The Writer's Presence

A Pool of Readings, sixth edition
By Donald McQuade and Robert Atwan
Bedford/St. Martin's

2009

A luxurious collection of essays. Immerse yourself in this "Pool" with Sherman Alexie, Alice Walker, E.B. White and Langston Hughes. Not to mention Delillo, Carver, Lincoln, Woolf, Wolfe, Dillard, Obama, Orwell, Oates, O'Connor.

I can't do it any justice here, you'll have to sit down and read a few. I've been having that experience that comes from reading critically and immersively, which is the only way to read writers like these. the art is at once familiar and welcoming all around. How refreshing to take a swim in these words during cold February.

Enough babbling praise. ;-) I rarely beg anyone to read anything, but do read these if you can get them. I'm off to hit the pool again.

Plot, Splot, Kershplot

Over at Fiction Notes, Darcy Pattison is offering lots of ideas and resources for those of us who are STILL learning how to plot our novels well. Even if you are a seasoned plotter, there's much food for thought here.

Belly up to the buffet, I say. . . .

A Fresh Start

It was a blustery day yesterday and we flew kites! I thought of SCBWI, and how this organization has helped me grow as a writer and a person over the years. It gave me a wonderfully critical and supportive critique group. The camaraderie alone is worth the membership fee, the friendships are priceless.

In honor of kites (and, well, because the kite pictures turned out so well), I start a new chapter of this blog. One in which I begin the work of becoming a school teacher, a better writer and always a freer thinker. Look for more interviews, book reviews and stories about process.

Below is an article I wrote for an SCBWI newsletter a few years ago. I'd forgotten about it until yesterday, as I fought at times to keep my kite from taking a nose dive. . . .

Keep Your Kite Flying

In the alternate whirlwind and stillness that is a writer’s inspiration there are plenty of opportunities to ponder one’s motives. Am I concentrating on publication too much? Am I even any good at this? Do I really like to write after all?

Inevitably I wonder, when the wind of inspiration is gone, how do I keep my own kite flying? The answer should be simple. If one truly loves to do something, they do it. Period. In times of ordinary frustration, I resort to this answer to get through the day’s work. But the truth is, as an artist, I need something a little more poetic for the long haul.

So I think of my breath catching in response to a beautiful sentence, or ponder the deep satisfaction that comes from choosing the right expression. I think about a character that vibrates with life on the page and makes my own heart beat. Before long, a whisper stirs and my pen is ready. I am a writer after all.

This is the breeze keeping my own kite in the air. Sure, writing a beautiful story worthy of publication would send me over the moon. But I will still be a person who has to ask myself again and again, “Why do I do this?” The answer is what keeps any writer’s kite flying. Even on a still, windless day.

A Quick Howdy Do

I haven't posted this week because I am scribbling away (on the computer of course). Blogging is going to have to take a backseat for a while so I can get seriously focused on some other writing. Once I have a rhythm back, I'll come back here. The Friday interviews will continue, and maybe little else for a while.

Oh the happy joy of inspiration. . . .

Now back to work.

Becoming Clint Eastwood

I had been in a reading lull, focusing on writing a lot, and research and related things, but reading very little.

Since reading other people's great ideas expands my own creativity (duh), I'm attacking my book pile with gusto once again. Movies do this, too. My husband and I saw Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood last night, and it got me thinking about the complexity of motivations for a racist attitude. The movie is set in my state, and one of the supporting characters is a high schooler from my area. This was inspiring in itself.

Clint Eastwood is my new role model. He knows precisely what he does best, and proceeds to make a career out of it. You can call him one dimensional, but really the man transcends versatility. He is the master of his dimension. He owns every inch of it. He's just so very good at what he does.

Perhaps this is a problem for struggling writers. I lament that I can't turn a phrase quite like Polly Horvath, or structure a plot like Laurie Halse Anderson. I want to have the dry humor of Emily Jenkins, or the tall tale telling genius of Richard Peck. Clearly I'm no Clint either, but if I can possibly discover the thing I do best. And then do that thing really well, that will be my best shot.

So I do need to immerse, and learn, and admire, and think, and work. Then, focus inward, find the connections, discard the peripheral stuff, create, and hone hone hone that voice.

So This Blog Won't Sabotage my non-existent Career

I can't post anything until I've written at least 2000 words.
Okay then.
See you.
Later
Bye.

Brain Freeze

Perhaps 'twas not a good idea to read The Annotated Charlotte's Web while I'm in the very beginning stages of a rough draft for a new novel. Yes, perhaps not.

The problem is, I can't put it down. Charlotte's Web is one of my all time favorites. This book is like sitting at E.B. White's knee and having him tell me exactly how and why he wrote it.

I'm waffling between being completely inspired and, at certain moments, cringing while thinking of some of my own writing.

So--a vocationally themed New Year's resolution: I must be able to read The Annotated Charlotte's Web without being prompted to cringe at my current writing before I consider sending anything back to anyone who has expressed interest in my future work.

A Time for Everything

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

--Roethke

One multicolored computerized flowchart later, I must stop planning. It's time to go to town writing. I cannot plan my way to the answers to these small, lingering plot questions. It's time to write my way to the answers now.

Yay! The fun part! Time to watch the word count grow!

The Goal: A first draft completed by the last week of February.

Making Progress. . . .

While the WIP word count may be at a standstill, progress is being made in the area of plotting. This story is going to require some pretty careful construction, because it is actually three stories being told simultaneously. These will, hopefully, dovetail and mirror each other in a resounding halleluia chorus of an ending. Ambitious, yes, but really, shooting for the moon is the only choice at this point.

Anyway, I had to head back to the flowchart for a bit this evening. I have plotted one thread quite carefully, and noted the intersection points. I believe I will do the same for the other two before I go back into the zero draft. I'm thinking about writing each story separately, in a linear fashion, before combining them in a later version.

This process is a pretty dramatic difference in my approach to a project like this. Let's hope it's not just different. Let's hope, for the love of Petunia, that it's better.

The New WIP Word Counter

Over the last year I've done some off and on prewriting, storynotes, character sketches etc. Now that I've decided to shelve more revisions for my other novel (for now), these efforts have intensified and focused themselves. I'm finally ready to begin a ZERO DRAFT of a brand new idea.

For my own accountability, there is a new gadget in the sidebar that will track the progress of the ZERO DRAFT. Word count is king at this stage. It's the only time quantity does slightly trump quality. Do you have any methods to keep yourself going during the "roughest of drafts" stage?

Flow Charts and Spreadsheets and Outlines Oh My!

A few posts ago I wrote about my foray into spreadsheetdom, with regard to publisher research and submissions tracking. This has led to creating an outline for a newish idea for a novel I've been kicking around.

In the past I have spouted on about how much an outline "wouldn't work." Oh, and how outlines "take the excitement out of creating." Stuff like that. These things are possible, but as I was forcing my daughter to take a bite of chicken not long ago, I considered this fact: I have never TRIED it. And, frankly, the novel writing I've been doing is perhaps one step above underwhelming. This is a lot because of the lack of plot organization. So, on with the experimental outline! And did you know what a beautiful flowchart you can make with Word 2007? Alas, the flowchart will wait. I'm starting with storynotes. One step at a time. . . .

Need some inspiration lately? Check HipWriter Mama
I need to re-think how I blog

Update

As I write this I recall that I did make some goals for November. It is now December first and too late to make a mad dash to accomplish them. I did do one thing, though, toward making smarter submissions.

I've been researching *stifles a yawn* and researching. And, oh, doing more research.

I now know the publishing trends of eleven major publishers, including how many debut authors they've bought from in the last four years. I know which ones favor anthropomorphism, word play and humor. I know which ones lean more toward didactism, celebrity authors and high concept. I know the take-out preferences of certain editors, and which ones will return a postcard submission reply.

I've had my daughter make files for me because she likes to be a little helper. She even filed the info for me after I printed out my reports. Those very scientific reports that give information like "query only--crapshoot" and "only agented--ice cube's chance" Oh, and "No debuts in five years--don't bother"

A list of titles has been compiled. My job now is to comb the biggest library in town for them, read them and make the appropriate notes in the appropriate files. Then, write these very personalized cover letters evidencing all this careful study blah blah blah.

So far it's been an enlightening experience. I've learned quite a bit and, mostly, I'm glad I'm almost done with this part. Of course, the system will require upkeep. Right now I think hiring my daughter sounds good--so far she exhibits more "agent skill" than I do!

Ham

Thanksgiving was fun. We had ham, and it was delicious. The no-turkey tradition goes back to a "food allergy" contrived by my great-grandmother to avoid the traditional fare herself. She's gone now, but the ham lives on and has become a tradition of its own.

Studying my own family dynamics is a storytelling lesson in itself. A house containing several generations of the same clan, with all the moments of joy, humor and (yikes!) tension, makes a laboratory of sorts. I become an observer for my art, a behavioral scientist of sorts.

I watch, and wonder at the difficulty of re-creating this sort of wonderful tension in a work of fiction! The kind that is full of subtext and implications. The kind that is a dance among stakes that are constantly changing. The kind that might not look like tension to the casual observer, and yet is palpable beneath the surface.

As a writer, I live to re-create the beautiful moments, too. The laughter, the love, and the lingering sense of the magical Now. The baby who will be like a different person next Thanksgiving. The grandmother who may not be here at all. The awareness that all we ever have is today, and so we should love each other as best we can.

Family is a story with an arc that is not a perfect bell shape. There is no clear protagonist, except for we, the characters, who might sometimes each mistake ourselves for the hero. The ending is sort of nebulous at best. But I know that without this most sacred family narrative, no other story can exist for me. We tell it with love, and with laughter, and with ham!

Getting Down to Business

I am inherently lazy. Particularly when it comes to things I'm not very good at and lack experience with, such as the submissions process.

Everybody knows there is a way to submit one's work that yields better results. Do lots of research about different publishers. Find those hard to reach editorial assistants whose names aren't emblazoned all over the house's contact information. There's a lot of internet surfing involved. A lot of library visits. A lot of publisher catalog downloading blah blah blah.

It's kind of fun, digging for those little golden nuggets. But I wish I enjoyed it more so I would hurry up and get it done already. There has been some progress--I did some preliminary research on fifteen publishers and found about half of the names I need. I have all the various submission guidelines in place. I went through an online Excel spreadsheet tutorial so I could learn how to make "Lori's Fancy Online Submission Tracking Chart," complete with color coding and neato rejection font. I called my whole family into the room to look at my spreadsheet, because I've decided to celebrate every blessed step of this process that very closely resembles the homework I loathed in gradeschool.

In the meantime, it's been very easy to digress to creative work. My other picture book ms is evolving shrinking and expanding and generally trying to make itself "spreadsheet worthy." If you're like me, and having a hard time getting yourself to write, try forcing yourself to do some data entry. It won't be long before you're crying for your word processor. Or at least a pen.

Then I realized somthing. I really really love my spreadsheet. I do! Maybe there is hope for this lazy one yet.

Picture Book Boot Camp

That's what Lisa Wheeler calls her picture book workshop, which I attended this past Saturday. I received a very helpful critique from this woman who has clearly mastered the form. As someone who has focused on middle grade so far, I gleaned a few helpful little tidbits about writing specifically for younger kids. I also was generally refocused, reminded and re-charged with regards to my writing in general.

I almost didn't go for the stupidest of all reasons.

After eight years of seriously studying to improve my writing to the point of marketability, (attending conferences, workshops, having a top notch critique group filled with published writers)--I, um, kinda thought, *blushes* that I knew enough.

Here's what I learned (yet again).

Lesson #1: I will never, ever, never know enough about writing and storytelling. Even if I were to get fame, critical acclaim, and a devoted audience that turns everything I write into a bestseller. Period. I will never be GOOD ENOUGH.

Lesson #2: I will always remember to enter a teaching moment with a teachable spirit. I will be open to learn. Because if I do that, I WILL LEARN SOMETHING.

Lesson #3: I will never, ever, never pass up a chance to sit at the knee of someone who is a master of the craft I want to master. Even if I only learn one new thing. (it's even worth listening to fellow attendees who would rather talk about how to get an agent than how to improve their writing) It's worth it if it clicks me to the next stop on the learning curve.

The Thrill of Creativity

I had been in a lull. My novel was at a standstill and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. Still can't. But now a new project has taken hold and I am basking in the joy of creativity. Ideas and characters are having a party in my head, saying "How about. . .? and Oh! Oh! What if. . .? And I, the author, am saying "Yeah, that sounds good." or at least, "I'll try that. It's so crazy it might just be original."

My internal editor has become irritable and now resorts to immature, attention seeking behaviors. She shoots spitballs. Her hair is down, the glasses are off, and her feet are up on the desk. She's eating licorice and complaining loudly about her salary and not being appreciated.

I've warned her about the poor economy and potential lay-offs in sight. I've told her if she has such great ideas she should go and write her own book. :o)

October Goal Report/November Goal Setting

Here's a follow-up to October Goals I set on October 2nd.

I finished the critique of Ann's novel, and finally gave it back to her.
I wrote another picture book manuscript. It is not submittable, but in pretty good shape so far.
I did not read my novel yet. Probably because I'm not feeling moved to work on it, and am otherwise inspired by other projects. I'm going to give myself a break on this one, because I have been writing.

That's it, besides cleaning out my filing cabinet (the small one in my kitchen has been cleaned and re-organized--still have two large ones in the basement to go).

On to November Goals:

1. Write one picture book manuscript (again, doesn't have to be submittable, just a complete story idea.)

2. Finish reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.

3. Clean out one of the filing cabinets in my basement.

4. Do market research and submit finished pb manuscript to three more publishers.

5. Participate in helping one of the libraries Debbie blogs about (Read more about that here.)

Happy goal setting to you. :o)

UPDATE: Goal #6 has been added as follows--My cleaned out filing cabinet will ever after be filled with Dove Chocolates that are wrapped in those nice little fortunes.

Write Night Extravaganza

I had the pleasure of enjoying a particularly helpful write night with my group last night. First of all, we are on such a high regarding all the good news some of our members have had lately. This makes everybody hopeful and happy and inspired, which is great creativity food! Tim brought a great voice exercise and we did our usual whining about his rules. Then we followed them like we always do, and I think we were all pretty pleased with what we wrote. Here's what we did:

Pick a magazine picture and then tell a narrative having something to do with that picture, but focus on the writing VOICE and make it very strong. Then we pass our stories to the right and either edit our partner's work to make the voice even stronger, or continue writing in the same voice they used. Challenging and good fun.

I've ended up using a lot of my write night production in projects I'm working on. It's something what you can come up with under the pressure of Tim's stopwatch. :o) And good company!

October Goals

My friend Ann Finkelstein (who knows imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) has inspired me to do some goal setting once again. For some reason, when I do this, things actually get done. We're going to stick with writing goals for the most part. Here goes:

1. Write one picture book manuscript (doesn't have to be submittable, just a finished story idea).

2. Finish compiling feedback on Ann's novel. GIVE IT TO ANN.

3. Read my novel and decide whether to proceed with revisions at this point, or call it a learning experience and move on to better, fresher, more exciting to me ideas.

4. I guess three things for one month is enough, because I must work, and I'd also like to organize my file cabinet.

Toys Go Out

I've been doing some research in the picture book realm--not my normal area of focus--because I'm trying to write a picture book or two. I discovered Emily Jenkins for myself about a year ago when I read, "Toys Go Out." Even if you're not a picture book person, I highly recommend this. It's the most sardonic children's book I've ever read. Quirky and wonderful all the way around. I haven't read it recently enough to give it a proper review, but I intend to buy this book next time my paycheck rolls around.