joanneeddy's blog

“Writing is Thinking…That’s Why It’s so Hard.”

Posted on August 11, 2011 by joanneeddy

English: David McCullough speaking at Emory University. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

David McCullough is a favorite writer/historian of mine. I just real several articles by him so stay tuned…there are more quotes to come. But my very favorite is, “You can’t learn to play the piano without playing the piano, you can’t learn to write without writing, and, in many ways, you can’t learn to think without thinking. Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.”

So succinct and well put. Truisms. People often talk about the writing process as one of research, then writing, then editing or rewriting. I think that is to omit a step on the journey. At least for me, and apparently David McCullough, thinking is as much a part of the process as writing itself. Thinking and rethinking. Would the character say it just that way? Given the nature of their relationship what should one expect to happen? What’s the next step I should take in the plot? Can the reader follow the action easily? and for editing: Would the sentences flow better in a different order? Are all of them necessary? Do any say the same thing just in different words?

The Thinking Man sculpture at Musée Rodin in Paris (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I think in the shower and on long car rides. Especially when I was originally writing and stuck on what should come next or how to resolve something I couldn’t turn my mind off. In bed, cooking dinner, at the store, the characters and plot turned and turned in my head as I tried to think my way through. Of course I wonder if McCullough would also agree that the reverse is true? If you think clearly do you automatically write clearly? l am inclined to think it is not that easy.

At the moment I am still editing my hard copy, and still incredulous at how different editing a paper copy is from all my previous editing on computer. I am also reading the book aloud as I edit. McCullough has a quote for that as well: “Writing should be done for the ear. Rosalee [McCullough’s wife] reads aloud wonderfully and it’s a tremendous help to me to hear her speak what I’ve written. Or sometimes I read it to her. It’s so important. You hear things that are wrong, that call for editing.” That is a statement I endorse 100%. While I am more of a visual than auditory learner, I have learned so much from reading “The Call” aloud. I believe it is immeasurably better for this process.

One of the things I learned from this auditory review was there are patterns in my writing. While not redundant, nor certainly on every page, I have a tendency to hedge: “It was almost like…” “It seemed” and another pattern is that I love the word ‘clear,’ and use it way too often, especially when I don’t want to hedge or pull my punches: “It was very clear…” “yet it was clear to everyone…” “he was clearly known by her father.” I doubt without reading the book aloud to myself I would have discovered either of these things. Have I changed them all…no. But I have eliminated the bulk of the hedging statements and replaced most of the “clears” …saving that word for where I want it most.

“Writing is thinking. That’s why it’s so hard.” I agree. Particularly if you want the writing to be good, to be accessible to your reader, for them to be able to feel a part of it. But I am reminded of another quote, “Cognito ergo sum.” Descartes put it equally succinctly and well: “I think, therefore I am.” To which I will amend an edit, “I think therefore I write.”

Posted in Writings by Wordsmiths and Others | Tagged Cogito ergo sum, editing, Hearing your words, I think therefore I write, Reading aloud what you write, To write well is to think clearly., Writing is thinking. | 11 Comments

A Diamond in the Rough

Posted on July 19, 2011 by joanneeddy

I remember times in my childhood when my mother would describe someone, often one of the airmen she supervised, as a “diamond in the rough.” By this she usually meant that the person she was referring to, while lacking in education or polished social skills, had great potential for learning and success. She had great admiration for these people, perhaps because she saw herself as one of them. With only two years of college, which she had struggled to earn the money for herself, she rose to a management position in the fifties and sixties in the male dominated world of the Air Force civil service.

I also remember pictures of her from management trainings she attended, a lone 5′ 3″ blond women amidst the men in suits and and the officers in uniforms. How did she succeed when so few women did at the time? This daughter of immigrants, who spoke no English when she entered school but who earned medals for school achievement in high school, had many gifts: a phenomenally strong work ethic and drive to succeed, an interest in bettering herself, a passion for reading and learning, and a real ability to make friends because she so genuinely cared about others. She didn’t have an easy life and she wasn’t always sweetness and light, a lot like Baba Zosia in my book. And she herself often questioned why these were her gifts instead of a happy marriage and a stay at home existence. But then she was a “rough diamond,” multi-faceted in odd, interesting, quirky, off-beat ways.

So what has this to do with writing? As I finish the penultimate revision of my book with all the feedback I have gotten from my critic readers, I now realize that despite the accomplishment of writing and editing to a review draft version, that draft was also a “rough cut.” Despite all the feedback from my writing partner, or the polishing and rewrites I did, or how bright and shiny I thought it was, there were many rough edges that my readers have pointed out. So one more time I am chipping out a word, dropping a line, revising another, moving a paragraph, realigning the facets, polishing, polishing and polishing. Hopefully I am creating out of my ‘rough diamond’ a sparkling brilliant cut work that will make readers fall in love with the characters, pull them into the plot, make them hold their breath through the climax, stay up late to finish and eagerly await Book Two. Like my mom I am working hard and caring deeply about my book achieving its potential. Stay tuned to see how well The Call succeeds.

Posted in Writings by Wordsmiths and Others | Tagged A diamond in the rough, editing, polishing your work, rough edges in writing | Leave a comment

On Deadlines…and The Kiss of Death

Posted on July 3, 2011 by joanneeddy

In January, when I sent out review drafts to friends for comments, I had set the end of June as a deadline for myself. I really wanted to be done by then with a final draft. My plan was to complete the final draft by that date so I could move on to my query letter to be done by July 30th. In January that seemed easily do-able. What did I learn? Easy to set, harder to do.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in deadlines. And I can push myself, work into the wee hours, get up mega-early (4 am) and pound it out. And some of those I sent drafts to were on top of it and in some cases got back to me early on, some with hugely helpful initial comments. Most notable of my readers is my sister-in-law who is a professional copywriter and editor. She did a phenomenal job that I found profoundly insightful, incredibly precise, and wonderfully challenging. She honed the book and made me think. Others let me down, and it became obvious that they would never finish…or perhaps never or only barely even start.

But remember my earlier posts: Life is Like That and Carpe Diem? Life seems to happen and people happen and death happens. William, my friend and writing partner, was caught by a different, more real, truly painful ‘deadline’ in the battle between his dear Sharon and cancer, which she lost this month. I am just back from Texas and the aftermath of that loss.

We were there from the day of her funeral the 22nd until the 29th. And throughout it all I pressed on with Linda’s edits. I was within pages of being done when my computer gave me what my husband called a “Kiss of Death” failure message. Luckily in the world of computers I have a brilliant and able husband. First of all he had previously helped me create an internet “Dropbox” account and he created a shared Dropbox with him where I saved my work….so none of my book was even at risk of being lost. No matter what, because it was on the internet, it was accessible and because I shared it with Doug, he also could access it. I certainly periodically saved to a thumbdrive stick, but without Dropbox I would have had a true panic attack, and much hard work might have been lost. Secondly, computer savvy man that he is, he fixed my computer and what could have been a ‘fatal’ error was recovered.

So what have I learned I can share? Deadlines face us all, but some don’t attend to them, and my deadline is not yours, even when yours affects mine. And: You can’t save anything unless you are thinking about saving and protecting it. We need to be prepared for unexpected events. Maybe that is as true in life as it is in writing. Everything important takes time and commitment, caring and attention. People as well as computers can face death’s kiss. There are no guarantees, and those dear to us are the priority. We need to remember every day, savor and save every day. We need special places in our lives of safety and security – Dropboxes – that we remember to share with those we love, where we both or all mutually contribute. That may not stop the kiss of death which will ultimately touch us all, but it will create safe places, places of the heart, interconnected, where we will always live on.

Posted in Writings by Wordsmiths and Others | Tagged Deadlines, Kiss of Death, Life learning, writing a book, Writing deadlines | Leave a comment

Carpe Diem Just Do it!

Posted on June 20, 2011 by joanneeddy

It is so rare, but nice, to be able to update history. I wrote this five years ago and much has happened since. I was spurred to write this and to act on it because of the death of my writing partners wife, and years have passed, and a year and a half ago we lost Linda, my husband sister. After this post, I did finish my book, and Linda who worked as a technical editor, edited it for me…but please read the history of this entry first and I will add-on to it at the end.

Remember the movie Dead Poet’s Society, all the students quoting Thoreau about living deliberately and sucking the marrow out of life, standing on their desks in support of Robin Williams/John Keating and his effort to get them to “seize the day,” to write, to live. That is what is on my mind tonight.

Two nights ago my writing partner, William, lost his wife to cancer, and right now I resonate to his loss. Sharon was his love, his life partner, the core of joy for him and she is gone too young, too soon.

Her loss reminds me there are no guarantees for any of us. But so often I have watched friends and family defer their dreams, their ‘bucket list.’ They are ‘too busy’ in the everyday, lost in the weeds, moving forward, but not toward their dreams. I’ve watched them put things off until too late.

That is part of what drives me about my writing. I want this book done, not that being finished trumps being well done, but I don’t want life’s demands to get in my way. It took me years to see that the dream of ‘someday’ writing a book wasn’t going to happen unless I sat down at the computer and wrote a sentence, a paragraph, a page.

If writing is a dream for you, but one that you never quite seem to get to, Carpe Diem. I did. I am not done, but I am close. Ten chapters re-edited. Four more to go. And the secret I learned as I wrote this book was it’s not as grandiose as making a big production or standing on your desk. It’s not the times you pronounce you are ‘writing a book.’ That’s exciting, a real high. But what writing a book is really about is the quiet day-to-day discipline of sitting down and just doing it, a page at a time. The only thing that keeps a dream from becoming a regret, is making yourself live it.

And if your dream is something different, no matter! Carpe Diem, everyone, just do it! That’s write, (or do, or live), right!

…and now, as they say, for the rest of the story. The book is done and has been for a couple of years. But getting bogged down isn’t. Well, some of that has been significant, time spent improving the book. As a new writer, even if I had pretty decent writing skills, there has been a lot to learn.

But this year I told myself I was submitting it to agents. I started out doing that, and of course got a number of rejections…which led to second thoughts…and re-editing.

But time, once again, to climb back into the saddle of the horse that keeps throwing me! How about you? Dreams started but sputtering? They never will happen if we don’t try…let’s do it together.

Posted in Writings by Wordsmiths and Others | Tagged carpe diem, don't just dream your life live your dream, how to turn dreams into reality, Just Do It, live your dream, living your dream as a writer, write | 18 Comments

Ferber, Showboat, and the Great Reporting Adventure

Posted on June 1, 2011 by joanneeddy

Today my first news story is appearing in the Bertie Ledger! No, I haven’t gotten the job yet….and I wrote the story for free. The previous holder of the full time reporting job is still working in the half-time position until the end of the month. But I was planning on attending a talk on Edna Ferber and Showboat’s connection to North Carolina anyway…so I volunteered to cover the event for the paper. Remember my “do what it takes” philosophy? This was it in living color!

I figured that having another story I had written, this time from a live event instead of a news release, would “show my stuff.” I guess that will remain to be seen, since I am feeling a growing concern that the job itself may never materialize. But in the meantime, I can say that I have been published in the paper as a freelance writer. One more little item for my writing vita if nothing else.

The Associate Editor of the Ledger is the head of my writers’ group. He has been encouraging all of us to get experience by submitting freelance. I had been kind of hesitant. News writing felt like an unknown to me, and the style (largely a lead then one sentence paragraphs for a set number of words) felt strange. Also interviewing anyone as a ‘reporter’ seemed awkward, though I love to talk and ask people questions. If I got the job, I thought, then it would be worth it. But I rethought, and decided this might be the way to get the job. So tiny tape recorder in my purse, pad and pen in hand, I determined to morph into Joanne Eddy, intrepid reporter.

I remembered reading Ferber’s So Big in high school. She was a reporter, playwright, and novelist in an era when women did not generally stray far from marriage and motherhood. Of course I had seen Showboat both as a play and as a movie. But I certainly never knew that Ferber’s ‘live’ experience of showboats came not on the ‘ole man river,’ the Mississippi, but here in Northeastern North Carolina. She spent four days on the James Allen Floating Theater, boarding in Bath, NC. This is what I knew from the announcement on the talk by Bea Latham, a local historian. Me, being me, I spent 3 hours researching the James Allen, Ferber and Showboat, and Ms. Latham before I set off on my reporting adventure.

Ms. Latham’s talk and her Powerpoint presentation were engaging, rich with Ferber quotes on romance of the theater in general and showboats in particular. But what really captured me was a member of the audience who stood up and asked a question about the orchestra aboard the James Allen. Her uncle played the horn on it she said, and then went on to run a gas station in a nearby town. Something about this intrigued me. Why would a musician leave the quixotic and exciting life of the showboat for a more prosaic existence running a Texaco Station? So I asked her why he left and found out about a real love story from the ‘romantic’ theater life. Her uncle met her father’s sister while he was touring, quit the James Allen Showboat, married and settled down in Collerain, NC. Real romance indeed. That made the story real and local for me. The writing was still work, but I actually enjoyed it!

So what was my learning about writing to pass on to any of you following this blog because you want to write? I found that a story can be found in unexpected ways. I thought I would only be writing history, but I discovered so much more. In the process my interest was piqued and the story took on ‘life’ to me, and hopefully to the people who will read it. To sum it up: Do you really want to write? Why not be willing to go beyond what you thought possible and explore writing in any form? To see something you have written in print with your name on it is a thrill, no matter what the format. So it may not be my novel, but it was an exciting writing adventure!

Posted in Writings by Wordsmiths and Others | Tagged newspaper, reporting, Writing | Leave a comment

Writing is Like That!

Posted on May 16, 2011 by joanneeddy

Thomas Edison said “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” The same could be said for writing I think. I am slogging through what I hope will be my last edit. I have the wonderful editing my sister-in-law, who is a copywriter in real life, did for me. It is amazing to me how many corrections she found when others missed them. I am also working on the book from the perspective of my writing partner, rethinking every concept for validity. And on my own, I am trying to look at what can be cut, or smoothed or re-paragraphed to increase the ease of the reader and their ability to interact with my writing. So to paraphrase Edison, I have come to believe, “A Book is 10% creativity and 90% grammar checking and hard work!”

Posted in Writings by Wordsmiths and Others | Tagged editing, the work of writing | Leave a comment

The Meyers Briggs of Writing!

Posted on May 13, 2011 by joanneeddy

Have you ever wondered how your personality might impact on your writing style? One place I think about the impact is in the use of an outline. I have read a number of sites on writing, and many insist that a chapter by chapter outline is one of their first steps. If you have seen that and think you cannot finish a book without an outline, I am living proof that you can.

I knew my beginning point and my end point when I started. I had a logical sequence to my storyline and actually each chapter represents a day in the lives of my characters. I knew which day several significant events would occur, and I knew the major twists that would be revealed throughout the book and at the climax. But I definitely did not have anything approaching an outline written down. It was all in my head and it was certainly not detailed.

Actually when I was an English student in high school I had one creative writing teacher who insisted on outlines. I couldn’t do it. So I would write my short story as soon as she assigned it, and then create an outline from the story I had completed. Then I’d turn in my outline first, and later the story. Talk about backward. Or polar opposites. Her way of writing and mine were not a match!

I can remember planning for joint workshops with other presenters who wanted detailed outlines completed, step by excruciating step. I needed to see the big picture, then fill in the details, get out the major thoughts and then elaborate. They couldn’t comfortably move on until the finite pieces of every section of the presentation were resolved. I found that this restrained and limited my thought and was totally frustrating. I ‘lost’ creative ideas waiting for their details of the last major thought. They felt my process incomplete, too rapid for them. They felt frustrated when I wanted to move forward without completing the whole section in detail. In one memorable instance, I remember having to work separately with someone and come up with documents on our own to later merge, because our styles were so distinct. Ironically we pretty much reached the same places – but we got there differently and while I had ideas about examples and details in mind, many of them were still ‘floating in my head’ and not written down but they matched my partner’s. Once we did this we worked things out well because it was not an idea difference, it was a process difference.

This is all to say I am not sure how the creative process works for you, but I am sure my style requires a kind of interaction with my characters during the process. As I wrote, things changed. Characters I did not expect showed up, fitting the logic of the story but unseen by me in my planning stages, and some of the twists I envisioned turned out slightly differently as they were finally written.

I am an inductive thinker who has learned to think deductively. The whole for me is bigger than the parts not just the sum total of them, though the parts must logically add up to the whole. I am intuitive, and like a bit of open-endedness to give room for the story to grow organically. So if you are more like me, embrace it. You don’t have to use an outline. If you love them and they work for you that is great. If they won’t, just be you. You need some plan but you don’t have to have it in finite detail to be a ‘writer.’ You just have to do what works for you. Write On!

Posted in Writings by Wordsmiths and Others | Tagged chapter development, creative development, logical sequences, outlines, personal styles of writing, storyline organization, writing outlines | 1 Comment

All I’ll need are a cape and a phone booth

Posted on April 18, 2011 by joanneeddy

They say it is mostly who you know that helps you get a job. That is how I got some of the best ones I have ever had. Certainly these are tough times and there actually has to be a job available for someone to help you get one. Right now it is especially hard to find higher level positions or jobs with higher salaries. And it seems as well that it is made even more difficult if you have lots of experience. Since the funding for my program was eliminated in state funding cuts last year I have learned this all the hard way. For years I was thrilled when I had new things to add to my resume. Now I have had to ‘dumb it down’ and still haven’t found anything.

The good news has been that while looking for work I finished my book. One of the better parts of doing that was joining a Writer’s Group, the Wordsmiths. I recommend a group to all of you who aspire to write and to improve your writing. Not every group may be the right fit for you but then try another. Mine challenged me to try out various voices and genres that I otherwise wouldn’t have. The group’s critiques have sharpened my skills and my writing has improved through holding myself accountable to the suggestions I made in the critiques I have given.

Now my group has had an unintended and unexpected additional benefit. Tomorrow I am going to have an interview for a staff writer’s position with the Associate Editor of a local county paper, who is also the leader of The Wordsmiths. He has shared with the group that jobs with newspapers are getting increasingly scarce. They just cut a full-time position when its occupant left. So he will have to sell his Publisher on re-creating this into a part-time job and giving it to me. But what a wonderful possibility!

Actually getting this job as a news writer is a little like writing my book….a dream I had so long ago, then abandoned for new directions. And here I am circling back again to a call I thought I had left behind. Best of all, this position would be a chance to help me hone my writing skills further and it might open other possibilities by giving me additional credibility with agents and publishers. Win, win!

So here’s hoping it happens! I believe I can write. I own a pair of glasses….perhaps all I’ll need are a cape and a handy phone booth.

Posted in Writings by Wordsmiths and Others | Tagged new jobs, newspaper, staff writer, wordsmith, Writing, writing skills | Leave a comment

Here a little nip, Change it there a touch, Editing is so much ‘fun’, It won’t hurt much!

Posted on April 6, 2011 by joanneeddy

Commas, and quotations, and syntax, oh my! I went into writing my book thinking I had a leg up since I was an English major undergrad, taught high school English, and wrote tightly worded grants that actually were funded. But today I am counting my blessings that my husband’s sister by birth and mine by choice and ‘adoption’ actually edits and writes for a living!

Last night I got back the first two parts of The Call from her. (For the sake of Spell Check on my computer I had to break it into three parts.) Talk about precision and missing nothing, from the smallest grammar issue to calling me on modern language to requiring better descriptive adjectives! And lucky for me, she is nice and loves me, so she also told me about the parts she liked and where I captured her interest!

Publishing these days, as I have said previously, requires a finely honed product. Linda has helped me immeasurably. Of course even for those not similarly blessed, this editing is probably not a step that can be missed, since even the best writer misses things within their own work…and I missed a lot! From my research I would say, while it may be possible to win over an agent or publisher who likes your storyline or premise, many will not be willing to do the scrutiny if any significant editing is needed so finding a way, or a person, or several people to pick at the text for the sake of improving it maximizes your hope of winning your way to a publication.

Of course editing is not for the timid or the defensive. Be prepared to second guess yourself and question if you even should write, but then get to work looking at the suggested changes. Some will startle you by how obvious they are and make you wonder how you missed them. Other suggested corrections may not fit for you, for your ‘voice’ or style, but try them on for size. A little ‘facelift’ can’t hurt, as long as you make it cosmetic. At the same time, stay true to your own intent. A good editor is not trying to make you into ‘Michael Jackson!’

Posted in Writings by Wordsmiths and Others | Tagged editing, grammar, publication, spotting grammar mistakes, using reviewers to edit, written facelifts | Leave a comment

Embracing the Future

Posted on March 24, 2011 by joanneeddy

When I was in college I loved Thoreau and Emerson’s ideas about always seeking to find new adventures, to really live to the fullest. Emerson said, “Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.”

I think that is part of why I wrote The Call. Writing is the quintessential embrace of the future. You start with an interest. You explore, savoring tidbits of information until a tiny kernel of an idea springs into existence. Then you play with it, twist it about, looking at it through the prism of your life. With a burst of sheer joy you begin. It is a journey and an adventure. When I started I knew the beginning and the key element of the end. But the experience I had ‘discovering’ the book while I wrote it was suddenly finding new characters who wanted to be in on the action, new ideas springing into the middle of the work that made me go back and rethink the beginning, and many, many new learnings that changed everything from beginning to climax to end. As I befriended my characters it was comparable to making new friends with real people. I learned about their personalities and interests and the complexities within that I hadn’t anticipated. This happened somewhat naturally for most of them, but for others, notably Radek and Straci, the ‘villains’ of the piece, it was my writing partner, William Walton, who pushed me to know them deeper. His questioning of actions and motivations, his affection for them made me care more deeply for what made them who they were, and that made them ultimately so much more real.

My book was a very deep dive into unknown waters that somehow were linked to the vast sea of my life experience, the murky recesses beckoning, the pristine unknown ocean tides of writing pulling me to places I barely knew existed. Come On. Dive in. The waters sometimes are as warm as a lovely bath. The chilling depths bracing, strengthening, a baptism of new life. See what you can discover, what will surprise you and leave you refreshed, panting for the air of your old life, but with new energy for the future that lies waiting for your embrace.

Posted in Writings by Wordsmiths and Others | Leave a comment