Team YOU--Who's On Your Team? by Yamile Saied Mendez

The original A-Team

With back-to-school, it's also back to sports! It's not only [American] Football taking over your weekend, but the beautiful game (AKA Fútbol, or soccer if you must) is also back in full force. I'm thrilled that FC Barcelona and Rosario Central are back to the pitch, and I have such high expectations for these two teams. Too bad all I can do to help my teams is cheer for them while I watch on TV (except for the one blessed time I went to Barcelona, and that one time twenty years ago when I was back in Rosario for a game). 

Maybe because I love team sports so much, I've always been conscious of the people around me, my team.

I hated group projects in school, but I'm not talking about this. 

In my mind, the people that help me in my writing journey are more like the characters of the A-Team show I loved watching as a child. I don't remember much of the show other than each character had their specific role in the group, and they were all equally important. 

So what are the roles of the people that should be part of your A-Team? 

They are alpha readers, beta readers, accountability partners, critique partners (group), writing coach. 

Alpha Readers

I wrote my first manuscript during NaNoWriMo, and after tying The End I was ready for a reader (I know, I know. I shiver at the thought now too). One of my best friends is an avid reader, and she volunteered. After she was done, she didn't cut all communications or move to another state/country (shocking. I know. She's a true friend). She offered me great feedback, from a reader's perspective. 

When I was ready to type my second story, she wanted to read as I wrote. She then became my alpha reader. This has forever been one of the best experiences of my writing life. Every morning, I'd send her what I had written the night before. She's text me her reactions as she read. Or sometimes a few days would go by between my sending her new material. She wasn't a writer, so she didn't expect me to read any of her material. She asked all the right questions about my story and characters, helping me notice plot holes, inconsistencies, etc. It was so helpful that the first draft of that book wasn't as terrible as my NaNoWriMo draft had been.  She expected me to send her new pages at least a few times a week, and she was extremely positive and encouraging. During a first draft, you want to know if the story is working, and she was the perfect person for this. 

Beta Reader 

A Beta Reader is someone who reads a partial or full manuscript and offers you feedback on it. The feedback may vary from structural comments, line edits, cultural/ethnic representation. Usually beta readers swap manuscripts, or in the case of sensitivity readers or editors, they need to be compensated for their time. 

Accountability Partners

Accountability partners don't always read each other's pages. They mainly hold each other accountable to goals they tell each other at the beginning of the week. A friend and I would text our goals every Sunday night, and then each day at the end of the day, we'd report our what we'd done to accomplish that goal. Knowing that my friend was waiting for my text pushed me to get to work instead of making excuses. 

In  Done and Done: The Power of Accountability Partnering for Reaching Your Goals, Anette Lyon and Luisa Perkins (accountability partners themselves) explain how this kind of partnership can be one of the best strategies for your team. 

Critic Partners/Groups

Critique Partners and Groups dynamics vary from relationship to relationship. Some meet online. Some meet in person every week at the same time, once a month, every other month, etc. They'll read a full manuscript at a time, read everyone's ten pages ahead and come to the meeting prepared to discuss (like a workshop), or read right there on the spot and offer feedback. Some people belong to more than one writing group and love it. Others can't commit to the workload of reading so much material every week/month. 

Writing Coach

A writing coach could be a mentor or an instructor. You can hire someone to both hold you accountable to your goals, and who'll give you feedback on your manuscript and walk you through your writing problems. 

 You could also find this amazing kind of mentor through contests such as Pitchwars, in which aspiring writers are paired up with a mentor, and for two months they work on revising a manuscript for an agents' showcase. 

The We Need Diverse Books organization also offers a mentorship program. Check it here. 

But the most important quality in any of your team members is that they'll be cheering for you. Yes, sometimes there will be some harsh love involved, but mostly, there will be a lot of encouragement and cheering. 

What kind of members do you have in your team? Share in the comments!

7 Ways to Make the Most of a Writing Retreat by Caroline Starr Rose

Adorable Boo, my writing companion.

Last year my husband took our boys to the Mountain West Basketball Tournament, giving me four days with the house to myself. I planned to use the time as a stay-at-home writing retreat, just Boo and me and fiendish typing. 

It was spectacular. 

I decided I needed to be prepared but open when it came to this writing time. While I hoped Jasper and the Riddle of Riley's Mine would be back in my possession, I couldn’t plan on that happening (It wasn’t. I worked on it anyway and was thrilled with what I accomplished). My goal was to have a sense of how I wanted to use the four days, but not be so rigid that I missed a creative opportunity. I ended up splitting the time between two projects, one in its very beginnings and the other nearing its end. 

I planned ahead about regular commitments and how I’d handle them. For example, I got up at roughly the same time I would have had my family been home. I kept my Thursday running date and attended church on Sunday. But I made room for flexibility, skipping the gym on Friday and going to a book signing Saturday afternoon. As for meals, I pulled a few things out of the freezer, cooked twice (with leftovers for when my family returned), and even ordered pizza one night. 

Most importantly, I knew I needed to have realistic, relaxed expectations while still committing to hard work. I am not a fast writer and never will be. With four days stretching before me, it would have been very easy to convince myself I’d do super-fantastic, out-of-character things, like write 10,000 words a day. Not happening, ever. Instead I focused on these things:

•  I decided not to serve my ego (those 10,000 words) or my anxiety (worry I wouldn’t accomplish anything), but simply show up and enjoy the work.
•  I told myself it was more important to be productive instead of producing. (In other words, I didn’t have to have loads to show for all the time I put in. Creativity isn’t always something that can be measured. I’m learning to be okay with this.)
• I strongly believe that every writing moment teaches me. That makes it worth it, whether it’s eventually cut or kept, whether it sells or doesn’t.

The view from our retreat house balcony. Isn't it gorgeous?

Every September my critique group meets for a writing retreat. We rent a house in town, plan out who will make dinner what night, do a bit of critiquing in the evenings, watch a movie together, and spend the rest of our time in creative work. 

The years I've been on deadline, I've made quantifiable! Great! Leaps and bounds! with my writing. During the other years, not so much. But here's the thing: those slower retreats were still creatively important, whether I produced much or not. Have I believed that during the retreat itself? Nope. I haven't. I'm still learning to trust in the moment that every writing experience teaches me something.

I have no deadline this time around, but I do have a project underway -- the one mentioned above, in its early beginnings (and honestly not much further along than it was a year and a half ago, during my stay-at-home retreat). It would be easy to head into the week with my ego and anxiety kicked up in high gear. Instead, I hope to apply what I learned while I worked alone: to stay prepared but open, relaxed and willing to work, ready to learn from each moment as it comes.

What words of wisdom can you share about writing retreats?

The 3 Acts of Sound: Re-inventing How You Write with Audio by Donna Galanti

 photo by Jonathan Grado Creative Commons License 

Sound. It’s such an important part of our every day. Nature. Music. Machines. Heartfelt conversations. Heated arguments.

Writing requires digging into our senses to show what a character feels, hears, sees, tastes, and smells. But what about the writer? Enriching our own senses can enrich our writing. It can spur a mental and physical response that deepens our characters and setting.

Silence was once my friend and what I thought was required to write. This past year, my writing process has evolved out of necessity. My writing habits grew stale and the words lost their fluidity.

Without realizing it, over the past few months I’ve organically infused new processes into my writing to combat this. When taking a closer look at them I realized they all had one thing in common: sound.

Here are the three ways sound has become a new foundation for my writing process.

                                          

Use real life setting to infuse your story setting

photo by Paul Bilca Creative Commons License

Act 1
Audio record 

I discovered the magical concept of recording on my new smartphone. Not since I was eleven years old with my push button cassette recorder, had audio story telling so claimed me! Back in 1980 I downed Kool-Aid and Nutter-Butters with my best friend as we created commercials on wishful products like … Pepsi Flakes Cereal (wouldn’t that be a cool breakfast?).

Now, strolls through woods suddenly became paths to other worlds. People in my story walk beside me, speak to me. They love, they fight, they suffer, they rejoice. Mountains loom, storms rage, rivers flow, and secrets tumble. My character’s words and their world spill out from me, the narrator, onto the story stage (and if no one is around I get theatrical and act my scenes out!). 

The earth and air around me weave into my story, crossing into fantasy. The whispering wind chills my skin, the burbling creek roars in my ears, the crackling leaves crush beneath my feet. And it all infuses my story. The real life world becomes my story world.

As I fade back to the solid world and my desk, I transcribe my words and embellish on all I’ve recorded.

Try this:
Place yourself in a similar setting of your scene (or one you can connect to for your story’s sake) and use it to your advantage incorporating the senses as an active participant in the story. See the story setting before you and use the real world to describe it. In transcription, you will have a second pass to edit what you’ve recorded and likely guaranteed to have extended thoughts that build on your audio file.

 My awesome critique group! 

Act 2

Critique Group 
I was excited to be invited to be part of a critique group of children’s authors this year that meets once a month. This was something I’d never ventured doing! I’ve used editors and beta readers, but never been held accountable to submit work and review work in a group.

Our rules state that a moderator reads the first page then the person being critiqued must wear The Sombrero of Silence for twenty minutes while the other members speak freely about their work (thanks former Mayhemmer Joe McGee!). Listening to others debate your scenes while keeping mum has been fascinating. I am a fly on the wall, scribbling notes as their words, passion, and ideas spew around me. This one-way audio sensory experience enables you to hone in on each spoken word with clarity and to seek its meaning. You are a receiver of sound but not a producer of sound.

Try this:
Paired with writers of the same level and mindset in a critique group keeps you accountable to your work and pushes you to see issues in other works that you may see in your own. Also, the camaraderie inspires community in a business that is very much solitary. Being a non-participant, hearing your work read aloud and discussed without your engagement, peaks the senses to pick up on each idea and word with total awareness.

The Sombrero of Silence

Act 3
Write to Music
I had always connected songs to characters and scenes in my previous novels, but I never wrote to the music. I would listen to theme songs prior to writing and then sit down to write, the melody and mood flowing through me to capture scenes on paper. Recently, stuck on my current work-in-progress, I decided to write to instrumental music. I purchased headphones and chose soundtracks to match the storyline and setting (Lord of the Rings and Gladiator) not knowing what to expect.

My first day I wrote with such fervor, the tears flowed and covers flew off two letters with my keyboard pounding. Like recording scenes outside in nature, I was transported to my world. I became this anguished character, witnessing the roiling sea before me and facing a life of desperate yearning. A new doorway had opened for me writing to music. One I never knew existed.

Try this:
Music sets the mood and our mood as writers. Having difficulty envisioning a scene? Close your eyes and listed to mood-inspiring music to see it and feel it on the page. Some writers I know use Pandora to create playlists. Try these directories to write by: Sound Fuel and 8Tracks.

I wonder what sense is next to be blended into my world of writing? They say the nose knows. New research proclaims that the nose can remember 1 trillion smells – far from the long believed 50,000. Smells are powerful memory triggers. When you first smell a new scent, you link it to a person or event. Like the scent of fresh cut grass can remind you of a summer day, even if it’s the end of autumn. And when you happen upon that smell again, the link is there, ready to pop that memory open.

Imagine popping open those memories to deepen character and setting. I love stewing apples with cinnamon all throughout the year. Why? The smell reminds me of childhood when my mom gathered apples in our orchard and stewed them for breakfast with homemade biscuits and sorghum. Up next – writing to scents!

Has sound transformed the way you create as an artist? If so, how? Share your experiences!