Thanks to Bridget, Nancy's friend, for tagging her in a writing interview, and then Nancy tagging me, here I am writing again. Which I have been trying to do more regularly, but lately it has not been happening.
What am I working on?
Well, on my blog I started a couple of years ago catching up on all the missed years of my children's childhoods. And then I got to 1984, a year that started to be really painful and awful for our oldest daughter, and it made me sad, and I didn't have the heart to keep going. I guess I could have just skipped the hard parts, and landed in 1985 which was a great year because Nancy was born that year. But somehow I just stopped. Then, I started working on my own childhood, randomly writing in story form things that I thought would be interesting to my grandchildren.
However, in my academic writing I am also busy. I am trying to edit one of the chapters excised from my dissertation to get it ready for publication, the chapter about Simon. There are a couple of chapters that I think will make good articles for a journal like Cue Sheet.
Also I am researching a once famous conductor (in the 1950s) who then faded into obscurity and ended up as a retail sales clerk before his death n 2007. Very cool and interesting stuff I am finding. I am planning an article about researching music in the 1950s-1970s because it is super hard, and the indexes are riddled with holes. And then I am planning a book just about him. Not sure what publisher might like it, though.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Well, my blog is pretty informal. And when I write stories on my blog, that is different, right? I am sure there are others who blog stories, but mostly people just write about life or their interests.
I hope my academic writing is less boring than some things that I have read! :o)
Why do I write what I do?
An idea comes and I follow it. Some ideas are short. Some are long. I usually don't know when I start what I will end up with. Josie and I were just talking about this today (and when I say talking I mean she would type and then I would type) and if I can quote us, we said:
Josie: I'm working on my stories. It's a slow going process.
Me: Good for working on them, at least.
Josie: The ones that are based off of other things are easier. The one that is solely (well actually, that Italian who wrote it) mine is much more difficult. And the main character has blonde hair. Ugh. I tried to write her with black and brown and red hair, but it just didn't feel right, which is annoying.
Me: Sometimes stories are pretty demanding. Weird how we write them, but they demand to be told in their own way, not our way.
Josie: It's true. Stories are alive.
How does my writing process work?
Hmm. Good question. Sometimes I think about what I am writing when I can't sleep, which is often. I can organize the words so well in my mind, but that fluidity is sometimes lacking when I am actually writing.
I guess my mantra is "There is no such thing as good writing; only good rewriting." So, my blog doesn't often have good writing on it, because it is really a rough draft, but a rough draft is better than no draft at all.
For my academic writing, it is uber- mega- rewriting, then getting Nancy to do some editing, and then rewriting again.
It is hard to write when I feel overwhelmed with life, when feelings are too tender. Like, I have been writing a letter to Ash in my mind for a year or more now, and because I feel so tenderly about this person, I can't get the thoughts down the way I want them. (Maybe another case where anything might be better than nothing?) And lately, with my sister's cancer, I am just overwhelmed with thinking about how life is a privilege, and the line between life and death so thin...and thinking these very sober (not negative, just sober) thoughts that it is hard to express because they are poignant thoughts.
So I guess a lot of my process happens in my brain, and then eventually, I write it. Or I don't ever write it because it isn't ready for birth on paper.
Who to tag? Bruce my brother? Auntie Marie?
Back: Lydia, Travis. Middle: Megan, Nick, Nathan, Ikaika, John. Front: Tawnya, Amanda B., Amanda . Shane and me.