Layering a Poem

I've been working on my crab poem all week, in the morning while the kids are waking up to screens (bad mum, I know). Tinker with a line here, reorder a stanza there. It's amazing how something that happened 30 years ago can inspire some scribbles fifteen years later and can eventually end up as a poem. 

Of course, the poem isn't about crabs. Buying crabs in Norway is just the jumping off point, the 'triggering town' of Richard Hugo's poetry philosphy. Returning to that moment on the beach takes me to another thought about the people I was spending my time with, how we were thrown together as a family, but really weren't one. Because so many years have passed I can look at the moment differently, break it down to see what else was going on.

The imagry I am using takes me to another thought, the artwork of Carolyn Saxby: found images, bits and pieces from beaches, brought together as collages, but also her use of décollage, removing parts of an image or artwork to reveal something new which also lends something to the poem. 

The poem's layers of words, imagry and story are added and taken away to build a remembered moment and the echoes of it across the years. 

If you ignore the 15 years between the first writing practices that gave me the foundation words and images and this week of actually writing it, this was a pretty quick poem for me.

And this will have to be a short blog post from me. My four year old keeps popping her head in to ask if I've finished my writing yet. Spiderman has been off for less than 10 minutes. I've even broken out the chocolate raisins to finish this. 

Catlapsed and Numbsweet

This is my last week before all the kids are home all the time from school and summer camps for seven weeks. I should be writing and writing and writing, but we all know it doesn't always work that way. There's still the house to maintain, dinner to sort, a phone call from one camp to check on a child's eye problem and tons of other things that pop up. The hours whisk by. 

I'm finishing my latest poem. I took it to my more laid-back summer edition of my writing group and got some good feedback, especially in terms of boat terminology which I know nothing about, but which help improve the feel of the poem immensely. I really have nothing new in mind to write though which feels odd.

So I've gone back to some old notebooks for inspiration and came across this list of compound words I made up for a writing practice. 

numbsweet     stankstone         

catlapse          saltshine

bootslap          bindsweet

rainheal           bloodnumb

rainclasp         smothershine

So much potential there. I used to play a lot more word games and wrote a lot more stream-of-conscious style practices. Something I should try to get back into. 

I've taken some notes from two unrelated writing exercises I did in 2005 about crabs. Why two exercises focussed on crabs, I don't know, but I'm wondering if I can do something with them. Maybe I'll try and use a word or two from the list above. 

I'm still editing both novels, but very little. I've received more rejections and submitted more poems to magazines. I'll need to set a new routine for me and the kids next week, so will take advantage as much as a I can of the extra time now. 

What I'm Reading Now - Nordic Noir

Since I don't have as much time for writing, I thought I'd talk about some Scandinavian crime fiction I've read recently.

I don't read tons of crime fiction, but it's easy to find in most libraries, especially in a foreign language section, so I tend to binge from time to time. The sort I like have a strong sense of place and culture, an interesting main character as well as a good crime story. I especially like Donna Leon for her Venice Brunetti series and Ian Rankin for his Edinburgh Rebus series even MC Beaton's Hamish MacBeth's novels set in the Highlands of Scotland are a fun way to spend a few hours. So after reading Stig Larsson's Millenium series shortly after we arrived in Finland, I decided branch out into some other Nordic Noir novels.

I won't do an in-depth review or synopsis for these, just some background info and a quick feeling for each.

Phantom - Jo Nesbø - This is part of a popular series, former policeman Harry Hole comes back to Oslo, Norway to help someone from his past and get embroiled in drugs crime that has its fingers into all levels of the city. The writing is strong and the main character is witty, flawed, likable but also layered. This book is mid-way through the series, but you don't feel like you've missed too much as Harry's relationships with people from his past are built up again for the reader. It uses the dead character speaking, but it's well done, offering red herrings, filling in gaps in Harry's point of view and gives us a sense of the characters away from Harry. It's easy to see why this has such a wide international following. I think there's a Hollywood movie underway as well, unfortunately.

Snow Blind - Ragnar Jónasson - His debut novel is set in a remote town in Northern Iceland that gets snowed in by avalanches regularly. This plays on that overwhelming sense of remoteness, darkness of the mid-winter that is typical of Nordic Noir. I get a similar feeling every winter here in Southern Scandinavia to a much lesser extreme, without the murders, of course. There was lots of background information on the characters, maybe too much, but I didn't really gel with the lead at all, a just-graduated police recruit with a theology background. There are at least four other books in The Dark Iceland Series.

Until Thy Rath Be Past - Åsa Larsson - Set in Northern Sweden where many of the characters still speak a form of Finnish this was a part of Scandinavia I wasn't familiar with and the book delves into the impact of WWII on this isolated area  which again I didn't know much about. Another series with at least 5 books now. The main characters didn't have enough depth for me. There were two strong women leads which was nice to see but they were a bit stereotyped, an overworked mother/ police inspector and a work-aholic single prosecutor Rebecka Martinson who the series is based around who seems to get to do lots of investigating. A knowledge of Finnish gives part of the game away towards the end, but most will miss it.

Hypothermia - Arnaladur Indridason - An Inspector Erlendur novel, so again part of a series set in Iceland. As with many of these novels, the case was secondary here to the main character's angst and history, but I felt I had missed a lot of previous information from earlier in the series, so I couldn't connect with  Erlendur. Family members and old familiars pop up laden with emotional history and Erlendur's own brother's disappearance in his childhood hangs heavily over the novel, so much that I wished they would focus on that. the book was well written and I was getting a feeling for Erlendur, so I might try the series from the beginning.

The Sheriff - Reijo Mäki - Jussi Vares is a private detective in Turku, Finland and takes the hard-boiled, hard-drinking private eye to the limits of its definition. He seems to spend most of his time totally wasted with his layabout mates and occasionally goes out to solve the crime which I just couldn't get into though it had an interesting set-up. Nine of the 26 Vares books have been turned into movies, Google tells me, but I'm assuming that's in Finnish only. The novel explores sides of Finland I've not come across before, definitely its less attractive sides, but the main character and his too-merry band just weren't likable to me.

Copper Heart - Leena Lehtolainen - third book in the Maria Kallio series. I enjoyed this book, a good view of small town Finland, lots of interesting charachters with backgrounds that weren't too complicated or heavy. Some of the series is set in Helsinki and Espoo, so I'm interested in reading those as this is the Finland I know.  In this title, Maria Kallio goes back to the small town she grew up in to fill in for the current sheriff, so her past relationships come into play while she tries to figure out whodunnit. 

Of these titles, I'd probably read more of Jo Nesbo's and Leena Lehtolainen's books, but who are we kidding, I will read almost anything I can get my hand on here. Helsinki has great libraries, but their English language choices are limited, so I am reading what I can find at any branch I happen to drop into if I've forgotten to reserve titles. It's definitely widened my reading circle.

Summer Slow Down

Not sure how many of these weekly posts I'll be able to keep up with now that the schools are out. This week is hectic, but the next two they have a few days of summer camp, so I hope to get some time for writing.

Poetry submissions are like buses, after waiting for over a month 3 rejections came in at once. All the poems went back out. I finished the poem I've been working on. Nothing new waiting in the wings, I'll need to have some adventures to build fodder material. 

Speaking of, I saw a call for submissions on Trish Hopkinson's website for writing that was about writing which intruiged me. I have a subject in mind for that, so need to scribble down some notes. I doubt I'll get it done for the deadline of mid-June, but it's enough to get me started and sometimes you need that deadline hanging over you to take the leap.

I caught up my rewriting on my first novel to the point where the story started previously. 12,000 new words. I still need to go through and edit and rewrite the rest with some of the editor's comments in mind, but I'm in no rush. I need to let it sit for a while to see if I like this version.

My writing group has been hit or miss the past few weeks as so many people are away, so I'm not sure how much feedback I'll get from them over the summer. I still want to prep my next section of the second novel this week, just in case it runs. We had just a social session last week which was nice, if a bit odd as I'm not quite the college graduate anymore. 

A slower patch isn't a bad thing, I'm just worried with 11 weeks of summer holidays I'll find it hard to get back into routine when August rolls around. I'll try to do more reading, writing in my journal to keep my mind ticking over. And I'm planning to spend a little time in the morning keeping on top of submissions and this blog. 

Enjoy the summer. 

Common Writing Mistakes to Look Out For

While I'm editing and rewriting my second novel, I find it's worth looking for common mistakes that slow the writing down or just look amateurish. As I write first drafts without rereading and checking over things except for plot elements, these little mistakes sneak in easily. It's best not to do this while you're writing as you'll never move forward. 

I have a list of these from my teaching past, but I've picked up some new ones from the writing group I've been attending. Some of these you may not do often, some you may over do.

These are just a few that have popped into my head as I've been rewriting and workshopping lately, not an exhaustive list by any means. 

- 'to be' and boring verbs. 'He was old.' 'It had been a long day.' Give me more information, don't tell me about it, show me. Spice up your verb usage, break out the dictionary and look for synonyms. It's nice to mix it up, but don't be afraid to use 'to be'. As in all things, balance.

- overuse of adverbs. This also falls in the telling versus showing category. Don't tell me 'he ran quickly', show it through more details. 'His feet skimmed over the grass as he raced down the street'.

- filter words. We talk a lot about getting more of the character's senses involved in the story. How does she feel, how does an item taste or smell or sound like. But you don't need to broadcast the fact that you're adding these descriptive details by telling is 'it tasted like', 'she felt'. Here's an article that lists lots of filter words which could be used less. The hard part is editing them out as it's not as easy as replacing a verb. Rather than say 'it smelled mouldy' say 'mould oozed from the cracks, filling the air with its rancid spores'. It makes your writing more immediate and interesting.

- using the phrase 'began to/begins to' or 'started to/starts to'. For example - 'she started to get up.' Why not just say 'She pulled herself up.' or be more specific and tell us how she did it.

- using the word 'just'. I discovered I use this word a lot. 'I just don't know what to do.' 'He was just picking up the car when . . .' Do you need to use it so often? Do a search and discover how many times you use it and if it seems like a lot, go through and see if they're necessary.

- repeating information - this can be through over-explaining an image or detail or it can be giving the same information in different scenes through different characters. If you've just showed your main character breaking up with her boyfriend, don't have her explain what happened to her best friend in the next scene. You can use indirect speech for this 'I told her I broke up with Joe' and then move on to new information.

- character descriptions - describing every character's hair and eye colour, what they're wearing in depth. This is not something I do, in fact I probably don't describe my characters enough, but I really dislike reading it in other's books. Pick a detail or two, preferably not hair and eye colour, and focus on that, something that gives us a feel for their personality rather than just how they look. 

- using 'there' too much - This is a new one for me and my next edit will involve looking at how I use 'there are' and 'there were'. Here's an interesting article about it. 

On to rewriting my first novel, I'm getting to the point where I feel the new section will soon meld with the old novel. I still have a lot of patching and smoothing to do and adding things later on to up the action. 

Best of luck with your writing or rewriting.

Moving Forward

I'm still rewriting my first novel. Thirty-six pages of mostly new material so far. I'm a slow writer, but I'm getting there. I don't really have a plan, just trying to get my character up to where the novel previously started and to have more action and suspense. I'm not sure how it's going as I'm not rereading yet, but I'm happy that I'm able to keep moving forward at this point.

Do you reread and edit as you're working on a first draft? I tend not to, unless I have an idea that needs incorporating earlier or I need to change something plot-wise. I like to keep pushing the characters into new situations without worrying too much about fixing the mistakes or tidying up the writing. This is especially important when I have no firm plot I'm working to. If I spend too much time going back and fixing things, I'll never move on to writing the new material. 

There's a buzz in following your character's first steps through a scene, meeting a new person for a first time. If you're worrying too much about tidying up your previous scene, you may miss an important detour the character wants to take or the details of this new adventure. I find it easier to go back and sort the language and add, take out or move information than it is to discover it the first time. 

I think it was Hemingway, but don't quote me on it, who said he liked to leave off writing knowing where the character was going next, so when he sat down to write the next day he could start off right away without figuring out that information. I try to do this as well. It doesn't always work because sometimes I just can't see how to get my character out of whatever situation she's stuck in and need some time away from the screen to ruminate on it. But if I can, I leave my character ready to head off on their next adventure. 

Actually, do quote me on it: The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable things I can tell you so try to remember it. - Ernest Hemingway from an article in Esquire, Oct 11953. More advice from the man here.

Today I finished off a scene that had been hanging over me for a week as I was uncertain of how to get her out of it. Now her next steps are planned, well, I know who she's going to be with and what they plan on doing. What actually happens is totally up to them on the day. 

I've also been working on the poem I started last week. It's basically done, I'm just tidying up the language which could take another week. First poem I've written in a while. 

The magazines have been very quiet lately. I know Finland starts to grind to a halt in June and totally goes dormant in July, but I didn't think the literary world would go so silent this early. I haven't had a rejection or acceptance or anything for over a month, I think. It's frustrating to sit here and wait to send out more work. I'm sure there are editors everywhere buried under reading piles, but let's hope they get some responses out soon. 

A Break and Returning to Routine

I've had a friend visiting from Scotland for half of last week and while I did very little work while she was here. It happens and is to be expected, better yet plan for it.

A break from your writing routine can be a good thing, but only if you remember to push back into it afterwards. Take advantage of the rest and change of scene and people and use the time away from your routine to stimulate your writing. It's easy to slide into being lax, so you must be ready to start back right as soon as possible after your break. 

A change of location is often good. I usually write in the kitchen, occasionally in waiting rooms or cafes. In the past, public transport was a good place for me to write, the monotony of the rhythm and the views if it's a regular trip, but also sense of movement and the flashes of scenery and people. I rarely go on buses now because I am reliant on the car to get the kids to their various venues, so a half hour of scribbling notes to the stop and start hum of the bus while I was heading into town to meet my friend was enough to stimulate my poetic juices which have been buried under fiction for the past few weeks.

I also get a burst of writing adrenaline from talking to new people or ones I haven't seen in a long time, even if it's not about writing. I've had four days of talking to people I haven't spent time with in months or even a year, visiting places I rarely go to. Along with the unusually warm, sunny weather the past week has been a wonderfully exciting change of pace.

So this morning was the disappointing drop back into stressful mornings of getting everyone to school. But after the kids are finally at their various schools, I return home to silence, breakfast, tea and my writing routine.

I should be outside, enjoying the gorgeous weather, I should be sorting out my allotment, I should be cleaning up the house after it's been ignored for four days, but I'm hiding from the birch pollen and writing in the kitchen. Sometimes I just have an hour or two, other days I have longer. I can choose whether to focus on poetry, fiction, submissions or research. I set the rhythm, but the routine is familiar and comforting.

I'll need to look into setting a new routine soon as the kids will be off school at the end of the month. We have a few weeks of summer camps and the littlest still in nursery, but after Juhannus, mid-summer, regular life shuts down in Finland for the slow summer crawl.

The kids will be home all day and I'll struggle to find time to write between finding things to entertain them and catering to their needs. My hope is I can get up relatively early with them and write while they eat and potter around on their screens. Then we can go out in the afternoon and have a quiet early evening at home where I might get a bit more done. We'll see how well it goes.

Enjoy the fantastic weather, if you're getting any, while it lasts.