On Becoming a Writer

At Metropolis Blue, 2010, the annual literary festival in Montreal started by Linda Leith, a round table was titled “On Becoming a Writer” and I was one of the panelists. This was my contribution to the question. Unfortunately I do not have a record of the three other who spoke, but it proved to be well attended with lots in interest and discussion:

I HAVE BEEN A WRITER MOST OF MY LIFE As I imagine most of you have also.  But that was writing to impart information, or to give directions or perhaps to elucidate some subject, as in a school essay, a report, a letter. Here today though we are considering creative fiction and non fiction writing. This kind of writing seems to imply the telling of a story I feel and this was certainly the case for me.

My book did not start out to be a book but began as the recording of events in my life while married to Goodridge Roberts. I did not want to lose the memory of particular times. I used to tell friends stories about things that had happened to us. They often said “you should write that story down.” As I describe in the preface to my book, the bones of at least  a couple of chapters began in that way rather a long time ago. We had spent many summers at our cottage in Georgian Bay and it was the custom for our friends and ourselves to write each year in a log book what had occurred and the feelings engendered by the beautiful setting, the company and the events. Thus the early pieces were a kind of extension of this custom.

The next influence for me was a couple of courses that I took in writing about my life. I found I enjoyed the actual process of writing on a computer perhaps because it was so easy to correct what was written.  My friend would say I typed my book.She found it impossible to believe I could produce a book without knowing how to “right click,cut and paste”. Be that as it may, as the years passed, I found that I was no longer fitting writing into my life but rather was fitting my life around my writing. A book was beginning to take shape. By the time I had reached my eighties I knew if I ever was going to leave the story of my life with that incredible artist, Goodridge Roberts, I had better not wait any longer. And I did not. The pace accelerated.

I was most fortunate in the friends who encouraged me and those who helped me to get it shaped into a book and then to deal with publishing matters. I was unclear whether it should be in print form or digital. Some were of the opinion that  book publishing was about to be superceded by digital presentations but I felt I wanted an actual book I could hold in my hands.

Two separate early efforts dealing with academic publishers came to nothing in the end . Although at least one of them was ready to go ahead, their conditions for doing so made me think they really wanted a different sort of book, a more academic effort, with an art history theoretical component. That was not what I had in mind , nor did I feel I had the competence to write that sort of book. Others had done that successfully. My emphasis was on the personal as our life unfolded.

My friends, Bob Tombs, painter and book designer from Ottawa and Peter Haynes, independent writer of film scripts in Montreal, came to my rescue. We decided to get together over a Sunday breakfast and brainstorm how to proceed in this unknown, murky world of publishing. The upshot was that we decided to start by each of us taking on a publishing firm where we already had some sort of contact. We would try to interest them in publishing with Bob as book designer. Both of them got results although the designer stipulation sadly did not work out because both of them said they had their own designer. The Toronto publisher was unnecessarily nasty I thought, saying “Who did I think I was, trying to exert this kind of control” or words to that effect. So I chose Vehicule Press.

I was glad to work with Vehicule especially since it was located in Montreal. I found my editor, Nancy Marelli, stimulating and helpful to work with. We got together once a week for several months and our interactions as we discussed the book were very helpful. They added to the solitary inspirations in the dead of night when often what seemed to be felicitous phrasing or germane explanations would pop into my head.

Because I had known a great many people over many years in both Toronto and Montreal we decided to launch it in both cities. Then my daughter, Glynnis, who had recently retired from her senior public service career in Ottawa offered to develop a sizable list of invitees for Ottawa and so we had a launch there as well. This wide net stimulated others who had been in my life at some time to surface and become a part of my life again which is an unexpected bonus. This is practically all I know about distribution because Vehicule contracts it out to a distributor. This has the drawback of putting another layer between the author and the reader . It is difficult to know what is happening in the wider world. What has really pleased me is learning from many different people who have contacted me how the book has touched them in a whole variety of ways depending on their own lives.

Last night we listened to an excellent panel on truth in non-fiction writing. There was much discussion on the importance of “getting the story right.” I hope I have succeeded in getting my story right.