Writer’s Guide to Self Care

Writer’s Guide to Self Care

Ruth E. Walker

For the past two days, you’ve been in the middle of an important edit and you have a magazine article deadline looming. You’ve ignored that tickle in your throat but today, you wake up, head pounding and your throat feels like someone’s taken a scrub brush to it.

You’re sick. You long to pull the covers over your head and stay in bed. The house is warm yet you are chilled and shivering. But if you stop now, you’re sure the edit will lose its forward progress. And that article was paying pretty good per-word compensation.

STOP

Let’s rewind a day or two. It was just a sore throat and a bit stuffed up. And if you paused long enough at that point, you might have remembered the last time that happened you ended up with Strep. Or bronchitis. Or influenza. Or…

If you paused long enough.

We writers sometimes get so caught up with taking care of our work we forget to take care of ourselves. I know this because I have a lot of friends and colleagues who are writers. Many times I’ve heard them say “I’m so darn tired but I can’t go to bed early with that deadline.” Or “Oh, it’s just a cold. Can’t let it stop me.”

I have a confession to make. Since before Christmas I’ve been dealing with a rotten cold. It would get a bit better and then a couple of days later, I’d be blowing my nose and coughing. And coughing. Eventually coughing so much I could barely talk. I was exhausted just climbing the stairs.

Did I go see a doctor?

Nope.

Well, not until I recognized that the rattling sound in my throat and chest wasn’t a good sign. I even ignored that for a couple of days. Editing commitments and deadlines took precedence. My priorities might have been a bit whacky. At least that’s what the doctor inferred when I said how tired and short of breath I’d been. “Yes,” he said and fixed me with that you-ought-to-know-better eyeball. “That’s probably because you have bronchitis.”

Two kinds of inhalers and some heavy-duty meds later, I got on the road to recovery. However, if I’d gone to see the doctor when the coughing got bad instead of struggling through a week of Buckley’s cough medicine, I’d have been on the road at least a week earlier. Yes, Buckley’s really tastes awful and helped control some of the cough but it’s not meant for chest infections. So I was just applying a Band-Aid to an artery wound.

Back to you, writer

Do you recognize yourself in any of this? What would you tell that writer deep in the edit and with the looming deadline?

  • you should come first; the passion to edit your novel will come back stronger when you’re stronger
  •  deadlines can be renegotiated
  • if you can’t renegotiate the deadline
    • ask a trusted colleague to take what notes you’ve got and complete the assignment
    • offer up a name or two to the client to replace you
  • by doing either of these things, you may lose the money but your client will know you are professional

But let’s not forget that sometimes illness happens because you’re not taking care of you in the first place. So remember the usuals:

  • proper meals, exercise and sleep (just like the doctor ordered)
  • take breaks, even if just for 15 minutes to step away from the work (set a timer if need be)
  • treat yourself with kindness in whatever form that takes for you (avoid negative self-talk)
  • spend time with people you really like and enjoy (this is a choice, not a chore)

Consequences remind us to be smarter next time

And, most of all, if you feel the onset of something, don’t bury your head in your work and “soldier on.” Be smart. Pay attention and if it is warranted, get yourself checked out medically. The hours of solid editing I lost by refusing to acknowledge I needed to see my doctor, have meant even more hours making up for the lost time.

However, I’m not forgetting to take care of myself in the time crunch.

You’ll have to excuse me now. I hear the kettle boiling and it’s time for my tea break.

Did You Know?

There’s all kinds of ways to take care of yourself. You can expect a healthy dose of pampering at Spring Thaw, our all-inclusive writers retreat in April.

Enjoy catered lunches and dine overlooking the lake in the evenings. Afterward, head to your lakeside cottage to unwind by the wood burning fireplace or head off to bed in your private bedroom.

What about writing, you say? Write in your jammies every morning with in-cottage breakfasts. Daily workshops will fire up your pen with exercises and inspiration. And Gwynn and Ruth will offer written feedback and personal consultation on pre-submitted work, plus be available for chats all weekend long.

As if that’s not enough of a good thing, you can add two more days with our Extend Your Pen option, designed for uninterrupted writing time except for lunch and dinner. A wonderful way to dive even deeper into your writing project.

Seven Tips for Finding Inspiration

Seven Tips for Finding Inspiration

Gwynn and Ruth are on vacation for the next couple of weeks. So we’re bringing back a couple of our favourite Top Drawer topics to share with new readers and to nudge long-time followers. This week is Ruth’s May 2016 post on finding inspiration. So get out there this summer and give your muse a change of scenery too.

Ruth E. Walker

I recently delivered a workshop at a writers’ conference: From Inspiration to Publication. In 2.5 hours, I was supposed to shine a light on the path almost every writer dreams about: being published. Frankly, this path can never be illuminated in such a short time. In fact, I could plug in a dozen klieg lamps and have an infinite amount of workshop time, and I’d still leave the bulk of that path in shadows.

No two writers have identical pathstunnel-237656_640

shrine-1031662_640That’s because for each writer, the path to publication is individual and endless. And it is filled with missed opportunities, wrong turns and dead ends. But for successful writers “publication” is not a single event. It is a series of acceptances, right turns and new paths that keep them inspired through all the rejections and disappointments.

Successful writers keep shining their headlights down that path because they know two things:

  1. getting published should not be a one-time goal, and
  2. they only need to shine their light forward to keep going

signs-416444_640For even the best writers, it is a frustrating journey.

It’s beyond discouraging to repeatedly receive rejections. So how to keep your muse motivated? Finding and then holding on to your inspiration can be key to keeping your light shining down the writer’s path.

So let’s get started.

  1. Leave your comfort zone behind: a change of place, space or pace can allow inspiration to sneak up and surprise you; if you can’t change your environment (travel or try out writing in a coffee shop, for example) give freefall writing a try (timed writing with no editing, no stopping, no internal editor allowed.) You’ll be amazed with what happens when you let yourself go to follow the energy.
  2. Visit a used bookstore and browse: old book titles, names of authors, a line from a book and even the smell of old paper can trigger ideas.
  3. Find contests with deadlines: a contest theme can trigger plenty of writing or, even better, remind you that you have a story on file to fit that theme!
  4. People watch with a notepad: keep to reportage (just the facts) to record the behaviour, clothing, dialogue that passes by. Pull it out and flip to a random page when you need to nudge your muse.
  5. Visit graveyards and museums: imagine the stories behind all those dates and names (old gravestones and small local museums can be especially intriguing.)
  6. Read outside your interests: essay collections, science journals, biographies, and so on will let you tap into a rich vein of interesting topics.
  7. Get out into nature and leave technology behind. If the landscape doesn’t trigger your muse, being in the open air with only scenery to distract you just might be the space your creativity needs to surface.

Inspiration for writing can come from so many places that I could keep writing this post for weeks. But what these tips all have in common is encouragement to explore. Writers are the adventurers on the open seas of life: we travel in our imaginations and write all about it. If you keep your light pointed into the distance then you should always be ready to find your stories.

About Freefall Writingtourism-776587_640

Freefall writing was first coined as “Mitchell’s Messy Method” by W.O. Mitchell (Who Has Seen the Wind) when he taught creative writing at university. It became “freefall” over time. There are variations used by many creative writing teachers, but when Gwynn or I lead a freefall, these are our main points:

  • Be present (meditation before you start is helpful) and follow the energy
  • Write what comes up
  • Use the senses — taste, touch, smell, sound and sight
  • Be specific — not “the car” but “the fire engine red two-door convertible”
  • Keep writing even if all you can start to write is: I can’t write. This is dumb. Why am I doing this? –eventually, the tension will trigger new energy for you to follow
  • Resist the editor — don’t stop to “fix” things
  • Go Fearward — W.O. Mitchell’s best advice ever

Freefall prompt and exercise: Set your timer for 20 minutes. Close your eyes and allow yourself to be quiet and still. Count backwards slowly to zero from fifteen. When you get to zero, start your freefall writing with this opening sentence:

The door opened and I stepped inside.

 

 

Deadlines: Motivator or Barrier?

Deadlines: Motivator or Barrier?

Ruth E. Walker

Discovering Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a thrill. Oh, the combination: wit, satire and science fiction comedy. As a young-ish mother of four, the escape was delicious.

And lately, I’ve enjoyed getting reacquainted with his wacky worldview in the television series Dirk Gently’s Holisitic Detective Agency. But all that is an aside (which is one of things I loved about reading Douglas Adams — the incredible digressions…but then I also enjoy Monty Python.)

What I most admire about Douglas Adams is how often his words (either from his books or otherwise) remain so smart and relevant. Here’s a gem from a speech “Parrots, the universe and everything” at the University of California in May 2001. It was just days before his untimely death at age 49:

We don’t have to save the world. The world is big enough to look after itself. What we have to be concerned about is whether or not the world we live in will be capable of sustaining us in it.

And here’s my favourite because it fits my writing world:

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. 

Yes indeed. So today, I have no less than two writing deadlines. First, I need to finish THIS post and get it proofread and ready to launch by midnight. And second, long before midnight, I need to send the last four chapters of my novel to my critique group.

Time Management?

Look at that. My “midnight” deadline is secondary to my “long before midnight” deadline. Well, that must be because my last four chapters are ready to go.

Nope. They are “mostly” ready (Python-esque description, yes?) I’m still agonizing over plot decisions I’ve made. I’m unsure if I’ve overwritten the final few scenes, that I’ve gone for “big” when “intimate” might better serve the story.

Yes. Of course I hear you. Isn’t that what my critique group is for? To offer feedback on the writing? So what is my problem?

It’s the deadlines that are killing me and my creativity today. Add into the mix some background on another deadline, one that I’ve missed. In the past couple of years, I’ve been at a few writing conferences. At those conferences, there were optional pitch sessions with literary agents. I started with the idea that I could use those sessions as a chance to practise a real pitch for when the book is done.

So I paid attention to the questions the agents asked. I noticed what got their interest in the written query and writing sample and what put them on snooze. And I practised being comfortable sitting across from someone who might have a profound effect on my writing career. Believe me, I need that practise.

True confession

I can stand at the front of a room and deliver a workshop with passion and confidence. But offer up that compelling elevator pitch? Describe my book and its themes in 25 words or less? Open my mouth and not jam my foot directly into it?

Something terrible happens to me when I’m talking about my novel to agents and editors. My brain leaves the room. So practise is necessary, in my case.

Last September, I was at a pitch session with a well-known literary agent. I didn’t even have to open my mouth before she let me know how much she enjoyed my writing sample. In seconds, I went from Nervous Nellie to author. We had a great meeting and I imagined how lovely it would be have this woman as my agent. She asked to see the full manuscript in November. “Of course,” I said. I was only a month or so from penning “The End” so that timing was a perfect fit.

I had a deadline. I had strong interest from an agent. And a manuscript so close to being done, I could taste it. What could go wrong?

The Douglas Adams effect

Whoosh. That deadline went by so fast, I barely heard it. Sure, I have a lot of reasons that the book languished, unfinished. But I suspect that a big part of the missed deadline is related to my lack of confidence in writing the darn thing. That’s not a logical reason. Feedback from agents and editors in my practice sessions, along with my excellent (and tough) critique group’s comments, confirms that the writing is strong and the story original and engaging.

But when are we logical beings? When does our passion for our craft translate into efficiency and organization? In my case, it often doesn’t. Remember those digressions I love? Squirrel! And I’m madly off in several directions, forgetting the original goal.

Nonetheless, I’ve made it to the end of this post so that is one deadline met. As long as no squirrels pass my window and the house remains relatively quiet, I should also manage to meet the next one. And as to that November 2016 so-important-I-shouldn’t-let-it-whoosh-by deadline? I can only hope that literary agent is okay working with authors for whom deadlines are sometimes counter-productive. And that she’ll like the novel well enough to sign me.

I’ll keep you posted.

Did You Know:

You’ve got lots of time before registration deadline for Turning Leaves, our annual fall retreat. But don’t let that stop you from signing up. The first four writers who sign up get a special bonus: a suite room with a lake view. Still waiting for the deadline to creep up on you? With this year’s guest author Vicki Delany ready to share secrets on how she’s one of Canada’s top mystery writers, we expect a full house. Don’t be disappointed. November 3, 4 & 5.