Six Months Full-Time Writing

The post Lessons Learned: Six Months Full-Time Writing appeared first on Sacha Black.

It got me thinking about just how similar being a parent is to being a writer. Here’s why:

ONE

I love my son unconditionally – even when he’s been naughty.

I love my WIP unconditionally – even when it’s been naughty and won’t finish a scene or keeps changing things

TWO

My son is extremely unpredictable – apparently he already has a mind of his own

My WIP is extremely unpredictable – it is prone to change its mind suddenly, adding an unexpected twist or killing off an entire character mid scene

THREE

My son drives me to insanity – when he doesn’t know the right words to tell me whats wrong

My WIP drives me to insanity – constantly when it halts suddenly in the middle of a scene and refuses to tell me how it ends and all I can do is sit and wait patiently until it decides to play ball

FOUR

My son exhausts me – keeping me up in the middle of the night

My WIP exhausts me – keeping me up in the middle of the night either writing it, or waking me up having thought of ideas

FIVE

I am extremely proud of my son – every time he does something new or smiles, or breathes for that matter!

I am extremely proud of my WIP – writing novels is hard work, and I am really proud to say that I amongst my crazy life I still find time to write actual novels

SIX

My son costs a shit load of money!

My WIP costs a shit load of money – I buy software and dozens of ‘how to write books’ thinking it will help me write better, not to mention the obsessive notebook collection I have going or the expensive research field trips!

SEVEN

My son makes me repeat myself constantly – ‘eat with your mouth closed, it’s YES not yeah, don’t pull the cats ear…’

My WIP makes me repeat myself constantly – remember those pesky crutch words I spoke about? in the secret to the quickest edit you can do? There are just some words that I can’t help but repeat!

EIGHT

My son makes me shout at him – when he’s been very very naughty like when I picked him up from the childminder the other day and he bonked another kid on the head and then tried to bite his leg!

My WIP makes me shout at it – in frustration when it won’t play ball or it made me write something silly AGAIN, or tricked me and made me rewrite a chapter for the 5th time.

NINE

My son needs a lot of attention – he needs love, and kindness and story time.

My WIP needs a lot of attention – spent tapping away mindlessly at the keyboard, or hours researching or editing.

TEN

My son is a cause for celebration – the first time he walked, his first word… hopefully his first poo on a potty!

My WIP is a cause for celebration – and toasting the end of the first draft – the end of the first edit… hopefully one day…publication?!

If you’re a parent – how does your WIP compare to parenthood? Or if you’re not a parent – what does your WIP do to you?

This marks the last day of NaNo – if you participated – did you win? Was your target 50K? 

Next week, because NaNo is over I’m back to normal posts deconstructing the writing process see you then

The post 10 Reasons Why Being A Writer is Like Being A Parent appeared first on Sacha Black.

Does anyone else struggle to celebrate success? Maybe you ran a marathon, got a new job, published your first book, or even your third? Did you celebrate? Or like me, did you brush your last achievement under the carpet? And no,  sending a text to tell a friend, sitting down to have a cupper or casually dropping into conversation you latest accomplishments does not constitute a celebration.

So why do we do it? Why are so many of us completely incapable of accepting praise, or internalising our achievements and attributing them to hard work and a bit of sweat rather than ‘luck’ or external factors?

I spoke about this a little when I finished the first draft of my first novel because for once, I was determined to celebrate and take stock… and I did… for five minutes, and then I started writing Adultland! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me? I took almost a year to write my first novel. It was an achievement of a life time because it took me one step closer to my dream. But did I go out for dinner? Did I crack open a bottle of champers? No. I wrote a blog post instead. Sigh.

This little mindset is an actual thing. It’s called Imposter Syndrome, and quite frankly it needs banishing to room 101.

Imposter syndrome as described by wiki is:

“…a term coined in the 1970’s by psychologists and researchers to informally describe people who are unable to internalize their accomplishments. Despite external evidence of their competence, those exhibiting the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be. Notably, impostor syndrome is particularly common among high-achieving women,^[1] although both genders are affected in equal numbers.^[2]“

It is said that 70% of people will at some point in their lives suffer with imposter syndrome.

Almost every writer I know suffers from imposter syndrome. Lots of writers I know (myself included) can’t seem to call themselves writers let alone authors. Yet, they spend all their free time writing, and most, have published books. If you have a book published then you’re a goddamn author. Arguably, if you have written a book but it is not yet published you are also an author.

Where have these self imposed, self depreciating standards come from? And why can’t we seem to acknowledge that our successes no matter how big or small come from our own sheer bloody hard work?

The thing is those with the syndrome actually self perpetuate the problem. I’m using writing as an example, but this is replicable across a multitude of situations including work.

ONE

We work harder and writer longer to avoid being discovered as an imposter, which leads to praise because practice makes perfect, and the praise leads to more imposter feelings and fear of being found out.

TWO

Sometimes we write or engage in fads – like writing about writing, or writing in a certain genre or even using hashtags because we think thats the right thing to do and what people want to see, but if thats not what your passionate about that can lead to feeling like a fake – or an imposter

THREE

We seek out others, make writerly friends and build our blogging communities, but when you get praise you end up feeling that its because you’re friends or supportive of each other rather than being based on your skills and ability as a writer.

FOUR

The last way people with imposter syndrome self perpetuate is through avoidance. Its the one I find the saddest. Writers avoid displaying any confidence in their abilities. They believe if they actually believe in their abilities they will be rejected by others. So they convince themselves they aren’t intelligent and do not deserve the success in order to avoid rejection.

***

I’m not sure I have the answer to this. What I do know is that when you are aware of something, behaviours in particular we are more able to control them. It’s like a habit, if you pick your lip, bite your nails or have a phrase you repeat and no one has ever told you about it, then the behavioural action is unconscious. When you are consciously aware of the behaviour you can modify it.

I really think it’s about time we writers, acknowledge our work as our own achievement. We need to recognise our skills but more than anything the enormous effort we go to, to produce the work we do.

I for one am going to try and celebrate the small things in life. Maybe I scheduled an entire weeks worth of posts which freed up enough time to focus on writing my novel for a week. Next time I finish a chapter I’ll slap myself on the back. Next time I submit to a comp I’ll toast to myself.

I’m going to be kind to myself, appreciate and celebrate the work I do.

I think you should too.

Let me know in the comments whether you celebrate the big and small things in life, and if you do, how?

The post Feel Like A Fraud? Give Imposter Syndrome The Middle Finger! appeared first on Sacha Black.

Well, reading, watching TV and my interests are the same way. I wish more than anything reading wasn’t included in that and that I read a little, consistently, everyday but I don’t have time and thats why my TBR pile is over 200 high. So what do I do?

I binge.

I sit for hours and zone out, ogling whatever the latest TV series is and indulge in episode after episode until I am so saturated with the programme or book series that I actually have to readjust when I put it down! When I’ve talked about this kind of behaviour before, there’s seemed to be a bit of stigmatism around the act of binge indulgence. I get it. It’s not productive in terms of life admin and chores, and it does brew a bit of laziness, but you know what? When I thought about it I realised that actually, it’s a kind of helpful thing to do as a writer.

1. Bingespiration

There’s never been an occasion when I have fallen into a binging spree that I haven’t been inspired. When I binge, it’s usually because I have fallen in love with a series, or a book or a character. For example, I binge read a guilty pleasure – Charlaine Harris’s True Blood novels, I read the first one (Dead Until Dark: A True Blood Novel (Book 1)) in like, a day! And then I powered through the following 12 books over the next 8 weeks. I read four on our week long holiday! My wife didn’t see me for two months whilst I selfishly indulged in the books and fell into their world. I have just done the same with Once Upon A Time a TV show, I am now impatiently waiting week on week for Netflix to release the next episode.

What’s my point? My point is, going on a binge beats writers block. It allows you to forget your woes, your own obsessions with your book babies and allows you to slip into other fantasy worlds. It’s escapism. It’s what we write for, we want to do this to other people, so why not experience it for ourselves. And what better way to inspire you back into writing than to enjoy getting lost in your fave show/book/series.

2. Bingination

There’s nothing like a bingefest to get your imagination going. I have this thing… when I finish a series I have binged on, I feel, bereft. Literally. As I close the final page, I sort of wake up, open my eyes and all of a sudden I am back to reality. With the god awful realisation that I don’t in fact live in Bon Temps, Louisiana, nor am I a vampire, and I am neither Sookie Steakhouse nor her friend in real life. It hurts. Like bad. Because for a minute there, we were braiding each others hair, and biro-tatting BFF on each others arms.

Seriously. Is it just me? Or does anyone else get so sucked in on a binge that real life disappears? My point is, we can learn from this. From the fireworks it gives our imagination and the depths we can be sucked into. We writers need to deconstruct and analyse what happens to us as we fall into a binge, and then replicate, replicate, replicate.

If I think about the True Blood series, it was the world she created. I hadn’t read a vampire story in which the world at large new they existed. I thought it was unique, and it instantly drew me in. I also loved the love story that ran through it. Right up till she ruined it at the end of the last book!

3. Bingentration

Are my binge words just getting weird now? Well binges force one to concentrate, hard, and for long periods of time.

So no excuse for not concentrating next time you need to get a post out, or smashing 1667 words every day of NaNo November. If you can binge watch/read you can binge write.

4. Bingearching

This for me is the out right winner. If you can binge watch and concentrate then surely you can binge on research too? I talked about the importance of getting out and doing actual research recently in my post 5 Reasons Writers Should Be Secret Agents.

But now I’m transferring the skills I have for binge indulgences, into research. By submersing myself into book topics, times, locations and clothing etc so that I know everything there is to know on the topic. It ensures my books credibility whilst doing it quickly (given it’s a binge) resulting in an all round winner for effectiveness and efficiency.

And there’s nothing I like more than something that’s both effective AND efficient!

What do you think? Do you ever binge on anything? Do you find it useful or a distraction?

The post Confessions from a Serial Binger – 4 Reasons Writers Need to Binge appeared first on Sacha Black.

I have a habit of getting stuck behind my laptop screen. “Research” becomes a few hours of googling and reading. That’s great, but, after today I’ve decided it’s just not good enough. At least, not where I can help it.

Maybe you guys are all already pros at getting out of the house and experiencing first hand all the things you write about. BUT, I write fantasy, dystopian or science fiction stories – some of the stuff I write about doesn’t even exist. It’s not an excuse but I definitely slipped into the habit of googling rather than experiencing first hand. I know it’s not always possible to travel to the other side of the world, but here’s 5 reasons why I think when you can, you should experience first hand.

My friend from work had a genius idea. She and I, are only 6 months apart, she just turned 29, and decided she was going to write a mini bucket list – 30 things to do by the time she was 30. WHAT an awesome idea. I promptly stole it! (she knows! and doesn’t mind… I don’t think!). I only have 21 of my 30 points, so if you have any suggestions feel free to pop them in the comments. However, no bungee jumps, no parachutes and preferably not something that might break my bank, I still have to buy nappies!

One of my 30 points was to go on a steam train. It made the list partly because I’d never been on one, and I REALLY wanted to. But, also because I have a slight obsession with all things steampunk. If you don’t know, then steampunk is science fiction meets the Victorian era – google it, and I feel like I have a story brewing that’s steampunk oriented.

I was lucky enough to go on both a steam train and a diesel train. But whilst I was on them and photographing them, I had a bit of a revelation. So here is why I think you need to get your spy on, get out in the field, and research that shit for real!

ONE – Removing Preconceptions

I had several preconceptions about what going on a steam/diesel train would be like. But actually they were all wrong. I was so glad that I experienced an actual ride because I would have written those preconceptions into my story.

TWO – Live Life

It’s a constant fault of writers that we forget to live life, instead writing the lives of others on pages. We ignore family, friends and loved ones in place of our laptops. But today, I managed to merge both parts of my life. Enjoying time with the family, and my boy, who ADORES trains and serenaded us with a chorus of “choo choo, toot toot” along with surprised smiles when the train actually tooted! Today was the best of both worlds. Family time, with book research.

THREE – Senses

No matter how good google is. It doesn’t have smellovision. Everyone knows that to give a piece of writing depth you have to use all five senses. I knew the trains would smell, but I could only really guess at what they would smell of. It wasn’t what I thought. Another reason I am glad for the experience.

I didn’t smell a thing around the diesel train, another surprise. But the steam train. Oh boy. It stunk. But not of what I thought. As I inhaled the thick black steam, I was catapulted back to my teens. A cadet, laying on a rifle range, firing round after round at tiny targets, each one, I am proud to say, hitting the bullseye.

Each type of gun/ammo smells slightly different. Birdshot, for example, in shotguns, smells very different to black power rifles or hand guns. WD40 is another thing that catapults me back to the rifle range days. Anyway, I now, will never forget the smell of the train, because it is lodged next to memories of my youth. I know EXACTLY what that smell is and exactly how I could describe it, and it’s not how I would have described it had I not gone on the train today.

[wpvideo ifFeSevz]It wasn’t just smells I experienced, but sounds too. When steam erupted from the train, it was LOUD. But as it chugged past (oh and that’s another thing, I thought they went thuka thuka thuka not chug chug chug!) it was so loud, it hurt my ears. It was shrill and a painful kind of static in my ears. It was so loud I wanted to get away, and I had no idea it would be like that.

FOUR – Knowledge 

This is linked to preconceptions, as having actual experiences removes them. I thought, or perhaps it was lack of thinking, that they would move as quickly as most normal trains now. They didn’t. They were considerably slower. Even if I’d read about the speed of diesel and steam trains I wouldn’t have been able to relate it to the feeling of speed a normal train is.

Having an experience also gives you knowledge you just wouldn’t get from google. I didn’t have a clue just how noisy diesel trains were. Like not a scoobies.

FIVE – Credibility

Thank god I did go, because if I had left out some crucial piece of information like the roar of the engines, I would have looked ridiculous. My story wouldn’t have had any depth and I would have looked like a plonker.

Having first hand experience of what you are writing about allows you to draw on those little details that bring a story to life and make you a credible writer.

So tell me, what have you gone out of your way to experience first hand for research? and what would you put on my 30 by 30 list?

The post 5 Reasons Why Writers Should Be Secret Agents appeared first on Sacha Black.

I really hate January 1st. It’s the ultimate come down. You partied hard the night before, fuelled by booze, contagious enthusiasm and ever more ridiculous resolution promises. The night seemed alive, 2015 was going to be THE year. It’s your year, your time and your chance.

What a load of shit.

Woke up this morning, feeling more bloated and fatter than ever, with a raging hangover and more resolution promises I will break before the end of month. Stepped on the scales, didn’t I?

WHY, did I do that?

Now ELEVEN pounds heavier than I was in August.

Fuck January. Fuck my life.

January 1st – berroca in the morning 11am hangover starting to disappear, better make an effort – healthy yogurt and bagel for breakfast. By 1:45pm I’d eaten chocolate, hated myself for eating it so ate more to console myself.

F***ing January. I’ll start tomorrow!

Looked at the insanity DVD pile with enough hatred to send me straight back to the chocolate drawer for another round of “stuff my face and hate myself some more” I’ll start insanity tomorrow.

Looked at my beautiful treasured Mac laptop lain unused for the entire Christmas break. Not a word written, not a thought for my assignment nor my much in need of an edit WIP. Looked at it, hated on it. Then hated on myself for slacking. I’ll start tomorrow.

Looked at the calendar, only 3 more days off till I go back to work. And the awful realisation I’ve wasted my entire precious Christmas holiday doing sweet fuck all. Something I can’t abide – waste. Spent most of the first week off being ill with a stupid cold I couldn’t rid myself of for a month. Happy to say the last two days have seen it finally bite the dust. But still. I hated on myself some more for behaving like the thing I hate – a waster – sleep is for the weak!

So where did it go? When did I lose my mojo? It’s been gone at least a month. I have no motivation AT ALL. Not to exercise and lose the weight I need to, and not to pick up my technological pen and write.

How do you get motivated when you and your mojo are lost?

Maybe you should tell me tomorrow?!

The post I've Lost My Mojo Baby, Yeaaah appeared first on Sacha Black.