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Max always keeps me company as I write.
Writing friends are the best. They’re brilliant, kind, and happy to share their knowledge when you need a hand. I first met Becca Rowan, many years ago when I started my first blog, Rivanna River Days. We’ve been following each other online ever since. Last week she invited me to join her on The Writing Process Blog Tour. By answering just a few questions, I can share my writing process with old and new friends perhaps inspiring another writer to get to work on their long dreamed of project. I’m thrilled to be able to join the other writers that have participated before me.
Question One: What are you currently working on? I’m currently revising the first draft of my memoir, ME, MYSELF, AND MOM: A Journey Through Love, Hate, and Healing. It’s about my taking on the role of being my mother’s caretaker during her final years, and how we lived together doing the best we could in an already difficult relationship It’s also about how I became a whole person, leaving hatred and anger behind me, while learning that forgiveness is not about forgetting. It’s about understanding the human psyche so that we can love the difficult people in our lives and heal the abuse that too often rules the behavior of entire families.
Question Two: Why do I write what I do? I’ve never read much fiction. My favorite reads are creative nonfiction, especially memoir, autobiography, and biography. I always learn valuable lesson when I visit the lives of the people I read about, often seeing the world and its troubles in new and different ways. But mostly I’m writing this book is because it has helped me heal. Also, I’m often told that my story is inspiring and it is with that hope, that I am moving forward to publication.
Question Three: How does my work differ from others of this genre? Well, it’s similar in that it’s a memoir. It is also similar in that it mirrors Joseph Campbell’s, concept of the hero’s journey, which is reflected in many memoirs. But every memoir differs. They are stories about one individual’s life. All of our stories are all different, and we learn to live with what we have been dealt with in dissimilar ways. My story is my own. It’s about how I dealt with my mother at the end of her life. It’s about how I was thrust into a world of bitterness and fear, and came out the other side, a happy, forgiving person.
Question Four: How does my writing process work? Writing is an organic process for me. I try to write every morning for two hours and usually produce about five to six hundred words at a sitting. If I can get more time in later in the day, that’s a bonus. I keep a journal into which I enter new ideas for my writing as they arise as well as writing my way through any difficulties I may be having. I update my blog once every week with short essays on topics that are important to me and how my work is progressing.
I don’t wait for inspiration to get me going. I just show up in my studio, sit down at my computer and write. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s very bad. Often I think that what I’ve just written is brilliant until I read it a second time. I try to repair what I can, then put it aside and work on something else for a while. When I go back to the original piece I usually try to find a way around the problems it has. If I can’t fix it, I will occasionally toss it. But most often I set it aside again and work on it later until I get it right.
That’s my process. We all have a different way of getting our words down on paper. I would like to invite the following three writers to join me on the tour. I always love reading what Jeri Leach has to say, as well the words of Dorothy Hoffman Sander, and Valerie Rind. Of course, anyone who writes can come along on the tour and share their process.
Keep your stories flowing!
Thank you Joan! How fun! I loved reading about what you’re writing and your process. It’s so interesting to learn how other writers approach their writing and what drives them. I resonated with much of what you said. I only wish I was as organized and disciplined as you are1 I fall prey to the whims of my muse far too often! I will accept your invitation and will do my best to post something tomorrow.
I’ll looking forward to hearing about your process, Dorothy.
I am not as organized as you might think, but I do have discipline. I think aging has a lot to do with it. I want to get my book done before I’m gone. However, being in a rush is not good either. We need to take time to have fun with other people and to learn all that we can.
I really enjoyed reading this – even though we’ve “known” each other a long time through our blogs, it was enlightening to read about the way you work. I had to laugh at this line – “Often I think that what I’ve just written is brilliant until I read it a second time.” I know that syndrome very well!
Thanks for sharing this 🙂
Thanks for your kind words, Becca, and once again for inviting me to do this. I find it extremely helpful to hear about how other writers get their words down on paper. It can be so lonely sitting at the computer and writing. It’s good to know what other people go through and are doing.
Joan, I’m so honored to be invited! Do you want us to post here?
Hi Valerie,
I’m glad your honored. I’m honored that you’ll do it. Most everyone just posts on their own blogs. It can give your readers as well as other writers an idea of how and why you are writing your book.
Discipline is the key to finishing a book, I think, and for me, too, it gets easier as I get older. I’m looking forward to reading your memoir–
and now I have to pop over and check out your blogger-friends cyber-rooms.
Thanks!
Thanks Tracy. I’m looking forward to sharing my memoir with you!
Joan – What a pleasure to be able to “sit in your chair and see through your eyes” for a few minutes. I find it extremely interesting to see how it’s done — successfully — by someone else. Thank you for giving us a look behind the curtain.
Thanks, Laurie. Stopping to think and write about my process, gave me a new perspective in how far I’ve come in finding the discipline that makes writing such an enjoyable pursuit.
Joan … I wish I had half the discipline you do … I can do it when I am writing for others and have deadlines, but for myself ….I can’t handle two many “sh***y drafts, so I put it aside and let things steep in my brain.
But you gave me an idea … I answered these questions on someone else’s blog … but I think I will put them on my own next week! Thanks for the idea.
Mary,
Yes, deadlines always help. But I simply enjoy the writing too much not to do it.
I read your responses to those questions on that other blog. But I think it should be on your blog as well.
Enjoyed reading about your writing process and wish you the best as you continue the work of telling your story. Happy to have discovered you and I’ll be following your journey!
Thanks so much for stopping by, Linda. I’m happy you’ll be following me on my journey as I work my way toward the publication ofmy memoir.