writing

Just Showing Up

 

From Manuscript to Print: The Evolution of the Medieval Book – Cornell University

A friend of mine has spent several months now sticking to her daily writing goal of ‘just showing up.’ Inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk, she doesn’t set a daily word count or number of hours spent at the keyboard or journal that, once accomplished, means that she’s met her goal. Her goal is just to turn up ready to write and do the best she can. And it’s working. Stories are being written, ideas are flowing, and on the days when the stories aren’t written and the ideas don’t flow, she knows she’s done her part and showed up.Well, suddenly finding myself with time to write and actually having absolutely no ideas, I decided to do the same thing. I decided to “show up” in my own way. Several years ago I wrote a couple of children’s stories set in England around 1190. They were going to part of a mystery series, but I’d never been happy with how I’d constructed the mysteries. I liked the characters a lot, but the stories were clunky, so I decided to show up by doing my homework. I uploaded James N. Frey’s How to Write a Damn Good Mystery to my Kobo reader, freed a journal from my stash and started reading, taking notes and doing the exercises. This was becoming my (almost) daily writing routine, and being a born student, I was enjoying the work. Then—

I went to the last of three medieval history and art presentations at the local Joseph Schneider Haus Museum, and I found out why I was “showing up.” The final presentation was about medieval bookmaking and was presented by miniature painter and limner, Debbie Thompson-Wilson. By the time I’d driven home, I had started building the frame of my story. Lessons from the Frey book connected to the pieces I was assembling in my imagination, and the characters that I thought I already knew spoke with stronger voices.

Now I know there is a long way to go before what I have in my head and in my journal actually becomes a final product—but I wouldn’t be on a journey at all if I hadn’t followed my friend’s advice and just “showed up.”

Where and when do your stories come to you? Do you find that they appear more often when you have nothing to write or do they arrive when you’re engrossed in other projects? How to you prime the imagination well?

Random Acts of Kindness for Writers Week

Okay, I admit that I’m slow, and that the week ends today, and I just found out about it,

but

I still want to send out my thanks to the amazing writers that belong to the Waterloo Region and Guelph branches of the Professional Writers Association of Canada. I have never attended a meeting without feeling inspired and informed. Freelancing is a lonely business, and the support I have received from fellow sufferers members has been wonderful over the years.

I began as a neophyte and with their help I have learned to hone my web copy, conduct professional interviews, refine my photography skills, write better query letters, find markets for my feature ideas, and so, so much more. They eagerly look for ways to make their work better and for ways to find new clients, and unselfishly share everything they have learned.

I should also add a shout out to the PWAC members whom I have met infrequently and to those that I have never met all across Canada who contribute their expertise so generously to the listserves that are sponsored by the organization. Thank you for never letting a  question go unanswered.

Thanks fellow PWAC writers. May the contracts pour in and the editors be kind and may I be able to help you all someday as you have helped me.

How Do You Write?

Last week, I got an assignment from Kayak: Canada’s History Magazine for Kids to write a story for their September issue. I’ve been given a topic and a deadline: May 25th. It’s not a lot of time, and I need to get the outline or a draft to the editor by 18th. Now I’ve written a few of these stories before, and I’ve noticed that I follow a similar pattern with all of them.

I’m the kind of person who starts by stewing about a project, then I do the research, stew some more, and do a lot of staring out of windows. Eventually, the characters start talking, or sentences starts running through my brain like strips of ticker tape. But I still don’t start writing. The story is still in snippets at that point–just bits like jigsaw puzzle pieces lying on a table.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I work on a puzzle, I always make the border first. It turns out that I can’t write my story until it has a frame either. I need to know the beginning, middle and end of it before I can move on to the first paragraph. Thankfully, when it’s finally time to get to the keyboard, out the story pours. Oh it’s full of holes, of course, and there are lots of places where I type xxx rather than stop typing and look something up, but I get the bones down in one go. The first draft is always far over the required word count, but I love the editing process, so I don’t worry too much about that part.

What is worrisome is that sometimes the staring-out-of-windows part can take a very long time. So long, in fact, that the due date can be way too close for comfort and I start to get a little panicky. I wrote a 7000-word Sherlock Holmes story for JLS Storybook Project and was very worried about hitting my target date on that one; however, so far, I’ve never missed a deadline. Though I have had some scary moments!

I’ve just begun the stewing, researching, stewing, staring-out-of-windows stage for a novel. And once again I’m working on building the frame—but I’m taking my time. I’ve often just started writing a novel without building the framework as thoroughly as I should have at the beginning. I’m going to try a different approach with this one. Feels good so far.

How do you write? Do you just jump in and let things evolve as you go along, or do you plan, or do you do a bit of both?

May Writing Prompts

Here are some writing prompts for May. Hope your creativity “springs” into action!

1. Use one of the following sentences to begin a story:

  • White lace curtains fluttered in the warm breeze.
  • The air was thick with wood smoke.
  • I thought Play-Doh was for kids until I saw the body.
  • Now I know what they really mean by “caught in the act.”
  • Erik loved the dark.
  • Red warning lights flashed on the console.

2. Use one, some or all of the following words in a story or poem: shirt, pen, thunder, cry, case

3. April showers bring May flowers. What flowers could you name your characters after? What kind of people do you associate with names such as Peony, Rose, Thorn, Lily? Here are some characters from stories you might know that are named after flowers: Molly Bloom, Flora Poste, Violet Beaudelaire, Scarlet Pimpernel, Fleur Forsyth, Fleur Delacour, Daisy Buchanan, Lily Owens, Violetta Valéry, Zinnia Larkin, and don’t forget Scarlet O’Hara’s original name was Pansy!

4. I wish I may I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight. What wish would your character wish for upon a star or ask a genie to grant? What would be the consequences of that dream coming true? What would you wish for? Why? How would your life change if your wish came true?

5. Flowers don’t just inspire people’s names, but they inspire place names, too. What stories could you create in towns like these: Flower’s Cove, Newfoundland; Strawberry, Arkansas; Weedpatch, California; Beanblossom, Indiana; Rosebud, Alberta; Carrot River, Saskatchewan; Olive Branch, Michigan; Fallen Leaf, California; Lady Slipper, Prince Edward Island; Tiger Lily, Saskatchewan.

Have fun!

Goodbye Words!

I love editing. I’ve just deleted 2625 words from a current project and couldn’t be happier. I didn’t follow Stephen King’s rule in his book On Writing: “2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%”, mostly because this isn’t my first draft. I’m happy with losing the 4% that I did cut.

This is a manuscript that I haven’t looked at in a while. It’s amazing how time gave me a different perspective on the words I left behind on earlier edits because I was a little too fond of my own cleverness. Over the last few days, I’ve been much more ruthless. This time I followed the advice of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch: “Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it – whole-heartedly – and delete it before sending your manuscripts to press. Murder your darlings.”

I was hardly responsible for “exceptionally fine writing” but I certainly was responsible for a mess of poetic but highly dumpable similes and images that were very pretty but cried out for deletion. They didn’t move the story along or develop my characters; they were just my fancy wordplay interrupting the story.

So,  2625 “darling” words are gone. I’ve learned that, just because writing is hard work, the effort of writing alone doesn’t mean that the words get to claim their territory forever. Is the book better for my edits? I think so. Will it sell? Who knows, but it’s out for a viewing on Monday, and the rest is out of my hands.

Do you think a lot about your manuscript after it’s sent and check your email hourly, or do you move on to the next project? My choice is to move on. The decision will be made by one person on one day and my writing life is about more than that. If I’m lucky enough to get some feedback, I’ll be thrilled. If it’s a “thanks, but no thanks.” I’ve already moved on and am, I hope, enjoying the company of new characters in a new story and once again writing my doomed “darlings.”

Do you have your own “darlings” that you know you will be cutting even as you write them?

What do you do after you’ve sent a manuscript to a publisher?

Not Quite True

I’ve been thinking more about my recent post about defining the word “writer”, and admit that up to a point it’s true. Freelancing is extremely satisfying work, and I do love all the opportunities I’ve had to be creative within its boundaries.

But …

Lately, I’ve put several projects to bed, and guess what’s left? Time to write. Yes, that extremely precious commodity of time to write and create is actually available, and with my semester winding down, there will continue to be writing time over the next several months. In the past, I would have been thrilled to have all this time and have immediately plowed away at the short story or novel that I’d been living with for the past weeks or months. Finally, those characters who had been talking in my head would get their words recorded on paper. But I have no  voices, no story, no novel–just time. The irony of getting paid by The Writer Magazine to create writing prompts is not lost on me.

A recent post by Laura Best has brought the fact that I’m missing this into sharp relief. Where will I go from here? I’m not sure. But I can’t help but believe that all of this time is waiting to be filled with something and that if I’m just patient–and keep reading and scribbling in my journal–I’ll find out what it is.

Renegotiating My Definition of “Writer”

When I first wanted to write, I thought I would be a writer who curled up in a small cabin on a hillside somewhere with a view of the ocean and churned out page after page of great mystery novels with

An ebook in my future?

a border collie tucked around my feet. That was when I did more thinking about being a writer, than actually doing the work. Later, I was the 5 am writer, typing on my first laptop (MS DOS and 5 1/4 inch floppies) and dreaming of Chinese dragons and medieval castles (not together). I wanted to write a novel, and I did that–a couple of times. Will they ever be published by a traditional publisher? No. I wanted to have my novel reviewed by a national newspaper. Nope that’s not going to happen, nor is the book tour, or the interview on CBC radio. Fifteen years ago that was how I defined “writer.” Once those things happened, I would be a real writer.

My definition has changed. It’s about having an audience for my writing, and frankly, having a cheque in my hand at the end of a project. I like that someone thinks that my writing is worth paying for because they believe that what I’ve written will affect their audience in a positive way. That audience could be children in Canada reading their Kayak magazines or children in Korea learning English and reading a Sherlock Holmes story that I wrote just for them. They could also be people with questions about Canadian law or who want to know more about wind turbines, cosmetic surgery or golf courses in Bruce County.

Freelancing has given me the opportunity to talk to people that I never would have met otherwise. I’ve been able to interview lawyers across Canada about their specialized areas of law. I’ve talked to paediatricians about their presentations at a national conference. For a local magazine, I’ve interviewed orchid growers and representatives from three “unsung” local charities. My latest job enabled me to talk to doctors whose research, past and future, is the backbone of the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

Freelancing has made me a researcher, too. I had to read a book–in French!–to write about Canadian forensics pioneer Wilfrid Derome, and have researched everything from les filles du roi, to Lower Fort Garry and the Mounties, to the voyageurs, to Nellie McClung, to the first Canadian female war correspondent, to a 120 foot long quilt with a square for every country in the world and all of Canada’s First Nations.

My definition of “writer” isn’t about the novel anymore. Freelancing satisfies the Curious George part of me. I love to learn new things. It satisfies the creative part of me. I’m always on a quest for the right word or phrase, the right slant on the topic, the right way to capture my subject’s voice. It satisfies the writer in me. And that makes me happy.

What’s the definition of “writer” that frames your writing life? Has it changed since you first began to write?

Thank You, Sherlock Holmes

My love affair with Sherlock Holmes began with tv and a series in the 1950s starring Ronald Howard (son of actor Leslie Howard).  That series hatched the idea of the mystery story in my brain and I’ve been indulging a love of it ever since. Thanks to tv I also thoroughly enjoyed Jeremy Brett’s amazing portrayal, and I absolutely love Benedict Cumberbatch’s quirky 21st century creation..

Thanks to that introduction to the mystery, I found Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie and Lillian Jackson Braun and Louise Penny and PD James and Jacqueline Winspear and more authors than I can count whose books are filed under ‘mystery’ at my local library–my favourite shelves! Fortunately too, there are always writers who keep bringing Holmes back to life, sometimes in short story collections, and sometimes in novels. One of my favourite of these writers is Laurie R. King, whose novel The Beekeeper’s Apprentice launched a series of books featuring Holmes and his wife Mary Russell. What more could a Holmes fan ask for? And do I own copies of all of the original Holmes novels and stories? Yes. Three copies actually. One is a set of paperbacks nearly falling apart. One is a large edition with Strand Magazine illustrations that a student gave to me, and the third is the ebook verion on my Kobo.

The first stories I ever wrote were mystery stories, too. One title that I remember is “Castle Mort.” I have no idea what happened in the story, but I do remember looking up the word for “death” in my French/English dictionary and thinking I was being awfully clever. My love affair with Holmes led to another place, too. I’ve published two stories featuring the great detective. One was published many years ago in THEMA Magazine. Along with solving “The Case of the Cumberland Barrister,” Holmes and Watson met their old friend Henry Higgins, whom I borrowed from George Bernard Shaw for a couple of pages. Just lately I sold a Holmes story for children to JLS Storybook Project, featuring two children who help Holmes solve a crime. I couldn’t have been happier doing the research, because I read many of the stories again to help me get the back into that special time of fog and gas lamps, horse-drawn carriages and meerschaum pipes. All research should be that much fun!

So, for the writing and the watching and the reading–Thank you, Sherlock Holmes!

Are there literary characters or authors that you “met” at an early age that still influence what you read or write? How do they work their way into your writing or reading life today?

Where Do You Like to Write?

Why I look forward to summer.

I have a few favourite, non-office writing spots.

In the winter I’m a big fan of my own livingroom. On a sunny day, I move my chair so that I can sit in the sunshine and feel its warmth while I write. It’s the reason we’ve had two houses in a row that face south. When it’s dark or gloomy, I hunker by the gas fire. My tools are pencil and paper or my Neo. I have a laptop, but I prefer writing tools without distractions like email, Facebook, Twitter, Free Cell, the internet–you get the idea. The music in my ear buds is classical.

I’m also a fan of writing in coffee shops. I often head to Starbucks at the beginning of a project or when I have no ideas or inspiration. I don’t leave until I have a story. I can’t give credit to any creative jolts from the coffee, because I only drink decaf, but I do wonder about the efficacy of their oatmeal bars and molasses cookies.

In the summer I love to write outside before everyone else wakes up. Me, a cup of tea, a journal and birdsong. I know that there’s traffic noise from a not-so-distant highway, but warm breezes, sunshine and the calls of cardinals, crows, and song sparrows push the noise far into the background. No music required here. I’m eagerly awaiting these days. As I write this at 7:30 in the morning, everything is covered in a white blanket of frost and the cyclist on the path behind my house just went by in winter jacket and toque. I guess I’ll have to wait a bit longer.

Do you have a favourite place to write? A favourite time? What kind of music plays in your ear buds?

Journals: A Confession

Not all of these journals are empty and I’ve had some for a few years. But still–embarrassing.

If you’re a knitter, you know what a stash is. It’s the collection of yarn that you plan to use “someday.” For some of the yarn you have definite plans; for some, you bought enough to actually make something but you’re not quite sure what it is yet. The rest can fall into a couple of categories–“too gorgeous not to pick up and I’ll find something to go with it later” and “just too good a bargain.” Where and how you store/hide the stash is a whole other story. (I speak from experience here.)

But I’m a writer, too, and I have another stash–of journals–empty journals. And I just bought another one. I simply can’t resist looking at them when I’m in stationery or gift stores. There’s actually a store in my town that specializes in paper, pens and journals. I avoid it.

I have small journals that fit in my purse and others that are larger than 8 1/2 x 11. Why so many? Just like the yarn, journals are a tactile purchase. I like the look and the feel of them. The paper has to be just right (not necessarily lined), and it needs to be comfortable to write in, and of course, I have to love the cover. I have a friend who can’t be without her moleskin journal. I prefer more flowery covers and brighter colours.

How do you choose a journal? Do you have more than one?

%d bloggers like this: