September, 2024
“Think of this — that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other.”
A.S. Byatt
I’m not a disciplined writer. I don’t devote several hours each day to making progress. Rather, I write whenever the mood strikes me, and when it does, I might get 1,500 words down. Putting that in context, a novel is usually between 65,000 and 80,000 words, so it’s not much of an achievement.
Even though I might not feel like working on my novel, the urge to write is amazingly strong. Fortunately, I have an outlet that gives me enormous satisfaction — writing letters. I’ve always written letters. When I went to boarding school at age eleven, I had to write a letter to my parents every week, so I got into the habit. That weekly letter home ritual lasted for another 40+ years. And it wasn’t just letters to my parents back in Ireland. I didn’t want to lose contact with friends, so I wrote to them too.
I much prefer writing a letter to making a telephone call. I can imagine the person sitting with me, perhaps sharing a cup of tea or a glass of wine, and I write as if we were having a conversation. The best part is that I get to do all the talking! These letters used to be hand-written, but I type faster than cursive nowadays, so I type a Word document, then paste it into an e-mail. Sometimes I print the document and mail it as I still get a thrill from seeing a hand-addressed envelope in my mailbox, and I expect that many of my friends do too.
Another way to avoid feeling guilty at not working on my novel is to read about how to write. There are a million books out there with advice on craft. I have several on my bookshelf (Save The Cat, Letters To A Young Writer, How to Write Dazzling Dialogue, Story Genius). The one I am reading now is called What About the Baby? Some thoughts on the Art of fiction by Alice McDermott.
Last May, I attended a week-long writing workshop in Connemara on the west coast of Ireland led by Alice. Although I wasn’t familiar with her work, I trusted that as a National Book Award recipient who has taught Creative Writing at Johns Hopkins University for 30 years, it would be a good experience. It was fantastic! Reading What About the Baby, I can see Alice in our classroom at the Renvyle House Hotel, hear her voice, and I want to pay attention to the advice she gives. She is a genius at seeing through a mess of words and finding the gems.
Enough of this. I need to get back to writing!
~ Mary
PS. Because my next newsletter will arrive in your e-mail on the Winter Solstice, I want to add a plug here for giving the gift of a book (or two) to friends and family at Christmas. A Measured Thread and the sequel/companion novel, Finding Isobel would make a lovely present. If your friends/family just want a short read, the stories in Kernels will take them from New York to New Orleans, from Ireland to Norway, from Guyana to… well, Wisconsin. These and the memoir I wrote with my sister, Abbey Girls, are all available by clicking on www.mvbehan.com/books. Finally, if you order through your local bookstore they will be forever grateful to you!
Sign up for my newsletter here.
RSS Feed