We’ve been bemoaning here and here the difficulties of escaping the pressures of life—and the internet—and finding ways to carve out the time and space we need to be creative. Here’s how writer Robin Gaines has tackled that problem and within her space, been able to recently complete her marvelous first book, Invincible Summers. Remember her name, please: you’ll be headed to the bookstore soon enough, looking for a copy of her book. I was fortunate enough to have read the manuscript in progress, and I can’t say enough nice things about her talent for creating evocative, complex characters who move through a fascinating time and setting (suburban Detroit in the late sixties and seventies). She’s a master at finding the exact word to illuminate a moment and infuse it with intensity. I very much enjoyed reading her work, and so I hope you enjoy her piece here:
I couldn't have finished my book, Invincible Summers, in this decade if I didn't have a writing space to go to everyday. Trying to think and write creatively while staring at piles of dirty laundry, or wondering again what that weird guy is picking out of the neighbor's trash, is difficult for me. Call me unfocused. Call me a writer who lives in one place and writes in another.
I used to write on deadline in a noisy, messy, uncivilized newsroom. My coworkers swore, threw things, smoked, told lewd (funny) jokes, and sometimes drank (after deadline, thank God), and it was in this atmosphere, day after day, that I was able to piece together some semblance of a story. What happened to that writer who possessed such stamina and fortitude in the midst of chaos and distractions galore?
Granted, there was no internet then to quiet us down. But writing fiction is a whole other animal than writing a feature story on acupuncture, or the latest legal drama ensuing with the mayor of Detroit (I live in Michigan). Creative writing comes to me through a different portal than nonfiction writing. And that special gateway needs my body to be sitting in a card table chair in front of my laptop in the dark, dank basement office of the Hidey Hole. This seems to be the only place where I get anything done "making stuff up" (my brother's definition of what I do with my time).
There are three of us who rent the space: Kathleen, a poet; Arthur, the retired college English professor who's working on a different project every week; and myself, the short story-cum-novel writer. Kathleen is the only one who calls our writing space the Hidey Hole. It's "the office" to everyone else. We pay $67 a month per person to the woman who owns the building. For this we get a 10x10 space with a tiny window covered by an overgrown bush. The door locks, but barely, so we never leave anything overnight but our writing table, chair, and lamp. Everything else is portable: laptop, books, files, lunch, coffee, etc. There is no internet or phone service and no one else around but us three to talk to and we're hardly ever at the office all at the same time anyway. The only issue we've had in the five years we've shared the space is whose turn it is to take the trash out. (Arthur usually forgets!!!) Those who've seen the space say we're getting ripped off. The writer in me thinks it's worth every penny and more.
The other basement office, located on the other side of the furnace/storage room, is rented by a therapist (funny how this seems so metaphorically perfect!), but her patients are mostly evening appointments. Occasionally, if I'm working late, I'll hear someone crying. Once, I heard bits and pieces of a heated argument between a couple and I wrote down every word I could decipher. I even thought about returning the following Thursday for more material, but didn't.
Above us are the anchor tenets. The dentist, Dr. Payne, occupies the area above our office, and Dr. Bliss, the oral surgeon, over the therapist's office. (These are their real names, I kid you not.) The walls are thin in our building so it took some time getting used to screaming kids and that awful buzzing from the drill. Now, we think and dream and write right through the torturous sounds. My subconscious thoughts are quicker to present themselves in this dark, underground environment where, most of the time, we don't know if it's raining, snowing, or sunny outside.
Parts of my novel-in-stories were written in other places: the lake house, a hotel room, on a ferry. Once, on a plane, I borrowed my daughter's math folder and wrote a chunk of a skydiving scene on the back of one of her tests. Sure, I've written okay stuff while in my house, but it never feels as authentic as the writing produced in the Hidey Hole. Maybe because it's there that Payne and Bliss coexist, and as every writer knows, that's what you go through writing one great sentence. ~~ Robin Gaines
About: Robin Gaines' stories have appeared in Oasis: A Literary Magazine; Porcupine; Spindrift; The Homestead Review; and are forthcoming in Willard & Maple. She's a former journalist and music features writer. She has just finished her first novel, Invincible Summers.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Sneak Preview: Joshua Henkin
In a couple weeks, thanks to author Joshua Henkin, this blog will be giving away a signed copy of his wonderful novel, Matrimony, to one lucky reader. In the meantime, you can check out his thoughts on topics such as writing dialogue and critic James Wood, as well as find out whether or not he’s the father of Bristol Palin’s love-child as he guest-blogs at one of my favorite internet destinations, The Elegant Variation. He’s already posted several items, and who knows how many more there will be, so I’ll just give the general link and you may have to do some scrolling.
I think he’ll be giving away copies of his book there, too, so don’t say I didn’t give you ample opportunity to get your hands on this excellent book. (Plus, the paperback is now in bookstores, so you could actually BUY it, you know!)
I think he’ll be giving away copies of his book there, too, so don’t say I didn’t give you ample opportunity to get your hands on this excellent book. (Plus, the paperback is now in bookstores, so you could actually BUY it, you know!)
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Work in Progress: Snip, Snip
I mentioned that “my summer vacation” has been spent waiting to hear about my novel and tackling a varied assortment of shorter-term writing projects. Within this random chaos, I’ve come up with a new writing trick that has been useful when revising and when creating new work:
When in doubt, cut.
It sounds simple—and probably it is; probably I’m a dunce for not figuring this out sooner—but it all became clear when I was revising an old story that I hadn’t looked at for at least two years. The bones were good, and I wanted to give it another try. Part of the problem with this story was that it was simply too long. These days your story has to be pretty spectacular to get a literary journal to hand over 30 pages to it…oh, and your last name also has to be Franzen or Updike or some such. So I started out knowing I wanted to cut, so that was a good point of departure.
But what to cut? Upon the first couple rereadings, everything in the story felt inter-related and impossible to cut. (A familiar feeling, perhaps?) It wasn’t as though I could trim pages and pages without affecting the storyline significantly.
Then I stopped looking at the big picture and went through paragraph by paragraph. And what I found was that on that level, it was much easier to find points where I could think, “What if this was gone?” I’d take it out and discover that I didn’t miss it and that the story didn’t really need it. (A lot of this was background and history that seemed so important until it wasn’t there.) Snip, snip—I hacked away more than five pages.
And my new mantra was surprisingly helpful when I was creating new work, too. I love revising, but first draft writing is very hard for me—there are always a thousand points where I wonder what I’m doing and find myself getting frustrated that things aren’t perfect and that I have absolutely no idea where the story is going. I’m sort of used to that—I guess it’s my “process”—though by far the hardest part is wondering “where is this story going.” When those doubts get too far, I find that where the story is going is exactly nowhere, because I’ve stopped writing, paralyzed.
But now—thanks to my new mantra—I step back and CUT. When I don’t know what happens next in the story, I simply retreat backward and take out the thing that just happened prior, whether it’s a line of dialogue or the elevator door opening. What if no one says anything? What if the elevator door DOESN’T open? It’s amazing—that simple trick usually works and shakes my mind out of paralysis and into seeing the possibility of what’s next. And there I am…moving forward again, hopefully stopping well before I get to page 30!
When in doubt, cut.
It sounds simple—and probably it is; probably I’m a dunce for not figuring this out sooner—but it all became clear when I was revising an old story that I hadn’t looked at for at least two years. The bones were good, and I wanted to give it another try. Part of the problem with this story was that it was simply too long. These days your story has to be pretty spectacular to get a literary journal to hand over 30 pages to it…oh, and your last name also has to be Franzen or Updike or some such. So I started out knowing I wanted to cut, so that was a good point of departure.
But what to cut? Upon the first couple rereadings, everything in the story felt inter-related and impossible to cut. (A familiar feeling, perhaps?) It wasn’t as though I could trim pages and pages without affecting the storyline significantly.
Then I stopped looking at the big picture and went through paragraph by paragraph. And what I found was that on that level, it was much easier to find points where I could think, “What if this was gone?” I’d take it out and discover that I didn’t miss it and that the story didn’t really need it. (A lot of this was background and history that seemed so important until it wasn’t there.) Snip, snip—I hacked away more than five pages.
And my new mantra was surprisingly helpful when I was creating new work, too. I love revising, but first draft writing is very hard for me—there are always a thousand points where I wonder what I’m doing and find myself getting frustrated that things aren’t perfect and that I have absolutely no idea where the story is going. I’m sort of used to that—I guess it’s my “process”—though by far the hardest part is wondering “where is this story going.” When those doubts get too far, I find that where the story is going is exactly nowhere, because I’ve stopped writing, paralyzed.
But now—thanks to my new mantra—I step back and CUT. When I don’t know what happens next in the story, I simply retreat backward and take out the thing that just happened prior, whether it’s a line of dialogue or the elevator door opening. What if no one says anything? What if the elevator door DOESN’T open? It’s amazing—that simple trick usually works and shakes my mind out of paralysis and into seeing the possibility of what’s next. And there I am…moving forward again, hopefully stopping well before I get to page 30!
"I'll Take Zany Southern Writers for $500"
1. Which author, who met and mentored William Faulkner in New Orleans, agreed to recommend Faulkner’s first novel, Soldier’s Pay, to his publisher, provided he didn’t have to read it first?
a. Tennessee Williams
b. Sherwood Anderson
c. Scott Fitzgerald
d. Ernest Hemingway
From Maud Newton’s southern culture trivia quiz, with much more found here. The answer is b, Sherwood Anderson.
And another:
28. Anecdote contributed by writer/blogger Carrie Frye: Which North Carolina writer, when drunk, used to bite off pieces of his or her glass and chew on them?
a. Thomas Wolfe
b. Jill McCorkle
c. David Sedaris
d. Allan Gurganus
Yikes. It’s a, Thomas Wolfe...hope he had an excellent dentist.
a. Tennessee Williams
b. Sherwood Anderson
c. Scott Fitzgerald
d. Ernest Hemingway
From Maud Newton’s southern culture trivia quiz, with much more found here. The answer is b, Sherwood Anderson.
And another:
28. Anecdote contributed by writer/blogger Carrie Frye: Which North Carolina writer, when drunk, used to bite off pieces of his or her glass and chew on them?
a. Thomas Wolfe
b. Jill McCorkle
c. David Sedaris
d. Allan Gurganus
Yikes. It’s a, Thomas Wolfe...hope he had an excellent dentist.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Internet: Friend or Foe, Part 2
Last week I wrote about the siren song of the internet and how hard it can be to focus on work when there are all those important web sites about cats, the corn cam, and “Mad Men.” Jim Kendrall, a writer currently in the Master of Arts in Writing Program at Johns Hopkins, offered some additional suggestions about places to go that may help keep your writing front and center:
--“University Library: I’m fond of the American University library [in DC]. I’ve always been able to find a quiet spot. There’s something about a university campus that makes me, well, thoughtful. The downside for me is the thirty-minute commute (during non-peak traffic times). My laptop has no wireless capability but, alas, I need to remove the chess game.
--“The car: Nothing like sitting in a perfectly quiet car off in the corner of some parking lot. Maybe a coffee in the cup holder. So maybe a parking lot near a Starbucks somewhere. Get a power cord for the laptop that fits in the cigarette lighter. Shut off the cell phone. For extra room sit in the passenger seat. Zero distractions. So quiet you can hear yourself think. And, you can read out loud or talk to yourself if you want to. A car stays pretty warm in chilly weather.
--“In the dead of winter, at home: But late, late at night. The whole world is sleeping, just you and your tap-tapping on a non-internet connected laptop. Hit the sack at three or four a.m. Then sleep in.”
I love the idea of writing in the car. There’s a park I like to go to sometimes where I can park and look out at the river. Yes, of course you can get out of the car, but I’ve noticed I’m not the only one who prefers sitting in the car instead. And, no, sorry—I’m not telling where this park is; there aren’t that many parking places!
Jim also added this interesting bit of advice: “Okay, this one’s a little weird, but on the subject of distractions, sometimes I find, that when I’m typing, the very appearance of the words on the screen is distracting. I think it has to do with my lack of patience to stay out of edit mode. So, when that happens, I reduce the font to some imperceptible size so all I see are fuzzy dots. That way I can remain in the writing dream state and still see out of the corner of my eye that I’m actually capturing text.”
And there was this bit in the recent interview with Tova Mirvis on Paper Cuts. I’m certain that the sudden need to click over to the internet—like the sudden need to run to the kitchen and unload the dishwasher—is related to a hard moment in the writing, and the best way to get through a hard moment is to keep going:
"How much time — if any — do you spend on the Web? Is it a blessing or a distraction?
"Hours, hours, hours, and almost entirely distraction. For a long time, I didn’t sign up for wireless, so that I could write in the disconnected upstairs of our house without being able to check my e-mail. Having to go downstairs to plug my computer in was enough to keep my temptation in check; I’d parcel out those forays downstairs and online as a reward for a few hours of solid work. Eventually I succumbed to wireless and now it’s a constant battle. For practical matters and specific information, and for communicating with people you don’t really feel like talking to, who can argue with the Web’s prowess? But usually when I’m online, I don’t have a specific purpose. I’m looking for something to be looking for. Or I’m hoping to stumble on a salve for whatever anxiety or restlessness has sent me there in the first place. Sometimes when I’m frustrated with my writing, I’ll google the names of my characters, or random words or ideas from my novel and see what I find, as though the search engine is powerful enough to turn up what exists in my mind and which I can’t yet access."
James River Conference in Richmond
Here’s a quick reminder about the James River Conference down in Richmond, Virginia…looks like a great line-up of diverse speakers:
Conference 2008 - Get it Write
Conference 2008 offers the inside story on the art, the craft, and the business of writing, bringing together critically-lauded and bestselling authors along with some of the writing world's best editors, agents, and more, all in an intimate setting at the Library of Virginia.
Friday - Saturday, October 10 & 11, 2008
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond
With:
David Baldacci, New York Times Bestselling Author
Adriana Trigiani, Big Stone Gap
Diane Mott Davidson, bestselling author of culinary mysteries
Claudia Emerson, Pulitzer Prize winning poet
Kate Jacobs, author of New York Times best-seller The Friday Night Knitting Club
Kirk Ellis, screenplay, HBO's John Adams
Shannon Ravenel, editor, Algonquin Books
Chuck Adams, editor, Agonquin Books
Colin Fox, editor, Simon & Schuster
Featuring:
First Pages Critique
One-on-One with an Agent
New this year! One-on-One with a PR team
Registration:
General Registration, after September 1: $155
After October 1: one-day tickets, $85/day if seats remain available.
More information and online reservation
JRW's SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE IS PRESENTED BY DOMINION
Conference 2008 - Get it Write
Conference 2008 offers the inside story on the art, the craft, and the business of writing, bringing together critically-lauded and bestselling authors along with some of the writing world's best editors, agents, and more, all in an intimate setting at the Library of Virginia.
Friday - Saturday, October 10 & 11, 2008
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond
With:
David Baldacci, New York Times Bestselling Author
Adriana Trigiani, Big Stone Gap
Diane Mott Davidson, bestselling author of culinary mysteries
Claudia Emerson, Pulitzer Prize winning poet
Kate Jacobs, author of New York Times best-seller The Friday Night Knitting Club
Kirk Ellis, screenplay, HBO's John Adams
Shannon Ravenel, editor, Algonquin Books
Chuck Adams, editor, Agonquin Books
Colin Fox, editor, Simon & Schuster
Featuring:
First Pages Critique
One-on-One with an Agent
New this year! One-on-One with a PR team
Registration:
General Registration, after September 1: $155
After October 1: one-day tickets, $85/day if seats remain available.
More information and online reservation
JRW's SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE IS PRESENTED BY DOMINION
Monday, September 1, 2008
My New & Exciting Writer's Center Classes
Just a quick reminder that the Writer’s Center Open House will be this Saturday (September 6), from noon to three p.m. in Bethesda. Details here. Hope to see you there!
I will be teaching two NEW & EXCITING classes this fall (as opposed to the “old & boring” classes I usually teach—ha, ha). Please pass along this information to anyone who may be interested:
Set Your Prose Free Through Collage: A One-Night Workshop
Get a fresh view on your fiction, memoir, and/or poetry through the imaginative use of collage and found objects. This hands-on, exercise-intensive, free-flowing, intimate workshop is appropriate for beginners looking for inspiration and for intermediate writers who might be feeling a bit stuck with their project…and everyone in-between! Participants should be prepared to do lots of writing—please bring a pen/pencil (unfortunately, a computer will not be effective here). Note: Due to the nature of this class, we must limit the class size to 15. You’ll be surprised at what you may discover in only one night!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
7 PM to 10:00 PM
Note: This is similar to a collage class that I tried out at the Writers at the Beach Conference, that if I do say so myself, ended up being a remarkable experience. You can read more about it here.
Registration and details can be found here.
Flex Your Creative Muscles! A One-Day Workshop
Spend the afternoon doing a series of intensive, guided exercises designed to shake up your brain and get your creative subconscious working for you. You can come with a project already in mind and focus your work toward a deeper understanding of that—or you can come as a blank slate (that will quickly fill up!). Fiction writers and memoirists of all levels are welcome. Please bring lots of paper and pen/pencil or a computer with a fully charged battery. Note: This class will not repeat any of the instructor’s previous exercises, so feel free to attend even if you’ve taken one of her classes before!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
12:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Registration and more information are found here.
I will be teaching two NEW & EXCITING classes this fall (as opposed to the “old & boring” classes I usually teach—ha, ha). Please pass along this information to anyone who may be interested:
Set Your Prose Free Through Collage: A One-Night Workshop
Get a fresh view on your fiction, memoir, and/or poetry through the imaginative use of collage and found objects. This hands-on, exercise-intensive, free-flowing, intimate workshop is appropriate for beginners looking for inspiration and for intermediate writers who might be feeling a bit stuck with their project…and everyone in-between! Participants should be prepared to do lots of writing—please bring a pen/pencil (unfortunately, a computer will not be effective here). Note: Due to the nature of this class, we must limit the class size to 15. You’ll be surprised at what you may discover in only one night!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
7 PM to 10:00 PM
Note: This is similar to a collage class that I tried out at the Writers at the Beach Conference, that if I do say so myself, ended up being a remarkable experience. You can read more about it here.
Registration and details can be found here.
Flex Your Creative Muscles! A One-Day Workshop
Spend the afternoon doing a series of intensive, guided exercises designed to shake up your brain and get your creative subconscious working for you. You can come with a project already in mind and focus your work toward a deeper understanding of that—or you can come as a blank slate (that will quickly fill up!). Fiction writers and memoirists of all levels are welcome. Please bring lots of paper and pen/pencil or a computer with a fully charged battery. Note: This class will not repeat any of the instructor’s previous exercises, so feel free to attend even if you’ve taken one of her classes before!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
12:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Registration and more information are found here.
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