In a virtual meeting for CANSCAIP Members and Friends across Canada, I’ll be speaking with panelists S.K. Ali and Nadia Hohn as well as moderator Glen Huser about our faculty and student experiences in writing programs and schools.
Have you considered a degree in creative writing? What degrees are out there? What is the workload? What can you gain? And – is it worth the money?
Date and Time: March 10, 7 p.m. ET Guests are welcome, and can contact office@canscaip.org to request the Zoom link.
Our world has been going through extraordinary changes, and so have we as writers. Who are you now? What stories are currently simmering within you, waiting to be told?
In this hands-on workshop, I’ll explore how to tap into ourselves and our stories through the practice of side-writing, which refers to stepping away from the story on the page to explore the raw heart of it through creative exercises. You’ll explore how side-writing can help us to write true to ourselves, plumb the emotional depths of our characters to better connect to readers, and spark joy and play in our writing.
No one wants to visit writer’s block. But it happens, especially after months and months of a pandemic. The world can be distracting and disturbing. My brain and body can become too out of kilter to write. I get stuck. I doubt myself and my stories. It happens to all creators at some point.
It can feel like I’m wandering in an endless loop. Or like I’m trapped and unable to move.
When I visit schools, I often get asked how I overcome writer’s block. Here are a few ways that have worked for me. Hopefully, you’ll find something that’ll work for you when you get stuck.
Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block
Set a daily word count. Sometimes, I need to push my way through a writing block. By writing a little bit every day, I keep my story in my head. I like to set a low daily word count, like 200 words/day. I often write more, but my goal is to get started each day.
Put the manuscript in a drawer. When I’m not sure what to write next in a story, I write down the unanswered questions I have about the manuscript, then I put it away for a few days, weeks, or months. My subconscious writer’s brain will work on answering the questions while I’m doing other things. When I come back to the manuscript, I’m often surprised to discover that I have the answers to my questions.
Get feedback from trusted critique partners. I’m a big fan of writing critique groups and partners, partly because it’s hard to be objective about our own writing and partly because I adore spending time with other writers. When I’m stuck, fresh eyes on my manuscript can help me find new ways forward. And helping other writers makes me a better writer too.
Re-read what I already wrote on a story. When I sit down to write each day, I usually re-read what I wrote on it the day before. Sometimes, I need to re-read an entire draft of a novel to be able to see how to write the next part.
Talk with a friend about why I’m stuck. I often talk to a friend or family member when I’m stuck. As I talk, the problem usually comes into focus. Sometimes, they have ideas that spark me. Either way, I feel supported and ready to dive back in.
Write outside of the story. Some people call this “side writing,” and it can take many forms. For example, I might write a scene from a different character’s point of view, write a letter from one character to another, brainstorm ideas for what might happen next, ask my character a series of questions to get to know them better, write a poem about my story, and so on. There are a million ways to do side writing, but basically, the goals are to play with your story, to loosen up, to get to know your story and characters better, and to re-kindle your writing.
Take a writing class or read about writing craft. When I’m struggling with a manuscript, sometimes I need to learn more about how to tackle a particular writing challenge. For example, I took screen-writing courses when I had trouble with plotting, and I regularly read books about writing for tips and techniques.
Take a break. Not every day is a writing day. It’s okay not to write for days or even months at a time. Sometimes, I need to get away from my writing desk to rest and recover or to experience the world. So if writing is slow, consider taking a nap, going for a walk, or even launching a grand adventure! Of course, these days, that will be six-feet apart and wearing a mask, but we can still find ways to adventure.
If you have other suggestions for overcoming writer’s block, please let me know. I’d love to hear them!
UPDATE: Thank you to the organizers of the SCBWI Canada East Art of Story Conference, who have wisely decided to cancel it due to covid-19. I hope to be back as a speaker at a later event. In the meantime, they’re hoping to host online workshops and distance critiques so stayed tuned!
I’m thrilled and honoured to be included as faculty at the upcoming SCBWI Canada East Art of Story Conference. This is an intimate and craft-based conference focused on writing and illustrating for children and teens. I hope you’ll be able to join us.
Date: April 24 to 26, 2020 Place: Albert at Bay Suite Hotel, Ottawa
You can check out all the faculty and workshops. My talk will be based on my critical thesis and grad lecture I completed during my MFA in Writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. I’m excited to be able to share it with a wider audience.
How To Build Character Cultural Literacy To reflect the full and varied reality of human experience, all writers need to respectfully and thoughtfully depict secondary characters with a range of cultural beliefs. Even when our protagonists largely mirror us, can we say the same for all their friends?
Each character we create exists within a global village and within a particular nation, neighbourhood, social class, ability level as well as an ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, family, and peer group—each with its own distinct culture. Awareness of our characters’ culture beliefs will deepen their presence on the page.
Using insights from contemporary cultural anthropologists, I’ll introduce tools we can use to identify our characters’ deep-level cultural beliefs, offering insights into their motivations and story arcs. I’ll focus on family culture since that’s where we first learn and express our beliefs, although these tools can be applied to other cultural groups. We’ll also compare our own cultural beliefs to our characters’ to discuss the importance of respecting #OwnVoices, writing within our cultural elements, and avoiding bias through omission.
I’ve been having fun drawing my Kan’t Draw Komics, which I started because I’m a terrible artist. You can read more about that in this post. Here are my latest ones.
As author Jane Smiley said, “Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.”
May your story garden thrive!
Personally, I’m not sure the revision stage ever ends. That’s one of the wonderful and challenging parts of writing.
I’m just back from my second residency at VCFA, and I’m exhausted and inspired by days filled with lectures, workshops, readings, and so many conversations about writing. To tell you the truth, I was a little shocked when I arrived home and my family didn’t want to constantly discuss writing. At residency, I also delivered my very first lecture, which was about picture-book revisions.
In my lecture, I talked about revision as the heart of the writer’s craft. It’s the reason an editor might eventually be able to sense the pulse of my story. It’s the reason a reader might get to thrum to the beating heart of the story I’ve finally managed to infuse with life.
But how to revise well? I explored this question with a visit to the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books in Toronto to seek original manuscripts that became acclaimed picture books. My goal was to analyze how authors of both classic and recent books had revised their manuscripts. I thought of it as a game, where I could identify what questions the author may have asked when revising or what questions they answered through revision. I could then ask the same questions about my own works-in-progress.
Each time I revise a manuscript, I seem to go through the same painful bumps in the road. My hope is that, by analyzing and learning from others’ revision processes, I’ll be able to find the beating heart of my story more directly and with fewer bumps. Perhaps each of these questions I identified can become the basis for one pass through the manuscript. Perhaps I can infuse my intuitive process with some of this analytical knowledge.
My lecture was part of a panel discussion of picture books with four amazing students I studied with during the Picture Book Intensive (PBI) semester. Together we wrote, critiqued, and analyzed picture books in an online forum, as well as working one-on-one with our faculty advisor, the talented Liz Garton Scanlon. I found the PBI discussions to be more demanding and focused than monthly writing groups. It fostered deep thinking and valuable insights.
With my lecture done, I received a PBI certificate, since this semester can be taken separately from the whole MFA program. I was also thrilled to receive the Beyond Words Scholarship! It’s awarded to a student who demonstrates a passion and commitment to picture books. Now, to use my new knowledge of this genre, I’ll be reviewing picture books for Canadian Children’s Book News as well as continuing to write my own.
I’m now back at my desk and diving into my pile of second-semester work. In this semester, my advisor is a writer with great heart and instinct—Amanda Jenkins, author of the Printz Honor Book Repossessed, among others titles. I’m super stoked to dive into how to better connect to my characters and convey emotional depth on the page, which are my goals for this semester.
Taking this MFA program is the best gift I’ve ever given my writer self. It’s a transformative experience, and I’m so grateful for it.
I’m just back from my second residency at VCFA, and I’m exhausted and inspired by days filled with lectures, workshops, readings, and so many conversations about writing. To tell you the truth, I was a little shocked when I arrived home and my family didn’t want to constantly discuss writing. At residency, I also delivered my very first lecture, which was about picture-book revisions.