When commenting on the last post, Dingo said:"Thanks for sharing this process. It's really eye opening. So, tell us, where do you get your writing exercises? Do you still do them? How do you know if what you've written is any good?"I got a lot of the writing exercises I use through taking creative writing classes both in college and after college. There are tons of books and websites dedicated to writing prompts and ideas to give your brain a jump start.I don't use writing exercises in a formal way as much as I used to. I use writing exercises primarily to develop characters, and right now, … [Read more...]
“Who knows where thoughts come from? They just appear.”
You get so many points if you know what movie that line comes from. At Ithaca, when Lady and I got really stressed out and needed to decompress, we'd to run to Wegmans and buy a box of popsicles, the red, white & blue kind that look like rocket. Then we'd sit in my dorm room and watch that movie over and over again and eat all the popsicles, because it's not like anyone ever kept anything frozen in the little teeny tiny freezer section of a college fridge. After half a box of popsicles and two to three rounds of reciting the lines along with the movie, we'd be ready to conquer the world … [Read more...]
Tweaking
I know you haven't heard from me all that much lately. It's because I'm back in the rewrite process. The last round was pretty significant. This round is more about tweaking. A little more here, a little less there, some technical things, a few reworded sentences. But it's still hard to dive back in. I think the editing process requires a lot more attention than the writing process. For me, writing is something that happens in conjunction with everything else I do - I'm driving to the grocery store and I think about my main character - I'm doing yard work and suddenly I know the back story … [Read more...]
Take a look ahead!
I've been really stuck in my head. I've written a couple of posts to put up here and then decided they were stupid. Not that I'm saying this one isn't stupid. I just decided it was high time I put SOMETHING up here. I've been writing, gardening, writing, writing, running and writing. And eating and sleeping (when J isn't keeping me awake by driving imaginary trucks in his sleep) a little too. This lifestyle doesn't really make for the most exciting of blog posts, but I have to tell you, I freaking love my life. My editor is incredible. She gets my main character and what I want this book … [Read more...]
It’s so darn hard.
I went to the library to work today. I needed to get out of the house so very badly. The dogs were driving me nuts and the walls were closing in on me, and the cat was puking in the hallway, and I just had to go. So I packed up and left. I found a yellow vinyl armchair that looked like a prop from That 70's Show at the end of an aisle of books and sat with my headphones on, listening to my Stay playlist and editing. It was sheer bliss. Until school let out and the library flooded with kids. I started off thinking, 'good for their parents taking them to the library after school,' but … [Read more...]
An Ode to My Long-Suffering Writing Group
Maybe some writers sit in solitude and easily, brilliantly turn out incredible, award-winning pages on the first draft without ever getting even the slightest bit of feedback. Maybe pigs fly, but I just don't look up enough to see them. It's not like I'm claiming I know everything there is to know. But I do know that my writing group is a vital part of my writing process. It's easy, when you figure out something in your head, to leave out major, vital bits of information. It's easy to leave out words, write choppy dialogue, or think something's working when it isn't. I meet with my … [Read more...]
Let it go already
There's this weird transition going from the editing stage of an ongoing writing project to the first draft stage of a new one. In editing, you're striving to make things perfect, or at least closer to perfect (I'm big on multiple drafts), but in the actual writing of the first draft, you're just feeling things out and trying to figure out where it's all going to go. I am SO excited about my new project. The idea evolved from that first line while I pulled dead marigolds, into a pitch-type outline while I was in the shower, into some pages that have a tone and pace I'm starting to like. … [Read more...]
Mrs. Larkin is my mother-in-law.
On Friday, I went to a junior high school about an hour south of here to discuss Bathtub Mary with a group of 8th graders who'd spent the week studying it in class. It was amazing. It's wonderful to have friends and family say they like your story, but it's another thing to have 43 8th graders show up for an optional meeting after school in the library on a beautiful, sunny Friday to ask questions about it. This, I believe, is probably more of a testament to their amazing teacher than it is to my writing, but it still felt like the highest compliment I've ever received. These kids were so … [Read more...]
Things I Haven’t Blogged About
Issue 3 of Slice Magazine is out with a reprint of my Bathtub Mary story. I got my copy in the mail, stared at it for about an hour and then called my husband and got all weepy when I told him about it. The issue is fantastic. Great stories, and a fascinating interview with Salman Rushdie. I'm going to a junior high English class on Friday to talk about the story (they've been studying it this week). Neil was in town two weekends ago for a seminar and came up a day early so we could hang out. He and J had never met, and it was just so cool to get to hang out with my old college buddy and my … [Read more...]
Back to School
On Monday, I went to speak at a lit class at my alma mater. They studied my short story and were even writing papers on it. I'd planned to get up early to pretty myself up. I was even going to break out the flat iron so instead of having weirdly curly hair, I'd be sporting a sleek bob, and I could feel all professional and whatnot. But while I was making coffee, J snuck into the shower, and by the time he was done, I had 30 minutes to get out the door. It's important in my getting ready time to always figure in ten minutes that completely disappear from time and space. Ten minutes gone … [Read more...]
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