Busy is as Busy Does

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The days are quickly ticking down.

Only 14 more until Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food and Other Life Lessons launches on Amazon. The past week has been a rush of haphazard activity, lumped onto my already overflowing schedule.

Due to my inability to remember anything more complicated than the middle names of both my daughters, I meticulously created my to-do list, so that no tasks were forgotten.

My ever-so-long list included; writing two guest blog posts, a book review for McNally Robinson's Night Table Recommendations online site, completing a blog book tour course, working (best not to skip that), a critique for The Word Junkies, and chauffeuring my girls to art class, swimming, orthodontic appointments, and my mom to the grocery store and physio.

Hm, after reading over that last paragraph, I'm reminded of an article I read recently regarding how list-making-whiny we've become as a society. According to this study, we North Americans love to wallow in our busyness and compare hectic lives, like farmers comparing prize winning pumpkins.

I'm not sure I want to pit my life against the lives of my neighbours, but I do think many of us have gotten into the habit of over extending ourselves, to the point of exhaustion.

My theory also conveniently explains why every night at 9 pm I eagerly climb into my blue plaid "man-jammies" and burrow under my duvet 'til dawn.

And I do so love my man-jammies. They're the most hideously masculine ladies' pj's ever sewn, but they're also the softest, coziest pair of jam-jams I have ever owned. I highly recommend you pick up a pair. Some even come with matching fluffy socks. I kid you not.

Alright, enough about sleepwear. I'm fairly certain I had a point to make.

Oh, right. The one thing I miss most, in all this recent mondo busyness, is writing new material. I have entirely neglected my current WIP, Who Needs Romeo. My poor protagonist Julia is still muddling along, lost in those pages with her hormones in a jumble, trying to figure out if Evan like-likes her or just likes her. Oh, the humanity.

Who knew I'd ever be in this position? Too busy launching one book, to write the second? How completely ridiculous a concept. It's a thrill of a life time and if getting published means I'm more tired than normal, then bring on the busy! I'll make a to-do list that's Santa-length worthy.

First, let me add a back up pair of Man-Jammies to my shopping list. I might just get too busy to get to that Kilimanjaro sized mountain of laundry in the basement.

If only I could remember where I put that list...

5 Ways to Boost Writer’s Block

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Say what?

Yes, you read that correctly.

Recently, up until this morning in fact, I’d sunk into a long stretch of writer’s block. It spanned so many days that I believe I crossed the threshold into Writer’s Depression. I have no clue the medical validity of this condition, but it was certainly the WORST case of writer’s block ever experienced, in the history of writing. Which, if you do the math, is like, forever.

I dwelled, mulled, pouted, and ranted. I worried, I stressed, I moaned. I avoided my computer, afraid of that blindingly bright blank white screen.

Ah, alliteration - you have returned my long lost friend.

The internet is full of tips to bash writer’s block, heck I even posted my own twist on how to get beyond the block. But it’s harder to find pointers on what not to do, when toiling through days and days of wordlessness. (Apparently you are moved to create new words, too. Strange, strange affliction.)

When creatively stumped, do not do as I did. Please learn from my experience and do not follow my:

5 Steps to Flame Writer’s Worry:

 (Remember, do not follow any of these tips. No matter how tempting.

I know I’m often wrong. 

But this time, please trust me.

Just don’t do it.

Resist the urge.)

buzzfeed.com

1.  Tell yourself you are a one hit wonder. You’re an impostor. A poser. And when the literary world, whoever those people are, finds out you’re a hack; you’re toast. All copies of your book will spontaneously ignite, erasing all traces of your writing from the face of the earth. Perhaps even the solar system. Don't limit yourself to one measly planet. Go galactically huge, or go home.

 2.  Definitely worry about everything else, while you're at it. Time to bring out the big gun; awfulizing. Look into every corner of your life, don't miss anything. Dig deep.

•  May I suggest beginning with your job? I think they may be on the brink of firing you. Just sayin'.
• Your kids? They are certain to flunk that math test/English essay all because you failed to pack them the most nutritious lunch each and every day. Since kindergarten.

*I promise this will get easier with practise. Awfulizing, really snowballs once you get into the swing of things.

3.  Keep your fears bottled up for as long as possible, until you explode over something trivial like your messed up coffee order at Tim Horton’s. This is sure to make you feel like you are truly losing your faculties. (You can substitute a Starbuck’s for Tim Horton’s. Where you freak out is your decision.)




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4.  Meander through your favourite bookstore or library, spending long hours staring at all the books. Pay particular attention to the genre you write. Examine those titles. Really consider how many novels are already published. Hundreds? Thousands?

Let your mind shout, over and over again,  

“Does the world really need one more vampire/zombie/coming of age/romantic-comedy, just like mine?”

5.  Avoid Word – or whatever word processing program you prefer. Don’t challenge your negative self-talk. It’s easier to give up and not risk failure. Further strengthening your conviction that you are the worst writer in the history of storytelling. Again, my math tells me that's like, forever.

What do you think of my list?

Drew said it was a bit dark, especially for me. It lacked hope and I had forgotten how much I liked hope - until just recently.

Coincidence? I think not.

So, fuelled by hope, I close with:

2 Highly Recommended Writing Tips: 

1.  Share your fears and concerns with fellow writers. They get you. They are your peeps. Remember, these are the folks that didn't call you crazy when you told them about the awesome conversation you had with the characters from your book, on your drive to work. And yes, you were alone in the car.

2.  Go easy on yourself. If your WIP is sucking the life from you, do some easy writing exercises, or heck, write a blog about your issues, turning your post into some sort of cathartic therapy – wait a second. I think I’m onto something.

3.  And if all else fails - a bubble bath and a glass of chardonnay will do wonders for your spirit. Let your mind drift and daydream. Note: I said ONE glass of chardonnay. We are encouraging hope not a hangover.

And yes I know I said 2 tips, but come on, anyone could benefit from a little R&R. 

Plus, I've never been very good at following an outline.




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Back to School

I never thought I'd brag about revisiting middle school, but I am proud to say, "I returned!" I did my first school presentation to help celebrate International Women’s Day at my daughter’s middle school.

This is the institution I attended. The same school where I flunked out of French class, was cut from the 7th grade volleyball team, and slow danced with a boy for the first time.

The song - Open Arms by Journey. My age - 12. The boy - shall remain nameless.

But I digress. This past Monday I wasn't there for a Sadie Hawkins Dance. I was there to discuss writing. My topic? Top 10 Writing Tips. There are possibly hundreds of tips I could’ve shared, so it was hard to narrow them down. I decided to share pointers that I hoped a classroom full of 10-13 year old wanna’ be writers, would find helpful.

It was exhilarating looking into those faces. Some were familiar; 5^th grade friends of my daughter, students I’ve seen while lunch monitoring, and a few kids I recognized from the neighbourhood. Others were complete strangers. But all of them were eager to learn about the craft of writing.

As many of you know by now, normally I have the cursed luck of the eternally damned. If something can go wrong, it typically does. But at Ecole Viscount Alexander, on a blustery day in March, everything went smoothly. Well, most everything. I did run out of time and had to fly through the last three slides. But still, the gist, the real heart of my presentation had been delivered by then.

And I did overhear two girls, who looked to be 7^th or 8^th graders, comment that they could, “totally use these handouts.” I decided to take that as a good sign. And not, as my dear husband pointed out, because one of them is fishing for babysitting gigs. (Rumour has it we pay our sitters above market.)

So here, according to me, are my Top 10 Writing Tips. Have any you’d like to add? Please make your suggestions in the comments tab below.

Keep on Writing!

1. Just write

• Write every day. Write a lot of garbage and edit brilliantly. (Thank you Anita Daher, middle grade and young adult writer and editor extraordinaire, for this nugget.)  
• Idea purge – get it out and tell that story. Finessing the details will come with your edits.

2. Keep a writing journal with you  

• In your backpack, car, cottage, bedroom, locker, or purse. They don’t have to be big. I carry my notebook wherever I go and jot down random thoughts, feelings, or observations.

3. Think like a writer

• Become an active observer and write down your thoughts/observations/sounds/smells/textures. If you hear interesting phrases or an odd way someone speaks – write them down.
• Become a people watcher. There are great characters all around you – at the mall, at the doctor’s office, standing in line at the movies, on the bus.
• Take pictures to help you describe subtle details – those details make your writing more believable and real.
• This is the research that makes readers think, “Hey, did this really happen?” or “This sounds so familiar – I feel like I’ve been there or done that.” Or “This could’ve totally happened to me or my friend.”
• Keep yourself wondering about people – your friends, family, teachers, everyone around you. Why do they do the things they do, or say the things they say and imagine the answer. 

4. Keep a great ideas file

• On your computer. A central storage place.
• Newspaper articles that seem interesting, funny observations.
• You can transfer all your thoughts from your writers’ notebooks here.

5. Hone your craft

• Take writing courses and workshops. Read books on the craft of writing. Ask for detailed feedback from your teachers. Perfect your writing by improving grammar and style.
• Winnipeg Public Library (in March a writing class for 9-12 year olds), Manitoba Writers’ Guild, McNally’s Community Classroom, Aqua books offers workshops. Creative Manitoba runs a youth mentorship program for kids 16-19 years old. 
• Websites: Wpg Public Library Booked; Teen Ink – teen writing, all authors are teens; ink pop (Fignet) by HarperCollins – writing contest

6. Do character sketches and plot outlines

• The character sketch will help you tell a more believable story. The more you flesh out the details of your protagonist, antagonist and supporting characters the more real your story becomes.
• The plot outline will help you determine what the heck is going to happen in your story to your main character. I like to do a loose chapter by chapter outline. Helps you determine what really bad thing is going to happen and what your character do to resolve the problem. You need to build to this point, the climax, in a steady believable way, laying the groundwork so when your character makes the final decision, the reader says, “Of course he/she did that.” If your plot is not developed the reader will pop their head out of the book and say, “What the…where did that come from?”

7. Tighten your writing

• Remove adjectives and adverbs where possible. Modifiers are not your friends. Instead use strong nouns and active verbs. Use fewer, better words to say the same thing.
• Those stronger, active verbs will add concise detail and add to the texture of your description.

8. Show don’t Tell – this is HUGE!

• Good writing is active writing that shows something to the reader rather than merely telling them about it.
• Descriptive details illustrate statements and bring them to life.
• Specific words express exactly what you want to say. 
• Avoid labels that categorize but don’t describe: Awful, delightful, scary, pleasant, nasty, delicious, handsome, pretty, beautiful, ugly, mean, funny.
• Labels flatten your writing. Too general and don’t create your intended image in your reader’s mind. The reader creates their own image, not necessarily the one you wanted them to visualize.

9. Read, read, read

• Immerse yourself in language. You will find your writing, including grammar, will naturally improve as your innate sense of what “sounds right” will grow as you read more.
• Join or establish a book club where you can talk books with others.
• Stephen King suggests you should read a minimum of 75 books a year. Better get started!

10. Build your writing community

• Establish a writing group. This helps build your writing community, filled with others who share your same dreams.
• Get together with fellow writers to share your work, share ideas, and to get feedback. Your writing is so close to you that often you can’t see what others can. Sometimes a scene is so clear in your mind that when you write it out, you miss important details.
• Go to public readings and book launches. Find websites for the authors you enjoy reading. They will often have great writing tips and insights.

You Can Find us Somewhere Between Sexuality and Psychology

Did that get your attention?

My writers group, The Anitas, meets every second Thursday at McNally’s. The bookstore graciously allows us into their store so we can talk children’s writing, surrounded by shelves of writing success stories – a.k.a. published books. It’s our own Nirvana. Jocks have their stadiums, music lovers have their concert halls, and writers have their bookstores.

Our favourite location is the Atrium, where we gather, nestled under the ceiling-high tree, at a safe distance from the curious attention of customers. Its wide branches cocoon us in a safe space as we share our latest work.

If the Atrium is being used for book launches, we slide over to the Travel Section, which is still cozy, tucked into a far corner of the store. But, here there are more interruptions into our “safe space” by book lovers searching the shelves to discover their next dream vacation destination.

Now, if the travel section is full we’re bumped and relocated to our most entertaining location, wedged between Sexuality and Psychology. Not so much two hours of safe sharing, but more a night of living on the wild side.

At our first meeting in S&P, we thought it somewhat appropriate for a gaggle of young-adult writers. Teens’ hormones are surging, their brain development is struggling to keep pace with their body development, and the adults in their lives are desperate to better understand the young adult their child is quickly becoming.

Ooh, that does sound like a match made in writing heaven, doesn’t it?

Perhaps. But more often we find ourselves transformed into a circle of giggling adolescents, as the “sexually adventurous” scour the shelves behind us.  

We’ve had couples snuggling far, far too closely, leafing through the pages of Karma Sutra for Dummies, hipster men on quick reconnaissance, no browsing; just in and out with how-to-book in hand, and finally our least favourite; the greasy trench-coat wearing geezers. They slowly lurk behind us while we sit wide eyed, staring at each other, willing ourselves to remain mature and not break into fits of laughter.

But last night we had a new shopper. Last night we had a lovely looking girl next door twenty-something, scanning the titles for help with, ahem, the big “O”. She arrived while I was reading a particularly steamy first kiss scene from my latest WIP.

Think back to when you were 15 or 16. Do you remember sitting in the bleachers, watching a high school basketball game and your knee bumped against the cute boy sitting next to you? And he didn’t move away when it did? What about the first time a girl held your hand? Who can forget their first kiss?

The girl, on her quest for o capitalization, could hear every word as I read this section:

His lips glide towards mine and…he’s kissing me. Fireworks explode in my brain and shoot down to my belly, blasting through my legs and arms. A kaleidoscope of emotion bursts out of me. Sheer joy mixed with something so…intoxicating, and raunchy. That’s it. Total, raunchy lust. It’s the ‘I’d like to rip his clothes off’ lust you read about in Cosmo and I gotta say, I like it!

At which point, we were interrupted by her giggles. She turned around “O” book in hand and asked, “Maybe I should be asking you guys, which book to buy. Is this one any good?”

After we calmed down, we were able to explain that we were not “those” kinds of writers. 

So, we survived our first interaction with the sexually adventurous. Hmm, another first. This encounter went smoothly, but not something I’d like to repeat, because the odds are against us. Pretty sure this would be a far different posting if an old greasy dude had invaded our circle of sharing. Shudder. Gag. Blanch.

If you see us in the S&P section next time you’re at McNally’s, don’t stop for a chat. It’s awkward. Just sayin’.