O for Orrsome

Rachel' drawing from Sue's Workshop

I am working on some truly awful puns.

Sue Orr came to class today to talk about writers at work. Sue has published two collections of short stories and is currently working on a novel. She says her work is very character driven. A character gets in her head and when the character starts driving her crazy she knows it is time to start writing. She takes herself to her quiet secret place and writes for about two hours uninterrupted. She aims to write 1000 words a day and finds that this is about the limit of her concentration. She trusts her character to take her somewhere interesting, lead her on an adventure.


Other writers map out the story right from the start. Some just start writing a scene and see where it goes.
Sue shared with us a list of famous writers and what they have say about the process. The one I liked the best was Octavia E. Butler. I haven't read any of her work but she says "First forget inspiration. Habit s more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you whether you are talented or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice. Forget talent. If you have it, fine. Use it. If you don't have it it doesn't matter." I have been very good at developing bad habits, so I will see if I can carry that talent over into creating some good habits.

Rachel and I are in a group together to produce a collaborative publication of work we have completed in the class. This will be interesting because I think we are quite different in our writing styles and point of view. We got together last night at the end of class and decided we would go with poetry and see if between our work we can't find a cohesive vision. I am going to find what I consider my most interesting poems and send them to her to look at.