Category Archives: Writing

Yes and (Na)No

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I am still working on my novel in a new way, but I’ve let go the idea of making 50,000 words this year (meaning in this year’s event– the 30 days).

My home and children are calling me in new ways, and I don’t want to neglect that call.

At the same time, I feel a need to get my first draft finished soon enough to respond to an editor’s interest while she still remembers me. My first chapters have changed enough that I can’t trust she’ll recognize me by the work.

So here is my new(est) quandary: finding contentment despite the unknown– in every realm.

Will NaNo continue this year?

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I’m getting the ‘I’m sick of this and want to move on‘s already. I got these last year too, maybe a couple days further in. I produced over 1500 words today, and a two-page outline with a much tighter story than last year, and all I can think is how un-human I feel. How my house needs work and my children need prayer (this after a lovely morning together, so I’m thinking it could all be the tireds).

Maybe I should stop reading Stein (Ooo! Sorry Kaye! I do like it!), because it automatically starts my inner editor, and that’s just killing my desire to put words down– it seems more focussed on untangling and adding meaning to the structure than actually writing the story.

Last year I kept going because Jay said it was important. And because I had between 5 and 12 people I’d been talking it up with since October began. Now I don’t know. Part of me just wants to quit before I’m really started. Maybe it’ll come down again to whether this is important to Jay. I don’t know now if it’s important enough to me.

This may all change after a good night’s sleep. Jay asked me today as he got out of the car, “Are you sure you’ll be okay? You didn’t get much sleep.” I laughed and said, “Well, it’s moot now, you’ve already decided to go to work.”

So we had a lovely morning visiting animals all around town. Of course, it did nothing to diminish my desire for my own… But the children enjoyed it, and I enjoyed watching their delight, and seeing that even Elisha (18-months) is learning gentleness– he was adorable with the kitties, and seems to have a baby-version of the cat sign now (stroking his cheek instead of drawing out the whiskers).

Crashing now– hoping I don’t get the chance to put up half my day’s word-count before 4 a.m. this time…

Back in Compliance Again

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So I started reading Stein on Writing last night (Hi Kaye).

My husband was reading Eragon and occasionally gave me updates on inconsistencies and mapping problems he said evidenced the author’s inexperience (i.e., his youth). Jay’s still enjoying the story, though.

I haven’t read it yet (picked it up at the used-book store and Jay got it first.)

After his comment about rivers running up-hill I submitted a plea that he draw me a map of my story. I don’t know how big a sin it is, but I have no image of my story’s land, and, as my husband has noted before in frustration, I’m not a natural at reading them either.

Basically the reading confirmed my theory that my Lindorm story is primarily plot-driven rather than character-driven. Especially after the characterization chapters, I’ve decided that I’m going to re-start my novel and write it character-driven instead.

This will mean I’m following the rules again (new work on November 1), give me a new angle, and assuming it goes to the same conclusion (something for which I suppose I have no guarantee) I expect to combine the two versions– which I hope will allow me to reach my goal of having a completed (entire) first draft.

The interesting thing to me is that as my characters have fleshed out they beg for new and bigger parts. I think the folktale structure will survive, but it will be richer and more reasonable. I already have parts where my characters are very transparent, but as I’ve never focused specifically on character as I’m writing, that’s what I want to do this time.

Novel Prep Exercise #1

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Theoretically I was supposed to do this at the NaNo meeting this afternoon, but I got off on the inconcrete randomness of happenings instead of staying focussed on my main Character, so for anybody who wondered: Yes, I am doing NaNoWriMo again this year, but it will be to finish the novel I started last year.

(Competition is good for me– and I like to get this 1st-draft stage over with quickly).

Main Character Exercise

  • Main character’s name: Linnea
  • One-Sentence Summary of MC’s storyline: A crippled weaver finds out after she marries her prince that a powerful djinn holds a grudge against her new family and is working to destroy them.
  • MC’s motivation (what she wants abstractly): Peace and security
  • MC’s goal (what she wants concretely): to protect her children and confirm her husband’s innocence
  • MC’s conflict (what keeps her from reaching this goal): miscommunication and the djinn’s active interference
  • MC’s epiphany (what she learns/how she changes): Action and inaction are both choices, and learning who to trust can mean the difference between life and death.
  • One-Paragraph summary of MC’s storyline:
    • Linnea marries her prince and begins “blending” a family, but her happily ever after is disrupted when her husband leaves to help rescue a kidnapped family member. While he is away a letter with his seal orders her execution. Escaping with her children she hides in the forest and meets the djinn who arraigned the kidnapping, seeking to eliminate the royal family. In a series of confrontations Linnea must decide whether to get involved, and how to destroy the djinn’s threat.

Heroism Speech

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Seeing as I loved it, I’m linking it.  Since a number of you seem to find my interests intriuging enough to look into as well, I offer Heroes in Storytelling by Barbara Nicoloski.

It is the outline of a speech given by a Catholic scriptwriter (Nicoloski).  Good stuff and some good writing prompts– especially when you get down to sections 8 (“The world needs from us:”) and… 8 (“Let’s create a hero story”).

Definitely got me thinking some more.  I appreciated her thoughts greatly.

Most-Influential Novels

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I suppose this is sticking my neck out– admitting what I like the most– but I wanted to mention my four most-influential novels at this point in my writing. Except for #2 I found all of them randomly on the recorded-book shelves at my library. Those, without exception, I’ve “read” more by listening than from the page.

  1. The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope
  2. Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
  3. The Sea Wolf by Jack London
  4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I will do my best to explain why they are they what I like. Doubtless I will find or remember more reasons as I continue to reread them.

  • All involve a journey and a change. All build on characteristics the protagonist(s) have to begin with, but doesn’t imagine any of them are already complete (lacking only knowledge of their completeness, a la Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz).
  • More than one character changes.
  • All involve a thinking character watching the process of his or her thought. They are very rarely oblivious to something the reader knows (This element, btw, usually makes me feel a character is foolish. If they’re seeing what I’m seeing I usually expect them to know what I know.)
  • All acknowledge (and explore to some extent) the power of relationship.
  • All include thought-provoking observations of their times.
  • All have good conversations.
  • One potential negative: they all start slowly (I hope I don’t follow this too closely), with no punchy first line, but still intriguing in their own ways.
  • They all have surprising twists and secrets that the reader discovers with the protagonist.
  • All have a life at risk (at some point) and overcome an old enemy through what they’ve learned on their journey.

I love nearly everything about The Perilous Gard: Character, plot/twists, protag’s realizations driving the story, the organic inclusion of the gospel in a not-religious book.

Enchantment is something like an adult version of what I want to write– that is, based on a fairytale world and system, based in an older time.

It is “adult” in its descriptions and relationships, but not crude or explicit. It has the… holiest (maybe too strong a word?) description of sex I have ever found in fiction: the “mystical union” of man and woman both solidifying their marriage and being stronger together than individually. Children are an asset and pregnancy a key plot-point. I was also delighted to watch the interaction of several married couples.

Too many writers seem to think marriage is boring, so even when they’ll show it that negative attitude comes through. Here marriage is both present and meaningful.

The narrator of The Sea Wolf is an intellectual and a writer, and I love the way he describes his unavoidable interaction with both the intellectual and experiential aspects of human nature. The noble aspects, as well as the base.

Some *wonderfully* articulated descriptions of how men and women strengthen each other.

I’ve always loved the interaction and subtext of Jane Eyre, along with the clue-dropping that isn’t recognized until the mystery is revealed.

If I can get these types of things organically into my novels I will be thrilled.

Aim high, right?

Sabbatical?

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In case anyone’s noticed how slow it’s been lately: I have dived back into reading, writing, and revising YA (particularly my novel).

I’ve been mostly avoiding blog-reading and blog-writing because it’s too easy to become like the company one keeps, and that type of writing is distinctly different from where my heart and passions are right now.

I’m not sure when or how often I’ll be posting for a while. Enjoy the archives! ;)

With an Appreciative Audience

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Most people reading this will already know that writing is a very private, mostly invisible work.

I don’t know how many of you have known what I experienced for the first time this weekend: writing as a performance.

It was an unexpected and nearly giddy delight to have the progress of my work followed so closely. When I trimmed the fat, I was complemented. When I produced a new, resonating argument, I was praised.

All the work I do “in secret” so often, the simple (but usually effective) trading of sentences within a paragraph, that usually means nothing to any but me– this earned me the title of magician.

And isn’t it magic we writers make?

Sometimes clumsy magic (like this attempt at sharing my delight at a process being recognized), but magic still, frequently dazzling to the uninitiated and unjaded who watch us create meaning out of chaos.

However clumsy, it is a gift to be able to say what we mean, and watching others without it makes me more thankful than ever I can so often find the right words at the right time.