 First a word from someone's sponsor:  *** I’m judging emerging writers for the Irish Food Writing Awards and in reviewing the stories I missed something that a journalist would not have — some of the who, what, where, when, and why of the stories. I felt like an amateur momentarily, which I’ve already established I still am. I make mistakes and will make more guaranteed. The awards are in the competent hands of Suzanne Campbell, a woman I admire for her service to the Irish food writing community. The path to the page for every writer is unique. I trained in creative writing, not journalism. Most of the people in my cohort at the Humber School for Writers were in the early stages of creating novels. I was not taught facts as much as story. I’m not suggesting journalists don’t write story, because I admire so many of them for how they do it. But my first preference is for the shape and spirit — the personality — of the writing. Finding and using your voice is a vital process. It scared the shit out of me when I was emerging at fifty. My writing mentor repeatedly told me not to be afraid of what I had to say. It takes time to find the aspect of a story that makes me feel in some way, and then try and convey that to a reader. In grading or judging I review and ideate in cursive, and in the first read I search for a sentence I like, where I can see a glimpse of the person dropping letters on the page. I make squares around them in purple highlighter. I do it everywhere I read when I get awestruck by the way words come together. Then I went back to the beginning to discern if basic questions are answered, and if the thinking reflects research. The feeling of emerging should be a part of every new substantive project for anything involving craft. Some call it beginner’s mind. I did a traditional French cooking apprenticeship, and a foundation principle is that you never arrive. There is always more to learn. Mastery is a serious and life-long pursuit. It was also ingrained in me that only rare women are masters, that most women arrive a polite few years after their male peers or never, so there’s that, too. An emerging writer not too long ago might have had more exposure to editors. On most blogs — business and personal — there is no one with the metaphoric “red pencil.” I was able to hire people right out of school to edit my work, and considered it a good investment. Writing at this point is a business still largely without mentorship. Only a very few find good guidance. There are gatekeepers who operate like there’s not enough and turn everyone, including junior colleagues who are hardly competition, into threats. One of them told me when I was in school to give it up because there wasn’t enough work in Canada. Those were facts from a journalist. What they didn’t know is how many times as a woman I’d faced some version of you-don’t-belong working in restaurant kitchens. It taught me to not put a lot of weight in the opinions of others, except for those of people I trust. Every project and every piece has a tone, usually dictated by the subject. The trick is to express the experience of another, and let it carry your shadow. It’s taken time to find my voice, and I have some way to go. The reason why “today,” my “blog," is public is to demonstrate process. That is the priceless factor for me. I like it all from the first draft to fresh-off-the-press — from the messy kitchen to dinner on the table. I like the thud of chopping onions, the sizzle of butter in a black pan, and the clink of cutlery coming to rest on a plate. There are tender green days when the learning curve is steep. I have been laid low a few times by hard lessons. You need a backbone. Are there writers who have never had that happen, whose success has tumbled over to more success and a million followers? Mythically, yes. I admire the writers stepping up for this award. You have to be brave from the start and put yourself out in whatever way feels good and right. And knowing how many stunning stories exist without a governing bodies stamp of approval will keep you humble. So will the understanding that hierarchical approval is a patriarchal construct and fades fast, like lipstick and duck fat. The magic is staying with a trade for long enough to find your voice and your people. That grade two photo currently hanging out on my desk is an image of me as an emerging writer. :) *** Verlyn Klinkenborg’s Several short sentences about writing is the book about process I most relate to. It is full of so many practical lessons from his years of teaching creative writing at American universities. To me, it reads like an apprenticeship. For a while, and under its influence, I practiced writing four- and five-word sentences. It’s brilliant for working on cadence, but string too many of them together and it’s irritating to read. A good human told me to dial it down over an ice cream cone — my preferred style of editorial meeting. “How could the man who wrote “in a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” have failed to tell the truth about his own wife?” Why I Write, by George Orwell found me this week. He captured a period in history and wrote about power in an original manner that speaks to us vividly right now. I’m massively late to the fact that Eileen O’Shaughnessy, his first wife, had a big hand in the creation of Animal Farm and 1984, and received no credit. Orwell was a standard-bearer socialist twat. *** Prince is everything Alicia Key says about him off the top — he was open as a creator. When it was released, I played 10cc a lot. 20251975Comments are closed.
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