Creativity and Joy--Why I Write

I've been on a short writing break. Yesterday I started back into the new book on Africa. I'm excited, but scared. This one needs lots of research. It needs deep, genuine emotion. I have a lot of it drafted, but writing it well will require a lot more work.

Having free time lately startled me, honestly. Life could be easier if I didn't claim every available moment as writing time. But here I go again. And here are some thoughts on why:

From the WIFYR blog, a writing tip from Sarah B. Larson:
Never give up. But also to write every day, even if it’s just a page. I took a few months off for the first time in years and years because I was so far ahead and life was so busy, and it’s been so hard to get back in the habit of writing consistently again.

And from Elder Dallin H. Oaks, LDS Apostle and president of BYU: “Where do we find our greatest joy? I suggest that it is in creativity—the process and feeling of creating something.”

I've joked about this, but when I don't write, I usually end up with a closet full of crafts. For a while, I made Santa figurines with hand-sculpted hands and faces. But for me, the making is never enough--I have to share them. The Santas sold well. Until they didn't. Selling crafts isn't worth the effort. I finally solved this problem by donating the results of a craft rampage to the Mothers Without Borders craft bazaar that helps children in Zambia. 

Writing alone isn't quite enough for me, either. I want to share my words. Speaking of which, it's been a while since I wrote any articles about African humanitarian work. A few simple words spurred people to help the children for whom I wrote. That was a great feeling. Back back to the topic. 

The act of creating something new--a bracelet, a photo page, or even better, an entire written world, is rejuvenating. It's why I write. Sharing it with others is still my dream. But perhaps it's time to rememberit's not the only reason.

On Rick Walton, REMAKE, and a Supportive Writing Family

Recently Alison Randall and I had the chance to visit with Rick Walton. I took my favorite of his picture books (PIG, PIGGER, PIGGEST) for him to sign. More important, I wanted Rick to know he’s a major reason I keep writing. At WIFYR a while back, Rick talked about how writers sometimes give up too soon, and said if we’d just keep trying, eventually things would work out.

Rick has also influenced the other reason I keep writing: He and Carol were a major force in making the local writing community what it is: a group of talented writers who encourage and support each other. Alison told Rick that it’s like being part of a big family.

I agree. So when I see my writing “siblings's” success, I feel like cheering. Last month, for example, I took Ilima Todd’s book, REMAKE, on vacation. Sitting on a beach, reading about an ocean, was wonderful. And REMAKE was fabulous. I hated to leave the characters when the book ended, and can’t wait for the sequel. The bonus: I’d read the first fifty pages of Ilima’s earlier draft in Ann Dee Ellis’s WIFYR boot camp. It was excellent then, and I loved seeing the changes that made her final story even better.

I look forward to writing conferences, especially WIFYR, not just to learn, but to see all of you, my writing family. My real family, wonderful as they are, don't always get my writing compulsion, but I know you understand. Your support buoys me as I go back to finish that next edit, write that next book, and continue to hope that someday we’ll all be on the bookstore shelf together. Maybe we’ll even claim our own section!

Pain and Plotting: What Makes Writing Resonate?

I didn't get invited to a neighborhood Halloween Party. By someone I thought was my friend.

So what? My teen years are so far in my rear view mirror I shouldn't even be able to wave at them. I'm a mom, then kind always telling my kids not to assume negative intent in others.

I'm sure she didn't mean to hurt me.

But even at my ripe old parental age, I'm still hurt.

Sorry, I don't want this to be a pit post. (Catchy. I like it.) Instead, I want to explore why we write, and why we read certain books.

Sure, I write kid lit  because I still like cupcakes and ironing fall leaves between wax paper. On a deeper level, it's also a cathartic exercise. My way of still waving back at years that I still remember, and perhaps need to work through. Like sixth grade. That year I purposely got hit in dodge ball to avoid having to play with the mean kids. Someone told my one friend that she could increase her popularity by un-friending me (no, that wasn't a word at the time, and it didn't involve online networking). That year didn't last forever, but in truth good things can come even from being the class pariah.

As we began our WIFYR workshop class last summer, Martine Leavitt quoted Katherine Patterson. "If I had known the debt I would owe to all those mean girls, I would have thanked them then."

How's that?

"Use it all," Martine told us. The pain of not getting invited, the sense of never fitting in, the girl who teased you so much you plotted to put a thumb tack on her chair.

Good writing resonates with these deeper feelings. It's good to create a likeable character. It's better, even essential, to create one who suffers. Not in a whiny, martyr syndrome way, but in a way we care about, one that makes us identify with their pain as well as their determination.

Fiction is valuable because it is truth wrapped up in story. What truth? For one, life isn't always parties and prom queens and getting picked first at kick ball. And when the character throws her own party or ends up as campaign manager for the thumb tack bully, we close the book somehow feel ready to face life again.

And just for fun, here's my Halloween Costume (for Dance Trance, not the party I've been whining about). It's supposed to be Lady Death from the Hispanic Day of the Dead celebration. I'm really into Sugar Skull face painting right now. Still trying to figure out why everything posts sideways!