Well, this kicked me in the butt.
A couple weeks ago, my writer-friend Laurie Cannady (there she is in the picture, looking all beautiful and writerly) wrote to me about the #MYWRITINGPROCESS Blog Tour. Its goal, she explained, was to connect authors all over the globe, via blog posts that shared the details of these writers' lives. Laurie was preparing her entry, and wanted to include me. Did I have a blog?
The answer was yes. I've had a blog (www.writingjenny.blogspot.com) since July 2010.
The answer was also no. I haven't posted to that blog since April.
...2012.
"But I'm working on a new website," I told Laurie. "This may be just the push I need!"
I've needed a push. For starters? I'd been "working on" that new website since November. But if anyone could provide writing inspiration, it would be Laurie Cannady. I met Laurie during my first semester—my first workshop—at Vermont College of Fine Arts. There, Laurie was working on one of the most honest, urgent, and brave essays I've read.
But it's not just her writing that speaks to me. Laurie is a force of energy—a devoted wife, an involved parent, a busy professor of English who has, despite the demands on her time, also managed to write and revise an entire essay collection, Have a Little Piece of Me. (A collection, incidentally, that is being published by Etruscan Press in 2015 — Yay Laurie!)
Laurie is, to me, an example of the power of persistence, positivity, and prioritization. Of seeing the story and knowing it needs to be told. Of pushing through the hard stuff and getting to work.
Yet, when she first wrote to me about taking part in the #MYWRITINGPROCESS blog tour, my first instinct was to turn her down. I wanted to say, "Sorry, too busy right now." I wanted to say, "I don't have the time."
But I couldn't bring myself to say that to Laurie. Because what excuse—what obligations—could I possibly have that she doesn't? Work? Family? Writing?
Yeah, those weren't going to fly.
So I let Laurie push me. Which is why, here I am, one day before her deadline, tweaking this website and writing my first blog post in nearly two years. What's my writing process? Here goes:
What are you working on?
Here's what I'm always working on, every week, for the last eight-plus years: my weekly "Jen's World" column for the Rochester, Minn. Post-Bulletin. Not that I'm counting, but that's 425 600-word columns so far, covering everything from my first bra fitting to why our kids need smaller class sizes to the last thing my dementia-addled grandmother ever said to me.
That's the here and now. That's the constant. That's the late-night-Sunday-to-meet-Monday-deadline stuff.
I write a lot of other stories, too, for local audiences through Rochester's city magazine. I fact, I write in some form or another, every single day. Some of it feels important and worthwhile, and some of it doesn't. But everyday, I feel lucky that I get to write for a living.
I'm also working on a collection of essays that might be called "Somebody I Used to Know." Or maybe it will be called "The Ones I Left Behind." Or maybe it will be called something I haven't even thought of yet.
I maintain that I'm working on this collection—currently at four strong essays and two or three weak ones—even though the last time I sat down to sweat over it was last July. But I think about it a lot. Mostly when I'm in the shower. And even though it sounds like I'm being flippant, I think this shower-work is actually pretty worthwhile.
How does your work differ from others of its genre?
My goal is always to be completely honest—even if the truth isn't pretty. I think there are other memoirists who do this right (hello, Laurie Cannady), but there are those who gloss over the truth, too. Who polish the edges too much. Who don't want to admit to their own failings. I love the failings! This is what makes us human... and makes me want to read on.
I also tend to use humor, even when the subject matter isn't necessarily a funny one. My goal is to express the most true, raw human experience in whatever I write—and that is never one-dimensional. It may be heartbreaking and ridiculous, exhilarating and tragic. I hope my best work expresses it all.
Why do you write what you do?
I write to unite. To share common experiences. To show others that they aren't alone. To show me that I'm not alone.
I write to get the words and feelings and experiences out of me and onto paper, where they make more sense.
I write because if I don't get them down—these keywords and sentences and concepts that surge when I'm driving my car, or lying in bed, or standing in the shower—they will bounce relentlessly off the walls of my brain until I do.
How does your writing process work?
I have a friend who writes from a tower—I'm not even kidding, a tower—in her house. It has these broad windows that look out over her idyllic yard and, beyond that, a forest.
Do you know where I write from? A desk in the corner of my basement living room. Or the kitchen table. Or the couch. Right now, I'm writing from under the down comforter in my queen-sized bed. And I'm only here because my 11-year-old is playing Minecraft on the living room computer, and my husband just filled the kitchen with oven cleaner fumes, banishing me from the table where I started this post.
This is to say that I have no writing sanctuary.
I also don't have a writing schedule. I don't get up at 5 a.m. to write every morning like those disciplined writers we all hear about. I don't guard Sunday afternoons as sacred writing time. I don't reserve a weekend a month.
I steal moments. I wait until the house is quiet, and the kids are asleep, then stay up, typing, too late. I carry a notebook in my bag and scribble out ideas while I'm waiting to pick my son up from soccer practice. I sneak away to the neighborhood Dunn Bros. coffee shop and try not to make eye contact with the people I know. I write when I can. When I'm deadline. When the mood strikes.
I wish I could say I had a better system.
Who's next?
I'm excited to do my own pushing and set a couple of my writer-friends on this #MYWRITINGPROCESS journey. I'm tagging two of the inspiring writers I met at Vermont College's post-graduate writing conference last August. Whether or not they choose to participate is up to them—but I know I'd love to read anything they have to share.
Amy Yelin: Amy is an award-winning writer whose articles, essays and author interviews have appeared in The Boston Globe, The Boston Globe Magazine, The Missouri Review, The Writer’s Chronicle, Literary Mama, The Gettysburg Review, and other publications. Amy's clever, conversational, and funny blog, I Had a Boob Once, explores her breast-cancer journey and so much more. Just read this excerpt from her Blogspot bio and you'll understand why I like her so much: "My blog is back by no demand at all! Really. None. Still, I thank the two people who used to follow 'I had a Mind Once.' Your commitment meant a lot to me. No, the blog is back because I have a need to communicate, and also because I know there is a severe shortage of blogs in existence. So I wanted to help...."
John Hudson: John Hudson is a fellow newspaper columnist (read his columns here), working out of Sherborn, Massachusetts. Through his "Sherborn Pastor" columns, John writes about everything from addiction to bullying to the Affordable Care Act to the cost of a college education. When I met John, though, I didn't know he was a newspaper columnist or a blogger. I just knew that he submitted a piece of prose to our workshop that felt both daring and raw, and that I liked him immediately.
A couple weeks ago, my writer-friend Laurie Cannady (there she is in the picture, looking all beautiful and writerly) wrote to me about the #MYWRITINGPROCESS Blog Tour. Its goal, she explained, was to connect authors all over the globe, via blog posts that shared the details of these writers' lives. Laurie was preparing her entry, and wanted to include me. Did I have a blog?
The answer was yes. I've had a blog (www.writingjenny.blogspot.com) since July 2010.
The answer was also no. I haven't posted to that blog since April.
...2012.
"But I'm working on a new website," I told Laurie. "This may be just the push I need!"
I've needed a push. For starters? I'd been "working on" that new website since November. But if anyone could provide writing inspiration, it would be Laurie Cannady. I met Laurie during my first semester—my first workshop—at Vermont College of Fine Arts. There, Laurie was working on one of the most honest, urgent, and brave essays I've read.
But it's not just her writing that speaks to me. Laurie is a force of energy—a devoted wife, an involved parent, a busy professor of English who has, despite the demands on her time, also managed to write and revise an entire essay collection, Have a Little Piece of Me. (A collection, incidentally, that is being published by Etruscan Press in 2015 — Yay Laurie!)
Laurie is, to me, an example of the power of persistence, positivity, and prioritization. Of seeing the story and knowing it needs to be told. Of pushing through the hard stuff and getting to work.
Yet, when she first wrote to me about taking part in the #MYWRITINGPROCESS blog tour, my first instinct was to turn her down. I wanted to say, "Sorry, too busy right now." I wanted to say, "I don't have the time."
But I couldn't bring myself to say that to Laurie. Because what excuse—what obligations—could I possibly have that she doesn't? Work? Family? Writing?
Yeah, those weren't going to fly.
So I let Laurie push me. Which is why, here I am, one day before her deadline, tweaking this website and writing my first blog post in nearly two years. What's my writing process? Here goes:
What are you working on?
Here's what I'm always working on, every week, for the last eight-plus years: my weekly "Jen's World" column for the Rochester, Minn. Post-Bulletin. Not that I'm counting, but that's 425 600-word columns so far, covering everything from my first bra fitting to why our kids need smaller class sizes to the last thing my dementia-addled grandmother ever said to me.
That's the here and now. That's the constant. That's the late-night-Sunday-to-meet-Monday-deadline stuff.
I write a lot of other stories, too, for local audiences through Rochester's city magazine. I fact, I write in some form or another, every single day. Some of it feels important and worthwhile, and some of it doesn't. But everyday, I feel lucky that I get to write for a living.
I'm also working on a collection of essays that might be called "Somebody I Used to Know." Or maybe it will be called "The Ones I Left Behind." Or maybe it will be called something I haven't even thought of yet.
I maintain that I'm working on this collection—currently at four strong essays and two or three weak ones—even though the last time I sat down to sweat over it was last July. But I think about it a lot. Mostly when I'm in the shower. And even though it sounds like I'm being flippant, I think this shower-work is actually pretty worthwhile.
How does your work differ from others of its genre?
My goal is always to be completely honest—even if the truth isn't pretty. I think there are other memoirists who do this right (hello, Laurie Cannady), but there are those who gloss over the truth, too. Who polish the edges too much. Who don't want to admit to their own failings. I love the failings! This is what makes us human... and makes me want to read on.
I also tend to use humor, even when the subject matter isn't necessarily a funny one. My goal is to express the most true, raw human experience in whatever I write—and that is never one-dimensional. It may be heartbreaking and ridiculous, exhilarating and tragic. I hope my best work expresses it all.
Why do you write what you do?
I write to unite. To share common experiences. To show others that they aren't alone. To show me that I'm not alone.
I write to get the words and feelings and experiences out of me and onto paper, where they make more sense.
I write because if I don't get them down—these keywords and sentences and concepts that surge when I'm driving my car, or lying in bed, or standing in the shower—they will bounce relentlessly off the walls of my brain until I do.
How does your writing process work?
I have a friend who writes from a tower—I'm not even kidding, a tower—in her house. It has these broad windows that look out over her idyllic yard and, beyond that, a forest.
Do you know where I write from? A desk in the corner of my basement living room. Or the kitchen table. Or the couch. Right now, I'm writing from under the down comforter in my queen-sized bed. And I'm only here because my 11-year-old is playing Minecraft on the living room computer, and my husband just filled the kitchen with oven cleaner fumes, banishing me from the table where I started this post.
This is to say that I have no writing sanctuary.
I also don't have a writing schedule. I don't get up at 5 a.m. to write every morning like those disciplined writers we all hear about. I don't guard Sunday afternoons as sacred writing time. I don't reserve a weekend a month.
I steal moments. I wait until the house is quiet, and the kids are asleep, then stay up, typing, too late. I carry a notebook in my bag and scribble out ideas while I'm waiting to pick my son up from soccer practice. I sneak away to the neighborhood Dunn Bros. coffee shop and try not to make eye contact with the people I know. I write when I can. When I'm deadline. When the mood strikes.
I wish I could say I had a better system.
Who's next?
I'm excited to do my own pushing and set a couple of my writer-friends on this #MYWRITINGPROCESS journey. I'm tagging two of the inspiring writers I met at Vermont College's post-graduate writing conference last August. Whether or not they choose to participate is up to them—but I know I'd love to read anything they have to share.
Amy Yelin: Amy is an award-winning writer whose articles, essays and author interviews have appeared in The Boston Globe, The Boston Globe Magazine, The Missouri Review, The Writer’s Chronicle, Literary Mama, The Gettysburg Review, and other publications. Amy's clever, conversational, and funny blog, I Had a Boob Once, explores her breast-cancer journey and so much more. Just read this excerpt from her Blogspot bio and you'll understand why I like her so much: "My blog is back by no demand at all! Really. None. Still, I thank the two people who used to follow 'I had a Mind Once.' Your commitment meant a lot to me. No, the blog is back because I have a need to communicate, and also because I know there is a severe shortage of blogs in existence. So I wanted to help...."
John Hudson: John Hudson is a fellow newspaper columnist (read his columns here), working out of Sherborn, Massachusetts. Through his "Sherborn Pastor" columns, John writes about everything from addiction to bullying to the Affordable Care Act to the cost of a college education. When I met John, though, I didn't know he was a newspaper columnist or a blogger. I just knew that he submitted a piece of prose to our workshop that felt both daring and raw, and that I liked him immediately.