I try not to write about writing.
Like any job, parts of it are harder than others. The hardest part of writing, for me, is not coming up with ideas or creating sentences or deciding what parts of the story are too short or need to be expanded. The hardest part of writing, for me, is doing it alone.
I spend almost every day alone, sitting at my little maple desk. But lately, I have had more fun than usual because I am working on a new book, and I am writing about a lot of things I know nothing about.
Of course, I don’t let this stop me. When I am writing, I just write. I make my best guess and keep going because my job isn’t to get everything perfect. My job is to treat the story that has landed in my head like the gift that it is and do the best job I can simply getting it all down. Only when I have a complete draft do I need to find out if I have any idea what I am talking about.
For the book I am just finishing, I write a lot about glaciers. The book is called “The Esker.” An esker is a formation of sand and gravel left behind by glaciers. It is basically a streambed that flowed beneath the ice while the glaciers were melting. But now, as my father would say, I’ve told you more than I know.
Reading about eskers on the internet is not nearly specific enough. So I went looking for an esker expert, and I was astonished when 1) I found one; 2) she answered my email in less than 15 minutes; 3) she agreed to read the scenes about glaciers and 4) her name was Carrie.
Dr. Carrie Jennings has taught about glaciers at the university level for 30 years. She read the 2,300 words I had written about eskers in the book and replied the same day. She was funny and informative and obviously knew everything there was to know about eskers. She corrected my descriptions and added details I would never have thought of. I read her email in amazement and was reminded of something I’ve noted before: People who know their stuff are usually happy to share.
The book has Mexican characters, and so I wrote to the editor of a Spanish-language newspaper. “I will be happy to read your book,” she replied. “As a Mexican, I really appreciate your effort!!”
I wrote to the retired chief of police who had already helped me get the details of small-town law enforcement right in “Loon Point.” “You bet!!” he said. “Love doing it, I am learning as I go too.”
There is a therapist in the book, so I wrote to a therapist friend: “I’d be delighted to read and offer whatever suggestions I can for this book.”
All of these folks will read a piece of the book. They will make my book better and more accurate and more entertaining. They will make me look a lot smarter than I really am. They are all so kind and generous, and I am so grateful.
This is before my agent and the many editors read my book, before art is made for the cover, before clever words are written to describe the book, before any of the other work is done that turns a story into a book.
It all helps me to remember that it takes a lot of people to make a book. And I am really not alone at all.
Till next time,
Carrie