BW33: Ray Bradbury and Zen in the Art of Writing

Last year,  I read Ray Bradbury's writing essays from his Zen in the Art of Writing and felt like he’d given me marching orders for Bradbury's Book Camp for Writers.  Zen is a short but powerful book and lights a fire under you with his passion and zest for life and writing. I've been in sort of a writing slump lately and decided to revisit his book. 

There are so many snippets I underlined and wrote down, it is hard to know where to start.

Everything you have ever experienced in life goes into your subconscious as food for your muse.  How do you tap into that food to help you grow as a writer? Bradbury kept a book full of lists of nouns; words that reminded him of experiences. He'd refer to the list and a word or collection of words would spark an idea such as the ones that lead him to write Something Wicked This Way Comes:

The lake. The Night. The Crickets. The Ravine.  The Attic.  The Basement.  The Trapdoor. The Baby.  The Crowd.  The Night Train. The Fog Horn. The Scythe. The Carnival. The Carousel. The Dwarf. The Mirror Maze. The Skeleton.

In his essay How to Keep and Feed the Muse he says:

What if the Subconscious to every man, in its creative aspect, became, for writers, the Muse. 

How do you feed your muse? Read poetry every day which will flex your muscles and expand your senses. Consume essays, travel through the centuries. Learn and fill up your senses with the shape and size of the world, every color, smell, texture and sound. Read Short Stories and novels. Not only those who write the way you think but those that don't. It all serves to stimulate your Muse's tastebuds. And while you are feeding your muse, you have to keep it shape.  And you do that by writing 1000 words a day for the next ten to twenty five years.  Why?

...to learn enough about grammar and story construction so that these become part of the subconscious without restraining or distorting the muse.

In the essay Zen in the Art of Writing, he goes on to say follow your own path, write for the right reasons and not for the money or accolades.

Fame and money are gifts given us only after we have gifted the world with  our best.

Write from the heart and emotions and learn. Keep writing.  There is no failure as long as you keep writing.  His Zen mantra is  WORK -- RELAXATION -- DON'T THINK

So work at your writing and shoot for 1000 to 2000 words a day for the next twenty years.  Write one short story a week for 52 weeks for five years. Much like the surgeon or artist or athlete train for years before they become proficient and successful, so must you train. Quantity provides the experience and with experience eventually comes quality.  As in all things, writing takes practice.  So feed your muse and start practicing.

To feed well is to grow. To work well and constantly is to keep what you have learned and know in prime condition.  Experience. Labor. These are the two sides of the coin which when spun is neither experience nor labor, but the moment of revelation. The coin, by optical illusion, becomes a round, bright, whirling globe of life.

His idea to read one short story, poem and an essay a night applies for readers as well. You know me and my rabbit trails.  Just think of all the directions our reading could take. So, whether you need reading or writing motivation,  read  Zen in the Art of Writing. 

Also, when you have the time, check out this video – An Evening with Ray Bradbury 2001 of his keynote address at The Sixth Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea.

If you have any favorite poetry or essay books, I'd love to hear about them.

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BW44: November - National Novel Writing Month

  National Novel Writing Month

November is coming up fast and that means it is time for Nanowrimo which is short for National Novel Writing Month.   If you aren't aware of what it is - here's the skinny:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write 50,000 words  by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

I've been participating since 2007 which makes November a very crazy, stressful, interesting month.  Why do I do it?  Because it challenges me to be creative.  However, going to do things a little differently this time.  I'm in the midst of editing a story, which involves a lot of rewriting.  I'm going to be a Nano rebel.  I've checked in with the powers that be and the consensus is 1 hour of editing is equal to 1000 words, so shooting for at least two hours of editing a day. Yeah!  It's doable.  Plus the sparkly idea percolating in the back of my head may just get incorporated into the story.  

My son is also participating through the Young Writer's Program and he gets to set his own writing goal.  He loves writing fan fiction and would probably write 8 hours a day if I let him.

So if you have ever had the urge to write, jump in and join the rest of the nanowrimo's. For those nonwriters among us, check out the Irish Times new book club or Russia Beyond the Headlines article on children's literature and How Dr. Dolittle became Dr. Ayobolit.

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Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, tell us about the books you are reading in the comment section of this post.  

BW44: National Novel Writing Month

It's that time of year again - time for Nanowrimo which is short for National Novel Writing Month.   If you aren't aware of what it is - here's the skinny:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

I've been participating every year since 2007 which makes November a very crazy, stressful, interesting month.  Why do I do it?  Because it challenges me to be creative.  Plus I get to lock my internal editor in the basement and have fun just writing without worrying about the rules, plus it gives me a head start on completing a first draft.  This year I've had a goal to learn more about editing and revision, because, yes at some point, I'll try to get one of these puppies in good enough shape to query a publisher.  

There are so many how to and do this and that rules books.  I've come across a few that have really been beneficial and even recommended by professional editors including James Scott Bell's  Revision and Self Editing and K.M. Weiland's Outlining your Novel.

I'm currently reading Writing Begins with the Breath by Laraine Herring.  

In this distinctive guide to the craft of writing, author Laraine Herring shows us how to tune into our bodies and connect with our emotions so that our writing becomes an expression of our full beings, rather than just an intellectual exercise. With warmth and wisdom, Herring offers a path to discovering "deep writing"—prose that is unique, expressive, and profoundly authentic. Lessons and imaginative exercises show you how to: stay with your writing when your mind or body starts to pull you away; explore the five senses in your writing; and approach your writing without judgment.

Plus I just received The Writer's Journey, Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler which is based on psychological writings by Carl Jung and the myth making philosophy of Joseph Campbell.  It's a big book and sure I'll be using it more for editing once I'm done with this first draft. 

So if you have ever had the urge to write, jump in and join the rest of the nanowrimo's. For those nonwriters among us, check out Publisher's Weekly Best New Books for the Week of October 29th

 A fool-proof method for sculpting an elephant:  first, get a huge block of marble; then you chip away everything that doesn't look like an elephant.  ~Author Unknown

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BW 43: National Novel Writing Month

Modern Water Clock by Bernard Gitton

The clock is ticking down to National Novel Writing Month and writing 50,000 words in 30 days.  Crazy idea that I discovered back in 2007 and have participated in ever since.  It's stressful, time consuming and wild, but fun as you create a story while ignoring your inner editor as well as household duties and other activities for 30 days.  It helps if you have understanding family members who are aware all your energy is going to be taken up with writing.   I had thought of bypassing the whole challenge this year but between my husband encouraging to join in again and a wonderful idea that's been growing by leaps and bounds, I decided to do it once again.  Guess it is turning into an annual thing.  

The goal is to simply write and hopefully by the end of the month, you have the makings of an interesting story.  Of course it will need loads of editing, but that's all part of the writing process.   Plus the process of sitting down and writing at least 1667 words a day forms a habit so by the end of the month, if you aren't already in the habit of writing everyday, it will have become a habit.  So, just to let you know if November's Sunday posts are a bit short or perhaps wacky, you'll know the reason why. 

There are lots of writers who are pantsters who basically just write, fly the seat of their pants and make things up as they go, without any planning.  Then there are the plotters - those who outline, create character sketches, and map out their stories.  I lean more toward plotting, than pantster.  This year I found a great  book to help me out -  K.M. Weiland's Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success which is available in both book and ebook format.   It is chock full of useful information and highly recommend it. There are several authors out there in the blogosphere who are very encouraging when it comes to NaNoWriMo and  have been posting tips on their websites.   

Larry Brooks who wrote Story Engineering:  Mastering The Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing as well as several fiction novels has come up with 31 Empowering Posts in 31 Days.

Alexandra Sokoloff, who writes spooky, scary mystery thrillers which I really enjoy as well as Screenwriting Tricks for Authors has come up with a series of great articles which are immensely helpful.

And if you are wondering if anything good comes out of this craziness, here is a link to a list of authors who have had books published which they started during nano.  Maybe I'll be on that list in a few years.  *grin*

Anyone else joining in on Nanowrimo this year? 

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url.

If you don't have a blog, tell us about the books you are reading in the comment section of this post.

BW29: B is for Books and Blogs

Books, books, books. We all love books and blogs about books and websites about books and authors talking about books. So, today, I'm going to share a few blogs, websites and author sites I enjoy reading.

I went to Bouchercon a couple years back and one of the panels I attended was the introduction of MULHOLLAND BOOKS, an new imprint of Little, Brown and Company. The imprint would focus on suspense novels: crime novels, thrillers, police procedurals, spy stories, even supernatural suspense. And the authors: Marcia Clark, (yes, the one of OJ fame), Mark Billingham, Duane Swierczynski, and Sebastian Rotella to name a few. New to me authors that definitely piqued my interest. Mullholland's website is great and chock full of original fiction to read including Mark Billingham's original short story, THE WALLS which is available to read or listen to in audio book form.

I know I've probably mentioned them before, but they bare mentioning again. MURDERATI is a group blog of murder mystery authors who enjoy discussing everything from, what else, murder to what's going on in their lives and how it relates to writing. There have been a few new additions to the group so be sure to check them out. I'm slowly making my way through reading each author's books and they keep making life difficult for me by adding new authors. *grin* I'll never run out of reading material.

Since I'm involved in A Round of Word in 80 Days, a writing challenge, I've discovered some great independent and self published author you should check out.

Kait of Fang and Shadow

Laurel of Creative Moments

Claire of Doing it Write Now

Also book bloggers whom I've been following it seems like forever and love talking about books.

Candace of Beth Fish Reads: She covers the books offered by several imprints.

Staci of Life in the Thumb: She loves all things Darcy.

Jackie of Literary Escapism: I've discovered many fantasy and paranormal books through her posts.

That ought to keep you all busy and your wishlists feed for a while.

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url.


If you don't have a blog, tell us about the books you are reading in the comment section of this post.

BW22: U is for Unicorn Pegasus Kitten

Clash of the Geeks

Funny how life works out sometimes.  Friday night I was just about to go to bed, but before I did, checked my stat counter and found I had gotten an extreme number of hits in a couple hours for an old post I'd written back in 2010 about a painting created by Jeff Zugale for Wil Wheaton (remember Wesley of star trek fame) and John Scalzi and a fan fiction contest. Check it out here and watch their hilarious video. It'll give you some insight into their minds. Anyway, when one of my posts suddenly starts getting lots of hits, somebody's mentioned it somewhere. So I followed the various worm trails until I discovered that Wil had tweeted while doing storytime at the Phoenix Comicon being held this weekend in AZ:

@Wilw If you're in the theater for Story time, look up the Unicorn Pegasus Kitten painting now. It's important.

My post came up # 1 on the google search over Wil Wheaton or John Scalzi. Odd but true and I kind of got a kick out of that. What he should have said was look up www.unicornpegasuskitten.com while I give a reading out of the book. Well, I figured it was just the universe talking to me, because I was in the midst of brainstorming "U" ideas.

Honesty, I had totally forgotten about the painting and the book created as a result of the contest. The end result is Clash of the Geeks with offerings by Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi, Patrick Rothfuss, Catherynne Valente, Stephen Toulouse, Rachel Swirsky, Scott Mattes, Bernardette Durbin, and John Anealio. All the proceeds benefit the Lupus Foundation of America.

The book is available in ebook format on the Clash of the Geeks website for free with voluntary payments strongly encouraged which will go to the Lupus Foundation. Check it out and you are all on the honor system here. If you choose to download it, be sure to donate. I did. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url.

If you don't have a blog, tell us about the books you are reading in the comment section of this post.

BW13 - L is for linky love

I'm currently reading an e-book by an author I discovered during ROW80 called Hush Money by Susan Bischoff.  Another one of my blogging authors I stumbled over.  Over the past year, a few aspiring writers I've been following have had their first books published or decided to self publish. Of course, I just had to read their books. Or new to me authors who've been around awhile but I just discovered them.     So today I thought I'd throw a little linky love their way and introduce you to some of them.   Check out their blogs, check out their books.

Jody Hedlund - her debut novel The Preacher's Bride 

Susan Bischoff of Hunting High and Love -  the Talent Chronicles

Kait Nolan (hostess of Row80)  - The Mirius Novella Trilogy

Michelle Davidson Argyle of The Innocent Flower - debut novel "Cinders" 

Karen Harrington's of Scobberlotch - "Janeology "

K.M. Weiland's of Wordplay - "A Man Called Outlaw", plus "Behold the Dawn" and nonfiction writing book:  "Crafting Unforgettable Characters: A Hands-On Introduction to Bringing Your Characters To Life."

C.J. Darlington's "Thicker than Blood" and "Bound By Guilt"

Christine Fonseca - "Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students."  Excellent, excellent book and she's recently released "101 Success Secrets for Gifted Students." 

Susan Helene Gottfried of West of Mars - "Trevor's Song" and "the Demo Tapes Year 1 and Year 2"

Follow them for a while and get to know them.  I have read or have most of their books in my TBR stack waiting to be read.  Happy Reading!

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Link to your reviews:

Book Week 45 - R is for rootless random ruminations

The woman in the picture, standing on the pier, looking off into space. This is me, this saturday evening as I sit, think, ponder and work on my Nanowrimo novel. Bit of random things flow through your head sometimes as you write and you don't know whether it's you, your subconscious or one of your make believe characters creating spillage in your brain. Writing is an interesting process. There is are two quotes which says it all

"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein."  ~Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith

"Ink and paper are sometimes passionate lovers, oftentimes brother and sister, and occasionally mortal enemies." ~Terri Guillemets

Sometimes it flows and other times it's like pulling teeth.  During the times you feel like pulling teeth, is when the distractions win and earn your attention.   Decluttering becomes a favorite past time, then wandering about the blogosphere is another. So what did I find in my random wanderings in life and on the blogosphere that start with R.

Two new books released this week by the queen of romance herself - Nora Roberts.  The fourth book in the bride Quartet: Happy Ever After and the latest in the In Death Series by her alter ego J.D. Robb "Indulgence in Death."   As you can imagine I sat down and read both right away.   And this evening, while perusing my TBR pile looking for something to engage my mind for a few minutes during some down time,  I picked up Robin Hobb's "Dragon Keeper," book one in the Rain Wilds Chronicles.  I started reading and quickly got lost in the story. 

I won it several months ago during a giveaway at Literary Escapism.  If you haven't checked out Jackie's site yet, you should.  She does Fantasy and Paranormal reviews with lots of giveaways and links to all the authors.  Her latest newsletter just came out so hurry over and check it out.  Whenever I'm on her site, I have to have another browser open to Barnes and Noble Ebooks store, because invariably I'll find something I just gotta have now.  :) 

My most recent find - Allyson James "Stormwalker" and "Firewalker."  Sometimes the covers are just so amazing, they attract my attention.  Of course, it helps that the story sounds good and the excerpt is the icing on the cake that makes me buy it.   Sometimes I don't know whether the NOOK is a blessing or a curse.  They make it so easy to buy and download a book.  *grin* 




Well back to working on my story which just happens to fall in with this week's R theme since it does after all start with R - Red Thief.   Here a picture I drew of the cover.   Notice anything odd about the picture?    Let me know if you find it.   

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Book Week 43 - big P, little p, what begins with P

Procrastination.  Yep, I seem to be turning into the world's biggest procrastinator lately so it was fortunate for me when I stumbled across Dennis Palumbo at Bouchercon last weekend.    He was giving a short seminar on writer's block and procrastination.   I could have listened to Dennis for a couple hours.  He was a screenwriter for the first two seasons of Welcome Back Kotter back in the 70's and is now a licensed psychotherapist for screenwriters, authors, directors, etc.   His viewpoints on writers block and procrastination made a lot of sense.  I can't wait to read his book:  Writing from the Inside Out: Transforming Your Psychological Blocks to Release the Writer Within

Dennis has three cosmic rules of writing.

1st cosmic rule:  "You are enough."   Quit with the if only's.   Everybody thinks the party is happening somewhere else.     You have everything in you to be the writer you want to be right now.

2nd cosmic rule:  "Work with what you are given."  Use who you are, your personal voice, your experiences and emotions.


3rd cosmic rule:  "Writing begets writing."   Quit thinking and worrying about it, do it, write.  If you get to your computer and along the way, stumble over the cat in the morning, and then sit there and can't think about what to write.  Start with the cat.  

Makes a lot of sense and so much of it is common sense.  So what should I be doing, instead of procrastinating?  Preparing, plotting, pondering points of prose to propose and searching for the correct pen for pencraft.  Because there is only one more week til the start of National Novel Writing Month.   I, along with thousands, perhaps tens of thousand of people around the world will be taking up the challenge of writing a 50,000 word first draft of a novel.  If you haven't tried it yet and the writing bug has been nudging you lately, challenge yourself and see what happens.   To help you, Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo has written a book "No Plot? No Problem? A low stress, high velocity guide to writing a novel in 30 days."

I'm off to ponder plan and plot.  

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Book Week Eleven -- K is for K.M. Weiland

K.M Weiland

(isn't she adorable!!!)

Where would we be without writers. Well, we wouldn't have any books to read and that would be a shame.  I would be remiss in not highlighting the authors who provide us with the books we read.   Over the years I have discovered some amazing authors.  In my quest to write the 'great American novel' I have discovered many author blogs.  Authors who write not only interesting and intriguing books, but also share their writing journeys and experiences in order to help and inspire aspiring writers.   From the group blogs such as Murderati, Running with Quills, The Deadline Dames, to a wide range of author blogs such as K.M. Weiland, Michelle Moran, Neil Gaiman, Elana Johnson, to Frederik Pohl, Charlie Stross and Jeff Vandermeer to name a few .  Thanks to the blogospere I have found many "new to me authors."  There are many authors I follow and have linked in my sidebars of both My Two Blessing and Mind Voyages.  I'll be spotlighting more of these authors over the coming year from whom we can learn and be entertained from their experiences.

Just like reading is as necessary to breathing to me, stories are like breathing to K.M. Weiland.   I'm working on getting to that place where writing is equal up there with books in the breathing department. 

Why she writes:

From her website:   "Stories are like breathing. Life without a story in my head is one-dimensional, stagnant, vapid. I love the life God has given me, but I think I love it better because I’m able to live out so many other lives on the page. I’m more content to be who I am because I’m not trapped in that identity. When I sit down at my computer and put my fingers on the keys, I can be anyone or anything, at any time in history. I write because it’s freedom."

                        Western Fiction  - First Chapter       Historical Fiction - First Chapter

Have you ever read the first line or paragraph of a book and been hooked by the writing?  That is how I chose whether to read a book or not.  If the description of the book interests me, then I'll open it to the first page and read it.  If that sparks my interest, I choose random pages to peruse.   Weiland's books both sparked with me and I look forward to reading them.  She has also written an e-book which is available free from her site "Crafting Unforgettable Characters" which I am in the process of reading.  It includes some interesting advice such as chapters on "interviewing your characters," "It's what your characters DO that defines them," and "What Dickens can teach us about complex characters."   I just know I'm going to end up printing the whole thing out (thank you for back to back printers) to read again and again. 

Advice:

"Writing is both a gift and an art. As a gift, it must be approached with humility: the writer is only the vessel through which inspiration flows. As an art, it must be approached with passion and discipline: a gift that’s never developed wasn’t worth the giving."

K.M also blogs at Author Culture with authors Lynette Bonner and Linda Yezak.  Be sure to check them out.  

What new authors have you discovered lately?  

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From the Query to the Call by Elana Johnson

From the Query to the Call

by

Elana Johnson

If you are a writer or an aspiring writer,or like some people like to say prepublished writer, like me, then do I have the book for you.

"From the Query to the Call" is a great e-book written by Elana Johnson coming out on Monday, September 14th. Elana gave me a sneak peek of her book and I found it to be very insightful and educational and very concise. It's a great little book at 63 pages, which I printed out, because it chockful of information and I wanted to put it in a notebook so I can refer back to it time and again. It also has the personal touch with Elana's personality shining through.

I'm still in the middle of rewriting my first book and have be wondering "what will I do when I'm done? What is so important about this query letter I keep hearing about?" It seemed from all I had heard about writing a query, it is like writing a resume for employment. I've written a few resumes over the years and generally you just gear it to the company you are applying with. Easy enough, if you know anything about the company. So how is writing a query letter different? Evidently, a lot! Reading "From the Query to the Call," showed me I know absolutely nothing about writing a query. I have picked up a few books, but ended up glossing over those sections that explained the query because it all just sounded Greek to me. "From the Query to the Call" simplifies the process and spells it out easily enough with plenty of examples to show you the way how to write that killer letter that will gain the interest of an editor or agent.

The book is broken down into two parts: 1) Writing a Killer Query and 2) Entering the Query Trenches. The first part is full of examples as she walks you through writing your query including how to hook the reader and get their attention, describe your character and setting, establishing the conflict and the consequences for your character. She takes you step by step through writing a killer query and what will grab an agents attention. The second part walks you through researching agents, sending out your killer query and responding to requests, revising for an agent and that so important part, fielding "the call." There are internet link to online resources such as querytracker and rally storm to name a few.

Also included interviews with several agented author on how they handled "The Call" which are all quite interesting and amusing. Elana takes the fear out of the query process, with her step by step approach and practical advice on how to best write a query. I really enjoyed reading the book and learned a great deal. I highly recommend it.


For more information and to see what others are saying about "From the Query to the Call," head on over to Elana's. She's hosting a contest and giving away 5 free e-books and she will have something special for the first 20 buyers of her book on Monday.