Raise a Glass to Turnings of the Season

[ATTENTION: This post has almost nothing at all to do with writing. I know. It's weird. I sometimes forget I have ordinary human things in my life, too. But hang in there, and don't judge me too fiercely. I'll go back to being strictly writerly in my next post.]

Oklahoma doesn't get blizzards. Ever.

Except lately.

The last week and a half have felt remarkably like living in the Arctic tundra, or in Narnia, or maybe on a wintry frontier. We had eighteen inches of snow with the first bout last Monday, then an additional four or five inches a few days later, and then today, about four more. This would not be a big deal if we were (like so many other places who had blizzards) a city who knew what to do with snow, but as it happens, Oklahoma is decidedly unprepared for any accumulation beyond two inches. The consequence? Most everyone I know has spent the last eight days caved up in their houses like bears, or hiking cross-country in full Eskimo gear, desperate for some social contact--or just bread and milk.

I've spent the larger part of those eight days working on my WIP (50,000 words! There's an allusion to writing, guys!) or exploring the frontier with my canine friend Ophelia, who turns into an arctic wolf in the snow. Here's proof:

Even if you hate cold weather with all the molecules of your being (like me), it's hard to resist a dog who has this much fun outside. But I'll be one glad little sparrow when Spring arrives.

And speaking of Spring...

I went to see the Decemberists play in Kansas City on Monday. It was unequivocally brilliant (of course), and their new album, The King is Dead--rather more subtle than some of their others--comes at an appropriate time, as one of its primary themes is the changing of the seasons. The first song on the album makes me itch for spring so badly I am tempted to march out into the waist-deep snow on my balcony and start planting petunias.

The lyrics are as follows:

Here we come to a turning of the season
Witness to the arc towards the sun
A neighbor's blessed burden within reason
Becomes a burden borne of all and one

And nobody, nobody knows
Let the yolk fall from our shoulders
Don't carry it all, don't carry it all
We are all our hands and holders
Beneath this bold and brilliant sun
And this I swear to all

A monument to build beneath the arbors
Upon a plinth that towers t'wards the trees
Let every vessel pitching hard to starboard
Lay its head on summer's freckled knees*

And nobody, nobody knows
Let the yolk fall from our shoulders
Don't carry it all, don't carry it all
We are all our hands and holders
Beneath this bold and brilliant sun
And this I swear to all

A there a wreath of trillium and ivy
Laid upon the body of a boy
Lazy will the loam come from its hiding
And return this quiet searcher to the soil

So raise a glass to turnings of the season
And watch it as it arcs towards the sun
And you must bear your neighbor's burden within reason
And your labors will be born when all is done

And nobody, nobody knows
Let the yolk fall from our shoulders
Don't carry it all, don't carry it all
We are all our hands and holders
Beneath this bold and brilliant sun
And this I swear to all

(*My favorite couplet)

Here you can listen:

I'm going to go ahead and raise my glass to a turning of the seasons. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to move out into the sun again, and watch the world grow. Here's to spring... and to leaves on the trees and blossoms on the Jane Magnolias.

Bonus feature: Here's a video I snagged at the concert. If you're a Decemberists fan, you'll like it. I promise.

Comfort Books

There is something about the month of January that makes me want to curl up into a ball under my blankets and wait for spring.  If you're a warm weather person like me, you probably feel the same way.  Possibly you find yourself sighing more than usual this month, or feeling slightly desperate when you look out your window and see nothing but grey for the eighteenth morning in a row.  Or maybe you start to wonder whether green grass and blue sky ever actually existed at all.

It's times like these I start to crave my comfort books.

Some people solve the January blues with comfort foods, comfort sweat pants, comfort music, or comfort movies.  But personally, I find the best antidote to January to be a supply of well-loved books.  These are more like old friends than they are stacks of bound paper.  For example: 

Last week, I saw one of mine on a shelf at an antique mall (it was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and I had an actual moment of confusion in which I stopped with my mouth open, ready to smile and say hello, before I realized it was a book and not a person.  A second dilemma developed at this point, in which I had to fight the impulse to buy the book on the grounds of it being inhumane to leave my friend-book sitting beside a rusty kettle on the shelf like an ordinary item.  I wanted to march up to the shop owner in outrage, cradling Harry Potter to my bosom and shouting that this was not just any book she had sitting on her shelf like some kind of common antique!  This was my friend!  Thankfully, I recovered my common sense and walked on without causing a scene, but not without experiencing a pang of regret for Harry.

That is what I mean about comfort books.  When you run into them at book stores and thrift stores--and antique malls--you feel a stab of fierce ownership for them, and sometimes feel compelled to buy them even when you own at least one copy already.  This is because, like any dear friend, they loyally offer you comfort every single time you pick them up.  Here are some of mine; some of the books I reach for when the world turns into endless, iron winter and I just need a friend-book:

I suppose Harry Potter goes without saying.

Also, Ella Enchanted

Peter Pan

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Lord of the Rings

Pride & Prejudice

Anne of Green Gables

Heidi

The Princess Academy

Goodnight Moon (before bed, of course)

What about you?  Do you find yourself craving familiarity and comfort books during the long weeks of January?  What are some of yours?  

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...

December, Baby... And a Juicy Confession.

Oh! Hey!

It's been precisely one month since I last set foot in the Blogosphere: a month which managed to feel simultaneously lightning-fast and neverending. How was your November? I've missed you.

For those of you who NaNoWriMo'd it up this month, how did you fare? Did you finish, and did you have fun? Here comes my juicy confession...

About two weeks into November, as I was plugging along on my truly terrible story, I came unexpectedly to a crossroads. As many of you know, I had been planning to host a Harry Potter Party the night before Deathly Hallows premiered on November 18. But in my mental preparations for said party, I somehow managed to overlook the fact that I have abysmal time-management skills, and that the party would fall right Smack Dab in the middle of NaNoWriMo.

Well.

The party was fast approaching when I came to the crossroads. I had done very little to prepare for the Potter revelries, and my novel was--as I mentioned--supremely awful and failing to hold me in its thrall. So one morning as I was scowling at my computer and wishing I were writing something else, I looked desperately away from the screen in search of inspiration... and my eyes fell on my calendar.

As you may have deduced, it was not inspiration I found there. It was a fact that caused me to jump up from my chair and seize my hair by the roots. I had, I realized, exactly five days before people began to show up at my apartment dressed as witches and wizards, ready for what I'd assured them would be a truly awesome Harry Potter Party. And I had done virtually nothing to prepare for it.

So here was the crossroads: Awesome Harry Potter Party or Completed Miserable NaNo Novel?

The fact that I was suffering from a severe case of Potter Mania did nothing to aid the case for my NaNo book, I'm afraid. And so, gritting my teeth against the shame and horror of losing this year's NaNoWriMo, I nodded firmly at the Harry in my head and closed my Word Document with an ominous, echoing CLICK.

The result? A truly spectacular Harry Potter Party, and a truly unfinished NaNoWriMo novel. Epic success, and epic failure in one. But let's not dwell on the failure. Instead, I'll show you some pictures from the Potter Party.

My sister-in-law, Kelsey, as Hermione Granger.
(Who, incidentally, participated in and WON her very first NaNoWriMo ever. First novel for this History major. I couldn't be more proud.)

My roommate, Emily, and myself: Nymphadora Tonks and Ginny Weasely respectively.

My brother, Jordan, or, Draco Malfoy.

My friend and co-worker Desirea: Bellatrix Lestrange.

Of course, it is rather strange that Draco and Hermione would be married...

Dueling club.

Those of us who snagged Imax tickets. My friend Katie and her fiance, Norris, were

Professor McGonagall and Bill Weasely.

Overall, it was a wonderful, nerdy success, made even better by the facts that a.) the movie was FABULOUS, and b.) my pals and I made the Tulsa news. So geeky and so awesome, don't you think?

Here's the link to our interview. Celebrities, I know.

Tell me about your November! I'll be wading my way back into your blogs, but I want to hear it from you all the same. NaNo adventures? Harry Potter fun? Thanksgiving wonders? Happy December. It's lovely to be back.

Ready, Set... WRITE!

Happy November!  And Happy NaNoWriMo!  If you're participating, I want to be your NaNo buddy, so leave your screen name in the comments.  (I'm hannachoward, and here's a link to my NaNo profile if you want to be my buddy, too.)

(Photo: http://croakandhum.tumblr.com/)

Anyone want to share what they're writing about?  I'm retelling Sleeping Beauty, and my goal is to be as ludicrous and silly as possible.

Happy Writing!  And assuming everyone will be rather scarce in the online world this month, I'll see you in December!

[If you want some help from a NaNoWriMo desktop calendar that plots your daily wordcount goals, visit these awesome links:  Nomadic Writer, Steampunk Wallpaper, Shattered by Rain, LeftNWrite.]

Countdown to NaNoWriMo DAY SEVEN! (Evolution of a Manuscript)

Happy Halloween!  And...

Holy crap!  Holy crap!  Anyone else seeing a massive to-do list flying before their eyes right now, and wondering how on earth they'll manage to accomplish everything before tomorrow morning?  Anyone else wondering why the devil they didn't take care of all these things last week?  Anyone else suddenly doubting their ability to compose a coherent sentence, much less a 50,000 word novel--despite having done both many times before?

Yeah.  We'll get over it.  You know why?  Because NaNoWriMo is FUN.  And even if it is a major tax on that thing we like to call Spare Time, it's totally worth it.  It's like a kid being told to eat all the cookies on the pan as fast as possible: It seems like it shouldn't be allowed, and you know it will make you at least a little sick... but it's so opposite of what you normally do, you simply can't resist the outrageous fun of it.

 (Photo: https://store.lettersandlight.org/merchandise/nanowrimo-let-your-imagination-rain-poster)

Okay.  Let's get on with it.  Today's workshop highlights are from editor/publisher Stephen Roxburgh (see his other workshop here), and it's all about the Evolution of a Manuscript.  And from someone who's had lot's of experience watching a manuscript develop (Mr. Roxburgh has worked with many authors, including Roald Dahl and Madeleine L'Engle), I think this information is golden.

The Stages of Novel Writing:

-          VISIONARY STAGE

o       Replace the concept of DRAFT with that of a PILE.

o       In the imagining stage, let go any sense of structure.  Don’t cling to anything.  Don’t let the technical questions hamper you down.  JUST WRITE.  As long as your imagination is giving you things, write them down! 

o       Words on paper may be rubbish or discordant, but at least they are more than just a thought.

o       Give yourself the freedom and opportunity at this stage to Just Write.

o       Don’t put it on the clock!  Don’t try and put a time limit on a project. [UNLESS YOU'RE WRITING FOR NANOWRIMO. :) ]

o       It is not a test of will.  Wrestling a project to the ground doesn’t work.  This kind of work does not lend itself to full-frontal assault.  Your story doesn’t want to be forced out.

o       In this stage, just let yourself write.

o       “Writer’s Block” comes from setting the bar way too high.

o       The things that happen when you let yourself go and loosen up are marvelous.

o       You can interrupt the process at any time to add, etc.

o       You have to know so much more than your reader, and the only way to know is to write it.  So write down all your backstory and character webbing, even if you know you'll never use it in the story.

o       Under-imagined characters don’t bring anything to the book.  Always write it out, even if only for yourself.  Give yourself the time.

o       We’re already disposed to be hypercritical of ourselves.  Don’t do that at this stage.

-          REVISIONARY STAGE

o       Revision requires distance: objective, critical viewing of the story.  Stand up above it and see if it has a recognizable shape.

o       People tend to revise by going back to the beginning and reading to the end—doing the same thing over and over—merely tweaking and polishing.  Not Re-Visioning.  (You can’t polish a turnip.  You can only rub it.)

o       They also try to track too many things at once.  Juggling too many things at one time is NOT productive.  Look at only ONE thing at a time.  Don’t get sucked in to polishing.  Look at the big picture first.

o       Take the Heart of your story and examine every scene that encompasses it.  See if it is all moving the way you want it to. 

o       View your work analytically. 

o       Only look at one piece at a time.  Focus.  Does each scene move the plot?  Does it accomplish what I want it to? 

o       Flag the things you want to come back to.

o       Flag the places that slow things down.

o       If two encounters do effectively the same thing, lose one.

-          Crude, and startlingly effective Revision Tips:

o       Have in your mind to see clearly.

o       It is an endless cycle of refinement

*         Put the MS away for one year.

*         Try to work on something else anyway.

*         Take the time to get away from it, and distance yourself.

*        Reset the font, margins, and line spacing.  This will force you to have fresh eyes.

*        Don’t start on page one.  Shuffle pages, and read them one at a time, out of order.  This is very good for refining.  You’re not caught up in the story.

-          THE MOST ADVANCED STAGE OF EDITING

o       Looking at every word, every encounter, and making it the best possible word/sentence to notch it up and intensify it.

o       Your language should burn with a hard, gem-like flame.

o       Ask yourself: how do I want my reader to feel right now?  Is there anything at all I can do to intensify or enhance that?

o       Revision is seeing something anew, in another way.

-          Some Other Notes

o       You have to be consistent.  The last word in a Manuscript after it is published IS THE MANUSCRIPT—not anything the author might say about it.

o       If you don’t know what should  be happening in your book, there is a problem.

o       “Maybe they won’t notice…?  Maybe this will slip by them and they’ll give me the Newbery anyway…?”  NO.  If there’s a problem with your manuscript, you’d better fix it.

o       The Mushy Middle is the hardest part.  If you can tighten it and get the pacing right, you’re doing well.

o       Most people submit prematurely.  They don’t hold on too long, they let go too early.  That can dig your grave, because most professionals won’t give you a second chance with the same book.

(Photo: http://writeitsideways.com/last-minute-preparations-for-nanowrimo-a-checklist/)

Any thoughts on all this?  Personally, I found it to be a very useful way of looking at the whole process--from brainstorming to polishing--all from an editor's perspective.  Mr. Roxburgh's advice is good for NaNoWriMo, but it carries us well beyond November.  Anyone have any thoughts or opinions (or experiences) to add?  

Happy NaNo-ing!  Come back tomorrow morning before you start for a wave farewell and a NaNo share-fest!

Countdown to NaNoWriMo Day Six: Fantasy

Welp. It's Saturday. Two days to go. No preamble today. If you haven't been with us on the countdown this week, click here.

Today's post is possibly my favorite of the workshops I attended at Chautauqua.  Of course, I'm a fantasy junkie at heart, but this workshop was magical.  Editor/author Patricia Lee Gauch gave it, and she talked all about Fantasy writing, and what makes it so great.  If you're as big a nerd as I am, you'll love these notes.

Fantasy is a place where trees walk, rocks talk, giants exist, owls deliver our mail, where our own shadow faces us… It is through the looking glass, and nothing is expected.  Everything is unexpected.  It is slightly dangerous terrain... and you’ve elected to be here.

(Photo: http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=77992)

HIGH FANTASY

-          It is supernatural, archetypal, magical.  The basis is Mythic, and that is what makes it go so far.  Freud and Jung: these myths live in us.  They are a part of us.

-          Monomyths… these are not patterns.  They are not things to try on for side.  It lives in us.  It will come up.  And that’s why, in a fantasy, the characters are outsized.  They are nightmarish and dreamish, and they are not held back by the boundaries of reality.  That is what you want to get to. 

-          You must use your mind, but so much of it comes from inside you.

-          Starts in this profound place we can barely understand.  Projections of the unconscious.  Almost like Jack and the Beanstalk, reaching for the stars, uniting two parts.

Monomyths

-          Light and dark

-          The unindividuated hero (Bilbo-type; Pinnochio), Just a piece of wood, reluctant hero.  Gets a call to adventure from Somewhere. 

-          There is some kind of a sign, and a decision to be made.  The threshold guardian is ambiguous, not sure if he’s good or bad.

-          But that hero is ready, and off he goes.  And what he faces in the uncharted territory is chaos, tests.  The world turns upside-down.  Nothing is familiar.  (The Odyssey.)

-          Some of the tests are:

o       The ID (Yourself, the wild parts of your own nature.  Or, Animal, not civilized.)

o       The Anima (The Blue Fairy; seductress, or mother-type, or ambiguous… Projection that the hero must figure out.)

o       The Animus (The father-figure the heroine must deal with.)  Or the Jiminy Cricket figure. 

o       There is always a turning point before the cliff.  And when you go off the cliff into the Land of Darkness, you are alone with yourself.  Once you have overcome that womb-like place of darkness, you are ready to join society.  It is the Belly of the Whale, your place to be reborn.

(Webbing is a good way to brainstorm events, and let your subconscious have a chance.)

-          When the hero returns, he brings something back to the community.

-          This format works with Star Wars

-          What’s happening is profound.  When you go to the center of you to tell a fantasy, something magical happens.  

-          THE HOBBIT 
            o There is something warm, and something humorous about MOST fantasies.

o       You access your primary world by the STUFF of the secondary world.  Ie., the coat-pegs on Bilbo’s hall walls. 

o       The house is all about the word COMFORT.  Bilbo doesn’t want to go anywhere.  The Bagginses don’t do anything unexpected or have any adventures. 

o       Narrator: your choice.  Tolkien’s narration is very prominent.

o       Fantasies love Two Sides.  (Ie, Tooks Vs. Bagginses)  New writers tend to understate.  Don’t be afraid to come right out and say something.  Don’t be afraid to overwrite.

o       Bilbo’s wooly toes neatly-brushed are another thing that grounds the reader to the story.  Specifics.

o       “I have no time to blow smoke rings,” said Gandalf.  “I am very busy trying to find someone to take part in an adventure I am arranging.”

o       Analogies from This World root the fantasy world in something that feels familiar to the reader.  “Selling buttons at the door.” 

o       The Hobbit is a great model.  Starting in a hole.  Going on an adventure.

o       The terrain is important in fantasy ALMOST ALWAYS.  It is a character.  It is accessible. 

o       “He thought of himself frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home…”  “After some time, he felt for his pipe.”  He’s still who he is.  He’s still linked to comfort, though he’s in the darkest pockets of the world.  And with the comfort of his elvish blade, he is able to get up and go forward.

o       Unconscious narrative

o       Steeped in a history of the story, of the place.  It feels authentic.

o       Gollum: “They had a feeling that something unpleasant was lurking down there.”

o       If you want to introduce a character, you have to take time to do it.  And you need a good name.  Not just an interesting one, but a good one that fits, that rolls off the tongue.

o       Don’t be afraid of "suddenly," if it’s done right.

 (Photo: http://www.infamouskidd.com/could-gandalf-walk-from-the-hobbit/)

-          HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCEROR’S STONE

o       J.K. Rowling thought and thought… and eventually let go to what she conceived.

o       Jo is so bold in the first chapter.  She isn't afraid to be ironic.  “…the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts…”

o       “None of them noticed the tawny owl that fluttered past the window…”

o       Jerks back to the ordinary are signposts in a story.  McGonagall and her map on the corner are signposts.  “Drills were driven out of his mind by something else.”  Storytelling.  Transitions back and forth from the ordinary to the extraordinary slowly pull readers into the story with the promise of something wonderful.

o       Mr. Dursley’s refusal to acknowledge the strange things around him are just like Bilbo’s refusal to be taken in by Gandalf.  They build tension.

o       Buying a bun from the bakery is another anchor back to reality.  Juxtapositions from our world to theirs are what entice us.

o       Jo inserts her narrator again after Mr. Dursley is hugged around the middle and called a Muggle.  “which he had never hoped before, because he didn’t approve of imagination.”

o       Build up to unusual things at the end of almost every paragraph.  In and out of ordinary… she doesn’t go too fast.  Getting that other stuff in—the ordinary stuff—is what makes it authentic.

o       When you accept the call to adventure, you enter chaos.  Things that were natural are now unnatural.  The ordinary things are on hold.  As long as your world is consistent in its unnaturalness.

(Photo: http://www.hp-lexicon.org/atlas/gazetteer/gazetteer-p.html)

A final thought from Patti Gauch: When you go through the darkness, over the sea that turns to land, and face your own shadow, you’ll get it.  When you see a book to write, write it.

What do you think?  Anyone writing Fantasy?  Anyone connect to this kind of storytelling?  Do share!