Getting Those Juices Flowing...

No, not those juices! Geesh, where's your mind at?

I'm talking about those creative juices. You know, the inspiration, the ideas, the stuff needed to breathe life into stories.

Writing is a pretty solitary job. I mean, think about it—we sit in front of a computer all day, putting those snippets of scenes that flash through our minds onto our version of paper. We'll stare off into space, watching our own imaginary world unfold—while anyone who sees us doing that is thinking we're probably having some kind of break from reality. And okay, maybe we are. Not necessarily a bad thing, right?

We create characters, real live people (to us and—if done right—to the readers) with their own hopes and dreams and fears and interactions.

But when it comes to interacting in real life? Hmm…maybe not so much. When your job involves living in a make-believe world, shut away from the real one while you create your own, you don't always have time to "hang out". Then throw in the fact that quite a few writers also happen to be introverts and…well, you get the picture.

Creative juices are flowing in Nashville!

That's why writers love hanging around other writers. Have you ever been to a conference or booksigning, near the beginning during set-up? It's a huge hug-fest, with lots of smiles and laughter and talking. That's because writers get writers. It's normal to stare off into space (sometimes in the middle of a conversation). It's normal to talk about a character and her problems and issues and goals as if she was a real live person (because, you know, she is). Other writers get that, in a way nobody else can.

And that's why writers' retreats are the next best thing to falling into a vat of chocolate. You can sit down, discuss ideas, talk about those real characters. Plan and vent and rant and bounce ideas off each other. Get a group of writers together and that plot bump you've been struggling with suddenly disappears. Get a group of writers together and the inspiration and motivation takes off like that proverbial runaway train.

I just got back from a writers' retreat—this one in Nashville, with four fantastic ladies who kick some serious butt when it comes to inspiration and motivation. We're all at different stages in our careers but that doesn't matter—because we're writers.

Enjoying some downtime in Nashville--all in the name of research, of course!

And no, it wasn't all business. I mean, we were in Nashville—of course we're going to go out and play. And we did—from eating popcorn and watching Beauty and the Beast in our pj's, to hitting Opry Mills Mall and eating German food, to seeing the Grand Ole Opry and hitting up a honky tonk or three on lower Broadway (alcohol may or may not have been involved). It was a week of bonding, of writing, of bouncing around ideas and creating grand business plans. Of motivation. Of accountability.

Of friendship.

That's the other great thing about writers. Because of our jobs, we don't get a chance to see each other in person very often. But the distance—in both physical location and in time apart—doesn't matter. Months can go by until we see each other again and it doesn't matter. We'll hug and scream and laugh and carry on as if only a day has gone by. Then we'll get right down to business and talk about our characters and problems and inspire one another. Motivate one another.

Kicking it up at the Nashville Palace.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

But for now, I need to get back to my characters and their world. I have a schedule to keep to, and four wonderful ladies who will be kicking my butt if I don't stick to it!

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Lisa B. Kamps is currently juggling three series about real characters with real lives and real problems living in her head: The Baltimore Banners, The York Bombers, and Firehouse Fourteen. Her latest title, Second Alarm, is scheduled for release July 26 and can be ordered by clicking here.

To learn more about Lisa, please visit her website or follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Eve Gaddy: Procrastination Redux

Yes, I've talked about procrastination before. But since I'm procrastinating again it seemed like a good time to write another blog about it.:)

I'm sure there's a very good, subconscious reason for procrastination. For instance, last night, instead of writing (which I hadn't been doing all day because I was, you guessed it, procrastinating) I flipped on the TV to the show Nashville. No, I don't watch Nashville but something caught my eye so I started watching the last ten or fifteen minutes of the episode. And I heard a song that I not only love but that is a great song for the playlist of my current book. Fate. Or magic. Or maybe kismet. It's called Longer by Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio. Here's the link. http://bit.ly/1IDRdvA . I also post a song for the day on my social media sites and this is a brand new song I can post. Good thing all around, right?

See, there was something in the air that told me to watch it because I needed a song that will drop me right into my story. When you are highly distractible a trigger song is very helpful. And yes, I'm highly distractible. Where was I? Oh, yes, procrastination.

Today I found I couldn't write a scene until I knew a particular word one of the characters would use. (A twenty-eight year old cowboy and the word, I now know, is awesome.) Anyway, I had to email my friends, ask my kids and solicit suggestions on my Facebook author page for "the perfect word." Sometimes I'm able to write a word that's close and just make a note and come back to it. That might read something like this: good-looking (not exactly but sorta, more like hot but not that either, FIND WORD)

Yesterday it was the pool table. My characters are playing pool and I needed the perfect pool table. Very cool, over the top antique pool table. I found it fairly quickly but I wanted to be able to put that picture on the website for the new series that the story is a part of, and the only pictures of that table I've found are copyrighted. This involved an exhaustive look through the Internet and on a list of websites with royalty free images and that sort of thing. So far I haven't been able to find it.

Sometimes I simply don't want to do something so I procrastinate--I'm talking about writing mostly, but of course, it carries over to all facets of life. But very often I find there is a reason I can't do X, Y or Z and when I procrastinate I find out what that reason is.

Then there's the ultimate tool of procrastination. The Internet. Email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram... and one that's particularly addicting, Pinterest. Everyone knows that pinning pictures on Pinterest is a necessary part of a writer's creative process. Honest, it's not just procrastination. I really need to look at all those pictures of hot guys . . . After all, I write romance.