Music

I've noticed something very odd in the last year. My taste in music has been changing. I've always had eclectic taste. Funny, most writers I know do. You look on their iPods or mp3 players and they have a mix which runs from rap and hip hop to Bach and Beethoven. I've gone through phases before; ska in the 80's, hard rock in the early 90's and Radio Disney in the 2000's (didn't have much choice there). But lately I've immersed myself in indie alternative. Big time. I'm not sure why. I think some of it has to do with the Internet.

Radio in Los Angeles sucks. For being such a huge entertainment factory with a dearth of talent, the radio is horrible. As soon as I find a station I enjoy, it disappears. And even if there were decent stations, I live too close to the mountains to get great reception. So I've turned to the Internet. I was listening to Indie 103.1 but then I discovered Pandora. I love this site better than any of the others. I've listened to quite a few. But too many of them have bad streams or they repeat the same songs over and over.

Do you go through phases with your music? What prompts a change?

Milestone Writer

When we write we look for milestones in our story. Maybe its when the hero and heroine first meet. Or the hero is called to his "journey" and realizes what must be done. Perhaps its the moment when the heroine is confronted by the villain. Maybe its when the hero and heroine discover their mutual love. Whatever, you get the picture.

I'm no different, but my milestones are a little different. My first milestone is when I start my book. It is the best thing I've ever written. I just know it is going to hit the bestseller list and HBO is going to turn it into a series. The next is wow, this is a huge pile of camel dung. No one in their right mind is going to read this waste of hard drive space. Then its the "I'm bored" phase. The bridge scenes kill me. And they are only a couple of pages long, but they take forever to write. But they are necessary. And the whole time the voice in my head is whining. I move onto, okay, this isn't so bad and then back to blech. Of course there is the deer-in-the-headlights spot. What is going to happen next? The voice in my head starts screaming "WHAT NOW? YOU DON'T KNOW? BOY, ARE YOU UP A CREEK." By then I'm at the last third of the novel and all those mile stones are behind me.

Well, not really, they just repeat over and over until the book is done. I've realized it isn't the writing I find difficult, its the emotional toll it takes. Its exhausting.

What kind of milestones do you go through in your writing?

Links I Find Interesting for Writers

I had another post started that I didn't finish yesterday. However, I was up until 4 a.m. with Thing. She has been sick and last night had a horrible fever. She kept me up most the night until the ibuprofen finally kicked in and she went to sleep. She's fine now but I'm pretty punchy, so I thought I would instead toss out some links I find useful.

I'm addicted to an application called StumbleUpon. I can spend way too much time trolling the web for websites through this tool. I have found some great links which I would never have found in a million years. So I thought I'd share them.

Does one of your characters use a wise old proverb to dissuade another character? This site gives a proverb and it's exact opposite. Your character will never be at a loss for words again.

Have a character stuck out in the country and she needs to take care of chickens and the only chickens you've taken care of are the ones which are ready to go in the oven? KountryLife has the answer.

Tired of "said?" Enough said.

Looking for a word, something different? Here's a list of "beautiful" words in the English language. Or you need a descriptive word but don't feel like getting up and getting the thesaurus? Here's a brief list which might help you get going.

Is your character too perfect? Do you need ideas to make them...flawed? This site is actually designed for RPG players but I thought it was interesting for writers too.

I have more, but hubby has just arrived with fresh bagels. Hope you find something interesting here.

Now I Remember....

...why I'm a writer.

Epiphanies are far and few between. As any serious writer knows, writing is hard work. It is more mental sweat than anything else. Writing takes focus and demands sacrifices both on the home and creative fronts. Our books are filled with dead ends and useless characters. We unwittingly write laughable dialogue only to go back and edit, scratching our heads and wondering what the hell we were thinking. There are some days we stare at the computer screen, lucky if we are able to punch out four or five words. Some writers are more disciplined and manage to get the word count out, knowing in the end most of those words will end up deleted. Often we open up those files, read through our writing and think there is no way we can get this mess cleaned up. Or we read and think how good it is but worry we are the only ones who think so.

Lets face it, there are many times when we can't remember why we are writers. Sometimes there is little joy in the process. We slog through hoping to catch the fire. Too often we fear the passion we once felt is gone for good. I can honestly say I have felt this way more often than not in the last ten years of writing. Not that I haven't gotten things done. I've produced some good stuff even though it has been a struggle. But in the back the back of my mind I am battling the demons of self-doubt. I constantly question if what I'm writing will sell. I am not writing for the pleasure it brings me. And I miss that feeling.

But last week the most amazing thing happened. A story popped in my head and I started writing. It was so exciting. The flow of words was (and is) unstoppable. And the best part is I'm not worried about whether it will sell. I don't care right now, I only care about the story. My happiness is wrapped up in the feeling of writing. I love it again. I find myself constantly thinking about the book but not with trepidation. I'm only concerned with how I feel about it. I'm in love with the process once more. I'm enchanted with the words I'm writing. I wish I could bottle this feeling. I could sell it on ebay and make a mint.

Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is to keep plugging along. Have faith that the writer in you will emerge again and remind you why you do what you do.

Book Buying

As you may have heard, we are suffering from a difficult economy. I think the newspapers are drooling over the constant bad news.

Does it change the way you spend money in the bookstore? Are you buying less books or buying them second-hand? Are you being more selective?

I don't think I've changed in my book buying. In fact, I imagine this summer will see an increase in my purchases. I'm not going on vacation. I don't go to the movies. Since I won't be spending money on trips and movie tickets (which, in my area, are at $11 a ticket) I feel I can pick up a couple of extra books on my trips to B&N. As a rule, I do not buy used books unless it is out of print. And I do prefer paperbacks although I do buy some of my autobuys in hardcover. So that really hasn't changed either.

I am scratching my head about the Kindle 2 which seems to be based on people buying lots of books. And the device seems to be selling. People have to buy content for them, so does Amazon know a secret? Maybe reading never goes out of style.

My New Anthem

I had another post but since its Saturday, I thought I'd go for something light. I'm an avowed ShamWow fan. I think it's just the bizarre informercial that has mesmerized me into a fan. My son, ever so helpful, found this video for me. Thought it was a hoot.

Well...I like it

I emailed my complete and edited MS off to my agent yesterday. I'm a little nervous. I'd be a lot more nervous if I didn't have so many other things to worry about. I've got a room full of Girl Scout cookies and a mile long to-do list for my team mom duties for my daughter's baseball team. Also, I have spring coming up and I'd really like to do some spring cleaning. Right now I don't have the time to be chewing my fingernails in concern. I've done this before, always with disappointing results in the end and the world continues to spin as it has before, so getting too worked up is a waste of energy. I'm not trying to be a pessimist, but anyone who has had any experience with submitting knows the score. It's a longshot to get published and I've been through all of this before. In a way, I have no where to go but up.

Anyway, as I was editing, I realized how much I liked my MS. I thought it read well and it kept me turning the pages. It's clearly a winner...if I were running things. But that's how we writers feel about our work, or should. And that's the rub. How accurate is our own perception? When we submit to an agent, editor or contest, we think we've nailed it. But having just judged some Golden Heart entries, I realize how far off we can be. Whenever I get my packet of GH entries, I'm usually pretty excited. These are the best of the best, books that have either been in contests or have already started the submission contest. Back when I entered, it was stressed that this was a contest for mss ready for publication. Since all you get is a score with no feedback, its pointless to enter unless you think it stands a shot of winning. In this batch, I had two that met the criteria. The other three were no where close. Which made me wonder why they thought they were ready.

As a writer, how reliable do you think your perception is? Do you trust your judgement or do you look to others to give you an objective opinion? I had to wonder with these entries. Obviously they thought they were ready. So I had to wonder how off I was in my own opinion about my work. Can we be the best judge or our own writing?

Back In Business

My baby and I have been reunited and it feels so good. The last two days have been spent restoring my machine to where I wanted it. And I've learned a few things. In restoring my back up I realized some of my iTunes music didn't save. Or at least I couldn't find it. But I figured out how to save from my iPod onto iTunes. It isn't hard but it took most of the day to move the files over. I've loaded up my Microsoft Office and I'm back to editing. I did a lot of editing last week on my desktop so I'm actually about 60% done. I think I'll have it ready by Friday. I hope, anyway, I'm eager to start on something new.

So Where was I?

I got my hard drive backed up. I want it to be known, I could have done it myself, but I realized the price of data recovery software wasn't much less than having a computer repair person do it. So I surrendered and took the hard drive down and had what I needed recovered. Now that I have validated myself, I can move on...

I have my MS open on my desktop. I wrote the darn thing in Word 07 and I had to revert it to Word 03. There are some big differences. One of the biggest was a word symbol that didn't translate from one version to the next. Irritates me because I should have started editing in the older version anyway. So I got to start over. That's okay since all but 30 pages had been done. I should whiz through. And then I have to format the headers and footers. Ugh. I could spend a week on this. I tend to get obsessed about it. I want perfection. I don't think my agent cares.

I miss my laptop. My email is building up because I don't have the patience to sit at a strange computer and read. It means spending time back in the office which is far from the hub of the house so it is grossly inconvenient.

Anyway, the situation is making me cranky. I miss my little machine.

Black and Blue All Over

Things were going pretty good last week. I had most of my book edited. I figured I'd finish all my editing today and ship it to my agent tomorrow.

Alas, my optimism was my downfall.

I got the dreaded blue screen of death on my laptop. I wasn't too concerned, it isn't as big a deal in Vista as it is in XP. However, the black screen of death was more worrisome. To make a long story short, my computer won't boot up. I've tried everything, even tried reformatting and nothing doing. After talking to the manufacturer, it was decided I have a faulty hard drive. Luckily it is still under warranty so it is going back. Yes, I backed up, but not the latest edits. To say I'm really annoyed with myself is putting it mildly. Anyway, after studying the matter at some length, I think I can get into my hard drive and recover the data.

I can't even contemplate the loss of my stuff. Like I said, I did do a back up, but to be honest, I'm not sure how to restore it. I forgot to research that. However, I know the info is there and someone would be able to find it. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to recover my hard drive enough to pull off my documents. But if not, I'm going go ballistic.

My hubby has kindly offered to let me use his laptop, I can even keep it in my computer space and use it there. However, I came to realize how personl my pc is to me. Its like my car. I know its quirks, I feel comfortable on the keyboard. I know where I keep things. I really miss it. I'll be glad when it comes back.

In other news, I'm off to a book signing. Patricia Briggs will be signing her new book in the Mercy Thompson series, Bone Crossed at a Barnes and Noble not too far from me. I'm pretty excited, she is one of my favorite authors right now. I've been holding off buying the book and lucky me, I got a coupon from B&N the other day. It will be a nice break from the Shakesperean tragedy I'm going through with the computer.

How often do you back up? Are you going to go back up right now after reading this post? How emotionally attached are you to your computer?

On Writing: Bashing Other Bestselling Authors in the Press

"The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn"

Stephen King has spoken. And what he has to say about Stephenie Meyer isn't very nice. In an interview for USA Weekend bashes Meyer as being not very good. He claims her books appeal to young girls because of the non-threatening sex scenes. Whatever.

I actually agree with Mr. King about Meyer's writing. I don't think she's very good either. However, plenty of people who I know, like and respect enjoy her immensely. So truly, isn't it a matter of taste and perception? Writing is far too subjective to give it such a black and white judgement.

Also, Mr. King is talking about its popularity among young girls. How does he explain the legions of adult women fans who have fallen for the series? Is there something wrong with them? Are they unable to judge what is good and what is not?

Meyer has struck on something powerful in her books, just as Rowling did (by the way, I've never been impressed with her writing either, but I am blown away by her imagination). To think the mechanics of writing is what captures a reader is short-sighted.

I'm guessing Mr. King has probably been quoted out of context, at least I hope, because as it stands, I feel like he is setting himself up as high priest of pop culture. I read his columns in the Entertainment Weekly and enjoy some of them. But I do feel a certain arrogance coming through. I'm also disturbed by this need to rip into Meyer. Like Rowling, she has brought in a new generation of readers. In a time when books have to compete with television, the Internet, video games and other electronic mediums, Meyer has successfuly pulled in young people into reading. And yes, that includes boys. My son has read the series as well as his friends. My nine year old daughter is reading "Twilight" along with the other boys and girls in her class. This is the first book she has stuck with for any length of time, to which I'm grateful.

Obviously Mr. King is entitled to his opinion and certainly has the right to speak it. But I thought it was tactless to be so harsh in his criticism in the national press. I thought it was crass and bordering on cruel.

What did you think about Stephen King's comments?

The End, Fine, Concluded, Finished.....

Yesterday I finished my WIP. I wanted to finish on Saturday and was almost there, but we had to make a trip to Sam's Club. By the time we got home, I was done for the day. If you've ever been to Sam's Club on a Saturday, you can understand how it sucks the life out of you. Made me appreciate Costco like never before.

Anyway, I got up Sunday and wrote until I was done. There is such a feeling of disorientation I have when I finish a book. It doesn't feel like its done. I've lived with this WIP for so long and it has been consuming for the last few weeks, it just jars when its over. Today I start editing (I enjoy that as much as I enjoy going to Sam's Club on a Saturday) and I need to start a new book. Neither has any appeal, but I was on writing roll yesterday and I'd like to keep it fed.

On the dark end for my kids is that Mommy is back from her half-dazed existence. They take advantage of my distraction to behave the way they want and I'm more than willing to let them guzzle 3 sodas if they will only leave me alone. Today, I'm a different person and their opportunities will be cut short. I will be watching to see how many fruit snacks they gobble in a day. I will be on them like a spider monkey over leaving their junk lying around the house...until I hit the end of the next book and I go back into my stupor.

Oh Dear!

I'm a mess. I'm wearing grungy sweats because I haven't done laundry all week. The sinks are full of dishes. There are enough crumbs on the kitchen counters to make a meal for five. My blogging has been woeful in frequency and content. Nothing is getting done...except for one thing.

I'm on the last 10K words of my WIP. My mind is consumed with it during the day. I am so distracted, I will start a task and not finish it because my mind is on my book. The only thing I do stick to is lunch. I generally stop at noon and eat lunch while watching t.v. This is my time to relax and watch the horrible shows my family won't watch.

Some people feel that fervor for the entire time they write. Not me. I'm not particularly enthusiastic about anything. There are some books which evoke that feeling in me. Sometimes a movie or t.v. show, but those are brief amounts of time. I don't have the energy to feel that way for an entire book. But once I hit those last three chapters, I am burned. I can feel it so close, can feel the satisfaction of tying up the lose ends and putting my characters through that last black moment before every one rides off into the sunset.

How consuming is writing for you? Do you hit a point where it becomes priority or is it a priority for you the whole time you are writing?

The End Is Nigh...

I've really had a hard time blogging lately. One, I've been sick. And when I get sick, I'm pretty useless for anything that requires focus. The other is my WIP. I'm down to the last five chapters. Actually four, I'm nearly done with the one I'm working on.

Anyway, words come easily in my WIP. I'm a pretty disciplined writer when I'm writing. But my brain seems to shut down when it comes to anything else. Over the last few days I've written and deleted several posts. I can't maintain the focus to get them done and have them read the way I like. Odd how I can write a 85K book but I can't pound out a 500 word post.

I've had plenty of good ideas, but the words aren't there. Perhaps it is a writer's defense mechanism. Kind of like when you are freezing to death and your body kicks in with weird responses designed to keep you alive. My writerly brain is protecting itself, making my book the essential reason for living and giving everything else the boot.

There is a sense of urgency in me to get this book done. Its been hanging around my hard drive way too long. I haven't really had any problems with it. I'm pleased with the writing and all, but I've really had a hard time focusing on it. I've had good reason for dragging my feet. But not good enough. So here I am on the precipice of writing "The End" (well, I don't really write the words, but I know when I'm done) and I can feel the tension in me. It needs release. So I've been pouring myself into my book. Sometimes I have to get up and do something (re-sealed the granite last week, the whole time my mind was on my book). My floor may get a good mopping just so I can do something physical while my mind races.

I hope by next week I'll be back to my usual brilliant posts about kids putting foreign objects in their ears or the emotional impact I receive from bad reality television.

So here's my question. When you are overwhelmed with your writing, does your focus sharpen all around or does it reserve itself for your writing and nothing else?

Will It Blend?

I had a total soapbox post planned for today but lucky you, I am feeling too crappy to go on a ranting tirade. Instead, I thought I'd share one of my favorite time wasters.

My kids, like so many others, are experts on YouTube. One day I heard them laughing over something, (usually it is something stupid like "Charlie the Unicorn" (a true head-scratcher for me). But this time it was a guy with a blender. I totally got hooked on the videos.
They are hysterical. Tom, the host of the videos and founder of Blendtec is amiable and blends the darndest things. My favorite is when he tries to blend Chuck Norris. You can find the videos at Will It Blend?. However they are easier to search on YouTube.

Obviously the point is to sell blenders. Does the campaign work? I don't know, but after watching the videos, I did look into the blenders. My KitchenAid blender recently snapped under the pressure of making a smoothie, so the BlendTec may be the answer. Don't worry, if I do get one, I will not be experimenting with any small consumer electronics.

Priorities

Some priorities are easy to see and understand. Your family is always top priority, even if you don't actually feel that way all the time, you can believe it. While it isn't always easy to give your top priority its due, we still have no problem making ourselves sacrifice as much as we can to make our families happy and safe. I hate doing laundry, but I can make myself do it with little convincing because it has to be done and heaven forbid my children wear dirty clothes to school.

But what about those other priorities? I came to the realization this weekend that it is easier for me to write a novel than lose weight. Doesn't that seem wrong? Crafting a lengthy piece of fiction should be tougher than dropping 10 lbs. And yet I've achieved a lot more of my writing goals than I have my weightloss ones.

Why is it easier for me to create another world populated by complicated beings than to watch what I'm eating? Why can I carve out an hour of my day to write but not a measly 30 minutes to exercise? In the long run, I will see satisfaction in losing weight long before I would in writing. Even if I sold a book today, I'd have more than a year before I actually saw it on the shelves. If I started focusing on weightloss I'd see a difference in a month. It doesn't make sense.

I don't really have any answers. I just thought it was curious.

What about you? Anything skewed for you?

Distractions

I am as easily distracted as a 3 year old. My attention seems to wander at all times. When I do focus, I'm unwavering, but it is something I have to work on.

The biggest problem is the amount of distractions I am bombarded with. Some are necessary, some aren't. Even now as I write this, I feel the lure of going and doing something else. Sitting here and finishing the post is taking all my focus.

Part of it's laziness. It is easier to go with the flow than make the effort to concentrate. Part of it is my own lack of organization. I was not born with the organizing gene, it is truly an effort to keep myself organized. Which is why I need lists. I need to write on a piece of paper what I need to do that day whether it's feeding the fish or writing 1500 words. Unfortunately I've been too distracted lately to sit down and write out what I need to do.

Anyway, I've committed myself to making writing a higher priority. All well and good but I'm having a hard time just writing. It isn't writer's block. It isn't a lack of time. It is distraction. Melissa sent me this article (she's always finding great articles online) and it really resonated with me. The author,Cory Doctorow, has really come up with some great strategies for those of us who are distracted. None of them take a great deal of effort to enact.

How do you battle distraction when you are writing?

I'm Doing Them No Favors

My husband and I are far too indulgent of our children. They generally get what they want. Our lives rotate around them, their activities dictating our time and energy. We suspend our own interests to indulge theirs. And I don't mind. I enjoy watching my kids play sports and I like participating in my daughter's Girl Scout troop. I honestly think the activities they paricipate in will help them in their adult lives.

But I have failed them in the domestic sphere. My kids don't have any set chores. They slide on cleaning up their rooms. They do their own laundry but they don't help anywhere else. And it isn't because I want to indulge them, its simply a matter of laziness. It is easier to do it myself than delegate it to someone else. I'm doing them no favors. In six years my son will be out of the house at college living with other people and he won't have a sense of responsibility of participating in a household. I'm sure many of you had to live with someone like that when you were in school. I know I did. It would be a pity if my kids ended up being those people.

I know I need to make a change but boy, how do you introduce it without A) starting a fight and B) taking over the chore because they suck at it?

It's a Shame

I am endlessly amazed at how disgusting people can be. We took the girls up to the snow again yesterday to do some sledding. I was shocked at the amount to garbage I saw. Why do people do this? People escape up to the mountains, leaving their urban wastelands behind to enjoy the snow and the beauty of the forest. And they treat it like a dump.

Are they really this lazy? This oblivious to what they are doing? Do they realize what a total lack of respect it shows for the world? It was heartbreaking. And if that wasn't enough, it got worse.

My daughter brought a snowball maker yesterday. She set it down to sled down the slope, a time frame of about 5 minutes. The damn thing got stolen. I looked around and sure enough, I saw a kid playing with it with his family. We aren't talking a toddler, he must have been about 11, old enough to understand that stealing is wrong. I told my husband and he went over to the group and got it back. The kid's mom told him to give it back. However, she was fine letting him play with it. She didn't seem to have a problem with the fact her son was playing with a toy that was not his. I guess it is only considered stealing if you get caught.

Anyway, my opinion of my fellow man is pretty low. I thought decency was more prevalent. But as my husband said, if people were basically decent, he would be unemployed (he's a lawyer). What do you think? Am I just seeing some bad apples or is the general population lacking in a moral code?

The Cursive Curse

Is there anything lovelier than a beautifully written missive? How often have you seen a letter or note and thought "wow, what pretty handwriting?" On the flipside, I'm sure you've also read something and wondered if it was written by a human or a chicken.

Cursive runs the gamut. When I was a kid it was a required skill taught in the third grade. Now it isn't. I discovered this last year when my daughter was in third grade. I couldn't believe she wasn't being taught cursive and I found out it was no longer a standard.

How necessary is it that she learns? This post doesn't think it is. As a mother, she writes about the struggles her son is having with cursive. She discusses the difficulties the issue has created within her home and with her son's learning. From the number of comments to the post, you can see how hot this issue is. I read through some of the comments and many people brought up excellent points. Handwriting is fine motor skill, a way of developing our brains. Cursive is a lost art falling victim to our glorification of technology.

I hate cursive. Like the woman's son in the article, I also suffered through penmanship and remember my mother having to meet with the teacher because of it. My printing isn't great either but it isn't illegible. My cursive is unreadable and I can honestly say I haven't used it since jr. high. The only "cursive" I use is when I sign things. Once I learned to type in high school, I almost never write on paper.

Newsweek offers an article citing why it is important that our children learn handwriting. My son learned cursive in 3rd grade and I can honestly say I've never seen him use it. He prints and he types. Since he has entered jr. high, he is typing even more. He communicates better when he types.

I'm not saying handwriting is obsolete and shouldn't be taught. Certainly it is essential our kids learn "manuscript" writing, being able to communicate with pencil and paper is beyond importance. But fine penmanship is not a crucial skill. Being able to write legiblly is. But so is knowing proper grammar and spelling. If a child is struggling to form letters properly, how focused are they on content?

English professor Dennis Baron thinks the emphasis on handwriting is not preparing children to be actual writers. He brings up the point that good penmanship was a necessity back in the old days for business, but now speed is far more important. He also discusses how his own students find themselves far more connected through their keyboard than they are with pencil and paper.

Some writers I know are more creative when they write long hand on paper. I'm not. I type faster than I write. Like the college professor's students, I find myself far more connected to my keyboard than with a piece of paper. I also started teaching myself to type when I was a freshman in high school, so I've been connected to a keyboard in one way or another for most of my life.

I understand the desire of people to keep handwriting alive in our society. There is pleasure in reading a well-written note penned in a beautiful hand. For many, there is a delight in handwriting, communicating their thoughts and ideas with sweeping florishes and dramatic loops. I admire beautiful handwriting the way I admire art. While I like the idea of giving our childdren the opportunity to learn cursive, I'm not so sure I think it should be given a whole lot of emphasis. In truth, I'd rather they learned to use a keyboard at an early age.

I'm sure much of my opinion is based on my own personal experiences with handwriting and the tortures of cursive. I have similar feelings about beef stroganoff and second year algebra.

So what do you think? Is cursive writing and penmanship a quaint yet obsolete talent or am I a techno-barbarian who is leading the way to the destruction of western civilization?