Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Take Time to Regroup—What is Your Career Satisfaction Level?

Tuesday, January 13th, 2015

Are you still living or pursuing your dream to write/publish a novel, establish a freelance-writing business, or teach an aspect of writing, for example? Do you feel you’re still on the right path or have you become bogged down in a lifestyle that’s not supporting your goal? Maybe you’ve changed your mind about your career path or you’re ready to set new goals.

I’ve been writing for publication for over 40 years and have taken many detours on my journey—planned and scheduled detours that generally led to greater success and satisfaction. For example, I started my long career writing articles for magazines. I loved this life until I didn’t and when it started to become less than satisfying, I decided to shift gears. But I didn’t do this in a helter skelter manner. I took a look at some of the opportunities that had entered my life. I surveyed the daily activities I was involved in and carefully considered which ones were bringing me the most joy. At this time in my career, I realized I was happier when I was working on a book. I loved writing and organizing whole books. The research thrilled me. I was pretty sure that I could not pay the bills through book sales, but I could sure earn a few bucks writing books for others. And that’s what I did for a few years—along with my article-writing business.

Then one day, I realized that I knew stuff—stuff about writing and publishing—stuff that other people wanted to know about. I was constantly being asked, “How do I get my article accepted?” “What does it take to get a book published?” “How can I find a publisher/agent?” One hopeful author was so pleased with my responses that she suggested I teach a workshop. She assured me there were many people who wanted to learn what I had to teach.

I thought hard about this request. I listened to my head and my heart. I then outlined a course and realized I had an awful lot to teach. So I became a workshop and discovered that I absolutely loved teaching and helping other authors.

When I realized how few resources there were for hopeful authors, I began creating books on freelance-writing, publishing, book promotion and so forth. And I branched out as a public speaker and presenter at numerous writers conferences and other events.

Was I having fun? Each year I’d ask myself that question. I’d survey my level of joy and satisfaction as well as my financial success. I was happy and I was putting food on the table. All was well.

A couple of years ago, I decided to add another dimension to my career repertoire and I started writing fiction. As many of you know, that’s when the Klepto Cat Mystery series was born and I became more satisfied in all areas of my criteria.

I didn’t intend this post being about me. But I hope it helps you to pay closer attention to your level of satisfaction in whatever career choice you’ve made. How does your gut feel when you think about the work you’re currently doing? Do you look forward to going to work each day? There’s a level of stress and unpleasant tasks in nearly any profession, but does the discomfort in your career overshadow the joy? If so, perhaps you just need to eliminate an aspect of your career—stop doing public-speaking, for example, especially if it doesn’t seem to be affecting sales. Close your storefront and work from home, if you absolutely hate dealing with people face-to-face. If the storefront is making the money, hire someone to do the tasks you find distasteful. I once hired someone to send out my query letters when I was writing for magazines. What a relief that was.

Maybe you crave being with people, but your business is thriving online. Consider taking it to the public—participate in shows and fairs with your product or service.

Perhaps you are getting my point. Here it is in a nutshell:

  • Rather than keep doing what you’re doing because you’ve always done it that way, evaluate your way of running your career—dissect it to discover if there’s something that could/should be changed. Then have the courage to change it.
  • When the joy in your work seems to dissolve, figure out what aspect you dislike the most and consider changing or eliminating it.
  • Be aware and be open to opportunities. Opportunities come in many forms—a thought/idea, proposition, invitation, suggestion, etc.
  • Learn to follow your heart as well as your head. When they agree, that’s priceless.

Learn more about Patricia Fry’s career journey January 6 – 11, 2015 here: http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.

http://www.matilijapress.com

http://www.patriciafry.com

 

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The Creative Process

Saturday, December 6th, 2014

I promised that I would talk about my creative process in my next blog post. As I wrote in my post dated December 3rd, when writing nonfiction, I’m guided by my readers. I still consider readers as I pursue my new adventure in fiction. Certainly, I want my stories to be interesting and suspenseful enough to keep them reading. I want them to like my likable characters and dislike those with less-than honorable motives. I want to move them to tears and laughter and I hope to make their reading experience a pleasant one.

I’m often asked where I get the ideas for my stories and how I can write an entire book telling a story of many twists and turns.

I understand that some authors turn to software, website prompts, their writers’ group members and other methods to come up with stories. I’ve had editorial clients tell me that this is the only story they’ll ever write—they have no more stories in them. I seem to be in a different category. I bubble over with story ideas. I’m writing book 9 of my Klepto Cat Mystery series.

For me, it’s fairly easy to come up with a them. In my book 8 (soon to be published), I took my characters (including the kleptomaniac cat) to the beach for a vacation. I brought in an old friend of the main characters and put him in peril. He’s an artist and operates a gallery in the beach community. Of course, there is an unknown escape route for the cat and he goes about his business digging up clues in new, interesting, and sometimes humorous ways.

How do I create a storyline and insert the details that make it a cozy mystery? I generally determine the shell of the story. I decide which characters will be involved in this one and I start putting it on paper (well, in the computer). As I write the first draft, I include incidents and innuendoes that hint at the mystery. But it’s during my second, third, twenty-seventh draft that I insert the scenarios that bring the mystery and the story together in a cohesive manner.

I might decide that there’s not enough action in the first 30 pages, and I go to work devising a distraction or I embellish a situation or I might create a new issue for the characters to deal with. For example, as I worked on the third or fourth draft of The Gallery Cat Caper, I realized that Rags, the cat, had been idle for too long while I introduced the story, the setting, and the new characters. So I had an unsuspecting guest let him outside and he brought back a bathing suit top. This didn’t play into the core mystery, but it reminded readers of Rags’s MO and created some interest. I hope it also made readers chuckle.

The bottom line, I think, in coming up with stories is life and living—paying attention to people and the stories they tell as well as the stories you live. In my case, I also watch my cats and often bring in antics and scenarios from their furry repertoires into my stories.

Do any of you readers write fiction? How do you come up with story ideas and how do you develop them? What is your creative process?

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A Passion for Writing

Sunday, March 3rd, 2013

I heard a radio interview with a policeman last week. He said that serving as a peace officer was his passion. He couldn’t imagine doing anything else with his life. I realize that some of us are “called” to do certain types of work, such as nursing, fighting crime, volunteering within the community, building things, preaching, teaching… But it hadn’t occurred to me that there would be “passion” involved with something like police work.

Most of you reading this are authors. And you probably feel a passion for writing. If you’re like me, you can’t not write. It’s your creative outlet. The desire to write just bubbles out of you and it’s something that haunts you until you actually sit down and start writing. Only, there is no end. Your passion continues on after you finish your novel, write a few poems or complete your memoir. Is this you? Do you have a passion for writing?

Or are you writing simply to pass along information, share a concept or a story or preach, teach and nag on a topic of importance to you? Is your passion tied into the process of writing as it is for some of us or is it the passion for your topic or cause that excites you down to the bones?

I have been writing for over forty years. Early on, I discovered that I enjoyed composing stories and structuring articles so much that it felt almost sinful to spend time doing it. I was so in love with the process of writing that I had to find a way to justify doing it as often and for as many hours as I wanted. That’s why I started writing for publication. Well, then I got hooked on being published. The thrill and the challenge became almost as exciting for me as the process of writing. I guess that’s one reason why I was able to push through the constant rejection and keep on keeping on. (Well, there were many acceptances amidst the rejections—but as a writer, as many of you know, we do face rejection along the writing journey.)

I remember times when I was sitting at my electric typewriter composing a story or constructing an article and I would suddenly feel giddy because I was enjoying the work so much. I’d get a thrill from the creative process and watching the project come together. This still happens on occasion.

Forty years later, I still wake up eager to get to the computer and start my day of writing.

Over the years, however, my hands-on work requirement has changed somewhat. As an editor and teacher working with clients and students, a speaker and the head of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network), I have a variety of responsibilities that are not writing-related. That’s why I enjoy writing this daily blog. I’m also currently working on a new ebooklet for you to download free from my website. I’m writing a few speeches for upcoming events. And, when I have time, I work on my latest novel—number four since last summer. What a joy this process has been.

So why do you write, is it your calling…spurred by a passion within your soul? I do meet authors who claim, “I am not a writer. But I just had to write this book.” The process of writing is more drudgery than pleasure for these people. But they are, no doubt, spurred on by their passion for their purpose.

Which author are you?

No matter where your passion and how strong your creativity urge, if you are writing or have written your book for publication, please educate yourself so you are prepared to succeed in the highly competitive publishing climate we’ve developed over the years. Read the book I wrote for you: “Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author.” It’s at Amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio as well as at most other online and downtown bookstores.

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Writing Awards Spurs on This Writer of Westerns

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

I’d like to introduce Kathleen Ewing, freelance and fiction writer, Prescott Valley, AZ

The novel bug bit hard when the first chapter of my novel Hang the Moon won the 2008 CNW/FFWA Writing Competition, Fiction—Novel Chapter. I admitted to some self-doubt. One entry, one win could be a fluke. Four more submissions, four more awards. Apparently the novel about a rodeo cowboy on the brink of retirement possessed a broader appeal than I suspected. I dug the manuscript out of the garage to rewrite it.

Kathleen’s Technique
While outlines and detailed character sketches appeal to the manufacturing engineer I was, they suffocate the writer in me. So I start simply, with an interesting character doing something striking—in this case, a world champion saddlebronc rider getting bucked off onto his head. I visualize my character vividly. Shoot, I live in his hip pocket. I decide where the character is headed, what he wants most and what he’s prepared to do to get it. And what or who threatens to stop him.

At this point, out comes a large poster board from my closet. With a sticky notepad and a red marker, I begin writing down titles for scenes where this character might find himself in his quest to fulfill that want. No details. Just three or four words per note. I try to have twenty-five or thirty of these scene notes stuck on the board before I proceed to the next step.

The test I use to determine if I have a viable scene? Either it moves my character toward his goal or throws a barrier in his way. If it does neither, I trash it or set it aside for revamping. Now I begin arranging the notes in what feels like a logical order, subject to future change, of course.

Once I’m comfortable with where those scenes take the story, I transpose them to my novel’s workbook, a large loose-leaf binder. With one page per scene, I make brief notes on what I expect the scene to accomplish, which characters are present to interact and a snippet of action or dialog to serve as a springboard when I write the scene. For each scene page, there is a pocket page where I can capture notes, photos and bits of research that pertain to that scene.

Working backward from page one, I add a timeline to the workbook so I can keep track of critical milestones in the backstory. I know how my cowboy looks, how he thinks and what he drinks. By now he’s an old family friend. But I need to keep track of years he won championships, when he missed the PRCA Finals due to serious injuries, what he scored on his best ride, the name of the horse and where that ride occurred. Rodeo cowboys remember these things. I can’t.

Now that I know where my cowboy’s been, where he’s going and why, I add one crucial element. How is he going to change through the course of the novel?

Finally. I am prepared to narrate the story of rodeo legend Gib McCasland.

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The Creative Life. Not What You Think it is!

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

Hurry up and wait. That’s the game I’m playing now with my latest book, “Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author.” I’m ready to go into book promotion mode, but I still have not seen a copy of the book. And I just learned that the Kindle version is not available until next week.

I will announce to you when you can order the Kindle version. So watch my posts.

In the meantime, I am asking those who have received contributor copies to post reviews at the book page at Amazon.com. It has been suggested that my author page at Amazon needs updating. And I need to prepare text for the book page at my Matilija Press website. So there is still plenty to keep me busy. I do have time to write this blog post, though. I think it has become a bit of a habit that I can’t break.

I’ve had some marvelous comments from professionals who have received copies of my new book as well as one criticism. The criticism was about the way the cover was created and trimmed—something I will be checking once I finally get a copy of the book. He said the interior pages look great, though. And he hadn’t read it, so didn’t comment on what everyone else seems so excited about—the vast and complete array of information, resources, tips and techniques for anyone who is promoting or about to promote a book.

Once the Kindle version is in place, I have a few more reviews posted at Amazon and the book is available at my own website, I will be contacting my vast e-mail list of clients, students, customers, conference attendees, colleagues and so forth. Let me know if you want to be on my email list. PLFry620@yahoo.com. Or simply order a FREE copy of my booklet, “50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book” here:
http://www.patriciafry.com

I’ve been asked recently to speak to groups of non-authors and non-writers. That’s a stretch for me. I’ll be at Casa Glendale assisted living next month by invitation from a resident talking about the importance of creativity in our lives. Some of you may recall that I spoke to 800 Toastmasters in the Middle East a few years ago on the subject of creativity in speaking.

While I will speak to the Casa Glendale residents on artistic creativity, including crafts, gardening and so forth, I happen to believe that we are creative beings and it has nothing to do artistic endeavors. I once wrote a book (never did get it published) on creative living—how we create our lives and choose to live and how we have the power to shift our lives to the next level through our own creative expression.

In the synopsis, I wrote, “Creativity is not exclusive to artists, writers, craftsmen, inventors, designers, landscapers and other specifically talented and/or skilled individuals. Creativity doesn’t refer only to pretty words, fancy brush strokes or the conceiving of unique ideas or products. We are all blessed with an abundance of creativity and we use it every day in every way—in the way we hold a pencil, communicate, comb our hair, pack a lunch, get along with people. Everything we do, say and think is expressed or performed with our own persona twist—thus it reflects our individual creativity. And it is this creativity that, when acknowledged, accepted and appropriately administered can greatly enhance your way of being every day in every way.

Comments?

http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com

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