Story Therapy

Once or twice a year your creative muse goes off on a jaunt, leaving you with a blank design wall and a blank mind, wondering where your next idea is going to come from. -- Rayna Gillman

Lately I've been working on preparations for the piece I hope to enter into an art quilt challenge. I have several techniques I want to use, including two I invented myself. I have all the materials I need. I even have little experiment pieces I'm making to test out how to put it together. But the design itself, the most important part of the piece? I couldn't figure it out. Everything I put on paper looked too busy, too complicated, too overdone.

I got to where I stopped sketching because everything I drew sucked. After twenty-odd years of designing and sewing I actually had a horrendous case of quilter's block.

I put aside the project last week, and in hopes of clearing out my head, I decided to do something different. For this I consulted my April/May 2012 issue of Quilting Arts magazine, in which I found Rayna Gillman's article, Stitch Therapy. First thought: Do these editors have me under surveillance?

I dutifully read the article, and I didn't like it. To summarize the technique it described, you're supposed to just sew a bunch of free-cut, random strips of scrap fabric together. No rulers, no templates, no pattern, no specific type of fabric, no color choosing or matching. Just cut and stitch. Like quilting could be organic. The author called it playful sewing.

You guys know me. As a writer I'm ruthlessly pre-planned and organized; as a quilter I'm even worse. Playful sewing? Please. I have my entire stash color-coded. I've cataloged my quilting magazine and book collections. I've even alphabetized my templates (okay, and cross-indexed them by size and shape.) I do not play, baby, I sew. And this is my biggest creative stonewall: I have to have everything perfect and prepared and figured out ahead of time.

Of course I know the universe wants me to color outside the lines, so I decided I probably needed some stitch therapy and went ahead with doing a project based on the article.

It's very tough to break old habits, and I won't say I had a great time putting together this piece. I kept trying to color match my scraps, cut them into uniform-sized strips and then sew them together in straight rows. I had to toss out four blocks before I finally got the hang of the no-technique technique. As I was making them I could see that the blocks were all over the place. The crooked seam lines and insane colors made my right eye twitch. But when I finally put the blocks together and had a complete piece, it surprised me with how fun it looked:



It's fresh, bright, and not like anything I've done before. It's nowhere near as good as the author's examples, and it's not going to win any awards. But it's still rather neat. Much as I hate to admit it, I'm looking forward to quilting and finishing the piece.

While I was doing the stitch therapy, I was also thinking about my challenge piece. I have been obsessing over the composition when it's the techniques that I want to showcase. To show a technique clearly and communicate the idea to as many people as possible, the ideal way to go is with an easy-to-understand example. I realized I'd been over-thinking the design. Rather than doing a hugely sophisticated piece with all the bells and whistles, I needed to step back and keep it simple.

I still don't know what my challenge piece design will be, but I have some new ideas. I also know I need to back off on the designing and think more about communicating. Stitch therapy didn't give me all the answers, but what it did was put some distance between me and my problem, and provide the chance to step outside my lines and think in a different direction. Which is where I know the answers can be found.

Right now you may be suffering from the same problem with your writing. You have all these ideas and yet you can't make them work. Everything is too complicated. One thing I've always recommended to writers who are blocked is to stop working on what's not working and do something different. It doesn't have to be a novel; write a short story. Set it in a genre you've never tried before now; if the story you're blocked on is a romance try writing a SF story, or an urban fantasy, or a YA. If you hate vampire stories, write a vampire story. The idea of story therapy is to step outside yourself and play for a short period of time. What you produce you may never be able to sell, but as with my stitch therapy project, it may get your head in the right place to go back and solve the problems with the work you do want to sell.

Here We Go Again Again

If I haven't mentioned it, Spring has arrived at Casa PBW. I know this because the birds are once more building nests in strange places. Experience makes us wiser, so this year we're keeping the grill covered to avoid this, the porch is now screened in to prevent this, and I've adjusted my aquaglobes to discourage the little feathered sex maniacs mommies from setting up nurseries in my sweet potato vines again.

We've left the birdhouses open for occupancy, but pushed them together to eliminate any possibility of this. Alas, back in March the ditzy dove once more out-maneuvered us and built her nest on top of them. This gave me three fun-filled weeks of checking the ground every time I went out in the yard for eggs or nestlings who might have rolled out of her rooftop nest. Fortunately her first set of twins made it through and flew off without a hitch.

Yes, I said the first set.

You see, after her babies flew off, I said to my guy, "We'd better clean that nest off those bird houses or she's going to come back and have more babies." He said I had her mixed up with the blue birds from last summer and not to worry about it.

I thought he was right, until I walked out this morning and saw this:



I think it's the same dove, so I've stopped calling her Ditzy and renamed her Nympho.



And I know she did this on purpose. Just look at the smirk on her face:



As a pro writer you'll find yourself in similar exasperating situations. You'll draw on your experience in order to get a jump on things and eliminate a repeat of the problems you've had in the past by doing what you can to avoid or prevent them. This is not a bad idea because we all want to learn from negative experiences so that someday we can feel like doing something other than puking whenever we think about them.

The thing is, it doesn't always work. For example, if you've ever had an editor or agent who was not a good match for you, it's such a stressful experience that you may go a little crazy and do anything to make a better match the next time around. But while you can change things that are under your control, that doesn't guarantee success. There's that other person about whom you don't know everything, someone who can and likely will do whatever they want. Your next editor may be great or horrendous. Your new agent may be wonderful or terrible. You can take every precaution in the book and still end up in an as bad or even worse situation than the last one.

I'd like to tell you that I have a handy-dandy solution, but this is the reality of the biz. We have to work with others who may or may not be ideal working partners. We can't rewrite other people or delete bad passages from our careers. We can't even plot out how the next working relationship will go. It's our job to handle whatever the industry throws at us. Sometimes it's all roses. Other times it's nothing but stones.

Whatever the outcome, doing what you can to make your side of any working relationship positive is never wasted energy. It makes you a better person, and gives you a healthier outlook; you're moving in a productive direction. Keep thinking, keep improving, and whatever you do, keep moving forward.

To-Do Ten

Ten Things I'm Planning to Do This Week

Arrange: I've moved the contents of my office downstairs into a smaller space, which requires some creative arrangement of my equipment and work stuff. This is a good time to evaluate what I'm using and get rid of anything that is just taking up space. How to Organize Your Work Space by Rhonda Day had some good suggestions.

Clean: The fall housecleaning is done and the house is almost immaculate, thanks to me working out a lot of frustrations. I'd like to keep it that way, so each day I plan to tidy two rooms to maintain the sparkle. I also like the idea of creating a household notebook so I can use my tidying time better.

Donate: We're making a Goodwill run this week, so I need to go through the closets and bag up the clothes we're no longer wearing (and if you're thinking of doing the same, eHow.com has 5 ideas on where to donate old clothing here.)

Organize: my work schedule has been erratic, so shuffling and reorganizing my time for the rest of the year is a priority. I'll write up a new daily plan through the end of 2011, at which point I hope to catch up with everything. I'd like to use this opportunity to switch my work plan over to RedNotebook and see how that works as a time manager for me.

Paint: Anything. I just need time with the brush. Something small would probably be best; maybe some holiday cards. I might try using a rubber stamp as demonstrated in this card-making video.

Photograph: The sunsets are slowly transitioning to the spectacular variety we have here during the winter months, and one clear night I'd like to go down by the water with the camera. I'd also like to document my progress with the Spoonflower fabric I designed.

Read: Sofie Kelly's Sleight of Paw is in my purse, Linda Howard's Prey is on the nightstand, and for research I need to reread portions of Dungeon, Fire and Sword by John J. Robinson, The Templars and the Grail by Karen Ralls, and Templars in America by Tim Wallace Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins.

Sew: I'm always working on a couple of quilts in progress, but I'd like to sew my Spoonflower project this week, too.

Study: various weapons, equipment and other devices as well as how they were used on 17th century sailing vessels like Sweden's amazing Vasa.

Write: 20K in new material; finish polishing two candidate scenes for the end pages of Nightborn to send to the editor; catch up on e-mail and snail mail, update my personal journals. I'd like to get back to writing my daily posts here at PBW. One new thing I'm trying is Ami Mattison's suggestion in this article of warming up first by free writing for a few minutes.

So what are your plans for this week? Let us know in comments.

Done & Gone

I have been off making book, and finished the final draft of Master of Shadows, my dangerous project, like two minutes ago. Or, as my head puts it, clunk.

I love writing dangerous but holy guacamole, I am so glad that one is done.

I've also lost my voice (twice) this weekend, and it's starting to go down for a third time, so I think I'm giving myself the rest of the day off before I have to learn ASL for real.

Hope you all had a good weekend, and see you tomorrow.

Returned & Learned

Back, with batteries recharged, lots of info and feedback gathered, and some new ideas forming. Got an interesting job offer, too; should I decide to quit the biz I will definitely not starve. The character card as business card was a big hit, as were the free books I handed out. Plus I got to not be a writer for a couple of days, and much fun was had by all.

To the lovely and talented Diane, with whom I didn't get to talk as much as I would have liked, thank you for the beautiful hand-dyed silks. I'm always delighted to see your work. And I promise, I won't use vinegar as a neutralizer any more. :)

A more complete report is in the works. In the meantime, for those of you who like looking at beautiful quilts made by very talented hands, I took lots of photos at the show, which I uploaded here.

My favorite quilt from the show:

Writer Retreats

We've been discussing writer groups over at Jordan's blog, and I mentioned writer retreats as a working alternative to the annual org cons. I've been on a few private retreats and they were all good experiences -- got to hang with a good variety of writers, knocked out a lot of work, relaxed, talked about the reality of the biz, etc. Because they were private events we arranged ourselves, all we had to pay for was travel costs, hotel rooms and meals. Car pooling and sharing rooms helped keep those reasonable, too.

There are commercial writer retreat sites out there like this one that offer a variety of locations, services and pricing. I recommend getting in touch with a writer who's attended the retreat and asking some questions before committing.

Are there any commercial/non-commercial writer retreats you all know of that you can recommend for the working writers in need of a getaway/battery recharge? If you do, please post some info and any links you might have in comments.

The Year of Writing Dangerously

One unexpected Christmas gift I received this year was from a SF writer friend, who sent me the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica, the updated series (technically it was a swap; I sent him my P.D. James/BBC movie collection. The idea was to give each other something we loved that we knew the other person hadn't watched.)

I admit, I had serious reservations on my end, but he convinced me to give it a go. I think my hesitancy came from remembering what I didn't like about the original series with Lorne Greene. Back then the Cylons were pretty cool, but the rest of it was very family-oriented, made-for-TV stuff.

Not so with the updated BG series. It's probably, no, it is the best SF I've seen since the Sci-Fi channel updated The Children of Dune. I rarely recommend watching anything on TV because I think too much of it rots your brain, but this series is actually worth the potential cell damage.

Whoever took on Battlestar Galactica and decided to update it did some dangerous things. Starbuck is now played by a woman, Katee Sackoff, who blows the lid off the role in just about every episode. Richard Hatch, the original Apollo from the old series, now plays a cagey criminal dissident. Adama is played by the not-very-pretty Edward James Olmos (who is beyond brilliant, btw.) Even the Cylons, who were the ultimate tin-can villains of TV back in the eighties, have been updated in a very scary way. The most audacious change is the storytelling, which is no longer humans-good Cylons-bad black and white. You see the fairy dust and the warts on both sides, in all the shades of gray you can imagine.

A few of you writers out there have been pursuing publication or have worked in the biz as long if not longer than I have. I was shocked the first time someone referred to me as "being around forever" -- how is ten years forever? -- but in the released-today remaindered-tomorrow world of publishing, I guess I have been.

We dusty old-timers may not be as glam or exciting as the latest flavor of the month, but we do gain an advantage. We are around long enough to see how the industry adapts, shifts and changes, both in the short-term and long-term. Those of us who survive what my friend Holly Lisle calls "the three-book death spiral" do so only because we adapt, shift and change with it.

I do have one more resolution for 2008, other than that list of things I'm not going to do. Along with the work I have already sold, I'm going to write one dangerous book this year.

I've done this a few times before, but never when something I'd already written was working well on the market. It's not a safe thing to do. This book has such a strong, demanding concept that I'm not sure I can do it justice. I'm also fairly certain it may not sell because, like other dangerous books I've pitched in the past, it has nothing to do with I've already done (and when what you're doing is selling like hot cakes, the last thing publishers want to see is something that won't fit on the griddle.)

I need to do this. Because the only thing worse than failing to sell is to sell oneself into complacency. And if it doesn't work, I'll blame it on Battlestar Galactica.

What do you guys think of writing dangerously? Is it worth the time, effort and trouble, or is it better to play it safe?

A Freebie Sidebar

Back in September, I started getting a lot of Romantic Times-generated flack because of an RT article accusing me of undercutting the advances of other writers by my practice of giving away free e-books for my readers. I believe Melanie Lynne Hauser was the other author who was attacked for the same thing (note to self: go check out her free content.)

At the time I chose not to respond to the attack for two reasons: 1) I never actually saw the article in question and 2) it is quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard. But like most publishing conspiracy theories, this one evidently refuses to die. After I recently talked about free content over on Tobias's blog, I got a few e-mails from unhappy people who actually believe this nonsense.

Here's my take: free e-books are an an excellent way to promote the work and give something back to the readers. Feedback from my free e-books usually tells me what works for my readers and what doesn't, which helps me decide what to pitch to publishers. Free e-books kept my StarDoc series alive and convinced me to re-pitch the Darkyn series.

And you know something? I get a kick out of writing them, putting them together, making the cover art, all that stuff. I like having complete creative control over the final product. And I love knowing anyone can read them whenever they like.

There will always be writers who expect readers to pay for the privilege of reading every single word they write. Alas, I'm not one of them. To suggest that my freebies are a determining factor in how much other writers are paid makes me feel really powerful, though.

So okay, I give up. I'll take the blame.

I did it. I'm the reason you have a day job. I'm the reason your advance sucks. I'm the reason your genius continues to be ignored. Forget about Melanie, it was 100% my fault. Yes, it was all, all me. You authors out there, be warned: mess with me and I'll write more free stories!

Oh, and while we're on the subject, global warming? My bad, too.

Creation

This morning I'm over at author John Baker's blog, talking about the phases involved when I create a text. If you have a chance, check out John's sidebar archives too; he has a bunch of posts featuring some very interesting writers discussing their methods. My favorite is Winston Churchill.

Politicians often have ghost writers pen their memoirs (a friend of mine sends me Josh Marshall's column, in which he often rants about this.) When I was younger, I wrote corporate copy for executives, sermons for ministers and (surprise) speeches for some local minor politicians. It's funny how interchangeable they are.

If you could pick one politician or public figure you'd like to see write a book (of any variety), who would it be? My vote goes to General Peter Pace; I think he should write a nonfic history on how gays have been treated while serving their country in the military. All right, that was a little mean. Condoleezza Rice, then, writing an interracial romance. Could convince publishers to stop segregating AA authors. But would it be fiction or nonfiction?

Extemporaneous

Yes, I am back, in a very disorganized muddle. Evidently I can create new posts, but I still can't access my archived drafts (and you know how I live to plan, outline, draft and redraft stuff.)

No worries. We'll just call it Improv Week at PBW.

I love summer because it's the best reading time of year for me. Every week I read on average ten to fifteen books, but I'm able to knock out a few more whenever the kids are out of school. I don't know exactly how many books I read per week during summer, but my TBR stack constantly needs replenishment.

I thought it would be fun to find out how much I read and make a giveaway out of it, so for this week (6/17-6/24), I'm going to take everything (books, magazines, newspaper articles, etc.) that I read, put it in a box, and send it to one of you. So far I've read Never Lie to a Lady by Liz Carlyle, Raintree: Haunted by Linda Winstead Jones, Blaze by Stephen King, The Kristallis Baby by Natalie Rivers, Unlikely Angel by Ashley Smith, Waters Edge magazine June 07 issue, and a pile of articles from the Sunday paper.

For a chance to win, in comments to this post, tell us the title and author of the book you're reading now (or, if you're in a reading dry spell, just toss your name in the hat) by midnight on Sunday, June 24, 2007. I'll draw one name at random from everyone who participates and send the winner the box with everything I read this week in it. Giveaway open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something at PBW in the past.

To Write or Not to Write

I like writing up lists. Not just things like the Monday Ten here, but every other thing I need to do, like organizing my housework, appointments for the upcoming month, stuff I need to buy, errands waiting to be ran and so forth. To accomodate my fetish, I have shopping and to-do pads all over the house, next to the phones, in my purse, tacked to the bulletin board, hanging from a magnet on the refrigerator, in the bathroom closets and in the glovebox of every vehicle we own.

When I first play with a story idea, I start by writing a list of keywords relating to the plot and characters. I have literally thousands of story lists that never made it past the list stage. They're filed in the story list file. I also have a list of file names and descriptions. And a list of file lists, because I have more than one filing cabinet.

I thought about making a list of all the lists I have, but there could be disastrous gravitational consequences.

My one, never-ending list is The Novels I'd Like to Write. I'm always adding and subtracting ideas from this one, mostly adding. Obviously writing that book about a secret code hidden in famous artwork that leads to a revelation that rocks the religious world is a cross-off now. Ditto revising my 4,000 line epic poem into novel form -- there is just so much of my artistic soul that I'm going to inflict on you unsuspecting people.

Still, it's an active list, and one I enjoy reading over. I know I'll never live long enough to cross off every item on this list, but it's fun to plan what I could do if I don't get hit by a truck anytime soon. I'm tempted to jot down notes and rough them out a bit more, but that would make it harder to keep them on the list level.

Some items from the list in its present incarnation:

Anthrax vaccine puts humans back on all fours

Bama Zombie Farm Boy Rescues Prom Queen

Bast (Cat God, egyptian) caught and dumped in pound

Spelunkers (sp?) find way ancient paintings that Explain It All

Chicklit version of Oliver Twist (more Prada, sir?)

Chubby Death goes Club Med

Nyad hatched by benevolent brute miner saves him & planet

Old quilt with love poems as block foundations

Sniper witnesses assassination through scope

Squilyp's own novel, set on Omorr + his twins

I know, my shorthand is a little strange; matches my brain patterns. What would be something you'd put on your To Write list right now?