Christine Nolfi's Blog, page 20

[image error]

At the park with Barry

Since New Year’s opening bell, Facebook and Twitter have been abuzz with complaints of writer’s block, general ennui and a need on the part of many writers to lose weight—a lot of weight.

On his blog last week, Joe Konrath announced he’d put himself on a thirty day, beer-only diet to shed pounds. Earlier, I ran across an article on Amanda Hocking’s amazing rise in the publishing world. The story warmed my heart. But the photos of this attractive young woman—a dedicated novelist who was quite overweight—sent up the red flags on my maternal instinct.

What’s going on?

No doubt you want the short version. Here it is: the boom in Independent Publishing now allows writers across genres to make a living publishing and promoting their books. Dedicated scribes spend upwards to 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, in front of the computer. No wonder complaints of writer’s block abound.

If you’re one of those folks strapped to your computer at all hours, consider the long haul. Frankly, you can’t build and nurture a fan base if you’re dead.

I’ve been writing professionally for thirty years. In between deadlines I raised four children, helped build several companies and managed a 12-acre farm. I began writing fiction full-time in 2004—the same year divorce dropped the bottom out of my world. Through it all, I’ve remained healthy. You can, too.

Here are a few tips to increase your productivity and safeguard your health:

Ignore the deadlines, self-imposed and otherwise, and get a minimum of thirty minutes exercise every day. Join the gym and become friends with the treadmill. Or take your neglected dog for a walk in the afternoon sunshine. Dance in your living room. Do whatever it takes to get in those minutes.

Upset tummy from too much stress? Drink ginger tea while you write. Trouble sleeping? Try an herbal sleep supplement that includes Chamomile. Unable to focus? Sit on the floor for several minutes and stretch. And for heaven’s sake, breathe deeply. If you’ve never learned Yoga 101, now is the time to get your Zen on.

Combine common sense with social media. Structure your workday to allow set times to check in with your fans and chat with your writing brethren on Facebook, Twitter and other sites.

Eat well—and, as much as possible, avoid eating while you work. Mix walnuts, cashews and raisins for a healthy afternoon snack. Ensure you have vegetables in at least two meals each day. If you find yourself craving sugar, you’re actually craving exercise. An overworked brain and under-worked body are a sure ticket to packing on pounds.

Your body is as sacred as your WIP or the novel you’ve just released. Treat yourself well and you’ll continue to pen compelling works for many years to come.

This post originally appeared in January, 2012

Whenever I’m invited on a blog for an Author Q & A, one question invariably pops up: where do the ideas for my novels come from?

Birdie Kaminsky, the beautiful thief in Treasure Me, arose from my subconscious on a spring morning as I prepared to work on another novel. My four children were still tucked in their beds in the morning’s sweet silence. As dawn filtered a pinkish glow across the forest surrounding our house, I suddenly visualized an amusing sequence with a young woman dangling from a window trying to escape the man whose pocket she’d picked.

Second Chance Grill? I was in Child’s Pose in yoga class when a mischievous preteen, Blossom Perini, drifted into my thoughts with her tumble of corkscrew curls and fierce desire to survive. It didn’t take long to realize I’d conjured her from the despair buried in a forgotten childhood and the memory of losing my cousin, age four, to leukemia.

The plot for The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge arrived on a more circuitous route. After adopting my four children from a shelter in the Philippines, I spent the first year of motherhood teaching them to speak English. Not that my oldest daughter, Christian, and my son, Jameson, needed an entire year of tutoring before displaying a desperate need to share their most frightening memories. Instinctively I’d hand them dolls, which they’d used to play-act the abuse they’d endured. Listening to children recall beatings and starvation would test the soul of any caring adult. But I’d come to think of Christian and Jameson as mine. Listening to their stories filled me with impotent rage as if I should’ve been able to do something even though the abuse occurred long before I met them.

I carried those stories with me on quiet drives or while walking in the woods—the only times when I was alone and felt it was safe to cry. The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge took shape during those moments of isolation.

I’ve written other novels during the last thirty years, amateurish scribblings tossed out soon after the pages whirled from my printer. The characters and general plot of every one of those books tiptoed in through the quiet.

We’ve all heard about the health risks of noise. Most of my friends, by the time they reach middle age, complain of sleepless nights. And while you may know that noise pollution puts you at risk for coronary heart disease, here’s another reason to safeguard whatever silence you can build into your life: it will enrich the books you choose to write.

Unplug, disengage and ignore the ringing phone. Create tranquil moments. Give yourself a few minutes every day. That precious grey matter between your ears can’t supply you with the next character, or the next plot, without the fertile soil of silence.

This post originally appeared in January, 2012