A Trip Outside Your Writing Zone

by Victoria M. Johnson

I just returned from a brief trip to Europe and it was my first time in a really long time I wrote anything away from my desk.  I had forgotten how wonderful it is to write in a completely new place or to revisit a favorite writing spot. 

For me, just stepping into a new writing environment adds a dose of freshness to my thoughts and perspective.  It's kind of exciting.  My sense of observation kicks into high gear and well the other senses do, too.  Whether I'm working on an existing project or something new, I believe the writing benefits. 

  

Photo by Bonnie Kittle

I have vowed to not let so much time go by without giving myself a change of writing scenery.

Have you tried writing outside of your usual writing zone?  Do you have a favorite spot outside of your "office" to write?  If so, please share in the comments below.  If not, give it a try.  The new location doesn't have to be far from home or extravagant, it only needs to be different than your regular place.  It can even be another room of your house—or literally outside, in your backyard or balcony.   Maybe this is the type of change-up you need once in a while, too.

Victoria M. Johnson knew by the time she was ten that she wanted to be a writer.  She loves telling stories and she's happiest when creating new characters and new plots.  Avalon Books and Montlake Romance published Victoria's fiction debut, The Doctor’s Dilemma.  Her other fiction book is a collection of romance short stories titled, The Substitute Bride and a novella, Hot Hawaiian Christmas. She is also the writer and director of four short films and two micro documentaries.   Visit Victoria's website at http://VictoriaMJohnson.com for inspiration and tips and find her Amazon author page or connect with her on Pinterest and Twitter.

The Fine Art of Procrastination

by Janis Susan May/Janis Patterson

No one ever said writing was easy. Forming a cogent and interesting story, creating a believable and fascinating cast of characters who are real people instead of cardboard cutouts, choosing the exact right language, the precise words that give just the nuance you want... None of it is especially difficult, but believe me, none of these are the toughest work of writing.

Let's face it, sometimes the writing goes well. Words flow from your fingertips, paragraphs form almost of their own volition, chapters grow like beautiful, perfect weeds. Wonderful when it does, but sadly it doesn't happen often enough. Most of the time writing is work - sometimes easy work, sometimes not, but we have to make the words conform to our vision.

And then there are the days when our work simply shuts down. Getting the right word is comparable to pulling it from glue. Then you must pull out the next one, and the next, but even that is preferable to the 'I don't cares.'

The 'I don't cares' are not writers' block, nothing so simple as that. You know where the story is going, perhaps sentences and paragraphs are taking vague shape in your mind, but you just don't want to write. You sit at the computer, determined that today you will really work and break this strange stasis, but you sit at the computer and suddenly remember that you need to clean out that kitchen cabinet which has sat unmolested for the last decade. Or go visit your next-door neighbor from three houses ago. Or finish the baby blanket you started to make for your nephew, that same nephew who starts high school next week.

Unfortunately, this is more than simple procrastination. The internet has taken a lot of blame for distracting writers away from their self-appointed task as a wordsmith, but I cannot help but wonder how much is cause and how much is symptom. Same with the kitchen cabinet, the long-ago neighbor, the baby blanket, or any other of a hundred million things.

Nora Roberts, one of the most (if not the) most prolific novelists in the world says wisely "Just write the book, even if it's garbage. You can fix garbage. You can't fix a blank page." Very true, and oftentimes such a determined attitude works. During these (hopefully rare) times when it doesn't, though, no matter how much you write down, it's not only garbage, but definitely garbage that can't be fixed.

So what do we do when these black clouds of utter immobility engulf us? That is not a rhetorical question; I would really like to know, but at the moment I must run. It's been way too long since I got a Q-Tip and cleaned under the gasket on my dishwasher...

It’s the Little Things

by Karen McCullough

Detail can make all the difference.

One of the reasons I like to visit the places I use as  background for my stories is the need to get the details right. It’s not always necessary, and I confess that I’ve set parts of stories in places I haven’t been to, but not often. Sometimes, if the place isn’t the main setting, I can get what I need from Google Maps, Wikipedeia, travel and tourism websites, and Google Earth.

But settings are an integral part of most stories and I really try to get it right as much as possible. The setting for my current mystery series is a market center in Washington, D.C. that is the site of various exhibitions and trade shows. Because I’ve had family living in the D.C. metro area for a long time and have visited often, I’m comfortable writing about the geographic area. During my ten years working for various trade publications, I attended numerous trade shows and got to see a lot of what goes on. I’ve also spent time talking to some of the people who work behind the scenes to get a feel for what they do.

When I come to writing something I don’t know about, I try to do as much research as I can to get things right. What I often find is that almost everything is more complicated than one suspects and there may not be any cut-and-dried right answers. Different people, different places, and different organizations do things in different ways. But there are usually some definitely wrong answers, and I try to avoid those as much as possible.

But like most people I don’t always know what I don’t know, which is why I need editors and beta readers. I first wrote Hunter’s Quest a few years ago, but published it only last year. One of the editors who read the book pointed out that I had my hero and heroine toodling around in a car with a front bench seat, although no American cars have been built with bench seats for years. Why didn’t I know that? I haven’t owned a car with anything but bucket seats in front for many years.

A couple of books I’ve read lately also reminded me of how easy it is to slip up on things you don’t know. I was beta-reading a Regency Romance not too long ago, where the American author didn’t understand how the English nobility worked. She had a character in her book, Sir Somebody, being a knight who talked about passing his title onto his son. I pointed out to her that a knighthood was not a title that could be passed on, and she probably wanted to make him a baronet (also addressed as Sir Somebody but that title can be inherited).

A different author, for whom I was doing a beta read of an otherwise very good story jolted me out of it when she described her English hero’s house as having a wrap-around porch. Because my son lives in England and I’ve spent time there, I know that a porch  means something slightly different in England than it does here. (It’s a small, usually covered, and sometimes fully enclosed entryway to the house, not a broad, elevated platform in front of the house.) I’ve never seen an English house with anything similar to an American wrap-around porch. They just don’t build houses that way. Outdoor sitting areas are pretty much always in the back of the house. And by the way, don’t call it the back yard. It’s the garden.

The first picture below is my son and his daughter heading out for a walk in the neighborhood where they live in Kent. The house directly behind has just a small porch entryway. The one in the upper left-hand corner has a small enclosed porch in front of the door. It's very common.

An English country manor with an entrance porch.

I know those things from experience. But there are tons of things I don’t know, and I don’t always know what those things are. I try to check out anything I’m not sure about, but can easily miss things I think I know. Which is why I let other people read my book before I publish it, and why I’m always happy to hear from readers who point out where I made a mistake.  I’ll always investigate and update the book when and if I can!

The View from the Corner

by Janis Susan May/Janis Patterson

There are some days that the words just flow from your fingers to the paper in a wonderful flood, pristine and clear and perfect - paragraphs that are marvels of clarity and inspired writing, the kind of writing that wins awards and tops best seller lists. Okay, it doesn't happen often, but when it does it is wonderful and you know that writing is the absolute best career you could have.

Magical times like this tend to make you forget the hours you have spent dragging out prose word by painful word, and the only thing that stops you from going mad with the delete button (or in particularly bad cases, highlight-and-delete) is the certain knowledge that nothing you could do (at the moment, at least) would be any better. Those are the times you secretly wonder if you would have been better off becoming a plumber.

Even as wonderful as those moments of inspiration are, they can cause a problem. Suddenly you realize you failed to put in an absolutely essential piece of information - but your writing is so tight there's no way you can put it in without having to re-write great chunks of what followed, and that will ruin your beautiful prose - or at the very least necessitate some heavy rewriting. In other words, you have written yourself into a corner.

Decisions, decisions!

Of course you do what is best for your story, whether it is to put the absolutely essential piece of information in and then try to make the rest of scene work, or try to find a place and a logical way later on to put that piece of information.

Neither is going to be easy.

There are other ways to write yourself into a corner. Someone absolutely has to be there in this scene, but you remember he also has to be someplace far away and hard to reach at the exact same time. You have constructed your book based on certain things happening on certain dates, then realize that can't happen because of something historical - and you don't want to be one of those lazy writers who ignores historical fact, do you? (If you are, leave now because I don't want to talk to you.)

See? There are any number of ways to write yourself into a corner... just as there are any number of ways that, with skill and perseverance and hard work, you can't write yourself out of. Of course, it would be much easier to not write yourself into a corner, but sometimes it's so hard not to when the words are flowing and there is that whole air of magic hanging over your work.

And it's not that bad being in the corner. I know, because I spend a lot of time in that corner, so be sure to say hello when you get here.