Wednesday's questions opened my inquisitive mind to more questions. Thank you so much all of you who answered. It was fun to read what everyone said. If you haven't read them yet, please do so.
During the five years I have been writing, I have had to stop for a while. Life gets in the way a lot of time. My mother had several falls and I spent time in the hospital and nursing home with her. Then she passed away and I was so tired after staying up with her and looking after her. I was exhausted. Then we moved. I never realized how hard it would be for me to move. My husband had cataract surgery on both eyes. After that I had cataract surgery on both eyes. Now I have had one knee replaced and the other will be replaced next month. All of this has made me get in a slump. I am happy to say I am out of that slump. I made up my mind I was going to write and get down to it. My whole attitude on life has changed since then.
1. What do you do when you get in a slump or a writer's block? Do you go back to your notes, walk away for a few minutes, or sit at the computer and fume?
2. Do you write a synopsis or are you a seat of the pants writer?
3. Do you write for multiple publishers or do you write for one?
4. Can you picture yourself doing anything but writing?
1. You read about my slump above. I think it was more depression than anything. When I have a block, I walk away from the computer for a while. I can always do laundry, straighten up the house, or something and then go back to it and I'm refreshed and my thoughts are clearer. Reading my research notes helps also.
2. I do an outline and I'm also a seat of the pants. Right now I am doing both. I have an outline and then I find I don't go by it, so I seat of the pants a while.
3. I'm not published, but I have thought of it. I know several authors who have multiple publishers and some who only publish for one name. Right now, I want to get published. I'll cross the other bridge when I get to it.
4. I cannot picture myself not writing, but I can picture myself doing other things and writing. I love to quilt and I need to scrapbook. I love to read also. Writing come first.
1. What do you do when you get in a slump or a writer's block? Do you go back to your notes, walk away for a few minutes, or sit at the computer and fume? Depending on my time constraints, I'll take a day or two off. If I need to get words on the page, sometimes I take my iPod and go for a LONG drive. Something about that unlocks the muse. And sometimes I sit and stew. Like I said in my previous comment, when I am stuck, I give myself a word count goal and force myself to write, even if it's trash. Sometimes, doing that reveals a whole new plot line or lets my characters tell me I've got something all wrong.
ReplyDelete2. Do you write a synopsis or are you a seat of the pants writer? I do a vague outline of the "high points" then go to town. So far, I've got three books done and one half done, and NONE of them have even REMOTELY resembled the vague outline. I'm a total pantser. I wish I was a plotter, but I've tried and tried and it just never works.
3. Do you write for multiple publishers or do you write for one? I write for whoever will buy it right now, but my goal is to find a house that loves me and which I love and settle in with them.
4. Can you picture yourself doing anything but writing? I used to teach, and God CLEARLY let me know when that calling was done. Right now, no, I can't see myself doing anything else, and believe me, I've thought about it. Extra money would be nice. But right now, this is my calling. Will that change someday? Only God knows that. But for this moment, today, no. I can't see myself doing anything else.
1. I go back and do more resesarch.
ReplyDelete2. I used to be SOTP, but now I outline, because I can't sell a book without an outline. So you might as well write the outline first--and you might find it easier to stay on track while actually writing the book. It works for me.
3. I write for several publishers.
4. Since I have done several other things, I can picture, but I don't want to.