Control

by Marsha Ward

Control may seem to be an odd topic to address, but bear with me. This is the perfect season to talk about it.

You see, a lot of us have a habit of making New Year's Resolutions. (I can still talk about New Year's, right?) Sometimes we actually get a bit of mileage out of the effort by setting goals, instead.

Now there's this thing about goals. They have to be alcanzable. Sorry, in my youth I served a mission in South America for the LDS Church, and we were always striving to make attainable goals, you know, alcanzable, from the verb alcanzar: to reach, to overtake, to obtain. . . 

Anyway, I like to achieve my goals. That's why you all get to laugh when I set a goal to write 25 words a day. Sometimes it's only 10. It depends on how I'm doing that day.

In order to achieve my goals, I have to make goals that are within my control. (See how I snuck that in?) It's so sad to see writers making goals like "Write a novel this year, submit it, and have it published."

I know. Maybe they're practicing visualization. Sorry, I don't go in for that theory at this time. I like to say I'm going to do things I have control of. As an independent author, I can make a goal to publish a book this year (and I'm planning on that, dear readers). However, a writer intent on being published through traditional means doesn't have any control over becoming a published author in any given time frame.

Therefore, a better goal for a writer is to stick to the first 2/3rds of the goal above, that is, to write a novel and to submit it. In the meantime, other goals well worth the time to make them are to study the craft of writing, to get better at writing by DOING IT, to find a good support group or a good critique group (depending on what stage the writer is in), and to start building a circle of writing friends and others in the industry, as well as potential readers. These goals are reachable, because they are things well within your control to do them.

If you haven't set any goals for the year yet, take some time and do that. If you have made goals, take a look at them and determine if you have control over their accomplishment. If not, tweak them until you do.

What goals have you set for 2012?

Magical Books of Youth

by Cindy R. Williams

A new year begins and we tend to reminisce right?  My reminiscing this year went clear back to my childhood and the magical times when my mother would lay a blanket down on the lush green grass in the backyard in the middle of the day and read to my sister and I. She read most of the Dr. Seuss books which we soon had memorized then went on to Wizard of Oz, Shadow Castle, Mary Poppins, Pippi Longstockings and many more. When summers ended, she spread the blanket out on the front room carpet and continued the magical "quiet reading" time.

Thanks to Mom, I learned to love books and stories. Whenever time permitted in Jr. and Sr. High, I snuggled in the stuffed rocking chair reading the entire Wizard of Oz series, all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys and all the Grimm's Fairy Tales and Hans Christian Andersen Tales I could get my  hands on.

To this day, I love to curl up on a rocking chair or on a cuddly feather bed and read fairy tales and fantasies.

Thank you Mom for my love of magical stories. The magical world is just a book away.

What are your childhood stories and books and memories?

A Silly Kind of Motive

By Debra Erfert

I’m new to the ANWA blog team, and in a way to introduce me, I thought I’d tell you how I began to write—where that first moment of inspiration came from. Quick, it’s not to late to turn on Live with Regis and Kathy Kelly sans Regis. No? Still here?

Okay.

It’s been 8 years since the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie finally was pulled from the theaters. I’d anticipated that film months before it arrived, loving every brief scene splashed across my television screen. When it finally showed, I dragged my husband—my sons—my friends—and, out of desperation, I went alone to watch when nobody else could stand seeing it again. And then the powers-at-be took my precious, precocious pirate away from me, and I was lost. I needed my Captain Jack fix, but what could I do? It would be months before the DVD appeared on the shelves at Wal-Mart. I’d surely die of withdrawals long before then. I could feel the stomach cramps start as I walked out of the theater on that last night. My mood fell into a darkened, despondent state.

Then this not-so crazy idea flittered into my brain. Why not write a sequel to the movie? Not only would I be plunged into the middle of Captain Jack’s life, I might even be able to sell the manuscript to Disney, or Jerry Bruckheimer! Oh, boy, I was really onto something. Okay, no, I’d never written anything more than comparative arguments in my college English classes, but, really, how different could writing a book be?

Stop rolling your eyes!

I’d just graduated from college with a degree in drafting, so I was thinking from the left side of my brain. My surveying class worked us up from basic math through trigonometry—totally a left-brain function, very organized. When working on blueprints you need to start from the very bottom of the building first—the foundation. This is what I did with building my pirate story. Of course then I had no idea of the basic, simplest things, like dialog punctuation for example. I never really paid attention to those things when I was just a reader. I doubt if anybody does—unless they’re an aspiring writer, then every little mistake sticks out like glowing green neon.

Oops, got off on a tangent.

Let me back up . . . the foundation of my pirate book—that’s right. I visualized the parts I wanted: the opening, the characters, the perils, the adventures, and the conclusion. I could “see” it all in my head. I just needed to get it down in my computer. I remember . . . it took three weeks, and the manuscript was a total of 109 pages long. It truly was my first novella.  I felt like I could do anything—except sell something that was copywrited. What? Nooooooo! I spent all that time working on something that Disney couldn’t even legally read and neither could Bruckheimer? It would never be anything more than my own personal story when I needed a Sparrow fix. Ah, well!

Now what, I thought. Writing that short story was a total blast. Could I write a longer manuscript—one that was completely my own idea, with my own characters? “Yes—yes, I know I could!” I told me.

If you’re a writer and not just a lover of books, what inspired that first draft? Another book? Maybe a weird looking pirate in a silly movie? A story or character you couldn’t get out of your head while you lay in your bed at night when you were young? Did you make up stories for you children, or were you the storyteller when you were a child? There are thirteen other bloggers on this site, and more ANWA members who click over and read the posts. I want to know you better.  

Everyone has a story. What’s yours? 

Writing and Challenges

By Susan G. Haws

More than half the time I think I should give up writing. Just set back and read. I love to read and  there are more excellent books available than I can get to in a lifetime. I would if it weren't for all these ideas that keep popping in my head.

After expressing these insecurities I received an email from the author Jeff Ambrose. (Click here to go to his web site.) I asked permission to share it as I think other people out there might also need this reminder.

One thing I learned is that every writer is challenged by the same problems. No exceptions. You and Stephen King are playing the same game! Just listen to the way writers talk about the job. They may not use the same words or phrases, but essentially they're all talking about the same problems.

What separates writers isn't the problems, which never go away, but how they deal with the problems. The successful writers -- the ones who write, finish, and put their work on the market -- have learned how to deal with the job hazards. Those who don't write, finish, and put their work on the market haven't learned these skills.

How to learn those skills? 

Simple: By writing.

Thank you Jeff.