Category: Writing

30-Day Writer's Boot Camp, Writing

Day 5: Always Ready

Laura

Rachel talks about finding moments in the day to write, even if it’s one sentence, a character’s name, or the first item on a list. After all, this is Writer’s Boot Camp, so writing should always be at the center of attention. And it has been lately, but I didn’t think about keeping a notebook with me to write down my thoughts whenever they struck me. So silly to not think of this when I teach high school English where fodder is everywhere. I am to keep pen and paper with me at all times. Check.

Assignment: Detox

She asks a few questions about my life:

  • Are there a lot of annoying things happening in your life?
  • Are you frustrated about the writing process or something else?

Now I am supposed to write about it.

I am frustrated that I feel as if I come up with some good ideas for writing, but I can’t seem to get it detailed on paper or computer. On Tuesday, we got out of school a little early so I went home and I wrote for two hours. Seems awesome. It was, but I started three pieces of writing because I got to a point in each where I hit a wall and I wasn’t sure where to take the story. It was great to get the ideas out of my head and on to the computer screen, but it was beyond frustrating to see that I struggled to develop all three. I also looked at a piece I did two years ago for the start of this camp (I didn’t cry when she died) and tried to add to that one with little success.

How can I be a writer when the ideas don’t flow? How do I practice writing when I can’t seem to develop ideas? It is one thing to hit this problem sometimes, but I feel as if I hit it every time I start writing. Right now, I have no problem completing this assignment. It seems I have plenty to say on the topic of writer’s block. But how can I be a writer when I struggle to add detail to anything I write?

How’s it going for you? Do you feel as if you struggle with writer’s block all the time?

30-Day Writer's Boot Camp, Writing

Day 3: Writer’s Boot Camp

Laura
Credit: aaron-burden-y02jEX_B0O0-unsplash

To Be Honest

I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do for day 3 of boot camp. Yesterday at school we had a lock out and had to evacuate the building. I won’t go into more detail than that. However, we were not able to return to the building and I left my writer’s boot camp book at school. That’s definitely something I could add to one of pieces! I’m sure I’ll add to this post at some point later today, but here is what I did accomplish yesterday.

  • I wrote for 2 hours out of pleasure. (We got out of school a little early, so I had extra time.)
  • I started several pieces that were just sitting in my head.
  • I was able to post my goals to this blog.
  • I realized that my old problem still rings true that I struggle writing without a plan.

Today, I woke up at 4:30 to write this and add to one of those pieces I started yesterday. I’d say that’s a pretty good start since two years ago I was already off track at this point.

Scheduling Time to Write

Now that I’m at school, I can see that I need to find time this week to write, and I need to keep track of that time. I must say, I’ve been really excited about this project. More so than last time. It’s been a long time since I’ve given myself permission to do something like this, and it will be a good experience for my students to see me go through the process with them.

In the section, Rachel writes about getting up an hour earlier each morning. Usually, I can do that, but neither this week nor the beginning of next as I have to be to work at 5 on some of those days. So here is the schedule from now until Day 6.

Wednesday Day 3: 4:30 am

Thursday Day 4: 5-6 pm (I’m hoping for 5-7, though)

Friday Day 5: 4:30 am

Saturday Day 6: 12-2

Still Looking for the WIP

I’m still struggling with the Work in Progress. I really don’t know what I want to do. So far I have three pieces that I’ve started working on. Nothing major and definitely very little written on them so far. They were just ideas floating around that needed to be placed on paper before I could tell if they were worthwhile projects. I find myself having an easier time with non-fiction than fiction these days. Several years ago, it was the other way around. But I am still having fun going back to my roots.

Stay tuned in for Day 4!

 

30-Day Writer's Boot Camp, Writing

Writer’s Check-In

Laura

Hey, Fellow Writers!

I’m just checking in because I haven’t posted in a while. I should be getting some posts on here soon, but I really haven’t had much that I can actually publish to this website. If you’re new to the site, you know that I am using it as part of a Genius Hour Project for my English students. That also means that there are things that I’ve written that I will not be able to publish here.

So what have I been up to?

Sorry I haven’t posted lately, Rachel. I have been writing. I’ve been working on Julia Cameron’s morning pages, which have been really hard to do. She states that I should start every morning with three pages of free writing to get all of my writer-blocking thoughts out of my head in order to free up thoughts for writing. It has been darn hard to get three pages without feeling as if I’m repeating myself repeatedly (haha!). Maybe when school starts up again in a couple weeks it will be a different story. For now, they are darn hard. I’ve also been working on writing a piece. It is not, however, my WIP. This one has been much more personal, and I’m unable to publish it because… well… it’s personal. And I’m not into publishing my memoirs for the world (and my students) to see.

30-Day Writer's Boot Camp, Writing

Day 8: The Daily Slog

Laura

I haven’t made much progress in my writing over the last few days. I’m supposed to be  working on writing for at least 30 minutes each day, either towards my Work in Progress or freewriting. Truthfully, I’m scared. Sitting in front of the computer Sunday night staring at the old notes I had taken over my WIP, it suddenly hit me as to why I had never started this project. I have no clue where to take it. This really cool over-arching premise about good and bad vampires is present. I have a set of human twins who can turn the tide. The vampires have this ancient grudge and have been fighting for years. And… that’s it. All of these questions just begin to bombard me and I don’t know the answers.

Why are they fighting?

How can I keep it from sounding religious?

Is it just going to sound like another Twilight or Vampire Diaries?

What is the purpose of the twins?

How do I add components in without sounding too much like all the paranormal/fantasy stuff that’s out there already?

What is the main freaking point?!

Where in the heck do I take these ideas?

I guess I need to figure out what’s missing so I can move forward. Let’s problem solve. Looking over my notes, there is no conflict–just a war that’s old. Obviously, backstory has to be created. I wrote mini-biographies of the four main characters, but I already know that some of this simply won’t work because I’m thinking of making the setting on a different Earth. Originally, it was supposed to be a kind of Underworld that most humans knew nothing about, but then I run into a religious aspect that I want to stay away from entirely. This means that I have to create a new Earth and a new society that has completely different beliefs about life and death than this one. Or I could keep this Earth and still create a society with different rules that humans know nothing about. Or I could create a futuristic Earth. Aaarrgghh! So many decisions!

Right now, I feel like one of my students. At this point in the writing, I would ask the student a bunch of questions that might get them moving in a one direction. Then I would offer them possible scenarios. Rarely do they choose one of mine, but it inevitably leads them to an idea of their own. Since I can’t make a copy of myself, I’m going to publish this and spend the next 30 minutes or so creating a backstory for the war. If I get nowhere with this, I may just have to scrap this idea and try another WIP until something else comes to me.

30-Day Writer's Boot Camp, Writing

Freewriting Cheat Sheet

Laura

Day 7: Creating a Freewriting Cheat Sheet

Before I begin, I have to be honest and say that I began writing this post over a week ago. The end of the school year was rough with lots of grading to finish and family visiting the same week. Yesterday, all family left and school work and classroom cleaning completed. So here I am, jumping right back on the writing train.

After a short break, I’m heading into week 2 of the Writer’s Boot Camp which is about The Workouts, and today I need to create a Freewriting Cheat Sheet. I could seriously use one of these, so I’m really excited to have this list.

5 Things Worrying Me

  • My son’s dislike of school
  • Publishing a novel by 2020 per my students’ challenge
  • Getting my grading done on time within the next 7 days
  • Finding 20 minutes of time to write over the next 7 days
  • Getting my house ready for company a mere two days after school lets out for the summer

5 Things I’m Grateful For (I’m not going to put family as it is a given.)

  • I truly love my job.
  • I truly love my house.
  • I love and appreciate the state that I live in (Washington is beautiful.).
  • Despite that there are things that I want, there is nothing that I need. I live a blessed life.
  • I’m healthy and still play sports.

5 Things I Need to Do Today (really tomorrow since it’s almost midnight)

  • Write my final exams
  • Make my reading quiz for chapter 11 of Lord of the Flies
  • Write for 20 minutes
  • Take Cam to practice
  • Grade 1st, 3rd, and 4th period work

5 Things I Accomplished Recently

  • My deck looks absolutely beautiful with all of its plants. I worked on that last weekend.
  • I’ve been writing in some form every day.
  • I’ve kept the inside of my Jeep clean. You have no idea how horrible I am at doing this.
  • I’ve recently begun biking.
  • I’ve upped my workouts during the last two weeks.

5 Goals

  • Write a novel and publish it by June 20, 2020 (the date my students set in their challenge to me).
  • Read the book Become Organized in One Year and actually do it.
  • Write for 20 minutes every day.
  • Pay off my car early.
  • Fit into my favorite pair of jeans.

5  Things I Noticed Today that I Might Be Able to Use Somewhere

  • Today I was really cranky after my son’s baseball game.  I could probably use that anger to write a pretty decent poem.
  • I got my Photography for Beginners magazine back today. I’d like to begin going through it so I can start taking my own pictures for this blog.
  • I noticed that I’m overwhelmed with paper. I could definitely write something to first-year teachers about trying to make sure they find balance.
  • My dogs are really, really, REALLY adorable. I could totally write a poem about them. And my Shih Tzu constantly licks which is not cute, so an angry pet-peeve poem would serve me there.
  • My house is clean (due to visiting family). While I would never write about my about my clean house other than this moment, I realize how much I enjoy working and writing in a clean and organized space. It makes me feel happy and productive.

Tomorrow is the big day; I begin working on my WIP (or one of the three anyway). I’m nervous and excited at the same time. This idea has been playing around in my head for years, and getting it fleshed out will tell me if the idea is really good or just a dumb dream. Yes, there are dumb dreams. Just like there really are dumb questions.

I’m off. Hope you’ve enjoyed!

30-Day Writer's Boot Camp, Writing

Punching In, Punching Out

Laura

Day 6 of Writer’s Boot Camp

Today is about keeping track of my day. Rachel Federman has some really good advice on keeping track of my time usage in the day in order to not only see if my time is being used effectively, but also to make a plan later so that I can be more productive. She goes on to discuss that many of the people who only write when they’re inspired (me) are probably not going to be very productive in their writing lives. I have lived way this for years, so I closed my eyes in shame when I read this part. It’s like she can see inside my soul. Dang her!

I will do this, but I already know that I do not use my time effectively or I wouldn’t have grading to finish the last week of school and weight to lose this summer. Going to bed on time would be a regular occurrence, and I wouldn’t give my Sleep Alarm app a frowning face every morning when it asks me how I feel. Federman addresses the business of being busy in her book:

We all love to be busy. We love to say how busy we are. We’re addicted to what Tim Krieder brilliantly called “busy trap” and what Heather Sellers calls the “busy drug.” (41)

 

I can say that I do NOT suffer from this. And I actually call it BBS – Busy Bee Syndrome. I used to suffer from this. I bought my fill of planners and showed people how important my time was. When I first moved to Washington, that all stopped. I wasn’t teaching full-time anymore, and that was the first summer I realized how damaging BBS really was to me. Granted, I could keep busy during the first three weeks or so of summer vacation, but when the dust cleared and the boxes were empty from moving, there was nothing to do. And my brain couldn’t shut off. I’d spent years always having too much to do for school, and I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something (grading, planning, emailing) had to be done now. It took me over two years to stop having that feeling.

I do fill my time, but I’m ashamed to admit that my planner is not share-with-everyone noteworthy. Truthfully, it’s not worth sharing, even embarrassing. If just thinking about how I use my time is embarrassing now, writing it all down is just going to solidify shame. However, it will be done. That is the task of the day. Once this is take care of, then I can move on to figure out how to use my time effectively in order to plan out my writing. After all, I stated in my goal setting post that I wanted to make sure that I wrote for at least 20 minutes a day (which I still struggle with), and I needed a plan for writing. Here, I’ll be able to figure out the best times to write and focus on doing something specific, as Rachel suggests in her book.

30-Day Writer's Boot Camp, Writing

Off Track Already?!

Laura

Day 3: How am I off track already?

Day 3 of my writer’s boot camp experience has already gone off course. I can only blame myself, baseball, and grading. I try to do baseball and grading at the same time. For example, Camdon had a double-header last night so I spent three hours sitting in my chair at the game grading papers and trying to enter and update grades on my iPad mini. Admittedly, it sounds laughable, but I constantly suffer from feeling guilty.

My students will ask me when something is going to be in the gradebook, and I tell them that I will try really hard to get it in that night. Then another class asks the same thing. I’m constantly thinking to myself, how in the heck am I going to get this stuff into the gradebook? Even after working for three hours last night, the inch-high pile of papers that I graded didn’t look impressive by any means. And I have a pile of papers 6 times that sitting in my backpack. One could say that I carry my guilt on my shoulders… literally.

I really want to make writing a habit, and I felt guilty the entire time I graded for a myriad of reasons.

  1. I wasn’t paying full attention to Camdon while he was playing.
  2. I am the slowest grader in man’s history and I felt bad that some of my assignments should have been done much earlier.
  3. I was already off two days on my writer’s boot camp day.

Even while playing softball, I’m sometimes in the dugout grading while our team bats. Last weekend, I had a couple of hours in between my double-headers so I sat in some shady grass and graded. This is where Rachel would tell me that she’s going to “break out the world’s tiniest violin and play a little song on it.” It’s time to get my stuff together and just do what needs to be done. No more punishing myself. It’s time to come out of the corner and do the work.

 

So here I am sitting on my bed and typing this post at 10 p.m. after Cam’s baseball game. It’s not an early morning, Rachel, but I’m making the time you and your book told me to make even though I’m tired. Day 3’s work is to come up with a schedule for writing which I did do. I originally scheduled my time right after school while I would still be at work but not under contracted hours. At that time, I would have a quiet place to work with no distractions. Baseball has affected that, so I will have to determine a new plan. However, even though I have not written in two days, I have had time to solidify a few thoughts about my goals.

Goal Setting Thoughts

In my earlier post, the goal was set to write for 20 minutes each day. Secretly, I was hoping for more, but I’m a realist and the idea was to just create some habits that would get the rock rolling. I discussed how I really need a plan for writing if I ever hope to get anything accomplished and any writing finished. I’m not sure, though, that I just want to work on one WIP (Rachel’s acronym for Work in Progress). Three WIP’s come to mind now that there has been some time to think.

  1. I really like this blog. I didn’t do it justice before, but it has potential to be something really fun and cool that could grow and develop. A couple of days ago, I showed my 9th grade classes this blog and told them about the idea for my WIP about the vampires. Today, I showed one of my classes the incomplete piece of writing I posted yesterday and realized that this is such a great teaching tool. At the end of class, one of the students told me that she was thinking about my WIP idea and was so intrigued that she drew the two main characters. How cool is that?! Also, another class was so intrigued about my fear of having others read my fiction, that they came up with a challenge for me which you can see above. Now I have three years to get this done. Sneaky little 9th graders.
  2. At some point soon, I would like to begin blogging about education, specifically teaching English to high school students. The years have changed drastically and so have the students needs, desires, and behaviors. Being a teacher now is signficantly different from just five years ago. The concern here is that I don’t know if I can come up anything truly unique for a blog such as that, so I would have to do some serious research on it.
  3. The WIP mentioned on Day 2 (Not the Vampire Diaries) as the main focus of this camp has been this kernel of an idea in my brain for a good five or six years. I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy/science fiction lately, making it easier to see how I might incorporate my ideas into an alternate Earth in order to free me from the concerns I have had regarding religion.

Despite careening off track for a couple of days, the time may have done some good. I feel that there is some direction now, and I’m really excited about that. This post also took me well over an hour to write, so I’ve more than met my 20 minute goal requirement for the day. Does that make up for missing two days? Rachel will probably say no way!

Thanks for reading.