Samantha Garner, Freelance Web Writer & Editor

So, you know that saying about writing something, putting it in a drawer, and coming back to it much later to see if you still like it? I don’t know who it’s attributed to, or even how long this mystery person recommended putting away your writing. Nine months? Nine years?

Either way, I’m here to tell you it works. The other day, I unearthed a story I’d written seven years ago and completely forgotten about. I was prepared to pull my face off in embarrassment as I read it, but the shocking thing was – I actually liked it! At that time in my writing life, I didn’t focus too much on traditional story structure or really even a traditional plot arc. I’d come across examples of this earlier, more experimental writing that made me roll my eyes, but this one pleasantly surprised me. If I may toot my own horn a bit, I found it was smart and flowed quite well. Of course, I’m not going to go into details about an unfinished story here, but suffice it to say that it just needs a small bit of polish (I mean, I really like plot and characterization now) and I’ll be happy to send it out into the world!

Success! It’s almost like I didn’t really have to do much of anything to get a completed short story. It’s like a gift from Me of the Past.

Seriously – who said that thing about putting your writing away in a drawer? Part of me thinks it’s someone ridiculous like Plato, but maybe it’s Zadie Smith. Does anyone know?

Sit back, relax and spend a couple of minutes watching this video of a book cover being designed, courtesy of The Awl and Orbit Books. Oh, and sit far back from your monitor; there’s a lot of wiggling going on.

It’s so rare to see book-related things translated into visual format (yes, I know one can see a book, but that isn’t quite what I mean) and I love videos of words-and-books-related things. Let me know if you come across any good ones!

Yes, this looks like an ad for Ikea’s Poäng chair, but it’s not. This is my favourite writing spot in the house. There are windows along one wall and continuing for a bit around a corner, so I feel surrounded by light. And, okay, the Poäng chair is pretty comfortable too.

This spelling & grammar installment isn’t a pet peeve, as they usually are. It’s just general word love. I recently noticed that someone had arrived at my blog through a Google search for “grammar of ‘i am won’t.’” It took me a minute or two to understand that the question really was about the word wont. So, in case you ever come back this way, Mystery Googler, here is your answer:

What is the difference between wont and won’t?

The word wont talks about someone in the habit of doing something, or of a characteristic of something. To use it in a couple of sentences:

“Samantha was wont to think about spelling too much.”
“Tomorrow will be quiet, as Sundays are wont to be.”

The word won’t, as I bet you already know, is a contraction meaning will not.

So, this one’s easy. It’s really a spelling thing, since speaking the two words aloud will tell you right away if you’re saying the wrong one – and if you’re saying wont, people might mishear you and think you’re saying want, depending on your accent. This adds a bit more excitement to life! Actually, the pronunciation might help you determine which one you want to write out. Wont sounds like want, and you wouldn’t spell want with an apostrophe, like won’t!

Oh wow. Was I getting carried away there or what? Sorry, spelling tends to do that to me.

I’ve finally scanned the documents from my high school writing days that I mentioned in my previous post. These are by no means the extent of them. What doesn’t appear here are the wonderfully inspirational interviews with writers that were photocopied, spread by spread, from a real live book (do teachers still do that? There’s something charmingly archaic about that imagery), and the short story I submitted in one class. The latter doesn’t appear here because it’s so awful. I spirited it away from my childhood home to read later, and my reaction made my husband think I was being bitten by a small rodent in the other room.

Click on any of these for a larger image.

1) This was a response to a play we’d read in my OAC Writer’s Craft course (a course I passed by the skin of my teeth – it remains my nemesis to this day). I think the first line sounds that way because our teacher asked us to identify what specific style of reaction we’d had, or something, but please look at what I’ve highlighted in the red box:

A well-defined social milieu?! I don’t think I rightly know what that means even now, and I’m nearly 30 years old! Maybe this one phrase is the reason I nearly failed the class. It’s all so clear to me now.

2) The next two were from my CanLit course, the course that pretty much defined me as a writer and showed me how amazing Canadian writing was. Below are notes about Fifth Business, and I don’t know if they’re notes from a lecture or if I invented the wording myself. Either way, it’s amazing to me how deeply we have to delve into books as students. I understand the value in it – and in this case it made me appreciate Fifth Business much more – but I also remember being skeptical that all of these elements were valuable/existed.

3) Now, keeping in mind how much I loved Robertson Davies at this time – how cruel is it to make your class write his obituary? And why did I get such a low mark on it? Probably because I wrote it through tears or something.

4) This one’s my favourite. It’s from that Writer’s Craft course. This document may also be the reason I nearly failed. Look at my answer to the last question! The cheek of it!

5) This last one sums up my high school mentality pretty well.

Oof. What busy times I’ve seen since my last post! On Friday I left on a last-minute trip to visit my parents in Ontario, returning on Monday to a busy workload. While I was at my parents’, I did unearth some . . . interesting material from my writerly past that I have planned for a blog post once I can sit down and prepare it. In the meantime, here are some good things other people have written recently:

• Are Your Clients Really Getting Your Best? from Men With Pens.
• Teri Vlassopoulos blogs about choosing the name of her new short story collection.
• Lija at The Writer’s Pet writes about Fifth Business, a favourite novel we have in common!
• An article about the writing advice industry at the Globe & Mail.