Ease Lessons for Writers
In your writing life, no matter how hard you work or how well you plan, things won't always unfold the way you'd hoped. In Ease Lessons for Writers, we explore what gets in the way of our writing, why that happens, and why it matters. Together we learn how to make our writing easier and more joyful. I'm your host, Monna McDiarmid, a writer and coach based in Japan and Nova Scotia. Website: monnamcdiarmid.com/ | Newsletter: monnamcdiarmid.com/subscribe/ | Instagram: @monnamcdiarmidwrites/ | Patreon: @MonnaMcDiarmid
Ease Lessons for Writers
26. Elizabeth (Season 3, Episode 2/3)
TODAY'S GUEST: ELIZABETH
Today's episode is my second with Elizabeth who is in the process of becoming. She currently does laundry, dishes, drives carpools, and fills remaining “confetti time" with reading, writing, playing piano, thinking, and staring at a screensaver of a vine-covered tree. Along with her husband, she cares for two human children and an elderly pug in Richmond, Virginia, USA. Prior to this all-consuming undertaking, she worked as a writer and professional naming consultant for 20+ years on more than 150 product and corporate naming projects. In 2010, she published Finding Thalhimers (Dementi Milestone Publishing) about her father’s family and their department store, which existed for 150 years. Elizabeth loves breakfast, expensive dark chocolate, unapologetic authenticity, and laughing really hard.
Thanks for this conversation, Elizabeth.
HOMEWORK INVITATIONS
1. Writing while Parenting
- Create a time box (two to three hours) for your writing.
- Decide how many days a week you would like to write and choose whether you will track your writing through time or words.
- Track your writing between now and our next conversation with the knowledge that you get to rejig your plan going forward.
- Remember you are going to write this novel one draft (or pass) at a time.
2. Blasphemy
Create a permission slip for yourself to write the most blasphemous things.
3. Parenting (from Elizabeth)
What are you parenting?
TODAY WE MENTIONED
1. Books:
Love that Dog: A Novel by Sharon Creech
Hate That Cat: A Novel by Sharon Creech
2. A poem in response to the prompt: What cannot be destroyed
Write a poem about the idea of what cannot be destroyed. Elizabeth gave Monna the same homework.
Courage, my love
by Monna McDiarmid
When I imagine people
reading my poems and stories
my face flashes red,
the lion that lives in my chest
shakes its head
stands
and roars.
It's either menopause or shame.
A shame that predates the event.
Time traveling
Anticipatory shame.
Publishing feels impossible, all those eyes
on my shitty sentences.
Slam
the heavy wooden box of words
closed.
Bury it in the backyard.
Never speak of this again.
The wise crone in me says,
“Everyone feels this way. Everyone.
You think they will judge you? They will.
Even if you don’t publish a word.
Decide what you want, love.
Decide what you want.”
She’s a magnificent bitch, my crone
and she’s right.
The lion stops roaring,
saunters into my jungle
hot and verdant.
All the hard things have led me to this.
Loss of love, health, and money,
that one terrible boss.
I’ve been collecting my courage
to light myself on fire
with the heat
of my own words.
*****
ABOUT EASE LESSONS:
Music: “Meekness” by Kai Engel, used under Creative Commons Attribution license
Editor: Damien Pitter
Host: Monna McDiarmid (pronounced Mona McDermid) | Coach, Writer and Counselor
Website: MonnaMcDiarmid.com
Newsletter: The Sunday Reader
Patreon: where I share monthly excerpts from my writing memoir in progress
Instagram: @monnamcdiarmid
