Posts behind

I convinced my mother to join ROW-80, nagged her about starting a blog, and then I missed my own update posts about three times in a row (no pun intended). I have just a couple of things to report...

I worked on the outline for my novel, but I got a little bored and a lot frustrated, so I put it back down. I really need to get SMARTer with this particular goal. My biggest problem with the novel (and thus the outline) is that I can't figure out where the story ends. I know how it ends (they all live happily every after, of course!) but at what point between

(a) the joyous union of the two main characters, and

(b) the rest of eternity

do I end the story? I'm the kind of person who gets frustrated when a story ends shortly after the two main characters finally come together, but in my novel, the plot is mostly resolved when the characters profess their undying love and the whole world blurs into beautiful oblivion as their lips finally...

Errr.... something like that. But less overwhelmingly mushy.

Overall, the "where to end" question leaves me a tad stuck. Hence the frustration and lack of progress.

In other news: I'm working on a plotting project. After the annoying revelation that I'm a pantser, I decided to practice plotting. I didn't know what I was going to plot until a great idea for a story smacked me in the head a couple of weeks ago. I started plotting a bit (in my head) and writing a bit (also in my head). And instead of giving in to the powerful urge to throw words on the page, I decided to take this new idea and allow ONLY PLOTTING for awhile. I want to do as much plotting as possible. I can see the beginning of the story; I've started developing the life story of each character; I have some of the major events noted. Now I'm starting to develop individual scenes. I'm enjoying it deeply, but I need to make time to write down more of my ideas.

I have been writing mostly every day. Some of it has been obligatory writing, which is not fun, but at least I'm getting some kinds of words down. As of Monday morning, I will officially be free of my annual obligation to organize a particular award ceremony, and hopefully I will have more free time to work on my ROW goals...

and to SMARTen said goals.

Hmmm, it turns out I'm a pantser

I just finished reading Sonia Medeiros' post on the ROW-80 Blog about Pantsers and Plotters...

[Alas, as is often my problem, I have to dive into a tangent: My grandma and great aunts recently had a conversation on Facebook about young men who wear their pants low and baggy. I'm always tempted to run up and "pants" such young men. (Because seriously boys, you look ridiculous. And you don't seem to realize it. I like to think a little bit of embarrassment would help you see just how stupid you look with your pants hanging off your bottom.) The word "pantser" makes me think of someone who runs around pulling the pants down on such foolish young men. I guess that means I'm a pantser in more than one way!

End tangent. Return to point...]

It turns out I am a writing pantser. (Welcome to my vocabulary, new word!) It describes one half of a dichotomy I never stopped to consider, but there it is, and I'm part of the write-what-you-feel-and-never-plan-a-thing movement. Errr, not movement. I'm not promoting pantsing. So far it hasn't really worked out for me.

You see, I find myself in the same predicament as Sonia. At this very moment, I am fairly far along on a big writing project, but I'm stuck. I don't know how to get to the ending, or even where to make the ending, and there are plot holes big enough to swallow a house. Ugh. It's the reason (darn you, pantsing self nature!) that I set a goal for myself during this ROWnd to turn my novel back to an outline -- so I could get my $h!t in order.

OH! AND I can happily report that I actually worked on the outline of my novel on Sunday! I spent a week or more plotting in my head, then finally sat down to put it on paper.

On Monday, when I looked over my progress, I had a significant realization: I tend to repeat myself! I kinda knew this was an issue, but seeing again in the freshly outlined sections really delivered it home.

(If you're curious, I've written several variations of the same scene: The main male and female characters have an argument. Man is a jerk, woman is upset with him. There is a period of estrangement and silence. Man has to apologize. They make up and are friends again.... Then they have another fight.

*Groan. Gag me.*

Insert original idea!)

The downside of this revelation on Monday morning was that I spent the day in thought and did no writing. So, quite sadly, I failed to meet my other ROW goal (to write every day).

Lessons learned?

- Plan more. Be a plotter. (Go look up some of those methods Sonia mentioned.)

- Think of new types of conflicts (there are more ways to have conflict that just arguing), different ways people can react to conflict, and different outcomes for the conflicts.

- Don't stop writing! It's really important to write. Make time! (Seriously self, you set a supremely easy goal this ROWnd for your writing, so you have no excuses to slack.)

Also, just in case no one noticed: I really love parenthesis (yay!) and tangents. This problem is exacerbated by exhaustion.

So.... bedtime! I feed the baby, I go to sleep. G'night.

reflections on water

Since we're still early in the challenge, I can't say too much about my goals. I continue to meet my first, basic goal (to write every day). Still no progress on the novel. Not worried; I have time.

This evening my writing for the day was a simple, personal reflection on bathtime. After several minutes of deliberation, I've decided that I am going to share what I wrote. It will probably guarantee that any ROWers who stop by won't come again (and I will probably get a rep for being the crazy water/Africa/death girl), but hey, whatever. :o)

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I took a bath with my baby daughter this evening, not because she was particularly dirty or because I needed one. She gets a bath every night – at least a little one – and sometimes on the weekend I want to have extra time to play and cuddle with her, so we end up lap-deep in bubbly water together.

As we were splashing about this evening I started thinking about the blessing of water, and how often I forget to be grateful for the oh-so-important “basics” in our blessed, spoiled lives.

Even in this very country, it was only a few generations ago when taking a soapy bath was a bit of a luxury. The weekly event took place on Saturday night so you could be clean and presentable at church the next day, and you’d pile your kid (or kids) into the tub because you couldn’t afford to draw a separate bath for everyone.

But this evening – as I could any other evening, if I want – I flipped a lever and called forth clean water. As much water as I wanted, as hot as I wanted. Glorious.

Maybe all this reflection and gratitude is the result of my recent book choices. During the last year, coincidentally, three of the books I read reflected on the history and current state of various African nations. I also read a long essay about the effects of the famine in the Horn of Africa. The essay included many – too many – personal accounts of starvation and loss. In particular, there was a father who lost six of his eight children while they trekked across their country to a refugee camp some 300 miles away. One by one the children grew weary and faint, so the father would hoist them up on his back. Sometime later he would realize the child had died, and everyone would stop to bury the child. The father repeated this pattern for six children. Just trying to picture it makes your heart ache; I don’t know how you could keep going after it happened even one time… except that you still have seven children who need you, who are depending on you, to deliver them to safety. I can only guess that it’s the sight of them, those who are still living, that enables you to square your shoulders and march on to the hope (not even the promise – just the hope) of deliverance. Even though these children are not mine, I would sacrifice every snuggly, soapy bath I will ever have for the rest of my life if I could just save one such life. It hardly seems fair that I am eating chocolate ice cream right now while children starve in Africa.

So next time I want to see a miracle, I am going to pour myself a glass of tap water. And next time I’m having a hard time counting my blessings, I’m going to start by saying thanks for the basics – air in my lungs, clean water to drink at any moment, food on the table, and so forth.

And if I’m having a hard time remembering why the basics are so important, I will picture that father walking across the desert; lifting a child onto his shoulders; lowering that child into a shallow grave… six times.

(African water aid groups include The Water Project and charity : water)

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Bah, I'm behind

Update schmupdate. What can I really report after two days into the challenge? Yes, I met my writing goal both days. Since I'm a day late with this check-in, I'll share that I also met my goal yesterday. And lame as it is, writing this post means I can check off my writing goal again today.

No, I haven't worked on my novel. Not on paper. I sketched a little more in my head (but I don't think I get any points for that). If I'm serious about novel work, I think I need to set some sub-goals for myself. (To work on it on certain days of the week, to accomplish certain amounts by certain times, etc.)

I've started reading some of the other ROWers blogs. Neat, interesting folks out there! Sounds like a lot of people are writing to the paranormal genre. Several people have already self-published at least one story. That makes me feel spectacularly out of place. And small.

Is it too early to confess that I'm not sure if I'm ever going to "make it"? (What the heck does that mean, anyway?) I sure wish one of my friends had taken on the ROW with me so we could be buddies. Dear mom, your novel is great, why not write it while I write mine? Neither of us has time. Let's do it anyway!

Then again, I'm sitting at the end of a long day, knowing that a long night and another long day are ahead of me. So I'm tired and easily discouraged. At least the weekend is within sight. (Sleeping in Saturday? Hope so!)

Deep breaths. Almost there.

My Goals for Round 4 of ROW-80

As a writer, I am woefully rusty. I'm getting back in the habit of reading, but I rarely make time to write. So my primary goal for this round of ROW-80 is to just write more! But since each goal needs to be measurable...

« Write every day. It doesn't matter if it's a blog post, journal entry, letter to my baby, or book review; if I (finally) respond to emails, work on my novel or a new writing project... anything goes, just so long as I write something every day. Any. Thing. At. All. At least five minutes worth.

When it comes to "my novel" there are a lot of things to work on. Unfortunately, I need to go back and re-work some of the basics. Specifically, I need to « identify themes and sketch out the plot. (How did the plot get so lost? Too much time writing without direction -- writing for the sake of writing. It muddied up the purpose of the story.) I also need to « put the whole thing back in outline format so I can fix the opening chapters. Since I like to make bulleted lists...

- What's the story? Am I just telling a story or is there a theme/purpose/plot?

- Revert story into outline format

- Figure out the order of events in the first few weeks

- Organize all of the outlined elements (i.e. the whole story)

- Figure out how/where it ends

- If there's time and inspiration, start the re-write of the first few weeks. (Turn the freshly outlined events into prose.)

Thus my goal, by the end of 80 days, is to have a complete outline of my novel, including themes and plot development, major conflicts, minor conflicts, and conflict resolutions.

(Side note: it feels weird to think of myself as having written a novel, but the unfinished tale has a word count of 65k, so I need to stop being shy about it. I'm writing a novel. That's a good thing.)

Reading over these goals, it doesn't sound like much. But for me, they will be seriously challenging. I'm looking forward to the inspiration and support of all the other ROWers!

ROW-80 Round 4: How I Got Here

I've never before participated in a writing challenge. I didn't even know such things existed until a couple of years ago when JR Pearse Nelson (author of Tribute, with Vessel available by the end of the year) told me about NaNoWriMo. Earlier this summer I considered participating in NaNo, but when I mentioned it to JR she said, "No, you should check out ROW-80."

Since then I've learned quite a bit about writing challenges. In general, they are analogous to running: some are sprints, others are marathons. NaNo is like a 50k writing marathon that requires you to sprint the whole time. (It's insane.) Row-80 is more like a daily jog. (Good for you, self-paced, and more easily accomplished.)

Clearly, the successful completion of NaNo is not a possibility for me. (How JR found the time is quite impressive.) I'm not even sure if I can get through ROW-80, even though I'm allowed to set my own goals. Perhaps if my goal is, Write something -- anything. Plan it or go free-form; finish it or not... just get back in the habit of writing. Perhaps then I could guarantee success. But alas, for ROW-80, I think I need to work just a little bit harder than write something, anything.

Thankfully, I have a large, unfinished project that's teeming with possibilities, plus several other, smaller goals I would like to reach. But unfortunately I just glanced at the clock, and I need to get ready for bed, so I will have to share my ROW-80 goals tomorrow.

Until then...

- b