Something Different 

I took a small break from updating my blog this month.  Actually I took a small break from writing all together.  I realized that if I am to have any semblance of a writer's life it can't be lived confined to the four walls of my office.  That and I wanted to quit smoking.

Everything was fine until I started thinking of writing.  Then I started thinking of this blog.  And it all made me wonder when is enough enough?  Some of the greatest writers in history are built of off epic lives.  Fighting in wars, drugs, partying and enduring societal abuse are common.  The drive to write becomes an outlet, a way of coping with these lives.  But when we sit and write we are channeling these experiences not creating more. And it is inevitable that the creative well will go dry after enough draining.

So I pose a question; where is the middle ground?  How do you find balance in your life between living it and writing it?

On a side note it has been 432 hours since I smoked a cigarette.

A Carrot On A Stick

It's time to talk about having goals. Having day dreams of crowded book signings and readings is great. But how will you get there without laying out a path for yourself? Goals. When your career path specifically goes through the dark woods of creativity it is easy to get lost along the way. Unless you give yourself clear cut goals both short term and long term you will not succeed in this field. So where should you start mapping your path to success?

Word Count - This is a very basic starting point. Pick a word count for yourself to hit every day. I try never to write any less than 250 words per day. Now for me that is a relatively low number and very easy to hit. But that is the point. If I set it at 3000 words and have a fully stacked schedule that prevents me from hitting my goal I will feel like a failure. Negativity is counter productive to creativity. Start small and remember slow and steady wins the race.

Literary Magazines - Both online and small press literary magazines publish on a monthly and sometimes weekly basis. These make for great short term publishing goals and also allow you to gauge the quality of your writing. I try and submit to at least one magazine a month and shoot for at least 4-5 publications a year.

Now remember every good system of goals has an even better system of rewards. In a career where you work largely alone you need to reward yourself for meeting goals. If you make your word count every day for a month treat yourself to a movie or dinner. Just don't ever reward yourself by taking the day off of writing. This is a seven day a week 365 day a year job you chose and you can't risk taking time off. If you can help cut a path for yourself with small goals you will reach your larger ones. And in the end seeing that book on a store shelf will be a greater reward than anything you can give yourself.

Painting With Your Words

Have you ever heard the phrase "Show, don't tell."? Well of course you have. Everybody who has gone through elementary school has heard a teacher utter those words. But how exactly do we show a story instead of telling a story? I was once told that the idea is to paint a picture with your words. So here I will share the process that I go through when editing my own work.

Example:
She was alive and that made him happy.

This sentence gives a very broad idea of what is going on in the scene. It only reveals very basic information but doesn't strike a cord. So lets begin with the tense. This sentence is written in past tense. She was alive and that made him happy. Writing in past tense puts the action of your writing in the background. We don't watch things as they happen we see that they have happened. So if that sentence was my first draft my first correction would be;

She is alive and that makes him happy.

Now this sentence is in present tense. We are watching the action unfold before our eyes. But this is still not good enough. We are still being told the bulk of information, just before not after the fact. The next hurtle to jump is to break out of the "white room syndrome". I always begin by asking myself basic question about the scene. Where are they? How do they feel about what is going on? What is the weather like today? And then when I get a feeling for it I re-write to further bring it to life.

Pulling back Steve felt his lips crack a little from dryness as they separated from Brenda's. Sitting on the warm cement still cradling her head she remains motionless. The silence is broken as the pool filter whirs to life and he feels his muscles tense up even more. For him nobody else at the party exists. Staring into her glazed lifeless eyes he realizes the worst and feels the nausea begin to set in. Her back arches and her head jerks upwards towards his. Her mouth opens wide as a horse cough brings forth almost an entire gallon of watery mucus. Steve doesn't even recoil from the face full of slimy water or blink as it stings his eyes and invades his gaping mouth. He wraps his arms tightly around her as she regains consciousness and buries his head into her chest to hide his tears. The tears of sorrow for the ten seconds he had lost her and the tears of joy knowing that he hasn't.

There we go, now we can see the difference between showing and telling. Paint a picture of the scene with your words and let the action unfold in front of your reader. If done correctly they won't have time to thank you because they won't be able to put down your work.