Master of the Messy Desk

EVERYTHING IS IN ITS PLACE

REALLY...

We All Have Dreams

WHAT ARE YOUR ASPIRATIONS?

We all want to believe deep down in our souls that we have a special gift, that we can make a difference, that we can touch others in a special way, and that we can make the world a better place.

What is your dream? Maybe its one you've forgotten or let go. If that vision were alive today, what would your life be like?

Don't give up. Dare to dream again.

Train one eye on the mountain peak, the other on the path.

Enjoy the climb.

NaNoWriMo Casualties

WHERE HAVE THEY ALL GONE?

An inordinate number of the blogs I'm following dropped off the posting schedule two months ago.
They haven't written anything since November. Its really strange because they're all writers with interesting blogs.

That's why I follow them.

So where did they all go?

The last I read from any of them they were all excited about NaNoWriMo. They were signed up and really jazzed with plans to write a novel in a month.

YEA!!

I kept up with the ones who Tweeted their daily word count. Some of them started out slower than they wanted. Some shot through their word count right from the beginning. But towards the end of the month they all sounded pretty tired. Even so--most of them posted with jubilation when they met their word count goal.

Then...... nothing. They dropped out of sight... or is that out of the blogosphere? No Tweets, no facebook, no smoke signals. Silence.

Either they wrote themselves onto the grave....

Or they discovered their NaNo book was trash and decided to redo it.

Or they saw how really awful it all was, and quit.

Or they discovered what they wrote was so good they're working on rewrites.

Or maybe its taking two months to recover.

How To Find That Illusive Inspiration

TRUE INSPIRATION

Must Be Earned.

If you wait to be inspired before you start writing, you most likely will wait for a very long time. That bolt of soul-clarifying insight usually doesn't happen while you sit around waiting for it.

You have to write.

The physical act itself will free the imagination.

There's a technique known as stream of consciousness, and that should be the strategy of your first draft. Whatever words flow into your brain, let them continue to flow through your fingertips.

In theory, at least in its initial phase, writing is easy. One word after another. Inspiration usually comes mid-sentence.

Your muse will sing, but only when you're already on stage.

Advice From The Book of Quotes

OR A REALLY GOOD *FRIEND*

Since the first of the year my daily to-do list has been very short.

1. Work on my current rough draft.
2. Work on the current rewrite. (That's a different project than the rough draft.)
3. Focus on the current rewrite. Let the others stay in the closet until I'm finished.

This three point list is a lot harder to stick to than it sounds. The siren calls from the closet keep distracting me.

I get stalled trying to decide which one is the most advantageous to work on. I keep wondering if another one would attract an agent more.

Maybe I should work on one that keeps my interest. If what I'm working on doesn't even keep my interest then it's a piece of crap--right?

But what if it has potential? What if it's really good and I can't tell?

Then I should spend some time and energy on it. But is it this one or another one?

My mental debate keeps digging my indecisive hole deeper. Forward progress just isn't happening.

It wouldn't be a big deal if it had only been a two week debate, but I'm prone to this back and forth wrangling. Frequently. And I can work myself into some really good moods.

Which doesn't help with the writing.

SO I TURN TO THE BOOK OF QUOTES.

Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum. ~Graycie Harmon

Uh-huh. Got that one down.

To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing. ~Eva Young

Yeah. Got that one down too.

In desperation I turn to my best source of advise--and get the same thing she tells me over and over again.

"Just pick something and stick with it until it's done." -- Jaime Theler

That would be Number 3 on my daily to-do list.

For more from Jaime Theler see [Bookmom Musings]

New Year's Resolutions

THE DREADED LIST

My list is usually shorter.

Mine gets tossed around January 20th.

The most popular New Year's resolutions is to go on a diet and start exercising.

It's already January 9th and I haven't made any resolution yet. I've been thinking about it, but my record for keeping resolutions is terrible/horrible...
really bad.

Maybe I'll think about it next year.