Sunday, September 2, 2012
Remaking Your Writing Schedule...Again
Ok, I got pregnant and therefore so tired that I couldn't hold my eyelids open with toothpicks to write. Then add to that the insult of insomnia when I finally did get to go to bed at night! My writing was suffering (not to mention my life); I didn't touch my novels for months.
I have changed my writing schedule multiple times over the past 2 years since i started seriously freelancing over 2 years ago. I've even written a few blogs before about time management and ways I had to eek out some time to write in my life as a stay-at-home mom with 2 pre-school children: Mastering Time Management to Meet Writing Goals, When All Your Time to Write Disappears... and How to Find More Time to Write.
Writing truly is something I have to squeeze in around the edges of other things--and those other things keep changing. I had a good thing for a long time in getting up at 6 with my husband, making him breakfast, then writing until the kids for up around 8--and then my husband got a different job that allowed him to sleep in later. I found it didn't make sense to get up at 6 myself, write for a bit, be interrupted to make breakfast, then try to get back to writing a bit before the kids were up. Also, somehow my husband making noise at 7 registered in my kids' brains and they more often than not got up, whereas doing all this at 6 didn't stir them. So that writing schedule bit the dust. Changes in my husband's schedule have dictated the most changes to my writing time. When he started traveling extensively, for weeks at a time, internationally, then I found myself with a lot of writing time, particularly after the kids were in bed for the night, but conversely, when he was home, I found myself with none. But I guess what the optimist should see is that I've always weathered the changes, finding a way to love the writing enough that I could get up at 6 to write or stay up to midnight to write--despite any prior convictions about what time of day was my most creative, or that I was naturally a night person and couldn't conceive of writing early in the morning!
So, enter pregnancy. I was so commonly falling asleep in the afternoons, even while sitting up, that my years' long habit of writing during my kids' naptime was impossible. Even when I could eat and drink to make myself stay awake, I couldn't summon anything worth keeping when it came to writing. And by the time I finally got my kids to bed at night, I was ready to drop, so writing at night never happened either. And the whole cycle was perpetuated by insomnia that struck in the wee hours of morning, so I started each day exhausted.
But I've now found a workable system by actually giving in to what my body kept trying to tell me. I succumb to the afternoon nap; in fact, I plan on it. When I sleep in the afternoon, two great things occur: 1) I am alert in the late evenings after my children are asleep, so I write! and 2) the insomnia problem seems to have gone away; when I go to bed at midnight or later I sleep through! So here's to my new writing schedule and meeting my new deadline for completing my novel! (A Baby Changes Everything)
Articles I've written:
What is a Disposable Diaper Made of Anyway?
Firefighters Fight to Rid Kids' Sleepwear, Baby Gear, Furniture of Toxic Flame Resistant Chemicals
Why is The United States Reacting Differently Than Other Governments to Cell Phone Risk Study Results?
When Miscarriage Means Labor
A Baby Changes Everything
Those of you who read previous blogs of mine might recall that I set myself a deadline for completing a draft of my novel. (Deadline For Complete Novel Draft) I said beginning of July, which later changed to end of July. But the reality was that by end of July, I could not have claimed to have even opened a file since perhaps April! Under normal conditions, this would be a huge blow to my ego and sense of self-worth, not just my goals, but I had unwritten caveats that I knew form the beginning could and should derail my goal. And any of you who know me personally know that I have been pregnant since April, and that is why my writing came to an almost complete standstill. The fatigue of the first trimester was so great that all the writing I could manage was one big article I was writing for a magazine. It was astonishing how difficult and plodding the writing of that article was; I felt like my brain matter had been sucked out of my skull! I knew I would write nothing but that article for the month of May, and sadly, even when the article was done, I was still so tired, I still didn't get back to the novel.
Something more than just lack of energy happened though; I was at a complete standstill in writing the novel because I'd lost my ability to make decisions. I was nearing the end which requires that I not simply meander but do the complex tasks of wrapping all the plot threads up. I found I couldn't simply phone that in, and the parts of my brain responsible for creative thinking seemed utterly shut down!
So as July and my deadline loomed, I knew it wasn't happening. But I did do something: I registered for a conference featuring a clinic with a published novelist (Joyce Magnin) for the purpose of getting some direction, inspiration and motivation because my new goal is to complete the first draft before the baby comes in December.
I did go to the conference, a month ago now, and I can proudly say I've actually been writing again! I'm not so tired as I was, now that I'm a bit over half-way through the pregnancy, and some creativity has returned. (Though I can't yet say I'm at the top of my game; I still feel somewhat foggy and creatively handicapped.) But I am just glad to be writing again and proud of the fact that I did, with some help of the conference clinic, solve some problems in my plot and figure out how my ending will occur--though I still have a lot of details to iron out. I'm getting the excitement back and am more motivated to finish Asher's story. I WILL complete this novel!
Articles I've written, available online:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
Natural Deodorants: Do Any Work as Effectively as Popular Commercial Brands?
Your Body is Electric-- How Electromagnetic Fields From Cell Phones, Wireless Devices Interact with Your Body’s Nervous System
Breast Cancer Less About Genetics Than We Used to Think
Getting More Writing Assignments
Oh, the irony of it all! I decided to hang up my hat as a freelance writer for periodicals after finishing one last article in May. And I did. That's why it's funny that now I have, for the first time, reached the point where editors I'd written for a year or 2 ago have seen the long-term interest generated by my original article and want me to write more for them! And just after I'd determined my life doesn't have room for that particular venture....
The editor of You and Me: America's Medical Magazine wants a follow-up article to one I wrote because he said it has generated so many requests from women to get in touch with me to find out more about what I wrote regarding vulvodynia. That was my first paid article I wrote two years ago, and the article's presence online in the magazine is still getting me new emails. I am considering writing that follow-up article, mostly because there's just so little information out there; it's not like other topics where "some other writer could do it." Other invitations though, I'm not so sure I'll do. I really don't have time in my life of re-routed priorities.
But what I've learned is encouraging: if I write quality articles, editors will remember me and SEARCH me out. So take heart, you other freelancers out there! That is pretty cool. I'm grateful to have found that to be true.
Articles of mine online:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
Women Find Courage on the Other Side of Pregnancy/Infant Loss
Organic Food: Eight Benefits for You and Your Children
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
The editor of You and Me: America's Medical Magazine wants a follow-up article to one I wrote because he said it has generated so many requests from women to get in touch with me to find out more about what I wrote regarding vulvodynia. That was my first paid article I wrote two years ago, and the article's presence online in the magazine is still getting me new emails. I am considering writing that follow-up article, mostly because there's just so little information out there; it's not like other topics where "some other writer could do it." Other invitations though, I'm not so sure I'll do. I really don't have time in my life of re-routed priorities.
But what I've learned is encouraging: if I write quality articles, editors will remember me and SEARCH me out. So take heart, you other freelancers out there! That is pretty cool. I'm grateful to have found that to be true.
Articles of mine online:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
Women Find Courage on the Other Side of Pregnancy/Infant Loss
Organic Food: Eight Benefits for You and Your Children
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Last Freelance Assignment: Poetic Ending
I hesitantly clicked the send button this afternoon on the last freelance assignment--at least in this phase of my career. I'm not searching for any more writing assignments at this time. At first, it was in a push to finish a complete draft of my novel. But now it's even more imperative I cut down on my expectations for myself-- a baby is on the way.
This last assignment was really quite poetic; my last story was the first one I wanted to write, the one that compelled me to start writing again. The topic of pregnancy loss. In that more than 2-year period, I've mostly hit a brick wall on getting to write on that topic. I got to write about from a pro-life point of view in Celebrate Life; that was good, but it didn't have the breadth to make all the points I wanted to, nor did it reach a large general audience. It was a "preaching to the choir" kind of article!
While battling constant hunger pangs of morning sickness and fatigue, this article took more than twice as long as normal to write. Also, because the topic is so important to me, I labored over every word. For something less critical to me, I'd have more easily cut the length and turned it in--but for this, I agonized over more creative ways to fit more and more content into fewer and fewer words. Obsession is the word that might best describe. I spent the past 2 weeks shaving a few hundred words.
Getting this article in print will be my zenith, in some ways; it was completing a primary goal that got me started. But in other ways, it'd be funny to call this one my zenith--it is certainly one of the lowest paying assignments I've ever done! Both because the publication, a newspaper-run magazine, pays extremely low in comparison with other magazines, but also because I put so much extra labor into it. If you figure out my hourly rate....oh well, I really don't want to know I am going to get paid less than a dollar an hour, or something like that!
As in many things, a writer decides success not just by the money made. In this, my success is counted in getting the stories out there. I interviewed four phenomenal women who have lost a baby to miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant loss. Of course, the benefits to me go beyond the money. I learned a lot in interviewing them. Some people have a very dismissive, cavalier attitude toward pregnancy loss; I know the deep wounds that response creates. Most people just don't know what to say/do and most people stay silent, isolating the woman who just experienced tragedy. If my article can educate and help communities understand a little more about the experience and the kind of support that helps a woman piece her life back together and rise whole again, then getting paid little monetarily is worth it to me.
So here's a nice bookend to my freelancing career of my early thirties...Maybe I'll take it up again in the future. Who knows....
Now, once the morning sickness stops, I'll get back on the project of that novel....
Other published articles:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
Cloth Diapers Versus Disposables: Switching Systems
Are Schools Expecting Our Kids to Read Too Early?
Chef Jamie Oliver Versus School Lunches: Where Do The Dietary Guidelines Come From Anyway?
This last assignment was really quite poetic; my last story was the first one I wanted to write, the one that compelled me to start writing again. The topic of pregnancy loss. In that more than 2-year period, I've mostly hit a brick wall on getting to write on that topic. I got to write about from a pro-life point of view in Celebrate Life; that was good, but it didn't have the breadth to make all the points I wanted to, nor did it reach a large general audience. It was a "preaching to the choir" kind of article!
While battling constant hunger pangs of morning sickness and fatigue, this article took more than twice as long as normal to write. Also, because the topic is so important to me, I labored over every word. For something less critical to me, I'd have more easily cut the length and turned it in--but for this, I agonized over more creative ways to fit more and more content into fewer and fewer words. Obsession is the word that might best describe. I spent the past 2 weeks shaving a few hundred words.
Getting this article in print will be my zenith, in some ways; it was completing a primary goal that got me started. But in other ways, it'd be funny to call this one my zenith--it is certainly one of the lowest paying assignments I've ever done! Both because the publication, a newspaper-run magazine, pays extremely low in comparison with other magazines, but also because I put so much extra labor into it. If you figure out my hourly rate....oh well, I really don't want to know I am going to get paid less than a dollar an hour, or something like that!
As in many things, a writer decides success not just by the money made. In this, my success is counted in getting the stories out there. I interviewed four phenomenal women who have lost a baby to miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant loss. Of course, the benefits to me go beyond the money. I learned a lot in interviewing them. Some people have a very dismissive, cavalier attitude toward pregnancy loss; I know the deep wounds that response creates. Most people just don't know what to say/do and most people stay silent, isolating the woman who just experienced tragedy. If my article can educate and help communities understand a little more about the experience and the kind of support that helps a woman piece her life back together and rise whole again, then getting paid little monetarily is worth it to me.
So here's a nice bookend to my freelancing career of my early thirties...Maybe I'll take it up again in the future. Who knows....
Now, once the morning sickness stops, I'll get back on the project of that novel....
Other published articles:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
Cloth Diapers Versus Disposables: Switching Systems
Are Schools Expecting Our Kids to Read Too Early?
Chef Jamie Oliver Versus School Lunches: Where Do The Dietary Guidelines Come From Anyway?
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
When writing a dreaded assignment is better than writer's block....
I was working, gung-ho, on the novel, week after week, doing no other kind of writing. And now, I'm at a dead stand-still. I have no idea where to go next. Writer's block to the extreme. But the problem isn't really about transmitting thoughts from my brain to the paper. It's about decisions. I can't write anything until I make some decisions about what will happen and when. I don't want to slow down though--I'm on a goal to finish the first draft by the end of July!
I once said that writing other things, such as articles, was something I did to help handle writer's block. Well, funny, it actually is helping. If in no other respect than in keeping me from idleness during the block!
Many months ago (maybe Nov/Dec?) an editor assigned me an article on pregnancy loss, due mid-July. A while back, I said I was done freelancing for now, to focus on the novel, except for one assigned piece. Well, this is that piece, a piece I've been wanting to write for two years. One of the reasons I started writing articles was because I felt passionately that miscarriage in particular is not covered well. But after 2 years of getting nowhere as far as convincing an editor to let me write on the topic, I finally get the assignment...and I don't really have the passion to write it anymore. In recent weeks, I've been seeing July as a guillotine--it's the month of my novel deadline as well as this article. Well, I don't want those 2 to compete. I decided I should just write the article and get it done early, so I can then really focus on the novel. I decided to start working on the article the first week of May.
Funny things happen though. I hit this intense writer's block for my novel on Monday, so I charged into preparing the article, a week early, and without really planning it, I'm further along than I'd ever intended. I'm in the interview process, not the writing process yet. But it's very good--I like being productive and not wasting time entirely--writer's block or no! And another good thing is, though I didn't feel any great push to do it, the passion to cover the topic is coming back as I work on it. There are times I really just don't want to revisit that, a dark memory in my own life. I know it's not an article I can write by phoning it in; it's going to require some emotional involvement and I think that's why I was balking at it. I'm past that experience, or so I think, with 2 healthy, living children, and I no longer need to write about it for my own therapeutic reasons. But I do still think it needs attention; therefore, I'm glad I'm coming around, warming to the assignment again.
So here's to writer's block on my novel that actually made me PREFER to write on an emotionally tough topic for a magazine. Writing an assignment always go better if my attitude towards it is positive.
Other articles I've written:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
When Miscarriage Means Labor
Fire Retardants Found in Babies' Umbilical Cord Blood Associated with Developmental Delays
Vulvodynia: Is The Pain Just in Your Head?
I once said that writing other things, such as articles, was something I did to help handle writer's block. Well, funny, it actually is helping. If in no other respect than in keeping me from idleness during the block!
Many months ago (maybe Nov/Dec?) an editor assigned me an article on pregnancy loss, due mid-July. A while back, I said I was done freelancing for now, to focus on the novel, except for one assigned piece. Well, this is that piece, a piece I've been wanting to write for two years. One of the reasons I started writing articles was because I felt passionately that miscarriage in particular is not covered well. But after 2 years of getting nowhere as far as convincing an editor to let me write on the topic, I finally get the assignment...and I don't really have the passion to write it anymore. In recent weeks, I've been seeing July as a guillotine--it's the month of my novel deadline as well as this article. Well, I don't want those 2 to compete. I decided I should just write the article and get it done early, so I can then really focus on the novel. I decided to start working on the article the first week of May.
Funny things happen though. I hit this intense writer's block for my novel on Monday, so I charged into preparing the article, a week early, and without really planning it, I'm further along than I'd ever intended. I'm in the interview process, not the writing process yet. But it's very good--I like being productive and not wasting time entirely--writer's block or no! And another good thing is, though I didn't feel any great push to do it, the passion to cover the topic is coming back as I work on it. There are times I really just don't want to revisit that, a dark memory in my own life. I know it's not an article I can write by phoning it in; it's going to require some emotional involvement and I think that's why I was balking at it. I'm past that experience, or so I think, with 2 healthy, living children, and I no longer need to write about it for my own therapeutic reasons. But I do still think it needs attention; therefore, I'm glad I'm coming around, warming to the assignment again.
So here's to writer's block on my novel that actually made me PREFER to write on an emotionally tough topic for a magazine. Writing an assignment always go better if my attitude towards it is positive.
Other articles I've written:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
When Miscarriage Means Labor
Fire Retardants Found in Babies' Umbilical Cord Blood Associated with Developmental Delays
Vulvodynia: Is The Pain Just in Your Head?
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Making People Like Your Antagonist
I gave a great writer friend some chapters to read a few months ago. She said something that struck me as surprising then, but that makes total sense to me now. She said she wanted everything to be written from the point of view of Curt, one of the male leads; she wasn't really interested in what Maizy thought. (I had the point of view about 50/50.) That surprised me because when I began the germ of this story, it was Maizy who I identified with--it was her story in the first place. My sympathy lay with her. So how had I let her become someone a reader didn't want to know more from--someone who was static, uninteresting and, really, trying the reader's patience in her obstinacy to change?
My story doesn't have a classic villain. Maizy is not a villain. But I do have protagonists and antagonists. And really, Maizy is an antagonist to all my other 3 lead characters, to varying degrees, and at different times. My story is about a real family, albeit maybe a pretty dysfunctional one. Maizy is an antagonist so often in their lives that somehow I think I've lost how to paint her in any positive light, to make anyone like her. How did that happen, when I first found her as my sympathetic character, and Curt, in my mind, was kind of an idiot, irresponsible, someone who came and messed everything up? Well, now that I think about it, I knew I had my work cut out for me in making him likable. I didn't want the reader to hate him. I wanted to show that he could redeem himself. Well, I guess I've done such a good job at elevating him, to make him likable, that the process by which I did that had put Maizy in a less likable light. Curt has sort become the hero of the story I've written so far. I find myself with 2 challenges: how to make his son Asher rise to that level as well and how to make Maizy someone we like.
I read in a magazine article recently about not making your villains one-dimensional. There needs to be something that makes us identify with them, something that makes us see them as human and understand, on some level, his/her motivations.
SO that's my task for Maizy. I need to get into her mind more, I guess, and let us find ourselves identifying with her fear or her paranoia that leads her to do the things she does. We may not agree with her choices, but we should identify with her fears.
But I'm finding it really hard to write her. I've been writing a section of her life I never intended to write. I was going to have the only revelation of Asher's childhood come through his memories of the past, and then, it'd be up to the reader to decide how much we put stock in his memory. But now by having to write a number of years from her and Curt's point of view changes the reader's perception considerably. I find myself grappling with the questions of how to make her--is she really abusive, borderline abusive, or is Asher just so sensitive that he just perceives her in ways that makes him feel she is? I find I don't like choosing. I liked it better left to the reader to interpret how much try trust Asher's memory. But whatever I do, I have to strike a very difficult balance--Ash has to have survived something tough enough to have caused the effects in his personality that we see evidenced in him as an adult. And yet, whatever that is, I don't want it to make us hate Maizy so strongly that we no longer care about her point of view or her. Wow. How do I get myself into thee messes. Why did I have to pick such a formidable challenge for my first novel???
Another challenge is figuring how I can sustain the tension of their relationship through all the years of their marriage. Maizy can't be a one-note Nellie. I can't have the entire sucess or failure of their marriage rest on one thing about her. I realize too that Curt has to be culpable too. I show him as such a hero in the first number of years, but he also can't be staticly heroic.
I really have to show Maizy's strengths as well as Curt's flaws.
I don't know how I'm going to do it yet--this is my blog to write through the problem. I guess I have to try to reveal more of her emotions in those early days, show some of her pain so we see she's scarred. I guess I need to throw in some stuff from her childhood. Flashbacks, maybe, but short ones. Just snippets. And how she's feeling right after Jared's death. I've just not really dealt with that. I wrote that part of the novel when my idea of the novel was quite different. I need to go back, now or in draft 2, and beef it up, get into Maizy's head, intimately. I think I did a good job of letting the reader see her vulnerability and fear after Asher is conceived and she's scared for her future. I need to reread that and go back and infuse that kind of stuff into earlier parts of the novel.
Online articles I've written:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
Green Tea Anti-Oxidants: How Do They Actually Fight Cancer?
My story doesn't have a classic villain. Maizy is not a villain. But I do have protagonists and antagonists. And really, Maizy is an antagonist to all my other 3 lead characters, to varying degrees, and at different times. My story is about a real family, albeit maybe a pretty dysfunctional one. Maizy is an antagonist so often in their lives that somehow I think I've lost how to paint her in any positive light, to make anyone like her. How did that happen, when I first found her as my sympathetic character, and Curt, in my mind, was kind of an idiot, irresponsible, someone who came and messed everything up? Well, now that I think about it, I knew I had my work cut out for me in making him likable. I didn't want the reader to hate him. I wanted to show that he could redeem himself. Well, I guess I've done such a good job at elevating him, to make him likable, that the process by which I did that had put Maizy in a less likable light. Curt has sort become the hero of the story I've written so far. I find myself with 2 challenges: how to make his son Asher rise to that level as well and how to make Maizy someone we like.
I read in a magazine article recently about not making your villains one-dimensional. There needs to be something that makes us identify with them, something that makes us see them as human and understand, on some level, his/her motivations.
SO that's my task for Maizy. I need to get into her mind more, I guess, and let us find ourselves identifying with her fear or her paranoia that leads her to do the things she does. We may not agree with her choices, but we should identify with her fears.
But I'm finding it really hard to write her. I've been writing a section of her life I never intended to write. I was going to have the only revelation of Asher's childhood come through his memories of the past, and then, it'd be up to the reader to decide how much we put stock in his memory. But now by having to write a number of years from her and Curt's point of view changes the reader's perception considerably. I find myself grappling with the questions of how to make her--is she really abusive, borderline abusive, or is Asher just so sensitive that he just perceives her in ways that makes him feel she is? I find I don't like choosing. I liked it better left to the reader to interpret how much try trust Asher's memory. But whatever I do, I have to strike a very difficult balance--Ash has to have survived something tough enough to have caused the effects in his personality that we see evidenced in him as an adult. And yet, whatever that is, I don't want it to make us hate Maizy so strongly that we no longer care about her point of view or her. Wow. How do I get myself into thee messes. Why did I have to pick such a formidable challenge for my first novel???
Another challenge is figuring how I can sustain the tension of their relationship through all the years of their marriage. Maizy can't be a one-note Nellie. I can't have the entire sucess or failure of their marriage rest on one thing about her. I realize too that Curt has to be culpable too. I show him as such a hero in the first number of years, but he also can't be staticly heroic.
I really have to show Maizy's strengths as well as Curt's flaws.
I don't know how I'm going to do it yet--this is my blog to write through the problem. I guess I have to try to reveal more of her emotions in those early days, show some of her pain so we see she's scarred. I guess I need to throw in some stuff from her childhood. Flashbacks, maybe, but short ones. Just snippets. And how she's feeling right after Jared's death. I've just not really dealt with that. I wrote that part of the novel when my idea of the novel was quite different. I need to go back, now or in draft 2, and beef it up, get into Maizy's head, intimately. I think I did a good job of letting the reader see her vulnerability and fear after Asher is conceived and she's scared for her future. I need to reread that and go back and infuse that kind of stuff into earlier parts of the novel.
Online articles I've written:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
Green Tea Anti-Oxidants: How Do They Actually Fight Cancer?
Saturday, March 31, 2012
5 Rookie Mistakes in Novel Writing I had to Slay (Thanks Joyce Magnin!)
Here's a list of things I slowly absorbed over the past year, though they were all told to me in one 20-minute conference with novelist Joyce Magnin last March.
1) Don't try to be too mysterious in your novel's opening. I've read in other places too that your reader should know what the character is privy to. (Well, I see some exceptions to that, but in general I'm beginning to get the overall principle.) I was sooo guilty of this. I didn't want to name Maizy's husband/the baby's father mentioned in the prologue's first paragraph. What the reader got was a lot of confusing "he" pronouns--some referring to the father, some a newborn baby. I had this hangup about not naming the man in the prologue because the first chapter went back in time to when Maizy was with a different man, and if I named the man in the prologue, the reader would instantly know that relationship in chapter one was doomed. I thought by not naming the man in the prologue, the reader would be able to meet the rest of the story with the ability to wonder which man she'll pick. It sounded good to me, for years, but now I get that frustrating ambiguity doesn't serve much but to add confusion. Besides, my prologue carries enough ambiguity--the point is to make you wonder what happens to the baby and what she did that she feels so much guilt--those are the hooks my novel needs.
2) Don't dump a lot of back story in the your novel's beginning. Save as much back story as you can for later, sprinkled in bits and pieces as you weave the rest of the forward-moving story. My prologue had once been 30 pages--all from a short story that I wanted to keep in tact. A lot of it was back story. I cut it down to 9 for this conference and felt quite accomplished. But in the conference, I remember feeling like I was back in school, at the desk of an English teacher with a red pen, as Joyce sliced through paragraph after paragraph with a pen: "We don't need to know this yet." Slash. "Not needed." Red slash. "Not needed." Ouch. But a year has gone by, and I see she was right. There was actually very little that the reader needed in that introduction. The reader didn't need to know how Maizy got where she was--yet.
3) The reader doesn't need to know how your character got where she got--yet--but he/she does need to know where she is now! My opening was scant on setting the scene and developing atmosphere. Joyce said I needed to spend more time on world building. Up to that point, I'd been so focused on following earlier advice to shorten my prologue that I'd been cutting, painfully cutting, to shorten the word count. But I'd been cutting the wrong things and preserving things that were better sprinkled throughout the rest of the novel.
4) De-clutter dialogue. Especially in the opening, my dialogue was cluttered with all the details I was trying to squeeze in--characters' appearances, mannerisms, emotions, etc. It was so full of information, the conversation moved very slowly, the reader constantly asked to process new information and yet not lose the momentum of the conversations. Joyce also took her pen and slashed through my synonyms for "said." I've read it in books before: "forget what your high school creative teacher taught you." Writing declared, retorted, implored, reported, spat, enunciated, replied, etc., should be rare. "The reader doesn't really notice 'said,' but the other words slow her down," Joyce said. Dialogue should move, not bog down, generally.
5) Simplify sentence structure. I'm super good at writing very complex sentences, with proper punctuation and everything. But what's good for poetry and academic writing is not necessarily good for contemporary fiction. Sentence variety, yes. But I was really burdening my prose with over-long sentences. Maybe Twain is noted for it, and countless writers before have had paragraph-long sentences, but it's hard to pull that off in today's publishing world.
Joyce ended my conference saying, "I do think you do have a story here," like she was generously searching for a diamond in the rough. "But you have to learn the basics of fiction writing."
(As an aside, I should tell you I think that was the worst reception of my writing I've ever experienced. I was that kind of student in high school and college who always excelled, whom professors asked to stand and read her writing for the whole class, even when I was a sophomore among senior English majors. To find that my skills didn't seamlessly translate to the world of contemporary fiction was a bit...deflating. But necessary.)
To follow what kind of feedback I got on my revisions a year later, in conferences last week, follow to the blog post "A Year Comparison: Shopping My Novel's Opening at Writers' Conferences."
Articles I've written:
What is a Disposable Diaper Made of Anyway?
Are Schools Expecting Our Kids to Read Too Early?
Hormone-free Milk: Dairy Companies Pledging Not to Use Artificial Bovine Growth Hormone
Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression Incorrect; Antidepressants Ineffective
1) Don't try to be too mysterious in your novel's opening. I've read in other places too that your reader should know what the character is privy to. (Well, I see some exceptions to that, but in general I'm beginning to get the overall principle.) I was sooo guilty of this. I didn't want to name Maizy's husband/the baby's father mentioned in the prologue's first paragraph. What the reader got was a lot of confusing "he" pronouns--some referring to the father, some a newborn baby. I had this hangup about not naming the man in the prologue because the first chapter went back in time to when Maizy was with a different man, and if I named the man in the prologue, the reader would instantly know that relationship in chapter one was doomed. I thought by not naming the man in the prologue, the reader would be able to meet the rest of the story with the ability to wonder which man she'll pick. It sounded good to me, for years, but now I get that frustrating ambiguity doesn't serve much but to add confusion. Besides, my prologue carries enough ambiguity--the point is to make you wonder what happens to the baby and what she did that she feels so much guilt--those are the hooks my novel needs.
2) Don't dump a lot of back story in the your novel's beginning. Save as much back story as you can for later, sprinkled in bits and pieces as you weave the rest of the forward-moving story. My prologue had once been 30 pages--all from a short story that I wanted to keep in tact. A lot of it was back story. I cut it down to 9 for this conference and felt quite accomplished. But in the conference, I remember feeling like I was back in school, at the desk of an English teacher with a red pen, as Joyce sliced through paragraph after paragraph with a pen: "We don't need to know this yet." Slash. "Not needed." Red slash. "Not needed." Ouch. But a year has gone by, and I see she was right. There was actually very little that the reader needed in that introduction. The reader didn't need to know how Maizy got where she was--yet.
3) The reader doesn't need to know how your character got where she got--yet--but he/she does need to know where she is now! My opening was scant on setting the scene and developing atmosphere. Joyce said I needed to spend more time on world building. Up to that point, I'd been so focused on following earlier advice to shorten my prologue that I'd been cutting, painfully cutting, to shorten the word count. But I'd been cutting the wrong things and preserving things that were better sprinkled throughout the rest of the novel.
4) De-clutter dialogue. Especially in the opening, my dialogue was cluttered with all the details I was trying to squeeze in--characters' appearances, mannerisms, emotions, etc. It was so full of information, the conversation moved very slowly, the reader constantly asked to process new information and yet not lose the momentum of the conversations. Joyce also took her pen and slashed through my synonyms for "said." I've read it in books before: "forget what your high school creative teacher taught you." Writing declared, retorted, implored, reported, spat, enunciated, replied, etc., should be rare. "The reader doesn't really notice 'said,' but the other words slow her down," Joyce said. Dialogue should move, not bog down, generally.
5) Simplify sentence structure. I'm super good at writing very complex sentences, with proper punctuation and everything. But what's good for poetry and academic writing is not necessarily good for contemporary fiction. Sentence variety, yes. But I was really burdening my prose with over-long sentences. Maybe Twain is noted for it, and countless writers before have had paragraph-long sentences, but it's hard to pull that off in today's publishing world.
Joyce ended my conference saying, "I do think you do have a story here," like she was generously searching for a diamond in the rough. "But you have to learn the basics of fiction writing."
(As an aside, I should tell you I think that was the worst reception of my writing I've ever experienced. I was that kind of student in high school and college who always excelled, whom professors asked to stand and read her writing for the whole class, even when I was a sophomore among senior English majors. To find that my skills didn't seamlessly translate to the world of contemporary fiction was a bit...deflating. But necessary.)
To follow what kind of feedback I got on my revisions a year later, in conferences last week, follow to the blog post "A Year Comparison: Shopping My Novel's Opening at Writers' Conferences."
Articles I've written:
What is a Disposable Diaper Made of Anyway?
Are Schools Expecting Our Kids to Read Too Early?
Hormone-free Milk: Dairy Companies Pledging Not to Use Artificial Bovine Growth Hormone
Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression Incorrect; Antidepressants Ineffective
A year comparison: shopping my novel's opening at writers' conferences
In my last blog, I talked about a tough conference I had a year ago with a published novelist who took a literal red pen to my work. That blog entry listed 5 Rookie Mistakes for a Novel's Opening, because I made them all, but obviously, was mostly ignorant of them.
That was the worst reception of my writing I've ever experienced. I was that kind of student in high school and college who always excelled, whom professors asked to stand and read her writing for the whole class, even when I was a sophomore among senior English majors. I write and sell articles to periodicals now. I am used to seeing myself as a good writer.To find that my skills didn't seamlessly translate to the world of contemporary fiction was a bit...deflating. But necessary.
It took me a year to absorb all that good advice for my opening prologue. Granted, I could be generous with myself and say that I was busy learning other things about the craft--it's not like I was being obtuse for a year, stuck on those things, never moving forward. I just set the opening aside, let all I'd been told settle, and worked on other things. Then I dusted the opening off and reconsidered it for 2 conferences, one at the end of January which I've written about (learning to write meaningful specifics for characters, and managing time to write), and the most recent one a week ago today. Suddenly, I saw the purpose of my prologue differently in light of Joyce's advice. I shaved my 9-page prologue down to a page and a half. Then I had room to go back in with details to flesh out the setting and atmosphere.
The results? I had three 20-minute conferences with published novelists last week, and constructive criticism on my opening was not at all part of the conversation. One novelist complimented me on the details that painted the characters' house and lifestyle and social class. And another novelist told me my writing was excellent, some of the best she'd seen that day. Amazing how much I can grow and have my perspective changed in a year.
Now that I know what I know, I can't believe I didn't know it before. Or rather, that I didn't recognize it before. Or I think I did know it once, then forgot. But whatever the case, I see I'm making important progress. (Now I just have to apply all I've learned to revising hundreds of pages, some of which I wrote 4+ years ago and that may likely shock me!)
Articles I've written:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
Organic Food: Eight Benefits for You and Your Children
Omega-3 Fatty Acids Protect Against Obesity?
When Miscarriage Means Labor
That was the worst reception of my writing I've ever experienced. I was that kind of student in high school and college who always excelled, whom professors asked to stand and read her writing for the whole class, even when I was a sophomore among senior English majors. I write and sell articles to periodicals now. I am used to seeing myself as a good writer.To find that my skills didn't seamlessly translate to the world of contemporary fiction was a bit...deflating. But necessary.
It took me a year to absorb all that good advice for my opening prologue. Granted, I could be generous with myself and say that I was busy learning other things about the craft--it's not like I was being obtuse for a year, stuck on those things, never moving forward. I just set the opening aside, let all I'd been told settle, and worked on other things. Then I dusted the opening off and reconsidered it for 2 conferences, one at the end of January which I've written about (learning to write meaningful specifics for characters, and managing time to write), and the most recent one a week ago today. Suddenly, I saw the purpose of my prologue differently in light of Joyce's advice. I shaved my 9-page prologue down to a page and a half. Then I had room to go back in with details to flesh out the setting and atmosphere.
The results? I had three 20-minute conferences with published novelists last week, and constructive criticism on my opening was not at all part of the conversation. One novelist complimented me on the details that painted the characters' house and lifestyle and social class. And another novelist told me my writing was excellent, some of the best she'd seen that day. Amazing how much I can grow and have my perspective changed in a year.
Now that I know what I know, I can't believe I didn't know it before. Or rather, that I didn't recognize it before. Or I think I did know it once, then forgot. But whatever the case, I see I'm making important progress. (Now I just have to apply all I've learned to revising hundreds of pages, some of which I wrote 4+ years ago and that may likely shock me!)
Articles I've written:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
Organic Food: Eight Benefits for You and Your Children
Omega-3 Fatty Acids Protect Against Obesity?
When Miscarriage Means Labor
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
The risk, the challenge, to obey your characters in writing that novel...
I've been meaning to write this since I went to a mid-winter retreat. There I met an editor and novelist who read my novel opening and heard the two possible ways I had been considering telling the story of my novel: tell the stories of both the younger and older couples in two separate tracks, or tell everything in the present time period with a lot of flashbacks for the story of the older couple. I even asked for reader feedback on this. As mentioned in that post, what most readers said they preferred was the 2-track idea. I tried for a few weeks, but just couldn't make it work.
Well, what do you think the editor and novelist had to recommend? Exactly what you readers told me: I'd been hung up on 2 things: 1) that it seemed like a phenomenal amount of work to rework the 85% of the novel already written and 2) I wasn't sure the pacing of the stories would mesh well together. (Oh, I guess 3 things: I was just more comfortable in the point of view of Maizy and Curt when they are older, looking back.) I left the mid-winter retreat encouraged because novelist Susan Gregg Gilmore really gave me a lot of encouragement, expressly because she talked about just having written a novel in the manner in which I write. She even had to start over, renegotiate a deadline with her publisher to do that phenomenal amount of work. But she did it. It is possible.
Last Saturday, I went to the Lancaster Christan Writer's one-day conference. I met with novelists there too who read my opening and my plan for the structure. Again and again, it was affirmed that the two-track idea for the 2 couples is the way to go. With Jeannette Windle, political suspense novelist, I admitted that in working on fleshing out the story of the older couple, I just felt daunted sometimes because I realized how much I didn't know about their story. Writing periodic flashbacks let me touch down on their story only every few years, even skipping a decade or more. But writing their relationship from a to z, in chronological order to have it parallel the other couples'--wow, is it hard! It's changing the story--eek! My characters are informing me that things I thought they did in their 30s or 40s or 50s are no longer logical or likely--because their 20-something or 30-something actions and situations in life change them in ways that change who they will in the future I imagined for them.
But multiple times, I was encouraged in this hard task, a task that may derail me from my goal to have a complete draft by the end of July. I was also told that my writing is very good and that my opening was gripping. My story gave them mystery. So for all that, I shall take heart and keep plugging away.
An it's not entirely unpleasant. I'm enjoying discovering exactly how Maizy and Curt were in their marriage through the years. It just really frustrated the goal-oriented side of me that still wants the goal to be "be done soon." I have to reprogram my goal to be "do what's best for the story. Just write it, and go ahead and overwrite it even, so you can find the best story."
Other things I write:
Postpartum Depression, Psychological Distress Predicted by Previous Traumatic Birth
Well, what do you think the editor and novelist had to recommend? Exactly what you readers told me: I'd been hung up on 2 things: 1) that it seemed like a phenomenal amount of work to rework the 85% of the novel already written and 2) I wasn't sure the pacing of the stories would mesh well together. (Oh, I guess 3 things: I was just more comfortable in the point of view of Maizy and Curt when they are older, looking back.) I left the mid-winter retreat encouraged because novelist Susan Gregg Gilmore really gave me a lot of encouragement, expressly because she talked about just having written a novel in the manner in which I write. She even had to start over, renegotiate a deadline with her publisher to do that phenomenal amount of work. But she did it. It is possible.
Last Saturday, I went to the Lancaster Christan Writer's one-day conference. I met with novelists there too who read my opening and my plan for the structure. Again and again, it was affirmed that the two-track idea for the 2 couples is the way to go. With Jeannette Windle, political suspense novelist, I admitted that in working on fleshing out the story of the older couple, I just felt daunted sometimes because I realized how much I didn't know about their story. Writing periodic flashbacks let me touch down on their story only every few years, even skipping a decade or more. But writing their relationship from a to z, in chronological order to have it parallel the other couples'--wow, is it hard! It's changing the story--eek! My characters are informing me that things I thought they did in their 30s or 40s or 50s are no longer logical or likely--because their 20-something or 30-something actions and situations in life change them in ways that change who they will in the future I imagined for them.
But multiple times, I was encouraged in this hard task, a task that may derail me from my goal to have a complete draft by the end of July. I was also told that my writing is very good and that my opening was gripping. My story gave them mystery. So for all that, I shall take heart and keep plugging away.
An it's not entirely unpleasant. I'm enjoying discovering exactly how Maizy and Curt were in their marriage through the years. It just really frustrated the goal-oriented side of me that still wants the goal to be "be done soon." I have to reprogram my goal to be "do what's best for the story. Just write it, and go ahead and overwrite it even, so you can find the best story."
Other things I write:
Postpartum Depression, Psychological Distress Predicted by Previous Traumatic Birth
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
No More Freelancing
Ok, I did it. In my last post, I talked about being hesitant to even say aloud what I KNEW I needed to do to give myself a fighting chance at finishing my novel. I wrote the first half of the equation in my last post about time management, admitting I was scared to say, for fear of accountability, what else I knew I needed to do. But, I've been doing it for two weeks, and I'm not dead.
OK, I'm being dramatic, but it did feel like such a hard thing to do: stop freelancing for magazines. I remember, two days after I made the commitment, I spent an hour searching out new magazines and having ideas! And that's exactly what has to stop if I'm going to finish the novel! The nap time novelist and nap time freelancer can't both succeed well right now. I told myself, "It's only temporary." I hope to be done with the novel draft by summer's end, and then, I tell myself, I can do some freelancing again. (Caveat: I'm already committed to one freelance assignment, so I do have to do that, but then I'm done....)
So far I haven't felt too bad about not freelancing. But then, with the slow way the business rolls, I'm still getting paychecks and seeing periodicals come out with my articles. In a few months, that will stop, and I'll reap no benefits, and I will miss them. I still get ideas all the time for articles. But I am disciplining myself to write them down and ignore them for 6 months. Or whatever's necessary.
The benefits of this change is the freedom to really keep the novel's plot and characters in my head space, instead of crowding them out for other assignments. I've found I accomplish much more with them because of this change, confirming this is what I needed to do. I'd been riding the fence between these two applications of writing ever since I started writing again in February 2010. I've been praying, weighing the pros and cons, and stubbornly trying to do both this whole time. I never would have thought back then it'd take me so long to just pick one to focus on.
Here's to finishing my novel! I'm feeling good about my goal. I've been writing nothing but the novel for 2 weeks now. It's good. It's really good.
A sample of my online freelance articles:
Natural Deodorants: Do Any Work as Effectively as Popular Commercial Brands?
Organic Food: Eight Benefits for You and Your Children
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
Job Search: How to Make Your Application Climb to The Top of The Pile
OK, I'm being dramatic, but it did feel like such a hard thing to do: stop freelancing for magazines. I remember, two days after I made the commitment, I spent an hour searching out new magazines and having ideas! And that's exactly what has to stop if I'm going to finish the novel! The nap time novelist and nap time freelancer can't both succeed well right now. I told myself, "It's only temporary." I hope to be done with the novel draft by summer's end, and then, I tell myself, I can do some freelancing again. (Caveat: I'm already committed to one freelance assignment, so I do have to do that, but then I'm done....)
So far I haven't felt too bad about not freelancing. But then, with the slow way the business rolls, I'm still getting paychecks and seeing periodicals come out with my articles. In a few months, that will stop, and I'll reap no benefits, and I will miss them. I still get ideas all the time for articles. But I am disciplining myself to write them down and ignore them for 6 months. Or whatever's necessary.
The benefits of this change is the freedom to really keep the novel's plot and characters in my head space, instead of crowding them out for other assignments. I've found I accomplish much more with them because of this change, confirming this is what I needed to do. I'd been riding the fence between these two applications of writing ever since I started writing again in February 2010. I've been praying, weighing the pros and cons, and stubbornly trying to do both this whole time. I never would have thought back then it'd take me so long to just pick one to focus on.
Here's to finishing my novel! I'm feeling good about my goal. I've been writing nothing but the novel for 2 weeks now. It's good. It's really good.
A sample of my online freelance articles:
Natural Deodorants: Do Any Work as Effectively as Popular Commercial Brands?
Organic Food: Eight Benefits for You and Your Children
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
Job Search: How to Make Your Application Climb to The Top of The Pile
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Meaningful specifics: Draw out your character's essence
In Writer's Digest, I just read another writer saying that it's all in the details--things about your character that make him real, true-to-life for the reader. This is such foundational advice, I've been aware of it since middle school creative writing classes. And yet, how long can it really take to master this art?
"Meaningful Specifics." That's what novelist Susan Gregg Gilmore called those details at the mid-winter retreat I attended last month. As an exercise, she showed us photographs of houses and people and had us describe them, picking out, or making up, the details that characterized the personalities. Pretty simple stuff. And yet I can write thousands of words and know so many details about a character I write that I've lost sight of what are really the essential details. I have to ask myself--of the list of details I know, what are details that really define him: that played soccer in high school, that he loved grilled cheese sandwiches, that he wanted to be an illustrator but couldn't succeed in college art classes, or that he's perpetually late?
I read another article, in The Writer, about how to draw the details that give you maximum mileage. It included an exercise to draw, in a single sentence, a description of the essence of a few closest friends. I did, and I found it came down to a story I'd heard that, for me, defined how they were in their essence.
Here's one, I'll call this friend P:
"When there was no food left in the house, P concocted a soup for her siblings and parents that has lived on in legend." To me, the essence of P, what I most admire about her, is her resourcefulness, her ability to create art when everyone else sees nothing of worth. And her ability to survive hard circumstances.
Here's another, I'll call this friend H.
"Despite how difficult it was, and how everyone expected her to quit the nasty job of dealing with fish entrails for a suburban restaurant, H. refused to quit." That white-knuckled determination won my respect early on, so I've carried around this story for years.
I realized that in both instances, what encapsulated my idea of these friends existed in a story, both from a rather distant past, that for me defined who I saw they had been or become. I realize that for my characters in a novel or story, the "meaningful specifics" are the details of the same variety. SO, for my character Ash, is my knowing that he played soccer really that important? maybe not. What about grilled cheese sandwiches? Well, I know that he loves them because his mom made him ones with 3-slices of grilled cheese, out of guilt, when he was a chubby, isolated boy, and that is a foundational story for his link between food and love. He's never made it as an art major because his mother, an artist, criticized his lack of "eye," and his supportive girlfriend isn't with him in college to counteract his lack of confidence in the face of tough professors. Maybe that detail is important. I know his being late certainly is. He was an hour late picking up his date for the senior prom because he spent the time consoling a friend who never got a date and was on the verge of something extreme. His lateness is a "meaningful specific" because it reveals, upon further inspection, that its rooted not in lack of character or respect for others, but instead, a respect for others so deep that he cannot leave someone in need, no matter what obligations he'd previously assigned to himself.
I still feel like I'm wading though a swamp sometimes, when it comes to my novel. I've got so many ideas, words, pages. I see that my revision stage will be about carving out those meaningful specifics from all the other "stuff" I've collected over the years.
I feel encouraged by an epiphany of how to apply this business of specifics. In an opening chapter, Asher describes his wife for the reader: what she wears, her shoes, etc, all of which reveals her personality. And then I have a scene where he comes home and sees her sitting at her computer. I remember I have her wearing bed clothes and bedroom slippers--only because it was evening and it was a practical choice. but I realized the other day, I should combine the two things--the description of her clothing habits and the scene of her at he computer. I should simply have Asher describe her sitting at the computer in clothes and shoes typical of her personality--saves words. There was nothing wrong with her being introduced in bedroom slippers and sweatpants, and yet, it does nothing for the story and wastes words. It's a simple thing to realize, really. And yet I hope I'll continue seeing my manuscript through such eyes--seeing how I can economize every detail and word, to get the most mileage out of each. And thereby reduce my word count!
Other things I write:
Choices for Your Best Birth: Five women share what helped them most, and what they wished that had done differently for their deliveries.
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
How to Determine If Your Child is Ready to Begin Kindergarten
100% Wheat Bread with Honey or Molasses, for a Bread Machine
Lyme Disease and Autism Patients Prescribed Diets Free of Genetically Modified Foods
"Meaningful Specifics." That's what novelist Susan Gregg Gilmore called those details at the mid-winter retreat I attended last month. As an exercise, she showed us photographs of houses and people and had us describe them, picking out, or making up, the details that characterized the personalities. Pretty simple stuff. And yet I can write thousands of words and know so many details about a character I write that I've lost sight of what are really the essential details. I have to ask myself--of the list of details I know, what are details that really define him: that played soccer in high school, that he loved grilled cheese sandwiches, that he wanted to be an illustrator but couldn't succeed in college art classes, or that he's perpetually late?
I read another article, in The Writer, about how to draw the details that give you maximum mileage. It included an exercise to draw, in a single sentence, a description of the essence of a few closest friends. I did, and I found it came down to a story I'd heard that, for me, defined how they were in their essence.
Here's one, I'll call this friend P:
"When there was no food left in the house, P concocted a soup for her siblings and parents that has lived on in legend." To me, the essence of P, what I most admire about her, is her resourcefulness, her ability to create art when everyone else sees nothing of worth. And her ability to survive hard circumstances.
Here's another, I'll call this friend H.
"Despite how difficult it was, and how everyone expected her to quit the nasty job of dealing with fish entrails for a suburban restaurant, H. refused to quit." That white-knuckled determination won my respect early on, so I've carried around this story for years.
I realized that in both instances, what encapsulated my idea of these friends existed in a story, both from a rather distant past, that for me defined who I saw they had been or become. I realize that for my characters in a novel or story, the "meaningful specifics" are the details of the same variety. SO, for my character Ash, is my knowing that he played soccer really that important? maybe not. What about grilled cheese sandwiches? Well, I know that he loves them because his mom made him ones with 3-slices of grilled cheese, out of guilt, when he was a chubby, isolated boy, and that is a foundational story for his link between food and love. He's never made it as an art major because his mother, an artist, criticized his lack of "eye," and his supportive girlfriend isn't with him in college to counteract his lack of confidence in the face of tough professors. Maybe that detail is important. I know his being late certainly is. He was an hour late picking up his date for the senior prom because he spent the time consoling a friend who never got a date and was on the verge of something extreme. His lateness is a "meaningful specific" because it reveals, upon further inspection, that its rooted not in lack of character or respect for others, but instead, a respect for others so deep that he cannot leave someone in need, no matter what obligations he'd previously assigned to himself.
I still feel like I'm wading though a swamp sometimes, when it comes to my novel. I've got so many ideas, words, pages. I see that my revision stage will be about carving out those meaningful specifics from all the other "stuff" I've collected over the years.
I feel encouraged by an epiphany of how to apply this business of specifics. In an opening chapter, Asher describes his wife for the reader: what she wears, her shoes, etc, all of which reveals her personality. And then I have a scene where he comes home and sees her sitting at her computer. I remember I have her wearing bed clothes and bedroom slippers--only because it was evening and it was a practical choice. but I realized the other day, I should combine the two things--the description of her clothing habits and the scene of her at he computer. I should simply have Asher describe her sitting at the computer in clothes and shoes typical of her personality--saves words. There was nothing wrong with her being introduced in bedroom slippers and sweatpants, and yet, it does nothing for the story and wastes words. It's a simple thing to realize, really. And yet I hope I'll continue seeing my manuscript through such eyes--seeing how I can economize every detail and word, to get the most mileage out of each. And thereby reduce my word count!
Other things I write:
Choices for Your Best Birth: Five women share what helped them most, and what they wished that had done differently for their deliveries.
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
How to Determine If Your Child is Ready to Begin Kindergarten
100% Wheat Bread with Honey or Molasses, for a Bread Machine
Lyme Disease and Autism Patients Prescribed Diets Free of Genetically Modified Foods
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Mastering Time Management to Meet Writing Goals
It's not that I haven't been aware of what's keeping me from meeting my writing goals. I know. And I'm going to tell you in this blog, which is why I'm still somewhat hesitant to publish it. Because my problem is not awareness--it's about the next step--commitment, and publishing is nearly like asking for accountability.
In honor of the new year, Writer's Digest had an article about revamping your writing routine--check if what you're doing is working for you, and adjust as necessary. Then last week, I went to a writer's retreat with author Susan Gregg Gilmore (Searching for Salvation at the Dairy Queen and The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove) and she asked what do all writers have in common? Her answer was, a routine. I remember her photo in the power point presentation: an alarm clock with six o'clock blazing. It happens to be the time I used to get up at regularly.
So I confess, this is a problem. I went through many changes last fall. My husband changed his work schedule and that affected mine. Illness and back pain thrown in, and I lost a lot of time. I used to write during 2 scheduled times a day. I got up at 6 and could get an hour of writing in before the kids were up. I wrote again during nap time. I thought, when my husband started a job that required more travel, that I'd get more writing done during the evening hours when he was off somewhere else in the world and my kids were asleep. However, that hasn't really happened. Not only have I not accomplished extra writing, I haven't even been sticking to my two scheduled times when my husband is home. Sometimes I just didn't want to get up, or was honestly not well and needed to sleep. (I also went through bout of insomnia, and I knew I had to sleep in to compensate in order to survive the day of being, essentially, a single parent.)
My husband is currently not traveling, but his new job has flexible hours. Instead of having to get up at 6, he can decide to not go in until an hour later, and turn off his alarm and sleep until 7. Sounds nice in the moment, but then, when I get up with him later, the kids are up, and that's it for any hopes of mine at getting any writing done.
My other problem is my afternoon habits. I appreciated when Gilmore talked about how she starts with facebook, twitter, email, etc. "A warm-up," she called it. I get that. I can't go from the stress of putting two (usually) cranky kids down to nap, immediatley into typing words for my novel. I need a way to decompress and switch gears. I have been checking facebook and answering email to do that. The problem is, an hour slips by, the kids can be up in 30 minutes, and my writing time has just been squandered. I did the same often when I had opportunity to write in the evenings when my husband was traveling.
If I'm ever going to meet my deadline of finishing a first draft of the novel in July, I've got to get a handle on this again. I've got to commit to getting up early when my husband is home, evne if it means I respond to the alarm when he just turns it off for his own purposes. And during nap-time, I've got to limit myself by time. I need to allow myself the facebooking, but, honestly, I get kinda numb and keep scrolling down mindlessly. I even start searching for mindless things to do just because I feel fried and don't know how to transition to the real writing. But I need to limit all that, even if it means setting a timer for15 minutes!
So that's one of the biggest things I got from my writing retreat at Aaron's Books in Lititz. It's not earth-shattering. It's not some great writer's trick to cut in half the amount of work my novel needs. But it's fundamental, crucial. My level of self-discipline will make or break my writing career.
At least that's half my problem. The other half, I'll save for another post. That one's even harder to confess because I'm not sure I have the strength to attempt holding myself to it.
Other writing I've published:
Natural Deodorants: Do Any Work as Effectively as Popular Commercial Brands?
Organic Food: Eight Benefits for You and Your Children
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
Job Search: How to Make Your Application Climb to The Top of The Pile
In honor of the new year, Writer's Digest had an article about revamping your writing routine--check if what you're doing is working for you, and adjust as necessary. Then last week, I went to a writer's retreat with author Susan Gregg Gilmore (Searching for Salvation at the Dairy Queen and The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove) and she asked what do all writers have in common? Her answer was, a routine. I remember her photo in the power point presentation: an alarm clock with six o'clock blazing. It happens to be the time I used to get up at regularly.
So I confess, this is a problem. I went through many changes last fall. My husband changed his work schedule and that affected mine. Illness and back pain thrown in, and I lost a lot of time. I used to write during 2 scheduled times a day. I got up at 6 and could get an hour of writing in before the kids were up. I wrote again during nap time. I thought, when my husband started a job that required more travel, that I'd get more writing done during the evening hours when he was off somewhere else in the world and my kids were asleep. However, that hasn't really happened. Not only have I not accomplished extra writing, I haven't even been sticking to my two scheduled times when my husband is home. Sometimes I just didn't want to get up, or was honestly not well and needed to sleep. (I also went through bout of insomnia, and I knew I had to sleep in to compensate in order to survive the day of being, essentially, a single parent.)
My husband is currently not traveling, but his new job has flexible hours. Instead of having to get up at 6, he can decide to not go in until an hour later, and turn off his alarm and sleep until 7. Sounds nice in the moment, but then, when I get up with him later, the kids are up, and that's it for any hopes of mine at getting any writing done.
My other problem is my afternoon habits. I appreciated when Gilmore talked about how she starts with facebook, twitter, email, etc. "A warm-up," she called it. I get that. I can't go from the stress of putting two (usually) cranky kids down to nap, immediatley into typing words for my novel. I need a way to decompress and switch gears. I have been checking facebook and answering email to do that. The problem is, an hour slips by, the kids can be up in 30 minutes, and my writing time has just been squandered. I did the same often when I had opportunity to write in the evenings when my husband was traveling.
If I'm ever going to meet my deadline of finishing a first draft of the novel in July, I've got to get a handle on this again. I've got to commit to getting up early when my husband is home, evne if it means I respond to the alarm when he just turns it off for his own purposes. And during nap-time, I've got to limit myself by time. I need to allow myself the facebooking, but, honestly, I get kinda numb and keep scrolling down mindlessly. I even start searching for mindless things to do just because I feel fried and don't know how to transition to the real writing. But I need to limit all that, even if it means setting a timer for15 minutes!
So that's one of the biggest things I got from my writing retreat at Aaron's Books in Lititz. It's not earth-shattering. It's not some great writer's trick to cut in half the amount of work my novel needs. But it's fundamental, crucial. My level of self-discipline will make or break my writing career.
At least that's half my problem. The other half, I'll save for another post. That one's even harder to confess because I'm not sure I have the strength to attempt holding myself to it.
Other writing I've published:
Natural Deodorants: Do Any Work as Effectively as Popular Commercial Brands?
Organic Food: Eight Benefits for You and Your Children
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
Job Search: How to Make Your Application Climb to The Top of The Pile
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Prescription: Writer's Retreat, 1 dose for three consecutive days
I said I was going to cut back on freelancing for magazines to devote more time to completing the first draft of my novel by July. Followers also probably wondered if I was sticking to that goal at all, based on my posts about taking on more assignments! Yes, I've been shooting my novel in the foot with article success. In December particularly, I took too many assignments and barely touched the novel.
So how can I get myself back on track with my goal to complete the first draft by this summer? When I know I say it, and then still keep taking more freelancing opportunities?
It's just that I really like freelancing. It's that magazine article writing is very manageable, finite, and comes with a firm reward and pay at the end. I like the satisfaction of completing something and getting paid (however low it may be at some publications...) I get weary sometimes of writing something to difficult, so long-term that I can barely see the light at the end of the tunnel. Freelancing revived my love of writing, many times--but there is too much of a good thing. I said I'd stop seeking new assignments after Christmas. That too has not been true. I was seduced multiple times by call-outs for a few magazines.
When I set my July goal for the novel draft, I thought I was being generous, thinking I could even finish by January. It's now February...
I needed some accountability and encouragement, clearly! So I went to a three-day fiction writing retreat though Aaron's Bookstore in Lititz, PA, featuring editor Kate Kennedy and author Susan Gregg Gilmore (Searching for Salvation at the Dairy Queen and The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove).I hoped it'd energize me towards completing my novel.
So far, so good. As I drove home last night from the conference, my mind was at warp speed entertaining new possibilities for getting my characters to that end--my mind thinking about basic equestrian knowledge, Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing that I'll have to brush up on, and beach scenes. I got up at 6 with my husband this morning and put in over an hour toward moving my novel towards its end in the plot.
And now I'm going to take that inspiration and work some more this afternoon. But I hope, in later posts, to share what I learned at the writing retreat. But for now, I've got to use my drive to write for the novel!
Articles I've published recently:
Job Search: How to Make Your Application Climb to The Top of The Pile
Lyme Disease and Autism Patients Prescribed Diets Free of Genetically Modified Foods
How Much Genetically Modified Food Do You Eat?
Prostate Cancer: Nutrients for Prevention and Defense
So how can I get myself back on track with my goal to complete the first draft by this summer? When I know I say it, and then still keep taking more freelancing opportunities?
It's just that I really like freelancing. It's that magazine article writing is very manageable, finite, and comes with a firm reward and pay at the end. I like the satisfaction of completing something and getting paid (however low it may be at some publications...) I get weary sometimes of writing something to difficult, so long-term that I can barely see the light at the end of the tunnel. Freelancing revived my love of writing, many times--but there is too much of a good thing. I said I'd stop seeking new assignments after Christmas. That too has not been true. I was seduced multiple times by call-outs for a few magazines.
When I set my July goal for the novel draft, I thought I was being generous, thinking I could even finish by January. It's now February...
I needed some accountability and encouragement, clearly! So I went to a three-day fiction writing retreat though Aaron's Bookstore in Lititz, PA, featuring editor Kate Kennedy and author Susan Gregg Gilmore (Searching for Salvation at the Dairy Queen and The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove).I hoped it'd energize me towards completing my novel.
So far, so good. As I drove home last night from the conference, my mind was at warp speed entertaining new possibilities for getting my characters to that end--my mind thinking about basic equestrian knowledge, Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing that I'll have to brush up on, and beach scenes. I got up at 6 with my husband this morning and put in over an hour toward moving my novel towards its end in the plot.
And now I'm going to take that inspiration and work some more this afternoon. But I hope, in later posts, to share what I learned at the writing retreat. But for now, I've got to use my drive to write for the novel!
Articles I've published recently:
Job Search: How to Make Your Application Climb to The Top of The Pile
Lyme Disease and Autism Patients Prescribed Diets Free of Genetically Modified Foods
How Much Genetically Modified Food Do You Eat?
Prostate Cancer: Nutrients for Prevention and Defense
Thursday, January 19, 2012
A Day Well Spent Following My Own Advice
Today I actually did what I say I want to do: I worked on my novel for about 30-40 minutes this morning, after my husband went to work. Then during the kids' nap, I edited a quick (literally an hour or less of work) article in response to a magazine's call for articles on eating at restaurants with kids, then sent out an article I wrote nearly 2 years ago to an anthology calling for submissions on the topic.
See, my goal is to stop writing so many new articles, and instead redirect the time to 1) my novel and 2) finding homes for the articles already done.
I tell myself the article on eating out with kids was OK because it was not time-consuming; I'm just trying not to rope myself into 10, 20, 40 hours of work on an article that may never see the light falling on a printed page. Or even for one that will get printed, because I've got this goal to complete my novel draft in July!
All in all, this was a good writing day--a day when I feel accomplished, having finally obeyed my own pronouncements about my priorities. These days are rare...
Keep writing! We'll all get there if we keep writing!
See, my goal is to stop writing so many new articles, and instead redirect the time to 1) my novel and 2) finding homes for the articles already done.
I tell myself the article on eating out with kids was OK because it was not time-consuming; I'm just trying not to rope myself into 10, 20, 40 hours of work on an article that may never see the light falling on a printed page. Or even for one that will get printed, because I've got this goal to complete my novel draft in July!
All in all, this was a good writing day--a day when I feel accomplished, having finally obeyed my own pronouncements about my priorities. These days are rare...
Keep writing! We'll all get there if we keep writing!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Perseverance--most important skill for selling your writing?
I was giving up on the article. I'd written it a year ago, and had failed to sell it to the few magazines I thought would be interested. The topic was herbal remedies for common ailments--typical things like colds, fevers, poison ivy, etc. As has happened before, I was just behind the trend, not right on it. Parents magazine had just done a similar multi-page article, and Kiwi magazine was addressing the topic regularly through a monthly column. After magazines I thought would be interested declined, I even tried a small website that published things for natural-minded mommies, and I got no response even then. I'd thought my article would be an easier sell than my longer articles; I rarely write short, and this was around 800 words.
My default plan of publication is publishing online through a content writing site; I've really fallen off writing for them; the financial rewards are far below what I'm making in other print arenas. But if I can't sell an article to a magazine, it's a good last-ditch effort to make something, rather than nothing, off of an article. So that was my plan--but I was slow in getting it done (even though the sooner I'd place the article on the site, the sooner it could earn....)
Meanwhile, while I was "not getting around to it," a local magazine editor responded to a list of article ideas I'd sent her a while back. She pulled 3 of my 5 suggestions and said she wanted me to write on them--2 due in mere weeks, another for later in the year. She said she was doing a special issue in March/April on green living, so my 2 natural/green-lifestyle ideas (natural makeup/skin care products and natural birth prep) fit what she was looking for. With 3 assignments snagged, I felt pretty good--I'd never gotten as much repeat business from a client yet. Then the next day, a germ of an idea grew in my mind. If the editor was looking for green lifestyle ideas, what about my herbal medicine cabinet article I was about to give up on?
Now, this editor doesn't accept already-written articles--she doesn't even operate through the traditional query system that magazines use. She's a newspaper gal and the magazine is produced by the newspaper, so it's a different style altogether. But I gave it a shot anyway--retitled the article "Greening your first aid kit", explained I'd already been working on it and wondered if she might find it interesting for the March/April issue.
Her response: "I love it. Just throw in a couple quotes from local natural health professionals, and it's done."
So I'd gotten 4 assignments! And one almost done!
And to think, I'd almost given up on that article. I'd almost turned it in for chump change, but now, I've gotten considerably more already direct-deposited into my bank account for it! Not to mention, I've gotten an article out to the reading public on a topic I'm very passionate about and think is important info.
So here's the lesson: Keep looking for other places to sell; don't give up!
Other articles I've published.
Treating Depression with Natural or Alternative Medicine
Is Lyme Disease Lurking in Your Unexplained Symptoms?
Baby Food: Save money by Making Your Own
Potty Training: Cloth Diapers vs. Disposables
Cloth Diapers Versus Disposables: Switching Systems
My default plan of publication is publishing online through a content writing site; I've really fallen off writing for them; the financial rewards are far below what I'm making in other print arenas. But if I can't sell an article to a magazine, it's a good last-ditch effort to make something, rather than nothing, off of an article. So that was my plan--but I was slow in getting it done (even though the sooner I'd place the article on the site, the sooner it could earn....)
Meanwhile, while I was "not getting around to it," a local magazine editor responded to a list of article ideas I'd sent her a while back. She pulled 3 of my 5 suggestions and said she wanted me to write on them--2 due in mere weeks, another for later in the year. She said she was doing a special issue in March/April on green living, so my 2 natural/green-lifestyle ideas (natural makeup/skin care products and natural birth prep) fit what she was looking for. With 3 assignments snagged, I felt pretty good--I'd never gotten as much repeat business from a client yet. Then the next day, a germ of an idea grew in my mind. If the editor was looking for green lifestyle ideas, what about my herbal medicine cabinet article I was about to give up on?
Now, this editor doesn't accept already-written articles--she doesn't even operate through the traditional query system that magazines use. She's a newspaper gal and the magazine is produced by the newspaper, so it's a different style altogether. But I gave it a shot anyway--retitled the article "Greening your first aid kit", explained I'd already been working on it and wondered if she might find it interesting for the March/April issue.
Her response: "I love it. Just throw in a couple quotes from local natural health professionals, and it's done."
So I'd gotten 4 assignments! And one almost done!
And to think, I'd almost given up on that article. I'd almost turned it in for chump change, but now, I've gotten considerably more already direct-deposited into my bank account for it! Not to mention, I've gotten an article out to the reading public on a topic I'm very passionate about and think is important info.
So here's the lesson: Keep looking for other places to sell; don't give up!
Other articles I've published.
Treating Depression with Natural or Alternative Medicine
Is Lyme Disease Lurking in Your Unexplained Symptoms?
Baby Food: Save money by Making Your Own
Potty Training: Cloth Diapers vs. Disposables
Cloth Diapers Versus Disposables: Switching Systems
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