Keep Typing

"Writers can affirm and celebrate or they can destroy."                                                                                                   --William Zinsser



Scene: American Housewife (ABC) situation comedy. Husband is settling into den to write about John Stuart Mill. His wife observes his writing ritual which is reported as: "He poses like Wonder Woman for 2 minutes to raise his testosterone. Then he listens to jazz to activate his right brain. Next, he eats almonds for energy. Finally, he has a glass of port to loosen up. If we were rich, it'd be eccentric. We're not, so it's just plain weird." 

We all have them...writing rituals. A special chair or pen, clean office or crowded library, mornings only or at midnight when the house is finally quiet. The rituals can be adorable, or as mentioned, just plain weird. Maybe the key question is if the rituals help the writing or prevent the writing. On an episode of House Hunters International, a man hoping to write his first book toured a potential property and proclaimed that he couldn't write in the space. Couldn't or wouldn't?? Books have been written in coffee shops and offices. They've been written by harried moms of preschoolers and busy attorneys. Doctors and laborers.

November 15 is "I Love to Write Day." If you're participating in NaNoWriMo, you're halfway there. Hopefully this can be a day of perfect verbs and nouns, phrases that don't sound cliched, and characters that ring true, not as silly caricatures.

If your writing has hit a wall, it can help to get advice from the masters. William Zinsser, author of several books including On Writing Well, advised writers to ask what are your values and intentions as a writer? If you're writing a memoir, hold the emotion, Zinsser said. He added that writers shouldn't set out to write a heart-tugging memoir, to make sure details ring true, and that getting published isn't the only reason to write your story. "Don't whine," he said. For more information, check out Zinsser's blog, The American Scholar.

Books to consider: 

The Writing Life: A collection of essays and interviews - National Book Award authors

Writing About Your Life - William Zinsser

Expressive Writing: Words That Heal - Pennebaker/Evans

Writing From the Body - John Lee

Chambers Biographical Dictionary

Bill Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson

The Craft & Business of Writing - Writer's Digest Books

Steering the Craft - Ursula LeGuin

The Grammar Devotional - Mignon Fogarty

To Show and To Tell - Phillip Lopate

On Becoming a Novelist - John Gardner

Art of Memoir - Mary Karr

The Mindful Writer - Dinty Moore

Writing Flash Nonfiction/Writing Flash Fiction - Rose Metal Press Guide

Micro Fiction - Jerome Stern


"I'm not sure what prompted me to start writing another book....there was certainly nothing to be gained by feeling sorry for myself. Telling stories was still a means of escape. And so I put a fresh sheet of paper into the machine, ready to flee once again. This time I no longer thought about getting published, but just wrote for my own amusement. The journey, not the destination, became the thing, and I rediscovered the simple satisfaction of seeing my ideas materialize before me, sentence after sentence." from A Good American by Alex George  

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              Little Bits of Good*

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.


It is not an uncommmon question - "where were you when..." And those "when" topics have shaped the United States - President Nixon's impeachment, 9-11-01, Armstrong on the moon, etc... 

One of my own first clear memories is watching my mother weep after the 1963 assassination of President John Kennedy. For many days to follow, the mood in our house was somber and hushed.

In April 1968, I was sitting cross-legged in my front yard, next to my older sister. It was still early spring and the trees were not fully leaved which gave us a gauzy distant vision of downtown Kansas City. From our suburban yard, we could see flames shooting into the sky. Our city was on fire. I started asking questions all beginning with "why." Why are people so angry? Why are there fires? Why are we under a curfew? Why are our parents so tense? At nine-years-old, I struggled to understand the news, the heavy shock of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. My sister tried to explain - fear, race, economics, but I think she wasn't sure of any answers either.

When the "why" questions demand to be answered or at least addressed, books can help us with ideas and considerations. 


"Extremists have shown what frightens them the most is a girl with a book." -- Malala Yousafzai


                              Nonfiction

Common Sense - Thomas Paine
Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau
Self-Reliance - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Diary of Anne Frank
The Autobiography of Margaret Sanger - Margaret Sanger
20 Years at Hull-House - Jane Addams
1968 - Mark Kurlansky
Steal This Book - Abbie Hoffman
The Crucible - Arthur Miller
Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom - Catherine Clinton
On Liberty, the Subjection of Women and Utilitarianism - John Stuart Mill
John Adams - David McCullough
Black Boy - Richard Wright
Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin
A Testament of Hope - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Bad Feminist - Roxanne Gay
A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn
400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines - Gail Collins
Suffragette: My Own Story - Emmeline Parkhurst
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Mary Wollstonecraft
The Long Loneliness - Dorothy Day
Dust Tracks on a Road - Zora Neale Hurston
The Givenness of Things: Essays - Marilynne Robinson
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power - Jon Meachum
33 Revolutions per Minute: A History of Protest Songs - Dorian Lynskey


                                 Fiction 

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
A Modest Proposal - Jonathan Swift
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
The Invention of Wings - Sue Monk Kidd
Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver
Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo

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What I'm reading now: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Jared Diamond.


*"Do your little bits of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." 
                                                             --Bishop Desmond Tutu


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                       Random Word

Virginia Woolf: "Language is wine upon the lips."

Circuitous: sir-KYOO-uh-tuss/adj/1664. 1) Having a circular or winding course  2) not being forthright or direct in language or action. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary

Synonyms: roundabout, indirect, meandering, serpentine (thesaurus.com)

"...there is no court rule that prohibits the filing of petitions not sanctioned by court rule, if you follow." Bennie knew it sounded circuitous, but she was right on the law."  from Corrupted by Lisa Scottoline.



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                         November

"Every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile." --Elie Wiesel


As we begin a new month filled with thankfulness, maybe we need a theme song to lead us. A suggestion -  "What the World Needs Now" by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It's been sung by many artists including Jackie deShannon, Judy Garland and Dionne Warwick. Recently the song was recorded by Broadway performers to show their support for the victims of the June shooting at Pulse, a nightclub in Orlando. (Song available on iTunes)

"What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that's there just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, no not just for some, but for everyone." 

It's a fairly simple idea that too often becomes complicated in its application. Maybe Elie Wiesel had the best idea - start with a smile.

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Books are great companions. Introduce yourself to new thrillers, mysteries, novels and ideas to ponder. In November, look for books by Erika Johansen, Joe Hill, Patricia Cornwell, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Janet Evanovich, Anne Rice, James Patterson, Jeffrey Archer, Clive Cussler, Danielle Steel, Jayne Ann Krentz, and David Balducci. There are novels by Alice Hoffman, Wally Lamb, Zadie Smith, Michael Chabon, J.K. Rowling, Paolo Coelho, Fannie Flagg, and Richard Paul Evans.

Looking for a surreal menu experience? Eat dinner along with Salvador Dali. Sing with Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson. Here's your chance to learn more about Trevor Noah and Anna Kendrick...and everyone's favorite Gilmore Girl, Lauren Graham. We can try to figure out the world by reading Thomas L. Friedman, Hilary Plum and Thich Nhat Hanh. And it's OK to be an adult and still want to read the Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney or enjoy the new Dr. Seuss-themed coloring book. 

November is National Memoir Writing Month, National Family Literacy Month, NaNoWriMo, Picture Book Month, Aviation History Month and Manatee Awareness Month.


                               November Days


1-7    - World Communication Week

2       - Plan Your Epitaph Day

3       - Cliche Day

5       - Digital Scrapbooking Day

6       - Daylight Savings Time ENDS

8       - Election Day

11     - Veterans' Day

13-19 - World Kindness Week
           Geography Awareness Week

14-20 - National Book Awards Week

15      - I LOVE to Write Day

19      - Mother Goose Day
            Rocky & Bullwinkle Day

20-26 - National Game & Puzzle Week

21-27 - Better Conversation Week

23      - National Espresso Day

25      - National Day of Listening

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                  Everlasting Natalie

"You really have to love words if you're going to be a writer, because, as a writer, you certainly spend a lot of time with words. A suggestion for someone who wants to start writing? Be a reader. It's the only real way to learn how to tell a story. Readers are lucky -- they will never be bored or lonely." -- Natalie Babbitt



Natalie Babbitt, author of Tuck Everlasting, Knee Knock Rise and The Moon Over High Street died Oct. 31, 2016. She was 84 years old. Babbitt is probably best known for Tuck Everlasting, a novel written for children and also enjoyed by adults. 

Published in 1975

from Tuck Everlasting: "Closing the gates on her oldest fears as she had closed the gate of her own fenced yard, she discovered the wings she'd always wished she had."

      An Evening with...Candice Millard                   
"I've always been interested in the idea of self-reinvention." 
                                                                        --Candice Millard


Great leaders are born, not made and one name stands alone as a virtual synonym for leadership - Winston Churchill, said Candice Millard, introducing her newest book, Hero of the Empire.

"Winston Churchill was a master politician and one of the most famous people in history but we don't talk about what created him," she added, speaking to a large audience at Unity Temple in Kansas City, MO. 

As a way of discovering what drove Churchill to such political heights, Millard researched his early years. By the time Churchill was 24 years old, he had been in three wars. He loved the gallantry of the military and was fascinated by power. "He (Churchill) was the first to sign up and the first to show off," Millard said. "He worked as a journalist and was a very good writer." Hero of the Empire is the story of what happened when Winston Churchill was hired to cover the Second Boer War as a correspondent and was subsequently captured and held as a prisoner of war. Churchill hated every minute of captivity, said Millard.

After his escape and return to England, Churchill was nearly unstoppable. He ran for a seat in Parliament and won. As a man and leader, Churchill was far from perfect, Millard said. He could an elitist and arrogant, but from him "we get lessons on grit and the power of words," she added. "He lived for 90 years. It was a crowded life." 

His crowded life is well documented. Millard traveled to England and South Africa to research Churchill's life during the Second Boer War (1899-1902) and his rise to political power.  She was happy to find a wealth of primary sources which are "important for narrative non-fiction," she said. "This is such a great story."

Digging into history isn't new to Millard.  Her first book, River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey chronicled TR's exploration of the Amazon River. Her second book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President examined James Garfield's presidency, assassination attempt and later death, largely because of deplorable medical care. Hero of the Empire joins these earlier books as a New York Times bestseller. 

When the former National Geographic editor isn't researching or writing, she enjoys reading novelists Ian McEwan and Hilary Mantel. Millard's favorite non-fiction writers are no surprise - both are noted historians - Stacy Shiff (Cleopatra) and Nathaniel Philbrick (Valiant Ambition). Millard said it was "a thrill" to meet acclaimed historian David McCullough (The Wright Brothers) at the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. 

There are already ideas for the next book but a final decision will be made in early 2017 when her book tour is finished, Millard said. Although the topic will almost certainly be history, Millard maintains she is not a historian, instead, she "writes about history."

For more information about the life of Winston Churchill, browse the website of the Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri:  https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/ 

                   "Writing a book is an adventure" - Winston Churchill

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                 Pencil, Paper, Plot...Go!

"Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: do not use semicolons."
                                                                                       -- Kurt Vonnegut


Sharpen your pencils. Settle into your chair. Organize your thoughts. Take a deep breath. Write.

It's almost time for National Novel Writing Month, or as it is affectionately known, NaNoWriMo . Every November, the good folks at http://nanowrimo.org/ encourage us to get busy with a goal of writing every day. By the end of the month, a 50,000 word novel is born. 

In 2015, more than 430,000 people heeded NaNoWriMo's invitation to write.The annual challenge has paid off for novelists. Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and Eric Morgenstern's The Night Circus are NaNoWriMo creations.

For those of us not interested in writing a novel, daily work on a memoir, poem, essay or children's picture book is also good exercise. Think of it as pilates with a pencil or keyboard.

Let those nouns and verbs flow from brain to paper or screen. Don't edit as you write - get the first draft written. All of it. As William Wordsworth said, "Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." 

Most of all, have fun writing in November. Imagine yourself as a writer in a threadbare sweater drinking gallons of hot tea and searching for the perfect verb while writing the next Great American Novel. You won't be alone because according to Cornelia Funke, "all writers are lunatics."

Indeed.

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If you need a gentle shove in the right direction, get to a bookstore or library and check out these helpful guides.

Writing and Illustrating the Graphic Novel - Dan Cooney

The Writer's Digest Handbook of Novel Writing - Tom Clark

Zen in the Art of Writing - Rad Bradbury

Lawrence Block's Writing the Novel

On Writing - Stephen King

Element of Style - William Strunk Jr.

Escaping Into the Open - Elizabeth Berg

Writing Fiction - Gotham Writers' Workshop

Writing Fiction - Janet Burroway & Elizabeth Stuckey-French

                                      
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