Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Dear Writer: Life Intervenes Sometimes

“I think all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it.” ~ William Carlos Williams
It happens. Life can step in and turn you and your carefully articulated writing plans on your head. Nothing goes as good as it does on paper or in your mind. You might have decided, clearly, how many stories or even books you were going to write. You took the time to compile a list of concepts and set a timetable. You might even get off to a good start with a story and then...bam! Life intervenes and you're stopped cold.

Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch and her husband, author Dean Wesley Smith, have both wrote about this subject often. Here is one example from Rusch's weekly blog column, The Business Rusch.

The point of her article is that life is often messy and unexpected. As a writer (and really anybody) can be going along, going fine, and doing your thing, and then all of it get stopped by some unforeseen difficulty, a change in lifestyle, or something else. Some of these life rolls as Rusch calls them can be minor delays. Others, like an illness or a loved one's death, can ben long-lasting and capable of changing your whole life.

As a writer, heck as a human being, you'll have life rolls and they will send you spinning. Sometimes, only for a short spell so that you can get back to your work and everything is peachy again. Other times, the change is so tremendous that you might find yourself away from writing for a long time--or at least writing something else or writing far less while you adjust to the new circumstances.

It is also true, however unpleasant to acknowledge, that some life rolls take you away from writing permanently. I'm not even talking your death here. There are just things in life that can change everything forever and often there is not one thing you can do about it.

Pretty tough message isn't it? Why am I writing about this subject?

Well, the fact is, Dear Writer, I am in the middle of a bit of life roll right now. It's not a big one, but just enough of one to disrupt the schedule and the plans I had made. I'm working through it. I'm a bit discouraged but I'm pushing through that and working to come back to writing fiction.

I'm sure some of you reading this might be facing something similar. The only thing I can say to you is that you're not alone, it most likely won't last forever, and I promise you'll write again someday soon. Don't give up. You'll make it, Dear Writer. And so will I.

I'll catch you next time.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Free Fiction Friday: The Traitor


UPDATE: There was a story called "The Traitor" here free for one week. Now it's gone and has been replaced by another short story. Come back to this space for links to the story when it appears electronically.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Dear Writer: When Ideas Become Barriers To Telling Stories


"Every novel should have a beginning, a middle, and an end." ~ Peter De Vries

Picture a writer sitting at a desk, hunched over the keyboard, staring forlornly at the screen, with the blinking cursor flashing at a steady rhythm bordering on hypnotic. There are no reassuring taps of the keys, just the groaning silence of that moment. That writer is feeling all sorts of emotions from desperation, to aggravation, boredom, and so on. That writer may have a whole host of ideas brimming in his mind, but not a one of them has made a strong enough impression to get you moving.

Some early writers groan about not having enough ideas for the books and stories they hope to write. They make excuses about how they just can't find one. They make a show of researching--in other words, reading, browsing the web, or resting the laurels on the couch in front of the television. Later on, with a good body of work under the belt, a new issue might arise from time to time: you have too many ideas flowing at once and they start to overwhelm the mind and become blurred at the edges.

The writer doesn't know what she will do. Which idea is worth pursuing, which one has enough going for it to be viable past a few sentences? It can all just leave the head spinning and cause the poor writer to break out in a cold sweat.

Does it bear noting that ideas can be had in endless quantities but that the decision to pluck one of those fruits from the vine has more to do with one's ability to focus and follow through than anything inherent in the ideas themselves? Under such circumstances, the real point is that the writer must be able to make a decision and take a bit of a risk with a particular idea and just let the creative mind step up and take a hit.

Yet, a glut of ideas, can cause the writer to spin around and become hyper critical about all of those ideas to the point that none of them get the air needed to breath and bloom.

I realize that I may not be speaking to all writers when I talk about this. I know that nonfiction writers tackle ideas in almost a wholly different  manner than the fiction writer does. Still, it is true that not all writers are the same on how they do the job of storytelling. They have methods and plans they employ to get a story to take shape and help nurture and coax it towards a full-blown story or novel. Others, like this writer, just grab an idea and apply heat and pressure to forge a gem out of it.

Do I get bogged in the sea of ideas so that I can't always see the life preserver? Heck yes I do. But what do I do about--other than write this blog about the topic?

Maybe I sit staring at that cursor for a bit. Have a teenie weenie pity party for myself that lasts seconds. In the end, though, I am still a writer, which is somebody who writes. So I have to get on with it and forge a story by trusting in the creative mind, the seat of imagination and wonder.

And so do you, Dear Writer.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Free Fiction Friday: Nowhere To Run


UPDATE: There was a story called "Nowhere To Run" here for one week totally free to read. It's gone now and has been replaced by a new free story. Check back because I will be posting links when the story is available as an ebook. 

Following The Song: Recognizing A Friend's Accomplishment

This space is mine. I use it to write about what I do as a writer, to talk about the publishing business and my own work in that industry, and to announce new releases of my books. It's all usual fare for a writer's website. I don't get a lot of opportunities to give shout outs about what friends of mine are up to.

I have a friend, a musician, and a writing collaborator of mine, Brent Pasley, who doing promotions and gearing up for a summer concert event. It's one of those important milestones in a performer's life to get out there and show an audience what they can do. Pasley's always been a performer of one type or another. This, event far larger and ambitious than anything thus far to spring from the mind of my friend, is sure to be an experience you won't forget.

Pasley have known each other for most of our lives. It has been a tumultuous sort of life considering our roots in tiny rural America. We've been creative types for the duration, alway scheming or thinking about how we'd someday make our marks in expressive, artistic ways. We've been comic creators, played and written music together, and most recently wrote the novel, AUTUMN SKY, together.

I'll admit it. I get to share a bit of the limelight too. Some of the songs that I helped to write in my twenties will feature in this Rock Music spectacle. And that's just cool. No greater thing than for an artist to share his art. I've been lucky to have some of that already with the books I've written.

Me and my little publishing company plan to be there to support Pasley. For those of my readers who live locally, I hope you might plan to attend this concert. We plan to have a table on the premises of the Indiana Theater so you'll see my company, Founders House Publishing, there as well. We'll have books to sell and chances to talk with everyone.

Here are some important links for SUMMER ROCK 2013, which will be held on August 2, 2013.

1. http://www.pasleymusic.com/Page_3.html

2. Summer Rock 2013 Facebook Page. 

I'll add more if needed to this post so check back often.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Dear Writer: Where It All Started

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it!" ~ Toni Morrison

It started in my head.

It always starts in my head.

It probably starts in your head as well. We writers are often those peculiar and foolish sorts of people who spend a great deal of our time imagining things in our heads and then attempting to put them out on pages using words. We started out innocently enough, absorbing the stories that we were told as children, watched on television, or read in books. Humans need stories. It is one of the main ways they, social animals that they are, communicate with one another. Writers took that a step in one direction and said that it was not just that stories needed to be told, shared, and expressed in some fashion to others, but rather our stories.

Quite the egomaniacs, aren't we? I'll admit it.  I write because I want people to read what I wrote. It's not enough just to write the story and put it away in a drawer somewhere or store it on a flash drive. That line of thinking makes me an author. (Shh, it's not a dirty word as long as one doesn't use it as a badge that keeps them focused too long on one book or one story.) I can say with a hint of pride that I'm the author of more than one book. Still, I am a writer first and foremost, meaning I'm someone who writes rather than merely someone who has written. (In case you're wondering, that could be a simple way to explain the difference between the words 'writer' and 'author.' Many newer writers might be shaking their heads at this point. Sorry about that. Maybe I'll talk about it more in a future post.)

It started in my head when I was very young. It started then in your head too. While it's true that no writer is the same as another writer, it might be fair to say that we all cross a line between just playing and using imagination as other children would and really thinking that the things we made up are worth sharing with others. I don't know when I crossed that line. I could think of many instances throughout the rest of my childhood when those impulses reared up and sometimes even found outlets. You could too.

Dear writer, if it's okay with you, I will talk about this thing we do. I'll come back to this space every so often and unpack what we writers do, think, and grapple with as we, hopefully, continue writing. Thank you for tuning in and reading. It makes this writer happy.


Friday, May 10, 2013

Free Fiction Friday: City's Comin' Down


UPDATE: There was a story here called "City's Comin' Down" free to read for one week, but now it's gone and another story has replaced it. Check back here because I will post links to the story when it becomes available as an ebook. Thanks for reading. 

Friday, May 3, 2013

Free Fiction Friday: Vengeance


UPDATE: There was a story called "Vengeance" here free for one week but now it has been replaced by another original story. Check back because this story will be making its way to publication. I will post links and cover art. Thanks and come back for more free fiction every Friday.