Twit

Yes, Twit.

Ter.

Twit-ter.

Twitter.

I finally took a closer look at it and have, I think, started to figure it out. You can follow me at @laurahamby1, if you're so inclined.

Large Goal is to write something everyday, on the WIP,  not Twitter...And here's a picture of my writing company.

Don't know how I'd write without The Girls (AKA 'Knuckleheads.') At the moment, Storm (the tan dog in the foreground) is to my left, and is a wonderful arm rest for my left arm. We're all nice and toasty warm and The Girls are napping...

I'm resisting the siren call to nap, too. Darned dogs!

I need to finish combining the chapters I've already written, then get to the actual writing. That's today's goal - the Daily Goal.

A writer's mind seems to be situated partly in the solar plexus and partly in the head.  ~Ethel Wilson~

A good style should show no signs of effort.  What is written should seem a happy accident.  ~W. Somerset Maugham, Summing Up, 1938~

Making Yourself Accountable

In the solitary pursuit that is writing, unless you have a contract, how do you make yourself accountable to your writing, if your ultimate goal is publication? For some, this isn't an issue, but for others, it can be.

It's hard to place value on something as ephemeral as writing. You get no immediate reward from it, other than its intrinsic value to you, the writer. The accomplishment of writing is euphoric, addicting, but when the dishes sit in the sink and the floor could use a good scrubbing, how do you justify taking the time to write without the accompanying guilt?

First of all, your writing has value if you decide it does. The hard part is not allowing others to talk you out of deeming your writing as something that has value. If it means something to you, then it'll mean something to family and friends, especially if you don't allow them to categorize it as your "fun little hobby." Treat your writing with the respect it deserves and others will follow suit.

Accountability to your writing will also add value to it. If your family and friends see you taking it seriously, that makes it bit more important than a "fun little hobby." But when there are those pesky house chores to deal with, kids, husband, pets, full or part-time jobs to contend with, the writing often takes a backseat. The kids are only kids for a short time, true. But that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy them AND your writing. They won't suffer if you write for an hour or two a day, whatever your schedule allows. In fact, I think it gives them the opportunity to see that you are *more* than Mom or Dad, and that's very important.

Have a writing buddy or a critique partner---someone you with whom get along well, someone who's writing you enjoy (because that makes it way easier to reciprocate if you're not dreading have to read through their erotic m/m romances when your speed is a more conservative sweet m/f romance, for example). Set up guidelines and a schedule and away you go.

How do you set guidelines? Well, first, you need to set a goal. Set the high goal (how many words or chapter you'd like to write, in a perfect world), then set a medium goal--a goal you can live with and would be perfectly happy to achieve, then a low goal--the absolute minimum you want to achieve and still would consider yourself as making progress. Your aim, of course, is to reach that high goal. Some weeks that will happen. Other weeks, everyone came down with the "coughing, aching, stuffy-head, fever, boy I sure could use some sleep" bug and you're purty darned lucky you got to your minimum goal. No, I don't think this is a built-in "permission to fail/not strive for the top"...I see this as a positive ladder, a way to gauge what you think you can do versus what you actually CAN do, and gives you a way to adjust your goals accordingly, so they'll be realistic goals. That's another key towards being accountable---setting a realistic goal.

From the goals to the guidelines you set with your writing partner---Are you going to pick a day each week that you email Proof of Writing, as my friend/accountability partner call it? Once every two weeks? Once a month? Yahoo email, I know, has a calendar that you can set to send reminders, and you can export that reminder to someone else via email. Are you sending work to be critiqued, simply read, or just for an acknowledgement that it arrived?

Lastly, what you need from your accountability partner is a positive, upbeat, encouraging, can-do attitude. She's there to cheer you on, tell you to stop being so hard on yourself because you always come up 500 words short of your ultimate goal. Maybe you should adjust that goal, because you're hitting X consistently. Seems to be perfect for you, and the WIP is progressing nicely."

Would you like that in a nutshell?

Nutshell Version of Today's Blog Post

1. Value your writing, and others will follow suit.

2. Be accountable to your writing: It adds another level of value to it.

3. Find a writing buddy to help keep you accountable.

4. Set a series of goals from the lowest you'd like to accomplish in any given time period, to a mid-range goal, to the ultimate goal.

5. Set guidelines for the accountability partnership.

6. Get to writing!

^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^

“When you use words, you're able to keep your mind alive. Writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.” ~Gao Xingjian

“Writing a novel is like making love, but it's also like having a tooth pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it's like making love while having a tooth pulled.” ~Dean Koontz

“I am not bound to win
but I am bound to be true;
I am not bound to succeed
but am bound to live up
to what light I have."
~Abraham Lincoln

The Stuff That Revisions are Made From

Again, I am left speechless by the double-time march of days. How did it get to be Thursday again?

School's almost out for the summer. I'd've liked to be a bit further on with this first big round of revisions of the WIP. Motivation seems to be at a trickle this week. I WANT to work on the WIP but find myself sidetracked by the news. Yes, the news. Everything from Arnold and Maria's marriage falling apart to the machinations of our elected politicians. I'm saddened by a certain party's desire to curtail women's rights, for that's what is at the crux of these volatile issues of abortion and rape. The horrible weather in the Midwest has also held me in its sway. To say the devastation of so many communities is horrifying is quite an understatement. With friends who live in the so-called Tornado Alley, it's been a fretful week. Fortunately, these friends have blessedly missed the destruction and here's to hoping that trend continues.

So...The WIP. Woke up at 0'Dark:30 the other morning, with the solution to the issue presented by the final scene of chapter 4. Even better, I remembered it when I was more fully awake! Been working on it slowly, as I want to get it just right before I move on to chapter 5. It's coming together, but there's still plenty of work ahead.

Most of my revisions have to do with characterization and motivations. Why do the characters do what they do, and how do their actions shape and define who they are? Imaginary people are no different than real live, flesh and blood people in that their decisions, actions, beliefs, the reasons they do what they do reflect who they are. Written on a flat, one-dimensional page, it's important to me that my characters aren't flat and one-dimensional. I want my hero and heroine to be 3-D, in vivid, out loud Technicolor---without the benefit of 3-D glasses. I want them to POP without that aid. If I do my job right, they will.

Some insight I gained at a recent writer's retreat: if you know your characters, you know what motivates them, you know their goals. I knew this, but but the reminder came at a good time. Desire feeds motivation--what don't the characters have that they want? Desire arises out of passion and evokes more emotion and is bigger than a goal. Last but not least, conflict is what drives the characters to do what they do. In order for conflict to be visible, it needs to be spelled out and resolvable.

So, back to the WIP to strengthen these aspects. It's a good thing the end product leaves the reader no clue as to how or in what order the story was built.

Happy Writing!

Writing only leads to more writing. ~Sidonie Gabrielle

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. ~Vladimir Nabakov

Observations From This Side of the New Year

Well then.

All plans to work on a specific WIP---the trilogy series I started to write, um, last year (okay, at the END of last year, so it's not been that long since I started. LOL.) have gone by the wayside. Why? Well, because the Fickle Muse, being in an obviously fickle and playful mood, said, "Gee, it's the holiday season, why not do THIS, instead?"

And so I did.

And the Muse said, "Eh. You're doing it wrong. Fix it."

So I fixed it by starting over again.

Then the New Year happened, and thinking I'd get to work on the WIP of my choice, I geared up.

The Muse said, "Nope, you're still doing that one wrong, fix it right, then you can work on the one you want."

There are those who would say, "Control your Muse. Who's in charge here? You or this invisible, not real being?"

Um.

Gee.

Yes, my Muse is real and she resents being called imaginary. Obviously, she's in charge.

One thing I've learned along the way about writers is that not a single one of us does it the same way. Such is the nature of creativity. Give 5 writers the same prompt, and you'll get 5 different results. It's glorious! Magnificent the way we think, and what comes out that manner in which we think. So, while I'm Not Best Pleased with The Fickle One at the moment, I'm not about to complain. I'm writing something and that's all that matters. It absolutely counts on my 2011 Goal to WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!

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Another wish I have for 2011, and I think, given recent events, that I'm wishing in vain, is for peace.

I wish we, as a nation, could focus on our similarities, that which we have in common, find our pride to be Americans again, rather than focusing on our differences, what we hate about how the "Liberal Lunatics" or "Conservative Drones" think and how they are wrong.

The state of our nation can't be blamed entirely on the Democrats, the Republicans, President Obama, President GW Bush, the Tea Partiers, Sarah Palin, Glen Beck or the extra-terrestrial aliens that may be living among us. (That last one isn't really a serious contender, which I'm sure most everyone will get, I threw that one in for effect, so hopefully we can see how ridiculously out of hand it's gotten, this nifty Blame Game.) Our anger about this mess our country is in isn't solving a damned thing! HELLO? Our anger just KILLED six people, six innocent people, in Arizona, wounded a Congresswoman grievously.

Getting angry isn't solving a single gosh darn thing. It's only fueling the flames for the unstable in our midst.

I don't believe it's possible or wise to point fingers at the liberals or Palin/Beck-eseque conservatives for this tragedy. This is a very troubled young man whom, as far as I can tell, didn't fit either the liberal or tea party/conservative mold. To insist the blame must lay with one or the other entirely is incorrect. We ALL, whether we're a "Liberal Lunatic" or a "Tea Party Lunatic" have contributed to this tragedy. We've forgotten how to hold a respectful, sane discourse. Our thinking has changed: "You disagree with me? You're a lunatic, obviously, of some ilk, and EVERYONE with a brain knows it's the fault of Palin/Beck/Liberal Loonies." Step up and take responsibility. Rein in the anger, take a deep breath and remember that we all have one thing in common whether our politics agree: We are Americans and this is NOT acceptable behavior in our country. Sadly, I think we'll see more and more of it unless we learn to see past our differences and focus on what we have in common.

That said, I would like to say I was horrified to read in one of the many articles about Congresswoman Giffords' shooting that on one of Sarah Palin's websites, there was a map of sorts posted, with certain areas marked in gun sights. One of these sights? Congresswoman Giffords'. You do that kind of shit (yes, I said the 's' word on my blog because that's what it is) in SCHOOL and you get yourself suspended if not expelled! Am certainly NOT pointing a finger at Mrs. Palin and saying this Arizona tragedy is all her fault, I'm just sayin' that she didn't help it be avoided. None of us did.

The answer isn't violence. The answer isn't anger. The answer isn't a temper tantrum because, golly gee whiz, (fill in the blank) passed in Congress, and we don't like it.

We need to heal our own family/friend breaches. Forgive, move on or the bitterness and poison takes over and spreads. We all have things in our personal lives that we need healing time for---divorces, job losses, foreclosures... We need to forgive the dog for being a dog and move on--- it needs to go onward to the next level beyond family/friends. It needs to encompass our neighbors, our neighborhoods, our towns, cities, counties, states, region until it's nationwide. Ripples.

Let peace be the answer. Let adult discourse be the answer. Let positive things be the answer. Let sanity be the answer.

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So, from this side of the advent of the New Year, there are positives---personal ones, and, regrettably, negatives. I hope with all my heart and soul that this negative is NOT an indication of things to come. I hope that it is the beginning of a change here in the United States of America---that we, despite which side of the aisle we'd sit in should we all be Congressmen/women---can work together in a spirit of positive, adult cooperation for the betterment of our nation. Because clearly at this moment, none of us have a clue what's best because we're all convinced our personal views are The Only Right Ones. I suspect the answer to what's best lays on both sides and darn it, we're going to have to communicate like adults in order to find what it is. I have hope. May be naive and unrealistic, but hope is what's indicated in these troubled times.


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Ringing in a Wonderful 2011

It's finally here. The end of 2010. Like with 2009, I'm thrilled and relieved to see the tail end of this year. And as when I sat here at this time last year, I looked to the advent of the New Year with hope for the promise of happiness and harmony it could hold. Unlike the tail end of '09, however, I am determined to not just fondly wish for a good year in 2011, I'm actively going after the joy, goodness, and everything positive rather than waiting for it to just spontaneously happen to me and mine. The negative can go jump off a cliff, I'm over it.

To that end, I googled "quotes about happiness" to glean what I could from the wisdom of others, delighted to find support for my 2011 mindset.

"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."
~Martha Washington

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.”
~Frederick Keonig

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." ~Franklin Roosevelt

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."
~Aristotle

"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking."
~Marcus Aurelius Antoninus


"The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."
~Allan K. Chalmers

Many make resolutions for the New Year. I've tried, to little success as life just has a way of taking one down a rabbit trail. I have goals, yes indeed: that my family be healthy, happy, successful, loved and loving; that we survive another year without major mishaps or accidents, etc; that we accentuate the positive and if not eliminate the negative, then ignore it; write, write, write. Yep. Goals, rather than resolutions. With the fresh promise of a baby New Year, I'm quite hopeful we'll be able to strive and achieve many of those goals, ideally, all of them. Hope springs eternal, as well it should. Without hope what do we have? Without the ability to share hope, as well, what are we left with besides our miseries? Misery isn't what we need to be hunting, for it breeds and encroaches and is hard to eradicate.

The hunt is on for 2011...I'm hunting wascally Goals...with a determination to succeed at each of them with humor, aplomb, a modicum of dignity, and fewer regrets. It's gonna be a fresh New Year starting TOMORROW! Ah...the possibilities are legion.



TEN SPIRITUAL TONICS

1. Stop worrying. Worry kills life.
2. Begin each day with a prayer. It will arm your soul.
3. Control appetite. Over-indulgence clogs body and mind.
4. Accept your limitations . . .
5. Don't envy. It wastes time and energy.
6. Have faith in people. Cynicism sours the disposition.
7. Find a hobby. It will relax your nerves.
8. Read a book a week to stimulate imagination and broaden your views.
9. Spend some time alone for the peace of solitude and silence.
10. Try to want what you have, instead of spending your strength trying to get what you want.

~Abraham L. Feinberg


May your 2011 be filled with hope, happiness, health, humor, success, love, light, and laughter.