Category Archives: Writing

Writing Exercise #2: Why Making Caramel and Cookies Helps My Writing

19 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by in Food, Writing

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Besides reading and writing, one of the things I do regularly that I most enjoy is cooking, particularly baking. I started reading Smitten Kitchen way back before it was a cooking blog, got hooked, and for that reason it became the first cooking blog I ever read, and the only one I read on a regular basis (I am, as I’ve said, a sucker for writing style). Once I graduated and found myself with a functioning kitchen and actual grocery budget at my disposal, as opposed to college days when a $10 trip to New York was out of my financial league, I started trying out some of the mouthwatering things I’d been reading about for myself. What I learned was that cooking and baking was a new, rewarding way for me to branch out creatively.

What I like about baking, first, is the physicality of it. I love that it’s often texture and smell that determines how a recipe is going for me, instead of the visual cues I’m used to in the rest of my life. I didn’t have an electric mixer until a few weeks ago, so I’ve gotten used to mixing dough by hand, and prefer it that way. I like having such a close connection and so much tangible control over what I’m making.

The other thing I love about cooking and baking is its predictability. A good recipe is, almost by definition, reliable. You should be able to follow the instructions carefully and end up with cookies that look like the picture (and, presumably, taste as good as well). It’s also predictable in terms of the amount of time it takes to complete. In the ever-shifting world of writing, I’ve done anywhere from 0-5000 words in a day (thanks, NaNoWriMo). A story might take three rewrites or 12, or more, and no matter how closely I study Raymond Chandler or Ray Bradbury or anyone else, chances are I will never write like them. It’s comforting to do something knowing how the results will come out (barring any mistakes, like the time I accidentally doubled the amount of baking soda in a scones recipe–and even then, it’s easy to isolate what went wrong). When I’m frustrated with how the writing’s going, I like to take an evening and bake something, just to have the satisfaction of a completed creative project.

Once I get back to writing, though, there are some definite skills I can bring back with me. The first is a renewed connection to senses I sometimes ignore. Without cooking, I can easily forget how visceral smells are, and working with different foods is a refresher on textures and how to describe them.
Sometimes it’s interesting to me to write about cooking, as well. I did an essay in Experimental Forms on cooking sugar for caramel. The goal of the essay was to make it happen in real time for the reader–that by the time they finished the essay, they would have been reading for as long as it would have taken to actually make the caramel. What that meant was that I had to fill a lot of pages, without letting my description of the process get too far along. It really pushed me to write in the moment, as it were, and take note of every change and every sense that was affected. The result was a writing experience that felt very rich and meditative, and a reading experience that (I’m told) also expresses that sense of wonder in the moment of making something out of raw materials. I’ve posted “Sugar for Caramel” to “Stories & Things,” incidentally, in case you’re curious.

Also, I’m probably not going to make this a habit, as there are a bodzillion food blogs out there (please ignore the fact that there are also a bodzillion writing blogs :-P), but it seems mean to write about cooking and not give you any ideas. Here, then, is the latest thing I made:

Brown Butter Pecan Shortbread Cookies

Makes about 20-24 cookies

3/4 c pecans, chopped
10 tbsp butter
1/2 c powdered sugar (you could also try brown sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 c flour
3 tbs turbinado sugar

Heat butter in a small saucepan on medium-high. Cook it for about 8-10 minutes–it will turn golden, then straw-colored, and finally a rich brown. Make sure to stir it every minute or so to minimize burning; you will probably have some amount of darker brown, burnt solids, but that is okay.

Once butter is browned, let cool in the fridge for 45-60 minutes.

Mix butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt until smooth. Add flour in three additions, mixing it in well before adding more. Stir in pecans.

Spread a sheet of plastic wrap on your work surface. Put the dough on the plastic wrap, cover it with another sheet, and gently squeeze into a log about 1 1/2 inches thick.

Refrigerate log for 45 minutes. (Incidentally, it will keep, wrapped well, for several days in the fridge, and up to a month frozen). Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350.

Roll log in turbinado sugar so that outside is coated. Slice log into 1/4–1/5-inch cookies and bake for 25 minutes.

Writing Exercise #1: What Bothers You?

15 Thursday Sep 2011

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The first thing that comes to mind when I think of writers of substance (read: writers who create the kind of work that can support at least 90 minutes of thoughtful discussion) is that they see problems that really bother them. Social injustice is a big one; race, gender, sexual identity, and other power dynamics crop up a lot in the writing that has that ring of importance. Unfortunately, I am one step away from being politically illiterate. I’m straight, in the racial majority, and while I’m female, I have no dramatic stories of oppression to share. There was one time someone mistakenly called me a secretary because they saw me sitting at the front desk, but that’s about it.

But I still want to write something meaningful, so I took out a sheet of paper, set the clock for five minutes, and started listing things that bother me (no matter what they were). Here’s what I came up with*:

  1. “God” being an embarrassing word to say, never mind entity to believe in. I am religious, and I am rather intelligent. Not that I’d ever have the opportunity to verbally spar with Christopher Hitchens, but if I did, it frustrates me that he’d already think less of me for believing in God. This also goes for some believers who reject clear evidence in favor of literal interpretation–they make science-embracing, faithful people have to justify one or the other aspect of their belief. It’s annoying.
  2. Public schools
  3. Busywork
  4. The fact that I kind of like “Bridezillas.” How tacky 😛
  5. Cooking meat in milk
  6. Thoughtless cruelty
  7. Rape
  8. Rape or sexual abuse victims who go on to abuse others
  9. Narcissism
  10. Empty apologies
  11. Wearing shoes in the house
  12. Trash on a table
  13. People thinking they know a country just because they’ve visited (sadly, I have been guilty of this one)
  14. Patronizing people
  15. Laziness
  16. People who ask you how to do something, especially something simple, and then say something dismissive like, “Oh, I could never do that.” Why did you ask in the first place?
  17. Making inconvenient personality traits into illnesses (apparently being shy or introverted is an illness now)
  18. Wiccans
  19. Not having enough money, even though I work a lot
  20. Serial marriages and divorces.
I feel more strongly about some than others, and some definitely make better writing fuel than others, but I was surprised to see how many things I had a strong opinion about. I’m tinkering around a bit, trying to see which ones appeal to me most to start putting some new thoughts and characters on paper.
Now that I’ve put my list out here, I’d love some company. What bothers you? Make it as trivial or deep as you like–either way, I’d love to hear your perspective.
*A brief disclaimer, of sorts: I am not posting this list with the intention of being incendiary. This list was written as a writing exercise, and is not necessarily meant to condemn any person or group. They are opinions only, and I fully appreciate they may not be shared.

The Search for Substance

13 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Art, Books, Goals, Work, Writing

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The first thing that’s struck me about my literature seminar this fall is how amazingly substantial the books are. That is, they offer something more than an entertaining story, or even a thoughtful one, and instead get at the kind of human truths that transcend their time or place. Oedipus is still current in the way that it raises questions of whether the gods are just, whether and where fairness comes into play regarding crimes and punishment, and how to understand the concept of a good man and a good life.

Disgrace, by J. M. Coetzee, is about men and women and sex, and the uses of sex. It’s about animals and obligation and the problems of how to live a life that has to involve giving and receiving a certain amount of cruelty. We’re going to spend hours tonight talking about meaning, not in a “what is the author trying to say” way, but in the “how does this book change our understanding of how we live our lives” way.

Perhaps (just perhaps) it’s unfair for me to compare myself to a Nobel Prize-winning writer, but I’ve always had a tendency to set my personal bar high.  I started by getting up early to write, took the next jump to sign up for 750words.com and its monthly writing challenge (I’ve only made it to 750 twice, but I’ve written every day this month and am pushing for the full 750), and I’m gearing up for NaNo. With word count building, my next logical step is to reconsider what it is that I’m writing. Again, I am aware Nobel Prize is a smidge high for a yardstick, but on the other hand, if you fail to reach it, you’re still probably going to be turning out something pretty good.

I’ve got some writing exercises I’ll be trying out in the next few days to find a way to add more of that delicious, meaty, philosophical substance to my writing. I’ll post them here. Stay tuned!

Tale of Two Kings

07 Wednesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Books, Writing

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For my first week of class, we read Oedipus the King, by Sophocles. Being a frugal student, I had ordered almost all my books off Amazon, and being a bit of a procrastinator, I had ordered them a little late, and my copy of Oedipus didn’t make it in on time. I wasn’t sure about the translation my professor preferred (I didn’t see the class version at the library or in the Kindle store), so I picked up two versions. It turned out to be a great choice–I happened to find two radically different versions of the story, which made for a great side-by-side reading experience.

The first place I turned to was my trusty Kindle, where I picked up a copy for $0.99. Despite its modern format, the text was proudly old-school, with near-Shakespearean language and perfectly metered lines. It was a slightly less accessible read than the library version I found, but it read like poetry. Many of the lines actually held more power for me due to their formal language–sometimes I feel the old stories get a little watered down when they’re brought into present day vernacular. This one was glorious:

(Kindle version)
Creon (reacting to Oedipus’s accusation that he is a traitor): …the calumny/ Hits not a single blot/ But blasts my name

Library version: This is no minor charge.

The library had an anthology of Sophocles’s plays, Oedipus included, and the version came complete with blocking directions and some costuming notes. The text, though, didn’t come off particularly theatrical at all. It felt, surprisingly, almost Biblical in places–something a Psalmist might say, or one of the gloomier prophets. When it moved away from the prophetic, though, the modern language felt a little flat. On the other hand, one of my favorite lines was a moment of “wait for it…” irony that feels most natural when you read it in everyday language:

(Library version)
Chorus (introducing Jocasta to the messenger): This is his wife and mother…of his children.

Kindle version: This is his wife the mother of his children. (That one word and a well-placed ellipsis makes all the difference.)

What I like about translations of works is the way they illustrate the flexibility of language. Both versions of Oedipus I read (Oedipi?) tell the same story, the same way. There’s no radical experimentation in tone or format. The word choice is the only thing that changes how each version feels, and what a difference it makes! Reading a translated work lets you know what matters to the translator in a story: accessibility, beauty, maintaining purity of rhyme or of word meaning, and many other elements start to show in the move between languages.

The final project for this class will have to do with translation. We’ll be working with Madame Bovary (supposedly the “perfect novel,” so expect more on that in November), either from the original French for those who speak it (alas, my French only extends as far as “pomme de terre” and “la bebe es sur la table”), or from the two different English versions we’ll read in class. It’s going to be interesting to create my “ideal” version by borrowing someone else’s words.

Do you think about the translation when you read something originally written in another language? What are your experiences reading multiple versions of a work, or reading an original and translated version?

Published!

31 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by in Books, Goals, Poetry, Publishing, Reading, Writing

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I did it! Check out my article, “7 Simple Steps to Becoming Well-Read,” on Dumb Little Man (one of my favorite sites for quick, fun personal development articles).

Speaking of being well-read, this is going to be a great semester. I’m taking a Seminar on Literature and Writing with the scary Russian professor at my school (most of the time she’s really nice, but she does have a reputation for bringing a student to tears in class at least once a semester), and we are reading 11 books in 15 weeks. Expect my What I’m Reading section to get real highbrow, real fast, people. This week? Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, and a book of poetry called Supernatural Love. Stay tuned…

Short One, Cause I’m Writing Words

23 Tuesday Aug 2011

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The writing’s going better. I woke up this morning, sat down to spend my 15 minutes editing a story I’ve been meaning to revise for ages, and realized I only had two pages left to go. When my buzzer went off, I only had two paragraphs. I don’t know whether it’s the daily writing that is making the difference, or if 7:35 is too early for the internal editor to be in full gear, or if 15 minutes is just too short to be scary, but I’m starting to regain the feeling that things are happening.

My awesomely ridiculous best friend mentioned yesterday that it’s possible I may always have to be changing my routine. I think she’s right. It worked for a long time to insist on a word count, regardless of the time, and then it didn’t. Now it makes more sense to insist on a time, and aim for the word goal, and that may change, too. It’s a little annoying. I wish I could find the perfect routine and just let that be the habit forever, but I guess I can see why that wouldn’t work for me. I’d get complacent, and writing is too hard and too emotionally demanding for that to work. Fortunately, 15 minutes in the morning is working, and is occasionally leading to an additional 15-30 minutes in the evening. It’s not much–15 minutes is what, 1% of my day?–but so far I’ve made almost a full revision pass on one story, drafted a second (it’s nonfiction now, so needs some heavy work before it can count as a proper story, but still), and written an article that is just about ready to be pitched. The plan is to give it a quick edit tonight or tomorrow, write an author bio, and send it before the end of the week. I’ve even, tentatively, started an actual fiction story. I’m hoping this new writing pattern lasts (the last good routine I found lasted something like 8 months, without missing a day), but if it doesn’t, I’m not too worried either. One way or another, this is working.

6 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block

17 Wednesday Aug 2011

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It’s happened, people. I’ve hit a wall. The weird thing is that over the last few weeks, I’ve actually had a spike in writing productivity. I’ve started getting up 15 minutes early to write, and have been churning out as much as 350 words even in that quick little sitting. Combined with some evening writing, I did almost 2000 words last week, not counting blogging. That sounds like the opposite of writer’s block, doesn’t it?

Maybe it’s not so much a block on writing as it is on writing fiction. Every day gets me 24 hours closer to the end of my MFA program, and makes me that much more aware that I need to have a book written in order to graduate (yeah, it’s still a year and a half away. So what?). A book of short stories, polished and thoughtful and linked enough in theme or tone or whatever to nestle harmoniously with each other. It freaks me the heck out. And being freaked out is not conducive to creativity.

The words need to come regardless, though, so here are my top tips for when I’m in a funk. Maybe they will work for you as well!

1. Write something else. Nonfiction works best for me–retelling a story from my life in as engaging a way as I can. I can always change characters or details later to fictionalize it and give it better narrative flow.

2. Read the headlines. News is cool because journalists and editors have already cherry-picked the wildest characters and most intense stories. One way to get a different angle (so you’re not just writing a fictional version of the news article) is to imagine how the story affects a family member, friend, or ex-lover of whoever is in the news.

3. Do something radically different for a day: refuse to drive, paint yourself all over with henna, cross-dress, eat backward (dinner for breakfast, dessert for lunch, breakfast for dinner and lunch for dessert), and so on. Write a story about someone who does that every day. Why do they do it? What problems do they run into?

4. Start a story-writing group with your friends. Assign a genre, a key word that needs to appear in the story (the more incongruous the better), and a deadline. Now all your friends are going to have stories written! Sometimes writer’s block is a matter of getting a solid kick in the pants.

5. Go to asofterworld.com. Click the “fnord” button to go to a random strip. Write the expanded, story version of what the strip says.

6. Write a story using only one vowel. It is possible, and it’s like drinking water upside down to cure hiccups–weird, but effective.

Disclaimer: I have not actually tried #3 myself, but it seems like it would work. If you try it, let me know how it goes!

That’s what I have to offer. How do you beat writer’s block?

The Art of the Pen (and Pen Case, and Writing Box…)

15 Monday Aug 2011

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Making the call of whether painting is an art or a craft/trade is fairly easy. Someone painting portraits or landscapes or modern, abstract creations is making art. Someone painting walls or toys is practicing a trade. If they’re really skilled, you might call it a craft.

Making the same call for writing can be tricky. Are all books art? Is art a fiction/poetry/plays/memoir thing, or can other non-fiction books qualify? Is a beautiful cookbook art? What about pieces of writing that aren’t books at all, like handwritten letters?

The Walters Art Museum looks at these questions, makes a thoughtful face, and decides to do something completely different when it comes to the intersection of writing and art. I spent a Saturday afternoon with Andrew, checking out “The Art of the Writing Instrument.” Turns out, there have been artists for centuries, around the world, creating jeweled boxes for writing instruments, or writing tablets with paintings and poems meant to inspire, or exquisitely carved and jeweled quills and pens and ink bottles. Whether the user of these items wrote poetry, letters, or just doodles, someone believed enough in the power of words to make the tools beautiful.

Imagine keeping your ballpoint in this.

I found it at once inspiring and a little disconcerting to see all these rare, hyperexpensive versions of the tools I would use. Part of me wanted to go home and stick rhinestones all over an old necklace box and have my own beautified inkholder (later I remembered that I don’t use ink and am not particularly crafty, so don’t hold your breath for that project). Another part of me balked at the thought of writing with something that’s probably worth well in excess of a year’s rent. I grew up with the romanticized Starving Writer idea, the “room with a view” and cheap paper and pencils being all you needed to create something special.

What I think it comes down to, though, is the idea of consecrating writing. The artists behind the Walters exhibit work in a physical medium, so they consecrate the physical paraphernalia of writing. Many blog posts and books I’ve read talk about reserving a time to write that no one can touch–that’s consecration, too. It’s nice to think that whether or not I end up with something artistic on the page, there are people who find that simple act of creation beautiful, in and of itself.

Climbing Wagons

11 Thursday Aug 2011

Posted by in Goals, Writing

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A quick note, because I’ve been guilty about the somewhat disappointing mid-year report and don’t want you to think that I just sit around and whine (I know no one who knows me thinks that, but I get paranoid). Since writing that post, I have:

  1. Submitted 3 stories to 13 places (hooray for simultaneous submissions!)
  2. Written a first draft of a story
  3. Resumed editing a story I’ve been sitting on, meaning to rewrite
  4. Published the guest post at the Canary Review

This week, I started getting up at 7:10 instead of 7:25, and am using the extra 15 minutes to write a little before I go to work. It’s helping! I can get about 300-350 words out in my bleary state, which means I only need 150-200 or so when I get home to meet my 500/day goal. Admittedly, I’ve only been getting up early for four days as I write this, but I plan to make it a new habit.

While seeing how far I’d fallen short of my goals was disheartening, writing it out and holding myself accountable does seem to give me a kick toward better progress. I told Andrew that sometimes it’s not even as much a matter of getting back on the wagon as it is finding out where the damn thing went. I feel good about this last month, though. Wagons ho!

What Do Project Managers Do?

05 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by in Publishing, Uncategorized, Work, Writing

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One of the things I love about WordPress is that I can see what searches led people to my site. Mostly it’s my name, or Nick and Sheila Pye (not totally sure why–maybe they don’t get written about often enough? Anyway.). Today, though, there was a whole question:

“I am a new Project Manager. What will I receive on my first day of work?”

And I thought, “Huh. I have been a Project Manager for all of five weeks and I already take it for granted that I know what it is that I do.” And then I realized that probably most of my friends don’t know what I do. So, in case you wondered:

Being a Project Manager is primarily a scheduling job. When I get assigned a book, the first thing I have to do is review the schedule I get from the publisher. They’ll tell me when they need to see design samples (pages with sidebars, figures, illustrations, etc. set in with the text) and copyediting samples, when the author needs to get a copy of the book to make final comments and changes (and answer copyeditors’ questions), and when the book needs to be ready to go to the printer. From that assignment schedule, my job is to know what the Art Department and copyeditors are doing so I can make sure the book gets done on time.

Being a Project Manager may also mean doing a lot of copyediting yourself, and a heck of a lot of proofreading. I’m in a small company, so if we can avoid outsourcing copyediting too much, we do.

Note: For those who are unsure of the difference, copyediting means checking a manuscript not only for basic grammar and spelling errors, but also making sure the work fits the publisher’s style (do you say email, e-mail, or E-mail? Is Internet capitalized? Is “timeframe” one or two words?). Proofreading is comparing versions of a manuscript to make sure all the edits from the previous draft made it into the next version, and are both consistent and correct. When you might have half a dozen people editing one chapter, it’s important to look over and make sure one person isn’t adding commas while another is taking them out.

Finally, since this is a small office and we don’t have a receptionist or secretary, my day also involves some administrative work: answering phones, scanning files to colleagues overseas, etc. My boss also sometimes asks for additional projects, such as learning how to use Sharepoint and give short presentations on it.

Overall, I’d estimate I spend about 15%-25% of my time managing schedules and communicating between departments, about 70%-80% of my time copyediting and proofreading, and 5%-10% of my time on administrative tasks.