Friday's Excuse Not To Write

Reprinted with permission from 101 Excuses Not to Write.

I have discovered a great way to help develop characters. I will share sometime this weekend. In the meantime, have a great one. It's going to be hot and smeltering here in Toronto!

Podcast addict

Not long ago, someone memed me, and one of the questions was, what six things would you take out of your home if it was on fire. Well, one of my answers was my iPod. I love my iPod Nano. Only, I don’t have one song on it. There is room for four days worth of songs but, instead, I have it filled with podcasts. I am addicted to podcasts, especially ones about writing, authors, and books.

Surprisingly, there are not very many podcasts on the subject of writing. There are a few, however, that offer author interviews and the authors often talk about their methods.

I have made a list of podcasts on writing or books that I’m aware of in my sidebar. If you know of any that are not on my list but should be included, please email me at nienke DOT hinton AT gmail.com.

My favorites include:

Writers On Writing - Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, author of pen on fire – the busy woman’s guide to igniting the writer within, interviews various writers. Recent guests include Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander; Andrew Vachss, author of Two Trains Running; and Betsy Lerner, author of The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers.

The Secrets: The Podcast for Writers - Michael A. Stackpole, an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author, offers tips, advice, and anecdotes about writing.

The Naked Novelist - Brendan Gullifer, an author “on the brink,” shares the heartbreak and highlights of getting a novel published. Past guests include playwright, novelist, and screenwriter Joanna Murray-Smith (great interview although the sound is a bit grainy).

I Should Be Writing - Mur Lafferty, a wanna-be writer, has tips, anecdotes, and interviews for other wanna-be writers. She says, “Let my stack of rejection letters and battle scars benefit you.”

Do you listen to any podcasts? If so, which ones?

What kind of writer are you?

Thanks to Stephanie over at Publish or Perish.

What kind of writer are you?

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Sleeping Pose

Thanks to Pearl over at Humanyms.

Find your own pose!

Friday's Excuse Not To Write

Reprinted with permission from 101 Excuses Not to Write.

In memory of my girls

Holly Lisle posted about the loss of one of her cats, Winnie, today. It made me think about how much I miss my girls, Feline and Billy. In fact, I was just discussing this with my DH last night. He said they're up in cat heaven, cuddling, with an endless supply of catnip.
Despite the fact that Feline died about 10 years ago and Billy three, I still think of myself as the girl with two cats. I still talk about "my girls." They will always be a part of me even though they are not physically with me. Those of you with pets will understand.

Billy, left, and Feline - my girls.

Goals & Dreams

Moira Allen talks about setting effective writing goals. She suggests that since writing is an unstructured working environment, a good way to be productive is to set goals.

However, since we’re all different in what we want, time we have, and dedication to our craft, Allen says, “To be effective, goals should meet three criteria: They should be measurable, meaningful, and attainable.”

She also points out that goals are separate from dreams.

“Goals, by the way, are not the same as dreams. While you may yearn to become a six-figure novelist who regularly guests on Oprah, that's not a goal. It's a dream -- and the only way you'll achieve that dream is by setting measurable goals that will take you toward that dream, one step at a time.”

One of the changes I’ve made lately is to stop obsessing over word count. You’ll notice I’ve taken my word meter off the sidebar. Instead of worrying about word count, my goals consist of time spent on my writing. Publication may be my dream, but the real reason I ever started writing was because I enjoy it. I don’t want to lose that.

So, I’m curious. What is your dream? And, what goals have you set to achieve that dream?

Some links:
Goal Setting: Powerful Written Goals In 7 Easy Steps
Writing: Option or Objective - Setting Realistic Writing Goals
Setting Goals for Your Writing Career
Are You Achieving Your Writing Goals?
Goals Are Worthless If...
Setting Reasonable Writing Goals - (Or don't do what I do, do what I say...)
How to Get There from Here: The Magic of Goals
Goal Planning for Optimal Enjoyment

To my friends south of the border...

Out in the blogosphere...

Melly over at All Kinds of Writing brings up a good question. Is there such a thing as evil? Personally, I believe all characters, good or bad, have some motivation to behave as they do. We may not agree with the behavior, but at least we should understand it.

Uncle Pepek has a thought-provoking picture and poem on her blog. What if Never should come again?

Michelle Rowen guest blogs about Doubt Weasels over at Fog City Divas.

Bonnie Staring talks about being married to your words. Do you get defensive when editors edit your work? How far will you go to keep your perfect prose?

Darren brings up an interesting point over at it must be tuesday. Fictitious blogs. Wouldn’t books like Bridget Jones’s Diary and Adrian Mole have made great blogs? In fact, how do we know anything posted on blogs is true?

Well, it’s time for a Canadian long weekend. Canada day. I’m off to Ottawa with DH to visit with family and friends. Hope everyone has a great weekend/long weekend as the case may be!!

Some links, just because

Just some interesting stuff I found on the ‘net.



At Sternest Meanings, you can enter text and a generator will come up with a witty comeback in an anagram. Here are some examples:

webuser: The Writing Life
sternest: Win elite fright.

webuser: Write every day
sternest: Weary, dirty eve.

webuser: Nienke Hinton
sternest: On keen in thin.

webuser: I'm writing a bestselling novel
sternest: Revolting, gainless nimblewit.

webuser: I write because I have to
sternest: Wit or achieve beauties.

All About Romance
Articles and info for writers and readers of romance novels.

Random Word Generator
My words: instance, divided

Character Building Workshop

Free creative thinking tools

And how much fun would this be? An evening with Harry, Carrie, and Garp.

How to become a published author - 25 steps

James D Macdonald’s
Rules for Writing

According to James D. Macdonald, there are twenty-five simple steps to becoming a published author.

Here are the steps:

1. Black ink on white paper.

2. Place your name and address in the top left-hand corner of the first page.

3. Place the title and byline, centered, half-way down the first page.

4. Put a running head (your name, the title, and a page number) in the top right hand corner of every page.

5. Your pages should have one-inch margins.

6. Doublespace your text.

7. Use Courier 10 or Courier 12 only.

8. Type on one side of the paper only.

9. Continue until you reach "The End."

10. Rewrite.

11. Rewrite.

12.....21. Revise

22. Obtain the guidelines for a market that accepts material similar to what you have finished.

23. Follow the guidelines scrupulously when you submit your material.

24. While you are waiting for your rejection slip, start again back at step 1 for your next work.

25. When the rejection slip arrives, send the manuscript to the next market on your list, that same day.

Friday's Excuse Not To Write (and an excuse not to cleanse...)

Cleanse is postponed due to chronic insomnia. I will not go without food and sleep at the same time. Thanks for your feedback, everyone! Meanwhile, here is some Friday humor. Have a great weekend!

Reprinted with permission from 101 Excuses Not to Write.

A fine morning

The sunrise this morning from my office window.

It's just after five a.m. and I've been up for hours. One of those nights when thoughts fight for attention in your head, so, forget sleep.

A couple of things have me excited.

After reassessing my life, I hired a personal trainer. I start today. She has a variety of programs including an outdoor 'bootcamp' which should offer me enough variety to keep me interested. I get plenty of aerobic exercise walking my dog twice a day and hiking, but I need to work on some resistance training. I've heard over and over again (even from my GP) that this will help me lose weight, get into shape, and increase my energy. Let me at it.

Today is also the first day of a 10-day cleanse my DH and I doing. It's called the Master Cleanse and consists of drinking a tonic of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. On top of that, you drink an herbal laxative tea every evening and a morning expunger of sea-salt water. I know a few people who have done it and they say it really increases your energy but is hard to keep up for the full 10 days. We'll see how it goes.

Finally, I have been playing with my new software all morning (night?). It's called Liquid Story Binder and, oh, what fun. Organizational trees, outlining windows, timelines, and chapter building. You can include sound and graphic files associated with your text. I've been working hard on the structure and GMC of my WIP, so I've input a lot of my data to the program. 30-day free trial. Okay, I admit I have an addiction to new software. Hey, gotta have some fun right?

Two questions: What do you think of the Master Cleanse? And, do you use any software for your writing?

Get back into life

I’ve been dealing with emotions and thoughts around death lately. Last week, a friend committed suicide; a couple of weeks ago, a friend’s father died; and a couple of weeks before that, a friend’s daughter died. Last year, two suicides and a death from cancer.

Naturally, such events make me sad, but they also make me re-evaluate my life. I find myself feeling guilty when someone dies prematurely, as though I should be living life more fully. And I should. Not because someone else never had the chance, but because when my final day comes, I want to look back at a full life.

I find life often turns into a daily grind: work, chores, rest, sleep, work chores, rest, sleep. I get so wrapped up in it and so tired from it that I cease doing the little things that give me joy. These things include writing, bike riding, sitting on the beach, reading, meeting with friends, going out with my husband, as well as others. I’m sure many of you know what I’m talking about.

Well, enough feeling sorry for myself. It’s time to get back into life. For starters, my DH and I are planning the Canada Day weekend up in Ottawa, where he’s from. He’s already booked a hotel. We’re going to socialize with old friends, sit in outdoor pubs, and dance late into the nights. We’ll explore some of the lovely sites Ottawa has to offer by day. I’m really looking forward to it.

What are some of the things you’ve let slide that really bring you joy?

Friday's Excuse Not To Write

Reprinted with permission from 101 Excuses Not to Write.

Excuses for not blogging

If a picture is worth a thousand words. Consider this a very long post.

Friday's Excuse Not To Write

Reprinted with permission from 101 Excuses Not to Write.

Oh, and happy 40th to my hubby!!

Writing Goals

Last time I asked about whether you set goals when you create your characters. Today, I want to know if you set goals for yourself. I’m referring specifically to writing, but am also curious if you set goals for writing as part of an overall strategy to reach life objectives.

Personally, I write out goals for myself at the beginning of each year. I review my previous year’s goals and see how well (or poorly) I did in achieving them. My strategy usually consists of an evolving set of goals. For example, if I want to write more, I may start with a goal of 5 hours per week and work my way up during the year. I call my strategy my ‘2006 Plan of Action.’ It includes a mission statement, writing goals, work, family, and home goals, spiritual and ethical goals, social and cultural, physical and health, mental and educational, and outreach goals. Sounds like a lot, but I usually feel successful if I improve even just a little in each area.

I got the idea from Vicki Hinze, an inspirational writer with a great blog and website full of information about Hinze as well as a library of great articles (free membership required – but well worth it). Vicki let me reprint her article, ‘Why We Need A Plan.’ You can find it on my website, here.

It really helps me to find out how other writers write. Do you have a schedule? Goals? Is it easy for you to find time to write? Do you write every day (at least one word, as Maya Angelou advises)? What advice would you give to those trying to get a schedule in place?

Nienke

Writing scenes and creating characters - techniques

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm off to Quebec City for a few days on a business trip. Then, I'm off for 1 1/2 weeks on holidays! The plan: to get tons of writing done.



My question to you writers is, do you use the Goal-Motivation-Conflict technique in your writing? Do you apply GMC to both internal and external goals?

Joan Swan over at Romance Worth Killing For wrote an interesting post about Robert Gregory Brown's attitude, emotion, goal and action technique. Swan says:

In relation to character development though, RBG brought it all back together for me with one simple concept: imagination + self.

He says every character he writes is him--hero, heroine, secondary, tertiary, one-liners. They're all him...

RBG suggests you ask yourself, if this were me, how would I handle the situation?

My next question is, do you get your characters from within yourself? Or, do you create characters externally? Or, if none of the above, how do you make your characters seem real?

UPDATE: Therese Walsh over at Writer Unboxed has posted the 'Mother of all Character Interviews.'

Friday's Excuse Not To Write

Reprinted with permission from 101 Excuses Not to Write.

Looking for gmail invite

Does anyone know anyone who knows anyone who can send me a gmail invitation? I really would like a gmail account for all my online correspondence, but I have no invite and they won’t text to cell phones in Canada.

Update: That was easy!! Thanks Rick! And Dennis! And Javed! And Maria!

Getting off the hamster wheel

Ray Rhamey over at Flogging the Quill answers my question about how to get off the hamster wheel and finish my manuscript!!! Check it out here.

Pristine Beauty

Albino PeacockPhoto by Shannon.

Found this on the web. What words come to mind when you see it?

Friday's Excuse Not To Write

Reprinted with permission from 101 Excuses Not to Write.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

All writers should be aware of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Check out the great post at Writer Unboxed. It tells you what CTS is, who's at risk, and what you can do.

Expect book prices to fall as dollar rises, booksellers say

Canada - Booksellers predict the price of imported books should drop this fall due to the rising value of the Canadian dollar.

The strong dollar should make it cheaper to buy books produced in the United States – but consumers complain that price differential is taking a long time to work its way onto bookstore shelves.

Savvy consumers have been objecting about the big price difference between the U.S. dollar price printed on the back of a book and its Canadian dollar equivalent. Read more…

I'm a Mercedes SLK!

You appreciate the finer things in life. You have a split personality - wild or conservative, depending on your mood. Wherever you go, you like to travel first class. Luxury, style, and fun - who could ask for more?

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Weekend Update

Debra Dixon’s workshop on goals, motivation, and conflict and the hero’s journey was awesome. She’s one of those people who can hold your interest the entire day, and her only prop was an overhead projector! I know she teaches, so I’m guessing that’s why she’s so comfortable on the stage.

The information was much of what I’ve read before, but I always enjoy hearing it in a fresh way. I will post more about it this week, but right now I have to go watch Survivor!

I also got a chance to meet two blogger friends in person, Stephanie and Nelsa. Keep an eye on Stephanie’s site in case she shares some of the workshop. I also met some other great writers that belong to the Toronto Romance Writers.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a great week. Those of you going to the Romantic Times Annual Booklovers Convention, have a great time and don’t forget to take lots of notes and lots of pictures!! Stupid me, I forgot my camera for my conference. But, I did get a signed book, so woo hoo!

Have a great week all, and get lots of writing done!!
Nienke

A Conny Weekend

I’m in such a good mood.

This weekend I’m going to see Debra Dixon, novelist and publisher, speak on goal, motivation, and conflict (she is author of the book, GMC:  Goal, Motivation and Conflict). She is presenting at the Toronto Romance Writers (of which I’m now a member – woo hoo!)

Next week, many of my blogger friends are attending the Romantic Times Annual Booklovers Convention in Daytona, Florida. More than 250 authors will be there signing their books. How cool is that?

Can you just imagine the cool blog posts next week?

Are you going to the convention? If so, what is the most exciting part about it for you? (Dana – besides wardrobe – although the clothes you are bringing could make up a convention alone. LOL)

Positive Progress Report

Two thumbs up on my progress report. I didn’t do as much writing as I’d have liked this week due to illness, but that has passed now, and I’m ready to get at it.

My discovery of visualization has put me in a whole new position for writing. Instead of sitting down (or avoiding sitting down) at the computer and not knowing what to write, I have scenes in my head that, if I don’t write them down soon, are going to grow out my orifices like weeds grow through cracks in the sidewalk.

I actually finished Chapter One and have a doozey cliffhanger ending. So, this weekend I’m going to dedicate lots of time to BIC with FOK. (Butt in chair with fingers on keyboard.)

Sunday is time for another ‘Write-Ons Word War,’ so that will motivate me to get more words on the page. I’ll do some brainstorming between writing shifts to get the visualization going full tilt.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Nienke

Visualization

Paperback Writer says, “Until I can run the entire story through my head comfortably, without blips, concerns, blank spots or hitches, I don't attempt to get into research, make up a notebook, write a formal outline or proposal, etc. That full-story visualization is really important to me and my process; it may not be as important to other writers..."

Visualization is something I’m just discovering in my writing and, perhaps, one of the reasons why sitting down and just typing away is so hard for me at times.

Often when I’m doing other things, I mull over my story. When I get some ideas of what’s going to happen and how it’s going to happen, that’s when I can sit down and just pound out the words. I need to be able to see/visualize the scene before I can actually write it.

I do outline, but my outline is a one-line description of the scene (like boy meets girl) along with the goals and motivations for that scene. I don’t outline how that scene unfolds. This, I now know, I must do in my mind, because I can’t ‘wing it’ at the keyboard.

So, I’m curious, do you visualize your scenes when you outline, before you sit down to write, or as you’re writing? How far do you plan each scene before you write it?

I've been memed

I thought I had managed to stay under the radar but, alas, I have been memed.
Lady Tess has tagged me with the Six Meme, so, here goes.

Six minutes to yourself - how would you spend them: curled up on the couch with my dog, a good book, and a hot cup of English Breakfast tea.
Six bucks to spend right now - how would you spend it: on a used book from Amazon.com
Six items you'd leave behind if your house were on fire:

1. boxes of unfiled papers


2. bedroom set (yay, I could get a new one!)


3. boxes of knick knacks I don’t know what to do with


4. clothes that don’t fit me that I should have thrown out anyways


5. my to-do list


6. unwashed laundry (lots of good kindling here)

Six items you'd grab if your house were on fire:

1. my husband


2. my dog


3. my Alphasmart Neo


4. my iPod


5. my photo albums (both hard copy and digital)


6. the “Grandmother” clock my father made me

Six words you love: “We’ve decided to publish your book.”
Six things you want to accomplish before you leave the earthly plane:

1. finish writing a book


2. have that book published


3. Alaskan cruise (with a stint on a helicopter)


4. find true inner peace and satisfaction


5. get good at golf


6. skydive

I won’t tag anyone, but if you’d like to do the Six Meme, go ahead and let me know when you post it!