Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Motivation’

Persistence

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 22, 2014| 1 Comment »

“Persistence.” That’s what my father told me when I asked what it took to succeed in graduate school. Smart helps, yes, but there’s no beating the commitment and perhaps sheer bloody stubbornness that comes with persistence. That advice served me well in academia and elsewhere, particularly when it came to writing.

There are a lot of challenges around writing: the difficulty of learning a skill so complex that the greatest achievement is to make it look simple, the often solitary pursuit of improvement, and “overnight success” that is usually anything but. Kameron Hurley, author of God’s War, has an essay about this topic today on Chuck Wendig’s site. She sums it up well:

Persistence, I realized, was not the end goal. It was the actual game.

Now, I argue for a balanced approach to writing or whatever your project may be, and I’m too attached to my family and my health to sacrifice them in the hopes that will make me a better writer. For me, the opposite is true; strength in one area translates into strength in others. If, as my ever-wise father says, you are willing to persist. That note rings loud and true.

For more on Kameron’s experiences and her long journey to (and eventual redefinition of) “success,” read the full essay here.

Then whatever it is you are working on, finish it.

Read Full Post »

A Season in the Show

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 20, 2014|

John Scalzi has a nice piece up today with encouraging words about persistence in writing… I particularly like this bit:

Who knows what will happen tomorrow.

Will you, as a writer, become like George RR Martin? Probably not. But you might find your own measure of success, so long as you keep showing up.

Automattic Special Projects's avatarWhatever

This last weekend I had an enjoyable time at the Confusion convention, which is no surprise, as I usually do — it’s one of the reasons I’ve gone back to it now for nine years running. I mostly hung out in the bar and talked to writers, doing the usual combination of business talk and complete idiocy, as writers generally do at conventions when they chat with each other.

One evening I talked to a couple of different authors about writing careers and the ups and downs careers have, and how from time to time we’re all filled with frustration with them, especially during a downturn. We all want to be on award lists; we all want to have bestsellers. If those things don’t happen we can wonder if what we’re doing matters much at all. As we were talking about it I came up with a metaphor which I…

View original post 857 more words

Read Full Post »

Everyday Brownies

Posted in Food and..., Likes, tagged , , , , , , , on January 17, 2014| 2 Comments »

Just in time for the weekend, here is my favorite brownie recipe. It’s quick and delicious. It’s also in metric, because once you get a scale and get used to the routine, the weight method is indeed easier and more consistent. Making fewer dirty dishes is an added bonus. Also, cocoa powder means no waiting around to chop and melt chocolate bricks. I have a double boiler but yeah, no.

Brownies

Time: 30-40 minutes
  • 142 grams butter
  • 42 grams cocoa powder
  • 200 grams sugar (I use brown sugar or half brown and half white for a nuttier flavor)
  • 2 eggs
  • 60 grams flour
  • Dash salt
  • ½ t. vanilla extract
1. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper (or grease with butter, but parchment paper makes for fantastically easy clean up).
2. Melt butter in the microwave on low (30% works for me). Use a whisk to stir in cocoa powder until smooth, then add sugar, eggs, flour, salt and vanilla, mixing after each addition. The batter will resemble quicksand, only tastier.
3. Pour into the pan and bake 20 minutes, or until set in the middle.* Let cool and cut.
*Note: This recipe can be doubled with no trouble, use a 9×13-inch pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.
…
P.S. Upon reflection, I feel bad for those of you without a digital scale. Here you go:
  • 10 T. butter
  • ⅓ C. cocoa powder
  • 1 C. sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ C. flour
  • Dash salt
  • ½ t. vanilla extract
Enjoy! I know I will:)

Read Full Post »

Society for the Constructive Pursuit of Creativity

Posted in Favorites, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 15, 2014| 5 Comments »

The Society for the Constructive Pursuit of Creativity, or SCPC. Yeah, I just made that up. As of five minutes ago it’s my new thing, and it is time to formulate some founding tenets. Like so:

— Be awesome. Duh. And ignore people who tell you that what you are working on is anything but. If you love it, that’s good enough.

— Be constructive. We’re on the planet to laugh and love and all that touchy-feely stuff but we are also here to make things. Elephants think, dolphins talk, even crows use tools. What humans do better than any other species yet met is build. (And don’t give me any guff about acres of mold growing underground or gigantic ant hills; that’s all well and good but when an ant designs the next great handheld device then we can talk.)

— Be productive. That doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk about it, just do your work without worrying too much about the next guy over.

— Be more productive than you were yesterday, or than you thought you could be when you woke up this morning dying for caffeine.

— Try not to overthink. That path leads to insecurity and insecurity leads to procrastination.

— If you must procrastinate, try to make it as constructive as possible. Just because you can’t do what you are supposed to do doesn’t mean you can’t do anything at all. Figure out what your mind will let you work on and do that. When you finish the new thing, add it to your To Do list so you can have the satisfaction of crossing it out at the end of the day. Design a new organization. See? Fun!

— If you happen to be less awesome or productive than you would like, do not under any circumstances beat yourself up about it. That’s like shouting at a cat, momentarily satisfying but with no long-term benefits whatsoever. Encouragement, goal setting, and bribery are much more effective. I prefer cookies or a chilled glass of Bailey’s, myself.

— Treat projects like practice. It worked for Ender. I take notes on the backs of used envelopes and write in pencil to convince myself that whatever I’m doing, it isn’t serious enough to stress over. Hey, whatever it takes.

— Along those same lines, do not be afraid to hack your mind! It’s a great way to increase productivity, to keep yourself from falling victim to those paralyzingly bad habits you developed in grade school, and if nothing else it gives you an excuse to watch good TED videos.

— Finally, fun is our watchword. Remember, if it isn’t fun and it won’t ever be fun and you won’t feel good about it after, you’re doing it wrong.

Motto: A Posse Ad Esse ~ From Possibility to Actuality
…

Right, that’s done. Now, what was I working on?

Read Full Post »

Pass It On

Posted in Likes, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 8, 2014| 2 Comments »

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.

— Richard P. Feynman

Read Full Post »

Holidays

Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Apologies for my lack of presence here; like many of you, I’m up to my ears in holiday fun. Eggnog, presents, family, Swedish smörgåsbord delights, and the ensuing fallout has me busy, busy, busy! I’ll be around the site off and on for the next week and back in force after the New Year. In the meantime, let me leave you with this terrific quote:

Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you ­finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.
― Anne Enright

It’s applicable to writing, of course, but substitute “do [fill in the blank with your own white whale]” for “finish this book” and it may also be useful for those looking ahead to the new year, and related resolutions:)

Read Full Post »

Trying to Focus Here…

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on December 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Some days I find it hard to focus. My mind wanders, and if I don’t turn off the internet I suddenly discover myself researching machine embroidery, the weather patterns of eastern Nepal, or the art of lactic acid fermentation. All fine topics, to be sure, but sadly Not What I Am Supposed to be Doing at the moment.

If you also have this problem at times, I recommend the following bit of wisdom from Anne Lamott:

Try looking at your mind as a wayward puppy that you are trying to paper train. You don’t drop-kick a puppy into the neighbor’s yard every time it piddles on the floor. You just keep bringing it back to the newspaper.
― Anne Lamott

That was yesterday. Today will be better.

If I could just find some more newspaper.

Read Full Post »

A Little Inspiration

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on December 4, 2013| 1 Comment »

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.

― Maya Angelou

As an addendum, I posit that you don’t have to start out loving your work to be good at it. Pay close enough attention to a thing for long enough, and its beauty becomes clear.

Read Full Post »

Silencing the Inner Editor

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Like a lot of you I have a pretty (read very;) active inner editor. Most of the time we have a good relationship. He’s helpful when I need to find typos or structure a plot line but can be a pain in the ass when I just need to get words on the page. When writing, my strategy has been to find a balance between my instinctive urge to edit as I go and the not-as-helpful urge to redo absolutely everything all the time.

For me, that’s where speed writing comes in.

I was an archer in a former life and found that the best thing to do when I was missing my shots was to loosen up. The best way for me to do that was speed shooting. Forget the rules, forget “nine steps to the ten ring,” forget breathing and pacing and everything else. Just shoot, as many arrows as fast as you can. By the time my quiver was empty I’d regained my sense of balance and perhaps most importantly, my sense of fun. When I became an instructor I found this technique was one of my best for helping students over humps.

That’s why NaNoWriMo appeals to me. I do NaNo because it gives me a structured opportunity to focus on something that the inner editor doesn’t have a part in, word count. If nothing else, it gives me the opportunity to loosen up my writing muscles to the point where I can restore the balance I may have lost editing the rest of the year. It also gets me back in the practice of writing, rather than editing, on a daily basis. And it reminds me how much fun writing can be.

I also found that being mean to my inner editor didn’t work, I had to silence him with kindness. I mentally send him on vacation for the month of November. I thank him for being so diligent, so dedicated, and as a reward I send him somewhere warm, a sunny place with bright blue water and umbrella drinks. (Not surprisingly, he’s a lot less uptight come December.) And then I write.

I should also say that the strategic use of deadlines, both in and out of November, has been critical as well. Having a cutoff date does wonders for my sense of focus.

So, finding a way to get out of my own way, that’s what works for me.

Good luck finding a strategy that works for you:)
.
.
* Thanks to Ceallaigh MacCath-Moran of SF Canada for the discussion that inspired this post.

Read Full Post »

NaNoWriMo 2014: Team Pantser

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , on October 30, 2013| 1 Comment »

Hey, nice, I’m cited in Danika Dinsmore’s new post about “pantsing” and NaNoWriMo. And she’s right, “Really, there is no one way or best way to write a novel, there’s just the way that works for you.”

I also love the random idea generators she links. It’s like a slushy machine that pours out stories, tasty, delicious, multi-colored stories!

Now if I can just figure out how to make time for a novel, I’ll be all set:)

Danika Dinsmore's avatarwriting to support my teaching habit

Every year during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) the discussion of “pantser” (one who writes by the seat of his or  her pants) vs. “Planner” (one who outlines in advance) pops up. For the past two years I’ve been boldly promoting the “Planner'” approach:

Weekend Workout: Prepping fo NaNo (or not)

Reading that post, I sound very convinced and quite smug. Really, there is no one way or best way to write a novel, there’s just the way that works for you. And this year, I’ve joined Team Pantser. Not necessarily because I’ve seen the light, but because I’m being forced to for lack of planning time. As a matter of fact, I can’t even begin until Nov 4, so I’m going to have to haul literary ass to catch up.

I was inspired by a recent discussion on this topic on a speculative fiction writers forum, and we heard…

View original post 606 more words

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »