The HEA Cafe

… also known as the nature or nurture argument. Which wins out, do you think? Do we have to have talent first, a natural ability that with persistence ensures success? Or does writing success come with a mere grain of ability and then by working at it, learning and practising until our minds and fingers hurt?

I’ve been thinking on this for a while now and not sure I’ve reached any conclusions. Sometimes it feels like the more I know the less I know, if you get my drift. I’ve GMC’d, plotted and pantsed, snowflaked and what-if’d until my head spun, yet lately it feels like wading through treacle. It feels like I’ve hit a barrier which I can’t get through.

The first stories I wrote were as an innocent. I was totally green and naive and just enjoyed the wonderful process of making up those stories and developing the characters who inhabited them. I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong. Then comes the reality of trying to sell those stories, of having them fester in that awful thing they call the slush pile. Of having them critiqued and rejected. Of learning from mistakes, and trying to move forward.

So, my question … Does there come a time when those with the raw talent power ever onward and upward? While those with less talent reach a plateau and stay there? Is there a limit to what we can learn as a writer, a barrier beyond which we cannot move no matter how hard we try? Are writers born or made?

What do you think?

How I love my holidays. Travelling is one of my big passions. The weeks before are spent planning what to pack, where I want to visit while I’m there and how I’m going to walk and swim and generally come back feeling fitter than when I left.

While I adore my day job, I have absolutely no problem switching off while I’m away from it. Apart from thinking about what to bring back for my buddies, I don’t give work a thought. I just step off into wonderland for a couple of weeks. It’s a different matter with writing though. I can’t switch off and if anything those couple of weeks away really get all my juices flowing. There’s inspiration for settings, plots, not to mention heroes

So, having just arrived back from a couple of weeks in the South of France, I am inspired! I’ve got sneaky photos of inspirational men, lovely villas set amidst pine trees and lavender groves, glamorous yachts and glitzy restaurants. My writing pad is jam-packed with plot ideas, some of which are scribbled on napkins or restaurant menus as hubby and I indulge our “what-if” games.

My head is buzzing with ideas …

Ah, indeed, there’s no rest for the writer ….

Tricia
http://www.tricia-jones.com

Yesterday, I was sorting through some old papers and found a quotation. “Creative successes are often preceded by creative failures, for trial and error are the natural companions of creativity.”

It made me think about my WiP, which currently makes me feel like I’m wading through treacle. One step forward, twenty back. Ten pages written, nine deleted. That kind of thing. If I’m honest, this process is nothing out of the ordinary, at least not for me. Usually right smack bang in the middle of a story I get lost in the fog and plum forget that the creative process is full of trial and error. By it’s very nature, it has to be. Instead, I get frustrated that the story’s not flowing. I think maybe it’s a pile of junk and should be abandoned. Except by this time, I’m usually so taken with the h/H and want them to find their happy ending, that I struggle through the crud until that little ray of light shines through and I find my way again.

So, I’ve typed out that anonymous quotation and stuck it above my computer, ready for the next time I’m deep in doo-doo land. It’s right there next to Picasso’s wise words “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it“.

What about you? Do you have any words that inspire you when the going gets tough?

Tricia
http://www.tricia-jones.com
Satin Lies, now available from Samhain Publishing

When I was trying to get published, I prepared myself for a lot of things. I knew that family time would suffer, deadlines would need to be met, rejections faced … but there was one thing that never entered my radar.

My friends gave me every encouragement along the path to publication. They supported me, encouraged me to keep going when things got tough, they celebrated with me and cried with me - they still do. Most of them. Yet a couple have reacted very strangely. One was shocked at the cover of one of my books, declaring “I didn’t realise you wrote THOSE sort of books”. Another was visibly surprised when she found out I wrote sex scenes, as if I didn’t have enough experience to write sex (hmm … surely I must have learned something in 33 years of marriage).

That’s all okay, and I can deal, but when one told me that using bad language, in dialogue I might add, was a sign of sloppy writing, well, that I couldn’t handle. It’s not as if she’s a purist - she has no compunction peppering her sentences with the odd swear word.

At first I was so taken aback I considered changing the dialogue, but then I realised that first and foremost I am a writer. I spend time creating a character and it gives me great pleasure when that character starts speaking and acting in his/her own unique way. So, the dialogue stays. If it loses me a few friends, then so be it. The true ones are still there … supporting, encouraging and ready to offer an expletive in my defence when required.

Tricia

www.tricia-jones.com

I’m re-reading The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron’s excellent guide to discovering and recovering your creative self. Right now I’m up to the part in the book where she talks about poisonous playmates - those people who try to keep us from our creative path and sabotage our efforts at self-improvement. 

Now I’m not sure I have any such playmates, as my husband is supportive in the extreme and I have a wonderful circle of friends both writers and non-writers. The writers are amazing and the non-writers are equally incredible. The latter listen to me rattle on about my characters and plots, and often join in brainstorming sessions to help me clarify any problems I’m having with the current WIP. So who are my poisonous playmates? Do I actually have any?

The answer is yes. I do. I have one - the most pernicious and dangerous of playmates. She encourages me to play when I should be working and throws in any distraction she can find. She makes me drink coffee, eat chocolate, phone friends, watch soaps on the TV and generally waste time, when really I should be writing.  She manipulates and procrastinates. She’s the sort of friend I can do without.

She’s me, of course, or rather she’s the sum total of everything negative about me. Those parts of the psyche that deal in doubt and fear. Those parts that worry about being good enough, so retaliates by not bothering to be good at all. 

Julia Cameron says that poisonous, or toxic, playmates can capsize our artist’s growth. Isn’t that the scariest thing?  Far better to embrace the positive playmate, the one who supports us and says we can do it, the one who challenges us to grow and learn, who says we can make mistakes as long as we keep on keeping on. Now that’s the kind of playmate I want. How about you?

Tricia

http://www.tricia-jones.com
… sensual and seductive romance