sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Brenton is Back

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Today, I welcome young writer Brenton Cullen to my blog. Brenton is here as part of his blog tour to promote his mystery book Ronda’s Gang and the Stolen Wallet. This is Brenton’s third visit to my blog, having previously taken up the challange to answer my seven questions, and also calling by on his tour to promote his other book, The Writers.
Welcome back Brenton. Because you’ve been busy on tour, answering lots of questions, I decided to mix things up a little and also set you a challenge. So, here it is. Insetad of the usual five or six questions, I’m going to ask you twenty questions. And, because I’m mean, I want you to answer each question in just one word. Think you’re up to it? Well, here goes.
1. Describe yourself.
Intelligent
2. Describe Ronda’s Gang and the Stolen Wallet.
Appealing
3. What kind of reader will enjoy Ronda’s Gang and the Stolen Wallet?
Kids
4. Describe Ronda.
Outgoing
5. Describe James.
Whiny
6. Describe Mrs Kratzman.
Cunning
7. Who is your favourite character in the book?
Ronda
8. Why?
Because.
9. What is the best part about being an author?
 Mail
10. What is the worst part about being an author?
Rejection
11. Describe your workspace.
Messy
12. What are you reading right now? (you can use more than one word if the title is longer)
Harry, A History: The True Story of A Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon by Melissa Anelli
13. Are you enjoying it?
Yes.
14. Who is your favourite author?
JK Rowling
15. Why?
Creative.
16. What will you write next?
Fantasy
17. What is your ambition/dream?
MeetJKRowling!!
18. What did you do just before you started this interview?
Emailed
19. What will you do as soon as you finish it?
Write.
20. Why should people read your book?
Appealing
You’re a good sport, Brenton.
You can buy Ronda’s Gang online from Lulu, and can follow Brenton’s blog tour at
tips4youngwriters (18 March)
sallymurphy.blogspot.com (you’re here) and
Tales I Tell (21 March)

Wiritng Prompt: Fifteen Word Poems

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Looking for a little inspiration? Every Thursday, Laura Purdie Salas runs a writing prompt called Fifteen Words or Less Poems. The idea is you view the photo of the week,t hen write your response in a poem of fifteen words or less. It’s hard – but it’s also a great exercise of one’s poetic skills.
Here’s my poem for this week:

Would you prefer
everlasting
flowers made of metal,
or real blooms
lasting just one day?

You can see the photo that inspired this poem, and have a go for yourself here.

Just Write

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I like to boast that I never have writer’s block – and it’s true, to a point. I never run out of things to write about and always have a project or ten clamouring for my attention. So, no, I’m never stuck for things to write about. But, following on from yesterday’s post about self doubt, I’ve been thinking about the days where I sit at my desk during my work time without getting anything done.

Some days I can sit at my desk from 10 till 3 (my designated writing time) and produce three thousand words. Other days I can sit at the same desk, with the same project on the go and get to three o’clock with absolutely zip to show for my efforts. Well, zip unless you count the three games of Scrabble I’ve been playing on Facebook, or the pieces of paper I’ve moved from pile A to pile B on my desk, or the research I’ve done on Google for the other project I’m thinking about starting on. But as for my work in process (wip) – nothing.

Why do I allow myself to become unproductive? One reason is the self doubt (again, see yesterday’s post). When I stop and think about the wip and second guess whether it’s any good, then I start looking for other things to work on. There must be something better I can write, I can tell myself. Or, perhaps I should be doing some market research, see if there’s even a publisher for what it is I’m writing. I’ll Google ‘publisher’ and see if there’s anything I missed.

Another reason is sometimes having so many things on the go. As well as my wip, I generally have a pile of books waiting to be reviewed, blog posts to write, promotional opportunities to follow up, emails to reply to, submissions to send out and so on. When I sit at my desk to write, these other tasks are there staring me in the face and clamouring for my attention.

And perhaps a third reason is lack of motivation (although this is often a result of good old self-doubt – again, see below). When I’m working on an unsolicited manuscript there is no deadline, no eager editor sitting at her desk waiting to read my masterpiece. Give me a deadline, or a willing editor and you’ll probably find me beavering away at the task.

So, what do I do to try to keep myself moving forward on my wip? Firstly, I try to give it a specific time allocation each day. I’ve already said that my writing time is 10 till 3 (on schooldays). I find I can’t write for five hours straight, so in reality, I am unlikely to use all that time for my wip. Instead, I aim for an hour of uninterrupted writing, (yes, just one of the five), with the rest of the time being used for rereading, editing, and addressing some of those other tasks like research and submissions.

Secondly, I count words. Actually, I don’t – I just use the word count function, which the latest version of Word so nicely displays in the left hand bottom corner. The number of words I aim for depends on the wip – at present I’m looking for about 1000 words a day. So, I watch that little counter and make sure I’m heading in the right direction. I compare with how many I’ve got yesterday, and know whether or not I’m doing well.

Thirdly, I give attention to those other things on my list, by making time for them. Emails prove a big distraction for me, so I make time for reading and responding – before I start writing for the day. If I don’t, I find I flit between my wip and my mail and neither gets done well. Reviewing I try to leave until evenings, because it’s something I can do when the family is around. Promotion, again evenings and weekends are the best times for me because if I’m interrupted I can generally come back to it. Scrabble? Well, I use that as a bribe to myself. Write those thousand words, you can check your game and see if it’s your turn. Write that review, you can check it again. Finish your wip? You can start five new games. I confess, my Scrabble fetish is something I’m still working on, though.

Lastly, I find that setting deadlines for myself does work. First draft of wip needs to be finished by 1st of Octember, so I can start on the brilliant nf I’m planning. I give myself both a target date and a reason. I also make lists of what I want to achieve this week and this month and cross them off as I’ve done them, so I can see that I’m on task (or not).

Above all, I constantly remind myself that I am a writer – and writers, by definition, write. All the reading, all the promotion, all the submitting, they’re important (the Scrabble, I’m not so sure) – but above all, if I want to be a writer I need to write. If I can remember that, then I can get the wip written.

If you are a writer, and you’ve read this far, that’s great – now go write something.

Self Doubt

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I have twenty seven books in print – and more in production – I run a popular book review site and some blogs , I have run writing workshops, and spoken at festivals and numerous school visits. And yet I still wonder if I’m a ‘real writer’. When people ask me what I do, I don’t always tell them I’m an author. More often I tell them I’m a mum (which is still my most important and difficult job) or a teacher. At festivals and conferences I’m sometimes tongue tied or just plain blithering when I talk to other published authors. And I still hesitate to submit manuscripts to publishers, worrying that they’ll think I’m an idiot for sending them such rubbish and being surprised when I get an acceptance.

I confess this self doubt is sometimes a problem. I know it makes me appear aloof at times, because if I’m feeling unconfident then I’ll sometimes simply stay out of things rather than participating. At other times I am too loud, overcompensating for my fears – I definitely don’t appear to be a shy person. When I had a long period between acceptances, my self doubt became almost crippling, and I seriously considered giving up writing

I’ve always worried about this lack of self-belief. If I express it out loud, it makes me sound a bit self-deprecating, or even as if I’m fishing for compliments – waiting for someone to tell me how wonderful I am – or, at least, my writing is. But, after another spell of this self doubt, I’ve come to realise that it’s not such a bad thing.

Because I have self doubt, I do hesitate before hitting send on that submission. And that hesitation makes me reread and see what is missing.

Because I have self doubt, I don’t tend to take rejections personally – meaning that instead of wallowing in a sea of ‘they don’t know what they’re talking abouts’ I instead try to consider how that manuscript can be improved before sending it back out.

Because I have self doubt, I know I need to keep studying my craft – through attending workshops, reading articles, blogs, how-to books , studying ‘good’ books to see what works, listening to the wisdom of ‘real’ authors at conferences and so on.

And mostly, because I have self doubt, I am absolutely thrilled when someone likes one of my books – and especially when that someone is a publisher who wants to publish one of my manuscripts.

Why am I telling you all this? Because the more I talk to, and listen, to other authors, the more I realise that there are many, many published authors who have similar self doubts. And I’m wondering if self doubt is not the problem I’ve always thought it to be – perhaps it is this very doubt which makes us able to sharpen our craft, celebrate the writing life and to strive to be better writers. Perhaps if I stop feeling doubt then my hunger to improve will diminish.

I would love to hear what other writers think about this. If you experience self doubt, do you think it helps you as a writer? And, how do you overcome that doubt so that you can keep writing and submitting? Leave me a comment.

Hot Link: Wonderful Blog Post About Rejection

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Katherine Battersby, at the Well Read Rabbit blog (isn’t that a wonderful name for a blog, btw) has a wonderful post about rejection, which you’ll find here. Rejection is one of the hardest parts of being a professional writer. Katheirne’s article provides a wonderful take on the process of responding to a rejection. Enjoy!

Big Question 4: Favourite Dr Seuss Tale

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He’s having a birthday, he’s having it now
So step up, Dr Seuss and take a big bow.

Okay, so my rhyme is NOT as Seussical as can be, but you get the drift – today, March 2, is Dr Seuss’s birthday. If he was alive today, Dr Seuss, or Theodor Suess Geisel would be 105. If you want to learn more about him, you can click here to visit the Seussville website.

To celebrate the day, I am asking another of my big questions. Today’s question is: What was/is your favourite Dr Seuss book, and why? Post your answer below in the comment section.

My own favourite as a child and still, is Horton Hatches an Egg, I think mainly for the sheer absurdity of the idea, but also for the wonderfully wrought rhyme and rhythm, and of course, the message of being true to your promises – and being justly rewarded!

What about you? What is YOUR favourite Dr Seuss book?
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