Read, read, read — It’s your job!

I’ve been editing. And I’m at a point where it’s a slow process. I feel like me and my novel are trying to outdo each other, and I’m trying to see what it’s hiding, and it’s waiting for me to do something…

Which leaves me sitting and staring and thinking, but I’m pretty sure I’m outwitting my novel, and I’m going to win and have it all fixed up, I’m certain of it!

In the midst of all this slowness, I’m reading. I read all the time, usually at bed time, but now I’m filling up day time hours reading as well. I’m not procrastinating with my writing, I’m just not rushing and making more of a muck with it.

I haven’t consciously been reading across genres, but now that I realize I have been I’ll try to make more of a point of doing so. Of exploring genres I would not normally gravitate towards. I’ve also been reading more than one novel at a time (which is something I never do, unless I’m reading non-fiction).

In the last short while I’ve read, or begun:

fantasy, Sharon Shin, the first in the Twelve Houses series (I really liked it – anything to do with magic and I’m pretty much hooked). I liked it so much that I’ve begun the second in the series!

chick-lit, Cecelia Ahern, The Time of my LIfe. (pure turn off brain time. I need it on occasion)

The Help. not sure what genre that is – can I just call it fiction? I love it so far, the voice is amazing.

Cathryn Grant’s, Madison novellas. These books have their own genre: suburban noir. Madison is quirky and great and really fun to read!

The First Five Pages: writing book. It’s been a while since I’ve a writing book, and I read pertinent sections. A little refresher.

I think I’ll have to begin exploring horror – something I haven’t done in years. And it’s also been ages since I’ve read pure sci-fi.

When I first starting writing not that many years ago the advice I heard over and over was read the genre you’re writing. Recently, I’ve noticed a shift, now we’re being told to read cross-genre.

Personally, I learn different things from the various genres. YA teaches me a lot about characterization. Thriller teaches me about pace and plotting, and also about withholding and dispensing info. Romance teaches me about relationships and persona authenticity. Historical fiction teaches me about scene-setting and description. Fantasy about detail. And on and on and on. And usually I’ll get a lot more than that out of each individual novel.

How about you: do you read cross genre? And does your reading affect your writing?

Dominoes

When I began writing, I wrote a novel. Then I re-wrote it. And then I did it again. And again, all in all a total of about 11 times. I did it without coherence, knowing that it needed tending, but not knowing how or where to find the problems.

I think what I was doing was developing my voice, learning all about the craft of writing.

Recently, I’ve gone back to that novel and I re-wrote it again. This time, I’m learning about the craft of story telling. I’ve been learning about story telling over time, but never in such a concise form as I have these last 3 months.

What I’ve learnt is that sometimes writing is about not writing.

I speak to other writers, read your blogs, I know that for you many of you this is something that comes quite naturally for you. Not for me. I think of writing, and I need to write. I am not good at slowing, thinking, mulling things over. I see something I don’t like and I want to change it. immediately.

There are of course, big problems with this. A change very rarely is a change unto itself, there is always a domino effect, a ripple that one small change sends out into the whole novel. And what if that ripple leads to others, and others, which it often does, and I don’t like those changes, they don’t belong.

So, I’ve learned to still my hand, and keep files and journals where I write my thoughts. I analyze them, see the ripple effect of a change, and inevitably, I will adjust, often more than once. And only then once I have everything outlined and organized step by step will I implement the change. If I like it.

And the prose? Well that comes last now. At the very end. After everything is in its place, then I can play with the words, and enjoy the textures and sounds. Can you tell this is where my fondness lies? It comes to me naturally, in ease. The rest of it is work, fun work, frustrating at times, but very rewarding.

Wishing you all a happy New Year with lots of fruition, and may your writing go where you want to take it!

Happy Holidays!

 

Almost there, so close……

Then WHY, oh WHY, does it feel so far?

I’ve been re-writing the major part of a novel for the last two to three months. It’s a novel I wrote seven years ago, and the first thing I ever wrote after deciding I would write. For reasons I won’t get into right now, I went back to it. Needless to say it needed work. We change, grow, expand, see the world differently, and I saw situations in the novel that I didn’t like.

But, this post isn’t about editing, and fixing, it’s about how when I’m at the last stretch of the novel, I feel like I’m never going to get to the end. I cut, and then add in so much, it’s as if the ending is getting further instead of closer. I recognize mistakes I made along the way, and I have a file entitled Things to Wrap Up, so I know the end is not really the end. Then a read-through, and then Beta readers, and then another round. So I’m hoping to reach an end (of sorts) in January, into February at the latest. Not in the two weeks or less I’m anticipating to finish my re-write.

I find myself full of adrenaline when I write, almost panting through it. And I tell myself, slow down, enjoy the process, that’s what it’s all about, this writing stuff. And yet, I’m still counting pages.

(I found this digital image on-line, and traced it back to its creator, Christina Pereira. In it, I see myself reaching for this ending, this goal, with all the others being too high out reach for now. I’ll have to get a ladder and a basket to collect them all.)

Multiple personalities

My current work has various point of views, and as I’m doing a re-write, I’m in and out of these POV quite often in one sitting. Some days I flow smoothly between them, others it’s harder for me to transient back and forth. In a sense it’s like role-playing, becoming each character, walking, talking, and thinking like them. Each character can’t only be unique in my mind, it must come across on the page as well.

Today is one of those days where I’m having trouble changing characters. I have to stop, get up from the computer, walk around for a while, and then come back. If I’m still stuck, I’ll go back and read the last scene with his or her POV. That usually does it. I have had days where I skip a particular POV if I’m just not feeling it. I don’t need to give myself even more re-writing to do!

How about you, any tricks to switching POV?

side note: I would still love to have some recommendations on published bloggers whose work you’ve read and recommend, so if you have one, please share it on my last post.

Hey, that’s mine! Oh, no it’s yours

What’s mine is yours, what’s yours is mine. Is this true of writers and readers?

My writing is moving along at the pace of snail, or maybe of a turtle, I’m not sure which is slower. I’m at the stage where everything is being dissected, and re-written, and taken apart, and put together, and then I begin it all over again. I was wondering if I would be writing this novel for the rest of my life, that’s how slow it’s moving, when I saw Isabel Huggan’s on Book Television.

She was talking about how she gets her mentees to get the most into their work. Writing is re-writing, she said, and then she made the audience repeat it. Writing is re-writing.

Your stories will be released without you. You will not be able to clarify for your readers, you will not be able to tell them keep reading it will get better. In the end, your readers are more important than you the writer, because it will ultimately belong to them and not you.

How to get there? Question everything you write, every word, every space. Dig deep, she says. Go so deep that you know the feeling, sight, smell, and taste of everything. Ten drafts, twelve drafts, and then maybe you’ll find the right way your story needs to be told.

Sounds difficult? Well it is. And it isn’t, because once it all becomes that clear there’s nothing else required. Am I there? No, but I’m on my way.

“The world does not need any more mediocre books,” Isabel Huggins says here.

How about you? Do you spend more time on your first draft, or on subsequent drafts?

finding my voice

In my last post I talked about how I’d lost my way with my wip.

I’ve spent the last week finding my way back. It’s the first time since I began writing that this has happened to me, so it was a good thing to experience.

There were many factors that led to this disconnection with my wip, but the main one was that I was trying to force it be something it was not. Ever try to be something you’re not? I guess it was sort of like that. I was trying to make it more commercial, more blingy and flashy. With that came changes in my MC, causing her to do things and say things that were not her. All because I was trying to force the situation.

Finally, the strain began showing in my prose. That’s what forced me to realize all of this! I’m so happy it happened here, when I’m working on the opening pages, rather than if I’d edited the next 300 odd pages! Phew.

How did I get back?

Well, the first thing I did was spend two days sleep walking in my novel. Capturing the mood and atmosphere. Listening to it, listening to MC. That was great, and I really saw how far I strayed.

Step 2: I asked myself what’s my story. What needs to be portrayed in my opening scenes, to set the course for all future events and turning points. I made a list of the information that I think the reader needs in the first few pages, and then a list of stuff that come out over the next 10 or 20 pages.

So, I’ve begun re-writing. Again. In my voice. And it feels good

Next week Linda Cassidy Lewis, author of Brevity of Roses, will be guest blogging here!

stop shouting

There are voices in my head. They won’t stop talking. Not good voices, not my characters, and certainly not my own.

I’m lost in my writing.

I can’t find my intention anymore with my wip. I feel like I’m writing for a thousand people and not myself. Everyone’s shouting at me, telling me how my novel should be, what they want from it.

ok, this is not really happening. It’s only happening in my head, I admit, but it certainly feels real.

I’ve changed so many things in the first 70 pages that I feel I don’t recognize my story anymore. I’m forgetting how it was born, what it was meant to be. Change is good, change is great, but it’s supposed to bring my story more to itself, and I don’t know what that is anymore.

Feedback is invaluable, and I’ve learned so much from my group. I’ve always thought that writer’s need feedback, and I think they still do, however, I’m seeing that feedback needs to be received at the right moment. I feel like I’m at a stage where I need to withdraw, pull away from my critique group, and from all feedback, and just listen to myself. Or is it that what I really need to do is  change the way I’m listening to the feedback?

We all need help, an outsiders eye. The thought of taking a hiatus from feedback is scary, and I wonder if it would be disadvantageous to do so.

Any thoughts?

the monster under the bed

Editing. Editing. Editing. Editing.

There I said it. It’s not such an evil word. The demons we don’t face are always scarier in our imagination than in reality. (Monsters Inc. does a good job teaching that lesson.)

I’ve been editing for what seems like an eternity.

Don’t get me wrong, I love it. Writing is not something one does for anything other than love. Or if they do, I’m quite certain they quickly stop once they realize that it’s not as glamorous as it’s made out.

But, it does scare me. It scares me because I wonder if I can make it shine, can I make it sparkle, can I do it justice? I’m not one to wallow in self-doubt, but editing does bring out the occasional anxiety in me. I suppose it’s because that every time I bring the piece (section) to a new level, I see that it can, and needs to go to another, even higher level.

A little while back I mentioned that my violin teacher told me that playing the violin is harder than writing. Well, I’m not certain I agree, but I’ve begun approaching my writing as I am my musical study. Phrase by phrase. Dissecting each note. The similarities are huge, but I won’t go into that analogy today.

I am currently breaking each paragraph down, and then each line. I ask myself the purpose of it, then I determine what I’m actually showing, and do my best to make them equal each other.

Purpose = composition.

I can do this only once I’m certain each piece has a place. Back-story must be weaved in without jarring the reader out of the story, characters must be stable, description has to be in the right quantity and location. Oh the list goes on. But even that is not enough.

Purpose = composition.

That’s where I’m at.

What about you?

Don’t touch that!

Today I’m like a child. The alternate ego in me, the mother, keeps telling myself NO. Don’t do that! Bad hand! Get away from the computer.

 

Nothing seems right. I’m second guessing every step I’ve taken in this novel. I want to change everything, cut, delete, rip, shred, and, and then what? I’m throwing a temper tantrum and I don’t even know what I want, or where I want to be.

It should be like this – yes – brilliant!

No! Makes no sense, that’s so out of character!

Step away from the computer. Ok, ok, if you’re good, and don’t touch anything you can write a crazy blog post where you’re seen yelling at yourself. I was good, so here I am.

It’s so hard not to go in and undo everything, but I have to.

On the days when it all seems like crap, step away.

Tomorrow, or maybe the day after, it’ll all be bright, shiny, and beautiful again.

 

Spring Cleaning- I have a floor – and a story.

This is a post I’ve been wanting to write for a few weeks now. Normally, if I have an idea for a post that I don’t manage to write immediately, I never write it, because my thoughts go elsewhere. Not this time.

I think it’s because cleaning is something that’s a never-ending process.

Pick something up, a minute later another toy is on the floor. Or a crumb.

The kids went through their rooms. They got rid of a whole lot of toys, papers, knickknacks, and all kinds of nonsense. We put them in storage, this way it’s easier on them. They’re not permanently gone.

The Result: they’re playing with their toys. They’re more relaxed, their imaginations are more alive. Why? Because they can see what they have. And because they have space to breathe.

I’m editing. I’m cleaning my wip. I’m looking for the floor. I want to see if its wood or carpet, the colour, the texture.

I overwrite. Then I get rid of everything that’s not story. If there’s too much clutter the story gets lost, hidden in the mess.  I put everything I’m taking out in a separate file, marked: read through and see if anything’s worth keeping.

The Result: I’m immersed in my story. I see details, and movement. And then I can decide what I want you, the reader, to see. Sometimes I won’t include a certain detail, because I know you’ll want to see it in your own way. And it’s ok, because it won’t change the story. Other times, I need everything to be solid, and you’ll only add your own nuances.

And then, oops, there’s a crumb, and I have to clean up again. It’s a very gratifying process, because the result is so smooth and rich.

How about you: Do you overwrite or underwrite?