10 Things You Probably Never Wanted to Know

Brace yourself to be blown away with my utter lack of coolness.

Its a miracle I have any friends.

And by the way, I took this picture out of my scrapbook. I think this one was taken in Ireland. Good times. (sniff, sniff)

Ok. 10 things you probably never wanted to know. Here we go:

1) I love all things Scottish and English and Irish. Give me a kilt, some bagpipes and Ewen McGregor...oh make it Liam Neeson. Oh no. I just can't choose!

2) When I have the time, which is not very often, I watch incredibly nerdy things on TV like Monarch of the Glen and House Hunters International. (ooh, which house will they pick!?)

3) I do not like to fish. I know, that's practically a sin, right? Especially since my husband and dad are fly fishermen. I'd rather sit on the bank and read. Last summer, in Yosemite, I went fishing with my dad. He made me hold the pole as we stood there in the middle of the creek and when a fish (the size of a minnow) jumped on, I threw the pole at him, splashed toward the bank screaming, "Lord have mercy on my soul!" (at the top of my lungs)

4) I am obsessed with yard sales and love to tell people that I only paid a quarter for something. They say, "Oh, I just love that shelf." And I blurt out the cost without thinking.

5) I love old movies. I was raised on films like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Tammy and the Bachelor. And because my parents have always been worship leaders, my family is really into breaking out into song. We'll be sitting there and simply start singing about them "Sobbin' Women." My husband thinks we are from another planet.

6) I read Nicholas Sparks when no one is looking. There. I said it.

7) I have no sense of direction. Truly. I get lost on my own street. And because of technology, my genius husband is only a phone call away.
Me: "Uh, honey. I can't find the chiropractor in our hometown even though it only has one main street."
Him: "I drove you there two days ago. It required only two turns."
Me: "I know. I just got lost again. And I'm scared and alone."
Him: "Don't be scared, its in the middle of the day. And you drove yourself there yesterday. And you got lost then also and called me."
Me: "Help."

8) I am a complete and utter scardy cat.
If a horror film commercial comes on, I have to close my eyes and plug my ears while my hubby, (Aka Mr. Wonderful) will dive for the remote and change the channel knowing those three seconds might still give me nightmares.

9) OK this is so incredibly nerdy, but I will admit it: I snuck in to see a movie.
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Nanny McPhee 2.
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(But I did have a ticket for another movie.)
And I was not alone. *youknowwhoyouare*
It was rather fun and exhilarating. I should really get out more. :)

10) When I was little, I used to make homemade Library checkout cards and tape them inside all my books. Then I would sit there and check out a book to myself by filling in my name and making a note of it in a little log I created. (Mind you, this is all in my own room. By myself.) Then I would read the book and check it back into the "Library". Oh my gosh. I can't believe I just admitted that.

Have a nice day! Now I'm going to go disguise myself and possibly change my name.

Writer's Block (part two)

So I'm back on the subject of writer's block. (If you missed part one of this duo, check it out here.)

Do you want the good news first or the bad news?

Good news? OK, the good news is that I've gotten over my writer's block. Hooray (cue the confetti)

But now for the bad news: there was no fool proof solution. :( Sorry. I was hoping there would be one, but at the same time, its a little freeing to know that as an author, I wasn't doing anything wrong. This wasn't a problem I needed to fix. It was just a season. A phase. And it worked itself out.

After googling "How to overcome writer's block," I found plenty of sites that had the best 10 ways of moving forward. Suggestions like, get some exercise, have a snack, while useful--weren't helping. Its like telling someone you have the flu and they say "Have you taken any vitamin C lately?"

"Yes, I practically Od'd on the stuff, thank you very much, and don't even get me started on the amount of garlic I've consumed. Oh, you already noticed. My point exactly. "


I just didn't find the advice I was looking for. Granted, I could have dug a little deeper, but I was trying to write, and googling writer's block meant I had reached and all time low.

So, while I've mentioned there were no clear-cut solutions, there were a few tricks that definitely helped get the ball rolling--asking my fellow writing friends for tips and suggestions was incredibly helpful! For starters, I kept it up with the outlining and continued pounding away words even if I didn't end up keeping them.

Also, I cleaned up my writing play list. Old songs just gotta go. If I've listened to them too many times, they tend to loose their, uh, potency. Writers, you know what I mean. So I added a song or two (really great ones, as a matter of fact!) and those helped me break into a different level of emotion. Also, I tried acting out the scene (thanks, Dona). While I felt moronic sitting at my kitchen table, a pretend cup of coffee in my hand, having a conversation with invisible people, that experience pretty much aided in the elimination of lame dialogue :D

Another thing I did, was accept that me and my delete button were just going to have to get along. I knew that whatever I wrote on day one, would be deleted on day two. And whatever got put down on paper during day two...yep...day three pretty munch meant: select all, delete. Ugh. It was a little frustrating, but I knew that eventually, I would come up with a scene that would be, well...undeletable (not a word, I know.)

I've just organized my writing desk and have stumbled upon pages of scratch paper. Scribbly notes. Chicken scratch. Arrows. Happy faces. All the workings of a mad woman trying to pull her way out of writers block. But it truly helped. At one point, I just decided to settle on a tone for a particular chapter, whether it be happy, or melancholy, etc. Then I circled it and branched off from there with dialogue ideas, action ideas, what NEEDS to happen.

This NEEDS to happen thing is a really important one to me. In an overall book...certain things need to happen. Take The Chronicles of Narnia, for example. What needs to happen? The kids need to find hope and joy in their new situation (solution: the wardrobe and their discover of Narnia), they need the chance to make a difference in a situation since they have absolutely no control in their lives or the war (solution: they help to save Narnia from the White Witch), etc. etc.

So as I sat staring at this unfinished story of mine, I often write down what needs to happen. Character A needs to make peace with Character B or Character B needs to pick a fight with Character C because I need some conflict in that particular relationship. Once I know what is needed in a chapter/section and if there is a particular mood I'm aiming for, then the pieces can start falling into place. I typically do this for each chapter and after taking a few moments to mentally go through these basics, I dive into writing. I don't really do any planning beyond this. And I just sort of take the chapter...for a little ride (actually, more often it feels like the story takes me for a ride and I'm just hanging on for dear life as the action unfolds--no wonder this writing thing is so much fun) :D

My point is, that for the most part, it just took being bigger than the problem. I spent some time in prayer, knowing that it would not only clear my head, but help me focus on what was important, including hurdles that had been overcome in the past. And I trusted that nothing was impossible!

I stared writers block in the face and told it to hit the road. And when it didn't listen (grrr) I ranted and raved for a few days (hey, I'm human) before buckling down and hitting the keyboard with everything I had. Write. Delete. Write. Delete. Until finally, victory!

Its such a blessing to be free of writer's block and if (I mean, when) it comes back at me, I'll be a little better prepared, and above all, trust that its all in the Lord's timing and sometimes, feeling helpless is a good thing. Its humbling and a tangible reminder to be thankful for the good times, and to keep the faith in the bad.

Oh yeah, and I gotta admit that the exercises thing kinda helped. I bought myself a gym membership and after a few rounds on the treadmill, things at the typewriter started flowing again. Maybe there's something to that bit of advice after all ;)

Writer's Block (part one)

Tap. Tap. "Is this thing on?" oh, ok, it is.

"Ugh." I have writer's block.

To be perfectly honest, its been a while since I've been visited my this unwelcome guest. And as much as I'd like him to pack up his little suitcase and obnoxious voice, which reminds me each time I sit at my computer and pull up my current manuscript, "You have no idea what you are going to write about." And, "Haha, you've written yourself into a corner."

Grrr. I feel helpless.

So since my 1200 word quota for my mon-fri 2 hour writing session (aka, kids nap time) has pretty much dissipated into digital chicken scratch, I am down to making short notes that look like this:

Such and such character should do this. And this other character should do this. And they should get mad at each other and then it will snow and maybe a stray dog can wander into the story and we can name him Pierre, but this is Appalachia so I should name him Jimmy Hotsocks or something really cool and is it too late to add aliens? Maybe Vampires? How 'bout an Amish girl. No that's been done and I still have no idea what I am going to do in this chapter so why am I still typing and when is my brain going to get back from vacation?

Have I already said Grr? Oh I have? That's right, I'm also repeating myself. Lovely, this keeps getting better.

So now that I've used up the allotted amount of word count to rant, I've decided its time to seek a solution. There are several. 1) continue on because I am a professional and this is my job. 2) seek an alternate career choice. 3) go on a three month vacation to Reykjavik and read all the books I can while snowed in for the winter.

Option 3 would be great, but our vacation fund just ain't up to par for that one.

Option 2 is tempting, I could always become a baker, or a butcher or a candlestick maker, but then again, I have this half-written novel that's just begging to be finished.

Which brings me back to option 1. Sigh. I will be professional about this. It CAN be done.

So where do I begin? The first thing to do is step back and take a deep breath (resisting-the-urge-to-turn-on-a-Yanni-CD) and accept that it is now time to plow through my true options--and figure how on earth I can kick this thing called writer's block.

Brace yourself--this is not a writing course and my methods are probably not perfect or even correct, but I'm a little desperate, so I might as well start small and build from there.

Here's what I've got so far:

I've realized that I need to sort out my objective for the next chapter(or 2 or 3). What do I want to accomplish? What mood am I trying to evoke? What MUST happen to drive the story forward? Who do I want the reader to sympathize with, the hero? Heroine? Villain? Hmmm. Lots to think on.

This weekend, I've spent many moments in my "cocoon" which includes shutting out the world for about three minutes while I listen to music and try to play the story out in my mind. This has been incredibly helpful, yet not quite getting me over this hump. I even tried different scenes with different moods. Sometimes I'd imagine a scene with a love song, other times a tense song or even an upbeat song. Each time, the scene changed in my mind, different words were spoken, different actions and in the end--a different result. Scenes got deleted or added in.

So as I'm wading around in the swamp called writer's block, I've realized that the process is starting to feel a lot like making a soup--a little garlic, a little salt, maybe a sprinkle of pepper. As I tweaked things here and there, making subtle changes to dialogue, etc., the scenes started to become closer to what I wanted them to be. But its not there yet. My pages are still covered in chicken scratch with no quality writing, so my goal this week is to break through these next three chapters and hopefully come out on the other side with a few great scenes that are just what this story needs.

Which is why this is called Writer's Block, part one. I'll let you know what happens on the other end! (And I would love any advice or suggestions on how you deal with writer's block, so please, share away!)

If you're ready for part two...check it out here!