Are you stuck?

I posted this video on my personal blog yesterday (www.writergetsreal.blogspot.com) because WOW.

This is my new official anthem. This is my heartbeat.

Please listen to this, in full, and just soak it in. Let Jesus strengthen you on your journey, writing related or not, through this brand new song by Meredith Andrews. I LOVE how excited she gets halfway into it, you can tell so clearly how much she believes in what she's singing.

Powerful.

If you need a boost today, I don't know of a THING more likely to break your writer's block, lift your spirits, propell you forward, and inspire you to keep on writing for your King than this.

PS - prayers appreciated as I teach this weekend (Friday/Saturday) at the NOLA STARS conference in Shreveport, Louisiana. (local chapter of the RWA - Romance Writers of America) !!  http://nolastars.com/conference/

Woman of the Night

I still remember the annoyance of listening to my sister breathe. In, out. In, out. I would give anything--anything--if I could just sleep like that.

My tiny fingers pressed against my eyes, harder… harder… if I squashed them hard enough, maybe I would get sleepy. I didn't… but I did discover little glowing shapes that stayed with me through the night.

I was four years old, but later insomnia followed me through middle school, high school, and college. I learned to work with it; writing papers most nights from 11-2. I was truly alive during those hours, but driving to work the next morning was somewhat like letting a toddler behind the wheel…

...after giving him a Percocet.

Then I met him: The Caveman, a.k.a., the man who rose and set with the sun. Literally.

How this gorgeous man fell in love with me, I couldn't figure out--until I realized after months of dating long-distance that he'd probably been sleeping through my late-night phone confessionals. For months after the wedding I would say, "Don't you remember?---" and he would just sit, wide-eyed.

It wasn't that he didn't care after 7 p.m. in the summer (or 5 p.m. in the winter). It's just that talking to him was as pointless as explaining to that two-year-old on Percocet why he had to get out from behind the wheel. He just wasn't with me.

About six months into this marriage thing, I realized one of us was going to have to change our biological clocks. The only time we were both coherent at the same moment was the middle of the day. This left any weekend I didn't happen to be at work for us to hang out.

I was desperate. I'm not proud to admit… I turned to drugs.

Benadryl became my dear my friend. I've been drugging for six years now, and my relationship with my man has improved greatly. I wake up to him refreshed, happy, and alive. (After my toddler hands me a cup of coffee and waits for a sign of life.)

Unfortunately, scientists just came out with a study that says Benadryl kills brain cells and contributes to Alzheimer's. I thought long and hard about that. I pictured us as old, decrepit lovers--me, unable to remember his name.

Wait a second. That's pretty much how I am now with my insomnia, right?

So I guess the question is… do I want my coherent years now, or later?

***
Questions 4 U: When's the best time for you to write? Do you wake up, or set with the sun?

Is it Conference Time Yet?

Maybe it's the winter blues. Although winter's my favorite season so that doesn't seem likely.

Maybe it's the fact that it rained for about a week straight recently and it's about to start doing it again starting tomorrow.

But I have writing conferences on the brain and I'm looking forward to the next one I get to go to, even though it's months and months away!

I'm planning on going to the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) Conference in September. That's seven months away, which seems like a long time, but y'all, it's really not! I have little kids, so they make life fly by with all the growing up they do, and I know that September will be here before I know it. Which means I need to get serious about prepping for this conference and make a list of things I need to do before hand. I'm sure people have talked about this before, but once that list exists, maybe I'll share it with you. After all, who doesn't love lists?

But today I just want to tell you something you've also probably heard a dozen times. Conferences are completely worth it. If you haven't been, you need to go. If you have been, you need to go again. Yes, they take money and time. But they are an investment into your writing that will pay off in the end. Obviously, they're great for learning. The classes are designed to teach you things you can use in your writing, whether they're craft classes or classes on that mysterious, elusive "brand" authors theoretically have that's become such a hot topic and a buzzword. They're fabulous opportunities to meet with editors and agents. Even if you don't have a book to pitch to them, just talking to them is an excellent way to learn about the industry. Conferences are also a great way to meet other writers. One of my closest friends is someone I met at my first writing conference.

So. Whatever excuse you have to not find a conference this year and go to it, seriously consider whether it's a good excuse or not. If you'll be on a foreign mission working with starving children in India all year, that's cool. Probably the conference should wait. ;) But if it's a smaller excuse, see if there's any way around it. There are a lot of reputable conferences out there and one of them is bound to be close to where you live. You can google and find lists on several different websites. I'm partial to the ACFW conference, which will be in Indianapolis, Indiana this year. But like I said, there are some other awesome ones out there.

Are you looking at attending any conferences this year? Have you been to any in the past? What's stopping you from making 2013 the year that you go?

Putting the P in Pacing

I don't really have a P for Pacing, I just liked the 3 P's in the title :)

A reader asked yesterday what is pacing? (in relation to Bekah's post yesterday)

Pacing is the flow of your story. This includes not just the beginning, middle and end but the threads that are woven throughout to get the characters from point A to point B to point C.  (oohhh. Points. Maybe that's my P in Pacing? hahaha)

Pacing is key because without a solid sense of pacing, your story can come off forced or contrived or random. You want your writing to be intentional through out, and pacing is crucial to achieve that.

Go back to a book you've read before that just WORKED. You loved it. Zero complaints. I bet you'll find the pacing was solid throughout.

Think about it from the other way too - have you ever read a story where it was going good, but the middle sagged and got slow/boring and you were tempted to put it down? In suspense, this is where they say "throw in another dead body". ha. We don't always get that choice though in other genres ;) 

Or have you read a book where the beginning was slow but by the end you were like YES! Awesome story!

Or have you ever read a book where you were enjoying it but suddenly the book ended WAY too soon? Needed another 3 chapters or so to even out? Or vice versa, where the book essentially ended but there were still 3 chapters of nothing afterward?

Pacing. Pacing. Pacing.

This is achieved with practice. (oohhh another P in Pacing! YES!)  You just have to read and learn and write and let this come naturally. But you can write intentionally and keep this in mind as you go. Just being aware of this element as you write will help you achieve it. Think threads. Weave those threads throughout, even the small ones of subplots or side characters.

Any questions? Any more P's for me? :)

Are you a Downton Writer?

The first season I watched Downtown Abbey, I finished it at 2 a.m., and cursed the six hours I'd wasted.

I've watched every season since.

Are you a Downton watcher? If so, what draws you into the show? Characters? Plot? How is the pacing (a bit rushed toward the end of this season, in my opinion... but apparently there was a reason for that).

What can you use, good or bad, to strengthen your own writing?

Happy President's Day

And so it is with novels... ;)

Hop you are all enjoying this three-day weekend!

People Watching

I really think Starbucks has to be one of the best places, as a writer, to hang out.

I was on a Valentine's Date yesterday (I know, I shouldn't be thinking of writing on a date...) with my hubby and we went to Starbucks because we'd gotten out of the house without having our morning coffee, which is basically unthinkable.

So as we're sitting at Starbucks and this group of men come in. They were military of some kind, so you know, they look all tough in their uniforms. One of them says to the other "Do you like sweet stuff?"

I guess the other said yes, though I didn't hear him.

"Then get a white mocha. That's a good thing to start with."

A third guy laughs. "No. I tall, black coffee would be a good thing to start with."

And that was all the conversation I overheard. But just from that my mind was spinning. Think of the different personalities involved there, all the ways those could be combined into a story. Think of how everyone's coffee choice says something about them, and of how funny it is that a big, burly military man would sip a white mocha while in uniform.

You have to live life to be a writer. If you just locked yourself away with your ideas, they'd eventually dwindle, because ideas come from experiences. If you're stuck in one of those stages where ideas just aren't coming to you, that's the BEST thing you can do--go live life.

The second best thing you can do to cure writer's block? People watch.

And personally, I think the best people watching happens at Starbucks. Plus you get to drink coffee. It's a win-win.