Developing Your Onward & Upward Attitude – Part 2

2. Wait a while before sending work out.
It never fails. We have a draft of an article or story finished. We think it’s finished and we send it out.

A couple weeks or so go by. We get an envelope in the mail or a message in our inbox. Our breath catches or our stomach clenches in anticipation. Instead of the hoped-for acceptance, we find a rejection. And that’s IF they respond. Our self-confidence takes a hit.

What can we do about it?

Stop.

Really, just stop. Take a breath. Step away from the mailbox or computer. Do not send it!

We’re sending things out too soon. Either they aren’t ready to see the world yet or WE aren’t ready for them to go out yet. If they’re not reqdy, we generally know it by the quick turn-around when the rejection hits our mailbox. If WE aren’t ready, we know it by our reaction when we get the rejection.

Sometimes even when we get an acceptance.

There is a lot about writing that requires a certain mindset. Submitting manuscripts is one of them. How do you know if you’re ready? Only by sending your work out for consideration.

When you (think you) finish a story, let it sit. If at all possible, let it sit for a week or more. Then go back and read it again. Is it ready to go out? Is it as perfect as you can possibly make it? If it is, take a look at yourself. Are YOU ready to send it? Can you handle it if it comes back rejected?

How long do you wallow over a rejection? That depends on how big a hit your self-confidence takes. The time it takes for you to move from disappointed to “Onward and Upward” is the best indicator if you are ready.

How long should you wallow? In my opinion, you shouldn’t. Set yourself a time limit, though. I only allow myself a day at the most to wallow/throw a pity party. Then it’s time to move on.

Part 1

Look for Part 3 on Friday

BOP Your Way Past Writer’s Block – Part 3

(Note: This is the third of a three-part series. You can see part 1 here and part 2 here.)

3.    Put it into practice.
Doing these two things will not help your writer’s block if you do them only once. They have to become a regular habit. Traditional wisdom says if you do something 14 days or 14 times, it becomes a habit. Make doodling and playing a habit.

Find people you trust to help you stay accountable to yourself and your new habits until they become so ingrained for you that missing them feels like missing a meal or another vital part of your life.

These aren’t original to me. Julia Cameron discusses them in detail in The Artist’s Way. She calls the notebook exercise “Morning Pages” and says they are to be done in the morning before doing anything else. She doesn’t make allowances for easing into them.

Additionally, she calls the organized play an “Artist Date” where only the inner and outer artist are involved and no one else goes along because they could cause interruptions or be a distraction. Sometimes it’s good to go somewhere alone and just be in order to recharge. At other times, it feels dull without someone with similar goals there as well. In my opinion, that’s your own judgment call. The only requirement is that it works for you regardless of what anyone else says about it and regardless of what rules they would impose on it.

Too many times we tend to discount something because it’s too simple. Many of us do that with these three, seemingly simple, things. If we don’t discount them, they can become valuable tools allowing us to BOP our way through any blocks we find in our path. And eventually our “Good Fairy” will reward us with increased productivity and confidence to submit our work instead of punishing us as she did with poor Little Bunny Foo Foo.

BOP Your Way Past Writer’s Block – Part 1

(Note: This is the first in a 3-part series about overcoming writer’s block or any obstacle to your creativity.)

Advice for writers comes from varied and sometimes surprising sources. Take nursery rhymes, for example. Particularly, consider Little Bunny Foo Foo.

“Little Bunny Foo Foo,
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ’em on the head.”

If you’re not familiar with the nursery rhyme, the Good Fairy gave Little Bunny Foo Foo three chances to improve his behavior or she would turn him into a goon. Ultimately, she did.

We writers need to change our behavior as well. We need to know we can bop our way past writer’s blocks without such punishment. Here are three tips for doing just that:

1.    Break out the pen and paper.
Yes, we live in the Information Age where everyone uses a computer more often than not. We even carry them in our pockets under the guise of music players and smart phones. Forget about them. Get a physical notebook and pen. It doesn’t matter if you use a 3-ring binder or a spiral notebook or if you write with blue, black, green, yellow, or purple ink.

Get a notebook and a pen, find a place to sit down, and set a timer for at least fifteen minutes. It would be better if you can do it for 30, but we’ll start with 15. In those 30 minutes, you should be able to fill 3 8.5×12 sheets of paper: front and back of one page and front of another (or back, depending on how you work).

As soon as you start the timer, put your pen to paper and do not stop moving the pen across the page until the timer goes off. You don’t have to write if you can’t think of anything to say, but you do have to keep the pen moving. Doodle. Draw. Scribble. Eventually, you will start to write something. And that something might just help you move past your block and the problem you’ve been having.

In fact, consider your blocks as building blocks toddlers littering a toddler’s playroom. Draw a representation of those blocks in your notebook while your hand is moving across the page during this block of time. If the toys were scattered everywhere, how might they be rearranged to make something decorative if not functional?

In the same way you imagine those toy blocks being moved around, rearrange your blocks too. Play “What if?” You don’t write fiction, you say. It doesn’t matter. Many writers have found “what if” to generate effective jump-starts for articles and other nonfiction projects. Nita Beshear, a writer in southeast Oklahoma, did. She took her passions for quilts and writing and thought, “What if I wrote a book of devotions about quilts?” She wrote Devoted to Quilting, published by Devoted Books in 2010.

(Part 2)

Settling in for Another Round

Happy Memorial Day to you all.

I’m set up in the Culinary Suite at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow once again. This is my home for the next two weeks. (Yes, I wish it could be longer, but be that as it may…)

As always, I have lofty goals and high expectations for myself. I’m working on another round of edits for NAVAJO ROSE (requested by an editor at one of my preferred publishers) and a book of devotions centered around crocheting (similar to Devoted to Creating).

There are, of course, other things I could and might work on, but these two are the top priority. We will see if my time here will allow me to get them done to the point where I can finish them soon after I get home or not.

I fully expect to.

Happy Writing.

Thoughts from a Contest Judge

In February and March, I was honored to serve as a judge for the OWFI writing contest. Specifically, I judged the Nostalgic Prose category. I overheard a few comments that I would like to address. I figured this would be the best way to do it.

Why didn’t I get any comments?
If you entered Nostalgic Prose, you did get some comments. In addition to individual comments, I included a letter detailing common mistakes. I understand why some judges would not give comments, though.

It’s time-consuming. We’re volunteering to do the judging. (Personally, I like it because I get to see some of what people I consider to be my colleagues are doing. The contest is blind, so I have no idea who wrote what, though I guess at some of them.) Some judges feel like it takes enough time to read and rate the entires and don’t have time to give additional comments.

How can a manuscript score 99 points out of 100 and not place?
Ideally judging is an objective process. The guidelines that are provided aim to keep it objective. However, in my experience, doing this could result in a 12-way tie for first place and an 8-way tie for second place.

The judging guidelines mainly focus on mechanics and readability. Going on those criteria alone, scores were in the high 90s. I had to get subjective then.

Which one did I like the best? Which ones resonated with me the most? That’s the one that got first place. I went down the line this way until I had 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places and several honorable mentions.

That’s how I had honestly more than one that scored 99 points out of 100 and didn’t place.

I just want to quit writing after that judge’s comments.
(This was not said about me, as far as I know.)

I only have one thing to say about this:

DON’T QUIT!!!!!!!

At the end of the general letter I sent to those who entered the Nostalgic Prose category, I put, “Regardless what I or anyone else says, keep writing.”

That’s pretty much what it boils down to regardless if you write for publication, write to enter contests, or write for yourself. All are valid reasons for writing. I’ve done them all. A writer writes. If you are a writer, if your heart says you are and your midset proves you are, YOU ARE A WRITER!

I’ve heard people say that you’re not a writer until you have x# of rejections, until you’ve published a book, until you have 3 articles in print, or until this, that or the other. Do you know what I say to that?

BALONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you think you’re a writer, then You. Are. A. Writer. regardless of what anyone else says.

If the rejection or judge’s comments bother you, do what I’ve started doing. Either rip it up or put it through a shredder. It’s surprisingly cathartic and lets you physically move it out of the way so you can start again, whether on revising the submitted manuscript or writing something completely new.

There you have it. These aren’t all what I thought of, but it’s a start. I might use more of them as future blog posts.

Remember, above all, keep writing.

Evolution of a Pattern

I know, my drawing skills aren’t all that great. But you get the idea.

I’m writing out a crochet pattern. Ordinarily, you would think writing is writing. However, writing patterns is a whole different ballgame. I know what I want (a butterfly shawl), but I haven’t been able to find it. So I’m making it myself.

The simple drawing is to keep in mind the ultimate outcome. (Yes, hopefully it will be more balanced than this.) I’ve started writing out the pattern. It will be done in parts and then sewn/crocheted together.

I don’t know if the wings will be done individually or done in sets to minimize the sewing. That will actually depend on what I can figure out about it.

As I get it worked out, I’ll post progress notes and sometimes pictures. I’ll get this figured out and you’ll see the evolution of a pattern.

Against Conventional Wisdom

I’ve been shopping manuscripts around again. (Yes, I need to do it more consistently.)

On a recent submission, after the query and synopsis, the editor requested the first three chapters. Then she sent me an e-mail saying I would hear back from her by the end of February.

I heard from her yesterday.

She passed on the novel, but she gave me some wonderful, very detailed feedback. My first reaction was to think it was time to move on to the next one on my list. Then I paused.

Wait a minute! She put a lot of work and time into this. That e-mail was almost three full pages!

Hmmm…

I wonder if she’d want to see it again if I made the changes?

I called one of my writer friends. We talked about this, that, and the other. When we hung up, I realized I had never even mentioned the e-mail. So I went with my hunch.

Going against conventional wisdom (which generally says once an editor has rejected something, it’s rejected, period), I sent the editor an e-mail. I thanked her for the feedback. I also asked if she would be interested in seeing it again when I had the changes done.

She said yes! Not only that, but she also said to send the full manuscript when I get to that point.

When I talked to my friend again, she said she would not have talked me out of sending the e-mail and, in fact, would have encouraged it.

Sometimes it pays off to go against conventional wisdom.

Now…

Do I have enough paper to print the full manuscript so I can take a pen to it and mark it up with the editor’s comments in mind?

Happy writing.

Devoted to Creating Blog Tour

Here we go a-traveling…

Not literally. Cyberly.

Yes, Devoted to Creating is going on a cyber-tour. A blog tour.

This is a book of devotions centered around creativity.

Everyone who is made in the image of God is creative. These devotions illustrate how creativity surrounds us and how we can use it in his service even-and especially-in unexpected ways, such as teaching, parenting, gardening, and cooking as well as the more expected outlets of writing, painting, and drawing. Hopefully they will help ignite the spark of creativity in you.

So here is the information I have so far:

When: The week of February 28 through March 5, 2011.
Where: Your blog
What: A virtual book tour in whichever format and topic area you prefer (descriptions and options below)
How: Through posts and comments on various blogs and web sites.

Formats:

1. Q&A – You ask a series of questions about creativity, writing, cooking, crocheting, or anything else covered in and related to the book and/or myself. I will answer them as best I can
2. Review – You post a review of the book on your blog.
3. Guest Post – I write a post (over any of the topics in the book, writing in general, or creativity in general, covered in or related to the book).

Topics:

1. Creativity in general
2. Writing
3. Crocheting
4. Cooking
5. Gardening
6. Parenting
7. Teaching
8. Painting
9. Playing games
10. Drawing
11. Painting.
12. Photography
13. Creativity tips
14. Why I wrote the book
15. My personal creativity philosophy

What I need from you:

If you want to host Devoted to Creating on this blog tour, send me an e-mail with the following:

1. Your blog name and address.
2. The format you’d like to use.
3. The topic you’d like me to cover.
4. The date you’d like to host.

In addition to this open call, I will be contacting some bloggers on my own. (Maybe we can make it a longer tour? Let’s work toward that!)

I hope to hear from you soon.

Happy creating.

On Dabbling

Merriam-Webster defines dabbling as:

a superficial or intermittent interest, investigation, or experiment

I have been accused of dabbling on more than one occasion. Some have intended as the insult to beat all insults. They use only the first part of the definition, “superficial.” I don’t take it like that, though.

Why?

To my view, dabbling is important to the creative journey. It takes the second half of the definition, “investigation, or experiment,” and moves it from the superficial realm to something more substantial.

I don’t deny that it may be intermittent. Discovering where your creative passion lies can be intense, both in terms of time and what you learn about yourself in the process. Something like that can only be sustained for short periods of time. But it yields results.

If you were to look at my Facebook profile page, you would see that I still have a wide variety of interests. There are several reasons for this. I like to know about a wide variety of things. I don’t think it makes me a dabbler. I think it makes me a more rounded individual. And it has all influenced who I am and how I perceive myself.

If you do take a look at the profile page, you’ll notice something else though. A lot of my interests relate in some way to the things I have written about and to my views on the creative process. It doesn’t quite show the emphasis on yarn in terms of crochet and such like many of my updates do, but it does give a pretty good impression of who I am.

As a creative person, that’s important.

I encourage you to dabble. Figure out where you primary interests lie. And, perhaps most importantly, don’t worry about what someone else might say about your process.

2010 Writing Year In Review

Apparently, I didn’t do a goals list for 2010 on this blog. That makes the year-in-review a bit more difficult, but not impossible.

The largest writing accomplishment of the year for me was the publication of my book, Devoted to Creating, which is available in print and on Kindle. (Link will open in a new window.)

As a bonus, the Kindle version is $2.99!

I spent a total of a month (two weeks in May, one week in July, and two weeks in October) at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. In May, I was also at the Books in Bloom event that took place at the Crescent Hotel. During the week in July, I wrote a grant for the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion Prize. I will find out soon if I won that or not.

I’ve had partials (3 chapters and a synopsis) and a proposal requested on several projects in various stages of progress. I had three articles published in the OWFI Report, the newsletter for the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc. Speaking of OWFI, one of my novels, DEVON’S WISH, won 2nd Place in the Historical Novel category of the OWFI contest.

And speaking of contests, a poem, “Windsong,” also won 2nd Place. This time it was in the contest sponsored by Ozark Creative Writers, Inc.

2010 has been a year of small and large successes. It has also been a time of evaluating where I have been and where I want to go in terms of writing. In a nutshell, I’ve figured out that regardless of what I write, I have to keep fiction in the mix or I lose motivation. Even if it’s just one day a week, fiction will always be my mainstay, despite what other successes may come in other realms.

May 2011 bring us all good health, wealth, and happiness.

Happy New Year!

Be well.