Write On Wednesday: Toolkit

In the neighborhood where I grew up, there was an old-fashioned hardware store within walking distance of our house. Well, it would seem old-fashioned now, when most of us purchase our gadgets and gewgaws at huge warehouse type places like Home Depot or Lowe's where you must walk 10 miles on cement floors and peruse nine millions layers of plastic packages before you find just the right five-dollar pair of screws for the job.

At our little hardware store in Melvindale, Michigan, all the nails, nuts, and bolts were tossed into bins up and down the narrow aisleways. You could pick a handful if you liked, or just one if that were all you needed, and put them into tiny paper bags.

When I was a toddler, I loved going to the hardware store almost as much as I loved going to the drugstore and looking at magazines. All those shiny objects in so many sizes and shapes were great fun to look at. The man who owned the store knew my father and grandfather, and enjoyed watching me sink my chubby little hands into the mounds of steel and iron. Perhaps he wasn't quite so enthusiastic the time I took home a pocketful - but he forgave me nonetheless.

My early obsession with tools didn't last. I'm pretty hopeless with a hammer and nails, and you certainly wouldn't want me within operating range of any kind of power tools.

But then, I'm not an engineer like my husband, or a machinist like my father.

I am, however, proficient with the tools specific to my trade.

Like any other craft, writers and musicians have their own set of tools, a personal kit of indispensable items that help them tackle the job at hand, whether it's writing an essay or playing a sonata.

See what I carry in my writer's toolkit at today's Write On Wednesday.

How about you? What tools are specific to your trade? What are the essential items in your toolkit?

Five Essentials for the Writer's Toolkit

I want to suggest that to write to your best abilities, it behooves you to construct your own toolbox and then build up enough muscle so you can carry it with you. Then, instead of looking at a hard job and getting discourages, you will perhaps seize the correct tool and get immediately to work.  On Writing, by Stephen King

I may not be a handyman, but I know you can't complete any kind of job around the house without the proper tools.

The same holds true for the writer. No matter how many great, creative ideas you have, you'll never get them onto the page and in front of your reader without the right tools for the job.

Here are the essential items in my writer's tool chest:

1. Love of Language: Words are the building blocks for everything the writer does. The process of selecting the right ones and placing them in the proper order can be frustrating at times, but writers must be completely enamored with wordplay and willing to dig deeply into the recesses of their vocabulary for that perfect word or turn of phrase.
2. A Sense of How Language Works: If words are the foundation of the writers craft, then grammar is the cement that holds it all together. This is the weakest spot in my personal tool kit, a place I often need to seek assistance. There's always a copy of this book close at hand when I'm writing.
3. A Good Library: For research, for inspiration, for general knowledge, writers must read. Having access to books of all kinds is essential.
4. Physical Tools: Whether it's a computer screen, an electric typewriter, or a legal pad and felt tip pen, writers must have a method of putting their words on the page. Beyond that, they must also develop a system of organization for notes and ideas. Some rely on looseleaf notebooks, index cards taped on the walls, or some of the new computer programs like Evernote and Scrivener.
5. Faithful Readers: The writer should have at least one or two trusted readers who will support and advise her in the early stages of her work, before the words go out to the millions of people waiting eagerly to read them!

What essentials are in your writers tool kit?

Five Reasons Why Writing is My True Love

This Valentine's week I find myself thinking about all the people and things I love. Writing, is of course, at the top of that latter list.

Here are five reasons why I love to write:

1. Writing helps me make sense of the world around me. When I write about what's happening in my life -either in my journal or on the blog or in a long email to a friend - my feelings become clearer and my thoughts begin to make sense.
2. Writing gives me an opportunity to connect with other people. I think every writer wants readers, wants someone to read the words we've put together so painstakingly. Luckily the internet gives us the ability to do that. Through blog writing I've met many interesting people from all over the world whom I can now call friends.
3. Writing stretches my mind. Like daily exercise for the body, writing is a way to stretch my brain. Coming up with ideas for things to write, gathering information, putting the words together so they convey my message, all expand my mind and my imagination.
4. Writing lets me play with words. I like to arrange words on the page like a quilter arranges blocks of fabric or an artist mixes colors on the canvas. I love learning new words and finding places to use them in my writing.
5. Writing gives me a way to tell my stories. Every one of us has a story to tell. Life happens every day and what happens to us is important. Sharing those stories with others brings us together with other humans in a way that makes life more meaningful and bearable. Writing is the way I tell my stories.

How about you? Why do you love writing?

Why In the World Do You Come to the Page?

While I'm in Florida this week, I'm posting some relevant pieces from the archives. This is the first Write on Wednesday post from June 2008.

Frustration has been the name of the game this week.   Our computers at work are wonky, we have a new staff member in the office meaning there's all kinds of unusual verbal and social interaction, and then one of our senior staff members decided it would be fun for all of us to have instant messenger so we could IM each other within our huge (7 people on a good day) office.  I'm ashamed to say I spent at an hour creating my avatar...you see, I was trying to find this one icon of a fluffy white dog (see what I mean about wasting time?)

So I got home about 6:00, after fighting my way through rush hour traffic, and what's the first thing I feel compelled to do?

Write.

Wouldn't you think that after a frustrating day, a day when every accomplishment, every task was completed with much virtual hair pulling and screaming, wouldn't you think that after a day like that I'd crave nothing more than a big glass of wine, a huge box of chocolates, and my easy chair?

Why in the world would I come to the page after a day like that?

"We should write because writing is a powerful form of prayer and meditation, connecting us both to our own insight and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance," says Julia Cameron, in The Right to Write.  "Writing is good for the soul."

While I don't necessarily think of writing as cathartic, I do believe it helps me make sense of my world and myself.  There are times when a striking truth about my life suddenly appears before me on the screen, complete and utterly honest, coming straight from my spirit through my fingers and onto the page.  For a writer, there is a great connection between the heart, the mind, and the pen.  The act of setting words on the page seems to open a door directly into my writer's soul, letting me in on the secrets that are stored there.

Perhaps that why writing is such a restorative act.  "Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises," Anne Lamott writes in Bird by Bird.  "The actual act of writing turns out to be the best part.  It's like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony.  The act of writing turns out to be its own reward."

Indeed, there was a sense of relief, of reassurance, to come home, kick off my shoes, and curl up in my easy chair with my virtual pen and paper - my little laptop perched precariously on the chair's overstuffed arm.  I admit, there was wine involved too, but the comfort and relaxation which flooded my body had more to do with the words flowing from my fingertips than from the alcohol flowing past my lips. 

Writing replenishes my spirit, it rejuvenates my mind, it relaxes my emotions.

And that's why I come to the page.

How about you?  What brings you to the page, and why?

Putting It Off

Last week I wrote about putting it out there, trying to figure out how much exposure I need for my writing. This week, I've been thinking more about getting some writing done to put out there in the first place! I've been procrastinating several writing projects for a couple of weeks, finding every way I could to keep myself from getting started on them. Part of the reason was feeling insecure about them - both were in rather new territory for me, and I was unsure of where or how to start. When I don't feel confident, I have a bad habit of retreating into a corner rather than trying to get help or risking a possible failure. The other reason for my procrastination was a general malaise that's come over me this month. Call it the January blahs or missing my Grandson or general age related apathy, it has affected my writing practice.

Whatever the reasons, I've been putting off writing.

A funny thing happened this week. I spent a morning rehearsing with my handbell group, and things were going really well. We were making good progress on some very difficult music, working out tempos, figuring out dynamic changes, analyzing the various paths of melodic and harmonic lines. I came home really energized from that rehearsal, sat down at my desk, and hammered out everything I needed to do to complete one of those projects.

The creative energy from my musical rehearsal had a positive after effect on my writing. I was no longer putting it off, but really getting it on!

How about you? Have you ever had a positive transference of energy from one creative endeavor to another? What helps you get back in the groove when you've been putting off writing?