Geesh.  Blogs are now the new hip research project.  The hypothesis is that blogging is good for you. 

And this is a surprise?  Didn’t anyone read the same studies I read about 25 years ago  (cough, cough)? How writing encourages good health was the research topic.  Isn’t blogging considered writing?  So why wouldn’t you surmise that the results might be similar? 

The 25 year old article stressed how even the simple act of writing a list of things to do can greatly improve your well being.

Drawing up a checklist can relieve mental stress, it reported.  By looking at the tasks at a glance, you can tell how realistic your expectations are.  When half the list falls to the next day, it comes as no surprise.  You have become mentally prepared for the stress of  not completing everything you had hoped and therefore, alleviating some of the stress that accompanies leftover tasks.  As the tasks are accomplished, you tick them off,  and aside from getting stuff done, you also get a surge of serotonin, a chemical in your brain, which makes you appreciate what you accomplished.  You feel good.  You feel satisfied.

So what if you poured your feelings onto a page, spewed forth your anger, your frustrations and recognize your many gratitudes and why you feel so blessed?  Will it have a more noticeable, positive impact?  If I remember correctly, it does.  When you spill your guts onto a blank page, it is like opening a pressure cooker valve release. 

At Southern Methodist University and Ohio State University College of Medicine the scientists conducted clinical tests that show that writing contributes directly to your physical health too.  They noticed that their subjects who wrote thoughtfully about their traumatic experience showed increased T-cell production, drop in physician visits, fewer use of sick days, and overall improvement in physical health.

This makes sense, because say we accept the assumption that writing relieves stress.  If stress is relieved, then the immune system is not compromised.  Supposedly, stress and over eating can cause the immune system to slow, leaving the body vulnerable to greater opportunities for infection.  So it is safe to say writing is considered a stress coping mechanism.

Research also reveals that writing improves memory and sleep and speeds healing after surgery. 

All of this is not new.  People have been writing journals and diaries for eons, but what is different is that blogging has allowed the researchers greater access to the process and content.  Bloggers share their thoughts with the world.  And maybe that’s what is making a difference in this round of research studies.  Bloggers hide nothing. 

One article referred to blogging as self-medicating.  Interesting viewpoint…maybe this is up for further exploration in another entry?  Suddenly I’m feeling quite tired.  Did I over do it with the self medication with all this thinking and writing?  Until another day.

You want to come up with something unique.  You want to find a subject or topic that will sustain you through the marathon writing process.  And whether you are a first time novelist or written 25 books, you are forever searching for that novel idea that will bubble to the surface and have universal appeal.

Every story has been told.  You know that…think.  How many ways can you write about a romance? 

Boy meets girl.  Boy and girl enjoy each other’s company eventually.  Girl gets annoyed, disappointed, or hates boy.  Boy finds a way to make amends.  Boy and girl get back together on some level.

Here’s what is going to make your romance novel different.  You are going to find two unique individuals.  They are in opposition in thought, ideals, careers.  Pick one that your readers will find interesting and will be able to identify.  Then, throw in some “what ifs.”  What if it were set in NYC?  How would it change if it were in Kansas? Or set in Alaska?  Or in Jakarta? 

What do we have so far?  Two unique individuals engaged in an opposing viewpoin and living in a locale embracing who these two are or completely challenging them.  The venue is like a silent character.  Bring texture to your novel by selecting a venue that will heighten the differences or be symbolic of the conflict betwen them.  For example, did the inclusion (like a jounralist’s sidebar) of a mother bear protecting her young, emphasize the nurturing characteristc in the female protagonist?  Or is the salmon’s run to its spawning place highlight a male protagonist goal? 

These examples are stereotypical of the male and female role.  What if you have the nature image switched?  What if you show the male bear protecting its cub and pair that up with the male protagonist?  How does that subtly change the message?

None of your stories will be originals.  What makes them unique and yours are the elements you choose to craft the storyline.  You also bring your unique viewpoint and personality.  These are the things that mask the underlying storyline and tug at the reader’s emotional heartstrings.  Think of all the possible combinations and permutations that are embedded in the simple storyline.  When there are too many similar combinations, we recognize that and think it was a ripoff of another more familiar story.  So use your unique experience and writing style to make the story yours.

A good story has all its elements intertwined and working to support other story elements.  If you are cognizant of why you choose what you decide to include in your novel, you will increase your storytelling power.  Like a large jigaw puzzle, there are pieces that almost fit and really look like they do fit because they are so close in color and shape. But upon closer examination you can tell they don’t quite fit.  The puzzle pieces are not pressed snugly against each other, a small gap along one curve.  To leave that one piece in the wrong place, will not change the result— a piece or many pieces left over; there will be unanswered story threads.   And therefore, under the critical eye of the reader, your novel won’t rate a “WOW!”  It will solicit an: “Oh.”

If you are a writer…and even if you aren’t a writer, there comes a day when you face a blank piece of paper or the glaring whiteness of a blank computer page.  I’m sure you’ve heard the “write what you know about” and still find yourself scratching your head for a topic or theme. 

Why not start here?  Instead of trying to pick a theme or topic, another approach is to define who you would like to read whatever you want to write.   Is it for men?  Women?  Both genders?  For fishing lovers?  Baseball fans?  You get the idea.

Once you get the demographics down, think about what that group of people would like to read about, if you were one of the group.  Oh no, you don’t know anything about that topic?   It is easier to write about something you know, so now your task is to get to know something about whatever you’ve chosen.  Do the research.  Get to know people in the field.  Ask questions. People love to talk about what they know best.  And most people I’ve found are very generous with their time when they trust you.  (and in the process, you might discover a new best friend.  How cool is that?)

While you are interviewing, listen carefully, because the people will tell you stories and subtext, which you will convert into sidebars.  Since I am focusing on novel writing, these stories become your subplots.   You have a bunch of notes, story clips, venue descriptions and vocabulary (topic jargon) at your disposal.  This information is the basis for your skeletal outline.

If you didn’t find story lines in your interviews, you either didn’t ask enough questions, not listening hard enough, or couldn’t get the person to open up.  If this is the case, while you are honing your interviewing skills, find subplots from newspaper and magazine articles (things that happen in everyday).

Now you’ve got the bits and pieces.  Take what you now know and see if you can find a common denominator for a theme.  It could be forgiveness, courage, or love.  See how the main plot and the subplots highlight the theme.  Write it down because if you are like me, brilliance only strikes once.

Once you got this in place, you can start breathing life into your characters.  Do character sketches so you have a backstory and motivation.  Remember each major character must have a goal.  Since goal to me sounds so clinical, I prefer calling it a yearning, something that the character must have to make him or herself feel happy, satisfied or whole.

Whatever you call it, make sure the yearning is clear.  This is what is going to have the readers hooked.  We readers want the feeling of rooting for the character.  We can identify with that void and need to have it fulfilled.

Good luck and let me know how this works for you.

Some predict that the recent surge in gas prices will force publishing to be more choosey about what they publish.  I’m not tapped in.  Maybe they are already.  We can see the increase in food and clothing prices, but have we noticed an increase in hardbound books?  Paperbacks?

It stands to reason that if delivery costs the booksellers more, then this cost will be passed to the consumer.  Will the consumer be willing to pay $30 to read a first time novelist?  Pretty expensive for an iffy read.

Looming gas prices will pressure people to purchase e-books.  While there is something awkward and less satisfying about reading a book on your computer or  on a handheld telecommunication device, the electronic version is the obvious solution to cost. 

However, I don’t think the pleasure of holding a new book and experiencing the anticipation of delving into a good read will disappear. 

Here’s a thought.  Can you imagine reading a book on a 60″ plasma tv while sitting on the couch and pressing the remote to turn pages?  After all, you could probably adjust the text size, change the font, color and whatever else.  At least you may not have  to look around the house for your glasses. 

I know I set four goals last week.  I haven’t been procrastinating.  The past couple of days have been filled with personal and professional demands.  I have been working on my second goal — the writing timeline, but have yet to commit it to the web.  And my fourth goal — not to make excuses any more starts here. 

So for today’s post, I thought I would share some of my favorite books on writing.  Here is the shortlist. 

1. Writing the Breakout Novel + Workbook by Donald Maas.  By far, this is one of my favorite books.  It is comprehensive by a man who has read thousands of manuscripts over the years.  He is a critic, a literary agent, a teacher.  His teachings are interactive and has a nice even hand with all the literary elements.  Retail cost: $36.98 for the two book set.

2.  Another very good writer and teacher of how to write a novel is Noah Lukeman.  Although I have only read articles he has written and bits and pieces of his books, I find his writing style very engaging and his knowledge on how to craft a story insightful.  Here are three of his books:

The Plot Thickens: Ways to Bring Fiction to Life - 2002 - 252 pages
The First Five Pages: A Writer’S Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile - 2000 - 208 pages
The Art of Punctuation - 2006 - 200 pages

3.  How to Tell A Story:  The Secrets of Writing Captivating Tales by Peter Rubie and Gary Provost had to be one of my all time favorite how to books.  I think you too will find it helpful in crafting your story line. Retail cost was about $18.

4.  Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Albert Zuckerman connects the dots for you.  It breaks down why novels such as Gone with the Wind, The Godfather, and The Thornbirds achieved popularity.  It also has a chapter on how to get your books on the Bestseller’s Lists.

5.  The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is inspirational in that it helps one get focused on writing by discovering and working with your own personality.  It is a must read, no matter what your occupation.   It will open up your creative self and work with your self doubts.  Retail cost: $16

There is one more book on the list that I perused at Barnes and Noble this past weekend.  Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt is very well organized, user friendly and perfect to carry with you while you are between tasks.  I am tempted to buy it because it could very well be the umpf to get my would-be novel onto paper.  I know what I should be doing, but is another prompt going to help me get there?  Good question. 

Let me know what books you found useful.  If you have read any of the books in this post, I would like to hear your thoughts.

Yesterday I visited a psychic for fun.  I do that every so often.  I had never been to this particular person before and am always amazed at the range of intuition.  As I have mentioned in my blog, I have a problem with staying focused on writing projects.  I thought that maybe I had a problem with fear of the blank page, fear of success, fear of criticism, or fear of finding out the very thing I thought I had a talent for was wrong. 

Yesterday’s reading was not so much a look into the future, but a recap of what is here and now.  The psychic accurately described of me and my family in the present without much information from me.

What was most revealing was my inability to settle down and write took a new light.  The psychic said I have the interest, the talent, and the opportunity.  Apparently, what I heard was that my passion is anemic.  I am not passionless, but I do present to the world a more controlled feeling about me. The good thing was knowing I wasn’t suffering from all those common fears of writing.  My issue is unique.  I have passion for writing, but apparently, not enough. 

So the big question is HOW do I fix that  — Lack of Passion.  Maybe I shouldn’t refer to is as a lack of passion but more like a controlled passion.  How do I ratchet that desire up?  Let’s hold this thought while I back track to get to the meat of this blog —the four P’s for Success. 

In the 1980’s an article by Bill Cosby appeared in the Washington Post magazine about the four P’s for success  — passion, persistence, patience, and practice.   (see the word passion mentioned…)

If you are short of any one of these four P’s, you are not going to reach your potential, Cosby implies.  Cosby may be right.  When I think about successful writers —Tom Clancy, Nora Roberts, and Ken Follett.  Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and the list goes on and on.  They all possess the four P’s.

Bill Cosby pointed out that talent wasn’t necessary for success, but it sure makes the road to success a whole lot easier.  You have to admit that we have all read books that we couldn’t get passed the first page, much less 200 more pages of the same writing.  You wonder: “How did this person ever get published?  You think you could write a novel better than what you just read.  And maybe you can. 

Well, let’s look at that not-so-talented person in light of the 4 P’s and how this person  (Ms. Write) achieved her goal. 

PASSION: Ms. Write probably read a novel and said those very words “I can write a novel as good or better than the one I just read.”  Her characters start sharing their lives with her and she becomes engrossed in the conflicted emotional lives of her new friends.  She has no end, but trusts that she will know when she gets there, when the denouement plays out, when all the characters have resolved their conflicts for good or for bad.  Her passion swells directly proportional to her emotional investment on each page.

Passion for Ms. Write means sacrifice.  She has to finish the scene, the chapter, the story.  Despite her long hours at work, being a mother to her children, her husband, a myriad of other equally demanding events that pepper the day, she has to write.  She is compelled to sit at the computer between 11 and 2 in the morning. 

Suggestions to increase passion:

1. Get a mentor or join a writing workshop.
2. Start journaling - Write about your desires and hopes.  See if that amps up the motivation. 
3. Create a time line for a project.  Post the time line so that it is visible every time you sit at your computer.
4. Find someone who shares your passion for writing so that you can keep your writing in the forefront.
5. Start listing the items you have to do for the day and be sure that writing is on the list, but receives priority attention.  This means it is one of the top three activities you hope to accomplish for the day.  If your writing appears at the bottom of the list, you are more than likely never going to get to it, or maybe if you do, time, tiredness or something else will short out your efforts to complete your daily goal.

PERSISTENCE: Despite the unending interruptions, the not-really understanding family, Ms. Write keeps plugging away at her novel.  She sets goals for herself, tiny benchmarks to push her to the finishline.  She doesn’t allow herself to succumb to excuses, even when her novel doesn’t unravel as smoothly as she would like. 

Suggestions to improve your persistence:

1.  Reward yourself.  Be creative.  Shopping is not necessary.
2.  Talk about your writing and how excited you are about it to your family.  If you tell them you need time, they will surely give you space to create.  Just be sure that you don’t alienate them by ignoring their needs and feelings totally.  There will be times where you will have to make sacrifices, such as go to a school play when you would rather be writing a Broadway play. 
3.  When you set your goals, your timeline, make it reasonable.  You don’t want to get discouraged with unrealistic expectations.
4.  Persistence is finding alternative routes around obstacles to reach your goals.  Never quit.

PATIENCE:  Patience is necessary on two levels.  The first is that Ms. Write has to be patient with herself, because she hasn’t written before.  She will have to figure out how stories are told, how to strike a balance when juggling character information.  And secondly, she needs patience when she starts to submit her work.  She can’t give up with the first rejection.  She needs to learn something from each submission.

Suggestions for more patience:

1.  Sometimes taking a quiet moment and meditating on what is being asked of you will make a world of difference.  Learning how to channel the impulse to have things instantaneously will be quelled.
2.  If you make a mistake, or your editor says to redo whole sections or add an entirely new character, treat it as a challenge.
3. When you are frustrated with the way things are going, take an Eastern philosophical approach.  If you don’t like the way the storyline is going, get up from the computer and do something else for an hour.  If you aren’t liking the way your whole writing career is going, meditate and over a few days, what you need to do to fix things may come to light.  There is an old Chinese saying that the more you resist, the hotter the situation becomes, and the system shuts down until it cools down.  You need to address this before the overload, because you will see the answer more clearly then.
4.  Don’t give up at the first challenging sign.  It is worth the effort to see things through.

PRACTICE:  Obviously, the more you write, the easier it will become to write.  More reading and writing is the best way to hone your skills.  Bill Cosby included finding a mentor and/or studying how others who you consider have “MADE IT” did it. 

Suggestions: Practice makes perfect, as the old adage goes.  But actually the more you practice, the more you will find that the writing life becomes yours. 
1.  Set aside time in each day to practice, even a little.  Ideally, it will be the same time every day.
2.  Practice. Practice. Practice.

If you are wondering if the psychic predicted fame and fortune for me, the answer is no.  She wasn’t able to project too far in the future is my guess…but that’s not to say that I will or won’t make it in publishing.  The whole thing comes down to whether you believe this is what you were supposed to do.  If you were meant to be a novelist, you will be.  You have to trust and have faith that will happen if you give the four P’s equal attention.   

So obviously, I have some inner work to do.  I hope you will share my journey with me.  I’d like to hear what other people are grappliing with.  So feel free to comment.

Nervous and excited about joining a writing group or class? You should be. Unlike math or the hard sciences, where there is only the right and the wrong answer, writing is personal. Science and math rests on reason and facts. When we write, we pour some parts of ourselves in the experience. Our deepest thoughts spill out in words, open for all to view….and criticize. We leave our soft underbellies exposed.

I have been a member of a number of writing groups and attended several writing classes over the years. Why we subject ourselves to criticism is obvious. We want to do write better. But deep down when we present our work, the project that we have been writing for several weeks, months, and maybe years, what we are looking for confirmation that our writing is good, that we really do have talent.

Feedback, especially constructive feedback, is both beneficial and stifling to the creative process. Critiquing brings a new vantage point, new ideas, and can sustain motivation. If the criticism is harsh and insensitive, it can be extremely devastating to a new writer. It can squelch the writer’s chance of developing his or her writing, because we carry the wound for the rest of our lives. Time dulls the sting of the insult, but we are acutely aware of the unkind feedback and sometimes one can detect it in behavior. When things hapen of the is a subjective process and one has to understand from whom the criticism comes. What is the person’s agenda or experience? Are the comments have a ring of truth to them? Are the comments accompanied by actual suggestions to remedy the problem? Or does the person doing the critique in the process of satisfying some complex ego flaw?

But just maybe the critic is giving an honest opinion. This is what we all strive for when we sign on to these classes.

Here are some things to keep in mind if you have never been to a writing group or writing class:

• First, if you are the sensitive type…easily wounded if you do not get a standing ovation, then you are probably not ready for your work to be reviewed by a group. For the most part, every member of the group thinks they are helping you become a better writer. The truth is that only you can help you become a better writer. Be open to criticism.
• Do not take it personally — unless someone says you have an ugly dog.
• Do not try to explain your point of view unless it is requested. This position makes you defensive and you start to not listen carefully to what the person is trying to tell you, even though the criticism may be awkwardly expressed. When you have to explain what your story is about or what it means, then you obviously haven’t written the passage well enough. Your words should be self explanatory.
• Even if your work ranks up there with Mario Puzo, you need to realize that your plot, your writing style, or whatever is not going to appeal to everyone. You don’t need to please everyone.
• Take the suggestions and use what makes sense. Thank them for their feedback and don’t let them see you sticking your tongue out at them.

A bad class or group is a total time waster. Yes, not all writing groups or classes are created equal. A writing group that has members with strong egos can crush your creative spirit. Strong, ambitious and vociferous writers often force their opinons, because being heard is like stroking their own self worth. Just remember advice can be taken or rejected.

A good group is homogenous. This means that everyone at the meeting shares the same interest. If the group is songwriting, then everyone should be into the creating music or writing lyrics. If the group is about poetry, then you would not find a lyricist in the group unless the lyricist also wrote poems. There is too much ground to cover when your group has varied agendas. No one wants to talk about someone else’s genre and neither will you particularly be interested in listening reading it.

I welcome you to share your thoughts on this topic. In the next post I will compare the writing class vs. the writer’s group, line by line. Stay tuned.

If you read my last post, it is clear evidence that I was drunk with tiredness.  Geesh.  I reread it and a couple of the sentences didn’t even make sense to me.  Sorry about that.  I’ve gone in and edited it.  

Okay, so the lesson learned here is that:  I will try to post before 10 PM, because obviously I am useless after that.

That said, it is now a little after 1 AM.  I just have one more thought on ROI - return on investment.  If you calculated the hours you have spent working on your first novel and how much you were paid for your efforts, you would be very disheartened.  So it might be a good strategy not to think about compensation at all.

You should write because you have a story to tell.  You should write because you need to express yourself.  You should write because writing is part of who you are.  And if you are persistent and keep learning, compensation will follow.

Why do you write?  What motivates you to throw yourself into isolation so that you can spend hours living and interacting with the fictional characters in your head?

I’m back from a great week of relaxation.  My husband and I went to Cancun, Mexico.  It is our first vacation together sans children in many, many years. 

Although our days were filled with exploration and tours, I somehow found time to read and think about writing.  Or in my case the lack of writing fiction.  I have no one to blame but myself.  I have the desire.  I possess the intellectual and technical knowledge.  However, I am unable to move beyond the initial planning stages. 

I tried to isolate my issues and realized that it isn’t one neatly packaged cause, but a myriad of excuses all converge into inertia.  Time management, or the lack of it, is one of the major culprits.  I work full time and when I get home, I feel brain dead, and opt to finish up small, not-too-demanding-on-the-brain activities, like folding laundry. 

I am in my mid fifties.  If I don’t get my act together, I may never go further than writing this blog.  That would be disappointing.

So, since time seems to be my greatest competitor, let’s continue with this theme next time.  If you have some good time management strategies or tips you would like to share, please comment.  I would love to hear what others are doing.  And how they make the leap from intellectually knowing and successful execution. 

I have worked with time management for tasks/projects  in several of my many places of employment.  However, knowing what to do is so totally different from doing what you know.  I am hoping if I articulate these strategy ideas that I will be more motivated to actually take my advice.  How great is that!