See you tomorrow!

I guess I can post about how happy I am right now. (I am.)

Or about how much better the test went than I feared. (Infinitely)

Or about how I ended up writing only about environmental policy, meaning that I didn't need to stress about Fiscal Policy after all. (Boy am I relieved.)

Or about how trusting in my abilities helped me to stay cool and calm through the subject I used to fear most...

But, I'm thinking that I'll just chill and get back to serious posting tomorrow. Everyone deserves a break, right?

;-)

Josh Groban sings Chess...

Hi all! This is going to be a pretty short post, because I'm still preparing for my economics test tomorrow night.


Just thought I'd share this with you. This song came up during my studies and although it comes from a famous musical (and I have the original cast recording), something about the Josh Groban version just hit me between the eyes.


See, the lyrics pretty much sums up one of the Doorways characters. In fact, it sounds like it was written for him, especially for the sequel. But, I'm not going to tell you who it is... you'll have to wait and see... Or if you're a crit partner, you can guess. Yes. I am that evil. ;-)




Any songs that capture your characters exactly?

9/11

I'm sitting here, watching the real time replay of the 9/11 attacks.

Needless to say I'm typing this bawling.

I remember that from the start, I just knew that it wasn't an accident. How when I saw the second crash, no one believed what I saw. Everyone watching the news with me just refused to believe what their own eyes told them. That someone was evil enough to orchestrate an event so evil that it changed the way we all live, the way we think.

Fact is that the 9/11 attacks didn't just change America. It changed us all.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those who were lost on that day and of the rest of us who lost our innocence.

Taking Control

Hi all! Today I welcome Jolene Stockman, who'll be talking about how writers can control some aspects of their lives. She's also here to plug her new book, Total Blueprint for World Domination. Take it away, Jolene!





Thank you so much for hosting me (and my first guest post) Misha! When doubt starts niggling, I like to remind myself of the things that I can do something about. I hope your readers relate :)


Taking control!

Author Jolene Stockman

You may not be able to decide who will buy or like your book, but there are some things you can control.

Your book
From the second you make the decision to write, you are in charge! You choose the genre, the word count, the content, the editing, and (if you are self-published) the cover, too. Even changes your agent and editor suggest are ultimately up to you. Your book is a fingerprint on the world, and it is absolutely your creation.

Your promotion
Facebook? Twitter? Goodreads? You choose! The amount of time, energy, and you that goes into your promotion is your choice. Forget what you could be doing, what you should be doing, or what everyone else is doing. Do what feels right for you! As Nathan Bransford says, “The next big thing is never like the last big thing.”

Your responses
An anonymous interwebber tweets you. They review your book, your baby. They call it rubbish. Crap. Badly formatted, hideously worded, error-filled-ugly-covered crap. And they do it with spelling that would disappoint a first grader. Prepare yourself. Once your work is published, it belongs to the world. Your response? Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to not only read my book, but to share your thoughts. You don’t have to correct, complain, or justify. Yes, the reviewer might be completely wrong. They might be mistaken, out of line, and all kinds of mean. (Or they might be the only person brave enough to tell you the truth..!) Either way, when someone spends money, time, and energy on you – it is awesome! One review is one review. A tweet is gone tomorrow. But the way you respond reflects on you, and a rant can reek forever.

Your intentions
Your goals are what you do, but your intentions are how you do it. You get to present yourself with professionalism, humor, warmth, and optimism (or not!) You get to choose what you put out in the world. You may get rejected, but you get to choose the agents you query, the groups you join and the writers you support. And as for who you link up with, and where you hang out? That’s right: all yours. Decide how you want to be in the world, and who you want to connect with. Because over time your intentions become who you are.

Your attitude
Chances are, even your favorite author has had some scathing reviews. Some rejection. Some slow sale days. Do you hear them going off about it? Whining? Grizzling? Nope. They’re busy. Writing. Being a writer is a dream. It’s a top-of-the-bucket list, thing-to-do-before-I-die, can’t-believe-I-get-to-see-it-on-a-bookshelf dream. You are doing something that people aspire to. Even when the blank page is taunting you. Even when the twenty-third rejection rolls in. Even when you’re squishing rewrites in with a million other things. You are part of something amazing. Feel that with all your heart. Know that it’s true no matter what. You are a writer. You may not be able to control who reads or likes what you write, but you can choose your words, your attitude, and your intention. Grab hold! Take control of what you can, and let the rest go. Seriously. Focus on what matters – having fun, creating the world you want, and writing your amazing next book! (I can’t wait to read it!)

Jolene Stockman’s book Total Blueprint for World Domination takes you from this very moment to your greatest dream. Plot a step-by-step plan for world domination!

You can find Jolene on her blog, as well as Twitter, and Facebook.

AAAACK! Gremlin!

A few more days. My economics test will be on Tuesday night. Then the tension will (I fervently hope) slacken off.

Amazing what an evil little gremlin stress can become.

I've been getting along so-so this week with regards to studying. In fact my success was so mediocre that I changed the plan and took two days off.

No big right?

Unless your mother decides its a sign of a lack of commitment. And then proceeds to hammer you about it.

So now, instead of just focusing on studying harder, and for longer hours, my mind is split into little fragments. One tells me to relax. One that everything will be OK. One wonders if I am actually guilty of what I have been accused of. Another one is beating the previous one up. Its friend is telling me not to think about it and focus on the matter at hand. Of course, it's screaming so hard that I can hardly hear what I'm reading. And finally, there's the most dangerous one of all.

The one that keeps remind me of how much I'm regretting that I chose to finish my degree. Not because of the work involved. But because I can't handle the emotional battering that goes with it, whether it comes from me or someone else.

So I'm trying to push all these into a box for later. It's barely less than a week. I can handle this for so long. Right? Right.

Except that it's like a chocolate addiction. The more I'm reminding myself of not thinking about it, the more, I am in fact reminding myself of the thing I'm not supposed to be thinking of.

So yeah... I ended up writing this to give my thoughts air. Hopefully they'll stop breeding and crowding out my studies.

What do you do when the stress gremlin has you in its sights?

I'm at Fabulosity Reads today

Hi all! Today I am at Fabulosity Reads, a blog belonging to one of my few blogging compatriots, Wendy Ewurum.

I wrote about the challenges I face as a writer in South Africa and what I do to beat them, so if you're interested (or not even really and want to support me), please head on over to say hi.

X

An interesting thought because of an interesting character...

After years of string at the book in shops, wanting to read it, I finally found Wolf Hall in the library.

It just brought an important points to my attention. Even though I'm barely half way.



It took a while for me to get into, but there's something wonderful about reading about a relatively famous episode in history from the view of a person who people tend to forget.



Thomas Cromwell can be seen as a winner from the whole situation with Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. And, if memory serves, he kept right on winning all the way through to (I think) Anne of Cleves, wife number four of six.

Given Henry VIII's personality, that's pretty impressive. In fact, he was an impressive person. But for some reason he just faded into the back ground. Perhaps because he was so skilled. He had to be pretty involved, but he always managed to keep ahead of the disasters.

That's probably why he isn't such a presence in our cultural minds. He escaped the drama, the tragedy. The shit that rained down in epic proportions.

He was the guy unafraid of getting his hands dirty, but somehow, he managed to stay clean...

So yeah, Hilary Mantel was brilliant in picking him as a main character. Because he was a truly impressive character and the way she writes him made me see the Tudors in a whole new light.

And that makes me wonder. There are so many periods in history that I love, with so many interesting, but disregarded characters...

It might make for an interesting bit of research for me to go looking for them. IF I finish all the other projects waiting for me.
.

Five Dead-giveaways your Story is Cliché

and Some Soul Searching Questions. 

Spotting clichés in the stories of others is often easy-as-pie. But how do we know when we're seeing ourselves clearly? What if our own story sounds just as derived as fan-fiction, and we don't even know it? Our ideas feel different to us. We can see the world in our heads, and it looks nothing like Twilight or something from Disney. But is that how it's coming across to other people? We're not naming names today, or listing clichés. As useful as this can be, there are lots of places to find those. Let's talk about patterns that tend to show up in every genre and every target range--patterns in the way that you and your readers react. Here are some tell-tale signs. Read on if you are brave.

1) It reminds people of something else.       Your describing your story and your listener responds with, "Oh, like in Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter/Dragon Riders of Pern/Ender's Game/Star Wars?" Some people will ask this the moment you tell them you're writing a Fantasy etc, but we're not talking about them. This is shortly after you've started talking about your story and the events in it. Question: Why am I getting this response?  What could I do to change the immediate association people seem to be making?

2) You have to explain why it's not cliché. Often.       You tell your listener that you have elves, or wizards, and then you launch into an explanation (that in truth sound more like excuses), as to why yours are different. Chances are, they're not. If one of your ideas is really different, you wouldn't have to tell us. You wouldn't have to tell yourself. It would just be different, and we would see that in the first five seconds of being introduced to the idea. Question: Am I feeling particularly defensive about this?  How can I make my ideas immediately stand out, instead of counting on readers to "keep going?"

3) You remind yourself that "you thought of it first."      When your originality is questioned with an actual example, you refuse to change your manuscript because "you thought of it first," or that "you would have thought of it anyway." You need to explain to people that the idea came to you years before what they're seeing on the shelves. Or that what is currently on the shelves had no effect on your story. Question: Really?  Am I brave enough to change this?

4) Those names sound familiar...      You have names for things that also show up in other stories, such as: Dark Lord, Empire, Rebellion, Dragon Rider, Black Rider, Elemental or Chosen One. They're nothing like what people usually associate with the word (or are they?), but you have to explain this (once again), to people. Question: Do I really want to use the same name another author did?  Am I okay with people continuing to point out my "Dark Lord" is like Star Wars for as long as I live? What else can I call this thing?

5) People can guess how it ends.       Go ahead. Tell your mom, boyfriend, or critique partner what your story is about. Ask them how they think it ends. If they can do it a couple chapters to the end, you might want to shake things up with a twist or two. If they can do it around the middle, consider throwing in a red-herring or two. If someone can guess your end from your initial hook? You'd better get crackin' on revisions, because that's no fun for anyone. And just saying, if there's a prophecy about how things end? I'm not betting my money on your story ending any differently. Question: What would make your readers say, "Blah blah blah...I so saw that coming."  What would make readers go, "Yes! I was afraid we weren't going to make it!"  Or better yet, what would make your readers say, "What the wiggedy-whack?! My brain is blown with awesome!"

You are an author. You have the authority to sculpt your world. You don't owe anything to your muse, the Goddess of Inspiration, or your original dream. Stop having to defend your originality and go be original. Work. Sculpt. Shred. Build. Take ownership of your characters instead of letting your whims walk all over you. Be an artist. Make someone go, "Wow! I wish I'd thought of that!" ...and then smile because you make it look easy.

Christine Tyler lives in the underwater realm of the Pacific Northwest. She is accompanied by her submarine Lieutenant husband and organically grown offspring. She enjoys geology, botany, romantic chemistry and yoga. And raptors. Very much raptors. You can read more useless pontifications on her blog: The Writer Coaster Image: graur codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net







Thanks for this great post, Christine!

I tend to avoid cliches by looking at my stories from a different perspective. And by focusing on my chatacters instead on the roles they play. How do you all deal with cliches?

It's Spring!

Funny how that works. While slogging for hours through my environmental economics, I forgot something very important about my own environment.

Today is September 1st, Spring Day in South Africa.  

And this is one of the flowers I associate with it:

Now you might think it strange that I think about Arum Lillies on Spring day, but it's a tradition at one of the male residences (almost like a frat house) to go out to the wetlands nearby and "steal" arum lillies on the night of 31 August.

On Spring Day they give hundreds of them away to girls passing by. Silly, yes, but I've loved Arum Lillies since I grew up on the first farm in the world to breed these:


So to me, after years watching people revere these flowers, the fact that people could just go out to where they grew naturally and pick them filled me with wonder and joy.

I'm smiling now, thinking of it.

See you all on Monday! Tomorrow is another installment of GPF.