Notes from Val’s Desk
February 3, 2009 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Motivational, Notes From Val's Desk
Last month (along with 50+ other writers) I attended OCC’s first special event of 2009–the very successful Diane Pershing “Plotting†Workshop. Right up to that sunny Saturday morning, I wasn’t sure if listening to Diane would help my plot problems. Actually, I only had one problem. I didn’t have a plot.
But I went—optimistic and eager and ready to absorb everything Diane planned to share with us. I was attentive and listened to every word. Not only was Diane helpful but she made sense. So much sense that I came away with a much clearer understanding of traditional and innovative plot methods used by writers of all genres. I was brimming over with new ideas for my own story and eager to get them on the page. I was charged up. I was raring to go. I was m-o-t-i-v-a-t-e-d!!
The next day or so after the workshop, while my new story ideas percolated around in my head, I re-organized my office, my writing space and my working files. I reorganized my schedule so I would have regular, uninterrupted time. I re-organized my notes and then my old, stale plot. This flurry of pre-writing activity worked because I wrote every day for a week. I got to my chair on time. I ignored the email. I steadied myself and said “no thanks†the lure of the Internet siren. I was so good.
Then, as usual, things started to happen. My perfect new writing schedule was sabotaged by unexpected “emergencies.†I ran out of cat food. I had to work late. I had to go into work early. Everyone else wanted a chunk of my time. And when I was finished distributing pieces of myself and my precious time to everyone else and everyone else’s needs, there was nothing left of me for me. I lost my motivation. Don’t know where it went, it just vanished. I’ve been looking for it for two weeks now.
As of today there are 22 posts on A Slice of Orange with “motivation†as the theme. I’m going to read them, one by one, and pray that even one piece of advice will work for me.
I’ll let you know what I learn because I really had fun writing…..for a while.
A Fantasy Life
January 27, 2009 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives
This is the Tax Collector from my short story, Weaving A Dream, part of Whiskey Shots, Vol. 17. Myna must face down the tax collector and not allow him to cheat her out of her money and her home.
The new year has started, and with it, new ideas. I have been judging the Rita’s and I always seem to come up with a new story idea while I am reading. It is a “Oh, I have never done this type of story. What could I do?†The Enchanted Hawk was one of those books. I read a shape-shifter book and decided I wanted to write one. However, I didn’t want to write werewolves or any other type of were animals. So, Brylyn of the Hawk Clan came into being. Of course, when you have shape-shifters, there is always the clothing problem. When they shift, they are no longer dressed as humans, so when they shift back, they’re naked. I read one book where the werewolves carried backpacks with a change of clothes in them so they didn’t have to run around naked. I decide I didn’t want my shape-shifter naked, running through the castle with evil men after her. So, I decided the clothes turned into her feathers or fur. I can do that. It is my world.
Sometime last year I came up with an idea for a short contemporary dark fantasy involving a Chimera. My plot group told me it was too good of an idea with too much to it for a short. I thought about it and decided maybe they were correct, but then I had to come up with a new idea for the short. I haven’t done that, but, while I was reading the books I was judging, I decided maybe the characters were too good for just one book. I could make a serious out of this. The hero and heroine could chase more monsters after they kill the Chimera.
That leaves me with more work. For a short, the world doesn’t have to be as developed as it will for a series. Also, I have to come up with new monsters. I don’t want to be using the same monsters as others. I don’t do were-creatures or vampires. I guess while I finish my sequel with Sam – he’s still in bed with Jubilee – and write a sequel to my mystery, I’ll be doing world building. Lots of world building.
1 0 Read moreNew Year Review
January 25, 2009 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Musings At MidnightBy Lori Pyne
Being a solution seeker, problem solver, planner, maker of goals and an optismist, I love my New Year Review. I look back at what worked, what did not, what I want to keep or continue to do, what I want to change or stop, think about what I want to achieve, and then I make my plan and set my goals. I start each year with my new diet plan, new exercise plan, new writing goals, and new budget goals.
Sadly, sometimes I don’t even make it through the whole month of Janurary with my plan still in place and working, much less to June.
This year I’m trying something new. (I am still the optismist so years of failure only convinces me that I just need a better plan!!) I am spending January clearing out the old, cleaning and organizing my home office (oh and the rest of the house and garage – but that’s because I just can’t help myself!!), cooking up a bunch of healthy items (some for immediate consumption and some for future meals), catching up on sleep, and finishing training my replacement for my former second boss (still have my original boss – but now I’m back to just working for that one person – yippie!!).
From this place of order and sanity (a girl can dream), I am implementing my achieveable plan on February 1st. Yes achieveable, interesting idea, no? I will write at least one word per day, five days a week. I will exercise at least three days a week for thirty minutes. I will only eat if I am hungry. I will cook and eat at least one vegetarian meal a week (to work towards my eat more veggies goal). I will continue my nightly ritual of reading to my son. (The only goal from 2008 that I achieved. I am sure that anyone who knows me is not surprise to find that my one success is connected to my son.)
That’s it: clear the decks, clean and organize my work space and set reachable goals.
I have faith that when I see you next I’ll still be on track.
Does anyone else do a New Year review? Has anyone found a game plan that works for them? If so, please share!
0 0 Read moreChannel Your Inner Guy….
January 24, 2009 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Isabel Swift, Presentations, Public SpeakingRecently attended a presentation given by a very smart and talented group of people, but I came away with a powerful impression about girlspeak and boyspeak and a compelling message for people of the female persuasion:
You have got to Channel your Inner Guy when you speak publicly!
Both men and women presented. Both were smart, articulate, but the impact was night and day. Now there were some great women speakers and some not so great men, but there was a steriotypic role tendency that I fall into myself that hit me over the head listening.
You know where I’m taking this. Girlspeak meant presenting their recommendations tentatively, their language filled with caveats, ‘mights,’ ‘coulds,’ efforts to please, to question, to solicit approval, information couched with options and alternatives. If they were a dog, they’d be approaching you head down, ears flattened, tail low and wagging frantically.
And of course the guys would say their piece much more directly and quickly, with focus, specifics, to the point, putting their opinion out there, appearing to know everything, taking the risk. If they were a dog, they’d be sitting up straight or standing, ears pricked, legs apart, tail high, barking loudly for attention.
At worst, boyspeak delivers the not-too-subtle tyranny and bullying of ‘my way or the highway,’ ‘there is one correct opinion & you have just heard it, no conversation, questions or dissent will be tolerated’ and other forms of oppressive language. And girlspeak is sensitized—in the worst case, over sensitized—to that, and can go too far to compensate. But let me tell you, boyspeak was a lot easier to listen to!
Frankly, it is exhausting to listen to girlspeak. My stomach was clenched the whole time wondering where the sentences were going, whether there was any certainty or clarity I could hang my hat on, or whether it was all just a morass of possibilities that I was now supposed to figure out and sort through without clear direction, just a few gentle hints and hopes expressed.
I think there’s a happy medium—a combining of forces that is what a good relationship is all about—that captures the best of both.
It entails channeling your inner guy—you’ve seen it in the yin yang symbol,
or C.G. Jung’s animus/anima: finding that core piece of “other”—of our own direct opposite—that we carry within ourselves.
It means speaking clearly, confidently, directly, with passion and commitment to your point of view—but setting things up briefly at the beginning and/or at the end in a way that opens the door to feedback, or sets up the points to be discussed, what those discussion goals are & how that feedback will be managed.
All tentative and qualifying terms need to be ruthlessly eradicated from the general text. If you can’t bear to get rid of them entirely (I can’t) they go into a one sentence direct, opinionated qualifier. You don’t need to say the recommendations are just your opinion (duh!) and for heaven’s sake don’t be apologetic about having an opinion; you insult the person who is asking you for it.
No one is interested in how nervous you are or how unqualified you feel; they just want you to tell them what you know or recommend in as clear and compelling a manner as you can.
Just shut up about everything else. Ask yourself, would a guy ask that? Say that? Worry about that? No. So forget it.
Later, you can graciously open the door to comments (but don’t stop channeling your inner guy).
Unsolicited advice from Isabel Swift
Writer’s Budget
January 19, 2009 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Member At LargeMonica Stoner Member at Large
No, I don’t have an great ideas for making money as a writer, or for spending what we might make more judiciously. This is about a time budget though the initial idea came from listening to people talk about setting up a money budget.
One of the first ideas put forth is to “pay yourself first.” Put money in a savings account before you pay bills, if only a few dollars, instead of planning to put away what is left at the end of the month. In this same vein, my New Year thought was to stop planning my writing around other activities, thinking I could easily write late at night. Darkness comes and my body points out how important sleep is, and how much we enjoy it.
Write first, before club activities, before recreational baking (yum!), before all but the most necessary of life’s duties. During NaNo I found out I was writing instead of sampling cookie recipes and I actually managed to lose weight, something I never thought could happen when I was parked in front of the computer for so long.
If our writing means as much to us as we think it does, and if our lives are only complete when we struggle with plot and character development, why not schedule fulfillment of our souls and goals before everything else? Okay, we might want to allow for pesky day jobs, and if your life is anything like mine, meals prepared by the husband would consist of canned soup, maybe. Other than that, why not make a commitment to one hour, five pages, whatever the goal, before parties, before club activities. Think of writing as your second job, and give yourself the same respect you give your employer.
Now to follow my own advice. Happy writing.
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