The Writer who overcame writers Limbo, The Reader who is researching and seeing locations come to life!

 One of my favorite things to do when writing is look for photos that inspire me. A name, a place, a flower, whatever sparks the muse or mood I guess. Every once in a while I find a photo I love and I have to find out more about it. My current book has a character from Missouri, it is where my mother grew up and I have always wanted to visit. Thanks to the amazing internet I can visit their. The left is a photo and below are of Rock port, Missouri..I loved the fact that it was black and white and also was charming. The classic buildings are adorable. I decided my girl needed to grow up here.  My research has been so much fun. All of my stories are set in Portland, Oregon where I grew up. So I find the city and all its buildings amazing. Portland is great in that it restores the old and meshes it with the new buildings. In some areas it looks as if you stepped back in time, just like Rock Port below. England is also a place I have always wanted to visit. Wikipedia is one of my favorite sites on the internet and I love that I can find small towns and villages there.

The next set of photos are of Overton, Hampshire, England. Where my girls dad grew up. I chose these towns based on the photos. It is beautiful how a town or a moment can be captured behind the lens. I hope I am able to capture that in my stories as well.

There are so many times during this writing process when I am just overwhelmed there are so many books out there to read. So many versions of what to do, how to write etc. I have found this is my way. Research, visuals, and sometimes going in person to a location to see it, feel it, smell surroundings etc.

The above photos are of the Pearl district  it is one of my favorite places in Portland, Oregon. It is fascinating to me that a warehouse district is now an upscale shopping an restaurant district, it also boasts loft living at its finest! Below is my current building. I found a photo of this. Just its corner. The first shot of the brick building was all I found on the internet. I only had a street number. So I went in search of this actual building in the Pearl. It is better in person then online and the buildings around it are too. Below are some of the photos.

Around this area is also my other place to be when not writing Powell's city of books. It is one of the things our city is famous for and it lives up to its name.

Below are quotes I love, they describe writing in its essence..

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow

A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket. ~Charles Peguy

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath

So I am happy to say my writers block is gone hallelujah!! As a reader I started reading my story as a  it has been great, except for a few parts... (well stuff I forgot to add, my poor readers glad I caught it!) Documented above is my research has lately on my current book, and adding to finished book...

~Life is a work in progress as writing is...Until next time readers, and hopeful writers. Jess =)

The Writer who succumbed to writers block, The Reader who went back to being just a mom.

 I know when I started this blog my excitement was evident. I had accomplished a long time goal. Writer me was anxious to get everything done as fast as possible. Reader me, was researching everything. Yet, I work full time,the holidays, and my children, and trying to be a wife who has energy for her husband is completely exhausting and debilitating sometimes. Even in exhaustion I always find time to be a wife and mom.  However, ask me how to manage time for myself and I usually laugh. Time for myself is a foreign country?

 A friend of mine pointed out something today I hadn't really thought of.

 My friend said: Your frame of mind is to be a mother and a wife. Your mind will be used for them first.  That statement was so true. The "me" in the scenario left after I got married and had kids. I will always put there needs about my own. I can always find the kids stuff, my hubby's stuff. Ask me where mine is, I have no idea most of the time. I laugh about it, joke that even at 38 I am senile. In actuality I am amazed if I get an hour to myself, and honestly I am not usually thinking about writing. Even though it is such a huge part of who I am, I still chose it last? I wonder if this it the reason for my writers block these past two months. I never intended to not write for two months. Everything I have read about blogs, says you are supposed to write every week to get a following? My goodness, I don't even get a day off some weeks.

 So my natural reaction when I cannot write is "mom mode." Which is okay because its also me. It is not a motivator to write though. So I have felt recently like this maybe isn't what I am supposed to do. I have been second guessing myself and making excuses not to write..This procrastination is not me. I am usually an all or nothing gal. So I have been cleaning, cooking, and doing all these other things instead of write. I wonder if anyone else experiences this? I also had a birthday in January and as you age, I think you spend time thinking about what you haven't done. So the above picture is accurate for how I have been feeling lately about my writing. I also started editing and took out good stuff because I was over analyzing things like always. The below picture is also accurate lol..

 Then a co-worker encouraged me, an another demanded more pages, and then a dream I had about the story actually made sense. Here I am; excited about writing again and motivated to share this story with you. I was stuck in this scene and didn't know how to write my girl out of it. Then it just came to me and I stared writing at my lunch that day.

 So my self-doubt just about overwhelmed me, and it almost succeeded. Yet, I am here again and trying anew. Cross your fingers and kick writers block on its a@%..That is what I am going to do.

~Until next time readers, and hopeful writers. Jess =)