Author Chats: Ethan Rutherford

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This is my first Author Chats post! I debated about which category I should file these under, and settled on Motivation Monday. Future Author Chats will be available on the Author Chats page!Motivation

Note: This post includes affiliate links. If you purchase from these links, you are supporting Write Lara Write! (I’d get about a penny per purchase.)

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of hearing Ethan Rutherford share one of the short stories about to be published in his book The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories.

He read “Camp Winnesaka,” a desperate camp counselor’s tale of how they lost so many campers one fateful year, while attempting to get spirits (and enrollment) up. It was a terribly amusing dark comedy, and once Rutherford mentioned that many of his stories involve ships blowing up, I decided exactly what I’d be getting my husband for his birthday this year.

Since I didn’t actually conduct an interview with Rutherford, I just listened to the reading and then briefly chatted with him about writing, reading, and being an at-home parent, I’m just going to list my notes below in a semi-coherent matter. Note that these are not direct quotes, they are paraphrases. I am no court stenographer.

On Reading

Read like a maniac and read all sorts of writers.

Recommended reading:

On Writing

Just get the draft out. You don’t know what the story is about until it’s written.

And just try to tell a good story—don’t set out to write some big, deep message.

Write about things that make you uncomfortable.

To students of writing: You ease up on yourself as you get older. It’s easier to write when you aren’t panicking all the time.

About plot and character: Ask yourself, “What kind of person would do X, Y, Z?”

On his process: Rutherford writes in the same place, at the same desk, listening to the same music playlist, to get him ready to write. He also reads up to the point where he stopped before.

On Motivation

Make a list of what gets you creative. (Mine? Reading good literature, especially poetry. Watching movies that inspire me to create new worlds. Listening to my “creative inspiration” playlists. Experiencing life, being human and being around other humans.)

Every writer’s motivation and inspiration ebb and flow in a cycle. Once you go through the cycle a few times, you’ll begin to recognize where you’re at on the cycle, and you’ll know how to get back on top of things. (I like to think of them as “rainy seasons” and “dry seasons”.)

On Being an At-Home Parent / Writer

(I didn’t take notes during our chat, but we came up with the same conclusion:) Once your kid is mobile, good luck.

Motivation

That’s all I’ve got! I’m filing this under “Motivation Mondays” also, since I’m a bit late in posting, and this fits in both categories. Take some time and find out if there are readings or book signings or author talks in your local area. It’s always a great inspiration to me to hear other people read their own stories and talk about the writing process, because each writer is so different. And don’t forget to fill your heads with different writers by constantly reading new voices. If you can’t make time to read, you certainly can’t have time to write.

Voice: Talk Like a Pirate

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The best way to learn how to write well is to read, read, read. Read the good stuff and pick them apart to find out why they work. Read the crap to figure out why it’s terrible.

The problem is, many of us just don’t have time to read as much as we’d like. So I could give you list of novels that do things well, but I don’t expect you’d read them. But you know what you DO have time to read? Picture books.

The time commitment is only one reason why children’s literature is so freaking awesome. William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well, once said there are four “basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.” What exemplifies these better than a picture book?

My son and I have increased our time at the library of late. Whenever I come across a good picture book that demonstrates a key literary premise, I’ll share it with you. Today’s book concerns VOICE.

Voice: Talk Like a Pirate

Voice is the way a character sounds when talking. Each of your characters needs to have his or her own distinct voice. An uppity Manhattan banker isn’t going to parrot a plumber from Hooverville. You, the writer, need to have your own voice, too.

The best way to see if your writing has some legitimate voice to it is to read it aloud. And that’s exactly what you need to do with this book:

pirate-pete

(Click the link to be taken to an Amazon page. If you order from the Amazon page using this link, I’ll receive about $0.000001 from Amazon. Rolling in the dough over here, don’t you know.)

Pirate Pete’s Talk Like a Pirate is a tale about a pirate trying to gather for himself a crew of scallywags. The condition for the job, however, is that each candidate needs to talk like a pirate:

“Ye gots to be stubborn and mighty cranky,
Ye gots to be dirty and awfully stanky!
Ye gots to load a cannon and know how to fire it,
But most of all, ye gots to talk like a pirate!”

Read this book aloud, and you’ll see the difference between Pirate Pete’s voice and that of each of the potential crew. I read the first candidate aloud with a mamby-pamby French accent, because that’s what it sounded like in my head.

I’m tagging this under “Writing Resources.” Give me some time to be creative, and I’ll come up with “Writing Exercises” for you to practice on. Until then, start talking like a pirate.

Well, I’m Back

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You thought you’d gotten rid of me, didn’t you?

Well, the beginning of 2013 was a whirlwind of job applications and uncertainty. February I took on a temporary job, and now that’s done, and here I am again.

In the next few months, I’m going to be cutting down on freelance work, which hopefully means I’ll be blogging more. However, I’m cutting back on work because my second child is due in May, so there will be much nesting going on. If you’re ever hankering for some more interaction apart from WordPress, be sure to like my Facebook page—I update that more often than WordPress or Twitter.

What do you want to learn more about? This week I’ll be talking about my recent chat with Ethan Rutherford, author of The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories, which will be published in May 2013. Expect that on or around Friday. Seriously, don’t hold your breath or anything, since I tend to be late. It also takes me an exorbitant amount of time to write each blog post. I’ve already ran my toddler to the potty twice, let out the whining dog, started some food on the stove, looked up the spelling of “exorbitant”—you get the idea.

I’ll also begin blogging about picture books that demonstrate literary principles. This is going to be dependent on how good the books I pick up at the library are, so it probably won’t be on a constant schedule. But I’ll post the first one of those today.

Besides getting picture book recommendations and hearing about Ethan Rutherford, what do you want to know about the writing, reading, or editing processes? Your input is what fuels this blog—you ask a question, I’ll find the answer. If you don’t ask the questions, I’ll probably choose naps over blogging. Just being honest.

Happy Holidays!

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone! I’ll be returning from vacation in 2013 with some new posts as well as contests for writers! Stay tuned for ebook cover design giveaways, copyediting help for synopses, and guest blog posts next year! And as always, if there’s something you want to know about writing or reading or grammar, don’t hesitate to ask here or on my Facebook Page.

Get on the Writers “Nice List” by writing some time before 2013. I’ve been naughty lately, and by that, I simply mean I’ve written naught. New Year’s Resolutions, anyone?

Here’s a weird Santa image to get your creative muscles flowing. What’s the story here? Write one.

-Lara

“Never doubt, my dear, that Santa isn’t real.” (double negative…doesn’t that mean you SHOULD doubt his existence? So confused.) “Don’t you see him with his pack—right here?”