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Click on PLAY below for one of my favorite Hawaiian songs of all time. It will put you in the mood for this post.  Yep, folks. I'm off to beautiful, tropical Hawaii for a much needed vacation with my family. I can't wait to dig my toes into the warm sand, snorkel with the fishes, and eat pineapple.  Originally, I had plans to lug my laptop with me so that I could fully participate in the A-Z Blogfest Challenge I signed up for several weeks ago. But as my trip draws closer, I realize that I need to step away from the computer, from blogging, from twittering, and go and enjoy myself. Simply put, I need a break. I had hoped to finish my WIP, have a first draft complete, before leaving on my trip (a goal I set for myself several weeks ago), but that doesn't look like it's going to happen either. Writer's block has its hold on me and so I'm thinking, a relaxing vacation away will hopefully renew my spirit and mind. I will come back ready to attack my laptop with gusto.
So, since I will be gone from March 31st until April 11th, I leave you with a bit of Hawaii to enjoy. When I return, I will fully immerse myself in the challenge. I promise. Until then, I'm off to be lazy in tropical Hawaii and hopefully find my mojo. If nothing else, I can't think of a better way to try. Oh, and if you want to be part of the BEST DARN BLOGS EVER! and be stalked by me in a completely non-creepy way, go check it out here. I will stalk you when I get back. That's a promise.
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 I am a bad, bad, blog follower. I have great intentions. I click JOIN SITE with an excitement for gleaming raw and glorious information from my fellow bloggers. My problem? I don’t know how to organize myself. I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. I’m a complete mess.
I follow quite a few blogs, I do. And that’s a problem, I know. I always think I will remember which blogs radiated the most and be able to find them again, but I can’t. I need a better way to figure this blog following thing out. I suck at it, but I don’t want to. I don’t wanna suck. I want to be a good follower. No, scratch that, I want to be an AWESOME follower! Not just a face that sits on your site and who never reads you (I have those on my site as well and it BLOWS). And scanning through so many blogs to find you, well, that's tedious. I feel overwhelmed. AND I WANT TO READ YOU. I do. I swear. I want interaction. I want connection. I want to stalk you completely in a non-creepy way. So, here’s the solution I’ve came up with, my fellow bloggers and followee’s, leave me a comment. Just drop a line or two and say, “Hi, there, Angela. Come support my blog by leaving enormously long comments. Tell me how I’m doing. Encourage me and tell me a joke, if you’d like. Let’s be more than faces on a blog. Let’s interact, let’s be pals.” AND guess what? I will! I will be your pal. I’ll be the best darn pal you’ve ever had! Even if I'm already following you, leave me a comment--your blog will be moved up the blogging status. I will read you MORE. I will take your blog information and put it in a folder on my Google Reader that says: THE BEST DARN BLOGS EVER! And I will check that folder weekly for update. I promise. (Expect this coming week in which I will be in lovely HAWAII—more to come about that—but otherwise, I’m yours. Completely. Starting the middle of April). All other blogs will still be there in my reader, but first reads will go to those in the THE BEST DARN BLOGS EVER! folder. So, join my BEST DARN BLOGS EVER! by commenting below. Simple. Easy. Let’s be pals. Let me stalk you with love. AND, if you know someone who could use a good stalking, tell them to pop over and add themselves to the list too. The more the merrier.  Last week, I shared with everyone my struggles with writer’s block (nasty, nasty stuff). I have two chapters left to write on my WIP and it’s just not happening. The little voices that normally sit on my shoulder and FORCE me to write their story have disappeared. My own fault? Yep. Most definitely. I have allowed myself to become easily distracted by shiny distractible things (twitter, blogging, SQUIRREL, etc…)
Now, the wonderful thing about twitter and blogging has been the online support from people, who I’ve never met, who were quick to offer words of wisdom, support, and encouragement. For the most part, writing is a solitary endeavor. We’re on our own. The people in our lives love us and encourage us to write, but because they’re not writers they simply don’t “get us.” When they say, “Just write it,” they don’t realize how difficult that can be to do. So, yes, twitter and the blogging world has squirreled away my imagination, but to be able to surround myself with HUNDREDS of like-minded people who “get me” is something I’m extremely thankful for. The support is amazing. As a way of paying it forward, I want to share this advice with you. Maybe something someone said will resonate and give you the push you need to just keep writing, or if nothing else, will let you know writer's block will pass. Thanks to everyone who took the time to help me. A great big MUU-AH to you. Now some of the advice was practical, while a few others a little more unconventional, but who's to say what would work and what wouldn't. I posted them all. Katrina Lawrence: step away from the writing and immerse yourself in your favorite book for a few hours, that always helps me! Ryan Louis Schneider: If you paint yourself into a corner, change corners. ie work on a different story. Begin a new tale perhaps. Make it fun. ArrEllEss.com Jason McKinney: I grab a V8 and watch mind-numbing stuff like Spongebob w/the kids. Diverting your mind with nonthinking things works. Jason McKinney Barbara Nordin: How to Write When You'd Rather Set Your Hair on Fire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klSM3-xrNgQ All But Dissertation No More Ara Trask: I'm in a similar situation right now. It doesn't help the winter makes me depressed, and of course Twitter distracts me constantly. But I have begun one exercise that has helped me begin writing again. A PAPER journal. Not a blog, but a notebook I carry around with me that I have set up the following rules for: 1. Write something in it every day, no matter if it's 2 pages or 2 sentences. 2. From now on, all notes about my WIP will be entered in said journal, so they will be easier to find and cataloge. 3. Anything going on in my life while I'm writing this WIP is relevant, because later, I will want to know what was distracting me through the writing process. This includes the music I'm listening to, the place I'm currently writing, or if I'm out of town. 4. Any findings from interesting research should be noted in this journal. This keeps my collection in one place, and me always thinking about how I'm going to work on my story. South of Sanity Sarvenaz Tash: I am also in an eerily similar situation (though I'm nowhere near an ending. I wish!). I freaked out for a couple of weeks. And then, this week, I decided NOT to write. I'm taking a writing-free week and I'm spending all my free time reading instead. It's too early to say whether this will ultimately work, but I'm definitely seeing some signs that a creative spark might be on the horizon. It's the best I've felt about the WIP in weeks so I'm hoping it IS the right thing to do. Or do you have something else you can work on? I think the answer may be to just stop focusing on it so much and maybe your subconscious will have had the answer for you all along! Sarvenaz Tash Ashley: I recently just blogged about this very problem myself! Twitter, and blogging, and just plain life get in the way of my writing all the time too. Here's a few things that helped me get to the end of my WIP: - I forced myself to sit down and start writing. I told myself it's a first draft so if it sucks I can go back and fix it. - Music- music definitely gets those creative juices flowing and the voices talking - Taking a walk- getting outside and moving really help me to work out plot points in the WIP. A car ride is always an option too, although gas prices in my neck of the woods are HORRIBLE. Coffee Spoons Nancy Lauzon: It happens to all of us. What a block means for me is there is something off in my WIP, a character, a plot issue, something ... and until I figure that out, I stay blocked. So I walk away, clear my head and think about the story. After a few days the answer usually comes to me, and the block disappears. Maybe this will work for you. Good luck and happy writing! Nancy Lauzon Allison Maynard: I'm with Sarvenaz on this one. I know it goes against the gospel of you must write something every day, but sometimes if it ain't happening, it ain't happening. Don't freak out! I think there's two sorts of writers "block". There's the sort you just have to power through and keep going. The distracted by twitter, sunshine, cute doggies, pretty shoes that you can order online etc. type of block falls into that category, as does the x thousand words in and starting to feel like hard work sort of block. But I think there is another kind, which is when you've forced it as far as you can and you do just need a break. Everyone needs a break now and then - why should writers be any different? I had an experience very similar to what you describe when working on 2nd draft of a script a couple of years ago. It felt, just as you describe, like a wall had dropped down in front of me which was not going to shift. In the end I took a break (not through choice - there just didn't seem to be any other way). About 4 weeks later I was walking home from somewhere and the end of the story popped pretty much fully formed into my head (an ending which was completely different to the first draft version I'd stalled trying to "fix"). So I'd say, if you've proved to your own satisfaction that it's not one you can just write through, then take a break. Don't write at all for a week or two, and then if necessary write something else short to ease you back in. If you've had some writer's block miracle that you'd be willing to share, please leave a comment with your advice and I will include it in the above list. Pay it forward. Who knows? Maybe your suggestion might be the ONE thing a struggling writer needed to hear to push past their own writers block. BAM!
It came out of nowhere, setting up a border across my creativity, hedging my imagination, and hindering my forward progress. I back up, get a running start, I try again. BAM! I ricochet off its invisible surface. my brain twirls, uncertain. It’s as Great and wide as the one in China. Runners hit it, while mid-stride. A block I can step over. A wall—impossible. There’s no going around, it stretches endlessly in either direction. I’m terrified of heights. I swallow, knowing no other way and go searching for my climbing gear.  I would like to take this opportunity to present a response to a blog post titled “Endings Schmendings” by a dear friend and critique partner of mine, Diana at My Life in Writing. In her blog post, she describes how one of her critique partners is struggling to write the ending of her latest WIP. This particular partner of hers (though completely awesome and is absolutely HILARIOUS) has a bad Diet Pepsi habit, blogs a little too much, and has lost her creative edge (or mojo) when it comes to completing her nearly finished manuscript.
What Diana has failed to mention, is that while this particular critique partner of hers (again, super awesome) struggles to write the “perfect” ending, this critique partner does think about it ALL THE TIME—while showering, while twittering, while eating ice cream, right before falling asleep, and, yes, even while blogging. The problem, the creative muse (if one believes in such things) has slipped away. The voices that lead, direct, and bring life to the written word, have vanished. Painfully, all she hears is silence. Terrifying. Crippling. Silence. *insert tumbleweed for dramatic effect* And it scares her to be left on her own. She fears she’s just not creative enough without her fictional guides to well, guide her (see?). Did this happen by her own doing? Probably. Did blogging get in the way? Most likely. Has Twitter become an evil pass time? Yes, yes, a million times yes. BUT, regardless of her mismanagement of affairs, what really should be addressed is this: How do we help this poor soul to get her mojo back? Especially when, with only a click away, a writer can get sucked into twittering and blogging? (And please don’t suggest she unplug the internet—that’s just wrong). Because isn’t THAT what’s most important—helping her to find her creative muse? Let’s not judge her for her excessive blogging and tweeting habits. Let’s not condemn her for drinking far too much Pepsi, which she knows is unhealthy and wrong, shall we? Yes, she dug her hole, but why not come together and gather around this dear writer and help her to form a plan—a reasonable, easy to follow step-by-step program—that she can put into place and help her to complete her WIP, so that her foils will not be put on public display for all to see and comment on? What advice would you offer? What has worked for you? Help a fellow writer, won’t you? Share your tips on overcoming writer’s block. Please, oh, please, oh please. Oh, and check out my poem: I've Hit a Writer's WALL, and it Stings a Lot. (There is a point to this rambling, so just hang in there. Bear with me). Everyone thinks it’s a child’s preschool years that are the worst, which in a lot of respects it is. (I mean, the whole wiping bottoms thing totally sucked). But now I have a teenager and it’s a WHOLE different ball game. In some respects, I’d rather go back to wiping tushies than have to deal with puberty and hormones. I swear I was never THAT bad as a teen. I was respectful, courteous, did my homework, kept my room spotless, and NEVER once questioned my parent’s authority or mass amounts of wisdom. And I never broke out crying for no good reason at all either. Okay, I lie. But I was pretty good in comparison to a lot of teens out there. Actually, my kid isn’t so bad. He’s pretty respectful to teachers, adults, and his friends’ parents. He’s courteous and kind (most of the time . . . brother and sister excluded). He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. He still thinks girls have cooties and he hangs out with a pretty good group of kids. So what’s my problem? The kid drives me CRAZY with all his questions. Seriously. Question after question after question. I thought kids only did this when they were two, not when they’re almost fourteen! What the heck? I actually had to tell him today, “That’s it. No more questions. You’re at your daily limit.” Here’s the thing, little kids ask questions like: “Why’s the sky blue?” or “If I drop this egg, will it bounce?” or “How much do you love me, mommy?” Teenagers ask questions like: “What does douche bag mean?” or “Can I have these twenty dollar bills in your purse to buy Mountain Dew for me and my buds?” or “So what kinda car are you gonna buy me when I start driving?” or “I have a ten page report due tomorrow in science, can you help me?” or “Why do I have to shower after gym?” or “Why do I have to make my bed? It’s only gonna get slept in tonight.” or “Danny’s parents are out of town and he wants me to hang out and have a sleep over, can I?” or “The principle didn’t call today, did he?” It’s hunky-dory, I tell you. Like I said, a whole other ball game. To make matters worse, these questions are fired at me one right after another. Most of my answers are: “No”, “Never”, “Over my dead body”, and my favorite, “Because I said so.” So what does this, if anything, have to do with writing? (Drum roll, please) Writers, just like moms of teenage boys, get asked a lot of annoying questions as well. (Ta-Da. See how I tied that in? Clever, huh?). It’s true. Now, don’t get me wrong. If a question is asked out of genuine interest, then no matter how bizarre the question, I really do try to answer it. But there are some questions that truly annoy me, no matter who is asking them. Here’s a few: 1) Oh, but hasn’t someone written a book just like that before? What’s his name? You know, the guy who made a kazillion dollars? It was really good too. (Well, thank you for crushing my soul and a year’s worth of work. Here’s the thing, usually my book ends up being NOTHING like the kazillionair’s book—which could be a good or bad thing for me—but the person who asked, now thinks I’m a hack). 2) Are you writing? (Usually asked while I’m smack dab in the middle of writing an intense scene and it’s going well. It’s usually followed by additional questions that then sucks away my creative mojo and the momentum is lost). 3) So why aren’t you published yet? (This is usually asked in a “you-must-suck” kind of tone. I usually respond with, “I thought you were going to try and lose 20 pounds by the first of the summer? What happened?). 4) I’m working on a little gem of my own. Do you think you could take a look at it for me, see what I can do to spruce it up? (No. When I’m looking at your little “gem” I’m having to take away from my own work. And I can tell you right now, almost every time I’ve said sure, I end up regretting it. The work usually needs a lot of help and then I’m left trying to find a kind way to tell them this without hurting their feelings. I hate being put in that position). 5) Is your novel any good? (Why no. My novel is crap, but thanks for asking you jerk!) 6) What’s your novel about again? (“Again” is the keyword. Insert feelings of failure right here). For the most part, I love being asked about my work. I love it when people genuinely want to know how things are going because they want to see me succeed and celebrate my success with me. Maybe I’m the jerk for not being patient enough. All I know, is that there are some questions, that when asked, make my teeth clench and my shoulders stiffen—just like the questions asked by my teenage son—and I just want to say, “Enough. No more questions. You’re at your daily limit.” So what kind of questions do you get asked, and do they annoy or flatter? And if you think I’m being unfair, let me know that too. Honestly, I’m opened minded (unless I disagree with you, of course).  To celebrate having reached 200 followers, I decided to say thank you buy giving away a few books to some awesome followers. (200 Follower Giveaway)
The winners (names drawn from comments) are: Brooke R. Busse: Beautiful Creatures Peggy Urry: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Suzy Turner: Dead Until Dark Juliana Brandt: Made in the USA I have left comments on your blogs. Just send me an email with your address and I will get your book in the mail. Thanks everybody!  The Challenge:
Write a flash fiction story (in any format) in 100 words or less, excluding the title. Begin the story with the words, “The goldfish bowl teetered” These four words will be included in the word count. If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional, and not part of the judging criteria), see if you can write the story in your own genre (eg if you’re a horror writer, write a horror story; a romance writer, a romance story, etc). To join, see Rachael Harrie's blog for more details. Here's my attempt. Exactly 100 words: Title: Blind Sight The goldfish bowl teetered along the table's edge, a delicate balancing act between life and death. Without thought, he slid the bowl to safety, something he’d done numerous times, and waited for her to show herself. “I know you’re here,” he whispered. Chilled breath flitted across his neck, causing the tiny hairs to rise. A whoosh of air set the curtains dancing despite the rooms closed windows. The bedcovers rose, an act of play, before settling once more. Quite the entrance. In the far corner, the wispy girl brushed the transparent hair from her eyes and smiled. “Hello, George.”  Oasis for YA is thrilled to have hit 300 followers on their blog, and wanted to do something to celebrate! They're offering one lucky winner the opportunity to have ALL 5 of their blog contributors critique either a query letter or a first chapter. That's like getting 5 new critique partners in one fell swoop!
To enter you must be a follower of their blog (old or new, doesn't matter) and fill out the form on their website by midnight April 1st. You can get an extra entry for tweeting and an extra two entries for blogging about the contest. (That's what I did).  Super agent Ammi-Joan Paquette has so kindly offered to host a pitch contest on YAtopia. And seeing as she's currently closed to submissions, this is an opportunity you simply CANNOT miss out on.
Check out rules and submission guidelines here: YAtopia |
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