Chaos & clarity
The tide has been out this last couple of weeks. I’ve been stuck in a life admin loop with lots going on at home in my family that has required many, many hours on email and phone and waiting and frustration and money and follow up. On top of the state of the world right now, I’ve felt like the tank has been truly empty. Reminding myself of my goal to go with the tides of the year, has only added to my sense that I am dropping all the balls.
At times when we have a lot on our plates, it is often our creative tasks that fall off the bottom of the very long to-do list. And (ironically given I’d just posted about nourishing creative habits!) my work on the new book completely stalled.
Not only did it fall off the list, but the chaos of the rest of life was sapping my belief in the project and my belief in my ability to do it at all.
But then - hallelujah! - I had a session with magical word wizard Sarah Sentilles in The Word River and things started to shift.
Among the excellent advice Sarah and others shared in the group was to write down a ‘When You are Stuck, DO THIS’ list to remind yourself of the things you can do to open up creative space and get the words going again.
My list includes:
walk to the top of the ridge and look out
put your hands in the soil - weed/garden
read poetry for 20 minutes
do 7 minutes writing from the prompt jar*
go for a swim
What are the things you do to get unstuck?
The generative writing we do in The Word River helped get the words going again, but it was really a concrete goal from my 11yo daughter that did the trick. She was heading off on a family camping trip without us, and because I wasn’t able to go with her I promised I’d work extra hard while she was away, and write 3k words before she was back on the Sunday. It was Thursday when I made the promise, and considering I’d only managed a piddly 5k words since November I wasn’t feeling confident, but I promised all the same.
And I did. Slowly at first, and then madly, fingers going quicker than the thoughts - one of those wonderful writing sessions when you finish almost panting for breath, page littered with mistakes because the brain has worked so fast.
My daughter’s ‘great job’ message was THE PERFECT carrot I needed, and a reminder that I just needed to sit down and START.
Hoping for more such carrots and days ahead.
*The prompt jar is one of my grandmother’s crystal sugar bowls that I’ve filled with cut out strips of paper with writing prompts written on them. Some are from workshops with Sarah, others are from various poems or books or classes I’ve taken.
The Beauty of Clarity
I’m in the messy, feeling-my-way part of the writing, so I’m not yet focussing on precision and clarity in my sentences and structure. I did, however, recently have one of those wonderful gigs where I learnt much more than I think I gave back (and got paid - a truly excellent situation!).
The gig involved working with a group of professionals (truly at the top of their game) on some of the complex, high-stakes writing they have to produce in their line of work. We spoke about using plan language, avoiding jargon, thinking about audience and purpose and structure and clarity, among many other things.
In preparing for the work, I went back to a well-thumbed book from my ‘writers on writing’ shelf - Mark Tredinnick’s The Little Red Writing Book. (There’s also The Little Green Grammar Book). It’s not only a treasure trove of writing advice, it’s also exquisitely written. Mark is a poet. And it shows.
I was reminded of how much value I get when I go back to these books - as if the advice has a new scaffold to hook itself on to.
The writers who were part of the course were asked to say a few words; here’s what I said about learning to switch on my internal editor.
When I received the comments on my first novel from my editor back in 2014, there was one phrase scribbled everywhere in red - LESS IS MORE – which she went on to abbreviate to LIM because she used it so much.
I was a new writer. I wanted to show the world how many amazing words I knew, how many ways I could describe the sea and the lighthouse and the way a girl turns her head just so. But so many words muddied the message. They diluted the images and meaning I wanted to convey.
They were, in short, boring.
Getting that feedback didn’t stop my overwriting immediately – but the advice from my editor was solid – you will start to recognise this yourself she said, you can turn on your internal editor.
And she was right.
In his fabulous book, The Little Red Writing Book, poet Mark Tredinnick argues for why less is more:
‘Be generous with the truth and economical with how you tell it.’
What does that look like for me?
Getting down what I want to say with ‘the door closed’ as Helen Garner has said. I know my best writing is not done in the first draft, and even when I am pressed for time, putting out an article for example, I still need to get my thoughts down before I can attempt to make them sing.
Then with red pen or just the delete button, attacking my work with vigour. Asking if there is a way I can say the same thing with more ‘economy, grace and clarity’ as Tredinnick suggests.
And sometimes that means less isn’t more. Sometimes a throw away reference or moment or detail needs to be explained, with the most precise and specific language I can muster, language that I know my audience will read clearly.
‘Concision’ Tredinnick says, ‘is a discipline to be practised at the level of the sentence.’
And this is how I got better. Not by trying to trim a whole 80k draft down by 10k words, but by weighing each sentence and chipping it back until it glittered like a jewel. And these days I get far more ‘can you expand on this’ than I do ‘Less is More’ and that feels an excellent place to be.
Highly recommend getting your hands on Mark’s book. It really is a pleasure to read.
Some more wonderful words on clarity came from writer, Alice Dark’s substack post Back to Blank (recommended by the wonderful Nancy in The Word River):
Pretend you are on trial for your life and you have one opportunity to make your case clearly, succinctly, persuasively, entertainingly, and beautifully. This is one hundred per cent about you, and one hundred per cent about how you make your case. The books we love have made their authors’ cases well enough that we both have a sense of the mind organizing the words and how that mind connects us with common ground among humans. What case do you really want to make, and how? Think long and hard about this. Knowing the answer will save you going down a lot of dead ends.
Alice Dark
Also - saw Jacq Ellem (of The Word Count pod) repost this and, considering the work I was doing, it very much made me giggle.
What I’ve Been
Reading
If You Go - Alice Robinson. Oh, I was a lucky duck to get eyes on an early copy of Alice’s third novel (her last one The Glad Shout I utterly adored and it catapulted us into friendship x). I read it in a single sitting. It’s superb. A novel that I felt in my body as much as my brain: motherhood, marriage, the dismantling of marriage, the climate crisis, utter grace - all the things Robinson writes so very well. Put this on your TBR list now! Out in June with Affirm.
Beatrix and Fred - Emily Spurr. I loved this weird and wonderful second novel from local Melbourne writer, Emily Spurr. I don’t know how she pulled this off but she did, so well. Really enjoyed the characters and the conceit.
The Rewilding - Donna Cameron. A fast-paced eco-thriller that reads like a bingeable tv series. Cameron’s deep love of the natural world around her and what must be done to save it, shines through.
Watching
One Day. Okay, have you watched it yet? Are you okay?? Had to do an emergency message to friend and writer Anna Downes when I was in episode 13 to help me process. Have never watched the previous movie, never read David Nicholls, but Anna assures me I need to get on board the Nicholls train for all the feels. DEEP 90s nostalgia with a cracking sound track that gave me ALL THE FEELS.
Slow Horses A friend recommended this for some bingeable watching to get me through the chaos. I’m addicted. Love me a spy thriller. Particularly love an underdog spy thriller.
Got coming up
Started on the vitamins again as I gear up for a busy couple of months of festivals. Looking forward to meeting writers and readers at these excellent festivals! Do, please, come and say hello if you are getting along to any of these events.
Adelaide Writers Week: I’ll be talking AI & literature with Tracy Spicer, Richard King, Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker and Ariel Bogle on Tues 5 March 12pm on the West Stage (and checking out as many events as I possibly can between Monday morning and Tuesday evening!)
Words Out West: Chatting The Hummingbird Effect during Festival Day on Saturday March 9 and joining the All Star panel with Dinuka Mackenzie, Benjamin Stevenson and more.
Cairns Tropical Writers Festival: Discussing Cool Water with author Myfanwy Jones on Sunday March 10 at 10am and then talking The Hummingbird Effect at 5pm.
Dibrugarh University International Festival of Literature - March 19-21, Assam, India. Program isn’t out yet but I am beyond excited to have been invited to this festival, my first time in India!
Newcastle Writers Festival: One of my very fave festivals! April 5-7. Joining Kylie Needham, Emily Perkins and Anna Downes for The Responsibilities of Women on Saturday 6 at 1.30pm, hosting Shitty First Drafts with Charlotte Wood, Christos Tsiolkas and Emily Perkins, Sunday 7 at 10am and then a genre convo with Sharlene Allsop, Shelley Parker-Chan and Chris Flynn on Sunday 7 at 3pm.
Sorrento Writers Festival: More AI chat with Margo Neale, Chong Weng-Ho and Tom Wright on Friday 26 April 10.30am. Hosting Joelle Gergis, Peter Christoff and John Hewson for Climate, Crisis and Cop28 Friday 26 April, 3pm and Call My Agent with Ben Ball, Liam Pieper and Irma Gold on Saturday 27 April, 10.30am.
Enormous love, and hope that if the tide is out for you, too, it comes back in soon xx
And always, and until a permanent ceasefire - Gaza. So much gratitude to the many people who are doing extraordinary work on keeping eyes on Gaza and getting money to where it is needed. I’m still donating to UNRWA.
‘Be generous with the truth and economical with how you tell it’s
This is brilliant. Mark Tredinnick is a marvellous poet - he spoke at a women’s writers retreat I did many years ago, and was one of the highlights.
So many great tips in here Kate, thanks for sharing! Glad the writing gears are turning again—love your sweet daughter giving you a boost 🧡🥰