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Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

Writing habits

What Makes Ten Weeks Feel Like Just Enough?

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I have a plan and ten weeks stretching out before me waiting to be filled.

It’s a simple plan.

  • Revise some books.
  • Approve a final edit (or two)
  • Write another Solstice Dragon World novel.
  • Work with my cover artist for the new fantasy series in the works
  • Update a few files
  • Paperback the Standing Stone series (at least two of them. The rest I’ll shoehorn in as the year progresses.)
  • Hardback the Solstice Dragon World novels
  • Sail a lake or two
  • Ride the tandem bike a few hundred miles
  • Beta read (provide feedback) a novel for a fellow writer
  • Write three blog posts
  • Write three newsletters (which you can join by clicking the Sign Up! tab at the top)

Today was Day One. This is how I did.

  1. Two thousands words written on the final chapter of The Wielder’s Grimoire, book 5 of Standing Stone.
  2. Six chapters revised.
  3. This is post number one. I’ll give myself half a credit at this point.
  4. I did exercise, just not on the tandem bicycle or the sailboat (treadmill today)
  5. Finalized the paperback version of The Sharded Boy (won’t publish it until I have The Shifter Shard ready to go as well)

Not bad for Day One.

Tomorrow will be more productive.

  • Another two thousands words (or more. I won’t argue against more.)
  • Two more chapters revised
  • Probably another treadmill day or yoga. I’ll know when I wake up which is the best option. Probably treadmill as it tends to warm me up for writing
  • Complete the preparations on The Dragon Question‘s file for hardback version.
  • Start the prep on the hardcover image
  • Start the June newsletter

I know this is not the most exciting post I’ve made, but I’m in the mood for organizing. It’s sort of like the nesting activities of a pregnant women close to term. I need to get things situated, their order of importance figured out and anything that only takes a day or two out of the way to make room for the big stuff on the horizon.

Ironically, I don’t write from an outline. My books tend to flow like a river from the headwaters on a mountain. Words trickle in and gather into sentence rivulets. The rivulets join and make a stream. More streams rush on and form a narrow river that then cuts high banks to its final destination. Novel.

Where an idea begins ~ mine took me here

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Picture of The Sharded Boy cover

I am about to embark on writing the fifth book of the Standing Stones series. My daughter reminds me regularly this is the series that writes itself. It is an apt reminder.

It started with a friend wanting me to write a guest post for her blog. She gave me a set of possible topics, one of which was fantasy. I hadn’t written a fantasy before, but I’ve read thousands.

It was the only topic I thought I could write fairly well on. I had an idea, nothing particularly new, but I hadn’t seen it written about in the manner I was thinking, so why not?

My brainstorm idea: the rules that govern the world of a story create pathways that as the story proceeds limit the choices available to both the writer and the character. Those limited choices funnel the writer and the character to its ultimate conclusion. Nothing new, right.

But I’m a teacher, and examples are paramount in putting across expectations. So I immediately began thinking about a set of rules for a fantasy world: wielders of magic must carry with them a heavy flat stone which they must stand on in order to wield the essence that is the base of their magic and is embedded in the stone. What if there was a wielder that couldn’t carry his stone or found it extremely difficult? How would that act as a governor of his experience.

From there, I considered a series of questions.

  • Why can’t he carry it?
  • Are there alternatives?
  • What caused this situation?
  • What can he or she do about this if anything?
  • What other rules apply?
  • and the list goes on…

I got to the bottom of the parameters of this fantasy world and how it would guide the story and was so invested, I could not send her the post. I set it aside while I finished up a book I was writing.

I thought I might write a short story with this created character: Jahl Pratter and his struggle with fitting into the demands of being a wielder.

I began writing another book in my then current series and continued to let Jahl wait for when I had time to write that short story.

I got stuck, not just stuck: I lost faith in the book I was writing. I had to step away.

I started another book that had been running around in my head. Over the course of a couple of months, the conflicts of this new book became all to real to me, and I could not face it. Both my father-in-law and my mother were showing serious signs of dementia, a key component of that novel.

Both have since passed away, and 20k of words are waiting for me to come back. I can’t just yet.

I returned to the previous series’ book and struggled along before again setting it aside. Jahl beckoned.

I thought writing a short story might lubricate the wheels. And it was all laid out in my head. It wouldn’t take much time to write it.

At about 20K of words and no where near the middle, never mind the end, I realized I was writing a book, and it just kept writing itself. I was along for the ride.

Cover of The Shifter Shard

Book 2 grabbed hold, and I said, “Okay, let’s roll.”

Before I had time to take a breath, Book 3 was in the works.

Cover The Heart of Lal

I stepped back to the fifth book in that earlier series I kept setting aside and finished it, quite satisfied with the result. I had hated it the majority of the time I spent writing it. It just never felt good enough. By the time I finished it, I quite liked it. One unpublished blog post produced four books.

I started a new fantasy series of standalone novels, Solstice Dragon World. After writing three of them, I returned to the Standing Stone series and wrote its fourth book as easily as I had written the first three. I love that series and have been thrilled to learn from my readers that I am not alone.

Cover of The Sand Wielders

Standing Stone Book 5 is next on my agenda. I’ve been holding it off while I have finished my current series: Kavin Cut Chronicles, just weeks away from publishing the third in the trilogy.

I suspect Standing Stone’s Book 5 will be the end of the series. Of course, given its beginnings, I can’t be certain.

If you would like to check out any of my fantasy series, click the tab at the top of the web page labeled All Books. You’ll find links to all the main retailers where they are sold. Just click on the series title of each and work your way through the books.

The power went out, silently, without preamble

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Just as I sat down to write this post, the power for our entire town went out. Usually, we hear the rollicking pop of a transformer or have a few preliminary brown outs.

Not this time.

A gentle outage, like a mouse tiptoed in and sat down. Lights out all over town.

That was also new. Usually, it’s just our block. The lights are normally, tantalizingly, on across the street and everywhere else.

My laptop’s battery has a very short life these days.

I immediately thought, “Guess I’ll just read.” But my conscience said, “Pull out the iPad and keyboard and get to writing.

So there I was, tapping away in the dark. The Christmas tree is a tall cone-shaped shadow across the room, a bit of silhouette in front of the dimly lit window behind it.

My husband sauntered in and took a seat.

Politely, and only with the slightest sigh, I set aside my iPad.

We talked of butcher-block counter tops and the new sink we purchased and won’t install until Christmas break.

Then there was our new plan for kitchen cabinets.

After all, we did just purchase a lovely new refrigerator. Now those vintage (kindly word for really old, crazy old, did I clearly put across that our cabinets are old, say 100 years old?) cabinets could use some replacing.

Funds are limited, and we’re only expecting to live here another two to three years. We’d located some new vintage looking cabinets which will fit the Adams style of our (100-year-old) two-story frame house. So, we re-discussed this choice.

The boat galley
The boat galley.

Talk wandered. The boat needs cabinets, too. My husband is using the pieces from the old ones as templates for cutting out new ones. Another project for Christmas break.

We decided on what to get our daughter for Christmas. But I’m not mentioning what we decided on here. My daughter reads my posts. (HaHa, sweet girl.)

We recalculated retirement plans.

There were a few minutes of contemplative silence. I typed a bit more on this post because I’d nothing to contemplate other than my To-do list which is frustratingly long.

Then my office in the new house was played. Lighting, of course. How would I like it lit?

I hadn’t given this any thought. Ho hum. Let me see. A desk lamp, some task lighting for my planning board. No, I don’t want an overhead fan.

Why is it my don’t-like-small-talk husband loves to talk to me?

I know, I shouldn’t complain. So I won’t.

We covered politics, Covid, education in general, teaching in specific, whether or not Cagney will stay free of fungus.

Cagney, fungus free

That last is an ongoing discussion. Cagney’s longest run this year has been four weeks. I’m hopeful. I have added “update my post on our fungus battle” to the To-do list.

Lights on.

My husband nods at me and wanders out of the room. Now he can get some work done.

What’s at the top of my To-do list now? Hmm. There’s a three-way tie for first position. I better get busy.

Eating the Elephant One Bite at a Time

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Photo by Zoë Reeve on Unsplash

I never have enough time, and I am coming to terms with that. When I was much younger (yes, at 60 I still consider myself young), I would ask myself, “Five years from now, are you going to wish you had/hadn’t done this?”

The answer would guide my decision. It is that question which made me decide more than ten years ago to redraft three books I had stuffed in a digital closet and publish them.

But, did I mention I’m 60 now?

The question has far more permutations than it used to. Time is a commodity I am realizing is more limited than it once was. I can’t say I have 50 years ahead of me. OK, I might, but I’d probably be pushing that senility bubble a bit hard, and it would be pushing back.

Now, every second counts. But there is this elephant on my plate. Though I have reduced its size by cutting out the time suckers it used to include for padding, it’s still bigger than my plate, bigger than the table the plate sits on, and occasionally bigger than the room housing the table.

I still have to eat it one bite at a time.

That’s what I do.

Sometimes the elephant gets bigger instead of smaller, but I can only chew so fast and spoon in only so big a bite.

Still time is waving hands at me. It’s a limited commodity. I’m chewing as fast as I can.

I cut out Twitter, Goodreads and settled on Facebook and this website for my time. I started a newsletter.

Click the Signup! button on the menu bar to join it.

The rest is reserved for three major parts of the elephant.

  • Writing (that’s the head of the elephant)
  • Marketing (way down by the tail)
  • Teaching-related stuff (my day job — the body)
  • Extra: Health (somewhere down at the feet, maybe underfoot)

Until I retire, the majority of my effort goes to my day job, which, unfortunately, grabs a huge slice each day of my off time. Grading is a bear, quickly followed by planning, training, parent contacts and email.

Photo by Becca on Unsplash

It’s very hard to eat a bear when you are still working on an elephant. All that hair gets caught in the throat.

Don’t ask me about dessert. All I’ll say is my husband is a sweetheart; our daughter, sheer perfection; and my Labrador, loyal and true.

My point.

I have to have a point to this?

I’m eating one bite at a time. That’s what I tell myself, and it helps. My only issue is the cook keeps bringing in new elephants as soon as I finish one. But one bite at a time still works.

Setting up my writing for the next day

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Notes to write by

I am now working on my second book in the Students of Jump series, No-Time Like the Present.  Though I am editing, I have found that there is much yet to be developed in the story line, so I find myself in create mode far more often then clearing up errors.   My last edit first lost me 150 words than gained me another 400.

So I am leaving notes for the next day at the end of my day’s work.  Every writer has his or her own way of keeping the writing going.  For me, I try to follow a few simple practices.  I stop when I still have more to say, I leave a note in all caps reminding me where my characters are headed or what complication or connections need to be made in the next set of writing, and frequently, I’ll leave a piece of dialogue that I think will help get my muse back on track.  Here’s what I left yesterday for example.

    “Misty, have pity on an old time traveler.”  He turned over on his stomach, visibly comforted by the change in position.
    “Old, you haven’t even been born yet.”
    He crushed a pillow and shoved it under his head.  “Sure feels like I have.”
    Misty grabbed a hand that gripped the pillow beneath his head.  “Let’s go; we’ll just walk about town.”  Pulling Quixote off the couch, she coaxed him out the door. 

NOTE THINGS ABOUT THE WALK DOWN, MEET A COUPLE OF NEIGHBORS.  WAVE TO A TRUCK AS THEY STEP ONTO MAIN STREET.  HERE AGAIN QUI HESITATES. HE DOES NOT FEEL PREPARED – MISTY FEELS HE IS QUITE KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT THE TIME, BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT HE MEANS.  HE IS NOT PREPARED TO PROTECT MISTY OR IF THERE IS NOTHING TO PROTECT HER FROM THAN MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION CONCERNING HER.  HERE MISTY GETS ANGRY.  SHE NEEDS TO KNOW WHY BRENT LEFT AND DID NOT COME BACK.  QUI HAS NO ANSWER.  SHE STARTS TO HEAD DOWN MAIN STREET AND QUI CALLS HER BACK.  ARGUMENT: QUI SAYS “HE IS MY BEST FRIEND.”  MISTY STATES HE WAS HER UNCLE’S BEST FRIEND ALSO.  THIS SENDS HER INTO AN ANGRY RANT ABOUT HOW BROKEN HEARTED MICK WAS WHEN BRENT DID NOT COME BACK.  (SET UP FOR LATER DECISION TO CONFRONT BRENT.)

Basically, I tell myself in my notes and show it in my book.   Of course, I never follow it precisely.  I always tend to deviate as the story and characters will change the course of my plans though they always ultimately get to the goal. So what do you do to ready yourself for the next day’s writing?

How to build a classroom writing community

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Day 1: but this pattern holds true for the days to follow
  • Tell them to look around at the other writers in the room (For some, this is a frightening experience, for others confirmation.)  Recognize them immediately as writers.  If you have returning students, ask them to explain the difference between this class and an English class.  Their words will be more convincing then yours.  Your actions will support what they say.
  • Provide a prompt to write to and give instructions: write about anything that comes to mind.  Give them a set amount of time, about 7 minutes.
  • Each student shares by reading his/her response to the prompt.  Encourage returning students to go first.  (I follow a seniority pattern.  By setting this now, it won’t be a surprise in a workshop [see post for June 16, 2012], and it shows the new students what behavior is expected [and accepted: writers are quirky]). Some students refuse to share; explain that you allow this occasionally, but they must at least tell what they wrote about or what they hoped to write about.  Encourage them to share the next time.
  • Each student’s work must be acknowledged.  Point out a strong image, what you think the idea might develop into, or summarize it.  Don’t forget to smile.
  •  Diversity is already present, but it is important to point it out.  New
    writers in a creative writing class will often try to emulate (or think they should) the more
    polished writers which results in the sacrifice of their own individual
    voices. So point out the diversity and how it is a bonus for the class
    to have so many different styles present.  Encourage them to help each
    other develop this diversity.
  • Begin your lesson for the day.  All writing should be shared and encouraged. No lesson should lack an opportunity to write.  Some should just be shared and left in the journal.  Some writing should be turned in and graded for effort to fulfill the task.  Grading should be gentle: attempt is much more important than result. (Final work, I grade mercilessly, but practice is a different animal.)

By having a pattern of daily writing and sharing, your class will become a community.  Be a positive role model: be specific, encouraging and excited about what they are doing.