Kate Larking's Blog: Anxiety Ink, page 22

Acquiring a New Skillset

It seems that I piqued some interest with my Confidence post last month when I used the phrases “I was faced with the very urgent need to make some major life decisions” and “I’m finally able to start taking steps forward as far as my writing career is concerned.” It’s only fair that I go into a little more detail now.

In February, after discussions with close friends and a coworker, I had to face reality and see that I have been standing still for a while as far as the day job goes. And life. On the positive: I like my job, I like the perks, it gets my bills paid, and I like the people for the most part. The negative: I have no creative outlet, I am not challenged as far as my writing skills go because I barely use them, it pays my bills but as far as wanting to move out on my own (or hit other financial goals) I cannot do that in my current role, and there is no room for advancement in my building.

I’m at a point in my life where I’m ready to move forward. I want to take the next step in my career and actually earn a living I can live on. I want to move out on my own. I want new challenges.

Change terrifies me, but I am in desperate need. I can’t keep treading water.

In the midst of this realization, I did some light job hunting in order to get a sense for what’s out there, when I came across a dream position. One I was woefully unqualified for. But heck, I wanted it! I applied, and didn’t hear a peep.

While considering my complete lack of qualifications, I asked myself why I hadn’t doubled as a communications major while getting my English BA. I asked myself why I hadn’t taken any communications courses. I asked myself a lot of things as I lamented life choices.

Mad at myself, I did what I do every few months: I looked online at different business courses I could take and still work and perhaps acquire some skills to help me move up in the world. None of them caught my eye, so I found myself trolling through the University of Calgary’s website until I landed in continuing education. There, I found a professional writing certificate program with options to specialize in different aspects of business writing.

I’ve wanted to get into freelance for a while now, but have felt unqualified and overwhelmed. I’ve learned a bit about marketing here and while trying to grapple with creating an author platform. I have an interest in public relations. Specializing in marketing and PR sounded exciting, and I’d learn about the other aspects of business writing to boot.

I looked at my funds and resources and determined it was time to take the next step –I needed to spend money to help me make money down the road. And so another dream opportunity didn’t catch me unprepared.

So there you have it. I’m all set to start acquiring a new skillset in business writing. I’m nervous and excited and counting down to the start of my first course in April. As you read this I am knee deep in the introductory to online learning course.

Wish me luck!

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The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin – Anxiety Ink Book Club

Our first Anxiety Ink Book Club pick for 2017 is The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin! I am in charge of heading up reviews this third so here we go.

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THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS… FOR THE LAST TIME.

A season of endings has begun.

It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world’s sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun.

It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter.

It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester.

This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.

Review

To get into The Fifth Season, you have to give the book over fifty pages. I checked pages numbers–over fifty. I had to try twice to get into this book. As a result, I knew the beginning well for when I needed to tie events together later.

People are a flawed mix of ambition and fault. But the fact that I could come to understand the actions of the characters made me look more closely at my own nature, and the fear lingered with me after closing the cover.

The Fifth Season is brilliant with how bleak it is, yet it is still engaging. With the dark and complex cage of a social system, Jemisin was able to immerse me in a situation where the options difficult and devastating.

The interesting mix of technology that is refreshingly new for fantasy–at least, I haven’t encountered it before. Jemisin also opens many mysteries but not without laying enough pieces for us to start making out own hypotheses between books.

Deliberately vague

I want to take a moment about why I am being so vague with my review and about the packaging of The Fifth Season. Huge fan of blurbs, right here. I like to have a hint of what is coming, to know a promise of an event or an emotion that I am reading for.

The blurb on this book did nothing for me. It gave me little-to-no idea about what the book was about and I think this is one of the reasons I had a hard time getting into the book. The beginning doesn’t flow together that well. We have three distinct situations started but not knowing an overall arch or having fixed goals for the characters made it difficult to sink in and trust the narration.

I will admit that, in the end, it was important to not give too much away in the story before reading. There are small realizations planted throughout that are important to be organic realizations and those would easily be spoiled if the blurb was more concise.

So, my fellow Inkettes and book clubbers, what did you think?

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Ink Links Roundup

Welcome to my inaugural Ink Links Roundup post -Melissa and Kate have done stellar jobs since January! To start, here are two links I’m excited to share this week.

Even though my bookshelves get slightly more unmanageable every week, I can’t resist book lists. And books on writing? I’m addicted. http://www.happy-writer.com/2016/08/30/required-reading-10-books-every-writer-should-read-to-boost-creativity-and-feel-totally-awesome/?utm_content=bufferd7cd7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

And, although this post is short and sweet, it speaks to something I believe is a fundamental part of being a writer: get that first project totally completed. https://writerswrite.co.za/why-you-need-to-write-at-least-one-bad-novel/

Kate says this article isn’t specifically writing-related, but she’s finding it good food for thought when she’s creating her worlds. Some interesting thoughts on how machines have changed human relationships to time, and how things may change in the future. https://medium.com/@DaveDixon/a-history-and-future-of-the-rise-of-the-robots-cce0fe222a71#.q5buuu9ef

 

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Bigger is Better: Theatre Wisdom for Writers

We’ve all heard the old adage, “Bigger is better.” Fun fact: it’s as true in theatre as it is in writing.

So as an actor, you hear a lot of advice and direction to start big. Because after all, reining in is easier than building up. In an audition, a director wants to see how far you can go; you don’t have time to build. They know they can pull back whatever is too much.

I’ve heard successful writers say not to hold anything back – toss in the kitchen sink! For one, it gives you more to work with, which in turn allows the story to take new and interesting paths you otherwise probably wouldn’t explore. For another – and I say this having just finished revising a novel – taking out is so much easier than adding in. And so much faster!

So explore and experiment. Don’t hold back. If you think it’s too much or over the top, well, that’s what revision is for.

Of course, I’m terrible at taking this advice for myself. As an actor, I build characters gradually, by layers. But you lose subtlety at a distance; it doesn’t necessarily translate well onstage. How much more effectively might I communicate the character if I started bigger and filled out from there?

Fear holds me back – holds most of us back. Fear of looking ridiculous, fear of expectations and disappointments.

My best stories are the ones written without fear. The ones where I go, “Well, let’s see what happens when I do this.” And those are also the stories that start bigger.

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Confidence

A couple of weekends ago, I was faced with the very urgent need to make some major life decisions in order to augment my future prospects. While dealing with the panic that caused, I had a bit of an epiphany while trying to talk myself down.

This is where my brain went: I submitted a story on January 15 after hours of editing and rereading without a second opinion.

I did not ask someone to read it before I sent it out. This is important. After I initially wrote the story for submission two years ago, I did have someone read it and provide feedback –but at that point my confidence had been shot.

And it has been a long road trying to rebuild it.

Comparing myself in my first two years of university to me in my last two years, my confidence in my own ability to write anything had been slowly eroded by one thing and another. And another. It got to the point that in my last year I had someone read each and every paper I wrote before I handed it in in order to stave off panic attacks. That is easily the worst my neuroticism has ever gotten and I never want to turn back into that version of myself.

Even since graduating, and finding a relatively stable job to pay the bills, if I’ve written something I need someone to read it, and not just for beta reasons. I strongly believe in beta readers, but my need fed more into my own inability to deem my work good enough rather than needing a reader’s general feedback.

The fact that I was able to send out my story without someone else telling me it was ready to go is huge for me. I finally have my confidence back! Or a semblance of it. Which means I’m finally able to start taking steps forward as far as my writing career is concerned.

But I’ll touch on that down the road.

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February Freewriting Challenge – Update #4

Welcome to the final update instalment of the February Freewriting Challenge!

Final Tally!

I managed to write 27 sessions out of the planned 28 sessions. I missed two days. Days I clocked in 5-7 hours of overtime. I do not feel that it was possible to calm my mind enough to get those sessions in on those days. I’m impressed I made up one. The other, just two days ago, I didn’t have enough time to make it up.

I refuse to call 27 out of a planned 28 a failure. I did great.

If I were to do this again, I would set out a margin that I would still consider a success. Then again, I wonder, if I had done that, would I have still made it as far as I did.

Preferred Writing

On days when life hit hard, I wrote stream of consciousness. I had a huge work hiccup near the end of the month and it really messed with my ability to sink into my creative work.

The creative writing, most of it related to one story idea that I’m actually really excited about.

Final Check-in

How did everyone else do?

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Ink Links Roundup – Reading as Self-care, Helicopter Writers, and Failure.

Are you guilty of being a helicopter writer? As Elisa raises her hand high here, she realizes she needs to start pushing her characters more for everyone’s sake. Check out what it means to be a helicopter writer here.

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Melissa still has not read any of Chuck Wendig’s fiction, but she finds his blog posts on writing are priceless and filled with so much truth. In this article, he talks about fear and failure, and taking risks and trusting yourself. Read it. It’s worth it.

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Kate has been taking some time to herself and that means reading. And this Bustle article on reading as self-care has all the reasons why it’s perfect.

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Theatre Wisdom for Writers: New Series Introduction

Theatre comes up a lot for me as a topic. I love it. It’s another mode of storytelling. I’ve found a lot of parallels with writing, and continue to find more, so I wanted to start a series specifically about that.

If some of the ideas in these posts seem familiar, that’s probably because I’ve dragged them into other posts before. But I want to use this series to explore those ideas more in-depth.

I don’t have a degree in theatre (though a large part of me wishes I did). I only have my experiences: high school, that one college class, community theater, and the few master classes I’ve snuck in. Don’t expect any great acting insights! But the learning is constant and I keep finding truths that span the different storytelling  modes.

Do you have any questions or thoughts related to theatre and storytelling? Please let me know in the comments!

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Don’t Frustrate Your Readers

As I was planning this post, I didn’t think about an obvious qualifier I left out of my title: Don’t frustrate your readers in a bad way.

There are both good and bad ways to frustrate your readers. The good ways keep readers coming back because they foster a need-to-know mentality, even if the reader is mad at you. The bad ways do the opposite, they drive readers away because they make your readers mad at you and unwilling to take you on again.

My focus today is on the bad ways writers can frustrate readers to the point that they want to throw your book at you. In the past year I read a book that left me extremely frustrated as a reader, and a writer. But mostly a reader.

The author of this book is a natural storyteller –her world is interesting and different, her characters when they’re introduced are on the cusp of great roundedness, and there’s a dynamic ripe for writing about when all of those things are introduced.

The beginning of the story is strong, though rushed. More time spent in the “before” world of the main character would not hurt. More fleshing out of the story throughout would not hurt. As the story continues along there are so many missed opportunities to juxtapose the main characters rural upbringing with her upheaval into the dangerous urban one that circumstances beyond her control have thrown her in to. That was disappointing.

There’s no discernable middle to the story because the arc of the narrative ends abruptly and with no real warning. All of a sudden it was over. I did a small double take at the very end but by that point I was relieved. The spelling errors throughout were starting to affect my comprehension in scenes and there were two prominent instances when the author mixed up her character names and then forgot in one sentence which character’s POV she was in.

By the end I was flat out insulted as a reader. Because while this author has immense potential, she is not a natural editor. I think I’m mad because she has such potential and she obviously has not invested in her work enough to realize she needs better editing support –from both a line and substantive editor. What’s more, she’s written 20 books prior to the one I read. That makes me madder.

If you want me to invest as a reader long-term, you have to invest as a craftsperson. By the end of a piece your errors as a writer cannot be so inconceivable. A certain amount of errors are forgivable in a book, sometimes you can’t catch them all, even if you’re working with one of the big five. This book though…too, too many of them should have been caught.

I can’t stress it enough: Don’t Frustrate Your Readers in a Bad Way. Don’t leave your readers feeling like I felt finishing this particular book: like my time reading was not as important as making the sale when really more craft time should have been spent on the piece. I am not a reader who forgives shoddiness because the concept was interesting and I liked your characters. If you’re a newbie, maybe. If you’re a veteran, absolutely not.

All writers approach their work differently. I approach mine with a great respect for readers because I am a reader. That’s not something to forget.

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February Freewriting Challenge – Update #3

They–the ubiquitous they that says things like eating carrots is good for your eyesight–say that it takes 21 days to make a habit.

And, while I’ve beeen at this for 22 days, it still isn’t quite a habit but I do itch for the process of freewriting in my routine.

Mostly that routine is being curled up in bed, smelling my sleepy-time aromatherapy chamomile and neroli, hoping the kid goes to sleep under my wife’s practiced hand, that I want my notebook to get a few words down.

Whether it is thoughts or story ideas, it doesn’t matter. I just want to clear out my head so I can:

sleep better, and
have room for more story ideas and developments in the morning.

I’ve learned that I have a preference for lined notebooks–grey or pale lines, not black–and then willful disobedience about abiding by said lines. My current main notebook is dotted, which means I should transition to something else soon if I want to keep it more as a freewriting diary.

Weekly Recap

I fell behind this week. Which sucks when your goal is approximately one per day. However, the seven per week goal means I just had to fit two in one day relatively soon to get back on track. I slid two in on Monday, making up for missing Thursday in a 13.5-hour workday of eventing doom.

I want to continue this but I want to do it in a less stringent fashion. Maybe three to four sessions per week instead of seven. My brain doesn’t quite work all seven days of the week anyway.

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