Thanks, Penguin!

Few things make me happier than coming home to new books. I'm even happier when those books are free.

I entered a drawing last week for #InternationalWomensDay where Penguin Paperback offered to give away six titles about women or by women for free. I joined in the fun, knowing I rarely win these sorts of things. Lo and behold, I now have six new books, which is six more than what my bedroom shelves can currently hold, and I couldn't be happier.

Really, I am so thrilled. As an English major, I spent a good deal of my time reading, studying the language, studying every detail, both significant and irrelevant. After three and half years of reading like that--reading to prove I read, reading to cram as many of someone else's words into my head and churn them over enough to wring from them thoughts of my own--I don't really know what I actually enjoy reading anymore.

And look at this diverse stack! Two Asian writers (so long, white-washed canon!), two influential women (Ida B. Wells and Mrs. Churchill), and two works of fiction I can't wait to lose myself in. As crazy as my life is right now (between my employer's anniversary to help plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Gilder to blame for it--I'm swamped), this stack of titles has me really excited to read again, and to share some of my thoughts here. Thanks, Penguin!

Waiting for Inspiration

Well, it's been a while, huh. I'm trying not to feel too bad about neglecting my blog--after all, I've kept busy.

Since my last post, I've finished my last semester of college and graduated with a BA in English, secured a job in the real world, and my boyfriend of eight years proposed. So while I couldn't be happier, there's still no guarantee I'll be consistently writing yet.

But! Amidst the initial gush of newly-engaged emotions, snagging a venue, finding a dress, finishing five classes, and juggling three jobs, my writing didn't come to a complete standstill. True, other than term papers and creative writing assignments, my thoughts rarely made it to print. But I am a firm believer that a writer is always writing--always gathering ideas, remembering phrases, thinking of the exact right words to describe the events of life as they unfold. Part of me has been waiting for a strong wind of inspiration to send me careening back to my desk and hammer out an idea for a novel that's been brewing for the past two years. The rest of me remembers that I don't have to be churning out pages every day in order to be working on that story.

It sure would help, though.

Still, I've come to notice that if I always have a story on the backburner, inspiration will slowly bring the idea to a boil.

That happened toward the end of the semester--sitting in one of my religion classes, of all places. I was listening to a classmate's presentation when something he said sparked an idea. My notes shifted from copying his PowerPoint bullets to jotting down the skeleton of a scene, one of those in-between-big-plot-points scenes that always elude me. The scene was interesting, and implied there was more to the story than I'd realized.

After class, I thanked my classmate for his presentation. He seemed a little confused as to why--after all, it wasn't the most interesting one in the class and had clearly been slapped together last minute. But I didn't have to admit that I'd stopped listening half way through. I didn't have to explain that I was thanking him for giving me the opportunity to write for myself again, for once, in the middle of one of the most hectic seasons of my life. His presentation had turned up the heat under my story, and I was so grateful for that.

Always be waiting for inspiration, and when it arrives, act immediately. Always be prepared to write, even when you're away from your computer or notebook and you're forced to jot ideas down in the margins of your class notes instead. And most importantly, always be writing, even if it's only in your mind.

Time to Write

If it's not the bane of all writers, it's certainly the bane of this one. The biggest reason why I do anything other than write is that I feel like I just don't have the proper time.

Being a responsible adult in the real world tends to take up a lot of time and energy. There's your job(s), of course, but even at home there's work to be done. Cleaning, making dinner, doing laundry, paying bills and balancing checkbooks. Then there's your family and friends, loving distractions, whom you can easily kill two or three hours just chatting with.

And of course, there's sleep.

Beautiful, beautiful sleep.

Anyone functioning outside of their parents' basement knows just how quickly the day dwindles away, leaving you with precious little time to put toward whatever it is you've really wanted to be doing all along. For some people, that thing is reading, or video games, TV shows or making cupcakes. At the end of most days, it's those types of things I choose to spend my time on rather than writing.

It's not that the 40 minutes it takes to watch an episode of Merlin is somehow inadequate time to write. The time it takes to mix, bake, frost, and devour a batch of cupcakes is more than sufficient to whip out a new chapter or scene in a story. The trouble is knowing that most of whatever time I manage to set aside to write is spent just staring at the page, trying to find the right words to put down.

Writing is taxing in a way an activity like baking isn't. All the ingredients for cupcakes are in your kitchen, or at least in the grocery store down the street. But whether you're writing about trolls or taxi drivers, a memoir or a term paper, you're writing about something that doesn't exist in this reality. Whatever the form, subject, or purpose, your story only lives and breathes in your own mind, and the words to tell it are so damn elusive. That's why writing is a creative activity. You're actively creating something that wouldn't otherwise exist, and it's never as easy as you expect. It's never quite how you imagined it. And that can be so frustrating so quickly that within twenty minutes of trying, you just want to give up and turn on Netflix.

Both finding time and using time to write will never get any easier, but there are two things you can do to utilize even the briefest amount of free time:

1. Write what comes clearest. Last semester, I had to write a short story for a fiction class. I had intended to write one story, but four days before my deadline a new idea clubbed me over the head. This new story would not let me think coherently about anything else. Without time to trip over the Right Phrase, I wrote what was coming through clearest: the dialogue. I typed out three different conversations and figured out who was saying what and why later. I filled in action and setting as the "talking heads" in my mind became clearer characters. In small pieces, I wrote what would later become my first published work. (You can read it here.) Forget about writing chronologically--if the scene is clear, get it down before it fades. 

2. Don't be discouraged. Even if all you can manage is one page, one paragraph, one sentence, it's one more fragment of the image in your mind, one more moment spent doing what you love. Create away, little by little.

Review: The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Historical fictions aren't my forte. I'm not altogether fond of stories that begin when a character is very young, because it generally takes several years of story time and at least fifty pages to get to the main story.

Because of this, I didn't expect to enjoy The Invention of Wings as much as I have. Kidd's pacing of the story, told over thirty-some years from two separate perspectives, is masterfully done.

The Basics

Sarah Grimke is the small, stuttering daughter of a well-to-do slave owner in early 1800s Charleston, Virginia. For her eleventh birthday, her mother presents Sara with a slave of her own--Handful. Sarah tries to refuse, but her mother's insistence and her own wavering voice force her to give in. For the rest of her life, Sarah fights to say what she knows must be said, and to free girl she never wanted to own.

Handful watches Sarah grow up, battle her mother, and fall ungracefully in and out of southern society, all the while keeping a careful eye on her own rebellious mother. Charlotte, the Grimkes' seamstress, is passionate, fierce, and seemingly unbreakable. Even while mending Missus' clothes, Charlotte speaks of serving no mistress but herself. Handful realizes the dead certainty in her mother's words only too late.

The Craft

The book is split into six sections spanning one to two years, with roughly five to ten years between each section. This allows the reader to follow the characters from childhood, to awkward teenage years, to spinsterhood without getting bogged down with needless details. By the end of the book, you feel as if you have grown old with these characters, even though in reality, you've only seen red-letter glimpses of their lives.

Switching between two very different points of view gives a real depth to this historical fiction. Kidd does not shy away from the horrors of slavery--Sarah's voice first failed her after she witnessed a slave being whipped, and Handful matter-of-factly describes the common brutality she and the other slaves experienced in Charleston daily. But neither does Kidd dwell on slavery. Both girls' stories revolve around it, yet neither story comes off sounding preachy.

From Sarah's perspective, we get a sense of the dos-and-don'ts of 1800s American society, as well as the world of difference living in the south versus the north makes in Sarah's life. This constant fear of not fitting in to "good" society, I think, is something we generally relate to Austen novels. It's good to be reminded that this was a valid fear in the States as well as in England. I personally enjoyed the details of Sarah's changing faith; last semester, I took a History of Christianity class, and I was glad to be able to recognize the theological and social differences between the Anglican, Presbyterian, and Quaker churches Sarah attended. I also appreciated the inclusion of the all-black church Handful attends, and its role in how the plot unfolds.

All this, combined with Kidd's lovely way with words, made for a haunting, addicting story. With the many breaks and point of view switches, the story was easy to put down during a busy summer without being easy to forget. I found myself thinking of these characters while at work or in the car. If you're looking for something different, refreshing, and wholly satisfying, I highly recommend The Invention of Wings.

'Write' is a Verb

I've called myself a writer for a while, but I'm starting to feel like that's stretching the truth.

'Write,' after all, is a verb. A writer is someone who writes, and lately, that's not something I do very often. I go to class, or to work, or I cook or clean or cross stitch, but the last time I sat down to write a story... let's say it's been a while.

This blog is my attempt to get back into my craft, my art, my domain. I'll write a little about my upcoming stories or articles, but I'll write about the craft in general, what I'm reading, and whatever else pops into my head.