Category Archives: the writing life

A Helluva Town

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James Scott Bell
The Bronx is up and the Battery’s down. The people ride in a hole in the ground. – Betty Comden and Adolph Green, On the Town

I love New York. Last week I was there, teaching at the first-class 2011 Writer’s Digest Conference. Great turnout despite the cold. How cold was it in the city? It was so cold I saw a lawyer standing on the corner with his hands in his own pockets.
Ba-dump-bump.
But yeah, it was not walking around weather. At least not a lot. But my wife and I didn’t let that stop us. We had a couple of meals with Mort, my former NY apartment mate (from my acting days) and with my agent, Don Maass. Stayed at a great boutique hotel on the East side, the Elysee on 54th, which I highly recommend if you’re looking for convenient location (we took the Air Train from JFK, then the E train to within a block of the hotel) and complimentary evening wine and hors d’oeuvres.

We ended up doing a lot, though we didn’t take in a show. We’re not crazy about the gigantic musicals. We prefer Off Broadway. So we were tempted to go see Alan Rickman in John Gabriel Borkman at BAM, but decided traveling to Brooklyn in sub-zero weather to take in an Ibsen play might lead to intractable despair and pretty much cloud the rest of the trip.
We did get up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we were blown away by the wall sized piece called “Earth and Heaven” by African artist El Anatsui.  Also by the exhibition of photographs by Stieglitz, Steichen and Strand. I love photography from the early 20th century, when the art of it was just getting underway. Amazing the emotion Stieglitz captured with such primitive equipment.
They also had a Rodin exhibit that knocked me out. He’s like Van Gogh with sculpture. Intense and riveting. You know, if you could write first drafts with the feeling of a Rodin, you’d be 90% of the way toward successful fiction.
Ah, the food. Here are places we ate that I would recommend:
Indigo Indian Bistro, 357 E. 50th Street. Family owned, pleasantly run and just the right spices.
I Trulli, 121 E. 27th. Wonderful Italian fare.
Rocking Horse Café, 8th Ave. and 19th. Excellent Mexican in Chelsea.
Also, the street hot dog guy on 7th and 52d.
Don’t miss the High Line next time you get to NY. No, wait a second. Do miss the High Line when it’s below zero wind chill. Cindy and I walked about a quarter mile of it before we cried for mercy and ducked for cover in the new Chelsea Market. Now that’s a great place to hang out, in any weather. They’ve got upscale stores and markets and live music, all in the old National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) building.
I guess, at heart, I’m a city boy. I grew up in L.A., lived in New York and Chicago. I love London and San Francisco in doses. Nashville’s a nice town. I’m down with Denver, too.
What about you? What’s your favorite city to visit?  Or if the city is not your thing, where would you go with a free pass from an airline and a hotel?

Freedom from the Virtual Tether

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by Michelle Gagnon

Hi. I’m Michelle, and I’m hooked on the internet. Sure, I make all sorts of excuses. I’m only doing it for the marketing. I need it for research. It’s the only social interaction I get, especially now that the UPS guy won’t be showing up daily with Christmas deliveries. I can stop whenever I want.
So here we are in a brand new year. I’m not usually one for making resolutions, but Clare’s post on Monday touched a nerve.
Clare discussed the merits of keeping a writing journal while working on a book. And all I could think was that there was no way I’d ever find the time- I’m barely getting enough fiction writing as it is.
Which then lead to musings on why that’s the case…
When I tabulate it, time spent dealing with emails, social networking groups, and listservs has crept up every year. Every writer knows that this is somewhat of a necessary evil- we’re constantly told that these days online marketing is key, and maintaining a presence in these different forums is critical to our success.
But is it true?

Sure, I’ve made sales via Facebook, Twitter, and some of the lists. But even skimming the group digest deluge that arrives in my inbox every day sucks up precious minutes. Responding to other peoples’ comments and feeds takes even more time. And at the end of the day, I discover that I’ve spent a fairly significant chunk of it on minutiae. It’s as if I spent an entire afternoon hanging out by the watercooler (and yes, I’m fully aware of the irony of posting this on a blog).

So here’s my resolution: I’m signing up for Freedom, a program that will lock me out of the internet for specific time periods. For months I’ve resisted doing this, since it would seem to imply an appalling lack of self-control. But there it is, the sad truth. I’ve tried cutting back on my own, turning off my Airport. And yet when I hit one of those writing lulls, my first thought is, “I wonder if that email came in?” or “What’s happening on Facebook?”

Here’s the companion issue: checking all of those nifty devices. I went to dinner with a friend last week who spent most of our evening together simultaneously checking email, texts, and God knows what else. And I’m not throwing stones–I’ve occasionally been guilty of the same. It’s tempting, after all, to constantly monitor that virtual tether. But it’s also an addiction that appears to be spiraling out of control worldwide.

Two resolutions, then: the Freedom program, and keeping my various devices tucked away the majority of the time. As with all addictions, I’ll be taking it one day at a time. So if I don’t respond to your comments immediately, don’t take it as an affront- rather, a sign that I’ve taken that first step. Wish me luck.

Guilty Pleasures

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Can you sit and read a magazine without feeling guilty? Do you berate yourself for loafing when you should be accomplishing something? For example, if you’re not writing, do you feel you should be working on your To Do List? How dare you sit idly by and read, play video games, watch TV, or talk to a friend on the phone! You’re wasting precious time. Every minute that ticks away is a minute gone from your life.

Is this purely a writer’s angst, or does it apply to all Type A personalities? Maybe the solution is to program a half hour or more per day into our schedule for pure relaxation. We schedule hair appointments and exercise routines, right? So why not a Time Out? The brain needs a diversion from all that intense activity. You’ll work better after a break. Consider it necessary to productivity.

When you’re on vacation, do you get bored and begin to lust after work? Are you happy lounging by the pool or does your mind drift to projects waiting for you? If this is the case, perhaps a more active vacation is what you need. You’ll be so busy, you won’t have time to think about things back home. Or if your mind needs a challenge, solve a Sudoku puzzle instead.

Assign yourself a book to read so you view reading as a task to complete and feel a sense of accomplishment while enjoying yourself.

It’s difficult for a multi-tasker to kick the habit. What do you do to relax without feeling guilty about it?

Moving Day

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by Clare Langley-Hawthorne

You will have to forgive my truncated blog post today as we are moving into our new house here in Melbourne. We haven’t had all our own stuff or been in our own home since May so you can imagine the state of excitement round here. My boys are dying to have all the Lego back and I think my husband is as heartily sick as I am of wearing the same repertoire of clothes.

We have made a huge lifestyle change in the house we’ve bought. Not only have we moved country but we have also moved from an essentially urban existence to a semi-rural one on the outskirts of Melbourne. We’ve all heard people say that moving can be stressful, but you don’t know how it feels until you are in this situation. With this being said, it doesn’t have to be as difficult as you thought, especially when you’ve got long distance movers who can give you a helping hand to make sure you get all your belongings there safely. Another piece of advice I have for anyone thinking about moving is to find a conveyancing solicitor in the area you are buying a house, as the communication between you both will be a lot easier, you’ll be able to meet up regularly and they’ll make sure you complete your transactions in the most effective way possible. Plus, it’s always nice knowing that you have someone on your side.

Although we have quite a bit of renovating and landscaping to do, ‘home’ now comprises two acres, a pool, a chicken run and a fire-bunker…yes, we are in a high bushfire danger zone now, so I have to come to grips with a plethora of fire fighting stuff – from water tanks and generator pumps to roof sprinklers, ladders and fire department sized hoses. Let’s hope we never need to use them (although my husband is thinking of volunteering at the local fire house so him in a fireman’s uniform could be a definite upside!)

Part of our rationale for moving back to Australia was to give our boys the kind of childhood we had – free to roam and explore – and apart from, snakes, bushfire, poisonous spiders, heat exhaustion, sunburn and broken limbs what could there possibly be to worry about?!

I’m also looking forward to writing when my outlook will be this:

So, what would be your ideal ‘outlook’ for writing be? A beach? The mountains? Skyscrapers? Or can you write just about anywhere?

Losing the Psychological Battle

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by Clare Langley-Hawthorne

I pride myself on being pretty upbeat and resilient most of the time, but now, I fear I am losing the psychological battle as I try to get some major revisions complete on my current WIP. I have a revised chapter outline, so I know where I am headed, and I even have the first 150 pages revised and polished…but now I feel as though I have psyched myself out of being able to finish the manuscript on the timeline I had planned. To be fair we have made a rather major move to a new (or should I say old) country but the transition has had a greater psychological impact than I expected – it’s made me question my ability to juggle my writing with being a mum.
Don’t worry I am not about to embark on a whine-fest or a ‘woe-is-me’ blog post but I am finding that I no longer have the confidence that I can find the time to get the revisions done before school holidays arrive. So what’s the big deal about the holidays, you ask?

Let me explain…The long summer break here in Australia falls over the holidays (duh! That’s when it is summer here) and this means my twin boys finish school on December 7 and do not return until February 2nd next year. Given the total absence of the concept of summer camp in Oz, this means I will be looking after my boys pretty much 24-7 – which mean writing is limited to the ‘after bed-time’ hours. So, as you can imagine, I really, really, really want to get the bulk of my revisions done by December 7th.
Normally I would view this kind of thing as another challenge and I would just tell myself to slather on the bum-glue and get down to it…but this time I suddenly find myself immobilized by the prospect. I’ve convinced myself I cannot get it done and the prospect of the manuscript revisions stretching out into February next year is depressing as hell.

So I could really do with some advice on how regain the upper hand in the psychological battle (with myself!) to get the manuscript finished. Any tips on how to un-psych myself out of this hole?
Otherwise, I fear you may be hearing a two month long scream of frustration all the way from Down Under…

Writer Indignities

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by Clare Langley-Hawthorne

I know writers across the centuries have suffered many indignities – denigrated, banned, ignored, committed to asylums and marginalized – but thus far I have survived on the belief that times have changed (well, no one has committed me yet!). This weekend, however, I suffered my first real indignity. While I am sure for many people it would be a minor issue, for me it opened up a whole host of outrages. My husband went to our new Australian bank to open a term deposit and when he returned, bearing the completed paperwork, I saw listed under my occupation two words that chilled me to the bone. Those two words? Home Duties.

So I asked my husband, with just a hint of sarcasm, wasn’t there another occupation that could possible reflect what I do…I don’t know, ‘writer’, perhaps?…He turned his startled, deer-in-the headlight eyes to mine and tried to explain how he had told the bank that I was a full-time writer, but apparently being listed as ‘self-employed (which I guess was the only category they had) opened up a whole can of worms regarding verifying income etc. So for the sake of ease, they opted to use the term ‘home duties’…because of course, in Australia, what else would any self-respecting married female writer wish to do?!
I suspect you may be able to detect my feelings on this matter – not that I have anything against those who wish to list ‘home duties’ as their occupation – it’s just that that isn’t how I define myself.
Now maybe I wouldn’t be so sensitive about the issue had I not once been a lawyer who earned more than her husband (funny, I was never listed as ‘breadwinner’ on any bank forms then) or had I not recently moved to a country which seems to be imbued with a Mad Men view of women (I will blog/rant about that another time), but as it stands, I feel pretty indignant. I know the view of a bank is hardly indicative of the real value of anyone’s occupation, but still it made me feel as though my writing was little more than a hobby. I was waiting for the bank manager to phone me up and suggest I take up knitting and macrame in my spare time.

So what about you? Have you suffered any similar indignities as you try to convince the world that writer is actually an occupation and (dare I say it) a pretty valuable one, regardless of its income potential (or lack thereof!)?

Growing as a Writer

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If you’re going to be a writer, I mean really take this writing thing seriously, you’ve got to continue to grow. Purposely. Planned out. Find ways to get better. Read books (not just for pleasure, but to see what other writers do), comb through writing books and Writer’s Digest, try stuff, take risks. The alternative is to stagnate, and who wants that? In any endeavor?
I thought about this recently as I watched some of John Wayne’s early movies via inexpensive (translation: cheapie) DVDs. John Wayne was not John Wayne when he started out. (Actually, his real name was Marion Morrison. How long would he have lasted with that moniker?)
After working as an extra for a couple of years, this former USC football player was, at age 22, plucked from obscurity  by director Raoul Walsh for a big budget Western, The Big Trail (1930). The movie flopped, and Wayne spent the next nine years making low budget westerns for studios on what was called “Poverty Row” in Hollywood.
The poorest of these studios was an outfit called Lone Star. Here is where we see John Wayne trying to find himself as an actor. It was a hard search, especially when he was stuck in such poorly written, clunkily acted, one hour oaters. Pictures like Riders of Destiny  (1933), where he was billed as Singin’ Sandy. (That’s right. John Wayne as a singing cowboy! Only his singing was dubbed – badly – as Wayne pretended to play the guitar – badly.)
Wayne’s acting here was wooden and uncertain. The only direction he seemed to get was to smile a lot, and that got a tad creepy. This was one forgettable actor.
But by 1936 he had moved one notch up, to Republic Pictures. In Winds of the Wasteland, for example, he seems like a different actor. Here is the real John Wayne. His acting is understated and sure. He’s even started walking that famous walk.
What happened? Wayne made a decision to grow, to get better. A lot of credit for that apparently goes to the legendary stuntman, Yakima Canutt, a real “man’s man” back in the day when that was an okay thing to be. Wayne copied Canutt’s low, confident way of speaking, and his walk. And he stopped smiling all the time.
Wayne was also befriended by an old character actor named Paul Fix, who gave Wayne acting tips, including the admonition not to furrow that famous brow so much.
The results were promising. Wayne learned. He grew.
Still, Wayne would probably have remained a B actor all his life (maybe he would have had a TV show like Hopalong Cassidy in the 1950s) had it not been for his friendship with John Ford. When the famous director wanted to make a Western in 1939 called Stagecoach, he got resistance (Westerns weren’t in vogue). When he insisted that Wayne play the Ringo Kid, he got turned down flat. But Ford wouldn’t budge, and eventually put a deal together with an indie producer. His going to bat for Wayne was what made him a star.
            Wayne as the Ringo Kid in Stagecoach

But Wayne didn’t stop there. Though he never would be mistaken for Brando or Olivier, he did reach down for extra in movies like Red River (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949, Academy Award nomination), The Searchers (1956), True Grit (1969, Academy Award for Best Actor) and The Shootist (1976), his very last film.
And of course, John Wayne became an icon, still ranking as a favorite movie star worldwide.
So, if you want to make a mark as a writer, you grow. Consciously. That doesn’t bring any guarantees. John Wayne himself needed a couple of lucky breaks to get to the heights he enjoyed. But he made himself ready, as you should.
So, do you have a plan in place to improve your writing? For the rest of your writing life? If you don’t, why not start now? (If you need some nudging in that area, I have some suggestions for you in my book, The Art of War for Writers.)
What’s your plan?

Twitterati: Is There a Writer Inside You?

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James Scott Bell
I’ve been dispensing writing advice on Twitter for a year and a half. You know, 140 characters or less of timeless wisdom on the art and craft of fiction. At least that teaches one to write tight!

So from time to time I’d like to draw on the archives and post a nugget, and start a conversation. Get your feedback. See how we can form a “collective mind.”
In that spirit, here is today’s Twitterati:
Don’t ask, Do I have a book inside me? Ask: Inside, am I a writer? If the answer is yes, write and don’t stop.
Questions:
Do you see yourself as a writer, or do you have doubts? What do you do about them?
What does “being a writer” mean to you?
Is there one book inside you, or are there more where that came from?
Have at it. We’ll talk. 

Writing on the Move

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James Scott Bell

Been doing a lot of speaking this year, which involves one of my least favorite things: Checking into airports. I love the speaking once I arrive. It’s the getting there I’m not always thrilled with.
But if I can redeem the time by writing, I figure I break even on the travel. So here are some of the things I do to get the most out of my travel time. Maybe you can add a few tips of your own.
First, I pre-plan. I do much better if I have one or two definite goals for the flight. So the day before my trip I decide what part of my WIP I’ll work on. I spend some time preparing the scenes I’m going to write, figuring out what I want to accomplish.
Then I set a word quota so I have an objective firmly in mind. This provides a reachable goal to work toward.
I carry a file folder with printed notes I deem of use. This is for those times when they don’t let you have any electronics going on the plane.
I get the airport early so I have plenty of time to make it through security. At the gate area I scope out a place to sit and work, usually at some inactive gate nearby. Fewer people. If it’s an hour or more before boarding, I grab a coffee and take out the laptop and go. If it’s half an hour or less, I usually work on the written notes.
Onboard, I generally have a window seat. That way I can get seated and get working without having to worry about people getting up during the flight.
In the air I put on my Bose noise cancelling headphones and get the iTunes going. I write to movie soundtracks, which I’ve divided into lists depending on the mood of the scene. Usually I’m writing suspense, so I’ve got my Hitchcock scores and others at the ready.
And so it goes. When ordered to power down, I still have my written notes, or a paperback. Yes, I still carry paperbacks on planes. So sue me.
That’s my flyboy routine. On the ground, when I have to go someplace where I know I’ll have to wait, I might take my AlphaSmart with me. Again, I have pre-planned what I want to write, so I’m not twiddling my fingers over the keyboard.
Here’s the deal. We all have a finite time on this orb, and I want to get in as much writing as I can. Redeeming the time this way keeps me optimistic and productive.
Do I ever take a vacation from writing? Of course. My wife will tell you. We go away to lovely spot for some R & R. Conversations usually start like this: “Jim? Jim! There’s a great sunset over here. Jim, what are you thinking about?”
“Hm? What? Sorry, right.”
“Um, you have to look out the window to see it.”
“See what?”
“The sunset.”
“Right, right.”
“So, are you going to come to the window?”
“Just a sec, just a sec . . .”
So what about you? How do you redeem time to get your writing done?