Jan Marquart's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"

Any body hear of everywritersresource.com? Well they accept flash fiction and poetry. They just accepted a poem of mine that they will put on line. I'll let you know when it's out. If you sign up for EWR you will receive it when it is my turn to be published. They publish one a day. Happy writing!!!! Jan

When I read Ram Dass' book, How Can I Help, it changed how I viewed my world. It reminded me that we are all alike with life stories of both trauma, joy, and dealing with ordinary days that we yearn to become extraordinary. I read How Can I Help more than twenty years ago yet I still remember scenes where Ram Dass helped people and I can still feel the power of it in my heart. Unfortunately my busy days often allow me to slip off his powerful messages. When I had a clothing store I sometimes found myself reacting to the attitude a customer brought into my shop. One day a couple walked in. I said hello and the wife said hello. I asked if I could help them find an item and the wife said no. The husband was distant and abrupt. His attitude bordered on rude but I figured he didn't want to come into my shop and was there only because he walked in to follow his wife. He appeared bored and anxious to leave. The wife picked out something to buy and as I was ringing it up I asked them my usual question: what brings you to Santa Fe? That's when I realized that again I had forgotten the messages in Ram Dass' book. I had promised myself so many times to remember that we are all suffering in some way and that we need to meet each other with compassion. The husband looked at me and quietly stated that he had come to Santa Fe to get his son's body who had just committed suicide. Then we had a powerful conversation and I found myself comforting this man I, only seconds ago, had judged as rude. Why do I tell you this? I tell you this because we each have our stories. I tell you this because our stories are powerful and need to be written. Without sharing our stories we remain alone, disconnected from the emotions that bind us all together as one humanity. What is your memorable story about someone who changed your day?

When I read Ram Dass' book, How Can I Help, it changed how I viewed my world. It reminded me that we are all alike with life stories of both trauma, joy, and dealing with ordinary days that we yearn to become extraordinary. I read How Can I Help more than twenty years ago yet I still remember scenes where Ram Dass helped people and I can still feel the power of it in my heart. Unfortunately my busy days often allow me to slip off his powerful messages. When I had a clothing store I sometimes found myself reacting to the attitude a customer brought into my shop. One day a couple walked in. I said hello and the wife said hello. I asked if I could help them find an item and the wife said no. The husband was distant and abrupt. His attitude bordered on rude but I figured he didn't want to come into my shop and was there only because he walked in to follow his wife. He appeared bored and anxious to leave. The wife picked out something to buy and as I was ringing it up I asked them my usual question: what brings you to Santa Fe? That's when I realized that again I had forgotten the messages in Ram Dass' book. I had promised myself so many times to remember that we are all suffering in some way and that we need to meet each other with compassion. The husband looked at me and quietly stated that he had come to Santa Fe to get his son's body who had just committed suicide. Then we had a powerful conversation and I found myself comforting this man I, only seconds ago, had judged as rude. Why do I tell you this? I tell you this because we each have our stories. I tell you this because our stories are powerful and need to be written. Without sharing our stories we remain alone, disconnected from the emotions that bind us all together as one humanity. What is your memorable story about someone who changed your day?

Reading all genres of literature can make you a better writer, or so it has been said. Every writing workshop I've ever attended asks, at some point, if the participants read, how often and what.

I've found that reading influences the way you process language, learn new words, study character and plot and are led into a prescribed structure. Read The History of Love by Nicole Kraus and you'll see what I mean by structure. Readers know when a character isn't fully developed or a theme isn't completely thought out because our own minds speak to us when we read.

I found that studying other authors adds to my repertoire of how I write my own books. Every time I find an author who puts characters, chapters, voices or scenes into a different format than I'm used to, I am impressed. How many ways can you write a book anyway? The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (one of my favorite authors) was one such book.

The next time you read a book notice when chapters are made and how they begin. Is the book in first person or third and who is narrating it. Did the author write it from the most powerful voice? And I'm anal about first sentences. I have spent hours in a bookstore on many a rainy weekends simply reading first sentences. Surprisingly, not many seduced me to read further. But the ones that did, knocked my socks off.

Although reading is usually done for enjoyment, studying the mind of the author can be extremely invaluable in learning how to write your own books. And when I find an author I like, I read all of his/her books. By reading as many books as I can from the same author gives me a great view into the author's mind.

Some minds are scary to sit in the middle of but when I read Elizabeth Berg and Paulo Coehlo, I am so pleased to be there.

What are your thoughts on this subject?

It seems I write something, then spend years editing it. So many things to remember: read it aloud, take out extra words, don't use cliches, keep the details fresh, don't overlook powerful adjectives, make sure dialogue is realistic, make sure characters are realistic, make sure your plot finishes with an ending that will keep your reader wanting more, make the reader want to cheer for the protagonist, give details without boring the reader, (not Thomas Hardy style, who by the way, I adore), the list goes on and on. Then, when it is all said and done, your piece has to be read by someone else, someone not in your head, preferably who doesn't know you. Someone who sends you back to the editing board to correct the flaws you missed the first thousandth times.

I buy pencils by the bulk because I use them each time I edit. I cannot edit on the computer; somehow it changes the way my pieces read. Don't ask me more about that because I don't understand it myself. Anyone else notice this? I know writers who write everything on a legal pad. Computers interrupt their creative process. They need to feel the pen and touch the paper. This happens to me, sometimes. Why only sometimes and not always? I simply don't know. I write my journals on paper with pens but my books on the computer. My thoughts race with ideas when I'm ready to write a manuscript and since I type faster than I write, the computer comes in handy.

I've been exploring my writing process for over 30 years. I'm fascinated by it. I'm intrigued by how much deeper my consciousness allows me to go as I continue writing, as if it makes sure it doesn't reveal itself all at once. Ah, the mystery of the muse...

When I write I feel the line bordering between wholesomeness and yet eccentricity. I touch the reality between real and other wordly.

I'd love to hear about your process. I'd love to hear how writing demands your blood, pays you diamonds yet has you begging for food.

When I speak to audiences about my books I am often asked: what keeps you inspired to write so much? This question always makes me stop for a second as my mind rushes to find just the right words to explain that writing manuscripts takes a lot more than inspiration. It takes hard work, self-discipline and focus. But even as verbose as I can get with my explanations, something is always missing. I just haven't been able to put my finger on it...until today.

Today I found this quote by Winston Churchill and something inside me clicked:

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

Ah, that's it. You can keep the word courage or change it to writing. Why didn't I see this before? I've been writing daily since 1979. Of course, it's enthusiasm. Inspiration only gives me the idea for the manuscript. Inspiration is only the spark that lights the fire; it is the switch that gives me a focus and reason to write. However, it is enthusiasm that keeps me writing. And you know, if you have written anything, that there are times when an idea seems to be directing itself, characters take over the page, stories end differently than you planned. Life forms of its own volition as you type like a crazy person trying to take back control of your words.

If an enthusiasm to work through those tedious, tiring, frustrating moments isn't there, what do you have left? Yes, how could I have missed it; it's enthusiasm that keeps me pursuing to the end. Thanks Winston.

I'm new to novel writing. My previous books have been self-help. I even considered my memoir about a stroke from herbs to be self-help because I wanted to share all I learned. But in the writing of my story and in describing my friends' participation in all that took place, I got a glimpse of how novels are written.

I tucked the idea that someday I would write an actual novel in the back of my mind and when a long stint of unemployment fell upon me, I sat to write a story. Instead of mapping out a plot, I simply put my fingers to the keyboard and typed.

Then something amazing happened. I watched the characters unfold. Truly, they took over. I've heard other writers speak to this at the many booksignings I have attended, but to sit in the middle of this experience was absolutely fascinating. Two years later I had two novels completed. What a ride!!

I'd love to hear your stories about how your characters unfolded. Did you start with a name, an attitude, a piece of clothing? Did you have a message you wanted them to present to the reader? Did a character start out as a protagonist but moved into being the antagonist?

Do you know what NaNoWriMo.org is? You're going to love this and I can't wait for November to come and not just because it is my birthday month. NaNoWriMo.org is a website that you sign on to and then write 50,000 words in the month of November. That means you write over 1,000 words a day. I've spoken to writers who have done this and they have produced a book out of it. So I want to pass this on to you. I just signed up and when November 1 comes around you start writing. NaNoWriMo.org will give you instructions to scramble your manuscript so no one steals the contents. All they want to do is count the number of words you wrote. This is new to me so I don't know more than that. Anyway -- check it out.

Here is a link. Copy and paste it and listen to the wonderful Alice Walker talk on Writing. The clip is just that, a clip. It is very short. Enjoy.



http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=iksnonc...

Every woman is a daughter and every daughter knows the powerful and enigmatic facets of her relationship with her mother. It is unlike any relationship she will ever have. It doesn't matter if daughters were raised by their mothers or not. Not being raised by their mothers is just as powerful for daughters as having been.

I wrote Echoes from the Womb, a Book for Daughters www.createspace.com/3546083 in order to help me understand myself better and what I had gone through with my mother. I wrote for a decade before I was able to assimilate the many kinds of experiences I had as a daughter. At first I had tried to understand my mother and her mother before her. Although that was interesting it wasn't very helpful in changing my pain into wisdom or a healing experience.

In order to do that I had to write about me, what was it like to be my mother's daughter, and what was it going to take to step into my own life without her and heal.

As a psychotherapist, I counseled too many women crying in my office about their relationships with their mothers. It was heartbreaking. I added some of these stories into the book.

I didn't want my book to be something women read and then slipped back on the shelf. I wanted it to be a book women used to guide them through their own experiences. In order to create that kind of book I thought it best to include writing tasks that would lead daughters into the depths of how their identities as women were formed and what the relationship with their mothers meant for them.

This book has dulled the pain I carried for most of my life in relationship to being my mother's daughter. It brought new revelations about who I am and who she was as a woman in her own skin. It showed me that my mother did the best she could and that I, too, did the best I could as her daughter. It showed me that my healing had nothing to do with her, where we were the same, and where we separated into our own identities.

I hope every teenage girl learns this point of difference. I hope every daughter knows where her own glory stands.