My Mother subscribes to "O" Magazine, you know, the one Oprah produces. I don't watch Oprah, I can't get her channel on my TV, so I flipped through my mother's magazine, enjoying the color photographs and heavy slick paper. Then a small box of text caught my eye, something about a new book for writers by Pat Schneider and I read an excerpt that kicked me in the brain. "I have a friend whose husband once said after her first book had been published, 'You sit there writing as if your life had some significance.'"
I didn't want to spend $16.95 plus shipping on a book about writing when so many other great fiction books urged me to acquire them. Books that would take my mind far away from my own life, a life of raising my children like a single parent while my husband works two jobs, a life of poopy diapers and baby spit-up and smelly cat boxes. It's a life where I struggle with writing. I struggle to find the time, the energy, and the strength for creation and rejection. I constantly struggle with my own purpose. Am I a writer?
Now I've read writing books before. I took an online class that focused on Damon Knight's book on writing short stories and I've read and worked on LeGuin's "Steering the Craft", but I seemed to find myself dealing with other issues that crowd my writing. It isn't simply the how-to's of writing, but the how-to's of continuing to write.
I kept thinking about that jerk of a husband in the quote and I realized that all of us have those stupid critics whose words brand our hearts. I wondered what does Pat have to say in response to that? So, I bought her book with trepidation and a little bit of hope.
The book is over 360 pages and is divided into two significant parts, writing alone, which deals with the stumbling blocks of writing and how to deal with them, and writing with others, which discusses the positives and negatives of critique groups and how to get one started.
Schneider starts off with a seven page introduction that I was tempted to skip so I could dive into the meat of the book, but I was glad that I didn't. Her beginning pages are profoundly moving.
Schneider admits the book's intent is to help create the necessary conditions for the writer to consistently work from her own genius, which she defines as safety, self-confidence, focus, and practice. (xxi) She then challenges, "Genius is hidden everywhere; it is in every person, waiting to be evoked, enabled, supported, and celebrated. It is in you. It is in me. Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare's vision. Dickinson wrote Dickinson's. Who will write yours, if you do not?"(xxi)
She reveals that the three keys for success are: concentrating on finding time to write and to daydream; strengthening our belief in ourselves; and encouraging one another. For me, WisCon's programming, the Respite and the women who attend the Con accomplish that for me once a year. Online, I can connect with women over the internet through Broad Universe, but what about the rest of the time?
In my rural, conservative, religious community, I can hardly find a woman who reads science fiction, let alone writes it. But, really, no matter where you are, the process of writing is a lonely endeavor. We can listen to writers we admire speak at conventions about how they overcame challenges: Suzette Haden Elgin on the perils of the publishing industry; Kate Elliot on how to write epics and raise a family; and Pat Murphy on conquering writer's block. But after the weekend is over, we all return home, alone, and sit in front of the computer attempting to put words on the page.
Here's where Schneider's book makes sense. You can read it like a devotional. The chapters can be read independent from one another and you can find what you're looking for by topic. She tackles every possible obstacle and shares anecdotes from her own experiences and those of her students. Then she offers excellent exercises to get the writer writing.
For example, here's a quote from the book on distractions:
"It is not so much the difficulty of finding space as it was my own attitude: I saw others' needs as more import than my own. Ursula LeGuin says that those whom she loves are her muses. I have experienced that. I have also experienced those I love as my own distraction from my work. I have to say that, at critical times in my life, other writers who cared for me saved my sanity, if not my life. (29-30)
Delia Sherman shared a great story from her early days of writing. She always believed that she needed a small quiet space with a desk and a window in order to write. Only when she finally got that, she fidgeted unable to create. Today, she writes in a noisy coffee shop, in the hubbub of chatting customers, hot milk frothing, and chairs scraping the floor. She is surrounded by distractions while writing. Delia's point is that we all have expectations of what a writer is and how a writer works, only what works for the famous writer may not be best for all of us.
Echoing this thought, Schneider encourages each woman to find her own way. I found her book empowering, encouraging, honest, and uplifting. Her voice is real. If you are struggling with your writing or need encouragement, this book will help.
I know now, my life does have a purpose. I am a writer.
copyright 2003