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Preparing to Write

Published on by Kristi Holl

In Writing as a Way of Healing, author Louise De Salvo, Ph.D. delineates seven different stages of the creative process—and warns how we can derail our entire writing process with certain behaviors at each stage.

“For our writing to be healing,” Louise says, “it’s important for us to understand that there are different stages of the writing process, and different challenges at each stage.” It’s important to be able to write in a healing way, without undue anxiety. “I’ve come to understand,” Louise says, “that the most healing way of approaching the writing process is to focus upon the potential and possibilities for growth rather than upon its problems and pitfalls.”

Predictable Stages with Predictable Problems

Ms. De Salvo talks about seven predictable stages we pass through with each creative project. While sometimes stages can overlap, they are distinct stages with separate challenges—and they hold different opportunities for us to grow as writers.

The seven stages are:

  • the preparation stage
  • the germination stage
  • the working stage
  • the deepening stage
  • the shaping stage
  • the completion stage
  • the going-public stage

The preparation stage (the subject of today’s blog) comes first. This is when puzzling ideas and odd images and snippets of conversation drift in and out of our dreams and musings. We wonder what they mean, and we’re intrigued. At some point we stop musing and begin to put things down on paper, trying to organize our thoughts, figuring out what genre or literary form we want to use and possible viewpoints. “Beginning writers,” says de Salvo, “often spend far too little or far too much time at this stage; some avoid it altogether and plunge right into working, which can derail our process.”

Sabotage at Stage One

How do writers sabotage themselves during the preparation stage? Several ways. One big way is by not writing down those fleeting thoughts we have at odd times. It’s not so much that we think we’ll remember those thoughts later. It’s more because the thought seemed rather silly, certainly insubstantial. We decide at some level that the idea just isn’t big enough to warrant attention—and so it’s lost.

On the other hand, you may take this initial stage so seriously that you shut down. You may expect too much of yourself, thinking that if you were a “real writer,” you’d have a plan! You’d know where all these odd bits and pieces floating around your head belong. You expect the images and musings to fit into a pattern much too soon, and this kind of pressure can give you a lovely writer’s block before you ever get started.

Tips for Stage One

In this preparation stage, in order to get the most out of it, give yourself permission to think and make note of trivial thoughts. Write down everything, no matter how unconnected it might seem to anything you want to write. Eventually, these odd bits and pieces may start making connections and spark other ideas that will be more useful or substantial.

Learn to enjoy this stage! Force yourself, if you’re a Type A organizational freak like me, to let your brain slowly release ideas to you. Don’t force connections immediately. Don’t try to make each snippet “mean something.” Let it happen for a while. For quite a while, actually. Remember, you’re just in the preparation stage.

Blog posts during the next two weeks will cover the remaining stages of the writing process, both the setbacks and the tips for navigating that stage successfully!

Celebrating Freedom….for Writers

Published on by Kristi Holl

Sometimes, in order find freedom, you have to take the exit pointed out for you.

Last week was one of those weeks.

And at the end of this post, I’ll share with you a very easy path to the freedom to focus.

Losing Focus

I had reached the middle of a novel, one thoroughly plotted out, mind you, but when I actually analyzed it scene by scene, the plot was quite thin. It needed a subplot to beef up the middle, but it couldn’t be any old subplot. It’s a mystery, so it had to tie in with the main story PLUS add important clues and intrigue. Once added, it also meant going through the whole novel and seeing how the subplot would change all kinds of things.

My solution? Acorn TV! I love British TV, and for $4.99 a month, you can watch all the classics you want. But did it help me plot the sagging middle of my novel? No.

So I stopped watching TV, tried to think of a subplot, and went to check email, then post photos of outings with my grandkids on Facebook, and check the local weather station (even though I didn’t plan to go anywhere.) When I am having trouble with my writing, the Internet is my all-time biggest time waster.

A Semi-Solution Is Not Freedom

The day I had the most trouble, I packed up and went to the library study room where I can’t get their free Internet, for some reason. I got quite a lot done, but someone there was playing video games. It surely left him half deaf because I could hear it perfectly despite his ear buds. And it was so cold in there! I’d forgotten to bring a jacket, a must for anywhere indoors in Texas during the summer months.

I prefer working at home in my office, but I will do what I have to do to concentrate. Today I had the same focusing problem, but I couldn’t leave home this time. We had city inspectors coming to make sure the new doors and windows had been installed properly. And of course, the very busy inspector didn’t come till the end of the day. Did I get any writing done?

YES! A lot! And here’s how.

Best Kind of Freedom

I remembered some software I’d bought a few years ago for a whopping $10 called FREEDOM. It simply blocks the Internet for as long as you choose. I blocked it four hours this morning and could focus so easily then! After lunch and checking email, I blocked it for another three hours and wrote. I haven’t had such a productive day in a long time. When you stop interrupting your own thought processes with tiny snippets of information online, you can actually stick with a writing problem long enough to solve it.

Check it out. The Freedom software is still the same low price; it works on Windows and Mac computers, plus other devices.

Want to restore your freedom to focus? Check it out! (It even comes with an unconditional 60-day money back guarantee.) You can’t go wrong.

Happy 4th of July!

Published on by Kristi Holl

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

 The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

~~Emma Lazarus

Inspired by WD-40

Published on by Kristi Holl

In 1953 a fledgling business called Rocket Chemical Company set out to create a rust-prevention solvent for use in the aerospace industry. It took them 40 attempts to get the formula right.

Voila! WD-40, which stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt.

I find that inspiring! What if they’d given up on number 39? Then I wouldn’t have my favorite solution for unsticking locks and making my sliding glass doors actually slide.

WD-40 Your Manuscripts

No, don’t spray the greasy mist on your manuscript. But do take the WD-40 as your slogan. Don’t stop revising and submitting until you also have tried many, many times!

In order to spur myself on to submit several book manuscripts that I had “retired” after just two rejections, I was reading in Ralph Keyes’ The Writer’s Book of Hope. I was encouraged by some very famous “WD-40” kinds of authors who would have remained nameless if they’d given up so early.

  • Despite being represented by a top literary agent and being read by prominent editors, John Knowles’s A Separate Peace was rejected by every major American publisher who saw it. (It was published in London.)
  • Other famous books that went through multiple rejects include: Look Homeward, Angel; Love Story; A Wrinkle in Time; All Things Bright and Beautiful and many other novels that became classics and continue to sell decades later.
  • Twenty major publishers thought Chicken Soup for the Soul had no commercial prospects, despite the authors being experienced speakers and aggressive marketers.
  • Stephen King’s first four novels and sixty short stories were rejected.

Having your work turned down is no fun, and I won’t sing the praises of being rejected. I hate it too. But we must come to terms with it, accept it as part of the writing life, accept criticism if it has merit, and get on with it.

A Necessary Part

As Keyes puts it, “To working writers, rejection is like stings to a beekeeper: a painful but necessary part of their vocation.”

And now…in the spirit of the inventers of WD-40, I’m getting back to my umpteenth revision.

For Writers Needing Some Fun, Try the Unschedule

Published on by Kristi Holl

I have a tight deadline, and I’m tired of working.

I could also use some fun in my life.

Can I have both? Yes!

Back to What Works!

Last year I tried the “Unschedule,” a technique for breaking through procrastination found in The Now Habit, a book by Neil Fiore. According to my notes in the book, the four days that I used Fiore’s “unschedule” turned out to be some of the most productive I’d had in a while. The one day I disregarded it (thinking I really don’t have time for these breaks–too much to do) I actually got less work accomplished!

This coming week is very full with writing deadlines and family events. Yet I feel so antsy. I want to do almost anything but sit here and write. But if I simply procrastinate, I’ll get precious little done and not even enjoy the time  off.

So…I filled out my Unschedule this morning before starting this blog.

What in heaven’s name is an Unschedule?

Hooked on Play

A clue is on the cover of the book. The full title of Fiore’s book includes the subtitle: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play. An unschedule is a way that incorporates play and leisure FIRST in your schedule. Yes, you actually put FUN on your schedule before your chores are listed. Each immediate and frequent reward follows a short (30-minute) period of work. (This is instead of delaying a reward until the whole project is done.)

For example, I have six scenes to outline today. Always in the past, I did the six scenes (about 4-6 hours) non-stop, then crashed with a bad neck ache and headache. Today I’ve scheduled it one scene at a time with rewards scheduled after each scene. I also have a phone call with a friend this afternoon on the schedule.

Why Fun First?

Fiore’s book is about overcoming–even preventing–procrastination.

“By starting with the scheduling of recreation, leisure, and quality time with friends,” Fiore says, “the Unschedule avoids one of the traps of typical programs for overcoming procrastination that begin with the scheduling of work–thereby generating an immediate image of a life devoid of fun and freedom. Instead, the Unschedule reverses this process, beginning with an image of play and guarantee of your leisure time.”

By the way, before scheduling the fun times, block out the chunks already committed elsewhere–taking kids to summer swimming lessons, a class you teach, dental appointments, lunch, commuting places, etc. It will encourage you to get started a bit quicker when you see how much free time you ACTUALLY have for your writing.

Tiny Work Loads

The other recommendation for the Unschedule is to keep work periods to thirty minutes. Thirty UNinterrupted minutes. Thirty minutes of work–use a timer to be sure–and it can’t include anything like checking email on a whim, or returning a phone call, or other distractions we procrastinators are famous for.

After your thirty minutes is up, you record the actual work done on your daily schedule somewhere, and then freely enjoy your reward. Believe it or not, those half hours add up by the end of the day. Fiore says, “Thirty minutes reduces work to small, manageable, rewardable chunks that lessen the likelihood that you will feel over-whelmed by the complexity and length of large or menacing projects.” And thirty minutes of concentrated work can mean a lot of pages piling up.

Time for me to go! I’m twenty-eight minutes into this blog, and I hoped to finish in thirty instead of my usual plodding hour-long pace. Guess what comes next? I plan to read a chapter in a new mystery set in England, my favorite kind of fun reading. 

How Fit is Your Writing Life?

Published on by Kristi Holl

Ever have a pig-out weekend with a wake-up call on Monday morning? I did yesterday. After reading a few motivational articles online for getting myself back on track, it struck me that getting fit and getting published have a lot in common.

The Writing-Fitness Team

The problems that derail our writing goals and our fitness goals (and the solutions proposed by the “experts”) can almost be interchanged!

  • For example, if you want to lose weight and get in shape, fitness experts say that a support system of some kind is necessary. (Writers need it too.)
  • Interval training is recommended for fitness–short bursts of focused work, then lighter periods for recovery. (This works best for my writing schedule as well.)
  • Fitness experts recommend keeping track of your calories consumed and miles run. (Writers recommend keeping track of words and pages written.)
  • Certainly to succeed in both areas, you need daily disciplines (consistency).
  • And in both arenas, “slow and steady wins the race,” rather than days of self-torture followed by taking several weeks off.
  • Both fitness experts and published writers recommend journaling, both for dealing with emotional issues that can throw you off your goals, as well as “before-during-after” journals for dealing with special blocks and temptations.
  • Fitness gurus tell you how to deal with those loved ones who (perhaps unconsciously) try to sabotage your weight-loss progress. I’ve written about that issue myself, pertaining to writing.
  • Fitness experts talk about the changes you need to make daily, and how you must think of them as “lifestyle changes” if you want to be successful. (Writers, also, must make changes in lifestyle that need to be permanent instead of lasting only until a deadline is met.)
  • Diet instructors caution against using your calories on junk food and feeding the body little nutritional value. (As a writer, we need a variety of “nutrient dense” reading, not just fluff.)
  • To be successful in either endeavor, you need to stop those negative, defeatist thoughts and be optimistic.
  • There are also times to deal with where you do everything right but get disappointing results (follow your food plan and exercise daily, yet gain a pound–OR write daily and submit, yet get rejected.)

I realized today that if I can master these general habits and mindsets, I can conquer all my fitness issues AND my writing issues! How do I plan to do that? My tried-and-true mini habits.

Too Much Housework = Too Little Writing

Published on by Kristi Holl

Summer is upon us, so it’s time to remind the mom/writers out there about something.

I recently re-read parts of an old favorite If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland (originally published in 1938). Reading some of her comments, you’d think she was writing in the 21st Century.

Chapter Ten has a lengthy title: “Why Women Who Do Too Much Housework Should Neglect It for Their Writing.” The chapter is about doing too much (unnecessary stuff) for others and neglecting your writing.

The More Things Change…

While most of us today have enough modern conveniences that housework isn’t the time-consuming drudge it used to be, we’re trying to juggle home, day jobs, carpooling, throwing kids’ birthday parties, running the school’s bake sale, and a thousand other things. Those “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” only seems to intensify the madness. Some things are truly important to your child’s and family’s welfare, but much of it isn’t.

Let me quote Brenda Ueland and see if you agree:

“They [wives/mothers] are always doing secondary and menial things (that do not require all their gifts and ability) for others and never anything for themselves. Society and husbands praise them for it (when they get too miserable or have nervous breakdowns) though always a little perplexedly and half-heartedly and just to be consoling. The poor wives are reminded that that is just why women are so splendid–because they are so unselfish and self-sacrificing and that is the wonderful thing about them! But inwardly women know that something is wrong.” 

That Was Then! Or Was It?

You might say, “But that was 1938!” Yes, but judging from the letters I get from mom/writers, things haven’t changed all that much. We break our necks trying to keep up with whatever “expert” says a good wife or good mother does. We still “people please” and try to live our roles perfectly–instead of choosing what is the more excellent use of our time and doing that well.

My children (and now my grandchildren) have always come before my writing in importance. But in order to find time to write, I had to stop making my own pickles (like good farm wives did back then), running every children’s program at church, sewing costumes for plays, making applesauce out of the bushel of half-rotten apples given to me, painting my kitchen ceiling that was stained, and a host of other things.

I wanted to write! Something had to give.

What About You?

Today I believe the pressures are much higher. Thanks to social media, young parents are expected to have their children in several social groups starting before preschool, have big birthday parties for the kids, and be at everyone’s beck and call. 

Could this be why you don’t have time to write? Does your family knowingly (or unknowingly) put pressure on you to give up all of your activities in favor of theirs? Or is the person putting pressure on you to be everything for everybody…you? It’s worth thinking about before the summer gets away from you.

Motivate Yourself Overnight!

Published on by Kristi Holl

Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn from Actors by Brandilyn Collins, discusses taking on your characters’ inner lives (their emotions and motivations) in order to write believable story people. If you first get inside them, you become those characters.

What if you could use this technique to become the motivated writer you want to be?

Acting “As If”

Steve Chandler, in 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself, discovered this technique of  “getting into character” was a great way to do just that.

“You’ll gather energy and inspiration by ‘doing the character’ you want to be,” Chandler says. “I took an acting class a few years ago because I thought it would help me with stage fright. But I learned something much more valuable… I found out that I could motivate myself by thinking and acting like a motivated person. With practice, the line between acting and being disappears.”

Mind Over Matter?

I’ve never acted on the stage, but his words rang true. When I first gave talks in schools and speeches at library functions, the only way I got my knees to stop shaking was to tell myself continually that “I’m having fun!” and to demonstrate it with the accompanying smiles and gestures. I was petrified and nauseated for nearly two years, but one day–in the middle of a speech–I realized that I actually was having fun! I was stunned.

Just suppose that you could harness this technique and use it to change your own character.

Take Your Pick

What kind of writer do you want to “become”?

  • An organized one? A dedicated one? A motivated one? A super successful bestselling one?
  • Okay, so how would you act?
  • How would you think?
  • What kinds of things would you say to yourself?
  • How would you spend your time?
  • How would you handle negative feedback from editors?
  • Add to these inner changes the proper voice, walk, posture, and facial expressions.

I challenge you (and myself) to act like the writer we want to become. Recovery circles use this when helping people change, dropping destructive behaviors in favor of new healthy ones. “Act as if” and “Fake it till you make it” are commonly heard bits of advice.

As a Man Thinketh in His Heart…

I will never act on the stage, nor need to get into character for opening night. But often, when facing that blank computer screen, I guarantee you that I have “off-stage” fright.

Maybe I’ll begin right now getting into my “confident writer” persona. As Chandler says, “With practice, the line between acting and being disappears.” And won’t that be fun when it does!

Writers Running on Adrenaline

Published on by Kristi Holl

What fuel are you running on?

Many writers these days are frantically running from place to place, working too many hours, volunteering for too many projects, working nights and weekends hoping for approval.

On top of that, in order to write, they are fueled by sugar, caffeine, cigarettes and adrenaline to keep going.

Long-Term Damage to Career and Health

I don’t need to tell you that we live “on alert” these days. We are bombarded from so many information sources. We allow ourselves to be at the beck and call of anyone who calls or texts our cell phone or shoots us an email.

Adrenaline rushes work in the short term. Used like a drug, it pushes tired bodies to work faster and harder. The end result, though, is a crash-and-burn depletion of your reserves.

Go Against the Flow

Do you want to have a long-term writing life? Then while you still have time–while you still have your health–I urge you to develop a counter-cultural lifestyle. Look at your life now. Make a list of the things that have stressed you out this past week.

(No groceries in the cupboard because a meeting ran late and you couldn’t stop at the store? Phone call from a teacher saying little Johnny forgot his required permission slip for the day’s field trip? News of a violent crime in a part of your city you considered safe? A bounced check? Having to work late at night while everyone else is sleeping, just to keep life from derailing?) All of these things make us run on adrenaline that wears down our bodies. And nearly all of these things are preventable.

Replace the Old with the New

Habits that cause you to run on adrenaline are habits that need to be replaced. I can’t tell you which habits you need to exchange, but I can share some of mine.

  • I used to routinely arrive places out of breath and a little bit late, tearing into meetings or classes after the program had begun. So embarrassing. I would sweat it on the way to the meeting, and backed-up traffic skyrocketed my blood pressure. I hated to waste time, so I hated arriving somewhere early and waiting. The change I made? To avoid the adrenaline rush, I planned to leave early enough to arrive early, but took work or a book along, stayed in the parking lot and worked, then walked in calmly ten minutes before the class started.
  • I knew that the days I DIDN’T run on adrenaline were the days I started with exercise and devotional reading and prayer. And yet, too many times, I’d awake feeling energetic, consider the two hours I’d lose if I stuck to my exercise/devotional regimen, and jump into writing instead. Make hay while the sun shines, right? Mostly, I made headaches and a sore back and neck, lowering my productivity. I decided to make my morning ritual non-negotiable. My health regimen actually saves me time in the long run. And I run those days, not on adrenaline, but on healthy energy supplies.
  • I also set a boundary on working in the evenings. I couldn’t see what difference it would make if, while chatting or watching a good movie with my husband, I also answered some email and updated my websites. Most of it was “no think” activity, so what did it harm? A lot, I discovered. My mind wouldn’t shut off when I shut off the computer to go to bed. My neck and back hurt terribly by then. And I felt disgruntled, like I hadn’t had any free time at all that day.

Mostly, I had to convince myself that it wasn’t selfish to slow down and live at a sane pace, to build in a buffer zone or margin around activities so I could make a smooth (not frantic, hurried) transition from one thing to another. What’s that old saying? “We’re supposed to be human beings, not human doings.”

It’s Up to You

No one can make changes for you. And frankly, many people in your life who like all the work you accomplish won’t help you make changes. But make them you must. If you want to have a decent quality of writing life, you’ll have to step outside this current “hurry frantically” electronic culture of ours, and figure out what works for YOU to have a saner, happier life.

Running on premium fuel instead of adrenaline will make you more productive, less stressed, and be better for your health. Saner writers are happier, more productive writers. And doesn’t that sound appealing?

Success Without Self-Promotion?

Published on by Kristi Holl

Not a week goes by that I don’t get an email asking this question: “I don’t have enough time and energy to do the self-promotion and platform building that is required now. It drains my creativity, sometimes stifling the muse altogether. Is there a way out of this?”

Some authors and business leaders are now saying “yes.”

[FYI: If you disagree with this article, at the end I have listed tools to use to promote your book and build your platform.]

What Really Sells Your Book?

I recently read a thought-provoking article called Success Without Self-Promotion: The Rise of the Invisibles by David Zweig. Below are a few quotes from his article. I don’t necessarily agree with it all, but if you’re a writer who cringes at self-promotion, it’s worth thinking about. Consider these quotes:

You’ve probably been told that to get ahead in business, you need to “raise your profile” or “build a platform.” We live in the era of the “branded self,” with marketing gurus telling you that to excel, you have to manage your persona, the appearance of your work, and your online profile, making these tasks more important than the work itself.

If you’re at all like the Invisibles, you might feel that living in a culture upholding these values is like being on a horrific carnival ride spinning wildly, where every passenger is blaring his or her own air horn…I’m here to tell you something the marketing folks don’t want you to hear: it’s okay to step off the wheel.

and

We do care about our work, but we also feel compelled to spend an inordinate amount of time and energy on shaping the perception of our work to others. It’s not that outward appearances have no bearing on one’s advancement, but it’s far lower than the prevailing business culture would lead you to believe.

We’re All Different

For those of you who don’t mind marketing, or are extroverts, or time isn’t a problem, here are those links: