Make Time.

It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine

Follow Liz Shine elsewhere and share these posts!

An exploration of “finishing”

Last week, I finished a collection of stories I’ve been working on for twelve maybe thirteen years. I have memories of a retreat I went on with a writer friend somewhere along the way where I mapped out all the stories and their interconnections using overlapping circles and colored markers. This friend took a picture of me lying belly down on the deck of the cabin where we were staying. I look happy in the picture. I had finished the task of planning. That was twelve years ago.

I came across that diagram the other day when I was cleaning out my file cabinet. Reviewing it’s contents, I had to laugh. So much had changed! The story hadn’t gone at all the way I thought it would. Characters names had changed. The order of stories and their titles too were unrecognizable to me. The seed idea was sort of the same, but even that had evolved to be something more specific than I had started with.

As I was writing the last story in the collection, an insight came up for me that I’d had before. One of those lessons as a writer or a practicer of anything that we have to learn over and over. It is of course the goal of writing to some day finish. And by finish I mean feel satisfied that you’ve done all you can with a piece, that it really is time to send it on it’s way into the world to see how it goes. The problem is that when we focus on finishing, we compromise the work itself.

Writing is a practice of staying in the moment, of being willing to be honest and present enough to bring the words to life. If in the back of your mind your desire to finish is nagging away, it will infect your work. The focus and attention to the moment of each story became more difficult to sustain the closer I got to the end. I kept starting and stopping because when my mind strayed to the future where I was finished, I knew the writing would be no good. It reminded me of the stories Dillard tells in The Writing Life about some of the crazy things writers do to keep themselves in the flow.

So I’ve “finished” and am taking a brief pause in taking up any big projects, taking the time to do some deep yoga work and write frivolous poems and stories for a few months. Four of the stories in the collection have found a place in the literary world. Below are links to where you can read those stories. Look for the whole collection in the not so distant future.

May you make time and find flow, friends.

The stories:

“Hungry”

“Desire”

‘Willpower”

“Or Best Offer”

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals? Find free resources and information here.

Some past posts to keep you making time:

It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine

Follow Liz Shine elsewhere and share these posts!

I’m here. writing with you…

The original form of this blog started in 2007 or so. It began and in many ways still is a way of asserting myself as a person who writes. More accurately, a person who deserves to write. And do you know what? Being a person who deserves to write had been one of the boldest assertions I’ve ever made. To do this work, I’ve had to contend with all of the following:

my tendency to take care of the needs of others above myself
insecurity
self-doubt
the need to earn money to support my family
fear
laziness
indecision
impatience
exhaustion

And this is just a starter list. I used to post here more often. That’s because I hadn’t yet figured out what I was writing. I had a just barely 50,000 word novel I’d busted out in November 2005 (NaNoWriMo), notebooks full of poems, and a few half-baked short stories.

Now, what time I have to write (Precious little! When can I retire?!), I spend chipping away at one of the three projects I’ve got in the works: two novels and a short story collection. I also work as an editor and designer for people self-publishing their book (Red Dress Press). Oh, and I teach high school English.

So, I post to this blog less these days, always trying for once a week and falling short. But this blog is forever with me, and I am always sending out wishes for flow to all of you out there endeavoring to tell your story through art in spite of all the distractions (internal and external).

Here are some things that lately are helping me Make Time:

consistent writing schedule
no phone, no email until after writing is done
nurturing supportive relationships
letting go of relationships that drain me/ leave me feeling small
bad-ass groups I’m part of on Inked Voices

I’m here, writing with you. I’ve been here writing with you since I first picked up a pen at fifteen and wrote the most untutored, beautiful-in-retrospect poem. I wrote that poem as an assertion of what had to be asserted first. I want to live. I’ll find a way.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals? Find free resources and information here.

Some past posts to keep you making time:

It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine

Follow Liz Shine elsewhere and share these posts!

Print and fold your own Make Time Zine!

Let’s talk for a minute about zines. Being at the forefront of the Riot Grrrl movement, Olympia has a rich history of zines. In fact, there is still an annual Zine Fest here. I love the idea of guerilla publishing on the cheap and then distributing your work for free because you want to get your message out, which is the original intent of zines. Kind of like blogging without the internet or computers. Kind of. I mean the collage and handwriting aspect can’t be replicated by a computer which makes everything so polished and tidy. There is a special place in my heart for this brave and anti-capitalist form of self-publishing.

A few years back, some friends and I got together to make zines. I made a zine trying to articulate the core ideas behind how we Make Time for art in spite of everything. Basically, what this blog is all about. You can print and download the zine here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals? Find free resources and information here.

Some past posts to keep you making time:

It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine

Follow Liz Shine elsewhere and share these posts!

Lessons from the Lowitt Trail

I come from a long tradition of writers whose creativity seems to depend on movement. Long walks clear my mind, creating space for the seeds of stories to grow unchoked by the weeds of surface worry. Running cuts through my self-doubt and overthinking. Yoga feeds my intuition and cultivates mindfulness and self-acceptance. These are key qualities of mind to induce states of flow. I lean particularly on lessons learned in yoga while in revision mode. Hiking and/or backpacking cultivate the resilience to trust in the messy process. In late July, I backpacked around Mount St. Helen’s, along the Lowitt Trail, with two friends. The trail offered several physical and mental challenges, plus some nuggets of wisdom that I carried home with me to use when I returned to the page. Let me try to break them down here in a few key aphorisms.

In this moment, there is peace.

No matter how hard I try to avoid it through careful preparation, I always seem to pack heavy. This was a topic discussed often on the trail as other hikers seemingly sped by us with comparatively petite backpacks. We asked each other: What would you leave behind to have a lighter pack? Answers were–not much. So, our packs were heavy. Except for the first overcast morning, the sun shone fiercely. We spent four days and three nights on the trail. At times the trail seemed to be a mere scratch on a cliffside, the ground just shifting sands underfoot. We trekked up and down many rock gullies. Three of these were so steep that they required ropes to navigate the trail. In a couple of places, the trail seemed to disappear before our eyes as we walked across boulder fields that stretched on and on into the distance. We scrambled our way from trail marker to trail marker, following the dusty footprints or cairns left behind by hikers before us. So much of the trail was exposed that you could see the routes ahead for miles. But here’s the thing: there is a lot of discomfort that comes with thinking about those miles ahead. Just as there is discomfort in thinking of how much further you need to go on your journey to finish your book, or to publication. For the most part, worrying too much about the future makes everything harder. During rest stops, I would pull out my map and think about the road ahead, but when we got to walking again, I tried to stay in the moment. I literally counted the number one to myself over and over to myself at times as a reminder. In this moment, there is a three-headed tigerlily proudly lit by the sun. In this moment, the lavender lupine carpet spreads out along the base of the hills and along the trails. In this moment, I can turn and see any of three mountains and feel a rewarding breeze at the top of a hill.

In writing, there is the ritual of the warmup. I feed and walk my two dogs, do a moving meditation, and prepare the sacred coffee. There is the feel of the keyboard under your fingertips, the sound they make when you get going. The pause of thinking, too. There is the moment of the story unfolding in your imagination. The stall when you get to a sticky part. The breakthrough. It’s counterproductive to the work in these moments to think too much about the miles ahead. Doing so has been known to sabotage an entire writing session. If I’m honest? It’s enough to do in a whole week of them.

India paintbrush flowers on the hillside at sunrise

Turn up your senses.

The mind wants to worry about the future (or to rehash the past). On the trail, this becomes strikingly tedious. There is so much more joy to be had in turning up the senses. Notice the bright red miniature strawberries along the trail. Then bend over to pick and eat one. Identify plants and trees. Take in the panorama of trees, sky, and earth. Listen for birds, the sound of flowing water, the voices of other hikers approaching, who might have intel on upcoming water sources.

The days were long. The water sources were sparse. Our bodies were more tired and sore each day. Our feet hurt, then blistered. But what do I really remember when I look back on all that? The moments, when I had my senses turned up to the volume of awe. Every night we sat under an open sky, trying to name all the constellations we could remember knowing. That is the sort of thing we need to do as writers: turn up our senses in the spirit of constructing our stories so that the places, characters, and scenes come alive in our imaginations.

Take care of others.

I know some people who like to hike alone. I’m not one of those people. When we stopped for water, we stood in a line so we could remove each other’s water bottles from the sides of our packs. At one point, my shoe was untied, and my friend said, here, put your foot up on my knee so I can tie it for you. We told each other stories. We pointed out what we saw along the way. We all paused when one of us needed a break. We shared snacks, sunblock, and moleskin. The end of every day was spent sitting in our camp chairs, sharing a meal, and laughing. Well, except for the night when we were too tired and possibly dehydrated to eat. But even that night, we laughed.

It can be the same way in writing. You certainly can go it alone, and I suppose that’s a quicker way to dig into the deep dark shadows of your soul if that is what you are after. As for me, I am looking to connect to others through my writing and along my journey. This means cultivating friendships with other writers, taking time to read other people’s work and give feedback, offering encouragement, writing a blog to inspire other writers, being a part of a writing group or community, and reading and reviewing other writers’ work. It’s taken me some time to see that this part is at least as important as the writing itself.

I’m taking August off from actively writing forward with my novel, focusing on rest and renewal. I’m gathering all the strength and commitment I will need to get back to my desk at 4 AM on school day mornings through the coming school year. I’m proud of myself for writing through June and July, and also for having the sense to take August off. It hasn’t even been two weeks, and I already feel the benefit of the pause. When I return to my characters again in September, I will be more present for them because I took the rest I needed to. The need for a rest may also have been inspired by the incredible effort it took to make my way all the way around Mount St. Helen’s in four days. And you bet your ass you would have heard the three of us singing that familiar refrain “She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes” when we got there.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals? Find free resources and information here.

Some past posts to keep you making time:

It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine

Additional Inspiration: The Washington Trails Association pairs a few hikes with poetry!

Follow Liz Shine elsewhere and share these posts!

Dear Capitalist notions of worth,

I was about to ask, when you see someone knitting a pair of socks, do you ask them whether they’ve sold any socks yet?

I wanted to illustrate my point. Then, I remembered Etsy and realized that even that analogy no longer works. If you’re a writer and brave and smart enough to call yourself a writer, you probably have encountered this question or some variation of it: Have you published any books? A recent version of that question I was asked recently: Did you self-publish your book? Because heaven forbid that you did not pass through the proper gatekeepers. Certainly, unless you have the right amount of luck, persistence through pain (rejection), and proper appeal to the target market, you can’t really call yourself a writer. Maybe, just maybe, if you work your social media connections and grab yourself a Patreon account, with enough followers, you will be worthy of your assumed title:

Writer.

What I’m writing to say to you is that you are an insidious lie of the worst kind. Worth does not come from marketability or earning potential. Worth isn’t earned.

Worth is inherent and the subscription is free lifetime access for all. You are clipping the wings of too many fledglings with the insidious way you creep into our thoughts, cloud our dreams, and dominate the conversations.

Writers might be asked far more interesting questions if it weren’t for your strangle-hold on the imaginations of the masses. For instance, Writing seems really hard. How do you do it? Or How do you decide what to write about? Or What do you hope people take away from reading your book?

I get why so many people are caught in your deception. For some it’s a matter of putting food on the table. That’s one nice thing about being a writer with a day job. Making time is more difficult, for sure, but at least I can write and write and write and not worry a damn about how much money it brings in.

I am writing this open letter in case anyone needs a reminder today about the things that actually make you a writer. The fact that you sit down regularly to write, for starters. The fact that you are constantly trying to get better at your craft through reading and conversations with other writers and readers. The fact that you believe in the power of words and stories to change the world.

As for you, dear subject. You are a liar. A dirty liar.

With a hearty flip of the bird,

Liz

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?

Some past posts to keep you making time:

It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine

Handlebars by the Flobots

Additional Inspiration:

Feel Good Flow

Oneliness–A meditation on poetry, a particular poem by e.e. cummings

Follow Liz Shine elsewhere and share these posts!

I look forward to your reply. Sincerely, Liz.

Dear Friends,

I look

From here on out, I’m writing my posts in letter form. Sometimes I’ll write to you, dear readers, sometimes, I will write to others or even objects or subjects. This is a coming together of an old project from the past and a desire to get back to this space where I write about writing for two purposes: to invigorate my own work and to inspire you in your own story-making, whatever form that takes.

I’m a writer, but I also love taking pictures and doing collage. I hope to feature more of that work here in the future. The underlying assumption of this blog is that making time to construct our stories through our art leads to a more purposeful life, a better world.

foreward

I am, as usual for the past seventeen years, at work on a novel. I wrote my first novel in 2005 for NaNoWriMo. I will be forever grateful for that challenge for giving me the impetus to believe that I could write an entire book. I’d been writing short stories and poems for fifteen years at that point. I write slowly, without excess, so it is still a bit of a shock when I write my way to the end of a book. I’ve written a number now, though aside from the one I self-published, they’re all in the proverbial drawer for now. I’m okay with that. You aren’t going to find much focus here on how you need to contort yourself to get published. You will find loads on how to get yourself to your writing space and do the work, how to do that work in a way that makes you proud of what you’ve done. You will also find some posts about the mind/body connection in this work. Movement has long been a conduit for me to story-making. I’ve got a book about this simmering on the back burner and my autobiographical novella certainly started that conversation.

The search engines prefer that I include subheadings throughout my posts, so I’ve decided to embed some single words throughout that add up to a message to you for each post. The words will add up to the title of the post. Because–why not?

During my day job, I’m a high school teacher. There are so many reasons to look forward to summer, so believe me, I am not complaining. However, when it comes to creative work, summer is often not the idyllic writing retreat people assume it must be. During the school year, I get up at 4 am to get my writing in before my day starts. This tight structure actually helps me focus and put in the work. Summer can be a bit more loosy-goosy, so I’m working on an approach this year that might keep me moving forward while also honoring the play and rest that summer is meant to be. I’ll keep you posted on what I come up with for that.

For now, I am writing my way to the end of the school year as I have been all year. Up at 4 to write on weekdays. Saturday I fit in a couple hours of writing time when I can. That “when I can” hasn’t worked out consistently, so I’m strategizing about that. Though it took me a long while to admit it, I do better writing in the morning.

to your reply,

Sundays sometimes are critique group meetings, but not always. It’s a tightly constructed plan to make time, with loads of grace built in, because we are people, not machines, and there will be times when your energy and momentum ebbs and when it flows for all sorts of human reasons, and it’s best to be the wave, not fight it. If you are a writer looking for an online writing network for accountability, critique groups, workshops, and the like and are willing to pay a small fee for that space, Inked Voices is a lovely place for that.

I do this work because I started when I was fifteen years old writing little poems and observations in my notebook. Who doesn’t have an identity crisis at 15?! No exception here. That’s around the time I started having panic attacks. Thank god I discovered yoga and walking. I found some relief from the intense dread I felt if I walked or emulated the yoga poses in the book I’d gotten as a gift or the second book I picked up at the used book store. I would walk home from my job at Burger King rather than take the bus, sometimes I would walk just because. It took about 8 miles to walk across Aberdeen and Hoquiam and there was something about making that distance by foot that started a seed of hope.

I still feel sometimes when I’m walking like I just want to keep walking and not stop. Like I want to skip work, or just not go home. There’s an ease and a freedom I feel that is a relief. This quote from the Lit Hub article Walking Distance by Lizzy Stewart resonates, “I think about walking a lot and I have tried to work out why it is the only way that I can clearly visualize myself. I think it makes me, an uncertain person, into a machine in forward motion, definite and capable.”

I am anxious this week because summer is so near. As much as I can’t wait for it, it disrupts the tight routine I mentioned earlier. Today, I’m going to sit down and make a summer writing plan and hope that will assuage some of this fear. In years past I’ve tried sticking to my school year schedule and it hasn’t worked out so well for me. Regardless, I’m going to sit down today and commit to something. I’ve got to. I’ll keep you posted.

Mostly, though, I look forward to the ease of summer. The Seatlle Public Library published their book bingo and I planned out what book I will read for each category. I’ve started with a re-read of A Visit From The Goon Squad, my book group’s pic for June. What are you reading this summer?

Sincerely, Liz

In summary, I am still here making time, hoping the same for you. I’m switching over the a letter format for future posts, because it just feels right. I’ll write again soon—

My light sees your light. Let’s keep making time.

Love, Liz

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?

Some past posts to keep you making time:

It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine

Handlebars by the Flobots

Additional Inspiration:

Feel Good Flow

Oneliness–A meditation on poetry, a particular poem by e.e. cummings

Follow Liz Shine elsewhere and share these posts!

Putting goals in their place. A creativity paradox.

I am a firm believer in goals, as S.M.A.R.T as you can make them. Check out my 2022 Writing Plan document and file/make a copy for yourself while you’re at it. This document should be proof enough that I root for team have a specific plan and write it down.

And.

I believe that when you sit down to write you should kindly ask your goals to go for a walk and get some air.

When you sit down to write, you want to enter a flow. You want to be patient and stay in the moment. Future-tripping about whether you are going to meet your word count or deadline is going to hurt your writing. You will let things through that you know could be better just because you want to finish.

When you sit down to write, you need patience and presence. You need to climb into the sentence, the scene, the place and be there: hear it, see it, smell it, feel it, taste it. Then, you need to sit back, read it out loud and ask yourself–In what ways does this scene develop my story? My character? What parts of this scene does neither of those things?

Then, cut, cut, cut.

You can’t also be thinking about your word count goal or deadline. That efficiency mindset will stifle your voice. Isn’t telling stories that matter to you in your voice the reason you wake up at the crack of dawn or write during your lunch break?

Here are some things I do to keep my goals out of my writing time.

Mood matters.

For me right now that means I have an electric blanket on my lap. I’ve meditated, said my prayers, lit a candle. Even before that, I have a designated space where I know I will work. I have visual inspiration and affirmations posted everywhere. I have lists to keep me focused and to remember good habits. For instance, I have a post-it note with a no symbol (circle/slash) through it. Email is productivity straight up. Send it walking too.

Sit for the time.

Once you sit to write, do not get up for anything that isn’t a true emergency. So, basically unless there is a fire or you might pee your pants. I use a Pomodoro timer to keep me single focused in twenty five minute chunks. If a thought pops up screaming to be addressed now, I write it on a post-it and promise to take care of it after I write.

Connect.

Talk to other writers about your process. Listen to what works for them. Read craft books. Join a writing community or group. This will build your identity as a writer. The more you truly see yourself as a writer, the easier it will be to honor the time.

Have a schedule.

You can’t sit for time you have not scheduled.

Practice.

It may never go perfectly. You might have five minutes of flow or fifty. Doesn’t matter. Keep showing up.

I am here with you, showing up for the time. My light sees your light. We’ve got this.

Let’s Make Time, 2022.

—

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?

Some past posts to keep you making time:

It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine

Follow Liz Shine elsewhere and share these posts!

Bring on 2022! Reflections and plans.

It’s important to pause, reflect, and shift routines and goals from time to time throughout the year. It can’t all come down to New Year’s intentions. And yet, there is something to be said for the potential a new year has for giving us permission to imagine our dreams coming true. Here’s a form I created to help you make those plans.

I filled out this form already and it did help me figure out where I’m headed next with my writing. As is usual this time of year, I’d gotten a little off the rails in terms of focus, plus I’d let some doubts creep in that threatened to seriously keep me from moving forward.

What will I be working on in 2022? Sending out queries for a book I wrote called It May Look Like Disaster, working on the second draft of a book called Scripts, and drafting some new short stories for a collection I started recently. That collection is tentatively titled Home Isn’t A Place. I’ve got my schedule tweaked and am ready to relaunch in full Monday 1/3. In the meantime, I’m getting organized and working like a person still on winter break, when I feel like it.

—

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?

Some past posts to keep you making time:

It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine