Month: April 2012

Goodbye Words!

I love editing. I’ve just deleted 2625 words from a current project and couldn’t be happier. I didn’t follow Stephen King’s rule in his book On Writing: “2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%”, mostly because this isn’t my first draft. I’m happy with losing the 4% that I did cut.

This is a manuscript that I haven’t looked at in a while. It’s amazing how time gave me a different perspective on the words I left behind on earlier edits because I was a little too fond of my own cleverness. Over the last few days, I’ve been much more ruthless. This time I followed the advice of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch: “Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it – whole-heartedly – and delete it before sending your manuscripts to press. Murder your darlings.”

I was hardly responsible for “exceptionally fine writing” but I certainly was responsible for a mess of poetic but highly dumpable similes and images that were very pretty but cried out for deletion. They didn’t move the story along or develop my characters; they were just my fancy wordplay interrupting the story.

So,  2625 “darling” words are gone. I’ve learned that, just because writing is hard work, the effort of writing alone doesn’t mean that the words get to claim their territory forever. Is the book better for my edits? I think so. Will it sell? Who knows, but it’s out for a viewing on Monday, and the rest is out of my hands.

Do you think a lot about your manuscript after it’s sent and check your email hourly, or do you move on to the next project? My choice is to move on. The decision will be made by one person on one day and my writing life is about more than that. If I’m lucky enough to get some feedback, I’ll be thrilled. If it’s a “thanks, but no thanks.” I’ve already moved on and am, I hope, enjoying the company of new characters in a new story and once again writing my doomed “darlings.”

Do you have your own “darlings” that you know you will be cutting even as you write them?

What do you do after you’ve sent a manuscript to a publisher?

Not Quite True

I’ve been thinking more about my recent post about defining the word “writer”, and admit that up to a point it’s true. Freelancing is extremely satisfying work, and I do love all the opportunities I’ve had to be creative within its boundaries.

But …

Lately, I’ve put several projects to bed, and guess what’s left? Time to write. Yes, that extremely precious commodity of time to write and create is actually available, and with my semester winding down, there will continue to be writing time over the next several months. In the past, I would have been thrilled to have all this time and have immediately plowed away at the short story or novel that I’d been living with for the past weeks or months. Finally, those characters who had been talking in my head would get their words recorded on paper. But I have no  voices, no story, no novel–just time. The irony of getting paid by The Writer Magazine to create writing prompts is not lost on me.

A recent post by Laura Best has brought the fact that I’m missing this into sharp relief. Where will I go from here? I’m not sure. But I can’t help but believe that all of this time is waiting to be filled with something and that if I’m just patient–and keep reading and scribbling in my journal–I’ll find out what it is.

April Writing Prompts

April 1st has arrived here with gray skies, showers, thunder and hail. Here are some writing  prompts to keep you busy while we wait for May flowers.

1. Use some of these April-related song titles to inspire a story or poem.

  • Crying in the Rain
  • I’ll Remember April
  • Early Morning Rain
  • April in Paris
  • April Come She Will
  • Rainy Days and Mondays

2. Try one of the following sentences to begin or end your story:

  • “Listen to the rain pounding on the roof!”

“That’s not rain.”

  • “Share my umbrella, lady?”
  • “I thought you said this tent was waterproof!”
  • After two hours of the brain-numbing, thud-swish of windshield wipers, Carol stopped her car.

3. Use one of the following as a title for a story or poem:

  • Rainbow Memory
  • Yesterday’s Rain
  • Puddle Jumper
  • Misty Morning
  • Rain Delay

4. Use one or more of the following words in a story or poem: puddle, tree, letter, steps, trail, ache

 

Renegotiating My Definition of “Writer”

When I first wanted to write, I thought I would be a writer who curled up in a small cabin on a hillside somewhere with a view of the ocean and churned out page after page of great mystery novels with

An ebook in my future?

a border collie tucked around my feet. That was when I did more thinking about being a writer, than actually doing the work. Later, I was the 5 am writer, typing on my first laptop (MS DOS and 5 1/4 inch floppies) and dreaming of Chinese dragons and medieval castles (not together). I wanted to write a novel, and I did that–a couple of times. Will they ever be published by a traditional publisher? No. I wanted to have my novel reviewed by a national newspaper. Nope that’s not going to happen, nor is the book tour, or the interview on CBC radio. Fifteen years ago that was how I defined “writer.” Once those things happened, I would be a real writer.

My definition has changed. It’s about having an audience for my writing, and frankly, having a cheque in my hand at the end of a project. I like that someone thinks that my writing is worth paying for because they believe that what I’ve written will affect their audience in a positive way. That audience could be children in Canada reading their Kayak magazines or children in Korea learning English and reading a Sherlock Holmes story that I wrote just for them. They could also be people with questions about Canadian law or who want to know more about wind turbines, cosmetic surgery or golf courses in Bruce County.

Freelancing has given me the opportunity to talk to people that I never would have met otherwise. I’ve been able to interview lawyers across Canada about their specialized areas of law. I’ve talked to paediatricians about their presentations at a national conference. For a local magazine, I’ve interviewed orchid growers and representatives from three “unsung” local charities. My latest job enabled me to talk to doctors whose research, past and future, is the backbone of the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

Freelancing has made me a researcher, too. I had to read a book–in French!–to write about Canadian forensics pioneer Wilfrid Derome, and have researched everything from les filles du roi, to Lower Fort Garry and the Mounties, to the voyageurs, to Nellie McClung, to the first Canadian female war correspondent, to a 120 foot long quilt with a square for every country in the world and all of Canada’s First Nations.

My definition of “writer” isn’t about the novel anymore. Freelancing satisfies the Curious George part of me. I love to learn new things. It satisfies the creative part of me. I’m always on a quest for the right word or phrase, the right slant on the topic, the right way to capture my subject’s voice. It satisfies the writer in me. And that makes me happy.

What’s the definition of “writer” that frames your writing life? Has it changed since you first began to write?

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