IWSG Post IV: Is it Distraction, or Potential Inspiration?
[I wrote this post as a member of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group where we share our worries and also offer support to each other on the first Wednesday of every month. If you’re a writer like me and you’re looking for a bit of support, you can click the link and sign up here]
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Distractions press in around us. Look up from wherever you are, and you might spy a couple of them within extremely close range: a cell phone, a pad of paper, or depending on your location, a really great puddle of rain water to jump in.
I think of distractions during my full day job; passing conversation, a radio at work, even another idea stacked on top of a pretty hefty tower of existing responsibilities. Distractions are everywhere and at anytime, and right now I’m wondering if some distractions might actually be good things?
I admit. I have been quite the slacker lately with a plethora of distractions pressing into my daily routines. It’s been months since I’ve revisited my reflections on Boston and still, there is no part II. I’m also *cringing as I stare at my computer monitor* still four chapters out from the end of my manuscript.
I do believe in really great distractions. The problem for me, is when time builds and a day passes, then another, then my mind gets straight out of my book. Sometimes, I do like to take a lovely walk in the woods. To smell the trees and the earth, and to let the sunshine tickle my cheeks. It’s hard to come back. Sometimes my muscles help me out when they start to shake, or I find my fingers and hands and nose are chilled by the wind.
So then what?
I think we have to be ready for a shift in focus. Even when some distractions seem good and may actually help us find some distance from our thoughts when, if you’re like me, you might over-think.
My shift happened during a funny conversation last week with my friend Becky. We were problem-solving questions about her manuscript and characters when life slipped into our discussion and we found ourselves talking about her trip to South Carolina, straight to the swamps. I laughed out-loud. The word swamp always makes me laugh when I’m with her. It has to do with my trip to Boston and the adventure we shared together with my fiancé Dave on a fun quest through Salem to find a particular tarot card reader. We did find him and the advice we received was more detailed than we imagined. I’ll have to share more about this adventure in a Boston part II post, but in any case, I mentioned to her in our phone conversation how she might want to carry a big stick.
The point? I think we helped each other out of our ruts. And in thinking about getting back to deadlines I’d promised myself, I have four tips I recently experienced.
First, start with something you care about. Maybe a favorite song, cooking your favorite dish, a good friend who doesn’t mind throwing around fun and limitless ideas; or a pen, pastels, anything to get your hand moving across a piece of paper. The important goal is to let the mind wander where it just won’t go on its own.
Next, turn to your subject; your writing or current passion you’re working to achieve. Write out the what-ifs and how they apply to the goal, your story or something else. I work best when I think out-loud. Committing my thoughts with a pen to paper also stimulates more neurons in my brain than typing them out on a computer screen.
Lastly, after you set some sort of goal or deadline for yourself, there is one last pointed tip in the form of a quote to consider:
“Magic is believing in yourself. If you can do that, you can make anything happen.” ~Johan Wolfgang von Goethe.
And I believe that truth with my whole heart 🙂
My question to you: What is your number one source of inspiration?
I’d love to hear it.
Before I end this post, I need to say thank you to the January IWSG hosts. So thank you L.G., Denise, Sheri, J.Q., Chemist Ken and Michelle. I truly appreciate the time you’ve committed to making this group so successful.
L.G. Keltner lgkeltner.blogspot.com
Denise Covey dencovey.blogspot.com
Sheri Larsen www.salarsenbooks.com
J.Q. Rose www.jqrose.com/
Chemist Ken hogwartssabbatical.blogspot.com
Michelle Wallace www.writer-in-transit.co.za
~Erika
Cover Reveal: The Healing Frequency by Jiulio Consiglio
A Quick Note From Me.
“Life is a moving, breathing thing. We have to be willing to constantly evolve. Perfection is constant transformation.”
~Nia Peeples, found at brainy quotes
I don’t really think perfection is the aim for me, so much as the openness and willingness to evolve with life. Letting the past be the past while finding strength and perseverance to focus on present happy accomplishments. So this year, if I had a wish, that’s what I choose for myself. Letting go. Embracing the changes unfolding right now, and thinking of every positive result along the way.
So with my thoughts on transformation and embracing the moment, I’m happy to introduce a new book cover on that very topic, starting with a bit of information about the author.
The Author, Jiulio Consiglio.
About the Book.
In the fall of 2005 the life of dental health care educator Jiulio Consiglio dramatically changed course after he awakened to the frequency and experience of inner stillness. In The Healing Frequency,Consiglio recalls the adversities he has faced such as years of intense anxiety, the death of a brother, a failed marriage and his own cancer diagnosis that ultimately led him to a shift-a miraculous shift in consciousness. Feeling his life was heading into a bottomless downward spiral, nothing could have prepared him for what the Universe had in store for him.
Find out more about the author and the book by visiting this link.
Last Note.
I wish you the best in the upcoming year. May you find everything you need to help you go after your dreams and believe in you.
~Erika
Cover Reveal: White Light by Anna Simpson
I am really excited to show off a brand new book cover. Anna Simpson, the author of White Light, is one of my dear author friends. Her first short story debuted with mine in One More Day. And now, I’m showcasing her latest mystery novel, a story I was able to read in it’s early stages. It’s about to publish, hitting the book shelves very soon.
Later this month, I’ll have more information from her official blog tour.
Congratulations Anna! I am so happy for you. 🙂
… And now for the drum roll…
White Light
by
Anna Simpson
Publisher:
Three Worlds Press
Genre: Cozy
Release Date:
December 22/2015
About The Book:
Emma never dreamed of being a super-sleuth. In her mind, she’s more Scooby Doo than Nancy Drew and when her nosy neighbor, Mrs. Perkins, drags her to an anniversary party to solve a mystery, she rolls her eyes, buys a box of chocolates and hops in the car.
What’s a party without an attack on its host—or more accurately on the host’s grandson, sparking an allergic reaction and moving the party to the hospital waiting room. Suddenly, everyone is a suspect. Emma and Mrs. Perkins, along with Great Aunt Alice (a spirit with boundary issues who keeps stepping into Emma’s body like a new dress and playing matchmaker), dive into an investigation that almost gets Emma killed along with the man they are trying to protect. With so many reasons to kill him and so much to be gained if he died, Emma and Mrs. Perkins must unravel the tenuous ties that point to every member of his family as potential killers.
Even if it means going back to the psych ward, Emma will protect her friend and this innocent man. What good is freedom if it’s haunted with guilt?
Author Links:
About the Author:
Anna Simpson lives near the Canadian-US border with her family. Even though she’s lived in several places in British Columbia, her free spirit wasn’t able to settle down until she moved back to her hometown.
She is easy to find though, if you know the magic word — emaginette. Do an internet search using it and you’ll see what I mean. 🙂
IWSG Post III: Tips for Wrestling With The End of Your Book
[I wrote this post as a member of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group where we share our worries and also offer support to each other on the first Wednesday of every month. If you’re a writer like me and you’re looking for a bit of support, you can click the link and sign up here]
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I love Stephen Covey’s work. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People helped me grow into a better person. Habit 2 is one I run across all the time in leadership and communications training: “Begin with the End in Mind.”
I think most dreamers, writers and authors do make a point to envision the outcome. The problem I think we sometimes face is the shift of the end along the way. There is possible redirection, or a new smaller fork in the road, and what do you do when your end picture doesn’t make as much sense as you thought it should when you started?
Monday night in a text conversation with my writing partner Becky, we talked about endings to stories. She started off asking about my main characters and how they were going. I said, “Great.” I’d written three new chapters over the holiday weekend, and my dialogue and action sequences threatened to derail the ending. With only a handful of chapters remaining, my ending suddenly shifted. I asked her, “How do you decide which way to end the story?”
She said something back to me like this, “Write them all and then pick out the one you think fits best when you’re done.”
Thank you Becky.
Your words freed my mind up from the outline I’d created and I thought up a direction I’d never attempt to try, hurting one of my characters I’d never normally stomach to hurt.
So today’s post is all about encouragement. I’ve been cruising around the web and checking out tips and tricks on making it through a manuscript to the end. I thought I’d share some of my favorite points and where they came from.
Tips From Holly Lisle:
“Write the ending, and then write to it.”
Not only do I outline along the way, but as I outline I try to build in clues foreshadowing messages in the end. What Holly talks about is the surprise the reader feels at the end and how clever some of these clues are so when the reader finally finishes the book, they wonder, wow, that was so cleverly done I didn’t see the end coming, but yet the clues were there all along.
The outline piece.
Holly mentioned the importance of using an outline, but then to also allow the element of surprise to slip in to your work. I think personally, this satisfies my need to both use structure and to also have the permission to live the dialogue and the action with my characters. I admit, I often get swept away and my chapters sometimes change when I least expect them to.
The one tip I found helpful from WikiHow
Sit down and identify the problem. Write all the solutions down. Then for me, see where your gut takes you.
Finally, I visited Charlie Jane Anders Blog and pulled a few points.
Take a long walk and play out some of the scenes in your mind as you go, regardless if you start talking to yourself.
I love this one. It’s exactly what I do and I always explain to those who hear me ramble around me, I can’t help it. I’m a deep thinker and I live what I love.
I also love the point of throwing in more obstacles as you’re writing. The author of the blog mentioned how much we writers write when we feel like the steam is rolling at super speed. Add more roadblocks and see how the characters react, which brings me to the last point she talked about, write the end for your villain.
So that’s my list of a few lovely and fun tips on making it to the end of the book. I think I’ll stick to my friend Becky’s advice and write for all endings. It freed my mind, and to me, sometimes that’s all I need: permission to blow up my own roadblock.
Do you have a favorite tip for finishing up your work? I’d love to hear it.
~Erika
Cloud Nine Girl 