Creativity Exercises (1)

Over the last two months, I've begun exploring some creativity exercises to jog my Muse. I always wanted to learn artistic techniques and dabbled on and off years, but now that my writing is back on a regular schedule, I'm finding that sketching or playing with pastels before writing helps me to feel more relaxed when I approach the page. Artist Lisa Congdon's lessons on Creativebug have been very helpful in that regard. I'm working on her class "Creative Boot Camp: Reinventing the Basics with Lines and Circles" and have had so much fun playing with colors. As Lisa says, "You're allowing yourself to loose up like a  kid and free up and not worry about being super accurate or perfect." We should think about "creating a balance"- good advice for the sketch pad and also good for life/writing in general. At the end of the process, "go back and add any detail that might need to be added." This is also a great revision tips for writers. We should check for scenes that could be more developed and for the little details that can make a scene more true to life.

I didn't spend a lot of money on materials. I found some good sketch pads at the Dollar Store and bought a few inexpensive oil pastel sticks at Michaels and some watercolors at Michaels. Doing these exercises has helped not only with the creative process but also with alleviating stress- just allow yourself to play and have fun! As you can see from my exercise below, based on Lisa's instructional module on creating a sketched oil stick village, I just had fun and played with color and overall the process and the results made me smile.

For Writers: Club 100

I first heard about Club 100 through Beth Pattillo's website; Pattillo runs a Yahoo Group to encourage writers who decide to take the Club 100 challenge. Created by Avis Hester, Club 100 has writers commit to writing a minimum of 100 words for 100 days. For writers with challenging schedules, and for those who just can't commit to an enormous challenge such as NaNoWriMo, Club 100 provides a low-pressure way to immerse oneself in writing.

Douglas Cootey has issued a 100 Words a Day Challenge, and you can find badges like the one below at his website. Like Cootey, I find the whole NaNoWriMo overwhelming; as an educator, I dislike that it falls during the busiest part of the semester, when I'm usually buried under piles of student essays. Selfishly, I often wish they would move the entire challenge to the summertime, when I have a break from grading demands. For now, I'm happy that writers such as Pattillo, Cootey, and Debbie Ohi (see my post on her word count challenge below) provide alternatives for writers.

Creating a Synopsis

The good news is I've made a lot of progress with my story and am now looking forward to submitting it to a publisher. The bad news is that it's time to draft the wretched synopsis, a task most writers dread. Although I've published two stories before with the Wild Rose Press, and successfully employed the query and synopsis, this part of the publishing process never seems to get any easier. I've found it helps to break the task into sections. I have five chapters in my story, and as each section is edited and completed, I include it in the synopsis (hint: focus on major plot points, not descriptive details, in your synopsis).

In the past, I've found Charlotte Dillon's website for writers to be one of the most helpful guides in writing a synopsis. Right now, I'm working with her "Writing a Synopsis" page, and though some of the links are broken, she still has a lot of information available. For instance, her "Synopsis Samples" page includes a variety of examples from published authors who generously agreed to share their synopses. I found Lucinda Betts' example especially useful, since it shows how to write an effective one-page synopsis.

I find that looking at examples of other writers' successful synopses is inspiring, so now I'm returning to crafting my own. Happy writing!

Writing Challenge: 250 Words a Day

Recently, Debbie Ohi posted a writing challenge on her Twitter account: Set a daily writing goal and stick to it for a full year. She takes a low pressure approach, emphasizing that it's OK if you miss a day as long as you are trying your best to meet the word count each day. Her best advice is to be realistic in choosing your daily goal; in other words, choosing the 1000 words a day challenge is great, but not if you're going to consistently fall short and then feel guilty and perhaps even give up on your writing.

So, I'm taking Debbie up on her challenge and choosing the modest goal of 250 words a day. I'm currently working on my dissertation (and eventually hoping to get back to my short stories), so this challenge provides additional motivation and inspiration.

Time to get back to work! Happy writing!

Happy Mother's Day!

A rose for all the mothers out there. As my fellow writers know, writing can be an isolating experience, and it's easy to forget the people who are encouraging us in our journey. I know my own mother has cheered me along every step of the way, whether it's reading my latest chapter or traveling to the RWA Conference with me.

Revising and Editing

1. Revision: Congratulations! You've finally finished your manuscript! But wait- before you send it off to the eager acquiring editor of your dream publisher, you'll need to do a little revising and editing. Having another pair of eyes check your manuscript is crucial for the revision step. After all, your story is perfect in your head, and as an author, it's easy to overlook small but important breaks in consistency. For instance, when I was submitting the first three chapters of my novel to a contest, I had my sister look over the manuscript, and within the first five minutes, she said, "You have two different ages for your hero. How old is he anyway?" Oops- a big error and one that any editor worth her title would pounce on and mark. Revision also means looking at the big picture. Remember your theme? How does it come through in the final version? And take another look at characterization. Although characters can certainly change during the course of a novel, they should still be recognizable by the time the reader closes up the book.

2. Editing- My absolute best advice, and I guarantee it will work: Read your manuscript aloud. As a composition teacher, I've seen many grammatical errors over the years, which could be easily remedied if the author would go line by line through the manuscript, reading aloud and checking the sentence structure. Yes, you have written a novel, and yes, it's long, but it's yours. Do you really want it showing up at an editor's desk looking anything less than polished and perfect? If you need some brushing up on grammatical concepts, the OWL website is comprehensive and filled with exercises, examples, and techniques relating to grammar and mechanics.

Writing Tips: Drafting

Okay, so you have the idea, you've brainstormed it for awhile, and now it's time to get down to business. Still, the idea of composing a full draft is daunting, especially when you're working on a novel. What's worse is there's no special secret except staying rooted to your computer for a set time each day. What has helped me is to set up a calendar (actually, two calendars). The first calendar is in an inexpensive daybook, where I jot down the number of words written each day. Then, as a small reward, I give myself a sticker. It's elementary but still a nice treat. Buy the prettiest stickers you can find, and by the end of the month, you'll have a colorful display of the amount of work you've done.

The second calendar is on my computer, where I have a chart set up in Word where I document the number of words written each day. In the last two rows of the chart, I log in how many words written that week and then log the number written thus far this year. I actually received this idea from the website Rose's Colored Glasses, which has an excellent (free) newsletter for writers.

Writing Tips: Brainstorming

It's exciting to have a new idea for a story, but before you rush to the computer to jump into your draft, take some time brainstorming the plot and characters. These are examples of what have worked for me, and I'd be interested in hearing from other authors about their own writing methods. I have a different notebook devoted to each project, and I keep all my exercises in there. Before I begin any exercise, I like to start off with a little freewriting, where I write for 5-10 minutes and shake out any distracting ideas.

1. Characterization: First, work on the basic features of your characters. One useful tool is to develop a character chart that lists things such as appearance, birthdate, family members, etc. If you don't want to develop your own chart, The Ecletic Writer website has a "Fiction Writer's Character Chart" that you can use. I like to give each character her/his own page and leave some white space so I can add details in later. So, before you start the story, you'll have at least have a basic idea of who your characters are and what their motivation is.

2. Plotting: Next, develop an outline for the story. Some people have very detailed charts and graphs. When I first started, I tried listing all the chapters and then writing down plot elements for each one. Pretty soon, I was confused and discouraged, so I scrapped that method and now only use a basic synopsis. I figured I would have to write one eventually anyway, and it helped me to develop a basic organization for the plot.

3. Theme: What's the overall idea you want to convey in your work? "Love conquers all" or "dreams can come true" are good ones for a romance novel, but there are countless others you can use. Again, this is not set in stone, but knowing the main impression you want the reader to take away can help you during the drafting process.

Once my initial brainstorming is done, I'll type up the results of all my planning. I keep my character sheets and synopsis close at hand when I begin the drafting process, and it helps me to stay organized.

Next: The Drafting Process.

Writing Tips: Back to Basics

Let's go back to Composition 101 and 102. As a Composition instructor at a Florida university for four years, I use 4 basic tools to teach and motivate students to write. Yes, they're elementary, and yes, they're common knowledge; then why does it seem so few writers use them? I cannot guarantee these tips will pave the road to publication. All I know is that I used them for writing my very first romance story, and I sold that story to the first publisher I submitted it to. So, that said, let's get started. I'll list the 4 tips below and then develop each one in a separate blog.
1. Brainstorm
2. Draft
3. Revise
4. Edit

50 Strategies for Making Yourself Work

50 Strategies for Making Yourself Work, Jerry Oltion

An inspiring article, and one I intend to post by my computer. With all the normal, daily distractions we writers have in our lives, it can be easy to avoid the craft of writing. If you've ever find yourself making excuses why you don't have time to write (and I have tons of them!), you should check out Oltion's article.