As you know, I’m always looking for new and innovative ways to practice writing. The more and more I focus on marketing my books and selling my books, the more I seem to need this.

I think that it’s good for all of us, no matter what part of the writing path we’re on, to remember that it is a practice. We’re artists, we writers, and our purpose is to create art.

People have a wide span of ideas of what art is, or what it’s supposed to be. For me, art is about clarity. My favorite songs, books, and movies always make something clearer. I do strive to tell a good story in my prose. Not all my work is going to be great art. But if I can help someone achieve a sense of clarity, then I feel that I’ve created a piece of real art.

Sometimes that someone is me.

To that end, I’ve started keeping a poetry journal. If you haven’t heard of this practice, it’s pretty cool. It’s also self-explanatory. You keep a notebook, in which you write out poems. Some people will sketch, draw or paint an image to go along with it.

I don’t do it every day. Some days I just don’t have the time, to be honest. But I’m finding that it’s doing a lot of good things for me.

First off, I’m writing more poetry. Poetry feeds prose, you know I’ve always said that.

It’s also therapeutic, though. While I exorcize my emotions through any work of fiction, it does have to go through a filter. I’m publishing my work most of the time. So, whether I mean to or not, I edit myself. That’s not always bad (You guys don’t need to know everything about my life). But sometimes I need to get out of me what I’m feeling.

In that way, keeping a poetry journal has been helpful. You might rightly ask, why don’t I just write a normal journal? Couldn’t I get my feelings out that way? Well, let me ask you something.

Have you ever been sad, or pissed off, and you weren’t sure why? Or maybe you’re overreacting to little things, things that shouldn’t piss you off. Maybe you’re crying at toilet paper commercials?

There are times when I have done almost all of those things. I don’t know if it’s my people pleaser gene or the fact that I don’t pay great attention. Maybe it’s just that, even though I’ve been practicing listening to my internal voice, I’m not perfect at it yet. Sometimes our subconscious is clued into the fact that something’s wrong long before the rest of the mind is.

Whatever the reason, sometimes concerns come out in my writing that I didn’t even realize were there. You don’t have to be an artist to use this tool, by the way. If you aren’t a writer, or if you know someone who isn’t a writer, keeping a poetry journal can help.

It’s also just fun, writing a poem then drawing a picture to go with it. I’ve always enjoyed drawing and painting in a purely amateurish fashion. I’d never want to be a professional visual artist, but I do enjoy being a better hobbyist. It’s a way for me to fit playing into my day. And, a reason to have paints and colored pencils in the house that are just mine.

I highly suggest keeping a poetry journal. And I’d love to hear about what changes it brings to your life! Let us know in the comments below.

I have a problem, and I’m trying to get over it. It’s taking some time to heal, please bear with me.

My problem is this. I made my word of the year Create. I’m doing really well fulfilling that.

But when it comes to doing anything that’s not directly feeding into my goal of creating, I have a hard time committing to it.

I don’t mean things like loafing around, scrolling through Instagram or watching too much tv. (Though I did finally get caught up on Ray Donovan. Damn, that’s a fine show.)

I mean, it’s been really hard for me to do things like free writing, reading writing manuals and watching instructional videos. I haven’t even been listening to podcasts!

It’s not as bad as it might have been. I haven’t been neglecting my duties at home, and I’ve been taking good care of myself. I have been reading, of course. But I’m not doing anything to learn! And while I absolutely feel that the best way to learn to write is by writing, there are other things I need to learn.

I’m trying to get better.

I imagine that I’m not the only author who struggles with this. It’s hard enough trying to find time to write, edit and sell our books! Not to mention maintaining social media presence. How are we supposed to shove learning new things into our already full to do list? Aren’t I doing enough already?!

Okay, drama aside. Finding time to learn new things is essential. It’s a struggle for me because I’m super Type A psycho sometimes. But it’s all about baby steps, sometimes.

Podcasts.

I’ve started listening to podcasts on my way to and from work. It’s better than what I was doing, reading a paper back book while walking down the damn street. Recently I’ve been catching up with Writing Excuses, and Bad With Money.

Finding good, inspirational books.

While I do love reading fiction, I’ve been making a point of reading informative books. The trick is to find a book that not only teaches you something but is enjoyable to read. Otherwise, you’re going to be a lot more inclined to get back to American Gods.

Sign up for emails that help you.

I recently took an email course that really taught me something about writing short stories. I love short stories, and I want to get better at writing them. Each email took a few minutes to read. I was then able to accomplish the ‘homework’ that came along with it.

Because I told myself that it was only going to take half an hour, I could do it. I also felt held accountable, since it was a class. Now I feel like I’m writing much better short stories.

Understand the importance of what you’re doing.

Recently I spent a whole two hours watching a great instructional Youtube video. I made myself sit down and watch the whole damn thing because I valued the information.

Doing things like free writing every day has been harder, until I started reading my second draft of Missing Stitches, preparing to write the third. That’s when I realized something. My descriptions need work!

So I’ve been making a point of writing descriptions in my free writing notebook. Every day I look up a picture of a house or a street on Google. Or I’ll go sit somewhere public and write a sketch of someone. And you know what? It’s helping. I didn’t think it would, but it is helping.

If there’s something you want to learn, understand the value of it. Don’t think about what you could have accomplished with this time. You’re accomplishing something by growing your education. And the work you do will be richer because of it.

Tell us something that you’ve learned recently that has improved your life or writing.

As you might know, if you follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads, I’ve been reading books about writing recently. I go through these phases where I’ll read everything I can get from one author, or a whole bunch of biographies, or everything I can get on one topic. Right now, I guess, it’s writing books.

That’s not a bad thing.

In the last few months, I’ve read Thunder and Lightning and Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg. I followed that up with On Writing by Stephen King. The first two I’d never read before. The third I’ve read roughly 17 times since I was sixteen.

They’re wildly different people, with completely different writing styles and theories of writing. But they have more in common than I realized at first. They’re both teachers. They’ve written books about writing. And they both feel that there is something magic and holy about writing.

I have that in common with both of them

Natalie Goldberg

This is only a review of what I’ve learned from Wild Mind and Thunder and Lighting. I have not yet read Writing Down The Bones, but it’s on my list.

Natalie is, first and foremost, a poet. You can tell that in every word she writes. She’s lived a wild, enviably bohemian life that as a teenager I would have aspired to. She’s been married several times, moved all over America, taught writing to thousands of eager students.

Most of Natalie’s books are about writing or collections of poetry. She’s written one novel, so far as I can find, called Banana Rose.

After reading two of her books, I can tell you that I don’t agree with her feeling that writing must come from somewhere deep within us. Much of our writing will, it’s true. But sometimes I write a story that’s just a story. Just something that came to me, and entertained me for awhile.

What I’ve learned from her has been immeasurable. Natalie’s life is about writing. She doesn’t do anything else. I aspire to that, someday. Right now I’ve still got bills to pay, but she’s embraced poverty if poverty is what’s required for her to write. Maybe someday, if I don’t have kids…

I also learned the importance of freewriting, every day. Not a word we write is wasted, just like no yoga practice or meditation session is wasted. We take that time to stretch, to learn. To discover things we have to say that we didn’t know we wanted to say.

Natalie often equates writing to meditation practice. At first, I found that far-fetched. I write about dragons and space stations, that isn’t very zen like. Then I realized that the subject didn’t matter. The important thing was being present in the moment. When I meditate, I am completely in the room. I feel the floor, feel my body (for better or worse). I feel every vibration in the room, from my cat walking in or a breeze through the window. When I’ve left my practice, I can recall the calm I felt later when I need to center myself for a few minutes. I do this by counting backward from ten, just the same as when I begin my practice. Much in the same way, when I’m writing I am completely present in my story. I am deep inside myself.

Just like when meditating, I’m not thinking of the bills or the dishes, or whether or not I’m getting Carpel Tunnel. I’m focusing on the present, or on the story.

Even if it is about a dragon.

Stephen King

I can’t imagine I need to introduce Stephen King to you. His book, On Writing, is considered a cornerstone of a writer’s education. Everyone who talks about writing talks about this book.

Aside from On Writing, Stephen King writes horror. He’s published a metric ton of fiction. Most of it is fantastic. I’m in the middle of reading Tommyknockers while I write this. I’ve been a fan of his since I was ten when I read Pet Cemetery. Some of my other favorites of his are The Stand, Green Mile, From a Buick 8 and Carrie. I watched all of Kingdome Hospital. I was even named after one of his books. (My middle name is Christine. Yes, that was intentional.)

I’ve mentioned before that there’s one large topic on which Mr. King and I disagree. He is a pantser, and I am a plotter. In fact, he has some rather nasty things to say about plotting a novel in On Writing. To which I can only say this; Lots of people have the same complaint about his books, sometimes the endings blow really hard. Maybe that wouldn’t happen if he had at least an idea of where the damn story was going to end up before he started.

But I’m trying to move past that.

What I learned from the book is exceptional.

Mr. King has an exceptional work ethic. While I, as a teenager felt that writing was something ethereal, that I needed to be inspired to write, he didn’t cop with such bullshit. I kind of needed that talking to, as a budding writer.

There’s this great conversation between George RR Martin and King. I’ll paraphrase it below.

Martin: How do you write so much?

King: Well, I sit down and I try to write eight pages a day. (It used to be ten. Guess he’s slowing down.)

Martin: Don’t you ever sit down to write, and just nothing comes? So you check your email, and play solitaire, and tell yourself you have nothing else to say?

King: No!

Most of what I know about dialog I’ve learned because of On Writing. King suggests writing dialog honestly, writing the way people talk. He also suggests listening to people talk, if you want to learn to write good dialog. I’ve done this, sitting quietly in coffee shops and shitty diners. That’s probably why a lot of my characters talk like Western PA roughnecks. Of course, that could be because I am myself a Western PA roughneck, and it just comes out sometime.

As many of you might know, King was once heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol. These are addictions that he beat, with the help of his wife and family. From this, I learned something important. The wild, bohemian life might be great, but if I want to stay healthy and keep writing, staying clean and staying married are the best ways to go.

Have you read these books? What did you learn from them? Let us know in the comments below.

Happy August!

This year is going by so damn fast! I’m still writing 2016 on documents!

I’ve really been looking forward to August this year. Not a lot of writing’s going to get done, but that’s okay. That’s what winter’s for.

Here’s what’s going on with me in August.

The 30 Days, 30 Authors event is over.

And I learned so much! I’ve made some great new friends and gotten involved in new projects that I am pumped about. I learned new and fun ways to communicate with all of you, and even got to participate in a podcast! At the same time, I was on social media a lot more than normal. It will be kind of nice to slow that down a little. I don’t think I’ll go the whole way back down to my pre-event schedule, but I will be paring down.

I’m working on the third draft of Missing Stitches this month.

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been crying almost every day. This is the last book I’m working on, you guys. The end of the trilogy! Now, I’ve still got a long road ahead of me before this book is published, but once it’s done I’m done with those characters for years! I’m about to cry just writing this.

I’m taking a full-on vacation, for nine whole days.

And I mean full vacation. No day job, no freelance work, no writing! We’re going camping for two days, then to Kennywood for one. Finally, we’re heading to Kentucky/North Carolina to see the solar eclipse. I cannot remember the last time I didn’t write for nine days. It’s going to be interesting.

Oh, and the NFL preseason is starting this month. So, you know, Here we Go, Steelers!

I’m going to be working on some short fiction to submit to some upcoming anthologies.

I was excited to hear about some anthology opportunities recently that I want to jump on. I recently stopped working on two novels at once (for several reasons that I’ll be talking about later this month) so I have some free time.

My kids are going back to school.

This is partially nice because it means I’ll have some time to myself on my days off. At the same time, it has been fun spending time with them this summer. I work on the weekends, so whole days where we have nothing at all to do are few and far between during the school year.

My younger daughter is turning 13

Now they’re both going to be Thirteen. I really am considering just moving out for the next five years. Just saying. When I started this blog they were both ten. What the hell happened?

Speaking of when I started this blog.

PBW is turning three on August 31^st! I can’t believe that it’s been so long since I started this journey. Be prepared for lots of crying and looking back (and probably some giveaways.)

Finally, Starting Chains is coming out next month!

I can’t believe we’re talking about this, but it’s happening! I am unbelievably excited to present Starting Chains to all of you, and I hope you’re all excited to read it.

What are you planning for August? Any major life events, or just getting ready for back to school? Let us know in the comments below.