Writing craft – Page 10 – Patricia J. Parsons

One writer’s New Year’s promise – to herself

Posted on 30 Dec 201430 Dec 2014 by Patricia J. Parsons

And so that time of year upon us again. You know the one – where news organizations begin publishing their greatest stories of the year lists, the weather networks offer us a list of the ten worst storms of the year gone by, and the rest of us tally up what we’ve done, and more precisely, what we are planning to do. I have never been a person to make New Year’s resolutions.

First, as a professor for the bulk of my working life, New Year’s has always been the first Wednesday after Labor Day – the first day of classes on my particular campus. Now that was the time for making a new start. But January 1? Not so much.

This year I’ve been thinking about what the word resolution really means. Who knew that it had so many different nuances of meaning?

According to the Oxford English dictionary[1] it can mean (among other more specific things) any of the following:

“A firm decision to do or not to do something;”
“The action of solving a problem or contentious matter;”
“The process of reducing or separating something into constituent parts or components.”
To resolve to do something means to “Decide firmly on a course of action.”[2]

Clearly, when people say they are making New Year’s resolutions, they mean they are making a firm decision to either do something, or refrain from doing something. A firm decision. I’m thinking that making a decision is not necessarily enough to actually get you to act on that resolution. Perhaps we need something more.

That got me thinking about making promises. What does a promise have that a resolution doesn’t? Back to the Oxford English dictionary I went.

A promise is “A declaration or assurance that one will do something or that a particular thing will happen;” which seems to me to be a synonym for what a New Year’s resolution is, but…
To make a promise means to “assure someone that one will definitely do something or that something will happen.”[3]

So, I guess semantically they seem to be much the same, at least as far as their denotative definitions go. But what about that connotative definition? In my mind they are different.

A resolution to me seems a bit business-like, clinical, removed. On the other hand, a promise seems more personal, closer to the bone. For me, the promise holds more sway. Keeping promises is a value that I cherish, far above the notion of keeping resolutions. So, what am I promising myself this year?

My 2015 promise to myself is to finish what I start, and that includes what has already been started but not finished. Oh, I don’t mean finishing those manuscripts that in my heart of hearts I know were just for practice. I mean finishing the ones that I know are meant to be finished. That means that between now and the end of 2015 I have to finish two novels.

I think that those of us who write – whether for personal growth and a sense of accomplishment – or for a living (or both for the ideal writer’s life) all have unfinished business. Maybe you’ll join me in making 2015 the year of getting the finish line. Let me know how you’re doing!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[1] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/resolution?searchDictCode=all

[2] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/resolve?searchDictCode=all

[3] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/promise?searchDictCode=all

Backstory, Ideas generation, Journals, Writing craft

A writer’s letter to Santa Claus

Posted on 16 Dec 2014 by Patricia J. Parsons

What do you give a writer for Christmas? Most of the lists of suggested gifts are filled with things like computer writing software, printer paper and coffee cups emblazoned with bon mots from writers who have gone before us. I have a different view of what a writer – like me at least – really covets. So, apart from the Moleskines which I covet every year, Santa Claus is really the only one who can fill this list. I’d like to share my 2014 letter to Santa with other writers and aspiring writers.

“Dear Santa:

So we come to the end of another year. It’s been a year of writing, not writing, writing some more, editing manuscripts, madly searching for a publisher, and taking a foray into self-publishing. Well, you know what I’ve been through this year. I’ve worked hard so I know you’ll look kindly on this writer’s little Christmas list.

First, I would like a few Moleskines.[1] I know that they’re expensive as notebooks go. I know that other people in my life can provide these as well – but one can never have enough Moleskine notebooks, can one? After all if they’re good enough for Ernest Hemingway, they’re good enough for the rest of us. I also know that most of my work is digital. But I can’t shake my addiction to those brightly-colored covers. I seem to be inspired to write just by looking at them. Or at least I’m inspired to think about writing. That’s a first step in any project, isn’t it?
Now to the things that only you can give me. First I’d like the gift of a continually open mind. Let me see ideas everywhere I go and in everything I do (then the Moleskines become very useful, right?). Let that open mind accompany me when I read the newspaper, eavesdrop on conversations in restaurants and airports – well, you get the idea.
I’d also like the gift of patience in the rewriting and editing process. That feeling that comes at the end of a finished manuscript at long last is wonderful, but can put me off from the rigors that are then required in the revision process. I need that forbearance more than anything else to get me through that part of the writing process.
Then, Santa, although I know it might be difficult, I’d like the gift of compassion for all those agents and editors who can’t seem to answer their email in a timely fashion – even when they’ve requested the proposal or manuscript. *deep breath*
I’d also like the gift of creativity so that I can see old ideas in new ways. I have journals filled with all those ideas from my sometimes open mind (see #1), but they are often derivative or jotted down on a whim leaving me without a clue as to context later. Please let me revisit those journals and consider how to turn those ideas on their heads or inside out to come up with a truly innovative approach to the material.
Finally, thicken my skin just a little bit as I prepare to send out a manuscript to readers for pre-publication comment. I’m sure they won’t all love it (as they should).

Well, that’s it for this year Santa. I’m planning another hard-working writing year and hope to be able to share with you at the end of 2015 just how far I’ve come with these gifts of Christmas 2014. Merry Christmas!”

[1] For the uninitiated, Moleskines are (as their web site says): “…the heir and successor to the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two centuries: among them Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway…” You can read about them at http://www.moleskine.com/en/moleskine-world and buy them all over the world in book stores and online. The paper is great and the array of sizes and colors amazing.

Writing, Writing craft

The disciplined writer: Keeping a promise to yourself

Posted on 25 Jul 201425 Jul 2014 by Patricia J. Parsons

Our back deck beckons while I need to work on my new book.

It’s summer. The heat and humidity just beg us to take a cold drink outside and chill a bit. And we deserve it, don’t we? The problem is that without some self-discipline nothing will get done. And I know that my two major writing projects that are currently underway will not write themselves! So I’ve been thinking about discipline as an important tool for any writer’s tool box.

The truth is that when it comes to your writing, it is yours and yours alone. From time to time you might be given an external point of reference such as a deadline – I’ve written about the beauty of a deadline before– but even then discipline for a writer means self-discipline.

Self-control. Self-restraint. Willpower. Regardless of what you call it, the concept is clear for your writing life: you need to be in control of your writing and motivate yourself to complete projects. No one will do it for you.

One of the most serious problems with writerly self-discipline in the twenty-first century is the ever-present internet. A quick Twitter and Google search will leave you with the impression that unknown writers spend much more time on social media sites than they do in their writing. Social media is a serious time suck.

As you sit there in front of your computer screen attempting to get that writing project underway or finished, unless the ideas begin to flow immediately, there is a mighty temptation to surf over to Twitter or that writers’ group you’ve been meaning to comment in, or to Facebook to see who has posted something new on that page for aspiring authors. You can delude yourself into thinking that it’s for your work, but what it really means is that you are singularly unable to discipline yourself to actually write.

Close your internet browser. Close your email. Put your phone away so you can’t hear it if a text arrives.

Harry Truman once said, “If I want to be great I have to win victory over myself. ..self-discipline.”

This is so important to me as I make progress on those writing projects. I made a promise to myself when I started each one: the promise that I’d have a finished manuscript in due course. This is a promise I’m keeping to myself – summer or not!