Blog | Contemporary Romance Author Miranda Liasson

Advice from Eloisa James: Throw Your Heart into It

Posted by Miranda Liasson on Friday, June 7, 2013 at 9:34 pm in Eloisa James | 2 comments

I had the great (and a little bit scary) honor of introducing Eloisa James yesterday at a library in Cleveland. How did that come about?! You might say it was accidental networking. One of the many perks of being active in your own RWA chapter!

Anyway, Eloisa was on tour promoting her new book Once Upon a Tower, one of her reimagined fairy tale books that she described as a cross between Romeo and Juliet and Rapunzel. It sounds fabulous!

She said something in her chat last night that really stuck with me as a writer struggling to become an author. Here is is (below the pic of me and my NEORWA friends with Eloisa last night):

Northeast Ohio RWA (NEORWA) friends and me (second from left) with NYT Bestselling author
Eloisa James.

Someone asked her how she does it all–she is a tenured Shakespeare professor, the NYT Bestselling author many times over of historical romances, as well as a wife and mom. Part of her answer was this: I learned from watching how men did it.

What does that mean exactly? She described how in graduate school, the women in her program would worry over their papers, constantly revising, perfecting, getting them just right. The men…just did the work and got it turned in. And they succeeded academically and promotion-wise by keeping the quantity of work in mind as well as the quality. Women seemed to strive for perfection, being afraid to turn it in until it was perfect.

She also said this very interesting quote about the many different tasks and chores that make up a woman’s life: “Whatever you’re doing, throw your heart into it.” She said she often knows she is writing crap but she just keeps going–she can fix it but she has the sense of moving ahead. The story gets told and the job gets done. Moral: Quit striving for absolute perfection.

This resonates deeply with me. It showcases the differences between my husband and me. I don’t know if it’s a gender difference but it is true in my house. But it’s great advice–Whatever you’re doing, throw your heart into it, get your story told, get your work done. Only finished books get published!

Mountain in West Virginia (my photo).

Reinventing Yourself as a Writer

Posted by Miranda Liasson on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 2:48 pm in Reinvention as a writer | 2 comments

This is a prequel blog. (Sort of like how a novella comes out before a novel.)

I’ve been invited to be on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog (www.rubyslipperedsisterhood.com)

on Thursday, May 23rd, as one of their series of Golden Heart finalists. I’ll be talking about…me. Specifically, what I did when I hit a brick wall in my writing that helped me up to the next level. (The next level being two Golden Heart finals this year—but I’m not published yet.)

So on a related topic, today I’m going to talk about some advice on reinvention that I got from some seasoned writers this past weekend at my chapter conference.

I think everyone hits their own brick wall—more likely multiple ones at different times in our careers.

Every writer, from novice to seasoned professional, has to continually re-evaluate their writing on multiple fronts—before you publish, it’s what is my true voice? What are my strengths? What kind of story should I be telling?

And during a career, it sounds like the same questions must be asked as well.

This weekend, I heard a panel of three longstanding authors who discussed keeping your career afloat in rough waters.

The panel was comprised of Duffy Brown, LuAnn McLane, and Donna MacMeans.

They all said—write a story you’re passionate about.

Find you strengths. If you don’t know, ask your friends. They will know.

Reinvention involves working with your strengths, finding an angle that is unique but fully yours.

Be brave.

Keep writing.

You have to love writing THAT MUCH—if you can think of one reason you shouldn’t do it, maybe you shouldn’t.

You have to write something you are enthusiastic about, that you believe in with all your heart. Fake enthusiasm shows. Real enthusiasm sells books. Your writing has to touch your own heart and your own emotions.

Learning discipline now gets you through the hard times later. Writers that survive keep producing.

LuAnn McLane ended the panel with this advice for us when we question our choices or when we have tough decisions to make about our careers: Always remember how much you love reading. Reading brings joy to people through tough times by making them laugh, cry, and feel many different emotions.

We were readers before we were writers. Who among us doesn’t love to read! And I think that’s a good thing to remember when we face the brick wall.

FreeFoto.com, Image 12-64-7

Creativity and Productivity

Posted by Miranda Liasson on Friday, April 19, 2013 at 4:59 pm in Creativity, Productivity | 2 comments

I read something this week that has been churning in my mind ever since. It’s a fabulous blog post on creativity done by Margarita Tartakovsky and you can view the entire post here:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/04/14/9-illuminating-lessons-on-creativity/

The entire thing is fascinating, but the part that really stuck with me all week was the story about the pottery class. Basically, students who had to produce quantity of pottery produced more creative–i.e., higher quality–pieces than students who were permitted to take an entire semester to create a single piece (i.e., those who strove for quality, not quantity).

Tartakovsky’s advice is to stop striving for perfection in creative work, but instead to focus on a “magic threshold” where you’re happy enough with it but you’re able to let it go and, in the words of artist Jolie Guillebeau, who taught herself to paint faster, “hope that the quantity of my work will also improve the quality.”

This is a fascinating concept, and one which skilled, bestselling writers surely must learn. Could it be that the more you produce, the more creative you become and the better you get at being creative?

It reminds me of something I read–I don’t remember where–basically, this writer said that not everything you produce is going to be great. But the MORE you produce, the BETTER CHANCE you’ve got at putting forth something great.

So are speed and perfectionism mutually exclusive?

Well, I think they can co-exist, if the perfectionism is toned down. How to do this? (I don’t know, but I am working on it. )

This article also addresses the fear the creative ideas are finite. I remember reading something from a bestselling author saying she felt she had more ideas than she could possibly write about in a lifetime. I am on the opposite spectrum. I fear not having ideas. But filling the creative well is a skill that can be cultivated, and it starts with showing up every day to work. And work hard.

More great advice: Focus on process, not outcome. Focusing on outcome stifles the process, says creativity coach and writer Miranda Hersey. Worrying about if your work sucks, if you’ll be able to get it all together and have it make sense, and what will happen in your career are creativity killers.

When this happens, I think about why I sit in front of the computer day after day. The answer is–because I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else! I’m so grateful to be here! Things are a little different than when I was 12 and writing Star Trek fan fiction to my heart’s content. The muse is a little older and more scarred, and the devil-may-care attitude has been pulled back and restrained. But the joy is still there.

I think this article reinforces the fact that the skills it takes to write fiction, including the creative skills, are trainable with lots of work and the determination to show up day after day to do your job. Like any other job, practice makes perfect–or at least better.

How do you teach yourself to write faster or tone down your inner perfectionist?

Beautiful brickwork on a Savannah sidewalk outside of Colonial Park Cemetery (my photo).

Sidewalk of seashells in Savannah–I think they call this tabby, a concrete made of lime, sand, and oyster shells (my photo).

My Crazy GH Call Story

Posted by Miranda Liasson on Friday, April 5, 2013 at 10:53 pm in Uncategorized | 8 comments

Well, I thought I’d share my Golden Heart^®call story from last week. As you all know, The Romance Writers of America calls all of its unpublished manuscript finalists in its annual Golden Heart^®contest every year on a designated day.

I was picking up my 16-year old son’s friend to take them both to volleyball practice when the letters “NE” popped up on my cell. All I could think of was, if this is some weird telemarketing call coming in from Nebraska, this is a very cruel trick of nature with TERRIBLE timing. 

But I didn’t believe it could be RWA calling! How COULD it be, when I’ve entered this contest six–maybe seven?–times, and I had sworn this one would be my last. I’d even determined to go about my day and just be happy for everyone else later. I’d ridden the roller coaster too many times and just couldn’t bear to do it again. 

So anyway, it was Cindy Kirk, Harlequin Special Edition author AND an RWA board member, and she told me she had great news. Then she said I was a DOUBLE finalist. I barely heard. I just started bawling, right there in the driveway in front of these teenage boys. And I could not stop. 

I told my son I just couldn’t drive, that he better drive until I calm down. I figured even a teenage driver with his temporary permit was better than a hysterical crying woman. So a few miles later after I did a little, he said, “Mom, just thought you should know, I don’t have my temps with me.” So somehow I managed to calm down enough to drive the rest of the way.

After all, I wouldn’t want the GH to be responsible for him not getting his real license! 

So anyway, it’s been a crazy week. I’m getting to know all my fellow finalists, there are pictures to be taken, dresses to be bought, and plans about manuscripts to be considered. And of course, the rest of life’s responsibilites to fulfill.

I am thrilled to be a finalist. I still can’t believe it. But I just don’t want to lose track of the ultimate goal, which is getting published. That means setting the craziness aside every day and making my daily word counts.

How do you all set craziness aside every day to get your work done? Actually, the past week isn’t dissimilar to the usual craziness of life. There’s just been a bit more of it than usual.

This is a picture from my own yard today. It was very sunny, but still only 50 degrees (that’s northern Ohio for you!). You can see the bare tree branches in the background. I don’t know what these little purple flowers are, but they resemble violets. They looked amazingly vibrant popping out of the grass. Spring is finally, finally almost here, after a very long and cloudy winter.

Do you see the analogy to my call story? 🙂

Purple flowers, northern Ohio, early April, 2013 (my pic)

I am a Golden Heart Double Finalist

Posted by Miranda Liasson on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 8:13 pm in Uncategorized | 2 comments

I was just going to post some pictures from my trip to the lovely city of Savannah this past weekend but today I got a call from RWA that BOTH of the manuscripts I entered finaled in the Golden Heart contest.

My friend and chaptermate Amy E Jones ( http://aejonesauthor.com/), also from Northeast Ohio RWA (NEORWA) also finaled in the paranormal category with her manuscript Mindsweeper.

Thanks to all my chaptermates and friends who’ve helped me, supported me, read my stuff, and helped me get here! You all know who you are and I will thank you all personally.

And congrats to all the GH and RITA finalists, all of whom are listed on the RWA website here

View of a Savanahh, Georgia, garden through a wrought iron gate (my photo).

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