Writing Process Blog Tour

Today I post as part of the Writing Process Blog Tour. I chose this blog , one of my three, because it is the place where most of my life observation musings are akin to the questions we are to answer as part of this Tour. Many thanks to Donna Miscolta whose post can be found http://phdincreativewriting.wordpress.com/2014/07/31/my-writing-process-blog-tour/
for tagging me. On to the questions:
WHAT AM I WORKING ON?

Writing, for me, began as an outlet, a pressure vent as 'twere when I was a teen. It progressed to a means of keeping track of things, events, emotions, relationships. English teachers gave me feedback that was affirming. I wasn't connected to that. I couldn't objectify the act of writing, I just did it. That period morphed into opportunities for creativity and prophetic moments about social and theological injustices- observations and statements. During that time I acquired, quite by happenstance, a space for a regular column I entitled "Positively Speaking" in the local newspaper for our little Island.

Very late in life I happened into a program called EDGE sponsored by the Artist's Trust in Seattle. There I discovered my people. They were called writers. The idea of sharing my work and marketing my work became more real and viable. That is what I am working on today. Finally, I am accepting the definition others have placed on me and am trying to move from writing/teaching to author/speaker.

My regular column in the Vashon Loop has my primary focus. I've been pumping out 800-1000 words every two weeks year 'round for over ten years now. I keep thinking 'Oh, this will be the issue it all runs dry", and then suddenly there are words on the page about a whole new topic and new thoughts.

This year I'm culling the pieces I believe to be the strongest to share and putting them in a book called, "Love, Deborah" which is how I sign each essay.

Other projects are in various stages from research to 'send it out again'. Most important right now is that brave new world, for a boomer woman like me, of cyberspace presence. Developing the text and substance of my website and a cyberspace presence is paramount...and strange, to me.

HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF IT'S GENRE?

I have a broad based mixed genre platform. You know those croans and elders who sit at the city gates and just spout off about stuff and tell great stories that seem like history and parable at the same time? That's me. Expounding and narrating is the core of my platform.  All of my work, from children's literature to memoire, poetry to fiction, plays and screenplays, music and musicals, sacred or secular, has pieces of both my journey and my legacy interwoven in their content and purpose. I don't write for the market, I market what I write.

WHY DO YOU WRITE WHAT YOU DO?
My primary and core character trait is 'encourager'. I've been given the gift of Hope. I'm mulch not top soil; an earthworm, not beauty bark. It's very counter culture.

Secondly, I'm a prophetess. I can see the strength in authenticity and dare to say anything that is not love is evil, or lost. Who I am and what I've experienced dictate what I write.

Lastly, my creative side enjoys experimenting with form and presentation. ie- If I arrange the words like this...

HOW DOES YOUR WRITING PROCESS WORK?
Stewing and longhand are my two essential tools. They begin the process. They are foundational activities for me.

While I'm mulling things over, I watch movies, read, go out to coffee with friends, knit, work on another project, all the while running a parallel conversation about an idea or perception or declaration.

When it feels ready to come off the backburner, I write in longhand in spiral bound notebooks, in pencil. If searching out factoids and geography is necessary, then let there be index cards! 4x6 's.

Brain science research show the connection between writing longhand and creativity is essential. I rarely sit down to the keyboard first. I type the longhand draft. Sometimes it looks the same as what I've written. Sometimes it doesn't. The rest you know: edit, revise, repeat...endlessly.

One new experience for me this past year has been working collaboratively with an illustrator. I am eager for those results to come together. It has engaged me with my work in a completely different relationship.

WHO I'VE TAGGED: Next up to post at their own sites next Wednesday 20th August 2014 are:
Himanee Gupta-Carlson
Jennifer Birney
and
Karen Guttowsky-Zimmerman