Quickie, anyone? ;) How to keep writing in a busy life

This idea came to me in early spring, and so far it has worked well for making sure my writing projects get face time at least once a week, if not (ideally) daily.

Have you ever been sitting with seven to fifteen minutes to kill before work/yoga/meeting/store opens/bedtime and asked yourself, what could I be doing right now?


I propose to you, that you create a list of answers to this question; an inventory of quick-fixes you need to make in a take-your-pick fashion. I call them Quickies.

Say that you realized at the end of your last big writing chunk (however long ago it was) that there was a conflict in description, or you realized what a better line would have been for your furious character on her warpath, or thought of something else to add/change that begged the resigned after-thought, I'll do it later.


These tiny tasks can add up, and leave a lot of work and edits to be done that feel heavy and are easily procrastinated. But what is important to remember is that they are little things, Quickies, and keeping an inventory of them will give you small ways to feed and water your novel/memoir/epic poem, even when the universe is being a time Nazi.

Depending on your level of organizational needs, you could estimate time needed for each Quickie under columns. For example, you could have a <1 minute, 5ish minutes, and 10+ minutes space to identify each fix or addition you have, so you have more time (when the time comes) to pick one from the appropriate space and go!

The other great thing about a list taped to your cabinet/television/fridge/bathroom mirror, is that not only are you slowly chipping marble from the big masterpiece, but you are preventing your project from collecting dust, from sinking between the metal spirals of the back burner and creating a funny smell inside your life goals that sets off unhappiness smoke alarms. It keeps your characters and messages with you even when time isn't, and that way when you do have a larger chunk of time, your writing endeavors are likely to have more visible frantic hands waving over the top of Netflix/Pinterest/buying more jalapeno pretzels.

They don't have to make sense to anyone but you. Some items on my Quickie list:
Adventure rustling
The binoculars are red!
Lee's bedroom?
Marvin needs a face!

Make use of your time-holes! Make your Quickie lists and tell me all about them!

Writers for Writers: Wes McNair's Rules for Poetry Line Breaks

Recently crowned with the title of Maine's Poet Laureate (What some argue is the only good decision made by governor Lepage), and who is also the founder of UMaine Farmington's BFA creative writing program, Wes Mcnair often meets with UMF students in his retired years in a workshop or one-shot lecture format to offer his sage advice.
This semester, Wes visited to discuss his new thinking, among other things, about why and how to select one's poetic line breaks. He eluded to having a longer list, but please enjoy the ten thoughts he shared with us.
For more about Wes McNair, see: http://blackwidow.umf.maine.edu/~wesmcnair/


Rules for Line Breaking
1. Break to suggest central action and its unfolding, to create anticipation
Let words stick out of your lines that connect to the poem's heart. Also, let the lines create tension, as professor Jeff Thompson would put it. Make the reader chase you to the next line to find out what fell, or who chased her, or whatever have you.
2. Break for interplay between line and sentence; This is free verse's rhyme & meter equivalent
In other words, as Wes was once advised: The line is Buddha, the sentence is Socrates 
Buddha is content to be were he is, as he is, the way a line, on its own, its simple, perhaps pretty or cryptic, but calm. Socrates is always asking, wanting, and hungry. You follow the entire sentence line to line to find out what, who, or why, jumping from Buddha to Buddha until your questions are answered. When line breaking, be aware of how you answer Socrates's questions effectively, but also create graceful pauses in your lines, to enjoy the moment.  
3. To create a graph of feeling
Playing with jagged margins, or waves, or open space to illustrate a reflection of the poem's feeling. Using shorter lines for riddles and unknowns also plays with what isn't said.
4. Break to emphasize related sounds
Is there a song to your poem? Find the music. See if there is a sense of metronome, or words you can link together at the poem's pauses to create a resonance. This can be done with or without rhyme.  
5. The word at the end of the line is most important.
Use Nouns, verbs, and their describers. All sentences have and, the, or but. They are less important, only connectors. End on the words that need to stand out of the poem, let them linger with the reader on the end of the line before they continue through your poem, or follow them through their day after they put your poem down.
6. Break to show the stresses of meditation
Listen to people around you as they speak. It was Wes Mcnair's observation that people speak in line breaks as well as can write in them. People pause for thought, for continued meditation, at places in their sentences that are their own, and make their voice. He advises to play with this in our poetry.
7. When breaking, be aware of stanza form: Do you use regular, or irregular stanzas?
You'd better know, and have done it on purpose.
8. "Let me learn the rules so I can break them"
In the days of rhyme and meter, rhythm would be broken in choice places in order to bring attention to a message. This rule was not abandoned in the days of free verse. Create a theme, pattern, or message, and then obscure it. Play with capital letters or punctuation at the end of lines in a way that brings focus to a contrary feeling or ironic concept.  
9. Find the second story
It isn't really a secret of the trade that poems about waltzes, or red wheelbarrows, or horses at night, rarely stop at just creating those everyday images. There is always a "second story," or rather, a reason for why the initial object was worth writing about, a discovery that is made along the way.   

Additionally, putting this much though into how one writes their poetry makes you a stronger reader. You will pay more attention to these choices as they are made by other poets, and take this play into consideration when you absorb their work.

Elegy Update

I heard back form my professor about the pet elegy I wrote in response to his challenge that no one has ever written a good one. I, of course, did not manage to wow him off his feet, but his comments were, for once, not entirely discouraging. He referred to my ending as "Very elegiac," and even though he had suggestions for my freshly drafted poem, I felt them to be helpful, and they had more to do with clarity than an overall message of "make better." Perhaps after heeding some of his advice, I'll offer the poem here, and see what you think?

First Publication!

Very exciting news!
Yesterday, I received an email late at night, informing me that my short story, The Difference, and my poem, Francis Lloyd Marlow, have been accepted for my school's art/literature anthology The Sandy River Review, that's published every semester. This may sound like a small-scale deal, but the last 7 semesters I have been here I have submitted, and it was not until try number eight that my work was accepted! I guess it goes to show I've come a long way. Its pretty cool to know I was accepted for publication before I got my BFA, even if the publication itself won't come out until after. ;p


Still have not heard from my professor about the pet Elegy I sent him. I wrote one for a person later, (My father's mother) to meet the parameters of the assignment, and in looking at them both, I think the second one is better, so at least I have something I like to turn in today for workshop, but I am anxious to know if I continued his theory, or disproved it.

Happy Trails, Internet!

So Far, So Good!

I've learned my way around Blogspot fairly well since I made my first post. I'm hoping this will be cozy place to hang out for a while.

Writing news:

~~Poetry professor assigned today that we write an elegy 

Elegy: A poem which subtly notes the absence of someone who has passed away in a manner than invokes sorrow without spoon feeding an individual's anguish.

We were told we are permitted to write about someone we know personally, or a historical figure or celebrity, but that we are not permitted to write about a pet. My professor claimed that, in essence, there is no such thing as a good elegy about a pet. There were several students--including me--who challenged that generalization, and he invited us to turn in two if we really wanted to attempt the "feat." I sent him a draft this evening, and am awaiting commentary.

~~Wes McNair, a very valued poet in Maine who once directed the poetry program at UMF, is coming to campus next week to discuss craft and form with six selected students; this list, to my chair-descending astoundment, included me. I've met him before, and heard him read, but I am very excited to work with him in workshop form. ^_^

~~Finally, the artist statement I have to complete for my BFA senior portfolio is very close to being done. I mailed it out to some dear friends for some last tweaks (or what may turn out to be huge tweaks, as editing goes) and whatnot, but once I have it, perhaps I'll display it here. It is coming to resonate with me even more than I expected.

So where are you, all future friends? Here's hoping I meet you all soon. ^_^

Happy Trails,

~Ellen

Defeating Writer's Block: A Tip

This is what I like to do when I'm stuck. I am sharing with you because, because. I'm not an authority on the matter, but where would writers be without other writers to throw rescue ropes into our word pits? =)
Writer’s block, as many of us are anguishly aware, is often when we have the desire or need to write, but nothing is occurring to us. If only the beginning of an idea could show itself, we may know where to go.
One thing we can do rather than leave ourselves to entire sentences, is start with the baby-step of filling in the blank.

Step 1: Look up famous first lines, famous last lines, find a line in a random book near you, get a favorite quote—start somewhere, and take a line out of context entirely.

Step 2: Take the line you’ve chosen, and find a way to fill it with blanks. Take only the first half, or remove all the verbs, or take the end of the line and plan to end up there, or use any other method of diminishing you can think of.
Examples of steps one and two completed:
For the seventh time, …
As he fumbled to ____________, he looked up and saw….
One thing that ___________ never was, so they said, was….
…and lay in a crumpled heap at the feet of his _________.
Her ________ was/were wide, and his was/were __________.

Step 3: Have a field day. Even if lines like these don’t lead you to accomplish your task at hand, they tend to break the embargo that kept dramatic and enticing words from reaching you.