The Art of Procrastinating

I’m having one of those days. It’s now past four o’clock in the afternoon, and while I have been busy at home all day, I have not been busy doing what I (thought I) wanted to do. While my latest YA novel is resting, waiting for me to return to edit it for draft two, I have picked up an older manuscript to start again. It is a chick lit/women’s fiction manuscript, and one for which I have created the most charming world in which my characters roam. (In my mind, anyway.) So why am I procrastinating?

I just haven’t been able to pick myself up today. I feel dopey and depressed and desperate to catch up on some sleep, but it’s too hot to do that. So I’m stuck in the lounge room with the air conditioner, trying to convince myself to start work on my chick lit/women’s fic manuscript.

It’s nothing new. All writers suffer from bouts of procrastination. And I’ve never quite been able to work out why. I feel better when I write, and writing inevitably begs me to write some more. (It’s a lot like exercise or, ahem, other sweaty activities.) So, I’ve washed the dishes, folded clothes, found my passport for an upcoming trip to New Zealand, found tiny bottles of shampoo and conditioner, written a long list of everything that needs to be done before said trip to NZ, designed and ordered marketing materials for Charlie’s Angels Horse Rescue, fluffed around on Facebook and YouTube, and wrangled cats, dogs and horses.

And now I’m blogging…

I know that I am not constructively procrastinating. And that’s the real key. I believe that procrastination can be good–indeed, necessary–but only if we do it constructively. Over the years, I’ve worked out some good and bad procrastination activities.

Good procrastination activities (i.e. that actually move and develop me as a writer) include: reading books, reading writing magazines, editing my writing (because it seems easier to deconstruct things than it does to construct them, but it inevitably leads to me wanting to construct once more), going on an ‘artist’s date’ (to the theatre, dance class, festival, delicatessen… anywhere that feeds the senses), riding my horse (the combination of exercise and joy gives me a real boost), critiquing other writers’ work, and meeting other writers for fun/work purposes.

Bad procrastination activities include: housework, going to the post office, emailing, updating websites (such as blogging…), going grocery shopping, paying bills, bookkeeping, researching new appliances/computers/cars/food dehydraters, ebaying, ordering stuff online, organising, filing, and feeling guilty.

All of those ‘bad’ procrastination activities are all useful and worthwhile and need to be done. But not at the expense of writing.

So, here I am, signing off from my current ‘bad’ procrastination exercise to go onto some ‘good’ procrastinating.

Then again, it’s nearly time for Bold and the Beautiful….

Out of the writing wilderness

Well, I’ve done it.

I’ve navigated through the suffocating darkness of the wilderness that had become my most recent novel. As soon as I hit the middle… bang. All light was gone. The path had disappeared. My steps forward slowed to almost a stop. It’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and I should be typing til my fingers bleed. I pledged to finish a first draft. But for over a month, I hovered here, moving forward, sideways, in circles and even backwards, an inch at a time. I battled monsters: depression, fear, doubts, frustration. Monsters leapt out of the shadows at every step.

I considered giving up.

But this is my sixth full length manuscript and if I have learned anything it’s that I must ask for help when I am lost. Enter my gorgeous and wise writing buddy (GWWB). My GWWB has also been writing for many, many years and also knows the pain of the so-far unfulfilled dream of a published book. She lets me cry and wail and rave on about how terrible I am, how terrible the book is, and how utterly hopeless everything else is.

Then she calmly reminds me of why it is that we write–simply, because we can’t not write. She reminds me that I am not alone in the darkness. Then she sends me home with firm instructions a map to keep going.

And I did. And lo and behold, I made it out of the wilderness. I can see the pathway once more. The end is in sight, lit up by my imagination and my characters that refused to give in.

Now, NaNoWriMo is nearly at an end and I still have 20,000 words to go if I am to finish this manuscript. Can I do it? Possibly. But not without the support of my writing friends. And that’s what NaNoWriMo is all about: connecting with others and getting it done.

So off I set again. My lunch pack is full, my water flask refilled. I am energised once more.

It’s NaNoWriMo time!! Get writing!!!

pic by Thomas Hawk

It’s the 1st of November, a date anticipated by writers all around the world. Today kicks of NaNoWriMo.

The aim of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is to abandon all censors and sense of reason and just WRITE!! Write yourself a novel, from start to finish, culminating in 50,000 words.

My pledge, is to finish my current novel in progress. I have around 25,000 words to go on a first draft and I just can’t bear the thought of starting a new one (not from lack of ideas… no, no… there’s always a fight going on as to which novel comes first… but because I just lurve the one I’m currently working on).

That might sound like I’m whimping out, and perhaps I am. But during this month, I still have to work, still have to keep going with the mammoth amount of work that’s required to set up a new charity (Charlie’s Angels Horse Rescue), still have to go and look at real estate and, should we buy something, deal with all of the madness that goes with that, and so on and so on. (Probably, anyone with children will have no sympathy at all, and I would have to agree.) But that’s the point of NaNoWriMo… whatever is in your life, just write!!! Write!!!! Write!!!!

The good people at the Queensland Writers Centre are organising even more writing races than usual, starting today at 3pm in the Australian Writers Marketplace online forum.

So grab your novel and dust it off, grab your laptop or notebook, some caffeine and some good friends to keep you honest. (I’m counting on all of you to keep me to my target.) You can do it!

Miley, Taylor, Glee and Me in the closet

I’ve been in the closet. But the time is here and I’m coming out and saying it: I’m a fan of Miley Cyrus.

One of the reasons I love writing YA novels is that it gives me the perfect cover to indulge in activities that otherwise might be thought of as not really the norm for someone of my age.

Take, for example, Hannah Montana: The Movie (Miley Cyrus). We saw it on the plane on the way to Tonga recently, and we happened to really enjoy it. I defy anyone not to dance in their seat during the Hoedown Throwdown. And as for her moving version of The Climb, well any struggling artist could relate to this one and come out the other side feeling more inspired than ever. (The video is not so good, but I love the song.)

This interest in ‘tween/teen’ pop culture began with Taylor Swift, specifically, her song Love Story. Apart from loving the song (and since, her album, Fearless) I realised that this was someone very successfully selling to the teenage market, the same market that I want to sell books to. It wasn’t too much of a leap to see that I could learn something from the likes of Taylor and Miley.

So now that I have that ‘research’ defence sorted out for when my friends query as to why I own the soundtrack to Hannah Montana: The Movie, I feel free to indulge in Glee too. Glee is a television series on Channel 10, Thursday nights, and is set in a high school, with teenagers looking for all the things teenagers look for, and doing it in a smart, funny and sensitive way. I’m hooked.

So now that I’ve outed myself, I think I’ll go and buy tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert on February 4 next year, the day after my birthday. It’s all good research…

Queensland Writers Centre Blog Tour, coming to a blog near you

The wonderful people at the Queensland Writers Centre have invited me to be a part of their blog tour, running from October until December 2009. I was a little surprised but also delighted to be considered part of the tour. The idea is that they ask me six questions and I answer them …

Where do your words come from?

Passion. Anything that I am passionate about eventually bubbles its way to the surface and wakes me in the middle of the night until I do something about it.

Where did you grow up and where do you live now?

I grew up on the north side of Brisbane. Last year we moved to Blackbutt, which is only two and a half hours north-west of Brisbane, yet because it is inland (rather than straight up the coast), somehow receives very few services. (We won’t, for example, be included in the mass government upgrade to internet services that’s on its way.) But we have six acres of land that we are steadily filling with four-legged furry children and that makes us happy.

What’s the first sentence/line of your latest work?

“There’s a moment when you know you’re going to fall off a horse.“

This is from my current work in progress, a YA novel set in the late 1950s in rural Australia.

What piece of writing do you wish you had written?

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. No one could read this book and not be touched by plight of horses and the overall themes of the need for compassion for every living being. And the character of Ginger’s story in particular… oh, it still makes me cry just thinking about it.

More recently, the Ingo series by Helen Dunmore. These are engrossing children’s fantasy books about our oceans and people’s responsibility towards them and their inhabitants.

(There’s a bit of an animal/environmental theme going on here…)

What are you currently working towards?

In writing, I am working towards a series of YA novels set across three time periods in rural Australia. In life in general, I am working towards feeling compassion and kindness to every living being (which is more difficult with the humans). Right now, I am setting up a new charity for the rescue and rehabilitation of abused, neglected and homeless horses.

Complete this sentence… the future of the book is…

enduring.

This post is part of the Queensland Writers Centre blog tour, happening October to December 2009. To follow the tour, visit Queensland Writers Centre’s blog The Empty Page.

Take heart in the journey to love and publication

I often say to people that, for me, the journey to publication is just like the journey to love.

It is at times exhilarating; at times devastating; at times the cause of a pounding heart and sleepless nights; at times the cause of neglecting my practical ‘real world’ duties; and at times the activity that prompts the most soul-searching, journal writing, navel gazing and even the odd drunken night.

The pain of each rejection of a manuscript is as familiar to me as every romantic rejection, unreturned phone call, dead-end relationship and broken heart, because my work is me. There is no difference. Every time I receive a letter that says, “we really liked this manuscript, we liked this and that but we don’t feel it’s quite right for us” it feels very personal. And yet I also know that it’s not so much personal as it is a mismatching of fate.

In my personal romantic life, I found The One. And I look back on all the years of searching, heartbreak, Bridget Jones-type hilarity and doubts that I would ever find The One and I realise that all of those broken relationships were opportunities to learn and grow. And if I could go back in time and tell myself not to worry and that it would all be okay, it would certainly have eased the pain. But would it also have taken away the growth and important lessons? Would I have simply stopped trying and sat around waiting for it to fall into my lap and therefore not have been the person I was when I did finally meet The One?

We cannot see the future and so we feel stuck in this limbo world of unrequited love.

Until it happens, for real.

I tell myself to take heart, a phrase that seems to mean “to gain courage”. The courage to keep going. The courage to keep believing. The courage that I will find The One. And The One will love me just as much.

Text Prize for YA manuscript announced

The winner has been announced. Big congratulations to Leanne Hall of Victoria! Leanne has won $10,000 against future royalties and a publishing contract with Text Publishing for her young adult manuscript, This is Shyness.

Leanne has been working as a children’s specialist in a bookstore, which has obviously influenced and aided her journey to publication. This will be Leanne’s first published novel. It’s always exciting and inspiring for the rest of us still slogging away on our work to see that it really is possible to get that big break forward.

This is Shynessfound its inspiration in the research of Linnaeus. Leanne says: “I was researching the Swedish botanist Linnaeus for a short story, when I came across a curious chart. Linnaeus had categorised humans in a top-to-bottom hierarchy (in a fairly racist fashion, I might add!), but what was most fascinating was his inclusion of mythical beings on the bottom rungs – including the mysterious wolfboys and wildgirls.”

This is the second year that Text has run this competition, and you can check their website for more details of how to enter next year.

Good news at last: shortlist for Text YA Prize

I must say, it’s been a long time since I felt as though I had anything worth writing about. So it was with much joy that I received a phonecall today informing me that I had been shortlisted for this year’s Text Publishing YA Prize, for my novel manuscript, Wildfire.

Wildfire follows the story of Jennifer Kellar whose house burns down in a bushfire on the same day that her father decides to head overseas to the Congo, where he is volunteering with Doctors Without Borders. It’s a story that I began many, many years ago, originally as an entry into the first year of One Book Many Brisbanes (in which it was unsuccessful). At the time, I lived in a house in Mitchelton that actually stood in line of a bushfire, which came so close that at one point I had to seriously contemplate what I would take from the house if, indeed, we were evacuated.

Of course, after this year’s horrible bushfire events in Victoria, the story seems more relevant than ever.

This novel has been submitted on invitation to more agents and/or publishers than I can count without looking up my spreadsheet, and it has received everything from a standard ‘thanks but no thanks’ letter to detailed, constructive feedback and high praise, but has not yet found a home.

And just when I had all but given up on it… the good news phone call came.

Whether or not Wildfire finds a home at Text Publishing, I am thrilled to finally, truly believe in my heart that it is not the pile of doo doo that I have often imagined that it was. Thanks Text for the vote of confidence!

And I look forward to the phone call

Woodford Virgins climbing to 5000 views

I just checked into Scribd today to see how my romance novel was faring in the free market and was delighted to find that Woodford Virgins has reached almost 5000 views online, averaging about 22 views a day.

I really didn’t know what to expect when I uploaded the document; it was all an experiment. I’m looking forward to Scribd allowing users from outside of the USA to upload documents to sell. Imagine if my 5000 viewers had all donated just $1… Not bad. Not bad at all.

For now, you can still view and download Woodford Virgins by clicking on the links in this site.

Memories of Michael Jackson

Age seven, out in the playground at school, composing dances to Michael Jackson songs.

Age eight, staying at my dad’s for the weekend and having him borrow the video of the making of Thriller and watching it over and over again.

Age fifteen, choosing to study Michael Jackson as an icon of music for my Year 10 Music assignment.

Age fifteen, Janelle and I riding our horses through the streets of The Gap and singing Michael Jackson songs and planning to go to his Dangerous concert tour (which was later cancelled due to his addiction to pain killers).

Staying up to watch the world premier of the Black or White filmclip with Molly Meldrum commentating.

Age nineteen, boogying to Michael Jackson on the night club dance floors.

Age twenty-something, actually seeing Michael Jackson live in concert at the ANZ stadium in Brisbane and being so, so sad and depressed when it was over, because it was just so incredible.

A strange man? Possibly. A musical genius? Undoubtedly.