Sandra Gulland's Blog, page 40

On rejection, or fear thereof

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I may have mentioned this article before, but I found a reference to it in my computer files and feel it's worth mention:

30 famous authors whose works were rejected (repeatedly, and sometimes rudely) by publishers — an article by Michelle Kerns for examiner.com.

We all need to remember this. 

Laden with fear and doubt

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You might have noticed the addition of tabs to this blog. One is for quotes, most often to do with writing. I've just added this one by Philip Roth:

"I find it arduous and un-doable. It's laden with fear and doubt. It's never easy—not for me. The ordeal is part of the task, and the satisfaction usually comes at the end. You stood up to it, you endured it! You achieved the unachievable—for you. But the next time out, I find it impossible all over again." —Philip Roth, as quoted in Vanity Fair, November 2010. 

(It goes to show what riches await in the magazine stack at the beauty parlour.)


I think a first draft is by nature exciting: so much is possible. But then comes the long, long middle—drafts two, three, four ... . These are so tough: fear and doubt indeed. The last draft is indeed satisfying; the words "the end" must surely be the most beautiful in the language.


On a personal note: we're now in San Miguel de Allende. I'm almost settled in. Soon I'll be getting back to work, laden with fear and doubt. 


Sandra Gulland
*****
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Ask and ye shall find

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Doug De La Matter, a reader of this blog, sent me the answer to my question: Who painted the image I post in front of my computer. (See my post below.)

The artist is Evariste Vital Luminais, from Nantes, France (1821-1896), and the name of the painting is "Enervés Jumièges," which refers to an ancient and tragic legend about the sons of Clovis II. 


Frankly, I don't really want to know what the painting represents because I've created my own story around it. What I do find quite interesting is the evolution of the work. 


The first draft
The first study for the painting is of torture:
The second draftSecond image shows a boy grieving:
The finalThere are two versions of the final. The first, "The Sons of Clovis II," has a hopeless quality ...  ...  quite different from the second, which is the one that "speaks" to me. I like the way the man on the left stares into space. I like to think he's on the edge of waking, thinking ... thinking ... . For more on these evocative paintings, see this article on Wikipedia. For more on the work of Evariste Vital Luminais, click here. 
Thank you, Doug!
Sandra Gulland
*****Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/Fac... http://bit.ly/sgullandFacebookTwitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_GullandTumblr: http://sandragulland.tumblr.com/

Good-bye Bunker

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Today is my last day in my northern office—affectionately called The Bunker. I love the office I'll be moving to in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, but my Bunker in rural Ontario, overlooking fields and a maple forest, is my favourite writing space, and it's always hard to leave. Not only is it lovely and cosy and quiet, but this is where my books are, this is the core of my research library.

Your home is where your books are, someone said, and I believe that to be true.

Books everywhere!
Right now, the desk in the photo is covered with stacks of books: books to be considered, books without a place on my shelves. (Another problem, that!) Which books should I take with me? What research books am I going to need in the six months ahead? This is not a question that can be answered easily ... at least not by me.

With so little time left, I'll aim to simply tidy today, leaving post-it notes on all the various piles.

I can't take my bulletin board, alas
On the wall in front of the desk I have a framed print, a bulletin board and a Edward Gorey calendar. The bulletin board has inspiring images and quotes on it: "Want • Obstacle • Action," for example.

Images of creativity
Two of the images on the bulletin board are especially dear to me. One, of men carving up blocks of stone, is evocative of the heavy lifting of the revision process.


The other image is one I haven't been able to identify. (If you can identify it, I'd be eternally grateful!) It's of two people, possibly a man and a woman, floating on a platform on a lake, half-emmersed in water. This image captures, for me, the feeling of the creative process, of immersion in unconscious.



The two images—one evocative of the unconscious, the other of the conscious, I think—work together in any act of creation.

Should I take my Edward Gorey calendar? I've loved it so! No: I'll fast-forward through November and December, and in the Spring, on return, I'll put it in my keeper box. Ironically, I just peeked at the caption for November:

It would carry off objects of which it grew fond, 

And protect them by dropping them into the pond.

Construction image: Granite for monuments (for future monuments), 1939. Lithograph by Louis Lozowick .


Floating image: unknown to me. If you know, please write.

Sandra Gulland

*****
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Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
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What's holding you back?

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This article—"What's holding you back?"—was written for academics, but the suggestions are excellent for any writer. For me, achievable daily goals are key: goals I try to meet before allowing the rest of my To Do list to topple me.

*****
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Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
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The visual dimension: tips from film-makers

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Before I begin my writing day, before my mug of decaf cools, I check my email, Twitter, a few websites. Today this blog by Alexandra Sokoloff on visual storytelling resonated, especially with respect to rewriting.

I am in a slow, difficult crawl through my third draft. This is the draft that (to paraphrase Kingsolver), "brings the meaning up and turns on the lights." I have to fill out the visual dimension—which, for me, requires quite a bit of research.

Read the Alexandra Sokoloff blog. I like her film-making suggestions for thinking in terms of "establishing shots" and "master shots." Approaching a Big Scene is intimidating. I'll see if it helps to mentally put myself behind a camera.

*****
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Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
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Joyce Carol Oates on creating character

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This is excellent (thank you, DeAnna Cameron):






*****
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Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
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How close are you to your character?

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I'm putting away my notes from the Kingston WritersFest, and I think the one big message I got, in both Joan Thomas's workshop on narrative voice and point-of-view and Michael Winter's on "found fiction," had to do with narrative distance.

Thomas asked: How intimate is your stance with respect to the character?

Winter talked about the importance of changing that space: closing in, backing up, closing in again.

When writing from the 1st person, that distance would seem to be fixed—although the character's degree of self-revelation would vary.

Right now I'm writing from a close 3rd person point-of-view (that is, I'm always with my main character), and I've been wondering how to interpret this concept of narrative distance. Sometimes I show my character focussed on what is going on around her, and at other times, I show her lost in the swirl of her emotions. So, in a way, when writing in the 1st person or close 3rd, the narrative distance is within the character.

This is the type of thing writers love to talk about. Put two writers together for 10 minutes and the subject of point-of-view is sure to come up. At one point in Kingston, I was in a packed elevator—we were strangers, in fact—and from the 5th to the ground floor, the talk was of point-of-view. Writers!




*****
Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://bit.ly/sgullandFacebook
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland
Tumblr: http://sandragulland.tumblr.com/

Leaving, returning

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Stepping into my writing room this morning after four days away, I wished I had left it tidy. There is hardly room for my mug of decaf midst the festering mounds of post-it notes and scraps.

It's always hard to return to writing after time away. Of course I had intended to write while at the Kingston WritersFest; of course that was impossible!

Later today, after I emerge from my writing room into that vast demanding arena called Life, I intend to gather my learnings and post them here. But n...

Returning to where it all began

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Returning to Kingston, Ontario, is always special for me. When I first decided that I was going to write, be a writer—go for it—I began by attending a workshop here. That was about 25 years ago.

Returning to Kingston always brings backs memories of that long-ago self, memories of my longing to be a writer; of walking along the shoreline, lost in thought; memories of my flying elation over my instructor's encouragement. Memories of attending the inspiring readings given by writers — writers I...