New Year, New Focus

Posted in Kindling Creativity by Ali Stegert

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As you launch into 2018, I wish you plenty of energy, time and resources to pursue your dreams to the utmost. May 2018 be for you a year of breakthroughs and satisfaction, of positive challenge and solid growth.

The new year is a wonderful opportunity for doubling down or an exciting time of reinvention. For me, 2018 is both!

The Next Chapter Begins

I start this year as a rookie free agent. I’ve retired from my career as a school counsellor, so it’s truly a new chapter of my life. With no salary or built-in support system, I have to imagine and create my own way to income, fulfilment and community.

I spent today, the first day of the new year, brainstorming possibilities. I uncapped my pristine .38 gel pens and created a colourful opportunity mindmap. I went wild and dreamed up all kinds of sources of income. Then, I shifted gears (and changed to my spiffy new Japanese dual highlighters) and picked out the themes and priorities.

Creactivity?

Finding the theme was easy with two focus points jumping off the page: Greater Creativity and Regular Activity. My previous job with its heavy emotional load affected my energy levels and took a toll on my health, but now I find myself in a blessed place where I can build energy, improve my fitness and develop creatively.

My mindmapping exercise led me to another conclusion: in order to generate an income, I have to have goods to sell. The more stock, the better the trade. Because of the demands on my time in the past, I have few finished, market-ready projects but oodles of inklings and half-formed ideas.

So Priority Number One for 2018 is to generate products. I must convert my notebooks full of ideas into tangible goods – namely manuscripts, stories, articles, and content.

Getting Things Down

I set my intention with Julia Cameron’s quote (above): “Art isn’t about thinking things up; it’s about getting things down.” My task for the early part of the year is cut out for me:

Outline and draft new manuscripts
Complete and submit current manuscripts
Research, write and pitch magazine articles
Pursue alternative writing-related income streams

Over to You

Do you have any tips to share about setting off on the full-time freelance path? Please leave a comment to inspire me!

17Dec2017

End-of-Year Inspiration

Posted in Kindling Creativity by Ali Stegert

Image Credit

Photo by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash

Design by Ali Stegert

2Dec2017

You’ll Never Guess What Happened in November

Posted in Spilling Ink Special! by Ali Stegert

November 2017 might now be history, but a lot happened, the least of which was acquiring new blogging and marketing techniques, including how to write click-baity blog titles, like “You’ll Never Guess What Happened in November”.

But to clear the air, let me start with what I DIDN’T do in November.

I didn’t memorise November’s poem for #MyEpicPoeticOdyssey. ‘The Author to Her Book’ was both longer than the previous months’ poems and written in Seventeenth Century English. I chose that poem in honour of NaNoWriMo, November’s international novel-writing event.

I didn’t do NaNoWriMo: I did NaNoReWriMo instead. I wrote (unwrote and rewrote) way more than 50,000 words, but I can’t prove it, so I didn’t bother verifying on 30 November. No NaNo badge for me. Bummer.

More importantly though, I didn’t finish my rewrite of The Temple of Lost Time as I’d hoped. I got tangled in a plot snag towards the end so I still have another 20% to go. Wish me luck!

I also didn’t blog here because I was (or rather wasn’t) doing all of the above. (I did blog here though.)

So if I wasn’t blogging here or verifying or finishing or memorising, what did I do?

I retired. Retired!

I know, right?!

After much soul-searching and hand-wringing, I closed the chapter on a 12-year career at a wonderful school. For most of that time, I was a school counsellor, a job that was both rewarding and challenging.

The school allowed me to establish a healthy balance by taking on all kinds of creative asides that utilised my writing skills.

I created a comprehensive life skills curriculum for six grades. It addressed the standard social-emotional wellbeing and resilience, but for the higher grades I incorporated real-world skills, things the kids will need when they graduate, like money smarts, relationship wisdom, media savvy, personal safety, and knowledge to battle stigma against mental illness. I wove in skills for clear, logical thinking so students could recognise and refute fallacies and fake news.
When the college took on 1:1 learning with iPads, I spearheaded a digital wellbeing education program for secondary students and their parents. To do it, I first had to overcome my own technophobia and ignorance by developing tech skills and embracing the digital life. It was life changing, and I am so glad I did it. I built and started e-Quipped, a digital parenting website and its accompanying Facebook page.
I wrote magazine and webzine articles featuring the school’s forward thinking in digital education.
I ran a personal development program for fifth and seventh grade girls. It was a huge joy and honour to stomp on society’s negative preconceptions and fears about women’s bodies and instead present them as God-created things of wonder and mystery, beauty and strength.
I was an invited author guest in the Junior School’s Book Week festivities and senior English classes when the students were working on short stories. I also got to mentor budding authors in the Challenge-Based Learning program and through my initiative, Inklings, a co-curricular writing group. I cherished all of these writerly opportunities.

In the final 18 months of my employment, I reduced my counselling hours to fill a void in the Marketing & Communications office while the college recruited a new M&C manager. After about 15 weeks, they finally found Agnese, a whiz-woman and all-round wonderful person. The things Ags taught me will be so valuable in my freelance career:

Branding – from font to front office
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
copywriting – “Think benefits, not features.”
managing social media
slick email campaigns
creating grabby headlines
salvaging poor photographs with Photoshop
the value of good photography
where to find fantastic high-res stock images
how to modify images so they look classy (one font only (…maybe two))

When she hired Leonie, graphic designer extraordinaire, to rebrand, I learned about colours, fonts, paper quality and choosing the right style of photograph. Watching a pro work with Photoshop and other Adobe tools is like watching a magic show. I also got to work with teaching colleagues Roz, a talented photographer, and Ming, creator of award-winning videos. I rubbed shoulders with talent and greatness on a daily basis.

I got to work on all kinds of publications: monthly newsletters, email campaigns, website content, heaps of brochures, media releases, a prospectus, and two beautiful yearbooks—my pride and joy. In the midst of writing gazillions of words for the college, I co-created and published two books!

I’m so grateful to be entering my new writing career well equipped. I can thank my school (Leighton, June, Fiona and Paul) and Agnese for giving me both experience and confidence.

Chapter Next

I am thrilled to take on the role of coordinator of the Sunshine Coast sub-branch of SCBWI-Queensland (Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). I’m looking forward to serving and collaborating with the kidlit creators in my region. I’ve already met so many talented and vibrant creatives!

December’s work is finishing my rewrite of The Temple of Lost Time with my ASA (Australian Society of Authors) mentor Catherine Bateson. I’ll write about that wonderful experience in January. Again, I’ve learned so much.

Once I put ToLT to bed, I’ll open my notebook of ideas and start to play. I have been stockpiling stories and business ideas for such a time as this. It’s my time to create.

Let’s ride!

Over to You

Do you have any advice for me as I transition to full-time writing? Please leave me a message in the comments!

Image Credits

Photo by michele spinnato on Unsplash, modified by Ali

Photo by FORREST CAVALE on Unsplash

8Nov2017

The Cult of Daffodils

Posted in Pasticcio by Ali Stegert

I want to share my new garden and flower blog with my loyal followers and readers here at Spilling Ink. Oh My Garden! is full of lovely floral/botanical content. There are even book reviews, like the reblogged post below that follows up on my October poem.

I’d be so encouraged if you’d follow Oh My Garden! (It’s lonely over there!)
– Ali

Oh My Garden!

It’s no wonder daffodils have enjoyed a cult-like following throughout history. They are a complete sensory package: Their vibrant colour is visually stimulating. Their scent, in my mind, is the essence of spring, freshness and hope epitomised. Even their texture is highly agreeable. At the thought of them, I can conjure up the sense of the stems, cool and springy, in my hand.

Daffodils have inspired artists and poets alike. Wordsworth’s poem, ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ is possibly the most famous example. On my literature blog Spilling Ink, I spent the month of October (spring in Australia) memorising those lovely verses. That exercise ignited an intense bout of xanthophilia, a fondness of all things yellow. It also led me down the garden path, thinking about daffodils and wanting to know more.

Flower Fanaticism?

Daffodils are lovely, but do they inspire obsession? Yes, absolutely, and if you doubt me, read

View original post 632 more words

7Nov2017

A Poem About Writing

Posted in Poetry by Ali Stegert

It’s November and #MyEpicPoeticOdyssey continues as I memorise a poem about writing to celebrate NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month, the event that sends the world into a foaming frenzy of literary creation and masterpiece making. Rather than launching a new novel project, I’m doing #NaNoReWriMo, during which I slay mutant plot bunnies and bushwhack my way to a sleek new version.

When I started my poetic quest a few months ago, it was all about making time for poetry in my life while also laying claim to a few choice poetical side effects, namely the mental exercise of memorisation and the writerly benefit of studying the economy of poetry.

Memorisation has been hugely enjoyable, but even more fun has been the monthly search for a new poem: digging through piles of poetry, reading and savouring until one calls my name. “Pick me! Pick me!”

The Author to Her Book

The poem about writing I’ve chosen for November is ‘The Author to Her Book’, by Anne Bradstreet. I’d never heard of this lady before, but it turns out she has quite a pedigree! She was the first poet published in the New World. Not America’s first woman poet —its first poet (period).

And if that’s not cool enough, it turns out Puritan Anne moonlighted as a badass feminist. The collection that was America’s first published poetry, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, contains a stinging prologue to her critics. Check out her sarcasm as she poo-poos the notion of ‘proper women’s work’:

I am obnoxious to each carping tongue

Who says my hand a needle better fits.

A poet’s pen all scorn I should thus wrong;

For such despite they cast on female wits,

If what I do prove well, it wont advance-

They’ll say it was stolen, or else it was by chance.

Go Anne! It must have been tough back in the day for smart women. And our Anne was smart, equipped to write about history, politics, theology and medicine. She had a library of over 9,000 books that were eventually lost in a house fire, one tragedy among many in her life.

Though sickly (suffering smallpox and tuberculosis), she was the mother of eight children and appears to have enjoyed a happy marriage until her death at age 60.

So this NaNo November as I wrestle through my umpteenth rewrite of my current manuscript, I’m going to memorise Anne’s poem. It captures the writer’s angst I know all too well, of work that doesn’t measure up to the impossible inner standard. She composed this poem after her first collection was supposedly “snatcht”, spirited away and published by a (male) friend.

THE AUTHOR TO HER BOOK

THOU ill-form’d offspring of my feeble brain,

Who after birth did’st by my side remain,

Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than true

Who thee abroad, expos’d to publick view,

Made thee in raggs, halting to th’ press to trudge,

Where errors were not lessened (all may judg).

At thy return my blushing was not small,

My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,

I cast thee by as one unfit for light,

Thy Visage was so irksome in my sight;

Yet being mine own, at length affection would

Thy blemishes amend, of so I could:

I wash’d thy face, but more defects I saw,

And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.

I stretcht thy joynts to make thee even feet,

Yet still thou run’st more hobling then is meet;

In better dress to trim thee was my mind,

But nought save home-spun Cloth, i’th’ house I find.

In this array, ‘mongst Vulgars mayst thou roam,

In Criticks hands, beware thou dost not come;

And take thy way where yet thou art not known,

If for thy Father askt, say, thou hadst none:

And for thy Mother, she alas is poor,

Which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door.

This will be a challenging poem to memorise with its Seventeenth Century English. Wish me luck!

To all the #WriMo-ers and especially to my fellow #ReWriMo-ers, may the Muse be with you! See you at the finish line!

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

Image of Anne and her Title Page, both Public Domain

24Oct2017

Picking Next Year’s Planner

Posted in Gifts for Writers & Readers by Ali Stegert

With 2017 winding down, it’s time to share my top 5 picks for planners for 2018.

It’s no newsflash that I am fond of lovely stationery, but I go gaga over new planners. Planners are the mother of all stationery, a blessed union of paper and ink, printing and binding, layout and design. They are both tool and creation, a space for both organisation and inspiration.

My Criteria

Seeing my planner gets a gruelling 365 days of daily use, I don’t rush the selection process. My planner must tick all the boxes. Of course, looks are an important factor, but ultimately a planner has to be supremely useable.

A full combination of spreads: yearly, monthly, weekly and daily spaces, because they all have their uses.
Not too bulky: My handbag is heavy enough without adding the weight of a phonebook. ON the other hand…
…Not too pokey: I need room to write, remind, draw, plot…
Sturdy: It has to be able to withstand the vortex of death, aka my handbag. Rounded corners and a sturdy cover required.
Quality paper: No thanks to blinding blizzard white, yes please to soothing, restrained ivory – with a smooth finish s’il vous plaît.
Lie-flat binding: I like a planner that opens all the way without wrestling it. And forget the icky spine-breaking nonsense. I dislike wire spiral binders that get in the way and render half the writing surface a no-go-zone.
Bonuses: A ribbon page marker is helpful. **Stickers** are fun, the icing on the planner cake.

My Top Five Choices for 2018

Milligram 2018 Family Diary – Weekly Notebook – A5
Pilot 2018 Diary for Writers
Kiki.K Leather Planner – Sweet
MochiThings 2018 Flowery Weekly Journal
Hobonichi Techno Cousin

Milligram Family Diary

Up first, the 2018 Family Diary from Melbourne’s Milligram (formerly NoteMaker, one of my favourite Australian stationers). Having just rebranded, they’ve launched their own line of Milligram diaries. They’re onto a good thing with this fantastic family-friendly planner. The weekly spread has two pages where everyone’s activities can be noted along with meal planning. There’s a budgeting page and other cool features, like **stickers**! I especially like the gorgeous cover designs and pleasing page layout, created by designer-illustrator-author Beci Orpin.

This planner is perfect for busy families, but as a new empty-nester, this one isn’t the best fit for me now.

A$44.95*

Pilot 2018 Diary for Writers

This one is a handy tool for writers. The Pilot 2018 Diary for Writers is chock-a-block full of writerly information, inspiration and wisdom in the form of quotes, competitions, festivals and awards. There are pages to track submissions, record lent and borrowed books, and list interesting TBRs.

Three cheers for the excellent paper and targeting writers’ needs, but one frowny-face for the spiral binding.

A$26.95*

Kiki.K Sweet Large Leather Planner

Okay: it’s leather. And it has Pugs. And kittens. Say no more.

Nobody in the stationery business does ‘whimsical’ like Kiki.K. They also do ‘gorgeous,’ ‘stylish,’ and ‘wow,’ but I’m smitten with the range they call Sweet, with its cute hand-drawn pugs, kittens, ink bottles, cacti, and more. The Kiki.K Sweet Planner is white leather printed with the Sweet motifs. Inside is lined with a beautiful shade of eggshell blue. It has customisable tabs, is refillable, and comes with **stickers**.

It’s gorgeous but a little too bulky for me.

A$84.95*

MochiThings 2018 Flowery Weekly Journal

MochiThings is a wonderful online stationer selling a full range Korean paper products, from basic to deluxe, plain to cutesy. Planners come in a huge variety of sizes and styles – seriously, they have all kinds of binding, every size, layout, and design you could want. The one I like is called Flowery Weekly Journal. It features a floral cover, is compact in size with a week-to-a-spread, and has the all-important lie-flat binding.

This is very similar to the MochiThings diary I chose for 2017, which worked out great except that I found the B5 size a little too tight.

You’ll want to check out the array of planner accessories for sale at MochiThings.com: there’s washi tape out the wazoo and **stickers** galore. Check out this scrummy Scheduler Kit.

Flowery Weekly Journal – US$22.95*

Hobonichi Techno Cousin

Hobonichi planners are a premium Japanese product with a worldwide cult following. Why are so many people crazy about Hobonichis?

The one planner has it all: year, month, week and day pages.
180º lie-flat binding
Tomoe River paper (high quality smooth but thin pages to reduce bulk)
Daily quotes and quirky information
Graph paper pages for design
A dazzling array of cool covers to dress up your planner and reuse year after year.
Covers have a built-in pen holder and two ribbon markers.
A variety of sizes: Weeks is long and narrow. Techno Original is a compact A6 size. Cousin is larger, A5 size.

J¥ 7,020* for Cousin + cover

And the Winner Is…

Hobonichi Cousin 2018. I am trying out the larger A5 version called Cousin to give myself additional room for jotting notes. As mentioned, B5 cramped my style.

Going with the larger version means I have to read my dates in Japanese kanji, but I think I will manage. Although I won’t be able to enjoy the quotes (and information about quirky things like stretching, Japanese fast food, emergency preparedness, and Japanese holidays), but I can read the days and dates thanks to my years of living in Asia and studying Chinese (and a little Japanese). If Cousin’s language thing is a deal breaker, the good news is the Hobonichi Techno Planner (smaller A6 size) comes in an all English version.

I thought I’d try the variety called Avec, which breaks the year into two volumes, halving the weight of the planner.

Choosing from the 19 different cover designs for Cousin was fun. I picked a happy shade of yellow with white polka dots and an ice blue interior. Isn’t it darling? I can’t wait to start using it.

Hobonichi planners can be bought online at Milligram or through the official Hobonichi site.

Over to You!

Got a favourite planner that I should look into (for 2019)? Do you stick with the same one year after year or, like me, keep hunting for the perfect planner? I hope you find a good one for 2018.

Image Credits

Arnel Hasanovic via Unsplash

Planner images via various retailers’ websites

*Prices are approximate and correct at the time of publication.

9Oct2017

Writing Kidlit Magical Realism

Posted in For Writers by Ali Stegert

Gene Wolfe advises young writers at the Shared Worlds camp. Via BuzzFeed

Today, I stumbled across this piece of writing advice from sci-fi writer Gene Wolfe. “Start the next book.”

Yikes! I’m still editing The Temple of Lost Time with my ASA mentor. I just finished an epic overhaul involving the wholesale slaughter of darlings and ruthless culling of scenes that slimmed my pudgy 66,000-word manuscript down to a lean 54,000 words with a taut-n-terrific middle. Next we polish.

I can’t possibly start something else.

Can I?

I’ve been reluctant to work on multiple writing projects at once. What if I mix up characters or lose the voice of one work or do something stupid with the files?

Erm, no. I’ve realised two things. First, it’s unlikely that I’d have two manuscripts at the same stage of development. The kind of thinking and energy required in pre-writing is very different to that of outlining, drafting, revising and finessing.

Second, I will not manage to create a significant body of work if I maintain my current ambling pace. Just as stores need stock to sell, serious writers need finished works. It’s time for me to shift gears to generate more stories.

Off the Back Burner

My Graceland (working title) project is so exciting I’m almost giggling at the prospect of sticking my fingers into its gooey belly. After some 12 months of preparatory mulling and reading, I have a protagonist named Tallulah and a cast of odd-bod characters, a cool setting I can’t wait to explore, an intriguing genre, and the first shreds of research.

Graceland will be a contemporary middle-grade coming-of-age story with a dusting of magical realism. I want to create a story that feels like Roald Dahl’s Matilda—funny and poignant, filled with heartbreak and hope, but with a darker, issue-laden backdrop. The Secret Life of Bees comes to mind, but my protagonist will be 12 or 13, a year or two younger than Lily Owens in Bees. And I want some wry Aussie humour to buoy it. Think: Cloudstreet for kids.

Why Magical Realism?

We all know the adage: Write the book you want to read. Well, the book I just described is exactly what I want to read. If I l lined my favourites on a shelf, I would see a trend – a strong leaning toward magical realism, which I love because it’s atmospheric. Think of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

The Secret Lives of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Skellig by David Almond

Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Even elements of The Secret Garden could be considered magical realism.

The bigger question is what is magical realism. It’s a valid question, because just about everyone—including authors, agents and editors—is confused. It’s no wonder: magical realism is by nature vague. Simply put, it portrays a mundane world where magical (or miraculous) things happen without question or explanation.

“If you can explain it, then it’s not magical realism.” – Luis Leal

I have been reading up on the genre for a while now to prepare myself. I hope I can pull it off. It takes a light touch to get the balance of realism and magic right—subtle yet substantial. It can’t be tinsel and bobbles tossed on at the end. It has to lie in the warp and weft of the story. More reading is required. With any luck, I’ll absorb ‘it’ by osmosis.

Really Good Magical Realism Resources

Lindsay Moore‘s Magical Realism article on the Emory Postcolonial Studies site presents a brief academic overview with two examples and a useful list of characteristics.

How about an academic article that refers specifically to magical realism in children’s literature? In particular, David Almond’s Skellig. Don Latham’s paper is insightful. Particularly useful are the references to Wendy Faris’s five characteristics of magical realism. What a find this was! It came from a site called Alice’s Academy, which is an off-shoot of The Looking Glass: New Perspectives in Children’s Literature, a database which is now hosted by Australia’s La Trobe University. #RabbitHoleWarning!

Agent-Editor-Author Michelle Witte has a 5-part series that unpacks magical realism and gives some examples of texts. She boils it down to “ordinary events with a touch of the extraordinary.” Michelle’s series is comprehensive and avoids getting bogged down in the political and historical roots of the genre/movement. Those are interesting and valid points, but they don’t help with creativity.

Ted Gioia, a world authority on jazz and books, covers the latter on one of his sites, Conceptual Fiction. One year, he completed A Year of Magical Reading, reading and reviewing a book a week that incorporates elements of fantasy, magic, or the surreal. Use this one to find well-written reviews on what Ted calls Conceptual Fiction, which is literary genre fiction. I spent a couple of hours browsing his virtual shelves. #RabbitHoleWarning!

My Goodreads Magical Realism shelf has over thirty titles to consider. Take a look if you’re looking for titles for kids or adults. Or the HuffPost has nine suggestions for grown-ups.

[I will add more resources as I find them.]

Going to Graceland

Now that I’ve given myself permission to work on Graceland, I’ll continue reading magical realism for grownups and children. I’ll research elements of the story (setting, themes, etc) in earnest, looking for my propelling nugget of goodness or PNG, a deliciously quirky fact that makes my story take off. And I’ll start planning my character arcs working toward an outline…

…All while polishing the other MS, The Temple of Lost Time.

Over to You

Do you have a favourite magical realism title? What do you think about working on more than one project at a time? Got any tips?

Image Credits

Gene Wolfe’s hand via BuzzFeed

Record Store by Yaroslav Blokhin via Unsplash

Staying Ground by Rob Potter via Unsplash