It’s been over a year since I’ve done a blog post. I was taking a break to focus on my ONE writing priority: FINISHING MY NOVEL. It’s been a long project since I was learning how to write while I raised a family, worked, and tried to keep up with our house. My struggle is every artist’s struggle: How to keep creating when life is overwhelming you. (Unless of course you have a fabulous patron and you’re living in some historic castle writing away while dragons play outside.) But for the rest of us, here’s my story on how I kept to my goals when life was super challenging. And the tips, techniques and resources I used to keep myself on track even when life was busy making other plans for me.
Tag: Writers Life
Finding Your Family – Comparable Titles
The dreaded ‘comp’ or comparative title is every querying novelist’s nemesis. You spend years writing and perfecting your novel—a book only you could have written, a story unlike any other—and then you’re asked to list the similar books.
What? Are they crazy? Of course, there is nothing exactly like your novel—that’s why you wrote it.
The trouble is—this is the business of books. If you want an agent to promote your work, if you dream of the day a publisher will commit to printing your pages and you can’t wait to see your glossy hard cover baby mingling on the shelves of your favourite bookstore, then you need to help everyone to position your book. Read more
Letting Go
“The most exquisite paradox: as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all. As long as you want power, you can’t have it. The minute you don’t want power, you’ll have more than you ever dreamed possible.” ~Ram Dass
As writers, sometimes we want so badly to be published, that we will do just about anything to make that success happen. What ultimately happens is that we get stuck on a gerbil that’s spinning so fast, we can’t get off.
Writing From The Middle
A few very bright sunny days had arrived in the middle of ‘The Lockdown Winter’ as I refer to it. I’ve had trouble focusing on writing since December 26th. I can’t imagine what is worth writing about, as I am only conscious of the things I am not allowed to do at the moment. The way my brain works this thought took me scurrying down the familiar rabbit hole of “why am I so stuck?”
A Writing Place of My Own
Before Covid-19 hit, one of my favourite writing spots was the local café. I loved seeing friends and neighbours, watching people chat and order their coffee, while I wrote. I have this unique skill, this ability to ignore everything around me and get fully engrossed in my own made up world. I took pride that some of my scenes were so engaging, I could disregard the rest of the world and fully immerse myself. I remember these times fondly.
Since March, with the cafés closed and my writing space stolen, I’ve been displaced. I’m nothing if not persistent and so I took to writing at home. The best time was early in the morning, before my family arose. I would claim the couch in the living room, coffee in hand, doing my best to shoo away the cats and dogs vying for my attention. This was heavenly, until my teenage children woke. Then they invaded, turning on the television, complaining about missing laundry and overall… just being their noisy selves, so I would stop writing.
This summer, my teenage son decided to move downstairs, leaving his bedroom upstairs empty. So… I’ve begun to dream of a writing space. Read more
WRITING IN DANGEROUS TIMES
I always thought I knew a lot about danger. Like what part of New York to avoid at night after the Theatre Production ended. How to be wise when traveling in a foreign country like Britain or France or Spain with a Canadian Flag on my back pack. How to recognize scam phone calls: especially the ones that begin “Don’t hang-up”.
I also believed I had experienced just about everything there was to experience; marriage and divorce times 2, childbirth times 2, and cancer (only once thank goodness). I had started over many times, moved into and out of a myriad of homes and apartments and always made the transition eventually. So just what made these last 12 weeks so damned hard?
Read moreThe End of a Decade: Glancing Back, Racing Forward
It is hard to believe, but another decade is ending in 16 sleeps!
Glancing back over the last 3, 650 days, I wonder what the hell I have been doing with my life? How did ten years just disappear in a blink?
Sure, as a mother, I’ve raised three wonderful children and sent them off to University: one is married and has a job, one is almost married and has a job, and my baby is currently wading through a whole bunch of biomedical science jargon that I can’t even begin to understand and always has a summer job. Obviously, education and jobs are important in this household. All three kids are smarter and more respectful than their mother and can handle the world without me. What more can a mom ask for? Seriously, that means I did my job as a mother.
But, as a writer… hmmm, that is a completely different story.
Read moreWhy Write At All?
As the newest member of Ascribe Writers it is my turn (I was coerced) to write about writing. Apparently, I am allowed to focus on anything as long as my musings revolve around the fact that I am a writer.
Well, if that’s true, why is all my written work locked up in legal files that were presented to the courts, insurance companies or employers? Oh right, that’s part of my day job. You know that job… it’s the one we all do so we can do the things we really want to do in our ‘spare time’.
Read more