*cough, cough*

I thought it would be a good idea to take a few minutes away from dying (what? being sick turns me into a drama queen–deal with it) to blog about something I have been thinking about a lot lately: hammers.

And screwdrivers (the tool, people–I don’t drink). And wrenches. And saws. And really any other tool under the sun. All the tools I have listed so far are great tools for a construction worker or a DIYer. Not so much for me, unless I am looking for tools that could possibly send me to the hospital. I let Bubba deal with things that have to potential of helping me hurt myself.

My tools are different than those of a construction worker. The mighty tools I wield are words.

As writers, we need to be conscious of word choice, and how poor word choice can completely change the meaning of what we are saying. Words are all we have to tell our stories, show our meanings, paint our pictures. Each and every word used is important. Each and every word should be chosen with great care.

Think before you write. Choose your words carefully.

I will now resume the dying.

*cough, cough*

Surprisingly, that is it for links today.

Personality Toolkit: Determination

Everything I have talked about with the Personality Toolkit this last week boils down to one thing: determination.

Writers sacrifice things for their art because they are determined.

We keep an eternally optimistic attitude because we are determined.

Motivations stems from determination.

I am determined to become a better writer. I work every day to make this a reality. And, while this is not my focus at the moment, I am determined to one day be published. I have a feeling the former will lead into the latter.

What are you determined to do?

As many of you already know, Ellen Hopkins is feeling the burn of book banners. She was set for a school visit in OK; when a couple days before the visit, one parent demanded her books be taken off the library shelves. Her appearance at the school was canceled (though the librarian was great and found an alternate venue for her to speak at). Read Ellen’s story on her blog.

For Banned Books Week, Ellen wrote a poem, “Manifesto”. It is all kinds of powerful. Here is Ellen reading it:

To read the words of “Manifesto”, visit the Banned Books Week site.

I have actually never read Ellen’s books, though they are on my (incredibly long) list of books to read. Here is what I do know about them: my seventeen-year-old sister is not a big reader. There is a small handful of books she will actually read. But she devours Ellen’s books. She loves them. No matter what the subject matter of a book, I think that is a powerful thing.

If a person wants to protect their child from a certain book, that is fine. They should keep it from THEIR child. I will not stand for others telling my (future) children what they can and cannot read.

And now…

Personality Toolkit: Drive

Writing is a solitary process. Sure, writers have support systems. I have Bubba, who is always encouraging me, my first readers, my friends and family, who help me along, and countless others. But, when it comes down to it, getting the writing done is on me and me alone.

Without the drive and self-motivation to get things done, novels would never be written. There are too many things in life to distract from writing (except, of course, when I am really in it and writing becomes an almost unsafe distraction from the rest of life). Nobody else is going to motivate me to work (though Bubba does a great job of trying), so I need to motivate myself.

I have found the source of self-motivation is a sense of accountability.

Ways I have given myself a sense of accountability:

• I tell people I am a writer. I don’t write in the shadows, but out in the open.
• I share my writing goals with others.
• I built a website and put myself out there.
• I talk about writing and my journey to complete strangers (and friends as well) on this blog.

All of these things-and many more-keep me accountable. Accountability motivates me. So, even on days when I don’t really feel like writing, I put words on the page. I push the distractions aside and tell my story.

How do you motivate yourself?

For my fun news of the day: I got an email last night (via the contact form on my site) from a twelve-year-old girl thanking me for the writing advice. It makes me feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy inside.

And, now:

Personality Toolkit: Optimism

Henry Ford said, “whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.” Whether you like his cars or not, you cannot deny the wisdom in this statement (okay, feel free to deny it if you want–I can’t stop you, but I will think you are wrong).

So, in case you missed the memo: writing is hard work. So, let’s say you do all the work and write a novel. Yay! Now it is time to send your baby out into the world for the first time. You put him (yes, Shiny New Manuscript is a boy-’cause it’s my blog and I said so) in his best outfit, shine his shoes, and comb his hair just so. He is shining and eager to please. You send him on his merry way, then wait (impatiently) for him to come back from his play-date.

The world is yours; it is only a matter of time before people are falling at your feet, declaring you the best novelist of all time. Then your baby comes back home. He is tattered, beaten, and covered in red. Is it blood? No. It is the notes of your first readers. Perhaps Shiny New Manuscript was not ready to go out and play yet. Sure, on the surface he was polished and poised. But underneath? Does not play well with others.

What do you do at this point? Is there much wailing and gnashing of teeth? Do you get a spell of the am-I-crazies? Think, maybe, just maybe, Shiny New Manuscript is not publishable? In fact, nothing I write is publishable? Maybe I was fooling to ever think I could be an author? I suck, I suck, I SUCK. And I quit.!

Or, you realize all the red oozing from between the pages of SNM will help make him better. You set to work revising SNM, adding scenes, taking away scenes, clarifying relationships, and tightening prose. You fix the grammatical mistakes–the ones you are appalled you ever made. You spruce SNM up again. Again, you dress him up, shine his shoes, and comb his hair–in a better style this time.

This time, you are sure SNM has graduated from the play-dates in the kiddie-pool. Yep. Shiny New Manuscript is ready for the deep end. Maybe even a leap from the diving board. You send SNM out to agents (after the appropriate query, of course). Again, you wait (impatiently) for a response.

The agents will love SNM. How could they not? You poured your heart and soul into making him everything he can possibly be. Whether you admit it or not, you begin to have visions of agents begging to represent you, editors fighting over SNM, auctions, and Great Big Advance.

Then the email shows up. Sorry, not for me. Again. And again. And AGAIN. With the emails come suggestions. SNM does great with Social Skills, but definitely needs to work on Geography. Or SNM is great in during Story Time, but has issues with Structure. Sob.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. The hard work of writing does not stop once a manuscript is written. For most, nothing about getting published is easy. I would be willing to bet that even those who seem to have just breezed through the whole publication process put in countless hours of work-we just didn’t see it.

So where does optimism factor into all of this? This is, after all, supposed to be a post about just that. Well, how about I clear things up. It comes into play all the time.

Optimism is what powers writers through the day. When critiques come in, optimism is what helps us revise instead of cry. When our manuscripts are rejected by agents or publishers, optimism is what helps us keep writing new material.

And when we finally reach our dreams and are published, it is optimism that gets us there.

There is no room for pessimism in a writer’s life; pessimism will get you nowhere. When the negative thoughts start to sneak into your mind, remember how great you really are and push them aside.

Because, “whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.”

I encourage you to think you can. And be right.

Carrie Harris is getting published! The world needs more Zombies, and No Pain, No Brain sounds awesome. Head on over to Carrie’s blog and congratulate her.

Also, Kiersten White has a great post on her blog today about the harm caused by hurtful words. Words like Lashes reminds us all to not be so thoughtless about the words we use. Words matter.

Speaking of words mattering…if you know me at all, you know that I am silently correcting your grammar when you talk to me. I correct your grammar when you email me, update your Facebook or Twitter status, text message me–really anytime words are used, I will be silently correcting your grammar. I don’t judge you for bad grammar, I just can’t help but to correct it. Now, I am not telling you this to make you self-conscious. I am merely letting everyone know I am a grammar freak. BUT, I am not a grammar traditionalist. The rules that carry over from Latin? Not all of them need apply to English anymore. The 3000 Messages Blog has a great post on this today: Three grammar rules that are okay to break.

And now, moving on…

Personality Toolkit: Sacrifice

Writing a novel is really hard work. It takes time. It drains your energy–physically, mentally, and emotionally. With so many other options out there, it is a lot easier to not write a novel.

Distractions are everywhere. For many writers, there is the dreaded “real job”. New books to read are coming out weekly. Season 3 of DEXTER sits on top of the DVD player, begging to be watched. Dinners out. Nights at the theatre. Precious, precious sleep.

Things have to be sacrificed for writing–no writing would ever get done if this were not the case. If one is not willing to give up things that take one’s time away from writing a book, the book will never be written. It is not easy to sacrifice things we love, but in the end, it is worth it.

In my mind, there are certain things that are able to be sacrificed and things that should never be put aside for the sake of writing. And they are:

Things I am happy(ish) to sacrifice for my writing

• Time watching movies and TV (who am I kidding, Bubba and I don’t even have TV service)
• Sleep
• Some time with Bubba.
• Time baking, card making, and doing other hobbies
• My sanity

Things I will not sacrifice for my writing

• My marriage
• My health (hello, treadmill desk!)
• Sleep (contradictory? Yeah, well, I have to get some.)
• My values

Notice both lists are short. There are few things I will not sacrifice for my writing (but I will not budge on those points). The list of things I will sacrifice may seem super short as well. It is not because I will only let go of those five things; it is because everything else falls away to my writing so easily I don’t even notice the loss.

And for the record: I would love to sacrifice the “real” job (no matter how much I like it–which is a lot) to write full time. Sadly, I have to pay off my shiny new shoulder first.

Because we all know whistling just makes it easier.

Guess what, guys? Writing a novel is really hard work. There is a reason why there are so many more people who say they are going to write a novel than there are people who actually write one. Eventually the honeymoon stage wears off and the shiny new manuscript becomes the dusty old pile of work. Tragic right? Not really. I always find the things I work hardest for are the most fulfilling (and I will tell you know: the feeling of finishing a novel is way better than New Project Euphoria anyway).

Like any other work to be done, there are tools to help with writing. I am not talking about computers, typewriters, or pen/pencil and paper, but the tools we have inside us.

In his book On Writing (a physical tool I personally think all writers should keep close at hand), Stephen King talks about the writer’s toolbox. He talks about putting things like grammar and vocabulary-the tools you will use the most–in the top drawer of your toolbox. He goes on to talk about the tools to put in other drawers. I would recount them all here, but I don’t have the time. Plus, since everyone should read On Writing anyway, I will just let you get it from the source.

The more I thought about the toolbox, the more I thought about the character traits needed to be an author. Now, I am not saying all authors have the same personality or likes and dislikes. Authors cover the full range of the human spectrum. I do believe all authors have certain traits in common, though–traits that have helped them get where they are today. Traits that have helped them get through all the hard work and heartache of writing (and-someday-publishing) a novel. Or two. Or twenty.

So, over this week, I am going to do a series of posts (I know, how unusually well-planned of me) about the writer’s personality toolbox. Each day I will talk about a personality trait I think a writer needs to have to do the work, jump the hurdles, and get the coveted title of Author.