I've been writing for I don't know how long. Short little stories that I made up in my sketchbooks on long drives really had no real plot but I loved to draw the pictures to go with it. I've never really been a fan of writing about real life in retrospect. Funny that I've come to realize that just now. It's entirely possible that my preferences were made already as early as third grade.
Third grade was awesome. Not only did I have an amazing teacher, Mrs. Lacey, but she was so creative and energetic that I loved going to school. She's also the first person that I remember that taught me the rudiments of writing a story. Really. As early as third grade. My first true story (and probably the only one I ever finished to my liking) was written for Mrs. Lacey's class. We had to write and illustrate a story of our own making. It was a whole unit. We went though the whole process: writing, editing, revising with both our story and our drawings before committing anything to the heavy fancy paper that was usually reserved for the junior high art students. I was and still am quite proud of my final product. If I can find it I'll try to scan an image and put it here eventually. My cover was laminated and my drawings done in bright Prismacolor pencils stood out on the page crisp and clear. The pages were stapled together and bound with a royal blue tape to make it look neat. I picked the color. It turns out that I had good reason to be proud of my work. Mrs. Lacey awarded the classroom equivalent of the Newbery award to my little book. That little gold foil sticker on my cover is what I credit with giving me the writing bug. I felt so accomplished and elated that my over active imagination had paid off.
Whenever I get stuck or down in the dumps with what I'm writing, I think about that little book and suddenly my determination and drive come back two-fold. It's the bounce in my writer's step. It's amazing that such a small thing can make such an impact on your life. Too cool, right?
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Friday, February 8, 2013
Overcoming Writer's Block
The one thing that all writers suffers from is the occasional bout of writer's block. Be they blog, novel, or script writers, we all go though the wretched curse of writer's block once and a while. No writer likes it at all. It is not a friend by any means and any devoted writer will curse it's onset.
Every writer has their own way of ridding themselves of such a nuisance. My own methods I suppose vary on the severity of the case. Sometimes, when I have been looking at a piece too long, I simply need to change my type of work for an hour or two and I'll find that it's enough to change my state of mind. Other times, when I'm truly stuck, nothing will do than to bury myself in a book or take a walk to clear my head. Oddly enough I also find a visit to a museum or coffee shop with paintings or pictures also gets my brain ticking. Though whether it's the coffee or the art in the latter case that gets me moving, I'm sure I don't know.
I have known a person or two upon occasion that swear that they can avoid the curse of writer's block. In practice I think that they are full of rubbish. I have never been able to prevent myself from getting writer's block regardless of what odd methods that have been recommended by friends. I think that if writer's block was more predictable. If it came every second Tuesday it would simply be a matter of keeping yourself busy for one day a month.
At times I do Google writer's prompts and try to do short spurts or sprints of writing. That has helped upon occasion but other times I think it only serves to divert my attention. At times the small snippets turn into some really nifty story ideas that make me want to turn them into longer pieces. In any case I tend to use either the weekly writer's prompts at Writer's Digest or the ones at the Forward Motion Idea Generator. Both are good and provide excellent situations. All of mine have been fictional prompts thus far and I can't tell you if you wish to write non-fiction if this will help you. I find them fun and they are excellent pointers but they remain just general enough that you have enough flexibility to do as you choose and make what you will of your characters. In any case I recommend them highly!
Every writer has their own way of ridding themselves of such a nuisance. My own methods I suppose vary on the severity of the case. Sometimes, when I have been looking at a piece too long, I simply need to change my type of work for an hour or two and I'll find that it's enough to change my state of mind. Other times, when I'm truly stuck, nothing will do than to bury myself in a book or take a walk to clear my head. Oddly enough I also find a visit to a museum or coffee shop with paintings or pictures also gets my brain ticking. Though whether it's the coffee or the art in the latter case that gets me moving, I'm sure I don't know.
I have known a person or two upon occasion that swear that they can avoid the curse of writer's block. In practice I think that they are full of rubbish. I have never been able to prevent myself from getting writer's block regardless of what odd methods that have been recommended by friends. I think that if writer's block was more predictable. If it came every second Tuesday it would simply be a matter of keeping yourself busy for one day a month.
At times I do Google writer's prompts and try to do short spurts or sprints of writing. That has helped upon occasion but other times I think it only serves to divert my attention. At times the small snippets turn into some really nifty story ideas that make me want to turn them into longer pieces. In any case I tend to use either the weekly writer's prompts at Writer's Digest or the ones at the Forward Motion Idea Generator. Both are good and provide excellent situations. All of mine have been fictional prompts thus far and I can't tell you if you wish to write non-fiction if this will help you. I find them fun and they are excellent pointers but they remain just general enough that you have enough flexibility to do as you choose and make what you will of your characters. In any case I recommend them highly!
Monday, February 4, 2013
Lessons Learned
My two cents for the day is basically sharing what I've learned through my short career thus far in blogging. I've gotten a few good lessons though probably not as many as a published author or professional blogger of several years.
I think the first lesson I've learned is everyone is, in fact, a critic. It might sound cliche but over my three blogs I've gotten all kinds of comments but without a doubt most of them have been criticisms of some sort. From the helpful hints and tips to the "no you're just wrong type" I've had my share of both. I prefer to receive the helpful kind but it's rather inevitable that as a blogger with any sort of opinion you receive negative comments. Sometimes it is worth trying to listen to what the writer might be trying to say but there are times when I'm just likely to ignore them, especially when they are particularly mean, crude, or nasty. Those I tend to delete and post some small note in a comment as a reply to the effect of "This comment has been removed because..." and fill in the blank. Simply put just because someone is rude to me I don't have to be rude in return.
The second thing I've learned is that readership isn't built overnight. Even with all of the advertising tools built into most of the blog publishing sites traffic to a blog can be very slow. I'm not a very patient person and I never imagined collecting a readership would be so difficult. Of course I never realized that I wanted to collect a readership until I started watching the statistics counter on my blog's homepage. To that effect I have tried to make the best use possible of the various tools to promote my blogs but alas it is more difficult than I had anticipated.
Last but not least, I have learned something about myself. When I first began writing my blogs I had only one and I was determined to publish twice weekly. I then found myself starting another and then yet another for my business. I did fairly well, up to a point, publishing two of them twice a week and the third once a week. Unfortunately I found out that keeping that pace while employed full time is nearly impossible. Slowly I began to drop a post here and one there. The inevitable happened of course, which was that all my blogs suffered a lapse of posts for a rather long while. Learning to write habitually and what to write was a great deal harder that I thought it would be. I am getting better slowly with time though I still have occasional lapses. I still need to learn when to write and how often. The biggest issue with when I write has to do with planning ahead. There are often time periods when family obligations, holidays, and other things fall in the way of my usual odd writing hours.
That's pretty much all it in a nutshell. Lessons learned and those I am still learning. I find that I've said far more on the subject than I intended to. Isn't it funny how some posts just turn out that way?
I think the first lesson I've learned is everyone is, in fact, a critic. It might sound cliche but over my three blogs I've gotten all kinds of comments but without a doubt most of them have been criticisms of some sort. From the helpful hints and tips to the "no you're just wrong type" I've had my share of both. I prefer to receive the helpful kind but it's rather inevitable that as a blogger with any sort of opinion you receive negative comments. Sometimes it is worth trying to listen to what the writer might be trying to say but there are times when I'm just likely to ignore them, especially when they are particularly mean, crude, or nasty. Those I tend to delete and post some small note in a comment as a reply to the effect of "This comment has been removed because..." and fill in the blank. Simply put just because someone is rude to me I don't have to be rude in return.
The second thing I've learned is that readership isn't built overnight. Even with all of the advertising tools built into most of the blog publishing sites traffic to a blog can be very slow. I'm not a very patient person and I never imagined collecting a readership would be so difficult. Of course I never realized that I wanted to collect a readership until I started watching the statistics counter on my blog's homepage. To that effect I have tried to make the best use possible of the various tools to promote my blogs but alas it is more difficult than I had anticipated.
Last but not least, I have learned something about myself. When I first began writing my blogs I had only one and I was determined to publish twice weekly. I then found myself starting another and then yet another for my business. I did fairly well, up to a point, publishing two of them twice a week and the third once a week. Unfortunately I found out that keeping that pace while employed full time is nearly impossible. Slowly I began to drop a post here and one there. The inevitable happened of course, which was that all my blogs suffered a lapse of posts for a rather long while. Learning to write habitually and what to write was a great deal harder that I thought it would be. I am getting better slowly with time though I still have occasional lapses. I still need to learn when to write and how often. The biggest issue with when I write has to do with planning ahead. There are often time periods when family obligations, holidays, and other things fall in the way of my usual odd writing hours.
That's pretty much all it in a nutshell. Lessons learned and those I am still learning. I find that I've said far more on the subject than I intended to. Isn't it funny how some posts just turn out that way?
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