Do you want to know how to be more creative or how to help children to hang on to their creativity? See my latest Psychology Today piece, ”Be More Creative Today.”
Flash Narrative Friday: Inventories and Measures
[For an introduction, please read The Hattie Project.]
In January of 1920, Harriet and Will Whitcher had been married just two years and, because of Will’s military service, had spent much of that time apart. The oldest of ten children and ten years older than her husband, at age thirty-eight Hattie had grown used to an independence of both movement and mind, but she also was very close to her family and social by nature. Their farm was one and one-half miles from the town of Spencer in Boyd County, Nebraska, close enough for Hattie often to walk or catch a ride in a wagon to visit her parents, Ed and Mary Whiting, who lived in town, visits of which Will did not always approve.
Like all married couples, Hattie and Will were getting used to each other. They had not yet finished breaking sod on their farm and were struggling to make a living at a time when several Boyd County families were selling their land. Hattie was also still getting used to being simultaneously a wife and daughter when, in the span of two months, both of Will’s parents died in Wichita, Kansas, the first telegram arriving on January 30, 1920.
The following inventories, measures, and diary excerpts tell the beginning of the story of Hattie’s married life.
Inventories and Measures:
January 1918, 1919, 1920
January 1, 1918: Inventory, W. J. Whitcher
- 80 acres land … $6000.00
- Farm buildings … $1000.00
- 3 horses, 3 colts … $525.00
- 1 cow from Floyd Wood … $75.00
- 9 hogs … $180.00
- 12 hens, 1 rooster … $14.00
- 50 bushels oats & 200 bushels corn … $240.00
- 7 tons wild hay, 3 tons alfalfa … $150.00
- Seeds, grain & vegetable … $35.00
- Household Goods … $200.00
- Farm Implements … $300.00
- Cash in Bank … $545.00
- Total … $9264.00
- Outstanding Indebtedness … $1650.00
- Net Worth … $7614.00
January 16, 1918: Marriage of Harriet Elizabeth Whiting and William J. Whitcher
January 1, 1919: Inventory, W. J. Whitcher
No inventory taken on account of W. J. Whitcher being in the army at Gilmerton, Virginia. Our cow died of Alfalfa poison. We sold nearly all hogs on account of no house for them. We got a $2000 loan on farm to pay for house and other implements. W. J. came home Feb. 27th, 1919, discharged from Army.
January 1, 1920: Inventory, W. J. Whitcher
- 4 Horses, each $125 … $500.00
- 2 Horses, each $65 … $130.00
- 1 Horse … $50.00
- 1 Cow and Calf … $210.00
- 1 Boar … $30.00
- 1 Fat Hog … $35.00
- 23 Fall Pigs, each $10 … $230.00
- 8 doz. Light Brahma Chickens … $100.00
- 2 1/2 Sets Harness, Single Harness, 2 sets Fly Nets … $150.00
- 1 Heavy Stock Saddle … $50.00
- Farm Machinery … $150.00
- 2 Wagons, $25 each … $50.00
- 200 bu. Oats … $150.00
- 300 bu. Corn … $390.00
- 12 bu. Rye … $15.00
- 25 Tons Hay … $375.00
- 2 Tons Alfalfa … $40.00
- Corn Fodder … $40.00
- Household Goods & Separator … $300.00
- TOTAL … $3120.00 [See note 1, below]
January 1920: Groceries and Dry Goods Bought
- Suspenders … $0.75
- Syrup, 1 gal. … $1.10
- Apples … $0.50
- Jello … $0.45
- Bananas … $0.25
- Oranges … $0.35
- Cheesecloth … $0.30
- Coffee, Butternut … $0.50
- Shoe Strings … $0.15
- Onions … $0.25
- Ivory Soap … $0.10
- Sugar … $0.50
- Tobacco … $0.15
January 1920: Paid Out for Sundries
- Shoe Repair on Army Shoe … $0.10
- Gasoline for Smoking Meat … $2.10
- To Robert Jewelry Store for bridge for my glasses … $0.75
Diary Excerpts, January 1920
New Year’s Day, 1920: This was a fair day but cold. Will husked corn but wasn’t very well. We had a good supper consisting of fresh roast pork, gravy, potatoes, cranberry and apple sauce, fresh butter, bread, cream and coffee. I got 6 eggs.
January 11: Willie K. came about 4 p.m. and Will went with him to crossing under Railroad bridge where they tried to cut out ice. In the evening, 3 teachers and a little boy called for a drink while out for a walk. I helped Will with chores. We got 7 eggs and one double yolk egg. It was a nice warm day.
January 12: A letter from Rose and Mother is very sick.
January 13: I put seed-corn and pumpkins away and got 6 eggs, 1 double yolk.
January 15: A fair day. Will went to Carl Ferris sale south of Spencer on Sidell place. I made Harold William Whiting 2 small dresses from Will’s old shirts. Got 7 eggs. Gathered cobs.
January 19: Will got Eugene at Knolls in forenoon and went to Andrew Clausen’s sale in p.m. Was cold. Uncle Jim took me to Spencer. I measured Papa’s leg, the left one for a limb at A. Marks, New York City. [See note 2, below]
January 20: Will bought an eli at sale, paid $50. [See note 3, below]
January 24: We got 1,000 lbs. coal for $5.00 on track.
January 30: A cold and stormy day, mostly sleet. Got a telegram that Will’s mother at Wichita, Kans. was very sick. Left on 1 p.m. train for Wichita. Uncle Jim went to Uncle Chris’s when they took us to depot. H. Bradstreet was helping Will haul fodder when Telegram came. Got to Omaha Nebr. at 11 p.m., left for Kansas City, Kans. at once, traveled all night, had supper in Norfolk, Nebr.
January 31: Had Breakfast in Kansas City. Still cloudy and damp. Had dinner at Emporia, Kansas at $1.00 a plate. Arrived at Wichita, Kans. at 6 p.m., walked several blocks, took street-car, arrived at folks and found Mother very sick. The sun was shining this evening.
Notes
- Actual total for 1920 inventory is $2995.
- Read A. A. Marks’ Manual of artificial limbs copiously illustrated … an exhaustive exposition of prothesis, 1914 by A. A. Marks
- “An Eli was a cultivator to use on corn. It had shovels and disks. People used listers to plant corn. The lister made a furrow and the corn was planted in it. This resulted in a ridge between the corn rows. The Eli could be set to take the weeds from the side of the ridge. Later the disks would be reversed and the ridge would be placed next to the rows, leveling the field. This was called ‘throwing the corn in’. Another name for the Eli was ‘go devil.’ Why, I do not know.” (Harley Furrey, Hattie’s nephew, email message to author, Feb. 10, 2008). One version of a “go devil” was patented by Edwin F. Cheney of Ainsworth, Nebraska, who sold it to John Deere in 1906.
Blogging on My iPhone
Yes, you can write blog posts, quite efficiently, on a smart phone.
I learned how to blog on my phone by accident recently, when I had planned to keep up with blogging at the AWP 2012 conference. However, I had difficulty finding a reliable connection for my WiFi-only iPad. Since I already had with me a wireless keyboard and had downloaded the free WordPress app, I figured I’d give it a go:
The result was much easier and more efficient than I had expected. I just propped the phone and keyboard on my lap, and before I knew it, my fingers were flying. The keyboard is optional, of course, but my texting skills are far from fast or stellar, and because my hands are small, I find the bluetooth keyboard to be even more comfortable than my laptop.
The WordPress app allows me to cut and paste, post links, add photos, even insert html such as this em dash—almost everything I could do on my regular computer. While I am still getting used to some aspects of the app (as those of you who received an unfinished version of this post today witnessed), I can definitely see myself using this blogging tool often, especially when traveling.
Writing life in the 21st century was never easier.
How do you use technology to make your writing more efficient or more convenient?
If You Are or Love or Work with an Introvert, You Must Watch This Video
I am passionate about the topic of introverts, mostly because I have experienced and seen how a better understanding of what introversion really is in all its complexity can change lives. That is not an overstatement. People who have always thought of themselves as social misfits or somehow flawed suddenly understand themselves and the power of their introversion, to borrow Susan Cain’s phrase, in an amazing and exciting way. Even professionals whom I would think would certainly understand introversion, often don’t. Recently I mentioned to a good friend who is a counselor about scheduling and how having more cushions of time between activities would be helpful for the more introverted attendees, and her response was “we will fix that”—she didn’t mean the schedule.
The TED Talk below by Susan Cain is a must-see for anyone who is or loves or works with an introvert. I first became a Susan Cain fan through her Psychology Today blog, and she is as engaging and delightful a presenter as she is a writer. I’d love to hear your own experiences about introversion, living with it, coming to terms with it, and reveling in it.
“When I was nine years old, I went off to summer camp for the first time, and my mother packed me a suitcase full of books, which to me seemed like a perfectly natural thing to do, because in my family reading was the primary group activity. This might sound anti-social to you, but for us, it was really just a different way of being social. You had the animal warmth of your family, sitting next to you, but you were also free to go roaming around the adventure land inside your own mind, and I had this idea that camp was going to be just like this, but better…” ~ Susan Cain
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yyeJ1jaGDU]
More posts on introversion:
- Guest post on Courage 2 Create: “Long Live the Introvert!“
- “On Introverts, Happiness, and Social Media“
- “Introverted Energy“
- “Speaking as an Introvert“
- “Solitude and Writer Rats“
Writing Life Manifesto: Be a Part of the Iceberg
Why do we attend conferences?
Apart from being able to present our work and ideas, meeting up with friends and colleagues old and new, learning from others, or updating professional credentials, one reason rises above everything else. We attend conferences and conventions to remind ourselves of why we do what we do.
That was certainly the case for me last week at AWP 2012 in Chicago. Now that I’ve been home a couple of days and have plunged back into the everyday world of family, teaching, errands, and email (always the email), I know what I gained from being around 10,000 other writers, teachers, publishers, and editors, and it wasn’t what I expected.
I had thought the highlight of the conference would be hearing two of my favorite authors speak and read. On Thursday night, Margaret Atwood walked slowly but surely across the stage of Roosevelt University’s Auditorium Theatre to her podium, carrying a large bag and reminding me oddly of Charlie Chaplin, and, when she was finished, walked off again, unaccompanied, stopping only to acknowledge and take a bow with the sign language interpreter (read Patrick Ross’s detailed description of the talk and venue). On Friday, at the session “National Book Critics Circle Celebrates Award-Winning Authors,” I heard Jane Smiley read from A Thousand Acres, a book, like Atwood’s The Edible Woman, that showed me the power, potential, and beauty inherent in literature and story-telling.
However, these thrilling moments—and these authors—are just the tip of the iceberg, the peaks that jut and shine most clearly. What lies beneath is even richer and more exciting, a mass of people with all kinds of backgrounds and viewpoints and goals, finding ways to live a writing and reading life in whatever way they can and sharing their love of the written word with each other.
I am convinced that the most pressing danger we face as writers is not the changing publishing industry but the continual temptation to allow others to define our success. We have all been there. As soon as we find the courage to say “I am a writer,” we are asked, “What have you published?” Once we are published, we worry about sales and reviews. We wonder if blogging is worth the effort if we don’t have hundreds or thousands of followers. We spend ninety percent of our time building an elusive platform, leaving ten percent for the writing which that platform is meant to support, and no time remaining for creative daydreaming or leisure reading.
Having a successful writing life is something very different, not necessarily easier or harder, but simpler. Writers write, practice, improve, and get their writing in the hands of readers. That’s it, and it is the same for every single writer. Sometimes—rarely—this kind of life leads to Pulitzers or Booker Prizes, events to be celebrated.
More often, though, the writing life leads simply to indescribable joy, a joy that is sometimes hard-won but that always comes back to the power of words to sustain us, to direct us, and to give life meaning.
If you are unsure about your writing because you allow others to define your success, take a step back and remind yourself that a successful writing life is one we create for ourselves.
The Writing Life Manifesto
- Write a little today.
- Revise a little today.
- Read a little today.
- Do something today to get your words in the hands and hearts of readers.
- Find a way today to let other writers know that you are reading their words.
Be part of the iceberg.
More Flash with Substance from AWP 2012
I already wrote a bit about the flash fiction session I attended at AWP last week, but I want to expand on it, now that I am writing on a laptop rather than an iPhone (which, by the way, worked so much better than I had hoped—another post for another day).
The panelists for “Flash Points: Publishing Flash Fiction in an Evolving Landscape” were these:
- Glenn Shaheen, editor at NANO Fiction
- Roxane Gay, editor at [PANK]
- Nancy Stebbins editor at SmokeLong Quarterly
- Edward Mullany, editor at matchbook
- Adam Peterson, editor at The Cupboard
I first become interested in flash fiction from Christi Craig, whose Wednesday’s Word flash pieces I found captivating. It was at Christi’s suggestion that I began to use the flash form as a way to explore family diary entries I have been transcribing. I was hooked on flash in no time.
Here are some of my notes from “Flash Points”:
- Avoid thinking of flash as simply a joke with a punch line. In fact, avoid punch lines or any other last lines that take over the rest of the piece.
- Glenn Shaheen noted that humor often does work in flash when the piece has “a few emotions working simultaneously and against each other.”
- Several of the panelists accept sequences of two, three, or more related flash pieces.
- Roxanne Gay thinks of flash as an exploded diagram of a moment, but with a narrative arc. At the same time, she says that some flash pieces subvert a narrative arc with their form.
- Almost all of the panelists said they see lazy writing trying to pass for flash. Flash fiction requires as much revision as longer forms, if not more, because every word bears more weight.
- Several of the editors request revisions for submissions that have potential but are not quite ready.
- While flash is known for surrealism, it can also be realistic.
- Finally, what is the difference between prose poetry and flash fiction? The broad consensus: they are for all practical purposes very often one and the same.
Whether you are a flash veteran or new to the form, check out these submission guidelines for each of the featured publications:
Do you write flash fiction, or do you want to?
[Note: links for matchbook updated since original posting]
On Historical Fiction: Why the “w” Word Matters
The most informative session I attended at the AWP Conference last week was “Putting the Story in History II,” presented by these authors:
- Ron Hansen (read his essay “The Ethics of Fiction Writing“)
- Speer Morgan (watch him discuss “Why We Publish the Missouri Review“)
- Philip Gerard (read his article “The Fact Behind the Facts“)
- Debra Brenegan (listen to her on BlogTalkRadio)
Ron Hansen began the panel with several tips for writers of historical fiction. These are some paraphrased highlights:
Make a basic outline of the plot before you begin writing. While plot outlining may not always be necessary for other kinds of fiction, the rigor of staying close to historical events and lives requires more conscious planning. Even if you don’t know the exact beginning and ending of your story, be sure to know the major and turning plot points along the way, and stay as close as possible to the actual lives of any historical characters.
Avoid overwriting historical details. While it can be tempting to throw in every single fascinating detail we have learned through our research, be careful not to overwhelm the reader with trivia. Choose facts and background information judiciously, so as best to support the story.
Focus less on dialect and more on the vocabulary of the region or time period. Useful resources include The Dictionary of American Slang and the Online Etymology Dictionary)
Think of yourself in the role of movie producer and cast your characters before you begin. You can do this with actors and actresses or historical photographs. I used this technique as a way to imagine the younger of Tomas’s two Lakota step-sisters in Oscar’s Gift: Planting Words with Oscar Micheaux. This young girl from a contemporary historical photograph was, for me, Chumani:
Her Know (Dakota Sioux Girl), 1899
One of the most refreshing aspects of this particular panel was the focus on the thrill and accuracy of researching and writing historical fiction. Nothing about platforms or social media or even getting published. As important as those other topics are for authors, without a solid writing habit and what Margaret Atwood referred to in her keynote talk as the four-letter “w” word, none of it matters much. And let’s face it—the joy is in the work of writing, not in platform building
I left the room with a bit more of my bounce in my step, eager to plunge into the next in the series of Fiction for Young Historians.
On Fiction Chapbooks and the Lure of the Small
Fiction chapbooks are “bites of fiction that are complete and lovely.” ~ Diane Goettel
The AWP 2012 Conference session that offered the most pleasant surprise was “The Fiction Chapbook—A Sleeper Form Wakes Up,” presented by these editors and publishers:
- Nicole Louise Reid, Editor at RopeWalk Press
- Eric Lorberer, Editor at Rain Taxi Review of Books
- Diane Goettel, Executive Editor at Black Lawrence Press
- Kevin Sampsell, Publisher at Future Tense Books
- Abigail Beckel, Publisher at Rose Metal Press
Why are some of us drawn to what is small, compact, miniaturized? As I write this in a Chicago hotel room on my iPhone (with the help of a small, wireless keyboard), waiting until it is time to leave for Union Station, I am reminded of the famous Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago. One reason for the lure may be that miniature art forms offer the promise of perfection (or near perfection) impossible in bigger, sloppier works.
I admit that I had never heard of fiction chapbooks before attending this session and was fascinated by the idea that chapbooks could be use for more than poetry. The panelists discussed examples that ranged from limited runs of tiny books the size of index cards, with hand-made covers, to glossy, bookstore-ready paperbacks available through Amazon and Powell’s.
The focus was the same for all, however: To get good writing into the hands of readers.
Eric Lorberer discussed how chapbooks were historically—and once again are becoming—an important form, saying that now there is “a profound opportunity to use the form and strength of the chapbook.”
He concluded, “The marketplace is crumbling all around us, so we might as well have fun with what we’re going.”
You don’t have to do everything: Thursday afternoon at AWP
Here are a few links and takeaways from the two sessions I attended Thursday afternoon at the AWP Conference and Book Fair.
A Reading from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop Instructors
The readers’ websites and information:
David Baker
Nancy Zafris
Rebecca McClanahan
Carl Phillips
Listen to “Annual Conference: 8,000 Writers Expected,” by Rebecca McClanahan
The Tech-Empowered Writer
Check out the panelists’ blogs for some of their thoughts and resources:
Christina Katz
Seth Harwood
Jane Friedman
Robert Lee Brewer
Some of their suggestions:
You don’t have to do everything (Robert).
You don’t have to do things that aren’t comfortable for you (Seth).
Put your purpose and message first, and let your use of social media and other tech serve it (Jane).
You may not be able to take all of your friends from real life with you to your tech homes, but you can find other people interested in what you are writing or are interested in (Christina).
Next stops: Dinner, then Margaret Atwood.
Connect
Creative Synthesis (Psychology Today)
- Education Reform, One Assignment at a Time April 28, 2012
- High School Years: College Prep or Life Prep? April 11, 2012
Writing Up an Appetite (Group Blog with Christi Craig and E. Victoria Flynn)
- Potential. May 15, 2012
- Eating Then and Now May 8, 2012
Hattie’s Blog: Ordinary Work
- Easter Entries 1920-1925 April 8, 2012
- March 24, 1925 March 24, 2012