Novel Finished!

Tags

Canada 150, editing, nanowrimo, novel, Writing

As if novels are ever finished.

I have finished draft number 6 of novel 2011. A review: I start a novel every year during NaNoWriMo and have won that contest six years in a row. I spend the rest of the year re-writing these novels or working on other projects. Here’s a list of my novel WIPs:

Year – My Ranking of Potential (1 to 5) – Draft – Words – Status – Plan

2010 – 4 Stars – Draft 3, a complete story – 80,000 – not touched since 2012. Needs a setting overhaul and a major rewrite. – Indefinite revisit.

2011 – 5 Stars! – Draft #6 – 129,000 words – Ready for pitching – About to undertake a major submission agenda.

2012 – 4 Stars – Draft #4 – 130,000 words – Needs a story trim; much too much happening; needs a writing overhaul, a killing of bad habits. – Indefinite revisit.

2013 – 2 Stars – Draft #1 – 51,000 words – Need to find the tension. I have characters and ending but the plot falls down in the mud. – Indefinite revisit.

2014 – 4 stars – Draft #1 – 51,000 words – A Sequel to 2012; I really like this story and it could become 5 star – Indefinite revisit.

2015 – 1 Star – Draft #1 – 50,000 words – an attempt at writing in an additive style; I cannot function in this style, not solely – XXX

Undecided Upon

2016 – 5 Star! – Concept – 0 words – A story with social implications I am not sure I am qualified to pull off, but if I do …
2016 – 4 Star! – Concept – 0 words – A less defined story with social implications I feel more comfortable attacking, but the story itself is mostly undefined.

I’ve had to overcome some major writing issues since I undertook this journey, and I don’t claim to be finished. My writing has been a rebellious child.

I tend to write weak conversational sentences which overuse stage-management verbs: she looked, she saw, she felt, etc.. I also tend to generalize. I know the story, so I don’t need to write all the details. I don’t need them. And putting myself in my readers’ shoes has been a struggle. Even when I try hard, I tend to slip into the internal know-it-all mode. Yet whenever I read others’ writings, their generalizations jump out at me. It is a pattern I have yet to resolve.

I think I have figured out the tension and drama of sentences, paragraphs, sections, scenes, chapters, and stories. I have a series of blogs in progress where I elucidate my understanding of pattern in prose: the general narrative arc we so easily apply to story also applies at each sub-level. My daily reading and analysis of narrative prose has been a tremendous help as has my attacking of several writing craft books.

I think it is all coming together, finally, but of course it seems held together by fine threads.

This 2012 novel feels really good. At least it does to me. I have concerns how others will take it, and I have been mindful of the differences between my own thinking and the common person’s. I am an INFP who lives in his diffuse-thinking half of his mind and who easily visits all angles of an argument but has difficulty taking sides. He hates run-on sentences but sometimes uses them to demonstrate how he thinks. This novel has political implications, and I fear staunch wingers, left or right, may view this story as wishy-washy. Yet our world is full of wishy-washy people, and I might argue these people should run the world.

2012 is also uber-Canadian. You can’t get more Canadian than my story, and I mean that in every conceivable sense. I cant see the rest of the world reading it (especially Americans) and saying, “Wha?” Yet they will never find a better guide of our country 😉

2017 is Canada’s 150th birthday. It’s going to be a hell of a party. My guts say this story needs to be out there for much of next year, and there’s only one sure way I know of doing that, and that’s not really the route I want to take. I’d rather a major publisher take it on and pump it out in six months rather than the twenty four they a lot new authors.

If they’d only read it!

Anyway, wish me luck on this journey.

 

 

 

 

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Novel Update

Tags

2017, Canada 150, editing, novel, Writing

I don’t say much about my writing on this blog. I’ve written much but have said little. Meet me for a coffee, and I will talk your ear off. There is too much to write about, and I’ll be honest, I don’t really know what I am doing. *grin*

2012 Novel

I have received feedback from 5 of my 8 beta readers. It ranges from apathetic to, “you probably need to have a real editor help you through the next steps. I’d send it to an agent now.” My three remaining readers are not so much proofers or editors but audience feedback. I touch areas, and these readers live in those areas. It is prodding the sleeping lion with a short stick.

2012 is currently sitting idle and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

2010 Novel

This story keeps creeping into my head. It is probably because the inspiration for it came from an apartment in the building directly across from our apartment (been here just over a year.) The story has issues, and I don’t know if I am ready to tackle them. I do like it, though, and will have to put serious thought into a plan.

2013 Novel

No plans to take this on. It might have potential, but there is nothing particularly compelling about it.

2014 Novel

This is a sequel to 2012. As with 2012, it addresses important issues that have never before been covered in a novel, and it needs to get out there. *Damn you 2017!

2015 Novel

I am currently trying some ideas out for the next NaNoWrimo. My mind hoards images and inspiration. A few of them are colliding: magical realism, additive sentence style, satire, immigration and emigration (I descend from immigrants and I are an expat), the American Revolution, Vermont dress-code and hairstyles, and the history of my current city a.k.a. The Loyalist City. There is still something missing, and I don’t know what it is. Yes I do, a story.

The Manatee

I am writing a few satirical articles for the Award Winning online blog. My stories.

2011 Novel

I have decided to re-write 2011 and this is where my current fiction-writing efforts are focused. The reason is simple and pressing: this story needs to be published in 2017.

I have overcome some serious flaws in my writing. I still write conversationally, but I am much better at using active verbs. I used to write passive sentences habitually, and I somehow developed the habit of overusing stage management verbs. Copulas have also been a problem, but no as bad as the other issues. A focus on editing has done wonders over these past five years, my reading pace and the quality of my analysis has picked up, and I am seeing the bigger pictures: conflict, character, imagery, theme, etc. My writing feels tighter when I read it back to myself.

I sat down with Mr. 2011 sometime this winter or spring. Its prose was dreadful. Not all of it, but much of it was filled with stage management, filtering verbs – she thinks, sees, feels, and wants. *gag* The scenes had little purpose except for getting from A to B (as one has to do in travel stories), and it was loose. It was more than loose, it was wobbly. It was bloody awful. But as I said, the story needs to be published in 2017.

2017 is Canada’s 150th birthday. It promises to be a huge year in Canada. If you have a Canadian novel — a novel written by a Canadian, set in Canada, and about Canada, this year could be a gold mine. You’d be a fool to pass it by. My 2011 story is about a cross-Canada tour. It is political, tactile, thematic, and in the end, celebratory. I say this honestly and not because I want to sell a million copies: my 2011 story is the perfect Canadian read for 2017. I began writing it long before I realize the significance of 2017, so I will claim it is an honest novel and not manufactured to take advantage of the birthday. I am also encouraged that the people I tell the story outline to all agree — this story needs to be published in 2017!

This morning I finished re-writing up to page 182 of 333, double-spaced Word 2007. 127k words at the moment. I have much left to do. The next step is to edit the belly-of-the-whale scene, the center of the story marking the return home, virtually speaking. The scene takes place on parliament hill during Canada Day celebrations, and I have spent much time at it. This edit will be more a line edit but also to add in elements to make it align with the story and themes, if it doesn’t already, if it would help. The scene has to stay pretty much as it is though. It is a darling that will never be killed by my hands. Without giving too much away, let’s just say the Don Cherry Seven Second Delay makes an appearance.

I have struggled getting this far. I still may re-write PEI and NS. NF and NB are sitting well with me. Québec was a struggle — isn’t it always? — but some research and some deep thought have helped me straighten it. My editor — if you are an editor, I need you! — will have fun with Québec. I left Québec very happy, and I think Québec is very happy I left it.

I entered Ontario a couple of weeks ago distraught. It was some of the worst prose I have ever put on a page. I cut quite a bit of it, yet the basic story needed to remain — again the A to B thing and a need for a setup of the belly-of-the-whale scene. I pondered my root story and my themes, tried a few things, discussed a few ideas with fellow writers, reminisced about certain activities in my past from my time living in Ottawa, and I have crafted some scenes that I now really like. I laugh just thinking about them. And I have to say, this will be a fun, summer read. It is not light and fluffy. It is not an airhead read. It is simple prose, and technically, it is an easy read, but I ask important questions most of us may need to think about.

There are groups of people that will disdain this story — the clowns and the jokers. I acknowledge that, and I am sorry, but there is nothing I can do for you but smile and wave.

Where to from here?

There are big questions surrounding this story:

• is my writing really tight enough?
• is the story tight enough?
• does the story really need to be published in 2017?
• do I invest time in beta readers?
• do I query an agent, a mid-level publisher, or go it alone?

I only have two “knows” at the moment. 1. This draft will be completed by the end of August, and 2. Martin(1) will edit it(2) during that first week of September. He doesn’t know his schedule yet 😉

2017 arrives in 17 months! I have to get this to an agent, sign a deal, and get a publishing deal all during September. Self-publishing might be the only way this thing gets out on time, and I hate that thought. I disdain self-publishing for its deigning of quality.

(1)Martin Wightman is a journalist and copy editor at NB News who has recently started writing a regular science column for the Telegraph Journal (protected by pay-wall,) a freelancer, and a song writer (I think). He is also a friend who has edited a few of my pieces, tough but encouraging .
(2)I love working with editors 😉

If you are an agent or publisher looking for that perfect, Canadian novel for 2017. Please contact me. Save us both some time and effort. 😉

A Winner?

Tags

editing, feedback, review, short story, toastmasters

Have you ever written something you know is a winner?

I think I am writing at least one, but it is not easy.

On Sunday morning I sat at a Second Cup coffee shop with a writing friend talking and writing. I had a new short story in my bag, and I was struggling with it. I knew some of its content was special. You know what I mean by special? Words that make you laugh or cry. Words that make your heart skip a beat. A story that slaps you upside the head and knocks you into a daze. One of those rare birds.

My story wasn’t there yet, and I was lamenting to myself on how I needed a master reviewer to tell me what was wrong with it. Not how to fix it; just tell me what doesn’t work, and if possible, why. I had uneasy feelings about the story, but I was too close to it. I couldn’t touch it because my fingers were all over it. You know what I mean; you as a writer have been there. Clarity. My kingdom for clarity.

What I needed was a specialist, and I know very few feedback specialists. Or do I? Jim walked into the shop. Jim is a distinguished Toastmaster as is my wife. I know most of the local Toastmasters, but hey, they only speak. They don’t write short stories or novels. But communication is communication, right? Jim knew Neil and I were writing and he sat down next to us; because that is the kind of guy he is. He is interested in what people he knows are doing. I have known Jim for 22 years, and we’ve never failed to at least say hello when our paths cross. Jim is also one of these special people. He is driven. He is actually the President-elect of Toastmasters International, a highly prestigious position in that organization.

I asked Jim to read my story.

“It starts out too slow.”

He didn’t say much more than that. He scattered a few nice comments. It contains good stuff. But it starts too slow and he never gained interest.

Bang! It’s the kind of feedback that kills writing careers. It’s the kind of feedback that can knock you on your ass so hard you never want to get up. This story I felt so good about, even with my nagging doubts, was shit. It was the truth.

I said thank you and let it flow through me and out. I did not let emotions take root. It was a bold chess move I didn’t expect, and I sat back and analyzed deeply before deciding what to do. And changes did need to be made. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed. The more I pondered its slowness, the more ideas for speed crept into my head. I found a glimmer of hope — that my premise was in fact sound — and I clung to it for dear life.

This morning I sat down, opened it, selected the first half of the story, and pressed delete. The action was now at the top. My 1290 words was now back to 600. Then I typed. I wrote. I realized I had opportunity to create imagery revolving around the main topic. I filled in spaces. I fleshed out story. I wrote, and I smiled.

Tonight after at least a half-dozen edits, I am feeling once again like I have a winner. I don’t know if it is there yet. I have passed it on to some other reviewers and have asked them to skin me alive, rake me over the coals, and beat me with large, heavy clubs. I know I have a winner, and I know I cannot do it alone.

Thanks Jim, and Abby, and Elsa, and Max, and Neil, and Megan, and John, and a host of other writers all struggling to make our beginnings, middles, and ends match each other and our own creativity.

Write on!

Swirling Around the Bottomless Whirlpool

Tags

bottomless, editing, murky, whirlpool

We have a beautiful whirlpool in our river, the Reversing Falls whirlpool. It’s only visible at low tide, and when the fog isn’t too thick. Google these phrases for more images if you must. Local folklore says that people jump off the bridge at low tide in hopes their body gets sucked down and is never found. They always bob back up. There have been two failed attempts to die this summer. The successful attempts don’t get reported. If I had a nickel for every jumper, I wouldn’t have to write novels in hopes I might retire some day.

 Reversing Falls Whirlpool

 Reversing Falls Bridge Whirlpool at low tide

My current novel feels like I’m stuck in the bottom of this thing. I know I posted I was doing well, staying afloat, even maybe about to drive the cool jet-boat that zips through this thing. I can see the water swirling. I can touch it and smell it. I have been on the real one, on the jet boat. I have touched the whirlpool. It’s cold and murky, the color of rotted tree bark. It smells like Winston Rothschild’s weekend camper. My story won’t clear, won’t stop swirling in my head. I need a high tide to flush it all out.

So at this very moment I’m printing the first 100 pages. I have a Sheaffer pen loaded with red ink and another with green. I plan on splitting the printout into two piles and attacking each separately. My stapler handles 28 pages and I printed double-sided. Read, mark up, then update. I am first going to try and assess each scene’s appropriateness for it’s mega-structural-container, its phase in the Hero’s Journey. I will also assess the scene structure. Is the beginning interesting? Can it be better? Is the conflict pulling me along, or am I flicking my lips with my thumb? Is the ending appropriate? Should it be stronger, more subtle, better worded, all that stuff. Finally I will keep a half an eye on the grammar and wording. Just half an eye. I’d like to pass over copyediting, but it’s unavoidable. My internal editor is awake, and he won’t go to sleep unless he’s fed. And I do have lots to feed him.

Recent Writings — Canada Writes Creative Non-fiction

Tags

Canada Writes, contest, Creative Non-fiction, editing, Writing

I spent most of the six weeks ending January 31st on an entry for Canada Writes’ Creative Non-fiction contest. I’ve had this story in me for a while, and it was past time to let it out.

I canned my first draft. I regurgitated all the facts — a good exercise — but it was a very telling narrative: this happened then that happened. Facts, no creativity. I read some previous winners and some of the site’s articles on how to write these stories. I quickly saw what I had to do and I did it. *bang* 1987 words. The limit is 1500. I quickly pared it down to 1499 and took it to my January 5th writing group brunch where I read it.

“Wow!” times seven.

I knew the wows were deserved, but they were for the content, not the prose. How do I know that? Because all of my unedited prose stinks. I knew the content. I knew I had been through hell and I knew I’d captured enough of that experience with my words. But I knew it wasn’t crisp prose. I knew I needed to work at getting it to where it needed to be.

I must have edited it every day over those next ten days. I’d read it, mark it with red pen, and correct the document. I’d say to myself “it’s just about finished.” The next day I’d repeat the process. It was like errors fell from the sky and landed inside my computer. I thought my systems must have caught an error generating worm. On many days I found many more changes that needed to be made than the previous day. I wondered if I’d every find the right words.

On Wednesday January 16th I read it again at a weekly writing get-together at our main library branch. There were six of us, and two were at my first reading. I didn’t get any wows, but I did get a “that’s much tighter.” It still felt loose to me. I decided to shelve it for a bit.

The next Monday I pulled it out and a new set of problems showed themselves. I had number formatting consistency problems. I repeated a few ideas. I found repeated words. I found ideas that weren’t fleshed out completely — “this happened.” But what the hell is “this?” — and I found foreshadowing inconsistent with the actual events — I began with the concept of clean water but didn’t end it with dirty water, not explicitly. *water is a euphemism*

I felt like it was getting close to complete, but issues kept surfacing. I decided to look at it only every second day. On January 30th I spent all day downtown. I pulled it out at Starbucks and read through it with my red pen. I didn’t take the cover off. A friend joined me. Jon is a big reader with a sharp mind, a chess master. I know he was taken by my story, and of course it put him on the defensive. My story does that to you unless you know my experiences. Nobody has known; which is why I wrote it. My daughter called it scary. Jon and I have a fairly deep, respectful relationship only old kindred friends can have. He held off any emotions and gave me several points of feedback he knew I wanted: “I liked how this ties into that. I like this description. I like how …” I like are good words. I ignored them.

I read it again on January 31st. I liked it all. I said wow. I paid the $25 and submitted it. I don’t really care if it wins. I wrote my story, and people will read it. I’m proud of the piece, and I want people to read it. If it doesn’t win, I will publish it myself, somewhere, maybe here. If I publish it first, I can’t win, and $6,000 and a two-week trip to the Banff writing centre are too much to risk.

NaNoWriMo 2012 #1

Tags

change, editing, nanowrimo, novel, Writing

If you’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo, try it at least once. Scratch that item of writing a novel off your life’s bucket list. 2012 is my third attempt. I won my previous tries in 2010 and 2011, and I plan on winning this attempt as well. How do you win? Simple, write 50,000 words of a NEW novel during November. Nobody reads it. Nobody really cares if you really succeeded or not. Nobody cares if it’s any good. It’s all about you writing that story.

Some will argue against this venture, and I suppose they have good points. Who really needs another trashy novel cluttering the shelves? Lord knows we have enough of them already. But NaNo is not about creating masterpieces — tell that to Sara Gruen — it’s about putting words on a page. Everybody who writes knows the benefits of writing. The main purpose of Nano is to get people to write. During November some five billion words might be written that might otherwise not have been. How many good words are in that mess? If ninety percent of a good writer’s are bad, then we can cut this down to at most five hundred million good words. The majority of NaNoers are crappy writers — the majority of writers are crappy. The one thing all writers do well is produce crap. Let’s say we’re so crappy that only one in a thousand of our passages are actually worthy. Five billion divided by a thousand is still five million. NaNoWriMo therefore produces at least five million quality passages every November. Isn’t that worthy?

Don’t you want to make your own contribution? So what if few of these words will ever be read? The writers were affected. Possibly ninety percent of NaNoers are affected by their writing. Possibly as many as a quarter of a million writers are so affected by their own words that they make change in their own lives. Okay, that’s a bit ambitious, but say ten percent are, or maybe one percent are. Say twenty-five hundred writers are so affected that they make a significant change in their lives. Isn’t that worthy? Isn’t that worth the effort of writing two or three hours a day for a month? Isn’t that worth the risk of failure?

NaNo is my time to start a new novel, and I’m deep into my preparations. I turned 2010 into an 80k uncompleted story followed by turning 2011 into a completed 120k story which I’m now seeking feedback on. Both are active projects, but that doesn’t mean I can’t start another. I need to write creatively, and spending 100% of my free time editing and revising doesn’t come close to meeting my creative needs. By the time November rolls around, I have a deep itch to write, something short stories, poetry, blogs, and forum comments can’t come close to scratching. I’ve read several books on writing, several novels, attended many writing and reading club meetings. My muse is well fed and ready to fly. I think I’ve turned NaNo into my annual jump off the literary cliff. I also tend to be competitive, so I enjoy the pressure. Yes, a quickly drafted story can turn into a mess, and my next blog will attempt to cover how I’m approaching this year’s story. Stay tuned.

What are you waiting for? Sign up today.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Final 20,000 Words

Tags

editing, jig saw puzzle, music, novel, rolling stones, story, Writing

Last night’s session left me with 88,000 words edited of my 105,000 word story. About 150 pages have been through a second edit and 200 or so a first edit. This doesn’t add up to 20,000 left to edit, but I know a few things:
– my ending is wrong. It needs a complete re-write.
– the setup for the ending is incomplete. It needs more internalization, and a character needs to go away.
– the penultimate scene needs a better focus, and I think I found it this morning in the shower.

Many words need to go, many new words need to appear, and it probably adds to much more than 20,000. But I like the number, and there is a reason I like the number.

I started thinking about this story back in 1977 when I turned 16. I received a stereo system for that occasion, and I still run the turntable. I also bought a lot of records that year. My favorite, and still my favorite, was The Rolling Stones’ Beggar’s Banquet. I must have played it a thousand times since then.

One song on that album always caught my attention. I can’t say it’s my favorite tune. In fact, it’s possibly the most difficult for me to listen to. The lyrics are largely non-sensical, at least to me. But it created an image in my head, a radical image of big encounter between 20,000 grandmas and Queen Elizabeth and her Guards. The song of course is Jigsaw Puzzle.

JIG-SAW PUZZLE
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)

There’s a tramp sittin’ on my doorstep
Tryin’ to waste his time
With his methylated sandwich
He’s a walking clothesline
And here comes the bishop’s daughter
On the other side
She looks a trifle jealous
She’s been an outcast all her life

Me, I’m waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I’m just trying to do my jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Oh the gangster looks so fright’ning
With his luger in his hand
But when he gets home to his children
He’s a family man
But when it comes to the nitty-gritty
He can shove in his knife
Yes he really looks quite religious
He’s been an outlaw all his life

Me, I’m waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I’m just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Me, I’m waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I’m just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Oh the singer, he looks angry
At being thrown to the lions
And the bass player, he looks nervous
About the girls outside
And the drummer, he’s so shattered
Trying to keep on time
And the guitar players look damaged
They’ve been outcasts all thier lives

Me, I’m waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I’m just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Oh, there’s twenty-thousand grandmas
Wave their hankies in the air
All burning up their pensions
And shouting, “It’s not fair!”
There’s a regiment of soldiers
Standing looking on
And the queen is bravely shouting,
“What the hell is going on?”

With a blood-curdling “tally-ho”
She charged into the ranks
And blessed all those grandmas who
With their dying breaths screamed, “Thanks!”

Me, I’m just waiting so patiently
With my woman on the floor
We’re just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

The imagery of the song overwhelms the melancholic tune and makes it an underground fan favorite. And this image of battling grandmas has stayed in my head all these years.

In the winter of 2010-2011 I had completed my first NaNoWriMo and was searching for a new story. Of course I played this LP during that time and the image came up once again. I let it ferment awhile. I played with it. I played with current events. My coworker Bill and I went outside everyday for a smoke and a political talk. Bill and I share the same birthday and we both photograph. Our personalities contend, and we have interesting discussions. He can be uber-serious, but he always adds his friendly laugh. He’s one of my favorite people to be around.

I mulled over different scenarios that might end up with 20,000 grandmas rioting. Your mind is probably racing right now as mine did, and there are many problems creating such a scenario. I won’t discuss my options or solutions, but this song is the root of my inspiration.

Then one morning in February I woke up with a whole novel in my head, just like that. “Wow” I said to myself; this works. This really works. So I worked it. I worked it a lot, and I’m still working it. It’s an epic plot, naturally, but I think it’s balanced with a strong character and tied together with interesting themes.

*Sigh* I know I want to tell the story to people, I think. I’m still battling the ending. It’s a difficult book to end properly, and I’m sure I will discuss it with my readers and hopefully agents and editors lining up for a cut of John’s book. *wink*

Target date for completed two rounds of edits is still end of September.

Writing Checklists

Tags

checklist, editing, scene, sequel, Writing

Sometimes, or maybe often, we get caught up in our writing and lose track of all the aspects that make up good writing. Sometimes we run down these bunny trails or get stuck in a rat hole, and we don’t know how to get back on track. Personally I often find myself mesmerized by what I’ve written. I like the main message, but the delivery is just all over the place. There’s too much of some things, not enough of others, the writing is brutish, there’s no tension or all tension, I’m telling everything, and there is either almost zero detail or it’s bogged down in crap.

This morning I worked on a scene. I’d told the outcome. It was thin, uninteresting, and unbelievable. It bothered me, but I don’t think I wanted to admit it was wrong. It had been there in my story since November, had been edited many times, and the over all sentiment belonged. When I addressed it today, I felt the emptiness, the void. I revamped it. I re-wrote the empty parts.

I’m happy with my result, but we know that will likely change. But the story moved forward and became a little deeper. I straightened out the emotional imbalance that had bothered me, resolved it really. I think I feared resolution before; because, well, resolving anything at page 100 is not usually a good sign for a story. As I wrote it, though, I realized this wasn’t the final resolution. I wrote the main theme of the story in one word, and that word told me this resolution was only a prelude to the plot’s resolution. Make sense? Too bad. I’m writing for me today 😉

After I finished I decided to jot down all the questions I asked about this scene, all the decisions I made. I realize I need to make such decisions all the time. Would it hurt to draft a checklist? Would it hurt to formally ask such questions of all my writing?

Editing yes, but writing? I haven’t sold myself on that point. I’m not writing this blog to a checklist.

I have used checklists before. I often refer to a copy of C.J.Cherryh’s Writerisms and Other Sins: A Writer’s Shortcut to Stronger Writing. This document has helped many a writer with their work. I’ll sometimes go through each item one by one and search my document for items: “was,” “ing,” and “ly for example.

Today’s new checklist, the questions I asked about my writing, look like this.

Are you following the scene or sequel outlines; do they satisfy all requirements of a good scene?
Does the writing flow; is it consistent?
Are you showing or telling?
Is there appropriate tension?
Are you saying too much or not enough?
Would details hurt or help?
Do I need more or fewer events?

I suggest you first write your story creatively. We need to let our juices flow freely. Such lists can hinder creativity. But when it comes down to polishing your work, that creative gem you wrote needs some serious attention to make it really shine.

Try a check list.

Reading Out Loud

Tags

editing, reading, Writing

I belong to an informal writing group. We meat once a month for brunch where we share our work. I hate speaking to people. If I talk to you, I have something I feel I need to say. It’s common for me to spend most of a day silent.

Writing is different. My brain seems to focus idea to my fingers, not my mouth.

I make a point of sharing my work, though, even if it is sub-par or not ready for proper presentation. It’s an interesting experience. Several times I’ve read works that I’ve read internally over and over, edited them to death, and thought they were ready for the general public.

Then I read them aloud.

Wow, it’s amazing how many times I’ve read sentences that didn’t make sense, didn’t flow right, or silly things like repeated words jumped out at me. Some words shouldn’t be repeated, not close together. Take the word “shadow” Say I wrote something like this. “I hid in the shadowed ally waiting for my mark. I had memorized her profile and her face; Bob gave me her complete file. I wasn’t prepared, though, for what she looked like in person. She walked out of the shadowed entrance of the club …” The word shadow stands out like a sore thumb. One of them needs to go. These are the glitches I make that I might not catch when I’m writing and editing, but reading them, particularly out loud, makes them jump out. It’s like passing your writing through a fine filter. “Oh look Martha, we caught a big shiny one!”

So yesterday I read scene five of my current novel. It’s a sequel to the previous scene. I try to follow Randy Ingermanson’s advice. If you do the math, my first scene is actually a sequel. I need to assess whether I stick with this low-key beginning or not. I see no way around it, though. My protagonist is low-key, and it suits her. But I regress. I liked the scene I read. I thought it was low-key but meaningful, deep even. It tied in my first scene’s themes — getting old and not fulfilling a purpose — with my initial scenes’ events, and I created the idea for the rest of the story over a bucket-list discussion. The idea for the trip — this whole story is about a trip — came from a friend which I thought was a brilliant deflection: it makes the whole crazy idea sound plausible which was my main goal.

Anyway, I read it looking for deep meaning, but it came out much slower and less exciting and meaningful than when I read it to myself. One sentence jumped out at me as needing work — I have no idea which one, except it was the first in a paragraph. I did achieve a couple of laughs during the reading, and that always thrills me, but there was an uncanny quiet while I read which matched my own feeling of mundane. I was worried I’d have to ditch the whole scene. The previous month I read my favorite scene, the real intense, shall we say engaging scene. One of the group caught on to what was actually happening and roared throughout. The others were mystified until the end. Yes, my work at hiding the true events worked. But I digress again. This week when I stopped reading, I looked up and around at all the faces. I saw stunned smiles. “That was really good/nice” and “I loved the flow; it’s so easy and clear.”

Okay, dammit. Move on. Get ‘er done, John.

One Meal A Day

Tags

butter, coconut oil, editing, firewood, fried, novel, olive oil, onions, weiners, Writing

I tried something new yesterday. I ate only one meal.

I didn’t eat only once, though. I drank two coffees during the day and each contained both whipping cream and coconut oil, significant calories. I had another around 7PM as I sat down to write, and I ate a later snack of raw pineapple and a hunk of cheese.

When I got home around 5PM I felt empty but not famished. Thunder storms threatened, and it’s raining today. I still has some wood to stack, and I wanted to try exercising after a fat-fast — eating just fat, a lesser amount of calories than needed, is called a fat-fast. I wanted to know if I would be able to exercise as well, not that I exercise well, to determine if I was feeding my body sufficiently while exercising. If I wasn’t, I’d expect to feel tired or needing to rest, and I’d expect to feel intense hunger. I never thought about food once, and I never felt the least bit lethargic. I stacked the last hundred or so pieces, covered both rows with tarps, and even walked to my garden and picked some fresh kale.

I then cooked my only meal of the day: four wieners fried with a large Spanish onion in a combination of butter, coconut oil, olive oil, and sunflower oil. I washed it down with water.

My writing later went well. I updated chapter one. I refered to my red-marked manuscript, and went through every note. I also re-read it. I expanded on many sections and re-wrote a few paragraphs. I felt good writing. The basis felt good, and the expanded prose seemed to really add completeness. I felt really comfortable with my writing and my story. I don’t think it was my eating pattern.

Today I’m making lunch my one meal: Maple Leaf Bologna!