Writers in the Storm

Steena Holmes

My house is quiet and I’m nursing a hot cup of coffee (my third actually) while staring at the screen and wondering what else I have left in me to write today. I don’t think there’s much. You see, last night I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning working on some chapters that literally yanked my heart out of my chest and I haven’t quite recovered. Which isn’t a good thing because the story isn’t complete and I am on a tight deadline.

This is only my sixth novel where I’ve experienced this but I’ve learned something about the process I wish I had known back when I wrote my first book. I’m sure the more I write the more I’ll learn and I may discover a better way to experience the heartache but for now, it’s a process.

What process? Of realizing when to write those scenes that destroy me and when not to.

You’d think it would be simple right? It was when I wasn’t on a deadline, when I could write or not write whenever I wanted. If I needed to take time off from writing the next chapter, then okay … whatever it took. I heard of authors who took a year or more to write a novel so it must be okay. My first novel took six months to write. Now I average less than three months, although this one I’m working on now has been less than that thanks to poor planning on my part and the holidays just being here.

I’ve learned that I can’t write those scenes that are dark or painful while my kids are around. So that means on weekends or holidays or even at night before they go to bed. And if I wait until everyone is in bed and stay up for hours (like last night) then I need to make sure my family will not be home the following day either.

There’s a reason for this.

When I write a story about a woman whose marriage is falling apart because she can’t handle her grief, or about a woman so lost in her own mind that she can’t tell truth from reality, or if I touch on subjects dealing with abuse…I become those women. I am those characters in that moment while I’m writing about them. It’s my marriage that is falling apart, it’s my child that I’ve just lost, it’s my husband that was killed and my baby who died in my arms, I am the one reliving the memory of being raped…it’s hard for me to walk away, to close the screen and go back to my every day life as if what I’d just wrote didn’t matter. (I will always remember hearing Jodi Picoult tell an audience that she is able to do this and wondered what I was doing wrong because I couldn’t).

So you can image I’m an emotional wreck. I’m low, quiet, needing space, alone time in order to regroup. My husband once asked me if it was worth it – if the emotional toil was normal and worthy of my energy. Normal? I’m really not sure (if it is, and you go through this as well – I’d love to know how you handle it!) but worthy of my energy – absolutely. Writing these type of stories…it’s what fuels me. I face my fears as a woman, a mother, as a wife in these stories. It’s my happy place (as odd as that sounds) - when I feel the most fulfilled and energized and excited! Worth it? When I read reviews from people who believe that I must have gone through these experiences, that I write them as if I know first hand what it feels like…yes, it’s worth it to me as a writer. I’m always afraid that one day he’s going to ask me if it’s worth our marriage. I hope that day never comes.

There is an emotional toll, make no mistake about it. In order to write a story that comes from your heart (and every story should if you want to touch your readers hearts) then you have to be willing to go to that level. How everyone reacts will be different. I would love to be able to walk away after a scene and be fine – to be able to distance myself from my characters and not have it affect me so much. Maybe one day I will. But maybe by then, I’ll realize that I don’t want to. That this is the process that works for me.

In the meantime, I sit here, sipping my coffee (I should get a refill) and waiting for that boost of energy to open up my laptop where my story is stored (yes, I have a ‘writing’ laptop and a desktop computer where I do all my ‘other’ work – helps me to ‘switch gears’ when I need to.) If I wasn’t under such a tight deadline, I’d take a few days breather, enjoy the slightly warm weather, maybe make a cake for dessert tonight and just enjoy life. But I can’t – and so with my choice of profession comes discipline, and that means pressing on. Or as my mother would say suck it up buttercup.

How do you handle emotional scenes when you write?

About Steena

NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author

Growing up as a small town Canadian girl, there wasn’t much to do but ride your bike, hang out with friends on the beach and daydream. I always wanted to write but never dreamed it was something I could do as a career. I love to travel and fell in love with the sheep covered hillside, old castles and romantic history of Scotland and England. I dream about waking up in Tuscany and touring small town shops in the south of France with my husband, of placing my toes in the ocean and experiencing history first hand. As a mother with three daughters, I’m learning that teaching them to pursue their dreams is a lasting legacy. I love to wake up to the Rocky Mountains, will forever enjoy the taste of coffee and chocolate and can’t imagine the day when a story doesn’t unfold in my heart. Living a life with passion and pursuing dreams is a life well lived. Find her online at www.steenaholmes.com

Jamie Raintree

The beginning of the new year is always a great time to step back and reevaluate our routines. Sure, we all have resolutions and goals for the coming year (finally finishing that book probably being one of them) but if we continue to approach our goals and resolutions in the same way we did last year, we'll likely find ourselves on December 31, 2015 in the same position we're in now--no finished book, disappointed in how little progress has been made, or maybe even with a finished product but not very happy about what it took to get there. If the previous tactics haven't worked, it's important to continue trying new things until you find the best system for you.

I actually got a lot accomplished this year. I'm proud of the progress I made, even though there were some setbacks along the way. I'm the kind of person that tends to stick to my commitments to a fault--even the self-imposed ones. It's a great way to get things done but it isn't always the best way to be happy while doing it. Yes, productivity is great, but how meaningful is that progress if the stress of chasing our dreams sucks the happiness out of our daily lives?

Is there a way to have both--productivity and happiness?

This year I'm trying out a new routine myself and I thought I'd share it with you. Here are 4 steps to think about incorporating into your routine for happy productivity:

1. PLAN
The thing about planning is that even if you don't want to do it and don't like to do it, you still sort of have to. If you're not much of a planner, you might not recognize it as planning--it might show up as procrastination when you sit down at your desk to write as you try to figure out what to write next, how much you want to accomplish, etc. That's planning--it's just eating into your writing time now. Taking ten minutes to plan ahead of time--how much your want to write this week, which scene you want to write next, what might happen in that scene--will rescue your writing time because by the time you sit down, you'll be ready to go.

2. TRUST
Trust is not easy for me. I stay at home with my toddler and preschooler all day, every single day, without a relative in a fifty mile radius. I have a lot of anxiety around the idea of accomplishing my writing each day. I spend so much time worrying about whether or not I'm going to hit my goal today, and when, and what it might look like, that by the time I sit down to work I'm out of energy. I build it up in my head so much that it becomes an insurmountable task. This year, I'm adding in trust as a step to my routine--trust that the time will present itself and because I have a plan, I'll be ready to jump on it when it happens.

3. FORGIVE
That being said, some days it still just isn't going to happen. I know a lot of us have the habit of beating ourselves up about the days that life gets in the way or we're just flat tired and can't connect with our creativity. The problem with resenting ourselves about it is that we drag that into the next day's writing and then the day after that. Especially if that resentment prevents us from writing for days on end and it grows into this monster on our shoulders. Life happens. So does writing. Forgiveness and going with the flow gives each days' writing a fresh start.

4. TRACK
Because writing a novel is such a long process, it's important to reward ourselves along the way for a job well done. Unfortunately, having a party for every 500 words isn't exactly feasible and a piece of chocolate for every 50 probably isn't advisable. Still, a daily pat on the back can spur us on to go at it again tomorrow. Rewarding yourself is not something to be ignored if you want your productivity to be happy productivity. The best reward I've found is tracking my progress. It could be something as simple as an X on a calendar to create the famous Seinfeld chain, writing down your word count in a notebook, or if you're visual like me, a pretty progress bar to keep track of the percentage completed. Find a way that gives you a little thrill at the end of the day and easily proves that your work today was meaningful. If you don't have your own way, I'm happy to share my Writing Progress Spreadsheet with you.

These are some steps that have already begun to make a difference in my productivity and happiness this year, but whatever works for you, don't let the New Year's excitement wear off before you take a look at your routines, assess them, and make them work for you. And may you have a fulfilling, prosperous, novel-filled year!

About Jamie

Jamie Raintree writes women's fiction about women searching for truth in life and love. She is currently working on revisions of her first novel in preparation for submission to publishers. In the meantime, she blogs about her journey toward a well-balanced life and a career in publishing--her struggles and successes along the way. She lives in Northern Colorado with her husband and two young daughters and is a Workshop Coordinator for the Women's Fiction Writers Association. Subscribe to her newsletter for more blogs, book news, and writer tools and other free downloads for dreamers. To find out more, visit her website below.

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Writing is a very imprecise process for me, which surprises no one who knows me well. I’ve tried a gajillion tools in my quest to get a book off the ground and finished. Fast Draft, W-Plot, Snowflake Method. They all helped me be a better writer, but none of them got me to "The End."

Those cool big picture methods aren't concrete enough to get me to the end. My busy brain says, "Ooooh...GLITTER!" And I'm off doing something else, instead of writing the 60 scenes that make up a book.

The only thing that gets me to "The End" is putting my butt in the chair and writing one scene at a time.

If I don't stay completely immersed in the moment and the scene, it's an open door for "Ooooh...GLITTER!" That's the way busy noggins like mine work.

Here's my process in a nutshell:

1. Like many writers, each book usually starts with an idea or a scene that comes into my head fully formed. I write that scene to get it out of my head and onto the page. I keep writing until all the scenes are out of my head.

2. Near the beginning of the process, I bat some ‘what if’s’ around with my writing peeps and decide on the overriding theme for the book and the internal and external conflicts for the main characters.

3. If I’m really lucky, the turning points get decided in advance too. At the very least, I take time with my critique group to discuss what I think the turning points are to see if I’m remotely on target and if it all sounds believable.

Note: For a great summary of turning points, read this breakdown of Jenny Crusie’s talk at the 2009 RWA conference.

4. I make a list of all the scenes I know and I write whatever I can see clearly that day, until they're all done.

5. I try to write at least five days a week as it keeps my brain open to receiving new scenes. When I let more than a week go by without visiting my story, I start to lose focus.

6. I use a timer. My deal with myself is I have to do at least 30 minutes of work on my fiction for those 5 days a week. While it doesn't sound like a lot, it really makes a difference. If I'm digging it that day, I go way longer than 30 minutes. If I'm not digging it that day, I know "I only have to do this crap for 30 minutes."

As an extrovert, online sprints help me a lot. Marcy Kennedy's post on Twitter hashtags will help you find all the Twitter sprinters.

[In case you missed them: here's Orly's Writing Process, Laura's and Fae's.]

I didn't know how to describe my writing process until one of my crafty relatives said, "Hey, you're a story quilter!" It turns out, she was right. I read an article about Diana Gabaldon and how she wrote the Outlander series. Like Fae and I, she sees the story as a movie.

For Outlander, Gabaldon re-constructed the movie in her head, scene by scene, until everything she saw was on paper. Then she shuffled them all together into the books we know and love. While I won’t pretend to be anywhere near Gabaldon’s league, we both do books in short little pieces. Perhaps it has to do with being a busy mom.

When I read that article a light went on in my head. I finally accepted the truth: I’m a scene writer. I stopped trying to write from beginning to end like all my friends. Some of us are "story quilters" and that's the way we're made.

What are the Must-Haves for the "story quilting" approach?

You don't have to have every one of these mastered, but it really, really helps if you at least have the first one. I use them all, especially in the editing process.

You must have a good grasp of 3-Act Structure.

Otherwise you end up with a pile of scenes, or "story blocks," you can’t use. It also helps to know the 12 steps of the Hero’s Journey. Here’s the most helpful link I’ve found, which combines the two (this downloads a Word doc). I work with 3-Act structure because I can keep track of it better in my head.

Two words – Conflict Lock.

If you don’t have a conflict lock, you don’t have a story. So says Bob Mayer, author of Warrior Writer and co-founder of Cool Gus Publishing. Here’s a blog to tell you more.

Scene-dissecting tools like Margie Lawson's EDITS system.

If you don't have tools like the ones Margie teaches you, it's difficult to figure out where you missed with a scene, especially if you're a pantser. Invest in yourself with Margie...you'll be glad you did.

Understand your story's DNA (theme) before you get too far.

This is why I think hard about theme pretty early in my process. If you have a strong visual of your story's underlying message, you automatically write to it. That DNA will inform every scene choice you make because it has to. John August, the screenwriter for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Big Fish, says it much better than I do in this post.

The advantages (and I know this is subjective):

1. I never get writer's block. There's always another scene to write or edit.
2. I'm able to write fast and stay immersed, because it's "only one scene."
3. Scrivener allows me to store scenes separately and move them around.
4. The story theme is naturally interwoven when you write this way.
5. I'm able to move between fiction and non-fiction pretty easily.

The disadvantages:

1. I need objective eyes to tell me when the story is "really done."
2. Continuity edits are a must for long works - I need to know that all the loose ends got tied up.
3. Scene transitions bug the crap out of me (and I'm terrible at them). I need to be double-checked on these.

As you read about all our writing processes here at WITS, I encourage you to think about your own. Like underpants, process is personal. You'll find out what fits you best by trying it on for size.

At the end of the day, it comes down to this: You must write your stories in a way that allows you to finish them. Period.

Where are you at in your "process journey?" Do any of our methods resonate with you?

~ Jenny
@JennyHansenCA

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About Jenny Hansen

By day, Jenny provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. By night she writes news articles, humor, memoir, women’s fiction and short stories. After 18+ years as a corporate software trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

When she’s not at her personal blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Twitter at JennyHansenCA or at Writers In The Storm.