Wednesday Check-in
Posted: May 12, 2010 Filed under: Wednesday Check-in, Writers Write | Tags: Donald Maass Workshop, walking, writers, writing, Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook 2 Comments »Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook: 53 tasks completed out of 591 possible, 0 since 5/5
Miles walked: 5.5 since 5/5.
Using the guide on pages 225-227 of the workbook, I have finished the synopsis. Unfortunately, this task isn’t on the follow-up list, so the number completed for the week is zero.
I learned:
- to focus on what is actually happening on the page
- some of my main ideas are buried and need exposure to light
- a synopsis is not what I thought it was
- next book, I’m doing this first, and then, adjusting as I write the story
- though I ate a week, ultimately, the work will be a time saver
Self-Editing or Chopping Back the Thyme
Posted: May 10, 2010 Filed under: cottage garden, Writers Write | Tags: garden, perception, writers, writing Leave a comment »
I think the place I’ve learned the most about writing is my own backyard. I don’t mean that in the Dorothy, click your heels and say there’s no place like home, way. I’m fairly stuck right now. I know what has to be done, but it’s really hard. It means inserting stuff in a couple of million places. It’s right. But not easy.
What do I do when I know something is going to be just awful? I stall. This morning I realized the herb garden, where I have a carpet of creeping thyme growing between pavers has grown out of control. So, I grabbed the hedge clippers and started hacking–searching through the turf for concrete blocks while trying not to split a buried soaker hose that makes the whole thing possible.
My back and hands are sore, but an hour later, the hardscape is visible. The soaker hose is on and the bird in the nest above is chirping at me in high alert. Why is this about writing? It reminds me that, no matter how bad the task, the reward for chopping back the thyme is an improved story. Everything must reinforce the snapshot of the landscape. If a stray lambs ear–despite its feathery beauty–falls out of the line, I clip it back. Is this what Hemingway meant by killing your darlings?
Wednesday Check-in
Posted: May 5, 2010 Filed under: Wednesday Check-in, Writers Write | Tags: Donald Maass Workshop, walking, writers, writing, Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook Leave a comment »Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook: 53 tasks completed out of 591 possible, 1 since 4/28
Miles walked: 5.25 since 4/28.
I’m having a confidence problem. I worked through the exercises on Chapter 7: Defining Personal Stakes, and I came up with six very good plot alterations. All of them put the protagonist more at risk than the current version. It’s going to be a huge revision–tedious and difficult . . . and rewarding. I’m up for it, but diving in is hard. Remember the eating-the-live-frog analogy? This is like swallowing a serpent.
Also, there’s this: I started a new book by a favorite author, and I had to put it down after twenty pages. I’ve always read genre fiction like an instruction manual–read this to see how it works. This one disturbed my writing process. I read a different book, cover-to-cover. The writer is a master of what Donald Maass calls, microtension. (Where you absolutely have to read each line to find out what happens next.) Again, at twenty pages I felt a shift. I’m no longer a romance writer. I’m a satirist. I still love, love stories. Mine has one, but my work is issue oriented. The way I put words on a page has changed. I sense it when I’m writing, but reading really drove it home.
So, I needed a new plan. This week, I jumped ahead to Chapter 34: Constructing the Pitch, finishing the exercises and follow-up on pages 223 and 224. I constructed a query of ninety-four words. Short. Simple. Direct.
Today, I’m moving on to Appendix A: Outlining Your Novel on pages 225-227. Maybe the story outline will alter things again, and I’ll have more discoveries to take back to Chapter 7. Despite the low number above, I’ve finished a ton of work.
