April, 2010
I just got back from a trip to New York City, in which I got to hang out with my friend Ellen and crash on her couch, which was, as always, far more awesome than it sounds like it should be. I love staying with her. I beg her every time to go to Alice’s Teacup, a fantastic tea house in the city, and she obliges like the long-suffering, scone-loving good friend she is. I was there to see sjmaas for her bridal shower, and actually managed to surprise her, which was one of the most fun things I’ve done in a LONG time. It was an extremely busy weekend, and also involved some staying out significantly past my bedtime, and I am now way exhausted. I met some fabulous people, though, who I can’t wait to catch up with again in a month.
The thing I’m proud of, however, is that despite all this (and having only a tiny little keyboard with which I was totally unfamiliar) I managed to keep up my daily writing minimum of 500 words.
For the past couple of years I’ve been kind of screwing around, and not producing words at any kind of consistent rate. It took that much time, a lot of self-hatred and doubt, some serious soul- searching, and then a couple great kicks in the pants by sjmaas and Corry to make me realize that I had to get serious if I wanted to make this my job.
I’d always avoided word count goals, and did so in a totally pretentious way that I wasn’t aware of at the time. I considered myself to be beautifully erratic and artistic, unchained by the daily grind, above all that mundane stuff. I didn’t just write, I got Inspired. I had a muse. She graced me with her presence, was a fragile and inconstant thing, and could not be summoned.
That’s just total bullshit, seriously.
Of course I didn’t actually think of it that way, I just told myself that I don’t work like that, and that everyone’s different. That much is true. But I decided to give a daily word count goal a try after said kicks in the pants, and with some help from lilykaufman settled on my current system. She knows me so well that she knew what would work for me before I did.
My daily goal is 1,000 words. If I write at least 1,000 words I can feel really good about myself. But, because my subconscious is totally capable of wriggling out of anything, I have to give myself some wiggle room. Some days I just don’t buy in, I just don’t feel like it. I’m sick, I’m traveling, I had a rough day, a bug flew in my eye, I put my pants on backwards.
So I have a daily minimum, as well. I have to write at least 500 words every day, no excuses. If I ended up in the hospital I’d have to get someone to bring me a notepad. The beauty of it is that anyone can write 500 words. You can do that in ten minutes if you really wanted to. There’s no guarantee it’ll be good words, but you can get them out. If after 500 words I’m still not feeling it, I stop and try again the next day. But the great part is that usually, if I sit down and force myself to start, I get way into it by the time the 500 word mark rolls around, and I’ll hit somewhere between 1,500 and 2,500 words in that sitting.
I think most writers are interested in the methods of other writers–I know I am. I tended to think we were all the same when I was a kid, so I love seeing how other writers do things just completely differently from the way I do them. What do you do?
Correspondence from the Front: WIP Update
I’ve had several people lately go “So, uh, what are you actually working on?” I’ve been twittering like mad about my word count, and occasionally posting humorously poorly written excerpts, and very rarely talking about the actual content of the book. But I guess I haven’t ever really talked about what it’s about.
Well, if you’ve been wondering. . . . Sorry. You’re going to have to keep wondering. I’m just not really ready to broadcast it yet. A few people know every detail (Sarah, Amie) and a few others know the general idea (Kim, Ellen) but in general I’m still mulling. I realize perhaps it’s a bad thing to be still mulling when you’re 30,000 words into the piece, but there you have it.
I can tell you generally what it’s about, though. The working title is THE IRON WOOD, and that may or may not end up being its final title. It’s the first in a possible trilogy, and it is (for lack of a better term) science fantasy. It is also post-apocalyptic, and dystopian, and YA. It’s very different from my usual stuff, and I think that’s part of the reason I’m having so much fun writing it. Lark, my main character, is very unlike me–another difference from my usual work.
The shivery exciting part is that, right now in the story, location-in-the-world wise, she’s actually standing not far from where I sit writing this — just several hundred years into the future. It feels almost like I should be able to see her, picking her way through the rubble, like a ghost that doesn’t exist yet. Getting to write about what my world would be like then, given the circumstances that I’ve invented, is both exhilarating and totally terrifying. Because if I don’t get it right, it’s certainly not due to lack of knowledge or experience, as I’ve lived here my whole life.
Anyway, I’ve just recently finished act one of the story. It finishes with a tremendous bang (you’ll have to just wonder if that’s literal) and I admit I’m having some trouble getting going on the next act. I would love to hear some advice from you guys about what you do when you hit a stumbling block in your work. It’s not that I don’t know what happens, generally-speaking. It just feels like I’ve been holding my breath, writing this so frantically, and now that I’ve hit a spot in which to take a breath, I can’t find that gut-twisting tension again.
So, advice? What do you do when you need to reignite your excitement about a work? How do you brainstorm? What propels you through the less-exciting parts of your stories?
Just look at yourself now…
I’ve been completely obsessed with this song ever since I first heard it. It’s become a sort of inspirational song for me, when it comes to writing. Usually, music inspires me in a very specific way — it’ll bring to mind a certain scene, or character, or mood I’m aiming to capture in a given story. This song, however, just makes me want to write. It’s about taking that beautiful mess inside and giving it life.
So here it is, for all those writers out there. My inspirational song of the day! Hopefully it’ll inspire you too! Just make sure to turn that feeling to actual productivity. Don’t be like me and sit staring off into a beautiful daydream for an hour until it fades. I’ll post lyrics after the cut, if you want to read them. They’re lovely.
Welcome!
Here I go! Consider this the obligatory "I am starting a blog" post. I’d love to tell you what the blog will entail, and while I can tell you that most of the time it’ll be about writing, I can’t promise anything more than that. I’ve been following other blogs for a while now, mostly other authors’ sites but also some editors, agents, and completely un-publishing-related folks as well. I figure it’s time to get my feet wet.
So: hello there. I’m Meagan Spooner, a writer living just outside of Washington, D.C. I write fantasy and science fiction, am obsessed with mythology and fairy tales, and can’t resist a good retelling of a classic. I’m currently hard at work on a new novel, my first solid project since I decided to stop writing as a hobby and start making it my career. I’m having a blast. What better time to start meeting some new people?
If you ever have any questions or comments that you want to make to me directly, feel free to contact me via my website, http://www.meaganspooner.com. The site itself is under construction, and some day this blog will relocate itself there, but for now you can use it to get a hold of me.
So whether you’re a friend of mine or you’ve come here via one of my friends’ blogs: welcome! Stay and chat, leave a comment, say hi. I may be an antisocial hermit, but that doesn’t mean you have to be as well!