blog hop {6/23/14}

Yikes--I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted! Thankfully, my good friend Annette Gendler tagged me in the #mywritingprocess Blog Hop. Started by Carol Malone back in February, the hop asks writers a series of questions about their writing process. 

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where the magic (sort of) happens (sometimes)

1) What are you working on?

Funny you should ask! After nine long years my memoir, A Different Kind of Same, is being published by She Writes Press. It is slated to come out in May 2015. Currently we are working on cover design, proofreading, and preparing my marketing campaign. It's a lot of work, but really exciting. In the meantime, I'm taking the first few cautious steps toward writing some new pieces. It's all very preliminary, and will likely be on the back burner for a few months, but there you go.

2) How does your work differ from others of its genre?

Hmm, this one is tricky. Truthfully, I'm not sure it does. I strive for a balance of informality of lyricism in my writing, but I don't think I'm the only one who does that. I've been told that I manipulate punctuation to an obnoxious degree (especially dashes--love the dashes). But overall I'm not a genre revolutionist. I write memoir because I am drawn to introspection. I think the internal journey is as interesting and relevant (if not more so) than the external one. 

3) Why do you write what you do?

Because I have to. Because if I didn't, all the weird, scary, depressing, joyful, luminous, divine stuff rolling around inside and outside my head would sink me. Also because (in spite of the fact that I can't shut up) it takes me a really long time to figure out what I am trying to say.

4) How does your writing process work?

Big picture-wise, I tend to procrastinate until the thoughts and feelings I'm avoiding become so painful, disruptive, and nagging that I can't help but turn around and face them. It took me two years to sit down and start writing A Different Kind of Same. I imagine some more time will pass before I tackle all the crap that has happened since then. 

Once I feel ready to start working, I tend to journal on a regular basis and set small goals for myself outside journaling, such as 500 words a day. I give myself weekends off. But one thing I've found is that I need to be really flexible with my process. Life's demands change constantly--lately I've just been squeezing things in where I can when I feel like it. Probably not a recipe for Stephen King-level prolificacy. Good thing I'm not Stephen King.

For the next hop I'm tagging my friend Britta Froehling. Britta is a painter, photographer, writer, and philosopher. Her work and her attitude toward life inspire me. Pop over to her space and say hello!