Original titles are overrated…lol.

I know the posts have been sparing over the last week or two. These two grad classes (dumb idea, two classes the same semester, even if one is online and the other real-life) are excellent for the thinking they inspire but not so excellent in terms of leaving me time to have a life. But one is drawing to a close soon–good news!

The last week, though, my mind hasn’t been on any of that class work. It’s been focused on a couple of discussions I’ve had with author colleagues about the nature of writing. Not the business/selling/publishing point of view, but the idea of what actually makes a writer a writer. These were separate conversations with two people who didn’t know each other but both got me on the tangent of thinking (again–if you read this blog at all you’ll know I harp on this often) about the process of writing BETWEEN the sales and publishing.

So many people get a bug in their brain that they want to be a writer because they see the fruition of our work: a new book sold, a booksigning with other authors, keynote speeches at a conference, an agent hawking our manuscript to New York publishers, our websites crowing our successes–but I was struck by how little these “wannabe” authors (not the colleagues but people they have met) have a true grip on the things we do BETWEEN these events to put ourselves in the position of selling, signing and speaking. There’s this notion of if I just sit down for a couple of weeks, all day every day, I will  write a best-seller, get the same treatment and have the same success as (my favorite authors)–and for those of us who’ve spent our lives writing, that’s about as true as believing you’ll become an NBA player if you start on your high school varsity team.

It’s the work in between those pinnacles that makes us the writer, not being able to shout to the masses from those pinnacles. I’m not belittling those grand moments in any way–I’m all for publishing (lol).

Which brings me, in my usual long-winded-thought fashion, to the point of my (slightly pilfered) post title. The common belief is that selling work makes a writer a writer, but I am under the belief that writing daily makes a writer a writer. Highly effective writers have one commonality despite genre, sales numbers, personal levels of fame and societal popularity: the one habit of highly effective writers is, quite simply, that they write daily (or at least almost daily.)

What do you think about this? Agree, disagree, think I fell out of a coconut tree and banged my head on the sand? I’m curious to know what you believe delineates a writer from an effective writer.Think about it, leave me a comment. Then get back to writing, not blog commenting

As promised, to follow up on that little gem of self-doubt I posted Wednesday about All the Reasons I Can’t Write, today’s post is dedicated to the opposite: all the reasons I can and should write.

I wasn’t in a bad mindset when I wrote the Can’t post. In fact, I was in a very good, very creative and receptive mindset, which is all the difference. When you bemoan your writing skills and abilities from a negative point of view, you’re only going to make them seem all the more real to you, and what your mind perceives as real it assumes as real–even when it isn’t. So why torture yourself when you’re feeling bad by telling yourself more reasons you need to feel bad about your writing?

It was enlightening, almost entertaining, to see all the excuses I gave for not writing memoir and essay. Some of those reasons were so ridiculous that I practically smiled as I typed them (I wrote the actual list back in August and just unearthed it). I want to dive into a little bit deeper analysis of those negative ideas at some point–but in the meantime, here’s my counterargument for all the reasons I can write.

All The Reasons I Can (And Should Be) Writing

• I see patterns in language most people do not.
• Every life event happens for a reason.
• People like my writing.
• I need to discipline myself to be more creative.
• Lemons.
• There are so many markets out there for my work.
• I am funny. My life is nowhere near normal.
• I think up great beginnings.
• I always feel an urge to tell a story about events.
• I want to honor those people in my life who make the most difference with stories.
• I am very good at writing shorter pieces.
• Not only am I a teacher, my life is a teacher.
• I have so many memories it would be a shame not to share them.
• Friends often ask when my next piece is coming out.
• I won the first memoir contest I entered so I must be good at it.

Your turn. Why are you still writing? What keeps you going on the piece you’re working on when all other voices tell you to stop? What are your writing truths?

I don’t know about all of my creative friends, but there are days I struggle with writing, creating, getting into the right mindset for writing and feeling my writing is more than just a pile of pig poop drawing flies in the hot summer sun.

Fortunately, at this moment, I’m not in that mindset. But I am sorta struggling with a direction to take in terms of my writing. I’ve got three large irons in the fire and at the moment, I’m grappling with the quality of my memoir and essay writing. Now, granted, this might have something to do with the contest rejection I received over the weekend, but rejections don’t normally send me spinning–I take rejection as a sign that my piece wasn’t meant to be wherever I sent it, and I send it out again.

But my memoir work seems to be what I’m questioning most now–for whatever reason. I thought that since I’m in a good, positive frame of mind right now, I’d investigate the reasons why I think I can’t write memoir. Now, kids, be sure you try this at home, but NOT (absolutely NOT) when you are in a negative frame of mind. It’s not the right perspective, and you will do serious damage to your creative soul if you explore your writing psyche while you’re already kicked to the curb. Save it for a time when things are going well, when you feel positive. It adds a certain amount of levity as well as perspective to the exercise–and really, you can get a better grip on why your excuses are really, quite lame

All The Reasons I Can’t (Or Shouldn’t) Write Memoir:

• I don’ t know how.
• Not enough memories or life experiences.
• Nothing interesting ever happens to me.
• My truth may hurt others.
• I can’t write for more than an hour at a time.
• I can’t finish essays/memoir pieces.
• I don’t know any publishers, agents or editors.
• I can’t always find the truth in the piece.
• I can’t always find the universality in the piece.
• It’s hard to tell the truth.
• All of my friends write romance; I don’t have any memoir friends.
• I’m never sure which piece to work on.
• I’m not published in full-length fiction.
• I can’t sustain a book of memoir.
• I don’t have enough memories for a full-length book.
• Teaching crunches my time for 180 days a year.
• I am so afraid of incompletion I may never start writing.
• I won the first memoir contest I entered so I’m a one-hit wonder.

Fascinating. I actually wrote this list back at the start of the school year–August–but the idea really resonated with me today as I whined about not knowing what to work on. As I typed some of these, the immediate untruth about them (“I can’t write more than an hour at a time”) struck me. I’m truthfully tempted to write a series of blog posts on each one of these to debunk their assumed power over my creative thought process.

I may do that. In the meantime, I think I will also write a list of all the reasons I can write. Let’s see where that takes me. What about you? What excuses are you giving yourself that limit your creativity?

I’m in a unique time-burp right now: a place without deadlines. I’ve got freelance pieces on the calendar, but nothing pressing at the moment (I schedule lightly during the school year), I sent out my last due piece two weeks ago, and I just finished edits on a short piece this past weekend.

I’m living on no deadlines or obligations at this moment in time. What an odd feeling.

If I had to compare it, it’d be like being left alone in a candy store with a fifty burning a hole in my pocket–good and bad elements to this. On the good side, I can start something new. Those ideas that have been haunting me around every corner: the article on voice, the essay on cake, the memoir on Easter candy…they’re all there, ready to dive into. I can’t speak for all writers, but for myself, that moment of being able to begin a new piece, pen perched on the first line of a clean, blank page, is absolute bliss for me. I love most parts of the writing process for different reasons, but there’s a charge of electric adrenaline when I get to start something new. Also on the good side is that there’s no ‘dread’ of perfection that always seem to creep in near the end of deadlines.

On the flip side, there are TOO many choices. Do I work toward my freelance, my nonfiction or my book-writing goal? Do I start something with the potential to be published soon or that will factor into a bigger piece, a possible book down the road? There are so many questions in this candy store that I’ve just stood in the aisle for the better part of 30 minutes lost in the swirl of color and promise of sugary sweetness without making the first move toward anything in particular.

And that fifty bucks is still burning a hole in my pocket.

What about you? What do you do in those unusually rare moments between deadlines, when you’ve got a day or two to breathe before launching into something new, expected or promised? I’d like to hear that you’re as overwhelmed and paralyzed into inaction as me…LOL…. So ‘fess up: what do you do in your special place of no deadlines?

• finish an essay on the topic of anger to submit to a contest by March 16th
• submit 5 new query letters for freelance articles
• submit one other essay (I have several choices) for publication
• propose my freelance workshop to three potential online venues

Today’s update:

• anger essay has been finished but still needs work
• submitted one query, received a rejection a few days later with a request to resubmit the idea in six months (I’m taking that as a positive).
• have not submitted another essay yet
• have not submitted the workshop idea yet

On a different note, I decided to apply to the Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop in June. Kenyon is near and dear to my heart–I grew up in the next town over and rode my bike to campus frequently growing up. I knew I could never afford college there and I didn’t have the grades for admission, but I loved it anyway. This summer, I want to expand myself outside of my usual writer workshop/conference comfort zone and thought Kenyon would do the trick.

And they accepted me! I got my letter yesterday before going out with friends, so I’m really thrilled to be participating in that at the end of June. Definitely put a boost in my creative step with that news.

How about you? How are your goals coming along? Feel free to post what you’d like to accomplish this week. For me, I’m going to center on sending out four queries and approaching one workshop venue. I’ll let you know how it goes…

I wanted to start setting my writing goals on Sunday but yesterday proved too much to do for that. Ok, maybe not too much, considering that after my grandma’s 81st birthday party, I basically sat around with the boy watching hoops all afternoon. He monopolized the computer–that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Thursday I met with the Serious Writers–who are now down to three (me included) and we set our tri-weekly goal for our next coffee and cookie gab session. My 3 week goal is as follows:

• finish an essay on the topic of anger to submit to a contest by March 16th
• submit 5 new query letters for freelance articles
• submit one other essay (I have several choices) for publication
• propose my freelance workshop to three potential online venues

So far, so good. Saturday I managed to finish most of the second draft of the anger essay but as always, I’m tearing out my hair over the conclusion. I submitted a query letter Saturday too, to a new market I’ve not yet written for but that I’d like to break into. I’ve not approached the second essay yet–want to get done with the anger one first, and I finalized my freelance workshop proposal (I’ve taught this several times online , just needed to refresh the proposal) and am seeking out venues.

Not too bad. I’ve also got a couple of additional goals I didn’t mention on Thursday that have something to do with a secret little writing project I’ve got going–worked on that Saturday as well. All in all, the muse is cooperating. Gotta remember to get her more chocolate today–she’s far more compliant with chocolate.

How about you? What are your weekly, bi-weekly, tri-weekly or monthly writing goals? More importantly, do you have enough chocolate (and whatever other vice(s) your muse requires) to get you there?

This contest is near and dear to my heart because I spent a year of my life being the coordinator for it.

Ignite the Flame, the annual contest of the Central Ohio Fiction Writers (the RWA group of Columbus, OH) is now open for submissions. If you’ve got a manuscript ready, enter the hero & heroine’s first meet in these sub-genres:

Young Adult Erotic Romance
Suspense Romance Historical Romance
Single Title Paranormal Romance
Category-Length Contemporary

Laura Bradford: Young Adult (Agent at Bradford Literary Agency)
Deb Werksman: Historical Romance (Editor at Sourcebooks)
Charles Griesman: Category-Length Contemporary (Editor at Harlequin)
Marlene Stringer: Suspense Romance (Agent at Stringer Literary Agency LLC)
Susannah Taylor: Single Title (Agent at Richard Henshaw Group)
Leis Penderson: Paranormal Romance (Editor at Berkley Publishing Group)
Lindsey Farber: Erotic Romance (Editor at Samhain Publishing)

10 Print Publications That Publish Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry by Heather Carriero at Yahoo’s Associated Content

When our essential selves–that part of us tht lives from passion and seeks out the pure joy in the experience of life, the self that wants to do big and amazing and grand things–and our social selves–the skils and actions and behaviors we assume to get us moving in the direction of achieiving the dreams of our essential selves–are in alignment, we can’t be stopped.  When the connection between the two is clear, strong and working as one, life is beyond good.

But what about when they’re not? What if your social self keeps you chained to a job that you hate just for the paycheck? Or your essential self stays hidden beneath a pile of meaningless to-do work that you find little, if any, excitement in? This disconnect can wreak major havoc and lead to somethink akin to sleep-walking through life.

I’m interested in this idea (an idea I fully support) from the perspective of the writer. So often, we find ourselves feeling mentally challenged and sometimes even reluctant to face the page, to get words down, to send out our work, to make pitch appointments, and that can disrupt our forward motion toward our goals of becoming published at whatever level we decide equates to success for us. Is this disconnect because our essential selves don’t move toward writing or because our social selves are going about the writing process in the wrong way? Are we feeling creatively empty because the social self has an expectation to publish books–a social representation of our work–a product–or because we would rather be writing nonfiction or memoir or fantasy or mysteries instead of the genre we’re in? Do we blame writer’s block for our inability to put words onto paper because our social self has heard that excuse umpteen times, or do we attempt to write out our frustrations instead of working on our novels because we know that we can uncover a glimmer of excitement if we just weed out the negativity?

The question, then, becomes more “where are you writing from” rather than a “why are you writing”? When you’re feeling frustrated with writing, is it the process or the product impeding your progress? Is it a disconnect between your actions and your true, essential desires? More importantly, how do you get back to writing from your true, essential self when the social self causes problems?

Are you writing from your essential self or your social self? And what does your essential self *really* want from your writing actions? I’d love to know.