Tag Archive for: writing

Running on Empty

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by J.M. Phillippe

I have been trying to write this blog for several hours now. I wanted to write something about Charlottesville, VA, and about white nationalism (how it came to be, and why we can’t just abide it). I wanted to write about meeting anger with compassion, and the struggle to do that.

I also really want to write about Game of Thrones, because the last two episodes have been amazing, and it’s one of my favorite shows (in part because I also write fantasy). And it would be easier to write about that than pretty much anything else I could come up with.

And I also want to write about my struggle at work with clients who have little to no tolerance for the fallibility of others (including their therapist) and how hard that is to hold, again, with compassion.

But I just feel so bleh about it all. I am trying to hold on to the idea that what I write matters, both in this blog and in my fiction. I have been struggling to hold on to the idea that art matters, that novels matter, when I feel like I should be out marching instead of writing, or calling more senators and house representatives.

I am struggling to have enough energy to balance out all the things I want in my personal life with the national tragedy that is all around us. I am really struggling with dealing with the fact that so many people (again, including clients) don’t believe there is a national tragedy or fear the rise of white nationalism (and literal Nazis!) in our country.

I know that art matters. I know that it doesn’t have to be high and mighty, capital A Art to matter either. I know that distraction is not a bad thing when there is so much bad news happening all the time. And I know that for myself, I do best when I engage actively in creativity on a consistent basis.

And I also know that I am not the only one struggling right now, so I’m just going to put this here:

I’m going to go practice some art — even if I do it badly — so that I can refill my compassion well. It’s been on empty for a while.

***

J.M. Phillippe is the author of Perfect Likeness and the short story The Sight. She has lived in the deserts of California, the suburbs of Seattle, and the mad rush of New York City. She works as a family therapist in Brooklyn, New York and spends her free-time decorating her tiny apartment to her cat Oscar Wilde’s liking, drinking cider at her favorite British-style pub, and training to be the next Karate Kid, one wax-on at a time.

Untitled Post

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Clicking Our Heels – Should Sex, Politics, and Scandals be dramatized
or even factually incorporated into our writing?

Cathy Perkins – A craft book I’m studying discusses the importance
of incorporating what you’re passionate about into your stories to bring them
to life and serve as a driving force. If you’re excited by an issue or topic,
that intensity will transfer to the page. Family, for example, is always
central to my stories, although it may not always be a traditional family. Other
issues which are important to me – and to my readers – bring depth and focus. The
challenge is adding tose elements without preaching and instead making them a
natural part of your character’s reality.

Kimberly Jayne – I think anything is game. We write about all aspects
of life anyway, including imaginary aspects. So yes, sex, politics, and
scandals can be part of my writing. There’s a market out there for readers of
everything, so if I’m interested in a controversial topic or if that topic
would enhance or elevate my story, then I’ll use it and put my spin on it. As
long as readers enjoy the concepts within the stories, controversial or not,
then it’s all good.

Sparkle Abbey – Our books are very much escape reading. We have no
problem at all with books that incorporate real life politics or scandals but
you probably will never find that in a Sparkle Abbey book. We get emails from
readers who share that they’ve read our books while going through difficult
times, (sitting at the bedside of a loved one, after a particularly tough day
at work, or simply as a get-away when they couldn’t actually get away) and this
trills us. There is nothing better than hearing that your work brightened
someone’s day!

Bethany Maines – Yes. A book with no sex, politics, or scandals
would be pretty dang boring. I write fiction, so I don’t think those elements
have to be 100% factual, but I do think they need to be present in someway.

Linda Rodriguez – I believe quite firmly in dealing with the issues
of the day in the society about which I’m writing, whether I’m writing poetry,
mystery, literary fiction, or fantasy. Writing that doesn’t deal in some way
with these issues seems to be to be unrooted and simply lying shallowly on the
surface of things, but I’m aware that other viewpoints on that matter are
equally valid.

Debra H. Goldstein – Even if a book is meant to be fun, social
issues can be incorporated in a manner that don’t hit people over the head.
Ignoring the truth of sex, politics and scandals potentially leaves a dimension
out of one’s writing.

Jennae Phillippe – Sure. I personally think that all writing is
political in some way because it is asking us to relate to the ideas and theme
presented. Some writing is more political than others, either by design or
because it captured something the public wanted to politicize. But these things
are a part of real life. However fantastical the tale, it will have elements of
all of them.

Paula Gail Benson – I love how Law
and Order has taken a current news story and given it a different spin by
considering other ramifications. I think it’s a matter that needs to be
approached carefully and with dignity, both in dramas and parodies or comedy
sketches.

Kay Kendall – I have seen successful books incorporate all three of
those elements – sex, politics, scandals. If other writers can do it well and
you think you can too, then why not? In my first two published mysteries, I use
the politics of the late 1960s as the milieu against which my amateur sleuth
operates. I used the anti-war movement and second stage feminism for,
respectively, Desolation Row and Rainy Day Women. Those were dramatic
ties and as such they lend themselves to heightened feelings—even murderous
ones.

Clues

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by Bethany Maines

Recently, I’ve been working on the sequel to my murder
mystery An Unseen Current.  While
thematically not that different from my other books (a young person struggles
with unusual circumstances while navigating the choppy waters of family, love,
and friends), mysteries bring a special level of challenge to the mix.  For one thing, people expect clues.  Oh, there’s a dead body?  Well, writer, where are the clues?  Chop, chop! Produce the clues!
However, it’s not just about clues; it’s about when to reveal
those clues.  Too early and readers are
bored because they already solved it. 
Too late and it seems like the author is cheating and wedging
information to justify who the killer is at the last second.  Then, even if the writer does pop a clue in
the right place, she can’t be too precious about it.  The author can’t present it on a silver
platter with a neon arrow stating: Clue Here!! 
To accomplish the correct where and when of clue placement requires a
stronger outline than other genres.  And
that means that I must do what every writer hates doing—not writing.
Outlining and the synopsis are vital to a successful book.  But they aren’t the FUN part of writing.  The fun part is churning out scenes and
spending time with the made up people who populate my brain.  Outlining requires problem solving and all
the leg work of deciding back stories and motivations and the literal who,
what, when, where and why of who was murdered. (It was Professor Plumb in the
Library with the Candlestick, in case you were wondering.)  But mostly it leaves me thinking: Are we
there yet? What about now?  Can I start
writing now?
Fortunately, the answer is getting closer to being yes.  So wish me luck as I work out the kinks of how the dead body
ended up behind a bar in Anacortes.

You never know what’s beneath the surface.
When Seattle native Tish Yearly finds herself
fired and evicted all in one afternoon, she knows she’s in deep water.
Unemployed and desperate, the 26 year old ex-actress heads for the one place
she knows she’ll be welcome – the house of her cantankerous ex-CIA agent
grandfather, Tobias Yearly, in the San Juan Islands. And when she discovers the
strangled corpse of Tobias’s best friend, she knows she’s in over her head.
Tish is thrown head-long into a mystery that pits her against a handsome but
straight-laced Sheriff’s Deputy, a group of eccentric and clannish local
residents, and a killer who knows the island far better than she does. Now Tish
must swim against the current, depending on her nearly forgotten acting skills
and her grandfather’s spy craft, to con a killer and keep them both alive.

***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Virtually IRL

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by Bethany Maines
I laughed when I read AB Plum’s recent post about unhooking
from the virtual world.  It has been a
long time since I didn’t enhance my RL (real life) experience with some sort of
virtual interaction.  Photos on Facebook,
the occasional witty comment on twitter, blogs and websites, they are all part
of my life. Partially this is simply a function of my life and jobs.  As a graphic designer and a writer, social
networking is part of the must do list.
As a designer, it’s important that I be able to design ads for Facebook and
other social media platforms and understand how the platforms function.  As a writer, it’s important that I use those
platforms to reach an audience.
Which is not to say that I’m an expert.  As a designer, I get to create content and
simply walk away.  The writer half of me
definitely has it harder.  I have to remember
to post (you wouldn’t think this was hard, but…), to come up with valuable and
interesting content, and then not waste all of my writing time on marketing and
social media.  On the other hand, for the
last six months I’ve been swinging very much the other way.  I have not been doing a lot of marketing.  I have in fact been writing.  A lot. 
A ton.  Lots of tons.  So much so that I’ve planned out my releases
for 2018 and 2019. 

So, stay tuned for tons of updates later this summer.  Crime, sci-fi, a touch of fairy tales, and of
course more than a little bit of romance are heading your way.  And strangely, I can’t wait to start
marketing ALL of it.  If you want to get
in on early give-aways (print and digital!) and announcements, join my mailing
list at: bethanymaines.com/contact
***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Clicking Our Heels – Social Media

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Clicking Our Heels – Social Media

In this age of social
media, we thought it would be interesting to ascertain how social media
enhances or distracts from writing. Here are the various Stiletto Gang member
thoughts:

Bethany Maines – Social media has enhanced my writing by connecting
me to readers and writers I wouldn’t have otherwise met. But it’s so easy to
use as a distraction from, you know, actually writing.

Cathy Perkins – Social media lets me interact with people on a
daily basis but it’s a distraction when time is so precious.

Paula Gail Benson – Both. It helps me to learn about things more
quickly, like current events, modern speech patterns, or in-vogue
abbreviations. It also is very addictive. I have to limit my time with it or
I’ve suddenly lost hours.

Sparkle Abbey – Social media is definitely both a wonderful
connection and at times a distraction. It’s so great to be able to connect with
readers and other writers, but it certainly can suck you in and then you wonder
where that hour went!

Kay Kendall – Social media enhances my writing. As an extrovert,
there is no way I could sit in a room day after day and not communicate with
people. With social media, however, I can still communicate to the outside
world. This keeps me at my desk…and happy.

Paffi S. Flood – Oh, definitely, social media has distracted me,
especially twitter. With the election in full swing, I couldn’t seem to tear
myself away, but I really needed to. 

Kimberly Jayne – Social media is a double-edged sword. You need it to
engage with people and, in particular, your readers/fans, but it’s easy to
spend too much time doing that instead of the harder job of writing. You can
dedicate an hour a day to social media; then, in the process look up at the
clock and find you’ve overshot by an extra hour. And I can’t imagine that the
extra hour gives you any more ROI for your efforts than the one- hour goal
would have. 

Debra H. Goldstein – Social media is my nemesis. I know I need it
to connect with readers and fans, as well as to attract new ones, but the time
spent on it distracts from doing other things – usually because instead of
using it for work, I check the news and gossip J. 

Linda Rodriguez – I would have answered this question differently
not very long ago, but right now, I’d have to say social media does distract me
from my writing. This is primarily because of the election and also a number of
volatile situations involving African American, Latino, and Native civil rights
in the new news. I happen to be passionately involved with those issues. 

Jennae Phillippe – Oh man, it is SUCH a distraction. Honestly, I
think about quitting social media on a semi-regular basis because it is such a
time suck. And while I rely on it to keep me informed, sometimes the sheer
quantity of horrible things shared feels very overwhelming and draining. If I
didn’t need it to connect to readers, I think I would abandon it completely.

The Flying of Time

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by J.M. Phillippe

There comes a point in a new position where everything begins to feel routine. Where the schedule is pretty locked in, the tasks rote, and the days start to blend together. I always worry when this happens, because as the weeks whirl into months, I feel my life passes before my eyes at an almost numbing speed. I become complacent.

Writing is the only thing that seems to help keep the flying of time in check, because it is a measurable use of time. Most of my tasks disappear, as it were, by the next week. As a therapist, I see the same people over and over again, marking their progress with notes written weekly and treatment plans written every three months. But the progress in therapy is sometimes is small, and hard to see from week to week, like tracking the growth of a child. You know they are growing, but it takes a while to actually see it.

At the breakneck speed of a mental health clinic where I see clients one right after another, with one short break midway through a stretch of 9 clients in a row, it’s hard to spend a lot of time processing each session to look for those moments of growth or change. Each week picks up on the topics of the previous, so it feels sometimes like I am binging other people’s lives.

And it sometimes feels like in doing so I am neglecting my own. Again, writing is one of the few things that keeps me grounded in my own goals and dreams, and helps me see my own growth. I can see the pages that mark the passing of time, see the drafts build, one on another, and when I hit that final draft, have an actual product to give people that is a physical manifestation of “how I used my time.”

However, I struggle to make time for writing. It often comes after — after work, after chores, after general life maintenance. It’s been hard to put writing first. When I look back over a stretch of time and see how few pages I have to show for that period of time, I know my priorities have drifted away from me, and that my routine has taken over.

You’d think that the natural thing to do is to make writing part of that routine, and that has always been my goal. But with so little time, and so many other things going on, it continues to be very hard to make the kind of dedicated writing time I want. I end up getting snatches of time here and there, which never seem to let me get to the place I want to get to, where the words just flow and the story takes over. That is what I miss, more than anything, when I say I miss writing. I miss being a conduit instead of a work horse. I miss feeling inspired instead of feeling obligated. I miss getting quality time with my own imaginary adventures.

So, now that I see that my time management has gotten away from me, it’s time to make adjustments and put writing back up on the priority list. I know doing that though means that some other things may start to slide. There simply just isn’t enough time for everything. I have to use the time I have better.

***

J.M. Phillippe is the author of Perfect Likeness and the short story The Sight. She has lived in the deserts of California, the suburbs of Seattle, and the mad rush of New York City. She works as a family therapist in Brooklyn, New York and spends her free-time decorating her tiny apartment to her cat Oscar Wilde’s liking, drinking cider at her favorite British-style pub, and training to be the next Karate Kid, one wax-on at a time.

When Novelists Aren’t Being Novelists

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By Kimberly Jayne

As a novelist, I know how important it is to write regularly—daily, in fact. One reason is that you have to keep the creative chops from getting rusty; the more you write, the easier it is. But the bigger arguments are that the more you write, the richer your writing becomes and the faster your next novel meets its big-finish line.
But what happens when life gets in the way of creative pursuits, and writing every day just isn’t possible?

Well, for one thing, guilt sets in. When you know writing is your calling, being unable to meet expectations for daily output can induce nagging bouts of guilt at any point during your waking hours. Priorities are not much fun for an author when they don’t include writing. Over time, the absence of writing leads to frustration, which only mounts with each passing week. Not to mention that if you have a good network of other authors in your corner, they’ll know you’re doing diddly squat too. So let’s add shame and self-flagellation to the mix.

Thence comes the whining. This is why the life of an author is not for sissies. It’s hard enough to get respect from the masses for the difficulties involved in bleeding out an entire novel in the middle of life’s little chaoses; but when you, as a writer, can’t keep your top priority in its place as the top priority, you know something drastic has to happen. Things must change, if only for the sake of sanity.

I’ve been experiencing this very thing for the past several months due to business and pleasure travels, housing searches for the day-job transfer from Austin to Plano, day-job overtime, and family obligations, not to mention a few other unpleasant things life has thrown at me. So, I’m heavy into the guilt-and-frustration-and shame phase of the author who’s not writing—hence, this admittedly whiny post.

Thankfully, I’ve stricken several of the obstacles from my list, as of this weekend (long-distance apartment hunting is not for the faint-hearted either), and I’m happy to say I’m feeling much more optimistic about how much writing I’m going to get done—er, soon. Right after I finish packing and moving in two weeks, and unpacking, and adjusting to the new day-job conditions. Yeah, I’m going to kick this guilt-and-frustration-and-shame thing real soon.
__________________________________________
Kimberly Jayne writes humor, romantic comedy, suspense, erotica, and dark fantasy. You can check her out on Amazon. Find out more about her at ReadKimberly.com.

Clicking Our Heels – Writing: Passion or Work?

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Clicking Our Heels –
Writing: Passion or Work?

Stiletto Gang members all
write, but the question is why? Read on to find out whether we consider writing
a job, a passion or a hobby and whether our emotional reaction to it has
changed.

Kay Kendall – I consider
writing to be my calling. I have always written, even in my previous job. I
just never wrote fiction before I took it up ca. 1999. I didn’t think I had any
stories to tell. Now I do have them. I just needed more confidence, and a bit
of age, in order to feel comfortable in telling my stories. 

Linda Rodriguez – To me,
writing is my vocation, which means it’s my job, but it’s also a passion.

If I
never needed to earn another dollar again, I would still write.

Sparkle Abbey – It’s
always been a passion and for both of us simply a part of who we are. Like many
others we’ve always written and have had a love for words. Since signing a
contract for our first four books in 2010, it’s had to become more of a job
because we have deadlines to deal with. That’s been an adjustment but one we’re
okay with. We just signed a contract for more books, so we’re excited to
continue writing the Pampered Pets mystery series. 

Cathy Perkins – Writing is
both a (second) job and a passion. Being time constrained takes a toll on me,
especially when my creative side has to take a back seat to the part of my life
that comes with a paycheck. Fortunately, my husband sleeps through me turning
on the light at 3 A> to scribble down scene ideas and snippets of dialogue. What,
your subconscious doesn’t keep right on writing at night? 

Kimberly Jayne – Writing
is definitely not a hobby for me. It’s a job that I’m passionate about,
although I dislike referring to it as a “job,” which for me carries a negative
connotation. It reminds me too much of the day jobs I’ve had over my lifetime
that I didn’t want to go to each day but, of course, had to. Writing has become
more important to me over the years because I feel, like many, that time is
running out to achieve the many writing goals I had set for myself when I was
in my twenties. If fulfills me in a way it didn’t previously as well, which I
think comes from acquiring the confidence and competence in my skills and
talents that I didn’t have when I was young. 

Debra H. Goldstein –
Passion. I walked away from a lifetime judicial appointment to pursue writing,
at whatever level I am capable of, because of the joy it gives. 

Paffi S. Flood – As a job.
I have a routine to where I’m at my laptop every morning at 9:00 to do
something. It isn’t always writing. It could be something as simple as plotting
out a scene for clarity,

but I do it. That’s the only way I can make progress
on my manuscript.

Jennae Phillippe – All of
the above. Sometimes it feels like more work than other times. I am at my best
when I can tap into writing as a passion, and at my worse when it feels like a
chore. I think when I start to think like a publisher and imagine what sort of
stories are marketable, it feels the most like a job, and when I think like
that 14-year-old kid who just wanted to write fantastical stories, I enjoy it
the most. I just need to think like a marketing savvy 14-year-old and I’ll
crack the writing code. 

Bethany Maines – With my
day job as a graphic designer, I’ve learned that having a passion IS work. But
writing has evolved over time to be something that was just for me, into
something that is more outward facing and shaped for an exterior audience. 

Paula Gail Benson – Yes.
Since 2013, when I seriously began making submissions, it has been a job. It
remains a passion. It’s no longer just a hobby, because even if I’m writing to
help a group with which I’m affiliated, I have to take credit for my prose and
know it will be judged with professional standards.

The Good Parts

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by J.M. Phillippe

I have a confession to make: when I read books, I tend to skip through large swaths of text. It started when I was a kid, reading fantasy novels. I adore fantasy novels. But without fail, every fantasy author I have ever read has spent a tremendous amount of time describing things. Now, when you are creating a world mostly from scratch, there are a lot of new things to describe. World-building takes a lot of time (as I am learning, since I am now writing a contemporary fantasy novel), and authors want to make sure that effort shows in their book.

And while I know there are readers who really appreciate those long, detailed passages that describe all the unique things of that magical new world, I am not one of them. I find myself skimming, searching out the gist of whatever is being described — the character likes fancy clothing or the home is drafty and cold — and then move on to dialogue and action. Sometimes I have to go back and actually read something I’ve skimmed through because I’ve missed something important, but mostly I can get away with skipping entire paragraphs without missing anything significant. 
This is not just a fantasy and science fiction problem either — I have ready plenty of mysteries where characters are described like the author is working with a sketch artist, and romances where the heroine’s wardrobe has gotten more page-space than the love scenes. 
I should say that I have never not enjoyed a book because I skipped over the long descriptions — in fact, some of the best lines I have ever read have been in those passages (when I have read them). They just tend to interfere with my primary driving force as a reader — to find out what happens next. 
Now that I am trying to create a new world, I find myself writing those same long passages that describe everything. And honestly, I have been wondering just how much I have to actually include — and how much I can get away with leaving out. It is an essential question for every writer — how much can you trust the reader to fill in the blanks? 
I know there is no one-size-fits-all level of description that will satisfy every reader, and certainly I may be on the far side of the spectrum in the number of scenes I gloss over. And while there probably are more writers not writing enough vivid description, I also don’t want to be one of those writers that overdoes it either. But it’s a hard balance to achieve. 
But, since I am making my confession, I should also make my apologies. To most every author I have ever read, even the ones I loved — I am sorry for not actually reading all the words you wrote. I am sure they were amazing words. Gorgeous descriptions. Pure poetry. I likely skipped your best lines. 
But I probably loved your book, anyway.
***
J.M. Phillippe is the author of Perfect Likeness and the short story The Sight. She has lived in the deserts of California, the suburbs of Seattle, and the mad rush of New York City. She works as a family therapist in Brooklyn, New York and spends her free-time decorating her tiny apartment to her cat Oscar Wilde’s liking, drinking cider at her favorite British-style pub, and training to be the next Karate Kid, one wax-on at a time.

Production for Use

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by Bethany Maines

In the movie His Girl Friday (Cary Grant & Rosalind
Russell), a light hearted screwball comedy that centers around a newspaper
editor and his ex-wife/top reporter as they attempt to get the big story and he
attempts to prevent her from marrying someone else. Under the froth, romance,
laughs and lightning fast dialogue the plot also deals with a poor schlub who
shot a cop and is getting the death penalty mostly due to politics and in spite
of the fact that he’s not really dealing with a full deck.  In the movie, Rosalind Russell interviews the
schlub and asks him what crack-pots he was listening to in the park while he
was whiling away his unemployed time.  The
soapbox ranter he listened to the most, the one the made the most sense was a
man who talked about “production for use.”
That phrase crops up for me time and time again as a
philosophical touchpoint.  When I’m
writing I will periodically ask myself, what use is this scene?  What has it been produced for?  Is the way in which I have presented the scene—from
POV, to word choice, to start and finish points—the best, most useful way, to
achieve the goal?  If the action of the
characters is correct, then are the emotions within the scene hitting the right
notes?  Often times as writers will get
bogged down in telling who went where when and we forget to also incorporate the
emotion, the driving force that pushes the character into action.  The same can also be true in reverse.  I have spent whole pages blithering on about
a character’s feelings (Reminder to self: No one gives a crap.  It’s boring. 
Stop doing that.) and forgotten to advance the plot at all.  And then, even if the emotions and the
actions are right, is everything told in the right words—is the style of the
telling the best way to tell it?
This level of thinking is difficult because it forces me to
objectively look at the story and check in on the individual elements of style,
tone, and content.  And generally, for me,
that can only be done after I have completed a draft and I’m working in the
editorial phase.  If that all sounds like
a lot of work, then you’re correct, but I like to think my readers appreciate
it.  After all I put a lot of work into producing
a book for the use of readers to enjoy.
***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.