| Author Bobby Hutchinson was a delightfully
warm and compelling guest speaker at our November
20th GVC meeting. Thanks to Kate Austin, who has
compiled the following highlights from Bobby's
presentation on "Creative Chaos."
Bobby Hutchinson is all about creative chaos.
She's tall, slim, beautifully dressed and amazingly
funny.
She's also totally open about her life and loves
and work. She's managed to support herself for
18 (or is it 20?) years writing romance. She's
bought and runs a bed and breakfast on the west
side from her writing income. Guests, she says,
are always giving her great story ideas so not
only does she get paid for having them stay, she
gets paid again later if she uses those ideas.
She's single (as of this minute), loves to travel
and loves men. It's no wonder she writes romance.
Bobby started by sharing the quotes she keeps
above her computer:
- When you change the way you look at things,
you change the things.
- Okay, universe, you manage quality, I'll manage
quantity.
- Who, what, why, when, where, how.
- When all else fails, pretend you're Nora Roberts.
Then she jumped right into a process she finds
helpful to jumpstart her writing when she's blocked,
starting out with a new idea, or stuck at any
point in the writing process. Being stuck might
include that mid-book slump, taking too long a
break and having trouble getting back into the
story, or any one of the many reasons particular
to each of us that we use to justify procrastination
or avoidance. The process can be used just once
to get you going or it can be used many times
throughout a book to keep the creative juices
flowing. You can even use it for every chapter
and write the whole book this way.
She begins by writing down fourteen things that
will happen in the next 15 pages or your book
or story. Why fourteen? According to Bobby, fourteen
items done this way will work out to approximately
15 pages or one chapter. Put the fourteen things
in chronological order. Leave yourself enough
space after each item for three questions and
three one word answers.
For each item on the list, write down three questions.
If the first thing on the list is a funeral, you
might ask yourself: Where is it? Why is the hero
there? Who died? Answer each of the questions
with a single word. The answers to the funeral
questions might be: church, eulogy, Jimmy. Repeat
for each of the fourteen items.
The list, the questions and the answers are the
complicated and time-consuming part of the process.
But once you've done this, the fun begins.
For each item, set your timer for 5 minutes.
(I have a kitchen timer—$2.99 at the dollar
store—which ticks loudly and rings like
the dickens when time's up.) Use one of the three
word answers as the first word in the paragraph
to start your writing and the other two words
within the first paragraph. Write like hell for
the full five minutes.
Bobby estimates you'll end up with half or three-quarters
of a page for each of the fourteen items, working
5 minutes at a time. At the end, you'll have a
whole chapter or close to it.
The important thing to remember? Take the time
and patience to do the list, questions, and answers.
The writing part is easy and fun.
Bobby is an inspiration. Learning is so much
easier when you get to laugh while you're cramming
in the knowledge; her workshop allowed us to do
both.
Kate Austin is the new VP of RWA®-GVC. She
envies Bobby not only her life, but her height
as well.
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