Will I Ever Learn?

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

         

          August was a tough month for writing. I had visitors. I went on a trip. I had my usual professional writing deadlines. However, I still managed to fill my notebook for the month.

What I didn’t have time for was counting all the words. Takes a lot of time when you wait until the end of the month instead of counting them each day. Also, it’s tiring when I put off writing three pages a day which means I then have to write eight or ten or more pages a day during the last week of the month.

Procrastination is not a good habit.

I manage to fight it well when I have to meet a paying or public consumption deadline, but filling a notebook a month is neither—just a goal I set for myself.

Some days filling the notebook is effortless. I have an idea. I jot it down and expand upon it.

Other days I don’t have any ideas so I write observations about the weather, upcoming deadlines, even To-Do Lists, but, if I keep writing, eventually something pops.

One day I got an idea. I expanded on it for a couple more days and thought I was done. But three days later as I was just scribbling, I got a huge idea to add to the one from almost a week ago. The subconscious is a beautiful thing!

If I didn’t fill a notebook a month, would I have had the first idea? Maybe. But I am positive that I would not have had the really big idea if I hadn’t pondered for days about the first one.

Filling a notebook a month takes time, but the payoff in the end is huge:

Keeps my writing muscles (brain and body) nimble;

I can face a blank page without fear;

I write faster, too;

All ideas are written down for future reference;

Even bigger/better ideas show up in this welcoming space; and

Meeting deadlines is a fabulous feeling.

Also, I love seeing full notebooks pile up on shelves in my office. They are physical proof I’m a writer since so many of my assignments fly out of my office via the internet.

I will continue meeting this goal every month. Maybe someday I will learn never to procrastinate!

What's in My Notebooks?

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          I advocate filling a notebook a month as a great way to keep yourself writing—especially if you don’t have immediate deadlines. But even if you do have deadlines, filling the notebook keeps ideas flowing and gives you a place to vent if you are stuck.

          For about 15 years, I filled a notebook a month, but as I wrote more pieces for publication, I filled a notebook only every two or three months. I loved having a place to jot down thoughts, feelings, happenings, etc., but I wasn’t disciplined about it again until this January when I resolved to go back to filling a notebook a month.

          I started with an 80-page notebook in January—because 100 pages was too daunting—and wrote 21,598 words. I had no daily set amount of pages or word count. With a week left to finish, I had 38 pages to fill. I did it, but it wasn’t fun. I also wrote very sloppily in larger handwriting than usual.

Obviously I stayed with the 80-page notebook in February. I wrote almost every day, but still had 19 pages to fill the last week. Again, I filled it, but wasn’t as helpful because I just jammed stuff in it. Total word count was 25,574. Not being as rushed, I wrote less sloppily so more room for words.

In March, I again went with the 80-page notebook, but this time I tried to fill 2-3 pages every day. This was much more helpful to all my writing projects as I had space to think about topics, come up with ideas, and whine when writing wasn’t going well. I wrote 26,203 words.

Feeling more comfortable with my new habit, I switched to a 100-page notebook in April and wrote 35,006 words. My goal was 1,000 words a day, but I ended up averaging 1,167. I looked forward to writing in my notebook. It wasn’t a chore or a resolution anymore.

What do I write about in my notebooks?

I rage or regale about my writing projects. Work on titles for current pieces. Consider new projects. I also work on plots. Copy down quotes I love from books I’m reading. Jot down notes whenever I see an author being interviewed on TV as well as any thoughts I want to ponder—and then I ponder.

I write down observations about people, pets, nature, TV, and books as these often lead to posts for this blog or thoughts for my Editor’s Viewpoint column or my Facebook essays for the magazines or sometimes because they are funny. For example, out to dinner with three writing friends, we simultaneously stopped talking to listen to the conversation at the next table. The foursome was getting into a heated discussion about whether an evening can be enchanted or not. I don’t know how the topic came up, but it was fascinating. They got up to leave so we rushed to pay our bill so we could continue to eavesdrop in the parking lot. They were still going at it as they got in their car and left. We stood in the parking lot and laughed at ourselves for being such writers but how could we resist listening to such passion about a description of a night.

Nature gives great copy on walks or even when I look out my office window. There is a 25-foot tall trumpet vine growing up an evergreen tree. Every summer, several Ruby-throated hummingbirds visit to drink their fill of nectar from the dozens and dozens of bright orange blossoms putting on a colorful show. Then there was a black butterfly that played with our puppy for over five minutes fluttering just out of reach back and forth in the side yard. At first I was worried the puppy would hurt the butterfly, but he/she flew up and around over and over again to the pup’s delight only leaving when the adult dogs arrived to see what the commotion was all about.

I’m also very human in my notebooks. I write about my feelings, whether happy, sad, or angry, putting things into perspective.

If you give yourself space and permission, you will find yourself writing pages and pages. None of it goes to waste. Even if nothing appears in other formats (a rare thing), filling these notebooks increases your writing speed, improves your observation skills, and clarifies your thoughts.

This is why I recommend filling a notebook a month and also reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Her essays about the writing life and her life are engaging and full of wonder. The author of ten writing books and novels, her writing practice is filling up a notebook a month for about forty years. This book made me a much better writer because writing begets writing.

Start filling your own notebooks now!

Word count for week of April 30-May 6 was 11,034.

Following Through

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

Last week I wrote about receiving big ideas while writing routinely in my monthly notebook. I feel these ideas are rewards from my Muse for putting in the time.

Well receiving ideas is only the beginning. You have to follow through with them. So this past week I stopped working on my other writing projects (except filling my notebook a month) to put together my idea for a book proposal—and I did it in a week.

I didn’t sleep as much as usual. I only wrote one article as well as in my monthly notebook while I assembled the proposal. I will need to write more when it comes to finishing the book, but for the proposal I only needed to assemble and organize some of my previously written magazine essays on a multitude of topics, create a Table of Contents, and summarize the rest of the book.

I’m now letting the project sit for a week so I can look at it with fresh eyes. The anticipation is almost as much fun as putting together the proposal.

While I wait, I’m back to working on my screenplay this week because one of the other big ideas I received changed the plot. I’m still filling my notebook a month and completing other writing assignments on deadline. 

Writing begets writing so if you’re a writer, write. Fill an 80-100 page notebook a month whether you have assignments and deadlines or not. (Filling a notebook a month is the idea of Natalie Goldberg in her book Writing Down the Bones.)

 I have my paid writing and editing jobs, my screenplay, my fun writing projects, and now a book. I don’t need to fill a notebook a month to be a writer, but it keeps me motivated, improves my speed, and gives me ideas so this is one writing assignment I’m never giving up.

Word count for the week of April 2-8 was 7,178.

Word Counts for a Working Writer

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          As a working writer, I write almost every day. Deadline for the magazines lasts three days each month so I’m too busy then, otherwise I write.

          Filling a notebook a month is the best way to stay on track. Use an 80-100 page notebook as recommended by Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones. If you write about three pages every day, you’ll fill the notebook. If you don’t, then you will have a lot of pages to fill at the end of the month.

          In January, I had company as well as deadline. Because I wrote only a few paragraphs or a page or two each day, the last week of the month I had to fill 40 pages—which I did. My word count for that week was over 12,000 which also included a blog post and facebook thoughts for the magazines. I had to write fast to meet my monthly notebook deadline.

          Learning to write fast is essential for a working writer. Get all your thoughts down on paper as quickly as you can. This leaves you more time to rewrite, organize, make corrections, and polish your words—the real work of a professional working writer.

The initial act of writing is wild, spontaneous, exciting. When you reread what you wrote, you might not even remember some of these thoughts as they came so fast. Good. Those thoughts are what you really think without any filters. Work with them.

As I wrote in my post on 3/9/15:

 I think anyone interested in becoming a writer should read Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity by Ray Bradbury.

These books will also energize anyone who is already a writer. I often pick one of them up, flip open to a random page, read for a while then jump into writing.

           In Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury not only encourages writing, he also shares his story of becoming a writer then working hard to become a better writer. Read his work. His dedication and creativity are astounding.

He’s inspiring—hard not to be when he begins his essay “The Joy of Writing” on page 3 with:

Zest. Gusto. How rarely one hears these words used. How rarely do we see people living, or for that matter, creating by them. Yet if I were asked to name the most important items in a writer’s make-up, the things that shape his material and rush him along the road to where he wants to go, I could only warn him to look to his zest, see to his gusto.

          Bradbury notes on page 13:

In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon the truth which is the only style worth deadfalling or tiger-trapping.

Tiger-trapping. How exciting that makes writing sound! We are brave. Capturing truth. Following wherever our creativity leads us. Zest and gusto indeed!

Write with zest and gusto in a monthly notebook no one else will ever read. You’ll surprise yourself as well as come up with ideas for writing projects. I’ve written many essays and blog posts on thoughts I might never have discovered without scribbling in my notebooks which I take with me everywhere—like Natalie Goldberg, I carry a notebook-sized purse. Writing in public is inspiring in a different way than writing at home. Write wherever you are.

Word counts do matter. Not only in meeting specifications for projects, but quantity leads to quality. In filling these notebooks, you’ll find your voice, your rhythm, and your ability to meet deadlines no matter how short—all hallmarks of a working writer.

My word count for February 5-11 was 7,287.

Writing Advice from an Editor to an Intern

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          I didn’t set out to become an editor. I wanted to be a successful writer working from home. I became both after years of writing then taking a writing class where I met the woman who just bought one of the magazines I now write for and edit.

I started out as an unpaid intern for the magazines. I wrote articles as well as learned about copyediting (turning press releases and items sent in by the public about meetings and events into style copy for the magazine issue), layouts (placing headlines, bylines, copy, ads, pull quotes, photos, and captions on each page), proofreading (using the correct proofreaders’ marks), and all the little things to check in an effort to publish an almost perfect issue (something always goes wrong).

A few years later, I became the editor of one then two magazines—a job I love.

Now I’m working with an intern who wants to be a writer and an editor. I’m happy to share my knowledge and experience with her; however, writing skills are more straightforward to teach than editing skills. My writing advice is posted now. My advice for editing will be posted on October 17, 2016.

Here is my writing advice:                                                                        

                             

To be a better writer, write. It’s just that simple. There is never enough time to write. You must make the time to write. Get up early. Stay up late. Write anytime you are waiting for someone or something. Writers write! Jot down thoughts and sentence fragments, plots, and ideas in a notebook or record on phone. 

If you want to be a professional writer, learn to write on demand, not wait for inspiration, by writing to deadlines. Filling a notebook a month as recommended by Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones is a great way to start. Write a concise weekly blog—300-500 words—without fail. Write three pages every morning as recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. If really short on time, write Six-Word Memoirs®. (See books by the same title or visit Smith Magazine online.)

Take writing classes or join a writing group. Deadlines and feedback are essential.

“It is easy to lose sight of the fact that writers do not write to impart knowledge to others, rather, they write to inform themselves.”   –Judith Guest

Choose a magazine you enjoy reading. Write an article following its style (topic, word count, tone, etc.). Write about what you love. Learn from the best as you can interview experts or participants in whatever topics interest you. Write your first drafts without thought to the word count. Then rewrite your articles repeatedly. Final articles should be your best work including all the points you wanted to make as well as meeting the word counts. Submit articles for publication.

“Don't market yourself. Editors and readers don't know what they want until they see it. Scratch what itches. Write what you need to write, feed the hunger for meaning in your life.”     –Donald M. Murray

Write with abandon then rewrite by writing concisely.

“Nothing you write, if you hope to be any good, will ever come out as you first hope.”   –William Hellman

For reference: on average, I spend 35-40% of my time writing and 60-65% rewriting pieces for publication. I rewrite my articles five, six, ten times until I’m satisfied it’s the best I can do. Read pieces aloud to catch mistakes.

“Writing is really rewriting—making the story better, clearer, truer.” –Robert Lipsyte

“Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.”  --Mary Oliver in Blue Pastures on page 89.

Meet all deadlines, no matter what, as professional writers and editors won’t work for long if they don’t.

Also, read everything. A better reader is a better writer.

Read writing books. I have recommended many on this blog (see partial list at end of this post), especially The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

All knowledge makes you a better writer (and editor). I read all genres as good writers make any genre or topic interesting. I also read books about philosophy, science, space, and art as well as classic novels and bestsellers.

“You learn to write by reading and writing, writing and reading. As a craft, it's acquired through the apprentice system, but you choose your own teachers. Sometimes they're alive, sometimes they're dead.”  –Margaret Atwood

Read often and widely including poetry to get a feel for words, language, flow, and rhythm.

Poetry is essential. Ray Bradbury makes this recommendation to writers on page 36 of Zen in the Art of Writing:

Read poetry every day of your life…it flexes muscles you don’t use often enough…it expands the senses and keeps them in prime condition.

Reading expands your vocabulary, too. Look up every word new-to-you for future reference. Write these words and definitions in your notebooks so you remember them.

Make sure the words you use (or edit) mean what you think they mean otherwise you look foolish. Once in print, it is out there forever so take the time to refer to a dictionary, RefDesk.com, or the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus. Use correct punctuation and grammar, too.  

For writers (and editors), words are our medium. Spend as much time as possible reading and writing.

“…writing is finally sitting alone in a room and wrenching it out of yourself, and nobody can teach you that.”       –Jon Winokur

Writing Book Recommendations: 

(I have reviewed most of these books on this blog. Dates of posts are in parentheses.)

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield  (8/30/12)

Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield  (9/9/13)

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg  (5/6/13; 1/12/14)

The Right to Write and The Writer’s Life by Julia Cameron  (5/6/13; 1/12/14)

Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald  (6/26/16)

The Golden Rule by Brian McDonald  (7/25/16)

The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase by Mark Forsyth  (2/23/15)

The Writer’s Home Companion edited by Joan Bolker, Ed. D.  (12/3/12)

Blue Pastures by Mary Oliver  (3/21/16; 4/4/16)

Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury  (3/9/15)

For Writer’s Only by Sophy Burnham  (12/17/12)

The Writing Life by Ellen Gilchrist  (7/21/14)

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild (1/28/13)    

Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes  (1/11/16)

Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block (will be reviewed)

The Book on Writing by Paula LaRocque (will be reviewed)

The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop by Stephen Koch  (8/5/13)

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (5/6/13)

A Writer’s Paris: A Guided Journey for the Creative Soul by Eric Maisel  (5/25/15)

Fiction Writing Master Class by William Cane (9/7/15)

The Soul of Creative Writing by Richard Goodman 10/19/15)

Backpack Literature by XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia (4^th post each month, September 2016-April 2017)

On Writing by Stephen King—needs no review

Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion by William Kenower  (8/8/16)

The Writing Trade by John Jerome (1/14/13)

Poetry:

Mary Oliver  (4/28/14) I read all her books.

Billy Collins  (4/22/13) I read all his books.

Anthologies & classic poetry

Knowledge:

A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman. (5/27/13) I recommend all of her books.

At Home by Bill Bryson. I read all his books.  (12/24/12; 1/26/15)

Books by Joseph Campbell & The Art of Reflection: A Joseph Campbell Companion by Diane K. Osbon

Memoirs:

Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir by Beth Kephart  (8/26/13)

Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell  (9/29/14)

On Conan Doyle by Michael Dirda  (11/23/15)

Six-Word Memoirs edited by Larry Smith  (9/10/12)

Essays:

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman (11/26/12)

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett (5/26/14) Title of an essay, not subject of book.

High Tide in Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver (7/22/13)

A Cup of Comfort for Writers edited by Colleen Sell  (5/11/15)

Screenplays:

Screenplay by Robin Russin and William Missouri Downs  (8/10/15)

On Story: Screenwriters and Their Craft edited by Barbara Morgan and Maya Perez  (6/6/16)

Reference:

Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus (6/9/14)

The Synonym Finder by J I Rodale  (6/9/14)

Grammar and punctuation books

Online:   

Are You There Blog? It’s Me Writer by Kristen Lamb, award-winning blog warriorwriters.wordpress.com.

Steven Pressfield, blog Writing Wednesdays at www.stevenpressfield.com.

Reads for Writers: Write Within Yourself: An Author's Companion by William Kenower

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          When I started out to become a writer, I didn’t know any writers except the ones I read and loved. I didn’t know how to write an article or a book or what comprised a workday. I only knew I wanted to write, too.

          Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg gave me an on ramp into the writing life. As I have mentioned previously, it was a great help to start a writing career.

Since then, I’ve become a professional writer. I know and edit many writers, but the writing process is different for each one of us. Because I mostly work alone, I’m always looking for writing companions.

I’ve found a few books like: For Writers Only: Inspiring thoughts on the exquisite pain and heady joy of the writing life from its great practitioners by Sophy Burnham; The Writer’s Home Companion by Joan Bolker, Ed.D.; Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury; The War of Art: Break Through Your Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield; The Writing Life by Ellen Gilchrist; Blue Pastures by Mary Oliver; The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life by Julia Cameron; Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott; and Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman. As for blogs, I recommend Writing Wednesdays by Steven Pressfield and Kristin Lamb’s award-winning blog.

While browsing for something to read recently, I came across Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion by William Kenower. In his 80 concise essays about writing, Kenower shares some life stories, beliefs, insights, advice, topics to consider, successes, failures as well as quotes from other writers.

On pages 12 & 13:

Every day when writers sit down to write, they must ask themselves this question of, “What do I most want to say?” over and over again…

…What do I most want?

Life, and well-being, is really as simple as that…that question remains the most courageous , the most meaningful, and also the most frightening  question you will ever answer…as a writer, if you answer authentically you may see a combination of words on the page that you have never read before, which is both exhilarating and frightening…

On page 97:

Through writing you can learn the endlessly practical discipline of trust. You learn to trust because you are forever the judge and jury of all decisions in your life, and writing draws this fact into stark relief. You must trust yourself finally, or nothing will ever get written.

          On page 149:

…I only got to discover that I love to write once. And yet writing, like some marriages, can be a constant discovery. As with writing, love is not some destination but a portal, a window through which to see life as I intend to lead it.

          On page 159:

So do not think about writing beautifully, think only about writing clearly and about what you care the most. Let the words take the shape of whatever your clarity demands, and then let it go. If you manage to say precisely what you mean, you will have provided another person the opportunity to share in what you love, and there is little in the world more beautiful than that.

         

          Like the other companion books I listed, Write Within Yourself sits on a shelf near my writing desk. I write alone, but I have a support system.

Writing on Demand

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          I started writing seriously when I began filling a notebook a month as recommended by Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones. This helped me learn to meet deadlines. Also, the more I wrote, the faster I wrote.

          When I interned at a monthly magazine, I received assignments with two week deadlines. I had to learn to manage my time between research, interviews, writing, and rewriting before turning them over to my editor.

After a few months, when articles fell through for other writers I would be assigned to write these or other articles on much shorter deadlines—sometimes a week, sometimes only two or three days. The pages of the magazines had to be filled. No exceptions. After I became the assistant editor, in one month I wrote seven articles published in two magazines.

If anyone had told me six months before this happened that I could write seven articles in two weeks, I would not have believed them. The reality is the more you write, the faster you write.

If you don’t have assignments, it can be hard to make yourself write which is why the filling a notebook a month deadline works so well. Once you are in the habit of writing, you can write on demand.

I’ve been blogging for three and a half years now. Every Monday I post a book review or an essay on writing, reading, or literary life.

I have the books I want to review on a list so it’s simple to pick one I’ve read and write about it. As I’ve mentioned previously, I underline, mark passages, and make notes in the margins while I read so it’s easy to pull a review together.

It’s much more difficult to come up with essay topics. Sometimes I look at my blog list by month and there are nothing but question marks where the titles of essay posts should be written. I often think I won’t come up with ideas in time.

Four days before my first February essay was due to be posted, I had no idea what I would write about in the three essays I needed for the month. Then I remembered Kristen Lamb writing about the importance of writing reviews for authors we love in her blog on January 4th so I wrote my Love Letter Book Reviews essay posted on 2/1/16. Then I saw the BBC America news report about Logos Hope—the Book Boat that visits ports around the world hosting floating book fairs for places with few books—a dream-come-true project for readers around the world and my second essay idea was formed.

I wrote both those pieces on the same day which gave me the idea for this essay. Since I write a lot, I can write on demand. Practice doesn’t always make perfect, but it does prepare you to write proficiently.

Writing Longhand vs Keyboard

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

 

Somewhere long ago I heard someone say the physical act of continuous motion of your pen on paper connects your brain to your heart through your fingertips. You plug in your intuition. So, I write by hand every day. I doodle. I keep lists of ideas, which become a crazy haiku that I can sometimes decipher.

--Suzi Baum

 

For it would seem…that we write, not with the fingers, but with the whole person. The nerve which controls the pen winds itself about every fiber of our being, threads the heart, pierces the liver.

 --Virginia Woolf

 

Writing by hand is also like…"sculpting words with a pen".

I read that phrase recently, but couldn’t find it again so I don’t know who wrote it. Normally I underline phrases, sentences, or passages I like in books or copy them into my notebooks or common books, but this time I only remember reading it so I apologize for having no attribution, but the phrase is so true for me I had to include it.

Since I’ve studied graphology, I’m interested in handwriting. It does look artistic from many angles, but I know it’s a form of sculpture from the solid callous near the top joint of my middle finger  that formed over years of holding a pen firmly while I inscribed my words into paper. Yes, into paper. I write firmly enough to be able to feel the words on the back of pages when I’m scribbling fast and furiously.

I love to write longhand in my favorite 80-page notebooks with my favorite pens—I favor blue ink in the Bic Cristal 1.6mm pen. (Not a paid endorsement.) It’s inexpensive and fast-writing as my hand tries to keep up with my thoughts—the qualities of a useful pen as recommended by Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones (page 5). She prefers cheap Schaeffer fountain pens.

The point of being a writer is to write. Before I had any paid assignments, I followed Natalie Goldberg’s advice to fill a notebook a month using fast-writing pens. I wrote about anything and everything to get those pages filled. My ideas and feelings oozed out through my pen mixed with what I had read, heard, and learned along the way. Over time my writing style appeared and shaped my work. I wrote all the time. In short, it’s how I became a writer.

I did this for years while in school, before and after jobs I hated—sometimes during, too—until I started my first magazine staff writing job which I wouldn’t have landed without all the writing practice in notebooks. As I began to write more professionally, I still filled a notebook a month until my writing assignments took up the majority of my time.

Now I spend most of my professional writing time using a keyboard. Writing this way has its charms: easy to do, easy to read, easy to reorganize, easy to delete, and easy to email—which is I why I can work from home.

These are all the reasons I love writing using a keyboard and computer, but I will never give up filling notebooks with my thoughts, ideas, and quotes that appeal to me with attributions because I love the feel of a pen in my hand. I love how intuitive I feel when writing with a pen. I love filling pages with words leaving trails of ink in my unique style.

I also love looking at these notebooks years later. They are proof I have written as opposed to Word docs that were never printed out only emailed to editors to appear in magazine issues. Not only are these pages sculpted by the words I inscribed, but the filled notebooks are also haphazardly-piled colorful sculptures displayed on shelves around my home. I love knowing I’ve created art.

 

Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity by Ray Bradury

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          I think anyone interested in becoming a writer should read Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity by Ray Bradbury.

These books will also energize anyone who is already a writer. I often pick one of them up, flip open to a random page, read for a while then jump into writing.

          In Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury not only encourages writing, he also shares his story of becoming a writer then working hard to become a better writer. Read his work. His dedication and creativity are astounding.

He’s inspiring—hard not to be when he begins his essay “The Joy of Writing” on page 3 with:

Zest. Gusto. How rarely one hears these words used. How rarely do we see people living, or for that matter, creating by them. Yet if I were asked to name the most important items in a writer’s make-up, the things that shape his material and rush him along the road to where he wants to go, I could only warn him to look to his zest, see to his gusto.

          Bradbury notes on page 13:

In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon the truth which is the only style worth deadfalling or tiger-trapping.

Tiger-trapping. How exciting that makes writing sound! We are brave. Capturing truth. Following wherever our creativity leads us. Zest and gusto indeed!

However, sometimes writing is a quieter craft as seen in one of my favorite essays, “How to Keep and Feed a Muse” on page 31. On pages 32 & 33, Bradbury states:

…to keep a Muse, you must first offer food. How you can feed something that isn’t there is a little hard to explain. But we live surrounded by paradoxes…

…in a lifetime, we stuff ourselves with sounds, sights, smells, tastes, and textures of people, animals, landscapes, events…These are the stuffs, the foods, on which The Muse grows.

…Here is the stuff of originality. For it is the totality of experience reckoned with, filed, and forgotten, that each man is truly different from all others in the world.

          Bradbury also makes this recommendation to writers on page 36:

Read poetry every day of your life…it flexes muscles you don’t use often enough…it expands the senses and keeps them in prime condition.

          In this book, I discovered Ray Bradbury also wrote poetry. Eight of his poems are in the back of the book including my favorite “What I Do Is Me—For That I Came for Gerard Manley Hopkins” on page 137. I think a framed copy should be in every nursery and read nightly to every child so he or she can be “the only you that’s truly you on Earth.”

          For a writer or not, that’s the best life goal.

Writing Careers Are Possible

From Kate's Writing Crate…

        My writing career started when I was an unhappy accountant and I signed up for my first writing class after writing in notebooks and journals for years. I arrived an hour before the evening class started every week as it was close to my office, but far from home. The second person to arrive was always the new owner of a local community magazine—a fortuitous benefit for following my dreams.

When the class session ended, the magazine owner hired another classmate to be the editor of her new second magazine. I signed on as a freelance writer and the proofreading intern. I moved up to assistant editor then editor of one magazine leaving accounting behind forever! Eventually, I became the editor of both magazines.

I still write one to four articles a month which means the fun of interviewing authors, volunteers at the local senior center and animal shelter; the women's club behind the Clown Town fundraiser; the Rotary Club's annual ALS Race; the Turkey Trot organizers; the National Guard Air Show; Movies on the Beach events; locals bands and choruses; art festivals; an American Red Cross Hero, and people dealing heroically with all kinds of cancer and other health issues including a brave and cheerful five-year-old boy 18 months into chemo and radiation for a brain tumor. He wants to be a police officer when he grows up and mentioned he would like to meet a K-9 team. The local police station and an officer arranged to take him to school in a squad car as well as meet a K-9 officer and his dog.

These articles let residents know about upcoming events as well as about neighbors helping others and those neighbors in need of help. It feels good to be part of a vibrant, caring community. Writing articles makes a difference in people's lives and my own.

I am a writer. I have known that since I learned to read. I was side-tracked into another career as writing isn't revered in this country until you are a bestselling or well-known author.

While being a New York Times' bestselling author (NYTBSA) may be most writers' goal, there are many other writing careers available to us. Even as I was told there was no money in writing, there are millions of publications and web sites that have pages and space that need filling daily, weekly, and monthly.

        Okay, you probably need to write a lot before you get paid so start filling a notebook a month as soon as you can as per Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. The more you write the more you improve. Also, read Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott for inspiration and a reality check.

Writers write so write no matter what!

        Start a writing project—book, essay, article, poem, post, etc. Then finish it!

Blogs are a great way to get going. Start one. Now you have a weekly deadline. Meet it!

For inspiration, read blogs like MegWaiteClayton.com/1stbooks and Kristen Lamb's warriorwriters.wordpress.com.

Take a writing class and/or join or start a writing group. Support and discussions about improving writing are essential.

Read local publications. See if there is space for writers to submit letters, essays, etc. Then submit something or email/call to ask about writing opportunities. Working with editors who give you feedback will improve your writing and get you published.

When you feel ready, go on web sites like Thumbtack to find freelance opportunities across the country. Make sure you complete assignments and turn them in on time. Build a reputation as a writer who works quickly and competently, and editors will contact you with assignments as well as remember you when they move from one publication to another gaining you a larger audience and more money.

Usually the rights to your assigned articles revert to you after publication. Don't forget, you can tweak articles to work for other publications. For example, if you write about a person or event in the northeast for a local publication, Yankee Magazine might be interested in the same topic. Double pay is a good thing!

The Writers' Digest is a helpful resource to find publications interested in your submissions. Why not make the most of your hard work? This also gets you more bylines which then makes it easier to be accepted by other publications.

Agents, editors, and publishers read magazines and blogs. Writers have received representation and book and movie offers based on their work published in these venues.

You never know who is reading your work or where it may lead. The important thing is to write and to keep writing. Then send your work out into the world. If your goal is to be a writer, NYTBSA or otherwise, start writing now!