While attending the Thrillerfest conference in June, I couldn’t help but notice the frequent use of the word “wheelhouse” in conversations about reading and writing books. The word became the newest buzzword of the year. It is a term that has slowly made its way into many writers’ vocabulary, including my own.
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Writing is generally considered to be a lonely affair. Granted, when your writing hits that utopic pace where the words flow and your characters finally begin to speak for themselves, it is anything but lonely. I recently experienced writing connection through my participation in the Muskoka Novel Marathon, where writers from all walks, genres, experience, and aspiration, come together to write for 72 hours straight to raise money for adult literacy.
Having a group of writers gathered, even if only through our computers, to create new words is compelling. When your juices drain and you doubt you have another intelligent thought left, another writer asks a silly question like, “what is the word for that yellow circle in the sky?” and you hear self-deprecating laughter and it inspires you to suck in a breath, shake off your tiredness and plod forth (usually blindly) into your plot. Read more
This title perfectly describes how I am enjoying writing during these mid-summer days. Well, not exactly lazily. More like leisurely. I’m eager to write morning or evening pages and it is fun because there are no expectations attached. I commit to twenty minutes but almost always write longer.
It may be too soon to declare that a new habit is established but this latest attempt at the daily practice has continued for more than a month now. How freeing it is to just write direction-less.
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I know you are anxiously awaiting the results of my pseudo-science experiment from my last blog. I had pondered the question of the effect of physical space on creativity: Do You Have Enough Space for Creative Thought?
Do you have enough space for creative thought?
In my previous blog, I wondered if writing in a high ceiling location or better yet, in the wide open space of the outside, would produce more creative writing than writing in a low ceiling room or smaller space. I designed my experiment as follows:
I wrote for 15 minutes on a new writing project (yes, I did use a timer). I wrote short scenes (or what I could produce in 15 minutes) on a completely new story idea. I wrote in different locations from outside, to a high ceiling room, to a basement room with one small window, to my tiny trailer with room height of less than 6 feet (my small space). I kept track of how many words I wrote in each location and scored the work on my non-scientific and completely subjective “creativity” scale.
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If you’re a writer, chances are, you’re a reader. And there’s a high probability, like me, you’re a bookaholic. You can’t get enough. Walk by a bookstore? Only with the greatest inner fortitude. But now you don’t even have to walk by! I’ll be quietly working away at my day job, when—DING—there’s an email, Chapters / Indigo is having a sale. Pop to their website, scan the titles, order, pay, and boom, back to work. Or, I’ll be listening to a podcast while I work, a book suggestion comes up, pop over to Amazon, no min order needed to get free shipping, just a click away and the book is somehow already shipped.
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CUPCAKES!
What do cupcakes have to do with writing for a cause?
Read on to find out.
In a couple weeks, I will be participating in the Muskoka Novel Marathon to raise money for adult literacy. It isn’t a classic marathon. I’m not going to run thirty kilometres or skip jump-rope for hours on end. I’m going to write.
That’s right!
A writing marathon in support of ADULT LITERACY. (and a chance for you to win cupcakes!) Read more
In June, I had the opportunity to attend the Thrillerfest Conference in New York City for the first time in three years. At this point in the pandemic game, I don’t have to tell you that booking the hotel and airfare were scary enough, but traveling via plane and subway with thousands of other people rubbing up against your ribs would be a nightmare. So, I will skip the conversation about risking my health and tell you that it was time to be brave. With three vaccinations in my arm and over a dozen N95 masks in my book bag, I knew I would be well protected while traveling to the U.S. conference for a week.
I, like most writers, am considered an introvert. So, attending a writing conference to start conversations with strangers face-to-face is not only intimidating but also terrifying. So, to appear like the extrovert that I wanted to be, I decided to take it easy, relax and be stress-free. I only concentrated on one goal for the conference: To make new friends and connect again with my old ones.
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Life has been too hectic lately and as often happens, writing has taken a back seat to work and all kinds of busy-ness.
So, for the next three weeks, it is vacation time as hubby and I hit the road for beautiful Rainy Lake on the border of Ontario and Minnesota.
As excited as I am to see friends and to celebrate a wedding, I am really looking forward to having lots of distraction-free time to write as well. Relaxed writing, that is. The meditative, restorative, not worrying whether it is good or not, writing.
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