Getting in the (Writing) Mood by Christine Duncan

I was re-reading Michelle’s post on Christmas stories from a couple of years ago and looking at her rules for a good Christmas story since I was trying to get myself in the mood to write one. Michelle’s rules make sense to me. I totally agree: It should snow, someone should change, the main body of the action should take place on Christmas Eve and it should all round up by the time the bells ring on Christmas morning.

It sounds doable when you break it down like that. But I still don’t feel ready to write a Christmas story just yet. Apparently it takes more than just writing down or (in my case) reading the rules.

I wish I had a handle on just what it is that gets me in the writing mood. Sometimes it is just as simple as having something I want to say. Sometimes, it’s a feeling or a moment I want to capture forever and somehow, despite the old bromide about a picture being worth a thousand words, pictures aren’t doing it for me.

I know writers who play music to get in the mood. In this case, I suppose it’s obvious, it should probably be Christmas music. I know writers who have to have a quiet place. I figured out long ago though that my particular world contains no quiet places. If it did, something would be wrong. And I would panic. Not a good writing state.

All of which brings me to the realization once again, that for me, all this is the icing on the cake. Music or none, disruptions or not, complete, getting in the mood boils down to one simple thing. I write when I have to. When this blog is due, I write. When my critique partners are expecting something, I write. When I have set a goal to do something, and somehow made that goal known, I write.

I’ve said that before in this space. What I never realized before is the corollary. I have become pretty darn cautious about making any statements about writing, knowing I would obligated to follow through. All of which brings me back to getting in the mood.

Hmm, just another of those, just-when-I-thought-I-had-a-handle-on-it moments. So now it appears I have to know what trigger I have to have to commit to writing. It’s all so complicated, isn’t it?

Detox apology

Anyone who has slept under the same roof as me will tell you that the first thing I do every morning is suck down a pot of plunger coffee.  Ok, some days I only get through three of the four cups but I give it my best shot.

Having quit a number of nasty things over the years – including cigarettes, I vowed never to give up my beloved coffee.   However, given my health hiccups in the second half of last year, I think my adrenal glands can do without the daily hammering of caffeine overload.  So, it looks like the time has come to say goodbye (for now at least).   

The reason I’m sharing this with y’all is because I’ve had a splitting headache for the last two days since I stopped drinking coffee and to be quite honest, I can’t think of anything else to blog about.  My sole focus at the moment is how much better it will feel when this monster headache goes away.

So, excuse my lack of creativity this week but I’ll be back on my game next week – caffeine free of course.

(PS. I can’t help but wonder if going caffeine free will have some positive impact on my writing and creativity? Wouldn’t THAT be a bonus !)

New Year goals

I wish I could say I’m publising this a day late because I want to make sure my New Year goals post is timely (it’s NYE here in Sydney).  Truth is, I lost track of the days and forgot to do it yesterday.  The luxury of holidays…

So over the last week and a bit, I’ve noticed that i’ve been processing all that’s happened this year.  It’s been a pretty challenging one for me personally and I think it’s important to acknowledge that.   I’m hoping that after tonight’s blue moon, I’ll feel a little more able to let go of 2009 and all its challenges. 

Jenny Henkins (on behalf of a Yahoo writing group) e-mailed some ideas for letting go of 2009 and starting 2010 with purpose.  

EVALUATE:
What were your GOALS for 2009?

Writing goal was to land and editor/publisher.

Personal goal was to secure a new job.

 

What did you accomplish in 2009?

Secured a new job (dream job in fact).

Edited novel.

 

What did you attempt but didn’t work out so well?

Unable to secure an editor/publisher for non-fiction MS.

 

What changes do you need to make?

Continue editing fiction, start querying on that.  Take another look at the non-fiction – might need to change the tone.

DETERMINE:
What are your writing goals for 2010?

Finish the fiction MS and non-fiction text to a level where they are HOT and sell themselves.

Start writing my (crime) novel.

Select an overall target goal for the year.

Secure a publishing deal for either or both works.

What steps do you need to take to accomplish these goals on a daily, weekly, monthly basis?

Daily:  Keep editing and be open to new ideas.  Keep striving for greatness in my writing.

Weekly:  Researching and create a list of target editors/publishers for the work.

Monthly: Send out queries and keep sending them out.

How about you?  What has 2009 brought and what are you looking to achieve in 2010?

 

13, unlucky for some & choosing your subject matter

I didn’t want to let OJ’s sentencing pass without comment. Nine years non parole doesn’t sound like much when you consider what he’s actually guilty of but it’s a lot better than nothing. I hope this sentence brings the Brown and Goldman families some peace.

________________________

Back to writing. I want to talk about choosing your subject matter. Specifically, do you choose it or does it choose you? Let me explain.

I had no interest or knowledge of intimate partner homicide until I watched a true crime series which followed the trial of a man convicted of it. What’s more, I didn’t even mean to watch the series. I was channel surfing really late one night and tuned in half way through the second episode. I was so struck by what I saw that I went out and bought the DVD box set the next day. Watching the series led me to writing to the convicted man which lead me to researching the topic. Since then I’ve joined the Domestic Violence Coalition Committee (a group which advocates domestic homicide investigation reform), written an information booklet for the DVCC and published a magazine article highlighting the two faces of intimate homicide.  I can trace it all back to that night in January 2005 when I flicked over to SBS.

My point is, if someone would’ve asked what I’d like to write about, I wouldn’t have said domestic/intimate partner homicide.  Bottom line though, the subject matter resonated with me.  In fact, I couldn’t leave it alone, I needed to know more.

With the holiday season around the corner and the possibility of winding down, can I suggest that you tune in to what lights your creative fire?  Pay attention to whom and what you are fascinated by.  Then, be brave and go with it.  Heck, my family and friends thought I was crazy to become pen pals with a convicted murderer (I can hear you agreeing with them) but I don’t regret it at all.  In fact, it’s been such an enlightening experience.  All I’m saying is…follow your fascination because it could be your next big idea trying desperately to get your attention.

Scheduling creativity

The question of scheduling creativity came up during coffee with someone the other day.  I mentioned that I hadn’t done a lot of writing lately because I’d been distracted and not feeling overly inspired.  My coffee companion said something like ‘oh, I have a friend who’s very disciplined about her writing, she schedules it into her day’.

I told my companion (with an internal diva-like sniff) that discipline and scheduling kill creativity for me and that I write when I’m feeling it.  This, of course, is a luxury afforded only to those who have another source of income.

Now that I’ve had time to reflect, the real reason I’ve done very little writing work lately is because I’m editing and redrafting a non-fiction manuscript.  I don’t really like editing, redrafting and, as it turns out, writing about this particular topic.   Hmm.  Shame.  But I believe the book will sell so I’m committed to finishing it.

So in hindsight, I think my recent diva attitude towards writing was simply procrastination masquerading as creative snobbery.  Damn that procrastination – it’s a slippery little sucker.

I still stand by the fact that discipline kills my creativity, however I’m usually so excited and inspired when I’m creating a first draft of fiction that I have more of a problem stopping than starting.  It’s the grind of editing and redrafting that require discipline and scheduling.

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Creating as therapy

. I’m going to be controversial today.

I was reading a book about mental health, and I read about a man who suffered from schizophrenia. It had started when he was young, in a dead-end, boring job, when to amuse his active, creative, intelligent mind, he had started a rich fantasy life as a spy. The fantasy life took over reality, and he ended up in a mental hospital, totally zoned out on drugs that left him empty. Eventually, he recovered – not through drugs, which he refused to take, but by sheer self-will

That reminded me of when I was younger, also stuck in a dead end job, which involved standing doing nothing for ages (never work in a library!). I also took refuge in a rich fantasy life. However, when I realised that I was spending more time in my mind than in reality, and it was taking a bit of effort to snap out of it into a reality that threatened to drown me in depression, I took steps.

I did not go to the doctor. I did not take pills. Instead, I wrote my fantasies down. I could slip fully into my dream life, create my stories, put the pen down and step back into a reality that seemed brighter and more joyful because I was happier.

Many writers and artists could be defined as mentally ill. William Blake was almost certainly schizophrenic, as was Van Gogh, Charlotte Bronte was depressed. I used to perform a comedy sketch, written by Victora Wood, which said if Charlotte Bronte were alive today, she’d be on pills, or have a perm, and be much happier.

That’s true. If she were alive today, she’d be on anti-depressants – and Jane Eyre would never have been written. If William Blake were alive today, he’d be locked up, and those wonderful poems and utterly unique art would not exist. Van Gogh would probably be zoned out on heavy medication, and Starry Starry Night would never have be seen.

Someone once described mental illness as an excess of creativity. Perhaps that should be how we treat it. Write and paint and sing your way out of mental unrest. Blake died happy, knowing where he was going – he’d already seen angels. Van Gogh found peace only when he painted. Charlotte wrote her depression out, creating four great novels. The final photograph of her shows a married woman, pleasantly surprised, happy.

I don’t think pills should be the way we deal with unhappiness, or loneliness, or boredom, or an overwhelming fantasy life. I think perhaps, for a lot of people dealing with mental illness, we should put a pencil in their hand and say ‘Go ahead – put your mind on the paper’.

See, I told you I was going to be controversial. But don’t you just hate the idea that so many overwhelming creative talents out there are being strangled by drugs, because they do fit the norm of how we should behave? That was nearly me, and I thank goodness that I escaped that.

Balancing your writing life

Narelle’s post on writing projects got me to thinking. Writing, like so much of life, is all about balance. We have our works in progress, our promotion, and we must constantly learn how to be better at both. If we’re lucky there is life outside of writing to be balanced too–spouses, and family, day jobs and volunteer work–the sheer work of keeping up with our causes and beliefs and the next national election. It’s all on some giant scale–tipping precariously one way and then another.

If you read the articles on organizing yourself as a writer, many of them tell you to write first thing in the morning, so you will continue to think on your project the rest of the day.

The problem with that is that other organizational articles tell me to run first thing in the morning, so I will continue the habit (I do), read my Bible first thing in the morning, so that I will be in touch with God.(I do that when I eat breakfast after the run–close enough) and of course to make your family breakfast and eat it with them so you keep in touch. (Huh, fat chance! It’s not like any of us get up and out at the same time.)

As you might remember from a previous post, I was going to think about my book and record myself on my mp3 player as I run. Didn’t work, folks. Mind you, I can’t blame it directly for the scabs on my knees and hands–the fall was my own klutziness–but I wasn’t encouraged either. The MP3 player is however fine.
So I’m pretty much overwhelmed by the organizational stuff. By the time I get through the morning, I’m ready for bed again and I haven’t written a stroke of work.

But someone a long time ago told me that what worked for them was that they did not go to bed until they had written one page on their WIP. That’s not their blog, or their promo pieces. It’s not their email or their work correspondence. None of that stuff counts. One page on their Work in progress.

I’ve done it before and simple as it sounds, for me it works. Some days I write much more than one page. Some days I barely get through that one, sitting on the couch, writing in long hand as the TV blares. But the next day, that scribbled page is usually transcribed into the computer and I’m ready to do more.
I’m going to start doing that again. My balance depends on getting back to my writing.

What works for you?

I have no idea….

 

A writer once told me, of all the questions she was ever asked, the one she dreaded most was ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’. Because, in all honesty, she had no idea – and I’m the same.

 

My way of writing is very organic. I might start with a line I’ve overheard, or the idea for a particular scenario in my head, or a ‘what if….?’ question suddenly occurring to me. I’ll sit down, pen in head (the first draft is always in long hand – writing an entire book can be very painful!) and put that line or idea or scene on paper – and then let my pen drift where it wills. Lately I’ve learnt to write whilst watching TV, or listening to music, giving the front part of my brain something to do, whilst letting my subconscious get on with it. The point is, I have no idea what’s going to come out on the page, and I’m usually as surprised as any reader would be by the final denouement. I know these ideas must have been somewhere in my head in the first place for me to write them, but I had no knowledge of their existence.

 

My favourite author of all time is Charlotte Bronte. When she was stuck with a story, or with a detail she knew nothing about it, she used to ask her dreams.

 

For example – she had to write about Lucy’s experience of what is basically a drug trip in Villette. Charlotte had no idea what this was like, so for three nights in a row, she went to bed and thought about Lucy, and asked what she had gone through. On the third night, she dreamed Lucy’s whole drugged wanderings through Villette, with all her sensations and feelings – and that ended up in the novel.

 

Like her, my best ideas come in my dreams. (Well, nightmares, as I like to write ghost stories). But that means the stories must have been in my consciousness to start off with – and I’m still stuck with the idea of where they came from in the first place?

 

Sometimes my mind seems an echoing, cavernous place, devoid of all stories, and no amount of cudgeling my brains will cause them to appear. Sometimes my mind is crammed full of stories, all jostling and crowding each other, screaming ‘me first! Write me first!’. But as to where those stories come from in the first place – I have no idea.

 

Bet it’d be a fun place to visit though.

Ideas

When I think back to the ideas I’ve had over the last 12 months, I can see that there’s a pattern to how and when they come.  My creativity is strongest in the early morning and my creative mind loves theta activities so most of my ideas have come while I’m doing something else.   For example, taking a shower or driving on the 50 minute drive to work (I’m yet to create anything on the way home, I’m always too tired). 

Like most people, my creativity comes in peaks and troughs.  Right now I’m in a trough and so just writing this post is a grind.  I’ve learned not to fear these troughs.  Instead, I use them to get other things done.  For example, today I’m going to do some housework, organise all the paperwork in my office and get my bookshelves sorted out.  That way, when my creativity peaks again (which could be any day) I’ll be able to focus fully on writing.  I’m much more productive in an uncluttered and tidy space..so even though tidying the house and organising my office doesn’t seem related to writing, for me it is.