Karen Sandler

Tag: creativity

  • RTW – Writing and the Change of the Seasons

    This week, YA Highway‘s Road Trip Wednesday asks, How does your writing (place, time, inspiration) change with the seasons?

    It’s a great question but I’m afraid I don’t have a particularly great answer. As a writer, my routine is kind of boring, and, well, routine. I don’t change anything with the seasons.

    I just sit at the same computer, in the same office, and whether I’m under contract and working on a deadline, or writing some spec piece, I just…write. I work nearly every day. There are times I take a break (like between contracts) when I go a few days or even a week or so without writing. But then a new contract starts or I settle in on a new spec project and I’m back to the routine.

    Ye Olde Grindstone

    I confess, I’m not exactly sure what I would do differently. I don’t find any particular season any more inspiring than another. If I’m on deadline, I just work. I do dislike deadlines that around Christmas (like if something is due in January), because I just want to kick back and bake cookies and decorate my tree and enjoy the season. But it’s not like I suddenly get ideas for holiday stories.

    Am I boring or what? At least my son, who’s got a YA circulating out there and is currently working on a MG book, goes out on the back deck to write on lovely summer days. I just stay in my cubicle, taking root and growing mushrooms between my toes.

    I really want to hear from other people on this. Do you have a seasonal ebb and flow with your creativity? Do you write differently at different times of the year? Drop me a line. I’d appreciate a break from my grindstone.

  • RTW – Creative Inspiration

    This week’s blog prompt at YA Highway is When you need creative inspiration, where do you go? My first, off the top of my head response, the shower, is a little too cliche, so I’ll offer up some other options.

    First of all, I don’t so much pursue that creative spark as find ways to leave myself open to it. That’s why the shower, cliche as it is, really does work to get me past a creative logjam. For me, writing is a problem-solving exercise and for some of those problems, I need to be away from the manuscript for clarity.

    Some favorite ways to spark my creativity:

    • meditation
    • driving
    • riding my horse
    • brainstorming
    • conference workshops

    With the first three, I can’t just grab a piece of paper to jot down notes (well, I suppose I could when I meditate, but that would defeat the purpose of meditation). I don’t have a phenomenal memory, so instead I’ll work through the solution in my mind enough times to ingrain it (I hope) well enough that I’ll remember it later.

    I often end up brainstorming with my husband when I’m driving, which leaves him to take the notes. At a conference, I’ll have either a notepad or notebook computer to jot ideas down.

    There’s a theme here: I need to put my brilliant ideas in writing as much as possible. Often once I’ve written them down I don’t need to refer back (the act of writing sets it in my brain), but if I don’t inscribe them somehow, they dissolves like mist. Frustration ensues.

    Regarding the last item on my creative inspiration list–conference workshops–I should mention that I don’t find inspiration in workshops about inspiration. Oddly when I’m sitting listening to an agent speak about the publishing market or a bestselling author talking about their career, solutions to my current writing problems start popping up in my brain. I guess just being in the milieu helps me be creative.

    So my secret to creative inspiration–walk away from the problem, give your brain time to clear. And the answer will flow right in.