Parallels

After writing my pitch, and seeing that much of what I have so far on the novel no longer works, I was disappointed. But I'm not sure what I was expecting. When I was learning to design houses, I had to make a lot of feeble attempts before I got the hang of form, proportion, proper use of building materials, and the ability to put all that and much more into a set of drawings from which the project could be built.

Why would it be any different writing a novel? There are a lot of parallels, actually. A house needs a foundation, you could think of that as the backstory. Then the house needs a skeletal frame. You could think of that as the plot structure. That skeletal frame is determined by the style combined with accepted building conventions. You could think of style as genre and building conventions as tried-and-true key elements needed for a market ready book.

In my architectural life, it took time, but eventually, I was able to conceive of a three dimensional building that met the client's needs, both practical and aesthetic. And before that, I learned to make a dress. One of my architecture teachers told me if I could sew a dress, I could build a building, because the common denominator is understanding sequence. That's something to think about. I have a feeling there's a parallel there as well.

More later.

Pitch Perfect

I thought my first novel would be set in the San Juan Islands, a late-in-life romance. Then one day, the protagonist walked by, tapped me on the shoulder, and said, "Uh uh... Portland. And by the way, it isn't a romance."

That's the thing about writing. It's a dynamic process. Things change. I discovered how much things can change when I started working on suggested assignments for the writers workshop I'm going to at the end of February.

The good advice in one of the assignments was to write a pitch for your novel, a brief summary to grab the attention of agents and publishers. Writing the pitch at the beginning of the novel writing process can save a lot of re-writing later on.

I could see my precious thirty-three pages of novel dissolving like cotton candy on the tongue as I prepared my pitch. I could see the story needed to change in very specific ways. A lot of what I'd written so far no longer fit.

Darn. But better to find out sooner rather than later as some writers do. Here's the thing about good advice, it's best to take it.

More later.

For Skip

A little over three years ago, when I had been on San Juan Island about a year and was writing regular columns on The San Juan Islander, I was invited to go on a walk with the "Friday Walkers". When I was introduced to the group, and it was noted I was writing stories about adjusting to island life and other things, a man approached me and said he enjoyed the column. Curious, I asked him what he liked about it. He said he liked the story of the Cherry Red Corvette Convertible. He explained he had cancer and he liked the stories about my late husband. I was touched by his honesty and willingness to share his thoughts and feelings. He told me his name was Skip.

That conversation had a profound effect on me. It was the first time anyone had expressed a particular type of appreciation for what I was doing. Baring my soul once a week in a public forum. Something people who care for me were worried about me doing. Skip told me he was touched by my words. I was touched by his thanking me. On subsequent walks, Skip told me about his life and along with other walkers, welcomed me to the island community. When I went to work and could no longer go on those Friday walks, I'd occasionally run into Skip at the post office or grocery store. He always had a friendly greeting for me.

So I was saddened and somewhat surprised to read of his passing earlier this month. I had to look twice at the notice in the post office window. It seemed to me Skip, whose full name was Rees Hawkins Kimble, had the will and the attitude to go on living forever. And being a cancer survivor myself, every person who lives long with cancer is my hero. You just don't expect them to ever actually die. And there's the hope that if they can beat it, so can I. Well, Skip did live a very long time with cancer, seventeen years, and he did it with grace and dignity. That was a huge accomplishment. And I am very glad to have had the pleasure of making his acquaintance on his journey.

My most sincere condolences to Skip Kimble's family.

Benjamin Button

Plotting the movie gave me a great excuse to sit down and watch The Curious Case of Brad Pitt, I mean Benjamin Button, on TV. Of course, I would never watch a movie just to drool over Brad Pitt. Except for maybe Meet Joe Black and... well never mind. Somehow the first time around I missed that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button started as an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. So I stopped by the library for a book of F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories so I could read it. Loved the movie, but when they said "based on" or "inspired by", can't remember which, they got that right.

The story is much better, it's very quirky, modern, very modern. Hard to believe it was written in the 1920s. How did I also miss that F. Scott Fitzgerald was so ahead of his time and truly is the great American story teller. He makes no apologies, gives no explanations, just, here's a really odd thought taken all the way to completion perfectly. Want to gobble up the whole book, but probably won't have time. Homework for the Author-Mentor workshop on everything from writing a good pitch to having a good twist at the end, and everything in between. Rigorous, but exhilarating.

I'm feeling a bit like Benjamin Button myself these days with all the excitement and tenacity of youth, and none of the disillusionment Fitzgerald wrote about in Gatsby, and perhaps I should be feeling given my age. Maybe that's what Fitzgerald meant by writing a story of a life lived backwards. Age can either lead to disillusionment or can give one a certain cavalier approach to tackling what might previously have been a daunting task. You have to ask yourself the question, "If not now, when?" Then, go for it with the gusto that comes with the certain knowledge that life is short.

And life was short for Fitzgerald. Just forty-four years. Very focussed though. Knew what he was made for and did it. With gusto.

More later.

The Last Woody Allen Post, I Promise.

Here's another thought. Woody Allen froze in time his system that worked fifty years ago, and it is still working for him now. So why couldn't any writer do the same. Like figure out a system that works to keep track of everything using a laptop, and in fifty years, when everyone else is writing stories and transmitting them from the embedded computer chip in their head to others' embedded computer chips, I could still be tapping away on my fifty year old Mac. 

That's flawed. I'm pretty sure in fifty more years Woody Allen will still be able to put his hands on paper, pen, and staplers, I'm not so sure about being able to use the same laptop for fifty years. Laptops die, software becomes unavailable, does not work with newer laptops, etc. Of course it would take exponential advances in medical science for either one of us to be doing anything at all in fifty years, but you get the point. And one can always hope.

For Woody, there's the typewriter ribbons, and unless he makes photocopies of every revision, there is no record of what went before. For me as a writer now, there's the fact that technology is evolving at an exponential rate and what I'm doing now may not be an option in ten years, let alone fifty. Anything can become an anachronism given enough time, I guess. Were tiny staplers invented when Mark Twain was writing. How far back do paper and pens go? Would it be most wise to go back to scrawling with charcoal on slate tablets? One must use what one has at one's disposal and remain open to change if necessary. For Woody it has not been necessary, for me it might be. There, that's decided, stick with the laptop...for now.

More later.

Electronic Cut and Paste

Is it possible to do the Woody Allen cut and paste using a computer? I always find it charming to see someone who has a tried and true method that is low tech, especially when it clearly works for them and they have no reason to change. I have a few of my own. I still use a dumb phone. But I am not Woody Allen typing on a fifty year old typewriter. I own and enjoy using a state of the art laptop.

One of the big advantages of living in the age of computers is that if you're willing to make the leap to paperless, you can save a lot of space, not to mention paper. Yes, it's still good to keep those old tax returns until the year infinity, and a few other vital pieces of paper, but with a good system of backing up, there is no reason not to be able to create a novel or a screenplay on a computer. The question is, can one adapt the spread-it-all-out-on-the-floor-to-look-at-it method using a computer?

What would that look like? Well, it might not look like cut and paste for one thing. It might look more like a bunch of folders with different neat written stuff in them linked to a powerpoint presentation of the plot and story structures of the novel. Seriously. One could do that. Not THIS one, since I'm a Powerpoint Luddite, but one could.

But I do think in order to effectively use cut and paste, it must go hand in hand with developing a strong plot and story structure. When you have a tight, well thought out structure on which to hang all that descriptive writing, dialogue, and those cute as a button original phrases you're so proud of, it will be much easier to keep track of where you put things in the novel or screenplay because everything will be there for a very specific reason.

Hmmm... paradigm shift. Maybe it isn't so much cut and paste, which of course there will be a lot of no matter how one chooses to do it, so much as it's multiple revisions (the most powerful advantage computers offer), tied to an evolving plot structure. With a little discipline, or maybe a more friendly way of saying it would be "developing good habits" of working on story and plot structure as well as having some way of keeping track of various bits of good writing that make up the elements of the story, I think the fluidity of the creative process and the constant dynamic evolution of the story can be retained.

Whew! That's a relief, it is worth a shot to use modern technology for novel writing. I wasn't really looking forward to having to cut all those strips of paper and put them back together. I'm still charmed by Woody Allen's two tiny staplers, though. Well one can admire without having to copy. And yes, I do think his private life is very strange. But after watching Whatever Works, I am pretty sure Woody Allen does too.

More later.

Back in the Saddle

Now I'm done being sick and not giving a shit, it's time to get back to work. I've made it to thirty three pages of novel, and frankly, I can't remember where I put in that cute little phrase about how my protagonist met her husband. Woody Allen has a technique that might help. I learned it while watching the recent PBS documentary about his life, his work, and how he writes. That last bit - like a nugget of gold, received just because I had nothing better to do and flipped on the TV to see what was on. TV of course is mostly drivel, but once in a while I'm rewarded for maintaining my ongoing affair with it.

Well anyway, there's this thing Woody Allen has done from the time he started writing as a teenager. For one thing he still uses the same typewriter he's used for over fifty years. That in itself is interesting. Then, fairly early on, he takes all his hand-typed pages, cuts them into strips, then puts them in the new order he wants. Sometimes he adds in strips from lined yellow pads written in longhand. He continues to do this until he's done with the piece. Literal cut and paste. Or should that be literary cut and paste? Well, I guess that depends on how you feel about Woody Allen.

By writing something much longer than ever before, I'm learning that, after a certain point, it's hard to keep everything straight. I simply cannot remember where I put everything. Woody Allen is now seventy-seven years old. So I can learn from him how to be a semi-old writer. He doesn't plan on ever stopping and neither do I. Being semi-old means for some of us perhaps the memory isn't what it used to be. For me that's just business as usual. My mother said she had a memory like a sieve. Good image, and unfortunately her legacy to me. So I've been using tricks and mnemonic devices all my life.

I realize though, that if I use Woody Allen's technique of cut and paste, I can see all the pieces of the novel literally (the correct use of the word literally, thank you) laid out in front of me, something I cannot do while working on my laptop. The side benefit of cut and paste is being able to find things because you are reading them as you arrange them, you can sort them into piles etc. There is also something visceral about having your hands on all those pieces of paper and being able to lay them all out on a table, or even the floor.

Here's something I've learned while cutting and pasting, no matter the medium. It forces you to make a commitment to working out a lot of wrinkles. That segue from one paragraph to another that works when you have things in their original order, most likely will not work when you mix things up. Darn, and that segue was so brilliant too. This is not unique to cutting an pasting on the computer. Woody has to fix that stuff with his method too. It just goes with the territory of self editing.

Which leads me to "not getting too attached". You most probably will have to let go of some things, like a brilliant segue, to make the story work. Not getting too attached is a topic I've been meaning to write about on this blog. Did I do that already, or did I just think I did? Darn, I can't remember. Now I'll have to read my own blog (gag) to find out. Haha.

More later.

Square One

Seventeen days until the winter solstice. Hang on girl. Today the sun's out. Yes!!! That puts a piece of coal on the fireplace of my life. When my mother was a child, her hometown in England was always black with soot from burning coal everywhere. Some smart people got together and said, "Hey, this soot is bad, let's stop burning coal." And they did. And now my mother's little home town in England is a beautiful, clean place. Thank you smart people. My mom liked to tell that story.

So I've got this sucky virus, and I feel that kind of sore throat, achy, dizzy, just let me sleep, funky way one feels at such times. And because today it's hard to give a shit, I can't help thinking about how important giving a shit is for a writer. That quote from Paul Gallico keeps gnawing at me. About caring so much about the story you want to tell, and about the characters in it, that you write in a way that brings the reader along, caring, with you.

That's square one. Can't wait to get back to square one.

More later.

Grit

Sometimes while writing, I'll come to the end of a piece and there will be this one little thing I'm tempted to delete.  Quite often, it's that very same word, phrase, or sentence that gives the piece it's punch. I call that little thing the "grit".

It's frequently an admission of imperfection or a downright flaw. It might be the use of an expletive. It might be the relaying of an experience that includes feelings of deep sadness, fear, or loss. It's often the tiny nugget that links me, the writer, to the reader, and also to the rest of humanity.

Later, when I check it out, people say the grit was the best part. It's often the part that most resonates. It takes courage to leave in the grit. Keeping the grit in is the line between safety and risk for the writer. I'm reminded of a quote from a John Updike interview with Terry Gross on NPR.

“A writer is somebody who tries to tell the truth, right? And your value to your society is a certain willingness to risk being honest..."

In the 1946 book “Confessions of a Story Writer” Paul Gallico wrote:

"It is only when you open your veins and bleed onto the page a little that you establish contact with your reader. If you do not believe in the characters or the story you are doing at that moment with all your mind, strength, and will, if you don’t feel joy and excitement while writing it, then you’re wasting good white paper, even if it sells, because there are other ways in which a writer can bring in the rent money besides writing bad or phony stories."

Whether you call it honesty, bleeding onto the page, or grit, it's all the same thing. It's how you really connect with the reader, and if you're not trying to do that, what are you doing.

More later.

S.A.D. (not) Update

So I spent most of last winter analyzing data about the shortening of the days, the inception of Daylight Savings Time, the lag between less light and colder temperatures, etc, and writing about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). That was fun and interesting. 

It was fun and interesting in large part because thirty years ago I found a good therapist, and twelve years ago, after three decades of suffering with anxiety and depression, always made worse by Northwest winter gray skies and rain, I finally acquiesced to the reality of needing pharmaceutical support. 

With that groundwork in place, this winter I've discovered that a passion, learning the craft of writing a novel, one that can be pursued under a down comforter next to a wood stove, can make northern latitude winter and it's associated blues practically disappear for hours at a time. Things are indeed better then they have ever been.

The experiment of The Winter of the Novel is going very well. Time is speeding by as I work on my assignments for the Author-Mentor Workshop at the end of February, the time winter usually seems like it will never end. I don't know if there will be a finished novel by then, but that goal fades into the background as I enjoy doing the pre-workshop homework. Partially because the homework is it's own reward.

One assignment has us delving into five or six recently published Literary Fiction novels of our choice. Books I would not have probably picked up without homework on how to develop a sympathetic protagonist. Literary fiction, I remember now, has the most creative use of language, a delicious feast for the eyes and, when read aloud, for the ears as well. Musical, magical, lyrical phrases that beg to be repeated before moving on.

Here's my list. Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult, The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje, Room by Emma Donoghue, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker, City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris, and A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

So nice to have a life partner who appreciates a good book and always has one on the night stand.

More later.

Publishing

Writing is not publishing and publishing is not writing. Lately, I've been studying how to get published. Have become rather obsessed with it really. As I tend to do. It's fascinating and an energizing challenge. It puts me in contact with people who feed my mind and spirit.

What I learned this week however, is that when you look at all the things you can do to up your chances of getting published, and there are many, it's possible to lose track of the fire in the belly for the writing that started the whole ball rolling in the first place.

Unless you're the one in a million who gets discovered while typing away at the proverbial soda fountain, a balance must be struck between the artist who channels the words, phrases, sentences etc. that delight the reader, and the practical, feet on the ground, go getter one must be in order to be published.

That's all.

More later.

Genre

So I went to the library in search of books in my genre. Light women’s fiction. Sophie Kinsella is funny. I loved The Undomestic Goddess. Oh, here’s a book called Shopaholic and Sister. I have characters who are sisters, I’ll get that.

At home I sit down for a good read. The first two pages are confusing and too much work. Are these telegrams? Why does the book start this way? I’m reading LWF so I don’t have to figure this kind of stuff out.

The reader rules when it comes to publishing. I’m the reader here. Note to self. Must have great first line, first page. Yes, must have first page that makes the reader want to keep reading.

Next! Good thing I picked up Diary of a Mad Fat Girl by Stephanie McAfee. Oh, this is really good. Funny right out of the gate. I like this voice. Cheeky, but endearing. I can use this for voice practice.

So glad I got pointed away from Romance. Why did I ever think that was my genre? When you tell the publishing coach you are writing Ro-mance, and your voice drops on the second syllable, you should know you’re in trouble.

Yes, cheeky, funny, smart Women’s Light Fiction, that’s the ticket. Beach read. Ahhhh. I love the beach.

More later.

Discipline

When it's been a few days with not much time for writing, it's easy to toy with giving up. Then I think of my dad. He worked hard, supporting us, as a dedicated minister, and finally got the chance to write full time when he retired at sixty-five. He and my mom lived incredibly frugally in rented apartments so he could live his dream.

The thing I have in common with my dad is the love of the craft. That's why he did it. He was far too humble to try and get published. His short stories are our family legacy. Carrying on the legacy for me means pushing myself toward publication.

I'd like to say it's self discipline that takes me back to the keyboard instead of giving up. But I am not that self disciplined. It's the simple love of words that takes me back. Playing around with words never gets old for me. Like for my dad.

I saw a quote from Fran Lebowitz yesterday. She said, "I am probably the worst speller in the world, so I am constantly looking things up. Every time I sit at my desk, I look at my dictionary, a Webster’s Second Unabridged with nine million words in it and think, All the words I need are in there; they’re just in the wrong order."

I aspire to her wit.

More later.