Elizabeth Hodges wrote "Death by African Violet" while in the middle of a number of other writing projects. "I cannot write one thing at a time," she said. Hodges was working on two book projects, an annual report, and a chapter for a collection edited by a colleague when the first scene for "Death by African Violet" came to her.

Hodges had begun writing very short personal pieces because her other writing projects were eating up all her time, making her unable to write important memories that popped into her mind. Hodges calls these pieces "cameos"-small portraits of people and sketches of events that happened long ago in her own life.

"I put these cameos in their own files," she said. "Then, I'll be writing one cameo and realize that it is definitely connected with another. 'Death by African Violet' brought together three cameos I had not initially seen as related."

"The essay took off when I started, for other reasons, writing about some college memories," Hodges said. "Suddenly I found myself at the beginning of the cameo about my grandmother's death-a call from my mother on a Saturday afternoon when my roommate and I were hanging out, killing time."

When she began to build upon this particular cameo, the story changed. "As is so often the case, I found I began writing about something other than what I initially thought. Instead of writing about my grandmother's death, I found myself writing about who I was years ago when almost every day involved some tension between my grandmother and me."

This "cameo" process of writing has eased the frustration Hodges had been feeling in her jumbled work as a writer. "I trust that at some point I will see the order in the chaos," she said.

She recommends serious writers make writing a habit and try working in the short "cameo" form. She suggests that beginning writers adapt the "cameo" process to suit their own stories.

"It doesn't have to be every day" she said, "but schedule yourself six, eight hours a week when you will be at your writing station, and write whatever you can. Learn to trust your processes."