Wacky Dice Project Final Report

Well, friends, since I started a few days later than I’d planned (on Aug 13^th), today marks one month since I started writing House of the Dracus. And in a twist that shocked absolutely no one, I didn’t complete the story within the two-week window I had set. I certainly smashed the 20k word goal, but apparently the story had a lot more to it than I had initially guessed. (I reeeeeally need to work on this skill of outlining for shorter stories or longer stories. As stands, I outline whatever the heck I feel like and then watch in dismay as my story balloons to whatever the heck it feels like. But that’s another post.)

So after I had knocked out the 20k in two weeks, I just kept writing. And I’ve been writing. Ever since. It’s been pretty slow going—what with work and school and everything else—but I’ve been chipping away at it.

And last night—when I should have been writing this post, actually—I finally finished the thing! Ahhh! It’s not quite a full NaNoWriMo 50k, but it’s pretty close at just over 45k.

These kinds of literary jolts to the system are so good for me. I have a tendency to get into a rut and just keep doing that same thing forever until something comes along to knock me out of the rut. Most of the time, I keep pretty good habits. But writing is quite often the first thing to fall off the wagon when time gets tight, and it’s easy for me to set aside less and less time for writing as other obligations crowd in. Having good friends who give me a bookish kick in the pants every now and then help me to remember how much I love writing and wrestle it back in the wagon.

Obviously, the project changed a bit from its original idea over the course of the month. The two-week 20k turned into a four-week 45k somehow. And the very simple, streamlined storyline I had imagined got a little more complicated and nuanced as I went along. (I imagine those two things are somehow related, haha.) Neither of these things particularly surprised me, given that I’m me and out-of-control behemoth stories is kind of what I do.

All in all, it was a fun project and I’m glad I did it. I’ve gotten myself all trained up for writing stories and ignoring homework, because I sat down this evening to study and instead found myself itching to open a Scrivener document. Alas, much like running a marathon, I can’t do it every day. Now that the race is over, I hope to keep writing, but at a trimmed back rate that doesn’t impact my grades and my family quite so much.

But seriously, if you find yourself in a writing rut and you’re not sure how to get out of it, get some mischievous friends and a set of definitely-not-loaded dice to roll up a new story. It might be the jolt your writing routine needs!

Until next time, happy writing!

Fiction At Last!

Man, hanging out with literary friends never ceases to get me back on track. Last weekend, the family and I popped down to Valdez for a looooong overdue (like years overdue) visit with heartthrob galentine Mary and her super fun crew. We pretended it was for fishing. It was not really for fishing. (In other news, my chest freezer is very full right now. Salmon is the beeeeest!) We were deeply saddened that ride-or-die gal pal Anna couldn’t come, too, but such is life, and the internet keeps us connected.

While we were kicking around making supper, I was griping to Mary about never having time to write anything fun anymore. It’s all schoolwork or workwork or blog posts (not that these aren’t fun, but they’re just not as fun as spewing make believe). She sympathized, of course, because we’re both busy mom types and there’s never enough time. But as I explained myself, my excuses started to seem a little thin. (Mary and Anna always help me see to the heart of things. If you don’t have writing buddies to talk through your plots/life, you should get some.)

I’d just finished my summer classes and my fall batch didn’t start for three weeks. Work didn’t start for another week and a half at the soonest, and maybe not even then. And, as I was thinking about it, I maybe did spend quite a bit of time watching YouTube clips of TV shows and that pole dancing archery guy. Maybe I had more time on my hands than I was used to. And maybe I could put that time to better use than I currently was.

Right there in Mary’s kitchen, a plan was hatched! Since I was feeling so supremely uninspired and out of practice, I’d have my friends help me come up with a brand-new story, something short enough that I could plan it in one week and then pound it out in two, finishing just before my evening classes started up again. With dinner cooking and a wad of scratch paper in hand, Mary and I scribbled up a list of variables.

Age category. Keyword. Main character name. Trope or subgenre. Standing over the grill with a pair of tongs, Mary came up with three keywords, three character names, and three tropes/subgenres. Then I messaged Anna and had her come up with three more ideas each. Each grouping was assigned numbers, one through six. With age categories, we had MG, YA, and Adult, assigned two numbers each. We ate, cleaned up dinner, and then Mary rummaged for the single D6 die that would manage my life for the next three weeks. I maintain that the die was loaded, but rolls were made nonetheless.

Keyword: (1) princess

Main character name: (4) Bathelda (what.)

Trope: (1) enemies-to-lovers

And finally… age category: (1) middle grade?

The age category was the only one I balked at. I wasn’t sure how to manage enemies to lovers in a MG novel (maybe enemies to besties?), but I was already not super excited about MG in the first place. I rerolled it twice and got a one each time. And in the end, it was decided that it was more important that I was excited about the project than that we respect the integrity of the pretty dicey die (that I still say was loaded—I should not be rolling a one five times out of six!). So we dropped MG, adjusted the numbers, rerolled, and ended up with YA.

So there we have it! I’ll spend the rest of this week outlining an enemies-to-lovers princess story with a teenager named Bathelda (again. what.) before embarking on a blitz draft which will be surrendered to my friends/creative soulmates probably like an hour before my first class starts.

And I’m pretty stoked! I’ve been brainstorming pretty much since the die dropped and I’m excited to write this thing. I anticipate it being somewhere in the ballpark of 15-20k, but we’ll see what happens. These things always seem to balloon on me. But I’ll definitely keep you posted on progress! Sometimes it’s so easy to fall into a writing rut, but it’s always nice to bust out of it as goofily as possible. And it’s so nice to have friends to help me do just that. Thanks again, Mary and Anna!

And I hope you have a project you’re excited about too! Until next week, happy writing!

Writing Retreats for Poorish People

So, I just got back today in the wee hours of the morning from a science educator’s conference (same one as last year). My head is positively swimming with sweet, succulent science and I will tell you all about it next week. But flying away from my children and my job to somewhere warm and beautiful where my only obligation is to work my little brains and have a great time bumming around a hotel I don’t have to clean and eating food I don’t have to cook got me thinking anew about writing retreats.

I’ve been mulling over writing retreats for quite a while at this point. But as someone who can’t even justify the expense of writer’s conferences anymore, writing retreats just seem beyond lavish and bougie. (I am terrified to think of how much money the grant program spent to have my husband and I at the teacher’s conference. It’s not a number of dollars that I could produce on my own.) Googling writers retreats just confirms this notion. And adding to this the fact that I can’t find anybody, in real life or on the internet, who has been to one and will admit it to me, it seems pretty elite and out of reach. (The only content I can seem to find about writer’s retreats is… produced by people running writing retreats. Hm.)

But that doesn’t mean I can’t ever go on a writing retreat! Or at least, something like one. Some friends and I volleyed some ideas back and forth about how an intrepid writer could scrape together their own writer’s retreat experience(ish) that is a little more financially manageable. This list is not perfect, and there are a lot of reasons why an actual writer’s retreat would be noticeably better, but setting up your own little retreat—whether for a week or just a few days or whatever length of time works best for you—could be the jump start that your brain needs to kick the writing into high gear without breaking the bank.

So without further ado, here are five ideas for ways you can create a little homegrown writer’s retreat on the cheap if you find yourself in need:

Leave your house. This is imperative. Go to a park if the weather is nice. A coffee shop that won’t mind you lingering for hours on end. A library with study nooks. Anywhere that you cannot get sucked into housework or work-work. One of the things I get the most out of trips is the break from my usual routine; it makes anything seem possible. If your usual routine isn’t doing writerly things all day, break it.

Use noise cancelling headphones. These are nice if you’re going to be somewhere that might be noisy, and especially if, for some reason, you need to stay home. As a person who can get pretty distracted and even overwhelmed by even the smallest of noises (which is why historically my writing can only happen late at night or when everyone else is out of the house), it was a happy, happy day when my husband first dropped a headset in my lap and a kiss on my head and told me to write. (He’s a keeper.) It was a game changer.

Get some buddies. This one is—in my opinion—optional, but I’ve been told it’s not a writer’s retreat if you’re the only one there. And it’s true that I am at my literary peak game when I’m writing with friends. So find some local(ish) writerly friends to share your literary adventures with. Go through writing warm-ups and sprints together. Bounce ideas off one another. If you can’t get together in person, meet up online for a portion of your day, if only to swap tales of your accomplishments.

YouTube fabulous speakers/coaches/teachers. Or podcast or whatever. Spend a part of your day learning from the masters. Download every episode of Writing Excuses. Read portions of Bird by Bird or Save the Cat! Shell out some dollars on Masterclass or some other expertise subscription. Watch lectures by famous authors on the internet. Anything that gives you the chance to listen to those who are excellent at writing.

Make food easy. Vast amounts of my day to day free time get sucked into food. I like to cook, but it’s also a daily necessity. If you have other people who are counting on you for food, you can’t exactly just drop everything and live off of microwave pizzas. (And even if you don’t, maybe don’t do this anyway.) But prepare yourself in advance so that food is quick and easy. Frozen lasagna and prepped salads. Sandwich supplies. Maybe you’re a food prepper. Maybe you have a partner you can make a deal with so that they’ll do the catering during your retreat. Whatever you need to do to make food a snap before your retreat starts, do it.

My writing pals and I are making big plans! (You know, when we’re not all busy having babies and jobs and whatnot.) Hopefully someday soon, we’ll manage to bring the coven together for some creativity and mayhem. It’s been a while.

How about you, fine readers? Have you thought of anything that I’ve missed that could enhance the homemade writer’s retreat? Let me know in the comments below!

And until next week, happy writing!

Imposter Syndrome Squared

Image Credit: Snorg Tees

It’s been a rough half-year for writing. I haven’t been wallowing in too much guilt about it, though, because it’s hard to feel guilty when you’ve chosen the health and wellbeing of your most vulnerable loved ones over a hobby that will keep perfectly well on the shelf for a few months. So that’s been nice.

But earlier this week, one of my writing buddies sent a text out onto our group chat asking, “Do you ever get imposter syndrome about your own past writing?” After a little further chitchat and clarification, she added, “I’m trying to get back into writing multiple times a week, but it gets discouraging. Maybe someday I’ll be where I was two years ago.” And I knew exactly what she meant.

Past Jill was a writing beast. She’d knock out 3k words a day without breaking a sweat. She’d pound out multiple first drafts in any given year and a few second or third draft edits besides. Plus a few shorts just to keep sharp. She would write every. single. night. No exceptions. She’d decide NaNo wasn’t challenging enough so she’d double it. Just for the lols.

Present Jill is… not quite there anymore. Present Jill can hardly keep up on a 1k blog post once a week—and often can’t even manage that much. Present Jill has been working on the same first draft all year long and is sitting pretty at a dainty 55k, which was only made possible because of a 50k Camp NaNo in April before the sky started falling. She has done no editing and no submitting. She is tired. Sloppy. Spread thin. She thinks about writing at night, but she would really rather sleep instead.

So when my friend started looking to her past self as some kind of ideal model for the kind of writer she wanted to be, I couldn’t help but start wondering what Future Jill was going to look like. Past Jill? Or just more Present Jill? (Or somehow worse???)

For most of this year, I’ve been struggling a little bit with my own special brand of imposter syndrome, where I feel so completely disconnected with the kind of writer I want to be and project that I don’t even feel entitled to the imposter syndrome itself. I’m so far from being a *writer* that I’m struggling to feel like even in the struggle anymore. And it certainly doesn’t help that it’s closing in on autumn and it’s gonna start snowing in another week or two, and there’s less daylight and this is the time of year that I always wonder what the heck I’m doing with my life and if I am really secretly a trashcan full of cheap deli meats pretending to be a human.

I’ve historically struggled with feeling like I’m allowed to feel my own feelings. Like I don’t deserve to be unhappy, given all the things that are good. And you know what usually helps me with that? Getting out of my own head. If I can spend a little less time mulling over my own feelings, I worry about it that much less. Maybe that means working more or volunteering at the library. Maybe that means visiting a friend and tackling that sink of dishes they’re too tired to deal with. Maybe it means watching a show or reading a book I love or playing cards with my ever-amazing babies. Just whatever it is that gets me to focus on something other than the simmering goo in my own head.

And you know what will probably help me to start feeling like a writer again? Writing. I don’t have to pin myself down to any gigantic word goals just yet. Maybe just tapping out a few words one more night a week. (Because we’re basically down to Tuesdays with the writing group these days, at which point I bang out half a blog post and call it a day.) And maybe instead of sweating about sending out a batch of ten or fifteen queries, I’ll start with just one. That feels daunting enough all on its own. Why make it any harder on myself?

I have a tendency to let my lofty goals stack up on one another, getting bigger and bigger over time. When I’m feeling blocked, I need to make the barriers smaller. So what if I flop on one or two of my goals? Nobody’s paying me to do this. (Yet!) So I think I’m going to rearrange my goals a little bit for the next few weeks and see how it goes. I’m going to send out one query or submission by next week’s blog post. And I’m going to write a second night this week. And I’ll let you know how it goes in next week’s blog post.

So until then, thank you for sticking with me, and happy writing!

Camp NaNooooowhatareyoudoing

I have had a lot going on this summer. It’s been hard to find free time for much of anything beyond school, work, and sleep, so there hasn’t been much writing going on. But I was talking with a friend in my writing group last week about Camp NaNoWriMo—she was thinking about doing it but didn’t have much time but really wanted to start writing more regularly again—and it was like talking to myself in the mirror.

So we’re doing this. Despite… you know… everything. This pal and I settled on an embarrassingly low number of words for the month, just enough to force us to do a little bit here and there, which is more than what we’re currently doing.

That said, here’s the plan. I’m going to make progress on finishing (probably without actually finishing) the Hansel and Gretel retelling that I was working on in the last Camp NaNo session. But I’m also going to count any other creative writing words that I draft up over the course of the month. Basically, any non-work, non-school things I type for pure fun are fair game. (Hello, blog post! Because that’s been pretty terrible lately too!)

And we’ll see how it goes! It being a NaNo month, you can expect the usual fodder of reblogs and back-of-envelope junk art. Thanks for sticking with me, guys! I’ll try to be more functional going forward!

And until next week (which is definitely going to happen), happy writing!

Writing Without the Writing Part

Charcoal Work by Agnes Grochulska

I’ve been working on Blood and Ebony, my Snow White retelling, since about the beginning of the year and it’s been pretty smooth sailing. At least, it was until three weeks ago. Because three weeks ago, I found an issue that needed fixing. And three weeks ago, I could not figure out how to fix it. Nor could I at two weeks.

But one week ago, a breakthrough! And by breakthrough, I mean I phoned up my friend, had a long-ranging conversation about how our kids were doing in school, how our husbands were doing at work, and then about what was wrong with my story. Not counting all the catching up chitchat, I was back on course inside of about ten minutes.

And so this week, let’s have a quick look at all the things we can do to help move our stories along without actually moving our stories along. These things might seem like goofing off (insert You Should Be Writing meme here), but we know they’re actually our brain’s way of mucking through the gunk in our brains to straighten out how we want to tell our stories in all their detailed glory.

So here—in alphabetical order no less—are a few things you can do when you’re in some way unable (or just plain not in the mood) to proceed in your story by actually writing the thing, but you don’t want to lose any creative momentum in a given project. Sometimes one of these tactics is all that’s needed to get yourself back on the move again!

Art I love this one. I wouldn’t say that I create visual art for every story that I write, but more often than not, you’ll find my desk scattered with sketches of my latest story as I try to work out what exactly I want the characters, places, and tech/magic to look like. If I’m having a hard time visualizing the world, I force myself to with art. Rarely, I’ve even been known to make music in the style of my story’s world. All of it helps to ground me in the places and with the people that I’m trying to write about.

Brainstorming This is the one thing in this list that I would say I do every time I write a first draft of any story, every time, without fail. Sometimes I’ll brainstorm on the screen, but it’s always more fruitful if I do it with pen and paper instead. Not sure why, but it just seems to fully open my creative brain in a way that only partially opens at a computer. So when I’m creating something new, it’s often conceived, at least in part, on a blank piece of paper. Now when I’m brainstorming, it’s almost never actual text or dialog that will be in the story itself. Rather, it’s broad plot ideas, themes, and character development that will make up the unseen bones of the stories.

Character Profiles, Interviews, Etc. This one, I don’t do a whole lot, but it’s always fun when I do. And usually a little goofy too, especially with the interviews. Like with brainstorming, this stuff never actually finds its way into the story, but it helps me if I’m having a harder time figuring out the character’s history, motivations, goals, etc, which means I’ll have a hard time writing any scene with that character in it. (Bad news if it’s a main character, haha.) If I have a stubborn character who still won’t talk to me, it’s also fun to interview another character about the stubborn one and seeing what they think about them. That usually gets the ideas flowing.

Chatting with Pals This here is Ol’ Faithful, and she never fails me. I don’t think I’ve ever talked through a writing problem with my writing friends and not been able to sort through at least part of it. In fact, I can’t think of a single time where I didn’t get it all sorted by the end of the conversation (although I’m sure it’s happened and I just don’t remember it). I usually hesitate to use this trick because, although effective, I don’t want to ruin surprises for the same pool of people that are inevitably my beta readers too. But if I’m really in a bind, this is my go-to brain block buster. Works. Every. Time.

Music And not like the music in the Art heading. I mean, just playing music that has nothing to do with my story at all. I play a few different instruments and I like singing, so this one gives me a lot of room to play in and music has just always, consistently, beautifully uncorked my brain when it’s getting itself all wound up. Something about music just magically soothes my anxiety and depression in a way that nothing else really seems to and makes me feel all calm and creative and quasi-meditative. If I’m getting all worked up because I’m writing blocked and I can’t figure out how to work through it, music helps keep me from making the situation worse by getting wound up about it. And more often than not, just chilling out is enough to get my writing back on track.

How about you fine readers? Do you have any tricks to get the words flowing when they’re rather not move? Let me know in the comments below! I can always use more tricks!

And until next time, happy writing!

An Audience of One

A few months ago, I was reading CM Schofield’s awesome blog and one of their posts, A Waffle About Anxiety and Pitches, caught my attention. They wrote about Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which is one of my head monsters too, and they pitched a novel (*chortles*) idea for dealing with it: writing a fun story just for yourself, without the intention of eventually cleaning it up and showing it to other people. They called the umbrella those stories fell under the “fluff folder”, which is adorable.

I’ve always written with the intention for there to be an audience of more than just me. Sometimes, I would decide after the fact that it wasn’t going to work out. Usually, I’d get a good chunk of the way through, or just power through the entire story, and then decide afterward that it wasn’t marketable, or figure the plot was nonexistant, or realize I was a white middle class American female writing about not one of those things, or find some other issue that was too profound for me to simply ‘fix’. It was disappointing, but oh well. You move on. But I have never tried writing without a broader audience from the outset.

Writing is widely recognized for its therapeutic properties. Whether it’s journaling, or dream recording, or even jotting to-do lists, I’ve always felt like any kind of writing helps to ground me and steady me out when I’m feeling off the wall in one way or another. And fiction writing helps too—who doesn’t love revenge-writing a dastardly backstabbing or an epic fight scene that leaves your character coughing blood? (Oh, is that just me? Um.) But you know what doesn’t help my anxiety? Pitching. Querying. Anything of this nature. Submissions are my crucible of the soul and I am yet to come out of a round of subs without feeling like I’ve just had a piece of my heart excised and my chest put back together by a bear with an industrial staple gun. I imagine that, even if I do ever manage to get published, getting a steaming pile of lackluster sales would feel pretty similar. Opening up something you’ve worked so hard on for so long to the world—and then getting a whole lot of stony silence in return—just aches.

So what would happen if I just… didn’t do that bit? Just skipped the whole anyone-else-ever-might-see-this-some-day part?

My mental health has been pretty fragile over the last year. I’m on the mend (fingers crossed!) but still not in great shape. So I figure, why not? I still keep my massive Ideas List and quite a few of those stories are… questionable, at best. A new session of Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up in July, so I think I might sort some of the wackiest story ideas into my own Fluff Folder and have a crack at one of them next month. And I have a new story idea about a desperate young man going into a magic-steeped human remains market looking to make a deal that just might fit the too-wacky-to-share bill.

How about you fine readers? Do you ever write just for you, or is there always a wider audience in mind? Have you ever had a story swing camps—switching from marketable to private, or from the fluff folder to the great wide world? Let me know in the comments below!

And until next week, happy writing!

PS- Don’t forget to check out CM Schofield’s blog for art, stories, and the progress of an in-the-trenches writer! Do iiiiit!

The Three A’s of Isolation Motivation

Last week, I managed to sneak out a little time between one child explosion and the next to meet up over video call with the local chapter of my writing guild. There were only four of us on the call, but it was so nice to see other humans, let alone other writing humans.

We talked about how we were doing and what we’d been up to and how much or how little our lives had changed since the last meeting. And, of course, we talked about our writing projects.

I… haven’t been doing much. I’ve been slowly chipping away at the cookbook, but at this point, that involves more playing around in the kitchen than any actual writing. Another project of mine is in review right now and so I haven’t really been doing much on my end while I wait to hear back from the folks checking it over to make sure it’s right for the organization. And the rest of my freelance gigs have dried up as people realize maybe now is not the time to expand their now-closed-for-who-knows-how-long business. So for writing—real, true, and actual butt-in-chair writing—there really hasn’t been much. Normally, that wouldn’t slow me down, because fiction is way more fun than gig work anyway, but as it turns out, having constant human presence of the small and needy type saps most of my energy in general, let alone creative energy.

But nobody wants to admit that to the guild members! It looks so- so- so unprofessional. *writhes in pain* (We’re not even going to talk about how unprofessional it looked when, halfway through the meeting, there was a sudden crash and a yell and I went bounding out of the room, only to sprint back twenty seconds later with a rushed No-one’s-dead-but-I-gotta-go-bye. Aaaand then I missed the Leave Meeting button twice, with accompanying false start lunges for the door, before I managed to actually hit it and go. Yep. Totally pro.)

So I’ve been thinking a lot this week about how to get a little more writing in. (And no, for purposes of definition, blog writing in this case does not count. Boo.) I feel like I have to tread this ground again every time there’s a big shift in my life, whether that’s seasonal changes, major life events, employment status, mental or physical health belly flops, or, in this case, apocalyptic pandemics.

I should probably be grateful that this keeps coming up. It’s really hard to ever get in a rut if my entire life gets upended every three months. But on the other hand, it always seems like writing is the first thing to get pitched out the window whenever there’s a transition, and it’s sometimes weeks before I right myself again and get back on course.

We learned a little while ago that writing prompts are pretty hit-or-miss with getting me going again. So what can I count on to help me get back into writing? For me, at least this time around, it’s been important to make sure I have the Three A’s:

Attainable Goals This has been an important one for me lately. This Camp NaNo month’s attainable goal is eight thousand words. Jill-on-a-good-day finds this wildly, embarrassingly inadequate. But Jill-on-the-other-twenty-nine-days-of-the-month finds this just baaaarely doable. I am not at a point right now where I can crank out 2k a day, but that doesn’t mean I should throw my hands up and despair. Having attainable goals helps me to keep moving forward, even if those steps are small. All progress is good progress.

Actionable Plans Having a goal is fantastic but having an idea of how to achieve it is even better. 8k words for the month comes out to 267 words per day. If I can squeeze out my 267 a day, whether that’s when the kids are falling asleep or while they’re out at recess or, yes, while I’m sitting in the bathroom pretending to use the toilet (dignity has long since left the premises), then I can make my 8k. If I miss a day, then I call in reinforcements and beg my ever-patient husband to take the kids on a walk or something so I can play catch-up. Have a plan. Stick to it.

Accountability Buddies Speaking of ever-patient partners, have someone who knows your goals and your plans who will gently poke you with a cattle prod every now and then. Have more than one person. Heck, tell the entire internet. But if I have a goal that only exists in my head, it’s pretty easy to decide I’m too tired to work on it today, or I should probably do the dish mound instead, etc. Accountability buddies keep you going when you’d stop on your own. Get some.

Need some more A’s in your life? Here’s a bonus A: Art is not just writing. I like to beat myself up when I’m not hitting my writing goals, or when my goals are tiny and pathetic, but the truth is that any enjoyable creative endeavor helps me feel less like I want to whack my hand off with a meat cleaver and lie down in the shower to die. It might be cooking an elaborate meal. It might be dancing with my boys. It might be drawing complex geometric sharpie doodles on my arm. If it stimulates my brain as I create something beautiful, it is an art and it is good for me. Maybe I can’t write while the kids are tearing around the house screaming about their latest and greatest Magic: the Gathering achievement. But I can practice ukulele through that. And I sometimes have to accept that that is enough.

Sooo… I guess that makes Acceptance our fifth and final A, haha.

I hope you guys are hanging in there. Do what you can and have mercy for the rest. And if you can manage to squeeze it in, happy writing!

Wrangling Up the Posse

Howdy friends! A happy late Mother’s Day to all you maternal types. Today’s going to be a little short today, as I find myself working through some unpleasantness that you’ll probably have the joy of reading about later.

M Elizabeth Tait pointed out last week that I had forgotten to add a mentioned link and then she kindly helped me comb through the archives to find it. During the hunt, it became apparent that I had skipped over some information in my post that I had thought were written up in a previous post, but didn’t seem to have been. (Gosh, what tense is that sentence in?) And some of that missing information is finding those writing pals in the first place- pretty important stuff!

So as a quick follow up/stop gag to last week’s post, here are some of my favorite places where aspiring posse-ists can look for fellow creatives.

Formal Writing Organizations– A lot of towns and even regions have their own writing groups, like my very own Alaska Writers Guild, particularly our chapter right here in Fairbanks. You can also check and see if your age category or genre has a writing organization, such as SCBWI, RWA, SFWA, or HWA; these groups also often have local chapters as well where you can meet up with your writerly neighbors and keep up with each other and your projects. If there aren’t any local chapters, forums can help you to keep in touch with fellow members.

Writers Conferences, Workshops, etc.– When attending writing events, be sure to take a bundle of business cards with you (or at the very least, a pad of paper and a writing utensil) so you can give out your info- and be sure to plug any new pals’ info into your phone or laptop as soon as possible just in case you lose that slip of paper later. Swapping contact information with other writers at these events can be a great way to build up your writing support group.

Social Media– I found a bunch of my writing buddies on Twitter. Maybe Instagram is your thing- writers are there. Pinterest? Writers are there too! Facebook? There. Anywhere you are, other writers are too.

Local Libraries, Bookshops, Schools, etc.– These spaces love supporting local writers and often have groups you can join, or at least contacts for writing groups in town. If your local college/university/high school has a creative writing department, get it touch with those teachers specifically and see if they can introduce you to other writers as well. The same holds true for librarians and shop owners. These folks know people. These folks know everything.

So the hunt is on! Just remember as you put together your writing group that this is a collaboration to benefit all members. Be sure you give as much as you take and you will soon have a healthy, thriving writing group to support you in all your literary goals.

Happy writing!

Cultivating a Writing Posse

Want to know a secret? When left to my own devices, I’m not a very productive writer. I can easily type over seventy words per minute, but I generally don’t write more than a couple paragraphs in a day

That is, unless I’m writing with pals. On those nights, I can clock in and have nearly two thousand words an hour later. Of course, I’m not always that productive. We do like to chitchat between sprints, and we can sometimes lose track of how much chatting we’re doing (and how little writing). But I definitely write more when I have others working with me.

I think it comes down to pride. I am a very competitive person (just ask my longsuffering husband). And as any kid who has ever done like any sport ever knows, you’re really only supposed to compete against yourself, but- yeah. I run faster when I have other people running with me, and I got better grades when I took the same classes as my brother, and I write more when there are others writing with me. None of this is to say that I excel at any of these things. Just that I try harder than when I am on my own. (There are probably all kinds of psych to unpack here.)

Whether this is good or bad, I know me and I know what gets me moving. So while some people work better in seclusion, I work better when I know that in fifteen minutes I’m going to be comparing my word count and the last sentence I wrote to some very talented friends, and darn it all, I don’t want to embarrass myself.

I’ve written in the past about where to find writing pals (but never did it better than Grandmaster Evrard in A Beta, a Beta, My Kingdom for a Beta-Reader), but once you have a group of people together, what can you do to make that group the best it can be? Here are three things that I’ve found help our group shine.

STAY POSITIVE Okay, yes, everybody loves a little trash talk, but in the end, we are all there for encouragement. So even when someone gets a stinky word count or has to miss a session or drops off the planet for months at a time, stay positive- this is a zero guilt zone! Everyone is stronger when we support one another.

BE FLEXIBLE Whenever you get groups of people together, there must be give and take. For example, I write best at night, but that time doesn’t work for my group because one of us lives on the east coast and I live out west. My ideal writing time is like one or two in the morning for her and that’s no good. We work together to make the group the best possible for the most of us, most of the time, which is basically like trying to hit a moving target. It will never be perfect for everyone, but we try to roll with it.

KEEP IT SMALL Try to keep your group small and close knit. This will make hitting that aforementioned moving target a little easier. Also, don’t make huge plans to meet every other day for three hours at a time; make it manageable. (For example, there are three of us in my group that meets online for one hour twice per week while kids are napping/at school.) Likewise, populate your group with others that are at about your own skill level, which will help assure that everyone benefits from the group.

And that’s it! I’m sure there are other things that we could be doing to improve group cohesion, but honestly, I don’t think we need much more than that. We’re basically like the same demographic copied three times and we adore each other; doesn’t get much more cohesive than that. Some groups prefer having group agreements laid out at the beginning for newcomers to sign. Others like to keep it local and meet face to face. Some groups are only for writing, which others like to throw in beta reading as well. What works for one group might not work for the next. You do you.

If you have some eager authors ready to write but aren’t sure how you want the group to look in the end, just set a meeting and get started. You’ll figure out pretty quickly what works and what doesn’t, so don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress. If everyone treats the group like a first draft and understands that you’ll shift and settle into your best group over time, that’s fine. If you’d rather have the bylaws and election ballots ready to go on day one, that’s fine too. Just do whatever works for your group.

However, if you start a group, or join an already established one, and find that it isn’t working for you, do not feel obligated to stay. I’m not telling you to get everyone to edit your work and then drop them when they ask the same of you (because that would make you a turd), but don’t stick with something that isn’t good for your writing career. Our group briefly had a fourth member; she was only with us for a couple months before she realized that she works more effectively on her own. And good for her for standing up for her career! Remember, zero guilt zone!

Building your career as a successful author begins with building your process. If you want that process to include others, great! If that process is best done alone, great! Know what works best for you and do that. Don’t let anyone else tell you what you should and shouldn’t be doing. The only ‘should’ is to write, whatever form that takes. That’s it.

Happy writing!