Monthly Archives: September 2011

Colors of Fall

Dana Rodgers, mermaids, Motivation, Writing

For some fall is about buying a new backpack or lunchbox, sharpening those pencils and sending your children back to school. For others fall is symbolized with tailgating and crowding into stands to cheer on your favorite football team.

While the pools have closed, fall sports have begun and school has been back in session for a few weeks now, fall did not in fact officially begin until yesterday, September 23rd.

So what does it mean the first official day of fall? Well it’s more than the beginning of a new season. It is the autumnal equinox. Equinox derives from Latin’s aquaeus meaning equal and nox meaning night, and is appropriate since this is the time of year when night and day are almost equal in length. This happens twice a year, once in the spring (March 21-22) and again in the fall (September 22-23), when the earth’s tilt is neither toward nor away from the sun.

The autumnal equinox has always been a time to mark change as we move from summer’s bounty to the colder, darker days ahead. Throughout the world and throughout history festivals have been held to celebrate the bounty of the harvest.While many people mourn summer’s passing, I always look forward to fall. It is probably my favorite time of year. I plant pansies and chrysanthemums, put out my scarecrow and some pumpkins. My family picks apples and enjoys exploring a local farm’s wagon rides and Maize Maze. We take walks in the woods, soaking up the reds, yellows and oranges that blaze festively from every tree, and go kayaking. I love the low hanging fog over the river in my backyard, the honk of geese and nothing says fall to me like the smell of a fire.

With the cooler temperatures I also feel revitalized, ready to get back into a more regimented routine and undertake those tough projects that may have been set aside while my kids were out of school. This year I’m tackling a historical that I set aside back in May.

So what about you? Is there a special way you and your family mark the changing of the seasons? And do you find you are more productive during the cooler months or the warmer part of the year?

Synchronicity?

mermaids

As you may know, I’m a big fan of Julia Cameron’s book, THE ARTIST’S WAY (10th edition, 2002). In it, she discusses the concept of “synchronicity”: “we change and the universe furthers and expands that change.” (2). More specifically, “when we move out on faith into the act of creation, the universe is able to advance. It is a little like opening the gate at the top of a field irrigation system. Once we remove the blocks, the flow moves in.” (2).

Cameron doesn’t ask us to “believe” this concept. Rather, she simply asks us to “observe and note this process as it unfolds.” (2). Several times in my life, I’ve noticed that as soon as I place my attention on something, the universe responds. Maybe it’s coincidence. Maybe it’s Cameron’s concept of synchronicity. But here is an example of something that’s happened to me:

Several years ago, I wrote my first “real” novel and went through the query process. I was not successful, so I laid the manuscript to rest and got pregnant with my first child. About a month before my child was born, I decided to dust this novel off and give it one last try. I started revising the story. Within a week, an agent whom I had queried a year before responded to request the full manuscript.

Nothing ultimately came of this request, but the timing of it struck me as bizarre.

What do you think? Random coincidence? Or an example of synchronicity? Has anything like this ever happened to you? If so, what was it?

It’s Written in the Streets

mermaids,

Are you suited to be a writer?

 Of course you are!  That’s the thing about this job, whatever you bring to the table, it can be used, explored, torn apart and bettered.

 For this post I asked myself that question even though I think it’s a little dangerous because it’s so wide open.  You could go in so many different directions with it.  There is what you perceive of yourself, what others think about you, and then the mish-mash area where it all collides leaving us either without any doubts or completely unsure.  For me, I see writers as being the most accepting of others but on the other hand, we know a villain when we see one.  Because we have to deal with our character’s personality types, shouldn’t we be the best at dealing with the good and the bad? 

 That led me to the answer of whether I’m suited to be a writer or not.  Yes.  I am.

 I am very…Cest la vie.  Meaning I can deal with just about anything happening.  This past December, I was walking the streets of Philadelphia on my way to dinner with family while it was cold, dark and damp out.  A car went gleaming past and ran right through a puddle close to the sidewalk I was on.  Yep, I got splashed with yucky, dirty street water.  In my hair, all over my outfit.  That was when I flipped the script from laid-back Cali girl and went crazy in the street, cursing and putting on a great show of supreme pissed-offed-ness.  Just kidding.  That’s not me.  (Although as a writer, I can appreciate someone who would react like that.)  I just laughed it off.  It really was kind of funny if you think about it. 

 I fall in love with everything but am keenly aware of what could hurt me.  Yes, I do mean everything.  I feel a connection to trees, my car whose name is Fancy, songs, struggling worms about to dry out if they don’t make it to the grass in time, rappers cursing out their demons.  If you have a heart, I feel you.  I love interactions most of all because they are my fuel for writing stories.  You can bet if I have met you even once, I’ll have pulled something from it and have held on to the moment.   

 Those two things are what suit me most as a writer.  What makes you great for this job?

Getting To Know You

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Okay – I’m at the crossroads in the cycle of my writing life. I’m done with one manuscript (although I may switch some chapters around do some rewrites – but I digress) and chomping at the bit to start the next one. And, this is my honeymoon period, my magical time when I am getting to know my characters and seeing where they want to go with this story. Why do they need this story told?

I have a process for this and a place where I deposit all of this crazy information that I glean and will probably never use.  I dump all this stuff – photos (Like the inspiration for my latest hero), maps, research – into Scrivener for Windows in the WIP Notebook I bought from Jeannie Reusch and loaded into the Scrivener tool.  This allows me to keep track of the details of names, places etc of the main characters and the secondary characters as well. It’s a little anal but it keeps from calling the mailman Bob in Chapter 1 and Skippy in Chapter 6.

But, this really doesn’t help me get under the skin of my character. Yep, their eye color is important but it doesn’t get to the essence of my character.  So, I’ve developed a few questions that help me get down to the grit of who the hero and heroine are:

1. What do you want out of life?

2. What is keeping you from achieving that goal?

3. What is the one thing you wouldn’t want the hero/heroine to know about you?

4. What is your biggest regret?

5. What are you most proud of in your life?

6. What are you most ashamed of in your life?

7. When you walk in a room, what are the three things people will notice about you?

8. What would you be willing to lie about?

9. How would you like to die?

10. What are the most important traits in a true friend?

That’s my list.  Pretty grim but I think that the darkest parts of ourselves are what really counts – the rest is a facade for the comfort of other people.

So, what are your questions? What is your process?

Robin

 

 

What, Me Procrastinate?

mermaids

OK, I won’t lie. This post snuck up on me. I was already to cozy up with Cardinal Sin by Allison Brennan and a beer, when it hit me that it was my turn to post on Waterworld Mermaids.

I didn’t exactly panic, but my palms did get a bit clammy. Then, the funniest commercial came on. And like a light bulb, the idea of this post clicked above my head.

They say laugher cures your ills, I’m hoping that giving you a few laughs will put you in a forgiving mood. 🙂

Party Rock Anthem – Kia Soul Hamster Commercial

The Force: Volkswagen Commercial

Old Spice Justine Bateman

All State Mayhem Commercial

Bridgestone – Reply All

How Fast Do You Write?

mermaids, Motivation

I’ve been hearing stories in the last year about people who “write a book” in lightning fast times. Three months. Two months. Two weeks. Ten days. Seven days. To which my reaction is always: ?!!??!!

From idea to drafting to revision(s) to completion, the time it takes me to write a book is more easily measured by a unit of years. And before I heard all these stories, I thought this was completely normal. After comparing my process to other writers’, however, I would feel badly. Like something was lacking in my ability as a writer.

My husband assures me that I’ll write faster with practice. Conventional wisdom advises me to write at my own pace. But then, I realized recently, maybe it’s not one or another. Maybe, like most things in writing, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Over Labor Day weekend, my husband took the kids to his parents’, and I wrote 25,000 words in four days. For me, this was huge. Never had I written such a large amount of words in such a short time before. In addition to a completed rough draft, this “writer’s retreat” gave me something much more valuable – an inkling of how it feels to be one of these lightning-fast writers.

I still have months of hard work remaining before I transform these words into a polished manuscript. One weekend of intense writing isn’t going to change how I write. My pace is my pace. But now, I don’t feel so badly anymore. This weekend showed me that I do have the ability to put words on a page quickly – even if they aren’t the best words in the world.

So, I think the answer is neither to stick your head in the sand, nor is it to wish you could change the way you write. But rather, embrace your own process as a writer, while using other writers’ stories as motivation.

After all, I can’t help the “slow” part of my writing, but maybe I can control the “steady” part. Right?

How fast do you write? What’s the fastest you’ve ever written a book? The slowest? Have you ever compared your process to other writers? How do you deal with feelings of not measuring up?

Why Do I Love Dark?

mermaids, Motivation

Why Do I love Dark? I don’t know…

I have never killed. Murdered or slayed. There are a few swatted flies that have felt the sting of my murderous wrath. But as far as I can recall, I haven’t actually killed. Nor have I had dark, murderous thoughts (about real people), or wanted to meet a real vampire, or run around naked at night with a were-creature. Nope. For the most part I gravitate toward the normal, routine everyday activities most sensible human beings partake in – well, except for my need to obsess about certain television characters (Spike, Joe Dubois, John Crichton, Alec Hardison—and BTW, the first to name the TV shows these characters appear in – will win a prize!).

But let’s get back to my premise. What attracts me to those dark characters, plots, stories? What makes my brain fall in love with a character and then what to drag him or her through the deepest, darkest hell on Earth. I’ve been thinking about that question, and believe I’ve found a partial answer.

A few years back I remember taking a course or reading a book in which the question on the table was…what do you believe in? Answer that question by listing the top 10 ‘things’ that come to mind right away, the instructor said, and you may well find the topics/subject matter that will lie at the heart of your stories…every story that you ever write…because that list reflects your fundamental beliefs.

You know we’ve all heard the line, “write what you know” but this took another spin on that statement for me with — write what you believe…

Here’s my top five from that list:

1)            Ghosts

2)            God

3)            Friendship

4)            Deceit

5)            Sarcasm

I want to know your top five…

But I don’t think my list of five provides that many clues as to why I gravitate toward the dark side of reading and/or writing romance (or does it:).

I will need to explore this topic further but I wanted to get the ball rolling because I’m about to put one of my characters through the ringer (yippee!).

I’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling

mermaids

We write romance, right?  Hearwarming, mushy, (maybe) trashy, bittersweet, emotional, but above all, romance.  In my quest to staple my butt to the chair and write, I’ve noticed my productivity resembles one of those shaky rollercoaster rides that was put together by someone of dubuious skill, dexterity and mental capacity.   I sit, I start to write, sometimes it flows and sometimes, someone must have forgotten to turn on the spout.  The next day, I go back over what I wrote and most of the time, I can’t help but think “eewww”.. did I really write that?   The whole process reminded me of beer goggling.  You know what I’m talking about.  That amazingly hot guy from last night’s party who could beat Fabio in his early days?  Well in the harsh light of the morning, he looks more like a recent attendee of a Star Trek convention.

Just like beer goggling, I find myself writing goggling.   With a fresh set of the same eyes, I look over my writing and like many of our sisters have done with the Star Trek guy, I look at what I wrote and think, “Did I really do that?  But it looked so good last night.”

On a similar note, the same can be said for inspiration.   Is it true that the stars  have to align with the right constellation for me to feel and be productive?  Or is this an excuse for not writing?  When do you allow the overwhelming moments of life to interfere and when do you say that enough is enough and you can’t use that as a crutch forever?

So what exactly is my spoke in this wheel this time?  Okay, I’ll spill the beans.  My grandma is sick.  Really sick.  Hospital sick.   Between that, starting a new job, sick kids, new daycare, blah, blah, blah, I’m finding it very hard to feel productive.   And productive that’s emotion related romance is even harder.  Or maybe it’s just me.  Maybe others use those tough times as fodder for creativity.

That’s what I want to know.  If you’re feeling down, gloomy or uninspired, do you work better or worse?

 

F.I.G.J.A.M.

mermaids

Hillary Clinton Retired!!!!

Are you surprised to read that?  I was too a few weeks ago when the words splashed across my TV screen as I sat watching a Spanish language news channel with my mother-in-law.  Mi suegra (my mother-in-law) is much more comfortable with her native language so out of respect to her, when she comes to visit, we become a Spanish-speaking household. 

Back to Mrs. Clinton—I couldn’t believe it when I saw the short bit of her giving a speech which had been mostly muted by the news station and the word retiro below her.  When I later found my husband to tell him about the shocking retirement, he—a politico junky—obviously didn’t believe me.  I insisted I’d just seen it plain as day on the news.  I told him in Spanish, “Hillary Clinton retiro!”

He said, “Gueras (blondie—my hubby’s nickname for me), that means she went on vacation.  As in a relaxing retreat.”

“Oh.”  Ooops.  And I consider myself fluent in Spanish. 

Are you like me?  Fascinated by other cultures, hypnotized by different accents?  Are you prone to introducing your American girl-next-door to the ultra-magnetic Aussie, Brit, or Latino?  And when they enter into conversation, have you researched your characters enough so that you are confident they are not saying something their great-great-grandparents might have said back in, oh I don’t know, the really old days? 

And is internet research really enough?  I once wrote about an Aussie who was supposed to be from this century and in a rock band.  I could hear his voice, with all the rhymey things he did to the end of his words, but I wanted the phrases themselves to be authentic.  The online Australian urban slang website I was using to find these terms spit something out at me one day.  It said, Carlene, try “Fair dinkum.”  I don’t know about you, but does a guy who wears his wallet on a chain, Doc Martens, and has a neck tattoo peeking out from his always black t-shirt sound like he’d utter the words, “Fair dinkum, mate.”?

Exactly.  There was only one way to be sure.  Accost the mom on my son’s football team who happened to be from Australia without seeming like a crazy person.

As far as I can tell, living breathing people are my best tools for researching authentic cultural dialogue.   But when there’s no one in your rolodex from Ireland, Jamaica or Brazil, what do you do to ensure you’re getting it right?  Seriously, I need to know!  Please do tell.

And for the readers visiting this blog, do you worry about this when you read a story?  Or do you leave it to the author’s artistic license?  Is it really that important to you?

The first person to leave a comment answering what FIGJAM stands for gets a Mermaid surprise!

You Write What?!?!?!

Kerri Carpenter, mermaids, Motivation,

You know the drill. You’re having a nice conversation over dinner and your companion seems really interested that you’re a writer. He/she is even more impressed that you have finished a novel and are actively trying to publish. And then comes “the” question:

What do you write?

Romance.

The most recent time I told someone this, he literally laughed in my face. Seriously, sound came out of his mouth as he mocked me.

“Romance? Pssst.” (More laughing)

It was as if I said I take a razor blade to newborn puppies. Even though I’m really proud of what I write, I felt so embarrassed. Let’s face it, having someone laugh in your face is never a feel-good kind of moment, no matter how many glasses of wine you’ve consumed.

Leading up to this joyous encounter I had been doing pretty well with the haters. I’ve joined writing groups lately, which seems to have made a big difference in both my writing and my writing life. But my writing group wasn’t sitting at that table with me while someone laughed at my biggest dream.

And I know all the stats. I know how much money the romance industry generates each year. I know that there couldn’t seriously be anything wrong with a genre of fiction that promotes a happy ending. And I definitely know that this laughing person was a total d-bag.

Still, it hurt.

I remembered all the hours I’ve poured into sitting diligently at my computer. All the rejections letters I’ve received. All of the almost-published stories. The time, the energy, the emotions. And here is someone completely discounting all of it because they are, in essence, ignorant.

But, like so many things in life, I knew what to do. I had some more wine, brushed it off and wrote a blog post about it. 😉 Because seriously, you might want to think before you laugh at someone with the power to write.

So, I ask you fellow romance writers: How do you handle the romance haters of the world?