Tuesday 26 July 2016

Holiday Find

It's our first day back from holidays through Alberta and Saskatchewan.  It was so good to see family and friends and to visit the places we used to live, but it's also nice to be back in our own beds.  I took the two weeks off of writing.  I know this is a controversial choice, but I wanted to just experience life for a moment, soak in all that was going on around me and recharge.  I ate, played, visited, read, took  pictures and daydreamed as we drove and drove and drove.  I'm hoping this little rest will revitalize my writing.
Shuswap Lake, BC
A highlight of my trip was finding my grandma's treasure trove of photos and family history.  The book I am currently writing has been inspired by part of her life and I have been asking my Dad for stories and memories about his mom.  He told me he had some pictures I could see when we next visited.  I never imagined it would be such a find!

I'm following the advice of Stephen King, Julia Cameron and C.C. Humphreys to not give away my novel idea during the first draft, but here's a sneak peak at a one of the amazing photos.

My Grandmother is the teacher in this photo.
Do you take a holiday from writing?  Where do you find inspiration?

Friday 15 July 2016

Book Review: On Writing by Stephen King

I recently bought this book because I loved it so much the first time around, I needed to own a copy.

What makes this book so good?  I believe it's the honesty and the writing.  I have never read another Stephen King book; I'm afraid of nightmares, but he writes with a clear, direct yet poetic style.  His years of experience with the craft make it an important read for any writer.  Rather than go on and on about how amazing it is, I thought I'd write some of my favourite lines, currently high-lighted in yellow in my copy.

"Fiction writers, present company included, don't understand very much about what they do -- not why it works when it's good, not why it doesn't when it's bad."  xix, On Writing

"In my character, a kind of wildness and a deep conservatism are wound together like hair in a braid." p. 39

Quoting John Gould "When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story," he said.  "When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story." p. 43

". . . stopping a piece of work just because it's hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea.  Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it . . ." p. 63 - 64

". . . put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn't in the middle of the room.  Life isn't a support system for art.  It's the other way around." p. 87

"Similarly, I don't read fiction to study the art of fiction, but simply because I like stories.  Yet there is a learning process going on.  Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones."  p. 131

"You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you." p. 132

"Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world."  p. 149

Give yourself a treat this summer and buy this book.  Make sure to leave a comment about something you loved or even something you didn't love about this little gem.