Monthly Archives: August 2011
When Creativity isn’t Enough: Tips for bringing out your inner disciplinarian
While making up stories might seem easy enough, it’s damned hard work. Oh, the daydreaming part may not require a lot of effort (letting your mind wander away from boring places and people is never difficult!), but once you decide to take all those ethereal, randomly conceived scenes and string them into an actual story—a real, written-down kind of story—the task can take on elephantine proportions.
Suddenly there are a thousand distractions. A million things that require your attention. You’ll just wipe the counters down first (or walk the dog or change loads of laundry or mow the law) and then you’ll get down to writing. But wait…maybe you should start dinner while you’re in the kitchen (and wow, the dog stinks—he definitely needs a bath; and you may as well change the beds if you’re doing laundry anyway; and if you’re mowing the lawn, you really should pull some of the weeds out of that jungle by your front door).
Perhaps you’re one of the gifted few who can ignore the physical needs of your surroundings, but you run into difficulties the moment you sit down at the computer. You remember that one email you promised your sister you’d send…or the blog post you’ve been meaning to write (I’m not avoiding work by doing that right now, nuh uh!), or the Twitter account you haven’t checked since yesterday, or …
Well. I think you get the picture.
The point is, creativity is only a part of the equation in writing. Because it doesn’t matter how gifted you are, if you don’t write down your story, it will never amount to anything more than a daydream. So how do you turn your daydream into a dream-come-true?
- Change or create your venue. Get away from the distractions. I write in a local coffee shop where I can’t see all that needs to be done. Other possibilities include the library, a city park on a nice day (if you have a laptop), or even an understanding friend’s basement (you can ignore her laundry!). Can’t get out of the house? Fine. Then designate one spot where you do all your creative writing and nothing else—whenever you’re in that spot, you’re there to write. Period.
- Get your butt into your chair—and keep it there! Set a fixed amount of time that you’ll keep it there, and then do so. Even if you spend the first few sessions staring at a blank computer screen and thinking about the laundry, do not give up. The point here is to develop a habit. Stick with it and eventually your brain will get the idea and begin to cooperate with you.
- Turn off the Internet. The coffee shop where I write doesn’t have Internet (well, it does, but you have to pay and I’m too cheap to do so!), which is another excellent reason for working there. If you’re writing from home, unplug your modem so you’re not tempted by its siren call and keep it unplugged for your allotted writing time or consider purchasing a software like Freedom, which blocks you from the Internet for up to eight hours.
- Set deadlines (even if they’re just your own). Write them down. Look at them every day and evaluate your progress.
- Even once your story is well underway, you may run into a block. If you’ve sat at the computer for three consecutive days without writing a single word and you honestly have no idea where to go next with the story, take a break. Try keeping it short at first: go for a walk; call a friend and go for coffee; get together with your critique group and brainstorm your issue; tackle your to-do list and catch up on some of the distractions that are the most nagging. If that doesn’t work, walk away from the desk for several days – but set a time limit. Five days tops (unless you’re going away on vacation) and then you’re back in your chair, back to your routine, and back to meeting your deadlines.
What about you? What are your tricks for staying on track with your writing—or any other pursuit? Are you naturally disciplined or do you have to work at it?
Mammoth Mandibles:The Benefits of Using a Thesaurus
More than once, I’ve come across the suggestion that writers shouldn’t use a thesaurus, that they should keep their words simple and avoid “fancy” language. In my opinion, that’s nonsense.
One of the things I love most about the English language is its nuances. A character can walk, stroll, strut, saunter, march, amble, wander, mosey, stride, pace, swagger, stalk . . . and the list goes on, with each word painting a different picture. Because that’s what a well-chosen word can do, paint a vivid picture.
Think of your thesaurus as an artist’s paintbrush. Use it to pick up as much or as little color as you need to create the image you want your readers to see. Be precise. Be creative. Explore the language and have fun with it. Beyond the obvious benefit of increasing your vocabulary, you’ll reduce repetition in your story and, if you’re like me, gain intense satisfaction in finding the perfect word.
A few words of caution, however. Be careful that you don’t get carried away and start slapping too many colors onto your painting, especially the more unusual ones. If you find the perfect word but it’s not in common use, restrict it to one or two appearances in your manuscript. Any more than that will catch a reader’s attention, and not in a good way. Also, don’t limit yourself to the thesaurus in your Word program. While it’s a good start, and better than nothing, treat yourself to a full-sized version such as Roget’s International Thesaurus where you’ll find words you’d forgotten you ever knew and a whole lot more you’ll want to know.
As an aside, a thesaurus can be just plain fun to peruse. Case in point: when my twin daughters were in Grade 3, they hit a stage of sibling rivalry that was slowly driving me mad. I was tired of listening to them hurl the same insults at one another ad nauseum, and my efforts to stop them from doing so had failed. Miserably. In a moment of parental ingenuity, I told them that they could insult one another all they wanted (not what they expected their mother to say) on one condition: they had to find new words for doing so.
I armed them each with a pocket thesaurus, taught them how to use it, and left them to battle it out. The results were brilliant. Apart from the fight I’d interrupted dissolving into hilarity, the girls learned to use a wonderful new tool years before their peers, their vocabularies exploded, and I no longer had to listen to the same tired arguments over and over again. For years after, the new game of one-upmanship in the house centered around who could come up with the most creative insult, defusing more than one argument in the process. My favorite? Mammoth mandibles . . . also known as big mouth.
How about you? If you’re a writer, do you use a thesaurus? If you’re a reader, do you wish more writers did so?
Wordless Wednesday
You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? I think they’re right. Pictures — especially some of them — can tell an entire story, capturing the eye, the heart, and the imagination in one fell swoop…without saying a word. And sometimes it’s nice (even as a writer) to take a break from all those words, don’t you think?
So I’m introducing Wordless Wednesday, a concept borrowed from Throwing Marshmallows (which she says she got from somewhere else…isn’t it lovely how great ideas can spread?). Each Wednesday — or more specifically, each Wednesday that I remember to do so — I’ll post a photograph here that speaks to me in some way. But just the photo. No words. That way, you can listen to what it says to your heart and imagination. Enjoy! 
Sins of the Son has a cover!!! :)
Drum roll, please! I have permission to unveil the cover for book 2 in The Grigori Legacy, SINS OF THE SON. Let me know what you think!
How authors can learn from their readers
I’m blogging today at Dark Central Station about the subjectivity of reading. Join me!
