I'm Dreaming of a "Write" Christmas

Filomena Scalise / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Fun Fact: The average person has over 1460 dreams a year, according to the backside of one of the pages in my page-a-day calendar. What does this mean for a writer?

Morning Pages

Many writers are familiar with Julia Cameron's morning pages, usually a three page free-write to get the creative juices flowing before anything else in your day. When I am in the habit of morning pages, I have the notebook, a pen, and my glasses within stretching distance so I can start writing before I'm entirely awake. You can imagine, some interesting, albeit sloppy, writing finds its way to those college-ruled pages. More often than not, a shadow of a dream is still clouding my mind's eye, so I start to write about the dream. I may go into detail about the dream, telling it like a story. I may only remember fragments of the dream--who was in it, how I felt--so the writing may turn to wondering why that particular scene visited my early morning picture show.

Writers in the middle of a project may find themselves working out characters or plots in their morning pages, meaning they may have been dreaming about their stories, or about working on their stories. The only way to find out? Start writing morning pages. If anything else, they are a great way to empty all of the fluff that's built up in your mind, so you are free to get to your concrete, creative work.

Dreamer-Editor

If you were like me, and felt a twinge of jealousy upon hearing that the whole Twilight phenomenon started with a really vivid dream*, you better start paying attention to your dreams. In your dreams, there are no limitations, no Inner Editor telling you that this story "just doesn't make sense" or "has no market value". The story that passes your eyelids as you sleep goes along its merry way, regardless of any rules, gravity or otherwise.

Even if you are not doing Morning Pages, consider keeping a dream journal. You may not have any need for that strange robot story now, when you are writing historical romance, but later your KR252** Model may be just the right character for your futuristic tale. For other dreams, you may write them just as they happened, unrealistic and all. Rough drafts are always just that, rough. So shape it into something manageable later, once your waking mind has had time to process it.

Dreams are a great place to start if you are suffering a bit of writer's block. Did your alarm go off just before you opened that door? Grab your pen and write what happened next. Have a disturbing dream that left you feeling uneasy? Rewrite the dream, giving it a more positive ending. Or, you can channel your inner Stephen King and rewrite it to make yourself feel more uneasy or scared (if you were the main character in the frightening dream, of course you can edit in a new lead).

"I dreamed I was a writer..."

I've heard that concentrating on a problem before you go to sleep can help your mind find a solution in a dream by morning. As I already mentioned, you may awaken to a way out of a lost plot line, or to a new character to add to your next chapter. If you pay attention, you may be late for work because the pages are pouring out!

Another way you may try using dreams to your advantage is to pump up your writing career itself. I'm not just talking about where your stories are going, rather, I am talking about where you are going. There's enough written about the possible power of positive thinking, that I won't go too much into it here, except to say this: Positive thinking doesn't create the framework of success, but it does clear an area for that framework to be built on. 


If you begin to think of yourself as a successful writer, if you start to dream of what being a great writer means to you, and if you have the desire to make your dreams a reality, you have the first tool in your writer's toolbox: a writer's mindset. By letting these dreams slip into your sleeping hours, you're building a step to take when you awake. It is up to you, then, to grab onto something real and build onto it. 


In your writing dream, did you have tons of fans? Then your writing daytime needs to entail building your platform. In your writing dream, are you being asked, as an expert on your topic, to speak at functions? Your writing daytime better include some public speaking time. Maybe this is the week to join Toastmasters. All kind of dreaming is fantastic for the creative mind, but it needs to turn into something tangible. Otherwise, you aren't becoming a writer, you're becoming a character stuck in the land of dreams.

Have you ever turned a dream into a story? How much of it changed?


Merry Christmas! Give yourself the gift of writing; sneak away and write a few lines...


--Tina


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*You can witness my Stephenie Meyer feud Here and Here.

**I just made that up, but an Amazon search says this model has something to do with nonotechnology.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Experience

The popularity of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books is beyond extraordinary. What started out as a multi- rejected book idea has turned into a multi-million dollar book empire. More than 110 million Chicken Soup for the Soul books have been sold. Many of the books have been translated to 40 different languages. I'm proud that my personal essays have been included in some of these books, and I hope to continue being a Chicken Soup contributor.

My Story

I thought I would share a bit about being published in these collections. I'm very happy with my Chicken Soup experiences, and part of that may be that I went into it with little expectations at first. I started with them because I had a few stories that seemed to fit what they were looking for, and I thought I had nothing to lose. Unlike some of the other markets and contests I was looking at, submitting to Chicken Soup could be done at no cost to me, and I didn't even need to worry about a postage stamp, because they had an online submission system. I had read these books for years, and because I could always relate to many of the stories, I felt less intimidated than I would have been if I had started by sending my work to a prestigious literary magazine, or to a glossy periodical that rarely accepted unpublished writers.

That beginner's luck served me well as my first two pieces were accepted (Hey, this writing thing's not so tough, I thought). If I would have known what I was up against-- that they receive thousands of submissions for each book, and that chosen submissions are put through multiple readings by many people, and they have to be given the highest "score" in order to be passed up to the co-authors of the book, I may not have tried!

Hurry up and Wait

I've talked with other writers who have submitted to Chicken Soup for the Soul and have discovered another common theme: You need to have patience. For the first few, the turnaround was 2 months from submission until Final Word of approval. This was actually somewhat fast, as you first get notice that you are being considered, then a finalist, and THEN approval. Just because you make the first cut does not mean you are guaranteed to be one of the 101. I had an essay make it to finalist and then was not chosen. After final acceptance and edits, it was another 3-4 months until publication. At that time, I received payment and my author copies.

For the "Thanks, Dad" book, I was sure that my essay wasn't chosen. Unlike other markets, you do not get a rejection letter if your essay is not accepted. I sent my submission in June (2009) and didn't hear from them until December (2009, the book was published in April 2010). Sometimes they will make you aware that a title is not going into production for a time, sometimes not. I would recommend keeping track of slow turnarounds like these on your list of submitted work (you have one of those, right?).

Steps to Publication

Once your essay is being considered, you are asked to sign a release and write a bio for the section at the back of the book, "Meet our Contributors". If you have named someone else in your story, they may feel your subject's permission is necessary, so you may need to obtain that, or you may be able to change the names.

When copies of my edited essays were sent to me for review, I was able to make corrections (a wrong name or place for example). In the case of "Melody of the Heart", it was published in the section of the book called: "Making Grey Hairs--Fathering Teenagers". That was appropriate because I talked about being a teenage brat. The opening quote that Chicken Soup had chosen to open my essay with was also appropriate: "It's difficult to decide if growing pains are something that teenagers have--or are." However, I wanted to focus more on the music that brought my dad and I together, so I asked that my opening quote be changed to: "Where words fail, music speaks. --Hans Christian Andersen". They accepted my edit. (You can read this essay here.)

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What's Good for Your Writing Soul?

--or,what I like about writing for Chicken Soup

• You retain your rights, so you can resell the work.
• They may accept previously published work as well (it probably has to be exceptional), as long as you let them know and you own the rights, of course (if unsure, look at your contract and look here for an overview of your rights.
• Payment is usually $100 to $200
• Author's copies: 10 books that you can give away or sell to your friends, family, or at your public speaking gigs (you can't sell online on ebay or amazon, for example). I like getting a copy of the books, because I always enjoy other people's stories.
• Most everybody has heard of Chicken Soup for the Soul, so the recognition is nice
  
• They have a syndication agreement, so your essay/your writing has a chance for more exposure online and in newspapers (I was surprised to find "Melody of the Heart" printed in The Oklahoman and other newspapers a few months ago)
  

What's not so good?


--the few drawbacks, with mini-Excuse Edits

• The Competition--I would recommend the same as with any market; send in your best work, and move on to your next project.
• The Wait--again, move on to another market or work. You know how the ABC's of selling are "Always Be Closing"? Well, the ABC's of Writing are "Always Be Composing". Writers write. Keep creating instead of worrying about one submission that you know may take months to be decided.
  

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Find what Chicken Soup is looking for here, and sign up for my newsletter for a monthly listing of Chicken Soup and others looking for submissions.

Read my essays (and others!) in these Chicken Soup books:

Good luck breaking into this market! Let me know if you are one of the lucky 101!

--Tina

Direct Your Story

Karl Binder / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

While watching an episode of CSI one night, I realized that this kind of storytelling entails using many more elements than you would think. After all, watching TV is a place where you just kind of zone out and have the story thrust upon you, right? All of the hard work needs to be done prior to hitting your cable box, so you don't have to work at all.

For example, in this particular scene, the investigators were preparing to 'do their thing' with a car--the plan was to take it apart in order to find evidence. If I would have hit 'mute' right at that time, I would not have felt the gravity of the situation. Without the music, the dialogue, the familiar characters, and the sound effects (you know, as the camera zoomed in at the crucial piece of fuzz stuck on the steering wheel), this scene would have been nothing more than some dude walking around a car with a flashlight.

Even if you are not writing a screenplay, you still need to write so that the reader's eye sees the picture-- in HD and surround sound.

Conducting the Music

We're all familiar with the alternating notes that alert the viewer to the shark in the water in Jaws. Whether or not your characters are in fear of their lives, all stories need some kind of tension. You need to use words to set the scene and move your characters forward, all the while grabbing your reader and holding them to the page. 

Your character may be trepidacious about going on her first date after a divorce--the frame is first set up with some exposition, perhaps, but to make the reader "hear" the tension, you need to add color by way of dialogue ("I can't believe you talked me into this," she says to a friend.) or by action (her inability to clasp her necklace as her hands continue to shake) or by some backstory (her husband was the only man she had ever dated). The mood and action changes with the words you choose, just as the music you choose is different depending on if you are heading to the gym, or staying in for a romantic night.

Get the Shot

When you have been writing for a while, there are times where everything that is happening on the page starts to fall in place. You may not even realize that a character you introduced in an earlier chapter was going to play such a pivotal role later on, and yet, there he is. You had been wondering how to incorporate the treasured family heirloom into a scene, and suddenly, a space is created for it.

If this happens for you, keep writing and pay attention. Visualize your story and make sure that everything that has arrived is placed just so. Be certain that any element you draw attention to makes sense in the work, especially if it isn't clear in the scene where it is introduced. A scene with a small child crying to get a toy ring  from a vending machine (and her mother giving in) may seem like just an everyday occurrence, until a later scene with the same mother frantically describing what her little girl was wearing that day when she turns up missing ("I don't know what color the ring was!")

Struggling with setting up the perfect shots/precise scenes in your work? Be comforted that, in this set, nothing has to be nailed down. You are the director and can order a retake at any time. And, unlike an actual director, if you decided to blow something up, you won't need the additional funds and tech people to do it over. You can just cut and paste, and "reshoot."

Happy Writing!

Although we want to write to convey a certain story, each reader is going to "see" your work differently. Do you purposefully leave out details so the reader can carry it along? Do you accidentally leave out details on the page, because you can see them in your mind's eye (common when taking from your own life)? I would love comments on this idea. Also, if royalties were not an issue, what song would reflect one of your pieces of writing? (I was listening to Pandora while writing this-- movie scores, of course.)

--Tina

Guest Blogger Christina Katz Shares Profitable Writing Habits

Prospering in the Gig Economy: Simple Habits for Writers That Pay Off Quickly

Guest Post by Christina Katz

Money is what writers earn for their time and energy. Furthermore, writing careers are built over time not overnight. So don't put your career in jeopardy by paying attention to everything else at the expense of your bottom line.

Here are nine prosperity-increasing tips that can quickly become habit and put more money in the bank for the same number of hours you already work or maybe even less:

1. Make a list of paid work vs. unpaid work, if you don't have one already and update it monthly. Add to-dos like upcoming deadlines and prep for future efforts, to make sure you don't have to scramble later.
2. Prioritize the work you do that is paid over the work you do that is unpaid. This doesn't mean the unpaid work is not important or doesn't need to get done. It simply means that you will get the paid work done first and then tackle the unpaid work.
3. Spend time with other writers who make money writing. If they are too busy (making money) to spend time with you, sign up for their newsletters, read their blogs or connect with them via social networking whenever possible. When contacting successful writers, keep your expectations realistic. There's a reason they make the big bucks and it's not because they are just hanging out all day. When you are working, whether online or off, be aware of folks who drain your energy or co-opt your time. You simply don't have time for those people when you are supposed to be working.
4. Don't confuse "nice" people with profitable people. Let's say one writer invests all of his time trying to make sure everyone knows what a great guy he is, while another writer invests his time landing assignments, delivering on deadlines, and landing the next gig. Who is the more successful writer? I'd say it's the more productive writer (the second example). And he's the one I'd be more likely to trust, as well. So go ahead, broadcast your success!
5. Tackle the types of assignments that pay directly. Forget about any kind of writing job you "might" get paid for. Also don't count writing you do for exposure as "paid." And when someone offers you vague future money for today's actual work, take twice as much time to carefully consider the offer. Why not just take on the sure-thing assignments, which are the projects that pay you directly for your work? If you keep things simple, you are more likely to prosper in both the short run and the long run.
6. Spend the most time doing whatever you do best even if that means doing a few different things. For example, I don't only write because if I only wrote all day, I'd soon be bored out of my mind, no matter how interesting the topics were that I was writing on. A restless person like me needs to do a variety of things. So I also teach and speak and the three efforts feed each other and increase my overall value as a writer.
7. However, don't spread yourself too thin. I do a lot of different things but I've noticed that I can only do so many things before I hit overload, especially since I am a busy mom and wife, as well as a working professional. This overload point is going to be different for everyone and can change with your life circumstances, so adjust your expectations accordingly. You want to do everything you do well, not just scrape by.
8. Capture all of your business expense receipts as the year ticks along so that you can benefit from every deduction available to you when you pay your taxes. I am not the queen of filing things, so I just get a big basket and toss all my receipts in there until I'm ready to sort and report. If you need a primer on the specifics of what you can and can't expense, pick up the March/April issue of Writer's Digest magazine and check out the article, "Taxpertise For Writers" by Bonnie Lee. In fact, the theme of the issue is, "Your Economic Survival Guide," so why not read the whole thing?
9. Be timely. Seek and adopt the simplest systems to help you meet your deadlines, pay your bills, get your taxes submitted, etc. It doesn't matter which system you use. What matters more is that you make good use of the systems that work best for you and switch when one method stops working for you.

I bet you want to spend as little of your time as possible being inefficient, so that you can get back to writing. So keep things simple: write, earn and prosper. An efficient writer is a profitable writer.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have some writing deadlines to meet.