Betsy Lowery
Regarding nonfiction, it's usually a personal experience or something I have read that provokes a response so heartfelt within me that I must respond. Sometimes, that’s a statement by someone else with which I either heartily agree or heartily disagree. That kind of inspiration frequently leads to the articles I post on WordPress at Called-Out Life.
As for fiction, here is some of what inspires me. So far, not so much experiences or the people I encounter, but:
// blank paper and empty journals!
// empty or nearly empty coffee shops or restaurants at off-peak business hours, especially if any music broadcast is soft and has NO VOCALS!
// picturesque settings like a shaded bench at Callaway Gardens, the upstairs lobby at Battle House historic hotel in downtown Mobile, Alabama, or any of the many lavishly-furnished seating areas at The Greenbrier in West Virginia.
// and - really - any quiet, uncluttered, comfortable setting to sit, stand, or WALK and concentrate. Voice recording on a mobile device makes mobile writing so convenient! I definitely include my area's beautiful public library facilities on the list of conducive places.
My only trepidation about working in any of the public settings above named is that I tend to move my lips, make funny facial expressions, and gesture with my head and hands when imagining action or selecting the one correct word! People may think I'm eccentric!
How DID I get inspired to write is easier to answer because it's a matter of past fact, not future "if/when". I have been a writer for about as long as I can remember. In and among a pogo stick and Barbie dolls for Christmas, I also requested a typewriter from my parents when around middle-school age. I sent terribly amateur anecdotes, unsuccessfully, to Reader’s Digest when I was in high school. It wasn’t until my early 20s that I got paid for a writing assignment: a children’s summer church camp quiet time devotional booklet. Occasional magazine articles within the scope of my Baptist employment followed, and, eventually, an actual nonfiction title. My manuscript for that book, Pause: Everyday Prayers for Everyday Women, was handled by an agent.
I also did break through into one genre of popular magazines in the early 1990s, contributing original puzzle formats “What’s the Difference?” and “Phone Words” to Dell (now Penny Press) magazines for more than a decade. Maybe you have seen and worked some of the word puzzles I wrote! To have grown up a frequent consumer of that very material, and then to have the opportunity to be a writer of some of it…how cool is that?!
But not all writing is for publication, of course. Using the full extent of vocabulary to ponder and to process life events has proved a coping mechanism. And I speak of processing the good events - expressing positive reactions, and gratitude - as well as the not-so-good. Are you like me in this? You walk away from a situation or a conversation and wish you’d been able to express your thoughts and feelings more eloquently, or at all. To retreat to pen and paper or to pen and journal and put it all down “the right way” can be cathartic. And, then, we have the option of sending that finished product, after the fact, to the person we wish to know our most composed thoughts on the matter.
As for fiction, here is some of what inspires me. So far, not so much experiences or the people I encounter, but:
// blank paper and empty journals!
// empty or nearly empty coffee shops or restaurants at off-peak business hours, especially if any music broadcast is soft and has NO VOCALS!
// picturesque settings like a shaded bench at Callaway Gardens, the upstairs lobby at Battle House historic hotel in downtown Mobile, Alabama, or any of the many lavishly-furnished seating areas at The Greenbrier in West Virginia.
// and - really - any quiet, uncluttered, comfortable setting to sit, stand, or WALK and concentrate. Voice recording on a mobile device makes mobile writing so convenient! I definitely include my area's beautiful public library facilities on the list of conducive places.
My only trepidation about working in any of the public settings above named is that I tend to move my lips, make funny facial expressions, and gesture with my head and hands when imagining action or selecting the one correct word! People may think I'm eccentric!
How DID I get inspired to write is easier to answer because it's a matter of past fact, not future "if/when". I have been a writer for about as long as I can remember. In and among a pogo stick and Barbie dolls for Christmas, I also requested a typewriter from my parents when around middle-school age. I sent terribly amateur anecdotes, unsuccessfully, to Reader’s Digest when I was in high school. It wasn’t until my early 20s that I got paid for a writing assignment: a children’s summer church camp quiet time devotional booklet. Occasional magazine articles within the scope of my Baptist employment followed, and, eventually, an actual nonfiction title. My manuscript for that book, Pause: Everyday Prayers for Everyday Women, was handled by an agent.
I also did break through into one genre of popular magazines in the early 1990s, contributing original puzzle formats “What’s the Difference?” and “Phone Words” to Dell (now Penny Press) magazines for more than a decade. Maybe you have seen and worked some of the word puzzles I wrote! To have grown up a frequent consumer of that very material, and then to have the opportunity to be a writer of some of it…how cool is that?!
But not all writing is for publication, of course. Using the full extent of vocabulary to ponder and to process life events has proved a coping mechanism. And I speak of processing the good events - expressing positive reactions, and gratitude - as well as the not-so-good. Are you like me in this? You walk away from a situation or a conversation and wish you’d been able to express your thoughts and feelings more eloquently, or at all. To retreat to pen and paper or to pen and journal and put it all down “the right way” can be cathartic. And, then, we have the option of sending that finished product, after the fact, to the person we wish to know our most composed thoughts on the matter.
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