Beacons of Light - 2013

At this time of year, as winter deepens and darkness spreads its seeds of doubt, I am heartened by the Beacons of Light--Sarah Lamstein, Dianne Ochiltree, Susan Campbell Bartoletti, and Pat McDermott--who illuminated the writing process for wordswimmers over this past year.

Thanks to their generosity and insights into their work, I've come to better understand how my own writing process works and how I might find ways to keep stepping into the water or plunging off the edge of the pool to continue swimming, even when the water seems too murky or too cold. I trust they've helped you, too.

Each year I find that wordswimmer helps me connect with other writers in unexpected ways. It was one of the goals of this blog when I first set out from shore in 2005 (before Facebook and other sites were part of my writing life) to provide a sense of community for writers and to encourage writers to make connections with each other.

I wanted to offer a place online where writers might share thoughts about the writing process or about a manuscript that is puzzling them or a book on the craft of writing that might have helped them through a tough spot. By sharing these aspects of our working lives, I believe we can help each other.

Writing can be a lonely profession, and it's easy to forget that we are not alone. The writers who shared their thoughts on writing over the past year with us are proof that writers can benefit from offering support to each other while we're in the water.

Here are four companions who you'll want to take with you as you set off on new adventures in the year ahead. You may have met them earlier in the year, but I'm sharing their words of wisdom again in the hope that they'll help you remember why you started swimming in the first place:

"Most always I set out but tire or think some island or mirage is shore. I set out again with new eyes and come closer. Again and again I set out, each time with newer eyes." -- Sarah Lamstein

http://wordswimmer.blogspot.com/2013/01/one-writers-process-sarah-lamstein.html

"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! " -- Dianne Ochiltree

http://wordswimmer.blogspot.com/2013/02/one-writers-process-dianne-ochiltree.html

"You won’t see me dive into the water – unless you need me to rescue you. I tend to tiptoe around the shallow end, getting wet gradually, before I move into the deep end. The same is true for my writing. I know writers who plunge headfirst – and I admire their spirit and style - but you know what? We both make it to the finish line." --Susan Campbell Bartoletti

http://wordswimmer.blogspot.com/2013/03/one-writers-process-susan-campbell.html

"Most days I tiptoe in, though I make my share of graceful dives. At times, I’m reluctant to even get wet, or I’ll sit and wait for the water to pour over me and let me steep like a tea bag. My latest release, a YA set in Ireland, features a troop of water fairies who live in a palace beneath a lake. For the better part of a year, I swam with them nearly every day, sometimes jumping right in, sometimes wading, always wishing I had their webbed toes and fingers." -- Pat McDermott

http://wordswimmer.blogspot.com/2013/04/one-writers-process-pat-mcdermott.html

I don't know about you, but I find it comforting to look up from the page and find these writer/friends offering encouragement as I dip into a new project or wade through a swamp of revisions, cheering as I kick madly toward the finish line of my latest draft.

Thanks to these Beacons of Light for sharing insights into the writing process and for guiding us in the next stage of our journeys.

And thanks, wordswimmers, for stopping by this blog to test the water this past year. Your support and ongoing encouragement is a gift that inspires me to keep swimming despite the shoals and hidden reefs lurking beneath the surface.

May 2014 be a year of clear swimming for all.

One Writer’s Process: Dianne Ochiltree

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:

http://www.themusingsofabookaddict.com/2012/09/molly-by-golly-review-and-interview.html

http://www.myshelf.com/babetoteen/02/ochiltree.htm

http://www.debbimichikoflorence.com/author_interviews/2006/DianneOchiltree.html

http://www.freshmom.com/2012/moms-in-business/interview-with-a-childrens-book-author-dianne-ochiltree/#more-5204