Meredith Allard's Blog, page 4

More Unlocking the Magic of Writing: A Guide to Completing Your Novel

Are You A Plotter or a Pantster?

We see these quizzes online—are you a plotter or a pantster?—and we’re supposed to fit neatly into one box or the other. If you’re not familiar with the terms, a plotter is a writer who plots out the story before writing and a pantser is someone who “flies by the seat of their pants” and goes with the flow, writing whatever part of the story they want without a plan. I would venture to guess that most writers fall somewhere in between. I certainly do, and I consider myself a hybrid of plotting and pantsing. 

The logical part of my brain needs some structure, at least to begin, so I’ll write a vague outline of what I think will happen before I start my first draft. When I’m starting to sketch out my first draft, the first thing I want to know is my ending. For me, if I know how the story ends then I can create a beginning and middle that brings me to where I want to go. Through trial and error and fried brain cells, eventually I’ll hit on the last line of the novel. Once I have that last line I can construct a road map that will lead me, and the readers, through. A different way may work better for you. I know writers who prefer to be surprised by the ending as they discover it organically through the writing process. 

Once I have a general outline then I’ll do my best to break down what I think I know about the story into a chapter-by-chapter outline. Even as I’m writing the chapter outline I know my ideas are fluid and the outline will change as my understanding deepens. Once I have my chapter outline, then I’ll write my first draft.

The Shitty First Draft Stage

I’ve made no secret about the fact that I hate writing first drafts. I wrote a series of posts about first drafts last year. Here’s the first post, Facing the Fear of First Drafts, if you’re interested.

Andre Dubus III said, “When you finish a draft of a poem, or short story or novel, you make sure you go out and celebrate all night long because whether the world ever notices or not, whether you get it published or not, you did something most people never do: You started, stuck with and finished a creative work. And that is a triumph.” I wholeheartedly agree. On March 11, 2025, I finished the first draft for my current work in progress. At 3:23 p.m., in case you’re curious (Pacific Time). You can’t see me, but I’m still dancing. Every time I finish a first draft I do a dance because, as Dubus III said, that’s a milestone worth celebrating. Yes, it’s a grandfather dance, but it’s still a dance.

This first draft was stubborn. I had a couple of false starts in August and September when things tuckered out because I didn’t know enough to create that chapter-by-chapter outline. I began the first draft in earnest in November, so it took me about four months to finish. This draft ended up at 54,050 words. For some reason known only to my Muse, no matter how long the book is in the final draft, my first drafts are always around the 50,000 word mark. I know this first draft is terrible, but it had to be done. Terry Pratchett is attributed as saying, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” That’s what I did for 54,050 words. I told myself the story as I know it, with the full understanding that what I know will change the further along the process I go. 

At least 50% of those 54,050 words will end up deleted into that cyberspace void where shitty first drafts are laid to rest. It can be hard, sitting there day after day writing scenes and dialogue so bad they should never seen by human eyes, including my own. But without forcing myself to complete that first draft, I won’t figure out what the story is really about. 

This is how I do it.

I start by sitting in front of my writing device. I know that sounds obvious, but you’d be amazed how many writers skip this step. Steven Pressfield said, “There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: it’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.” So I start by sitting down.

Sometimes I sit at my Light Academia-themed desk at my desktop computer with my bust of David staring blankly at me (which is about how I look when I’m starting a first draft). With my pinched-nerve back, it might be less painful for me to sit in my recliner with my laptop. I write at home because I’m too distracted in bookstores or coffee shops. (Look at the pretty books! I haven’t tried that latte! Ooh, there’s a squirrel!) I turn on whatever playlist I’m binging on, or a rerun of Doctor Who, and finally (after talking to my cats and other procrastinating activities) I open my Scrivener file, which is where I write my first drafts. In Scrivener, I open my “Show Project Targets” counter so I can see it turn green when I hit my 500th word. Green is good. It means I hit my project goals that day.

I have a 500 word a day goal when I’m writing a first draft. On days when I feel like I’d rather pull out my own teeth with my fingertips, I tell myself, “It’s only 500 words.” No matter how tired I am, no matter how late it is, I sit down and type my story. Five hundred words is the minimum, but if the ideas are coming I’ll keep going. Occasionally, I’ll write 2500 words in one go, but that’s rare. Usually, I’ll write between 600-800 words. On days when getting to that 500th word is an accomplishment, I’ll stop there. 

Giving Your Story a Rest

Now that my first draft is done, I’ve put the story away, preferably for at least a month, sometimes longer. I call this “baking time” where I leave the story alone without working on it or even thinking about it much. I may work around my story a little; for example, my current work in progress focuses on one of my favorite authors, so I’m reading that author’s work during this time. But I’m not writing anything for the novel right now. I wrote about baking time here. By putting the novel away, I’m able to distance myself from what I’ve written, which is necessary for an honest assessment of what I have on paper and not what I think I have on paper. 

I am very much a Goldilocks writer. My first drafts are too short and my second drafts are too long. In my third draft I whittle the manuscript down to its essential elements. As a result, my third drafts tend to be closer to just right. At some point, usually the third draft stage, I discover the story I meant to tell in the first place. Sometimes, it may take longer than three drafts.  Then it becomes a matter of editing and making sure everything is all pretty-like. 

How do I know when a novel is finished? For me, a novel is finished when I can read it like a reader; in other words, instead of seeing things I want to change, I can sit down with the book and enjoy the story like anyone else. My editor might have a different opinion, but that’s how I know a novel is finished–when I no longer see things I want to tweak. 

Starting a new writing project can feel overwhelming. I’ve written 14 books, working on my 15th, and every time I write a new book I have to learn the process all over again. That is both the challenge and the joy of telling stories.

Categories: Creative Writing, The Writer’s Life, Writing, Writing Historical Fiction, Writing InspirationTags: a guide to continuing your novel, creative writing, creative writing inspiration, Fiction Writing, how to write a first draft, how to write a novel, writing, writing historical fiction, writing inspiration

Unlocking the Magic of Writing: A Guide to Starting Your Novel

Another How-To Write Post

I know these “How To Write” posts are a dime a dozen, but I’ve been asked to share how I get myself started when tackling a new project, so here it is is. 

I should point out that this is how I begin a novel. If you ask ten different novelists how they begin work, you’ll get twelve different answers. The point is to learn from others, get as many ideas as you can, and then try a bunch of stuff until you figure out what works for you.

One interesting aspect of writing is that most writers focus on the difficult aspect of our work–the writer’s block, the pressure we put on ourselves to be more productive, the self-imposed daily word count, and on, and on…

We can focus on the negative to the point where we forget that writing fiction should be fun. Terry Pratchett said, “Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.” Writing is imaginative. It’s freeing because anything goes. When I write fiction, I get to experience other lives in other ways. World building, character building, building the storyline from the inside out–these are things that make me glad to be alive. When everything else in the world is getting me down, writing fiction gives me a purpose. It’s the best feeling in the world when the elements of a story finally come together. 

The Place of Enchantment

While discussing creativity in Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert said, “I am referring to the supernatural, the mystical, the inexplicable, the surreal, the divine, the transcendent, the otherworldly. Because the truth is, I believe that creativity is a force of enchantment–not entirely human in its origins.”

When I’m in writing flow, enchantment is the right word to describe how I feel. It’s as if a magic spell has come over me and I’m not writing at all; instead, I’m the conduit through which the story flows.

Getting to that place of enchantment, though… Well, that’s the hard part, at least for me. I’ve been writing long enough to know that the enchantment will come, but I have to work hard at setting myself up for it. The beginning stages of writing a novel are not easy for me, but I know that if I don’t push through the shitty first draft then the enchantment will never happen. 

This is how I begin writing a novel.

There’s too much for me to say on the topic in one go, so today is the part one.

First, I notice what I call the “spark of inspiration,” that nugget of an idea that might, with some twisting and turning, evolve into a full-blown story. For my current work in progress, the spark of inspiration came from reading a few Dark Academia novels, including The Secret History by Donna Tartt, Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, and Babel by R.F. Kuang. I loved the dark, and I loved the academia, and I decided that I wanted to do something similar. 

The ability to recognize potential story ideas is a skill most creatives learn at some point. Sometimes we read books that inspire us to do something similar. Sometimes we have random thoughts floating through our minds at any given time of the day. Sometimes we see a story begging to be told. For writers, these ideas are necessary for our sanity since the ideas give us something to write about. When I’m in the earliest stages of storytelling, I play around with these sparks of insight and decide which are passing through, perhaps on their way to someone else, and which have latched onto my heart and plan on sticking around. 

Next, I spend a lot of time, sometimes as much as a few months, kicking ideas around in my head before I decide to commit them to paper. It can take me anywhere from one to two years to bring a story to life. It’s a huge time commitment, so I have to be certain that I’m in love with the idea and that it will sustain me for the long term. 

Then, when I’m creating a new world, with new characters and new settings, as I am now, I spend a lot of time reading in and around what I think my story will be. Part of that time is spent researching–in this case the story takes place in coastal Maine on a fictional college campus, so I’m learning about Maine, creating this fictional college (map included), and I’m researching a favorite author because this author’s work plays a pivotal role in the story. Since I’m a literature geek, researching literature is well and dandy by me.

Dark Academia is a New Genre For Me

This is my first crack at a Dark Academia suspense novel. It’s not historical fiction, which is what I usually write, and I’m going for Gothic vibes here. In addition to my research, I’ve been reading as many Dark Academia, mystery, suspense, and Gothic novels as I can get my hands on. I’ve just read Daphne du Maurier’s classic Rebecca for the first time (five stars from me). I reread The Secret History for the second time, as well as Ninth House, Babel and some other Dark Academia favorites. Seeing what other authors have done along the same lines of what I’m trying to create inspires me because I can see how the stories play out on the page.

Read How Other Authors Do It

How-To books can come in handy at this stage, especially when you’re tackling a new genre. I just read How To Write a Mystery from Mystery Writers of America and edited by Lee Child. I found the book so useful that I ended up highlighting about 50% of the book. Some of the chapters didn’t apply to me since I’m not writing mystery for children or teenagers, and I’ve been teaching writers how to create stories and characters for about 20 years. But even as an experienced writer, I still learned a lot. For example, I know that my story is about an amateur sleuth and that it falls more under the genre of suspense than mystery, though the two genres often overlap.

While I’m researching and reading around my topic, I daydream. Daydreaming is necessary for fiction writers—for most artists, really. Or at least that’s what I tell people when I spend hours staring out the window, or at the wall, or at the cats.

For me, the daydreaming is as important as the hours I spend actually sitting at my computer writing the book. I need this unstructured time to get a feel for who the characters are, how they respond in various situations, and what it feels like live their lives. Without allowing my imagination room to breathe, there is no land of make-believe, no living, breathing people to inhabit this world I’m creating. 

Next, if I’m still compelled by these characters, I’ll begin brainstorming ideas. I allow my imagination the run of the house during this time. This is where I use a Quick Sketch or a KWL chart.

Sometimes I’ll make a bullet-point list. Sometimes I’ll do a mind map of my various ideas, filling up my page or screen with any and all thoughts, no matter how random or silly they seem. I get most of my good ideas from journaling about the topic I want to write about. Sometimes I handwrite my ideas into composition books. Other times, I type my journal in either Notion or Scrivener, depending on where I am in the writing process.

When I’m in the very beginning stages, I have a book journal in Notion where I take notes and type out ideas. Once I’m in the drafting stage, I’ll create a page for notes and ideas in my Scrivener file where I’m writing the book.

However I choose to brainstorm, I’ll write what I think I know about the characters, what I think I know about the time, and any story ideas. This is also where I’ll do my preliminary research into the era. This first toe-dipping into the history allows me to picture my characters during this time and often, as I learn more about the people and events of the time, I come up with new ideas. At this point I’ll write an outline. 

Next time, I’ll share some ideas about how I continue my new novel projects.

Categories: Creative Writing, Creativity, The Writer’s Life, Writing, Writing InspirationTags: creative inspiration, creative writing, creative writing inspiration, creative writing tips, how to write a first draft, how to write a novel, writing inspiration, writing tips

How I Begin a Novel Part 1

I know these “How To Write” posts are a dime a dozen, but I’ve been asked several times to share how I get myself started when tackling a new project, so here it is is. 

I should point out that this is how I begin a novel. If you ask ten different novelists how they begin work, you’ll get twelve different answers. The point is to learn from others, get as many ideas as you can, then try a bunch of stuff until you figure out what works for you.

One interesting aspect of writing is that most writers focus on the difficult aspect of our work–the writer’s block, the pressure we put on ourselves to be more productive, the self-imposed daily word count, and on, and on…

We can focus on the negative to the point where we forget that writing fiction should be fun. Terry Pratchett said, “Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.” Writing is imaginative. It’s freeing because anything goes. When I write fiction, I get to experience other lives in other ways. World building, character building, building the storyline from the inside out–these are things that make me glad to be alive. When everything else in the world is getting me down, writing fiction gives me a purpose. It’s the best feeling in the world when the elements of a story finally come together. 

While discussing creativity in Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert said, “I am referring to the supernatural, the mystical, the inexplicable, the surreal, the divine, the transcendent, the otherworldly. Because the truth is, I believe that creativity is a force of enchantment–not entirely human in its origins.”

When I’m in writing flow, enchantment is the right word to describe how I feel. It’s as if a magic spell has come over me and I’m not writing at all; instead, I’m the conduit through which the story flows.

Getting to that place of enchantment, though… Well, that’s the hard part, at least for me. I’ve been writing long enough to know that the enchantment will come, but I have to work hard at setting myself up for it. The beginning stages of writing a novel are not easy for me, but I know that if I don’t push through the shitty first draft then the enchantment will never happen. 

This is how I begin writing a novel. There’s too much for me to say on the topic in one go, so today is the part one.

First, I notice what I call the “spark of inspiration,” that nugget of an idea that might, with some twisting and turning, evolve into a full-blown story. For my current work in progress, the spark of inspiration came from reading a few Dark Academia novels, including The Secret History by Donna Tartt and Babel by R.F. Kuang. I loved the dark, and I loved the academia, and I decided that I wanted to do something similar. 

The ability to recognize potential story ideas is a skill most creatives learn at some point. Sometimes we read books that inspire us to do something similar. Sometimes we have random thoughts floating through our minds at any given time of the day. Sometimes we see a story begging to be told. For writers, these ideas are necessary for our sanity since the ideas give us something to write about. When I’m in the earliest stages of storytelling, I play around with these sparks of insight and decide which are passing through, perhaps on their way to someone else, and which have latched onto my heart and plan on sticking around. 

Next, I spend a lot of time, sometimes as much as a few months, kicking ideas around in my head before I decide to commit them to paper. It can take me anywhere from one to two years to bring a story to life. It’s a huge time commitment, so I have to be certain that I’m in love with the idea and that it will sustain me for the long term. 

Then, when I’m creating a new world, with new characters and new settings, as I am now, I spend a lot of time reading in and around what I think my story will be. Part of that time is spent researching–in this case the story takes place in coastal Maine on a fictional college campus, so I’m learning about Maine, creating this fictional college (map included), and I’m researching a favorite author because this author’s work plays a pivotal role in the story. Since I’m a literature geek, researching literature is well and dandy by me.

This is my first crack at a Dark Academia suspense novel. It’s not historical fiction, which is what I usually write, and I’m going for Gothic vibes here. In addition to my research, I’ve been reading as many Dark Academia, mystery, suspense, and Gothic novels as I can get my hands on. I’ve just read Daphne du Maurier’s classic Rebecca for the first time (five stars from me). I reread The Secret History for the second time, as well as Babel and some other Dark Academia favorites. Seeing what other authors have done along the same lines of what I’m trying to create inspires me because I can see how the stories play out on the page.

How-To books can come in handy at this stage, especially when you’re tackling a new genre. I just read How To Write a Mystery from Mystery Writers of America and edited by Lee Child. I found the book so useful that I ended up highlighting about 50% of the book. Some of the chapters didn’t apply to me since I’m not writing mystery for children or teenagers, and I’ve been teaching writers how to create stories and characters for about 20 years. But even as an experienced writer, I still learned a lot. For example, I know that my story is about an amateur sleuth and that it falls more under the genre of suspense than mystery, though the two genres often overlap.

While I’m researching and reading around my topic, I daydream. Daydreaming is necessary for fiction writers—for most artists, really. Or at least that’s what I tell people when I spend hours staring out the window, or at the wall, or at the cats. For me, the daydreaming is as important as the hours I spend actually sitting at my computer writing the book. I need this unstructured time to get a feel for who the characters are, how they respond in various situations, and what it feels like live their lives. Without allowing my imagination room to breathe, there is no land of make-believe, no living, breathing people to inhabit this world I’m creating. 

Next, if I’m still compelled by these characters, I’ll begin brainstorming ideas. I allow my imagination the run of the house during this time. This is where I use a Quick Sketch or a KWL chart. Sometimes I’ll make a bullet-point list. Sometimes I’ll do a mind map of my various ideas, filling up my page or screen with any and all thoughts, no matter how random or silly they seem. I get most of my good ideas from journaling about the topic I want to write about. Sometimes I handwrite my ideas into composition books. Other times, I type my journal in either Notion or Scrivener, depending on where I am in the writing process. When I’m in the very beginning stages, I have a book journal in Notion where I take notes and type out ideas. Once I’m in the drafting stage, I’ll create a page for notes and ideas in my Scrivener file where I’m writing the book.

However I choose to brainstorm, I’ll write what I think I know about the characters, what I think I know about the time, and any story ideas. This is also where I’ll do my preliminary research into the era. This first toe-dipping into the history allows me to picture my characters during this time and often, as I learn more about the people and events of the time, I come up with new ideas. At this point I’ll write an outline. 

These are the very beginning stages of how I tackle a new project. Stay tuned for the next installment of How I Begin a Novel. 

Reading Recommendations: Historical Fiction, Poetry, and Magical Realism.

I finally have enough juice in the tank to write the first draft of my latest novel, so that has been keeping me busy lately. My daily word count is 500 words minimum a day when I’m writing a first draft, but things are flowing smoothly, and most days I write about 1000 words. At the moment, I’m 38,000 words in and I have no idea how long the first draft is likely to be.

While I was gearing up to write my first mystery, I spent a few months reading mysteries to see how they played out on the page. Now that I have a chapter outline for my story, I can expand my reading choices beyond Agatha Christie. Not that I don’t love a good Agatha Christie. I’m still reading mysteries (I’m currently reading Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone), but not exclusively.  

Here’s the best of what I’ve been reading. 

Kafka on the Shore

By Haruki Murakami

This is the third novel I’ve read by Murakami (I’ve also read Norwegian Wood and 1Q84), and just as with 1Q84, I was blown away by this man’s imagination. Murakami’s imagination is an international treasure. He shows us that when we let our creativity run free, we never know what kind of literary magic we might come up with. While at first the story seemed to go in three different directions, the various elements did come together. I loved Nakata and thought he was one of the most endearing characters I’ve read in some time. I loved how Hoshino came into his own at the end, and he provided some great comic relief. Not everything that happened was explained, which is common for a Murakami novel, but not everything has to be explained. As readers, we can use our own ideas to fill in the blanks. I’d love the ability to talk to cats myself. As with One Hundred Years of Solitude, I simply accepted the magical realism and let the story take me where it wanted to go.

All I can say is: Colonel Sanders. You gotta love it.

Conflict Resolution For Holy Beings

By Joy Harjo

Harjo was the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, and after reading one volume of her poetry I understand why. In Conflict Resolution For Holy Beings, Harjo shares the struggles of everyday life, past and present, while sharing thoughts about the strength of memory, individual and collective. She faces the brutality toward Native peoples head on, but she focuses on strength and resilience as well. Harjo incorporates musical rhythms into her verse, with both ancient and jazz and blues providing the melody for her work. I will definitely be reading more from Harjo.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

By Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This is the third time I’ve read One Hundred Years of Solitude, and every time I read it I feel like I understand the story a little more. For some reason, in this third reading I understood the cyclical nature of the Buendia family a little more as each generation repeats the mistakes of those who came before. The sense of being unable to escape your fate captured me a little more. And I was also able to keep track of the Jose Arcadios and the Aurelianos a little easier. Once you accept the magical realism of this world, it ceases to be odd. The magical realism just is.

I wanted to reread the book before I started the new Netflix version. I’m looking forward to seeing how they adapted this beautiful, haunting novel. 

Owls and Other Fantasies

By Mary Oliver

While I like Owls and Other Fantasies, which includes several short essays as well as poems, it isn’t my favorite collection by Oliver. In this collection, Oliver focuses on the harsh reality of nature, which is as much a part of nature as the beauty. Everything that lives must die. We all know this yet we like to pretend it isn’t true. Oliver doesn’t shy away from that painful reality. She understands that if we are going to bask in the light, we must also acknowledge the dark.

This is me being nitpicky, but I wasn’t thrilled with the essay about Oliver and her partner bringing an injured bird home to stay in their bathtub. I was left wondering why no one thought to call the wildlife rescue. Years ago I found an injured bird. I called my vet, who referred me to the wildlife rescue, and someone from the rescue came to get the bird so they could nurse it back to health. Why Oliver, who seems to have loved birds so much, would watch the injured bird slowly die is beyond me. The cynic in me hopes it wasn’t just to get a poem, or in this case an essay, out of the experience.

James

By Percival Everett

I had heard about this novel for some time but I was reluctant to give it a go. I’ve tried retellings in the past, and some are wonderful and some are really not–at least for me. I’ve always loved Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, so I was more than a little curious about this book. After the holidays, I was in my local Barnes and Noble with my gift card in hand and I saw James sitting on a table. I decided give it a try. I’m so glad I did.

I loved that language was at the heart of this story–spoken, written, and read language. The language that the slaves speak outwardly to the slave owners is not the language that they speak to each other. The story was quite funny at times, yet Everett held nothing back when showing the horrific realities of American slavery. James goes from being Huckleberry Finn’s sidekick to a fully realized individual–from Jim to James.   

These are just a few of the wonderful books I’ve been reading lately. One day toward the end of 2024, I realized that I own a lot of books that I haven’t read yet. I decided that I wasn’t going to buy anything new this year while making the commitment to read what I already have on my shelves and my Kindle. It’s only February, but so far I’ve been doing a good job. I’m sure I already own enough books to get me through the year, and probably beyond. 

Categories: Book Recommendations, Book Reviews, Reading, Reading Inspiration, What I’m ReadingTags: book reviews, historical fiction book recommendations, Reading Inspiration, reading recommendations, what I’m reading, what to read next

What I’m Reading: Magical Realism, Historical Fiction, and Poetry

I finally have enough juice in the tank to write the first draft of my latest novel, so that has been keeping me busy lately. My daily word count is 500 words minimum a day when I’m writing a first draft, but things are flowing smoothly, and most days I write about 1000 words. At the moment, I’m 38,000 words in and I have no idea how long the first draft is likely to be.

While I was gearing up to write my first mystery, I spent a few months reading mysteries to see how they played out on the page. Now that I have a chapter outline for my story, I can expand my reading choices beyond Agatha Christie. Not that I don’t love a good Agatha Christie. I’m still reading mysteries (I’m currently reading Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone), but not exclusively.  

Here’s the best of what I’ve been reading. 

Kafka on the Shore

By Haruki Murakami

This is the third novel I’ve read by Murakami (I’ve also read Norwegian Wood and 1Q84), and just as with 1Q84, I was blown away by this man’s imagination. Murakami’s imagination is an international treasure. He shows us that when we let our creativity run free, we never know what kind of literary magic we might come up with. While at first the story seemed to go in three different directions, the various elements did come together. I loved Nakata and thought he was one of the most endearing characters I’ve read in some time. I loved how Hoshino came into his own at the end, and he provided some great comic relief. Not everything that happened was explained, which is common for a Murakami novel, but not everything has to be explained. As readers, we can use our own ideas to fill in the blanks. I’d love the ability to talk to cats myself. As with One Hundred Years of Solitude, I simply accepted the magical realism and let the story take me where it wanted to go.

All I can say is: Colonel Sanders. You gotta love it.

Conflict Resolution For Holy Beings

By Joy Harjo

Harjo was the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, and after reading one volume of her poetry I understand why. In Conflict Resolution For Holy Beings, Harjo shares the struggles of everyday life, past and present, while sharing thoughts about the strength of memory, individual and collective. She faces the brutality toward Native peoples head on, but she focuses on strength and resilience as well. Harjo incorporates musical rhythms into her verse, with both ancient and jazz and blues providing the melody for her work. I will definitely be reading more from Harjo.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

By Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This is the third time I’ve read One Hundred Years of Solitude, and every time I read it I feel like I understand the story a little more. For some reason, in this third reading I understood the cyclical nature of the Buendia family a little more as each generation repeats the mistakes of those who came before. The sense of being unable to escape your fate captured me a little more. And I was also able to keep track of the Jose Arcadios and the Aurelianos a little easier. Once you accept the magical realism of this world, it ceases to be odd. The magical realism just is.

I wanted to reread the book before I started the new Netflix version. I’m looking forward to seeing how they adapted this beautiful, haunting novel. 

Owls and Other Fantasies

By Mary Oliver

While I like Owls and Other Fantasies, which includes several short essays as well as poems, it isn’t my favorite collection by Oliver. In this collection, Oliver focuses on the harsh reality of nature, which is as much a part of nature as the beauty. Everything that lives must die. We all know this yet we like to pretend it isn’t true. Oliver doesn’t shy away from that painful reality. She understands that if we are going to bask in the light, we must also acknowledge the dark.

This is me being nitpicky, but I wasn’t thrilled with the essay about Oliver and her partner bringing an injured bird home to stay in their bathtub. I was left wondering why no one thought to call the wildlife rescue. Years ago I found an injured bird. I called my vet, who referred me to the wildlife rescue, and someone from the rescue came to get the bird so they could nurse it back to health. Why Oliver, who seems to have loved birds so much, would watch the injured bird slowly die is beyond me. The cynic in me hopes it wasn’t just to get a poem, or in this case an essay, out of the experience.

James

By Percival Everett

I had heard about this novel for some time but I was reluctant to give it a go. I’ve tried retellings in the past, and some are wonderful and some are really not–at least for me. I’ve always loved Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, so I was more than a little curious about this book. After the holidays, I was in my local Barnes and Noble with my gift card in hand and I saw James sitting on a table. I decided give it a try. I’m so glad I did.

I loved that language was at the heart of this story–spoken, written, and read language. The language that the slaves speak outwardly to the slave owners is not the language that they speak to each other. The story was quite funny at times, yet Everett held nothing back when showing the horrific realities of American slavery. James goes from being Huckleberry Finn’s sidekick to a fully realized individual–from Jim to James.   

These are just a few of the wonderful books I’ve been reading lately. One day toward the end of 2024, I realized that I own a lot of books that I haven’t read yet. I decided that I wasn’t going to buy anything new this year while making the commitment to read what I already have on my shelves and my Kindle. It’s only February, but so far I’ve been doing a good job. I’m sure I already own enough books to get me through the year, and probably beyond. 

What I’m Reading: My Current Favorite Reads

I finally have enough juice in the tank to write the first draft of my latest novel, so that has been keeping me busy lately. My daily word count is 500 words minimum a day when I’m writing a first draft, but things are flowing smoothly, and most days I write about 1000 words. At the moment, I’m 38,000 words in and I have no idea how long the first draft is likely to be.

While I was gearing up to write my first mystery, I spent a few months reading mysteries to see how they played out on the page. Now that I have a chapter outline for my story, I can expand my reading choices beyond Agatha Christie. Not that I don’t love a good Agatha Christie. I’m still reading mysteries (I’m currently reading Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone), but not exclusively.  

Here’s the best of what I’ve been reading. 

Kafka on the Shore

By Haruki Murakami

This is the third novel I’ve read by Murakami (I’ve also read Norwegian Wood and 1Q84), and just as with 1Q84, I was blown away by this man’s imagination. Murakami’s imagination is an international treasure. He shows us that when we let our imaginations run free, we never know what kind of literary magic we might come up with. While at first the story seemed to go in three different directions, the various elements did come together in the end. I loved Nakata and thought he was one of the most endearing characters I’ve read in some time. I loved how Hoshino came into his own at the end, and he provided some great comic relief throughout. Not everything that happened was explained, which is common for a Murakami novel, but not everything has to be explained. As readers, we can use our own ideas to fill in the blanks. I’d love the ability to talk to cats myself. As with One Hundred Years of Solitude, I simply accepted the magical realism and let the story take me where it wanted to go.

All I can say is: Colonel Sanders. You gotta love it.

Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings

By Joy Harjo

Harjo was the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, and after reading only a few of her poems I understood why. Here Harjo shares the struggles of everyday life, past and present, while sharing thoughts about the strength of memory, both individual and collective. She faces the destruction of the Native peoples head on as she talks about tragedies such as the Trail of Tears. Harjo incorporates elements of music, both ancient and current with largely jazz and blues undertones. The music of native peoples provides the melody for her verse. I will certainly be looking to read more of her poetry.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

By Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This is the third time I’ve read One Hundred Years of Solitude, and every time I read it I feel like I understand the story a little more. For some reason, in this third reading I understood the cyclical nature of the Buendia family a little more as each generation repeats the mistakes of those who came before. The sense of being unable to escape your fate captured me a little more. And I was also able to keep track of the Jose Arcadios and the Aurelianos a little easier. Once you accept the magical realism of this world, it ceases to be odd. The magical realism just is.

I wanted to reread the book before I started the new Netflix version. I’m looking forward to seeing how they adapted this beautiful, haunting novel. 

Owls and Other Fantasies

By Mary Oliver

While I like Owls and Other Fantasies, which includes several short essays as well as poems, it isn’t my favorite collection by Oliver. In this collection, Oliver focuses on the harsh reality of nature, which is as much a part of nature as the beauty. Everything that lives must die. We all know this yet we like to pretend it isn’t true. Oliver doesn’t shy away from that painful reality. She understands that if we are going to bask in the light, we must also acknowledge the dark.

This is me being nitpicky, but I wasn’t thrilled with the essay about Oliver and her partner bringing an injured bird home to stay in their bathtub. I was left wondering why no one thought to call the wildlife rescue. Years ago I found an injured bird. I called my vet, who referred me to the wildlife rescue, and someone from the rescue came to get the bird so they could nurse it back to health. Why Oliver, who seems to have loved birds so much, would watch the injured bird slowly die is beyond me. The cynic in me hopes it wasn’t just to get a poem, or in this case an essay, out of the experience.

James

By Percival Everett

I had heard about this novel for some time but I was reluctant to give it a go. I’ve tried retellings in the past, and some are wonderful and some are really not–at least for me. I’ve always loved Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, so I was more than a little curious about this book. After the holidays, I was in my local Barnes and Noble with my gift card in hand and I saw James sitting on a table. I decided give it a try. I’m so glad I did.

I loved that language was at the heart of this story–spoken, written, and read language. The language that the slaves speak outwardly to the slave owners is not the language that they speak to each other. The story was quite funny at times, yet Everett held nothing back when showing the horrific realities of American slavery. James goes from being Huckleberry Finn’s sidekick to a fully realized individual–from Jim to James.   

These are just a few of the wonderful books I’ve been reading lately. One day toward the end of 2024, I realized that I own a lot of books that I haven’t read yet. I decided that I wasn’t going to buy anything new this year while making the commitment to read what I already have on my shelves and my Kindle. It’s only February, but so far I’ve been doing a good job. I’m sure I already own enough books Ito get me through the year, and probably beyond. 

Writing Inspiration: Making a Living

I wanted to share an excerpt from my latest nonfiction book, The Swirl and Swing of Words, because the idea of writers and jobs, day jobs or otherwise, has been on my mind. I recently watched a YouTube video from someone who called themselves a “full-time writer” who then admitted, later in the video, that they use the money they make from content creation, part-time retail work, and other sales jobs to help support themselves.

That person is spending a percentage of their working hours writing, yes, but also creating content and working retail. I want to stress the point that it’s okay to earn money in various ways so that we can eat and pay the rent while still pursuing our art. It’s okay to bring in money however you can. Few writers make a living writing books alone and most have multiple streams of income. Bringing in money working at the supermarket, a bookstore, or, in my case, a school, doesn’t make you less of an artist. Not ever. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. We need to let go of the idea that the only type of writer that is worthwhile is a full-time writer who makes their living solely through writing.

Here’s the excerpt from The Swirl and Swing of Words. Enjoy.

*****

Every writing podcast and website is devoted to telling people how to leave behind the dreadful day job (Bad job! Bad job!) and make a living writing or running a creative business. It doesn’t surprise me that quitting the day job is the focus for so many authors. It was my goal for a long time too. We tend to judge things by their dollar value (or pound value, or yen value, or whatever you use where you live). The general belief is that when you quit your day job because you make enough money selling books, then and only then have you conquered that elusive mountain called Success, leaving the rest of us to dream of the Success that eludes us.

There are a lot of authors out there—both traditional and independent—who are doing brilliantly with their books. They’re making a lot of money, and some of them do leave their jobs. Most authors want to sell as many books as they can. I certainly do. However, like with everything else in life, it’s important for each of us to decide for ourselves what we really want, not what we’re told to want by others. For a long time, I felt like a failure for holding onto my day job. “I need to be brave and quit,” I kept telling myself. Just do it! I finally had to accept that what I really want is financial security. For me, financial security means having enough to pay my rent and my bills, put gas in my car, go grocery shopping, and have savings set aside, you know, usual life stuff. I love the idea of making a living from my books, but I also love knowing that I can eat whether I have a good sales month or not.

Since I’ve been an adult and responsible for my own life, I’ve made decisions that allow me to make sure that I have enough money to take care of myself. Mind you, I’m a high school English teacher, so I’m not bringing in the big bucks here. But I live beneath my means, which means that I know my rent and my bills will be paid, and I have savings. For someone who grew up in poverty, the peace of mind that comes with having enough money to live comfortably has a price beyond measure.

Certainly, there have been times when I wanted to be my own boss. About ten years ago, I thought I’d give freelance writing a try. I hated freelance writing. I mean, I well and truly hated it. I hated that even though I always submitted my work before the deadline, the magazines or websites paid me when they got around to it. Sometimes the payment wasn’t the right amount (Did we agree to $400? I have here $250…), and sometimes my payment was lost in transit (Are you sure you didn’t get it? It says here it was deposited last Tuesday…). Sometimes, there wasn’t as much work in July as there was in May, and I felt like a child again, worrying about whether or not the bills would be paid.

I know writers want to make a living writing, but the reality is that few do. The thing about book sales is that they fluctuate. After a while, sales of even best-selling books slow down. If you make enough money while sales are hot to feel confident depending on that as your income, then do so. If you have a more adventurous spirit than I do, then do what feels right for you. I’m simply showing why leaving our jobs isn’t the ultimate goal for every creative person in the world.

We write books because we want people to read them, and book sales are a good indicator of how many people are reading our books. Beyond that, I suspect that people want to leave their jobs for other reasons. We saw inklings of this during the COVID years when the Great Resignation hit and people were leaving their jobs in droves. Then, when people realized they still needed a roof over their heads, we went from the Great Resignation to Quiet Quitting, where people kept their jobs but kept the amount of work they did to a bare minimum. I wonder if the issue is less that people feel as if they must make their living as writers and more that they are unhappy with their current jobs and think making a living selling books would make them happier.

The general wisdom is to commodify everything. We’ve done our creativity a great injustice by insisting that the only way to be successful is to make a boatload of money at it. Whenever someone shows the tiniest aptitude at some- thing, we tell them to make money from it. If you enjoy baking, you should open a bakery. If you like writing, you should make a living selling your books. Find your passion and make money at it! The problem with this way of thinking is that it forgets that we need people with jobs in our society. We need doctors and nurses and teachers and car mechanics and people who know how to fix things. I’m sure being a trash collector isn’t the most exciting job in the world, and I’m pretty sure it’s no one’s passion, but I certainly don’t want to live someplace where the trash isn’t collected. In The Creative Act, Rick Rubin said, “…if the choice is between making great art and supporting yourself, the art comes first. Consider another way to make a living. Success is harder to come by when your life depends on it.”

The novelist Octavia E. Butler worked as a telemarketer. She also worked as a warehouse worker, a dishwasher, and a potato chip inspector. Although potato chip inspector sounds kind of cool. I would be a potato chip inspector. Rick Rubin calls work like this, “jobs that demand your time, but little else.” Butler was university-educated, but she chose low-wage jobs so that she would have time for writing. She woke up at 2 a.m. so she could write before the day’s work. Butler is rightfully known as one of the queens of science fiction and fantasy. I read her time-travel novel Kindred while I was writing my own time-travel story, and her story- telling skills blew me away. Perhaps, for those of us who want to put our creativity first, we might choose a job that takes up our time and little else, thereby reserving our mental space for our creative endeavors.

We should pursue our goals unreservedly. We should discover our passions, plant them, water them, cultivate them, and watch them bloom. But as Elizabeth Gilbert said in Big Magic, we are doing our creativity a great injustice by expecting it to make our living for us. Rick Rubin said much the same. I’ve lost track of the times I’ve heard creatives say that making money with their passion takes the joy away since what was once a fulfilling form of self- exploration and self-expression became something to panic over. In such cases, their passion became a job, complete with all of the stresses and frustrations they were trying to leave behind in the first place.

Professor Erin Cech said, “Passion shouldn’t be the standard to which everyone is held when we’re asking them what they do for work…We have to recognize that people have different motivations for why they work hard.” I can be more creative because I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to make ends meet, even during those months when my book sales are slow. Yes, I have less time to write than I would if I quit my job, but you know what? The writing gets done. One of my favorite authors is Abraham Verghese, who is a medical doctor and a professor at Stanford. It took him 14 years to write The Covenant of Water while he continued both of his busy jobs. Yes, it took him 14 years to write his novel but look at what he had at the end—a modern masterpiece.

These days, there are other ways for creatives to make money. You can have a podcast, a vlog, and a blog. You can also go on speaking engagements and create courses to sell online. If those endeavors sound interesting to you, then try them out. I tried creating a podcast when I was running The Copperfield Review, and by the third week I realized that I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t find the process of running a podcast interesting enough to sustain, and it took too much time away from writing. I want to write, not research, record, and edit podcasts. I’m a homebody, and the idea of traveling to speaking engagements doesn’t thrill me either. A steady paycheck allows me the time and the mental space to write instead of doing things that aren’t interesting to me. For a while, I worked as a freelance editor who helped writers with their historical novel manuscripts. When the work lost its luster, I was able to let it go and focus on my own writing. I can write my books, market them to the best of my ability, and then I can relax knowing that my rent will be paid and whatever books I sell are extra income. A job is not an excuse for not writing. If you’re an artist, the art will happen. That’s what makes you an artist.

An Unrelated Post About the L.A. Fires

I bumped another post I had planned for today to say a few words about the L.A. fires. I know this is off-topic for this blog, which focuses on writing, books, and reading, but I felt compelled to add my two cents about the armageddon world-on-fire that has been consuming the place I consider home.

I can’t call myself a Los Angeles native since we moved from New York to Arizona when I was seven, and then when I was eight we moved to the Southern California area. I lived in Southern California for about 30 years, and when I talk about home I mean the Los Angeles area, or the San Fernando Valley specifically. We bumped all over the place when I was growing up due to my father’s inability to hold a job, so we started out in Anaheim, then moved to Van Nuys, then various places in Reseda, then various places in Canoga Park, then to the Chatsworth area–Woolsey Canyon, to be specific, and I lived in Northridge near my alma mater CSU Northridge. 

As someone who lived in Southern California, I can’t say I’m entirely surprised by what has happened. Southern California has been a fire hazard for decades. I once had to evacuate with the school where I worked as a teacher’s assistant in the Malibu hills because of a nearby fire. We lived in Woolsey Canyon when I was at CSU Northridge, and not only did we live through one of the worst earthquakes in Southern California history, but we also nearly evacuated our home due to a fire spreading in nearby Box Canyon. 

It’s a surreal experience when firefighters show up at your door to tell you that you have 20 minutes to evacuate your home. That’s if you’re lucky. For many people struggling with the current fires, they didn’t even have that long. To this day, I’m fascinated by what each of us chose to take, thinking that our home would be burned down and we’d lose everything inside. First and foremost, always, grab your people and pets. I know there have been deaths as a result of the fire, human and animal, and it breaks my heart to think about them. If you can, if you’re able, you grab the two-legged, and the four-legged, or perhaps the winged or the reptilian beings and get out. If you have some time, which we did, then you must choose what is most important. We leashed our black cocker spaniel Casey and held onto him so we’d know where he was and we put our cats into carriers so they’d be ready to go. 

My father and brother climbed onto the roof to hose it down the best they could. We tossed some basic clothing into bags, and what each of us chose to take said more about who we were than any Rorschach test. My mother grabbed our family photos since those are irreplaceable. My brother, an artist, grabbed his art supplies. I was a writer even then, so I grabbed my computer with my writing and my university work. My father grabbed his TV. Interpret that as you will. Just as we were getting into our car to drive away, the fire department said that the fire had been diverted and we could stay. The sky looked like hellfire, and our lungs burned like coals from breathing the scalding air, but at least our own home was safe. 

As always, sincere thanks go to the first responders, to neighbors helping neighbors, to strangers helping strangers. I can never quite understand why it takes tragedy for people to recognize their fellow human beings. Imagine what a world we’d live in if we helped each other all the time. When it comes down to it, in times of need, people do help each other. Maybe that’s the best we can hope for, imperfect beings that we are. 

If you’re interested in helping animals affected by the wildfires as I am, you can check out these resources from KTLA in Los Angeles. 

Writing Inspiration: Leaning Into the Writing Life

What are you willing to give up in order to become who you really need to be?
—Elizabeth Gilbert

Writers are like anyone else. We require shelter, food, and water. We need companionship, in human or animal form. We do better if we recognize our purpose in this world. For me, that purpose is writing.

For me, writing is the lens through which I see this crazy world. While I’m talking specifically about writing, you can fill in the blank with any artistic endeavor. Perhaps you pine for the painting life in the same way that I pine for the writing life, which is to say that I seek to embrace every ounce of creativity offered to me.

Pursuing the writing life means making a commitment to putting words on paper, whether by hand or by keyboard. It means staying in close contact with the storyteller inside you. It means being attuned to the inspiration all around you. It means rediscovering your inner child—the one who loved to play make-believe, dress in costumes, and create worlds under homemade tents. It means remembering the activities you loved when you were younger and probably still do deep down somewhere, buried beneath grocery lists and unpaid bills.

The writing life means admitting your love of language, rhythm, and story. A desire to write is born from a love of words—first in relentlessly pursuing other people’s words, and, then, in pursuing our own. The writing life means seeking beauty in the everyday that others, who are not artists, might consider mundane. For me, sitting on my shady patio in the cooler morning air, especially on so-hot desert summer days, enjoying the green of the plants surrounding me, drinking a cup of tea, watching the trees, and seeing the valley in the distance is a perfect morning. I can listen to the birds sing and simply be.

Henry David Thoreau said, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essen- tial facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” For me, living deliberately means accepting that I’m not a complete person unless I give these stories breathing fire within me free range. For some of us, writing is our call- ing, so embracing the writing life means discovering that calling, acknowledging it, and staying true to it despite the myriad of challenges we face every day. Embracing the writing life means tapping into our creativity, letting our souls roam free, and sharing the truest part of ourselves. Often, it means that we go against the grain in how we choose to live because predetermined expectations don’t work for us.

I’ve certainly experienced down times when writing has felt like a chore, as if it were something I did because I expected it of myself. Lawrence Kasdan said, “Being a writer is like having homework every day.” There have been times when I grew tired of the homework and lost the joy that writing had always brought me. I forgot how much fun it was to write a story for the story’s sake, because I got to spend time in a world that I created. I mourned the loss of that joy, and I wondered how to get it back. What is the point of writing if you don’t enjoy it?

For me, living deliberately includes making space for writing. I’m not writing because I have to. I’m writing because I want to. Because it’s an authentic part of who I am. Because it makes me happy. Because it brings me peace. When I talk about writing, I’m talking about the act of world-building and storytelling, but I also mean the physical act—sitting my bottom into the chair and dancing my fingers across the keyboard, typing out words that become sentences that, in time, become essays or novels. Toni Morrison said, “But writing was the real freedom because nobody told me what to do there. That was my world and my imagination. And all my life it’s been that way, even now.” The freedom writing gives me is palpable. When all else fails me, as it sometimes does, writing saves me.

Whether you love to write, or if you have some other creative endeavor that lights you up from the inside, your time may feel fuller when you decide to include the magic of creativity. Writing is how I suck the marrow out of life. “Writing is the act of reaching across the abyss of isolation to share and reflect,” said Natalie Goldberg. And it should be writing spurred by joy.

As Elizabeth Gilbert asks, what are you willing to give up in order to become who you really need to be? Are you willing to give up wasting time living according to other people’s expectations? According to preconceived ideas about what your life should look like? Your own outdated vision of yourself in five years, ten years, at the end of your life? Many things will happen in 2025 that will be out of my control. As a writer, the main thing I can control is my writing. I have made a deliberate decision to focus on writing with joy this year. Not in writing to market, not in writing to expectations, and not in expectation of book sales. I’ll be writing because I love writing above all else.

Happy Holidays: Popular Holiday Posts

While I recover from a stubborn sinus infection, I thought I’d share the links to this blog’s most popular holiday posts.

Christmas in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Mrs. Beeton’s Recipes For a Perfectly Proper Christmas

What Were Some Popular Victorian Christmas Traditions?

Happy holidays to everyone. See you in 2025.