Get Uncomfortable

Yes, I said get UNcomfortable. I'm referring to writing outside your comfort zone. This is something I force myself to do quite regularly. When I first started writing, I focused on middle grade novels. I was sure I wanted to write books for this age group and this age group alone. I also stuck to adventure stories--until a published author told me I was a closet fantasy writer. My first thought was she was crazy. Fantasy? Me? But then I realized I loved to read fantasy, so I figured I had nothing to lose by trying to write it. So I did. And I loved it.

Great! I'm a fantasy writer. Not so fast. I saw a call for submissions for a horror anthology, and for some strange reason a story popped into my mind. But wait, I didn't write horror. I decided to give it a shot, and the story was accepted into the anthology. In fact, the story got the attention of other editors looking for horror pieces. They contacted me and asked me to submit to them. Wow!

So now I'm a fantasy and horror writer. Except... my daughter asked me to write stories for her. She read picture books, but I didn't write picture books. Once again, I stepped outside my comfort zone and tried it. Today I have three picture books published and three more under contract. I guess I do write picture books.

Now I thought picture books and middle grade books were my thing. Only the next ideas I got were young adult novels. Yes, I wrote them. My agent fell in love with one of them and has it out on submission to editors. Does this mean I write everything imaginable? No. I write the stories that I feel I need to tell. But I don't limit myself to what comes naturally or what I'm comfortable writing. The only way to figure out what we can do is by trying. Is failure a possibility? Of course. But so is success.

So I challenge you to step outside your comfort zone and try writing something different. You just might find something you're really good at.

*****

This post comes courtesy of guest blogger Kelly Hashway.  Kelly writes books and short stories for children of all ages, from picture books to young adult novels; as if that weren't enough, she also freelances as an editor. She's a mother of a little girl she loves to play with. When she's not writing, or editing she enjoys reading, and running. It's not uncommon to find Kelly with a cup of hot coffee in her hand or savoring something sweet like laffy taffy or ice cream cake.

(Hmmmm cake...) I think she's cool.

Thank you so much to Kelly Hashway for writing this post. You can read all about Kelly and her writings at www.kellyhashway.com or on her blog.

If you are interested in guest blogging on WriteSpell please drop me a note!

image:  Kerri Smith

NaNoWriMo 2011 Final Tally

Well I did it!

Barely....but I did it!

I'm feeling very pleased with myself and I apologize for the chirping crickets here the last few weeks...

I was busy writing, then I had computer issues, which turned into internet issues and now I'm playing catch up.

I wrote this mostly by hand and really enjoyed the process. I found I could focus much better, I wasn't so easily led astray by my email dinging, or Pinterest's lure of pretty things to look at. I think, my epiphany about writing long hand which occurred earlier in the month was a blessing in disguise because I'm not sure I would have made the fifty thousand word goal if I hadn't been writing by hand because of all the p.c. issues I had.

Needless to say my dreams these days (and nights) aren't of sugar-plum kisses, three French hens or miking-maids, neither are yours I imagine; instead my night and day dreams are now made up with visions of Santa leaving me a MacBook and Moleskine notebooks beneath the tree. I'm pretty sure the Moleskine notebooks are a given...the MacBook, not-so-much.

I actually was pretty worried I'd not get to post with the computer issues I was having. On the 30th I was racing as fast as I could to transcribe my hand written pages not sure if I'd even have enough. I could roughly estimate how many words I had, but I wasn't sure I'd reach my goal until I crossed  forty-nine thousand words. Once I did I knew it was in the bag!

My final word count was 50,067, I can't promise you that anything beyond the 45K mark is coherent though. I just typed what-ever words I saw then towards then end I included a random scene just for fun so I could finish.

I work much better when I have a fixed deadline and so, I've given myself a monthly deadline of 20,000 written words. Not including those I write here or at PrimThings.Love & Racing Towards the Finish Line,nicóle

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 21

I realize it's been forever (that's clearly an exaggeration) since I posted a NaNoWriMo update.I've been writing longhand-and transcribing. Here is my word count as of today.xo

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 12 Update

We're nearly at the half way point for NaNoWriMo and I'm not as far along as I hoped to be by this point, but I'm still confident I'll get a lot more words written in the next few days. I'm still writing by hand and then transcribing. The transcribing is a bit of a pain, but totally worth it because when I'm writing long hand the words are just flowing. I'm sorta hooked.

In the Library -Red Writing Hood Prompt

This week's writing prompt from Write on Edge concerned conversation. The task involved writing dialogue "between two people/characters. Using surroundings, body language, visual cues and blocking, in addition to the spoken words" I needed to show you who they were with out saying so. Not sure how I did-but this is actually a part of a scene in my WIP-that I've wanted to write for a while-but hadn't.

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“What?” I couldn’t have heard correctly.

“I’m sorry. This wasn’t supposed to happen.” He ran his fingers through his disheveled hair.

I shook my head. Wishing I had gone when I had the chance. Wishing…Wishing was for fools I decided.

“Look. I…I just won’t believe it.” I said, shutting my eyes.

“You have to. You must.”  Closing yourself off won’t make things better. “Please look at me?”

I dropped my books, to cover my ears, wanting to block out the pleading in his voice. My hours of research echoed in muffled tones when they landed. I pressed harder and willed my eyes to only see the dark.

“The dark. The dark. The dark.”  I chanted to myself.

“Please…Please give me a chance.”

I wanted to ignore him. I curled myself into a ball on the floor besides the books with their thousand year histories. Wishing I could melt into one of the cracks in the marble floor.

 “It’s what he wants.”

“What he wants? What about what I want?”  I glowered.  “No one ever, not ever has asked me if I wanted all of this!” I barked waving my arms across the library.  “At least you had a choice. You could decide if you wanted to fall on the sword or not. Where was my choice?”

His shoulders slumped.  “There’s more you need to know.”

“I don’t want to know. “ I said as I went about stacking the books the scent of them no longer comforting.

He grabbed my hand and raised my chin to look me in the eyes. He looked about as bad as I felt I surmised. “Will you let me try to be a friend to you?”

“A friend? What about the prophecy?”

“It’s just another story in a book.”

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 9 - Update

Ohmygosh! Can you tell I've not slept in a bit?  Okay-I exaggerate. I've slept...some. Truth be told I can't sleep. My brain won't shut off. My writing has been flowing and it's all because of my husband...Read on for the deets.Tuesday I began writing longhand-advice my husband has been giving me for years-which I totally ignored (sorry Hun).He said, 'You think better when you're actually using your hands"  He says when ever he's working with his hands he could think better. His mind would clear and ideas or solutions to problems would come to him.I was all like-"Well I'm using my hands when I type..." Which would get me a much deserved eye roll and a tsk about how I never listen to him.Turns out-the man was on to something!On Tuesday I stumbled across this article from 'The Guardian', Why creative writing is better with a pen...and so I pulled out one of my gazillion notebook-journal things and had at it.I absolutely love it!The ideas flow. I'm not distracted at all by things like, oh...I dunno Facebook! In one hour I've been writing an average of a thousand words.Go Me! love and journals, and pens,nicóle

Eight A.M. Angelus- Red Writing Hood Prompt 8:00

This is the first time I've completed a writing prompt-and shared it. I figured it was about time. This week the prompt on Red Writing Hood was to write about my version of 8:00 -AM or PM, fiction or creative nonfiction- in 200 words or less.

Here it is...Exactly 200 words. Sharing my creative writing makes me nervous-sweaty palms and all.

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I was waiting for it like I always do. It’s become an addiction I know. At first I would lay in bed waiting for the first gong to emanate from the belfry; by the second I was usually at my window waiting for it. The second ringing of the bell only two hours after the first Angelus of the morning was strange. What was stranger still was-no one else seemed to notice.

Now I don’t even bother waiting in bed-no one cares what time I wake or don’t wake, which is convenient because they also don’t notice my disappearance every day at the same time.

I held my breath waiting for the seventh carillon to emanate from the tower. The skin on my arms rose up in goose-flesh as the vibrations hit me. Then came the eighth chime, to my ears it always sounded different than the others before it. It’s melody echoing off the walls only to lay itself at my feet.

That’s when it happened.  I exhaled feeling the relief I always did. Seeing him meant I wasn’t crazy, and the drugs they think I take really are unnecessary.

He was on time. That was all that mattered.