writing

No More Excuses!

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

Okay. So, a dream of mine is owning a “writing” cabin. A place where I can go to be alone, without distractions, and just write.

A fellow writer recently announced that she and her husband just purchased, and have already moved to, just such a place. I am so excited for her!

But, for myself, I am not quite able to do that just yet.

So what is a writer to do?

Well, my husband rented us a home for two weeks on the Washington coast—high on a bluff, overlooking the ocean—a dream of mine come true.

I will write. He will fish with his buddies. Life doesn’t get much better than that!

But, let’s bring this discussion back into perspective. Crank it down a notch or two.

The point is this: writers need a place to write, set apart from the noise and activity that abounds at home. If you can afford to buy a cabin—wonderful! If you can rent one for a short period and immerse yourself in writing—fantastic.

If neither of these is plausible, at this point, just opt for a bedroom you can convert into an office, or a separate bedroom with a desk—and a lock on the door…someplace with relative peace and quiet that you can utilize to separate yourself from daily life…a place where you can immerse yourself into the “world” you are creating in your book…a place where your characters come alive and speak to you…a place where you can thrive as an author.

If these aren’t options for you, then consider blocks of time when your family is not at home and you can write without annoying distractions…a time when the house is quiet and you can write—type—pace—talk out loud—whatever you need to do to move forward with your writing.

You may have to schedule available time by enrolling your children in sports or a Parks and Recreation class, etc. It may require a monetary, as well as a time, commitment.

I have a friend who finds Starbucks a great place to write…

But, listen, in all seriousness, doesn’t everything that is important, require a sacrifice of some sort?

So, no more excuses not to write.

Be creative. Find what works best for you. Take a trip to your favorite office supply store and buy what you need and then get back home and get to it.

No more saying, “I don’t have time to write.”

No more saying, “I don’t have a place to write.”

No more excuses.

M-O-S-Q-U-I-T-O-E-S

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

I don’t know where they came from, or how they got inside my house, but I have a couple of pesky mosquitoes that have taken up residence in my home office. They may not have planned it that way, but I think they stay around because they see a free meal…

The first day they showed up, uninvited and unannounced, I got eaten up, badly. Within an hour, I had huge welts on my legs, arms, neck, and hands. It wasn’t just exposed skin they were going for, as I recall from past experience, these mosquitos also bit me through my shirt!

The fact was, I needed to work at my computer. It was in my office. And, so were the intruders.

I needed a plan. I needed to be proactive.

I tried the fly-swatter method. They seemed to know I was armed and waiting, so they laid low. It was only after I put the swatter down and started working that they ventured out, again.

If I wanted to get any work done, I had play defense: Type. Swat. Type. Swat.

Finally, I  went down to the corner drugstore and bought insect repellent. I sprayed the air, the carpet, my clothing, and doused all exposed skin.

Finally, I was successful. I repeated this every four hours, making it possible for me to get my work done every day this week.

Proactive. That’s the name of the game.

The same goes for writing. I have found I have to get proactive. I have a writing plan and as long as I stick to it, I can get a lot accomplished.

If  something or someone comes around to disrupt me, like say a phone call from a friend, I end up not being very productive—if I don’t follow the plan I put in place way back in January (no answering the phone or emails between 9:00 a.m. and 3 p.m. each day). And, that hurts.

I have to be proactive: answer emails, start the laundry, straighten up the house—BEFORE 9 a.m. If I do that, the next six hours are productive. If I don’t take charge of my writing life, there are always little mosquitos that buzz around with only one goal in mind: to suck the hours of productivity right out of me!

M-  Mom and Dad (they are older, now, and I need to check on them every day).

O-  opening emails and physical mail.

S-  snacking (the refrigerator and pantry are just a few feet away).

Q-  quiet (every little noise can be a distraction).

U-  up and down (the dog wants out, I need to stretch, change to laundry from the washer to 

      the dryer…)

I-  ideas that pop into my head at the most inopportune times, distracting me from the work at

    hand.

T-  telephone (a temptation to answer every time it rings…I put it on silent mode).

O-  opportunities (little things that seem to come up every day; seemingly “good” ideas, but 

      really nothing more than distractions in disguise.)

E- energy—lack thereof.

S-  social media. Need I say more????

How do you handle the “mosquitoes” in your life?

Fashionably Late

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

And there’s more…

Repetitious words.  Overuse of exclamation points.

Now another problem needed to be solved—and here is why time spent in planning before writing can be invaluable:

I found that the last line of one of my chapters said something to the effect that “Snow began to fall.” However, it was raining in the next chapter. Big trouble. I had to do a lot of rewriting to those two chapters to make sure the weather was identical.

This will be the same for your writing. If it is snowing in chapter four, then it had better be snowing in the following chapter (that is, of course, if your next chapter follows the first one, consecutively).

If your character is wearing a T-shirt and shorts, then the next paragraph cannot have him shrugging off his coat.

You can save yourself a lot of work if you will plan these things out– down to the minutest detail before you write because it’s not as easy to fix as you might think.

It won’t be just a matter of substituting one word (rain) for the other (snow). No, what about the characters’ physical and emotional reactions to the weather (He shivered…) or the fact that they probably wouldn’t be playing tennis in the snow?

I found it to be, quite literally, a house of cards. Maybe Dominoes resting on each other would be a more accurate description. Just one tiny push—one small mistake—and it all comes tumbling down…

While we are ever-so-briefly touching on planning, I suggest that you keep a chart of some kind with the character’s name, followed by their physical description, age, eye color, etc. Nothing is more disconcerting to a reader than to find the character’s eye and hair color are constantly changing.

I guess what I am saying is that, as writers, we need to be at the top of our game. It is embarrassing to look at a proof and see gigantic mistakes staring right back at you. (I literally hit my forehead with the heel of my hand and said, “Duh!)

If you have to slow down and miss a deadline, then so be it. Better to be late than produce a book riddled with mistakes.

You may think, “I’ll just leave these things to my editor to sort out and clean up for me.”

That would be a big—and foolish mistake. I had my book edited twice and I still found mistakes on the twelfth read through!

That’s right. I had competent editors, about eight months apart, go through my manuscript. Still, content mistakes were found as I read through them later.  Part of the reason, I think, is that they don’t—and will never—know the story like I do. Or, maybe they just get caught up in the story. I’m really not sure.

But, the point is this: Ultimately, it is your book. The buck stops with you.

So, be diligent. Be a perfectionist. Make it the best it can be.

Even if, like me, you end up being fashionably late.

The Problem With Repetition

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

Continuing on from my last post…

Another thing I realized as I scanned my manuscript was that I had used a lot of exclamation points in my writing. (I must really think my writing is exciting!!!!!!!!!)

With most things, the more you do them, say them, express them, the less effective they become.

Or, to say it another way:

A SMALL DOSE GOES A LONG WAY.

Exclamation points should be used sparingly and, by and large, in dialogue. After all, their purpose is to denote excitement. But, remember, not all things are equally exciting, so be careful not to use them too often. Then, when you do use them, the reader will pay attention.

Another thing that I remarked on before (when talking about pet peeves, I believe) is words that are repeated over and over. Take the word “walked”. There are so many more words—exciting ones— that can be used in its place: sauntered, ambled, jaunted…

This problem is easily fixed by going under the EDIT tab and clicking on FIND. You can type in a word you think you may have used too often, and your computer will search your manuscript for it, page by page. It is up to you whether you want to keep a given sentence as you originally wrote it, or whether you want to replace it. It’s as simple as that.

Don’t forget, your Thesaurus gives you plenty of alternative words to use. When you run out of replacement words, you can always cycle through your list, again. Or, you can try rewriting your sentences so they read altogether differently.

More observations next time. I’m always open to questions, also. If I don’t know the answer (which I very likely may not) I will find out…

Brenda

Looking At It From A Different Angle

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

Have you ever thought that your hair looked pretty good until you viewed it in a three-way mirror and realized it didn’t look so great when you looked at it from a different angle?

Well, that’s kind of what it was like for me when, this morning, I received my manuscript for Runaways: The Long Journey Home in book format. Errors just popped out at me. It was like seeing my book from an entirely different angle—that of the potential reader.

If you are not yet a published author, or at least not to the point of seeing your book formatted, I’d like to share with you, over the course of my next few posts, some of the things that I noticed. Hopefully, they will help you avoid these mishaps.

As I scrolled through the pages, just for a visual reaction, I noticed right away that several of my chapters started almost identically. Sure, I had been careful to drop the reader into the middle of the action and I had identified the POV right away (good things I observed) but what stood out to me was the fact that the beginning sentence of quite a few chapters started with “Jake stared”, “Jake pounced”, “Jake stretched”… you get the picture.

This may not be wrong, but it is certainly bothersome to me—it lacks creativity and is lazy writing, in my opinion.

So, what will I do?  Rewrite, of course!

Although I often talk to myself about the curse of rewriting, in this case rewriting is my friend. It will save me from a huge embarrassment, even if I am the only one to notice it.

I cannot tell you the number of times that I have rewritten paragraphs, scenes, even entire chapters. Each time, things improve. This will be no different. I will look at it as a positive.

Will I ever be truly satisfied?  Probably not.

Will I ever click the “publish” button and give it the okay? I hope so.

There comes a point to where a writer just has to say that he or she has done all they can do.

A bad hair day doesn’t need to define us. We recomb, restyle, and respray. Then we have to be content and say, “That’s as good as it’s gonna get.”

Binging Isn’t Always a Bad Thing

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

A well-known personality has a commercial on television on the subject of binging. It is, indeed, a serious eating disorder. One not to be taken lightly.

I have found myself binging, lately. Oh, not on food, but on writing.

You see, things like doctors’ appointments, haircuts, and volunteer opportunities cut into my daily writing routine. This frustrates me—often putting me in a bad mood.

I’ve tried putting all of my appointments on the same day, but something always happens to mess up my plan.

So, lately, I’ve tried binging. If I see I have a couple of hours, I lock myself away and hammer something out. I make use of spare moments that, at one time, I might have squandered by reading a magazine or watching a T.V. show.

As I’ve gotten older, I have found it increasingly harder to go to sleep or at least sleep all through the night. I often wake up around 3:00 a.m.

By following my “new” binging approach to writing, I get up, grab a cup of coffee, and head for my office. I’ve found it to be a great time to write and as I work my way through my day’s appointments, I’m not nearly as frustrated. After all, I’ve already accomplished several hours of writing!

So, I guess binging isn’t always a bad thing. Lately, it has been a necessary thing.

However, in all sincerity, a steady schedule of writing is what I am striving to get back in my life. It is more predictable and makes it easier to work toward a goal or deadline.

Things get accomplished.

That book gets written.

And, who knows? There just may be another idea ready to hatch and, when it does, I don’t want to be in front of the refrigerator with a carton of Ben and Jerry’s in my hands.

The Value in S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

If you are given to exercise, you know that the experts say we need to s-t-r-e-t-c-h our muscles before we begin. Lately, they have said that s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g after exercise is just as important. It helps us exercise more effectively and reduces exercise-related injuries.

I have found that sitting for hours in front of the computer writing, also requires that I get up and            s-t-r-e-t-c-h, periodically. If I don’t, my back, neck, and shoulders suffer.

I’ve also found it necessary to s-t-r-e-t-c-h while I write:

I strive to hone my writing skills by requiring more of myself each time I turn on my computer.

I s-t-r-e-t-c-h to become more creative.

I s-t-r-e-t-c-h to use more vivid descriptors. .

I s-t-r-e-t-c-h to write in more depth.

I s-t-r-e-t-c-h to achieve more excitement.

I strive to tighten it up…to build it up.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g  while we write helps us write more effectively…say what we want to say in the way we want to say it.

If we don’t, our writing suffers.  We continue to write as we always have and our writing doesn’t improve.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g may mean that we change our style, improve our word choice, or try different techniques we’ve learned in workshops. But, what ever we choose to focus on, it increases our skills.

It we commit to s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g, each sentence will be better than the last, each book will be an improvement, and we’ll be one step closer to writing that next best-seller.

Get Cranking!

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

So, you get your submission back from your critique group. They have a few “suggestions” for improvement.

Your manuscript is returned from your editor with hundreds of “red lines”. A major rewrite is in order.

Your Beta Readers are less than enthusiastic about the plot or characters in your latest book. You need to tear it apart and see where it went wrong.

Negative comments are inevitable, but we cannot let them devastate us as writers. When you get them, first “consider the source”. Then, if the source is credible and the person is someone you respect, spend as little time as possible wallowing in despair.

I say: “get cranking.” Learn what you need to learn; do what you need to do. Use all of that pent up frustration in the direction of making improvements.

Oh, to be sure, we love those positive comments that make us feel successful, but it’s those negatives that can really light the fire under us. They have the power to propel us to greatness if we turn them around and view them as positives.

We can even learn to be thankful for them, because they are the ones that stretch us as  writers and spur us on to learn and grow in our craft!

If we allow ourselves to be devastated by negatives, we will soon find ourselves deep in a black hole of gigantic proportions, stagnated and unable to ever face the computer keyboard again.

When riders are thrown from a horse, the best advice they receive is to get back in the saddle as soon as possible. As writers, that “horse” may look like a harmless chair on rollers. But, here’s the point:

Don’t let negatives define you.

Use them to your advantage and

Get Cranking!

Pseudonyms

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

What’s in a Name?  I asked myself this question not too long ago, reasoning that the name Brenda Poulos might not be so memorable. Maybe I’d need something shorter, flashier, similar to some other well-known person… I’d piggy-back off of their fame…

Some writers use pen names. I was curious to find out why, so I decided to do a little research. Here’s what I found out:

1)   Most well-known authors write in a certain genre. They become known as a Suspense Writer, for example. Then, perhaps they want to add another genre to their writing repertoire. Publishers may not like this for several reasons. Same with their fans. So, they write in the “new” genre under a pen name.

2)  Some writers, I found out, start writing under a pen name when they are looking to switch publishers.  (The internet article cautioned against doing this. I can see all kinds of legal reasons why this wouldn’t be a good idea.)

3)  Writers, whose earlier work(s) may have bombed, might want to use a pen name when they publish something “new.”

4)  Pseudonyms are often used by authors who have names similar to someone else. (Hum, opposite of my earlier idea…)

5)  If a writer thinks his/her name doesn’t suit the genre, he might want to choose a pen name. This happened when Pearl Gray changed his name to Zane Gray to appear more like a western author.

6)  Women who write in a genre that is usually written in by men, often use their first initials and last name.  (For example, in westerns).

7)   Sometimes several authors write books together. They choose a fictitious  name, making their audience think the books are written by one person, when they actually are not.

8)   Sometimes writers want to protect their identity if they are writing in a genre in conflict with their main profession. For example, a surgeon who writes a murder mystery about a killer who dissects his victims. Yikes!

9)   Some of us are shy and just don’t want publicity. It’s possible to conceal one’s true identity by using a pseudonym.

10) Finally, if you want your name to be catchy and memorable, start making your list of possible pen names.

There you have it. Ten reasons to use a pseudonym—or not.

Do you currently use a pen name? I’d be interested in learning why you do so and if it has worked out well for you.

Brenda

I”ve Gained Weight on a Steady Diet of Writing

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

I have come to the conclusion that writing and dieting definitely do not mix.  If you have been writing for any length of time, you may have found this to also be true in your own life. If you have an answer for this problem, please let me know—seriously.

First of all, I find that when I am heavy into writing—especially when writing something that is very exciting—I find it difficult to get adequate sleep. I’ve tried 1) staying up late so that I am very, very tired when I lay down  2) stopping writing at least an hour before I go to bed so that I don’t have my story on my mind.

Both of those help…sometimes.

I also find that I wake up in the middle of the night, thinking about my characters, and cannot get back to sleep. I give it a half hour. If I don’t fall asleep, I just go ahead and get up. What’s the use in tossing and turning for the rest of the night?

What does sleep have to do with weight control? The latest research says that getting a good night’s rest helps with weight loss. The reverse is also true. Not enough sleep results in weight gain.

Secondly, writing—again, this is especially true of writing something exciting—causes me to snack. The faster I type, the faster I shovel it in. The more suspenseful the writing, the more I am likely to go for something small and easy to pop into my mouth. My favorites are popcorn and nuts.

Finally, writing is a sedentary activity. We writers need to get up and move around every hour or so to clear our brains, stretch our muscles, and burn a few calories (especially if we have a snacking problem to counteract).

I belong to an exercise group which meets, daily. I feel successful if I get myself there twice a week. Because it meets at the beginning of the day, I often find myself skipping it and going directly to my writing, thinking that it is wasting precious time, when I know, in fact, that it is good for both my body and brain.

I guess I will never write a cookbook. I can just imagine what might happen to my weight if I focused on yummy recipes all day long!

Brenda