The HEA Cafe

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

I’m talking about editing and revising a manuscript. When do you know when to call a halt?

Now, I’m one of those weird writers who love the process of editing and revision. I love the opportunity to work with editors who really know their stuff and challenge me to push myself. There’s the chance to strengthen, polish and polish some more. Wonderful. But when to stop? 

Repetitive phrases, frequently used words (mine seem to change with each manuscript, so they sneak in and I’m often not aware until an editor points them out), too many adjectives, adverbs, etc. You name it and I imagine we’ve all been there. My particular nemesis is the dear old ellipsis. I reckon I’m in the running for Ellipsis Queen of Publishing, or at least a main contender.

So, I go through the manuscript with a fine toothcomb…and I go through it again…then again…and maybe again…and just once more for luck (see what I mean about the ellipsis) and finally hold my breath and shoot it away for the final time. Then I start to think maybe I could have changed that word, amended that sentence, and it all starts over again.

All part of being a writer, of course … and that’s one thing I wouldn’t change. Ever. 

Having checked out my website and read a couple of my book excerpts, a work colleague asked me “how do you decide on your characters’ names?”  While I’m always prepared for the old chestnut “where do you get your ideas from”, this one sort of left me flummoxed. 

How exactly do I decide on my characters’ names?  Other writers will understand when I say the characters tell me their names, but I couldn’t confess that to my colleague for fear of providing my workmates with final confirmation that “oh yeah, she really is a nutcase”.  But character names do just seem to come to me, usually after I’ve completed the character chart, know their GMC and had a little ‘chat’ with them about their background and what makes them tick.

That conversation about character names led into a general discussion about romance writing in general. Now I’m very lucky and have the most amazing support from my colleagues, who always seem genuinely interested in what I do and the process involved. But I stopped short of confessing that not only do I have little chats with my characters in order to write their story, I also have this need to know what sort of future awaits them after I write The End. Will they still be burning up the sheets for years to come? Err, yes, always. Will they have children? Yes, most of them will.  How many?  Crikey, I sometimes even know how many grandchildren they’ll have. Now does that make me a crazy woman?  Or just a normal romance writer?  

Answers on a postcard please …..

Tricia
… softly sensual romance
http://www.tricia-jones.com

It seems many of us are feeling the stress levels rising about now. It’s ironic that a time of year that should technically give us much pleasure is actually one of the most difficult to navigate.  Amid the shopping, planning, card writing, present-wrapping duties, shouldn’t we factor in me time? Pockets of time to find a little oasis of calm where we can restore and renew ourselves? But that’s just another thing to do, isn’t it?

“I barely have time to breathe” we say. And how true that is. Often quite literally. Because with all that rushing around we sometimes forget to breathe, or at least we barely take in enough oxygen to keep us functioning. As a result, our muscles tighten, our ribcage locks and we feel an almost pernicious tiredness that no amount of sleep will allay.

I’ve taught yoga for over twenty five years and been a practitioner for over … well, let’s just say it’s been a part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. It’s my steady foundation, my constant companion against the part of my nature that is at heart a workaholic. It keeps me grounded, brings me back to my centre, makes me focus. As a writer I can easily get locked into a story and forget to take breaks from the computer. When everything is flowing I don’t want to move away from my desk. So I carry on regardless, even when some innate part of me warns to step away … to breathe, to stretch, to be.

The demands of the holiday season have a similar effect. I push on regardless – I shop, plan, work, visit, cook, shop some more … and if I’m lucky manage to get some writing done. Wherever I am, I feel I should be somewhere else. Whatever I’m doing, I feel I should be doing something else. It feels like I’m always coming from behind. But beneath all the constant hurrying, the continual doing, that little voice niggles … STOP, it chides. Relax. Let go. Just be for a while. When I answer that voice, I feel better. When I listen, things fall into place. With just the simplest of stretches and a few deep breaths, something shifts inside me … something whispers, ah, you’ve come back to where you’re supposed to be. Everything feels better somehow.

So, why not take the time this holiday season to just be for the littlest while. To stretch, to breathe, to come home. Take time to nurture, to restore, to balance that most valuable of assets. You.

Here’s a few simple stretches you might like to try*. Breathe slowly and easily as you stretch:

1. Sit back in your chair, your spine straight, feet on the floor. Lift your arms out to the sides and take them over your head as you slowly breathe in. Then breathe out slowly, easily, as your arms come back down to the sides. Repeat a couple more times, feeling your whole body release as you breathe out.

2. Hold on to the side of your chair, then breathe in and lift your left arm into the air. Breathe out and stretch gently to the right keeping your feet on the floor and your butt firmly in the chair. Feel the stretch down the left side of your body. Breathe in and release back to centre, breathe out as you lower your arm. Repeat to opposite side. 

3. Breathe in and interlock your fingers. Breathe out as you turn your palms out and straighten your arms out in front of you at shoulder height. Feel the stretch in your shoulder blades as you push away with your hands (keep your back straight and try not to lean forward). Breathe in and gently raise your arms overhead, feeling the ribcage lift. Breathe out, release your hands and bring your arms down to the sides. This is an excellent stretch for writers as it releases tension in the fingers, arms, shoulders and upper back.

4. Lie on the floor with your arms out to the sides, bend your knees and have your feet on the floor about hip width apart. Take a few deep breaths deep into your belly. The belly should expand as you breathe in, and relax back toward the floor as you breathe out. Close your eyes and just let yourself go for a few precious moments. Feel your whole body releasing and relaxing. Just be.

There. Feeling better? It just takes a few minutes and can make all the difference.  You’re worth it. You deserve it.

Seasons Greetings everyone!

Tricia

http://www.tricia-jones.com

*Check with your doctor if you have any concerns about your health.

At school I loved the start of term when we got to have new writing books, new pencils, pens, erasers … I always felt a little thrill thinking of all the wonderful things I’d write in those notebooks, the amazing essays and stories that would find their way onto the page. For me, something magical happened with a new notebook. It was as if all the stories I ever wanted to write, full of undiscovered and fascinating things, were already contained in those pages and all I had to do was open the cover and get started. Of course, now I realise it was simply a fresh surge of creativity which came with that belief but, to be truthful, part of me still holds on to that magic.

I love stationery stores and can spend hours just browsing the wonderful array of products. There’s still that little zing whenever I purchase a pristine new notebook and pen - preferably matching and in bright snazzy colours. Part of me still believes that there are amazing stories hidden right deep in the centre of me that will only be unleashed via the pages of that new notebook. Those beliefs worked fine, of course, when I wrote stories on paper, but now I write straight to computer it’s different. Somehow a shiny new blank page glaring at me from the monitor doesn’t hold the same appeal.  

Right now I’m between edits on my next release and trying to get back into the WIP but feeling uninspired. Last week there was a sale at my local computer shop and I bought a new wireless mouse, keyboard and mouse mat, wondering if they would have the same appeal, and effect, as a new pen and notebook - would they work their magic in the same way?  I even changed the background colour of the computer screen to pale yellow - which apparently stimulates the brain - in the hope it would act like blank pages from a new notebook.

It was fun for a bit, until the novelty of having something new wore off. It wasn’t the same feeling as having that new notebook. But then I’m older and wiser now, and know that writing good stories is down to old-fashioned hard graft, not rituals and brightly colored pens - although I still believe there’s a huge chunk of magic involved. But hard graft aside, I might just pop by the stationery store this lunchtime … there was a nice multistripe notebook in the window that just happened to have my name on …