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Good Morning Everybody,

Eloisa has triggered some very profound thoughts this morning. No, I’m not a writer, but a very dedicated reader.

What do I feel that fiercely about?  Kindness.

I can’t conquer the world, but feel very strongly that if I treat others in my immediate surrounding with kindnes, that kindness can keep spreading and spreading. I try to convey that message in everything I do, with my letters, conversations, and body language.  There is so much hatred and ugliness in the world, I feel we all need to do something to counter balance that.

What was I born to do???  I’m in my mid-forties and still haven’t figured what I want to be when I grow up!!!

My fire is just flickering, but I don’t let it go out entirely. I try to write every day, even if it’s just on my blog or a writing exercise or a few paragraphs on my WIP. I sandwich in time before or after work. I don’t know if I “was born to write”, but I woke up in the middle of the night about three years ago and started pounding out something (pretty awful). I’ve tried to learn stuff since then.

Every time I think I could do so much better if I could only write full time and ditch that pesky job (and its paycheck), I think of you, Eloisa, teaching, writing non-fiction textbooks, raising a young family and producing fabulous best-selling fiction. You’ve ruined it for us slackers!

My code word is into77...so I guess I’d better get into it with a fierce determination like poor old Sir Walter!

I taught my sister to read when I was six and she was three. My mother used to say that I never stopped teaching from that point. I am retiring soon from the university where I have taught for the last twenty plus years, but I will continue to teach part time at a different university, one with many non-traditional students. I really do think I was “born to teach.” As a writer, I am less certain. How I wish I had Scott’s discipline. One of my resolutions for 2007 was to write every day, and so far I have. But some days my production has been pitifully thin.

Great thoughts! I think we have romanticised writers, and artists in general to the point where we forget that it is work! For every wonderful, inspired moment I have at the work table, I have hours of slogging! It’s very eye opening to some people that certain days (I wish there were more, but we can’t do it all) are off limits for me. It is art time, period. I may work, I may sketch, I may make samples, but those times are there for art. Not kids, not grocery shopping, and most definitely not housekeeping!

I think (IMO) women get the brundt of the guilt involved with this creative-time stuff. We say it’s a priority, but then it gets pushed aside for everythings else. It’s not a tangilble thing (until the book, or whatever..) is done, so we trivialize it, and make it not important to us…
Great, thought provoking post!!

I guess I would classify myself as a self proclaimed writer. I’ve mostly just dabbled in it, but I’ve dabbled a long time, having written my first short story at the tender age of 11 (not enough for Pulitzer, but enough to win a 5th grade writing award. Yeah, I gloated for weeks.)

I can’t say that I’m always compelled to write a novel of any sort. Sometimes things will happen to me in life or I will see something happen to someone else that will make think, “Hey, that would make a great story, I should write it.”

Most of the time it doesn’t even hit paper. I’ve got my normal excuses (works, boyfriend, world domination...the usual), so I’ve yet to take that leap. Perhaps I will, perhaps I won’t. To me, writing isn’t something that I want to do in the pursuit of fame and fortune (much to my boyfriend’s dismay), it’s just something I do because I like doing. That, and it probably is the only thing that keeps me sane (besides reading, of course.)

My most recent brush with motivation came from talking with my grandfather. I live five hours away but I try to make it home as much as I can to visit him. Heck, if I was rich I would move him out of the nursing home and take care of him myself, but anyway, recently he’s been remicining about events in his life. He grew up in Brooklyn during a time that was less than idyllic, he’s a WWII vet, a published writer in scientific journals for meteorology, has a doctorate, was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather. Really, I could go on for days, but I think what really moved me was that just sitting with someone who’s accomplished so much in his life was incredibly motivating. Made me feel like I was wasting my life! (even though I know he wouldn’t see it like that),

Perhaps one day I will write that book

Wow, Eloisa! I read most of Sir Walter Scott’s novels in high school and really admired them. I think it’s all the more admirable that despite his own pain he always maintains a very even-tempered, optimistic view about people in general. Of course, he didn’t have much interest in the darker side of human personalities, but that’s just part of his artistic vision.

One thing that always surprises me, when I read Sir Walter Scott and Shakespeare, is that the men they wrote as “heroes” often seem really wimpy and boring, while the “villains” are the clear ancestors of today’s great, sexy heroes as created by great authors like the Squawkers. What do you think of this theory, Eloisa?

To give you an example, when I read IVANHOE I really didn’t care if Wilfred and Rowena ever got together, but I really couldn’t understand how soulful, dark eyed Rebecca could resist that dark, tortured Brian deBois Guilbert! He was supposed to be evil in that book, yet he was much more intense and real than nice guy Wilfred of Ivanhoe.

Has anyone else noticed how the “villains” classic literature are much more like the “heroes” of historical romance today?

PS Ms. Mary, I really love your icon. It has such a glamorous, Twenties feel! By the way, can anyone tell me how I can set up an icon?

Lord, Eloisa, I love it when you don’t pull your punches.  *LOL*

I’m a writer.  A distracted one, but a writer.  In fact the only things I feel as passionate about as writing or books are Harry Potter and making my costume for Halloween.  (Which you know, if I took the same kind of drive and deadline control as I do for costume making as I did with writing--I’d have a half dozen finished manuscripts by now. Maybe I need to fool myself I’m actually making a costume???)

Hmmm.  No time to speculate.  I believe this was Eloisa’s subtle way of saying, “If you wrote as much as you chatted on these boards, you’d be Nora Roberts by now.”

Away with myself!  My book won’t write it’s own ending!  Farethewell!

Fran

I’m a writer.  Over the past five years it’s become part of my daily life...writing, revising, editing, reviewing and submitting.  I undoubtedly think much less about my real job as most waking moments are taken up with all the writing stuff. 

I don’t write fast, but it is consistent.  And I don’t write one thing at a time.  This last novel requires a final chapter...the first one was written three years ago.  In the meantime I’ve completed three novellas and another novel. 

Is this going to be my occupation until the end of time?  It’s hard to say...but it will be my obsession for the forseeable future.

I’m a writer. Absolutely compelled to be. I’ve supported myself my whole adult life with writing - journalist, legislative assistant, grant writer, etc. But the underlying thread has always been fiction writing; for the past 20 years, I’ve taken classes and written stories and outlined ideas for novels. The good news is, I’ve improved tremendously in my craft. The bad news is, I’ve not completed anything and shopped it to agents.

I have a combination of reasons, including lack of confidence, intimidation, lack of family support, etc etc. As a single woman, I’m completely responsible for my income, so that puts an extra pressure on. Plus, I started a PhD program years ago and have hacked away at it forever while working full time. Any time I spent on my fiction writing, I felt guilty. But I’m going to finish up this year, and January 2008 sounds like freedom to me. I have a story idea that I’ve researched, outlined somewhat and started writing. 2008 is the year it goes out to the world (at least, to agents!).

I saw an interview with J.K. Rowling where she spoke of her early writing years. She said people asked her, how did you take care of your daughter and write the book too? And she said, “It’s simple. I didn’t do any housekeeping for four years.” I loved that. Worked out pretty good for her daughter in the long term, didn’t it?

I’m not a writer but I am a voracious reader.  There is always a book nearby.

I spent my career in banking but what I’m really passionate about is baking/candy making and photography.  If you took away my cameras I don’t know that I’d be able to survive, at least not happily survive.  I started taking pictures with a little brownie when I was about 6 and never looked back.  I currently have five cameras and use them all to chronicle the people in my life and places I’ve been.  I’ve won some contests but have never considered making it a profession.  The fact that I was standing on my porch at 5:30 this morning photographing our first snowfall in almost three years should tell you something about my love of pictures.  My camera goes with me everywhere!

Candy making and baking are my therapies of choice.  It’s how I work through frustration, sadness, disappointment.  It’s also how I share joy and excitement.  People (many, many people) have suggested to me that I should start a business but I really don’t have an interest in making it a career.  I love sharing my creations, both from my kitchen and my cameras, with others.  They are gifts from my heart and bring me an enormous amount of satisfaction and pleasure.

I’m trying to be a writer, but I can’t ever seem to get past the research stage.  Since the regency is my favorite historical time period at the moment, it’s what I’m attempting to write about.  I recently got engaged to the guy I’ve known since I was five!  Somehow planning our wedding has become inspiration beyond words, but I still need to research.

If it’s meant to happen, it’ll happen.  If I can get one book published in my life, I’ll be content with that accomplishment

I was born to eat chocolate.

as for the writer thing, I like to write, but only as a hobby, as an excersise in creativity. much the same as with my dribbles and sewing-projects..

what I do burn a bit more fiercly for is dancing. moving the body to music, expressing feelings and thoughts through all of me.

and it is even better if I have a bit of chocolate afterwards.

Hey Larry, thanks! I love the early 20th c. ..Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, D. Parker..
I have windows XP, and save images by right-clicking on them and ‘save as’ to the ‘my pictures’ file on my comp. ..log on to S.R. and go to ‘my account’, you should click on ‘edit avatar’ in the menu to the left...click on ‘browse’ and your ‘my pictures’ page should come up..double click on the image you want, and click ‘download avatar’ and that should do it. If you get an error msg. sometimes the images are too big for the avatar format..
hope that helps!!

This posting has shamed me and for that I thank you dear Eloise.  As I was driving into work this morning, listening to a Nora Roberts book, seeing the Irish cliffs and flowers, and beauty she was describing, hearing the lilt of the people in the story, and feeling the thrill of being in the presence of a wonderful story and in the midst of my audio adventure, I thought about myself and my piddly attempts at writing.

The fire is there, but I have recently admitted (from an Aha! Moment that woke me up in the middle of the night) that I was gripped and controlled by fear.  “I” have to impose the deadlines.  “I” have to edit.  “I” have to make sure my stories are full of life and love and can take me away so that it does the same to whoever will eventually read it.  Basically, “I” have to strip myself bare, delve into the ME that is that part of every character I write about and expose myself.  That is what I fear.  My self-imposed deadlines have easily been pushed back by “legitimate” reasons.  But my heart knows fright and avoidance when it sees it.  My head tells my heart to shut the hell up and, lord help me, I have listened more to my head than my heart.  And to be honest, I’m getting tired of hearing and listening to this demon talker who resides in me. Every time I hear stories of writers who have completed and published books DESPITE what tries to pull them away – fear, illness, family, children, friends, work, etc. – I think that my poor excuses are a terrible waste of time that could be used to write.

Thanks for the kick in the arse.  I needed it.  I have the whole house to myself tonight and instead of comfortably cuddling with my dog and eating something I shouldn’t be, I will be upstairs in my library working.  I will be saving your post – and making a folder of other inspiring stories – so that whenever I feel the fear rising, I can pull out these stories like a blazing sword and beat my fear into dust.

Deb

Ho ho ho!  I didn’t think of my blog as a kick in the arse, but it’s probably the teacher in me—can’t help but push people along.  Susanna, you need to submit! 

That’s one great thing about being an academic—people are so willing to pee on your parade that by the time you become a professor, you’re pretty used to being rejected (the rejection rates for academic journals are humungous).  So I just grew a thick skin.  One thing I always tell myself:  this is not judging ME.  It’s just this piece of work, and a single person’s impression about it. 

So Deb, Susanna, everyone else who might be hanging back from fear—go for it!  You literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

hugs,
Eloisa

You described it perfectly, Eloisa.  When I was in the 9th grade and I pulled my first short story out of the typewriter, I just had this overwhelming feeling of, “This is what God made me for.”

And off topic, I love your picture, Jenn!  It’s very evocative.

And just from reading your posts and e-mails, Prudence, I’d say you’re already a smashing success at your goal.

I have to write. When I’m not writing, I’m thinking about writing. When I’m writing, I think I’m not writing enough.

It’s something I’ve always done and will continue to do until I have nothing left to say.

But Prudence, if you’re reading this, I am so happy that there are people like you in this world!

Mary

Teresa Medeiros said…
And off topic, I love your picture, Jenn!  It’s very evocative.

I agree Teresa!  It’s just that my mind is having a hard time wrapping itself around Jenn and evocative in the same sentence.  She’s grown into a smart, sassy, wonderful woman of whom I am immensely proud but, in my heart, she’ll always be the 3 year old moppet with gorgeous blonde curls sitting on my kitchen counter helping me make cookies. 

Prudence, I agree with the others.  Kindness is a wonderful thing to be passionate about.  This world needs more people like you!

PJ, we all support your baking and candy making!

Eloisa, I love that story! Especially when I think how much harder it was to write a book in those days ... revisions must have been hell, and I imagine he thought very carefully before he wrote a sentence.

All right, back to this book which I’m writing on a computer which makes my life easy, thank heavens! Now if it would just type without me ...

Prudence, there’s a bumperstick that says,

MEAN PEOPLE SUCK

It’s direct, it’s crude—and I always agree.

I have been working on a novel for about a year now. I started writing it down longhand in looseleaf notebooks and kept putting off typing it, because then I had to re-read it. I don’t know about anyone else but I am my own worst critic.
Well I read this great blog of writing tips by Kevin J. Anderson (awesome, prolific, SciFi writing guy) and when I got to TIP #3. DARE TO BE BAD (AT FIRST) I knew what I had to do.
I started a blog on myspace to put my wretched writing out there for anyone to comment on.
My typing is slow so I have not even gotten in all of the first chapter yet but this is better than letting it moulder in the closet at home.
For any of you who want to read Mr Anderson’s blog the http is-

http://www.myspace.com/kevinjanderson

Wow, Eloisa! 

I know my passion is problem solving.  I’m not talking about either puzzles or enabling folks, but taking needs and fitting the pieces together to get them resolved, or at least provide a viable solution to a problem.

Since I am not in a position to change careers another time since I’m the only parent to two small girls, I take the career I have, that’s in and of itself not nearly something to be passionate about, and try to focus on the problem solving aspects.

As far as writing, I used to write, then I stopped.  I was getting interested in starting again, when I started being a passionate reader again.  Almost everything I read made me think I was lacking in creativity . . . I’d never come up with what I was reading.  But that’s been shifting back, I think in part because I’ve been reading a lot of contemporary romance lately instead of historicals.  Now ideas are popping into my head.  We’ll see if writing becomes a passion . . .

Lynn

WOW! I never knew that about Sir Walter Scott. Thank you Eloisa. BTW, I’m STILL waiting for PFP...the stress of avoiding the spoilers I’ve no doubt though that it will be worth the wait

What was I born to do? I honestly don’t know. I suppose I need to work out who I am first (yup - just started working on that one, but better late than never).

Oh, and Larry? I completely agree WRT Ivanhoe and Brian deBois Guilbert. I’ll have to hunt out the original in the library and re-read it. BTW, I think Sam Neil did a great job playing Brian deBois Guilbert in the movie version

orannia

PS My verification word was ‘ways26’...it made me think of the line ‘miles to go before I sleep’

Hahah Thank you :D

Yeah I took that right after I had my hair cut and styled...needless to say I’ve not gotten it back to look that good since I was at the salon -_- Thank goodness I got that picture to prove I can in fact have good hair

And I can’t really put my name and evocative together and see it. Sassy, though, I can see :D

And I still don’t know what happened to my blond hair! lol

What was I born to do? 

I’m still trying to figure that out.  I have a hunch it has something to do with organizing.  I am very good at it.  Whether it be files, books, movies, parties, get together, or anything else.  My friends call me the party planner.  Maybe I’ll become a wedding planner.  I would love that.

Right now I’m giving accounting a try.  Needless to say, my textbook is eating me alive.

Eloisa, I used to love the Authors card game, although I haven’t seen it in years.  It was like playing Go Fish with class.

I’d like to think I’m a writer, after all, I was a non-traditional student who worked for ten years on a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with that goal in mind, but I haven’t develop the proper dedication to the craft yet.  I find that I get too easily distracted--lately by oil painting, crocheting, the latest book for my book club, American Idol--you name it. 

Right now I have about 60 stories in the works, but as you could probably guess, I have a problem with finishing what I start.  I find that when I reach a certain point of the story when I’m not quite sure where it’s going, I tend to just give up and start another story.

BTW--my verification word is age47--which I am, certainly old enough to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life.

cousin it…
please be careful about blogging on myspace, since one of the terms of membership on their website that you agreed to when you signed up states that anything you post or upload to their site becomes their property… could hurt you in the long run if you want to get published. I stopped posting on there for that reason. My poetry stinks, but it’s MY stinky poetry! lol

my word today is youre97… I was wondering why I felt so old

Oh and I like telling people what to do.  Xtina would swear that’s a passion of mine! 

(And I’m secretly convinced that everyone in the world could be happy and fulfilled if they’d just take my advice--even Xtina!)

I was born to cook and bake.  It’s something that makes me happy and is my favorite creative outlet.  I love making hearty meals and I absolutely adore the Food Network.  My hubby eats like a king and I also bring samples in for my co-workers.  It is true joy for me to watch someone enjoy what I’ve cooked.

Funny catch - I have the culinary appetite of a 3-year old.  The closest I come to eating a vegetable is lettuce, carrots and celery.  Oh, and tator tots (What?  Potatoes aren’t vegetables?).  Plain, thin crust cheese pizza is my favorite food.  I am definitely a cheap date.

"I’m secretly convinced that everyone in the world could be happy and fulfilled if they’d just take my advice--even Xtina!”

B...but I am happy and fulfilled, Teresa. And you are a part of that!

Larry,
I forgot to mention that I absolutely agree with you—the bad guys are always the best!  I think it’s actually true in a lot of contemporary romances too--one of the reasons why bad guys are always being turned around and morph into heros (the Earl of Mayne, anyone?)>

and Cousin It, I absolutely agree with the advice of the blog you found—dare to be bad!  I do it all the time.  My first drafts are so awful they should be burned!

Eloisa

I’m a writer.  I might not be published, or ever published, who knows what will happen.  But at heart, I’m a writer.  It’s the first thing I think about upon waking, the last thing on my thoughts before I go to sleep.  Sometimes it even ‘haunts’ my dreams!

Now if I was dying and in severe pain...I might not be writing..but reading..LOL!

nanadirat said…
“cousin it…
please be careful about blogging on myspace, since one of the terms of membership on their website that you agreed to when you signed up states that anything you post or upload to their site becomes their property… could hurt you in the long run if you want to get published. I stopped posting on there for that reason. My poetry stinks, but it’s MY stinky poetry! lol “

Oh, please, please, please let me be good enough to worry about that!
nanadirat, I just want to get it out there and done. I have so many ideas that if someone likes this one maybe I’ll get the gumption to get them done and on paper also.
Thanks for the info though.

Eloisa ,
I was reading Uncle Orson’s writing tips page before Kevin J. Anderson’s and ...Ugh!..I was getting so discouraged. The stuff the man gave as examples as his throw away work…
I know he is a Nebula award winner and all but it was very disconcerting.
Anyway, I might be bad and slow but I will finish it and on myspace people will read anything. Ha, ha, ha!
This is my fiece thought: I might suck but I will write and be read!

Sell books of course!

It would be cool if I leart how to spell FIERCE also

There doesn’t seem to be any time in my day that I am not thinking about my book.  What would my h/h do in this situation...would they like Hershey’s Cherry Cordial Kisses....and I write. 

This year I write not for the joy of getting to know my people (that’s on going for me).  This year I write because I want to submit and see where this part of my life’s journey takes me.

I’m not a writer, but I ride horses.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson explained, “Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole and, once it has done so, he will have to accept that his life will be radically changed.”

And if for some reason I couldn’t ride, I think I’d still find a way to have horses in my life.

Eloisa, thank you from my bottom for that arse planter. It knocked me right into my desk chair. Thank Heaven!

Janga, love your new avatar!

Santa—“submit” is such an interesting word when it comes to writing.  Sometimes a story definitely feels like Alice’s tornado, tearing you away from your normal life!

More power to you!

Eloisa

Eloisa, I asked an old friend if he’d ever had the pleasure of your teaching as an undergrad & his quote was, “She’s one of the smartest Shakespearean academics I’ve ever come across, and a good, tough teacher.”

Just wanted to share because that was an amazing compliment from him =)

Thanks for the encouragement, Eloisa! When (not if!) I’m published, I will send you a signed copy of my book (whichever one it is that finally makes the cut). Although it’s more likely to be in the line of Thomas Harris, Robert Crais and Michael Connelly than the Squawkers. I’m like the writer who said she tried to write romance but people kept dying in her books. Me too!

Do any of you get ideas from dreams? I have two in my “active” files - ideas I’m collecting information on and jotting plot notes about. Of course they were germs of ideas, not whole plots. But they spun me off in directions completely different than I would have normally pursued - voodoo is in one - and it’s been very exciting. I need to keep a notebook by my bed, though, because the thoughts don’t last long in the light of morning.

I’m chiming in late on this one but there must be something in the name because I too love to give orders and think if people would just listen to me, they would be so much better off.

I was born to problem solve.  It sounds ridiculous but that is what I do best.  It might be the Capricorn in me but I cannot stand when someone says something cannot be fixed or figured out or gotten around.  There is always a solution and by golly I’ll find it!

LOL!

I’m one of those girls that barely remembers her dreams, but when I do, they’re absolutely off-the-wall.  I’m starting to get those lovely wedding dreams, & my wedding’s not until next year!

It’s funny cause I do my best thinking in the shower.  I’ve come up with plot after plot while shampooing my hair.  My family laughs about it, but it must be so relaxing that I have time to think.  If only I could get those plots formatted into a novel.  That’d be amazing.

I’m so disappointed to have missed this blog yesterday, but here I must admit--I was working on my WIP!! Yay!

I’m now in the final stretch of my first major writing project of my life. It’s the most amazing feeling in the world. I never really thought to feel this good about it.

I discovered my writing at a young age, but like a lot of others, let “life” distract me from my love of it for a while. Now, after finally realizing that life won’t make time for my writing--it’s up to me to do that for myself--I’ve come to a point where the baby doesn’t need me 24 hours a day, the day job can be left at work after 5:00 p.m., and I haven’t manufactured any other “distractions” that will stand as excuses.

It was like the most heady sort of freedom to start those first few pages all those months ago, and now that it’s almost finished (at least the first draft , I’m even more excited!!

Thanks Eloisa, for reminding me that I just have to want it that badly, to make it happen for myself.