The Importance of Silence

I like to lose myself in the beauty of nature when I can.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the importance of silence in life.  True, it’s probably because I don’t have any in my life.  But it appears to me that many people, especially young people, seem afraid to embrace solitude, to do nothing and just listen to their thoughts for a while.  I still substitute teach, and I find a lot of high school students listening to ear buds, music spilling out of both buds and students.

            Silence allows the mind to roam through memories, think about family and friends, consider knowledge accumulated, nature around us, or maybe even the world.  I understand the need to interact with others.  Humans are a social animal, after all.  Social media allows for a further group of contemporaries, but sometimes, I think there is a need to be by yourself and just listen to what’s going on in your head and perhaps your heart. 

            Ancient Greek philosophers and British Romantic Poets, to name but a few, were lucky enough to find the silence in life and expound upon it.  True.  They were mostly male, their careers consisted of sitting and thinking, and daily needs were met by servants.  Still contemporary writers should try and find some alone time to think.

            Here’s a challenge for you, and believe me it is a challenge.  Find an hour of quiet and immerse yourself in it.  It doesn’t need to be daily, although that would be wonderful.  Two or three times a week will do.  Turn off the television or radio.  Hide in the closet if you need to.  I do.  I choose the utility closet.  I don’t have to worry about anyone looking for the vacuum.  No one vacuums unless I beg. 

Occasionally I’m discovered, before my hour is up, when a child dumps over a dead houseplant and needs the dust pan and broom.  I know; I should be happy about that.  But she snitches before picking up the dust pan every time. 

“I found her!”

     

            This is why I’ve taken to hiding in the local library when I can.  Except it’s not as quiet as it used to be.  Now libraries seem to be gathering places and tutoring centers. 
         

            I think a little silence in life might be the easiest way to hear your life story, understand your thoughts, possibly even discover something new about yourself and thus help someone else through your writings. 

I hope your 2015 is starting off just right and that you can find a little silence in your life to enjoy.   

Exploring the Inner Self in Memoir

Santa puts the tinsel on the tree!

I need to show my hard-won epiphanies through self-reflection.  I need to present my memoir in ways to allow readers to enter upon the college journey.  I went to college as a mother of five, but that journey needs to be more than just a collection of experiences at college and at home with my family as I struggled to keep up with my studies, struggled to comprehend new subject material, struggled to discover a new Victoria Marie.

I must explore the inner self, reflect upon it, so that my reader can identify with me.  This sounds like the inner dialogue, which I’m incorporating into my memoir manuscript.  But through inner dialogue, the memoirist needs to discover something about herself, through reliving the experiences, the struggles.

In the throes of my second revision of the college memoir, I discover courage.  It took courage to attend each class.  Courage to believe in myself though surrounded with doubts and inadequacy, embarrassment.  Courage to face my fear of failure.  Courage to face the fear of success, for in success comes opportunity.  Opportunity changes lives. 

I would never be the same after my adventures through college.  And neither would my family.  It took a whole family to get this mother through college.     

I need to craft these discoveries into well-stated epiphanies/themes and then be sure that they resonate throughout the memoir.  Through specific details, the memoirist can achieve universality. 

There’s my timer again.  My home smells of cinnamon and honey.  Time to take the Amish friendship breads out of the oven.  Time to share the smells of Christmas with family, neighbors and friends.  May your Christmas be filled with the treasure of family and friends and may you all achieve success in 2015.  Thanks for stopping by Adventures in Writing.

The Importance of Internal Dialogue in Memoir

            Remember, memoir is not autobiography.  Memoir recounts an important time in the writer’s life, an important journey, happy or sad, triumphant or not, where a discovery is made.  This journey is merely a slice, not the whole life pie.  But within that slice, as in fiction, internal dialogue is important. 

Discovering the possibilities

Internal dialogue is a dialogue the writer/character has with herself.  This dialogue in memoir usually projects present day thoughts or logic or knowledge onto prior actions of the writer/character.  It’s like an interpretation of the preceding action, scene, or anecdote. 

Like fiction, memoir cannot be merely a collection of scenes, dialogues, or actions.  Some scenes and actions are used to move the plot forward, to create tension, or to enhance characterization.  Other scenes need to be interpreted by the writer through internal dialogue. 

Interpretation in memoir explains why a particular action is so important in the writer’s journey.  The writer attempts to revisit that part of her life again, through memoir, and discovers newfound knowledge to share with the reader. 

            As I move ahead in my revision work of the college memoir, I’m probing beyond my literal college experience to discover the epiphanies that I was too busy to see at the time with the daily grind of college and family life.  My husband and children find my scribbled thoughts on torn pieces of paper left on tables and counters, bookshelves and bathroom vanities.  I tell them to throw away nothing they find and put it on my desk on the porch.  When I get time, I type them into the prologue document to my memoir and sort them from there.  [This cuts down on the fire hazard in our home.]

Memoir needs to be more than autobiographical.  It needs to provide insight not merely the facts of the experience.  Memoir is a writer’s story about a specific time in his or her life with the writer’s present day reflections on that time.  

Oh…the timer’s beeping and I need to get the apple pie out of the oven.  I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving.  Thanks for stopping by.       

Ellen Gable Hrkach, Historical Catholic Fiction Writer

Welcome, everyone, to my Adventures in Writing Blog.  I am honored to have with me today Ellen Gable Hrkach, an award-winning historical Catholic fiction writer.  

Ellen has published 4 Catholic fiction novels to date:

Emily’s Hope

Stealing Jenny

In Name Only,

and most recently A Subtle Grace

A Subtle Grace is alive with drama.  The obstacles are many; the characters, lively.  The devil lives in the historical world of the O'Donovan family.  The writer knows her genre.  This Catholic Fiction novel demonstrates the power of love and faith to forgive and protect.  You won't be disappointed. 

Thank you, Ellen, for visiting with me. 

Ellen:  My pleasure.

VML:  Ellen, what made you decide to become a writer and how long have you been writing?

Ellen:  Many years ago, I began writing in a journal to ease the grieving process after suffering several miscarriages. These journal entries actually served as the basis for my first published article, “Five Little Souls in Heaven,” which was published in the Nazareth Journal in 1995. From there, other articles were published in various Catholic magazines.  Around 14 years ago, after researching about my family tree and finding out some unusual aspects about my great-grandmother, my husband suggested that I write a novel based on the parallel true stories of myself and my great-grandmother.  I learned how to write a novel in that (four year) period of time.  When I finished that book, I knew that I wanted to write more novels.

VML:  And write them, you did.  It’s amazing that your books have been downloaded over 500,000 times on Kindle since 2010.

Ellen, why did you choose Catholic fiction as your genre?

Ellen:  First, I’m Catholic. Fifteen years ago, there were very few Catholic novels. As a novelist, I wanted to write in a genre that I could relate to, that was inspiring and was less competitive than other genres.  Most Christian novels are generically Christian; the characters sometimes pray and often seem “too good.” I wanted to write complicated stories and create believable characters with depth from a Catholic point of view.

VML:  Fully developed characters are needed for readers to become involved in stories.  And of course, it isn’t a story without conflict.  Ellen, some writers begin with a situation, some with characters.  As a writer of historical Catholic Fiction, how do you begin writing a novel?

Ellen:  I usually start with a situation.  I outline the basic story and a few simple ideas for characters. This often takes months, even years, given my other duties and responsibilities.  Once I have the basic outline complete, I then spend several months researching.  This is one of my favorite parts of the process and fairly easy, given modern access to the internet. Next step is to write character studies, and then begin writing the first draft.

VML:  Ah!  I’m not a pantster either, except for my YA short stories.  I believe in the outline for longer work.  What some writers forget is that an outline is just a way of keeping you writing.  Outlines are merely guidelines and are apt to change slightly as the storyline grows and moves forward.  Now character studies are a great idea.  I learned about those in one of my earlier writing courses.

The process of writing and re-writing can be a tedious one--especially for full-length novels.  How do you know when your novel is ready for the presses?

Ellen:  It’s hard to explain.  With my own novels, I get to a point where I need to move on to the next project.  Once I’ve finished my first presentable draft, I then work with a developmental editor (who assists with plot and characters, as well as sentence structure), then I work with two copy-editors.  The “tedious” edits are definitely not my favorite part of the process, but they’re very important because each time a manuscript goes through an editing process, it becomes more polished and helps the story and characters shine more brightly.  Four to six proofreaders then read through for typos and other errors missed by myself or the editors.

VML:  Lucky you to have such a writing support staff.  Writing is not the solitary profession it was once thought to be.  And even then, writers discussed details with other writers.  Always great advice to have others read the manuscript when you’re finished to see if what the writer thinks is on the page, in fact is.

Do you have any advice to offer writers on how to stay committed to a longer writing project?

Ellen:  Perseverance and patience!!  These are two virtues that are absolutely essential to the modern writer.

VML:  The two “p’s” of writing.  I’ll always be a writer, but the patience needed to hear back on my manuscripts is the difficult part for me. 

How about you, fellow readers?  Which is more difficult for you, in whatever you do; perseverance or patience? 

Thank you so much, Ellen, for stopping by my Adventures in Writing blog.  You can connect to Ellen Gable Hrkach on the web at www.ellengable.com.  Her books are available at http://www.amazon.com/Ellen-Gable/e/B002LFMXOI/.

Going to College with the Family in Tow

Photographs are necessary especially on
holidays when life becomes a blur.

Did you ever wish there could be two of you?  When I was attending college for ten of my children’s growing up years, I wished I could have been a traditional college student.  Then another part of me wanted to be that full-time mother of five children.

            Obviously, I couldn’t become two separate people.  So I needed to do the second best thing and perform both tasks as one person. 

            Many people, especially women, wish they could be more than just one person in order to do all the things and tasks that they feel need to be accomplished in life.

            There’s the key. 

People “feel” that these tasks need to be accomplished.  Most certainly we have time-sensitive tasks that truly need to be accomplished.  Business and school projects have firm dates.  Novelists, book publishers have deadlines; essayists, content writers, and short story writers have deadlines.  The list is endless. 

In the beginning of my college career, I truly needed to return home before my children.  There was no one else to watch five children—let alone feed them.  I don’t know about you, but my angels came home starving after school.  You’d think they never ate breakfast or lunch.  I couldn’t attend activity meetings or study groups or join events during that time.  I needed to be a mother.

Other deadlines can be made malleable.   

Prioritizing became a way of life.  I tried to disrupt my children’s schedules, in the beginning of my college journey, as little as possible.  This was especially important for my oldest daughter who is special needs.  Re-teaching her always rested on my shoulders.  She was in eighth grade at that time; the twins, in second grade. 

            The two H’s were at the top of the list:  health and homework, there’s and mine.  Still, by Christmas break, I had the flu…each of the ten years attending college.  The children were fine.  It was just I, the college student/Mom who wanted to crawl into my room and let Christmas happen on its own.  But it doesn’t work that way in families with young children.  Many times, it falls to the mother to make holidays happen.  Yes, I cut down on the baking.  Yes, I tried to delegate, but there was only my husband, at the time, to delegate to.  Hence, some things got accomplished; others did not. 

            Attending college when you have a family, sometimes things need to change.  They did for me; however, I made these transitions slowly, both for the children and for me.  Understanding which tasks truly need to be accomplished now and which can wait, prioritizing your work load.  These are some mindsets to help a parent get through college.  How have you mastered the times in your life when you wished you were more than one person? 

How to Write When Life Gets in the Way

My writing notebooks, sometimes notes, sometimes passages

Five children, one husband, a home, work inside and out of the home.  I thought it was difficult when the children were smaller.  I’m learning that older children require just as much time. 

Then there are the extended family obligations, like downsizing my mother-in-law’s 90 years’ worth of possessions so that she will be able to go to an assisted living apartment.

I realize I’m not alone in having other obligations when trying to find time to write.  Most writers have a host of other obligations, too.  Here are some methods I’ve come up with to tuck a bit of writing into my harried life.

Keep a notebook handy for ideas and reminders while you go through life’s busywork.  You can use electronic devices here.  Then when you're finally able to get to your computer to work, you have a better chance to be productive.    

I tend to carry a notebook and pen everywhere I go.  I do this even on family vacations.  If I’m not documenting family adventures, I’m taking notes for writing projects.

Write during lunchtime breaks instead of socializing.  This is tough, I know.   Humans are social creatures.  The same holds true if you can convince your spouse to take the family to a party and allow you time to write.  Although with five children, I’m usually the one organizing the blasted event.

 Write before the family awakens in the morning, or if you’re a night owl, write after the house is quiet.  I’m the morning bird here.

When all else fails, see if you can find a half hour to hide out…ahem…I mean work in the local library.  This is helpful if you’re the type of writer who tries to work from home where those children and husband live and the busywork surrounds you, calling you by name. 

At times it may seem that the family bond, or your job, is more pressing than the call to write.  Life is not a dress rehearsal.  We go through it only once.  Not everyone can live as long as my mother-in-law and celebrate her 90^th birthday.  I need to remind myself of this often.  Still, I try to write whenever I can, and if you want to also, try some of these ideas. 

If you have other ideas on how to fit writing into an already busy life, please share them with me.  Thanks!  Good luck with your writing projects.  

Revising in Stages

Hiding among the stacks at the library

Now back to my memoir about going to college as a mother of five.  I find that if I try to fix all the suggestions that my critique readers make about my writing, I just sit there and stare at my work.  Oh sometimes, I’ll get up to file a nail or put on the kettle for a fresh pot of tea.  Then I’ll notice that the stove is dirty.  Those five children sometimes bring hungry friends over.  I’ll see another finger nail that needs grooming; I’ve got to choose a loose tea for the pot, choose a teacup…

You get the idea.  Does this ever happen to you when you’re revising?

 So I’ve come to the conclusion that the best thing for me to do when revising, or even writing a new short story, is to hide in the local library for as long as possible—or until I’m found out by my children or husband as they call my cell phone relentlessly. 

Okay, so that keeps me sitting at my laptop, staring at the words.  Now to move forward.

I’ve found it easier to revise in stages.  I tend to work on the simpler fixes first.  You know; further explanations, clarifications, and, in my memoir especially, deeper thoughts.  It gets me into the story of the memoir and crawling ever so slightly forward.

I’m talking about the critique suggestions that I agree with or those that make sense for the writing or story at hand, the themes that I’m trying to connect in the writing.  Like I said in my previous post Writing is not a Cookie-Cutter Science, you only want to address the suggestions that matter to your voice, your writing.

I’m the type of writer who saves the different versions of my chapters or stories.  I’m working on my FIRST revision of the memoir with the simpler fixes.  I tell myself that in the next revision, I’ll work on the complications of time frame in a particular chapter, to re-evaluate chronological order in Chapter 9, for example.  Then in another revision, possibly divide a few longer chapters into shorter, tightly-woven chapters. 

Revising in stages can help a writer move forward on a longer project.  Saving the various revisions can help a writer move back to a prior version of the writing if she decides that the story can no longer move forward without a deleted section or details.  How about you?  Do you keep various versions of your writing when working on a project?  Please offer any suggestions you might have.  Thanks!