Author and Teacher. Inspiring creative souls through hard times.
Author: EvelynKrieger
I'm a people watcher and word crafter, author of fiction and essays. I also blog on living the creative life during hard times. When not writing, I work as a private educational consultant. Special interests: dance, the moon, astronauts, beaches, poetry, staying alive.
How to make time for writing in your busy other life. Writing residencies at Vermont Studio Center.
I just spent the last month in a writer’s heaven. Nov. 2018
The Vermont Studio Center is the largest artist residency in the United States. Each month, 50 selected writers and visual artists from across the country and globe are offered unrestricted time for creative work.
I got to be one of them!
VSC provides private studios, room and board, conferencing with Visiting Artists, readings, craft talks, and presentation nights—all on its beautiful historic campus.
The first week, I was pinching myself.
Maverick Writing Studios
Amazing things happen when you get the chance to step out of your everyday life and write in a calm environment designed to limit distractions and obligations.
I learned a lot about myself as a writer.
I tested my mental stamina. I had time to just sit with the mess of words and ideas and try to shape it into something coherent and interesting. I learned how long it can take to write one decent paragraph, only to delete it the next day. I had the time and space to immerse myself in a fictional world.
Sometimes it was magical.
Other times, anxiety-provoking…What if it’s no good? Am I wasting my time?
My studio overlooking the river.
I met with Visiting Writing, Noy Holland, to discuss my short story in the revision stage. I got to spend time with other kindred spirits talking about the artistic process, rejection, failure, inspiration, and epiphanies. We shared stories, laughter, and tears.
Resident Photos by Howard H. RomeraReading a new essay, “The Geometry of Grief”, at Presentation Night.
Finding time to pursue your passion amidst the demands of your present life is likely your number one challenge…or complaint.
But sometimes it serves as an excuse.
Saying, “My dream is to write a novel, but I simply don’t have the time right now,” is likely untrue, although it may feel that way.
As E.B. White once said: “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.”
While there are definitely periods in our lives when we feel especially stretched, finding time to write is possible if you make it so.
I’ve been writing and publishing since my late teens. That means I’ve written through college, graduate school, teaching career, raising 3 kids, homeschooling, and helping elderly parents.
There were times I was insanely busy, stressed out, or depressed. There were dry spells—sometimes long ones.There were also stretches of times conducive to creativity that resulted in publishable work.
Still…I wish I had accomplished more. (That’s Miss Perfectionist talking, so you can just ignore her.)
We all have the same 24 hours in a day.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days.” ~Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
Here are my tips for carving out time for writing:
Be a Time Sleuth
The first step to making time for writing is to scrutinize your daily/weekly schedule.
Can you wake up earlier before work or getting the kids off to school?
If early morning doesn’t don’t work for you, try writing in the evenings or late night hours.
If you commute by public transportation, consider that time. Keep a notebook with you for ideas and brainstorming.
Can you make time on the weekends?
Look for time suckers you can give up (or cut back on): The biggest one is the Internet Blackhole. Scrolling Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Endless newsfeeds. YouTube pet videos. Binge watching TV. Really.
Resit
Schedule your writing.
This next step is key. Once you find the times when you can write, mark it on your calendar.That’s right: you’re making an appointment with your muse. Begin with 15-minute blocks. That’s not long enough, you say? Believe me, the minutes add up. Consistency, more than quantity, matters at this stage.
Think of writing like exercise. You need to show up at the gym or class—whether you feel like it or not— in order to make progress. You can’t show up once a month and build muscle.Consistency leads to making a habit. The writing habit will help you achieve your goals. Show up, or as Stephen King said, “Butt in the chair.”
Designate a Writing Place
The great thing about writing is that it’s portable. I write in my home office, on the family room couch, in libraries and coffee shops. I’ve written in airports and on long bus rides. The place depends on my mood, what I’m writing, time of day, and schedule. Having a designated place to write, however, can help you build the habit. By associating a specific place for writing, your train your brain to switch into writing mode. Doesn’t matter if your place is a closet, office, or shed. Claim your space. Make it look and feel nice.
Sunny corner table of library = novel writing.
…Virginia Woolf had her room. Proust his shuttered windows. Marguerite Duras her muted house. Dylan Thomas his modest shed. All seeking an emptiness to imbue with words. The words that will penetrate virgin territory, crack unclaimed combinations, articulate the infinite. ~Patti Smith, Devotion
Set Goals & Deadlines
The process of trying to produce a piece of writing can be—no, make that will be—frustrating and discouraging.To stay on track you need to:
Define goals
Making a plan
Tracking progress
Set deadlines
Reward yourself
Again, the exercise analogy.If you just say, “I’m going to get in great shape”, you’ll likely to give up before you run the first race. You must make a plan with incremental milestones along the way.
Same idea for writing a novel. You start with the end goal in mind, then work backward. Name the date you want to finish by (I know, that’s really scary). Then break down the big goal into several small steps. Approximate when you’ll reach each step. Anticipate obstacles. Reward yourself when you arrive.Yes, you’ll likely have to adjust the steps and deadlines. The important thing is having a roadmap. (Thank you Kendra Levin for this advice.)
“Each time we come to the end of a piece of work, we have failed as we have leapt — spectacularly, brazenly — into the unknown.” ~ Danie Shapiro, Still Writing
Plan a Writing Retreat
Once you’ve made time to write, limiting distraction is the key to producing. A writing retreat can be a great way to jumpstart, revive, or finish a project.Some writers occasionally cloister themselves in a hotel room for a few days to binge write. I know two women who designed their own retreat by renting a cabin in New Hampshire. Poets & Writers Magazine has several classifieds ads for rentals in beautiful settings that cater to writers.
If you think you’re the right point in your life or career to pursue a writing residency, here’s a has a comprehensive listing.
How do you make time for writing or other creative pursuits?
I asked this question to friends and readers ages 20-65. Here are a few of the replies:
Write a memoir and not worry about what my family thinks.
Quit my job and find a better one.
Start online dating. Again.
Become a foster parent.
Ask him out on a date.
Learn ballroom dancing at age 65.
Travel the world–all 4 corners
Overcome fear of water and scuba dive the Barrier Reef.
Be more adventurous outside my comfort zone.
Dial up my appetite for taking risks to say things that might upset others.
Interestingly, one responder wrote: “My first thought is that I would make foolhardy mistakes that my justified fears keep me safe from making.”
Good point. But fear and caution are not the same.
And here’s a response from a middle-aged man that touched me most.
“If I wasn’t afraid, I would become the Me I was born to be.”
Notice the essential verbs in the above answers? Start, become, go, ask, learn…
Fear can hold us back from achieving our goals, realizing our potential, and trying new things. We know this in our hearts but have trouble moving past it.
Fear of risk.
Fear of discomfort.
Fear of failure.
Fear of being judged.
Fear of looking like a fool.
Fear of getting emotionally hurt.
Fear of the unfamiliar.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear of the Blank Page
Writers are no strangers to fear.
Do I really have any talent?Will anyone care what I have to say? What if my writing is crap? What if I lose my creative spark? What if my book never gets published?
Name your writing fear. Say hello. Shake hands. Then wrestle it to the ground.
You’ll probably have to do this on most days.
Know that wherever you are in your creative journey, you have plenty of company. Face the fear and write anyway.
“Fear is felt by writers at every level. Anxiety accompanies the first word they put on paper and the last.”
― Ralph Keyes, The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear
What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
Here’s one of my answers. Ride on a space shuttle.
Surprised?
Since childhood, I’ve been fascinated by people who do bold, physically demanding activities. Motorcycle stunt riders, platform divers, tightrope walkers. My mother tells me that while watching the Ringling Bros. circus I was drawn to the woman being shot out of a giant cannon. Astronauts were my heroes.
Lest you think, I was a kid daredevil—not a chance. The scariest thing I did was ride a bicycle down a hill while sitting backward. Oh, here’s where I should mention my fear of heights. While I loved amusement park rides that spun me around, fear of heights kept me from the Ferris Wheel and giant roller coaster.
Me, age 11, on the high dive in Miami. Never jumped. Just wanted to impress my friends.
Then came claustrophobia. (Perhaps its origins can be traced to my brothers zipping me inside a sleeping bag. Or maybe getting forcibly held underwater in a swimming pool?)
Yet, I still wanted to be that girl who could blast into space.
Along with dreams of becoming a teacher, writer, and dancer, I harbored a secret desire to ride in a rocket ship one day.
Then, in my early twenties, I developed an extreme fear of flying.
So much for going to the moon.
Enter my fearless friend George who thrived on physical risk-taking. George tried to get me to go skydiving with him.
Jumptown in Massachusetts
He showed me videos of his fantastic jumps. He broke down the mechanics, safety features, let me examine the parachute. He promised to hold on to me. I enjoyed this vicarious adventure but knew I’d never jump out of an airplane.
Performing a grand jete in ballet class would have to remain my “airborne” thrill.
Learning from the Pros
In June 2017, Alex Hunnold, 31, became the first person to scale El Capitan in Yosemite–a 3,000-ft monstrous granite wall…without using ropes or other safety gear.Only his hands and feet. Alex’s incredible historic event is documented in a new National Geographic Film, Free Solo.
Just watching a clip gave me vertigo.
In this crazy sport, there is no room for error. A mistake means death.
National Geographic, Free Solo.
Most of us will never have what it takes to climb a rocky ledge or become an astronaut. Most of us probably wouldn’t even want to. What draws me to these fantastical feats is the question of how he or she overcame the Fear Factor.
Through years of intense training, Alex developed an astonishingly strong mental ability to control fear. So much so that neuroscientists are studying his brain. In an MRA scan experiment, Dr. Jane Joseph reported zero activation in Alex’s amygdala–the “fear center” of the brain.
“A lot of people say I don’t feel fear, or that I don’t fear death, but that’s just not true!…I think I just have more of an acceptance that I will die at some point. I understand that, but I don’t want to baby myself along the way. I want to live in a certain way, which requires taking a higher degree of risk, and that’s acceptable to me.” (National Geographic)
Facing Your Fears From The Ground Up: For Normal Folks
Challenge your fears.
Set a goal.
Plan and Prepare.
Take baby steps.
Practice
Focus on the rewards
Repeat
This all takes courage.
Courage doesn’t mean fearlessness. Courage is facing your fear and doing it anyway. Courage is a muscle.
I’m happy to report that I’ve worked through some of my long-time fears. Though I’ll never be a comfortable flyer, I still board the plane, anyway. I practice relaxation techniques. I focus on where I’m traveling to and who I’ll get to see. The fear is no longer in charge.
I can now drive across major bridges without getting panicky.
But don’t ask me to go caving or enter a submarine!
The kind of risks I’m comfortable taking are mostly in the emotional realm. Relationships. New experiences. Adventures…as long as they take place on the ground.
Writing fiction gives you a chance to live other lives. The main character in my new story is an 11-year-old girl who plans to ride every roller coaster in the world and grow up to be an astronaut.
CBS News
Sometimes when I feel discouraged by the limitations my fears bring, I remember the prolific writer Ray Bradbury, whose science fiction stories launched his readers into outer space.
In real life, Mr. Bradbury was terrified to get on a plane.
What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Have you faced a fear?
A short story by Evelyn Krieger, published in Gemini Magazine. “Mom is in our hotel bathroom fixing herself up.”
“A short story is a love affair; a novel is a marriage.”
I have a new short story publication to share. “Her Last Dance” appeared in the August issue of Gemini Magazine.
It’s scary sending your work out in the world. First, there’s the inevitable rejection that’s simply part of the submission process. Happens to all writers, no matter how experienced or well-published. Keep revising and submitting. Get critiques. Don’t give up.
Even when your story, essay, article (or book) finds a home, you may wonder how it will be received.This can be particularly concerning when publishing personal essays or opinion pieces.
So far, the response to “Her Last Dance” has been positive.Gemini Editor David Bright said he and the judges were very moved by my story.One reader commented on its “chilling ending”.Another told me I had “nailed the teenage voice”.
The narrator’s voice came easily to me. I knew the POV had to be through the girl’s eyes.I wanted the reader to empathize with the teen’s experience but also know more than she does.Through the use of subtext, the reader can see what the girl cannot, what is truly going on.
The ending is what gave me trouble.
Once I employed the advice: a good ending should be surprising yet inevitable, I felt satisfied with my choice. (See blog post on story endings).
So here it is! I’d love to know what you think. (Really.)
Her Last Dance
by
Evelyn Krieger
Mom is in our hotel bathroom fixing herself up. I smell her apricot perfume from outside the door. I’m supposed to get fixed up, too. No idea why Mom uses that expression, I mean, it’s not like we’re broken or anything. I bend over, let my dark hair fall forward, start brushing to make it fluffy like in those shampoo commercials. I check myself in the mirror, dab on bubblegum lip gloss, and a smudge of cherry blush.
Then Mom comes out. “Well?” She spins around in her sleek black skirt. “What do you think?”
I swallow.Her dark eyes seem bigger, like they’re eager for something. “You’re taller.”
“Hah! I haven’t worn spiked heels in ages. What about my outfit?”
“You look pretty, Mom. Really.”And she does.
“Thank you, my dear.”Mom squints into the mirror as she puts on her gold hoop earrings. “You’re never fully dressed with bare ears.”
“Wish Dad could see you. Want me to grab the camera?”
“No, don’t bother.” She steps back to admire herself.“I don’t want him thinking we had too much fun.”
“How come you don’t get dressed up at home?” I ask.
She looks at me, her perfectly penciled eyebrows raised. “And just where might I be going? Ballroom dancing?”
I hate it when she gets snarky. “You could take Dad out. You guys stay home too much. I don’t need a babysitter anymore, for your information.”
“For your information,” she says, “once upon a time your father and I used to go dancing every Saturday night.”A shadow of sadness passes over Mom’s face.“He was pretty damn good.”
I try to picture my father dancing. Instead, I see him in his wheelchair spinning around the floor. He’s the one who needs fixing up. I don’t like to think about Dad home alone with just boring old Carol to dress him and tie his shoes. Mom says there’s no reason to feel guilty–this is our “well-deserved” vacation. Maybe she’s right. So far we’ve had a decent time visiting Chicago, but I am not sure I like the idea of meeting Malcolm.
In last month’s post, I explored the essentials of a satisfying story ending—“surprising yet inevitable”.The opening of a story, however, is not inevitable, though it can be surprising.
Just like on a new date or job interview, the writer has one chance to make a good first impression. Whether it’s an essay, short story, memoir, or novel—the opening sentence, paragraph, and page is the first impression.
A strong beginning can seduce the reader. A long-winded or boring opening can have the opposite effect. The reader (or editor/agent) loses interest. There will be no second date.
Let’s look at ways to help you get your story off to the best start.
Arouse Curiosity
Consider this example.
“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.”
This is the opening lines of Celeste Ng’s debut novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014)
This simple opening sparks several questions. Who is Lydia? How did she die? Who are they and why don’t they know? Whose point-of-view are we in?The entire novel unfolds from these two sentences.
Here’s another example from Waiting (1999) by Ha Jin that evokes surprise.
“Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu.”
And: ‘It was a pleasure to burn.” from Ray Bradbury’s , Fahrenheit 451
Begin as close to the inciting incident as possible.
The inciting incident is the event which turns your protagonist’s life upside down in either a good or bad way. The inciting incident launches your character into the main conflict of the story. It’s the engine of your story that sets events in motion building to the climax.
Let’s say your story is about a woman who wins the lottery but doesn’t want to tell her husband about this sudden windfall.
The inciting incident would be when the woman realizes she has the winning ticket. Instead of starting the story with her marital history, or her love of gambling, you might start at the moment when she realizes she’s finally hit the jackpot.This is the tactic I took in my published short story, “The Ticket”.
There were only six numbers to check, but, just to be sure, Dolores put on her reading glasses. On the kitchen table, the newspaper was opened to the all-important page. Dolores lined up her ticket with the newspaper numbers, and compared them with such deliberation that one would have thought she was half-blind. Dolores read the numbers aloud, slowly, succinctly, like she did when calling for Bingo. “9…14…21…24…26…30.
The opening of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitudemakes quite a first impression. It includes hints of two inciting incidents.
“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”
And how about this one?
“They shoot the white girl first.”
Begin with the End in Mind
Writer/entrepreneur Stephen Covey’s sage advice works well when crafting your story beginning. In his 7 Habits of Effective of Effective People, he explains:
Begin with the End in Mind means to begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen.
When writing fiction, the opening is your where you plant the seeds for your plot to grow. Knowing your destination can help you build a strong beginning.
The meaning behind Harper Lee’s understated opening in To Kill A Mockingbird is not realized until the climax of the book. The author masterfully weaves the end into the beginning.
When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. When it healed, and Jem’s fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury…When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident.
To emphasize this expert plotting device when teaching the novel, I have my students reread the opening after they finish the last chapter. They are always amazed by the cyclical structure of this classic novel.
Pick the right POV
Try to establish a distinct voice or tone, especially if you are using first-person point-of-view. Charles Dickens does it matter-of-factly in David Copperfieldby confiding to the reader.
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.
Eight is my favorite number. I think it’s a beautiful number; it has two-way symmetry, it’s an even number, it’s in my birth date (September 18th) and it’s the color of a blue sky.
More examples of openings with a unique voice or tone.
“I lived with the same cat for nineteen years–by far the longest relationship of my adult life.”
“A Man and His Cat” by Tim Kreider (The New York Times 2015)
My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.“
Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
Limit Backstory
A common mistake in first pages is including too much backstory.
Backstory is exposition as opposed to action. It’s info that the reader needs to know which happened prior to the story.
Don’t overload your reader with background details that could easily be put in later on (or not at all). Use exposition only at the point in the story when the reader absolutely needs the information. Otherwise, every line in the opening should move the plot forward.
It’s helpful to get reader/editorial feedback on your story draft. You may find out that your opening really happens on Page 3…or 10, as I did with my first novel and a recent one in progress.
Begin with the Introduction of an Interesting Character
All these examples immediately make me want to find out more about the character.
“Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.”
George Eliot, Middlemarch
“He had jumped a radio tower and a cliff in Norway, but never a bridge. He chose a Wednesday morning when the fog was expected to burn off early and called in sick to work.” “The Casual Car Poll” by Katherine Bell (Ploughshares 2006)
“Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes.”
George Orwell, Animal Farm
“There was once a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he almost deserved it.” C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
When my brother Fish turned thirteen, we moved to the deepest part inland because of the hurricane and, of course, the fact that he’d caused it. Ingrid Law, Savvy
“Check me out. The top two knuckles of my left hand look as if I’d been worked over by the KGB.”“This Old Man” by Roger Angell, essay from The New Yorker (2015)
“He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche (1921)
While an intriguing first line may hook the reader, you still need to sustain attention. So consider this checklist for your first page.
Introduces a compelling protagonist
Introduces setting
Introduces conflict
Conveys tone or mood
Raises questions in the reader’s mind
Involves some action
You can learn a lot from studying the masters. Pick an anthology of stories and read just the first paragraph of each one. Which stories pull you in?
“Not every thirteen-year-old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty. But I was such a girl and my story is worth relating even if it did happen years ago. ” The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi.
EVELYN KRIEGER 