Tag Archive for: writing

Remember Your Priorities

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Last week, during the Catholic Writers Conference Online, I was reminded of something that I’m going to just go ahead and remind you of, too.

Because you know what? We all need to hear this.

Remember your priorities.

You are Catholic first, everything else second.

That means your big-V vocation–spouse, parent–comes before your little-v vocational pursuits or jobs–including your writing.

Blogging is something that’s easy to get into. But that doesn’t mean it’s right for you. It doesn’t mean you should blog.

When you’re not sure how you’re going to fit one more thing into your schedule, here’s my advice:

STOP. Pray. Listen.

I know, that’s so idealistic. You don’t have time to go to the bathroom unsupervised, and yet I’m challenging you to find somewhere quiet and turn up your ears? All you can hear is your own screaming. What the heck?

I was asked in two different chats, by at least four different people, how they should figure in blogging time.

“They,” after all, say that you should blog to build or grow your platform.

“They” say that blogging is a must.

But you know what? “They” are a bunch of idiots.

Do They have the same priorities you do? Are They called to the same Vocation and vocation as you? How are They even speaking to you?

Take what’s good and discern what’s not, and after you do, don’t look back when you leave it in the trash can.

Not everyone can blog, not everyone should blog, and hey! That’s OK!

We’re here to encourage each other, and I want to cheer in your corner.

Remember your priorities.

Frequent the sacraments, first and foremost, especially the Eucharist and Confession.

Spend time with Jesus BEFORE you spend time doing your work, whether it’s your primary vocation or your work pursuits.

Give it to him FIRST. Everyone else SECOND.

If you’re really stuck, take it to Adoration. Sit in the silence before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and lay your head in his lap. Let his mother stroke your temples and close your eyes.

This is where you belong. This is where you are headed. This is why you struggle through the day.

If blogging is something you are truly called to do, you will. You can.

It’s not easy to do God’s will, but it’s even harder when we’re deaf to what God’s trying to tell us.

Let’s pray for each other, shall we? It’s not an easy thing, being an artist. It’s not an easy call we’re heeding.

But easy isn’t what we’re after. Heaven is.

That rosary is one I got via Trendy Traditions.

RAH-RAH ROOTING FACTORS! How to make your readers love your characters as much as you do.

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What’s one of the biggest reasons you keep reading when you pick up a new book? Think about it for a moment. For me, it’s characters who are interesting, multi-dimensional, unpredictable…and likeable. Yet this is an element many of us struggle to achieve. One of the most common phrases in rejection letters is “I just didn’t connect with the character(s).”

So, what does that mean to us, as fiction writers? It means we must draw our readers into the story with the very first sentences, and to get them invested in the characters well before the end of the first chapter, maybe by the end of the first page. This is a tall order—especially when we read our favorite authors and marvel at how easy they make it look.

I don’t know about you, but I can see my characters vividly in my mind’s eye, and am truly astonished when my critique partners don’t fall in love with the characters. Passionately! As an author, it is incumbent upon me to portray those characters with all the tools at my disposal. I’d like to share a technique that is simple, yet extremely effective.

Rooting factors. Yes, as in rah-rah, go hero/ine! These are characteristics that show your hero or heroine in an endearing light. Details that allow the reader to bond with them…to root for them. What you’re after is any trait that is positive, but especially universal ones like humanity, vulnerability, generosity, etc.

As Blake Snyder says in Save the Cat, an excellent resource on screenwriting, the opening scene is critical. We must give the reader a reason to like our hero or heroine, even if (or especially if) they have rough edges or have a lot of growing to do through the book. In Snyder’s example, the character swerves from his purpose (which can be dark or suspenseful or comic) in order to do a good deed…i.e., save the cat from certain calamity. This demonstrates our hero’s kind side, and when he goes on to shock or distress us with his struggles, we recognize that he is a good person who has been forced into an untenable situation. And we root for him!

This is what keeps readers turning the pages, this ‘liking’ the characters. Go to your favorite novel. Right now. Open it up and analyze the first chapter for characteristics that are likable (and therefore create a bond with the reader). Chances are, you’ll find a fairly long list.
Be careful to salt these rooting factors in carefully. They must be organic to the story and the writing. This should never be a laundry list. “The heroine was feisty, yet compassionate, and she was bluntly honest without being cruel, and her moral compass never wavered.” No. Work the rooting factors into the normal activities of the character’s world. Use dialogue and action to show why the character deserves the reader’s investment.

This is a particularly effective technique for characters who may not be all that likable at the beginning of the story, those who have a long way to go before they learn their life lesson or earn their reward. They have legitimate flaws. That’s what makes them interesting. But they also have some innate goodness that allows the potential of redemption. Here’s a secret regarding the villain: the most compelling villains have some good traits, too. After all, the worst part about villains is that we can see ourselves in them.

Here’s an example from my current work in progress. I have a potentially difficult task. My heroine has just been released from prison and is looking for a job. In the first sentence, she demonstrates a deep level of respect for her fellow man when she murmurs “Excuse me” to a pedestrian who bumps into her. And she does so without regard to the discomfort, even anxiety, the other person’s proximity causes her—which demonstrates her vulnerability and humanity. What’s not to like about our heroine, right off the bat? A page later, she picks up a plastic bag out of concern that small animals might get trapped in it. Her prison history, while central to the story, is not revealed until the end of the chapter. And by the time the reader gets there, hopefully s/he is so invested in the character that they are willing (and eager) to read further.

Here’s your homework assignment: Reread the first chapter of your current work. Can you ramp up rooting factors for your characters? See what you can do, and if it improves the work. It has mine, and it took me four years too long to figure out. I hope it’s not as long for you!

A note from Karina Fabian about her worldbuilding class

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People who read my blog know how bizarre my imagination gets, and how detailed and wild I can get in my worldbuilding. Even though I’m more of an intuitive, seat-of-the-pants kind of writer, I have broken down worldbuilding into several steps and I’m teaching them at savvyauthors.com September 5-October 3. I really stretched this class out so that folks had a lot of time to think, research, etc. However, you can go at your own pace, do don’t let the length intimdate you. I have taught this in week-long conferences. However, you are going to get up to four weeks of my attention for only $25 ($25 for Savvy Author members.)

Get more information here: http://www.savvyauthors.com/vb/showevent.php?eventid=1001

Blogging with the Spirit

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I’ve been pretty embroiled in preparing for our parish’s Confirmation Boot Camp over the last couple of weeks. This week, in front of the class of Confirmation students, I thought about my journey to published author.

Blogging’s what lit my fire for writing. It’s how I came to be published.

I started blogging because I felt like maybe, possibly, PERHAPS, I should be writing. I thought about writing as something serious thanks to time spent in Eucharistic Adoration.I found myself in Eucharistic Adoration because, the year after I became Catholic, our parish started an Adoration program. I became Catholic because of the Holy Spirit at work in a guy I loved.

This week, I spoke and taught passionately about many different aspects of our Catholic faith. I tried to step back and let the Holy Spirit work.

He didn’t let me down.

Before each 45-minute session, we prayed Come, Holy Spirit. And I think I’ve found my new writing prayer.

So often, my writing is a link to God. It’s my letter to him, often literally. It helps me process how he’s at work in my life.

It’s hard to take myself seriously as a writer, but I find it even more challenging to think of myself as a serious blogger. Oh, I love it and I AM serious about it. But…it seems silly, doesn’t it? It’s words on a screen. I’m no big deal in the world of blogging.

But those words in the air, the ones I pray, get transformed into so much more, thanks to the Holy Spirit. I think, with his hands over mine on the keyboard, blogging might be one more way of being his instrument.

—
Sarah Reinhard, author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent & Christmas Reflections for Families, is a Catholic wife, mom, blogger, reader, and farm girl who can be found at SnoringScholar.com. She’s also active on Twitter and Facebook.

Social Media & Blogging

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I resisted it for quite a while. “I already blog,” I thought. “Who needs Twitter? And I can’t even really navigate Facebook. So I’ll just keep blogging.”

That was years ago. Now, I’m just as embroiled in the web of status updates as anyone else. It just seemed to be the next step, the natural progression of my blogging activity.

I have noticed, in the time since trying to figure out how status updates fit into my life to now, that these 140-character updates serve a few different purposes in my life, both good and bad.

1. They take time. It’s hidden time, time that I would have committed to other things (like picking my fingernails and staring at the sky, in many cases). Sometimes, this time is also better committed to other things (like the dishes or the messy living room). Blogging also takes time, though, and when I find myself against a brick wall, sometimes those status updates (either writing a new one or looking back at past ones) can get me launched into a new post.

2. They help me remember moments in my life. I live with little kids who say the darndest things, and by sharing these things, I create a bit of a log. There are times when I realize, as I’m capturing a blissful moment or a slice of hilarity, that I have plenty of material all around me for my blog. I see the evidence of God at work; I feel the need to make connections; I have a way of keeping myself aware of the world around me because I’m documenting it for myself. (Maybe it’s just the voices in my head, needing a way to express themselves?)

3. They give me ideas for longer pieces. Somehow, the act of writing things down–whether on a scrap of paper or a status update–aids my spotty memory. (I have hopes of getting my memory back, but…who knows?) It also, as I mentioned in #1, warms me up, so that when I have a chance to sit down at my computer for the window of time I have to write a blog post, I can DO IT: the ideas are there, cultivated in my mind or saved on my Twitter feed.

4. They connect me in different ways to more–and varied–people. This can be a pro and a con, but it’s there all the same. There are quite a few people who read blogs through Facebook, and though that does NOT suit me, it gives my blog a wider audience and sometimes a more interactive audience. When I take time (which is sometimes not often) to read other people’s updates, I might find yet another source for ideas.

5. They’re fun and they give me interaction with other people. (They’re also addictive, but we’ll leave that discussion for others.) I feel, so often, like an island in my little writing world, especially as an avid extrovert. The interaction and amusement I get from social media feeds that part of me that sometimes feels like it will wither away in the middle of a lonely, blank screen. The fun has to be balanced, it’s true. But it’s important for me to enjoy my work, and since my work these days is rather isolated from other adults, I appreciate the outlet and input of social media.

How do you use social media to support or aid your blogging efforts? Or do you find that they, instead, hamper your writing?

—
Sarah Reinhard, author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent & Christmas Reflections for Families, is a Catholic wife, mom, blogger, reader, and farm girl who can be found online at SnoringScholar.com. She’s also active on Twitter and Facebook, if you’re so inclined.

Writing: Setting and Keeping Realistic Goals

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Anybody who’s been watching me on Facebook knows I’m on a mission: to build up to writing 3000 words a day, five days a week, on the my work in progress. (So this does not count blogs, website content, short stories that hit out of the blue, e-mail etc.) Some friends have told me they think this is an amazing goal, almost unbelievable, but I know it’s one I can achieve.

We all have aspirations and goals for our writing, but how do we know it’s something doable? If we set undoable goals, then we set ourselves up for frustration. Sometimes, God enables us to do the impossible, but in the day-to-day, He expects us to us to use our abilities as best we can, but realistically. So let’s talk today about setting realistic writing goals.

#1 Set a goal that depends on others. For example, you can’t set a goal of getting x number of books published unless you publish them yourself. That’s because you can’t guarantee that x number of editors will accept your stuff, that production will go according to plan, etc. You can set a goal of x submissions a week, or x stories written a year. Goals are something you accomplish on your own–with help, perhaps, but not where if someone falters, the goal does, too.

#2 What’s realistic in your field? Fantasy author Holly Lisle recently said in a newsletter that she can write 3600 words in a two-hour period. Dean Wesley Smith has 90-plus books and probably even more short stories published. Another author I read about (the go-to guy for many publishers when authors can’t/don’t fulfill their contracts) said he’s had to write entire novels in two weeks. NaNoWriMo has the goal of 50,000 words in a month–less than 3,000 words a day, but comparable in effort.

#3 Know what’s realistic for you. This is the big one.

? Do you have the skill? Even Holly Lisle said when she first started writing that she could not have written that quickly and produced a quality work. Decades of experience, instruction and practice brought her to this level. I have enough experience to know I can make my set goal. I have done it before, as well.

? Do you have the time? When I first started writing, I was homeschooling two kids, had a toddler and a baby. My goal then was a sentence a night. That’s all I could realistically achieve. Now, my kids are in public school, and I have several hours a quiet that I’ve learned to guard for my writing.

? Do you have the support? I don’t mean do you have cheerleaders. Those are nice but not necessary. I mean practical support like making your family leave you alone for an hour to write (or mostly alone.) Can you get access to the Internet to send our submissions? Can you work around obstacles? (Some folks write on lunch hours; others go to the library for a while on the way home from somewhere or even just sit in their cars and write. However, their goals will be different fro the person who has three hours of time to concentrate on writing.)

Okay, that should help you to set a realistic goal. Here are a couple of ideas for keeping it.

* Put it in writing on your schedule.
* Do it first–reward yourself with the time wasters like Facebook afterward (or after significant progress, like every 1000 words.)
* Be accountable. I post my goal and wordcount on Facebook and Twitter.
* Get buddies. I have a couple of friends I meet with online. We write and occasionally comment to each other, ask for help or post our progress. We don’t judge each other or ourselves on our goals, incidentally. We know and respect that we are at different stages.
* Reward yourself.
* If the goal proves unrealistic, revise. I may find that 3000 words a day takes too much of my quiet time, and that I’m struggling to keep up with other projects; if so, I’ll tone down, but this goal will also give me a good idea about what’s reasonable.

Last thing: Along the lines of buddies: a couple of us have been toying with the idea of meeting in the CWG chat room, mostly to touch base in the day and post writing goals, ask for help, etc. If you are interested, then comment below with your usual writing time (and time zone). If we see that there’s enough interest, we can do it.

When real life gets "in the way"

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I find myself in a particularly busy season of life. This is due, in large part, to an abundance of blessings. Three of those blessings are ages six, three, and five months. The other blessings are writing (for pay!) deadlines and a new home.

This week is crazy. We are going to be closing on that new home this week (I hope! I pray!), and not only have I never done this before, but I don’t deal well with “winging it.” Home closings, apparently, involve a lot of eleventh-hour facilitating, and I’m finding myself stretched in a far different way than I ever have been before.

I’m relying on other people–people I love, people who love me, but still, other people–to get a lot of the must-do things done.

In my perfect world, I’m self-sufficient. I’m able to battle life with my glowing sword and still get a full night’s sleep.

Real life, however, looks a little different than my perfect world, and I’m starting to realize that maybe what GOD has in mind is better than what SARAH has in mind.

I’m not the first–or the last–blogger to find myself suddenly needing a break (or a really quick solution!) to deal with my real life. In fact, this isn’t the first time this has happened to me.

So here’s how I deal with it:

1. I pray. A lot. No joke. It’s taken me a number of years to realize that this has to be my first response to chaos and stress. And even though blogging might seem like, well, nothing all that serious, but maybe that makes it even more important for me to turn to God.

2. Dip into my archives. I’ve been blogging a while, and sometimes, craziness just means I rerun something from my archives. An alternative to this is to post something easy, like a quote or a guest post (if there’s one waiting for me).

3. I work ahead. I do this a lot anyway, but I am even more conscientious of scheduling posts with plenty of time ahead when I know my offline life is going to be extra demanding.

4. Take a break. This always seems unthinkable at first, but–whaddaya know?–the internet doesn’t even notice when I’m gone for a few days or weeks! Who knew? (Lesson in humility anyone?)

How about you? How do YOU deal with real life getting “in the way” of your blogging or writing?

—
Sarah Reinhard, author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent & Christmas Reflections for Families, is a Catholic wife, mom, blogger, reader, and farm girl who can be found online at SnoringScholar.com.

It’s Mary’s Fault I Write

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May is Mary’s month, and I can’t help but reflect in this space about how it’s Mary’s fault that I write.

Yes, I blame her. Writing was a dream of mine years ago, when I was a wee girl living in the country and filling notebooks with terrible tales, but I never thought I’d actually do it as work.

The reality of writing, though, is such that I can only shake my head and surmise that, surely, only God’s MOTHER could be responsible for this.

I was going to be so! much! more! The image of me frantically pecking at a keyboard while kids are bouncing off the walls or while racing the nap times and potty breaks and snack times is so far from what I had planned for myself that I can’t help but laugh…still…all these years later.

It all started when Father was out of town and I was holding down the parish office fort by myself. During that week, I had what felt like a whole series of weird “Mary signs.” I don’t know what else to call them. They were significant to me at the time, but if I shared them with you now, you’d laugh (and I wouldn’t blame you).

I was so moved by them that I started a list and bombarded Father with them when he returned.

“Well,” he said. As I rambled on and on and ON, he sat there and probably tried not to smile.

It was later that year that I started blogging, which was intended to be a daily writing exercise. The feeling that I was supposed to write was…uncomfortable. It’s not that I didn’t think I could do it, it was that I really had no training for the craft, for the networks, for all the ins and outs.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my big “break” into writing came as a result of a column about Mary’s various titles over at Catholic Exchange. And then there was the opportunity to join the Catholic Moments show with a “Mary Moment.”

Opportunities kept growing and expanding. In fact, my Marian writing is what seems to always attract people, to get the leads, to keep my writing alive.

So I guess the least I can do is keep plugging along, relying on her (and her Son!) for help and strength on the journey.

Do you have a patron for your writing endeavors? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments!

—
Sarah Reinhard, author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent & Christmas Reflections for Families, is a Catholic wife, mom, and certifiably addicted blogger who can be found online at SnoringScholar.com.

Busting Writer’s Block

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Last week, I talked about writer’s block being a lie that keeps writers from their dreams because it hides the real reason writers don’t produce:

1. Intimidation
2. Sloth
3. Perfectionism
4. Guilt
5. Rather talk about being a writer than write

Regardless of the reason, hiding behind writer’s block will stop you from doing what you want to do–write! Here are some tips for busting the lie of writer’s block.

#1 Sh**y First Drafts. In her book, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamont talks about giving herself permission to write a “sh***y first draft.” The idea is that you can always fix your prose, your story, your characters—but only if write it out first.

This is the best advice I can give someone who feels intimidated by the task or shackled with expectations of perfectionisn. Give yourself permission to write tripe. Order yourself to put words to paper (or to the screen), even if (as one presenter at CWCO put it), you end up with a virtual “steaming pile.” When you are done. If you let yourself–make yourself–do this, one of three things will happen:

1. You will discover you wrote better than you expected.
2. You will write junk that you can fix.
3. You will burn part of all of the work in the name of public safety, but you will have written. And havin written once, the next time will be easier. There is a saying that the first million words you write are practice.

A last note on this–resist the urge to edit while you are writing. Make notes if needed, but get the entire thing written unless you already know you can finish the task.

#2 BICHOK: Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard: You cannot be a writer unless you write. You can make writing a habit.

This is hard. Remember my analogy last week that plumbers don’t get plumber’s block? If they did, they don’t get paid. Ditto the reporter–reporters don’t get writer’s block. No work=no pay.

Many of us aren’t there yet, however, so we need other ways to motivate ourselves. Maybe write 20 minutes, then play a game? Go out to dinner when you finish that novel? Have a special place to write–or leave your house until you have the habit. Some authors make mock-ups of their covers to motivate them. Others take their day’s goals before the Blessed Sacrament. Find what motivates you and do it.

#3 Set realistic goals. This helps Guilt as well as Sloth. If you are busy and writing is a sideline, developing the habit is more important than the actual number of words you produce. For an example, when I still had a baby and a toddler and homeschooled my older two, my goal was simply “one sentence before bed.” Now, with older kids in public school, I can devote a few hours a day. In both instances, I kept a habit of writing.

#4 Don’t control your creativity. Perfectionists hesitate to start a project until they think they are completely ready to do it. Those who are intimidated worry that their creative ability isn’t up to the job. Others find a story stalls because the characters won’t do what they want them to do. Some would-be writers never get past the research stage.

Let go and let flow! You can’t always control the direction of the creative process. Let your characters lead you in the story. Start writing that article and discover what the Holy Spirit (or your subconscious) drives you to write. Stop researching, outlining, profiling, and write. If you run into a fact or a question or a scene you’re not sure of, just flag it and move on.

#5 Stuck, still? Take a break and write something else. Can’t figure out the next chapter? Skip it or write a different scene with the character–or a character interview. Can’t figure out the next chapter on your book? Write a related article. Start a new project if you like, but remember to come back to the original one and finish it.

Writing is 10 percent creativity and 90 percent productivity. Even more, when creativity stalls, productivity can get it started again. The lie of writer’s block, however, can stop you from seeing that.

Got questions or a comment on writer’s block? Post them. I’ll answer as best I can, and maybe blog again on it next month.

The Lie of Writer’s Block

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Has your plumber ever canceled an appointment because “the pipes aren’t talking to me?” Have you ever heard of an architect who wouldn’t finish designing a building because he’s not “feeling it”? Yet the most common reason writers give for not writing is “writer’s block.”

I don’t believe in writer’s block. I see writer’s block as a socially accepted lie that keeps writers from achieving their goals. Sound harsh? Consider this:

Benjamin Franklin said invention is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration. The same holds true for writing, I believe: 10 percent creativity, and 90 percent productivity. Even more, the simple act of writing can inspire greater creativity. However, writer’s block disregards the 90 percent and places undue importance on the small percentage of the writing act.

So what really causes writers to stare at the blank screen for hours before turning with disgust to Facebook or YouTube?

#1 Intimidation. A blank page is intimidating. Having a whole story perfect in your mind except for that first sentence is intimidating. Taking on a project you feel will bring people closer to God is intimidating. Sometimes, just the throught that strangers will read your blog is intimidating.

What happens when you are intimidated? You freeze. But instead of recognizing that fear and meeting it head on, writers say they are “blocked” and don’t address the issue.

#2 Sloth. Writing is work, but too often, writers, especially new writers, believe that if they are truly inspired, the words will flow from their mind to the keyboard. When that doesn’t happen, it’s easy to claim “writer’s block.”

#3 Perfectionism (or the need for excellence right off): This, to me, ties into both intimidation and sloth. It’s the idea that if you are “truly a writer,” then each sentence comes out as perfect. If not, you are a failure as a writer. Who wants to face that? Easier to say you’re “blocked.”

It’s also the trap of believing you have to have everything perfect–from your research to your carefully mapped plot and characters–before you can even start.

#4 Guilt. This especially happens to those who are not making a living off their writing. Getting published is a long, slow process, and you can’t wait for a contract before you write your book or story. Yet it’s hard to justify taking time “away” from family, the house, social or charitable obligations. (What kind of mother, after all, would forego a PTA meeting to work on her sci-fi novel?)

Recently, a friend told me about a “writer” who complained of writers block for a year and a half. He got lots of sympathy, but never produced anything. Some people choose to talk about being a writer instead of confronting the realities of writing. Writer’s block provides an easy way to do that.

Don’t let writer’s block keep you from your dreams.

Next week, we’ll talk about ways to break writers’ block.

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