Skip to main content

Guest Post Wed: Write What You Know!

Write What You Know! 

with Mary Cunningham


The dream takes place in a mysterious attic. At times the attic is exciting and mysterious, but many times it is dark and foreboding.

I'd just finished telling my best friend, Diana, about the recurring dream I'd had for almost 20 years, when I had a "light-bulb" moment. It occurred to me that the dream took place in the attic of my childhood friend, Cynthia. "Hmmm…" Diana pondered, "Cynthia's Attic. What a great title!" That's when the dreams stopped and the writing began.

I sat in my New Jersey home wanting desperately to write about the dream and to recall the fond memories of playing in Cynthia's attic as a child. I should write a memoir! No…a picture book…maybe a song! (That didn't work!) Nothing seemed to strike me, so I let go and just started writing. A four-page memoir eventually turned into a 33,000-word young reader novel, and took more than three years to write. Another two years would pass before the book was published, and the final edit submitted.

I believe the greatest obstacle I had to overcome was reminding myself that it was permissible, even preferable, to write "outside the box." The only limits would be my imagination (or lack thereof). Whenever I felt myself getting stale, I'd open Harry Potter. If there's one thing I learned from J.K. Rowling's writing, it's that anything can happen in fantasy fiction. If you can write it…it can happen.

So many authors force themselves to write a specific number of hours a day. Write! Write! Write! Even if it's no good, or doesn't make sense. Eventually, I'll write something that's good and makes sense to somebody…somewhere. This method may work for them, but it's useless to me. If I sit for more than ten minutes struggling with word after word, I get up and do something more constructive.

The best advice, however, is write what you know. I picked up this little tidbit early on and have never forgotten it; evidenced by my 5-book series, Cynthia's Attic, set in my hometown using ancestors as story characters. I get great feedback from elementary school students and teachers after my Power Point "Ideas" presentation that highlights family pictures and settings.

My wish is to inspire the young and old to write! And, if you need further inspiration, keep in mind that I didn't write my first book until I was 50!

Cynthia's Attic: Legend of Lupin Woods (Book 5) 

Cynthia and Gus have solved a lot of mysteries across time, but something is seriously wrong and things are beginning to unravel. Aunt Belle is missing…again! Cynthia’s great-grandfather, Beau, was never found! And now they are wondering if Blackie is still making life miserable for Lilly and Annie. This time, the twelve-year-old girls journey into a strange woods full of frightening creatures and dark secrets in search of answers. From Aunt Belle's cottage to a small village in France, they meet new friends and discover a connection to New Orleans that may lead to the devious source behind these alarming developments. Or bigger trouble.

Mary Cunningham Bio: Like Cynthia and Gus, my childhood best friend, Cynthia and I grew up in a small, Southern Indiana town…the setting for the series. Not one summer day passed that we weren’t playing softball, hide and seek, badminton, or croquet with friends in the vacant lot behind Becky’s house. In my attempt to grow up, I joined The Georgia Reading Association, and the Carrollton Creative Writers Club. When giving my fingers a day away from the keyboard, I enjoy golf, swimming and exploring the mountains of West Georgia where I live with my husband and adopted furry, four-legged daughter, Lucy.

Together we’ve raised three creative children and are thrilled with our 2 granddaughters. At last count, I’ve moved 9 times to six different states (all after the age of 36), and aside from the packing and unpacking, it’s been a great experience, having made some very dear and lasting friendships. My non-writing time is spent showing power point presentations on gathering ideas and the writing process to schools and libraries.

Mary Cunningham Books http://www.marycunninghambooks.com 
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Cunningham/e/B002BLNEK4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Cunningham/e/B002BLNEK4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Smashwords Ebooks
B & N Book Nook http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/cynthia-s-Attic-Mary-Cunningham?store=ALLPRODUCTS&keyword=cynthia%27s+Attic+Mary+Cunningham OmniLit http://www.omnilit.com/storeSearch.html?searchBy=author&qString=Mary+Cunningham

video: Cynthia’s Attic Series for 'Tweens

Want to follow Mary Cunningham's virtual tour. Here is the schedule http://cynthiasattic.blogspot.com/2012/05/cynthias-attic-legend-of-lupin-woods.html

Labels:

Comments

  1. Mary CunninghamMay 23, 2012 at 9:48 AM

    I'm thrilled to be a guest on the Writing Mama Blog to share my writing tips!

    Thanks! (Now, go forth and write!)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for visiting my blog and for leaving a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

The Time to Start Writing is Now! (1st published on Utah Children's Writers)

I teach writing for my local college's continuing educational program. I love meeting with beginning writers each week and sharing the basics. However, I'm always surprised to find many of them haven't even sat down to write the story building inside them or at least log the ideas they have for story lines. So my advice to you today if you want to start down the road of becoming a writer...The Time to Start Writing is Now! Some Idea Starters For beginning writers (and something I learned when I studied at the Institute of Children's Literature), I have found using visual aids to spark an idea is always a great way to begin the process of writing. You can do this to draft an actually short story or book for submission to just using it as a writing exercise.  Study the pictures I have below or pick one of your own from a magazine, old photo album, etc. Study the pictures and select one that appeals to you most.  Also, keep in mind your target readership with pi...
1 comment
Read more

The Multiplied Benefits of Journaling

Do you keep or have you kept a journal or diary? If so, you probably already know some of the benefits of journaling because you've experienced them. You know that your journal helps you make sense of the senseless side of your life. A journal can be an emotional lifesaver when you go through a hard time. But did you know that scientists believe journaling can even keep you physically healthy? The release of pent-up emotions you pour into your journal every day actually helps reduce the symptoms of arthritis and asthma, and strengthens your immune system. This really makes sense if you consider that much illness is exacerbated by stress, and a journal is one of the best stress reducers out there. Journaling gives you a record of your emotional growth like no other. While it can be useful at times to be able to look back and see just when your neighbor moved in or when you started suffering from headaches, the intangible changes in you can be even more fascinating to look back...
3 comments
Read more

Is Research Really Important in Fiction Writing?

In a lot of the writing groups and conferences I've been to the topic of research has come up from time to time. There are many different opinions on the subject, and many will tell you research is only necessary when you are writing about something you know very little to nothing about. But is this really the case and if it is, does your writing suffer from not doing research all the time? After writing many short stories and picture books for young readers, my opinion on doing research might be very different from yours. I have always felt research is critical no matter how much I know or don't know about a certain subject. There is always something I learn each time, even on topics I know a lot about as things are always changing, and changing fast sometimes these days. However, I thought I was just one of the weird writers out there feeling this way until I took a research workshop with James Patterson, who had this to say about research. "Research really he...
3 comments
Read more