Author, naturalist, and environmental activist, Terry Tempest Williams on writing. She says:
“I live in a very, very quiet place. I have a sequence to my creative life. In spring and fall, I am above ground and commit to community. In the summer, I’m outside. It is a time for family. And in the winter, I am underground. Home. This is when I do my work as a writer — in hibernation. I write with the bears.”
There you have it. Terry Tempest Williams on writing. I love that quote and love thinking of writing that way. A few weeks ago I started a new novel that is a huge, yet wonderful, distraction. You may have noticed that I’m not posting as often and that is why. I am obsessed with finishing the first draft and keep having fantasies of going to live in a cave (or maybe a 5-star hotel) so that I can. But this isn’t just about writing. This is about finding time to be creative. We all need those times when we hibernate from hectic life. So it may say Terry Tempest Williams on writing. But it could also be called: How to Live a Creative Life.
P.S. Happy Holidays!
P.P.S. A new book is coming out next year. You’ll be hearing about it soon.
P.S. I am an ex-shrink who writes novels. Check out my books here.
I am writing right now. I’m at 38k and hope to finish the first draft by the end of January. (I write fast!) For me, this novel is pretty exciting because it’s book #4 in the four book series that I’ve been working on for a couple of years. I’m finally telling the end of a story that will likely have spanned about 300k by the time it’s all said and done. It’s definitely been my most massive undertaking as a writer.
Hi Sonje,
Good luck with the writing! That is indeed a massive and exciting undertaking. I love giving myself deadlines. My goal is to have a polished version of my new manuscript to take to my writer’s group the first week in March.
From one of our lovely email subscribers:
“Hi Susan,
Living in Southern California I would find it difficult to write with the bears in hibernation. Actually, impossible, but the idea is so fine. Loved the quote.
I am excited that you are in the process of writing a new book. It is amazing to me that you have any idea how many words you use in writing a book. I only write a little poetry now and then so it intrigues me that you count the words. Whatever works for you Susan is great because I loved “Seeking Sara Summers” and looking forward with anticipation to reading the book you are working on. Any hints on the topic of the book?
Merry Christmas, Mary”
Hi Mary,
My mate doesn’t even know what this book is about. I’m real big on keeping them top secret until I get a first draft down. Early on in my writing career I realized that the more I talked about a project, the more energy I lost around it.
My theory is that I was already kind of releasing it into the world and so I lost some motivation to complete it. I suppose it’s pure superstition; like baseball players who wear the same pair of underwear for every game. At least, with my version, nobody has to put up with the smell!
Thanks, as always, for commenting.
I’m at 87,000 words on the fourth and final draft of Entertaining Welsey Shaw. Expect it ti be around 95,000 – 1000,000 words when I’m done. I had a scare the other day when it looked like I’d lost a huge chunk of it due to some sort of software glitch that turned part of the text into gibberish. (And it wasn’t obvious I’d lost it because the gibberish part was far up the story, not where I was writing now.) Normally I’d have copies saved on my Mac’s Time Machine backup disk, but Time Machine has broken on me. However, I did find an older version saved on another backup disk where that part was not messed up.
My next novel will be shorter, and will go faster. I keep promising myself that. As for going to a five star hotel to write, my character Daniel goes to the Hotel Chelsea to do just that in the third act. IRL they just CLOSED the Hotel Chelsea, this wonderful and wacky New York landmark. I have one more pass–not an official full draft, but some rewrites of individual scenes and nipping and tucking–where I must drop in a few more clues that this story takes place a few years in the past (without resorting to the obvious, “It’s 2008, and…”).
One thing I’d like to know is how Terry T WIlliams makes a living when he writes only in winter, and spends spring and fall hanging out in the community. Sometimes I think I’d like to found a writer’s commune. If I were a rich eccentric, I’d do it. Alas, I’m only 50 percent of the way there…
Hi John,
Terry Tempest Williams has been writing for a bunch of years and she has quite a following. I have a feeling she lives pretty simply, too. When I lived in Colorado, I went through a phase and read everything of hers I could find. (She was next door in Utah, and writes a lot about the western landscape.)
So sorry to hear about the Hotel Chelsea! I think it has a following, too. Such a landmark.
Good luck on the rewriting. I’ve noticed through the years that my writing gets faster with every book I write. In the meantime, I think we should both do our best to become rich eccentrics.
Happy Holidays!