Setting: Are You Saying Enough? Or Too Much?

Outside of my window sits a green bush.

Outside of my window sits a round, green bush.

Outside of my window sits a round, green bush with the evening sunlight hitting its leaves and the remnants of half-eaten sunflower seed beneath its shadows.

Ok...so I started this blog post with three random sentences. About a bush. Outside my window. Exciting, right?

But it was really an exercise for myself to see how I can better describe setting. Because I find that I'm out of practice (ok maybe I just plain suck at it) and that I often just don't say enough about place.

Being a technical writer for so many years means my first inclination is to write something like the first sentence. It's concise and to the point, using the least amount of words possible.

But then that sentence doesn't really tell you anything does it? There's a bush outside the window, but I don't know anything about said bush (except that it's green) or why I even care about it.

So then I said well ok, it's round. Which is true, sure. I've got a better picture of the bush now - it's not some gigantic bush that splats along the side of the house and completely covers the window. But beyond that, can I really see the bush in my mind's eye? And again, why do I care?

So then I took some time and wrote sentence number three. And I re-wrote it about five times, adding more information to it until I not only had a bush, but I had a time of day (evening), I had an indication of the weather (sunny, not cloudy), and I had a hint at life (from birds eating the sunflower seeds beneath the branches).

I could have added even more description about the bush...perhaps the breeze blowing the leaves, or the slight variations in color from light to dark green, or the thin branches that seem to come from no main trunk in particular. But that's where you stop and say to yourself, does it really matter?

So I guess the point of this post, for me, is to learn how to say enough about setting to convey what matters, but to also be conscious of not dribbling on and on about a bush. Especially when I have more important things to say.

Do you have any tricks for writing about setting? How do you find that balance between not saying enough, and saying too much?

"Write What You Know." Are You Sure?

There is an old adage that says you should write what you know. I used to teach this to my kids when I taught 5th grade language arts, and I've told it to myself many times in the past. Heck I even wrote a blog post on here about it.

But this idea poses two different questions for me:

• Do I really have to only write about what I know?
• And what do I actually know?

Argument 1

So to the first question...only writing about what you know. I would pose this argument in response: If someone is creating a character who is a murderer, but they (meaning the author) aren't a murderer or haven't been murdered (obviously), do they really know what it means to be a murderer?

You could argue that maybe the author was friends with a murderer at some point in their lives, or had a murderer as a relative and therefore was exposed to their behavior. Ok. So for the sake of continuing the argument let's move on to a different genre altogether.

Now I'm going to write a novel about a fictional universe that I made up in my head, with a new life form known as Kozonauts, and it'll be a groovy narrative about their space adventures.

Do I really know about this fantasy world or its fictional characters? No, not really. They are a figment of my imagination, so how could I? So why can't we imagine other non-fantasy scenarios and fill in the gaps with research? Can we not be good storytellers by gaining knowledge first?

I argue that we can. We just have to take the time to learn so that our writing comes across as authentic.

Argument 2

Now to the second question...what do I actually know? Have you ever sat down and thought about what you actually know? I hadn't, until recently.

We think we know a lot about a certain subject, or a certain type of people, or a certain life scenario. These are usually the big things that stand out in our lives (a traumatic event, a field of study, a career path, a relationship). But what about all the little minutia that's hanging around and still makes up the fabric of our experiences?

For example:

• What about the interaction you had with the doctor with the bad bedside manner, and the frustration you felt about his lack of empathy?
• What about the time you lost your wallet and were frantic about your bank account, your credit cards, and your identity?
• What about the time you tried to follow a cool new recipe and what resulted was completely inedible, and you went out for pizza instead?

I think that as writers we forget that we actually know a lot. A whole lot! We just have forgotten the things that we know because they are covered by the bigger events of our memory.

So perhaps as writers we need to learn to reach further back into the depths of our memory and life experiences, thereby expanding our idea of what it is that we actually know. And whatever is left to figure out, well, that's what research is for.

What do you think? Do you subscribe to the notion of only "writing what you know" or do you find its boundaries to be fuzzy?

Choosing Point of View: Conscious or Unconscious?

Have you ever sat back and examined the point of view you gravitate towards in your writing? Or do you fly all over the map and just pick the one that suits your fancy?

I was reading this great book last night (called Making Shapely Fiction, if you're interested) and came to the section on point of view. Of course I know all about point of view from high school English classes and from being an English major in college. But I'm not sure if I ever took that knowledge and applied it to myself, and analyzed what I do in my own work.

I've attempted to write three books now, with the third one finally working (hurrah!). Two were non-fiction (memoir) and one was fiction. Of course with the memoirs I wrote in first person. I think there's something strange going on in your psyche if you try to write a memoir from a different viewpoint!

But when I was working on my fiction novel I noticed I wrote it in third person. It wasn't anything I consciously decided on, it's just how the writing came out. And I never thought to look at it a different way.

So then that got me thinking about my other attempt at fiction, a short story called "The Painting." And I noticed that I'd written it in first person, again without making any conscious decision to do so. Which had me thinking about why.

And what I came up with was that this short story was very autobiographical in nature. So I suppose I chose to embody the character myself because I could do so very easily. My fiction novel was an attempt at making a story out of nothing and trying to not base it on my life. Whole different ball game.

So that left me wondering about point of view and how I'm making my choices - whether or not it's done consciously or unconsciously, and whether or not my choices are worth a fresh look.

As I move forward in my writing work, I've decided to step out of my comfort zone and try to embody a character that I've made up. And just see where that takes me. Or maybe instead I will try to separate myself more from a character who is based on my life, and see if that provides a new (and totally awesome) perspective.

The point is, I think I need to more objectively decide point of view instead of allowing my fear-of-failure psyche to choose it for me. Because maybe it would help me find the story I really want to tell.

Do you experiment with points of view? Have you found any patterns you can identify? What works for you?

Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Writing?

So today I pose the following question: Can you write too much?

For me I think the answer is yes. During weeks like this when I have tons of freelance work to do, the thought of working on my manuscript afterwards is a little bit harder to swallow than it is at other times.

And it's not that I don't want to work on it; it's just that I know my brain has limits to what it can produce. And I've learned to recognize those limits so that I can keep my stress under control and avoid burnout. I take on only as much work as I can do well, and I work on my manuscript only when I've actually got some mojo left to do so.

I do think that writers need to be careful not to lose momentum in their work, though. It's easy to say, "Oh, I'm tired, I wrote a lot today in my 'real' job and I think I'll work on it later."

But then what happens is that 'later' turns into 'much later' which turns into 'where did the last 5 years go?' And for this reason I think there are definitely times where we have to push ourselves to write, even if we don't feel like we have anything to say.

The sweet spot is finding that happy medium between working on your craft and giving your brain some downtime to either rest or engage in other interesting pursuits. Part of what makes creativity work is having moments of doing nothing. Sort of like how your best story idea might come while you're cleaning the bathroom.

But another part of creativity is being inspired by life experiences. Which you actually have to go out and, you know, experience.

So is there such a thing as too much writing? Yes. But I think if you're not spending a couple hours of your day writing something - anything! - then you aren't writing enough.

Cheers!

On Always Knowing I'd Be a Writer

A lot of times people will ask this question: "Did you always know that's what you wanted to do?" It's a popular question that people ask to just about everyone: to a doctor, a lawyer, a computer programmer, a chef, or...a writer.

I think some of us know so concretely what we want to do with our lives that we have a path blazed clearly in front of us. And we know which way to go from the time we're in middle school, or even earlier for those lucky few.

Well, that wasn't me.

I had a different experience entirely. I would see little hints here and there, sort of like fireflies floating around and shining some light every now and then. But there was never a clear path; I just went along chasing the fireflies and somehow ended up where I was supposed to be.

If you would have asked me what my dream job was when I was 8 years old, I'd have told you I wanted to be a veterinarian or a dancer on Broadway. But then you'd have also seen me playing on the typewriter, because I just loved the way the keys stamped letters on paper.

And then at 10 you would have seen me at our new word processor, clumsily trying to type up a story about my black cat named Poodie. Or at 12 you'd have found me writing in my journal about my latest crush or what happened at school that day.

And when I wasn't doing those things, you'd have found me in my bedroom stretched out on my stomach, my elbows propped up, reading the next Nancy Drew book.

Over the course of my college years I would start to notice that I loved writing. I hated doing the research, but I loved sitting down to write. And it came out so easily once I knew what I wanted to say.

As I wrote in my corporate life during my twenties, I became aware of a silent longing to be a novelist. But I also remember distinctly knowing that it wasn't going to happen right now. Right now everything was behind a three foot cement wall, and wasn't accessible, and I didn't know why. I just knew that that's the way that it was.

But I also felt sure that one day the wall would crack, and then crumble, and then everything inside of me would gush forward and land on a page. And I think that's where I'm finally arriving in my life right now.

So I guess you could say that I always knew I wanted to be a writer, whether I was conscious of it or not. All of the reading, the feeble attempts at writing stories, the journaling that I did without anyone to model it after, the choosing of English as my major, my career as a corporate writer, and my quiet longings to become a published author...

I always knew I'd be a writer. And here I am, writing, and it feels awesome.

Holidays: To Write or Not To Write?

So writers are supposed to be writing all the time, right? Like, constantly. On any given day a writer should in theory be glued to the PC, their fingers and wrists cramping up, with a metal wastebasket full of wadded up notes (ok maybe that's from the 50s when there were typewriters).

Fact or fiction? Or maybe a combination of both?

We have a holiday weekend this weekend, it's Memorial Day. And as a freelance writer I can sort of arbitrarily decide if I want to take Monday off (I do), and that means I won't be writing because that's what I do for a living. So a holiday means no writing...right?

Well, I certainly won't be writing for my clients. But for my personal projects, maybe or maybe not. Sometimes I feel like writing every day and so I do. But most times I need to let things lay fallow for a while to give my brain more time to gel my thoughts into something that makes sense.

So when the holidays come around, do I plan to write? No. Will I? Maybe.

I think there are some writers who need to write every day to keep their momentum going. And there are plenty of published authors out there who say you must write daily...or else (insert menacing consequence here).

But I still don't subscribe to that notion. I subscribe to not only writing but also living, and this means enjoying time out in the real world and away from my computer. This means planning to use my holiday as an actual holiday, and writing if I just plain feel like it.

So come Monday, you know what I'll be doing? Sitting on my couch reading a book. And then maybe I'll get an itch and pull out my PC and write a while, or maybe I won't. But I'll be taking the day to do whatever it is I feel like doing. No planning, and no expectations.

Writing? Just Go With The Flow!

So I just literally banged out almost 2500 words for my current book manuscript project, and if there's anything I've learned in the last few years of trying (and trying and trying) to write a book, it's to go with the flow.

I am on my third (eek) attempt at writing a book. My first attempt was a few years back, which I abandoned after maybe 25,000 words. My second attempt was about two years ago, which I again abandoned as "crap" after about 22,000 words. 

But this time I've approached the process differently and am up to almost 43,000 words, with no plans to stop. Why? Because I stopped reading the stuff I was writing as I was writing it.

So take a moment and be honest with yourself. Do you do that, too?

I think it's normal for writers to scrutinize their work, and there is definitely a time and a place for this to happen (in fact, it's absolutely mandatory). 

But I also think that if we want to produce anything, like, ever, then we need to stop scrutinizing ourselves while we are in the process of creating. Just let it come out however it comes out, and talk yourself into being ok with that. Cognitive behavioral techniques work well, so buzz your nearest shrink for some tips!

Kidding aside, I think learning to go with the flow really is a skill. Because it requires you to let go of your fears, your doubts, your analytical thinking, your goals, your outcomes, and whatever else is "supposed" to be. And I think in the process of doing this is when our creativity has the freedom to shine through, and to actually do what it does - create stuff (awesome stuff!).

So the next time you sit down to write, allow yourself to write absolute rubbish if that's what comes out. At least you'll end up with words on the page and will have made some sort of progress forward, which is more than you would have if you sat there scolding yourself before you even put your thoughts on paper. 

And anyway, rubbish often turns to something beautiful once you take the time to tend it, nurture it, sculpt it, and shape it. It's just like a diamond; start with a mass of coal that is dark and ugly, give it the right attention (ok, pressure!) and you have a beautiful stone that sparkles for a lifetime and is worth more than gold.

I'm a Writer. No, an Author. No, a Poet. Bleh! Does It Matter?

There's this long and drawn out discussion going on in one of my LinkedIn groups about what constitutes a writer vs. an author. In my opinion, any professional term (author, technical writer, copywriter, novelist, screenwriter, poet, etc.) is just a different flavor of the same ice cream.

A writer is someone who writes. I think you can call yourself a writer using any number of flavors, but isn't the base idea the same thing? Maybe you have written in private journals for years...well I think that makes you a writer because you are inclined to express yourself with the written word. But you may not call yourself one publicly or show your work to anyone.

Maybe you've written user manuals for years and you call yourself a technical writer. Or you choose a different term like documentation specialist, business writer, corporate writer, or manual writer as your flavor. But labels and terms aside, you do the job you do because you enjoy using words as a form of expression. Whether or not the writing is any good is a whole other matter; once we move beyond basic grammar and organization, we get into a whole other messy gray area that I'll stay out of for now.

The point I guess I'm getting to is, does the flavor of the writing label really matter? At the end of the day, if you like to communicate through words in some form or fashion and you are inclined to do this on a somewhat regular basis, aren't you just a plain ole writer? And with regards to the flavor of your label, maybe all of us simply vary up the terms a bit to better categorize ourselves among the droves of professional writers, wannabe writers, aspiring authors, published experts, blah blah blah. Or maybe it's just our egos.

So what do you think about the various terms we use to describe writers? What do you call yourself?

A Writing Routine

Do you have a routine when it comes to your writing? I sort of do. Although it doesn't always go exactly the same way or happen at the same time every day. It goes something like:

• Sit at computer
• Check email
• Read news
• Stare at squirrels outside
• Surf the web
• Watch dove and squirrel bickering over bird seed
• Make a fresh cup of chai
• Write

I think it's funny to look at what you do every day and see what your patterns are. What does it take to get you writing? Can you just sit down and do it like Nike, or is it necessary for some sort of conditions to be met before you can get it done?

I find that once you can identify your patterns, you can start to harness them in a positive way to help you move along in the writing process.

One of the things I've found is that making a cup of chai somehow signals to my brain that it's time to write. Why does it do this? I have no idea. I don't question the magic of my homemade chai. But what I know is that if I'm struggling to move along, I can go make that cup of chai and I'll have a better shot at producing something.

Another thing I've found is that I have to sit on my couch to work on personal pieces. And conversely, I have to sit at my desk by my window to work on freelance stuff. So if I want to work on my book and just can't summon the motivation to do anything, I pick up my computer and take it to the couch. Because I know that if anything is going to happen on that front, it will happen in that location.

I also find that I have to spend some totally useless time surfing the net and checking emails right when I sit down at my desk in the morning. It's almost like a warm-up for my brain. Without it, nothing will be happening in my world. Silly? Maybe. A way of procrastinating? Probably. But it works.

So what's your writing routine? Have you identified it? And once you have, are you harnessing it to help you along?

Happy Tuesday! I'll be sitting here finishing my chai.

I Am a Procrastinator. Oops, I Mean Writer.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like I spend more of my life thinking about my writing than actually doing it. That's not to say that I don't produce when I do sit down. Once I get going it's like someone unplugged a dam in my brain and everything just flows out onto the screen. And it's so fast that my brain can barely keep up.

The thing with me is, well, I'm a procrastinator.

Probably the worst combo for me is lots of time + easy projects on my plate. That means my brain decides to stay in "thinking" mode until it is coaxed out by default due to an impending deadline or a pesky bill that's due. Or sometimes it decides to engage because I'm bored and need to do something, or because I want to feel productive on that particular day.

Maybe it's a defense mechanism, that whole fear of failure thing. So maybe what I'm really doing is putting off possible failure until the last possible moment, and this moment can stall and stall and stall when nothing is pressing me to address it.

But either way, I recognize that I spend probably 70% of my time thinking about my writing and 30% of my time actually doing it. And to be honest, I really like it that way. Because that means I get to have a life outside of my writing. And it also means that when I do sit down to write, I'm very productive. I feel prolific, to be honest, because it comes out so easily and so quickly.

That's not to say that I don't have to edit. I absolutely do, and it takes a lot of time. So lest anyone think that I sit back eating bonbons and just shoot off some quick and dirty copy to my clients, let me reassure you that I do have a standard writing process that includes letting my material sit, doing rewrites, and doing several rounds of editing. It's just spread out in between little explosions.

I spent several hours procrastinating before I sat down to write this blog. It's been maybe 8 minutes since I started writing it, and now I'll go back and rewrite, and edit, and edit again until my eyeballs want to pop out of their sockets. And then I'll go on with my day, procrastinating until the little explosion in my brain moves me to work on my next project.

Being a writer is fun. I love it. Don't you?

Writing Every Day

Most professional writers will tell you that you need to write every day. Well here's my little secret: I do and I don't.

If we talk about working on a novel or a short story or something considered "creative", then I for sure don't write every day. But I think sometimes we forget about the other ways in which writers use their craft daily and therefore are also constantly improving it.

• Do you journal? I used to journal, a whole lot. Almost every day.
• Do you blog? I do from time to time (more lately). That counts.
• Do you write for work? I spent years writing user manuals and help systems, and never thought that "counted." (It does)

So from the keyboard of a professional writer to anyone happening to read this post, I would say that it's important to write at least 5 days a week. Like a day job. That means if writing isn't inherently a part of your day job then you need to make it a part of your night job.

I spent many years unable to write at home because my creative energy was completely drained by the writing (and stress!) of my day job. If that's you and if you truly want to be a writer, then find a way to get rid of the stress that keeps you from producing. That's what I had to do. I finally quit the corporate life and turned my energy to freelancing. Easy financially? No. Worth it? Totally.

But what's also important is reading every day. If you don't feel like writing, then by god at least read! And not just your Twitter or Facebook feed or a trashy article on an entertainment website (have you noticed how many grammar errors are out there these days?).

Pick up a book or read a reputable news website like NPR or the New York Times. Read a magazine if you don't have the attention span for a book. But read something of quality and do it on a regular basis.

When I was a language arts teacher I used to tell my kids that reading will help your writing. Why? Because you will sort of absorb words, conventions, vocabulary, etc. through osmosis. The more you read, the better your writing is. And then, of course, you should test it out on a semi-daily basis.

So back to the blog title: Write Every Day. Do I write every day? No. Some days I would much rather have dinner with friends, enjoy the outdoors, spend time with my husband, or play with my cats. But do I write most days? Yes. And I have for over 10 years now.

If you want to be a writer, then write. If you have trouble writing, then figure out what the roadblocks are that are preventing you from doing so. It could be a stressful job, a fear of failure, or any number of things. But identify it and break through.

And if you'd like some help with getting going, there's this great book that really helped me a few years ago when I was in the midst of some serious writer's block. It's called The Artist's Way. Give it a look!

Writing Conflict

Writing conflict. I suppose you could read that title like I'm having a writing conflict in my brain or with my own sense of morality. But what I'm talking about is writing about conflict.

I've been thinking a lot about conflict lately because conflict is the stuff that drives not only life but also literature. Without it, you really don't have much of a story.

One could argue that you can create a story by talking about a series of events that lead up to an eventual conclusion. But how interesting is it to read about a guy who got up one more morning, scrambled some eggs, ate breakfast, and went to work? Sure, that's a story. But is it really a story you want to read?

What would be more interesting is if the guy got up one morning, went to scramble some eggs, and then the pan caught on fire while he was doing so. Then the conflict becomes about the man and the unexpected fire. What does the man do about it? Does the fire burn down his house? Is he somehow mentally ill so he just stands there and laughs nonchalantly while it spreads through his kitchen?

I have often had trouble trying to come up with conflict when I think about writing stories. But then I remind myself that conflict doesn't have to be something of a massive scale like being sent onto a battlefield. It can also be a conflict in a person's head about what to do in a certain situation, or in response to an event.

So let's say the man put out the fire and feels relieved. Is he too shaken to eat his breakfast? Does it make him ponder the random events in his life? Does it make him afraid to cook again? Does it make him late to work, thereby creating an issue with his boss?

Therein lies the story. And it's done without hyperbole and without hand to hand combat.

Reinventing the Wheel

Every story out there has been told a bazillion times. Yes, I say bazillion, because we have no confirmed knowledge of how long humans have been around and how long they have told each other stories (I mean, we have theories but I wasn't there 3,000 years ago, were you?).

I was driving home today and listening to NPR, which is about the only thing I listen to in the car anymore. And they were talking about the smallpox virus and it being declared eradicated in the late 70s, but that there are still some stored viruses being held in random scientific labs around the world. And the question was, what should be done with them?

The radio host asked, "Well, we know the DNA. Couldn't we just re-build the virus later if we wanted to?"

To which the scientist responded, "That's not a precedent I'd like to set in the world."

Or something along those lines. You get the drift.

This got my mind churning. And I started thinking about all the different kinds of stories you could make out of those two sentences. And that yes, probably it's a story that has been told before by someone, somewhere in the world. But also that writing is about telling an old story from a new perspective.

And as my writing brain was turning over all those possibilities in my head, something rolled on top of the pile that was completely unrelated to smallpox or mad scientists or terrorists unleashing a terrible (and previously eradicated) virus on humanity. It was a different story idea, sparked by the previous story ideas, that decided to materialize out of the mash-up of thoughts in my head.

Has this story I'm thinking about been told before? Absolutely. So my task is to be fresh. It's not reinventing the wheel; it's painting the wheel a shiny silver color and sending it flying down the street, soaring over a bridge, and finally blasting off into the horizon with a trail of purple dust in its wake.

That, my friends, is how you tell a story. I'd better get started painting that wheel.

To Pen Name or Not

So there's this person. Oh let's call her my non-twin. She has the same name as me but looks nothing like me and isn't related to me. And well, by god, she decided to write a book. And then she decided to write another one. And another. Bah.

So what's an aspiring author to do when someone has stolen your identity? (Total hyperbole, I know). Why, pick a different name of course!

To pen name or not to pen name has been bouncing back and forth in my head for a few months now. Initially I was going to do it. And then, well, I changed my mind. I was working on a non-fiction book, and still am, so what's the point in having a pen name?

But then when I did my little Amazon search yesterday and found out that this person - this other non-twin - just published another book and now had a legit entire author fan page, well I decided something just must be done about this problem.

Yes, dear readers, I had to change my name. Again. Because I just changed it! And not because I'm insane, but because I just got married. And I'd decided long ago that I'd be using my new last name for everything I publish, because my old last name belongs to an idiot (sigh) and the name before that hasn't been used in almost 15 years (who is that again?).

So to pen name or not? Sometimes you have to because of the mere existence of a random non-twin who beat you to the goal line. And sometimes adding a middle initial just isn't enough. And then sometimes you think about your privacy and wonder if you really want random reader number 1035 to know what your real name is. I mean, pull up Google Maps and check out that snoopy functionality!

So pen name it is. At least I won't have any more twins, or any confusion when I write a great (or totally awful) book (or five) this year (or next).

Superfluous Words

I just took the title of my current book manuscript down a notch. I removed a superfluous word - the word "OM."

How can you tell if a word is a superfluous word? First, you look up the word "superfluous" if you don't know what it means. Then you look at what you've written and ask yourself:

• Do I need this word to convey meaning?
• Is it somehow especially interesting?
• Does it add a needed pizzazz or an underlying connotation?
• Is it doing something more than just taking up space?

If the answer is no to these questions then, my dear friends, take it out.

For whatever reason it took me a few months to take my superfluous word out because I just liked the sound of it. I suppose I was too attached to it, and I think writers do have a way of getting attached to their words.

But should we add words to our writing just because they sound cool? How's this: "She bounded across the room - boing! bajang! bazoom! - and attacked the piece of cake."

Say what?

Hemingway's philosophy was to keep it short and to the point, and to make sure every word that's written advances the story. I think it's a valid perspective, to be honest. And since I have a background in technical writing it probably makes sense for me to adopt a similar philosophy. I spend a lot of my career removing excess words that have absolutely no real meaning, and people like the copy much more because of it.

So in the spirit of anti-superfluism (that's not a word), my new working title for my book is: "An Offbeat Path Through Yoga." And I like it. No superfluism here.

Back At It

So I've decided to revive this blog. Because every writer suffers from writer's block at some point in time. Or every day. Or every two hours?

And I'm no stranger to the challenges that come with trying to corral the thoughts in my head into something cohesive and meaningful. I do that every day in my freelance work, but more often in my personal projects. Especially when it comes to fiction.

Right now I'm hard at work on a book project and I'm making myself keep the focus. It's a creative non-fiction book that's meant to be a humorous memoir of sorts, and I'll be interested to see what's actually there once I finish my first draft.

So what happened was, I was bobbing along rather stupidly and then I took a time out. I looked at my freelance life, and realize that my process always goes like this:

1. Outline
2. Write
3. Read
4. Edit

As I was doing my freelance work I was not reading very much as I was going along. I was just getting my general thoughts together and letting them flow. THEN I came back to read and edit, AFTER I got the stream of consciousness stuff out of my psyche.

So why was I mushing everything into one step while trying to write a book? Why that's silly, I said to myself. Stupid really. My writer friend who is very prolific said, "Just write!" Well, I needed to do step 1 first. And then I need to just write.

I sure was stubborn.

And I tell you it's the darndest thing. Once I put down a quick outline and started "just writing," I actually started...writing. And now I'm somewhere around 32,000 words into my book.

So as I continue to stumble my way through this whole aspiring author thing, I'm going to keep chronicling my activities. My stresses, my feelings, my dramatic crumbling of printer paper (ok, hitting of the delete button is probably more accurate). And at some point I'm going to be successful at this thing.

In the meantime, I'm reading another really awesome book about writing fiction, because that is going to be my next foray once I get a solid draft down of my current book. It's called Making Shapely Fiction and it's one of the best books I've read so far. It's actually starting to spark some ideas for me. Check it out!