Creativity Has Enemies – Do Battle Against Them by Alice Orr @aliceorrbooks #MFRWauthor #AmWriting

I'm writing this on a difficult day. I am surrounded by pressure, stress, and expectations – the first phalanx of the Enemies of Creativity. I/we long to let go and dive into the depths of our imaginations, but it's tough to let go when you feel yourself inundated by demands. A responsible person finds it difficult to ignore the lurking expectations of others.

Nonetheless, ask yourself these three questions.

1. Can I lower my standards in some non-writing areas?

2. Do I want my legacy to be the perfectly performed To Do List?

3. Would I prefer to be known for a shelf of books with my name on the spine?

Life is about choices.

The above choices must be made over and over each day in large and small ways. Defeating the external and internal demand-makers takes vigilance on behalf of your writing, and on behalf of your time to imagine and create.

The Puritan Ethic is in the front ranks of the Enemies of Creativity. Our culture too often sends the message that creative work, such as writing, isn't really work at all. Messages like, "If you love something passionately, you should feel guilty about pursuing it," or "If that same something feels natural as air to you, it can't be truly worthwhile."

The most lethal Enemy of Creativity is "Not-Good-Enough Syndrome." The verdict we too often pronounce upon our own writing work is "Not good enough, third rate, why even bother?" I suggest a strong dose of "Get-over-it" for this, and for all of the Enemies. However, I suspect a more concrete battle plan is in order.

Battle Strategy

#1: Calm Down. Anxiety erects a wall of nervousness between you and your own creative spirit. Find a chill-out technique. Deep breathing works for me.

Battle Strategy

#2: Make Your Inner Enemies Your Friends. When you find yourself jangly, insecure, fearful, angry, paranoid, resentful, vengeful, and/or hurt, use it to your writerly advantage. That darkness holds ideas and thoughts you won't have in your sunnier moments. Write them down.

Battle Strategy

#3: Turn Your Outer Life Conflict into Story Conflict. Trouble happens. Trouble is distracting and can go on disturbing your state of mind for quite some time. Yet again, write it down. The details. What was said and done, scraps of setting, what you felt with each of your senses. Exaggerate those feelings. Transfer them to a character in your current work.

Battle Strategy

#4: Do Nothing. Once a day, at least, stare at a wall and let the ideas come.

Employ these strategies against the Enemies of Creativity.

I guarantee that you, and your writing work, will emerge victorious every time.

For more insights into writing and publishing – Visit my blog at www.aliceorrbooks.com.

About Alice Orr

Alice Orr is author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. Hero in the Mirror: How to Write Your Best Story of You is in progress. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now writes full-time. Her latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5. Find all of Alice Orr's books on Amazon. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and lives with her beloved husband Jonathan in New York City.
Author Website www.aliceorrbooks.com
Author Blog www.aliceorrbooks.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
Twitter https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E

#MFRWauthor members share their tweets on Retweet Day @MFRW_ORG

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics for this one tweet.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. On the tweet, click the heart and then the retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

PLEASE NOTE: If a tweet doesn't fit your stream, you are under no obligation to share it.

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

An Author Self-Interrogation by Alice Orr @aliceorrbooks #MFRWauthor #AmWriting

I've written several articles about generating ideas for your writing. Sorry, I'm not finished yet. Because, YOU are your most natural subject matter for your fiction, your nonfiction too, and not only memoir writing.

Get Out Your Writer's Journal.

You say you don't have a Writer's Journal? Then, the first step of today's exercise, and this article is almost all exercise, is to get a Writer's Journal. One that's special for you personally. I once favored black-and-white mottled-cover quad-ruled notebooks. Next, I turned fancy with leather-bound Paperblanks brand. Now, its faux-whatever from the 99-Cent store. All are special to me. Find the journal version that "speaks" to you. Listen. You will hear its song for sure. Bring it home where it belongs.

Answer the Following Questions in your Writer's Journal.

Longhand is important. The words flowing from your head and heart together, down your arm, through your fingertips to the pen and the page. Write your answers in detail. The more candid and complete you are, the more resource material you will create for writing ideas. Tell your truth.

Be liberal, not conservative, about what you include.

Tell all of it. Everything. And, leave room for more, further additions later, then others also. This is a LIFELONG exercise. There is no such thing as an insignificant experience. Secrets and holding back are inappropriate. Dramatize (write out) specific anecdotes wherever possible. Play at it. Have writerly fun.

Here we go. The Questions:

1.     What is your ethnic background, especially your cultural experience of that ethnicity, its language, customs, foods, rituals, challenges?

2.     What places have you lived long enough to know the feel of them? (Describe that feeling.)

3.     What have been your occupations, past and present, and what happened there?

4.     What are your special abilities, your areas of expertise, your particular knowledge?

5.     If you had to describe your physical appearance, what would you mention first and why?

6.     How would you describe your temperament? (Tell Everything. Warts and all.)

7.     Which relationships in your life have involved conflict, in your family, your romantic life, your friendships, your work life? (Conflict is story dynamite. Blast big time.)

8.     Who have you loved intensely in your life? (This is gold mine territory. Dig deep.)

9.     Who have you disliked intensely in your life? (More gold mine material. Excavate deeper.)

10. What have been your most powerful – as in intense, significant, formative – non-sexual experiences (during childhood, adolescence, maturity)?

11. What have been your most powerful sexual experiences? (This is private. Lust is a Must.)

12. What have been your personal triumphs, past and present? (No modesty. Brag Brag Brag)

13. What have been your biggest frustrations and disappointments, past and present?

14. What are your complexes, inhibitions and superstitions, past and present?

15. What do you long for?

16. What do you pray will never happen to you?

17. What sort of person do you feel the most sympathy for and why?

18. What sort of person do you feel the least sympathy for and why?

19. What crime have you most seriously considered committing?

20. What act of courage or heroism would you be most likely to perform and why?

21. What do you like most about yourself?

22. What do you dislike most about yourself?

23. In what specific experience of your life did you feel most angry?

24. In what specific experience did you feel most terrified?

25. In what specific experience did you feel most humiliated?

26. In what specific experience did you feel most heartbroken?

27. In what specific experience did you feel most ecstatic?

28. Feel free to add further questions with emotional idea potential for you in your life.

Your Writer's Journal is a Sacred Space.

These are Sacred Truths. Feel free to cry and laugh, to hurt and celebrate. In fact, you should. Meanwhile, you have compiled a pile of Your Most Precious Life Stuff, a treasure mountain of story ideas and details. Don't forget the details. God and the devil are there together, waiting to do battle while you write it all down.

Your Personal Everything is Right Here.

All that's happened or been said. Each and every fantasy. Plus, a running commentary of thoughts and insights about YOU and your experiences. A sacred space to reverence. Visit often. Find your personal storyteller's nirvana here in your own words You will be amazed at what you uncover/discover/recover. I guarantee it.

 

For more insights into writing and publishing – Visit my blog at www.aliceorrbooks.com.

About Alice Orr

Alice Orr is author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. Hero in the Mirror: How to Write Your Best Story of You is in progress. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now writes full-time. Her latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5. Find all of Alice Orr's books on Amazon. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and lives with her beloved husband Jonathan in New York City.
Author Website www.aliceorrbooks.com
Author Blog www.aliceorrbooks.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
Twitter https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E

Retweet Day #MFRWauthor members share their tweets @MFRW_ORG

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:

To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics for this one tweet.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.

5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**

6. On the tweet, click the heart and then the retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.

https://kayelleallen.com

Building a Hero with Stature and What Not to Do by Alice Orr #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Thriller author and former editor Alice Orr shares tips for writing heroes.

Building a Hero with Stature – What Not to Do

If your storytelling goal is wide audience appeal, build an admirable hero. A hero the reader will look up to, and remember that when I use the term hero, I'm referring to main characters of all genders.

I base my admirable hero assertion on two things. First, the bestseller lists. Most fiction titles you find there tell stories of admirable protagonists confronting great obstacles in admirable ways. Second, my experience as editor and literary agent, which too often illustrated what an admirable hero is not. Here are some examples, with names changed for discretion's sake.

Caroline is the hero of a Regency romance set in early nineteenth century England. We're told she's a woman of spotless character, which would be an appropriate portrayal. Most readers of this genre prefer their heroines intelligent, wise and, above all, dignified. An author seeking wide reader appeal would be wise herself to honor these preferences.

Unfortunately, Caroline is not the highly principled woman we are told she is. Instead, she shows herself to be of low moral character. Specifically, she joins a traveling theatrical company where her performance specialty is as a procurer or, in more forthright terms, a pimp. 

To make matters worse, Caroline lacks acceptable motivation for her choices. She's an unhappily married woman to be sure, but she is also from the landed gentry with ample financial means. She doesn't need to disgrace herself and her family to escape her husband, nor allow herself to be degraded as she does in this author's story.

A Regency era main character may find herself in dire straits. She may act to overcome her trials in many ways, but not at the expense of dignity and self-respect. Otherwise, she becomes too tawdry to qualify as a hero of this genre, and maybe as an admirable hero of any genre, at least for a non-established author. Bestsellers can afford to take chances, sometimes.

As for Sebastian, I wonder if even his author liked him very much. Sebastian is cold, distant and uncaring. His lack of compassion must be counteracted by noble qualities to make him an admirable hero. He could be written as remote on the surface with endearing depths beneath, but, in this portrayal, under his craggy surface beats a heart of unappealing stone.

Kendra has heroic qualities but is never called upon to use them. Her story is meant to be suspenseful. She should be in danger, real danger that, to maximize appeal, threatens her life. She is strong, resourceful and brave. We're eager to see those qualities tested by extreme circumstance. When no truly thrilling challenges arise, our reader expectations are dashed.

Kendra's author could have made stronger storytelling choices. A perilous situation, which Kendra only narrowly escapes. Better still, another character, vulnerable, like a child, faces serious threat, and Kendra risks her life to defy that threat. These scenarios would reveal her heroism in action and intensify the suspense. Instead, Kendra is a heroine waiting to happen, and the author squanders the dramatic potential of her story.

Shattered reader expectations, heartless main characters, dramatic potential squandered. Avoid these like the storytelling plagues they are, unless you're a bestselling author with maybe some room for risk. Build instead a hero with stature we can admire.

For more insights into writing and publishing – Visit my blog at www.aliceorrbooks.com.

About Alice Orr

Alice Orr is the author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now lives her dream as a full-time writer. Her latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving: Riverton Road Romantic Suspense - Book 5. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and resides with her husband Jonathan in New York City. 

Author Website www.aliceorrbooks.com
Author Blog www.aliceorrbooks.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
Twitter https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E