Overcome Writer's Block: Distractions

Phase III: Distractions

There is nothing new under the sun, right? Right. 

So you aren't the only one to ever experience distractions, or shall I say allow distractions to disrupt your focus on something you really need to accomplish, which in our particular case is writing. Just to name a few of my own distractions that got the best of me a while back ...

1.      Internet

a.    Social media especially. Get off Twitter and Facebook. If you’re a normal 9am to 5pm working chica like myself then you aren’t getting paid to do that crap. ;-) And let’s take a minute to be real, most of the folks you talk to on those social media sites you haven’t seen in your physical life in you don’t know how long. So, try to ease off of it a bit.

2.      Social Butterfly

a.    Look, it’s perfectly fine to be a homebody. Disconnecting yourself from the world for a little while may be just what you need to get your mind focused on writing again. Now, let’s not sink into depression or do anything crazy by your lonesome. Just get some time to yourself. Your friends will live if you take a break from the daily, weekly, or weekend outings.

3.      Reading Books

a.    I love to read. We all do. However, wouldn't it be awesome to hold your own published novel? As a Writer, it’s important to read a lot, but there has to be a limit so you can get some of your own work done. For the better part of summer 2011 I read, read, read and my book collection tripled. Lol crazy, I know. I didn’t even realize most of my leisure time was spent reading instead of writing until my father said, “…Geez, you’re reading all those other books, you need to work on your own…” He was so right.

4.      Work

a.   Most of the time your job never pays you what you’re worth. Sometimes your job may require you to take work home and you find yourself conducting research, analyzing data, compiling reports, and reviewing other folks work and so on. First of all, manage your time. There are plenty of hours in the day to arrange time to complete your work and squeeze in some hours for writing as well. Don’t allow work to consume your life…you might have a breakdown. I’m just saying…it can happen.

Now I've said it before and I'll say it again, I use the Bible to enhance my walk with Christ and knowledge of the Word of God...however, I also apply the information to my life in virtually diverse ways as well. For instance, the scriptures below are a few of my favorite verses concerning distractions. 

"I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel; which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ." --Galatians 1:6-7

"Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you." --Proverbs 4:25

"And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction.--1 Corinthians 7:35

"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." -- 1 Corinthians 10:13

Just like I can't allow myself to get distracted by the things of this world and let them come between me and Jesus, I won't allow the distractions of the world to come between the gift God has placed within me to use for his glory. If you're reading this blog then writing plays a huge factor in your life, dreams, ambitions and so on. For me, this is my future. Although I have a degree and a back up with Education and all (my parents were sticklers for the "back up plan"), I want to live off my writing and I will. 

Be alert at your work. Get rid of the distractions that defer your dreams.

 What good are they to you anyway? 

Election Day!

Today is Election Day! 

I am anxious, excited, and exhausted all at the same time! Now let me tell you why!

• I've been looking forward to this day for the past year. And when I say my head has been buried in politics, I am not kidding! I've campaigned for my team (Obama/Biden) via emails and phone calls, engaged in heated debates, watched the campaigns/debates/conventions for both Democrats and Republicans, gotten sick and tired of all the ads, and talked/tweeted about this election nonstop! 

• I have a problem...I know. What can I say? I'm obsessed with politics and power. Always have been.

• Blood, sweat, tears, and deaths made it possible for me to vote in this country and I will take full advantage of that well deserved right! No matter who you endorse or who wins, just seize this beautiful opportunity for what it is and vote! Acknowledge the civil and political rights activists of our history.

• If I have an opportunity to choose leaders and representatives who will help me...uhh, yah darn skippy I'm voting!

• I'm all for proving the pollsters wrong. Don't count my gender and race out. ;-)

Overcome Writer's Block: The Secret Place

Phase II: Find Your Secret Place

Phase I focused on giving your mind a break and stop thinking. For Phase II I want to discuss finding a place that comforts the soul of your writing, somewhere you can dwell that works your magic without you even realizing it. I call this the Secret Place.

Yes, it is biblical and has a virtually diverse meaning in that sense. However, as much as I apply the bible to enhance my spiritual walk and faith in Christ Jesus and simply guide/instruct my way of living…I have other usages for the bible as well. Considering books of the bible contain the greatest stories ever told,--honestly, have you read about the beasts and days of tribulation in Revelation? WOAH! –it’s a great text to delve into to get symbolism ideas…I’m so serious.

The Secret Place regarding writing and overcoming writer’s block focuses on establishing an area that you can call your own. Before my grandmother passed in July 2011, sitting in the lounging chair in her room alongside her bed was my own Secret Place. I pushed out some of my most effective and majestic writing in that chair in her room and in her presence. Now that she’s gone and I’m no longer at her house very often, I haven’t really found a Secret Place as good as that…somewhere I’m absolutely comfortable, a place full of light or good energy, a place where my gift of writing tends to go on overload. I honestly think I drew some of my writing energy from her. 

Your Secret Place can be your closet, in front of the fireplace, your back patio, a favorite beach, a corner in the public library, the cemetery, the church pew (not during service of course, haha), the bathtub or Jacuzzi, Panera, a local coffee shop, the rocks near a waterfall, under the bridge in a park, a lake-house or cabin in the deep woods, or wherever. Just find a place that promotes good energy, good concentration, and relaxation. Somewhere with not too much noise, you can leave your worries behind, and just get some awesome writing done!

Oh, and a tip! Your Secret Place may not want to surround noisy kids. Now, I’m just saying…I got 99 problems but a kid ain’t one!

Just kidding, Just Kidding, Just kidding…I love the kiddies! I work in Education for goodness sake! But honestly, it’s hard to hash out some awesome pages with my niece and nephew surrounding me…unless they’re napping of course! ;-)

Overcome Writer’s Block: Stop Thinking

Phase I: Stop Thinking

Not all creativity is art…and most of the time it’s our own fault. I learned this the hard way. For years I tried to force myself to conjure up creative premises, plotlines, unique characters, settings, themes, climaxes, and so on…but you can’t force beautiful creations. No artistic gift is stressfully pulled from someone. And you can’t goad provoking prose. It’s just not possible.

Creativity is Creativity. It’s new, original, imaginative, fresh, inspired, visionary, unmarked, and a whole list of synonyms you can look up for yourself. Oftentimes it comes to you when you aren’t even thinking about it. The most awesome and impossible for anyone to foresee twist will pop up in your head at the most random locations and at the most random time. I’m talking in the shower, in your nightmares, stuck in a traffic jam, at a boring meeting, droning out an annoying friend. Yah, I learned creativity has a sense of humor. It pops up when it pleases.

Honestly it’s a beautiful thing, being creative I mean. It’s not a learned skill, something you can practice; a habit you can just pick up and keep for life…it’s a valued piece of who you are. And the more you endeavor to force it, aggravate, provoke, or pull it out of wherever it is buried in your head…it just can’t happen captain! Creativity is a natural born characteristic God instilled in you and not many people are blessed to have it. And because it’s natural, it flows best naturally. You get me?

Yeah, it’s hard when your imaginary friends stop speaking to you and those friendly voices full of great ideas stop filling up your head, but give them time. Sometimes your ideas require time to gestate or your mind needs to pick up more life experiences to work off of. Now, how do you give those guys space to do their own thing?

Get out and enjoy life. Capture and store those new experiences I mentioned for your mind to chew off of. Of course, writing is essentially the best thing ever!! But hey, there’re loads of other activities you can enjoy to get your mind stimulating, or in other words, make those little imaginary jerks in your head keeping all the good secrets let you in on some of the action! It’s perfectly normal to take time off from writing or stop thinking of how you're going to write an action or kiss scene, begin or finish a book, which twists will come first or last. Know that although you adore writing, it can feel like a stressful job when you do too much of it. I’m sure Gabby Douglas loves gymnastics, but heck, she needs a break from all that flipping too!

Stop thinking about it for now. If you rush creativity it won't become the art you envisioned. Your beloved mojo will come flooding back when you least expect it. Trust me! Would I ever lie to you? Nope! Nevaaa!

Phase II Coming Soon! ;-)

The Dreaded Log-line/Elevator Pitch

“Your dad is always going on and on about your novel! So…what’s it about?” –My dad’s best friend.

“Well, it’s Urban Fantasy…and there’s this girl named Aleera…there’s biblical elements….and uh, this man’s like descendants are like hellish creatures….it’s pretty cool, my sister and friends like it….and uh yeah…I’m doing a major rewrite right now though…this agent like told me to…so, that’s about it.” –Me…with the face of a tomato because I just sounded like a huge uneducated basket case who knows crap about the 100,000 word novel I wrote.

So I exaggerated a bit…I didn't sound that wonky. But it took me a minute to explain my novel. 

In situations like above, it would have been awesome if I had a short pitch that summarized my story while leaving him interested in reading my novel. But unfortunately, I didn't. And that’s where a well structured log-line can save you from such humiliation!

Now exactly what is a log-line???

A log-line is the very brief summary of a story in 1 sentence or 2, no more than 50 to 70 words…and 70 words is a stretch. And try not to go crazy with the run-ons. In most cases, it’s used as a selling instrument to sway a literary agent or editor to read a manuscript. An effective log-line must include the key premise, the protagonist, the antagonist, the objective, and the stakes involved if said goal isn't achieved. We basically need to know the whole nine…in a nutshell.

Fairly simple, right? Nuh uh, Not…At…ALL!

There are several forms out there that make it easier for writers to formulate a good log-line. These are the ones I referred to, I definitely did not make them up, but I can’t remember where I got them from! Some blog, website, "online" friend…God, my memory sucks. :-/ *Cringe* They’ve been saved in a word document since forever.

Descriptive Protagonist…Verb…Antagonist…Goal…Stakes

Main Character -> Provoking Event -> Antagonistic Force/Clash -> Objective -> Repercussions

However, even after using the form much revising ensues. Believe me, I know. It took weeks to write a pretty good log-line even after including all the necessary details. It either wasn't understandable, was way too long, didn't hook the reader, was confusing, the antagonist didn't appear insurmountable, the stakes weren't high, and there was unnecessary filler, and blah blah blah. So, there’s still a lot of tweaking happening even after you fill in that form. You never get them right on the first, second, or even the third try.

Now, even though I think I polished my log-line up pretty well. I’m not ready to post it here. I'm a punk, I know. I’m going to send it to my lovely critique partner (Ames!) first, and when she approves along with my siblings, and my cousin, then I'll share it with the internet world. ;-)

And in case you're wondering, I'm spiffing it up now because......
1. I'm tired of looking like an idiot when folks ask me about my book.
2. There's a contest coming up this fall that I want to enter....which I will discuss later.
3. Working on writing this brief log-line will sharpen my skills on being concise because honestly...I'm a bit long-winded. All you have to do is look at my blog posts to see that! ;-)

Two Fingaz -- Deuces!

My Very Long-Winded Return

Hey, hey...it's been a while. *cringe*

So a very lovely friend of mine pointed out that I haven’t updated my blog since…well since I started it! So I figured, if I ever want to break into this whole blogging thingamajig and gain some followers sooner or later, then I should probably update it…frequently. And, she’s right….. DUUUHHHH!!!

So what’s the latest with me? Not a darn thing, ;-).

 Just kidding! I’m working on the, hopefully, final revision of my novel. Character development, perfecting the YA voice, cutting unnecessary filler, and breaking away from my classical writing style have always been my main problems. And I’ve had plenty of literary agents, critique partners, and family/friends spout out those four issues to me repetitively.

“Way too complex, dumb your writing down.”

“I’m not connecting with the main character…I want her hard exterior to crack faster than it is…”

“This reads like a classical novel, I’m unsure your target audience (YA) will connect with this…”

“Cut about 60k and send me your revisions…”

“I’m so very close to loving this, but I’m not there yet...dig deeper and get to know Logan better. He’s missing something. I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m sure you can. He is your character, after all.”

That’s the real deal above and I got tired of receiving criticism that surrounded the areas I’d been working on forever and just couldn’t completely refine. Yes, it was awe-inspiring, extremely helpful, and very much valued feedback but I didn’t want that kind of feedback anymore. I wanted to fix the freaking issues and get this show on the road…my novel, I mean. ;-)

This past spring I got incredibly frustrated while working through my novel and attempting to sort out the kinks, so I simply started over from scratch about a month ago. I saved my last revision of course, but I wanted a new start--a fresh document, clean slate, and blank page to allow my beloved mojo to do its thing. And my story is all in my head. I don’t need to access an outline, notes, my old document, or whatever …it’s all up here, friends *taps noggin.* With that in mind, I just wrote and wrote and wrote…or typed, and typed, and typed.

And…it totally worked this time.

Because I started anew, fresh ideas to strengthen my plot and characters have ricocheted off my mind and onto my word document like “nobody’s bizness but mine and my babayyyy!” –And yes, my novel is my baby.

I’m partially satisfied with the progress I’ve made and I believe I’ll be ready to start my querying process late November. However, I need to research the best time to contact these agents I have in mind because that’s the holiday season and I’m not talking to any work associated folks during the holidays. Yep, all of November and December is me time. I take two months vacation…not that stinky three day for Thanksgiving and two week winter break for Christmas. Let me stop before I get fired or something….Oh wait! My real name isn’t tied to this blog! Muaaahahahaha! *Gives self dap*

So, if you’re struggling with revisions and trying your hardest to conquer those issues that folks continue to point out to you…then maybe you should start fresh--on a blank document and without referring back to your old document constantly. I mean…it’s crap anyway, right? LOL! Stop looking at that thing and go back to square one. Remember how you shot out that first draft so freaking fast?! Remember how short of an amount of time you did that? It was because you were motivated, eager to finish your novel, there were a billion awesome ideas in your head that you needed to put on paper quick, fast, and in a hurry, and had one or two hundred blank pages to fill up.

 As writers, it’s important for us to return to that place that caused us to capture such a deep passion for our novel. Return to that location (beach, library, café, park, basement, granny’s attic, cemetery, hotel, deck, fireplace, mall food court, classroom, etc.) where you produced your best work and get a move on! Set a goal to write at least 500-1000 words a day and watch and see how soon you will eventually surpass that set goal.

Go to your secret place and get it done already! Something will flow…and this time, it’ll flow so smoothly.

**God Be With You Always**

Allow me to Introduce Myself...

Facts You Should Know About ME

1.  I’m a YA Urban Fantasy Writer seeking publication and teetering on the edge of insanity due to the overwhelming querying process that Writers, Literary Agents, Editors and some other folk like to refer to as the beloved Slush Pile. BLAH!

2.  I’m a book fiend and adore various kinds of genres. Science fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, Mystery, and Chick Lit happen to be my top five, but I read plenty other genres.

3. I’m in the process of revamping my query for the 5^th time and editing my novel for the 9^th time. I swear, it doesn’t matter how many times I edit that thing I always find another stupid mistake.

4.  I’ve been querying since September 2011 and have received 70 rejections, 3 partial requests, 2 full requests, and 2 Revise and Resubmits (R&R). But it's okay. One of my favorite writers, Jennifer Estep, was rejected over 400 times! Crazy, right? Thank God I have a very loyal partner in crime (Ames, you rock!) and a few other outlaws who provide honest feedback, tough love, and constructive criticism when need be. 

5. Clarissa Snepplin is my pen name. ;-)

Facts You Probably Don’t Care to Know About ME

1. I love lists. I can make a top ten or top five fave list concerning anything. Actors, fictional characters, hottest celebs, cleaning products, appetizers, authors, superheroes, childhood cartoon characters, tablets, best vampires, handbags, designers, books, movies, television shows and more; you name it!

2. I love to laugh. Tell me a good joke and I’m yours for life! Plus, laughing 15 minutes a day burns 10 to 40 calories! BOOM!

3. I talk incredibly fast and it angers my sister when she can't understand me, lol. (Hey Lex!)....But I "lowkey" speed it up while talking to her just because her reactions are funny. 

4. I am very sarcastic and it angers my other sister (Hey Drea!). As a child I developed a surefire method to slide with smarting off to my lovely mom and dad. I simply used sarcasm, jokes, and innocently smiled after every smart aleck response I expertly delivered. They would just laugh and reply with an “Oh you’re so silly” or “You are nuts.” --Yeah, they were right. ;-)

5. I'm a "Pastor's Kid!" I'm totally in love with Christ Jesus and no devil in hell will ever cause me to sacrifice God's ultimate sacrifice for me. Who I am today and who I'll be in five years, I owe it all to Him. 

6. Nightmares, nightmares, nightmares along with other things that go bump in the night...I have them quite often and I know why. However, I like to think of nightmares as my own little horror films that no one else will conquer except me. ;-)...hey, it works for me. *shrugs*

7. Vampires Rock, man! I'll never get over them. I like the real deal dangerous vamps...not ones that sparkle. I'm just sayin...

Tootles for now!