Stopping to Re-fuel

We talk a lot about the myth of writer's block, that if you want to be a writer, then you write. Sometimes, the words flow easily and sometimes you work at it, but not buying into any sort of rubbish about blocks and elusive muses goes a long way toward keeping a solid work ethic. It also gets the books done. 

But tapping into that well of creativity with such force and frequency, can still have side effects. Whether all our ideas branch from three inevitable conflicts, (man v somebody) or whether we reach into the collective unconscious to spawn our ideas, or pluck them unceremoniously from our navel, they still have a source, and that source can get  a little dry from time to time. 

Recently, the flow of creativity from my little wellspring, slowed dramatically. It went from a flood to a trickle to a big old dust bowl in no time flat. 

To be fair, I still had a lot of ideas. I just didn't really have the energy to write them. I poked and prodded at the words, but my output was pathetic at best. Oddly enough, all kinds of other creative endeavors sprang to mind. Weaving, painting, singing Opera (very badly) everything I wanted to do was  art, but it was nothing to do with the art that was on my to-do list. 

I was out of gas. It wasn't writer's block at all. I'd just forgotten to refuel. I'd spent more than I took in, and my engine stalled.

Then a friend brought me a copy of a book that I've been dying to read. I couldn't resist it. It was written by my all time favorite author, Christopher Moore, and it was about my favorite topic to boot. I realized, as I cracked the book and sank into one of my favorite wordsmith's worlds, that I missed reading. In all my rush to make stories, I'd forgotten to read them....again. 

You have to read. 

So I devoured, Sacre Bleu, and then I kept going. I read two more books, three more. I devoured all the things that had been waiting for me to have time to read them. I fell in love with other people's stories again, an so I remembered why I wanted to write in the first place. The wellspring, not surprisingly, filled up again. Almost by magic. 

I didn't have to fight writer's block, because it went away. I didn't have to force myself to write because I wanted to again. The tank was full. 

I know we're supposed to read to learn our genre, to study story theory and structure and the things that are happening in fiction around us, but if you ask me, a better reason, (certainly, a more fun reason) is just to remember how much you like it. It felt like a vacation, reading, and dang it, we all deserve vacations. 

That's something writers tend to forget too. I know, I usually see ANY free time as a great chance to work. Next time, just maybe, I'll remember reading a good book (or four) is a nice alternative. 

Vacation, suckers...

Yeah, that's right. I'm going on vacation. Soon. In fact, give me an hour and a half and I'm out of here! But first, tying up loose ends: write this blog post, finish packing, plan what books I'm taking, and oh, yeah, I should probably finish up work (at my day job) while I'm at it.

I'm super excited about vacation, because it'll probably be the last one for a while, since the baby is coming soon. So it's our last hurrah.

But it'll be a working vacation. I have a lot of writing goals to get done. I need to finish up some edits and polish a manuscript for submission, and I should probably write something new. I hear that's good every once in a while.

In fact, I have so much writing stuff I need to get done, I'd probably be better off staying at home for the vacation than actually going anywhere, but I suspect that would defeat the purpose (and plus I'm pretty sure the husband would be annoyed at that).

One thing I do love about vacations is that I tend to step away from social networks - my Twitter checking goes way down, which can only increase my productivity. Some days, Twitter is great at connecting me with other writers and inspiring me to keep at this writing gig. Other days, it's just a massive time suck that could swallow my soul, if I let it (and some days I do).

So what do you guys think? Will I be able to achieve my writing goals while on vacation and still have a good time?  Duh. Stupid question. It's vacation! Of course I'll have a good time!   :)

What day is it?

Ha. Oops. Totally didn't realize that Friday had come and gone. Guess that's the advantage of vacation!

It does remind me of something that's been bothering me lately, though. Keeping promises. Being on time. I've had at least three different instances recently in the publishing world where people have just plain forgotten that they were supposed to do something and left me hanging.

I mean, I get being busy and distracted (heck, I'm writing my blog post two days late), but these people forgot for MONTHS. That's no way to run a business or your life.

I'm a very punctual person and it pisses me off when people run late. It REALLY bugs me when I run late. But when people just blindly forget an obligation for months at a time? That's not just being late, that's being disrespectful and hurtful.

So, in short, from the person who is a little late with this post, try to respect others and be on time. And if you have business obligations, keep a freaking to do list of things that need doing so you don't leave poor people like me hanging.

What I did over my winter vacation...

Well, I broke the blog, for one thing. Migrating some stuff totally screwed it all up and then I got busy... so yeah, I'm the reason you had to get back to the delicious evilness we keep serving up here. Sorry about that. My bad.

Actually, you know what? Suck it. I don't feel that bad about it. Probably because I'm evil. :)

What else did I do? Ate too much, spent time with friends and family, you know, the usual.

Oh, and I signed a contract for another book. So yay me.

What didn't I do?  Write a damn word. Ugh. I feel worse about this than breaking the blog. I had good intentions, but the annoying about being an adult is that even though it's the holidays, I didn't get a vacation. We usually travel to be with family for Christmas, but this year they traveled to us, so that meant I got to work all through the holidays. Yay?

And I didn't get all that good writing time on airplanes because I was too busy being a good employee and dealing with year end crises and crazy clients. Annoying people. If I didn't have to work with people, my job would be great. Just saying.

Anyways, so no time off = no writing. Because the time I wasn't at work, I was with family.

BUT, I am going on vacation soon. Which means WRITING!! I may be the only person who takes vacations just so they can work at writing. I mean, and see all the beautiful sights of wherever it is we're going, of course. Or something.

So vacation to me means taking a much needed break from the stresses of my real job and working on my fun job - the writing job. I find it very difficult to write while I'm working, because unless y'all want to read book after book about a lawyer who murders her deeply annoying clients, I feel like I don't have a lot to write about.

I need to figure out how to change my attitude. Or better yet, figure out how I can quit my job and not live on the street.

Evil Takes A Holiday

What?

Look, evil never sleeps, but it does kick back every now and then, and the Evil League of Evil Writers is going to do just that. Starting today, we're taking something of a holiday hiatus. We did this last year, and will probably do it again next year about this time, as the holidays are always a busy time for everyone.

There might be the occasional post of an evil Bob Cratchit member, toiling away over the holidays, but there won't be any regular/consistent/scheduled posts for the next couple weeks.

Thank you to all our evil readers for making the Year of Eviltry an awesome one! We here at the ELEW have gotten up to a lot of no good this year, and we couldn't have done it without you.

We'll see you all back here next year. We'll be kicking off 2014 with our Bitchstress Dreamkiller on January 6!

Whatever holiday you celebrate (or not), we here at the ELEW wish you an evil happy!

The Sithmas Tree of our Gothic Goddess Dina James represents the ELEW holiday spirit!

Taking time for yourself

So, I know my last post was about NaNoWriMo and how I was excited to get started (well, at least it was about NaNoWriMo, I can't remember if I was excited or not... it's been that kind of month...). At any rate, I never actually started NaNoWriMo. I meant to. I had good intentions. I even vaguely had a plot. But life intervened.

And no, nothing dramatic like last year where my husband inconveniently got cancer and herniated a disc in his back at the same time. No, this was more just normal hectic life. Lots of things to do, work, busy-ness. Husband was travelling, and normally I use that time to write, but I'm also taking an online class through NYU (who doesn't love good old-fashioned tax law?) So I never even got around to signing up for NaNoWriMo.

But I think that's okay. You know, sometimes you gotta take time for yourself. That's why I'm sitting on the couch with my husband, dogs, and am watching Thor. I'd like to pretend that it's research for these Norse mythology posts I've been doing, but that's a load of crap. I just like watching Thor take his shirt off (don't tell my husband!) :)

So, the moral of this post is that it's okay to take some time off every once in a while and admit that you just need to recharge your batteries.

Just don't overcharge your batteries. You don't want to get rusty.

But for now, I'm off to be cozy. Enjoy your weekend, y'all. If you're doing NaNoWriMo, then good luck!

Home is where your butt-print is

I've been travelling a lot lately. For a variety of reasons, but in short, it means that I'm not spending much time at home these days. And while I'm enjoying the various places I've been, I'm starting to get a little homesick... there's just something about sitting on your couch, ignoring your chores that makes you feel like you're home.

They say home is where the heart is, but for me, I think it's more home is where my butt has left an impression on the sofa.

Uh, yeah. I'm not going for deep or insightful posting today :)

I'm headed off to the airport again shortly, and I'm trying to decide if I should bring my computer so I could try and squeeze in some writing. I mean, I know I should, but I'm also pretty sure that this weekend is going to be plenty busy (we're celebrating my brother's birthday in Vegas), so i'm not sure it's worth the hassle and weight.

Still, I often find that it's easier to write on vacation so maybe I can squeeze in some words.

What do you guys think? Travel with the laptop, or no?

Also, what makes you call a place home?  For me, despite the butt-print theory posited above, it's where I can snuggle with my husband and our pets.

Finding the balance...

Yesterday I got some bad news. In fact, it's been kind of a crappy week for a lot of my friends. Especially some of the evil ladies here... but at any rate, it's a rough week. Life isn't going exactly the way I wanted it to, but you know, that's life. (That's also why this post is late... sorry!)

On the other hand, Today I left for vacation with some of my favorite people, so I get to spend a week hanging out in Yellowstone and hiking and kayaking and playing board games. Yeah, hiking and kayaking maybe not my first choice of vacation activities (which include reading and drinking fruity cocktails), but I'm being brave :)

So, I'm trying to find the balance. Yes, yesterday sucked, but today should be great. And the coming days will also be great (assuming I don't get eaten by a bear, but my friend didn't put death by bear on the itinerary, so I'm assuming it won't happen).

I think that's sometimes just what you have to do. Acknowledge that sometimes, things suck. But try and keep in mind that things get better.

Unless it's your characters and you're controlling their lives. In that case, torture the crap out of them and then burn the bridges. Eventually they get a happy ending, but make them work for it.

And cross your fingers that who ever is writing your plot is more generous than you are.

So I'm off to go hang out with some fun people I don't see often enough and distract myself from the other crap.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and if it's not great, there are probably great things coming.

Whoops, travelling...

Ha ha, oops. I was supposed to post yesterday. I was travelling and swore I'd post when I arrived, but then I got caught up in the whirlwind of arrival and totally spaced it.

I think that's part of travel, no matter where you go. I mean, I only went a state away, back to the city where I used to live, but when you travel you take on a whole different mindset. Things that are easy at home, like keeping to a schedule or a diet, or anything, become wholly different challenges when you're away.

Something about the freedom of change and being thrown off of normal completely changes your mental attitude. I mean, eating healthy is at home, but put me in a different city and I'm like, yay food... all the time. I may weigh 400 pounds more when I get back, but so be it. At least I will have caught up with my friends over a bunch of different meals  :)

Anyways, this applies to writing too. But for me, it works in a good way. At home, I get so stuck in the rut of going to work and going home and being with family and living my life that I often fail to find time to squeeze some writing in. But when I travel, I have so much more leeway that I often cart along my laptop solely because I know I'm more likely to write when I'm travelling. For me, being away from my daily life frees up that creative side of me and actually wants me to put words to paper.

What about you guys?  What do you do differently when you travel?  Can you write more or less? Do you find it hard to resist donuts (I'm asking for a friend on that one, clearly...)

What I'm Not Doing on My Vacation

Seleste here, and I'm on vacation this week. You know, one of those things I mentioned in my last post that are good for authors to do sometimes? Yeah. Doing it, plus it's my birthday week, and according to some people's definition, I'm officially old now. Obviously I need a break.

During this time, there are several things I'm not doing.

• I'm not answering email. Internet costs a ridiculous amount, so it's not happening. I figure if someone really needs me right now, they'll call. (Especially since all my editors with projects currently in the works know I'm gone.)
• I'm not reading books to review. That's not to say I definitely won't review what I'm reading, only that I'm not reading with that in mind. It's my vacation. I read what I want.
• I'm not making myself hit a daily word count. Yes, I have projects I should be working on. Yes, I like to stay consistent. Yes, I normally write on vacation. I'm just not going to beat myself up about it. 

What I am doing is:

• Recharging. The holidays are an incredibly stressful time for me and this year was no different.
• Reconnecting with my kids and husband. I love my internet relationships, but I want more with my family than the couple hours between the end of school/work and bedtime.
• Reading. Without the internet distracting me, I'm hoping to get a lot of solid, happy reading in. <3
• Recon. We're going to places I used in a book that is with one of my publishers right now. I'll be making sure I got things right and taking notes on what I didn't but I'm leaving anyway (more on this in a different post sometime.)
• Writing (I know it doesn't start with Re-, get over it). See where I mentioned word counts? I stand by that, but I know me, I will write. It just might not be on what I'm supposed to work on. *shrug*

The hope is when I get back, I'm all re-invigorated and ready to put back on my snarky pants and post something fantastically ranty. For today, I'm just going to kick back, soak up the sun, hang with my family, and remember why I do all that other stuff.