From the Front Porch

Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.
- Truman Capote


I, Karin Gillespie, blog proprietor, have decided to add a new feature to "A Good Blog Is Hard To Find," a kind of newsy, reflective, kick-back entry that will appear only on weekends. In it, I’ll talk about publishing news, releases from Southern authors, and anything that I think might appeal to readers.

To start off: I’m always reading some sort of writing book and this week it’s BECOMING A WRITER by Dorothea Brande, originally published in 1934. I first read it many years ago when I was taking the first baby-steps to learning to be a writer. Now with five novels published, I definitely consider myself a “real” writer, but back then I was still trying on the identity not entirely sure it was a good fit.

Years later another author, Julie Cameron, borrowed some of Brande’s ideas and wrote The Artists Way, a book that, along with Brande’s helped me become a writer.

Most writing books dive right into technique: characterization, POV, plotting etc. Those books are necessary later but many developing writers have to deal first with the psychological issues of a being a writer, i.e. the procrastination, the imposter syndrome, the blocks, the unforgiving critic.

I’ve been writing so long it’s hard to remember those dark days when I struggled with issues that kept me from writing. Now, it’s the exact opposite, I usually have to unpeel my fingers from the computer. (But that’s another story.)

Still I remember doing Brande’s and Cameron’s Morning Pages and how they truly did a voo-doo number on head, finally turning me into a writer, as surely as a fairy tales turn frogs into princes.

The Morning Pages were the most powerful exercise for me, but there were others in those books that helped me. Most writers have to almost be tricked into writing-the resistance can be so great. The exercises reminded me of the young student waxing cars in the Karate Kid. (“Wax on, wax off.”) They seem truly idiotic while you’re doing them, but, little by little, they are like little miners in your head, chipping away at all of your reasons not to write.

Here are a couple of other books that are life-changing for beginning writers (or old-timers who lose their way).

If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit by Brenda Ueland (Also published in the thirties.)

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg:

Feel free to suggest your own.

BOOK RELEASES:

I’ve been hearing raves about The Help by Kathryn Stockett, a novel set in Jackson, Mississippi in the sixties and one that explores the relationships between black maids (the “help”) and the families they care for.

LIT LINKS:

Have you ever bought a novel because the critics were crowing about it but it ended up being dull as dirt? You’re not alone. Welcome to group griping, otherwise known as Amazon reviews.

Everyone wants to write a high concept novel but what is it really? Here’s the skinny.

Where’s the glamour in publishing?

CONTEST

I have a copy of BECOMING A WRITER to give away. For a chance to win, comment on any blog entry this week. Let me know which blog, you commented on and email me at kgillespie@knology.net Winner will be picked by a drawing early morning Saturday and announced shortly afterwards. Watch this space for more contests.