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Thursday, February 4, 2010

A Dream Come True part two

Posted by Melanie at 17:29 3 comments

Today I signed a contract with Caitlin Press, to write a book of approximately 65000 words, to be finished and delivered by June of 2011.

I've already written about half of it, the words I wrote were what got me to this point. Caitlin Press sent the original manuscript to an editor, who extracted and distilled my thoughts, giving me a direction and focus, for my book, that I never could have come up with by myself.

The book is about the three gardens and the houses attached to them that I have lived in, designed and built for most of my adult life. It is full of anecdotes and information about life, gardening and what to do with the harvest.

Now I have to finish writing the book.

I’ve got to stop biting my nails and get on with it.

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Monday, December 14, 2009

If George Elliot can do it so can I

Posted by Melanie at 15:55 0 comments

I find this story amazing and disturbing, in fact it makes me angry. Given my own experience as a freelance writer I'm beginning to think I should change my name.

I'm thinking maybe I should adopt the pseudonym, Thomas Hall. That's my Dads name. He died twelve years ago with prostate cancer. I'm sure he would be pleased and proud if signed his name to my writing instead of using my own.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Columbus Burning

Posted by Melanie at 20:11 0 comments

The CBC literary award winners were announced last month. Sarah de Leeuw, from Prince George, BC, won first prize for her creative nonficion story Columbus Burning.

Sparked by the burning of the downtown Columbus Hotel last August. Her writing is a poignant snapshot of Prince George. de Leeuw tells a story of loss and despair suffered daily by the old, the mentally challenged and the natives, all forgotten street people common in any city. Except, de Leeuws street people have faces they make the headlines of our daily news. Prince George may be a city with an excess of 90,000 people but it is still small enough that I know the families of some of the people portrayed in her story.

Despite the writing, which is excellent and the recognizable Prince George landmarks it's the closeness I feel with some of her characters which make this story, for me anyway, unforgettable..

Enroute magazine is publishing a different winning story in each issue. de Leeuw’s story is in the latest issue. You can read it here

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Distraction

Posted by Melanie at 16:13 2 comments

I have lots of time to write but making that time productive sometimes seems like trying to reach the unattainable high score in a game. Since I already have my laptop open on my lap the necessity of research becomes an excuse to spend more time than necessary, checking email, flickr and all the rest.

Cory Doctorow, sci fi writer and BoingBoing blogger says the way to manage the websurfing trap/research guise is to not even go there. He says,
“Instead, do what journalists do: type "TK" where your fact should go, “ .
 Later a quick search through your document for TK will show you what still needs to be done.

Most experts on writing suggest you sit in the same place everyday at the same time and write a certain number of words. A thousand words seems like a good total to aim for. Cory Doctorow writes only a page. They all agree you should stop writing the minute your total is reached, even if you are in the middle of a sentence. Supposedly the unfinished thought gives you something to begin with the next day.

My problem is most of what I write I delete. I write hundreds of words, most of them useless, trying to get to the essence of what I want to say, not every word I write is a gem. Perhaps I'm missing the point. I suppose it all counts in the end result.

Chris Hardwick writes about time management a construct described in several books on which his article, in the current issue of Wired, is based. What’s interesting is the pie chart he drew while writing the article. It shows the amount of time he spent doing other things besides writing, clicking unrelated Wikipedia links, watching Mad Men on TiVo, researching, actual writing and the time spent making the pie chart.

Despite his newly learned time management skills he’s not too worried about the time he wasted, being distracted, from writing his article. Hardwick concludes that the point of being a freelance writer is being free. Subscribing to one of the "time management cults", he says, is too much like getting a real job. "I prefer to swipe the best ideas and ignore the rest."

Maybe, allowing oneself to be distracted is a way for ones brain to organize your thoughts, while you are playing tetris or oggling the latest at apartment therapy, so when you come back to the blank page you have no trouble filing it up with brilliant prose.

That’s my new excuse, err theory anyway to justify the time I spend on websites like flickr, unplggd, Desire To inspire, the kitchn, design* sponge and a million other home design, lifestyle sites in order to avoid writing.

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Friday, August 15, 2008

The Godfather of Canlit

Posted by Melanie at 18:23 0 comments

I had never heard of Robert Weaver until a couple of days ago. I was plugged into my ipod while I did housework, the Ideas podcast came on and I learned Robert Weaver had devoted over fifty years of his life to nurturing the development of Canadian literature. As I listened I realized almost all of Canada’s literary talent had been influenced by this men.

I felt almost jealous as I listened to Alice Munro or Alice Laidlaw as she was known back in 1951, tell her story about her business relationship with Weaver.

Munro had heard Weaver was looking for short stories to read aloud on his CBC radio program, Anthology. She wrote him a letter and included two of her stories. He wrote back suggesting ways she could improve them and subsequently bought them both. Munro says, "That was probably the greatest moment of my life," appearing in print and being paid for the privilege.

From then on Weaver wrote her occasional letters asking what she was working on and telling her to keep writing. He also bought lots of her stories.

Why can’t I have a mentor, someone encouraging me to write, showing me ways I can improve my writing and paying me for the privilege to print it?

I recommend this podcast. Go to the best of ideas podcast page to listen to part one or subscribe in itunes.

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