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A Shout-Out to All Creators!

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I don’t remember now how the conversation first started, but I got to talking with my younger brothers about a particularly annoying dragon in one of the stories I’d written. When met with blank faces, I realized they hadn’t ever heard the story, even though I wrote it for my siblings, intending to read it to them later!

My youngest brother immediately started campaigning for me to find it so I could read it to them, so over the last few weeks, I’ve taken time to do that now and then. We’re about half-way through the story now, which is significantly longer than I thought it would be (turns out it’s just under 20,000 words long!).

Shout-Out to Creaters!

There have been two, no, three things that have struck me since starting to read this book aloud:

  1. It’s not a bad thing to wait for a while to read through a book. I thought it was a fairly mediocre story soon after I wrote it, but waiting nearly two years to read it has changed my perspective quite a bit. I don’t know if I’d recommend waiting that long before you even read through your work for the first time, but you get a great perspective on the story—so much is new again!
  2. I can write semi-funny things. I’ve laughed out loud several different times at unexpected happenings, and that’s a really fun discovery!
  3. Some of my story ideas actually work. At least, for me and my family, which is the most important thing to me. I don’t know if this story will ever see the light of day in any editing/publishing roles, but I enjoyed the creation process, and I’m enjoying the sharing process, too.

Are you creating anything right now? Does it feel like absolute junk—like mine did? Keep working at it. Finish it. You never know what kind of gems you might find in your files years down the track!

Keep creating!

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

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It’s always encouraging to hear from other writers. Back when I first started writing, I dived in head-first with little knowledge of story structure, character development, or even what the word “plot” or “novel” meant. That first year, especially, I spent reading everything I could on the subject. And though I’m sure I’ve forgotten most of what I learned then, I do remember the feeling of my world expanding exponentially, and the sure realization that I’d never look at anyone or anything the same way again.

There was a moment soon after I started writing for fun in longer form when I remember seeing a teenage girl being comforted—multiple times over a weekend—by an older friend of ours. Later, when I asked my parents about it, I explained that I wanted to know why she was doing that “because I might use it in my writing one day.” It turned out she had recently lost her brother, quite unexpectedly, and my heart went out to her.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

But I knew then, even more than I had earlier, that life would never quite look the same again. I was a writer—was seeing life from the perspective of a writer—and that became a constant in my life.

Still, it’s good to hear from other people who are writers. They bring balance to my life.

I had forgotten how much I was missing out on until I got a chance to watch some encouragement from the last “season” of Indie Novelist Summit—which, in retrospect, I wish I had written about earlier, because wow. Some of that content is gold. I wish I could have shared it with you while it was still live! I’ve only watched one episode so far—one with Joanna Penn about writing mindset—but it’s set me down and shown me just how much I have yet to learn about the writing craft.

I love to write, love developing new characters under my fingers and watching them spring to life in gorgeous colors in my head.

However, I remember one time when I was probably six or seven, sitting at our grey, weathered picnic table under one of the biggest maple trees I’ve ever seen, a major feature in many childhood memories. I had a clean sheet of paper before me, a case of watercolor paints, and a beautiful picture in mind to paint. When I looked at my results a few minutes later, I remember feeling intense disappointment—though I had a picture in my head, I couldn’t translate it to the page.

Often, my writing feels that way too—a beauty of an idea, a meaningful thought, but poorly translated when it comes to writing.

Hearing from other creative writers refuels my tank, gives me the inspiration to keep going.

There was a phrase from Joanna Penn’s episode that has stuck with me:

“Stand on the shoulders of giants—know what has come before, so you can create something new.”

That’s what I’d like to do. I know that while my writing might not be great now, if I keep working at it, it’ll get better.

And that is why I’m thankful to still be able to write. And have the chance to learn from others who are also still learning—though obviously at a much more advanced level than me!

Who are you learning from right now? What are you learning?

Writing Inspiration Resources — Where I’m Finding Motivation Right Now

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We’re currently in the thick of moving preparations at the moment. It’s Wednesday; we’re moving Saturday, and there are still some cleaning jobs, final yard clean-up, and last-minute packing to do yet! But we’re getting there.

My writing time lately has been struggling quite a bit. We’ve been spending a lot more time with other people (mostly goodbye meals), and the stress of having things in limbo especially this last week has really made it difficult to focus. I never realized before what part a tidy, “normal” environment plays into my creativity levels! It’s a fascinating thing to think about.

Anyway, I have wanted to continue doing at least a little writing, just to keep the practice in, so I’ve been pushing myself to do 100 words each day in my story. Keeping going in the midst of change is hard, but at the same time it’s also refreshing to have one constant I can count on in my life.

I’ve also been working on “fueling up” as much as possible, and I thought it would be fun to share a few places I’m finding inspiration these days with you!

Writing Inspiration Resources — Where I'm Finding Motivation Right Now

  1. Read updates from other writers. I frequently stop by Lydia Howe’s and Kate Willis’ blogs, because they often talk about writing. Seeing other writers struggle with their stories, fight through, and make progress, has always inspired me, so I’m gleaning as much inspiration from them as possible.
  2. Shawn Smucker’s writing updates. Technically, this should fit under the previous point, but I’ve appreciated the thoughts he’s had to share so much recently that it deserves its own place in the list. 🙂 His goal is to write 1000 words every weekday, and each day before he begins writing he does a short journal entry or pep talk for the day. So far, I’ve found it helpful and encouraging. And it makes me itch to start writing more myself, so YAY!
  3. 2018 Author Olympics. A.M.Heath has apparently come up with this–it’s a self-paced olympics for authors, that runs alongside the winter olympics. I’ve never participated, but I’m hoping I can this year! From the description: “Each author sets their own daily goals in the hopes of earning a virtual medal by the end of the day.”
  4. Three Day Word Wars. Again, something I haven’t participated in yet (schedules don’t always mesh very well!), but this is a community of writers who write as much as they possibly can over a three-day period, send in their final wordcounts, and whoever has the most at the end wins a prize. Pretty fun. I’m hoping I can join in next time, but we’ll see! The next one is running from February 22-24.
  5. Read good books. I’m just over half-way through an apologetic, Cold Case Christianity (I mentioned that in an earlier post sometime). I’m also part-way through a novella that’s taken me over a year to read. As soon as I’ve finished that, I’m planning to read several books from authors I know I love—I always find lots of good inspiration there! Good writing, both non-fiction and fiction, often inspires me to work on writing myself.
  6. Listen to piano music. I’ve loved some of Thad Fiscella’s songs for a long time, and often find his music inspiring.
  7.  Keep writing. As much as I might struggle to have this on the list, it really is helpful. My goal is to do at least 100 words per day. Often, I average just above that, but at least I keep moving a little!

What are you doing to keep yourself inspired and moving in your work right now? Do you struggle to focus when your surroundings are changing?

NaNo 2017 Recap and Life Update

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Some days, I dream I’ll be able to become the kind of blogger that takes just fifteen minutes or so to slap a post together and get it posted. I often enjoy that type of blog, because I often feel like I get to know the author better that way somehow—but I haven’t tended to be a good blogger over the last while. Sigh.

HOWEVER, now that NaNoWriMo is officially eight days over, I feel like my brain is starting to return! Hurray!

NaNo was so fun to do this year. After I won in 2013, I really wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to participate again, because I anticipated life getting busier (maybe I was planning on getting married at sixteen; who knows? I can’t remember!). Anyway, even though I did no prep whatsoever for NaNo this year (a BIG no-no in my book!), I was thrilled to be able to participate.

Beach Outing

And even better, I somehow finished. Don’t ask me how that happened; but it did, and I’m thankful!

Since winning NaNo, I’ve focused on a bunch of different things, but the most exciting has been working on the website redesign. Due to several Black Friday sales shared by a blogger I follow, I was able to both purchase the themes I needed to start the redesign, as well as buy website hosting! That was thoroughly exciting, after waiting several months for enough funds to become available.

And, of course, it’s always thrilling to be playing with code and website colors, fonts, and designs again. That’s one part of blogging that I thoroughly enjoy, so it makes my little heart happy to be able to work on it again.

NaNo 2017 Winner Badge

However, life isn’t all fun and games—today, for example, I need to get some book reviews uploaded to the LRD website. I stopped uploading through the month of November, partly due to the lack of available reviews, and partly due to my (ahem) writing at the time. Near the beginning of the month, I decided getting into creative writing would trump working on reviews for the time being. But now that we are into December, it’s high time to tackle that project again.

Then, when that’s done, maybe I can start working on the complex problem with category presentation on the redesign, or perhaps get started on a sewing project I’ve been gazing longingly at for the past week or so.

And maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to dream up a way to get blog posts written and posted easier. Because I do love blogging; I just tend to get to feeling a little stifled at times by the things I “must” do before I can get a post up.

What have you been working on lately?

Little Things and NaNo Update

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Early this morning, I remembered that today marked a year exactly since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that disrupted our lives and the lives of thousands of people here in New Zealand. Wow. Amazing how many changes can be made in a year, and how two minutes at midnight has created challenges for people to this day. One main road still hasn’t been opened yet as a result (although the current hope is that they will be able to open it within a month).

So much in such a little time.

Little Things and NaNo Update

I was listening to a podcast earlier today as I cleaned a few windows in my bedroom that have been bugging me for weeks. Michael Hyatt, a well-known leader in the business world, was talking, and he said something about how our words and actions can influence people either positively or negatively, depending on how we use them. He went on to say that our attitudes and perceptions of life can, in some cases anyway, be huge determining factors in how others relate to us—or even if we end up keeping our jobs or not! Again, another case where little things can influence huge changes, either good or bad.

Lots to ponder there.

The main project for me these last two weeks has been writing. Since I signed up for NaNoWriMo, I’ve been writing at least a little each day. It’s been so, so fun. And while I know that we shouldn’t just do life for the fun aspect, I do think it’s okay in the creative sphere to really challenge yourself to turn up each day and get something done. The challenge is good, but it’s also fun to do.

Last week, I finished the first children’s story I was writing, and began a second that I’ve been pondering off and on for a little while. I’m almost to the end of the second now, and I’m not sure where I’ll be going from here, as I’ll still need nearly 23,000 words of something to write in the next fifteen days in order to win NaNo.

One thing that I have found fascinating over the course of this challenge is the fact that my creativity levels can be depleted. Some days are better, some are worse, but overall I’ve witnessed a general slide in the creativity to a not-so-full state. That’s fine, as I know I’ll be able to tank up over the next few months again, but it has been an interesting trend to follow.

I also have been amusing myself greatly by how much I forget to include one particular character in my more recent story. It’s a dragon, who is supposed to be a little bit on the arrogant slash snarky side, but he keeps forgetting to act his character or I forget he’s even there…this is when I’m looking forward to doing some editing so I can put him back in later. 🙂

In all, NaNo has gone a lot better than I expected so far, I’ve loved (almost) every minute—except for the few times when I realize I’m writing an extremely boring scene!—and I’m looking forward to the final sixteen-or-so days.

Now, I’d better go see if I can figure out another story to write, or else make some good progress on planning out the story I’ve been wanting to write for years!

What projects have you been working on lately? Have you ever listened to podcasts by business leaders? What is one useful tip you have picked up or been given recently?

November’s NaNoWriMo and a Thankfulness Challenge

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Last Wednesday, I did something crazy that I’m hoping I won’t end up regretting (I don’t think I will): I signed up for NaNoWriMo this month. (NaNo, as in National Novel Writing Month, or the crazy challenge writers take to write 50,000 words in 30 days.) I’ve participated other years—and even managed to get to 50k in 2013!—but since then, I’ve gained a lot of other responsibilities, so this is proving to be an even bigger challenge than it was back then.

But it’s been so, so fun as well. It’s thrilling to watch a story develop under your fingertips; to “live” in another place and try to put all five senses that you’re discovering there in word form so that someone else can experience it as well.

November's NaNoWriMo and a Thankfulness Challenge 01
Pre-food near-starvation mode

As an aside: One thing I’ve discovered about myself (to my surprise!) is that I tend to write a lot more clearly than I speak. That’s become a continual annoyance to me, because words flow so well through my fingertips, but not necessarily through my lips. But that’s okay. It’s always good to have at least one thing to hone in life, right?

Back in 2013, and again in 2014 and 2015, I believe, I participated in another month-long challenge in November: GiveThanks x7. It was hosted by a girl’s magazine, The King’s Blooming Rose, with the goal being to write down seven things I’m grateful for every day of the month of November. It proved to be a lovely time of creating a habit of thankfulness, a frame of mind I’d love to be in constantly.

This year, although the magazine isn’t hosting the challenge, they do encourage us to do it ourselves. So I thought I’d share my “thankful” lists from the last three days.

November's NaNoWriMo and a Thankfulness Challenge 02
Post-food relaxation mode (at this point, I’m thinking there are probably some interesting and useful parallels between sheep and humans, as the Bible often points out).

November 1:

  1. Haunt Fox by Jim Kjielgaard—a fascinating nature book!
  2. Peacocks—they’re so pretty!
  3. Beautiful mornings
  4. November
  5. A new dresser for my little sister
  6. NaNoWriMo
  7. Work away from home!

November 2:

  1. Summery days
  2. Motel-quality sheets (what luxury!)
  3. Stories to write
  4. Roses
  5. Bible memory verses
  6. Pitcher plants—fascinating things, especially when wasps get stuck in them!
  7. Dear friends who are willing to help when it’s difficult to get something done ourselves (oh, that I might be a friend like that to other people!)

November 3:

  1. The quails I heard early this morning
  2. Brothers that I can delight with stories
  3. My happy little sister
  4. God’s faithfulness
  5. The color of fresh spring green
  6. Taking walks with my little sister
  7. Her delight in nature

Have you ever written fictional stories and/or participated in a writing challenge? What are some things you are thankful for today?