What Kind Of Writer Are You?
What Kind Of Writer Are You?
Examining the ways in which we write
Welcome to A Narrative of their Own, where I discuss the work of 20th century women writers and their relevance to contemporary culture.
As my extra Tuesday bonus post every two weeks, I have been exploring ideas around reading and writing, and following on from comments on my last Tuesday post ‘What kind of reader are you?’ I thought it might be interesting to look at ideas around what inspires us to write, as well as about my own practice.
Don’t worry if you are here on Substack strictly as a reader - though I know many of my readers are also writers - because hopefully everyone will find some of these ideas useful or interesting. Whether you write novels, scripts, letters, journals…or just your weekly shopping list! We all use language and creativity in our lives in one way or another. I hope you enjoy this foray into how we can make writing a part of our lives.
I was recently fortunate enough to be asked to discuss my research into mother/writers on The Matterhorn podcast. In it I mentioned how my own practice developed amidst taking care of two young children and running a family business.
Some backstory…
As many writers will no doubt tell you, I wanted to be a writer since, like, forever. I loved reading books, making magazines, and basically telling stories.
As I grew up and entered the adult world, this desire never really went away, but because real life has a way of taking you over, I pushed this desire into the deeper recesses of myself. But the desire to scribble notes wherever I went remained, and once my second child was born and life was hectic, I used to pull out my little notebook whilst the baby slept, or when I could slip away for an hour’s peace to a local coffee shop. What I wrote in my notebook was nothing special: lists, snippets of conversations I overheard, mini-reviews of books I was reading. These notebooks began to stack up, but I never thought anything in them would amount to publishable writing. They were just for me, just to let out the ideas that were crammed inside my head.
So I had all these little notebooks with no plans to do anything with them when I came across something on the internet called Flash Fiction. Also known as micro fiction, these were tiny stories that still had some kind of beginning, middle, and end, but which were often only 1000, 500, 300…words or less. At around the same time, I discovered the work of Grace Paley (whom I talk about in the podcast) and who was a short story writer. Paley, who was also a mother and activist, had a 15-year-gap between her first and second short story collections, and never wrote a novel, despite being encouraged to by her publisher. When questioned on why she had such a huge gap in her output - and why she wrote such short stories - Paley commented that she was ‘doing the important business of raising kids’.
I love this quote, and return to it often. Questioning her output (what we might now so often refer to as ‘productive’ work) against what Paley considered the ‘important business’ of raising her children, seems ridiculous when put like this. But what was even more interesting to me was when I came to devour her stories, which turned out to be very short (in some cases) and which often featured the overheard conversations of the people who populated her life and surroundings. The young mothers in the playground; the old aunts who came to visit; a sick parent; a woman going through mid-life with her children grown.
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” ~ Sylvia Plath
The connection between the journals publishing micro fiction and flash non-fiction, and Paley’s stories and attitude to writing, soon made me realise that what I had been working on in those tiny notebooks had been snippets of stories and ideas for short essays. There was a point to all that scribbling, after all! It had been my apprenticeship to my own practice of writing, and I was now ready to pull out some of those paragraphs and send them out into the world.
I ended up getting a lot of micro fiction (and some micro non-fiction) published, many of which started in those notebooks. I’ve put a couple of links below of some of them, just in case you’ve never read any flash fiction. I had one piece nominated for a Pushcart Prize, one won a competition, and the shortest story I ever had published was just 75 words long!
To bring this up to date, I eventually moved onto longer academic essays, personal essays, and creative non-fiction as my children grew older and I had a bit more time to work on them. But it all began in those tiny notebooks and from the inspiration of realising that our work doesn’t have to have huge or monumental meaning to be worthy of publication. Nor does our writing need to be aimed at publication. Writing in a notebook was a way for me to deal with the thoughts and ideas in my head when everything else around me was busy and productive and necessary. As I scribbled and noted and read and wrote some more…I realised that the writing was necessary, too, if I was going to stay a sane and creative person.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ~ Maya Angelou
This is just my story, but if you are a writer, a budding writer, keep a journal, or are just an interested reader who might like to give writing a go sometime, here are a few tips I have used in the past to get me writing:
The notebooks
As I said above, I took the notebook with me everywhere, which meant it needed to be small. If I noticed anything that took my interest, I would jot it down: the way the couple at the next table are clearly having an argument; the vibrant colour of the woman’s dress who is gossiping at the counter; the way the small child writes in the steam of the cafe window (this became a whole published story, but sadly the journal no longer exists, so I couldn’t link it!)
Even if something feels silly or irrelevant, don’t be afraid to note it down. Nobody else ever has to read it - and you never know when it might come in handy.
This can of course also be done on a notes app on your mobile phone, and sometimes I have even stopped to record my voice on a notes app for ease. But there’s something inherently tactile about writing in a notebook if you have the chance. It is a nice way to un-tether yourself from the demands of the tech world.
Free writes
This is one of the oldest techniques I know of but I really find it works! If you are thinking of writing about something and aren’t sure where to take it (whether it’s a story, an idea for a research essay, or even a problem you want to solve) just letting the words flow onto the page via a pen or keyboard can unlock the words if you keep going for 10-15 minutes. This is similar to the idea of Morning Pages referenced in the book The Artists’ Way and also chimes well with writer, artist, and creative writing teacher Natalie Goldberg in her books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind of ‘keeping the hand moving’.
“The best time to plan a book is while you’re doing the dishes.” ~ Agatha Christie
Mind Maps
A bit like the free writes, I sometimes use this if I only have pen and paper on me (or want a break from the screen) and want to plan out an essay, but I think it could also work for novel writing. I find that putting the research topic at the centre of the page and coming out to the edges of the paper with ideas around that theme helps me to focus in on the most salient points and disregard some of the superfluous ideas.
Location
I don’t think where you write can be underestimated. I have read of famous writers who claim to only be able to write in a specific location - such as novelist Marian Keyes, whom I once heard in an interview state that she writes all her novels in bed!
For me, I find different kinds of writing can require different locations, but on the whole, I much prefer to get out and write at a local coffee shop. My preferred one is right at the hub of the local University, and so has a constant stream of different people of all ages coming and going, nice and varied music playing, and the sound of coffee being made. This is where I draft most of my Substack essays. I know that for some people, however, this would be too much noise, and I tend to retreat to my kitchen table (I don’t have an office or desk to work on in our fairly compact apartment) in which to edit or research, when I need quiet focus.
It may take some time to identify what works best for you and your writing projects, but once you find it, it can make the creative process much more enjoyable!
Writing seasons
I wrote a bit about how my reading tends to change seasonally in my post on what kind of readers we are, but the same can hold true for writing.
I remember reading an interview with late novelist Maeve Binchy, who said that her work as a school teacher left her with long summer holidays in which to travel and write. Similarly, I have spoken to writers who like to ‘batch’ their writing projects, such as working on the draft of a novel for three months, then alternating to writing essays or articles, or researching for their books for a month or so.
Like Binchy, this may relate to another job you have, or it might just be that you like to have intense focus on one project at a time.
When to write
This is where it gets really personal: only you know when you are more likely to feel like writing, and only you can prioritise your writing around your lifestyle. Like Paley, who had to learn to write around her children, and that meant not publishing stories for a time whilst she prioritised her family. It might mean for some writers writing early in the morning; for others they might write during their holiday time.
One piece of advice that often comes up (and which I have to say I have never been able to get on board with) is to write every day. I have tried this before with morning pages and such, and I do believe it can aid your creativity and get you in the right mindset. I also think that writing in a journal or notebook when you wake up can be good for you generally, not necessarily as a means to getting writing done, but just as a way to get things off your mind.
However, for me, anything that feels too much like a ‘rule’ doesn’t tend to work (blame my rebellious nature ; ) but I know there are many writers who favour this method.
For me, I like to write new drafts in the mornings on the two days when I am not working in my other paid role, which fall at the beginning of the week. I then tend to edit in the afternoons, meaning I don’t need to worry if I feel too tired to do anything creative for the rest of the week. In addition, I usually spend some time at the weekends reading and thinking about ideas for the next week’s writing sessions.
Inspiration
Getting out into the world is one of the best things you can do for your writing. Just sitting behind a keyboard in a stark white room day after day will stunt your creativity no end if you don’t step into the real world and experience life.
I know there are bestselling writers who swear by locking themselves away in a log cabin for a month to finish a book, and I think at the point of completing a manuscript, you probably do need to allow yourself complete, distraction free writing time.
But in order to get to the manuscript, you first need ideas: colours, experiences, language, dialogue, interaction, music, art, nature…all of it.
A writer is working when he’s staring out of the window.” ~ Burton Rascoe
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little look at my own writing practice and how it has evolved over the years, and would love to hear if you have any insights into your own practice - or whether it has inspired you to pick up a pen and start one! 😀
Look out for my end of month review later this week, with a return to the regular literary discussion on Sunday. If you have found yourself here and would like to receive more of my literary discussions straight into your inbox, please consider a free or paid subscription to the newsletter.
I’ve also put below some links to resources I’ve found helpful around the idea of writing, as well as a couple of examples of my flash fiction, in case you are short on time and are inspired to try one of your own! Enjoy!
For a simple yet revelatory idea around the art of distraction for inspiration, check out the recent post by Dr Victoria Powell on The Gallery Companion.
The only writing handbook I still own is this one by Natalie Goldberg Wild Mind, which is a cross-between a writing advice book and a Zen meditation on the writing life. I return to it often!
Flash Fiction links: ’Marrying Absurd’ and ‘Yellow Dinghy’ both on Spelk Fiction.
I love everything about this newsletter, thank you so much for sharing ❤️ I’m going to reread (with a small notebook to hand, naturally) as so much of this spoke to me. And oh Grace Paley, thank you. My writing rhythm is indelibly entwined with my daughter’s school routine, I know it won’t always be the case, but for now I’ve learned to accept it, work with it and reduce the writing pressure I put on myself when I need to (last week I turned off paid subs for the summer). Here’s to a summer of refilling the well and the notebooks 💛
Fantastic post! I think we often have the idea on our head that any writing needs to be working towards something, but just jotting down ideas or writing what comes to mind can be so valuable - and not all writing needs to go anywhere. I also can’t get on board with the method of writing everyday, for me it works better when I feel inspired and I want to write. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic :)