This week’s ‘Write Life’ guest blogger is emerging author, Jeanette O’Hagan. Jeanette’s approach to writing is remarkably intellectual and detail focussed, yet incredibly imaginative. Make sure you’ve got your pre-orders in the day her novels spin off the press – that is, once she’s done wrangling felines into order. Thanks, Jeanette. 🙂
A random thought. Writing is a bit like herding cats.
Well, at the moment it seems a lot like it to me. Over the last six weeks I feel like I’ve been skating from one urgent task to another – from kitchen renovations gone AWOL, family responsibilities and visits, study commitments, conferences, camps, retreats, birthday celebrations (a 5th and a 94th) and NaNoWriMo. Not to mention doing final edits and proofs on my first published story (a short story in the Tied in Pink anthology), follow-up on editorial appointments, hot weather and storms. It hasn’t been all bad – in fact, a lot of it has been wonderful: like being cheered on as I finished NaNo at the Writers Retreat, looking forward to my first publishing credit, or spending time with my family. Even so, it has been frenetic, a tad chaotic and draining.
So as I sit down to write this post, my thoughts are scattering all over the place, heading off in a thousand and one different directions and tipping their feline noses in the air at the very thought of cohering into anything rational – let alone brilliant, scintillating or inspirational. And sometimes, being a writer is just like that – juggling the demands of life with the need to find the head-space to write or juggling different ideas and images that pull away in different directions.
And so I reflect that writing at times is about forgetting about herding and just letting go. Maybe letting go of some of those riotous ideas for now – and allowing space for others. Or maybe, letting go of the need to arrange the cats – ahem, ideas – into neat, orderly and perfect rows. Or letting go of the need to impress or to control and allowing the ideas to lead. After all, in the beginning of all this, I didn’t choose to be a writer. Rather, the stories chose me. They were my invisible companions through most of my childhood – a way of sublimating angst and uncertainties into fantastical adventures; a way of growing in understanding of the Great Storyteller who calls me to be a part of His story.
And then it occurs to me, that maybe ‘herding cats’ could apply to groups of writers as well. Writing is so often by its very nature a solitary pursuit. And while some writers are social loving extroverts, many of us are introverts. Perhaps we like doing things by and for ourselves. Yet one thing I have learnt over the last few years is that we are stronger as writers and go further and last longer if we are willing to boost up each other. Even cats can team up to achieve a goal worth pursuing.
Then again, maybe it’s just that life’s like that. However much we plan it, it has a tendency to take turns we never anticipated and sometimes we have to let go of our plans and trust that God knows what He’s doing.
Jeanette’s short story ‘The Herbalist Daughter’ is about to be published as part of the Tied in Pink anthology this month (profits from the anthology go towards Breast Cancer research). Jeanette has practiced medicine, studied communication, history and theology and has taught theology. She is currently caring for her children, enjoying post-graduate studies in writing at Swinburne University and writing her Akrad’s fantasy fiction series. You can read some of her short fiction here.
You can find her at her Facebook Page or websites JennysThread.com or Jeanette O’Hagan Writes.
It has been said that dogs are man’s best friend; man is a cats servant. How like writing a book. I’m sure we exist to serve the characters and ideas. It is as if they wait, aloof, until we stop and stroke them…then things start purring along!
Great blog Jenny. Inspiring me to go and stroke a few ideas.
Hi Jo
Glad that my post inspires you to write. Awesome. And I love your extension of the cat analogy. Stroking ideas sounds much more enticing than herding them. 🙂
Great post Jenny. And it was fun to watch you pass the NaNo finish line. xx
Thanks Michelle & thanks for the encouragement. It was good to see you winning at NaNo the next day 🙂
There are definitely a lot of similarities between cats and authors. Both seem to be solitary creatures, given to looking askance at others, especially if they interrupt us in the middle of something important, like sleeping (in a cat’s case) or reading/writing a book (in the author’s case). I certainly plead guilty to that one! 🙂
LOL That’s a great comparison Lynne 🙂 And, yes, I hate being interrupted too 🙂
I think it’s great that you chose cats as the animals for this analogy, as others, such as dogs or sheep, would be far easier to round up. The writing life is just like trying to get a herd of cats to behave themselves. They tend to do just what they want to do. I agree that when we encourage each other in the herding of cats, it adds an element of fun. Thanks Jeanette and Adele, for this post.
As a cat lover, I loved your cat analogy. And I have to applaud your commitment and industry, Jeanette! To keep on ‘herding your cats’ in the face of everything else you have been doing is inspiring. I admit I have found it very difficult to find head space and time to write this year given the demands of spruiking my book and several needs in my family. But then, I am an extrovert- focus is an issue for me.
Thanks Rhonda. I’m a cat lover too – I love their quirky personalities and the antics they get up to.
That’s a great point about finding it hard to focus as an extrovert. And promoting your book would take up a great deal of time. Essential to do these days. I find having deadlines with bite keep me focused as I hate not achieving them but then sometimes the extra pressure can drain creativity or be a bit overwhelming. Prayer helps too.
All the best with your book Cambodian Harvest – and for your next writing project 🙂
I love that analogy Jenny and can relate to having all of those different ideas and commitments spinning off in different directions. Sometimes it’s a matter of just rounding up one of the cats and working on that. I also really like your comment about letting go of some of our plans and trusting God to direct us. It’s hard to do that sometimes, but God has the big picture and knows what’s best for our lives, including our writing journeys. And congratulations on the Tied in Pink anthology. I’ll have to have a look. Good luck with the cat wrangling in the meantime.
Thanks Nola. Yes, sometimes it is a good idea to focus on one thing and let the others go for now. I had three sort of half-thoughts for this blog that didn’t want to go anywhere but once I stopped herding the thoughts (or cats )they began to play together. I kept getting the image of putting out an empty box and waiting to see what happens. 🙂