Unusual Resources

Does a book with chapter titles such as School Lunches and Broccoli count as a resource? It does to me! Anne Lamott's book,bird by bird, sits next to my computer along with my Oxford American Dictionary, Synonym Finder, and Diana Hacker's, A Writer's Reference. The other books give me precise answers to precise questions. Lamott's book gives me relief. In her chapter titled School Lunches, she says, "I know I set out to tell you every single thing I know about writing, but I am also going to tell you every single thing I know about school lunches, partly because the longings and dynamics and anxieties are so similar." By the end of her explanation I am laughing and longing for a turkey sandwich with potato chips in it. My fears about writing the perfect story have been allayed for a little while and my focus on detail has returned. Lamott gives great advice to new writers and tackles the tough subjects of writer's block, jealousy, fear, and perfectionism - all in a funny, non-threatening way. When I need a boost, she's the one I turn to.
I also love The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron. She gets me out walking and journalling again, and she reminds me to have faith in myself. Her anecdotal stories are easy to relate to and her end of chapter activities can pull even the most blocked writer out of his or her doldrums.

Journals: A Personal Resource of Ideas, Experiences, and Emotions

The pile of journals pictured to the left is only part of my archive of ideas and experiences gathered over the years. I began journaling at age fourteen when my parents took me out of school for six weeks to travel around Europe. Because my father was a flight engineer for Pan American Airways, we could fly for free if there were empty seats on the plane. The journal I faithfully wrote in every night of that trip is now a priceless account of my teenage emotions and excitement about that memorable trip through Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, England, Scotland, and Ireland. When I first dug it out of the bottom of a desk drawer years later, I laughed at some of my childish words, but I was also amazed at the details I had included. Memories of that wonderful family trip flooded back. Since then I’ve used bits and pieces from that journal as well as many later journals whenever I find I need specific details about setting, emotions, characters, or images. Some of the same details have been used more than once in my poems and stories. Since they are my own words, I don’t have to worry about plagiarism.

When I keep a journal, I feel a sense of freedom. I don’t have to worry about plot or character or theme. I simply write what comes to mind or strikes my fancy. I use it as therapy when going through a difficult time. I use it to describe places I visit and people I meet and don’t want to forget. I use it for phrases, words, snatches of dialogue I’ve overheard and may want to use in future stories. I often have more than one journal going at once.

For me, a journal is akin to an artist’s sketchbook. It hones my writing skills and acts as a supplement to my imagination. It has a certain random quality—sometimes a place to store things that have caught my attention and started my imagination rolling, sometimes a place to experiment or to try out first lines. Often it is an account of my day-to-day existence and is essentially private. Above all, it is a resource I can return to time and again.

Resource Books

Pictured above are two of my all-time favorite books relating to children's literature. CHILDREN'S BOOKS AND THEIR CREATORS, edited by Anita Silvey, is a wonderful encyclopedia of children's authors, illustrators, and their work. If I'm looking for the author of a particular book, and I want more information than I'd find at Amazon.com, this handy resource gives me interesting facts about the author or illustrator along with other works she/he has created. There are also many short essays by the authors and artists themselves, telling about what led them to create books for children. This is a wonderful book to browse, revisiting favorite books and authors and discovering new ones. The book was published in 1995 and I hope that Ms. Silvey will produce an updated version to include recent titles; I'd definitely buy it for my bookshelf.
The second book, DEAR GENIUS:THE LETTERS OF URSULA NORDSTROM, collected and edited by Leonard S.Marcus, is a fascinating look into the life of the woman who edited such luminaries as Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, Margaret Wise Brown, and Garth Williams. I suppose it's not really a resource book, but I'd recommend it to any writer who hasn't read it yet. How lucky these authors were to have an editor who cared so deeply for them and their work.

New discovery

Reference materials for illustration are completely different than those used for writing, but for either task I look at everything I can get my hands on. I examine both online and library sources. When possible I go to relevant locations and exhibitions. I talk to people with first hand knowledge. The specifics vary.

A constant companion for all writing is my old thesaurus. In contrast to Stephanie’s college roommate, I look for short, clean words. Brevity excites me. Mem Fox said, “One-syllable words, like a good man, are hard to find.” I use my rhyming dictionary often too, finding inspiration on those dog-eared pages! Recently I offered to lend these books to my daughter as she worked on a poetry assignment, but she just smirked. The same tools are available to her on line. I decided to try her approach while I was working on a poem for my Stanford class. I stumbled on an interactive word map/visual thesaurus.
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/howitworks
I love the free association, intuitive dynamic. Language is rich with nuance. Try this out!

Resources

Our topic this week is resources. What do we rely on for writing advice or information? This got me thinking about what absolute lasting information I have in my head about writing, and where it came from. Yes, I have my standby books, like Stephen King's On Writing, which I recommend all the time to students and fellow writers. But a few of my writing "commandments" got burned in my head way before I read that book, and even before I became a writer.

One of my first classes in college was English 110. My instructor, Dr. T., was tall, with silver hair, and he terrified me. But he knew the subject. And many of the things he taught us are still with me today.

The first thing he taught us? Obfuscatory Scrivenry. Foggy writing. Don't do it.
My freshman roommate was a perfect example of this. When she had a paper to write, she sat down with her typewriter and her thesaurus. Every other word in her paper had at least four syllables, usually more. Dr. T. told us to use words we knew. If it wasn't a word we used, then it shouldn't go in our paper.
But, he also was a big fan of expanding our vocabulary so we had more words to choose from. We had a vocab quiz every Friday. And I remember a word from the first quiz, which I flunked, big time.
Jingoistic. (If you know it, good for you. If not, I'd love you to put your guess below.)

I learned my lesson, and I got an A on every subsequent vocabulary quiz. Which leads me to a word of advice I got from my high school teacher Mrs. Laverty. She told us that if you use a new word three times on the day you first learn it, the word will be yours forever.

Near the end of that first quarter, Dr. T. called me up after class with a "Miss Stuve." ( He addressed all of us with our last name and a Mr. or Miss) Then he said, "I don't think you are capable of this, but I'm required to inform you anyway."
He then handed me a form that said I'd qualified to test out of the next quarter of English.

(I never said he was a nice guy.) Determined to show him, I tested out. And I imagine Dr. T. would be rolling over in his grave if he knew I ended up to be an award-winning writer...

Alone and Together

As a writer I spend most of my time working alone. In spite of this, or maybe because os this, I love the process of collaboration. Working with another person on words, images, or sounds is a deep pleasure for me.

One of my favorite collaborations was with the American composer Libby Larsen, The Science Museum of Minnesota, The Minnesota Orchestra, and students from four different public schools. We worked with students to identify how they heard sound and came up with three categories for our piece: quiet, beauty, and din.

We gave students tape recorders and asked them to record sounds in each of these categories. Quiet and din were easy, but beauty was trickier. What is the sound of beauty? Libby and I listened to all of these tapes and I recall the beauty ones the strongest: a baby sister talking, the wind whispering gently in trees, pages of a book turning.

With these ideas, I wrote text and Libby wrote music and then we revised and revised until the piece was premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra with students participating with their sounds.

Here's a link for sounds and pictures:

http://www.smm.org/sound/perform/top.html

Working with Libby was exciting and engaging and I became much more aware of sound. I wrote the sound picture book, Vroomaloom Zoom, because of this and include more sounds in all of my work now. Thanks to Libby and thanks to collaboration.

Not Always a Solitary Life

I have experienced two instance of collaboration with editors in my writing life. First, years ago when my second short story (adult literary fiction) was accepted for publication, the editor, in his acceptance letter, suggested I use a different title for the story. At first I thought he was wrong, but, since titles have always been a struggle for me, I soon realized he had a point – and, perhaps more importantly, I needed a new title if I wanted the story published!! After a few weeks of agonizing and brainstorming, I finally came up with a more acceptable title.

Then, just over a year ago, as a break from working on middle grade novels, I submitted a humorous essay to a magazine regarding an anchor-dragging mishap in Pirate’s Cove. The essay was accepted for publication, but the editor wanted me to add a little “what did I learn from my misadventure” paragraph to the end of the piece. Though I thought the “lesson” of the piece was already clear, I added the requested paragraph and received clearance from the editor.

In both of the above instances, I initially shared the sense of resistance alluded to in some of the other posts on this topic. In both cases, however, I came to appreciate the value of an objective person’s input and perspective.

Which brings me to the two methods of collaboration I value, and use, the most: critiquing and brainstorming. Belonging to a critique group, as others have pointed out, is a form of collaboration. Group members give praise and encouragement but also point out issues ranging from typos to plot/character inconsistencies, all of which ultimately improves the story. Still, the most exciting form of collaboration, for me, comes when I am brainstorming story/character/plot ideas with friends. Bouncing ideas off others seems so much more effective than sitting alone in my shack, watching the weather and hoping inspiration strikes. Even when I do most of the talking (which is most of the time!) just the process of voicing my ideas and/or frustrations out loud seems to result in finding the “answers” more quickly, after which I can return to the shack and resume the solitary aspects of this life I have chosen . . . .