IWSG: Getting into the Zone

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

 

The awesome co-hosts for the May 6 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Beverly Stowe McClure, Mary Aalgaard, Kim Lajevardi, and Chemist Ken!  Be sure to visit and give them some love!

Optional May 6 question - Do you have any rituals that you use when you need help getting into the ZONE? 

This is definitely a good question for me this month! Regular readers of this blog have seen my "Writer's Wednesday" posts that seem to keep saying the same thing: "I can't make myself settle down and attack my edits."

Since that is still true, I probably don't have much good advice about getting into the zone (I have to wonder if it would be easier if I were in drafting mode--I can kind of see falling into a new story, and I'm tempted to just do it). Here's what I've been trying.

•  Doing some beta reads. This has helped a lot in the past--kind of get my mind in the editorial groove and keep on going. This time? Maybe helped a little. At least I got feedback to my writer friends in a timely fashion!
• Making outlines and notes.  This is something that has to be done in any case, and is looking helpful in the long run. But I'm still finding it a lot easier to take another look to see if anyone's shared a funny FB meme than to even do the relatively easy task of sorting out what I've written and what needs to change. I haven't even gotten to the really hard work of actually making those changes. At least the multi-color outline is aesthetically pleasing.
• Picking off other tasks that are distracting. I'm chipping away at editing photos from our extensive travels in Patagonia and Antarctica, as well as finally got started on our taxes (note: I have NEVER before procrastinated about our taxes. Not sure what's up with that!).
• Finally, I'm kind of trying to accept my restlessness and do things to keep sane: lots of exercise, a bit of effort at imposing order on the house and garden, and planning summer backpacking trips as though I'm confident they'll happen.

 I'm not sure this is about getting into the "zone", but it is what I'm doing to try to keep working, at least a little bit. How about you? Anything working for you in these unsettling times?

And my obligatory gratuitous photos for the day:

It's okay to feel like we're adrift in an alien space.

The cave is beautiful, but deadly. I hope that's not true of our hidey-holes as we shelter in place!

And, finally, stare at the snow and be mesmerized. Let your mind go blank...

 

 All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2020, unless otherwise indicated.
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

 

Writer’s Wednesday

The big news: we are back in the USA, and on the same day as my family!

Since we have been on the road so much this month, I haven’t been posting regularly. Nor have I been writing much besides my journal. But I have been thinking about a couple of things. One is a short story that I will probably pop out in a week or two, and the other is what it is I need to do with Gorg the Troll. I was re-inspired by seeing quite a lot of rocks lately that are what I think of as Gorg and his kinfolk!

I think at some point I’ll run a contest for the best photo of a face in a rock—when I am ready to start promoting the Gorg book :)

A final note: I could still use another reader or two for the beta draft of Death By Library. I unfortunately forgot to mention this with my WEP post, but I’ll be sharing that need for the next severeal posts. Just drop me a note in the comments if you want to read for me, or send an email through the “Contact Me” page of this blog.

This one might not be Gorg so much as Gorg’s dog.

Writer's Update

It's been a bit of a slow winter. I struggled through the first revisions of Death By Trombone, the second of the Pismawallops PTA mysteries. After about three months longer than I intended, it finally yielded to my efforts. By that time I was no longer sure if I had a book at all. So I sent it out last month to a crew of beta readers. I'm happy to say that word has come back from at least two that the story does hold together, the mystery works, and they were not hopelessly confused by things that I failed to explain. With that encouragement, I sent the book out last week to the editor who did so much to make Death By Ice Cream into a real book, and am awaiting her feedback, along with that of other beta readers, including my long-time writing support, Lisa Frieden.

Sending the book off left me a bit at loose ends. Aside from doing the taxes, and my first ever run at the FAFSA (the "Free Application for Federal Student Aid" which pretty much all US college students--or rather, their parents--need to complete to have any hope of any kind of aid paying for school), I didn't get much done beyond this blog. I manged a bit of work on a free-lance project, and then this story, which ran out of control. First it grew to two parts, with an ending that didn't satisfy me. So I backed up, ran at it again, and ended up with over 11,000 words, now awaiting an edit to see if I have something.

Finally, today I got down to the project I've been nibbling around the edges of: the 3rd Ninja Librarian book (which might be The Problem of Peggy, or might be Further Tales from Skunk Corners). I hauled out everything I've written so far, rewrote the first chapter where I had experimented with writing in the voice of the Librarian himself (kind of fun but not sustainable), and put all the bits together in their probably order, and created a rough outline. Then I looked at what I had, and found that it was just short of 16,000 words. That's a third of the book. I was dumbstruck, to put it mildly. I thought I'd barely made a start.

Just seeing the reality of what I'd produced was the biggest boost I could have given myself. I worked hard for a few hours, and had far more than those few hours' work to show for it. Maybe I've invented a new cure for writer's block: stealth writing. Just put down a bit here and there, in different notebooks and files. You don't have to worry about that block, because it's not really writing, you know. You're just filling time. Getting some ideas down. Maybe having a bit of fun.

Then when you really need it, put it together and see what you have. More than I expected, that's for sure!

Oh, and for a final boost, I got an email from our local Project Read (adult literacy) leader, saying they'd like to use Death By Ice Cream for their book club read. So I ended the day a great deal better than I began it (still adjusting to that blasted time change!).

What great discoveries have you made this week? Is your work thriving or in need of a shot in the arm?

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Dang, I'm having trouble thinking of a good gratuitous photo for this one. Maybe...

This, to celebrate the first two Ninja Librarian books.

And this, to remind me that my output really has been respectable since I published The Ninja Librarian in 2012.

And, finally, this. Because Death By Ice Cream can happen in the coolest places. Like the Kelso Depot.

Updates and business and stuff

This is just a post to say that I will be traveling through most of July, and won't be able to post regularly (if at all.  It depends on finding a hot spot and time to make use of it).  I will schedule in advance as many posts as I can, spread throughout the month.  But I won't be making my three-a-week schedule, and the fiction will get a bit thin on the ground.

Taking July off presents me with a lot of challenges.  For one thing, I'll lose momentum in my writing (I know from experience that when we are on the road, I do well to keep my journal/trip log up to date, let alone any other writing).  I hope to have Return to Skunk Corners ready to go before I leave, so that I can plan on a publication date in early August, when I'm back to manage that.  And I've starting plotting and planning and scheming a sequel to Murder Stalks the PTA, even though I haven't finished that one yet.  So I'll keep working on that if I have time (though as about the only thing that would give me that kind of time would be illness, I hope I don't have time!  I've already done that, coughing my lungs out in camp while the rest of the family hiked all over Glacier National Park).

If I could work in a moving car this would go a lot better!  But except maybe on some stretches of freeway (and we won't be seeing many of those), I'm apt to puke if I try to do much besides stare out the window.  And I will NOT haul a fat MS along when backpacking, though I always carry my journal, so I can keep working.

So when you wonder why I'm not posting, just bear in mind that this is my idea of a vacation:

A relaxing day in the country:

 New heights of inspiration:

 

A family meal:

 (All three photos copyright Dave Dempsey; used with permission)