Writers in the Storm

by Tasha Seegmiller

Happy last Monday of 2020!

Most years, there are people who are offering suggestions on how to reflect on what was accomplished, how to plan for a “better” year ahead. I have been one of those people. Seriously, the resolutions I used to set were ri-dic-u-lous.

But I’ve been doing a lot of work this year, on myself, on my valued relationships, on identifying when someone is trying to get something from me versus working toward something with me. And while I am not the first person to talk about the necessity of keeping our eyes on our own path, I do want to have us take a minute, in this typically quieter time of the year, at the end of a tumultuous everything, and be honest.

Grab a notebook, open a new doc, and write your unfiltered, honest answers to the following:

1. Did you write as much this year as you thought you would?

(This one’s pretty much a yes or no…) (remember honest and unfiltered)

2. What allowed you to do so?

OR...What prevented you from doing so?

3. How did all that was 2020 help or hinder you?

• Did your mental capacity and/or health seem to be in the perpetual chute of Chutes and Ladders?
• Did you have people when previously you didn’t?
• Did your energy shift in regards to what was required for your job/day to day life/making ends meet/worrying about loved ones/____________, etc.?

4. Does writing nurture you?

I’m anticipating at least ten minutes to answer those questions, if you are giving yourself time and space to be honest with yourself.

And I’m going to be very honest here: the flipping of a calendar to 2021 isn’t going to magically create a shift to what was (sorry…). I don’t want to be the Debbie Downer of WITS, yet I find it is better for me to be very aware of reality and plan for the worst. In America, politics will shift and still be politics. We have a vaccine for COVID and it’s going to take a long time for everyone to get to the point where safety is the new norm. Economies are dodgy, schools won’t really be consistent for a bit, and while we’d all like to look to the sky for the superhero of our preference to come in and save the day, real life is nuanced and hard and complicated.

If you answered no to #1 above, if you look at all the reasons you didn’t, do you have the capability to change any of that moving forward? Do you maybe need to change what you are expecting of your writing, of yourself?

If you have traded writing for sewing, painting, reading, etc. are you at a point in your life when writing isn’t nourishing you like it used to? If you are not under contract/using writing as a form of income, why are you trying so hard to write right now (if you say, “Well Shakespeare wrote King Lear…” that’s the wrong answer).

Do you need to get real honest about how you are spending your time and WHY? If someone asks for shows to binge and you scroll through the comments having seen all of most of them, is that because you are rewarding yourself for a hard day, or are you numbing yourself to the world around you? What has happened to your phone usage? Do you feel more connected to the people around you?

Now stop.

Close your eyes and take a full, lung-satisfying breath.

What do you feel in your neck and shoulders? When you're thinking about how you’d like to progress through 2021 with all the things, but especially your writing, does what you want to accomplish feel honest and true, in the deepest part of your soul, heart, and gut? Does it feel like something you think you should want to do but don’t?

This isn’t fast work. Answering these questions won’t magically make you able to write better or rise earlier to get words in or provide more peace of mind and energy.

Answering these questions will give you a minute to reconnect with the truth within you. To remember what it means to sit with your authentic self. From there, start asking other questions:

• What is my favorite excuse (real or perceived) for not doing what I want?
• How do I really feel about how I’m spending my time?
• What are the things I cannot change/modify/reverse about my reality?
• Where do I have some choice?

Congratulations. You made it to the last Monday of 2020.

There has been a lot to process, and each of us had different things. Feel your feelings, have an honest conversation, get grounded today, this week, and revisit this again, as you feel yourself numbing or spinning. Just as no one had the answers for how to get through this year, no one has answers on how you need to proceed, except you.

And I believe in you.

Did any of the questions above particularly resonate? What are your favorite ways to reconnect with your authentic self?

About Tasha

Tasha Seegmiller believes in the magic of love and hope, which she weaves into every story she creates. She is an MFA candidate in the Writing Program at Pacific University and teaches composition courses at Southern Utah University. Tasha married a guy she’s known since she was seven, is the mom of three teens, and co-owner of a soda shack and cotton candy company. She is represented by Annelise Robey of Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Top Image by iXimus from Pixabay

No matter what you are celebrating this month, we hope you are healthy and safe and loved. For many of our readers, holidays are the most difficult times of the year and we are sending you hope and a nice warm hug. For those of you who adore the holidays, we send you good cheer and a nice warm hug.

All of us at WITS appreciate that you choose to spend time with us every month. Your knowledge and your comments bring sunshine to our lives.

Cheers!
Ellen, Jenny, John and Kris

by Kris Maze

Have you wondered what other authors have done to be more productive? What unusual methods they used to finish their novels? Read about seventeen famous writers and their quirky hacks to get words on the page. 

What limits would you go to in 2021 to get into the writing zone?  

Many of us have figured out our best writing routines, honing our schedules and bribing our muses with ceremonious gifts. Even so, I am compelled to study the habits of successful writers and see what lies behind the curtain. Perhaps it is an attempt to reverse engineer their productivity and enhance my writing life. Maybe these tips can make you smile and appreciate your own writing life as it is.

At the closing of this year-that-shall-not-be-spoken, here is a collection of some of the most interesting habits I’ve read about, followed by the famous authors who use(d) them.  See for yourself what worked for these well-known scribes. Could these routines help you write more in 2021? You decide.

Scrolling

Using a long sheet of drawing paper, or scroll, is one of my favorite planning tools.  I use it during my early drafts to sequence a novel and I know of other writers who spread their manuscripts throughout their dining and living rooms as space dictates. But it seems we did not invent this method.  

Writers who used a scrolling system:

Edgar Allan Poe - He attached the pages of his final drafts together with sealing wax. Open with caution. 

Jack Kerouac - He envisioned his novel, On the Road, in a burst of inspiration.  In order to type the book quickly, he taped pages together, so he wouldn’t have to reload his typewriter.  Kerouac would have been a future fan of the dot matrix version of word processing.

Eudora Welty - Poet and Pulitzer Prize winner, she preferred stick-pins to put together her drafts. She wrote to a friend, “I used to use ordinary paste and put the story together in one long strip, that could be seen as a whole and at a glance — helpful and realistic. When the stories got too long for the room I took them up on the bed or table & pinned and that’s when my worst stories were like patchwork quilts, you could almost read them in any direction . . . I like pins.” 

The Original Scrivener 

Vladimir Nabokov - He wrote Lolita from the back of a car, using a carrying case full of notecards.  Having the full novel in place in his mind, he wrote various scenes on the cards, putting them in order in the case which also doubled as his desk. When asked why he wrote in his car, he said, “it's the only place in the country with no noise and no drafts.”  I guess that’s important when writing a novel on tiny slips of paper.

Apples

Agatha Christie - The quintessential mystery writer ate apples while taking long baths. Not that that isn’t eccentric enough; she examined murder photos for inspiration at the same time.  (And I thought adding bubbles and listening to writing podcasts was inspirational.)

Friedrich Schiller - Known for his close friendship with Goethe and his own poetry and philosophical writings, Schiller kept apples in his desk and let them rot.  He liked the way they smelled and found it made him more productive. Did Schiller also invent a precursor to potpourri?

Lying, Standing, or Hanging Upside Down

Virginia Woolf - She would compose her prose while standing.  She compared this method to painting with an easel and it eased her into her writing mode. 

Truman Capote - He lay in bed for his best thoughts. He explained in a 1957 interview with the Paris Review, “I am a completely horizontal author. I can’t think unless I’m lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy… No, I don’t use a typewriter. Not in the beginning. I write my first version in longhand (pencil). Then I do a complete revision, also in longhand.” 

Dan Brown - The writer of the Da Vinci Code series shared in an interview with the Guardian that he hangs upside down to clear his head and defeat writer’s block.

Have a ‘Conversation’ 

Alice Walker - The American novelist thinks of her writing time as inviting her muse to tea as the guest of honor. She states, "If you are expecting someone to come to tea but you’re not going to be there, they may not come, and if I were them, I wouldn’t come. So, [writing a book is] about receptivity and being home when your guest is expected, or even when you hope that they will come."

Edgar Allen Poe - He argued with the authors of written books... by putting notes in the margins. He wrote about the benefits of writing in books he read: “In the marginalia … we talk only to ourselves; we therefore talk freshly — boldly — originally — with abandonment — without conceit.”

Use of Color

Lewis Carroll  - The writer of Alice in Wonderland couldn’t overcome his days in academia.  As a math teacher at Oxford, he used a colored pen to correct papers.  He kept this habit while writing fiction, using purple ink. 

Alexandre Dumas - He was an organized writer and used different colored paper for his types of writing.  He chose blue for fiction, yellow for poetry, and pink for articles.  Once, he was forced to write fiction on cream-colored paper, which he claimed made his writing terrible that day.  

James Joyce - The Irish writer used large blue pencils on his drafts and wore a white coat when writing.  More than superstition, it helped with his poor eyesight. Some writing habits are simply pragmatic.

A Hat for Every Occasion

Dr. Seuss - The beloved children’s author owned over 300 hats, which he wore for inspiration while writing.  Yes, one of his favorites was a tall red and white striped hat, a la the Cat in the Hat.

Location

Victor Hugo - It’s easy to imagine the writer’s success, considering that under a deadline he once wore nothing but a shawl to force him to stay in his house and write.  Hugo self-imposed this constraint and asked his friends to steal his clothes in support. How Miserables.

Maya Angelou - She worked out of a hotel room and asked the staff to remove all distractions like artwork and barred anyone from disturbing her during the day.  She rented a room on a monthly basis. This is one way to keep from getting interrupted.

Could you relate to any of these writing productivity habits? What extreme measures have you taken to make a deadline? What is your favorite writing hack you use to get into the Writing Zone?  Help us celebrate the writer's lifestyle and share your thoughts in the comments below.

About Kris

Kris Maze is an author, freelance writer, and teacher. She enjoys writing twisty, speculative fiction with character driven plots.  After years of reading classic literature, mysteries, and thrillers, she sought to write and publish her own  books.

She is currently working on a futuristic YA trilogy and writing short stories. She also writes for various publications including a regular post at the award winning Writers in the  Storm Blog. 

When she isn’t spending time with her favorite people and pets, Kris Maze is taking pictures, hiking, or  pondering the wisdom of Bob Ross. You can follow her author journey at her website at KMazeAuthor.com