Tag: Not Fiction

The Mini-Writing Retreat

For the last few months, I’ve been trying to think of ways to go on a writing retreat. It sounds quite appealing: arrive at a picturesque location, enjoy some shop talk with other storytellers, maybe hear an inspiring lecture, then buckle down with some well-deserved writing time! Whether it’s three days, a week, or more, the prospect of being in a self-imposed creative exile certainly sounds like the path of a true artist. Sadly, that’s not always available. Even three days is a long time when you don’t have the resources. Even if you can sacrifice a whole weekend for a writing retreat, you still might feel compelled to do errands, not to mention that you’d have to be able to easily seclude yourself from the day-to-day if you can’t afford to physically distance yourself from the distractions you love. These past few weekends, I started doing Mini-Writing Retreats. While the romantic notion of going away for weeks at a time locked in the struggles of creating is not feasible for me at the moment, I can usually find an open day in my weekly schedule. So, I’ve started committing myself to my writing time again. If you’re interested in creating a Mini-Writing Retreat for yourself, here’s how mine usually goes down.  

Before: The days before I like to take care of things like food shopping, cleaning, and other little chores that might distract me. If I have the time to make a few meals I’ll do that and make sure the dishwasher is empty. Nothing throws off your rhythm like the temptation of something you “have to get done.” Plan out your meals and a couple of snacks so you don’t drift over to the fridge every five minutes to browse (and if you’re like me, grab something sweet to look forward to at the end of the day). Prepare to go social media dark for the day of, to ensure that all your distractions are limited, if not completely gone! 

Day of:
5:30- Wake up. I know some of you are already rolling your eyes, but trust me. The silence of the very early morning is the best time to get in the mindset. Make yourself a pot of tea or coffee, make some breakfast (not just cereal), and enjoy a bit of relaxation before the retreat truly begins.  

6:00-8:00- Writing. Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of editing, but commit some time to your work in progress. Actual work, not just mood boards or Spotify playlists. Put on some meditative music or something else instrumental to help set the writing mood if that helps.  

8:00-9:30- Break and Walk. I like to get some steps in and let my brain work out any story problems I might encounter in those first hours’ worth of work. There’s a trail near my apartment that takes a little over an hour to make a loop of, so I’ll do that followed by a shower and getting dressed in real clothes (sweatpants are only acceptable for so long, even if you don’t plan to leave the house).  

9:30-1:00 Writing. Get back to it! This is why you’re here!  

1:00-2:00 Lunch. Break out one of those premade meals and sit with it away from your writing space. Let your mind relax a bit and give yourself a proper lunch break. Some light reading is suggested or even a quick writing lecture on YouTube to further inspire you. Set a timer, though. Can’t fall too far down the black hole. 

2:00-5:00 Writing, writing, writing! 

5:00-5:30 dinner. Pop out another pre-made meal and give yourself a quick dinner break to mull over your last few story problems.  

5:30-7:00 Last Writing Sprint. Wrap up whatever you’re working on.  

I usually like to wind down afterward with a nice, sweet treat and a movie. After all, you just worked a full day!  Congratulate yourself on an excellent writing retreat and start thinking about when you’re gonna do your next!  Have you ever given yourself a Mini-Writing Retreat? Have you ever been on a professionally hosted writing retreat?  

Razor Sharp Focus

It’s so easy to feel like writing is something that can just be jumped into. We like to think of it like sky diving, a story idea taking us up and then we free fall as the words pour out of us in a smooth, endless string that eventually forms a story. Trying to keep that focus can prove to be the most challenging part. In an age of endless texting, social media notifications or the dreaded ‘just one quick video for ‘research”, it is so easy to drift off from a blank writing document. I think–like many writers joke about–most of my chores around the apartment get done in the time that I had set aside for writing (“Just gonna do the dishes real quick”). Even grabbing a fresh cup of tea is a potential disaster for distractions on the way to and from the kitchen.

If I have a good stretch of time off during the day, I like to try and set some of it aside for writing. To stay in the habit I’ll write a little each morning before work (usually not much), but if I have a day off (from library work or volunteer work), I’ll carve out a good chunk of time for writing. To make the most of it, I do everything I can to settle into the space before getting to work.

I always start with a fresh cup of tea. It’s usually very meditative and slows my pace long enough to think about where the story is and where I think it should go during the next few steps. I’ve always found the process of tea very calming: having to wait for the water, the feeling of a tea mug, the warmth of the boiled water, and all the smells that come from that first, fresh pour. I’ll also grab a snack so I’ll have one less excuse to get up at some point during my writing session (recent snack of choice? Peanut Butter Pretzels).

Something that I do struggle with is my mind wandering. I’ll put on music if there’s a certain mood that I’m going for, but I also enjoy listening to a few podcasts while writing. Some of my favorite podcasts to write to come from the McElroy brothers since I can kind of tune in and out without missing too much of the story. I jokingly call it the Golden Retriever Effect (ya know, like when you turn on the TV for your dog so they don’t feel like they’re alone? Kinda like that).

Making the most out of the time available is very important. Focus can be really hard to master, but giving yourself a conducive writing space is the easiest way to find your rhythm and stick with it. Forming a mental bubble around your space is more than just a good writing practice, it’s a survival tactic to keep your focus on what’s important!

What rituals/things do you do to make your writing space the most efficient it can be?

The Lunch Break Novelist

When I was working for a court reporting company, I called myself a Lunch Break Novelist. Each day, on my breaks and lunch, I would eat quickly and the break out my laptop to get some writing done while on my lunch break. On a good day, I could polish off a solid 700 words that I was satisfied with before having to head back to my desk. I’d spend time first thing in the morning and pick up right where I left off on my lunch and again when I got home. Some days were better than others, but I was usually able to come up with something by the end of the day.

One thing I see a lot when I talk with non-writers is “I just don’t have the time” as a popular excuse. The reality is that there’s always time. Five minutes here, thirty minutes there, another twenty at the end of the day–it adds up quicker than a lot of people realize. Yes, every writer would love to have the experience of getting into the flow state and write thousands of words over the course of the day, but that almost never happens (even with all the time in the world).

As I transition into working more hours at the library, I’ve been working on finding the time through out the course of the day. I’ve been practicing the idea of “Showing Up” rather than making a scheduled commitment. Rather than over exerting myself to get to a word count every day, I’ve been trying to get more into the mind set of putting time to it. It’s been easier to put aside time before work and wake up to ensure I can put the time into it. My breaks at the library now are too short to properly spend time on it, but I’m hoping to get back into the habit of being a Lunch Break Novelist (or at least a Lunch Break Editor).

Time is funny like that. While it is infinite by definition, we’ve come to treat it as a rarity. If we don’t have hours to spend on something, we question if we’re really committed to it. The reality is that there are hours we can spend on something, but they’re very rarely all in one place. It’s all about piecing things together and making the time. Five minutes a day with a notebook and pencil can add up faster than you think.

Are you a Lunch Time Novelist? Where do you find or make the time to commit to your writing?

Surprise Book Feelings!

Hello again, friends!

Today, I’m gonna talk a little about reading. Shouldn’t be surprising on a writing blog that I do enjoy the occasional book with a mug of tea, but I feel like I don’t really talk about it enough. I’d like to talk about a very specific experience I had recently, as well as give a little reading recommendation while I’m at it.

I recently encountered the book Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. I’d heard of it from several people and decided to check it out for the first time! The basic premise is “What happens to all those kids who go through portal fantasies and have to come back to the ‘real’ world?” Think of Alice from Alice in Wonderland coming back from her adventures, then running into the Pevensie children from Narnia and forming a little support group. This book has lots of great things: a killer premise, likable characters, and an engaging plot! Aside from all this, there is a trans character and an actual asexual character! Not in the wishy-washy ‘Head Canon’ kind of way, but the character describes herself and her asexuality on the page for everyone to see. I don’t get to enjoy that very often, so it was a real delight to have that come up! But what really hit me was the ending. I won’t spoil things because I think everyone should read this book right away, but it ended very quickly and I sat up and said “No! I’m not ready to go!”

And what struck me as funny was that feeling was a huge point of the character’s struggle. They weren’t ready to leave their worlds behind, but they were booted back to reality. I’m not sure if this was by design, but in that moment of reading the last words, I finally understood what the characters were grappling with. I wanted nothing more than to go back into the world I’d just been dropped from and continue the adventures.

Luckily for me, I don’t have to wait for a magic door to take me back. McGuire has several more books in this series and I look forward to reading those as soon as I can.

Have you read this book? What did you think? Do you want to see more book reviews like this? Let me know!

After The Submission Scramble and Looking Forward

It has been a busy month! I recently moved and have been working a fair bit. Some of you may remember that I also undertook a project I was calling “The September Submission Scramble”. I’m proud to say that I finished and succeeded! Many magazine submissions, agent queries and contest entries later, I feel like I finished a lot over the course of the past month. I also feel like I was much more active.

The easiest way to win a card game is by holding most of the deck, right? Yes, technically, that’s not how you play cards, but you see my point? I feel like with submissions, you need to jump in if you want to play. I’ve always known that writing takes a surprising amount of luck, but the odds are better when you have a bigger sample size. The work I’ve been putting into this past month has been rewarding. It only takes ten minutes to get a query sent out, so I’ll probably be sending out a lot more of them. I highly recommend every writer try this. Pick a month and commit to submitting your poems, short fiction, novels, everything to anyone you think might publish it. The biggest problem is the fear of rejection, but I’m bracing myself for it.

That being said, I’m working on trying to figure out what the next month holds. Maybe some new short fiction to submit around or some more editing of older pieces. I’m half tempted to do Nanowrimo this year just to get the draft of something new out. Either way, I feel like I’m being a lot more active. Even if the choices I made this month were bad choices, at least I made them. I’m looking forward for what’s to come!

Reset

Every so often, I fall into a bit of a funk. Sometimes, it’s depression or anxiety, but sometimes it’s more about things that are happening in my life that are beyond my control. My anxious brain hates losing control, so it often decides to lock up rather than face things I can control. I’ve gotten better at seeing these funks in advance, but they still sneak up on me every so often. When I get stuck, it can be hard to get out. So, for the sake of anyone who gets stuck, here are a few things I do to reset my brain in an attempt to get some control back. (Obviously, I encourage therapy for anyone who thinks they need it and know that these are only quick fixes that help get through the tougher spots)

  1. Go for a Hike:
    This one is probably my favorite and usually my default. There’s nothing like going deep into the woods and shedding the worries of the human world into the boughs of the tall trees. It gets harder when you need to think about the weather, but getting out of the same routine/place can be really invigorating to me.
  2. Bake:
    This one is probably more people’s cup of tea for the rewards built into it! There’s something about the methodicalness of baking that I find very relaxing. You find a recipe, collect the ingredients, mix them together as instructed, and pop them in the oven. Plus, a nice, warm baked good can be good for the soul.
  3. Photography:
    Taking pictures is another one of my passions. There’s something about focusing through the lens of a camera (pun intended, of course) and blocking out the rest of the world. Whether it’s something indoors or nature photography, I find that shifting my creative gears with no expectations can be really good for my brain.
  4. Reading:
    This one can really depend on the funk or the book, to be honest, but it can work really well in the right circumstances. There’s a comfort in a story, particularly one that you know really well. The words are welcoming and kinder. When everything outside is out of control, knowing that things will work out in the right book is a small glimmer of hope that the outside will work out as well.
  5. Meditate to Music:
    This is better when I’m wrestling anxiety because it gives me a chance to work exactly what I’m feeling and how. It’s hard to embrace the feelings without judging them, but taking time to really sit with some music to help focus my thoughts can give me a chance to really zero in on what’s bothering me and what I can do to fix it.

If you find yourself in a funk, what do you like to do? Do you turn to your passions and push through or do you try to enter the things you love without bringing negative emotions into it?

Black Lives Matter

I’ve tried writing and rewriting this for most of an hour and can barely make it beyond the first sentence. Everything I say feels like it’s already been said and I don’t feel like I have much authority on the subject. It goes without saying, but Black Lives Matter and it’s our responsibility to act.

I’ll say please consider donating to a Bail Fund in your state if you have the resources. I also highly encourage you to donate and spread the word for the following organizations. With all the donations going around, we need to help as many groups as possible:
Reclaim the Block – Minneapolis community and city council members to move money from the police department into other areas of the city’s budget that truly promote community health and safety
The Okra Fund – NY based community and food for black trans people.
Black Trans Protestor Fund
Black Lives Matter
Black Visions Collective – similar to BLM, but Minneapolis base

I intend to read more books by black authors this month and consume more black media in general. It’s important to hear voices now more than ever, but it’s also important to listen to those experiences. Currently, I’m reading “The Fifth Season” by N.K. Jemisin which I’m thoroughly enjoying. If you’re interested in joining me in reading books by black authors, I would recommend purchasing through the stores in this article:
https://afrotech.com/this-mompreneur-is-launching-detroits-first-coworking-play-space-for-families
Support Black Owned Business and Still Keep Social Distance.

Stay Safe. Stay Well.

Eat my shorts!

We are rolling into May! Hope everyone is staying healthy, washing hand, and taking care of that ever important mental health! I’ve been keeping busy, splitting my time between different photography ideas and writing lots of flash and short fiction. Which has led to me thinking a lot about brevity in writing.

Flash fiction, in my opinion, is incredibly difficult to pull off. As someone who usually prefers speculative fiction, having to tell a story in such a short amount of time is very alien to me (why tell a story if I can’t construct the entire world around it?). Still, this quarantine has been giving me lots of time to work on my short form fiction. I’ve been engaging in Write-A-Thons where I’ll try to take a story from conception to composed (not edited) in a few short boosts. These pieces range from 1,000 to 3,000 words. I’ve been getting a lot of prompts from the Reedsy Blog. They hold weekly contests, so I figured (since I’m home all the time) I figured I should submit to their contests, if only to stay in shape. You can check these stories on my Reedsy profile, which is linked through my ‘Original Fiction’ page.

One big question is, why write flash fiction? If you’ve been following me for a while, you’re familiar with the short form fiction I pop out monthly. I always treated these similar to how an artist or illustrator will post their works in progress on their websites and so I can keep my writing brain active. I love the challenge of telling a whole story in as few words as possible. As much as my heart belongs to long-form storytelling, I also enjoy giving people the option to read something short and sweet rather than hope they’ll go through a whole novel on faith that I’m a good writer. Not that we don’t have the time now, right?

What are some of your favorite short fiction pieces? What makes a piece of short fiction really entertaining?

Home Office

First of all, I hope everyone is safe and healthy. Things are intense out there, but we need to work together to stop the spread of the virus as best we can. That means we all gotta be smart and work together. One of the biggest ways we can do that is by working at home as much as we can.

This is a good time to talk about the best practices for working at home. Since August, I’ve been (more or less) working from my kitchen table and I have a few suggestions for people who are struggling with the transition from a structured office to a productive Work At Home.

First, make a schedule and try to keep to it. I have an alarm for 5:30 and usually roll out of bed at 6:00. After I shower, I’ll make some breakfast, usually eggs and spend some time on Facebook and other social media to see what I missed. After that, I’ll settle into my current project (whether that’s editing or writing). Around noon, I’ll go for a walk outside (not too far and alone). I usually close up around 5 or 5:30, but I’ll keep going if I’m on a good roll. At worst, I’ll close up everything at 7:00 and go do some reading in bed before I fall asleep.

Which leads to my next point: Have more than one space to work in, if you can. If you have access to more than one space, you should establish one as your workspace and one as your recreational/sleep space. I have a separate bedroom than my living space, so it’s easy to close my door at night and leave my writing work at my kitchen table. I have the bad habit of working while eating other meals, but who isn’t a little bit guilty of that? I’m able to limit the overlap between Working Brain and Sleeping Brain by physical space.

Thirdly, drink a lot. No, I don’t mean that kind of drinking. Water and tea are my suggestions. It’s important to stay hydrated through out the day. I’ve been going through six or seven mugs of tea a day at this point. When working at home, it’s strangely easy to ignore our basic needs like water.

And finally, don’t forget to stop working! Yes, productivity at home is good, but don’t let that drive burn you out completely. When we’re working, it’s easier to keep track of our daily work schedule and clock out right at 5:00. When you’re already home, what’s five more minutes? Then ten minutes. And next thing you know, it’s dark outside already (which is shocking now that we’re entering the long, summer days).

Above all else, if you’re working from home? Stay healthy both physically and mentally. So, stay safe, stay well and don’t forget to relax once in a while.

Reinventing the wheel…

At a certain point in every editing experience, it feels like you’re just staring at static words. You’ve so carefully reviewed the material so many times that it all starts to blend together into a mess of letters. As someone who edits a lot of their own work, it’s inevitable that things get missed. But recently, I found a technique that works really well for me and I’d like to share it with you!

It works like this. I have my most recent version of my piece that I’m working on open to the right of my screen and a blank document to my left (for those of you with two monitor rigs, good for you). From there, I rewrite the entire pieces. Word for word.

What do I like about this technique? For a start, I feel like I have to be very careful and it makes me focus. I catch words that I glance over in previous edited versions (either that are the wrong word or just completely missed due to ‘static editing’). I have a chance to reconsider grammar that I missed initially. When I’m rewriting the words, I hear them as I’m reading them, so I can reconsider my word choice.

Rewriting also gives me a chance to look beyond just basic word choice. I can examine entire sections and change them. I can expand sections or cut passages to improve the pacing. Without having to think about ‘What Comes Next?’ I get to focus purely on how things sound and can change them accordingly. I can focus more on pacing, descriptions, and incorporating details into dialogue.

Is it time consuming and tiring? Absolutely, but I think it’s important to find a method that works and embrace it. What are some of your favorite editing tricks and tips?