Learning the Craft of Writing Fiction

My first view of Virgil Ernest Christison's Rick Mountain Ranch in 2008.

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about writing the cattle rustling book. I started writing the book in 2007. Over the years, I’ve shared the changes on this blog – nonfiction to creative nonfiction to historical fiction.

I began writing the book as historical fiction on July 7, 2011. Yes, nine years ago. Friends and family have a hard time understanding why the book isn’t written by now. The reason? Writing historical fiction is hard. And it is a process. The facts and events had to become STORY. The people had to become characters, characters with emotion and motives.

The book I am writing now is very different from the book I was writing nine years ago. I am glad I didn’t rush it. And happy I didn’t give up.

Last November, I joined five other writers in a workshop series with Page Lambert at Mount Vernon Club in the mountains west of Denver. We met monthly for five months. COVID-19 hit in the middle of this. We had one meeting by Zoom and had our final workshop yesterday.

When I started the workshop, I thought I’d start at point A and be well on my way with a finished book by the end. Yes, my perfectionist tendencies kicked in. Instead, I shared chapter one at the first workshop, but Page suggested starting with an earlier event mentioned in the chapter. So, by the next workshop I had another chapter one. And this repeated two more workshops. I now have four new chapter ones, but really they are the first four chapters of my book.

Working backwards was not my intention when I started the workshop. But by working backwards, I gained a better understanding of the story. Events I thought I could summarize became their own scenes. And by settling into the story, new motives came to light. I now have a good, solid beginning for the book with an inciting incident that puts into motion all of the events of the story.

Page Lambert taught me how to write fiction. I’ve always been able write action scenes that gallop along. What I am not so good at is writing description and inner dialogue. Page’s workshops helped me learn how to do that with input from the other writers. I have also learned I can take a messy draft and reorganize and rewrite it. One of my biggest fears. Mostly, I have learned to trust myself as a writer. I have good instincts. I have good intuition. And, I am a good writer. Today I am reveling in this knowledge. It feels good.

My advice to those writing a book – don’t give up. Learn your craft and never, ever read your writing when you are emotionally tired.

Below are blog posts I've written about my journey of writing this book:

Ernest Christison - Cattle Rustler

Research is Done! It's Time to Write!  (And yes, I have to laugh about this 2009 post. Still finding new information 11 years later!)

Switching from Nonfiction to Fiction

Circling and Story Round-Up

Part 2 Circling and Story Round-Up 

Step Into The River

Step Into The River

Last fall, Julia Cameron was a keynote speaker at the Women Writing The West Conference in Santa Fe. I found her talk on her book, The Artist's Way, refreshing and bought the book to work through it. I made my way through the 12-week workbook, not perfectly, but open and trusting it to move me forward with writing my cattle rustling book. I appreciated finding my creativity opening like the petals of a flower, slowly and delicately.

As I found my creativity, three C's kept rising to the top - Creativity, Curiosity and Connection. These three C's drive me. When I approach life from the basis of creativity, curiosity and connection, I am open, curious and move forward in whatever I am doing. When life becomes a list of tasks watched over by a stern taskmaster, I am closed, fearful and anxious.

Applying the three C's to writing my book has helped me to write again after a couple of years of depression and writer's block. Allowing myself to be curious helps me step into the scenes. Sometimes it is being curious with the research and other times it's the simple curiosity of "What happens next?" Creativity means I can try writing it different ways, moving in and out of various points of view, seeing the manuscript as a lump of clay instead of an immobile object. Connection is the reason I am writing the book. It all started with a family connection, my great-great-uncle, but it is really a story of connections: who knows who, who did they work with, who were they friends with, who is related, who has past connections? It is also my connection to the story. What speaks to me, what draws me in, what is it that won't let me go?

Western performer, Mary Kaye, shared a video on creativity and in it she quoted her cousin, western yodeler, Kerry Christensen. When she started in the music business, he told her, "Any time you start a career in a creative profession, whether writing, music, or art, it's like stepping into a stream of moving water. You have to take the first step into the water and it's cold, it's scary, but you have to trust that the flow of that creativity is going to take you to exactly where you need to be."

When I picture stepping into the stream of moving water, of course I picture the Arkansas River in Salida. And I know that creativity, curiosity, and connection are what move me into the stream. The river is the unknown, but I trust my Creator to move me through it and trust that the flow will take me right to where I need to be and where the book needs to be.

I created the poster in the photo above, framed it in a blue frame, and set it on the shelf above my computer. It reminds me to to choose creativity, curiosity or connection in the book and to step into the river, trusting the book will end up exactly where it needs to be.