On Killing your Darlings & Traveling through Time and Space

Time flies, dunnit?

I've said before that I am an inconstant blogger, and I certainly won't take it back now. I hope you're all well out there. And I hope you've shaken hands with 2012 and found her to be charming.

I'm writing today on a subject I have recently had lots of first-hand experience with. It's the old revision tactic scientifically dubbed "killing your darlings." Familiar with it?

Given my druthers, I would always choose to edit like this:

Happy. Easy. Without any pain to myself or the manuscript. Just get rid of those dead leaves and weak sentences, and then I'm good to go. But it seems to me that the more I want to edit with the little pruning shears, the more I need to face the possibility that THIS is what really needs to happen:

I've recently been doing a lot of chainsawing. Consequently, I've killed a lot of darlings. (If you're foggy on this approach, follow this link.) I've been working on a YA fantasy novel for just over a year now, and after an autumn of garnering feedback from betas who read the draft, I found myself with a lot of ideas of ways to improve the book, but no real conviction about which way was the right one. And so, after a week or so of hideous panic, I made the decision to scrap the first third of the book and rewrite it from an entirely different point.

It felt like a setback, but I discovered right away that it was the right decision. Not because it allowed the book to begin in a more compelling and logical place (although it did do that), but because it loosened my death-grip on the petty things I had grown to love about the manuscript.

I don't know about you, but I love words. I love the way they interact with one another, like they're doing some kind of complicated dance on paper. Like most writers, I love to shape them into sentences and paragraphs and pages pregnant with meaning, and then sit back to watch them glitter. But too often I get attached, and it can take a chainsaw to separate me from a bit of prose I really like--even if the story would be better off without it. And that, I think, is what chainsaw editing is good for. It reminds you that your love for one darling may be choking the whole work. And once you learn to let go of one of the little things you're clinging to, you discover that it's much easier to let go of the next one.

And eventually, who knows? You may even find yourself in possession of that elusive lens we call Objectivity, and look at your work as a reader might.

On an unrelated note, I need to go public with some news: I have fallen in love with the Doctor.

I've resisted and resisted his invisible pull for years now, but about a week ago I finally gave in and started watching. In that brief time I have fallen head over heels, first for the Ninth Doctor, and now for the Tenth. (I am so immersed that I actually thought the whir of the push-vacuum at work was the sound of the TARDIS engine.) It's a glorious thing to find an untapped well of Nerddom simply waiting for you, don't you think? But oh, my poor, poor roommate... And I still have four and a half seasons to go!

 

So today's questions: How do you manage to look objectively at your work? Does it take chainsaws and darling-killing? And if you are afflicted, how do you manage to overcome Doctor Who Mania enough to live a normal life?

Have I Mentioned How Much I Like Quotes?

"The research is the easiest.  The outline is the most fun.  The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out.  The rewrite is very satisfying."  -Ken Follett

I'm with you, Ken.  I'm with you.

Anyone else with him?

Etsy! Quote Mugs!

We interrupt our regular scheduled programming for a quick and exciting announcement:

I now have an Etsy shop!  Click here to visit it!

I've been painting quotes and designs on coffee mugs to sell at various art and craft shows for the last two years, but only this week did I finally decide to join the Etsy community.  Of course, my timing was terrible, because we're cutting it awfully close to Christmas with shipping, but all the same... I thought I'd let all you wonderful people know anyway.

Here are a few of the mugs I'm selling:

 

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I'll be posting more throughout December and into the new year, so stay tuned.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!  And best of luck getting all your last-minute shopping done...

Countdown to NaNoWriMo Day Three: POV Character

Happy Wednesday!  Welcome to my impromptu countdown to NaNoWriMo, which you can read more about here and here.  To celebrate/prepare for the month of madness, I'm recapping some of the workshops I attended at the Highlights Foundation Writer's Workshop at Chautauqua, NY in July, because they were full of gold nuggets and wonderful bits of wisdom.  (Yanno, the kind of wisdom that comes in handy when you're writing 50,000 words in 30 days...)

Pressing on.

Today's gold nuggets are from a workshop by author Sandy Asher, titled "Who's story is this?  And why?  And are you sure?"  In other words... all about your Point of View Character.

Enjoy.

All characters need at least one of these crucial items:
1.      Safety/Security
2.      Acceptance/Belonging
3.      Love
4.      Independence
5.      Recognition/Esteem
6.      Empowerment
7.      Self-actualization  

You have to decide who of your characters has the greatest need, and thus, who is driving the story forward.  It is crucial to know why characters are in your story at all, and what they are trying to accomplish there.

Needs 1-3 are good for very young readers. (Early childhood.)  4-6 are good for adolescents.
- Getting these needs met, plus maintaining the first three, keep us busy for a lifetime.  Safety, security, and trust are much more complicated to a high school student than to a young child; thus creating a more complex situation.  (“I wish someone cared where I was at midnight.”  Rules are a comfort to older kids.)

- With teenagers, needs begin to conflict with one another.  You want to belong, even as you want to assert your independence.  To become an adult, a teenager has to become more like his/her parents.  To become an individual, a teenager must become LESS like his/her parents.

- These needs are constantly in play, constantly interacting with one another.  And as they crash against each other, conflict arises, creating STORY.

(Photo: http://www.zazzle.com/)

- Every time a character enters a scene, he knows what he needs, or he wouldn’t enter the scene in the first place. 

- The underlying need not only affects why we do the things we do, but also HOW we do them.  Determines the level of desperation, as well as the tolerance for failure.

- What your character wants may be exactly the WRONG thing to get him what he needs.  He may get what he wants, and still not get what he needs.

- When a story is too thin, or a character lacks dimension, it is often because you present what HAPPENS without presenting the WHY.  This is an opportunity to travel deep inside a character.

- Real, basic human needs in stories keep readers coming back again and again for more.  It keeps the same story fresh and significant.  We instinctively understand that need.  Every person acts instinctively out of his or her needs.  And the people around them react.  It is an action driven from inside.  SO it behooves you to know why and how your characters are acting in a particular scene.  If you can’t figure it out, perhaps there is no need for the scene?  Or perhaps that is not, in fact, your main character.

(Photo credit: http://blog.adhack.com/2009/07/23/what-makes-an-interesting-protagonist/)

Ultimately: the main character is the one whose needs and wants are so strong, they drive every scene and every chapter irresistibly forward.

Any thoughts?  How do you decide on your protagonist?  Does your main character have clear needs and wants, or is that something you can tweak before you begin?

Holy Fast-Flying Time!

I don't know about you, but for me October has gone by in a flurry of leaves and acorns.  Even now, as I sit with an only partially obstructed view of my calendar (the best I can hope for, I'm afraid) I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that November 1 is only one week away.

We all know what November 1 means.

In honor of the upcoming frenzy that is NaNoWriMo, I have prepared something rather special.  Remember back in July, when I went to the Highlights Foundation's writers workshop at Chautauqua?  And remember how I came back with a sack full of gold nuggets (aka, brilliant bits of wisdom from esteemed industry folk) I promised to share?  Well, that time has now come.

What better time to read bits of writing wisdom than the week before NaNoWriMo?  I know I could use a few mind stretches myself.  So, this week I'm going to do something COMPLETELY ABNORMAL for me.  I'm going to post on this blog Every. Single. Day.

Yeah, I said it.

And because I said it, I'll bloody well have to do it.  So.  If you are like me, and you need a little tune-up to prepare for 50,000 words in 30 days, please come back every day this week.  I'm planning to share my 7 favorite workshops from my time at Chautauqua.

(Photo by James P. Blair http://www.postersguide.com/posters/three-gold-nuggets-in-a-miner-s-hands-serra-pelada-amazon-river-basin-brazil-3977045.html)

So, without further ado, here's your first gold nugget: a workshop on creativity and inspiration by author and poet Rebecca Kai Dolitch.

She began with this quote by Neil Gaiman: "Often ideas come from two things coming together that haven't come together before. ('If a person bitten by a werewolf turns into a wolf what would happen if a goldfish was bitten by a werewolf? What would happen if a chair was bitten by a werewolf?')"


Creativity, says Dolitch, is merely thinking of the possibilities. WHAT IF...?

"When you create something, it enters the world.  It has never been there before.  There is no right and wrong.  It’s yours.  It’s imagination, and there is nothing better than imagination.  And that comes from brainstorming.  Imagine the What Ifs."

"Remember when you were a child?  And you doodled, and you played, and you just did and had fun?  You didn’t know where it was going, and you didn’t care."

"Creativity is more of a lifestyle.  You have to make it a habit."

::Here are some ways to flex your creative muscles and loosen up the ideas inside your head::
- Write down new, cool words. (Free paint samples in paint stores are a great place for strange words.)

- Go on a treasure hunt for THINGS that inspire your creativity.  Keep a treasure box.  (Is that just STUFF, or is it a treasure you want to keep?)  Find things that make you think, and be creative.  Save them.

- Read nonfiction articles about inventors.  What inspired them to come up with inventions?

- ALWAYS think in metaphors.  Train yourself to constantly compare one thing to another.  Think about old letters from the ancient past.  Children think naturally in metaphors.  They also think the way Neil Gaiman does…

- Journal with words you love.  Find those words, keep those words.  Write down things that make you feel creative.  Play with words: take one and think of all the shapes of it, all the colors of it, all the ways you might combine them.

- Quotes from movies, from songs… write them down.  Write all you can, write it all down.  Every day, write in one.  Keep one with you.

- Maps can be greatly inspiring.  They can be the physical thing that gets you out of your head and wakes you up from yourself.

- Google random things and start to read, see if anything inspires you.

- Write from art.  See if something inspires you in that piece.  Take illustrations from storybooks and block out the words.  Take art.  Paintings.  Drawings.  Save the things you find.

- Take things that catch your attention and make you want to know more.  And then, investigate them.  Find out about them.  And write about them.  

- Think about if you had a magic wand and could wish for one thing.  What would it be?  A small little detail, as if you were a child.

- If you were morning, and morning could speak, what would you say?

- Think about kindergartners.  Think about what was important.

- Think of being a teenager.  Think of what was important to you.  Not the abstract things… the little things, the details.  Make lists and lists of those details.

- Make a list of favorite things, and things that make you feel creative.

(Photo: http://artistempowerment.com/category/on-creativity/)

For more on this subject, check out Neil Gaiman's post on ideas.  (It's wonderful.)

What about you, Dear Reader?  How do you find inspiration?  Do ideas assail you like hailstones every day of the week, or do you have to go out hunting for them with a butterfly net and a taser gun?

{happy weekend quote}

"Come on!  Open your mouth and sound off at the sky!

Shout loud at the top of your voice, 'I AM I!'

ME!  I am I!

And I may not know why

But I know that I like it.

Three cheers!  I AM I!"

- Theodore Seuss Geisel

(I don't think you have to be a kid to love this one.)

Ode to Aspiring Writers

I have to say, sometimes it sucks to be a writer.

Let me clarify.

Sometimes, when you realize who you are (a person who writes books), and what you are doing (trying to get published), and that you could not stop even if you wanted to, AND THAT IT IS REALLY EFFING HARD...it kind of sucks.

Unless...

Unless you realize you are not alone.

I was just pondering what we do, we pre-published writers. (It's really an insane thing, when you think about it.) First, we discover that we have a story to tell, and we decide we want to tell it. So we think for a while, and try to work out the best way to go about it. We name characters, we outline detailed plot charts, we develop character-arcs, we undertake the mind-boggling task of getting to know PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EXIST. We invent worlds.

We string together words to make sentences and paragraphs and pages and chapters. We watch the words fight, and then we sweat and bleed to make them dance, instead. We battle with our characters to get them to cooperate with our plans. We cry when we realize we are morons. We laugh in the shower and in public places when we understand we are also geniuses. We revise. Rewrite. Polish. Cut out our hearts and give the story to someone else to read.

We revise. Rewrite. Polish.

Usually seized by some unforeseen fit of madness, we draft one of those infamous and horrifying things called a Query Letter. This we send to a select list of elusive Demigods called Literary Agents. We spend days, weeks, sometimes months waiting in a prolonged state of anxiety, experiencing both crippling doubt and wild hope. When we log on to our email or check the mailbox, it is with such terror and pulse-pounding that we begin to fear a loss of hair, or an ulcer.

We get replies. They include nasty words like, "unfortunately," and "subjective", and "however." We cry, we mope, we consider giving up. (And for some sick, unfathomable reason, we save our rejection letters.) Then...

We revise. Rewrite. Polish.

We resubmit. We begin to wonder about things like sanity, and careers in Postal work. We get rejected some more.

Eventually, though, good things begin to happen. Like requests for partial manuscripts, and further requests for full manuscripts. Sometimes, these requests are made by agents we REALLY REALLY love. We walk around in a starry daze. We get rejected.

We revise. Rewrite. Polish.

It is insane, what we do. Because, at this point, the only reason IN THE WORLD we are doing it is because we believe in ourselves, and in our stories. Nobody's paying us. In fact, we're sacrificing a lot in order to do it. We're carving out chunks of time in obscure places, giving up sleep, omitting the extra fun stuff that normal people take for granted. And sometimes, it can feel endless and hopeless.

But that's where not being alone comes in.

So, listen: I believe in us. I believe in YOU, writer. No matter how many people wave their print-on-demand books in your face and say publishing is easy, no matter how many relatives and acquaintances smirk when they ask about your "little hobby," no matter how many times you have to answer doubtful questions after someone asks what you do for a living... I believe in you, and I believe in what you do.

And I believe that someday, all this determination and hard work will pay off. Keep writing.

Any thoughts? Anything getting you down in your journey lately? Or maybe making you hopeful? Share!

{tell me your favorite word}

The thing about being a Wordsmith (aka, Writer) is that you hang out with words a lot. 

Probably, I would venture to say, more than the average person.  If you're not spitting them onto a blank page, you're swirling them around in your brain, or flipping madly through a Thesaurus (which I've always thought should be the name of a bookish dinosaur) to find one, or possibly even staring at one in someone else's writing, and wondering how That Word came to be there and why.  Maybe sometimes you even take ages and ages to formulate a verbal sentence, because you know a word exists that will flawlessly express what you're trying to say, and you'd rather flounder around in the archives of your vocabulary than choose a word that is less than perfect.

These facts lead me to a specific conclusion, my dear Reader.  And that conclusion is that YOU have a favorite word.  I don't think I'm wrong.  Because I have a favorite word, too.  Shall we swap?

Here's mine:

im·ag·ine

 [ih-maj-in]/ɪˈmædʒɪn/ Show Spelled -ined, -in·ing.

–verb (used with object)

1.to form a mental image of (something not actually present to the senses).

2.to think, believe, or fancy: He imagined the house was haunted.

3.to assume; suppose: I imagine they'll be here soon.

4.to conjecture; guess: I cannot imagine what you mean.

5.Archaic . to plan, scheme, or plot.

–verb (used without object)

6.to form mental images of things not present to the senses; use the imagination.

7.to suppose; think; conjecture. 

I love everything about the word imagine.  I love it in ALL CAPS and I love it in lowercase.  I love it hand-written, and type-written.  I love it bold and italicized, and even in Impact Font, which I hate.  I love the way it sounds and the way it feels on my tongue.  I love what it means.  I love that it contains the word "mage" and the word "image" and almost the word "magic."

While I was at Chautauqua, Peter Jacobi said this about my word, and I almost fell out of my chair in a violent swoon of love: Imagination is the first of our senses we should take care never to let fall into disuse.  It is what makes us human.

(I'm even swooning now.) 

But that brings us to you, Dear Reader.  Because I know there is a word you love as much.  I hope you'll share it.  Because we could all use a bit more word-love in our lives.