Z is for Zenith #A2Zchallenge

 

Zenith is for height, the pinnacle, but in my little A2Z world it means today, the last day of the 30 day challenge, officially 26 days. At the beginning I honestly thought I was crazy to commit to even one blog post a week. After losing virtually all of the first quarter of 2015 to the day job, my writing schedule had really suffered. I was forced to suspend writing on Dance of Desire so I could finish Blame it On the Moon the fourth book in my Destiny Paramortals series. I hadn't expected the new job to hit my time or my creativity quite so hard. I got maybe 200 words in three months.

Now granted these posts aren't my best work, not that I'm a great blogger anyway, mostly because I spend too much time wanting it to be perfect awesome, meaningful or whatever. During the A-Z challenge I learned to have fun, to write a short blog on a theme, to make time to do it, though I didn't have as much as I wanted to visit some of the other blogs - time, the vast list of A2Zers, and slow internet kept that from happening but I did discover a few new authors, some cool travel blogs, and an extremely well researched, well-articulated and thought provoking blog, the brilly blog, by a courageous and impassioned lover of humanity, Angie Brill.  No matter if you agree with her or not, you have to respect these attributes.

I love the feeling of accomplishing something that stretched me out of my comfort zone. Until you try you don't know if you can, so just start. When I self published my first book, my mantra was "I can do this". And I did. Every single day of the 26.
Yay me!

Did you do the challenge? How did you do?

(this post was late due to my satellite being down until after I went to work today.)

Challenging the Mind

Yesterday my favorite Navy Guy called to tell me about his newest idea for a book but it's classifed so I can't tell you or... you know the drill.




I'd been revising FIMB trying to get the partial done to submit next week. I'd been searching my online thesaurus for just the right word when he called. So I asked NG about it.

He's always been a walking dictionary, even got into a discussion with a police officer about the word 'parking'. Got the guy so confused he didn't write the ticket.

So when I asked him for a positive word like ruthless, he said, "Okay, let me think."

Across the fiber optic lines I could hear his mental wheels. Then not only did he suggest a word but a better way to get the point across, "Let it come from their reactions to him," he said. I'm not surprised at his ability to come up with the appropriate phrase. He's a born writer who's only recently discovered that gift with a WIP on Kayak Fishing due out by Christmas.

When we got off the phone, he said, "Thanks for allowing me to challenge my mind." This from the ultimate self challenger. I thought, as if he needs additional challenges for his mind. But that's what he thrives on. It reminds me of the logo I used on my business card, "Challenge - as necessary as the air we breathe."

It's too bad it's becoming less and less common for people to want to 'think', to challenge themselves, to solve puzzles. As writers we must learn to explore our world at the deepest level so our stories will be rich and unique. So the work will prove itself in timeless popularity.

Creativity R&R

I've been finding myself very frustrated at not beginning anything new just going round after round on a project I used to love and now... well, you know. Maybe you're in revision hell at the end of a finished project. Or maybe you're in the muddy middle of your current WIP (or two).

Either way I'll bet you could use a little new project escape. So I'd like to challenge you to allow yourself a little R&R, a new project retreat to stimulate the writer's senses and break out of the stale current work into the glorious realm of 'something fresh'.

Once a week for one month - on your worst writing day, your most intensive family day or at lunch every Wednesday, write something new. A scene, some dialogue, a character description. Long hand, pc hand, short hand, or on a napkin. A paragraph or a page a week, surely it will become more.

I've been collecting 'ideas' on my handy digital voice recorder but like Heather Sellers says in her book, "Chapter after Chapter", an idea is in the head. For it to ever to become a creative written endeavor, it must be written. '

Instead of writing notes like 'a story about a babsitter' write: Dana said, "You didn't pay me last time, either, Heather." And she smacked that gum which seemed to be a weird striped gum, green and purple, both. Transition out of ideas into images.'

So, on a day when there's too much scheduled to be constructive on the revisions, I'll schedule in a short creative writing session with some of these stored up ideas and work them into images. Please share how this works for you.

I think I'll feel enthused and pumped and who knows - maybe it will turn into my next WIP. I'll let you know next week how I do on RCM.

Kick in the Pants wk4

Wow. Time flies. Fourth week. This challenge has really helped me to push myself which has boosted my confidence and helped me define some habits, which my husband would probably say weren't the ones he wanted me to develop.

I used to think I'd start to work writing as soon as I got up since we get up before dawn. But that hasn't happened. We have our coffee watch the news, eat a little breakfast, I check my emails, then around 8 or 9 it seems I get started and write until around 2 or 5 or 7, whatever flows.

Last week I wrote 15, 200 words! Yea! This week 4,000, got my business cards ready for the conference, worked on my pitch, helped Joe with crawfish, delivered mail.

Some days the end seems further and further away, but I don't have any doubt that I will finish both my first WIPs soon and submit them, both 90% complete. Ten days til the conference, only 8 calendar writing days.