Wild Comfort by Kathleen Dean Moore

By Kate Phillips

 

 

Finding a book to read is part conscious choice and part synchronicity. Sometimes cover art catches your eye. Sometimes a title just speaks to you. And sometimes a book finds its way into your hands just when you need it most.

   

Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature by Kathleen Dean Moore appeals to me for all those reasons. The two blue mottled brown eggs in a bird's nest under a title that is true for me are why I bought the book. I have been comforted by nature since I was a little girl much to my city-raised mother's dismay and my farmer-wannabe father's delight.

 

Walking in the woods or along a shoreline is guaranteed to calm my mind and soothe my soul. Seeing golden eagles spiraling over open fields or spotting turtles sunning themselves on logs are highlights of my days–creatures great and small sharing their habitat with me, a place I also feel at home.

 

In 28 wonderfully observant and poetic essays, Moore transports her readers to see a possum in an Oregon plum tree, to experience fields, floods, rocks, hills, and plains across the continent, and feel the fog during a walk in a valley. She also shares stories and wise thoughts from her journeys.

 

My favorite essay is entitled "The Happy Basket." Moore decides to jot down a detailed note every time she is really happy for one year starting on New Year's Day and place them in a pink Easter basket. She plans to sort through them on a cold wintery December night in her warm home.

 

Moore writes on page 22... "I thought that if I could see the haphazard heaps of happiness, I could come to understand something about what I should do...I could leave behind false starts and destructive agendas and organize my life in a better way."

 

Many of the notes include nature, but family, friends, ideas, and creature comforts made her happy, too. Some notes are only a few words, others are half a page long, but they all capture elation.

 

I think we could all benefit from this experiment. I am going to start writing my haphazard notes of happiness today.

 

 

Does the Happy Basket project appeal to you?

 

Walking on Alligators by Susan Shaughnessy

By Kate Phillips

            Walking on Alligators A Book of Meditations for Writers by Susan Shaughnessy is, as the back cover states, a daily motivator for people who write—and people who long to write. The black and silver cover can be off-putting: a skeleton walking over five alligators, mouths agape, with drawings of flowers, fruit, the alphabet, and an alarm clock raining down. Go beyond it to the wisdom and writing advice inside. 

Each page starts with a quote by a writer or successful person followed by insights written by Shaughnessy. At the end, there is a suggested writing goal—perfect for writers who are blocked or procrastinating.

Among the quotes:

Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.   –Roy L. Smith

Opportunity just exists in the air for a few minutes. If you don't obey your gut feeling right away, you've lost your chance.   –Ken Hakuta

Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world.   –Tom Clancy

I write for a couple of hours every day, even if I only get a couple of sentences. I put in that time. You do that every day, and inspiration will come along. I don't allow myself not to keep trying. It's not fun, but if you wait until you want to write, you'll never do it.   –Dave Barry

One of the marks of a gift is to have the courage of it.   –Katherine Anne Porter

The novelist's job is to reveal and unfold, not simply portray. The novelist works with the things that pass unobserved by others, captures them in motion, brings them out into the open.   –Joao Guimaraes Rosa

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.   –Charles Kingsley

 

Among Shaughnessy's insights:

It's a dreadful fact that writing is like any other work. Having written is another matter. It is a joy; it is fulfillment. (p. 26)

…sit with your project. Even a couple of lines is progress. And, more important, it is the victory of writing every day. (p. 98)

To write is to move beyond wanting to write. It is to take a step toward constructing the future you want. (p. 99)

Your gift will grow in proportion as you exercise it. Your courage will grow in proportion as you feed it. (p. 137)

[Readers] ask of you that you lay out for them the essential truths that are hard to know and hard to say. (p. 158)

Write to increase your own understanding, and to share your discoveries simply and vividly. (p. 187)

Unseen forces support you. Unknown wells supply you. Your work will be rewarded…If writing is to be a part of your life, the time to write is now. (p. 203)

Honor your gift/calling, keep writing.

 

What quotes motivate you?

Diane Ackerman Provides a Masterclass

By Kate Phillips

As a reader, I always love finding books that appeal to me. As a writer, I am twice as pleased when the authors also provide masterclasses within their books.

        Masterclasses take place when performance artists and musicians work one-on-one with students. Writers don't generally have this option, but I have found some books to be masterclasses for characters, backstories, plots, settings, voice, and/or creativity.
 

        Diane Ackerman is an award-winning poet, essayist, and naturalist. With this unique combination of talents and passion, it's not surprising that the depth and breadth of her books are extraordinary.

         I discovered Ackerman when I asked the best writer I know personally to recommend her favorite books for writers. She listed A Natural History of the Senses in the top 10. An odd choice I thought, but I trusted her judgment and read it. 

        The genius of Ackerman is how beautifully she incorporates facts into her lyrical prose and enlightening examples while exploring not only our senses, but, in other books, the natural history of love and the mystery of the brain as well as the play activities and adventures of many species of animals. She leaves her readers wiser, more aware of the world and themselves, and intrigued to learn more---all excellent reasons for everyone, but especially writers, to read her books.

        All writers are explorers. We begin with our thoughts, emotions, and ideas as well as facts and imagination. We pick up our pens or sit at our keyboards and head into unknown territories, writing through the jumble in our minds. As C. Day-Lewis stated, "We do not write in order to be understood, we write in order to understand." And E. M. Forster noted, "How do I know what I think until I see what I say."

        Lucky for us, Ackerman understands a great deal and has many inspiring things to say:

        "How sense-luscious the world is… The senses don't just make sense of life in bold or subtle acts of clarity, they tear reality apart in vibrant morsels and reassemble them into a meaningful pattern…The senses feed shards of information to the brain like microscopic pieces of a jigsaw puzzle…"(pages xv & xvii).

        "For convenience, and perhaps in a kind of mental pout about how thickly demanding just being alive is, we say there are five senses. Yet we know there are more should we but wish to explore and canonize them." (page 302)

        "Evolution didn't overload us with unnecessary abilities...The body edits and prunes experience before sending it to the brain for contemplation or action…This makes our version of the world somewhat simplistic, given how complex the world is. The body's quest isn't for truth, it's for survival." (page 304).

        "So much of our life passes in a comfortable blur. Living on the senses requires an easily triggered sense of marvel, a little extra energy, and most people are lazy about life." (page 305).

After reading Diane Ackerman's books, writers should be more energized and take less in life for granted adding more depth to their lives and writing.

Further reading: A Natural History of Love; Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden; An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain; Deep Play; The Moon by Whale Light and Other Adventures Among Bats, Penguins, Crocodilians, and Whales; and Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day.

Highly Recommended Writing Books 2

By Kate Phillips 

 

This post is longer than my standard 500 words as I want to give each book and author/editor their due as well as recommend more than two books at a time.

If you are a writer, you need to write to be happy. Don't let nay-sayers or your own resistance/procrastination get in your way.

        Last week, I recommended books for students and others looking for support as they started their writing lives—fantastic books I reread for inspiration.

This week, I am recommending additional books for beginners and more experienced writers.

Writing Toward Home: Tales and Lessons to Find Your Way by Georgia Heard, dedicated "To those whose voices have been silent," offers insights into the writing life along with passages and quotes from other writers. Among her thoughts: a notebook is an ear, always tuned in, always ready to hear more... it's your job to keep up the conversation (page 27); fall in love at least three times a day with…stacked apples, kiwis, and oranges, the sunlight making a green fire hydrant look iridescent…everything in the world so [you] can come to writing with more openness (page 60); found writing…grab books at random and use words and phrases in them to create "found" poems or pieces of writing (page 110); and 54 other inspiring tales and lessons.

The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft by Kim Stafford reminds writers that the…Gifts of rich lore surround us all. While others seem to observe these offerings on occasion and by chance, noticing and then letting them go, I make hearing and recording of them my mission as a writer, and a key invitation to writing students. Dreams get away if we don't tell them or write them down. Thoughts do the same. The writer's greatest chance may be devotion to the passing fragment. It is small, but it is pure, and it may hold a compact infinity. You heard it for a reason (page 26); Some twinkle in the language around me makes me raise my head, listen close, and jot (page 31); The whole secret in writing is the ability to recognize the good line, the part that sings, the sliver that is new, and old, and deeper than what surrounds it—idea, rhythm, insight—the whole work of writing is to hone this habit of selection. We find the small rich beginning that speaks, and we let it grow according to an imaginative logic of its own (page 74) Listen up!

The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work, A Collection from The Washington Post Book World edited and with an introduction by Marie Arana includes essays from 55 contemporary writers. Erica Jong states that writers are born to voice what we all feel. That is the gift. And we keep it alive by giving it away. (page 67); Patricia Cornwall shares what a sage, older friend told her, "Writing is a way of having experiences without scars." (page 157); Stanley Karnow finds that writing books is the loneliest of occupations, akin to long distance running—not exactly my idea of fun. (page 159); Edmund Morris…grew to love the silence, even the mini-silences that swelled between one word and the next, and to this day, when words don't come, I listen for them rather than look for them. Sooner or later one that sounds right will whisper itself onto the page. (182-3); Richard Selzer says writing, for me, is what purring is for a cat. It represents pure pleasure, and there is no purer pleasure than chasing after the nature of a bodily thing and nailing to the page. Compelling reading from writers who live the writing life.  

Off the Page: Writers Talk About Beginnings, Endings, and Everything in Between edited by Carole Burns includes an Introduction by Marie Arana who writes…There is nothing easy about the literary life. It's a punishing profession. Sissies need not apply. (page 15)…every writer forges a private way, sets personal rules, fashions an individual technique. A writer learns to pursue the craft as he or she will. (page 16). The book includes 42 writers giving shorter answers about 16 topics including "The Writing Life: Springs of Hope, Winters of Despair"…Most days are a struggle between writing and staving off all the other things you should be doing. Few writers make enough money to allow them to do nothing but write…There are moments of glory…They come on the battleground—at your desk, writing. A good sentence. An idea that shaped your novel. (page 146). In "Words of Wisdom: What Writers Wish Someone Had Told Them" Claire Tristram states: You just need to write. The best way to learn how to write is to read, and then do it. Very simply, successful writing is when you are listening to yourself very deeply and you have something to say. It's very solitary, quiet, meditative process and you have to be patient enough to have that happen on the page. And trust that you have something to say. (page 210).

 

What books do you recommend?

Highly Recommended Writing Books 1

By Kate Phillips

 

        Recently I was at a book event where I was seated next to a school librarian. Among other topics, we talked about some teachers and other adults discouraging students from becoming writers. The biggest reasons given were: you don't have enough experience and you won't make any money.

        Why do non-writers feel they have any say in who becomes a writer anyway?

        Every person has experiences interacting with others and overcoming hurdles in life. Add in unique insights, imagination, and the willingness to put in hours at the keyboard or pen in hand and a writer is born.

 

        Someone has to be a bestselling author, top songwriter, in-demand script writer, and popular playwright. Work hard, use your talents, and why not you? And good livings can be made in those fields even if you are not the most successful. Writers are also needed to be columnists, journalists, staff writers, bloggers as well as in the advertising and greeting card businesses.

 

        However, not many writers are given support and/or approval. If you cannot find a person in your life to support your dream of writing, turn to the company you keep—books by authors who speak to you. Here are a few of my favorites:

 

 

        Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg is one of the best support systems for beginning and intermediate writers. Goldberg shares her story, believes in yours, and shows you how to integrate writing into your life. It's the book that got me to write on a regular basis which led to my writing and editing career. In my opinion, it's a must-read.

 

        Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott is a masterclass. She recounts her journey as a writer (starting when she was seven), a bestselling author (after decades of writing and the publication of her fourth book), and a writing teacher. It's a funny and realistic look at the writing life. Another must read!

 

        The Writer's Life: Insights from The Right to Write by Julia Cameron is an inspiring pocket-size book perfect to keep with you all day. When you have a spare moment, open to any page and read about the writing life, i.e., your life.

 

        The Writer's Chapbook: A Compendium of Fact, Opinion, Wit, and Advice from the Twentieth Century's Preeminent Writers Edited from The Paris Review interviews and with an introduction by George Plimpton shares insights from over 200 writers on an array of topics including first efforts, work habits, style, success, failure, plot, characters, symbols, dialogue, writer's block, criticism, and much more. In the chapter "On Motivation: Why I Write", you can find support from over 55 writers as they discuss the importance of writing.

 

        I've recommended many writing books on this blog including most strongly The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield. Click on "writing books" under Categories to see other books that might appeal to and support you.

 

What books support your writing?

 

Billy Collins Provides a Masterclass

From Kate's Writing Crate…

 

As a reader, I always love finding books that appeal to me. As a writer, I am twice as pleased when the authors also provide masterclasses within their books.

            Masterclasses take place when performance artists and musicians work one-on-one with students. Writers don't generally have this option, but I have found some books to be masterclasses for characters, back stories, plots, settings, voice and/or creativity.

 

In honor of Poetry Month, I recommend reading any poetry that appeals to you. Poets have  ways of distilling ordinary moments into memorable lines. 

 

As I read a poem, I underline any phrases that "speak" to me. Sometimes I copy them into my notebooks to use as prompts when I am feeling blocked as they give me new viewpoints to ponder.

 

I am in awe of poets as they constantly see details I missed in everyday items and events. Their similes and metaphors keep our language lively, electric even.  Oh to be able to compare, contrast, and sum up our experiences in such succinct, precise, and mind-opening lines.

 

Who among us cannot quote a stanza, if not a whole  poem? I can still recite two I learned in grade school, but I prefer poems I have come across a bit later in life.

One of my favorite poets is Billy Collins, a Poet Laureate of the United States. His poems make me think, laugh, and pay attention. I think he is an excellent gateway poet—easy to relate to, but with a depth that makes you consider his word choices as carefully as he chose them.

 

For writers, I love two poems in his book Picnic, Lightning:  "In the Room of a Thousand Miles" and "Lines Lost Among the Trees". 

 

While his poem "In a Room of a Thousand Miles" focuses more locally for him literally and on the distance between himself and his wife figuratively, I found it a great definition of imagination for me. When you write, aren't you in a room of a thousand miles, a thousand years, a thousand places? We can write about anything we can imagine. Place, time, and space are all up to us, but the details are what ground the writing, make it real and believable.

 

"Lines Lost Among the Trees" is an elegy for all the phrases, words, and  ideas that slipped from his mind before he could reach pen and paper or wake from his dreams—something all writers have experienced and regret.

 

In his book, Sailing Alone Around the Room, I love "Tuesday, June 4, 1991". He captures an ordinary writing day for him in the company of imaginary secretaries and stenographers, Samuel Pepys, a slow vocal rendition of "You Don't Know What Love Is", time unrolling like an intricate carpet, a small vase of faded flowers, and dawn the next day arriving as the ancients imagined.

 

In his book The Art of Drowning, his poem "Budapest" makes me smile as he transforms the physical act of writing pen in hand into a mythical creature foraging across the page. Good company for any writers feeling too solitary as they meet their daily word counts.

 

Who are your favorite poets?

The 90-Day Novel by Alan Watt Update 4

By Kate Phillips

After 90 days, I can officially highly recommend The 90-Day Novel by Alan Watt. Even if you don't plan on writing a novel this quickly, the book should be on your Writing Books To Be Read List.

 I am a better writer just having read it, but I also better understand how novels work because I followed through on the majority of the exercises and directions. I found Watt's insights invaluable. He made me think, to consider my options. I learned to tighten my timeline and deepen my characters' backstories to move the story forward.

For the record, I didn't complete my novel, but I did a lot more work on it than I would have without this book. It wasn't the author's fault that I didn't finish. I missed out on writing time during my job's monthly editing deadlines. I plan to finish my first draft by mid- April.

As with most projects, I started off with a lot of enthusiasm. Writing a novel has always been a goal, but it takes a lot of work, more work than I imagined.

        If you choose to meet the 90-day deadline, my advice is to make sure you have the time to put into it. Winter months worked for me as the weather kept me inside and able to focus on this goal. I tried to write the same time every day which also helped. For the first 28 days, you only spend 10-30 minutes a day. After that, you need to put in at least two hours.

        This book works best when you already have a story in mind along with some of the characters. Your plot may veer off your planned course; your characters may change names, physical attributes, occupations, and locations as you write it all down, but that is what keeps you alert and interested for the long haul. And it is a long haul, but this book keeps things manageable.

        Succeeding, of course, depends on what you put into it. If you put yourself into Alan Watt's professional writing sphere, you will meet your goal as long as you pay attention to his suggestions based on experience and follow his flexible directions. 

        Speaking of succeeding, I saw Bill Geist on CBS Sunday Morning interview a 76-year-old author writing under the name Desiree Holt who has written over 100 racy romance novels in about four years. Quite an impressive body of work! Apparently, she writes according to "The 14-Day Novel" plan.

So the reality is that if you want to write a novel, write a novel. You don't need The 90-Day Novel to achieve your goal. However, Alan Watt, author of the prize-winning Diamond Dogs, thoughtfully shares all he learned in this writer-friendly and inspirational book that makes the tough work of completing a novel easier. Writing is a solitary pursuit so why not enjoy the company of a supportive, successful professional cheering you on?

 

How are your novels coming along?