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Friday Five: Pokes to the Imagination

Posted on by beckylevine

It’s been a chaotic couple of weeks. Husband is recovering well from his bike crash, and life is starting to return to normal. But with extra driving and not always getting enough sleep, the productive hours of my days have been a bit chopped up. Today, I’m at home with several uninterrupted hours for work, and the quiet and calm seem to be settling over me and waking me up in a happy way. Just a few minutes of solitary thought this morning, checking in at the Internet, and spending a little while with my current read–all this is stirring my imagination and getting me ready to work.

Things that have me thinking:

1. I have an empty house today. I love my family very, very much. And I love their company. But there is something about a quiet space that I know won’t be filled for a while that lets my brain expand. Which, ironically, is what will let me narrow my focus to my writing today.

2. Robin Brande posted on Facebook that her new book, Replay, is available FREE for Kindle today and tomorrow. Not only did this get my mind musing on what the new book is about (AWESOME opening lines: “I DIED. For forty-two seconds I died.”), but off I went thinking about how great it’ll be when I can actually read it ON my Kindle, which the guys know they’re getting me for my birthday in August. It’s a big birthday, which calls for a big gift. So I downloaded Robin’s book to my Kindle for PC account, but I think I’m going to save it for the summer and figure out how to get it from one Kindle account to another…another extra great birthday present. That’s assuming, of course, that I can wait that long!

3. I checked the movie times for The Lorax tonight, at our local theater. All three of us are huge Seuss fans, and this is a must-see. We’ve all been pretty zonked, so we may be joining the little-kid crowd at the early show tonight or tomorrow, but thinking about the movie makes me go back and remember the book and imagine forward about how the movie will be different–for better or worse. Either way, Seussalways gets me into creative mode.

4. I’m rereading a book I loved as a kid: Phyllis A. Whitney’s THE MYSTERY OF THE GULLS. I picked it up last night as a relaxing, no-stress, comfort read, and instantly I’m back in Taffy’s world, trying to help her mother save the old hotel while  digging out the secret of the locked room. Who doesn’t want an island where cars can’t come, there’s a goblin wood at the top of the hill, and your bedroom has an extra little nook just perfect for a little desk and chair, just for you? So I’m back in my nook today, with my desk and chair, ready to put words on the page.

5. Time.

 

As I said, the past couple of weeks have been broken into a lot of little pieces. I’m pretty proud of myself for getting a lot of little things done with those pieces. But to really look at a project, to get the big picture, you need more than pieces…you need a long stretch of clarity. Today’s the day to look at my nonfiction project and start seeing what all is there, to get a sense of what I actually have and what I need to do. I’ve only been home for an hour after all the drop-offs, and I can feel my brain breathing more slowly, relaxing into the day. Which means good organizing and good writing. Hallelujah!

What’s got your imagination going this week? What helps you tune into your creative self, to relax and know that you will write, that you will be productive? Here’s hoping some of whatever that is comes your way today!

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Gathering Loose Threads

Posted on by beckylevine

Just a quick check in and update on life over here. Last week was just a BIT crazy, what with the bike crash and all. I actually got a lot of work done by driving my husband into work then tucking myself into a spare cubicle there and opening up my laptop. Definitely more productive than I’d have been at home, where the bed would have called to me with offers of more sleep, and all my books would have been laying there just waiting to escape into.

The weekend was about recharging.

Today I’m working at home–lovely, and basically gathering up the threads that spent last week loosening and tangling. Little stuff, but pulling all the scattered feeling back into coherence and sanity and peace.

Happy Monday to everyone!

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Thankful Thursday: Bike Crash Redux

Posted on by beckylevine

No, I don’t know if I’m using redux correctly, but it has a nice ring to it. It reflects the fact that, as I sit here getting ready to type, I feel like I already wrote this post. Probably because I did. Those of you who have read my blog since I was over at LiveJournal MAY remember about 5 years ago, I wrote about my husband crashing his bike.

Guess what happened this weekend.

Everything’s good. He’s got some broken ribs and a broken scapula, and I can tell you that getting him in and out of bed is NOT fun, but those are the small down-sides, believe me. The big gratitudes far outweight them.

Today, I am MORE than thankful that:

  • My husband is here.
  • My husband did not, this time, hit his head. If I leave you with one piece of advice today, it’s this: Skip the concussion. Seriously.
  • That the day he crashed was a sunny February day, so that other people were on that trail, who could call the paramedics and stay with him until he got off the hill and into the ambulance.
  • That Hedy Lamarr, yes, that Hedy Lamarr, invented and patented a frequency-hopping device that somehow (no, don’t ask me how) played into today’s cellphone, so that those people COULD get hold of the paramedics.
  • That we have a hospital in town with an ER full of wonderfully nice, helpful people who methodically take you through the steps of the process and check in with you and take care of you.
  • That morphine exists.
  • We have good health insurance. Yes, despite how I feel about the insurance industry and the “game” that is cost-negotiation, it’s an excellent thing to have.
  • That my marriage is so good and that I love my husband so much, that the fact that he’s here matters more than any of the stresses and inconveniences.
  • That my son is an incredibly mature, responsible, kind, supportive kid who gets what’s going on, helps out whenever and however he can, and pretty much takes care of me and his dad as much as we take care of him.

Thankful, thankful, thankful!

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Giveaway Winner: A DIAMOND IN THE DESERT

Posted on by beckylevine

Last night, I dragged my son out of his vacation-lollygagging mode for a moment and gave him the (folded-up) names of the commenters on last week’s interview post with Kathryn Fitzmaurice. Despite the fact that the drumroll he was waiting for didn’t happen, he did choose a lucky winner.

ESTHER WANLISS…

Please send me an email at beckylevine at ymail dot com, with your snail-mail address. I’ll get Kathryn’s amazing new book, A Diamond in the Desert, out to you as soon as I can.

Thanks for entering, everybody!

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Monday Map: On to Plot

Posted on by beckylevine

Boy, I had a whole different post written this morning, all about how I hadn’t made my goal of working through the antagonist’s worksheets inWriting the Breakout Novel Workbook. But then I got up early this morning, opened the second worksheet, and…bam! I still have one more worksheet to go in the character section–on combining characters (maybe I’ll finally figure out if I need the younger brother!), and then I’m done with character.

Yeah, right. Like we’re ever done with character.

But…Just to keep things moving, I’m going to do that last worksheet today. And to encourage myself, I’m designating this holiday Monday as part of the weekend, thus part of the week. Which means I will be ready to move onto the plot worksheets tomorrow. I’m SO ready for plot.

Um…again, Yeah, right. I’m not sure I’m ever ready for plot.

I’m sure I’ve whined talked before about how plot is my biggest challenge, about how I’m not particularly fond of plotting. And how much I need it, because I hate even more the feeling I get when I write without plot–like I’m wandering around in a fog, not knowing if there’s even a stepping stone anywhere around, let alone being able to tell which one I should walk on next. I like the stones laid out for me–it gives me the ability to fill in all the landscaping around them, decorate them with paint and stickers if I want, and–yes–throw some away and add some others. If I don’t have the stepping stones, it’s all just mud.

The worksheet I just finished told me to outline the antagonist’s story. Yeah. I did. Really. At least as well as I could. But it isn’t making me happy–not the outline I’ve got. It still feels nebulous and grey and blah. I’m going to let it go for now and hope that, as I work through the plot worksheets, I’ll see more of the picture and the details. And I WILL go back to that worksheet, as I get more concrete ideas, to make that storyline more solid and active.

The goal for this week, after today? It’s an easy one: Start on the plot worksheets!

Any goals for you this week? Any accomplishments you’d like a pat on the back for? Drop them into the comments below!

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Friday Five: WIP Revelations

Posted on by beckylevine

Before you read down to the Five, don’t forget to check out my interview with Kathryn Fitzmaurice on her wonderful new MG historical-fiction novel, A Diamond in the Desert. Leave a comment at that post to win a copy of the book!

And onto the revelations. Which aren’t necessarily HUGE revelations, but–you know–those small moments that come along as you think and write, the ones that make you say things like, “Oh!” and “Really?” and “Well, Duh!” But at least they come along.

1. Anger is so often fear externalized.

2. My MC’s mother may have been the youngest sibling in her family, not the oldest.

3. The opposite of the thing you want most can be pretty powerful in its own right. Maybe frighteningly powerful.

4. Finding pieces of yourself in a character can be shocking, informative, and–once more–frighteningly powerful. Phrase of the week?

5. Little things like a sudden car repair and a surprise afternoon of playing bocce ball in the bright sun can throw a wrench into your writing time. Happily, weekends are available to help you (still) hit those goals.

What did you learn about your WIP (and/or yourself!) this week?

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Tuesday: Plan of Attack

Posted on by beckylevine

This week’s fiction-time will be dedicated to wrestling with characters.

By the end of the week, I’ll have worked through Maass’ secondary-character worksheet for two Hull-House-related characters and moved on to…GULP! the antagonist.

The goal is set. Now to achieve it!

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It’s All Good

Posted on by beckylevine

I realized last night, when I took a breath to think about it, that I blogged only once last week. And didn’t realize it until the week was over.

When I named gave this blog its name, Moving Forward on the Writing Path, I may have naively assumed that forward always meant…well, forward. With no detours, no twists, no stalls. I say “naively,” because, realistically, we all know the writing path actually looks a lot like this:

Signs I know life is getting busy?

  • Yep, fewer blogs.
  • More to-do lists on my computer. (Luckily, I use StickyPad, which means the notes are virtual, not physical–they “stick” better, don’t look as sloppy, and are editable! Not to mention that, when I decide it’s time to STOP working, I shut off my computer, and I can’t “hear” the notes nagging at me anymore!)
  • I read and reread lighter books, comfort stories that I can dip in and out of without worrying about the characters or trying to dissect the plots. Latest choices: Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series and Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind Family stories.

What’s the busyness about? Taking first steps into a new writing area I’ve wanted to break into for a long time, hoping to add more non-writing work hours to my week, listening to all the stories in my head that want to be told. Yes, all good things. And you will hear more about them here, if/when they all get finalized and definite!

Still, if Jeeves showed up at my front door today, looking for a job, I wouldn’t say no. And I bet more blogs would magically get written, too!

Life and writing is about organization and management. And just when you think you’ve achieved that, change happens. Sorry…Change happens. Yes, with a capital C. Which is better than boredom and stagnation, but…it does put a few little hills and sharp curves into that path.

What do you do when new things come along? How do you weave them into a pattern that lets you settle into a rhythm and keep that forward movement.

A couple of links for you:

Gail Gauthier has started a series on time management for writers at her blog, Original Content. Check the posts out here.

And Debbi Michiko Florence has made this year her Year of Writing. You can find her series of YOW posts here.

And here’s to having it all…including sanity!

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Me and E-Readers

Posted on by beckylevine

Ask anyone: they’ll tell you I love paper books. This is just one wall of my office.

And I’ve never been known as an early-adopter. I drive a twenty-year-old car; our house was built in the 1920s, and I still have one of those huge CRT  monitors taking up a big part of my desk. Heck, I’d probably have bemoaned the arrival of the pan-flute onto the music scene, just because it pushed the lute out of dominance. (Jayme Carter: SCORE!!)

And I don’t have an e-reader yet. The biggest reason for me is that I do 90% of my reading with library books. (I’ve just started counting up the books I read this year, and the number is going to be well into the multiple hundreds–which, realistically, would break any budget I might make, if I bought them all. Plus look back at that picture of my office: not so much empty space for new books. I am a big re-reader. But…checking out books on e-readers is now possible, and my librarian assures me that their e-book selection will be growing substantially.

Guess what I’ll be getting for my birthday this summer?

Here’s one of the big reasons I’m going over to the e-reader side soon.

My son bought himself a Kindle Fire in December. He loves it. I love it.  And I realized, when I bought him Neal Stephenson’s REAMDE last month, that my husband is going to need a Fire at some point, because if I’m buying 1,000 page sci-fi books that they’re both going to want to read, I’m buying ONE copy, and they’re going to loan it, cross-platform, back and forth.

Kids and E-readers. Remember, I’m always late to the game, so if you’re expecting some fresh, new revelations here, keep moving. All you’re getting are my thoughts.

I am a big fan of kids and e-readers. Emotionally, I’m right there with all of you who want kids to love the feel of a physical book in their hand, who want kids to be happiest surrounded by the smell of paper and ink (and dust, if you’re in a used bookstore!), who want them to know what it feels like to turn a real page and find out what happens to Anne and Diana after they drink the cordial.

Unemotionally, though, I have to say…why? My son was an early reader, starting with the choking noises and the frustrated “Mom!!!!!!” in the Calvin and Hobbes books and moving quickly onto chapter books and longer stories. He was born in 1996, so of course he started with paper books (It’s actually hard for me to even buy a board book!), and, yes, he loves them. But take a look at that photo of him with his Kindle–is it really any less wonderful to see  him (and the cat!) curling up with an e-reader than it would be with that incredibly thick paper copy of REAMDE? No, it isn’t.

I know there are kids who don’t fall in love with books as early as my son did. I spent several years volunteering in his elementary school, on the reading side of things whenever I could, and I watched kids struggling with their reading, not to mention struggling with the humiliation and anger they felt for not reading as fast as the other kids, for not yet being out of those numbered, beginning-reader books. Guess what: humiliation and anger do not foster a love of reading. Do you know how much happier some of these kids would have been if they could have sat at their desk with one of these books on an e-reader, where the other kids couldn’t see what they were reading? Where their “level” wasn’t on public display, to add to their frustration?  If these kids discover reading on an electronic device–and, yes, many do–why would we ever tell them NOT TO. Side note: why would we EVER cut library funding when, for some kids, this is the only place they’re going to have the opportunity to read electronically?!

What matters is that kids read. Frankly, I pretty much don’t care what they read, and I don’t care whether that reading is done in a paper book or an e-reader. Yes, we have some adjustments to make. Yes, I wonder about whether we really need to add more bookshelves to our house (10 years ago, I would have said they were mandatory!). Yes, I worry that I’ll have to somehow manage splitting my time between an e-reader (at the couch or kitchen table) and a different, paper book (in the bath). Yes, emotionally, I want to be able to curl up with a paper book with little kids, and to be able to keep giving physical picture books as baby gifts. (And you know I will!)

But e-books for kids are here. And more are coming.

I may not have my own e-book reader yet. But I am so, already, on the bandwagon.