Learning to Stay Out of Things

This isn't actually what I had planned for my blog post today, but I feel like it's something that I should write about. Mostly because I'm finding recently that it's something that I have a lot of problems with. Sometimes I have difficulty staying out of things that are sort-of not my business.

When I say "sort-of" not my business, I mean that it doesn't directly affect me, but the fall out of whatever happens is going to. I mean that it may not be entirely my business right at this moment, but it will be later when everything hits the fan and the consequences arise. That's when it becomes my problem, and I'm expected to get involved.

But right now I'm having to learn to keep my opinions to myself. And that's something that I just have a very hard time doing, especially when it comes to people I love. Perhaps that's why I love to write stories. I can inject my opinion on what the characters do. At least there my opinions are validated.

That was kind of mean and not really very true. It isn't like the people around me don't value my opinions. It's just that there are times when they don't want them. It's better for people to make their own mistakes, right?

Just like you have to let kids learn by making their own mistakes, you have to let the people around you make their mistakes and learn their lessons. Even if you've seen them make the same mistakes before.

That's when it's hardest to keep my opinions to myself.

That's when it's hardest to stay out of things.

So how's that blog tour coming?

I was actually just sitting down and thinking about the blog tour. I still have tour posts that need to be written and gone through, just to make sure everything is okay. I've got dates to check and a few last minute emails to send out. And I have some giveaway SWAG to get together.

So far the blog tour is going pretty well. Preparations are going well and I've got at least 10 blogs who've signed up to take part in it. I'm hoping to pull in a few more blogs to do a couple more dates, but as of right now we're running through the 15th of March with a final giveaway over on my review blog Ley's Library. I thought about doing the giveaway here, and I still might make the entry form available here, but it's going to really go through my review blog. I'm trying to drive some more traffic over there.

I guess I should put up a checklist for the blog tour, now shouldn't I?

• Contact blogs (can't have a blog tour without blogs!)
• Schedule dates.
• Prep posts and materials
• Materials to send (bio, post, links, etc)
• Send materials
• Follow up

Oh, I think this blog tour is going to be fun!

Creativity and Craziness

For the longest time, people have associated madness and creativity. I'm not saying that I'm mad. But I do feel like I suffer from some boughts of "craziness" when I get overwhelmed with creative energy. It's during these times when I can edit and write and come up with a thousand ideas on the spot. And then there are times when I can barely do anything.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is called bipolar disorder. And I have it.

Bipolar disorder isn't easy to deal with. It effects everything that goes on in your life--your job, your relationships, your self-image. Everything. Sometimes it feels as if it rules your life rather than exists as just a part of it.

The kind of bipolar disorder that I have is the kind that cycles from manic to depressed extremes over relatively short time spans. When I say short time spans, I don't mean minutes or hours. Mostly, I mean days to weeks. I can have weeks where I can barely do anything, and then I'll have a month where I can write an entire novel! It's happened!

My creativity is strongly tied to my moods. If I'm not happy or not feeling well, then I can barely get any writing done. I can't come up with plot or dialogue. I'm frustrated and most people just don't want to be anywhere near me when it comes to these kinds of days. But when I'm happy and full of energy, I can write and edit and plan out new novels with ease. I can be happy and work.

I'm not saying I'm crazy, not by a long shot. But I am saying that there are times that I can be crazy creative.

The Joys of Meditation

Sometimes the stress of everything that's going on gets to be a bit too much. It becomes more than I can handle, and I need to find a way to get away from it all. Most of the time, though, that just isn't practical. I can't go on vacation and get away from all of my problems and stress.

Hmm... maybe I should keep this for the end of the month stress buster. But oh well...

So I'm trying to do meditation lately, just as a way to center myself and get rid of some of the frustration. My meditation is all about relaxing and finding some kind of place where I can start from a basic point of clarity. That gives me a chance to avoid the pitfalls of starting my day from a point where I'm already stressed out and I'm already frustrated. And meditation can help me deal with some of the anger and stress that accumulates throughout the day, as well.

My meditation isn't really identified toward anything more than calming myself. I suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, so staying calm is something that is incredibly important to me. So here's how I do it:

1. Get comfortable. Usually I sit cross-legged on my bed with my back against a bunch of pillows.
2. I tend to put on Enya. Her music is ridiculously calming and relaxing. Especially "Paint the Sky with Stars." That's my meditation music.
3. I close my eyes and breathe in and out, counting to three for each breath in and each breath out. 
4. In my mind, I focus my concentration on walking through a personal library. I find a comfortable spot and I relax for a few minutes. I always choose a library because that's where I'm most comfortable outside of my home. I love the smell of books and paper. It makes me happy.
5. Then I bring myself back to the world around me and start my day.

By that time, I'm usually much more relaxed that I started out feeling. And it makes me a much easier person to deal with during the day.

Being Burnt Out

Sometimes you just do so many things that it's easy to get to the point where you don't want to do any of them at all. You dread doing the things that you were once so excited to do because you feel like you don't have any energy or desire for them any more.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the feeling of being burnt out.

I get that feeling all the time. I do so much that it's easy for me to get burnt out. I can get that feeling several times a day or a few times a week if I'm not careful about how I do things. I work hard with my students at work and I spend a lot of time going over the same material multiple times a week, often the same way. It's easy to get frustrated with the information and with the students. It isn't really their fault. It's just the nature of the job.

The same thing happens at church. I run three major youth ministries at my church, and it's so easy to get burnt out with the responsibility and having to deal with politics and parents. Sometimes I feel like I just want to give up on everything just so I don't have to have that feeling of being stressed and feeling unhappy anymore. I'm tired of being burnt out about things that I volunteer to do. Things like that shouldn't be stressed, now should they?

It happens in writing too. I get burned out with stories, too. And with all the activities I have to do surrounding my writing. Things get a little complicated and more than a little stressful when I devote days to writing and everything like that. I know I want to be a writer professionally, but I never realized how much work it would be. And how unhappy it would make me to spend every waking moment dealing with it.

Vacations from stressful things are key! And I'm going to take a vacation from them right now! I'm going to have a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch!

Are you still talking about writing?

I don't really know how to blog properly. I honestly don't. For the most part, this blog has been about writing. And I'm pretty sure that is getting a bit boring for a lot of people. But I don't know what else to write about. That's what I know.

So I've taken a look around at some other writer's blogs to see what they blog about. Sometimes it's about writing things. Other times it's about things that are going on in their lives or careers. There's very little going on in my life right now with the exception of being all laid up with an ankle that's barely able to hold any weight.

See, we had some lovely snow where I live on Thursday. There was a lot of ice and I fell on it... TWICE. And I twisted my ankle so bad that now it can't hold weight at all. I'm literally on crutches. So what else am I supposed to do?

I'm also running a review blog for books and movies. Blogging takes up so much of my time that I don't know what to do with myself. It's hard to come up with blog topics or things to talk about that don't involve writing. What should I do?

Are there any things you'd like to see me blog about other than just writing? Leave me a comment and let me know what else you'd like to see on the blog.

Avoiding Spoilers in a Synopsis

A synopsis is important for every writer to be able to write. Agents ask for them. You have to be able to put one together for your book for a bookseller, a blog, or a library. The worst part, at least for a synopsis that isn't going to an agent, is avoiding spoilers.

It's so hard not to give things away! I find that I have to write a synopsis over and over to make sure that I don't have spoilers in it. And the simplest things could be spoilers. Who would have thought that a single sentence could give away the twist ending when it didn't come across that way when I was writing it? 

Sometimes I wonder about the best way to go about writing a synopsis. I've read a dozen different articles on the best way to do it, but I always seem to either be giving away too much information or keeping back too much. So I've wondered what kinds of questions I should ask myself when I'm writing my next synopsis.

• How would I describe this novel to a friend without giving too much away?
• What would I want to know about this novel before I bought it?
• How much information would I want to know?
• What are some books that I love that have examples of a great jacket synopsis?

It's about time to rewrite the synopsis to The Forest's Heir because of the blog tour. And I'll have to start writing the synopsis for The Fire's Princess for it's release in June. It's about time to get some more practice with writing a synopsis.