Creating Something New

I sometimes wonder why I write when everything has already been written. Walking into the library with no plan and just wandering the fiction shelves can be quite overwhelming (although I do it). However, it looks like everything in the world has been written about – over and over again. Then I am in a mood for something "new".

When I write fiction, I write to create something that either I would like, or that people I love would like. For instance, I am working on a novel with a setting that interests me at the moment and I think my neices might enjoy it. However, my interests are somewhat dynamic and eclectic, therefore my reading and writing choices change and shift. It must be the same with many people for books (and movies) are now consumed at an incredibly high rate.

This demand for a new twist or turn compels me to create something new – out of the old, along with some “new” ideas of my own.

My mother makes and my grandmothers made quilts. My grandmothers made them out of recycled clothing. My mother sometimes uses older material for effects. I personally like the older quilts better, although the fabric is more delicate. They have more of a story to tell, and I like stories, especially histories.

So, I write as I would choose to make a quilt – with an interesting pattern, using old and new materials, and that tells a story of history – creating something new.

The Amazing Power of Research

In the process of editing and re-working my NANO novel, I kept getting stuck on certain plot situations. My imagination was working to fill in the gaps, but I feared I was pulling too much from embedded movie images (a downside of writing so much, so quickly).

I needed more accurate images, information and knowledge about the medieval world (for example, warfare descriptions and methodologies, and what life in a rich medieval city was like). I “stumbled” on the Byzantines and their capital, Constantinople. What I have learned and discovered is amazing and delighting and fearsome and…

I am so excited! My work is in a shambles. But, I have back story, history, and information to stir my imagination as I put some pieces back in a different order, as well as creating new pieces in this very complex puzzle known as a novel.

And they lived happily ever...can I get back to you on that?

I've been out of the writing frame of mind since Nanowrimo. I was so sick at the end of November that when I gasped across the finish line, I just lay there on the ground waiting for myself to feel like getting back up.

The problem is that I never did.

So now I have a Nano novel of 50k plus words with no ending. I can't tell you how irritating that is to my kids, who have been waiting over a month now for the next installment. They got pretty used to picking up my binder of work-in-progress printouts that were being produced with happy regularity by myself as I was forced to kick out 1700 words a day. To suddenly have nothing new to read was trying. Fortunately John Flanagan came out with a new Ranger's Apprentice book so they scuffled over that for a bit while I was waiting for creative juices to spurt out somewhere.

Still nothing.

I don't know about you, but I tend to take the course of least resistance. That means that I'm drawing more than writing because it happy requires no conscious thought on my part. It's not really procrastinating.

Okay, so it is procrastinating, but in a sneaky productive way, because it does nothing to finish my book. So it is with a sigh, knowing that I must complete a task that I don't feel like doing, that I lay aside my 6B drawing pencil and instead pick up my pen/laptop to write something each day. It won't be inspired, but I hope by the end of February, it will be done.

No to resolutions—yes to goals

Resolutions, it seems, have become passé. I don't know about you, but the word resolution causes me to immediately conjure up the image of a ball and chain in my mind. Perhaps it is because resolutions are usually New Year's desires that are 99% likely to go unfulfilled that they are so distasteful. Anyway, I'm not resolving to do anything in 2012.

I find goals, however, to be another thing altogether. I like goals. They feel achievable, and this being January, there have been lots of writing websites with encouraging goal (and resolution) ideas. The first four are from DiYMFA (Do-It-Yourself Writing Degree), but I found other great articles through the Writers Knowledge Base. If you want more on writing goals (and even writing resolutions), you're much better off using their search engine created just to help you find articles on writing than you are trying to Google.

• Making Writing Resolutions Stick

• Turning Writing Resolutions into Reality

• What Are Your Writing Resolutions?

• Making the Most of Failure

Enjoy! 

: ) Beth

Three words

For some reason, January reminds me of standing at the top of a high mountain from which I can see far ahead. It's a beautiful view, even though the details are misted in haze. It's 2012, stretching before me and entirely unexplored but beckoning enticingly.

With that image in mind, during our first writing meeting of this year, each member was asked to give three words that could describe her goals for the year ahead. Here are our individual three word choices:

Laura—persistence, finalize, inspire
Beth—consistency, fun, explore
April—adventure, peace, progress
Christine—read, write, achieve
Enyth—write, gather (ideas), organize

I have to admit, I almost chose chocolate as one of mine, but with only three words max, I decided to go with more substantial choices. How about you? What are your three definitive words for 2012?

There is life after Nanowrimo

Check out the link at the end of this post for a great book giveaway over at Write Now! Coach blog.

This year I completed my third Nanowrimo novel. It was definitely a different experience from the last two years.

The first year I flew by the seat of my pants and went in with only a vague idea that I thought would be fun to write about. At that time, I was writing primarily picture books anyway, so it was a good exercise in daily writing. Exhilarated by the competition of my writing group and family, I plowed through and finished with days to spare.

The second year, I decided to write a book for my mom about my grandmother's childhood. It wasn't a great work of literature, and I had to fill in many huge gaps of what we didn't know with my own imagination, but although harder to finish, it was a good exercise in writing and I still finished early.

This year, however, I wanted channel my Nanowrimo effort down more productive paths, but I found the way far from clear.

Having been working on a sci-fi historical fiction MG for more than a year, I decided to write the sequel for it. I wrote scene cards and a rough outline in preparation, wishing I had used Nanowrimo with the first book which was still a work in progress. On day one, I began to pound the keys. By day two, I wanted to quit.

It wasn't that I found the writing so hard. I had my general guideline. I just didn't feel like writing this year. Life in general was pressing on me, and I struggled to keep up. It got worse as I went along, because I wasn't getting enough sleep. By the end of the month I had picked up some virus and was also sick. I assessed. Brain and fingers were still functioning; therefore, I must keep on writing. I cotinued slogging along until I gasped across the 50k mark just in time on the last day of November.

Why was it so hard this year? I'm not really sure. It just was. But now that we're into December, life looks happier. My body is over that awful virus. I've had some good nights of sleep and made it through our big December events. I have over 50k of my sequel rough draft done (although not quite the ending) and I have caught up with other stuff moderately well.

Yes, there is life after Nanowrimo. In fact, it's a wonderful life. Have you found it to be true as well?

: )

Merry Christmas!

P.S. If you're looking forward to making the New Year a profitable one as a writer, swing by the Write Now! Coach Blog for a book giveaway bonanza.

Endings and beginnings: the full circle of writing

You might be looking at the title to this post and thinking, isn't it supposed to be beginnings and endings? Don't beginnings come first? They do. I guess I'm thinking of endings and beginnings right now because I just finished Nanowrimo 2011. It's the ending of a month which has been filled with pushing myself to write beyond my comfort level.

But it's also the beginning of a lot of things, like beginning the next level of editing this new novel as well as beginning some new picture books based on my best PiBoIdMo ideas. The ending of one thing always marks the beginning of something else.

How about you? Were you one of the 230,000 Nanowrimo writers this year? Were you one of the hundreds of PiBoIdMo writers? What endings and beginnings are you experiencing in your writing life this month?