Marcie McCauley

Notes for December 2011

Features,served up on a whim,when the picking is good:

Fresh Picks - a review of a debut work by a Canadian writer,plucked from the tree of a Canadian publisher
First pick was Susan Telfer’s The House Beneath from Hagios Press
Fruit Basket - reviews of an established Canadian author’s works,one bite —er,book —after the next
First was filled Keith Oatley’s three novels,served fresh for the Autumn Equinox
Fruit Cobbler - reviews of an assortment of Canadian works on a theme,a variety of flavours to tempt your tongue
Hot from the oven …soon

Winter is about to fall in on us.
Carol Shields

Quote Stolen in December (Eugenides)

All my books are about people bedeviled by desire,either in love or in love with love.
Jeffrey Eugenides,“Bookmarks” Nov/Dec 2011 (16)

Quote stolen in November (Ondaatje)

I try with each book to be a different person.

Michael Ondaatje,in interview with Jian Ghomeshi,2011 Giller Prize shortlist

Escaping into the Open (Elizabeth Berg)

Elizabeth Berg’s Escaping into the Open:The Art of Writing True (1999)
HarperCollins,2000

The first time I read Escaping into the Open,I had a day job working for a couple who understood that I would work my butt off for them,but that I wanted,more than anything to not be working for them,to be writing full-time.

He was a liberal-minded sort,and she was a reader (we both loved Elizabeth Berg’s trilogy which began with Durable Goods);over the years in which I worked for them,they allowed me to reduce and increase the number of shifts I worked,to allow for more time with drafts and less time with a cash register,and they celebrated with me when Room published a short piece set in their shop.

This time,rather than read the book on my lunches and breaks,I was reading it in the afternoons,sitting outside in a summer which was the launch of a full-time writing stint,almost ten years after my first reading of it.

I haven’t read an Elizabeth Berg novel in almost that many years,but I picked up Escaping into the Open because I remembered the writing prompts being good. And they are.

Well,I don’t know what makes prompts good for other people,but those in Escaping into the Open seem to straddle the line of being accessible without being too basic,and also sparking creativity without pushing it to the limit.

They’re like warm-up exercises for me,when I know that I want to work on something in particular,but I can’t shift into it. (As opposed to not having a project in mind,and wanting to jolt something out of me,which requires a different kind of prompt:see chatter about Take Ten for Writers by Bonnie Neubauer.)

Here are some examples of Elizabeth Berg’s prompts:

Describe taking a walk in winter using sounds only. (Especially fun doing this in June)

Compare snow to food. (Yes,I’m a bit obsessed with extreme temperatures these days.)

What used to live under your bed. (For a non-winter-inspired prompt.)

Name three things an ear looks like. (Really,most of them are not winter-ish.)

As for the prose,which comprises the bulk of Escaping into the Open,it’s a comfortable read for the most part. The emphasis is on finding your own voice,and she embraces the idea that different people write for different reasons.

“The more you write the way you want to (the way something at your center is telling you to),the better the writing will be.”

She really does put the emphasis on the writer as individual.

“We need the chance to draw from our own unique selves,to act according to our own beliefs,without any interference from others. I believe that solitude,perhaps more than anything,breeds creativity,breeds originality.”

And,for the most part,she is not restrictive about her approach. She affords the reader an opportunity to recognize him- or herself in her prose.

“As a writer,you should have a sticky soul;the act of continually taking things in should be as much a part of you as your hair color.”

It’s easy to find yourself in statements like this,to feel included in the circle that Elizabeth Berg is drawing with her work.

And,yet,I do have a quibble. In discussing all the things a writer should have,in saying that most of them cost nothing,she overlooks the fact that many of them rely upon one of the elements in her list which certainly does have a cost,but not one a wanna-be-writer can save up for:Prosperity.

Sure,you can make up a Purpose and a Plan (the first two items on her list),but being able to actualize those things depends upon opportunity.

“It will require some sort of sacrifice at first,but if you’re meant to be (or in fact already are) a writer,you’ll find a way to do it.”

It sounds like one of those things that someone who has-never-had-to-do-without would say. Someone who has never had to take a day job where their employers seemed hardly human,where despair filled the spot that used to hold the art of writing.

I didn’t always have understanding and supportive employers;had I read this when I was holding another job,when I was too busy hating myself on weekends and in the evenings for not writing,I would have felt Elizabeth Berg’s statement keenly and likely set aside her book. (And set aside the idea of writing perhaps,too.) But I know that’s my bias showing.

(And,yes,I admit,that would have meant missing out on her Food for (Creative) Thought chapter,which does include some terrific recipes,including one for Wickedly Delicious Chocolate Cake,which I felt the need to make upon finishing this re-read earlier this summer.)

Overall,Elizabeth Berg’s Escaping into the Open is Good Stuff for Writers.

Quote stolen in September (Ian McEwan)

Writing is a self-pleasuring act.

Ian McEwan The New Yorker
“The Background Hero:Ian McEwan’s Art of Unease” by Daniel Zalewski (Feb 23,2009)

Take Ten for Writers (Bonnie Neubauer)

Bonnie Neubauer’s Take Ten for Writers:
1,000 Inspiring Exercises
Writer’s Digest Books,2009

So you might remember that I have a bad attitude about Writer’s Digest Books,but this is a second exception to my rule.

If there are many more of these (see “taking that back”here,too),I may have to revise aforementioned attitude.

In the introduction to Take Ten for Writers,Bonnie Neubauer states that “if you are not putting pen to paper,you are at rest”,and she proceeds to explain the set-up of the book,which is designed to start the flow of creative energy,get the momentum going.

She also includes five rules,but begins by clearly stating that they’re there for those who like rules,and there to rebel against for those who don’t. Ha!

But let’s get down to the math. The book has 100 exercises,each appearing on the odd-numbered page.

After you read through the page,you are to choose a number between one to ten,which will correspond to the variation (one of ten choices) on the flip-side of the page.

So that’s how you end up with one thousand exercises. (See,she even makes math accessible.)

Some of the exercises’variations are more varied than others. For instance,the one which gets you to continue a story begun on the first page by adopting the voice of a food in the fridge. Well,that one just didn’t sit well with me and,anyway,the scope of the exercise is relatively limited compared to others.

But,for another example,take being asked to make a selection from 1 to 31 and use the word that appears beside the figure you’ve chosen to launch a freewrite. Next, choose another number between 32 and 62 (the idea being that you can use the date and double it,if you’re not random-minded). Then you are to write a second freewrite that begins with the word next to your second number,a freewrite which is connected to the first in some way.

Well,you can see how that kind of open-ended set-up could hold months worth of writing. (But,yes,that math was hard. S’why I’m in the letters game.)

Regardless of the scope of the exercises,however,the book’s design is also worth mentioning. Each page has its own style (with a slim border around each contributing to a sense of continuity) and contains contrasting and striking colour usage and also a wide variety of supporting media. The presentation alone stimulates the creative juices.

For me,the kind of prompts in Take Ten for Writers are of a different sort than those included in Elizabeth Berg’s Escaping into the Open (which I’ll chat about in a few weeks),which are more open-ended.

Neubauer’s is not a book that I would turn to when I’m sitting down in the morning to write but can’t easily pick up the threads of the manuscript I’m working on;when I’m living with a book or story but can’t get into the right space to move ahead with it,a looser kind of prompt can be easily adapted to suit what I’m working on,and it’s like a tool with a purpose.

Bonnie Neubauer’s prompts are the sort that I would turn to when I`m not focussing on a specific project,when I want to get my head out of what I’ve been working on,or when I don’t have something on the go.

They are the kind of prompts that can work into something new for me. It’s like deciding that you want to exercise but you don’t want to do the usual pilates or aerobic routine,so you decide to go dancing instead.

Inspiring Stuff for Writers.

Quote stolen in July (Larry McMurtry)

When I`m writing I often spin out my daily pages as rapidly as possible,in order to get back to whatever I am reading.

Larry McMurtry’s Books

Click Here:Poets&Writers

When I first started picking up this magazine,I went straight for the Classifieds. They’re still a great resource. In fact,this bit,which started out as a Resource post,has just transformed into a Click Here post. Consider it transformed.

What makes this section of Poets&Writers so useful is that it combines calls for submissions for new and launching magazines with longstanding and established magazines that are interested in receiving submissions from new writers. A wide variety of markets:tonnes of potential for fresh readers.

There are separate calls for chapbooks,for anthologies,and for books. And,at the end of all that,even if you haven’t found a new market to which you’re suddenly keen to submit,you can drool over the writers’retreats and rentals.

So,okay. Fine. I’ll chat about the magazine itself next time. (By then there might be a fresh issue to talk about.)

Meantime,check out the Classifieds:the stuff of goal-setting for writers.

Quote stolen in May (John Le Carré)

Writing is like walking in a deserted street. Out of the dust in the street you make a mud pie.

John Le Carré

(I’ve never read any of John Le Carré’s fiction,but I’d like to:we share an interest in mud pies.)

A Writer’s Time (Kenneth Atchity)

Kenneth Atchity’s A Writer’s Time (1988)
Norton,1986

Setting aside the question of word processors being a novelty,much useful advice remains in this volume,particularly about time management and getting your butt in the chair and making the most of the time you have it there.

You can’t always be productive and Kenneth Atchity doesn’t make you feel terrible about that. “Knowing the moment to quit is the key to reorganizing your writing time.”He suggests that you work with what you have.

“If you want to be a writer,don’t hope to displace your anxiety. Instead,find ways of coping with it,tricking it,transforming it.”

His underlying theme is to assure the writer that s/he can realize her/his vision. And why not believe in it? “Treading on your own dreams is truly insane.”Overall,the tone is encouraging and supportive,and I prefer his approach to that offered in Kelly L. Stone’s Time to Write.

Atchity’s work also offers something beyond the common sense,nose-to-the-grindstone advice;he has his own ideas and suggests his own techniques. His suggestions are practical and you don’t need any of those fancy-schmancy word-processors to put them into action. (I don’t mean to make fun of the dated bits:they add flavour.)

It’s not page-shattering,but it’s useful stuff for writers.

Here are a couple more quotes:
“You must stop editing –or you’ll never finish anything.”
“Style is what happens when characteristic energy shapes mechanical precision. It’s not something you create:style is what you are.”

Quote stolen in April (Oscar Wilde)

I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do the day after.

Oscar Wilde

(It’s revealing,isn’t it? That my Quotations page has a section for Not Writing?)

Marcie McCauley

Virginia Woolf talks fruit

Coming Soon