The Art of Contributing

I Found My People

Why do I even attend these writing intensives! I thought, chastising myself for not remembering the last few I had attended. The question should be, Why do I attend these writing intensives while editing my book? Every time I attended one offered by the Federation of British Columbia Writers (FBCW) I changed my manuscript substantially, which involved hours and hours of changes.

For six months, words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters all flowed out of me in a steady stream. I learned that a writer who writes in that way is called a pantser. A pantser is a term most commonly applied to fiction writers, especially novelists, who write their stories “by the seat of their pants.” The opposite would be a plotter, or someone who uses outlines to help plot out their novels. Writers Digest. But I’m not a fiction writer, I protested. I’m writing a self-help book.

After one Writing Intensive, I had doubts I could write a self-help book. I’m not an expert in any healing modality, nor was I working in the healing field. How could I offer legitimate advice? Was this an example of imposter syndrome? So I asked someone from my healing studies I knew for advice about what to do. She let me know, in a very frank discussion, that self-help books were a thing of the past.

Smoke poured out my ears as I wrestled with ditching the self-help concept or keeping it. In the end, I ditched it in favour of a memoir. That meant all the self-help sentences and paragraphs had to be chopped. There they were, bleeding all over the floor next to my chair, but then I read Christina Myers’ notes: “...you don’t have to be ‘good enough’ to start ... just start, learn as you go, keep growing, and getting better!” 1. That’s what the perfectionist in me needed to hear!

Another FBCW webinar featured Christina Myers’ extensive knowledge of structure, outlining, and elevator pitches. Information from seasoned writers made my head explode with ideas, which I then applied to my book. Between listening to Christina and revisiting my book, my knowledge grew to where my book made sense, but it wasn’t in the right order. This time, I cut and re-pasted substantial paragraphs and chapters. My book was coming together. Christina Myers certainly knows the art of contributing.

Then, a book with a similar title by Ann Skinner caught my attention. In her zeal to understand contribution, she devoted an entire year to exploring and writing about it daily. That’s amazing. As a writer, I write daily for 3-7 hours a day, getting up at 5:30am most days, so I know writing daily is a commitment. But it’s also my calling, my creative outlet to delve deeper into what fascinates me, and my drive to record dreams, thoughts, and recollections. It is a healing process.

Ann Skinner writes that she “believed that it is only too easy to contribute at our own expense. ... I also believed that whatever message we feel urged to share with the world, our contribution if you like, is often something that we have had to learn along the way.” 2.

Ah, yes, learning along the way. In the current Writing Intensive: Revision Quest, Michelle Barker and David Brown from The Darling Axe editing services taught me an unfamiliar word for certain sentences and paragraphs I’d chopped. I wondered about the origin of their editing company name until I listened to their presentation on point of view and voice in writing. They noted a tendency for writers to use sentences they consider wonderfully crafted without asking whether those sentences serve the story or themselves. Those are darlings.

The explanations I’d carefully written to inform the reader of something I thought they should know came across to the reader like lectures. Oh, no! Not again. This time, when I read the chapter I was editing, I knew I had to cut or rework those information dumps I had written, then scour the rest of my manuscript for the clever informative passages I'd written. That's what we call the author's voice. Think of a professor peering at you with reading glasses perched halfway down his nose.

I finally knew what The Darling Axe meant. The imagery in that name evoked vivid recollections of the carnage from those early chopping days and was a clever way of identifying themselves as editors without the word editor. In another presentation called “Save Your Darlings”, with Mark Cameron, I learned we can save our gems for future writing. No need for bloodshed.

See what I mean? So many contributors to the craft of writing showed up to enlighten and add to our growth as writers. That’s why I continue to sign up for the Writing Intensives. Yes, they’re intensive, but always delivered with care and a contributing attitude. So what if I have to go through my manuscript a fifth or sixth time. I want my book to be engaging and easy to read for readers.

By the end of an intensive, my brain is fuzzy and feels like my former firing neurons are in a bouncy castle filled with cotton balls, and I’m ridiculously happy. Happy I get to play with words in ways I hadn’t thought of before. Happy to be a writer and that my brain will return to normal functioning soon. Happy I’ve found my people and my life’s purpose.

1. Quote by Christina Myers on handout.

2. Ann Skinner, The Art of Contribution: A Companion to Living a Meaningful Life, (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017), Location 275 of 405, Kindle.