Just Power

I've been meditating for years. In high school I took a meditation class on the second floor of the school church in the interim between fall and winter sports. Years later my first job after college was teaching English in Japan and every Saturday I sat for a couple hours at the moss garden of a zen temple. But I never understood when peaceful people said when sitting just sit. When eating an orange, just eat the orange. When opening the door, just open the door. Wasn't it good always to be thinking? So I was a thinker.

Last week... so many years later... I think I finally kinda got it. When writing just write.

Yes, I do believe in preparation and forethought. Novel #2 that I'm currently working on began years ago as a character sketch and a 20 page synopsis. I'm glad I put the thought into it then. But I didn't do anything about that novel until now and it's very strange that it's suddenly so easy to write. I think this might be because I've gotten out of the way of the story. I'm not over-thinking. I'm just writing.

Is that the power of just?

For me, focusing on just one thing doesn't mean that I'm working on just one thing. Just one thing at a time. When taking a morning walk, just take a morning walk, which is different from what I would usually do - refuse to end the walk until I'd figured out how to get a character to the next plot point. When walking just walk. When writing just write.

The quieter my mind, the easier it is to write.

And the easier it will be to answer questions for Heather Kelly's Friday blog where I'll be interviewed about my writing and Our Spirit, the nonprofit I started to help gay/lesbian youth.

Thank you, Heather! As everyone knows, she's awesome, a blogger extraordinaire. She's also the best crit partner, and I know the world will be a better place when her novel is published. I just know it.

Making Space

Space has arrived. The 14th and last guest left yesterday. For a while I've been writing in the smallish chunks of time, making Swiss cheese work (see June 8th). But now there's SPACE.

The key is how best to use it. How not to fill the new space with distractions. And how not to burn out.
I'm going back to my weekly lists. But they're much longer, divided into Our Spirit; Romeo, Romeo; novel #2; and novel #3. (The work for the last two is simple, just two hours daily on #2 and one on #3.) The list fills a full page, too long for here, but it's very satisfying to cross things out. Last week looked pretty good by Saturday night, lots of strike-throughs.

There's other stuff on the Weekly List - the gym, meditation... The trick is not to put too much stuff there. And most importantly, not to fill this new space with so much stuff that I need to struggle for more space again.

No question this week, just three cheers for making, protecting and appreciating space.

(art by Mark Kostabi)

Journey

We've moved apartments and I've been organizing my study and wondering whether I'll blog about tossing out old writing projects or how to cultivate the discipline of blogging. I've gotten rid of a lot, and it's fantastic and freeing. And I certainly could stand a heavy dose of blog discipline.

But I can't stop thinking about writing as a journey.

Right now I'm in both the not-ecstatically-fun business phase (industry research, preparing queries etc) for Romeo, Romeo and the loving-it honeymoon phase of a new novel. But I've been surprised that I've also been writing an hour a day on an old project that I didn't toss out. My priority is to complete a first draft of novel #2. But novel #3 wants attention. Just a little. Just an hour. It's not what I'm supposed to be doing, but it's fun and has its own voice and I choose to think that it's not a distracting side trip, but part of the journey.

How does novel #3 help #2? I'm not exactly sure. It's just what I'm doing and feels right and if it feeds the engine... then I guess it's okay.

I have faith in the journey... but, still... how do we know things aren't distractions?

(photo by Pacific Northwest photographer Lee Mann)

The Benefits of Swiss Cheese

Years ago a friend who was a counselor for college students gave me a piece of advice. Don't look for three hour blocks of time. Instead Swiss cheese it. Meaning, look for little holes of time. Twenty minutes here. Fifteen there. Maybe ten. Wow, an hour. And you'll quickly find that you're moving at a good pace on your project.
This past month I've hardly been on line. We had 12 guests visiting for a big celebration, found a new apartment, and I launched the website for Our Spirit, a nonprofit I started for LGBTQ youth. A huge priority was to to keep working on my new novel. Swiss Cheese wisdom worked. Without time to sit as long as I like, I took 20 or 30 minute breaks and managed to write a chapter and a half. Because it's a new novel, I was worried that it wasn't as deep in me and it'd be more difficult to get into the flow of it. Not the case. Even writing a little every day kept the work in the front of my mind.

Swiss cheese works for me. What works for you? How do you keep your projects going when there's little time?

Graphic from SuperLaurie.org. Thank you Carol Ellin for your Swiss cheese wisdom!

Where Now?

Thank you for all the encouragement about saying yes to the surprise of a new project. It's especially helpful to remember that committing to a novel is not all or nothing. This new novel might make it all the way to a full draft and then a second draft and then multiple drafts. Or it could slide away as another, better idea rises to the surface. It's all part of the process, it all helps our writing, and it's all good.

This past week I've been marveling that the narrator in this new project and his voice are so different from what I usually write. This is new territory, new language. Oddly, it's easy. This novel and this voice are just pouring forth. For now.

My question - what do you do when writing about someone or something far outside your experience? Do you research? Watch movies? Hang out in parts of town where the characters would but you wouldn't? Journal as the characters? Trust that whatever compelled you to enter this different place will carry you through? All of the above?

At the moment, I trust that I'm where I'm supposed to be. But writing a novel is a long journey. I'm wondering what I can do now to prepare.

Oh, and here's a shout out for tomorrow's game on W.I.B.I.J. Prizes! Thank you to Tina, Heather & Jon for keeping us nimble through the blogosphere!

Surprises

I guess going with the flow means not being in control. For me, part of what that means is trying to say yes more often than no. So I said yes to attending two conferences last week, first in Seattle then on the other side of the Cascade Mountains. A part of me was frustrated that I wouldn't be writing (or blogging or doing the crit I was/am excited about), but a better part of me thought I'd just let the week happen. Maybe I'd see something beautiful and bliss out and this week's writing would be more grounded.

Maybe... but the flow is leading me somewhere new. My first priority is the same - getting Romeo, Romeo, ready for the agent quest. But the next book? I've temporarily shelved it even though I had been enjoying the character sketches and had a killer first paragraph (and an okay few pages). For some reason I decided to reread a 10-page novel prospectus I'd written two years ago. And then I started writing that novel during spare moments at the conferences. And soon there was an entire chapter one, part of chapter two, a chapter-by-chapter outline and a narrator with an unexpected and compelling voice. Coming home, I boxed what I'd thought would be my next project in order to make room for this novel. Huh? I thought I had a plan.

I am choosing to think this is going with the flow and is the right thing to do. But how do we know? How do we know when it's right to shift from perseverance to something new?

Is It Time?

Thank you to my fantastic crit partner who today blogged about our working together. Heather is amazing and keeps me focused on what's important and our weekly Skype meeting brings the right sort of rhythm to this writer's life. And thank you for waking me from my cocoon.

So... I've been enjoying the safety of just editing. Just the pages and feedback from readers and tweaking and rewriting and adding and deleting. Just working on that one task of making the novel as good as it can be. For me, it's easier to keep my head down and surround myself with words rather than look up into the blogosphere and research agents and do all the things that bring the writing career to the next level.

I love editing, but when to stop?


Last week we went to the tulip fields of Washington state's Skagit Valley. At first I thought the fields and fields of tulips were for the tourists. Very cool, but what an extravagance. Uh, no. All those fields were working farms and this east coaster learned how tulips are harvested. First the bulbs must bloom, then the flowers are cut, but the leaves and stalks and all the green remains so the nutrients can travel back down into the bulbs. A few months later the bulbs are then dug up and shipped across the world. We saw some of the cutting. It's done by hand and not all blooms are ready at the same time; there will be another pass through.

Which made me think of editing. Helping our words bloom, knowing when to cut them and how long to leave them alone. When go to go back with fresh eyes and, yes, when to ship them out.

I think I'm getting ready to ship out Romeo, Romeo, my YA novel of three high school guys. It began as a screenplay several years ago and morphed into a novel. I've been editing a complete first draft for a year and a half. Not that the time itself matters, but now it feels right.

How do we know when we're ready for the next step?