I just can't help myself

Instead of working on my blog, I'll work on my daugher and my blog at the same time! It's a Mom/multitasking thing.

It pays to have a neighbor that's also a photographer. Shauna always does such a fantastic job. It doesn't hurt to have a subject as beautiful as my daughter.

Review of Inkspell

I have to admit, I read the first book in this series (Inkheart) a couple years ago. It seemed a bit juvenile, so I never picked up the second. Then a friend handed me her copy and told me how much better it was.

I decided to give it a try. She was right. I liked this one much better.

Cornelia Funke writes beautiful descriptions. She does a fabulous job of using all the senses in her writing, to the point that you can taste her words. "Farid picked a berry, round and blue-black, sniffed it, and put it in his mouth. 'I once knew and old man,' he said, wiping the juice from his lips . . . "

I love how she mingles description with action. I love the words, "round and blue-black." They, among others, seem to paint the colors and smells. Her word choice is so rich and delicious.

She also has beautiful metaphors and similes. For instance:

"The Wayless Wood deserved its name. It seemed to have no end and no beginnings, like a green sea where you could drown as easily as in the wet and salty waves of its sister the ocean." Here's another: "He had only gone a few paces before the forest swallowed him up like a frog swallowing a fly . . ." See how the metaphor brings a feeling along with it? Despite the beauty with which she describes The Wayless Wood, we certainly get a sense that it's a dangerous place. After all, the forest swallows people as easily as a frog swallows a defenseless fly. (I read passages like this and think, "Now why couldn't I be that clever?")

As writers, we're often warned about being overly descriptive. Beautiful as this writing was, it was too heavy. I found myself skipping some of the description because I just had to know what happened to the characters.

I love books that I devour just as quickly as my kids. Inkspell certainly fits the mold. There were a few swear words (~under 10). So be aware in case you hand it over to your 9 year old.

Let's talk about style, baby.

Basic question: What is style?

Short answer: Style is the WAY you write. Think of it as the way you clothe and accessorize your writing.

Do you tend to write lengthy paragraphs or short? Do you overload with descriptions or lean toward the skimpy side? Are sentences clipped and to the point, or do you tend to be more round about?

One quick way to check out your style is to print an average page of your manuscript. How's your "white space?" I like my page to look pretty ragged. Big, honking paragraphs are a bad idea. I'll compare it to a meal. You sit down at a restaurant and the waiter brings you a steak the width of a dinner plate and the thickness of your thigh. And you have to eat the whole thing. Now, this might be a mighty fine piece of meat, but you'd still feel completely overwhelmed. By the time you finished it, bloated would be something you'd passed two hours ago.

Now, imagine that the waiter brings you a nice sized, bacon wrapped fillet Mignon, sauteed veggies, and a side of your favorite potato.

How do you eat it?

I'm betting you don't polish off one item at a time. Instead, you trade off between the three. It's the same way with your writing. Mix it up. Give your reader some description mixed with action (Sara pressed her wrinkled, tobacco stained lips together.)

Tension is like seasonings. Add it to everything. Each page, each paragraph has to have tension. If it doesn't: add it!

What gets you in the mood?

In the mood to write, that is.

For me, dramatic music and movies will put me in what I call my writing "flow" (where I feel like the words flow from my fingertips like water). My absolute go to movie and music is Phantom of the Opera, but anything dramatic gets my brain tingling with ideas. Last of the Mohicans, Cinderella (with Drew Barrymore), Stardust, The Patriot, Braveheart--do you see the trend? Dramatic, powerful, romantic movies. The power and emotion puts my mind in the right place.

Another sure fire way is to read books in my genre, or something close that's really good.

I find that when I really get into a new story, it's better to keep at it until I'm done. If I take a break, I lose my thoughts and the ideas stop flowing.

All this is absolutely pointless when I'm as exhausted as I am now. But I thought the info might help you if you're stuck.

What helps you get out of your writing funk?

What kills your writing zen?

Sometimes our writing muse can be fickle. Extraneous things tend to turn it off. For some people, the stress in their life overwhelms them. I'm the opposite. The more stressed I am, the more I HAVE to write to release my tension (unless I'm so stressed that I can no longer function).

For others, medications muddle their minds. So far, I've found that it depends upon which medications. Pain pills, for instance, make me downright stupid. But nothing else I've taken seems to affect me.

Lousy eating habits can slog down creativity (sugar does this to me), as can many substances unwelcomed by our bodies (booze, smoking, drugs, etc).

Two weeks postpartum, and I've found a fog lifting from my brain. My energy and zest for writing has kicked in. And I've noticed that my thoughts and edits flow more easily and are generally better than those done during my pregnancy.

What about you? What kinds of things kills your writing zen.

Next post, I'll try to cover the things that I do to get in what I call my writing "flow."

For those of you who commented about my recent struggles with my daughter, she's doing much better on her medication. She's gaining weight again and seems to be a fairly happy child. Perhaps I'll be able to resume some of my earlier work (though I'm sure it will slow down).

Thanks for all the goodwishes and concern. It's amazing to me that I have friends I've never even met. :)