Writer's Round-About

Book Review: Pumping Your Muse by Donna Sundblad

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:38:57 +0000

This Book Review is written by Lillian Brummet. I’d love to feature more book reviews from readers. If you’ve read a book about writing and would like to share your book review please send me an email.

Pumping Your Muse is a 136-page non-fiction, self-help writer’s manual that is conveniently available in both electronic and print format. The hardcopy is coil-bound – perfect for an inviting workbook.

Published just recently in June 2005, this book belongs on every writer’s reference bookshelf. Donna Sundblad’s goal for her manual has certainly been met, as Pumping Your Muse is able to stretch the readers’ creativity beyond their normal limits by developing skills and focusing creative energies in new directions.

The author focuses on the ability to build worlds through a variety of exercises including reflections, perspectives, balance, using multiple sensory tools and expanding thinking patterns. Readers will learn about tracking implements such as cards, journals and maps that help develop a detailed world for the reader and make the book a whole experience.

Following every exercise like a home-school class will take several weeks and will definitely improve creative writing skills. Pumping Your Muse could also be used as a refresher course, a tool during the proofreading processes of a manuscript, or to get past writer’s block.

Donna Sundblad keeps the continuity flowing at an interesting pace and has allowed space for notes at the end of every chapter. Her useful manual also includes a number of excellent writer’s resource websites.

I recommend that readers review the entire manual and then return to chapter one before they actually begin the program. In this way, the reader will be more familiar with the reasons and goals for each exercise. I’ve been anticipating my return to chapter one since I began the reviewing process of this book and have no doubt that my skills will be improved because of the exercises in this manual.

ISBN#: 0970863578
Author: Donna Sundblad
Publisher: ePress-online.com ~ Writopia, Inc.

By: write 2 right

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

~ Lillian Brummet - Book Reviewer - Co-author of the book Trash Talk, a guide for anyone concerned about his or her impact on the environment – Author of Towards Understanding, a collection of poetry. (www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit)

Character: Live Another Life? [MEME]

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:26:57 +0000

If you could be one character from a comic book, fiction series, or anime, who would you be, and why?

The novel I’m currently writing figures a strong female lead, Tori. She’s gritty, determined, and independant. That’s one of the reasons it’s so hard for her to learn to accept an inner darkness within her, and the help of her guardian angel.

When I watch the television series, Dark Angel, I feel a real tug to the main character, Max (Jessica Alba). Like Tori, she’s gritty, determined, and independant. She’s the kind of woman who can take care of herself and has learnt that it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.

I’d love to have the kind of empowering confidence that Max (and Tori) have. They’ve got a core belief in themselves and their right to be the person they are. There are people in their lives they care about but it is on terms that maintain a freedom.

If you could be a character you’ve read about, or written about, who would you be and why? Do you find yourself writing characters you wish you were, or who echo yourself in some way?

What do you read or watch when you want to connect with a character? Have you ever considered which actor you would cast in the role of your protagonist were it made into a movie?

Related to this Meme: Location: Live Another Life? [MEME]

Dog Train Your Writing Skills: Heel and Stay

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:03:26 +0000

In the first part of this series we discovered that learning to Sit is perhaps one of the hardest lessons a dog must learn. When puppies begin the challenge of obedience classes they’re full of bouyant energy, curiosity, and a hunger to explore. Learning to sit requires blocking out those rambunctious thoughts. It requires patience, concentration, and a passion to please.

Walk With Me: Heel

When a dog learns to heal they’re forced to open their mind a little. They must broaden their horizon. They still need to reign in their curiosity, listen to commands, and watch their progress carefully but they must also accept the leash, move forward and mark their steps at a steady rate.

Learning to heal as a writer requires the same attention to details. After having taken the time to sit regularly you need to find a direction and follow the path with a steady, dogged, determination. If you watch the steps you take and follow the lead of other successful writers you’ll find the walk an easier one to make. Progress is smoother and you share it with others going in the same direction.

Sometimes, it is tempting for a new pup to run ahead, to strain the leash. If given free reign he runs into dangers, pitfalls, or loses energy. A steady pace gives him the freedom to roam forward under the guiding hand of a friend.

A great way to discover your leash is to explore your community, online and off. Other writers have walked the path you walk before you and can offer guidance and advice. If you take a steady pace and listen to that advice along the way you’ll keep your momentum moving forward and avoid running out of steam or overwhelming your creativity.

When Is It Time To Stay?

At various points on any journey you’ll reach a place to pull aside, stay a while. For dogs, learning to stay is important because they need to know they can pause, take new notice of their surroundings, and take heed of any dangers that may have come into play around them.

As a writer, we also have dangers that come into play and pitfalls to be wary of. Sometimes it’s important to take time to pause and appreciate the warning signs around us. Listing to your instincts and do your research.

When you’re approaching a new market, discovering a new niche, are offered a new contract, or feel you’re going in the wrong direction with a client it is important to pause, Stay.

There is nothing wrong with taking a day, a week, to consider your options. It is safer to do this then to run ahead without accepting the consequences one choice might have versus another. It is also important, that after examining your options you take the next step forward in whichever direction you choose to head.

The Stay command is ALWAYS followed by Free, or Come. No dog, or writer, can remain stationary forever. A choice must be made and action taken to follow through.

Plurk Your Way To Action!

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:00:28 +0000

When creativity, inspiration, or motivation are floundering it can be hard to push yourself into action. Do you have your own techniques to restart your writing engine? How do you push through your lull periods to continue creating content and churning an income from Freelancing?

One of the means I’ve discovered recently is Networking. It’s vital to keep ties with friends and associates who can build your esteem, offer encouragement, and can commisserate in the hard times.

All writers have been to that dark place where words feel dredged through thick mud. While motion creates momentum, stagnation tends to continue to stagnate. It’s important to surround yourself with people who are uplifting and inspirational.

Recently, I discovered Plurk. It’s a social media network where you can connect with others, chat, ask questions, share your interests and links, and establish friendships with people around the world. Social connections offer a charge of energy that can build into action if you allow yourself to go with the momentum Plurking creates.

From writers sharing their latest ideas, blog posts, acceptances, rejections, to do lists, accomplishments, and celebrations, you can gain a warm encouragement that pushes you onward.

I’ve found that and more with Plurk. In fact, it’s thanks to a friends own Plurked Writing Bursts that I bring this post to you at last. I know, it’s still uninspired, dredged through mud, but it’s a step forward, and with one step forward we begin the momentum that makes each future step easier to take.

Come join us on Plurk, or find your own social connections online and off. If you share your writing journey, roads and round-abouts with others you can create a memorable trip and avoid asking, “Are we there yet?”

Do You Schedule Your Day?

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:33:34 +0000

Is Time-Management a key skill for freelance success?

I’ve struggled over the past few months to pull some semblance of order into my working day. It has left me wondering how other freelancers structure their time.

Do you have a detailed schedule? A prioritized to-do list? A few key tasks?
How do you keep these records? Message service? Notepad? Reminders? Timers?
Do you work for a particular number of hours each day? Each week? Take weekends off? Work late into the night? Start early in the morning?
Have you ever struggled to create a productive environment?
Are there times of days when you’re more productive than others? More creative? More relaxed? More focused?

There are so many options for freelancers and everyone must find their own way of doing things. How did you find out what worked for you? Are you still seeking your ideal time management solution?

I was talking with Michele L. Tune from Writing The Cyber Highway earlier tonight about how she structures her day. She told me that her drive and dedication to becoming a success, her passion for creating the kind of life she wants for herself and her need to help others accomplish their true lives pushes her through each day.She does not have a specific schedule and makes time to write wherever time happens to be. That can mean she’s writing into the wee hours of the morning, between loads of laundry, or while in a waiting room. She writes whenever she possibly can but that doesn’t mean she’s at her desk nine to five.
Other writers have a strict schedule such as, Sharon Hurley-Hall of Get Paid To Write Online. Sharon’s Schedule is very structured. She has set time to allow for various tasks and makes sure she includes important family time and enough flexibility.
Chris Bibey of Chris Blogging doesn’t have set hours of work scheduled but he feels that “When it comes down to it, you should work as many hours as it takes to get your work done.” If you’re low on commissions you can commit time to other career related projects that will encourage more opportunities.

I’ve not found my own freelancing routine. I’m still searching for what works for me. Trying new solutions and looking for the key that helps me keep writing, every single day.

Will you share your own schedule? How do you plan your day or set your hours? Do you have a specific structure or go with the flow? What works for you, and what have you heard works for others?

Networking, Friendship, and Colleagues

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:10:09 +0000

Do you have a powerful network of friends and colleagues who inspire you to keep trying, to push harder, to accomplish all you can be? In the past two days I’ve discovered how motivating and empowering, how VITAL a collection of friends who’ve been there, who truly know how you feel, can be for a writer.

Writers are a unique body of people. We think differently than other people. Our minds are often split with ideas and various forces pulling us in multiple directions. We tend to feel more deeply, to see with multiple perspectives, to reach out and need each other. There is something about being a writer that sets us apart from non-writers. Something that’s hard to describe but it is tangible when you’re there, in the moment, plugged in, linked!

Some of you have noticed my absence of late. You might contribute it to my trip and in a way that was a pivotal point. It spun my compass and I began to truly evaluate what I want from life. I still whirl in uncertainty, with choices that seem far and wide, but one thing that I’ve come to realize in the past two days, thanks to networking with online friends and colleagues in this writing and freelancing business is I want to be HERE, I WANT to continue to write for this blog, I want to build and truly cherish the friendships I’ve made already in this business and I want to write, I want to get past the fear, the pain, the pressure, the resistance that blocks my writing.

In a way it shows that nothing has changed. This dream, this desire has been strong, constant, all my life. Thanks to the motivation of my network, the opportunity to chat, express ideas, share confidence and be rewarded with a caring and nurturing relationship amongst fellow writers we can come back to the page, we can turn to the next challenge, we can push forward, onward, upward.

Ultimately, it is our support systems that push us toward the things we truly want. Who is in your support network? Who cherishes your desires simply because they’re yours? Do you have friends who drag you down? Do you have a quiet relief of people who know exactly what you need to hear and when to hear it?

How important is your network of friends and colleagues to you and your future success? How have they impacted your life to where you are today?

A Sax Outside My Window

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:22:27 +0000

One of the things I’ve always loved about the idea of living/staying in the city is street performers.

Dear Reader,

Right now there is a saxophonist playing down in the street outside my window. He’s very good, playing a sweet jazz that is calming and enjoyable but not intrusive. A part of me wants to go down and drop a big tip into his case but another just wants to relax here, listening.

Street Performer from the corner of 7th and Flower, if you ever come across this post, I truly appreciated your wonderful music today.

I decided to give the Book Expo a miss today. My mind still whirls from the incredible experience of the Writer’s Conference yesterday and I’m kicking back in my hotel room, inspired and creative.

The city is a magical place to be a writer.

When I glance out of the window I can watch workmen on the roof across the street. Their bright shirts and hard hats reflect the sun and their sure feet walk the sloping roof and batton walkways with a confident gait. One leans down on one knee over the edge of the building to take another plank from the workman below him. No ropes, just a sureness of foot that experience commands.

Traffic shuttles through the streets below. Buses have a familiar lurch and squeel and horns blare from time to time as busy drivers scuttle about their business. Where are they going? What does this day bring to them? What life to they lead?

It is so nice to simply sit, listen, and ponder. Isn’t it amazing that doing this, right now, is considered working? Sometimes I imagine this as the life I could have had, a lonely writer sitting up in her one room apartment above the city streets, writing, and listening to life passing by down below.

Instead? This is my vacation, and I’m choosing to work because writing is deep in my heart and soul. Instead, I have so much more, and this as well. I am truly blessed.

Sincerely,
Rebecca

Kilts and Pipes - The Honor of Scotland

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:28:47 +0000

There is something about a man in a skirt…

Dear Reader,

Isn’t there? Today we had a chance to visit the Highland Games. In Western Australia we have an annual Highland Gathering but it is perhaps only one tenth the expanse of California’s Highland Games. Kilts from all around local regions and beyond came to share their beer and tales of glory. I couldn’t count the number of Clans attended but it was a wave of colored tartan as far as the eye could see.

The Scotts have a gift when it comes to creating a rhythm that pulses through your chest. If you close your eyes as a pipe band plays you feel like you’re listening to a lone piper, standing high on the Scottish cliffs and playing to the depth of the sea before him. The best of the best outside of Scotland were there and the music was captivating, the rhythm of the drums creating a throbbing heartbeat.

I love the lands of the isles. Ireland and Scotland both have a rich history and a proud people. The Highlanders created warmth and happiness for their families and despite their bloody history they’re a strong and proud people still.

We weren’t fortunate enough to find Haggis and for that I am glad. Despite vowing that I was willing to try it I was not looking forward to ingesting sheep guts. I may eat lamb, but I draw the line at parts of the animal that were filled with grass, highland or otherwise.

The shopping there was wonderful. I spent far more than I should but the celtic crosses, handcrafted jewellry, and medieval dresses were too fine and beautiful to resist. Of course, when my friends saw the delight I took in the Highland Games they were sorry that I had missed the Renaissance Fair that was only a week or so before. Next year, I’ll be here for that.

I’m obviously having a lovely time and tomorrow I’ll regale you with tales of the land of Disney. Stay tuned and stay safe!

Sincerely,
Rebecca

Sunny California? It’s a Myth

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Mon, 26 May 2008 17:24:01 +0000

Have you ever heard that nothing but sun shines in California?

Dear Reader,

Oh! What a lie!!! It’s my third day here and I’m yet to see the sun. My friend tells me that I brought my Australian weather with me but honestly? The sun was shining back at home when I left. How can it be raining in California at the end of May? Hasn’t this state heard of spring?

Now I’m no weather expert but I’ve noticed how strange seasons have become lately. As I flew in over the airport there was little but cloud cover to see and that was ok. Every state is entitled to an off day. Calling for a personal day for three days straight, however, just doesn’t do your tourist industry credit. We were promised sun.

Thankfully, sunshine isn’t needed to walk the path of stars and see all the freaks and weirds coming out to entertain the gullible, facile masses. In a state that is run by a movie star, fame is the game and apparently it’s a booming industry here. If you dress up as Snoopy and stand on someone else’s footprints people will take photographs of you. I do hope these people make good money because it sounds like a miserable life to me.

You also don’t need sunshine to enjoy a movie at the Chinese Theater. I have to admit I really loved this place. The screens are huge, the surround sound perfectly pitched and while the seating and popcorn could withstand being refreshed every other decade the escapism of cinema makes you forget how distorted your back is.

The theater itself is beautiful. I’m not sure about where you are, but in Western Australia cinema is industry business. Cinemas aren’t designed to be attractive. They’re designed to be comfortable and large. They’re filled with movie posters and bad lighting. Cinemas in Western Australia are efficient, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not the experience that the Chinese Theater gives you.

So, despite the rain and the cloud, the betrayal of the ‘Sunny California’, I am loving my time here. I’ve even managed to get some writing done thanks to The Sheraton’s wireless internet access.

It’s off to the Highland Games today! Any suggestions for what sightseeing I should do while I’m here?

Sincerely,
Rebecca

Going Out or Coming In

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Sun, 25 May 2008 16:18:43 +0000

It is easier to get into America than it is to get out of Australia.

Dear Reader,

I don’t know if the above statement is always true but it was for me this trip. After a very long (12 hour) flight from Sydney to L.A., it was a simple walk through to get past customs and out to the beautiful Cloud and Rain!

Despite being long and tiring the flight was enjoyable. I met another great person, a guy from Perth who had been to L.A. before and was kind enough to let me have the window seat for take off and landing. I actually found it an ideal situation because being on the isle was handy for bathroom breaks but I still got to see the sites.

I can’t say I got much sleep but I did see a couple of good movies I’d been wanting to watch and as we approached L.A.X I chatted with the guy who gave me his tourist map of L.A.

But then, the weird part came. We landed safely and taxied in, came down and queued for customs. The queue moved quickly with each Australian simply having a finger scan and photograph taken. A woman had moved through the queue checking everyone had filled in their papers correctly so after handing those over it was straight to the carousel and out of the door in search of my hotel shuttle.

No scans, no cavity searches, no bomb scanning, nothing. I had to tweak my luggage at Perth Airport, new the routine when I did it again at Sydney airport, had a bomb residue test, walked through two metal detectors. That was just to get out of first my state and then my country. To get into America? None of that. I thought security here was tough? I suppose they simply hope that Australian customs did a decent job of checking us over before we boarded.

Well, the good news is I’m NOT a terrorist and despite the rain (What is up with THAT, Sunny California?) am already loving my time here.

Sincerely,
Rebecca

Writer's Round-About

Book Review: Pumping Your Muse by Donna Sundblad

Popular Posts

Character: Live Another Life? [MEME]

Popular Posts

Dog Train Your Writing Skills: Heel and Stay

Popular Posts

Plurk Your Way To Action!

Popular Posts

Do You Schedule Your Day?

Popular Posts

Networking, Friendship, and Colleagues

Popular Posts

A Sax Outside My Window

Popular Posts

Kilts and Pipes - The Honor of Scotland

Popular Posts

Sunny California? It’s a Myth

Popular Posts

Going Out or Coming In

Popular Posts