Lisa Papademetriou's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"

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My friend Meghan lives on the island of Bali, in Indonesia. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, but Bali is a Hindu island. It’s an absolutely beautiful place. The sea is filled with jewel-toned fish, the hills are vibrant green with terraced rice paddies, and the air is full of butterflies. The place pulses with color and life. The people dress in colorful clothing and you have to be careful where you step, because offerings are often left out (sometimes in the middle of the sidewalk) for spirits. The offerings are contained in folded leaves, and often involve a flower, bit of rice, or incense. Some are very large, and involve fruit and other foods. I saw one offering that must have been for a mischievous spirit, because it contained a bottle of liquor and a lit cigarette.

Everywhere I went I met woodcarvers, painters, jewelry makers, tailors; artists of all kinds. I told Meghan that she was lucky to know so many artists. She shrugged and said, “There isn’t really that kind of division here.” When I asked her what she meant, she explained that there weren’t “artists” and “others” on Bali. “Everyone is an artist,” Meghan explained. “Everyone does some sort of art. It’s part of being in the world.”

My mother has a friend who immigrated to the United States from Japan. Once, when we were having lunch, my mother noted the elegant way the food was presented on the plate, and mentioned her Japanese friend. “It drives her crazy to see something just plopped on a plate,” Mom said. “She told me that in Japan, everything is done with an eye for beauty: getting dressed, eating, making tea, whatever. It’s in the culture.”

Yes, it’s in the culture, and it’s in ourselves. We are all artists. So often, we describe ourselves to others purely in terms of our work: I am a nurse. I am a banker. I am a writer. I am an office manager. But, in the words of Walt Whitman, we are large, we contain multitudes. We are artists. We are scientists. We are explorers. We are dancers. My daughter—age five and a half—knows this. It’s not about what you get paid for (nobody pays her for anything); it’s a way of being in the world.  This is what it means to be human.

I recently started re-thinking my Pinterest account, which had been dormant for about a year. I couldn’t figure out what to use it for. I’m not one of those moms who creates elaborate sandwiches in the shape of dinosaurs, or someone who is enthusiastic about classic cars, or one of those crafters who knows how to create a lovely trivet out of fall leaves and spackle. Actually, I’m kind of amazed at how many of those people exist. But they do, and they are all on Pinterest.

Meanwhile, I had another (unrelated, I thought) problem. I was feeling as if I needed to come up with some more interesting settings. I wanted to think about new characters. I wanted to collect places, and faces, and maybe clothes for them to wear…. If only there was some sort of technology to help with this!

Ding.

So welcome to my two new boards, Writing Prompts: Settings and Writing Prompts: Characters. (Pinterest button is on the right hand column.) I have added a bunch of castles and gardens to my Settings board. I’m not sure why; I’m not writing about castles or gardens. But I do find those pictures inspiring, and the details of the stones, the way the plants trail over lawns, might make it into my work-in-progress. I haven’t added much to my Character board, but that’s next up. I do like collecting faces, and there are some amazing ones on the interwebs.

So if you’re looking for a prompt, I highly recommend checking on Pinterest. You might even figure out how to make that trivet or dinosaur sandwich you’ve been wanting.

I'm working on a new novel. And by "working," I mean "flailing." Every single time  start a new project I have to face the same panic. It goes like this:

I've never had this much trouble before....I'll never have another idea again!...This will never work....This has been done already....I've lost it....I never had it....I can't! I just can't!...I should have been a dentist/ lawyer/ hedge fund manager/ barista/ some other steady employment that offers benefits.... And so on. I call it Writer Panic.

If you're an artist, this list is probably familiar. I'm sure you have your own version. Philip Roth famously said, "Writing isn't hard work; it's a nightmare." While this is (obviously) a little over-dramatic, I will admit that the beginning of the process (when I'm struggling with a story, trying to put together the pieces I have and make some sense of them) can have a nightmarish quality. When writing is going well, it often feels like a waking dream. I simply write down the images, the voices I hear, the emotions I see and feel. When it's going badly, it also feels dreamlike--I'm trapped in my mind, along with the monsters.

Of course, one way to end a bad dream is to simply wake up. Wake up and tell yourself, "It isn't real. It isn't real." The way to end Writer Panic is the same. You just have to tell yourself, "It isn't real." Those panic thoughts are just thoughts, ideas that I have about my work. They don't have to be reality. The secret to fighting writer panic is to wake yourself up, so that you can go back to the real dreaming.

I have a problem. It’s called school.

My daughter is enrolled in kindergarten in one of the local public elementary schools. It’s a terrific place. The teachers are wonderful, dedicated professionals. The principal is new this year, and he seems very engaged. The building is lovely and well-maintained. The playgrounds and soccer field are in great shape. And all of this is FREE. It’s amazing. So what’s my problem?

Well, my main problem is that the place is closed a lot of the time. Last week, we had an entire week of half days. This week, Monday was off. Next week, Monday is off. The school day only lasts until 2:50, so my daughter’s after school care is a bunch of activities that I have cobbled together. This afternoon’s plan was canceled at the last moment, and now my afternoon is shot, work-wise.

When I first became a full-time writer, one friend (now former friend) asked me, “So—what does that mean? That you’re a housewife now?” Others simply assumed that I would constantly be available for lunch, or afternoon breaks, or yoga class. But the truth about being a full-time writer is that nobody is paying you to sit around and do nothing. Either the work gets done, or it doesn’t. People often ask me how I carve out time for writing. This is not a question for a professional writer. We carve out time for working the same way that lawyers, doctors, welders, waitresses, bankers, and teachers do. We go to work.

Most of the professional writers I know are fanatical about protecting their time. Even if you are someone who wants to write a little, once a week, just for the joy of it—you still have to protect that time. When you make your own schedule, sometimes the minutes and hours disappear, and you never get them back.

So I’m working with the school situation. I used to write in the morning, take a break, then write until 4. That no longer works, most days. Instead, I wake up at 5:30 to get a jump on the day. I’m figuring out how to have a productive 9-2:50 workday. At least I have flexibility; I can choose to work Saturday instead of Thursday. I have no idea how other parents—ones who have to be somewhere from 9 to 5—are keeping their jobs.

Yesterday, I heard from an old friend. She told me that her daughter had dreams of being a writer, but felt discouraged. She isn’t even in high school yet, but doesn’t feel that being a professional writer is a realistic dream. I know this feeling well.

When I was in college, I applied to be in the creative writing thesis class. Only a few (10? 12?) English majors were allowed to write a “creative” thesis—that is, work on their own novel, book of poetry, or play, rather than writing about someone else’s work. I had been admitted to the poetry writing seminar in my junior year, which was another exclusive class for only a few students. My specialty was funny poetry. I had dreams of writing for kids. My thesis would be a first step in really honing my craft.

But I didn’t get into the creative thesis class.

For years, I thought that I didn’t get in because I wasn’t a good enough writer. If I wasn’t good enough to get into a class at Vassar, I reasoned, I wasn’t good enough to get published. So why bother pursuing it at all? I stopped writing poetry. For almost twenty years.

There is something strange in our attitude about art. We revere famous artists. We build museums to house their paintings, read and treasure their work in our schools, and visit their hallowed grave sites. We treat them like gods, and—correlatively—act as if no mere mortal should be allowed to pursue the same path. Either you are Shakespeare, or you are wasting everyone’s time. “Get a real job;” is something that people often say to aspiring artists, “be a dental hygienist! Healthcare is booming!”

The problem is that it is difficult to get better at something that you do not do. It’s not as if Shakespeare busted out with Macbeth at the age of eight.  He had to work as a writer to become brilliant. People give the example of Mozart’s young genius, but Mozart worked like a maniac even as a child. As Malcolm Gladwell has documented in his book, Outliers, a large part of the reason he was so “talented” is because he had put more time into his music by the age of 28 than most composers do in a lifetime.

Non-artists act as if art is a self-indulgent career for lazy people. I can tell you that the professional artists I know are relentless. They are always working. Art is the opposite of self-indulgence—it is public service. It is a calling. And, if you are called, you ignore that call to your peril.

Writing, music, dance, visual art—these are competitive fields. But they are also just jobs. Many people do these things professionally. People, not gods. Just people who love something that is good for the spirit, and want to share that love with the world. If you have a child who loves the arts, you can tell them to be a dental hygienist, and that might be good advice. There is a lot to be said for a steady income. It brings tremendous peace of mind and sense of accomplishment. But please encourage their art, too. Writing, dance, painting, drawing, playing music, singing, designing on a computer—these things also bring tremendous peace of mind and sense of accomplishment. As I’ve said before, I believe that we are all artists at heart.

As for me, I have finally started writing poetry again, and I love it. When I write poems, I feel a sense of mental absorption and rightness. I will never be Keats. But who cares? Success does not have to be huge and undisputed in order to be real. I’m not internationally famous, but I do have a real job and a real career, and I know from the letters that I receive that I am helping people, making them happy. If you want to write, please know that it is possible to have a career as an author. I’m doing it. Most of my good friends, are, too. And we’re just regular people. Work at it, and you will get better. You won’t be able to help it.

Here are links to a couple of books about the daily life of artists that I think are just brilliant:

If You Want To Write, by Brenda Ueland.

The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use It For Life, by Twyla Tharp.

[caption id="attachment_1123" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="The actual notebook where I wrote the first draft of this post. Yes, that's my lipstick on the coffee cup."] [/caption]

When I was a kid, I was entranced by the idea of a diary. It felt like something that creative yet organized people do. I imagined that I would record the details of my daily life and someday, maybe years after my death, someone would find it and think, “Wow. I am so lucky that Lisa P. kept a diary. She’s fascinating!” There was only one problem: My diaries were not fascinating. The chronicles of what I did all day read like a list of errands. They were dead boring to write, and even worse to read.

Later, in my 20’s, I stumbled across The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. In it, she suggests writing “Morning Pages” to improve creativity. These pages are not meant to be real writing. They are more like a way to drain your brain of the mundane. (Let us now pause to observe the poetry of that line.) They are a warm up to get you ready to work. I faithfully wrote my pages every day for years—complaints, whines, fears, and even statements that I could not think of anything to say. The challenge I faced was that although I knew the pages were not real writing, they felt like real writing. They felt like real, bad writing. They did not prepare me to write better. They made me feel tired and discouraged. I have no doubt that they are enormously helpful for some. Not for me, though.

Eventually, I started a blog. My first blog, on Amazon.com, was simply funny observations and anecdotes—much like a little diary. But I never felt much purpose in that kind of writing, and it was too public. People were voting on whether or not they liked my posts, and some of them were voting against it! Can you imagine getting a bad review on your diary? I stopped blogging and mulled over the point of it all.

When I began again, it was in a group led by musician/ blogger/ author/ workshop leader/ close friend Nerissa Nields. She encouraged us to think about the purpose of our blog, and our audience. I decided to focus my writing on things that I really care about: reading, writing, and the writing life. Now, everything I write circles back to that. Who cares if there are five zillion other blogs about the same topic? That just means that people are interested.

These days, when I write a blog entry, I don’t think about “my day” per se. I thik about what is in my mind. I think about what is in my heart. Usually, something has been rattling around, waiting for expression on the page. I keep a running list of thoughts and ideas to explore in the back of my notebook. That way, I never get stuck facing a blank page.

So here are my three tips for keeping a diary or blog:

Write about an idea or thought. The stories to support the idea will come.
Keep a running list of your ideas, so you don’t forget them.
Don’t let people vote on your blog posts. I moderate comments. Rude people and spammers are welcome to go start their own blogs. But rude people don’t seem to be interested in my blog.

For the first time in my life, I now have a “diary”—this blog. And I do think it has been useful to me, mostly because it connects me to people. Which is something that my diary never did.

If you are interested in starting a blog, Copyblogger has many helpful articles.

Also, I just joined the FREE app Lift, which has a blogging challenge, Become a Better Blogger in 30 Days. Join up!