...And I Did NOT Get Wrapped Around a Pole

All I can think of to say right now is...I DID IT!!!!


Yes, I just sent in my first entry to my first writing contest. I stopped dusting the studio and rewrote Chapter One. I grit my teeth like nobody's business and made changes I didn't want to make, and after all I'm very pleased. Fancy that.


This rewriting thing has got me thinking. Revising a manuscript over and over is like whipping up alternate galaxies.


I threw together the first three pages of Chapter One two years ago simply so I could submit my thin skin to a thick-skinned manuscript clinic run by Jerry B. Jenkins at my first Christian Writers Guild conference. Turns out he liked it (not that he didn't rip it apart, but he liked it while he ripped it apart). I was stunned and gratified. And, by this time, stubbornly attached to the part he liked.


But of course, getting precious about any creative work is death for creativity. As soon as something becomes absolutely essential, that's the time to throw it away.


Over the next two years, Chapter One went through both drastic overhauls and minute tweaks. Yet every time I overhauled or tweaked, I did so around the part I was hanging on to, which didn't help the situation. Anyone who's revised a text knows that changes in one sentence mean changes in another. It's like boxing clouds. Blink your eyes and you've got a whole new chapter. Except for the parts you refuse to change.


Then I joined a crit group. Oh dear. They were kind, but it was a structural issue, you see.


Resistant to the end, I dug in my heels. I tried every which way to keep that part. It was my opening hook. Jerry loved it! Maybe it could be a prologue...except it happened in the past. Maybe it could be not exactly a prologue but not exactly part of the chapter, either...Well, even I could see how far that would fly.


So yesterday I took a hatchet to it and started Chapter One in a whole new place. Know where? In the place I'd started the very first draft almost three years ago. Now it's a whole new old chapter, and much better besides.


How many incarnations did Chapter One go through to get to where it is? And how many more lie ahead? If I lined all the versions up like cousins with a family resemblance, they'd reach around the globe. And there are twelve chapters to go.


What am I doing with that precious severed limb? I'm hanging on to it. It'll make a perfect blurb for the back of the book.


Tomorrow I'm dressing up as a clown witch and letting my split personality slug it out. But tonight, I'll sleep the sleep of the just. The just entered, that is.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Dusting the Studio

My painting teacher used to call the fiddly prelude to creative work that we all seem to indulge in "dusting the studio."


We walk around and rearrange things just so, stack these over here instead of over there, hang something on the wall and scrutinize it for the thousandth time, or, for those of us who work at our desks, maybe pay some bills...or write a blog. Very helpful stuff.


Still, there's a fine line between getting ready to work and postponing the inevitable. The personal dance that marks the start of our creative time is magical, intimate, and unique to each of us. And we each have a tipping point: One moment we're psyching ourselves up, the next moment we're procrastinating. Knowing our own special moment to stop fussing and get down to it is one sign of maturity in an artist.


My one and only job this morning is to get Chapter One ready to enter a contest. I'm excited, scared (it's my first writing competition), and generally overwhelmed by the amount of work there is to do on my entry.


Last year at this time, I thought my manuscript was ready for submission to anyone, anywhere. Then I joined a critique group of specialists in my story's genre. God love them, they put Chapter One back on the front burner and handed me a lesson in humility.


This first chapter has a slight structural problem that I've been pondering for weeks, along with some protagonist issues that affect the mood of the entire story. These are not small obstacles and I really don't know where to start, which is why I'm still polishing Chapter One two short days before the contest deadline.


And still dusting the studio.


But because I think I know when to dance and when to stop, I'll leave you with this: Dust away to your heart's content, and then get to work.

When Your Home Is Your Studio (or is it the other way around?)

Look closely. Bet you thought this was a photograph of a real quilt.


I've had this photo in my file for a long time and have no idea who did it. If someone knows who the graphic artist is, please let me know. I'd like to give very full credit!


In the meantime, today it represents a perfect meld of home and studio. How many of us work in our homes or live in our studios? I do. My floor looms, thank heavens, are in an airy larger shed on the property, but my more immediate art--my writing, painting, and beading--live here with me in my new little cottage.


Since there simply isn't room to carve a studio from my living space, I'm creating a sort of "living studio." All my choices for decorating and arranging things in my limited space are based on whether or not they serve my work with words and colors. Watercolor table in the sitting room? Why not? It's a feature. Desk in the bedroom? No, that's a bed in the writing room.


This last juxtaposition worried me before I moved in. I've always had separate office and bedroom, and I have to admit I was concerned about not being able to relax, what with my work staring me in the face every night. But I've discovered that I sleep very well surrounded by what I love. When I look at my shelves of books about writing, poetry, creativity, and children's literature (even those stern dictionaries in five languages), I see possibilities for creating my future. If anything keeps me awake these days, it's too many ideas!


If working at home is a problem for you, there are ways to shift the orientation of your living space to support your creativity.

• Ask yourself what sort of home would feed your creative dreams. Give more space to what you love and give it a place of honor. Surround yourself with things that make you want to be creative. Cut out the clutter that keeps you stuck in the uncreative past.
  
• What about setting up a dedicated workspace? Think about how that would change your life. Clearly, the more of your home that is dedicated to your art or craft, the stronger the constant creative energy will be, pulling you in and jump-starting your work. But even if all you can manage is a convertible corner or a roll-out unit, it's a seed waiting to grow.
  
• Think about what you would pack in a portable studio. A space-saving backpack stuffed with miniature versions of your favorite tools is a possible solution for a crowded living space (and a great idea for taking advantage of odd moments on your job, by the way).
  
• Another question: What sort of inspiration would a fairy sprinkle on you? Got it? Now sprinkle it around your house.

One of the best ways to grease your gears is to keep a steady stream of exciting and interesting ideas coming into your brain. What sort of inspiration tickles your fancy? Literature, music, motivational tapes? Films, friends, the Buddha? 

Select things that make you want to strive for the very highest within yourself, images or objects that remind you of who you really are: a magnificent spiritual being, a naturally creative soul. Surround yourself with messages in a language that speaks to your heart. Put them in places where you can't help but see them. What is it that touches you right where you live and makes you want to be your very, very best?

-- from The Day Job Survival (and Escape) Kit

Time and Space are two of the issues I look at in The Day Job Survival (and Escape) Kit --hopefully coming soon to a computer near you. And am I glad I've finally got a living studio. Time to edit! 

On Not Standing Still

I live in the wine country of Baja California, where the time changed last night.


This puts us an hour behind San Diego, directly to our north, and it'll stay that way for the next week until the US changes its time. I'm reminded of of the arbitrariness of time zones, Daylight Savings, and sometimes even national borders.


But did I enjoy that extra hour last night? You bet! Having no work and moving house are numbers 3 and 4 on someone's list of the 10 most stressful things in life . I think they're right. I could sleep for a week.


Nevertheless, for fun and professional fluff I've decided to enter the Phoenix Rattler Writing Contest for unpublished writers. This means I've finally got to get the first ten pages of Chapter One of my YA novel in submission shape this week. I've been dallying with this manuscript for too many months now, reaching for perfection. It's time to pick a solution and get on with it. Nothing like a deadline to kick in the spurs!


It's going to be a week full of writing, and maybe even some actual work. Of my 28 translation applications from last week, I've had a 10% return so far (not bad!)--and 5% of them were actively positive. They've got me in their stables now. Will they send work? Who knows? It's exciting, though, like digging for clams. Maybe this shovelful...or maybe this one....


If I'm learning one thing from this rather stressful time, it's that nothing happens if you stand still. A nudge here, a nudge there, and suddenly things start to pop. After two years of professional stasis, I'm launching a flotilla of messages into the void, like so many bottles on the sea, all saying the same thing: "I'm here."


Inch by inch, row by row...

Housewarming

Today was moving day for me. Hoorah!


In the absence of pictures of my new home, I chose this one to commemorate the day. All those rakes and wheels must mean good luck somewhere in the world!


Tomorrow starts a new chapter. It's good to shake things up once in a while. My friends will tell you I spend most of my time shaking things up and that this is a relatively small one, as my shakes go. But even a small shake can change your perspective completely.


I moved my stuff only about 50 feet from the main house to a small cottage on the property. It's a move that won't keep me from coming back every night to watch the World Series. Still, a new house means new wall colors, new views out the windows, new energy around me.


New movements through the environment generate new thoughts. I like to shift my furniture around a lot, too. It's a brain stretch.


So Happy Housewarming to me (and my cat). May those new thoughts be ever better ones!

The Truth About Freelance Writing, Part One

There's a writers ghetto out there, and I found it.


Did you know that minimum wage in Kansas is hanging in there at $2.65 an hour? This will change, thank heavens, at the beginning of 2010, when it's brought into line with the national minimum of a bare $7.25. Still, it's not much. Here's a surprising list of ten job titles paid at or very close to minimum wage:


Emergency Medical Technician, Pharmacy Technician, Certified Nursing Assistant, Preschool Teacher, Amusement Park Ride Operator, Line Cook, Lifeguard, Nanny, Automobile Mechanic, and Tax Preparer.


Add to this startling list of talented people: Freelance Writer.


Only a small percentage of writers actually live from their writing--this I knew. But I had no idea how deeply dismal it was out there until I fell into the middle of the bidding wars.


Hundreds of article sweatshops are happy to hire writers who churn out dozens of articles a day for less than a penny a word. At these rates, 500 words will net you $3-4. Even if you can manage two of these an hour (and we won't mention quality), you're clocking in right around minimum wage.


There are faster writers in the world than me, and faster minds. There's obviously a place on the market for speedsters who can grind out enough legible words, backed up by dubious research, to make this arrangement worthwhile. Although it drives prices and quality down in the industry, it certainly works for site owners who just need enough keywords in their content to drive traffic to their online shops.


But this system is not for me. After a friendly e-mail exchange with one canvasser of articles who asked me to offer his readers a series of rapid weight-loss meal plans (to which I said I was not a nutritionist and to which he replied I didn't need to be), I hung up my bottom-of-the-barrel article-writing hat.


I'll certainly keep my eye out for good opportunities--it's a wide, wide Internet, after all. But for now I'm thanking God for the positive responses coming in from translation agencies that actually pay people for the work they do, and feeling blessed that I have this option.


I'm also sending up a prayer for all those preschool teachers and emergency medical technicians who face blatant disregard for their training and education. It's something to think about the next time your 911 call is answered in the middle of the night.

Growing Pains

Just to hazard a guess, I'd say about one-third of all blog entries must start with, "Sorry for my absence...."

So no apology here. Just three posts in one day and an observation:

I expect to be blogging (on this blog) for a while to come. In this spirit, I'm trying to keep some perspective and allow it its growing pains. My little blog knows what it wants to be when it grows up, but it also knows it's not quite there yet.

All part of the creative process.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who's been stopping by to see what's going on. When you figure it out, please let me know.

The Shotgun Method

When in doubt, throw everything out in all directions at once.

I spent the better part of the last week searching out 28 translation agencies in Switzerland and applying to them, finishing Angela Booth's Just-In-Time Cash Machine (see my last blog post) and following all the instructions like a good girl, setting myself up on freelance writing website Elance ("sweatshop" is more like it, but beggars can't be choosers) and bidding on eight jobs there, responding to one other ad and writing a 200-word application article on--of all things--flannel sheets, and searching out seven royalty-paying e-book publishers for my nonfiction book.

Whew. Now what?

Well, I thought I'd post the Introduction to my...ahem...upcoming book here, just for fun. It's in a separate post just below. Please let me know what you think!

THE DAY JOB SURVIVAL (and Escape) KIT

Here's an excerpt from my upcoming book. Enjoy!

INTRODUCTION

Day-jobbers come in all shapes and sizes.

It doesn’t matter whether you serve cappuccinos in Dayton or trade on Wall Street. If you bundle your body off to work every day while your heart stays home to play guitar, write the great American novel, or design alternate planets, your job is a day job. And you are a creative day-jobber.

Creative day-jobbers live in two worlds that seem impossible to mesh. This book will help you bridge that daunting gap and turn your whole life into one amazing work of art.

You know these two worlds well.

In your job world, you push paper, wait tables, run a business, or take care of little ones. You’re competent, alert, conscientious and hopefully paid for your efforts. People look up to you or down at you, call you “Bob” or “Mr. Bob,” ignore you, or seek your advice.

Oh, but in the other world, you’re a poet, a painter, an actor! You dance and choreograph, make stage sets and direct. You write novels, record your own songs, perform for cheering crowds.

You’re bursting to live in this creative world, but it seems that you never can. Why? Because you give all your time and energy to the other one.

The tension from living in two worlds can be enormous. It’s possible to drive yourself completely around the bend. Instead, you resign yourself every morning and go to bed exhausted every night. You ask, “What’s the point?” and when there’s no answer, you give up and go to work. And there’s no end in sight.

The hardest part about this whole thing is that it hurts. It really does.

But what if you took all the difficulty and frustration of your day job and channeled that energy creatively, in the direction you want it to go?

This is where we can take a lesson from the martial art of aikido. Aikido teaches the defender to use the aggressor’s energy against himself. Instead of meeting a charging aggressor with matching force, the defender moves with the energy and lets the madman smash himself against a wall. Aikido transforms that undesirable energy into an action that works for the defender, not against him.

What would happen if, when your job threw its ugly energy in your direction, you met it with all your creativity and changed that raging raw material into something productive—possibly even beautiful and enjoyable?

The Day Job Survival (& Escape) Kit is about precisely that: applying your creative skill to transform an unbearable chore—and yourself—into a source of joy and inspiration.

Durga

October 2009

Dancing While the Floor is Moving

It's official. Looking for a day job is now my day job.

I don't know why it's always been so hard for me to see how to make money by writing. Lots of people do it. I can see my professional life hovering on the horizon: a colorful patchwork of books, articles, this and that. But how to get from A to Z? For some reason my mind's got butterfingers.

Still, I think I'm getting closer. I've narrowed my search to three areas. The ubiquitous translation, writing articles for corporate magazines, and writing book reviews, which I just realized can actually be done for money.

If you're interested in investigating some avenues for yourself, I've started researching those last two activities with these basic texts: Top Dollar for Your Articles by Harry Husted and Get Paid to Read by Steve Weinberg (both edited by Bob Bly). 

My painting teacher once told me, "If you look inside a how-to book, you'll find you already know it." This may be true with painting, but I've found these how-to's very helpful in sorting out the first baby steps of professional writing--and calming me down besides.

In addition, today I'm starting to work with a packet by Angela Booth called Your Just-In-Time Cash Machine. Get past the title, if it grates. This looks like a very clear and helpful e-book about tip-toeing into marketing your services online.

The book includes a seven-day action plan, which I plan to implement starting today. I'll let you know how it goes.

On the creativity front, early next week, I'm moving from a big bedroom in my house to a cottage close by on the property. I'll have room there to set up a table for picture-booking and maybe even my tapestry loom. It involves a bit of pre-move room painting, but it's a cheerful little place with lots of windows and good energy.

My first loom-beaded necklace is almost done. Well, that means the necklace itself is beaded and now I have to figure out how to sew in all the warp threads and attach the clasp. Oh, and the fringe. It's ridiculously hard to photograph because of the shape of the loom, which is solid behind the warp and blocks the wonderful light that makes the piece worth looking at, but I'll keep at it and post pictures at the first opportunity. I may have to put it on for a photo session!

If you're wondering what loom beading is or would like to see the loom I'm using, here it is . Its name is Larry. Don't ask me why.

And now, back to the dance. Time to critique a fellow critter's novel in exchange for one on my own. I haven't said much about them, but these critiques are the most valuable input to my writing I've experienced in a very long time. I'm inching up to submission.

Do I have stars in my eyes?

And a-one and a-two...