Aline Soules

Poet and Fiction Writer

Writing

Creating legend

I wish I could remember who said the following:  “Where there’s no explanation, there’s a legend.”  Whether you call it legend or story, it’s at the heart of writing.  Even if your prose or poetry appears to have little or no narrative, there’s a legend or story behind what you wrote.  Some call it experience, but it’s experience remembered and, no matter how accurate, it’s your version and may be quite different from the original event.

Classic legends come from family.  To offer a simple example, I’m named after my Great Step-Aunt Aline, who was born in the mid-1800s. I believe this is fact because her name is listed on the family tree and my mother told me that she named me after her.  So far, so good.  How Aunt Aline got her name, however, is legend and it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s entirely invention.

Supposedly, Aunt Aline’s mother was pregnant at the same time as another woman on the other side of Lochaline, where the doctor also resided.  As the doctor couldn’t be on both sides of the loch at the same time, Aline’s father was instructed to row his wife across the loch when the birth time came to ensure that both women could be attended to by the doctor.  When Aline’s father finally got around to rowing his wife across the loch, he was too late.  She gave birth in the bottom of the boat.  Infuriated, she named their daughter Aline in order to ensure that he never forgot (as if he could).
Legend?  Fact?  Fiction?  Who knows?  But it’s a great story.

[Photo courtesy of https://www.airbnb.co.uk/s/Lochaline] 

Traveling and Keeping Up with Writing

I recently returned from a fabulous trip to Ireland and England.  I didn’t manage to get to Scotland (land of my birth), but maybe next time.  Our group of teachers and librarians focused on literature—children’s literature in particular—although we managed to take in other literary spots along the way.  The group, known as Nye Travelers, not only “does the sights,” but talks to children’s authors and illustrators about their work.  So fabulous.

We visited so many wonderful places and were “going” from morning to night.  Many of us shared rooms, meaning very little or no time alone during the day.  At night, we fell in our beds, exhausted in a good way.  It was an amazing journey.

Summer may be the time for rejuvenation and new experiences, but, as a writer, I need to “keep going” with that, too.  My solution was to take a pile of needed edits with me.  As the day began or ended, I found a few minutes alone to work on an edit or two when there was no way I’d find a block of time to write.  It was a great way to keep my work front and center, even as I filled my head with new thoughts, experiences, and sights.  I came home with my work still active in my head and was able to go back to my usual writing routine with hardly a hitch.  In fact, coming back meant coming west, with jet lag making me wake at 3 am for several days.  I simply got up and wrote earlier than usual—a bonus.

[Photo:  I took this in the Lake District, England]

Writing Rites and Rights

Today, my daughter-in-law ends her maternity leave and goes back to work.  Her official work is in a workplace outside the home, although she brings home plenty of work, too.  To support my addiction to writing, I made sure I had “a job” outside the home as well and have done that all my life–kid in day care, separation anxiety, and all of that as my kid grew up.

For many writers, writing at home is where it’s at, and you can read many articles about the right “place” to work, how it should be configured, what time(s) of day are best for writing, but the question remains:  what to do with the kid(s)?

I read or hear about women who wait for their kids to be in bed to find some time to write.  That’s dedication.  Especially when the kids are little, Mom needs to sleep when the kids sleep, if she can.  Otherwise, exhaustion wins.  Writing late at night, early in the morning, when the kids are napping–if you’re a Mom who does that, I admire you.  I could never do it, or, perhaps I should say, I could never do it well.  I’ve been known to fall asleep over my computer keyboard.  Now there’s a facial imprint.  Fortunately, it fades and your face goes back to normal.

What we need is proper support for working parents (yes, Dads, too), whether they work in a workplace or at home.  Few writing Moms can afford day care to enable them to return home to write.  Income, if any, is generally minimal at best.  Yet, in what is still the richest country in the world, social support for child care is sorely lacking.  The feminist movement of the late 60s and early 70s was unable to secure ERA or federally-funded child care or any of the social needs of the bulk of the populace.

When will we wake up and realize that social services are not a bad intervention of our government, but exactly what governments are in place to do–provide the best possible options for the majority of citizens they presumably serve?

This question may sound far away from the writing life, but it could be at the core of a writer’s life and enable some talented writer somewhere to complete a work that changes our lives.

What’s in a Preposition?

I was born in Scotland and received my grammar and composition grounding in primary school (grades 1-7) in the 1950s.  We were grilled and drilled in the way our language went together and were taught “right and wrong” ways of expressing ourselves.  Later, I moved to Canada, where I completed high school and discovered that the language skills I’d been taught in Scotland were rich and deep, and that I was blessed to understand English in a way my fellow high school students and subsequent university classmates didn’t fully understand.  Even later, after I moved to the U.S., I discovered my language skills were even further ahead of most of my fellow university students.  I’ve also been blessed with six years of Latin training, one of the best ways to understand our complex English tongue.

Throughout that time, I continued to think of language as having rights and wrongs.  While this attitude and approach still has merit, I am also aware of subtle differences among the three countries where I’ve lived for extensive numbers of years and that what constitutes right and wrong reveals some slippery slopes.  For example, in the U.K., I was taught “different from.”  A is different from B.  That’s right; every other construction is wrong.  In Canada, I heard “different from” and “different than,” and no teacher bothered to correct it.  In the U.S., I discovered that the common expression is “different than.”  So, not an error necessarily.  A is different than B.

Recently, I conversed with an Australian teacher who used “different to.”  A is different to B.  This sounded strange to me, but I’ve grown schizophrenic enough about language to realize that this is a simply a slightly different evolution of the English language as it wended its way across the Pacific.
While there are still many “errors” in grammar I see in student papers (subject-verb agreement, anyone?), I’ve grown more tolerant of slight variations (Oxford comma, yes or no?).   I have also learned that language evolves (e.g., whom having been discarded by the Oxford dictionary as now obsolete or, at least, on its way out, not to mention the last vestiges of the subjunctive).  I won’t even start on “lay” and “lie,” which are still very clearly different verbs.  Such changes may sound strange and “wrong” to my ears, but the next generation will think them just fine and, in the end, it will be up to me to adjust.

Grammar, etymology, punctuation, usage—all fascinate me and I deeply enjoy pursuing my native language in all its nuances, which I consider important.  I hope you do, too.   As a parting shot for this blog post, in case you think I’m splitting hairs, I refer you to a newspaper article from March 16 of this year:  Lack of Oxford Comma Could Cost Maine Company Millions in Overtime Dispute  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/us/oxford-comma-lawsuit.html?_r=0

Writing and the "T" word

No, not T—-, but Time.  Periodically, I go back to something I heard from Elmore Leonard at a conference, namely, “You either want to write or you don’t.”  Leonard was somewhat irascible at times, but, in my experience, he hit the nail on the head and didn’t mince words.

I meet many people who want to write (someday), have been writing/re-writing/re-writing chapter 1 of a novel for years, wish they had time to write, or talk about writing someday.  In the end, the question comes down to Leonard’s question, perhaps with the added possibility of “do you want to write or do you want to ‘have written’,” i.e., see your name in print.

One of the strange things about time to write is that the more you have time, the easier it is to put off writing (and, probably, other things as well).  When I have a super busy day, I find 15-20 minutes to write, no matter what.  On days when I have a less hectic schedule, I sometimes find myself at the end of that day realizing that I haven’t put fingers to keyboard yet.  That means I sit up late doing just that because I didn’t get to it earlier.

While it’s true that some days get away from you, no matter what, I am insistent that I write something at least six days out of seven.  No one thinks anyone can be a great pianist if s/he doesn’t practice every day, but, somehow, we assume we can defer writing and it’ll be just fine, even great, if we haven’t done it for weeks.  Crazy thinking.  We must practice our art and craft just as much as those in other chosen endeavors.

One of the great things about a blog is that you can use it as a jumping off point.  I’ve been struggling with a couple of my writing projects, but having written this little blog post, an idea has just come into my head for one of them and that’s what I plan to write next—before it slips away from me.
So, pick up your pen and join me.