If you’re a writer, do you write about the things you love doing?
If you’re a reader, do you gravitate toward novels with themes/settings/characters that share your interests?
Category: on writing
The Maybe Not So Lonely Act of Writing
Someone once wrote “writing is a lonely business”.
We all know the familiar cliché of the author sitting at his or her desk, coffee cups scattered about the work surface, dirty dishes with half-eaten food lying about, and wadded pieces of paper littering the floor and overflowing out of waste bins (ok, maybe only old people like me know that cliché).
The thing is, after all the lectures, grammar rules, tips and recommendations for better play/ novel/short story/ screen play/ writing, – well, the fact is, you’re the only one who can write your work. You. Sitting there, with your note pad, your tablet, your laptop, your desktop.
Editing is Writing
“What I write is smarter than I am because I can re-write it.” Susan Sontag
We’re not always trying to be smarter, be we are trying to be better. For some the words just flow and little editing is needed. These are the best storytellers! But for many of us writers, we need to edit, especially beginning writers, at least I did. I keep hoping it gets easier in time. I keep reading more about how to write and all the techniques and things to remember get stuck in my head and I hope one day they just become part of me. We’ll see as I start on my second novel. Read more
How to Rev Up Your Word Count & Finish That Novel
So, you are a writer and you are writing a novel, BUT you just can’t find the time to finish it. Are you procrastinating? Are you spending more time thinking about writing that novel, than you are writing it? Are you stuck at Chapter Three and you don’t know what should happen next? Are you wondering what could you possibly do, to make your fingers fly across the keyboard at lightening speeds to finish telling your story? What could you do that will inspire you and motivate you into finally completing your novel? Do you want to know the quickest way to rev up your word count and finish that novel? I have four answers for you:
Faith In Writing
I have a T-shirt that says “Music is my Life!” and another one that says “Music is my Religion!” and they get a lot of wear. Neither one of them is wrong, they don’t lie, they’re just not complete.
The truth is that creating is my life. Creating music and stories and poems. And creating is also my religion. I’d call myself a creationist, but that would be misleading too.
The largest part of my creating by far is my writing, because it covers so much territory. And the larger part of the writing is prose in the form of blog posts and online magazine articles, freelance articles (though I haven’t done one of those in a while), short stories, and the ongoing novel.
But there is poetry and lyrics always lurking in my mind, waiting to be discovered and recorded, usually quickly, before it disappears again below the surface of the murky, unfathomable depths of my mired mind. Read more
New Beginnings
It’s autumn, a season that feels like a new beginning to me. For some, it’s a new school, teachers and new friends to meet. For others, it’s the end of summer and the start of another fall and into winter, ending the hot days and beginning the cold evenings.
Earlier in the spring of this year, my parents filled my car with boxes of my old school notes. In total, 11 cardboard boxes. The boxes had been stored perfectly for years in their basement; it’s a testimony to their cellar that the paper was dry and crisp – not a spot of mould on them. They contained every note, project, essay and story that I wrote from grade 6 to grade 13.
I do not have a basement (yet, again – see my previous blog) so the boxes resided in my hallway. They sat for months there because frankly, I was too scared to open them. But the other week with summer gone and in the midst of a new season, I decided to deal with my past and not have it clutter the hallway, like piles of dirty dishes on the counter. Plus it’s difficult to negotiate to the laundry room with my boxes.
The Story of our Lives
The story of our lives doesn’t come to us in a lightning bolt of realization, but unfolds slowly before us, inch-by-inch, mile-by-mile, day by day. We are creating our futures today but we can only see so far on the road ahead. Sometimes we have great clarity and can see for miles. Other times, we are in a fog and can barely see past the next signpost. Or the unexpected happens, a racoon darting out in the road. We can swerve and miss it, we can hit it, or we can swerve and hit an oncoming car. This moment may, or may not, change our lives. Times of crisis, when there is a seismic shift in the landscape of our lives, is when it is most difficult to see the road ahead, when the path is most obscured. Like driving at night in a snow-storm in Grey County, you’re going inch-by-inch. Read more
Writers Can Make A Difference
I AM A WRITER! Or so I tell myself, almost every day.
That doesn’t sound like a problem, but it is. My dilemma is I don’t always write every day. Sometimes, I can go a week or two, without writing a single word of any real relevance to my current work-in-progress. Instead, I’m using my spare time to help other writers in a very unique way, by making decisions, by composing emails of encouragement, by pumping up the writers and getting them excited. You see, I volunteer as the Muskoka Novel Marathon Writer Liaison, and if that’s not enough, I also do all their social media postings and tweets, plus take care of their website for the whole year. I encourage the 40 participating writers to fundraise for the YMCA Literacy Programs, because I believe strongly that everyone should be able to experience the Magical World of Reading. This year, we raised over $29,000 for these programs that help people who are struggling with basic reading, writing, math and computer skills. This makes me feel pretty good. That’s over $6000 more than last year’s amount. I’m definitely smiling.
This past weekend, we finally experienced the moment, where all 40 writers gathered to spend 72-hours straight in one room… TOGETHER! Seriously, it is one of the best writing weekends of the year for me. It is an experience like no other adventure that I’ve ever taken part in. 40 people that range from quiet and non-social, to wacked out crazy people, who will light their hair on fire, just to get a few laughs (see picture above). Besides writing, we hug, we cry, we laugh, we walk barefoot, we sing, we dance, we scream, we whisper… and most of all, we have fun together. What’s not to love?