The Continuing Adventures

So, a few of you may have checked out Remnants. This is my dystopian take on the Robin Hood tale, as inspired by this fabulous photo shoot right here from a few years ago, designed by my friend Grayson and shot by the talented Steven Bourelle of Bourelle Photography fame.

I've been doing NaNoWriMo for years, but Remnants was the first time I'd felt really inspired in a long time. I'm extremely thankful for the push it gave my imagination. With the flexibility the Wattpad platform provides, I may continue working on it for a while, fine-tuning it and coming up with fun iterations and edits.

The thing about writing for myself is, I get that freedom, and I'm enjoying it. So, I figured, for now, why not continue with the story? While I stuck with many traditional Robin Hood themes in the initial book, I want to expand on this world and keep going. So, today, I posted the first part of Remnants II, which I'm tentatively calling Broken Remnants.


These are just working titles for now, and perhaps as the story unfolds I will get a bit more creative. I want to focus on making it a trilogy, as I think that's a good format for a comprehensive tale. I'm not sure I'd do more than that in this world - I don't see it spinning endlessly into a series, though I guess since it's up to me, I can keep going for as long as it's fun.

I hope you enjoyed the first installment enough to keep going along with me. Thank you to everyone who has read and commented, whether publicly or privately. In this, I work for encouragement and love right now, and every little bit helps.

The cover is just a placeholder at this point as well, as I'm torn between different ideas for what to do. But, I wanted to have something in there, as even simple images can spark the imagination!

(Insert witty blog ending here). (No, seriously, I hate trying to end blog posts, I'm so bad at it. I get torn between something casual and non-committal, or something inspirational and overly-cheesy). (Should I be funny? I don't even know. Ugh.). (How do you even punctuate with parentheses?).

Hi Friends.

So, I'm a terrible blogger, as evidenced by not posting in... um. A few. Years.

It's just not my platform. But, I'd like to try again, so.

I'm still participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and am one of the co-MLs for the ChiWriMo region, which I love doing.

I'm also part of the Bristol Renaissance Faire, which isn't writing related but is related to creativity and inspiration.

Related to that, I'm editing one of my NaNoWriMo novels from a couple years ago, which was inspired by a photo shoot done by some of my favorite Bristolians.

I've edited in fits and starts; the first part of the novel is probably in its forth iteration, while the second part is less polished, having only been glossed over a couple times. The ending is the biggest struggle for me, as I've gone back and forth on what I'd like to do with it a few times. But, eventually, the ending has to end.

I'm working on it semi-live-action via Wattpad, and you can find the book, which I've tentatively titled Remnants, right there. I hope you'll check it out and provide some input and feedback! (gently, please, but still honestly)

OK, that's all I have for now. DO YOU SEE WHY I HATE BLOGGING? HOW DO YOU EVEN END A BLOG POST. OH EM GEE GUYS. OK no really have a good day.

Writing Resources, Communities, and Stuff I Love

In order to motivate myself to get going again, I've decided to compile a list of writing resources I love. I hope you find it useful!

1) NaNoWriMo. Whenever someone asks me about writing, this is, without fail, the first thing I tell them about. NaNoWriMo runs every November. You write 50,000 words in one month in order to win bragging rights and the knowledge that You Can Do It. My first novel, On Her Own Two Wheels, came from my first ever NaNoWriMo. Now, this fabulous program also includes:

A) Camp NaNoWriMo. Every April and July, you can set a word goal of your choice and work on a project type of your choice (novel, script, epic poem, short story, nonfiction, WHATEVER) with you and your cabin mates cheering each other on.

B) No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days (Amazon Affiliate link). I have read this book several times over and find new tidbits to highlight every time. It is inspirational and awesome.

2) The International 3 Day Novel Contest. As if writing 50,000 words in 30 days wasn't challenging enough, this insane contest calls for you to crank out a rough draft over America's Labor Day Weekend. Recommended goal: 25,000 words of original fiction. There is an entry fee and prizes for winners.

3) 642 Things to Write Journal (Amazon Affiliate link). Whenever I get stuck, I use these writing prompts to get un-stuck, generate new ideas, and feel writerly again.

4) This article about Amanda Hocking. Because it makes me feel like dreams are real.

A) Speaking of which, Amanda Hocking's blog. Because, again, it makes me feel like dreams are real.

5) Scrivener [Download] (Amazon Affiliate link). Writing tools can make all the difference in putting you in a writerly mood. I love Scrivener, just opening it makes me feel more writerly.

6) This free class from OpenLearn. It's just the basics, but skimming it can make you feel more like writing again and can stir up some long-dormant creative juices.

7) This article about marketing and building a fan base. This isn't like the field of dreams: just because you built a book doesn't mean people are gonna read it. You need to get readers, and this talks about how and the real math behind it all.

What are some of your favorite resources for writing? Or, if you're a reader, what do you like to read?

Guest Post for NaNoWriMo!

Hi friends!

Well, I don't know about you, but I am busy gearing up for NaNoWriMo this year. As Chicago's only municipal liaison, I have my hands full! I did do a guest post for NaNoWriMo Prep, though, so hop on over and take a look!

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? What will you be doing - pantsing or planning?

Love,
Stacy

Not another failed writer blog

Photography by Ivan Prole, www.proledesign.com

I've been on a sabbatical. And, honestly, I think I did it wrong.

See, a sabbatical, to me, means taking time off from what you usually do in order to do something that you would much rather be doing. Instead, I had to stop doing what I really wanted to do in order to focus on the things that I really, really didn't want to do, not one little bit, not at all.

Such is the life of a lawyer. So I thought.

In March, after one of the longest years of my life, I quit my steady paycheck job (I won't call it well-paying, especially given the ratio of my salary versus hours worked, although I did manage to make ends meet for a little while), and set off into the great wide world of being a solo practitioner.

I couldn't be happier with this decision.

It's only been a month, but my quality of life has improved dramatically. My clients love me more, I love them more, and I love what I do about 1000% more (yes that extra zero is intentional). I'm connecting with people and looking them in the eye, as opposed to meeting them with a glassy-eyed, barely-there stare. I'm awake.

And, an unexpected benefit, I get to write more; in fact, some of my freelance clients came back to me, and I have a nice steady side income doing even MORE of what I love.

Does anyone have it better than I do, really?

The aftershocks of my prior life are still resonating. When I get done with work at 6pm instead of 8pm, I feel a colossal pang of guilt. Sometimes, if things are slow, I feel crippling anxiety and uselessness, even though the initial numbers are comforting. It's weird the psychological loops we get caught up in, isn't it? I may not have as many hours of work. But they are meaningful hours. And that's important.

I'm still adjusting to this idea that work can consist of things I like to do, instead of things I have to suffer through. I'm glad that I'm coming to this realization now, instead of later, before I suffered some permanent damage.

And now, if I really want to, in addition to being the lawyer I always dreamed of being, maybe I can also be the writer I always dreamed of being.

Camp NaNoWriMo!

May and June snuck up on me. I am pretty sure they were in cahoots. Plotting all throughout April to ambush me and catch me unawares. Before I realized it, July was here. And boy, did July drag.

While May and June flew by with the speed of a thousand irate wasps, July has plodded along, kind of moping, really, like an uninvited guest that has overstayed its welcome, that cannot just take the hint and seriously you need to leave before I throw you out of MY HOUSE. Ahem.

August comes as a bit of a relief. August, I think, will be An Improvement.

One reason is the very title of this entry: Camp NaNoWriMo. The very title makes me want to parody the theme song from that old Nickelodeon show, Salute Your Shorts. (Y'know... "Camp Annawanna, we hold you in our hearts, and when we think about you...")

Camp NaNoWriMo is basically NaNoWriMo in the summer. Rather than having to wait all the way til November to recklessly go where few novelists have gone before, though, you can pick the summer month of your choice - June or August (or both) - and use your novel as an excuse for not having more of a tan and avoiding the life-threatening rays of the sun during these sweltering times.

I tried to do Camp NaNoWriMo last year but failed kind of miserably. I had a major surgery a couple days into it and never quite recovered the word count (though my health recovered quite nicely, it just took longer than expected). I've successfully defeated NaNoWriMo: The November Version on a few different occasions, including with the book that I'm currently editing to publish by the end of the summer, which I wrote during my first NaNoWriMo back in 2007. I'm hoping lightning will strike a second time as I plan to write the sequel over the next 31 days.

If you're interested in taking on the challenge yourself, hop on over to the Camp NaNoWriMo website to sign up. You'll get assigned a cabin, which will be your support group for the month, and the tools to track your noveling progress. The goal is the same as traditional NaNoWriMo: write a 50,000 word novel in the span of one month. In August, which is a 31-day month, that equals 1,613 words per day, which is roughly two and a half pages, depending on font/font size. This entry is currently about 400 words at this point. And now it's more. And more. And more. And more. And...

Anyways. 

Are you doing Camp NaNoWriMo this year?

CreateSpace: And then...

So Sunday night I pulled the trigger and requested the package I wanted from CreateSpace, including some basic cover design, some publicity materials, a book review, some layout help, etc. On Monday, the consultant I'm working with put everything into my CreateSpace account shopping cart and I logged in last night to purchase and set up the logistics.

That part was fairly simple - you just log into your account, go to your cart, pay, and there you go. What happens next is a change in your Member Dashboard. Backing up a second, CreateSpace has a certain process for setting up books. You create your "project" (i.e. one of your titles), upload some files, select some settings, etc. When you sign up for the extra features, you have to go through one of their publishing consultants to get them activated, but then it just expands your dashboard for that project so you have more options.

I had to fill out a questionnaire with details about the options I picked - things like what I envision for the cover, what I want the tone of my promotional materials to be, summaries of my book, etc. I also selected my internal formatting templates, fonts, and how I wanted my front matter to appear (those are the first few pages inside any book stating the author, title, dedication, copyright, etc).

This has all been pretty intuitive so far, so I'm looking forward to the next steps and seeing what my project team puts together. After making your selections and filling out the questionnaire, little clock icons appear next to those segments of your project dashboard to show that your project team is working on their different elements and will notify you when you need to do something else. So now it's just some hurry up and wait.

Diets and Discipline

I'm one of those people.

I decide to try to start losing weight. I eat right for a few days and lose a couple pounds. Then I think, "Gosh, that was easy! I don't have to try so hard! It's OK if I slack off just this one time for some cake, because it'll be so easy for me to lose the weight again!" So I have some cake. And then some ice cream. And then some ribs. And suddenly I've gained those couple pounds back, plus a few more.

I do the same thing in other aspects of my life. I'll clean one room of the house before getting distracted and meandering off to play on Facebook (after all, it's not that dirty!); I'll start too many projects at once while I'm at work and get distracted by the least important one; or I'll look at how little I have left to edit and think "gosh, it won't take me that long at all! I think I'll read some more articles about the origins of lint online..."

Really, isn't the Internet a beautiful horrible vast gaping hole of time-wasting crazy thing?

Well, fortunately I haven't quite slide into the depths of life-wasting apathy yet. I still want to weigh 135 pounds. I still want to be a writer when I (manage to not) grow up. I still want to live in a condo that doesn't resemble a crack den. So stuff gets done.

Today, for example. Today I hit "send" to a couple folks who were kind enough to offer a bit of editing input. This was a big step. Honestly, I was getting worried I wouldn't let anyone else read my book unless they either hacked it off of my computer or pried it out of my cold dead hands. Which would be weird, given I'm not famous or anything yet.

I still have a lot to do. I need a cover. I need to edit again. I need to decide how on earth I'm going to market this thing. I need to decide if it's really interesting enough to publish. Then I need to get over it and just go for broke. Also, I need to stop fantasizing about cake.

But now, I need to sleep. Good night friends.

New Day, New Blog, and Pen Names

June 8th has come and gone. I've been fortunate to receive some offers from some supportive friends to help me with the editing process, which I'll shortly be taking them up on. I'll be making some tweaks to this site now that I'm setting out on my official journey as an indie author. It doesn't quite feel real yet, but I know I'm headed towards something exciting.

My first step has been to pick a pen name for myself. I think this is essential, even if the trail back to my real name isn't exactly well-hidden (No, seriously, I know you all know who I am; I'm OK with it... for now...bwhaha... ahem). Given my other job, though, it's probably for the best for the time being.

I have agonized over this decision for a long time. I've been playing around with different names, reading lists, bouncing ideas off of my hubby, Googling likely combinations. The trick is to pick something that doesn't seem too hokey but is still relatively interesting and uncommon. I'm already cursed with a first name that can be spelled way too many ways - Stacy, Stacey, Staci, Stacie, take your pick. But there had to be an option out there that would work.

Let me just say, though, there do seem to be a lot of shady creatures out there with the first name Stacy/Stacey/etc. I mean wow. Google is really a blessing for inspiration. Or finding scary people that you may or may not be related to.

So, I'm proud to announce that my official writing name from this day hence shall be: Stacy Xavier.

One of the reasons this sprang into my brain has to do with X-Men. No, not really, although I do like X-Men. Alright, really it had to do with the fact that I kept NOT finding a pen name I liked, so I started thinking of my name as "Stacy X" with X being an unknown variable I had yet to define. The rest was just a logical progression from there.

Do you have a pen name? How'd you pick it? How do you pick names in general when you write? I keep a baby book by my desk for quick inspiration, but are there other resources you find useful?

The Pact: Did It Work? And, A Request for Recommendations

Well, for those who were paying attention to our "Terms" page know that today should be the day that three novelists each finished the first drafts of their books and exchanged them for editing and critiquing purposes.

I will be finished with my final round of self-editing tonight. I have 8000 more words to edit and one more scene to add to round out the story, and since I know where I'm headed, I'm about 99% certain I'll have it wrapped up before midnight (barring some unusual catastrophe).

Unfortunately, I don't think my compatriots are quite in the same spot. And I understand. Half the posts I've written on this blog have been about how life is tough, and it's difficult to be a writer + something else and succeed at both. Usually it's the writing that ends up suffering. Which, when you have a life, a job, a family, bills to pay, etc, it's hard to ignore the fact that it tends to come across as a leisure activity, and is therefore less important.

I am a lucky woman. While I have an exceptionally time-consuming job (introduce me to a lawyer that doesn't), I also have a husband that believes in my writing. He has picked up the slack for the last several months, keeping our place clean and letting me have my space so I can plough on towards this goal. He tells me time and again how much he thinks I'm going to succeed at this, that I need to make it a priority, that it is going to pay off in the long run. I want a family, but I don't have one yet, and when you're pursuing an endeavor like writing-on-the-side, that tends to work to your advantage.

So. I'm almost done self-editing. Sadly, but understandingly, the writers I started this challenge with probably aren't in a position to take up hours of their time with critiquing my book while getting nothing in return from me. It's a little bit of a quandary. I know I'm not ready to hit "publish" yet, I don't even have a cover, but I think I need some editing services. Or at least a couple people to read my book and provide an opinion (and maybe a couple typo corrections).

I'm aware there are tons of editors out there that I can hire. And I'm more than willing to do so. But not without a suggestion. If anyone has any recommendations, I'm all ears.

Where have you built equity?

This is not a blog post about investing money. Well, at least not directly. Investment often requires some kind of monetary expense. But really, what I'm contemplating is the more important investment - how you invest your time. In other words, how you've invested in yourself.

Money is a great example of what I'm talking about, though. I think everyone dreams about a bigger bank account, in some way or another. But to do that, you have to start with that first few bucks that you stash away.

The same is true with your career. There are the people we envision have made it big overnight. Some people may even have that good fortune. But take any successful person you wish to emulate, and if you really listen to their story, you'll find that they had to spend some not insignificant amount of time building equity in their chosen calling. The kids who made it big at 18 spent most of their teen years learning programming languages, watching their peers set trends, or just generally putting time and energy into what they wanted to do instead of engaging in under-aged drinking or other teenage antics. By the time they were ready to graduate from high school, they'd perhaps spent 2 to 4 years already taking action on what they wanted to do in life.

It takes a special kind of focus and drive to do that at a young age. It takes a really special amount of focus and drive to do that as you get older. You take on responsibilities - a family, a mortgage. What you wanted to spend your time on and how you earn a living have become two entirely different things.  After all, you write because you love it, not because you want to earn money off of it.

But what if we realized that we could build equity in a career writing, or making art, just as we can in any other career, and that it could potentially end up paying off? One trap I've fallen into time and again with any business idea I try to create is that if I don't get an immediate payoff, I'm a failure, it didn't work, it's time to start over again. How many people might end up feeling that way about their first book? I know that's something that terrifies me. What if I publish this novel that I've been putting my time, heart, and effort into, and it doesn't go anywhere? 

And that's when it helps to remember that this is only the first step in a longer journey - a bigger career. It isn't a matter of clicking "publish" but what happens leading up to that, and what happens following that, which determines where you'll end up. It's the same in any career. There are a few people I know of that got the office in the sky with the six-figure salary after graduating law school (which may or may not be the blessing it seems), but most of the attorneys I know that are making the money and getting the cases in the fields they want to work in are those that stuck with it through the grunt work in the early years. The writers that are successful - whether Indie or not - are those that stuck with it after a flop, or have been writing for years and improving their craft until they got to where they wanted to be.

So, where have you built your equity?         

Conquest

Things I will conquer this week:

1) Second edit of the first 1/3 of my novel
2) Walking and Yoga 5 out of 7 days
3) Stick to Weight Watchers Points
4) Clean something each day, even if it's small
5) Take my vitamins each day

The yoga is already making a difference, I think. I felt more energetic today. I've managed to plow through my to-do list, and physically my body is not resisting me as much. My mind is still a bit sluggish, but when I got home from work today, I felt like I shook off my cobwebs and got down to business with what I needed to accomplish - cleaning a little, cooking a little, exercising a little, editing a little. It's a nice feeling after walking around in an unproductive haze for who knows how long.

I'm looking forward to seeing how my yoga improves my riding experience. I noticed my back muscles were feeling really fatigued after riding on Friday and Saturday, probably because I've just let my core become so weak and now I'm re-adapting to balancing on a motorcycle. Hopefully I'll notice a difference if I get a chance to ride again on Friday!

I Did Yoga!

I've completely fallen off of the health wagon for the past year or so. And by that, I mean I just haven't been exercising or eating particularly healthy. I've had bouts where I'll try to eat less, but I still eat bad food, and then I just decide to dive in and eat whatever I want and the cycle starts all over again. I've done a little walking here and there, but I haven't done any weight lifting or running or anything of that nature. I just find that I'm frequently tired due to stress at work, so I stress-eat bad food, which is just self-defeating, as it causes me to have even less energy.

I keep meaning to do things - like start walking outside a bit each morning, or pick up some healthier choices at the grocery store - but somehow the time doesn't ever seem right, or I'm not in the mood, or I'm too tried. Or I want to exercise, but I didn't plan a good routine, and I don't feel like planning a routine, so I may as well just not do it. After all, if I'm going to do it, I should do it right, right? And instead, I end up not doing it at all.

Well, today I decided to just skip to the exercise part of my Yoga book. I get it - Yoga is a lifestyle. Be gentle with yourself. Don't get wrapped up in ego. Relax, balance, focus, etc. But the fact is, I really want to increase my flexibility and overall health right now. And if I have to read through the additional 100 pages of philosophy before getting started, I know I'm going to continue to get bored and eventually forget about it and move on to something else.

So, I very gently dove into yoga this afternoon.

I selected some fairly basic, easy poses, most of which I've tried before in other fitness classes. I focused on my breathing and easing myself into each pose to where I felt comfortable. I took my time in adjusting my position until I felt like I was in each pose correctly, and tried to maintain my balance and focus in each one. And, afterwards, I felt pretty good!

I feel liberated, in a way. I didn't need to make sure everything was perfect. I just wanted to make sure I did something. I've always been one of those people who always has to have everything in order, list made, double-checked, plan in place, etc, before doing anything. Which is ridiculous, because being like that tends to stall me out mid-execution. It's tough being a detail-oriented planner-type with what I suspect is a mild case of ADD.

It's a good reminder for me, though. Not everything has to be perfect; in fact, it's pointless to try and make it perfect. Sometimes it's better to just start with what you have, and go from there. I need to remind myself of that when I'm editing. It's great to want to put the best novel out there that you can. But it's never going to be perfect. Not everyone is going to love it or agree with what you did. But taking that first step and putting it out there will mean a lot more than sitting on it indefinitely until "the right plan" is in place. It's OK to make some stuff up as you go. So maybe it's time to take a cue from yoga and be kinder to yourself and your writing.

Diversify or Concentrate?

I have been bombarded with choices my entire life. It's really defined me as a person in many ways, mainly because it's left me virtually incapable of making a decision.

I still remember when I was growing up, my parents took me out furniture shopping for a new bedroom set when we moved to Richmond, VA. I can't tell you how many different furniture stores we went to, how many different sets of beds and dressers I looked at, how many different styles there were to choose from. It was exhausting. It was frustrating. I hated every second of it.

In retrospect, I know I was lucky to even have the option of going furniture shopping for my own room. But at the time, I really could not have cared less. I was fifteen, I had no taste whatsoever (and still don't), and every time I actually made a decision about something I liked, my parents would remind me of my dozens of other options, as if I'd somehow made the wrong choice. Granted, one of those choices involved zebra prints and lots of reflective surfaces, but hey -- they asked me what I wanted. We fortunately ended up with a very tasteful set of furniture. I, of course, had nothing to do with selecting it. Which is probably for the best. I was kind of resentful of all of the fruitless furniture shopping trips, though.

Years later, I take the experience as a lesson in a theory I've been developing lately. There is something to be said for a lack of options. It's efficient. It focuses your attention away from all of the fluff, and hopefully puts you in a position to make the best choice out of what you have to work with.

The same is true of selecting a profession. I once had a dean at my undergraduate college explain to me why he hated approving credit overloads for students - he felt like people were spreading their studies too thin, perhaps in hopes of covering just enough ground that they'd be employable to someone, somewhere. He kept having to approve credit overloads for people who were double- and triple-majors, with additional minors in underwater basket weaving as a fall-back. But looking around at the job market these days, it seems like more opportunities are available for people that focused themselves - they picked something, and just went for it. All or nothing.

I think the same can be said for writing. More success is available to those who focus.

Think about it. If you decide that all you want to be is a writer - or a singer, or an actor - what would you do differently? How would you spend your time? You could focus on your craft AND work on the business end of things. Could you think of ways to make ends meet while you focus on your dream?

But then consider how things might be going now, while you're trying to "diversify" - working another full-time job, writing during off hours, squeezing it in when you can. I think this describes a lot of people who are trying to get by financially while holding out some hope of pursuing their dreams on the side.

It doesn't bode well for me, either. I'm not gonna lie - I diversify all over the place. I split my time over a gajillion different projects. My writing performance is spotty at best. I'm not even going to admit to you how many times I haven't gone to the gym lately. I take on so many goals at once, all of them end up suffering in the long-term.

Don't take this post as a ringing endorsement to go out and quit your job immediately (although I wouldn't blame you if you do). But it's food for thought - if you could focus, and concentrate, and just do what you want to do instead of diversifying over several different things, what could you accomplish? Do you see the value if only doing a few things well instead of doing many things at a mediocre level? Can you work towards that now?

Cliffhangers: is there a double-standard?

I was looking for some books to read on my new Kindle this evening when I noticed some interestingly condescending reviews referencing an author's decision to use the literary device of a cliffhanger leading into a future installment in a series. Note: I haven't actually read this book, as I just recently purchased it, so I'm not sure to what effect this device was used, but I'll let you know.

Regardless, it got me thinking. In perusing the many self-published selections available on Amazon, I've noticed many authors do tend to work in trilogies or even series. Typically the first book is discounted, or even free, and the second and third installments are priced slightly higher - perhaps a dollar or two more.

And, personally, that's just fine with me. The books are still discounted compared to their mainstream counterparts, and making up a dollar or two after gaining a reader with a discounted price is just good business sense that places value on the author's hard work.

Yet, I do see the reviews that criticize this kind of practice. A book ends without a full wrap-up of the remaining issues, and suddenly the author is accused of just trying to sell more books with the next installment.

My response to this: Well DUH.

Let me back up a bit. I am all for "write for the love of writing, not for other people." I think that's a great philosophy. But I'm also a fan of being able to feed myself, pay my student loans, and, OH YES, support myself so I can write more in the future! I'd love nothing more to be able to support myself on writing alone. And in order to do that, I need to sell books. And I'm sure many authors feel exactly the same way. It's tough to be an author + something else; so turning it into a self-supporting system is often highly ideal. There aren't many other industries where people get accused of the crime of trying to make a living.

Furthermore, it's an interesting double-standard. Is there criticism out there of mainstream authors that are accused of just trying to sell more books when they write in a series format? I'm sure there's some, particularly with the really big names, but I haven't heard that about the stories I like to follow.

I'm sure this post sounds far more defensive than I mean it to be. Part of that is a product of PMS. But regardless, I think my main point is this: even if you love your craft and you write for that primary reason, writing is still a bit of a business. And that's okay! Better to be in business for something you love than something you don't.

Do You Read Your Writing Out Loud?

I had a very brief chat with another writer via Twitter the other evening who was working on that dreaded portion of any piece of writing: The Ending. I always struggle with ending anything - papers, essays, stories, novels. I find it difficult to balance between giving my piece the overly dramatic, grand finale it deserves versus being way too under-stated to the point that it ends up lackluster and disappointing. When writing blog posts in particular, I never quite know what to say at the end. "The question" is always a good wrap-up, so I've started utilizing that strategy, but before that, I'd always kind of meander off and hope no one noticed my awkward closing rambling. I often feel like I should tack on a "ta daah!" or a "that's all folks!" or some other cheesy tag line, just for a sense of finality.

Something that's always helped me, though, is to step back and read what I've written out loud. I'm always amazed at how much better it makes me feel when I read something out loud and am able to derive a logical conclusion from it. I think it's something we all subconsciously do when we read, anyways - if you are nearing the end of what you're reading, the tone you start interpreting is one of wrapping up, and it isn't nearly as odd as you think it is (being the one immersed in writing it).

For fiction or narratives, though, I think reading something out loud can make you feel even more self-conscious about the sometimes grandiose language you want to utilize to really drive your message home. That's when I take a deep breath and remember the ultimate test of melodrama: the movie announcer voice. Think about it - announcers use some of the most overly-dramatic, cliche, theatrical language we could possibly imagine. And yet, when we watch some of our favorite previews, we still get drawn in, hook, line, and sinker. We don't care that "these people are about to change the course of history" has been used countless times, because it sounds awesome - in context. 

I think this test is part of the reason my husband thinks I'm moderately insane. He'll often wander in and find me reading something enthusiastically out loud to myself. That's usually his cue to back away slowly and see if there's anything car-related on television to drown out my psychotic ranting. Possible mental illness aside, though, I do recommend this test if you are feeling self-conscious about your ending and want to see if it really sounds as ridiculous as you think it does. I've found it's often the set-up that matters more than how you ultimately phrase your ending, so lead into it a bit. Start reading from one or two pages before your problem area, and see if your dramatic ending is warranted, or if it sounds completely different from the tone building up to it. And if it still sounds utterly ridiculous when you read it in your best movie announcer voice, you may want to go back and edit a bit until it sounds right.

Do you read any of your writing out loud to yourself? Is talking to yourself crazy, or is it only crazy if you start answering back? Yes.

.....(ta daaah!)