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Posts by Carly Sandifer

Aug 18

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Write from your white-hot center – your dream state

Most people know whether they’re morning people or night people. I’m pretty sure I’m a hybrid. I love early mornings, but I also like to stay up late. Of course, it’s pretty hard to be both ways for long before you crash and burn and have to catch up on sleeping, which I also enjoy.

And despite the fact that I enjoy mornings, I’m not usually one of those ultra early risers. That changed when I read Robert Olen Butler’s book From Where You Dream. This book had a huge influence on my approach to writing.

Art does not come from what you know – the mind, Butler says. Art comes from the place where you dream. Art comes from your unconscious; it comes from the white-hot center of you. Do not “will” the work, Butler says. Write when you feel it’s coming from your unconscious. Butler’s instructions reminds me of how writer John Gardner described novels as “vivid, continuous dreams.”

I was intrigued by what Butler had to say about writing in your “dream state.” I wanted to see how my writing could be different with this approach. I wanted to be more committed to a daily writing practice. Like most writers who juggle writing along with full-time jobs and all the other stuff in life, I had been thinking about my schedule and how I could increase my writing time. I knew writing first thing in the morning was my best chance to write every day before other events or interruptions could interfere — best laid plans and all that. I was ready to put myself in a trance. Read more

Aug 16

Weather as a character in “Breaking Clean”

Weather may seem mundane, but crafted with finesse, weather becomes an antagonistic force and a “character” to be reckoned with in the memoir, Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt.

Blunt wrote about living in a remote area of Montana and of being separated from her true self. Vivid sensory descriptions and scenes of weather illustrate the natural elements that contributed to Blunt’s isolation and search for her identity.

Blunt and her family lived at the mercy of blowing snow, frigid temperatures, and driving rain that turned roads into impassable muddy troughs. Her description of constant wind is eerie and violent:

“It whipped down out of Canada in gusts and gales unhampered by mountains or trees. Wind blew for days on end, a relentless pushing at your back, a constant moan we listened around and shouted over without really hearing.” Read more

Aug 12

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What is your writing’s ripple effect?

As a writer, think about the impact you have. Your words have the power to do more than entertain. Literature is how people make sense of the world. Writers have a tremendous power to change and even save people through stories.

Author Donna Jo Napoli, who spoke at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators summer conference August 5-8, said she was once asked, “Why do you take a perfectly good book and put something awful in it?”

The question spurred Napoli to think more about why she writes what she does and its ripple effect.

Read more

Aug 10

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Create memorable characters instead of cardboard cutouts

As writers, we don’t want characters who are empty shells, cardboard cutouts. As young adult author Libba Bray says, “You don’t want characters to be blank slates filled in by the reader.”

Author of Beauty Queensand Going Bovine to name a few, Bray spoke at the 40th annual Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Aug. 5-8.

It’s hard to create a plot with interesting twists if your characters are boring and don’t react in interesting ways, she said. So how do you create compelling characters? Try these techniques: Read more

Aug 8

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What place does weather have in your writing?

You’ve probably heard this piece of advice from writer Elmore Leonard: Don’t start your novel by describing the weather. In his 10 rules of writing, Leonard advised against writing about the weather if it’s only used to create atmosphere and not a charac­ter’s reaction to the weather.

While this may be true, weather has a place in literature.

Weather can amplify the emotion of a scene. What if it was a grey, drizzly day when your character realized she would never be a mother? Maybe the raindrops trickling down her window were a metaphor for tears and despair.

Or maybe your character realized his marriage was over the same day an ice storm in his town sent cars crashing and people slipping on black ice.

Consider your own writing and see how you could use the weather to deepen a scene or heighten tension.

Aug 4

1 Comment

Live in the moment so you can write in the moment

Children show me how to live in the moment. I’m teaching a creative writing class for kids this summer, and I’m inspired by how they experience life.

One of their assignments was to be detectives. “Observe what is going on around you and write it down in your notebook.”

As if I needed to tell them to be observant.

Adults often talk about stuff and think the kids are just off to the side coloring or playing with a doll or a truck. Think again. Children are sponges and soak up everything you say.

And kids immerse themselves in experiences.

In the last class, I brought out a tin of mints. The children came alive. This was their reaction: Read more

Aug 2

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Embrace your day job for writing inspiration

Many of us dream of spending our days doing nothing but working on our craft. More likely though, we must write around jobs and other obligations.

Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent, a teacher, a nurse, self employed, or working in the corporate world, your day job (or night job) can be a treasure trove of writing gold.

I went to a workshop once about finding writing inspiration from the workplace. I didn’t think I could capture anything interesting from my corporate job. But when I thought about it, I realized that the actual work wasn’t necessarily gripping, but the drama can be found in the people and their politics, personalities, and emotion. I’ve found plenty of dialogue nuggets from overheard conversations. And I’ve noted ideas for character traits from my workplace observations. Read more

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