#WriterWednesday: WriterlyLinks And #WritersLife 12-02-20 - #AmWriting

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight.
~Ursula K. Le Guin

Despite having a bit of a cold - though I have at least managed to stop it from becoming more than a bit of the sniffles, and a slight cough - so not feeling 100% during the past couple of weeks, it's been a much better couple of writing weeks for me. In fact, the past two weeks were excellent and extremely productive ones when it comes to my writing. Possibly - in fact, almost certainly - helped by the fact Lilie has decided naps are sometimes acceptable again. Plus, my current sleep schedule has me getting up early, and it's always easier to write when I'm up before anyone but Mollie of the petkids is alert and playful, so that's no doubt helping a lot too.

I managed to do quite a bit of work on the story I've been calling my main writing project - which is a story about dogs, inspired by Lilie and Logan, if you're interested (though I'm not telling you more than that until closer to when I'll be releasing it) - so it's now not so messy. It still needs some work, but it's looking a lot better at this point, and coming along very nicely, if I do say so myself.

I also wrote a few new poems. Actually, a lot of them, especially during the first Sunday of February, since it was a large part of what I did to celebrate Imbolc, as you'll know if you read my first Tuesday post of the month. Though I didn't mention in that post that part of that involved having fun with some poetry forms I don't use much, playing with a couple of the forms on these lists of poetry forms and Welsh poetic forms (I know I've shared the first link on here before, but not sure about the second). I only played with a couple of the forms, but got so in to it that I wrote something like eight poems. Added to the ones I'd written throughout January, and the couple I've written since Imbolc, this means I've already written two thirds of the number I wanted to write in 2020. In other words, I've so far written 20 poems this year.

So, like I said, a fun - and very productive - couple of writing weeks for sure!

Just as a good rain clears the air, a good writing day clears the psyche.
~Julia Cameron

If you're not having as much luck with your own writing, and it's because you just can't focus, take a look at this post on how to write when your 'focus mode' is broken. Hope it helps.

I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer’s block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don’t. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done.
~Barbara Kingsolver

If you write poetry like I often do, along with the links I posted above for the different poetry forms, you may find synonyms.com and HowManySyllables.com useful. I think I may have posted the second of those links before, but it's a good one to have handy when writing poetry, since a lot of forms rely on counting syllables, so it's worth sharing again anyhow.

By the way, if you write stories, have you ever considered writing your story as immersive fiction? If you have - or even if you haven't, but my question made you want to read more about that idea - check out this advice on how to write immersive fiction, and help your readers really get inside your main character's mind.

Speaking of getting inside the mind of your character, here's an interesting post prompted by an author's dark running, which reminds us of the importance of drawing on personal experiences to put yourself in the minds of your characters, especially in situations where they might have to overcome fears, like the fear of the dark, for example.

You are safe inside your mind. No one can reach you there.
~Stephenie Meyer

Sticking on the theme of characters for a moment, here's a great post about writing the mentor archetype.

Also, still on the theme of characters: here are some ways you can make your protagonist more proactive, so your readers will be more likely to feel their story is worth reading.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
~G.K. Chesterton

Remember: a writer's worst enemy isn't time management or a bad idea, it's the need for instant gratification. It takes hours and hours of working on your book before you'll have anything you can even show people to get feedback on it. Then takes just as long - likely longer - to build up enough of a following that people will notice when you publish something. So you need to be prepared for that. Make your own goals and milestones, and reward yourself when you reach them.

The writing life is essentially one of solitary confinement – if you can't deal with this you needn't apply.
~Will Self

Though it most often is a solitary activity, there are times when writing isn't a completely solitary activity, and you'll have to work with others - especially if you plan to publish. This means others sometimes the things on your to-do list will rely on others to do their part before you can check them off. But there are reasons why you can't set writing goals that (directly) involve other people. So just bear that in mind. You can make your goals work though, if you set the right ones. After all, anyone can achieve a writing goal - even if you never have before. So write every day - or at least on a regular basis - and make your goals ones you can be in control of. Then one day you'll achieve yours.

Just bear in mind that, while you can still do all the things you love as well as writing, if you want to make more time for writing, you'll have to give up these three things, because creating writing 'practice' time should be your first priority.

Oh, and this is how to set writing goals if you're bad at setting writing goals.

Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.
~Ray Bradbury

By the way, if you write for a middle grade audience, check out this post about writing the middle grade novel.

Even if you don't write for middle grade readers, here are some tips for writing for different age groups.

No matter what age you write for though, watch for those times when the plot of a story gets something wrong.

It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense.
~Mark Twain

Next, here are some ways keeping a journal makes you a better writer, so you might want to consider doing it. I don't these days, but always used to... I went through quite a lot of journals and notebooks over the years. It may not be something that works for you, but it's worth thinking about the idea of keeping one. After all, as the post points out, there are ways it could potentially improve your writing. Or at least help you organize your thoughts about your writing future.

Everything you write is valuable. I’m finding that stuff I wrote a few years ago and shelved because I didn’t feel it worked is now slotting into place in my current project. Never delete anything. The future you will thank you for this.
~Lucy Mitchell

Speaking of organizing your thoughts (and feelings) as much as possible: if you suffer from anxiety - or even if you don't - you might want to check out these survival tricks for a creative's anxiety. If you're someone who needs to make use of things like that, I hope they help.

Finally, here's some advice for when life immitates fiction.