Category Archives: On Writing

June 16, 2015 · 5:24 pm

Summer Writing…or Lack Thereof

Hello.  My name is Ashley O’Melia, and it has been at least three weeks since my last writing session.  You know why?  Summer break.  Oh, it isn’t a break for me, not by a long shot.  No, summer break means my kids are home all the time to ask for snacks, fight with each other, and basically keep me thoroughly distracted.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love my kids and I love spending time with them.  Cereal in the living room while we have a My Little Pony marathon on a Wednesday morning?  Well, who could resist that?  Spontaneously deciding to bake chocolate chip cookies on a Thursday afternoon?  Heck yeah!  But all of this means that my writing schedule has been thoroughly, utterly blown off course.  And I NEED a schedule.

So after far too many days of floating along and promising myself I would do it tomorrow, I finally sat down at my computer this afternoon to write.  I edited the first chapter of my most recent novel.  I hated it.  I attempted to write a funny and poignant blog post.  It was humorless and pointless.  I did some freewriting.  I usually do this on my laptop because my brain can’t keep up with my typing speed.  I didn’t even save it.

So here’s to another writing session tomorrow (hopefully).  Here’s to finding the time to take for myself and write all the horrific drivel possible in the space of an hour, just to get it out of my system and dig back down to the good stuff.  Here’s to that moment when my brain says, “Oh, so THAT’S what you wanted me to do? Okay, cool.”  Here’s to recognizing and appreciating that moment when it happens, whether I’m at my desk, squashed under a pile of children on the couch, or hiding in the basement.  Here’s to summer writing.

Portrait of romantic young woman writing in a diary lying down over the grass. Relax outdoor time concept.

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February 23, 2015 · 10:34 am

Dear Novel-in-Progress

Dear Novel-in-Progress,

I was thinking about you last night while I did the laundry, ate a snack cake, and watched a M*A*S*H marathon.  I was thinking about how I should be working on you, but that I didn’t want to.  I was thinking about how the last several times I sat down to work on you, I was so darn tired that I fell asleep over my keyboard.  I hadn’t slept much, but part of me was worried that it was you, not me.

I was thinking about how hypocritical you are.  Just when I start to get really worried that you’re super boring and could never be a good sequel, I tell a trusted friend about your plot and they tell me how exciting you are.  I should be happy about this, but I feel betrayed.  I mean, why do you have to wait until there’s someone else in the room to let your beauty shine forth?  Don’t I count?  The one who created you?  Or is this one on me?

I was thinking about you this morning over breakfast.  I have this horrible tendency to fall asleep over a good novel after the kids get on the school bus.  The house is so quiet, and is so perfect for writing…or for catching up on sleep.  I was thinking that today would be just like any other.  I would sit down, read the last few paragraphs, and either fall asleep or just get angry.  Angry at the idea that maybe I’m not going to get this done after all.

I’m thinking about you right now, and how happy I am with you.  (Who’s hypocritical now,  you ask?)  The hour I set aside in the mornings just to spend time with you absolutely flew by.  My characters made progress.  And they weren’t boring.  They were exciting!  They did things that I hadn’t planned out for them when I’d laid out your outline lo these many months ago.

Sometimes it’s you, sometimes it’s me.  Okay, it’s probably mostly me.  But let’s have mornings like this more often.

Love and kisses,

Ashley

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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January 30, 2015 · 9:41 am

The Courage to Write

The last couple of months have not been very productive as far as writing goes.  I started NaNoWriMo, confident I would “win” and have a rough draft of the sequel to The Wanderer’s Guide to Dragon Keeping by the end of the month.  But then my kids traded around a stomach bug, we got a new puppy, Thanksgiving, blah blah blah.  Of course then Christmas came along, which is basically a month-long excuse.  Now that we’re rolling on through January, I’ve been struggling to reestablish and keep up with a good writing routine.  I tell myself that I’ll have a writing session when the kids go to bed.  I’ll write when my husband goes out to the garage to work on the Jeep.  I’ll write in the morning, getting up early before anyone else does and making a pot of coffee.

But I don’t.

I can’t steal snippets of time here and there at random parts of the day and expect to get any decent work out of it.  I can make all sorts of excuses for myself.  I’m too tired.  I’m just not feeling it.  I shouldn’t force it.  It’s a slow process to get the creative juices flowing again.  My fingernails are too long.  While there’s some truth in all of that, it’s not the real reason.  The real reason is that I’m scared.

Any time I tell this to someone who has any occupation other than “writer,” they don’t seem to get it.  “Oh, you’re a good writer.  Just do it.”  And that advice isn’t much different from what you’ll find on many writers groups and forums.  You just have to get the rough draft done.  Nobody has to see the first draft, so there’s no need to stress.  We’ve all read that, but do we really listen?  Is it really true?  I mean, I see the first draft, and I’m the one that’s freaking out about it.  Don’t I count?  Do I need to be like Hemingway and just get drunk to make it happen?  (This really wouldn’t be a good option for me, considering I usually fall asleep after one beer.)

And what causes all this?  Do other people feel nervous about their jobs?  And maybe this only applies to people who are doing what they love for a living.  I say that because I didn’t feel nervous about previous jobs I had, at least not most of the time.  Perhaps, subconsciously, there just wasn’t that much to lose.  I could get another dead end job any day, right?   If Diana Gabaldon can crank out an entire series of books that each ring in at over 800 pages, why can’t I commit to working on my novel for an hour?

The real truth, I think, is that I just want so badly for it to be good.  And the excuses just make it that much easier to avoid the risk of failure.  But now that we are well over the holidays and the kids are most definitely back in school, I can force myself to truly get my nose back to the grindstone instead of these little pretend sessions where I really just have my fingers hovering over the keyboard while I watch TV.  Today marks the first week since November in which I have officially carved out an hour every day to write.  TGIF!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

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December 9, 2014 · 8:53 am

“You’ll Never Make Any Money at That”

When I was in kindergarten, and even a little before that, I wanted to be a writer.  Sometime over the next couple of years I decided I wanted to be a scientist.  (What kind?  I don’t know.  But I think my kids are kind of a science experiment.)  By the time I was at the end of my high school career, I had also considered becoming a psychologist, a professional computer geek, and an operating room tech.  I thought psychology would be too disturbing, I’m terrified of blood, and I didn’t want to spend my whole life working at a computer, so those were all rejected pretty quickly.  It was down to my first two loves:  biology and English.  Any time I made the mere mention of an English degree, whoever was bothering to listen instantly said, “Oh, but you’ll never make any money at that.”  This was usually accompanied by a wave of the hand, as if this silly notion never really mattered and couldn’t have truly been an option anyway.

Fast forward a few (plus another few) years.  I had earned my associate’s in biology right after high school, but I couldn’t afford to keep going.  I never got a job in the field I had pursued.  Other than building cabinets for my dad’s business, I did a short stint in retail and then fell face first into finance.  As I lay in the miserable money muck, I realized something.  I didn’t follow my dream, and I wasn’t making any money anyway.  I worked long hours doing boring work in order to be able to just barely pay my bills.  Despite what the corporate training videos told me, I knew there was no room to move up.  I thought about going back to school, and this time really doing something with it.  The reactions of my friends were familiar ones:  “You’ll never make any money at that,” and “There aren’t any careers in that field, unless you want to teach, which you don’t want to do.”  (Did they even ask me if I wanted to teach?)

Now in some ways I can’t blame them.  When I was eighteen, I can see how anyone would jump at the chance to impart their wisdom on someone who is young and impressionable, or who at least appears to be so.  Money makes the world go round, so everyone must need as much of it as they can get, right?  And in some ways I can even understand those who doubted me this time around.  I have kids to take care of, so it isn’t as though I can just run off to the Alaskan wilderness to write about the snow-capped mountains and crystal blue lakes.

But I did it anyway.  (Not the Alaska part, though.)  I’m back in school, working toward my Bachelor’s in Creative Writing. (gasp!)  I’ve started a freelancing business.  I’m home when my kids get on the bus in the morning, and I’m home when they get off the bus in the afternoon.  I’m distracted constantly, I work strange hours sometimes just to get things done, and I don’t make much money.  I joke about my ‘starving artist lifestyle.’  It took a long time, but I’ve finally earned my degree in happiness.

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November 10, 2014 · 8:02 am

Sandwich Thoughts

Sometimes when I sit down for my writing time, it’s an amazing thing.  A couple cups of coffee and an hour later I’ve cranked out over 1,000 words and I’m deliriously excited.  Other times, the cursor just blinks blankly at me, mocking me for my lack of inspiration.

I wouldn’t be the first person to notice that great ideas come in the shower.  I’ve noticed they also come while driving, grocery shopping, or even making a sandwich.  I just wish I could get the words to flow as well during writing time as they do during anything else time.  For instance, when I’m making lunch, the little obnoxious narrator in my head will say something along the lines of, “She stacked the lunch meat atop the smattering of mayonnaise in a delicious architecture.”  The narrator jumps ship when I sit down at my computer, and when my character needs to have lunch, “She makes a sandwich.”  Great.

Where’s your favorite place to have great thoughts?

Sandwich

 

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October 27, 2014 · 7:49 am

For the Love of a List

Really.  I love lists a lot.  I have a continuously running grocery list, a list of book I have read, a list of story ideas, a list of blog ideas, and the cliché To Do list.  (Oh, look!  I just made a list of lists!)  Before I’d started my freelance business and my husband and I worked completely different shifts, I would have a list of all the things I wanted to tell him or talk to him about when I got to see him.  He would joke with me when I got home about checking my list before we started any kind of conversation.

Why do I love lists?  I love crossing things off of them.  Sometimes I even put things on my To Do list that I know I’m going to get accomplished soon just so I can cross them off (but don’t you tell anyone or I’ll deny it).  There is something so satisfying about that swipe of a pen or a pencil to let me know I’ve accomplished something.  It doesn’t stop with paper lists, though.  Even the lists on my phone make a beautiful little ding! when I check them off.  (Check out Wunderlist; it’s awesome.)

I started keeping so many lists because I can be forgetful.  My husband may ask me to make a veterinary appointment for our dog, and if I don’t write it down it will take me weeks to get around to it, if I ever do.  It’s not that I don’t want to do it or that I forget entirely, it’s that I don’t remember while the vet’s office is open.  Remembering at 11:30 pm is not especially helpful.

My lists help me plan my day.  Being self-employed, it’s tempting on some days to curl up and read a book instead of doing pretty much anything else.  (Okay, okay, that’s tempting every day, no matter what.)  But I can look over my lists, pick a few certain things that I know need to be done, and make a smaller list for the next day.  It sounds like a lot of work, but I promise it’s what keeps me sane.

I’m not the only list lover out there, either.  We know David Letterman loved his Top Ten lists.  You can find numerous fiction books called The List (which means I won’t be putting it on my list of potential book titles.)  There are even books you can buy solely to create more lists, such as List Your Self and Listography.  I also found a book called To-Do List Makeover.  (I’ll be adding these to my wishlist.)  Here’s a fun list of historical figures that are famous for things they didn’t do, and you can also spend some time on this list of controversial death masks.  Oh, and they tell me there are also several Best Dressed lists, but considering I’m sitting here in yoga pants and a sweatshirt that’s probably not the most important list on my list.

What’s your favorite kind of list?

To Do List

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October 14, 2014 · 7:57 am

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

Let me start off by saying how very truly sorry I am.  I’ve neglected you.  It’s been three weeks since you’ve seen a post.  As I type that, I think, “Surely that can’t be right!”  But it is; the date stamps don’t lie.

I’ve been so consumed with these classes that I’ve been taking, the massive amounts of homework the kids drag off the school bus every day, and harvesting a few fall crops out of the garden.  Don’t forget that recent book release, my Girl Scout Daisy troop, and the fact that I’m trying to purge my house via eBay.  It’s no excuse, I know.  Just because my education, my children, and my garden are thriving on the vine of life doesn’t mean you can’t.  There’s always room.  I just need to be better at finding it.

I will say that I’ve carved some time out in the mornings that is purely for writing.  The kids aren’t here, the house is quiet, and thanks to Sam’s Club I have a few pounds of coffee close at hand.  Most of the books I’ve read about writing (cause you can never learn enough!) say that you have to train your creativity through a writing routine.  I was doing really well with that for awhile, and it does work…As long as you stick with it.  So I raise my coffee mug in salute to forming good writing habits instead of playing Farm Heroes Saga and watching old reruns of The Golden Girls when I have the house to myself.

So anyway, Blog, I just want you to know that I’m going to make a better effort.  I know you are what inspires me to stay fresh with my writing.  You are what allows me to take that really tiny writing idea and still get to use it, even if it doesn’t fit anywhere in a book.  You are truly awesome.  I look forward to being addicted to you once again.

Love and Hugs,

Ashley

Blog concept

 

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August 18, 2014 · 2:38 pm

Dragon Tears…The Mourning Period

As I’ve mentioned before, The Wanderer’s Guide to Dragon Keeping is a project I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.  It’s changed names, characters, and even the basic plot, but it’s still a dream come true to know that very soon people will be reading it!  It seems, however, that I am in book mourning.

You know that feeling when you finish reading a book, and it’s so good that you just can’t possibly turn right around and pick up something different?  Like it would be an insult to the characters and the story to move on to something else so quickly?  Well, it’s the same way when you’ve finished writing.  And I’ve spent A LOT more time writing this book than anyone will ever spend reading it.

Sure, I have other book projects that have been floating around for awhile, waiting for their turn.  The sequel for The Graveside Detective  (for which I also mourned greatly….I was so attached to Frank) is just begging to be written.  But for the moment, it’s going to have to wait.  I need some time to get over this one.

Want to help me cast off the black veil?  You can pre-order an autographed copy here and join my release event here.  May you mourn as I do.  🙂

 

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August 12, 2014 · 3:22 pm

Here Be Pre-Ordered Dragons!

Dragon Keeper Thumbnail

Hello everyone! I am thoroughly enjoying Dragon Month both here and on my Facebook page!  Sure, it might be Shark Week for some, but who can turn down a whole month of mystical creatures?  Big thanks to everyone who has joined my release event so far!  The main thing I want to let you know about today in the progression of my new release is that you can pre-order an autographed copy of The Wanderer’s Guide to Dragon Keeping right here through my Facebook store!  I’ve already had quite a few pre-orders come in, and it gives me little dragonflies in my stomach to see the numbers tick up!  So thank you again to everyone who has helped me out with this, and if you haven’t yet, well, come join the party!

 

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August 6, 2014 · 9:26 am

Release Event for The Wanderer’s Guide to Dragon Keeping

Hello everyone! I’m sure you know by now that The Wanderer’s Guide to Dragon Keeping, a book that’s been in the making for over 15 years, will be released on Amazon at the end of the month! I’m inviting you to come join my release event on Facebook.
What will you get out of it?

-You’ll be among the first to purchase this awesome book (which is enough in itself, right?)

-Purchasing The Wanderer’s Guide as soon as it comes out means you get it for the special release price.

-Joining this event automatically enters you in the upcoming giveaways! (FREE STUFF!)

Why am I having this event?

-What better way to get the word out there than having a party?  (Okay, there won’t be a disco ball or any spiked punch, but you can bring your own and come hang out with me anyway.)

-The more people that purchase this book within a short time frame the better its ranking will be on Amazon, which leads to more sales, which leads to me bringing you more delightful reads!

Thanks in advance for all of your support.  Feel free to share this event with your friends and invite them to join the party as well.

Every girl needs a dragon.

Every girl needs a dragon.

 

 

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