“Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.”
–Mark Twain
Category Archives: Writing
Snowflake outline
While browsing the forums on the NaNo website, I came across this plan for a novel outline. For lack of a better plan (never having done this before), and appreciating excruciatingly detailed directions for things I am doing for the first time, I’ve begun working through the snowflake.
I find I don’t take the amount of time he recommends (an hour per step, at first; later a week) and I don’t keep going as fast as I maybe could (I’m sitting at #3 still for reasons I’ll say in a minute), but I’m enjoying it.
Outlines and guides and so on are all things I tend to see as tools, rather than anything set in stone.
For example, in step three, I’m supposed to do a type of detail/action-profile for my main characters. I did, and found it very helpful. Now I’m doing something like that for several more secondary characters. I like what I “found out” when I did it for the majors, and now I’m curious about the minors.
Elisha’s gone interactive!
 |
Currently Reading Inkheart By Cornelia Funke see related |
When a kid is this young, I don’t think it’s presumptuous to use two- or three-days-in-a-row to identify a pattern. This kid’s been consistently waking up (and staying awake, which bugs me more) between 4/4:30a.m. and resisting all efforts to crash him in less than an hour.
Last night I kept him awake a bit longer (and he kept himself up much longer) and it seemed to work. He didn’t wake until after 6 (wanting to stay-up, I mean).
During the evening “filler,” I read while I nursed him (which is normal evening routine) but after he was done, he was interested in “conversing” for a while. Lots of eye-contact, the “talking” mouth, and expressive face. Very fun.
We discussed my novel (I’m over 10,000 words now– that’s some sort of milestone, right?) and the book I was reading (finished it last night, but it’s still listed today), while Jay and the girls were off at the playground.
Redirection
At this point I’m not planning to restart the storytelling group in the fall. We easily agreed to put it on-hold for the summer (there are very few members involved enough to “vote” anymore), and I expected we’d start again once school began, but now I think my focus has shifted.
I may have mentioned before (who remembers this?) that Jay wanted me to keep my GKP (Gordian Knot Productions) work limited to two things.
He said this earlier in the year (or late last year?) when I began expressing interest in pursuing some freelance writing projects. I didn’t feel ready to drop teaching or storytelling, so I chose not to pick up the new ball.
But now things are shifting again. I’ve been pulled back more and more to writing. It’s an aspect of my personality I’ve been aware of for a long time: the more time I spend on something, the more I love it/want to do it. (This does not, unfortunately, apply so much to the have-to-dos like housework.) Continue reading
Jay’s back at work. Real life resumes.
Everybody’s sleeping at the same time, for the second day in a row.
I still haven’t noticed any particular pattern, other than just now, this everybody being asleep at once. I could get used to this. I like having an hour or two to myself to write and think out of my fingers.
I need to get back to my novel (and music practicing) too. I’m at about 7500 words –13 pages– and still feel the whole process is unreal. I wonder a lot if this subject can make it to 50,000 words, but since it’s mostly for recreation, I suppose I can just write until I’m out of story and then see where I am….
“Processing”
The main problem I see with “therapeutic” writing is how necessary (or, at least, strongly encouraged) it seems to be to focus on the negative you’re trying to deal with/process.
The implication is that you must define and identify it, I suppose.
But for me to do this I must submit myself to the negative feelings that pull at me (both now and during “real-life”), and that seems dangerous. Who surrenders to the mini-whirlpools that pull at their ankles when swimming in unfamiliar waters? Isn’t that just foolishness?
I am experiencing emotions I want to process, I do want to understand myself and be understood, but the cost of (potentially) becoming mired in them still seems greater than the cost of pushing, however muck-footed, through them.
A lot of wordless prayers these days.
More of the same, but different.
 |
Currently Reading You Can Write a Novel (You Can Write) By James V. Smith see related |
I’m still waiting, still reading, and still writing, but it’s all different too.
I have my laptop now (though nothing else of my many orders has yet arrived), and it’s already proving to be a wonderful resource/tool. I’ve been able to use it while “hanging-out” with the girls, during those times when they want me around (or I want to be there, to maintain the peace) but aren’t looking for direct interaction/play.
A good example of this is movies. I’ll usually let the girls watch one cartoon in a day, and they usually want me there with them while they do it. Since Thursday morning I’ve become very proficient at typing one-handed while I hold a snuggly bundle in my lap.
My reading is all over the place. One entertaining book is that “currently reading” selection above. It’s interesting b/c it’s different from nearly every other writing book I’ve read. The author starts out with the assumption you’re interested in writing b/c you want to be published, then lays down these formulae about what stuff a publisher will accept from an un-proven (1st-novel) author. He’s realistic-ish too, not too hard-line, and contradicts the other book I’m reading simultaneously (I’ll list it next time I blog, I suppose) which provides a fun contrast of views.
It’s just fun, b/c it’s so straight-forward (almost-but-not-quite a formula), and makes good sense.
For writing, I’m playing again (you’ll guess) with my novel. It’s been interesting applying a different framework (from this book) than I’ve used before. It’s almost like being back in a class, b/c I’m all motivated and focused again.
Well, as focused as one can be w/ the responsibilities of house and children hanging over me. I was up till (way-too-late) last night, just b/c my mind was so full, and I wanted to catch as much as I could.
I’ll be back at ToastMasters again tonight (took last week off) and that’ll be interesting. I’m going to have to reign-in my mind again and refocus it…
Maybe later…
Naptime’s just started, and in opposition to all good sense, I’m off to work on my story some more.
“Writing in the Dark” 2006
I think this will be the funniest to those who have lived in AK (or somewhere) enough to be familiar with the whole “dry-cabin” lifestyle.
This is the result of a 10-minute writing exercise at a workshop I attended a few weeks ago. It was really fun: I was off eating good food, writing and listening from 9-4 one Saturday. Great fun.
For this one, the guy directing introduced the idea of “Claytomancy,” which he called a form of divination based on the odd words or phrases we overhear and/or stick with us. I haven’t been able to find that word anywhere else, but it’s an interesting idea.
He made the assumption that we, as a group of writers, would have these trails of words circulating in our minds, and passing out 3×5 cards asked us to write either a phrase that’s been on our minds or 3 individual words that have been sticking with us. Then he collected and redistributed them.
My phrase was “He was afraid of plumbing.”
Plumbing was one of those things he knew he’d never understand. The dank dripping darkness that never left the slimy pipes of his imagination.
He would never open those cabinet doors. The trash can was available to the cat, the dog, the children, because he couldn’t bring himself to open those doors under the sink. He only knew the boiler room existed because it would wake, dragon-like, to periodically shake the house.
He would have jumped off a bridge to escape his torment– but didn’t know what would meet him in the river.
That’s why he moved to a dry cabin: to get away from the plumbing.
Turns out this line was from the workshop leader, and after living in Unalaska w/o plumbing for 15-20 years, and only having running water for about 2 years (he even refused to use it at first), he said in the end that this all was truer than he cared to admit.
And sorry to anybody else who doesn’t find this funny– maybe it’s a “you had to be there” moment, where the youngest person in the group is trying to read something ridiculous to a group of strangers, straight-faced.