Did Your Writing Year Get Off to a Flying Start This January? What’s Next?

So how did your January go? Did you achieve all you wanted to writing wise? Or when you tally up your words does the total fall drastically short of what you wanted to achieve?

My January was both good and bad. I managed to do more blog posts than ever before (thanks to all my new followers by the way), did a rough outline for a possible sequel to Blackwattle Lake, and wrote up some notes for a new novel. It would have been nice to achieve more but then I did have plenty of time to relax, think, and clear my head. Part of me would like to whine and moan and self flagellate about all the things I didn’t get done but the other, wiser part says that we writers are way too hard on ourselves and need to lighten up a little. There are times when we write a lot, times we write a little and times when we don’t write at all. In that spirit I’d like to share this Writer’s Manifesto.

 

(Courtesy of Melissa Bowersock (http://wanatribe.com/profile/MelissaBowersock)

Whether your January was as productive as you would have liked or not now is a good time to take stock – decide what worked and what didn’t, what your goals are for the rest of the year and how you will go about achieving them.

And above all, as the manifesto above says, remember that writing is a journey not a destination. Enjoy the small projects as well as the big, value the words for their own sake and for the joy you get from them as well as the joy you create by sharing them. Share your writing journey with other writers so we can learn from, support and inspire each other.

I wish you all the best for the rest of your writing year and look forward to hearing more about your writing journey.

 

 

 

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Art Imitates Life Imitates Art: An Aussie Summer Danger Becomes Inspiration For Blackwattle Lake

To celebrate Australia day I’m taking part in the Australia Day Blog Hop sponsored by Book’d Out and Confessions From Romaholics. In total 55 Aussie Bloggers are taking part so it’s a great opportunity to discover some new blogs and wonderful writers. Just click on the following link to go to the Book’d Out site and follow the links to the various bloggers.

http://bookdout.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/australia-day-book-giveaway-blog-hop/

And as a special giveaway for those who leave a comment on my blog post you will go in a draw to win a copy of my debut novel Blackwattle Lake. The winner will be selected at random and must reside in Australia. Entries close at midnight on January 28th and the winner will be announced within 7 days

Thanks to Shelleyrae at Book’d Out for coordinating the hop. Enjoy!

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I’ve spent the last month chilling out on my farm on the south coast of NSW, or should I say heating up. It’s been a hot summer, hotter than last year, when we all cursed the dismal weather and lack of sunshine. But this year it was the heat we were cursing, at least on a couple of occasions. With bushfires burning about 30k’s to the north and a timber house surrounded by bush that was dry and ready to roast we spent a nervous few days as the air around us lay heavy with heat and our normally gorgeous view was obscured by smoke.

On the first scorcher I was wary of leaving home in case the fires spread and the roads were blocked and we were unable to get back. But empty stomachs groaned so I headed into town for supplies. I’d done the same thing in the fires of 2006 and that time the roads had been shut before I could return home. We were forced to set up camp for the night at the local showground and as fortune would have it I was driving my kombi camper so it wasn’t too much of a drama. As it turned out we were allowed to drive home later that night. Crisis averted. But I still remember the glow of the fires over the ridges when I woke in the middle of the night, how close they seemed (even though they were further away than they looked) and the fear that crept through my body as I pondered the possibility of being trapped with my three daughters.

 

It was this earlier experience which inspired me to include a bushfire in Blackwattle Lake. I won’t go into details of what happens in the novel other than to say it was definitely a case of art imitating life in those chapters, although I’m happy to say not to the same extent.

But last week I felt like life was imitating art. In 2006 we’d had no horses to worry about and although this time around the fire was further away and we didn’t get caught in a roadblock there was real concern about how we would get all the humans, a dog, cat, bird and six horses including a foal out if the fire hit. I thought about Eve, my protagonist in the novel, and marvelled at her courage as if she were a real person. I knew the anxiety she felt about leaving her horses stranded. Luckily the fires didn’t get any closer and we didn’t have to evacuate but my heart went out to all those in recent weeks and in the past who had been caught in the fires, who lost property, livestock, possessions and in a few tragic cases their lives.

Thankfully I didn’t experience their suffering. But just the threat of having to make those decisions – stay or go, what to save, when to leave – was strong enough to help me empathise with what the bushfire victims must have gone through. I could only imagine the fear, the adrenalin, the courage you would have to muster to stay and face the flames not to mention the physical sensations of the searing heat, the suffocating smoke and the raging wind.

While the advice “write what you know” is often one sometimes just using your imagination and putting yourself in someone else’s shoes can be inspiration enough. It’s certainly as close as I ever want to have to come to experiencing this situation and I pay tribute to all those Australians who have had to endure the trauma of bushfire and to those brave men and women who have fought the flames.

Wishing everyone a happy and safe Australia Day.

Cheers!

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How Is Your Writing Going This January? A Few Things That Have Inspired Me To Write this Month

January seems to be flying by. With only one week left to go I thought I might do a quick inventory of what I’ve managed to write so far:

• A draft outline for my next book. This was already roughed up but I’ve typed it up and it’s starting to take shape.
• Very rough notes for a new novel idea
• Morning pages – not every day I have to admit, but a few times a week which has gone a long way to helping declutter the brain.
• Blog posts – my own and a few to send to other writers who are hosting me on their blogs in upcoming weeks.
• Plans and goals for my writing year.

As much as I’d love to say that I’ve done more, it’s a list I’m pretty happy with. It’s been great to be here in such beautiful surroundings recharging the batteries and getting prepared for some more serious work when the holidays come to an end.

Here’s a few pics of some of the beautiful images I’ve been enjoying.

Sunrise

Early Morning at The Lake

Peace and Quiet

I hope your writing has been going well this month. For those who aren’t writers I hope you’ve managed to find some time to relax, read a good book and plan for a great year ahead.

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What has inspired you this week? Finding Writing Inspiration Through Your Camera Lens

How is your writing going? Have you been feeling inspired?

This week I’ve been inspired by images on the blog I Reblogged yesterday by sethsnaps (http://sethsnap.com/author/sethsnap/). Each day he posts a series of images from, sometimes with a caption or story, sometimes without, or as in yesterday’s post he invites readers to make up the story behind the image themselves. Acting on my inspiration I took myself to the beach with my camera and snapped a few images. I’ve chosen the following photos not so much because they tell a story but more because something about the image itself appeals to me – the lines, the colours, the shapes and textures.

Stairs to the Beach

Ripples of Rock

Gifts from the Sea

Rock and Sea and Sky

Relics of Barnacles

Another Path

It struck me once again as I was uploading these photos how important images are to our creativity. Even though these shots are random and chosen for purely aesthetic reasons, if you gaze long enough at each image questions start to spring to mind: Who is walking down the steps? Is she at the beach alone? How do the rocks feel beneath her feet? What is she thinking as she gazes at the ocean? What significance does the shell hold for her? Will she follow the path? Or is somebody following her? Photographs and images are a great way into a story.

You can start with nothing and end up with a whole array of new ideas and possibilities. One of my resolutions for the year is to do some thing creative each day. One option I’ll be exploring is picking up my camera and heading outside to take shots of whatever seems to call to me, and to see what I can do with those images when I sit down to write.

Do you use images to create a story? What other creative techniques do you use to get yourself writing?

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Getting Back To Basics In The January Writing Challenge: Pen, Notecards and a Starfish

The last few days have been a bit on the smoky side around here. We’re spending the month at our house at Little Forest which is about 30k’s south of the Wandandian fires (for any interstate or overseas readers that’s about two and a half hours south of Sydney). Here’s the usual view from our veranda and the one I was greeted with when I woke up this morning:

             

Although the fires are still burning they don’t seem to be getting any closer to us but we’re keeping an eye on things just in case!

In other news I’ve been struggling a little with the January Writing Challenge, putting too much pressure on yself to come up with something new and wonderful. So today I decided to try something different. When we headed to the beach instead of taking a book I took a pen and a few index cards and sat and wrote down any observations that came to me. Here’s a sample of a few things I jotted down:

on the beach of my youth

I sit and watch

past, present and future

an ocean of blue light

the fearlessness of youth

and the arrogance

a father builds a castle with his son

as I once did with my daughter

who now lies

lithe and sun-browned beside me

in an almost there bikini

I once-upon-a-time would have worn

umbrellas lollipop the sand

a seagull motors along like a wind-up toy

cicadas beat out the rhythm of the day

I gaze at the rocks we once explored together

and walk there alone

a seaweed green crab

studies me with his poppy-seed eyes

sidles beneath a barnacled rock

a flesh pink starfish

clings to its tidal home

and there she is next to me

she clambers over rocks

and goes beyond the headland

out of sight

my heart still lurching

at her vanishing

smiling at her return.

It’s rough and ready but might one day be moulded into something more substantial. The thing is that writing down those notes at the beach forced me to look closely, to sit and watch and listen. When I took myself for my jaunt around the rock pools I was in the same observant, patient frame of mind and managed to see those small details I otherwise would have missed …

A flesh pink starfish

Look closely, there’s a crab in there!

So today I learnt – or rather reminded myself of – something. What we write doesn’t always have to be great, it doesn’t always have to matter. What matters is the act of writing itself. It helps you to stop and watch and listen and appreciate the world around you just that little bit more. And that can’t be a bad thing!

Hope your writing is going well.

Would love to hear what you’re writing about and your thoughts on your process.

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Why We Write – Making Connections With Ourselves and With Each Other

I didn’t get to blog yesterday – life got in the way, but I did get to write a few morning pages and start working on my writing goals for 2013.

Yesterday my writing buddy Monique Mcdonell posted an excellent blog about writing goals and making sure we have them for the right reasons. You can see Monique’s blog post here: http://tinyurl.com/abqbodk

It got me thinking about why we actually right. Of course this is a subject that has been written about many times before and the answer to the question is different for everyone. Perhaps you have a particular story to tell, want to record your life in words for family members, love the challenge of starting with a blank page and trying to create something out of nothing, or perhaps, like me, you crave the escape form the real world that writing brings, or as Alan Watt more aptly descibed it 2 days ago in The Huffington Post as “losing ourselves in our work by shedding our ego for a deeper connection to our humanity”.

Watt continues: Why we write is more important than what we write because our reason for writing influences the content of our work. It is important to remember that we don’t have to do this. The world is not in a rush for more books. There are more great works of fiction, poetry, memoir, history and pumpkin soup recipes than we will ever have time to consume.

(Read the full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-watt/why-we-write_b_2411000.html)

Essentially we write to express ourselves, to make sense of our world – both inner and outer – and to seek some form of connection both with ourselves and with others who may at some point read our work. At the initial stage of writing, when our thoughts are forming themselves into words, however inappropriate they may be or how frustrating the process can become, we must write for ourselves. We can mould our experiences, feelings and thoughts into some form that goes at least part way to defining our unique take on the world and out part in it. If at some point we are brave enough to share those wordswe create a connection with someone else. We share our humanity.

This morning I was brought to tears by a message on my facebook author page from a reader. Actually more of a non-reader. He picked up my book because of the cover and the blurb and started reading on the bus on his way home from work. he’s enjoying the book and finds a lot in it he can relate to. But the comment that moved me the most was this: …your book speaks volumes to me and I guess I want to thank you as well. I don’t know what for exactly, I haven’t even finished the book but you made me fall in love with books and this book really connects with me. For me, this is the highest compliment a writer can receive, inspiring someone to love books. The icing on an already scrumptious cake.

This month as you write your words daily, every other day, or even weekly, remember that you write for yourself first and others second. Allow yourself the freedom to explore what it is for you to be alive right her, right now, in whatever form seems to work. In doing so you’ll be expressing the core of who you truly are. If, down the track, others read your words and are moved by them – and even if they’re not – that’s an added bonus.

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Support Your Writing With A Writing Journal – Be Your Own Writing Coach

Over the last couple of days I’ve been looking at things you can do to support your writing habit. The first was connecting with other writers and yesterday’s was using images for inspiration and story development.

Another great way to keep yourself on track is to have a notebook or journal where you set writing goals, reflect on your progress, analyse what’s working or not working and give yourself a good talking to when you need it. Checking into your journal every few days or once a week can help keep you on track.

Sitting down and taking a look at our writing progress helps us maintain our focus.It forces us to be honest with ourselves and work out what we need to change, what we need to do differently and also what is working well and how we can keep our momentum going. It doesn’t need to take long – just 10 minutes of jotting down some thoughts should be enough, unless you really need to have a d and m with yourself in which case, write for as long as you like.

Here are a few questions you can ask to get you started:
* How is my writing going this week?
* Am I achieving my daily/weekly goals? If not why not?
* Has anything been getting in the way of my writing this week?
* Have I been sabotaging myself in any way?
* Is there anything I need to do differently to improve my writing schedule?
* Do I need support from anyone else to keep me on track?
* What has been working well?
* What have I achieved this week with my writing?
* What new ideas have I come up with?

That’s just a starting point – I’m sure you have your own ideas, things that are specific to your own writing and lifestyle.

When we write fiction, and even non-fiction such as memoir, we use our right brain – the creative imaginative side.Sitting back and reflecting on our writing engages the left side of our brain – the more analytical side. This interchange is a great way of sparking ideas and testing them out so in addition to keep us motivated keeping a writing journal can actually make you more creative!

Do you keep a writing journal or notebook? would love to hear how it works for you.

And remember to keep us posted on how you’re progressing with the January Writing Challenge.

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Re-Post: Image Inspiration – Using Images to Support Your Writing

Hi folks, a busy, hot day here at Little Forest so I’m re-posting an earlier blog post about using images to support your writing.

Hope you’re going well with the challenge.

Finding visual inspiration in magazines can be a great help to your writing. We all have images in our heads of our characters and settings.Flicking through magazines can help to clarify those images and help us get a sharper picture of the people and places we’re writing about.

Try spending some time thumbing through some old magazines and see what jumps out at you. My current novel is set on a horse property so I’ve been having a great old time finding pictures of properties complete with stables, horses roaming around the paddocks and old timber houses in my daughter’s Horse Deals mags.To find the characters I’ve been scouring the pages of Country Style and Coast – anything with a rural feel. When a picture jumps out at me I grab the scissors and cut and paste into a dedicated scrapbook. It’s almost impossible to find the exact replica of the image you have in your head but you can often find similarities – the right hair, smile, eyes or clothing.

Google images can be another great source of inspiration as can Flickr. You can request permission from Flickr or the photographers who have shared their photos to use them or if you just want to look at them you can browse by using the Search tool.

Compiling a scrapbook of images and ideas is a great way to store your visuals. If you’re into drawing – or even if you’re not – you can do rough sketches of your characters, their homes, the town where they live, favourite restaurants – anywhere that features in the scenes of your book. If you’re writing a memoir, a scrapbook can be a useful way of compiling the pictures and memorabilia you are referencing in your story. You can paste photos straight in and jot notes around them on the page. Drawing maps of fictional places can also help you get your bearings and help you get the complete picture of a place you have created.

Taking your own photos is another great way to capture images. Take yourself off on an expedition and click whatever seems to inspire you. Add the photos to your scrapbook or display them on a noticeboard above your writing space. The more pictures you add to your collage the better.You can create a hwole world of images right there where you write. It’s a great way of entering straight into your story space. Swap them around as the need arises.

The photos on this page are some I took of our horses a while ago and use for inspiration whenever I’m writing.

Where do you get your visual inspiration from?

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Supporting Your Writing Through Writing Buddies, Groups and Networking

I hope you’re managing to meet your goals (at least some of them) for the January Challenge. I’ve had to adjust mine over the last few days. As I’m currently holidaying in a pretty idyllic location there’s no end of visitors – which is great as it gives me a chance to catch up with friends and relax but it also means there’s not much time to write. I’m doing the morning pages and making sure that at night before bed I do an hour or so of note making or writing. Last night I did a few prompts from a writing book, which I’ll discuss further in later posts.

Over the next few days I’ll be posting about ways to support your writing. The most crucial thing I’ve done to support my writing over a number of years now has been to participate in writing groups. I’ve been a member of The Writers’ Dozen for 6 years. We meet fortnightly at The NSW Writers Centre and stay in close contact via email. I’ve also formed strong writing connections with writers I have taught through my classes and tutorials at Justwrite Publishing (www.justwrite.net.au). And lately I’ve been “meeting” amazing writers through Facebook and Twitter. I’ve written about this before so here is a re-post of my thoughts on the importance of connecting with other writers.

Writing is a lonely journey – not that this is a bad thing. Most writers love the isolation, the space writing gives you to be yourself and to get lost in your own – and your character’s – worlds. Without that space our creativity would be stifled, our minds always busy with whatever is going on around us. As writers we need to be able to closet ourselves away, hang that do not disturb sign on the door and ignore everything and everyone else – at least for a while. But we also need like-minded people to talk to about our writing, to brainstorm ideas with and to get the valuable feedback we need to improve our craft. If you’re lucky you might have someone in your family who can provide all this but otherwise you need to make connections with other writers either face-to-face in a group, one on one with a fellow writer or even online. Other writers know the joys and woes of getting the words on the page. They know the thrill of finding exactly the right simile, the fear of exposing themselves through their writing and the frustration of rejection. They understand better than anyone else what it is like to sit at the computer, spilling your heart onto the screen only to read it and find your finger hovering over the delete button. Sharing all this with others who can relate helps keep you on track with your writing, helps keep you motivated and inspired. Last week I emailed a short story I’ve been working on to my writing group, The Writers’ Dozen. The story had started off at over 4000 words and I had whittled it down to just over 1,500, the target I was trying to reach to enter a competition (that editing process is a whole story in itself which I will tell another time). Not only did my “support” group reassure me that the cuts I had made didn’t spoil the original idea they helped me to hone the words so that the finished product was a much tighter piece in which every word added something to the story. As I listened to their suggestions, took some on board and discounted a few, what I was trying to do in the writing became a lot clearer to me. Talking it through allowed me to crystallise my vision and to look at the story more from the reader’s perspective. A writing group like this is invaluable and I don’t think I would have kept at it (this whole writing caper, I mean) if it hadn’t been for their support. If you don’t have access to a group or don’t have the time to meet outside the house finding a writing buddy you can connect with either in your home, a local coffee shop, by phone or online is another great way to keep you motivated. A writing buddy should be (ideally) another writer, one who “gets” where you’re coming from and what you’re trying to achieve with your writing. You don’t want a buddy (or a group) who will tell you everything you write is wonderful just as it is. The whole point of this process is to improve your writing, so you want someone who is willing to tell you what they think works – and what doesn’t work. You need someone who is going to be empathetic but honest, a buddy who wants to see you succeed as much as you want to see them succeed. And since this is a two-way process, you need to be able to take on board their suggestions (ie. nicely worded criticisms)without falling to pieces and you need to be confident enough in your writing to make the changes you think work and ignore the ones that don’t. So, where do you find these gems? Writing courses and workshops are great places to meet other writers. Swap contact details, keep in touch, arrange to meet up for coffee and take it from there. If there are enough people ( 4 is a good minimum number) you could start up a group and arrange to meet on a regular basis. If there are only a couple of you, do the same and set up regular “writing dates” online and in person. Writers’ Centres run regular courses (try The NSW Writers’ Centre – see Useful Websites on this blog for the link) as do Community Colleges, WEA and a number of private writing colleges (just google). It might take some time and some trial and error but having writing buddies makes a huge difference to your life as a writer. So, get out there and connect.

How do you connect with other writers? How does it help support your writing?

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Creating a Writing Ritual and Setting Yourself Up For Success

It’s a beautiful day here at Little Forest, the sun shining, a light breeze, birds chattering in the treetops.

I hope all is well with you on Day 3 of The January Writing Challenge. I’m loving getting back into the morning pages, such a lovely way to greet the day. Last night I looked up previous notes I’d made on a novel project and wrote a list of questions I had, things I don’t know about the characters that I need to find out, facts I need to research and plot holes I need to work out how to fill.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and progress. And thanks to Desney who shared this tip in yesterday’s comments:

A tip for creating the writing habit: develop a little ‘setting up’ ritual. For me, it’s making a pot of tea, pouring milk into a sweet little jug, and setting this tea ceremony out on the table where I write. Then I light a candle right in front me me, pour a cup of tea, and away I go, writing. When I’ve finished the writing session, I blow the candle out, with gratitude.

I love the idea of creating a writing ritual and am working on coming up with one that works for me. It’s that whole notion of being prepared and ready to get into the writing. Making sure you have all your writing tools set up and ready to go can also help. Try to have a dedicated space where you write regularly. Have your pen and notebook ready or even open to the page you intend to start on. Have pencils, highlighters or any other equipment you need readily available. If you use photos or images to inspire your writing have them on a pinboard above your space or at least closeby. The same goes for any books you use for writing prompts (poetry books are great for this). The easier and pleasanter you make it to get into writing the more rewarding the experience will be and the more likely you’ll race back to do it again.

If you have any writing rituals or tips to keep yourself going we’d love to hear about them.

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