by Odilia Rivera Santos
It is Monday and nothing says Monday like trying something new. When you do new things, new things happen - I heard someone say this recently and it seemed very zen.
I decided yesterday to limit my reading to only one day per week: Friday. In the Julia Cameron book The Artist's Way, Cameron suggests writers write instead of read. I never read her book because writer how-to books have always been difficult for me to get through, but I think this piece of advice is worthwhile. I picked up a paper today and put it down upon remembering my 2012 resolutions begin today, and I instead discreetly glanced at fellow passengers and let walking meditation fill the void. After being an avid reader since the age of six, I have plenty of material roaming around in my head. In Spanish, a woman who behaves herself -- married, with kids, listening to her husband -- is called hecha y derecha. Today, I will use the term to speak of myself as a writer: soy una escritora hecha y derecha.
It is time to begin submitting my work on the regular to fancy invisible journals and to less fancy visible ones and to explore writing as a full-time, full-throttle, all-consuming adventure.
By not reading, I have cleared three to four hours per day to focus on writing, observing, interacting, and overusing the gerund.
Showing posts with label writerly habits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writerly habits. Show all posts
Monday, December 19, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Being and Being Productive as a Writer
Odilia Rivera Santos
One of the complaints I hear a lot from other writers is that they don’t have time to write.
It isn’t a question of time, but motivation. Some of my favorite writers have written books in between chopping rocks in a gulag and a meal of gruel. Every productive writer has his or her own method for remaining constant as far as a writing schedule is concerned.
When I was teaching in an adult education program full-time, nine to five, and teaching part-time in the evenings, six to nine, I still managed to write for hours every day. I would write in the morning, during my lunch break, and during my commute to and from the day job to the night job. By the end of the day, I had completed poems, outlines for stories or novels or some essays to post on my blogs.
Sometimes, writers are looking for an ideal situation -- some Hemingway-esque cabin in Cuba with a hammock on the porch. But what really matters for an artist is to stay productive and to always seek ways of challenging ourselves to avoid getting in a rut. And the definition of ‘productive’ can vary; there can be flexibility in one’s view of productivity. I occasionally abandon the written word and spend time observing people or go to museums to visit art. Switching from the literary to visual has a way of dislodging me from any feeling of routine when I need to abandon routines, as useful as they are.
I took a break from submitting my work to journals in 2006 and just wrote.
Prior to this self-imposed submission break, I had done well getting my work in journals I respected, but I wanted time to develop long-term ideas and concepts without the interruption of an arbitrary deadline. In 2008, I decided to start a blog with the idea its subject matter would be intentionally unclear. I allowed myself to think on this site with very few visits until my aim came into focus. In the last five years, I have written plays, screenplays, short stories, hundreds of poems, hundreds of blog posts, and a novel of which I am proud. I began to submit work to journals again last year, but my relationship with faceless editors who choose whether to publish my work has changed. I always had an independent streak and realized both teaching and writing offered a modicum of autonomy, which I found very satisfying.
I give myself assignments in order to keep my productivity flowing.
Recently, I decided to organize some poetry readings; one reading was erotic poetry and prose and the other was on Puerto Rican identity, history and place, so I gave myself an assignment: write thirty pages of new material for each reading. I met my goal and now have a twenty-five-page manuscript, covering our migration from an island to the South Bronx, taking a trip to Cuba -- which was important because the culture was so similar to that of Puerto Rico when I was a child, and class issues. I am submitting the manuscript to a Latino journal today. The erotica collection will find a home as well.
There is something to be said for structure for any kind of goal one may have.
WRITERLY PRACTICES
I give myself assignments and find this is the most efficient way to get ideas to flow. It appears the brain is quite adept at organizing information once there is a clear purpose. I wrote 365 poems on the subject of love for my poetry blog, 150 pages of autobiographical essays and even did some artist interviews as a means of keeping my writing interesting.
Socializing is important because we humans are social animals, but writing is a solitary practice, unless your plan is to write for a television show in which case, you would be sitting in a room with a bunch of people. Together, as you eat bear claws and drink designer coffee, you would build a show line by line, joke by joke, etc.
Regular non-collaborative writing can be very challenging for very social people.
Some people need applause and constant attention. I don’t. I love solitude.
Even though I love being alone, sometimes, I crave solitude with company and go to a coffee shop in order to be surrounded by people. I may be completely absorbed in my work and looking only at the computer screen but part of my brain enjoys a little ambient noise. I rarely write in silence. There is either music or someone talking while I write.
I go online and download podcasts on a variety of subjects. Podcasts allow me to ‘read’ while I write. I listen to programs in Spanish, French and English and also download lectures on subjects I wish to study. The life of a writer requires constant intellectual challenge so as to be able to write for a variety of audiences and to create multi-dimensional characters. Linguistic pliability doesn’t come in a pill or through osmosis. As I am writing this, I am downloading podcasts in French and some London Business School of Entrepreneurship lectures. After all, to write about something, you have to know something.
Take a writing course with me! http://skl.sh/lGWoDn
Get this blog for your Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/6yjk637
My slim volume of nonfiction essays is published!
Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part I http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/69697
One of the complaints I hear a lot from other writers is that they don’t have time to write.
It isn’t a question of time, but motivation. Some of my favorite writers have written books in between chopping rocks in a gulag and a meal of gruel. Every productive writer has his or her own method for remaining constant as far as a writing schedule is concerned.
When I was teaching in an adult education program full-time, nine to five, and teaching part-time in the evenings, six to nine, I still managed to write for hours every day. I would write in the morning, during my lunch break, and during my commute to and from the day job to the night job. By the end of the day, I had completed poems, outlines for stories or novels or some essays to post on my blogs.
Sometimes, writers are looking for an ideal situation -- some Hemingway-esque cabin in Cuba with a hammock on the porch. But what really matters for an artist is to stay productive and to always seek ways of challenging ourselves to avoid getting in a rut. And the definition of ‘productive’ can vary; there can be flexibility in one’s view of productivity. I occasionally abandon the written word and spend time observing people or go to museums to visit art. Switching from the literary to visual has a way of dislodging me from any feeling of routine when I need to abandon routines, as useful as they are.
I took a break from submitting my work to journals in 2006 and just wrote.
Prior to this self-imposed submission break, I had done well getting my work in journals I respected, but I wanted time to develop long-term ideas and concepts without the interruption of an arbitrary deadline. In 2008, I decided to start a blog with the idea its subject matter would be intentionally unclear. I allowed myself to think on this site with very few visits until my aim came into focus. In the last five years, I have written plays, screenplays, short stories, hundreds of poems, hundreds of blog posts, and a novel of which I am proud. I began to submit work to journals again last year, but my relationship with faceless editors who choose whether to publish my work has changed. I always had an independent streak and realized both teaching and writing offered a modicum of autonomy, which I found very satisfying.
I give myself assignments in order to keep my productivity flowing.
Recently, I decided to organize some poetry readings; one reading was erotic poetry and prose and the other was on Puerto Rican identity, history and place, so I gave myself an assignment: write thirty pages of new material for each reading. I met my goal and now have a twenty-five-page manuscript, covering our migration from an island to the South Bronx, taking a trip to Cuba -- which was important because the culture was so similar to that of Puerto Rico when I was a child, and class issues. I am submitting the manuscript to a Latino journal today. The erotica collection will find a home as well.
There is something to be said for structure for any kind of goal one may have.
WRITERLY PRACTICES
I give myself assignments and find this is the most efficient way to get ideas to flow. It appears the brain is quite adept at organizing information once there is a clear purpose. I wrote 365 poems on the subject of love for my poetry blog, 150 pages of autobiographical essays and even did some artist interviews as a means of keeping my writing interesting.
Socializing is important because we humans are social animals, but writing is a solitary practice, unless your plan is to write for a television show in which case, you would be sitting in a room with a bunch of people. Together, as you eat bear claws and drink designer coffee, you would build a show line by line, joke by joke, etc.
Regular non-collaborative writing can be very challenging for very social people.
Some people need applause and constant attention. I don’t. I love solitude.
Even though I love being alone, sometimes, I crave solitude with company and go to a coffee shop in order to be surrounded by people. I may be completely absorbed in my work and looking only at the computer screen but part of my brain enjoys a little ambient noise. I rarely write in silence. There is either music or someone talking while I write.
I go online and download podcasts on a variety of subjects. Podcasts allow me to ‘read’ while I write. I listen to programs in Spanish, French and English and also download lectures on subjects I wish to study. The life of a writer requires constant intellectual challenge so as to be able to write for a variety of audiences and to create multi-dimensional characters. Linguistic pliability doesn’t come in a pill or through osmosis. As I am writing this, I am downloading podcasts in French and some London Business School of Entrepreneurship lectures. After all, to write about something, you have to know something.
Take a writing course with me! http://skl.sh/lGWoDn
Get this blog for your Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/6yjk637
My slim volume of nonfiction essays is published!
Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part I http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/69697
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