encouragement for writers – Page 3

(I typed this post on Dec 23rd, then ran out into the rare and wonderful sunshine, and forgot to post it!)

Wow! The sun is shining and the sky is blue! If we can’t have a white Christmas (2 days from now) sunshine works instead (even if the forecast sadly looks like more gloomy gray weather for the next few days…). Hmm… with such wonderful weather today, maybe I should set aside my Summerland Stories project for a few hours and get outside 😊Well, I’ll keep this update short and sweet, then!

I’ve had 3 of 6 beta reads returned so far – and will let you know about that in my next update. Very exciting, and lots of great ideas!

I made a list of “what I want to focus on” based on what I’ve been studying/exploring. Maybe some of these points will inspire you, too! Let’s see:
– determine whether what I’ve been including in the book actually serves/is essential to the overall story I’m trying to tell. Why am I writing it? What is my point, the message I want to convey? How do I use the particular to illuminate the universal? Am I including arbitrary tales that don’t head toward my ultimate point? What events and experiences that are outside the trajectory of my overall story should I edit out?
– keep my focus on what history/memoir is about: artfully render the moment … apply wonder, mystery, deep seeing to an instant in time … explore the familiar and ponder the unfamiliar … liberate curiosity … mark a moment of memory … see, hear, smell, taste, touch… heart connections … act, feel, react …
– and focus on what story is about: we are the stories we are told and we tell ourselves … your life story is the story you tell about yourself, and it’s as true as any other … yet none of our stories are true; we make them up as we infer meaning into the experiences we encounter … our being and essence is story … our vision is shaped by story … our hearing, morals, ethics are all story … the wiring in our brains, our every thought, is shaped by story
– at the same time, remember that memory changes every time it is replayed … resulting in multiple versions, traces, of the original experience … which means we are not bound to any single version, free to adopt any story we choose

… Oh my! I just can’t stay inside one more minute! The sunshine and blue sky beckons! Time for a drive down the valley to deliver a package … and take some beautiful back roads that are high enough elevation that they have SNOW!!! Yes!!!

Merry Christmas one and all!

Norma J. Hill

a pen and paper mama site

Category: encouragement for writers

Summerland Stories #8: Short and sweet, sunshine and joy!

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