Getting the Right Blank Page

This week we have another fantastic post on "Getting Started."  Read on as Jackie Briggs Martin*, prolific picture book author and Hamline professor extraordinaire, gives you her advice on what to do once you're ready to start your next big project.

This month’s Inkpot topic is “getting started,” facing the blank page. I’m taking this to mean what you do when you have no unfinished writing projects to work on and not the blank page of the next chapter. I feel as if I should have a list—“10 keys to filling the blank page”—but I don’t. I never have. I just wander around at the beginning, kind of like exploring a new patch of prairie, see what’s there, what might grow, what might be beautiful. So I can’t share answers here, just a few thoughts.

A blank page begins with a notebook, at least for me—a new notebook. And the kind of notebook I have is very important. I can’t imagine writing a new story in just any notebook. I want a notebook with the right colored cover, with ¼” graph lines on ivory paper. I don’t know why this is important but it is. And so is the writing instrument. Rolling Ball V pens or pencils go directly to my brain. Pens from the gas station don’t work. My muse is particular.

So getting the right blank page is the first requirement. Then, even at the beginning, the page is not really blank. We all have some little story idea tapping us on the shoulder, maybe not formed, just an urge, but something we want to explore. Whether we keep an actual file of story ideas, or interesting articles or just let them simmer in that unconscious part of our brains until we have time and/or inclination to develop them, something is there. So when the page looks blank, maybe we should just write something, anything—as Phyllis Root says it’s all play. Just write what our brains tell us to write. Then write some more. Let a character stroll on to the page and off again. Be goofy. It’s all play. I heard Minnesota poet Michael Dennis Browne talk about beginnings once. And he said that beginnings are like auditions for ideas. And we should welcome all the ideas we have onto the stage. I find it useful to write all over the page, at all angles, against all those prescribed graph paper lines. It somehow gives me permission to be whimsical.

The next problem can be which one of those clamoring ideas gets picked. Sometimes it’s easy. One is just more compelling, more demanding. Sometimes it’s not. They all seem to speak at equal volume. What to do? Wait. One will emerge. Or just start. Just pick. We can always put it aside.

Once I have chosen the topic, or the topic has chosen me, I have to get into a new world, the world where that story could take place. And that is true whether it is fiction or non-fiction. I have to do research, find out where the grass grows, what the people in this world do for fun, what games they play, what their shoes look like, what they do when it rains. Sometimes this involves actual looking things up. Sometimes just brainstorming lists and charts, weather reports and relationships.  As I do this research, story ideas accrue on the page and it’s no longer blank in any way but a busy carpet that takes me into the story.

Thanks Jackie for a great take on starting our stories.  If you're looking for more tips, be sure to check out Claire Rudolf Murphy's post, Research – How to Start, When to Stop, What to Do With It, for more insight into starting work on your next project.

*Jacqueline Briggs Martin is the author of over a dozen picture books for children. She is best known for Snowflake Bentley, which received a Caldecott medal in 1999. The Chiru of High Tibet, published in 2010, was named to Smithsonian Magazine’s and Kirkus Review’s “Best Book of 2010” lists and selected for the 2011 list of “Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12” by the National Science Teachers Association and the Children’s Book Council.  To learn more, visit her faculty profile at Hamline University or her author website.

Meet the Grad: Katie Kunz

July 19, 2015, on the final day of the upcoming residency, the MFAC program will have a Graduate Recognition ceremony to honor the men and women who have just completed their studies and will receive an MFA from Hamline University. Between now and residency we'll be posting interviews with the grads. Katie (Katherine) Kunz is today's grad; she lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

What do you do when you’re not working on packets?
I’m a high school English teacher, so that takes up a lot of my time. When I do have free time, I spend it with the people, stories, and dogs I love.

How did you hear about the Hamline MFAC Program?
On the Internet. Like a little squirrel, the ad just kept popping up; kept running around in my head. I gave it a lot of thought, met with Mary [Rockcastle], and sat on it. Then, in the middle of subbing for an unruly eighth grade class, two days before the May application deadline, the ad popped up again. And I thought, “You know what? That little squirrel is pretty awesome.”

What was your writing experience prior to entering the program?
I started a comic about a boy named Stuart the summer before 6th grade. At 17 I made the decision I wanted to be a writer, and I practiced the rest of high school. Then I took undergraduate courses in creative writing at the University of MN. After teaching and trying to write in NYC for three years, I moved home to Minneapolis. Here I took a class at The Loft Literary Center and wrote two picture books. (I just found one this spring. It’s awful! Ha!) Three years ago I wrote a middle grade novel. After that was done, that little squirrel popped up.

What do especially remember about your first residency?
I remember feeling very out of place. Feeling a bit like a fraud, like I got in as a charity case or something. Everyone was brilliant and confident. I was not; I am not. But I did feel like I found a very special place in Hamline by the end of that residency. I also battled at bit of homesickness, which is ridiculous because I live about 10 miles from campus and stay at home. After graduation I expect I’ll suffer from MFAC-sickness.

Have you focused on any one form (PB, novel, nonfiction; graphic novel) or age group in your writing? Tried a form you never thought you’d try?
I came in with that middle grade novel I had written in 2012 and revised that in my first semester. I also started a graphic novel—which I never thought I would do. In my second semester I wrote the draft of a second middle grade novel, this one for the younger set in that audience. I started a third middle grade novel in my third semester. This, my final semester, I revised and revised and revised and revised one more time (thank you, Jackie) my second middle grade novel. I also drafted four picture books and revised and revised and revised two of those.

Tell us about your Creative Thesis.
It is a story of a nine-year old New Yorker named Moon who struggles with chronic pain and lonesomeness due to an undiagnosed blood disorder. She forms an unlikely friendship with a rambunctious pony she names Cheese, and when their friendship is threatened, she discovers who she is and what she can do. She gets help along the way from a pair of Adidas shoes, a wise, Chinese boy named Sying, a dragon kite, an iPad, and a chicken named Banana Cake. I also wrote a picture book about little girl named Ruby who believes in her super-ness, and another picture book with an embedded nursery rhyme about a little girl, Greta, who builds a moat to protect the animals in her kingdom from an evil witch.

What changes have you seen in your writing during your studies?
There are so many! For example, now I can see craft elements in my stories more clearly and analyze them for intention. Before I just ran with the feelings I had. Now I am more objective. Although my feelings are valid, I know if I can’t justify why something is necessary—despite my undying love for it—I let it go. I also understand my own process much better. I get the importance of a finishing a shitty rough draft, however embarrassing it may be. Until my third semester I didn’t know if I could revise, either. But I guess I can. So that’s new. Finally, en medias res, running your character up a tree then bringing on the storm, and plotting (arcs, scenes/summary, acts, chapters, etc.) were also critical lessons that have helped cause change in my writing.

Any thoughts for entering students or for people considering the program?
I have a few. Yes, it may be a chunk of change. Yes, it may be time-consuming. And, yes, you will more likely than not cry, especially at residency. But let me ask you this: How much more does it cost to defer a dream? What better way to spend your time than with an art you love and believe in? And aren’t tears—happy tears, nervous tears, proud tears, grateful tears, the myriad types of tears you shed being part of the Hamline MFAC program—an unabashed reminder of the importance and the joy of writing our hearts out for our children?   

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The public is welcome to attend the graduate recognition ceremony on Sunday, July 19, 3:30pm, (Sundin Music Hall, Hamline University). Tim Federle is the speaker.

Meet the Grad: Tashi Saheb-Ettaba

July 19, 2015, on the final day of the upcoming residency, the MFAC program will have a Graduate Recognition ceremony to honor the men and women who have just completed their studies and will receive an MFA from Hamline University. Between now and residency we'll be posting interviews with the grads. Tashi Saheb-Ettaba is today's grad; she lives in Tucson, Arizona and can be found on Twitter @Seras_Ouka.

What do you do when you’re not working on packets?

I’m a Trailing Docs Coordinator at Nova Home Loans. I work out at a local gym called Steps Dance and Fitness. I love reading. Hmm, what else do I do? I paint, play video games, make costumes, dance, have weird conversations with my co-workers, snuggle with my cats, and play Rock Band with my friends. Sometimes, I burst into a song for no reason whatsoever. Currently, I’m learning to play the guitar.

How did you hear about the Hamline MFAC Program?

In 2012, I saw an ad in the Poets and Writers magazine. Ever since I saw that ad, Hamline kept popping up. I saw the ad again in the next issue of Poets and Writers. One day, I overheard a conversation about Hamline at a coffee shop. When I came across Anne Ursu’s Breadcrumbs, Hamline was mentioned in her bio snippet. When I finally visited the website, I was intrigued with the program. I was going through a difficult moment at the time and Hamline was my beacon of hope. When the New Year came around, I decided to give this program a shot.

It was as if I was following the breadcrumbs to a magical place.

What was your writing experience prior to entering the program?

I made up stories in my head, but I never wrote them down. When I was ten, I kept a diary about my travels. When I was sixteen, I wrote a story about a girl who went on an adventure with pirates. Throughout high school, I wrote a lot of stories about pirates and dragons. (To all my high school friends, if you’re reading this, I’m so sorry you had to read those horrible stories!) Throughout college, I experimented with horror, magic realism, and fairy tale retellings.

What do especially remember about your first residency?

I remember being nervous. I was worried about not fitting in and had so much self-doubt. At one point, I even thought I didn’t deserve to be there with all these talented writers. After talking to the faculty and classmates, all my fears vanished. I felt comfortable and didn’t feel like I had to hide my true self.

Oh yeah, I also remember chasing OJ down the dorm hallway because he threw water at me!

Tashi also enjoys doodling cats.

Have you focused on any one form (PB, novel, nonfiction; graphic novel) or age group in your writing? Tried a form you never thought you’d try?

I wrote a lot of novels and short stories before coming to this program. Last summer, I took Gene Yang’s Writing Comics Workshop. It was an insightful workshop and I realized some of my short stories worked better as graphic novels. During my third semester, Jackie Briggs Martin encouraged me to write picture books, and it was a fantastic experience.

Tell us about your Creative Thesis.

My creative thesis is called Angels and Trains. It’s a magic realism middle-grade novel about confrontation with death. Celeste finds out she’s diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma and is overwhelmed with her drastic lifestyle changes involving hospital visits and chemotherapy. To make matters worse, she can’t stop hearing the phantom train.

In a small town called Mittelteil, there’s a haunting legend about a phantom train. Legend claims that the phantom train will come to those who are dying.

During the chaos, she meets Micah, a mysterious boy who is connected to the train. He calls himself a Guardian, who will comfort her before they board the train together. Celeste is upset by Micah’s presence and wants to defeat death.

Overall, the novel is really about life, death, love, flying, and rock and roll.

What changes have you seen in your writing during your studies?

I used to struggle with character development. I would focus solely on the plot, but didn’t apply the character’s desires and emotions to the story. My characters were either flat or not relatable at all. Other times, I couldn’t even figure out what my character is supposed to learn by the end of the story. Thanks to the lectures, I learned a lot about character traits, flaws, desires, and psychic distance.

Nowadays, I pay attention to my characters and their needs. A character always has a story to tell.

Any thoughts for entering students or for people considering the program?

Okay, here’s what you do. Visit the MFAC Program website, read it, and place your hand over your heart. Is your heart beating so fast that you can’t help but feel giddy? Do you feel like you could fly as you picture yourself being surrounded by kind and talented students? Are you smiling as you think of your stories coming to life?

Did you feel all these things?

Good. That means you’re meant to be here.

It’s okay to be scared at first. I remember being terrified when I first entered the program, but now, I don’t have any fears holding me back.

And neither will you.

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The public is welcome to attend the graduate recognition ceremony on Sunday, July19, 3:30pm, (Sundin Music Hall, Hamline University). Tim Federle is the speaker. 

Meet the Grad: Donna Jones Koppelman

July 19, 2015, on the final day of the upcoming residency, the MFAC program will have a Graduate Recognition ceremony to honor the men and women who have just completed their studies and will receive an MFA from Hamline University. Between now and residency we'll be posting interviews with the grads. Donna Jones Koppelman is today's grad; she lives in North Carolina and can be found writing and chatting at these places: www.donnakoppelman.blogspot.com; facebook.com/donna.koppelman; @koppelmom (Twitter).

What do you do when you’re not working on packets?

I have four children aged 19-12, two dogs, a three-legged cat, and a husband, so I am plenty busy when I’m not doing packets. I watch a lot of football games, track meets, tennis matches, soccer games, plays and band concerts. I serve on the board at our local library, I am a vestry member at our church, I sing in a praise band at church, and I am active in our small community. I also do school visits to talk about writing and teach writing to students, and I lead staff development at schools to teach teachers how to teach writing more effectively. My research when I pursued a Reading Specialist at UNC focused on the relationship between teacher confidence in their own writing and their ability to teach writing. At one school, I helped kick off a “Drop Everything and Write” campaign that even involved the bus drivers. Those stories were the BEST!

How did you hear about the Hamline MFAC Program?

I had a number of friends who attended the program in Vermont. I was impressed with the program (and all my friends!), but when I heard about Hamline, I suspected it may be smaller and more personal. I also wanted to work on nonfiction, and Hamline’s program had the amazing Jackie Briggs Martin; I had long been a fan of Snowflake Bentley, and I was a huge fan of Gary Schmidt’s work. I also hoped the Hamline program might offer a cultural experience of being in Minnesota every January.

What was your writing experience prior to entering the program?

Growing up, I wrote all the time. I wrote stories, poems, notes in class (before texting), and especially music lyrics. Prior to entering the program, I had written for educational journals, newspaper and magazine markets, and worked daily on picture books and novels. I had also kept a blog for several years. Once I had a good daily writing routine for a few years and read all the craft books I could find, I knew I needed a program to take me to the next level. 

What do especially remember about your first residency?

 My first residency, I arrived late at night. Two young [Hamline undergraduate] students were making out on the front stoop of the dorm, blocking the door, and I had to tap the girl on the shoulder to get in the building. Then, my dorm room smelled so awful. I could hardly breathe. I walked to a 24 hour gas station in the middle of the night trying to find Febreze or Lysol. I remember thinking, “I am way too old to be staying in a dorm room that smells like vomit.” I thought maybe I had made a huge mistake. The next day, dear Mike Petry, a returning student who knew the ropes, helped me spray my room from end to end which we continued to do every day for the rest of the residency. I also remember how special it was to see my old friend, Miriam Busch, again. We had participated in a children’s writing program at Chautauqua together a few years prior. Most of all, I fell completely in love with my classmates, my professors, and the whole program. I wrote my husband letters daily about how much I loved the program and how grateful I was to be there. I saved them to read aloud when I am a keynote speaker at a big conference one day. I kept them to remember how Hamline MFAC changed my life. 

Have you focused on any one form (PB, novel, nonfiction; graphic novel) or age group in your writing? Tried a form you never thought you’d try?

I have worked on nonfiction picture books, rhyming picture books, non rhyming picture books, and a middle grade novel. I loved my work on the critical thesis, and if I could find a way to do more research and then teaching about my findings, I would be in heaven. I would love to be a professor in a low-residency program like this one. One goal I had for this program that I have not met is to figure out what genre is my strongest. Perhaps trying so many things kept me from getting very good at any one thing! However, I definitely have a foundation to push forward in many directions.

Tell us about your Creative Thesis.

For my creative thesis, I wrote a middle grade novel about a young girl prying into family secrets. It is set in Georgia in the early 1970s and involves divorce, racial issues, Vietnam, family relationships, spiritual exploration, and even a little Betty Friedan. I began this novel on Jane’s suggestion, and it grew out of a childhood memory I wrote for her about stealing blackberries with my cousin at the end of my first semester. I kept writing the novel on my own during the other semesters between packets, etc. Then, this semester, Jane challenged me to put it down and write it over from scratch without looking at it. The thought terrified me, but I knew if I didn’t do it now, I would never do it. (Haven’t we all walked over hot coals for Jane?) The process amazed and astounded me, and I would highly recommend it. From then on, if a scene didn’t work, I didn’t try to fix it, I started over. What a difference! I love this story, and the rich culture of the time period and physical setting of a Georgia summer. Much of the story takes place within the branches of a huge Magnolia tree which is where I spent many summer days myself. 

What changes have you seen in your writing during your studies?

At first, I avoided the hot stove so much that I hardly knew how to find it. Working with Jane my first semester was the best thing I could have done, but that semester was emotionally tough. I revisited a lot of difficult issues in my childhood memories, but they opened the door to a wealth of writing material and a great personal sense of peace. 

I have finally, mostly, learned to only put one space after a period. For the record, I hate that rule. (and you may not be surprised that I also support the Oxford Comma) I loved From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler. It’s a little “out there”, as Jane would say, but learning about the relationship between my dreams and my writing life changed my writing routine dramatically. I have learned how to follow and control my own mind’s rhythm and patterns in order to yield the most productive writing time. 

Any thoughts for entering students or for people considering the program?

This program is life-changing, but be prepared to go all in. Clear your schedule. Minimize your expenses. Live simply. Have a sit down with your children. Give yourself two years to write like a maniac and devote yourself to the program. Trust the process. Give every assignment your best effort, and your work will improve exponentially. And let the housework go a bit. Trust me, it will be there when you graduate!

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The public is welcome to attend the graduate recognition ceremony on Sunday, July19, 3:30pm, (Sundin Music Hall, Hamline University). TimFederle is the speaker.

Faculty Voices with Jackie Briggs Martin: Taking Care

Warning: Do not eat this blog. Do not inhale this blog.  Do not come in any kind of physical contact with this blog. I have a cold and these germs are nefarious. Who knows by what channels they travel?

But having a cold and being easy on myself today has made me wonder about  how we take care of ourselves when we’re not sick, what we do to feed our spirits and our creative selves. We’re responsible for our own sustenance, for keeping ourselves fueled for the long haul. What do we do? What do others suggest?

Twyla Tharp in The Creative Habit says take a walk, visit a museum look for beauty.  So let’s go—100 of Henri Matisse’s cut-outs are at the Museum of Modern Art. It's not exactly the same as being there. Still it's exhilarating to see all this art that Henri Matisse made while bed-bound. Visit a museum.

I have friends who say—

Light a fire, light a candle.

Re-pot a plant. Plant a seed.

Make lentil soup. Fry onions in olive oil. Make pancakes.

Buy a flower, or a bunch of flowers. (A bunch of fresh flowers costs the same as a medium latte at our grocery store.)

Sing a song, or sing along. (Anything by Pete Seeger.)

Cut paper and make a collage. 
Make a mobile from an early ms draft.
Make a loaf of bread for a friend. 

Go to a used bookstore and look for an unappreciated gem. 
Call a friend from your writing group.

Or, on a slightly different tack,  getting over a snag.

Maybe the cupboard is bare, or maybe there's a huge tangle, a plot problem you just can't solve, a character who won't step out of the shadows.

Dorothea Brande in Becoming a Writer  says, “If you want to stimulate yourself into writing, amuse yourself in wordless ways." She suggests going to a symphony, sitting on a park bench, horseback riding, knitting. I'd add walking in the woods, sitting by a river or the ocean--if there's one handy.

Laura Ruby has said on this very blog that she often gets insights into how to solve a writing tangle while running.

Franny Billingsley plays fetch with her dog when she's trying to solve a writing problem.

When Twyla Tharp is looking for an idea for a dance she moves, and that movement leads to another movement, and that eventually leads to the dance. For writers, perhaps we grab a new notebook and write something silly: a to-do list for a potato, a pig's opera, a crossword puzzle writer's proposal of marriage.

Perhaps undertaking a non-writing project that involves several steps will be useful, say making kim chee --a process that involves waiting and fermentation--or Jim Lahey's no-knead bread, ditto.

Many of us have heard Ron Koertge say read poetry as the first part of writing, every day. That is especially true when we are hacking through a writing problem. Ray Bradbury agrees with Ron. In Zen and the Art of Writing, he says: "Read poetry every day of your life ...Poetry expands the senses and keeps them in prime condition. It keeps you aware of your nose, your eye, your ear, your tongue and your hand....What poetry? Any poetry that makes your hair stand up along your arms. ...You say you don't understand Dylan Thomas? Yes, but your ganglion does, and your secret wits, and all your unborn children."

Try a new writing space. Go to a library or a coffee shop where no one knows you.

Clean off your regular writing space.

Recall something that makes you laugh. 

And finally, whatever it is that you do, trust that the answer will come. While you are chopping, cleaning, dancing, laughing, walking, your brain is working. Last summer in her student lecture "How Understanding Our Brain Can Make Us Better Writers," Kate Fitzgerald said, "As we trust that the process is working we relax." As we relax our brain makes more and better connections.

Trust--and take care, and take tea, if you end up with a cold. 

Faculty Voices: Jackie Briggs Martin

Lighten Up

I have been working on a story that is not funny—and I think it needs to be. It’s not that I want this to be a comic story with lots of laughs—like  Weasels who want to take over the world.

But the story has felt too unremittingly trudging. And it’s a picturebook!  It seems to need a little lightener. 

It’s not unusual to lighten dark stories with a humorous character.  We can all recall how the Porter in the play Macbeth breaks the tension surrounding the murder of the king with his soliloquy on portering at the gates of Hell. But what I’m working on is for young kids—no door-keeper for the gates of Hell in this story. 

So I have been thinking about ways to add humor to lighten the tone, give the reader a little break.  How do writers combine the heavy and the light? And do they do it in picture books, or are picture books even in tone—some funny, some sad, but rarely sad ones lightened by a humorous character?  I decided to do a little study—find some picture books that deal with heavier subjects and look for the lightening, the break in seriousness.

Ezra Jack Keats was not afraid to tackle the harder issues of childhood. In Goggles Peter and Archie find a prize—a pair of goggles. Before they can enjoy them, some big kids come along and demand the goggles. This could be serious. The big kids aren’t fooling around. Two little kids against three bullies: what will Peter and Archie do?  Peter refuses to give up the goggles, gets knocked down and the goggles fall out of his pocket.  Willie the Dachshund grabs the goggles and runs. Right then we have a clue that it’s all going to be ok. Willie is a funny dog. Keats could have had their dog be a regular mutt, or a German Shepard, or a Collie. But he chose short-legged, long-bodied Willie.

But Ezra Jack Keats doesn’t only rely on a funny dog.  In Louie we see a lonely child (“I never heard a word out of him,” Roberto says. “’Me neither,’ said Susie.”)  whose dreams repeat his experience of children laughing at him, whose first friend is a puppet named Gussie.  Does Ezra Jack Keats  add any leavening to this boy’s story?  

Well, he doesn’t toss in a comical character. But Louie’s sad tone is broken by the thoughtfulness of the two kids who are putting on the show, Susie and Roberto. When Louie stands up at the beginning of the show and starts talking to Gussie, they don’t yell at him or laugh at him:

We’d better have Gussie answer him,” Susie says.  And she says, in Gussie’s voice, “Hi Louie. Nice to see you. But me and the mouse gotta get on with the show. Won’t you please sit down? There’s  lots more to come.” 

 After the show, when they offer Louie a chance to say good-bye to Gussie and he grabs her and won’t put her down, they do not grab back:

 “What’ll I do now?" Susie whispered to Roberto.

“Gussie is very tired,” explained Roberto.

“She has to go home now.” 

At the end of the story, Louie receives a note that says, “Go outside and follow the long green string.” At the end of the string is a gift from Susie and Roberto—Gussie.

Without the kindnesses of these two kids, Louie’s story would be too bleak for young readers.  It would read more like a case study. The kindnesses balance Louie’s loneliness and make a satisfying whole.

One more: one of my all-time favorite books is The Gardener by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small. And it has a pretty bleak premise: Lydia Grace Finch has to leave her family, go and live in the city with Uncle Jim because it’s the Depression and her parents do not have money enough to feed her. Sarah Stewart spices the story with bits of humor—Papa says  the way to recognize Uncle Jim is to “Just look at Mama’s face with a big nose and a mustache!”  Then there's Lydia's own perky personality that gives buoyancy to the story. And Lydia has a goal—to get a smile out of Uncle Jim. That goal is the thread that pulls us through the story. Lydia plans a surprise. Will it be enough to make Uncle Jim smile?

So back to work, with a few new tools—maybe I’ll add a new character to this story;  or add something to the main character or braid in threads of kindness toward my main character; or add humor along the way through image or metaphor, or dialogue; or—probably hardest of all— find a way to express that one question that won’t be answered until the end of the book. 

For the long haul, I’m going to take up reading cartoonist Bob Mankoff’s blog to develop my humor muscles and keep watching for other picture books that blend humor with the hard stuff. I'd love to hear about your favorites.

Faculty Voices: Jackie Briggs Martin

Exploring

looking up at the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

I had written an entire blog about butt in chair, the importance of sticking with writing when the going is rough, of believing that writing is hard so if it’s hard for us we shouldn’t take it personally. That doesn’t mean we don’t have “talent,” just that it’s hard. But it seemed a little doze-y. So I decided to write about not-BIC, but exploring, the "writing” that we do when we are not in the chair, when we are looking for stories.

I love winter, don’t get me wrong. I love the snowy monochromatic landscape, being warm inside when it’s cold outside, hot soup, candles, sweaters—all the trappings of the cold season. Still, I do miss green, so today a walkabout in the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden in Minneapolis seems just right.

Eloise Butler was born in Maine in 1851, moved to the Midwest with her family and eventually came to Minneapolis where she taught botany in high school. She was a scientist who studied algae and discovered three new varieties. As one who learned by observing, she was troubled that her students had no place to go to observe plants in their natural setting. In 1907 the Minneapolis Park Board set aside a portion of what is now the Theodore Wirth Park.  Eloise and her botanist friends thought this area especially choice because it included  “a swampy bog, fern glens, hillsides, upland hills and trees and nearby, the Great Medicine Spring”

When Butler retired in 1911, she became the curator of this garden, continually adding plants—threatened plants from development areas and imported plants she thought might grow. To help promote the garden she wrote a regular column for the Sunday Minneapolis Tribune.  In one of her articles she wrote about a medium telling her there were two botanist spirits who wanted to help with her work and that is why she was able to easily find the plants she was looking for at any particular time [http://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/history/ebwriting/annalsoccult.html]! 

Eloise Butler and this visit to the garden is a powerful reminder that there are wonderful stories everywhere—the more we look, the more we find them.  In this garden we have: a serious botanist, a dedicated teacher who entertains the idea that she might be getting help from the spirit world; a group of women scientists, with no power except their own determination, who decided Minneapolis needed a natural area where plants can grow undisturbed.

Eloise Butler reminds us all of the power of looking, the power of paying attention—whatever our own obsessions or interests might be.  Joyce Sidman reported last Saturday at the CLN non-fiction discussion that one of her books began in a conversation with her sister about beetles. Jen Bryant said she glanced at a painting by Horace Pippin on a visit to an art museum and that was the beginning of A Splash of Red.

looking down at the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Let's give winter a break, get out of our chairs for a bit. There may be spirits that will help us find what we are looking for.