May 2008
Getting Cozy with Karen.
May Musings
"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."
~ Michelangelo ~
I spent a portion of last weekend in the garden. I finally had a Saturday that it wasn't snowing or blowing or raining or, well, you name it, weekend downtime lately has not been conducive to much beyond complaint. [g] I've been dying to get into my front garden and clear the debris of winter so my bulbs knew the sun was shining, it was springtime, and it was time to poke their heads out of the ground and give me pleasure.
Did I happen to mention I'm soooooooooo ready for Spring?
I didn't realize how bad my cabin fever had become until I was topping off my second 30-gallon trash bag of debris. [My entire front yard is one huge flower garden. What can I say? I love flowers!] My back hurt. My fingers were already stiffening up. I had half a dozen burrs and splinters poking me through my work gloves. But, standing there, looking over the garden I'd only half finished I was happy and more relaxed than I'd been in months. I was not only staring at visible progress on a goal I'd set myself, I'd uncovered green plants that already knew it was springtime.
Bet you're wondering how this translates to writing!
For too long I've been searching for visible progress on my current project. It's not like I've never written a novel before. I've written seven complete novels, revising one of them from short to long contemporary and back again four times upon a publisher's request. Each version was completely different and took as much work as if each were new.
No, it never sold because it ultimately ended up slipping between the cracks of a publisher line change, but that's another story!
The point is that I'm not a novice. I know how to set goals in my writing and keep my nose to the grindstone. I do make an effort to write every day. However, setting goals hasn't made enough of an impact on my writing efforts to show visible progress. Until I cleared the debris in my garden. Figuratively and emotionally.
Digging around for the new life in the ground outside my front door, I found new life for my muse. I realized my cabin fever had dipped deeper than ever before into my creative well. Yes, I've been swamped with obligatory stuff. But we all deal with obligations, and it's not like I hadn't written novels before while taking care of business!
So what changed?
I've been overwhelmed for so long that, when my time constraints did begin to loosen, I couldn't see it. My daily writing life remained yet another goal to fulfill, another obligation on which I was coming up short. I was there, sitting in my chair, laptop on, cursor blinking. Yet somehow, I'd allowed the other debris to bury me until I couldn't see the sunshine. I wasn't depressed or down. I just needed to open some mental windows and let some fresh air inside. A different perspective from the four walls I've been staring at all winter.
I'd never really thought about why gardening has always been my favorite personal therapy. I know that part of it is due to the fact I work from home and it's all too easy to become a recluse without something drawing you outside. But, the real reason I love gardening is because gardens are simple. You plant seeds. You water them. You feed them once in a while, keep them weed free, and they reward you by producing flowers or fruit or vegetables.
Writing is just another garden with similar needs. I'd forgotten how much I love the outdoors. I do my best writing outside. While cleaning my front garden, I found myself spring cleaning my muse too. We pulled up ideas that weren't working, spruced up some new ones. We even threw another seed or two into the creative ground to see how they'd sprout.
You know what I did for four hours that Sunday? I wrote. On the deck. Outside. The sun beating down overhead. I continued what my muse and I had started the day before and I wrote.
I know I can't sit outside and write every day. It's sufficient to know why my writing has been such a struggle lately. Knowing the problem is more than halfway down the road to knowing how to solve the problem. I'm breathing again. It feels good...like a cleansing spring rain!
Now all I have to do is figure out a way to move to Maui for the winter months so I can sit outside on the lanai every day with my mental chisel. I may not be Michelangelo and my medium isn't marble, but a writer's got to do what a writer's got to do to set her characters free. I just prefer to do it in Maui next winter!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What else is happening in my writing world?
As you know if you read my April Musings, as a result of the shocking number of SPAM I received while out of town, I decide to run an experiment to test the amount of SPAM I fielded for one month. The count began on March 20th and ended April 20th. On March 31st, not counting SPAM that actually reached my Inbox, there were 3,128 messages. The filter holds the messages 8 days and the number kept rising until it reached 4,999 before it dropped back to 2,532 and started climbing again. I didn't notice another drop before I took the final count on April 20th [although it could have] but on the 20th, the SPAM count was again peaking at 4,253. Which by my calculations [yeah, this is really loose] means my SPAM filter alone caught at least 6,720 messages of various objectionable materials. Carry my rough calculations through twelve months and we're talking over 80,600 SPAM messages a year. Yikes! A not-so-useless experiment since it pays to know your enemy! [g]
The countdown to my chapter's May Workshop & Luncheon has begun so I've been busy preparing as contest coordinator to announce the Award of Excellence Contest winners, as well as the other special awards I'll present as President at our awards luncheon. I'm looking forward to meeting Angela Knight and soaking up her workshops.
On May 2nd, I'm finishing up a great month with the folks at Low Country Romance Writers conducting my "W" plotting workshop. It's been a studious group and I'm hopeful they find the technique as helpful as I've found it. I don't have another plotting workshop planned until June but if you have friends who can't wait that long, I do have the entire lecture course available to purchase on the website. Click on NEWS.
As always, if you'd like to comment on this newsletter or anything else, please feel free to sign into my guest book at the bottom of this HOME page. Looking forward to hearing from you! If you have your own listing on MySpace, I'd love to be friends. You can find me at http://www.myspace.com/authorkarendocter. And, by all means, if you enjoy reading my newsletter each month, please tell your friends. They can sign up for their own copy easily at the bottom of this HOME page.
See you in June if you'd like to Get Cozy with Karen again. In the meantime, feel free to check out the rest of my website at your leisure.
I wish you a month overflowing with creativity and confidence. May you realize all of your dreams!
|
Articles
Plotting.Beauty or Beast?
First Print - savvyauthors.com blog, June, 2010
Born to Write
Colorado Romance Writers Romance in the Rockies newsletter - February, 2006
The Big Kids Clubhouse Secret Handshake.Finally!
Colorado Romance Writers Romance in the Rockies newsletter - August, 2006
Musings
2011
Spring
2010
Summer ~
Holiday
2009
February ~
May ~
July ~
December
2008
January ~
February ~
March ~
April ~
May ~
June ~
July ~
August ~
September ~
November ~
December
2007
March ~
April ~
May ~
June ~
July ~
August ~
September ~
October ~
November ~
December
2006
January
|
