For a few weeks now I’ve been writing away on my WIP, just cranking it out like it was my job or something.  Then all of a sudden, I got spooked.

It all started when I reached this one critical chapter, and I’ve been scared stiff ever since.  I know exactly what needs to happen in the chapter, I only have this chapter and a little piece of another left to go, and yet I’m terrified.

All these sneaky little doubts keep cluttering my mind.  What if I write this chapter and it totally flops?  What if I can’t pull it off?  What if I only had a few good chapters in me and I used them all up already?

So I’ve been doing what I always do when I get scared: I’ve been reading a lot.  It’s a way of getting all those scary thoughts out of my head and distracting myself.  Kind of like the mental equivalent of leaving a nightlight on.

What about you?  What do you do when your inner writer gets scared silly?

Last week, I got an interesting question about writing big papers and coming up with the argument.  The question was:

“Is it more like an argument that you will prove or disprove by reading the books? I don’t know how I can make such any statement without reading the books and finding out how authors are approaching a topic…”  ~Kerryn Angell

This question got me thinking about the chicken-egg dilemma that often accompanies academic papers.  The problem is this: most papers we write in high school, college and even graduate school are artificial.  The parameters of the paper force us to look at only a limited number of works and construct an argument from there, ignoring the rest of the canon.  Not only that, oftentimes professors require us to get a stamp of approval on our “thesis statement” before we’ve even read the books!

The reason professors and colleges often use this method is because of a simple, yet powerful constraint: time.  Students just don’t have the time to go on a hunting expedition to craft a scholarly paper so the teachers narrow the task down for us.  They limit the number of books we discuss in the paper, they check our thesis statements before we start, they make sure we’re headed in the right direction.  They do all of this because they want students to focus on learning to write the paper, and not waste hours of time hunting down a thesis through piles of books.

In DIY MFA things are a bit different.  We have the freedom to make mistakes, beat our head against the wall and have a few false starts.  When I wrote my literature thesis for the MFA, I didn’t tell the professor but I read at least ten books that fit the thesis.  We were only allowed to choose four, so I chose the ones that best illustrated my point and saved the rest of the books for later.  Someday I will go back to that literature thesis, rewrite it to encompass all the books I want to include.  But that is a project for a later time.

My point is, that when you’re writing or planning the “Big Paper” for DIY MFA, you have the freedom to explore the literature first.  Read a lot.  Think a lot.  Then make up your mind about what you want to say about the literature.  The goal here isn’t to write a mind-blowing paper (though that would be awesome).  Rather, the point is to build a strong relationship with reading and to see how books fit together, relate to each other.

In this aspect of DIY MFA it’s OK to be a detective.  In fact, that’s probably a good thing.  And who knows, maybe as you sleuth out your argument and look for connections between books, you might just find a few of these.

Hi everyone,

iggi and I have been pondering something.  See, every so often, we come up with wild and crazy ideas like DIY MFA and other cool stuff and we want to give our loyal readers a preview before we make it public on the site.

Or sometimes we’re thinking something could be a good idea but we want to test the waters and see if there’s interest before announcing it to the whole world.  We need the eyes and ears of our trusted readers to give input.

Or sometimes we just have fun news to share and we want to get the word out to all our online friends.

To that end, I’ve set up a little sign-up form in the about tab and if you don’t mind sharing your email and twitter name, iggi and I would love to have you on our contact list.

And don’t worry, iggi and I don’t spam and we will only email the whole list if it’s something REALLY important.  Also we will never, EVER share your emails with any person or group.

And of course, iggi and I LOVE to hear from you so feel free to email or tweet and share your thoughts.  Or just say “Hi.”  Whatever you like.

Today’s post is by Missy Groeger, my good friend and fitness guru.  She’s a personal trainer at New York City’s Reebok Gym and has a background in nutrition as well as fitness.  A workout machine, Missy has participated in several fitness competitions, including Nationals.  Lately, I had been tossing around ideas on how to add a fitness component to DIY MFA and I KNEW I would have to ask Missy her advice.  Here follows Missy’s customized workout and fitness session, specially designed for writers who spend most of their time sitting at their computers.

Roll over points at which you feel the most pressure and hold for 20-30 seconds.  Repeat 2-3 times.

Calves

Lower Back

Shoulder

Upper Back

Basic Strengthening Exercises:

(Do 3 sets of 15-20 Repetitions per exercise)

Lunges

Push-ups

Squats

Superman (hold for 30-60 seconds)

Plank (hold for 30-60 seconds)

Side Lunge

Five things to keep in mind:

1.     STRETCH
2.     Work Large muscle groups
3.     Sit up straight at your desk/computer
4.     Get rest!!  Your muscles need time to repair themselves
5.     Eat regular smaller meals