“The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade.” -Benjamin Franklin
An Affair with Cookware
A few years ago, I published a humorous story about my husband’s infatuation with top-of-the-line cookware. Ed ,the household chef, spent months browsing online sites and gourmet shops in search for the perfect saute pan. In the end, he found what he was looking for.
My story ends with these words: “She’s a beauty–a sleek exterior with a professional ceramic nonstick, diamond sear coating and a glass lid. The newest addition to our cookware collection now has a place of honor on its designated shelf in the cupboard and I’ll have to say, despite being high maintenance, she outperforms the other cookware in our kitchen. She and my husband make an impressive pair, creating lovely dishes for company or everyday dinners for us.”
New Girl in the Sewing Studio
My husband is right, the correct tools make all the difference. I recently had an opportunity to acquire a new tool for my sewing studio. A friend of a friend wasn’t using her serger ( a specialized machine that finishes the seam edges as you sew), so I offered to give it a new home.
I’d been wanting a serger, the price was right, and it will add a professional touch to my hand-made clothing and craft projects. There will be a learning curve. She has four spools, two needles and and extensive instruction manual, but welcome Vivian! ( Yes, I name all my sewing machines 🙂
For the Love of Writing
So now for my other passion: writing. What are the tools needed for that endeavor? Of course there are the physical tools : pens, pencils, notebooks, journals, computer or typewriter. Each writer will have her or his own preferences here. But there are less tangible tools to include as well.
Stephen King (On Writing) say that every writer’s toolbox should have: vocabulary (voice), a fundamental knowledge of grammar, personal style, and commitment to the work.
Digging deeper Elizabeth Gilbert (Big Magic) says writers need COURAGE (“living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear”) ENCHANTMENT (being ready and open when new ideas strike) PERMISSION (define yourself as a writer) PERSISTENCE (hold yourself together through all the phases of your writing journey) TRUST(trust yourself, your process, your work)
So there you have it! Here’s wishing you a gloriously abundant toolbox for your creative life!
Threads of Thought
What is your creative outlet? What tool (or tools) help you achieve your best work?
A book is a gift you can open over and over again. Gift yourself or a friend this season. Available now in paperback, eBook, or Kindle Unlimited.
We’ve all seen it at the movies or in a Hallmark drama. The dramatic conclusion where the struggling writer finally ties up all the loose ends and completes their story. The music swells and, with fingers flying, the actor clacks out those fateful words on the typewriter (it’s always a typewriter)THE END. Whew. Cheer. Roll the credits.
It happened to me last week! Too bad the cameras weren’t rolling, though I was on my computer and couldn’t yank a paper out and wave it in the air like they do in the movies. And, truth be told, I didn’t really type THE END, but I completed the last chapter of my third book! Ta Da! (picture me doing a little dance) Now if only I could put a link at the bottom of this post (along with its sister titles CRAYON BOX and UNTIL ITALY) and send my story out into the world along with its sister titles CRAYON BOX and UNTIL ITALY.
But no. What the movies don’t show is that the writer probably just completed what Anne Lamott calls the “shitty first draft.” I don’t especially like that term, perferring rough, unpolished, first draft, but you get the idea. A year in the making and that’s what I currently have. Now what?
Revision
This used to be my least favorite part of the writing process. When I first began to write, I preferred the start, getting the ideas down on paper, and watching the story unfold, then I wanted to be done. But some famous authors have helped me change my attitude towards revision.
Maggie Smith (poet and author of Dear Writer) reminds us that the word revision literally means “to see again” and it’s her favorite part of the writing process. Once the first draft is done, it’s her chance to look at it with fresh eyes, get at all the essential parts of the piece, maybe even take it in an entirely different direction. Whoa! That has already happened. My story is taking me places I hadn’t expected.
Stephen King (On Writing) explains that when you write your first draft, you are telling yourself the story. When you revise (or look again) your job is to take out all the things that are not the story. A little scary, Stephen. What if there’s nothing left? But I get it. I’m going to trust that my story won’t vanish into thin air and that what is left will be its true spirit.
Thinking of writers as artists, Rick Rubin (The Creative Act) refers to revision as curating your work. As curator, you decide what is included , what is not, and how it is all displayed in the final presentation. A curated work. I love this vision.
And a good friend recently told me “The hard part is done, now you get to play with it.” Perfect! What I once viewed as work can actually be my author’s playground!
So now, to step back, see my work with fresh eyes, take out all the things that are not the story, and curate the rest so my words comes to life just the way I want them to. And play.
Oh, this is going to be fun!
Threads of Thought
Sometimes authors set a completion goal and announce book releases. I’m not ready for that yet. Be patient with me. I plan to take all the time I need. Thanks to all my readers for hanging in there with me.
And here’s to the completed stories! If you haven’t had a chance to catch these yet, now’s a good time! Each one sets the stage for what’s to come!
My favorite local bookshop, Stacks in Oro Valley, has a vintage typewriter in a cozy nook. Sometimes people leave a message on it. I wonder who it originally belonged to? What words, reports, stories did it bring to life?
Then…
I’m old enough to remember taking a mandatory typing class in high school. Rows of desks lined up edge to edge facing the front of the room where Mrs. Brown held court. We memorized “home row”–that strip of keys (A to : ) where fingers hovered , eventually learning how to navigate the expanded array of letters and symbols without looking at the keyboard.
“Repetition is the key to success” was our mantra. We trained our eyes on our workbooks and typed ” The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.” over and over to practice all the letters of the alphabet. Day after day, the fox jumped and the dog remained lazy as a room full of adolescent fingers danced to the rhythm of clacks and dings.
I typed my college papers on a Smith-Corona, a graduation gift from my parents. Oh, the nightmare of having to use the ‘correction tape’ or that bottle of White Out with its tiny paintbrush when I made mistakes. Then there was the impossible task of trying to guess and leave enough space at the bottom of each page for the required footnotes.
Of course, it didn’t help that I had waited until the last minute and was usually typing into the wee morning hours. I filled trash cans with botched and blobbed pages.
Famous Typewriters
I can’t imagine writing a book on a typewriter, though some authors prefer it. Something about the satisfying clacking sounds and the carriage return “ding”. Reportedly Douglas Adams wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on a Hermes Standard 8, Danielle Steele uses a 1946 Olympia Manual, and J K Rowling, lacking access to a computer in the beginning, crafted the first book of the Harry Potter series on a vintage Olympia.
Actor/author Tom Hanks collects typewriters. In his collection of short stories Uncommon Type, a typewriter appears in each of the tales.
A laptop named Dash
And now….
Though I complained about it, I’m glad I had the keyboarding experience in high school. It made the transition to computers much easier for me. No more White Out. With the click of a button I can delete letters, words, even whole sections of work. I can save, file, print, and send copies to my critique group, editor, and formatter. My computer files are a mess, but my trash can is empty.
Interestingly enough, the keyboard on my cellphone is a miniature version of the typewriter keyboard I learned on. Now I’m texting, answering emails, and composing facebook and instagram posts on my phone. Of course, I can’t fit all ten fingers on my tiny device. I used to do the ‘index-finger pecking’ technique. These days I’ve (almost) mastered thumb-typing, but I’m still a bit clumsy. Please excuse any typooos or autocorrrrrects you may receive from me.
I’ll close with this words, forever embedded in my memory. I imagine the clacks as my fingers fly over silent computer keys.
The quick brown fox jumped over a lazy dog.
Try it someday. (the typing, not the dog jumping)
Threads of Thought
Your turn! Share your typewriter tales in the comments!
Lots of words were typed into these titles!: OUT OF THE CRAYON BOX and UNTIL ITALY are available here!
I first came across this term in Twyla Tharp’s book “The creative Habit”. She says each of us has a creative DNA–our creative hardwiring, the way we see the world and express ourselves. She imagines that we have strands of creative code that govern our creative impulses. Tharp goes on to say that though she can’t scientifically prove it, you might sense this when you try to understand, why you’re a photographer, or a writer, or a dancer, or a singer or…any combination of these. Why you are drawn to express yourself in some ways, but not others.
And even in a specific creative field, one can narrow it down. For example: a writer might prefer a particular genre…poetry let’s say. Then within that genre does the poet compose beautiful nature poems with flowing stanzas, or deep introspective pieces using sharp, crisp language?
Your Creative DNA makes you unique
For me, this is the key. Just as our genetic make up makes us unique individuals, our creative “dna”, how we view the world and express ourselves, makes us uniquely creative.
In describing my creative DNA, I would say that I see life through a positive lense, finding moments and turning them into words, stories, and images that others can relate to. I express myself through a blend of writing, sewing, and photography, with a few threads of music and art tossed in.
No one else has my exact creative code so whatever I create–a book, a story, a garment, a photograph–it will be unique. And here’s the exciting part: whatever you create withyour unique mix of creativity is unique as well! With this in mind, we can celebrate each other without envy. We should no longer say “I want to write like you, or cook like you, or sew like you, or sing like you, or….”
You be you. I’ll be me. And together we will fill the world with amazing, glorious things!
Threads of Thought
Describe your creative DNA. What types of creative expression are your drawn to? What is something you would like to try?
I recently had a chance to meet authors and readers at a book event in the presence of an entire bookstore of creativity!
What do you write? This is the first question I’m asked when I tell someone I’m a writer. sure, I can rattle off the titles of my books, but it goes deeper than that. Writing is part of my creative DNA, and within that realm my overarching genre is Creative Nonfiction. What’s that you ask?
Creative nonfiction is a form of writing that uses the creative techniques of literature to tell a true story. A CNF writer incorporates figurative language and storytelling elements such as dialog, character development, theme, pacing, plot, foreshadowing, setting, conflict and resolution. The goal is to communicate a bit of the real world in a way that will sing on the page, creating a piece of writing that will inform or change the reader, make an impact, bring a smile, a tear, or an ah-ha moment.
When I mentioned this to someone recently, she said that she’d attended a creative nonfiction writing group meeting that was all about trauma and self-indulgence. I get it, the genre can be trauma laden and many best selling titles lean this way. I tend to stick to the lighter side of life in my writing. I’ve found that you don’t have to have lived an extraordinary life or write about traumatic experiences to pull in an audience. I think within the CNF genre there’s a place for everyday experiences and honest emotions that connect us as humans, stories that people can relate to, or think about, or laugh along with. (Like transitioning out of a lifelong career, or experiencing a not-so-perfect vacation.)
So what do I write? The short answer is…I write true stories, well told.
Moments bloom into words.
Thanks for asking….( you can find my words here! )
