Maladaptive Inertia

For those of you who missed it when I put this essay up as a guest blog on Alex Bledsoe's site, here is my take on "Maladaptive Inertia." (What is that? Well, you'll have to read the post to find out, won't you?)

And when you're done here, be sure to scoot over to Judy Long's Novel Truth's blog--she's put up a review of my paranormal romance, Witch Ever Way You Can! [Thanks, Judy...]
http://www.noveltruths.blogspot.com/2012/02/debbie-does-dallas-oops-i-mean-fiction.html

MALADAPTIVE INERTIA

You’ve probably heard of “inertia.” It is actually a physics term that refers to the fact that a body at rest tends to stay at rest. You probably haven’t heard of “maladaptive inertia,” however. That’s because I made it up. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t real. In fact, I’m guessing you’ve suffered from it once or twice, without even knowing it. Allow me to ‘splain.

I came up with the term maladaptive inertia years ago to describe the condition when it is just easier to keep doing more-or-less nothing (play one more game of solitaire on the computer, watch just one more show on TV) than it is to make yourself get moving on the things you actually NEED to do. So you waste lots of time and energy that you don’t have, and end up with that same old to-do list staring you in the face. Hence the “maladaptive.” This is not a time spent resting and rejuvenating, it serves no useful purpose, you know you’re doing it and that it isn’t good…and yet…there you are. Still sitting on your arse. Maladaptive inertia.

Admittedly, it makes for a good excuse. “Sorry I didn’t write that blog post for you, I had maladaptive inertia.” “I can’t take out the garbage, honey, I have maladaptive inertia.” Feel free to borrow it. [As long as you give me credit for coming up with it. I’m going to write a book about it. You know—as soon as I get over my maladaptive inertia.]

For writers, maladaptive inertia can be particularly tough. I had to put aside the novel I’d started in November, to deal with the December rush at my day job (I run an artists’ cooperative, so the holiday season is crazy time). Once the rush was over, I intended to jump right back into working on the writing. But I had…you guessed it. The truth is; it is a whole lot easier to KEEP writing than it is to START writing. Or to start up again.

So how do you get over maladaptive inertia, and get back to your writing (or taking out the garbage, or whatever it is you are supposed to be doing that is useful, rewarding, and necessary)? Here are a couple of the things that work best for me:

Keep plugging away at it. Don’t say, “Well, I’ve tried for three days to get back to my writing (or whatever). It hasn’t worked, so I give up.” Keep kicking yourself until you JUST DO IT.

Have your friends help you. When I am trying to get back into exercising, a friend and I often call each other up and say, “Okay—I just did 20 minutes. Tag, you’re it.” There is nothing like a friend to kick your butt into gear when you can’t do it on your own.

Set rules and rewards. For instance, when I am trying to get back into the writing zone, I’ll tell myself – no Twitter until you’ve written SOMETHING. Or, you don’t get a glass of wine until you’ve done at least three pages. (I find that one particularly motivating. But you can substitute chocolate, or whatever you like, such as watching your favorite TV show.)

Mostly, I find that it works to just get started on the writing, no matter what it takes. Because once you’ve started something, it is easier to keep working on it. Remember that other rule of physics: A body in motion is likely to stay in motion.

So put down the remote, walk away from the internet, or do whatever it is you have to do to break your pattern of maladaptive inertia. You can do it! I just wrote five pages. Tag—you’re it.

Interview with Lucy March

My interview with the fascinating and charming Lucy March (aka Lani Diane Rich) is up at the Chick Lit Writers blog. (I'll also post it here in a couple of days, for those who don't make it over there.)

Lucy's new book, A LITTLE NIGHT MAGIC, just came out. I've already read it--and loved it.

Check out what Lucy told me here:
http://chicklitwriters.com/2012/02/06/interview-with-lucy-march/

Deborah, off to write her own book

Five Star Reviews Make an Author Happy and REVIEW CONTEST WINNER

As many of you know, my paranormal romance, WITCH EVER WAY YOU CAN, came out in ebook form in December. So far, the reaction has been lovely--another Five Star review just went up, and seeing it made me do the "happy author" dance :-)

Check it out, if you've a mind to...
http://www.amazon.com/Witch-Ever-Way-You-ebook/product-reviews/B006HWZPGO/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

And if you haven't taken a look at the book yet (gasp!), here is the link on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Witch-Ever-Way-You-ebook/dp/B006HWZPGO

If you have read it and liked it (either on the Kindle or the Nook--which has no reviews up yet, alas), it would make me do the "really, really happy author" dance if you would post a review of your own.

Oh-- and one more thing: I realized I never picked a winner for my "Review Contest" back in December (I blame the holidays, and exhaustion). Oops. My bad. So, the winner of the contest is KiaLynn! Email me at magicmysticminerva at yahoo and tell me where to send your prize!

Highly Recommended: Candace Havens Writing Workshop

Heads up, aspiring writers! (And those of you who need a boost can pay attention too...everyone else, as you were. Have some chocolate or something.)

Author, teacher, and writing mentor Candace Havens is giving her Comprehensive Writing Course starting February 6th. I can tell you from personal experience that Candy knows more about the art, craft, and business of writing than almost anyone I know in the field.

Here is a description of her class:

Workshops

Comprehensive Writing Course 1

Beginning February 6, 2012 this comprehensive course is for writers who are ready to take their prose to the next level. Some of the class topics include themes, plotting for non-plotters, character archetypes, revising, scene and sequel, deep editing, adding emotion, layering with texture, info dumping, plans for submission, writing synopses, writer's block, query letters, log lines and pitching, passive writing, Fast Draft and so much more. Cost is $100.

And here are some questions/answers she put up on her blog about it:

1. Everything takes place in a yahoogroup and you work at your own pace.
2. The class is six weeks long, and we'll be covering the entire writing process.
3. We begin with the creative process and how your's works, and go through brainstorming, character development, plotting for non-plotters, fast draft, revision hell, polishing to perfection, pitching, submitting to agents and editors, query letters and those are just a few of our many topics.
4. At the end of the six weeks, I will read your first 10 pages if you so desire.
5. There are beginners to professionals in the class. As I said before, everyone works at their own pace. Some of you may have a finished novel and want to clean it up. Others may be beginning their first novel.
6. Questions are asked and answered on the yahoogroup.
7. This class will help you with the big picture that is your novel and help you look at all the components.

When I say comprehensive, I mean it. And you can ask questions about any aspect of the writing process or business and I'll answer them.
Invest in yourself and sign up here: http://www.candacehavens.com/index.php/workshops/

If your writing skills need a polish, or your writing energy needs a kick in the butt, this is the class for you!

Tell her Deb sent you :-)

__._,_.___

We have a Winner! Alex Bledsoe giveaway

Thanks to all the folks who came to read my pal Alex Bledsoe's guest blog here, and the ones who bounced over to his blog to read my guest post there. And special thanks to those who took the time to comment--we both REALLY appreciate it!

The winner of the hardcover copy of Alex's book, BURN ME DEADLY (the second book in his fabulous Eddie LaCrosse series) is....

DRUMROLL

Angela Drake!

Angela, please email me at magicmysticminerva at yahoo with your address, so I can pop it in the mail to you. If you haven't read the first one, you may want to run out and buy a copy so you can read it first. (Or check your local library--mine has all Alex's books. Yay for libraries!)

Congratulations!

Guest Blog/Giveaway with Author Alex Bledsoe

As my regular readers will know, one of my favorite authors is Alex Bledsoe, who I "met" years ago when we both had short stories in the Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction (Llewellyn 2008). Alex is the author of numerous books in the fantasy genre (my favorites, the Eddie LaCrosse novels which are a mix between noir detective and sword and sorcery--brilliant!), a couple of classic vampire horror with a twist, and his latest, The Hum and The Shiver, which may have created an entirely new genre...Gravel Road Fantasy (like Urban Fantasy, but set in the back hills.



Alex's writing is like the man himself--clever, charming, and never quite what you expect. For instance, would you have guessed that the author of all these books is also a stay-at-home dad? AHA! I thought not.

Alex and I decided to exchange blog posts. My post on his blog today can be found at http://alexbledsoe.com/2012/01/30/guest-blog-deborah-blake-on-maladaptive-intertia/ and here is Alex's kind contribution to my blog. Please show him some love by leaving him a comment :-) And as it happens, I have an extra HARDCOVER copy of BURN ME DEADLY, the second book in his Eddie LaCrosse series, which I'll be giving away to one of today's commenters.

And then go on over to his blog and say hi to me there, and while you're there, feel free to explore a little...

HERE'S ALEX'S POST:

FINDING TIME WHEN YOU’RE OUT OF IT

By Alex Bledsoe

When people find out I'm a full-time writer and also the stay-at-home parent of two small boys (ages 4 and 7), they immediately want to know one thing: how I find time to write.

Well, here’s how I do it.

There's a certain wisdom to the old adage that you find time for anything important to you, and certainly writing is super-important to me. But it's also a matter of prioritizing, and breaking the task down into its components so that you're not trying to do the wrong thing at the wrong time.

For example, for me actual first-draft, pull-from-you-brain writing requires relative silence and solitude. I try to average between one and two thousand words a day, so to reach that goal, I get up early, between 4 and 5 AM, so that I've got the house to myself. That lasts until about 6:30, when my oldest son wanders in for his daily dose of breakfast and Japanese cartoons. Once I've got him settled I might get another half hour until my youngest son awakes, and after that there's basically no more writing. After I get them to school/preschool, I have another break of about three hours.

At 12 my youngest son gets home, and we pick up my oldest at 3:15. Especially in the winter, it means they're around constantly. However, it doesn't mean I can't use the time productively. When they're underfoot, constantly interrupting and demanding unreasonable things like attention and affection, I'm still able to edit and revise. Working on existing text is easier, or at least can accommodate more distractions, than first-draft writing. So when the kids are around, that's what I do.

When you start so early, you often run out of steam (at least mentally) pretty early in the day. By dinnertime there's not much creative juice left. But that doesn't mean I can't work, because that's when I do my research and reading. Since I'm usually researching something that fascinates me enough to include it in one of my novels, it's fun rather than work. And as for reading...again like the old adage says, you can't be a writer if you're not also a reader. I do most of my fiction reading outside the genres in which I write, something I'd recommend to anyone who doesn't want their genre fiction to read like everyone else's. And I read lots of nonfiction.

And with that, my writer's day is done.

I don't hold this up as any sort of example of how it must be done. Every writer is different; some do their best work late at night, which I can't imagine. Some produce first drafts that are very close to the finished work, something else I can't do or even comprehend. But one thing we all have in common is that we've figured out how to make our writing a priority--not more important, but as important as other aspects of our lives.

BIO: Alex Bledsoe grew up in west Tennessee an hour north of Graceland (home of Elvis) and twenty minutes from Nutbush (birthplace of Tina Turner). He now lives in a Wisconsin town famous for trolls. His books include The Hum and the Shiver, Dark Jenny and The Girls with Games of Blood.

And here are a links to a few of his books. Go get one. I promise you won't be sorry. (Unless you read the vampire books late at night. These are NOT shiny vamps. They are horror vamps. Don't say I didn't warn you.)

Hum and Shiver: http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780765327444-2

Dark Jenny: http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780765327437-0

Girls w/ Games: http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780765323842-2

Minerva's Story

Last month, I put up a blog post about the "kittens," Magic and Mystic, on the occasion of their tenth birthday. And I promised to come back and tell you a little bit more about their mother, Minerva. (Pictured above.)

I went looking for pictures of Minerva (or Mina, and I sometimes call her) and realized that there were a LOT more of the other cats than there are of her. In part, that is because she is very shy, and runs away when she sees the camera. In part, it is because she is usually curled up with one or the other of her babies, as you can see below. (With Magic.)

Minerva's story is a sad one, but it has a happy ending. When I first saw her, she was at the shelter with four kittens--the kittens were in great shape, but she was sickly and terrified. The volunteers who ran the shelter told me that she'd been brought in by some "white trash people" (their words, not mine, although you do get a certain mental image from these phrase...) who handed her over, still large with the kittens inside her, and said, "This damned cat got pregnant. You take her." I just hope these folks didn't have teenagers...

[Pause to insert: PLEASE have your animals spayed or neutered. Thank you.]

That was a couple of months before I met her, of course. The shelter kept her until she had the kittens and they were old enough to adopt out. But the shelter workers were afraid that no one would want the mama cat (then named "Patsy" if you can believe it) because she'd had a rough time during the pregnancy and was sickly and very skittish. They thought it was possible she'd been abused, too. When I decided to adopt Magic and Mystic, they offered (pleaded, really) to throw in Minerva as a "bonus"--waiving the usual adoption fee and charge for shots.

I said I'd think about it, and make a decision when I came back the final time to pick up the kittens. But I really didn't intend to take her--not until I got back there and saw that they had moved the remaining kittens (my 2 and 1 other that was being picked up that afternoon) to a separate cage, right next to hers. If you could have seen that mama cat, alone in her cage, terrified and gazing with longing at her babies...well, SHIT, you would have taken her too. Yes, I know. I've got a neon sucker sign in the middle of my forehead. Those shelter people clearly saw me coming :-)

So I brought my little family home. (By way of a visit to the vet for tests, and medicine for poor Minerva.) I think it is very possible that the shelter folks were right about her having been abused, since she was extremely skittish and untrusting. It look me TWO YEARS to get her to sit on my lap. Of course, these days, she always wants to be there, so I'm guessing she's adjusted okay.

Minerva still doesn't come out of the bedroom when strangers are here (and strangers are anyone she doesn't see on a regular basis), but she snuggles with me all the time, and still adores her babies. I've never regretted bringing home my "bonus kitty." And I'm pretty sure she's okay with it too.