Ignore this...

People who live in houses never get it, but street people know: Fall begins on the fifteenth of August, at the exact moment when summer's at its peak. It happens like breath, the exhale being the seed of the inhale. There's the first yellow leaf. A tiredness comes over the green. The smell of snow rolls down from the mountain, and your bones remember the cold that's coming.
--Janis Hollowell, THE ANNUNCIATION OF FRANCESCA DUNN, William Morrow

Isn't that an amazing paragraph? I'd forgotten that I read it, but in gathering my notes from this summer when I was preparing to speak at ACRW, I found this paragraph. I think these sentences provokedthe forest you've been walking through if you've been here lately. Isn't amazing how words can sprout in the darkness of our minds, dropping roots into our souls? Wow. God is so wonderful like that.

Still though, ignore this post. LOL It's writing related. :) Several people asked for the notes of a talk I did and I promised to put them on my web site. Since my Contribute software is acting whack and I can't update my website, I'm going to post the notes from my ACRW late night conference chat here. I said a lot more than this that I can't remember and it wasn't taped, so if you were there and can think of something important that isn't on this skeleton outline, post it in the comments. :) There were also a few timed writings based on selections I read aloud. I may post them here also so you can try it if you want to. If anybody has what they wrote and want to share it, feel free to post it in the comments or send it to me and I'll post it. Oh yeah and there were bookmarks, magnets and prizes. All scriptures mentioned were read aloud by members of the group. We also had a timekeeper who "chimed" every eight minutes. If you were there and want to share what prize you got, do that too. Speaking of which I think I owe somebody one. Hmm... :) Forgive any formatting problems.

Thanks,
Mary

Finish the Book: 8 Minutes at a Time

I. Setting the Alarm-2 Corinthians 8:10,11
Completion, not perfection. The difference between an author and a writer? A book.
A. Get a Grip
B. Get a Goal
C. Go for it!

"This above all - ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night: must I write? Delve into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this earnest question with a strong and simple 'I must,' then build your life according to this necessity..."
--Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke

II. Minute One-READ IT!

A. The Word-Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 138:2
1. Daily devotional lists
B. Classics-get a high school reading list
C. Books inside your genre
D. Books outside your genre
E. Your prayer journal-remember God’s faithfulness

"The writer studies literature, not the world. He lives in the world; he cannot miss it. If he has ever bought a hamburger, or taken a commercial airplane flight, he spares his readers a report of his experience. He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, because that is what he will know."—Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

Writing exercise: Oral excerpt and followed by eight minute freewrite

I'm no newcomer to strangeness. I've had it all my life. It's my curse and my blessing that I can smell things other people can't. Ican pick up the rotten sweetness of infection from across the street. Anger coming off a person is an acrid, mustardy thing, not unlike the odor of ants, and lying has a cloying, soapy smell that makes my mouth pleat. In the past, when social workers and do-gooders discovered my gift, they sent me to shrinks who gave me the latest antipsychotic. I tried to take them, but the drugs always made me go dead inside. Each time I ended up deciding to carry on intact, smells and all, rather than live in that pharmaceutical twilight.
–Janis Hollowell, THE ANNUNCIATION OF FRANCESCA DUNN, William Morrow

III. Minute Two-WRITE IT!- Psalm 45:1

A. Copy God’s Word
B. Draw a map of your setting
C. Journal from one character’s point of view
D. Keep a notebook handy
E. Just write and see what happens!
F. Outline the books on your keeper shelf
G. Sing your scales to find your voice. Write something!
H. Scan your outbox for gems you missed

“We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.”—John Holt

IV. Minute Three-SAY IT!- Psalm 107:2
A. Speak God’s promises/David preached to himself
B. Read previous work aloud
C. Read dialogue aloud into the mirror
D. Sing a psalm
E. Find voice recognition software and listen to your story.
F. Books/Bible on tape or CD
G. Recite poetry
H. Practice for public readings
I. Practice pitches

"One of the strongest characteristics of genius is the power of lighting one’s own fire.”
—John W. Foster, clergyman (1770-1843)

Oral readings

Depressed? Stuck? Read this daily.

A Godly Writer’s Confession

I am anointed, beautiful, confident, disciplined, energetic, fearless, generous, highly-favored, intelligent, joyful, kind, loving, master of my emotions, noble, organized, patient, queenly radiant, submissive, talented, unique, virtuous, whole, x-traordinary, youthful and zealous

Yolanda Callegari Brooks Copyright 2003. Used with permission.

Or better yet, make up your own (the appendices in Write His Answer are great too)!

"A writer is like a bag lady going through life with a sack and a pointed stick collecting stuff."--Tony Hillerman

V. Minute Four-PRAY IT!-1 Thess. 5:17, Eph. 6:18
A. Prayer journal
B. Pray for your readers, editors, agents, fellow writers and favorite writers
C. Record God’s answers
D. He’s the Author and Finisher. Ask for help!
E. Get others to pray for you
F. Only one thing is needful. Choose the greater part. Sit at His feet and let Him tell you the story.

If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

VI. Minute Five-MOVE IT!-Acts 17:28
A. An active mind needs oxygen
B. Good posture and reflexes
C. Body moves, brain births
D. Not about losing weight, about gaining ideas
E. Break a sweat in 8 minutes
F. Move your mind with music
G. One song is usually around four minutes
H. Let the music play and the words pour out!

Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen. Even so does inactivity sap the vigor of the mind. -Leonardo da Vinci

VII. Minute Six-PROVE IT!-Hebrews 12:2
A. Share the work with somebody
B. Critique group/ partner?
C. Editor/agent
D. Revisit the goal and make it happen!
E. Don’t bluff!
F. Check your goal. Is it SMART?
1. Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Tangible.
2. finish draft1 by next conference or revise mss by January vs "write a book".

“Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doint it.”—Joel Barker

Writing exercise #2-oral excerpt, eight minute writing
"You smell that?" she said excitedly to the back of the cabdriver's head.

"I don't smell nothzing, my cab clean, lady."

She yelled at him to stop then and she rarely yelled at people like cabdrivers, elevator operators, the ones who vacuumed the carpet at the special-needs school where she was principal. Figured she'd be working thus if Rowe's large hands hadn't rushed in and broken her fall when she'd tumbled from her heightened station in life. Told the cabdriver to stop right now, let her out, she needed to get out.

"You sure, lady? Here? That lady who tip me said I wait till you in your door."

She leaned into the cab window, whispered into the driver's face, "My aunt says if you smell butter on a foggy night you're getting ready to fall in love." She made her eyes go big, lowered her voice even more the way her aunt would do. "And if you're walking alone when you smell it-"

"Yeah? Yeah? What happen?"

Verdi didn't know the rest, when her aunt got to this part her face would glaze over in an oily sheen, she'd start fanning herself and shaking her head. Lord have mercy is all her aunt could say after that. "It's just better that's all," she said to the cabdriver as she turned and started walking toward home.

Diane McKinney Whetstone, BLUES DANCING, HarperCollins

VIII.Minute Seven-REST IT!-Genesis 2:3
A. Keep a sabbath heart
B. Don’t isolate yourself/schedule fun
C. Take a break after meeting goals,not a vacation
D. Maintain relationships while writing, reward friends and family with an “end of the book” event

“Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.”—unknown

IX. Minute Eight-BEST IT!-I Cor. 15:58
A. You guessed it! Start all over again.
B. Assess what worked and what didn’t
C. Identify time distractors
1. no email, phone or tv until after you write? Address your weaknesses
D. Find YOUR rhythm!
E. Thank God for what He’s done
F. Messed up? Didn’t quite make it? Start over!

“You can make all the plans for the fight you want, but when the lights come up you’re left to your reflexes. If you cheated during the dark workouts of the morning, you’ll be found out under the bright lights.”—Joe Frazier

Question: Who would you rather listen to, a musical prodigy who practices when it rains or an average artist who practices daily and moves from last chair to first? Think about it. You’re asking both editors and readers to pay hard earned money for your books.

Find your rhythm and play it to THE END.

Other stuff I remember saying—
Get your family on board, pray with them about where your writing should go

figure out what motivates your family, what irritates them

Every time I get a check we all go to WalMart and everybody gets one thing, I pay my older kids for extra duties during deadlines

get DESPERATE!, let them see that you want this

ask for a book for Christmas, YOUR BOOK!

where will you be at next year’s conference?

don’t blame the editors or trends, BE a trend!

Come back next year with a full heart and open hands

come with the work done and pull somebody up with you

most people wrote two pages in 8 minutes tonight, Francine said she writes 4 pages; you can’t write like her, but you CAN write!

how long do you spend on email? Open one and write it to yourself about your BOOK

Be humble and hungry, this ain’t for the faint of heart…

there is only one YOU and somebody needs ya, get at it

Jesus will help us. He's good like that. :)

It's only eight minutes.
Don't miss it.
Not even for the world.

Off to take my own advice...