A Book Report and a Favor

Hello World!

Today I have a book report to share and a favor to ask.

I know several of you follow my blog. I’d like to ask a favor of you. Would you please share with my readers and me one or both of the following?

• sources that you find helpful when you write
• the author you would emulate if you were to write a novel

My responses follow.

I mentioned before that my favorite book on writing is Martha Alderson's Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple. See my April 1st 2010 post for more about why it is my favorite.

The author I would emulate in my novel is Mary Doria Russell. Her first book, Sparrow, completely blew me away. It is a tale of difficulties, beyond language, that keep Earth scientists and clerics from communicating clearly with two intelligent species coexisting on another planet. The expedition occurs because the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) finally picks up signals alien signals. Scientists and the Roman Catholic Church plan and fund the space trip together.

My book, The Game, also looks at the differences between cultures, a foreign communal group that has recently relocated to Eastern Washington and the local people they meet. My two groups are not different as those in Sparrow, but I hope I can make them both as similar and as distinct.

It’s not that Ms. Russell’s three cultures cannot understand each other. Problems arise when the conclusions they draw from facts and observations are incomplete or incorrect. Assumptions based on those findings bring about totally unexpected results, though everyone is certain relations are caring and peaceful between the people of Earth and the two new cultures.

As a person who learns more from fiction than non-fiction, I appreciate how well Ms. Russell presents the fallacy of believing quantitative information is truth. Not only do facts tell only part of the story, they are necessarily viewed through our cultural sieve, something I want readers of The Game to experience.

Ms. Russell’s story continues in Children of God. The two books excel in creating complex cultures containing complex characters. Hers is not a tale of good and bad guys. Instead, each character has strengths and weaknesses and creates success or chaos depending on the situation. How I would enjoy creating characters as 3-D as hers!

Hopefully I can present your writing and fiction choices in a later blog.

Congratulations (At Least, a Mini One)

Hello World!

Today I congratulate myself.

Don’t get too excited -- this is a small celebration. No, I have not yet finished my scene by scene analysis and rewrite, an effort that will undoubtedly take longer than writing my original draft. I have, however, completed a copy edit pass through the entire novel that tightened up its extensive length.

At its longest, The Game ran 588 pages. It now stands at 482 pages. Yay!

Not all of those pages vanished through my copy editing. Several entire scenes did not survive the extensive analysis/rewrite process. Hopefully, I’ll find more of those, because I plan to add several exciting additional scenes as well.

In case you are still concerned at The Game’s length, I’ll let you in on a secret. My pages are a bit shorter than actual book pages. In the end, I will convert them. For now, I continue to estimate the “tomeishness” of my work by counting its original-length pages.

Although a rewrite is more vital than copy editing, I’m pleased by the evidence of my progress. Maybe an occasional celebration should be required during long-term projects like writing a book. It makes feel better about my work and energized to move forward.

Congratulations to me!

Researching The Game

Hello World!

I’ve been thinking a lot about research lately. Most of my life I’ve worked in social science and educational research, which includes a lot of writing. Writing this book, I’ve discovered that writing includes a lot of research, as well. It is fortunate for me that the two fit so well together.

Of course, if I wrote non-fiction, I’d plan for lots of research – after all, think of all those facts! Yet day after day during the writing phase of my novel, I’d come up with answers I needed so my setting and characters would remain believable. Some were quick googles, while others took deeper research. Occasionally I lost an entire day to exploration. ! even took a class on one of my research topics.

The working title for my novel is The Game. My research made me feel like I was one of my characters, involved in my own game. Below are some examples.

Research topics for my novel The Game (selective list)

• What has contributed to various peoples growing taller in some parts of the world than in others?
• In what months do various crops mature in Eastern Washington?
• How are body hair, pubic hair and facial hair similar and different?
• Had the past 60 years of U.S. defense/war resources gone to our space program instead, where might it be today?
• What happens to the mother and the embryo during the first 3 months of pregnancy?
• What allowed the Love Israel family to continue so much longer than other communal groups?
• What changes have occurred over the past 30 years in Walla Walla and the surrounding area?
• Historically, which nationalities and ethnicities immigrated into Eastern Washington and when?
• How long do cows and goats give milk after bearing young?
• When is the yearly rodeo in the Walla Walla area?
• What advances are anticipated over the next 10 year in genetics?

Perhaps my research has been more difficult, in some ways, than non-fiction research. The variety of topics I’ve had to consider may be wider, for instance. However they compare, I now understand why some authors hire researchers on various questions. If I didn’t love the search, I could easily bog down in the writing.

Writing and other jobs I've held

Hello World!

I’m about 1/6th of the way through my first rewrite of my novel. I don’t find rewriting to be nearly as much fun as writing. Although I expected as much, I had hoped I might be happily surprised once I got going. Instead, this part of the process has the feeling of simply plodding along.

Rewriting is far more structured, for one thing, than writing was in the haphazard fashion I chose that fit my personality. Going through the list of attributes each scene has to contain, and figuring out how to fit them all in smoothly can be difficult as well, especially in a short scene.

On the other hand, I love being back with my characters again. I’m quite fond of them! And watching their story get tighter and more interesting is very rewarding.

A wonderful surprise has been how much I love throwing scenes away. I’ll find one I wrote mainly for myself, so I knew where the story was going, and I’ll read through it, getting ever more excited as I realize how much I can cut. I love looking at the total number of pages at the bottom of my Word window, blowing the scene away (wheeeeee!), and seeing how many pages have vanished. I keep deleted scenes in a separate file, in case I need something from them later, and that gives me freedow from worrying that I’ve lost anything. Watching those drearier scenes go is seeing improvement in real time sans slog.

Every job I’ve held in my life was similar in that no matter how much I really enjoyed suggesting books as a librarian, counseling a client, or discovering new information as a researcher, there were always the tasks that I needed to plod through: shelving books, doing paperwork, or entering data. The difference is that the enjoyment level of the writing, for me, was far above the enjoyment level of many of my jobs, and so far, the plodding part is still better than most of the past mud slogging.

I wonder how running the publishing gamut will feel? I suspect it will be my least favorite part, but I’m not ready to go there yet. I’m going to stay in the now as long as the rewriting lasts.

"I Could Never Write a Book"

Hello World!

How often have you heard someone say, "I could never write a book"? I feel sorry for some who have said it to me recently.

Do some people have no interest in writing? Absolutely. Find all writing tedious? Of course. Have too short an attention span, an inability to comprehend the needed skills, or an exclusive addiction to tweeting and gaming? Sure. However, these are not the people for whom I am sad.

Those I'm thinking of are reasonably educated, can write an e-mail or letter or blog that others can understand and appreciate, could carve out the time (albeit perhaps with some difficulty), and have a desire to write. Yet they still say, wistfully, "I could never write a book."

Perhaps they have poor self-esteem and so think themselves incapable. Possibly, they place writers upon a high marble pedestal. Maybe some adult discouraged them before they developed skills they have today. They may struggle finding a topic, or consider themselves non-creative. Or maybe, like me, they disliked how they were taught to write, because it didn't fit their personality/learning style.

If I found these people, I'd tell them this: There is a vast variety of writer-types and there are many correct ways to write well.

Outlining or pre-writing didn't work for me, nor did fleshing out characters before they stepped onto the page. I felt constrained instead of reassured by these activities. I needed permission to change my mind. I had more luck developing my plot and characters as the story progressed.

Writing linearly also didn't work for me. I wrote what was in my mind -- what excited me, what begged to be told, what my characters whispered in my ear. After those parts were written, I was inspired to fit them together.

I don't pretend that my way is best. Instead, I encourage you to figure out what you'd like to try. Then, do it! Succeed or fail without letting it affect your belief in your ability. Learn what you can from the process and try again. Whether or not you ever mention your writing is your choice.

Love instructions? Read several sets and find one that fits (or two you can combine). Have a scene already in your head? Start writing. Do learning-exercises light up your bulb? Hang up a whole string! Just start, and use flexibility in the directions or structures or freedoms you choose. You are a writer, not a slave.

Do whatever works to get your rough draft on paper. The most important part is the initial draft. There’s plenty of opportunity for changing, editing, researching, rearranging and rewriting once it's all down on the page.

So? On your mark, get set, go! Go! Go!! You'll never write if you don't start.

One Small Exciting Experience: Attempt #2

Hello World!

I haven’t written in a while, because in uploading my last entry, I lost what I’d written. I’ve learned an important lesson: write in Word and then transfer it over here. I’m through being mad now, so I’m back.

One of the hardest things about writing my book is getting critical feedback. It’s probably best in a writers’ group, but I’m not yet in one. So I sent my first few chapters to my sister and a close friend, and printed them out for my husband, expecting lots of great feedback. My friend and sister said only, “It was good. I liked it.” When pressed, they added that they’d like to read more -- the sum total of their feedback.

My husband, on the other hand, is a good copy editor. At that time, however, it was too early, since I’d just have to edit again after my rewrite(s). His search for troubled wording yielded one rather important and humorous find – I called my two main women “mystery lovers” when they were actually platonic friends who both loved mysteries. Go figure.

At Christmas, I gave my sister and my mom the finished rough draft to read. My mother has not finished it, but my sister again said she liked it. I read it aloud to my husband who gave me some good feedback on conversations between characters. (Thank You!)

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was changing protagonists during my rewrite. When I told my sister, she suddenly worried about the characters and events that she wanted to keep. Ah! At last!

At a recent retreat, my friend told me she usually takes things as they come, and has difficulty imagining them as different. When I asked what she recalled, over six months later, she still remembered my farmer character. Excellent!

So now, at least, I have a fair idea of what worked. That’s very helpful as I discard or change the rest. Thank you all. I’m on my way!

One Small, Exciting Experience