My Dream Writing Space, An Open Book Blog Hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

Describe what your dream writing space would look like. 

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For most of my adult life, I didn't have a designated writing space at all. But when my eldest left for college, we played "room-capades" at la casa Bryant and I scored a room of my own! 

I put a LOT of work into making it just the way I wanted and did nearly all the work for it myself, from peeling the old wallpaper and painting the walls to hanging the curtains. So, in a way, I feel like I *have* my dream writing space. 

The best part is my plant window. Instead of curtains, I just have shelves across the windows and they are lined with plants and pretty stones and little knick-knacks from my life. 

Now that I'm settled into my Writing Oasis, I mostly wish it was just a bit bigger. It's only a ten by ten room and I have a LOT of books, decorative items, houseplants, and memorabilia, not to mention "writing business" stuff like my inventory of books for events, bookmarks, swag, etc. It feels a little cramped sometimes, and getting rid of some of these belongings would be heartbreaking. 

Since this is an absolute fantasy, maybe I can transport my room to a turret in a clifftop mansion with a secret passageway through the closet and a dramatic, rocky seascape vista. Or some kind of magic door so that I can walk through it into any setting I want and take my writing break on a beach or in the mountains or in Paris on a whim. 

But really, I'm just so grateful to have my own space, designed to support my writing life and not shared with any other purpose. I'm truly spoiled. 

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What else do you do (besides write)? An Open Book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

Besides writing, what other "subjects" are you good at?

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Well, I do have a few skills besides writing. 

• I'm a good home cook and baker. My banana bread is pretty famous among friends and family, and my husband swoons over my curries. I'm not afraid to tackle complicated recipes and love a chance to use an ingredient or kitchen tool that I've never used before. 
• I can speak, read, write, and understand Spanish. That has come in handy in MANY situations, not just in travel, but here in Hillsborough, North Carolina, too. 
• I'm an excellent organizer/planner (I have to keep to keep the chaos we call family life flowing). You should see my color coordinated google calendar.
• I'm comfortable with public speaking and presenting, something that served me well in and out of my writing life. 
• and I'm getting better at plant care. Only killed one plant so far this year. 

How about you? Do you have hidden talents or knowledge that serve you well? I'd love to hear about them in the comments.  

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Overthinking it: An Open Book Blog post

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

How do you keep from overthinking your story? 

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Sometimes I feel like thinking is the bulk of writing. While I'm walking around living my life, some part of my brain is always working on writing. So the idea that you can overthink it is a little odd to me…but I can see how you can get stuck thinking and never actually produce. 

My cure for that: deadlines!

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Before I had publishing contracts, I had my critique group. Besides all the help they gave me on polishing my writing, they also served as a source of external pressure. I needed to crank out some words because my partners were expecting them. So, that helped me move forward, even if I wasn't entirely happy with what I wrote. 

I've use National Novel Writing Month in a similar way. If you're not familiar with it, NaNoWriMo is an invitation to write 50,000 in one month (November each year), which is enough words to count as a novel by most counts. That's faster than I usually write, and though the work definitely needs a lot of revision afterwards, it can be helpful to jumpstart a project. 

Since I have a tendency to fall down Research Rabbit Holes, a feeling that I have limited time to finish is good for me. So that I don't give up on the good by trying to get to perfect. Getting closer to perfect is what revisions are for!

So, how do you pull yourself out of it if you find yourself overthinking something? I'd love to hear your suggestions in the comments! 

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If I had to give up writing… An IWSG blog post

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. This month's co-hosts are: Patricia Josephine, Diedre Knight, Olga Godim, J. Lenni Dorner, and Cathrina Constantine!

June 7 question - If you ever did stop writing, what would you replace it with?

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First, /shudder/!  The thought of giving up writing is horrifying. Though I have sometimes considered giving up publishing, I have NEVER considered giving up writing. That seems like giving up breathing to me--it's so integral to my life and wellbeing. So, this is definitely a very hypothetical question for me. 

When I was younger, I might have pursued another art--focused on music or drawing. Those were also among my early loves, alongside writing, and scratch a similar itch for self-expression and creation. 

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But these days, my fingers don't work so well (they never really worked all that well, to be fair), and I don't have the finger dexterity to get very far with instruments or sketching anymore (at least not by hand--the way I loved them as a child). 

So, if I had to give up writing (and it's hard to imagine what could make me do that), I'd maybe take up film making. 

There's a lot of exciting story telling happening in short film (though maybe that's cheating--I'd still be writing, just in a new-to-me format). 

How about you? For my fellow writers, what would you pursue instead? For readers and other creative folks, what if you had to give up your favorite mode of self-expression? What would you do then? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

What kind of muppet are you? An Open Book blog hop post

 Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

If you were a muppet, what would you look like? Are you a person, monster, animal, something else? 

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What a fun question! I've always had an affinity for Kermit, so maybe I could be added to his family. I mean, he's got a nephew already, right? How about a niece? 

Oooh---oooh! Or maybe I could join The Electric Mayhem. They certain have some diversity of appearance.

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I think my multi-colored hair would fit right in…and I'd get to hang out with Animal, one of my favorite muppets. 

Honestly, I'd take any role the creators wanted to give me, just for the privilege of hanging out with my childhood heroes. How about you? Can you see yourself as a muppet? If so, what kind? 

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