The Writing Life - Jessica Morrell

10 Steps to Getting Started

"I often read for an hour or two. Clearing the mind. I'm always reluctant to start work, and reluctant to stop. The most interesting thing about writing is the way that it obliterates time. Three hours seem like three minutes." --Gore Vidal

Set up shop: Ever since Virginia Woolf wrote A Room of One's Own, women have longed for their own space to write in. We need a place all our own, surrounded by reminders of our goals, dreams, and true selves. Behind a closed door, we shut ourselves away from distractions to pursue ideas put to words. If you don't have an office; commando a corner, occupy a makeshift desk, borrow a cubicle at a library. If you share office space with family members, declare official office hours for yourself. Don't make excuses, make plans and create a workspace that calls to you.
Tools of the trade: Writing requires investing in yourself, just as a carpenter buys claw hammers and jigsaws to complete his job, so must a writer. Start with a good dictionary and a copy of The Synonym Finder by J. I. Rodale. Own and study books on grammar and style such as Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale and Grammatically Correct by Anne Stilman. Subscribe to Writer's Digest magazine, Writer's Market if you're interested in selling articles, Novel & Short Story Writer's Market if you're writing fiction. Study information at on-line sites and buy books about the techniques in the genre you're working. A neat shelf of reference books is constant reminder that you're a writer, a comfort and inspiration when you're stuck.
Carry a writer's notebook: Always. Record those sudden insights and flashes. Pay attention to weather, recording the first breath of spring or the muffled magic of a snowfall. Write about people, a co-worker who drives you crazy, your high school sweet heart, in-laws and childhood bullies. Write about your memories, beliefs, and questions, but remember this is not a diary. It's a canvass, a safe, deep place to throw words together with Jackson Pollack abandon.

Practice characters sketches, scenes, poems. Write about grief, loss, jealousy. Write about the bugs, creatures, and flowers. Write about how you imagine life in the West of 1800s or England in the Middle Ages. Write about places, worlds far from your own, populated by cowboys, sheiks, philanthropists, gypsies, Arctic explorers, royalty, conquerors, and orphans.

Never go into the world alone, arm yourself as a writer.
Read: Richard Steel once said that reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Most of us came to writing through our love of reading. Reading enchanted us with words, was a vehicle, that carried us far from our everyday world. Return again and again for the voyage. Writers must be constant and omnivorous readers. Never feel guilty about time spent reading because the rhythms and music of language, mysteries of structure and storytelling, will somehow slip into your consciousness as you read.

Stephen King writes, "Constant reading will pull you into a place (a mind-set, if you like the phrase) where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness. It also offers you a constantly growing knowledge of what has been done and what hasn't, what is trite and what is fresh, what works and what just lies there dying (or dead) on the page."

So while reading, note the point of view, voice, pacing, and fictional structure. Examine how Hemingway's sentences work. Notice the tone and mood that Poe steals into a story to frighten you. Notice how Barbara Kingsolver infuses her love of nature into everything she writes.
Enter the life: Surround yourself with writers. Meet kindred spirits in writing classes, on-line chats, at message boards, bookstores and critique groups. Attend book signings, writing conferences, and workshops. You are not alone, the community of writers awaits you.

Try this: In March we're focusing on voice and style. With this in mind, write a story, scene, a group of letters, or section of a journal in a character's voice completely unlike your own. Perhaps you'll want to write in the voice of Dublin barmaid. The year is 1915, her mum is ailing, and her sweetheart has gone off to war. Or you're traveling with a band of pirates along the Caribbean shores. Or you're a child laborer in Calcutta. A girl living on the prairies like Laura Engels. Or a brave lad about to face the guns of Gettysburg. Think as your character thinks, talk as she talks, write as she writes.

"Pursue, keep up with, circle round and round your life, as dog does his master's chaise. Do what you love. Know your own bone, gnaw at it, bring it, unearth it, and gnaw it still." --Henry David Thoreau

Set goals: Let's face it, goal setting has a bad rap in our culture. It's linked with new year's resolutions, diets, and promises made to our mothers. In other words, hard to follow, easy to break. Another way to fail.

But we all need a measuring stick--a way to check in with ourselves and take honest stock of what we've done and what we plan to do next. A method for taking aim at the person we hope to be someday. Perhaps soon. If you think back on the main accomplishments of your life, they were likely begun with a specific plan and a systematic method that lead to completion. Write down your goals and make them realistic, measurable, and concrete. Commit to big, ambitious, five-year goals and practical, doable goals like cleaning off your desk every night. Once you've committed to your goals post them in places where you'll see them often.
Pay attention: Morley Callaghan once said, "There is only one trait that makes the writer. He is always watching." Let's add listening to Callaghan's statementÑbecause writers constantly have an ear cocked for amusing tidbits, gaffs, straight-to-the-heart truths, and expressions that bring a person into sharp focus.

Life presents endless opportunities for writers. The world brims with interesting people and events, news stories intrigue us with their mysteries and tragedies. Fascinating strangers gossip at the next table, a sad-eyed woman strolls past and we wonder at her obvious sorrow. You hurry through the airport and spot a dozen stories in the lobby, even your fellow passengers' luggage seems to scream a message. It's been said that a writer is someone on whom nothing is lost. Keep your heart, eyes and ears open. Notice, listen, take notes, borrow from brimming life.
Think like a writer: Writers are different from ordinary mortals. They flit through life with their antennae tuned to the moods and marvels of the planet. Like a detective, they're always asking why, searching for answers, for truth. Like children they're tuned into wonder. No matter what genre they choose, like poets charmed by the stark beauty of words. By the thunderclap of a verb. Their heads are full of books. And they simply love to think, tracking their thoughts like a bloodhound on the scent.

So if you count yourselves among this tribe; don't simply plod through your days, don't merely exist, don't just go through the motions. Trace what lies beneath the problems you wrestle with. Question your beliefs. Analyze what you think of greed, dishonesty, adultery. Explore themes that creep into your relationships. Wonder about the people you meet. Ask yourself about where your passions lie. Ask yourself about the roads you never traveled, the risks not taken. Struggle to make sense of your experiences. Write about issues that keep you awake in the middle of the night. Muse over your heartbreaks, betrayals, and disappointments, and of course, savor your triumphs; but then go a step further and put them into words.
Connect to your past: Willa Cather said that most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen. Some of our greatest material can be gleaned through our childhood memories. These memories are the doorway to our authentic writing voice and a rich source of stories and anecdotes. Our childhood memories also stir our emotions, and in turn, strike a chord within our readers. Connecting to your past is a way to meet your younger self and through this child's eyes, to see the world new and render experience through the senses.

Begin by looking a old photos. Make a list of memories; especially noting those that stand out, that still frighten, annoy or make you laugh. Write about your grandparents, siblings, cousins, classmates, and friends. Write about rituals, holidays, landmark events and family vacations. Recall family stories, legends and anecdotes. Recall teachers, landmarks, lonely rooms, favorite hangouts and hideouts. Ask your elderly relatives about the family history. Reread the books that you read as a child. Go back and find your long ago rainbows.
Live a little: This topic brings to mind my life-long desire to utter, "Get thee to a nunnery." I've never encountered the appropriate moment for these words, and this barely qualifies. But sometimes when I meet beginning writers, it seems that they believe that pursuing writing is like taking a religious vow. There seems to be too much emphasis on what we must give up by writing--because obviously all our distractions, hobbies and time wasting idleness, will be changed if we take up the plow of writing. Likely we'll watch less television and chat less on the phone and perhaps not spend as much time shopping than most nonwriters.

But writing is not about retreating or withdrawal. True, there will be many hours spent alone wrestling with words and ideas. But writers need to take in experiences and sensations, so they can in turn, transmit them back to their readers. Writers need to fall in love, with words, with partners, with children, with the sweet feel of spring sunshine on their winter-weary bones. Writers need to garden, and dance and sing even if their voice is more bullfrog than operatic. Writers need to invite friends over for dinner, check out the latest movie, attend theater performances, ballets, concerts, visit museums, clubs, tennis courts and bars. Writers need to sing karaoke, tap dance, fling caution to the winds and wear the lipstick, shoes, blouse that makes them feel irresistible. Writers need to take cruises; ride bicycles; learn Italian; eat sushi, octopus, mangoes; and flirt with exotic types they meet in unexpected place. Writers should mosey through flea markets, browse bookstores and antique shops; take up knitting, or water colors. Writers should try kayaking, white river rafting, climbing a mountain, or downhill skiing. In other words, for goodness sakes, live a little. Or better yet, live a lot. If you never fall in love, how can you write about a lover's spat, or reconciliation, or the annoying habits of your beloved? If you lock yourself away, what will you write about?