Carrie Mac's Blog, page 2

Found Writing Advice #12

Semiotics.

This is how writers communicate meaning, using images and symbols woven into their work.

Now, if you are sitting there thinking, “Geez, I need me some more semiotics,” you probably don’t. Most writers get their meaning across without thinking too hard about it. The real work of this is usually done in revisions, when you can pull back a bit and see connections where you hadn’t noticed them when you first set them down, and build up any imagery or symbolism that’s missing.

In fact,...

Found writing advice #11

Talk to strangers.

Ooooh, this is a good one.

Talk to strangers, and actually listen, or should I say actively listen. Make sure you’re not just formulating the next thing you’re going to say, because if you do that you’re going to miss the glimmer in the detail, and then you won’t have those genuine sparklies when you go to use them in your writing.

 

 

Found writing advice #10

We repair.

Yes, we do.

We repair our writing over and over, because if you work it over and over, damage happens.

Don’t toss your project and start something new.

Don’t ignore it.

Don’t hope that some literary tow truck will arrive from off-scene and haul it away for someone else to tinker with it.

Go to your toolbox (you already have one) and find your favourite wrench and get to it.

Do not pick up the blowtorch, no matter how tempting.

Beholding a heap of charred bits might feel good for a...

Found Writerly Advice #9

Death as motivator.

Yours, or someone else’s. Either does the trick.

Faced with your own mortality, you start to panic at the thought of leaving behind unfinished projects, or you actually realize, at last, that life is absolutely finite, and so you want to get your shit done before packing it in. Or a loved one dies and you’re clearing up their leftover life bits and you’re left to ponder about the shit they didn’t get done. Or a stranger dies and you see it, or hear about it, or are perhaps...

The Author Who Doesn’t Like To Read … her own stuff. Out loud.

It’s been a very tough bunch of months. Or a few bunches of months.

And I don’t really want to talk about it.

Instead, let’s read a story. Or, I will. In this case, probably a true tale about a boy who ended up with his head smashed in on a rocky river bank about 200 feet below where he should’ve been. At least I think that’s what I’m going to read. I don’t actually like reading out loud, which makes it hard to choose.

You can come hear me, an introverted writer who never reads out loud, read...

Achtung!

My copies of the brand new and very pretty German edition of “10 Things I Can See From Here” arrived!

Now, to find a good home for these lovelies . . . email me if you know of a queer youth group in Germany and I will happily donate them, except for the copy that I get to add to my collection of translations.

And if anyone knows this bookstore in Munich, let me know what it’s called, because I’d love to send them a copy. They are an easy 5 minute walk from the famous glockenspiel, along the...

Found Writerly Advice #8

Anne Lamot says that the first 100,000 words a writer produces are crap. She advises embracing that time to begin to suck less, and then to get better. After that many words, you will have one very valuable treasure. Your voice. That thing so many writers are looking for. They try out writing in this style, or in the voice of their favourite author. They try different genres.

All good. Why?

Because all of that counts towards your 100,000 words. And while it’s not as though the literary world...

Attention all writerly and artsy folks!

Dearest and dearest and dearest too,
I’m looking for on-line mentoring or teaching jobs. I know we hold these dear once we snag them, but I need a work-at-home gig to support my kidlets, so if you have one in your back pocket and you’re not using it, I’d love a glowing reference as you kindly toss it my way.

Please share freely, especially with the ones who do the hiring. I make a mean batch of gingersnaps as a finders fee. And my kids will thank you too.

ps. I will ship cookies pretty much...

Libraries everywhere . . .

I’ve done the math and I think my children and I (and sometimes my mom) have visited about 150 libraries all over the States, in Mexico, and in Europe.

Yesterday we visited Prague City Library. The Prague City Library (Mestska Knihovna in Czech) is in a big, beautiful old building, there’s lots of light, you can just walk in and use the resources, the wifi is free–not even a password–and the librarians are helpful.

And there are beanbag chairs. My children would like to point out that there a...

finding something to read

Esmé and I both acquired eReaders for this trip, after finally giving up carrying the amount of books we’d like to have around at any given time.

We don’t love them. Not yet, anyway. We still go into every bookstore and just be amongst the books, knowing that even if we did find something in English, we don’t have the room to carry it in our backpacks, save for one.

One.

Just one.

Esmé found a bin of books in English in Munich and she came up with one. One

Twilight. Well, okay. It’s printed o...