rereading rewriting reviewing and rewriting again

So, as I stated in my previous post Writing, I am currently “restructuring” an article I had written, submitted and failed to have published. At first I was aggravated and thought, “This is a great article, I don’t know why they don’t want it.”

Then I reread it. It wasn’t a bad article, true, but it wasn’t good either. It was bland, flavorless, uninteresting. Sure, all the facts were there, a few cutsie catch phrases and idioms, but no substance. As per my previous post, I considered the lack of personality. I was too busy trying not to miss “facts” and, as a result, left out all the “feeling”.

After weeks of looking at this article, rereading it and tearing it down, I still got nowhere. I tried shuffling around the order of the information, nothing. I dissected and reassembled this article 100 times and still I had zilch. Then I tried something new. I printed a copy of the piece and threw it away. {of course I still have a copy saved, it was more for the symbolism of it} I sat down and simply thought about the moment that I wanted to capture; thought about the details, the feeling of it. Then I sat down and simply wrote about it. Typos, bad grammar and all, the moment came back to me and poured out onto the paper. I didn’t worry about the facts because the fact was – it was all about the feelings.

About 20 minutes later, I had one of the most honest pieces I have ever written in front of me. It was straight forward, funny, sad and scary. It captured the essence of that moment without all the “extra” stuff.

Do you want to know what the funniest thing about this second “draft” is? {of course you do}

The second version of this piece isn’t even about the same “moment” as the first. How did that happen?

By completely discarding my original idea, I allowed myself to revisit the actual moment again and finally discovered the real story.

My advise: if you have writers block or are struggling with a piece that you are working on, walk away from it. Revisit the moment or scene you are trying to write about {fiction or nonfiction}, change your perspective, take it all in. Maybe there is something you missed the first time: a person, a feeling, a smell, a sense of safety or fear……

Then simply write about it.

Writing

I wrote the following piece a while back. At the time I was getting frustrated with my writing; specifically an article that I have been working on and had re-written countless times. Why was I stuck in a rut? What was this piece missing? I wrote this to empty my brain:

I didn’t write this for you. I wrote it for me.

Years of ink and lead laden personal therapy sessions.

My writing isn’t perfect. Much of it isn’t even good. But every time I read what I’ve written, I go back to that moment of sadness, joy, frustration or anger that I had when I originally wrote the piece. I’ve heard it said that there is a power in telling secrets. Taking power from someone who hurt you and putting it literally in your own hands.

I believe that writing can be a way to tell someone you love them. It can educate and infuriate. Written words have born heroes and toppled empires. Writing can take you away; really it can take you wherever you want to go.

I can write a book. I can write a book about myself and my life. It will likely not be award winning or even go mainstream. It may not even get seen by anyone but my friends and family. But I will still have done it. I will have achieved a lifetime goal. I am not a literary genius, I am not a knowledgeable professor, I am not a master poet. What I am is determined and 100% sure that writing and reading can change lives. Be it the writers or the readers. Being able to relate to others is essential, and emotionally valuable. Being honest is as well. Being able to put myself and my writing out there for people to see makes me venerable. It opens the door for criticism, opinions, judgment and disappointment. It also opens the door for success, joy, optimism and freedom. If I never do it, I will never know who I could have been or whose lives I could have touched. If no one ever reads a thing I have ever written, the words will still exist. I will still exist. The things that I’ve written will still have value and power; even if only to my self.

To anyone who is fearful of having their work in the public eye, I will say this: It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about creating literary classics or historically important work. It’s about the freedom. It’s about the pride and about the creative process. Not your place on the best sellers list or whose name is on the book spine next to yours.

After I wrote this I realized what it was that my article was missing: me. The piece was supposed to be about a troublesome time in my life, a struggle I went through. But I was writing it the way I thought it would get published; not the way I experienced it.

There is certainly a time and place for removing yourself from something that you are writing; perhaps text books or reference material, historical novels, etc. However, if you are writing about something that moves you, get moved. If you do that, if you keep the emotion and the personality in your work, your readers will get moved too.

Just a thought.

When you least expect it……….

So I was sitting here with my laptop, minding my own business, when out of left field comes something totally unexpected. THE TITLE FOR MY BOOK!! Seriously, it just popped up and slapped me in the face. Now, to avoid any disappointment further down the page, I am not going to tell you the name of my book. However, I am going to tell you how I came to discover it. {Sorry- I have to have some secrets}

I have-under the Current Projects page of my blog- listed a few projects that are “in progress”. You may notice that I listed only Children’s book ideas and a few other small projects. However, the largest and most personally important project that I am working on is my memoir. This is something I have been working on for years and yet have no idea what to do with it. Really I have no “chapters” or anything, just pages and pages of my experiences and insight.

I have been trying to define the direction of this book. What central thing/ experience/ feeling can I use to link all of the information on the page? What is the common denominator? I have realized that I can’t just throw all this stuff on paper and expect it to be cohesive or even interesting to someone else.

It was this realization that I was sitting here tossing around, when the title of my book came to me. Unknown to me, there was this one thing that was a reoccurring theme in my life. It was something that was always there: emotionally, spiritually and eventually physically. It was not until I was reflecting on the physical manifestation of this “thing”, that I saw the symbolism of it.  Out of curiosity I looked up the definition of the word and suddenly realized that that “thing” had always been present, just in different forms. Confused? I will give you an example so that you can follow what I’m saying:

For example: lets say that you moved a lot as a kid. You never felt settled or stable. You became fearful of commitment and spent a life being unattached to anything. When you later become an adult with your own family, you buy your first home and finally have peace.

So- what do you name your memoir? Home. Why?

Look up the definition:

Home

1. One’s place of residence

at Home

1. Relaxed and comfortable

{courtesy of Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary}

Think about it. Sure a home is a building where you live, but if you have had a life that was unstable and unpredictable, then a home is more than that. Your entire life may have revolved around finding stability and peace and the things you experienced may have been a direct result of that. Titling you book “Home” wouldn’t be about a house for you, it would be about finding peace and finally being “relaxed and comfortable.”

See what I mean?

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When writing about the “big” things in our lives, we must remember to look at all the little things it took to create them. It will give us perspective and maybe, if we’re lucky, the title of our book.

Finding Time

The magic time fairy has, yet again, failed to appear. (Now that I think of it, the cleaning fairy keeps blowing me off too).

I never thought it was a good idea to schedule “writing time”;  my ideas come to me too randomly. However, as Munchkin learns to walk and the dishes and laundry multiply like rabbits around me, I am realizing that if I want to write, it’s going to have to go on THE LIST. Yup, the dreaded list. Where all of my plans and motivation go to die. Okay, okay, that might be slightly dramatic. The truth is, I would love to have a few hours an hour 10 minutes to myself to work on my writing everyday. With so much going on, sometimes when I do find that few minutes out of my day, I can only stare blankly at the screen or sheet of paper.  My brain is so overwhelmed that I can’t sort it all out. Other thoughts sneak their way into my “ME” time. Thoughts about things that need to take priority: bills, feeding and nap times and the most prevalent of them all – finding work.

I am painfully aware of what our current financial situation means for my family. My financial contribution is not optional and I know that. However, with the economy in it’s current state combined with the enormous cost of daycare, my hands are somewhat tied. If I am able to get a job for, let’s say, $10/hour, I would have to work about 34 hours/ week just to pay for daycare (est. $1500/mo)!! So basically, I would be leaving my daughter for 40 hours a week to make maybe $60. There has to be a better way. {let me apologize now if this post starts wandering aimlessly}

I am not a published or decorated writer. I have never been to college or taken any creative writing classes. (I did try a Children’s book writing course when I was 18, but I was working 2 jobs and, again, didn’t have time to give it the attention it needed.)

If I had my way, I would have a job that looks like this: creatively focused, includes writing, I could work from home or bring my daughter with me, consistent pay (aka non commission). I know what you’re thinking: everyone on the planet wants a job like that. Yeah, I know. But with Husband already working 6 days per week, sometimes until 7 or 8′oclock at night, and no affordable daycare options, what other choice do I have?

{Sigh} There I go, off topic again. This is what I am talking about. I am so worried about my family’s financial and emotional well being, I can’t focus on anything else. I’m sure there are countless others who are going through the same thing and feeling the same frustration.

If anyone has a solution, feel free to share it. Right now, I’ve got a whole lot O’ nada.

What we need to know about our “Copyrights”

Image courtesy of www.copyrightauthority.com

I have been thinking a lot about Copyright law. As I work on this blog and research writing groups to join, I am overwhelmed by the number of questions I have.  Can someone steal my work? What if they do? If I post it online am I waiving my rights? Can they make small changes to my work and call it their own? How do I copyright my work? What can be copyrighted? Is there a difference between hand-written pieces and electronically created pieces? Do I have to renew a copyright? Etc., etc., etc…………..

Needless to say trying to find answers on this big wide web is equally overwhelming. There is A LOT of information out there. Surely, there is a rocket scientist out there somewhere who knows what it all means. I am not a rocket scientist. Therefore, I am going to try to filter and dummy down some of this information for the rest of us. (I’m not calling anyone a dummy- for the record.)

I also sent the following letter to the editor of Writer’s Digest regarding questions I have about their Terms of Service. Considering their popularity, and assuming huge number of emails daily, I expect that if I do receive a response it could be a while. This is a copy of the text of the email that I sent:

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Good Afternoon!
My name is Jessica Montanez. I am an aspiring writer and have been looking for a writing community to join. After reading a number of your recent magazines, I decided to check out your website. I quickly jumped on the opportunity to “join now” but hesitated when I read the terms of service. Ironically, I am currently writing a piece for my personal blog regarding Copyright and what it means.
I am hoping you would be able to clarify the information within your terms of service, and with your permission, possibly post your response on my blog to clarify it for others (for the record – my permission to use this email is also granted to you if needed).
The items I seek clarification on are:

Any messages or information you post to the forum become the sole property of the site operator and may or may not be displayed, at the sole discretion of the site operator.
(by stating that any information I post becomes the sole property of of the site operator, it appears that I waive my right to my work. I’m sure that this is not the case but for the sake of clarification I hope you can respond)

and

The posting of copyrighted or illegal material is prohibited–
As someone still trying to understand copyright law, this is a little  confusing. I thought that by signing and dating my work it becomes legally copyrighted. However, technically, if I do that to all of my work then it would be impossible for me to post on your site for critique and sharing.

Please forgive my naivety, I am a fine print reader and just want to be sure I understand my rights. I look forward to your response (and the next issue of your magazine).

Best Regards,
Jessica Montanez
http://jessicamontanez.wordpress.com

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If and when I receive a response I will post it immediately. Until then, onward.

Note: please remember that I am simplifying this information. If you have any other questions about your rights check out the U.S. Copyright Office site.

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What is Copyright?

Copyright is a Constitutional right to have your work protected.

Understand this: it is for tangible work (written, photographic, art, music etc.) IDEAS STILL IN YOUR HEAD ARE NOT COPYRIGHTABLE!!

How do I Copyright my work?

It is simple. The method I use looks like this:

Copyright, {your name}, {date or year created} All rights reserved.

Contrary to popular belief, the copyright symbol is unnecessary (but I think it looks cool)

Does it cost money?

Yes: and No.  It costs nothing to Copyright something. Once a work is created and you sign and date it, it is legally copyrighted. HOWEVER: if you want to register a Copyright it will cost you about $30-35. What’s the difference? Well, either way, you have rights. However the difference is in what happens if your rights are violated. For example:

Bob writes a story. He copyrights it: Copyright, Bob Smith, 2009. Joe steals Bob’s story. Bob is mad. Bob goes to court. The court determines Bob owns the story, but cannot sue for monetary damages without having registered his copyright.

My opinion: if you spend a lot of time on a project, or it is something that means a lot to you: register your copyright.

Can someone make changes to my work and legally call it their own?

Nope. HOWEVER: you need to understand that certain ideas are not original. I might have a great book about a fun-loving dog and his adventures- but I’m not the only one. It’s the content that is protected- not the idea. Certainly if the similarities are unquestionable or super obvious you might have a case, but I suppose if enough of the story is different,  there probably isn’t much you can do.

What are my electronic rights for content posted on the Internet. For example: blogs and websites?

Eeeewww! Oh sorry…that was my reaction to reading all the fine print regarding this issue. Let me try to break this down. You post an article on your blog. It’s copyrighted to you. By placing this work online you understand that, to an extent, your work could be copied, printed, quoted and used without your knowledge. HOWEVER: the same law still protects you here and should be honored, it is simply more difficult to monitor. You will likely have to do your own police-ing.  Honestly, no one (short of your loving family and friends) is really going to give a crap or even notice if your work is plagerized; except for YOU.

Do I have to renew my Copyright?

Unless you live a very, very long time….no. Any work copyrighted after January 1, 1978 is protected from the instant it is created until 70 years after it’s creators death.

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Alright, long story short:

If you want to join an online critique group or create a blog, go ahead and do it. Just be sure you protect yourself and your work and let everyone else know you have done just that. (aka: don’t be paranoid and enjoy sharing your work)

Summary:

Copyright all of your work.

If you have or plan to publish something you’ve written, absolutely register your copyright.

If you think your rights have been violated, and you want to do something about it, off to court you go.

Phew! Well, I hope this helps. I know I feel better. Oh, and one more thing:

DON’T YOU COPY ANYONE ELSE’S WORK EITHER!!

Remember the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you”

Random Thought for the Day

If a butterfly could fly as high as a bird, would we ever really know how beautiful it was?

-Jessica Montanez, 2008-

What motivates me to write?

I don’t know if you are a member of Facebook. However, if you are, I have a “group” suggestion: join Writer’s Digest!

I joined this group the other day, and ever since I have been receiving lovely literary gems on my home page. They pop us randomly, sometimes a few per day. The topics are varied (which is nice) from poetry, to finding an agent, to the Top Tweets (Twitter posts) of the week about writing. I admit I am not a Twitter-er…. Tweeter….? – whatever, you get my point- however I absolutely love this little feature because the wonderful people at Writer’s Digest search Twitter for the best advise, tips and information and put them on a nice, straight forward list. I have already found a number of useful tidbits and websites via these “Tweets”.

One of the posts, written by Jane Friedman, was particularly interesting to me. Titled “Pain & Struggle: A Fundamental Part of Writing”, this post struck a chord. Perhaps it was the tumultuous day I was having that drew me to it, but it made me think:

What motivates me to write?

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She referenced a passage that she had come across, about a year before, on Galleycat:

Reflect on this philosophical dispute submitted by one poetry-devoted reader:

“The book was a collection of love poems by William Carlos Williams. The poem was ‘Asphodel, that Greeny Flower.’ And the specific line of the poem over which we disagreed was: ‘I cannot say that I have gone to hell for your love but often found myself there in your pursuit.’

“Although my boyfriend and I had been dating seriously for about a year, we disagreed so vehemently about whether pain and struggle constitute a fundamental part of love that we decided to break up then and there after reading and discussing the poem.”

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This article struck me on a few different levels.

First, at least for me, pain and struggle are a huge part of my writing. During times of strife, the words tend to come more easily. Perhaps, in my desperation to “download” whatever is in my brain, I am less concerned about grammatical accuracy.

I believe that raw emotion (love, anger, joy, fear) creates very honest writing, that sometimes truths can come spilling out onto the paper along with all that other “stuff”.

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Something else that this piece got me thinking about: how our pain and struggle affects our relationships and our ability to love. I wrote a piece about 10 years ago about a relationship I had ended with a man (and I use the term loosely) who had never been in a serious relationship before me. His perception of what love was and how it worked was very…..immature to say the least. On the flip side, I was reeling from a past relationship that had ended, but never really got closure.  I dated this guy to try to get over the other; it didn’t work. This is an excerpt from that piece:

And so it ends

it was a saga of sorts

beginnings and endings

starts and stops

but it was a road to nowhere and I knew it

Maybe it was wrong of me to give a guy

who seemed to care so much

a false sense of security like that

But did he really deserve better?

Perhaps

Maybe not

Maybe I’ll just try to justify it by saying he had a lesson to learn

I know I did

Never date someone who has never been in love before

Maybe his lesson was not to fall for someone who had

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For me, pain and struggle are absolutely fundamental to my writing; they show that I am alive. As long as life continues to throw me curve balls, I will always have something to write about.

Agent or Coach?

Lately I have been thinking about Literary Agents and Writing Coaches. Do I need one? Well, I have been Googling (or “Swagbuck-ing”)  both to find out what the differences are between them.

Literary agent:

This is a professional who deals with the business side of things. For example, let’s say that I created a book manuscript and wanted to submit it to a publisher. The agent would act as an advocate for my work “selling” the idea to the publisher.

Literary Agents have a working knowledge of the industry and their job is to know which publishers are looking for the type of work that you are creating. They can also help negotiate contracts and walk you through the process.

**Something you might not know: not all agents promote all types of literature. An agent that helps you with your non fiction memoir may not be able to also help you sell your children’s  picture book.

Writing Coach:

A writing coach does just that: coaches. This is a person who helps offer guidance and support for those of us who are in the pre-manuscript stage of our writing. They can help you develop your personal writing style, offer advise and direction.

A writing coach is basically a mentor. They are experienced in the industry, very likely a published writer themselves, and can help you figure out what works and what does not work  with your writing.

**Just like with agents, Writing Coaches will stick to what they know. If the Coach has written Children’s books, he/ she will likely coach only writers interested in the same literary genre.

Another big difference between the two: a writing coach will cost you some money, a good agent will make you some money.

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Just thought I’d share these little nuggets of information with you as I discover them myself. Good luck!

Getting Started

I have finally decided that no book is ever going to be written by yours truly at this rate. What do I mean? Well, I’ve been trying to just plop myself down in front of my laptop willy nilly and just type away. I figured if there is a book somewhere in this head of mine,  it will spill out.

I’m sure you will be shocked to learn it hasn’t quite worked that way.

The truth is, it’s not only story ideas swimming around in this head of mine. There are all the errands I need to run, doctor’s appointments, bills, grocery lists, birthdays and everything else.

I need to get organized.

I have a planner for bills, calendars for appointments and birthdays and lists for groceries. How am  I keeping my book ideas organized? Well, I’m really not keeping them organized at all. That might just be my problem. So what do I do now? Let us revert back to elementary school. Do you remember writing papers and essays for class? What was the first thing we had to do?

Write an outline.

Seems so trivial, but the more I thought about it the more sense it made. I have a general outline “template” that I use. It seems to work well when I have a story idea but am not sure how to expand it.

First, if I have a Title for my story I write it across the top of the document. Next I create “chapters” or sections of my story or article. Sometimes, if I’m not sure where to go with a story, I will use a question. Answering that question can help me get “un-stuck”. For example:

Marina and her Monkey

1. Introduction

• Marina has a toy monkey that she loves.
• Introduce characters and setting.

2.  Lead into the conflict/ climax.

• What decision or action will Marina make that will determine the direction of the story?
  
• Losing her toy monkey
• irresponsible/ not putting things in their place

3.  How does the character react to the events?

• Panicking
  
• searching for her toy
  
• adventure while trying to find it, maybe finds a toy she lost long ago that was also misplaced
• sad

4.  Resolution.

• Marina finds her Monkey.
  
• Happy, relieved
• Understands the importance of putting toys away, being responsible

5.  Restate the lesson/ moral and its importance

This is just a general, basic type of outline but it is still effective. If I have a new idea, I can simply create a list of questions to help me figure out the “meat” of my story.

This same idea can be used for illustrating too. Questions could be:

1. What do I want this character to look like?
2. Friendly or mean?
3. Powers or strengths?
4. Weaknesses?
5. Size?
6. Does the character live on the land, in the water or air?

You get the point. A simple outline can really make a difference. If you find yourself still unsure where to go with a story you can feel confident that if you step away from it, the outline will allow you to pick up where you left off.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

I’m back.

Sorry for the long absence. I have literally been too drained to even write, thanks to a certain one-year-old who wants to wake up at 3am every morning. I’m not going to mention any names (you know who you are).

On a positive note, I finally got a new laptop. Well, it’s new to me anyways. I was previously using a Fujitsu Life book. It is very small and very slow. I would guess it’s about 7.5″ across. Super portable, yes, but that is about all it has going for it. I am now using a Dell Inspiron B130. It’s an older laptop but lightning fast and it has a lot of storage. On the down side, it is not nearly as light as the Lifebook so it will be more cumbersome to lug around. Although, if I am going to be honest, I cannot remember the last time I made it out of the house without an infant. I will go ahead and assume that I may not have to worry, any time soon, about working on my writing outside of the house.

All of that aside, I am really trying to work on my writing more. I have a head full of ideas but, quite frankly, absolutely no energy to do anything with them. Hopefully, Mini-Me will cooperate with the whole “sleeping” thing, allowing me to rejoin the land of the living.

One can only hope.