EMBERS - The Process
A self-published novel by j.m. bridgeman, EMBERS is the story of a few days in the life of Wyn McBride, a mature female artist who loves her career, her friends, her home, homes, in British Columbia, Canada. An opportunity to visit Ireland for the first time changes Wyn forever.
In this blog, EMBERSjmb.blogspot.ca/ I relive and share the process of writing the novel.
EMBERS took me about three years to write. I started it shortly after my return from my third visit to England, Scotland, and Ireland in 2013. I finished a fast first draft around the time of Seamus Heaney's death in 2013 and the final revision the month Leonard Cohen died in 2016. Somehow these two losses seemed to spur me to polish and to launch. Both poets speak to me about the importance of place, identity, and being fully human. I also heard the words of an old favourite, D.H. Lawrence, who insists that "you can put anything you want into a novel." And the silent encouragement of the Canadian mother of writers, Margaret Laurence, to "just do it."
Of course, we "do it" because writing gives us pleasure. It is only later that we consider whether it is possible our writing may give others pleasure as well. Dom Spiro Spero. While I breathe, I hope.
I went looking for inspirational quotations about the writing process. I found some I like, but not yet the definitive. The quest continues. In the meantime:
"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else." Gloria Steinem
“Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper.”
Ray Bradbury
“Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”
Ray Bradbury
"Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself."
Truman Capote
A self-published novel by j.m. bridgeman, EMBERS is the story of a few days in the life of Wyn McBride, a mature female artist who loves her career, her friends, her home, homes, in British Columbia, Canada. An opportunity to visit Ireland for the first time changes Wyn forever.
In this blog, EMBERSjmb.blogspot.ca/ I relive and share the process of writing the novel.
EMBERS took me about three years to write. I started it shortly after my return from my third visit to England, Scotland, and Ireland in 2013. I finished a fast first draft around the time of Seamus Heaney's death in 2013 and the final revision the month Leonard Cohen died in 2016. Somehow these two losses seemed to spur me to polish and to launch. Both poets speak to me about the importance of place, identity, and being fully human. I also heard the words of an old favourite, D.H. Lawrence, who insists that "you can put anything you want into a novel." And the silent encouragement of the Canadian mother of writers, Margaret Laurence, to "just do it."
Of course, we "do it" because writing gives us pleasure. It is only later that we consider whether it is possible our writing may give others pleasure as well. Dom Spiro Spero. While I breathe, I hope.
I went looking for inspirational quotations about the writing process. I found some I like, but not yet the definitive. The quest continues. In the meantime:
"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else." Gloria Steinem
“Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper.”
Ray Bradbury
“Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”
Ray Bradbury
"Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself."
Truman Capote
"If it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts." Leo Tolstoy, as cited in Common Ground
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