Don't wait for inspiration...Just write!

I know there's nothing more fulfilling than those days when your well of ideas is filled to the brim and you can't seem to write them down fast enough. Like other writers, I love those days. But as we all know, that doesn't happen all the time.

When no inspiration strikes, a writer has two choices--to sit and wait for the muse to finally find them or to go ahead and write anyway.

I used to be one of those people that waited and waited for inspiration. When it finally arrived, there was nothing better. When it didn't, there was nothing more frustrating. I soon found out it might be better to stop waiting and start writing.

What I found is that it might be hard to start writing at first, but often (for me at least) inspiration caught up eventually and it was even more rewarding in the end. I call it creating my own inspiration and it really does work most of the time. If I continued waiting for inspiration, I would never have finished writing most of my manuscripts.

Two weeks ago, I finished my YA novel, Tangi's Teardrops.
If you remember, a few weeks before that, I mentioned that even though the novel was initially meant for middle grade readers, some of my friends from critique circle said it would be better suited for young adults. But the novel was complete and I had no idea where I was going to pull all the ideas from in order to increase the word count. Of course there was a lot more than just increasing the word count. A complete rewrite was required.

To cut the long story short, I did eventually find the ideas and to tell you the truth I'm still amazed at how much I came up with in such a short amount of time. Some days had been easier than others.

During the two week period, I refused to stop writing even when I felt I wasn't inspired enough. I sat my butt down and wrote anyway. After a while, ideas started flowing and before I knew it, I had written, The End.
Last week I submitted the manuscript to my editor. I plan to self publish the novel before the end of the year and I'm so excited.

In December I also plan to send out query letters for my contemporary romance novel, Chocolate Aftertaste, which is ready (I just dread the process of writing query letters and synopses).

All in all, by finally testing the waters of both traditional publishing as well as self-publishing, I believe I will be ending the year right.

Here are 3 great articles on the topic of inspiration or lack thereof:
Why you should stop waiting for inspiration
 Mistake no. 39: waiting for inspiration
Waiting for inspiration-is a bunch of hooey

Before I go, here are two refreshing photo inspiration for you. They were taken during my honeymoon in Rhodes, Greece over a year ago.

Writing is like a warm bubble bath

Dear readers,

Have you ever felt that writing is your safe haven? I do. Last week I didn't have such a great week and it was work related (My fake job, which pays the bills as opposed to my real job, writing).
Anyway, on Friday, I was really stressed and a little low when I got home. Then I thought about the novel that I'm currently writing and just felt an immediate lift of spirit. Sometimes during the day when something doesn't go my way, I also just think about myself as a writer, my books and everything that goes with it and I feel so much better. That is the real me and in my world as a writer, I can can dream and create people, places and circumstances from nothing. I can be myself and have things the way I want them to be. Writing, to me, is like a warm bubble bath after a long stressful day or warm, cuddly socks on a cold. Once I sink myself into it, everything is okay with the world.  I can step out of the real world and create my own.
I really thank God for my talent. I can't imagine not being a writer. It's just the most beautiful gift anyone could have given me.
How does being a writer make you feel?

Hugs

Liz

The issue of pen names

Hallo readers,

In case you don't know already, Liz Davis is my pen name. Liz comes from my first name, Elizabeth and for Davis, I took my father's name (David) and replaced the d with an s. My real name or should I say, names are, Elizabeth Grace Tangi Adewole.
I'm not sure how many of you use a pen name or are considering using one, but I think it's an interesting topic to discuss. Since I write contemporary romance novels as well as children's books,I'll be using two pen names for each genre.

The research I've done online gives several reasons why writers use pen names. Here are a few articles I found useful.

A rose  by any other name: pros and cons of pseudonyms
Writing under a pen name: when should an author use a pseudonym?
Should authors use a pen name?
Pen names: do you know the true identity of your favourite author?

Is my novel really Middle grade or YA?

Two weeks ago I submitted a few chapters of my children's novel to my online critique circle. Initially, my novel was meant to target the middle grade group, but some of the comments I received believed that it would be more suited for young adults.
I did a bit of research on the differences between the two and got some pretty useful information. I read my novel again and realized it was just too mature for the middle grade group. I've finally accepted that I was targeting the wrong group. Right now I'm writing on, with young adults in mind and I must say, it's great to know exactly where my novel fits.
Looks like I won't be needing those illustrations after all. I do look forward to the cover design, though.

For those of you who are confused by the two genres (like I was), here are some links that might be useful:

• Writing for children: age categories determine the guidelines for your children's book

•  Pinpointing the differences between middle grade and YA

• The differences between middle grade and young adult 

• 5 articles on the differences between middle grade and young adult 

• Am I writing YA or MG?

Tips from a literary agent

Lauren Boyd has a great list of some very useful tips straight from a literary agent. I was aware of some of the points, but some where new to me.
Over all, very helpful. If you need to add to your collection of tips, here's the link:
Lauren F. Boyd: My Path To Publication: Tips From a Literary Agent

Liz

Holly's Giveaway

Holly Castor is having a great giveaway. You win two books of your choice from The Book Depository. Very tempting isn't it? One can never have too many books...in my opinion.
If you're not tempted enough, here's the link to her blog: http://in-interest.blogspot.com/
Good luck.

Liz

Teaching myself how to illustrate

Hello everyone,

Just a little update on my progress so far with my children's book. The editing is going very well and I should be able to get the book published by the end of the year. But then, there's something else that's important to children. Pictures. As a child I spent most of my days in the library reading. But guess how I chose my books...by looking at the pictures.

That brings me to the point I want to make. Illustrators--wonderful but expensive illustrators. I looked at the prices and I'm not in the position right now to pay for one. I decided to ask a few friends who studied art. Some had too much work on their plates already and it wouldn't be fair of me to burden them some more. Others, well, they didn't see what I saw. So, last week I decided that hey, why don't I do it? I've never been good at drawing anything...no, actually I was good at drawing hearts. I took a few art classes in primary school but my work always looked the worst on the classroom walls. So, I decided it wasn't for me. Now, I'm thinking, says who? The person who said that was little shy Liz from primary school. Maybe big Liz can do it.

After all, I did teach myself photoshop, taught myself my new hobby, digital scrapbooking and even created a number of scrapbook supplies (If you haven't already, you can check them out at my other blog: http://tangidesigns.blogspot.com/).

I thought maybe I should give drawing another try. And I did. Last week I did everything I could to teach myself how to illustrate by reading and watching online tutorials.
I'm a little shy about this since I'm just starting, but I do want to show you what I did...if you promise not to laugh. I did everything in photoshop. The flowers were done a few months back. I know its not perfect, but I do think if I put my mind to it, I could actually pull it off. What do you think?

This was my first illustration

Okay, there you go. Although I'm happy, illustrating is a lot of work. Well, it was for me as I'm a total beginner. It took me almost the whole day to create the house illustration. Did you notice that I used the background I had created? I took the river out. I drew the house in photoshop and did everything to try and make it look real. I'm not 100% happy, but it'll have to do for a start.

For my 50 page book I want to use around 10-15 illustrations but I don't know if I'll have the time to do all that in addition to editing my romance novel and the children's book. So, maybe I should try to get help again. I might find someone who's talented and shares my vision. At least I know I can do it myself if it doesn't work out. But, it just might. Yesterday, my husband mentioned the book to the daughter of a woman we know and without being asked, she said she'd like to do it. I don't know why I never thought of her. She's a young artist and I've seen  her paintings and drawings before. Amazing. I really love her style.

She's already started practicing and I'll be seeing her tomorrow to see what she came up with. I hope it works out. What I'm thinking of doing is maybe letting her illustrate some things and me others. I could, for example do the backgrounds and she the people. I also practiced drawing people (well a head), but I'm so scared my character will look different on every page. I also haven't tried yet to draw the body (I'm scared of all the different movements. I don't want to paralyze my characters). So, maybe she can help with those. If she's really brilliant, I might let her do everything. It depends on how busy I might get. I wish I had more time to do everything I want to do, but often 24 hours just isn't enough for me.

Well, I've nothing else to tell you. I'll let you know how it goes with my potential illustrator. I'm trying not to be too excited though, just in case I get disappointed.
Before I go, let me show you my floating head (not my head, my potential character's). I drew it by hand first, then colored it in photoshop. I know it looks kind of weird without the neck, but I spent hours on the head alone. The neck would have been a few extra hours and I wanted to stop, I was tired and hungry.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...the head (and I bow out). Try not to look too closely to my illustrations okay?: