Kate Larking's Blog: Anxiety Ink, page 17

Ink Link Roundup

Check out this week’s Ink Link Roundup! There’s definite food for thought today.

I think that if you’re visiting this site, you obviously have an intense love of reading and writing. But how often does that make it into the stories we write?

http://rivetedlit.com/2017/04/06/the-quiet-power-of-books/?cp_type=enpm&rmid=Riveted_Weekly&rrid=6512055

Melissa says, I’m a fantasy writer. I think a certain fascination with things like divination come with the territory. This article discusses some of what I think of as standard varieties. No mention of ailuromancy, though. http://www.tor.com/2017/06/01/forget-the-horoscope-try-these-5-methods-of-divination/

 

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Writing Workshops, An Obsession Reborn

I’ve spoken before of my desire to teach writing workshops. I even iddi a super short one on scriptwriting that kept a random group of high schoolers engaged and entertained the whole time. If I hadn’t run that one workshop – or if that workshop had flopped rather than succeeded so spectacularly – I might not be doing this now.

What am I doing? I’m in the process of organizing a summer series of writing workshops.

This series is a test. Can I repeat that first success? Can I get my name out enough to eventually develop this gig into an income supplement? In this rural area, is there enough interest to make that sustainable?

This all started with the usual daydreaming. Then I realized I didn’t need to wait on anyone’s permission or certain publishing credits credits to start this. And I realized that ‘someday’ had to become ‘now’ because I will only have more resistance to starting this process once the little one arrives.

Step one: post to social media to sound out friends and investigate topics of interest.

I discovered friends in far-flung places with an interest in taking part. My first thought? I can’t do this online. But close behind that came the realization that it would be easy to set up. I still want to primarily focus on in-person workshops (at least for now), but holding a few spaces for distance participants might just work.

I also discovered that world building as a topic drew a lot of interest. A lot. In my various workshop brainstorms, I’d generally neglected world building. So I sat down and in half an hour had a workable, detailed plan for a three hour workshop.

Step two: brainstorm workshop locations.

My house is too far from, well, everything to host. Also, I don’t want to add the stress of making my home adequately presentable when the even itself will cause enough distress. Again, I turned to Facebook for suggestions.

I discovered that event space can be expensive. Even the affordable spaces quickly became prohibitive. I learned I would have to calculate a minimum number of participants in order just to break even on expenses. And looking at this as a potential income stream, I intend to do better than break even. At this point, I have no way to gauge how many people might sign up.

Step three: set a price.

I really did this in conjunction with step two because I had no idea of space costs. $25 for a three hour workshop seemed the high end of reasonable to charge friends for being my guinea pigs and the low end of reasonable for that type and length of workshop.

I discovered that this is the hardest part. I struggled to post the price without apologizing or rationalizing. Doubts and second-guessing plagued me. Should I charge anything at all?

See, setting a price, asking for money in exchange for a creative endeavor feels like the height of hubris. Because our culture, our society, treats art as a calling that leaves you to starve. Growing up, my family said, “Ok, you’re going to be a writer, but what will you do to pay the bills?”

Screw that.

I watch the adult ed fliers. I know the price range those rare writing workshops command and I know what’s reasonable in this area.

Next steps: lock in my space reservation, create a public Facebook event, and finally get my hands on a copy of Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking. My efforts to turn writing workshops into any sort of income stream will require a lot of not-always-comfortable asking.

This obsession is leading to more time spent with stories. More time spent writing or editing. Creating. I love this feeling that I’m doing what I’m meant to do.

What topics would you like to see in self-contained, single-session writing workshops? Please let me know in the comments!

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Getting My Head On Straight

I know I’ve said this before, but there is nothing more important than being organized. Lately, I’ve been so disorganized on a personal, professional, and creative level that I can plainly see the effect it’s having on my nerves and performance. I’m entering week three of the eye twitch.

Thankfully, my first course on the road to earning my writing certificate wraps up on June 13; the stars did not align prior to its start, so I didn’t complete any prep work ahead of time. You can imagine how this has made me curse myself more than once over the past 8 weeks.

I am vowing to not let this happen again. I hate scrambling at the last minute to get blog posts done, I hate being so behind reading everyone else’s posts, I hate being behind in basic life stuff, because I simply can’t fit it all in. But the courses comes first because I paid a lot of money to take them and I am too Type A to not get good grades when I have only one class to focus on. For the record, the blog is a very close second.

On the one hand, I had no idea what to expect before the start of this course. I kind of dived into continuing education head first without any knowledge. Now that I have an idea of how much work and time is required for the courses, I can better organize. And I will.

On the other hand, I’ve impressed myself with my dedication. I’ve finished all assignments and exercises well ahead of time because I know my schedule and what I’m capable of on any given day. I’ve excelled at planning ahead and parcelling out my time without expecting myself to sit at my desk for hours.

I’ve proven I can do the same with my writing when I’m not in school. I won’t get into the why’s of why I haven’t done so before. Because I don’t have an answer. One big difference I’ve been forced to acknowledge lately is that I never give myself a break with writing. I push myself until I’m completely burnt out and then I have no desire to get back to it. Despite how rewarding I find writing, it is an energy drain and recharging is required.

Moving forward, I need to parcel out my time similarly outside of courses. This means setting deadlines for myself, which I’ve been loath to do, but which I obviously desperately need to do.

June 14 I have to tackle the to do list I’ve started to handle all the things I’ve ignored since April. It’s longer than I thought it would be, but it is what it is. Once all of those tasks are crossed off, I can look at my big picture and start setting deadlines. I’m getting organized. I’m getting my head on straight.

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Aurora Awards 2017

Last year, Crash and Burn (the prologue) was a finalist for an Aurora Award. For the Prix Aurora Awards 2017, Crash and Burn (as a webcomic/graphic novel) surprised us by becoming a finalist again.

I am unsure about the whole of my thoughts on this subject. On one hand, I am elated to say I am a finalist alongside Margaret Atwood (SERIOUSLY?!). On the other hand, I am kind of burned by our experience with awards last year.

Yes, it is an honour to be nominated. I don’t want to get too far into it, but the Aurora Awards–like a lot awards and honours in literature–doesn’t have the greatest structure. It’s a game of how many people know you–or know of you. And how many of those people are compelled to pay $10 for a membership in order to vote.

So, that aside, I decided to go back to last year to see what I thought of being nominated. And, me-of-last-year, thank you for writing this:

“There are so few good things to happen in writing. Most of writing is a slog, a battle against the self to sit with discipline and write the words that need to be written. Recognition is infrequent and if we were going to start out our graphic novel, the very first instalment, in a national award category, we were going to take it and revel in it. There are so many areas in media where there isn’t space for a queer-led, trans-friendly diverse comic to take a stage.”

So there you have it. Crash and Burn is a nominated finalist for the Aurora Awards again, and I’m grateful and humbled. But I’m not going to hang my whole writing-self’s worth on winning.

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Ink Links Roundup – Journaling, Deserts, and Persistence

If you’re looking for information on the current marketing trends for the big YA publishers, take a look at this article on how YA fans are ruling in the age of conventions.

There’s not much Melissa doesn’t love about creating worlds. Deserts in general and desert worlds in particular have always fascinated her, so here’s a fun article on the subject by a geologist: Arrakis, Tatooine, and the Science of Desert Planets

Elisa loves this story about how persistence pays off when you want to follow your dreams.

Kate found this quote about keeping a journal as exceptionally resonating:

These practical reasons for journaling motivate me, but I wonder if it’s actually a good idea to focus on what journaling does or accomplishes. It reminds me of way that “life hacking” discussions online have co-opted journaling as a productivity technique. It reminds me, too, of a something I’ve often heard, that journaling makes us more introspective. I don’t know if that’s true, but even if it is, what’s the use of feeling smug? We’re all just looking for some proof that we exist. We’re all just groping for a lever to pry open time.”

Read more at A Gift to the Future: In Defense of Keeping a Journal.

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Twitter Wisdom, Well Timed and Much Needed

I’ve had downtime in the last week, and with downtime comes Twitter scrolling. Lots of Twitter scrolling. And in the writing world, some great wisdom keeps popping up.

Wisdom #1: The myth that you have to write every day in order to be a “true” writer is bullshit.

I think Daniel Jose Older was the first person I remember seeing call this out. It was a wakeup call for me because the “write every day” advice was everywhere. If I didn’t do that, I only counted as a hobbyist, right? But this is what I want for my life; it’s not a hobby I can set aside at any time.

Sadly, this particular round of tweets came in response to an article I won’t link to. I haven’t read any of it myself beyond the screen caps and quotes going around Twitter because some words have a way of getting under my skin and staying there, but what I see boils down to: if you don’t write every day, don’t bother to write at all.

We’re calling bullshit.

While I wait to fly, I want to take a moment to talk about “write every day.”

— Seanan McGuire (@seananmcguire) May 29, 2017

Seanan McGuire’s tweet above kicked off a thread that’s worth reading. She writes every day, but it’s not a choice and it’s not healthy. This is why I build in off-days to my writing days tally. Which, by the way, has fallen laughably by the wayside. Impending Baby coopts constant and significant brain-space. Between that and the full-time day job, I don’t have much left over for anything else.

It’s been far too easy to guilt myself over that perceived failure. Seeing this lovely nugget of Twitter-wisdom crop up repeatedly has gone a long way in helping me to forgive myself.

Wisdom #2: The myth that you have to make it alone is bullshit. So much bullshit.

Life doesn’t happen in a vacuum, so how can success happen in vacuum?

See, I’ve been thinking and stressing hard over choices that would mean big life changes. Beyond the obvious Impending Baby. Making these changes likely means relying on my support network more than I’ve yet done in my adult life.

I think we would do ourselves a lotta good as a culture if we abandoned the idea that “real” successes are achieved as individuals, alone.

— Iron Spike (@Iron_Spike) May 29, 2017

This thread? (Please, please go read the whole thing!) It tells me that’s okay.

In related news, I really need to get my hands on a copy of Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking. As a kid, I developed an aversion to asking for the things I wanted, but I’ll have to overcome that if I make the changes I truly want. I’ll be asking my network for advice and support and opportunities.

Because none of this happens in a vacuum, and a support network is there to be used.

I saw these tweets of wisdom just when I most needed them. Judging by some of the replies and comments, I’m not alone. So maybe this post will pass that along to someone else who needs them.

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Writing and Reading, A Relationship

Since I haven’t been doing much lately aside from blogging in random intervals, pouring over course work, and squeezing in a pathetic amounts of fiction words when I can, I don’t have a lot to talk about. So I’m going back to the report I brought up last week.

My main focus with the report is arguing that writers can’t really control how readers are going to read their work. They can present their arguments and points of view, but at the end of the day the reader is going to read it through their lens and interpret it accordingly.

Going back to the Elif Shafak’s TED Talk, she states outright that she doesn’t write herself into her novels. Not explicitly, anyway. Obviously, as the creator, her roots are quite visible in what she chooses to write about. Personally, I write a lot of myself into my stories. Not overtly, but there are things many of my characters have in common with me. I suppose that’s how I bring in what I know.

We talk a lot about the catharsis of writing here on Anxiety Ink. I know that catharsis doesn’t mean treating your writing as a confessional and making your characters or their situations mirrors of your own. You can write about quite abstract entities that you’re interested in and the whole process can be cathartic in helping you learn about things beyond yourself. That’s the beauty of writing, it is always more than what it is.

I think that’s also a part of reading. While writing is catharsis I think reading is metamorphosis. I know that I’ve read books where I am not the same person having read it as I was before doing so. Both aspects of the written word are extremely important and I am having a wonderful time analyzing and learning different perspectives about their relationship.

What are your thoughts? Do you avoid the personal in your work? Do explicitly or implicitly write yourself in to your work or completely avoid it at all costs? Have you ever been changed by a book? Have you not been?

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Writing Work

For the last few weeks, I have been cramming in an hour of writing work a few afternoons a week. Bit by bit, I get work done on writing.

I say writing work because it isn’t always writing. The perils of being self-published with a comic, dealing with convention and festival season, means administrative burden is high. Obtaining quotes and managing print runs, coordinating marketing materials, updating spreadsheets, dealing with timelines and deliveries… There is little time for…you know…writing. Especially when you have no time anywhere else.

Sometimes I wonder why I am working so hard self-publishing. It is an immense amount of work. It is also a lot of capital up front to make something, print it, distribute it. It is a lot of hours standing on concrete floors promoting the comic is a space you had to pay money to stand at.

But the direct connection with the work informs my efforts. I’m not sure I would work as hard if I didn’t know all the work that does behind it elsewhere. I’m not sure I would decide as well which work absolutely had to be done or if I would just kinda shrug and say, “Well, networking on social media is writing work…” (Yeah, it can be, but only if done well and with intention.)

I am more intentional with what I spend my time on. I am more intentional with what I write. I am more intentional with my writing work, knowing that in the whole picture, I only have so much time.

So I just wanted to share this in hopes that you’ll look at your time, and know how you could spend it.

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Ink Links Roundup

This Q & A with Renée Ahdieh was awesome to read, especially with Kate wanting to get her feet wet in the YA market. Check it out here.

Elisa is very into inspirational quotes lately. Check out this list from Dictionary.com.

How are you planing to be published? Big Five? Indie? Small press? DIY? Check out this great post by Kristen Tsetsi on Jane Friedman’s blog.

Carrie Jones is one of the most quirky, wonderful people Melissa know. Her books are pretty amazing too. So here’s a link to her talking about first pages – those terribly frustrating parts of stories.

Elisa isn’t sure whether we ever touch on this subject on Anxiety Ink: feeling unsupported as a writer/creator. Perhaps we’re all infinitely lucky here.

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Devious Procrastinations Don’t Play Fair

We all have our go-to procrastinations. I’ve complained often enough about video and social media scrolling, but sometimes procrastination becomes more difficult to call out.

The need to name characters often becomes an excuse to procrastinate for me. I hate naming characters (now I have the added torture of needing to name a living, breathing person, so we’ll see how that goes).

There are many ways and means to procrastinate. It can take me ages to figure out if procrastination has me stuck or if the story took a turn it shouldn’t.

But the trickiest one for me is research. I mean, research is necessary, but how much should keep me from a story?

For example: I’ve had a short story running through my head for a few weeks now. I know the structure, the plot, the themes, and my viewpoint characters. Barring names, I have more than enough to start the story, but I need to do research.

Specifically, I need to look into the psychology of listening and being heard. This will focus and direct the actions of the story on an intimate scale. So when I started to think I could and should start drafting this story, that need for research pulled me up short.

It became an excuse to do something else. To procrastinate.

The more I think about it, the more I feel like this specific research aspect shouldn’t keep me from starting the rough draft. Afterward, as part of the revision process, I will need to work on that, but it shouldn’t stop me. At this point, it is just a vehicle for procrastination.

Time to write!

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