Ideas Series – What Is An Idea?

Idea

noun

1. a thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action.

2. the aim or purpose

I googled idea and this popped up. I thought it was fitting to start the first of my ideas project with what an idea is. So here is are a few words that come together when you throw in the first half of Wiki’s page on ideas.

 

While I was reading it, it got me thinking. I did a class last year on creativity and ideas. A lot of it was technical (and I may very well try and dig it up) but it was all really amazing interesting. A lot of it went over my head the first time but the concept behind the class. Wow it was mind blowing and I know a lot of us in the class felt the same way. it was hard and by the end of the four hour class we were all mentally strained, but it was great.

Where do ideas really come from? How do they happen? When do you know you have an idea? It’s all fantastic really, and it’s actually a lot more in depth that I thought I would go. I’m currently debating about how deep I need to go. Show I go all technical and theoretical? Or should I stay with the outline that I have? I’m leaning towards the first, which is actually really odd for me because I’m not a technical or theoretical kind of person.

See that’s the thing about ideas, they start out as an ember and they grow, mould, shape and change with different influences, different thoughts.

How it’ll work:

So my plans for this is to bring out series. I have the process of how a book is written, broken down, and I’m going to publish it in stages so that everyone can see how it works for me and for others. Some of it may be long, some may be short, others might just be a simple diagram or something of the sort. Who knows? I’m winging this and making it up as I go. Today is the start of my Ideas Series. If you’re on this journey with me, let me know. I’d love to find out what you think.

Happy Ideas Series!

Starting at the beginning

A few weeks ago I went to a lunch with some beautiful ladies from the Bright Eyed And Bloghearted course and I was initially very terrified. I didn’t know what to expect and my gut was telling me to pull out because it was afraid, but I went and had a lovely time. All of the ladies I met were beautiful and wonderful. How could I have thought of missing that? We were all chatting one of the lovely ladies gave me the best idea, she had sat down and drafted out like 50 topics she could blog on. I was like “How in the world could you have done that?” And she told me it was easy. She started at the beginning.

It seems like the most logical place to begin, doesn’t it? Yeah. But I was still confused. I was starting at the beginning, but when I grabbed a pen and my trusty notebook (I feel like Blues Clues…) I realised that starting at the beginning meant going right back to the inception of an idea. Then the plotting, characters, world building before all of the writing.

This is where all the magic comes from.

No one believes just how much work goes into a single novel, oh fellow writers do, but the media or the TV watchers and corporate word, just don’t understand it. There is a lot of work, a lot of tossing and froing that no one sees. Which is why I’m here.

I’m going to break it down for you.

All of it. I’m going to start at the ideas point and work forward. I would really love a helping hand from all of you. Let me know about your ideas and how they come to you, what do you do with them? I need your input. Leave me comments and you’ll see the results in future posts.

The Blog Hop: Four Secrets About My Writing Process

So today I’m actually excited and doing something very different. Finally scanning through my reader on here, I found that Tom had tagged me in a blog hop where I’m spilling some close kept secrets (or not, because I had no secrets on this blog, ha!) about my writing process. This is going to be a little jittery but hey, let’s go!

What are you working on?

Currently I’m working on my first novel’s second draft. It’s been a beast in the making but I’ve also got so many different ideas running through my head. Like today I was walking in the rain and had a cool scene in my head. It may be in another novel or it may be a short story. It’s so hard to sit down and write short stories because I like to explain things and set the scene. Short stories are almost useless to me because of their short nature. I really need to stop thinking that. Oh I’ve also go a passion project going that was a result of a dream.

I also seem to have notes for two non-fiction novels. One is going to be a gift, the other is a gorgeous collaboration with my bestie.

How does your work differ from others in the genre?

I hate genre norms. Hate them. I’m trying to marry about a bazillion things into one. And I don’t hate them because they’re tropes, I just hate clichés. I had my mentor tell me that I had a Bella/Edward/Jacob relationship going on and that actually made me recoil because that is not my genre and I really don’t like the dynamics of that relationship. So I’ve tried to stray away from the typical triangle, it’s still there but I’m trying to make it seem a lot less Twilighty.

Why do you write what you write?

Why do I breathe the way I do? Why do I go to the gym and get results? I feel like this question is such a no brainer. Writing has always kept me sane, even before I realised I loved it. I’ve always wanted to tell a story, it’s like it’s in my blood. I don’t care that I may never make enough money to live off my novels, I strive to make a difference in someone’s life. I know that out there, there is a girl who has felt just like I have, bullied, had the world turn against them, but turning to something as an escape helps heal.

To me writing is an escape. It’s the one place where no one can touch me; where no one can actually tear me down and money worries don’t factor into my life. I can play god and make things happen. The subject matter has never mattered to me (although don’t ask me to try and write outside of my genre, pleaaasee, I will complain and moan but I will do it), being able to make someone feel something is what I am to do. I love making people physically ill with descriptions or make a teacher check my wrists. That is the kind of high that I love.

How was does your writing process work?

This has actually changed. A lot. I used to write just however I felt. I would write out of order and just write to get the story down and while I love this and still do it sometimes. I’ve learned how to write linearly. Basically I need music, I need just the right kind of music and then I sit and write. Some days are hard (action scenes are a bitch to write for me at the moment), some days the momentum is just too great and I can pump out a good chunk of words. But I’m learning that sometimes doing research as I go is a lot easier than doing it all before. It’s hard to really to tell. Each piece is different and I think my writing process changes to reflect that.

I do know that sometimes, or a lot of the time, I procrastinate a hell of a lot more than I should. I need to cut back on that.

 

So there you go, that’s me! Thanks Tom for throwing my name up there. It’s funny that something such as writing can bring some people together, making friends and all that jazz.

Now I’m passing the baton (I feel like I’m back in relay races) to the following lovely ladies:

Mikki at Black Quill Ink

I met Mikki at uni and while she may seem shy and unapproachable she is actually one rockingly strong and beautiful woman. I admire how far she has come and her writing, oh my gosh, I love her writing. She always has a really unique and fresh voice.

Av at Philharomic Heart Strings 

This dreamer (if you haven’t seen it check out her Sharing Sunday post!) is amazing and wonderful all wrapped up in neat tiny person. I love her to death. It’s so easy to talk to her and I really love her writing, even when all I can hear is her voice! Which I guess is a good thing!

Lynda at Reading, Writing and Learning

This might come as a surprise to her (or maybe not) but I was actually intimidated by her, I think it was because she was older and seemed outspoke (I’m really not all that socialable…ha!) but after spending time with her recording her piece for FTCM and spending weekly catch ups during Nano. I’ve learned that she (and her husband) has a charm and wit that I admire. And she’s so gung ho about opportunities too, which is fantastic!

Musically Challenged

There for Tomorrow – Dark Purple Sky

 

I have a confession to make.

I can’t write without music.

It’s almost impossible.

And this book is a beast. It’s been with me for 12 years, in that time I’ve been through a lot, musically.

There are authors out there that I follow that do the same, and some of them, like Laurell K Hamilton, have different sounds for different moments/moods/scenes. Some people find that these are actually boring snippets, but I love hearing about these moments from authors. I can spend hours and house on end just pouring over Twitter and Facebook to find snippets of this. Partly so that I’m not insane and partly because I’m so curious. It’s crazy.

My novel has come through my boy band phase (please Backstreet Boys are still the shit!), my trance stage, my Linkin Park stage, back to my boy band stage before finally whatever writing to whatever song I’m obsessed with. The latter has been the hardest to deal with.

Through November I was writing to Parachute by Lawson on repeat. On. Repeat.

Now most people would be going insane, but I still adore the song and I’m a bit like Pavlov’s dog. Every time I hear the song I want to go and write. So you can figure out how annoying that gets when I’m at the supermarket or on the bus or waiting for a friend and I hear the song. Sometimes I whip out my tablet (samsung galaxy note respectfully) and I start jotting down words in Evernote (LIFESAVER APP!) but most of the time I just ride it out. But this rewrite. It’s a fucking nightmare. I’ve burned through Parachute. Actually burned through. I play it and my brain is like, no. So I switched it up and now I’m struggling to find a song that resonates enough to be played over and over again (and one I haven’t already played to death….Hurricane by 30stm, anyone?). So I’m asking all of you followers out there. Hit me up with some  music requests. I’m picky but I’m open to using new things. Plus I want to hear from you guys.

Does music float your boat when you’re writing? Or doesn’t it and why? Let me know. Leave me some notes!

Ps. if you ever see me tweeting Backstreet Boys lyrics, you know it’s a bad writing day.

Staying Positive When It Comes to Rewriting

Rewriting and Positivity = Sharpies

 

I thought that I’d have this down. I thought that writing my second draft would be easy.  I thought I could stay positive when I started the rewrite.

I was wrong. So, so, soooo wrong.

I was cocky and expectant. I thought that by now I’d surely be able to finish it and be ready and raring to go for more edits.

Did you know that only 5% of an a first draft makes it into the second? Five per cent.

Do you know how terrifying that actually is?

This novel has been a work in progress for 12 years from it’s conception as an idea I had in year 9. I didn’t know it back then but my English teacher had been trying to get me ready for what would come when I wrote the scene I’m about to rewrite for the billionth time. I remember pumping out the first draft, the very first draft of the scene I’m writing and I’m not even sure if I have a copy of it (man knowing my mother, I probably do), but I thought it was perfect, magical, a work of art. I went into class thinking, I totally had this for the rewrite. What my beloved teacher, Mr Hafter did, made my head spin. It stripped me of my confidence and I was left actually rushing to meet the time limit.

He told us to put away the draft we had so carefully written and write it from memory.

From. Memory.

Do you know how terrifying that was as a 14 year old? I could memorise Greek poems in front of a mirror in no time, but writing what I had just written the night before. Horrifying.

I didn’t know then, but Mr Hafer was instilling me with the tools that I would need to be a writer, I just didn’t know it.

So I signed up to do Camp NaNoWriMo and I have to say, I was a bit hesitant because it’s April and not November, my brain doesn’t know how to compute this much intensive writing so early in the year but I’m trying it. And it coincides with my draft deadline nicely. So there’s that.

I didn’t expect to feel so much resistance and just complete and utter terror. See, generally I just write through it but I actually had a battle with self-doubt demon. I didn’t think my writing was right and everything I put on my page was fake, force and plain boring (seriously it was only like a few sentences, but it was enough) but I was doubting that I was a good writer. That my characters weren’t real. I was even doubting that anyone would read it.

What happened?

I’m normally someone who doesn’t care about being published (while I would love to be a best selling author right now), it hit me hard. This is a market that is tough, you are critiqued for every sentence and judged by a cover, you have to have a thick skin and go with the flow, or you won’t survive. I’ve had rejections for stories time and time again but you know what? That’s okay. The time just wasn’t right.

I realised that I was terrified of getting what I wanted. Of finishing the story and getting it out into the world. Why is it so ingrained in me to fear the fact that I’m trying to deny myself happiness? It needs to stop.

I tried to go tot he gym and use it as a distraction to get writing, and it didn’t help. It wasn’t until I was talking to Peta that she got me started on something. She told me to get out a pen and some paper and write whatever came to me, what I was feeling, what was stopping me, and just get it down on the piece of paper. The most important thing was getting it on paper. My wrist cramped up and I nearly brought myself to tears, but I broke through it. I made Lucy stand up and own the story. I got back on track.

I wish I could say that I rid myself of my fear of failing but it’s there. All I can do is work through it. Move past it.

Let’s just bring us back to the realisation that only 5% of my first draft is going to end up in this rewrite. I spent a little time today actually going over the next 7 chapters of my novel (I had already done the first 7 using my method) and writing what the key factors of each chapter was. I need to know this. I could work blind but if I did that I would be twiddling my thumbs a lot and letting Peta win (can’t have that!). I came to a great AHA! moment. I never knew where some of the flashbacks came from and today, it worked. It all finally slipped into place AND I can start the layering for the next book. Well not in this draft, but the next one, but it’s there. I have it. I can do tis.

What has been your fear jolting realisation over the last week? Or better yet, do you have some self doubt going on? Leave me a little note below and let’s see if we can crack through it together.

Talking to Characters

So today is the start of a new week, one where I’m committing myself to getting back on top of my blog schedule. I was feeling burnt out because I was trying to do too much, again. I really need someone to come and clobber me over the head to tell me to stop doing that. I keep doing it. Damn.

Today I had schedule time to do some rewriting of my novel before finishing up some B-School fun sheets but my creativity seemed to take a hold of the day and not let up. I’m totally okay with letting it do this. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to sit down and just write as I wanted. I cut out 1000 words from my rewrites, I loved the scene but I know it doesn’t fit in this story and I already have a place for it in a later story, but I had been resisting this fact. I didn’t want to remove purely because I felt I lost a little bit about Lucy’s brother (who has been renamed and I’m still adjusting to that) but I can find another way to bring him out. As well as this, I also mentioned that I was having problems with changing a major plot issue that came up, and finally implementing that has made me stall a little – okay a lot – but it’s for a good reason. I’ve been able to set out a timeline that I hadn’t before because I was rushed and slowly getting through the chapters has been a lot easier now.

But that’s not what I’ve been writing today.

Last year we had this massive storm in Melbourne where we had winds reach something crazy like 120k’s, I can’t even remember but I was safely tucked into my bed in my student accommodation that gave me a peace of mind because I had shutters on my windows and it used to be old housing for the nurses who treated patients at the old hospital my uni was built on. Others were not lucky, but I had a dream. It was one of the most vivid I’ve had in a while (speaking of dreams I’ve been having lots about a man who’s face I can not see, frustrating) and it was about a crazy storm but also about a pain goddess and her lover. I woke up and wrote everything down listening to Go by Delilah and finally nutted out I had a great start of a story here. I’m not one to gush that it came to in a dream, but hell yeah this one did. I had some serious feels when it came to it and I decided that I wanted to play around with it. I spent days after researching pain goddesses.

I just couldn’t find one.

Until I stumbled along one that was from Finnish mythology. Light bulb moment.

Meet Lyra aka Kivutar. She is old, but I’m gaging she looks about 23. She is married to Leigh, who is a total knock your socks off hottie and a Seer.

Yes, yes, I know two L names plus Lucy being the main narrator of Faded Fragments it may seem like I have a bit of an addiction (maybe I do I had Lucia and Luka on OB…) but I tried to change Leigh’s name and he, very stubbornly I may add, refused to let me change it. As for the girly spelling…he wouldn’t let me change that either.

Now I’m sure people think that I’m going crazy, talking like my are actually people who are flesh and blood. And to me? They are. They always have been. My brother called me schizophrenic once when I told him that they actually spoke to me and one of my favourite quotes by E.L. Doctorow is that: “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia” and it’s true. It really is true. But I’ve always seen characters as people because if I don’t then I can’t write them. I can tell you what Leigh smells like, what his skin tastes like and what his smile says to me. I can tell you the texture of Lyra’s hair because she loves to take care of it. Characters are fully rounded beings who are waiting to come out and show you who they are. Another great quote that I’ve found regarding characters is from Don Roff and he says: “If you treat your characters like people, they’ll reward you by being fully developed beings.” I hate this quote on my wall for ages and it’s true. I wonder if this quality can be taught to other writers? Characters should be your best friends (not to be mixed up with them being a carbon copy of your best friend, no), and you should be able to write about them no problem.

On that note I’m back to it. Lucy may be ready for me to finish writing her story tomorrow. Or later tonight. Here’s to hoping.

Freeing Myself

I have a confession to make. It’s been playing on my mind a lot lately and I think it’s time to fess up. I’d love to say that I’m always on the go, always ready to do things, but that would be a lie, and my dear dreamers, I don’t want to lie to you. Module two of BE+BH was dropped yesterday before I had to go to work and last night the first module of B-School dropped. I would love to say that I’ve been busily getting on top of it, but frankly I haven’t even printed out the modules or fully looked at all of the vids.

I sometimes don’t follow my own advice. I get distracted and binge on watching tv shows I’ve missed (I’m finally caught up with most of them except The Walking Dead, oh god.) I sift through the internet with goiod intentions, but get far too distracted. Give me deadlines, give me structure and I will smash it, sometimes. I have only handed up one assignment late and it was the worst feeling in the world, so I hate handing things in late.

I’m badically saying that it’s okay to take the time you need, but remember that deadlines are important, that sitting down and writing, even if it is for a 15 minutes, is better than not doing it.

Lorna Jane Clarkson brought out a really powerful message and I’m going to use it. I love going to the gym and training, and there isn’t a workout that I’ve ever dome across and thought “That was a waste of a workout” I was there, I did the work and after I fely amazinf. Not one regret. Writing is the same. If you can’t write in that novel, but you have a posting place that helps, go and write there but don’t ever regret doing that writing.

A lot of people, including me, get caught up on the guilt of not writing. That’s not okay. You should never be guilty about writing a letter to a loved one, or an essay for uni, a short story for your eyes only or a simple email, all of this is writing. All of it is worth it. Stop feeling guilty for things that help you get on track. Now taking my own advice, I’m going to spend the day marvelling over two way cute tiny humans and my cousin. And everything else I need to do can and will wait.

Tell me what you’re working on and what you’re doing that doesn’t fit in with it, I want to know.

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Taking the Long Way Home

Maite’s Rest outside of Apollo Bay

I’ve been musing on when I started writing, yup there’s the dolphin notebook that contains my very first story, but something else has been on my mind besides that. You see I used to write just a whole bunch of dialogue, I thought I had covered that here, but I may have been dreaming it (or my skimming skills really aren’t that great), so I’m going to talk about the first time I broke out of my dialogue norm and added in some descriptions. This happened at one of my class at Flinders and I still remember very vividly what it was like (check out what I thought about the writing degrees I’ve done here). The piece was really short, so short that I was almost tempted to grab my hard drive and find it for you, but that would be waaaay too embarrassing, trust me, but the piece was about somewhere where we felt familiar. I remember getting the inspiration from being in the city. Rundle Mall, is Adelaide’s tiny, tiny version of Bourke St Mall and when I first started uni I never really went into the city much because I never needed to. I worked around the corner from my house and everything was so easy, but it had a common thread, when i did go into the city, I had to catch a bus and here lies my inspiration.

PT can single handed be part of where I’m the most creative. I read on buses, trains, planes. I write hell of a better on them too (hello 1.5k on a 50 min plane ride home), I’m just more at home on them, despite them being the bane of my existence because they can’t pick e up from my door or take me shopping whenever I need to. PT is great for inspiration! Trust me (I dare you to go out and try it, seriously).

This story was all about a girl getting off the bus and meeting a boy (I’m obsessed with girl meets boy stories, don’t ask me why, they just fascinate me!) and I remember picturing the paved shopping strip so vividly in my mind, the sounds of the people bustling around and the smells. It was in this moment that I decided to change my writing style. It was always so full of dialogue and a little bit about scenery. I changed it up and had little to no talking in it and I had my tutor ask me why I decided to do this. He flat out asked me and it scared me shitless, but my answer still amazes me today: I wanted to write differently and this is different to what I normally did. He was silent. And moved on. I don’t actually remember much else of what he said. I just remember my reaction and that is what I’m getting at today.

Writing is a journey, it’s pushing yourself forward in a way you didn’t know how to before, it’s all about making sure that you explain how the details work so that your reader can get it too. You want to put your reader on that long trail home, you want to explain to them how the sand feels between their toes or how the salty breeze fills your nostrils. Everything. All of it. But you have to hold back. There is a difference between word vomit and over showing.

Sometimes telling (they tell you this is a HUGE no no in every writing course you’ll do) is better. Why does everyone need to know how a character gets from A to B? I learned this out the hard way when I was going through my manuscript with my mentor. I showed way too much and now I’m pulling back, but trusting your reader is essential too. Sometimes people can’t fill in the gaps, but majority of them will. So while you take the long scenic route home, remember to exclude the bits of dribble that mentions your narrator moving when it’s already assumed. We trust you, trust your writers.

ps. I’ve just rewritten my about me page. You should check it out here. It’s still in the drafting process, but I pushed publish on something that I wasn’t ready for. That’s a win in my book.

Pulling My Head Out of the Sand

March is crazy. I’ve mentioned this before and while I don’t have uni, it’s still just as crazy. Today alone there is Claire Obied’s 21 days of meditation and the Bright-Eyed and Blog-Hearted online courses, plus I’ve decided to get my head out of the sand and start the rewriting that I had been so stuck on. 

Yesterday I said, just an hour. Just an hour to get through as much as I needed to. An hour rolled up and I was so close to the end. I ended up finishing the chapter. Chapter 2 is officially rewritten and I actually like it. A lot more than the original. This sort of gave me a lot to think about and more to play off of. I think I was forcing a lot of the elements and trying to fit it into this little box that was the story. I didn’t let it unfold naturally or maybe I had and a lot of that was in the past. I’m moving forward and trying to add all the bits that were strong suggestions by my mentor and mostly it’s easy, but mostly I’m resisting the change because my body is like no. But I’ll get there.

With this month it seems only fitting that I’m breaking down the resistance month. I plan to get a good chunk of everything done, plus learning to actually schedule. This is sort of harder than I thought and I sat down to actually try and do it and got completely overwhelmed, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that there are things in my life that are unknown and while I wait for them to become known (internships, work schedules) it makes it much harder to do. Muuuuch harder. 

Wish me luck. Hopefully big things are coming. 

Declaring My Dreams

I had a great day yesterday. I got up, blogged, wrote, chatted, pulled an oracle card out (I lovelovelove  my mermaid deck) and meditated, all before I left to go to my retail job. It made working a literal breeze. It was probably one of the first times where I really sat back and saw that I could really achieve when I’m in the right state of mind.

It was beautiful and I want to keep it but I want to leave my retail job. I really need to.

By June or July I want to be done with this retail bull. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the people I work with, but the jobs and tasks are just soul crushing. They suck the creativity out of me so much that when I get home all I want to do is eat ice cream and watch something mindless.

So after the day I had I decided that going to the gym would be great and I had intended to do my treadmill work last night but for some reason (beside it getting darker earlier now) I have this burning desire to get home. So I call my mum and was chatting to her. I’ve been on the fence about B-School (not the actual course, but which offer to take) and I had asked Rach at In Spaces Between a question or two but there was this half done email to Tara at Such Different Skies sitting in my drafts and I knew I had to finish it, basically it was sent a couple days ago where I was like okay I have one more question to ask and rather than bugging Rach again, I sent it to Tara. So I came home and found that I had a lovely email back from her.

But wait.

It wasn’t just an email.

It was a video.

A personally made video to me.

I cried. I’m not going to lie. I’ve been blazing through on my own for so long and all of my gorgeous friends tell me that they’re proud of me and that means the world to me, but getting this juicy video from Tara telling me that I’ve inspired her because I plucked up the courage to face my fear in emailing her, made me world just…spin.

I’m running off pure happiness.

I’ve made my decision, but also on her blog today she gave thanks to B-School and a link back to her dream declaring vid and while I can’t make a vid because my housemate is around (one scary step at a time, I will make one, just not right now!). So I’m declaring what I want.

I’m a writer.

But I want to be a writing coach. I want to help others find that spark inside them and use it to write something amazing. I want to be the shoulder they lean on because that makes me excited. I love bouncing energies off others and using it to inspire me. I want to inspire people. I will inspire people. I’m not sure where else to go from there, but I want to make it happen. I want to help bring fear binding women and men out of their comfort zone and make them write those books, help them get a standing point and educate them about how things can go for them.

Are you guys coming for the ride? It’ll be worth it.