Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

Defining yourself as a writer is a topic that I’ve touched on before. Agent Nathan Bransford’s blog post last week covered his exasperation with people whose identities are too wrapped up in being a writer. I usually agree with much that he writes, but this post had me scratching my head.

I guess he deals with many people who think themselves better writers than they actually are. I’m sure it’s frustrating to receive so many queries from people who write poorly and expect you to quickly respond with an eager acceptance of their manuscript. But do you have to be good to consider yourself a writer? Could you happily write a family history that delights everyone in your extended family and still be a writer? Could you pen the company’s monthly newsletter and still be a writer?

I think so.

Because being a writer goes a little deeper. It’s something many of us feel passionate about. I thought one of the comments on Nathan Bransford’s blog was interesting. It was by reader Adam Christopher and he wrote:

Say Mandy has a passion for rock-climbing. She goes all the time. She blogs about it. She takes part in a rock-climbing forum. She goes on big trips. She’s a bona fide, through-and-through rock-climber. During the day, she’s a receptionist at the HQ of a stationery chain. So what is she? Is she a receptionist? Does that define who she is? Not at all, she’s a rock-climber. Rock-climbing is her life.

I frequently don’t mention that I’m a writer when I’m doing mom stuff with other moms. It’s such a conversation-stopper. Much easier to be Mama and go with the flow. But I know deep down that I’m a writer. And it’s one of the greatest pleasures in my life.

I’ve been learning Twitter this week, and I feel a little like the bald guy in “The Scream.”

Folks who read my blog know that when it comes to reflecting on a topic, I tend to write on the more exhaustive side. Hopefully not the exhausting side.  Oddly enough, I’m not long-winded at all with manuscripts. I’m a big fan of The Elements of Style and its reminder to “omit needless words.”

Twitter certainly doesn’t allow for verbosity.

In fact, Twitter doesn’t allow you to put much of anything in context, either.  I love putting things in context.  ‘Having a rough day’ can mean you spilt your coffee, bit your tongue, and forgot the milk at the store.  Or ‘having a rough day’ could mean you lost your job, your dog, or your good health.

I just need to get used to Twitter, I think.  Facebook I like and get. For some reason, the interactions seem a little more personal.  This could be because I only have friends on Facebook and Twitter incorporates many other people—many of whom I don’t know.

Another problem with me and Twitter is that I feel a little like a Twit when I send a tweet. Oh, I’m fine when I’m forwarding cool links.  But my own personal observations and interactions don’t seem blather-worthy. 

If you’d like to follow my fledgling tweets, I’m: @elizabethscraig.

So these are my ideas for incorporating Twitter into my life. I’d love to hear anyone else’s, if they’re so inclined. 

Tweeting on mystery releases I’m excited about.

Tweeting on or retweeting interesting links and posts for writers.

Tweeting my writing progress each day (especially as a tool to keep myself on track.)

Some personal tweets, but not a lot. Not yet.  Maybe more once I warm up to the medium.

I’m a goal-setting kind of person. I love making lists and keeping notes. I like tracking my progress. And I like New Year’s resolutions.

But I always feel sad at the end of January each year. That’s when I realize that I have no trouble getting a treadmill at the YMCA…because all the people who made goals to lose weight or to get more fit have fallen off the bandwagon. I have to wonder what kinds of goals these folks made—was it something like ‘exercise 45 minutes every day’ or something more attainable like ‘exercise 20 minutes, 3 times a week?’ Did they say they wanted to lose 30 pounds, or did they make a more attainable goal of 5 –7 pounds in two weeks?

Writing is the same way. Many people tell me wistfully that they’d love to write a book if they had the time. But none of us have the time—we really don’t. The difference is that we’ve set workable objectives for ourselves and have applied a certain amount of discipline to the writing process.

When I was starting out, my goal was always a page a day. I knew that some days I’d be on a writing tear and would go far over a page. But that didn’t mean that the next day I didn’t have to write. I knew I needed to write every day, but only needed to produce a page by the end of it. An incremental goal, a daily goal, works well for me.

I’m writing more these days, but I’m still not setting myself up for a fall. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel each day. Instead of saying, “My goal is to finish this 215 page book”,” it’s “My goal today is to finish chapter 8.” For me, anyway, workable objectives keep writing fun. The challenge is still there, but it doesn’t overwhelm me.

I can be a squeamish reader. And a picky one.  I’ll give anything a whirl (particularly if it’s a book recommendation from someone I respect.)  But sometimes I don’t stick with a book; there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to plow through novels that don’t suit me.  I’ve compiled a list of things that bother me in novels and find that they’re things that I also avoid like the plague when I’m writing.

Topics I personally avoid:

Brutality towards children:  This is a big deal-breaker for me when I’m reading.  Before I had children, I was able to easily read books like Stephen King’s It and other books that portray children in dire straits. As a parent, it’s become too nightmarish for me.

Brutality towards animals: Same concept.

Anything overwhelmingly depressing for most of the novel. Maybe it’s today’s tough economic times and my need for an escape, but if I feel more unhappy reading a book than I was before I picked it up, then I can’t usually slog through it.  Give me a ray of hope, a light at the end of the tunnel.  A ‘this too shall pass.’ I can read 200 pages of depressing text if I know there’ll be a pleasing payoff, a redemption at some point.

Techniques I personally avoid:

Too many characters.  Or too many characters without enough tags to remind me who the heck they are.  Because of my busy lifestyle, I’m picking up and putting down a book sporadically.  If a book has thirty characters and no context to remind me of their identity, I’m irritated.  Do I need to leaf back through the book and figure out who this bit-part person is? Why not just say something like:  “Carol sighed. ‘What a day! I must have permed a dozen heads of hair today.’?”

Too many cliffhanging chapter endings. Don’t get me wrong—I love being forced to read a book past my bedtime. But don’t have cliffhangers at the end of every chapter, for Pete’s sake.  Makes it more like an episode of Dynasty or something.

A meandering plot.  Is it a mystery?  Where’s the dead body?  Give me a body pretty soon, if it’s a mystery.  General fiction?  Then what’s the plot conflict?  What’s the internal/external conflict for the book? What’s the point?  Lovely descriptions of setting are all well and good, but I don’t have time for the book to rhapsodize prettily on the locale.

Too much internal dialogue. Sort of like reading a self-obsessed teenager’s diary entry.

These are just my pet peeves. And there are exceptions to the rules, of course.  Lord of the Flies, for instance. Breaks many of my tenets and I enjoyed the book immensely. What are some of your pet peeves as a reader? Do your peeves influence your writing?

This post serves as a shout-out to all those parents out there who write.  All writers face obstacles to writing,  but this post specifically addresses the unique problems faced by moms and dads with kids still living at home.  Like me.

What I’ve learned (and believe me, people ask how I’m juggling this stuff):

Write first.  Do it early.  Get up before everybody else.  Get up before the chickens.: I hate to say that for all the late sleepers out there.  But the silence of the early morning, plus the relative disconnect from the outside world (no one is on Facebook at 4:45. Trust me…I know. And no one sends you emails then—except for retailers) creates the perfect environment to write.

Get the kids’ school stuff ready the day before. Or earlier.  I find that it’s easier for me to keep up with packing lunches, putting stuff in backpacks, etc. The kids have plenty of their own responsibilities; this is one I don’t mind taking over and doing in record time. I make 5 little sandwich bags of pretzels for school snacks, 5 days’ worth of allotted chocolate chip cookies, 5 days of chips at the beginning of the week.  The night before I put grapes or a banana in the bag.  The morning of, I do make the sandwiches (don’t want them to get stale in the fridge.)  The kids’ papers are signed as SOON as they get home the day before. I have a checkbook in my hand as soon as they come through the door because there’s always a yearbook to be ordered, Scholastic book orders to be sent in, field trips to pay for, donations for the school, etc. that need payment.  I do these right away and just turn those suckers back in.

Make the coffee the night before.  This one is essential.

Have breakfast ready before you wake the kids up.  And after you’ve done a bunch of writing already.

After the kids go off on the bus or carpool, do a 15 minute pick-up.  You know it’ll drive you crazy if you don’t.  This is not the time to dust the ceiling fan blades.  Just pick up stuff that should be thrown away, put in a desk, or taken to another room.  If you stay at home, you can write much easier.  If you go to work, you won’t be greeted by chaos at the end of a long day.

Start a load of laundry.

Remember the fact that at some point, everyone will need to eat at the end of the day. I’ve rediscovered my crock pot. And found these sites: http://www.a-crock-cook.com/ and http://tinyurl.com/3xnjj . I throw the meat, vegetable, and sauce in and pray that it resembles supper at the end of the day. 

Cram in more writing at some point during your day (lunch break, etc.)

Whatever you do, make sure your mind is focused on your kids when you first see them after school.  This is not the time to be inventing cool dialogue between your two favorite characters. Because kids know when you’re not really listening.  Believe me: my daughter nailed me on it yesterday.  “Why did you say ‘umm-hmm?’ You weren’t at recess today!”      

Do the signing paper/check writing thing again.

Put that load of laundry in the dryer before it mildews.

Feed everyone. 

Make sure your kids put out the outfit they want to wear the next day.

Do you need to put some chicken or beef from the freezer into the fridge to defrost for supper tomorrow?

Collapse in bed.

Oddly enough (and with many different variations on this theme: insert sick kids, sick parent, upchucking dog or cat, errands to run, grass to mow) the basic structure of it seems to work.  For me, anyway.  How do you parent and write and run a home?  How do you deal with any other obstacles to your writing goal?