Five on Friday: Refilling the Well

Sometimes going from deadline to deadline (or lurching from one crisis to the next) can leave me more than a little tired. I run out of words or ideas and sometimes even the will to write. Any creative person will say that what we're supposed to do when feeling like that is to 'refill the well' - do something to inspire our souls, our imaginations and all that. I've been having a nice time burying my head in the sand about my deadline, and just refilling the well this week ... here are my 5 favourite ways to do it:

1. Read. I curl up in a comfy spot and read a book - with no analysis, just enjoyment. It's just bliss.
2. Fresh air. For me this automatically seems to include water - going for a swim, going down to the beach, overlooking a pond at the Botannical gardens or something like that... it revitalises me. At the 2010 Romance Writers of New Zealand conference, bestselling author Stephanie Laurens and Hollywood story consultant Chris Vogler had a fascinating discussion on the inspirational 'power' of water and the creative benefits of being near a spring...
3. And while we're on the water subject, there is nothing like having a long, hot shower. Maybe this is something especially good for the very busy mothers out there because it's something we can manage daily - I have several mates with young children and we all confess to taking long, hot showers for some time out. But I always get hit with ideas while I'm in there too - so fabulous!
4. Travel - even to the next town. Going somewhere new, sitting watching people from a cafe, walking the streets and looking at the buildings, reading the local paper, going down the main street and walking into a bakery or fruit stall... change is as good as a break...
5. Cultural experience - be it going to a concert or to an exhibition at an art gallery, nothing inspires me more than seeing the creative endeavours of other artists. Some people create the most amazing, beautiful things and I get blown away by them. I love to be reminded of the years and years and years of training and practice that classical musicians have gone through to master their instruments. It inspires me to practice and practice and practice my own craft. I love to look at a beautiful painting or sculpture and feel the pleasure from looking at it and remember how worthwhile it is to create something for others to simply enjoy or get amusement/pleasure or some kind of emotional response to. I am inspired to strive - to get more of that visceral response from readers by writing fun fiction that has deeply emotional truths at the core... to provoke a response, to provide an escape, to make someone laugh and cry and remind them of the power of our relationships... yes, it reminds me of my core purpose...

So, I've been reading books all week, in a different town, lingering in the shower, staying by the beach and paddling in the water and today I went to a fantastic exhibition at the local art gallery... and I am so ready to write!

Five on Friday: Finding the Time...

I've had some great emails this week with readers and aspiring writers and one question that seems to come up a lot is the 'how do you find the time' one - and yes, it seems really pertinent at the moment for me when we're on our long summer school holidays and I have the four children home all day, a husband working six days a week and a book that needs serious revision... panic stations really.

But where there's a will there's a way - and I do think that if you want something badly enough, you'll find the time somehow. Here are my five biggest tips for finding the time to write around family/work and other obligations:

1. Kill your television. If you've a day job/family, then the sit-back-and-relax hours in the evening are not for blobbing in front of telly, they're for tapping on your computer. 
2. Kill your internet connection. Surfing is my biggest problem procrastination wise. There's a great application called Freedom which you set for a period of time and it kills the connection for you. I'm sure there are PC equivalents. Or just unplug your modem.
3. Create a routine. If you can manage it, set aside the same time each day to write and try not to miss a day. EVERY day is the way. After a month it’ll be a habit and you’ll feel bad if you don’t do it. Often the best time for working in this way is early in the morning – get up at 5:30 and you can easily fit in one and a half to two hours good writing time. You just have to go to bed a bit earlier I guess! But you feel really ‘virtuous’ for the rest of the day because you’ve already got your stint in and sometimes it can be really hard to sit down and write having spent a full day at work already.
4. Spend time THINKING. When you're pressed for time, make the most of the moments you do have to dwell on plot problems/twists/conflict issues. Stacking the dishwasher is a great time for me, as is driving etc. Just set your mind a problem to think on. Showers provide brilliant thinking time as do those delicious moments just before you fall asleep.
5. Just do it. Put it at the top of the to-do list for the day. Prioritise it - let your friends and family know it's important to you and that you need their support. Make a deal with the kids - an hour quiet time for them and if they DON'T interrupt you, you'll take them to the pool after... (headphones work well for this too so you can be 'present' in the corner tapping on the sofa while they play on the floor...)

So there you go - harding reinventing the wheel there, but they're oft-repeated tips for a reason: they work.

Meanwhile, I'm off to take my own advice, get off the internet and get to writing!!!

In a pickle...

First up - Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in America - I hope you're having a fabulous day with friends and family :)

My day here in New Zealand is going a little bit too slow and too fast. I've only a couple of hours before the kids get home and look at the mess I've made on the lounge floor - in fact I got a mirror down to try to help me see clearly... but sadly, my story is right in the so-messy-I'm-scared-I'll-never-sort-it phase. My brain is taking too long to figure it out.

Argh.

Thank goodness for post-it notes and pens. But I'd better stop procrastinating!!!!!!

It's my journal and I'll write if I want to...

Okay so a while back I posted over at the Writing Playground about my terrible notebook habit - I used to keep one for every book (plus future books) plus another for ideas, another for journalling etc etc. And I'd never have the right on on me at the right time etc etc and end up not remembering in which of the 20 darn things I had that fab bit of dialogue in... (and would even uselessly search through the stack of new ones in the drawer) so I switched to just the one journal for everything. Works a treat - I have it on me almost all the time and even though I switch from personal journal angst to character exercise to list of possible settings for some random book idea in the same entry, it makes sense to me...

I had about 5 pages of my current journal to go (pink, hardcover) so I went to the shop today and bought a new one. Took ages - had to get the almost-four year olds to make the final decision for me because I was umming so much over colour and size. But I got one (the one in this pic actually. It was that or red. Held onto red for ages as is my fave colour, but not quite the right shade and something about this blue spoke to me).

Of course, I want to write in it right now.

Still have five blank pages in old. Can't waste paper.

New journal beckoning...

... what would you do?

Fresh Starts...

I love this phase of the writing 'cycle' - my latest wip is now in my editor's inbox and I'm now forgetting about it and dreaming up characters new.

It's always a huge rush of relief, excitement, and nerves when I send a book in but the best way to cope with the 'what will she think of it' worry is to get on with the next.

But I also like this time because I tend to slow down after the huge, intense period up to deadline - this is when I stick my head up and notice that all the blossom are on the trees - the daffodils are out as are the magnolias - just exquisite. I'm ready to recharge and the world is full of possibilities.

I have the best of intentions - to detox from the V (high caffeine fizzy drink) and M&Ms diet of the last few weeks, to get more sleep, to do more exercise, organise my paperwork... this will last until I suddenly get the rush on the new book (or the revisions on the last).

But I always find I write much more in my journal at this time and look at craft books a whole lot more etc.

It is Banned Books week in the US next week and on Twitter my attention got drawn to YA author Laurie Halse Anderson (no relation!) - I confess I hadn't read her book Speak (in my defence my eldest is 7 and I haven't read my YA in recent years. But I have it now and have started and am so drawn into it already) - anyway I went to her website when I read that her book had been questioned. She has some awesome things to say about censorship - and I don't believe anyone can watch her reading her poem based on reader response to Speak without going teary. So I trawled her website some more - and any writer who says they listen to lots of techno and house music while writing, and who suggests people turn off their telly - well, there's an instant connection for me. Then I found that back in August on her blog she had a Write For 15 Minutes a Day program - every day she posted some tips and a writing exercise. I know, I'm over a month too late but hooray for subject tags on blogs because yes, for this latest 'new beginnings' cycle, I'm going to do Laurie's WFMAD programme - to stretch the creative muscles and just do something different with the start of each day. I already have the habit of writing every day - but sometimes it's good to go sideways, hey?

Every writer should read her ten point list of advice to aspiring authors - do so here - at the bottom of the Writing & Publishing header.

Happy reading & writing everyone!