finding your writing springboard

From editor Malcolm Cowley's introduction to
Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews
The Viking Press, 1959

"Apparently the hardest problem for almost any writer, whatever his medium, is getting to work in the morining (or in the afternoon, if he is a late riser like Styron, or even at night). Thornton Wilder says, 'Many writers have told me that they have built up mnemonic devices to start them off on each day's writing task. Hemingway once told me he sharpened twenty pencils; Willa Cather that she read a passage from the Bible -- not from piety, she was quick to add, but to get in touch with fine prose; she also regretted that she had formed this habit, for the prose rhythms of 1611 were not those she was in search of. My spring-board has always been long walks.' Those long walks alone are a fairly common device; Thomas Wolfe would sometimes roam through the streets of Brooklyn all night. Reading from the Bible before writing is a much less common practice, and, in spite of Miss Cather's disclaimer, I suspect that it did involve a touch of piety. Dependent for success on forces partly beyond his control, an author may try to propitiate the unknown powers. I knew one novelist, an agnostic, who said he often got down on his knees and started the working day with prayer."

I haven't tried prayer. Maybe I should. What seems to work for me, as my springboard for writing, is reading interviews by writers on writing or finding words of inspiration from writers and those who love the writing life. I think it's that I need to feel both hopeful and empowered. I need to be reassured that producing work, even when it's not what I feel is my best effort, is better than not producing at all.

Teacher and novelist John Gardner writes about how every writer, no matter how many writing courses and workshops taken, no matter how many critique groups attended, is, in the end, on his or her own. Finding your way as a writer is partly about finding your springboard: that walk, that moment of prayer or meditation, that inspirational passage powerful enough to launch you into your working day.

What is your springboard for writing or other creative task?

Novel Writing: Choosing a Method that Works Best for You by Margo L. Dill

Novel Writing: Choosing a Method that Works Best for You by Margo L. Dill

Quick and easy article by Margo L. Dill on methods for novel writing.


I've plotted out the entire book using index cards. Each color index cards represents a different type of scene. Red cards indicate major plot point scenes, purple cards represent scenes that preview the plot point scenes and heighten tension and suspense, while green index cards are scenes that move the story along to the next major plot point and provide relevant information. Blue cards are shorter scenes that focus on character development and setting, and yellow cards are contrasting scenes that depict how the characters' lives could be if they could have what they want, a glimpse of a happy life were it not for the conflict.

I've tried outlines, sticky notes, plot snake charts, chapter summaries, flow charts. I think I've hit upon a method that works for my visual learning style and allows me to rearrange scenes easily and remove or add scenes quickly to see how each effects the structure of the novel as a whole.

A friend that used to work in grocery store sales and marketing calls it my novel "plan-a-gram," after the corporate plan-a-gram charts she was made to follow for product displays. Hey, it works for me. My only complaint now is I can't use my dining table until I finish writing the book.