Doth Mine Eyes Deceive Me?

"Or is that a foil to my genius hovering over my shoulder?" 

My Utopian Writing Spot. ;)

There comes a time in every writer's life when she is sitting at her keyboard and absolutely cannot write. Not because she has Writer's Block, not because she is physically impaired. No. Because she's met her Kryptonite. Or, as we old-fashioned people say, her Achilles' Heel.
For some it might come in the form of an empty spot where their mug of coffee usually abides.
For others it might have something to do with their nails being too long and clacking during the typing process which is most distracting.
Who knows? For some of you it could even be because you have the Broadway song, "Popular", stuck in your head and can't seem to make it go away. ;) But I can tell you what my Arch-nemesis is. What makes me cringe and puts a massive road-block in my brain? What is the worst impediment to my wit? What can cow me within a moment of its appearance? Ready for it? Okay, but I'm warning you, it's disturbing!

.....Someone reading over my shoulder.....

There! It's out and I feel muchly better. ;) Seriously, I could have a perfectly smashing idea banging against the sides of my brain to be let out onto paper or Microsoft Word or anything else, but the moment the face of an inquiring person peers over my shoulder, the Thing is effectively shut up in Jane Murdstone's metallic handbag, or locked in an airtight box, or strapped to The Rack. In essence it is Temporarily Destroyed.
I don't know what this People-Watching-Me phobia stems from, unless it be a creeping feeling that I am unequal to the task of transferring my thoughts into words. Or it could be the fact that during the writing process I am susceptible to every form of self-doubt, feeling silly for writing something mildly genius, or any number of other problems.
Whatever the case may be, I cannot write with someone's eyes on me. It bothers the dickens out of me [no pun intended. :P] and I have to get rid of the person ASAP if any progress is to be made. ;) The first method of warfare against Inquiring Minds begins with a cold stare at the computer screen, entirely ignoring the person. If that fails, I resort of tapping the keys loudly in an irritated sort of fashion. If that fails, I turn and stare at the Inquiring Mind and ask with cold civility, "What are you doing?" If this too fails I turn pointedly back to the computer screen or piece of paper and say, "You know I can't write with people watching me." And they usually leave without further protest.
I admit it. I am not an angel when genius burns. Not by any means. But it is partly the fault of the Inquiring Minds who, did they care to inquire into Memory's hall, would remember my aversion to being watched while scribbling. :D
What's you Achilles' Heel? And how do you get over it?

In Which You Meet My Sainted Aunt Fanny ;)

There comes a point in every writer's life when she stops and thinks,

"Oh my sainted aunt Fanny, what in tarnation have I gotten myself into?!?"

(or at least, that's how my brain would think it :)

And the only proper answer is, "you've gotten yourself into an adventure!"

A gift bestowed upon most writers that many other people miss out on is that of being able to see life in 3D. We don't just sit back and take each moment with unruffled complacency as it comes.

We watch people, seeing the complexity of characters and wondering if we could ever create such a person in our book.

We harrow up our souls trying to understand the grand plot behind every situation, and we get great satisfaction from it, though we seldom succeed.

We don't just live life, but we recreate it in our stories.

Much as it sounds affected, I know that you, every single other writer, and I store bits and pieces of our experiences in our minds to brush off and dazzle the world with someday.

Writing is an adventure. I know we've all heard this till we're blue in the face and wish someone would have one original idea to tote around instead, but the life of an author has it's ups and downs.

We fall into the depths of despair now and again when our characters or plot won't behave. But how sweet is the thrill that accompanies satisfaction in the work of our hands. I can think of only a few things more precious than to click "save" in Microsoft Word, sit back, and scroll through the pages, realizing you've just made history, even if only in your own life.
A writers, our imaginations are occupied in a land of our fabrication, among people we placed there, and events our wild fancy concocted. There is no limit to what can happen in the pages of a novel. I realize that I quote this self-same line from Miss Potter far to often, but it's become a byword for me. :)

"There is something delicious about writing those first few words of a story. You never can tell quite where they'll take you. Mine took me here, where I belong."

*nostalgic sigh*

So you see, as in our lives when we follow God, so in our writing if we keep a weather-eye out for adventures and then follow the words of our story you'll see...
They often almost write themselves.
Have you ever had that sensation of the words dancing out of your pen? As if you are hardly writing them, but they are arranging themselves on the page in a fashion quite wild, but perfect? :) Those moments are pretty much amazing.
I guess the main point of this post was to make other writers cheer up if they were sighing over their sainted Aunt Fanny and wondering what in tarnation they were doing...as crazy as it sounds, as inexplicable as it is to other writers,

We are simple following the path of our pens, aiding our imaginations with a bit of good sense, humor, and tenderness.

Believe me, I am not trying to make writing out to be a mystical, creepy, ridiculous thing. I am merely trying to get the point across, that one can definitely over-think their writing. The best pieces I've ever written are the ones where I exiled my brain and let my heart do the composing.
The pieces where I didn't give a lollipop for what a publisher might think or what was trendy in the market, or what people would read, but where I wrote what was in me to write.
Try to disentangle yourself from those sorts of cares. Who really gives a hoot for what the big-wigs think?
We are people, and as such, there are other people like us. I promise that somewhere, somehow, you will find a person who will love your book and identify with it.
And isn't that what we writers are all about? Sharing our love of life in words so that other people may learn to see the beauty? ~Rachel

In Which I Find Myself In the Depths of Despair.

The writing journey is full of ups and downs. This afternoon I feel like scrapping Puddleby Lane. Especially after some people have suggested I do just that with my first chapter. BWAHHHH! :'(
If it was a real manuscript and it was the dead of winter, my story might already be smoldering in the flames of the wood-stove.
The criticism was that I started off too slowly. I know that. But what do I do with that? I don't know. And so I am rather in the "depths of despair" to quote Anne Shirley. Someone said it quite well below. *Sigh*

"I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within. "
Gustave Flaubert

"People are certainly impressed by the aura of creative power which a writer may wear, but can easily demolish it with a few well-chosen questions. Bob Shaw has observed that the deadliest questions usually come as a pair: "Have you published anything?" – loosely translated as: I've never heard of you – and "What name do you write under?" – loosely translatable as: I've definitely never heard of you."
Brian Stableford

"Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them. "
Charles Caleb Colton

I feel slightly better already. Oh dear. I can't use "slightly". It ends in "ly"--yet another trouble-spot for me. Let's do some cheering up, slightly "I know better than you" quotes ;)

"One nice thing about putting the thing away for a couple of months before looking at it is that you start appreciate your own wit. Of course, this can be carried too far. But it's kind of cool when you crack up a piece of writing, and then realize you wrote it. I recommend this feeling."
Steven Brust

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
Cyril Connolly

"Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing."
Melinda Haynes

"My purpose is to entertain myself first and other people secondly. "
John D. MacDonald

"Write something to suit yourself and many people will like it; write something to suit everybody and scarcely anyone will care for it."
Jesse Stuart

"I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another. "
Brenda Ueland

I think I am sufficiently cheered up that I can go shop for pie-making supplies in peace. I won't think about my story. I won't talk about my story. I won't even let the critique-groupers' suggestions bother me. They are mostly true anyway. It's only because my pride is squished that it nettled me at all. The people are only trying to be helpful. My poor little baby that got it's imperfect nose commented on is just a little fractious. ;) Maybe I'll find this quote comes to fulfillment while I do all this "not thinking about it" :P

"Moving around is good for creativity: the next line of dialogue that you desperately need may well be waiting in the back of the refrigerator or half a mile along your favorite walk."
Will Shetterly

With the woes of many another writer filling her brain,
Rachel

Are You Procrastinating Too? ;)

I am guilty, at times, of procrastinating....I am not the type who uses "Things are never quiet enough" for an excuse. I have lived too long in a family of 10 for that! But I am guilty of having 2 dozen projects going on at once, and burying the writing I know I must accomplish under those 24 other things, instead of going to it and doing the rewriting and editing. I do realize, however, that some of you may not have the privilege of the wonderful training life in a large family may give you! Here are some tips from famous authors, that I have found so, so, so true! :)

“The secret of it all, is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment – to put things down without deliberation – without worrying about their style – without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote – wrote, wrote…By writing at the instant the very heartbeat of life is caught.” – Walt Whitman.

Agreed! This is a very true statement! :)

“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” – E.B. White.

Again, I totally agree. Just as in life you cannot stand by waiting for sunny days, in writing, you must just begin to write! The words will come when you least expect them, and, as you continue writing, nine times out of ten you will end up with something infinitely more clever than you could have pounded out if you tried!

"The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes" ~Agatha Christie

This woman has got it right! Really! I have scraps of paper littering my drawer and writing desk with idea for poems, stories, and many things, that have come to my mind while doing the most mundane tasks! Do try it! If you try to put off writing, I challenge you to sit down as soon as you can, begin writing, and see what comes of it! :) -Rachel

I've Been Brought Down! ;)

I am ever of the opinion that you can stay very humble as an aspiring author by reading classic books. I just finished watching BBC's version of "Wives and Daughters" by Elizabeth Gaskell (Which I read earlier this spring) and was so inspired. I don't know why though. It is the most irritating kind of inspiration, where it makes me want to write, but at the same time, realize that I am not a "Great author". I told Leah, "Watching one of those movies or reading one of those books leaves me feeling one way: I want to either be brilliant, or have an English accent- it doesn't really matter which!" :) I have no great hopes of ever writing something so great as a classic, but write I must, and write I shall, and no backwards inspiration shall stop my pen! ;)
-Rachel

Where Art Thou Cooperation?

I am in a spot where I am feeling just like Leanna when she quotes, "My compositions are like your paintings: Mediocre copies of another writer's genius!" I am really understanding today that I am NOT a Dickens, Austen, Twain, Alcott, etc. I am an aspiring author and nothing more. I made the grand and glorious mistake of reading Northanger Abbey right before taking out my little endeavor. Bad idea. Northanger Abbey drips with wit and vivacity, and my poor little story looked like milk-toast beside it! :( It may sound funny, but my characters and story are missbehaving. They won't be written the way I want them to. I know exactly how I want my story to come out, but it won't obey!!! It is most irritating, because I know for a fact that I have control over my pen! (of course!!!) Nevertheless, if my story was a child, I need Supernanny! :) The characters won't do as they should, the story won't be smoothly laid down on paper, and I have a most terrible crop of "subject, verb, subject, verb....blah, blah, blah". I have half a mind to stuff my poor manuscript under my bed to dry-rot. But I won't really. This is a temporary problem, and one that shall disappear if I proceed and make it behave! :) I always like to write through one of these fits, and sometimes by the end I have actually written something worth reading, that may have been missed otherwise. One of my worst writing moments came when I was writing the most emotional chapter in my whole book: Someone erased it accidently on the computer!!! Terrible! So I rewrote it, and something happened to that! And I rewrote it again and something happened to that! I ended up reliving and rewriting that scene 3 or 4 times! I was emotionally drained by the end! ;) That was hard work. Each time I wondered if I had really captured the emotion of the first time, but I think I did okay! Thanks everyone for your ideas for my writing-club story! I haven't decided what I am finally going to write about, but I'll let you all know! Keep the ideas coming! -Rachel (Who is not feeling like Josie Ava Inkpen today! :)