First Week GloPoWrMo 2019

I've started my double GloPoWriMo courses. I'm trying to write one poem in the morning and one in the afternoon, depending on time. Neither course has a theme, so I'm free to wander to whatever subject pops into my head. Again I'm not worried about finishing anything in a day, just to begin something, to shape it a little. I'm also not bothered if a theme doesn't grab me or if it's something like today when one of the prompts is 'your favourite colour' which I've covered in a couple of courses lately, so I'll just skip it.

I'm trying to work every day, but I'm surprised how missing one morning can throw me off. Not just because I'm a poem behind, but I can't focus as well if I try to fit it in between appointments and school runs. I like my slow start morning of reading the news, commenting on other pieces of writing in my courses and then posting my own work before starting a new poem. Anything else feels like I'm shoe-horning it in. As I've found with the kids, routines have their benefits to keep you focussed and on task. 

I was in Switzerland over the weekend, catching up with friends. I made sure I had some time just on my own to explore Luzern and to write. Spring is already well under way there, so it was lovely to just sit in the sun and soak up the city, scribbling whatever popped into my head. Primroses, wild garlic, violets were popping up in every sunny corner.  There's still snow in my back garden, though it's almost melted away. Even the birch trees in Switzerland were starting to affect my allergy, but it was worth it, just to get out for a bit. Chatting with friends and some new scenery has hopefully blown a fresh wind through my writing. 

I'm trying to do some rewrites after my mentoring session. It's going very slowly as I can't see a way to untangle one of the poems, full of Finnish terms. Again that problem of making sure they're understood in the poem without weighing the text down with explanations while also getting my idea across. I make a few small changes and then leave it to simmer. Hopefully it will all come together soon. 

Enjoy the sun wherever you are. 

Backtracking - Rewriting Fiction

My second novel was written with no plan, no plot in mind. Just a setting, a character and a question. I let the character travel through her world to find an answer to the question. After the first draft was done, the question had been answered but it wasn't so important to the story anymore. Other questions, problems appeared, new characters became a focus as well.

My second draft has been trying to explore some of the ideas that developed later in my writing and to work in these new threads from the beginning. I've submitted my rewritten chapters to my writing group over the past year and we've reached Chapter Eight recently. Again, my readers asked new questions, showed interest in minor characters, struggled with aspects of the story. So I've been going back over the first seven chapters to makes sure it flowed and there weren't repeats or continuity errors or just problems.

I've also asked another writer to reread all seven chapters together. The problem with submitting 1,500 words at a time to the group that there is often long gaps between sections, as in the summer when I went on holiday, and not everyone can attend every weeks, so readers miss out on parts. Having a reader go over everything up to a certain point can give you good feedback on flow, pacing and development. 

I'm doing the same for another writer as he has also submitted about four chapters of his novel and we've both had the same sort of feedback about slow development. Our group mostly contains fantasy, science fiction genre pieces, so our two novels which are literary fiction, mostly relying on character development for their action rather than fighting or physical activities often feel slow. It's been helpful to get feedback on how things are working so far. 

And now that I have his comments I'm going over the chapters again. I'm also pushing forward with the next section for group this week. Until I get a firmer handle on the story, I'll continue to go back and rework as I move forward. It would have been easier to have a strong plot sorted before I started, but I can't always work that way. For me fiction develops from a grain of an idea and grows, expands as you learn more about the characters and the place you've set them in. It's one of my favourite things about the genre. I'm willing to take the time to move slowly back and forth over my story until I feel it's ready to face the world. 

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 hill'.

- 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 1953. 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. 

Rejection

Part of the waiting is over. One editor has come back to me with a negative response for my novel. Actually two this week, but I really wasn't expecting anything from the first.

I'm usually not bothered, I get lots of rejections. For my poems, my novel, but I allowed myself to hope a bit with this one. I researched the company and really liked the sound of their editing procedure. The editor was really nice and personable in her emails and requested to see the first 50 pages, then the whole thing very quickly. It seemed all positive.

The rejection, though half-expected because I'm not 100% sure of my fiction, hit me hard at first. I was literally numb for a few minutes looking at the email.

Her comments were brief, but to the point. One problem she mentioned can be fixed with some work. A few of the others I've known in the back of my mind since completing the novel, but I'm not sure how to rework it, rewrite it to fix them. Some surprised me. I can't tell how far she really read, it seems like maybe only the first 50 pages from her email. Maybe it improves after that point. It might be a matter of rejigging things to move some of the scenes around, but it might require a whole rewrite. It could mean changing my idea behind the novel.

It might be the fatal flaw and need changing, I can't decide right now. And I won't. For now, I'm fixing the fixable and scribbling notes of what I could do to approach the other bigger problems.

Rejection this big is heart-breaking, but it doesn't signal the end. There might be an editor who can see what I see, it's still at a few other places. I might find a way to rework it without losing my original vision. I have scrapped 30,000 words of this novel and started from scratch before. It didn't stop me from writing then, it won't now.

I will give myself time to recover, I will continue on with this novel and with my second. With my poetry. With writing. 

Easing into April and GloPoWrMo

The past month has included bronchitis, Easter break and motherboard failure, but I've come out the other side in one piece. I actually managed to get a lot of editing done because I didn't have the breath to get out of the house much until this weekend. That final poem is 'done', my collection is off on its first jaunt to a publisher and Spring has finally arrived in Finland, making every little success that much better.

It's also National/ Global Poetry Writing Month - NaPoWrMo. I'm already too behind the game to write a poem a day. So I think I will focus on finishing some poems that have been hanging around for a while or are mid-process,  try to get some of them finished. This article on Trish Hopkinson's site looks just the ticket to get me going. Expand before you pare down. 

I tend to write reams before I start to shape a poem, but sometimes when a poem is flailing and you're ready to give up, going back and expanding on the language and ideas can be a good way to breathe life back into it. 

What will you do for GloPoWrMo? Check out the official website for ideas and writing prompts.

I thought I would share a poem from a lovely Scottish poet I heard read last month, Christine De Luca. I was totally shocked to hear that she would be reading in Finland, so in the midst of my bronchitis I dragged myself out to hear some poems in English, Shetlandic and Finnish. Totally worth it to hear her work and to catch up on some names I knew from my time in publishing. 

She read with Finnish poet Riina Katajavuori and it was interesting to see how much I could or couldn't understand of her translations of Christine's work and her own work. I even had a translator give me her card, suggesting she could translate my poems into Finnish. Very tempting, but I can't even think where to start with that.

A poem from Christine's website, in Shetlandic, the Scots' Norn hybrid dialect of the Shetland Islands. 

Celebrate in wirds

True poems steer up athin dat inner space,

an touch dat hert-holl at we tocht intact:

dat blissit place we geeng tae on wi ain.

Dey open hoidey-holls we’d bolted fast.

Der wirds is dew apö da speeder’s wub:

gems ta winder at, ta daey wir straff.

Der music an der rhythm’s shape can baith

say 'dance!', say 'birl!', say 'celebrate!'. Foo saft

der tizin is dy trvvel roond da heart,

open wir een ta newness or a sicht

o foo a coose o patterns play der pairt,

mak space fur wis, yet rowe arrond wis ticht

ta hap wis safe fornenst wir doots and faers.

A poem is wir meid, wir hamewird licht.

hert-holl: the very innermost part: tocht: thought; geeng: go; hoidey-holls: secret hiding places; apö: on; daev: lessen; straff: anxiety; tizin: tempting; trivvel: gently grope; foo: how; coose: heap; wis: us, rowe: wrap up; hap: wrap in shawl; fornenst: against; meid: landmark to guide fishermen

Christine De Luca, Luath Press, 2005

And here's a poem by Riina Katajavuori: 

Viesti

Kadut, raitiovanunkiskot, kahdeksikot ja kirkon piikki

pakatuina hiljaiseen kääroon.

Nenällä laskeuttu adressi

johon on kirjoitettu jonkin sitaatti,

luen sen ensi kertta.

Olen syvällä hatussani.

Nostan tuleen,

kaupunkini. 

Amazing how I can recognise most of the words, but they just don’t come together as poetry for me yet.

I’m going to have to hunt out more poetry readings to attend as I really enjoyed going to this one and chatting with other artists, writers afterwards. Like old times.

Making Writing Fit into Your Life

Last week was our half-term spring holiday and all the kids were home for most of the week. Luckily I had my blog post written because I know that even if they give me a bit of peace I don't write well with others in the house. 

My kids are not quiet by a long shot and even if they're playing nicely they are shouting, singing, stomping. They demand a million cups of milk (just one child), need someone to break up disputes, to help them fix or find toys, to put on plasters and remind them to eat or clean up one mess before starting on the next. They need regular exercise and getting out of the house. Damn, they need a lot of supervision.  

I love my kids and the chaos in some ways, but I like to write in silence. I was berated recently in an online group because I said I didn't listen to music when I wrote. Really, do people need such strong opinions on everything? I don't listen to much music in general besides in the car, but even background music distracts me too much to focus on my writing, especially poetry.

Over years of writing I have developed various routines that have changed with my circumstances. I used to write on trains and buses when I was commuting a great distance for work. When I lived in Greece I woke up early and sat at the window looking out over the sea before going to teach all afternoon and some evenings. I love to write in cafes and museums when I'm at home and when I'm travelling.

I've always written in notebooks and for the last 20 years or so with the same type of pen, but have recently widened this to include a laptop for fiction. Transferring pages and pages of scribbles can be quite time-consuming and that has become the biggest problem of my life since having kids: finding time for my writing. 

I was once many moons ago granted a bursary to finish my first novel. So for a short period, I became a full-time writer, or my version of it. I went to my allotment first thing after I woke (not early though, let's be realistic) and after working there for a bit I wrote in the greenhouse or if the weather was nice in the fresh air. Then I would go home, have lunch, write some more and then type out all my pages. I would also edit earlier chapters. Then it was time to be a grown-up and sort dinner, etc. I loved it, the rhythms of my days, the amount of work I could churn out, the sense of purpose. 

Now, I average about 3 hours a day if I'm lucky and that time has to include things like cleaning the house and prepping food for meals. I write my blog, write and edit poetry, my poetry collection and novel. I also submit work to magazines. I don't have time to linger among the brassicas before writing a chapter and then spend 2 hours typing it out again when I return home. I write poems between making soup and doing laundry. I submit poetry before I pick up my son for physio. I write in the physio's waiting room. I have a regular half hour of writing practice in a gluten-free bakery's cafe while waiting for my kids to finish their music lessons. I've written a lot of rough drafts in that cafe in the 4 years my son has been learning the guitar. 

It's not my ideal, but I have to make it work. I will never get back to those heady days of being a full-time writer. I'm lucky I don't have a full-time job on top of the kids at the moment, so I can carve out those three hours here and there. 

I carry my notebook with me everywhere and sometimes even write notes on my phone. I try to be strict about my writing time, don't browse on my phone until I've done the specified time. I keep a pen and paper next to my bed as I sometimes get ideas for lines or structure while I'm drifting off.

I know what works for me. I write at the kitchen table because I'm usually having to jump up to sort something on the stove. I also like the light in that room. I write first drafts of poems in my notebook over and over again until I have a strong basic structure. Then I type it up on the computer. I don't listen to music unless I need to get the feeling or the lines of a particular song for my novel. Then I listen once before heading back to silence. I work in spurts, taking short breaks to do something else, usually cleaning or maybe check FB for five minutes. I switch a lot between what I'm working on, so can do poetry, fiction and submissions all in the same morning.

It's taken me a long time to work out my writing habits and I've had to adapt and start over several times. You have to find what works for you. Try different locations, even around your own house. You don't need a desk, but sometimes it works best. 

Try different mediums, paper, laptop, large whiteboard for plotting. Try silence, with music or telly on in the background. Try long and short blocks of time. Write while communting or in places you wouldn't think of like waiting rooms, in soft play or in bed. 

Try different times of day. You might think you are a night owl, but by the time it rolls around you are too mentally exhausted to write anything of quality. So try early-ish in the morning, before your family awakes, before work. Or try after dinner when everyone's occupied by their own things. 

Make time for it and be flexible.

Bringing Together a Poetry Collection

I am one poem away from finishing my Scottish poetry collection. So close, but that last poem is resisting being completed. While I ponder how to bring this final poem to culmination, I've started looking at my collection as a whole in preparation to sending it to a publisher. 

This collection has gone through a myriad of transformations. It's currently titled Version 3, but it has changed form many times. I've recently amended the title but I've also changed its focus over the years. The earliest back-up I've found from 2005 only bears a slight resemblence to its current version. 

It's always been centered around my Scottish poems, but originally there was also a side theme of looking at art. I have a large amount of poems that connect to an artwork, either my reaction to it or an imagining from it. Most of the art was found in Scottish museums or were by Scottish artists, so I felt there was a connection, but I eventually decided it was too tenuous. 

Then as I had more and more Finnish poems to work with the collection became half-Scotland and then the transition to Finland and a longing for Scotland. The Finnish poems began to take on a life of their own, so now the collection is just about Scotland. I finished a longer series - well, almost, that one stubborn poem is from this series, so had enough for a full collection. It feels more complete to me now, no side themes or splitting of the focus. 

When you finally have enough poems for a collection (and that point is purely up to you) there's the question of how to order it. My mentor from last year suggested looking at breaking the poems into themed groups and using quotes, section titles or something similar to bring them together. I did play with the idea for a while. There are obvious groupings within the collection, but I didn't like the idea of putting them together in chunks or following a pattern in the placement. I also considered adding the poems chronologically as the collection covers my 17 years of living in Scotland from a single student to a mother of 2. This felt a bit better, but the flow wasn't obvious to someone outside my head. 

I decided to meld the two ideas together. The poems flow semi-chronologically but have a thematic sense throughout; a few city poems, followed by nature poems together, then a relationship poem or 2. There are no sections, I want a natural movement from one poem to the next, some image, subject matter or linguistic thread carrying them along. 

I figure all this out by printing the whole thing out and laying them on my living room rug, all 70 plus pages. The kids find it hilarious when I do this and yes, I have done it more than once. There's something about crouching down, walking among the poems that helps me see how they work together. I don't get that same feeling on a computer screen. It has an organic feel like walking through a garden I have spent years cultivating. It's also easier to physically move poems about until I get the right feel, rather than cutting and pasting and risking losing a stanza or a footnote or a whole poem. I'll probably do this one more time once I have the complete set. 

There's still the fine editing to do. As I've said previously I reexamine and edit every poem as I send it out for submissions, but once they are published I don't look at them again until I reach this stage. Many of the poems were published years ago and I'll want to tidy them up, but I also like to edit the collection as a whole. Sometimes I become fixated on a certain word or image, but decide it might be better to find a few replacements or conversely play up the word even more through poem placement. Sometimes my preferences and writing style have changed or I want to bring them closer together for more cohesion. I have looked back on my first collection and realise I would do a lot of things differently now though it felt right 10 years ago. I'll also look at basic things like grammar, layout, fact checking, etc. 

I'm also in the process of writing a synopsis for the collection. With novels, potential agents and publishers usually require a synopsis to sell the book to them. It can be anywhere between 200 words and 2 pages. I've also had a publisher request a chapter by chapter summary - that was hell to write. I also like to have a short synopsis of my poetry collection to bring the different themes into focus quickly for the publisher. It's basically a sales technique, but it's worth having a good one to sell your collection. Most publishers ask for just a few sample poems before requesting the whole collection, so this is my chance to make sure my message gets across.  

Most of the above I can do while this final straggler is simmering in the background. I'm hoping to get this project ready to serve up in the next few months. I'm still writing poems for the Finnish collection so I have a nice balance of work to do between them and the novel. To be honest, I need more hours in the day.

Getting Out of a Rut

Getting started writing again after the long Christmas break has been difficult; moving past all the admin I need to catch up with, organising the family, the gray weather and a general feeling of malaise and being unfocussed. I haven't been able to attend a writing group in ages because of illness, cancellation, house guests. All just excuses, however legitimate they may be.

It's easier to edit, to submit to magazines, to write this blog, to do organisational work. It all needs to be done, but for my own writing mental health I need to be putting new words on a blank page. I have the time, a new notebook waiting for me, two poems I need to finish, but I have no new ideas and no motivation.

What is your motivation? It's not always clear. Some writers require a goal to aim for: the next project, a deadline, a collection to finish. I have those. Some are pushed from behind: a need to say something, a character that demands to be heard, a poem ready to be born. This is how I ususally work, but I'm not feeling the pressure at the moment. So I need to step out of my normal routine to shake something new loose.

How do you find motivation when it's lacking? Writer's block is the grand, scary term often used. It can be a problem for some writers. Sometimes when you finish a piece, it's hard to get going again. I find that after I finish a draft of a novel, I've run out of energy to start something new. I do need some time to relax and reset my mind. I've reached that point with my poetry. I've basically completed all the poems I had planned, so am scrabbling around for new ideas. 

Even mid-project when the writing has been flowing well you can just stall. It can be your brain sabotaging your work by being overly self-critical or just anxious about what you're trying to say. Then you just need to ignore the voice of your internal critic and just keep writing. 

Sometimes the piece you're trying to write just isn't working and you need to take a step back to evaluate. You can let it simmer unheeded for a bit and work on something different, but if you leave it for too long it can be very difficult to get started again. You can also try turning it upside down and approaching it from a totally different angle. 

There are lots of writing exercises to help push past being stuck or writer's block, but it starts with putting those first words down. They can be gobblygook to begin with, just to grease the engine a bit. Scribble them on a piece of scrap so you can immediately throw them out so you're not burdened with the idea of them having to be perfect or even readable.

Write lists if you're not ready for full sentences yet. List your character's favourite places or their favourite music and then the next day pick one of those to write a simple scene with. Take that list of 'what I want to write' and bluntly write the synopsis for each one, five or ten sentences as if you were telling a friend what your next poem or story is going to be about.

Write about why you can't write. What's holding you back? Rant about the Blue Monday, gray January weather. Go off on the fact that you have a mountain of ironing to do or you haven't translated yet another medical report from Finnish. Tell how you've painted your character into a corner, that their actions aren't believable, that you've fallen out of love with them. Try and find solutions, even ones that are implausible and fun just to get you out of the rut. Have an angel pull your character from their conundrum and take them on a 'this is your life' type adventure. Write your suddenly boring character as if they've just arrived on the scene; someone exotic and mysterious. Get to know her again from scratch.

Play with words: write down ten verbs connected with one occupation (like mountain climbing: scramble, hoist, perch) and ten nouns connected with another (DIY: paint, hammer, drywall) and 10 adjectives from another (cooking: moist, rising, fried) put them together in grammatically corrected but crazy sentences and then try and turn them into a poem. Find 10 new words from a dictionary and use them in a writing practice.

Rewrite a poem or scene where you're stuck from a different character's point of view. Describe the event from the end first. Rewrite a poem by replacing every verb and adjective with its opposite.

Give yourself deadlines or word limits: a poem a week, 1500 new words by next writing group. Arrange writing dates with a friend to write new material and to share it afterwards. Schedule yourself strict writing time, no screens, no answering the phone. Pen and paper and an hour to write. Go someplace unusual and write as if you were taking snapshots of the place.

Think about what pushes or pulls your writing along. Sometimes revisiting old techniques work, other times you need to discover new ones. 

Good luck and wish me some too. Tomorrow I have scheduled writing time and will take one of my prompts books with me to see if I can reignite the spark. 

Switching to Fiction

For the first two-thirds of this year I've been focussed on poetry, working with a mentor, writing new poems constantly, editing, submitting them. In October I started an online fiction class through Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland and now my focus is entirely fiction. I've had 2 or 3 poems that I've been finishing up, but since then my brain has run dry of inspiration for new pieces. 

I'm rewriting and editing my second novel Imprint in Gold. I finished the first draft back in 2010 but it's festered in silence until last year when I took the novel class again. I've attended the course several times over the past 10 years or so, twice on campus in Glasgow with the original instructor and 2 or 3 times online with other tutors. 

It's a brilliant course which I'd highly recommend, there are 3 levels from complete beginners to those who have a novel in mind or on the go. All examine practical techniques and tips for writing, but also offer feedback on your writing from the tutor and your peers. While the course provides tons of material about writing which is invaluable to improving your writing, it's the feedback and deadlines I need most. There are 3 assignments from 2000-3000 words each term and these get me working again. Then the feedback helps me edit and refocus my writing. 

There are a few online writing courses from the Open University to Gotham Writers in New York, but this is the only one I've done myself. A little research will help you find one that fits your needs.

But now that I have the writing group here in Finland, I probably won't sign up for the course again in the near future. The writing group gives me the same kick from the weekly deadline and feedback. I'm also able to give them the whole novel, a bit at a time, rather than just 3 random chunks. I've been using the course this term to work on one specific problem I'm having and the writing group to just start from the beginning with editing and rewriting.

Fiction is not my strong skill, it is hard work in a way that poetry isn't. For some reason I can't write short stories. It comes out either as novels or poetry. I love diving into the world of my characters in novels, getting to shape it all and to flesh them out. I tend to write through what I've learned is called the discovery method, no plan for what the novel will be, no plot before-hand, just let the characters show me their story. This is a fun way to write, but it's not good for the second draft, editing stages because I've had to go back and stitch things in to the story, develop bits that have become important as the story goes along. It's exhausting, thinking of how the two plot lines are working out and getting it all to flow. 

As a result I haven't written many new poems for a few months, after churning them out the first part of the year. I'm still submitting constantly and trying to finish a few stragglers that just won't come together. I know that focus will come back to me, but at the moment I'm enjoying my novel. It feels like I'm using a different part of my creative brain, much more in-depth and rigourous. 

So I'm under a blanket and a cardigan, editing and rewriting spring in the Iowa as Finland heads into the darkest part of the year. Hope you've found a way to keep warm. 

Reading to Write

You have to read to be a good writer, read constantly. Authors you love, envy, even those who you dislike but have got a certain style or knack of doing something right (Hemingway falls into this category for me). I find that I can't read a lot of fiction when I am writing first drafts, but I read as much as I can before and after. 

You can also read to learn to improve your writing. There are lots of books for writers out there that can all be helpful in their own ways, you just need to decide what style you need. 

Warning: don't spend all your time reading how-to-write books instead of writing. These books are meant to supplement your writing, inspire it and help improve it. Reading all the books in the world won't help you write if you don't pick up a pen or sit at the laptop (and not surf FB).

I fall between liking books that giving me lots of writing prompts and those that are about specific craft problems. I struggle with plots, so often seek out books specifically on that topic. But some days I just need a kick up the bum and then I will dip into some old favourites to get me going again.

One book that really inspired and helped me early on was Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Published in 1986 it has become a creative writing bible. It promotes the idea of writing exercises and writing everyday which really clicked with me. Mixed with references to meditation and Zen Buddhism it is a bit new ageish, but they are not overwhelming. Natalie's main focus is to get you writing. I've read some of her follow-up but they didn't really push me in a way that Bones did. 

Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, 1994, was a good follow-up to Goldberg's book, dealing with some of the troubles that pop up when you make writing a daily habit. Her religious undertones were a bit much for me, but on a practical side the book is very helpful. 

A book focusing on poetry that really struck a chord with me was The Triggering Town, 1979 by Richard Hugo. I was living in the Pacific Northwest at the time, Hugo's stomping ground, and I could see so much of my surroundings in Hugo's work, but also I loved his idea of a triggering town, using a subject or word as a trigger to start off the reader's journey into the world of the poem, real or imagined, focusing on the language and its music once they are drawn in. Hugo's gentle self-effacing tone was a lovely introduction of workshopping and owning your poems for me. 

I think I have previously mentioned A Writer's Book of Days, 1999, by Judy Reeves which has hundreds of writing prompts to help you find inspiration for your daily writing exercises or for when writer's block hits.

On the fiction side I have turned back many times to The Art of Fiction by John Gardner, 1991, based on his lecturers to beginning creative writing students over the years. It contains some analysis, some practical exercises and lots of things to look out for. 

There are also practical books like Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr and E B White published first in 1918 which discusses grammar and usage rules for writing in English. Dry, but it's a good reference for editing. 

There are very technical books like Mary Oliver's A Poetry Handbook, 1994 which breaks down the elements of poetry with lots of examples of styles. It's great for getting started but if you've studied literature or been writing poetry for a while it may feel very basic. 

There are lots of good books I haven't read. I keep meaning to pick up Stephen King's 2000 memoir On Writing. I've heard it mentioned many places as inspiring and helpful, but I've never had the chance to pick it up. Here's a hint of his rules for writing to get us all started. 

It's best to dip in and out of these books rather than spend lots of time reading them. I often try the writing exercises or editing ideas out as I read, so that they just don't become filler.

Any suggestions for new books or old favourites always welcomed here. 

Happy autumn. 

Writing Groups - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I've been attending writing groups since I was in University doing my first degree, so for around 25 years. For me they are a necessary tool of creative writing. No matter how much time I spend writing on my own, editing and refining a piece, I need feedback to really see if it works. 

Writing in isolation can blind you to obvious mistakes. I read my pieces out loud and this helps point out a lot of weak areas, but speaking to others about my characters, my intentions and my process helps me know when a poem is ready to fly out on its own and when a chapter fits into my greater scheme of a novel. 

But finding a group that works for me is always a game of trial and lots of error. When I was in University or in a big city in Scotland I was spoiled for choice. If one group didn't work out, I could always hunt around and find another. I've done the gambit of different groups, in pubs, libraries, community centres, through courses with total beginners and experienced writers. I've had great experiences and total failures, but they haven't put me off trying to find a new one when I need it. 

Each group has their own strengths and weaknesses. Some can lean too heavily towards one genre: fiction, sci-fi, poetry and if you don't share that interest, it won't be a right fit for you. Nothing worse than being the only poet in a group full of fiction writers who insist they don't understand poetry and have nothing to say about it. Some focus on group critiques, lots of sharing of work and giving feedback. Others prefer a more practical approach with prompts and writing exercises, discussions on craft, guest speakers. If you can find a group that combines these two, you're doing well. 

But there's also the atmosphere of the group to consider, built-up by the main participants, the loudest voices. I've been to groups where they never wanted to hurt the writer's feelings, so there it was less critique and more of a love fest. Anything that suggested the piece wasn't perfect was immediately smothered with flowers and candy. This doesn't help the writer improve their work. 

Other groups can be too negative, too full of 'fix-its' as a past fiction mentor of mine used to say, the readers totally rewriting the piece in their image. The writer then lacks confidence in their abilities and doesn't trust their own gut. You need to be able to speak up in defence of the lines of poetry you love, the characters who you understand more than anyone and not be shouted down. You need willing ears as well as vocal critics. 

A group should be able to maintain a balance of positive reinforcement on what is going right in the piece and neutral critical feedback about what isn't. Neutral in the sense of not telling the writer that something is wrong, but that you as a reader are not getting the impact of that section, mood, character, line. The critic shouldn't tell them how to fix it, unless the writer asks, and shouldn't insist that it is wrong or needs to be changed. It's hard to do as we have opinions we want to share, but they need to be aware of the writer's needs, not to have their writing which is often very close to the bone torn apart, but understood as a fluid thing that is still developing with a lot of the writer's hopes and ambitions attached. 

The writer should always have the chance to explain their intention, answer any questions and ask their own or if they prefer just accept the feedback and go home to ponder it. 

Finding a writing groups in Finland has been much more difficult as I'm much more limited in my choices. The language barrier is the biggest issue, writers here work in Finnish or Swedish and I just couldn't keep up. And poetry is hard enough to understand in your native language, I wouldn't get in-depth feedback unless their English was pretty impeccable. 

I did try and start my own English language writing group, twice. But as my main pool of writers were immigrants who were not permanent to the country, both groups fizzled out when the members moved on. I also disliked being the only leader, I felt I couldn't bring my own work too often. I prefer to be a participant. 

My mentor from earlier in the year recommended a private online poetry group which I was quite keen on. I've never been in an online group that wasn't connected to a course or in a group just made up of poets. I had high hopes. I've been starving for connection with poets, reading others work and sharing mine with people who can understand. 

I've found that sharing work online is too loose. There's no deadlines, no show up at a certain time and give feedback, so people dip in as they please, comment on what they want. They have the good policy that you had to respond to two other poems before you could post your own, so I jumped in commenting on new posts and eventually adding my own poems. 

I know I'm the new guy but I felt my work was just not considered. The site has this annoying function where you can see how many people view a post and how many comment and the discrepancy between the two is frustrating, especially in the summer when you think no one's commenting because they're not around and you then see that they are looking at your post, just deciding for whatever reason not to comment. I just haven't felt part of the community yet, but I plough on. I may just need more time to find my fit. 

I've also started last week attending the local university's writing group organised by the English Department's students. They say that they have that nice mix of submitting work and more practical sessions that I mentioned earlier. There is also seems to be a good mix of fiction, screen and poetry (I'm told, I haven't heard any yet) writers. I'm a lot older than most of the writers, but it's nice to part of a real life group again. to discuss writing in a passionate way. I've really missed it. 

So test the waters of your local group. If that one doesn't fit, try another. It's a great way to build your confidence, get personalised help with your writing and to make friends with the same interests. And if you're interested in publishing it can be a good way to get info and build contacts. 

Writing groups take the writer out of their lonely attic and gives them a community. Do give it a try. 

Silence - After Mentoring

My mentoring session has ended and I have returned to regular writing life, on my own. I had gotten used to having someone to talk to about writing, to getting feedback on my poems and suggestions about where to submit and what opportunities to take advantage of. 

I've joined an online poetry group but it has faded into silence as well. People have busy lives and things will get busier as summer nears, but it's frustrating to comment on other submitted poems but to have yours receive views but no comments. 

I'm not writing as much as before. I've got two poems on a slow boil and submitted some poems to a few magazines this last week, but often I just open my writing folder and just tinker with a line or two and then go do something else.

It doesn't help that the weather is beautiful so I'm trying to get some work in the garden and my allotment, that I have fallen behind on my housework while the mentoring was going on, so need to give that a bit of attention. I also need to keep some form of social life ticking over before everyone leaves Helsinki for holidays. It's hard to fit writing into all of that and this is the last week of school here, so soon I will have to fit it in between entertaining the kids and our own holidays. 

Overall the mentoring was very helpful, the criticism on my poems was exactly what I needed to gain new insight on how my writing had progressed since coming to Finland. I have been able to edit my older poems and take a stronger focus on new ones. 

I was a bit disappointed at the end with the feedback on my collection overall. The point of the extended mentoring for me was to examine my proposed poetry collection. I asked when I first began submitting sections that as well as feedback on the individual poems I wanted suggestions on how it worked as a group and on its flow. When I asked these questions again in our last discussion session she seemed surprised by my questions. 

I left our conversation feeling less sure of my collection and uncertain how to approach any editing. Though this might just be my response to the lack of support now. I look at the collection and don't know what to do with it, whether to reorder it, leave it as is and trying submitting it to publishers anyway. If I reorder it into chapters or sections I'm not sure if it's too themey and exactly how to group them. It is vaguely grouped with similar poems together, but sometimes I dip in and out of a theme as it felt too chunky to have them all together. I don't want to waste my chance with publishers by sending out a less than 'as good as I can get it' collection. I don't know which way to jump. 

It might be as with my novels when I finish them that I have to set them aside and let them mature in my brain before I can really consider a final edit and submitting them. I hope so. Besides making rough notes on possible sections I've not looked at the book as a whole since my session finished, just tinkered with some final edits. It might be best to leave it until after the summer and look at it with refreshed eyes. But I've been waiting so long to finish it and send it out, I feel I shouldn't waste more time. 

So I'm sitting in my kitchen working, sending them out into the void of submissions, writing to a silent audience, waiting for responses. 

It might be a good time to switch back to fiction for a bit.