Everybody's Got One

A secret that is. Everyone’s got a secret. What were you thinking?

One of my favorite filmmaking tips is as the director, to give each actor a secret about their character. One they can’t share with anyone, but will inform everything they do in every scene.

Secrets can add depth and subtext to a scene that might otherwise be merely functional, or ordinary. For (a poor) example: A character who is hiding a fear of heights, might try to convince his crush not to hike up to a popular make out spot on a cliff despite wanting desperately to make out with her.

While it works really well in film where we can both see an actor’s face, and hear their change in tone when responding to an innocuous request, I think it can also work well in a novel.

You probably already know your main characters darkest secrets, and maybe even some of their love interest’s or antagonist’s, but what about everyone else? This ties in with my previous post “Why Are You Here?” about every character having a reason to be where they are in every scene.

In this case, having a secret can help give conversations between characters more depth and realism. If you know a character’s secret, it will color everything they do and say. It will make the world feel more real, because the people in it are real. It might even change your main character’s or the reader’s opinion of the character, and that can be used to your advantage when working on stories with mysteries. (And I believe every story should have a mystery, even if it’s not a mystery story, but that’s a whole ‘nother post!)

I would bet that if you’ve gotten pretty far into writing the book, that most of your characters already have a secret, you just haven’t picked up on it because you’ve been too busy forwarding the story. If you’re just starting your book, or you haven’t seen your characters dropping any hints, try giving them one and see if it perks up one of your lackluster scenes, or changes the way your characters view each other. You might just make a discovery or two!

What about you, do you give your characters secrets? What are some of the ways you add subtext and depth?

How Do You Count?

Recently I was talking to a fairly prolific writer friend and commented that while she had written two books and edited a third last year, I had only managed on 7k word short. She was horrified. She went on to say how many thousands of words she'd written and deleted in that time and estimated that just those alone would be another full-length novel. And that was when I realized that I count much differently than most writers.

I only count what I consider "finished" and "successful". And so while I revised my first book twice, throwing out the bulk of it and rewriting from scratch, and while I made several starts on my next book, and another 15k or so of figuring out my anthology short, filled a 100 page notebook with detailed plot and character info, not to mention all my Tangled Fiction stories, I only had one thing make it to its intended destination. My 7k anthology short, STILLWATER.

It honestly never occurred to me to consider all the things I wrote that have not yet become something as something I wrote, LOL. But now I'm starting to wonder if I'm not giving myself enough credit. I suppose if I were to put it all together, I actually did write over 100k in 2011. I just never thought of it that way. Maybe I should, since each word I write, makes me a better writer. And looking at it the way I have been makes me feel more like an underachiever.

So I ask you, how do you count? And does it matter to you how much writing you've done? No matter where it goes? (Or doesn't go?) I'm really curious!

NaNoFailMo

I had the best of intentions, I really did. I started out strong and racked up 17K words in a week. Yeah, it pretty much ended there. However, despite the fact that NaNo was a bust, I'm not considering the month a failure because a) thanks to the magic of Scrivener (yes, I devoted a whole post to this wonder program) I have the entire book outlined and b) I worked really hard the rest of the month on a different ms. I'd say the detour worked out okay in the end, as December was officially the best writing-related month of my life so far. Details are forthcoming, but suffice it to say that I'm still pinching myself.

So for those of you who finished NaNo this year, you rock! 50K in a month is a huge commitment. And for those who tried, but feel bad because you 'only' got 20K or 30K written, you rock too! That's 20,000 more words than you had in October. Goals are fun, but make sure you're having fun in the process.

How many of you did NaNo and finished this year? How many tried but didn't quite hit 50K? How many of you decided that no way in hell would you attempt such craziness?

Staying Focused?

So I've been going through some house drama. My bathroom essentially fell apart while I was in Amsterdam and since then I've had it ripped apart, my house filled with potentially hazardous dust, and have not been able to stay there. FOR THE LAST MONTH. It is extremely frustrating. Especially since where I've been staying doesn't have wi-fi and my macbook won't connect to the modem using the wire. Which means I have to go to my house, and attempt to accomplish things online while workers are stomping through my house, making all kinds of noise and I'm choking on dust. It is... not fun.

Top it off with the fact that I had a pretty important deadline looming, and my nights were filled with anxiety dreams of floods and toxic mold. It's been difficult, and I know my writing has suffered from it. I've been trying all kinds of things to help me focus, such as focus brainwave audio, which is basically the sound of waves crashing on the shore while underneath it tones that stimulates gamma or alpha waves play. I have to say that I was surprised that they sort of seemed to work. I don't know if it was just the fact that it was white noise, or if the brainwave thing was actually happening, but I did find myself able to focus more despite what was going on around me.

What kinds of things do you do to stay focused? I am sort of desperate for more tips. I tried the library, but they don't really have any "quiet" spaces there (plus they're doing construction, hello!) and I'm not so good in coffee shops where there's so much going on. Is there anything special that works for you?

Fight Your Way Through

I love what Ira Glass has to say in this video about that feeling of disappointment we can sometimes get when the vision we have for our work is not what we manage to create, and how the only way to make it what we want is to fight our way through that disappointment, and keep on writing.

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

This backs up something I truly believe, even as I struggle with it. And that's that if you can dream it, you can do it. If you can imagine a book, full of amazing plot twists, and gut-wrenching emotion, and all the things you love in a book, YOU CAN WRITE THAT BOOK. It might feel like you can't. It might feel scary, and hard, and impossible, but trust me. That book is already inside you. It's already written. You just have to sit down and spit it out.

When to Ignore Your Muse

You'd think it would be great to have a Shiny New Idea (SNI) fall into your lap, but it's not always a good thing. Don't get me wrong--I'm super excited about SNI and the hubby thinks it's a really cool premise. But...I haven't finished revising my current manuscript. The same ms I'm bringing to a writing retreat next week in order get feedback on it from editors/agents/etc. Yet the lure of this pretty, new thing is so tempting. I'm one of those writers who loves first drafts, and er, intensely dislikes tenth drafts. First drafts are fun for me, and all the drafts after it are more like work. I know some writers love the revision part of the process, and while I do love watching my book evolve and become better, I've discovered I have a slight problem with impatience.

I'm solving this problem by jotting down notes on SNI...and occasionally obsessing about it in the shower. But  for now it's back to work on revision number gazillion of my current ms. I guess there's something to be said for having motivation to finish it, so I can move on to the next thing.

Anyone else struggle with this issue, or does everyone love revisions more than I do?  

No Love For The Present?

Since I made the switch from screenwriting to novels, I've discovered that some people don't care for present tense. In fact some people have violent hate for present tense prose. I find this curious. I rarely notice tense when I'm reading and the times I do, it's usually because a book written in past tense has suddenly confused me as to when something is happening/has happened. (That whole, "I'm saying it in the past tense but it's really happening right now" thing hurts my brain.)

I tend to naturally write in present tense. I used to think this was because of screenwriting - scripts are written in present tense. But then one day I was flipping through my old journals and I discovered I've always written in present tense. And that made me think about the way people tell stories. I think in our daily lives, we use present tense much more often than you might think.

I'm sure you've had a conversation that went something like this:

"You won't believe what happened to me today!"

"What?"

"So, I'm in the store and this guy comes up and is like, did it hurt? And I go, um, what? And he gives me this big cheesy grin and says, when you fell out of heaven? And I was like seriously??"

(Okay, hopefully you don't have conversations like this, but you get the point.) The story was told naturally in present tense because she's sort of reliving it. It makes the moment more immediate. So with this in mind, I am really curious what it is that those of you that hate present tense find so awful about it. I've read terms like "jarring" and "annoying" and I wonder what about it gives you those feelings.

Treasure Hunt, Self-Edit Style!

While I’m waiting for notes on my WIP from my Scribe Sisters, I’ve been doing some research on things, including agents, revisions, candle making, how to properly skin an animal (don’t ask), and I’ve come across some gems. 

Mostly on the revision thing.

Cheryl Klein, an editor at Scholastic, has this fantastic recap of a talk she did for an SCBWI conference on revising and self-editing. The full speech is also there for your reading pleasure.
http://www.cherylklein.com/id21.html

Literary agent Natalie Fischer (Bradford Lit) recently posted a great recap of her talk at an SCBWI event on the revision process.
http://adventuresinagentland.blogspot.com/2011/05/ponder-polish-perfect-how-to.html

YA author Holly Cupala (Tell Me a Secret) has compiled a huge list of posts from various authors, illustrators and industry pros on revision!
http://www.hollycupala.com/2009/08/revision-tips-galore.html


Hopefully you find these links as useful as I have. Happy revising!


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In other news, if you haven't seen the amazing book trailer for Carrie Harris's debut BAD TASTE IN BOYS, go do that immediately! Our own Valerie Kemp created it!

A Change in Perspective

While waiting for feedback on my new ms (YA apocalyptic) from my awesome critique partners, I pulled up my first ms (YA urban fantasy) that I wrote last year. I hadn't touched it in months, and honestly wasn't sure whether to junk it entirely or see if I could fix it. I had a sudden urge to re-write the entire thing in 1st person POV (it was in 3rd), and doing that one thing caused a huge shift in my manuscript.

I felt less distance from the MC, which in turn, changed events (including the climax) and even characters throughout the story. I've loved reading books written in both 1st and 3rd POV, but 1st person worked much better for mine. Has anyone else changed the POV of their story from 3rd to 1st, or vice versa? Did you notice a difference?   

Also, there was ANOTHER amazing live event from WRITE ON CON yesterday featuring fabulous literary agent Roseanne Wells from the Marianne Strong Literary Agency. Roseanne gave her thoughts on real query letters posted in the forum and her responses were super informative. Click here to replay it.

Getting Published & When An Agent Gives Up

Browsing some of the industry blogs I enjoy yesterday turned up some gems. One is this fabulous post by agent/author Mandy Hubbard of D4EO Lit. Mandy covers a list of myths about getting published when you're a "nobody". According to her twitter poll, 90% of authors who answered found their agent with a cold query, no publishing creds and no connections.


Another was from agent Rachelle Gardner, on when and why an agent might call it quits on a project. From being out of options, to market concern, to just being plain wrong about the saleability of the project. It's definitely a post worth reading, whether you're agented or still looking.

Also, if you missed it yesterday, I was interviewed by Simon Hay--soul healer, medium, writer--at his blog! Come by and say hi, or just to giggle at my glamour shot from the mid 90's.

Chapters Vs Scenes

First off, Lacey was interviewed! Read her interview at Simon Hay's blog!

So I was reading this awesome post at QueryTracker about writing a synopsis and the section on chapters got me thinking.

I don't write in chapters. My brain doesn't understand them. Like, literally - I find it confusing how sometimes a chapter can take place over a period of three days, and another time a chapter ends in the middle of a scene and the next chapter picks up at the exact same place. I can't find the pattern.

I think in scenes and scene sequences - thanks to all my film and screenwriting education, I guess. My first ms is a dual narrative and for the most part each "chapter" is one complete scene or sequence.

H.L. Dyer says at QueryTracker, "Each chapter, like a novel, should have a beginning, middle, and an ending."

This makes sense to me, and I think this is true of my scenes and scene sequences, they are just generally too short to be considered a "typical" chapter. I'm also a fan of the short chapter in fiction, so maybe that says something about me and my writing.

As I'm in the planning stages of my next book, I'm finding the chapter issue interesting. This book will have one narrator and so switching chapters at the end of each scene doesn't quite work with how I want this book to be.

I don't outline, but I do make note of all the major scenes I know need to happen, as well as my beginning through to the inciting incident, and my ending. I'm fascinated by people who use chapter outlines, and know exactly what will be in each chapter when they sit down to write.

I don't know how they do this. But then I also tend to be more fluid with my scenes. I will switch them around and re-order them in order to best build tension, make motivations clear, and keep the story moving forward.

At this point, I feel certain that I will have to write first and separate into chapters later. I will probably but in chapter breaks in places where it feels right, but other than that I won't know where a chapter ends and the next one starts until I finish the story.

What about you? Do you know exactly what your chapters will entail? Do you think in chapters or scenes? Does anyone else split and number chapters after they've written the book? Am I crazy?

Deadlines Don't Have to be Damning

Writing for Tangled Fiction has taught me a lot in terms of character and plot structure, but also self-discipline. The only time I'd ever written under a deadline was when I'd gotten my editor's notes for Parallel, my short story that was published in the Rebel Moon anthology, and that was a piece of cake compared to TF deadlines.

Twenty-four to forty-eight hours is not a lot of time to come up with something out of the blue, especially when it has to match what's already written. And if you aren't in a writing mood, it's that much worse. I'm all for stepping away from the manuscript, distancing yourself until you're in a more relaxed state of mind and you can let the creativity flow, but sometimes that isn't an option. Sometimes you're faced with a deadline. And if you aren't burdened by deadlines now, someday you will be!

I've written things that have come off as harried, and I've written things I've been much more proud of. I wish that I had some magical piece of advice that would give you exactly what you need to prevail in the face of evil thought-crushing deadlines, but I don't. All I can say is that deadlines don't have to be damning. Do not fear the deadline! I think it's a great idea to condition yourself now so that when that five or however-many-page editorial letter comes, you're ready for it. You can do this. You can write something great even when your brain says you can't.

And if YOU have that magical piece of advice, I am so ready to hear it.

Getting Back On The New Book Horse

When I first decided to give writing a book a try, I was terrified. Not that my book would be bad - strangely, I never worried about that, don't know what that says about my ego. No, I was scared at the idea over a hundred pages full of words. As someone who had at most written a 100 page screenplay which has considerably less words on each page, and many short stories, the task seemed impossible. Where would all those words come from? What would they be? How could I possibly find a way to use so many of them to tell just one story??

I decided to make my goal simple. Just write a complete story, and make it to page 100. I thought if I could tell a whole story and reach three digit numbers I would know that I was capable of writing a book, which would be all the reassurance I would need. And so I did it, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

Ah, whoever coined the phrase "ignorance is bliss" was SO right. I look back now and I can't believe that I thought just finishing a book would be enough to turn me from under-confident writer wannabe to seasoned writer extraordinaire. You know, the one that churns out fabulous books and never has trouble with plots or dialogue or motivation. Ha!

Just like I knew that winning the lottery, or becoming mega-famous, or getting plastic surgery won't actually change who you are, I should've known that neither does writing a book.

Sitting down to write the next book is still hard. It still feels daunting to know I have to come up with 200+ pages of words. In some ways it's more daunting because I know how to spot the bad stuff as it's happening. In other ways, it's exciting, because I know this one will be SO MUCH better. I just also know that it won't be any easier.

Maybe one day I will sit down at the keyboard and gorgeous prose will shoot out of my fingertips like a sprinkler, but for now it's just me, a little bit wiser, trying to make the magic happen on my own.

I have a feeling that each book I write will get a little bit easier and a little bit harder at the same time. But I think that's good, because if it doesn't seem hard, I'm not trying to make it the best it can be. And as long as I learn from each book and make the next one better, I can live with that.

What about you? Do you find each book you write is harder? Easier? The same? How do you deal with it?

Reading To Write

Lately I've been feeling sort of stymied. The creativity just hasn't been flowing in my re-writes. Not to mention it's getting to the point where I need to start thinking seriously about what I'm going to write next. I have a few promising ideas, but no real inspiration to flesh them out.

As I've been laying around sick these last few days, unable to stare at my computer screen for more than a few minutes thanks to the sinus pressure, it finally hit me. I haven't been reading!

I've been spending so much time revising and thinking about revising and nitpicking sentences that I haven't read just for fun. And I need it. That's when I feel the most inspired, when I'm surrounded by exciting, interesting, absorbing stories. So yesterday, when actual reading was an impossibility, I started listening to an audiobook, and already I feel revived.



(Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, read by Jennifer Ehle who is awesome at the multitude of voices and British accents in the book.)

So what about you? Do you read when you write? I can't read fiction that is similar in topic to what I'm writing but I like to read things that are similar in tone.

Blast From The Past: Telling When You Think You're Showing

This post was originally posted by Valerie a few months back and it has remained one of my favorites. I've come back to it time and time again when revising and it's always helped me to spot those problem sentences.


Also, happy birthday to our beloved Jane Austen. "The most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress."

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You've heard it time and time again, SHOW, DON'T TELL. If you have crit partners you've probably gone cross-eyed from reading it in your ms at one time or another. But you're past that now. You've worked hard on your prose, you're showing all over the place. Or are you?

Using internal physical reactions is a quick way to show a character's emotions. You've seen sentences like these:

My heart raced with fear.
Nervousness twisted her stomach.

These sentences seem, on the surface, that they're showing but in reality, they're telling. Why? Because it tells us what emotion the character is feeling. Fear, in the first sentence, and Nervousness in the second. Chances are, if the physical reaction is appropriate to the scene, that the naming of the emotion is simply excess information. This is sometimes called tagging your emotions and it's usually unnecessary.

In this case, that extra info creates a distance between the reader and the character. In a tense or emotional situation, the reader should be right there with the character, experiencing and connecting to everything the character feels. When something happens that causes your character's heart to pound your reader feels it, when you add in "with fear" you push your reader back a step because they're forced to process an external observation.

Think about it. When you're in the middle of a scary situation, you might notice your heart is pounding but do you actually think - hey my heart is pounding because I'm afraid? No. You just feel afraid.

I work with the rule of thumb that unless a character is experiencing an emotion that is unexpected (like, rather than fear, a character's heart pounds with excitement at being chased by an axe murderer) there's no need to name it. If you've done a good job at creating your character and revealing what makes them them to the reader, they will know what your character is feeling. And even more than that, they will feel a part of that character's experience.

Trust your reader! You don't have to explain everything to them.

Books on Writing

I'm knee deep in revisions, so I thought I'd pick up a couple of books on writing this week, and both of them (so far) are excellent. I believe Valerie may have recommended one of them once before, but here they are.

Stephen King's On Writing

Part memoir, part cheerleader. Not so much a how-to book on writing, but more of an empowering and entertaining read from one of America's most beloved writers.

Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell
This is the first book in this series that I've read. So far I'm really enjoying it. Some of the steps in this book might seem like a no-brainer to you, but some of us need it spelled out. If you're part of the former, it never hurts to have a good reminder.

There are a lot of great examples in here on scene structure, building suspense in dialog, creating a bond with your reader via your main character, character arc, plotting, revising, etc. There are different activities you can try out on your own to see what works and why.

I've been told this is a great series to go with and so far, I'd have to agree.



I'd like to hear your recommendations. Read any great books on writing recently? Something we haven't covered in past posts? Have you read either of these two books?

Organization. Or Not.

I am very unorganized. I keep a neat house (unless you open my closets--Valerie!), and my books are (usually) alphabetized on the shelf, but when it comes to writing, finding my notes is like a scavenger hunt.

I write whatever idea I have on whatever is closest. I have notes from one WIP in about 5 different notebooks. It makes it very difficult to find what I want when I need it. I end up finding notes from 6 months ago that are obsolete now, but I can't remember where I wrote the one I want to work out. Zombies finding a way to turn a doorknob would be easier than me finding the right notes.

I could have a notebook for each project I work on, and I could carry that notebook everywhere, or transfer scattered notes into that notebook at the end of the day, but that doesn't always work for me. I've tried to find better ways to manage my time and organization would probably really help. Probably. But maybe not.

I've never been organized. Even in high school. I didn't study. I didn't set aside time to work on homework. But I always got it done on time and I did it my way. My very scattered, disorganized, probably difficult way. But my way, none the less.

Every writer has a different way of doing things. Plotters and pansters. Scheduled writing time, and writing whenever you get the chance. I've tried to change my ways, and I always end up loosing something. I *want* to be organized. I *want* to be scheduled. But it's not me. It's not my way. And I'm finding that forcing myself into those habits is hurting my writing. There is no one way to do things.

In the immortal (because I have imortalized her) words of Libba Bray, "We are not one size fits all." And now I'm saying to myself "Have it your way" and wanting a croissanwich.

When Uncertainty Gets Annoying

I'm at a loss for what to post this week so I'm re-posting something from last December. It's an issue that has come up for me lately in my writing so I thought it might be a good time to re-read it!

Recently I read a really good book. Really good! It was full of action, adventure, drama, suspense, and emotion, and it was also full of one of my pet peeves. The dreaded uncertainty that is seemed like, appeared as if, almost.

You know what I'm talking about. One character says to the MC, "I hate you!" and the MC's inner monologue says "He punched the wall, as if he was angry." Really? It was like he was angry, but you're not sure if that was it? Maybe he just likes punching walls? Maybe wall-punching means happiness?

This occasionally drives me insane.

I notice this happens most often in books written in close third person. I think it's because when writing in first person it's easier to slip into the character's distinct point of view and feel what they're feeling.

Think about it. In your own life, if someone shouts at you "I hate you!" and then punches a wall, you have a strong instant reaction. You don't think to yourself, "I wonder if he's angry?" You think, "Whoa, this dude is pissed!" Even if you're wrong, and he does just like to punch walls for no reason, you have interpreted his words and actions and made a decision on what they mean.

Characters are like this too. They jump to conclusions. They reason out why things are happening. I know that, especially in third person, there's a fine line between staying in one character's close POV and crossing into another's. This is where the trouble starts. Writers worry that if they say too much about what is happening, or how someone is feeling that they are switching POVs or crossing over into omniscience. I say, HOGWASH!

While it's true that unless your main character is a mind reader, he can't know what others are thinking. He can definitely take an educated guess or decide for himself how to interpret what he sees. When I see a lot of this in a manuscript I'm critiquing, I always write "Be authoritative!" and "Either it happened or it didn't. Which is it?"

Don't tell me "It seemed like the door opened all by itself." When I see this type of sentence structure, I expect a "but". As in "It seemed like the door opened all by itself, but it was just the cat leaning against it." When you leave the sentence as "It seemed like the door opened all by itself." and the character doesn't do any exploring to find out how it actually did open, I'm left wondering, did the door open by itself or not? You know whether it did or not, why not share? Your character, having witnessed this event, should have come to a decision about whether or not the door opened on it's own - even if it's the wrong answer. And if your character really can't tell if it opened by itself or not, then he needs to try and find out why (or run away in terror, whichever he's more prone to do).

I may be in the minority here, but I think it's best for your character to see things through his own world view and save the uncertainty for when he really doesn't know what's going on. If you stay focused and true to your character's personality and voice, it should be clear, even in third person, that what he sees happening is what he thinks is happening, and not absolute fact. To me this is one of the best things about telling a story through one person's eyes. Each character has a unique way of seeing things. What one character thinks is evil spirits haunting his house, another thinks is just the wind. Find out what it really is is what storytelling is all about!

On Doing Your Best

**Quick reminder: We are giving away a copy of The Familiars from now until next Thursday**

When it comes to critiquing work for a partner/friend, we all have our strengths. Kristi had an excellent post about why it's great to have more than one crit partner. In it, she mentions one person might be great at pointing out plot holes that everyone else misses. Another catches every spelling and grammatical error.

I've been thinking about critiquing lately, because I honestly don't think I'm that great at it. I'm that word girl, the one who spots the spelling errors. But I've noticed that I don't always have a lot of in-depth things to say. Then I realized, that's not entirely true. I have done a lot of critiquing, not just for my Sisters, but for personal friends, acquaintances etc. And I've given great (I hope) feedback. My problem is that I don't always apply myself. I don't do my best. And the biggest reason for that is self doubt.

I have been blessed with AH-MAY-ZING crit partners and on occasion I catch myself feeling like the weakest link and it shows in my feedback. Who am *I* to give her criticism on this incredible piece? I'm a reader. I'm a writer. And I honestly want her book to be the very best it can be. So even if you can't make sense of what doesn't work in your partner's piece, still tell her about it. Do your best. Try to pinpoint it but if you can't at least let her know "This part feels slow to me for some reason" or "That dialog stands out".

We all have self-doubt. Can we really write a novel? Can we get an agent? Will we ever be published? Honestly, not everyone will. Because not everyone will push through the self-doubt and keep on truckin'.

Self-doubt manifests its self in a lot of different ways. We all go through bouts of it--be it with our critique groups, or our own writing goals--but you can get through it. And it helps to talk about it with your partners. Sometimes you just need a little pick-me-up. An ego boost, if you will. So talk with your partners. Talk about writing, or talk about the strategy of your critiquing. What is working? What isn't? Are you doing your best? Why not? Lean on them. Use them. They can help.

But ultimately, it is up to you. You have to be willing to look at your writing or your critique style objectively and WANT to do better. Sure, you could sit back and say, "I suck anyway, so there's no point in really trying. This is as good as it gets."No, it's not. But it will be if you have that attitude. Writing and critiquing is work. But it's our passion! And what can be more rewarding than that?

Happy Thursday!

Are you grateful for your ability to write?

As I soaked up a boatload of sunshine while on vacation last week, I felt an enormous sense of gratitude. Gratitude for being able to unplug (I only checked my email during the trip), lounge on the beach, and hang out with my entire family for ten fabulous days. While I didn't do much writing during my trip, I reflected on how grateful I was that I could write. I don't mean having writing ability (the talent to write)--which is always debatable--I mean the actual ability to sit and create something.

What prompted part of my reflection was the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell which I read on the plane. I was captivated by the descriptions of immigrant garment workers in the early 1900's. They often worked a 12-18 hour day hoping to scrape together a few dollars in order to feed their families. Then they started all over again the next day. And the next. And so on.

The week prior to my trip, I actually complained to my husband that I only had an hour or two to write in the evenings (after our kids are asleep). I'm ashamed the complaint crossed my mind, let alone my lips. Even in 2010, there are people working two to three jobs just to make ends meet, put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. The luxury of taking the time to sit and create something--be it art, music, or writing--doesn't exist for a whole lot of people in this world.

I came home from vacation to an empty refrigerator. I promptly went to the store and refilled it, without having to worry about how I would pay for it. I'm grateful and think it's too easy to take things like that for granted. My day is jam-packed today, but does not involve 18 hours of back-breaking work. I'm grateful for that. I have an hour or two of writing time tonight. I'm extremely grateful for that.

I know writing can be a thankless and painfully slow endeavor, but the ability to pursue it is priceless. Are you grateful for your ability to write?