crazy, crazy, crazy (shake your head sadly as you utter these words...)

See how crazy the month of November has made me? I'm telling you how to read AND using adverbs in my title.

I broke 30K on my NaNoWriMo mess. Hooray, but no. Last week or so, some kind of massive evil took over my body in form of a cough, headache and congestion that involved me hacking up things that could rightfully have a place in a bad movie on the Syfy channel. Attack of the green globs!

I'm not going to make it to 50K, the sad reality has dawned upon me. I would have to write nearly 3K per day. See, now that I do the calculations the insipid inspirational, messages those people keep sending me makes me think - MAYBE I CAN DO IT. Maybe I can stop sleeping, cut out one meal a day. I've gained a few pounds, this could be a win-win.

But, see the problem with my situation? Right now I should be working on my 3K for today and I'm watching Gilmore Girls.

I hate November. That is all.

a new way to go crazy, part II

Good news! The slash & burn (s&b) continues with some success. I now have successfully reorganized the original material into the new format (three novellas). I have settled on a new title - THE OBSCURITY OF OTHERS.

It comes from this quote:

"We should blunt our sharp points,
and unravel the complications of things;
we should temper our brightness,
and align ourselves with the obscurity of others."

-Lao Tzu, 4, Tao Te Ching

Each individual novella has its own title as well, Novella One is LOST IN ORDINARY TIME and it is now complete.

Novella two is THE CURIOSITY OF CHANCE and is also now complete. This section has been rewritten from 1st person to 3rd person limited. A bit of work that became more extensive than I had originally intended, but I am thrilled with the shape of the new story. Most notably I was able to strengthen two plot lines that really tie everything together and highlight my theme.

Now I am working on writing the final novella that will comprise the new and improved book. Novella three is titled REQUIEM, written in the 2nd person pov. I have about 2K words written so far out of a planned 20K.

BUT in the meantime I am throwing a whole new complication into my s&b - National Novel Writing Month. (Or NaNoWriMo if you like acronyms) Yes, I've signed up to be one of those crazy people who attempts to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. My blogging will be sporadic since I plan to spend as much time as possible writing. Wish me luck. I've got 1,170 word so far today. I'm hoping to reach 2,000 per day to keep up the pace. I hope to have so many words around me by December that I can go swimming in them :)

a new way to go crazy, part I

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I am in the middle of revising my first novel. Except the word revising feels too tame a way to describe exactly what I am doing to the manuscript pages. Another writer once referred to her process as "slash and burn" and that feels like an apt description. As a refresher - I am rewriting half of the novel from 1st person to 3rd person limited pov, adding in approximately 25K of new material by way of a new narrator, and shifting the structure of the book to three interconnected novellas that all work together to tell one overarching story.

So, this slash & burn (s&b) has my mind twisted into knots. I dream about it at night - this often involves me sitting in a chair, surrounded by mounds of papers (unnumbered of course) all marked with thick, red notes where I am trying to put everything in order. I think Metallica is playing in the background - loud, heavy and it leaves me feeling like I've downed way too much coffee and I am just a quick movement away from barfing it all back up.

The dream is not far off from my s&b. The very nature of this process involves revisiting elements of my work that I've thought about far too long already. This process is a long, drawn out game of second guessing myself. When I originally wrote my first novel I put it away for two months. After that cooling off period, I spent the better part of 18 months editing, rewriting and revising the thing. I filled a whole spiral bound notebook with notes - tracing the story arc, details about characters appearances, personalities, and speech patterns, noting words to check. I remember spending two weeks searching through the entire document to rid it of crutch words and other forms of repetition that struck me as inane. I polished and perfected the manuscript until I felt it shined so bright I was practically blind with the gleaming light coming off the damn thing. Revision is not a step in the process that I enjoy, it requires a certain amount of organization a certain level of thinking that doesn't feel particularly creative to me. But, I gave it my best go. I tried to find information online about how to do it and I pulled all of this together into a large, lumbering system that seemed to TAKE FOREVER.

There was a point, at the end of revising, that I realized I could get stuck in a loop. Revising becomes an all consuming process, there is always more to do. Indeed, even after reading the entire manuscript aloud I still find small typos.

The s&b brings this all back to me. Once you pull the thread out, things begin to unravel - new problems crop up all because of this clever way you thought of to improve the manuscript. Then there is the danger of going too far and getting consumed by the s&b. I wonder - Am I being too ambitious? Should I just put the novel away and focus on my WIP?

I've considered moving on, but I can't let it go just yet. Maybe this is a rookie mistake, but sometimes you have to know when to keep going. Sometimes you must listen to your gut - mine says, this s&b is reworking my novel into something great.

Kreativ Blogger Award

Many thanks to Fran Caldwell who gave me a Kreativ Blogger award! Isn't it a beauty?

If you don't know Fran's blog, check it out - she has many insightful posts about the writing and publishing process. Well worth a read.

Here is my task for accepting the award -

Seven Things That No One Knows About Me

1. I have an unnatural obsession with Thomas Jefferson.
2. This week I've been singing that Black Eyed Peas song "I gotta feeling" when no one can hear me.
3. Sometimes I refer to my 21-month-old son as "shorty."
4. I am in the middle of deconstructing my first novel. That sounds fancy, doesn't it? Sure, it is on Top Chef, but I'm not talking about food here, people. I am rewriting a whole portion from 1st person to 3rd person limited. I'm rearranging the way I broke up the book previously. I'm adding a whole new narrator. *sigh* This is going to take a while.
5. I would like to learn how to make a quilt.
6. I just recently started believing in ghosts.
7. Squirrels freak me out.

Okay, so I nominate the following people for this award: Hilary, Lynn, Sue, Hope101, Steven, The Ink Wench, and Rose.

Let's talk beginnings

Although I am still writing and working on the first draft of RIDING THE BLIND, I recently submitted the first chapter to a critique session for review. Based on the feedback, I am working on revising the all important opening to this new novel. It has gotten me thinking about beginnings - how a work draws a reader in, how it sets up the rest of the novel in tone, voice and style.

Some authors wait until the first draft is completed to do any revising. Others revise as they write. Complete one chapter, revise it and keep moving on. The trouble I have with this approach is that I get stuck in revision and never seem to move forward. My strategy for RTB is to write each part of the novel - there will be three (I think) and revise each part as it is complete. I have taken this approach because I find the editing and revising process so involved and daunting that I hope to tackle it in sections. Revising an entire novel - from first draft stage - overwhelms me. So, I'm risking the interruption to my creative process to save me (hopefully) some stress down the road. Once this first section is pretty, I hope to feel more grounded in how I want the next section to take shape.

So, back to the beginning. What are the important elements to include in the first chapter? Here is a list that I've developed for myself:

1. Character - In literary fiction, this is the glue that holds a work together - the driver of the action and story arc. In the first chapter the reader needs to know who the main character is right up front, get a sense of their personality, their conflict and what the stakes are for this person. I recently critiqued the first 25 pages of a writer's first novel. When I began to question the main character who was the focus of these pages I got a surprise. That person wasn't the MC! This knowledge left me wondering what the story really was and how I was going to understand that right off the bat.

2. Setting - Where and when is the story taking place? Grounding the reader with this relevant information, without dumping it off in a string of boring description, is critical. There are, of course, examples of works that lack specifics and build them later as the story arc takes shapes. Perhaps a novel begins in one setting or time, never to return. Still, it is important that a reader has a frame to see the characters moving around in, talking and getting into trouble.

3. Conflict - I mentioned this under character, but it is important enough to bring up again. I love novels that open with a catalyzing incident, giving the conflict right up front. Knowing the stakes for the main character in the first 10 pages is important, otherwise you get stuck in a bunch of beautiful words that say little. No navel gazing allowed - give the reader tension, conflict, and contradictions right up front.

4. Voice - The all important voice, the element that will pull a reader through lack of conflict, confusion over character and setting. (Not that you should lack these elements at all) I've noticed that voice in each work takes time to ramp up and become strong. It is important to go back to the beginning of a work and make sure the voice matches what develops by the end of the work. As with anything, beginnings in writing are full of the unknown. Every beginning I've written requires significant fine tuning as the story blossoms out and takes shape. I want the voice, tone and description to match and mirror what is to follow.

I'm sure there are other elements important for beginnings, but these are the top four that I worry about. Beginnings are critical to laying out the groundwork for what follows in a novel. No one wants to be the writer that says, "It gets good on page 50." It must be great on page one. Hooking the reader is no small feat. In fact, some will only give you a paragraph not even an entire chapter.

Nathan Bransford is running The 3rd Sort-of-Annual Stupendously Ultimate First Paragraph Challenge right now. This is a great exercise to see how beginnings are formed from that kernel of a first paragraph. Which ones hook you and leave you flat? Why?

from the folder of random ideas

The music throbbed through the floorboards and skimmed over the bodies of a pressed in crowd, no longer individualized but branching together in a group of swaying motions. The white light strobed above and cut everything into chunks, stuttering pieces. In this pulsing air, fragmented light, haze of smoke and din of sweat some spark of newness assaulted me. Originality or something akin to the taste of a first kiss slithered around and sought refuge in bright eyes. Too many.

My ears popped, and adjusted to the loud voices of the instruments. After just a few moments the noise separated into layers, each so thin and ethereal that I could almost get lost in that subtlety. Switch on. To follow - rampant, intruding thoughts orbiting my swollen head. Once thrown, the switch was stuck on. All that distraction got in the way of processing, knowing the harmonies. All I could muster was reaction, a cluster of goosebumps formed along my exposed arm.

I recognized the gorilla head attached to a body clad in a dark tuxedo. He hovered near the window, backlit by streetlights and that swollen moon. Even though I couldn’t see his face, I could feel his eyes eyes on me, watching me walk. He followed the sway of the purple fringe of my dress and lingered on my fishnet stockings. I was cold, but I pulled that shawl off my shoulders anyway.

when popular is good

There is much lamenting over the widening gulf between prose that is innovative, artistic and what sells. In literary circles there can be heard an audible sigh of frustration flowing out of this discussion. Normally, this turn in a conversation boils down to a fundamental disagreement over taste. There are some authors and books in the world, in fact one such prime example drops into the hands of fans tomorrow, that mesmerize large swaths of readers - pulls them in to a world, a character or a story but in a rather predictable, perhaps imperfectly crafted way.

Not so with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Here is a work that has enjoyed wide appeal, lavish praise and rose to the ranks of that elusive title - NY Times Bestseller. Bestseller. Oprah Book Club selection. If only all books that reach this pinnacle represented the intersection of great writing and beautiful storytelling. Truth be told, I often stay away from works like this because I often find myself disappointed. As a writer it is hard to be a gracious reader. I find problems. Sometimes the problems needle me in such a way that I can keep going. I close the book and feel sad for myself and the writer. But things get in the way. It feels like a bad relationship, the kind you stay in only because you don't know what else to do. Everyone gets hurt in the long run.

It all feeds into the argument about truly great works not getting recognition in our society, our crazy marketplace. But here, I hold the weight of the work in my hands and feel something like redemption. Something like hope. People love good stories, all is not lost. This is an incredibly good story. So good, in fact, that I feel sure that this can't be David Wroblewski's first novel. Sure, it is his first published work but the mastery he demonstrates shows the kind of skill developed only after a long slog in the process.

I'll bet he has written something else worth reading. I'll bet in another time, another age there would have been a different first book - smaller, less complex - that we readers would have enjoyed and waited for more. That is how it worked in the last century. Read Willa Cather's first book, the bare outline of what amazing works were to come. Every writer builds on that foundation - that first book - fleshes it out and makes it come alive. I miss watching the progression, that development of an artist.

I will go into detail on why I liked The Story of Edgar Sawtelle so much later this week. For now, I just wanted to post about how happy it makes me feel to read a popular book that is also very good.