Keeping the love alive in our writing
Slow Story Club - October 2023
Hello friends,
I’m a few days late with this month’s Slow Story Club post. Apologies. I’ve been really busy with all the extra duties the house sit I’m doing came with, ones I didn’t know about that mean driving about the town a lot dropping things off and picking things up. It takes up a fair bit of time!
This month I want to look at keeping the love alive in our writing. I’ve been running an online community for writers since January 2020 and I have been part of the writing community on Twitter, which has now shifted to Bluesky, for over a decade. In that time, I have seen so many writers, including myself, get caught up in the “success” side of writing. Judging their worth as writers, and as humans, by the number of listings and placings their stories get in competitions and the number of times they get declined by journals. Whether or not they get an agent, and if they do get a publishing deal whether or not they get nominated for prizes, get a certain number of reviews or a bestseller label on Amazon.
Obviously we all want readers for our work but in a recent workshop I ran on resilience called ‘Dealing with Declines’ I got the writers who attended to write down the reasons why they started writing in the first place. Prizes and listings, publishing deals and acceptances didn’t appear at all in their reasons.
Writing Exercise
Spend 5-10 minutes writing down what made you start writing and all the reasons you love doing it.
I did this exercise myself quite a while ago now when I realised I had lost the love of writing purely for its own sake. That I was judging myself harshly by standards only I was imposing on my craft. Because my stories are always on long and shortlists and never actually win the competitions I enter, I was telling myself that I wasn’t good enough and that everyone else was thinking that about me too. But one of the most important things I have learned in life is that you cannot change what anyone else thinks about you (and most of the time they’re not thinking about you anyway!) only what you think about yourself.
So with that important learning living inside me, I decided to change my relationship with my writing. Instead of looking at all the things I hadn't achieved, I decided to look at the things I had. And when I started listing them, they were pretty great. I have written hundreds of stories and over 40 of them are now published. Many readers have contacted me to say they enjoyed them. I have written two published novels and have just completed a novella-in-flash. I have almost completed a flash fiction collection and started work on a third novel. I have learned enough about the craft of writing to become a teacher and share that knowledge to help others develop their craft.
And, the most important one of all to me, my writing is getting better all the time. This is because I am now focused solely on developing my craft and not thinking about what will happen with stories when they are ready. This new focus has seen a seismic shift in my writing. On what appears on the page, in how I feel when I am writing it, on how I feel when I think about my writing. In the words of Ray Bradbury in his fantastic book Zen in the Art of Writing, I have re-found my zest for it.
What about you? What are the great things you can say about your writing when you shift your focus away from the things you haven’t achieved to the things you have? Are you feeling the zest for your writing? If not, how can you get it back?
Story Reading
This month’s reading is a story of mine, which was one of the first written when I had gone through my seismic shift in my relationship with my writing. I wanted to write a story that was filled with love and wonder and the mystery of this human experience, but that also dealt with the realities of it and losing the people we love. My story ‘Sun Rising Behind Grimy Tower Blocks’ was inspired by research I did into the ways different cultures deal with death.
I discovered a tradition that the Malagasy people of Madagascar have called ‘Famadihana’, or ‘the turning of the bones’, which they perform every five to seven years. In this ritual, people bring the bodies of loved ones from their crypts, wrap them in fresh cloths, spray them with perfume and dance with them. They see it as a chance to share stories with their deceased loved ones of the things that have happened since the passed, and to ask for their blessings.
It took me around 18 months to get this story to a point where I was happy with it. To where I thought I had done justice to the story and characters and where I had written the best sentences I could. Before I would have been too impatient. I would’ve wanted to get it out in the world. I wouldn't have taken the time it really needed to make it the best that I could. But now that I have my zest for the writing back, that is what I want to do with all my stories. Hence why I have only had one published this year. But I’m willing to wait and I hope that being a part of the Slow Story Club, will help you to give your stories more time too.
Writing Prompt
Research traditions in a culture other than your own. These can be related to birth, death, marriage, harvest, anything at all. Then write a draft of a story inspired by what you learn about the tradition.
I’ll open a chat thread later in the month for paid subscribers to share their ideas, or their drafts.
Happy writing!
I hope you have enjoyed this month’s Slow Story Club post. Do let me know what you think in the comments below as I want to make sure that you all get lots out of them.
With love,
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In the spirit of the club, I'm slow to read these posts and think about the exercises! I only started creative writing during the pandemic and can honestly say my reason for continuing is a love of writing and of exploring through words. I've followed a few courses to try to learn how to improve my writing and hate it when they get too serious and take the fun away. Thankfully, not all courses are like that. I'm finding your posts motivating, so thank you for your inspiration.
Amanda, Thank you for raising the question as to why we started writing in the first place. Sometimes we forget. D