Let’s just say that writing a short story requires much different muscles than writing a novel. With a novel you have the luxury of seemingly unlimited words in order to describe in intricate detail everything that is important. In a short story, you must convey in very few words a slice of a larger story that can stand alone all on it’s own. You have to tell a whole bunch of background to get the reader into the time and place so there is an emotional connection to the story. You can’t lead up to it with foreshadowing or several chapters – only a sentence or two. I’ve managed a few hundred words and a halfway decent start but it is far from worthy of submission. When all is said and done, I believe the exercise will be worthwhile because I’m building creative muscles I can apply to my other writing as well. And as they say… no pain, no gain!
Category Archives: Writing
Sore muscles
The Joy of Writing
Ever have something that just plain makes you happy but you put it off because there are things you HAVE to do that somehow are always prioritized as more important? Like cooking and washing bottles and laundry and all the things that come as part of the life happening around you? And days pass by and one day you wake up and lament that those days have turned into weeks and weeks into months since you’ve taken time to do what you love to do for the mere joy of doing it? That’s me and my writing.
With a newborn and a second grader there’s literally a never-ending pile of laundry on top of every-three-hour feedings and homework and teaching big sister how to pick up after herself because Mom can’t do it all anymore. (Why I didn’t see THAT issue BEFORE there was another child taking up most of my time I’ll never know!) When there are a few minutes of down time between parental responsibilities, there’s usually a movie to be watched while snuggling on the couch with my hubby or a book that must be read before the book club deadline with another waiting in the wings waiting to be read just because I want to. I did SO good in November and even parts of December when I had a goal and a deadline and a well-advertised and supported commitment to writing (and life’s balance had not been upset by the addition of a new baby). But January and February saw my poor novel put on the back burner and not touched for many long weeks.
That all changed this morning.
I brewed a pot of coffee after the morning routine with baby, and instead of showering sat down at my laptop and reaquainted myself with my poor neglected characters who have patiently been waiting for me to return and finish their story. I left several of them hanging after they took matters into their own hands and introduced brand new elements to the story I hadn’t seen coming and didn’t know how to resolve with the loose plot in my head. I have promised not to let it come between us and they seem to have bought it and started whispering sweet nothings into my subconscious once again.
Is it silly to have a picture in my minds eye of myself as a novelist banging away at a keyboard with a kitschy coffee mug hoping I might be pounding away at the next big novel? Something reminiscent of a photo from a jacket cover of my favorite novelist, Stephen King? If it is, that’s me – silly – because that’s exactly what I’m doing. Here I sit, sipping blueberry cobbler flavored coffee from the mug with the skeleton of a fish on it collected from some random camping trip while my soul sings with joy that I’m finally actually DOING what I’ve been saying I wanted to do “someday” since that day back in 9th grade in my english class talking to that sophisticated boy who’s name I don’t recall who loved Agatha Christie and inspired me to believe I could write something people might actually read… And even if it doesn’t happen to be the next big novel, it is MY first novel which makes it worthwhile regardless!
I quietly hit a new milestone this morning… 61,000 total words / 166 pages in MS Word.
And now I need a shower….
NaNoWriMo 2009 Recap – I did it!
Happy Thanksgiving! Two more down, 10 (or 8) to go – weeks 28 & 29
The last two weeks have been very crazy! Big Sister danced at an NBA game for halftime last week and between rehearsals and the performance we were barely home. I found it very difficult to walk from the arena to dinner and was super grateful for an understanding sister-in-law who offered to pack around half of my crap and eat somewhere based on location rather than offerings. It is, indeed, the little things that count and I wonder if she even knew how much it touched me…
Last weekend saw the first big step complete on the way to baby having a room of her own. Big Sister got her room re-done and re-organized with her new dresser. She is super happy and now the baby’s dresser is actually in what will be her room. This weekend is scheduled for furniture moving to move the computer desk and art supplies downstairs. I think the hubby had a huge dose of reality on how quickly this pregnancy is flying by when I informed him I was now at the stage where I go to see the doctor every two weeks instead of every four.
This week was Thanksgiving and we ended up doing something completely different this year – we went OUT. Meaning I didn’t stress about menu planning for weeks ahead of time or food assignments based on an ever-changing guest list from the extended family. I didn’t obsessively coordinate with my sister (who is worse than me when it comes to OCD and entertaining) about who was coming, where we were all going to sit, etc. I didn’t rearrange the furniture in my home to accommodate seating for 25+ people or have to set a table with china and all the trimmings the day before. I didn’t get up at the crack of dawn to slave over the oven and stove in order to have everything ready by the time guests arrived with enough time left over to at least pull a brush through my hair and hope I looked presentable. In other words, it was blissfully relaxing! Someone else cooked, someone else cleaned up, someone else did dishes. And, we still got to spend the day with family and ended up with the entire extended family for pie in the evening. It was exactly what I needed to keep myself rested and in the best health I can be for my little one. Hopefully it will become a new tradition because I could sure get used to being pampered on Thanksgiving and focusing only on spending time with loved ones.
I have been spending all of my free time working on my writing and I have 40,000 words and about 107 pages of my first draft to show for it. I’m entering the final stretch of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which ends at midnight Monday with a manageable 10,000 words left to write in order to “win”. It is amazing how much fun I am having participating this year and even have a little friendly competition going with one of my writing group buddies which helps keep both of us motivated. (Today I am finally winning!)
Last week was my regular doctor visit and the dreaded blood glucose screening. This is a dreadful ritual where you must drink a syrupy sweet orange flavored concoction, wait an hour and then have your blood drawn to see how well you tolerate glucose. Well, mine came back slightly higher than the normal range. Oh, and on top of that, I’m a touch anemic (probably because even pregnant I have an aversion to meat and rarely touch the stuff). So, this week came with more blood tests and now we wait for the results. I’ll most likely be put on a restricted diet similar to those of a diabetic for the remaining weeks until she is born which means no more donuts for her or HFCS. (Poor baby who makes her mommy crave these things!) I’m scheduled for a follow-up ultrasound at the next appointment to evaluate my low-lying placenta and “on the shortest side of normal” cervix. Findings from this new ultrasound will tell me if I will be on any form of modified activity or bed-rest due to my cervix and whether I can expect a c-section delivery or not based on the location of the placenta. I’m hoping all will show normal with both and I can continue with no changes. I am really looking forward to getting another glimpse of baby now that she is all developed and just filling out waiting for the big day of her arrival.
Almost overnight, I can no longer bend over to pick things up off the ground, can barely tie my own shoes or put pants on, and have a hard time getting into the car AND reaching over to pull the door shut. It doesn’t seem like I’m almost 8 months pregnant but that’s what I will be next week. Hopefully I will be done in eight more weeks since I only went to 38 weeks with my first but 10 at the most isn’t too bad of a booby prize either. Seems like just yesterday I was counting the weeks until I was out of the dreaded first trimester at 12 weeks but here we are officially heading into the final stretches. With the holidays upon us, I know these last two months will fly by even faster! Baby is active all the time, kicking and squirming and flipping somersaults – enough activity that people can see it on the outside and more and more get to actually feel her. I can’t wait to see if she is as feisty outside of the womb as she is on the inside.
Baby’s room, writing and other random thoughts – week 27
Wow, what a week!! My first leg cramp – a very painful charlie horse – woke me up in the wee hours of one morning and I thought I was going to die. Ok, maybe that’s a little melodramatic, but it really hurt! I walk with a noticeable sway now… not quite a waddle yet but we’re surely getting there. The baby is very active and, for those patient enough to sit with their hands pressed to my bump, she will get over her shyness and move. Well, at least for Grandma and big sister it has happened. Another memorable highlight was my fabulous find of a pair of comfortable maternity jeans. FINALLY! I’ll probably wear them out in the last 2 or three months that I have let because they are so great. Like angels singing and rays of light shining down on me when I put them on great. Seriously!
This was the last week before officially heading into the 3rd trimester and I guess you could say I have started the nesting process which at our house means a domino effect of activity that starts nowhere near the actual baby’s room. First, a new set of bookshelves for the master bedroom so I can organize some of my inner sanctuary (ie. books) that are currently taking up the extra space in there (and driving hubby nuts). Theoretically this was not a necessary step but it was something for me and because it also benefits hubby, I went with it! Next the exercise bike will be banished to the basement from the master bedroom so the bassinet will have a spot in the corner. Then we move on to big sister’s room since she is currently the owner of the dresser that matches the crib since it was hers to begin with. We acquired a new dresser for her – a tall chest of drawers that will hold more than her current one and which she is so excited for. But first, we must de-junk her room (or at least that’s what I’ve told her is the first requirement because it is a disaster in there!). We spent part of the past weekend organizing and getting rid of things and made a dent but are far from done. Once we get the new dresser out of the living room and into big sister’s room, the baby dresser will go (let’s be honest for a minute) into the living room while we move the computer desk and painting easel’s and supplies from what is currently the office/art room to their new locations in the basement. Then the dresser and crib for baby’s room can be setup and curtains acquired and hung, etc. The fact that 1) we have a definite plan and 2) we have started the plan toward getting the baby’s room done is great progress for us so I’m celebrating! I stressed so much about it in the beginning and now I remember that big sister’s room wasn’t done until after she was born since we knew she’d be sleeping in the bassinet with us for the first few months anyway. Minimum requirement is the dresser/changing table setup in her room and a place to rock during feeding time. Piece of cake at this rate!
The best part of the week was spent feverishly writing and my word count for the month is now hovering just below 25,000 words. I made a deal with myself that if I got half done before the 15th so I could slack off for a few days and read this month’s selection for the book club and still get my 50K by the end of the month I could read. Now, I’ve gotten so far along in my manuscript that I find myself not wanting to stop to read someone else’s work and I only have two days to finish the book. I will force myself because it is a book I really want to read but I’ll be kicking and screaming and mind wandering back to my own characters the entire time I fear.
No doctor’s appointments or other noteworthy events this week other than our first home visit as part of the National Children’s Study baby and I are participants in. 3 1/2 hours at our house and what felt like millions of questions and samples later, I’m officially helping make a difference in finding the cause of autism and other childhood diseases for the next 21 years. People are still panicking about the swine flu everywhere here and I think it is silly. Even the CDC person I heard interviewed on NPR said (and I paraphrase) that yes, it is different than the seasonal flu because it hits younger kids more often that older people but that it was just another strain of the flu. If you always get a flu shot, get one but if not (like me) and you never get the flu then there’s probably not much to worry about. I laugh about the hysteria the “mainstream” news sources seem to thrive on inciting and how many people buy into it. (My soapbox for the week, I guess!) Oh, and hubby is now on Facebook – aka the mother of all time wasters – after months of bitching to me about how much time I waste and how he would never join. He spent “Football Sunday” glued to it and I laughed… and tried not to actually say the words “I told you” outloud.
Taking time for myself – week 26
This was a pretty quiet week as far as pregnancy goes. Life in general was exciting and full of things going on but not much of it had anything to do with the bun in the oven. The hubby and I celebrated our 15th year of marriage with an evening out just the two of us. It was nice to get out and forget about being parents for a while and just enjoy one another. It was also the first week of NaNoWriMo (otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month) so all of my free time – what there is of it – was spent writing. I’m behind in my word count if I want to do the minimum each day and get to the required 50,000 words to “win” the event but considering everything else I have going on with a full time job and keeping up with a very involved 8 year old, I can’t help but be proud of my current 4500 words in less than a week. The best thing is it is all new material and better than I thought I had it in me to write. Of course it is only a first draft and even when finished not fit to be read without at least one edit, but it is a fossil that I’m excavating out of my subconscious bit by juicy bit. If I accomplish all I want to, I’ll ‘win’ NaNoWriMo with 50,000 words and then finish up the first draft by the time the baby is born in late January/early February. Then I’ll take a break to adjust to a newborn again and pick it up for an edit around the same time I go back to work. I love the creativity and the big dreaming – an indulgence I rarely take for myself as I grind away at day to day life.
As far as the baby news is concerned, things have been extremely quiet compared to the previous couple of weeks. I had a bout of heartburn that made me have to sleep on the couch – what a pain in the ass that was – but a few hours later I was able to lie down again comfortably. The weather was unseasonably warm this week and I got out walking a couple of afternoons at work and a couple of mornings before work with the dog. I don’t remember being this active when I was pregnant the first time and I think it is why I have so few complaints this time around. Not to mention that I’m keeping the weight gain under control which makes me very happy. No doctor visits or new complaints this week either. Just an uneventful week of fetus development. Here’s to at least a couple more weeks like this before we head into the final stretch.
In other news…
Today is November 1st… The official start of National Novel Writing Month! Yes, I’m embarking on the journey again this year. “Pregnancy will not slow me down” is my mantra! No vacations on the menu for me, no hosting of Thanksgiving dinner, nothing to distract from the process for the entire month. A year of toying with my writing style and learning (and re-learning) the rules of grammar later, I feel much more equipped than last year. I’m tossing the current version of my novel and starting over because, if I’m being honest, it is crap and can’t be used for anything other than a learning exercise or a rough draft at best. This is the year, I can feel it!!
Personal bests
Sometimes I think maybe I should just get out of my own head and quit worrying about stuff! I felt like a wuss for a week taking it easy on the training while suffering pretty severely from allergies and then Thursday night was out with my walking/running partner. Because I still was pretty stuffed up we did a brisk two-mile walk and were catching up on where we are at with our manuscripts – very enjoyable. When we met up with a fellow jogger at the beginning of mile 3, she decides she’s going to jog (which is fine because I can power walk almost as fast as they were going to be jogging) and they set off and pulled a little ahead. Without having any time to psych myself out, I just said “what the hell” and started jogging with them. 3/4 of a mile later, I was still pushing myself and keeping up with their pace. Oh GOD did it feel good! And my first mile run is lurking around the corner, waiting for me next week or the week after-I just know it. The best part is that because I’ve actually taken it easy for the last week, my foot didn’t hurt the next day and I think the plantar fasciitis is now at bay as long as I train smart. It is funny how this love affair with running works but I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
In other news, I just submitted the first 6 chapters of my manuscript to my writing group for feedback. I’ve been working feverishly the last few weeks after finally working through many holes in the plot line and re-writing EVERYTHING I had written prior to January. At this rate, I might even have a completed manuscript by the end of the year.
Where’s Waldo… writing group style
My so-called FABULOUS life: Holiday Bloopers – “Once”ers, can you find the hidden word among all the silly holiday posting?
It’s totally an inside joke… One of my fellow writers put a particular word in his manuscript and now we all are tasked with hiding it in ours. And just like when you buy a new car and then suddenly all you see on the road are ones just like yours, I now see the word everywhere. Like on some random blog by an athlete who went to the Olympics for track and field and then didn’t qualify for her medal race.
In light of the insanely silly season that is upon us, I thought that at least some would appreciate the fun! And those of you not in on the joke, I’m wondering what words jump out at you that could possibly be “The” word. There, now we can all have some word sleuthing fun for the holidays!
Happy Hanukkah, Happy Solstice, Merry Yule, Happy Kwanza, Merry Christmas, etc. etc. Or, in the words of my cousin…. “Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate”!
Pushing
The BEST thing about my writing group is…. reading all their work and getting inspired to write better myself! Every one of them have a different writing style, a different genre they are currently working on and something different to contribute to me. And when we get together they will all bring their unique perspectives together to give me EXACTLY what I need to make my current project better than it had any chance of being without them. And I get to do the same for all of them! I just doesn’t get any better than that. I’m starting to appreciate all the acknowledgements that I always skip over at the beginning of a new book I crack open. I always thought it was cheesy drivel but man will that be me gushing about my fellow writers and giving credit where credit is due. (You guys rock my world!!!)
It’s over but it ain’t over yet!
It’s the end of November and the minutes are ticking away on the last hour of the official National Novel Writing Month for 2008. I “only” got 9,665 words written on my manuscript so I will not rise above the ‘Official Participant’ status to the winner circle this year but it is SO not over. What did I get out of my participation? I am officially a writer now – no longer merely an aspiring writer who talks about someday writing or one day I’m going to or any of the other crap I’ve been saying for 20 years. I am still going to finish my novel and one day maybe people will actually make a trip to a cash register or cart checkout screen with it in their grubby or even virtual hands, or download the eBook and read it on electronic readers everywhere. It is hard work and it is like having another job on top of all the other things you do – one that is like an apprenticeship where you do all this hard work and never get paid until the bitter end and then only if you are good enough to get hired. But I’ve come this far so why stop now. Look out world, I AM A WRITER! I AM AN AUTHOR!
It’s harder than it looks…
It probably escaped no one’s notice that it is November… the 18th to be exact. So, at this rate, I should be deep in the middle of writing my much touted and much anticipated novel for National Novel Writing Month that started exactly 18 days ago. If we were being scientific (some could argue OCD) which I am, the daily word count goal to stay on pace to complete with no more effort on any given day than another would be 1,667 words per day. Not a lofty goal when considering one of my longer blog entries can easily approach that number and they mostly just roll off the proverbial tongue. So then, the calculations for daily word count at the end of day 18 would be – 30,006. Where am I in my word count you might ask? (drum roll….) 8,242. No, not a type-o! (Perhaps I should be wondering why it is that here I sit typing a blog entry instead of more words on the manuscript, huh?) So, I have tons of rationalizations – first, I am just barely getting over whatever killer bug I caught that had me feeling under the weather for 4 weeks; second, I had house guests for 5 days where I thought I could burn the candle at both ends and entertain then write late at night and/or early in the morning which didn’t happen; third, and probably most important of all, it’s a lot damn harder than I thought it would be! I got waylaid in chapter 1 and got so obsessive about editing and re-editing so it would be perfect that I let parts of the story slip away from me. In fact, I skipped the second chapter almost entirely instead of continuing with the drivel and am hoping that what goes in it comes back to me at some point soon. Now I’m on vacation where I had pictured lazy warm days spent entirely on the beach with my trusty laptop and tons of inspiration to catch up on the slow start. It worked pretty well yesterday with almost 1500 new words and exciting things to write about again and so I’m trying to keep the momentum alive. My perfectionist and competitive nature is tugging at the bootstraps and keeping me in the race. Hopefully I can actually finish with something worthy of at least editing which maybe will lead to something folks might want to read. I’m beyond thinking I’m going to just upchuck a perfect first draft that will be ready for publishing which was the delusion I started out with. That only happens in fiction after all…. With all that said, I know that if this thing ever actually makes it to print I already have a group of people to acknowledge from my newly-formed writing group. You guys know who you are and I couldn’t have gotten this far without every single one of you, even the non-writing members! Well, let’s be honest, I probably would have gotten this far but it would have been shit without you guys!
The Mechanics of Writing
More signs from the Universe helping me along the way toward novel writing month as I have declared November to be… Last night I was driving home and listening to NPR at a time that I don’t normally tune in. It was a lecture by an author, Ann Patchett, being broadcast and immediately I was intrigued because it was all about the writing process. Coincidence? Probably not. One of the big points she made is that there are three things that are required to write a novel – 1) Commitment; 2) Mechanics (or Tools); and 3) Imagination. And, she said that it was really IN THAT ORDER that you needed these elements to be successful.
So, I began taking stock. I have the commitment – I will write every day in November and end the month with a completed novel of at least 50,000 words. Those are my specific deliverables that make the process real. The Mechanics (or Tools… I can’t remember the exact word she was using but you’ll get the idea) were the things that she said are essential to any creativity. Things like plot, character development, outlines, etc. Without the mechanics of writing it just doesn’t work. Then, and only then, came the imagination. Huh, SO not how I pictured it going… I thought I had to have this big imaginative idea that would blow every one’s mind and THEN I could come up with a plot and an outline, etc. Apparently according to Ann Patchett, this is a very common misconception. Lucky for me, I think, that I’m in good company?
Tonight I decided to skip the “should do” activities scheduled for after the little one was tucked in her bed and work on the novel. (Real estate continuing ed can wait, right?!?) I had already been collecting random thoughts over the last few weeks (read “imagination coming first” here) when I came up with ideas that fit with the book idea I have rattling around loosely in my head. But tonight I started to create an outline from a very high level making notes on each character and how they relate to the other characters. I started to create a plot and overall theme of “what is the book about”. And as I exercised the basic skills of writing (my high school Engish teacher and college professors would be SO proud) the story started to emerge and get me really excited about it. Already I have taken things to a much more inter-twined and complicated level than I thought I could come up with simply using my imagination tool. But, when coming at it from the mechanics, it seemed to just fall into place giving it more depth than I thought I had in me at this stage of the game. I think the imagination has to come later when I really start to write the thing – when I will have to give substance and expression to what I have begun to construct in the mechanics phase.
Lucky for me I had this “little” revelation and bit of success since the newly-formed writing group has set the date for our first meeting and we all have to submit a sample of our writing for discussion. Since I can’t “officially” start writing because of the NaNoWriMo program, we are going to discuss my outline. (I know, I know… ME, following rules! Just go with it…) Look out world, I might just be ready to start this novel when the time comes thanks to the help of all the various outlets I keep stumbling upon (or manifesting, whichever way you want to look at it).
The funny thing? I haven’t picked up a book for almost a week so obsessed I am getting with writing. Stay tuned….
Terra Luft - View From the Crystal Ball 