Tag Archives: creativity

Is your rewrite rut trying to tell you something?

Have you gotten stuck in a rewrite rut? We certainly have! A rewrite rut is when you keep rewriting and polishing instead of moving on and getting the rest of your first draft written. Last month’s East Bay Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Craft Klatsch’s topic was “How do you know when to stop editing?” The discussion got us thinking; there just might be a good reason you’re in a rut.

The standard advice on getting out of a rewrite rut is all about wrangling your perfectionism demons. And it’s not wrong—learning to ignore your inner critic and give yourself permission to just get the bare bones down and make it pretty later is hard.

We found that choosing a low-pressure writing project to practice helped. For us low-pressure meant writing a short story for a friend’s eyes only about a vampire and a hellhound’s perfect date. Keeping the mood campy and darkly humorous helped us not take ourselves too seriously. Knowing only our friend would read it helped us feel safe making mistakes.

But sometimes your inner critic is trying to tell you something really important.

We realized one reason we’d gotten stuck in a rewrite rut was that there were some fundamental flaws in our first chapters that needed addressing before we moved on, and it took us several rewrites to figure out what they were. To wit, we needed to change the setting from San Francisco to New York, rewrite one chapter from a different character’s point of view so it made more sense, and turn Mama Cleo’s pack of six werewolves into three. All of these would’ve meant major—like throw it all out and start over major—revisions if we’d kept going. Thankfully, we could feel something was amiss. The rewrite rut helped us identify the problems so we could safely move forward.

We also got stuck because we weren’t mentally ready to write some of the scenes we knew were coming up. We plan to write more about this in another post, but it’s okay to stop and put your mental health first. Writing is emotionally taxing. Maybe you’re not ready to go where the story will take you yet.

So if you’re in a rewrite rut, try asking yourself these questions:

  • Is perfectionism the primary problem? If so, what sort of project would make it feel safe to practice just keeping writing?
  • Is there a fundamental flaw here I’m trying to figure out? Has my inner critic spotted a problem I really do need to fix before writing more?
  • Am I reluctant to write a difficult scene because I’m not ready? Do I need to take a mental health break from this project?

Sometimes a rewrite rut is productive! The trick, as always, is telling the difference. 😊

Bday 💖, Walkin’ in the Rain, and Musings on Needlework and Writing

Today’s post is a bit of a mixed bag. 🙂

🎁First, a very happy birthday to my bestie and science editor, Mad Doktor Matt! Many happy returns! 🎂 Matt has helped me brainstorm the biology of my supernatural beings over many lengthy conversations. He helps me stay true to the science and decide when to depart from (known) reality. He’s also a fantastic first reader and support! Much love to you, my friend!

Today I took a walk in the rain. In yesterday’s Japanese post I mentioned my pain doc gave me some good advice. As it gets darker, I start getting the urge to hibernate. He said I could combat my sleepiness with daily walks. The mornings are best because there’s more light.

I like to hunt Pokémon as I walk. I had a lucky day, snapping up a Bellsprout and a Mareep. I stopped at a nearby church to take over the gym and I noticed how beautiful this flower looked in the rain.

The glam-shot quality comes from the sandwich bag I used to keep the rain off my iPhone. Anyone know what kind of flower this is?

I also wanted to share that I’ve started my next cross stitch project. This one will be a wedding gift for my friend and Matt’s sister, Julie. Julie is a phlebotomist and has given me lots of details about blood and how the collection system works. These are vital details for any vampire-centric novel, in my opinion.

I’m keeping the painting I’m stitching a surprise. I can tell you that it’s a max color chart by Heaven and Earth Designs, which means it contains over 200 colors!

I’m trying the Floss-A-Way organization system this time and I really like it. The system consists of rings like those in a binder and small ziplock bags with a hole in one corner. I cut up the list of symbols and DMC floss numbers. Then I taped one on each bag. This makes it really easy to flip through and find the color I’m looking for. I can also keep lengths of thread neatly tucked away with their skeins. Really helpful for such a large project!

This is my first time stitching on 25-count linen (which means there are 25 stitches per inch). So tiny! Most of the design will be very colorful, but the corner I’m starting with is dark. There are four colors of thread in this picture. Can you find them all?

Challenging, right? As I was stitching today I thought how much it’s like writing a novel. Small, consistent additions add up over time and what starts out amorphous and murky turns into a beautiful whole.

Wizard Cross Stitch Finished!

Abracadabra! I started this Dimensions cross stitch kit about seven years ago. It spent most of that time languishing in my closet until this summer. Once I finally started working on it in earnest, it went super fast. I think it took about five months to complete.

I love the dimension and texture the designer created by using halfstitch, couching, and blending colors. Every so often I’d fill in a couple of stitches and be amazed at how they made all the difference. This is a great example of how skillfully manipulated details in the right places make a project shine.

Looking at the chart, I was worried about how, um, phallic one of the candles looked. I was relieved when I actually stitched that section that it didn’t resemble a penis after all! It’s amazing how much color can change our perception.

I did make a few subtle changes. In some areas I miscounted, but I was able to fudge it so it looked great and I didn’t have to take out and redo a whole bunch. The wizard’s glasses were supposed to have a chain hanging down, but I think they’re cuter without. I also added gold to some of the dragon’s outlining to add a little more magic. Goes to show that even a minutely outlined project improves with a little creativity. This also reflects my “pantser”/“Make it Work” work style. 🙂

I’m really proud of myself for finishing! I also learned a new skill completing this project: couching! Despite the fiddly gold threads, I think I did a good job.

Behold!

It’s NaNoWriMo Time!✍🏻

November is National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo for short. You can click on the link above to join in all the fun!

I’m not sure I’ll be doing NaNoWriMo myself this year. I’m at a place where I need to really nail down a lot of background stuff, like the various supernatural entities’ biology and cultures. I have it in my head, but I want to get it all written down so I can easily reference for consistency. I’m also one of those writers who uses science to make the magic as plausible as possible. I base my creatures as much in our known world as I can, down to figuring out the carrying capacity for vampires to ensure their population statistics are reasonable.

NaNoWriMo is based on word count. The goal is to write a 50,000+ word novel by the end of the month. But the background stuff I’m working on doesn’t contribute to my novel’s overall word count. So depending on how quickly that goes, I may not participate this year.

And I think we’ve all learned this last week that I have trouble with energy management. 😓 Chronic pain and illness make it really hard. But that’s another post.

If you are participating in NaNoWriMo this year, I’d love to cheer you on! Let me know your NaNoWriMo handle and the project you’re working on in the comments so I can find you on the website.

✒️Choose your weapon carefully… and let the adventure begin!

魔法使いクロスステッチプロジェクトはほとんど終わりです！

Edited according to corrections from my Lang-8 friends:

今週は投稿が遅くなりました。 クロスステッチプロジェクトに気をとられていたので。もう少しで終わるので、中断することはとても難しかったです！後バックステッチだけが残っています。私は、このプロジェクトを約7年前に始めました。もう少しで出来上がるので、とても幸せです！ドラゴンを召喚する浮遊キャンドルに囲まれた魔法使いの写真です。あなたは私のブログ、honeycombsbeehive.wordpress.com、で進行中のいくつかの写真を見ることができます。先週私が書いたカボチャパイの写真も見ることができます。完成したら私のプロジェクトの写真を掲載します。そして、私の親友ジュリーの結婚式のクロスステッチプロジェクトを始始めるつもりです。

I am late writing a post this week because I was distracted by my cross-stitch project. It is almost finished, so it has been very hard to stop! I only have the backstitching to do now. I started this project about seven years ago, so I’m very excited I’m almost done! It is a picture of a wizard surrounded by floating candles summoning a dragon. You can see some photos of it in progress on my blog, honeycombsbeehive.wordpress.com. You can also see a picture of the pumpkin pie I wrote about last week. I will post a picture of my project when it’s finished. Then I will start on a cross stitch project for my best friend Julie’s wedding.

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The End’s in Sight!

I couldn’t stop stitching today since I was so close to the end. And now I’m on to the backstitching and couching! Woohoo!

I plan to catch up on studying Japanese and the social side of social media this weekend. 🙂

Free Speech, Flags, and Toilet Paper

This weekend the National Football League finally joined Colin Kapernick in protest. I’m sad that it took them so long, but am glad they’re finally doing it. This story has prompted a lot of thinking.

Back before 2009, when it became de rigueur for players to stand for the pledge of allegiance, I remember my hometown football team usually knelt for the pledge. Kneeling was considered a sign of profound respect. It’s fascinating that now President Trump and the alt-right argue it’s disrespectful. As one viewer tweeted to The Young Turks, if it’s disrespectful to kneel, why is it traditional to kneel when praying? According to Trumpian logic, wouldn’t that be saying “F you!” to God?

On the free speech angle, I was prompted to think about a photo I’d taken on my iPhone using a special camera app. Now I’ll be honest, sometimes when I glance in the toilet before flushing, I notice that the TP has formed a recognizable shape. This random origami, if you will, fascinates me. So sometimes I’ll take a picture of an especially good one.

A week or so before the 2016 election, I noticed the TP had made a beautifully expressive checkmark, as if the toilet bowl was a checkbox. This perfectly expressed my feelings about an election in which the leading choices were both pretty crappy and it was hard to feel like my vote mattered. I might as well flush my vote down the toilet. So I took a photo, though I wound up never posting it anywhere. Then a couple of months ago I opened the app only to discover that all of my photos had disappeared without warning! I don’t know this for certain, but it appears that the app may have deleted my content, even though I had kept it private, because they deemed my TP photos obscene and thus in violation of their TOS.

Now, as a private company the app had the right to do that, as much as I didn’t like it. But this brings up several questions. What is obscene? I could argue that a great deal of constitutionally protected speech is obscene. Does that mean that it should, therefore, not be heard? Where should we draw the line? I don’t think that the Nazi crowds in Charlottesville’s speech should be protected. I think it’s obscene, obvious hate speech, and incitement to violence. Yet some think that Colin Kapernick kneeling during the pledge of allegiance is obscene and hateful speech.

I’m not going to answer these questions here. But if I were in charge I would make changes to the pledge of allegiance. Doing so won’t solve any free speech issues, but it would remove some of the major objections to reciting it based on the wording.

I pledge allegiance to the United States of America. Many peoples creating one nation with freedom and justice for all.

This wording pledges allegiance directly to the nation, not to its flag. It also removes mention of God (I’d also remove “In God we trust” from US currency). Whatever one’s religious beliefs, church and state are supposed to be separate in the United States, so it’s inappropriate for God to be in our national pledge (or on our currency). Finally, this wording focuses on our history of melding immigrants from around the globe into one nation founded on constitutional principles.

This post has followed my thought association. So to thank those who’ve read this far and to return to TP origami, here’s an excerpt from a story in progress tentatively titled “Cordelia and the Shit Demon” that was inspired by this manifestation of serendipity. Enjoy:

            “Cordelia, why are you setting up the high-speed over the toilet?”

The small, mousy witch so addressed blushed and continued to adjust the video camera’s controls for a moment before replying. “You know I’m good at reading the tea leaves. Well, it turns out you can get a lot more interesting and accurate information reading toilet paper because of the – ahem – biological materials involved. Is something wrong?” She fiddled with the lapel of her robe, which was fraying from this nervous tic, and looked up at Pansy with concerned doe-like eyes. Rumor had it that Cordelia’s glasses were made with two magnifying glasses, a touch of magic, and a bit of wire. They certainly did enlarge her eyes in a way Pansy found both absurd and irresistible. She couldn’t scoff at the silly project with those brown orbs turned on her.

Giving in, Pansy crossed her arms and leaned against the doorjamb. “So why the high-speed? You never needed it for tea.”

Cordelia smacked her fist into her palm. “Oh, right! I didn’t say, did I? This camera,” she gestured like a model displaying a product, “will capture the flush cycle, in case it goes by too fast or there are nuances my eye alone can’t see. The tripod is set up to breakdown quickly so my scrying will occupy the bathroom for the least time possible.” The little witch beamed.

To Grid or Not to Grid

When I embarked on my current counted cross stitch project, I decided to try out a tip. I used white thread to stitch a 10 x 10 grid on my aida cloth. This reference did make it much easier and faster to stitch as it reduced the need to carefully count. I could determine the location of any stitch primarily spatially and never had to count higher than five to find my place.

But once I’d completed the top of the piece, I decided to test the tipster’s assertion that the grid stitches would be easy to remove. Turns out it’s a very finicky process. I wound up accidentally cutting a couple of cross stitches and having to leave some grid thread pieces where they were inconspicuous so I didn’t cut more of my project. I removed the grid threads from the rest of my fabric and don’t think I’ll use this method again.

My troubles with gridding my cross stitch project made me think about my struggles with outlining. I’m what’s often referred to as a “pantser” because I write by the seat of my pants instead of relying on an outline. I usually have a general idea of where I’m headed and even have some detailed scenes I know I want to get to along the way, like taking a road trip and penciling in a few must-see destinations and an end point, but leaving the rest up to serendipity. I’m one of those authors to whom her characters are very real, separate beings who tell me their story. My job is to listen and record, sometimes running along after shouting, “Wait! I can hardly keep up!”

Writing with an outline feels very restrictive to me, rather like rally driving. When I was required to turn in outlines for school papers, I almost always wrote the paper first and then the outline. My sophomore year of high school I finally figured out a nonfiction outlining style that worked for me. Using 3″ x 5″ cards I wrote down the points I wanted to make and supporting information. Then I sat down and rearranged the cards until I had a stack that led me almost from sentence to sentence. But I’ve only done this for thesis-length research papers. And for fiction, it feels too regimented and constricting.

I’ve heard a lot of great things about different styles of outlining, like the grid or post-it notes, and I keep trying because it seems like such a good idea. I have yet to find my match, though.

How do you feel about outlining first? What works best for you? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

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The State of the Cross Stitch 8.30.2017

I’m very pleased to be back to cross-stitching. For those who don’t know, I was unable to stitch for many years due to my burns (I’m a burn survivor) and CRPS/RSD. I have a hard time just sitting and not doing something with my hands (probably due to inculcation of too intense a work ethic) and it’s lovely to be able to listen to books and news or debates on YouTube and do something meditative, productive, creative, and beautiful at the same time. I’m currently working on a Dimensions® Gold Collection™ cross stitch kit by Myles Pinkney called “Scarlet Wizard”. As of tonight, here’s my current progress. I love how the back looks like an impressionist painting of the front!

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