Marion Agnew

At the end of a month, any month, every month, I take stock of what I've done and what's happened. Things that are inside and outside of my control. In the past couple of months, I've spent a lot of time reading and sitting with other peoples' work, talking about writing and arts, talking about the writing process --talking in general. And the flip side, listening. For the most part, it's been a really good experience. I've learned a lot. I hope other people I've interacted with know how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to hear their perspectives and share my own. It's been a lot of reading, talking, and listening. Not so much writing. Which I'm looking forward to changing, as I turn the calendar page.

At this time of year, I have to keep reminding myself that I don't always get to decide when something is done. I may be sick to death of revising, but that doesn't mean the essay is "done." Similarly, I may be sick to death of dressing in ninety-eleven layers and wearing boots, but that doesn't mean winter is "done." On the other hand, *I* can be done with something--like *I* can be "done" revising an essay. For now. *I* could even be "done" with winter. As it happens, I haven't yet scheduled a trip to visit my sister (who, conveniently for my attention span for winter, lives in Tucson), so I'm not quite "done" yet. Later, I can revisit the essay. If it's still as "done" as I can make it, then I can send it out. One reason I haven't yet scheduled my sun-seeking trip is that I want to be sure that the time away is worth the return to a landscape that hasn't actually let go of winter....

Next weekend (in ten days), as I've mentioned , I'll be participating in the "Ask an Author" event, sponsored by the Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop . As part of the lead-in to that event, I contributed a post to the NOWW blog, sharing a little about my background and writing history, what I'm working on, and how I feel about peanut butter on toast. I invite you to go there and read this , and be sure to scope out all the other participants in the event, as well. There are many ways to "be a writer"--far more than the six we represent!--but we are all happy to share the pitfalls and rewards of the path we've taken to get here. 

I've mentioned before that one of my favourite podcasts is Scriptnotes . It is, as the subtitle says, a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. John August, a screenwriter and the originator of the podcast, is launching a new middle-grade book series soon, featuring a character named  Arlo Finch . He's also launching a podcast--limited-episode, apparently; the "mini-series" equivalent of podcasting--in advance of his book's launch. The new podcast is called Launch, and it's presented by Wondery . In it, he talks about his book and what he's learned in the past two years as he's entered a new realm of storytelling. He even got to see his book being printed, which is pretty cool. I've listened to several episodes, not all (yet). However, what I've heard so far is a great basic resource for answers to some of those questions. I recommend listening. And if you're interested in lots of "how to...