Category: Inspiration

Blueberry Fields Forever

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Last weekend I packed up my computer, bathing suit, and best blueberry-picking bucket and headed to Maine for the Blueberry Fields Writers Retreat. It was my very first writing retreat and it was a blast. Since time was devoted to actual writing, I ended up getting a lot of work done. Of course, I could take a random Saturday and do the same thing in my apartment, but I think there’s a lot to be said for going somewhere with the specific purpose to write and knowing that this is your only responsibility.

Also, it was a fantastic chance to connect with other New England-based writers. I hadn’t officially met any of them before this retreat, but everyone was so welcoming that I felt comfortable right away. And even though writing is thought of as a very solitary activity, it’s so important to connect with other writers. It’s invigorating, and it’s helpful to hear about the general ups and downs of everyone’s careers.

I posted a preview on Monday, but now here’s a more extended glimpse at life at Blueberry Fields:

Art projects get the creative juices flowing.

I should probably stick to writing.

Sunlight on the blueberry fields early Sunday morning. Check out the bee boxes on the right!

Picking tasty Maine blueberries!

There were SO MANY!

I’m so glad I had this opportunity. It was the best weekend, and reminded me of how awesome YA/children’s writers are. In all honesty, I was a little nervous heading into the weekend; it was my first retreat and I didn’t know anyone else involved all that well. But I am so glad I attended. I left Maine on Sunday feeling so inspired and psyched to get working on my latest project. Another reminder that it pays to get out of your comfort zone and try new things.

Special thanks to Julie Kingsley, Meg Wilson, Cameron Rosenblum, and Susan Casey for making this all come together so beautifully.

More recaps of the retreat:

Blueberries and Morning Coffee

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More to come, but here’s a little glimpse from my weekend at the NESCBWI Blueberry Fields Writers Retreat:

Everyone should leave a retreat with writerly camaraderie and a bucket of fresh, organic blueberries. What an amazing weekend!

Start August Right with the Write Fifteen Minutes a Day Challenge

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Yet another reason YA author Laurie Halse Anderson is amazing? The Write Fifteen Minutes A Day Challenge. The rules? Write for fifteen minutes a day, everyday during August. That’s it. No need to submit anything or log anything. Just hit fifteen minutes a day.

I like the idea of this way more than NaNoWriMo, in which you try to write a thousands of words. Fifteen minutes a day is way more manageable. And they don’t even have to be words that are all going to the same thing. Want to write a short story one day? Go for it. Work on your novel the next? Rock on. Want to spend fifteen hours writing? Well, maybe allow yourself a few bathroom breaks, but you can do that, too. It’s just about getting yourself started.

Also, love this response as to why Anderson is leading the challenge:

Because the arts flourish in community. When kindred spirits gather they raise each other up. The differences between someone who has been published and someone who hasn’t are not nearly as dramatic as you might think. I still struggle to make time everyday to write. I still choke at the thought of the blank page.  I never write as well or as thoughtfully, or as fast as I want to. But I love writing. I’d be scribbling stories if I had never been published. It is the writing – surrendering to the magic – that is the best part of my day. It balances me, and makes me feel alive. I want to share that with you.

This really captures what it’s like to be a writer. It’s hard, and it doesn’t get easier. But not writing is way worse than writing, and once you commit to a little amount of time, you get to be part of another world.

I’m definitely going to take part in the WFMAD Challenge. Are you?

Links Galore

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Lots of great links to take you into the weekend:

Being Grateful: Notes to a Young Author Self

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Love this post by YA author Ally Carter about all the things she wishes she could tell her younger, budding author self. It’s great advice for people at the beginning of their writing careers. One part I liked in particular:

“And the biggest piece of advice I can give you is this: take a sheet of paper and write down five things that would make you really, really happy in your career.  Then write down five things that would be “best case scenario” things.  And lastly write five “in your wildest dreams” things.

Keep that list.  Remember that list.  Because in this business the finish line is constantly moving.  One day you really just want an agent.  Then it’s a book deal.  Then it’s a bestseller.  Then it’s a movie.  Then it’s a castle next to JK Rowling’s.

In short, appreciate things as they’re happening, remember that once upon a time that thing was a dream of yours and that it’s still a dream for someone.  So be grateful every day.”

I think this is a great idea. Writing is full of disappointments and rejections, even for super-established authors. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking about the bestsellers and castles that seem just out of your reach. Until we all have castles next to Rowling’s, it’s good to remember all the awesome things happening now–even if it’s just that you finished a new draft or your critique partners said they loved the voice in your latest work.

Make sure to check out Ally’s full post for more great advice.

A Tale of Two Gothams

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Another reason it’s good to read the classics: you can get inspiration for the last movie in a mega-successful series, like The Dark Knight Rises. Apparently A Tale of Two Cities was a big inspiration for the script in terms of structure and emotion. Christopher Nolan says:

“What Dickens does in that book in terms of having all his characters come together in one unified story with all these thematic elements and all this great emotionalism and drama, it was exactly the tone we were looking for.”

So even though Madame Defarge might not make an appearance, it’s cool to see Hollywood take inspiration from Dickens.

Quote of the Day

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“Being a writer does not necessarily mean being published. It’s very nice to be published. It’s what you want. When you have a vision, you want to share it. But being a writer means writing. It means building up a body of work. It means writing every day. You can hardly say that van Gogh was not a painter because he sold one painting during his lifetime, and that to his brother. But do you say that van Gogh wasn’t a painter because he wasn’t “published?” He was a painter because he painted, because he held true to his vision as he saw it. And I think that’s the best example I can give you.”–Madeleine L’Engle

From Madeleine L’Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life; probably the best example of why the writing itself is what matters.

Entomologist, Barista, and Other Famous Writer Jobs

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Just imagine Margaret Atwood behind that counter.

Even famous writers didn’t start out as full-time writers. They had day jobs and summer jobs like the rest of us. Mental Floss has a great list of other jobs famous writers had, such as:

  • Nabokov was an entomologist of underappreciated greatness. His theory of butterfly evolution was proven to be true in early 2011 using DNA analysis.
  • Margaret Atwood first worked as a counter girl in a coffeeshop in Toronto, serving coffee and operating a cash register, which was a source of serious frustration for her. She details the experience in her essay, “Ka-Ching!”
  • Harper Lee, author of one of the great American novels and winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, had worked as a reservation clerk at Eastern Airlines for years when she received a note from friends: “You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.” By the next year, she’d penned To Kill a Mockingbird.

Harper Lee, you have the best friends ever.

Make sure to check out the full list. If anything, it’s a nice reminder that a bad job isn’t necessarily going to stop you from achieving literary glory.

(image: sleepymyf)

Being an Author

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From Terence Blacker’s list of what it means to be an author:

  • You write a book, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. It turned out not to be the perfect work you once envisaged but, for better or worse, it has reached its destination. If you are lucky enough to be asked to talk about it months later when it is published, you will see it from the outside, almost as if it has been written by a stranger. Your mind is on what you are writing now.
  • You long to be part of what is described as “the literary establishment”, but you never will be. Other authors, swanning about smugly at a festival or a Royal Society of Literature reading, may cause a knot of rage and jealousy to form in your stomach, but they are worrying about being outside the establishment, too.
  • You are lucky. You are doing something which, for all its agonies and uncertainties, allows you to lead a fuller life than you would otherwise have had.

Rest of the list through the link; he hits on lots of the anxieties and joys in the writing process.

(via Neil Gaiman)