What Makes a Writer? Also, Award & BuNoWriMo

I attended a Pikes Peak Writers Write Brain last month, entitled "A Right-Brain, Left-Brain Write Brain" (say that five times fast!)  I didn't take notes, and it wasn't something I'd be able to really pass along and make sense of on here, but I found it interesting how the two delightful ladies (Barbara Samuel and Laura DiSilverio) broke down the parts of writing.  They explained how they each approached the different aspects of writing, and it got me thinking about the integral parts of the writing process.

First, you have the creativity.  That's innate.  Each of us is creative in a different way, inspired in varying ways, but we all have a story to tell, something that floats around in our heads and begs to be released.

But then you get into the more linear business of writing.

For instance, you have pantsing vs. plotting, and everything in between.  Some people create an entire outline, with every single plot point, before they write a regular line of prose.  Others just write the first line and go from there.  Then there are all of those who fall in between.  Everyone approaches it differently, but each of us has our own preferred method (or we're working to find it).

Next, we have consistency.  There are those who manage to sit down at the same time every day, a routine firmly established, and write for a specific amount of time.  Others might sit down at the same time, but write a certain number of words, rather than pre-selecting a period of time, no matter how many words are written.  Still others write whenever the heck they can, many only sporadically. 

Stories can be written via PC, laptop, Mac, handheld portable device, typewriter, voice recorder or the classic pen to paper.  They can be short stories, flash fiction, poetry or novels.  They can be self-published or traditionally published.  It can take decades to write them, or days.  It all depends on the writer.

So what makes a writer?  The story, and the desire to put that story out there for someone else to enjoy.  It all comes back to that creativity, but the spark that compels that person to present it to others finishes it off.  Without that spark, you're just a dreamer, which is okay, too.  A writer has to want to share their work, for one reason or another.

Having said that, I'm participating in BuNoWriMo this month.  I was just going to use it as inspiration to get started without officially signing up, but I love this progress tracker and why the heck shouldn't I just go ahead and sign up??  So I have!  I started today, so a couple days late, and I only had half an hour to actually write after getting everything set up, but I feel good about it, anyway.

Myth Stalker
is 1% complete

674 / 50000 words written

The Burrow is the host site, and there is a Facebook page you can access from there to chat with other BuNo'ers.  While I don't intend to shoot for the full 50,000 words, I need to get my butt in gear and figure out my summer routine, and I'm hoping this will help me. 

Also, the always engaging Lover of Words, at Of Shoes and Ships and Cabbages and Kings has given me the One Lovely Blog Award.  The things I have learned from her about my own state via her comments on my blog are fantastic enough, but her blog is always compelling, as well.  I'm delighted to have had the opportunity to get to know her, and I'm delighted she thought of me.

The rules include listing seven random things about myself:
1. I am currently hooked on watching episodes of Quantum Leap from beginning to end.  Still a great show!
2. I am ridiculously excited about the plans I have with my kiddos this summer.
3. I started my new novel today!!!!  EEK!  So happy!
4. I have a bad habit of chewing on the insides of my cheeks, whether nervous, bored or concentrating.
5. I started going "gray" in high school.  I insisted I would never color my hair, but I hit a point where it started aging me beyond where I was willing to age...
6. When my hair has grown out between colorings, I refer to it as sparkling. 
7. I'm really terrible at thinking up random things about myself that aren't completely dull.  Sorry!

How are you at talking about yourself?  Participating in BuNoWriMo?  What makes you a writer? 

May you find your Muse.

Well, That's Convenient & Awards

While doing rewrites, I was looking through notes from the contest I entered and there was one spot where one of the reviewers said, "Well, that's convenient." As a writer, you don't want to hear that about something in your story. What made that statement worse was that it was something I'd put very early in a book where a group of teens were developing various abilities. I wanted this particular ability to be put to a much greater use near the end of the book, so I introduced it in a minor situation in order to introduce it without it being deemed "convenient." In other words, I had been quite aware that placing this ability in the wrong place or in the wrong way would be convenient, so I attempted to avoid that. That one comment, more than anything else in there, really stuck out and bothered me.

Instead of being vague, I'll just spell it out. I needed my heroine to have healing abilities for something major near the end of the book. I also feel it ties in with her other major ability. To introduce it, she accidentally discovers this power while nursing a minor cut near the beginning of the book. How is one supposed to introduce something to be used later on if not this way? I thought by it being near the beginning of the book, and for a very minor thing that would heal itself within a couple days, that it would be a valid introduction.

I still think that.

This is one of those criticisms that I will be ignoring. Feedback/critique is a wonderful thing. It leads us to see things we may have missed on our own, as well as showing us how things look to a reader. However, there's no way anyone can take every little criticism or suggestion and incorporate it into their story. There's also no way every single criticism or suggestion would necessarily improve anything. That one specific sentence was a reminder to me to lighten up and read my critiques with a critical eye. There were some wonderful things in there, including things I already questioned, but also some things that I didn't feel were valid for my work. This is going to be true of any critique we, as writers, get, so be sure you take feedback with a grain of salt. Just don't ignore it entirely, either, because there are bound to be gems mixed up in there, as well. Things that make you go "hmmmmm."

I also wanted to thank Michele, of A Wanderer in Paris, for the Versatile Blogger and One Lovely Blog awards. Michele is a children's writer participating in the Writer's Platform-Building Campaign.

A quick Project 52 update: I can now strike out #31-Reorganize Office. Woo-hoo! I'm not making good enough progress on this and need to step it up.

How do you take critiquing of your work? Have you gotten a particularly good or bad bit of criticism? Do you try to make every change suggested? How do you decide what will work for you?