An Invitation.
An Inquiry.
A Challenge.
The Writer’s Process Blog Tour is a series of questions that are being passed around the internet from author to author, of any variety, encouraging the sharing of ideas and the creative process as well as allowing us to spotlight some of our favorite people.
I’ve been tagged by my wonderful friend, Teresa Deak (the Butterfly Shaman), in her post OVER HERE – you should CHECK IT OUT!
What are the four questions? They are:
- What am I working on?
- How does my work differ from others in its genre?
- Why do I write what I do?
- How does my writing process work?
Ready to get started? Aren’t you the teeniest bit curious? Well, here we go!
What am I working on?
I am working on SO MUCH right now! It’s ridiculous! I’m working on my own book about Earth Magic, for one. I don’t have a working title or anything like that, but I DO have an outline and some pages written up already. I’m making lots of notes and brainstorming ideas, observing questions, and thinking deep, deep thoughts.
I’m also working on training material for companies looking to create a connection between their teams on an energetic level and who are looking to change their company culture. This one is a little vaguer right now, but I have a lot of experience with bad company cultures and what I’ve experienced in better cultures and how to make the transition. I think Shamanism can really help in a lot of workplaces – after all, aren’t companies like little villages?
Lastly, I’m working on growing my blog and participating in social media. I know that a lot of people won’t count this as proper “writing” but I do. It’s really challenged me creatively! I have over 300 blog posts on this website and there’s a LOT of information that is available here – but there’s a lot more that I can still share without dipping into what I’m currently learning about. But the trick here is figuring out what is going to be most useful to the people who are reading my website. Who are they? What are they wondering? What would they like to know? So, suffice to say, I have a lot of questions and I’m really exploring this area of my writing quite a bit (not to mention, Twitter’s 140 character limit is a real challenge!).
How does my work differ from others in its genre?
I write a lot about new age/Earth magic/metaphysical kinds of things – and there are a LOT of other people out there writing them as well! But what makes what *I* write different is that I’ve grown up with this stuff and learned to look at it from two different points of view – the intuitive and the logical. The things that I teach and write about pass my own personal truth test via my understanding, intuitive and logical, of the Universe and how it works. Keep in mind that a lot of science and logic is still theoretical and we have a lot that we can’t test (YET!) so will have to remain theoretical for now. And some of this trust test DOES consist of those very fringe ideas and theories. But they’re the ones that I find most believable and sensible.
Secondly, I didn’t really have an overnight awakening where my abilities all blossomed and a naked Indian guy stumbled upon me lost in the woods and took me as his apprentice. My story is MUCH more boring! It’s taken a lot of study, meditation, seeking, and experimentation. This is my own personal experience, and that is unique to me and only me – no other person can write from my particular point of view. So if you’re interested in someone who has done the hard work, the study, and the searching, then you’ve got the right place. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with having the sudden blooming and all that – I think those are beautiful stories and am often jealous – but they’re not MY story.
Why do I write what I do?
I write about this new age/Earth magic/metaphysical stuff because it’s what I know. Not only is it what I know, it’s what I’m INTIMATELY familiar with. I’ve been learning since I was 5 and studying since I was 9. There’s a LOT of information on the subject in my head at this point and I CANNOT abide just letting it rot away in there only being used by me here and there as necessary. I want to share them with the world! I want this knowledge to become COMMON knowledge, well known and used frequently around the world. This is world changing information and it needs to get out there. It’s becoming more and more accepted as time goes on, but there’s still work to do and I’m willing to do that work. If I can make ONE person’s life better by sharing what I know, then I will have lived a very successful life. More people? Even better! I’m going to try to reach as many people as possible while also keeping things small and easy to follow. That’s my gift to the world.
How does my writing process work?
Wow. I have a lot of different processes, to be honest. It really depends on what I’m writing and what flows into my path. For instance, sometimes, as with this post, I have a prompt. And that’s pretty cool! Right now, I’m also part of a 30 day blog writing challenge (as you can see, I’m 20 days behind right now) that provides a lot of prompts to write off of. Even though I’m behind, I plan to write on all those prompts, even if it takes me till the end of the year.
Other times, I sit down and brainstorm what I feel like talking about. I’ll pay attention to what the posts on Facebook, Twitter, and G+ have been lately and I’ll bring inspiration from them. I’ll write out a whole list and save it in my Evernote for later. Then I’ll refer back to this list as I feel the need to.
Another way I write is to make notes of blog ideas as they come up throughout the day. Someone may ask me a question, I may see a quote, or perhaps something on TV or just a muse as I’m in the shower. I write these down and save them for later, too.
Once I have an idea, I literally just open up my WordPress installation and start typing up the post. SOMETIMES (rarely!), I will write an outline beforehand, but that’s really infrequent and only if I’m planning to write a really long post on a complicated subject and I don’t want to forget anything important for the learning process. But other than that, I just sit down and write. When I get to the end, I got back and find pictures to go with my post, and then I hit “publish” (or “schedule” like I’ll do tonight).
I’m sure you’re not surprised to hear it, but other than the spell checker in my browser, I don’t use any spell check or grammar check and I don’t have anyone read over my blog posts. That’s probably unprofessional, but I really just want to get my blog posts out there. I’m a Virgo with a healthy perfectionist streak – if I get into the whole editing thing, it’s VERY likely for me to go overboard and delay posts for weeks at a time, and I don’t want that to happen. So, I just move ahead without triggering that impulse. I hope you guys don’t mind!
Passing the baton
So, that’s my contribution to the blog tour and my answers to the 4 questions posed! I contacted my network for people who would like to participate in the blog tour with me and had 4 people respond. Heather Woodward, C. Jai Ferry, Corrissa James, and Nanette M. Day. I think you’re really going to enjoy meeting them and getting to know them through their writing, too! Here’s more information about them:
Heather Woodward
HEATHER WOODWARD is a professional tarot reader + intuition coach + tarotprenuer mentor. She works with metaphysical practitioners who want to ignite their intuition + tap into their authenticity + build a thriving metaphysical business.
When she’s not motivating others, you can find her indulging in bad movies (Sharknado, anyone?), paranormal romance novels + the occasional gluten-free fudge brownie.
Specialties: Tarot Business Mentoring & Coaching, Intuition Training & Psychic Development, Life Coaching, Straight-Forward Professional Tarot Readings.
http://www.theempressoftarot.com
C. Jai Ferry
C. Jai Ferry grew up in a small rural town in one of those middle states between New York and Los Angeles. She put together her first book of poetry, complete with a lime green cover, for a class assignment in fifth grade. Today, she focuses on short stories with narrators who are often described as brutally honest and who likely need some form of professional help. Her first novel is scheduled for publication in late 2014.
Corrissa James
Corrissa James was not always a country girl. In fact, she fought it all her life, traveling the world to live in far-flung cities like St. Petersburg, Russia, Caracas, Venezuela, Varanasi, India, and Guadalajara, Mexico. She didn’t realize she was meant to live in the country until she returned to her roots in Nebraska, where she discovered the beauty of the fields around her (even if she was allergic to them) and the intensity of Mother Nature (who sure packs a wallop!). Corrissa wrote her first romance stories in junior high, although at the time she didn’t really know what happened after kissing, so she improvised with lots of ellipses (…). Her professional writing career initially took her away from romance—but never far away as Corrissa could always be found with a romance book at hand (she’s particularly fond of the work by Johanna Lindsey). Today she focuses on western romance novellas, offering afternoon reads focused on strong women and the men they choose (never without some struggles along the way).
Nanette M. Day
Dog wrangler, cat slave, turkey observer, cow racer, raccoon enabler…these are just a few of the jobs I take care of out here on the acreage. Hard work? Undoubtedly. Entertaining? Oh my, yes (!!!) which is why I added another title to my responsibilities: noter of all things extraordinaire. I am not a farmer. I didn’t grow up around farmers. I didn’t move to the country until later in life, and I’m not on one of those upscale acreages with the fancy manicured lawns. I live on a small piece of land that Mother Nature is trying to reclaim. Ma Nature and I have come to an agreement of sorts, but I am always aware of her minions of songbirds, quadrupeds, and creepy crawlies. Here and in my books I detail their shenanigans (which, yes, are mostly instigated by my own furries).
Enjoy!
