writing – Page 6 – Abigail Mumford

FWIS: freedom

April 4, 2012April 2, 2012 abby mumford

FWIS (from where i stand) is a monthly feature i’m doing with jessica corra and bria quinlan. all three of us are YA writers in different places in our journeys. (check out their links for this month’s FWIS from their points of view.)

today’s topic: FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM.

(sorry, i can’t see, hear, or read that word and not picture the end of BRAVEHEART.)

so what does freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeom have to do with writing? well, as proposed by jessica, she wanted to know “what’s bugging you lately? what’s on your mind? what do you REALLY WANT TO TELL EVERYONE?”

what i want, what i really really want to tell people is how excited i am about this class i just took. it was an online class (recommended to me by bria) called plotting via motivation. the teachings of the class made so much sense to my brain + the teacher of the class was wonderfully supportive and funny and generous with her time and advice.

the reason i’m so jazzed up about the class (which ended on friday 3/30) is because over the course of a month (the length of the class), i wrote an entire plot for a book. the plot may be skeletal, but the bare bones are all i need. i’m not sure if i’m even going to write this book, because after all, i picked the idea on a whim. it was just one i used to practice. i had to start with a new idea so that i’d learn the proper way to plot from conception to ending. i’ve saved all of the lectures and homework and worksheets and you bet i’ll be referring to them over and over again and again.

i had begun to feel overwhelmed and confused by the act of writing, by the act of what i wanted to write, and so i had stepped away from my own words to spend some time reading those of others. i realize now that was my own brand of procrastination, but this class has snapped me back into shape!

it’s good to be back.

writing

guest post: grandpa, round 3

March 13, 2012March 12, 2012 abby mumford

my grandpa is dropping some knowledge. and more here. and even more below. are you picking it up?

I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live. Francoise Sagan, playwright and novelist (1935-2004)

Never cut what you can untie (rewrite). Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Every word was once a poem. Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

To read fast is as bad as to eat in a hurry. Vilhelm Ekelund, poet (1880-1949)

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. Linus Pauling, chemist, peace activist, author, educator; Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Peace Prize (1901-1994)

We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us. Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus), rhetorician (c. 35-100)

p.s. speaking of guest posts, want even more of my mumblings? check out my very first guest post (ever!) on karla’s blog HERE.

writing

blogging template

March 9, 2012March 8, 2012 abby mumford

introduction — start off with a witty comment, a question, a concern, a thought, an interaction.

middle — use supporting arguments, pictures, explanations, situations to prove the point you previously introduced.

end — the closing KAPOW statement. circle back to the original point, and leave them wanting more.

and that’s how a blog post is written, more or less.

probably with a lot LESS simplicity and a lot MORE pulling out of hair, backspacing over words, refreshing, rewriting, revising, pondering, looking out the window, rereading, revising, rewriting, etc. etc. etc.

writing

FWIS: inspiration

March 7, 2012March 6, 2012 abby mumford

today’s topic: inspiration

muses. light bulbs. facts. fiction. imagination. voices in your head. characters taking over your brain. sparks. licenses plates. conversations. tv shows. dreams. nightmares. myths. monsters. where does inspiration come from?

(despite the fact i chose this topic, it’s actually an uncomfortable question for me.)

i’m not one of those people who can’t quiet the voices in their head nor do i have one shiny idea after another begging me to write it nor do i just sit back and let the characters do all the work, and frankly, sometimes it frightens me that i don’t have an endless supply of stories to tell or characters yelling at me because all the other writers i know do.

i’m more like one of these people.

my first MS was based on a perception i had of myself growing up. my second MS (current WIP) has a familiar fairytale foundation. i don’t yet know what my third MS will cover because i haven’t had anything particularly interesting cross my mind, not to mention the work involved with writing has felt heavy lately because the words, characters, and ideas aren’t revealing themselves to me.

i know i’m not supposed to wait for lightning to strike because, well, not only would that fry my computer, it would short circuit my brain.

instead, i need to work with what i have: take charge, grab hold of that tiniest grain of an idea, place it in my brain, let it roll around in there, pulsing and polishing and pearlizing, and then write it out. it’s not the usual method of doing things, but then again, what is the usual method? does it always have to look like this?

or is it okay to look like this?

do you do anything differently than everyone else? do you walk backwards to work? do you talk in pig latin? are you short when everyone is tall? are you hot when everyone is cold? do you laugh instead of cry? do you drink tea instead of coffee? do you have a flip cell phone? do you wear sunglasses at night?

writing

guest post: grandpa, round 2

February 3, 2012March 1, 2012 abby mumford

my dad’s dad keeps the wisdom coming and it’d be a crime to keep it from you.

you’re welcome.

Words are things; and a small drop of ink / Falling like dew upon a thought, produces / That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. Lord Byron, (1788-1824)

It is my belief that the writer, the free-lance author, should be and must be a critic of the society in which he lives. It is easy enough, and always profitable, to rail away at national enemies beyond the sea, at foreign powers beyond our borders who question the prevailing order. But the moral duty of the free writer is to begin his work at home; to be a critic of his own community, his own country, his own culture. If the writer is unwilling to fill this part, then the writer should abandon pretense and find another line of work: become a shoe repairman, a brain surgeon, a janitor, a cowboy, a nuclear physicist, a bus driver.
Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)

My stories run up and bite me in the leg — I respond by writing them down — everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.
Ray Bradbury, science-fiction writer (b. 1920)

A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.
William Faulkner, novelist (1897-1962)

A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.
Charles Peguy, poet and essayist (1873-1914)

Most people think that shadows follow, precede, or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories.
Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928)

Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground.
Noah Webster, lexicographer (1758-1843)

This passage is a quotation from Henri Nouwen‘s book “Reflections on Theological Education”:

“Somehow I believed that writing was one way to let something of lasting value emerge from my little, quickly passing life….. Most students think writing means writing down ideas, insights, visions. They feel that they must first have something to say before they can put it down on paper. For them writing is little more than recording pre-existent thought. But with this approach true writing is impossible. Writing is a process in which we discover what lives in us. The writing itself reveals what is alive…. The deepest satisfaction is precisely that it opens up new spaces within us of which we were not aware before we started to write. To write is to embark on a journey whose final destination we do not know.”

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it.
John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)

i’m so grateful i have a grandfather whose research skills and internet know how are top notch (because mine aren’t) because i’m certain i never would have found these without his help. even though these authors’ works are unfamiliar to me, their words above all seem familiar in their sentiment, which in turn, makes ME feel like a writer and not so much a “writer.” thank you for that, grandpa! and thank you charles peguy for saying what you said.

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