Round 3 has come to a ROCKING END! Did you meet your goals? Have you developed new habits to keep writing a central part of your life? Let us know in your final check-in post!
And don’t forget to sign up for ROUND 4, starting on October 3rd!
If you’re interested in being a sponsor for the next round, please dash me an email at kaitnolanwriter (at) gmail (dot) com.
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Sorry this is late. I was on the road yesterday.
So Round 4 is drawing to a close. I can hardly count the number of people who’ve told me “I totally failed this round” or “I’m not sure if I want to do Round 4…I was so bad at keeping up with stuff in Round 3.”
My question to those of you in this boat: Did you remember to adjust your goals when your initial one proved not to suit? Did you take a single step toward whatever goal you set? I’m betting MOST of you did. And you know what? That single step is one step further than you’d be if you had done nothing. So it’s not a failure. It might not be what you wanted to get done, but it’s something and that counts as progress.
This is something I know quite a bit about. See, I am an uber planner–my agent refers to me as the Princess of Planning with much amusement. I have a great many demands on my time, so I tend to be really regimented about a lot of things, scheduling this, that, or the other thing because if I don’t schedule it, it’s not likely to get done. This tends to produce a To Do List of Everest proportions, and since I’m only human, it means there’s STILL an awful lot on that list that doesn’t get done when I want it. I have a really bad habit of focusing on those 42 things that WEREN’T done instead of the 17 that were. This is something I think a lot of us are really bad about.
Frankly, I think we all need to give ourselves a break (somebody remind me I said that the next time I’m freaking out).
I did NOT get what I wanted accomplished during this round. I finished and released my debut YA, Red. I wrote a bunch of blog posts and interviews for a blog tour. And…that’s about it. Which is still an accomplishment. But I’d been hoping to knock out another novella by now. Instead, it’s been 6 weeks since I’ve written anything at all. I think I’m past the panic of that. It is what it is, and it took longer to get the last book out of my head to clear the way for the next one. If I had stopped fighting that, I might have been able to get more done. But I have SUCH A HARD TIME allowing myself to…well, breathe. To rest. To recognize that sometimes not producing is still productive and part of refilling the creative well.
So I hope you will all take some time to do that for yourselves between now and the start of Round 4 on October 3rd. Because this will be the LAST ROUND of ROW80 in 2011. It will be the Round that takes us through the holiday season. The Round that is a haven for all the NaNo Rejects. The Round where YOU WILL GET STUFF DONE. It is also the Round I am still looking for Sponsors for, so do dash me an email at kaitnolanwriter (at) gmail (dot) com if you’re interested. There’s a link at the top of the page that details Sponsor Responsibilities.
Meanwhile, no matter how much you feel like you failed, stop looking at what you DIDN’T get done and actually write up your final check-in post to acknowledge what you DID DO. We are all about the positive here at ROW80. Never forget that.
We’re racing for the finish line! It’s time to give it your all!
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One week to go! Stay strong! YOU CAN DO IT!
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I came across a writing meme the other day “Writing is not like a box of chocolates.” Remember the Forrest Gump quote –
“My momma always said, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
The purpose of the meme was to compare writing to anything but a box a chocolates and simply finish the phrase “Writing is like….?” I’ve heard some writers say writing is like breathing. When I first heard someone say writing is as necessary as breathing, I thought wow. What a feeling. How could I get that feeling? Reading has always been as necessary as breathing for me all my life. The desire to read, to explore other worlds, people’s lives, dive into another world for a while. Escape. I discovered I get really cranky when I don’t read. So how do I transfer that feeling to writing?
I wanted to be there, at that level, when I really hadn’t earned it yet. I’m still a babe in the woods when it comes to fiction writing. About 5 years ago, after years of working in the corporate world, I finally decided to try my hand at writing. Finally gave myself license to daydream and explore that hidden side that I had for some unknown reason squelched a long time ago. I realized I see writing on a whole different level. Maybe because I’ve come to it at a later age and haven’t been doing it all my life. I realized writing isn’t as necessary as breathing; it is a choice, a love, a desire that has grown over the years. I discovered that I don’t have a need to write, I want to write. And because I choose to write, there is a freedom in that.
Speaking of need versus want, a few months back, I came across 31 days to Better Writing Habits. One of the topics was how toxic language can hinder your writing. Words such as can’t, should, have to, impossible or need to are considered toxic because they take away your power. They are negative and limit you.
Use “Can” Instead of “Can’t”–You can do anything you want to do. You can do anything you set your mind to do. It’s been proven over and over and over again. So say “can.” “I can be a writer” and “I can write this novel.”
Use “Want to” Instead of “Should” “Have to” or “Need to”–When you use the phrase “want to” you’re making a choice. It’s no longer being forced on you, you are choosing it. There is power in the phrase “want to” because it shows you have a desire to do something. So say “I want to be a writer” and “I want to write this novel.”
Telling yourself you should do something is taking away your choice. Telling yourself you have to do something is extra pressure and most folks when you tell them they have to do something, will do the opposite. Do you need to write or do you want to write. You don’t need to, you don’t have to, but you want to. You are making a choice to write because you want to. Getting rid of the toxic language gives you back your power.
Getting back to the question – “writing is like….” It really got me to thinking and I finally realized that for me, writing is like diving into a rushing river and seeing where it will take me. You give yourself up to the flow of the words, which at times can really be unpredictable. You never quite know what is around the next bend. Even though you planned it out, studied it, anticipated what is going to happen, there is always the unexpected. The rapids carry you along, pulling you every which way, too fast for you to see or think. The view, passes by in a blur. You do your best to stay afloat until you able to get clear of the rapids and find a calm spot, take a steadying breath. Some days the words pour out just like the white water rapids and when you reach the calm spot by the bank, take time to access. Sometimes all you can say is wow. I did that.
You take a moment to rest in that calm spot, floating along, quietly absorbing the beauty around you. Then you move back out into the crazy flow again and suddenly it shoots you into an unexpected tributary. A side trip that could either is soothing or unsettling. One that gives you insight into your imaginary world. At times, the water is so clear, you can see the bottom and every single pebble and the fish glistening in the sunlight. But in a blink of an eye, the water turns muddy. So thick, you can’t see a thing. Then there are those waterfalls and the sudden drop that takes your breath away. A writer’s AHA moment.
Writing is like diving into a rushing river and seeing where it takes you. You can either swim as hard and as fast you can against the current, fighting it all the way or relax and enjoy the journey.
“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” Don Williams Jr. 1968
~*~
As we chug right along on our goals today, let’s pause for a moment of silence for the fallen.
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It’s time to make those final tweaks to goals. Set yourself up for success!
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“Send me your most pathetic moment, your most anything, as long as it’s real. I mean, I want the size, the shape, the feel, the smell. I want blood, sweat, and tears on these letters. I want brains and ectoplasm and cum spilled all over them. Hallelujah!” -Happy Harry Hard-On, Pump Up the Volume
One of the things I can get passionate about is passion. Because I’ve done a lot of crit, read a lot of flash, fan- and other amateur fiction, etc, for fun. In my mind, passion on the page is one of those things that can really separate someone who has a nice grasp of English and can tell a passable story, from someone who can write.
It’s like there’s a barrier there. A boundary between the author and character. You can see it in the construction of a character or situation, see what the author created and know the intention. But you can’t feel it. Sometimes I think it’s because the author doesn’t really feel it. S/he hasn’t developed that ability to write as the character, to live the story from the inside and hovers somewhere above it. In some cases, talking to writers, I know that they do feel it. Reading the work, they still feel it and they believe it’s plainly there. Only for me, the words that could have brought me and and made me feel it too never made it across that barrier.
I don’t think art is for the meek. Maybe you’re quiet, maybe you’re shy, but somewhere in you there’s that burning desire to create, to make something out of absolutely nothing, something amazing that’s born of nothing but your own thoughts. And to share that with the world. There is nothing meek about that. That’s passion. And that’s what raises your craft to art.
This post came to me as I was listening to the radio the other day. I think music is a really good place to come to understand this because music is that art that most easily reaches me emotionally. Other things are hit and miss. Maybe I just don’t see it. Maybe I just don’t understand. Maybe I just don’t connect with this artist or this particular form. But when I listen to music, I always hear passion.
There’s no halfway on the radio. (If there is, I recommend changing the station.) Every person there, working at that level, is singing and playing their little hearts out. (Okay, except maybe for that otherwise awesome Seether cover of Careless Whisper in which he sounds like he doesn’t really know what he’s singing about.) When you hear a song and you say, “That totally rocks!,” that’s you, being touched by an artist’s passion for their work.
So it’s not like I’m here to tell you anything you don’t already know; it’s just this random thought I had in the car the other day. I thought maybe, after you read this, you could go turn on some music and listen to someone else be willing to throw themselves into what they’re doing to create the moment you’re experiencing. And be inspired.
Rock on.
Be bold.
Write hard.
~*~
Final month! Finish strong! Make a big push to meet those goals!
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Oops! Apparently I skipped a check-in when I was laying in and scheduling posts! Here we go!
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