Today was a play day. There were other responsibilities requiring my attention, but mostly I wrote. My fingers struggled to keep pace as the words tumbled and flowed. Time stood still, and the words piled higher than the parking lot’s snow hills.  Today’s writing was without true purpose, without constraints, without pressure. The goal was to add words to the page.

I kept checking the clock, sure that hours had elapsed, to discover it had only been minutes. It was a wonderful feeling. It lifted my spirits and made me smile.

Does a productive writing session change your attitude?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

My writing is work, sometimes it is a difficult endeavor. My daily attempts are to write the best story I can write. Once I’m finished with the writing portion, I pick it apart, editing, tweaking and attempting to make it better. With the hours spent on each piece, it is my wish the reader feels as if the words flowed from a bubbling brook. I want them to believe my effort was simply stopping to transcribe the story. They shouldn’t recognize the effort.

How do you know your story is complete?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Today marks the start of Daylight Saving Time. At 2:00 am in Chicago, we will turn our clocks forward to 3:00 am. If we can revise time, we can change anything. Pursuing continuous improvement, we identify ways to increase productivity, to write more words in each writing session. The editing process allows us to tighten our writing, express ideas more succinctly and increase emotional involvement for the reader.

Life is about change and good stories are the embodiment of change, of character transformation. As we grow, we evaluate our life. We eliminate habits and rituals which hold us back. As the story evolves, we eliminate the sections which don’t advance the story.

What revisions are you making today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

This quote tickled me. There are characters in my head who would object to others questioning their existence. And that places a huge responsibility on my shoulders. I feel an obligation to them, to the stories they whisper in my ears and etch upon my heart. It is my job to introduce my dear friends to cherished readers. I want them to no longer live only in my head. I want them to live in the hearts and minds of my readers.

How do you tell your character’s stories?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I have a love affair with words, vocabulary, diction, expressions. It is a long list. Turning a phrase, evoking thoughts, feelings, and atmosphere can be accomplished by using, as Nancy says, le mot jeste.

I can spend a lot of time agonizing over a single word choice. Should I use “cold” or does “bitter” convey a meaning laced with harshness and resentment? Does the picture change if I select “crisp” instead? Can my reader smell an apple, recall a glorious autumn day, or see leaves changing color?  Or perhaps “glacial” is more appropriate? If words make fiction blossom, do I want my rose to “smell”, or should it have an “aroma”? What about a “fragrance”?

The astute writer takes these nuances into consideration as their prose paints the desired picture. Every single word carries its own image, flavor, or emotion. A single well-placed word can replace sentences and paragraphs filled with description. I know, I have deleted them in my editing process.

How much consideration do you place on word choice?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I think most fiction is intelligent. To my mind, good stories have a core which addresses an underlying human question. The question can be personal, specific to a group, or broadly applied to the entire human race. Writers bravely tackle how it feels to love someone who doesn’t return the emotion. They explore death, and why someone might consider murder or even suicide.

The story’s question may consider why we wage war, how power may corrupt men, or what hardships people can endure when survival lies in the balance. However abstract the question, when a story presents the question in a world similar to ours, and a flawed, but believable character responds, the question becomes tangible. Stories allow us to consider how we might respond in the same situation. They may open hearts, and minds and reveal alternate possibilities which change our perspective.

How do you weave questions and answers into your stories?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Is it strange I like spider webs? I am none too fond of spiders themselves, but the webs they create are often spectacular.  Add misty morning dew reflecting the first gentle rays of sunlight and you have something straight from a fairy tale. They are like snowflakes, perfect, pristine and beautiful. If you are foolhardy and attempt to touch them, hold them, they dissolve as if they were a figment of the imagination.

I love Virginia’s perspective and the idea that fiction must have even a tenuous connection to reality. Fiction, at its best, approaches perfection, pristine stories, expressed with beautiful words. They are true figments, with each reader conjuring a version, shaped and colored by the totality of the reader’s personal experiences. The reader creates a rendition of the story that is unique.

How do you attach your stories to reality?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I admit it. Recently, I have hit the failure button a lot. While I can meet my minimum daily word count goal, I struggle to reach my stretch goal. Since my aim is to increase my daily productivity, I need to increase the days I hit the stretch goal. Because a daily goal needs to be, well, daily.

Time to conduct a study, collect data, crunch numbers and run them through the analysis machine. I discovered a pattern for the days I attained the stretch goal. The prior evening, I planned. Don’t worry kids, no outlines were harmed (or created) in this process.

Instead, I set the stage. Each session was different, but they bore similar themes. I prepared the tableau for the next day’s writing session. Think about throwing a party. You decide what you want to serve, go shopping, hang decorations, and make a few dishes in advance. The day of the party, you cook. I have a new tactic. Each evening, I set the party, so the next day, I only need to write. We’ll see how it goes.

What takeaways have you learned from your failures?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Few people can claim the success title. Success is awarded to those audacious people who defy the crowd. They embrace different, weird, and eccentric. They court originality, independent thought, and defying group-think, they amaze the masses. It’s normal to desire normalcy, to crave the tribe’s acceptance, and the tribe wants its members to conform. It uses its power, exerting derision to eliminate the “different”, to enforce the homogeneous patterns which define the collective.

The road is lonely, being a writer requires solitary hours creating. We agonize over our decision to deviate from the crowd, acutely aware of our sacrifice, as we subject ourselves to the contempt of the tribe.  It’s the price demanded of those who embark on a path precious few dare travel.

Do you have the courage to join the superstars?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

When the going gets tough when the odds seem stacked against us, home is our refuge. Home is our haven, our shelter, the place we heal our wounds and gather the courage to battle and defeat the odds.

We are only human, weak, feeble creatures struggling to make our way. But it’s the struggle that forms the basis for the adventurous. The valiant know the joy of attaining their dream, the satisfaction of reaching for the stars, and the merit in the journey.

How will you fight for your dream today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer