Workings of a Writing Mind

Freewriting today to get the pump primed, our illustration courtesy of Gunther from my Sims 3 game. Pretty accurate for the writing life, I'd say. Though this is the day of the week when I generally meet with writer friends, life happens, and thus it’s me and me and me.

Which is fine. That’s how writing goes, isn’t it? One writer (two or more if we’re talking a collaboration, but we aren’t at the moment, so move along, nothing to see here) with butt in chair and fingers on keyboard. While it’s important to keep in contact with those of our own kind (especially for those of us who are extroverts, but that’s for another post), writers are not people who talk about writing, without actually doing the work. Writers are people who write. We tell stories. We interpret what’s unfolding in our heads and put it in a form that allows others to enter these worlds of our own creation and get to know the characters who inhabit them.

This morning, I told the woman behind the counter at my local Panera that I have crossed the bar into fall and my usual beverage is now hot tea rather than iced. I wore my fleece vest, a knit hat and matching mitts while on my once-again-customary morning walk with a neighbor. My brain gave me the signal that it’s time for fresh tunes on my mp3 player. Since my brain gave me that signal immediately prior to the device asking me to reformat it, I’m going to consider that confirmation that I’m on the right track.

When I was but a wee princess, my mother used to tell me that the more I did, the more I would want to do, and that holds true with writing as well. I’ve called these random babblings ‘morning pages’ if I want to be writerly, ‘priming the pump’ or ‘freewriting’ most of the time, and if I’m angry/upset/stabby/etc, ‘bloodletting.’ It’s that whole bodies in motion tend to stay in motion sort of thing. We like motion.

Which is why, today, you get this. I am giving myself a challenge. One page of freewriting every weekday morning this week, posted here. That’s the goal. If I tell the interwebs I’m doing it, then I have to follow through. Pictures may be present, but do not count toward page count. Happy Dance Friday will likely count toward fulfilling this challenge, unless faithful readers like you want a double post with extra rambling.

What goes through your head before you get down to business for the day?

Reading Rituals

When I first started going to used bookstores as a real, grown up adult, I had a ritual. First, go to store, trade in old books, comb shelves for undiscovered treasures. Note, this was before the internet, so that meant one had to subscribe to author newsletters by snail mail, keep track of Romantic Times magazine (before it was RT Book Reviews) as well as word of mouth, and keeping written lists. Yeah. Old school. I get the niggle that I might have blogged about this before, but it's a Monday after an odd weekend after an odd week, so I'm not going to stress over that.

Once books were selected and purchased, that was time for the frozen yogurt place and the next stage of my ritual. I would lay out all the books on the table, and arrange them in chronological order, from closest to ancient times to closest to modern day. So, if I’d purchased an Edwardian, a Tudor, a Georgian and a Medieval, I would read them as such: Medieval, Tudor, Georgian, Edwardian. Knowing the order of my reading was Very Important, so this step of the ritual could not be skipped. (Picture above is thumbnail of random, unsorted TBR shelf. Click to embiggen.)

After determining order, then the reading could begin, free of the “what do I read first” question. That’s already decided, and the others would come in time. When I’d read through everything in that haul, I’d get to come back to the bookstore. Less complicated times, for sure.

I haven’t done the arrange-by-time-period thing lately. The above ritual was from a time when connected books were not the norm, and finding a variety of settings could be an easier task. Stacking three or four books with the same setting doesn’t provide the same sort of satisfaction and my ereader can sort books by author or by title, but not by setting. Maybe a fancier model could do that, so I’ll have hope for the future.

It’s different choosing books now. I’ve been reading in the historical romance genre for some time, and no plans to change that. Genre-wise, I’m home, and I’m happy. Genres, though, are always in flux. Ebooks did not exist in those days, linked books were not yet the norm, and the abovementioned Edwardian, Tudor, Georgian and Medieval? They might all be on the backlist of the same author. I didn’t attend RWA chapter meetings or conferences, so the chance of coming home from such outings with free books was less than nil, I knew a grand total of one author personally, and though I was working on a historical romance manuscript, I had not finished or sold.

Thinking of all this today, since it’s been an odd week, heat wave requiring much time hopping from air conditioned place to air conditioned place, and thinking wistfully of a quiet place to read, uninterrupted. Did I mention that these UBS trips were always done solo? When it’s me, the books and the frozen yogurt, it’s serious business.

What about you, dear readers? Do you have any rituals for reading newly acquired books? Print before electronic? The other way around? All genre X and then genre Y? Reach into shopping bag with eyes closed? Know of a good place for frozen yogurt? Soft serve is also acceptable.

Happy Dance Friday #93 - Life and cute or creepy?

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Life happens. Writers should know this. After all, we spend a good deal of our professional lives figuring out how to throw as many obstacles in the way of our characters as humanly possible. At the same time, we also give them what they need to get over, around or through those obstacles and make them work for that happily ever after.

In short, life has been interesting, but there's always time for a happy dance. These girls took to a Target to respond to Ellen DeGeneres' Irish Jig dance dare.



Adorable young girls sharing their love of Irish dance are always charming, but there's a part of me that wants to dim the lights and sub the selected music track for something dark and ominous. Totally different experience, but still a happy dance in its own way.

Why yes, I do need a nap, why do you ask?

Happy Dance Friday #78 - Back in the saddle, with Quickstep

January sixth means the holiday season is down for a long winter's nap, the new year is underway, and I know I could use a good dose of energy this morning, so we're going with the quickstep. This dance has been likened to a duck - smooth as glass on the top, paddling like mad underneath. I know that as a writer, I can relate to that. Hence writing quote in today's art piece.

First, straight out of Blackpool (2010 championships, to be exact) let's take a look at how it's done in competitive circles:

I think of that as the guidelines for one's genre. I'll use romance, since that's what I write. From RWA.org, the official definition is as follows:
A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around two individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as he/she wants as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel.
An Emotionally-Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love.

As long as those two requirements are met, the writer has a lot of room in which to move. In dance, there's competitive dance and show dance (please correct me on my terms, dance fans; I'm only working on one cup of tea here) and what entertains on TV won't always please the judges in Blackpool, but if entertaining is the whole point, I think the clips below do an admirable job. As long as the requirements of the dance are there, it's fun to see what the individual dancers and choreographers do with the same essentials.







Though I haven't seen a quickstep performed to Matchbox Twenty's "I'll Believe You When," I think it's a natural.



Why, yes, I do sometimes choreograph dance numbers in my head, usually for fictional characters...doesn't everyone? Eh, we writers are odd ducks; it's in the job description.