Archive for the ‘#lifeofriley’ Category

Jan

26

2016

Draftvision

Filed under: #lifeofriley, Chasing Adaptation, Check-it-out, Critique, Drafting, Family, In the Wild, Pondering, Revision, Writing, Writing Style

On mornings when I’m not running or running errands, after I get the boys all off to school, I look forward to plowing through my emails and knocking out a blog post so I can spend the lion’s share of the day working on my WIP. Doesn’t that sound delightful? Yeah, yeah–I know it’s not that easy. After all it is Monday (I wrote this yesterday) and every person in the house managed to drag a laundry basket upstairs in retaliation for my subversive parenting techniques…no one eats chips or watches football until their clothes are put away, their rooms are clean and their bathroom isn’t gross. So, now I have chores to do in-between my projects. But that’s not my only problem, there is also this guy…

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By rights, he should be in a snow coma at the moment. He’s been outside non-stop for two days playing in the snow with the kids or by himself if every other human was exhausted. I figured by today, his get-up-and-go would most likely be his got-up-and-went and he’d pass out quietly in the corner, providing me with a quiet writing day.

No such luck.

Why doesn’t the dog understand that I NEED this writing day!!!!  I’ve been a bad, bad writer and I’m in the middle of DRAFTVISION????

Wait, you don’t know what draftvision is? You do–your just blocking it out. It’s when you’ve drafted 75% of a manuscript and because you’ve struggled with some aspect of plowing forward to the end of the draft, you’ve started to revise the front end while still drafting the back end. Draftvision. It can be a cold mess. Ugly on the scale of the 2016 Blizzard Jonas.

I do have good news. Besides the fact that Jonas only dumped a mild 10 inches in my yard. (Thank you mother nature for the pass) I’m very pleased to announce that I’m no longer stuck on my work in progress, spinning my wheels on the big expanse of white page. I know what to write to get out of draftvision. But here’s the thing, even when you’ve finally been able to plot your escape–you’ve still got to shovel yourself out of that shit. There ain’t nobody coming along with a word plow who’s going to do it for you. Which ultimately leaves you with lots of work to do on your WIP, plus a blog post and mountains of laundry to climb and whether you want to be or not, you ARE outside with the frisky snow pup who just wants to play ball.

My compromise is to brainstorm my blog post while running the dog silly. Sometimes this means “mind-writing” a topic I’ve already been thinking about. And other times, like today, it means I’m hoping to be struck by inspiration while I’m hanging out in the good old outdoors.

Today my connections started firing when I tossed that first neon orange tennis ball across the field and into ten inches of snow. I hadn’t really thought it through. White snow. Orange ball. This was going to be easy. That’s what I thought until this happened…

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Gone. I hadn’t expected snowball hide and seek. And it quickly became apparent (to me at least) that playing ball in the deep snow was a lot like struggling through draftvision. One minute your tossing your best stuff into the air and the next minute–BOOM! Ball is gone and you can’t find it anywhere. But you don’t panic because the snow is pretty pristine and there is a ball shaped space letting you know where to start digging to fix the problem.

But the dog isn’t close to being done yet and you realize you are still playing ball in the snow and the more you play, the more foot prints, dog paws and old ball holes there are lying around. Take your eye off that ball for a minute and you suddenly have to change your strategy for finding what you need. Now you have to begin looking for new clues to solve your problems. But eureka!  You realize that as the snow packs down, initially it’s harder to see where the ball went, but now it’s easier to search by color. You wander around until you spot what you need to throw the next ball.

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But now your sweating. Deep snow is tiring to trod through and the whole yard is starting to look a bit off. It’s just when you’re on the edge of leaving that ball out there until the spring thaw that you have to dig deep. You must get in there and start poking around until you find what you need. You do not have time to let that manuscript sit for a few months and lose momentum. Start moving stuff around until you make some progress. If you stumble around long enough (trust me–i know) you’ll eventually find something you can toss around, under all that mess.

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And incidentally, as if finding these disappearing balls isn’t hard enough, you should also know that the balls you’re throwing  aren’t traveling as far as they usually do. I’ve never been a major league pitcher, but momentum has always been my friend. I’ve relied on a little bounce, bump and roll to get some distance. But in draftvision, that ball stops where it lands, without getting a lot of milage or tiring out the dog and now you still have to go find it. Grrrr. After awhile, you may realize that even though you’re trying very hard, nothing seems to be working. In this case, you just might want a little help.

You NEED a critique or two to help you sort out what you’ve got going on. Sometimes that critiquer will tell you things you didn’t know, which is pretty freaking fabulous. Yay for new insights that solve old problems. But usually, the critiquer will do the same thing you are doing and tell you what you already know. Yup–it works like that sometimes. Believe it or not, you’re smarter than you know. But even though you’re a bright light, the black hole of draftvision has sucked the illumination out of your life. There’s no shame in it, some times it helps to have someone else flip your switch. It can help to see your process laid out from a different perspective…

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Oh, that’s how you do it????

See–it isn’t magic. Do the work and you end up with a cold, orange ball at the end or a finished manuscript–whatever you prefer. Either way, you too, can get everything you’ve ever wanted. Be persistent. Believe in your story. Be willing to try different approaches as the rules for what your throwing on the page keep changing.

And so you’re aware (because tough things exist even if we don’t acknowledge them) none of this process guarantees you anything, other than the completion of your art to your satisfaction. No matter how hard you work at writing or how diligently you learn your craft–publishing is a wild card. No one can predict it. You can work hard to stack the odds in your favor like an arsenal of snow encrusted tennis balls and that’s a great thing to have in the fight to get published. But it’s important that your goal is always to write the best book you can write, regardless of where that takes you.

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And there’s  another important reason to have your own measuring stick for your work. Sometimes we do not know when draftvision turns to revision, which then turns into TOO MUCH revision. It can be a slippery, ice encrusted, slope and once we are on it, we start moving ass-fast downhill and don’t know how to stop sliding and get off.

At the end of my blog post plotting, I pocketed both bright orange balls for another day, trading them for a large stick that I tossed up into the woods. Somewhere between the toss and the run to find said stick, the pup forgot what he was looking for and spent the next umpteen minutes looking for his ball in every conceivable place. He was completely unaware that the orange ball part of his story was already over.

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It’s important to know that all good games of fetch and stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.

Looking back I’ve realized that sometimes draftvision is completely unavoidable–like snow. It’s one of mother natures challenges. But when we find ourselves walloped by the blizzard of draftvision, it’s great to have some tactics to help you shovel out of there as quickly as possible…

  1. Look carefully at what you already have for the clues you need to move forward.
  2. Be tolerant of where you are in your writing and forgiving of how you got there.
  3. Then be positive about where you are going.
  4. Don’t be afraid to go digging, no matter how big of a mess it makes–journeys are important.
  5. Keep your eye on the ball. But if you lose track of it, don’t be afraid to ask someone else to help you. Perspective is key.
  6. Know the real reason you are playing ball in the first place. Understand what is in your control and what is out of your control.
  7. Don’t keep playing when the game is clearly over. There is a time to stop or you end up chasing the wrong things. Send that work out when it feels done, not when you think it’s perfect. There is no such dog.
  8. Drink hot chocolate–it makes everything better.

Have you spent time in DRAFTVISION before? What are your tips for getting out? Do you have a dog that makes you throw balls in the snow? What other pets mess with your writing time? Aren’t you glad dogs don’t wear clothes and don’t add to the laundry pile?

Hang in there and keep tossing balls in the snow and words on the page.

 

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Sep

22

2015

Working Like a Dog

Filed under: #lifeofriley, Family, In the Wild, Pondering, Writing, Writing Style

Traditionally, when writers hear the phrase Working like a Dog, their minds go to coffee fueled, butt-in-chair, word sprints with fingers flying over keys. We picture grabbing a hold of the task at hand and refusing to let go until we find a book on the other end.

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But having observed my pup, Riley, walk a half a mile down to the bus stop the other day, I’ve discovered there’s more to working like a dog then one might expect…

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There’s exploration.

And it resonated with me. Sometimes part of working like a dog means needing to explore the world around us. When we do some mental meandering, we might find the spark that ignites our next story. Or, if not the actual spark, we may be filling our mind with all kinds of creative kindling. Which is just as important, because when the spark does arrive, it has something to ignite. There must be dots to connect–ideas to set aflame.

Dogs are smart.

It’s as important to give ourselves as much time to fill up, as we give ourselves to empty out between the pages of a book.

This is the balance of art and life.

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And naps–don’t forget the importance of naps! Trust me, Riley knows what he’s barking about.

As a thanks for the canine guidance, tell me your favorite dog book. It can be anything from picture book to novel. I think mine is The Art of Racing in the Rain.

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Feb

26

2015

Marley and Me–I mean Riley

Filed under: #lifeofriley, Family, Pondering, Stuff I Love, Writing

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Don’t let the sleeping puppy fool you…

 

Have you seen the movie Marley and Me?

Yesterday Riley had a Marley kind of a day.

We’d been warned that our good little puppy was going to begin to test boundaries. And he did. Let’s just say there was some counter-surfing-steak-snatching going on among other antics. *sigh*

In the middle of the chaos, when I wanted to be writing but I was catching a 50lb dog as he flew through the air off the couch, (THAT off command being the only one he obeyed all day) I may not have found him amusing. But as the boys and I laughed about it later, I felt sure that MUCH later I’ll be thanking the wee beastie for providing me with lots of very interesting and entertaining book ideas.

So, with mixed emotions about admitting it, I guess I have to say…thank you, Riley.

Do you have any “Marley” stories you want to share? All pets and kids are eligible for “Marley” status. Make me laugh folks…

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Jan

13

2015

Puppy Perspective

Filed under: #lifeofriley, Family, Pondering

Yesterday the whole Sabatini clan was spending the day home because of icy rain. At points throughout the day the kids were able to slide down our steep driveway on their butts like they were bobsleds. The pup was not nearly as adventuresome and needed a helping hand every time he stepped out the door and onto the ice. Like his monstrous, completely uncontrollable, feet weren’t already enough of a problem. Once I almost went down with him LOL!

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As much as I love my ice skating pup, I did have to stop and take note of how “less than pleasant” it was to venture outside in the freezing rain at pretty regular intervals all day. Even though Riley’s learning fast and is eager to please, he’s still not completely potty trained yet.

So, while I was outside, just passing the time, I started to think about about how people in cities potty train puppies. What the heck happens if you’re on the umpteenth floor of an apartment building and your pooch has to run outside every 20 minutes? Are puppy bladders even capable of waiting for elevators or jiggling down multiple flights of stairs? Sometimes my little guy barely makes it out the door. Suddenly, my situation was looking a lot more desirable than it had 30 seconds earlier.

I know you’re fist pumping the air for me, but I also bet you’re wondering how puppy whiz training relates to writing,

Perspective.

In the world of publishing, everyone has a tendency to compare their journey with someone else’s. Most of us try to put on blinders so we can focus on our own work and our own journey. But as you can imagine, it isn’t always easy. So, today’s bit of advice, for when you’re feeling “crappy” is to adjust your perspective. If you can’t stop peeking at what everyone else is doing, mix it up. Choose to measure yourself against the people who have it harder than you–the ones who have a lot more steps to travel to get to the same place. It won’t actually make your publishing adventure any easier, but it will give you a wonderful sense of perspective and that might just be enough for you to feel okay standing in the rain.

If anyone knows the poop scoop on urban puppy training policy, please feel free to enlighten me. Just don’t mess with my perspective and tell me it’s easier than I think.

 

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Dec

23

2014

Santa’s Coming!!!!!

Filed under: #lifeofriley, Blogging, Check-it-out, Family, Vacation Madness

Life with Riley is starting to get a little bit more sane LOL! A little bit–he’s still a potty-training, chewing, puppy. But he’s quietly crating for about seven hours at night and ME getting a humane amount of sleep makes all the difference. He’s also learning to respond to his name, sit and go down on cue. He’s learning what off means and thankfully he hasn’t tested it too much at this point. Additionally he’s got a decent grasp of what easy and gentle mean and I’m happy to report he’s pretty darn good with his deposites. *fist pump*

 

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As you can see, we wear each other out some days. And even though I have to remind myself how far we’ve come in a week, I try to not get my panties in a twist about how much there still is to work on. I try to visualize the dog he will become when we’ve got the kinks worked out. It’s exciting to contemplate. I’m a behaviorist at heart and training him has it’s own special kind of rewards for me. But even though I’m pretty good at operant conditioning, I still get frustrated some days, but I’m learning to watch him closely–so I can “hear” what he’s saying. It’s all part of training positively. And you’re going to hear me talk about this a bit in the future and how it pertains to writing because my mind (what little I have left) is spinning at the implications. But even though I’m having a sleepy puppy moment right now in which to blog…

SANTA’S COMING!!!!!

And that means I have a TON of other things to get done that just can’t wait. So, hold that thought. Enjoy your Christmas and I’ll be back here over the holidays if I can. But you can be sure you’ll see my in 2015 <3

What are your big plans for the Holiday?

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