Where Do You Write?

Over the years my Where has changed many times. At first I didn't have a designated area for my desk, then I did. Even with a designated area I often found that a change of scenery could loosen writer's block and set the words flowing again.

So I guess I'll never be monogomous with my Where.

Others of you may need the comfort of a specific chair facing a certain wall/window/photo/etc in order to slip into writing mode.

It's all good. Remember from yesterday, the important part is that you WRITE.

I've written in doctor's offices, car pool lines, at church, at my kid's recitals (while waiting for it to start!), in the car on long trips, by the pool, on my back porch, sitting at the couch/kitchen table/desk, in my closet in the middle of the night and laying in bed. There were probably a few other places, but you get the idea.

Tell us, WHERE do you prefer to write?

When Do You Write?

When you write can make a difference to the quality of writing. I'm learning this the hard way. You may have to try several plans before you find the right fit. However, the important part is that you write.

 

You have to make the time to write. If you don’t, the writing won’t happen.

• No one is going to come to you and say, “Let me clean your house today and do your grocery shopping so you can write.”
• If you don’t say, “This is my writing time” and turn off the phone and internet, and lock yourself away from your family, TV, whatever it is that distracts you—you will continue to be interrupted and the writing will suffer.
• Fifteen to twenty minutes here and there is better than nothing, but if you’re like me, you need at least that long to remember where you left off and where you’re heading. For this reason, I prefer to get at least an hour block, but two is my goal.
• Be willing to sacrifice for your writing. Get up an hour earlier, skip that sitcom or crime show and write at night, whatever it takes.

Here are my questions for you today...

When do YOU write? What kind of environment do you prefer for writing? Music? Chocolate? Peace and Quiet?

Why Do You Write?

This is a complex question. And the answer may/will change over the course of your writing career. You may also have several reasons for writing all at the same time. The point is to really think about it and figure out the main reasons you write because it will help you keep writing if you can understand your motivation.

Yeah, it's like that. Lot's of people start writing, but not all of them actually finish and move on to publication. Those who continue on the journey have a lot of things pushing them forward--motivation, ambition, passion, determination, etc. All of those things come to you when you have a clear goal in mind and you really KNOW why you want to reach that goal. You could argue that the ambition and passion direct you toward your goal.

Let's make a list of reasons why you write. Everyone chime in!

 

Reasons We Write:

To understand myself better
To share a good story
To help someone forget their troubles
To clear out the voices in my head--aka to get some sleep ;)
To teach
To preach
To make people think
To shock
To discover how the story ends or begins (the backstory)
To help me face my problems
To help the characters solve their problems
To keep from going insane!
To express myself
Because I can't NOT write
It's my passion

Motivation Week Kick-off! Who and What?

This week I thought we could talk about the things that keep us writing. The goal is to help you ask yourself some questions about why you write, what you want to accomplish and how you are going to do that. We'll touch on who, when and where along the way.

Today is easy.

What?

Writing, that's what. Feeling things in your heart, seeing things in your mind, meeting characters and visiting new worlds and then trying to put all of that into words on a page.

 

That's what.

 

Not always as easy as we hope, but always rewarding when we put in the time and effort. Worth it when someone reads a snippet and says, "Is there more?? I need to read more of this!"

 

The second What question will have a different answer for almost each and every one of us.

 

What do you write?

 

Answer for us in the comments! All of us at UB would love to hear from some of you more quiet lurkers. We have big things coming up this fall and we need to know what you write so we can tailor it to fit YOU!



Who?

Well, you of course!

 

If you are here, then you have an interest in writing. All of us have different reasons for writing, different approaches and different goals, but we'll save those for another day. But YOU are a writer. You are WHO is going to accomplish great things, share wonderful stories, make people laugh and cry over your characters.

 

Do it!
Know it!
Believe it!

And when people feel your mind with doubts, sing this song at the top of your lungs.

 

Characters: the grass roots

Where does a character begin? Sometimes they arrive in a nearly complete package (more on that later) but usually I build mine slowly. Major characters are closely tied to the plot of the story, so when I have an idea for a plot my first question is:

What kind of person does that?
It could be in connection to the plot: what kind of person breaks into prison to rescue their cousin? Sometimes I see that vital choice or change the character must make: why is it so hard for him to let her go? Or it could refer to the character's line of work: what kind of person makes a good prince?

I talk about listening to your gut a lot; this is one of those places where I'm going to tell you to listen to your gut and work with whatever it gives you. Maybe it's something that seems dull or trite, on the surface -- ask your gut what's really going on underneath that dull, trite surface. Maybe you get a dark and scary answer that doesn't seem like it would fit your story. Or does it...?

Then comes my favorite part of the "Who does this kind of thing?" question: research. I love psychology, sociology, neurophysiology, all the sciences of who we are and why we do things. If your character's dealing with something you've never experienced -- such as child abuse, I hope -- then do your homework. Don't rely on what you've seen in movies, on TV, or in fiction.

What happens next, once you have a handful of ideas about a character, depends on what's important to you. Some people want to establish their characters' appearance first. Some people want backstory. Personally, I want to know how and why they act.

Action is character
Think of this as a variation on the "show, don't tell" advice we've all heard. I picked it up from the screenwriting world, where they don't have introspection and narrative to tell the audience about their characters.

Personality and action are closely linked: some people are careful planners, some charge in where angels fear to tread. Underneath this are questions like why does he do that, is this going to be a problem, and how is this useful in doing what needs to be done. All of which tie back into the story's plot.

Answering these will also tell you something about your character's backstory. He's self-destructive because of his miserable childhood. She's naturally shy, and it's been holding her back. World-building will come into play: he's self-destructive but as a knight that comes across as ballsy and admirable. People take advantage of her shyness because she's just a peasant girl.

Myers-Briggs personality types
I've mentioned them before, over at my blog. Myers-Briggs personality types and the sorting quizzes can be helpful in understanding your characters. The descriptions tend to be vague, but they provide realistic clusters of traits that can be a starting point for a character.

I mention them now because they can be a useful short cut -- but I'm also going to caution against using short cuts, especially on main characters. MB types can be quite useful in fine-tuning character behavior farther down the line, especially if your characters are very different from you. It's my opinion, though, that your gut knows what people are like (based on a lifetime of careful observation) and your gut's opinions should take priority over a generic psychological write-up.

One more note: MB quizzes also an interesting test of how well developed your character is. Can you take the sorting quiz for them, answering as they would answer? Do they come up as a different type from you?

Questions about the School's In Query Contest

I only received one question through email, so if you have any questions, please ask now and we will answer them.

Question 1:
I'm going to sound like a complete neophyte, but... here goes: I have a couple completed (second draft) manuscripts that I'd like to get into someone's hands... but I have no CLUE how to write a query letter. What do I need to do? Is this contest for me?

My Answer:
YES! This is for you. The first two weeks are going to teach you how to write a query and give you the opportunity to get feedback and fine tune it before our editors read them. It's sort of a mini workshop, stretched out over two weeks. The best part is it's free, so check in every day and go for it!

_____________

Just remember, everything you can learn from feedback will only make you stronger. A year and a half ago I queried a small publisher who turned me down, but the short paragraph of advice they gave me really pushed my writing forward.

During the first week of "School" we'll be posting multiple times a day, spread out over the course of the day--sort of like a mini online conference:

• The Purpose of a Query and How to Write One
• Stalking/Researching Agents and Editors
• Formatting Paper and E-queries
• Submission Guidelines are Your Friend
• Great Places to Read and Get Feedback on Queries
• Sprinkle in some horrible queries showcasing everything you can do wrong, written by us here at UB just for fun
• Short interviews with our guest judges introducing them and their company.

We may even have another surprise up our sleeves, but since I just thought of it I need to confer with my comrades. :)

How do your characters stay motivated?

Now that we are freshly motivated to keep writing no matter what, let's talk about character motivations. And I'm not talking about the surface "they are running because they don't want to get shot, or eaten, or whatever". I'm talking about the deep running things that made them who they are.

We act certain ways because of, wait for it...back story. Yeah. Things like:

• How we were raised
• Our parents philosophy on discipline
• Whether or not we had two parents
• What kind of education we had
• How many friends and what sort of friends we had
• Did we see/experience death at an early age
• Did we have to kill someone to protect ourselves or a loved one
• Were we abused
• Did we abuse
• Did we have a pet
• Or not

You can keep listing all kinds of random things, but I think you get the idea. What happened in your character's past helped form their world view and their personality. They have a standard way of reacting to certain stimuli.

The trick as writers is that we must understand all that backstory and the nuances it created in our character without laying it all out for the reader. A well placed line here and there can fulfill the need to understand motivation without writing a complete flashback.

The second trick is keeping it consistent. This isn't to say your character can NEVER do anything abnormal. But if they do, there needs to be a good motivation behind it.

Q4U:
When your characters lie awake at night, what's missing?*


My answer for Talia from The Magic Wakes: peace and hope

Fascinating Linkage:
What's My Motivation--from one of my favorite author bloggers Janice Hardy. Enough said.
*Determining Character Motivation--by Elana Johnson who quotes Glee: "When you lie awake at night, what's missing?"
The Principles of Character Motivation from Writer's Digest. Sort of a teaser to get you to buy a book. I'm considering it. :)
On Character Motivation--what hooked me to this post is the first sentence: "It has occurred to me that while writing, one of the best things a writer can do is question every action from every character."
Understanding Why Characters Act-- A nice step by step break down of some character motivation from a movie.
The Psychology of Character--"A good writer needs to know both cause and effect, needs to understand that there is impetus behind the actions of his characters. When the writer knows a character’s motivations, she can write actions that make sense for that character in a specific situation."

Mid-summer Motivation for Monday

It's so easy to make excuses or allow little dark clouds to hang over our heads, but we don't have to let any of it stop us in our tracks.

The following three items are my notes from a class I attended way back in 2010. It wasn't about writing, but at the time I equated EVERYTHING I heard to what it meant for me as a writer.

1. Did you know that 2/3 of our thoughts during the day are negative. (The speaker said it has been scientifically proven, but I don't have a reference for that, so believe it or not as you see fit.) Why is that? (We discussed...) Then he said, "Negative thoughts are like a hole in our confidence bucket."

How many times do we knock ourselves down with negative thoughts or comments about our writing abilities? Each thought depletes our confidence by another drop. Every time we give ourselves credit for trying to improve, spend time revising, recognize a sentence that comes out just right, we begin to refill that confidence bucket.

2. "At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." Albert Schweitzer.  

When he read this quote, I thought of all my blogger friends. Thank you for sharing your spark with me. Many times when I've been down I've read someone's blog and felt lifted and ready to plug along my journey a little longer. 

So, THANK YOU for sharing and being you. No one can replace or fill the spot you fill in this world.

3.  "If you think you can do a thing, or think you can't do a thing, you're right." Henry Ford.

Wow, think about how true that is.

He also quoted Yoda from the Empire Strikes Back. At one point in Luke's training he tried to raise his X-wing from the swamp and failed. Yoda then lifts it and sets it on solid ground with ease. Luke complains that it is impossible and Yoda replies, "That is why you failed."


Now, I'm not going to point out the obvious connection between these three things and our goals as writers. I simply want you to think about how they apply to you personally.

Are you depleting your confidence with negative thinking? 

Are you failing to reach your goals because you secretly think it is impossible?

What are you going to do to get back on track?

What About Blogfests?

Bloghops infest thrive in our blogosphere. We sign up via Linky tools, wait for the day and post according to the theme du jour.

Then visit other blogs. Follow. Comment.

Of what value are they?

Blogfests increase traffic, viewership, and expands our knowledge. Some of my best buds came about in this way.

It’s a chance to do a meet ‘n greet with our fellow ‘net cruisers. In my case preferably writers.

But is it worth it?

I want to post articles that are of interest to our followers. I want to provide a service. But I also want to keep on track with my original goal; 

Writing.

So, why participate in bloghops/fests?

At this time, I am of two minds. The events are fun and whimsical. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy them and meeting new people. But it can be downright taxing. 


I am still recovering from the April 2012 A to Z Challenge.

Cutting to the chase, when I did A to Z, I quit writing. My word count for the entire month of April went to 500 words. Not day, not a week, but my total for the Whole Month.

It blew my previous writing schedule into tiny bits of wind-blown confetti.

My posts were simple for the blogfest. I almost felt guilty as I composed them since most of them were fewer than 80 words. But visiting other blogs, commenting, checking out my best friends and followers, reading their posts, and cheering them on, it all took time that I did not have.

Did I say that I quit writing? Stopped. Abandoned. Deserted.

It's difficult to get back into my routine. Only now is it returning to the way it was. I have my notes and research and will eventually climb back onto that snorty horse. But, dang, will I do another blogfest soon?

*negative*

I feel as though I’ve lost something very important. 

Finding it again means remembering exactly why I wanted it in the first place.

What about you? Was A to Z a problem for you also?