Ask the Author: Clara W. Barrow
Answered Questions (7)
Clara W. Barrow
Dear Leigh,
Thank you for your question! The short answer is YES! The slightly longer, more ambiguous answer is YES, but I don't know exactly when you might expect it. Certainly this year.
Thanks,
Clara
Thank you for your question! The short answer is YES! The slightly longer, more ambiguous answer is YES, but I don't know exactly when you might expect it. Certainly this year.
Thanks,
Clara
Clara W. Barrow
This is probably not what most people say, but I respect writer's block. I think of it as a necessary hiatus for reasons that I may or may not understand at the time.
If I have a deadline, though, and it's not a good time for me to entertain that block, I'll try to ease back into things by writing something, anything, no matter how random. I'll write a letter to a friend, or answer an email, or I'll scribble down an idea for another story, or I'll journal. I'll edit what I've already written. I'll set a small goal, like writing for five minutes or producing 500 words. I'll remind myself that I've had writer's block before and it has always gone away.
If I have a deadline, though, and it's not a good time for me to entertain that block, I'll try to ease back into things by writing something, anything, no matter how random. I'll write a letter to a friend, or answer an email, or I'll scribble down an idea for another story, or I'll journal. I'll edit what I've already written. I'll set a small goal, like writing for five minutes or producing 500 words. I'll remind myself that I've had writer's block before and it has always gone away.
Clara W. Barrow
Creating. I love creating something that didn't exist before, crafting characters I care about, and dreaming up the journeys we take together.
Clara W. Barrow
Oh, wow. There's so much writing advice out there and a lot of it is contradictory. Here's what I know to be true about becoming a better writer:
Write. Write write write write write and then write some more and when you're done with that go write some more. Very little in life comes naturally and every talent needs endless practice. The more you do it, the better you get.
Write as much as you can without looking at what you've written. Let it sit, then go back and edit.
Find your own voice. No doubt it will be influenced by authors you admire, but let it be your own.
Find a story arc plan that works for you and use it. There are tons of them on the internet. It doesn't have to be the same for each story.
Read a lot, all sorts of stuff. Read about writing!
Find someone you trust to read your work and give honest feedback. This doesn't have to be an editor. In fact, find someone who is going to focus more on how the story feels than on grammatical errors and whatnot.
Find a way to write that works for you. Some people have a routine that involves a certain time of day in a particular place for a predetermined period of time. Some people write when they feel moved to do so. Some people like music in the background, some don't. There's no best way to create a writing environment, but you'll know it when you've found it.
But mostly? Write. A lot.
Write. Write write write write write and then write some more and when you're done with that go write some more. Very little in life comes naturally and every talent needs endless practice. The more you do it, the better you get.
Write as much as you can without looking at what you've written. Let it sit, then go back and edit.
Find your own voice. No doubt it will be influenced by authors you admire, but let it be your own.
Find a story arc plan that works for you and use it. There are tons of them on the internet. It doesn't have to be the same for each story.
Read a lot, all sorts of stuff. Read about writing!
Find someone you trust to read your work and give honest feedback. This doesn't have to be an editor. In fact, find someone who is going to focus more on how the story feels than on grammatical errors and whatnot.
Find a way to write that works for you. Some people have a routine that involves a certain time of day in a particular place for a predetermined period of time. Some people write when they feel moved to do so. Some people like music in the background, some don't. There's no best way to create a writing environment, but you'll know it when you've found it.
But mostly? Write. A lot.
Clara W. Barrow
I am currently in the process of editing an already-written epic tale of a gay emperor penguin who falls in love with his best friend, discovers a mythological secret, and must go on a long journey to find the answers he needs to bring equality to his species.
Clara W. Barrow
I am inspired to write when I spend time with my characters. I might be in the shower, but what are they up to? Where are they? What are they talking about? How do they feel? What was going on when I last left them and how are they going to move forward?
To really get inspired, though, sometimes I just have to sit down and start writing because no matter what I've planned for my characters, they usually have something else in mind, and I never know what that is until the words start flowing.
To really get inspired, though, sometimes I just have to sit down and start writing because no matter what I've planned for my characters, they usually have something else in mind, and I never know what that is until the words start flowing.
Clara W. Barrow
Midwesterners love holidays — all of them — and living here for the past twenty-three years has provided me with ample opportunity to observe how they’re celebrated. One autumn a couple of years ago I drove my kids an hour and a half into the country to a rural farm that was having a “Halloween fall fest.” This family-run event boasts the state’s largest corn maze and includes petting zoos, pumpkin patches, pumpkin drops (where you literally climb to the top of a wooden tower and drop a pumpkin off the top), roasted corn, hot cider, face painting, and something I’d never seen before, pig races.
As we sat in the stands and waited for the next pig race to begin I took a look around at the young men wrangling animals, selling cider, taking tickets, etc., and I wondered what it would be like to grow up on a farm like that. There’s literally nothing else around but other farms. Everyone you know would be related to farming in some way. Then I wondered what it would be like to be a gay teenager in a farming community where attitudes about gender roles and expectations tend to be fairly conservative.
I couldn’t help but wonder how it would play out if two lifelong best friends from neighboring farms fell in love with each other, but neither of them knew how the other felt. Would they hide their feelings? Would they flirt? Would they drift away? How would their family and friends receive the news if they came out together? How would growing up in the rural Midwest affect their coming out story? There, waiting for the pig race to start, the idea for this story took root, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I worked hard to accurately reflect life in this part of the world and then built the love story in that context. I also wrote a large part of it over the days leading up to, including, and after the Thanksgiving holiday and wove the traditions of the day and the feelings of "coming home for the holidays" into everything that the characters experience.
I still look at photos from that day with great fondness!
As we sat in the stands and waited for the next pig race to begin I took a look around at the young men wrangling animals, selling cider, taking tickets, etc., and I wondered what it would be like to grow up on a farm like that. There’s literally nothing else around but other farms. Everyone you know would be related to farming in some way. Then I wondered what it would be like to be a gay teenager in a farming community where attitudes about gender roles and expectations tend to be fairly conservative.
I couldn’t help but wonder how it would play out if two lifelong best friends from neighboring farms fell in love with each other, but neither of them knew how the other felt. Would they hide their feelings? Would they flirt? Would they drift away? How would their family and friends receive the news if they came out together? How would growing up in the rural Midwest affect their coming out story? There, waiting for the pig race to start, the idea for this story took root, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I worked hard to accurately reflect life in this part of the world and then built the love story in that context. I also wrote a large part of it over the days leading up to, including, and after the Thanksgiving holiday and wove the traditions of the day and the feelings of "coming home for the holidays" into everything that the characters experience.
I still look at photos from that day with great fondness!
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