Tag: writer life lessons

Writer Life Lesson #26: Start Something New

A lot of the time, as writers, we work on pieces for long periods of time. Novels, short stories, even poems can take years and years to come to completion. Sometimes, we tend to get stuck in the middle and think there is no way out, especially since middles are characteristically the hardest to write since they have to connect the beginning and the end.

Usually, when I start writing a piece, I have a vague idea of where I want it to start and a vague idea of how I want it to end, but the middle is the unknown territory where I mostly let my characters surprise me. This works sometimes, but a lot of the time I get distracted and stuck and have trouble continuing with that piece.

That brings me to Writer Life Lesson #26: Start Something New. 

Working on one piece at a time works for some people, but I find that I get tunnel vision and I get bored and feel like I’m a failure at life because I’m not having these big 5K writing days or I’m not making story progress like I want. Recently, I got a bit of inspiration and started a few new pieces because I just couldn’t wait.

The results were astounding.

To start something new and feel that new spark of a new piece was amazing. It helped me to give the current novel I’m working on a bit of space and let me relax in my wishes for that novel. When I returned to it recently, I was able to get a lot of writing done and get through a good bit of the plot and find a bit of a direction again.

I’m still in the middle and trying to work my way to the end, but if I get stuck, I know I can go work on something else for a while, fiddle around with a new set of characters and a plot and make the words come without pressure again.

If you’re stuck on your current piece and it’s driving you crazy, try starting something new, even if it’s just a short poem or an idea. It will help get those ideas flowing again and reduce the need for perfection in your first draft.

Writer Life Lesson #23: Write Three Sentences

Yes, you are reading that correctly. Just three sentences.

Life is busy for most writers. We have day jobs, kids, pets, outside life to deal with once we leave the page. Several things interrupt us from our stories and as more days pass it becomes more difficult to get back into the story.

We also have distractions, such as Netflix, TV, flash games. I have been guilty lately of giving into the distractions instead of writing and falling deeper into despair that I haven’t been writing.

How do I fix that? Write Three Sentences.

It almost seems too easy, right? For some of you, it might be. Some of you writers are probably thinking “That’s it?!”. But hear me out.

If you’re distracted, binging Netflix, stuck playing Facebook games, or catatonic after your day job, three sentences can feel like a mountain.

My new binge has been listening to podcasts. They can vary in length from fifteen minutes to an hour, sometimes an hour and a half. I’ve told myself that age old excuse of “I’ll write after this podcast ends” and then it automatically starts to play the next one and I think that same thought. Repeat Ad Nauseum until it’s time to go to bed.

What I have decided to do, and that works for me, is pausing the podcast, writing three sentences and then returning to the podcast, or the Netflix episode, or whatever else has been captivating my attention.

Over the past couple days, I have written about three thousand words just three sentences at a time. I’m in love with my story and characters again and am finally advancing the plot. An added bonus is I no longer have days where I don’t write anything. Even if it’s 100 words, that’s still something.

If you’re like me, and distracted by social media, Netflix, podcasts, TED talks, or anything else, and still wanting to write, pause that Netflix episode, that podcast, that TED talk, take a break from whatever is pulling you away from your writing and write three sentences .

Hopefully, when you do, one of these things will happen. You will either want to continue writing more than those three sentences or want to get back to whatever was distracting you. If you do go back to what was distracting you, try the three sentence rule again at the next break.

Even if you do just write three sentences at a time, eventually your project will be finished.

Writer Life Lesson #22: Every Piece You Write is Important… Even Fanfiction

What are you writing right now? Is it a novel, an essay, a smut filled fanfiction, literally anything else where you put words on paper?

First: Good for you! You’re writing. 

Second: Don’t stop writing and don’t ever throw it away. It’s important to your writing craft. 

Every Piece You Write is Important. 

Think about your whole writing career for a second. Whether you started writing yesterday or two decades ago, you have a writing career. Now think about all the stories you have worked on, finished or not. 

Whether they were published, or thrown into a drawer never to see the light of day again, they are important to how you see yourself and how you build yourself as a writer. 

Even those fanfiction stories you wrote in middle school and high school. 

Just by writing, whether it’s a short story for school or a long novel series, or even something small like one great sentence, you are improving your writing career and getting one word closer to finishing that story, or chapter, or book, or even series. 

By trying things in stories, even if that story will never be published, or be seen by readers, you are improving and gaining knowledge of how to make things better the next time you decided to use that idea. 

That is why I love fanfiction. Both writing and reading it. It gives me a chance to try things in a novel I hope to eventually publish and see how people react to it without actually using it in my novel yet. 

An example would be the parallels between my novel and a fanfiction story I was writing last year. 

In my novel series, a character suffers from amnesia (cliché ? Yes, but trying to make it less so). In the fanfiction, a character wakes up after an OD with amnesia, and I got to play around with how to both write and format flashbacks between the characters without it being too clunky or boring. 

Every piece is important to our growth as writers. 

Stuck on how to write something? Why not try fanfiction and see what happens!

Good luck in all your writing endeavors! 

Writer Life Lesson #17: Don’t Be Afraid to Write the Hard Stuff

Writing, like every other form of art, strives to make people feel something. This is usually accomplished by making the work feel real, using real emotions and situations that force the reader or the viewer or the participant to feel something. Sometimes, this means including things that hurt us, or make us feel vulnerable, dirty, or embarrassed.

There are several events, and people and objects that make us feel that way, and as many things as there are, there are a thousand more ways to write them. A lot of writing advice will tell you to avoid things that will make the reader cringe or feel offended, especially if it has to do with real events, especially if you can find a better way to further the plot and your story, but I say

Don’t Be Afraid to Write the Hard Stuff

Why? Because if we avoid the hard stuff, the triggers and the pain of events, then we cannot get past them as human beings. If we sugarcoat everything in our writing, make it fluffy and pretty and wrapped up, it will not seem real, or plausible. If we want our readers to feel something, we have to dig deep and find the things that hurt us and bring them forth.

I’m not saying force yourself to write what hurts you, or force it out for the sake of readers and the ability to sell. What I am saying is when you feel that you are ready, just try writing what hurts, what scares, or what embarrasses you. You might be able to get through it, or you might not.

I know all about what it feels like to write the hard stuff and the difficult things. When my mom passed away in 2013, it was hard for me to write about her, about any mothers. So in 2014, I decided I was going to write a story similar to my experiences for a short story contest. I started to write it, but it was just too difficult, so I put it away for later. Will I continue it? Maybe. Will I throw it out for good? No way!

Hard things to write could be anything. It could be murder, rape, incest, or any other various tragedies or joys. I’m not saying add these things, or anything like them, in for shock value, but if it is necessary to your plot, to motivate your characters, or further their development, then add it in. Write it to the best of your ability, and then edit it like hell for it to have the best impact.

Don’t be afraid to write because the themes or events scare you.

Go forth and write!

Writer Life Lesson #13: Follow Your Dreams

We all have dreams, whether we are writers, astronauts, or billionaires, or even all three. Whether your dreams are huge, something your work toward for years, or small, something you want to do tomorrow, you need to follow them. You need to reach for them and do whatever you need to do to achieve them.

This week’s lesson is Follow Your Dreams.

Sometimes, we have dreams and passions that seem so far away, impossible to reach or attain. Sometimes we don’t know how to start or even where to get started. When we do figure it out, all it takes is small steps. Small advances make big leaps forward.

I have several dreams that I have been working toward for several years, and every day or nearly every day I do something to reach those dreams. Whether it’s something small, like studying or something huge like taking a licensing test, or submitting a manuscript to a huge publishing company. Small steps, or big ones, both ways you reach your dreams.

As you all know from my previous posts, I recently took my NCLEX RN. This is the test for my nursing license and it’s something I have been working toward for more than five years. I took it on Tuesday and got my results yesterday (Thank goodness for online licensing boards!).

I passed! Which means I am one step closer to my dream of being a nurse and working. But just because I passed and have my nursing license, does not mean that I have reached my dream. So I continued with the next step today and I made my resume and submitted applications to several hospitals where I would like to work.

Now I enter the terrifying part of my dream, the interviews and agonizing waiting to hear back.

Sometimes, there are terrifying parts to our dreams and they may seem like nightmares, but that just means that we have to try harder to get what we want. In a way, the fear is a way to test if we are really serious about our dreams. In order to advance, we have to grow and face some uncomfortable situations, but no one has ever died from the stress of a job interview, or from submitting a manuscript.

Small steps make big advancements. So don’t give up and keep believing that you can reach your dreams. Never give up because things get too hard.

YOU CAN DO IT!

What are some of your dreams?

Writer Life Lesson #10: Take a Break

Writing takes a toll on every aspect of our lives. Whether you call yourself a writer, or a poet, or a reporter, or anything to do with writing, you will start feeling the toll it takes on your body, physically, emotionally, psychologically. Sometimes we feel it more than others. When we do feel that increased toll, sometimes the only option is to take a break.

This week’s lesson is appropriately Take A Break

After Camp NaNoWriMo, which ended yesterday, thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of writers are recovering after a month solid of writing time. Some writers attempted to sprint to the finish, writing several thousand words in the last hours of the challenge, while others finished days or weeks early. Either way, whether they crossed the finish line, or fell short, most of them are taking a break from writing today.

Trying to write several hours a day for a month straight is tiring. Writing, whether we realize it or not, is a full body hobby. Sure, it’s primarily the hands and the brain that do all the work, but we can’t forget about posture and eye strain, wrist cramps, legs falling asleep, and any other complications you may face. In short bursts, the pain and strain are minimal, but breaks are still needed.

Writing seems easy to everyone that isn’t a writer. All you do is put words on a page, right? Not even close. Writers are expected to write one thing after another, be full of ideas, and endless energy to write. All of which are pretty much the opposite.

There are good times to take a well deserved break

Take short breaks between chapters and section breaks
Get a drink and a snack and stretch, move blood into your muscles that have been sitting for a while, but make sure that you remember where you were heading with your plot and action. I tend to leave myself notes at the beginning of chapters and section breaks, just to remind myself. It helps to get back into the writing mojo later. What also helps is writing a sentence or two of the next section before a break.

Take longer breaks between finished works and pieces
I tend to struggle a little with this one. After I finish a piece, whether short story or entire novel, I get that jittery excitement, the urge to start something right away, or sometimes the urge to start editing right away as soon as possible. These are both pretty bad urges, and can cause a rather quick burn out. I recommend working on something else that isn’t writing. I tend to knit, or doodle, preferring something solid with my hands, but other writers play solitaire or online games. Whatever works for you.

So, Take a break for 5 minutes after you read this. You deserve it!

Writer Life Lesson #9: Enjoy Life, But Don’t Forget To Write

If you are a writer, it is most likely that “Writer” is not the only job listed on your resume. A lot of us have other jobs, other hobbies, other things that need to get done first. Every day, I make a To-Do list, and writing is always the last thing on that list. It is after the reading, the studying, the dishes, the laundry. After whatever else I put on that list. Some days, I don’t even write. And that is ok. Sometimes, life needs to come first. Sometimes we writers need to go out and be social, or make sure that the kids are fed before we start writing that next page. Sometimes life needs to come first.

So this week’s lesson is Enjoy Life, But Don’t Forget to Write

So how do we as writers do that? I like to think that I am a strange breed that can only write when everything else is done and I don’t have plans to go out that day. I somehow convince myself that I will want to continue to write and not leave the house because I will lose track of time and completely forget my plans. This rarely ever happens, but I still don’t write on days that I have other plans. I used to feel bad about this, but not so much anymore. I get nervous and excited and that messes with my writing mojo, and that is ok…

…As long as it doesn’t mess with my writing mojo forever.

So how do I get back into the writing habit and get over that “nervous writer’s block”? Well, depending on what it is, or what is making me excited, sometimes I have to wait for it to pass. Sometimes, if it’s a long event or time away from my usual environment, I have to get more comfortable with my new location or event.

I happen to have several examples over the past few weeks, and not a lot of writing to show for it. First, there was Phoenix, which I thought I overcame when I started writing for Camp NaNoWrimo (Which is not going as well as I would have hoped). After that, there were essays and reading for school (which did not go as planned at all). And now there is Researching and tattoo care for a few weeks.

I know I will get back into writing eventually (I can feel the stirrings already, the itch to grab a pen and just write away), but in the meantime, I am enjoying life and what I am learning from it. I deserve a break after writing every day for two months straight.

So if you haven’t written in a while, it’s ok. Breathe and try again tomorrow. Or next week, or next month. The words will come eventually, and they will be better than if you had forced them out. Enjoy life while you can. Writing can  and will wait.

If your story is worthy, it will be written!

Writer Life Lesson #7: Write Without Fear

Ideas are everywhere, but sometimes they seem weird or outlandish, sometimes overdone, or exactly like another writer’s idea. If you’re anything like me, that can be a frightening idea, that could keep you up at night, and make you doubt every word you put on the page. Sure, there are a lot of ideas out there, and some will be similar, but that does not mean we have to fear them. It doesn’t mean we have to fear writing them either for ourselves or in public.

It took me a while to realize that I could write in public without judgement and explain my ideas without feeling like I would be labeled a weirdo. Writing used to be very secretive for me, and it seemed like there were galaxies between every other published author and me, that I could never reach the stars where they were. And then, I decided I didn’t want to be afraid anymore, I decided that I was done being a doormat, that it was time to really exist instead of just catering to everyone else.

The lesson for this week is: Write Without Fear

When you allow yourself to write without fear, it opens a kind of doorway to many other ideas that were once closed off. Ideas that were once too weird you can finally face with the attitude of readiness and excitement. Once you decide to write without fear, it’s like opening a can of worms. There are consequences, but it is all worth the risk.

When you write without fear, you stop being afraid of writing in public. You stop fearing that someone will read your work and laugh in your face. You let your anxieties go, and start feeling more confident in your writing and your skills. You grow as a writer and realize that your fears were a cage, keeping you confined, keeping you naive and complacent with the ways things were.

Real fear is there to tell us, to warn us that something may be dangerous. We fear sharks because they can attack people. We fear death because it is an unknown, a point of no return. We fear writing…. why?

There could be several reasons, but that doesn’t mean they are valid. Sometimes the fear is so strong that it freezes us. I did not write for a week, novel, blog or otherwise, because I was in a new environment and afraid that the people I was staying with would find it strange. I went back to my old ways of answering the question: “You’re a writer?” and I hate that feeling, the noncommittal shrug and the “yeah, I guess”. That was the fear and I hate my fear looking back on it.

Fear will not go away on its own. You, as the writer, the owner of that fear, have to take small steps to release that fear. Whether it’s talking to your fear and telling it to GTFO, or just simply writing a sentence in an uncomfortable place. It might even be answering the question “You’re a writer?” with the response “Hell Yeah I am!”. There are several ways to face our fears, and leave them behind when we write.

Sometimes, just opening the notebook, or the document can be the scariest part of writing

How will you face yours?

Writer Life Lesson #6: Try Something New

As humans, we feel the urge to learn. We feel the urge to expand and learn new things, attempt new things. There are several quotes about knowledge and ignorance, and progress. As writers, we cannot stay in the same place forever, we must advance and grow and learn.

Last week, the lesson was write what you know. This week is a continuation in a way. This week’s lesson is: Try Something New

Yesterday, I did something I have never done before. I got on an airplane and I wrote on that airplane. That was a new, amazing, experience and I’m glad I was able to do it. It was a pretty short plane ride, but it was perfect for a new experience. It was a little taste of something I hadn’t done before.

So what happens when you try something new, either in life or in writing? You gain experiences and stories, both to tell and to write. You can share those experiences with others, and the knowledge that comes from those experiences.

I’m not saying you have to do something big, like get on a plane, or spend your whole life savings on a new house or car. Start with something small that you’ve wanted to try for a while. Try waking up at a new time, or trying a new food. It can be something small. Remember, small steps can lead to big changes.

There are a lot of new experiences to be found in writing too. Try learning something new or researching something you’re interested in. It can be a small step toward a huge change. Try handwriting if you usually type, or typing if you usually handwrite. Try writing a new perspective or even a new character. There are so many options out there, and so many new things to try as a writer.

I’ve tried a lot of new things in the past few years, and if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be as great of a writer as I am now. If I hadn’t tried such new things as NaNoWriMo and rewriting and editing, I would not have those experiences and that information to share with all of you. I wouldn’t be as knowledgeable or comfortable with writing, or even sharing all of this.

Learning new things, and trying new things can be frightening. Certain things can be scary, like getting on a plane, or writing a new perspective, or even changing something as small as your morning cereal. Fear is in our lives to help us know what could be dangerous and what could be life-threatening, but a lot of the time, we fear too much. Sometimes, in the face of change, we need to confront our fears head on, and continue on despite them.

So face your fears and try something new. It could actually be fun!

Try something new and give people something to say, whether they doubt you or not.

What is something new you’ve tried recently?