Guest Post: Lani Wendt Young

Today rocks. Like, a lot. Wanna know why? Because Lani Wendt Young is here! I was lucky enough to discover her blog a few months ago, and I've been stalking her ever since. She's amazing, her blog is amazing, she hails from the land of The Lord of the Rings, and she is on her book tour for her newly released book, TELESA. Take it away, Lani!

As a writer who writes too many different things all the time – I am often asked: “Where do you find the time and the drive to write? How do you overcome writer’s ‘block’?”  Such questions are a puzzle to me and so my answer is 105km and 14 hrs long…

Two years ago, I had a crazy idea.  I wanted to put together a women’s team and run in a 105km relay that went around the main island of Samoa. It was crazy because at the time I couldn’t even run around the parking lot without stopping to gasp for breath. But I was determined. I convinced some other moms from my church to be crazy with me and we started training.

For 5 days a week over three months, we would meet at the crack of dawn to go for a 5k run. I use the term ‘run’ very loosely since, at first, we did more of a shuffle, which then accelerated to become a waddle, which then after a few weeks, became a jiggly, joggly sort of jog. Did I enjoy it? Hell no. I hated every minute of it. Many times, I only went because it was my turn to drive and pick the team up. Other times, I only went because the rest of the team was honking their car horn outside, waiting to pick me up.

The 2009 Dream Team at the finish line, Apia Samoa (I'm number 34 in the middle).

But after 6 weeks, something strange happened. (No, I didn’t transform into a stunning athletic muscle machine. I wish.) I found myself waking up early on Saturday mornings…wanting to go for a run, itching and edgy for a run. Huh? By Wk 9, I was going for a run TWICE A DAY.  And when I got the flu and couldn’t train for a week? I was raving mad. As if someone had bought all the Diet Coke on the island, leaving me with nothing but coconuts to drink. By the time the Perimeter Relay came around, I was running twice a day, sometimes 6 days a week. But more significantly, the running had become as essential to me as eating. Sleeping. Brushing my teeth. I wouldn’t dream of going a work-day without it.  It took our team 14 hours to complete the relay, running from 2am to 5pm the next afternoon. Many times during that relay, I wanted to puke and die. But many times, I was also running on an exhilarating high as I gloried in feeling like  – I could run forever and never stop.

Writing is just like that. If you want to BE a writer, you don’t ‘find time’ in your busy schedule to write. You make time. You start with a goal. A crazy dream. ‘I want to write a romance. A best-selling thriller. A children’s book. A memoir about my grandmother...’ You set aside a time and a place every day that you are going to write. You start off small. Shuffling, waddling baby steps to get you building the consistent writing habit. You write anything and everything. Start a journal. A family newsletter. Write down those bedtime stories you tell your kids. Record your family history. Write long, chatty letters to friends. Start a blog AND THEN STICK TO IT.  The best thing I ever did for my writing career was to start a blog – it forced me to assert and accept responsibility for my writing. Your blog readers can be like that relay team of runners who force you to stick to your crazy dream by bugging you every day for your latest piece of writing. At first, it will be hard. You will probably hate it. Complain. Whinge and whine looking for excuses NOT to write. But if you keep at it, doggedly, persistently - you will hit that point where you can’t imagine a day, a moment, without writing. When you’re not writing, you will be thinking about it. If you have an unruly mob of children like me, you will dread the weekends because it means less writing time. ( And don’t even get me started on the horror of school holidays…aaargh!) You will write because you feel like you will die if you don’t. You will write because you are a writer. And that’s what writers do.

A Very Sad Footnote to this Writing Story: In the past 12 months, my first book of narrative non-fiction ‘Pacific Tsunami Galu Afi’ was launched. My story ‘The Beast that Came from the Sea’ was professionally recorded for radio and broadcast in 54 countries. I have blogged 5 days a week. Completed a collection of short fiction which has just won the Fiction Award in the 2011 International USP Press Competition. Finished my 450 page urban fantasy YA fiction novel TELESA and started on the second. Written numerous children’s stories that are published in the NZ School Reading Curriculum. All while being the slave mother to five fabulous children. However, I have not been running anywhere. Not even in the parking lot. And it shows…

Thanks for stopping by, Lani! (I don't know about you guys, but I think that picture shows she is an athletic muscle machine.) I definitely recommend checking out her blog. She posts five days a week, and somehow manages to be hilarious and well-written with every single post. I kid you not, I would read anything Lani writes in book form because everything she writes in blog form is stellar. Check it out! Sleepless in Samoa. Lani's book TELESA was just released, and you can buy it on Amazon here.

Have a fabulous day everyone!

Quotes and Cookies: The small thing

We went [scratch, scratch] camping on a family reunion [scratch, scratch] last weekend, and lemme tell you, [scratch, scratch] this quote made me laugh loudly.

“If you think that something small cannot make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room.”
~Anonymous

Of course there is so much more to the quote than the constant itch of bites that cover every single part of your legs.

The “small thing” the quote referred to can be the details in your story that make it feel like the world and the people actually exist.

It can refer to the small choices your characters make that propel them toward the main conflict.

It can refer to things like sentence structure and grammar that help draw people into your story.

It can refer to the small things you learn along the way that help you perfect your craft to the point that you are publishable or more widely read.

It can refer to the small amounts of time you come across that don’t seem like much, but over time can mean you finish that novel. You finish those revisions. You write that query. You finish researching agents.

It can refer to the things you tell yourself daily that convince you that you can do this. You can work hard, sacrifice, make time, constantly learn, make it work. You want this. You can fight for this.

You will fight for this.

Those small things, added together, mean that WE CAN DO THIS! So grab a cookie, and let’s get going!!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/mississippi-mud-cookies-10000001646479/

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I’ve Got a Theory: Everything you need to know about becoming better at something, you can learn at the skate park.

I took my nine-year-old daughter to the skate park on Friday. She’s not a very experienced skateboarder, but as I watched her summon her courage and skate with 30 boys who were way bigger and way more experienced than her, I realized how skateboarding is pretty much like everything else you try— mental or physical.

Whether the hobby/talent/sport/interest you have is purely for fun and enjoyment, or if you’re doing it with the goal of rising to a professional level, you still have to start at the beginning, learn lots, and make a lot of mistakes.

So here you go. My list of universal truths learned at the skate park:

• It takes guts to run with the big boys. A lot of guts. You can totally feel like a poser. Like you’ve got no business being there when you aren’t as good as everyone else. But guess what? Those are the people you learn the most from.
• You can’t stay down on the ground when you fall. You have to pick yourself up a lot, because you WILL find yourself down on the ground a lot.

• The bigger the risk the higher chance of getting hurt when you fall. Also, the bigger chance of doing something really cool.
• If you finally stop watching at the sidelines and actually start to DO, you have so much more fun. And then you’ll want to keep doing it again and again.
• You’ll probably get hurt. Expect to, and expect that you’ll handle it fine, and you will.
• There’s a community there.
• Even when you master something you’ve been working hard on, there are still a million more things to master.
• Ten year old girls should NOT wear heavy black eyeliner.
• When you stop to notice, you’ll see that EVERYONE crashes and burns– even the people who look like pros. And it makes your crashes and burns less painful.

And another little gem from my daughter herself:

Daughter: “I don’t think I’m experienced enough to do that.”
Me: “And how do you get experienced enough?”
Daughter: “You fall down a lot. I think I need to go fall down some more.”

Happy Tuesday! And may all your crashes and burns be ones you can pick yourself up from.
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Quotes and Cookies: Achievement and Success

“My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.”

~Helen Hayes

I love this, because you have a lot more control over achievements than you do success. It largely depends on how much you want something, how focused you are, and how hard you are willing to work toward it.

Helen Hayes was an actress with a 70 year career. And she was one of only twelve people ever (!) to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. So I say if she kept everything in perspective by keeping her focus on achievements instead of success, then it must work pretty darn well.

And I think Helen Hayes’ mother must’ve been one smart lady.

Hm. I say we eat Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip cookies today, if for no other reason than they are making my mouth water! Raise yours high into the air-- here’s to recognizing the distinction between achievement and success!

http://www.recipegirl.com/2010/06/07/banana-toasted-walnut-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Happy Friday, everyone.
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