What To Blog
It is my turn to blog and it has been my turn to blog since Thursday. But what to blog? I thought this was such a good idea to blog and here I am . . . blank. I guess I’ve been sort of blank in my writing these days, also. Not that I don’t have ideas, I always have ideas. All I have to do is go to the library or book store and read picture books and I get ideas for my own. It is also a great way to get inspired. But lately I’ve been doing summery things. I think maybe there is a time for everything. I know I will write another story. I know the time will come. I will see the book in my head finished and complete. I will see children reading my book and smiling. And I will get down and work. I really do get down on the floor and work. But right now I see myself kayaking and being with family and going to the beach.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Hi Leighann -
Taking a vacation is always such a quandry for a writer. Even a day off can be guilt-inducing.
I think it was Patti MacLachlan who said “My family doesn’t take me away from my writing. They give me something to write ABOUT”.
I take a sketchbook along on trips or breaks. Whenever something catches my eye or tickles my writerself, I sketch it or jot down a few notes.
Even with a playful writers notebook along, time off is SO much easier than working … it can so easily stretch to NOT writing. Geting out of the habit is perilous for some of us.
I just ended a frighteningly dry book-writing spell. It is exciting to be back in the saddle now, but after 6 months, I’d almost forgotten how to steer the horse! Luckily, I never stopped meeting my weekly newspaper article deadline. I’ve been a writer through the drought … just not an author.
I know authors who set an easy schedule but refuse to break it. They have a point: if you write 2 pages a day, by the end of the year you have a 700+ page novel. Jane Yolen will dart upstairs during a break at a conference to write in her room. “I have to,” she says. Sandi Kahn Shelton (a friend) writes 5 pages a day. She could write on in the morning, a couple while waiting for a kid at practice, then the last one at bedtime, but she gets them all in. But that is only while she is on a deadline. This summer she has taken off completely.
For me, I’ve set myself a chapter a week easy loping goal for the summer months (plus, of course, an article.)
What are other people doing?
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Peter deVries, New Yorker staff writer and author of many funny books, said he never wrote unless he felt inspired…and he saw to it that he felt inspired every morning at 9 o’clock, five days a week.
I read this many years ago and remind myself of it sternly from time to time, hoping it will cause me to become organized and proliic. So far, no luck.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I love that, Kate.
I try not to go too long without writing. That said, if I’m really, really stuck on something (that has no deadline), I do sometimes go on vacation with that particular project and work on something else for a while, until my brain loosens up a bit.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Leigh Ann,
It is nice to read your entry and to see everyone’s comments and viewpoints. I am following Julia Cameron’s example and writing morning pages. It is a satisfying way to start the day and nuggets for ideas do appear, sometimes growing into full stories.
I love the idea of being at a conference and having to run upstairs to write. Glad you are back in the saddle, Kay.
I am passing this website on to other authors and writers I know. In the meantime, happy writing to all!
Debbie
July 15th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Debbie, thanks for stopping by!
I work best in the morning too.