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Write Every Day and Finish

6/18/2015

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Okay, not the most unique advice out there. But, as a teacher and mentor, I meet a lot of young writers spinning their wheels. They are either waiting for inspiration - those divine days where all you can do is write the muse hits you so hard. Or they have made it to the middle, or three chapters in, or just past the part they had super planned . . . and they're stuck. No idea where the compass lies. Or, after a busy day of school or minimum wage job, they are too tired to even attempt writing. All of these are good reasons not to write and more importantly, not to finish what they've started. However the truth is the blocks to writing are not as solid as they seem.

I've gone through all of these. I've seen the dark days when the muse is gone. When a thirteen hour or even sixteen hour work day, eight days in a row, left me so sapped there was no room in my brain for words. I've had writing rooms so dark and uninspiring I didn't want to go in there and do what needed to be done. I've seen plots and scenes where the characters wander and nothing is happening. I've laid down my pen in defeat.


But that's not how you become a writer.


Luckily for me, I realized something. That annoying phrase those "real" writers were always spouting, "Write every day." was true. That was, if I was going to follow my dream of being a "real" writer, and by real I mean professional. I had to write, every day, no matter what.


So what does it mean, write every day? In my world it doesn't mean pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, nor does it mean a set words or a set amount of hours (unless a deadline is looming. What it does mean is that I am mindful of my work every single day. If I don't have time to throw down with the muse, I'm thinking of the next scene or couple of scenes. I work out problems over dishes, expand characters on the bus, and plot in the shower. Then when I do write - I'm ready to go.


But how does that help the museless, the uninspired, the perpetually exhausted? Well, answer this, "How bad do you want it?" How bad do you want to be a "real" writer? How far are you willing to go to chase that dream, to see this story in print? Because I've been there. I've had the stuck story, the year long writer's block, the exhaustion where I thought I was going black and white like some fuzzed out TV. None of them are a good enough reason not to write. You can make it into an excuse - but it's a lie.


If you're to0 tired when you get home from work, switch your schedule. Write before you leave, then when you get home, have supper and go to bed. I've done it. Working at a daycare left me seeing double. So I started getting up at three in the morning and writing for three hours, then heading to work. Social life? Not much. Finished play ready for stage? You bet. And that was glorious, seeing that thing up there and hearing the applause when the actors took their bows.


If you are uninspired, suck it up. I'm very rarely inspired in the beginning. Mostly I'm tired, and the screen is hurting my eyes, and I don't think I'm going to be able to pull it off. The muse only comes once I get going, and sometimes not even then. Being a professional writer doesn't come by magic, it comes after a long hard slog. So get slogging. Writers don't get finished by whining.


If your story, plot, character has fizzled out - don't stop and try a new story. Finish! Even if it's all coming up crap. Finish. Trust me, it will look better after you complete your project, put it away for a month or two. Or at the very least, it will be fixable. Instead of quitting, look over your plot and ask yourself, "what does my character want, why do they want it, and what is stopping them?" Basic goal, motive, conflict (GMC) stuff. If you have that, then look at the scene you're writing. Each scene will have the same thing (though maybe different from the over arcing plot). Finding GMO will banish pretty much any stalled out scene and evaporate most writer's blocks. 



And if that doesn't work, look at your narrative structure and your theme. Do some character sketches. Do some plotting. Story doesn't happen with out pre-work, and sometimes you have to go back and get it done.

But the basic message I want to get across here is this: If you want to be a writer you have to write. No excuses. No whining. No waiting for some tingly feeling that only comes very rarely. Write everyday and finish what you start. 


Now get slogging and follow that dream. You can do it. I believe in you.
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The muse is not always with me. Sometimes we're butting heads.
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Reading

11/2/2013

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I have been so busy with my writing and teaching careers for the past three or so years that reading has taken a back seat. It used to be when my daughter was younger, that summers spent "supervising" her in the back yard meant that I could get in a few chapters of a novel, or a comic. Now, with her needing space more than anything, I have had made very little time to read, preferring to "get some work done" during the pause between parenting.
This turns out to be a bad thing. Not only for the obvious reasons that I have lost a pleasant pastime but also that my own writing, in the absence of new input, has stagnated. It turns out that in order to improve my own writing I must read works of others. Indeed, for a while I was feeling quite hopeless at how my abilities seemed to be standing still when not that long before they had been growing exponentially.  I didn't equate the lack of time spent reading to the lack of my own growth until I was forced by way of becoming Writer in Residence for Open Book Toronto, to read a great number of locally produced books in order to either recommend them or not. Reading pushed away the fuzz that came of burying my self exclusively in my own words and reinvigorated me.
So now I am determined to inhale books. I must, for the sake of my own career, read. It's not a bad vitamin to take. I'm quite pleased with the therapy. I've already reached chapter two in The Great Gatsby just yesterday. I hear it is wonderfully written. So far I am smitten.
So lesson learned. Read to write better. Got it. 
Now, back to my book! 
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New Adventures

5/2/2013

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So Boiled Cat is launched! What a fun night. MJ Diva and Thrashadactyl rocked it out. I read. Books were signed. And I got to connect with people I haven't seen in a long, long time. (That's what happens when you lock yourself away to write)!
Now I'm on to new adventures. I'm doing art for the Boiled Cat book trailer. The STICK IT TO THEM Boiled Cat sticker contest is launched - go to the Boiled Cat website for info on that (www.boiledcat.com). Stickers are free so contact me to get some. I'm putting together classes for the THREE camps I'm teaching at this summer. I've also been invited to be a panelist for the When Words Collide conference in August. In November I'll be the Writer in Residence for Open Book Toronto. And during all this I've pitched a new book to Lorimer SideStreets called Stupid. If that makes it through all the hoops, I'll be working on a new book soon. I also plan on getting How To Be A Super Villain sold as soon as possible and finding an agent for February. The amount of work I have to do is endless, however I look forward to all of it. I hope you'll all stick with me on my adventures. Who knows where this road will take me but it looks like fun!
Oh, yeah, one more thing - there's new pictures on the corkboard and, as usual, they all link somewhere. Have fun with them!

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Boiled Cat

2/5/2013

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I'm having so much fun creating the website for Boiled Cat - my self-published book due out this spring. It's a good thing I like what I'm doing, I've been working on it for about two months with another one or two to go. The site is over thirty pages and none of the pages are short. Each page has a good five to twenty links leading to bands, games, videos, articles, and pictures. Yesterday I wrote thirty band notes. You know, those little scraps of paper you find between the seats after a trip with a really random phrases on them. The kind that makes you laugh - or raise your eyebrow. Anyway, my bed was covered with them after I scanned them all in. I've been writing articles too. Not to mention doing the final edit on the novel itself. I used up all my black dalek sticky notes doing that and had to use some blue ones too - but I want this book to be perfect. That said, I'm pretty sure I'll miss stuff and there will be one or two little mistakes. It probably wouldn't matter how many times I went over it. But back to the website - I think the best thing about creating this site is listening to the music. For every place the band visits in the book I've linked to local punk bands. Some of these guys and girls are amazing. I discovered that Houston has the most incredible music scene. I think I'm going to be buying a lot of new punk rock when this is all said and done. I hope I make some fans for the bands too. I mean this is really what the Boiled Cat website is all about - sharing things that interest me and exploring all the great things in the world that are related to punk rock.
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Dear Lucky Agent Contest

1/28/2013

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The “Dear Lucky Agent” Contest is a recurring online contest
with agent judges and super-cool prizes. This year they are looking for Science
Fiction novels (adults or teens) and any kind of Young Adult novel. If you write
in these genres, then this contest is for you. If not - try again next year,
they will have different niche genres. The contest is live through January 31,
2013. So enter now. More details found here: http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/13th-free-dear-lucky-agent-contest-young-adult-and-sci-fi
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Freaking Out

1/2/2013

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Ahh! The cover of my new, self published book Boiled Cat came in today. I was asked which draft I liked (there were two) and what changes I wanted (I get to make changes twice and then it's set in stone - unless I pay more money). This is so stressful! I toyed with the cover. Tried to make it as best I could. I tried to make it appealing. Made notes. Felt sick to my stomach. Second guessed myself. Then finally sent everything back to the publisher. Now I have to wait five days to find out if I made the right choices. This self publishing thing is hard. I wish I had a crystal ball to see how it all ends. Then again... maybe not.
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Being a Writer

12/31/2012

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When I was in high school the school counsellor asked me what I was going to do after school. Of course I said, “I’m going to be a writer.” At this point I had already written a novel, had a one act play produced that did quite well in the local festival and had the same play reach the top five in a province wide playwriting competition against adults. So I was well on my way. Not to mention that even with the three or more hours of high school homework and studying I had every night, I regularly managed to pound out another two to four hours of writing a day too. Mind you, I didn’t have a job. Still, I was a writer and that was that. My school counsellor didn’t see things quite my way. “You can’t be a writer,” she said. “You won’t make any money.”
I recently saw a similar conversation directed at one of the kids I met this summer. “You can’t be a writer. Why not do what your parents did? They’re successful.” I’m afraid to say, this girl is already is writer, and a damn good one at that. With no real training, she just writes from the heart. Says what is on her mind, and it blows me away every time. So telling her that she can’t be a writer isn’t going to play out well for anyone.
Besides, being a writer isn’t something we choose. It’s what we are. You don’t decide to be a writer. Not in my experience. You either are one or you aren’t. You either spend hours fiddling with words, desperately searching for a way to make your words better, to ring truer, to be brighter, or you do something else. Find excuses. Do laundry. And not everyone who likes to write is a writer. But when you are a writer, having someone tell
you that you can’t be one – doesn’t work. You can’t just stop being a writer. There isn’t any way around it. It’s like telling someone that they can’t be human. How the heck would you pull that off?
So to all you struggling writers out there. Don’t listen to the can’ts. Don’t worry about the don’ts. Just write. You have to anyway. So why fret. Trying to explain this passion to those people is a waste of time. Besides you have better things to do – like writing.
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History

10/29/2012

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I didn’t go to university. When the time came to make those decisions I was taken into the guidance councillor’s office in my small town school, where she asked me what I wanted to do as my career. I told her I wanted to be a writer. She replied that I couldn’t be a writer, they didn’t make any money. So offered, prostitute. She gasped and said I couldn’t be that either. I told her, since she wouldn’t be satisfied with anything, I was leaving. I never got the university information. I had no idea how to apply. I had no money to go even if I could figure it all out on my own. And I didn’t even know they taught any kind of writing at university anyway. Had I known, I may have actually tried to figure out how to get there. Instead I moved into a small, one room apartment in Calgary, with the bathroom down the hall and a couple fighting in the next room, because it sounded like a place a writer could be born. Then I wrote. I wrote every day, two to twelve hours a day. I wrote plays to start with. Then I  traveled and wrote novels. I moved to Montreal, not speaking any French and  lived in the slums and wrote more. I sought out experiences and interesting people. I figured I’d be decent by the time I hit forty. Around thirty I decided to learn how to get published. And true to my career trajectory, I began to get published around forty. (I did have a few plays produced before then). Now I write full time and I’m working on getting an agent. I teach writing to youth and tell them that there are classes in University that teach all kinds of writing. I encourage the kids to go to university. I don’t know if it will do anything for them, or if it would have done anything for me. Maybe it would  have speeded up my learning curve. I can’t say, because I never went. But I’m pretty happy with how my writing life is and all the experiences I’ve had working to get where I am.

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There's Something Wrong

10/9/2012

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My February Trilogy hasn’t been picked up by an agent yet. My readers are complaining. I have to get it sold. But, there’s something wrong. It’s just not – I don’t know – exciting enough. I mean, sure there are gun fights and poisonings and grenades, but something’s still not right. I just can’t put my finger on it.
Then I talked to my daughter. She asked me what exactly was wrong and the more we talked the more I realized – the stakes aren’t high enough. They are in the second and third book. But the first one, it kind of falls flat.
So come November – I’m going to dive into February and pump it up. Make all those things she does life or death, because really, being a secret agent, her life is against the wall most of the time.
Now I feel better about things. Now I can fix this and finally get an agent. Did I mention my daughter is super smart.
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Falling off the Earth

10/1/2012

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Okay, so I didn't EXACTLY fall off the Earth. But I have been really busy. No, not your usual relatives are in town and I have laundry and dishes kind of busy. I've been teaching all summer. I ran three week long summer camps and taught at one. That's four camps. Not to mention my amazing daughter won a film making award so we had to go out to Vancouver to see her animation on the big screen. Pretty good for an eleven year old. Then September rolled around and I got to breathe for two seconds before RIO started up again as well as a Theatre class I'm teaching and school. Did I mention I home school? Couple all that with a novel deadline and a few rewrites and the fact that I'm also self publishing a novel and had a play in the Calgary Fringe festival. Yeah, so like I said, busy. But things are slowing down to a low roar and I've found a long ladder to hop back up on the Earth. Hopefully this blog will come more frequently now. In the meantime, for your entertainment - here is a good review I got of Hook Up. I'm so pleased: http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol19/no4/hookup.html
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    Kim Firmston

    Writer, Teacher, Mutant. What more could you want?

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