Thursday Timeout with Mitzi Flyte

Recharging? Recharging? Another cup, big cup, of coffee.

Well, that’s one way.

Another way for a writer to recharge is to read.

That seems like a no brainer but I’ve heard writers (and one was a very famous writer) say they don’t have time to read because they’re too busy….uh…er…writing.

Stephen King (heard of him?) says (and this is paraphrasing), “If you don’t have time to read, then you don’t have time to write.”  I believe almost everything that man says…about writing.

Pet cemeteries, not so much.

But I digress.

Reading to recharge…

I’m part of an anthology: Tales from the Mist. http://www.amazon.com/Tales-From-Mist-Rhonda-Hopkins/dp/1480036706/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359383670&sr=8-1&keywords=tales+from+the+mist. The authors are a group of writers who met on www.thewritersguidetoepublishing.com site. And it was almost like, “Hey, kids, let’s do a show in the barn…” but not quite. We even had an editor and professional artist for the cover. But we basically did it ourselves. For several weeks it was in the top ten of Amazon’s Fantasy Anthologies.

Now that should have recharged me. But not really. I wanted to make my own short story collection…horror/paranormal/supernatural. But I wasn’t getting anywhere. What to do? What to do?

Read, Mitzi. Read.

And so I went back to the masters, Lovecraft and my beloved Poe and began to reread some of their fantastical stories.

Recharged! And now I’m writing some of my own fantastical short stories!

But what about if I wanted to write something different?

Should I do something different to recharge and/or inspire?

I wanted to write about a Stephanie Plum-type character, widowed, in her forties and with no work prospects but who fancies herself a journalist. This is only partially autobiographical…the very last part. The name “Elizabeth Montgomery Peacock” appeared to me like a “man on a flaming pie” (from a Paul McCartney song and a John Lennon saying).

Well, for this recharging I stole again from another of my favorite authors: Jennie Crusie. Jennie likes to collage her story ideas.

Our RWA chapter, Pocono Lehigh Romance Writers, decided one month to do just that. We made collages of our works in progress.

My collage is about the completed, but not-yet-published, book, “Elizabeth Peacock and the Body on Abbey Road.”  The story has aliens, a handsome cop-type, a handsome Mulder-type and a hearse named Harry. Working on the collage was a blast and it helped me get back into the story.

Another trick I have is to listen to books on CD…books that are in the same genre I’m writing.

To recharge, get all of your senses in tune to your brain: touch (collage), sight (reading/collage), hearing (CDs).

Smell?

The chocolate chip cookies are in the oven right now.

Thanks, Mitzi, for sharing how you recharge. 

Readers, looking for more of Mitzi? She can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MitziFlyteAuthor and on the web at  www.mitziflyte.com.