Linda Maye Adams's Blog, page 20

Writing and Burnout

Ten minutes on Twitter because I’m feeling unmotivated by it.  Then breakfast, and a walk in time to catch the bruised-looking sunrise.  The crickets are starting to fall quiet.  Just a few left now.  Probably all gone by Friday, certainly by next week.

30 minutes on Future workshop.  The weather change to fall makes me wake up a little tired, so a workshop is a good thing to do early in the morning right now.  The topic is burnout, and coincidently, I’m reading a book on burnout, called The Burnout Fix: Overcome Overwhelm, Beat Busy, and Sustain Success in the New World of Work.

One of the key things about burnout is that it can creep up on you until you’re drowning in it.  It also triggers a critical voice that shuts out everything including common sense and warnings. 

Indie writers can land in burnout territory by writing to market or letting the dollar dictate, rather than for themselves.  Like a writer who doesn’t like romance deciding to write it because it’s popular.

I saw this even in my fandom days.  One fan fiction writer was pretty good and wanted to write professionally.  She got praise from the other fans for her online stories and went into overdrive to produce as many as she could, telling herself the fans needed the stories as fast as possible.  She slapped them up so fast that they were riddled with typos, and eventually the quality of the stories declined.  She doesn’t write anymore.

Insert day job here.

I’m tired when I got off…must be an aftereffect of being on leave last week.  I dive into the logic problem in the chapter.  Turns out I just need to take out about three paragraphs.  Wasn’t obvious yesterday!

Some work on the next chapter.  I get about an hour in and I’m done for the day.

Cinnamon Fur

This morning, I run into a cute puppy the color of cinnamon on a walk.  A miniature dog, already full-sized at 3 months.  The puppy was ecstatic to see me, astounding the owner because he’d never behaved like that before. He bounced all over the place and wriggled and furiously wagged his tail, hardly able to sit still so I could pet him. Such a happy fellow.

15 minutes of the Future workshop, 15 minutes on Twitter, and onto work.

Towards the end of the day, we have a last minute emergency, so by the time I get off and hit writing time, I’m pretty tired. Check email first, find two spammy emails from people who found a single typo on a random post (left out a letter).  They direct me to a site promising to make my site error free.  My first thought is that if they have to do drive-bys on sites, digging through old posts to find customers to sell to, business must not be doing good.

Since I’m now no longer cycling and into new story, I read through the previous chapter first.  I’ve got a logic problem in the chapter I need to figure out.  But It’s hard for me to stay focused so I’m calling it after 45 minutes.  Think I’ll wander off and watch British Baking Championship.

Post-Leave Writing

Sunrise isn’t until after 7, so I watch 15 minutes of the Futures workshop.  Breakfast, then a walk outside to catch the first rays of the morning.  The air holds the chill close to the ground, cool enough I need a bigger coat. 

Then back for a short round on Twitter for my foray into marketing for the day.

And back to work today.  I’m taking it cautiously.  When I come off leave, it always ends up being a little rough Monday or Tuesday.  Everything wants to go wrong at the same time.  I don’t want to associate frustration with my writing, so if the day goes bad, I’ll put writing on the back burner.  I’ve done plenty of that in the past, trying to plow through anyway, and it’s a good way to burn out.  Worse, burnout is hard to see while you’re in it, and it feeds on itself.

…And I survive the day to dive into the Superhero Comfort Food chapter.  Lot of fun interchanges between the characters.  Especially when Dice finds out she has fan clubs.   I start a new chapter called Sidekick Mode.  Because what’s a superhero without her sidekick, pink hair and all?

Superhero Comfort Food

Fall is moving in today!  I walk outside right after sunrise and the wind is blowing cold.  I go back up for my coat and a light pair of gloves.  News says the temperature is 48.  Just a quick walk through the nearby park to get some morning sun.  I stop to talk with a man with a 9 month old bouncy black puppy who wanted to check me out.

Back in the saddle, I do about two hours of writing. Break for lunch, and another three hours.  I’m focusing on adding a total of three reaction scenes after a big battle.  Reaction scenes are when we take the time to let the character react to something that’s just happened.

And it hits me how much writers are encouraged to ignore these types of important scenes, in favor of the infamous “eliminate anything that doesn’t move the story forward.”  Reaction scenes don’t always contain plot, though they’re rich in characterization.  These are also where we’re likely to see the “domestic scenes”—characters might eat comfort food, take a hot shower, or even kick the heck out of a punching bag. Bonus! It was such a great opportunity to give Dice Ford superhero comfort food: Macaroni and Cheese.

Anne Allen also has a post up about chapter titles for indie book. Check the comments for some of my chapter titles from Superhero Portal.

Characterization: The Heart of the Story

This morning, I don’t have to go to the farmer’s market.  So I take off for Huntley Meadows Park, which is a nature center with amazing marshland.  I’ve been wanting to go for a few weeks, but the only time I can do it is early morning.  The place gets lots of photographs, so the parking lot fills up fast.

I use Waze to get there since the place is pretty hidden and hard to find.  And I run into a police blockade.  It’s small enough I can see where the blockade ends.  There’s also an emergency response panel van on site.  Not good.  It takes a bit of smarts to figure out what direction to go so Waze will detour me instead of telling me to make a U-turn.

The parking lot is nearly full, but the nature center is not packed with people. I take boardwalk through the marsh, navigating around photographers with enormous cameras staked out at various points. They’re catching animals so tiny that you can’t see them with a mega telescopic lens.   I listen to all the different birds.  They don’t just chirp.  They warble, trill, sing, and honk (Canada Geese).

It’s amazing to watch the transition from summer to fall. In spring, this exploded with vibrant growth. Everything in Virginia is green, green, green. In past years, I would have said all the change happened once fall set in. But walking away and simply studying the plants this year, I saw subtle signs of the seasonal change. Leaves on oaks drying out, their color fading a little. Not as vibrant.

In the marsh, many of the plants are still green but sliding into brown. Others have turned brown entirely and have begun receding. By the time we get to winter, this will be mainly flat water.

After a walk through the marshlands, which takes about an hour, I hop back on the road.  And the street is still blockaded.  There are now two cherry pickers out.  No clue what’s going on.

On Twitter when I return.  I also upload my promotions for the next week on Buffer.

Then writing on and off all day.  Adding more detail as a result of the map, making sure the actions jibe with the map.

Also run into a writer on Twitter who blows off “domestic scenes”—where characters eat, or do something not purely plot-related.  Sounds like it fits in with that bizarre advice “cut anything that doesn’t push the story forward.”  So much of that advice sabotages the book in such a way it’ll get form rejections.  Those scenes are just as important for a variety of reasons:

They show that the character has a life outside the story.  With some books, I’ve gotten the impression the author didn’t think outside the borders of the story at all.  Makes the characters feel flat.

They are opportunities for more character development.  They help form the foundation for character development in the bigger, plot-related scenes.

They are opportunities to add the five senses (particularly eating) and family/friendship dynamics.

A common topic of my writing meeting is urban fantasy writers.  A lot of them start with a character who lives in two worlds: One with the monster flavor of the series and the normal life outside.  Your character might run with a buddy or be a bridesmaid in a wedding. Makes for wonderful stories. I think we all want a character like us, doing normal things, and yet being more. But as the series ages, the author often starts taking these out and it becomes all monster all the time.  I’ve stopped reading those authors at that point because the story loses its heart. Because if you don’t have the characterization, the story doesn’t matter.

Story Maps

First thing up today was a refresh for A Quartet of Clowns.  This was a simple one that took 30 minutes.  Redid the cover using the same image and the new template. Pasted the story in the new template, and upload it.  Blurb didn’t need any updating.

Then off for an errand that I needed to take care of: Cancelling the gym membership.  With a round of inflation coming—I can already see it in my grocery shopping—I’m looking at small monthly expenses to cut back because those tend to have a cumulative effect that’s not always obvious.  I’m using a coach for bodyweight workouts, so this was an extra expense that I could eliminate.  The gym made it difficult to do the cancellation though—probably how they’re funding the gym.  I had to write a letter and walk it in. 

Other small expenses I knocked out included canceling a subscription for an online market that would have renewed in December, and monthly one for a members only part of a website.  I got what I needed from the latter and he isn’t putting up enough members only content right now to make it worth my money. 

I also took off two subscriptions on Amazon.  I know it’s convenient to have them, but Amazon has a price creep that’s easy to ignore when you subscribe.  One item I subscribed to started at $15, which was much cheaper than locally.  But the price creep now puts it at a little bit higher.  So I figure I can monitor the grocery store for a sale and buy then.  The other one came off because the vendor is offering it with free postage for a subscription.  I’m planning to end Amazon prime when it expires in the next few months.  I’m not using Prime movies (given anything I wanted to watch has an additional cost on top of Prime’s fee), and the free postage isn’t going to add up to the cost of the membership.  I’m essentially saving money by not buying things.

Writing on and off in the afternoon…at least I run into a snag.  This batch of scenes—action scenes—are in a different setting than I’ve used before.  It’s set on a university.  I went out to the University of Maryland to have a look around when I created the scenes….you know, get a better picture of the details in my head.  Glad I did since some of those got into the story in a major way.

I drew a map at the time. But as I cycle through these scenes, it’s obvious I still don’t have the setting as well anchored in my head as I should. Anything with a lot of action, this is especially important and part of the experience. So I wrap up my day making a map.

Original map:

Updated map:

The new one is a lot more specific, and our lavender aliens have been contributing to the university’s physics department.

Negative Time in Book Series

This morning, I get outside as the sun’s coming up.  It’s pumpkin orange peeking out through the trees in the eastern sky.  I decide to walk toward it so I can keep it in view until the orange disappears into the blue sky.

First thing out is watching the video lessons on one of my writing courses, Futures: Refresh.  This is a business of writing course.  I’m still learning about adding detail, so a business course is a nice pairing.  And time is always an issue.  I started it, fell off it for a few weeks, and am trying to get back on it.  About 30 minutes on that.

It’s a really nice day out today, so I end up getting out in the sun more than once, including a visit out to a hidden gem trail.  This is the kind of place you have to know is there because it’s not obvious from the road.  Kept seeing cars parked on the service road, wondered what they were doing.  Finally looked and discovered it was this amazing trail with Holmes Run a snake across the paths.  Lots of runners, dog walkers.

Holmes Run

It looks prettier in person than on the image. The sunlight created some very strange reflections. This mostly water. The tree branch on the left is actually part of tree roots washed out during storms. The islands cross the stream. Those are for the people. The water’s usually not too deep. If anyone is walking dogs, the dogs just run through the water. I often spot their wet footprints on the path.

I worked on and off on Superhero Portal.  Adding more characterization and setting details.  Sometimes I tend to focus on the goal of the scene—might even be leftover writing advice I need to exorcise.  You know, that advice that says, “Get rid of anything that doesn’t move the story forward.”  What does that even mean anyway?  Robs the story of fun bits of characterization, scenes that show the character has a life outside of the story.

The additions are surprisingly difficult for me, so I keep pushing at them.  I wander in and out of the story as a result, for about two hours.

In the evening, it’s my weekly writing meeting.  An interesting thought occurs to me during the discussion, partially because I’m plowing through J.D. Robb (I’m on Book 25, and have read all the previous ones).

First observation:

A lot of writers don’t handle time well.  There are three times, the third being the one I made up.

Story Time:  That’s the time the story physically happens. Author Time: That’s the time the author takes to write the story.  Sometimes these two can get mingled.  Probably also why some stories don’t make as much use of the seasons because it’s hard writing a story set in June when it’s January and snowing out.Negative Time: This is the time not accounted for in the book.  This one’s mine.

You’ll see negative time in book series.  The author takes a year to write the book.  So everything in the story happens in story time.  Then the author writes the next book, which takes another year to write.  A year has also gone by for the characters.  Sometimes it’s not always obvious that’s what happened.  The story time just feels a little off. 

What I’m seeing with J.D. Robb is that there is no negative time.  In the last book, one of the characters got hurt.  In the current one, the author specifically says that the character has gotten back to duty after recovering for three weeks—and it’s repeated in several forms.  We also get a little of the seasonal change for the time of the year, as well as numerous references to the overall time…it’s been almost two years since the main character met Roarke.  It’s constant circling back to remind us of the sense of time and makes the story feel very grounded.

Learning from Writing Masters

First on the plate today is tackling another newsletter email (#16).  It’s interesting to think about the time it takes for this.  I think when I start it’ll be about 30 minutes.  It’s write the newsletter, read it over, run Grammarly, post it on the site, and reread it for typos. 

Takes an hour.

After that, I’m lazy for a bit, then I tackle a refresh for Sky Hair.  It ends up taking 90 minutes because, in my head, I remember that I don’t like the cover I came up with for a refresh that I didn’t get to.  I spend a lot of time looking for an image, build it, then look at the original one and wonder why I remembered it wrong.  Sigh. Blurb had been redone already, updated that a bit, then redid all the keywords.

On and off all after, work on the story.  Now I’m focused on adding more characterization, along with more setting.  It’s like Law and Order.  The detectives interview a witness.  Three people standing around talking would be plenty boring.  So the interviewee is unloading produce from a truck, slamming down the boxes.  I’ve been reading J.D. Robb and she does a similar method.  The characters drive a lot.  They talk about food, relationships, the case—and they get the smells of the glide cart vendors at the side of the road, the angry horns of the traffic, etc.  This is the reason to study best sellers.  You’ll see this in a master of writing.  You won’t see it in someone who’s written one or two books.

The refresh (with the cover I remembered wrong):

Sky Hair

Her confidence shattered by death, Pitarra escapes to an artist’s retreat on the planet Demory II.  She hopes to rekindle her creativity and paint again.

But her fellow artists jeer at Pitarra’s failures.

Facing the possibility her creativity may never return, she makes a daily trek to her secret spot.  Hoping for a miracle.

And getting something that changes her life forever.

A heartwarming science fiction story about loss and hope.

And here’s the link for it.

The Scary Part of Common Writing Advice

I’m on leave this week.  My head thinks, “Wow!  I can get lots of writing in.”  The reality is that I still need downtime from the day job, not just switch hats.

I’d be out visiting a museum normally, especially with the weather spitting rain.  But COVID-19 restrictions have made that such a challenge that it robs the fun out of any museum visits.

So I end up going to Walmart instead.  It’s a big production for me because Walmart isn’t near me.  I need a few extra pairs of winter gloves.  I always lose one of my gloves in winter and have to chase a replacement down.  I want to be prepared this time.  Target had winter hats but gloves?  Since they changed around the store, they haven’t had any good gloves in years.  So Walmart it is.

I use Waze this time because I want to see if there’s a different way to get there so I can do a little exploring.  I take longer with Waze.  My trip is a straight shot.  Waze takes me around all these turns, runs into trouble when it tells me to turn on one street—and it ain’t there (Virginia streets).  Turned into a big hassle since Walmart was woeful on the gloves, too.

Work for an hour cycling on the story.   Then break for lunch and pick up the newsletter for a couple of hours when I come back.  Then wander into the writing again.  Inner critics’s been getting nervous during the cycling.  I have to have this story done by November and the cycling felt like it was taking forever.  But I just hit a spot that’s making the inner critic happy.  Now we’ll see…

Meanwhile, I run into a writer on Twitter who says she prefers to not learn from best sellers, but from other beginners.  I tried not to cringe.  It’s common wisdom on writing message boards and I practiced it myself at one point. So everyone at the same level is giving each other advice, even when they don’t know what they’re talking about like:

Keep description to a minimum. Do it in in drips and drabs. The reader doesn’t need that. . The reader doesn’t care about the five senses. Leave those out.

Those two gut your ability to do any characterization. You can’t have your character’s blue eyes ice over with anger if you haven’t told the reader the character has blue eyes or have laid in the groundwork–through description–of the changes in his behavior when his emotions change. You end up reduced to characters shaking fists or slamming doors to show they are angry.

The result was that I learned an awful lot of bad habits, including learning not to trust myself. So I ended up spending a lot of time unlearning all those things. 

When Editing Goes Wrong

This morning, I have to crane my head back to see the moon, since it’s moved directly overhead.  It’s like a theater curtain pulling back, halfway now. 

Back to knock out a bit on Twitter, then hitting the crutch words remaining in this batch of chapters.

Migration to the work computer until it’s time to shut down.

6:00 online, finishing up this batch of chapters.  The last two don’t need a lot of cycling.  I turn on the Read Along feature and plow through three of the chapters, finding more typos.  But it takes a good hour to do this.

Meanwhile, I picked up two cookbooks from Amazon and was shocked at the poor editing.  The cookbooks were for the Pegan Diet, which blends Paleo and Vegan.  The core of Pegan: No gluten, no dairy, no processed foods. 

The editing mistakes were pretty careless:

Beef stew with the primary ingredient of lambMain courses in the side dishes sectionMetric measurements on some of the recipesWhat the heck is a mug as a measurement?

But the most egregious editing problem?  Book 1 contained numerous recipes with whole wheat and pasta.  Book 2 contained some whole wheat, but a lot of dairy and included the processed oils of canola and vegetable.  I suspect the authors pulled from a stock of Paleo and Vegan recipes from other books without checking what Pegan actually was.

But that makes it worse because that means the typos and editing errors are going from one book to another. The author’s not paying attention. The publisher’s paying attention. The reader finds out when they buy the book. Not good…