Me.
1985.
A bright red Vespa.
And, noveling.
It’s all related, trust me.
Read more HERE at Write It Sideways:
When Fear is a Good Thing for Your Writing.
Fear and Writing (Or, Writing in the midst of fear)
3 Pieces of Writing Advice that I Almost Missed
One of my favorite industry magazines, The Writer, never fails me, though I sometimes fall short of recognizing all that it has to offer. Sure, I dog-ear several articles in each issue, but, more often than not, I breeze through the last few pages, skipping over the Market listings and the Classifieds, barely glancing at the final column, “How I Write.” Sometimes I’m in a hurry to finish the magazine; sometimes I’m being aloof. If it’s at the end, I think, it can’t be that important. Either way, when I blow past that very last page, I risk the chance, as I realized with this month’s issue, of missing out on key advice.
In the March issue of The Writer, “How I Write” features an interview with Jacqueline Winspear, author of the successful series about Detective Maisie Dobbs. I don’t read mystery much, so I almost – almost – closed the cover of the magazine. But, something pulled at me to read her interview, and I’m glad I did. I grabbed on to three key pieces of advice that I desperately needed.
1. On Research
“If you let [research] dictate a story…you might as well be writing nonfiction. . . . If you are completely directed by research, you lost the story’s rhythm. If there’s no rhythm, there’s no dance.”
Every bit of writing, I’m learning, requires research. Even now, I’m working on a short story about a piano tuner. I’ve been bookmarking sites on the internet for the past several days on things like piano terms and anatomy, tidbits of information that are crucial in making the character believeable. But where Winspears words really hit home is in respect to a different project: I have an itch to write a historical fiction. I admit, I’m frightened, of the research involved, that I might not gather enough and get details wrong, that I won’t be able to make the story work. I could walk away from the project, easy (though the idea of it keeps resurfacing and refuses to be ignored). So, it helps to keep in mind that, while research is critical, it doesn’t necessarily drive the story.
2. On Fear
“Don’t make excuses. . . . Don’t be afraid . . . . After all, [what’s] the worst that could happen?”
For me, fear can be infectious and lethal if left unattended for too long (see new project angst above). I have a few mantras that I repeat, under my breath, in moments of heavy self-doubt. One hints at my secret affinity towards a certain four-letter word. The other runs cleaner and is parallel to what Winspear says: what have I got to lose?
3. On the Job that Pays the Bills
“…[D]on’t underestimate the power of your day job; that structure and finite time for writing could be the best motivation you have.”
Boy, isn’t that the truth? The more time I have to kill, the less writing I get accomplished. But give me a crunch time of two hours (or less), and I can whip a whole draft of a story up onto the screen.
How about you? Catch any pearls of wisdom lately?
How to Stay Abreast of Your Writing Goals
The beginning of the year is a great time to set new goals, or cut and paste last year’s goals onto the “new” list. I mean, that’s how it works sometimes, right? We all have good intentions come January 1st, but there are always certain goals that get pushed around but never accomplished. I’m tired of moving the same goal around into list after list, feeling the weight of it push down on my shoulders and smother my muse. So, this year, I have a different plan. I’m still setting goals, but I’m approaching them in a new way.
1. Make sure goals are reasonable and measurable.
Sarah Callender wrote a wonderful post on Write It Sideways about the difference between Dreamers and Goalers, saying writers must be a little of both:
A dream is shiny and pretty and probably quite heavy. Like a coconut cream pie. Or an ocean at sunset. Dreams sit on our shoulder and whisper things like, But what about me? Don’t forget about me! . . . But if you dream of getting published in a prestigious publication, in any publication at all, then create a SMART goal, something over which you have total control.
Writing a novel is my dream. One goal I set in the past to help me reach that dream was to get the draft ready for Beta readers. By March. Okay, June. Um…by the end of the year, dammit. My original goal wasn’t specific enough. Now, I know that I need to break down the idea of finishing the draft into more reasonable, bit-size chunks, like “write the next chapter by the end of the week.”
And speaking of weeks….
2. Use whatever tools you can find to organize weekly goals.
I read about Jane Friedman’s weekly goal sheets long before I started using them, but since I’ve been filling them out, my brain feels more in tune with where my heart wants to go. I love these worksheets for two reasons. First, they are weekly. Period. As Friedman says in her post about the sheets, “If you have to-dos that stretch out further than a week, it can become overwhelming and meaningless.” Overwhelming and meaningless, that’s when I start crying and feel like quitting. The second reason I love these worksheets is because they allow space to write down what might be stopping me from achieving the goals and space to write down long-range goals that I can’t work on in that one week but don’t want to forget. On this, Friedman say, “Writing them down helps free my mental energy, so I can focus on other things.” Be gone, Overwhelming fiend.
So, I have reasonable and measurable goals and a nifty worksheet. Now what?
3. Join a writer’s group. Stat.
Attending a writing group, bi-weekly or monthly, isn’t always an option because of time or money or location. But, when I have the resources, that’s where I go. Those groups make me accountable, push me forward on writing projects, large or small, and feed me with an energy that I can’t ignore. By the time you read this, I will have attended my first Roundtable in too long of a while. All the anxiety of reading out loud and sharing a rough story is worth it if it means this next project, a collection of flash fiction, will move beyond an idea.
Your turn. What’s your secret to staying on top of your goals? Spill it here, because if anything, we will learn from each other.