Tag: writing (Page 4 of 15)

Why Do I Bother Blogging Anymore?

May 7, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

The question of blogging and whether or not it is worth my precioussss (couldn’t help myself with the Gollum reference) time is something I’ve been contemplating lately. Blogging takes up a lot of time.

I’m not the kind of person who can just throw together a blog post. Like all my writing, I have to allow myself ample time to think over what I’m going to write before I even sit down to write it. Then there’s the time it takes to write the post, format it with pictures and links, and proof it (yes, I do proof my posts, though I know mistakes make it through).

Even guest blog posts take time. I like to make sure the posts look nice and to have some uniformity to them, so though I don’t have to write those posts, I still have to format them. Plus there’s keeping track of who is posting when and correspondence with guest posters. Not to mention actually reading their content because of course I’m going to do that before I put it on my blog!

It’s not like I get paid to do this or have any revenue stream coming from my website. In fact, I pay to host the site and for my domain name. And lately I’ve been picky about my unpaid projects, carefully weighing whether or not they are worth it. I don’t have a ton of time for my paid work and I don’t get paid a lot for it, so to do work for free seems kind of crazy.

So I started thinking about why I began blogging in the first place. I went back to my very first post in which I expressed that the Observation Desk (the title of my blog) would be a place for me to share my observations on life. As a fledgling writer, I felt a need to share my thoughts, and clearly thought they were interesting enough to share. I think I also wanted a place to think out loud, so to speak, regardless of who listened (i.e. read).

And I have certainly shared many thoughts over the years. I do come here to articulate my thoughts and put them in a cohesive form. Often I’ll start a post about one thing and it will morph into something else, something I never intended it to be. So even though I think about what I want to say before I begin writing, I often figure out something else I wanted to say. In a lot of ways, I began blogging for myself and I still do that. I don’t keep a personal journal for my own thoughts (I keep one for story ideas and development, one for conference notes, and one for each of the boys), so this is my place for that.

Then the blog also became a place for me to feature other writers, illustrators, and creative people. I love featuring other content creators, reading what they think about and how their creative process looks. This was an aspect of the blog I never intended when I first started it, but guest bloggers have really helped to shape the way I now blog. Plus, it does take the pressure off me a little because I’m not the only one providing new content.

So the blog is my place to think in journal form (keeping in mind others will be reading) and a space to feature other creative types and share their works and thoughts.

Then there’s you, the readers. You contribute by reading, sharing, or commenting, and are one of the main reasons I keep the blog going because I feel like some of you actually care about what is going on with my life and this is how we keep in touch. And there have been many times when I’ve been in a tough place in my life and you all helped pick me up. That’s not something to take lightly.

There’s more, too. As I was preparing my presentation for the NESCBWI conference, I realized a lot of the ideas and techniques I was presenting originally came from a blog post idea. A furthering of the idea that this is my place to gather and hone my thoughts.

Does my blog make me any money? Does it directly sell any of my books? Not really. But it does have value. It’s a community, my community. It’s the place where I often start the conversation and where I invite others to start one. It’s the place where I sometimes talk with myself and work out ideas and thoughts.

So that’s why I’ve decided to continue blogging, even as I take stock of my life and look to simplify (I’m always looking to do this in one way or another). The blog takes time, time I could be spending with my family, time I could be writing, time I could be taking care of myself…but I believe it is time well spent.

Why do you blog or read blogs?

Finished (Almost) Attic Writing Space

February 20, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

The attic office space is finished! Sort of. There are still some finishes that need to be done (molding, doors to close off the eave storage areas and for the closet, more seating options and eventually a new desk, and a few other things), but it’s completely functional and even starting to look pretty now that I’ve started filling up the bookshelves.

I love sitting at my desk that faces the window with my view of the neighbors’ rooftops and yards (though mostly there’s just a lot of snow out there right now), and the boys certainly enjoy the space. A bonus for the winter is that it’s the warmest room in the house.

Now that we’ve been clearing out the boxes and getting organized, I’m realizing how much good space we have up there. The floor space is big, and even with the limited headroom on the sides, it feels spacious. I’ll have to go through all my pictures of the attic and put together some before and after photos for you all. But for now, I’m just gonna enjoy my new room for what is meant for: writing!

Facts in Fiction with THE GREAT CT CAPER Author Laura A. Woollett

February 16, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

Have you read chapter 4 of The Great CT Caper yet? If not, you’ll certainly want to after getting an inside look at how chapter 4 author Laura A. Woollett conducted her research for the Caper. Welcome, Laura!

Facts In Fiction

by Laura A. Woollett

I’ve been thinking a lot about how facts figure into the writing of fiction. If your fictional story is set in a real place or has real people in it, how much creative license do you have?

Research is a crucial element to creating historical fiction. The reader must feel as if he or she is IN that time and place. That means getting details such as clothing, cuisine, and architecture correct for the time period. But what about realistic fiction that takes place in the current time period? What about in a story like The Great CT Caper, which is a fictional mystery set in a real location that young readers can visit for themselves?

My first book, Big Top Burning: The True Story of an Arsonist, a Missing Girl, and The Greatest Show On Earth (Chicago Review Press, June 2015) is nonfiction. Every detail was meticulously researched through primary source documents. I’m accustomed to gathering facts and presenting them in an engaging story format. As I wrote my chapter for The Great CT Caper, I wondered how close I had to stick to the facts of the real-life setting.

I began thinking about this project by taking a trip Gillette’s castle. It was a beautiful, sunny September day, and flowers were still blooming. The Connecticut River rushed by far below the castle’s teeth-like walls. Inside, I passed through a secret passage and leaned over the balcony to look down on the great hall. I touched the walls covered in a woven hemp-like material and counted the Gillette_Castle many carved wooden doors, each one unique. Fiction feels its most real when the sensory details are just right. Since our story would take place at this real location, it felt important for me to experience what Li-Ming and Thomas would first hand.

Including details from the castle was important, but I did not want my chapter to sound like a report, so stuffed with facts it would appear I were teaching kids about the castle rather than telling a story that happened to take place there. I had to pretend the castle wasn’t a real place at all, but an imagined one, and like in any well-written fiction, I would only include details that gave the essence of the setting and furthered Gillettes_Bedroom the plot. If the detail was not important to the scene, I cut it, even if it were true. Somewhere in Chapter 4, I took a bit of artistic license. Can you tell where?

Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, writers want their scenes, their characters, and their stories to ring true. Here are my goals for any writing project:

Do your due diligence.

Go online and research reputable sites that have information on the time and place where your story is set. Better still, go to a library and ask a librarian. Best case, if you’re using a real setting you don’t know much about, visit. Take notes and pictures. Talk to the experts or people living there.

Be true to the time and place.

This means no anachronisms. If trolley cars had stopped running through Hartford during the time of your story, you cannot have your characters riding on them. Get the clothing right, the types of food, the music people listened to, and the world events that shaped their lives.

Do your best.

In the past, I’ve wrung my stomach into knots worrying that I’ve messed up some factual detail. And in my experience, if I’m feeling this way, it means I’ve definitely done #1 and 2, so it’s time to let that worry go.

About the Author:

Laura A. Woollett has a Master’s degree in Children’s Literature from Simmons College and is a full-time writer and editor of literacy curriculum for children in kindergarten through grade 12. Her first book for middle-grade readers, Big Top Burning: The True Story of an Arsonist, a Missing Girl, and The Greatest Show On Earth, a nonfiction account of the 1944 Hartford circus fire, will be published by Chicago Review Press in June 2015. Laura is the author of Chapter 4 of The Great Connecticut Caper, a middle-grade serialized whodunit published online through the CT Center for the Book, January–June 2015.

Confessions of an Author: Creative Gap

January 26, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve had some wonderful event and workshop opportunities come up for this year (more details to come on those!). With preparations for those in full swing, plus a couple of sick kiddos, a crazy blizzard on the way, and my regular writing and editing duties (Does anyone else snicker when they see the word “duty”? …No, just my infantile mind.), I’m dipping into the archives for today’s post. Stay safe all of you who are in the path of the storm!

Confession #7: The creative gap that exists between what an author imagines in her head and what ends up on the paper inevitably leads to a certain level of failure.

As a writer, I have certain images, ideas, nuances, themes, characters (and any number of other things) in my head when I create a piece of writing. It’s not that I necessarily have a set agenda–this is especially true when drafting and the story and characters are still taking shape–it’s more that I have a clear vision for a piece. I wouldn’t call it a message (because who wants to read a message-heavy piece of writing)…for a lack of a better way to describe it, let’s call it a creative vision.

Inevitably, the words I use to try and achieve my creative vision never quite live up to what I see in my imagination. This has nothing to with my ability as a writer; it’s more a failure of the medium of the written word. Writers have to rely on words to paint a physical and emotional landscape for a reader. We create not only worlds and characters, but ideas and feelings that need to come alive through words because a reader can’t see into a writer’s head.

Even now, trying to explain this creative gap is a frustratingly futile attempt. The words you read here are not exactly what is going on in my head. There is a creative gap between my brain and what you’re reading.

English users even try to steal words from other languages to help overcome the creative gap. A word like “umami”, taken from the Japanese, is roughly a pleasant savory taste (tomatoes are said to possess this quality), but really it’s a taste or sensation that can’t really be expressed in our language.

Then there are words that are so complex and subject to a person’s individual experiences and emotions. Success. Peace. Love. A writer can use these words, but has no control over how a reader will interpret it. Words are simply an inadequate form of communication sometimes.

And this creative gap isn’t unique to writers; it crosses all types of creative media. Films, though more visual, lack in different areas than books. When watching a film, a viewer can’t be in a character’s head and hear his/her direct thoughts (except for the occasional voice over). Artists can paint or draw what they see in their head, but there is no commentary to go with it. A person looking at a painting has to draw his/her own emotional context out of it.

So what’s a writer or creative person to do? Give up because our creative vision will never be fulfilled. Create a failure and despair over it. Nope! We accept that the creative gap exists and use all the tools we possess to convey our creative vision to the best of our ability.

Because something magical happens when our (inadequate) words are read. The creative gap works in reverse. Readers brings their own creative visions to the writer’s words. And they fill the gap, not as the writer would have filled it, but with their own imaginations.

In the end, the creative gap does not create a failure, but a piece of work that is unique to each individual who consumes it. A work that is full of images, ideas, nuances, themes, characters (and any number of things) the creator never could have imagined. And that is certainly a wonderful exchange.

Stripping My Emotional Self in Writing

December 4, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m the kind of person who holds her emotions really close to her chest. I hate crying in front of people, even the ones I’m closest to, and have always, as far back as I can remember, felt this way. I don’t like openly showing many strong emotions often feel embarrassed when I do, and sometimes even feel embarrassed for other people when they are showing strong emotions (though they themselves probably aren’t feeling that way…they are simply reveling in whatever they are feeling).

It’s not that I don’t have strong emotions. In fact, it’s just the opposite; I have strong emotions, it’s just hard for me to show them. When I’m upset about something or hurt, it most often comes across as anger…because for some reason my brain thinks it’s okay to show anger if I have to show something.

Psychoanalysis aside (not really interested in analyzing myself, especially not here on a public website…yikes!), being this kind of person makes it hard for me to open up my emotional self in my writing. One of my goals this year was to push my writing to show deeper levels of emotions, and that included all forms of my writing: blogging, the journals I keep for the boys, my novels, everything.

I really stripped down and got real here on the blog with my post “How Does a Mother’s Love Grow?” back in February. I was going through a really tough time as a mother and shared some real and not necessarily flattering feelings. Frankly, that was a terrifying moment when I hit Publish on that post. But it got a lot of hits and so many wonderful comments. Though when I think about people reading that post, it kind of makes me nauseated.

My WIP is a really gritty novel, a thriller about a girl with a dark past (much of which she can’t remember) and who isn’t sure if she deserves a chance to remake herself. She isn’t even sure if that’s possible and wonders if she’s just an evil person at the core. Not that her feelings are my own per se, but the idea is to push and explore those very deep emotions and draw them out. Whatever they may be.

So I think I’ve begun to chip away at that goal. And I think it’s bringing my writing to a whole new level. Because it’s those deep emotions that resonate with readers, it’s what they connect to and remember from a story. Ultimately that’s the kind of stuff I want to write, even if it kind of makes me cringe a little on the inside. It also makes me glow on the inside, too. One of the many dichotomies of my life!

I guess the next step in this process of mining my emotions would be to allow myself to express them to a fuller extent. Not only would that aid in my writing, but it would probably be healthy for me and my relationships (not that any of that is bad, but those could always be better, right?).

So where have you pushed yourself and your writing this year and where are you taking those things in the next year?