Courage

This song was played yesterday in chapel. I thought it worth sharing:



It takes courage to write. You get knocked down so many times, and you have to keep on going anyway. You face rejection - of your worth, of your ideas, and it can feel like the rejection is of yourself. But you have to keep on writing anyway.

Courage is writing even when you're afraid of the rejections; it's not how high you fly, but the song you sing.

Think Sideways Movie #6: Revision

Today's movie, brought to you by the letter : "Revision: If the victory is long in coming."

Yes, the letter . That's right. I love editing, so you'll just have to deal :P

Today we hear about the horrors and wonders of editing, of why you should plan to do it only once and how you can do so - and why you should never try to write a book and edit it in two months. Male pregnancy, apparently, may ensure. Have fun!



And yes, I know we've hashed this out before, but there are New People reading this blog now! Huzzah! *waves to the swarms of newcomers* So tell me: Editing. Love it or hate it, and why?

Think Sideways Movie #5: Endings

Here's the next installment of the Think Sideways monthly videos, called "Endings: Something Clever Goes Here." And let me tell you, as someone who's just recently ended a novel, sometimes it is SOO tempting to write those four words and be done with the thing o.O



Incidentally, Liana posted a great article on endings and how you find the right one a while back. This is the method I use to find my endings too, and while it can be a little time-consuming, it's also fun, and yields the best results of any method I've tried so far ;) And yes, it's based on the Think Sideways course ;)

How about you, dear readers? Do you experience ending-angst? (Even when I know what's going to happen and am happy with it, I still HATE writing the actual climax) Are you usually happy with your endings? And what sort of endings do you favour?

Think Sideways Movie #4: Middles

Some of you might not have been around for as long as all that, but a while back I posted some of the monthly videos from Holly Lisle's How To Think Sideways writing course (here, here and here). Given I'm on holiday in Europe right now (... today, in fact), I think I deserve a little slackery in the blogging arena - so I thought I'd post the final three movies over the next three weeks.

Today's clip is entitled, "Middles: A Compass, A Kit, and A Sea Of Stars". Middles are scary, terrifying places to be, where you start to doubt your decisions, and ponder just exactly how much trouble you'd be in if you just scrapped the whole thing and started over. Or started on something new. Or maybe just didn't write ever again.

Every gets lost: not every one knows the art of getting lost. Do you?



So, speak to me! Have you ever been lost in the middle? I certainly have. What was your experience like? Or are you just one of those insane people for whom middles aren't an issue? How did you become like that, and can I be like that too?? O:)

33 Mistakes About Dogs: Podcast!

Do you ever invert words while you're writing? My latest switch was writing 'monastery' when I meant 'masonry' o.O Whoops! :D

ANYway...

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited about today's post. Something different is in store: a podcast! Whee! *bounces*

Only, of course, it isn't a real podcast, because blogger doesn't let you upload audio files. So it's a podcast with a pretty picture O:)

Now, you all have to promise not to mock my voice (which I dislike) or my Australian accent (which I don't mind). Okay? Promise? Excellent.

In celebration of the fact that my ebook, the 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Dogs, will be released in a little over a week, in today's podcast I thought I'd let you have a sneak peak of the book. The podcast contains the entire introduction to the book - that's a whole two minutes of nothing but my melodious voice. Very shiny!

If this works out well, and you all decide you like this, I might consider doing it more regularly with fun stuff like story excerpts :)







If you're rather listen to this just as a podcast, leave your email address in the comments or email me and I'll send you the mp3 file.

Next week I'll be announcing a competition that will involve not one, not two, but three FREE BOOKS! Check in on Monday for details.

And if you'd like to hear the soothing sound of my voice reading out some more of the 33 Worst Mistakes About Dogs next Friday, you can go here to vote on which one of the 33 mistakes you'd like to hear me read.

Well, that's it! Have a great weekend :)

Random: Losing Yourself In Writing

Have you ever had the experience of losing yourself in your writing? Of sitting down to start and getting up an hour later, shocked at how much time has passed because the words just kept on coming?

Turns out, if you have, it's actually good for your internal happiness, and thereby your health. And if you haven't, investigate - there are strategies you can learn that can help you enjoy what you do - in writing, in life - more :) It's all about finding out what your 'happiness strengths' are, and finding ways to exercise them more in what you do every day.

I love the feeling of losing myself in my writing, but it doesn't happen often. My top strength, according to the survey on Authentic Happiness (the website of Dr Seligman, who presents the video below), is open-mindedness. It took a bit of creative thinking to come up with a way to include that in my writing (heh, lucky creativity is near the top of the list too! :D), but I've decided that at least one way I can do it is through listening to my characters more. By allowing them to have their own thoughts and feelings and opinions, and by allowing those to be different from my own, I'm exercising my ability to be open-minded, which will make me happier because it's something I enjoy and am apparently good at - and hopefully, it'll make me happy because it gets more writing done! :D

And, quite coincedentally, it will hopefully address a problem I've been having with the characters in my novels: they end up all sounding the same!

So go, watch the video, and tell me - what's your happiness strength? :)

Think Sideways Movie #3 - Writing is Weightless

Project Planning: Writing is Weightless - If You Dare To Let It Be

"Here lies a dream that you once spun
Over-planned and under-fun."

In this video Holly reminds us all - as I did last week - that writing is supposed to be fun - even the planning side of it.





So, what do you think? Have you ever over-planned a project (I have)? How much planning works for you?

Think Sideways Movie #2 - The Job of the Writer

Demo: The Job of the Writer

So, it's not long, it's not deep - but I think it is an excellent way of characterising what we as writers have to do - and learn to do.

Problems, anyone?

Think Sideways Movie #1 - A Thousand Words For Wings

So, as I've said before, the month of January is as insanely hectic as December was, what with the various writing, work, and extra curricular commitments. Gweh o.O

For the next few weeks, therefore, I'm going to share with you the videos from the Think Sideways course. Yes, don't worry, I have full permission to do this :) And it will give you a better idea of what the course is like. Be warned - the videos, naturally, do not cover the detail of the course. They are the introductions to each month, and as such are introductory in nature. I like them, though, and hopefully you will be able to get something out of them.

Today, Month One: Thinking: Ideas - And A Thousand Words For Wings.



Feel free to discuss the movie in the comments - what do you think? :)