All Things Writing

The Craft of Writing


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Permissions and Licenses

Perhaps you’ll feel my pain. I spent the entire – yes entire – day tracking down permissions and licenses for the images I need for my book. Why? Because I didn’t do a thorough job the first time through. I will NEVER do it this way again. Continue reading


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Finding Inspiration

imagesAs it stands now, I am behind in Nano and have not even a topic in mind for the science writing workshop I’m ecstatic to be attending in the spring. So what am I totally into writing about in my write-whatever-i-want-time? Science fiction as a genre. Does this have anything to do with Nano or the science writing workshop? Of course not.

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Book Proposal Sample Chapter

Working on the sample chapter for a book proposal. It’s amazing how many times a sentence can be tweaked before it “sings.” But once it does… I guess that’s the moment writers live for – that moment when it just sounds right.

I don’t know about you, but for me, once the first section is set, it all falls into place. I know that’s supposedly because my vision is clear then, but it’s more than that. I can have a detailed outline that tells me each thing to cover in sequence, along with a killer topic sentence, but that’s still not the same as when the first section takes on a life of its own.

I think moments when it all clicks are the reason I’m a writer.

So many things to write about! I want to write about them all!

Gina


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Morning Pages

One of the two keys to The Artist’s Way are the Morning Pages. You write them every morning. They are three pages – three sides of pages for those of you who, like me, will be unable to concentrate on anything else until you know this -and you write them without stopping, not worrying about what your write or whether it’s good. It’s free writing. I decided it definitely couldn’t hurt. Some days – most days – there’s so much circling around in my brain that it feels like there’s no room for anything else. So this morning, amidst the chaos that was created by several misadventures yesterday – I wrote my three pages. No great insights other than I need to have some fun.

Somewhat skeptical of the entire program now that I know that it’s not just about greater creativity but about unblocking from the past – not so thrilled about crawling back into the past, quite frankly – I drove my son to school AND …… immediately spotted the perfect physical location for a scene I’ve had in my mind for – well, forever. I have described it but I know there are more details I could use to make it better. This new spot is not the spot I pictured, but it does share enough characteristics with the spot I have in mind to be very useful in supplying the missing details. I also realized there’s another spot I quite literally pass every day that I could use in my book. I’ve been fretting (yes, I’m that old) about how I can get to where I’m setting my story and find a spot like the spots I need and then it hit me. The spots are here. They don’t need to be there.

So are these realizations because I wrote my Morning Pages this morning and was not in my usual frantic state of mind as I drove my son to school because honestly, I had just driven my daughter down that same street, pre-Morning Pages, and all I noticed was a deer watching us drive by.


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The Artist’s Way

The Artist's Way

Sometime around the time we were welcoming baby #3, Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way was published. Needless to say, I missed the entire thing. Yesterday, as I was creating a For Further Reading section for a book I’m working on, I came across The Artist’s Way. It looked good so I thought I’d take a closer look. For those of you who have also missed it, I’ll be posting updates about this approach to creativity/spirituality.

So far, Cameron’s assertion that creativity is a gift and that we should share this gift rings true to my own beliefs. I mean, what an incredible world it would be if we could all find a way to share that thing about ourselves that is unique.

Happy writing!


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Don’t Laugh

Okay. I’m serious. I definitely worry that if I sit at my desk, typing all day, not only will I have carpal tunnel syndrome, but a butt that’s the size of a chair cushion. A large chair cushion. Complicating matters is the fact that I hurt my knees in an overly enthusiastic exercise attempt.

NordicTrack SkierYesterday my NordicTrack Skier arrived. You know the one? It has sort of cross country skis? So all you have to do is slide your legs. (I’m laughing now, too.) And it has those handles so you can pull on the ropes that give your arms exercise. It looks so easy on television, doesn’t it?

I’m here to tell you that those television people either intrinsically understood the appropriate ratios of tension on the bottom flywheel to their abilities OR they deleted the portions of the tapes where they stepped onto the machine, moved their legs, and landed on their butts.

I know I should be able to move my feet BACKWARD so that I can again slide them FORWARD, but so far I have managed to move forward – so far forward that all I can do is cling to the padded thing that’s supposed to support you as you lean forward. Did I say cling? What I meant to say is frantically clasp as if I were a baby monkey dangling from a vine above a pool of crocodiles.

The stress is definitely aerobic. Not so sure about the actual cross country skiing part.

Go me.