Dream vs. reality

Last week, I painted the library in our house. The realtor who showed us the house called it a formal dining room, but what can I say? We like books better than dining sets that get used about twice a year.

Okay, this isn't our library, but I wish it were!

It was supposed to be easy--good quality paint, a single coat, and voila: the library of our dreams. Er, well, not exactly. You see, over the past several days, I've discovered that painting is a lot like writing.

• The hardest part is to get that first draft coat.
• Sometimes, when you take a step back, you'll realize that what you thought would be an incredible, amazing story color turns out to be god-awful, and you'll start from scratch with something new.
• When you think you're done and take a step back to admire your work, you'll find it's full of holes. Some places just need a little touch-up, while others are big enough to drive a truck through. Time to revise apply a second coat.
• The hardest part is getting the details just right.
• Sometimes, that brilliant idea that will finish it all off turns out to make the whole thing wrong. So you revert to a previous version of the document paint over it. Unless you run out of paint. (What? It could happen. I'm just saying ...)
• When the above happens, you can't just throw an alligator through the transom* stick a plant in front of the spot to fix it.
• All the advice in the world doesn't teach you the craft as well as just doing it. (And redoing it.) 

* chapter 23 of Jack M. Bickman's The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes


What has life taught you about writing? And what would your personal dream library look like, if you could build it?

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Surgery and the rules of Vonnegut

I'm not blogging much these days, largely because I've been playing surgeon, and, like most surgeons, I have found it better to focus my attention on one thing and do it well, rather than do lots of things poorly.

After taking a close look at my MG fantasy, I decided the first half was... how to put this delicately... in need of some first aid. I started bandaging it, but after too many bandages, I realized it needed a full-on operation. So I donned my surgical gloves and rewrote most of the first 20K words over the past 10 days. It's now out of intensive care but will be going in for check-ups (i.e., revisions) over the coming weeks.

Speaking of revisions, Elana Johnson has a great post about how her revision process works. You probably already check her blog on a daily basis, but in case you don't (or missed it), go check it out.

What, you ask, does this have to do with Vonnegut? Nothing really, except that my husband found Kurt Vonnegut's Tips for Writing Fiction. And since I'm mired in that process and found it helpful (#6... gotta work on #6!), I thought you might like it, too.

How is your WIP coming?

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Query questions

I am still working on revisions for my MG fantasy, and I've hit a bit of a stumbling block.

The agent I will be querying liked the first 500 words and said she wanted to continue reading, at which point she asked me to query with the first 10 pages. But she also had some comments within those first 500 words about things that would need to be changed.

My question: when I query, do I submit the original 10 pages, so that she is (quite literally) reading on? Or do I submit revised pages, to show that I am a good little author who can work with comments and revise accordingly? I'm leaning toward the latter, but I really don't know.

I need advice, writer friends. What would you do?

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On your mark! Get set! Wait a minute...

I'm back! Sorry for the two weeks without posts. I was busy enjoying time with family that I hadn't seen in over a year. I have some fun things from my trip to share, but not today. Now I'm home, jet lagged (why is the sun shining at 2:30 in the morning?), and ready to launch into NaNoWriMo.

Or not.

Last week, I got a rather exciting email. A literary agent asked me to query my MG fantasy after reading the first 500 words. Somehow, I don't think it would be in my interest to wait until December to do so.

So now I have to write a query and do some serious revisions on the MS to make it respectable shine. Looks like my first NaNo attempt will have to be postponed. :(

Next year, NaNo, next year. You can't avoid me forever.

What are your plans and goals for this month?

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Prodigies and Late Bloomers

I just finished reading What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. Unlike his other books, this one is a compendium of some of his New Yorker pieces.

I was particularly interested in the one about Late Bloomers. Gladwell describes the fascination our culture holds for creative prodigies: the Picassos, Mozarts, and Kieron Williamsons of the world. These are the people who sit down and create a masterpiece in their first attempt. But are we all destined to be creative failures if we don't possess that edge early in life?

Gladwell says no. He discusses Cézanne, whose work improved with time. Cézanne required the steadfast support and encouragement of close friends to reach his creative potential.

The same is true of artists, writers, and creatives of all kinds. Gladwell calls late bloomers "experimental innovators." They are the people who need to experience things, often multiple times, before their ideas become clear. Experimental innovators are the people who spend years rewriting and revising, modifying and altering their work until it shines.

Do you see yourself as an early- or late-bloomer?

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Writing, revising, and a great resource

I have been absorbing a phenomenal amount of information from WriteOnCon. And I couldn't have done it without the support of Beloved Husband, who came home early to watch the boys so that I could "attend" the conference.(Thank you!)

At one point over the last three days, I realized that the last conference I attended was a scientific conference, and everyone was discussing animals. Ha! What a transition!

And that got me thinking about the differences between writing as a scientist and writing for a more general audience. There are the obvious differences in terms of how the subjects are broached, and the appropriate words one should use in the two formats (jargon, anyone?). But what really strikes me is the different attitudes regarding revision.

Every scientist I know approaches writing with the attitude that if you can get something on paper, you can revise it (i.e., the hard part is getting something down). But I get the sense from the creative writing community that writers consider getting something down the easy part, whereas revisions are a dreaded task. (Perhaps this is because revising requires acknowledging that your creative effort didn't measure up? I'm guessing here, I really don't know.)

I like both the creating and the revising. I know that what I wrote can always be better, and it's like a puzzle trying to figure out just how to say it better (fortunately, I love puzzles) . Sometimes, it literally requires re-ordering sentences or words, as happened with an article I recently wrote. Everything was there, but the order was all wrong... but when you get it right, everything clicks.

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On a related note, there are a couple of great resources for anyone interested in science. Nature Publishing Group has put together two online educational journals. Scitable (which has been out for a while) focuses on genetics. Last week, they launched Nature Education Knowledge, which focuses on ecology.

The articles are written and reviewed by scientists, and they are written at the level of the college undergrad (that's right, ladies and gentlemen... you can actually understand what they say).

The fabulous editor, Sara Tenney, is working hard to increase the number of articles available, so keep checking back. If you need to do some genetics or ecology research for your WIP, you can't go wrong with these journals.

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Which do you prefer: writing or revising? Why?

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Write, rewrite

I am working on a chapter book. It actually started out as a picture book, but when I wrote it up, I realized that there was too much missing.  The story needed fleshing out. It begged to be written as chapter book (or junior novel, if you prefer).

I have been working on it for the past week (in the precious spare moments that pop up during the day). I'm excited about it, and I know where the story is going. But I've struggled, too.The ending, as I initially wrote it, was weak. And the second chapter didn't really work. These issues festered in the back of my mind over the weekend, while I thought about other things I'm working on (I tend to have at least three works in progress at any one moment; oddly enough, I work better that way).

And this morning, I woke with the solution. I love those moments. The ones in which my brain suddenly puts the pieces together with a click and everything makes sense. The problematic chapter now fits with the rest of the story. The end will be stronger; the story, as a whole, more robust.

It required a fair amount of rewriting. In fact, I rewrote the beginning twice today. My initial rewrite was probably too scary for the intended audience, so I did it again. I think version 3.0 works. The story is by no means polished, yet, but it's getting there.

I have seen lots of discussion on blogs about the importance of rewriting and revising. Sometimes the initial idea isn't quite up to par. Sometimes we have to start over to get things right. It's tempting to think we're done after getting it all on paper (or into the word processor), but that's just the first step.

After I finish the story, I'll go through Nathan Bransfords Revision Checklist to see what I missed. And then I'll rewrite and revise some more. If I'm lucky enough to land an agent for this, I'm sure the process will continue.

Think of it as cutting, shaping, and polishing a rough diamond into something that sparkles. Something that pulls the audience in from across the room. That's the magic of rewriting.