Attitude is Everything

I need to improve my attitude. I can’t just do my work, or as I say, “Don’t wish for it, work for it,” or just “believe in the unbelievable, believe in yourself.” I need more attitude than that. Here’s my list:

·       Don’t wait. Do it now. Write down that idea. Edit that poem that is almost ready to submit. Plan now. Buy that needed, used up supply now (so you don’t put off printing, sending, post-it noting, whatever)

·       Control your doubts, control actions. Think big as long as you’re thinking

·       Find, refind, build, love the passion you always had for writing. Remember that passion and why. It’s still there. It’s what matters most. It’s what helps you overcome doubts, difficulties and brain drought.

·       Know that the one constant is change. Especially now. Especially in publishing. Stay open to change. Remind yourself about all the writers you’ve heard of that were published without going the traditional route.

·       Learn from every rejection, setback, interruption, writer’s block. Ask how you can avoid the problem next time? Remember rejection is an opportunity to do it again, edit, change, improve.

·       Be more grateful with the opportunities you have. Give yourself credit for your successes. Remind yourself the odds of you getting published in this or that. Whenever you do get published, know it was stiff competition.

·       Listen to your gut. Listen to your heart. Hope you don’t have indigestion or heartburn

·       Remember, this is your life—your writing life. Take a hold and do it your way. Don’t change what you’re writing with every whim or subject that has caught on. Be and write who you are. You will never go wrong being and writing yourself because no one else can do it the way you can.

·       You’re shy—painfully shy. Acknowledge that and try to at least leave a good impression but, again, be yourself.

·       Never stop learning. Improve your writing in any way you have the opportunity, even if it is a small improvement. Never, ever think you know it all.

Just What I Need

Spring has opened her arms. While I bask in the heat of the sun I have mixed feelings. Spring takes the winter weight off my shoulders, sure enough. I am plagued with SAD. (Seasonal affective disorder.) In the early years, though I recognized the depression hit around October, ended about the end of February, there was nothing written about it, explained on TV at that time.

I struggled and thankfully found things that worked for me. I squirreled away things that helped me through: new houseplants, some new skill to learn, plenty of books, a bouquet from the store when I could afford it and it worked, even though I always wondered why I had to fight this sadness (I had so much, wonderful kids, a great husband, so there was a lot of guilt) and always thought I was alone.

So for me, spring is an open door to this SAD cage and yet, since I began writing in earnest, I stay busy and happy writing during the winter, still there is this heaviness, that flies away come spring. But with spring come more chores and work. My writing suffers a bit, which bothers me. More so as my mother ages, true, but I made myself Rules of Time.

Rules of Time:

·       Do what I should when I should. Do not procrastinate, ever. (Well, almost never)

·       Stuff happens. Stuff happens when I’m writing. Disruptions happen. Disruptions come from even those loved ones who know better. I’ve stopped getting mad. Mad steals writing, mad takes the whole rest of the day and blows it. Mad wastes time, mood, creativity. I don’t think it’s much good for anything else either, besides no one gets the reason for the anger anyway. No, I mean they really don’t get it. Soooo, I deal with it, whatever it is, then I get back to writing as fast as I can. If the disruption has completely derailed me, I fake it and look, act and seem like I got back to writing without a stumble. I’ve found this helps cement the idea that I am serious about writing, no matter what.

·       I try to ask myself what the best use of my time is. Sometimes, it is just getting the garden planted or my mother’s yard weeded, no matter that I want, need to write, so my mind’s nagging doesn’t kidnap my creative juices with worry or stress.

·       I never, and I mean never, tell anyone about time outside my usual writing time, that I’ve planned to sneak in a little more writing. It is retreat time—secret, ‘away,’ mine.

·       I take what I can use, leave everything else, with everything: technology, advice, critics, help. I am a writing-book junky. I love reading books about writing. It is an addiction. But I love to read and after reading a few novels I need a good how-to-book and nothing makes me happier that a great book on writing. Over the years I’ve found great, wonderful advice. Some I use, some I never even think about again, some I try and just can’t behind.

By the way, my how-to book for this month is Shut up And Write!by Judy Bridges. Some ideas I get from workshops and books bog me down. There’s just so much to do and figure out but at the same time I know I need something. I get frustrated filling out all those charts and yet, I have to have some way to organize and remember facts and ideas.

Where has Judy Bridges been? I’m using so many of her ideas. I always struggle with outlining and developing the story in an organized way. I can’t believe how far her Character Wheel, the Playing Twenty Questions with Your Character by Elaine Bergstrom, she included in her book and the Narrative Drive and Bubble Outline has taken the book I’m trying to develop for the last book of my Heart’s series. The ideas are simple, concise and visual. Just what I needed.

Growing the Writing

Ahh, Spring. Finally! Shake off the doldrums of winter, the extra pounds, the lagging energy, the gray days, the lazy thoughts.

Plant: peas, lettuce, chard, done. Dust off and oil garden tools, wash up garden gloves and breathe in the scent of soil. Cut back the dried up sticks of the perennials, the scattered leaves, unearth the new starts and clean the patio. Spring.

Remind myself to make each minute count during my writing time. More time pulls and distractions, but embrace the season, face reality and give in by taking my writing outside. I’ll let spring spear me on.

Make time for a few field trips. Perfect spot to do that, right close. Several farms implementing  the 1870- method of farming within an hour’s drive, along with pioneer museums with every item imaginable used during that time. Details available, hands on experiences just around the corner. How lucky am I?

Spring is a chance to grow. Along with the daffodils and peonies, I think I’ll grow my writing.  

More Than One Book a Year

Been trying to catch up on some business reading—writing business. I let it haunt me, as the RWR, The Writer and Writer’s Digest stack up. One way I catch up is by reading during the commercials of must-see TV.

Hey, I know no TV is must-see and watching is time wasteful. I admit I do a certain amount at the end of a day—I’m almost catatonic anyway.

Like today, a simple little thing(renewing a prescription from an online pharmacy) for my mother-94, a sometimes (more and more often now) forgetful mom, turned into a wasted hour, hair-pulling, a few…colorful words, a phone call where I was put on hold for thirty minutes, a solution, but too late and a call to the doctor-also put on hold after going through a complicated phone tree—finally success, but I was left ragged and out-of-sorts. It didn’t end there either, what with the wind hindering me doing some much needed yard work, the meal planned for dinner, freezer-burned. (I just bought it, too, uggg!)

By the way, music helped—Lionel Richie’s Tuskegee and Mumsford and Sons’ Sigh No More right now.

What I read during those commercials can sometimes be as frustrating, or overwhelming as the day. Like the article by Cynthia Eden titled Editor Expectations After the Sale, in RWR that states that though publishing schedules vary at each publishing house, the preferred schedule seems to be twice a year or at the least, every nine months. Yikes, although I get the reasoning. So many books are being published each year that authors need to have plenty of releases to build a backlist and keep reader attention.

I know how fast the public’s attention can be lost and changed, but two books a year reminds me of something my mom use to say about authors and how she picked the authors she read. She thought if an author pushed out too many books a year, they just couldn’t be as well done as an author that put out a book a year consistently. I often found that true, but as with everything every writer has their own best pace. (An interesting question-How do you pick your books, by author, title, subject or popularity? Think about it and think why. This answer surprised me when I asked friends, family.)

I was going through an old file and found an article in The Writer in 2009 about the pressure put on writer’s to produce at least one book every year and that many writers were feeling the pressure, especially when there are authors that have moved the product of books into a top brand supplying the market by working with a team of co-authors. The author’s is a manager, developing ideas and plots, then cowriters fill in the story by writing that into a full-length manuscript. A production line of sorts and other artists have used this method to make a good living.

I can see the reasoning and why. Not many authors make enough to live on writing without some way to supplement what they earn writing. As a business and earnings strategy it is smart.

I’ll admit, I’m lucky, I don’t need to earn a living with  my writing, if I did maybe I’d be interested in doing the same strategy. But is that what I want to do with my writing? Is this what I’ll need to promise in order to get published? Or can I still do it my way?

Is it even the best way to get really good, fresh books out to readers? Hey, I’m a reader and I can tell you nothing is harder than waiting for the next book of my favorite authors (Kaki Warner or Charles Martin or Kristin Hannah) Is the only way to get published to go along with this crazy schedule?

I pray not. I write with the prayer it is not. I’m wearing so many hats, important hats not only to me but to my loved ones and only one is my writer’s hat. Still, if I’ve learned anything over the years, I’ve learned—it is what it is, but it will become what you make it.

So, I write, I send things out, I get things back, I edit and try again.

It reminds me of when I was raising my three boys. I did it differently than my sister, my sister-in-laws, my neighbors. I was criticized for one thing or another, but we did what was important to us, according to what kind of parents we wanted to be. Our way wasn’t the recommended way, the common way, but my boys survived childhood in one piece, became adults I’m proud of.

I’d settle for something similar with any of my books. I’ll go my pace and pray it’s enough that I’m writing the best book I can  and when/if I get the call I’ll do the best I can do, for myself and my writing. Shouldn’t that be enough? Isn’t that where the best art comes from?




By the way: Where have I been? I've been writing.