NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS

A group blog featuring an international array of killer mystery, suspense, and romantic suspense writers. With premises and story lines different from your run-of-the-mill whodunits, we tend to write outside the box. We blog several times a week on all topics relating to romantic suspense and mystery, our writing, and our readers. We welcome all comments and often have guest bloggers. All our authors can be contacted separately, too, using their own social media links.

We find our genre delightfully, dangerously, and deliciously exciting - join us here, if you do too!

NOTE: the blog is currently dormant but please enjoy the posts we're keeping online.


Julie Moffet . Cathy Perkins . Jean Harrington . Daryl Anderson . Nico Rosso . Maureen A Miller . Sandy Parks . Lisa Q Mathews . Sharon Calvin . Lynne Connolly . Janis Patterson . Vanessa Keir . Tonya Kappes . Julie Rowe . Joni M Fisher . Leslie Langtry

Friday, October 21, 2011

Pink Hair Dye & Promises

Ever had those times when writing was unbelievably difficult?
Someone is hospitalized...or worse...they die? Been there.
Acts of God, George, or Government derail you? Been there, too.
The Clairol-Impaired becomes a shade less desirable? Computer crashes? Muse deserts and takes the WIP with her? - I've got the CD, the ugly tee-shirt, and the bad hair.

Point is, you're not alone. It's not what happens to us that matters - it's how we deal with what happens.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my RWA groups got into a heated discussion over a comment someone made. She said that real writers write every day and that wannabes don't. Within minutes, as an officer, I began receiving angry emails and wails of "I'm ready to quit". I sat on my fingers to keep from typing for a few minutes. They'd forgotten, I guess, that the same woman had spouted in a monthly meeting not long ago that she didn't want group monies spent on bringing in an agent or an editor. Said there wasn't a damn thing they could teach her and that the group would be best served by simply learning to write better books.

By her definition, Sabrina Jeffries, Deidre Knight, and Sherilyn Kenyon - and others who have stated that they don't write every day and sometimes not even every week - are wannabes. *blink*

Yes, she'd recently sold and was feeling rather smug. And she had gone through most of the above mentioned reasons for not writing every day. Well, good for her. But what did it gain her to use her self-righteousness as a weapon and make others question their own place in the writing world? Absolutely nothing. She wound up losing a friend or two, not to mention consumers.

Whatever we accomplish should be due to the promises we make ourselves, not that we measure ourselves by someone else's yardstick. Chances are that they'd only beat us up with it at a later date anyway. Nobody determines our success but us, and our fellow writers - our competition, if you'd prefer looking at them that way (I don't - to me, they're just friends)...they should be cherished. They provide us with support and even mirrors by which we can see ourselves as others see us.

Here's sending every writer a cyber bottle of Windex so they can get that shine, that sparkle. Here's offering up chocolate, a kick in the pants, or whatever is needed. But if you take nothing else, take hope. You are not alone. Sit on the platitudes and instead deliver your best self.

Now. Somebody wanna come help me with my hair?

11 comments:

Kathy Ivan said...

Boy, oh Boy, have I been there with the hair challenged. After one do-it-yourself disaster that had to be professional repaired, I swore that was one extravagance (hair dresser) that I would not do without!

Writers write. When they can, where they can, as often as they can. It may not be daily, weekly or monthly, but we still write. Like the postal service, neither rain nor sleet nor hail . . .

Great post. Now back to writing. :-)

Bobbie (Sunny) Cole said...

Thanks for stopping by, Kathy. *smile* And happy writing!

Elise Warner said...

Writing is a bit like breathing. Sometimes we hit five flights of stairs instead of an escalator and we huff and puff but we finally reach the landing. Hair--finally went au natural. Wasn't sure what it would look like--another adventure.

Wendy Soliman said...

Personally, I get grumpy - well, grumpier than usual - if I can't write for a day or two. All these ideas and improvements I have in my head start barging into one another and making me dizzy.

Toni Anderson said...

People are great at knowing what's best for everyone else. I try to write everyday but other people have other ideas about my time. I hate the 'one-size fits all' ideology.

Rita said...

Pink hair - Bobby you and the new Barbie.
Well bless her heart. I wish her lots of luck because with that attitude she sure as hell is gonna need it. Approaches to writing are as individual as finger prints. When someone says you have to write a certain way don’t turn your back on them and walk away. Turn your back and run like hell because you don’t need them sucking the pleasure of writing out of you.

Maureen A. Miller said...

If I do not write today, the world will go on. If I do not make dinner tonight...Dear God, help us all!!!

Bobbie (Sunny) Cole said...

Lol at Maureen's comment and growling at the one size fits all with Toni. Y'all nailed it. *smile* Thanks for visiting today. Glad I'm not the only one with hair issues and relaxed views on our craft.

Mom fell and broke a leg. Pop fell and broke a hip. The ceiling is leaking, ditto the ice maker. I haven't blogged since June. And while the writing ain't grand, it's there in bits and pieces. I trashed 300 pages this past month and accepted a friend's invitation for R&R next spring in Australia, with a two-week hiatus in Homolulu. My muse took a hike. Maybe I'll find the heifer in Waikiki or Oz.

Hugs all around. Keep writing those marvelous books. This group is the best!

Bobbie (Sunny) Cole said...

HONOLULU. sheesh. Yeah. Nothing wrong with me that hair treatment and a beach won't cure. Lol.

Wynter said...

A very timely post for me as I recently had surgery and am having a hard time getting back in the groove. But I know without a doubt that I will - soon.

Clare London said...

Fabulous advice. What works for you, works. I'm really in favour of trying to be honest with yourself as a writer. For example, I know I haven't produced much this year compared to other years, but I also know I've written as much as I can, when I can, and as well as I can - it's other circumstances that have changed. And I've only ever had to cry off one deadline (though there's another one threatening to bring me to my knees, unless I can shake off my jetlag LOL).

As everyone else said, it's a very individual job. And thank goodness it is, or we'd all be writing to template and the readers would be bored very quickly :).

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