The value of a pair or two of extra eyes.
So I’ll have completed my master’s degree this January. The Stonecoast MFA was hands down the most valuable experience I’ve had as a writer, and a large part of that value was the knowledge gained and the sense of a community of writers that, while I’m sure it will dwindle after graduation, I’ll be able to take with me after graduation.
A lot of people at Stonecoast grow attached to the community and the writer friends that they make there, so graduation is also a sad time. And while I’ll miss the friends I’ve made for sure, I’m lucky in that I was blessed with a wealth of writerly-minded friends before I came to Stonecoast, so I never became quite as attached to the community as some. Therefore, I’m seeing graduation as a sense of achievement, and, perhaps to a greater degree, a sense of relief. Starting at the end of January, I’m free from one of my many obligations, and writing (at least until I dip my toes back into the water of publication possibilities) becomes my own again.
But something occurred to me today. I’ve been rereading The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia, a book that I’ve held in very high esteem since I first read it a few years ago, and which I’ve recommended many times over and am now all-but-forcing the Total Bummer Book Club to read for December’s meeting. The book is still gorgeously written, but there are two discrepancies (so far) that I feel like an editor could have caught, and made the book just a little bit better.
For one, Plascencia describes knitting in a way that does not makes sense if you are a knitter. An example: “Sandra listened while trying to knit the tail of her shawl, but her knots always unraveled, leaving strands of string strewn wherever she sat” (55). What? If I didn’t know how to knit I could see myself just passing over this, but plenty of people have enough understanding of knitting to know that that sentence just doesn’t make any sense.
Another thing Plascencia does is he interchanges the words “turtle” and “tortoise.” Here is an example: “I began dismantling the mechanical tortoises when I found one chewing on the meat of a real sea turtle. The carapace of the tortoise had been pierced by the metal jaws, and aside from a little blood and some fleshy pouches of milk, nothing was left of the animal,” and a couple paragraphs later, “I suckled the tortoises on the tit of a goat and let them roam in my bedroom until they ate all my sheets and were old enough to return to sea” (57). While it is generally accepted to call all turtles, tortoises, and terrapins “turtles,” I don’t believe it is acceptable to call sea turtles “tortoises” anywhere, and it is pretty clear he is talking about sea turtles here. And even if it was acceptable to use either term, pick one, dude. In that first quote he bounces between the two terms 3 times. Even when referring to the mechanical tortoises (which I’m sure must be tortoises, since they only go on land), he calls them mechanical turtles about 1/3rd of the time.
But I digress. My point is that, of all the possible things to miss at Stonecoast, I suspect what I will miss the most will be all those extra eyes in workshop. Even having several writer friends, it is difficult to arrange the level of discussion that happens naturally in workshop, and which is the best place to find these little slip-ups. It would have been great if the editor spotted these, but maybe Plascencia’s editor doesn’t knit and doesn’t care about turtles. I expect an editor to have a keen eye, but I don’t expect them to know everything. There are probably other things in this book that are a little off that I didn’t notice because I don’t know. It takes place in Northern Mexico and Southern California, and has to do with picking carnations. For all I know, the area and the work is described totally inaccurately. Or maybe it’s spot on. But the fact that I noticed something else wrong calls everything I don’t know about into question, and takes my focus (a little bit) away from the work itself. Which is too bad because it is a beautifully written story, structurally exciting, and the plot and characters are well imagined, with the right levels of sadness, happiness, and urgency to keep me reading and affect my emotions without bumming me out. If only he’d had a knitter read a draft, and run “find & replace” with “tortoise,” I’d be writing all praise here.
Verisimilitude
I’ve recently been put in charge of a book club, and this week we are discussing Great House by Nicole Krauss. I’ve never run a book club before, so we’ll see how it goes.
The book, however, has a great quote in it about writers, which goes: ”The writer should not be cramped by the possible consequences of her work. She has no duty to earthly accuracy or verisimilitude. She is not an accountant, nor is she required to be something as ridiculous and misguided as a moral compass. In her work the writer is free of laws. But in her life…she is not free.”
Not only is it true, and it has a nice little twist at the end there, but it has a favorite word of mine in it, that being verisimilitude, although in the case of this word, I’m not sure I agree. I think a writer, of course, can write whatever she wants, but can choose to make her writing realistic or no, but I think it’s better to make it realistic. And by realistic, I don’t mean to omit fantasy, but rather, a piece of writing should be realistic within its own boundaries. But that is not the point I want to make.
The point I was to make is that I have a brand new baby writing project where one of the main characters is based on a person I know, and which may characterize them in a less than favorable light. I didn’t ask this person’s permission, so much as mention the idea for the story and this person, unprompted, gave me permission to use whatever details from real life that I wanted. For this I am grateful. While I would like to be as ruthless as Nicole Krauss’s character, and maybe someday I will be, there is nothing like the blessing from the person who’s reaction you have been dreading.
Quirky
As part of my thesis towards completion of my master’s degree, I am being forced to write 10-20 pages about myself as a writer. This is one of my most dreaded assignments, so I have of course put it off until the last minute. In working on what will become the introduction to my thesis, I have found myself ruminating on the word quirky, which has been brought to my attention more than once as a word that describes me and especially recently as a word that can favorably describe a writer (that’s the important part).
A few weeks ago now, I attended the inaugural event of the Maine Women Write organization, and it was one of the best things I’ve been lucky enough to attend recently. The gist is this: for what may be the first time, seven female Mainers have all published their first ever book in the same year (this year). And so they got together and will be traveling around independent bookstores in Maine for the Maine Women Write statewide book club, and in support of other Maine women writers (like me… and maybe like you). After each of the women did a short reading, there was a question and answer period as there often is at such events, and one question (I believe it was something along the lines of “how do you get published”) was answered (if only I could remember by whom!) with the greatest advice I would like to take as a writer, which was: when submitting a book proposal or query, “Be quirky as all get out.” I like the quote so much that I immediately wrote it down, and have since taped it to the wall above my desk–and I am not normally an inspirational-quote-taping type of gal.
Anyway, I am taking this advice particularly to heart, since the word “quirky” has so often been said to me in relation to my own writing style, and I have decided to welcome the word as a compliment and an old friend.
Makeover
Makeover time!
I’m reminded of a time in middle school when my best friend Heather and I decided to give a “makeover” to the least popular girl in our class. Not an unkind thing to do, but not a very kind thing either. She was on board with the makeover, but she was never in on our friendship.
Anyway, today Chase Dream gets a makeover. Time to throw of the shackles of being a closed up one-month blog, and time to become a real writing blog! Because it’s about time, and also because I have to for my final semester at Stonecoast–graduation here I come! It was this or an author web site, and frankly, my favorite thing to read on author’s web sites is their blog. If and when I publish some books, I’ll list them here.
Novel in a Month?
So, the month is over, but the project isn’t. This is by design, and I want to take a moment to clarify the project, because I’m (honestly) a bit of a snob here, but I am not trying to align myself with NaNoWriMo, and I only brought that project up a few weeks ago because it would be odd to set about writing a novel in a month without mentioning them, and also because Cat Valente, who inspired me, was at one point inspired by NaNoWriMo. Here’s how I am a snob, but I think rightfully so – I’m basing my project on the objective of a professional writer, which is what I strive to be.
I am not interested in word count contests, I am interested in composing a story quickly, because I think that is a realistic way for me to manage my time as a writer. For this reason, I am more interested in actual professional writers who happen to write quickly, not those who got their start in NaNoWriMo. This, of course, makes my project a little more difficult, since I want to hear about writers for whom the writing is important, not the speed, but who happen to write quickly, instead of people for whom the point was to write quickly, and are pleased that the piece actually came out good.
Here’s an example, and hopefully it won’t be too difficult to find more: Stephen King, hugely well-known and prolific writer, writes n average of 10 pages per day (if a page is 250 words – that’s right, 2000 words a day, same as my project). I That is what I think of as speed writing. With a minimal amount of research, I’ve found that in the realm of professional writers, not every writer writes every day, and for those that do, a page or two is the norm. Example: Ernest Hemingway’s daily word count was around 500. James Joyce could be satisfied with as little as a paragraph a day.
So, I’ve certainly got some more research to do, but I just wanted to clarify that while this experiment was focusing on speed, my real interest is in time management in general, and I believe any goal of writing, fast or slow, should be quality, not speed. Like in flipping an omelet in a pan – my goal is to flip it perfectly onto its other side, and the best way to do so is very quickly, but you shouldn’t be impressed by the speed when the egg is so nicely round.
Day…29? Almost done?
Hardly. Okay, so, I’ve fallen behind in my enthusiasm a bit. I have managed to achieve 54,744 words, which, while falling short of the goal by a few thousand words, is still nothing to sneeze at.
I’ve got 7 solid beginning chapters, a chapter (or maybe 2?) that are solid at the end, and then a bunch of… floating scenes… space junk… stuff that might not make the final cut. I don’t expect to write 5256 words tomorrow… but I suppose I could. Also, I didn’t know it would work out this way, but Saturday is the MWPA Conference, and then a Stonecoast party at the lovely Erin’s house… so it’s kind of a triumphant end to my writing month.
I’m not sure what I’ve learned. Actually, I think what I’ve learned is that I’m smarter than myself. I think this project would have worked better with a real deadline, because I knew very well that no one was going to be waiting for my 60,000 words on March 4th. So I wrote for myself, and blogged for myself, and myself is not a very harsh critic – I’m really kind of a pushover. I think I could be a speed writer. I found it rather easy to do the 2000 words a day, if I could convince myself to sit down and do it. If pressed (and I mean actually pressed) I bet I could manage 120,000 words in a month, or at least 80 or 90,ooo.
Elizabeth gave me some advice on the blogging, which I didn’t really take. I guess I found the blog to be not very motivational as a writing tool, and I didn’t feel a strong need for readership. I’m gad that those of you who checked it out did, and I plan to keep blogging throughout the next few months, since its nice to record my process as a log – to know what I learned chronologically. Hopefully you fine readers are getting something out of it.
Day 20: 31,000-or-so words
Had a little break, I have. This week: Valentine’s day, aka my favorite holiday, followed by the triumphant return of the brother, followed by a somewhat impromptu visit by the mother, followed by yesterday, aka the best day ever, in which I lounged around in the sun all day, reading, watching tv, spinning, and, yes, writing, followed by a viewing of a basketball game during which wings were consumed and the right team won.
So I may not be on target, but I’m pretty damn close. I may not have done my writing for the day, but I’m not worried about it. 60,000 words by the 4th? Yeah, I’m still feelin’ it.
Love Song For My Backlit Keyboard
Midnight is a good time for silent little blog posts. I’ve been floundering a bit, folks. Barely wrote this weekend. Didn’t blog. I wish my blog was more interesting, but I am also wary of posting my raw work-in-progress on here. Sorry.
I’m going to try something new next week. I don’t think the blog is really working for me – it feels like a pointless effort to come on here and dutifully post my word count. Kinda boring. Mostly just underlines the aloneness of writing, like shouting into a quiet night sky with not even an echo. Also, I want to play around with what works for me as a working writer. So, I’m taking this show on the road next week. I’m going to try writing in various places around the neighborhood, see if I write better or worse than in my own home. I’m guessing better – there is plenty of distraction around here.
I’m still going to blog every day or so, but I’m not going to focus on word count, re: boring and lonely.
Total Project Word Count: 21 thousand-or-so words
Days 9&10: 19,756
I’m finding it’s a more reasonable goal for me to write 4000 words in two days than 2000 words in one day – days are unpredictable! Also, I’m nearly up those 2000 words I missed on day 5. Cheers!
Todays’s Word Count: 4655
Total Project Word Count: 19,756
Days 7&8: 15,101 Words
And if my goal is 60,000 Words, then this makes me 1/4 of the way there. Hooray.
Today was a combo day of writing and also outline refining. I’m writing the story in dual first person p.o.v. from Evadne and Marsha, with chapters alternating between the two women. I knew each of the two story-lines already, but today I made sure that they connected up in the right places, so that the reader will go, “oh, hey…” at certain points in the story. It is always good to go “oh, hey…”, I find.
I also wrote a fictional scene in which Evadne and her B.A.T. go see a real life rock opera called Tonya & Nancy, (I’ll definitely be sending you this chapter at some point, Elizabeth), which I saw last week and which was beyond expectations of awesomeness. I was talking to a friend about it, and I think that was the best part of the whole thing – the dancers were great, the music, the costumes, the blocking was all incredible, but the best part was that I went into it with very high expectations, and was even expecting to be let down a little bit, since I knew my expectations were so high. But I wasn’t let down at all. It rocked. i should actually post a bit from that on here, once I’m done that chapter.
Also, Uri Caine remains a steady writing companion, and I would recommend him to anyone who wants a bit of artisticness inducing and yet not too distracting music.
Todays’s Word Count: 4092
Total project Word Count: 15,101
