going to write next and usually dreading putting my personal thoughts out there (even if I thought the idea was fun). I was so focused on my blog, I was crowding out all thoughts of my novel. (Not such a good plan if I want to be a published author).

So for the next while (probably until my youngest hits grade one in the fall), I will be taking a break from my personal blog. I might post something when the mood strikes, but I’m no longer going to worry about it. I believe now is the time for me to concentrate on my writing. A personal blog is a huge distraction at this point. I know that the general consensus in the online community is that if you want to succeed as a writer then you must make time for social media, be on twitter, facebook, triberr, pinterest, google+ and blog too? Ahhhhh! Apparently, I’m dooming myself to being left behind in this digital age if I don’t have all that and blog three times a week. My platform must be in place before my first novel is ready and without one, then I might as well sell copies of my book from the trunk of my car. I feel stressed just thinking about it.

Okay, I drank the kool-aid. I tried to do it all and my writing suffered. So now I’m taking a step back and re-evaluating. I’m not quitting. I won’t ever quit. (We writers don’t know the meaning of that word, right?) I’m just taking a break. And that’s okay. I will stick with my Wordbitches and enjoy the blogging community through comments and others’ blogs. And one day in the future, when I have a bit more time, a bit more confidence and a novel ready to go, then I’ll head back (slowly) into the blogging world.

And you won’t know what hit you.  ;)

What do you think about blogging? Have you ever felt similarly? What kind of online presence do you have or want? I’d love to hear you any advice you might have.

Posted in General Mess, Making Time | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments

Story Mastery by Michael Hauge

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to get a ticket to Michael Hauge‘s workshop on Story Mastery. The Calgary chapter of the Romance Writers of America (CaRWA) hosted him. Mr. Hauge is a well known script consultant for Hollywood who has worked for every major studio and network. He knows his story.

The Story Master, Michael Hauge

I’ll give you only a brief run down on what he spoke about since, I really can’t do it justice.

Mr. Hauge spoke about the Hero’s Outer Journey, or Plot Structure in the morning and about the Hero’s Inner Journey, or Character Arc in the afternoon. The great thing about his workshop is it addressed both the inner and outer journeys. He broke down story structure (outer journey) not just into the Three Acts, but further into six Stages.

So rather than going into details about the Outer Journey/Plot Structure, I’m going to share a few tidbits on the Inner Journey of the Protagonist. Mr. Hauge boiled it down to a character’s Identity and Essence.

Identity: This is the False Self the character presents to the world to protect him/her from the Fear that grows out of the Belief created by the Wound suffered long ago.

Essence: Who the Character would be if you stripped away the Identity (the armour or false front). It would leave their True Self.  This is who they have the potential to become, if only they find the courage.

To start the Inner Journey for your character, you’ll need to ask what their Longing or Need is. A Longing is something they want (and admit to wanting) but are too afraid to go after. A Need is something that they need but won’t admit (even to themselves) that they need it. (ie; a personal connection, love, etc… NOT tangible items like wealth)

Wound: An unhealed painful experience from our character’s youth that the character feels that they are past but they’re really not.

Belief: Grows out of the wounds from the past and are never accurate but always logical. (ex: A character has an abusive father who doesn’t love the character, thus the character believes that they are unlovable.)

Fear: The character’s fear is having the Wound happen again. This is a visceral fear. It’s not thought out by the character.

So a character develops a Belief from the Wound, as well as a Fear of the Wound ever happening again. And all of these contribute to a character’s Identity. The character can only achieve whatever they long for/need if they step out of their Identity and live in their Essence. The transformation from Identity to Essence is (insert drum roll)….. the Character Arc.

The character is firmly based in their Identity when the story begins. Now if you look at the chart above again. You’ll see that as the story moves forward the Inner Journey follows the Outer Journey. At the end of the story, in order to give the reader a satisfactory ending, the character must be in their Essence. (Though there are examples of tragedies where the protagonist turns their back on their Essence and loses what they most desire. Think Brokeback Mountain.) The vacillation and struggle between Identity and Essence can really draw a reader in.

This is only a small taste of Mr. Hauge’s talk on the Inner Journey (let alone everything else he covered). I would highly suggest that if you able to take one of his workshops then you should. I learned so much and he is an excellent speaker. Thank you to CaRWA for organizing such a great event.

Have you ever heard of Michael Hauge? What do you think of a character’s Inner Journey? Is it something easy for you? Or are you like me and it’s tough to nail down? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Posted in General Mess, Writing Tips | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Fifty Shades of…Entertaining

Posted on May 11, 2012 by

Pretty much everyone has heard of the erotic book phenomenon of Fifty Shades of Grey. And if you haven’t, well…here, check it out.


These books are flying off the shelves and burning up the internet with downloads. But along with all the positive talk, and excited giggles between girlfriends, there is also a lot of talk among writing circles about these books. But here’s the thing, that talk isn’t all  positive.

Some of the things I’d heard about the Grey trilogy was that they were amateur, shallow and, well…frankly that they weren’t written very well.

But yet, they were selling. MILLIONS of copies!

I’m a writer, I obviously want my books to sell MILLIONS of copies, too. So…I did what every good writer would do. Some research and I read the Grey trilogy. (Well, I’ll be honest, I’ve only read a book and a half so far)

But even after reading only half the series, this what I know. Fifty Shades of Grey is not high literary fiction. It’s not even particularly medium level literary fiction, but it is entertaining. And no, I don’t think it’s just all the sex that makes it that entertaining (although, let’s be honest, I think that’s the initial appeal). It’s the characters. Yes, they use limited vocabulary, and have questionable motives (or sometimes, very few motives) BUT they’re compelling. In my opinion, the author does a fantastic job characterizing Christian and Ana so that the reader actually cares about them. You really do want to keep turning pages to see how things develop between them, not just to see what sexual exploits they get up to next. At the core of the book is a beautiful, albeit messed up love story.

Let’s address the fact that sex that is clearly at the heart of these books. I do believe that the fact that the Grey books address a sexual lifestyle that is often labeled deviant, and taboo, is one of the major draws. I’m no therapist, and I have no idea why this is, but I will hazard a guess that the reason stems from a deep seeded repression that women (and sure, men too) have about talking about things (particularly sexual things) that aren’t considered ‘main stream’ or ‘normal’. Like I said, that’s just a guess, there are dozens of theories.

But no matter what the reason is, I do agree that the sex is a draw to the books, at least initially. But by the middle of book two, I’m finding it distracting to the story. And after talking to a few of my friends who have read the books as well, they say the same thing. So, I don’t think that the erotic scenes are the only draw here.

Do I think the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy is going to go down in history as the greatest books ever written? Um…no. But, that doesn’t matter because they’re entertaining. And isn’t that the goal of most writers? To write an entertaining book? To write a book that appeals to the masses and sells millions of copies? To write a book that captivates readers and gets them talking?
Do these books appeal to everyone. No, definitely not. Some people will never pick them up because of the sex. Some will never read them because they deem them low level, or ‘beneath them’ (my words, not theirs). But no matter what you think of E.L. James and her Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy, she has done what she set out to do, she has provided entertainment. She has more than achieved her goal. And the millions of copies sold PLUS the movie deal she has, prove it. And no matter what anyone thinks of her writing and her books, you can’t take that away from her.



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So, what do you think? Have you read them? Will you read them?

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

What I Learned at Comic Con

Posted on May 9, 2012 by

This past weekend I went to the 2012 Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo and let my inner geek loose. I had a hilarious time and I learned some things too (things besides you shouldn’t wear black lace underwear with a Wonder Woman costume – and no, I didn’t do that). I thought I’d share them and some fun photos with you.

Outside the Con, a group of good and bad Jedi posed for pics.

One of the sessions I went to was a talk on ‘How to Write Science Fiction’ by Robert J. Sawyer. Mr. Sawyer is not only an entertaining speaker (I recommend you take one of his classes if he’s ever at a conference you attend), but an informative one too. He broke down his way of writing sci fi novels. I believe his method applies to any good fiction so I’ll pass it on to you.

Basically, he works from the top down. First he picks a topic that interests him, then finds his theme and then grabs his main character.

1. Pick a topic. The first thing is to find a topic that you’re passionate about, a social injustice or big issue that fires you up. This is a broad scope decision. It must be something that can fuel your writing for however long it takes to finish your novel. I will pick a Avatar, a fairly recent movie as an example for this discussion. In Avatar the topics chosen were environmentalism and imperialism.

2. Pick a theme. In this case the theme (as I understood from Mr. Sawyer) was the narrowing of the topic. Bringing a smaller issue from the larger to light. It also seems to me to be the time when the author needs to decide how to write about their chosen topic without hitting the reader over the head with a message or getting preachy. In essence, this is where we figure out how to write our story and what it’s going to be about. (Too easy, right? Lol.)

3. Pick a main character. Once you have your world and your main issue, then we must pick the main character (protagonist) that would be most uncomfortable in that world. We must chose a hero who would fight the most against the what he/she needs to do to bring about change (and the successful conclusion of the story). This way your character must change in order to survive and then you’ll have a character arc. (insert angel choir here). Think about Avatar again. The main character is a marine, a grunt, who follows orders and believes in the brotherhood. He is placed in a wild society and in order to survive, he must change. He begins the story as the damaged soldier initally fighting against the aliens and gradually he becomes one of them. By the end of the movie he is going against that very brotherhood that first set him on his path.

This story would not have been as successful if we’d just followed the main female character, the blue alien love interest. She is a fierce, awesome character, but she already believes in her cause. So while we like her, she can’t be the one we follow on this journey. And this is how Mr. Sawyer begins his story creation process.

Just  because this technique works for a successful science fiction author doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. But I did feel Mr. Sawyer’s method was a new and interesting way of building a story, and that perhaps we could learn a little something from it.

What do you think of this process? How do you usually begin your story creation? Have you ever been to a Comic Convention? Please tell me there are other geeks out there!

Posted in The Wordbitches Scene, Writing Tips | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

What strategies do you use to edit your own writing?

Posted on May 7, 2012 by

Today’s post is a question for you:

What strategies

do you use

to line (or copy) edit

your own writing?

See you in the comments.

Posted in Wordbitches Wonder | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Ready, Set, Write! A Writing Prompt

Posted on May 4, 2012 by

I’m crazy this week. BUT I have started digging into the magical world of words with my new WIP.

SO..I thought I’d leave you all with a writing prompt from a great workbook.

I randomly flipped open a page, and this is it….

DAY 137

Sugar ‘N’ Spice

Use all of these spices in your story:

Paprika Coriander Cumin Curry Basil

Start with: On the surface, she was sweet as sugar, but underneath, she was…

Okay, ready…set…WRITE!

Feel free to post your short story in the comments a link to it. OR…just write something else. It doesn’t matter, as long as you keep writing!

Have a great weekend everyone.

 

Posted in Writing Process, Writing Tips | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment