Two sides to every writer; this one at least.

I am a loner and an introvert, like a lot of writer’s. This side of me is mute in social gatherings. I am working on my camouflage skills to I can fade into the wallpaper. This “social” me, has no idea what to say.

But the other side of me, almost like a split personality, is adept at speaking to large groups of people. This is the side that has taught art classes, both to college classes and in private situations of one sort or another, for twenty years.

I am not afraid to stand in a hall of one thousand people or before a group of four, or even at a reception with a glass of wine in my hand, as long as it is my subject; meaning, my art or my writing, or just the teaching of any of these.

So, the professional me is comfortable and knowledgeable and can even be funny and entertaining.

Now, if I could just get that professional me to teach the personal, introvert me how to talk in a personal setting, I can quit blending into the wall.

In the Nick of Time - Before the End

Writing is my life saver. It keeps me sane and maybe it keeps me from packing a bag with my camera, sketchpad and pencils and hitting the road too. So, when my writing is not going as planned, it is really nice to find the perfect answer to the current problem.

I have said before, you need to be “open” to ideas to learn from them and for one to strike just the right note. This has been achieved, yet again, in an article by Cheryl Klein, in her blog Brooklyn Arden and in a speech she gave at the Terminus 2008 Potter Conference in Chicago, Illinois. It is also posted on-line at A Few Things Writers Can Learn from Harry Potter and I thank, Ms. Klein, a thousand times over, for all of the help she has, unknowingly, given me over this past two year period.

Unlike other writing sites, which tell you that you MUST do this and you CANNOT do that, Ms. Klein tells you what is so fantastic about a multi-million dollar book and how to do it in your own way.

Then, she gives you approval, where all the other’s will tell what not to do, she tells you to write what you need to write. Do not write to the market. Write to please yourself first. You are a reader after all, or you would not be here.

So, if you want to know what is so good about a book opening, or how to make your reader fall in love with your characters, or why a YA novel can have an adult theme and how to do it, spend a day or, as I have, two years reading her advice.

I just needed a refresher, to remind me where I am going and what step I need to take now to get there. She puts theme and writer’s voice and plotting into perspective for me and so, now, I shall return to my writing.

I will take my first draft, with its multiple edits done already and I will outline the other four books of my proposed series, because how can I know how to end this book (my latest struggle) if I only have a vague idea of where this journey will take me?