IWSG April and Inspiration

This is my April contribution to Alex Cavanaugh's  Insecure Writers' Support Group.  To link to more posts about writers helping other writers, click here.

I feel like I’m the only person in the Blogosphere not incorporating this IWSG post with the letter B in the A-Z challenge.  Best wishes to all of you intrepid folks participating.  As for me, well,  I’m in a “resting stage” with my current project and conventional wisdom dictates I get busy with something new.  To date, I haven’t come up with anything noteworthy, but I know from experience, inspiration comes from weird places.

Take my, first ever, get to the end of a first draft and stop novel.  It started as a result of a “scene storming” exercise.  I wrote a few hundred words, and then just for giggles decided to see if I could keep going until I got to the end.  Turns out I could.  I just didn’t know how to fix the mess afterwards.  This is how that one started:

By the time the real estate broker’s car came to a full stop by the “For Sale” sign in front of 52 South Main Street, Shelby Richmond had mentally unpacked her boxes, made the beds and scrubbed the kitchen floor. 

The second book I wrote…this one gets full credit because I revised it seventeen times, wrote a synopsis, a query letter and submitted it to agents, started with a sentence that rolled through my mind one night, during that fog point between awake and asleep.  I forced myself to get up and write it on a scrap of paper—which I stuck by my computer, until the story it related to took shape in my brain months later.  That one started like this:

The queen of the 1974 Tarrant County Honeydew Festival abdicated the throne forty-eight hours after her coronation. 

The third project—the one I’m currently resting, was triggered by an illustration accompanying an essay in Yankee Magazine about a damaged apple tree.  

Marnie St. Marie knew she hadn’t taken a drink for three weeks, but when she saw the boy in her ailing apple tree, she wondered.

So today, I sit, sniffing out inspiration like a dog.  Where will it come from?  A story on the news? Action I see on the street?  A picture? A tweet?  I don’t know.  But I woke up this morning with this blurb rolling around in my head.

By the time Winnie Parker reached the derelict Walker estate, the rock she’d been kicking the whole way felt like an old friend.  Which is why, when it took an odd bounce and scuttled under the wrought-iron gate, she had to reach in to retrieve it.

Hmm.  I think I’ll chew on that for a while.  

Where does your inspiration come from?

A-Z (or a Thousand Words a Day for Me)

This is my entry for Alex Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Blog Fest where writers help writers.  To read more entries, click here.

For the third year in a row, I’ve chosen to abstain from Alex Cavanaugh’s A-Z blogfest.  But while I may not be a participant in the Super Ninja’s amazing and popular test, I owe Alex a debt of gratitude.  Each year while others have focused on A-Z, I’ve challenged myself behind the scenes to accomplish my own objectives.

This year, I’m going public.  My plan for the month of April is to write a thousand words, at least five days a week on my current novel with a longer term goal to complete the first draft by Memorial Day.  And because I admire Alex (and his partners) and want to acknowledge the impact A-Z has on me even though I don’t take part, I pledge the following:

I promise to employ ambition, balance, creativity and dedication to ensure this new novel intrigues and excites my potential readers.

I will use my enthusiasm for this story to develop its fantasy aspects in ways that makes it unique, absorbing and genuine.

I will employ hopefulness that the words I write demonstrate ingenuity.

Although I already scrapped 16K out of the first 20K and re-wrote it, I will take out my sharpest revision knife to cut out the excess, redundant and unnecessary language, thereby keeping the story lean, spare and light.

Instead of fussing during my insomniac hours, I’ll spend time employing my imagination to develop captivating plot machinations.  I will be sure the dialogue sounds uncontrived and natural.

I will treat my goal to write a thousand words a day with obeisance, sitting down before 7:00 each morning to crank out what I can before work.  I will return after work to complete my daily goal.

I will demonstrate persistence, and a hold tight to a quintessential belief that I can reach this goal.

If I catch myself failing, I will remount my campaign to achieve a minimum of 22,000 words by April 30, 2013, thereby satisfying my desire to accomplish this quest.  

I will trust myself and my skill as a writer universally and I will look forward to celebrating my victory.

I will be watchful for times when my diligence flags and will do my best to approach this task with (e)Xtraordinary focus and zeal. 

(Whew! That was kind of like speed dating!)

Wish me luck!

Here is hoping all you A-Z participants enjoy your month!

IWSG April

I’m supposed to be writing a post for Alex Cavanaugh's  Insecure Writers’ Support Group today.  I did, in fact, have one partially written.  When I woke up this morning however, I didn’t feel like being insecure.  I felt instead, like being…restful.

I have plenty of insecurities, writing related and other.  But today, a bird outside sings in a quick-time rhythm, the moss we need to scrape off the patio glows a brilliant Kelly green, and I don't need a scarf under my fleece to stay warm inside.  A school bus pulls up to pick up the girl across the street, a stack of commuter cars lined up behind it.  The creeping phlox on the ledge in back is starting to bulk up, and although the neighbor’s fence is still falling down, the one stalwart daffodil that blooms every year stands tall.

 

There is a bowl of warm oatmeal, dusted with brown sugar, sprinkled with raisins followed by strong coffee in my near future, with a good plan for the day to follow. The cat is fat and happy.  

  

Sometimes a little focus on the small things can turn the proverbial tide.  Today I’m switching things up and calling this an Insecure Writer’s Surge of Gratitude.

Click here is you want to read posts from other ISWG  participants.