Writing Muse

by Kimberly A. Cook      (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Last Friday’s Quirky Friday video post of hamsters running themselves in circles got me thinking about my writing career. Note the resemblance. While many times we writers feel we are running in circles, part of the time we actually are making screaming car tire donuts in our minds, complete with smoke.

A recent head conversation went this way. “I want to shut down my Facebook account. Just because I am supposed to be on Facebook, doesn’t mean I have to. I prefer Twitter. But I don’t really interact with my Twitterai or Tweeters. Don’t have the time. And who actually reads this anyway?” (Besides Cindy and Janet that is.)

“Between the day job, volunteer activities, writing business, sleep, housework and family obligations, who is in charge of this chaos? Me. Well piffle. How much energy can I afford to spend on social media and networking and blogging if I can’t carve enough time to write?”

If you think this head talk is bad, you should be in my gray matter when my fiction characters take after each other. Yikes. They tend to fight when I am trying to answer questions at a fast food drive through speaker box. Challenging!

Speaking as a former journalist who worked in a busy press room with police and fire scanners going, people yelling at the front counter, flashes from the camera room and the press banging out papers in the back, you’d think chaos would work for me. At the newspaper we were all working as a team toward getting the paper out. One group goal.

As an author/writer/publisher, I am doing all that stuff without staff and a team of other priorities tearing at me for a zillion different goals. While killer discipline is a good thing, it doesn’t really work when the cat needs to be fed and your family has a crisis. We women writers can put everybody else before us until there is no us left. Then we hit a wall and fall over. Do not do that, it leaves marks on your forehead.

My new motto is do more and less. More of what I want to spend my time on and less of what I don’t like. Teeth cleaning and paying taxes are still required, but not everything is a must do. So lower your expectations and save some energy for your creativity.

Sometimes the best way to survive your life and the fast approaching holiday season is to do less or leave altogether; exit stage left like the cartoon character Snagglepuss above. Figure out how to take a writer retreat and do it now. One hour works! The mind you save may be your own. Got comments?

by Kimberly A. Cook              (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Trying to gain perspective about our own writing is like getting the right clothes on; it takes practice to know what really looks good for our body type. The same is true for editing our own work. When we are so close to what we are doing, forget objective, at least try for some distance.

One way to do this is to consider our story from a 180 degree view. What would happen if we considered the flip side?

Everyone is familiar with the front side of a peacock, but how about the flip side? On my recent vacation I had fun taking this fellow’s picture. He was all about the strutting and performing for us, which can distract one from the real show. Imagine my delight when he turned around and I got the view below. A completely different perspective.

When a reader opens our story and begins to make assumptions about who we are as writers and craftspeople, let’s make sure even our backside looks good. Use correct grammar and punctuation, good story lines, fabulous characters and hidden secrets which move the character’s story arcs along to a rewarding conclusion.

If writing a contemporary light romance, consider how a mystery would impact your story. If we like writing horror, how would a sci-fi element change your characters? Right now I am reading “A Discovery Of Witches,” by Deborah Harkness and I love it; vampires, witches, daemons, time travel and all. Sometimes more is better.

Don’t box yourself into thinking your story is one-dimensional. Good writers torture their characters with problems and challenges, then clean it all up at the end with lessons learned. Think of your storyline as a playground and see what happens. If nothing else, it will help you feel stronger about your plot line or open new avenues you have not considered.

Remember to think about the flip side. Let’s make sure even our fuzzy peacock butts, er, story butts look good!

by Kimberly A. Cook            (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

The old cliché says the best things in life are free; clichés work for a reason. On my recent vacation we went for a walk along the Metolius River starting from Camp Sherman. This is a favorite spot of mine to take an easy stroll and shoot some pictures. It’s a photographer’s paradise.

Accompanying us on our trek were butterflies, everywhere. It was magic. Also a challenge to photograph as these beautiful buggers move!

I still haven’t looked at all the photos, but I have shots of partial butterfly wings, dirt pictures where butterflies were and the always helpful out of focus shot because the digital camera battery got tired. (Pack spare camera batteries too, I do.)

But as any photographer learns, keep taking pictures because you never know what will happen. The same goes for writing. Keep at it, keep trying, because some day you might have writing butterfly time and it would be tragic to miss the magic.

Author Elizabeth Lyon has a great saying, “cut wood and carry water,” when it comes to writing. Every type of writing we do and every experience in our lives adds to the writer we are and will become. Use it all. If we all keep writing, one day the butterflies will appear and writing magic will occur. So whether we walk by a stream or on city streets, be open to the creativity around us.

Watch for butterflies!

by Kimberly A. Cook        (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Watched a fun movie last night which reminded me about the power of following your artistic dreams. The film, “Miss Potter,” came out in 2006 and profiled the life of Beatrix Potter, the author of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” and many other children’s books. What she accomplished at a time when “publishing” was considered a common trade and not for women, is astounding.

She started by self-publishing her book and then finding a local publisher after many rejections. Peter Rabbit is still the bestselling children’s book to date. Imagine the power of that one little bunny. Not only did she write the stories, she illustrated them with beautiful drawings capturing the animals with lives and clothes of their own.

My copy of “Pierre Lapin,” Peter Rabbit in French, is a delight. The astounding thing I learned at the end of the film was the author’s commitment to preserving the lands she so loved by buying up neighboring Lake District farm properties with her bunny royalties. At her death, she donated 4,000 acres of land, farms and her sheep to the National Trust. That’s a lot of roaming land for rabbits.

Of course, it is interesting to note the copyright of 1902 was renewed by the publisher in 2002. Also, Peter Rabbit is digital savvy with his own web site at www.PeterRabbit.com and you knew it had to happen, he also has the The Original Tale of Peter Rabbit App!

If one woman’s dream to tell a story about a little rabbit could change the world, imagine how your writing dreams might take flight. We should all be so lucky to find our own special bunny to help us launch our books. Let’s hop to our writing!

by Kimberly A. Cook             (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Yesterday I hauled in my largest crop of strawberries and raspberries, an entire colander full. Now the red plastic colander is small, but that still counts in my book. Since all my fruits and veggies grow in containers, a big picking is cause for celebration.

Harvesting my berries came to mind when I was picking through the book titles at Costco last night. There always seems to be a hidden book gem at bargain prices which must go home with me.

Turns out there were two; “I Used To Know That – Literature,” by C. Alan Joyce and Sarah Janssen and “Images of America – The Oregon Air National Guard,” by Terrence G. Popravak Jr. and Sean M. Popravak. Gems harvested for my book collection.

Summer is a great time to catch up on reads, both literary and beach, to escape into new worlds and dream the impossible; like will I be able to grow lemon cucumbers this summer. Whether your fancy turns to ebooks or the old-fashioned paper kind, what books are you going to harvest this summer?