Don’t Lose Focus

Hey y’all! It’s Mandy here. I just read a fantastic article called “How to Concentrate on Writing.”

Great title, eh? Seriously… This article has some great tips on how to focus when we need to. One thing I’ve fought is the discipline of focus. Especially when I use my computer to facilitate my creative process. My computer is also my #1 source of distraction (can I get an amen?!)…

When I’m “in the zone” and the creative sparks are flying, I don’t need this type of discipline. But, let’s face it, how often am I “in the zone?” Not enough. Most of my creativity is expressed through blood, sweat, and tears, which is exactly why I found this article to be helpful.

So, without further ado:

How to Concentrate on Writing

Decompressing After A Writer’s Conference: Connection [Part 3]

Part 1 (Blogging to Writing) | Part 2 (Story) | Part 3 (Connection)

What I pay for at a writer’s conference: Good food (5 days without doing dishes), Amazing speakers (the time to sit still and listen), and knowledge I could never get elsewhere.

What I don’t pay for at a writer’s conference (but still got anyway): connection, community and unbelievable friendships.

Nowhere else would I be able to find people with the same passion, the same belief foundation and the ability to make me feel as included and loved as I did. This year at Mount Hermon I both renewed relationships that I begun last year and made new ones.

Writers need writer friends. We can be lonely souls so knowing others who love the same craft is invaluable. Writers also need communities for both encouragement and critique. We simply need each other.

And nowhere else than a writer’s conference would I be drinking coffee with literary agents, eating meals with editors of major publishing houses and laughing at 11:30 at night with other writers from all over the country.

What sets something like this apart from something else is that we share passion. It isn’t like we are all in town because of a shared hobby. Golfing, knitting and fishing aside, writing for us is who we are. It is what we do. It helps define us.

And being in community with other people like this is worth every penny.

Sarah Markley blogs at sarahmarkley.com. She is the wife of Chad and the mother to two little girls and is convinced that she is living in the BEST DAYS of her life thus far. She runs, she writes and she works for her husband’s business, usually for free.

Decompressing After a Writer’s Conference: Story [Part 2]

Part 1 (Blogging to Writing) | Part 2 (Story) | Part 3 (Connection)

My genre is memoir. So at Mount Hermon this year, I decided to take the non-fiction morning workshop track.

I ended up getting stuck in room full of writers working on eschatology books, how-to’s teaching high school from a Christian worldview, and guides to working through the aftermath of divorce.  Not what I had in mind.

I just barely fit into the category of non-fiction because even though memoir is technically non-fiction, it should be written more with fiction elements in mind.  Story arc, climax, resolution, character development – all of these are almost as important as anything else.

Story.  On the first day of class, our instructor, Kay Marshall Strom, author of over 20 books, told us that my story is not the story.  My story is only an illustration of a universal truth.

Whatever story I am going to tell is not only a part of the monumental story of humanity, but it is just a vehicle for truths that God wants to tell through me.

Among other things, Kay writes about international issues in the Sudan, India and Indonesia.  She inspired me.  She makes me want to be a part of the community who is saying something.

My truths?  Hope.  Redemption.  Restoration.  My story?  You’ll have to wait for the book.

Sarah Markley blogs at sarahmarkley.com. She is the wife of Chad and the mother to two little girls and is convinced that she is living in the BEST DAYS of her life thus far. She runs, she writes and she works for her husband’s business, usually for free.

Decompressing After a Writer’s Conference: Blogging to Writing

Part 1 (Blogging to Writing) | Part 2 (Story) | Part 3 (Connection)

Last spring I was a virgin writer’s conference attendee

In 2008, I came green and nervous with only one friend.  When someone asked me what I wrote (as everyone does at a writer’s conference) I stared back and said something like, “Uhhh, I blog.”  I was unfocused and worried and tried to defend myself.  I just needed to relax and admit I just wanted to learn.

Most grey-haired, legal pad-toting, old-school writers just stared back at me and either asked me what a blog was or asked me how having one would help launch their historical fiction romance book.  The idea of a blog having relevance or value in itself was foreign to them.

So much has changed since last spring.

I still blog.  It’s the 300-word-a-day discipline that Anne Lamott asks writers to do.  Sometimes my blog posts are much shorter or longer than 300 words, but since last year’s conference, I’ve learned so much about writing and about friendship.

The blogging has become less of my PRIMARY writing and more of my PRACTICE writing.

In the year between I’ve entered some writing contests, submitted several articles for publication, and gotten paid to write some website copy for a friend.  I took what I learned last year, swirled it in with the chaos and busyness of my life as a mother and tried to do as much as I could.  Aside from the website copy, I have yet to get a byline, but I am convinced I am a better writer today because of the discipline of blogging.

I’m not a virgin anymore.

I found myself at Mount Hermon this year with a collection of friends from last year and in between, with a new confidence and new answers for the “What do you write” questions at every meal.

I write.  I love to write.  And I know why I’m here:  to hone the gift God has given me.

Sarah Markley blogs at sarahmarkley.com. She is the wife of Chad and the mother to two little girls and is convinced that she is living in the BEST DAYS of her life thus far. She runs, she writes and she works for her husband’s business, usually for free.

Pen to Paper…

or, fingers to keys.

for those of you who are writers, you know how laborious writing can be. depending on the content too, it can be especially draining.

wednesdays have become my writing day. and i realized today, i need to bathe it in A LOT more prayer. i wasn’t ready spiritually, physically or mentally for this endeavor. i grew more and more frustrated. i became frazzled for lack of direction and my mind locked up.

it didn’t discourage me though, it propelled me. it caused me to want to work that much harder to get past those hurdles. you’ve heard it before…”plan your work and work your plan”. i came in unprepared wednesday. it wasn’t methodical on my part at all. of course…it will be now, now that i know what not to do

so i just want to encourage all of you..don’t. give. up! if you have an unproductive effort…that’s ok! you still gave it effort. if you don’t feel like putting in any effort at all – don’t beat yourself up over it. just pop back in over here and let us, your cheerleaders, rally around you.

we all have so much to offer. there are so many dreams, gifts, talents and strengths represented here in this community. BIG things will be the result. lets stick together and push on….

tam