A Little Bit Here, A Little Bit There...

Waiting for my iced coffee with hazelnut, I watched the speckled brown finches swoop down from the clay awning, gathering twigs and the occasional french fry from the pollen dusted bushes lining the drive-thru. Aren't we all just gathering twigs for our nests?

- April, 9:05a.m.

Thoughts like these frequently cross my mind while driving, trying to sleep, and even taking a shower. Most times I do not have a notebook on hand and the eventual thought ends up being written down a bit skewed. Note to self: buy more notebooks for "twig" collecting.

I've been gathering quite a few twigs for my nest over the past two weeks. Many of them have been brittle, or have even snapped in half. I'm still waiting for the french fry! I currently have 3 articles going at once and have been doing extensive research on each. I've done everything from eating crawfish, driving south to look for frogs, and even found myself out in the woods looking for the grave of a possible saint. At the end of the day I'm overtaken by so many wonderful ideas for writing that I find it hard to sleep.

As for my creative fiction, aside from another submission round with the Southern Review, I have been lucky enough to have a great friend who has shared his writing expertise by giving me pointers on my newest short story. Owning his own publishing company and having written many books over the years, I am taking his critiques to heart in order to make my story even better than before.

I write down everything I want to remember. That way instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on. - Beryl Pfizer (writer, actor)

A Commonplace For Everything

"To those, who have been accustomed to the use of a Commonplace Book, the advantage of a convenient Repository of the kind is well known; and to those, who have not, its utility must be sufficiently obvious. The man who reads, and neglects to note down the essence of what he has read; the man who sees, and omits to record what he has seen; the man who thinks, and fails to treasure up his thoughts in some place…will often have occasion to regret an omission, which such a book, as is now offered to him, is well calculated to remedy." RENAISSANCE COMMONPLACE BOOKS FROM THE BRITISH LIBRARY

In reading Unveiling Kate Chopin by Emily Toth, I kept coming across mention of something called a Commonplace Book. I had never heard of such a thing but seeing that Kate was a writer in 1800s America, I was compelled to find out what exactly what the biographer was referring to. I find Victorian culture fascinating and being an avid scrapbooker and writer myself, I found the following explanation:

According to Wikipedia, Commonplace books were a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They became significant in Early Modern Europe. "Commonplace" is a translation of the Latin term locus communis which means "a theme or argument of general application", such as a statement of proverbial wisdom. In this original sense, commonplace books were collections of such sayings, such as John Milton's commonplace book. Scholars have expanded this usage to include any manuscript that collects material along a common theme by an individual. Such books were essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: medical recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas. Commonplaces were used by readers, writers, students, and humanists as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts they had learned. Each commonplace book was unique to its creator's particular interests.

I always find myself re-reading informative passages, newspaper clippings, beautiful poems, recipes, song lyrics or excerpts from various books wondering how I would ever remember that they were there later. What better way to compile these things and perhaps leave your children something that they can cherish once you are gone than a "Commonplacer"?

According to the website Self Made Scholar, the steps for creating a Commonplace book are quite simple.

1. Choose your medium (notebook, binder, journal, blog, etc.)

2. Choose your content (include anything you would like to remember)

3. Choose an organizational system (dividers, sections, chapters, tabs, etc.)

4. Keep it up!

Beauty and Brains

I did it. I finally finished the story I have been working on for the last month or so. Rome wasn't built in a day and when it comes to historic fiction, it can take forever! Since then, I have found myself procrastinating, wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out what to do with my brain and my fingers.

On pay day, I decided to take a visit to historic Jefferson, Texas to get my hair done at the world's only beauty salon - slash - bookstore, Beauty and the Book. Can you ask for more? Perfect hair while surrounded by shelves of books! Okay, maybe a few bars of chocolate and a cup of iced coffee. I would have never come home! Kathy would have had to put some chairs together to make me a bed.

So, this Kathy that I speak of is a Queen; a Pulpwood Queen that is. A writer, a reader, a book club creator, tiara wearing hair dresser. She has asked me to take over the Shreveport chapter that a good friend of mine started. Me, a queen? We'll see.

On another note, it has been 3 years since I began writing for Louisiana Road Trips magazine. I still remember the very night that my friend assured me that I could do it and gave me the editor's email address. I got hired that very night and have been rolling out the articles ever since. Today my editor sent me an email with exciting news! The magazine is going to publish it's first collection of articles in book form! About 300 articles from the past 5 years will be selected. Now we only have to wait and see which pieces of mine will make the cut!

Progress and Busy Work

A lot of things have been happening since we spoke last. Mostly busy work and probably a bit mundane for those of you who aren't familiar with the steps forward and backward in the world of writing and self-promotion.

The first of each month is always a wonderful time for those of us who contribute to any sort of magazine or journal...release day! So, as usual, the march issue of Louisiana Road Trips was released; my articles appear on pages 16 and 20, covering some fantastic places to visit "off the beaten path" in the Big Easy.

After doing some research and emailing in regards to some upcoming articles coming soon in Louisiana Cookin' Magazine, I then gathered up all of my rejection letters from various literary journals and put together submission packets for another go-around. Try, try, and try again!

My other exciting news is the creation of my new network Bayou Travels! Spending several years wishing that I could find a single comprehensive website that lists all of the cultural events and historic places to visit in the state of Louisiana, I finally decided to create one myself. This site shares photos from the places that I've visited myself, upcoming events that I plan to attend, La periodicals, novels, music, places to eat, and a way for everyone to share their thoughts and photos. I've been working hard on adding to my listings and am quite proud of the work I've done. You can check out what's going on in the state while listening to funky Zydeco music at the same time! Gotta love it!

So now comes the weekend...time to take a break and make a pilgrimage to see the one and only Wynton Marsalis with Jazz at Lincoln Center play in in "Big D". Have a great weekend!

Forget-Me-Nots

So, I started thinking about my own mortality while walking into the hospital for a check-up. As I rode the elevator to the 5th floor where my doctor's office is located, I was not worried about my health, per say, but about the mortality of the things that I do.

Being a parent has caused me to be even more aware of the things in my life that I would like to leave behind for my descendants. For instance, my writing and paintings are definitely something that I would like for my grandchildren to cherish after I am gone.

While sitting in the waiting room, I cracked open one of the last few chapters in my library book Louisiana Women: Their Life and Times, a fantastic compilation of biographical essays about powerful, intellectual Louisiana ladies. Women like Kate Chopin, who lived for a few years just south of where I now call home, helped pave the way for independent women writers. She was, and still is, seen as a fearless person who went against the norm of society and has lived on in pages of novels, short stories, and bios.

In 2010, when being a successful woman is the norm, what does it take to leave a legacy like the one Kate Chopin has left the world? Growing up we are taught that everyone has special qualities. So what is the new requirement for being special enough for a person's books to be read for years and years to come, to be the next Kate Chopin, Ernest Hemmingway, or Robert Penn Warren?

A couple of days ago the muses wiggled their magic wands and filled my head full of story ideas and the ability to edit flawlessly. I guess all things come in due time, but man have I needed a little sprinkling of fairy dust!

I found this interesting and humorous book by Heather Sellers in the Writers Digest online shop on Sunday evening...which is strange in and of itself considering I do not have a Writers Digest subscription nor have I bought one of their magazines in a couple of years. I immediately placed the book on hold at Barnes & Noble. Maybe I should have gotten a copy of the newest digest as well. Hmmm... Of course I had already begun writing again by the time I picked up my new "self-help" book yesterday. Nevertheless, this book is a straight up, rough around the edges, no bs guide to getting up off of your butt (or on your butt for writers) and start actually doing what you love. Between this cute little pocket-sized manual and reading Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times edited by Janet Allured and Judith F. Gentry (a nice jolt of "I am woman, hear me roar), my creative storytelling fire is most certainly lit!

Speaking of the muses and inspiration, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it seems that most of my best ideas spring into being when I am trying desperately to take a nap or getting ready to go to sleep at night. I even get hit with the writing bug while I am reading something else...a book that has no relevance to the subject matter of my little idea bursts. Heather Sellers says "Write what you want to read." Is my brain simply feeling the urge to multi-task?

So, at the moment crisis has been averted and I am back on track. Who knows what tomorrow or even next week will bring. That being said, I will continue to sleep with a stack of books and a #2 BIC mechanical pencil on my bedside table.

Excuses, Excuses...

(Writing's) a lot like painting by the numbers; you may get one corner of the picture just right, but you're nowhere near experiencing the flow and excitement of creation. It's far more important (and constructive) to get the entire tale down on paper, warts and all, then come back and refine it. - Persia Woolley, How to Write and Sell Historical Fiction

"I have too much to do. It's too noisy. My favorite show is on television. I need to cook supper. I'm too tired." These are a few examples of the hundreds of excuses that I tend to make for myself to avert my attention away from editing the stories that I have written.

I mean, I wrote the story. It will be there when I get ready to edit, right? Sure. Unless a natural disaster occurs or the local thief peddles in scribbled-up notebooks, the manuscript will likely remain under a stack of magazines, just where I left it. So why can't I edit my story and get it over with?

My husband took note a few days ago that I had not actually sat in the "writing nook" that I painstakingly put together in our bedroom. The black chair is now covered in stacks of clothes and cat hair. I find my furry friend curled up asleep in my nook 9 times out of 10.

I am, no doubt, going through a phase that most, if not all, writers go through from time to time. I cannot pinpoint if it is a lack of discipline, the unwillingness of taking my job seriously, or if there is an amount of unconscious fear that has built up this barrier in front of me. Quite often I find myself reading the first page of Chapter Ten in Persia Woolley's book, trying to get it to sink in:

It is precisely this challenge, and the discipline required to meet it, that makes the difference between you and the hundreds of wanna-bes who have grand stories and interesting characters in mind but won't commit to treating writing like a job. It takes a combination of dedication, determination and desperation to become a historical novelist,...

So. why is finishing up a story, or writing it to begin with, so damn hard? The concept is there, the research has been done. Is it the fear of failure that plagues me so? Some of these questions cannot be explained in a simple "how to" book.

What do you think?