MONDAY FORTUNE COOKIE, 10/8/12

You will maintain good health and enjoy life.

SNARKY RESPONSE: Really?

You will maintain good health and enjoy life.

I sure wish I'd drawn this one out of my fortunes collection before last Saturday. Why you ask? Last Saturday, I tripped and fell, resulting in bruising and general unhappiness all over my body. Luckily nothing was broken and I'm much better now.

However, this fortune does bring to mind a point. Writing is a sedentary career. We do all the heavy lifting in our minds and the only parts of our bodies that get a real work-out are our fingers. Okay, I should acknowledge that there are genres of writing that require physical involvement – outdoors writers, travel writers, sports writers, etc. – but most of us spend the majority of our time at a desk, seated, for hours on end. If that's won't contribute to a bit of spread and gradual flabbiness, nothing will.

So, what's a dedicated writer to do? Get up and move around regularly.

The First Wives Club

One of my favorite scenes in The First Wives Club was when the three "first wives" Diane Keaton, Bette Midler, and Goldie Hawn were brainstorming ways to get back at one of their husbands. Goldie Hawn was up on their office treadmill and said she got her best ideas there. True to her word, she came up with an excellent observation and Bette Midler exclaimed "She does get her best ideas on there." (or something to that effect)

It's an often cited piece of advice that when you're blocked, you get up and do something else. But don't let that be the only time you get up. Aside from going in search of the obligatory caffeine or treats to stimulate and/or lure the muse. Exercise! Take a walk. Get on a rebounder. Switch on the exercise channel and follow along. No one cares if you don't do all the exercises with the grace and aplomb of those way perky exercise divas. The point is that you're moving and the more you move the easier it will become.

Oh, you say, that's easy to say from way over there. So, what are you doing? Admittedly, I've not been doing much, but I am posting this as a formal Declaration of Intent.

I will begin to include more exercise in my routine beginning today. How about you? Are you game?

Together we WILL maintain good health and enjoy life!

MONDAY FORTUNE COOKIE, 9/1/12

Infinite patience produces immediate results.

SNARKY RESPONSE: Talk about an oxymoron! Infinite patience produces immediate results? Patience infers passage of time. And Immediate, well, now, I'm hearing that old joke about someone shouting at their microwave – Hurry!

Infinite patience produces immediate results.

Attempting a career of any kind requires a huge helping of patience. No one becomes successful alone. It takes time to build a groundswell of any size. Not to mention the patience it takes to produce a finished product like, say, a book.

To my knowledge, no successful writer has ever written a publishable book in one sitting. Certainly, there have been instances where a completed manuscript is highly satisfactory, but it is far from polished. After the story has been set down, there is editing for grammar and plot, fine-tuning of continuity and dialogue, filling in setting and character, to name a few. These steps are crucial and must not be skimped on if you hope to produce a polished work. Of course, if you're not interested in craft and just want to see you name in print in a self-published book, you might skip those steps, but skip them at your own peril.

Like words spoken in haste, a reader's experience with your book is something you can't erase.

Make sure that you've gone over every chapter/paragraph/word to make sure it was necessary, succinct, and factually/grammatically correct. Readers have enough books stacked up on their TBR pile that if they become disillusioned with your book for any reason, they can just shunt you aside for someone who did the work. Don't be That Writer.

All that work and patience may not result in immediate results, but it will guarantee consistent results—positive reviews and most importantly, Sales!

My enovella, The Festival of The Flowers: The Courtesan and The Scholar, took several years to finish and polish to the point where I could actually submit it to publishers. It found a home at The Wild Rose Press. And I'd like to think that all my work and then the work I did with my TWRP editor comes through to the reader.

Now, my second enovella, Collector's Item, is in the final stages of edits with my editor at The Wild Rose Press and once more I am glad that I have taken the time and practiced the patience required to produce what I hope will be a quality result.

As they say, anything worth being done is worth being done well! Or at least to the best of your ability. Short cuts only cut you short. Be patient with yourself, your writing, and your career and you will see positive results. I'm certain of it.