Inspirations

Heartbeats

September 6, 2018 By Anna Elliott 18 Comments

I’m at the stage where I don’t really look any different. I feel different. (Oh, belieeeeeve me, I feel different, i.e. starting to feel better but still pretty much at least slightly queasy all. the. time.) I’m also at the stage (early second trimester) where I’m past the ‘holding my breath’ mentality and moving into the ‘cautious exhale’. But it’s still too soon to be feeling any of those reassuring kicks or flutters, and it’s easy to catch myself looking down at my not-yet-all-that-different stomach and thinking, Are you still there?

When that happens, I reach for my phone and play a recording I took during my last appointment with my midwife: a hummingbird-rapid but steady thump thump thump that’s– incredibly– the heartbeat of our fourth baby. I don’t usually go for book/baby or writing/pregnancy comparisons, because although everyone is different, the way I love my books and the way I love my babies = not at all the same thing. Also, I would approximately one million times rather write a book than go through all day “morning” sickness. (Although like I say, baby #4, so clearly I’m either a slow learner or insane). However in this case, I’m going to break my own rule, because listening to that little reassuring thump thump thump on my phone, it’s occurred to me that sometimes we need that kind of reassurance during the writing process, too.

I’m also in the early stages of writing a new book, the potential start to a new series. 20,000 words in, I’ve got a good start made, one I’m happy with and having fun with daily. It’s a solid enough beginning that I’m feeling pretty confident that this book isn’t just a will ‘o’ the whisp idea that’s going to die on the vine. But it’s also a bit of a crazy idea, one I’m not entirely sure it makes sense for me to be writing right now, at this point in my career. I absolutely loved Therese’s post this week, That Time Jane Friedman’s Advice Saved My Novel, because I’ve been there, too, one hundred percent. The publishing world is so changeable and uncertain. Actually, the ultimate outcome of pregnancy, though not guaranteed, is pretty much far more assured than the outcome of writing a novel. It’s so easy to give in to the moments of doubt, but so important, I’ve found, to instead tune into that beating heart of your book in progress: that tiny spark of life that made you fall in love with the idea in the first place, the certainty deep down inside you that this is a story you just have got to tell.
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Keeping Your Hustle Joyful

July 5, 2018 By Anna Elliott 19 Comments

I recently read a quote on writing I absolutely loved. It’s from Joe Beernink, who said, “Don’t write to become famous or to make a lot of money. Write because you love it. Write because not writing for more than a few days feels like you have abandoned a puppy in a mineshaft. Save the puppy.” The words resonated with me so much, because that’s exactly how I feel. I don’t take days off from writing. Ever. Others may feel boxed-in by strict self-imposed word count goals, but I love them. Having a set word count for the day inspires me, makes me stretch and push past my own equally self-imposed limitations and is my #1 antidote to feeling creative block. I write at least 1,000 words a day, 7 days a week, every single week, every single year, basically no matter what. And to be clear, I’m certainly not suggesting that anyone who doesn’t is less of a writer or less dedicated to their craft. That’s just my own process, what works for me.

I write in good times and bad times. For years, now, I’ve written 1,000 words a day through sickness and new babies and logistical life craziness and tragedy and grief. Even at the lowest, darkest moments, I’ve written because quite simply, however hard life feels in that moment, however hard it is to pick myself up and sit down at the keyboard, not writing would be harder still. And there’s obviously a practical benefit to keeping to a hard and fast writing schedule. Since this time last year, I’ve published 5 books I love and am so happy and grateful to have released into the world.

And yet. There’s always that little, and yet, isn’t there? Because there’s also, in our culture, the very prevalent worship of the “hustle.” We wear busy-ness as a badge of honor, take a certain strange pride in the length of our to-do lists, and convince ourselves that if we just hustle hard enough, we’ll somehow unlock the magical keys to success, riches, rainbows and happiness or whatever our goals might be. Now, of course I believe in the power of hard work and discipline. But the answer isn’t quite as simple as that.
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For the Love of Libraries

June 26, 2018 By Sarah McCoy 33 Comments

If I can bring you into my prosaic world: I’m writing this 35,000 feet up in my compact plane seat, tray table down, elbows in, laptop jostling on the turbulence. I’m on my way back from speaking at the annual American Library Association conference and am delirious with library love.

This was my first time attending the meeting. Michelle Obama was there. Sally Fields, too. Not to namedrop, but to namedrop. Fandemonium of this magnitude is collectively appreciated. I’d heard about the ALA gatherings, seen the hashtags on Twitter, the Facebook posts, and Instagram videos of rooms full of books and their librarian knights. But this was the first time I had the pleasure of attending to discuss the exciting releases of fall 2018.

I’ve long been a loudmouthed proponent of supporting our independent bookstores—national troves of story sharing. But when I think back about my development as a reader and writer, I didn’t grow up in bookstores. Not until college did hanging out at my local bookshop café become a trendy thing. Before then, it was libraries. Always libraries. So I hope you pardon me while I gush a spell in tribute…

All of my first books were library copies, borrowed on behalf of my mother’s library card, which was as revered and all-giving as our family bank card. Library copies had to be taken extra special care, too. No summer lemonade cups leaving dewy rings on the covers. No crinkled pages or dirty fingers while reading. The entire McCoy clan’s reputation was at stake. If abused, we might lose our privileges to the library kingdom and then what? How would I spend my leisure hours??

I distinctly remember having one decision crisis the summer after the first grade. My library copy of Tikki Tikki Tembo was due back, but I wanted to read it one last time before returning. A day late meant a fee of 10 cents, which would leave me 10 cents short of the creamsicle I’d hoped to purchase. A civilian ice cream truck was permitted to pass through our military barracks only one day a week. So that meant seven treat-less days in exchange for one more with TTT and his brother Chang. I couldn’t ask my parents for the extra bit. My mom and dad, an elementary teacher and an Army officer, did not approve of tardiness or ice cream before dinner. So the choice and the payment would be mine. [Read more…]

Stories that Won’t Let You Go

January 4, 2018 By Anna Elliott

Somewhere around six years ago, I had a story idea pop into my head. As most writers will tell you, that’s not exactly an unusual occurrence. Story ideas fly into (and often out of) my mind like flights landing at Kennedy Airport. But this idea felt . . . special. It had that x-factor sparkle that demanded, Write me! Write me now! So I did. And the book just . . . totally. did. not. work. I tried it in first person, I tried it in third person with multiple narrators. I tried a myriad configurations of the plot, and all told probably re-wrote the story ten times. I finally hammered out a semi-workable draft that I was semi-happy with, and at least worked better than anything else that had gone before.

Now, don’t get me wrong, within that draft were elements that I really liked. I loved my two main characters. There were scenes that made (and still make) me smile. Even my agent liked it, so at least I knew I wasn’t entirely fooling myself that there was something there. But it was the start of what I intended to be a series, and when I tried to move on to write book #2, again, it just. did. not. work. The foundation I’d slogged through to build in book #1 just became a pure slog when I tried to advance into a continuation of the story. 4 years ago, almost to this day, actually, I finally quit. Closed the file, opened up a new one, and started an entirely different book in what turned out to be an 11 book series (that’s not published under this pen name). Suffice it to say, I had absolutely zero regrets about quitting on what I now thought of as my Impossible Book Idea.
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Chasing Down Inspiration

September 7, 2017 By Anna Elliott

Thomas Edison famously said, “None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met, and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”

In my experience, that is somewhat true of writing books, too, in that all the inspiration in the world won’t save you if you can’t sit down and do the often hard work of getting the words onto the page. I feel like I’ve talked often in my posts here on WU about the perspiration side of things, and shared my own strategies for getting the work done and avoiding burnout. Daily word count goals, writing routines and schedules, outlines . . . those are all strategies that I use and have found invaluable in the course of all the books I’ve written and published over the years.

This month, though, I’ve been thinking about the inspiration part of creative invention, that part that Edison identified as being only one percent of the equation– and yet I think most authors would agree is every bit as invaluable as the other 99 percent of dogged hard work. (I’m actually not sure that I personally would put the split at 99% and 1%; maybe more like 75%/25%? But that’s beside my point.) My point is that the inspiration side is somehow much harder to pin down. At this point in my writing career, I’ve written a bunch of books and sold a fair few, too, and I suppose I can be cautiously optimistic that I know the mechanics of how to write a book. Not that I mean to suggest that anyone reaches a point where all writing is some kind of cakewalk . . . at least, if they do, that someone is not me, because I definitely haven’t hit any kind of cakewalk state of mind when I sit down to work.

But as much as I can come on here and offer tips and suggestions for getting the words on the page . . . that vital 1% or 25% or whatever it is of inspiration . . . the lightening bolt of a story idea that suddenly hits you, saying, Write me! Write me now! . . . I’m honestly not sure where those moments of inspiration come from– and yet I’m equally fascinated by them, at the same time, just because they are so illusive and intangible. I can do a good job of being organized and disciplined enough to write a story, but the inspiration that offers me the vital germ of a story idea? I’ve never been able to track that down on my own; I’ve never really tried that I can remember. Every book I’ve written, the inspiration has just streaked, meteor-like, through my head, leaving me frantically running after it, trying to keep it in my sights as I type.

I’ve written books that were inspired by a dream, books that were inspired by my love for classic works of literature, books based on retellings of fairy-tales. I have an entire series (under a different pen name) that jumped into my head while watching Blade Runner with my husband, so I suppose in a way you could say that the movie inspired the idea. And yet that series is absolutely in no way, shape or form anything like Blade Runner. No off-world colonies, not a replicant to be seen . . . my hero doesn’t even marginally resemble Harrison Ford, nor is the plot of the movie thematically or structurally anything like mine. So where did my idea come from? I suppose at most I could say that the movie left me with a certain wisp of a feeling that I wanted to capture in a book, but that’s still so hazy and intangible that it doesn’t say much about where and why inspiration actually appears.

The book I’m writing right now started with 2 lines of dialogue that popped into my head one day. That was it, just 2 lines. And they’re not even essential lines, either– I mean, I like them, but they really have very little to do with the world of the story, nor are they absolutely crucial to the plot. No one reading the book would probably ever guess that it was that scrap of dialogue that started it all. But those two lines stuck in my head got me thinking: Who were the characters speaking them to each other? What brought them there to that moment? Once I started imagining that, the whole story gradually unrolled itself from that tiny point in time.

I suppose maybe the best answer I have to where inspiration comes from is this: [Read more…]

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