My Ongoing Writing Journey by Eleri Grace

Well, this month's topic is top-of-mind for me as I try once again to reclaim the creativity & momentum that the pandemic stole! 

My third novel was about halfway complete in spring 2020, as I released the second novel of my Clubmobile Girls series in May 2020 with every intention of publishing that 3rd novel in 2021. It's now about 75% complete, which is truly disheartening . . . for me and for my hero and heroine who are eagerly awaiting their happily-ever-after ending!

It's probably not fair to completely blame the pandemic, which, after all, became fairly manageable for most of us more than a year ago. But as I've struggled with writer's block and writing anxiety, I've realized that your writing muscles need to be stretched and used consistently every bit as much as your physical body. I dropped the group exercise classes I had done for decades during the pandemic, and even though I religiously walked (and still walk) 2 miles every morning, rain or shine, I don't have the flexibility, muscle tone or waistline I had 3 years ago. Adding some variety into my exercise routine and building back up to where I was before is one of my 2023 goals. 

Courtesy of quotesinhumor.com

My writing muscles likewise stagnated, beginning with those earliest months of the pandemic when I found it hard to focus on anything other than televised pandemic coverage and where to find toilet paper. What I should have done, courtesy of 20-20 hindsight, was force myself to keep those muscles limber and lean. I managed to get focused enough to release a short novelette for the holidays in 2021, but 2022 yielded no publications at all (not great for the Amazon algorithms). For many of us, writing is hard work. It requires as much focus, persistence and discipline as creativity. Even if my creativity was in short supply during the hardest times of the pandemic, I probably ought to have forced myself to write something, anything, on a consistent basis to keep that part of my identity alive. I often joked that I was probably going to look back and kick myself for not having written multiple books during those months of forced seclusion and isolation. And sure enough, I do indeed regret that I didn't capitalize more on how few other demands there often were on my time. 

Pandemic aside, I think another factor has contributed to this long dry spell for me. On my writing journey, I've flip-flopped in terms of my style -- some people are clearly a plotter or a pantser. Me? I've tried it both ways and am now coming to the conclusion that maybe I'm more of a hybrid. I was a pantser with first "practice novel" (a contemporary romance that will never see the light of day) and the first Clubmobile Girls novel. But during the editing process for that first Clubmobile Girls book, I learned that at least some plotting would have saved me lots of headaches and time during the editing and revision stages. So I went the opposite direction with my second novel, creating a detailed outline and accompanying Excel spreadsheet (I kid you not). And it worked! It really did actually work -- I finished the second novel far faster and it required far less editing work on the whole than had been the case with my debut novel. 

I had started an outline with this third novel, but then my creativity faltered when it was time to pace the characters through the typical beats for the final third of the story. I attempted at that point to pants my way through that final third. Alas, that has not worked as well as I might have hoped. After months (okay, at least a year!) in limbo, floundering and making one excuse after another to myself and to readers who wondered when my next book would be released, I decided it was time to try something new. Last month, I worked with a dear friend and writing coach, Caroline Leech, to help me brainstorm through the plot possibilities for my characters and their story. I'm now excited about the story again and energized at last to start really pushing through to the end. 

I think I probably am the type writer who needs both a strong skeletal structure and outline for the high points, even if I also need and want the flexibility to deviate and pants my way through some of the scenes. I plan to try that out with my next novel -- once *this one* is done that is!  

You can learn more about me and my writing on my website or follow me on social media accounts at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. My Clubmobile Girls series is available on Amazon. 

Hidden Gems, by Eleri Grace

Our prompt this month asks us to consider the value in our older and/or unpublished writing. Are there hidden gems lurking in your hard drive (or even perhaps housed on diskettes!) or scribbles on old notepads? With published writing under your belt, could you rework what you earlier discarded or filed away as worthless? 

For me, the answer probably is no, but mostly because my earlier writing efforts don't align with my current genre and branding as a WWII historical author. Actually, that's not entirely accurate -- probably somewhere I have some notes and preliminary thoughts for a time travel YA novel that used Churchill's Cabinet War Rooms as a portal to the past. I think I got that idea on one of my visits to the Cabinet War Rooms, noting not only how they've been preserved so precisely as they were in 1945 but also how many hidden nooks and crannies and off-limits rooms and hallways the site has. It seems the absolute perfect place for a portal leading present-day time travelers back to wartime London! 

Churchill Cabinet War Rooms, personal photo of author (2016)

Churchill Cabinet War Rooms, personal photo of author (2016)

I got my start in creative writing with Harry Potter fan fiction. Before trying my hand at fan fiction, I had always considered myself more of a non-fiction and academic writer. I had no sense that I would ever be able to write dialogue or plot out a story or novel. While writing a long-form fan fiction piece, my entire perception changed, as I realized I had far more creativity than I'd ever imagined possible. Not only did I have creativity, but I enjoyed expressing myself in that outlet. Then I had my first child, and writing took a back seat for the next ten years. 

Some of our favorites from Mother-Daughter Book Club!

As my children grew older, I once again explored the possibility of writing fiction. At the time, I was still reading with my children regularly. I coached my daughter's competitive book-reading team in elementary school, and then we formed a mother-daughter book club that was active throughout her middle and high school years. Because so much of what we were reading in those years was YA, I initially launched my writing efforts thinking I might write middle-grade or YA novels. I joined SCBWI, attended their local conferences, and began occasionally meeting with a local friend to write for a few hours in the mornings at a coffee shop. I was writing, but I still didn't have the sense that I had found my way quite yet. 

I don't recall the impetus precisely, but at some point around 2013-2014, I got connected up with RWA and decided to give adult fiction a try. I wrote a contemporary romance and pitched it at RWA's annual conference. It got some nibbles, but I couldn't sell it to an agent or publisher. In looking at the books stacked on my nightstand one evening, it suddenly hit me that I didn't actually frequently read all that many contemporary romance novels. My TBR pile consisted of many historical fiction novels, mostly set during WWII. That got the wheels turning, and I began to explore what women did to support the war effort beyond the home front defense work. I worked out some of the roles that took women overseas, closer to the action and closer to the potential heroes. I knew even in those early days that I wasn't too interested in writing a romance where the action is centered on the home front or where the couple are separated for long stretches of time. I wanted my heroine to be in the thick of it, and I quickly become intrigued by the Red Cross Girls who served overseas all over the globe. Once I learned how much they interacted with the servicemen and how closely they operated to the front lines, the action, the danger, I was hooked. 

So while I can't envision recycling any of my earlier efforts into my current writing, it played a part in proving to me that I was creative, that I enjoyed writing fiction, and that I was capable of plotting and writing a full novel. 

You can buy my books on Amazon, learn more about me and my writing on my website, and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. 

Enneagram: An Author's Roadmap Back to Creativity by Eleri Grace

 

A familiar theme in many of our blogs is coping with the weight of anxiety, exhaustion, and fear that permeates our daily lives in these extraordinary times. Last December, I doubt many of us could imagine we would find the September prompt of “Hope” to be so challenging. As I’ve alluded in several of my blogs this year, I’ve found it very difficult to tap into my creative well of late. In using last month’s post as a template, I see that I made a brash pronouncement that I was committing to meeting 1,000 words a day on my next novel. <insert maniacal laughter> But I also, it should be said, gave myself permission to allow the next story to bloom at its own pace. And while I don’t have 30,000 words in the manuscript, I am now going to circle back to our hope theme for the month, for what I do have to show for last month’s work is a roadmap of hope and redemption for my characters -- and perhaps myself.

            I have long been interested in the Myers-Briggs personality typing and have called on it to help flesh out my heroes and heroines. I use it, along with Holland codes and similar career exploration tests, in my college consulting business. So despite already being a bit of a Personality Junkie (a dangerous thing perhaps with no background in psychology!), I hadn’t used Enneagram at all. Each time I looked at it, I grew flustered with trying to settle on one primary Enneagram type. I got different results with every online test I took: one even gave me 98% each on 3 different types! But a conversation with a family member last month sparked me to explore it more. 

            After devoting no small amount of time to studying it and its more advanced principles of interaction and growth (wings, instinctual subtypes, tritypes, stress and growth lines) this month, I am fascinated. Fascinated and full of optimism – and dare I say hope -- for how to put it to work in my novels to create full and vibrant emotional journeys for my characters. Enneagram is a tool for personal growth and for expanding how one interacts with others, but it also provides the perfect tools for authors who might want to anticipate (plot!) and understand how characters will respond to conflict and how they can authentically achieve the growth necessary to reach their healthiest emotional state -- how to live their best life in other words. The historical details for my novels always come easily, but creating the internal journey for each character has always been more difficult for me. I think I've finally found the best tool to allow me to more easily approach that part of the process. 

            I created Pinterest boards for Enneagram and MBTI and was able to use my pinned resources to plot a solid emotional arc for both my hero and heroine (of course, I will confess it took many days of rumination for me to settle on their primary type, wing, and tritype -- ha!). So I am, after all, full of renewed hope in my creative path for the coming months.

            Anticipating the question: I am a Type 9 (the Peacemaker), with Wing 1 (so 9w1), and my Tritype is 9-5-4 (Peacemaker – Investigator – Individualist). The Tritype, incidentally, was the discovery that helped me the most, as it was one explanation for why I had such a tough time settling on a primary type. As an introverted bookworm with an analytical bent, I have strong Type 5 attributes. My primary type is, however, the peaceful and calm Type 9. 

I hope this inspires our authors to consider Enneagram, MBTI or other fun personality tests as part of the character development process, and for all of us -- readers and authors alike -- it can be an insightful tool for personal development and growth.  Stay healthy and HOPEFUL!