An Author’s Voice blooms suddenly, unbidden, active within the writer’s unconscious, until it clamours to be released.

Writing Tips:  If I am Driven to Write, Why Would I Take a Summer Hiatus?

Often have you heard me say that writers must write same as must breathe. So why would I suggest a hiatus from writing?

Writing is a calling, beckoning always; it is also a commitment to others, to the writing group, to publishing, to the column, to readers, to those who listen when we share our latest newborn or the matured child of our mind. It is in this commitment to others that writers lose themselves, over time, keeping up to demands and promises to others rather than listening to the siren call of the majyk that begs its place on the page before it evaporates into vagueness-at-best in but a moment.  

It is in the respite that we find ourselves called to the keyboard to open a new Pages page and write the title, the first sentence followed by next and next. This is where the majyk lives; our Author’s Voice is strongest when we pause and listen and record.

Though we all keep a wee diary or notebook with us all year long, simply writing a word or two in between commitments and demands and needs of others turns majyk-which-must-not-be-denied into words-too-few-to-carry-the-passion.

Through my healing process this past year, I have learned to listen better, to my body and my writing siren.  A hiatus, taken every time it beckons, is what keeps our passions alive.

Excerpts Carp Creative Writers’ Group Anthology 2019:

“Cookies!”  A Short Excerpt of an Original Script

Written by Justin Lahey

SCREEN IS BLACK

NARRATOR

Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get?

(pause)

I don’t think so! You shake it, and you know exactly what you’re getting. 

(pause)

To reduce life to a box of chocolates is an understatement of life’s intricacies and complexities, and is darn right irresponsible. 

(pause)

Life is cookies!

INT. SUPERMARKET – DAY — MORNING

Late thirties man strolling up an aisle. A mother and child are near him.

CHILD

Mom, can we please get some cookies? Pretty please? Can we? Huh? Mom? Please? Some cookies? Mom…

MOTHER

ERIC!  Will you stop. We are not buying cookies. 

CHILD

But Mom… we never have anything good to snack on at home, and…

MOTHER

ERIC!  Enough!!

CHILD

Just this once?  Please. Pretty please. With sugar all over.  And a cherry on top.  Please…

NARRATOR

A desperate attempt to hit a soft spot in the pit of the iron belly of authority. 

CHILD

I’ll never ask for anything ever again. I have to have cookies Mom.  MOM! 

NARRATOR

Cue thunder.

MOTHER

ERIC!  That’s enough!! You act like cookies will save your life. If I hear another peep out of you about cookies… so help me God…

Child slowly turns around and starts dragging his feet to catch up to his mother. The man glances at the vast array of cookies on the shelf, smiles, and grabs a box. 

NARRATOR

Besides, the kid was right. You just have to have cookies. And the mother was wrong.  He wasn’t acting like cookies save lives.  They actually do.

Other Titles from our 2019 Carp Creative Writers’ Group:

• Preamble by Ken MacDonell
• Myungchul by R Boyd Blackwell
• Cookies – an original script by Justin Lahey
• I Met Her on the Metro Line by Ken MacDonell
• Mother Superior by Melba McGee
• Mother’s Kitchen by Melba McGee
• Square Peg, Round Hole (Redux, Unskewed) by Melba McGee
• Misery Whips and Corduroy Roads (Excerpts) by Philip O’Brien
• My Daughter’s Dog by Philip O’Brien
• Always Eve by Siobhan O’Brien
• My First Memory by Siobhan O’Brien
• Prairie Fires by Kathleen Saunders
• Story Introduction for “To Do It All Again” by Kathleen Saunders
• Epiphany by Kathleen Saunders

CCWG events

Reading night: Our CCWG authors will be reading their works from our 2019 Anthology.  Sept. 11, 2019 6:45 – 8 p.m. at Carp Branch of Ottawa Public Library

CCWG (Carp Creative Writers’ Group) meetings:  We begin our regular meetings again on Wednesday, Sept. 4.

Wednesdays September – June 6:45 – 8 p.m., Carp Branch – Ottawa Public Library. All writers invited. We look forward to becoming acquainted with you and your work. Registration: Carp Branch + OPL card.

Visit columnist Melba McGee at MelbaMcGee.ca