Food for the Writer's Soul

I was thinking about NaNoWriMo today and wondered, what goodies should I stock-pile as incentives during November?

Chocolates? Maybe.
White tea? Definitely.

But mostly, I love rewarding myself by spending money on ingredients for a fancy meal. Today, I discovered a meal that doesn't cost a lot and is easy to make. And I wish I could eat it continuously without getting full, it's that good.

Cumin-Spiced Chicken with Chunky Tomato Sauce
served with
Creamy Squash Risotto

I used Cub brand cooked squash 'cause I couldn't find frozen butternut squash and it still tasted good. I also used 5-minute pre-cooked rice so it didn't take me as long to heat things up in the microwave.

Husband, friends, and family: If you want to make my day, cook me this. :)
I'm going to use it as word-count motivator during November as a reward for reaching a certain word goal.

If you have a favorite way of rewarding yourself for making your goals during NaNoWriMo, or for writing in general, share in the comments! I'd love to hear them.

Looking forward to tomorrow's lunch of leftovers! :)

World Building - tougher than it sounds?

Every time I sit down to world build, I get frustrated: All I want to do is rush off and work on the PLOT of the story. I know how things are imagined in MY head. Why not let the reader imagine things for themselves, too?

I had planned to spend all of July building up the setting of my work in progress, and suddenly found myself almost two thirds of the way through the month without having done much. I finally gave up and decided I was going to rush ahead and make up the plot.

Within the first five minutes of plotting, I wanted to write a scene where one of my characters exclaims "By Jove!"

While I never intended to leave the word Jove in my novel, it did raise a question.
Jove is a derivative form of swearing by god's name. I asked myself, "What would my characters swear by? What would they bless by? Would they do the traditional Christian thing and say 'Thank Goodness!' even though they're on an alternate version of Earth?"

Suddenly I was world building and didn't even realize it. Funny how the right question will unlock a wealth of information.

I went from making up swear words and friendly exclamations to inventing what sorts of religions these people might follow. Soon after that I was drawing a map of my world just so I could point out to myself where all the religious places were.
Then I felt compelled to name all the new countries I had just drawn (or at least name them something other than colors of the rainbow which I had temporarily bestowed upon them).
Coming up with names for countries led me to realize that country names in our world today are from ancient words meaning things like "Horse people" or "People of the white mountain" (this is my simplification of it).
So I came up with a general genetics map of who has black hair, red hair, white hair and where they live, and which areas are more mixed than others. I also named the countries after things that they're known for, like industry, desert-land, and bountiful harvests. Plugging these words into Google translator and choosing a different language until I got something I liked was tons of fun.

By the end of the first day of me "giving up" on world building, I had a map of my entire world, names for all my countries, some slang words and their etymologies, I knew where everyone lived, what they believe and how they practice it, and, of course, which gods they swear by. I knew the political tensions between the countries, what certain places war over, what the weather is like in different parts on my map, and I had even created three different mythologies which a few characters in my story will draw upon.

I don't know how I could have ever found World Building hard before. Before I started asking questions, (ok, so just the one question) I wasn't interested. I didn't think there was enough to my world to talk about. I didn't want to bore my readers. But now, because I got curious and asked a question, I have a wealth of information.
Not all of it, or even most of it, will make it into my book, but it IS useful. It helps me imagine what I need to in order to build the world around my main character.

So here's to being curious, even about imaginary places!

Vacations! And how they make you feel...

Last week my husband took me to a water park on spur of the moment. It was Wednesday, and within half an hour of leaving work, I was standing at the top of a water slide, looking out over the highway at all the rush hour traffic I was missing and thinking to myself, "This doesn't feel like a Wednesday."

For Independence Day weekend, we had a blast, camped out on my in-laws' lawn, kayaked on their lake and talked with my lovely in-law uncles and grandma and grandpa. We didn't have our phones, our wallets, our computers or anything with us the entire time. Just the clothes on our backs. It was....odd. And wonderful.

I didn't do any writing. But when we got back to our normal, city apartment life, there was a difference in how I wrote. I had new visions of things to come in my book and my imagination was infused with real-life experiences that can't possibly be put into words.

It's important for writing to make life great. Even if I wasn't a writer, it'd be important, but especially because I am. A picture is worth a thousand words, but an experience is priceless and can't be bought with words on a page.

Maybe that's why being a writer is so attractive to so many people. You kind of have to have a thrilling life full of adventure, mishaps, explorations, and interesting things that happen in order to write. If you can find an author who led a boring life, tell me and I'll correct myself.

It's summer! Go out and take a walk. Discover new places. Go on a bike ride down a new trail. Go camping. Cook something you've never cooked before (I'm experimenting with something called a Poblano pepper and Butternut squash tonight). Strand yourself somewhere with nothing to do, no cell phone, or computer, and see what your mind comes up with to do. I've noticed that there are all kinds of ignored corners and fascinations we miss because we're busy with other things.

Are writer's selfish?

I recently had two conversations with people I know are writers. The first one was a new acquaintance and someone mentioned to me they were a writer. So I decided to probe and find out how serious of a writer they were. I asked them what their book was about and this person gave me a single sentence, succinct summary. I was pleasantly astonished and continued to ask questions. I found out they were a serious writer, had paid to take a few writing courses online, and hoped to be published someday.

Knowing how avid writers usually are about networking, I thought for sure this person would ask me about my novel, or at least ask if I've ever been published.

But apparently not. They were quite content to go on talking about their own novel and philosophy on writing, and even acted like they were better than me for having taken an online writing course. I quickly lost interest and stopped asking questions.

I also had a phone conversation with another writer I know. This person I've known for years and we've talked about writing before. Every time we talk, they sit on the other end of the telephone waiting for me to ask questions. It's like pulling teeth to have a conversation. This person also acts as if his writing is some sacred jewel of information that should be leaked out slowly and only to those who prove they really want to know.

So what is it about writers that make us such bad conversationalists about our own craft?

Are we selfish and use awkward silences to force others into asking us about our books? Or are we just scared people will steal our ideas? Should we be?

Or perhaps so few people ask us about our work that we're just not used to coming up with words to describe it. Maybe we're just afraid the other person won't understand our writerly jargon, or will think we're nuts for trying out rubbish ideas.

Still, I don't think any of the above are good reasons to hide what you've put your heart and soul into. A writer survives by building publicity these days and mouth to mouth is the most powerful way of spreading your fame.

But not only is your one sentence book idea spread easily between mouths, your attitude is as well. Be kind. Reciprocate to us poor souls who are more interested in you as a person than in your story. We want to have a two way conversation, not just have you perform for us by talking endlessly about your novel. Don't get me wrong, I love a good story. But I'd rather have you as a friend than an entertainer.

New direction for the blog

I'm tired of coming up with writerly things when I don't feel like I'm an expert. I'm not published yet. Don't come here to read about publishing. (These blogs do so much better than me!)

You can expect to find on this blog the following:

Things I find interesting.
Things that blow my mind that I want to share with you to make life more enjoyable.
The few and far between but still potent insights I have about writing. Yes, I will still talk about writing. Just not as much.

With that out of the way, here's what has fascinated me today:

I'm attempting to make this out of paper. It's proving to be a LOT of fun! :)

Enjoy life, readers.

Flushing out the Questions

Bouncing like rubber balls around in the hollow spaces of any writer's brain are thoughts about their craft, doubts, and questions. And I know a lot of times we try to ignore them, afraid if we acknowledge one, the rest will pour out like a deluge and extinguish our passion for what we do.

But my thought for today is, how bad can it really be to acknowledge them? Wouldn't it feel better to get those bouncy balls out of your thoughts so you can think more clearly? Here's my go at it...

Is it worth it in the end?
Will getting published make me feel like I've finally fulfilled my writing dream?
How do I know if I have that edge to my story that makes it stand out?
Will people really like what I write?
Does anyone even read anymore?
What's the best format to pursue? Online ebooks or traditional?
Should I even bother looking for an agent or just go straight to e-pubbing?
Does my novel have enough oomph?
Are my characters flat and uninteresting?
Is my story all plot and no characterization?
Am I too much in love with what I write to see its flaws?

As writers, I think we re-evaluate our craft, our ideas, and ourselves every time we sit down to write. Perhaps that's why a blank page is so intimidating to some.

Now with all those questions out, I can focus on the reason I started writing in the first place: Because I love it passionately. With that view firmly in mind with no bouncy balls to knock it out of its place, I can write clear and focused.

I'm going to write a list of questions like this every time I sit down to write, just to flush them out of my thoughts and allow myself to get focused.

April is Poetry Month!

It kind of snuck up on me.
The last two years I've been gun-ho excited to participate but for some reason this year I didn't even realize it was poetry month until a few days in!

Because my head is very much into fiction at the moment, I'm finding it hard to think about poetry as well. For sure, I will still be writing poetry. I want to at least attempt to write one poem per day. (I need to catch up!) But I won't be posting them here. I figured since my head isn't in the game, I'd spare everyone from having to read my less than stellar poetry.

But by all means, head over to Robert Brewer's Poetic Asides blog to check out his poetry prompts for each day, to read hundreds of poems his readers have posted, and to participate yourself.

Have fun!