Ask the Author: C.M. Halstead
Answered Questions (10)
C.M. Halstead
I think it is both a blessing and a curse!
When I am in rough draft creative mode my brain sometimes flashes an image for a scene in another piece I am working on, I do not resist, instead I left myself pull that file open real quick and jot it down. Or I will create a folder and page quickly in the file I am working to jot the scene down there. My goal is to keep my brain in creative flow at all costs. When I allow myself to jump between stories I stay in flow mindset.
When I am editing a rough draft the curse kicks in, fer shizzle. That ADHD or whatever that has me wanting to work all over the place makes it harder for me to stay focused on editing. So I reward myself like I was in kindergarten and Im not joking! “Ok, if I edit these four scenes I can go a cookie, when I am done with this chapter I can have a cigar or go for a walk." Stuff like that.
Over the last nine years I’ve had to train myself to not treat the creative part of me like a clock worker or test taker, allowing myself to be all over the place during my creative time helps keep me in that mindset vs the logical one that rules other aspects of my life.
So, yes at times the blessing is creative flow, the curse is having to force focus during the non-flow parts of the process. Also, I am a Virgo, so no Gemini influence. No matter what, not allowing the judger or critic that resides in me to influence what I do or don’t do is beneficial to my creative process.
Thanks for asking, hopefully this provides some perspective.
Write on,
C.M.
When I am in rough draft creative mode my brain sometimes flashes an image for a scene in another piece I am working on, I do not resist, instead I left myself pull that file open real quick and jot it down. Or I will create a folder and page quickly in the file I am working to jot the scene down there. My goal is to keep my brain in creative flow at all costs. When I allow myself to jump between stories I stay in flow mindset.
When I am editing a rough draft the curse kicks in, fer shizzle. That ADHD or whatever that has me wanting to work all over the place makes it harder for me to stay focused on editing. So I reward myself like I was in kindergarten and Im not joking! “Ok, if I edit these four scenes I can go a cookie, when I am done with this chapter I can have a cigar or go for a walk." Stuff like that.
Over the last nine years I’ve had to train myself to not treat the creative part of me like a clock worker or test taker, allowing myself to be all over the place during my creative time helps keep me in that mindset vs the logical one that rules other aspects of my life.
So, yes at times the blessing is creative flow, the curse is having to force focus during the non-flow parts of the process. Also, I am a Virgo, so no Gemini influence. No matter what, not allowing the judger or critic that resides in me to influence what I do or don’t do is beneficial to my creative process.
Thanks for asking, hopefully this provides some perspective.
Write on,
C.M.
C.M. Halstead
The year is 2020. Again.
C.M. Halstead
One with teleportation. Not time travel, teleportation.
I have to go to the store, but don't want to leave the house, or go out in the heat, or chat with the neighbor. . .in home teleporter will take me there and back. To my dream vacation without dealing with TSA. Amazon doesnt have drones, they teleport it to you. Instantly.
I know, I know, I didn't mention a specific book. I'm an author, we make up our own rules and worlds.
Lets go with Anne McCaffrey's dragon riders of Pern series. I'd leave the politics to someone else and keep guard whilst riding a flying dragon around.
I have to go to the store, but don't want to leave the house, or go out in the heat, or chat with the neighbor. . .in home teleporter will take me there and back. To my dream vacation without dealing with TSA. Amazon doesnt have drones, they teleport it to you. Instantly.
I know, I know, I didn't mention a specific book. I'm an author, we make up our own rules and worlds.
Lets go with Anne McCaffrey's dragon riders of Pern series. I'd leave the politics to someone else and keep guard whilst riding a flying dragon around.
C.M. Halstead
I am finishing up 'Earned Innocence', a cathartic military fiction/literary fiction piece. My first! Not first story, first of those two categories.
"Camaraderie while taking on the world alone, is mandatory."
It is also my first, first person novel. It was a fun and exciting challenge. I chose that perspective to help put the reader "in the shoes", and experience what they are going through, both the reader and the veteran that is....
"Camaraderie while taking on the world alone, is mandatory."
It is also my first, first person novel. It was a fun and exciting challenge. I chose that perspective to help put the reader "in the shoes", and experience what they are going through, both the reader and the veteran that is....
C.M. Halstead
Is there a secret military base in the back of Secret Canyon, one of Sedona's, AZ's canyons? It is rumored to be so. There arepeople who say they've seen men dressed in black, wearing boots, and blackened faces, running the trail (Would they actually run the trail?) Others say skin walkers live back there and avoid the place. Are these, or any of the other stories told about the area, true?
C.M. Halstead
I am working three books at the moment!
A cathartic military fiction book about a teenager gaining the strength to be a warrior, then after it all, having to learn the strength to come back home, as much as it humanly possible after seeing the best and worst of humankind (on the same day). He has to face his demons, as we all do, in order to come all the way home and become the balanced adult he knows he can be. A story for the wounded parts of all of us!
Last fall I sat down to write the third book of The Tripper Series last fall during NaNoWriMo, instead, my inner muse decided to write the first book of a thrillagy! I listened and cranked out 50,000 words of it, in 17 days. I am glad I listened! I got to know two great characters, whose arcs will be fun to write over the three book installment. A female, three-year FBI agent who's father is a legacy and a disgruntled Veteran who's record says he and his team did nothing, although they are strangely dying off, and one of them appears to be a serial killer. The idea just came to me literally as I sat down to write; I was going to save the blank, new file as FTF3 (my working titles for The Tripper Series) when I saw a short story file I had created one night, 17 days later, the short story became the first book in a thrillagy.
Both of those stories I will be working on in 2016, bringing them both to print and digital download is my goal for this year!
This might also be a good time to mention that I have started on book three of The Tripper Series. In book three we get to visit the private spaces of Rosa and Miokel, learning more about their character, what drives them and what they do for recovery after missions. We also get to see Mackenzie step into her own as a warrior and Grey has to re-visit a villain from his past. The one who killed his mentor!
A cathartic military fiction book about a teenager gaining the strength to be a warrior, then after it all, having to learn the strength to come back home, as much as it humanly possible after seeing the best and worst of humankind (on the same day). He has to face his demons, as we all do, in order to come all the way home and become the balanced adult he knows he can be. A story for the wounded parts of all of us!
Last fall I sat down to write the third book of The Tripper Series last fall during NaNoWriMo, instead, my inner muse decided to write the first book of a thrillagy! I listened and cranked out 50,000 words of it, in 17 days. I am glad I listened! I got to know two great characters, whose arcs will be fun to write over the three book installment. A female, three-year FBI agent who's father is a legacy and a disgruntled Veteran who's record says he and his team did nothing, although they are strangely dying off, and one of them appears to be a serial killer. The idea just came to me literally as I sat down to write; I was going to save the blank, new file as FTF3 (my working titles for The Tripper Series) when I saw a short story file I had created one night, 17 days later, the short story became the first book in a thrillagy.
Both of those stories I will be working on in 2016, bringing them both to print and digital download is my goal for this year!
This might also be a good time to mention that I have started on book three of The Tripper Series. In book three we get to visit the private spaces of Rosa and Miokel, learning more about their character, what drives them and what they do for recovery after missions. We also get to see Mackenzie step into her own as a warrior and Grey has to re-visit a villain from his past. The one who killed his mentor!
C.M. Halstead
I just don't write for a week or so, and slowly turn into a grumpy old bastard; and then try to figure out why. Doh! its because I am not writing...then I head off to the writers cave.
I don't have to be inspired to write, I write because I am possessed to do so! Just need the space to write, leave me in my writer's cave alone, and it will happen!
I don't have to be inspired to write, I write because I am possessed to do so! Just need the space to write, leave me in my writer's cave alone, and it will happen!
C.M. Halstead
It's simple and one of my favorite blog posts so far:
Shut
Up
and
Start
Writing
It's that simple, don't talk about it, don't chat about it, don't read books about it, attend seminars etc. There are times I get so lost in the business or life, and I don't do the most important thing a writer can do.
No one else can write our stories! I had a friend say to me once, "When are you going to stop cheating us and start writing?" That hit home. I realized I was cheating myself as well. So, I took the advise above.
Shut
Up
and
Start
Writing
It's that simple, don't talk about it, don't chat about it, don't read books about it, attend seminars etc. There are times I get so lost in the business or life, and I don't do the most important thing a writer can do.
No one else can write our stories! I had a friend say to me once, "When are you going to stop cheating us and start writing?" That hit home. I realized I was cheating myself as well. So, I took the advise above.
C.M. Halstead
Being a creative. At 43, I spent a majority of my life not writing and allowing the creative side of me to flow. Now that I am, I am happier person all around! This past year has been amazing....
I love it when my stories engage the reader, give them a great escape for a few hours, and I get feedback from them that they want more. That is the best part!
I love it when my stories engage the reader, give them a great escape for a few hours, and I get feedback from them that they want more. That is the best part!
C.M. Halstead
I don't believe in it.
Any time I am not writing, its because I am putting it off, deep in the business side of being an Indie author, or being too social in the world.
Whenever I lock myself up consistently and am disciplined about entering the writers cave, it flows. I have the opposite "problem", too many ideas and too little time to write.
I am striving for a perfect world where all I do it write, and someone else takes care of the rest of the world!
Any time I am not writing, its because I am putting it off, deep in the business side of being an Indie author, or being too social in the world.
Whenever I lock myself up consistently and am disciplined about entering the writers cave, it flows. I have the opposite "problem", too many ideas and too little time to write.
I am striving for a perfect world where all I do it write, and someone else takes care of the rest of the world!
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