Kate Larking's Blog: Anxiety Ink, page 25

Ink Links Roundup

I’m going to start off this week’s post with something fun, because I can’t be the only one who loves the how-many-have-you-read list/quizzes: NPR’s 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels. There are some amazing books on that list – and those are just the ones I’ve read!

I love Terri Windling’s blog Myth & Moor, and recently found this post on stories that matter.

Kate found this excellent article about the romantic storyline – or, rather, lack of it – in Rogue One.

Love love love this. It was the biggest relief in the whole movie, and encourages me to write more true, strong heroines.

And this: My Little Ponies: Like 4-H but for Weirdos.

This is quite possibly my favourite link of the whole year (and it’s only just started!). Check out this excerpt below:

“You could get away with anything, if you made it fluffy and pink enough. You could destroy the whole world, as long as you were willing to cover it in glitter first.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

My Ponies—which, by this point, filled most of my bedroom at any given time, since I would build them cities out of playsets combined with cardboard boxes that I had modified to suit my needs—began a multi-generational saga of false queens, royal espionage, forgotten princesses, kidnappings, murders, and a thousand other things that no one really wants to think about seven-year-old girls playing out in their spare time…and yet. Majesty (the Queen of the Ponies according to the official playline) ruled from the Dream Castle with an iron hoof, cruel and unforgiving, while Moondancer and her rebel army struggled to put the true heir, Powder, on the throne. Sometimes Ponies died, and would go into the box in the closet for a few months before they were repurposed with a new identity and a new role in the ongoing game.”

Reading books set in foreign lands is an excellent way to travel without having to pack. But writing such books successfully can be a big challenge. Elisa found this blogpost about incorporating a foreign setting and all of the aspects a writer should consider before doing so.

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Intention Counts: Pulling Your Story Together

In many things, intention does not count. Unexamined bias? Harmful stereotypes? The best of intentions can not fix these things.

But you intend something when you write a story. Maybe you intend some deep, profound statement. Maybe it’s a general sense of unease and trepidation. Whether you know it or not, you want your reader to turn the last page and come away with something – a question, or an answer, or an image, or an emotion.

I’m specifically talking about the very, absolute end, not the overarching whole of the story.

I’d never really thought about that until recently. I ran a short story by a writer-friend, and she asked me what I wanted readers to take away from it.

At first, I didn’t know. Obviously, I didn’t know, because the end didn’t tie up quite as neatly as I wanted. But the more I thought on it, the more I realized I did want something from the end. Beyond, you know, ending the damn thing and getting it out of my hair.

Figuring out my answer didn’t change the end much. I may have added a line or two, but those changes (small though they were) altered the story just enough. They tied the end more fully to the beginning, which made the story so much more satisfying.

Have your intentions ever made a story clearer? Give it a shot and let me know how it works for you!

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A Special Kind of Anxiety: Submitting Stories

One of my 2017 goals is to submit each of my three shelved stories three times each by December 31st. This sounds relatively easy, right? The stories are written. They’ve been polished –two edited by a writer who is amazing at what she does. All I need is a market and a place to send the email.

I wish story submission was that simple.

I’m starting off with my short story “Brew Disaster,” using it to get back into the habit of sending a piece off for consideration. I wrote it in the fall of 2013 for a specific anthology I had found open online. My story was rejected, but the editor added an extra comment to lighten the sting: This piece is good. Keep putting it out there.

I’ve submitted it a few times, and by a few I mean twice. That’s a pathetic number for one story. Rejections are the name of the game.

Obviously, it’s time to put myself back out there. If I want to get anywhere with writing I have to.

My first step was finding a magazine or anthology editor looking for submissions. That was much more difficult this time around than I remember it being. My research skills in this area are rusty. It took me too long to enter in the exact words uncle Google wanted to give me the results I needed. Then they had to be combed through. I wouldn’t be surprised if the economy of late has affected the market, especially here in Canada.

After a lot of frustration I found a magazine that felt like a good fit for me. Of course, I’ll double check before actually submitting, but right now it’s my target.

I hope I found a bull’s eye.

The next step was reading my story. Coming back to it two years later, “Brew Disaster” is a pretty solid piece. Not that that that stopped me from grabbing my red pen and spending three-plus hours poring over it. Writers can learn a lot in two years, about the craft and about themselves, so I hope I made it stronger.

There were some holes that needed padding and elements that required fine-tuning. Not as many as I thought there might be, which was a relief. The most time-consuming aspect was working out my weaknesses. Thankfully, I had edited the story extensively before its two prior submissions, so the only weakness I had to focus on was crutch words.

Every writer has a variety of crutch words, their go-to’s during the drafting process. It’s important to let words flow at the time of writing; then, you don’t want to be worrying about your overused phrases and sentence constructions. But when it comes time to edit you really need to know your habits and how to identify them. I make a list of words right at the top of my printed manuscript –I always have at least one printed copy because I can see more on paper than I can on the screen.

When I used the navigation option in Word, I couldn’t believe how many times I used certain words. My story isn’t even 3000 words, and my worst crutch word had been used nearly 40 times. And that’s after I had gone over it 6 times just that day!

Between trying to find somewhere to submit, weeding out the less than stellar magazines, and bringing my story up to par, submitting is stressful. The anxiety I’m going to suffer between now and the 15th, when submissions open, is more than I can stand to think about. Expecting rejection and opening yourself up to it are still difficult to handle.

But that’s the price of trying to be a professional. In the end it will help me grow. If I survive the heart palpitations. Wish me luck!

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A Writer’s Definition of Success

I have been thinking a lot about what my definition of success should be, as a writer. After all, last week I outlined a whole bunch of goals for 2017. And while I want to meet those goals and produce toward those goals, I need to figure out what my definition of success is.

I’ve struggled with success metrics before.

When I was in school, I did as I was told to meet the criteria I needed to get a mark. That being said, I didn’t feel fulfilled by the grade I got.

This came to a head in university when I got a test mark back that sucked–by my standards. This class was one of the notorious 3 for my degree, dubbed a “weeder class”. Basically, they were taught in such a way that made the testing convoluted and difficult. As a result, many students performed poorly. This was my first encounter with a weeder class.

I, frustrated and stressed, looking for some grounding, decided to walk home from the university to help process this mark. At the halfway point home, I asked myself, “Okay, well, what do good marks mean to me?”

I stopped in my tracks. Nothing.

I started to cry. Because I could think of nothing. No reason that grades were important to me. Just this big blank in my mind. If I was going to find a single reason, it was so that other people could have proof that I was test-smart, book smart.

What a shitty reason.

I won’t lie: figuring out this issue in my first semester of second year made years 2-5 difficult.

And now, for my writing.

So now, out of university (you know, minus working there), why am I putting myself through the hard work of writing and self-publishing.

The reasons:

Because I value my characters as shards of myself and my struggles.
Because I love creating art.
Because I want to impact someone, let them know we all struggle.
Because I love books and the publishing industry.
Because I don’t want my stories to die with me.

So, after listening to one too many podcasts with Seth Godin as a guest (not too many, really. I will continue to hunt out some more to listen to), I realized I should figure out what defines my success before I become too entrenched in measurements.

I know that I do not want my success as a writer to be defined by:

Sales
Blog or website stats
Social media stats
Email newsletter subscribers

Really, the list of things I don’t want to be measured by goes on and on. These measures don’t define my worth as a writer or artist. They would define my success at outreach, marketing, social media algorithms and engagement… not my writing.

My definition of writerly success. Are you ready?

So, I want to outline my writer’s definition of success:

I want to feel proud of my work so that I want to send it out on submission.
I want to like my story and characters so much that I want to commission art for covers on my self-publishing projects.
I want at least one person I don’t know to let me know that they viscerally like my stories. That it speaks to them in a way that stories I love speak to me.
I want to enjoy the process of writing more than I dread it (because sometimes it’s hard and it would be ignorant of me to not acknowledge that fact).
I want to complete some stories and let them go into the world.

The most important aspect of these goals? That I want them. How I define my success is up to me. How you define your success is up to you. So live it proudly.

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Ink Links Roundup

Because we all need more amazing – and amazingly talented – women in our lives, take a look at The 25 Most Anticipated Books By Women, according to Elle.

And because residencies are those magical things that actually pay writers to create have a list of 2017 residencies for writers. Quick confession: a friend and I applied for a residency last year (we have a collaboration of occasionally epic proportions). We weren’t selected, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try again!

Now for Kate’s fantastic links:

First up, Kazuo Ishiguro talks about his writing routine.

Writing from 9:30am to 10:00pm with only meal breaks?! I don’t think I could survive something like this…

From Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds: How to Create Art and Make Cool Stuff in a Time of Trouble.

Posts like this have me curious about taking a social media hiatus for a while to get deep into writing.

Elisa loves learning about what goes into books as much as she loves reading them. So this week she contributed an article by Ellen Hopkins about the feminist thought in her most recent book Burned. If you think books aren’t political, especially YA books, think again!

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Touchstones: Shifting Focus

My focus is gone. It fled sometime last week, so if you see it, please send it back! But thanks to certain touchstones, I’ve been able to get a lot done.

The more tired or the more stressed I am, the harder focus becomes. And lately, the day job has been extra stressful. It also doesn’t help that we’re about to embark on a minor construction project – one that will turn our empty, unfinished upstairs into actual living space. While exciting, it’s also incredibly stressful.

Without my husband, I’d already have fallen behind in my tally of non-writing days. Instead? Nine days into 2017 and not a single tally. The amount I’ve done in the last few days would be impressive, even if I weren’t so incredibly scattered.

My biggest touchstone right now is Creative hour. My husband first proposed the concept about five years ago: an hour (or however much time we have) in which we both work on creative things. And creative things just for ourselves, not because of some outside obligation.

We’ve done this almost nightly. Some nights, I can’t sit still; I have to check the fire or fold laundry or wash dishes. Except my husband comes out to sit at the table with me and work. His presence always reminds me that everything else can wait.

Except the fire. I like being warm.

Over the next few months, creative hour will become harder to find time for together. My focus may or may not return (not like it ever stays long, but I do miss it when it has gone). So I’ll have to find a way – a new touchstone – to keep up the routine even if I don’t have another body holding me accountable.

I think I’ll try using the timer.That might work . . .

What touchstones do you use, either to help you focus or help you create? (Or both!)

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Happy New Year! Hello, 2017 Goals

First things first: Happy 2017! No pressure, but you have to be better than 2016 for me and everyone else on this earth. Ok? Ok.

I’m relieved this New Year is finally here and I am more than ready to shuck off the negativity I wrapped up 2016 with here on Anxiety Ink. I have high expectations, but I didn’t even touch the bar last year so I have to make it up to myself.

As I said a number of times before, my word for 2017 is BALANCE. I need to better balance every aspect of my life and not let parts get ignored. I have to stop pushing certain things back. I have to stop letting certain aspects overwhelm others. I have to stop waiting for things to happen. Being a passive participant in my own life is as smart as writing a passive character in fiction. It’s not good. Everyone needs to be active.

I’ve come up with a few ideas for accountability that I’m going to test out in the first quarter. If they don’t help by my first goal check-in, I’m scrapping them. If I learned anything this year, it’s that I can’t keep up habits that don’t help me reach my goals. Accountability plans are only good if they work. Things that don’t work are getting kicked this year –early and far.

I’m also focusing on measurable goals this time around. I need to be able to see progress so that I know I’m getting somewhere. I need to have steps to conquer.

I think I’ve made a fair bit of extra work for myself, but if I keep on top of my tracking and planning it’s really going to help in the long run. I don’t want to get into details yet since I may use my successes and failures as post inspiration, so without further preamble, here are my goals for 2017:

Write at least 3 days a week.
Submit my three shelved short stories at least three times each over the year.
Read a minimum of 68 books over the year.
Write a new short story.
Learn how to meditate.
Keep up the good exercise trend!
Cook.
Try something new.
Look on the bright side and lose the frustration.
Participate in NaNoWriMo 2017 and exceed 2015’s word count.
Finish writing RA2.
Turn RA1 into a readable manuscript.
Read outside my comfort zone: add plays and poetry.
Change one habit each month to be greener.
Leave the day job at the day job.
Make time for hobbies.
Learn how to make a t-shirt quilt.
Be more social.
Relax during vacation!
Explore different writing communities.
Be accountable to the 6 month plan.

I am so ready to get to work on my goals! How are you feeling about this year ahead?

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Creative Writing Goals for 2017

I’ve set a lot of creative writing goals over the years. Sometimes it works to motivate me. In 2016, I did achieve quite a few of the goals.

Sometimes it does the exact opposite. I missed some categories of my goal because I didn’t form them right. Even if I wrote them in the whole SMART framework (specific, measurable, assignable, realistic, and time-bound), I didn’t construct them properly.

Source

What pleased me with about my 2016 goals list was that I had them separated into categories. With that, I balanced the goals well. But I didn’t unite my goals with a focus for the year. Every goal seemed a little separate and didn’t intertwine. If I worked on one goal, I was sacrificing progress on another. The goals diverged from each other and were competitive with each other for my attention and focus. To get further in one goal, I had to ignore or sacrifice another.

So this year, I am focusing my creative writing goals.

To create my theme this year, I focused on my biggest regret of last year: my lack of creation.

This year, 2017, I will create. My goals are to:

Create art and write
Create assets from my existing and ongoing work
Create conversations about things I am passionate about
Create a solid understanding for areas my writing will grow into
Create balance so that I don’t let unnecessary things crowd out my precious writing time
And, finally, create memories with my now 3-person family.

That is the broad gist of my goal. But let’s go into some specifics that I have to accomplish this year:

Writing
Crash and Burn

Crash and Burn has gone well for an entire year! We really are on the verge of growth with it. After having a baby, drowning at work pre-rush after taking a month off, and frenzying over the holiday break, I need to get momentum back behind it.

Goal for 2017: Write at least 6 chapters of Crash and Burn, starting with Chapter 5 (DO YOU SEE HOW BEHIND I AM?! CHAPTER 4 IS BEING UPLOADED RIGHT NOW!)

Short story for Sirens

The Sirens Conference Benefit Anthology is happening again. Last year’s Queens & Courtesans was really great. I did a lot of things I didn’t think I would or could have time or skills for: writing, formatting, proofing, planning, and organizing/scrambling. Before Ryan arrived in November, Jessica Corra (former Inkette and editor of these benefit anthologies) hammered out a timeline for the next Sirens benefit anthology, Witches & Warriors.

Goal for 2017: Participate in the anthology with a story. Submission window is February 1- April 30, 2017.

Personal Writing

Last year, I deliberately left out personal writing projects from my goals. This year’s theme of Create really is in response to the fact that I needed to do that last year but I knew I did not have the time, and the spoons, to work on it. This year I want my personal writing to be a priority and take off in 2018.

Goal for 2017:

Develop a consistent writing schedule. It doesn’t have to be every day, but I do need something more than, “My deadline is in two days. Better get those words out now.”
Plot, write, and edit the first instalment of my spacepunk story and plot the next two.
Draft and write a version of my cyberpunk story I might potentially shop to agents/publishers.
Draft and write some of my original story idea rework that hasn’t left me alone lately.

Conversations

I have a lot of conversations I want to bring to the writing world, either here at Anxiety Ink or at my personal blog KateLarking.com. My personal blog needs a redesign. It needs to be a hub for my work so people can find me.

Goal for 2017:

Get that KateLarking.com redesign done!
Continue my New Mom Writer series here at Anxiety Ink.
Start out my Confessions of a Book Buyer series at KateLarking.com

Learning

For learning, I am going to do research for the genres I am ready to write in. So, it’s a little bit of market research, yeah, but it’s also to focus my reading game.

Goal for 2017:

Read 5 cyberpunk/RPGLit/VR/space adventure books
Read book on comic writing (I own it and have been looking at it…)
Read text on interactive storytelling creation (a joint project in the future with Crash and Burn artist Finn Lucullan is in the cards)
Stretch goal: complete the Sirens 2017 reading challenge.
Balance

For balance this year, I have to manage my commitments. I have taken a step back from various associations I worked with, because I needed more time for the end of the year. From now on, I have to be very careful about what I take on, as much as I want to be helpful and make an impact in my community.

Goal for 2017:

Attend 2 conferences this year
Sell at 4 markets/expos/festivals
Make time for writing sessions

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Ink Links Roundup

We three Inkettes met up on the first of the year, thanks to the wonders of the internet. It was a wonderful way to start the year! So we’ve decided to implement a few changes to improve and streamline Anxiety Ink’s online presence. Ideally, these changes have the wonderful added benefit of allowing us more time, space, and energy to focus on what really matters: writing.

These posts are the first change you might be seeing. We’re constantly on the lookout for links and articles that are writing- or book-relatedi n some way. Until now, we’ve posted them on social media. But the focus on finding links has distracted us from engaging  with them and having the discussion we initially imagined.

Which brings us to this post. Rather than the daily links, we’ll bring you our favorites in this Tuesday series.

As I am the host of these posts for the month, I’m starting with mine: all of Tor.com’s short fiction for last year.

Because who ever grows out of the thrill and excitement of getting something for free? Let alone stories this amazing. And it might just be a life goal of mine to see my name on that list some year . . .

About this article on 17 New Year’s resolutions for writers, Kate has this to say:

I really relate to a lot of these resolutions. It’s difficult to do them all, but I went through and found the ones that most line up with what I regret about last year and what I want to improve upon in 2017. Key standouts for me were: 1 Measure activity, not results; 8 Rewrite until it hurts; and 11 Fast from social media.

Elisa found a great article: seven elements broken down to help you write the strongest story possible. It has some wonderful questions to help you examine and improve your story, as well as a number of links to various resources to help in more depth.

And this article: One Goal to be a Brilliant, Accomplished Writer.

It’s not enough to just make goals, you have to ensure they’re measurable and achievable.

Happy reading! Did you find any good takeaways? Come back and let us know what you think!

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Happy New Year: 2017 Goals

A new year. A clean slate. I have one goal, one hope for 2017: to be better.

I squeaked in under the wire for last year with a story submission, which meant that my number of submissions for 2016 beat 2015. Two to 2015’s one, but still a win. In 2017, I’m making it my goal to at least equal last year’s submission count of two. Because low bars can be healthy things and my track record shows that could still be a stretch.

I will finish the novel draft that occupied so much of last year. I will polish the short stories I have in hopes of publication and I will craft new ones. Also, I want to revive my practice of tallying non-writing days, allowing myself 52 days off in the year (and hoping I won’t need them all).

In theatre, audition for more shows and try to expand outside my comfort zone. The more theatre I do, the bigger that grows, so the harder I have to work at challenging myself.

I want to do my best to be a safe space for those who need them – and I think a lot of us will need them.

For years, I’ve wanted to get into more of a photo taking habit. Twitter and Facebook each has problems as a photo-sharing platform, so I guess it’s finally time I try Instagram. Step one: create my own account. We’ll see how it goes before I start setting expectations.

And my personal blog could use some revamping. It underwent another three month hiatus last year, so I’m setting a goal or one or two posts a month. I’d rather have at least one post a week, but that has proven unsustainable over and over.

Without plans, I’ve decided not to set travel goals just yet. Except for one: get out. I have to escape Maine at least a couple times.

I expect this new year to have a crazy amount of quirks. A lot of them will be negative. But we can do better.

Art makes the world a better place. Successfully accomplishing all the goals I’ve laid out will be a tricky balancing act, but it all primarily boils down to: make more art.

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