I can answer my own question. Because I love you, and for those of you I haven’t met yet, I pre-love you. I am the Thomas Merton of Creative Writing. 

My forthcoming novel is suspenseful, thoughtful, and sometimes emotionally troubling. Be forewarned. But this Brian showing up today, human Brian, is upbeat and here for you.

This is what I got for you right now. On tomorrow’s show, it’s a cobra-juggling unicyclist, but today is “Writer’s Day.” So here are some takeaways from about 25 years as an active, publishing writer. Some of it may work for you. 

I can report with all sincerity, I wish I’d had this list way back then. I have found my kind genius writer, and by the end of this post, you will have too.

1. People who tell you that you must write every day forget to admit that they don’t write every day. They are not kind genius writers.

They don’t tell you that’s a rule for you but not for them. If you write three days a week for just a couple hours at a time, or 6 days a week an hour at a time, or 7 days a week 15 minutes at a time, it’s all the same. If you can write one day a week because that’s all you can pull out of your busy life schedule, well, gods-bless you!

My writing schedule has changed dramatically over these many years. For example, there was indeed a time I wrote every day. Then I fell in love and moved in with a great guy. I wrote less frequently, but not any less well. The guy, by the way, is in the acknowledgments of all my books. 

Do make a weekly plan, but don’t fret, no matter how many days you commit to. Just commit your writer to the days and times you – you kind genius writer – CAN write.  

2. Your kind genius writer’s sweetie can wait.   

What I mean is, yeah, he was a great guy, but I didn’t let him read any of my work before it was published. Why? Well—and yes, there are rare exceptions—your sweetie is wonderful, I agree. So are many of your relatives and friends. Naturally, you want their thoughts on your work. They know you best, after all. 

And that’s the problem. You need the freedom to not be you in your writing. 

And you need the freedom from your sweetie and these others searching for and making assumptions about where they are in the work. 

Also, because they love you, much of the critique your writing really needs will go left unsaid. 

I know two poets married to each other. They share their writing. I don’t know how they do it, but they manage quite well. So, maybe that’s the addendum. Follow my advice unless you can marry a kind genius writer poet. 

In any case, replace extra love for the unpublished writing you won’t let your sweetie read. They’ll appreciate the tradeoff. And so will you.  

3. I was a super cute little kid kind genius writer.    

That has nothing to do with this list. I just wanted you to know in case you see me now on the street. 

But, speaking of childhood, Mrs. Rodgers read Stuart Little to my first-grade class. It was a wonder. A mouse born just like a little man. My entry point into queer literature, for sure, but back then, I was just thrilled to Stuart on his boat, worried for him wrapped in the blinds, admired his tenacity and boldness to venture out into the world to find his future. 

What book from your childhood (up to 14?) excited you the way Stuart Little did me? Or, what book when you first had access to books thrilled you? When was the last time you read it? 

Stuart and I have a little lunch together every two or three years. Why? Because I like to be reminded of that feeling I had when we first met. I want to remember delight. 

I want to remember delight because it reminds me of my own responsibilities as a writer, and it reminds me that reading shouldn’t feel like a chore nor medicine. Some of the best-intended literature courses and book clubs can wring the life out of the very texts they mean to honor with attention. Remembering delight reminds me, even in my most serious, somber writing, my ambition is to be in service of a reader’s delight.

So, from time to time, revisit that book which delighted you in childhood. Re-read what raised your little genius writer.

And if you’re thinking I’m being too precious, alternatively I might have mentioned that in fifth grade I came across a used copy of Helter Skelter and read it in one day. It’s a terrifying account of the Manson murders. I could have mentioned that book instead of Stuart Little, but I wanted to first delight you with my cuteness.  

4 Be honest: Your inner kind genius writer likely has a couple of places in mind. 

Where are you going to publish? In what print or online journal? With what press? What non-profit literary organization do you hope will play a role in supporting your writing and writing life? 

Now, how do you know these places will be there when you need them? We’re all hoping against hope that enough people are subscribing and donating to keep our favorite journals, presses, and literary organizations afloat so that we have a place to land. Everyone in print this month was made room for by the folks who in the previous year or years supported the publishing venue. Those very good people.

Are you a very good people? Right now, how many print and online journals are you supporting? How many literary organizations? Are you making it possible for other writers to achieve their dreams? It is, after all, a reciprocal ecosystem.  

Put simply, how are you in service to other writers? You can’t expect more than you give. I’ve met so many good-hearted writers who want to be assisted and supported in their ambitions, but who make almost no investment in other writers. If you want space on the bookshelf, help make room for others on that same shelf.

It’s not all dollar signs. There are non-costly ways to be in service of other writers. Being an eager and thoughtful reader of an unpublished manuscript, for example, or volunteering with a literary non-profit.

Think of it this way: the most fabulous and selfish thing you can do in service of your own writing is to support other writers. Every good rainbow needs more than one genius writer.

5) You know you’re Mad, right? 

There is just a blip under 8 billion people on this planet. Most of them aren’t writers. My, my, what an odd duck you are. Is it crossed wires, wild synapses, firing up all these images in your brain that you must bring to life through text? There are so many surgical instruments and pulsing electrics on the table that there’s hardly room for the body. 

This you know. You have the power to create life. You are a god on Earth. You have the power to make a positive difference in other people’s lives through your writing, not to mention your own. 

After reading the previous four items in this list, what the hell are you going to do with all that power? Will you find your kind genius writer?

Brian Leung is the author of the novels Ivy vs. Dogg: With a Cast of Thousands, Lost Men, and Take Me Home. Among other honors, he is a past recipient of the Lambda Literary Outstanding Mid-Career Prize and the Willa Award. Brian’s fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry appear in numerous magazines and journals. He is a Professor of Creative Writing at Purdue University. His forthcoming novel, All I Should Not Tell (C&R Press), will be released in the spring of 2022.

Click here to pre-order a copy of All I Should Not Tell.

The post #5onFri: Five Tips for Finding the Kind Genius Writer in Your Mad Genius Writer appeared first on DIY MFA.

I had attended a local YA Fest in August, met a best-selling author in my genre, Cinda Williams Chima, and vowed to take her advice about focusing on the first draft of my novel.  By end of the year, I knew what I had and what I had left to do.  In January 2020, I joined the local writers’ group that had hosted the YA Fest. 

I started writing new content for a few months, but struggled.  I got discouraged and promptly ignored the advice that I had vowed to take earlier, about just getting that first draft done.  Instead, I researched how to find agents and write queries, which clouded my mind and loomed as such a daunting task!

I signed up for a local conference, starting March 12, excited about making new connections and finding ways to dispel my growing fears.  March 11, the conference was cancelled due to the pandemic.  I was so deflated, but tried to soldier on.  This pandemic thing could be the perfect storm for a struggling author, right?  Wrong!  It worked exactly the opposite for me, because of various factors.  By April, I had flat-lined on writing either one of my works in progress.  Still struggling, I finally decided to take the summer off. 

Come September, I started to attend the local writers’ group monthly meetings via Zoom!  I got a tip about a free event on writing skills, a DIY MFA webinar delivered by Gabriela Pereira.  Inspired, I signed up for and then completed DIY MFA 101 in November.  Now, I am on track to finish the first draft of my novel by end of April 2021.

My hope is that my experience will inspire others, like you, to keep the wolves at bay – those doubts and fears that get in the way of writing.  Ideally, you can apply these ideas in your own way and in your own time, at any point in your process, to realize your dreams.

Setting the Right Context

First, setting the right context involves setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-bound) goals and scheduling regular time to write.  SMART goals were an early lesson in DIY MFA 101.  I had already used them in managing business projects, but I had not tried to apply it to my writing.  Apparently, I thought that the more left-brained practice of setting goals would be a barrier to the more right-brained creative process of writing a novel.  Wrong again!! 

The act of setting a word count goal and reducing that to weekly and daily targets was a huge asset in getting my project – yes, writing a book is indeed a project! – jump started.  Plus, having regular times when I committed to be writing – not researching, not editing, not plotting, not developing characters, but putting new words to the page – was game changing!  I am retired, so I assigned weekdays as my writing space.  Mondays, I do auxiliary activities, like those noted above.  Tuesday through Friday, I schedule two hours in the morning and two more in the afternoon for writing new content, with specific word count goals per day.

Priming the Pump

Second, priming the pump is a phrase that I first “heard” from Sarah Ban Breathnach in her book, Simple Abundance.  She defined it as pursuing “a carefully crafted ritual of comfort” that eases you into the process of creating.  Gabriela calls it “setting the mood.”  For me it means preparing myself for the act of writing, so I can convert the ideas in my mind into scenes for my novel.  My ritual involves first making sure I stay hydrated – having a cup of tea in the morning or a glass of sparkling water with lime in the afternoon.  Next step is entering a creative physical space (my office has Monet prints on the wall and a standing desk in front of a window with a pastoral view) and practicing the mental exercises that open my mind to inspiration.   The mental exercises include some combination of a daily reflection from Sarah’s book, a purge of negativity in my “angst journal,” (my version of Gabriela’s Angst Jar), entries in my “gratitude journal,” a poetry reading, and finally, my beach music playlist, just as I start to write.

Following a Disciplined Writing Process

The third thing that saved my novel from oblivion is following a disciplined writing process.  For me, that starts with the advice that I had ignored early.  The author Chima’s exact words were, “Give yourself permission to write badly.  You can always fix it later.”  That mantra gives me the courage to start the process.  Next, I use a technique that I learned from Gabriela, the Domino Method.  Wherever I am in the novel, I look back to the previous scene, describe what should happen in this one, and look ahead to know what should (probably) happen next.  Finally, I use the Pomodoro Method, a technique I know from both business practices and DIY MFA events, for when the words start to flow.  The cadence of twenty-five intensive minutes, then five minutes to regroup, creates a productive rhythm that makes the planned two-hour sessions just fly by.  

Tracking Progress

Fourth on my list, tracking progress is another trick that I learned from Gabriela.  On a daily basis, I write down the word count achieved and/or the hours spent.   I note whether I was following my process – no fuss, no judgement.  If I’m behind, I make an effort to put more words on the page the next day.  At the end of each week, I tally the week and either celebrate or dole out forgiveness, then adjust the next week’s goals upward, if necessary, but never downward.  Finally, in tracking progress, I plan a monthly review.  At the end of January and February, I reviewed my process to see how well it was working.  So far so good, so I have made no changes to date.  However, I will stay vigilant and continue to iterate monthly.

Building a Writers’ Circle

Last on the list, yet more important than anything else, is building a writers’ circle.  Ours is both a support and a critique group.  We act as each other’s trusted advisors in our writing practices, cheerleaders in our triumphs, gentle but constructive reviewers of our works in progress, and general inspiration when the well goes dry.   We have documented practices, a structured communication platform, a commitment to each other’s success, diverse perspectives, and a deep connection beyond writing.

I have so much more to say about this last element.  If all goes well, I will write another #5onFriday article that shares the story of how and why our writers’ circle works so well.  Until then, find your way and let me know how it works.

Angyne Smith is a second generation American, wife, mother, grandmother, retired business professional, and most recently, a young adult fantasy author.  She is a native Pennsylvanian, who has been living in the Garden State, (that’s New Jersey), for just over 40 years.  Angyne (pronounced like the two names Ann and Jean stuck together) is inspired by Monet paintings and music of all kinds, from classical to classic rock.  She is energized by gentle exercises like Tai Chi and leisurely morning walks, preferable along a warm, sandy beach.  Reading was her passion even before writing, mostly in fantasy, science fiction, and historical adventures. Follow Angyne on Facebook.

The post #5onFri: Five Things That Saved My Novel From Oblivion appeared first on DIY MFA.

You just have to rethink how you go about it.

Just follow these steps. 

1. Shop Around

The best place to start for a great newsletter is by knowing, in general, what you love in a newsletter. So for a couple weeks, go ahead and sign up for every single email newsletter you come across. Other authors, news outlets, experts, shopping websites, everything. 

Then, watch it all come in. What trends do you see? How are different people and companies going about their emails differently? What kinds of layouts catch your eye? Take it all in, and question every piece of it. 

And more than anything else, pay attention to what you enjoy. For some, it might be the top quality curated links a certain person has an uncanny knack for pulling together on a theme. Or, maybe it’s the simple elegance of ample white space. Maybe it’s the digestible quick hit of a top 5 list, or the satisfying deep dive into a topic you’re passionate about. 

There’s no right or wrong answer here, just note your observations. 

2. Create Your Own Template

This is where it starts to get fun: Consider the notes you took in step one as you took in all different kinds of newsletters. 

• If a snarky headline enticed you to open an email right away, find ways to add your own humor into the subject lines. 
• If a picture of an author’s dog gave you the warm fuzzies, your cat might do the same for your subscribers. 
• If you lost yourself in the latest updates about an author’s creative process, find ways to give your own subscribers a glimpse into how you work. 

Don’t think in terms of topics, here — think in terms of sections, pieces you can offer a variation on every time. Then stack them together, keeping an eye out for balance between meatier content that will offer readers a bit of depth and smaller bites that will give snackable satisfaction. 

And of course, don’t forget your goal is to keep in touch with readers who will want your books. As long as you have reasonable tie-in to what you write about in some way, you’re golden. 

3. Commit to a Schedule

Now that you know what combination of content is going to keep you excited to write a newsletter, it’s time to figure out your schedule. 

How frequently can you create the content in the template you created, at top quality? 

Once a month? Once a week? Once a quarter? There’s really no right or wrong to this, just find a workflow that’s a reasonable commitment. (Okay, if you can’t  commit to once every three months with confidence, reassess what you’re including in your newsletter and make it less demanding to create —that’s a bare minimum frequency).

And hey, no pressure. If you commit to a frequency that later proves overly ambitious, you have the power to change it. You’re the boss of this little publication, after all. 

4. Promote 

While there’s nothing wrong with slow, steady growth, a newsletter is undeniably more fun when you have an audience to address. Which means you need to invite people to subscribe. 

Start by creating a snappy description of what readers can expect from your newsletter. This works best when it’s specific, short and matches the tone of the newsletter itself. 

Then, drop that thing everywhere you can–your website, your social media profiles, your email signature, swag, everything. Your fans will be sure to catch on!

Have Fun with Your Newsletter

Newsletters are an amazing way to stay in touch with readers, share more of yourself and your work, and stay in touch between new releases. So don’t let the idea of a newsletter intimidate or frustrate you–choose to include content that you’ll enjoy creating and sharing with your fans. 

Over time, you can learn more about what your readers love by monitoring your engagement analytics and hone it even further if you need to. But by starting with a formula of content you know you’ll love creating, you’re much more likely to stick with it. Odds are, that enthusiasm will be contagious, and your subscribers will have more fun, too. 

By day, E. J. Wenstrom is a content marketing and public relations expert. By early early morning, she’s the award-winning author of the Chronicles of the Third Realm War series. Join her email list for bookish news and a free download of the TRW series prequel RAIN at www.ejwenstrom.com.

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What were our excuses then? 

It’s important to recognize this so we can take stock and own our part in the problem. (You’ll notice I will say “our” and “we” a lot because I’m totally guilty of this too). We are trained early on how to prioritize our daily life. We have our to-do lists and we have our obligations. We have our must-do tasks that always take priority. This is what responsible adults do.

But as writers, we are special. We know this and try to be sneaky. We cherish our hobby and we know we can find writing time at some point. So, we grind at work all day and we wait until the perfect time to sit down with our beloved writing and embrace it… But that precious time never comes.

We all have the same twenty-four hours each day on planet Earth, but we all spend them differently. What we prioritize will always come first. If we are disappointed with what was forced to come last, we aren’t being true to ourselves. We might need a mindset shift. So, Amy, how do we fix it? I’m glad you asked.

1) Gift Yourself the Time to Write 

Do you remember getting birthday cards in the mail? As adults, we think of any card, money-stuffed or not, as a sweet thought of remembrance. But as kids, we shook that card to see what fell out, and we felt special because we were gifted something we didn’t have to earn. 

Think of your writing time as birthday money. You deserve it even if you didn’t earn it. This is especially important for freelance writers. You deserve to do the fun writing too! They say “time is money” because—like money—time is finite. Once we spend it, it’s gone. How will you budget your writing time?

2) STOP Multitasking

*Raises Hand* I am so bad at this. Seriously, I’m awful at not multitasking. This is because doing a lot at once can alleviate the overwhelm that gets us stuck in a procrastination loop. Anyone stuck at home with new responsibilities can attest that attempts to keep up have you doing three things at once. But if nothing is prioritized, everything suffers. 

Do yourself a solid and figure out when in the day you’re busiest. Block off that time and deem it only for work and chores. Don’t plan your writing during the busiest time of day; that’s self-sabotage. Now, pull out that daily planner again and find the empty, wasted parts of the day. You’ll figure out how you can fit your writing in if you think of it as setting an appointment that you can’t schedule anything else during.

 3) Do What You Gotta Do

I am sooo not a morning person. I groan at people who tell me I can find time to write if I just wake up at 5 AM. But hey, I won’t knock it because it actually works for some people. Try writing at different times to find the part of the day when you’re most creatively productive. 

You may write better at night before bed or perhaps you get in a few paragraphs during your midnight snack. If you wake up at 5 AM and write for 25 minutes and want to go back to sleep, heck, who am I to judge? Same goes for 10 PM, 3 PM, or 2 AM. I say, do what you have to do to get that writing done for the day.

4) Reframe What it Means to Write

Remember, this is your writing time, so you call the shots. It’s not about hitting a word count or even tracking a set number of hours; this is about opening the door and letting writing back into your life to stay. Use courses like DIYMFA101 which breaks down the act of writing into manageable steps.

First, let go of the guilt that comes from spending your time writing and yearn for it hungrily like a kid with a piece of cake. Once the excitement is there, then you can work out the logistics of what “writing time” really means or will accomplish.

Writing time doesn’t have to result in pounding out 2,000 words in one sitting. Here are some ideas for alternative writing activities you can do during your writing time to still be productive:

• Stream-of-Consciousness (Jot down notes on your thoughts so it counts as writing!)
• Journaling (Get out the angst that is stopping you from writing.)
• Sketching (Try visualizing a character or scene.)
• Outlining (To help with plotting ideas when stuck.)
• Writing Exercises (Try prompts and sprints to practice skills.)
• Listing (Try bullet points for all scenes or characters.) 
• Tape-recording (Great for potential dialogue to write down later.)
• Exploration (Anything else you haven’t tried before!)

5) Take Your Writing Seriously. 

You may just throw away all of this advice if finding time to write isn’t really a priority for you. (If that’s the case, I’m surprised you read this far.) But, that’s fine. Just remember that anything in your life you don’t take seriously will never become a priority. 

It might be tempting to save our resting time for doing creative work, but we risk finding that we just don’t ever feel like it. Taking writing seriously means planning and sticking to your writing time commitments. If you are a serious writer, you will find the time. Now, go get serious and reclaim your writing life. Good luck!

Amy Ayres is the Tech Fairy at DIYMFA. When she is not in her office writing about terraformed planets, multiple personalities, and Irish folklore, she is hanging with her awesome tech-hubby, stepson, and RubyCat. Visit amymarieayres.com where you can find out more about her private writer’s group Fill the Blank Page. You can sign up for her Newsletter where she sends out motivational tips for new writers and her special brand of humor. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

The post #5onFri: Five Ways to Fit Writing into Your Busy Schedule appeared first on DIY MFA.

I’m committed to my writing, but I’m so exhausted by the time I get home from work and put the kids to bed that there’s no creative energy left. How can I inspire myself, even when I don’t feel like it?

I get it. When I worked full time as a copywriter, I was writing down someone else’s message and vision for ten hours (yes, I factored in traffic). All of my creative energy went into my job, and after a long hard day of workin’ for the man, I thought, “Right now all I want to do is grab some ice cream and catch up on Hulu for four hours. I’ll work on this story tomorrow.”

And then it happened the next night. And then the next. And the one after that.

Now, a lot of you out there are going to protest (too much): “When my muse shows up, I’ll be able to get in 20,000 words in a day.” And that’s a great way to think about it – if you’re happy with your day-job drudgery.

The problem with what I call “muse-driven fiction” is that it’s not consistent. Are you going to wait around for Mr. or Mrs. Right, or are you going to do something about it? Same concept applies to muses. Wait for her, and she’ll never show up. You need to strike a balance between relying on your muse for inspiration and making it happen yourself.

Here are the top three ways I (NSFW) get the juices flowing:

Get some Terrible friends

Good friends respect your space and leave you alone to write. Bad friends break into your Hobbit hole, tear through your stock of Lembas bread and aged cheese, and then kick you out into the world to destroy magical rings and have other sorts of grand adventures worth writing about!

According to science, both exercise and submersing yourself in water stimulates (I warned you!) creative energy.

So, if you happen to live in the real world, employ a friend to drag you out on a hike or remind you to take showers once in a while (personal hygiene, alas, is still a requirement for the real world). If something’s not working, a change in perspective might be what you need.

Sleep

Best tip ever, right? Bestselling author – just add zzz’s!

Carl Jung said that your mind makes sense of reality when you’re unconscious (please, don’t try knocking yourself out. Sleep is better for you and hurts less). So, say you’re wrestling with writer’s block. Your spouse and some writerly friends (including Lord Byron himself) decide to hold a writing contest. They all start typing (err, pen-and-inking) away, but you’re stuck, and you’re terrified of being made to look like a fool:

“I thought and pondered – vainly. I felt that blank incapacity of invention which is the greatest misery of authorship, when dull Nothing replies to our anxious invocations. ‘Have you thought of a story?’ I was asked each morning, and each morning I was forced to reply with a mortifying negative.”

Until, on one such morning, you wake up with a wisp of a dream: a “hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion.” You start writing and call your creation Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley is not the only author to be fueled by the machinations of her unconscious mind; she’s in good company with Stephanie Meyer, Stephen King, and Robert Lewis Stevenson, among others.

So if you’re stuck, strike a deal with your unconscious: Try thinking about your story before you go to bed. Now quick! Write that shit down. As Mary Shelley said: “I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.”

Become a Vampire

I recently heard Brandon Sanderson, who has close to 100 published works, talk about his writing habits. He wakes up and hits the keyboard after noon, takes a break from writing at 5pm and then, after his family is asleep, takes up the torch again from 10:30 until 4 am.

Let’s look at the facts, shall we?

1) Nocturnal

2) Highest activity in the wee hours of the morning

3) Survives by draining other peoples’ [money]

Vampire? I think yes.

It’s a pretty romantic notion that we have: After the house trips into dreamland, we’re tip-tap-typing away. But for some of us, the wee hours just don’t cut it.

I used to think I was a vampire. Especially in college – while my roommates were pumping dance music in the other room, I resigned myself to a sleepless night and got some writing done. But, as it turns out, I’m actually more of a morning writer now. I find that I write with fewer crippling inhibitions right after I wake up.

See what works best for you. If you can’t seem to catch your muse at midnight, try free-writing on your lunch break. If the thought of waking up an hour early makes you grouch, give night-writing a shot. Everyone’s process is different, and only you know what works best for you.

So there you have it! Try out these three surefire tips to inspire yourself (sans muse). And if that doesn’t work, don’t come crying to me. It’s your muse.

With a B.A. in B.S. (translation: English Major), Rebecca Ann Jordan is a poet and speculative fiction author in San Diego. She has published poetry and flash pieces in Yemassee Magazine, Bravura Literary Journal, and Images Magazine, and currently acts as Junior Assistant Editor at Bartleby Snopes. Her fetishes include controversial grammar, mythological happenings and yarn-swapping. Or maybe she made all of that up.

Got a question? Tweet @beccaquibbles with the hashtag #askbecca, or email her. Or just leave a comment below! You might see it answered right here on DIYMFA.

The post Ask Becca: 3 Painless Ways to Inspire Yourself NOW appeared first on DIY MFA.