My Inner Debate - IWSG October 2023

 

Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. Thank you to the October co-hosts, Natalie Aguirre, Kim Lajevardi, Debs Carey, Gwen Gardner, Patricia Josephine, and Rebecca Douglass. To read posts from other contributors, click here. 

October question: The topic of AI writing has been heavily debated across the world. According to various sources, generative AI will assist writers, not replace them. What are your thoughts?

This month’s question reminds me of a conversation I had with a college professor last spring. He expressed profound disappointment that students use AI thinking they can bluff their way to good grades on their papers. He said he could usually tell when he read the final product. We talked about how, as AI takes a stronger hold in education and business, it will become harder and harder to discern the truth. 

Honestly, since then I haven’t delved deep enough into the topic but here is my naive and uneducated take. Imagine a piece of highway hotel room art. It fills a blank wall and brings color to a room. Maybe it hides a stain. It’s utilitarian. That said, it’s more than likely mass produced, whether by a machine or by someone creating the same piece over and over. The piece may be technically proficient. Some people may even like it. But it lacks depth and passion. It lacks emotion. It’s missing finesse.

Recently an author I follow used AI to create a sample story before critiquing it. The story was like the wall art. It had a beginning, a middle and an end. It even had an arc. But it was plodding and definitely without nuance. In my mind, a computer can't take the place of the intangibles inspired by our humanity (so far). Still, the exercise begs the question. Could a writer take a story originally created via AI and flesh it out, tweak it, give it subtlety and turn it into something that touches a reader? Could they use it as a jumping off point to create a masterful novel?

I don’t know enough to know, and it feels like cheating to me. That said, I'm talking about fiction here, which is all about entertainment. Maybe we're simply encountering the newest way to do a thing. It doesn't feel right to me, but I have to ask myself. If the end product triggers emotions and the reader feels fulfilled by the experience of reading, does it matter how the story is produced?

I confess. Writing this month's essay kind of felt like bluffing my way through a college paper without having done the reading (no AI involved). I am aware there are deeper issues related to the recently resolved writer's strike, labor questions, and the threat of AI eliminating jobs. I'm simply not well-read enough on the topic to address them. Keep that in mind and don't be too hard on me in your comments.  

Happy Anniversary - IWSG September 2023

Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. Thank you to September’s co-hosts: J Lenni Dorner, Sonia Dogra, Pat Garcia , Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen. and Meka James. To find posts from other contributors, click here.

This month's topic: The IWSG celebrates 12 years today! When did you discover the IWSG, how do you connect, and how has it helped you? Feel free to elaborate on your connection with the IWSG as we celebrate another milestone.

After reading today’s optional question, I scrolled back over the years to the first IWSG post I wrote twelve years ago for that inaugural IWSG. That summer we’d been preparing for our only child to go to college and I felt like life was running away from me. Other than blogging and some freelance work, I’d given myself a break from writing for a couple of months. But now our girl was gone and I struggled to get back to my writing routine.  My topic was one most of us could write about today, the push-pull about how to prioritize writing time when the rest of our lives drive us in other directions—pretty much a universal theme.

I’m fairly incredulous when I think of how my life has changed since that first essay, but one thing that has remained consistent over the years has been a monthly reminder to write an IWSG post. No matter how I’m feeling about writing or life in general, I make myself sit down and pound out a piece. To my knowledge, I’ve never missed one. Twelve times twelve. A hundred and forty-four essays. I may not have achieved other writing goals, but at least I know have staying power.

But IWSG means more to me than sticking it out over the long haul. When I’ve been anxious, frustrated or uninspired, individuals in this group have provided thoughtful suggestions and challenges to get me moving again. At the lowest time of my life I wrote a post and the sincere comments I received helped me inch forward through my worst days ever. There is a kindness in this community for which I am always grateful. And while I’ve only participated in one anthology (The Insecure Writers Support Group Guide to Publishing and Beyond), I was tickled to see my name in print there. Even now I'm proud that my essay demonstrates a clear voice.

IWSG is all about community. I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this time to extend my thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for founding and growing IWSG to the online writing resource that it is today. And to the administrators and all those who have co-hosted over the years, please know how much I appreciate your efforts.

As we all know, writing can be a lonely practice. For me, IWSG means once a month, I see beyond my keyboard, beyond my quiet house to all those folks putting their unique thoughts out to the IWSG world and find comfort in knowing I am one of many.

What has IWSG meant to you?

 

Whimsy in the Woods - IWSG August 2023

 

Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. To find posts from other contributors, click here. Thank you to the August co-hosts:  Kate Larkinsdale, Diane Burton, Janet Alcorn, and Shannon Lawrence!

Since I have nothing writing related to share this month, I've decided to write about something whimsical instead.

Back during Covid lockdown FB announced a new business in our town. Deep in the woods on her property, a former local restauranter/chef/baker built a little shed she calls The Sugar Shack, where she stocks  supply of delicious foods. Surrounded by trees, the building sits unmanned. All are welcome to visit. For the longest time I hesitated to, feeling funny about driving up someone’s private driveway. Finally, after being ordered to by my sister-in-law who knew what we were missing, my daughter and I made it there, creeping up an unpaved road a quarter of a mile into the forest.

Trespassing worries disappeared as we encountered the flags welcoming us to travel on. “Chocolate ahead!” “Can you smell it?” and “You are almost there now." By the time we arrived at the shed, we were giggling like kids. We opened the door to find shelved lined with freshly baked muffins, breads, pies, flavored iced tea kits and jars of handmade chocolates. We were the only humans there. Payment is via the honor system, cash, check or Venmo.

The two of us were in awe.

Last week we had visitors and  during a scenic ride, without telling them where we were going, we drove them to the Sugar Shack. After looking at us askance as we trundled into the woods, they got it too. Tiny as it is, The Sugar Shack is one huge, quirky delight.

As writers, we appreciate imagination. I am inspired by the creativity it took build a darling shed (by hand, by herself), deep in the woods, stock it with handmade and curated sweets and then disappear, as if to say, no human had a hand in this. Beyond the shack, she has a successful online business selling most of the same yummy products as well as a food truck she takes to local fairs. But to my way of thinking there’s nothing like her magical “If you build it they will come” idea that brings joy to all who visit.

Outside of your writing, where have you encountered creativity recenty?

From Whence it Comes, Part 2, IWSG July 2023

 

Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. To find posts from other contributors, click here. Thank you to the July co-hosts:  PJ Colando, Kim Lajevardi, Gwen Gardner, Pat Garcia, and Natalie Aguirre!

July’s question: 99% of my story ideas come from dreams Where do your story ideas come from?

I must have anticipated this back in May when I segued off the question of the month to write about my various inspirations here. 

That said, I can pretty much say ideas come from anywhere. Last week I sat in a meeting about an upcoming kitchen renovation and the designer shared some intriguing information. As soon as I left her showroom I thought, “That would make a good story.” Who knew that would happen while waffling over cabinet colors?

One night many years ago, I floated half asleep in the wee hours when a fully formed voice inside my head announced, “The queen of the 1977 Tarrant County Honeydew Festival abdicated her crown twenty-four hours after receiving her scepter.”

Huh? Rolling over, I grabbed a pencil from the bedside table and scratched the words down so they didn’t disappear. I held on to the sheet I'd scribbled them on until I could figure out who'd been talking in my brain. Eventually, a daughter, a mother and a grandmother came to me and their shared story became one of my “practice” novels.

Most writers know that stories are everywhere. All we have to do is keep our eyes and minds open. Oh, and definitely put something within reach to record those snippets the midnight subconscious delivers.

What was the most surprising way a story came to you?

Thinking the Unthinkable - IWSG June, 2023

 

Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. To find posts from other contributors, click here. Thank you to this month’s co-hosts: Patricia Josephine, Diedre Knight, Olga Godim, J. Lenni Dorner, and Cathrina Constantine.

This month’s optional question: If you ever did stop writing, what would you replace it with?

Those who know The Princess Bride should hear Vizzini's voice in their heads. Stop writing? "Inconceivable.”

I joined my first (short lived) writing group in 2010-ish. Our town library had received a grant to offer a free writing course taught by a Grub Street instructor. When the class was finished, a few of us continued to meet regularly. Our members included a yoga instructor who liked to write, a woman who had never written before, a young mother working on lengthy piece of historical fiction and me, recently unemployed and trying to find her writing way. The fifth member of the group was a bit of an enigma. Petite and delicate-looking, she wore her iron-grey hair short and presented a funky vibe in her faded blue jeans and red canvas high-tops. She didn’t share much about herself, but we suspected she was older than she appeared when she skipped meetings if it meant driving in the dark or the rain. I remember a story she wrote in which she dropped us into a tension-filled hospital emergency room during the sixties drug culture. She was the best writer among us.

Not long after the group disbanded, I began my current role at our town's Department of Elder Affairs and shortly into my tenure, this woman became a client for a service I am in charge of providing. Our business is always conducted via phone, and over what has now become many years, the only time I’ve had occasion to see her was pre-Covid, when she attended a writing class our center offered. Yet even now I talk to her often, and occasionally we talk about our writing. Last week there was one such day and the end of our conversation she said, “I hope the center will offer another writing class soon.”

I told her I’d pass on the request to the individual in charge of arranging programs. After we hung up, I kept thinking about her in context of this month’s IWSG question, and I confess. I looked up her age.

Honestly, I can't fathom choosing not to write, anymore than I can picture what could replace it. Here’s to achieving 91 years of age, and still looking forward to writing.

 

From Whence it Comes - IWSG May 2023

Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of  Alex Cavanaugh.  To find other contributors, click here. Thank you to this month’s co-hosts: Joylene Nowell Butler, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Meka James, Diane Burton, Victoria Marie Lees, and M Louise Barbour.

This month's optional question: When you are working on a story, what inspires you?

The former owners of our home used to dump trash on the property. When we cleaned up the yard, my husband discovered a couple of antique glass bottles, pre-twist top. I cleaned them out, put them on my windowsill and used them as a bud vases. One day when trying to jog my creative juices, I wrote a scene I posted in Middle Passages about a woman with three similar bottles. Then came the questions. Who was the woman? What was the significance of the bottles? The story changed radically, but that scene triggered my first attempt at a novel.

Anything can inspire. Back in the late 1800’s in my hometown, an eccentric man built a kind of amusement park on his 800-acre estate. His “folly” featured a hotel, a “pirate’s grotto,” a bear pit, a crystal palace, a monkey house, and a camera obscura. There was a water tower with a mammoth statue of Poseidon. He dammed up a stream and made his own lake. The property featured mechanical jokes as well as progressive ideas. At one exhibit guests were invited to drink “Laughing Water” and after they did, the floor would tilt to make them feel drunk. He maintained a fastidious “piggery” with the innovative thought that taking care of the animals used for food would make for healthier eating.

Years later, the property was sold, parceled off and developed. Growing up, kids I knew who lived in the area talked about fishing in the lake and playing in the woods around the ruins of the old grotto, but I never experienced any of it. From my side of town, unless you lived in or visited one of those houses, the land and pond were physically inaccessible. But they weren’t inaccessible to my imagination. I used a fictionalized version of the ruins of that old estate in one of my books. 

More inspiration? A family at our church arranged for a memorial service honoring the passengers of an Irish immigrant ship who perished in wreck off the coast of our town in 1849. Once the service became an annual event, I did some research. Newspaper articles written about the tragedy listed ninety-nine official passengers on the ship manifest (the maximum allowed) but according to witnesses, as many as twenty off-the-record and nameless passengers traveled also. Twelve passengers survived the wreck. Forty-four people are buried in an unmarked grave in our Central Cemetery. (A marker was raised in their memory later.) Other victims were buried up and down the coast. I was haunted by the idea of the unregistered victims whose names were never reported. Would their families have ever known what happened to them? I wove the angst of unknowing into an unreliable character, threw in a missing child with correlations related to 150+ year old Irish shipwreck and it all came together in one of my novels.

Inspiration comes from anything. Trash, history, church, or simply walking down the street. All it takes is imagination.

What inspires your best writing?

Number Four, Saved from the Drawer - IWSG April 2023

 

Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of  Alex Cavanaugh.  To find other contributors, click here. Thank you to this month’s co-hosts: Jemima Pett, Nancy Gideon, and Natalie Aguirre.

April’s optional question: Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now and how is it working out for you? If you're at the start of the journey, what are your goals?

An author with whom I am acquainted once wrote that she kept working on her first novel because after all her effort, she “didn’t want it to end up in the drawer.” Persistence paid off. Her first novel was published to much acclaim.

As I’ve written here previously, my first attempt at a novel occurred ages ago, after I completed the lessons in The Artist’s Way, A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, by Julia Cameron. While I was proud to finish a draft, I had zero clue how to edit my initial mess. That dilemma led me to take a Grub Street writing class, which inspired me to join a writing group. I took more classes, started another novel, joined a different writing group and completed two more novels. Somewhere along the line I came to believe that my first unfortunate attempt had been lost due to a corrupt thumb drive.

That brings us to two summers ago when I was struggling. I’d managed to get myself writing again after losing my sweet Tim, but for the most part all I’d been doing was completing these blog posts and editing (again!) my two most recent novels. That lasted until I queried them a bit more and ran out of gas.

I had (and still have) no desire to begin writing another novel from scratch, but that summer I was pawing through some files looking for something and I found a printout of that awful first draft from years ago in my desk drawer. It had been beside me all along.

Thankfully, the thing was as much as mess as I remembered because it offered a challenge when I needed one most. Almost two years and several drafts in, I no longer shudder to read it.

So, do I remember my first novel? Well, yes. Technically, my first novel is now my fourth. I worked on it this just morning, ever so grateful to have pulled it out of the drawer.

What was your first book like? Was it published?