My Creative Writing Process

 by Celu Amberstone

I have been asked to document my process, so with that in mind I will put down how I gain ideas and write the books and short stories I create. First let me say that I am of mixed ancestry, First Nation and Scott-Irish. I carry teachings from the Elders of my two heritages and draw upon them in everything I write. The ideas for a story or a novel come to me in dreams. I have had these special dreams since I was a child, but it was only as an adult that I considered putting them into print.

I also have been legally blind since birth. I was one of the children back in the 1940’s affected by the birth defects associated with the measles disease. I have never been able to see more than shapes and colors, so when I say these story-dreams are vivid I don’t mean they are visually acute. It’s hard for me to explain in words my process here, being blind since birth I don’t “see” anything, not really, not at least like other people I ask tell me they experience dreaming.

The best way I can describe what happens to me is that, I “live” what are sent to me in these special dreams. I hear and feel what is going on around me mostly. I do see colors and sometimes shapes of things, which I know represent people or objects, but I don’t “see” them ever. I just know; there aren’t words in our language to describe it, not at least that I’ve discovered yet. And this lack of an ability to perceive and express visual detail, I feel, is a big flaw both in my life and my work.

I have never seen a facial expression, or seen the view from a cliff top. Everything I see is basically a blur and I constantly rely on the descriptions of others for my characters and scenes, and that always bothers me, because it feels almost like plagiarism. That’s why I guess unconsciously, I have my characters living in underground fortresses, caves, or in swamps or areas where fog masks the view whenever possible.

That doesn’t mean what I am experiencing is a flattened perception, however. What comes to me is vivid, often visceral, and always powerful. Dialogue is I feel one of my strongest talents. As I said, I live the scenes that come to me. I experience, in my own body, what my main character in that scene experiences.

And always, as in my real life, my connection to the land in my novels is the foundation upon which I create. Like another character the land is central to my stories. The Land shapes the people and events that occur upon it. I seldom write about cities. They are hollow shells to me, because it is so hard to connect to the land when a person lives in them. They hold no fascination for me. In my youth I avoided them as much as I could.

For a time after my husband’s death I lived with my children in a tipi in the desert and then in Canada’s arctic for many more years, before moving to the rain forests of the west coast where I now live. The tribal peoples and the Lands where I’ve lived have shaped me in both body and soul.

I began my writing career while still living in Canada’s arctic, and once I started my first novel it was like a flood gate opening. I couldn’t stop. For six weeks it was like being on a permanent high. I felt wonderful, even though I was lucky if I got 3 to 4 hours sleep a night. I was a single mom and back in school all day, like my kids. When we got home, I cooked supper, played with them, and then put them to bed between 8 and 9.

Then I started dictating into a recorder—living the story. I would continue till about 12 or 1, sleep till about 5 then rise and work a couple more hours before getting the kids up at 7:30 and getting everyone fed and dressed and out the door for school by 8:30. In typing class that day I would type the latest in the dream-story that I was channeling—yes channeling—that’s the best word I can use to describe the process. That was a wild, invigorating time in my life.

Then, of course, when the first draft of what later became two books was completed, the hard part of trying to find a publisher in an isolated arctic town—before computers and the internet, began. I was so ignorant; it’s a wonder I ever published anything—though it did take about 6 years before the first Renewal book, The Prophecy of Manu, was finally published in 1985 and the second, Teoni's Giveaway, in 1987.

By then I had moved out of the NWT and was living in BC. At that time, unlike today, Indigenous Science Fiction and Fantasy was dismissed as unmarketable by most mainstream publishers. Indigenous writers of the genre, as with other minority writers of color, were also criticized in their own communities for writing fairytales instead of writing about the “real world” struggles that people of color face.

Years later I heard an interview given by Octavia Butler in which she talked about similar problems she faced in the Black community, so I know I wasn’t alone in facing this criticism from my own people. Sometime later my first publisher, Theytus Books, and a bit later other Indigenous publishers began to actively seek out and still do, Indigenous writers of Fantasy and SF. But back in the eighties and most of the nineties that was far from the case.

My early work was all hand written, which meant I had to find someone to clean it up and type it before I could send the manuscripts off. I didn’t learn to use a computer until my brother upgraded his computer and sent me his older Windows 95 Dell in about 1998. By then I was living in Victoria BC. The Water, Wind and the Trees started whispering to me and I began to dream stories again.

I started writing the Tales of the Kashallans series at that time. As my computer and typing skills improved I spent more and more of my time reading and writing Fantasy and Science Fiction. This was a period of introspection for me. I was alone and lost in my books and my dream-stories. Looking back I can see that it was one of my most productive and creative periods. It was different than in Fort Smith, but though it lasted longer and wasn’t as intense as when I wrote the Renewal duology it was a powerful experience, nonetheless.

For several years I honed my craft to a knife’s edge. I worked 8 to 10 hours five or six days a week on perfecting my writing. I read books on writing, attended workshops and got critiques from other writers and writers’ groups whenever possible. I began sending out chapters of the first Kashallan book, The Dream-Chosen, to agents and publishers. I received compliments from top N.Y. agents like Donald Maass and editors at Del Rey and DAW but no sales. Always I got the same comments by the big presses, “Great writing, but I don’t know how to market this.”

Nobody was buying indigenous fiction, and unless you have a proven track record, still aren’t buying much of minority authors works, though that is changing—slowly. I’ve heard the same complaint from other Indigenous and Black writers, so I know it isn’t just me and the merits of my writing. Even though SF/F readers are some of the most eclectic readers out there mainstream publishers are still reluctant to take a risk with minority writers in any genre.

In 14 years I produced more than ten books in 3 different Fantasy and SF series, but I didn’t get anything back into print until 2012 when The Dreamer’s Legacy from Kegedonce Press came out. Kegedonce is a small Native Press in Ontario. Its founder Katerie, believed in me and my vision and was willing to take a chance with one of the first Indigenous SF/F books written in Canada at the time. Not to say there weren’t other SF/F writers around, Richard Van Camp, Eden Robinson, Daniel Heath Justice to name a few, were also writing, but they just didn’t call their work SF or Fantasy.

A few years before that my short story, Refugees caught the attention of Nalo Hopkinson for her book of minority writers fiction, and then a bit later Grace Dillon an Anishnabe professor in Oregon who was gathering materials for her book on Indigenous Fantasy and Science Fiction published by the University of Arizona Press bought the same story. Grace’s ground-breaking work, along with others in the past few years, has opened the door for other writers now to explore this genre without the prejudices that I and other older writers faced earlier on.

With the publication of The Dreamer’s Legacy I had a book in print again, but things weren’t smooth sailing. I was getting older and my health not the best. I was lonely and struggling financially and my arthritis had gotten so bad that I needed a walker to get around—no more bush living for me. Though lucky enough to live in subsidized seniors’ housing, I was stuck in the city, and feeling cut off from the soul of the Land that guides my life.

And then COVID came and more and more people were experiencing the kind of isolation I’d been living for the past few years, as my mobility decreased. Life I believe goes in a spiral. Oh it turns back upon itself like a circle, but never in quite the same way as before. If we have learned our lessons in the previous cycle when the return comes again it will be at a higher level. If not, then we will remain where we were, or lower until we get it right. I have come to another of those times of introspection and isolation. Once I accepted and surrendered to it, I’ve found many blessings during this COVID time.

With the encouragement of my dear friend Paula Johanson I’ve begun writing again. She and her daughter have been helping me with copy editing and the computer work needed to get some of my earlier novels into an e-book format and available for sale on Amazon, and other sites.

When I started reviewing some of my work last spring I didn’t think at 74 I was physically capable of putting in the long hours needed to write something totally new and do all the re-writes and editing needed to get a manuscript ready for publication.

I can’t say if it has taken me longer this time to write a book from scratch—probably has a bit—though not as much as I feared it would. I just finished last week The Kashallan Alliance, book 7 in that series. This was a SF series I started more than 20 years ago. Book 7, 109,000 words in length is all new writing and it only took me six months to complete. I have so many ideas that I now have to write a book 8, Ghostland Reckoning, to complete the series. There are two other projects I started years ago I want to finish and then if I’m still alive and full of ideas I will start something new.

When I began writing I really didn’t pay much attention to the actual “how” of the process, but this time, knowing others might be interested in my process I tried to document and pay more attention to what I was doing. As I wrote earlier the original idea for character, plot and storyline come to me in dreams. I use the word dreams loosely here, because they don’t always come at night. They are more like intense daydreams or meditations where I lose track of the physical world around me to a certain extent while I am snared and engrossed in what my characters are doing and feeling. It’s kind of like experiencing a movie—well maybe a radio play, because I’m not seeing much.

Thing is, if I get interrupted for some reason, I can usually pick up where I left off in the action when I have the quiet time to get back to it and type it into the computer. I will often write out a scene quickly as it’s coming to me and then later go back and change it or flesh it out. The scenes are often out of order from how they will appear in the final manuscript. I write them down as they come to me and don’t always know how they eventually connect in the final edit. Sometimes the plot of the scene will be the same, but some or all of the characters in the scene will be different by the time I put it into its proper place. Or, it could be the opposite way, with the characters remaining the same, but the storyline changing.

It’s taken me a bit of effort to overcome the urge to stay on something until I have it perfect. I’ve learned that if I do that, I often lose the picture I originally formed of the greater whole. So now I try just to write what I’m channeling and later I’ll worry about fitting it in or getting the spelling right.

Sometimes I will be on the bus or swimming and something will come to me, and then I keep repeating the words and the feelings over and over in my mind until I can get to the computer or a pen and paper to write everything down. My memory not being what it was when I was younger what eventually is written may not be the same as the original sending, but it still usually works, so I have to be content with what comes out and the final process.

Being more audio rather than visual by nature, music is important to me when I am doing any kind of creative work. For years I was denied music, not able to hear the songs of the Land in the cities, and discouraged and bored with the few CDs I still had. I stopped singing myself and after menopause, my voice would crack and it sounded like an old woman’s. It was hard for me to hear myself sing, after so many years with perfect pitch and an excellent voice. But this past year I’ve discovered many new artists that I never would have known about before the internet.

As I wrote book 7 I found I was listening to a lot of Viking music. I have no idea where this is coming from, because as far as I know my family has no Scandinavian ancestors. But the songs are perfect for the warriors I’ve created that live across the Shallow Sea in the Kashallan series. I also have found that I can’t listen to music with lyrics that I can understand. If I listen to those songs I find myself wanting to sing along rather than focusing on my writing.

Because I’ve been playing these Viking songs over and over for hours a day and for months, I find now they act like triggers to put me back into that world with my characters when I’ve had to be away from my writing for a time. When I start other book projects I guess I will have to find other music to put me in the mood for those stories.

I prefer writing and reading novels. A book to me is like savoring a seven course meal, and reading a short story is more like wolfing down a hamburger at McDonalds. I don’t like short stories as a rule, don’t read them or write them. But on the other hand, some of the most powerful works I’ve ever read are short stories—novella length short stories actually. When done well these shorter literary works are clean and powerful with an economy of word and design that I wish I had the talent to duplicate. I’ve had few shorts published over the years. When I try to write a short I’m usually told they are just novel fragments, so I probably need to stick to what I do best.

When writing a novel and especially a series of novels with many of the same characters continuing on from one book to another, I’ve learned to keep notes to make sure the details are consistent. This means a lot of simple things like making sure a character’s name is spelled correctly. Example: in the first kashallan books I spelled a minor character’s name Rhys. In the last book I wrote many years later I was spelling the same character’s name Reece. Reece didn’t feel right, but I had to hunt through an earlier manuscript to find the original spelling I’d used and then change all mention of the Reece version in the new book back to the original.

Hair and eye color are details that even the best of published authors sometimes confuse. Or it could be something like it’s summer, or night in one scene and daylight or winter in the next. Things like that. When the author is done it helps to have another reader go through the manuscript to check for these errors.

I’m old school, so I often have my notes hand written in a notebook rather than just in the computer. However it is done, any writer should keep such a record if they plan to write longer fiction. It will be invaluable if you later want to create a list of characters and a glossary of terms for the published work.

As I read, listen to radio or TV I often pay attention to names or the sounds of foreign words. If I like their sound I shift the spelling or change a few letters and create names for people and places in the works I write. A couple suggestions here: Create new words that have no more than 3 syllables—one or two is better, and use lots of vowels to make the unfamiliar words easier to pronounce. I keep a Possible Names list that I refer back to whenever I want. When a new character needs a name I go down my list and when the character “tells” me to stop, that becomes his or her name.

I have always told younger writers, (young in the craft of writing, not necessarily in actual age,) that in order to be a writer you first have to be a reader. By this I mean you have to love reading and do a lot of it. By reading other authors’ works you will learn about the craft and will know better what will sell and won’t. What will work in a story and what doesn’t. To be good at anything takes discipline and hard work. There are no short cuts to becoming an excellent writer.

If you want to write for fame or money, you’re writing for all the wrong reasons, because few of us get rich. Most experienced authors will tell an interviewer that they write because they need an outlet for their creativity. Often it is a fire inside that drives a writer on, like any artist, no matter how they are paid or honored by the rest of the world.

Also keep a good thesaurus and dictionary handy, and refer to them often, so you aren’t repeating the same word over and over on the page. If I read through a couple paragraphs and find I’ve used a word several times, I look at ways to rewrite the sentence or use another word. This is where reading will help, because it forces a new author to broaden both his/her thinking and vocabulary.

As a blind person I face many challenges that a sighted author doesn’t face—or at least not in the same way, perhaps. True I do use the computer to type out my manuscripts, but because I use a text to speech software program designed for the blind I am hearing rather than seeing what I put on the page. My blind software is old with many limitations, so I always need a good copy editor to go through and see that all the commas are in their right places and that words like there and there are used correctly. My software doesn’t tell me if a capital letter was missed at the beginning of a sentence or that spellcheck hasn’t changed something I didn’t want changed, like changing the name Tizu to Tissue.

I need, like most people, a good copy editor. But editors cost money these days and publishers don’t provide those services like they once did. So the author is left to struggle on their own. This has always been a problem for me. I have always had difficulty finding the extra money to pay for this service. This is another example of if not White Privilege at least Upper Class Privilege. I believe many more people of color and disabled people would be able to write there truths and have them read, if there was a way to break down these barriers and level the playing field, sort to speak.

Our world desperately needs to hear from other voices. With the internet the barrier is thinning but it is far from gone. Go to any writers’ convention or workshop and you will see that the White upper-middleclass dominates who attends. They still control too much of what is produced and what gets advertised.

There is in my opinion, a difference in a good technician and a true storyteller. And to be a true storyteller, like singing the blues, you have to pay some dues. I mean you have had to live and suffered and come out the other side, then and only then can you share your wisdom and write convincingly.

I sort of have a pet peeve with writers who try to write about things they have only read about in someone else’s books. Example: the authors who have created very popular series about indigenous tribesmen and base their accounts on what they have read from anthropological studies of “primitive peoples” at university. Let me offer only one example, before I get too upset.

A book was recommended to me years ago in which a band of humans was attacked by another group, leaving a five-year-old girl alone and hiding. The author knew nothing about people living bush. She assumed that because a five-year-old in her white upper class neighborhood wouldn’t know what to do in that situation—all children wouldn’t know what to do if faced with the same problem.

That is a laugh. My own boys were setting rabbit snares at three and already knew a few eatable plants and other things needed to survive on the land. This author also had the child being collected to go home for dinner when it began to get dark. This is also a detail from the suburbs, but not how people behave in indigenous communities around the world.

Rule of thumb, go deep and write about what you know from personal experience whenever possible. Now I will be the first one to break that rule—it can’t be helped completely, but do the best you can. The more you write from your heart and your own experiences the more “real” and powerful your fiction will seem to the reader.

Good luck and best wishes to the reader who has had the perseverance to read this essay to the end. Happy writing!
Celu Amberstone