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?

Another Trick to Overcome Writer’s Block by Christine Duncan

Over and over again, when folks tell me that they just can’t get anything written, (or they can’t find time to exercise, or they don’t have time for a vacation or whatever) I realize after talking to them that the reason they can’t is simply that they haven’t.

The first thing to do is find the time.

You could find time right now for whatever your heart desires, but the trick is really wanting it. When you want something, it goes on your schedule. If it is important to you, it becomes first on your to-do list. Yeah, you’ve heard this before. You will see this particular trick in writer’s articles everywhere. Write down when you want to write. Put it on your calendar. You read about this trick because this works. My time to write for this blog is Saturday afternoon. It is a fixed point in time and space. (All right, I’ve watched too much Dr. Who, but you get the idea. I AM going to write for this blog on Saturdays. And knowing that, I do.) If you like, make writing a priority first thing in the morning, as soon as you get out of bed. Shoot! Decide to write a page before you get out of bed.

I hear some of you howling. “I tried this! I took the time and still didn’t get anything written.”

You may have. I know I did. There is a second part of the trick that makes the whole deal work for me. Have a reward in mind. Nothing big. It’s not like you’re going to go to Tiffany’s and buy yourself some diamonds. But don’t let yourself have that first cup of coffee or your shower until you’ve written something. Or give yourself a walk, a piece of chocolate, time listening to your favorite music when you are done.

I’ve done this for years, but my reward is the procrastinator’s special. I get to go to bed when I’m done. Just one page before I can go to sleep, that’s the deal. And I do like to sleep.

This isn’t some once and done thing. As with anything worthwhile, we decide everyday what we’re going to do with our time. Are we going to watch Supernatural? Or are we going to write? Personally I don’t recommend trying to write while you’re watching Supernatural. The stuff that comes out might be too scary But then that is why I write cozies.

Overcoming Writer’s block by Christine Duncan

I have a confession to make. I write poetry. Okay, okay, I’m not going to subject any of you to it (today anyway.) but I have been doing it since…well, since someone first put a pencil in my hand back in kindergarten. I like reading poetry–Frost and Dickenson and some of Sandburg and even one or two of Alexander Pope’s and although I don’t go around quoting the stuff, I do think of it on occasion.

But my secret addiction has been good for my other writing. For one thing, writing verse (I’m not good enough to be a poet.) is a warm up sometimes for writing fiction. They seem to segue way into one another. Don’t ask me how.

And poetry forces you to search for the exact word or phrase, to reject adjectives and adverbs when you can find a stronger verb, to take the time to write shorter. It should also work on my run-on sentences, but…hey it’s not a miracle. I do think it strengthens my fiction writing.

As I noted last week, we talk a lot here about writer’s block, and we all have a few little secrets about how we stay involved with the writing. This is mine.

Things such as WordPress’s new Plinky feature might strike an occasional chord because I can turn my mind to writing by…writing. Verse, this blog, quick (but honest) notes to friends, these things work for me.

Defeating Writer’s Block

OK, the title is a bit misleading. I am not beating writer’s block, I am joining it.

Often I find that if I look at visual stimuli, pictures and video, I will get ideas. This time it didn’t work, but I did find some amazing pics on writer’s block and one video on grammar that I just had to share.

So here goes. I am merely passing on the work of others, it is not my own.

Overcoming Writers Block by Heidi Thomas

You just can’t get there from here.”

How many times have you heard that direction-giving joke? But often that line describes a type of writer’s block. You’ve written up to a certain point. You know where you want to go up ahead. But what do you write in between? Personally, I have wasted hours, days, even weeks, trying to figure out what to write next, so I can get to that future scene I already have in my head.

But wait. Who says you have to write in a linear fashion? What if you write out of sequence? Aha! Now, you’ve given yourself permission to write the scene from your head and it flows wonderfully. Another Aha! Questions and solutions actually appear about how the character might have arrived here from there. You’re not stuck any more.

As a writing instructor once explained, to build a bridge, one first needs to erect a scaffold. It’s not a lot different in writing. You have several important scaffold scenes in your story or novel that have to take place (there will probably be more than one of each of these scenes in your book):

1.    The Introductory Scene where the reader meets your main character.

2.    A Meeting Scene, where the main character meets another character (maybe the love interest or maybe his nemesis) This is another form of Introductory Scene.

3.    A Conflict Scene where two characters battle it out, whether physically, verbally, or in a match of wits. Or where the character battles himself.

4.    A Realization Scene-the moment the character realizes something about herself that is a turning point. Or realizes her “enemy” is really her friend.

5.    A Resolution Scene, where a problem is resolved (not necessarily the main one, but a problem nonetheless).

6.    A Final Scene, which may or may not be your actual ending. An interesting exercise is to write a scene in which your main character(s) are old and looking back at what happened, what he/she/they learned, how they’ve changed, what they would’ve done differently, etc. That can give you an insight to “fill in the blanks.”

Another interesting exercise is to write a letter from your main character to yourself, as if this person has just learned you are writing a book about her, how she feels about that, any advice she might have for you, etc. This can be quite revealing. Sometimes you learn that you have a reluctant character, one who doesn’t want her story told. So you have to figure out how to win her over.

A recent article in The Writer magazine talked about writing out of order. The author made similar suggestions to the ones above, such as:

1.    Write a scene in which the main character enters a new place.

2.    Take a minor character you’ve introduced and write a scene where he/she appears later in the story.

3.    Choose a character other than the main character-someone you’d like to know more about, and write a monologue in which she explores or explains herself.

4.    Write a scene where your main character has a dream that advances the story.

5.    Make a list of at least five crucial scenes that you think will be important for the story/novel (see “scaffold scenes above.)

Any one or all of these scenes may or may not appear in your final draft, but they will help you keep writing and develop ideas.

Have fun, write on and defeat that Writer’s Block! (Now, I just have to take my own advice.)

Raised on a ranch in isolated eastern Montana, Heidi Thomas has had a penchant for reading and writing since she was a child. Armed with a degree in journalism from the University of Montana, she worked for the Daily Missoulian newspaper, and has had numerous magazine articles published.

A tidbit of family history, that her grandmother rode steers in rodeos during the 1920s, spurred Heidi to write a novel based on that grandmother’s life.

Cowgirl Dreams is the first in a series about strong, independent Montana Women. http://www.HeidiMThomas.com

The Worst Thing

The surest way I have ever found to get myself out of writer’s block is to ask, “What is the absolute worst thing you can do to your character?”  Bujold put me on to the idea and I love her for it. Find the one thing that would really disturb the character and do it. This tends to work in two ways.

1. You really have to get to know their motivations to answer that question, and
2. They start to do all sorts of interesting things to avoid it.

One of my favourite characters that I have ever written was born from just this process. The world I was writing was based very strongly on survival of the fittest. So what if they met someone who was surviving quite well but was in a wheel chair? How would they cope?

To my considerable surprise, the main character fell head over heels in love with her. Who knew he had it in him? As I typed, I could see it unfold and really threw me. No one reacted the way I thought they would. I really got to know them in a whole new way and the characters became a lot more real. Just like us, facing adversity really made them grow as people and gave them substance.

            One of my favourite movies is Soapdish. A line in that movie goes something like, “I’m normal, who wants to watch me on TV?” While characters can be normal people, they should always be given something extraordinary to overcome, losing the farm, finding their father’s murderer, finding the ‘Forgotten Crystal of Doom’, whatever the genre, giving them something to battle makes them interesting. And what should they battle? Well ask yourself – what is the worst thing that can happen to them? And see what happens.