Cheap Notebooks, Nice Pens: A Writing Life

We have so many devices available today. In our - admittedly slow to adopt technology and constrained by a tight budget - family we have a desktop computer, a laptop, my Kindle Fire, and two smart-ish phones. There are so many ways to record our thoughts, activities, and any aspect of our lives we care to remember or share with hundreds of people we may or may not know.

But when I need to write, must write, have to write or I might burst from holding words inside, I always reach for paper and pen.

I'm not particular about the paper, a cheap notebook will do. (For this reason alone back-to-school sales are like early Christmas. Notebooks for $0.17? Yes, please, I'll have them ALL.)

I am choosy about the pen. I prefer Pilot G-2s (since my budget doesn't reach to the truly nice pens). These pens have smoothly flowing ink and fine points, but not too fine, since a scratchy pen is an abomination.

When words are simply demanding to be written, I'll use whatever is at hand (markers, sharpies, colored pencils, crayons in truly dire circumstances) but if I can choose, I take up a pen.

I guard them jealously. My daughters like to take them, using them for intricate pen drawings or cartoons drawn on pilfered printer paper. "Where's my pen?!" is a common cry around our home, since my husband is equally jealous over his pens.

Why do I write when I may never be known for it or receive any acclaim for it? Why take up the carefully hidden pen and reach for paper again and again? Because I must.

The notebook page is blank. I take my perfect pen - not too heavy, not too plastic, just the write amount of ink - and the words come down with the ink, flowing from a part of my brain I don't even have to think about accessing. It's like a magic agreement between the one true Creator God, my empty paper, my rushing pen, and my brain that must spill out words in order to exist.

I may not ever be a published Author. I may never make any money from the scribblings in my notebooks. Or maybe I will, who can say? But it doesn't really matter anyway. A Writer is someone who wrote today.

And my pen is ready.

picture source: Pixabay

Christian or Not: Quality Writing Matters

Yesterday I happened to read - in our local Sunday paper, no less - a story about people who downloaded a book for free on Amazon only to discover that it was {gasp} Christian Fiction. Then those folks left nasty, one star reviews.

The story quoted Rachelle Gardner, which pleased me greatly because I read her blog about writing and publishing.

Gardner wrote a post way back in January of this year about the need for labeling Christian Fiction. You can see her post here: Should We Label Christian Fiction? The comments (at my last count there were 202) are also interesting and informative.

The news article I read yesterday was not the first I've thought about this subject. I've been saving links for a while now, trying to organize my thoughts on this topic. After all, I'm a wannabe writer. And I'm a voracious reader. These questions matter to me. If I'm a writer and a Christian, do I have to be a "Christian author"?

Here's a post in response to Rachelle Gardner's (this one is by Mike Duran): Why We Should NOT Label Christian Fiction. I confess, I am not familiar with the "Novel Rocket" blog, but I may start reading it now. He makes some good points.

Here's where I stand on this:

Booking Through Thursday - Writing a Book

Question  of the week: If you could write a book, what would it be about, and why?

I've been working on a fiction series set during the Second World War since I was a teenager. I work on it a bit, set it aside, then come back to it and work on it some more. I'm always doing research. (Basically all those books in my monthly booklists that make people ask "Why on Earth did she read that?)

I've even - this makes me feel so professional - been to our Big Library and scrolled through  microfilm newspapers.

So, my fledgling book is way better now than it was back when I was a teenager. But...it's no where near finished. I haven't even let Philip read any of it.

And yes, part of it is set in Britain, and yes, I try to tell my husband that we must go back for research's sake. (We've already been once for fun. This would be work.)

If you're wondering what my writing process looks like, it goes something like this:

• inspiration strikes (often late at night)
• furiously scribble story down in spiral bound notebook until exhausted
• later (a day, a week, a...longer than that) type story into computer word processing program
• become convinced story is a) dreck, b) hopeless, c) pretty good but will never be finished
• go for a while without writing
• repeat

Philip and I have also written a children's book which is now in the re-write, refining stage. (Stay tuned!) And one of these days I'm going to get around to that self-help I've been meaning to write. (I have the title already: It's All About You and Other Lies You've Been Told. Subtitle: Stop Doing Stupid, Irritating, Selfish Stuff.)

What about you? Ever wanted to write a book?
This post is linked to Booking Through Thursday.

In Which I Attempt to Explain My Absence

I don't know if you've noticed (hint, hint) but this is only my sixth post of April. Usually I post nearly every day.

Obviously, that isn't happening this month.

At this rate we'll never get to my long anticipated giveaway. (You are anticipating it, right? I am. If only to get these things out of my bedroom where I must continually rescue them from Sweet Pea's curiosity.)

I just haven't been feeling very "bloggy" lately. Yeah, I just made that word up. My life doesn't feel bloggable (yet another made up word). Or I'm self-censoring because it would be better to not say what's on my mind. (Which is the prompt question on Facebook these days. "What's on your mind?"Like I could just spell it all out in three lines - all 73,461 things I'm thinking about all the time.)

On the other hand, whatever this mood I'm in is, it's been great for working on my story. Prince Charming is worried that my characters may be suffering horrible hardships or even death due to the vindictive way I've been typing this week. (I prefer to think of my typing style as emphatic.)

Never fear. Only the ones that are supposed to die will, and I'm not to that part anyway. Yet. (Insert evil-maniacal laughter here. Or not.)

From The Commonplace Book

Writing is not a profession, it is an activity. It is something you do with your hands, like knitting. - Fay Weldon

I love this quote. Other than a little sewing every once in awhile, I'm not much of a handicrafts kind of person. I do not knit, crochet, embroider, cross-stitch, or so on.

But I do write. I write on slips of paper. I write on the backs of receipts. I write on the church bulletin (Hey, I'm being candid here. Don't judge me too harshly.) I write lists of names for potential characters. I write scraps of dialogue.

I blog and I write these things not because I need anyone to read them (although that is a nice bonus) but because I must. At the same time, there's nothing special about it. I'm not a better or worse person because I write. It's just what I do. Like knitting.

And a bonus quote from the same page of my commonplace book:

A story is a letter the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I'm not sure about this one, yet. Ask me after my first novel is printed.