Jaye Wells's Blog, page 21

Celebrating Autumn Wells Style

Happy Tuesday!

I'm still working away on the new proposal. The good news is it finally seems to be gelling and I am not too far away from writing the synopsis to go with my three sample chapters. This world is very different from my Sabina Kane series and I'm having a lot of fun with the new characters. It's creepy and funny and I really, really hope I can sell it.

Yesterday, I spoke to a communications class at a college in West Virginia. The students were mostly freshmen and sophomores and they had some really great questions about what being an author is really like. I love speaking to groups about being a writer because it's the best job in the world. I just hope i didn't kill anyone's dreams when I dispelled some popular rumors about the life of an author. Hint: There is no publisher-issued cabana boy. But maybe I should try and work that clause into my next contract.

In addition to writing and teaching, I'm also gearing up for my favoritest holiday–Halloween. In fact, I've declared this month Octoberween–a full month of tricks and treats around my house. I've already begun my decorating. My mantel is decorated and I already have a few decorations in my yard. Just need a few more supplies to round out the creepiness. I'll post pics once it's all done.

What's Cookin' with Jaye

This week is all about welcoming autumn. For me, this season is all about the pumpkin and its gourd and squash relatives. Thus, last night I made this delicious Beef Tagine recipe with butternut squash. The only thing I altered in the recipe is using pearled couscous instead of the traditional kind. I really enjoyed the nice heat the ground ginger and cinnamon added to this recipe. Even Spawn declared it good despite the fact he avoided the squash.

How have you started celebrating Autumn?

Outline Schmoutline

When most people hear the word "outline" they think of those dreaded roman-numeraled jobbies from high school. You know the ones. If you're like me, the thought of those subsets and highly logical left-brained exercises give you the shakes. If you're not like me, they give you a sense of order and linearity, and perhaps even control over your ideas.

I sat on a panel last weekend at Fencon about how to take an idea through to an outline. I'll admit I had some trepidation going in. I don't outline in the traditional sense, and the idea of talking for an hour about them sounded about as appealing as, well, outlining. However, during the course of the discussion something occurred to me: Everyone has a different idea of what an outline actually is.

For example, I'm often asked if I'm a plotter or a by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer (aka a panster). The short answer is I'm neither but sometimes I'm both. If you'll remember in my last post, I advocated resisting the urge to impose structure on your ideas too early in the process. That is because when I sit down to write a story, I focus first on accumulating ideas. I write scenes or images that I see very clearly. These little nuggets are like the shiny stones in a kaleidoscope. I get them down and then I spend a long time shifting them around, looking from every angle to find the vein of gold that will lead me into the heart of the story.

Usually, once I have pondered and shifted these stones around for a few weeks, I start putting them in some semblance of order. I do this by using a tool more often associated with screenwriting: a storyboard. This is not the same as a storyboard used by advertising people or animators to show images. Yet it is inherently a visual exercise.



Here's how it works. I begin by writing the the main idea or goal of my core scenes on Post-It notes. Those are placed on a poster board in approximately the location I see them fitting into the story. The board has been divided into four horizontal sections. The top section is Act One, from inciting incident to the first story turning point. The middle two sections represent Act 2, which is the longest act and contains two turning points. The third section, obviously, represents Act 3.

When I begin laying out my scenes I may only have about ten or twelve beats, or scenes. Most of my books are around thirty chapters, each with one or two scenes. That means a book requires anywhere from thirty to upwards of maybe forty-five scenes. But now that I have a skeleton for the story with my initial 12 or so scenes, I can start playing with the white spaces. Using more Post-Its, I connect the dots between my existing scenes. Usually, I also use different colors Post-Its for different subplots or major elements. So, for instance, in the story board shown above for GREEN-EYED DEMON, the main plot is blue and another element I was keeping track of is green.

After I get my main scenes on the board, it's kind of like planning a road trip, where each Post-It is a destination. I know, for example, I need to get from Dallas to Atlanta in the first act. Maybe I have a couple of stops on the way already mapped out. This is where I figure out whether I want to add a detour to see the world's largest ball of twine or if I'd prefer to take the scenic or more direct route.

I can assure you that this method is not easy. It's circuitous and non-linear and can be quite frustrating. But it reflects how I think about story–in a visual, right-brained sort of way. Often times, I don't know what I want to say until I've figured out what I don't want to say by writing lots and lots of scenes that won't make it into the final story. The story board helps me rejigger my plot on the fly. It also allows me to know with a quick look if my pacing of any of the story elements is off. And because I use short one-line descriptions for each scene, it also allows me enough leeway for inspiration to strike while I'm writing. It also allows me to write the book out of order, which means that I'm always working on scenes I'm excited about on any given day. When the first draft is done, the board also allows me to reorder scenes easily and then apply those changes in the document.

As I was sitting on the panel last weekend, I realized that while I don't plot or outline in the traditional sense, my storyboard is, nevertheless, a visual outline. They might not work for everyone or make sense to anyone else who sees them, but they work for me.

Part of becoming a writer is figuring out how your mind processes story. I figured out a long time ago that trying to impose linear plots on my ideas results in formulaic story, so I shun any tool that pushes me in that direction. But some writers' best work comes from linear thinking. Roman numerals get them excited and that's okay, too.

I guess my point is that there are as many types of outlines are there are types of writers. Some using excel spreadsheets to track action, some use index cards wrapped with a rubber band, some write synopses using the hero's journey template, some don't use any outline at all during their first draft and then write one to use for revisions. Your job is to figure out what works best for you and your project.

The process I described above for my process often gets tweaked depending on the story. Sometimes my story boards are densely packed with notes. Other times they're sparse. Sometimes I create them early in the prewriting phase and sometimes I really don't create them until closer to the end of the first draft.

If you're looking for a list of types of outlines, you should check out this post by Check Wendig:25 Ways to Plot, Plan and Prep Your Story. If you're not already reading his Terrible Minds blog, do yourself a favor and add it to your blog roll.

Every story needs structure. As the writer, it's up to you when, how and what kind of structure it has. Be open to experimenting with different forms of outlining until you find one that works for you.

Playing God with a .38 Special

As a sort of corollary to last week's post, The Journeyman Writer , I thought I'd share how I'm currently working on my own craft.

But first, a musical interlude.

Writers are control freaks.That's why we find creating worlds from scratch and torturing the poor inhabitants fun.  Playing god is a gas.

But if you're like me, this tendency to want to control everything can cause more problems than it solves in the early stages of writing a book.

This is exactly the issue I was struggling with earlier this week. I'm working on a new proposal. It's an idea that I've wanted to write for a long time. As the date neared to start working on it, I had romantic notions about the freedom to create without a deadline. How these new characters would be charming and interesting and so fun to work with. What I was forgetting was how much work is involved to create a world from scratch. I forgot that it's not easy to get to know new characters. And soon, the pressure I put on myself to make this next series a blockbuster, ruined all my fun.

Then I realized that while I am pretty good at dishing out advice, I am not so good at listening to it myself. I wasn't having fun. I wasn't being patient with my process. But most of all, I was trying to force the story into a plot way too early.

It hit me on Monday that I needed to take a step back. That I needed to reread the blog posts I've been doing for you guys and take my own medicine. So I did.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a novelist friend who mentioned she was working on a scary new idea herself and found THE 90-DAY NOVEL by Alan Watt helpful. As it happened, I realized I already owned that book, but had not read it. So I pulled it out this week and got to work.

Watt's central idea is that we must allow ourselves time at the beginning to let our imaginations play with our ideas. Imposing structure on these fragile things too early can destroy a story's promise before its had time to develop. Which brings us to the reason I've had a .38 Special song stuck in my head all week: Watt says that in the beginning, we must hold our ideas loosely.

Maybe this sounds a little granola or woo-woo to you. But to me it makes perfect sense. My best work comes after a period of play. When I allow myself to toy around with images and snippets of ideas for a while, by the time I am ready to write the process is much smoother. It's smoother because the better I know my characters and the world, the more organically the plot unfolds.

Why? Because all that futzing around is actually laying the foundation for your story. It's work, but it doesn't feel like work. Brainstorming while we do dishes and watching movies and reading other books and answering character questions (and Watt's questions are great–much better than ridiculous character profiles) and writing down images without judging them allows our subconscious to do its job. It allows us to understand what drives our characters. To delve into their backstories. To understand what themes drew us to this idea in the first place. In short, it allows us to understand what we want to say before we commit it to paper.

Imposing loose ideas into molds breaks them. It prevents them from blossoming into their potential. It also results in forced, formulaic writing. Why formulaic? Because when we're stuck and stressed, we tend to fall back on easy fixes. Genre fiction is filled with examples of books that rely on formulas to act as short hand for telling a good  story. But my absolute belief is that the best genre fiction respects the conventions of its genre while also elevating them through rich characterization, fresh writing, breaking some rules, and honest treatment of theme.

Now, I will say that my patience an only be stretched so far. Spending a month doing freewriting exercises is just not going to happen. It also won't, as Mr. Watt suggests, take me a month to write the first act of the story. But I have a few books under my belt and writing is my full-time job. I'm confident enough in my abilities to work through issues beginners face and can therefore skip some of the more elementary steps. So, basically, I am using the lessons as a reminder to be patient with the story and let it develop.

This approach might make some of you itchy. You might do better just diving in and discovering your story as you write it. But I know this does not work for me. And that is part of the challenge of learning to be a writer: Learning what works for you and what doesn't, while also being open to new approaches that might push your craft to higher elevations.

If this post resonated with you, you might want to check out THE 90-DAY NOVEL. Just understand, writing is an art and a craft. Just like formulas don't result in good plots, they also don't magically result in a finished book. You still have to do the work. You have to be open to trying new tools to do the job. But most of all, you have to …

"Hold on loosely and don't let go. If you cling too tightly, you're going to loose control."

 

Housekeeping & What's For Dinner

Hello, my pets.

Before I share What's Cooking in Jaye's Kitchen, I need to share a couple of upcoming dates with you.

First, I'll be attending FenCon in Addison, TX this weekend. Very exciting times are expected. Especially since the Guest of Honor is my Orbit sister, Gail Carriger. I posted my panel schedule here, if you're interested in hearing me blather about all manner of geekery.

Second, every October the Richardson Public Library hosts the Buns N Roses Tea, which raises money for literacy programs. I'll be at two events surrounding this worthy cause.

On October 8, I'll take part in a multi-author booksigning from 3-5pm at the B&N at Creekwalk Village in Plano, TX. This is open to the public, so stop by and meet some cool authors and hang out.

On October 9, the Buns N Roses Tea is from 3-6pm. Jodi Thomas is the keynote speaker, and the fab Candace Havens is emceeing. Each table is hosted by an author, so you get to hang out with a bunch of smart writers and readers, swill delicious tea and eat dainty little delicacies, all while supporting literacy programs. There is also a book signing at the end of the event for all attendees. Tickets are stil available. Buns N Roses site.

What's Cooking in Jaye's Kitchen?

So, I didn't cook too much over the weekend. But I did eat a corn dog, which is as close to the perfect food as was ever invented. So that's something.

Last night, however, I did cook and was quite pleased with the results. The dish was Chicken Stroganoff rom Jamie's Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook. If you don't have the book, here's a link to a version of it.Chicken Stroganoff.

My only complaint about Jamie's recipes is that he tries to be so casual about cooking that he can sometimes leave out instructions that less experienced cooks might need. For example, he says to throw your rice in water and let it cook as long as the package instructions list. Well, I bought my basmati rice in bulk (read: no instructions) and rice is traditionally tricky to get right. So I had to google the best way to cook it. Quick tip: Rinse your rice a few times until the water isn't cloudy anymore. This gets the extra starch off the grains so they won't be as sticky.

Anyway, given that the recipe had both mushrooms and leeks (highly suspect in Spawn's opinion) the meal was a huge hit. I'll definitely make it again.

One more quick thing, if you're struggling to figure out what to cook every night, pick up this month's issue of REAL SIMPLE. They have a special feature with thirty weeknight meals, along with shopping lists for each week. If October wasn't going to be crazy with travel for me, I'd totally do it next month. Some of the recipes are on the Real Simple site here.

What's cooking in your kitchen lately?

 

The Journeyman Writer

This morning my son asked, "Mom, how do you write a book all the way to the end?"

Keep in mind, this child lives in my home and watches me through every step of writing a book. He hears me belly-aching to my husband when I've had a tough writing day. He sees me typing on the computer like a woman possessed. He watches me slave over drafts with the Red Pen O' Doom. Yet, somehow, the process still seems mystical and mysterious to him.

He's not alone. "I don't know how you do it," people say to me all the time. They always look vaguely suspicious, as if they suspect dark arts are involved. Or they say something like, "I'd like to write a book some day."

I always want to respond with a smile and, "Today is a day."

The answer to my son's question is this: You type a bunch of words until the story's done.

But the real question is: "How do you write a good book all the way to the end?"

Now that, my friend, is a different answer altogether.

For a long time, I believed that becoming a writer was a lot like when priests claimed they were called to devote their lives to God. To my thinking, one just knew they were meant to be a writer. Sure, there was probably some work involved, but the knowledge that it was your calling made everything easier. It meant you knew the rules and had an innate understanding of how to craft a story.

Then I woke up.

The year I turned 30, I decided to finally stop nattering on about how I wanted to write a book and finally do the damned thing. I signed up for a writing class at the local community college and showed up with sweaty palms and a spiral notebook. Finally, I thought, I'll find out the secret.

The only secret the teacher revealed was that writing a book is hard work. And that, if it feels hard, you're probably doing something right.

It turns out this knowledge was incredibly freeing because it allowed me to finally give myself permission to be a novice.

With that in mind, when I wrote my first book, my goal was to just finish something. I didn't worry so much about whether it would be the Great American Novel or if it was a very good novel at all. I just wanted to prove I could tell a complete story from beginning to end.

When I wrote "The End" on that book, I bawled. It was a watershed moment in the history of Jaye. I'd proven to myself that I had the stamina to stick to one thing long enough to finish. I'd also done something lots of people say they want to do but will never do.

Once I'd crossed that hurdle, I added new ones. With my next book, my goal was to finish a story that didn't suck as much as the previous one. I managed that by taking more classes, reading every blog I could find about writing, I actively pursued critique. In short, I started collecting new tools for my tool box. Learning how to write novels became my job.

Every book since then, I have tried to push myself a little more. I still take writing classes all the time. I have a critique partner. I read everything I can get my hands on about the craft. Because even though I am a multi-published novelist, I am now and will forever remain a student of the craft.

Every bestseller was a novice at some point, too. Sure, maybe they were born with certain wiring that gave them skills with words and an ability to tell stories. But those are just a foundation. Building stories is a craft and all crafts demand dedication and commitment to acquiring the tools and materials required to get the job done.

Tiger Woods has an unmistakably innate talent for golf, but he still had to practice and learn the rules. He wasn't born knowing what a bogey was or how to chip a ball out of the sand pit.

Stephen King wasn't born knowing how to spell or create suspense using sentence structure or how to plot a novel. Those tools were acquired through work and education. Although I suspect in King's case there really are some elements of dark magic at play, the truth is he's a journeyman writer. He's honed his craft, but there is always more to learn. Always. He was born with talent, absolutely. However, he still has to work at it, and I suspect, he's also always striving to improve. Because …

Without craft, talent is as useful as a car without an engine or tires. It won't go anywhere.

Don't think once you reach the level of journeyman, writing will suddenly get easier, though. Its like plate spinning. When you start out, you're struggling to keep one little saucer spinning. But with each new plate you acquire, the more difficult it is to keep them all spinning. Patience and experience will improve your coordination, but it's still a lot of work.

Now, I'm not saying every writer, if they work hard enough, will eventually become Stephen King– just like every golfer can't be Tiger Woods. But anyone can dedicate themselves to learning the rules and tools of the craft. They just have to be willing to do the work.

Anyone can sit down, open a Word file and start typing. Anyone can show up the next day and do it again, over and over until they have something resembling a complete story draft. Anyone can print out that book and try to make it better using the tools at their disposal. Anyone can decide they want to improve and go about  acquiring new tools by taking classes, reading writing books, or joining a critique group.

Mileage varies, of course. Some people will be naturally more adept at using some tools. Some will struggle with prose but catch on to the rhythm of the three act structure. Others will struggle with writing a cohesive narrative, but can write a sentence that will make angels weep. Some won't be very good at any of it, but they'll keep trying because they just love the challenge.

You want to know how to write a good book all the way to the end? You become a student of the craft. You experiment and make mistakes and learn from them. You constantly seek out ways to improve. But most of all, you write and you write and you write.

Most people will never become writers because they believe they have to be good at it before they've even tried. Perfectionism has killed more writing dreams than any editor or agent.

You want my advice? Give yourself permission to be a novice. But also understand that if you want to write a good book, it takes time, dedication and a tireless drive to always be improving.

But don't begin by believing you have to know everything. You don't and, frankly, you never will. No one has ever written the perfect novel. Instead, work with what you've got, or you'll never start at all. And you certainly will never understand the thrill of getting all the way to the end.

 

 

 

Proposals and Culinary Compromises

Hello, my doves! It's a beautiful Tuesday in Texas. Well, except for the fact that today we're expected to break the all-time record for most 100+ days in a summer. Yay?

I've been working away on a new book proposal for the last couple of weeks. For those wondering, a proposal includes writing a few sample chapters and a synopsis. This sounds much, much simpler than it is.

First of all, it's not like I can just slap a few chapters down. I actually have to build the world, create the characters, figure out the story and the format, etc. This involves a lot of research and brainstorming and writing lots and lots of words to test out scenes that will never end up in the final book. Adding to the difficulty factor is the fact that I am not a linear writer by any means. So that's proving a challenge.

The good news is that I'm loving this new world. I can't tell you much about it yet because a) I don't want to spoil anything and b) I don't want to jinx myself. However, I can tell you it's set in a fictional town and it's been a lot of fun to create a setting from scratch. Anyway, I'm excited and nervous about it, which probably means I'm on something resembling the right track.

What's Cooking in Jaye's Kitchen: The Things We Cook For Love Edition

Those of you who have been following my kitchen adventures of late, might recall that I've been trying out all sorts of new recipes. I'm sorry to report that in the last week I've only made one thing I've never tried before. We'll get to that in a minute. But first, a brief explanation.

Sunday was Mr. Jaye's birthday. While he has been enjoying trying to fruits of my culinary adventures, at heart my man is a Midwestern boy raised by a Midwestern mom. Before he met me he never ate spicy food or strayed too far from his comfort zone. That didn't last long one I got my hands on him, but when it comes to comfort food he tends to prefer the blander dishes of his youth.

Enter: Steakumms.

Steakumms are thin, frozen sheets of meat. They're similar to the meat used in Philly Cheesesteaks but less flavorful. Mr. Jaye's mom used to make them for him when he was a kid and they remain his favorite meal. I'll admit that I am a snob about Steakumms. But I love my husband and make them for him on special occasions.

The Perfect Steak-umm, according to Mr. Jaye:

On a griddle, lay out two Steakumms. Cook for about 45 secs on one side, flip them over. Quickly add two sliced of provolone until melty. Slap that on a soft hoagie bun and slather with Ragu pasta sauce. Yes, it has to be Ragu. No substitutions are allowed.

Mr. Jaye's mom always makes french fries to go with the Steakumms. I used to get frozen, but I decided to try to make them from scratch this time.

Double Fried Fries

Three or four russet potatoes

Yellow onion

Sea Salt

Peanut or Canola Oil

Slice the potatoes using a mandoline. Do yourself a favor and get one, if you don't have one. Mandolines make uniform slicing a breeze. Here's a link to one if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Cut the onion into rings–thickness is up to you. I like them somewhat thin because I like mine kind of burnt and caramelized.

Now here's the trick with fries. You actually fry them twice. First, heat up your oil (I do this in an electric skillet) to about 330 degrees. Once it's hot, fry the potatoes in batches (don't do the onions yet). When each batch has cooked for about 2 minutes–no longer–remove with a slotted spoon and set out on paper towel or recycled paper grocery bags laid out on a cookie sheet. The fries will be pale and limp. They're supposed to be.

Let the fries cool for at least five minutes. Meanwhile, up your temperature to about 375 degrees. Once the fries have cooled and the oil has heated, fry the potatoes again. I toss a few onions in with each batch. Fry until everything is golden brown, but keep an eagle eye out because they'll go from golden to burned in a blink. Once again, lay them out on fresh paper towels. If you have an assistant–and you should– have them toss each new batch with sea salt.

Wendy's and McDonald's have nothing on these bad boys. Serve hot or they'll get soggy.

So there you have it, my recent culinary compromise.

What foods do you tolerate because someone you love loves them?

Appearance Update: Fencon

I'll be attending Fencon in Addison, TX from Sept 23-25. My panel and reading schedule is below. Hope to see you there!

http://www.fencon.org/

Friday  4:00 PM  - 5:00 PM  Pin Oak

Genre Crossing

Description: Mixing science fiction with fantasy with mystery/romance, and so on.

Panelists:

J.K. Cheney , R. Rose , J. Wells , S. Williams , R. Clement-Moore *

Friday  6:00 PM  - 7:00 PM  Live Oak

Monster Evolution

Description: How have the classic monsters of horror evolved to fit into today's society?

Panelists:

M. Bonham , G. Carriger , B. Sinor , S. Wedel , J. Wells , F. Summers *

Saturday  2:00 PM  - 3:00 PM  Pin Oak

From Idea to Outline

Description: Sometimes a story idea is just a character, a setting or a "what if" situation. The authors on this panel will describe their process of getting from initial idea to enough of an outline to get started with.

Panelists:

D. Birt , C. Douglas , S. Hoyt , Eilis O'Neal , J. Wells , C. Spector *

Sunday  11:00 AM  - 11:30 AM  Pecan

Reading

Will be reading excerpt from SILVER-TONGUED DEVIL (out January 1, 2012)

 

Writer's Block

The other day a new product came to my attention: The Writer's Block.

The product description is as follows:

Feeling boxed in by your current writing assignment? Unpack some inspiration with this beautiful, hand-glazed, stoneware cube that features six thought-provoking cues; Poetry, Mother, Quietly, Hairy, House, Lust. With every roll you'll hear the ever-so-light jingle of bells, stimulating your ears and eyes to find your muse through the cube's understated imagery and melodiousness.

Couple things.

First, this product sells for $45. For a ceramic dice. For a ceramic dice that claims to cure your writer's block.

Second, my favorite part of the description is "you'll hear the ever-so-light jingle of bells, stimulating your ears and eyes to find your muse." No, my friends, the sound you're hearing isn't a melodic muse summoner, it's the sound of the makers of this product laughing as they deposit your $45 into the bank.

I'm just saying that $45 buys a lot of pens and paper. Or you can send me $10 and I'll call your voice mail and scream, "WRITE, DAMN YOU, WRITE!"

Look, I'm not trying to pick on the makers of this product. Okay, yes, I am actually. But my point isn't about this product specifically. It's about writer's block.

A lot of writers steadfastly maintain that writer's block doesn't exist. I don't know whether this refusal to believe is a result of lack of experience with it themselves or a denial borne of self-preservation. Either way, I do believe it exists, but I also think we should call it by its real name: FEAR.

Did your gut just tighten?

Mine did. It tightened because I've been there. What's worse? I've been there under deadline. Just remembering that period my chest feels like cold hands are pressing down on my ribs. For me, it wasn't that I couldn't put words down on paper. It was that I couldn't put good ones there. Everything I wrote came out forced and phoney.

Know why? I was forcing it because I felt like a phoney.

Writing is a mental game. Yes, you've got to sit in the chair and pound on the keys, but you've also got to be in a good head space. If you're approaching your desk every day thinking, "I'm a talentless pretender. No one will want to read this. I have to do this X way because that Real Writer on X blog told me I had to. If I don't write something brilliant I'll die alone and penniless clutching sheeves of unpublished purple prose."

Try writing something brilliant now. Go on. DO IT NOW! BE BRILLIANT NOW!

Jeez.

All right, everyone simmer down. The sad truth is that no one and nothing stands in the way of our success more than we do. All these perfectionistic messages we feed ourselves, all this impatience we have with our budding talent, all the false expectations of instant fame and success–it all blends together into a cold, bitter slurry of shame that makes creativity impossible.

Yeah, that's great and all but how to do I get over it, Jaye?

Shh, my pet. Shh. You know how to get over it. You know.

Stand up right now. Go on. No one's looking.Except me. (waves from the window)

Now do something ridiculous. Shut up. I don't want to hear it your excuses. Do something crazy. Jump up and down. Do the hokey pokey. Break out into the Running Man.

I don't care what it is. The point of this exercise is for you to remember two things. 1. Stop taking yourself so freaking seriously. 2. Writing is fun!

Ostensibly, that's why you started writing to begin with, right? You thought it was a gas to write crazy little stories about interesting characters. Back then, you didn't worry about sales or your fucking brand. You didn't care about getting famous. You just wanted to do something that made you happy.

But somewhere along the way that happy fun time turned into frowny-faced frustration time. Maybe the rejections got to you. Maybe you got a few too many one-star reviews on Goodreads. Or maybe you're just tired of feeling like no one's ever going to recognize your genius.

Dudes, if you don't even want to be around you, why would your imaginary friends? Interesting characters don't want to spend time with Mr. Grumpy Pen, much less tell him their stories. And, you know what? Readers won't enjoy reading anything you write, either. Hell, chances are good even your real friends are avoiding you. Why? Because you're no fun any more.

I'm an author. Writing is how I earn my living, and,like any business, it can be frustrating and stressful. But I refuse to spend my life devoting myself to a career that makes me feel shitty. So I refuse to let the bad reviews, the vagaries of fate or the god damned lack of respect people have for female writers or urban fantasy writers or writers in Texas, or any other stupid belittling criticism or headache of the publishing business get in the way of enjoying the hell out of this ride.

So now, when I sit down to write, I try to remember that my first goal is to amuse, amaze or intrigue myself. It's not possible to feel amused, intrigued or amazed by my writing every day, but my goal is to feel that way MOST of the time. And if that's not possible, I just try to remember that I'm not trying to cure cancer or figure out the debt crisis. Yes, I take my work seriously, but in the end, my job is to entertain people. And frowny Jaye is not entertaining.

So, my pets, now you have the secrets to avoiding writer's block. Get out of your own damned way and try to have more fun.* Yes, it really is that simple.

Or, you know, you could spend $45 for a jingling ceramic dice.

 

*If you've forgotten how to have fun, then your biggest problem probably isn't writer's block. Figure that out before you try to write the great American novel, okay? Therapy is awesome.

Farmer's Market Adventure

This weekend, I packed the fam in the Wells family truckster and headed into Dallas to hit the Farmer's Market. The market is made up of four sheds, which makes them sound small, but really each is about the size of a narrow airplane hangar. We spent most of our time scoping out the local produce shed and the speciality foods shed (which is really an air conditioned building).

One of the cool things about being a parent is the ability to rediscover things you've taken for granted for years. Seeing the world through the eyes of a kid is a reminder that there are wonders all around us, all we have to do is look. We spent a lot of time perusing stalls for unusual veggies and fruits, tasting the free samples of fruit and locally produced honey and chatting with vendors. We also had fun creating menus from what we saw, which I'll get to in a minute. But Spawn was still talking about this adventure two days later, so I think it was a hit.

After two hours we left with the following: Peaches, tomatoes, onions, cow horn peppers, garlic, cherries, chocolate snickerdoodle cookies (with a bite of cayenne), rosemary cornmeal cookies, two flat iron steaks and two pounds of ground round (from a local farmer), a BBQ spice mix, and a balloon dragon (for Spawn, naturally). A good haul, in other words. Also the perfect excuse to invite some friends over for a cookout the next day.

Two tips if you decide to hit your local farmer's market.

1. Take your own bags. We brought our large, reuseable grocery bags and filled them up. If you're planning on getting a lot, bring a little cart with wheels.

2. Bring a cooler. We had other errands after we left the market, so we packed the perishables in a cooler with ice. Maybe you don't live in a state that turns into hell in the summer, but I do, so the cooler was a requirement.

What's Cooking Jaye's Kitchen, Grill Out Edition

On Sunday, Mr. Jaye and I divvied up the cooking. As is often the case when cooking involves slabs of meat and an open flame, he got grill duty. He made three kinds of pork ribs using spice mixes we bought at the market, along with one we had on hand and a milder version for the kids using simply Lawry's seasoning salt.

My chores included the following:

Cajun potato salad, made with a little sour cream, spicy mustard and Tony Chachere's cajun spice.

Salsa fresca or picadillo, as we call it in Texas. Tomatoes, cilantro, onions, lime juice. Learned a new trick here. If you rinse the onions after you cut them and then let them sit in lime juice before you add the other ingredients, it tones down the bitterness. Serve with tortilla chips.

Grilled corn. Rubs those babies down with a mixture of butter, sea salt, minced garlic and chopped basil and toss them on the grill.

Grilled french bread, use the same mixture you put on the corn and grill until crisp.

Peach crumble. I cut up the peaches from the market, sprinkled with a little sugar and cinnamon. Tossed the rosemary cornmeal shortbread cookies in the blender and then used two knives to cut in about half a cup of butter until it created a crumbly mixture. Sprinkled that over the peaches and cooked at 375 for about an hour, until the crumble browned and the peaches were bubbly. Next time I'll add some brown sugar to the peaches. Since they were fresh, they were a bit more tart that I'd have liked. I served it with homemade whipped cream (heavy cream, vanilla and sugar beat together in the mixer). Next time, I'll serve it with ice cream, but I had the heavy cream on hand so I used it instead.

All told, it was a delicious way to say goodbye to summer. Did you cook anything interesting over the holiday weekend?

Crack the Eggs

One of the questions authors are always asked is "Where do you get your ideas?"

While I believe most people who ask this question are genuinely interested in and maybe a little baffled by the writer brain, it misses the whole point of what being a writer of fiction is all about.

Just like an inventor isn't an inventor unless they take an idea and turn it into a product, a writer isn't a writer unless they do the work to transform an idea into a story. Getting ideas, in other words, isn't work. It's a fact of the average writer's life. Our brains are wired to constantly scan our surroundings for story inspiration.In every moment of our days, we are both participants in our lives as well as observers.

Instead of thinking of writers are blood hounds constantly on the trail of that one perfect idea, it's more realistic to imagine us as vacuums. Every waking moment–and usually also when we're asleep because dreams are fertile with ideas–we're sucking up everything we see, hear, smell, taste and touch. We become dusty vacuum bags of experience. Every snippet of conversation we overhear, every oddity we notice as we drive, every news story, blog post, commercial, TV show, billboard–all of these things go into our idea bag, where they wait for our subconscious to push them through the filter and offer them up as needed for stories.

I think one thing that unites all writers is that we're endlessly curious about the world and the people in it. So we watch. We collect. We analyze. Nothing we witness isn't fodder for stories. So you've got this idea bag filled with millions of story nuggets. Does that mean you're a writer?

No, my friend. You have to use those ideas to create something new.

This is where things get tricky. Let's using cooking to illustrate my point.

Let's say you're hungry but you haven't been to the store for a while. You open your fridge and find you have three eggs. Hmm, you think. What could I do with these? You rifle through every egg recipe you've got in your head. You could just scramble or boil them, but that's boring. You look in your fridge again. This time you come up with a chunk of cheese. That's better, but still a little plain. Hmm, you remember you had half a bell pepper and some onion left over from that salad you made two days ago, and a little detective work in the drawers nets a couple slices of ham from the deli.

You set all these items on the counter and realize you've got everything you need for a Western omelet. Now, we're cooking.

But wait. You don't really have a Western omelet yet, do you? You just have the ingredients. You still have to make them work together. You still have to crack the eggs and beat them. You have to shred the cheese, slice the peppers, onion and ham. You have to cook them all and add the ingredients in just the right way if you want an omelet instead of an egg scramble. You have to master the wrist motion to perfectly fold your omelet. You have to sauté your bell peppers and onions. You have to know when you add the ham and cheese. And when you're done with all that, you finally have breakfast.

Do you see? Having ingredients (ideas) on hand is not the same as having an omelet (story). It takes creativity and work to turn those ingredients into a meal.

Anyone else hungry?

When you ask me where I get my ideas, I'm not being flippant when my answer is, "Everywhere." My brain is hardwired to collect ideas. The magic happens when my brain gets a hold of all these disparate elements and proceeds to mix them together to create a story.

But it's more complex than that. Of course it is.

Your brain would take the same collection of ideas I have and come up with a completely different tale. Why? Because you have different experiences than I do. Experiences we have act as a filter for ideas. If you see a bottle of wine, your brain might filter it to become a romance about a sommelier and a waitress. My brain will take that same bottle and turn it into a vineyard run by vampires as a front for an illegal blood farm (as I did in RED-HEADED STEPCHILD). You might see a roller derby match and decide you want to write a story about a young girl who finds herself and a new family by joining a roller derby team (the movie WHIP IT). I see a roller derby bout and turn it into a subplot about a roller derby team made up of vampires, mages, faeries and werewolves that are coached by a Mischief demon (SILVER-TONGUED DEVIL).

Ideas are everywhere. Everywhere.

But not every idea goes anywhere.

Writers discard more story ideas in a year than they can count. Some seem so perfect but end up being duds. Some duds end up becoming brilliant. The only way to find out which way an idea will go is to work with it. To write.

I could give you a brilliant, million-dollar idea, but unless you get your ass off the couch and open your laptop, that idea plus $2 won't even buy you an omelet.

You want to know how I get my ideas? I want to ask you how you manage not to get them? But then, you don't really want to know about ideas at all. You want to know how I tell stories. And the answer to that is quite simple.

I crack a few eggs.