Can't Hug Every Cat

Stuck? Demoralized? Here’s help and hope from Barbara Baig

19 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment

by Laura Hile in Uncategorized

“If we taught children to walk the way we teach them to write, they’d never learn.” (Mark Twain)

Some of you know that I have added a high school writing class to my teaching load this year. I have seven bright, motivated young men twice a week. I tell you what, these guys keep me on my toes! So I’ve been digging into my collection of ‘How-To’ books.

Barbara Baig’s gentle approach to writing is deceptively simple … and powerful. Using a pen, a (private) notebook, and a timer, students learn the skill of putting words on paper. Here’s the trick: Once you begin writing, you must keep the pen moving for ten minutes. Period. No backtracking, no crossing out. Forget grammar rules or even making sense! Get words on the page.

And you start off writing nonsense. But it’s like jogging on the treadmill: the hardest part is getting started. After five minutes or so, something happens. The creative mind kicks in. Suddenly you’ll find yourself working on a new scene in a story, or thinking out, on paper, the solution to a complex problem. It’s uncanny, this unlocking of the creative mind. Best of all, there’s a paper trail. You don’t “lose” what you thought. It’s all there to work with.

For a fledgling writer, the discipline of freewriting is revolutionary. My boys will tell you that after three weeks of daily ten minute freewrites, they’ve grown. “My short story,” said one student, tapping his notebook, “is all in here.”

And for the experienced writer? Learning to connect with the creative mind is empowering.

A $79 Kindle!

29 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment

by Laura Hile in Uncategorized

This is such good news I can hardly stand it.

Yes, it means my current Kindle is outdated. As a consumer I am feeling rather bummed.

But as an author I am elated. Because, you see, 63% of my sales are on Kindle. And in good time for Christmas, too!

Plus, right now my Kindle books are on sale. $4.19 each!

*Laura does the happy dance*

(Image is a link to the article at MSNBC’s Gadgetbox)

My Inner Scardy Cat

28 Sep 2011 2 Comments

by Laura Hile in Uncategorized

It’s Wednesday, and Sir Walter is up to his usual tricks at Jane Started It! (my other blog).

This week he’s giving advice on how to silence a bashful writer, one who has dared to bring up (at a party) the fact that she is, in fact, a published author. Sir Walter offers My Dear Vulgarian Miss a choice of cringe-worthy responses. Since the source for Sir Walter is, of course, myself, I thought up a list of horrible things. They’re comically bad, but still, you get to listen to my Inner Scardy Cat speak.

• Outright surprise: “You are published? Really. How … nice.”
• The bright smile: “Ooo goodie! Is your book about sex?” Say this loudly.
• Honest interest: “So, which famous author’s books do yours resemble?”
• 4G validation: “Are you on the NY Times Bestseller List? Here, I’ll check.”
• Curiosity: “Is your book an exposé? A shocking tell-all? Am I in it?”
• Disdain: “I read only the classics. And literary fiction, you understand.”
• The awkward silence, then a change of topic: “So, do you like hobbies?”

Here’s the thing. ONLY ONCE has someone said one of these to me.

The rest are phantoms, imaginary words that I will likely never hear!

So why do I torture myself with what could happen? Perhaps I think that by dwelling on the worst, a real-life stinging comment won’t have power to wound?

It’s a nonsensical approach that keeps me scared of people when I have no reason to be.

The fear of man does indeed bring a snare.

And the one comment I did hear? Last October I was signing books at the national meeting of JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America), and a smartly-dressed older woman passed by my table. When she realized we were authors, she said, with unnecessary force, “I read only Jane Austen.”

What could I say? Nothing, because I suddenly recalled what some of the Austen fiction books are like–lame, sexualized, inaccurate. What could I do but smile? Because that lady had a point.

So much for being wounded! I have a lot to learn …

(Cat image courtesy of vintageclipart.com)

Pause …

22 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment

by Laura Hile in Uncategorized

It’s been an odd week. Has the “Get-Your-Game-On” autumn hustle caught up with everybody? Because it’s quiet.

Not a serene, contemplative quiet. A tired out, can’t-take-another-step quiet.

Around here students and teachers are succumbing to colds. Very few are showing up at the gym. There are maybe three posts on my (usually busy) writing group’s board. Although I have a road map for my next novel — and a big editing project ready to go — but I’m having difficulty writing. And tomorrow I have a writing class to teach — I should be motivated! — and I sit here staring at the monitor with nothing prepared.

It’s like somebody hit the Pause button.

Death be not Proud

11 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment

by Laura Hile in Uncategorized

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better than thy stroake; why swell’st thou then?
One shorte sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

John Donne (1572-1631) Divine Sonnet X