Driven To Distraction By Deadlines

Oh Gosh! Is it my turn to write the blog? Did I miss the deadline? We were just talking about meeting deadlines (or not) earlier this week as we gathered around the kitchen table at GrandMary's place for our evening meeting of Pens & Pages.

That very descriptive word "deadline" was born in the POW camps of the Civil War. Just a few feet inside the outer fence surrounding the camp, a line was drawn. When a prisoner stepped a foot or even just a toe across that line, the guards patrolling the outer fence assumed this prisoner was making a break for it and he was immediately shot dead, no questions asked. Thus the dreaded DEADLINE.

I don't know at what point the term morphed into being the final moment in time when something must be completed. As writers, we are now most familiar with it being the time after which a written document can no longer be accepted for publication. In the old newspaper days of melted lead type and linotype operators, it was when the backshop foreman in his ink blackened apron would stick his head through the door to the font office and yell, "Sorry Kiddo! I had to kill that story you turned in late. Not enough room anyway." So the story you had worked so hard to finish was just as dead as the fellow trying to escape from the POW camp.

At Monday's P & P meeting we pondered why our best writing is most often produced when we're working against a deadline, hurrying to finish up in time to turn it in. We had weeks to prepare but dawdled away the time, while the germ of an idea sort of tippy-toed around in the nether regions of our brains. Then with a final burst of creative energy, a lot of stress, a lot of self-reproach, a lot of coffee or something stronger --- Voila! The masterpiece!

Why do we put ourselves through this? Does anyone know a good psychologist who would attend our P & P meetings and offer free therapy for one and all?

Writing When You Can't Write

Her chest was tight and her breathing difficult. Breathe. Relax. Go back to sleep.... She coaxed herself to be calm. It was no good. Anne hugged her stomach. She felt like throwing up. The clock said 3 a.m.. She needed rest, but the exhaustion that first allowed her to sleep was gone. She wouldn't rest anymore... not until fear wore her out enough for fatigue to again release her.

What is Anne afraid of, cancer, a new job, foreclosure, a stalker? I don't know about Anne, but sending my son off to college this week terrifies me! So I get up and read a book until I can't resist sleep any longer, and the next morning I capture all my feelings in a journal entry for later use.

Times of change bring stress. Life careens out of control--much like entering a curve too fast. All you can do is deal with the moment and hold on. Such times often devastate our writing intentions, but they can be a foundation for better writing in the future. The key is to focus on the type of writing that can best be done in the situation, rather than to give up writing all together.

For me, the busyness and stress of sending a son off to college drove out the time and the motivation to do my mystery rewrite or romance rough draft. I don't have time to remember where I am in a story, let alone focus on it. Will I lose days, or weeks of writing, until the crisis is past? When life interrupts my writing goals, journaling keeps me from being unproductive. By journaling in times of crisis, I capture the tension of those times. I step into my writing mindset and examine my feelings. What better time to grapple with describing what it is like to be uncertain, terrified, or harried than when we are feeling that way ourselves?

Life's interruptions can be a writer's road block, or they can be our on-the-job training. Learning to communicate the intensity of difficult moments will bring our writing to life. So step back, observe, write, and maybe, just maybe, you will manage to preserve your sanity in the process. Sane or insane, you will have made the most of the moment as a writer.

The Short Story

It occurred to me as I was composing my first "serious" short story that perhaps I should see what I could find out about writing a good short story. How does it differ from a full length novel?
"Well, duh", you say, "It's shorter".
"Yes", I respond.

But are there differences, and is there some "secret ingredient" to being a successful short story writer?
Anyway, I googled "writing a short story" and found many useful sites. I even learned a new word--you serious, seasoned writers will laugh, but I had never heard of "denouement". I figured it meant something about resolution to the plot by the way it was used. And sure enough, it's a French word meaning a final revelation or occurrence clarifying the outcome of the plot.

No, I didn't find that there is a "secret ingredient", but I did learn that one should have a "narrow subject line" with a clearly understood point (theme) with not more than three characters. Also, one should make every word count while making "rich" believable characters.

And I loved what one site stated: Writers should "Put a man up a tree. Throw stones at him. Get him down."

Other advice I loved about writing in general. When writing a rough draft, don't continually censor. It's easy to mentally project "our mothers or other relatives looking over our shoulders."

So just write--ok?

Nana

A Day Late and a Dollar Short...

The statement that stands out to me from the PPW conference was said in a session lead by DaWanna Pace. She said, "How do you know when to quit?" After she asked the question she paused and said, "Only YOU can decide when to quit (trying to be published.)" She told us that Madeleine L'Engle finally sold her first book to the 29th editor that she approached and said, "What if she'd quit at the 28th?" She said if we wanted to be writers then nothing should make us want to quit...we should keep doing it.

I liked the positive outlook of her statements, and the fact that here was this very successful writer encouraging other aspiring writers to keep up the good fight. I tend to not care for published authors who abjure aspirants to "do anything other than write, if you can." It seems to me they're just trying to clear out the competition. I much prefer my icons be those who reach the summit...

And then throw down a rope.

~***~

I got an email from the founder of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) reminding all former participants of the impending count down to NaNoWriMo '09 in 96 days. Goodness! That's only three months away! (This year has gone by sooo fast.

I'm not into high pressure sales or anything...but I will again encourage all my PnP buddies to at least think about participating in the NaNo '09. I'd like to testify, that even when I didn't "win" the NaNo '07, my participation in it yielded me a third of a novel (which garnered me an honorable mention in the PPW FiW contest) and showed me that I could structure a story and invent characters and have something real on which to work. The lessons I learned and the encouragement I received participating gave me the courage to try again in '08, and I DID "win" that year!

I've already got two characters and a rough storyline sketched out for this years NaNo -- I'm highly motivated after my "success" of last year -- so y'all will have to bust a move to catch up with me ;-). But I see no reason why anyone in our group can't try their hand at NaNo. And really...isn't it just practice?

~***~

Well, that's my mixed-bag blog post. email me if you want the link to the NaNoWriMo homepage...but whatever you do? Get your pen to the paper, pals.

Rewriting, Revision and Recycling

To achieve revision and rewrite for the wonderful little piece you've just written, you'll need to print it off, read it, then set it aside for a few days, then pick up your pages and read them again.  You don't just compose your tome, run it through spell check and email it off to a contest or a publisher.  It must first be printed off.  It reads quite differently on paper than it did on the screen.  You'll make corrections and revisions, then print it off again.  At some point you'll decide it might be ready for critique by your fellow scribes in P&P, so you run off about eight more copies.  My, My!  Are we using a lot of paper here?

Have no qualms about clicking that print button, Ladies.  The paper mill companies have been heavily into reforestation for many years.  Personally, I was recycling paper products long before recycling ever became popular.  There is a stack of used paper beside my printer.  It will be flipped over and the backside will be used for printing again.  (Note: put a big X on the pre-used side.)

My people had struggled through the Great Depression of the early 1930s before I came along.  They reused everything, fixed what was broken, and never threw anything out.  When clothing became unwearable, buttons were clipped off and saved in a jar.  The fabric became part of a quilt or a braided rug.  Shoes were re-soled, tires were patched, and new cars were bought only every ten or twelve years.  There was an electric appliance repair shop in every town in America.

We only became a "throw away" society when manufacturers built planned obsolescence into our appliances so we would have to purchase new ones as soon as the warranties ran out.  You need take no blame upon yourself for those landfills choked with rusting refrigerators, TVs, ovens, washer and dryers, etc.

Neither do you need to blame yourself for the superstition of so-called global warming.  This is being used as a political tool to control nations and their peoples.  Read "Meltdown" by Patrick J. Michaels.  After that, if you still believe in global warming, just be comforted to know that your old pal Grannie Carol has spent seven decades building up enough carbon emission credits for all of you in our little writer's group to be guilt free for the rest of your lives.

 

So write and click that printer button.  Write, print!  Rewrite, reprint!

 

Forming, Thinking, Writing

In the book, Talking, Drawing, Writing, the authors credit Berthoff with the quote, "You can't know what you mean until hear what you say". Although I don't know for sure, I think this is the author, Ann Berthoff, who wrote Forming, Thinking, Writing. I've been thinking about these words in relation to the writing process. Does "talking" help the "forming", and "drawing" help the thinking? Is this process the reason many are reluctant to write? Is it too much work?

This same author has written two books about Andrew Marvell's poems. One is called Marvell's poems, The Resoved Soul and the other The Resolved Self, A study of Marvell's Major Poems. I don't know much about Marvell, but from the little I've read, he seemed to be a deep thinker. I found two other titles by Ann Berthoff called, Reclaiming the Imagination and The Mysterious Barricades: Language and Its Limits. Finally, I found a book of hers titled Too Late for the Fontier, a Family Chronicle.

I find the titles of these books challenge my thinking mainly because they seem to encompass such a wide variety of topics. I'm thinking about what Amanda shared with us about publishing. What is Berthoff's platform? It seems to me it would be--Language and Its Importance, Keep Forming, Thinking and Writing.

Thanks to the Pens and Pages writing group for challenging me!!
Nana

Thoughts on Platform from the PPW Conference

Well, I wasn't able to make it to the last PPW meeting, and who knows about the next, so I'll write a blog about some of the thoughts I had on the conference, before they are driven out of my head by too much potty talk (yes, we are potty training here, and I am mildly appalled by the amount of time that I spend discussing bodily functions every day).

This year, as last year, one of the main messages I got out of the conference was that publishers, even the big name publishing houses, expect writers to spend a good deal of their own time and money promoting their own books.

Part of your ability to sell books depends on what is called your "platform". Your platform is basically the pre-existing audience for your books, and/or the things about you that would make people want to buy your book. For example, a person who is a medical doctor has a better platform for a book on health than I do. A famous child psychologist with a national column has a better platform for a book on discipline than an equally experienced child psychologist with no column, because the psychologist with a column has a pre-existing group of readers who are likely to buy her book.

Platform doesn't necessarily depend on professional credtials, however. Platform depends in part on what you are an expert on. If you are a mother of five, that can be compelling experience to sell a book on dealing with sibling rivalry. Your hobby can make you an expert. Mark Williams, one of the speakers at the conference, has several books on fly fishing published. His passion for fly fishing and finding the best spots to fish made him an expert in that area.

Having several shorter articles published also helps build platform when trying to sell longer pieces or a book manuscript.

Web presence can be a part of platform. I personally follow two blogs by writers. One of them has a novel forthcoming that I will buy the instant it hits Amazon. The other has a book I may or may not buy, but will definitely look for in the library.

Thank You

Our blog has been featured in a post called Other Encouraging Words .

I have been following Bonita's blog for over a month now. It's a great place to pick up frequent tips and reminders for your writing. She has a lot of good information and encouragement. If you're in a writing slump, you may find just what you need at Encouraging Words for Writers.

Thank you Bonita!

Random Thoughts

No one is signed up for a post this week. Since I have missed several of mine, I thought it would be a good time to catch up. Here are two brief pieces created during our Tuesday morning writing prompts.

For those of you attending reunions this summer:

Thread

Thread--so fragile and seemingly insignificant. "Just a thread..."

"Just a thread" can be holding something together. Many threads can be a whole garment.

Our lives are tied together with the threads of relationship, chance meetings, common experiences, and common times. Simply being in the same place at the same time with someone else can form an unexpected life-long thread of connection.

We often try to retrace the threads we've collected over the years. We go to class reunions, family reunions, and write memoirs. In these, we try to pick up the fabric of the past and revisit it.

We may want to return to former comfort and security, or we may want to mend a hole--find something that was missing. One person may hope to bask in the warmth of past esteem. Another person may wonder if people from his past will ever validate him. Will he finally gain their approval? Will they even notice him?

We try to return to relive something we wish we still had, or to change what we didn't like. Neither is likely.

The threads are there just the same. What if we pick up those connections and make something new of them? Then we may breathe new life into them again.

* * *

For those of you that can't fit any writing in because you are too busy attending reunions and other summer activities:

Time to Write

Many of us dream of having stretches of T--I--M--E in which to create a masterpiece. However, the masters, like us, had other responsibilities. They too had to write as they went about their daily tasks of life.

By all means, we should take advantage of every opportunity to carve out blocks of solitude; but if we only write in those times our output will be very meager indeed. We must also make the most of the moments snatched here and there throughout the day: the thought scribbled in haste on a scrap, the idea born in a conversation. Our writing will be much richer if we collect these things as we go and then make use of them in those larger blocks of time.

Well, I think I managed to miss my scheduled blogging week again. In my own defense, a lot of things have been slipping by me since the kids arrived. One of the nifty unforeseen benefits of the laptop is now I can be on the computer, writing (or more often, surfing the internet) while still keeping an eye on the kids, though.

I did manage to get to the writing conference in Amarillo, and I found it very enjoyable and inspiring. I also bought a bunch of books.

One of the things you hear over and over at the conference, or anywhere writers meet, is this: what makes a writer is writing. Planning to write, talking about writing, and thinking about writing won't do you any good unless at some point you apply the seat of your pants to a chair and your fingers to the keyboard (or pen and paper, or whatever).

My favorite new quote (not from the conference, I found it online), posted by my computer, is this:

"The mere habit of writing, of constantly keeping at it, of never giving up, ultimately teaches you how to write."
--Gabriel Fielding

So go forth and write!