My New Studio--and Why Writing is a Lot Like Building

Welcome! Clay table on view....

This side is for watercolor and art journaling....

Snazzy window and miniature rose bush we saved from destruction...

And ta-dah! Doors closed, artist at work. Excuse the state of the lawn--will be replanted ASAP at the same time the river stones are smoothed out and "beautified" with pots, plants, etc.

So there's my little studio, finished at last.  Other than a desperate need for some landscaping repairs, I'm thoroughly pleased and can't wait to begin a "real project" this weekend using up my clay scraps.  Over the next few weeks I'll be figuring out what kind of extra shelving, cork boards, and storage I need, but for now it's everything I wanted and I couldn't be happier.

During the construction process I kept thinking of a much bigger job my husband and I took on many years ago while living in Georgia--we built our entire house, and it wasn't easy, I can tell you.  Putting up the studio was a mini-version of that same experience, and every nail, wall board, and coat of paint brought it all back with a vengeance.  At the same time, I was constantly reminded of the similarities building had with writing.  For instance,

1.  Materials List.  Write it down, make it happen.  Somewhere back in my list of goals to achieve I wrote:  "I have my own studio space."  Writing down your goals is important.  Make lists of stories, books, essays you want to write and then take the mindset that they are already written.  You'll be amazed how your productivity increases and your pages build up.

2.  Blueprints.  In the beginning of any construction project, things look great on paper, but once the foundations are laid--everything seems so tiny; it's impossible to believe there will ever be enough room.  It's the same when we're working with that first idea for a piece.  We start off with a bang and then once we start writing, we ask ourselves, "Is this enough??"

3.  Framing.  But once the walls go up, that space is downright palatial.  Same with writing.  Once you get your characters, goals, and plot points in place, you can often end up with too much going on!  Rarely is an idea "too small."

4.  Speed Writing.  It's amazing how quickly the framing can go:  from zero to, "Wow!  That really looks like a house!"  It's a lot like when you get all that great outlining, character bios, and research finished and realize you are very close to creating a real manuscript.

5.  Work Stoppages.  It rains.  The plumber is sick.  The bulldozer breaks.  That tile you wanted is out of stock.  Your query letter is rejected--twenty times.

6.  Perseverance.   The wiring, the sheetrock, the plumbing--horrible, tedious, messy jobs, but you can do it.  Eyes on the prize.

7.  Finishing details.  For a house it's all about switch plates, bathroom hardware, and crown molding.  In your writing it's the difference between "lackluster, boring, and dull" or including specific, unique, and personal detail that makes your story and characters shine. 

8.  Clean-up Crew.  Usually my job (yuk).  The hours I have spent picking up squashed Coke cans, bent nails, torn plastic sheeting, wood off cuts, and broken shingles easily compete with the time I've spent editing my work.  'Nuff said.

9.  Move in day.  Hurray!  You're finished--a complete house; a complete manuscript.  And then as you walk around admiring those lovely countertops and door handles, you start getting ideas for “improvement.”  Don’t.  Just don’t.  Enjoy and use your space for a while before you start plotting any twists and turns.  Better still, wait to put those ideas into a new story, or at least wait until you have the guidance of a professional--e.g. your editor.

10.  Housewarming Party.  I still have a houseplant someone gave me for my very first house--one I didn't build, but by the time I'd remodelled every room it seemed as though I had.  I remember the fun and excitement of getting the house ready to show to my friends for the initial reveal--the same energy you want to put into your cover and query letters.  Make it pretty--at least while you're on stage!

Tip of the Day:  Virginia Woolf was right:  we all need a room of our own.  If you don't have one today, design your perfect space and imagine yourself already inside.  If you can dream it, you can have it.  Now start drawing that blueprint...

Art Journal Class, My Favorite Tips

What I did this summer:  took an art journal class!  Starting in early June until just a couple of weeks ago I spent 3 hours every Tuesday night at a local continuing education center learning how to make my art journal both pretty and practical. 

During each 3-hour session, we covered a wide variety of activities and prompts.  We had long writing sessions, very active studio projects, and quite a lot of literary inspiration taken from authors all the way from Tim O'Brien to Grace Paley.  The following list comprises my favorite techniques gleaned from the class that I thought were easy, effective, and something you might like to try too.

1.  Write an illustrated letter.  Write it to yourself, your best friend, someone you haven't seen in a long time, or may never see again.  In class we wrote about an experience from the past, but the technique can be used for any topic at all.  To illustrate our letters, we wrote on tissue paper then traced small images from books of clip art.  I placed my illustrations randomly across the pages.  We then folded our letters and put them in envelopes we decorated and glued into our journals like Nick Bantock did in  Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence.

2.  Choose an object that has a special memory for you, then write about it, followed by a drawing.  For this exercise I chose a seashell that reminded me of one I used to play with at my grandmother's house when I was little.  First I wrote out the memory, then I did a quick sketch in class.  Later at home I finished the drawing, giving it more detail.  It's an image I am now going to use more frequently throughout the rest of the journal, almost as a motif or symbol of some kind.  Tip:  Working with a special object like this could be a good way to find your "logo" or "brand" as a writer or artist.

3.  Make a map.  Playful, imaginative, or absolutely accurate, map making is a great way to stimulate your creativity.  The choices are infinite; for instance you could make a map of your backyard, your life history, your goals, or where you went on your last vacation.  In class we took our cues from old, heavily illustrated maps filled with sea nymphs, countries and territories that no longer exist, and artwork that deserved to be framed.  Using collage, rubber stamps, and colored pencils I made maps of fictional places I am currently writing about; two of them for my next book, Overtaken.

4.  Illustrate your daily writing exercise.  For this project we wrote a story in class using my favorite technique--magazine cut-outs of people.  I wrote a story set in Barcelona (a place I've never seen, but oh, do I want to go there) and then painted 3 small watercolors to go with it.  Rather than painting directly onto my journal pages, I cut down watercolor paper to fit and then simply glued the sheets in.

5.   Make a family tree.  This exercise was so much fun I'm still working on it.  There are many ways you can approach this, from drawing a literal tree, or any other design you like that allows room for listing family members, to going online to find all kinds of formal templates if you want a more traditional look.  In class we made family trees of our real families, but I've since taken it further by making trees for my fictional families.  I've added collage and rubber stamping to the pages to add more life and detail to both approaches.

6.  Mandalas.  Mandalas are essentially illustrated, meditative circles used for focus and spiritual contemplation.  Making your own is both very relaxing and very self-expressive.  In class we used pre-printed templates as guides that we then painted with watercolor, but you can use any medium:  colored pencil, oil pastel, even crayon.  An excellent book on the subject is: Mandala: Luminous Symbols for Healing, 10th Anniversary Edition with a New CD of Meditations and Exercises by Judith Cornell.

7.  "Old Master Drawings".  This technique was perhaps the simplest, but in many ways my favorite.  Using sepia, indigo, terracotta, and white colored pencils we proceeded to make simple but beautiful sketches of driftwood on Kraft and Canson papers that we then glued into our journals.  Whatever subject you choose to sketch, the combination of materials gives your journal a very "finished" old-world look I find utterly charming. 

8.  Illuminated Letters.  I love ancient, hand-lettered manuscripts complete with gold leaf, intricate calligraphy, and of course those amazing illustrated letters that begin each new page or chapter.  For this exercise we again used templates from books of clip art, but rather than just color them in, we traced the letters onto plastic vellum and other nice quality papers.  I personally loved the vellum and want to buy more of it; colored pencil just glided over the surface like velvet, making it hard to stop drawing.  When cut out, the letters can be glued into your journal to add a magnificent touch of luxury and color to your next piece of writing.

9.  Letter to the Future.  Ah, where do we go from here?  Where do you want to be in two years, six months, next week?  Tell someone special and seal it with a kiss.  I wrote a letter to my muse and we have a date to check out the contents in November at the start of Nanowrimo.  Just like Tip #1, we put the letters in decorated envelopes and glued them into our journals.

Tip of the Day:  Even if you haven't held a paintbrush since kindergarten, don't be afraid to try art journaling.  Sometimes the most important things we have to say are best said without words.  The beauty of the art journal is you can have both:  stories, thoughts, images, favorite recipes, family photos.  Anything and everything goes.  Best of all--there are no rules, just the invitation to show up at the page and have fun.

Finding Poetry, Part II

My last post promised to share some excerpts from my found poetry pages "next week."  Next week has turned into this week, thanks to an overly hectic work schedule and a much-needed, short vacation up to Taos, New Mexico.  Despite having lived in New Mexico for exactly seven years this summer, I had never been to Taos before so I was thrilled to finally get there.  Everything--from galleries to shopping to scenery-- was even better than I imagined it would be, and I highly recommend a visit if you're ever in that part of the country.   

Before I start though, I just want to mention a quick side trip.  On our last day I particularly wanted to see the Mabel Dodge Lujan house not just for its lovely Pueblo-style architecture but also for its many D.H. Lawrence associations.  My husband was a good sport driving me up and down a few wrong roads until we finally found the place, listening all the while to me raving about "D.H. this and D.H. that..."  Even as we parked and stepped out onto the crushed gravel walkway leading to the main house I was still talking about D.H. and Frieda, rather loudly, too, and when we opened the door:  a poetry class was in full swing.  Ooops.  I think they were having some kind of "silent session," very quiet, very Zen, very un-D.H. Lawrence.  I apologized for interrupting (all the while wishing they could have put up a sign...) and settled instead for a walk through the grounds before deciding to head back to Albuquerque. 

Halfway through our walk my husband said something about T.E. Lawrence--like, when exactly had he been to Taos.  It was one of those surreal moments when you realize you've been so wrapped up in your own little world you haven't given a single thought to whether or not you're being understood.  Here I was thinking of fierce literary arguments and thrown plates, and my husband had been thinking of sand dunes, the first World War, and Lawrence of the Pueblo.  And that to me is what found poetry is all about: taking fresh meaning from unexpected sources.  So in that wonderful spirit of chaos, here we go, starting with:

1.  Music poetry.  Several years ago I kept a journal solely on music and sound.  I wanted to write only poetry, essays, and short stories on the theme of music.  Using my X-acto knife to cut through magazine columns I found:

A harmony of

        wind trails

                   your spirit.

Softly open to

  the song of

      how old you are and

         travel happy.

Another small piece reads:

In the mirror

  I learned

    music making.

Deafening, whomping

drowning out the song.

Burnt sacrifice.

No miracles, but

  some kind of knowledge.

In a third piece I went to my word pool of cut out words and phrases all relating to music and sound that I kept in a basket.  Taking them out at random I came up with:

Conversations with

Dancing goats

   Learning to fly

They fall to earth.

They are surrounded by

operas in the dark

Voices and visions,

hushed tones.

Animals as normal people

No more ox tongue performance

The first call

It just screams.

Makes you think.

2.  In my last post I mentioned how I like to concentrate on the theme of food and using food magazines as my resources.  Here is an example where I used food magazines to find words and phrases as I did in the sample above.  Because I spread the cut out words across a larger journal page, I've included slashes to represent where I joined phrases on the same line:

I remember/the robust tanginess

of chilling buttermilk

cooking barefoot,/when I was young,/in search of

miraculous/baskets/bowls, and

a paper heart.

Pruning roses/freighted with winter

encumbrances

snowflakes and hearts --

a place where/chaos is/luxury,

maybe even peace.

How do you discover/other worlds

secluded/doorways

the secret

glimpses of the past?

Lately, I have begun to suffer

from a nineteenth-century/serenity

a permanent

daydreaming.

Good things emerge,

connected by design.

3.  Lastly, here is a small example, again using my X-acto knife, that I think sums up my feelings of what it's like to work with found poetry:

The secret

life of

writing

grace.

Less than a

game,

a spirited quest.

Tip of the Day:  Try making your own found poetry.  Don't worry about making sense--just make yourself happy.  That's all creativity should be about anyway.  Have fun--and if you'd like to share your work, please let me know!  I'd be more than happy to put up a link to your own blog in my next and future posts.

Lost and Found; Finding Poetry, Part I

Before I begin I want to thank two people and dedicate this post to a third; I want to thank the poet Denise Brennan Watson for introducing me to "found poetry" and I want to send a sincere thank you to Diane Solis at Creativity As a Way of Life for suggesting that I write a post about it.  Lastly I want to dedicate today's post to Chris Al-Aswad, who tragically left us at the age of 31.  I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed reading his poetry and essays.

As I mentioned above, I first discovered found poetry in a week-long workshop taught by Denise Brennan Watson at the summer conference of the International Women's Writing Guild.  Denise's book, The Undertow of Hunger, a collection of food poetry, had just been published.  In her class Denise continued with her theme of food and cooking; each day we experimented with different ways to use food and its related associations as poetry prompts.  The idea of "found poetry" was discussed from the start.  Denise suggested that cookbooks and food magazines were brilliant places to find "hidden tidbits" of writing that went way beyond recipes.  This was because in order to sell food, it must be presented to readers as more than something that tastes good.  The words used to describe food are often sensuous, multi-layered, and evocative of childhood and our most cherished occasions and memories.  To demonstrate her point, Denise had brought to the conference an entire suitcase of food magazines she generously shared with us to cut, slice, and dice our way into finding the poetry inside.  Right away I was hooked, totally addicted; my writing and my life changed from that week forward and I haven't been the same since.  Seriously!  Until Denise's class I never knew what treasures could be found between the lines of an innocent article on say, how to bake a raspberry tart or melt chocolate for a fondue.

Denise's workshop was exactly ten years ago this summer.  Over those years I have worked hard to develop her ideas and use them in ways that are uniquely my own in my pottery, art journaling, and collage.  One small project I have on the side is I am writing an entire "found novel" from scraps culled solely from food magazines.  Here are some of the things I have learned to help you find and create your own poetry:

• Anything and everything can be turned into found poetry.  What you are looking for are snippets of meaning when lines of prose are taken out of context and removed from their original source.  For instance, during that same IWWG conference in 2000, I went to an evening performance where the poet Judi Beach recited lines from a menu--verbatim--as poetry.  I will never look at apple pie the same way again.
• If you use magazines to find your cut-out words and lines, it's a good idea to stick to a single type of magazine for coherency, theme, and word association.  I still love using food magazines, but you can express yourself best when you use magazines that express your personal interests, e.g.,  tennis, finance, history, sewing, fine art...  The list of subject-specific magazines is endless. 
• It can also help to become adventurous and jump into a magazine world you would normally avoid:  Motorcycle Rider when you'd rather be reading Elle and vice versa.
• Besides the straight-out text of a magazine article, I find headlines, advertisements, and the table of contents to be full of good lines just waiting to be grabbed and turned into poetry.
• Other sources besides magazines can include:  overheard conversations, Twitter, Facebook, old letters and greeting cards.  The key is to never simply repeat what you find, but to completely reassemble the seemingly ordinary into the extraordinary.
• Old manuscript drafts can be a wonderful source of material.  Never throw away a piece until you've taken all the good lines out for future use.
• A method I have yet to try but is certainly on my list of future goals is to dismantle/alter/change an entire book--one of course that is in the public domain and no longer known.  Used bookstores are full of obscure and forgotten books just waiting for you to give them new life.  The poet Mary Ruefle did this with great success in her book, A Little White Shadow which started life as an obscure Victorian novel of the same title.  Ruefle's technique for finding the poetry in this text is what's called "erasure."  Ruefle used white-out to delete all the words and lines surrounding the lines she wanted to keep and use.
• While white-out, felt pens, and tape are all good ways to block out your chosen text, I prefer using an X-acto blade to cut out the lines I want.  I love seeing how far I can cut my way down the page, often finishing with a multi-lined fragment that could easily pass as haiku or a tiny verse all on its own.
• Much of the charm of found poetry is in the arrangement of the words on the page.  While the cut-out lines can sometimes look like those poison-pen letters in an Agatha Christie novel:  "beWARe the KnIfe wAitS 4 U" they can also look fresh and original when positioned neatly on a piece of art paper or your sketchbook/art journal.  Any artwork you can add to the piece for embellishment is a great plus, too.
• I like to paste my smaller pieces onto unlined index cards for both future reference and as a way to present them as a "mini book" on their own.

Judson Jerome in The Poet's Handbook defines poetry as "metrical writing."  That's it!  However, he does go on to say that there is a tug-of-war within the poet as one chooses, picks, polishes, and twists words into a form:  "Prose lies flat on the page.  Poetry (good poetry, that is) stands up off it, rounded like a piece of sculpture because of its imposed form."  To me, found poetry is all about the choosing and twisting and making a new form from what is otherwise a flat piece of prose.  Next week I'll share some of my found poems and offer you more ideas for creating your own.

Tip of the Day:  Start looking; start cutting--gather up your magazines, phone books, old manuscripts.  Don't be afraid to put your own stamp on the mundane and turn it into a piece of startling imagination.

Readers' Discussion Guides--Make Your Own

A few years ago I joined a romance book club because I wanted to study the genre and also because it gave me an opportunity to discover new writers.  The club has since widened its range to include memoirs, the classics, and even the occasional mystery.  What we do prefer though are books that end well and happily, and yes, have an emphasis on a romantic relationship.  For that reason alone we still like to call ourselves the Romance Book Club, but ever since we moved our meeting place to a local Borders Books & Music, the store insists upon calling us the Ravioli Book Club.  Sure enough, once a month a large sign reserves a prime table in the cafe for us:  'RAVIOLI BOOK CLUB."  There doesn't seem to be any way to change the sign or the name, and by now I think we actually enjoy the surreal distinction of being the strangest book club in the store.

Similar to the way the club name "just happened" it also became my job somehow to find, print, and bring to our meetings the publishers' reading discussion guides for each of our monthly choices.  I love these guides.    They're very simple to find--I just Google 'em.  Not every book has one, but I wish they did.  Not only do they liven up our meetings, but they help me to think more analytically and deeply about what I'm reading, which always carries over to what I'm writing.  Which then made me think, I need my own reading guides too!

Several weeks ago I started work on two guides:  one for my Egyptian mystery for middle-grade readers, The Great Scarab Scam and one for my young adult novel, Better Than Perfect. 

Over the weekend I finalized them so you can read or print a PDF copy of each here:  Better than Perfect and The Great Scarab Scam.

While I was writing the guides, I thought that just like making book trailers before you publish, writing up your discussion questions as you work through your drafts could also help strengthen your writing.  Here are some of the points I considered:

• When designing your questions, try to avoid anything that can be answered with a plain "Yes" or "No" without more qualification.
• It's also important to remember there is never any "right answer" to a question, especially when writing a guide for children or young adult readers.
• Characters are usually the most important part of your story.  Search for questions that encourage readers to explore why they could identify (or not) with your characters, for instance through profession, family issues, or personal challenges.
• A good plot should present your characters with troubling choices.  Characters don't always act rationally or sanely when faced with a crisis.  Think of questions (and reasons) that revolve around why this is so for your own book.
• Evaluating characters' choices can lead to "what would you do?" types of questions.
• A good ending should leave the reader wanting more.  Create questions or topics that let readers imagine future scenes or alternative endings.
• What does the book remind you of?  Encourage discussion of other writers and genres that point back to your book.
• How do you want readers to possibly describe the overall mood, tone, or theme or the book?
• Is your theme universal or could it only be true for one part of the world?  Think of questions that explore the locale of your book as well as any unusual bits of information you use to make your story unique.
• What have your characters learned?  Or left undiscovered?
• What would you like your readers to have learned?
• Is the story believable--or not?  (If not, this could be a good time to fix it!) 

Not every guide you create needs to include all of these points, but they are certainly something to keep in mind while brainstorming both your manuscript and your questions.

Tip of the Day:  Search out reading guides for some of your favorite titles and start by answering the questions in your journal.  You might even want take this a step further by discussing the questions with your writing group if you don't already belong to a book club.  It's easier to write your own guide once you know the kind of questions you like to discuss, and which ones you find frustrating and pointless (not that rare of an occurrence, I'm sorry to say!).  And have fun:  discussion guides are meant to enhance the love of reading--readers should never feel they're defending a thesis or trying to pass an exam.

Am Editing

My three favorite Twitter hashtags are:  #amreading, #amwriting, and #amediting.  Whenever I see one of those I always stop to read the tweet.  #Amreading alerts me to great new titles; #amwriting inspires me to write those extra pages, and #amediting reminds me to take the work seriously.

For the past few weeks I've been doing my best to stay in #amediting mode.  It hasn't been easy.  I readily confess to loving first drafts:  the thrill of new characters; speed writing; first thoughts/"best" thoughts (or so they seem!).  Sometimes editing feels too much like doing my homework when I'd rather be eating dessert.

But this week there's been a shift; around Tuesday I found myself starting to enjoy the process of preparing a manuscript for print.  It may have had something to do with passing the "100 page" mark at last.  As it stands now, my manuscript is 429 double-spaced pages, printed in New Courier 12 font (easiest to read, I think).  I figure that if I stay on track editing a minimum of 14 pages a day I'll be finished by August 1.

I waited a year to start this final edit and I'm glad I did.  Enough time has passed to almost convince me someone else wrote the book--a wonderful advantage when it comes to slashing sentences, cutting excess description, and doing my best to wordsmith my way to a clearly-told story.  Often I'll come to a passage and I won't even remember writing it, allowing me to be utterly ruthless.

One of the reasons for my reluctance to start this particular edit was my fear that concentrating on editing would somehow lead to me forgetting how to write.  Absurd, I know!  But I was worried that skimping on my daily freewriting would be like an athlete not staying in shape, or a dancer lounging in front of the television instead of showing up in the rehearsal room.  How wrong I was.  Writing IS rewriting.  Sticking to an editing plan and schedule is where the real magic happens.

Now instead of groaning at the thought of my daily editing quota, I look forward to each 30-minute session (after 30 minutes I begin to read, not critique).  I have my manuscript neatly tucked into a new, large binder that accompanies me most of the day and night.  I don't like to let it out of my sight and it's always ready to work on whenever I have a free moment.  Believe it or not, it's a great way to spend the summer!

Tip(s) of the Day:  I have two:  1) The longer you leave a manuscript between edits the better your editorial eye will be.  Don't rush to edit.  And 2) If you write every day--even just a few minutes between editing sessions--you will build a body of work, which means that you will be able to leave off editing your manuscripts for a year or longer.  That way you will never run out of manuscripts to polish, submit, and, sell.

Get Set With a Goals Jar

The last few weeks have been ridiculous:  unexpected snafus at my day job; summer storms creating big leafy messes and lots of extra yard work; my car needing new tires and other minor maintenance issues…the days just seem to slide by.  Every hour there seems to be yet another new crop of  "things to do" that need my stretched-to-breaking-point attention, including my blog posts (sorry for the recent lapse in posting).

To stay on track with my "main goals" for the year, I try to commit to three daily and essential tasks during the work week: the edits for my new book, Overtaken; attending to my day job (got to pay the bills somehow!); and write/draw/create something new every day—even if it’s just 500 words from a writing prompt.  But sometimes it’s difficult to concentrate when my brain is buzzing with, “gotta re-do the website,” “gotta sew up that couch cushion,” “gotta get a stock of padded mailers.” The annoying part of all this buzz-buzz-buzz is I’m never quite sure just which extra project needs to be the center of my universe and which one I can put on the back burner.  Worse yet is when I go to start one of these extra tasks, I immediately think of yet another thing I’m “supposed” to be doing.  Scattered doesn’t even begin to describe it. 

Sunday night I decided to take control with a trick I learned from the Land of Enchantment Romance Authors:  the Goals Jar. The idea is to write down a goal to accomplish between meetings, put it in a jar with a dollar, and at the next meeting all the people who have accomplished their goals participate in a drawing that rewards the winner with half of the cash (the other half going to LERA for fun things like speakers, etc.).  While I was a member, I was pretty good at winning, often coming home with a nice little stash.  But it's been over a year since I've had the time to attend a meeting and I don't have quite the same incentive to stick to minor goals here at home.  What I do have though is a pottery jar with a wide cork lid sitting on my desk.  I love this jar—it’s from Mexico and decorated with pictures from Mexican lottery tickets and tarot cards. Depending on how I place it, I can have a new picture facing me any time I want.

Remembering the same procedure from the LERA meetings, I wrote down a list of the things I need to do (somewhat appalled at the extent of said list) and then cut it into strips.  I then folded the strips into tiny squares, placed them in the jar, shook it up, and pulled out my first one: “Make picture for blog header.” Yay! I can do that.  (It's now at the top of the page here.  What do you think?)

Instead of putting a dollar into the jar for each of my goals, I rewarded myself by putting $20 into the jar for completing the task.  I get to spend it and all the other twenties I'm anticipating when the task-strips are all gone.  At the same time I'm also going to pretend each task-strip I remove is the ONLY extra task I need to do until it is finished.  I'm not allowed to even think about the other chores waiting in the jar.  Or the money.  Well, it's hard not to think about the money, but you know what I mean!  

Tip of the Day:  Start your goals jar. You might want to make it yourself.  I have a friend who glues collage scenes on old jam jars and they're beautiful.  Add inspiring quotes or pictures of things you want to help keep yourself motivated.