The Big Red Light in a Writer's Head

By Divina Infusino

What stops a writer from writing?

A day job. Family. Spouse. Relationships or lack there of. Too much time on the internet, with the television, game console, iPhone, fitness routine, texting, or (fill in the blank).

The house needs cleaning, the dog walking, the plants watering, the garden hoeing. Quick, look around. There must be something afoot that needs tending other than the blank page/screen insisting on great words to fill its void.

Actually, activities, people and demands do not deter a writer for any length of time, at least not when the writer is burning with something to say.

The one culprit that often stops a writer from writing is doubt.

Doubt in yourself, your talent, your creative abilities, your cognitive grasp of a subject or craft. Doubt in your judgment. Doubt that you can actually write something that anyone might want to read for more than ten nanoseconds.

The problem with doubt and its root state of mind, fear, is that it is often unconscious. Half the time we don’t even realize that we have fear and doubt around our writing. Instead, we just run away, distracting ourselves with anything that we can rationalize as more pressing.

But if we stop and reflect for a few moments, we can spot those self-sabotaging thoughts that circulate just beneath the rising panic:

Can I really write?

Am I good enough?

What if what I write sucks?

What if it is boring?

What if I don’t have enough information, knowledge or creative juice?

What if I have nothing of value to say?

What if people hate what I write? Or worse yet, just ignore it?

What if it is not perfect?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that we need to live in non-stop bliss, full self-realization or the mythical village of the always-happy people in order to write.  In fact, sometimes the need to express anger, frustration, pain, suffering or outrage bulldozes through any emotional resistance.  But if your inner Bad Editor (the kind that nit picks for the satisfaction of torturing you) looms too large over a writing project, you may never get started…or finish. 

What to do?

Obviously, the solutions vary depending on your circumstances and who you are. But here are a few tips I’ve picked up along the way from my own experience and from other writers:

*First, realize that you are, in fact, experiencing self-doubt. If you don’t recognize that self-doubt about writing is the motivator behind your sudden impulse to clip the cat’s claws, you cannot do anything about it.  You have self-doubt as writer. It’s ok. In fact, it’s normal. So admit it, then you can remedy the situation.

*Most fear around writing stems from a past experience.  A time when someone criticized what you wrote. Or worse yet, you were unhappy with what you wrote.  You had a factual error. Or someone you interviewed complained or you handed a chapter, article or book in late and everyone was mad at you. So be it. But you probably also had good experiences around writing, probably many more than the bad ones. Remember those. Remember the process you undertook to create them.  Remind yourself that you can do this. You have actually done it many times.  And you can do it again –right now.

*If you are experiencing trouble getting started, write down random ideas about your subject.  Don’t force them into an outline right away. That can stop you in your tracks.  Just jot down your ideas under general topics.  Then, give it more structure later.

*Ask yourself: Is there something I need to know that I don’t? Do I need more research? Another interview? Perhaps I should think through a concept more fully? Greater understanding of your subject always improves confidence.

*If you are on a long project, it can help to have a writing cohort, someone you can call and talk to about the problem you are facing. Even if you just talk for 10 -15 minutes, that is often enough time to sort through the issues and get a fresh perspective, or, if nothing else, a pep talk. (Yes, those can help.)

*Bring down your stress levels with exercise, meditation, yoga, or stretching. Or just get some fresh air or sunshine.  You actually need some stress for writing (That’s where deadlines come in handy). But too much stress can throw you into a brain freeze.  Find a technique for relaxation that that works for you.

Self-doubt about your capacities as a writer goes beyond writer’s block, although that is an offshoot.  Self-doubt is actually part of the creative process.  Embrace that fact and it will release you from its vice grip.

Of course, before I wrote this, I washed every dish in the sink, did a round of laundry and vacuumed under the bed.  Just sayin’…

Any thoughts about self-doubt and the writing process? Please share.

“We Live Therefore We Write.” Really?

The Question

“How did you get started writing?” 

Every professional writer fields this question with some regularity.   Of course, fewer people ask “How did you get started in medicine?” Or “How did you begin as a software engineer?” They don’t ask because most people more or less know the answer. You go to school, you intern, you move into an entry level position, and you work up from there. 

Writing for a living is a more mystifying process, it seems. It is somewhat akin to being an artist, an actor, a musician, or a filmmaker. People may take all the right steps but some find themselves working in a large public arena and some don’t.  In fact, a high percentage don’t, far higher than software engineers that’s for sure.

I meandered down this path of thinking when I took a second look at San Diego Writing Women’s tagline: “We live therefore we write.”

We came up with this slogan at one of our earliest meetings.  It sat well enough with the group that we stuck with it. For me, it perfectly summed up my feelings about my editorial career.

Writing always came naturally to me.   As a child, I used it to re-envision my family into the parental unit of my dreams. In high school, I leapt at any writing assignment involving descriptions –of people on the street, how it felt to step inside a cave (even though I had never been in cave), the desk in front of me, the pen in my hand, whatever.   It didn’t matter if I had only glimpsed the person or if the object was completely inanimate, I was more than happy to imbue them with all types of emotion, mystery and romance.  All I needed was a starting point and my imagination took it from there.

 In college, while studying mass media as mass culture, I composed critiques and analysis of photography, film, and finally, my greatest area of interest, music.

My Answer

My love for music and writing coalesced out of a combination of determination, desire, and the need to meet my rent.  In the summer before my last year of graduate school, my funds were exhausted. I was living on a research and graduate assistant stipend.  The student employment services offered me a three month “communications consultant” position for a social service agency that actually paid pretty well.  But I shook my head no. I was going to work in media this summer–even if I had to starve to death.

I called the community weekly newspaper the first week in June. They put me on the political beat covering local candidates running for election.  They paid $20 an article. That same week, one of my favorite musical artists, Roxy Music, was performing in town.  No way could I afford to buy a ticket. So I suggested that I review the concert. The paper agreed and paid me $15 as well. In three weeks, I reviewed three concerts and covered three local candidates. Great for attending the concerts I wanted to see. Not so great for income.

July rent was looming.

Eager for more story opportunities, I decided to attend a free concert called Rock Against Racism in Chicago. I could combine political issues and music in this article, I thought. I hopped a ride with friends, reviewed the performances and interviewed people in the crowd. I had the story but no outlet.

 It was now July 1.

I wracked my brain. Who might be interested in a story with this kind of scope? I picked up the phone and asked for the editor who oversaw the music coverage at The Milwaukee Journal, the major daily paper in Wisconsin. At the time, it ranked among the Top 10 newspapers in the U.S. I got the editor on the phone and pitched him hard on what I thought was this great story. I heard a sigh at the other end.

“We are not interested in a concert that happened in Chicago two days ago,” he said. “But look, we are always looking for a backburner reviewer. Do you review rock concerts?”

Yes! Yes, I do, I pronounced. The editor told me to send him three sample concert reviews.  That was perfect because all I had written were the three concert reviews. I got a trial assignment and three weeks later the paper’s regular rock critic decided to leave. By the end of that summer, I was ensconced in a big time journalism career, which later included seven years at The San Diego Union. From there, I wrote full time for national magazines, then for major internet outlets, and now for books. 

So, yes, I went to school, started at the entry level and worked my way up from there. Except for me, my career launch happened in a very condensed period of time. And all my efforts could have gone nowhere. The community newspaper may not have wanted rock concert reviews; The day I had the chutzpah/desperation to call the The Milwaukee Journal might have been the day the editor was on vacation. I could go on about all the opportunities that came my way that could have detoured.

I always said my career as a writer found me rather than vice versa. Something was magical in the circumstances around it: Something that said “Hey kid, this time around, you get to write.”

As the big 2012 new year debuts, I like recalling that destiny always meets us more than halfway.

I live, therefore I write? Really.

DIVINA INFUSINO is the author of Day Trips From Orange County, an often personalized account of Southern California’s iconic and idiosyncratic locales, natural and cultural sites, hotels, spas, shopping areas and restaurants. She is also a co-author of The Love Response and Rock Gods. She has developed and consulted on numerous books over the past eight years, including those by bestselling self-help author Debbie Ford and wellness author Dr. Ellen Cutler. Divina has worked as a staff entertainment writer for The Milwaukee Journal and The San Diego Union, was a cultural commentator for KPBS Radio, and has also been published inRolling Stone, The Economist, TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Reuters,The New York Times Syndicate, Harper’s Bazaar, Salon.com, and HuffingtonPost.com. Among her celebrity interview subjects are Madonna, Julia Roberts, Bono, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Deepak Chopra, Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Kate Bosworth, Stephen Covey, Norman Mailer, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and Keith Richards. She earned her bachelor’s in English and Communications from Marquette University and a master’s in mass media analysis from the University of Wisconsin.

Original and Clever or Direct and Wise: Can the Two Literary Styles Live Together?

By Divina Infusino

Lately, I have attended a lot of literary events consisting of young, published fiction writers reading from their latest works.  One after another, they get up and demonstrate what appears to be one of the dominant, or at least one of the more trendy, forms of current fiction writing. I can only describe it as breathless, with long strings of vivid description.

Although it is punctuated with periods, commas and dashes, the prose gallops, almost without stop.  It surveys its subject –whether that is a person, a scene, an object, or an event-- and captures its every nuance with intoxicating detail. I admire the work, envy it even. 

And yet, while I objectively know that the writing is strong and creative, while I realize that the writer wrote and rewrote and evaluated or reevaluated every verb, image and twist of phrase, the prose rushes through my consciousness and leaves it just as quickly.  The writing seems full of adrenaline, jammed with observation and empty of insight. I walk away wondering what I heard, what I learned, or even if I felt anything beyond the sheer visceral exhilaration of words beautifully, but preciously, put together.

I go home and unearth from the beneath the piles of papers on my desk Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2009. It is one of the least self-conscious pieces of literature I have read in recent years.

I open the book to any page, read it, and breathe a sigh of relief. Compared to the clutter of cleverness and the overreach for originality that I have just experienced, the writing style in Olive Kitteridge is simple and direct until it injects a metaphor that literally leaves me gasping in its poignancy. Of course, the book’s literary style suits its subject.  It is a collection of short stories around the very unglamorous life of an abrasive, retired junior high school teacher in Maine.

Yet, every time, the beauty of the text stuns me.  This is prose powered by thoughtfulness, empathy and a combination of intimacy and perceptiveness with and of its subject. It knows what to tell and what to leave out and in the process says so much more than twice the verbiage could convey.  

As a writer and reader, just as a person, I like living in both worlds at different times. I like the hip and ingenious as well as the discerning and intuitive. But the current literary style seems to operate under the assumption that if you describe the outward appearance of something in enough detail, with enough invention and imagination, its inner truth will emerge. Most often, the opposite is true. Honesty and depth are usually concise and ruthless, like Olive Kitteridge.

However, if you know of recent books that combine both, I’d love to hear about them. Any suggestions?

Divina Infusino is the author of Day Trips From Orange County, an often personalized account of Southern California’s iconic and idiosyncratic locales, natural and cultural sites, hotels, day spas, shopping areas and restaurants. She is also a co-author of The Love Response and Rock Gods.  Divina has worked as a staff entertainment writer for The Milwaukee Journal and The San Diego Union. She was a cultural commentator for KPBS Radio and has been published in Rolling Stone, The Economist, TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Reuters, The New York Times Syndicate, Harper’s Bazaar, Salon.com, and HuffingtonPost.com.  She can be reached at divina.infusino@gmail.com

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What I Learned by Not Attending This Year's Book Expo in New York

By Divina Infusino

This week, I listened to a group of book publicists, agents and authors discuss the major trends, thoughts and gossip that emerged from the 2011 Book Expo America. I did not attend. So I was curious to hear the takeaways of those who did travel to the publishing world’s biggest annual sales event held this year in NYC at the end of May.

At first, the 30 people who gathered in a conference room stuck to the agenda. People discussed three major BEA themes:

* Within the next 12 months, nearly every major publisher will launch an e book-only imprint. At the 2010 BEA, e books were an afterthought. In 2011, with Barnes and Noble and Borders shuttering so many brick and mortar stores in the past few months, e books took center stage. However, it appears that New York publishers are thinking that e books will function rather like a farm team for the  major leagues. That is, if any e book from these specialty imprints actually sells in significant numbers, maybe the parent publisher will release it in a bound form.

The implication from this line of thinking is that, in the near future, printed books may be reserved only for the best selling titles.  Everything else will be available on Kindle, the Nook, iPad, Google books or some other yet-to-be-invented digital format.  The publishing pros in the conference room shed a few tears for the near demise of the printed book. But fewer than they used to.

* Amazon.com is expanding from book distributor to book publisher. It recently hired the former CEO of the Time Warner Book Group, Larry Kirshbaum, to open its new NYC editorial offices. 

* Successful tween authors rank as the current rock stars of the book world. The evidence? Tween publishers threw the most lavish BEA parties.

Soon after these observations on BEA, the conversation in the conference room turned to the two major questions that seem to eventually dominate any discussion on the publishing industry.

1. If books will be distributed mostly in digital form and authors must increasingly bear the responsibility for marketing their books themselves, what will be the role of book publishers?

2. Do Twitter and Facebook really promote and sell books?

On the first question, the jury is still way out. Before, publishers acted as the gatekeepers, the filter for the reading public. However, with publishers taking fewer risks and releasing fewer titles (and paying authors less for them), anything can happen at this point. Well-known authors may well decide to act as their own publishers. New or riskier authors who are comfortable with technology and self-marketing may opt for self-distribution.

On the second question, the comments were far more concrete.  Here are the publishing pro’s tips for successful Facebook and Twitter efforts around a book:

• Approximately 1/3 of your posts should be personal; About 1/3 of your posts should offer something of value—a link to a thought-provoking or informative article or video; The final 1/3 can focus on the content of your  book. Regularly excerpt a few intriguing lines. Let people know where you are speaking, if you are appearing on a radio show, etc.
• Try to make your tweets funny or controversial. They get retweeted the most.
• Tweet the same message more than once a day-- as much as four times in a single day. People usually read only their most recent Twitter feeds. They could easily miss yours if you only give them one chance.
• When you post on Facebook, start a conversation with your followers.  Ask a question or make a statement that encourages others to comment.
• Use your authentic voice in your social media postings. Be creative. Serve do not sell.  And above all, be entertaining. However, no one had an answer for how you should be entertaining if you are not a comedian or entertainer by nature, or if being serious or reclusive is your  “authentic” voice.

The meeting on BEA underscored for me that the old rules around publishing are evaporating and new possibilities but also new demands abound.

Only one criteria remains constant: Make sure you write a good book.

Welcome

This site is brand new and under construction at the moment, but we hope to be back soon with an introduction to our members with bios and photos. They are: Caitlin Rother, Kathi Diamant, Laurel Corona, Judy Liu, Karen Kenyon, Jennifer Coburn, Sharon Vanderlip, Georgeanne "George" Irvine, and Divina Infusino.

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