The HEA Cafe

I tweeted earlier that I was going to shower to figure out what I’d be blogging today. Yes, Twitter can be that lame. But it worked. While I was showering I realized I could blog about…showering.

I’ll spare you the damp details of my shower. It’s not about my fabulous remodeled bathroom with its two shower heads, it’s about why showering boosts your creativity. Yes, being clean and smelling sweet is wonderful, even when you’re the only one in your house staring at your screen and keyboard, but it’s not about that either. It’s about how boring, repetitive tasks can free up your mind.

I hear this all the time from other writers–”I get my best ideas in the shower.” Think about it: You’re in a box without anything exciting catching your eye. You probably wash yourself using the same pattern of movements almost every day. This repetitive mindless activity may be just what your muse needs to wake up and give you that plot breakthrough you’ve needed. It’s happened to me more times than I can count. I used to think I needed a waterproof board and crayon with me to write things down, but fortunately that hasn’t been necessary. I do, however, keep a notepad and pen in my bathroom drawer, just in case.

The other place where my muse comes awake is on my daily dog walk. I very purposefully do not take a phone or music player with me. Sure, it’s more boring that way, but that’s the point–the very boring nature of the task opens up parts of my mind that aren’t coming into play when I’m focusing on my driving or listening to a phone conversation.

However, there are times when music can do the trick. Ask any writer what she listens to while writing and you’ll get a range of responses about the playlist. For me, it’s epic movie soundtracks: Braveheart, Rob Roy, Gladiator, Lord of the Rings and of course, all of the Pirates of the Caribbean scores. When that music kicks in, it’s a signal to my brain that it’s time to write and I’m much more focused without being distracted.

So, if you’re doing something different but it works for you, what is it? I’m always looking for new ways to wake up my muse, and one of you may have just the thing that’s needed!

“Fifteen hundred dollars worth of coffee coming in duty free meant a tidy profit, whether it was Delerue-Sanders behind the smuggling or someone else. A simple plan, but one that worked all too well given the poor state of the Revenue Marine. The revenue cutters couldn’t begin to cover all of the coast, not when the ships were spread thin with surveying, rescue operations, and winter cruising between Charleston and Key West. Underfunded, understaffed, looked down on by the regular navy, despised by the merchants who paid the tariffs, the Revenue Marine was no one’s darling.

Well, except maybe Alexander Hamilton, he’d loved his revenue cutters that brought money into the Treasury, but look what happened to him, Washburn thought. Irritate the wrong people and there you are, worm food.”

Smuggler’s Bride, Darlene Marshall

Today is the birthday of the U.S. Coast Guard, a branch of the service with a fascinating history.  When I was researching Smuggler’s Bride I thought at first I’d be able to use all the early 19th c. USN research I’d done for my other novels.  Wrong.  The more I studied, the more I realized that what I really needed to know about was the Revenue Marine, aka the Coast Guard.

From its earliest days, when the USN sneered at it as “The Treasury’s pet navy”, the USCG has had PR issues.  Before the national income tax, tariffs were a key source of income for the nation and the Revenue Marine (later called the Coast Guard) was charged with patrolling the waters and making sure goods weren’t smuggled in without payment.  As one historian said, “Unlike the Navy, they never had a Marryat.”  There wasn’t a historian crafting exciting tales of life in the Revenue Marine so few people knew what this brave service did, the branch of the armed forces that fights battles in peacetime.

Nonetheless, for over 200 years the USCG has been, as their motto so aptly puts it, “Semper Paratus”–Always Ready, whether it was keeping slavers from smuggling in illicit human cargo in the 19th C., stopping drug dealers in the 21st C., saving boaters and rescuing the shipwrecked, teaching water safety and more. Today they’re part of Homeland Security and continue their work guarding our borders and waterways.

So it’s time to say, “Thank you, Coasties, and Happy 219th Birthday!”  They may not have gotten the PR they deserve over the last two centuries, but we’re glad they’re there.

I didn’t do this deliberately, but having the 4th of each month as my regular blog day means every year I get to write a Fourth of July blog.  And I like that.[g]

I was listening Friday to Morning Edition on NPR, as I do most mornings.  They followed a long standing ritual of having their anchors and correspondents read the Declaration of Independence.  It was fun picking out the voices I knew–Daniel Shor, Nina Totenberg, Sylvia Poggioli and all the various anchors of Morning Edition and All Things Considered.  That was special fun for me because I used to be a news director/anchor on the radio, and even now, decades later, older residents of my town recognize my voice.  When I’m in the grocery people will hear me and say, “Didn’t you use to be so-and-so who did the news on WGGG?”, which is nice after all these years away from the microphone.

Anyway, something struck me as I listened to the NPR correspondents read the Declaration of Independence aloud.  The richness of the words contained in that document.  So many of us neglect to take the time to read our country’s historic documents, even though as writers words are our tools.  You’re missing something if you don’t.  Maybe it bored you in junior high civics class, but as an adult and as a writer you should have a greater appreciation for the clarity of the writing of our Founding Fathers, the care with which they chose the words they would pass down to us more than 200 years later.

For example, did you know that Section Eight of the US Constitution authorizes Congress to “… grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal…”?  This means Congress can authorize individuals to be privateers, and someday I may write that thriller  about Congress authorizing a post-9/11 privateer to hunt down terrorists.  Oh sure, there are now international treaties outlawing privateering (and incidentally, the US signed on very late to that–after the Civil War), but this is the constitution.  If I wanted to, I’m sure I could work out the details.

Anyway (again), the point of this rambling blog post is this:  It’s the Fourth of July.  If you’re an American, be proud!  Read your Declaration of Independence. Enjoy the shiver it sends down your spine when you think about these individuals pledging ” our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” so that you can live today in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.  Had they lost, they would have been drawn-and-quartered or hanged as traitors to the Crown. They chose their words carefully.  Maybe they had a premonition that 200 years later we would be reading them, and saying “Thank you.”

I like writing in the winter.  There’s something about the crispness in the air that galvanizes my muse.  That, and the lack of humidity.  In the winter I can take my laptop out onto my Florida porch and look at all my flowers in bloom, and gloat over how my colleagues up North are buried under snow.  In the summer, I’m out for brief periods in the morning and at sunset, because in between it’s just too, too oppressive.

But you still have to write, no matter what the weather.  I meet people all the time who tell me they want to write a book, and every time I have to bite my tongue.  My automatic response is, “Well, why don’t you?”  I’ve learned though that sometimes folks just don’t get it.  The only way to be a writer is to sit down and write.  The only way to get published is to finish the manuscript.  The only way to finish the manuscript is to keep plunking it out, one word after the other.

That’s all I’ve got today.  But even though I didn’t feel like writing, I sat down this morning and plunked it out, one word after the other.  It’s not perfect, and it’s not finished, but eventually it’s going to be a novel.  Then I’ll be able to lie out in the hammock (at least for an hour or two) and enjoy summertime the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

“Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art.” – Don Miguel Ruiz.

I recently read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz and am trying to apply them to my life, because, hey, like everyone else, I want to help change the world.  It begins with me, right?

Only, applying the four agreements to every area of my life feels like moving the proverbial mountain, so I decided to do a test drive with my writing career. So far, it’s working. Better than working, it’s actually providing what Miguel promised it would: freedom, happiness and yes, even beautiful art.

Agreement One is Be Impeccable With Your Word. In life, this translates to stop the negative voices in your head and quit gossiping about others. When it comes to writing, you can apply this agreement to the voice inside your head that tells you your writing sucks. You can also apply this to your characters. In the beginning of your story, they’re lying to themselves and lying to other folks as well, trying to keep some secret buried or their feelings under lock and key. As the story progresses, they should come to terms with their truth, internally and externally, in order for them to grow.  Make this particular agreement with your readers and deliver it faithfully and you’ll have fans forever. 

Agreement Two is Don’t Take Anything Personally. I struggle with this agreement a lot. I take everything personally. Once I came to terms with the idea behind this agreement, though, I fell like a weight fell off my shoulders. It’s NOT about me. The way others react to me is a projection of their reality, not mine.

With my writing, I’ve learned it’s not about me either. It’s about the story. As the insightful Stephen King tells us, we should serve the story, not our ego. When an agent or editor rejects what we write, it sucks, but remember the rejection is about their reality. They have markets to abide by, budgets to keep in mind, office politics to deal with. Yes, the story is our baby, but it’s also a marketable (or unmarketable) commodity. The book of your heart is not the book of everyone else’s heart.

Agreement Three is Don’t Make Assumptions. Personally, I spend a lot of time reliving the past and projecting into the future.  If I’d only said this, or did that, or stood up to so-and-so, I’d be happier. As writers, we make a lot of assumptions, too. My critique partner said I better drop my prologue or no agent will ever sign me. The hero and heroine must meet in the first chapter because Bestselling Author always writes her stories that way. I’m doomed because I’ve accumulated five rejection letters.

Can you feel the drama? The heartbreak? The despair? Save it for your characters. Channel it into them. And while you’re caught up in their story, pause for a moment to realize you’re living in the moment when you’re writing. Not the past and not future – well, at least not your past or your future. You’re in the present, no assumptions in sight. Live it to the fullest and I guarantee it will show in your story.

The final agreement is Do Your Best. Unlike life, we can redo and rewrite our stories ad infinitum; however, if you do your best with every draft, you’ll end up with a wonderful story you’ll feel proud to show the world.

Even if you’re not a writer, you’re an artist of your own dream, your own life. Check out the four agreements, take them for a test run in one area of your life, and see what comes of it. You might just make beautiful art.