There are many myths about the writing process, from the notion that it must be a solitary activity to the perception that linguistic knowledge of a language and the creative use of it are at odds.
In fact, quite the opposite said Dr. Julie Sedivy, who in addition to being an award-winning author and linguistics expert, also served as the latest author in residence at the Calgary Public Library.
Her work over the past several months has been helping other writers improve their craft and find a home for their works, be that as part of a writers’ community, or through a published work.
“My hope in each individual appointment is just to give them a sense of what the horizons look like, and maybe some paths as to how to get there and get them started. Also to get them tapped into a literary community that is quite vibrant here in Calgary,” said Dr. Sedivy.
“Many people start out writing just on their own, not really connected to other writers, not really understanding the publishing landscape and everything you see on TV and movies about writing and publishing is wrong. It’s just not how it works. So, there’s a lot of mythology.”
Over the past several months, she has offered one-on-ones with library patrons and offered group workshops on how to become a better writer, including on the craft of creating the arts.
“There’s a little bit more plumbing to what creative writers do than most people realize. It doesn’t just pour out of you by divine inspiration. You have more space to choose your techniques, but you really do have to learn the techniques. If you don’t know the techniques, then the pipes burst,” said Dr. Sedivy.
She said that writing seems to differ from other art forms like music and the visual arts in that people seem to believe that unless you are publishing, you aren’t a writer.
“That’s something that I think I’d like to dispel, because in music, for instance, we have tons of people who take music lessons without the expectation that they’re going to be paid for gigs, and they don’t feel that they’ve failed if they don’t achieve that. Or, if they don’t aspire to that, they take music lessons because of what it gives them intrinsically,” said Dr. Sedivy.
“I think writing gives you so much as well. It gives you a sensitivity to language.”
An example that Dr. Sedivy used in a recent interview with a literary publication was about teaching a class on linguistics, and having a student say that they were dropping it because they were a poet and didn’t want the magic to be lost.
“I find this is a really common response, and I find it really puzzling. If you work in the visual arts, does knowing something about visual perception kind of destroy the creative impulse that you might have? I doubt many visual artists would think that way,” she said.
“For some reason, there’s just been this territoriality where linguists are kind of intent on saying, ‘oh, we’re a science. We don’t do that squishy, touchy-feely stuff.’ Over here, you have the creative writers who are saying, ‘we’re doing this as an art, this is not formula.’ There’s so much cross-fertilization that could happen. To me, the more I know about language on the scientific side, the more mysterious it gets, because you can see new questions that haven’t been answered.”
To that end, Dr. Sedivy offered a class on crafting superb sentences as the final program of her residency.
She said that authors bringing in their manuscripts for her to evaluate was also keeping her busy.
“The manuscripts keep stacking up on my desk, and what happens there is really up to the individual writer. So, many of them send me a sample of their work in advance that I read very carefully, make lots of notes on but then I approach each session by trying to get a sense of what it is that would be most useful to the writer in our session,” she said.
“Or some of them, they really want to get into the weeds of analyzing and picking apart their piece of writing. Others would like to get a more general sense of where they’re at, what big thing they could work on to improve their skills. Others are interested in knowing what the path to publication looks like.”
One of those big takeaways from the residency, and something that Dr. Sedivy said would be useful for all writers, was to trust their instincts about where they were in their writing journey and use those instincts to improve.
