writing

Sunday Afternoon at Eden Mills

Sunday marks my first venture into ‘sales’ for my book, Writing Fiction: A Hands-On Guide for Teens. I’ve rented a table at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival and am going to join publishers, book stores, and other writers (self-published and not) who will be selling their books to the expected several thousand visitors.

Buying books is not the major allure of the Festival. Eden Mills plays host to over 40 writers who will read excerpts from their work in grassy outdoor venues. There will be writers of adult, young adult and children’s books, many of whom are award winners, who will also be signing their books for new and old fans.

I’ve have attended for several years and in the past three years I have been joined by my son. The first time I brought him I expected that we’d stay for a couple of authors and then he would want to go home. We stayed for the entire afternoon! He was thrilled to hear and meet the authors of books he knew well and to get to know new authors as well. We’ve graduated from the children’s book area to young adult now and traditionally come home with several new books for both of us to read. This year he’ll be exploring the event on his own while I stay at my table. A change for both of us.

This afternoon marks another step in the  marketing plan that is essential for sales as a self-published author. I’ve had fun creating brochures and book marks and material to hand out on the day and part of me is looking forward to the sales experience. Another part of me is very anxious and wishing I were just at Eden Mills to enjoy the event. I’ll miss attending the readings, but I’m counting on my son to bring back regular reports–and requests to buy books–throughout the afternoon. Though this Sunday will be a change from our normal routine, I will, as always, be very happy to have his company. That will never change.

Can’t think of anything to write? Read someone else’s mail.

No, I don’t want anyone to break the law; but there is a way to find great story and poem ideas in someone else’s mail.  Check out your nearest flea market or antique store and see if they have any old postcards–old used postcards.  Though ideas for stories and poems can be found in the pictures, inspiration awaits in the writing on the other side.  These notes from real people to real people are an Aladdin’s treasure cave full of humor, pathos, mystery, bravado, family life, and love.

 Here are some of my finds.  See what stories or poems you can conjure up from these real-life messages from the past.

 One card, addressed to Mrs. Arthur Ridgewell and dated 1907, reads: “I suppose you are still in Plaster Rock.  Heard that Frank 1st has left you.  I guess he must be a wanderer.” 

 Like all good story openings. this card leaves the reader with lots of questions.  And when the reader is a writer, a story is bound to follow.  Who is Frank 1st? (And, for that matter, who is Frank 2nd?) Why did he wander before? Why did he come back?  Why is he leaving again? Where is he likely to go? The word ‘still’ seems important to the writer. Where, other than Plaster Rock, should Mary be?  What is the relationship between the sender and the writer?

 A card from Vancouver, dated 1911 and addressed to a Miss McLeod in P.E.I., reads:  “How soon do you think you can leave College to come west?  You are needed very badly as chaperone and we would be more than pleased to have you with us.”

 More questions: What was Miss McLeod studying in college or was she a teacher?  What kind of person would think it perfectly acceptable for a woman to leave college, head west, and become a chaperone?  Why would the sender need a chaperone ‘badly?  Why is there no salutation to the note–no Dear…?  What social milieu are we dealing with here? Is the sender wealthy and is Miss McLeod a poor relation?

 The following card is posted from Winnipeg in January 1909 and addressed to Mrs. Sharpe in Listowel, Ontario.  “Just a line to thank you for the nice Xmas cards you sent.  We were too poor to send anyone anything this winter as Will’s work will be done this week.  Things are dreadful dull and it is so dreadfully cold, about 42 below.  We did not go far when it was that cold.  Dick and Elsie are well.  He is working steady. How is Clarence? Remember me to him.  Love to all from all.  Sade”

 Think of how Sade must have felt writing that her family was too poor to send Christmas cards.  The postage on the postcard was one cent and though the card was dated January 1st, it wasn’t mailed until the 8th.  Did Sade have to wait that long to get the postage or was it just too cold to go out?  Who are these people and what work might they be doing?  The card is addressed to Mrs. Fred Sharpe; then, who is Clarence and why does Sade wish to be remembered to him?  What if he is a brother of Mrs. Sharpe that Sade was fond of once, or perhaps Mrs. Sharpe is Sade’s sister and Clarence is Sade’s nephew.  Put yourself in Sade’s shoes while she is writing this card or in Mrs. Sharpe’s when she hears such sad news from her friend.  Maybe Mrs. Sharpe is a relative of Sade’s husband and Sade is hinting for her husband to be rescued from unemployment in Winnipeg and offered work in the family business in Listowel.

 If you are a poet, think of the wonderful ‘found poems’ that are waiting for you in these postcards.  You could weave a poem like the following:

 Winnipeg, 1909

 Just a line to thank you

for the nice Xmas cards you sent. 

We were too poor

to send anyone

anything.

Things are dreadful dull

and it is so dreadfully cold.

How is Clarence?

Remember me to him. 

Sade

I paid three dollars for those postcards and have covered a couple of pages in my journal with possible ideas from each one–a small investment in inspiration.  Consider what some postcards could do to fire your imagination or help you break out of one of those (thankfully rare) cement-brained-writer’s days? 

 Inspiration on a postcard?  Why not?  Find the wonderful stories and poems that are possible when your writer’s imagination meets someone else’s mail.

Lists and Me

I confess. I’m a list maker. I love making lists because I really enjoy crossing things off them when the jobs are done. In fact, it’s so bad that if I get part way through my day and realize that I have completed tasks that I didn’t write on the list—like making a phone call for a dentist appointment or putting a load of laundry in—I add those items to the list, just so I can cross them off.

A good time for me to write my list is just before I go to bed. It’s the best way for me to avoid lying awake worrying that some the things I have to do the next day will be forgotten over night. (I’m a worrier by nature, so anything that can short-circuit the worry reflex is good by me.)

I make lists when I’m writing, too, especially in the early stages. I make lists of possible names for characters, hobbies or special skills they might have, places they might have visited or lived, things they might carry in their pockets or purse. I write down just anything I think of. Some items on the list will get scooped up because they seem just right for my character or make me ask good questions about my character that add a needed dimension. Other things on the list might be picked up by secondary characters and the rest languish unclaimed until another story comes along. I use coloured markers and pens for these lists, too, because I find ideas at the brainstorming stage come more readily when I’m not working with black and white.

Are you a list maker, too? How do you use lists when you are writing?

Writing Prompts

If you’re in a summer writing slump, here are some writing prompts to help you take a fresh slant at your current project, or maybe inspire a new one.

  1. How does your main character (MC) accept a compliment? What is your MC a little (a lot) vain about?
  2. Put an obstacle in your MC’s way by changing the weather. Introduce some high winds into the story. How do they affect your MC? Stop an escape with a fallen tree? Blow sand into MC’s eyes? Make so much noise the MC can’t sleep. Signal a weather change and send MC down with a migraine?
  3. Think about the different forms of “power.” Personal, financial, political, power of nature, power of the weak, superpower, electrical, etc. What power is in the hands of the antagonist or the MC’s family, friends, lover that make the MC’s task even harder? What power does the MC exert on others?
  4. Brainstorm or free write around one or all of the following words: glass, willow, tile, edge, ring
  5. What stories would you write for these titles? In Cold Blood, Twice Shy, The Winter Sea, Cat Among the Pigeons, The Most Dangerous Game, The Sound of Thunder

 Have fun with your writing projects. If you try one of these, I’d love to know how it turns out.

My Favourite Books About Writing

Some wonderful books have been written by writers about writing and here are a few standbys that I wouldn’t be without.

If you don’t already have it, make sure you own a copy of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. This little book is a concise guide to clear, uncluttered prose. According to Stephen King, “Strunk and White offer the best tools (and the best rules) you could hope for, describing them simply and clearly.”

 And that leads me to Stephen King. His book, On Writing: A memoir of the craft is a funny, moving, and unromantic look at his childhood, early struggles to get published, decline into and recovery from drug and alcohol abuse, and surviving a nearly-deadly collision with a van. Aside from King’s colourful insights into writing and his writing life, it is hard to find a more succinct description of the necessary techniques of the writer’s craft than in the section of this book titled “Toolbox.” You have to love a writer who declares, “Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.”

Another favourite of mine is Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Combining autobiography with writing advice, this book reaches the reader with a brilliant combination of serious advice, laugh-out-loud humour, and inspiration. One of Lamott’s writing tools is always at my desk—the one-inch picture frame. Lamott says, “It reminds me that all I have to do is to write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame. This is all I have to bite off for the time being.” When a project of mine becomes overwhelming (and sometimes this can be daily), that picture frame gives me the freedom to write just a little bit. I can deal with that. I know I will write another bit and another–and finish the project. Ask Lamott why writing matters and she will reply, “Because of the spirit. . . .Because of the heart. Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.” Anne Lamott’s book will feed your writer’s soul.

 Both the Lamott and the King books are sprinkled with some fairly ‘colourful’ language and, if you will find that uncomfortable reading, then here is one more great inspiration. Writing down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg is a book you will want to read with a highlighter in your hand because it is so rich in ‘just right’ statements about writing. Here’s a sample: “Writing…is ninety percent listening. You listen so deeply to the space around you that it fills you and when you write it pours out of you. If you can capture that reality around you, your writing needs nothing else.” Wow.

Of course reading about writing has its place, but the most important thing is the writing. Here are some writing starters from another favourite book of mine, The Pocket Muse: ideas and inspirations for writing by Monica Wood. Full of photographs, quotes, writing tips and ideas, it’s a book I like to open when I need a creative push. Here are a few of her writing starters:

  • “Fill in the blank and then keep going: Until _______________, nothing notable had happened in the town of Madison since the year of its founding.”
  • “Write about a person who wins something she doesn’t want.”
  • “Today’s Horoscope: Somebody close to you will tell your secret.”
  • “Write about trouble resulting from a good deed.”
  • “Write a scene in which the dramatic tension revolves around a misspelling: a road sign, the name on a birthday cake, the directions to a doctor’s office, a word in a spelling bee.”

Sometimes it’s hard to face the empty page or blank screen. Wood has this advice for people reluctant to start a writing project: “Nobody has to see that first draft but you. You can eat it when you’re done.  You can make it into origami animals and decorate a table. You can dunk it in hot water, stir it up, mash it back into pulp. You can build a fire, line a birdcage, stuff a pillow. You can’t do any of this, however, until you write the thing.”  For me, that says it all.

I have one other favourite book, No Plot? No Problem!: A High-velocity, Low-stress Way to Write a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty. I’ll write more about that closer to NaNoWriMo time.

Do you have a favourite book that you turn to time and again? I’d love to know what it is and why it is so special to you. Please add a comment and share it with me and my readers.  

Links:

Monica Wood – http://www.monicawood.com/tips.html

Natalie Goldberg – http://www.nataliegoldberg.com/

Stephen King – http://www.stephenking.com/index.html

Anne Lamott – http://www.barclayagency.com/lamott.html

Elements of Style – http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk/dp/020530902X

Writer’s Block First Aid

I had to take a dose of my own medicine yesterday. My editor e-mailed a deadline to me and I was unprepared. So I did what I advise all writers to do—I started brainstorming. I made a list of all the things I like to write about and another of what I like to read about and I still felt like my own creative well was empty.

Is this writers’ block? laziness? stubbornness? Whatever it was, it felt lousy and I knew I had to get over it. Get over myself wishing I didn’t have to do it. Get over wanting to run away from my responsibilities. You get the picture. So, I did what I’ve told other writers to do, just started the thing.

And groaned about how difficult it is to face the blank screen—and to resist walking away and boiling the kettle for another cup of tea.

I made the tea.

Then I did the next best thing to writing; I hit the books and the Internet to research what other writers do when they’re in the same, gloomy, non-writing place. Clearly I am not alone. Google presented me with 2,710,000 sites for my search: “overcoming writer’s block.” Nearly three million people writing about writer’s block? Now I’m getting researcher’s block!

I did find a couple of gems, though.

Franz Kafka (“Metamorphosis”) said: “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” Well, it was clear to me after giving this a try, that the only “world” I was freely offered was one with a list of chores and “must remember to buy cereal on the way home from work.”  The only things rolling at my feet were dust bunnies. And, they’re more the static rather than the ecstatic variety as they attached themselves to my slippers and followed me to the kitchen. More tea.

Richard Condon wrote: “When I feel dried up I deal myself a few games of solitaire at my desk. I’ve been doing it all my life. Sometimes I play 10 or 20 games, sometimes 40. Once, I played for three straight days. The important thing is not to leave the workplace.” Sadly, I have no problem doing this; in fact, I always delete my Free Cell statistics after 100 games so I won’t be ashamed of the total number of games that I have played. Along with checking my e-mail, tidying my files, and deleting old messages, I have found many ways not to leave my “workplace”—and not write.

Other advice on writer’s block? Here’s one from Quentin Crisp: “Ignore it: you never stop speaking; why stop writing?” My answer to him is: “because I don’t feel like it.”

“And why don’t you feel like it?” I hear him ask me and it ticks me off and then—I realize what the answer is in an embarrassing flash of insight.

I’m afraid.

Yup. I don’t want to write because I don’t want to fail. What if this is the article that my editor said was just too awful to print. And if I can’t write this article, can I ever write anything else? Needless to say, all the advice I’ve written to others about not listening to their critical voices and, about following the advice of Anne Lamott and giving themselves permission to write the “shitty first draft”* went right out the window. The blank screen wasn’t just blank; it was the enemy.

So, I switched the thing off.

And picked up a pencil and some paper–because quitting really wasn’t an option.

That simple action made all the difference. Writing with paper and pencil was the first method I had used to create as a child and as a student, and by some magic, the connections were still there. I doodled and scribbled, added bits in margins or between lines, changed pen colours and made little flowers around the holes at the side of the paper. I don’t always write in order, so it was freeing to draw sweeping arrows from a bit I’d written at the top of the page to the bottom where I’d suddenly thought of more to add. Turning the pages, numbering them, scribbling diagonally across the empty backs of pages with new ideas, filling those pages was hugely satisfying. Writing became a visceral act; I felt totally involved and energized. And amazingly disconnected from the critic.

Because I was writing on paper, I had permission to be messy, cluttered, tangential, and free. The screen demands order and clean copy. I mean, just look at the thing! Everything ‘looks’ perfect—even lousy writing—and how depressing is that!

Have I found the universal cure for getting past the barrier to creativity? No. But I found one that works for me. Thank heavens for deadlines

—and pencils and paper.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anne Lamott, First Anchor Books Edition, 1995

Originally printed in What If? Canada’s Magazine for Creative Teens

How do you plot a novel?

Like many writers, I read about writing and how other writers plot their stories. Some have basic outlines, others create very detailed ones, some never plan at all.

I seem to fall somewhere in the middle of it all. I begin a project with a scene that just has to be written. A character arrives in my imagination who is going somewhere and I follow. We race along for a chapter or two and then I have to stop and start creating a roadmap for the rest of our journey.

I like this character; I’m ready to have fun with (let’s say) her for the long haul, but she needs to get into serious trouble for us to have a lasting relationship. And that’s what my planning consists of—finding trouble for my character to get into, then out of, and then into some more. Then we hang out for a few more chapters. As my character reacts to whatever problems I’ve set up, I learn more about what happened to her before we met. That history can have a serious effect on the plans I’ve made–for better or for worse– and then the road may change direction and lead to different complications than the ones I first thought of.

But that’s okay, too. In fact, it’s definitely okay, because now the roadmap is being drawn because of the new things I’m learning about my character. The story grows as I learn and the more I learn, the more I know about what I can put in my character’s way that will be hard, that will hurt, that will challenge, frighten and test and that will help the reader care and be more willing to stay with us for the rest of the journey.

Every time I stop and re-evaluate, I plan a few more chapters or scenes ahead, and then (thankfully) at some point in the process, I realize how the story is going to end. I can see how all the loose ends are going to be tied up and I can make a list of the chapters I need to get there.  In fact, if I can see it clearly enough, I even write the ending at this point. I like knowing how it’s all going to end, but it does make me hugely impatient to get there. I know when I go back to edit, that these chapters will need special work because I wrote them in a hurry and they will be way too lean on the details that make a story real.

So that’s me. That’s how write a novel. What do you do?

Joywriting and the To-Do List

After finishing a busy end-of-semester week very tired and with little energy or ambition, I faced the weekend with no other goals than to relax, watch the Players’ Championship and indulge in some DVDs with the family. The weather cooperated by being too cold, rainy and windy to do much else. My goal, which I admit was not set too high, was achieved and now I am working on the coming week’s To-Do list.

I have 18 items on my list so far, and I know that more will be added as my first, real, school’s-out week progresses. But there’s one thing missing. Joywriting. This word was coined by the son of my friend, Jean Mills. To quote her blog Joywriting 101, “it’s when you turn your attention to the project that is calling your name, the fun project, the one that allows you to escape this world and enter the imaginary one that only you inhabit.”

Last week, I came across another blog at Writer Unboxed by guest blogger, Heather Reid. She urged writers to “write for the sheer joy of it.” Her words plus the memory of Jean’s blog were enough to make me look at the To-Do list again.

The problem with my list is that it covers chores, writing jobs, and commitments for the entire week—every one of which I will put before joywriting. This morning, I’m going to actually add it to the list and get out the calendar and carve out some joywriting time this week.

Do you have strategies for keeping joywriting in your life? I’d love to learn how you make it work.

Keeping the Writer in You Motivated

Here are eight tricks, thoughts, and suggestions for keeping your writer in creative gear when the demands of the rest of your life try to make that impossible.

  • Rethink what you really need to be a writer.  At the most basic level you need a pencil and paper and the will to apply one to the other for a period of time.  You don’t need a computer to write the first draft of anything.  If you need it, then you have to be in the same room with it. And that means you can’t write anywhere else or in any other way. Think about how limiting that is.  When time to write is so scarce, limiting yourself to one writing location can make it nearly impossible to write at all.
  •  Promise yourself writing time and make a space for it in your life every day.  This can be a difficult promise to keep but it can be done.  Consider setting the alarm for an earlier time and hitting the page before the rest of your day begins to crowd in.  Dorothea Brande, author of Becoming a Writer recommends a half-hour of writing in the morning right after you wake up and before you talk to anyone or even read.  “…[What] you are actually doing is training yourself, in the twilight zone between sleep and the full waking state, simply to write.”  Like any muscle, the writing one needs regular exercise, too.
  • Give yourself a twenty-minute gift of writing time.  Don’t tell yourself that there’s no point in starting because you don’t have a clear three hours to write. Inspiration will find you if you’re on the bus, waiting for the movie to start, or the dentist to call you in.  If you’re meeting a friend for coffee, get there twenty minutes early and take your notebook.  Those twenty-minute blocks add up and, think about it, writing for twenty minutes is better than not writing at all.
  • Set a goal.  Perhaps you decide that you want to write 2,000 words in a week. If you’re a natural born procrastinator, you might need to break your goal down into small daily chunks.  To get you started, here’s a great goal setter from Inkygirl.com. Remember to be easy on yourself if you don’t make every personal writing deadline. One chocolate bar doesn’t end a diet.  You have a lot in your life right now. Congratulate yourself on what you did do, because each page you filled got you closer to your goal. And there’s always another day, or another twenty-minute gift you can give to yourself.
  • Never stop thinking of yourself as a writer.  When you wake up, think about what you will do for the writer today.  Eavesdrop on a conversation and record one really good line?  Read great writing?  Write down three unrelated words and think of a story that will connect them? Add a paragraph to your current piece? Do some research?  Edit a page?  Buy a new pencil?  Use the word ‘writer’ to define yourself and you will honor your commitment to the writer as you do to the friend, spouse, child, parent, sibling, boss, and co-worker who also need your attention every day.
  • Lose the perfectionist.  Give yourself permission to write a first draft that is a mess.  Just get the words down. They don’t have to be the words that end up in the final story.  That’s what second drafts–and thirds–are for. Anne Lammot, author of Bird by Bird, says, “The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp allover the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later.  You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page…because there may be something great in those six crazy pages that you would never have gotten to by more rational, grown-up means.”   If Anne Lammot’s advice doesn’t connect to you, consider Miss Frizzle’s: “Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!”
  • Have more than one story or poem on the go.  That way, you will always have something to write, even if one idea is dead or your inspiration for it is. Remember, too, that you don’t have to write a story or a poem in order.  If you have a clear idea of how a scene or description or a stanza will work later on, write it now and connect it later.  But write.
  •  The best advice is last:  Start now!
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