Marcella's 5 Writer's Resources

 Confession time. I haven't written anything in a year and a half. It isn't just that I haven't. I couldn't. It's like a switch flipped in my brain and NOPE is the new setting. No matter how many hours. No matter how many reworks of plot or characters. Nothing budged. Ah. I see you've noticed the past tense. It's because I fell, quite by accident, into a series of resources that are ever so slowly thawing the ice around writing. Maybe around me.

It all begins, as so many of our stories do, with January 2020 when I could see the writing on the wall and put my household on lock down a few months before official lock down started. I didn't know it at the time - what kind of damage I was taking. It was invisible. I knew that introvert me was suffering because suddenly there was no alone to be had. Not anywhere. Little did I recognize what kind of damage was being done to my mind.

My number 1 writing resource, then, is a book. 

Peak Mind by Amishi Jha - This is a nonfiction book about the science of attention. She describes how the attention systems in our brains work. Because of that, I could clearly see how and why all creative ability had been frozen. It's because my attention system has been locked on 'floodlight' - scanning for threat. Focus and concentration need a laser beam. She describes exactly how to recover. Work in progress. I can work on my book again. Finally.

Calm - Yes. It's a meditation app. It's training for focus. It's also retraining for migraine brain. But honestly, I'm here to get my writing mojo back. If several minutes a day of breathing can help my attention system relearn how to focus, count me in. Since starting the training program, I've started writing again in slow, low pressure increments every day. Building a sense of safety and success.This attaches writing to the reward system in the brain again. Blinding word counts? No. Definitely no. Those will come with time and dedicated practice.

Wordhippo - Now we're into the mundane writing resources. Wordhippo is a thesaurus that doesn't take itself too seriously. I like it because the synonyms are more on point than other resources I've used. I don't know if that's fact or perception but the pink hippo doesn't hurt anything. I find the right words more often there.

4theWords - I know I've mentioned this one before. It's a website that gamifies your word count. It works brilliantly for some people. Apparently, I'm one of them. For others, it's a complete no go. It's one of those things you have to try for yourself.

And finally, for business resources and advice, nothing beats writer organizations. Jeffe and Charissa have mentioned SFWA, I triple nominate the org. You can ask the nerdiest questions in the forums and get informed answers. It's brilliant. I'll also put in a plug for Novelists Inc. Ninc aims at indie authors and offers an incredible wealth of information up to and including drafts of rights reversion request letters.

I hope that no one other than me needs to retrain attention. It's a drag. I mean, on one hand, I finally understand what the hell happened and there's a way to fix it, but dang could I just have me back, please? If you need the resources, too, I hope they're helpful. And hey. See you in the stacks.

In Praise of Mentors

When faced with something you have to do, but don't know how to do, what DO you do? Maybe YouTube a how-to? Cause there are a metric crap ton of vids on any topic you can imagine (and a few you can't). There are arcane and amazingly useful channels out there. Then there are the videos that are clearly some desperate marketing 'guru' wanting to entice you into SPECIAL FOR YOU TODAY pricing on their amazing class that will teach you everything you ever needed to know about <insert topic, including writing, here>.

Some writers have channels that are legitimately helpful, but for writing mentorship, I lean on organizations. The single most cost effective way to learn about this industry while participating in the industry is to pay dues to RWA, SFWA, NINC, and other writer organizations that bring writers with all levels of experience together. Had I not found and joined RWA when I did, I'd still be out wandering in the novelist woods wondering why nothing was working.

Chapter meetings taught me the difference between internal and external conflict. It was at meetings that I finally figured out what voice was. When my first rejection letter came in, my chapter mates broke it down for me, explaining what the editor was telling me and how encouraging that rejection actually was. Chapter meetings and local writer conferences led me to classes and to the people who's working style meshed with and enhanced my own. Do you know how much that would cost if I'd tried to get that kind of support and education from a single person? Far, far more than I had. Then or now.

Writer organizations give you access to an incredibly deep well of experience and information. I can go to the email loops or forums, ask literally any question and have germane answers within a day. All for the price of a membership. In that regard, I am super pro-mentorship. Take advantage of the organizations to which you belong and do what you can to give back, whether that's through serving on a board, or volunteering to stuff goodie bags at a conference.

It's vital to recognize, though, that mentorships have drawbacks. First, no one can do the work for you. Second, when anyone talks 'how to', you aren't getting The One True Way. You're getting the speaker's way. Whatever the teacher/speaker is sharing is what works for them. It may not work for you. When you're the one learning, it pays to keep in mind that you're going to classes in order to try out tools to see how or whether they fit your hand. When you find what fits, seek out that instructor and take every last one of their classes. The point is to take what fits and chuck the rest.  In that way, you become your own best mentor.