Wait… HOLLYWOOD??

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

Well, sort of.

This has been the craziest month for me, and the last week has reached new heights of surreality. I’m running on low sleep and lower caffeine, so bear with me while I try to make sense of everything that’s happened, okay?

Great. Thanks.

So . . . a week ago, I drove into work with a suitcase and got on a plane with my manager, my boss, and a coworker, and flew to California.

I have never been to California.

It is apparently very hot in California.

Who knew?

So, while it snowed in Colorado, I relaxed in a hotel room in California and took in the sights.

Ha!

That was a good joke.

Actually, I spent four consecutive days going to ten-hour-long seminars on story structure, plot, character design, and scriptwriting. By the time it was over, I had been screaming on mute for three days, had almost fifty pages of notes, and could see sounds. I was also molded into the shape of my chair.

But! I learned so, so much, and I’m excited to get back to Colorado (hopefully) today and begin to apply what I learned. If I make it through the snow and actually get home, which we are definitely rooting for!

Besides going to the seminar, which was a whirlwind and definitely adventure enough for little homebody me, I also had the chance to attend a session at the recording studio in Burbank and watch an episode of the radio drama I write for be recorded. I met some of the actors involved, watched another of the writers direct, and had the chance to start up a discussion with one of the original creators of the show.

So, yeah, I learned a lot. And it was very exciting.

After six days of nonstop rushing, however, I am ready to be home. I’m typing this in an airport in Las Vegas, NV, and my flight should (again, hopefully) be taking off in the next half an hour or so.

So wish me luck! Send up a prayer if you think of it! I’m excited to get home and hoping to beat a snowstorm back to my cozy cabin in the woods, where I will immediately curl up with some hot chocolate, my kitty (who I have missed excruciatingly), and my sister (who I have also missed excruciatingly). Colorado, here I come!

I have been so out of commission this week! What did I miss? Tell me about what’s been happening to you lately?

When I Leave My House

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

It’s Tuesday, isn’t it?

Monday was, in fact, yesterday. Not today.

I found that out last night. After I’d forgotten to write this blog post, or do any of my other Monday tasks.

But then, it wasn’t a normal Monday. So I plead confusion. I didn’t get up at 5 AM to write my blog post, I didn’t go off to work at 7, I didn’t have a meeting with my team or talk about my tasks for this week.

So, in my defense, my schedule was all messed up.

What I did do was unpack my bags—yes, I’ve been away—and try to get my life and a very stubborn book sorted out before I leave again on Wednesday on a very special trip. Which I am not going to tell you about. Until next week, after it’s already happened.

Okay, I’ll give you a hint. Just one.

Remember how I said I work for a radio program? Well, this particular radio program records in California.

But that’s enough about that! I promise to tell you all about it come Monday. Or Tuesday, if my Monday turns out weird and I forget about it.

Anyway, this has been a very busy month for me. I’ve been away from my cozy little house, changing up my whole routine—which never fails to discombobulate me—and keeping so busy with book releases, revisions, and my actual job that I haven’t had time to pause and figure out which way is up.

Thank goodness for long weekends to pack. And relax. And center myself. I’ve been learning in the last few days how important that is for me. I need time for long walks and quiet moments, especially if what I’m writing is going to be any good. I need time to be alone with my thoughts and to be still under the trees. Fall weather is perfect for reminding me to take a little time to pause and savor the nip in the air. The acorns are ripe, and I collected a whole handful of them on my lunch breaks and walks after work. They’ve all been tucked away in damp paper towels, sealed in plastic bags, and left to incubate in the back of the fridge until spring.

So yes, even amidst the busy, I am remembering how to pause. How to breathe. How to be.

I’m not always the best at it, but October seems intent on reminding me. The last few days have been so, so chilly, and from my office I have a perfect view of snow on the mountains and bare trees and blowing leaves.

To quote Anne Shirley, “I am so glad that I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

I may be flying off to California tomorrow (spoilers) and have a million other things happening in the next few weeks, but today, at least, I am doing my best to pause and appreciate my October.

What is fall like in your corner of the world today? Tell me about it in the comments!

 

Eight Characteristics Of Serious Writers: Passion

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

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I should tell you something about me, in case we ever meet in person.

I always—always—have a story going in my head.

Seriously.

Every day. It never stops. It might be pushed to the back burner in my brain, I might be able to smile and talk to you and be totally engaged in our conversation. But in the back of my mind, my characters are waiting. Lurking. Ready to jump out and surprise me with a new plot point, a bit of dialogue, or sometimes a new friend they discovered while I wasn’t paying attention.

It’s never-ending.

Now that I’m working full time as a creative writer, I’ve found that this hasn’t changed. I think almost as much about my work on the way home—or at home—as I do at the office. I clock out and have my best ideas when I reach the end of the driveway.

“Passion will move men beyond themselves, beyond their shortcomings, beyond their failures.”

~ Joseph Campbell

Passion gets me through the hard days. The days when my outlines come back full of notes and with the dreaded ‘trash it and try again’ notice. The days when I have to choose between gas money and rent. The days when I sit staring at a blank screen for an hour because I’m drained creatively but have so many deadlines looming that I have to get some words out.

Passion gets me through the hard times so that, when the good times come, I can enjoy them.

Tips to Cultivate Passion.

1. Admit that you have more than one passion. I love writing. I also love to travel, cook, go hiking, and be a mentor. I spend most of my time writing, crafting stories, and building my platform, but when I am burned out, I know where to turn. A writer whose whole life is on the page is a writer who is headed for creative burnout—maybe permanently.

2. Know where you want your passion to take you. Are you a hobby writer? Someone who just wants to see their story on the page? Or are you looking for a career and a publishing contract? The approach for these two is very different. You have to know what you want. Hobby writing won’t get you a career. You’ve got to get serious if you want to live on your words.

3. Remember that passion isn’t always a feeling. Sometimes you’ll sit down to write and not care so much that it becomes a physical sensation. This happens to me more often than I would like to admit. And as a career writer with a full-time job in the writing industry, it really, really doesn’t matter whether I feel like writing or not. I still have to write. I still have deadlines and people waiting for outlines and stories to create. Just because I don’t ‘feel like it’ does not mean I can stop writing.

4. Stay focused. Passion, especially for writers, has to be there for the long haul. Set goals, know what you want, have a rhythm for yourself, and be hopeful. Passion isn’t fluffy. It isn’t pretty, or gentle, or easy. Passion is rock hard, cold steel determination that fights through the worst days because it is resolved to be there for the best days. Passion is learned and earned, and you develop it the same way you develop your muscles. By working hard, pushing through, and showing up when you don’t feel like it.

Good luck, dearest writer! May your tea be hot and your dreams wild.

November 1st!

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

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“One must always look after one’s acorns, especially in autumn, when all the little creatures are stocking their larders and lining their nests for when Dame Winter comes a’calling.”

I ordered a proof copy of Of Bullfrogs and Snapdragons this week!

Which means . . .

*Trumpets sound*

My newest book will hit Amazon on November 1st!

How exciting is that? I can’t begin to tell you how much this book means to me, or how thrilled I am to share it with you all. Frankly, I’m not sure how I managed to find the time to format it, work with the editor and the cover designer, and finish all the thousand and seven small details that have to be done before a book hits the store.

But, besides a few last quality checks, it’s ready!

I am so ready to have this book in my hands. I love fairytales with all of my heart, and these are especially important to me. They are my retreat—the books that I am allowed to love without someone looking over my shoulder and wondering if this detail or that plot point should be done differently. Now that I work full time in a professional environment, it’s hard to sit back and actually enjoy what I write. My scripts/outlines are written with the anxious niggle in the back of my mind that when I finish, someone is going to read through it and come back with pages of notes on how to fix all the problems I somehow didn’t notice. My main book series is a constant progression of editing, revision, and sending out query letters only to be rejected again and again. I always have a new plan for how to increase marketability and get them noticed, and yet—seven years in—they are still waiting for someone to come back with a yes.

And then . . . I have my fairytales.

And they are just for me, and the few of you who find them as soothing as I do.

This book especially was a joy to write. Autumn is and always will be my favorite season, and it was such a treat to linger in it for all twelve chapters, seeing it from the simple perspectives of a gnome, a fairy, and a snapdragon.

Of Mice and Fairies was a series of stories introducing my characters, but Of Bullfrogs and Snapdragons will be a little different. It’s an ongoing story with a central plot, characters that continue on from one chapter to the next, and a villain—of sorts. I can’t for you to read it!

What kinds of stories do you reach for when the world feels stressful and you need a break? Tell me about them in the comments!

Eight Characteristics Of Serious Writers: Hope

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

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Can I ask you a question, just between us writers and anyone else who happens to swing by my blog and see this post?

What are you hoping for?

When you sit down to write, where do you see your book going? Or, rather, where do you want it to go?

What are the big dreams in the back of your mind that you’ll never tell a single soul and definitely not admit to yourself because c’mon. That’s crazy! You don’t even have a completed manuscript yet. What right do you have to dream about that fulfilling career and personal endorsement by your favorite author in the whole world?

I’m going to tell you a secret.

You are allowed to make your dream as big as you want it to be.

When I was first getting started in my career—and I mean first getting started, a total baby author who hadn’t even finished a single book—my dream was not just to be a good writer or to have a finished book, which would have been a stretch anyway, but to be an amazing one. One of the greats. The elite.

Writer, when I was dreaming that, I was not great. Honestly? I wasn’t even good. And I have old manuscripts to prove it.

But that wasn’t the point. I didn’t have proof this could happen or a five-year plan. I had a dream.

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.

~ Shel Silverstein

Now, I am not claiming to be one of the greats. In fact, my dream is still so far out of my reach that at times I lose sight of it completely, and I have a lot of work left to do before I get anywhere near that goal. But it’s still my dream. And I am slowly making steps forward to reach it. Instead of an unfinished manuscript, I have written eight books. Instead of nannying to support my dream, I—against all odds and to my own great surprise—was hired out of more than a hundred other applicants to work as an apprentice scriptwriter for a radio program I happen to love.

Dreams happen. They happen when you have hope and when you move forward step by step and don’t give up.

Tips to Cultivate Hope.

1. Know what you’re hoping for. Do you want a published book, a career as a writer, and a place on the bestseller list? Or do you, for now, just want a finished story and a character that cooperates with you? What are you dreaming about and hoping for? Is it wild? Is it a little crazy? Does it bring you joy?

2. Don’t punish yourself for hoping. I used to do this. All the time. I told myself I was being silly, that I was being prideful. Now I just let myself dream because I’ve started to realize, without those crazy daydreams and wild hopes, I start to give up. I lose sight of what I want, and my attention wanders. Hope keeps me centered, and it keeps me moving.

3. Write your dream down. Repeat it to yourself when you’re alone. Keep it somewhere you can go back to, especially on the days when life feels all kinds of impossible. You’re going to need that spark of hope. So keep it alive.

4. Don’t share it with everyone. Let it be yours, just for now. People are quick to shoot down ideas they feel are ‘impossible’, or to come up with ten different reasons why you’re crazy for even trying. Nothing kills dreams faster than someone else trying to be realistic for you. So, for now, keep your hopes a little sacred, and let your work speak for itself when you finally reach your goal. ‘I have’ is much harder to argue with than ‘I will’.

Good luck, dearest writer! May your tea be hot and your dreams wild.

“…All At Once, Summer Collapsed Into Fall”

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

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Don’t you just love that quote by Oscar Wilde? It never fails to make me feel cozy.

Seriously though, this year fall seemed to come in with October, and we have had a nip in the air and yellow leaves ever since. I love fall with all of my cozy heart, and my sister and I have certainly been embracing the fall days. We’ve got a pumpkin in our pantry, several types of squash in the fridge, and enough wood to (hopefully) last us all winter. We’ve had fires at night, hot chocolate, and I have piled so, so many blankets on my bed to keep from freezing at night.

So, yes, fall is here.

October always seems to go by much too quickly for me. It’s my favorite month, and every year I blink and it’s gone. This year will be no exception, I think. I’ve got a lot going on this month, and already the first week has sped past. I’ve got a book coming out this month, I’ll be out housesitting for more than a week, and I’m headed down to LA at the end of the month. (What?)

In the midst of all the bustle and hurry, I am also trying hard to just enjoy October. The chilly nights and warm days are my paradise, and I want to take as much time as I can to savor it before winter sets in and those fires I mentioned become messy and start getting me up every two hours in the night to put more wood on.

So . . . I am lighting candles. And not begrudging myself a mug of hot chocolate when I curl up to read. And taking long walks down our dirt road with my sister when I get home at night. I have Anne of Green Gables sitting on my side table, complete with a bookmark, because I, too, am so glad that I live in a world where there are Octobers. I have my eye on several lovely acorns just outside my workplace in town, two or three of which I intend to ‘rescue’ as soon as they are ripe and ready. I’ll wrap them in damp tissue, stick them in a plastic bag, and pop them into the back of my fridge for the rest of the year, and they’ll be my new round of trees in the spring. I have new boots and sweaters and scarves for work, and I am stockpiling cardigans because working in an office during the winter is cold business. I also have been cooking more, enjoying the simplicity of soups and comfort foods. Yesterday, I spend the entire afternoon making homemade sweet potato gnocchi.

I haven’t decided how I like it yet, but making it was definitely an experience!

So! There’s my fall agenda. I should have release dates for my new book so, so soon, but until then, I hope you all enjoy your October! Have a glass of apple cider or hot chocolate and think of me!

What are you doing to celebrate fall this year? Anyone headed to a corn maze or a pumpkin patch? Tell me about it in the comments!

Eight Characteristics Of Serious Writers: Work Ethic

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

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I’m going to make a crazy statement to start off today’s post.

Are you ready?

Here it is.

The most talented writers will not necessarily be the most successful.

There. I said it. You can lynch me now.

Are you shocked by my crazy pronouncement? I don’t take it back. In fact, I stand by it. You know why?

Because I meet talented writers all the time who . . . just . . . don’t care. They have other ambitions and their writing takes a backseat. Kind of a, ‘I’ll get to it when I have time’ mentality.

The problem with this is that no one gets to it when they have time because no one ever has time.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

~ Thomas A. Edison

The sad fact of writing is that, unless you make it a priority in your life, it will never get anywhere. Everyone wants to write a book, but very, very few people are willing to put in the kind of work that is required. They write a few chapters, hit a bump, and it sits on their desktop for the rest of eternity, plagued by added sentences and guilt.

So I’ll say it again. The most talented writers will not necessarily be the most successful.

But the writer who works the hardest? The one who makes time when there is no time? The one who cares when no one else does and keeps going after everyone else has left off? The one who catches at every opportunity and makes writing their job, not their hobby?

That’s the writer who will end up with books on the market and a career that sustains them.

Tips to Cultivate Work Ethic.

1. Be consistent. Have a rhythm to your writing and show up for it. Yes, we are creatives, we are the people who wake up in the middle of the night to work because we have a good idea. But we are also entrepreneurs and business owners, and we need to show up at the desk too. Until you take yourself seriously, you’re going to find it impossible to get anyone else to treat you seriously. Especially agents and editors, who can tell when you’re toying around with your ideas.

2. Write a little every day. My goals for my stories—even though I am working 40 hours a week—is 700 words a day. 200 in the morning, 500 at night. I don’t always hit that, but I do what I can. Writing something every day keeps your skills sharp and your mind on track. It also teaches you to have ideas on demand—which, believe it or not, is possible. I do it every day at my nine-to-five job. Not all the ideas are good ones, but there are always golden nuggets among the duds.

3. Be determined. Know your goals, know what kind of writer you want to be and the kind of books you want to produce, and go after it. You are the only one who can make it happen, and the only one who is brave enough and crazy enough to dream big. Be that one insane, ridiculous person who has goals like their story reaching the big screen, being interviewed on a talk show about their books, or having book signings that are booked in advance. Be that person that dreams big, and the one who works a little bit every day to reach your goals.

4. Know when to rest—and when to get back to work. I am a huge advocate for resting when you need to rest. I have burned out too many times to laugh it off and say push through, you’ll be fine. When you are worn out, rest. Please. But know when to start again. Know when resting becomes procrastination and procrastination becomes abandonment. Life goes on, dearest writer, but if you want a career in writing, you have to drag your writing along with it.

Good luck, dearest writer! May your tea be hot and your dreams wild.