Waiting For an April Time

My bloggery of yesterday about where to go from here generated a few emails, with people telling me not to give up writing. No fear of that. Writing is a part of my life, and I still have many books in me, but I am at a crossroads, on a plateau, standing still . . . choose your cliché. (I haven’t yet told you about my love affair with Microsoft OneNote, but I just found another use for it! The WordPress article editor doesn’t add the accent mark on cliche, so I wrote the word on OneNote which does add the accent, and I copied it here. You gotta love such a versatile application!) 

I know I shouldn’t  overthink everything — as Theodore Roethke wrote: “A mind too active is no mind at all.” — but this is one time in my life that I feel like indulging myself in an orgy of thinking.  During the past eight years of learning how to write, writing my four novels, studying the publishing industry, sending out query letters, dealing with hundreds of rejections, finally finding a publisher, preparing the books for publication, and then waiting for their release, (to say nothing of learning how to use a computer, to navigate the internet, and to promote) I had the idea that I needed to write a certain way to be acceptable to a publisher. So I tried to become a writer some mythical publisher would be willing to accept. Well, unlike other authors who’s options are limited by a publisher who wants them to continue writing in the same genre — often with the same characters — I have a publisher who loves my writing and seems to be willing to publish any novel I produce. So that leaves me untethered. If I don’t have to conform to the dictates of the publishing industry, that means I have to conform to my own. Which means I have to know who I am. But the fact is, the last years of writing have changed me, so I no longer know. (Which makes me wonder: do we write a book, or does our book write us? It seems as if changes in our lives affect what we write, and what we write affects our lives and brings about changes.)

Basically, what I’m doing with all this overthinking is opening myself to the changing seasons of my life. Trying to figure out where to take my writing and where my writing (and my resistance to writing) is taking me. 

A couple of weeks ago, during my online discussion with Lazarus Barnhill (author of Lacey Took a Holiday and The Medicine People), Barnhill mentioned that Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way suggests writing three pages every morning. Basically stream of consciousness stuff. Well, I got the book, and now I’m doing the morning pages, and surprisingly, I love it! I thought it was the puzzle aspect of writing I like. Maybe it’s just the writing. So, even though it’s not creative writing, I am doing three pages a day. And I’ve mostly reclaimed my blog for myself instead of using it to promote other people, so even though that’s not creative writing, either, it also is writing. (I am still doing a bit of promotion, though I’m gearing it more toward discussions than guest appearances. Right now I am having a discussion with Malcolm Campbell, author of The Sun Singer. That discussion about the writer’s journey will be posted on this blog in another week.)

In her book The Stillwater Meadow, Gladys Tabor wrote: ”People have seasons . . . There is something steadfast about people who withstand the chilling winds of trouble, the storms that assail the heart, and have the endurance and character to wait quietly for an April time.”

Well, that’s what I’m doing — waiting (not so quietly) for an April time.

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Writer’s Block? No Such Thing

Linda Barnett-Johnson , my guest today, is Assistant Editor of Long Story Short and Director of Administration for the Long Story Short School of Writing. Linda writes:

In the dark recesses of your brain, known as the cerebral cortex, is where the words to your many stories lay dormant.  They’ve taken a leave of absence without any authorization. You know they’re there because you’ve accessed them many times before. Is this what is known as “writer’s block?”

Is there such a thing as “writer’s block?”  Does our writing mind shut down like a factory when it’s time to go home?  Does our writing ability go on vacation or enter la-la-land?  Or does it act like a signal light going from green, writing without ceasing; yellow, slowing down – getting off the track; or red, complete meltdown – do not pass go or collect $200.00 – stopped dead in its tracks. 

If writer’s block existed, you wouldn’t be able to write your name, make out a shopping list, pay your bills, or write down an appointment and keep it!  So unless you’re dead or in a coma, there are many opportunities to get over your “writer’s block.” 

Get Creative: 

Go to the park with pen and paper and write what you see.  Then what you hear, smell, feel and taste.  Your senses are always in working condition.  For example:  “The bird looked like it stood still in the air.”  Now fill it in with more description.  “The large hook-billed eagle hovered over the ground, looking for prey with his keen eyes.”  Try it with all the senses. 

Another trick is to take your dictionary and start reading the words.  A lot of times this will trigger something loose.  Or randomly pick a word and write about it.  How about randomly picking a word and adding the word land or village or town behind it.  For example:  I close my eyes and my finger lands on – “revolve.”  Now put the word land behind it and you have – Revolve Land.  I don’t know about you, but I can see a children’s story about a town that has revolving playgrounds or schools.  Use your imagination and you’ll be surprised at what you come up with.

I have a fun project I started that keeps my brain from going to la-la-land.  

1) Take a small box about 12″x12″ (or a size that suits you), and write “Story Starters” on it. 

2) Get some Baggies, a black marker, pen, and notebook paper. 

3) On one baggy write: “Character Names, another “Settings,” another “Emotions” and the last “Objects.” 

4) a) Take your pen and paper and write as many “Character Names” you can think of.  Just make up names.  Get a phone book if you have trouble.  Fill up the whole page.   Now do the same with “Settings,” “Emotions,” and “Objects.” 

    b) Cut and fold each one and put them in their individual marked baggy. 

    c) Now draw a paper from each baggy.  You now have a “Story Starter.” 

Here’s an example: 

Character Name                   Setting                  Object                      Emotion 

Baron Colmsby                    Concert                 Baby Girl                 Funny 

I choose one piece of paper from each baggy and this is what I come up with.  My imagination is running wild.  I visualize Baron Colmsby at a musical concert.  Someone has brought a baby to the event.  Think of funny incidents regarding the Baron and the baby.  In fact, that would be a good title for the story – The Baron and the Baby.  Could make for a funny story. 

You can make a baggy for anything.  How about:  “Story Titles,” “occupations,” “mannerisms,” to name a few.  That’s the fun of this project.  I even have a baggy with “phobias.”  Whatever phobia I pick from the bag, you can be sure that one of my characters has it.  It’s a blast!  There are tremendous possibilities, as well as a myriad of things to write about.  Keep it simple, or make it as elaborate as you want. Get your kids involved. 

So you see there are potentials all around us.  All you need is your imagination and your senses.  So, in my opinion, unless you have no imagination, there’s no reason for “writer’s block!”

Coloring Your Way out of Writer’s Block

How color vision actually works is still a mystery, but there is no mystery about the profound effect color has on human physiology. Red tends to raise blood pressure, increase pulse rate, and excite brain waves. Blue tends to have the reverse effect, and green tends to be neutral.

So, if you are having writer’s block, try a little color therapy. It can’t hurt; at the very least it will give you something besides your computer screen or those same old walls to stare at. And it has the benefit of being exceedingly simple. All you have to do is choose your color from the following list, wear it, hang it on the wall, find a knickknack or a bouquet of flowers that color to put on your desk, then focus on it.

Purple will boost your creativity, and help stimulate your intuitive abilities.

Yellow can help you feel optimistic if your blockage is making you anxious and depressed. It can also induce enlightenment, which is what you are looking for.

Dark blue encourages meditative thinking, so it’s especially helpful if are having difficulty focusing.

Green helps promote harmony if your inability to write is making you irritable.

Red will energize you if you’re too tired to think.

Even if the color therapy doesn’t bring about the effect you wish, playing around with all those colors will give your mind a rest from writing, and perhaps when you return to your keyboard, the problem will have resolved itself.

If not, do what I do: go for a walk.