Everything is Possible

In one of my Seekerville posts awhile back I shared several writerly quotes from the newspaper’s cryptoquote puzzle section. I deciphered another one this week that seems quite apropos for us writers:

“Everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it.” -- Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps

Okay, maybe not everything is possible (for a human being, anyway). But Michael has the right idea. We don’t get anywhere in this business without a huge investment of time, work, and will power. How are you doing in each of those departments?

Time. What’s your writing schedule like? Do you even have a schedule? Even putting in 30 minutes a day is 30 minutes of writing you wouldn’t have completed otherwise. Repeat that five times in a week and you’ve tallied up two and a half hours. That’s nothing to sneeze at. Do an hour a day, and there’s five hours in a week. How many words can you churn out in an hour? They all add up.

Work. How hard are you willing to work at improving your craft? Getting words on the page is important--vital, in fact. But so is learning and study. How many books and magazine articles on writing technique have you read this year? Have you taken any online courses? Attended any conferences? Which industry blogs do you visit regularly? How many published books in your genre have you read and analyzed to see why they work (or don’t)? Have you traded critiques with a wise and honest fellow writer? Have you entered contests where you could get valuable feedback? And afterward, did you evaluate the comments and revise your manuscript accordingly?

Will power. Otherwise known as stick-to-it-iveness. And after 25 years in this business, I know a little about this subject. If you don’t want it badly enough, believe me, it’ll never happen. Unfortunately, you can also want it really badly and it still may not happen. But that’s God’s decision, not yours. To fall back on a favorite Randy Ingermanson quote, “If God has called you to write, then don’t you dare quit. Don’t you DARE!”

If you’re feeling really brave, leave a comment answering the following questions:

1. How many hours did you actually write in the past 7 days?
2. What is the most recent craft book, online class, or workshop that made an impact on your writing?
3. What changes and sacrifices have you made in order to make writing a top priority?
4. What’s the one thing that keeps you keeping on?

Remember, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NASB).

The ACFW Conference starts next week!

The ACFW conference begins in Minneapolis next week, and like so many of our Seekerville residents and guests, I’m busy getting ready to head that way.

Unfortunately, there’s a whole lot more to getting ready for a conference than deciding what clothes to pack! Creating one-sheets. Designing business cards. Making editor/agent appointment choices. Practicing pitches. Does it ever get any easier?

After twenty-some-odd years of attending writers conferences, my unequivocal answer is a resounding NO!

However, I’ve picked up a few pointers over the years that have helped lower my stress level at least a little.

1. Plan ahead. Don’t wait until conference week to make sure you have everything in order. If you’re reading this and you haven’t started getting your act together yet, may I remind you the clock is ticking!

2. Arrive early. If at all possible, get to the hotel at least a couple of hours before the first scheduled event so you have time to check in, settle into your room, and maybe freshen up from the trip.

3. Face the fact that you can’t do it all. There is no way any normal human being can physically, emotionally, or even spiritually take in everything a conference has to offer. You’ll save your sanity and maybe even your health if you give yourself permission to skip a workshop or two and take a nap or visit the prayer room instead.

4. Volunteer. You may have already seen announcements on the ACFW loop about volunteer opportunities, and there may still be openings available.

5. Dress for success, but keep it comfortable. Conference days are long and you could be in the same clothes and shoes for 12 to 16 hours. Bring a sweater or jacket, or dress in layers.

6. Stock your portable office. A few weeks beforehand, I start putting together a conference organizer notebook that includes my registration and hotel confirmation, the schedule, workshop descriptions, editor and agent information, and my pitching notes. Don’t forget a legal pad or tablet for taking notes, extra pens, a highlighter, sticky notes, paper clips, and anything else you might need.

7. Get your pitching materials in order. Write out and practice an attention-getting one-liner and a slightly longer “elevator pitch.” I also like to print out answers to typical questions editors or agents ask about my story so it’ll be handy for quick reference (see #9).

8. Plan your appointment strategy. Locate the room ahead of time and make sure you know exactly how to get there. Arrive a few minutes early so you have time to catch your breath and organize your thoughts. Have your notes handy and your one-sheet, business card, and possibly a writing sample ready to show the editor or agent.

9. Be prepared to talk intelligently about your project. You should be able to tell:

• Why readers will identify with your hero or heroine
• Where the is story set
• The projected length
• Your target audience
• The main character’s visible goal and external motivation
• What obstacles the main character will face
• How the main character grows through the course of the story
• How the conflict is resolved
• Published books similar in tone or style to yours
• Your passion for this project
• Where the idea came from

10. If there’s a particular faculty member you’d like to sit with during the Friday or Saturday lunches, get to the dining room early. If you can’t find a seat at the table you were hoping for, God may have someone else in mind for you that day, so wherever you find a spot, introduce yourself around the table and see what happens.

11. Soon after you get home, sort through all your notes and handouts. Send thank-you notes to anyone who was especially helpful and to everyone you had an appointment with, even if you didn’t get a request. If you did get a request, send that proposal!

12. If you haven’t already, start right now to cover your conference experience in prayer.

A writers conference can be transforming. It’ll stretch your mind and your faith. It can open doors to opportunities you may never have anticipated. Expect an emotional roller-coaster ride, because there will be highs and lows—moments you wonder why in the world you ever thought you could be a writer, and then those mountaintop highs when you know this is what God called you to do and you know you have to keep writing no matter what. That’s the voice you want to listen to!

See you in Minneapolis!

When life interrupts

When the reminder came that it was my turn to post again today, I was in the middle of a semi-crisis and found myself floundering about for a topic. Then I realized I had one right under my nose!

You know how it goes. We’re rolling along, making headway on our work-in-progress, and BAM! Life socks us in the gut. My (most recent) sucker punch came when my husband’s heart problems landed him in the hospital last week with atrial fibrillation. Long story, but he’s fine now, praise God.

On the other hand, I lost my sanity, my energy, and (when you tack on the Fourth-of-July holiday) a week of irreplaceable writing time.

Life interruptions come in many forms:

• Your (grand)child gets sick.
• Your spouse gets sick.
• Your car gets sick.
• You get sick.
• An ice storm leaves you without power for nearly a week.
• Your grandkids visit.
• You visit your grandkids.
• The dog needs a vet appointment.
• Spring hailstorms total your roof.
• You have to prepare pitches and pack for a writers conference.
• You go to the writers conference.
• You’re so exhausted after the writers conference that you need a vacation.

This year alone I’ve personally dealt with all of the above except item #1! And the hardest part for me after any kind of life interruption is getting back into the groove. When something hits at the beginning of the week, even if I could get back to normal by Thursday or Friday, I typically count the whole week as blown and plan to get a new start on Monday.

Of course Monday is likely to arrive with a few interruptions of its own. (And it did. Just as I sat down to work on this post, the roofers arrived with a load of shingles, so it’s going to be a very noisy few days at my house.)

What I have to remind myself--over and over and over again--is that the interruption-free life we consider “normal” is nonexistent. Interruptions are the norm. Interruptions are life.

So the problem becomes, how can we quickly get past the interruption, regain our focus, and get back to writing?

Um . . . drawing a blank here. No surefire solutions forthcoming, except to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck, plant ourselves in front of the computer, and (sorry to borrow from Nike) JUST DO IT. If you’re employed, you either get right back to work after an interruption (and probably have to make up the time you missed) or you get fired. When it comes to writing, you need to be just as tough on yourself.

Not easy. I get it. But sometimes sheer force of will is the only thing that works. You’ll also find plenty of encouragement available online to get you motivated and redirected. Here are a few sites to check out:

Writer’s First Aid: a medicine chest of hope : Kristi Holl, the creator of this blog, was my instructor back in the ‘80s when I took the Institute of Children’s Literature course. She’s an expert in working through the interruptions!

Craig Harper, motivational speaker : I came across this blog in one of Kristi’s posts.

Writer . . . Interrupted : My friend and WIN chapter president Gina Conroy is the creator of this blog, a great source of encouragement for writing moms and anyone else dealing with life’s ongoing interruptions.

Margie Lawson’s class “Defeating Self-Defeating Behaviors,” offered online next January or you can order the lecture packet (see her Web site for details). Highly recommended!

Okay, everybody, how do you deal with the interruptions? What’s your strategy for churning out pages when life conspires against you?

Grab the Kleenex, You've Entered a Contest!

The land of Seekerville got its start because of contests, so it seems only fitting that we Seekers blog about what brought us together.

You know the drill. You work, you submit, you get rejected, whine, cry, edit, improvise, learn, edit some more, watch and learn, listen and learn, enter a contest, get some good feedback, change things up a bit, enter again and BLAM!

You final. Yippee! Yowza!!! Kowabungas! At last: Pay dirt. Well, okay, there is no pay for the most part, but your name gets around, people start to notice, you end up on some pretty significant desks and wait for that possible call for a ‘full’ or the ultimate first sale.

That’s how we came to be. Contest divas, working hard, taking advice, drying our tears, pulling up our big girl panties and chugging ahead despite the odds. For us more stubborn types, maybe defying the odds would be more accurate. We kept bumping heads in contests, placing, winning, crashing and burning, you name it, we did it. And we took our share of slap-downs, but we bandied around enough to know that we would be a formidable group if we worked together, helping one another, encouraging one another, and praying for each other.

Ya gotta be tough if you’re going to play the contest game. I mean that. Tough, succinct, strong, and persevering. And since I don’t have a ‘sugar daddy’, my contest entry fees came from working a second job. Still do. (For those of you scratching your head and wondering: Why would anyone DO that?, I’ll tell you: A new career is an investment of time and money. Education is an investment of time and money. Authors get educated by four things: experience and practice, practice, practice.)

I’m a big believer in hard work. That it pays off in the end and only quitters quit. Now, this ain’t no Declaration of Independence, Sugar-beans. Not all contests are created equal. Contest judging is subjective, but then, so is readership. Think everyone that reads your masterpiece is going to love, love, love it?

Think again. If nothing else, contests prepare you for the best and worst of readership. The ones who extol your virtues, your talents and your work and the ones who totally don’t ‘get it’ and write really bad reviews on Amazon and B&N, etc.

Contests toughen you. That’s not a bad thing. As a long-time soccer coach, my biggest goal wasn’t winning games, but strengthening my players. As a result, we won lots of games.

Be strong. Be tough. Go for the gold.

And may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

......Ruthy