IWSG: Sluggish June

The brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh, The Insecure Writer's Support Group runs the First Wednesday of every month. There's quite a hefty list of writers posting about their troubles, check some of them out and post some encouragement!

Last month was not a writing month, especially when I compare it to April! I always have huge plans for the summer, yet it seems I do less writing. It always makes me groan to reflect on a whole month and see little progress in any of my current projects, but I'm trying to be strong!

I've been working on another short story along with my second book, and I know exactly how I want it to end, I know what changes need to be made in the second draft, and still I can't find the time or the energy to finish it! I also know why I've been so slow - I completed our house painting project yesterday, which took all of June - but that doesn't seem to help my inner-writer any. I still look over at my neglected composition notebook and wish it was bursting with the ideas that are clanging around in my head.

So, now that the house is a lovely timber bark, July here I come!

What's Up Wednesday: 6/19

The What's up Wednesday meme/bloghop is hosted by Jaime Morrow and her sister Erin Funk. Visit their blogs to see what they write about and what they're up to!

What I'm reading

 

I've been looking through Yeats's poems again, and I've started a short fairy tale called "Undine" that I've intended to read for some time. However, the busy schedule of late has prohibited much reading!

What I'm writing

 

I'm still working on my second book - I'm about ten pages in on my second try. I've been putting most of my morning energies into another short story, and I'm ten pages into that as well.

I missed out on the start of Read. Set. Write! last week (see reasons below), so here's what I would have said:

I don't have solid word count goals. Each morning, not counting the weekends, I set out to write on both my book and my short story. I try for at least a page each.

I'm glad to report that I've been writing at least 2-3 pages a morning, and yesterday I wrote six! (This is great for me, by the way, even if it sounds like a puny amount.)

The best part about my writing lately is that I'm still doing it. Usually I go in short strong bursts that fizzle out. I had a busy April and in the past that would have been enough for a year, at least. So I'm glad to just be writing consistently!

What else I've been up to

 

House scraping. Still.

 

What inspires me right now

 

Indie authors everywhere. The more I read about self publishing and what it takes to become a successful writer, I'm amazed at the work ethic and the desire to get their work out there. Their stories make me want to continue writing and follow in their footsteps!

What's Up Wednesday: 5/29

The What's up Wednesday meme/bloghop is hosted by Jaime Morrow and her sister Erin Funk. Check out their blogs, find the link to all the others who are participating in the weekly hop, or join in!

What I'm reading

 

My wife is reading Quitter, by Jon Acuff, to me. Besides the fact that I love to be read to, this book is inspiring. It's all about chasing your dreams, doing what you're called to do. The more we read, the more I'm convinced that I need to write.

I also just started The End of Christendom, by Malcolm Muggeridge. It's actually a series of lectures that were given in 1978 at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. The main theme is remembering Pascal and his contribution to the Christian worldview. It's challenging.

What I'm writing

 

"Dystopolis" is still in process. I'm in the final edit stage.

Two pages in on my second book. The slowness is maddening, but I'm trying to enjoy/tell myself it's okay/remember that it's better that things come slowly...like sipping coffee on a cold morning.

Those short story ideas sill need work.

Also, check out this post for the Get Healthy bloghop!

What else I've been up to

 

Trying to keep up with Thing One and Thing Two...

 

 What inspires me right now

 

From Blaise Pascal (Pensee 188):

"Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realize that."

What's Up Wednesday: 5/22

It's time again for the What's up Wednesday meme/bloghop. Each Wednesday bloggers post about their respective week/day using the headings that follow. Join in the fun with this link to Jaime Morrow's blog - thanks again to Jaime and Erin for putting it all on, it's no small task!

What I'm reading

 

Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art of course...

My journey through the Psalms continues, more on this below.

I've also found an interesting site called Narrative Magazine. It came to me first as an app for my iPad, which I like better than the actual site because of how clean and quiet it is. There's some great material there, and it's free!

What I'm writing

 

"Dystopolis" is nearing an end, finally, and my goal is to have it available for sale within this month - I'm sure I'll let you know when people begin flocking!

This morning I revamped my second book. I've decided to begin at page one and rewrite the story with a different approach. Last week I mentioned that I didn't feel like I knew my characters, and I think starting from another point in the story will help. The pages I've written are not lost, I'll use much of what I've done, but not much of it - the way it stands now - will make the final cut.

Short story ideas have been flowing. Although I haven't set any words to paper, I've been jotting notes like crazy. Stay on the look out for more after "Dystopolis"!

What else I've been up to

 

Now that we're somewhat healthy, we're trying to get our vehicle healthy. The transmission died last Friday, and so the remainder of our free time has been conversation about where to fix our troubled van. It's good tomorrow is the last day of school, we need a break!

What inspires me right now

 

Last week I said I'm full because of my family and spring, I'm still full. I look around me and I see brokenness everywhere, then I come home and I couldn't ask for more. This morning I read Psalm 50; the last verse says, "The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!"

And surely the right way is paved with a thankful heart. I'm full.

What's up Wednesday

Jaime Morrow hosts the weekly What's Up Wednesday blog hop, it's a great idea to help you jump-start your blogging week. Not only that, but it's a great way to find more reading material and fresh blogs. Follow the link to her blog to join in!

What I'm reading

 

I'm still working on Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. It's something I like to read slowly, some passages over and over so they sink in. The section I read yesterday was about suffering. It was challenging because she takes a positive view of the things that hurt and make us stumble. May our suffering have a purpose!

What I'm writing

 

I'm also still working on my short story called "Dystopolis" (it's still posted here on my blog - start here). I'd like to have it up for sale this month, and soon, but there are so many things I have to do in order for that to happen!

I started on chapter six of the first draft of my second book this week. It's slow going, but I had a breakthrough with where to go with some of the characters, so I'm encouraged.

What else I've been up to

 

The weather has been nice and we're spending a lot of time outside. Our three boys love to tumble around (literally), and we are preparing to paint our house. *sigh*

I can see summer vacation, almost touch it with my fingertips...

What inspires me right now

 

My daily walk through the Psalms had me at number 39 this morning. The prayer that the LORD would "make me know my end and what is the measure of my days," is convicting and powerful. To put on a humble attitude because I "know how fleeting I am" is where I'd like to be before our Creator. That's also where I'd like to be when I sit down to write. If I'm not humbled enough to quiet myself, I won't hear the inspiration from him at all.


What's up with your Wednesday?

IWSG: Do you write?

A big thanks goes out to Alex J. Cavanaugh, who hosts The Insecure Writer's Support Group. Check it out for yourself!

Just a quick note about what it takes to be a writer.

Lately, I've been focused and driven. For the last six weeks or so I've been able to write every day excluding Sunday (much needed worship and rest is reserved for that day). I've also been focused on publishing the short story I've been serializing during the A-Z Challenge - read it here for free until I actually get that done.

What's Up Wednesday

First of all a big thanks goes out to Jaime Morrow for hosting the What's Up Wednesday blog hop, and Erin Funk for alerting me to it. Follow the links to their blog - join in!

What I'm reading

 

Whenever I need encouragement in writing or in life in general, I pick through Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. Right now I'm reading it in its entirety for the third time. It always hits me how true it is that we do not create alone, that God is with us, inspiring us, working through us.

I'm also almost done with Seeing What is Sacred: Becoming More Spiritually Sensitive to the Everyday Moments of Life, by Ken Gire. I've spent some time with this one. Many of the chapters challenge the way I think about everyday moments - especially in how I spend time with my children.

What I'm writing

 

The month of April has been busy. The A-Z Challenge has kept me honest with a daily writing routine on this blog, but also with my second book.

I serialized a short story called "Dystopolis" (it's still posted here on my blog - start here - you can buy the story on Amazon soon!), in 26 posts with the challenge. It was such a unique experience to sit down each morning and hammer out another section of story. It was a great way to force myself to work out a first draft.

The book I'm working on doesn't have a title, but the main character is Mossy, a boy who came to his parents one night as they walked through the forest. He was sitting under the trees waiting for them. The story takes off when Mossy's dad, Milt, disappears. Will their family be reunited? Will the mystery of Mossy's appearance be revealed? I'll let you know...

What else I've been up to

 

Only a few more weeks of school left! I teach English I and II at the local high school, and right now I'm teaching Romeo & Juliet, as well as a bit of poetry. Teaching is a joy and a challenge all at once.

And, of course, I come home and play with my three sons. The evenings are lengthening and we're spending more time outside - now if we could just stay healthy!

What inspires me right now

 

About an hour ago I read this from Psalm 32: "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' and you forgave the iniquity of my sin."

I'm again in awe that our God forgives sin, especially that sin that I can't seem to throw off completely. He throws it off for me, and I'm thankful.


So - what have you been up to lately?

April A-Z Challenge 2013

Two days ago I was certain I would sit this April out; today I decided I would kick myself if I did.

Last year my theme was Beautiful Things, and I picked 26 things that I consider to be worth calling beautiful. I'm taking a different approach this year.

I'll wrap up my first year teaching creative writing this May, and I have challenged my students to do many things with their writing and thinking. This blog challenge is my way of modeling creative writing.

It's in that spirit that I'm going to attempt to write one short story in 26 posts. I'll tie in the successive letters of the alphabet by using them as the first letter of each post.

Come along for the ride!

Age of Distraction

Doing research for my unit on Fahrenheit 451, I ran across a quote from a writer named Cory Doctorow. I wanted information mainly about the culture of distraction that we all live in now, or are at least tempted to live in, and his discipline is informing my daily writing routine.

  When I'm working on a story or novel, I set a modest daily goal - usually a page or two - and then I meet it every day, doing nothing else while I'm working on it. ...Writing a page every day gets me more than a novel a year...Twenty minutes is a short enough interval that it can be claimed from a sleep or meal-break.

I decided to give it a try, so I've been getting up a little bit earlier - scorning the snooze button - and writing a page a day. It hasn't been a week yet, but I've already produced six pages. This is my schedule:

530: Wake up, stumble to the den; read, pray
600: Write
630: Breakfast
700: Prepare for work
740 - 330: School
335 - 830: Family time (play w/ Thing 1 & Thing 2; lug Thing 3 around; converse with my lovely wife, bedtime)
830 - 1030: Edit my first book, blog, have an actual conversation with my wife, sleep

A few years ago I wrote my first book in the wee hours of the morning, and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed that process. The morning is quiet, and my thoughts have time to roam, and my pen has time to slowly create.

It's also a time free from technology.

At school I find myself glued to my computer when I don't have to be. That's the new habit, and if I don't make a time for myself to read, pray, and write - especially a time when all the noise hasn't begun - it won't happen.

The time is there. It's the shaping it for what we really want it for that's difficult.

A Plodding March

I'm not the only writer in our house...

The road back to a normal writing schedule is proving tiresome. I could blame yet another "first" year of teaching - as this year I'm teaching two new grades - or I could cast my woes of troubled progress on to house projects, health issues, little people who have to eat every day and want me to play Star Wars...the list is extensive.

But the real problem is me; I can track all my former success back to a well disciplined approach. In 2008, I wrote a small book while learning my way as a new dad and working a full time job. All it took was 30 minutes a day. In the span of one spring and summer, I wrote over 32,000 words. Not all that impressive, I know, but it was my first project, and my only one finished to date.

And now, well, I have so many fragments, so many ideas, so many notes that I want to pursue, but I lack the discipline to sit and pound out that first messy draft.

One victory: with the help of the resident editor (my lovely wife), I was able to submit a poem and a short story to a contest.

Another victory: I'm completing a short post here.

One step at a time...

An Outsider's Look at Poetry

Johnny Cade, the quiet greaser from S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, has made me take a fresh look at why poetry - and literature in general - is important. We're reading the novel in most of my classes, and reading a book four times a day has opened me up to things I would have missed otherwise.

This is what jumped out at me today:

"'You know," Johnny said slowly, 'I never noticed colors and clouds and stuff until you kept reminding me about them. It seems like they were never there before.'"

Colors, clouds, and stuff - they may as well have not been there. That is until the poetic Ponyboy observes and shares with his friend. I had a similar experience the first full year out of college; newly married and newly moved to Tennessee, it seemed I had never before seen the trees or flower blossoms, or heard the songs of birds, or the dancing of streams. I was jobless - and I was reading Dante. I'm not sure which actually opened my eyes to everything around me, but Dante sure did make me slow down and search for meaning.

A-Z Reflection: A Sculpted April

The first time I read about the A-Z Challenge, I thought it was madness. Now that I can look back and see that I actually finished it, I know it's madness.

However, a crazy ride like April was a welcome break from normality. It was good to be mad for at least a month.

My first post was A is for Acrostic, a fitting start to a month of writing with a specific form in mind. All too often discipline and form get a bad name for their restrictive nature. However, I found that designing my posts around a theme (beautiful things) and a letter of the alphabet made my writing flow instead of sputter. That starting point, the direction, is often what I'm missing in my posts and in my other writing. I know I have a burden for writing, and I know the words will come if I can get started, but sometimes I need a kick in the pants. The A-Z Challenge was that kick.

I am so very thankful to everyone who stopped by and commented on my posts, and I have to confess - and beg forgiveness - that I'm not a good commenter (my blog isn't an exception) or even visitor. I am planning on plodding through the list of participants though, so stay with me!

IWSG: Rest vs. Work

Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for hosting the IWSG! It's good to get back on track after taking a break in April - well, not so much break...

April was a whirlwind. The A-Z Blogging Challenge was fun, and I appreciate a discipline like that (especially the form - it gave me a starting point, which is something I don't always have), but I need a breather.

Writing almost every day was something I hadn't done in quite a while. The pressure to post 26 times last month was evidently what I needed to get into a regular grove. However, it's clear that May will include much more rest.

There are a few things I want to accomplish, yet I want to maintain a balance this month - a balance that will continue to challenge me while I seek downtime. It's the same at school; I need to help my students finish strong, but I also want them to enjoy their last few weeks as 7th graders (when I say enjoy I mean read, they hear work or boring).

A is for Acrostic

is for acrostic.

Let me start with a bit of a bellyache: the world of poetry has died, and we have killed it. The poet has lost the trust of readers everywhere - I blame free verse. Wait, I mean free prose...

The acrostic may not be the most popular form of poetry, but it is compelling when done well. And, to be honest, I haven't seen any English acrostics that are worth reading. I'm not counting Psalm 119 because it's not an English poem.

Psalm 119 is striking, and when you consider the form and the theme, it becomes more so: an acrostic made up of 22 stanzas, 8 verses each, with every verse beginning with that stanza's letter of the Hebrew alphabet; the theme is God's Law. Wait, God's Law?

IWSG: What You Have to Write

Once again, thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for hosting the IWSG! This event came just at the right time for me - I need some support, and I hope you find encouragement in my words.

Forgive me if I've said this before - no, don't (I was told never to apologize for what I write or how I write it. After all, if I think it's worth it, someone's bound to agree). And maybe it's important enough to hear over and over again; it's this: listen to that burning inside your heart before you write.

Don't you remember? The whole reason you started writing in the first place? Right now I'm at a point where I haven't done much writing, even on this blog, for quite a while. I think July of last year was the last time I worked on my MS, or even looked at a proposal and query letter. That's wearing me out.

Write a Letter

The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis is one of those books (or volume of books) I plod through; I read several things at a time, but this work is one I put down for long periods, pick up now and then, and read slowly.

Several weeks ago I came across this:

It is the immemorial privilege of letter-writers to commit to paper things they would not say: to write in a more grandiose manner than that in which they speak: and to enlarge upon feelings which would be passed by unnoticed in conversation.

Lewis was a teenager when he wrote that. A genius for sure.

I am often convicted when I read his work, but this time Lewis shines a light on something rather simple: letter writing. The volumes mentioned above total over 3,000 pages, I doubt I've even written 20. Times have changed, but time has not; I can't help but think the writers of long ago, and not so long ago, used their time more wisely.

Origin of Man O' Clay

Today I'm participating in the Origins blogfest brought on by: DL Hammons, Katie Mills, Alex J. Cavanaugh, and Matthew MacNish. Thanks to all of them for hosting!

Hop around a little from any of the links above and read how this same dream of writing got started in so many different ways.

As I mulled over my dreams of writing, I realized I can't quite place where, or when, mine began. Somewhere between my home school days when my mom made me write every day in that stupid journal, and those late nights during college when I sat in my empty room with a passion to write and nothing to write about, I just knew.

I knew I had to tell stories.

And I guess I've come a decent way from what my mom got out of me; "I just want you to write whatever you feel like writing." Many feverish minutes later she read, "I hate this journal, I hate this journal, I hate this journal..." Sorry mom - and thanks, too.

IWSG: When You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say

Once again, thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for hosting the IWSG! Check out the launch page at the link above and join the fun!

I don't know how many times I've heard it, and that little saying might be cliche, but it's a worthy saying. I've said it in my classroom countless times - and I don't even have to finish it, I just say, "Hey, if you don't have anything nice to say," and the student usually says, "Don't say anything."

The same is true of writing. And although nice isn't quite the right word - maybe worthwhile fits better - the idea is the same.

IWSG: New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had enough rest and time with family.

Huge thanks, once again, to Alex Cavanaugh for creating the Insecure Writer's Support Group!
It is a pleasure to be a part of such an encouraging group of writers.

These last three months I've been very much encouraged by everyone who has visited this blog, so thank you to my readers too!

I don't like to get too wrapped up in resolutions for the new year, but I do have some goals. I thought I'd share them on this post, and hopefully they'll encourage you all while helping me stay focused. Also, if you'd come back and check on me, I'd certainly appreciate the accountability!

1. Read more about writing. Later in this post I'm going to share a helpful quote from a grammar book I'm reading; the clear directives in this book have made me want to read more from talented writers and teachers about how to write well.

2. Read more. Well, duh. As Iyer says, "reading is the best school of writing..."

How Do You Compose?

I'm a new blogger, and to be honest, sometimes I question the practice. It's the speed of it all, the immediate publishing. I suppose now that I'm committed to regular posting, I'm more likely to defend it. And that's one of the things I like, this blog, and others, makes me think and write often. However, there's something about the composition style that irks me.

Over history the way we write, and therefore the way we think and communicate ideas, has changed - some would say it's more than changed, it's evolved. I'm not so sure technology serves us as well as we suppose.

Before any form of writing, people told stories and exchanged news orally. Since then there have been rapid developments: ink and scroll, printing press, typewriter, word processor (I'm sure there are some gaps in my small timeline). The idea behind each advancement is that we can speed up the process, and therefore improve it.

I'll concede the speed argument, but I'm not altogether sold on improvement.