Go for the Unrealistic - Tips for the New Year!

 

Jinx isn't afraid of the 'impossible' - WallPapers.com

I want to wind up 2023 with a meaningful idea, and the topic that comes to mind is What's Next? It reminds me of a piece I wrote a few decades ago after hearing Will Smith talk about doing the impossible. I've tweaked it to fit the NOW. Hope you enjoy, and have a wonderful holiday season, and New Year 2024.

Will Smith said in an interview once that it’s unrealistic to bend a piece of metal and fly people over the ocean in it but fortunately, the Wright brothers didn’t think so. 

It all begins with this premise. 

Michael Parkes

A lot of advice for emerging writers, students, biz owners, teachers, apprentices, and entrepreneurs centres on ‘being realistic'. For example, you have to start at the bottom, take baby steps, like... forget about landing an agent if you haven’t published, and definitely forget about a major publisher without an agent. What you want to achieve is very hard work, $$$ will be tight, and rejection du jour so keep your day job...  It's enough to sink your dreams into the sludge.

But is the advice realistic? Probably. 

Do you let that guide you? No!

I highly recommend these five unrealistic tips to set yourself up to do the 'impossible' in 2024. 

Tip #1 Forget about being realistic. Stop thinking about the practical advice and the ‘cold hard facts’ and develop your craft/heart/goals. If you have a dream, something you are enthusiastic about, develop the skills to deliver it. All the talent in the world won’t fly if you don’t have the skills to communicate your vision. Develop them!

Tip #2 Think in terms of component parts. In publishing, you don’t set out to write a 500,000-word, multi-book series. You don’t even set out to write a single novel. You get up in the morning and you write five hundred words. You do that for a time and get some confidence and maybe, after a while, you find yourself writing a thousand words a day. Then two thousand. Same with a new business plan, thesis, art show, album, you name it. Component parts, day by day.

Tip #3 Say you can do it. He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both correct. Confucius. Think about that for a while.

Tip #4 Know your motivations. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ motivation for your artistry. It might be that you want to prove something to the world. You might want to feel of value. You might be obsessed with telling a story that will touch people’s hearts. Whatever your motivation is, know it. Know thyself. The awareness of what drives you is your touchstone.

YaoYao Ma Van As

Tip #5 Decide, devote, deliver. But first, just decide that you will do it, that you will achieve your dream. Devote your whole heart to it, and allow for compassion for others and the planet to be part of that devotion. Deliver what you promise to yourself and to others—one step at a time.

Bonus tip. Remind yourself to go for the unrealistic. I mean, what if we’d listened to any of this ‘realistic’ advice?

Everything that can be invented has been invented.  Charles H. Duell, an official at the US Patent Office, 1899

The singer (Mick Jagger) will have to go; the BBC won’t like him. -First Rolling Stones manager Eric Easton to his partner after watching them perform.

I’m sorry, Mr Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language. –The San Francisco Examiner, rejecting a submission by Rudyard Kipling in 1889

You better get secretarial work or get married. -Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modelling Modelling Agency, advising would-be model Marilyn Monroe in 1944.

With over fifteen types of foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big share of the market for itself. Business Week, August 2, 1968.

There will never be a bigger plane built. – A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin-engine plane that held ten people.

If anything remains more or less unchanged, it will be the role of women. David Riesman, conservative American social scientist, 1967. (Of boy!)

I hope these ideas offer you inspiration for the New Year 2024!

Blessings to all,

xxKim

***

About Kim Falconer

Kim Falconer, currently writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2024.

Kim can be found on  AKWilder Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site

2023: Year of Re-Imagining

 Hello Faithful Readers, 

Yes, I was hiding under a rock. Yes, I was completely just trying to survive in my little bubble of the world I created that somehow I managed to pop. Yes, it sucked. 

I'm not saying I was at rock bottom, but there were some toe-touch moments where it definitely felt one step away from doom.

After those toe-touch moments, I always found a lesson, a little nugget of gold, to carry with me. And each time, I'd say to myself, "That was an Ordeal, and the lesson is a Reward." It all harkens back to the Heroic Journey of our Main Characters. For me, that process of going from zero to hero always helps me figure out where I am going, where I have been, and how much I still have to learn. 

For reference, here is a pretty and fairly accurate representation of the process I'm talking about. The real one is Christopher Vogler's interpretation of the Joseph Campbell Monomyth that delineates the 12 phases of a hero's journey.

I talked about this in 2014, My Year of Living Heroically, and yet, here I am, circling back around to it. Cycling back around to it, because growth is never ending. Learning is never-ending. Yes, old dogs can learn new tricks- they just have to have the right motivation. 

But this time around, I'm wiser, I've written more, lived more, read more, watched more. I'm not that same naive writer from back then. I'd like to say that I'm a little more enlightened, but really, I think my imagination has just gotten bigger. 

So for 2023, I present to you The Year of Reimagining. Reimagining story structure. Reimagining the Hero's Quest. Reimagining your life as a cycle to help you get through your rough spots. 

And of course there will be lots of movies, books, TV, and cute boys to help me with my new vision of an old story. 

Thank you and may your imagination be your guide. 

(If you've forgotten who I am, Here's ALL the contact info)

Insta: @pantherista https://www.instagram.com/pantherista/

Twitter: @pantherista  https://twitter.com/Pantherista

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pantherista

Website links: www.amandaarista.com

Diaries of an Urban Panther: https://books2read.com/u/mZrjp2

Claws and Effect: https://books2read.com/u/mdDlPZ

Nine Lives of an Urban Panther: https://books2read.com/u/bzdjrD

Truth about Night: https://books2read.com/u/3RJKPv

Truth about Blood: https://books2read.com/u/3JZjGP

Truth about Shadows: https://books2read.com/u/bp8p8X

Vampires gone Wild (short story in anthology): https://books2read.com/u/bPQGAr

Turning Readers' Guilt to Delight

Pause by Yaoyao Ma Van As

Recently I experienced readers' guilt. With so many books on my TBR list, and the privilege of being asked by authors for cover copy quotes, I painted myself into a corner by saying YES to everyone... just as my editor sent pages for rewrites with a crazy deadline attached. The results? Having to say, "Not yet..." to myself and to requesting authors, and subsequently feeling guilty because of it.

That's when I discovered that readers' guilt is an actual thing. People feel it all the time and it doesn't help the shui. The good news is there are things you can do right now to release the problem and turn any hint of guilt into delight.

If you have ever felt anxiety over failing your, or other peoples', expectations, consider these guidelines from NetGalley, the site that is all about staying ahead of the textual wave, guilt-free.

First of all, if your Goodreads, NetGalley or physical bookshelf is crammed tight with books yet to be read--what's known as shelf overload--don't worry. It can feel like a burden, but there are things you can do to see it differently. 

First, agree with yourself that you will only add a new book when you have read and reviewed a precious one. It's zero population growth for your TBR list, I promise!

Then, contemplate your feedback ratio. This is important if you have goals to support and help promote books you love, and if you want publishers to start, or continue, approving your requests for ARCs (advanced reader copies) of your favourite authors.

Image by Vocaloidlober690

Note: One of the best things you can ever do for an author is to leave a review (a single one can be posted on multiple sites don't forget).

Still, it can be challenging to keep on top of the reviewing process. One way to deal with any feedback gap is to set aside a single day of the week, or month, just for writing your reviews If you assign the first Wednesday of the month, for example, to reflect, review and update your shelves, you'll be way ahead in no time. The guilt lifts just thinking about this plan.

Another consideration is the DNF pile, the books you did not finish. It's tricky because you want to give each story and author your best, but you also don't want to spend time on something you aren't enjoying. It might help to set a page goal and decide when you reach it if you will continue. That way, you aren't constantly struggling with it as you plough ahead. If by 40 or 60 pages you really don't want to continue, then don't. Making a considered choice is not something to feel guilty about!

Most importantly, set goals you are happy with and give yourself credit for the books you do read and review or share on your social media. Your time and energy are gifts that all authors are deeply grateful for. 

So, let go of the guilt, and reframe your thinking no matter how many books you have yet to read. 

As Stephan King says, “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” 

Let's honour the magic, and port them around with reverence and delight!

xxKim

* * * 

About The Author:

Kim Falconer, currently writing as A K Wilder, has recently released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows coming out December 6, 2022.

Kim can be found on AKWilder Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site

Have a Holly Jolly...Pickle?

 2021: Year of Forced Introspection

Holiday traditions are weird and only make sense when put into the context of Christmas cheer. Taken out of context, when removed from the story, they look like the ramblings of a mad man. For example, at what other time of year do we pay to take a picture of a stranger in a strange outfit holding our child.

Here in my home state of Texas, there is the Christmas Pickle tradition. You hide a small green pickle on your tree, and the first person to find it on Christmas morning gets an extra present. It's hide and go seek with pickles.

Weird, right?

Like at what time of year is it totally okay to bake a ton of cookies and give them to everyone you know, knowing that you will get a ton of cookies in return?

We are a strange race, these humans, with their stories and their weird traditions. 

But all of these things make sense when you put them into the context of Christmas, the world of Winter Solstices, and Festival of Lights. The story and the traditions all come together and glow with a meaning that we can all understand and experience. 

I find the same thing happens with great storytelling and I believe that Helen Lowe has hit upon it this beautifully  with her Fantasy World Building series. The setting of the story, the context of the story, is a vital part of the actions and characters that are participating in the story. Writers might wax poetic about world building because it is fun and exciting to create new places, new religions, new languages. And yes, that is all fun, but the real part of creating a world for a novel is its integral part to the plot and the characters. 

Like these marvelous pinwheel cookies, the three things are completely twisted together. You can't have a character without defining where that character came from. You can't build a plot without a character to act within it. And you can't have action without a world to provide obstacles to overcome. It is all perfectly swirled together into a delicious treat, baked up by your favorite author to give you a little something to take with you as you toil. 

So when you think about your traditions this holiday season, please appreciate the story of it, the context, the players and the plot and how they are all spun together to make this the most wonderful time of the year. 

Until next time, dear readers. Happy Holidays and see you next year!

Amanda Arista

www.amandaarista.com

Author, Diaries of an Urban Panther Series and The Merci Lanard Files. 

We are all stories in the end...

 2021: Year of Forced Introspection

I am writing another book. Yes, it has magic. Yes, it has snark. Yes, it is also about the people you consider family. Do I have a brand to uphold? Yes. Will you ever see it? Maybe. 

It is technically the ninth novel I have written as professional author with people outside of myself editing and conceptualizing right along with me. Nine books professionally, and it still hasn't gotten any easier. 

So like I do when I'm supposed to be doing #NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I'm thinking of a million ways to distract myself. And since this is the year of forced introspection, I thought I would go back to the beginning. Like human evolution beginning, because in a time heavy with false narrative, we need to know why we are susceptible to them and our responsibility to use narratives
properly because story telling is a powerful tool. 

Lisa Cron, author of WIRED FOR STORY and STORY GENIUS, is probably way better at explaining all this, but basically, just like food and sex, stories are key to our survival as humans. Food tastes good, Sex feels good, story entertains us, but all three evolved that way because they were key factors in keeping us alive. Food nourished our bodies, sex secured a lineage and children, but stories taught us how to survival on our own. 

The human brain has developed in such a way that once it is keyed into a story and hit the pause button of reality, it is searching for meaning, for a lesson, for a heart, that it can hold on to and take back into reality and make reality safer/better/stronger. In fact, our brains actually activate in the same manor as what is happening in the story, it is so deeply invested. We actually are FEELING what the hero feels when we are lost in a good story.

We as humans are all searching out how to survive this crazy world, and books/movies/comics allow us to gain the wisdom and experiences of a thousands lives find the answers to it all. 

Wow, that got heavy really fast. 

So, as a story teller, I take the art of storytelling very seriously. Knowing how humans work and feel and struggle. I want to honor the time and trust that a reader gives to me. I want to help them on their journey, give them something entertaining that their brains can chew on as well. 

But I am also a human on a journey. I am still actively
journeying myself and I think the one thing that keeps me writing all these novels is that I still have questions about how people survive in this world. I still have experiences that I need to figure out for myself. I am still seeking ways to help make my own reality safer/better/stronger. Ways that I can be safer/better/stronger.

Even when life gets too hectic, I am always writing, I am always structuring my experiences through character and plot and setting. I am always trying to find a way to articulate what I am learning about life, what struggles have come, and what lessons I have learned so that someday, I can pass that along to someone else. And yes, it always has a little magic in it. 

Nine novels. Nine major questions. And I am still curious. 

Until next time, Keep Calm and Make it a Good Story. 

Amanda Arista

Author, www.amandaarista.com

 

New look, New Giveaway, same old Violet!

2021: Forced Introspection of your 20' something self

Just taking a break to let you know that the cat is back! After four years in purgatory, I am happy to release for your reading pleasure Diaries of an Urban Panther! Now available in a pretty new Ebook and Paperback format, you can relive Violet Jordan's adventures in Dallas as she learns about her intertwined destiny with a demon rising. 

Now this story might not be a new one to our avid blog readers, but it was very interesting to go back and look at this book from my 40 something eyes at what my 20 something thought was the worst thing in the world. If this book is any indication, I was very into boys, coffee, and building families. 

Which is pretty close to who I am now. Still completely boy crazy (just with a new boy, hello Charlie Cox). I still love coffee. And I still love my blood family and my chosen family as much as I ever have. 

And what is amazing about this book and this blog, is that I have learned a million things since then, and I've tried to document them here on this blog. Things about life and love, and writing. Mostly writing. 

So you could say that these blog posts over the past 11 years have been by own Diaries of an Urban Amanda. 

If you still haven't, you can buy a copy now at any online retailer. Follow this Books2read link to find your favorite vendor.

GOODREADS GIVEAWAY!

And if you are so inclined, you can also enter to win 10 signed copies with a special Violet- approved gift pack! Register on Goodreads (US applicants only 😒) Ends Sept 7th. 

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/330883-diaries-of-an-urban-panther

And if you want a little sneak peek:

Claws and Effect comes out Sept 28th. Pre-Order Here through Books2Read!

Nine Lives of an Urban Panther comes out Oct 26th. Pre-Order HERE through Books2Read!

(and please let me know if those links done work- its a cool new universal link service). 

Until next time, Keep Calm and Drink Coffee. 

Amanda Arista

Author and Human

www.amandaarista.com

2021: The year of forced introspection.

Y’all it has been a doozie of a year here. Freezes, flooding, work from home. 2021 has been pretty much as eventful as 2020. 

I eventually found an interesting balance. It takes lots of work and fails half the time. Not sure we need to get into how many times I forgot to click send on the grocery order or how many times I had to re-wash a load of laundry, but food was provided, and everyone has clean clothes. 

There is nothing like having a group of women surrounding you, poking you with emails and tweets from across the world, to keep you taking those deeps breaths so you can get back to something that you love- stories. To remind you that while you have put some things on the back-burner, like my monthly blogs, they are still there, my writing is still valid, and patience with the process is a virtue.

With the forced introspection that the past two years has brought, it was fun to learn some things about my writing process. Even though I teach writing (or taught writing in the BEFORE). Even though I have been a working author for over ten years now. I’ve spent the past two months creating the Author’s Preferred Editions to The Diaries Series to bring Violet Jordan back into the world. YAY!! But in going through that process, I saw just how baby of a writer I was when it was first written. 

Prologues everywhere, Epilogues galore. You want dream sequences, I’ve got twenty!

Flip phones. Need I say more.

So here a little appreciation post for my moments of Writing Growth for 2021.

First up, I need an outline, but not too outlining of an outline. I need milestones, but not a road map. I’ll eventually get there. These mini-synopsis have been a blessing in the two books that I was able to write in the past year. Two books! It took me three years to get Diaries #1 out the door, and two years to get TRUTH #1 out into the world. Now, I’m not saying these books were good, and my editors have ripped them to shreds, but they were written, word by word, page by page, chapter by chapter at a pace that felt like scaling a mountain. But as all those people on the internets say, “you can’t edit a blank page.”

Secondly, I default to dialogue without emotional beats. Just the words and none of the feelings or the texture of the scene, especially during a super intense scenes or info dumps (think the scenes where everyone is around a table talking about the baddie). It looks like reading a script instead of a book. But I developed something called a “Dialogue Sequel” that I can pull from when I feel that its getting a bit too wordy without any introspection. I’ll post about that next month. 

Thirdly, I really can’t read or watch TV when I am trying to create. I end up mimicking the tones and even sometimes the dialogue of characters. It’s so weird. I’m like a warped sponge. So in between projects, I have to take time to refill the Muse. I’ve binged The Great (Hulu), Bridgerton (Netflix), All the Marvel movies (MCU), and let myself dive off the deep end into Criminal Minds for about 6 seasons before I start editing again. 

Fourth, I binge books too, but rarely finish. I’m going to confess this because I think someone out there will need to hear it. I start probably 10 books a month, using the KISS App or Kindle, and I rarely find a book that grabs me enough to read it all the way through. I think I’m too picky? Or perhaps I just like really weird stuff. I usually go back to read authors that I know I love, like Hoffman and Gaiman and of course my ladies on the blog! (also you can now find the Merci Lanard series on the KISS app).  

So there you have it, a few things I’ve finally come to terms with in the past year. 

Oh wait, you want more. How about the exclusive cover reveal for all three Diaries!  You saw a sneak peak of it in Helen's post on Monday.  

Yeah. I know. so pretty.

Until next month, Happy Reading!

Amanda Arista

Author

www.amandaarista.com

An Affiliation of Chapters

Image from page 135 of "Murcia y Albacete ... Fotograbados y heliografías de Thomás, dibujos de Cabrinety, cromos de Xumetra"

When we read a book, no matter the platform or genre, we expect chapters. Capitulo. Something at the head, or top. 

Think about it:

Cookbooks are divided into courses or by ingredients. Biology books pan out according to system, phylum and class. Math books by applications... And novels? They are divided into bite-size chunks, little mini-stories all their own.

The Ferial Psalter Medieval Manuscript

It's been that way for over two-thousand years...

The Evolution of Chapters

Chapters in books and manuscripts where born out of necessity. For example, in ancient 'how-to' scripts, on topics of farming, astrology, natural sciences and the like, authors didn't expect readers to go through from start to finish. They imagined more a 'dipping in' to topics as needed: bovine husbandry, Lunar phases. life-cycles of editable fish. Chapters were like tabs, there for ease of access.

Then there was the Bible. In early renditions, the sections were not consistently divided, at all. It wasn't until the 1300s that Stephen Langton, member of the theological faculty of the Paris University, created a simple and unified system of chaptering the Bible - the one still used today.

"...the chapter has become a way of looking at the world, a way of dividing time and, therefore, of dividing experience. " The Chapter - a History by Nicholas Dames

Chapter Expectations

Huckleberry Finn

Readers, editors and publishers have certain expectations of chapters, ones that authors try to meet at least halfway. 

I liken chapters in a novel to mini-stories complete with a beginning, middle and end. There is an inciting event, something that blows things up, creates contrast and challenge, a potential solution (good, bad or temporary) and a conclusion, of sorts. Hopefully, the end hook keeps the reader turning those pages. 

In Fantasy, that hook is usually a cliffhanger, or an ominous tone or maybe a huge misdirection that the protagonist can't see no matter how loudly we scream the warning.

The Elegance of Chapters

Chapter headings can be simple statements: Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and so on... or they can have titles which cue the reader as to what's coming next. ie. Harry Potter, Chapter One: The Boy Who Lived, or Twilight: 1. First Sight.

I like to use chapter headings even further to signal a point-of-view change, as in Chapter One - Marcus, Chapter Two - Ash, but more on that next week in an A.K. Wilder post.

Your thoughts on Chapters? I'd love to hear them.

xxKim

* * *

Kim Falconer's New YA Fantasy Series is out January 5, 2020 - Crown of Bones. (Writing asr A.K. Wilder) 

Also, check her urban fantasy  - The Blood in the Beginning - an Ava Sykes Novel and the SFF Quantum Enchantment Series. 

You can find Kim on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or pop over and throw the bones on the AKWilder.com site.

2018 was the Year of the New

Hello my Supes!

2018 was the year of a lot of new things. Mostly stressful. We got up early, we wrote out goals, we made lists, we watched new stuff to feed our muse. Some worked. Some didn't. Some messed me up for an entire month! (looking at you August).

Last month I missed my post because every word I wrote, I wanted to count towards my NaNoWriMo goals. I didn't make 50K, but I did something else that I haven't done in a while- WRITE.

See all of these new things, new practises, new philosophies finally kicked me into gear to write a NEW BOOK! After a year of editing and batting around a manuscript like a cat with a ball of yarn, I have finally cleared off my desk and de-cluttered my brain enough to start on another book.

From scratch.

Blank pages.

Beginning again.




And I'm not panicking because this 2018 Year of the New actually taught me a lot about my process, what I can keep and what I can't. What I can really do with out and what REALLY distracts me from writing.

One of the things I learned this year is that I still love learning and I have lots of things to learn about my craft and my process and the world. I'll be taking more classes to hone in on what I need to work on or just to stir the cobwebs off. I know I don't know it all, but I do know enough to be dangerous.

One of the other things I learned was that I am a hybrid author- both a plotter and a panster. I need to know where I'm going, but I don't want to know how to get there before I sit down to write. I still need the journeying. AND THE POST-ITS!!!

One of the things that I didn't love was getting up early. Yeah. Not happening. I am a devoted night owl so lets make #10pmwriteclub a thing.

I didn't get a chance to dress my muse or do some of the other stuff that Elizabeth Gilbert said to do in Big Magic, but I'm still writing, so I've got some time to keep exploring

And I hope you will keep exploring the paranormal writing life with me.

Carry Onward, dear readers,

Amanda Arista
Author and Night Owl
www.amandaarista.com

Early to bed, early to rise

2018 Year of the New: 5am writers club.

I know. Just typing that makes me nervous. Especially because last month I was watching a bunch of stuff late into the night checking off my "To Watch" list. Now I'm getting up early?

Am I insane?

Yes, dear readers, but only for your amusement. 

So July, I did in fact watch a lot of muse-feeding Netflix. Learned about nuns and coffee and rewatched The Paradise (so many delectable longing glances across the room, swoon). It was a good, relaxing month. A much-needed muse break.

But the relaxing is over. I need to finish a manuscript and I've given myself to the end of September to complete it. Two months. So we are not playing around with this one.

Several of the writers I know with full-time jobs and kiddos participate in #5amwritersclub. They get up before dawn to make use of the wee hours of the morning when the house is quiet and their mind is fresh.

I scoffed at this the first time I heard it. I'm not a morning person. Not an early bird. I am a night owl. I have always been a night owl. I have always written after everyone has gone to bed. My brain gets going and I write until I drop. There was no way I was waking up that early!

However, I did want to test the notion that your mind is fresh when you wake up. You haven't gotten frustrated with your boss, you haven't made a heap of dishes after cooking dinner, you haven't given anyone any of your energy. Your book, your work, gets it all in the peaceful hours of the morning before the Chaos man arrives and hands you your daily package.

Now that was something I wanted to test.

I'm going to ease into it. Maybe just get up at 6am and start my day for a week. When the Bean starts school again, then I could maybe try for 5am. Most importantly, I am making time for myself. And Myself wants to get this book into a pretty draft form.

I've got my desk all ready. I've got my notebooks stacked. My coffee prepped. So you'll see me, dear readers, checking into the #5amwritersclub and I'll let you know how it goes.

Until then, carry on.

Amanda Arista
Author and Morning person?

Pin all the motivational quotes!

2018 Year of the New: Accountabili-buddy

So last month in the Year of the New, I started a new way of plotting while in the brainstorming phase of a book with fancy post-its and file folders and I loved it. LOVE IT!

After my Write Better Faster class,  I found this to be a great way to get my squirrelly brain to focus on multiple plots lines at once so I wouldn't have to revise so much. I can still have a clear story in mind without plotting it to death and losing the excitement of letting the characters take me on their journey.

Turns out, when you see everything together, it all gels together. And the pacing, so much much better. I can see the soggy middle!

Now all I have to go is sit down and finish a book.

Easy-Peasy, right?

Ha. Ha. No.

Writing is really hard.

Its like having a hyperactive hamster on a wheel in your  brain that just had a Red Bull. So imagine having two of them: one that writes women's fiction and the other that writes paranormal mystery.

As I'm waiting on a revision letter from my agent, I'm in Women's Fiction mode and its hard because I just want to smite everyone with a spell and chop off their heads Queen of Hearts Style.





So I need some focus. I'd been hearing writers talk about accountability groups and how much they helped just knowing that someone was at a finish line with a bright yellow sign rooting for you. That you are also responsible for rooting on that other person as well. 

Turned out, a friend reached out to me and asked if I'd be willing to be her Accountabili-buddy.

So May will be the month of Accountability. And lets hope that the random factoid here is correct.

Here are my goals for May:

• 20,000 additional words to this partially complete manuscript
• Complete a synopsis with scene breakdown as I go (a great tool for AFTER the book is written)
• First 50 pages ready to go to my beta readers. 

The plan is to check in with my Buddy at least once a week and to work on one of the above named things every day. If I run into a challenge, call/text her. If I fail miserably, have a convo about why I failed miserably and what I am going to do differently tomorrow.

So here I go, off into the Year of the New.

Wish me luck!

Amanda

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Amanda Arista
Author, Diaries of an Urban Panther Series
www.amandarista.com

Mood Board Magic

New Moon by Pat Erickson

Hi everyone,

Today I wanted to turn on all you writers - aspiring or fully accomplished -  to the notion of Mood Boards.

If you have a visual sense, and most of us who can see do, creating mood boards can be one of the most inspiring practices you can do, that isn't actual reading or writing. Fabulous for tackling the 'blank page', starting a story 'in medias res' and giving your characters, animals, conflicts and geology the personality needed to come to life.

Want to create a mood board for your current project or seed of an idea?

Let's get started.

What is a Mood Board?

noun

noun: mood board; plural noun: mood boards; noun: moodboard; plural noun: moodboards

1. an arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc. intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept.

   
   

   "We put together a mood board with key images and words that best convey the essence of the story, book cover, event our brand."

The Mood Board can be digital or physical. I used mostly digital mood boards for writing projects, and keep them, or just images on Pinterest, but more of that in a moment. Let's explore the uses next.

Uses for a Mood Board

• To design a process, either abstract. as in writing, or tangible as in building in the physical world (books to covers to new kitchen designs).
• The mood board is all about the vision. What you can't say in words.
• Mood boards are essential when communicating visual ideas to others, as in commissioning a book cover, collaborating artistically or pitching ideas, including book to film projects.
• A mood board is a springboard. Instead of facing a blank page, you can collect images as ideas for character, climate, topography, conflict and stakes in storytelling, or inspiration for a brand, or a brand new bathroom or garden.

How to Create a Mood Board

It's simple:

1. collect images

2. arrange the images in meaningful ways

This is all up to you and your individual style. The idea is to explore. Play around, and discover what lights you up the most.

Example Mood Boards

As I mentioned, mosts my book mood boards are on Pinterest for the world to see. It's a fun way to share images, get inspired and get to know your story world. Here is an example from a new series - just sold -  and soon to be announced. Working title - Amassia books 1-3.

If you are on Pinterest, I'd love to connect. And, shout out if you have an example of your mood board on line, or are just starting one. I'd love to see it. 

xxxk

Kim

Kim Falconer's latest release is out now - The Blood in the Beginning - and Ava Sykes Novel. Find this novel in a store near you.

You can also learn more about Kim at AvaSykes.com, the 11th House Blog, and on FaceBook and Twitter.  

She posts here at the Supernatural Underground on the 16th of every month and runs Save the Day Writer's Community on Facebook. Check out her daily Astro-LOA Flash horoscopes on Facebook. 

Writer's Agony and Ecstasy

Hi Everyone!

I shared a version of this earlier on AvaSykes.com and wanted to bring it here too.

The good news is, I've finished another novel!

The other news is, finishing it dropped me into a well of grief.

It's happened so regularly, this emotional plummet after achievement, a kind of post-completion depression, I decided to do a little research.

Turns out, it's a thing.

The ecstasy

It started out on Cloud 9. The first draft of a new work, a YA Paranormal, was complete, working title: The Cloud Forest. Here's the guff.

Fifteen-year-old Bri Arias survives a car accident but isn’t regaining consciousness. While her body lays comatose, her spirit roams the shaded world between waking and dreaming, life and death. In a parallel version, one where the accident never happened, Bri has the worst summer possible. Her archaeologist mother recruits Bri, and her year 10 Earth Science class, for a dig in the Andes Mountains. Touched by a shamanic spell, Bri becomes a ‘carrier’, a host to souls in transition, and most of them are not human. In one world, Bri is hospitalized and treated for schizophrenia; in another, she discovers a threat to the fabric of life-after-death. The only question is, can she wake up in time to save them both.

Christian Schloe

Then came the agony

They say the Hero's Journey is a metaphor for life. The stages, twelve or so  depending on who you read, correspond to the psychological steps taken every time we step out the door, start a project, job, relationship, degree, oil change, you name it. The process looks awesome on paper. A guide.

Encouragement.

Full Circle.

But it's not always that neat, especially at the end if the circle breaks and you spiral into the depths the 13th lost underworld.

Here's how it's supposed to go:

Step 12 - Return With The Elixir

"This is the final stage of the Hero's journey in which [the hero] returns home to the Ordinary World .... [They] will have grown as a person, learned many things, faced many terrible dangers and even death but now look forward to the start of a new life. - Dan Bronzite

Yeah, sure. Good, on paper.

But no.

Before any looking forward to new wonders of life, there is the part where you hit the pavement, face first.

The agony after the ecstasy of creative accomplishment.

You write the book, paint the picture, score the film, edit the video, choreograph the dance ... It took you a week, or a month, or two years. You give it your last tweak, mission accomplished and on comes the fanfare! Triumphant Muses! 

Ticker-tape parade!

So good on paper.

And maybe it happens like that, for some, but for me it's grief, utter and complete.

Back in the "real world," elixir in hand, and I want to curl up in some dark hollow and die.

Not so uncommon to feel that way

Sure enough, it happens to other writers.

The strangest thing about finishing a book is the incredible sense of loss -- and yes, a bit of depression - when it's over. - Jungle Red Writers on Post Book Depression

Evolutionary advantages

The Cloud Forest

Apparently there's an evolutionary advantage to depression, and a plethora of scientific studies on the relationship between it and creative expression.

 ... the creative person, who spends his or her time ruminating on thoughts is likely to suffer from major depression. From an evolutionary standpoint, depression, while seemingly a hindrance to a healthy and happy life, is really a balancing act that helps us focus on the areas where we need to improve most. - Creative Something

If you look deeper at the hero's journey, it is actually there, in the "refusal to return."

Step 12b Refusal to Return

The full round, the norm of the mono-myth, requires that the hero shall now begin the labor of bringing the runes of wisdom, the Golden Fleece, or his sleeping princess, back into the kingdom of humanity, where the boon may redound to the renewing of the community, the nation, the planet or the ten thousand worlds. But the responsibility has been frequently refused. Even Gautama Buddha, after his triumph, doubted whether the message of realization could be communicated, and saints are reported to have died while in the supernal ecstasy. Numerous indeed are the heroes fabled to have taken up residence forever in the blessed isle of the un-aging Goddess of Immortal Being. -The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell

For me, it's not so much a fall into darkness but divine homesickness, leaving the table of the gods behind. Leaving the world behind. It lasts a day or two, then slowly wears off, like a bad dream fading away.

Only then can I begin to think of the next step, the next work, and the process begins all over again.

How about you?

Has anyone else felt this way after a creative project is completed? A goal reached? I'd love to hear about it.

***

Kim Falconer's latest release is out now - The Blood in the Beginning - and Ava Sykes Novel. Find this novel in a store near you.

You can also learn more about Kim at AvaSykes.com, the 11th House Blog, and on FaceBook and Twitter and the new GoodVibeAstrology.com.

She posts here at the Supernatural Underground on the 16th of every month and runs Save the Day Writer's Community on Facebook. Check out her daily Astro-LOA Flash horoscopes on Facebook.