Even though Dianne Ochiltree has written for
years and published ten picture books, she’s the first to admit she
doesn’t always get her stories right the first time that she sits down to pen
them. “I have to write them again and again,” she says. “My editors are
my teachers: they ask me to re-write things sometimes because they want me to
be the very best writer I can be.”
Ochiltree, whose work has received recognition from
Bank Street College’s children’s literature committee, comes from a family of
storytellers. Her aunts, uncles, and cousins used to gather on Sundays for
dinner, and she loved sitting on the steps of her grandparents’ Ohio house
listening to the grownups inside telling jokes or sharing their stories of
growing up.
“Writing stories and poems was a way I could say
things I couldn't say out loud to a real person,” says Ochiltree, recalling her
teenage years when she was especially shy. “My characters could say and do
things I just couldn't in real life. Writing a story is a good way to deal with
disappointment or frustration, I guess. I would start my story with a real
situation, and make up my own ending: the way I'd like it to turn out, not
necessarily the way it did turn out.”
What Ochiltree says she loves most about writing, aside from the
miraculous way it lets her connect with people across barriers of time and
space, is that it’s a process that lets her communicate “ideas from the head
and emotions from the heart.” Plus, Ochiltree explains, she loves the way “words
capture the ‘stuff” of life and hold it there, for as long as the ink lasts.”
Usually Ochiltree has three writing projects going at the same time—a
story that she’s planning or beginning to research; a completed work that she’s
editing or revising; and a manuscript that she’s writing. And like other
writers, she submits work often and finds rejection slips regularly in her mailbox.
Does she have any advice to offer other writers? “The best and briefest
advice: write whatever you can, every day. Please don't wait for the perfect
moment to start your story! Even if you only have one-half hour daily to devote
to your writing projects, doing this will help you improve your craft, find
your own stylistic ‘voice,’ and maintain your creative momentum.”
Recently, Ochiltree was kind enough to take a break from her current
works-in-process (and from her extensive yoga practice) to share thoughts on
writing with wordswimmer:
Wordswimmer: If writing is like swimming...how do you get
into the water each day?
Ochiltree: The best way to get into the swim of writing
is to dive in! Leave self-doubt and
self-judgment at the edge of the pool.
Just as you swim laps stroke by stroke, let your writing unfold word by
word. Remember it’s exercise you’re
after, not an Olympic medal. Focus on
the work itself and let the story you're telling come to the surface without any
concern about eventual publication.
Wordswimmer: What keeps you afloat...for short work? For
longer work?
Ochiltree: No matter the length of the work, short or
long format, the ‘floatie’ strapped around my waist is my passion for
the story and what I believe the reader will gain from reading it. My original
vision for a story acts as a bright, bobbing buoy, a marker for me to swim
toward in that narrative ocean of first drafts.
Wordswimmer: How do you keep swimming through dry
spells?
Ochiltree: That’s a tough challenge, like doing the
breast stroke in a sandbox: it can be
slow going! My task during writer’s
block is to “just write” whether it’s “just right” or not. I remind myself that often I need to write
something wrong a few times before I find what works. It’s my process to write multiple drafts anyway. Failure ultimately opens the door to success.
Wordswimmer: What's the hardest part of swimming?
Ochiltree: Keeping all the pool equipment and inflatable
toys out of the lap lane. Distraction is
my biggest writing enemy. It’s imperative to slip on the water goggles, and ear
plugs when diving into my writing time.
Wordswimmer: How do you overcome obstacles, problems,
when swimming alone?
Ochiltree: My invisible life guards are many: critique partners and other writing friends
with whom I may share the early draft I’m writing; the reader with whom I hope
to eventually connect should my words be granted publication; my mentors, the
authors whose work continue to inspire me as I read and re-read the pieces of
their hearts they have placed on the page.
Wordswimmer: What's the part of swimming that you love
the most?
Ochiltree: When I swam laps at the YMCA as my daily
exercise, my favorite part was the satisfaction and pleasure felt as I climbed
out of the pool at the end…and so it is with writing. “Having written” my daily dose of words gives
me the sense that I have done my job, the thing I was put on earth to do. I believe no
one actually chooses to be a writer.
It’s something that chooses you early in life, and you don’t feel 100%
unless you write a bit each day. It's a mission and a passion. It lets
you splash in the kiddie pool and have fun, too!
For more information about Dianne Ochiltree and her work, visit her
website: http://www.ochiltreebooks.com
To read about her most recent picture book, Molly by Golly, visit: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120826/ARCHIVES/208261005
And to read more interviews with her, check out:
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