Yvonne Cassidy – Writer

Wow, double digits for my time here in VT, which means I have only a few more days left in my two week rental. I’ve gotten great traction on my page count and am feeling satisfied regarding my output. I love the writing life as well as being completely independent up here.

I wake up when I wake up, go to sleep on my body’s clock. Meals, picking up groceries, exploring–all based on my desire of the moment. It’s a spectacular change of pace from my work and world. I’ll be very happy to resume my ‘real’ life in NYC. I believe it’s the contrast that makes this country lifestyle so enjoyable. I would not like a steady diet of this, but as a balance to the other 50 weeks of the year, bring it on!

Before I came away on this journey I paid a visit to my friend Yvonne Cassidy, a writer I’ve met since moving to New York. She recently had surgery and has been laid up at her apartment. I’ve been over to keep her company a number of times, but only this last time did we get into a discussion about writing. Her next book’s timeline caught my eye in her bedroom. When I asked her about it, she showed me her wall map of her as well as the printed version of her novel in progress, a thick spiral bound volume with multiple highlights in varying colors to indicate which character it’s following. I was inspired and loved seeing how another author organizes her work. It’s an amorphous project, hard to see all at once, and I’m a visual person. Yvonne’s model will be very helpful to me.

Timeline with Post-Its for Yvonne’s next book

I had considered imitating her chapter by chapter timeline while on retreat, but the walls of my cabin are uneven, and attaching a wide enough roll of paper would be more challenging than I’m willing to attempt. But when I get back to my apartment, I fully intend to imitate Yvonne’s creative lead. I have a large blank wall in my living room awaiting an eventual art purchase. But until that day, I can see my own arrangement of colorful sticky notes to map out my book’s arc and characters.

I’ll post the photos of Yvonne and her wall pieces tomorrow. My iPhone isn’t getting a strong enough signal to send the images to my computer tonight. I’ll post them in the morning, but wanted to stay on track with my blogging.