WIP Wednesday: How Thin Is Your Skin?

Our writing works are our babies, and like most parents we do not like being told our kids have issues. 

Now, I grant ya.  Opinions are like ass........ Well, you know what I mean.  Everyone has their own taste and not everyone is going to like your work.  Par for the course.  But to get a negative critique from a creditable peer regarding that much loved and slaved over WIP????

I have found over the years, my tolerance for criticism to be greatly improved.  Now, personal criticism can still make my stubborn horns flare out.  Just ask the poor souls who love me best.  But I am quite proud of my acceptance of professional critique.  It's something that has grown with age and came early while working in the Mental Health field.  A profession that proves more often than not, there is no "I" in team and no one person has all the answers.

I actually crave writing critique from my peers.  When I am in my writing zone, I get so anxious to get my work right.  I want my "baby" to be the best it can be.  I want help when I am stuck with technical issues and listen to creative opinion even when I do not agree with the other persons view.  In my past profession, point of view was an important key to dealing with my clients.  In creativity, I feel the same.  Even if we do not agree, your opinion of my work gives me another view of it and often helps me mould my WIP.

In the end, writing critique is meant to point out flaws based on both opinion and technical fact.   Either way, I have found much truth can be found in ones flaws.  And truth can sometimes be a tough thing to face.

So my fellow writers and creative colleagues, how do you handle constructive critique from your professional peers?   Is your skin thick or thin?

And a shout out to Alex J Cavanaugh Insecure Writers Support Group.  Sign up and check out their blog hop every 1st Wednesday of the month. 

 

WIP Wednesday: My Pep Talk Rx

                                Prescription best used in life and in writing.

 

 

     I see this old slate board every morning (every time) I enter the living room and walk towards the kitchen.  It hangs by the kitchen windows, where it presides over much of my activities these days.  Anyone with a very young tot knows the kitchen becomes your second home (preempting my desk space many days *sigh* ).   Another topic for another day.

 

I gave myself this Rx many years ago when I worked in the Mental Health field.  The lettering I used often in my daily logs and note taking and the Rx I used everyday when dealing with both clients and the MH system which I worked.  One day at a time.

 

Keeping this simple message up in my home now, reminds me to stay focused and work on what is at hand and not obsess about things I can not control or whats still so far ahead for both my little family and for my writing.  It reminds me that big and important jobs can become so much more manageable when you just focus on one day at a time.

 

Good writing folks.

 

 

WIP Wednesday: Feeding My Muse His Visuals

Old inspiration board from a past story.

I am a visual person by nature.  In childhood I would save stones, twigs and bits of nature found on walks or cuttings from a favorite funny or colorful magazine.  I was drawn to it like other children feel compelled to toss a ball or skip.  I still have some of those bits. 

Over the years I have continued my stockpiling of nature, art post cards, magazine clippings, favorite quotes scribbled on bits of paper, snips of fabric or paper, pictures I or others have taken...the list goes on.....

So she's either one of those creative people or burgeoning hoarder you say?  Maybe a bit of both.  I do know if you follow this blog you are probably much like me in this compulsion--this feeding of our muses I will call it.  Am I wrong? 

Like me, does your imagination spin in some needed or unexpected direction with each new gathered bit?  Do you start new projects by one swatch of fabric or one quote of the day?  Did a painting help you know a characters world better or (in the realm of sound) did a song ever give you your characters soul?

So tell me, are you a muse feeding pack rat?  What things do you pin or tape to your wall or sit upon your shelf.  And if you have progressed like me, what images have you copied and pasted from the net to sooth that ever hungry muse?

For me each new long term project brings a new set of inspirations.  Here are a few of the collected bits I use for my novel, Ghost Mountain.

Good Writing Folks!

 

 

WIP Wednesday: Got Gadgets?

Gadgets.  Aside from our imaginations, gadgets are a part of all writers--all creators--tool box.  It may be something low tech like a paint brush, hammer or pen you most pull out of the box.  Or high tech gadgets like a digital camera, 3D printer (wildest dreams) or my little Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. (Image above created during 3rd attempt using S Memo app.)  And like most of us, the combination of both low and high tech gadgets are whats needed to fully express our imaginings and brings forth our creations.

I started out very low tech (pencil, pen, paintbrush and hammer sort) and stubbornly held onto these creative tools for many years, ignoring the world of high tech like it was the enemy.  Time, high tech positive peer pressure and experience opened my mind to the wonderful would of technology, but I'm still very loyal to my old primitive friends.

The below is a example of one of my high tech gadgets taking on one of my low tech gadgets jobs.  

I often sketch out a geographical map for the fictional world I'm writing about.  I'm a visual person by nature and it sometimes helps in the structuring of my story.  Usually I would do this on the back of a paper tablet or a sheet of print out paper, to be crumpled into a binder or tacked to the wall at my desk.  This would have been fine and I will probably continue such creative planning and nest making in the future. 

But with the apps on my Galaxy Note 10.1 I can more easily share my vision with a wider audience of friends and fellow creators.  And frankly, this looks better than me taking a digital of my crumpled up paper on the wall and posting it.  Then again, I do like old school.  We shall see.  This is a process and I have just started this new avenue.

My second attempt at sketching, using the S Memo feature my new Galaxy Note 10.1. (For you Galaxy owners, I see Omni Sketch and Zen Brush in my near future.) 

So what gadget, low tech or high, helps in your creative process?  What gadget can you not live without.  What new gadget would you love to use or what old gadget do you keep coming back to time and time again?

Good writing folks!

WIP Wednesday: Forward...

...life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.

~~~Jimmy Buffett

Here's to ticking more off my scavenger list than I did last year.   Let the journey begin!

I hadn't even thought of this day till this morning, flipping through my e-mails and Facebook offerings.  I have thought of the significance of 2012 and yes I have let it sit in the back of my head like a headache or worry I'd rather not deal with.

So 12-12-2012!!!! 

A date and year translated as doom via our translation of the Mayan calender.  Logical me likes to think that maybe it was just the end of their calendar and not THE END. 

~12-12-12~ 

Numbers so devine and sacred that thousands of brides will marry on this date just because of the harmony this number shall bring to their holy matrimony.

12

A dozen roses. The number of months in our calendar year. 12 inches in a foot.  12 hours on a clock.  24 hours in a day (12x2=24).  And it can be evenly divided into multiple subsets; 12 breaks down into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths and twelfths making it a very dynamic number.

And it would have been just another day if I had bypassed my computer today and ignored the news.  Happily, I have begun to see 2012 in general, much the same way.  Just another year, with its good and bad, ready to lay down and allow room for 2013.

So I say numbers are devices man has come to use in order to make better sense of the world when he believes intuition and faith are not enough to do the job.  I believe following numbers to count our time here on Earth, sometimes feels like an attempt at shortening it.  And a day (or year) is what you make it.

So what does this day mean to me? 

December 12, 2012.  Laundry day, another Wednesday Blog post and 13 more days till Christmas. 

Cheers!


 

Insecure Writers Support Group: Self Doubt and Me.

So my friends and fellow members of the Insecure Writers Support Group, how do I get these out of my stomach?  How do the rest of you banish self-doubt as writers and creative beings?  As a human being in general?

Confidence builds in time they say.  And each jumble of words I put down should feed said confidence, right? 

WRONG! 

Sometimes I feel brilliant and inspired and many other times I feel halted and bound by self-doubt. 

Do I not believe I deserve to finish?  Do I really like running in place each time I get towards the middle of a new project?  I have written 125,000 word Fan Fiction stories.  I write without hesitation and in much detail when I post or comment on-line.  I have a million short stories and multiple NaNoWriMo offerings... 

So why do I feel like I have a rabble of Lepidoptera in my stomach when I sit down to the computer these days and a bound up head of ideas not able to escape? 

SELF-DOUBT!!!!!

Any thoughts to finding this beasts Achilles heel, please?