Tag Archives: NaNoWriMo

Herding Cats

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JeanetteOHaganWrites250This 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.

Tied in Pink_JennyJeanette’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.

In Position

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For nearly two months now I’ve been trying to jot down blog posts, only to end up with numerous half-done pieces that seemed to be going nowhere. The background to this apparent blogging block began late in February. I was at the stage of awaiting manuscript edits and figured that in the interim, I should set myself a goal to ensure I remained productive. With visions of NaNoWriMo, I began my own personal novel writing month in March.

While plugging towards my goal word count, a submission opportunity arose with a criteria into which the in-progress manuscript fitted nicely. No more personal goal ‘just because’. I had a definite due date and I had to harness every writing chance that I could!

Now it is May. I submitted two days ago, and after a hectic few weeks at work, thought that this might warrant an evening off… Then, bing! The blog ideas started to flow!

I scribbled down thoughts, amused at how I’d had nothing for so long only for it to change in an instant. Self-reflection hinted that perhaps this could have been because my focus was needed elsewhere.

This made me think of a recent netball match I played. A member of the opposition injured their ankle, stopping play. As a current first aider, my instinct was to go to the player to assist, then run for ice. It then dawned on me that there were already people assisting and my attention was required elsewhere. There were two teams relying on me holding my position.

As the player was subbed out and play resumed, I saw that one of their off court team members had already begun applying appropriate first aid. In that instance I could have run off to get ice and assist the player, but it probably would have been a bit annoying for the other players when the umpire whistled for play to continue, only to find a WD missing. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the ability to assist – others were doing that.

I had to position myself in the place I needed to be at that time.

In life there are moments, even seasons, like this. There are numerous examples where we have to prioritise a particular role or activity over another: study; rearing young children; working a less-than-ideal job to pay the mortgage; reducing involvement in particular activities to enable more family time etc. This doesn’t mean that we can’t do other tasks; we just might be prioritising what is most important at that time. I guess it’s a little like driving a car on your side of the road. Sometimes you might get stuck behind a slow vehicle or have to navigate a windy, mountainous road. Though you could attempt to pass recklessly without appropriate caution, the wiser (and safer!) approach would be to wait until the oncoming lane, and our line of sight, is clear.

The reality is these seasons end. And as wisely observed by one of my friends, when stepping back from a particular role for a period to focus on something else, you can give others the opportunity to be involved in a position otherwise unavailable to them. Now I’ve just got to figure out how that works in the blogging application… 🙂