09.23.09

Old Patterns

Posted in Uncategorized at 11:00 am by Kay

First of all, I’d like to apologize for being seemingly invisible during the summer. My last post was in May. May? Where did the summer go? No, really. Wasn’t it just May? And now, it’s almost October. Time to get crackin’.

I started to sew with real, store-bought patterns when I was 14 and in Home Economics I. I think we all made the same blouse first, then were allowed to branch out. Through the four years I took HomeEc, I advanced to suits and linings and fancy buttonholes. I think my sewing skills were always more highly developed than my cooking, although I still do the latter (by necessity) and the former has dropped off.

Economics would be the principle reason: shopping wisely, you can buy almost any garment cheaper than you can purchase the pattern, good fabric, and spend the labor in fit and construction. That has not, however, stopped me from saving all my old patterns because I’ve always believed the more times you make it, the cheaper that envelope of tissue paper becomes. As each garment is made of different fabric, they are still “new.”

So my patterns are old and used. In many cases, the envelopes are torn and they’ve been repackaged in zippy bags. I may even have that first blouse pattern if I looked really hard. I have four drawers of patterns. Four. They’re arranged by garment: blouse, dress, coat, etc. There’s a drawer for children and one for costumes and home decorating. The last two are evergreen so I can justify keeping them, while the rest, I really should think about letting go.

So what does this have to do with being a writer? Well, we fall into patterns. We write the same type of heroes, the same type of situations, no matter we use different characters and locations which subtly change the way the book looks and reads. We specialize in comedy or romantic suspense. We become good at it. Perhaps we become bored and decide to change our pattern, to go to another genre, write a beta hero instead of an alpha. We take a huge risk. Will our readers follow us? Will they stay with us? Will we still like what we’re doing?

After all, don’t styles change? Change in length (shorter books, longer skirts), change in fabric (erotica, cotton or polyester), change in design (comic covers, plaids). What we enjoyed reading or wearing in the 60s or 80s, we won’t necessarily enjoy (or look good in) now. Still, we hang on to our ‘keepers’, books or patterns. Somehow, it’s been far easier for me to divest myself of my old books than my old patterns.

I’ve written a book which is women’s fiction. It’s being considered by an agent. Of course, I hope she considers it worthy. But it was making a new pattern to put it to paper. It was a risk to see if I could get it constructed.

Then there’s the work-in-progress. It’s a contemporary romance; it’s the old pattern but in a new fabric. It’s still comfortable. But while I work on it, I’m thinking about the new pattern, wondering if making it the second time–writing another women’s fiction–would be easier than the first. Knowing how it’s constructed, how it fits… But it too would be of different fabric, lay differently on the model. So much to consider.

I guess there’s a reason I’ve kept all my old patterns and keep buying new ones. Comfort, balanced with risk.

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