First, You Have to Name It

Good morning, Reader. Yes, I miss you. Yes, I think of you often. Sometimes I think it’s good to remind you that I’m still right here every morning…I’m just doing something a little different with the hour. You see, I have only so many good writing hours in me each day, and if I spend my most productive ones with you, then other things don’t get done. I know you’re fine without me for a while, but these characters that are taking shape will not come to life without my attention. 

At a lunch I shared with a group of UC librarians and technology wizards, I talked about how wonderful and fun and crazily frustrating it is to write this first novel…because I’m not sure how to do it! I never took a novel-writing course, you know. But, over the years, I have come—amazingly—to trust my own creative instincts, so I simply trust how this is working. It’s quite unwieldy. Believe it or not, I have no idea of the plot or the conflict or anything you might think I should know by now. Who cares. It’s working.

Anyway, to learn more about how to write good dialogue, my favorite librarian suggested I re-read Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. Which happens to be my all-time favorite novel. I’m right now re-reading Barbara Kingsolver’s early novels…Animal Dreams and The Bean Trees. I will also re-read The Beans of Egypt, Maine and Latourneu’s Used Auto Parts and anything else I can get my hands on by Carolyn Chute. I think she wrote a novel I haven’t yet read called The School on Heart’s Content Road. I want these voices sort of moving in my body as I write. And see how wonderfully important titles are? I have a working title, but I can’t tell it to you. You’ll love it. 

But, back to lunch. Shortly after lunch, one of my friends who was part of this conversation sent me a link to an article about other writers and their writing processes and angst. It’s a good article…from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (university folks don’t send useless links). 

So, when you get to missing Not Alice every morning, you may want to start writing your own novel or your own short story or your own memoir or your own poems or your own blog. How should you do that? You just start. See you in a little while.