Back to Writing … at Last!

After the long wedding-induced haitus, I am SO GLAD to be back to writing at last. A lot has happened in my “writing life” even though very little of it was actually writing. But hey, the writing world didn’t stop spinning because I neglected my desk. Imagine that!

1. My favorite piece of news is that Katya Gordon’s sailing memoir, Big Waves, Small Boat, Two Kids just came out. I had the pleasure of working as an editor on this book, and it’s one of my favorite pieces that I’ve ever worked on. It’s one of those stories that I find myself thinking about, and drawing inspiration from, often. For example: when I was stressed about not having enough room in the 600-sq-foot house I now share with my husband, I thought about how Katya spent a year living in a much smaller boat with her husband and two kids, no less. And when I was in Florida for my honeymoon, I found myself wondering about the lives of the cruisers we saw docked out there. If you like memoir, or nature adventures, or stories about individuals and families figuring out just where they belong in this world, definitely consider checking out this book.
2. The cover for Hungering and Thirsting for Justice came in. How magical it is to have stuff “just happen” on your book without you after a couple years of squeezing work on said book in at every opportunity? I like this “it’s with the publisher” business.
3. I got an email from the editor of the anthology Unruly Catholic Women Writers, in which I have a piece, telling us that she has “good news” about the book … but, I haven’t heard what that is yet. Looking forward to it!

My attempt at doing NaPoWriMo was a bit of a failure. I kept it up diligently and doggedly, writing mostly very bad poems, until about three days before the wedding. Then after the wedding, rather than pick up where I left off … I totally forgot that I was supposed to be writing poetry at all. Well, there’s always next year!

My husband devotes his Fridays to working on his own business, and I’m thinking that I would like to try something similar — to dedicate that same time to my writing. Not tomorrow, though, because I have a big pile of freelance work to catch up on. I’ll be working from a desk (downgraded from an office) in the living room because the basement office isn’t finished yet. Ivan still works on his computer down there, but I cannot abide the cold concrete and dimness. One must have some standards!

It’s good to be back!

Oh, Internet, How I (Haven’t Really) Missed You

In the wee hours of Monday, September 20, my wireless router died quietly in its sleep. Monday morning, I was in denial. It will come back, I told myself. All morning, I did laundry and washed dishes. By noon, my Internet still wasn’t up. I gathered my courage, packed up my computer, and brought it to my parents’ place. On days that I’m not at the library, if I can’t get online, I can’t work. I accept and return all my assignments online, not to mention the regular email accounts that must be checked to make sure I don’t drop the ball on an all-important issue.

Yesterday, my Internet was still down. I went into the library half an hour early, where I accepted two orders from Scribendi using the library connection. Later that night, I went to my parents’ place again to download both orders to my flash drive, so that I could work on them offline until the Internet tech guy came out to my place at 4 today. That means that before 4 pm, there was no one around except me, Microsoft Word, and two long-ish manuscripts in need of editing. Both were due by the end of the day.

Last night, I estimated that the manuscripts would take me about 14 hours to edit; I wasn’t looking forward to the long day, but I need the money and both were at least interesting projects. I felt incredibly impressed with myself as I worked through the first manuscript before lunch; by the time the Internet guy came, I’d done my first pass on the second one, too. In all, both manuscripts took me about eight hours to complete, six hours fewer than I’d predicted. Now, this isn’t totally due to my lack of connectivity; both pieces were in better shape than the pieces I’m used to editing, and I based my estimation on word count alone without taking a peek at the skill of the writers. Still, there was something so incredibly satisfying about having no choice but to dig into those pages, at least while I was seated at my computer. Usually when I’m editing or writing something, a thousand distractions run through my mind: has that client’s payment been deposited into my checking account yet? Do I have new email at Yahoo? What about gmail? What were the guidelines of that publisher I thought might be a good fit for my work? Have any of my friends updated their Livejournals? What’s the current prize on Coppergoose? The gossip on Facebook? Should I update my progress on my “currently reading” shelf at Goodreads? What’s the meaning of sigil, anyway?

I’m sorry to say that my mind grabs onto these distractions when I start to feel bored or stuck with my current project, and I follow them wherever they may take me, taking just “one more click” like an addict needing one more puff on one more cigarette. I justify each one by saying it will only take a few minutes, which is usually true. But snippets of five or ten or fifteen minutes away from my work or my writing add up. The havoc it wreaks on my brain is even worse.

I still had many of these urges today. Knowing I didn’t have immediate gratification, they eventually subsided, and my focus improved. When I really needed a mental break, I had lunch, drank a cup of tea, took a power nap, and even watched an episode of Sex and the City. The difference between this and my usual working habits were that each of those activities had a clear end point. The food and tea run out. Sex and the City episodes are less than 30 minutes long. I had to wake up to let the Internet guy in. This means I was more productive than usual today, but I didn’t feel totally burnt out at the end of it. That’s because I didn’t throw all those tiny increments of time away on the rabbit hole that is the Internet, a place in which there is no end in sight, and willpower alone is your only salvation.

I found myself feeling a little let down when the Internet was back up again. Now that barrage of distractions would once again be part of my life. Not having the Internet in my home isn’t an option; for me, no Internet means no income. Still, it occurred to me for the first time that I have power over whether my computer is connected to the Internet or not. So when I settled in to finish my edits, post-Internet, I pulled the plug on it until I was ready to upload my completed assignments.

What a relief to realize that I have a choice! Sure, the Internet is still only a click away, but that extra step of having to reconnect it makes me think twice before I chase whatever random whim sounds more fun than my work. I’m making a commitment right now to disconnect the Internet when I need to be intensely engaged with writing or editing. I’ve known for a while that multi-tasking is bad for my brain, but now I’m finally going to do something about it. I challenge you to do the same.

 

Finish What You Start

On the Belbin Team Inventory, I score as the Finisher. This may be why I haven’t often fallen into the trap that snags many writers, of starting multiple projects but finishing none of them. That is, I haven’t fallen into that trap until … lately, when I’m in the middle of editing an anthology, writing a short story, submitting a novel, and still hoping to enter at least two contests, apply for a grant, and maybe write an essay or two.

So when I read these Six Tips for Finishing What You Start on Susan K. Perry’s blog (Susan is an author I “follow” on Goodreads), they resonated with me in a way they wouldn’t have in the past–especially tip number one, about keeping a schedule. I can definitely attest to the importance of keeping a schedule in finishing writing projects, and not sticking to this schedule has been my downfall in the past couple months. As a part-time freelancer, sometimes my schedule is too flexible for my own good. My writing time gets shifted around from day-to-day … and sometimes, it gets shifted right off the agenda. So here I am, once more making a renewed commitment to write first-thing in the morning, every morning. On days that I’m working from home, my day starts when I say it starts; and on days when I work at the library, I rarely have to be in before noon. So in theory, writing consistently first thing in the morning shouldn’t be hard. Except, it is hard.

It’s hard because writing at any time of day is hard. It’s hard because no one wants to start off their day doing something as grueling as writing can sometimes be. But for me, there’s something that’s even harder: writing at ANY other time of day.

When I don’t write first-thing in the morning, I have lots of excuses as to why: I needed to see if I had any assignments that were “on fire” and in need of immediate attention. I’m at a loss for inspiration and hoping that it will come to me throughout the day. But although waiting sometimes brings results, I honestly can’t feel good about my day until after I’ve worked on a writing project. So if I work on my writing first thing in the morning, I go into the rest of my day knowing that the hardest part is behind me–and feeling a weight lifted from my shoulders. And if that elusive inspiration really does strike as the day goes on, well, there’s no rule against writing twice in the same day, is there?

So now, I’m off to bed–I have to wake up early for writing tomorrow.

Work in Progress: How Much Do You Share?

I’ve read the writing advice that one should not “talk about” one’s writing project before the first draft is complete. The idea is that, by talking about it, you’ll dispel some of the urgency, you’ll work through in speech what you would’ve worked out on paper, and that your idea will lose a little bit of its magic.

I try not to be one of those writers who is always yapping about my writing projects to anyone who breathes (luckily, I have a writers group at which we can all mutually yap about writing), but I have to admit that when an interested party presents her or himself, I have a hard time resisting diving right into the details. Last weekend, my fiance asked me how my Rumplestiltskin story was coming along. The seed that became the story came from something he said to me on Skype one night, so he has a bit of a vested interest in this particular tale. So I told him what I’d written already, as well as what I foresaw coming soon. I talked about it a lot, but I didn’t give away the ending.

When I got back home, it felt like it had been the right thing to do. His enthusiasm for what I told him about the story rekindled my enthusiasm for it, and my motivation to work on it. Yet, after I sat down to write a few scenes, I wondered if talking about it had taken away a bit of the crackle of mystery and secrecy that might have propelled me forward even more.

Ultimately, I think that anything that gets you back in your seat to write is a good thing, and this conversation did that for me even if it did dispel a bit of the dramatic tension I felt within myself. I can see where the advice not to talk about your work-in-progress comes from–I think we all know a writer or two who loves to talk about the books they “plan” to write, but who never actually gets anything written–but I also don’t think it applies in every situation, all the time (honestly, what kind of advice does?)

What about you? Do you share details about your work in progress? If so, with whom? And if not, why not?

New Life to Freelancing

I admit that in the past year or so, I’ve fallen into a bit of a routine (rut?) when it comes to my freelance work. I get half of my income, steadily, through my job at the library — which is wonderful, by the way. I definitely recommend part-time work to freelancers or would-be-freelancers, since the stability of that paycheck takes a lot of the pressure off accepting any assignment that comes your way, no matter how ill-fitted you are for it, just to make sure the lights stay on.

But part of that routine has robbed me of the motivation I once had to pursue new avenues for business. The very first day after I had quit my full-time job, one of my main freelance clients cut my pay by 25% (these cuts were made to all their editors, btw). Although I panicked, in some ways, the timing was perfect. Because if it had happened just one workday earlier, I would have been tempted not to pursue my dream of freelancing after all. As it was, I’d already jumped in the river. And I knew I was going to have to find something else, and fast. That was in November 2008. I put out pitches and applications every Friday, even though that meant I had no earning potential on those Fridays. By January, I’d been taken on by Scribendi, which is where I continue to get the bulk of my non-library income.

As I prepare to get married next year, I’m reassessing everything in my life, from how many clothes are in my closet to how many hours I should be spending per day on my writing. My fiance has offered to make me a “real” website to direct people to who might want to check out my services. I’m going to hire my sister to design the logo that will run along the top of the site when I change my “business name” from Lacey Louwagie to … something else. I want to get back into the habit of devoting Fridays to investigating new leads. And I might even — gasp — spend money on advertising.

It’s good to have a routine, to not have to worry every day whether I’ll make enough money to eat or fill my car with gas or run my AC. But it’s good to be shaken up every once in a while, too. I look forward to seeing what will happen with my writing life in what promises to be the biggest shake-up my life has ever known.

Back to the Classroom

I’m writing again, and I finally have a plan.

It’s been two months since I finished the second draft of my YA novel, and as usual, I was taking a “break” between projects. It was a productive break, as I managed to write a handful of poems, a short story, and lots of journal and blog entries. But two months tends to be sort of my “breaking point” between projects, when I start feeling a little batty for lack of writing structure. So when I woke up earlier than usual yesterday and had a whole blissful hour for writing, I decided what my next project is going to be: writing exercises.

I admit, it feels a little like a demotion to go from writing novels to doing writing exercises. In the past, I tended to scorn writing exercises (although I had no trouble doling them out to students!) because they took time away from my “real” writing. Well, I’m not ready to start a new novel, and Story-a-Day May revealed to me how productive exploring can be. Also, I ended up telling my mom about one of the stories I’d jotted down in my picto-journal, and as I told her about it, I realized it could actually be developed into a good short story.  So I’m going to take some time to work through reading and doing the exercises in Wild Ink, perhaps in conjunction with revising my novel. After I’m through with Wild Ink, I may be ready for a novel again (it may be November by then, after all!), or I may want to spend some time continuing to explore within the short story genre. Either way, I plan to have a full notebook of ideas to draw from. And I can’t wait!

Finisher’s Momentum

For me, there are two places in the writing of a novel where I feel true momentum. The first one is at the beginning–when the idea is still shiny and new, and every trip back to the story is a new adventure, and I feel absolutely certain that this will be the most brilliant piece I’ve ever written. It’s like being in love, and I am blind to the story’s faults or the frustrations that are sure to crop up, should this relationship continue (luckily, I have a writers’ group to bring me gently back to reality during this phase).

I muddle through the middle, with moments of brilliance and moments of agony. But the second real burst of momentum comes right near the end — when the end is not only within sight, but within reach, and when I know that every word I write tumbles me closer to those magical, invisible words (because no one really writes The End at the end of their work anymore). But usually before I get to that point, I have to make a slow, arduous, journey up a mountain of doubts, where I curse the day this story idea occurred to me with each fresh blister on my heels and palms. All along, I’m grumbling, “All this work had better be worth it. That view from the top had better be spectacular.”

And then I start imagining all the possible vistas I will encounter when I arrive at the top. Somehow, none of them seem beautiful enough to make all the work worth it. At this point, I usually stop and rest for a while, convinced that I can’t make it those final few steps to the top.

But then, one day, I get tired of resting. And I start moving again.

That’s when I somehow end up at the top without even trying. And although the view isn’t always beautiful, there is that wonderful moment when, at the very least, it’s clear.

About a week and a half ago, I found myself making notes at the end of my writing session about how the next few scenes would play out. I kept adding one more idea, then another. Soon, my notes became a step-by-step, sentence-by-sentence map to the end. All that was left was to follow that map. And guess what? It’s all downhill.

Non-stress Blogging

Today was my day to post at the Young Adult Catholics blog again.

It’s been almost exactly a year since I began blogging there. I applied as a writer because I’d recently made the commitment to myself for the millionth time that I would seek more opportunities to share my writing with a real audience. I didn’t know how I would continue to find something to write about every two weeks, but I hoped my obsession with Catholicism would be enough to keep my mind and eyes open for material.

In the beginning, I kept a list of all my ideas. I wrote my posts the night before so I could post them first thing Tuesday morning. As time went on, I lost my list (which also, incidentally, included my ideas for this blog). I stopped writing posts the night before. Then I stopped writing them first thing on Tuesday mornings, and “sometime on Tuesday” became good enough. That’s where I am now, and sometimes I don’t really know what I’m going to write about until about three minutes before I open WordPress. And you know what? That’s OK.

I realized that knowing what I wanted to write two weeks in advance or keeping a fantastic list or thinking about my blog while I brushed my teeth or did the dishes didn’t make me a writer. Only one thing could do that, and that’s the thing that happens when I finally sit down at the computer and confront that oh-so-empty blogging interface (or Word Processor page, or journal page). And at the end, I breathe a sigh of relief that I was able to fill it one more time. I’ll worry about whether I can do so again tomorrow . . . tomorrow.

Tips for Writing Every Day

When I was thirteen, I attended a writers’ conference in which an instructor said that, if you wanted to be a “real writer,” you had to write every day. I wanted to be a real writer.

Since then, I’ve done pretty well at keeping up a writing routine. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t write something, even if it’s just a journal entry (or blog post). These are a few of the methods I’ve tried to keep me going.

1. Set an “end product” goal. This is what I did in April, when my goal was one poem a day. Your goal could be one blog post a day, one journal entry a day, one page a day on your novel (or one complete scene), or one short story a week. One year, I committed to writing in my journal every day. Some of the entries were so short that I thought it was pointless to even bother, but my friend said, “It’s still something to remember the day by.” She was right. At the end of the year, I was glad I’d done it.
2. Set a “word count” goal. I only do this during NaNoWriMo, when Word Count Reigns Supreme. I found that applying it to other writing projects just frustrated me, because sometimes 1,000 words takes me 20 minutes, while other times it takes me three hours. I never knew how much time to carve out with this goal.
3. Set a timer. This works best for me because it’s adaptable; back when I wrote before going to work, I’d set the timer for 30 minutes. Now that I’m conscientiously devoting more time to writing, I set it for 60. And then I don’t look at the clock, I don’t count my words, I just write. I know that I’ll get out of it as soon as the bell rings, and there’s no reason to think of it a moment before. Most days, I actually find myself disappointed when the timer goes off.
4. Write first thing in the morning, even if it’s just your dream from the night before. Because trust me, something more important will always come up once the day begins.
5. Use a calendar. This is how I first started holding myself accountable. I gave myself one day a week “off” from writing, and when I took that day, I’d write “no writing” on that day on the calendar. Any other day I didn’t write, I also wrote, “no writing” on the calendar. When your calendar becomes dreadfully cluttered with days proclaiming, “no writing,”  you should be good and guilted into reforming your ways. Or giving up on the whole writing thing, which is always a fair option.

Not a single method above is immune to procrastination, however. My blog will always be here for you when you feel the need to procrastinate.

Why Writing Should Happen First Thing in the Morning

Everyone has their own “writing time” that works for them. I used to write at night after my dear room-mate had gone to bed because a) my imagination always felt a little stronger in the dark and b) I used to be a night owl and c) there were usually guaranteed to be no interruptions or distractions.

I no longer write in the evening. Now that I live alone, I have the luxury of several “interruption-free” times every day (although, of course, someone ALWAYS manages to phone me or IM me when I am writing; there must be some strange energy in the universe that clues people in to that sort of thing). Now, when I’m being “good,” I write first thing in the morning. And I’m learning I need to be fanatical about it, because lately, if I don’t write first thing, I don’t write at all (thus, two post-free days).

At the beginning of each day, it always feels like I have so much time to get everything done. But the truth is, I never do. And the truth is also that, at the beginning of the day, I don’t yet have a realistic idea of everything that will NEED to get done that day. On Tuesday, I wrote for an hour before I did anything else. It was a good thing I did, because later that day I got a huge assignment on a short deadline that canceled all the plans I had I (including grocery shopping, which was a hard one to give up) except a commitment I’d made for another client. As the time got eaten up, I felt a little sigh of relief within every time I remembered that I’d already written for the day. The most important work was already done.

The project kept me up late on Tuesday, and I had a commitment early Wednesday morning, so I only had a few hours sleep. The beauty of freelancing, of course, is that there’s the flexibility for things like naps. Which I exploited to its fullest, losing 3.5 hours of the day to it yesterday. When I was awake, I had another work commitment in the evening (which ended up taking 4 hours) and at this point, I needed to get groceries (no food) and I needed to do dishes (so I had a clean fork to eat the food with). I told myself I would write “right before bed,” thinking the nap would make it hard for me to fall asleep. But I’d expected the four-hour commitment to take about two hours, so when it ran twice as long, I was beat by the time I was finished (and not wanting to repeat a marathon nap two days in a row). The end result? No writing yesterday.

I’m not saying that everyone should write first thing in the morning, because I’m not about to impose my own daily writing rhythm on another writer. But I do think that if you’ve designated a time for writing, as I have, you need to keep it as sacred as if you had made that commitment to someone else. Because writers are top-of-the-line procrastinators, and there will always be something more important that has to come “first.” SO, if it is your writing time, don’t check your email. Don’t run to the post office. Don’t answer your phone. Don’t do the dishes. Write. Just write. You will somehow find time for all the rest, but your writing time deserves your best, uncluttered, uninterrupted time.

Now, if only I could learn to follow my own advice.