Category: Uncategorized

Posted in Uncategorized

Winding Down at the Turning of the Year

Posted on by beckylevine

New Year’s Day is still over a week away, but today is the solstice, and I am definitely in that gear that has me coasting gently downhill till the end of the month and year. This means that I am basically going with what the day brings, with little start-and-stop jerks as another box arrives to be opened, and I remember another small item to be wrapped. I played chauffeur for my son this morning, then ran a few errands that needed to be done before Xmas arrives. There are a few left, and I’ll fit them into the next two days. Husband did pick-up duties this evening, while I cleaned up from my meat-pie-cooking session this afternoon and swept bits of paper and ribbon off my desk.

All slow and easy.

If I were any good at geometry, I’d have the word to describe the arc of this pattern–the downward curve I’m on now, knowing that–unless you’re a delivery person or diving into stores for last-minute purchases–things are quiet and quietening all around me. When I look ahead along the arc, I know I’ll touch a happy bottom around New Years, then start the upward curve, with the momentum of this relaxation making the slope pretty easy to get up.

This year has been amazing, with all the (thankfully) usual good things compounded by writing my book and seeing it through the publishing process. Today, I heard from two friends that Amazon had shipped their copies–it’s heading out into the real world, and in January I’ll be seeing it on shelves in bookstores. Yes…amazing. It’s a bit like the gentle starts-and-stops of getting ready for Xmas–the excitement synapses just spark every now and then, catching me out of the cooking or the cleaning or the reading.

I’ve been looking at people’s photos on Facebook & Twitter of snow-covered hills and buildings. We don’t have that here; in fact, today was gray skies and drizzle that just left goopy leaf piles on the ground. Still, something about this season and this time of year brings the quiet I imagine from those photos. A quiet we all need, I think, to break patterns, shift gears, and get ready for the next year.

2010. Can you believe it? And can you even imagine what it might bring?

Posted in Uncategorized

Friday Five: My Holiday Weeks

Posted on by beckylevine

School ends today for two weeks. Son is pretty much dancing with happiness, and I have to say–looking ahead at a pretty easy holiday, I’m enjoying the thought of some relaxing, too. Here are 5 things I’ll probably be doing in the next two weeks.

1. NOT setting the alarm. Sleeping till I wake up.

2. Going through my days relatively schedule free.

3. Making Tourtieres. This is the one recipe I inherited from my husband’s mother that I make. No there is no French-Canadian in my husband’s genetic line, but it comes via a favorite aunt-by-marriage, and it’s absolutely yummy comfort food.

4. Spending time with each of the characters in my YA, getting focused on the “I want” for each of them. I really want to start actually writing on this project in January, and I think this is the one big chunk of understanding I need to get closer to before I get back to scenes.

5. Reading, reading, reading. And, yes, reading.

For all of you who are celebrating holidays, taking time off, spending time with family and friends, NOT setting your alarms for a while, or just making any kind of pattern-shift in the next couple of weeks…enjoy!

Posted in Character, Plot, Uncategorized

Making Connections, Deepening Story

Posted on by beckylevine

When I went away to college many, many years ago, I moved about 5 hours away from home. Not far, probably, compared to some of you, but for the shy kid I was, it was a good distance. It meant that coming home for weekends was not a given, and it meant one miserable trip that involved a city bus to a greyhound bus to another greyhound bus that made 1.32 gazillion stops (I counted!) in Los Angeles and many hours beyond that. And the return trip.

Which is why I was more than grateful that I knew someone at the school from my hometown, someone with whom I could grab an occasional ride up the state.

She was a friend of my older sister’s. She was two years older than I was and, I’d bet, pretty darned close to as shy as me. She drove a car I fell in love with–a 1960-something Mercedes Benz with seats out of a Pullman car and a steering wheel that, if you held onto it 10 & 2, you got a nice yoga stretch.  Anyway, this friend would call me up if she was going home & offer the passenger seat, and I would check with her at holidays to see if she was heading home.

Why am I going on about this? Because this was not just someone I knew, a college-mate I’d met and developed my own, one-to-one relationship with. This was my sister’s friend, the daughter of neighbors that (probably) brought one of their pets to my parents’ veterinary clinic. She was the middle sister, like me, with an older brother we all had crushes on, and a younger sister, as well. If you drew lines between all the people we both connected to, it would look like a spider web of interlacing strands. And, frankly, it was these connections that made it possible for the seriously-shy me to accept (and ask for) rides from this woman and for her to offer. We knew we had something, at least, to talk about for those hours driving along the Pacific Ocean. The connections added layers to our interactions.

Just like in a novel.

I just solved a plot problem tonight. I knew what my MC should do next, but I could see it taking her down a path that would be a problem later. Not a problem for her, but a problem for the story–this one action was going to make her step in and out of just one too many opportunities, with the bouncing out making her feel like a quitter. Which she is not. This has been a stumbling block for me every time I looked down the line at upcoming scenes. Tonight, I worked it out. If the opportunity I set up for has a connection to the next opportunity, a connection with the people involved, then she doesn’t have to quit. Instead, she’ll move forward on that path.

To be more specific, I gave one character another role–which gives that character another link to my hero. Instead of two separate people with whom my hero has to interact, on totally different planes, she now has a single person with whom she interacts on two levels. Deeper. Stronger.

When you’re working with your plot and thinking about paths for your hero, look at who’s hanging around on that path. Are they isolated from each other, or connected? Take two characters who do know each other–who else can you bring into the mix? As you connect, as you braid more lines together, what overlap do you see between worlds? What extra ripples does someone’s action start…in how many ponds? Who opens up to whom and who tells takes on who else? How much more interesting does your story become?

Try mixing things up and take a look. I predict you’ll be pleasantly surprised! 🙂

Posted in Uncategorized

Mom Pride…Just a Bit

Posted on by beckylevine

For those of you who have been reading my blog or my tweets/FB updates for a while, you probably know that I have one son. On the one hand, I try not to talk TOO much about him out here, just because…well, this is a writing/critiquing blog, not a mom blog. On the other hand, he comes up in topics sometimes, because–frankly–he’s a great reader and critiquer and one of the best fans of my writing I could ask for.

Last night, the roles got switched, and I got to be a fan. And, what the heck, I’m going to blog about it.

The school district he’s in for middle school has a writing contest every year and picks one winner from each school in the district. Last year, my son’s teacher entered a story he’d written for her class, and he won for his school. And that was the first step of an incredible program that the district has created. Here’s what happened after that point:

  • He took a workshop and uploaded his book onto a website that lets you format and publish your book online or order it bound, hard copy. You can scan in illustrations, too, which he did.
  • The program coordinator came to his school to take an author photo.
  • We bought our copies of the book.
  • A reporter from the San Jose newspaper called him for an interview.
  • Last night, he and the other winners had a ceremony/book signing at the local Barnes & Noble.

And I just have to say, last night was amazing. Barnes & Noble was packed, with the kids, their families and friends, and SO many teachers and principals. Each kid was called up to say a few words about their book, and they were given certificates, blank journals, and a gift card for the store. Then each principal escorted each author to his or her signing table.

My son brought a pen he’d made by inserting the ink tube from a ball point pen into the base of a feather. 🙂

I’m not going to go into all the thoughts and feelings I had as I saw him up there, because sometimes he reads my blog, and he’s not going to want to see all that in print. Mostly, it was just amazement and awe at who he has become and who he is still becoming. It’s not about the writing, although, of course, I love that. It’s about seeing this young man creating himself, turning into the person he wants to be. And knowing that he will keep doing that for decades and that I’ll get to watch.

It’s been years since my husband and I made the decision to have a child. I know that it is one of the best decisions, if not the best, that we ever made, and I know, too, how lucky we are to get to feel that way. Life is a story, and you never know which way the plot and characters are going to go.

I’m liking our arc just fine.

Posted in Uncategorized

Halloween: Friday Five

Posted on by beckylevine

My Friday Five for the holiday:

1. Son is dressing up as Dr. Horrible. Friend is dressing up as Captain Hammer. There will be no freeze gun or boxing gloves, but lots of singing, I’m sure.

2. I will be going with the usual question…Mom. I’ve added a few more wrinkles to the costume, I think, but–you know–in the dark, probably no one will notice!

3. I’ve been on a committed trying-to-lose-weight program and today saw the 10-pounds-off number on the scale. This should, hopefully, be motivation for not eating ALL the Butterfingers that come home.

4. There are only two things I miss since our move to the mountains. Pizza delivery and trick-or-treaters. I’ve never been big on the costumes and parties, but I did used to love handing out candy to the little guys. And, of course, buying a few too many bags & having to deal with leftovers.

5. Usually, our October is warm, warm, warm, with all of us thinking our kids will roast in their costumes. Then, a day before Halloween, the temps drop and we’re trying to convince those kids that a coat over said costume will NOT look stupid. This year, it’s been cold for weeks, and son is happy his costume includes sweat pants, a jacket, and boots that are so big he’s wearing fleece slippers inside. And the welding gloves, of course.

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Posted in Uncategorized

Powerless

Posted on by beckylevine

A storm that I heard described as the worst October storm in the Bay Area since 1962 left us without electricity (OR INTERNET!) for 3 days. Which, really, felt like more. I am such a wimp.

Anyway, as they say, we at this blog have been experiencing SERIOUS technical difficulties, consisting of working at the local coffeehouse (AKA “Downtown office” for all mountain folk without power), pouring milk down the sink and buying small cartons for cereal, lighting candles, playing board games and reading out loud (Got the chance to introduce son to Firoozeh Dumas’ Funny in Farsi–he loved it!), and various and sundry other activities I’m not going to detail here and that you don’t want met to.

Thankfully, last night and all night, PG&E was working just up the hill from our house to take OUT the broken pole that feeds the six house on our road and replace it with a nice, new WORKING pole. They left at about 4:00 a.m, and–even though we only slept intermittently with the noise and the lights–we are VERY grateful. Especially, yes, for the HOT SHOWERS!

Regular service on this blog will continue next week. Same bat time, same bat channel, folks!

Posted in Revising, Somebody Else Says, Uncategorized

Somebody Else Says: Beth Revis

Posted on by beckylevine

Beth Revis’ Writing it Out blog is one of the regulars on my read list. She’s got a couple of posts this week that I wanted to share. She’s looking back at her latest BIG revision, and she’s posted about the things that did and didn’t work (with ideas about how to fix the latter, next time around). Beth has really thought this out and–while I’m not sure all her steps would work for me–she’s got some great ideas and analysis of the process.

Stop by and check out these posts:

Posted in Uncategorized

Friday Five

Posted on by beckylevine

1. I proved to myself (again) today that if you ask me to talk about something I like, well, you’ll get me talking! I did my first teleseminar this morning, with Linda Joy Myers of the National Association of Memoir Writers. This had been scheduled for a while and I did my homework and thought of possible questions that might come up and thought of possible answers I might make. (Okay, I TYPED UP those possible answers.) And then, of course, what happened was that Linda Joy had wonderful questions of her own, and I didn’t look at my notes once, and I just talked and talked and hopefully kept it interesting. We discussed lots of general critique stuff and, I think, managed to also make it specific to the problems & choices around critiquing memoir. Hey, I had fun.  Linda Joy will be sending me the audio at some point, which means–yes, another WordPress challenge for me–figuring out how to put a link up to the audio on my website. More fun. 🙂

2. Today is one of those weird weather days we get in California, where it’s overcast and looks like it would be cool outside, but is actually very still and warm and muggy. I’m not going to put the actual word here, because why tempt the fates, but it definitely feels like ________ weather. Californians will know what I’m talking about. Hopefully, we’ll just get a bit of noisy thunder and this, too, shall pass. Peacefully.

3. Husband and I recently transferred to a new bank, and thus I recently purchased a new version of Quicken. Remiss does not begin to describe my finance-tracking habits of the past few years. But no more! Software is loaded, I’ll be putting in the basic data tonight, and then I…WILL BE GOOD. But, you know, there’s just no creativity to paying bills.

4. Wrote a new scene this week, based on all the railway station/immigrant research I’ve been doing. LOTS of description. LOTS of observing. SOME thinking. ACTION…um? From my MC?  Thank the muses for revision. And, you know, revision.

5. Today is September 11. My son was, I think, in kindergarten all those years ago, and we wondered whether we should send him to school, way up here in our little mountains. We did, and I didn’t realistically worry, but it felt as though he was much further away than down one road and up another. And it felt as thought New York and Pennsylvania and Washington, DC were, also, very far away and yet so, so close. Someone else, probably many someone elses, said it today, but it doesnt’ matter what side of the political fence I’m on, that date is never going to be just any other day, ever again.

Posted in Setting, Uncategorized

Getting Past a Setting Stall

Posted on by beckylevine

A few posts back, I said that, this year, I was going to try & spend my first hour’s work on my fiction. So far (I know–a whole week!), that’s been going well. Probably because I’ve let myself have some freedom on what “work” means during that hour.

Specifically research settings.

My middle-grade mystery is set in “today,” in Santa Cruz, California–which is about 20 minutes away from my house. We go there frequently, not to all the places I used in my book, but definitely enough that I have a strong sense of how the town looks and the feel of the different communities there. (Things like Keep Santa Cruz Weird bumper stickers help!) So I could write my scenes through a few drafts, without any problem. Then, when I needed to remember how many times I felt like falling over at The Mystery Spot, or what route my MC would really take to the beach, I’d drive over with my camera and get the details right.

I’ve been to Chicago and back. I’ve reminded myself about all the brick–red, yellow, and an incredibly lovely pink—and the trees that maybe weren’t so big back then, but were probably around. But there are places I have never been. Like:

  • The inside of a tenement building
  • The lunchroom for workers in a 1913 department store
  • The particular train station my MC has to visit
  • Up the stairs into the 2nd or 3rd floor apartment OVER the dry-goods shop

What I found during the summer was that, if I have NO idea what my setting looks like, I have a LOT of trouble writing the scene. Even starting to write the scene. So I’m letting myself spend some of that morning hour with books and on the Internet–just looking for enough to let my imagination build something up, something I can play with.

Yes, I’m doing this for scenes that will change, for descriptions that may not even make it to the book. Or even the 2nd draft. But it’s letting me step into the world I’m writing about, back in time, and put some of that world onto the page. For now, that’s a good enough reason for me.

That, and the fact that I wrote an entire chapter last week, one I’m a LOT happier with than the many I wrote over the summer.

How about you? How much setting do you need to take the first step into a scene?

Posted in Research, Uncategorized

I’m Baaaaaack…

Posted on by beckylevine

Well, I’m not in California, but I am in Urbana, at my sister’s house. Chicago was wonderful.

And check out what my sister got me for my birthday!

janeaddamsdoll

Look closely. That’s a copy of Twenty Years at Hull House in her hand and the Nobel Peace Prize Medal around her neck.

Yes…it’s a Jane Addams doll!!!

Stay tuned. More to come in the next few days.