Sharon Hunt's Blog
Posted by Sharon Hunt
Summer is a great time to do new things or the same things a bit differently. There’s something about sunny days that makes you feel like anything is possible.
This summer I have been creating a food blog with a friend. She is a vegetarian who makes amazing dishes with a handful of ingredients, and not a lot of time, and I’m happy in summer to make such dishes although I'm not, officially, a vegetarian. We both are passionate about food, accomplished cooks and bakers, and enjoy getting into our kitchens to create or recreate a dish for friends and family.
Sometimes our recipes work, sometimes they don’t, but we always learn something from the process and that’s the key to excelling, as a cook or a writer … always learning.
Recipes are like outlines. Both start at a logical beginning - assembling all the necessary items to create the final product. If you follow the steps, you will be rewarded with something that gives you a sense of pride in a job well-done.
When writing is not going well, I find that getting into the kitchen and creating a mess on the way to a finished dish, helps get my writing instincts going again. I suppose this is because the source of creativity – for everything from a perfect cheese omelet to a perfect short story – is the same. Creativity in one area feeds creativity in another.
Spending so much time lately in the kitchen has led me to interesting research projects – Just when and where was bread pudding first made? Why is a Strawberry Fool called a Strawberry Fool? – and triggered new ideas for food writing projects.
So, now that it’s summer, see if the sunshine and blue skies trigger new creative possibilities for you.
Posted by Sharon Hunt
Life is busy. Life is unbalanced. Life is chaotic. Life is ever-changing. All of these facts have been brought home to me again in the past few months, after a dear uncle die suddenly, other family crises occured, and I contemplated moving house again.
Certainly these facts are nothing new. They are as constant as the rising sun, but there are times in your life when life hits you like a hammer smashing into your skull. You fall, and are stunned by your inability to pick yourself up. When you do, finally, get back on your feet, you understand some other constants, as well. That life goes on and that, as a writer, one of the best ways of getting yourself going again is to write.
We are very lucky, as writers, to have this gift that we not only share with others, but which helps us get through the difficult times and to celebrate the great ones.
I recently re-read a terrific book about writing, which I’ve reviewed and placed online. It’s called Zen in the Art of Writing, by Ray Bradbury (of Fahrenheit 451 fame). If you get a chance, check out my review, and the book. It’s a keeper, and another way to pick yourself up when you are down.
Posted by Sharon Hunt
I’ll admit that I’ve often been reluctant to part with books. Although I love buying books for others, I have always balked at giving my own away.
I think I inherited this reluctance from my grandfather who had to leave school in grade 4 after his father died, and he had to work to support his mother and two sisters. Nevertheless, by the time I knew him he was a renaissance man in the breadth and width of his knowledge, all of which came from books, books that he struggled to buy, books that he kept all his life.
BookCrossing, however, might have made him reconsider his need to hold tightly to every book in his collection; it certainly has done that for me. Have you heard about BookCrossing? It’s a terrific service, an ‘abandoned book finds new owner’ club.
Here’s how it works. When you sign up as a member on the BookCrossing website, you can register a book that you want to give away. Your book gets a BookCrossing identification, which you write on the inside cover. This identifies your book to anyone who may find it as one that was intentionally left behind. You leave your unwrapped book at a local coffee shop, or somewhere that it’s likely to be found.
If the person finding the book registers his or her find on the BookCrossing site, you can track its journey. Some books have taken journeys that most freelancers can only dream of; they see the world as they are passed from reader to reader.
Posted by Sharon Hunt
Although I am not a label-conscious person – I prefer quality to fad – I do have some exceptions. I would love to play a silver Haynes flute; to write with a sleek and sophisticated Montblanc pen; and to occasionally abandon my computer for a 1970s Hermes typewriter. Perhaps some day I will. In the meantime, I satisfy myself with Moleskine® notebooks. I just can’t seem to get enough of them.
I am the first to admit that you either ‘get’ or you don’t ‘get’ the allure of Moleskines, those black-covered notebooks with elastic closures and inner pockets. I fell in love with my first one a few years ago and have remained passionately in love ever since.
At the little shop where I buy my Moleskines, the clerks love them as well. They understand my need to buy the small water colour book when, only the week before, I bought the storyboard book. And they fully concur with my need to keep adding to my cache of larger, reporter notebooks. One clerk has recently suggested that we – she, I and the other clerk – should form a Moleskine® fan club. There has always been an unofficial fan club. After all, this non-descript black notebook was once used by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Ernest Hemingway, to name but three.
I like the idea of continuity through the generations of writers and artists. When I write in my Moleskine® I imagine Van Gogh sketching in his. A very happy thought.
Posted by Sharon Hunt
Do you have a journaling partner? Have you ever had one? By ‘journaling partner’ I don’t necessarily mean someone who takes turns writing in a shared creative or working journal, although writers have had success with this type of journaling, too. Most journaling partners I know use their computers and e-mail to create electronic journal entries beneficial to them both.
A friend and I carry on such an informal process. She is a wonderful writer and writing coach. Our journaling is regular, although certainly not daily; we throw back and forth ideas for projects that we are, or would like to be, working on together. We brainstorm. We give each other leads for our individual projects. When one of us finds something – a book or an online site – which the other would enjoy or find helpful a quick journal entry is sent.
Ours is a very informal ‘journaling’ approach. We each keep our own separate daily working journals. This informal e-mail approach works well for us, but it might not work for other writers. A journaling partner might not work in any form for some writers.
Our co-journaling does not cross over into co-writing.For any projects that we do work on together, writing tasks are clearly defined. This works for us.
Read more about the benefits of creating an illustrated journal.
