What's On Your Shelf?

It's nearly 2014. The clock is ticking and tomorrow we'll be in a brand new year. Many writers will begin the year with a new goal--finishing the rough draft (that's me), or revising their novel, sending out queries, or some other goal related to their stories.

What about picking a craft book to read? Have you ever made that a resolution?

I am. Besides finally finishing FRIENDLY FIRE (I promise I will! Honest!), I'm going to try to use the books sitting on my shelf to learn more about making my book better.

I have books of inspiration and craft. My inspiration list are well read.

• The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
• On Writing by Stephen King
• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

I've talked about these before and I still refer to them and their message often. When I'm stuck I remind myself that it's all resistance (Pressfield), and to keep writing every day (Lamott) or any of several truths I learned from King and Cameron.

But when it comes to craft books, I don't have such a good track record. The shelf is full of them, but I haven't finished many. In fact, I haven't started quite a few of them. ;-)

Here's a sampling of what I have on my shelf:

•   The Fire in Fiction and Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass--I know all the reasons to read these two, but tried to before I was a third of the way into FF. I think these will click when I finish goal one (see above).
• The Writer's Little Helper by James V. Smith--This is my first craft book. It's more of a checklist than anything else. It'll be good to click through after goal one is accomplished.
• Write in Style by Bobbie  Christmas and Don't Sabotage Your Submissions by Chris Roerden are much like the Smith with added expertise from the authors--both have professional editing experience. I'll be back for them later.
• Make a Scene by Jordan E. Rosenfeld--This is another early buy. I floundered on the descriptions of scene types. Now I have a clue about them from experience writing and critiquing and I'll be back to read this one later.
• The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler--This is another well-regarded craft book, but it doesn't fit my genre. I'll give it another look if and when I ever get back to my long-worked-on and long-delayed SF trilogy.
• Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell--This is a recent acquisition. I'm over halfway through it. It's hitting the spot as a helpful book probably because I was already 85% done with FF when I got it.

Two new books on my shelf are Writing Subtext by Elizabeth Lyon and Wired for Story by Lisa Cron. Both come highly recommended. I'll get into them when goal one is done. And I have one on order--Nail Your Novel by Roz Morris.This is recommended for its info on emotional beats.

There's a pattern here--Either I tried to read the book way early in my novel, or I've just haven't had time to read them. I foresee more time when goal one is done and FF is out with my beta readers.

Now it's your turn. What's your favorite craft book? Any I don't have yet? ;-)

Where DID That Muse Go?

~~The short answer it nowhere. ; )

~~The long answer is a bit more complicated and challenging. When I sit down to write and string a few words together then get up in disgust, I've stopped myself. My muse, that spark of creativity, hasn't gone anywhere. I've just ceased listening to her nagging, whining, annoying self. I'll confess to a very low productivity in February and March. I've got a thousand excuses for it, too. But the muse hasn't left me. When I least expect it, I hear this question from deep inside--What are you doing? The point of creativity is simply to do it. Tell the story. Sing the song. Start something. We have to stop denying what we are supposed to be doing. It may sound totally simplistic, but for me it's profound.

~~The idea of a muse for creativity is a long standing one. Artists and writers have characterized the force behind their creativity as their Muse referring to the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory) from mythology. Each of the sisters guided a separate facet of art, music, writing, dance. According to Steven Pressfield's book, The War of Art, that drive or muse is built into everyone. Whether or not we open ourselves to expressing it is our choice. To deny it is Resistance to use Pressfield's term. Resistance can take many forms--denial that we can create anything, excuses for why we can't do it today or next year, or being more concerned about what others think than expressing what is inside. Whatever makes us afraid to go on is a block or Resistance. My biggest fear is that I'm not able to do it right, so why try? We need to just do it. Maybe Nike ads have a bigger point than just getting us to buy shoes.

~~So what's stopping you from putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard? What's you favorite excuse?

ARRGH! February, Go Away!

~~February has been a lost cause when it comes to writing my wip. After November's 19,248 words, December's 13,863 words, and January's 16,427 words, I took it as a given that February would follow suite. But, no. It hasn't. I could give you the litany of excuses from health issues (myself and family) to planning and teaching a class at church. Add the wonderful Second Writer's Platform Crusade at Rachael Harrie's Rach Writes and my desire, no obsessive need, to follow the other 216 blogging crusaders and you've got a good list of the external reasons I've had not to write.

~~To be honest, they are just excuses for something much deeper and more insidious. Steven Pressfield calls it resistance in his book, The War of Art. Resistance is anything you let stop you from writing (or other creative endeavors). I've been so resistant this month, that I haven't been able to finish reading The War of Art. Once I finally made myself finish reading part one, I got back to work. That very day!

~~One of my best resistance blocks is perfectionism. It's a flavor of obsession that makes,  no, requires me to stop working, because I know how much has to be done to write the book. And I know I can't do it right in the first draft. So I just don't do anything. Or I struggle to write a scene knowing it's horrible because I'm only writing that specific scene I think I need it, but can't explain why. It's all head writing vs. heart writing. Check out Rachael's excellent blog post HERE on this very subject. What's true though, is what Steven Pressfield and Anne Lamott in her excellent book, Bird by Bird say--If you write everyday, your heart starts to take over and run the show.

~~So, February, check out, pass the baton to March, and let me get back to work!