Flying within the Lines

This year has been one of change, overcoming obstacles & emotional clearing. In March, my 17 y.o. decided to go live with her dad. As hard as this was for me as a mother, I did it & I survived. Ten days of tears, five months of learning to let go. And today, she is flying home. Starting over, moving forward, dealing with issues - we pray.

Excitement & apprehension broil in a bag of emotional hope & doubt. My first full-length novel's MC is based on my daughter. Everything that she represented from an emotional standpoint - uncompromising, peevish, the teenage stuff.

As writers, it is our job to translate those real events to the paper. All of the emotion, growth, learning; the elements that turn us from one point in our evolution to the next.

I recently tucked that piece into its hidey-hop & began working on something new & different. I needed to for my own sense of self. But, it made me question the therapeutic nature of what we do. The interpretation & reflection of art & life poured onto the stage.

Emotion - Throughout any given day, we experience a range of emotion. From disgruntled to be awake to glad to hit the down comforter; we traverse a minefield of feeling. Each new piece of information rides a super-collider of action/reaction neurons that we contend with in microbursts. No two reactions are the same.

Viewpoint - Looking back on this last year, I have reflected on how I have changed, how my family has changed. The growth each of us has experienced or not. The story of the last six months as seen through 4 sets of eyes is varied in its emotional depth. It is different because we are different. And, it is different because the lessons each of us needs are different.

Motivations/Goals - Six months ago, my goal was to give my daughter something that I believed she needed in order to move forward, let go & forgive. I didn't like it. But, it wasn't about me & I had to let her go. Sometimes I wonder if that isn't the true test of parenting. I also wonder how she will view this short passage. Now, we obviously had very different ideas of how this whole thing would roll out. And, now I am curious how her mots/goals have changed. Has she grown? Is there perspective? What will the next 6 months bring?

Conflicts - And egads were there scads. I remember being a teenage girl. That time is not as far distant as my children would have one believe. Disgruntled, bristling, angry, flagless.

Now, here I am on the other side of those well-worn pickets & the head-butting has morphed into a perspective none has at 17. Those tense, tear-strained, kidney twisting moments feel like the Spanish armada has come to town. And, they are the moments upon which we build & shape our independence. The milliseconds of space-time that determine a direction, set us on a path & ultimately teach the lessons we need most.

So, in the grand scheme of this whole scene, I do have hope. We have seen positive momentum, actual thinking processes & we are excited. However, that doesn't mean we aren't waiting for that boulder to start rolling back down the mountain. The perpetual parenting pose - smile with a chance of falling rocks.

What does this have to do with my writing? Everything. The cathartic nature of the work allows each of us to rewrite, edit & monitor our actions/reactions. It also permits the artistic driver's license we need to make sense of our world.

Today, I am the scribe of a new chapter. For all the world's a stage & we but merely players. Somedays the role is the grand piano & others it's the prune. May all your characters find that for which they search & may you, the architect, discover that which forms, drives & elevates.

Happy Writing,

Patti

The 12 Writing Labors

Special thanks to all of those who came over from Karen's BBQ. And, to Clarissa Draper who sent some people this way as well.

Poor Hercules, hated by Hera, went nuts, killed his family & then set about to clean it all up by laboring around the world. Now, I don't know about any of you, but I'm no Hercules. However, as writers, we also have labors/labours to endure. To that end, I give you the 12 Writing Labors on this Labor Day.

The Lion - As writers, our Nemean hide consists of the shell of our story. This is the blanket we wrap ourselves in, filling out every possible angle. The beginnings of our story-storming.

The Hydra - The Hydra ate cattle; we writers eat, sleep, drink & READ. Research, research, research. Writing books, books in our genre, books out of our genre. And then, for good measure, we throw in movie adaptations.

The Hind - No killing, just capturing. Capturing the essence of the story in outline, on notecards, or on a story board. The seeds of our story begin to take shape.

The Boar - At this point in Hercules' story, he decides to hang out, relax, grab some wine. Writers have a different agenda. We crawl inside the minds of our characters. We interview, we tweak, we grimace. They come alive as we allow them to roam the halls. Hercules didn't share his beverage any more than we are ready to share our characters with the world.

The Stables - We don't feed humans to our muse - do we? Nope. But we do extract living, breathing, feeling beings from our musial ether. We shape, we mold, we fill in the blank spots. Backstory, history - the things that make our characters real to us & to our readers.

The Birds - Not Hitchcock - Athena. She dropped some castanets & a little advice on old Herc. We have to get ours from others. Our critique group, beta readers, friends & family. We sketch it out, cast our net & look for holes. We need our flock to reinforce that which we are trying to accomplish.

The Bull - The white wizard - or space, depending. As we begin our writing; description, setting, characterization comes to life. We have to remember to give it space to breathe. That means peppering in dialogue, shortening paragraphs, alternating rhythm.

The Horses - Hercules descends to the Underworld, rescues his buddy's wife & upsets all the horse carts. So, he runs off to this next labor - a king who feeds guests to his horses. We feed our stories to the screen, paper, typewriter if you must. Every word flies across the page - they flow from our characters, their POV, their understanding of the world. We don't make our peops eat them in return.

The Belt - Pretty simple - find belt, take belt, return home. How hard could this be? Well, here the goddess of doubt raises her ugly head. We read, we re-read, we obsess. Then comes pestilence & monsters. Doubt has many friends. Writers must contend with their own demons - suppress them, kill them, feed them to the horses. Mostly, get some writing perspective. Critique groups, writing blogs - whatever works.

The Cattle - Hercules received a golden goblet to float his ocean. Writers aren't so lucky. We have query letters. These are our little vessels to publication. Many will leak, crack, sink to the bottom. But eventually, one will be sound, its mast high & it will pass the mighty gates of an agent or editor. Hallelujah.

The Apples - Hercules' orchard stood guarded by a hundred-headed dragon. It spoke many different languages - a walking Tower of Babel, if you will. Then wrestling ensued, Hercules won, of course. And here, Hercules trades spots with Atlas who sneaks into the garden to retrieve the apples. For writers, this is where an agent comes into play. They are the Rock of Writers. They do the work that we are remiss to want. Publishing houses, editors, sales, deals. All the apples in one basket.

Cerberus - The final labor for Hercules. Our hero is cleansed & then initiated. And then, he had to tame the beast - no weapons. With sheer might & determination did he win the monster. And you can too. Determination, desire, never-giving-up attitude. These are the armor with which we fight the journey. It also helps to develop a bit of armadillo skin - There Will be Critics & maybe some bloodletting. But, you will survive. Just as Hercules survived.

Happy Writing Labors,

Patti

BBQ Buddies

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by from Karen's Blog BBQ. I am excited to meet so many new writers & bloggers.

Happy Writing,

Patti

5 Rules of the Writing Life

This weekend Henrik Edberg wrote a blog titled '16 Things I wish they had taught me in school.' The article resonated & I began to think about how the rules applied to the writing life. Here's what I came up with...

The Pareto Principle - Aka the 80/20 rule. If you've ever sat through any management classes, then you are familiar with how this applies to the business world. If a manager can get 20% of the work force to complete 80% of the work, then he/she can pray the other 80% drag up the rest. Not fair, but there it is.

The writing life doesn't really come with staff; certainly not in the beginning. Therefore, we have to captain this bit of the journey ourselves. So, only bring 20% of your anxiety to the table & you will realize 4 times the results. Or, it might be more beneficial to prioritize & leverage the amount of time you spend Blogging, Twittering and Facebooking versus writing time.

80 writing/20 platforming - works for me.

The Parkinson's Law - The space-time continuum speeds up to critical mass the closer we come to a deadline. Simply put - DO NOT over-think it. Plot issue, character problem, word choice debate - your first thought is usually the best thought. If you do not get it down on paper, you will not be able to fix it later - or not.

KISS - keep it simple silly.

Baking cookies - I have never met anyone who bakes only 1 cookie; they taste better in 6 or 12-packs anyway. It's the same for completing the monotonous tasks that divide our attention and distract us from the goal. Line those little arrows one after the other and hit all targets. Get it done quickly, succinctly & then move to the bulk of your day. Without the other tasks on your mind, you are clear to work your creative genius with a smile.

Dead chore ducks = more productivity bread.

The Give-Take Relationship of Value - You get more when you give more. This is true whether it's Twitter teammates, Blog buddies or Facebook friendlies. Do not treat any of these as your personal platform for self-promotion. The Aflac duck is only funny so many times before even pacifists consider a hunting license. Using these methods is good, beating people over the head - not so much.

Give more than you take & you will always be in abundance.

Fail & Make Mistakes - "Failure is not an option!" OH, but it is. The best lessons I have ever learned in writing & in life have been when I've failed & failed gloriously. It is those character building moments that we all know & love that teach that which is most necessary. It's not what happens, but how you deal with it.

Fail big, learn well & try to limit the audience.

That's all for now. Have a great week.

Happy Writing,

Patti