Burnout

  This spring, I finally planted a garden for the first time in years, pretending I had the time for another project. Into the soil went lettuce, varieties of squash, and tomatoes. A humble beginning, but it was the effort that counted.

Things started off decent. The green vines soon produced blooms with the promise of a good harvest. Then the wonderful Texas summer landed before the season officially began. I tried to keep up the watering, but to no avail. I dreaded looking out the back door as the leaves drooped and turned brown. Even I know when it’s time to call it quits, though I seldom do it. But there was no cost effective way to save the tiny garden spread. So I let it go. It was burned.

Sometimes I reach that point with projects. Recently, I had to let something go before it contributed to a mental burnout. I cut my monthly contribution to the Jewels of Encouragement blog. I loved the fellowship and fun, but I couldn’t hang on to everything or I’d face sinking to the bottom. I have to learn how to say “no” more often. Not an easy thing for me, since my brain tells me I can do anything, all at the same time. But it just doesn’t work out that way.

There are times when I can feel a burnout coming with a particular project. This blog, for instance. I had to let it alone for a while before the stress took me down.

Once it reaches the burnout point, there’s no saving a project until the next season rolls around. If it ever does.

I have to step back to fully comprehend what in the world I do with each of my days. Sometimes things aren’t nearly as overwhelming as I’d thought. More often though, they are even more so. But I just prioritize, pray and move forward.

And I’m already planning a fall garden. For some reason, I can’t let myself quit.

For Him,

Sarah Elisabeth

Novella? Short Story? And What’s Flash Fiction?

I embarrass myself when I use terms my friends don’t know. It’s an inconsiderate thing to do, but I’m really not trying to sound smart or on a higher level.

In my tight focus on writing studies, I often think this is stuff everyone already knows and I’m playing catch up. That’s not always the case. So let me apologize, back up, and explain some of the cute terminology I use in the wonderful world of fiction.

Flash Fiction

Let’s start small. Perhaps the least known term in my vocabulary is flash fiction (AKA short, short stories). On FaithWriters.com, they say I’ve mastered this form of writing by pushing me to the Masters Level (still not comfortable with that) in the Weekly Writing Challenge. All I know is, flash fiction is crazy fun to write and just as fun to read. Here’s one of mine: I Didn’t Know You Were…

With a FaithWriters.com challenge entry, the max word count is set at 750 words. Sound easy? No way. It’s actually harder to tell a complete story in such limited space. Characterization, setting, descriptions, conflict, moral-of-the-story…you have to get in and out so fast it’s easy to miss important elements. A comment I saw more than once went along the lines of, “Great story, but I think it would really benefit from a higher word count.” Then there are times when just 500 words is more than sufficient. It’s an art, no doubt.

There are no industry standards on any of these terms. It varies greatly depending on the genre or publication. In my research, though, the consensus for flash fiction is 1,000 words or less. (About 2 Word doc pages)

Short Story

Things get sticky in this category, especially with the term still being used to describe what can now be defined as flash fiction or novella.

I love reading (and writing) short stories. They give me enough to really satisfy my curiosity about the character and plot, bringing the story to a dynamic conclusion—all without leaving my chair once. That’s the hallmark of a short story. You should be able to read it in one sitting.

This is an important term to understand if you buy ebooks. Always check the description and word/page count. You might think you’re getting a full length novel, when in actuality it’s a short story. Typically, short stories range from 1,000-10,000 words. Again, genre plays a big part.

Novella

Never heard that one before? Neither had I, until I started writing again seriously a few years ago.

Personally, I have a hard time calling anything less than 20,000 words a novella. But if we didn’t, what would we call those tweens? Oh, I almost forgot! Novelette.  Hmmm, another term to confuse people. Glad I’m not evil.

I’ve never written a novella, but I’m on that track with my new series. Can’t get into that here, but let’s just say it’s a blast. This length gives you room for more characters and more story. It pulls up short of a novel, making it the perfect size for avid readers with a short attention span.

Some writers want to call their 50,000 or 60,000 word manuscripts a novel. The culprit of this is probably National Novel Writing Month. It challenges you to “write a novel in a month.” The goal is 50,000 words. But go pitch that to a publishing company and be prepared for rejection. The minimum is usually 80,000 words and can go as high as 120,000. But then we have the genre thing again. Some sci-fi book competitions consider it a novel at 40,000 words. Go figure.

Novel

I don’t feel the need to get in depth with this one. We’ve all read the ancient (but still loved) tomes, to the thinner paperbacks from our favorite authors today.

I’ve already indicated novel word count, so here’s just another tip for browsing ebooks when all they give is the number of words. There are different ways to measure, but I did my own quick estimation on the last novel I read. Seems the pages averaged 330 words each. Don’t hold me to that, but it’s what I’m using. So when an ebook says it 96,000 words, I’d say it’s about a 290 page book. Just a guess.

Micro Fiction

I know I’m jumping around a bit here, but I can do it if my characters can! Okay, enough rant. Micro fiction is tiny. This is when you can tell a story in about the length of a Tweet. Or maybe a little longer than that, as in the case of my good FaithWriters.com friend, Jan Ackerson. Check out her blog, One Hundred Words for some awesome examples of micro fiction. 

Hope that helps clear up my insulting use of these terms. And maybe my explanation was a little less boring yet more informative than Wikipedia.

For Him,

Sarah Elisabeth

P.S. If you haven’t already, grab a copy of my .99 cent e-book (yes, I published one before I ever had an e-reader) Third Side of the Coin, Seven Flash Fictions. If you have, I pray you were blessed, encouraged and left with more hope than you had before.

Amazon for Kindle: Third Side of the Coin, Seven Flash Fictions

Barnes and Noble for Nook: Third Side of the Coin, Seven Flash Fictions

Looking Down on Fear

While on my journey to become a full-time writer, I work a monthly job at a trades day market. It provides the income we need to survive on beans and cornbread (and an assortment of chicken, fish and steak dishes. God is good).

This job is hard manual labor, but I love meeting people and getting out of the house five days a month.

These portable shops are set-up and torn-down each time, and I do some of that work in addition to my sales job. But one thing I always avoided was the ladder. *shiver* Anything over two rungs up and my knees Jell-O.

The day came and the last touch left required decorations on the top shelves running the length of the booth. With other workers occupied, I bravely grabbed the ladder and set to work.

I tried just the first two steps. Not high enough. I stepped to the third one and wanted to close my eyes. Instead, I glanced around. Wow. What a view. Familiar faces and corners took on a new depth, and I felt a rush of elation for no reason. I loved the new view. It was cool.

I remembered my fear of the third rung, but I didn’t tremble. I continued decorating the shelves, repositioning the ladder down the line as I worked. I paused at each spot to take in the view. I felt empowered. Not only was my fear conquered, I found that facing it brought a pleasant experience. I enjoyed it.

What else am I afraid of without cause? What’s keeping me from the wonderful things God has for me? How much have I missed in life because of fear?

Back to writing. I constantly force my characters to face their fears (sometimes I feel so mean). I strive to make the outcome realistic. If you can’t relate to my character, what good is the story? It’s not right when things turn out rosy for them and it could never happen that way in real life. But my characters do have the power to motivate you to face your own fear.

Whether it’s heights or sharing the gospel with someone or visiting a new church, I pray the real fears in life shine through my characters and into your heart; and hopefully give you a fresh perspective.

Rise above your fears–God has a new view for you.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV

For Him, Sarah Elisabeth

Lessons from the Lawn

  With the luscious spring comes my least favorite task: mowing grass. I hate it. But when my attempt to use the lawn mower to scalp it to the roots fails, I resign myself to the fact that I’ll have to cut grass all through the hot Texas summer.

The trademark I leave behind is the wiggle rows of tire tracks. I can’t hold to a straight line. Not in cutting grass, not in drawing on paper. Not in life.

Before each week begins, I detail my schedule hour by hour. Regardless of the number of years I’ve done this, it turns out the same–only half the list gets marked off (maybe). Why do I keep up a practice that sets me up for failure? Simple. Half the list gets done. It keeps me on course for my annual goals.

My fictional characters’ lives are the same. They have things planned on how life should be, when poof! it’s gone before they can blink. Sometimes it’s gone before I can blink. A character will say or do something that disrupts what I had planned for them. At those times, I’m tempted to highlight and delete where things went wrong in the plot.

But not even God does that. I make a bad choice. He stays with me until I get my line straight. In the end, the destination is the same–not perfect, but still filled with hope.

And the whole yard gets mowed.

***

For Him,

Sarah Elisabeth

P.I.C.N.I.C. Problems

  In case you missed my post on the Jewels of Encouragement blog, here it is:

I encountered a P.I.C.N.I.C problem—again. 

I first learned that term during a Toastmaster’s roast speech given by “Joe” who had spent the last twenty-eight years working on computers. Joe said the problems he’d dealt with fell into two categories, the most common being P.I.C.N.I.C. He explained the techie term:

Problem

In

Chair

Not

In

Computer

I fall into that category more than any of us would want to admit. Nothing more frustrating than constant Error! Error! messages.

Back to my P.I.C.N.I.C problem of late. I was determined to learn how to format my own eBook for such devices I’ve never seen, such as Kindles, Nooks, Sony Readers, this-and-that newest gadget. Not to mention iPhones and Macs. Okay, we won’t go there.

I had a wonderful step-by-step guide to light my way down the lonely HTML path. Scary stuff, not because I’d never used it, but because I had.

The first step got me because it was deceptively simple. Download a freebie Programming Text Editor. Nothing to it.

Error! Error!

I tried again. And again.

I decided to skip that step and move on, trying to use the lame default text editor on my computer. Soon I was back to the freebie, determined to get it downloaded. It proved to be a P.I.C.N.I.C problem.

That overcome, I tried to copy my half-formatted Word doc into my prize editor. Another simple step.

Error! Error!

Three deep breaths, I tried to save the doc.

Error! Error!

Getting frustrated with the Error! Error!? Me too. In my brother’s words, I was ready to throw my laptop into the street. Well, I’d never do that to my baby, but one of us was about to lose it. I did the only thing I could do. Shut it down. Let the soft purr of the fan quiet to stillness. In that silence, it dawned on me the one thing I hadn’t tried to get this to work.

Prayer.

So I did. And I got specific. Lord, please let this program work right. Let me be able to do this.

I rebooted, opened my programs and got back to work. I discovered my latest P.I.C.N.I.C problem and resolved it. Onward.

It wasn’t until I shut down for the night with a hot shower that I realized another prayer was needed.

Thank You Lord, for letting me see my errors.

Ah. I should stop and pray about life’s P.I.C.N.I.C problems more often. God is always waiting with the answers to life's Error! Error! messages.

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Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Prov. 3:5-6 NKJV 

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For Him,

Sarah Elisabeth