Five Things I Learned About Writing From Anne of Green Gables
by K. Allen McNamara
ONE: Take time to observe and notice.
Write using ALL your senses. Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, Hearing—all of these senses should be in your writing as much as possible. Too often, as a writer, you are so caught up in what your Main Character or Characters are seeing that you fail to consider the other senses. Using more than one sense will underscore the experience of your MC and allow the reader to form a deeper connection with your MC.
“Anne sat long at her window that night companioned by a glad content. The wind purred softly in the cherry boughs, and the mint breaths came up to her. The stars twinkled over the pointed firs in the hollow and Diana’s light gleamed through the old gap’
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) (p. 326). Amazon Classics. Kindle Edition.
”but I meant everything, the garden and the orchard and the brook and the woods, the whole big dear world. Don’t you feel as if you just loved the world on a morning like this? And I can hear the brook laughing all the way up here.”
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) (pp. 32-33). Amazon Classics. Kindle Edition.
TWO: Be curious and wonder. Don’t fail to see the beauty in the everyday.
“Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive—it’s such an interesting world. It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There’d be no scope for imagination then, would there?"
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) (pp. 14-15). Amazon Classics. Kindle Edition.
As Anne calls it, having a “scope of an imagination” is helpful—which you indeed must possess, given that you are a writer. Compose as Anne did while doing chores or exercising (let the story in your head take you to another zone). Imagination can free you from the mundane.
“We used to pretend that the bookcase was enchanted and that if I only knew the spell I could open the door and step right into the room where Katie Maurice lived, instead of into Mrs. Thomas’ shelves of preserves and china. And then Katie Maurice would have taken me by the hand and led me out into a wonderful place, all flowers and sunshine and fairies, and we would have lived there happy for ever after.”
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) (p. 60). Amazon Classics. Kindle Edition.
THREE: Write fantastically, outrageously, and even badly—edit later.
What is underneath these over-the-top or poorly worded pieces will prevail and blossom through. Remember Anne when she (SPOILER) dyed her hair a ‘beautiful shade of raven’? Just like Anne you may have to clip these excerpts if or when they don’t turn out as you dreamed - but you’ll never know unless you write them, will you? And you’ll always wonder what could have been possible had you dared to try to have beautiful black hair like a raven’s wing.
“I saw myself with beautiful raven-black hair and the temptation was irresistible.”
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) (p. 229). Amazon Classics. Kindle Edition.
Remember, when you begin to edit, cut, and splice, you may be surprised to find what is left and that what grows in place is a beautiful shade of auburn.
FOUR: Form a writer’s group and line up beta readers.
You must bounce your writings against critics who love reading and writing as much as you do and who will be honest and direct in their critiques of your work. Workshop your pages in your Writing Group (they will point out your craft triumphs and needed tweaks; they will cheer you on to finishing the draft. But you will also NEED Beta Readers (readers other than family or your writing group) who can critically examine your writing as a reader, as your targeted audience..
“I’ve just thought of a plan, Diana. Let you and me have a story club all our own and write stories for practice. I’ll help you along until you can do them by yourself. You ought to cultivate your imagination, you know. Miss Stacy says so. Only we must take the right way. I told her about the Haunted Wood, but she said we went the wrong way about it in that.”
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) (p. 222). Amazon Classics. Kindle Edition.
I belong to three such groups. In our ActsofRevision Group, we have the position of Moderator, unflinching in staying on task (our Nancy Sackheim herds us together every other week, like cats). We read our pieces aloud for first impressions and critiques. The Moderator reminds us the story is the author's, not the group's, less the comments go down a rabbit hole of possibilities. The writer may ask for clarification or request suggestions when in doubt.
I also belong to a tight and intimate group composed of four writers, formed during GrubStreet's Novel Generator. We sustained our generated novels from this class through the pandemic; we hired a published author and noted instructor to help us carve through huge chunks of prose.
My third group is an Accountability Workshop—a non-workshop group hosted by two mentor authors who keep us focused and cheer us on; this group is the answer to the burnout of traditional workshops. We slack the group with writing contests and articles on the craft and can seek out beta readers from the Accountability Workshop members. As Anne said of Story Club:
“makes us [each] criticize our own [works] too. I never thought my compositions had so many faults until I began to look for them myself... I wanted to give up altogether, but Miss Stacy said I could learn to write well if I only trained myself to be my own severest critic. And so I am trying to.”
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) (p. 270). Amazon Classics. Kindle Edition.
FIVE: Balance. To write, you must recognize what the reader bring to your story and what you, as a writer, will supply to your story.
A. Anne's creator: Lucy Maud Montgomery, knew Prince Edward Island. She lived during the period in which the Anne of Green Gables was set. This is not to say that you must only write about what is real. After all, as a fiction writer, this is precisely what you do: you create. But you write about what you do know - whether it is growing up in a particular place, as Richard Russo's mill town upbringing, which translated into: Mohawk or Empire Falls, or in the case of Celeste Ng's midwest upbringing that is present in Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere. And remember, sometimes you can only write what you imagine to be true - what you imagine the character is experienced, as in The Fact of A Body: a murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, where you can only picture the type of station wagon that was driven, or how the heat was twenty years before...
B. To Admit when you are wrong. It took Anne nearly five years to admit she was wrong about Gilbert Blythe and to realize that there was much to be gained by expanding her social universe to include him. The same is true when you receive a sharp critique of your novel. Put it aside and revisit it. Chances are the commentary will be more helpful than you initially thought, and there will be some valid points to extract from it. Criticism can be sobering and give you a different perspective. A devil's advocate, if you will. Why even Josie Pye could prove insightful.
“You’ve been crying,” remarked Josie, with aggravating pity. “I suppose you’re homesick—some people have so little self-control in that respect. I’ve no intention of being homesick, I can tell you.”
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) (p. 296). Amazon Classics. Kindle Edition.
Ambition and the Bend in the Road. You need to be ambitious but recognize that what lies ahead for your MC may differ from what you originally conceived. As a writer, you must be ambitious on the part of your MC and in your career. See Ambition as branching out from your comfort zone or as flying aloft. Try writing something new when the old seems stale (Non-fiction, Personal Essay, Poetry). Grow as a writer and as a person.
“Oh, it’s delightful to have ambitions. I’m so glad I have such a lot. And there never seems to be any end to them—that’s the best of it. Just as soon as you attain to one ambition you see another one glittering higher up still. It does make life so interesting.”
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) (p. 298). Amazon Classics. Kindle Edition.
Recognize that your writing will not always go as planned. Life will interfere, and you will have to adjust. Just as life or circumstances will interfere with your character's plans
“Now there is a bend in it. I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend, Marilla. I wonder how the road beyond it goes—what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows—what new landscapes—what new beauties—what curves and hills and valleys further on.”
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) (p. 322). Amazon Classics. Kindle Edition.
Remember, Writing is hard work. Anything worth doing is hard work, as the old adage states. But if you’re lucky enough, you will remember as a writer, you have so many tools at your disposal. Why just consider:
“There was a freshness in the air as of a wind that had blown over honey-sweet fields of clover. Home lights twinkled out here and there among the homestead trees. Beyond lay the sea, misty and purple, with its haunting, unceasing murmur. The west was a glory of soft mingled hues, and the pond reflected them all in still softer shadings. The beauty of it all thrilled Anne’s heart, and she gratefully opened the gates of her soul to it. “Dear old world,” she murmured, “you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.”
Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables (AmazonClassics Edition) (p. 325). Amazon Classics. Kindle Edition.
