Wrestling a Tornado
Overcoming Writing Challenges
RACHELLE NONES
Wrestling a Tornado: Overcoming Writing Challenges
Copyright © 2011 Rachelle Nones.
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Contents
Introduction 7
The Greatest Writing Challenge 10
Is It Nature, Nurture or Delusion? 13
Birds of a Feather? 15
A Typical Day: What Is That? 17
Writer Beware 18
TAP, TAP, TAP 19
Timing Is Almost Everything 23
What Doesn’t Kill You Can Make You Bitter or Better 24
Acceptance Letters Are Not Created Equal 25
Reflect and Review 25
Playing with Words 30
Unblocking the Block 31
Speedwriting at 80-Miles Per Hour 33
Breaking Up 34
Circle the Wagons 36
Books 39
Motivational Books 40
Videos 40
Research Organizer 41
Reference Books 41
41
About the Author 42
Getting in Touch 42
Introduction
There was a running theme throughout my childhood—math made my eyes glaze over and writing made my heart flutter. English teachers wrote flattering comments about my writing. I devoured books and enjoyed a rich inner life but quickly discovered that my creative imagination was a liability in a neighborhood where conformity was admired and writers were perceived as alien creatures residing in a galaxy far away. When I turned 18, I opted out of attending college because I was told that if I majored in English I would probably never find a real job with a steady paycheck and benefits. Instead, I worked at a communications company for a few years and eventually grew bored and restless enough to enroll in courses at an obscure fashion school located a few blocks from a pre-gentrified Washington Square Park. I studied color, design, and fashion copywriting and happily shopped at Patricia Fields and local clothing shops brimming with racks of vintage hipster apparel.
Upon graduating, I planned to open my own boutique or find work as a fashion editor but none of those things happened. Instead, I bounced from one job to another and tolerated the nine-to-five world as the nine-to-five world tolerated me.
I was a writer who was not writing. Eventually, the day came when I could no longer deny that I was a writer. I stepped gingerly out of the closet and started my journey. One of the first things I did was subscribe to Writer’s Digest. Then, I started sending out poems, short fiction and query letters for nonfiction writing assignments. I enrolled in a writing workshop in Manhattan and started writing short stories. I started building my life around my writing and soon attended my first writing conference. My career goal shifted from creating fashion to creating stories.
My desire to write tore up my life but I kept going and survived an entire lost decade of career instability and sporadic writing success. Practical? No. Insane? Probably. Pragmatic souls would have given up and gone back to working at a real job but I kept going at full tilt.
Years passed and after more than a decade of struggling to hone my writing skills I enrolled in college to earn the bachelor’s degree in English literature that I thought I had given up on. There was no turning back.
Today, I am pretty much where I suspected I would be. No. I’m not in jail. I’m not a junkie and I’m not bitter. I am not a bestselling author or publishing star but I am a published writer.
I am grateful for the interesting characters that I’ve met during my arduous journey. I am also grateful that I am stubborn and did not listen to the people who discouraged me and advised me to abandon my dream. Life has thrown a lot of drama and conflict into my path since I decided to follow my heart. At times, it seems as if reality is stranger than any story I could create. Will I ever forget the relentless intensity in which the Nashville rain poured down during the weekend I witnessed a historical flood devastating the city that had become my temporary home? Will the day that the planes crashed into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers during the first week of a new teaching assignment ever dim in intensity whenever I look back in awe at what happened to my hometown on that day? Those experiences taught me what it is to feel vulnerable, awe-struck, blindsided, resilient and brave. I can write about those feelings because I have experienced them.
Are you ready to write? Let us begin.
What is the most important thing to understand about writing?
Writing is a craft. It is a creative process involving constant practice. You need a lot of patience to survive the writing life. Writers evolve and revise themselves as often as they revise their work. The good news is that getting old pays off big. Your writing will grow richer and more interesting as you grow, evolve and change as long as you keep at it and keep writing on a regular basis. The key phrase is “regular basis.”
Actually, I think of writing as a lifelong journey beginning at birth. I wrote my first novel when I was 13 years old and wrote bad poetry throughout my teen years. Then, I stopped writing for about a decade and simply read a lot and observed. During my twenties, I traveled to San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago, Las Vegas and other cities I was curious about. Observation, curiosity, travel, exploration and reading are all important if you want to write. Everything I saw and did was writing practice.
There are multiple roads to writing success. My own entrance was through the back door because it was not likely that anyone would welcome me through the front door after eyeing my résumé’s mishmash of survival jobs. You are going to have to open your own door. It really does not matter which route you decide to take. What matters is the journey along the route.
The Greatest Writing Challenge
We all face different challenges. Let me warn you about one thing. What I am going to say is very important: If you do not enjoy the process of writing you will never get to the finish line.
Writing is mainly about revision and endless drafts on the lengthy road to perfection. You will spend most of your time in the messy and chaotic part of the journey. You have to enjoy the process to keep going—as steady as the beat of a heart.
Writing Myths & Mystique
There is a lot of mystique about the writing process and about writers in general. Early on in my writing career, I mentioned my desire to become a published writer to a New York City jewelry designer who designed the most magnificent plastic cuff bracelets.
She looked at me with great concern and said, “Be careful. Writers drink.”
I once telephoned a woman who had advertised an apartment for rent. I told her that I would be a great tenant because I spent most days quietly writing on my computer.
“Do you smoke?” she asked, “In most of the movies that I’ve seen, the writers are always smoking.”
When people ask what I do for a living and I reply that I am a writer, the second question is predictable and somewhat annoying. “Oh? Where has your work been published?"
Of course, they never really expect an answer because it is actually more of a “Gotcha!” question. They figure that I am a lazy poseur who sleeps in and nurses a bottle of Mad Dog from noon on.
Most people
assume (fill in the blank with any other occupation) is legitimate work and that writing is a fluffy lightweight task consisting of “dashing off” a draft or two. They do not realize that building a story out of words is as grueling as building a building.
Because it is so challenging, many writers cling to rituals and superstition to stoke the fires of inspiration. It has been reported that Truman Capote and Mark Twain only wrote while reclining horizontally. Then there are those superstitious writers who will only write at certain hours or while they are wearing a particular piece of clothing or jewelry.
Many writers believe that they can only write when they are intoxicated or high enough to channel their Muse from an altered state of consciousness while still others turn to prayer. One of the most interesting superstitions I have stumbled across is a story about a Catholic saint with an uncanny ability to unblock writers.
The cult figure Saint Expedite is a mysterious saint who is reputed to expedite the flow of communication. Unblocked writers are expected to thank the saint by obtaining pound cake and feeding it to the birds when their prayers have been answered.
The only American Catholic Church with a statue of Saint Expedite on its premises is located In New Orleans—at Lady of Guadalupe Church. If this information intrigues you, you can discover more information about Saint Expedite, the patron saint of writers at www.catholic.org.
There appears to be proof that superstitions might give you an edge in reducing writer’s block. The Psychological Science journal article “Keep Your Fingers Crossed! How Superstition Improves Performance” reported that when research study participants activated a good-luck related superstition it boosted their confidence and improved their performance.
Is It Nature, Nurture or Delusion?
I think that one of the biggest myths about writing is that just about anyone can become a writer. It’s true that most people can write a fairly decent report or letter. But they are not professional writers and never will be.
For example, a woman who had been unemployed for more than a year stated that when she was first laid off she suddenly decided to “become a writer.” She tried her hand at writing a screenplay that was now gathering dust in the closet. While she told her story, I cynically thought to myself: “Good luck with that.”
I do believe that there are talented writers who have ignored or neglected their writing talent for years. But it’s amazing that some people think they can morph into a writer overnight simply by deciding to “become a writer” when they are faced with involuntary layoffs from their real jobs or enforced idle time and the resulting boredom accompanying it.
Successful writers are passionate and obsessed with writing. They cannot imagine doing anything else. I have worked in other professions because I had to earn money to support my writing but I always preferred to be writing. The only exception is when I am teaching writing and that is because I enjoy teaching and love to read what my students are writing.
Do you really want to do this? Are you willing to give up time spent with friends and family so that you can work on draft after draft? I’ve heard writers say that they are too busy to write when they should be writing. Are you willing to make writing an essential and constant part of your life…like eating or breathing? You’re not too busy to eat or breathe, are you?
Birds of a Feather?
I have heard some people say that it is easier to write as part of a writing team or as a collaborator. There is one thing that I have learned as a writer and it is that the rule “one size fits all” does not apply to writers. Writers are individuals and some writers work better as part of a team or group while others do not.
I hate to generalize but I find that whenever there are more than three writers in a room there is often friction due to ego, insecurity, personality clashes, passive aggressive behavior and/or substance abuse.
Sounds like a good time, doesn’t it? On the other hand, I enjoy being around other writers because writers are the most sensitive, intelligent, wittiest, interesting and kindest people I know. Test the waters to see what works best for you.
Noise, Angst, Chaos & Rejection
I once knew an extremely productive Parisian writer who confided that she lived with her lover and a nosy hyperactive cat in a tiny cramped apartment on a noisy street. To block out noise and visual distractions, she would always wear noise blocking headphones and thick heavy goggles whenever she sat down to write.
A sparsely furnished room with a panoramic view of graceful deciduous trees is my idea of writer’s nirvana, though I have managed to write in varied settings—such as during a stay at a writer’s colony with a reputed ghost in residence. I have written while tornado sirens wailed into the night and while perched atop a sun-dappled slab of stone in a marble quarry.
I love to write in a tranquil space resembling one of Mama Earth’s natural settings. I once decorated my “writing room” (a.k.a. my bedroom) in soft beige, brown and various shades of green. There were rows of leafy green plants on the window ledges and plenty of sunlight streaming in. I really enjoyed writing in that serene forest-like room.
Some writers write when the sun is on strike while others rise at dawn to write. I like to write in a room with a window that I can use to peek out at trees and roaming squirrels, birds, ducks, rabbits, or cats. It is comforting to know that my fellow free agents are out there.
There are writers who feel that sitting and writing too close to a window is a distraction and I agree that it can be. What is wrong with distractions? They keep me sane when I am on a writing binge.
I enjoy witnessing the shifting patterns of sun and shade during the course of a day’s writing session. Distractions are not always bad. What one writer considers a horrid distraction might ultimately turn up on the pages in another writer’s novel.
A Typical Day: What Is That?
I do not know what a typical day is and I like it that way, but it could start like this: Wake up. Stumble blindly about until I locate the coffeemaker. Read the newspaper while sipping my first of multiple cups of really strong coffee. Feed and water the dog. Get dressed and then head out for a brief dog walking stint in which I carefully balance a bag of dog poop on the way back.
Return and check email. I usually receive around 40 to 50 email messages in the morning so this takes a little time. I quickly delete the Viagra ads and suspect email messages informing me that a distant relative has passed on and left me millions of dollars. Did that check get lost in the mail? Then, I sort through the jumble of loosely organized piles of papers on my desk. I usually check my “To-Do” list, written on an old-fashioned writing pad to see what there is “to do” (DUH).
Work begins. What work is varies from day to day. Did I mention that I do not have an assistant? I have just given you one possible version of my reality.
There are times when I have worked straight on up until midnight when I am in a writing mode. If the words are flowing there is no way that I am going to stop writing.
Writer Beware
I once nearly ruined my health when I unwisely agreed to work on a three-month assignment that a wiser and more seasoned writer would probably have turned down because of its unreasonable deadline.
I was inhaling carbohydrates and gallons of cola because I was working fourteen hours a day. My computer broke down three times during the project, and finally, so did my health.
Everything came to a head when I developed a hacking cough. When I visited the doctor to find out what was wrong, I broke into a cold sweat and almost passed out. My doctor informed me that I had walking pneumonia. He prescribed antibiotics and told me that I needed lots of rest. I rested for a week, medicated myself and headed back to writing hell with a tongue that had turned black from antibiotics. (Yes, it did eventually turn pink again).
Today, I eat a healthier diet and refuse projects with unrealistic deadlines. To keep my energy up during lengthy writing stints, I blend a little sweet potato into hummus to make sweet potato hummus
. On the other hand, I might mix a dash of wasabi into plain hummus for a little extra kick. Slather on pita chips and it’s good to go.
I whip up an organic meal replacement shake on days when I cannot stop for lunch because of a deadline. I prefer Mega Way’s organic cacao chocolate shakes even though I cheat a little and add a spoonful of sugar to suit my taste.
TAP, TAP, TAP
Are you afraid to fail? Writers fail all of the time. Are you willing to take the risk of failing to get to where you want to go with your writing? It is best to step slowly and softly through your early attempts and keep a low profile because I guarantee that you will make mistakes. Keep writing. I have made many mistakes while emerging as a writer and many of my mistakes were self-sabotaging. I also managed to recover nicely from Zombie writing trances, frozen brain attacks, faux Hemingway syndrome, midnight moonlit 90 revision stints and other writing challenges.
Do you need paper to write? One of the best things about writing is that it is portable and you do not even need a computer. I know quite a few writers who prefer to write their first drafts in longhand. I jot down short notes and serendipitous ideas in longhand and use my computer for longer writing stints.
There are lots of little tips and tricks to resolve just about any problem. If brilliant ideas rain down upon you while you are singing in the shower, you might want to check out waterproof notepads. They are cool and you will not have to worry about guarding your handwritten notes from coffee spills and other occupational hazards. If noise is distracting you, download a white noise MP3 to drown it out.
You might not need paper at all during the early incubation period in which ideas brew slowly in your mind. At times, the simplest and most unexpected thing or event stirs your imagination. “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral,” mused the French writer and poet, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
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