Renee is Writing

we live at the edge of the miraculous You might wonder why I included my own art journal page on this blog that is supposed to be about writing a novel. Well I found this saying in a fortune cookie--"we live at the edge of the miraculous" and I thought it applied. Writing a novel is a miraculous process, one I've engage in several times. Some to completion, while other novels sleep soundly in my file cabinet never to be awakened again. As I approach this coming new year I must make a commitment to actually writing a novel. I have the idea and have spent the past two weeks planning it. Planning involves an overall description of important scenes or plot points. It means coming up with characters to inhabit the story and giving them names, jobs, personalities and physical descriptions.  I'm not a big outliner and over the past few years I have read books on outlining and tried to write the last novel following a scene by scene outline that took hours ...

I always believed New Year resolutions should be composed in December. That way you can just dive right into them on January 1. This is the first year I am actually doing that! The new issue of Writers' Digest magazine says "Make 2016 the year you write your novel." So that is my plan. I have no more excuses. Now that I am retired I have all the time I need. I just have to muster the motivation and inspiration. I have the idea for the novel so now I have to take a few first preparatory steps. Clear away art supplies and wash my art/writing desk. Set up my writing craft books on the computer desk. Create a binder for the novel and take out a fresh clean spiral notebook for notes and the first draft. Begin planning the story and creating characters. I want to be able to start right in on a first draft beginning January 1. In the planning stages I am using a few tools and ideas from writing gurus. First I am going to re-watch the videos that Mart...

After working for over 25 years in the field of special education I know all about goals and objectives. At least I know how to write them for my students. Now I must create some for myself if I ever want to get this novel written. Between now and January 1, 2016 I must lay down my writing goals for the coming year. Timelines involve getting a first draft done by the time my writers' group goes on retreat again in April. I will need weekly goals, monthly goals and a daily writing schedule. I want a good second draft completed by July when the Romance Writers of America has its annual conference. I need to calculate how many pages a day, chapters a month, whatever I need to write in order to meet my self-imposed deadlines. It will be a long road, but I have to take the first steps and keep trudging along until I meet my goals and get a novel written, revised, published and be ready to write novel number 2!!

Okay, so this is a pretty blurry picture of my latest mixed media canvas and you may wonder why I am putting my art on my writing blog. Well this particular piece "Find Your Balance" seems to be the theme for my life right now. For many years I have flip flopped between writing and art and within each of those creative pursuits there have been additional flips flops between different genres or different techniques and styles. Now my brain seems to be pushing back into writing. So putting my art here today seems to be a bridge between my two creative worlds. The writing bug has been dogging me for a couple months now. It began with partial retirement in July when I had more time to myself than ever before. And now that I am completely retired and all my time is my own the dream of being a novelist has emerged once again. I've waited years to retire and have my days free to write. To be able to write every day and not have my characters and their stories become forei...

Very interesting! For many years I have had two recurring dreams. The most frequent one is being in a parking lot or on the street and not being able to find my car. Even if I recall where I parked it, it's not there when I to that spot. I know that a car symbolizes power and control but I never researched the true meaning behind that dream. I don't put much stock in dream interpretation, I believe most dreams come from "day residue" things you did or thought about during the day that show up in your dreams. It made sense for many dreams but not this recurring dream. I did an online search and found this explanation from Dr. Oz's website: Stress Dream:  Losing Your Car or Your Car Gets Stolen This stress dream is connected to uncertainty or loss of motivation. Your car represents your “drive” and motivation to continue to move forward in some area. If this is your stress dream, you need to ask yourself what in your life you no longer have the desire to ...

Sitting on a wooden bench, surrounded by blooming flowers and the scents of blue bells, moist earth, and some sort of exotic mint, I spotted this doorway. Two rows of trees whose branches arched together to frame the entry to a garden bracketed by a red brick walkway and leading to a fountain that sprayed cool crystal water into the warm sunlit air. I sat mesmerized and understood at once that this was the doorway to my new world.  On the brink of retirement, only 5 weeks away, I have been struggling to make some creative decisions about what my new life will be like. Where will my creative focus be? Will it even be focused, or will I continue to bounce from one art form to another? I feel as though I must make this decision before my first day of retirement on July 1 so I can jump right into whatever it is I am meant to do. Will it be novel writing? Making mixed media art and scrapbooks? Writing poetry? Writing short stories? Do I abandon the novel or just dive into it anew o...

Snow drifts outside the windows of the car as I drive home from work. Left early to avoid slippery roads and rush hour traffic. Thankful that my old fashioned work ethic doesn't interfere with my sense of safety. I'm listening to the CD "Clear Mind, Wild Heart" by David Whyte and coming to my senses. I have always known I am a poet. Even my license plate says so. I've been writing poetry since I first held a pencil and reading it with the fervor and love of an impassioned woman. So why does it take the thoughts of this Irish poet and philosopher to validate who I am? I have written novels, and keep trying to convince myself that in order to be a recognized and successful writer I need to focus on a novel writing career. But that's not where my heart and soul live. They thrive here in the cadences of poetry and the images that rise in my mind as I listen to the words. Yes, I have been working in a respectable field for over 25 years but this is...