Kendra Bonnett--Getting Read #23
I'm in Connecticut this week doing a favor for two very dear friends. They had an opportunity to go to Mexico for a week but couldn't find anyone local to take care of their puppy, cat and two horses. So, I'm house, dog, cat and horse sitting.
Quinn, the puppy is a beautiful English Setter with a heart of gold. He's about eight months old and brimming with youthful energy. In short, he's into everything and driving me crazy. Yesterday he broke into the special area where we put out the cat's food. When I discovered what he'd done, it was too late. He'd eaten the cat's food...and since I couldn't find the bowl anywhere I began to think he'd eaten that too! I found the bowl about six hours later...after checking every room and under every piece of furniture. Twice. I'd forgotten how much attention a puppy requires.
Quinn likes to run into the woods where he picks up ticks. He transferred one onto me yesterday. I'm paranoid of Lyme Disease so I freaked. Today, I walked him on a leash. He chases the neighbor cat that ventures into the yard, steals my slippers and follows me wherever I go (including the bathroom). You haven't lived until you've been puppy slimed as you step out of the shower.
But what does this have to do with memoir writing and divorce? Don't worry, I'll explain. It took me awhile to see the connection too. I watch this dog all day and realize that every day he confronts something new in his life...the leaf that flutters by and scares him...the little calico cat next door who comes up to the slider and peers nose to nose at Quinn...the pumpkin on the doorstep that needed to be told off with a good barking...the stairs leading to the dark, forbidden basement.
Someone going through divorce for the first time must feel a lot like Quinn with new and frightening experiences cropping up almost daily...lawyers, settlements, custody, single parenting...and so much more. That's where DivorcedWomenOnline.com (DWO) comes in to my story. DWO is an online magazine for “women of all ages (20s-60s) who are contemplating, moving through or beyond divorce.”
Founding editor Delaine Moore contacted me last week to tell me about the site's success to date and her plans for its future. Currently, DWO gets about 25,000 views per week and reaches some 100,000 women overall. What this means is Delaine is looking for writers on a wide range of topics, including stories, health tips, fashion advice and more. Read my post "A Call for Writers: Large Online Magazine Offers You Publishing, Publicity and Platform Building Opportunities" for all the details. I posted this yesterday and already we've been able to direct one writer to DWO. If you think you have something to say to women contemplating, facing or getting over divorce, you just might find a good platform for yourself that will give your work exposure to a large audience of women. Matilda and I will be doing a monthly writing column.
And speaking of writing, I'd like to point aspiring memoir writers to my Friday column on tips for memoir writing. Women just starting to write may find themselves facing a world of scary unknowns...just like Quinn. I'm hoping this list of links will be a good place to start. You can click here for "Lists for Writers: 10 Tips for Writing Your Memoir." I've even embedded the first part of Susan Albert's and Susan Tweit's delightful reading and conversation sponsored by The Wittliff Collections.
ABC's of Writing, Matilda Butler, Post #6
I missed my scheduled posting on Monday -- my regular day to write on SCN’s Telling HerStories. The brief five minute video that I thought I’d finish on Sunday took me all day Monday to complete. “Don’t worry,” I told Kendra. “I’ll have the video on YouTube on Monday.” Well, at 11:58 PM California time, that statement became true. By then, it was too late to post here. If I had run into additional complications with the video, I might have had to rely on Hawaii time where I still had three more hours before midnight.
The notion was relevant because I was creating the first of four videos I'm calling Postcards from Hawaii. These are writing prompts that occurred to me while I was on the Big Island earlier this month for a combined celebration of my husband’s birthday and our 40th wedding anniversary. Although part of each day was spent working on one of my final chapters for Writing Alchemy, I still had a relaxing time.
When I travel, my mind often causes me to focus on just one or two elements. But Hawaii is a place that engages all the senses -- the sweet scent of plumeria, the growling sound of the ocean grabbing fistfuls of sand, the dramatic sight of ancient black lava flows, the taste of plant-ripened pineapple--juices running down my arm, and the rough feel of coral beneath my feet as I wade in the shallow waters.
Hawaii replenishes my creative well. Do you have a place that provides you with new ideas? In my video, I discuss one special place on the Big Island and it’s meaning. I hope you’ll go take a look and then leave me a comment. I’d like to know what you think about my writing prompt and discussion.
Aloha and Mahalo. When I say these two Hawaiian words, the state of calm that I feel while on the Big Island returns. As writers, we know that words are the only tool we have to express our lives. Aloha is used for hello and good bye, but can also mean love. Visitors often read that saying Aloha opens one to the awareness of a sacred space and that Mahalo is an expression of gratitude and has the potential to transform your life. I offer you these words today with the hope that they help you give life to your writing and enable you to feel the blessing of gratitude for what you write.
Enjoy the first Postcards from Hawaii by clicking here.
My ears ache from wearing head phones and I'm getting tired of listening to my own voice. What am I doing? I'm narrating my memoir, Walking Nature Home, for the audio version to be released late this year. So far, I've read three chapters. Each one takes about a day, even though the finished length of each chapter is only somewhere between 40 and 45 minutes. With nine chapters total, I figure I need six more good reading days to finish.
What takes so long? Getting it right. The actual read of a chapter takes somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours. When I stumble over a word, or get the tone or emphasis wrong, or make another error--or a loud motorcycle goes by outside--I start the sentence over again. Sometimes I go back to the beginning of a paragraph if that makes a "cleaner" break to make sure I haven't changed the tone or volume of my voice.
I could record at a real studio, but I'd rather spend those hours in the comfort of my own office, sitting at a microphone table designed and made out of scraps by my sculptor husband, Richard. My office isn't soundproof, but by using a homemade foam baffle (thank you for that too, Richard!) and a directional mike (a Blue Yeti USB mike that plugs right into my Mac laptop, for those who want to know the technical stuff), it does pretty well, except for the occasional passing ya-hoo with a loud vehicle. That round black screen in front of the mike in the photo above, by the way, is to soften the explosion of sound that comes with 'P's and other hard consonants. It looks weird, but is very effective.
The rough edit takes about twice times as long as the read time, which means three to four hours of careful listening, deleting each bad or duplicate part of the soundtrack and pasting the two cut edges together, just the way we used to do with real tape and a razor blade back in the days before recordings went digital, listening carefully to the mend, and then moving on... I do the rough edit myself using Garageband, Apple's nifty--and surprisingly powerful--audio editing program that came free with my Macintosh. It works just like the sound boards I've used in real studios. (That's Garageband above, with me reading the opening of Chapter Three on the sound track.)
What does this have to do with writing? These hours at the mike and listening with the headphones remind me of why reading your work aloud is one of the best editing techniques around. I'm hearing Walking Nature Home anew: the tone of the words, the cadence and rhythm of the sentences and paragraphs, the flow of the story itself. And even after editing it dozens and dozens of times, even after the editors at University of Texas Press went over it with their careful eyes, even though it's in print, I hear things I could do to improve the writing.
That's the magic of hearing your work, of reading it out loud and listening crically. Looking at your writing on paper or on screen is useful; hearing it is entirely different. It sounds new, and thus you notice things you otherwise wouldn't.
You don't need my quick-and-dirty home recording studio to do it. All you need is a quiet space--a room with a door that shuts, or a time when no one else is around to interrupt you. Pick up your writing, put on your best storytelling or reading voice, clear your throat, sit up straight, and read. Don't rush it and don't dramatize, just read your words with the respect they deserve. And listen. When you notice something that doesn't sound right, stop and make a note. Then pick up your writing and start reading again. You'll be surprised at what you hear.
P.S. What is surprising me as I record Walking Nature Home? It's pretty darn good!
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