Spirits Up!

Today I struggled with keeping my spirits up.  The dumb thing?  There was no reason for it.

Yeah.  So, a side effect of this was that I couldn't keep focused on writing.  (I'm even having a hard time with this post!) I did get some writing done but not any where near what I wanted to pound out today.  And right now I'm forcing myself to write this blog because I want to so bad that I don't even care if it is bad.

I'm hoping that some of you have had a similar experience and can share what you do to pull yourself up when you don't really know what's bringing you down!  (Especially if it is effecting your writing...)

Passion as Love

I have passion about very few things.  One is my family.  One is my writing.  One is music.  I LOVE this stuff.  

I love how my family keeps me sane.  I love the support they give me.  I love the encouragement.  I love how we can laugh together.  I even love how we fight and then make up.  I love our differences.  I love our learning experiences.

I'm a piano player.  I love music.  I actually was majoring in music oh so long ago when I was young and in college.  I love how music can make you feel.  I love how complicated it is.  I love how it can create an emotion.  I love how it can help you remember certain feelings or times in your life.  

And I obviously love to write.  I love how I can put my feelings down on paper (or computer) as in a journal entry.  I love how I can create a person.  I love how I can create a world.  I love how I am in control of that world and character and I can create a moving, exciting, wonderful, terrible place.  I love to explore all the things that could happen in my world with my characters.

I just felt today that I needed to share what I loved about the things that I loved most in my life!

Happy Writing!

The Elusive Muse

All this time, I thought I was better at writing when the moment hit me.  When I was single, it was so easy to write when the Muse took me.   When I got married it was a little more difficult but still possible.  Then I had my first child.  Then another.  And finally my third.  I found I would wait.  And wait... and wait...  for the muse to come and take me away to my story land.

Now, as mentioned in a previous blog post, my third, and youngest is in preschool, giving me 2.5 glorious completely alone hours.

I realized that I was going to have to get that blasted Muse myself.

I decided when I signed him up and after having hardly ever had the Muse take me in the last 3 years that I would dedicate that time to writing.  I was a little hesitant because I never had done that before and I honestly didn't know if it would work for me.  I'm having way more success than I ever thought I would.  I'm so glad that I did schedule the time to write and I only use it for writing.  Not to say that I don't have a quick thought, idea, or description come to mind that I need to write down.

How many of you schedule time for writing only?  Or do you wait for the Muse?  Or do you use a combination of both?

Having Fun

I must say that my commitment to writing while my son is at preschool has been fantastic!  I'm totally excited and things are moving along.  (YIPPEE!!!)

Sometimes I have a hard time focusing on my writing because I'm thinking, "This is awful.  This definitely sucks."

I decided that I needed to take the advice of letting myself write "crap."  I tell myself that it is OK for now, I can go back and change it later.  I can fix it.  I just need to get the idea down, the emotion, the scene.  I found that this at least helps me to move forward with my story instead of dwelling on a section that can't be fixed yet because I don't know where it was going anyway!

Do you fellow writers have a mantra you tell yourself as your writing to keep you focused enough to get the story out?


As always... Happy Writing!!!

Time

My youngest child is now in preschool 3 days a week for 2.5 hours.  I had decided that when he started preschool that time was my precious writing time.

He has been to school twice now and I have written both days.  I didn't get as much done on the first day as I thought.  I vowed to do better the next time he went.
I dropped him off.  I came home.  I sat and I wrote CRAP!  I was so discouraged.  I posted on Facebook and Twitter that I was suffering from writer's block.  I had two friends give encouraging comments on my post.  So I gritted my teeth and wrote.

I doubt I'll keep a lot of what I wrote today but I did figure out a major plot point and got my story moving again and regained some excitement.

What have you done to get through those tough writing times?

Before I lose all momentum...

I thought I would force myself to at least blog today.  It seems I haven't any ideas to put on here and so I wait for something to come.  Obviously that isn't working.  I will just have to get on here and do it.

I've certainly been in a bit of a funk lately.  As a bit of explanation:  My husband worked out in California for the last 9 months.  I was here.  Lonely adult with three kids and the dog.  In a new house that needed unpacking.  I figured it would be great when he got back.  Not so.  He is a wrench in the works that I've tried to hard to keep together on my own.  Bummer.  I am glad that he is back but I'm also not glad that he is back.

I was also hit emotionally harder than I thought I would be by the death of a dear, sweet friend of mine.  She died of pancreatic cancer and I'm still near tears as I write this.  My nose is stinging and my heart hurts every time I think of her and the wonderful people she left behind who needed her.

As a writer, I've taken this opportunity to put in my mind the feelings of grief and confusion that I'm feeling.  One day I'm sure to write a scene where I will need to pull on these intense feelings.  For now, that is the only good I can come up with for this situation.

Happy writing!

It's been a while...

As the title infers, it's been a while since I last posted.  My life suddenly became very hectic for the past few days.  My little guy had a small surgery.  I had my mom come to help me because I thought I might go crazy at the hospital.  (Luckily that didn't happen.)  Then we decided to paint a bed frame for little guy and instead it turned into not only painting the bed but the nightstand, table, bookcase and room.  Looks fabulous and I will post pics once I get all the furniture arranged properly.
 
I was thinking during all that time that I needed to sit down and write a post!  I was crazy with it... and then the feeling left me, until tonight.  I must get back to writing!  My next big thing is my writing conference!  That may explain why I suddenly got the writing bug back.  I'm really excited to go and learn some writing stuff.  (Plus I will be at a hotel with no kids.  Heaven has come for me at last!)

I really enjoy going to conferences.  I love meeting the people and talking with others who have the same passion as I do.  It is really quite refreshing.  I enjoy learning all the little details about the craft or the business.  I love how the published authors that are in doing their classes love helping those of us who haven't gotten published yet.  They want us to live our dream too and I love the support and passion from all those around me.  If you haven't been to a writing conference (and you want to write) I would go.  Just sayin'...