{"id":1422,"date":"2013-07-05T17:30:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-06T00:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=1422"},"modified":"2013-11-08T20:55:41","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T04:55:41","slug":"inspired-by-a-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2013\/writing\/inspired-by-a-fly\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspired By A Fly"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve neglected my blog for a week as I\u2019ve been busy revising, yet again, my novel\u2014a romantic adventure with some paranormal elements. My blog topic was going to be one about Snowden<\/a>\u2014the whistle blower on American spying\u2014and whether he\u2019s a hero or a villain (our family is evenly divided on that score). But instead of writing about him, I\u2019ve been inspired by a fly.<\/p>\n

A fly<\/a> landed boldly on my desk the other morning. It \"flysat there for a moment, between me and my computer. That was odd enough but even odder still, it landed in an upside down position. It then righted itself and flew back to the window, semi-hidden by my venetian blinds. It (she or he) got my attention again when it buzzed. I looked over to see her upside down again, resting on the window glass. And then as before, she flipped over, right side up, and was gone. Quite the trick!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a trick worth copying. That whole notion of flipping. For me, it\u2019s my thinking that needs flipping. I had hoped to publish my novel traditionally. It wasn\u2019t an unreasonable expectation. I\u2019ve been agented before, many years back for my screenplays. Story is story, so I thought it shouldn\u2019t be hard to find an agent again, but it has been.<\/p>\n

There could be a variety of reasons for that. The writing (oh, God no, not my writing), the story (same thing), the subject matter (put romance in and it should sell, right?) or my age (I\u2019m a grandmother trying to break in). I don\u2019t want to admit it\u2019s any or all of the reasons I\u2019ve listed, but I do begin to wonder what the problem is when the pile of rejections threatens to bury me at my desk.<\/p>\n

Am I discouraged? No, because I believe in craft and story. I know it\u2019s hard for me to be subjective, as I\u2019ve written this damn story myself, but it\u2019s the kind of story I like to read. So, whether it gets much of a readership or not, I can say I truly entertained myself during the process of pulling it all together.<\/p>\n

The idea of flipping, inspired by a fly, reminds me of the days when I was a clinical social worker and helped clients reframe their problem. Reframing<\/a> is like flipping. \u00a0So, like the fly, I\u2019m now prepared to flip, not my body, but my thinking on how to get my novel published.And like the old clich\u00e9, which I\u2019m quoting (because it\u2019s good, why not?), let the chips fall where they may.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve neglected my blog for a week as I\u2019ve been busy revising, yet again, my novel\u2014a romantic adventure with some paranormal elements. My blog topic was going to be one… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88,4],"tags":[141,517,78,9,518,519,7,5],"class_list":["post-1422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-writing","tag-agent","tag-craft","tag-diana-stevan","tag-novel","tag-publish","tag-snowden","tag-story","tag-writing-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-mW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2254,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2015\/writing\/how-a-fly-inspired-me-to-self-publish\/","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":0},"title":"How A Fly Inspired Me To Self-Publish","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"21 \u0421\u0435\u0440\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Inspiration comes in many forms. Yesterday, I had coffee with a woman who had bought my book and wanted me to sign it. She's a writer, and from the background she shared with me, an experienced and talented one. The problem she shared was that she was having trouble getting\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Inspired By A Fly","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/fly-photo-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/fly-photo-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/fly-photo-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/fly-photo-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/fly-photo-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1702,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2014\/writing\/writing-process-blog-hop\/","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":1},"title":"WRITING PROCESS BLOG HOP","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"7 \u041b\u0438\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"When you read all those wonderful books, do you ever wonder about the writer? Where the ideas come from? What a writer\u2019s day is like? What makes them tick? Are they as crazy as their characters, or do they draw from some other well? The writing process blog hop will\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"My Baba, Lukia Mazurec","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/P1090283-300x297.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":417,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/revision-redux\/","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":2},"title":"Revision Redux","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"24 \u0422\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Trust me to go over and over my work. I get some interest and I'm off again, rewriting the story I've written. In writing my novel, I went on an adventure with my protagonist to Ireland and its underwater surprises. Of course, I had to see everything but everything isn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/P10107993-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1755,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2014\/writing\/a-little-housekeeping\/","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":3},"title":"More Housekeeping Than I Wanted","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"31 \u041b\u0438\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Now, I know why I'm not the greatest housekeeper in the world. Details, details. I thought I couldn't use both Feedburner and Mail Chimp, but I was wrong, so hopefully that'll work out for both me and my subscribers. If it ain't broke.... As for housekeeping, I'd much rather sit\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"housekeeping-clipart","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/housekeeping-clipart-251x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":181,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/fictional-or-real-characters\/","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":4},"title":"Using Real Characters In Fiction","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"5 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, I read about an interesting court case in the USA. Katherine Stockett, author of debut novel, The Help, is being sued by the maid she based her fictional character on. It seems Ms. Stockett used a fictional name closely resembling the real maid's one. Also, the details in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":765,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/the-many-paths-of-inspiration\/","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":5},"title":"The Many Paths of Inspiration","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"29 \u041b\u0438\u0441\u0442\u043e\u043f\u0430\u0434\u0430, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I've written about inspiration before, but I gave it short shrift. The Encarta dictionary defines inspiration as: \u201cstimulation for the human mind to creative thought or the making of art\u201d. The Oxford dictionary says: \u201cthe drawing in of breath\u201d, and \u201cthat which is thought to prompt poets etc. and that\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/film-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Stephen-King.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}