Hello, 2012! A is for amphibious...

Welcome to my first blog post for said year!

Lordy, 2012 ALREADY?! Say it isn't so. I haven't finished half the stuff I was going to do in '11 yet...

Speaking of bunions, I flicked back through to my first blog post of last year, looking for my goals. Turns out, I didn't post any (my first post for 2011 was actually a very somber one). Which is lucky, as it turns out. I found them written down elsewhere and I'm batting stuff-all as far as achievement goes.

While I hit a weight-loss target (*cough* three months late *cough*), I did not achieve too many of my writing targets. While this was in no small part due to my then-targeted publisher moving the goal posts, and me having a genre-related epiphany, I do cop to being a little slack. The last three months of the year were especially nuts.

I was thinking I would post my goals for this year, but given how badly I suck at them, I might just keep them to myself. Because, quite frankly, it's just embarrassing.

BUT, do not fret! GOALS HAVE BEEN SET!

One of them involves blogging regularly. I was thinking, maybe twice per week, using the handy-dandy write, set and forget function.

To that end, I am going to work my way through the alphabet, in order, and relate my post to something that begins with that letter. That should get me through to mid-year-ish. For example, a post (I am currently three weeks behind) might be titled something like 'A is for Apple'. Then I will proceed to wow you all with my vast and crunchy knowledge of apples.

Some weeks, the link between title and post may be very tenuous. But, a link there will be!

Speaking of amphibious, here is a picture of Anarchy I took on the beach today (we're on holidays, and I refuse to go back home until I can hear the school bell ringing for lesson one on the first day of term). He looks like a very short, cute frogman, and can traverse both land and sea.

What an inspiration...

Ha!  Did you think I was going to post another picture of Hugh Jackman sans shirt?  While that is always a distinct possibility, I actually wanted to talk about something other than the male form today.

I know, what's with that?

Anna Hackett, author of a number of awesome Nocturne Bites and one-third of our sensational critiquing trio is blogging over at LoveCats at the moment about Finding Inspiration.  Anna is not someone to pass over a picture of Hugh's pecs either (just one of the reasons I adore her), but this time she's talking about her quotes about courage.  I know for sure that she collects them, because every now and then she'll shoot a few to Rach and me when we're feeling morbid, or stupid or like writers better suited to asking, "Would you like fries with that?" than "How's the GMC for this character?".  It's awesome.  I've even found a use for a few lately.

I've just recently had a CP-encouraged epiphany about my writing.  While I still looove paranormal and fantasy, I just don't think I'm a great one to write it.  A few months ago, I had two rejections--bang, bang--and, while one was quite positive, I struggled to get my head back in it's right place.  It happens to everyone.

God knows I've done enough crap in my life to grow a few flowers. 

Dustin Hoffman

Now, Anna and Rach had been telling--you know, hinting to--me for quite some time that perhaps I wasn't quite being true to my writerly voice.  We're talking glass-half-full, !!!, joke-cracking emails and conversations, versus the dark, angst-ridden, emotion-heavy paranormal pieces I was writing.  For a long time, I kept on writing it because I just plain wanted to.

Which is fine.  I learned a lot.

Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer. 

Ray Bradbury

Really, at least I was writing.  

Eighty percent of success is showing up.

                                                                                                             Woody Allen

In that time, I clocked up five rejections (I know, compared to some peoples' experience, this is weeny.  I know).  It was a bit of a PITA.  I toyed with stopping.  You know.  NOT WRITING.  

Couldn't do it.   

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

Confucius

When I stopped teaching full-time, I thought, "Woohoo!  No more homework!"  And here I was, banging away at a computer at night again.  Felt like I'd come full-circle.

I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.

Peter de Vries

I was confused, uncertain about the craft, quite certain about my suckiness and, frankly, a little bit bonkers about it all.  

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

                                                                                                              Scott Adams

But, I was certain I was starting from pretty much the same place as most writers--Ground Zero.  I mean, we're all just the same basic creatures, with two arms and two legs (for the most part), right?  If X could write something that spoke to the populace at some level, why the hell couldn't I?  I had to face it--it was my authorial voice.  Paranormal was not working for me.  Boohoo.

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.

Robert Benchley

To that rather exciting end, I've switched lanes!  I've started a Aussie-based romcom and I'm LOVING it.  It's kinda squeeful.  As gut-churningly scary as it is to veer from what you know, I've done the right thing.  I think.  

Never throw up on an editor.

                                                                                                              Ellen Datlow

I'm so glad I took the advice of my marvellous, wondrous CP's.  They are, with or without quotes, truly inspirational.

If you're needing inspiration, jump online and google some quotes, head over to LoveCats to share with Anna.  It's amazing how much of that wisdom you can apply to your own writerly life.  

Never laugh at live dragons.

JRR Tolkein

Finally, because you've been completely marvellous to read right to the end of this gargantuan post, here's a small thank you from moi.  Yes, it's a wet HUGH!  Hehe.  

Stoopidness and Mountains.

Life has been zipping past at warp speed lately--the most noticeable thing is that since we hit winter (seven days ago) it's sodding freezing here.  I am currently wrapped in a doona.

I downloaded some eBooks this week.  The May Nocturne Bites, Michele Hauf's HALO HUNTER and Mel Teshco's ICE-COLD LOVER, which is the second book in the Winged and Dangerous series.  I reviewed Mel's Bites HER DARK LORD a while back, and am really looking forward to this new release.  If I can stop looking at the cover.  How pretty is it?

I'm currently fiddling with MkIV edits of DARK SIREN.  I swear, I get dafter with each pass, but I am pushing through.  It's times like this I feel like a just started this writing caper last week, not nine years ago.  So much to learn!

Anna and Rach have been absolute GEMS when it comes to critiquing for me, if I've gotten any better as a writer over the last year, the credit has to be mostly theirs.  

I love having two CP's--lots of the time, they pick up on the same things, which are must-fixes.  But every now and then, and especially now that we're into small niggles with the WIP, they disagree, which I find fascinating.  It's a reminder that you don't have to please everybody (and really, it's an unrealistic expectation), but if you just happen to appeal to the editor you're targeting, you're in your way. 

I've been looking over motivational writing stuff this last week during a particularly bad "I'm sooo STOOPID!" stretch, looking for something, and I re-visited Chiron O'Keefe's motivational/inspirational blog.  Anna had pointed Rach and me to this last time we had a dull spot *hehe*, and I think Chiron is quite wonderful.  I thought this bit was about me at the moment:

Here's the thing. Published writers don't have a special key to unlock the doorway to success. They simply knocked longer and harder until someone opened the gosh-darn door and let them in.

Another thing to consider… The journey is damn important. I know the thought of being published is the dangling carrot that keeps our mulish self plodding forward, one page at a time. But I believe writing is more than a means to an end. I believe writing is an act of self-discovery. Each page you write is a testament to your strength, your courage and your perseverance.

"Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance." –Samuel Johnson

While much credence is given to those who can do everything from Dance With The Stars to Surviving on Creepy, Crawly Bugs in this Reality-Show driven decade, few of those characters could ever accomplish what we do. We Write Books. This is our mountain. Every time we complete another novel, we are planting a flag. Visualize those flags fluttering in the breeze and feel a tingle of pride because We Are Writers. Damn, but we're lucky.

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." ~Sir Edmund Hillary 

Thus, I pick up Captain Pink and I keep going.  I feel lucky because I KNOW I'm learning and getting better.  I can see that myself.  It keeps me going, because at some point, I am going to have learned enough to write something that an editor wants to publish.

I PROMISE MYSELF THAT.  

And I promise Rach and Anna, because they've done the hard yards with me.  It's funny, but in ways, I keep going because I don't want to let them down after they've ploughed through at least three of my WIPs.  And ploughed is the word.  Or trudged.  Hacked with razor-sharp machetes?  

So, how's the mountain-conquering going for you?

If you write, what do you do when you get stuck/morbid?  What works to keep you scaling that mountain?  

Take care, Em x