As I’ve mentioned before, imaginations require fuel.
My foolproof fuel: coffee or tea.

At ten, my favorite was Luzianne iced tea. Pair that with a bowl of pretzels and writing would surely follow. Usually for hours at a time.

In high school, it was Twinnings English Breakfast. I couldn’t get enough. I did, however, get rid of the pretzels. The extra calories were not my friend.

At twenty-one, English Breakfast’s popularity waned only to be replaced by Twinnings Darjeeling. And sometimes coffee with lots of French vanilla creamer. I was still new to coffee at the time, so the more creamer, the better. But only occasionally.

This month, though, my tastes have changed. I always thought Twinnings was wonderful, but then I went to a tea room with my grandparents and mom for Valentine’s Day and met my new love, Taylors of Harrogate Afternoon Darjeeling. If you ever liked Darjeeling, you haven’t tried it until you’ve tried this brand.

Fortunately, the box my Pap bought me has fifty wonderful tea bags. The bad news: they don’t sell it at the local grocery store. Guess that means I’ll have to order more on Amazon or endure driving an hour and a half north to the tea room whenever I need a new box.

What refreshments fuel your imagination?

Almost everyone on the list is easy. Chocolate, flowers, some other treat, cards, and most of them are happy as can be. The only exception is my husband. Don’t get the wrong idea. He loves chocolate. He just never has much at a time… which means that there’s still lots of candy in the freezer from St. Nicholas Day (December 6th). I think he just finished the last of his Easter candy not too long ago.

So, this year, I took some inspiration from my younger brother. A few months ago, he posted this on my Facebook wall with the simple caption: “Thinking of my brother-in-law.”

So, feeling inspired (despite the glaring grammatical error), I decided to do something fun. After all, love (romantic love,eros, that is) isn’t just about fireworks and candlelit dinners and bouquets of roses. It’s allowed to be playful and quirky.

A trip to Target and two Nerf guns later (one stealth rifle and one revolver), Valentine’s Day was ready! He came home to this:

He loved it more than any chocolate I could have found. Here’s to thinking out of the box and ideas from little brothers.

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day with the people who love you too!

But I’m back now. And I have good news. My beloved library has a new addition!

For Christmas, my husband ordered a print of hand-drawn map of Middle-earth. (And it came all the way from New Zealand!) I had wanted one since we established the library to replace an old poster map of Middle-earth that I had found and framed years before. While it wasn’t an ugly poster, it did seem a little out of place with Mount Doom spewing out magma and ash at the bottom of the map. Understandably, the natural home for this new map is my library. Unfortunately, though, it had to be framed, which means that — after a few hiccups on the store’s end — it took about a month to finally make its debut. But over the weekend, it finally settled into its new home.

With my Jane Austen corner on the left side and the library cabinet on the right, it looks right at home. All it needs is a console table with two lamps (and a pile of beautiful books) below it and the matching desks on the left side of the room, and it will be perfect.

While I would love to blame it completely on determination and self-control, I can’t. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about myself as a writer, it’s that maintaining any sort of pace requires feeding my muse. I hadn’t realized it before, but that’s exactly what I’ve been doing over the last three weeks as well.

My first novel was born after watching Star Wars for the first time. After the movie ended and I was sent to bed, it felt like something in my young mind had woken up. Dreams of epic battles and heroic feats swirled around my mind. I wanted to be part of it. More than anything, I wanted to be involved in something heroic. So, I pulled out the nearest half empty journal and started scribbling a story that has remained my pet project (and sometimes my bane) ever since.

Throughout the years, I’ve found that my passion for writing peaks whenever something awakens that part of me — that part that longs for adventure and heroism. Sometimes it’s listening to a soundtrack while driving alone between pastures and forests. Sometimes it’s a beautifully written book that I wish I were a part of. Sometimes it’s strolling outside and allowing my muse to wander freely as well, placing myself amid some imaginary adventure.

And sometimes — like at the moment — it’s the latest Legend of Zelda video game. Perhaps it’s odd and amusing, but my imagination shifts into high gear after helping villagers, decimating monsters, and saving the day while accompanied by a soundtrack.

When that part of me is awake, I feel the most alive. I feel most in touch with people around me, with my priorities, with life, with God. And while it’s sometimes easy to get busy and allow my imagination to fall into hibernation, that’s not the way I was meant to live. I’m meant to be awake. God gave me an imagination; I need to take care of it.

I suppose I first figured this out at twelve. You never know when an understanding of the feudal system, a basic knowledge of meteorology, or another synonym for blue might come in handy. So, I began collecting information, not only in my head but in a notebook.

Looking through that notebook now makes me laugh. The front section is filled with detailed descriptions of sensations. The tingle of opening pores, especially on the upper lip, when sitting in a hot car in the dead of summer. The disorientation of nearly fainting. The tensing of internal organs while plummeting downwards on a roller coaster. The back is filled with a list words from Saxon, Norman, and other medieval languages; details about the clothes from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance; and other random bits of information I had acquired.

But collecting details — thorough details — about a single time period isn’t odd. Neither is holding onto things I learned in school. (In fact, my mom — my teacher for most of my life — would be proud.) It’s some of the extra things that I began looking up as I grew older.

Last week, I spent about twenty minutes to figure out how far someone could walk in a day. The distances on the map of the world I created are not in miles but in “a day’s journey.” To my high school self, this made perfect sense. After all, there must be an average pace, and using it as a measurement meant not having to decide between creating my own unit of measurement or breaking down and using miles. The trouble is, I recently needed to know what that distance looked like to know how large an island is. In searching of fitness websites, I stumbled upon a forum of writers asking the same question, which made me laugh. I suppose I’m not the only one who needed to know that fifteen-ish miles was reasonable, especially since my characters favor traveling on horseback (and do so often).

I learned about tetanus a few months ago because I feared that one of my characters might catch it from a puncture wound. Fortunately, the wound was only in one draft, so no one had to endure the potential of serious muscle spasms or high fevers.  

A few years ago, I needed to know about stab wounds. What would be fatal, what would be debilitating but not deadly, and what would be considered minor. As a fellow writer, you understand why you’d need that sort of information — to make a story more believable. But with every website I checked, I wondered what the FBI would think if they knew what I was reading. Especially since I had recently looked for how far someone could fall without being killed from the impact.

What is the strangest bit of information you’ve collected as a writer?

I’m not the type of person who typically makes a list of resolutions at the beginning of every year, but this year I’ve been inspired to make a list of goals for my writing. (Thanks, C.B. Wentworth!) Perhaps the peer pressure will help me accomplish them in a more timely manner.

1. Get the first novel ready to go.
You know, let some family and friends review it, make any necessary changes (hopefully, they will be few!), research the publishing process, and prepare a query letter.

2. Finish the draft of the second novel — and make sure that the dates align with the first novel like they should.

3. Write at least a rough draft of the short story I’ve been pondering for the last two years.
I have some more research to do before I can begin. Some of it, I can do alone. For the rest, I need to build up the nerve to ask for some interviews… which is not a comfortable thought for an introvert like me.

4. Submit at least one of my creations for a contest, literary magazine, etc.
It’s good practice and might have some encouraging results.

5. Blog more regularly.
It’s good practice and a great way to keep connected with the wonderful people I’ve met in the blogosphere.

Do you typically set goals at the beginning of each year? What are your current goals?

I stayed up late that night to watch it. I had liked The Hobbit when I read it for literature with my mom and my friends in eighth grade. (I was homeschooled, so my mom taught a co-op literature for my friends and me.) However, watching The Lord of the Rings come to life on film captured my imagination in a way that reading The Hobbit hadn’t a couple years earlier.

As I’ve mentioned before, it changed my writing. Not only had it opened my eyes to how rich the world of fantasy could be, but it awoke something deep within me. That love of the epic — of ordinary people playing an important role in monumental events — has driven not only the stories that I craft but also the story that I am a part of. There is more to the story than just me, but I am a vital part of it. Whether I am an Arwen or a Sam Gamgee or a Gandalf, I have some role to play. (I just hope I’m not a Gollum!) Whatever my role is, I intend on playing it well.

 
(For your entertainment, a picture of my dog dressed as Frodo… Isn’t she cute? : ) )

The Dark Lord Sauron himself.

As you likely know, he found himself unemployed after a minor mistake at his last job. Fortunately, though, he and the small army of orcs who live in my glove compartment are great protection for the car when I’m out and about. Now all I need to do is train them to carry the groceries into the house.

For the past couple of years, I have known that it has been on the right track… finally. I was actually proud of the story it had matured into, and I was most focused with doing all the perfecting to it that I possibly could. Nothing would embarrass me more than to learn that there was a gaping plot hole I had somehow missed.

To my surprise, he returned it with only three comments: two that the glaring rough spots I had been working with were finally polished and the other noted a relatively minor tweak that I fixed within twenty minutes.

So, I suppose that means that, after about fifteen years and God-only-knows how many drafts and complete revisions, I’m done.

Or, at least, this story contains the best of what my current skills can produce. And I don’t think that I will be too embarrassed about it fifteen years from now (I hope). Which means it’s time to harass some friends and family members who are avid readers and seek their opinions.

When I was thinking about the possibility that I really might be done this time, I started thinking about how the story has changed throughout my life. And I figured you might find it amusing to see where my juvenile mind started, where I was in high school (when I thought that I was done the first time… I even tried to find a publisher!), and where it has all ended up.

The Setting

• In the 1990′s: Space
  The story was born after watching Star Wars for the very first time, so it’s theme: space and a rebellion, of course!
• In the 2000′s: A medieval land
  Everything changed after I read The Lord of the Rings and saw the depths of the world that Tolkien created.
• Now: Still a medieval land
  A better developed one than when I was finishing high school, void of the fairy tale creatures that no longer seem to fit. : )

The Protagonist

• In the 1990′s: The prince
• In the 2000′s: The prince (with a new name)
• Now: Still the prince (but with worse attitude problems)

The Antagonist

• In the 1990′s: Ever heard of Darth Vader? Because he used to be the antagonist’s twin. (Not literally.)
• In the 2000′s: Your stereotypical evil king, including the black cape and evil laugh.
• Now: You might get a bad feeling about him, but he’s actually rather kind and truly thinks he is doing the right thing.

Biggest Changes Since the Beginning

• It slowly morphed from third person to a first person narrator/false protagonist.
• It’s not in space.
• The whole plot is completely different. If you read the original version, you would never guess that the current one is based on it.

Things Thing That Stayed the Same

• Rosen
  The character has changed from being the prince’s younger sister to just a daughter of a lord, but that name has been in every draft since the beginning. For a while, I kept it because I honestly thought that I had made it up and really liked it. Now, I keep it just because it’s been in the story for so long and it’s an inside joke for anyone who knows that I thought I had created the name.

What is the longest that you have been working on one story? What sort of changes has it gone through between when you started it and now?

Last time, I discussed discipline. Unfortunately, my daily word count was not always 1,667. (In fact, last Saturday, I had to write 7,000 words to get back on track… Note to self: Don’t let students write stories longer than three pages next year and avoid a November due date!) But despite my shortcomings, I crossed the 50,000 word mark last night. Another novel has been started. It’s rough–so embarrassingly rough that I will never willingly divulge its contents–but my ideas are recorded and I can begin mulling over it as I complete the two novels that preceed it. (With how long it takes me to craft a novel, number three can use the head start!)

But, more importantly, I think I’m one step closer to mastering the art of discipline in my writing. Here are the things that I learned about discipline from this year’s NaNoWriMo:

• It’s okay to write for only a couple of minutes sometimes. The important part isn’t necessarily the words I penned, but the time that I took to pen them.
• Take my own advice that I learned from Scott O’dell, and stop writing before I run out of ideas so I know what will happen next.
• Tea and coffee fuel my muse and must be present at all times if I am to write anything. (Yes, that does mean I have a cup of Darjeeling in front of me right now.)
• My muse can be tamed enough to work with me on a daily basis (given that I have enough tea or coffee).

Perhaps if I keep it up, my muse will become a little more like one of Pavlov’s dogs (a warm drink and an open Word document mean it’s time to let the words flow) and less like a creativity-crazed berserker.