Category: Uncategorized

So. Writing, eh?

I have a curious relationship with writing. I can’t seem to stop. By that, I mean every day I have to write at least something here and there, days when the words just materialize by themselves. I like days like those. They help build up my novel. Because there are often the other days when I can’t seem to get the words to come at all, or the world conspires to keep me from the computer or the foolscap, and then I just find my fount of inspiration to be as dry as a Californian gully.

I have used the phrase, “I have to write.” Each day, I aim for a certain portion of time to be spent on writing my novel. I bet you have more discipline than me and actually spend part of yours like that. Your words flow out and the project you’re working on builds up each time. The sentences flow.  It’s great! Progress!

I have to write, but I don’t write for very long in one stretch. My poems are short, my episodes of working on my novel jags of writing with an eye on the word count. Sometimes the flow comes and I can get lost in writing for a time. But what if you couldn’t stop? Read more

Where do you write? I write in my mind. But I can’t get completely in to my mind if I’m in certain places physical.

Home is the worst. Too easily distracted by tasks and jobs that are ongoing. Dishes, laundry, yard work, all these things seem to call to me. And they’re not calling pleasantly. Dammit.

That’s not to say that you, or I, can’t write at home. It just requires some planning. You need a place in the home that has no other purpose. Read more

                                                                

                                                                           

Success consists of going from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm.

– Churchill.

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I attended a workshop on Friday this past week on how to give great presentations. While I listened to the speaker, I realized how much of his advice would apply to writing. I want to share 5 insights. Here they are:

Belief

To have belief, you need to have confidence. You need to have passion.

At the workshop, we had to walk around and introduce ourselves to at least 5 people as an extraordinary speaker. Sounds corny. But try it now.

You are an extraordinary writer. Say it out loud.

Okay, I know you cheated and you said it silently in your head. Say it out loud. Say it again. And again and this time louder, that is, above a whisper and like you really might believe it.

I am Seana Moorhead and I have written an extraordinary and world class fantasy book for young adults.

You want to read it now, don’t you?

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Churchill

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I had a bus once.  It was the vehicle I drove to work everyday for a year and a half.  A 1984 Ford school bus van with a 350 engine that ran on propane.  I had seen it for sale in an empty parking lot, and day after day I drove by it, my heart lurching in delight at the possibilities – I would rip the seats out, paint it Miami blue, make funky curtains for it, build a deep lounging seat in the back that doubled as a bed, fill it with comfy cushions…I could picture myself driving it, groovy beads hanging from the rear view mirror, stereo playing, the purple carpet.  I had to have it.  It had a destination sign after all.  One that lit up with a flip of a switch over my head.  One that I could change the magnetic letters around to say anything I wanted.  Go anywhere I wanted.

This past weekend I was at the Ontario Writers Conference in Ajax.  I have to admit when I first walked in the doors of Deer Creek Banquet Hall I felt like I didn’t belong.  That feeling persisted through the Friday night at the Festival of Authors, where I listened to authors unknown to me.  Authors who had succeeded and who had already published their work.  Rob Winger read his poetry, Plum Johnson read from her memoir (I was sucked in and bought the book later), and Catherine Gildiner, who read a comedic excerpt from her memoir – about a time in the 60’s in London and her friend sleeping with Jimi Hendrix????  Maybe I was with like-minded people after all! Read more

Writing, or the art of finding new and creative ways to express ideas that have for the most part already been shared in some fashion, is rejuvenating and exhilarating. Nothing beats the sensation of putting to paper an emotion or conflict that has moved your life in some manner. To explore an imaginary world, to re-write an experience so your heroine comes out the victor, or at least bests your nemesis with wit and candor.

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Struggle sums up my recent experience on the writing journey.

Bringing funny, sad and soul stirring to life on the page is a lofty and elusive goal.

Maybe it’s just grappling….as always, for the perfect word or phrase. There’s a lot of second guessing going on; should the idea be distilled or expanded, and why can’t I settle on one story long enough to finish? Figuring out the rhythm, not over using the word ‘the’ and oh, the distractions….. enough said.

The good news is that I’m writing steadily these days. I’ve got some great beginnings and have happily discovered I no longer need Read more

We never stop learning.

That seems to be one of the basic tenets of being human (for most of us hopefully!), but when it comes to writing and being a writer, it’s a truism.
For something that seems so self-evident, I have and continue (amazingly enough) to come across writers who think they’ve already learned what they need to know about writing. Read more

The Roman author Catullus was writing about his unrequited love for the unrepentantly promiscuous Clodia when he penned the words I’ve lifted for this blog’s title, but I can relate to feeling hot and cold about the same subject.

I love to write; I hate to non-write. Yet, I need to have that “non-writing” state first, for it is my process of preparing to write.

Let me explain about this process I call “non-writing”. For me, the “non-writing” action is a vital step leading to the point where my creative juices are flowing and I’m busily immersed in writing my novel. Read more