Quotes that Keep Me Going Strong

I love motivational quotes. They help me regain my focus and my drive whenever I grow weary or worry about the tasks at hand.

When I was struggling to get through the publishing door, I read a Donald Maas book HOW TO WRITE THE BREAKOUT NOVEL. He made me think a lot about my goals and my motivation for writing. This quote is on my inspirational wall:

I hope that your measure of success will be not be the gratification of getting an agent or seeing your name on the cover, but putting together a novel of real depth--of having something to say and saying it in a story with lasting power. Donald Maas

When I was feeling negative and getting caught up in the noise that rattles in the publishing world's cave from time to time, I read James Scott Bell's book THE ART OF WAR FOR WRITERS. He wrote:

Every moment spent whining about your writing career is a moment of creative energy lost... turn grousing into energy by writing. James Scott Bell.

He's a smart man. There's always noise. There will always be complainers and whiners and mean girls and more, but I just keep my head down and write. That's what I do best. And it keeps me out of trouble :)

I love Delle Jacobs quote:

The object of goals is getting there... the object of dreams is the journey. 

Delle Jacobs reminds me daily to focus on the journey. And I would add this to it, don't ever put obstacles in another person's path as a means of achieving your end goal. There is room on this road for everyone. Be kind, generous, and encouraging to others. That will make the journey all the better.

And a few years ago, a friend sent me this quote because it reminded her of me.

The master at the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly  knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both. Author James A. Michener

That she thought of me in this light truly humbles me. I don't know that I always succeed in mastering the art of living, but I do try to find joy every day. And I'm blessed to have this desire to write planted in my soul. I love writing. It's like breathing to me. The process of crafting the stories, unraveling the difficulties within the plots and understanding the characters' deeper motivations and conflicts is exciting.

So maybe the master at the art of living is a person who has found his or her passion and is actively pursuing it every day.

What's your passion? What do you want to do every day and what brings you joy?

On the Road Again: Ongoing Writing and Learning the Craft

First a mini squee because I love my new blog design and couldn't be more proud of the College Kid for her hard work. She's beyond talented and reasonably priced. I love the clean lines, the cool signature line and the beautiful colors. They combine the look of my website, my tumblr, and soon to be arrive brand new business cards.

Talent exists in many forms. I couldn't doodle my way out of a paper bag, but the CK is gifted in design and all things technical when it comes to creating beautiful computer coded blogs and more. I expect one day I'll have to have her take over the website and combine the elements, but for now I love having this blog as a separate entity. It's easier for me to into it and make changes to the pages.

So new blog look, but same me. The only thing that's changed is that I have more responsibility now to make sure that I continue to hone my craft and work hard at creating new stories. This weekend I'm super excited because I'm reconnecting in person with my Critique Partner Pam Mantovani in Birmingham. She lives in the Atlanta area so most of critiquing and brainstorming is done over the phone or via email exchanges. And that's all great, but we have a higher output of synergy/story/zany stuff that pops into our heads when we are in the same room.

We meet today and will spend time writing, brainstorming, making plans for the future, discussing the biz, and just plain enjoying each other's company.

Tomorrow we will attend a plotting workshop at the Southern Magic meeting from 12-3P. I've been taking the course online and it's fantastic. Another tool in the writing arsenal for me to use when I start generating new stories and during revisions. Today's lesson is a tough one so I'll start it this afternoon after I arrive at the hotel. I'll probably wrap it all up next week. The best part about this class is I literally started the story from scratch again so now I've got solid plot (external and internal) points to create an outline. I hope that means the story will be easier and faster to revise.

Ongoing growth as a writer is vital. James Scott Bell continues to learn about the craft. And he writes books about the writing craft. I think the main thing is never to sit back and think that you're so wonderful that you don't need to learn anything new. I love learning about the craft, incorporating the new information into my growing stack of lessons about plot, structure, body language, deep editing, you name it!

So I'm hitting the road, looking forward to a fun and productive weekend, and continuing to grow as a writer on this journey of mine.

What's on your agenda? Do you take craft classes? Does the idea of plotting and outlining freak you out? What's the best course you've taken that you would recommend to me?

Tune Out the Noise & Learn to Adapt

Published or unpublished, there are a lot of industry bits of information to understand and be aware of as writers. I know I have to stay abreast of these current changes, but I can't let it overwhelm my creativity. Otherwise, I won't have any books to market.

And that's what I need to be able to do. Write books so I have a product to market. In addition to having a product to market, I have to develop a marketing strategy regardless of who decides to take a change on my writing and offer me a contract. See, this is me believing it will happen one day. And it will.

I actually have a marketing strategy. I have kept my ear to the ground and learned a lot from those who have gone forth into the great land of publishing before me. However, I liken getting published to having a baby. Before the baby is born, there's a lot of preparation. Baby showers, nurseries decorated, diapers brought in, special birthing classes, and learning how to be a good parent of a newborn.

But I've learned that no amount of preparation can really prepare one for the baby when the baby arrives. The baby has a personality and a constitution of its own that the parent must learn to adjust to and adapt to in order to have a successful parenting experience. The baby grows, becomes a toddler, an elementary school student, a teenager, a young adult. And still the parent must grow and adapt and change as this individual becomes a fully realized person.

There will be bumps along the way. Mistakes will occur. Great moments will happen. Joy and distress. Happiness and pain. Elation and exasperation. They are all part of the great parenthood ride. And guess what, I think that's what becoming a published author will be like.

So in the meantime, while I prepare for my publication career to be born, I am fully aware that I will never be fully ready for it in the sense that afterward my career will grow and change and evolve. All that I can do is adapt and be ready and work on what I can control. My response. And in the world of writing, my best response is to continue to tune out the noise and write my stories and market them and learn and grow and adapt and do it all over again.

And with that being said, here is a great quote to live by as you evolve as a writer on your journey toward publication and after you traverse to the land of the published author:

Every moment spent whining about your writing career is a moment of creative energy lost... turn grousing into energy by WRITING! James Scott Bell

How do you plan to turn grousing into energy today? Me? I'm wrangling a pesky first chapter into shape.

Did You Miss Me?

Hi there! Remember me? That writer who blogs and travels and writes and revises and then does it all again? I'm back! Well, sort of. I've been super busy writing and revising a new story which is highly important to me. It's a foot in the door and I can't squander it. And, to be honest, when everything is said and done, the books must come first.

This story has been kicking my little tushie. I've reworked the first three chapters so often that I think I want to kick it back! I have to write the story to know the people, so I wrote the entire manuscript in two weeks after I took the kid to college. Then I revised the first three chapters, reworked them. Then I revised the entire book again. Then I sent the first three chapters to my critique partners and they made me think about the conflict some more.

Ah!!! But now I think I have a better start to the first three chapters. And I know what I need to do to fix the rest of the book. But I really have to finish this partial and send it to publishing house. I do. However, I'm not rushing this opportunity to shine. I want the partial to be strong. Super strong and powerful enough to get that request for more OR a revise and resubmit letter. I've been getting a lot of R&R letters. A good thing, but certainly not restful or relaxing in a writer's world.

When I haven't been writing, I've been doing what we all do in the real world. Still guiding the College Kid, still supporting my friends and family, still working out and dieting, still traveling and attending writer's conferences.

And I've got fun events coming up. Celebrating three debut novelists on the blog, coordinating the Linda Howard Award of Excellence contest, going to the Southern Magic Readers Luncheon with my very own basket to raffle (stay tuned--photos will follow after I build it), and gearing up for a fantastic holiday season.

So I'm back, but I'll be flitting in and out of the blogger world like a manic social butterfly. Seriously, there are not enough hours in the day! But whenever I have to make a choice between writing, revising, or other writerly stuff, the book trumps it all.

James Scott Bell said it best:

What are the ten best forms of SELF-PROMOTION?

1. Your book.
2. Your book.
3. Your book.
4. Your web presence.
5. Reviews
6. Publicity (shortened for the blog-get THE ART OF WAR FOR WRITERS)Face time.
7. Face time
8. Your book.
9. Your book.
10. Your book.

If your books do deliver the goods, word of mouth will do more than all your self-promotion efforts combined. 

I'm not published yet. But I WILL BE ONE DAY. My way. I have an ongoing theory. If I don't have a product, then time spent on blogs and building web sites and frittering on social media is pointless.

So guess what I'm working on the rest of today?

MY BOOK.

A Day in the Life of a Female Writer--THE RIVER WITCH WINNER ANNOUNCED

I recently read a great book about writing called THE ART OF WAR FOR WRITERS by James Scott Bell. I could incorporate everything he'd written about and apply it to my life except for 1 section. The section talked about being a prolific and fast writer. He's right. The more we write, the better we become as writers and as revisers. And the list of prolific writers and their example of how much they wrote was very impressive. I was blown away by all that they had done. One writer even went to a library and used a dime driven typewriter in the library's basement where he banged out a novel in 6 weeks. Impressive. Very impressive.

Now look at the pronoun: HE.

And guess why HE went to the library? Because he'd just become a father of a new baby (not sure how many HE had with his wife) and the baby's crying *um* disturbed his writing time and concentration. Oh, how I can relate. But then, in a similar position, guess what I'd be doing? Yup. I'd be at home with the baby and taking care of it between looking after the house and the groceries and the laundry and maybe the job and oh, trying to squeeze in writing time.

I know one writer friend who is a mom, has a full time job, and currently just signed a three book deal. She gets up at 4AM every morning and writes until it's time to go to work. But I bet she also takes care of a lot of other things, too. I bet her hubby helps. But then, I'll have to ask how she does it all and does it well. And I wonder HOW MUCH MORE PROLIFIC WOULD SHE BE if she could go to the library and write all day?

Hmmm... Truth is women are master jugglers. Often times, the busier we are, the more we accomplish. Less to do equals less accomplished in many cases. But I have to go on to say that in all the examples given by James Scott Bell, NONE OF THEM WERE WOMEN. Which then brings me to a mini rant about how much more beautiful the world would have been had women been given the time and opportunity and education eons ago during the pre-liberation ages. How many artists and writers and dreamers and innovators did we lose because the potential to become those wonderful things was wrapped in a female's skin?

I know. I am being a bit "political." But I just finished a power and haunting book that shows me how great a gift it is to live in a society that gives women the opportunity to become who they need to become. Trust me. Not all societies in these days offer women that freedom. And that's a post for another day.

I'm one of the lucky female writers because I don't have a DREADED DAY JOB or what's referred to in the Romance world as the DDJ. I have been raising the chick since she came home and filled my hours with volunteer work at church, school, HOA duties, and various other roles. I wasn't eating bon bons or watching TV all day (I admit a fondness for ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE back in the day--probably where all my ideas come from LOL).

But the truth is, I have a lot to take care of in addition to the writing. The Physicist travels a lot, sometimes for many weeks. So I'm often dealing with the Teen alone. Not so bad these days, but it is still my responsibility to make sure she's fed, watered, healthy, etc. Along with all those duties, I do the bulk of the household duties because I am not bringing in an income. I feel I must justify my existence and I use what is called "maid money" to support my writing habit.

So there's laundry, cleaning, dusting, grocery shopping, clutter clearing, overall maintenance of the day-to-day living that take up my time. I don't have the luxury of going to some library and typing on my laptop all day. That's the truth of it. And since I'm not a night owl, I must write during the day and figure out how to squeeze all the other duties in without losing site of my writing goals.

I have a schedule. I can ignore dust, but not for long. So I often clean house while I'm waiting for my pages to get back to me. And nowadays there's this pressure to be a presence in the social media world, but I ignore that pressure because I agree with James Scott Bell: THE BOOK TRUMPS EVERYTHING.

I'd like to be more prolific, but LIFE trumps the books. And at the end of this writer's life, I hope to have quilt of happiness enveloping me. A quilt that love, friendship, motherhood, companionship, and writing created.

And speaking of happiness, here's the winner of THE RIVER WITCH: Robin!! Yay!! Congratulations and I'll get your information to KIMBERLY BROCK.