“Think mystery, not mastery.”

Posted on April 16, 2024 by Kate Stover

Have you ever gotten stuck when working on a creative project? What do you do when your work grinds to a halt? Here’s an idea: spend 10 or 15 minutes every morning doing a type of meditation where you write down whatever is going through your mind. Don’t judge. Don’t punctuate. Just record your thoughts without stopping until you have written three pages. Let your ideas rise to the surface. The goal is to witness and articulate the mystery, not to control your mind. This book described this technique in 1992, and it continues to be rediscovered by new generations.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Putnam, 1992, p. 21.

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“I’ve sometimes wondered whether novelists like to be remembered for what they’ve said or because they’ve said it in their own particular way – in their own distinctive voice.”

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Kate Stover

In 1978, the BBC invited Barbara Pym to be a guest on its program where well-known writers discussed their work. Her views on the “distinctive voice” of a writer was of particular interest: in the 1960s, her publisher declined her seventh novel because he said her style was “old fashioned.” Fourteen years later, an article in the Times Literary Supplement reignited interest in her work. Her popularity soared. Her distinctive voice – humorous and melancholy, luminous and open – was in demand. Writers, take heart. Sometimes, great work is rediscovered and cherished. Pym’s books are more popular now than during her lifetime.

Pym, Barbara. Civil to Strangers and Other Writings. Virago, 2011, p. 377.

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“You have to give yourself the space to write a lot without a destination.”

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Kate Stover

After winning the UK’s most prestigious writing award, this Irish novelist was asked which books had influenced her most. She said she loved Writing Down the Bones because it told her to “just have a go and see what comes out.” This 30-year-old book still sells 30.000 copies a year. Why? Perhaps because it’s pure Zen. The author studied with a Zen master for 10 years before writing the book. So, she recommends letting your imagination do its work without judgement and direction. Trust the process. Write every day. Tell the truth. Listen. Trust yourself. Who wouldn’t love this book?

Goldberg, Natalie.  Writing Done the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. Shambhala: 2016, p. 11.

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“I don’t think you’re dying, ” I said. “I think you’ve just got a touch of cancer.”

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Kate Stover

What’s the hardest book to write successfully? For me, it would be a novel about teenagers who have cancer, fall in love, and then die. The challenges include: creating a page-turner (even though the readers know how it will end), having the characters be interesting but not unrealistically heroic, using a complicated tone that is a blend of melancholy, sweet, philosophical and funny, making it appeal to adults (even though it’s about teenagers), and elevating the theme by using a line from Shakespeare that is poignant and accessible. John Green met these challenges, and this wonderful book sold 23 million copies.

Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. Penguin Books, 2012, p. 217.

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“Show me yourself.”

Posted on March 13, 2024 by Kate Stover

Anna Quindlen says that when Barry Jenkins was filming The Underground Railroad, he directed the actors to “Show me yourselves.” In other words, don’t act. Similarly, Quindlen recommends doing the kind of writing where you don’t posture for an audience. Just write the truth. Privately. For yourself. This is a rare book about writing that doesn’t aim to help you write something you can sell. Rather, it encourages you to “write for your life.” Engage in reflection that can lead to understanding or transformation. The point, she says, is to “reveal what lies within.” Give this gift to yourself.

Quindlen, Anna. Write for Your Life. Random House, 2022, p. 31.

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“When people write reviews, they are really writing a kind of memoir – here’s what my experience was eating at this restaurant or getting my hair cut at this barbershop.”

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Kate Stover

Is this book a memoir? The title – The Anthropocene Reviewed and the subtitle Essays on a Human-Centered Planet — offer no clues. However, in the introduction, the author says that he wants to tell us stories about his life so that we can see how he has formed his opinions. The titles of his essays – Diet Dr. Pepper, Velociraptors, Sunsets – tell us his topics, but not his subject. His subject is how he experiences and then interprets these things. So, yes, this is a type of memoir because we get to know the author. I find his creative candor entirely appealing.

Green, John. The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet. Dutton, 2021, pp. 5-6.

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“In 1848 William and Ellen Craft, an enslaved couple in Georgia, embarked on a five-thousand-mile journey of mutual self-emancipation across the world.”

Posted on February 21, 2024 by Kate Stover

How does a writer create suspense when the outcome of the real-life story is already known? This book excels at keeping readers at the edge of their seats. How? Woo did a “staggering amount” of research to learn the sensory details of the way things felt, smelled, sounded, looked, and tasted. We care about what happens to William and Ellen because they are real to us. We see that at any moment, the story might have ended differently. In fact, they did experience their share of loss, even in the final pages of their story. This book is unforgettable.

Woo, Ilyon. Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom. Simon & Schuster, 2023, p.1.

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“There are those who believe they know – and those who hope they may yet know.”

Posted on February 12, 2024 by Kate Stover

Seven pages into the preface of his huge collection of poems, Carl Sandburg  tells us that he will not pontificate on the art of poetry, which is what famous writers often do in that section. Instead, he says “A poet explains for us what for him is poetry by what he presents to us in his poems.” What? After winning the Pulitzer Prize three times, this is all he says? He is the only American writer to distinguish himself in five fields—poetry, history, biography, fiction, and music. Sandburg is the rare leader who sees himself as a learner.

Sandburg, Carl. “Notes for a Preface” for The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich., 1969, p. xxxix.

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“I learned that writing a memoir is like figure skating: it looks effortless and beautiful from the outside. . .”

Posted on January 31, 2024 by Kate Stover

“… while in reality, you stretch thy groin so much that you nearly split yourself in half for the whole world to see.” The author, JVN, whose trademarks are joy and kindness, shares what happened after the first memoir was published. Some readers expected JVN to be their source of strength, while others hurled hate and threats of violence. So why write another memoir? JVN feels required “to constantly connect to empathy, patience, and ultimately a human curiosity that wants to help others find their joy and happiness.” Memoirists, take note. Can you articulate your reasons for taking the risks?

Van Ness, Jonathan. Love That Story: Observations from a Gorgeously Queer Life. Harper One: 2022, pp. 2, 231.

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“There is a difference between wallowing and bearing witness.”

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Kate Stover

Lakin continues, “Think of yourself in the role of storyteller . . . instead of as the victim who has been wronged and deserves retribution or pity . . .” For all the memoirists who are reluctant to write about difficult episodes because they don’t want to come off as whiners, this is wonderful advice. It can be a game-changer. As Lakin points out, understanding this distinction can happen only when you understand your motivation for telling your story. Do you want revenge? Or do you want clarity, as Tara Westover does in Educated? Soul-searching is the required first step. Look in the mirror. Don’t flinch.

Lakin, C. S. The Memoir Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Help You Brainstorm, Organize, and Write Your Unique Story. Ubiquitous Press, 2017, p. 13.

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“Part of these essays probably are rooted in genuine recollections, but how, in the circumstances, can we trust anything that he [John Forster] says in them?”

Posted on January 12, 2024 by Kate Stover

But how much can we trust the new conclusions drawn by this author, writing 150 years after Dickens died? That’s the question readers need to consider. Newly digitized information is now available, and the author has a Ph.D. in English literature from Oxford University. I enjoyed this book, knowing that Kelly’s speculations are, after all, just speculations. I’ll enjoy a heated debate about Charles Dickens any day of the week. Some of this scholar’s claims have angered fans who believe that great authors are beyond reproach. Not me! I remain curious and interested in learning more about this complex, enigmatic author.

Kelly, Helena. The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens. Pegasus Books, 2023, p. xiii.

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Ten Years of Writing about Fiction Has Taught Me This

Posted on December 30, 2023 by Kate Stover

Fiction is the wildest form of writing. It attracts explorers, artists, and fighters. Their goals might be to punch a hole in the wall between the writer and the reader (Knausgaard), or tell us how the idea of  equality fell short (Whitehead), or show us how to experience events from long ago for the first time (See). How do they do this? They ask provocative questions (Kingsolver), or express truth and humanity in metaphors (Tyler), or capture a complex condition precisely (Adichie), or make us laugh harder and wince longer (Moore). They can compel us to reread our soul (Flanagan).

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Ten Years of Writing about Poetry Has Taught Me This

Posted on December 22, 2023 by Kate Stover

Poetry is the most textured form of writing. It attracts artists who weave sounds and images with mystery. They may be cranky (T. S. Eliot) or homesick (Heaney) or humorous (Billy Collins). They may believe that poetry is an instrument of investigation (Jane Hirshfield) or necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry (Mary Oliver) or should light up the sky (Ted Kooser). They may believe that achieving clarity is a quest, not a burden (Carl Sandburg) or that poetry can unite a nation (Amanda Gorman) or should possess an electrifying undercurrent (Louise Glück). Read at your own risk.

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Ten Years of Writing about Memoir Has Taught Me This

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Kate Stover

Memoir is the most entrepreneurial form of writing. It attracts inventors who are willing to take risks and use nontraditional skills and interests. Though their goal might be as simple as recording history, or telling stories, or finding meaning, their materials are original. They may use stand-up comedy (Jeannett McCurdy, Trevor Noah),  advocacy (Ibram X. Kendi, Andrea Petersen), or poetic expressions (Philip Levine, Hisham Matar); they may be naturalists (Annie Dillard, Henry David Thoreau), or biblio-autobiographers (Samantha Ellis), or social analysists (Joan Didion), or quasi-novelists (Karl Ove Knausgaard), or survivors (Hua Hsu, Václav Havel). We see ourselves in their words.

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“We get the Dialectic fairly well.”

Posted on November 29, 2023 by Kate Stover

Why would a poem written in 1940 be included in The Best American Poetry 2023?  W. H. Auden’s brilliant poem about contradictions wasn’t published during his lifetime because he questioned its value. Auden was a great poet who doubted his greatness. Even when he won awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for The Age of Anxiety, he questioned his skill. He was an anxious nail-biter who held back much of his work. Many of the writers I know also suffer from self-doubt. From what I’ve seen, it’s easy to become your own worst enemy when you question your worth.

Auden, W. H. “We Get the Dialectic Fairly Well.” The Best American Poetry 2023, Elaine Equi, guest editor, David Lehman, series editor, Scribner Poetry, 2023, pp. 5-6.

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