Writer's Flat Line

Take a look at this chart. Get the picture? Don't stop writing or your peaks will flat line. Creativity will succumb to extinction like a roach succumbs to Billy The Exterminator.

This is a blogger's statistics chart. Not bad in the early years. But what in the name of Chia Pets happened?




Divorce
Double knee replacement
An acoustic neuroma
Drugs
Death in the family
An affair
Depression
Dieting disaster
Animal rescue

Pictures are not worth a thousand words. Nothing is. To a writer, a thousand words can paint a picture. And every time a writer's pen flat lines, her stories die. Dead stories immobilize her. And before she realizes it, she no longer considers herself a writer.

In her mind, she struggles to make a sentence. Pen and paper lie dormant on the desk looking like ancient relics from another place and time. The brain's neurotransmitters need a jumpstart. The synapse needs to fire. Send a deadly jolt to electrocute the laziness and electrify the motivation towards the desire to write. The sleeping author will wake up. She'll set goals and control her destiny. She will write and create and vow to never flat line again.

Eight Months of Good, Bad, Ugly

The past eight months have been good, bad, and ugly. It's been that long since my last post, and I wonder just what happened during this time. So, list-maker-me came up with the following to share. Life happens to all of us, and opportunities present themselves in all sorts of disguises. Take a look and consider making a list of events Jan - Aug 2011. It's amazing what we see, when we take time to look

The good:
Husband's health improvements are dramatic
Finished a writing course at Stanford University (online)
Writer's critique group revived
Invited to teach a writer's workshop in October
Negotiated a publishing op with a non-profit org
Secured a private writing space (office)
Attended a webinar by T. Suzanne Eller (great webinar)
Worked to create a life balance

The bad:
Lost sight of my writing world for a while

The ugly:
PC problems - tons of them
Website problems - including this site
Email problems - except on the Droid

Take a look at the three lists. It's easy to see that my choices, actions and reactions to opportunities, played a positive roll in the 'good' list. And the 'ugly' list has nothing to do with events I can change.

"God grant me the serenity.....and the wisdom to know the difference." Reinhold Niebhur (1892 - 1971)

Dog Days, Shooting Stars, and To Kill A Mockingbird

Today is the last day of Dog Days, the hottest, most humid part of summer. Tradition uses July 3 - August 11 to mark these sultry days. Let's hope the mercury will start sliding down the scale and hover at a tolerable temperature. In my area of Appalachia, the thermometer has crept as high as 104 degrees. Whew! It bakes my brain to be outside.

Tomorrow, August 12, 2010, look to the western skies around 10 p.m. for a chance to see a spectacular meteor shower. Shooting stars will be painting the heavens with streaks of light. Don't miss it.

This blog wouldn't be complete without a word about Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Introduced to readers 50 years ago this year, Lee's message resonates with as much truth now as it did in 1960. There's a good article by Loretta Ellsworth in the September 2010 issue of "The Writer." Ellsworth shares what she learned about writing from Harper Lee.

My childhood has similarities that run parallel with Scout's recollections. The Boo Radley of my youth was a street lady who offered presents of rusted pop bottle caps or wrinkled comics from Bazooka bubble gum. Though not as recluse as Boo, she was every bit as scary.

Scout will no doubt live forever. I've met a dozen or more young girls over the years, who've been honored to carry the name Scout. In an excerpt from one of Dean Koontz' Frankenstein novels, he likens one of his characters to the young tomboy we love in TKAMB.

Finally, I'll add that recently I learned Robert Duvall played Boo Radley in the 1962 movie To Kill A Mockingbird, starring Gregory Peck. We're going to talk about Duvall next time, not in a gossipy way.

Now, as an exercise let your writing muse have its way with these events, Dog Days, Meteor Showers, and anything related to Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Stretch your skill in a paragraph, a memory, or a short story incorporating all three. Write something new and fresh. Fiction or non. Reread the book or rent the movie. You'll be glad you did.

That's a Wrap

A couple of things to wrap up the week, first

• check out Dancing With the Gorilla, and read the post about heart attacks in women. My mother mistook her heart attack as indigestion, too. The post is a good reminder of symptoms women may experience during a heart attack.
• Then, mosey on over to A Country Boy Can Surmise. Read the author's take on disastrous destruction of our natural resources, the BP oil leak and mountain top removal.
• Since my writer's retreat, a new author has befriended me via text messaging. She is writing a mystery novel starring protagonist Secret Agent Mac. She is ten years old, and quite an aspiring author. Besides finishing her story, she plans to send a book on tour via The Sketchbook Project. Join me in wishing her the best of luck.
• Did you notice this blogger's new look. I hope you like it. I've had problems getting my gadgets to work (those little things to the right that you can click on). Everything appears to function as it should, now. I apologize, from my techno-challenged heart, if you have any trouble.
• Mail call. I got the crits back from the west coast. I kissed the envelope. Smelled it. Held it up to the light for a peek inside. Slapped it against my left palm several times, took my letter opener out, and did a drum roll in my head. Sliced the sucker open, and.......
• Well, not exactly what I expected. The promise was two (2) critiques of two (2) full pages each. I didn't expect to find a form letter, in 14pt Times New Roman, with barely enough room between categories to write a phrase, let alone a whole sentence. However, I considered the comments valuable and out of a possible 100 my scores were 73 and 89. So, I'm encouraged. Fiction, my current genre, is harder to write than the non-fiction this blogger used to cut writer's teeth.
• I made contact with http://www.writeeyes.com/. This service is unavailable until September, if then. I'm still on the hunt for a critique / editing service. Feel free to toss out recommendations.
• To wind down this post, there's a writer's workshop coming to the South in October. Cecil Murphey, NY Times best selling author is slated as the keynote speaker. Mr. Murphey's bio states he's written over a hundred books. Now, that's impressive!

For this week, that's a wrap. Happy writing, happy weekend.

Writing Retreat

Just got back from a writing retreat. Wow. It was absolutely, possitively, fantabulous! Four days and three nights of writing.

Let me brag about my progress. Sub deadline is September 1, 2010. Word limit is 3,000. I chose to start a short from scratch rather than rewrite an existing. Day 1 = 1,996 words. Day 2 = 1,997 words. Day 3 = editing to less than 3,000 for a manuscript of 2,892 words. Yippee! Story still needs work, but hey. Yippee!

Now, the location. We rented a guest cottage from a nearby college situated on a mountaintop. The view inspiring, the facilities adequate, and places to write abundant. Though temps lingered in the mid 90's, the shade offered up a nice breeze everyday. The lobby for guest housing provided comfortable seating, small fridge, coffee, and microwave.

The library, while not as plush as the lobby, included chair with laptop tables attached to the arms and coffee house tables, for writer's who like to perch a tad higher.

We carted coolers for snacks and cold drinks and Panera Bread Bagels for breakfast, but for lunch we went to this fabulous little cafe. The chef trained in Chicago, Louisiana, and France. Thinking now of his presentation of Shrimp n' Grits, Pork Sliders, and Mac n' Cheese is making my mouth water.

If you've considered a writing retreat, by all means give it a try. There are affordable stays out there and / or close to home. Pull together a handful of writing friends and plan the essentials. It can be a memorable and productive writing experience.

If my group goes again, and I hope it does, I plan to attend. Meanwhile, I'm going to rewrite and sub my story by deadline. Until next time, happy writing.