Tag: discovery

  • Refilling the Creative Well – A Must for All Artists

    Refilling the Creative Well – A Must for All Artists

    If you hadn’t yet realized, I’m a big fan of Julie Cameron’s book (and 12-week, self-guided course) The Artist’s Way. I took it as an interdisciplinary course my first semester in Lesley University’s MFA in Creative Writing program. It changed the way I thought about myself, about my creativity, and about the creative life in general. And one of the biggest lessons I learned in taking the class was this: creative individuals need to nurture their creative spirit by “refilling the creative well.”

    The Act of Creation is Tiring

    It is a common misconception among non-creatives and casual creatives that artists don’t “work” at what they do. From an outsider’s perspective, creation looks like play, and to some degree it is, but it is anything but casual play. It is active, and focused, and intentional, and draining.

    That last point is essential to understand. Tapping into your creative mind is tiring, though many of us don’t notice that we’re fatiguing until we’re lying face down like a stick of butter that’s been left out on the counter in August. Letting ourselves reach that point is damaging and dangerous and difficult to recover from, so how we avoid it?

    Try scheduling activities into your life that will nurture your creative spirit. Not use it, mind you. These are moments in which, as an artist, you receive rather than produce. Julie Cameron calls them “artist dates.” She advocates one per week. I agree, though I fall far from accomplishing that once-a-week schedule myself.

    An artist date is anything that lets you to take in and enjoy the external world. Go out to eat at a nice restaurant. Go for a walk in the woods. Visit the beach. See an art installation at a local museum. Attend a concert. These should be private moments when you can be alone. For me, that’s difficult because my beloved is a visual artist. We tend to bundle our artist dates, which is fine but not ideal. Doing anything with anyone else necessarily involves moments of compromise, small or large. Artist dates are supposed to be 100% about you, so my co-dates aren’t ideal, but they’re certainly better than nothing.

     

    Investing in Yourself as an Artist

    The purpose of giving yourself an Artist Date is to “refill your creative well.”

    NeuropathwaysWhether you’re a composer, a painter, a poet, or a novelist the act of creation uses energy. Literally. It also uses neurotransmitters. If you’re continually working on your art, you’re activating and reactivating the same neural networks in your brain again and again. The cells of those neural networks talk to each other via chemicals that are manufactured at night while you sleep. Over time, you can deplete your store of neurotransmitter by using them faster than you can make them.

    That’s the fatigue that sets it. The lethargy, the creative block, the depression, the doubt. You’ve been working so hard creating beautiful art that you’ve exhausted the parts of your brain involved in the process. Athletes know this as “overtraining.” They avoid it by building “off days” into their training programs. Creative folks would be wise to follow suit.

    I’m a writer, but I love the visual arts. Photographs, sculpture, painting. When I feel like my creative energies are waning, I hit up the Boston Museum of Fine Art or look for a local photography exhibit to attend. It gives me a chance to witness, take in, and be emotionally touched by what others have created without activating the pathways I use when I’m writing. Ideas enter from the outside world, not from the inside world. They get in there, bounce around in my subconscious, and mingle with my own ideas like colors swirling on the surface of a bubble.

    The creative well begins to fill once more. When I’m ready to sit back down and start producing again, all kinds of new and exciting things might emerge from having experienced the products of other artists’ creative acts.

     

    Art Festivals are Your Friend

    When is the last time you attended a local art festival? Summer is upon us, folks. It’s the high season for art associations to exhibit their members’ works.  I can’t recommend them enough as a place to go to be recharged and reinvigorated as a creative spirit.

    This past weekend, my beloved and I walked into downtown Salem and got to see some fabulous art at the Salem Artist Festival. We also listened to talented musicians perform and sparkling dancers dance. The square crackled with creative energy and positivity. I soaked it up like a sponge and found myself breathing deeper and smiling more widely on the walk home. Life was, is, good. My creative well is brimming. Check out the photos I took along the way, and if you’re local try to get down there this weekend and check it out.  You won’t be disappointed.

     

    When’s the last time you did anything to refill your creative well? What did you do? How did you feel afterward?

    Thanks for stopping by, and happy writing to you!

  • Boskone 2018 – A Phenomenal SFF Writers Convention

    Boskone 2018 – A Phenomenal SFF Writers Convention

    It’s the day after the 55th Annual Boskone Convention wrapped up, and I just realized I haven’t written a post for some time.  To commit my thoughts and observations in the “permanent” annals of the internet, I thought I’d talk about my experience at my very first writing convention.   I met and heard from some amazingly talented authors, editors, and agents in the fantasy and science fiction genre.

     

    What Is Boskone?

    No one I knew had ever heard of Boskone and, truth be told, neither had I until my Fantasy and Science Fiction professor at Lesley University told me about ReaderCon, which happens every summer in Quincy, Massachusetts.  In researching that, I stumbled upon Boskone.  Right there on the homepage, I saw enough to get me to register: Mary Robinette Kowal and Tamora Pierce.

    Mary–the charismatic co-host of my favorite podcast, Writing Excuses, and Tamora–one of the best YA fantasy writers ever!  Done.  I’m there. 

    Then, I kept finding bonuses as I perused the long list of program participants.  I kept getting more and more excited, but I really had no idea what to expect.  I’ve never been to a writing convention before.  Heck, I’ve never been to any kind of convention before.  

    In early January, they posted the schedule for the weekend, and I started picking out which panels I most wanted to go to.  Odin knows, I had trouble choosing.  More often than not, several fascinating panels were happening at the same time.  I kept having to remind myself that this wasn’t the one and only convention I’d ever get to attend in my life.  No, this was just the first (of many, I hope).

     

    Where was Boskone?

    You can click the link for their website, but I’ll tell you that, at least for this year, it took place at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel, right next door to the Boston Convention Center.  Boskone was in the hotel, though, not over in the convention center.  The New England Boat Show was happening over there.

    The Westin was beautiful… what I saw of it.  I didn’t stay there.  Living just 30 miles north, I couldn’t justify spending $200+/night for a room when I could walk and train it to and from for $15.00 a day.  But, based on some of the hotel patrons I observed while sitting in the lobby wishing I was better at striking up conversations with people, I’m willing to guess their rooms were equally beautiful.

    Boskone events occupied all the conference and banquet rooms in the hotel’s east (north?) wing on all three floors, which were reasonably sized and clean.  I was impressed with the quality of the mic systems the hotel provided for the event.  The shrink wrapped carpets in the Galleria (in and around where snacks were put out each evening) amused me.

     

    The Social Scene

    To all you people who go to conferences more often than I do, or who are perhaps published authors who attend conventions as participants: how do you talk to each other?!  I’m not referring to asking questions during panel discussions.  That’s easy because that’s a venue with limits and expectations and rules for conduct, etc.  I’m talking about striking up casual social conversations that might allow me to actually meet other established or aspiring authors.

    I spent most of my time between panel discussions watching groups of people mingle and chat and laugh with each other.  I saw so many authors in the halls with whom I desperately wanted to strike up a conversation, but all I could do was smile and manage to whimper out a feeble “hello.”  How do you all do it?!  I’m in awe and completely jealous of folks with, you know, social skills.

    Is there some secret handshake I don’t know about?  Do the folks who attend conventions all know each other from elsewhere?  Same for the authors; do they all know each other already?

    Friday evening, there was an art show and refreshments opening event that I went to.  My beloved went with me for moral support and to see the art.  At one point, we were standing up on an elevated level that looked down on the rest of the floor, packed with people.  And everywhere I looked, people were sitting together at tables or standing in clusters with authors mixed in.  All happy, all chatting.  I felt very much like an outsider, but I just couldn’t must the courage to march up to a bunch of people I didn’t know and start talking.  

    I randomly struck up a conversation with K. Stoddard Hayes while looking at beautiful art, but she was alone and we were admiring the same painting simultaneously.  She was so nice, by the way!  My claim to fame is now that I lent K. Stoddard Hayes a pen so she could bid on a painting at Boskone.  Great as that was, I can’t hope for that kind of happy random encounter over and over again!

     

    Event Highlights for Me

    Mary Robinette KowalOkay, I’ll start with the two people who initially drew me to the convention: Mary Robinette Kowal and Tamora Pierce.  I did get Mary Robinette Kowal to sign my copy of Ghost Talkers (fantastic book), and struggled to form coherent words and sentences while talking to her at the autograph table.  Hope I didn’t come off as too much of a bumbling weirdo.

    I also got to listen to Mary’s Guest of Honor interview (she was interviewed by an Astronaut, by the way.  I’m not kidding!).  She is articulate and well-spoken (shocker since she’s an audiobook narrator as well as author and professional puppeteer) and charismatic and genuine.  She even broke out one of her puppets during the interview!  Her parting thoughts at the end will stay with me for a long time.  “Don’t be ashamed of your voice.”

    Tamora PierceI was not able to get my copy of Tempest and Slaughter signed by Tamora Pierce, sadly.  The line was ridiculously long and I naïvely thought that if I just slipped out of the “Ensemble Casts and Continuing Characters” discussion panel at 4:40, I’d have 20 minutes to get down to her autographing session and get my book signed.  Pshaw right! 

    Ah, well, as I kept reminding myself and will continue to remind myself, this was just the first writing convention I’ve been to, not the only one I’ll ever go to.  At least I got to hear her talk about her thoughts regarding sex in YA fiction.  Her thoughts (and I’m paraphrasing): what’s the big deal?  It happens.  She was smart and funny!

    The art, people.  Thor Almighty the art!  Absolutely fantastic.  Jaw-droppingly good stuff.  I didn’t take pictures, because I feel a bit dodgy about posting photos of someone else’s art online without getting explicit permission, and most of the artists weren’t around during the multiple times I ambled through the galleries.  You’ll just have to take my word for it.  The art was amazing.

     

    The panels were incredible, too, and I wish I could have gone to them all, but alas, I haven’t yet managed to steal the Time Turner.  Anyway, here are some of the great takeaways that I jotted into my notebook during various panels:

    “The teen libedo longs to escape and run free. That’s just a biological reality.” – Darleen Marshall during the It’s Not Always About Sex panel.

    During the Sex and Romance in YA Fiction panel, Barry Goldblatt said there’s a strange hierarchy of what kind of sex on the page is okay and what isn’t.  Rape?  Fine.  Masturbation? Deal breaker.  I find that utterly bizarre!  What does that say about our culture in America that we’re okay letting teens read about sex that’s violent and painful and damaging but not a sexual act that is safe and pleasurable and private?

    “If you want your secondary characters to be memorable, you have to give readers something to remember!” – Kenneth Schneyer during the Ensemble Casts and Continuing Characters panel.

    “All the members of an ensemble think they’re the protagonist and they all get time on the stage to show their story.” – E.C. Ambrose during the Ensemble Casts and Continuing Characters panel.

    During the Governmental Structures in SFF panel, Nik Korpon pointed out that SFF authors tend to gravitate toward totalitarian/dictatorial/monarchist systems of government because they’re easy to write, and I understood what he meant, but then Susan Jane Bigelow pointed out that in reality, those structures are inherently fragile and difficult to maintain and so the systems created by those in power to hold onto their power are actually incredibly complex.  All the panelists agreed and agreed that authors rarely address much beyond the big, bad overlord villain and his closest henchmen.

    “Agents want to see what’s there ‘in the rough’ for a manuscript.  They want to see what you produced, not what you and a professional editor produced.” – Richard Shealy during the What Good is an Agent panel.

    “My agent works for an agency that gets 40,000 queries each year.  So, don’t get discouraged if you don’t land an agent in the first 10, 20, 100 queries.”  – Hillary Monahan during the What Good is an Agent panel.

    During the Forgotten Topics in YA panel, the panelists all listed off topics that they didn’t see being addressed in YA fiction but needed to be: non-romantic formative relationships, interracial couples, and voices of the impoverishes/severely disenfranchised.

    “The Ultimate theme of all YA stories is Person versus Self (coming of age stories).” – Carlos Hernandez during the Forgotten Topics in YA panel.

    “Each book needs to be a story in its own right, with its own compelling arc, but each book also needs to fit into the multi-book arc of the series.” – Marshall Ryan Maresca during the Ending a Series panel.

    Those were just a few of the many gems that caught my attention.

     

    I’m not sad it’s over. I’m happy it happened.

    Sure, but I’m still a little sad it’s over because while I heard from and (in very rare circumstances) spoke to and connected via twitter with a bunch of interesting and talented people at Boskone this past weekend, there were many more with whom I didn’t.  

    I’ve already go my sights set on ReaderCon in July of this summer.

    Here are all the folks who struck me as particularly cool people, which is not to say that all the other participating authors/agents/editors/etc aren’t also cool people; I just didn’t get a chance to experience them this time around. 

     

    Final Thoughts

    I am so happy that I decided to push myself outside my comfort zone and attend a writing convention.  I’m even more happy that my first experience with a writing convention was Boskone.

    If you get a chance, you should get to Boskone56 next year.  You won’t be disappointed.  It’s the longest running fantasy and science fiction convention in New England and worth traveling to experience.  Maybe I’ll see you there!

     

    Did you attend Boskone55?  If so, what was a highlight moment for you?

     

  • The NaNoWriMo Debate: Are You “For” or “Against” It?

    The NaNoWriMo Debate: Are You “For” or “Against” It?

     

    The Debate Rages On: Is NaNoWriMo a good thing or not? 

    Emotions run high when this question is asked.  Poster for National Novel Writing MonthI mean, folks get seriously heated.  Fans of NaNoWriMo start heating the tar and gathering the feathers whenever someone suggests that maybe NaNoWriMo isn’t the best thing ever.  Critics of NaNoWriMo sharpen their pen nibs in preparation to eviscerate the works produced by anyone during the event.  It’s a little crazy, to be honest.

    NaNoWriMo Explained

    Okay, let’s pause for a moment.  If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, let me explain.  No, there’s too much.  Let me sum up.  The acronym (which I’m too lazy to type yet again because of the annoy placement of capital letters) stands for National Novel Writing Month.  Folks can go to the website, create an account, announce a novel project, and then attempt to write 50,000 words of material in a single month.  That averages out to 1,667 words a day.  I won’t bore you with the history of how this international phenomenon got started.  For that story, click here.

    For or Against?

    I am FOR!

    With some qualifications.

    Poster advertising National Novel Writing MonthI agree with many others that NaNoWriMo is not a good fit for everyone.  Justin Brouckaert articulated my feelings pretty well in his guest post on the Submittable blog titled A Case Against NaNoWriMo.  Despite what the declarative title suggests, Justin is not vehemently anti-NaNo.  He just wrote a horrible piece of trash (I’m paraphrasing him) in NaNo and thought he was going to go nuts from the pressure.   

    Different people have different writing processes. 

    Some folks absolutely adore extrinsic motivators, which is pretty much exactly what NaNo is.  Other folks fold like a wet napkin in a high wind at the first sign of pressure. 

    Some writers thrive on establishing a rock-solid daily writing habit.  I like to write every day, no matter what.  (Not that I always get to do things the way I want to.  See my earlier post about my kids for more details on that front.)  Other people tend to write best when they produce work in a more accordion style, with long stretches of empty pages followed by rapid bursts of prolific words.

    Some folks are communal writers.  They love talking shop with other writers, joining up at coffee shops or in library meeting rooms to sit and write together, posting updates on all the social media platforms.  Hooray for the global connectedness that is the internet!  Other writers, though, are solitary people (when they’re creating, at least) and find the whole social, communal aspect of NaNoWriMo repellant.

    NaNoWriMo Participant Badge

    My Own Experience With NaNoWriMo

    All I can say is this: for me, there are more positives than negatives in participating. 

    For starters, participating in my very first NaNoWriMo taught me that I have the capacity for self-discipline needed to write an entire novel. 

    Also, the stamina.  I mean, people!  Writing a novel is like running a marathon.  That might be too gentle an analogy.  It’s like taking part in an Ironman competition.  I went into that first NaNoWriMo all, “Yeah!  I’m going to write a whole novel in just one month!”  Well, that’s not what happened.  I did “win” the event by writing 50,000 words in the month of November, but I was startled to discover that my book was far from finished.  I continued writing (every day, thanks to the habit I’d cultivated during November) and proudly finished up my book in March of that year.  It topped off at just over 96,000 words.  

    It was a disgusting beast of a first draft.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say it was a horrible piece of trash.  But it existed.  I’d done it.  I’d written a full draft of a novel.  If nothing else, I now knew that I had the sheer stamina necessary to write a book.  I tucked that draft away in the bottom drawer of my writing desk, where I shall probably keep it until my dying day.

    See, I think of NaNoWriMo not as a chance to pen a masterpiece, but as an opportunity to simply practice the art of writing.  It inspires me.  It excites me.  Heck, it bolstered my confidence enough join the North Shore Writer’s Group to apply to the MFA in Creative Writing program at Lesley University.  NaNoWriMo exposed me to new people and new ways of thinking and new opportunities.

    So, yes, I think NaNoWriMo is a positive force for creativity, despite what some might say.

    What do you think about NaNoWriMo?  Have you participated?  Will you again?  Why or why not?

     

  • #IWSG: Creative Insecurities, Community, and Surprises!

    #IWSG: Creative Insecurities, Community, and Surprises!

    Link to the Insecure Writer's Support Group homepage

    Creative Insecurity:

    Creative people of all types tend to be insecure folks, I think. Creative folks are bold, daring, maybe a little crazy. They push the boundaries, lean into the unknown, risk failure. But because of that, they occasionally run afoul of moments of doubt and insecurity.

    Unfortunately, those are the moments that, from a psychological standpoint, really sting. Those nagging thoughts are what our brains remember, obsess over, amplify in orders of magnitude until we can’t see beyond them.

    That’s how it is for me at least. Most of the time, I’m good. Like, 80% of the time. 20% of the time I feel like a fraud. I’m wasting my time. What I’m trying to do is ridiculous and unattainable because I have no talent whatsoever and how could I have ever thought that I could succeed as a creative writer.  Chuck Wendig wrote a great post about this over on his Terrible Minds blog.  (Be warned, his language is fabulously profane).

    The life of a writer can easily become a life of solitude, one in which the only people you can talk to are the voices in your head, most of which are nasty jerks who thrive on negativity and despair. I’ve sort of given up reaching out to friends and family members for reassurances.  I’m lucky in that my friends and family members are supportive, but they also don’t really get it, so I never quite trust their words of encouragement, and my insecurities remain. 

    Building a Community of Supportive People Who Get It:

    To help me cope, I’ve sought out other writers who are down in the creative trenches, pushing their own boundaries and taking risks. They’ll understand. They’ll know. Their support and encouragement carry more weight and really do help to dispel those horrible moments of insecurity that sneak up on me here and there.

    For the past year and a half, I’ve been a member of the North Shore Writer’s Group in Massachusetts.  I can’t begin to tell you how great it has been for me as a writer and as a creative person in general to be able to gather in a room with a bunch of other writers twice a month to chat about life, our creative struggles, and then discuss our work.  

    Online writing groups are great, too.  I recently discovered The Insecure Writer’s Support Group. What a cool organization/site! Their mission is to recognize the dark moments of the writing process and the writer’s life and connect people to each other.  They help writers find and build a support network.  One of the many things they do over there is to host a monthly blog hop. Budding and established authors are all welcome to participate (I current fall into the former category). The group posts a monthly prompt, and we can use it to spark a blog post.

    IWSG Question of the Month: Have you ever surprised yourself with your writing?

    Yes, definitely. Frequently, in fact. On the spectrum of plotter/pantser (pantser is a term I don’t care for, by the way. I prefer to call myself a “discovery writer.” Not my term. Picked it up from fantasy author Brandon Sanderson in one of his co-hosted Writing Excuses podcasts. Fabulous podcast. You’ve got to check it out), I’m pretty far over toward the discovery writer end of things. I’ll sketch out a loose outline of where I want the story to go, but mostly I just start with a “what if” premise, conjure up some imaginary person to throw it at, and see what happens.

    A couple of weeks ago, I started writing a scene that came to me as I was drifting off to sleep one night. It had nothing to do with anything that had happened in the story or that I had visualized happening, but it was an intriguing “what if” situation.

    I had no expectations when I started writing that scene. For all I cared, I could finish it up and trash it if I decided it wasn’t something I liked. No harm, no foul. Everything I write is an opportunity to practice my skills, and Gods know I have a lot that I can practice. Pacing, description, POV and perspective, character development, world-building, dialogue, even basic sentence structure.

    So, I started writing. What the hay, kids. Let’s hop in the car and go for a drive. Why not? See where the open road takes us. We might stumble across something interesting.

    What I stumbled across was an unexpected plot twist that I’m super, and I mean SUPER excited about pursuing.

    When my explorations, my unsupervised road trip inevitably leads me and my characters down a dead-end street of ugliness, I will despair. My insecurities will breed like gremlins and grown in size until all I can see is how awful I am. But that’s okay because I’ve taken steps to find and connect with other creative writers. I have not one but several support groups who will help me defeat my doubts. The Insecure Writer’s Support Group being among them.

    So, how about you? Do you have a support group of like-minded folks who help you keep pushing your boundaries, keep taking risks? And when you do stick your creative neck out, do you ever surprise yourself? I’d love to hear about it.