Editing My Garden

The ecosystem of my garden has changed, with the construction next door. The shady spots no longer have shade, after the huge spruce trees were cut down. Some areas that are bright now will become shady, as the big house goes up. And so I watch and ponder and wait for inspiration to strike.

It’s become an opportunity to redesign, to fix what wasn’t working, to add, to enhance, to move plants if necessary. It’s like editing a story, except a garden is never finished; each year the editing continues.

Maureen

Donald Maass Workshop

Several weeks ago I spent a day at a Donald Maass workshop. The focus was on character and emotion, a good balance to the John Truby workshop I attended last fall that was all about structure.

The workshop aspect of the day involved Donald Maass posing questions for us, mostly about our own emotional life, to draw on for our own manuscripts. He talked about this like method acting – using our own emotional experiences to bring emotional depth to our characters.

He also discussed micro-tension – tension in every line – developed through conflict between the characters, in the reader not knowing what’s coming next, in the unexpected. I particularly like this for writing for children – it helps new and reluctant readers to want to turn the page, to read the next chapter.

He demonstrated his techniques by rewriting paragraphs from other writers (including one brave soul in the workshop), and the difference was astounding. He’d read the edited version, and the silence in the room echoed, as we felt the emotional punch he’d added.

I took frantic notes, my mind leaping from one project to another: oh, I could do this for that story, and that for this character, and …. scribble scribble scribble. After, I chose one of my projects to use to study this material, going over it page by page, with four coloured markers in hand.

I’m now working through all my current projects (they are legion – I never quite understand how that happens), reading my workshop notes and coming up with edits. None of them are substantial changes; these are more in bits and moments, things I can highlight, play on, enhance. It’s an interesting process, watching a manuscript get stronger through small changes.

And so I slowly learn to use these new tools in my writing toolbox.

Maureen

Touring South of Calgary

Friends are in town from Scotland, and I spent a day with Chris, while his wife was at a conference. We drove south of Calgary and then looped around to the west. It’s ranch land, in the foothills, and gorgeous. Our first stop was the glacial erratic west of Okotoks. I claimed that it’s Alberta’s answer to Great Britain’s Standing Stones. Lunch was burgers in Black Diamond at Marv’s Classic Soda Shop, a throwback to the 1950s, complete with jukebox, twenty five cents a song. Later, I found one of my books for sale in a little shop in Bragg Creek, always a lovely surprise.

We crossed a cattle gate, and when I explained how cattle can’t cross the bars, because their hooves get caught, Chris said they have them in Scotland, and the sheep simply lie down and roll across. He said at first he thought it was an urban legend; then he saw a video of it. All I could think was “Don’t bring those sheep here!”

Maureen

The Big Rock