Hope your NaNoWriMo (National Writing Month) novels are coming along smoothly. Gobble up some turkey and get to it before time runs out.
Happy Writing!
The Accidental Blogger
Tag Archives: writing
One year and counting…
Today, I received a comment on my first ever blog for The Accidental Blogger. The reader, Herb, wanted to wish me a Happy One Anniversary for my website. I had not been keeping track of how long I’ve been writing this blog, and frankly, I’m shocked that it’s already been one year since I was an MFA student struggling to finish my thesis, a book of short stories. I’m happy to report, one year later, I have not given up on this blog and continue to use it as a tool for offering inspiration to other writers, and posting updates on my own projects. While so many people start a blog and give up quickly, I am ecstatic to have passed the one year mark and hope to continue seeing this blog grow.
In honor of my one year as the Accidental Blogger, I am reposting my first blog, title “Let the accidental blogging begin…”
Nowadays, it seems like everyone and their mother has a blog. Blogging has made it easier for people to communicate with each other, or with the world. Everyone has ideas, and blogs allow people to get down those ideas, and share them, or not. Some may chose their blogs to stay private, or unknown, or anonymous, but the point is to get thoughts down, and to be as honest as possible about them. Blogs often become more than just an easy way to communicate; they become a way to reflect on life or works of art, and I want in on the action.
I’m joining the blogging world a bit late in the game. I never had anything remotely interesting to blog about, and the thought of sharing my writing with the world was terrifying. So why me, and why now? I am in, what my colleague Vanessa Rubino Jubis describes as a ‘writer’s slum.’ As an MFA student, my mind was brimming with ideas, and stories itching to claw their way out of my fragile little mind. I wrote pieces I was immensely proud of, pieces I was shocked were written by me because they were so emotionally charged and entertaining. But once it came time to write my thesis, all the ideas, all the inspiration, all the motivation, were gone. It was as if all the passion and drive I had for writing was sucked out of me by a vacuum cleaner. Just as I was finally able to accept myself as a writer, just when I was comfortable enough to let people know that is what I do, it was all taken from me. How can someone be a writer if they can’t write? I felt like a failure, and I didn’t understand why the passion was gone so suddenly. I thought perhaps submitting my pieces for publication would be a motivating factor. Most submitted pieces (the better ones anyway) were accepted, and for a moment, I felt like I could shine again. But when I sat down to write, NOTHING! I procrastinated, I delayed, I did everything but write.
It was a friend who convinced me to start blogging so I can share my writing with the world. The fact that she thinks my writing is good enough to share should have been motivation enough, but I didn’t want to start a blog without a concept. After all, doesn’t every blog need a concept? Well, this evening, something finally sparked in me, and I was desperate to start writing the blog I had been thinking about, and debating about, and dreaming about. My writing brain finally became active, and I felt like I actually had something to say. Perhaps writing down my frustrations could help with my writing. Perhaps I can write about not being able to write, and I can actually write in the process.
I’m sure there are others out there like me. Writers who feel like failures because they want to write, but can’t. Then maybe this blog is for you. Maybe you stumbled upon it by accident, like I started writing it by accident. Sometimes, the best writing can be the ones that are unplanned. So let the accidental blogging begin, and hopefully some intentional ideas will spark.
As my former writing professor would say, “Write on!” Until next time…
The Accidental Blogger
Filed under Just for fun
It’s a lack of motivation, not time
I used to complain a lot about never having the time to write. I honestly felt I was too busy to sit down and write for five minutes. When I had to work on my MFA thesis, I would use time as an excuse. I was helping my family by taking care of my grandmother and babysitting my niece, and of course, assistant teaching online. I couldn’t alienate my relationship and my friends, so writing became too much of a responsibility.
I was having a hard time working on my thesis despite the approaching deadline. When I started this blog as a source of inspiration, it hit me that time wasn’t the issue, but the motivation to write was. I thought by documenting my writer’s journey and thinking of ways to be creative, I could actually stay on track with my writing. It worked, for the most part. I was so excited about the blog, I concentrated more on it than I did on the thesis. I was learning so much about myself as a writer by exploring creativity and why writers restrict their writing and why they can’t get motivated. But between teaching, blogging, babysitting, and taking care of grandma, I was writing. And I realized that even a sentence or two a day really moved my writing along. I’m discovering that with my latest short story as well, a personal story about a woman’s struggle with her mother’s Alzheimer’s. I began to realize that adding a few sentences here and there, maybe four times a week, was helping my story take shape. When I feel blocked on that specific story, I’ll work on my novel. Or I’ll read. Anything to keep writing and letting my mind flow with ideas.
I did end up finishing my thesis and earned my MFA in January of 2010. Of course, it wasn’t the perfect manuscript I had imagined it would have been when I started, but it was almost a year of effort and I let myself be proud of it. It comforted me to learn that not too many people are happy with their thesis; it’s something we do to get our degrees and we can keep working on it, shaping it, or discarding what we have and starting over. The learning process is really all that matters, and even if we don’t realize it at that moment, the more we read and write, the more we learn about writing.
I don’t have as much family responsibility anymore. My niece started daycare and we all take turns looking after grandma. So the time to write is mine. Next time I complain about not being able to write, I’ll know time isn’t the issue. It’s the motivation. And it’s so important to get ourselves motivated to keep writing. Because if we don’t write, we can’t call ourselves writers.
Off to work on my story now. Hope you’ll be working on yours as well.
Write on!
The Accidental Blogger
Filed under Writing on Writing
Ray Bradbury on Writing Persistantly
As legendary writer, Ray Bradbury, points out in this video, it’s important to keep writing. If, as writers, we don’t practice our craft, we won’t get better. Persistence eventually pays off.
Bottom Line: If you don’t write, you aren’t a writer.
So keep motivating yourself and write on!
Until next time,
The Accidental Blogger
Filed under Writing on Writing
Rejecting Rejection in Writing
All writers have gotten rejected at one time for another. It’s not a good feeling. Believe me, I should know. After a very promising start as a writer, the Universe seems to have gotten tired of giving me good luck. The past two months have been especially hard on my writing. Not only have my short stories been rejected by one literary mag after the other, but I’m having a difficult time finding a second teaching job to help pay off my grad school loans.
Having read enough interviews with famous authors, and a book or two on writing, I know rejection is common, and I don’t let it get to me. It’s easier to accept, knowing that Amy Tan, Stephen King, and Janet Finch, three authors I read recently, have also experienced that rejection.
King, in his wonderful On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, wrote that he hammered a nail into the wall when he was younger, and kept all his rejection slips there, until he reached 100. “When you get to 100, give yourself a pat on the back and go out and celebrate. You’ve arrived.”
Of course, rejections most often come through email now, but it might not be such a bad idea to print those babies out, and use them as encouragement rather than negativity. Use those emails or slips as a reminder to keep trying harder, to keep writing more, and submitting often. Always remember that writing is subjective. Rejection does not mean you’re a bad writer. It just means that specific piece was not right for the magazine/agent/publishing house/literary mag at that particular time. Use rejection as an opportunity to read more, and expand your knowledge of both writing and reading. Put that manuscript aside and start something new. Explore territories you haven’t before. Read authors you’ve been meaning to, but haven’t. Come back to your piece in about a month and re-read what you have. It’s easier to notice problems when you haven’t glanced at a specific piece in that long. Rewrite what you have. Send it out again. Keep doing it. Keep working. Join a writer’s group if you have to. Take a class at the local Community College. Something will happen. It always does.
It’s important to remember that rejection is not personal. This is key. It does not mean you’re a bad writer or even the particular piece is bad. It just means you have to keep trying. Possibly rewrite. Possibly try another avenue. And through that long and strenuous process, remember that you’re not alone.
William Saroyan, a fellow Armenian, collected a pile of rejection slips thirty inches high- about seven thousand – before he sold his first short story. Alex Haley, author of Roots, wrote every day, seven days a week for eight years before selling to a small magazine. They stuck it out, and eventually broke through.
You can too!
As you write, I recommend reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, On Writing by Stephen King, and as cheesy as it may sound, Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul, where published authors detail their own struggles with writing and rejection. You will get loads of encouragement and motivation from these books, I promise.
Until next time,
The Accidental Blogger
Filed under Inspiration, Writing on Writing
What makes a writer?
Last week, I returned to my former position as Writing Consultant at Los Angeles Valley College for a day. While there, I met with a former mentor to get a letter of recommendation for a teaching job at the school. Long story short, he asked if I could serve on the advisory board of the Media Arts department at LAVC and I humbly accepted.
I attended the meeting Friday morning and ran into some familiar faces, most of whom basically served as a chapter of my life story. I had worked or taken classes with so many of the acquaintances in that room, during a different time in my life, when I was a student just starting out on my writing journey. I felt as though I had stepped through a portal to my past. It was truly a wonderful experience.
I chatted with one specific colleague, whose wife is a writer, and actually helped with the rewrite on my first ever screenplay, which he directed over 8 years ago. I asked what his wife has been writing lately and his response shocked me, “Oh, {she} only writes when she gets paid.”
As a writer, the thought of only writing when I get paid for it is appalling. So, I asked myself, “what makes a writer?” Is it someone who gets paid to write and makes a living off of it, or someone who has such an undying passion to get those ideas and thoughts down on paper and can’t imagine a day without it?
Writing is a strenuous and difficult job that most non-writers won’t understand. It takes so much passion and determination to keep writing and strive to perfect it. I, for one, don’t think a writer needs to get paid in order to write. In fact, a true writer doesn’t worry about the paycheck at all; they write because they love the art. Making money from writing does not make a true writer. A true writer cannot imagine their day without getting something down on paper – whether its a word, a phrase, a sentence, or a page. True writers need to write at any cost and do not wait for a paycheck.
Anyone can say they’re a writer, but a true writer does not wait for that paycheck. They write regardless, because it is a need. As Norman Mailer said, “Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.”
Please begin a discussion and post your thoughts on what makes a ‘true writer.’
Until next time, write on!
The Accidental Blogger
Filed under Writing on Writing
Semi-True Fiction
Human beings fascinate me. Their thoughts and ideas. Their feelings. Why they act the way they do. What motivates, inspires, and challenges them. What makes them smile and laugh, sigh and reflect. I love observing them, studying their movements, their actions, and their speech. Every person I come across is complex and unique, and form the basis for most of my writing. My eyes are constantly moving, searching for the victim who will help spark my next idea.
I enjoy sitting alone at one of the many local Starbucks’, drinking coffee and people watching. I pretend to read – a novel, short story collection, or magazine – while paying attention to the nuances of body language, overhearing snippets of conversation and matching the gestures to the words. I look forward to discussions and arguments. Private phone conversations. Flirting. Even when I don’t understand the language being spoken, I almost always seem to understand what is being said; at least, what’s being said according to me.
Alfred Hitchcock once said, “Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.” This is true, from my perspective. The greatest inspiration for my writing is life itself, with all its glorious pain, heartache, eccentricities and drama. Yes, life is more interesting when it’s partly fiction, but all fiction has to come from somewhere. For me, writing comes from the heart. The old saying that goes, “write what you know,” is exactly what I do. My friends and family have been truly inspirational, not because of their encouragement (I don’t get much of that), but because they all lead semi-interesting lives and give me plenty of material.
I call my stories ‘semi-true fiction’ because they’re neither fiction or non-fiction. They fall somewhere in-between. I get incredibly inspired by the people I know, places I visit, or tragedies that occur in my life or in the lives of those around me. I find the greatest inspiration comes from life itself, with all its glorious pain and heartache. It’s that pain and emotion that I like to transfer to my writing. I listen to people talk, laugh, cry, and I transfer that to the page. Those emotions are all real, but because I don’t always speak the full truth, semi-fiction was born.
Throughout the years, writing has become my crack; addicting and strangely satisfying. If my stories are put together as one whole, they can serve as my autobiography in words: each story tells a part of me; my thoughts and feelings, my emotions, my heartbreaks and sorrows, what I feel at that particular moment, and perhaps, how I want to feel instead. I say through my characters what I don’t necessarily say out loud, but have often wanted to. I make my characters do things I often dream about, but haven’t done. Sometimes, I don’t change a thing and the characters are purely me, a side of myself I only reveal to close friends and in my writing. A big part of myself exists in all my characters: my insecurities, my fears, my passions. That’s what writing means to me; an ability to escape the world and put memories into words. Writing makes life so much simpler.
If anything connects my stories, it’s the semi-truth. Some stories might ring truer than others, but they have all been inspired, in one way or another, by my life and the people around me. By the lies I’ve been told. By the lies I tell. Writing is my way of revealing the truth. The truth as I see it.
May it set me free.
ASSIGNMENT: I strongly urge my readers to go out and write a semi-true story. Interview a friend or stranger, listen in on a conversation, observe your loved ones, and craft a story around what’s happening and what you see. You’ll be surprised at the results.
Until next time, write on!
The Accidental Blogger
Filed under Inspiration, Writing on Writing
Writing One Page a Day
Writing demands motivation and focus; that much is obvious. But sometimes, it’s incredibly difficult to find that motivation. It’s easy for us, as writers, to want to write, but more difficult to actually sit down to write. Distraction is everywhere , whether online – email, Facebook, Twitter, Google – or personal – phone calls, family, work – and it can take away from precious writing time. The task of writing a novel can seem especially enormous, but it doesn’t have to be.
We’ve all heard this advice, and it’s about time we follow it: “Write one page a day” to stay on track. Imagine, by sitting in front of the computer for 20,30,60 minutes, with no distractions and just transferring the words that come to us onto the page, a 365 page novel can be written in a year’s time. Sometimes, a page just isn’t enough, and we can find ourselves writing 5, 6, 10 pages in one sitting, and the novel is done sooner that expected, or comes out longer.
But, of course, there are some hurdles that might keep the motivation away. So, if you’re stuck on the beginning of Chapter Two, for example, and can’t find the drive to continue, don’t let that stop you. If you know what’s coming next in the story, start on Chapter Three or Four or Five, or write the end of the novel if you have to. If you have absolutely no idea where the novel is going, form an outline to make it easier to figure out what comes next. You can always fill in the blanks later. It’s much easier to fill in blanks when the rest of the manuscript has already taken shape and you don’t have to block the motivation just because Chapter Two isn’t working at the moment.
A page a day will allow you to stay focused on your writing, and get that often dreamed about novel out from your imagination and onto the page. Simple advice we’ve constantly heard, but never follow.
So I leave you with the words of Paul J. Meyer – “Productivity is never an accident. It’s always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”
Now’s the time. Follow this advice and write on!
The Accidental Blogger
Filed under Writing on Writing
Quotes as Writing Inspiration
Inspiration can come from anywhere. A thought, an idea, an image. Personally, my inspiration comes from life itself. I enjoy sitting alone at one of the many local Starbucks’, drinking coffee and people watching. I pretend to read – a textbook, novel, short story collection, or magazine – while paying attention to the nuances of body language, overhearing snippets of conversation and matching the gestures to the words. I look forward to discussions and arguments. Private phone conversations. Flirting. Even when I don’t understand the language being spoken, I almost always seem to understand what is being said; at least, what’s being said according to me.
But sometimes, the inspiration just isn’t there, and I look to writing prompts to help spark it. As I mentioned in some previous posts, I’ve been crafting writing prompts for a friend who asked me to be her mentor so she can get over her writer’s block. Instead of struggling to come up with her own ideas, she bases her writing on assignments I give her, and aside from an extremely difficult one she hasn’t quite finished, it seems to be working for her.
Below is one of the assignments she was assigned. She came up with a very unique and interesting piece about lost love and future possibilities. It’s amazing what a little bit of inspiration can help produce. This prompt helped her; hope it can help you too.
I searched my old writing books and picked five unique and not-so-famous quotes. The assignment asked her to pick ONE quote, and craft a short story of no less than 300 words, and with no more than four characters, based that quote…
“All families build a Glass House, open to the world, and live inside it; these houses are our inheritance. My family’s house has the burden of being real as well. It needs to be heated and have its taxes paid.” – Dominique Vellay
“Huck just moves on. Alice just wakes up.” – Adam Gopnick
“Life, of course, never gets anyone’s complete attention. Death always remains interesting, pulls us, draws us.” – Janet Malcomb
“Men are always asking, “What do women want?” I think women mainly want men to cook and show up on time – you know, some of the basic stuff.” – Hans Ostrom, letter
“We travel into or away from our photographs” – Don DeLillo
Give it a try. Pick a quote and just start writing. You’ll be amazed what you come up with.
Write on!
The Accidental Blogger
Filed under Inspiration, Writing on Writing
Finishing your thesis – get the job done
When I first started this blog, I was in the process of trying to complete my MFA thesis, a book of short stories. The more I wanted to write, the less I was able to write. I waited for inspiration to strike, but it never did. I felt I had failed as a writer, and as a human being. I started this blog as an outlet to let my writing out because the thesis process seemed to be restricting it. I thought that if I wrote for others instead of myself, I’d have an easier time writing.
Through this blog, I gave advice I didn’t always follow myself, but should have. I posted my thoughts on writing, and offered motivational quotes and feedback. I even started offering writing prompts, which I had picked up during graduate school. I found myself becoming a writing mentor to some friends, giving them assignments or critiquing their writing, when my own needed help as well.
Now, almost four months after starting this blog, my thesis is finally done. It was approved in less than a week and sent out for printing last night. I’m finally free of the stress, although I know I can never look at it once it arrives, in fear of finding a million mistakes I hadn’t noticed in my rush to meet the deadline. I changed as a person since starting this blog, from someone who never thought he’d make the thesis deadline and was doomed for failure, to someone who not only made the deadline, but learned about writing, and himself, in the process.
I know there are others out there suffering the same block I did. They want to finish their thesis, but don’t know how. There’s a mental block keeping it from happening. A sort of fear about what happens after the thesis is finished. My colleague Vanessa Jubis calls this the writer’s slum. I think that’s a good way of describing it. This slum caused me more stress than I would have liked, and a rush to submit my thesis without being able to give it one last proof read. Of course, I need to remind myself that no thesis is perfect; that no writing is perfect. But, as all writers know, we’re our own worst critics.
This ‘slum’ really isn’t worth it. All it does is make life more difficult, and stretches out the thesis process longer than it should take. So, once again I’m telling you, no matter how much you don’t want to, force yourself to write. Only good can come out of it. For every bad sentence, there will be three good ones. A thesis will never be perfect, so force yourself to finish it, and move on to bigger and better things. Don’t let the fear of what happens next stop you from getting the job done. Only good things can come out of a completed thesis and a new degree. Prolonging it will only make things worse. Think positive and anything is possible.
Write on!
The Accidental Blogger
Filed under Inspiration, Writing on Writing
