Trick Thyself

I've been having a little trouble getting motivated to write these days. In fact, just the other day I was staring at my computer for almost a full ten minutes with nothing but white space looking back at me.

I work on Scrivener (If you haven't tried it, you should!) and I usually section out my work into individual scenes. I'll title them so that I can make sense of it all in the editing process. I'll use things like, "meet antagonist" or "Bobby finds the knife". Not overly creative, but it gets the job done.
But the other day I couldn't even come up with a scene idea, let alone a title.
I finally just typed in the first thing that came into my head. Nelson Mandela. It happened to be the day he died, and to be honest I didn't even realize it was on my mind. I hit return and started typing out a scene.

Now I don't know very much about Nelson Mandela. I hope you don't think I'm hopelessly ignorant, but the words I think of when I hear that name are; committed, prisoner, rebel, speaker, apartheid.
Now the section of my book I was working on had absolutely nothing to do with apartheid or Nelson Mandela, but the feelings that name evoked in me showed up in my writing.

I found my main character seemed a little more in control. Her motivations seemed just a little bit clearer and only because I had Nelson Mandela in mind when I was writing.
I've started to use this trick with every scene. I use titles like Charles Manson. Harrison Ford. Bill Clinton. Jennifer Lopez.  Actually, I haven't used J Lo yet, but I am curious what feelings that would bring out in my writing.

I do this indiscriminately. I don't think about what I'm writing and pick a character with similar values. No, just the opposite, I pick a random person, for example Paul Newman, and see what characteristics of his I can add to the character I'm writing about. How can I make my protagonist (or any other character) deeper by adding attributes of Paul Newman? It's a way of surprising yourself in your own writing. Also, whatever feelings you have about Paul Newman will show up in your work.

Let's face it, books are about feelings. We read because a book makes us feel a certain way; happy, sad, scared, frustrated, ect. So if you're having trouble getting enough feeling into your books, maybe try my little trick. It certainly can't hurt!

Write Like You Don't Know You Can Fail

Have you ever had someone you know, all of the sudden, decide to do something completely stupid? Recently someone I know decided that she was going to be a photographer. The kicker is, she was really terrible at photography. Her pictures were lousy and she didn't even know how to use Photoshop. Or even Lightroom. Her camera wasn't all that fancy or expensive, and I'm pretty sure she only had one lens! What?!

She simply announced on Facebook that she would charge $100 for a sitting fee and the disc of photos she took was yours to keep. Bam! She was completely inexperienced and she was advertising herself as a photographer. What a nut!
 I would have done things so much differently. I would have researched photography, practiced all day and night. I would have read everything I could get my hands on. I would have bought the best camera money could buy (and a couple of fancy lenses) and then learned to use Lightroom AND Photoshop. (All the best photographers know both!)
 I would probably take pictures for free for about a year or two and then, and only then, would I start charging people. Actually, I probably wouldn't EVER start charging people because I would never have felt like I was worthy enough to charge for my services.
 What happened to my friend the photographer you ask? The girl who did EVERYTHING WRONG?  I bet you can guess what happened! She succeeded.
She is currently a working photographer. Not just working, but successful. She's making money and her pictures are looking great!

There's a reason why I didn't use writing as an example, (it hits too close to home) but I easily could have. If you're a wanna be writer you can probably relate.
So what's the lesson in this? Now listen close, you might have heard this before.
Nobody's perfect!
There it is. We have to quiet the perfectionist in our minds.
We have to decide that we're good enough to put our work out there for the world to see. We are good enough to call ourselves writers.
We have to find the confidence, that same confidence that lead a mediocre (at best) photographer to start her own business. People do it all the time and it can be you.

 If failure is not an option for you then eventually you're going to have to finish that novel and put it out there for the world to see. Eventually you're going to have to call yourself a writer, or a photographer or whatever it is you've been dreaming of being. And if you work hard enough, and long enough, and pretend like you have no idea that you could fail at whatever it is you're working on, you'll have no choice, but to succeed!

"Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been."-Kurt Vonnegut

Sticktoitiveness: Finish That Novel

My two kiddos at the beach.

For our summer vacation this year we drove down to Florida to hang out at the beach. During the ten hour drive my son played video games or texted friends, my daughter read her books, and my husband read his kindle.
I drove the car and just let myself get lost in my imagination. (Not so lost that I wasn't paying attention to the road of course!)
Well, what do you know? After all that time to day dream I came up with a great book idea.
I walked the white beaches picking up sea shells and thinking about my plot. I worked out some of the details, had an idea for a great beginning, and couldn't wait to get home and start putting it all down onto paper.
It wasn't until I got home and sat down at my Mac, ready to write this new book, that I realized the problem.

Me. On the hunt for shells.

I am forever starting new projects. Better projects. And although I am still convinced that this new book idea will sell better than the book I've already started, the truth is, I have no idea what will sell and what won't. None of us do.
Did anybody really think that the Snuggie would become so popular? It's a blanket that you trap yourself into. And the Chia Pet? My kids love those things.

Jack

 As far as books go I would not have endorsed a zombie remake of any of the classic novels, but they seem to be selling pretty well.  Could you have guessed that the Fifty Shades of Grey series would sell like 70 million copies? Although I confess I haven't even read the first one...yet.
None of us can predict what will be a hit, but I know that my half finished YA novel will definitely NOT sell unless I finish it.

Maya

So, I will continue working on editing the rough draft of the novel I started in July. I'll labor through the steps I outlined in Editing Your First Draft and then (and only then) will I start on my new book idea.

Who knows, by then I might have an entirely different fantastic idea.
All we can do, as writers, is keep our heads down and keep working until the work is done.
This leads me to the word of the day: Sticktoitiveness. 

The definition of Sticktoitiveness on Dictionary.com is "dogged perseverance; resolute tenacity".
The example sentence is (swear to God) "The only way she has published so many books is through stick-to-it-ive-ness."

Yes, this post was a shameless excuse to post vacation pictures.