Category Archives: The Writing Life

No, it’s not a new Yoga position. I’m talking about how we balance our time when our butt is in the writing chair. Most writers have to manage their time to write between jobs, family, and friends. There are dozens of blog posts about finding the time to write. But I’m talking about how we spend our time when we have our butt in chair, fingers on keyboard.

I used to take care of my emails first. Even after I delete the advertisements, sappy forwards from well-meaning friends and family, and other unnecessary emails, by the time I read my Daily Kick, Magical Words, and Duotrope update then take care of necessary emails, I’ve usually eaten up nearly an hour. Then there are critiques I’ve promised for fellow writers, submission updates for short stories, agent research, books on writing to read, books by other authors in my field to read, and you know…the list goes on.

So, in all of this, how do we become the writers we want and hope to be? The obvious answer to this; we need to write. Though it may sound selfish, we have to put our own work first.

I once read a parenting book that said you can’t do anything for your children unless you take care of yourself. The idea was that you’ll be a better parent if you take the time to exercise regularly, read, and spend time on goals that are important to you. Take a little time for yourself so what you give your family is of higher quality.

I think the same holds true in writing. I’m a better reviewer if I take the time to write. It’s not going help my writing goals to read books, fiction or otherwise, if I don’t take the time to write. My editing isn’t going to be worth crap unless I take the time to write. In short, no matter what else I have to do or get done, I make sure the majority of my time is spent actually writing. And I do my story writing during my optimum, creative thinking time. Sorry, everyone else gets the leftovers.

I write while my kids are at school in the morning and, depending on how tired I am, I use the evening. In the afternoon, when my brain wants to go to sleep, I answer e-mails, send submissions, critique colleagues’ work, do blog posts (yes, it’s the afternoon at this moment), handle agent research, compile my other research, etc. I use spare moments to read: as the computer boots up, during breakfast, in between matches at my daughter’s badminton game, and so on. I can do all of these things without full focus and do them well, but I want the best part of my day, the most creative part, devoted to the reason I’m doing all the other stuff…to make my writing the best it can be.

The important part is to use the time you have to your best advantage. Balance.

I know most people are dealing with work schedules, perhaps schooling, and/or they have small children at home. What works for you and why?

Understanding your own Writer’s Block

October 12, 2011

Frank Morin

This is a topic I’ve been thinking about lately, and is similar to the recent post from Kylie on Unleashing the Muse

Although the topics are similar, I’m taking a slightly different approach so hopefully it won’t seem like overkill.

I recently watched the movie “Stranger Than Fiction” with Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. Very funny. Emma Thompson is a novelist who kills her heroes, and somehow Will Ferrell becomes her next character and can hear her voice as she types and prepares to kill him. Fascinating concept, moreso for the fact that Emma Thompson can’t quite figure out the right way to kill off Will Ferrell. She gives a brilliant portrayal of a less-than-stable author suffering from writer’s block. She goes to some amazing extremes in her attempt to get the right idea.

The following clip shows just how far she’ll go: to an emergency room to view injured and dying patients to get real-life inspiration.

Stranger Than Fiction clip – Writers Block

As the clip so wonderfully portrays, some writers struggle mightily with writer’s block.

Do you?

What do you do about it?

I don’t suffer from writer’s block very often. I spend lots of time in the early stages of story creation planning, considering different ideas, and fleshing out exactly what I want to achieve with the scenes, the characters. Once that basic framework is nailed down, the actual writing of the story is pretty straight-forward. The big exception is if a new, unexpected idea hits me while I’m writing a scene.

So am I just lucky? Inspired? Or do I not push the envelope far enough?

I believe that many times writer’s block is a symptom of one of these deeper problems:

Lack of clarity of a story’s mission or concept
Lack of understanding of the correct plot framework the story needs to build upon
Incomplete worldbuilding
Weak or inconsistent conflict
Trying to force a story down a direction that just doesn’t work, which the author may understand at an instinctive level, but lacks enough mastery of the craft to consciously identify the shortcoming and therefore begin the process of correction.

When have you run into writer’s block? Is it at a particular phase in a story every time, or does it happen at random intervals? How do you find ways around it?

As mentioned in Kylie’s previous post, one approach that often helps is the BIC_HOK (Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard) approach: force yourself to work, to type, to drive yourself into “the zone’. This actually works for me. Sometimes playing the right music as I try to get into “the zone’ helps a lot.

Another way to help explore options is playing the “What If?” game. Back up to the last part that worked in the story before you hit the snag that’s holding you up and start asking “What if?”. Search for the most surprising, craziest possible twists you could add. Or look at the scene and consider if anything similar has ever been done before, and then ask “What If?” you took the opposite track?

The worst thing you can do is just give up and say “I’ll write tomorrow. Maybe I’ll feel like it then.” ;or blame it on a Muse that just isn’t talking today.

Distractions and Avoidances Conquered

October 7, 2011

clancy

Clancy Metzger The Writing Life 4 Comments

…for the most part. A little over a month ago I wrote about how I was avoiding writing. Actively not doing my job. And, though I failed that week in overcoming my issues. I have since made progress. Kylie asked for an update. Here it is.

At some point, a few weeks ago, I made a resolution (like for New Year’s – except I’m keeping this one) that I would wake up and write. I would not check the insidious email distraction until I wrote for several hours first.

If I check the email first, then I get side-tracked by reading blogs, leaving comments in hopes of winning some prize for doing so, deleting the hundred emails I don’t have time for, answering questions, and doing tasks requested in emails. Seriously, that can take me until noon if I’m not careful. Then I try to write but my brain is fried from the afore-mentioned distractions, so I need a nap, and then I’m fuzzy headed and not feeling creative. Another day gone and wasted and no writing to show for it. Grrrr.

But with my new resolution, if I don’t look at the email, don’t even open it until after I write, even if I don’t get back to the writing in the afternoon, I’ve accomplished my main goal of getting words on page. HA! Evil email and internet tool that I love, I have conquered you and I wrote despite your tempting ways.

Maintaining my resolution, I am working my way through my story. Some days are more productive than others, but whether I get 600 words or 6000, I am getting closer to ‘The End’.

How is everyone else doing?

Unleashing the Muse

October 5, 2011

KylieQ

Kylie Quillinan The Writing Life Writing Tools 12 Comments

Do you have a muse? Does your muse have a solid form: arms, legs, hair, clothes? Or it is an ethereal creature, more of a spirit moving quietly within your mind? Writers throughout time have held close this image of a muse and many have fervently believed their muse to be the wellspring of their ideas. The ancient Greeks believed in nine muses, the daughters of Zeus, who inspired writers, poets, artists and musicians. Perhaps the idea of a muse is to ease the pressure on ourselves. When the words won’t come, it’s not our fault – it’s because the muse has temporarily abandoned us.

My ideas originate from deep inside of me, swirling up out of a jumble of every sight, sound, taste, smell and thought I’ve ever had, from every image I’ve seen, every conversation I’ve overheard, every book I’ve read, every movie I’ve watched. Somehow, out of all of this confusion of experiences, comes an idea. Perhaps a single image or character, sometimes a place or time that begs me to explore. And gradually, as that idea lingers in my mind, it somehow weaves itself into a story, with other characters, a landscape, a mythology, a purpose. And that’s the magic of being a writer, isn’t it? Taking that single image or idea and turning it into something that’s beautiful or horrifying or wonderful, or maybe all three at once.

But what do you do when the muse refuses to talk? When you sit down at the computer, put your fingers to the keyboard, and the words won’t come? Some writers use a variety of exercises to get the creativity flowing: free writing, character backgrounds, writing a scene using nothing but dialogue. Some leave that project to work on another for a time, maybe a short story. Others subscribe to the good old theory of BICHOK: Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard.

I waiver between trying hard to adhere to the butt in chair philosophy and merely waiting: waiting for inspiration to return. The latter is never efficient and rarely effective, yet we writers are somehow able to justify to ourselves time spent doing absolutely nothing while waiting for the muse to return. What other profession could do this?

So how do you intend to cope when the muse next abandons you? Make a plan and you’re that much closer to surviving the absence of the fickle force we call creativity. What will it be: butt in chair, creativity exercises, reading quotes of inspiration? Share your plan and perhaps you’ll spread a little inspiration amongst us all.