The Other Side of the Story: Real Life Diagnostics

Janice Hardy's awesome blog The Other Side of the Story is one of my favorite writing resources. I love that her lucid explanations and vivid examples make difficult concepts easy to grasp. Sometimes she answers my writing questions before I even realize they need answering.

On her weekly column, Real Life Diagnostics, she takes a snippet of a work in progress and diagnoses it on her blog. Usually it's a weekend feature, but starting today, she's diagnosing all week.

Today it's my turn!

Click on the link below to check out what she said about this version of the first page of my novel, The Fatal Crown.

The Other Side of the Story: Real Life Diagnostics Week: Developing Conflict and Character in an Opening Scene

Vanquishing Self-Doubt

It's that ugly little voice that whispers nasty lies in your ear when you’re most vulnerable. 

     You’re not good enough.

     Everyone else is better than you.

     Your writing is uninspiring and cliché. 

     You’re delusional to think you can do this. 

     You can’t even type.

The negative feelings feed on themselves growing bigger and scarier until they threaten to gobble you up. 

 

Photo by Dan Holm

When self-doubt engulfs me like a dark cloud, my gut freezes.  My brain hardens like concrete.  Writing the simplest sentence feels like climbing an insurmountable mountain.  One that’s covered with sink holes.  And sticker bushes.  And flesh-eating bacteria.  Self-doubt cramps my view of what’s possible and obscures the road behind, blotting out the memory of how far I’ve already come.  

For writers, it’s a pretty common complaint.  Writing can be lonely.  It’s just you and your keyboard and that blinking cursor you’re supposed to be pushing across a white page. 

 

To deal with self-doubt, I have to make myself ignore the toxic voices and keep writing.  I have to convince myself my goal is possible, and remember that, no matter how difficult if feels right now, I’ve done it before and can do it again. 

 

Writing buddies and critique groups help in this regard.  They keep me grounded and provide encouragement when the bridges fall away.  And the ogres won’t let me pass.

Sometimes it only takes a little break in the gloom to get moving again—finding an inspiring quote, coming up with a fresh idea, gaining a small insight into a difficult plot twist, receiving a kind word from a friend.  Then I’m back on road, writing stories that I hope will someday carry my readers on their own magical journey.

  

“If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”
                                                              ― Vincent van Gogh

That’s how I cope. And it works.

Most of the time.

How about you? What do you do when the self-doubt beasties start nibbling at your heels?

Kidlit Writers Gather at WriteOnCon.com

One of my favorite times of the year is finally here! It's WriteonCon.com time!

 --if you write for children,

--if you've always wanted to attend a writer's conference but never had the chance,

--if you want to be part of the hottest on-line happening, check it out.

Keynote addresses, agent panels, and lectures are presented as blogs, vlogs, moderated chats, webinars, podcasts, and livestreaming.

And yeah, it's all on-line and it's free!

Sign up and post your work on the critique forums where real life ninja agents will be sneaking around to pop in and do some critiques and maybe even request to see your work.  (Yes, last year, it happened to me!)

So check out the schedule of awesome events.  Maybe we'll run into each other at the virtual snack bar.

Things I Do When I Should Be Writing

Procrastination.  I know should be writing, but when I hit a wall, it becomes easier to occupy my mind with something else.  The harder I try to focus, the worse it gets.  I'll look for any excuse to get away from the keyboard.  If I just stick with it and keep my fingers typing, I can usually work through my writer's block. But instead I find ways to distract myself from the task at hand...

Like I might get the urge to play a little ball.

 

Go out for a bite.

Have a long soak in the tub.

Try on snazzy new outfit.

Go for long walks in the park.

 

Or spend time with a friend.

Then suddenly, I'll be dog tired.

How do you procrastinate and what strategies do you use to get back to work?

It's a Weird, Wonderful, Fruity World

My trip to my local market turned into a journey of discovery. I've never seen fruits and vegetables like this.

Jackfruit, from Asia.  A staple in much of the world.  To me, they look more like Jack the Giant Slayer Fruit.

Daikon Radishes from East Asia.  Used in variety of dishes, like Ponzu or Oden. They're as long as my arm and that's a lot of radish.

Black Radishes. A winter variety.  Okay, they're not the prettiest vegetable in the store.

Have you tried any of these fruits and vegetables? 

Coffee Laced with Plant Food and Other Writing Hazards

The other morning, I was stumbling around the kitchen with my head wrapped around a plot twist that needed unraveling, as I made a pot of coffee. It wasn’t until water was already dripping through the filter that I realized I’d just used the jug with “tap water” scrawled on its side--the one I use to water my plants. Needless to say, I had to throw it all out.  It didn’t make me feel any better to know the water I’d been sipping since the previous night came from the same jug.  I don’t know if plant food is harmful to humans, but I'll let you know if I suddenly have the nagging urge to dig my toes in the sand and follow the sun across the sky.

Photo by Dan Holm

This isn’t the first time my breakfast has suffered because of my inattention.  While busy contemplating a character motivation, I once plopped a raw egg into my coffee mug instead of the frying pan.  I won’t even mention the time I stuck my cell phone in the refrigerator or drove three exits past my destination before I noticed. 
 

I’ve done all kinds of crazy things while my head was busy someplace else.  It’s one of the hazards of being a writer.  I spend a lot of time in my head and for much of the time, that's exactly where I want to be. 

  

NO PLACE LIKE MY HEAD

 

When I’m in my head, I might be exploring worlds that never existed, or walking beside a character who's about to take the wrong path or puzzling about the best way to describe an oak tree’s gentle sway or the color of the sky after a storm.  No matter that I’m supposed to be vacuuming, or washing the car or chatting with friends at a dinner party, I can’t resist the temptation to spin tales or mull over possibilities.  No matter how much it annoys my family and friends, daydreaming is an unavoidable part my writing process. 

Unfortunately this tendency conflicts with another trait important to writers: paying attention.   

BEING PRESENT

 

It’s a paradox that we who most want to escape into the space between our synapses, are also the ones who most need to pay attention to what’s happening in the world around us.  Writers need to be observant of details and to bring those details into their writing.  We need to interact with the world and to understand the people who populate it.  Only then can we bring this insight to the page and infuse our made up stories with relevant kernels of truth and authenticity.
  

We must listen, observe, and drink deep of our lives if our stories are to resonate for the people who read them.  That's all the harder for me since, like so many writers, I'm an introvert. Unlike my more extroverted friends, I'm perfectly happy submerged in the pages of a best-seller or hiding behind walls made up of my own thoughts and musings.  Instead of eating chips and guacamole and trading barbs with friends at a Superbowl party, I’d rather be hunched at my desk tinkering with yet another edit of my Work in Progress.

But somehow, I know a gentle balance must be struck.
                                                                        

‘Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.  Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.’ ~Thich Nhat Hanh

IN THE WORLD AND OF THE WORLD

 

Being present is a zen concept.  For writers, it means stepping outside of our heads and taking the time to focus only on what’s in front of us.  It means concentrating on the scenery we pass when we walk in the woods.  It means making the effort to really get to know the people we interact with everyday.  It means striving for an effective balance between being part of the world and just writing about it.  Between truly living a life instead of just daydreaming about one.  

It’s tough for me to do these things, but I know sometimes it’s what I need most.  And it would make preparing breakfast a lot easier too.

Do you find yourself neglecting other facets of your life to focus on writing or reading?  How do you strike the gentle balance and keep yourself present?

Fiction: Bringing Order to Chaos

Real life is random.  It’s boring, chaotic, imperfect.  Dangerous. That’s why it’s so temping to retreat into the comfort of a good book.  A story gives shape to the disorder of human experience.  It means something.

To create stories that capture and intrigue us, a fiction writer takes a series of events and gives them context.  She puts them in a frame and tells us what to focus on, which details are important.  Which are not.  

Photo by Dan Holm

In his book, THE STORYTELLING ANIMAL: HOW STORIES MAKE US HUMAN, Jonathan Gottschall says our storytelling mind “allows us to experience our lives as coherent, orderly and meaningful.”  Randomness makes us so comfortable, our minds look for patterns in everything. This capacity isn’t without its drawbacks, because the tendency for us to crave pattern also makes us vulnerable to getting it wrong.  Gottschall says our brain is “a factory that churns out true stories when it can, but will manufacture lies when it can’t.”

That's why I mostly find most "reality" TV shows unwatchable. In order to connect with the viewer, a reality show needs to tell us a coherent story.  But since a series of events by themselves don't make a story, no matter much action is packed in, it's up to the producers to create one.  To achieve this, they pump up the conflict between the participants, take events out of context, and warp the meaning of unimportant details.  Participants are steered in directions they might not ordinarily go, act in ways they wouldn’t normally, act and say things they’ve been told to say.  Yeah, OK, it's compelling, it's interesting, but it's not reality.

Fiction is made up, but at least you know that going in.  If you look at it that way, and a novel is way more honest than any reality TV show.