No, that isn’t the title of my novel, though in a way, I think it would be a good novel title. Stillness Speaks - this speaks to me. It speaks to me of that space between words and actions, that place of serenity and clarity. That opportunity to see clear through to the absolute truth of a situation, to understand it perfectly without any conscious analysis, and to feel the natural, normal welling of love that flows upwards from heart to head, saying that whatever is happening is alright.

Stillness speaks to me now as I take a break from my early morning writing and think about what a joy it is to once again join the wave of human minds, spirits, consciousness, and enthusiasm. I’m speaking of that wave that comes over the world every November 1 through 30, when novelists the world over join in a celebration of writing called NaNoWriMo.

To be a writer allowing myself to get caught up in this spirit is an amazing, joyful thing. I can feel the vibrations of hope, the strong vibes of confidence and the weak ones of fear. These mix together and somehow the confident spirits give strength and hope to the fearful ones. We all strive and struggle in our own ways to be part of this happening experience. One day, one hour, one word at a time, we build our artistic literary creations, build them strong, build them big, build them crazy and wild and free. And however we build them, that’s exactly how they are meant to be. Do you see how beautiful that is?

Writers of the world, be free, be crazy with your words, and be confident. Together we will make this month a time of joy and discovery - a month to remember and a memory to savor and cherish.

…
This NaNoWriMo moment was brought to you by that wave of enthusiasm that came over me.

Oh, by the way, my working title this year is The Green Tea Chronicles.

Here’s my NaNoWriMo profile.

Here it comes - once again - the wonderful online writer’s conference planned and coordinated by amazing Lea Schizas. This is the conference’s third year - and the first year I’m offering a workshop there. In fact, it is the first time I’ve offered a workshop anywhere, so I’m really excited (and apprehensive) about this.

My workshop is Creating An Impressive Writing Website - during which I hope to help other writers figure out what a website might do for them, and what it should look like. I’ll also be doing critiques of existing sites so if anyone is wanting an objective opinion of their site and suggestions on how to make it better, this would be a great place to ask.

The conference is totally FREE so don’t hesitate to register if you’re at all interested. The conference will be a happening thing from October 13 through 19, 2008. It is all online, in chatrooms and on a message board forum.

To register, click on the conference banner below, and then find the registration link.

[Update: Sorry, registration ended on September 1, 2008. If you're not registered this time, get ready for NEXT year's registration. Put this on your calendar for next August.]

Remember this always: when you get a rejection from an editor - it isn’t personal. It isn’t about you. Manuscripts get rejected, not people, and there are dozens of reasons why that happens. Here are a few of the most common:

1. A rejected manuscript is most likely wrong for that editor or agent. They have preferences. They are looking for that one gem of a manuscript that will jump out of the slush pile right into their hearts, and say, “Take me, I’m yours!” Every other manuscript gets rejected no matter how skillfully done, fascinating, or amazing. Sorry!

2. Some manuscripts get rejected because they are formatted wrong, or because something an editor or agent expects isn’t included in the submission. For example an editor may have writers guidelines saying she wants three novel chapters, a query letter, and a synopsis. If she gets the wrong number of chapters or no synopsis do you think she would reject a manuscript regardless of its other merits? Of course, she probably will. She wants to work with an author who can follow directions. Sorry! Try again!

3. Suppose a manuscript really is pure nonsense submitted by a person who hasn’t developed his writing talents yet. The only cure for this is to keep practicing. I will serve as your example here. I’ve been writing novels for seven years, but haven’t submitted one yet because I wanted to improve my writing and editing skills. All this time I’ve been learning about what makes novels great, and what publishers need. I don’t want to submit junk novels - I want mine to be excellent in every respect, so I’ve been revising one for the last six years as I struggled to learn all about the editing process. I’m getting ready to submit my first novel manuscript which was originally written way back in 2001. So now I’m writing this blog post to remind myself (and you) that if the manuscript gets rejected, it’s not personal! If you believe your lack of writing skill is a reason for rejection, take time to keep practicing - there’s no dishonor in that. Sorry! Write some more!

At one time back in the 1980’s I planned to publish a poetry journal. Before long I was swamped with submissions. I was flooded with them. I was unprepared for the onslaught. I couldn’t manage the workload, and none of those poets got published by me because I gave up on the project before it got started. It wasn’t their fault they didn’t get published - it was mine. It wasn’t personal! I didn’t even know poetry writing was all that popular at the time. That was back in the dark ages before the internet came into being.

More recently I worked as editor of Happy Camp News. I established the news site in 2001 and sold it recently after seven years as editor, news writer and owner. I would have loved to get more submissions, but those few I did get sometimes didn’t get printed. The problem was the editor’s lack of organization, time, or money. It wasn’t personal! In a perfect world, I would have published them all.

So please, when you submit your work, follow instructions carefully and try hard to target the right editors and agents. But if the answer is ‘no’, don’t take it as a judgment against you.

It isn’t personal!

“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” - from the Kristofferson/Foster song, Bobby McGee

When what you have to lose is writer’s block, inhibition, or fear, believe me - you can do without it! Kick that feeling of hesitancy out the door and write anything you feel like writing! Who is looking over your shoulder anyhow? Don’t you know that everything you write is subject to revision later on? Why hold back on the first draft? This is our opportunity to let it all hang out!

Use colorful language. Swear in writing if you want to. Use wild, outrageous adjectives like splendiferous, or hugeamungus, or abstractious. Why not make things up? Why not brighten the world with new words? We wouldn’t even know the word supercalifragilisticexpialadocious if some creative writer didn’t have the guts to make it up and write it down.

You know who your biggest censor is? It’s your own internal editor. That’s the first line of defense against increased creative expression. Your inner editor will get to you every time before any professional editors ever have a chance to go over your work.

If you want to grow as a writer, one of the first things you need to do is to kick the internal editor to the back of your brain. Tell that critic to hush… until it is time for a revision. Your first draft does not need any criticism. It only needs your full range of free expression. It needs word freedom, and thought abundancy.

Allow yourself to write down whatever comes to mind. If you find yourself hesitating, move past it. Refuse to back up and change things, and if you write longhand, don’t cross things out. That should wait for the revision.

First drafts are for literary play.

If you’ve forgotten how to play, take an hour to visit a children’s playground and sit on the swing for a while. Meditate on that. And remember that you’re allowed to have fun, to leave your cares and worries behind, and to play as long and hard as any child on the block.

You are a free being! You are free! Let your words reflect the freedom of your heart.

Everyone needs a creative outlet - even those who don’t think they do. It is part of being human. For many of us, writing is that opportunity to share a bit of our hearts with the world.

The writing life begins when a person makes a commitment to write. Most of us who are serious about writing try to write every day. As this becomes a ritual habit, we enjoy the exciting fulfillment of our creative urges when we see the results: a viable story, article or poem. This feels so good, we want to do it again and again.

The daily writing habit can be as simple as writing to a prompt. For me, sometimes the key to working with prompts is to let my imagination run free, feeling loose enough to write down whatever comes to mind. At other times I plan a bit ahead of time and then see where the story takes me. Most of my prompt writing takes the form of flash fiction - stories less than 500 words.

Prompts give immediate writing practice, and do not need to produce masterpieces. Writing done for practice can be turned into something worth sharing and submitting, but it doesn’t need to be perfect every time. It just needs to be a daily ritual, to help us develop our writing talents. Every creative artist needs to practice, and this is how many writers do it.

When you write to a prompt, it doesn’t matter if you write poetry, a script, fiction, or non-fiction. All genres are good for writing practice. It only matters that you set down your words, crafting them to the best of your current ability. Save your practice writing for later inspiration, for development into larger pieces, or for posterity. But whatever else you do, don’t stress over it and don’t waste time comparing your writing skills to others. Every writer has a different voice. You need only express yours.

The more you write, the better you will get at it. Don’t be afraid to play with your words, using outlandish descriptions and wild dialogue. Remember, if you don’t like the result, nobody will ever have to see it but you. The goal is to be free with language, getting away from any stilted prose, getting closer to the true expression of your inner creative light.

Science fiction, fantasy, and suspense author, Holly Lisle, is offering a one-time-only seminar for twenty novelists. To apply, you’ll have to come up with an impressive question to ask her about novel writing. See this page on Holly’s website for more information: Would You Like to Be A Part of My Writing Seminar?.

Robert E. Howard was one of the greatest pulp fiction writers. He created Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja, and was a contemporary of HP Lovecraft. (1930s)

Recently I watched a movie about his romance with Novalyne Price. The movie, The Whole Wide World, was based on a book she wrote when she was in her 70s: One Who Walked Alone.

Interesting movie. It showed his writing process, which was like nothing I’d ever heard of before. He apparently sat at his typewriter yelling the words of his stories out loud as he typed. It looked like he really got into the stories, or ‘yarns’ as he called them.

Anyhow, I think the movie is worth watching, for writers, at least. Novalyne Price got in touch with Howard because she wanted advice on her own writing, and he gave it to her, but not exactly as she wanted it.

I’ve just finished the preliminary work on a new collaborative resource blog for writers of children’s literature. If you write for kids, please check this out. I’m looking for people who want to contribute articles to the blog. Writer’s guidelines are on the site: Literature For Kids.

There are three things every writer should have:

1. Confidence - Every writer needs confidence. We need to know that our words are worthy and that if we practice writing enough, good things will come of it. A writer’s life is not easy, so it is imperative that a writer has an inner knowledge that hours spent alone, word-crafting, will be hours well-spent. Be assured that your writing is worthwhile so that if you meet nay-sayers along the way, their negativity won’t assail you in the least.

2. Perseverance - Be ready to write, keep writing, and never stop writing. No matter what else life is throwing at you, there’s always time to put your words on paper, or into bits and bytes if that is your choice. Most important, don’t even consider quitting. Each writing project, no matter how disastrous it may seem, is a building-block for your career. Each thing you write is a learning experience. Cherish all your projects, and keep on writing. Quitting is not an option for successful writers. Writing is a way of life, not something you dabble at.

3. A Writer’s Notebook - One thing every writer should have is a writer’s notebook. It doesn’t matter how fancy it is; it just has to be something that works for you. Legal pads are nice. I use a simple notebook I picked up at a variety store. Others will get a bound book or a sketch book. Whatever it is, if it works for you, it is the perfect thing. I tried several types of journals before I figured out what I needed. The notebook is for writing down your writing inspirations. Thoughts are fleeting. Don’t expect to remember everything - it doesn’t work like that. When you get an idea, put it in writing, in a place where you’ll be able to find it again. A writing notebook is perfect for keeping all your writing thoughts in one place, easily accessible. It’s also great for scribbling down bits of description or observations of the world and people around you.

Lately I’ve been running from work to appointments, to errands, to classes. Where has my writing time gone? When I sit at my computer a thousand tasks confront me. Seems like the workload has increased while my time decreased.

The only way to find time to write is to do it. Rather than sitting here today, stressing about how little time I have for sharing my thoughts, I’ve taken decisive action. I wrote the first sentence. And sometimes that’s the hardest part of writing. Once the first sentence is in print, it leads naturally to the next.

Writing flows from thought to thought, from action to reaction. And there is always time for writing, hidden between the many demands of stressful modern living. A few paragraphs here, half a chapter there - and it adds up.

There’s nothing so stressful as not writing. Stop and think about it. If you don’t write, then you’re stressed about wanting to do it and not getting it done. But if you do write, you feel great. You don’t need to pat yourself on the back because the written words did it for you. You want to shout, call out, and tell people, “I wrote something today! I succeeded!”

One of my best tools for finding time to write when it seems like there’s no time at all, is my notebook. I always have some kind of journal notebook going. I can carry the notebook with me anywhere - to the doctor’s office, to the laundromat, or to a picnic table near the river. For years I’ve been writing in them, recording the details of my daily life. And when I have article ideas, I often write them in the notebook first, in longhand. Sometimes it helps to get away from the computer and think about what I really want to say. Then by the time I’m ready to type the article into the computer, I know my angle and can present it with clarity and brevity.

If you’re a busy person, like I am, write when you can. Don’t think about doing it…. just DO it. Write that first sentence. Let words flow out of you. Keep your inspirations flowing. It doesn’t matter if you have five minutes to write, or fifty. When you use your time to write, every minute is a victory.