Artist Statement

I applied for something this week that required an artist statement:

I write, mostly fiction, from a visceral and unstoppable need to collect and shape the fragments of memory, both light and dark, floating around in my consciousness. I take pleasure in expressing, embellishing, arranging, rearranging, sculpting, and honing these memories and thoughts down to some kind of truth. I am inspired by all the stories and characters emerging from my 51 years on this planet, my roles as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend. I am very much a people person, so people, relationships and the joys and losses they have carved in my heart and soul, are the source of my creativity. 

 Although my inspiration is wild and organic in its origin, the foundation of my completed stories is all about a discipline I have developed and practiced over the years.  I find my writing process is a great metaphor for all of life: work a little bit every day, push through, keep sharpening, take time away, refresh your screen, incorporate others’ viewpoints, believe in your work. 

 Process: I get an idea while running or in the shower or from a prompt or a call for submission. I make an outline and begin chipping away on the rough draft, a little bit each morning (For inspiration, I repeat a quote to myself I read in a magazine many years ago, “The first thing you do every day gets done.”) I force myself to keep going even if I think what I am writing is terrible. When I get to the end of the draft, I go through and start the long, maybe endless, editing process: fixing, filling, deleting, rearranging. Then I print it out and reread it, making annotations with pen or pencil. I might do this once or twice before sending to my writing partner. She will either tell me to rewrite parts or she will do a more detailed edit. At a certain point, I will feel it’s time to let it go, so I send out to several places. Of course I am hoping for an acceptance, and sometimes that happens (though never on the first round of send-outs) but, because rejection is more probable, I hope for a positive rejection, meaning it gets rejected, but the editors say something positive or give ideas for editing. After rejection, I reread, make sure I still like the story, put in changes, and send it out again. I do this over and over, until the piece finds a home. The time away from the manuscript while it’s out in the world gives me a new perspective when it returns. 

 I find immense joy in the hope of revision and the satisfaction of improving. I will continue creating the stories I see in my past and present. I want to keep practicing and growing as a writer. I want to get the words right for myself so that they might say something of value to someone else.