March 21, 2014
March 18, 2014
Procrastination
(Background music: Anticipation by Carly Simon)
For most writers it's called writer's block, but for me it's procrastination. I will do anything to find myself once again inside the pages of the book I've been writing all year. I'll even post to my blog.
I have no dearth of ideas about what my characters in (all three of) my books in process are doing. I get ideas every night around 2AM.
But it's 2AM. I should be sleeping not typing.
For most writers who can't get something down on paper it's called writer's block, but for me it's procrastination. Or denial.
For most writers it's called writer's block, but for me it's procrastination. I will do anything to find myself once again inside the pages of the book I've been writing all year. I'll even post to my blog.
I have no dearth of ideas about what my characters in (all three of) my books in process are doing. I get ideas every night around 2AM.
But it's 2AM. I should be sleeping not typing.
For most writers who can't get something down on paper it's called writer's block, but for me it's procrastination. Or denial.
March 17, 2014
Debunking old saws about writing.
One of the oldest saws there is about writing is "Write what you know."
Horse hockey.
Since I wrote my first book at 14 and it was about WWII and since I was too young to have lived through that war, I know all about what it is like to write about something that you didn't have any exposure to. Oh yes, as I was growing up in the 50s and 60s there were a lot of TV programs on about the war (ie. Victory at Sea) but first hand knowledge only came through my father who sat in the basement of the White House during the war flogging teletype operators into submission. The guys in our town who were actually out there doing the fighting didn't talk about those things. They were known as the Greatest Generation but also the Silent Generation and for good reason.
So here I am, writing about two women just post WWII. I research. I watch internet accounts of women who survived the things they survived, and I imagine how I would feel. Imagination is the greatest asset of the writer.
I'm not writing a non-fiction account of the war. I don't need to know if someone actually said what my women are saying. I research the events and then I set two entirely fictional characters in the events and let the action happen.
That's what writing fiction is about.
Horse hockey.
Since I wrote my first book at 14 and it was about WWII and since I was too young to have lived through that war, I know all about what it is like to write about something that you didn't have any exposure to. Oh yes, as I was growing up in the 50s and 60s there were a lot of TV programs on about the war (ie. Victory at Sea) but first hand knowledge only came through my father who sat in the basement of the White House during the war flogging teletype operators into submission. The guys in our town who were actually out there doing the fighting didn't talk about those things. They were known as the Greatest Generation but also the Silent Generation and for good reason.
So here I am, writing about two women just post WWII. I research. I watch internet accounts of women who survived the things they survived, and I imagine how I would feel. Imagination is the greatest asset of the writer.
I'm not writing a non-fiction account of the war. I don't need to know if someone actually said what my women are saying. I research the events and then I set two entirely fictional characters in the events and let the action happen.
That's what writing fiction is about.
March 16, 2014
Still Writing...
I've found another kindred spirit. I'm in the middle of reading Still Writing: the Pleasures and perils of a Creative Life by Dani Shapiro (you can find her blog and page on the sidebar under Blogs I Read). I haven't finished it yet but every chapter finds me sending out at least one YES!
She's younger than I, but was raised barely a few miles from where I got my start. Her family is dysfunctional in ways different from mine but it had the same effect on her. She had better internal guidance in her life than I. She aimed right away to satisfy the writer in her. Thick-headed Swede-Irish-Scots woman that I am I had to resist it for many years. But still she resonates with me.
Today I said YES to this line from page 60: "As writers, it is our job not only to imagine, but to witness."
That line elucidates my job both as a writer and as ordained clergy. I have always been an observer. A psychic once told me I was a "watcher" and I believe that to be true. Writing allows me to take what I have witnessed and to convey that witness to other people.
Still Writing: the Pleasures and perils of a Creative Life by Dani Shapiro (c) 2013 by Dani Shapiro, published by Atlantic Monthly Press
She's younger than I, but was raised barely a few miles from where I got my start. Her family is dysfunctional in ways different from mine but it had the same effect on her. She had better internal guidance in her life than I. She aimed right away to satisfy the writer in her. Thick-headed Swede-Irish-Scots woman that I am I had to resist it for many years. But still she resonates with me.
Today I said YES to this line from page 60: "As writers, it is our job not only to imagine, but to witness."
That line elucidates my job both as a writer and as ordained clergy. I have always been an observer. A psychic once told me I was a "watcher" and I believe that to be true. Writing allows me to take what I have witnessed and to convey that witness to other people.
Still Writing: the Pleasures and perils of a Creative Life by Dani Shapiro (c) 2013 by Dani Shapiro, published by Atlantic Monthly Press
March 15, 2014
Now that everything is calm and serene again...
Not!
Why is it that I get my shorts in such a wad over technology? I've been a techie since I first worked for AT&T back in the stone tablet age. I worked on one of my first books on a dual floppy Kaypro IV. I installed email for the mucky mucks in Service Costs and Rates at good old Ma Bell in 1984. But there is still that lingering thought that all might be lost.
As an indie writer I depend on technology. Technology to pour my books into a readable format. Technology to communicate with my indie-enabling companies (yes I do love CreateSpace). Technology to get my name out there so maybe I get a few sales each week.
Someone asked me if I would still be writing if I had to depend on the traditional publishing route and if no one would publish me. The answer is yes and no. I write mainly because I have to shut up those voices in my head but traditional publishers are becoming thin on the ground and are getting highly selective about whom they publish. If you haven't had a best seller there is less and less chance that they will publish you and of course...if you can't get published you aren't going to be a best selling author except by fluke. Yes I would write. No I wouldn't publish.
So I will continue my love/hate relationship with technology because it enables me to write, publish, have creative control and, for just a moment, smile when someone discovers my writing and is kind enough to publish a good review somewhere. Isn't that what it is all about?
Why is it that I get my shorts in such a wad over technology? I've been a techie since I first worked for AT&T back in the stone tablet age. I worked on one of my first books on a dual floppy Kaypro IV. I installed email for the mucky mucks in Service Costs and Rates at good old Ma Bell in 1984. But there is still that lingering thought that all might be lost.
As an indie writer I depend on technology. Technology to pour my books into a readable format. Technology to communicate with my indie-enabling companies (yes I do love CreateSpace). Technology to get my name out there so maybe I get a few sales each week.
Someone asked me if I would still be writing if I had to depend on the traditional publishing route and if no one would publish me. The answer is yes and no. I write mainly because I have to shut up those voices in my head but traditional publishers are becoming thin on the ground and are getting highly selective about whom they publish. If you haven't had a best seller there is less and less chance that they will publish you and of course...if you can't get published you aren't going to be a best selling author except by fluke. Yes I would write. No I wouldn't publish.
So I will continue my love/hate relationship with technology because it enables me to write, publish, have creative control and, for just a moment, smile when someone discovers my writing and is kind enough to publish a good review somewhere. Isn't that what it is all about?
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