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Posts by Carol Despeaux Fawcett

Mar 28

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One way to exercise your writer’s mind and have fun

In Ayn Rand’s The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers, she recommends exercising our writer minds long before we actually put words to paper. Then when we do begin to write, the ideas and words flow. I like her advice and think of it in terms of being playful and having fun.

As I read, sometimes a sentence or phrase stops me in my tracks. When this happens, I like to examine the sentence, learn from it or just play around with it.

This happened to me recently when I read this line: “Men do not often boil a woman’s rabbit.” I was reading best-selling author Bob Mayer’s description of different archetypes of men and women. At first, this sentence stopped me because I didn’t understand it. I had to take a few minutes to wrap my brain around it. Finally, I got the meaning—we often see women “boiling a man’s rabbit,” but not vice versa. Read more

Mar 26

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Five traits of successful authors

When I first started my own business, I had an opportunity to earn a luxury car from the company I worked for. Problem was, I’d never owned a luxury car. I was raised middle class, worked my may through college, and struggled for years to pay the bills. Driving a luxury car was not part of my reality.

But I really, really wanted that car. I knew I had to change my belief system. So I created a little song about that car and the belief that I could earn it. Fortunately, I don’t remember the song now, but for weeks, as I went on my daily three-mile walk, I sang that little song to myself. I put all of my intention in that song. Gradually, my belief system began to change and, within six months, I earned that car.

I’ve always studied successful people. Over the years, I’ve listened to self-improvement tapes, read self-help books, gone to seminars and even hired a personal coach. I was motivated to change.

Becoming a successful author or artist is no different. Of the authors I’ve studied, I’ve found several common denominators:

  • Successful authors have a system. Author Dean Koontz gets up every morning, goes to his home office and writes. Eight hours or more a day. Consistently, day in and day out. Read more

Mar 22

Going from panster to plotter

Someone asked me recently if I was a plotter or a panster. In other words, do I outline and plot my stories and poems before writing or fly by the seat of said pants? I think I’m somewhere in the middle. I usually have an idea of where the piece is going and make a few notes along the way, but mostly I just write. And rewrite. And rewrite some more.

But things are changing. Since my next book is fantasy, it will require more planning than my memoir. Also, I don’t want to take as long to write my next book. I’m hoping to shave off a few years. (Yes, seriously, years).

Since I’m in new territory and expanding my comfort zone, I’m using some aids along the way to help me brainstorm, plan, and outline. Read more

Mar 20

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Make a goal-setting ritual

Spring is here! I can tell because in the Pacific North Wet we’ve been getting our last burst of winter weather—at least twice in the last few weeks we’ve had snow flurries, a deluge of rain, and sunny blue skies—all in the same day.

March is a liminal time of year and one of my favorite months. To me, it represents the threshold of change. Out with the old. In with the new. I look forward to spring cleaning—not just the house but all areas of my life.

I like having touchstones—the new year, the first day of spring, the summer solstice. They remind me to stop and examine where I am and where I want to go. If we don’t set our own goals and dream our own visions, then we end up fulfilling somebody else’s: our boss, parents, spouse, teacher, and others. Read more

Mar 16

Three outstanding posts by writers for writers

The internet can be distracting. I often feel like Alice slip-sliding through the rainbow-colored world of the internet when I should be writing. But, sometimes, it’s good to drink from others’ Kool-aid. Especially, if it gives you some great ideas like these posts below written by writers for writers.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

“Enough,” by Kathie at cast-light.com. This post is about taking time to rest and honor ourselves. With all the recent stressors in my life, I needed to read this.

“Assess your novel as a screenplay,” by R.P. Kraul at rpkraul.com. A great idea. Even if I don’t go through the entire process of turning my book into a screenplay, I can think about the differences it might create in my manuscript if I did.

“Prayer–or Plan?” by Denise Shekerjian at www.soulofaword.com. Do you plan your story before writing? This post gave me some good reasons why I’m going to spend more time planning my next book.

Mar 14

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How to murder your darlings…or cut what doesn’t serve your story

In my last post, I wrote about finding my real story while writing my memoir. I ended up with about 110,000 words in my finished manuscript. When an agent recently suggested I cut between 25,000 and 45,000 words I was stunned.

If you could hear my thoughts, it might have sounded something like this: No way! Really? Well, maybe I could cut SOME words but not that many! I need those words! There’s some really good writing in those words. 

I put the project away for awhile and worked on something else. I knew I was too close to it to see it clearly. As I worked on my other project, I gradually thought about sections of my memoir. I asked myself the questions I wrote about in my last post: Find your real story by asking these questions.

Then my mom passed away and everything was a blur for several weeks. During that time, I came across a contest for memoirs just a few days before the deadline (which happened to be the day of Mom’s funeral). I really wanted to enter the contest–mainly to use it as a deadline to make those dreaded cuts–and the contest had a page limit that fit what the agent had suggested. Read more

Mar 12

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Find your real story by asking these questions

Like my life, my memoir has been a work in progress. The manuscript I have now barely resembles the one I started six years ago or what I thought was the finished product of two years ago. Writing it has been an evolution–of my emotions, my identity, and my story. Or, what I believed was my story.

My first draft was my mom’s story. My next draft or two was my father’s story. Finally, in my latest draft, I focused on the story of how my intuitive gifts developed throughout my childhood and into my present.

I’ve learned more about who I am and what my “real” story is in the last year then the 40-some years before.  And, I’m getting closer to a completed manuscript. I can tell because my story is generating more interest from readers and agents alike.

To focus my memoir and find my real story, I asked myself these questions: Read more

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