Morning Pages and Blogging - Waking the Muse

If you happened to check out some of the links from last Friday's Fill-Me-In mash-up, you may have clicked over to Jenny Hansen's post about Is Your Blog Eating You Alive?. In that post, she mentioned something that was a bit of an Oprah-style light bulb moment for me. She said that one of the reasons she liked to blog was that it sort of acted like her Morning Pages.

Now, for those not familiar, Morning Pages is an exercise from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. Her program calls for you to write three pages EVERY morning that are a complete stream of consciousness. Her rules are that it should be longhand and that no one reads them. This is supposed to be a way to clear out all the clutter in your head, shut off your inner editor, and open yourself up so that you can tap into your creativity.

I have never tried morning pages. However, recently I have been trying to adjust my blogging schedule so that I have more time to write in the mornings. And guess what I figured out? Even if I didn't blog in the morning, I still wasn't getting to the good part of my writing flow until about the same time I used to when I was blogging.

I couldn't figure out what the deal was. But when I read Jenny's post, it clicked. Blogging has acted as a version of my morning pages. Though I'm breaking the rules--people do read these "pages" (hopefully, lol) and it's not longhand, I do feel like it's a version of stream of consciousness for me. I don't plan out my blog posts. I wake up and talk about what's on my mind. It's clears my head and wakes up my writer brain. So cutting out blogging in the morning really wasn't the right thing for me. I was messing with my method without even realizing it. Who knew?

And on a completely different note, I found this video a few days ago, and my friend Jamie Wesley suggested I use it to show the importance of editing and how even the best of 'em have sh*tty first drafts.

Now, I'm curious to hear about your writing method? Do you do a version of morning pages? What kicks your brain into gear? What does blogging do for you?

The Longhand Cure with Author Nikki Duncan

 

Today is the last day of our two-week guest blogger extravaganza. I want to thank all of the awesome writers who stopped by. I've learned a lot and everyone out there has too. Thanks to all of you who have left comments and made our guests feel welcome!  :)


Now on to today's lovely guest. I met Nikki Duncan via my local RWA group. (See, this is another plug for why you should get involved with your local writing community, not just the online one. You meet some terrific and talented people.) So Nikki is going to talk to us about what she does to get past some of the challenges of writing. And she's not just talking the talk. Each month at our meetings, we list our number of pages written or edited so that we can celebrate each other's accomplishments, and Nikki is always high on the list with crazy numbers. So, this girl is writing her butt off, people. Let's find out how she does it.  Take it away, Nikki...

Writing Challenges and the Longhand Cure

Q: Is writing hard? How do you get past writer’s block? Do you plot or let the story flow? Where do you find time to write?

A: Yes. It’s not real in my opinion. A little of both depending on the book. I make it.

These are only some of the questions I’m asked on a regular basis and the answers are simple, but oh so complicated. The one that confuses people most is the writer’s block one. No one believes every story just flows freely for us and we never struggle to write. And if anyone makes that claim I think they’re full of...well something.

I’ve found myself more and more lately working old school, with pen and paper. If I hit a wall in whatever I’m writing, I can sometimes find motivation in changing music (or turning it on). Others I have to get away from the computer and work longhand.

Why wouldn’t you work on the computer? It seems it would save you so much time?

It would save time if the words flowed onto the screen, but the computer comes with more distractions—Internet, email, Twitter, Facebook, IMs. All these are necessary tools in my trade, but they also take away from the writing. And at the first sign of trouble in a story, at the first hint of an “I don’t know what happens next” moment, it’s easy to turn to any one of those distractions and not write.

Longhand, grabbing a pen and paper and leaving the room with the computer, stops that. I find a quiet corner in the house or in the backyard on a nice day and just write. On paper, the writing is much rougher. It’s more of a stream of thought flow, and it’s near impossible to go back and fix the little errors, so there are a lot of notes in the margins of things to go back and fix, but it gets the first draft written. And I can toss that pen and paper in my bag when I go to sit in a school’s car line or wait in a doctor’s office for an appointment. I can get a lot of writing done in those five or ten minute bursts of time (making time).

So if you’re trying to write, just starting out or struggling with a story, try taking a pen and paper to a different spot in the house or outside. Just write something, even if it’s not your actual story. Write about a character, everything you know, and keep going until you learn something new. Then see where that new discovery takes you. Surprisingly it will often be an answer to fixing whatever you’re struggling with.

Regardless of your approach to writing, if it’s your dream to write, then write. Don’t give anyone or anything the power to stand in your way.

Heart stopping puppy chases, childhood melodrama and the aborted hangings of innocent toys are all in a day’s work for Nikki Duncan. This athletic equestrian turned reluctant homemaker turned daring author, is drawn to the siren song of a fresh storyline.
Nikki plots murder and mayhem over breakfast, scandalous exposes at lunch and the sensual turn of phrase after dinner. Nevertheless, it is the pleasurable excitement and anticipation of unraveling her character’s motivation that drives her to write long past the witching hour.

The only anxiety and apprehension haunting this author comes from pondering the mysterious outcome of her latest twist.
Her debut book SOUNDS TO DIE BY is now available in print, and is the first book in the Sensory Ops series. Read more about SOUNDS TO DIE BY here.
 The second book in her Sensory Ops Series, SCENT OF PERSUASION, is now available in eBook and will release April 5, 2011 in print. Read more about SCENT OF PERSUASION here.

So what tricks do you you have for when you feel yourself getting stuck? Anyone else find longhand writing effective?

**Today's Theme Song (Author's Choice)**

"Kick Some Ass" - Stroke 9

(and instead of playing it in the sidebar, Nikki has given us the fun video for her chosen song!)

Face Off Friday: Writer's Block

Writer's block.  Whether you believe if it truly exists or not, most of us can't deny that there are times when the inspiration isn't coming and the words aren't flowing.  Many say that the block is just fear or insecurity playing with our minds.  I kind of subscribe to that belief, but also know that sometimes my brain simply shuts down.

I have a pattern.  For two weeks, I'm in the zone.  My fingertips fly over the keyboard, pages rack up, and I have trouble falling asleep because the scenes keep writing themselves in my head.  Then I hit the end of the two weeks and everything comes to a screeching halt.  For the next two weeks, I struggle to write and feel like the creative neurons in my brain are trying to fire through peanut butter.  I get frustrated, grumpy, and feel ready to give up on the project entirely.  (And no, I'm not bipolar.  I've just accepted that this is my process.  I'm not entirely unconvinced that this isn't tied to the cycles of the moon or some hormonal shift.)

But anyway, the question I have is: what do you do when the words aren't coming?

There are two schools of thought from what I can tell.  In the first camp are the "write anyway" people.  This means that even when you aren't inspired, you just put words on the page because eventually it will spark something for you.  This is the "write or die", NanoWriMo mentality.

The other side would say that if the muse isn't speaking then take a break.  Walk away for a few minutes, hours, days.  Let your mind relax out of it's "oh crap, I'm on the way to an epic fail" state of mind.  When we're not concentrating so hard, our mind can wander and often hit on solutions or ideas for our story.

So which path should we take if we hit a wall?  Here's the breakdown:

The "Write, No Matter What" Side

Pros:

• You keep yourself in the habit of writing daily even if the words aren't going to be used later on.
• You may be able to write your way around the block.
• You keep the story fresh in your head.
• You're developing a good work ethic.  If you eventually write under deadline, you don't have the luxury of taking long breaks.

Cons:

• You may write a lot of words you'll have to scrap or write yourself into a corner.  How many people finish Nano and say "Hey, got my 50k words, but they're all crap"?
• You may end up meandering--I'm convinced that saggy middle is due to the fact that many of us hit a block somewhere in the heart of that.
• You can end up so frustrated and put so much pressure on yourself, that the creative part of your brain just shuts down.
• You run the risk of turning something you enjoy into something you hate.

The "Take a Break" Argument

Pros:

• When you take some of the pressure off, your mind can relax and work on the story issues.  How many times does the answer to a block arrive while you're driving or showering?
• You can use the time to re-energize yourself--read, take a walk, enjoy something that has fallen by the wayside because of your writing.
• You won't be a miserable cuss during the block.
• You won't waste your time writing pages and pages that you'll never use.

Cons:

• When you take a break, it can be easy to not go back to the project because you've gotten out of the habit.
• If you take too long of a break, you'll have to reorient yourself to the story once you return
• All that free thinking time may lead to SNI (shiny new idea) syndrome and you may be tempted to move onto another project instead of finishing the other one.

So what to do?  I think a combination works best for me.  I know that for my two inspired weeks, I need to milk it for all it's worth.  Then during the other half the month, I give myself permission to take breaks and don't put a daily word count goal over my head.  But I do try to look at the story at least once a day and see if it sparks anything.  If not, I read through and do some editing on what I already have.

So what's your process?  Does your muse have a pattern?  Which method do you use to get past a stuck point?

**Today's Theme Song**

"Brain Stew" - Green Day

(player in sidebar, take a listen)