Well, in case it isn't obvious by now, I'm no longer sticking to my self-imposed rule of only blogging when I've done some work on my book. It wasn't working for me, mostly because when I didn't write, I got frustrated when I felt I couldn't blog (especially during the height of my morning sickness for a few months), and when I didn't blog, I felt guilty that it was due to my not writing. So, though I was well-intentioned in thinking that each would provide incentive for the other, mostly what the whole thing was providing was guilt. So, I've given myself the freedom again to write and blog independently of each other--I think it'll be much more productive for me on both counts.
Today I did something with my writing that I haven't done in a while, and I've never done it with my current manuscript: I put it in storyboard form. Well, what I call a storyboard, anyway (it's far from an illustrative one, considering I can't draw much beyond stick figures). I have a large tri-fold display board that I used to set on an easel at pet adoption events when I was attempting to do pet photography for a while, and while I don't do the photography anymore, I figured I could at least get another use out of the board (the funny thing is, there are still animal photos affixed to the inside folds of the board). With my previous manuscript, I wrote out each chapter on a large Post-It note, then stuck them in numerical order on the board. Using different colored pens, I wrote out what happened (or was going to happen, for the ones I hadn't written yet) in each chapter, using a different color for each plot thread. In this way, I could really see how things arced or when I'd dropped a certain thread for too long, and it made me focus on meeting the goal for one chapter at a time, rather than worry about the entire book as a whole (at least initially). So, today I got as far as writing out the Post-Its for the chapters I've already written, but didn't get to block out the chapters I haven't written yet. I have a general idea of what I want to happen in the next few chapters, but I think it was a daunting task to figure out the rest of the book at the moment. It's okay, though; right now, one step, one chapter or one Post-It at a time is good enough for me. After all, after not writing at all for a few months, maybe it's better for me to try a lap or two rather than attempt to swim the English Channel my first time back in the water.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Reading, Writing, and Being Overwhelmed
I am now officially in pre-conference (that would be the SCBWI Summer Conference) overdrive. Now only 10 days away, each day, it seems, I wake up trying to decide if I should read a novel from the stack I've assembled (either written by authors who will be at the conference, or edited by editors who will be there), try to revise at least another chapter or two of my novel, or spend more time doing internet research on the agents and editors who will be there so I can focus on which workshops would be most appropriate for me--not just by subject matter, but also who would be the best fit editor or agent for my current manuscript. I already discovered publishing houses that I wouldn't submit to, either because they focus on picture books or "upper YA" (read: older than my intended audience), so now I can concentrate on other workshops. I think I've done more research this year than I ever have, I'm trying to read as many books as I can (in years past, I've bought books to have them signed by authors at the conference, then had them sit on my shelf until I had time to read them, but this year they will be read before they're signed), so the thing that seems to be suffering, if one can call it that, is the writing. You know, the whole reason I'm going to this conference in the first place...?
I'm trying not to beat myself up too much over this, but considering that one of the benefits of the conference is being able to submit to editors who at any other time are closed to unsolicited manuscripts, it would obviously behoove me to have a manuscript that's relatively close to being ready to send by the time I attend the conference. I would venture to guess that there are some people who wouldn't even consider going there with anything short of a completed manuscript, but fortunately or unfortunately, I'm not in that category myself. Thus far, there's only one year I attended the conference with a completed manuscript under my belt--and I got the worst, most devastating critique ever (that it was at least from an editor did not soften the blow). So, maybe that's a sign?? We shall see.
There are two more books I'd like to finish reading in the next 10 days, after reading two in the past two days, and then I hope to focus on my writing. I just read Tithe by Holly Black (my first Holly Black book), and my new current favorite book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I absolutely fell in love with this book, starting it last night and finishing it late this morning, and I cannot wait to hear him speak at the conference. I've heard him speak before, at the L.A. Times Book Festival a couple of years ago, and he was very funny (and very nice when I met him). He's delivering the first speech of the conference, which will definitely start things off with a bang. The funny thing about the conference this year, though, is although I'm absolutely excited about it, I've been experiencing some anxiety, too. Mostly about my critique, I think: who will it be with? Will it be on the first day, or will I have to wait until the last? Will he or she like it? I've had critiques before, but this is the first one with this manuscript since I got the devastating critque with it four years ago, before throwing (hiding?) it into a drawer and starting a major overhaul on it last year. Well, it's out of my hands at the moment, so all I can do right now is take a deep breath and wait. I wish I practiced yoga and/or meditation...is it too late to start in the next ten days?
I'm trying not to beat myself up too much over this, but considering that one of the benefits of the conference is being able to submit to editors who at any other time are closed to unsolicited manuscripts, it would obviously behoove me to have a manuscript that's relatively close to being ready to send by the time I attend the conference. I would venture to guess that there are some people who wouldn't even consider going there with anything short of a completed manuscript, but fortunately or unfortunately, I'm not in that category myself. Thus far, there's only one year I attended the conference with a completed manuscript under my belt--and I got the worst, most devastating critique ever (that it was at least from an editor did not soften the blow). So, maybe that's a sign?? We shall see.
There are two more books I'd like to finish reading in the next 10 days, after reading two in the past two days, and then I hope to focus on my writing. I just read Tithe by Holly Black (my first Holly Black book), and my new current favorite book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I absolutely fell in love with this book, starting it last night and finishing it late this morning, and I cannot wait to hear him speak at the conference. I've heard him speak before, at the L.A. Times Book Festival a couple of years ago, and he was very funny (and very nice when I met him). He's delivering the first speech of the conference, which will definitely start things off with a bang. The funny thing about the conference this year, though, is although I'm absolutely excited about it, I've been experiencing some anxiety, too. Mostly about my critique, I think: who will it be with? Will it be on the first day, or will I have to wait until the last? Will he or she like it? I've had critiques before, but this is the first one with this manuscript since I got the devastating critque with it four years ago, before throwing (hiding?) it into a drawer and starting a major overhaul on it last year. Well, it's out of my hands at the moment, so all I can do right now is take a deep breath and wait. I wish I practiced yoga and/or meditation...is it too late to start in the next ten days?
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
What's In a Name?
I have vowed (to myself, anyway) that this blog will not become one about pregnancy, babies, and motherhood. After all, that's not the only thing going on in my life, and that's not why I started this blog in the first place. That doesn't mean that I'll never mention any of those subjects (kind of hard not to right now, especially when they have an effect on other things in my life), but I don't want to follow in the footsteps that people sometimes do, traipsing down the path to Babyville, never to be heard from again. Being pregnant and a mom is part of who I am and who I'll be, but it doesn't singularly define me. On the other hand, I once heard a popular YA author speak about her writing process, and she told the audience that one of the best things she ever did was hire a sitter outside of her home, so once she dropped her baby off she had her apartment to herself and could work in quiet without distractions. That really turned me off to her, and (maybe not so coincidentally) I haven't read any of her books since. I'd like to think that I'll find a happy medium between baby time and writing time--or am I being too idealistic??
Anyway, people have been asking me lately if my husband and I have chosen a name for our baby yet. We haven't (though even if we have, we already decided we're not telling anyone beforehand--more to avoid prejudgement ("eww, you're naming your baby THAT?") than superstition), but sometimes it can feel a bit daunting. Yes, I know it seems I'm contradicting what I said in the previous paragraph, as all this is about babies and has not much to do with writing. Well, I'm getting to that. See, while picking a name for a character isn't always easy, it seems much simpler than choosing a name for a real, live person. I have a list of potential character names on index cards that I've had for years, and whenever I hear or think of an interesting name, onto the card it goes. When I create a new character, sometimes names come first, and sometimes I have to try a few out before it seems "right" to me. I can make the name fit the character, or vice-versa. I can give a school nerd a cringe-worthy name, I can give the hunky captain of the swim team a sigh-worthy name, or I can give the villain of the book the name of someone who was mean to me in school. And I can match it up with any last name I want. Then, if it doesn't work, I can change it in the next draft (especially thanks to Ctrl + f!). However, it's a bit more complicated for a real person. First of all, the last name is already set, so I have to pick a first name that fits nicely with it. Then, I want to pick a name that's hopefully going to fit as a baby as well as an older person (someday, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have a generation of seniors named Tiffani--no offense to any Tiffanis out there, btw). Then, it should be a name that both my husband and I like and will not get tired of saying, and on top of all that, it can't be one that is associated with anyone in my or my husband's life whom we don't like. Oh yeah, and it can't be the name of anyone's pet we know (there's a name I like, but someone we know has a cat with that name--it would be a bit awkward when that person asked us what our child's name was and we said "the same as your cat"), and we're trying to give the baby a name that no one in either of our families already has (as opposed to purposely naming a child after a relative, which right now we're not planning to do except in Hebrew after my mother, and how often would our kid be called by the Hebrew name?). Whew!
Compared to all this, picking a name for a character is kind of fun. Now, picking a book title is a whole other matter altogether...
Anyway, people have been asking me lately if my husband and I have chosen a name for our baby yet. We haven't (though even if we have, we already decided we're not telling anyone beforehand--more to avoid prejudgement ("eww, you're naming your baby THAT?") than superstition), but sometimes it can feel a bit daunting. Yes, I know it seems I'm contradicting what I said in the previous paragraph, as all this is about babies and has not much to do with writing. Well, I'm getting to that. See, while picking a name for a character isn't always easy, it seems much simpler than choosing a name for a real, live person. I have a list of potential character names on index cards that I've had for years, and whenever I hear or think of an interesting name, onto the card it goes. When I create a new character, sometimes names come first, and sometimes I have to try a few out before it seems "right" to me. I can make the name fit the character, or vice-versa. I can give a school nerd a cringe-worthy name, I can give the hunky captain of the swim team a sigh-worthy name, or I can give the villain of the book the name of someone who was mean to me in school. And I can match it up with any last name I want. Then, if it doesn't work, I can change it in the next draft (especially thanks to Ctrl + f!). However, it's a bit more complicated for a real person. First of all, the last name is already set, so I have to pick a first name that fits nicely with it. Then, I want to pick a name that's hopefully going to fit as a baby as well as an older person (someday, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have a generation of seniors named Tiffani--no offense to any Tiffanis out there, btw). Then, it should be a name that both my husband and I like and will not get tired of saying, and on top of all that, it can't be one that is associated with anyone in my or my husband's life whom we don't like. Oh yeah, and it can't be the name of anyone's pet we know (there's a name I like, but someone we know has a cat with that name--it would be a bit awkward when that person asked us what our child's name was and we said "the same as your cat"), and we're trying to give the baby a name that no one in either of our families already has (as opposed to purposely naming a child after a relative, which right now we're not planning to do except in Hebrew after my mother, and how often would our kid be called by the Hebrew name?). Whew!
Compared to all this, picking a name for a character is kind of fun. Now, picking a book title is a whole other matter altogether...
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Reunited...And It Feels So Good
Yesterday I did something I haven't done in some time--I sat and wrote! The last time I did a blog entry was April, and I think the last time I worked on my book was March, when I was also dealing with a wrist splint. The time gap this time, I'm happy to say, wasn't purely due to simple procrastination or even (not-so-simple) writer's block. Nope, this delay in large part can be attributed to the fact that I am, as they say, in the family way! Being pregnant in itself can be somewhat distracting (I've been reading waaaay too much about pregnancy on the internet as well as researching baby products), but I am only now coming out from under the cloud of morning sickness. There were some days during the past two months that I could barely move from the couch, where I lay curled up and nauseous, and was hardly thinking about writing, let alone actually doing it. Now, although I'm not entirely nausea-free, I'm feeling much better than I had been, and have recently been anxious to get back to my writing.
I'd bought a laptop prior to my trip back East about 2 1/2 months ago, hoping that during my trip I'd be so inclined to work on my story. Nope. Another reason I'd bought it was because Mr. GJ had been working at home a lot, and loud action movies on the TV in the living room were not conducive to my writing in the office (doors only helped so much--the living room and office share a wall), so the thought was that I'd be able to take a laptop anywhere I wanted to outside of the house. Then Mr. GJ wasn't working at home so often, and I wasn't much up to writing, anyway, so yesterday was the first time since I got the laptop that I was able to use it for the situation I'd bought it for. We're fortunate to have a room connected to our garage in the backyard, which we've set up as a sort of music room, complete with piano and futon, so I went out there, armed with some instrumental music (Aaron Copland and Tal Farlow, in case anyone's wondering), a big glass of water and my laptop, and aside from a couple of brief internet interruptions (for better or worse, we have internet access out there), I was able to revise/flesh out the chapter I'd most recently written, for a total of almost four new pages, almost doubling the previous length of that chapter.
Important things that came out of yesterday: I was happy with what I wrote (though we'll see if I feel the same way after my critique group reads it...), I realized once again how much I enjoy writing, I also realized that I'd missed my characters, and the whole laptop situation worked out beautifully (especially after I came inside at one point to be audibly accosted by some very loud metal music from the soundtrack of the project Mr. GJ was working on). For the first time in several months, I can say with much enthusiasm that I can't wait to get to my next chapter!
I'd bought a laptop prior to my trip back East about 2 1/2 months ago, hoping that during my trip I'd be so inclined to work on my story. Nope. Another reason I'd bought it was because Mr. GJ had been working at home a lot, and loud action movies on the TV in the living room were not conducive to my writing in the office (doors only helped so much--the living room and office share a wall), so the thought was that I'd be able to take a laptop anywhere I wanted to outside of the house. Then Mr. GJ wasn't working at home so often, and I wasn't much up to writing, anyway, so yesterday was the first time since I got the laptop that I was able to use it for the situation I'd bought it for. We're fortunate to have a room connected to our garage in the backyard, which we've set up as a sort of music room, complete with piano and futon, so I went out there, armed with some instrumental music (Aaron Copland and Tal Farlow, in case anyone's wondering), a big glass of water and my laptop, and aside from a couple of brief internet interruptions (for better or worse, we have internet access out there), I was able to revise/flesh out the chapter I'd most recently written, for a total of almost four new pages, almost doubling the previous length of that chapter.
Important things that came out of yesterday: I was happy with what I wrote (though we'll see if I feel the same way after my critique group reads it...), I realized once again how much I enjoy writing, I also realized that I'd missed my characters, and the whole laptop situation worked out beautifully (especially after I came inside at one point to be audibly accosted by some very loud metal music from the soundtrack of the project Mr. GJ was working on). For the first time in several months, I can say with much enthusiasm that I can't wait to get to my next chapter!
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