WordFlix

Make your own success

By HD Silversmith

"No one's gonna drag you up into the light where you belong."

- Source unknown

I came home from work feeling anxious about a possible choice one of my colleagues may make regarding her own career and position. Nothing's certain yet.  Why was I anxious?  Because of the impact that it might have on me, not her!

(Hello, I am five years old.)

To my credit, my first reaction to the information she'd shared with me was not from a self-obsessed place. My initial thoughts were those of a friend, and I shared them with her because I truly want her to make the best choice for herself, her family, her career, and her own satisfaction.  I really do, so whatever her choice turns out to be, I"ll support it and her in any way I can.

A few minutes later, however, I went from Supportive Friend to Frightened Newbie. It occurred to me that if Choice X is made, then my colleague will not be available to provide the specific kind of institutional support that I feel I may need to see me through the tenure process successfully next year.

Mind you, there's no question that my colleague can and will continue to support me through that process. But she might be doing it from a position that would exert a different kind of pull -- and perhaps not the kind I feel I may need where I need it.

And that's when my anxiety kicked in.

But then, after living with the anxiety for a couple of hours and feeling a little panicky, I had an epiphany. My anxiety was linked to my over-dependence on a single figure who may or may not be in a position to act.  But that's messed up.  I need to rely on myself, trust in myself, and find my own solutions.  That's the only way that my anxiety will truly dissipate.  I need to become professionally self-reliant, self-sustaining.

No one is going to get tenure for me.  I'm going to get it for myself!  I create the record for which tenure is be granted. Colleagues' support is very important, but I will get tenure because I will have earned it! One way or another, I'm going to make it extremely difficult for powers that be not to tenure me, and I'm going to do it on the strength of my record!

(I knew these things last summer.  How did I lose track of them this fall? Probably through a teaching load of 300+ students and lots of stress and fatigue that's worn me down.)

Bottom line:  I am creating my own success. No excuses (including fear), no reliance on others to cover for me if I don't perform well.  Yes, I will gratefully accept the assistance of  colleagues who want to support me, but I want to make it easy for them to do so.  I don't want them to have to make a case for me, because I want to have made the best case possible for myself.

And at this point? That means writing.

So, as a concrete step toward regaining the sense of empowerment I felt during the summer when I was actively writing, I'm going to come up with a writing schedule  for December and January that will result in two concrete writing deliverables. When I've finalized the schedule (in the next few days), I'll post it here.

NaNoWriMo may be over as of midnight on November 30, but regular, daily writing isn't!

Sometimes I just have to take back the power that I myself am guilty of giving away.

Often circumstances, mindset, or both make it a real challenge to stay connected to (or try to reconnect with!) a belief in your ability to shape your life -- as a writer or as a particular kind of person you want to be. 

What kinds of actions, rituals, or tools --  however small -- help you (re)connect?

Create writing deadlines for yourself

By HD Silversmith

Professional writer Nina Amir, a seasoned journalist, nonfiction editor, author, consultant, and writing coach, has some excellent advice about how (and why) to work with writing deadlines.

Deadlines terrify me -- but as I've discovered more and more often in the last six or seven months, they also really work and increase my productivity. 

With the exception of NaNoWriMo, targeting word counts, per se, hasn't been so helpful for me, as I'm a slow writer. However, chunking the work, making progress on multiple projects, and reevaluating progress and tweaking the plan accordingly absolutely do.

Check out Amir's tips:

1. Chunk tasks down so you have smaller deadlines within your larger deadline.
2. Use a calendar to keep track of your progress.
3. If you have a word count to meet, figure out how many words you must write per day.
4. Set up interviews early in the deadline period; email or call interviewees and let them know specifically your deadline–then give them their deadline, so they know that if they don’t meet their deadline they affect your deadline.
5. Finish your piece of writing at least two days prior to the deadline to allow time to edit; this gives you ample time to get “distance” from the piece for a few hours or a day between editing phases. It also allows time to get additional or missing  information for articles.
6. Re-evaluate your progress half way through the deadline period, so you can make adjustments to how you are handling the project. Assess if you must speed up your work schedule.
7. As soon as you compete one deadline, begin work on the next. If you have more than one writing deadline at any given time, divvy up your day to work on each project for a certain number or hours per day. Evaluate where you are on each project at the end of each day to assess if you are  moving towards each deadline at an appropriate speed. You might need to table one project for a day to catch up on another. You also can work on one project per day, if you find that easier.
8. If you get behind, take a day (or a weekend) to catch up.
9. Try, if possible to get ahead and finish early. This allows you to turn in work early to editors (who really appreciate this).
10. Don’t ever miss a publication deadline (at least not if you want to write for that publication again).

via writenonfictioninnovember.wordpress.com

All That Fairy Tale Nonsense

One of the many criticisms levelled at romance novels is that they’re a poor model for women when it comes to real-life relationships. All that fairy tale nonsense, detractors say, will make women want the wrong things from their partners. I could list a dozen things wrong with that assumption, but I’ll limit myself to three.

via www.theculturalgutter.com

By HD Silversmith

Spot-on post by Chris Szego about the romance genre and fairy tales.

Given my recent NaNoWriMo endeavor, this piece hit home.

Nearing the NaNoWriMo finish line

By HD Silversmith

 So here's the deal at Day 27 of NaNoWriMo: my word count is fine, I will cross the finish line, but the so-called plot elements in the remaining chapters I have to write will be sketchy at best.

In fact, my plot as a whole is sketchy.  Simple as it is, you could drive trucks through the gaps in it. I knew going into this that plot is not my strong suit (um, I generally write nonfiction, not fiction, though I prefer to read fiction), and NaNoWriMo has absolutely confirmed this for me. This year, because I'd never done NaNoWriMo before, I chose genre fiction (series or category romance) and then adapted a well-known fairy tale ("Beauty and the Beast") to its formula. I figured there would be a bare-bones plot already present for me to develop.  Well, yeah. Emphasis on bare bones, though.  And those bones are still pretty bare, I gotta say.

It's something I think I could work on.  In fact, for next year's NaNoWriMo (because, yes, I think I'll do this again), that will be a focus for me.

And dialogue.  I need to work on dialogue.  What I have works well within the genre of category romance, but it's not what you could call "realistic" or "natural."  I'm considering doing Script Frenzy (the screen- or play-writing offshoot of NaNoWriMo) in April 2010 so that I can work on this as well. I'm going to have to make that decision later, however because, like November, April tends to be a really busy month in the semester calendar.  I may or may not have time.

But on the recommendation of a screenwriting colleague, I've rdered two key books on the topic of screenwriting.  Learn by reading, learn by doing.

And I've also ordered my NaNoWriMo 2009's winner's t-shirt -- as incentive (rather than reward) to finish The Master Gardener.  So I'd best get to it.

Happy NaNoWriMo Thanksgiving

By HD Silversmith

Good heavens, today (and the rest of the month, for that matter) will be something of a challenge! I need to juggle Thanksgiving -- one of my favorite holidays -- with the demands of upping my word count and moving my novel forward at an appropriate pace to finish NaNoWriMo by 11:59 p.m. on November 30.

Fortunately, my husband and I are staying put this year, along with the kitties.  We're going no where and we're not having guests to dinner (I went into lock-down mode this month:  between NaNoWriMo and craziness at work, I had no energy or time to focus on anything else). So it's a quiet holiday for us this year, and that means I can get several hours of writing in today, tucked in around food preparation -- and consumption, of course.

Because I am going to be preparing basic traditional Thanksgiving meal for us.  It was either that or go out, and frankly I wanted the homey smells of cooking, the sense of invisible community with women (and yes, some men, too) across the country who will be making many of the same dishes. That time for food preparation is also a time in which I generally reflect upon how much I have to be thankful for -- at least, when it's a quiet Thanksgiving like this year's and I'm not running around freaking out about the timing of various foods and company arriving and dynamics among guests and all the restof it.

And I wanted leftovers for late-night turkey sandwiches!  That's the best part.

I'm planning three writing sessions, minimum, today: two hours this morning, two in the afternoon as the food cooks, and two this evening.   Because actually?  I want to finish and upload my NaNoWriMo novel by the time I go to bed on Sunday, November 29. So that will mean some serious word production in the next few days. 

That's my goal.  If I don't meet it, there's still November 30 itself as a cushion, but I think letting things go that far will just freak me out. Plus November 30 turns out not to be a furlough day for me after all (it was going to be, but it's not, and oh well about that).

So ... onward?  Let the first writing session of the day begin!

NaNoWriMo - Day 24: slash the outline

By HD Silversmith

So here's the deal. It's Day 24 of NaNoWriMo and that means there's less than a week left to finish a 50,000-word novel.

This mad, forward movement of the calendar dawned on me last night as I looked not simply at the daily word count that I had to hit to stay on track (I'm fine there) but at the actual squares marking off the dates

Oh.My.God.  One week left.  (And, as I said, that was last night. But now it's today. And that means we now have less than a week.)

So, with my heart in my mouth, I checked out the chapter/scene breakdown that I'd come up with in October. It was clear that  I had some slashing-and-burning of that breakdown to do if I wanted to emerge from November victorious (read: with a however-terrible draft of a 50,000 word completed novel). Because while I'm keeping up with my word count, I'm falling a bit behind in story progress.

Now, mine is not a plot-driven work. It's a category romance based on the "Beauty and the Beast" tale, and so it's not particularly event-centered. (And that, of course, is also one of its many weaknesses: uh, could there be a little more action in my NaNoWriMo novel, please?) This means that it's relatively easy to cut projected scenes and plan to fold in the emotional and/or sexual material of them into fewer scenes.

Which I did forthwith.

But suffice it to say that the slashing has still done some damage to what's passed for a plot, and now I don't quite know how I'm going to wrap up the novel.

But I guess that's one of the classic challenges of NaNoWriMo: things morph as you move along, and you either give yourself over to that challenge or you don't finish.

I'm going to finish. But it's going to be a kind of wild ride along the way.

If you're part of the NaNoWriMo madness this year, what are your goals, and how are you feeling about where you're at?

Nano Tip #17: Make Writing a Habit

via scottwesterfeld.com

I’m saying that the overall writing experience should become habitual—your brain and body should know when it’s writing time, and must be taught that writing time is sacred.

To understand what I mean, try this for a month:

1) Write at the same time every day.

2) Keep your physical cycles around that time consistent: sleep, meals, coffee, etc.

3) Write in the same chair.

4) Utilize the same protocols for every session (E.g., check email for 15 minutes, then WRITE! Or do twenty push-ups, then WRITE!)

By HD Silversmith

Amen, brother.

So much of being a writer is about developing a routine and habits that make you productive.  Not brilliant, not the most talented writer in the world, but competent, productive, and successful.

And here's to keeping these habits after NaNoWriMo is over.

NaNoWriMo merit badges

By HD Silversmith

1. Secret Noveling
2. Procrastination
3. NaNo Socializing
4. Victory!
5. Creative Nonfiction
6. Eureka Moment
7. Random Ending
8. Word Padding
9. Rally
10. Caffeine Abuse

As of last night, I've earned seven (i.e., those that are italicized) out of the 10 badges.

I'm going to earn the last three by the end of the month.  Oh yes I am!

The "No Mercy, No Excuses" Tough Love Thread. No kindness enclosed. You've been warned. | National Novel Writing Month

Circumstances arise where you can't finish Nano. That's understandable. This is not the thread to recount them. This thread is for those of you who know you CAN do this, but for whatever reason you haven't been, and you need your excuses taken away and to be told to SUCK IT UP, SOLDIER! This here's WAR!

via www.nanowrimo.org

By HD Silversmith

See, I shouldn't be blogging right now.  I should be writing NaNoWriMo.  And I am, but I took a break for a moment to check the NaNoWriMo forums.

Some folks have already crossed the 50,000 word mark, and I have no idea how the hell they've done that.  I'd say they have no lives or they don't work or something, but in fact any number of them have and do.  

They amaze me.

As for me, right now, I'm both writing and inserting place-holder text for sections that I'll need to go back and rewrite later if I ever want to do something with this Incredible Piece of Shit.

I mean, with my novel.

(Sorry, that was my Inner Editor who spoke up there for a moment, and she's banished for the month.)

Back to channeling what feels like cosmic gibberish.  (And that's a generous description of what I'm doing.)

Flow to Done: Tap Into Your Creative Source

via writetodone.com

By HD Silversmith

I'm running nearly on empty here just about two thirds of the way through November -- and thus NaNoWriMo.  Everett Bogue's words over at WritetoDone are thus that much more helpful to me right now.

Just get it down and get it done.  Don't try to get it right the first time through because that's not how good writing works.

I'll try to remember that today as I attempt to meet my daily word count. The rest of November ain't gonna be pretty.