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Posts by Carol Despeaux Fawcett

Aug 5

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Use word-gathering to become a better writer

Writing a poem or a paragraph is like solving a puzzle. I seek the perfect word not just for its meaning but also for sound and rhythm. In the process, I stumble upon other words that draw my attention and, before I know it, I’m off on an adventure. Words are like gems, sparkly and seductive in their power.

Priscilla Long, in her book, The Writer’s Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life, says she knows writers who have worked hard for years that do “pretty good work” but have never made the transition to great writing. The reason? Often, these writers—though hard workers—approach language passively. They only use words they grew up with or use in everyday language. Long doesn’t mean that we should suddenly spout elongated Latinate words but that we should become word gatherers, seeking out words that call to us with their sound, texture, rhythm, or meaning. Read more

Aug 3

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Happy Birthday Twitter’s #AMWriting

I live in the Great Northwest in a small Norwegian fishing village in Washington State, population just over 8,000. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, but sometimes I do get lonely for a larger community of writers. That’s where Twitter’s #AMWriting comes in. Anytime, any day, I can meet up with other writers working towards their goals. Through the hashtag #AMWriting, I’ve met new friends, networked, and created a space to be accountable–to others and to myself.

I’ve introduced #AMWriting to others, too. Meet Frankie the Fire Hydrant. She’s a cute little fixture in our town. She lives across the street from me where tourists often stop to take her picture. She loves to pose and has a hot sense of humor. Usually she wears a plaid scarf around her ample neck to protect her from our drizzly NW days. But in celebration of #AMWriting’s two-year anniversary, Frankie’s decided to doll up and join us for a day of writing. We hope you join us too. See you at #AMWriting!

For more #AMWriting Celebrations please visit: http://jrbutcher.blogspot.com

Aug 1

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Three ways to feed your muse: muse juice, part 1

Ever feel as if your muse is sitting back, stuffing her face with Bon Bons while watching reruns of “True Blood”? How do you inspire her to get off her ever-widening rear end and get back to work?

Check out www.Ted.com, where you’ll find “riveting talks by remarkable people.” Or, as I affectionately call this website—muse juice.

One of my favorite inspirational talks is by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love. In trying to answer the question, “Where does creativity come from?” she tells of the time she met American poet Ruth Stone who grew up in rural Virginia.

Sometimes, when Ruth was out working in the fields, she’d feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape—like a “thunderous train of air” barreling down on her. She’d run like hell to the house to get paper and pencil so when the poem barreled through her she’d be ready. Sometimes, she’d almost miss it. During these times, she’d grab a pencil and reach out with her other hand and catch the poem by its tail, pulling it back to her. When this happened, the poem would come out on the page perfectly intact but backwards—the words written from the end of the poem to the beginning.

I love this story because it feels as if it could be true. Read more

Jul 28

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Igniting passion as an artist

Whether you’re a writer, painter, photographer, or other type of artist, you are a creator, a mini-god, a microcosm of the macrocosm. And you create for a reason. All artists have their reasons. I began creating as a way to answer questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Is there any purpose to my life? Why do things happen the way they do?

These questions are what motivate me to write. In the writing, occasionally, I get answers. There are other reasons why I write—I like to tell stories, to explore relationships and psychology. But my real passion for writing stems from my original questions.

What is your passion? Why do you create? These are important questions every artist needs to answer for themselves. The key, I think, is in the word passion. Read more

Jul 26

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Two reasons to keep a poetry or writing journal

Shortly after Joan Larkin published her latest book of poetry, My Body: New and Selected Poems, I took an afternoon writing class from her.  I’d been writing poetry off and on for twenty years and had developed my own style for writing and saving my work. It looked something like this:

  1. I go for a walk, or do the dishes, or some other activity that requires little thinking. As I walk or scrub, I let my mind and eyes wander. Let them flit over ideas and objects until something seizes my imagination. I ask questions: What does this mean? What could this mean? What if?
  2. At some point, the words start coming. If I’m still walking, I speak into my iRecorder but eventually, I sit down and write out my first draft by hand—usually on a piece of lined notebook paper, but not in any particular journal or notebook. Read more

Jul 22

Should we write in different genres or stick to one?

The new international biennial Seek showcases the work of 100 visual artists selected by curators Calinda Salazar and Fletcher Ramsey. The artists come from all walks of life. They paint, sculpt, draw, direct short movies, and more. The unique thing about the exhibit? It’s all make-believe–even the “curators” aren’t real. Artist Shea Hembrey created the fictional artists and their artwork over a span of two years.

Above is a video of the talk Hembrey gave at Ted.com where he shows a sample of his exhibition.

How does this relate to writing? For his exhibition, Hembrey created works of art in a variety of genres. As writers, we know that the more we write, the more we learn—we learn about writing, about craft, about ourselves. But should be write in different genres or stick to one? Read more

Jul 20

Writer as wood carver: exercises in re-visioning, Part 2 of 2

In a writing class taught by Nicola Morris, I learned how to be a sculptor of words. As described in part 1 of this post, she had us take a page of completed work and after each sentence, insert two new sentences.

Now that I’d added 66% more words to my masterpiece, it was time to whittle away the unnecessary fat. The first exercise Nikki gave us is called “unpacking.” It’s a good exercise that teaches us to take our time as writers and fully develop a piece. The next trick was to take these unpacked, expanded pages and whittle them down again—leaving only what’s essential. I think of it like packing and unpacking a suitcase—there’s a whole bunch of stuff in there and each item has its own place…I wouldn’t put my bra in the medicine cabinet with my toothbrush would I?

In order to decide what to keep, I ask myself three questions: 1) What is important to me in this piece?  2) What do I want to say?  3) Which sentences are essential to what I want to say? Read more

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