Learning from Failure - A Life's Work

 

We all have failures. I don't think I've ever met a person who didn't fail at something, sometime, somewhere. The great news is that failure can be a great teaching tool. If, that is, you don't let it hold you back from trying.

That has always been my goal.

My motto in life is simple: Do what you can with what you have. That basically means to try your best with what life gives you. You never know what might happen (my week thus far could be living proof of this), but you can determine to make the most of it, whatever it is. 

Now that I've explained, I must confess, I haven't done my 3000 words a day for the last 4 days. I managed to succeed the first 4 days, and felt so proud of that achievement! But now, failure leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. I decided yesterday to try to restart the 3000 words a day work on Monday (tomorrow). But...I have a massive cleaning job to do on the house as family is coming tomorrow night to stay.

I'm going to try anyway. We'll see how much success I have. I must admit, I've been feeling downhearted by my failure. It's so difficult to continue trying when you feel as though you've already failed. I couldn't even turn on the computer and look at my blog, I felt so ashamed! Such a silly emotion, but that is what I felt. Logic rarely impacts emotion the way we want it to.

Progress has been made, however. I'm on the computer again and I'm blogging. This is good. This is a beginning to returning to my proper track.

So, in conclusion, I'm sorry that I haven't lived up to my goals, everyone. And that I haven't been much support to anyone else in the last few days. Life has been crazy (and promises to continue to be), plus my pill wore off. 

What pill, you ask? Well, I have a debilitating illness that makes it hard for me to function from day to day. Recently, my doctor had me start a pill that might keep me from being as bad. One problem, however: this pill has a few major side-effects, one of which is death. They have to do some tests on me before I can take the pill again, so we know if I might die from it or not.

I miss the pill. I felt so wonderful on it! I could accomplish things again. I could do things, feel good, be happy, be friendly and kind to others, and a whole lot more. But now it's worn off and I can't take another. I understand why I can't (I really don't want to die), but I wish I could take another pill already.

It's just depressing! I'm just so sick of being sick. I have been, since I was 15. You'd think I'd be used to it by now. But after one week of feeling good again, returning to that sick feeling is like I rediscovering the illness all over again! I know I should count my lucky stars that my illness is mostly just debilitating, and not really life-threatening. It's hard to look at the bright-side when you're feeling depressed, though. Oh, well.

I am going to meet one of those deadlines. I don't know which one, but I will try my best to reach the earliest one first, second earliest second, and last if all else fails. You can be sure of that much.

I am determined to be a success. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but one day I will be a published, successful writer. I will see to it.

Time for the writing quote of the day:

"Most editors are failed writers - but so are most writers.  ~T.S. Eliot"

Thanks for reading everyone! Promise I'll do better this week. Happy reading and...

 

Poetry Sharing

So, today is going to be a very short post. I want to concentrate on my 3000 words after work today, and work won't be over for several more hours (I'm sneaking off to write this).

On today's post, I want to share a poem I have written. I decided to do so because of inspiration from my wonderful follower (and, I hope, friend), Rebecca who hails over at the life of an ordinary girl blog. She posted a beautiful song that her friend wrote, which you can view here.

Anyway, without further ado, I'd like to present my poem, Sunset.

A little glow

Comes to the sky

A tinge of color

To catch the eye

Slowly ascending

The fire climbs

As before it has

A million times

Orange meets pink

Yellow meets red

Regretfully the sun

Wakes from bed

A sleepy yawn

A taunting glimmer

Full of light

And spark and shimmer

The world comes alive

As light conquers dark

And the sun is born

From one small spark

Glow becomes shine

As sun wins sky

And softly moon sinks

With hushed goodbye

Hope you enjoyed that! Please tell me what you think, I always feel so vulnerable about my creative work. I'd really appreciate your opinion! Now, time for our writing quote of the day:

A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare.  For the most part we miss the hue and fragrance of the thought; as if we could be satisfied with the dews of the morning or evening without their colors, or the heavens without their azure.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Thanks for all your time and please tune in next post! Sorry it is so short, but it's all I can offer on such a busy day. Hope you enjoyed it, anyhow!

Writer's Block Murdered My Talent

 Well, today's topic is for 3red! She asked me today how I deal with writer's block, the great bane of all writers, and I don't think I can really handle the topic in a comment. So, I decided to do an entire post about it. Hope everybody enjoys it!

Before we get started, though, I'd like to apologize for it being so late in the day. I planned on doing this post much earlier, but, well, life is rarely how you plan it. First, I shut the internet off for 4 hours or so to work on my book (got my 3000 words). Finally, when I got back on to get to work, it was time to go pick up the goats we bought.

Yep, you heard right. Goats. 3 to be exact. All female. We have the grandam, the dam, and the kid. The grandam (yes, that is the correct word) is four years old, the dam is two years old, and the kid is around five months old. Now, if anybody reading this has ever held 3 goats down in the back of a moving truck with only 1 other person to help and a speed demon at the wheel of the truck, you know how much fun that was.

Anyway, I'd also like to say I am not an expert writer, by any means. In fact, I believe it would take longer than the 100 year lifespan most of us hope to attain to become an expert writer. But, well, I have about 10 years of experience doing just about everything wrong in writing you can, so that has to be worth something. You might want to take those facts in mind before taking any advice I may offer, however.

All that being said, let's move on to what we're here for...

So, writer's block. Has anyone else out there ever had it? It can be a very frustrating affliction, sitting at a computer, ready to type, and...nothing. No words come to mind, no pictures of what's happening in the story you're working on, no idea how to get from Point A (where you are in the story now) to Point B (where you want to be in the story, because you know what to write when you get there). It reminds me of getting stuck up in the mud with a pick-up truck. The tires go round and round, but you ain't getting anywhere.

In my experience, writer's block comes because of one of two reasons. Number 1: Some plot hole is tripping me up. Usually, I don't even notice (consciously) that I've written some kind of paradox, but subconsciously I know it. When that happens, I can sit at the computer for an hour and stare at the screen and think. And think. And think. And still get no where. How I fix this type of writer's block is to sit there for that hour, and if nothing comes to mind, I re-read the entire book to that point. Whether that is a few paragraphs or 20 chapters, I read it all the way through to the point I'm stuck on and see if I can't find some flaw in the logical construction of the story.

And usually I find something, fix it, and voila! the block is gone.

Number 2: I can't get started. Let's face it, beginning to write, even when you did it just yesterday, is hard work. It's like revving the engine when it's too cold outside. You got to let the engine warm-up first, if you plan on getting anywhere.

There are a lot of ways to warm up your writing engine. The one I use: poetry. For some reason, poems come more naturally to me when I don't feel like writing. I choose a subject, an emotion, anything I feel like writing about that day, and start rhyming. This gets me going, and when I come to the project I'm working on, it doesn't seem as difficult to get writing.

Another warm-up I do is to find a poem or short story somewhere that I've written on paper, but haven't typed up yet. I just copy out the words I've already written. I don't know how or why that loosens up the writing muscles, but it does help (usually).

Several warm-ups are out there. You could use a writing prompt (there's a half-billion on the internet). Or find a picture that inspires you to write a story. Or think of a popular song you like and try making the lyrics fit an original story of your imagining. Or write a journal entry about your day or the day before. Or write an entry in your blog (but not too much, as that can become a distraction). Do something, anything, that makes you write. It's the best if it gets you writing creatively.

Think of it this way: singers have to warm-up before a performance. So do actors. Even painters often sketch before they tackle the painting of the day. Writing is an art, and sometimes the magic won't come. So, try warming up and see if that helps. You may find the magic happens.

If, on the other hand, the words aren't flowing, but you know what scene you want to write, maybe the problem is just that you need to relax. Do some stretches, take a walk, or do some yoga. Another great thing to remember: Breathe. Seriously, ten, deep breaths can calm you down quicker than just about anything.

Try changing your music. Classical is said to improve brain-power, while jazz is often soothing. If you like pop, that's great, but I personally find the lyrics distract me a lot more than I realized. Something instrumental with no lyrics helps the words flow the most, in my experience.

Here's some music that might help:

>

If none of that is working, there are a lot of places to find out more about writer's block. Here's a few I found with some helpful advice (I think):

Top 10 tips for Overcoming Writer's Block

http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/writingroadblocks/tp/block.htm

Hack your way out of Writer's Block

http://www.43folders.com/2004/11/18/hack-your-way-out-of-writers-block

Beating Writer's Block

http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/beatingblock.html

One thing I'd like to add: sometimes the biggest block is simply the fact that you don't have the time left in your day to write. You have kids to care for or work or a big event planned. That's okay. But try to carve out just 10 minutes a day. Maybe get up in the morning 10 minutes earlier or go to bed 10 minutes later. 10 minutes of writing, every day, adds up.

Anyway, hope I haven't bored you all to death and someone out there finds this useful! Time for the writing quote of the day, and then I'm done, I swear!

Writers are not just people who sit down and write.  They hazard themselves.  Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.  ~E.L. Doctorow

Thanks for reading everybody! I really appreciate you taking the time!

Belated Introductions

Hello. My name is Kyla Rucci, and I am a writer.

Okay, so you already knew that (if you've been here before; if not, ignore that statement). But I was looking through my past blog posts and noticed something odd: I never introduced myself or explained what I was doing here. So, here I am, 11 posts in, and I suddenly think: Hmm, maybe I should do that...

So, hello folks! And welcome to my very first blog! I hope you enjoy your stay with us, and please leave a comment on your way out. Thank you.

To be honest, why I started this blog is a complex answer. It isn't just that I wanted to talk about writing my book (though that was a large part of it, as you may notice), but also that I wanted to reach out and discover if there really were people out there who might read the dang thing when it was finished. But it isn't just that, either. I wanted to talk to people, get to know some perfect strangers and share with them the adventure of writing a novel. And then, I thought that maybe, if a bunch of people were counting on me to finish my book, the pressure would keep me going even when I felt like quitting.

But, to go even deeper than this, the reason I began a blog lies in the same reason I have chosen to be a writer. I love to write. I love the words on the page, that go deeper than black and white, and become a portal that can transport you into someone's mind. These two-dimensional characters open up a whole new world, with characters and landscapes and creatures quite unlike anything we know here in our mundane lives. 

That sounds so figurative, so magical. To make it more real, why I write can be summed up into one memory. When I was seven years old, I had a very close friend. His mom and my mom were best friends, and so we, by necessity, became like brother and sister. We spent time together constantly. And, boy, did we bicker! 

On one particular day, we were on a road trip together with our parents. We sat in the backseat, while our two moms talked in the front and generally ignored us. Now, this friend was very hyper. Sitting in a car for a long period of time was an incredible strain for him. And I was already a little bookworm at this age, and had brought along my favorite book at the time, BFG by Roald Dahl. I had probably read the book a million times before, but that particular day I wanted to read it again. But I couldn't. Because the little brat beside me wouldn't shut up long enough for me to complete a single sentence.

As you could imagine, I got pretty irritated. At first, I begged for him to stop talking and let me read. This did not work. Then, I demanded he shut up so I could read more than two words at a time. This also did not work. Finally, I grew so fed up, I began to read the book aloud.

He was furious! He whined and told me to be quiet. He promised he'd stop talking if I'd just shut up. He told his mom to make me stop. He even told me how much he hated books and didn't want to hear one read to him, and lectured me that if he wanted to read a book, he'd pick one up and read it himself.

I continued reading anyway.

And as I read, a magical thing occurred: He shut up. I continued to read the rest of the car ride, finally enjoying my beloved novel. At the end of the car ride, when it was time to shut the book and go inside, I expected my friend to tell me how horrible I was for putting him through that.

But, much to my surprise, he asked me if he could borrow the book after I was done, instead.

After that, this boy, who had had a lot of trouble with his grades in school, and had HATED reading any kind of book, began to read books on his own time and progressively got better grades. And now, because of those better grades, he is in college, training to be an FBI agent.

Now, if you wanted to be very kind, you could say I had something to do with that outcome. After all, if I hadn't read that book aloud, he might never have found a love for the written word. But those were not my words. It wasn't my world that transported him away and made him feel more alive. The true credit for his change of heart and brighter future goes to Roald Dahl, a man long dead.

And that's what I want. To touch one person's life enough to inspire them to reach for something better. That is the epitome of why I write.

I may die tomorrow. I may be dismembered, blinded, disfigured, or worse. But today, I write. What more can a person ask for?

Well, time for our writing quote of the day:

What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window.  ~Burton Rascoe

  

Happy reading (and writing) everybody and talk to you later! Have a great day!

The Sweet Smell of Success!

 So, I did it. I turned off the internet and wrote over 3000 words yesterday and today. And it felt GOOOOOOOD!

I'm so happy to have done it! I accomplished what I set out to do. Okay, so only two days are done and there are twenty-eight left (it's so depressing when I say that), but I did it for two days! I am officially 6000 words richer than I was just yesterday when I posted on this blog. So, no matter what happens in the future, I have still come out the better for this exercise.

And let me tell you, to successfully finish something important is the biggest high ever. I feel like I could run a marathon right now. I'm skipping, I'm twirling, I'm happier than I've felt since I was knee-deep in my book two months ago and loving it.

I have to say, I think this idea rates among the best I've ever made. Even if I don't finish the book by the end of the month (which I still am going to try to do), this has made me love my work again, and that is no small fete!

The challenge feels exhilarating, to say the least! So my (unasked for) advice of the day is: if you're having an attack of the doldrums, can't seem to discover that inner spark that you had just a little while ago, challenge yourself with the almost impossible and watch yourself blossom with success. It worked for me (so far).

I've come up with a work strategy to help me write every day. I start by setting up an area on a desk of some sort for my laptop to sit on with the notebooks I've made outlining my idea nearby, preferably open. I have to pull up a comfortable chair with some sort of pillow to keep me nice and relaxed. Then, I play light classical music in the background, to help me think and drown out the distractions of the world around me (they say classical music improves your brain function, and after much experimentation of my own, I believe it). After that, I shut off the internet and pull up my book on the computer. While I work, the urge to pull the internet back up to look up some fact or do some research on some moment in the book overtakes me at least once or twice. But I persevere and refuse to allow the treacherous heart to lead me unto temptation.

I'm sorry if I sound all braggy. But I'm just so excited! Do you know how many personal goals I've set and failed? And, so far, I've done what I set out to do on this one, and the success has me feeling like I could fly!

Well, thanks to all my readers for tuning in for another installment. Sorry it came so late in the day, but I wanted to get my 3000 words done for the day first.

Here's some questions for all my readers: Have you ever set a challenging goal for yourself and found yourself exhilarated by the work? Have you ever set a challenging goal for yourself and failed miserably? Did that make you feel depressed (it has me)? What kind of challenge would you relish in your life right now?

Here's a video that had me dying laughing the first time I watched it. I could NOT get over this chair! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

And, to finish, the writing quote of the day:

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.  ~Baltasar Gracián

Writers Write...Right?

 

I haven't written for another day (except in my blog). It's like my life suddenly picked up again. My entire life was this book for a long time, and nothing interfered. Now, suddenly, a life is knocking on my door and intruding in my writing time. Stupid life.

But, seriously, I haven't written anything in my book for two days. Mostly because I haven't had time, but also because I'm procrastinating...again. It's hard work, the words aren't flowing the way they used to, and the internet is a powerful distraction.

However, I really don't want to end up like this:

So, writers write, right? Why am I not writing? I know I'm a writer, the last ten years have told me that, but what about right now? Don't I want to get this work finished? Well, yes, but I'm not sure where to go next in what I've written, even with the stupid outline. What should Yelina say or do to prove she's an evil stepmother (which she really isn't, but she seems like one at first)? I don't want to be too cliche. Although, to be honest, my style in writing is to start with the cliche, make it look cliche, then twist it around to almost the exact opposite of cliche. So, should I go with my instincts and start with the cliche, where I have her yelling and giving my character really evil, plotting looks in the beginning? And then twist it all around later when Yelina turns out to be the only person who tries to save the main character, as the not-so-evil stepmother (that was my original intention)? But if I start with the cliche, won't people stop reading?

Should I care if people stop reading?

Being a writer, I'm supposed to write for me first, and readers second. That's because there is absolutely no way to please everybody in the world, as we all have different tastes, but I can certainly please me and my tastes. But it's so hard to do in practice, sometimes. How do you shut off the back of your mind, where it describes how badly this is going to flop, no one will want to publish it, and people are going to hate you? Especially when you're a natural born people-pleaser like me. 

Why can't I take the attitude so many others have? That it doesn't matter what they think, I'm going to do what I love and they can go be unhappy somewhere else.

Despite all, I think I'll go with my planned plot and make Yelina look truly evil at first, then twist her character a full 180 degrees after the extreme circumstances hit. Does that sound good, or does it seem stupid to you? Would YOU read past the cliche and find out what happens next?

I can and will write this book. The question is WHEN. So, I have decided to set a goal time for finishing the first draft. The first goal time is going to be extreme, to try to push me to do it soon and not put it off til the last minute. Then, I'm going to have a second and third goal time that the first draft of the first book HAS to be done by, no exception.

First Goal: End of July 2011 (Possible, but difficult)

Second Goal: September 15, 2011

Third And Final Goal: December 31, 2011

I really want to be done by the end of this month. To make that, I have to write no less than 2,667 words a day, every day, this month (assuming this is a typical 80,000 word novel). To do that, I will probably have to turn off the internet at 6:00PM, at least, every day and have my book open to write in for the time period after that.

I guess I'm going to attempt my own version of NaNoWriMo. For those of you not in the know (which is no shame, because I never knew of it before last year), that stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it is held every year from November 1st to November 30th. Check it out here. It is completely free and my computer plus Google says it is also virus-free.

Well, I hope you guys are rooting for me! Let's see if we can't cut through the procrastination and worry and get this writing show on the road!

Goal: 3,000 words a day for the next 30 days

Goal: Complete novel by end of July 2011

Goal: Shut down Internet every day at 6PM, and DON'T reopen it

Thanks for reading! I really appreciate all of you taking the time to read my blog! Here's hoping I can meet my goals!

Fairies, Ogres, and Trolls! Oh my!

I explained the bare minimum of my book before and I had so many wonderful responses to it! But now I think it's time I tell you a little bit more about the world I have built.

First of all, I have six books and six, tentative titles for those books. I'd love to hear any ideas about my titles you have. Do they sound alright? Do they sound too forced? Do you hate them? Love them? I had this idea when creating them to make them all have the name of a mythical creature that appears in my world inserted inside the title. Is that silly? I just like links in my story, things that go full circle and connect the beginning with the end.

Book 1: Dragon Marked

Book 2: Never Trust a Pixie

Book 3: When a Goblin Invites You to Dinner

Book 4: The Peace of the Pegasus

Book 5: Song of the Siren

Book 6: Dragon King

The title of the third book, When a Goblin Invites You to Dinner, I feel unsure and worried about more than any of the other titles. I don't know that it sounds right aloud, or would look good on the cover of the published novel (and I'm determined that these WILL get published, at least, if I have anything to say about it). What do you think? Do you think it can be tweaked just a little and sound better? It really is a key point in the story, even appearing in two of the planned speeches.

Secondly, I have twelve realms to be explored over the course of the six books, and around twenty two creatures and cultures. And that number doesn't even include the animal-like creatures or the plant-like creatures or the legendary creatures (well, it does include the Nightmares). It's pretty crazy. I have a powerpoint with all these creatures and someday, I promise, I will upload it as a flash program or something and put it up here.

Thirdly, the series follows Mira's journey with her new friends across her world, seeking to unite the different cultures of the many creatures against the Nightmares. They have no chance of survival unless they work together against the Nightmares, but Mira and her friends have to convince the rest of their world that that's true. The first book shows how Mira becomes a part of that group, as well as setting up her friendship with Dewarve (the giant wolf), Cade (the dragon), Leif (the elf who competes for her interest), Morina (the elven maiden who's in love with Leif and jealous of Mira), and Elias (the elf who hates all humans in general and Mira in particular).

Can you tell why it took me eight months to research and plan yet?

My favorite quote about writing:

I love being a writer.  What I can't stand is the paperwork.  ~Peter De Vries

Thanks for reading, everyone, and happy blogging!