So now there are close to twenty pages of novel. Two sections. The first stab at how to start the story, and an attempt to pin down and make a first draft of three increasingly serious events, the third being the climax of the book. Plus a timeline, and some basics about the characters so I can keep things straight.
The two sections are like working on two different jig saw puzzles. The pieces fit together pretty well within the two sections, but the two sections don't really fit with each other. This is the point at which doubt can creep in, because it's a bit of a mess of course. Must keep the doubt at bay. Every novel has to start somehow.
All one has to do is think of all the other things that improve just by showing up. Work. Most definitely. Sports. Relationships. Practically everything. I have a little book called A Happy Life. On page one it says, "Show up." On page two it says, "Follow your heart." Don't know what's on page three yet. Taking one page at a time.
A good motto for the novel writing too. Time to go show up.
More later.
October 31, 2012
Tomorrow
Worked all day, got sucked into Dancing With the Stars, didn't write.
Tried writing early in the morning, got sucked into Facebook, then funny website, didn't write.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow, yur only a DAY AWAAAAAYYYYYY!!!
More later.
Tried writing early in the morning, got sucked into Facebook, then funny website, didn't write.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow, yur only a DAY AWAAAAAYYYYYY!!!
More later.
October 30, 2012
It's Now or Never
At the risk of losing my spot to a more gifted and motivated novelist, I must share this. I met Michael Neff at a Cary Tennis Creative Getaway. In fifteen minutes he saved me years of mucking about.
Speaking of mucking about, I do have more than nine minutes tonight, if I start NOW. But just one more thing... Mac 101: Dictation and Speech
More later.
Speaking of mucking about, I do have more than nine minutes tonight, if I start NOW. But just one more thing... Mac 101: Dictation and Speech
More later.
October 29, 2012
Nine minutes
Nine minutes left in the day to write. Must write. Even if it's just for nine minutes. So many other things to steal the time away. Until there are just nine minutes left in the day.
What can you do with nine minutes?
Write one description.
Write one small piece of dialogue.
Re-write that one sentence that's been bugging you.
Write a blog about having nine minutes left in the day.
Make a plan to have more than nine minutes to write tomorrow.
More later.
What can you do with nine minutes?
Write one description.
Write one small piece of dialogue.
Re-write that one sentence that's been bugging you.
Write a blog about having nine minutes left in the day.
Make a plan to have more than nine minutes to write tomorrow.
More later.
October 28, 2012
Sabbath
At a publishing workshop at the San Juan Island Library a couple of years ago, Cricket Freeman advised would-be-published authors to take time off from writing each week. At the time I was hell bent on writing every day. No time to waste in my late fifties, I thought.
I've had time to reflect on Cricket's advice since then. Cricket Freeman is known for her no-nonsense, even tough, approach to advising aspiring writers. So why would she of all people say one must take days off? Because she knows what she's talking about and because the alternative is burn out, that's why.
So, itching to get back to the novel, but knowing a full workday in my other life looms tomorrow, it's time for a day off. What to do. Hmmm, I don't think Cricket said one couldn't read on said day off. I'm reading Fifty Shades Freed, the third in E. L. James' Fifty Shades trilogy.
I want to get through it as fast as possible. After almost 1400 pages of this stuff, I'm so ready to be done. It's not the sex. That part is okay. It's the writing. You are what you read to a certain extent, and my fear is contamination of my own writing. Call me a snob, I probably am.
Secretly, my goal is literary fiction. But I know my best chance of being published is Women's Light Fiction. Is it possible to create strikingly original prose and entertain at the same time? I hope so.
In addition to enduring the last of Fifty Shades, there's plenty to do around the house, the feeding the goose stuff. Ugh. But that wouldn't be much of a day off. Going into town is too much like a work day. So, the quest is to find something fun, preferably physical, out in the woods on a rainy day.
Tally Ho!
More later.
I've had time to reflect on Cricket's advice since then. Cricket Freeman is known for her no-nonsense, even tough, approach to advising aspiring writers. So why would she of all people say one must take days off? Because she knows what she's talking about and because the alternative is burn out, that's why.
So, itching to get back to the novel, but knowing a full workday in my other life looms tomorrow, it's time for a day off. What to do. Hmmm, I don't think Cricket said one couldn't read on said day off. I'm reading Fifty Shades Freed, the third in E. L. James' Fifty Shades trilogy.
I want to get through it as fast as possible. After almost 1400 pages of this stuff, I'm so ready to be done. It's not the sex. That part is okay. It's the writing. You are what you read to a certain extent, and my fear is contamination of my own writing. Call me a snob, I probably am.
Secretly, my goal is literary fiction. But I know my best chance of being published is Women's Light Fiction. Is it possible to create strikingly original prose and entertain at the same time? I hope so.
In addition to enduring the last of Fifty Shades, there's plenty to do around the house, the feeding the goose stuff. Ugh. But that wouldn't be much of a day off. Going into town is too much like a work day. So, the quest is to find something fun, preferably physical, out in the woods on a rainy day.
Tally Ho!
More later.
October 27, 2012
Novel Writing - Day Two
One can spend hours creating character bios, backstories, and outlines. All good, maybe even essential. But not really writing the story. A lot of that went on yesterday. Got my first actual possible gripping writing today. A page and a half. Do that two hundred times, and you have enough words for a novel. Okay, so I can see this is going to take a lot of writing. A lot of sitting at the keyboard.
When designing as an architect, I'd know when the design was becoming real. At first, there'd be this tiny model, a form of some kind. Nothing specific. Then a floor plan but only at like 1/16th inch scale which is pretty small. I'd work on it and work on it, struggling really, getting fed up, wondering if I could even do it, then one day, the plan would suddenly jump to 1/4" in my mind and I'd know I had a workable plan. I'd be "in it". From there, it could be drawn and built. Then it was real. I cannot explain this phenomanon, only describe it.
With the story telling, it is the same. When the story is far away, abstract, too much descriptive writing without dialog, telling, not showing, that means it's in its infancy. By working at it long enough, at some point one finds oneself inside the story, living it. That shift says there is something real here, something others might want to read.
The other day, I ran across my first fiction piece, from 2006. It was a memoir with all the names fictionalized. The names changed to protect the innocent so to speak. It was pretty hokey, felt like it was happening "over there". Didn't put the reader "in" the story. I submitted it somewhere, I can't remember where, and of course, it was rejected. Reading it now, realizing how bad it was, felt kind of great. Because there has been all this work in between. Classes, workshops, writing exercises, reading novels, studying screenplays and movie plots, and lots of writing.
Since that first piece there've been several attempts at writing a novel. These remind me of the first time my Dad let me get behind the wheel of the family car. So clueless I ran us off the road into a ditch. Fortunately it wasn't a very deep ditch, no damage was done to the car or us. One piece submitted to a critique group was judged, "sickening" by one participant.
I'm not a big fan of critique groups these days. I believe writers are their own best critics. Good writers anyway. I've met many good writers who say they just write without getting outside opinions. There are many ways to be a writer, no one right way. The key is to keep on writing.
So, back to the novel.
More later.
When designing as an architect, I'd know when the design was becoming real. At first, there'd be this tiny model, a form of some kind. Nothing specific. Then a floor plan but only at like 1/16th inch scale which is pretty small. I'd work on it and work on it, struggling really, getting fed up, wondering if I could even do it, then one day, the plan would suddenly jump to 1/4" in my mind and I'd know I had a workable plan. I'd be "in it". From there, it could be drawn and built. Then it was real. I cannot explain this phenomanon, only describe it.
With the story telling, it is the same. When the story is far away, abstract, too much descriptive writing without dialog, telling, not showing, that means it's in its infancy. By working at it long enough, at some point one finds oneself inside the story, living it. That shift says there is something real here, something others might want to read.
The other day, I ran across my first fiction piece, from 2006. It was a memoir with all the names fictionalized. The names changed to protect the innocent so to speak. It was pretty hokey, felt like it was happening "over there". Didn't put the reader "in" the story. I submitted it somewhere, I can't remember where, and of course, it was rejected. Reading it now, realizing how bad it was, felt kind of great. Because there has been all this work in between. Classes, workshops, writing exercises, reading novels, studying screenplays and movie plots, and lots of writing.
Since that first piece there've been several attempts at writing a novel. These remind me of the first time my Dad let me get behind the wheel of the family car. So clueless I ran us off the road into a ditch. Fortunately it wasn't a very deep ditch, no damage was done to the car or us. One piece submitted to a critique group was judged, "sickening" by one participant.
I'm not a big fan of critique groups these days. I believe writers are their own best critics. Good writers anyway. I've met many good writers who say they just write without getting outside opinions. There are many ways to be a writer, no one right way. The key is to keep on writing.
So, back to the novel.
More later.
October 26, 2012
On Writing a Novel
On writing a novel. A few years ago it struck one day. The memoir and personal essays were going well, that was nice, but there was this other thing nagging. Fiction.
I'd been to Write On The River and come back thoroughly inspired. But to do what? What was the next thing. There was this itch.
So I took Susan Wingate's novel writing classes. Steep learning curve. Cool fellow class mates. Delightful conversation. Risk taking encouraged. Fun!
Winter being what it is in the San Juans, last year I treated myself to Cary Tennis' Creative Getaway. More inspiration. Awesome class mates. A new way of thinking about writing. More risk taking encouragement. Fun! A strategy for writing a novel. Bingo!
I came home and wrote some more blog posts about winter in the San Juan Islands. Then one day, writing about winter got me thinking. What if next winter were to be the Winter of the Novel. Yes. Take that winter! You suck, and I'm going to kick your ass by writing a novel.
That was a great idea. Now winter is here. It's time to write or get off the keyboard, as they say.
Here's the aha from the first stab: It's possible to work on the first seemingly brilliant outpouring until all the facts are straight and all the characters are accounted for, the structure is pretty good, but the initial life force of the thing is barely hanging on by a thread.
Lesson learned. Save a copy of what's left of it. Leave it alone before you kill it altogether. Use that copy and proceed forward, this time without all the editing. See if the life, the spark returns. Remember what Anne Lamott says about "short assignments" in Bird by Bird.
More later.
I'd been to Write On The River and come back thoroughly inspired. But to do what? What was the next thing. There was this itch.
So I took Susan Wingate's novel writing classes. Steep learning curve. Cool fellow class mates. Delightful conversation. Risk taking encouraged. Fun!
Winter being what it is in the San Juans, last year I treated myself to Cary Tennis' Creative Getaway. More inspiration. Awesome class mates. A new way of thinking about writing. More risk taking encouragement. Fun! A strategy for writing a novel. Bingo!
I came home and wrote some more blog posts about winter in the San Juan Islands. Then one day, writing about winter got me thinking. What if next winter were to be the Winter of the Novel. Yes. Take that winter! You suck, and I'm going to kick your ass by writing a novel.
That was a great idea. Now winter is here. It's time to write or get off the keyboard, as they say.
Here's the aha from the first stab: It's possible to work on the first seemingly brilliant outpouring until all the facts are straight and all the characters are accounted for, the structure is pretty good, but the initial life force of the thing is barely hanging on by a thread.
Lesson learned. Save a copy of what's left of it. Leave it alone before you kill it altogether. Use that copy and proceed forward, this time without all the editing. See if the life, the spark returns. Remember what Anne Lamott says about "short assignments" in Bird by Bird.
More later.
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