Shortly before moving back to New Orleans about a year and a half ago, a close friend gave me a going away present—a book along with a notecard. The notecard wished me luck on taking on a city that is … Continue reading
Category Archives: Writers and Poets
Sisters in NaNoWriMo
A photo of your bloggers, taken by Aimee's son
By Emilie
In 2007, I did NaNoWriMo for the first time. I sent out the e-mail the organizers suggest, warning friends and family of what you are about to attempt and asking them for encouragement and accountability. My sister Aimee got that e-mail and was my biggest cheerleader that year.
We wrote together as kids. It came naturally to us both to tell stories together and to write them down. I wrote about this experience going into NaNoWriMo 2009, never realizing how much it had formed me until the story flowed out of me.
Aimee attempted NaNoWriMo alongside me in 2008, but we both failed to write the full 50,000 words. However, we have now supported each other to TWO NaNoWriMo wins in 2009 and 2010. I’ve learned more from Aimee’s wins than I have from my own (and I learn a lot from my own). She gets behind every year and only her determination to keep going brings her across the finish line.
And we’re hoping to win again in 2011, but it’s a bit different this year. Because now we’re writing together again. We’ve been talking about a story for a few months and at 12:01 on November 1st, we began writing.
Our first word counts were modest, under 1,000 each. But we wrote hundreds of words in a half hour. We began construction on a world and a few people who hadn’t existed were born.
Despite the enormous hurdles that always come with this wicked and crazy challenge, I feel more excited than ever because I am writing again with my original collaborator. It makes me feel like a kid again and that all things are possible, if we only just get started.
By Aimee
As I sit here trying to write about NaNoWriMo (instead of writing for it), my son is lying next to me hot with fever, coughing intermittently, and breathing with difficulty. This is my fourth NaNoWriMo beginning, and the fourth time my son has decided to be ill on Nov. 1. Already wholly unprepared for it to be November again, I feel almost defeated before I’ve begun (okay, shortly after I’ve begun). Almost. Because this year, I agreed to partner with my sister. Write a novel together. Just like when we wrote stories on notebook paper and No. 2 pencils. When Emilie used an eraser. Gasp. I was excited about it even. Until about a week ago. Sure, let me add one more deadline in the ocean of deadlines that is my life. Insecurity. Doubt. Panic. I haven’t prepared. I didn’t know it was November already. I’m not a writer anymore. I spend my days reading manuscripts, not writing them. It’s only Nov. 1, and I’m already exhausted. At least my son is finally sleeping.
Where was I? Oh, writing. I’ve thought about what the past NaNoWriMos have done for me and how Emilie has encouraged me, challenged me, inspired me, and kicked my butt to keep me writing. But as I write, what really matters to me this year isn’t any of those things (even though I am grateful every day for those same things—they’ve changed my future). When I think of this year’s novel—our novel—I see two little girls with No. 2 pencils. Two little girls in love with a good story. Who decided that they had their own stories to tell. I’m honored to be here with you again, Emie. But let me warn you, I’ve decided I won’t be writing this November. Thanks yet again for the reminder that it’s so much simpler. What is better than a good story?
Break out the pencils. I’m ready to tell a story.
Femme Fatale Friday: Helen Krieger, Producer of “Flood Streets”
“A nuanced view of the city and its people, Flood Streets shows the changing landscape of New Orleans as it has never been seen before, dispelling the stereotypes about this tragic, defiant, joyful city.” — LaFilm.net
“Flood Streets is dotted with incidental wit and wry observations of life in the Big Easy, which isn’t always.” — Amy Biancolli/The Houston Chronicle
“A unique story of hope and despair, of determination and crazy-ass creativity, told bravely and told well.” — Harry Shearer
Helen Krieger
These are just three of the many positive comments I found while researching Helen Kriegers production of Flood Streets, her first film production. Helen and her husband Joseph Meissner, who directed and acts in the film, moved to New Orleans in 2001 and quickly fell into the eclectic, artsy community life in Bywater. They evacuated for Hurricane Katrina and were displaced, like so many New Orleanians, for six weeks of an enforced exile. The screenplay for Flood Streets is based on Helen’s book of short stories, In the Land of What Now, a fictionalized account of her experiences in post federal flood New Orleans.
Flood Streets‘ awards include:
Best Picture winner at the 2011 Action on Film Festival
Gold Remi winner at the 44th Annual WorldFest-Houston
Best Director, runner-up, at the White Sands Int’l Film Festival
Best Director, nominee, Action on Film Festival
I recently spoke with Helen about Flood Streets, life in New Orleans and the crafts of writing and film-making.
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Helen, I understand Flood Streets is based on your book, In the Land of What Now, and is your first film production. What made you decide to produce a film with no previous film making experience and how do you think that impacted your film?
Although I had made a couple short films before Flood Streets, they were on a much smaller scale and were done basically as practice for this movie. Flood Streets was my first feature.
When my husband, Joseph, and I were evacuated for the storm, we didn’t know what we could come back to from our former lives. We didn’t know if the city was going to come back, so it was really like an early midlife crisis for both of us. For six weeks we sat at my parent’s house up in Wisconsin and started thinking about our lives and what we most wanted to do.
I realized I’d neglected my writing, and Joseph really wanted to get back into acting. We decided to put the two of these interests together to write a movie Joseph could act in. That’s really how I made the leap from fiction to film – it made so much sense for us to work together like that.
Once I got into script writing, I really enjoyed it, because one of my favorite things to write is dialogue. Also, I enjoyed the increased collaboration and input you get writing a screenplay. Everyone from the actor to the caterer has read your script so you get a wide variety of opinions and input. It’s really exciting. Having said that, I love writing short stories, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop. Short stories are where I really connect with myself creatively and where I feel free to develop ideas.
Producing a movie for my first time could have been a disaster except that I had so much support from the community. I was mentored by two veteran New Orleans filmmakers, Glen Pitre and Michelle Benoit. They’ve been helping me with this project for the past three years. They helped me with the script, with getting everything ready to shoot, with editing, and now with publicity and the festival circuit. They’re really an amazing resource.
I also took a lot of classes at the New Orleans Video Access Center (NOVAC). I joke with people that NOVAC was my film school.
What was the first concrete step for you in learning how to produce a film?
I read a lot of books and took a lot of classes for the years preceding our shoot. I took a Film Accounting class at NOVAC that helped me put everything into perspective. The accountant is the one responsible for paying everyone else, so you get a good long view on what it takes to make a production happen. That was amazing experience.
I also had many meetings with Glen and Michelle where I just furiously scribbled down notes as they went over my budget and explained what I needed and how it would work. Then we were really fortunate to get an experienced indie line producer to work with us, Miceal Og O’Donnel. Once we had pulled our key team together, he helped us get everyone moving in the right direction.
We didn’t always know what we were doing, but we were fortunate enough to have a lot of people around us who did!
I read that Katrina and life post-K was a big influence on your decision to persue writing and film-making full-time. Do you think your life would have taken this turn if you hadn’t experienced the storm and life after?
That’s a great question. I think about that sometimes, and I just don’t know. I think eventually I would have gotten to this path because it’s something I’m so interested in, and it really suits me. But it may have taken a lot longer for me to get here.
Like I said, Katrina was an early midlife crisis, so without Katrina and that six-week hurrication of stress and soul searching, maybe my midlife crisis would still be some years away.
Oct 16 is the New Orleans premier of Flood Streets. How does it feel to be presenting your film about life in post-K New Orleans in New Orleans?
I’m so excited, because I’ve been working on this film for years, and so many people in the city have helped me and have been waiting to see it. We didn’t have a huge budget, but we wanted to create the best film we could, so we took our time editing, almost 15 months.
This spring we had our world premiere in Houston and that started a tour of film festivals across the country. We’ve had such great response, but audiences don’t get the inside jokes that New Orleanians will get. Also, the film shows a part of the city that often gets lost in post-Katrina films or documentaries – our sense of humor. When I tell people this is a film about Post Katrina New Orleans, I always have to add, “But it’s not a downer.” We wanted to show what there is that still draws us to this city and that draws all the people who have moved here since the storm.
It’s now over six years after the storm and I’m wondering if, when you talk about the subject of your film, you encounter any lingering “Katrina fatigue” or do people now get that it was the levees, not the storm, that really devastated New Orleans.
We get some Katrina fatigue when we first tell people about the movie because they think they’ve seen it before, and that it’s going to be one of those very depressing stories about flood victims. But our story isn’t necessarily about Katrina and none of our characters consider themselves victims.
Flood Streets takes place 15 months after the storm, and we use that surreal backdrop in the movie a lot, but essentially the movie is about the characters and their struggles. These struggles are definitely heightened and changed in unexpected ways because of the storm, but ultimately I wanted to show how life goes on, no matter how surreal the backdrop. By picking up this story well after the initial shock of the storm has passed, we get to show that weird stage after a disaster when you realize you’re still essentially the same person with the same problems to deal with. Only now you can’t get mailed delivered to your house…
In terms of the people being educated about what devastated New Orleans… I don’t think that’s happened yet. There’s still this narrative out there that New Orleans is all below sea level, and it was only a matter of time. Very few people know about the complicated system of human decisions that resulted in the federal flooding of New Orleans. People like Harry Shearer have been doing a great job educating people. His documentary about the levees, “The Big Uneasy,” has been touring the country educating people, so I’m hoping people start to understand.
Do you think locals will be more critical of the film than outsiders?
Definitely, because it’s their story that we’re telling, but I’m pretty confident they’re going to enjoy it. One of the reasons we wanted to do an ensemble storyline with multiple characters is because we wanted to hint at the diversity of stories in the city. There is no one post Katrina story and no one way of reacting to the storm, so I hope locals will see themselves or people they know in the characters we’ve chosen.
I understand you show a diversity of the musical talent we have here in Nola instead of relying only on Jazz or Brass Bands as is seen in many film and TV productions. Was that a deliberate decision? How did you choose which genres and/or musicians to include?
That was a very deliberate decision. We love traditional New Orleans music, but we’re even more interested in how traditions continue to evolve with each new generation who takes them on. This is what makes New Orleans such an exciting place for musicians and artists to live. We didn’t want to portray a museum to jazz or funk; we wanted to shed light on the contradictions and collaborations at the edge of our ever-evolving culture.
We also wanted to put more of the musical focus on youth culture because this is where changes are often happening. When young musicians couldn’t get into mainline brass bands they formed their own. Influenced by hip hop as well as jazz, a new generation of second-lining was born. When indie rocker Clint Maedgen joined the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, he brought a new voice to the most traditional band in New Orleans. The Zydepunks blend traditional and new to create a heart-pounding new style. The Panorama Jazz Band takes influences from jazz, klezmer and brass bands to pull together their unique sound.
This was the New Orleans music we really wanted to share, and audiences across the country are really excited to hear it. After screenings, people always comment on the music and say how surprised they are by the diversity of music in the city, so I guess we’re doing our job!
All but two of the actors and all of the crew were New Orleanians. Why do you think that was important for the telling of your story?
It was important to us to use locals on the cast and crew as much as possible. First, it’s just part of our mission as local filmmakers to showcase the talent we have here in the city.
Also, for the kind of story we were telling it was so important to have those authentic voices. This isn’t a crime story or an action adventure with lots of graphic effects. We’re telling a character based story about a very particular time and place, so it was so important for us to make sure we were getting that voice right, and it was nice to know we could rely on our actors.
Almost all our actors had been through the storm or the evacuation, and they felt we were giving an accurate portrayal of the city. Based on the script they trusted us to tell this complicated, nuanced story, and we in turn trusted them to tell us whenever something didn’t ring true. They brought costumes, props, they really went out of their way to help us do this right. And because they were from New Orleans they got that subversive sense of humor we have, even in disasters. They didn’t feel like they had to walk on eggshells about the material, because it was their story too.
I read in the press kit that your neighborhood rallied around you and the film became a real community effort. Tell us a little bit about that.
We filmed most of the movie in Bywater, in about 48 different locations, and almost all of them were donated by neighbors who wanted to see us make this film. Coffee shops, corner stores, shotgun apartments, warehouses, flooded houses in various stages of repair… people opened up all these spaces to us despite our meager budget.
In one case we were shooting a scene where a band places on the street. The band was Debauche, a young, local band that plays very energetic Russian music, and we needed to shoot this in front of a Bywater house. We knocked on doors up and down the street and let people know what was going to be going on, then when we got to the house we were going to be shooting in front of, we knocked and tentatively told the owner, “We’ve got this band, and we wanted to know if it’s okay if they play in front of your house…” It was an older guy, so we didn’t know how it would go over. “Who’s the band?” he said. I told him it was Debauche, and I figured he was too old, but he immediately started clapping his hands. It turned out he was a big fan! He told us to do whatever we needed to, to come into his house if we had to. He ended up dancing in his living room the whole time they were playing!
We also had so much luck getting background people in our film. As soon as a musician would start playing, people would come out of their homes or stop on their bikes and dance. A lot of people made it into the movie that way!
Are you working on any other projects you’d like to share with us?
Why yes, thank you! I’m working on the scripts for two projects right now.
The first is another feature film, this one set in the heart of an impoverished New Orleans neighborhood. A group of punk, DIY activists stage elaborate puppet shows and dangerous tall bike jousts in their communal-living warehouse, but when a pregnant friend arrives with nowhere else to go, it’s their chance to remake their social experiment into a true community. We’re excited to work with some of the amazing artists in New Orleans for this project.
The second is something totally different for me. I’m working on episodic writing, an original musical comedy series I’m creating for web or cable. Molly is a sex-starved, struggling writer who can’t get the attention of her indie rocker boyfriend, so she takes a job exploring New Orleans amorous underbelly. I’ve been describing it as “Sex in the City” meets “Flight of the Conchords”. It deals with journalism, art and sexual politics while featuring original music and a beautifully choreographed tribal bellydance sequence in each episode. I’ve gotten together with a composer, lyricist and choreographer, so I’m really excited to get working on this.
Where do you see yourself as an artist in five years? What are your goals?
The more I write, the more I realize I love writing, so my future plans all have to do with finding more ways to do that. I’m very interested in writing for TV or cable because story is really king in these mediums, and so the writers get a lot of control over their sets. From casting to choosing props and working with the directors, the writers are typically the head producers in charge of their series. Having had experience producing shorts and now a feature, I feel like this could be a good fit for me.
With episodic writing, you get more time to tell a story than you do in a 90-minute feature film. With shows like “The Wire” and “Mad Men,” TV writing has risen to the next level. By following multiple characters’ storylines throughout the season, episodic writing has become a modern version of a sweeping, 19th century novel. It’s become a place where some of the best writers go to tell their stories, and with original web content starting to get some serious viewership, it’s easier to get into this highly competitive field.
Plus, how fun would it be to put together a writers room where one of the most solitary tasks, coming up with storylines and characters, can become a group effort? I could definitely do that for the rest of my life.
But like I said before, I’ll never stop writing short stories and other kinds of fiction. It’s where I feel free to really play with an idea no matter how ridiculous. Short fiction was my first genre as a writer, and I think I’ll never truly get over my love for it.
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The New Orleans premiere of Flood Streets will be during the New Orleans Film Festival on Sunday, October 16 at 4:45 at Pyrtania Theatre. The trailer can be viewed below and up to the minute information can be found on their FaceBook page.
Peauxdunque Writers Alliance Presents Yeah, You Write
This gallery contains 1 photo.
In 2007, a group of writers came together under the auspices of the Faulkner Society and the Words and Music Conference and formed Peauxdunque Writers Alliance. The crazy name came about because each and every one of the writers felt … Continue reading
Hollywood Car Wash by Lori Culwell
Lori Culwell was doing a giveaway of Hollywood Car Wash on Twitter. I missed the actual giveaway, but when I read the description of the book, I wanted to read it. So, I wrote her and asked her if she’d still send me one to review. And, she did, so that was extremely cool of her. Here’s the description that made me want to read the book:
From college student to Hollywood star in less than one year, Amy Spencer is living every girl’s dream. But will she survive the Hollywood Car Wash?
I was intrigued because of my background in movie production, primarily because I don’t have a lot of experience with the acting side of things. I thought it would be an interesting and fun read.
First, Hollywood Car Wash looks like (and is) light “chick lit” reading. The kind of book best suited for a beach or for carrying you away on boring plane trips. It’s so easy to get sucked into the story and care about Amy immediately that the pages will just fly by.
But, this book is also sneaky and really smart. During Amy’s transformation from an insecure, grieving theater major to a successful (but still insecure) lead actress, there is an actual physical transformation that might haunt you at night, like it haunted me. Think the Miss Congeniality sequence in the big airplane hanger mixed with any sequence from any SAW or Final Destination movie. Amy’s being pushed toward a “perfection” that can be measured by ratings and opinion polls but which demands bigger and bigger emotional and physical sacrifices. Leading up to and during the scenes at the dentist’s office, I was screaming for Amy to run just like I would during any horror movie.
This book made me think a lot about the price of fame and success (especially for women), but was wrapped up in humorous, scandalous pleasure reading.
My only complaint is that because there’s a romance (of course), I wish it had been developed a bit more. Part of me kinda likes that Amy and her Hollywood transformation/burnout are the main focuses of the story, but because the romance was there, I wanted more. Even as slightly underdeveloped as it is, it’s still believable, which is a big plus.
Originally self-published in 2007, Hollywood Car Wash won “Project Publish” and was re-released in 2009 by Simon & Schuster. It might be turned into a t.v. show (ironically). You can visit Lori Culwell, who also founded an Internet consulting firm, at her website.
Bragalicious
Over at my personal blog (which has recently been re-named), Jill of All Genres, one of my most regular types of post is what I call the “bragging post,” where I take the opportunity to brag about the accomplishments of my talented friends. It’s one of my favorite things to do and luckily, there are no shortage of accomplishments to brag on.
Charlotte suggested that I post my most recent bragging on post, Bragalicious, here, since many of my shout outs are local New Orleanians (or Baton Rougeians). It’s been too long since I’ve written a post on NOLAFemmes, so I am happy to post Bragalicious here for you.
Speaking of NOLAFemmes and bragging…Judy’s post “Up, up and away!” was a “Freshly pressed” pick on the front page of WordPress yesterday (now page 2). That is totally bragalicious.
* * *
First and foremost, as we speak, pretty much all of The Peauxdunque Writers Alliance is gearing up for The Oxford American Summit for Ambitious Writers. Four of our members are attending, including Maurice Ruffin, Terri Stoor, Tad Bartlett and J.Ed Marston. That means something like 40% or so of our membership was accepted.
Jamey Hatley is also attending the Summit. Additionally, she’s won a prestigious waitership to Bread Loaf later in the summer.
Also, Maurice Ruffin‘s short story “And Then I Was Clean” will be published in UNO’s Ellipsis Journal.
Another Peauxdunque member, Joselyn Takacs has been accepted into the MFA program at Johns Hopkins University and is on her way.
A little birdie told me that Barb Johnson will be receiving the Barbara Gittings Literature Award at the ALA Conference tomorrow.
Sarah Morton is creating a graphic novel out of a short story written by Bobbi Perry, who attended the LSU MFA with me and Jamey. You can read it online!
Helen Krieger and Joseph Meissner are screening Flood Streets at the San Antonio Film Festival on Thursday.
Lindsay Rae Spurlock‘s song “As for Now” was featured on Adult Swim’s “Children’s Hospital.” You may still be able to download it for free if you like her Facebook page. Here’s an awesome photo of her, too:
Lindsay Rae Spurlock, photo credit Julia Henry
Congrats to all my phenomenally talented friends!
The Neighborhood Story Project Holds Write-a-Thon
NSP 3rd Annual Write-a-Thon!
The Neighborhood Story Project is holding its Third Annual Write-a-Thon! Join us in raising money to support documentary poster- and bookmaking in downtown New Orleans. During the Write-a-Thon, writers will write novels, theses, poems, exposés, love-letters, short stories, blog entries, and autobiographies, until they run out of ink. Food will be served and there will be a forum for readings- all to benefit the NSP. We’re now entering our seventh year, coming out of a jam-packed spring, and looking forward to future projects!
Sign up here.
Date: Sunday, May 15, 2011
Location:New Orleans, Louisiana
Contact:Lea Downing
502-541-6856
leadowning@gmail.com
NOLA Noteworthy
It’s been a busy week in NOLA and I’ve been saving like crazy to my Delicious and Instapaper. I thought I’d share some of the interesting reading I found this week about our city and her people.
The Rumpus, an online zine based in California, published two NOLA-related stories. One, With Words and With Pretty: Super Sunday 2011 by Benjamin Morris, is a colorful narrative with photos of this years Mardi Gras Indian yearly spectacular. It explains a bit about the Indian culture to those who aren’t lucky enough to live here and unable to see it for themselves.
Also on The Rumpus is NOLA native Mark Folse’s book review, The Last Book I Loved, Mystic Pig. I read this book back in about 2006 and found it a bit too dark and violent for my taste at the time. The city was still in the active aftermath of the storm and my psyche was still a little too sensitive for such an intense story. After reading Mark’s review, though, I’ve decided that it’s a good time to reread this book. Mark also has a FaceBook page for it – click here.
Our own Emilie Staat wrote a wonderful tribute to some NOLA artists on her personal blog, Jill of All Trades, titled “Going To Bragtown”. It’s a great run-down of several of our city’s best and brightest authors, musicians and film makers and all the wonderful things happening to them lately. Thanks, Em!
Dawn Allison of Dawn Breaks blog recently volunteered at the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival and penned a great recollection of her experience including photos, Tennesse Williams Poetry Slam. Wow – I really missed a great event but I won’t miss it next year!
Finally, I want to direct your attention to an upcoming event at The Jazz Suite in Algiers and organized by O. Perry Walker High School benefitting The Wonderful World of Jazz Foundation. The event also honors Japan native Yoshio Toyama who has come to NOLA for years with his band to play at the Satchmo Summer Fest and is a huge supporter of the O. Perry Walker band. This is such a wonderful story and you can read all about it here. Here are the particulars of the event:
O. Perry Walker’s benefit and jam session will be April 12 at 7 p.m. at the Suite Jazz Cafe, 3580 Holiday Drive, in Algiers. The Roots of Music kids will lead off the night. Other performers include Rebirth Brass Band, TBC Brass Band and The O. Perry Walker Jazz Ensemble. The Jazz Cafe is an adult venue.
Do you follow NOLAFemmes on Twitter? If you did you would see my tweets about all of this and more. Follow us on Twitter!
In the Land of What Now Signing
Howdy y’all.
I thought I’d drop in to let everybody know that there will be a signing of the book In the Land of What Now this Saturday at the Metairie Barnes and Noble this Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m. This is the book that served as the blueprint for the movie Flood Streets, which I wrote about here at NOLAFemmes a little while back.
This event is the first Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation book fair and 20% of the proceeds will go to to LCEF, which awards grant money to local artists like Helen Krieger, the author of In the Land of What Now and producer of Flood Streets.
If you want to check out the stories that started Helen and her husband Joseph’s journey toward making a movie, this is a wonderful opportunity.
Flood Streets – a local film
Last Thursday, I attended a private screening of a local indie feature, Flood Streets, hosted by NOVAC at Vintage Uptown. It was a gorgeous space and the entire event was wonderful.
I think everybody should know about this film, and the filmmakers behind it. The script was co-written by Helen Krieger and her husband Joseph Meissner based on a group of short stories Helen wrote about the often humorous situations New Orleanians found themselves in after Katrina. Together, Helen and Joseph created a production company, The Hatchery Media, and threw themselves into every aspect of filmmaking, taking on the producing and directing roles in addition to writing. Joseph plays one of the main characters as well. They recruited a dedicated crew (including co-producers Michelle Benoit and Glen Pitre) and a talented cast including Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond and Harry Shearer. You’ll find, as I did, a lot of familiar faces from the music community – Clint Maedgen from The New Orleans Bingo! Show and Meschiya Lake, just to name two.
Among its other projects, The Hatchery Media has also released a book of Helen’s stories that inspired the film, In the Land of What Now, which were sold at the event by Faulkner House Books. You can keep an eye on the progress of Flood Streets by signing up for the newsletter here.
An image from the film
The cover of "In the Land of What Next"
A Morning Ritual for World Peace
Two months ago I started reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, the seminal book on spiritual healing for the creative force in all of us. I found myself blocked, frustrated, and constantly nursing this place of fear inside of me when it came to sitting down with any piece of fiction I wrote. This fear manifested in physical symptoms—clenched stomach, quickened heartbeat, an icky feeling in my chest—that encouraged me even more to abandon writing and pursue other avenues of satisfaction (shopping online for boots anyone?).
The Artist’s Way speaks directly to this kind of creative atrophy and anxiety. Even when I found myself outwardly rolling my eyes at all that Great-Creator-Within business, inwardly I nodded along as she talked about nurturing the inner self before outward production. This made tremendous sense to me. So, without my usual trepidation or excuse-making I dove right into one of Cameron’s two prescriptions for the creative soul: Morning Pages. Her other exercise required a weekly excursion, called an Artist’s Date, that you made with yourself to try something new each week. I didn’t prove so diligent here.
For some reason, Morning Pages clicked with me. Each morning, (okay, most mornings) I wake up, brew a pot of coffee, and load a Pages document—password protected, of course—and write three pages of whatever pops into my head. Sometimes I write about my daily tasks ahead. Other times I write about something bothering me too newly formed or personal to disclose to anyone else. I’ve even written about having nothing to write. What I write isn’t the point though. I just need to show up to something, every day. A commitment, a practice, some continual thread in my life, a constant I can look to and learn to count on.
I can’t point to anything in my life two months later and attribute some change directly to this practice of Morning Pages. But I can testify to a daily sense of satisfaction and accomplishment with the completion of those pages, and that something in me has changed. Cameron says in her book that it’s almost impossible to write about something every single day and not eventually be forced to make a change. I’ve found that to be true, and some of these changes have happened almost unconsciously. I discovered that my attitude has changed completely when I went back this morning and read my very first week of Morning Pages. Two months ago I was pessimistic, depressed, angry and overly critical of the people around me. My Morning Pages for the month of January look nothing like this at all.
Dedicating your mornings to this kind of daily practice can give you a sense of accumulation and allow you to discover meaning in your daily life. It also creates an almost effortless record—of your moods, your worries, your daily life. I was surprised when I read about an unusually pleasant dinner I hadn’t thought of since that night. Those pages can serve as reinforcement of the positive, reminders of the small experiences that make life worth living but also become overshadowed by the larger and more emotionally taxing events of our lives. There is also an immense satisfaction in the act of building. Over the past two months, I’ve built a document over 30,000 words and almost 100 pages long.
Every morning, the best you can.
Notice up above I conceded *almost* every day. I seem to operate at about 70% of the time. I’m terrible about the weekends and not as dedicated midweek. Set a goal of every morning, five mornings a week, or just every Sunday. Whatever your goal, try to reach it. My Morning Pages don’t take me long at all, but I’m a super typer. (Thanks should now be given to my cruel high school typing teacher who would bark out the letters and slap a ruler on her desk to beat time. This gesture also subtly conveyed to her sophomore typing class that if we missed a single letter, she just might beat time on our knuckles. I was scared to death of that woman and even hated the class, but there is no denying 80 WPM.)
How to—
Write in whatever medium you feel comfortable. I’ve gotten out of the habit of longhand writing, but Cameron recommends this way in order to allow your brain time to slow down and think. If you write comfortably this way, do it. If you like to type on an old Remington despite the key jams and ink blotches, then that’s the best way for you. Do whatever way you find most comfortable and know that this is the right way. But, if you decide to write longhand make sure you find a place to keep it so that you feel safe writing. Nothing kills this whole self-reflection process like a deep fear of prying eyes.
Nothing to write about. Not.
Although I’ve written a couple times that I couldn’t think of anything to write, most of the times I can. Our brains are wheel hamsters on steroids, constantly whirring with all kinds of thoughts. There is always something to write about. In the beginning, write about how pissed off you are, how your partner leaves the effing milk out to let it spoil, how the bank overdrew your account, or how you got a bad haircut. Think of these mornings as dumps for all those negative feelings. By getting all of these thoughts cleared out of the way, you open your mind up for something more positive. If you share space with others, password-protect these pages so that you are the only eyes that ever see them.
Eventually rev up your engine and get ready to drive
I got a little tired of my own whining even though I never went back to read it. I knew it was there, front-loaded all over my then 60 page document. So I decided to change directions. I started writing about my goals, my dreams, the things I wanted. Attainable things like a house with an office that gets tons of sunlight. Completely unrealistic things like a Pulitzer prize. Everything in between. The act of wanting is incredibly powerful. When we don’t name the things we want, we are almost sure never to receive them. Plus, it’s just fun to daydream sometimes. Put me in a way better mood than talking about how pissy I was. Start pushing your Morning Pages to talk about the way you want your life to be and see what happens. I credit this more than anything else with changing my perspective.
Just like that old adage about life, this is a journey not a destination
Seriously. Don’t look for some direct means of measuring the success of your Morning Pages. Don’t even think of them in terms of success. (By doing so, you unconsciously signal to your little dude within that you will measure this in success or failure, opening up an outcome you will label failure.) Writing these every day is about growth, but also about dedicating yourself to something. One of the greatest unintended consequences of these things for me has been just proving that I can stick with something. That’s worth my 30 minutes every day no matter what.
Good luck and happy writing. You won’t regret it.
Femme Fatale Friday: Susan Prevost
Photographed at the labyrinth in Audubon Park
Everyone who reads this blog and my personal one knows how much I love New Orleans. I’ve lived here now for 32 years – longer than I’ve lived anywhere – and consider it my forever home. My favorite thing about living here is that there’s always something new or unique to learn about this city of ours. I truly believe that no one that lives here – even if your family has been here since the beginning of time – knows everything there is to know about the city and the culture. It’s just not possible. And that’s a part of the beauty of this place, the fact that each new person you befriend has a piece of that puzzle that is our culture and history and you can learn something new or see a new perspective you may never have imagined before.
That’s how I’m feeling about New Orleans writer Susan Prevost, our Femme Fatale for this Friday post. I knew we had a thriving community of writers and poets in NOLA but it always seemed out of reach to me. I’ve read about the writers of 17 Poets who meet and read at The Goldmine Saloon and about the open mike readings at The Maple Leaf but I’ve never been nor have known anyone personally who’s been a part of that scene. To be honest, I’ve been pretty busy working most of my life here and, even though I write as a hobby, I just haven’t had the time to pursue any of the avenues open here to those with a literary bent. (It even sounds weird to my ears to refer to myself as having a “literary bent” – lol.) That’s where the internet, and my recent retirement, comes into play. Now that I have the time to blog, write and read more I’ve met many new people, via the internet, who share my interests – Susan being one of those people. She was gracious enough to leave a comment on my personal blog, almost a year ago now, inviting me to submit to her website, New Orleans Write Spot , which she described as “our New Orleans writers’ community blog”. I’ve been reading it ever since and recently did submit a couple of poems. I have to admit it took me a while to summon the courage to do so because, well, I’m a fledgling poet and only recently found an online group of writers that have made me feel like maybe my writing is ok enough to share. And, of course, Susan’s acceptance and publishing of my work has made me feel even stronger. For that I thank her.
So – long rambling story short – if you’re a NOLA writer and/or poet – or a reader! - get thee to the Write Spot and join in the fun. It’s a great website with a supportive and creative feeling for writers plus you get to read the work of your fellow New Orleanians and what could be better than that?
And now for our interview with today’s Femme Fatale, Susan Prevost.
How long have you been writing and what inspired you to choose this craft?
I’ve been writing since about the age of ten—off and on.
Is poetry your primary genre? Do you work in any others?
I’ve written short fiction and some essays as well.
What is your earliest recollection of writing and poetry as a passion? Do you remember your first poem?
I wrote my first real poem at about the age of 15. It was about Georgia O’Keefe and New Mexico. It was a dream poem about escaping into the future, I guess.
Is writing your full-time occupation?
No, I must eat. I’m an English teacher too. I actually like having a life outside of writing. Some of my best poems are about teaching.
I’m always interested in how other writers write, that is, do you ponder a poem for a while, keeping it in a draft stage and working on it periodically or do you write it all at once, as the inspiration and words strike you? How much editing do you do on a piece?
Lately, I’ve not been editing much at all. I’ve been allowing the inspiration to create the piece. However I’ve labored over poems in the past, sometimes for over a decade.
Do you have a favorite place to write that’s particularly conducive to your creativity?
Mostly my favorite place to write is inside my sunlit bedroom or on my front porch with my old lumpy dog at my feet breathing heavily.
Do you have any tips you can share regarding motivation and/or discipline in completing a piece?
I really can’t speak about being disciplined but the act of seeking my truth has always motivated me to write.
Who’s work has inspired yours?
I’m inspired by contemporary writers like Sharon Olds, Mark Doty, Tess Gallagher and the late James Carver.
I find it impossible to name one poet who is my favorite – I have several. Who are some of your favorite poets and/or poems?
All of the above and William Carlos Williams and Theodore Roethke (My Papa’s Waltz)
Where do you see yourself with regard to your writing in 5 years?
I’d like to compile some of my poems into a book.
Please share some of your favorite poetry and writing places in New Orleans and on the internet.
Well, what could be better than the Goldmine Saloon on a Thursday night? I fantasize about writing at the Napoleon House.
~
Thank you, Susan, for sharing your thoughts with our readers!
Women’s Spring Literary Salon
Femme Fatale Friday: Fiona Robyn
“I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to carry on living. I’m giving myself three months of this journal to decide. You might think that sounds melodramatic, but I don’t think I’m alone in wondering whether it’s all worth it. I’ve seen the look in people’s eyes. Stiff suits travelling to work, morning after morning, on the cramped and humid tube. Tarted-up girls and gangs of boys reeking of aftershave, reeling on the pavements on a Friday night, trying to mop up the dreariness of their week with one desperate, fake-happy night. I’ve heard the weary grief in my dad’s voice.”
This is from Chapter 1 of Fiona Robyn’s novel, Thaw, which she is blogging daily over the next several months. I was turned on to the blog five days into the story by a friend and I am utterly and completely hooked. Fiona’s portrayal of the main character, Ruth, is elegantly nuanced as she slowly allows the layers of a life to curl outward and fall, giving us insight into the very private life of a woman on the edge of suicide. Despite the subject, the story isn’t at all morbid or depressing – so far – and the reviews I’ve read (see links on the blog) all praise Fiona’s insight and skill as a storyteller, perhaps particularly so with a subject that can so easily get mired in muck.
I knew virtually nothing about Fiona Robyn before I stumbled on this blog but, after a bit of research, found she has had several books published. She also has three blogs – one of which I am familiar with, A Handful of Stones, although I didn’t realize it was hers. I contacted Fiona to let her know how much I’m enjoying Thaw (a fan letter!) and to ask for an online interview to which she graciously agreed.
Fiona Robyn
So here we go:
Is writing your full-time occupation?
Not yet! I make my living as a therapist, working with clients in private practice in the afternoons and evenings. This means my mornings are free for writing.
What is your earliest recollection of writing as a passion?
I used to make my own ‘books’ from folded paper when I was quite young, and was very excited when I started the story but I don’t think I ever got to the end! Luckily I’ve learnt to finish stories since then.
Tell us a bit about your creative process. Do you start a project with a beginning, middle and ending in mind or does it evolve as you go?
I always start at the beginning. My character arrives first, and the story emerges as I get to know my character better. I write a whole draft from the beginning to the end, which is always terrible, and then I start re-drafting.
Who’s work has inspired yours?
I like a lot of American writers – Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, Lorrie Moore, and also non-fiction – Annie Dillard, and lots of Buddhist writers.
What do you do to get out of a creative funk?
When I’m working on a novel, I’ll do anything to try and get out of my daily writing. All I can do is force myself to sit down and get started. Most days I succeed – some days I don’t.
Why or how did you decide to publish “Thaw” online in diary form?
I’m still at the beginning of my career as a writer, and so I’d like to find as many new readers as possible. The novel fitted so perfectly into blog format, I thought it was an opportunity to share the book with a wider audience. I’m also hoping that some readers might buy my previous novels, or a hard copy of Thaw, but we’ll see!
Is Ruth based on someone in your life, is she a composite of people or is she purely a character of your imagination?
She’s completely fictional. All my characters will be influenced by my own experience of life, but they’re not me or anyone else I know.
Where do you see yourself and your work in 5 years?
I’d love to be doing what I’m doing now – writing and enjoying life. It’d be a bonus if more readers were reading and enjoying my books, and it would be great to be able to make a living from writing. That’s not essential though – writing is the most important thing.
~~~
“I’ve always wanted to write my own journal, and this is my chance. Maybe my last chance. The idea is that every night for three months, I’ll take one of these heavy sheets of pure white paper, rough under my fingertips, and fill it up on both sides. If my suicide note is nearly a hundred pages long, then no-one can accuse me of not thinking it through. No-one can say, ‘It makes no sense; she was a polite, cheerful girl, had everything to live for,’ before adding that I did keep myself to myself. It’ll all be here. I’m using a silver fountain pen with purple ink. A bit flamboyant for me, I know. I need these idiosyncratic rituals; they hold things in place. Like the way I make tea, squeezing the tea-bag three times, the exact amount of milk, seven stirs. My writing is small and neat; I’m striping the paper. I’m near the bottom of the page now. Only ninety-one more days to go before I’m allowed to make my decision. That’s it for today. It’s begun.”
Don’t let this novel pass you by.
Go. Read. Now.
Guest Postess: Valentine Pierce
It’s a fact, Jack—but is it?
I often tell people I love the Internet. It is a useful and powerful resource. It offers endless opportunities for gathering information, thought-provoking commentary, and communication. It’s shortcomings? It offers endless opportunity for misinformation, evil/harmful commentary, and avoidance of human connectivity. I currently have two blogs: Valentine Pierce Designs (http://valentinepiercedesigns.blogspot.com), my newest blog, which focuses on graphic design, and Poet Sense and Sensibilities (http://poetsense.blogspot.com). This one is me commenting, sharing, journaling. Sometimes I write things that could be construed as fact so generally I try to check my facts. One time, though, a reader hipped me to an error. I thanked her and reminded myself that I am usually better than that and should be better than that because I am the first one to attempt to verify everything. “Is that true,” I’ll ask? “I’ll have to do some research on that.” As a journalist with more time under my belt than I sometimes care to admit, I should have checked my facts. Even without the journalism background, I need to speak what I know and learn what I don’t.
Another reader checked me on my comment about creative nonfiction. Frankly, I was intrigued that he had read my blog. I guess I was spouting at the time—primarily as a dig against Blakely (http://poetsense.blogspot.com/2009/11/blakely-anybody-know-title-of-his-new.html) who totally ticked me off and because the phrase doesn’t work for me. I tried to clarify that in my response to his comment. Truth is, I probably should have been clearer in my blog that my history causes me to look askew at such a category; his history probably makes him look askew at things I consider normal.
Where is all this going? Well, it’s going in circles, the ones we create when we repeat without investigating. Some of it is funny, like a comment I read about “’round away’ girls.” It was by what I would call a youngster because I am now of that age where people seem like youngsters to me. My age also informs me and I know the phrase is “round-the-way.” In one of my blogs (http://poetsense.blogspot.com/2009/12/i-never-seize-to-be-amazed.html) I noted how someone “seize to be amazed.” They mixed up Carpe Diem—seize the day—and cease to be amazed. But what really got me riding on this train is the Times-Picayune article (http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2010/02/whale_kills_orlando_seaworld_w.html) about a “killer whale.” For me, the news article is only part of the story. The real story is in the comments—as it always is. People just spout their thoughts without thinking twice. Few know that Orca, disaffectionately known as killer whales, are actually dolphins and were, at one time, known as whale killers because they do hunt in groups and can take down animals larger than themselves. Somewhere in time the phrase was turned and the animals were marked. The truth is, like most dolphins, murder is the last thing they do. Why this one killed a trainer and why have others attacked/killed trainers? We need to really think about this. In just a quick search I learned that they die three times as much in captivity as in the wild, that they don’t do well in captivity, that they live in family units or pods for generations, that they can travel 50 to 100 miles a day. No way they can live their normal dolphin lives in captivity. Local and national newscasters called Orca dolphins whales, too, as well as many Internet news sites. This goes to show how we sometimes tend to repeat what we hear without checking the facts.
The other branch to this is how Orca and other animals have been marked as violent, dangerous, killers by humans because they reject what humans are doing to them and their environments.
Yet another story I know is the African elephant in a circus that killed his trainer. Think about how you would act if you were taken thousands of miles from home, had your legs chained so you would learn to make those tiny steps necessary to walk around a ring, and penned when you were supposed to be roaming in the wild?
At this point you are probably thinking, well this is surely the long way around. I agree but we do live in a big circle, so big that we sometimes can’t see how everything is connected and how everything we do or say impacts that circle, most times negatively.
What am I getting to? We are quick to judge—people, animals, situations we know nothing about. We act/speak first, think later. We don’t look past the surface. The animal killed the human, that’s all we know. We don’t know why; we aren’t inclined to take the animal’s side in all this. Not that I don’t mourn for the trainer and her family. That, indeed, is quite sad. The thing is, I also mourn for the animal and all animals that are imprisoned merely to entertain humans.
As well, I am more inclined toward the Paul Harvey approach. Before speaking, considering getting the rest of the story, the whole story, the truth and nothing but, as they would say on Perry Mason. And even be careful with “the truth” because some truths are lies other people tell us are true. We need to find the truth from as many sources as we can or at least try to speak with more caution. Don’t just blurt out the first thing that pops into our heads and don’t repeat what we don’t know. Huh? And, we need to do something about what happens to these animals in these parks, zoos, and those encampments where they are hunted merely for sport. And, we need to take a closer look—at ourselves.
~~~
Valentine is a gifted local poet who’s book, Geometry of the Heart, is a must-have in any self-respecting New Orleans poetry-lovers library. She’s been know to read her original poetry locally at The Maple Leaf and The Goldmine as well as numerous out-of-town venues.
Related posts can be found here.
