Writer's Update

Vacation Dreaming

As part of the Progressive Book Club, I have started reading The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron.  Now, this isn't a book meant just to read, but a guidebook or workbook meant to be used to help a person find or recover their creativity.  So I admit I'm coming to it from a weird place: I don't feel the least "blocked," and I've embraced my creative self like never before.  That makes it a little unclear what I'm hoping to get from it.  I'll be up front, too: I'm not real comfortable with the religious aspects of the book.  Yeah, I know Cameron says that if you don't believe in God, just ignore the use of that word or substitute "the great creative force" or whatever.  Thing is, any of that requires a belief in some kind of divine force.  Not sure I'm there.

Okay, so I'm trying to see what I can do with this.  In the first week, the two primary tasks are set out: the Artist's Date and Morning Pages.  Okay, I kind of get these.  The Artist's Date is taking a set time each week to do something that nurtures your inner artist.  Trouble is, some of the things she suggests don't interest me much (and she does say this should feel more indulgent than like a duty).  Other things I already do.  I don't need to take my inner artist for a walk on the beach, because I've probably already taken it (along with all the rest of me) for a run on the beach.  I'm thinking that my exercise obsession (especially the strong outdoor component) is keeping me more on track this way.  So this one, maybe I find something that makes sense for me, maybe not.  Working out or working in my garden restores me pretty well.

Morning Pages.  Meant to be three pages of free-writing every morning, sort of a core-dump to get everything out and both clear the head and (I think) prime the pump for writing.  Okay, this one is looking good for me.  But after a little experimentation, I think it's going to be Evening Pages.  See, the biggest issue I have in this area is not starting the day with too many things on my mind, but ending it that way.  Then thinking about them instead of sleeping.  So clearing the head, clearing the slate, getting it out (and maybe making a list for the next day) might help me sleep.  And that would certainly help my creativity.

Now I look at Week One, and the big thing here is Affirmations.  You know, say good things about yourself, and then listen to, the negative voices in your head--what she calls "blurts."  Then crush them.

Here's where it gets really tricky.  Okay, I can't really say "I am a brilliant writer," because that would be pretentious and patently untrue (I know of only a handful of writers I consider "brilliant").  But I can say that I am a darned good writer who writes some good reading.  And I'm not hearing much in the way of blurts.  Oh, there's the "so why aren't you selling more?" kind of thing.  But the answer to that so clearly has nothing to do with me as a writing.  Yeah, I suck at marketing.  Lot to learn there.  But writing?  I'm on it.  I don't mean to imply that I know everything there is to know about writing, just that I'm doing it, and learning every day.

So what the heck is wrong with me?  Why am I not an insecure writer?  And will it last?  Don't get me wrong--I have days when I can't sit down and write, days when I look at what I have written and groan.  But somewhere in the last year or two things have changed.  I'm not groaning "God, I suck as a writer, why am I even trying?"  I'm just groaning because editing is my least favorite part of the job and there's a lot to do.  But more and more I'm looking at my stuff and saying, "yeah, I can do this.  I sat down and wrote my obligatory crappy first draft [thank you Anne Lamott] and now I know how to get to work on making it good."

And more often than not, that's what I do.  And that's why I probably won't go on with the program, though I'm going to read at least one more week's worth.  Feels like jinxing myself when all is going well.

Please don't hate me for it. 

Meanwhile, I'm looking at the usual summer impediments: the kids are or soon will be out of school (one of each), which means I lose my solitary mornings for writing.  Plus, lots of vacation.  Okay, I don't mind about that.  But my challenge this summer is to keep working.  Just that: keep writing, finish the edits on Return to Skunk Corners, and put out that short story each week, at least.  At the same time as I figure out ways to get those teens out of the house (between vacation trips).  If I do all that, I'll be patting myself on the back.

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A Is For Alpine is here!  The paperback is now available at Amazon, or order directly from me (use the "Contact me" page) for $8, shipping to US included.

Progressive Book Club #1

Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott.  Note: this is not a review.  This is a book club discussion.  It may be hard to tell the difference.

I recently joined a group of writers in The Progressive Book Club, founded by M. L. Swift.   Monthly readings of books on writing result in monthly posts about the books we read.  Sort of like a progressive dinner but without the extra calories.  We move from blog to blog and nibble at the literary goodies.  Bird By Bird is the first book for discussion, and I am almost certainly the last one to post on it.  The list is at the link above, if you want to see what others have to say.

Now for the true confessions: this isn't the first time I've read Bird By Bird.  That doesn't matter, because truly good advice and insights are worth reading over.  That goes double for someone who will give a writer a swift kick in the seat of the pants, because heaven knows we need it.

So I love Anne Lamott's take on writing, and I have totally embraced her policy of writing truly rotten first drafts (like I have a choice about that).  But the more I write the more I realize that ANY book about how to write boils down to an idiosyncratic take on the way the writer of the book does it.  That's not necessarily bad.  All we can ever do when asked for advice about anything is ramble a bit about what we do, or what we would do if we weren't too lazy to do it.  And Lamott has proven that she does it and the end result is good.  It's worth considering how she does it.

I think that the number one bit to take away from this funny and inspiring book is the thing everyone says: sit your backside down and write.  Just do it, as Nike used to (annoyingly) say.  Do it every day.  Even if you only manage to squeeze out a few really bad words (in whatever sense of that you want to take it), you will make it a habit. Habits get done without you thinking about it.  That can be bad, but it can be very, very good when it's a habit of brushing your teeth or writing for 20 minutes before bed.

Many of the details of how Lamott gathers ideas and holds them inside and eventually pulls them out and uses them, though not necessarily how and where she thought she would, are just too individual for me to copy.  My process does not look like hers.  Your process will not look like hers.  At least, not precisely.  But she will make you think until you figure out what IS your process (and then she will mock you until you do it).

But you know, even if all I take from Bird By Bird is the affirmation that rotten first drafts are not only okay but desirable (because they mean that you just did it, and you turned off your inner editor/angel of death and didn't get all hung up about the exact right word so that after a month of writing you only have one sentence), and the idea of carrying a pen and index card in your pocket at all times (though I usually have the means to carry a whole notepad, the pen and index card are going into the pocket of my biking jersey), that's a pretty good pair of thoughts to take away.  I ought to apologize for that sentence, but I won't.

If you write, or think you might like to write, or sometimes sit down and stare at a piece of paper and wish you were a writer, read Bird By Bird.  If you don't write, go ahead and read it anyway.  It will make you laugh and help you to understand your friends who do write.