My Advice? Make Shit Happen

People sometimes ask me if I have a certain routine I go through before I write, something to put my mind in the right place. I've been to conferences where speakers advise a few moments of meditation, lighting the same scent of candle, or listening to some music that you find inspirational before you put your fingers to the keyboard. I have a slightly more straightforward approach.

I plop myself in front of the laptop and say, "Ok, Mindy. Make shit happen."

And honestly, isn't that what we're doing when we write? Making shit happen to people that don't exist? But forcing the fecal matter to flow isn't only restricted to the word count output for the day. When I give myself that one sentence pep-talk it covers all my bases.

Blog not ready to go for the next week?
Haven't tweeted for awhile?
Need to get on the crits for my partners?
Running out of interviewees?

Make all that shit happen.

More importantly, when I was still on the agent hunt I'd hit those stagnant pools of time. Queries are out wandering to people who may or may not be non-responders. Five out of my ten came back form rejections. I've got partials and fulls out but everyone knows that's not a guarantee and I shouldn't just twiddle my thumbs hoping they love me. So what did I do?

Made shit happen.

If I knew my query was ready and I didn't have a lot hanging in the wind, I sent out more. There's no hope in getting that YES email if that special person waiting to read my query doesn't know I exist yet.

So next time you feel like forward progress isn't on your side, ask yourself:

Did I make shit happen today?

The Insomniac's Imagination

If you're anything like me, sometimes your brain won't turn off.

Some writers like this, and I freely admit that a 2AM brainstorm can be productive as hell. I'll take inspiration where I can find it, thanks. But there are those long nights when you have to hit the 40/wk bright and early and good old brain is like, "Check me out! Look at all the things I can do!" and it won't stop.

I've got a little soothing trick for what I call Imsomniac's Imagination. I write with other people's characters. I let that talkative brain chomp down on a character that's grabbed me from whatever I'm reading, or a favorite from a television series. It's great because the brain can run with it and I don't have to feel like I need to be responsible and jot something down before I forget it.

I'm not producing anything I can use as a writer, but I'm exercising my brain and giving it the freedom it wants in the dark hours. So try it next time you keep glancing at the clock and reminding yourself to go to sleep already.

Taking Stock

Yes, it's true. I raided a cattle herd over the holidays.

OK, not really. I just wanted to give you a funny visual because I couldn't come up with an original title for my Looking Back On 2011 post.

Obviously 2011 was really, really good to me. I got an agent, Adriann Ranta (who has a lovely speaking voice) in March, and a book deal with Sarah Shumway (nice voice, check) at Katherine Tegen / Harper Collins just recently. So, I can't complain. And I'm not going to.

What I am going to do is talk about what my goals were, and how I managed to hit one by the skin of my teeth. (And what the heck does that mean anyway? Huh... guess that's my Wednesday post accounted for).

I backed my self-enforced WIP due date to Thanksgiving, but took some digestive time off when the book deal happened because I needed to roll around in sloth for awhile. And I highly recommend rolling around in some nice, hot sloth every now and then, because I broke into December like a rabid animal chasing  uh... something non-rabid and much smaller.

As of yesterday evening I can claim that the WIP is in fact, finished. I don't have to do my usual guilty sashaying in front of RC Lewis and muttering that I only have one more section to get through. And I checked my numbers: I wrote 113 pages and 32,000 words over the last week of November through yesterday evening.

2012 is looking good for a few reasons. The initial word vomit of the WIP first draft is finished, NOT A DROP TO DRINK is on Goodreads, and just yesterday it cracked the top ten in the Goodreads YA Novels of 2013 list. So drop in, put me on your to-read shelf, and vote for as many 2013 YA titles as you like - I want the Mayans to feel our hope trickling back through the ages. :)