Real Teen Talk June Chat

Balls Dropping Everywhere...

I've had to come to terms with the fact that there is no such thing as juggling it "all."

Sorry, future generation of writers, mommas and daddy's who think they'll be the ones to master the great lifefail that is having a career, family, social life all while eating healthy and exercising. Nope, just ain't gonna happen people. I know because I've been on a quest to do it "all" since I entered the workforce.

Now, now, it's not all doom and gloom. Honestly, once you come to terms with it, it's sort of nice - like seeing the white light leading to the pearly gates.

My realization came after I admitted that while I actually did achieve near daily blogging during BEDA and held on kind of nice to a regular schedule early May - the second I decided that maybe finishing my next novel was a bit more important than blogging, everything went to hell in a handbasket. No, I'm not sure exactly what that means but I'm pretty sure it's what happened.

Keep in mind that while blogging and a good deal of my social networking has been on the decline writing my next book, spending time with my family (working the dreaded full-time job FTJ) and working out regularly are on the uptick.

See, ALL of it can't be done, but most of it can.

For reasons I'm uncertain - possibly because writers have a natural case of the guilts, anyway, I always feel bad when my social networking suffers from me actually living life.

It's just like when you begin slowly losing touch with old friends - you feel like you need to make an excuse for why you haven't called more often.

So, truth is, I haven't called because I'm making an actual attempt to have a life. Hope no one holds it against me...working off the guilt in addition to the 19 pounds I'm trying to lose would be near impossible.

Real Teen Talk Chat - June 15th

Has it been a month already?!

You betcha.

Monday is my second RTT chat. We'll be talking about when to cut a friendship.

If I were...

A musician, would you expect me to answer the phone while I'm in the booth recording?

An artist, would you burst into my studio expecting me to stop mid-stroke to chat?

An actress, would you demand the cameras stop rolling so I could help you with your problem?

Doubtful. Yet, because I'm a writer, it seems the world around me thinks that it's okay to interrupt.

If this phenomena were germane only to me, I'd brush it off as my family and friends not getting the level of solitude and concentration I need to create. But it's an illness that afflicts many of my author friends.

What is it about writing that people take it so lightly as an art? Is it because sitting at the computer looks like any other type of work or play? Would I really look this focused playing Solitaire?

In order for me to write well, there's a level of detachment I've got to achieve. Not the loveliest word, for sure. But exactly what I meant. When I write, I detach myself from this world and float into the world I'm creating.

Maybe it seems pretentious to non-writers. Or maybe they think it's easy to fall in and out of the haze. For me, it's not and it's been awhile since I've truly given into the tug of detachment.

I'm enjoying the 500 Word Challenge. Got in over 5,000 words, last week.

The Challenge forces me to visit my manuscript, daily. But I've yet to reach that level where I block out everything - hunger, thirst, fatigue, and my family - to stay in that zone. I want to, but since I'm not a musician, artist or actress, walking into my office, apparently, is an invitation to the world to interrupt. I mean, somehow even people NOT in my house seem to know when I'm writing because that's when they call.

Not the ten hours before when I was sitting on my duff. Only when I step foot into the office to write.

Sounds like a writing retreat is in order.

Hmm...

1,2,3,4, Five Hundred Words a Day

I've been in a creative slump since about October '08. February of this year I jumped back into writing because you can't fix a blank page. But the slump has not yet broken to a point where I feel a raging inferno of creativity within. And that's what I loved most about writing...the irrepresible urge to create. The sort of urge where if you don't satisfy it, you feel it might drive you a teensy bit insane.

So you give in.

Yeah, that.

I'm looking for that feeling again.

Enter Karen "The Novelista" Strong and her 500 words a day summer challenge, right when I need it most.

I've done these sort of challenges before. Several years ago, the Yahoo Teen Lit Listserv did one (I think it was a 1K a day) and it helped me finish That's What's Up!.

When you dedicate yourself to these challenges, they work...or they make you work. Whatever the case, you get the words written.

So I'll be checking in periodically to update on my progress. If I can hang, I can get a huge bulk of my WIP done.

Light a candle for me and send up a flare if you haven't heard from me by the end of June. It may mean I've gotten lost in the forests of Slumpelvania.

Meanwhile, I've gotta post this in a few places in my house and office:

Rachel Balloon, Ph.D author of The Writer's Portable Therapist: 25 Sessions to a Creativity Cure says you should use the following traits to write every day:

Commitment
Risk
Energy
Action
Truth
Enjoyment

Lo and behold that spells CREATE.

Go forth and be creative.