Inspiration on Sunday or Love the craft

Where do you get your ideas?

That's the theme for the next chapter (FYI, the chapters in Writing From the Inside Out aren't numbered. This one begins on page 23.)

I'm going into this chapter thinking it's an easy one for me because finding ideas is the one part of writing that comes easily to me. Staying focused on one while others pile up around me, tempting, luring with their bright promise - now that's the challenge.

What is interesting t o me in this chapter is Palumbo's thesis that all the emphasis on where writer's get their ideas devalues the notion of craft and reinforces the idea writers have of "not being enough. That some special gift, something outside of the writer - is necessary." (p. 24)

The rest of the short chapter then goes on to focus on the importance of craft.

"Love the craft, the practice of your art, and the peaks will come." (p. 24)

I love that line. Apparently I loved it last time I started this book too because it's the only line in the entire book that I underlined. From the text, it's not clear to me if this advice comes from Palumbo or from George Leonard because it's in a reference to Leonard's Mastery. I think it's Palumbo's words based on Leonard's advice, but whoever gets credit, the advice is worthy of considering.


Which brings me to another thought on craft. Of course now that I want to quote it, I can't find the source, but I know I've read a lot recently about how mastering a subject requires about 5000 hours of practice. (Okay, a bit of googling and I find credit given to Malcolm Gladwell but claimed by someone else. Since I like the someone else's description, I'm going to quote and link that).

There are four levels of proficiency in any valuable skill – incompetence, competence, mastery, and virtuosity.

• To get past incompetence, you must spend about 1,000 hours practicing the skill you eventually want to master.

• After putting in about 1,000 hours, you will be competent. To achieve mastery, you will have to continue to practice that skill for a total of 5,000 hours.

• Virtuosity is extremely rare. You can’t get it simply by practicing. You must also have a natural gift. Even then, you must practice at least 10,000 hours to achieve it.

Michael Jordan was a virtuoso basketball player. Mozart was a virtuoso composer. Warren Buffett has been a virtuoso investor. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you must become a virtuoso. You can achieve greatness and make a fortune by becoming a master of your chosen skill.

The rest of this article has a really interesting discussion about whether hard work is enough or if it's all a matter of luck. Thought-provoking so check it out if you have time. Early to Rise

To connect this all, it seems to me that you either have to love the process, or want something SO badly that you're willing to sacrifice the hours needed to practice. I think the greatest joy and success in writing probably comes from some melding of both.

Palumbo closes the chapter with this thought (as true now as it was in 2000) -

"Given the shifting winds of fortune that accompany any writer's life, the smart money is on craft, practice, the doing of the thing." (p. 25)

I'm going to work on loving the process and the practice of craft this week.

Anyone have thoughts to share?

Your baby or #booksarenotbabies

Synchronicity.

Today's chapter in Dennis Palumbo's Writing From the Inside Out is "Your Baby" which is pretty coincidental in light of yesterday's hilarious discussion on Twitter under the hashtag #booksarenotbabies

Funny comparisons aside, the chapter is about how hypercritical authors can be about their own work at the same time they are calling it "their baby." The goal, according to Palumbo, is to "develop a benign relationship" with your talent. Or - learn to trust yourself.

Words of advice from pages 21-22:
"Ultimately - like a caring, supportive parent who's pleased merely because the child drew a picture a all - for the writer a good scene becomes one you write, a good story one you finish.

And a good day at the word processor is one where you just show up and do it."

So here's to all those who show up and do it today. And if you need a laugh, check out #booksarenotbabies.


And because I love this song and it fits today:

Martina McBride Do it Anyway

Congratulations!! You've Got Writer's Block

Does that get your attention?

The first real chapter in Dennis Palumbo's Writing From the Inside Out is entitled Writer's Block and he begins the chapter with a memory of congratulating a client who had writer's block.

Although that was certainly a catchy chapter hook, what really spoke to me in this chapter was his analysis of a bad dream. He'd been experiencing a severe case of writer's block while attempting to adapt a screenplay to a book. He came to understand that the dream was his subconscious mind's way of dealing with a feeling of not being good enough. Or as he so succinctly put it, "Who did I think I was, anyway?" (p. 16)

That was a real Eureka moment for me. Who do I think I am, anyway?

Palumbo's crisis of confidence came from adapting a big name author's book into a screenplay. Mine is less obvious, but no less paralyzing. The most basic cause of my writer's block can be summed up in 6 words.

I am in awe of writers.

I've always held writers in the highest esteem so to think I could be one requires serious mental adjustment. I thought I had made that leap, but the gut reaction I had while reading this chapter set me straight.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that my most favorite thing to do in life is read. (The pile of gift cards to B&N and Borders that I received at the end of the school year attest to that!) My house is overflowing with books. This past school year, one of my students was reading Inkheart and with such longing in her voice she asked me wouldn't I love to live in a house like Eleanor's where every room is walls of books. I smiled, sort of sheepishly, and told her I do. My husband and I have a standing weekly Saturday date at Barnes and Noble!

See how I can go on about books and my love of them. Books are my biggest vice and my greatest delight (don't tell the kids or the pets, please!) so the people who write them are akin to gods/goddesses. Me, be one of them? Who do I think I'm kidding?

So many authors reflect that they decided to write a book when they tossed aside a book they were reading with the thought that they could do better. Not me. I remember very clearly when I decided to try writing a book. I was working for Columbia Pictures at the time and was at a company conference in San Francisco. I was indulging in a long hot bath, doing what else - reading. The magazine I was flipping through had an article on romance writers. What stunned me was the realization that these writers were ordinary women who wrote before lunch, on lunch breaks or when their kids were asleep.

That article was like finding gold at the end of the rainbow. I still remember the awestruck feeling - I could do this? I could actually take those stories that I made up to get to sleep at night and turn them into a book?

The other day, Gwen commented that she remembered the early sense of not being able to stop writing - before thoughts of craft and publication interfered. That's what those early days of writing were like for me. I wrote reams of pages longhand, pecked out scenes on my old Atari computer. Nothing interfered with my love for the story I wrote. When my babies were little, I wrote during their naps and after they went to bed at night. I had to tear myself away from the story to sleep, knowing they'd be waking early.

Never during that time did I compare myself to other authors. I never worried that what I was writing wasn't good enough. It was, in every sense of the word, a pure writing experience.

I could go on with details of my descent into the reality of publishing, but there's not point. The fact is, once the rejections arrived, so did the unspoken fear. I wasn't good enough to be an AUTHOR.

Eventually, that feeling sucked the joy from my writing and paralyzed my muse. I wasn't good enough to be an author.

So what to do about those stories that still want to be told?

Dennis Palumbo spends the chapter talking about ways of dealing with writer's block - specifically to not try to break through it but to take the opportunity to examine it, understand it, and use it as a tool for taking the next step. I guess that's what I've been doing with this blog today, examining my fears and taking the chance, putting myself out there.

I love my stories. I love the high that I get when an idea strikes. I love the rush of not being able to type fast enough to get the ideas down. Maybe I'll never be good enough to be an AUTHOR, but I'll never know unless I try again.


Confession time - I could kick myself now when I think of the editor who gave me first place in a contest and requested a full. I never sent it. Why? I didn't understand then, but I do now. If I didn't send it, she couldn't reject it. The story that I loved so much, could remain golden in my eye, untarnished by more rejection slips.

So my promise to myself is not to let those doubts derail me but instead I'll mine them for ideas. I'll never be good enough if I don't keep trying!



His closing to the chapter gives me inspiration -

About writer's block -
"It means you're ready - or, probably, more than ready - to make that important next step in your writing." (p. 18)

And to any author reading this today - I salute you! Whether you're multipublished, award-winning, or struggling like me - you dared to put your dreams on paper so thank you!

Cats, Catnip and Facing Fears Day 2

I'm getting a late start today. Blame it on the cat. Or the dog.


I was already having a hard time sleeping last night because the AC just wasn't cutting it in the ridiculous heat we've been having plus the dog insisted on curling on my feet. My feet were asleep; I wasn't.

I finally dozed off, only to have my daughter wake me in a panic at 3am. Seems the cat was doing some nocturnal wandering and found where DD1 had stored the catnip. The lovely cat dragged the bag of catnip into DD2's bed, chewed through the plastic so there was catnip all over her bed, and then proceeded to go nuts rolling, jumping, literally writhing in the catnip. If you've never seen a cat on catnip, just picture it as the cat equivalent of LSD.


So on to day 2 of reading Dennis Palumbo's Writing From the Inside Out (Transforming Your Psychological Blocks to Release the Writer Withing).

First of all, I have to really recommend that anyone who is interested in this discussion purchase a copy of the book. He goes into so much detail and his examples are really helpful in both analyzing your behaviors and helping you to know you're not alone in facing these fears.

"A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." -Thomas Mann

Part One - The Writing Life - begins with Mann's quote. Talk about being in good company!

What I particularly like about this book is that Palumbo states outright that he's not promising quick fixes or easy solutions - "Just a different way of thinking that treats you and your struggles at writing with compassion, hope, and the sure knowledge that you're not alone." (p. 13)

In his introduction to this section, Palumbo uses a water wheel he saw in New England as a great metaphor for the writing process. "It's not the velocity, but the weight of the water in each bucket, that turns the wheel." This reminds me so much of the writing advice we see everywhere about persistence and how important it is to keep writing and keep submitting.

So, I'm off to fill my writing buckets.

So if anyone is reading along, how's your writing going?

Facing Fears or How Not to Spend 3 Hours Playing Farm Frenzy

Confession time - I'll put it right out there - I've always been a star procrastinator. If I can put off til tomorrow something that can be done today, I'm there. If I can put it off til next week - even better.

This is not a character trait of which I am proud. I've been working hard at improving and I have - except when it comes to my writing.

Sometimes I scare myself with the ways I avoid writing. I mean really - 3 hours playing Farm Frenzy Pizza Party on AOL? Want to know how good I am at Inca Ball?

Why do I do this?

I really don't know, but I imagine it has something to do with fears - either of success or failure. What I do know is I'm losing patience with myself over it so it's time to do something drastic.

Okay, so maybe that sounds a bit dramatic. What I really have in mind is this. Dennis Palumbo wrote a terrific book called Writing from the Inside Out about writers dealing with just this sort of problem. I love this quote from the introduction -

Writer's Block. Procrastination. Loneliness. Doubt. Fear of failure. Fear of rejection. Just plain ... fear.
What do these all mean? What does it say about you if you struggle with these feelings on a daily basis?
It means you're a writer. And that's all it means. (p.2)

This passage particularly speaks to me because writing hasn't always been this way for me. When I first started, I was eager to spend time writing. I stayed up late into the night, happily working with my story. I didn't worry about publication because I just loved the writing. When I was doing other things, I counted the hours til I had time to write again. I wrote before work, during lunch - whenever I could eek out the time.

And then one day it all just dried up.

It's been one of the biggest puzzles of my life trying to understand what happened. Especially because I do still love making up stories and I do still enjoy writing them. Once I start - but now I literally have to force myself to the computer. I have my daily quota of words that I've maintained for over a year now without missing a day, but it's still a struggle. And I don't understand why.

So I've decided to take a proactive stance. I remembered the Palumbo book and dug it out. The subtitle - Transforming Your Psychological Blocks to Release the Writer Within - sounds like exactly what I need and Palumbo is both a writer and a psychotherapist so he has lots of experiences with the topic.

My plan is to read and blog about a new chapter each day before I begin my writing for the day. Sounds like a grand summer vacation plan, doesn't it? Just putting it down here inspires me.

I know I'm not alone in either my fears or my tendencies toward procrastination. I've read any number of blog posts this week dealing with writer's fears and how they face them. So I'd like to invite anyone who reads this to come join in the conversation. If you're interested in the book, you can click the link above or check out his website.

Day 1 - Introduction -

If misery loves company then the introduction to this book is the perfect companion. Palumbo starts out by describing his own incapacitating writer's block while he was working on the script for My Favorite Year. If someone as accomplished as he was at this point - already a writer on Welcome Back, Kotter - can have doubts, no wonder I do.

There are many lessons in this introduction alone. I mean really - the man is holed up in a cabin on a stretch of beach in Carmel, CA. When ideas don't flow he goes for a walk along the beach.






How often have I dreamed about writing in just such a setting. But he can't. He is paralyzed by writer's block. He perseveres though (note to self!) and eventually realizes that grappling with his fears - drawing from them really - is what he needs to do. And when he does, the writing begins. It's not miraculous; it doesn't flow perfectly. But words are going on the paper and we all know the wisdom of getting something down. Once the words are written, they can be worked with, wrestled with, played with and improved on. The trick is getting them down.

So I'm off to get some words down.

I hope you'll join me on this journey. If you've read the book or would like to read it - jump in. If you haven't read it, please share your own thoughts on writing fears or tricks for dealing with them.

America the Beautiful

This song always chokes me up. My favorite verse is not often sung, but it's included in this video. It seems particularly appropriate today.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

I also like the positive attitude of this video - of looking forward to what we can do to make America a better home for us all. Everyone might not agree with every suggestion, but there is at least something for everyone.

Happy 4th of July

Summer Vacation

I always feel like there should be some sort of flashing neon sign that signals the end of the school year and the beginning of summer vacation, but this year it's been more like a gentle YIELD.

I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Why? Why does this year's summer vacation not seem like all that big a deal?

The obvious reason is sort of a bittersweet sense of school ending. I really enjoyed the class I had this year. Everyone said this was the class that caused nervous breakdowns, but that wasn't my experience. I will truly miss seeing them each day.

Still, the year was tiring and I'm glad for the time to rest and recoup.

I'm also excited for the chance to devote more time to my writing. Although I hold myself to my vow to write at least something everyday, during the school year that something often feels disconnected and aimless. Now I have whole stretches of time to revel in the writing process. And I won't have to feel guilty for taking time away from schoolwork.

So why no flashing neon sign? No fireworks?

I guess I'm more a believer in rituals than I ever realized. I always think of the last day of school as the day to say goodbye, pack up the classroom, come home and open a beer or a bottle of wine and salute the coming summer. Instead, when school ended last Thursday, we immediately hit the road for an overnight trip to Boston for a family reunion. That was fun but it interfered with my end-of-the-year ritual. Instead of diving right into the writing, I cleaned the house (which really needed it), caught up on laundry, and dove into a really long book (Nelson DeMille's Word of Honor).

So today's my real first day of summer vacation. I got up early, walked the dog, and settled in with my coffee at the computer.

And you know what? I'm excited. REALLY excited to get to work on the book.

So what about you? Does anyone else have rituals that you stick to religiously? And what happens when something interferes?