Writing

Strenuously hopeful . . . or determined to work hard and not quit.

/ Ev Bishop / 10 Comments

Yesterday, in answer to a question posited on Twitter, “RU going the agent or editor route with your adult fic?” I answered that I was “strenuously hoping to go the agent route.” I realized shortly after hitting enter that my response was inaccurate–or at least incomplete. Yes, there is hope surrounding my desire for an agent. There will also be luck involved in obtaining one.

Neither of those elements, however–hope or luck–give the whole picture surrounding my quest. They both suggest passivity. I’m not idly dreaming that someday I’ll publish a novel. I work really hard. I take rejection terribly, but I suck it up and go back to work, hard. I strive (see, another labour intensive word) to keep hope alive. And I’ll take all the good fortune and lucky breaks anyone wants to throw at me, absolutely. But in the end, even if my hope’s a cringing weak-butted thing, and all my inbox has seen for too long is form rejections, I will keep working, keep writing, keep sending. Eventually some (carefully selected!) agent will want to sell a book I write–I hope. Knock on wood! 😉

This is a short, maybe odd, post. I just needed (wanted!) to put that out there for myself: I am _strenuously_ hopeful, but I’m also really determined. I will work hard. I won’t quit.

What does your inner writer need to hear today?

Happy writing,
🙂 Ev

While I was away . . .

/ Ev Bishop / 20 Comments

I’m still in the process of Organizing My Office (note the capital letters, please). It’s a convoluted task. While I was away this summer, messmaker elves (a breed similar to the shoemaker’s elves in the old fairy tale, but nowhere near as helpful or benign) were hard at work. Or at least I’m pretty sure they were involved–I have no idea who else would’ve left stacks of notes jotted on crumpled scraps of paper, piles of mail (opened, but not dealt with), and mountains of miscallanea across the region called (in fond remembrance) my desk.

While other writers are in full fall mode and have already written inspiring posts about new energy to pursue goals and freshly scrutinized, revamped plans, I’m pulling out another trash bin. However, there’s been some progress. My keyboard is cleared (I do have my priorities), my year-at-a-glance calendar is updated (yes, I consider September the first month in a new year), and I’ve pulled down my corkboard (not sure that was a good decision) to replace with two new ones . . .

Before digging into my day’s work though (editing and writing a column, then organizing if I get to it ;-)), I wanted to share two exciting things that happened while I was away (no elves are involved this time): (1) I had a story accepted by AlienSkin Magazine. “Red Bird” will appear in their December 2009/January 2010 issue. (2) I got an e-mail about how well Cleavage – Breakaway Fiction For Real Girls is doing. It’s gone into a second printing and is listed in the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Best Books for Kids & Teens 2009, as well as in Resource Links Best of 2008 for Grades 7 – 12. The editors Deb Loughead and Jocelyn Shipley continue to promote it and the book now has a trailer. I know my story is just one small part of the anthology, but I’m very excited about how the whole book has been received!

Autumn is re-energizing, but even more inspiring than new post-it-notes, colour-keyed schedules, and the like, is the fact that bit-by-bit I’m starting to amass a body of fiction. I’ve published non-fiction for awhile, but I’m eager to share my stories. Slowly, slowly it’s happening. It’s happening! And I don’t want to rush my year, but I’m already wondering what nice surprises I’ll look back at next September.

Pen caving . . .

/ Ev Bishop / 6 Comments

I’m sorry there was such a long time between my last post and this one. I was off gallivanting for much of July and all of August, but don’t worry, I kept busy, doing NO WRITING AT ALL. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t write. *Anything. Perhaps that seems a weird admission from a writer who calls her blog, “Write here, write now,” and uses most posts to thump the drum: write daily, write regularly, don’t get out of practice, write, write, write . . .

I wasn’t just being a slacker, however. And it wasn’t that I kept meaning to write, but got too busy and didn’t get around to it. My four-week hiatus was intentional. Once a year or so, I take some time off from writing (this year’s 4-weeks was a bit extreme, and I don’t think I’ll ever go that long again). I find the break beneficial for a number of reasons, the biggest being that not being allowed to write makes me want to nothing but write. By the time I let myself back to it, I’m a bit crazy in my eagerness and the words flow and flow–which brings me to a weird phenomenon.

Sometimes in the middle of feeling, thinking, observing and ruminating “face-to-face” with an event, person, or moment, I find myself slightly removed, watching with my psychic pen in hand, wondering even as I experience something how I will write about it.

It’s not a bad thing. It might even intensify living in the moment, forcing me to really note the small details and nuances, similar to how going for a walk with a camera in tow makes you focus on the millions of tiny details that make up the “big picture.” The view you have and even think you appreciate in a cursory glance suddenly becomes deeply intricate and profound.

This slightly strange, constantly penning side of my brain grew louder and louder the longer I denied it a paper outlet, and I was fascinated by a growing awareness of parallels between various adventures I was having and my writing life.

At no time was this kinship more dramatic or clear than when I was caving in Horne Lake. Yes, caving. As in burrowing deep into the earth via rocky tunnels and winding, blacker-than-black channels into surprisingly wide caverns and the like.

My obsession with caves (and writing) started when I was young; I blame Mark Twain. While I loved Tom Sawyer (of course) and could never understand his passion for insipid Becky Thatcher, I adored Huck Finn. And the descriptions of the caves he got to explore (where Injun Joe lived for a long while) always threw me into paroxysms of jealousy. Why couldn’t I live in a cave? Why couldn’t I at least live near caves? Second only to sunken treasure, caves were the top of my romantic-things list.

Fast forward to holiday planning 2009. As I investigated interesting things we could if we got tired of Rathtrevor Beach or jumping off small cliffs into Englishman River (which would never happen, but it was nice fun to see all the things the Island offers), I came across ads promoting Horne Lake caves. Real caves. Twisty, freaky, creepy, awesome ones.

We knew we were leaving the surface before we even entered the cave; the change in temperature is immediate and complete, even just at the mouth. Squeezing through crevices that put off the claustrophobic, we ended up in strange room after strange room (there were even, I swear, platformed layers in various nooks and crannies that would’ve made perfect sleeping quarters!). I was almost giddy with the knowledge of how much there was to explore (so much that I suspect no one could ever get through all of it). It didn’t matter that other people were doing the same thing, sometimes in the same area–caves are unique through each person’s eyes, imagination, fears, and purpose. I felt completely alone and cut off–in a delicious, adventuresome way at times. In a slightly awed, fearful way at others–what have I got myself into? Can I get myself out?

The light from our headlamps (and from any others in the caves, though for the most part my son and I were alone and even went our own separate ways a few times) shone in single narrow beams, the inside of the earth being so dark, so void of light that it seemed to devour the rays we tried to cast. I could see only as far ahead as I could shine the light directly. But it was enough. For fun (???), we turned off our lights and tried to figure out where to go next, how to get out of a particular spot, by feel. Worms of panic squirmed occasionally–what would we do if our lamps went out? Or if we turned them off and they wouldn’t turn back on? The answer was simple and obvious: we would get out the same way we came in. Step by step, hand-over-hand. We’d close our eyes, so the dark would feel like a choice, and move by thoughtful gut, prodding the air ahead with hand and foot, making sure a steady hold waited for us. Eventually we’d make it through.

The terrain of the caves was captivating and varied: by turns rough and jagged, alternatively smooth and rounded, like mounds of mud rolled down in layers. Deceptively soft looking. Bone dry in parts, sweating beads of moisture in others–and in still others, crystal clear pools glimmered with reflections when your light happened to touch upon them. Often, but no less delightful for the frequency, the glow from my headlamp would bounce against seemingly black, dense stone only to have it light up and sparkle like it was dusted in stars. The phenomena, I think it’s actually called “cave glitter,” brought to mind those writing sessions where you go in feeling blah, sure that your project is a full flop, only to get ten minutes into working and realize that you have idea after idea.

Yes, my writing life is like exploring caves in every way. Exhilarating. Intimidating. Sometimes fear-invoking. Challenging. Revealing. Often I can see no further in a story than to the end of a line. I know I have to accept the necessity of feeling my way around in the dark. I am continually amazed by the depths and diversity I discover. And just like I can’t wait to do more spelunking, I’m excited to be back in the cavern of my office, climbing through the gnarl of passageways, dead ends, and mysterious spaces that make up my writing. And my head. 😉

I hope you had a great summer–and whether you took a conscious break to “fill the well” as Julia Cameron calls it, or wrote ferociously, making the most of longer days, I hope you’re feeling inspired and itchy to do some keyboard caving of your own.

I’d love to hear about the types of non-writing activities you feel work as analogies for your writing life.

~ Ev

*Okay, with two exceptions. (1) My family and I have a camping journal that we take on trips and leave randomly about the campsite, cabin, or hotel room. Throughout our vacation, we take turns jotting down memorable moments/thoughts. But this year, I reined myself in even there and wrote entries in keeping with everyone else’s, so two. Under a page each. (2) I did work required to keep my business afloat, of course. For me, limiting myself to those few things is not writing. 🙂

Writing Life Perks

/ Ev Bishop / 14 Comments

I just finished printing out the fourth draft of my current WIP: 376 pages. 103 000 words. Yay! It’s a beautiful thing to be going into the final trim/polish, and I aim to start submitting partials and queries mid-August. As I behold the stack of paper, a warm glowy feeling comes over me and settles in my belly. But it’s not what you think.

At this point, with my brain a muddle from many a late night, it isn’t accomplishment that has me so pleased. Or the fact that this latest novel’s in a genre that made me think while writing, This is it. This is _my_ kind of story. It’s not thankfulness, gratitude or awe that by writing, I get to explore myself and the world around me, that I get to live in an imaginary world, or that what happens next is as unlimited as imagination. No, nothing like that.

It’s purely the stack of paper itself that transports me to bliss. Its glorious weight. Its crisp edges. Its lovely brightness. And the fact that I’m now the proud owner of a state of the art “one press” Staples’ three-hole-punch. Yep, the gorgeous holes decorating the side of the manuscript were done by me. With ease. I am a sucker for (what I still call) school supplies: Sharpie markers, pens, pencil crayons, glue sticks, tape dispensers, stickers, corkboard, push pins, paper clips, staplers, electric pencil sharpeners (and small metal ones), doughy white erasers, and best of all, paper. Loose-leaf, graphing, three-hole-punched, card stock, manilla . . . any name, weight or colour you can imagine, I love it all.

A few years ago, before Terrace had a huge Staples outlet, my family and I visited the Staples in Williams Lake. Before we were even fully in the store (we’d just cleared the front doors and were about to go through the silver turnstiles), my daughter put a hand on my arm to hold me back. Slightly concerned, I did as prompted, stopped walking, looked down at her. Her eyes were closed, she took in a deep, deep breathe, then exhaled. “Oh, I just love that smell!” she said, then raced ahead. Oh yes, the aroma of stationary and office supplies. I DO love it–and I thrilled to her words. While my son and husband just kind of looked like we were nuts, I was thinking, Oh yay, it’s genetic!

So yes, though really what I love best about writing has nothing (much) to do with the supplies it involves, I can’t help but wonder if my passion for ink and all that goes with it isn’t part of the reason I fell to writing . . . or was it (is it) my passion for stories that led to such a freakish appreciation for the items that help bring those words to life? I don’t know. It’s a chicken or the egg question, and in some ways it doesn’t matter. Soon I’ll start polishing, but for today (inhale!) I’ll just enjoy the freshly printed pages.

About the three-author reading . . .

/ Ev Bishop / 6 Comments

I had the privilege of taking part in a three-author reading event at UNBC (Terrace campus) this past Thursday (July 9th), along with poet Simon Thompson (watch for his poetry collection, coming September 2009 from New Star Books) and Si Transken, an inspiring wild woman who, amidst her hectic life of teaching as a tenured PhD at UNBC and working with street women and in shelters in Prince George, writes wickedly funny, painfully challenging poems about the people she meets—docu-poems.

The way I prepared this time was particularly beneficial and non-crazy-making (bonus!), and evening was totally fun and inspiring night—I went home so fired up that I wrote ‘til 3:00 a.m.

Once Simon began to speak, I forgot my nerves. He made interesting commentary on writing in general, and the poems he shared, full of sharp, vivid images, pulled me in entirely. His poetry is like a camera’s click—each scene is captured with precision, right down to the changes in light and shadow. I especially love how he makes no references to mood or emotion, yet each poem is powerfully felt because of the details he chooses to elaborate on. An excellent take-home point for every writer!

Si was shocking and fantastic—soft-spoken, smiley, constantly joking as a presenter. Her poems? Her words? They flashed and slashed like a pulled knife. She is all about social activism and change and vocal about what’s wrong in the world what needs to be righted and so high energy you wonder if she breathes when she talks and you’re ashamed/challenged—your words your thoughts your art should DO something.

The audience was great—very engaged, laughing and interactive. Yay! Afterward, most hung around to chat a bit. I especially enjoyed talking with Noreen Spence, a wonderful painter, about some of the parallels between painting and writing (maybe between all arts—my sister’s a classical singer and we notice similarities in our processes all the time too).

This morning I received an e-mail from Noreen that said in part: “I was listening to the three of you last night and thinking about what enormous courage it took to do what you did. Another way that writing is similar to painting. All this solitary activity and invested energy and then one day there you are, having to be exposed and suddenly gregarious. What a wild ride. Only crazy people would willingly climb on for this insane roller coaster. Thank heavens for the crazy people!”

Yes, thank heavens. 🙂

Writing is a solitary, intimate endeavour, and while I love that about it, it also makes mingling with people who do what I do (or want to do) and who love and obsess about the same things I do (in different forms or modes) that much more important, special, out of the ordinary, nourishing.

If you can, get thee to a reading soon!

Being True to Characters, Being Politically Correct, Censorship—a bit of a rant.

/ Ev Bishop / 6 Comments

In the Question-of-the-Week thread on a writing forum that I moderate, someone brought up political correctness and asked for thoughts about what to do if you’re “told that it’s ‘politically incorrect’ to say you’re crazy or mad or out of your mind, things like that, because you are offending mentally ill people . . . Having [my MC] tear her hair and say “Oh, I must be mentally ill” isn’t gonna cut it but I don’t want to go out of my way to be offensive either.”

The asker inadvertently stumbled on one of my instant hot buttons.

People who critique characters and/or dialogue according to whether or not said characters/quotes are politically correct are IDIOTS!!! (Heh, heh, how’s that for potentially offensive?) Authors have a responsibility to show life as it is really experienced and to create people who are real—a story should never be a tool for propaganda (even if the PC view is actually a valuable or “correct” view).

Besides, in my experience, most would be PC police are completely obtuse, focusing on random words that they find personally offensive (which, very interestingly to me, usually have nothing to do with them personally), ignoring context and theme. I.E. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird is still frequently banned (ARGH about book banning, period!), not by racist groups hoping to subvert her message, but by no-mind white people who object to her use of the word “nigger.” As if using it in the story somehow promotes its use rather than confronts it.

Back to the original question, almost no one questioning his/her sanity would contemplate whether they were experiencing mental illness, and ones who would couch it that way and speak of “disordered thinking,” etc., would be very specific characters. One of my MCs is a psychologist, for example, and she, understandably, uses shoptalk as she analyzes herself. However, even she reverts to the type of shorthand people really use when they’re afraid: insane, crazy, mad—though she would never use such talk with clients, and—something I find interesting about her—never even thinks in those terms for most clients, only herself. Writing is always about being true to the character(s).

Does a character feel like he’s losing his marbles? Is she going insane, or going mental? Is he worried about going postal, or is he just a few bricks short of a load? Is he afraid he’s losing it, or is he totally f*cked up? (Insert about a bazillion other ways people really refer to questions of mental illness. Every individual would think of and express that fear in a way unique to him/herself.

We need to write honest stories and should only listen to criticism that says, “Hmm, this doesn’t ring true to me somehow,” NEVER to comments like, “Well, that’s offensive.”

People who struggle with mental health issues (or any other “issues”—racism, abuse, etc) aren’t offended by honest portrayals of a character going through the same. Likewise, showing the awful treatment people endure may be painful, even disturbing, but it shouldn’t offend us—it should challenge us.

If anything, it’s the opposite of what the PC crowd says: books that deal with life as it is really experienced open doors for thought and conversations that might actually have the power to bring about the changes that supposedly the PC-obsessed want to see. Emotionally true stories make us sympathetic, make us ask questions, make us consider what we believe and why we believe it.

Why can’t more people understand:

Stories that use the F-word aren’t about swearing being cool.

Stories that depict racism as it actually exists are not racist.

Stories that show violence as it all to often occurs are not promoting violence.

Stories that explore sexuality in all its weird, wonderful (and yes, sometimes horrific and unhealthy) are not porn.

Stories are written to help make sense of the world and the things that exist in it; avoiding the portrayal of something doesn’t make it cease to be.

And IF the stories _are_ actually endorsing things that are offensive, awful, “sinful,” etc . . . they still need to be out there. We learn as much (or more!) from what we hate as we do from what we agree with. Are there books/topics that I wish didn’t exist? Absolutely. Would I fight for their right to stay on shelves? Without exception. Mein Kampf encourages absolutely revolting, illogical, repugnant opinions; it also incites people to realize that even “quiet” forms of racism should be confronted.

That last point is crucial: we are allowed to, in fact, we must challenge ideas put forth, question attitudes displayed, point out what we see as flawed, harmful, hateful . . . Everyone has a right to publish; not everything is right. Not the latter by any means. I deplore the content/philosophy/pov some insist on putting out there (and attack it vehemently). I loathe gratuitous sex and violence in books or “art,” and I’m not silent when people are portrayed as commodities to be used for slaking lust. That’s why we have voices: to use them. We can’t take away someone else’s without saying it would be fine to have ours stolen too.

It may seem that I’ve leaped from worrying about the “small” thing of political correctness to addressing the larger issue of censorship, but I don’t think it’s a leap at all. The former is just the latter with a good makeover.

I think the voices of what’s appropriate/proper, etc. assail all writers to some degree or another. What are your thoughts on the topic? I assume you have places you “don’t go” as an author, but do you believe that there are places no one should be allowed to go?

The author who contributed the question that sparked the fire of all this thought offered a glass of wine and chocolate to those who responded—perhaps I should offer the same to you who read my rant. Virtual wine and chocolate for us all!

Don’t Pass On the Genre Pass

/ Ev Bishop / 3 Comments

I recently finished the third draft of my current WIP, and maybe you can identify with the very academic and scholarly feeling of WHOOOHOOO that coursed through my body.

Thinking I was sooo close to The End (I envisioned 4th Draft as being as simple as addressing a few pages of additional notes chapter-by-chapter), you can imagine how annoying it was to find that every time I went to open the novel’s folder, I stalled—ended up reading blogs, posting at forums, playing with my dogs . . . I even found myself doing dishes and catching up on laundry (the true sign of how low I stooped). At first I thought it was just my ever-present, all-too-common love of work avoidance. Then I read Alexandra Sokoloff’s recent Murderati post, “On Genre, Sort of,” followed her link to a post on her personal blog, “Top Ten Things I Know About Editing,” and had a huge Aha! moment.

The lightning-strike comment regarded doing what Alexandra calls a “genre pass.” I’ve never written according to genre before (but I should have. Reading her post made me realize why my first novel, a book I still believe in, got full-reads and good comments from agents, but no offers for representation. It’s women’s fiction, and I should’ve taken comments from literary markets, “It’s too commercial,” and from more mainstream markets, “It’s too literary” and jumped off the fence, picked a group of target readers and edited with them in mind. In fact, I still might do just that—but I digress . . .). The story I’m working on now is a mystery/suspense with supernatural elements. Writing-wise, I feel like I’ve discovered my home. Editing-wise, I now realize that I wasn’t putting off my “last” add-ins, because I have a penchant for household chores. My subconscious writer knew something (as usual) that my usually perceptive inner editor didn’t: The kind of cool/creepy things my brain has been throwing my way lately aren’t for my next book (well, some of them are), they’re to intensify this one.

A small part of me is disappointed (I so wanted to hand over my story with a big “Ta-da—c’est fini!” to my first readers), but the largest part is relieved and excited. I know what I need to do to feel right about calling this book “finished” and sharing it—and that really demands a big WHOOOHOO. Maybe even two.

Interviewed at The Freelance Survivor

/ Ev Bishop / 13 Comments

I was recently interviewed by Dee-Ann LeBlanc of The Freelance Survivor, a site packed full of useful information. Fun! You can read what I had to say here.

My Writers’ Group

/ Ev Bishop / 9 Comments

My dear friend Jen must’ve been reading my mind. I was planning to post about the writing group I’ve attended (and loved) for years and years: Terrace Writers’ Guild, or TWG. (Okay, so it’s not the cleverest moniker; at least people know what our club is about!)

Jen, however, beat me to it and in a lovely, poetic way that makes you feel like you popped into the meeting for a few minutes. I may still write about it too at some point, but here’s her take on her writing group. And mine. I think the affection and appreciation she feels is pretty clear. How about you all . . . Do you have a face-to-face writing group you attend? Did you ever? What are pros to having one? Are there ever cons?

Happy writing,
Ev

Terrace Writers’ Guild 2009 Fiction Contest

/ Ev Bishop / Leave a comment

logoTWGThe 3rd Annual TWG Fiction Contest is open for submissions!

Deadline: Postmarked by Tuesday, October 27, 2009

1st Place: $250.00 from UNBC and paid publication in Northword Magazine.

2nd Place: $150.00 from Marion Olson of Re/Max and author’s name and story title published in Northword Magazine.

3rd Place: $75.00 from saz communications and author’s name and story title published in Northword Magazine.

Rules and guidelines:

1. All submissions must be written by individuals currently living in Northern British Columbia—that’s any community north of Quesnel, including the Queen Charlotte Islands.

2. No entry fee is required, and all story rights remain with the author. All genres are welcome, but sorry, no poetry or stories intended for children.

3. Submissions must be between 1500 and 3000 words. Stories that do not meet this guideline will be eliminated from competition.

4. All works must be original and free of plagiarism (which includes third-party poetry, song lyrics, characters, etc., without written permission). The contest’s audience is the general public, so excessive violence or sex, determined by the judges, will result in
disqualification. Entries may not have been previously published.

5. Entries should be typed in 12-font, double spaced in black ink on white paper, and must have a cover page with the title of the work, the author’s name, contact information, and an approximate word count. Every subsequent page must carry the title and a page number, but the author’s name must be deleted in order for fair judging. Any submissions not meeting these guidelines will be disqualified.

6. Manuscripts will be destroyed after judging. A #10 (business size) self-addressed, stamped envelope must be included with the entry in order to receive judging results. Entrants may choose to not send an SASE, in which case winners may be viewed by visiting this website after December 31st, 2009.

Please mail submissions to:

TWG FICTION CONTEST
PO BOX 1046
TERRACE BC
V8G 4V1

Winners will be notified by December 15th, 2009

No email submissions will be accepted. For more information, e-mail here.

On behalf of Terrace Writers’ Guild and all the writers up here in Northern BC that benefit from the inspiration and motivation this contest provides, I’d like to express a tonne of appreciation to our generous sponsors: Northword Magazine, UNBC, Marion Olson, and saz communications.