Stacked Journaling and the Sketchbook Challenge

Over the weekend I discovered two new ways to work in both my journal and my sketchbook: The Sketchbook Challenge, and Stacked Journaling as taught by artist Judi Hurwitt on her blog, Approachable Art.

I found these great sites simply by entering the search terms "how to use a sketchbook." Admittedly that sounds like a really basic search, but I was looking for creative ways to get re-inspired for those times when I sit down to journal and/or sketch and suddenly get a bad case of the blahs.

As soon as I came across The Sketchbook Challenge however, I knew I'd struck gold. Not only was this a place to share and study sketching with an online community of productive artists, the site provides a theme every month for filling up those sketchbooks. No more excuses and I don't know what to draw. . . Right now the August 2012 theme is "Shelter," and so for my first attempt I did a quick sketch with Derwent Inktense pencils of the patio off my new condo's bedroom, a very sheltering place, indeed.

Later that day back on the computer, I discovered the term "stacked journal." As soon as I realized it had nothing to do with turning old journals into furniture or door-stoppers, but instead was a way of writing decoratively into your journal, the idea appealed to me. Basically, the technique is to write a paragraph at one angle, turn your pages to another angle and write over the previous paragraph, and so on until you feel ready to finish. For my first attempt it seemed appropriate to continue using the theme of "shelter," which I added to my drawing of the patio.

Here's a closer look at the journal entry on its own:

The results were extremely pleasing to me, and I know this is something I want to continue using in the future:

• It's a way to turn emotional (and overly-emotional) content into art, with the emphasis on the word "transformation."
• I love line and drawing. Using my handwriting as a line in itself truly expresses my style and direction.
• I can see that it will be an interesting way to match and complement the subject I'm drawing, eventually creating an outline or shape that I can fill in with color or collage.
• It could also be a unique way to deal with "negative space," the area around an object.
• Writing into a gessoed background with a tool such as a paintbrush handle or a twig could create a very special texture for oil pastel, watercolor, and even collage.
• Best of all, it seems an excellent way to write my heart out and then not feel I have to hide or throw away whatever I've put on the page. Instead of wondering "what do I do with this?" it can now be a work of art!
• On top of everything else, it's just so surprisingly enjoyable and attractive at the same time. I'm excited about  the way it combines journaling, art journaling, and my sketchbook all under one umbrella. Very efficient, if you ask me.

Tip of the Day: Okay, start stacking those journal entries! Have fun, let go, and if you need more direction, please go visit Approachable Art. Let me know how it works for you.

Overtaken: Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Before I get started with today's topic of "ideas," here's a good one to mention first: Overtaken is now on Kindle, and for the great price of just $4.99. I'd like to invite all you e-book fans to take advantage of this new opportunity to indulge in the lush, gothic, and romantic world of my heroine, Sara Bergsen. And of course, if you're still like me and not quite ready for virtual reading, you can always order a paperback copy direct from me or any other bookseller.

Which leads me back to ideas in general. While I was submitting my e-files for this new edition of Overtaken, I was reminded of my original inspiration and motivation for writing the story in the first place. So often I am asked (as are most other authors, I'm sure): Where do you get your ideas? On the surface it sometimes seems like a standard question, one that's easy to gloss over. After all, ideas are everywhere, the hard part is winnowing through the crop to finally settle on just one. But when I really thought about it, there were definite instances, experiences, and prompts I could point to throughout my creative life that have each influenced my work and given me my ideas.

One of the main sources to thank for much of Overtaken is The International Women's Writing Guild. At one of the IWWG Skidmore College summer conferences where I was teaching a workshop on self-publishing, I had the great privilege of attending classes with authors Emily Hanlon and Marylou Streznewski. The very last page of Overtaken was written before any other part of the book in Emily's class, and one of my dream sequences I eventually assigned to Sara was written under the guidance of Marylou. So thank you, ladies!

After returning home from the conference I continued to work on the book, mainly in the form of journal entries, morning pages, and other writing exercises from both how-to books and my writing groups. Within these writing sessions I would find myself wanting to write about different times and experiences from my own life, for instance:

• London. Oh, how I love London. And just like Sara, for a while it was my home. Fortunately I've been able to go back a few times, but I still can't get enough of the place, so any excuse to set a story in London takes me back to my favorite shops, streets, museums, and galleries.
• Sara is an artist--and I try my best to follow in her footsteps. Of course she is much more highly skilled than I am (she makes her living as a professional portrait artist), but it was fun to imagine the kind of paintings and style she preferred.
• The Theosophical Society. For many years I've been intrigued and interested in the work of Helena Blavatsky and the society she founded. Even if you're inclined to regard (or dismiss) her writing as sheer myth and storytelling, it's mythology on a grand scale. The language of metaphor, symbolism, and "what if" helped me imagine the possibility of Sara and my other characters inhabiting parallel universes and realities.
• From the TS, I was introduced to the work of Russian artist Nicholas Roerich, especially his costume and set designs for the Diaghilev Ballet, which then worked its way into my plot line as well.
• Editor Ellen Datlow and her great anthologies of speculative fiction. Whenever I've come across these books I've devoured them. After several volumes I was inspired to write my own paranormal tale. The result was Overtaken.
• My favorite pieces in the Datlow anthologies seemed to stem from fairy tales, and my favorite fairy tale of all time was, and is, Lona by Dare Wright. So it was natural that I asked myself the question: What if the Princess has to rescue the Prince? Hence the disappearance of Sara's new husband, Miles, and the primary story problem.
• Greece. Okay, I've never been to Greece, but I've always wanted to go and I wanted Sara to go there too. The best way I found to start my research was with magazine cut-outs and collage. Collage helped me to "feel" where Sara was once she arrived there, and how she would react to her environment. It also provided me with some specific details I would never have found just by reading about the country.
• Color; and the year my mother made hats. This is probably my most obscure motivation for writing Overtaken, but all of my life I've loved color, the more unusual the shade the better, and I think it stems from the time when I was in the first grade and my mother studied hat-making from a Hollywood dress maker. Every day after school we would go to the woman's house which was filled with the most fabulous fabrics, trims, and furbelows I have ever seen then or since. While my mother learned the intricacies of wiring Gainsborough-style brims, I got to play in the walk-in closet and try on the seemingly endless array of netted petticoats and gowns in every color imaginable: peacock blues; poison apple greens; Jezebel scarlets. I was in heaven! Now, as an author, I was able to relive that wonderful time by giving my heroine a similar immersion into her wardrobe, environment, and artistic palette.

Tip of the Day: Now it's my turn to ask you: Where do you get your ideas? Writing down your answers is a great way to prepare your marketing material for editors, publishers, and readers alike. This is an exercise that can work for artists and all creative-types, too. Don't hold back; enquiring minds really do want to know what makes your work personal and unique.

My Blog Interview with Marilee Brothers

I'd like to send a big thank you to Marilee Brothers at bookblatherblog.blogspot.com for her kind offer to not only interview me, but to post it too! Marilee's blog is great place to visit at any time, but if you pop on over to read the interview now, there's an extra bonus of a special book offer exclusive to her readers. So what are you waiting for?

Tip of the Day: Interviews are a fun way to get to know each other better, and they are an especially helpful way to learn more about our fictional characters. Take a cue from magazines, blogs, and even television shows for the best questions you can ask your story people to find out who they really are.

Blog Award Time

Excited to announce I've just received a new blog award--and with sincere thanks to LadyD Books. Great to hear from you my friend; truly appreciated! It's fun to add another award to my list, and it's even more fun to pass the award on.

For some background on the award, LadyD has written that Liebster is a German word which means sweetest, kindest, dearest, nicest. . . .  Okay, I'm starting to get embarrassed here! The award is also making me smile for quite another reason: years ago a good friend in California had a German houseguest with a small son stay for the summer. Every day my friend would hear the woman call her son what she thought was, "Liverwurst." One day my friend told me that she didn't think it was very nice of the woman to refer to her son as sandwich filling. Finally she had to speak up, and to her horror she found the woman wasn't saying "liverwurst" at all, she was calling the little boy, "Liebchen," or, "darling, little love." But by now "Liverwurst" was firmly lodged in my vocabulary, hysterically so, so I must say I'm grateful that I didn't receive the Liverwurst Blog Award!

Sandwiches aside, here are the Liebster rules:

1. The selected bloggers must post 11 facts about themselves.
2. They must also answer 11 questions the tagger has asked, and then ask 11 questions of 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers. Be sure to tell them they've been tagged.
3. Remember, no tag backs.

And because I know it's not always easy to find the time to play along, I suggest we all go slow. In this blog I'm only going to name 4 bloggers, with plans to find the others during the coming months. The bloggers that I choose can either find their 11 now, or sometime in the future, if ever. The main point is to have fun and get to know each other a little better.

I'll start with my questions from LadyD:

1. Q: Where is your favorite place to read and write?  A: Curled up on the couch--any couch!
2. Q: What is the one book you loved and why? A: Lona, by Dare Wright. I felt so much like Lona as a child, that I was living in an enchanted castle, and waiting for the "spell" to break. And I adored the photography. I could look at that book for hours.
3. Q: If you could go anywhere in time, when and where would you go? A: Paris in the 1920s. Just like Midnight in Paris!
4. What are the two things for which you are most grateful that your parents provided for you? A: A good education and the freedom to read whatever I wanted.
5. Q: For one reason or another, you must go away to a deserted island. You can take one item with you. What do you choose? A: The Body Shop Vitamin E Eye Cream. Serious good stuff.
6. Q: If you could only eat one type of food for the rest of your life, what would you eat? A: Salad. I'm a dedicated salad fanatic.
7. Q: What is the one book you hated and can't stand? A: Oh, no--this is difficult--but I really do not like Who Moved My Cheese? I had to read it in grad school and I just wanted to throw it at the professor. I thought it was SO annoying.
8. Q: If you could be any magical creature, which one would you be? A: An elf like the ones in Lord of the Rings or the darker fairy tales. Elves always seemed romantic to me. Don't ask why.
9. Q: Name one book you could re-read over and over again A: This is a bit of a cheat because it's actually four books in one, but my answer is The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell. My copy is a single volume, and I've read it many times already; I just love that book.
10. Q: Which animated character best matches your personality? A: Well, I've always felt a close affinity to Boo-Boo Bear.
11. Q: List one word that describes you the best. A: Eclectic.

11 Facts About Me:

1. I’ve just sold my house and am now renting a condo—a whole new life and experience for me to have my front yard watered and weeded and a pool right outside my front door.

2. I adore Polyvore.com and find it relaxing, intriguing, and one of the best ways to “write” when I’m feeling stuck or uninspired.

3. I love teaching writing almost more than I love writing.
4. I’m a big Natalie Goldberg fan and have a signed copy of her book of art and poetry: Top of My Lungs.
5. I hate to paint “plein air.” Bugs, heat, wind, flapping paper, lost pencils. Ugh! If I sketch outside, I stay in my car!
6. I’m a vegetarian and love inventing gourmet vegetarian recipes.

7. I just went camping in an RV for the first time and loved it.

8. My favorite season is autumn and all that goes with it: sweaters, wood smoke, falling leaves.
9. I’m not an early riser by nature—I’d do anything to stay in bed till noon.
10. Museums and libraries are my favorite places on earth.
11. If I could live anywhere in the whole world I’d live in London.

My 11 Questions for my Blogger Friends:

1. Where was the last place you went on vacation?
2. What is your favorite board game?
3. If you could travel anywhere in the world—money no object—where would it be?
4. Which three literary characters would you like to invite for dinner?
5. What would the menu be?
6. What’s the next book to read in your TBR pile?
7. What’s your favorite piece of clothing and why?
8. What made you start blogging?
9. Do you have a ritual before you start writing or creating? If so, what is it?

10. Who is your favorite artist, and why?

11. What’s your guilty pleasure TV show?

And my selection of blogs to receive the Liebster Award are:

Diane Grolnick at Abbakiss and the Artist

Virginia Lee, author of Dagon's Blood

Suzanne Blazier, author of Family Reunion Keepsake Book
Charlotte Fairchild author of Murder on the Silver Comet Trail

,

Tip of the Day: Read the fine blogs mentioned here! And thanks for visiting.

Stay Creative Every Day Tip #12: Stay Focused With the Basics

It's been a long journey, but we're finally here at Tip #12: Whenever you feel scattered with too much going on in your life, or you're working on too many projects at once, go back to the basics.

I love staying busy, and I often work on several different pieces of writing or art during any given day. Not only is this a great way to get a lot done, but it keeps me from becoming bored or burnt-out on any one thing. The downside of this, however, is that it can also become overwhelming at times, making me feel I'm going in too many directions without any real sense of purpose. The best way I've found to counter this feeling is to remember how I got to this point in the first place, followed by a session of starting all over again with beginner's mind and simple tools. For example:

• Read one how-to book as if it's the only book in the world. Do the exercises. Take the advice to heart.
• Morning pages--just three handwritten "whatevers" every morning. I find writing on a legal pad with a stiff backing is an excellent way to plow through the noise, dreams, and endless lists of unfinished projects and plans in my mind. It's also a good way to find the answers to what's keeping me scattered and how I can focus in on what's really important to me.
• Write only by hand. The act of simply holding a pen or pencil, listening to the sound it makes working across the page, and letting the words (or pictures!) flow upon the surface can be very healing, and very real.
• Try limiting yourself to just one medium or aspect of writing for an entire week, e.g., just use charcoal for drawings, or paint with a limited watercolor palette of 3 colors. Write only character biographies for a week, or simply block out your scenes on index cards--and nothing else.
• Along the same lines, choose just 1 subject for writing, painting, or collage. Sometimes there are too many choices in life. By selecting a single topic, e.g., apples, you can more easily zoom in and get to the heart of the subject. A good way to tackle this would be to find pictures of apples, buy apples, draw them, write poems, use the imagery to trigger a personal essay. You could even add some of your efforts to your current WIP if you think it will fit.
• De-clutter one area of your house or office: a single drawer, shelf, or magazine rack. Keep this up until you feel you've got more breathing space and working room.
• Go through your TBR pile and pick the one title that seems the most appealing to you right now. Store the rest out of sight in a box or on a specific area of your bookcase. Any books that you've been resisting reading, sell or give them away.
• Plan a week's worth of meals and go to the grocery store to buy only the ingredients that you need to use.
• Stay home. Take a break from meetings and other social activities (including online browsing and networking if necessary!). Rest up until you feel re-energized and ready to face the world again.
• Go to bed early. Read rather than watch TV or movies. If you listen to the radio, try to avoid news programs.
• Meditate with simple visualization techniques for 5-minute sessions. Doing this 3-4 times a day can give you a much-needed rest with a huge boost in energy and productivity.
• Evening pages. List what you did accomplish during the day--you might want to write another three pages just like you did in the morning, but I find a list of 12 can be equally helpful. Another approach could be to write down 12 things you noticed during your day that made it special.

Tip of the Day: Keep a notebook that is solely for jotting down ideas for future projects, or for those perfect plot points or lines of dialogue that pop into your mind at all the wrong times. Label them clearly as where you think they should go, and then ignore them until you've finished your current project.

Stay Creative Every Day Tip #11: Don't Worry

The Big Move is over: (most) boxes are unpacked; old furniture has been gifted to new owners; the to-do lists shrink on a daily basis--and I'm doing my best to follow Stay Creative Every Day Tip #11: Don't worry. Easier said than done, of course--especially when there's so little time left each day for my writing, not to mention blogging, tweeting, e-mailing.... 

And as much as I'm trying to "stay calm and carry on," I know it's natural to worry about things like getting to the post office on time to mail packages, or keeping the refrigerator stocked with more than toaster strudels. What isn't acceptable is getting equally worked up about the times I can't get to my art and writing, thanks to things like moving. I've also discovered that the #1 reason I worry is because I've neglected following my previously-posted 10 tips on how to stay creative every day. For instance, the times I've managed to not have pen and paper handy while waiting for the cable installer to show up, or then trying to write with a faulty pen I found in the trash.

During more settled times, my other "creative" worries can stem from not feeling "good or smart enough" to be a writer or an artist at all. (Tip #8, "Don't compare yourself to others" is the true root of this problem.) Or worrying about not having enough time to accomplish all the amazing goals swirling through my mind, especially in the middle of the night. I'm sure we've all been there, and I'm sure we've all done as much as we can to avoid the worry track, but if you're still feeling stuck and can't see a wait out, here are some ways to approach the anxiety:

1. Worrying wastes energy--energy that can be used for creative work. A good trick is to simply write out or express your worries through any art form: clay, collage, even dancing.
2. Some people are fuelled by worry--and that's okay if it helps get the work done. What isn't okay is wasting other people's time by incessantly voicing those worries, being the kind of worrywart Julia Cameron has referred to as a "toxic friend," someone who wants to stop your work while they complain about their own. Avoid at all costs!
3. Take action! Do one small task toward your goal every day, no matter how small. For instance, because I've had zero time to write, I've been collecting visual bits and pieces for a collage about this current time in my life. It only takes a few minutes, but it does help me feel that I'm doing something.
4. Procrastinating is a form of worry that is self-perpetuating and can only add to your worries. That's why schedules and routines are so important to keep. Even if you only designate 15 minutes a day as the bare minimum where you MUST work on your project, do it.
5. Feeling like your work isn't matching the picture in your head? This is a big one for me. Yet no one else can possibly imagine what I'm envisioning as the perfect story or perfect painting. The same for you, so just be proud of the work you have accomplished and keep going forward. And never, ever point out to others what you think are your work's flaws, or apologize for what you think is "wrong."
6. The sense of being overwhelmed by all that's required to finish any major piece can be pretty worry-making. So while it's admirable to be able to see the whole picture while you're creating, it can also seem like such a huge job to complete it can keep you from ever finishing the darn thing. To counter this, concentrate on a small portion of the work: for instance, just blocking in the hands on a portrait, or just outlining Chapter 7, or looking for new ways to build and increase tension and conflict scene-by-scene.
7. "What if?" is a great question when you're writing a novel or short story, but it's a lousy way to try to get some sleep: What if I can't meet my deadline? What if I get a bad review? What if my manuscript is rejected? Stop! Listen to music, meditate, stop and smell the roses.
8. And have a contingency plan in place: During your down times make a list of positive reviewers who read your book's genre; write up a new daily schedule that will allow you to meet your deadline; prepare manuscript submission packages in advance so that you can send out your work to as many readers as possible.

Tip of the Day:  Every now and then, give yourself time and space to do nothing. Yes, that's right--take a break! Sometimes deliberate and luxurious idleness can be the very cure for all those "must" and "should" monkeys floating through your head. It's also amazing how the very act of refusing to write or draw can drive you right back to your work-in-progress. Typical contrary artistic temperament, wouldn't you say?

Stay Creative Every Day Tip #10: Don't Leave Home Without Your Journal

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”

- Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest  

It's been a long time since I've traveled by train, and I don't know if my journals can qualify as "sensational," but Wilde certainly had it right in my opinion. Which is why I believe so strongly in Stay Creative Every Day Tip #10, Always carry a journal, sketchbook, pens, etc. with you wherever you go.

Now that my Big Move to apartment living is in full pack-up-and-go mode, having a notebook of some sort close by has never been more important to me. Not only can I jot down immediate "to do" notes (transfer the power bill; buy more boxes), I can also be working on a WIP or sketching the last views of my backyard while I'm waiting for things to happen (this current move seems to involve a lot of waiting-for-things-to-happen for some inexplicable reason).

However, even when I'm in my new home, settled and back to my normal routine, I'll be sure to follow some of my favorite creativity-starters:

• Always have a dedicated "art and writing" tote ready to go at all times. For me this is a small canvas bag with a journal, a sketchbook, and a pouch with pens, pencils (graphite and watercolor), X-acto knife, eraser, and a waterbrush or two. Lately I've started carrying around a small watercolor set, too. 
• Waterbrushes! Wow, I love waterbrushes so much I have to mention them again. They have all the ease and versatility of a pen and can fit into your purse if necessary. I only discovered these tools about a year ago; now I can't imagine how I coped without them.
• I like to have various sizes and styles of journals, etc. going at the same time, but when I'm out of the house I stick to 9"x12" or smaller.
• It's also fun to have themed journals and sketchbooks just for on-the-go. For instance, in the past I've carried around a journal that was just for freewriting at bookstores, and a sketchbook that was just for trees, leaves, and flowers.
• Sometimes I paste pictures and writing prompts on my blank pages before I leave home. It's amazing how well these "random thoughts" can match the mood of wherever I am, starting a new stream of creativity I wasn't expecting.
• Which gives me a full "idea book" without even trying.
• Drawing or writing out of your usual office or studio space can give you an entirely new appreciation of your surroundings, and a whole new way to approach your work. Whether it's the muzak playing in a crowded shopping mall or the eerie peacefulness of an empty parking lot, the altered atmosphere can't help but change your perspective.
• Artist Date! I've always been a big fan of Julia Cameron and her books, especially The Artist's Way, but too often I couldn't figure out how to keep up with her advice on having an artist's date once a week. Taking my "creativity bag" out for the morning or afternoon is an excellent way to follow this exercise.
• Vacations. We all need them, and recording your experiences with more than just your camera is a super way to make travel anywhere special. I recently purchased a wonderful book, The Art of Travel With a Sketchbook by Marie LeGlatin Keis, that I can't wait to use this summer while I go on (yes!) vacation.

Tip of the Day: If you're anything like me, you probably spend an awful lot of time waiting. Whether it's waiting in line at the post office; waiting for a hair, doctor, or dental appointment; waiting in the car while my husband shops at the auto supply store. . .  Honestly, if I didn't have my journal or sketchbook I'd be bored to tears with all that waiting. I'd also be wasting some very valuable time. One trick I've found to utilize that time to the best advantage is to go to appointments or meetings just a little bit early, even by just an extra 15 minutes. (I've heard this works really well for parents who need to pick up their children from school every day.) So next time you're out on the road, don't forget to take your journal!