Check out Debbi Michiko Florence’s Friday Favorites post today, and find out why I love this book:
Category: Uncategorized
Is There Such a Thing as Power-Writing?
It’s been waaayy too long since I dug myself into one of my WIPs. Life is all good, the busy is all good, but I am reminded once again how simultaneously easy and hard it is to put all your focus onto tasks that have to be done, away from the fiction that doesn’t have the same kind of deadline.
The busy this week was some family travel and putting finishing touches on my workshops for the Pennwriters conference next week. I’m really looking forward to heading out to Pittsburgh, meeting new writers, and just having a little conference fun and adventure.
I’m also really looking forward to coming back and writing.
And I’m thinking about the idea of just throwing myself back into my historical and blasting through some chapters, to get back into Caro’s world and problems. I’ve written fast before, on other projects, and it feels incredibly productive and fulfilling. I suspect, too, that–for me–the difference in these early drafts between what I get when I write fast and what I get when I write more slowly isn’t all that big a gap.
Then again, I felt like I rushed the first draft (even though it took me forEVAH!) and had promised myself I would take my time on this one. It’s that pull of the pressure coming at me, I know. The pressure to accomplish, to complete, to have another big milestone under my belt.
And, yes, I know this is pressure I need to resist.
So…once again, it’ll probably be a compromise. I’ll try to give myself a day of transition, but then get a file open and start thinking and writing. I’ll let myself clean up the chaos that I’ve created by my focus these last couple of weeks, but I’ll also make sure I put that after my writing time. And I’ll try not to let myself sweat the small stuff in the writing–the word choices, the sentences, the perfect historic details.
So maybe no actual power writing.
Maybe just some nice, long strides uphill that take me over the top and forward along the trail.
What do you do when you’ve been away from a project for a while. Throw yourself in head first, or dip a few toes in to see how cold it is?
Monday Musings: A Room of One’s Own
Many, many years ago, I read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, Woolf’s essay on the need of a woman writer to have her own room for that writing. It was one of those books that made me say, “Wow!” And “Yes!” and “This is Truth!”
I’m thinking it’s time for a reread.
Certain books hit us one way when we’re young and quite another way when we’re…not young. If you read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter as a girl and haven’t read it since, go pick it up again. Especially if you have children. Remember the scene with the blizzard? It’s one thing to read it when you’re somewhere near the age Laura was, when you’re the little girl, and another completely different thing to read it when you’re Ma’s age (okay, no, probably 10-20 years older!) and you’re the mother. With brilliance, Laura–the writer–got both sides into that story.
I think that my original reading of A Room of One’s Own was probably right. I think it is a Yes! book. I think Woolf hit several nails directly on their flat little heads. Still…when I read it, I was 18 or 19, barely out of my parent’s house (and only for 9 months of the year!), safely tucked into a dorm, just starting on my dreams of being a writer who might–someday–need that room of one’s own.
Today, I am in my forties, in my own home, a wife and mother, a writer trying to put fiction on the page and do writing that brings in money as well. And guess what–I have that room of my own. It is a wonderful room–lined with walls of books, surrounded by windows that look out on green oaks and the peeling bark of eucalyptus trees. The room has doors I can close, with stained-glass windows my husband designed, built, and installed for me.
Lucky? You bet.
One of the primary feelings I took from A Room of One’s Own all those years ago was the idea of privacy. Uninterrupted, continuous privacy. The quiet to concentrate, to think, and to write.
One of the other feelings, though, was loneliness. Maybe the flip side of privacy? I remember (or think I do) the feeling that having that room of one’s own came with a strong chunk of isolation. I have carried an image in my mind all these years of that room being the dark corner of an attic, or a garret room in a boarding house. Where no one interrupted, but–also–no one visited.
That’s not my room.
My room has space and light and air. It’s got my desk chair, but it has a futon for guests as well, and a rocking chair where my husband or son sit when they come in for a question or a conversation. I don’t often close those beautiful doors. The cat wanders around, trying to hide between those rows of books or jumping onto the top of my monitor and making everything wobble. (What will she do when I finally get a flat-screen one?) The phone rings. I have Facebook & Twitter, this blog and all the ones I read.
Do I get as much writing done as if I had the other kind of room? I’m guessing not. Is that at times frustrating? Um…yeah. Do I sometimes wish the beautiful doors didn’t just close, but had a deadlock and could be cloaked in invisibility? Of course. Would I swap? No.
I think these thoughts are coming along with the bluer skies of Spring, even if it’s still a bit cold. They’re coming as I get some of life’s to-do tasks checked off the list. They’re coming as the house is quiet and tidy, and Bard the cockatiel is singing and swinging in the other room.
My gut feeling is that the room Virginia Woolf describes is a bit too much like Winter for me. A bit too dark and cold, a bit too set apart from other rooms, with other people in them. If I reread A Room of One’s Own now, I’m pretty sure those images she paints will still have a temptation woven through them. But I’m thinking, too, they may not feel quite the absolute ideal that they did all those years ago.
What’s Keeping Me Busy This Week
I’m in one of those phases where it feels like I need silverware dividers for my day–an hour here, an hour and a half here, 43.61 minutes there.
It’s also one of those phases with not as much time for my fiction as I’d like, but life can be like that. I’m working to get chunks of other stuff out of the way, so I can bring clean, clear concentration back to my stories.
Meanwhile, here’s a bit of what I have been doing.
- Getting ready to present three workshops at the 2011 Pennwriters conference in Pittsburgh next month. I’ll be talking about how to build a critique group, how to develop a strong and supportive critique, and how to revise once you’ve got that pile of feedback.
- Collecting & fine-tuning some nonfiction samples to share with Laura and Lisa at Mentors for Rent. The more time I spend with history and other nonfiction, the more I want to write in that genre for children. Time to get some coaching from the experts.
- Working on a VERY SECRET craft project for a niece who is-sometime this month or next–having TWINS! I already have some experience with twins–my grandmother and her sister were identical, as are two of my nephews. BUT I have not yet been a—drumroll, please…GREAT-AUNT!!!!! I could get into this, I think.
- Receiving stupendous comments on my picture book from my critique partners. Okay, not stupendous, as in, “SEND THIS OUT NOW!” but definitely stupendous in the Duh! Fireworks-of-Ideas way. LOVE those guys!
- Reading and reading and reading. Unfortunately, not research reading right now, but comfort-relax-escape reading, which I do a LOT of when the rest of the day feels chaotic. Thank goodness for all the wonderful books out there that let me grab a few retreat minutes when I need them. Recent reads that I loved: Rick Riordan’s The Lost Hero, Jim Butcher’s Side Jobs, and Colin Cotterill’s The Coroner’s Lunch.
It’s all great stuff to be doing. Of course, if Stephen Fry showed up on my doorstep offering to be my Jeeves for a few weeks, I would happily hand over the dishes, the grocery shopping, the cooking, the laundry…and so on, and so on.
As would we all, yes?! Happy good-busyness to everyone. 🙂
Saturday Six: How to Procrastinate
1. Spend a couple of hours with the TV on, in the name of making progress on a craft project.
2. Decide that you’re going to do your day’s work on your new laptop. Which is so new as to have numerous features that must be figured out.
3. Get caught up in son’s homework, where neither of you really wants you to be.
4. Eat another small spoonful of Trader Joe’s Almond Butter with Flax Seeds.
5. Think about that newsletter you’re not writing.
6. Blog.
Spring Break Getaway
We didn’t get a big vacation this spring break–most of the week has been filled with work-work and homework (which totally stinks, may I say?!), but also with some extra sleeping and reading time, which I’ll always take.
We did, however, escape on Monday and Tuesday for a much-needed break. My son slept in, my husband and I worked till noon, then we pretty much tossed clothes, sleeping bags, and a cooler into the car and drove south. We stopped for a great lunch here in Santa Cruz, bought a couple of paperbacks each here, then hit Trader Joe’s to fill up the cooler. Then we drove another 40 minutes or so further south, to Mount Madonna County Park.
Where they have yurts.
I love yurts. They come equipped with bunk beds and futons, and a light in the ceiling that the ranger thought wouldn’t be bright enough to read by…WRONG! Plenty of light for bedtime reading. Each yurt has its own little wrap-around deck and BBQ pit. We’d picked up steaks and frozen fries (which we wrapped in foil), and we tossed it all on the BBQ to cook. Okay, my husband and son tossed it on the BBQ. I put on four layers of clothing, dug out the copy of Ellis Peter’s Monkshood that I’d read years ago and decided was perfect for a cozy, nostalgic re-peruse, and stayed as close to the fire as I could without getting smoked out.
April is chilly this year, to say the least!
The next morning, we pulled out our map of the park and started off to circumnavigate the whole thing. Mount Madonna is not a big park–the brochure says it has 20-miles of trails, but I wouldn’t bet on that. Still, we hiked and ate and hiked and ate and hiked and snoozed in the sun for close to seven hours, and it was wonderful.
If you’re ever hiking through the park, and you see a little sign in the middle of nowhere that says, “Rest Area,” follow the deer path. Someone (??!!) decided it was a great idea to tote a picnic table two miles from the nearest road and tuck it into a glade totally hidden from the main trail. We agreed. Lunch was secluded and cozy.
I can highly recommend these:
And my son discovered that a Trader Joe’s Triple Ginger Snap on top of a slice of hard salami makes a delicious open-faced sandwich. (Honestly and frighteningly, it wasn’t bad!)
We saw plenty of these, but did not make them part of the dining experience.
It was tough to come back, but “luckily,” I totally overused most of my leg muscles, so sitting at the computer hasn’t been the worst thing I could be doing. It’s not turning out to be much of a week for writing, and next week probably won’t be either, but I’m trying to get work-stuff out of the way so I can return full-force to my WIPs as soon as possible.
Happy Spring to you all!
THE MONSTER’S RING Winner!
Who’s bright idea was it to have a contest end on a Monday morning? Of Spring Break? Oh, yeah, that would be me.
It’s okay. I’m here, and I’m awake. Mostly!
And I’ve got the winner for my giveaway of a signed copy of Bruce Coville’s The Monster’s Ring.
Katrina, Come On Down!!!! You can email me at beckylevine at ymail dot com with your snail mail address, and I’ll get the book sent off to you soon.
Enjoy!
And Happy Monday to everybody else. 🙂
Friday Five: Why I’m Ready for Spring
You know, Spring with sunshine. Not just Spring on the calendar.
1. I don’t like socks. Or shoes.
2. I’m feeling cold all the time, which makes me feel old. And rhymes.
3. Grey is a nice-enough color for a while, but I’m ready for some blue. As in skies.
4. I’m craving a few moments sitting on a sun-warmed rock, with my eyes closed against the glare.
5. I’m getting bored with my fingerless gloves. Yes, even my aqua-and-black striped-and-checked ones.
I’m ready for a little of this:
My Auction Item at KidLit4Japan
Just a quick note to let you know that my auction item is up at the KidLit4Japan auction.
I’m donating a copy of my book, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, plus a critique of either your novel’s first chapter or your complete picture book.
You can check out my specific auction here, but be sure to check out all the other donations, too. There are some great items, and–obviously–it’s a wonderful cause.
Why Does IT Matter?
Whatever IT may be, in any given scene.
As my brilliant critique group reminded me yesterday, goals and obstacles are not enough. Yes, they can give our readers a purpose to follow and perhaps a feeling that they’re dodging bullets with us as they turn pages, but…there’s one more element for real tensions.
Stakes.
No, not this kind.
The why-does-it-matter kind. The what-will-happen-if-she-doesn’t-get-that-goal kind. The how-much-worse-will-things-get-if-she-fails kind.
I knew this. If I looked through my book, I’d probably find I talked about it some. And still, I managed to plot through my draft without thinking too much/enough about it. Because why? Oh, because there’s just so darned much to remember with this writing thing!
It’s never boring, that’s for sure. 🙂
Don’t worry. I am not stopping the forward movement on this draft to go through and add stakes (of either kind) to every scene in my plot. I am not stopping the forward movement to go back and revise the scenes my critique group returned to me yesterday. (It was actually a very happy critique session, anyway!)
I am, though, going to take a few minutes today and put a sticky note on each of those scenes about the stakes I want to add. I’m hoping that getting a bit closer to those will help me on the current scene, which is being–to put it mildly–a pain in the posterior. I am going to open up one more slot in my brain and, as I keep writing, take a little of that extra time to look at the stakes for each scene. To figure out why Caro’s immediate goal matters and what will go wrong, get worse, turn into a complete mess, when (rather than “if”) she doesn’t get that goal.
To up the tension.
And, once again, big thanks to my critique group for bringing out the Nerf baseball bat and giving me the perfect bonk on the head.
Becky Levine 
