Fair Weather Writer?

For some writers Fair Weather is the key.

You know what a Fair Weather Writers are, don’t you? They’re those people who can only write when all circumstances are right.

I honestly don’t know any, (hand in the air) but I’ve read about them. They’re the writers who can only get words on paper when

• There’s no one else in the house.
• When the muse knocks three times.
• During the rain.
• When the sun’s shining.
• Only on weekdays.
• Only on weekends.
•  Only after the house work’s finished.
• Or the laundry.
• When the kids are in bed.
• With their pets are in their laps.
• (Name your own poison.)

Okay, I’ll admit it. (Hangs head.) I’m a Fair Weather Writer. (Sorta.) My personal thing is I can only write in the morning, maybe until noon. But when the day starts winding down, so does my brainpower. (That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.) I blame it on my internal clock.

Maybe you aren’t a FWW. You could be an ALL Weather Writer. That’s a writer who can write anytime, day or night–it doesn’t matter who’s around or what’s going on, who’s waiting or what anyone expects.

When they’re on a story, they’re writing.

Louis L’amour said he could write in the middle of Time Square. Just give him a typewriter and stand back.

Marilyn Pappano can write all day and all night and start over again. And what she writes works!

A HERO TO COME HOME TO author (and all weather writer) Marilyn Pappano

I roomed at a writers’ retreat once with a woman who went directly to her computer and wrote each time we had a break. She was a great influence on me, and I started writing each time she did. And sometimes before she did.

All Weather Writer Jackie Kramer

Maybe I should just move in with her. 🙂

I’d give my eyeteeth to be an AWW, but I’ve tried. I can do a little in the evening (like now) but mostly, pfft. And what I do write late in the day takes a lot of fixing the next morning. Sigh. (Five fixes so far this morning.)

So . . . how about you? FWW or AWW? Do you know?

Smart Women Who

Smart Women Who . . .

spend time together

cook for each other

have fun together

learn from one another

eat together

celebrate

accomplishments

 learn

together

and from each other.

Not a bad group of women to hang with.

Creative Wells

Man does not live by bread alone.

No, we need more. In fact, we creative types have to keep those creative juices flowing. One way or the other. Right now, for me, it’s attending a workshop founded by NY Times & USA Today Best Selling Author Jodi Thomas and Random House Publishing’s Upcoming Star Tim Lewis at West Texas A&M University’s Writers’ Academy in Canyon, TX all this week.

I’m taking the Screenwriting Structure for Novelists class taught by Best Selling Author and Bram Stoker Award Nominee Alexandra Sokoloff. I’m starting a brand new project and I have to tell you, I feel really good about this story! It’s sort of a sequel to Shattered Promises, my story in the anthology Romance – The Spice of Life. The new story is titled Deadly Promises. Does that give you a tiny inkling of what you’ll get when you read the book? I hope so. 🙂

This takes place during the same timeframe as Shattered Promises, only with different characters (naturally). There’s the plane crash and a lot of flawed characters, including: a new sheriff in town, a struggling widow and a stalker. I’m also going to address some social issues.

Like I said, I’m super excited about this. We’ll see what comes out of the class and if they can help me fill in a BUNCH of holes in the plot. I have faith that Alex will be able to see what I’m completely overlooking. Or even go a direction I never would’ve thought of going.

I can’t wait to reconnect with old friends as well as make new ones. Spending a week immersed in writing with other writers is so uplifting and inspiring, it’s unbelievable. I’ll come home completely wiped out and drained, but it’ll all be good. Keep your fingers crossed that I don’t crash and burn during this class because she definitely puts you through your paces. Regardless, I’ll have all the plot points worked out by the time I leave on Friday. Yay!

Btw, wish you were here as they have other wonderful instructors, such as: Margie Lawson, Jennifer Archer, Dian Curtis Regan, Mike Bellah along with tonight’s banquet speaker, Linda Castillo. Now how could you go wrong with a line-up like that? 🙂 ♥

Want to Write a Book?

When we sold our pharmacy in Pryor Creek, several friends asked me what I was going to do. One day, a pretty friend with long, dark hair asked the question.

“Well,” I confided. After all, she was a friend. “I’m going to write.”

She smiled happily and chirped, “Oh. I’ve always wanted to write.”

“Really?” I asked. “What do you want to write?” I’d known for years I wanted to write romance for the HEA factor if nothing else.

“Oh, I don’t know,” my friend answered. She didn’t know what kind of book. Didn’t know what it would be about. Had no idea of genre, publishing houses, characters, plotting or anything else people usually study up on, even if they never really get a story idea.  “I just want to write a book.”

That was my first encounter with that attitude, but not my last. I had no idea how to answer her.

Today, I’d tell her to read, “5 Ways to Develop a Book Idea.”

It might have been named, “5 Ways to Go Beyond Just Wanting to Write a Book.”

BTW: I love #5. FORCE YOURSELF TO HAVE FUN (girls love having fun!) AND BELIEVE IN YOUR WRITING! (Easier said than done, but doable.

)

 

Oh, No! Not Routine!!!

Routine. Good thing or bad?

Above is supposed to be a poll. If it’s not there, vote in comments. Would you? Routine–good or bad?

Maybe the poll isn’t fair. Some routines can be good. (Dance routines are good things. Right, DWTS?)

For some people routine is a great thing, while to others it means b-o-r-i-n-g. (IOW-death.)

How about for a writer? Check out this blog. It might change your mind.

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/7-writing-routines-that-work?et_mid=621483&rid=234608531

Where the Magic Grows

Some writers have this thing I’ve always envied, where they can be alone, meet with their muses and write, write, write. The really good ones have a little bit of magic growing there.

It’s called an office.

Marilyn Pappano’s was the first one I saw for myself. Hers is really cool! I’m awful with distances, but it’s about thirty feet from her backdoor, has two rooms, air and heat and even a place where she can nap when she’s exhausted.

I’m not sure, but I think it used to be a chicken house. Or a clock builder’s workshop. I can’t remember. 😦

I’m not sure where she keeps it, but I know there’s a place in there where magic blooms. 🙂

Another friend, a newer writer, has an office that’s outside her house, too. She has access to magic I know, because she’s extremely determined as well as enthusiastic about writing. (I’m anxious to read her stuff.) Her office used to be a barn.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips has a huge, two story office in her house. (Click on the link to see pictures.) She has tons of built in bookshelves, and somewhere, over in the back, a vat where she stirs up magic. (I know it’s there!)

Stephen King’s office.

Here’s a link to a pic of Leigh Duncan’s “work space” aka office. (You call it corn, we call it maze.)

My office?

These days is a recliner. 🙂 My laptop sits of a table next to it. Since I’m most creative early in the a.m., I have piles of solitude. And quiet? Yeah, except when Molly is demanding a treat or it’s storming outside.

What about my books? Most are on my Kindle these days. The rest are in my overfilled everything room. Printer? It’s in the next room. Dictionary? Encyclopedia? Thesaurus? Online. Online. Online.

What about days when I write for more than a few hours and others are around?

Well, there’s always white noise and ear buds. 🙂

Of course, there are a few things I’m missing. I don’t have an area where magic grows (just blood, sweat and tears) but I’m hoping to find one.

The video below is James Scott Bell in his office. He’s sharing his best writing advice, but he shows us someone of the things in his office as he does. Maybe I should take a tip from him.

He definitely knows where the Magic Grows.

What’s your office like? Do you have a place where Magic Grows or are you, like me, still searching?

Related articles

• A Place of My Own (staceywilk.com)
• Your Name’s on the Book Cover. What Does it Mean? Author Branding Part 1 (judythewriter.wordpress.com)
• Where do you write? (judythewriter.wordpress.com)
• Written Interview: Stephen King (gointothestory.blcklst.com)