Write-a-thon 2013 Week One

The bad news is that I haven’t done any actual writing on my chosen project, and here it is the end of the first week of the Write-a-thon . . .  The good news (although that may be subject to debate) is that after spending some time reading the original half-finished draft of this novel, I think I’ll be using quite a bit more of it than I had thought I would.  And it’s certainly interesting to be reminded of all the work I put into it, much of which I don’t remember all that well.

The reason this might not be such good news is that it may make the process much more difficult.  Trying to decide what to keep and what not to keep–and, especially, integrating the old material in with the new material–can make putting together a solid draft far more complicated.  And after my experience with what my sister and I call the ‘Novel from Hell’, (a.k.a. the ‘NFH’), which was written and rewritten repeatedly over a shocking number of years, that’s not a situation I want to put myself in again.  It’s far easier to work with something that’s been written all at one time, because even if the material is rough and needs a lot of editing it’s going to be much more cohesive that way.  (This is one of the reasons I advocate using ‘the fast method’, as discussed in my post about “The Muse and the Editor.”)

But I can see that scratching my head about this–not to mention endlessly fiddling around with the enormous file full of outlines and notes for this project–isn’t going to get the book written.  The only thing to do is to dive in and start writing it, ignoring the clutter and confusion.  The complexities will just have to be dealt with as they come along.  (‘Damn the torpedoes’ and all that . . . ) Continue reading

The Clarion West Write-a-thon 2013

I’m gearing up for the Clarion West Write-a-thon again, but I’m afraid it’s kind of snuck up on me–a lot like Christmas always does!  It seemed like I had plenty of time–and I was planning to get the word out early–and it’s starting just next week.

The project I’ve chosen is pretty ambitious, but also something I’m so excited about that in many ways it’s better than Christmas!  I’m going to try to complete a draft of a novel I started many years ago and, as I mention on my Write-a-thon page, it’s set in what may very well be my favorite world.  Spending a lot of time there is something I’ve been looking forward to for ages.  But precisely because I know this world and these people so well, one of the challenges will be that there’s even more pressure when it comes to ‘getting it right’ and finding the words that will do them justice.

Verisimilitude: The Word of the Month

I recently read an old post in a writers’ forum where someone used the term ‘verisimilitude’.  As I was only mostly sure that I knew what it meant, I looked it up in my trusty dictionary.  (I love checking definitions anyway, and do it quite often; I imagine that most people who are passionate about words find dictionary reading rewarding — and sometimes just plain fun.)

Verisimilitude: 1. The quality of appearing to be true or real.  2. Something that has the appearance of being true and real.

When I read this, it struck me that this should be a highly significant word in my vocabulary, because verisimilitude is a huge part of what I’ve always wanted to achieve with my own writing — even when I started that first novel when I was eleven years old. Continue reading

Learning the Art of Revision, Part 2 – Whisper of the Heart

This continues some of the concepts I was exploring in “Learning the Art of Revision” — specifically, it addresses how those ideas are reflected in the Studio Ghibli film, Whisper of the Heart.  (And since I said that post was a ‘Part 2’ itself, I suppose this one should actually be ‘Part 3’ . . .)  😉

A few years ago my brother introduced me to the wonderful films of Hayao Miyazaki, and one that I fell in love with is called Whisper of the Heart.  This is one of those films that falls into a category we just don’t have in American film — a realistic drama that’s animated.  Though there are a couple of fantasy dream sequences, the story takes place in ‘the real world’, and the relationships between the family members and the interactions between the junior high school kids are all quite natural and believable.

It’s a story about a fourteen-year-old girl who wants to be a writer, and the first time I saw it I think I cried through most of it.  It’s not a sad story — it’s just that I related so strongly to Shizuku that it made watching the film a very emotional experience.  The way she spends hours writing when she’s supposed to be studying reminded me of my habit of taking two folders to every class — one for the class itself, and the other containing the story I was currently working on. (I did this from junior high all the way through college.)  At every opportunity, I would write a line or two before attempting to return my attention to the subject of the course.  There’s a scene in the film where Shizuku is doing exactly the same thing, and she can’t answer the teacher’s question because she wasn’t paying attention; she was working on her book instead. Continue reading

Learning the Art of Revision

Note:  This makes references to the previous post about ‘The Muse and the Editor’, and is essentially ‘Part 2’ of that discussion.

It’s sometimes said that half of the art of writing is the art of revision.  When it comes to the quality and originality of what your muse brings to you, I think there may be a certain amount of ‘talent’ that you either have or don’t have.  But developing a good editor is primarily a matter of hard work and acquiring the necessary skills.  You can learn to revise–and to be an accomplished wordsmith, you must learn to revise.

There are plenty of myths and pieces of misinformation floating around about the craft of writing.  One over-quoted phrase is “Kill your darlings”, which is attributed to William Faulkner–though he may have borrowed it from another source–and which has been echoed emphatically by Steven King.  It’s one of those things some writers bandy about as if they feel that saying it shows how mature and sophisticated they are.  But in reality it has limited application and is too often misinterpreted. What I dislike most about it is that it implies that writers can’t learn to appraise their own work (although that may not have been the original intent at all).  If that were true, they could never learn to edit their own work, which, of course, is nonsense. Continue reading

The Muse and the Editor: How Their Collaboration Style Affects Writing Speed

This summer I came across a couple of writer’s blogs addressing the topic of writing slowly.  Both emphasized that writers who can’t turn out a high volume of words in a short time shouldn’t feel inferior to those who can.  In particular, they pointed out that some of the great masters have been slow writers — one often mentioned is James Joyce, who is said to have taken eight years to write Ulysses.

Assuming, of course, that the writer in question is actually sitting down and getting something done, the most significant factor in determining writing speed seems to be whether the author is polishing each page as they go — we’ll call this the ‘slow method’ — or focusing on getting a rough draft down, and then coming back and revising — the ‘fast method’.  Although I’m going to explain here why the ‘fast method’ works better for me than the ‘slow method’ — and also why I think it helps to prevent writer’s block — I strongly agree that the creative process is very personal, and each writer must find their own path in that process.  The end result is what matters, not how long it takes to get there.

Looking at my own progression as a writer, I find it noteworthy that my modus operandi has changed.  As a kid I wrote mostly by hand, and only occasionally used a typewriter.  The entire first draft of my first novel was written by hand (and in pencil!), a thought that makes me shudder now.   I also have short stories written in college that only exist in one hand-written draft.   Yet some of those stories have passages in them that I wouldn’t change even now. Continue reading

Write-a-thon Week Six

Although I still have a lot of edits to do on the novella, I think I’ve accomplished a lot in the past six weeks.  This week I made all the final additions to the story, sorted out the chapter breaks, and did a fair amount of revising, so at least I can say I have a decent start on the second draft.

One little problem–which I’d been anticipating–is that the novella is currently a very short novel.  And for reasons I mentioned earlier, I’d really like this one to be a true novella.  A lot of material will come out as I continue to revise, but the worrisome part is the idea of getting very close–say, down to 42,000 words–and realizing that cutting any more would mean sacrificing elements that truly enrich the experience of the story; I’m hoping it won’t come down to that.  (It’s often said that there’s always more you can cut, and it’s true, of course–any novel can be condensed into one sentence, if that’s the only goal–but there comes a point of diminishing returns when you’re trying to create a literary work of art, and not a Cliff’s Notes version of your own book!)

I’m very glad I was able to participate in the Write-a-thon, and hope to do it each summer.  I confess I find asking for pledges rather awkward (I suppose everyone does, unless they have oodles of wealthy friends!) but it does feel good to contribute to a worthwhile program.  Since I’d just found out about the Write-a-thon shortly before it started, I think I can aspire to do better next year if I have a little more time to tell people about it.

Write-a-thon Week Five

The first draft of the novella is almost complete–I only have a brief passage to add that will bridge to the original ending I’d previously roughed out.  Since I’d wanted to get through a solid second draft, I’m not as far along in the project as I’d hoped to be, but the important thing is that the hard part will be finished.

Though there’s no question that the revision process can be just as difficult in its own way, I find that having a complete rough draft of a story–and knowing I’ve recorded everything the muse delivered with the inspiration for the story–is always deeply satisfying.  So it may take a couple of additional weeks after the end of the Write-a-thon to get the second draft of this novella ready for sharing, but having the added incentive to finish the story was a big help.

Write-a-thon Week Four

The Write-a-thon has been flying by much too fast.  I’m going to have to scramble a bit to catch up to where I wanted to be with the novella.  On the plus side, I’ve started to feel excited about how it’s coming together–I think it has the potential to be a very powerful story that’s both moving and thought-provoking.

I find it fascinating that it’s not uncommon for my subconscious mind to put symbolism into my stories that I’m not even aware of until I reread them much later, or until someone points it out.  I’ve received comments about how clever the symbolism is in a certain element of a story, and had to agree that it was quite effective, although I hadn’t  put any deliberate thought into it–it just came to me that way.

There’s some intriguing symbolism that ties to Egyptian mythology in this novella, and it was completely unintentional on my part.  Since I’ve become aware of it, it seems very obvious; I’m curious to see if my beta readers will pick up on it right away . . .  But I’d better get back to work on the story, so it will actually be ready to show them at the end of the six weeks! Continue reading

Write-a-thon Week Three

The rest of the additions to the beginning of the novella are complete–I’ve added everything that might belong in the opening of the story, knowing that some of the details may turn out to be mostly for my edification and won’t end up in the final version.  I’ve also started entering the edits I’ve been doing on the original draft.

Though I do a lot of revision on the screen, at some point with every manuscript I print a hard copy and make edits in pencil as I read it through.  I was anticipating seeing the word count start to go down, but so far most of the changes have involved rewording as much as cutting.  Since I still have half a dozen pages or so to write at the end, I’m a little concerned about going over the 40,000 word limit for a novella.

From an artist’s point of view it’s frustrating that word counts have become extremely restrictive in traditional publishing venues.  Ideally, it should be a matter of using as many–or as few–words as it takes to tell the story.  But unless you’re already a well-established author, most agents and publishers won’t even look at a novel under 80,000 words, ostensibly for economic reasons. Continue reading