Pushing the "YES" Button

Hello and welcome to a mostly cloudy Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is October 7th.

Last weekend, I hosted a Red Shoes Writers Retreat at Doc's Harbor Inn on the Warroad River in Warroad. Four ladies came together to take a deep dive into their respective writing projects. In case the news missed the Roseau-Times Region, in July 2022 I became an Author Accelerator certified book coach. Thanks to all the book clubs I'm in I read a lot. And thanks to all the writing I've done, 13 years with the Red Shoes, 6 years with the Wannaskan Almanac, 2 anthologies, and 1 novel published, I've learned quite a bit about writing well and taking readers on a journey.

"The writing ladies" - as the Third Grader called them last weekend - have been working on their projects for quite a while. No matter if they were in the acorn idea stage or well on their way to a solid first draft, it was thrilling to see them step out of their normally busy lives to sit with their projects and write. The world seemed a little bit brighter and a little bit more helpful. (Or that might have been the absolutely fantastic weather we had.)

I've learned a couple of things about the creative process that you might appreciate. Especially if you're a creative person yourself. And, as I've said in a presentation or two on the subject, "Julia Cameron says in The Artist’s Way, that 'we are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.' Which basically means that all you need to be a creative being is to be a living, breathing human being." (Isn’t it nice to know you already meet the minimum criteria?)

Anywho, here are my two little nuggets of wisdom gleaned from 13 years of Red Shoes Writing experience that came to the forefront of my mind while working with this group of writers.

1.) The "plan" and the reality are two very different things. - I've often said that writing a book is like exercise. Let me clarify that point. Wanting to write a book is like wanting to exercise. The idea sounds great! You can already imagine how all that effort is going to make you feel great. So you make a writing plan that is also great. It will absolutely fit into your already busy life seamlessly. You might even celebrate with a brand-new journal and pen.

And then you start.

Here's the rub. Unless said writer already has a book deal and a real deadline (and dollars already on the line), experience has taught me that the actual execution of the plan tends to go awry. In short, you've got Google Maps, Siri, and a full tank of gas - but the rubber just doesn't meet the road like you had planned.

This is not only normal, this is okay. The actual act of writing and navigating through the project is the journey far more than the cute, hardcover sitting in your Grandma Jean's lap with your inscription: "To G'ma Jeanny who inspires all of my stories."

So, focus on the journey and forget about the destination. (For now.)

2.) Pushing the "YES" button will be your turning point. - In the book business, there's a statistic that gets bandied about claiming that 80% of Americans feel called to write a book. This has been true to my experience. Anecdotally, 8 out of 10 people I meet say they have a book idea. And that's great! The sticky wicket (again) comes with the execution. Why is that? I wondered.

Here's what I think: The folks in that 80% bandwidth have a finger hovering over the "YES" button, but they haven't actually pushed it.

I know this to be true for myself. I had a solid, workable draft of my Elevator Girl manuscript done in 2008, but it wasn't until a transformational Breakaway weekend in July 2013 with coach Bonnie Kutter (when she still lived in Wannaskaland) that I decided once and for all that, yes, I was going to pursue publishing. Within a week, I had a contract signed with Wise Ink, and not long after that, a June 2014 publishing date.

I had finally pushed the "YES" button.

Whenever I get the chance to bend someone's ear on the topic, I tell them, "Making the decision is the hardest part. After that, it's just a to-do list." Maybe I'm oversimplifying, but, essentially, I have found this to be true. Once you've committed, you're all in mentally. And that's the game changer.

If you have a book in you and you're dabbling with the thought of pushing the "YES" button, here are two opportunities you can take advantage of.

1) Grants season is open! - YES! The Northwest Minnesota Arts Council announced just this week that the deadline for the Individual Grant for $5,000 has been extended to October 15th.
"Individual Artist Grants have an October 15 deadline for $5,000 grants (this is an extension) and November 15 deadline for $1,500. Quick Turnaround Grants for $500 will be available in January 2024. These grants are awarded to performing artists, visual artists, media artists, and creative writing artists from our seven-county Minnesota service area including Kittson, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, and Roseau counties."

2) National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) begins November 1st. The gist of the affair is to write a 50,000-word novel or 50,000 of a novel in 30 days. I've done NaNoWriMo three times. I haven't always been successful, but what I appreciate about this annual writing event is that it lets people push the "YES" button - even if it's just for a month. My advice on how to successfully navigate NaNoWriMo includes the following:

• Set the bar of your expectations low. 
• Give yourself permission to play.  
• Wing it or go in with an outline. Whatever works for you.
• It's all about quantity, not quality.
• The spirit of Nano is to slap words on a page. Be nonsensical! Experiment!
• HAVE FUN.
• Ignore the laundry.

Of course, this is arguably all easier said than done. And I agree. 

Then I watch the Third Grader paint. Or the Sixth Grader write a story. Or the Senior 3.0 write a song. Kids make things look so easy. And yet. Maybe, just maybe, it really is as easy as pushing a button.