My Time Writing Down the Bones with Natalie Goldberg, Part 2, by Diane Bator

 

Book 2, Dead Man's Doll

Since starting the virtual Writing Down the Bones course with Natalie Goldberg, I find myself slowing down. Feeling the snow on my face as I did with my kids when they were young. Laughing when I find fluffy, white turkey feathers that have made their way from the costume hanging in the upper lobby at work on my desk a floor below.

I find myself taking 10 minutes to myself a couple times a day to write. My topics? The walk I took to the coffee shop one day in the wind and finding a clean, crisp twenty dollar bill that hadn't blown away yet on the sidewalk. The taste of the Americano I bought and how I loathed that taste for years even though I'd always loved the comforting scent. To write about the puffy flakes of snow falling or the icy pellets tapping on the glass to be let in.

I find that I'm focusing on details more lately where before I mostly focused on the dialogue in my books. Even while editing my latest work in progress, All That Shimmers, I've added more details than in any of my previous books.

So far, I've finished the first three out of four sections in the course. I've also read three of Natalie's writing books and was able to join in a Zoom call with my mentor herself! I swear I barely listened to the first few minutes, I was just in awe by the experience. She was gracious enough to answer questions from the group for the entire hour.

Which of her books have I read so far?

• Writing Down the Bones
• Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life
• Thunder & Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft

If you're looking for a little inspiration to improve your own writing, I'd highly recommend any of them. Just as they helped with my upcoming book, All That Shimmers, Glitter Bay Book 3 that comes out in May. Watch for the new cover next month!

You can find my work at https://bwlpublishing.ca/bator-diane/

Happy Reading. Happy Writing!

Diane

    

Book 1 Drop Dead Cowboy

 

My time Writing Down the Bones with Natalie Goldberg (Part 1) by Diane Bator

 

The very first writing book I ever owned was a Christmas gift from my brother-in-law and his wife way back in 1993. It was a copy of Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. Dog-eared now and covered in notes and highlights, it is still one of my favorite books and I’d always dreamed of joining one of her workshops even though going to Santa Fe wasn’t something I could afford. The dream lingered.

Fast forward to 2007. Since receiving that book, I have moved across Canada from Alberta to Ontario and, in order to meet some like-minded people, joined a writing group that uses Ms. Goldberg’s teachings as a template to run their meetings. It’s the closest opportunity I have to actually attending one of her workshops, so it’ll do.

Then along came Covid and things changed. Some of them for the better! One of those things was making mentorships even more accessible than ever.

A few weeks ago I found a link from Prajna Studios, a division of Shambhala Publications, about a virtual Writing Down the Bones webinar featuring my dream mentor—you guessed it!—Natalie Goldberg.

“Yeah. Right. It’s going to cost a fortune,” I told the link, but clicked on it anyway.

Up came a video with Natalie sharing three key points that came to guide and anchor her writing life over the past decades. The video was a little hard to hear but in a nutshell, they are:

1. Continue under all circumstances.
2. Don’t be tossed away.
3. Make positive effort for the good.

Trust me, everyone who clicks on the link gets to hear them. I’m not giving away deep dark secrets!

The deeper into the rabbit hole I dug, the more I realized I could actually learn from the woman who was a huge inspiration to me so many years ago without having to pay a small fortune!

Do I dive in? The price was reasonable. How could I refuse?

Or do I pretend I never saw the link? Never went down that rabbit hole as inviting as it is?

Writing for me is like breathing. Ink runs in my blood. If I didn’t dive in and do this, would I regret it later?

I didn’t hesitate long. I dove right in and made sure I had all the reading materials. I’ve finished my first section and halfway through the second while reading many chapters from Natalie’s various books.

The best part is I've already been meeting other classmates. Some we chat on a forum and three others I’ve joined for a regular Sunday Writing session. We write to prompts and share what we have written. We also encourage each other to write and have fun with our projects.

Hopefully, you have also discovered a mentor. Someone who will encourage you along your path no matter what that may be.

Next month, I’ll share more about what I’ve learned and will even get to do live, online sessions with Natalie!

Why Should You Write What You Know? by Diane Bator

 

After 17 months of making videos and appearning on Zoom calls and podcasts, I did my first In-Person event at our local library! I was so excited to stand in front of a group of people again and talk about Writing What You Know and my two new books, All That Shines and Dead Without Remorse. It was so inspiring for me to chat with novice writers after the session who loved the advice I gave and came away feeling totally motivated to write their first book. In return, I came home excited to continue to write and work with other writers to make their dream a reality.

So what do I mean by "write what you know"? 

Novice writers have been given that advice for many years and, a lot of the time, they have no idea what it really means. They get stuck in a box of thinking you can only write your life - which most of us feel is a pretty dull subject! Whether it be about your current job, your lifestyle, or your own life experiences.

That's only partially correct.

I was stuck in that same rut until I read one simple paragraph written by Natalie Goldberg on page 48 of Writing Down the Bones:

"Writers live twice. They go along with their regular life, and are as fast as anyone in the grocery store, crossing the street, getting dressed for work in the morning. But there's another part of them they have been training. The one that lives everything a second time. That sits down and sees their life again and goes over it. Looks at the texture and details."

I belive it is in those textures and details that we truly write what we know. 

No matter what genre you write, there are always sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds that we as writers can add to build the setting and tension and to create a realistic backdrop for our books.

If your book takes place on a spaceship deep among the stars, you already know what the darkness looks like. You can describe what metals feel like, look like, and even sound like when you knock on them or grind them together. Is it shiny and sterile? Is it an old ship with panels falling off to reveal internal circuitry? 

When writing a fantasy novel, you have likely walked through forests and are familiar with the sights and sounds of birds, trees, and babbling brooks. While you might not have seen a dragon before, you can compare one to a lizard, just on a grander scale and with wings that could cause serious damage to a cottage.

For mystery and even paranormal writers, we've all been alone inside a building before. Bring in that sense of dread and suspense where you have no idea what's around the next corner. Have your character hear a sound that they can't identify. Their heartrate would speed up and their hands grow clammy because they have no idea who - or what - is in the building with them.

Bring in the simple things:  The smells in the air before or after a rainfall. The taste of coffee, or what passes for coffee or strange herbal teas in their worlds. The rustle of leaves as the wind blows. The texture of shiny or matte metals. The creaking of wood on a pirate ship. Snow falling on your face.

Can you write about your job? Why not? As long as you're not giving out top secret information, you can fictionalize places, people, and events. Writing the bitter truth about easily idenifyable people will put you in the realm of non-fiction. It can also open you up to a lawsuit! Think before you publish.

I believe very strongly in writing what you know when it comes to creating stronger fiction. I even have a simple formula for it.

Take one part imagination

Add one part reality

Blend in a flowing, believable way

That engages your readers

Repeat in the next story or novel.

Thank you for joining me today!

You can learn more about me and my books at http://bookswelove.net/bator-diane/ and at my website https://dianebator.ca/

Diane Bator

 

Getting Through the Rough Times by Victoria Chatham

For writers, writing is usually a compunction, something they have to do, like breathing. Even before I really knew what I was doing, I wrote.

Yes, I’ve joked about my writing with crayons on the wall not being appreciated by my family (for obvious reasons) but making my mark by writing something, somewhere has, for me, always been a tangible expression, like prehistoric handprints on the wall of a cave, of my being here, on this planet, now. The now has shifted considerably over the years from childish drawings and weirdly shaped letters, to short stories about ponies and dogs, to prize-winning essays at school and onwards and upwards.

image courtesy of Shutterstock

Writing, as an art, was something I took up when I learned calligraphy. It came out of an art class where we were encouraged to illuminate the capital letter of our first name or surname. I chose V for Victoria, not H for Hammond as I was then. I liked the look of the letter V, and very early on also liked the fact that Victory and Valor both began with V. They seemed strong words to me then as they do now.

Combining the art of writing with the craft of it was something that came a lot later. Although I loved English classes, both literature and grammar, writing in my family was a serious business. It had to impart knowledge and instruction and, consequently, fiction and fun writing didn’t enter much into my education. However, at age thirteen I read a book whose title now escapes me although I can see the cover clearly. Anyone who remembers Douglas Fairbanks, or maybe Douglas Fairbanks jnr., would recognize the look of the handsome pirate wearing a bandanna, an open-neck shirt and swinging from a rope on some ship or another. If you’ll pardon the nautical pun, it opened up a whole new horizon for me.

I wrote short stories which friends enjoyed and encouraged me to 'send to a publisher.' I showed one short story to a well-respected children's book editor who suggested I submit it to a long defunct UK short story magazine called The Argosy. It was rejected but I persevered. After all, I had many more stories to write. However, my family was far less enthusiastic than my friends so I kept writing mainly for myself. When I started writing novels, erroneously thinking writing chapters would be like writing one short story after another, I very quickly found a whole new world within the writing world. 

But getting stuck in the writing is also part of a writer's life. It happened to me more often than not in the early days but books like Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg helped a great deal. 'How To' books from the Library were replaced with Google searches for ideas to jumpstart my work all over again. Tools like doodling with words and going for walks, listening to music, or washing the floor all got tested.

So, what does keep me going when the words won’t come, or won’t come in the way or order that I want them to? My best tried and true trick is to stop writing. I return to my favorite books, the ones that have left vivid impressions over the years and have had me sobbing my socks off or laughing out loud. My favorite go-to read is Georgette Heyer’s Frederica. I know that when I’m done reading it, I’ll go back to my writing with more energy and enthusiasm and then everything seems to flow again.

 AVAILABLE HERE

Victoria Chatham

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