Sunday

the first snow

Adding Details

Nothing beats firsthand experience for writing authentic sensory details. I know of two authors who walked barefoot in the snow, one who slurped raw turtle eggs, and another learned how to fire a flintlock rifle. 

In my novel, my protagonist must crawl through a tunnel while wearing a long skirt. The scene needed details. I considered crawling through a plastic tube on a kids’ climbing apparatus, but those tunnels are significantly bigger than the one in my novel. I constructed a small tunnel by balancing a sofa cushion over a chair arm and an end table. I put on my one long skirt and made the crawl. My first discovery was I couldn’t make it through on my hands and knees. I had to drop down to my elbows. My protagonist’s sleeves would get wet and dirty. Then my lower back hit the top, so I had to slide forward in almost a combat crawl. Her poor outfit! Then the knot I’d tied in the skirt to keep it out of the way came undone. Of course my furniture construction project was a cushier option than the stone tunnel facing my main character, but the details still helped me improve the scene. 

What have you done to make your novel realistic?

Lantern Reprise

We had another sunny day, so I took more pictures of my Japanese lanterns. This is my favorite.

The First 250 Words

This morning on the SCBWI Blog, I found a link to the Fifth Annual YA Novel Discovery Contest from Serendipity Literary Agency. Contestants are requested to submit the first 250 words of their novel. 

I opened my manuscript and selected a bit less than a page then checked the word count. After a few tries, I discovered that 249-words landed at the end of a sentence. Then I copied and pasted that section into a new file and tried to imagine myself as an agent or editor reading it cold. I asked these questions. 

Is opening compelling?
How many characters appear in the first 250 words?
Is it clear who these characters are and what their relationships are?
Is the reader given a clue about the novel’s main problem?
Is the genre of the novel obvious?
Can the reader tell where the scene takes place? 

This is a lot to be answered on a single page. Certainly the most important consideration is having a compelling opening. 

My answers are: 
The first paragraph still needs work.
4
Yes 
Maybe

Maybe
Yes  

I haven’t decided if I will enter the contest.

Need a Critique?

Deborah Halverson is having a contest on her blog, DearEditor.com. The winner gets a free 10-page critique. The contest is for any type of fiction.

Deborah's presentation at the fall SCBWI-MI retreat received rave reviews. I wish I'd been able to attend.

Sunday

Frost

Not Me

I never do NaNoWriMo. Most Novembers, I use the excuse that I'm in the middle of revising, but I have other reasons.

First, I trust my process. I write by working every day, unless I’m ill, traveling or extremely busy. Writing every day is a luxury, and I cherish it. Churning out a specific word count daily would make writing a chore. 

Second, there are good and bad writing days. In the end, word counts are irrelevant. One great sentence can make a good writing day. Cutting a few thousand words can make a better one. 

Third I’m not much of a joiner. I wish all the participants of NaNoWriMo luck, inspiration and great writing days. It’s just not for me.  

Crabapples

Red!

Sunday

dried flowers from the farmers' market
and a sunny window

 

The arrangement is reflected in the window.

Japanese lanterns

I think this is a kind of thistle.

Overheard #266

"Genius hasn't been overdone."

Last Roses on a Rainy Day

and a foxglove

Local Talent

I learned this morning that a country western group, Restless Road, advanced to the final four in the Groups division on X-Factor. Zach Beeken, the bass voice in Restless Road, went to high school with Jeremy. They sang together in Chorale and Men's Chorale. Jeremy used to take voice lessons from Zach Beeken's dad.

Basses rule!

Useful Links

Here are two links to valuable blog posts on writing. Both were suggested by the amazing Shutta Crum on the SCBWI-MI listserv. 

The Writer Unboxed post by Lisa Cron explains how to trace your protagonist’s inner journey. The first time I read it, I stopped in despair at the words, “What they end up with is a narrative that’s basically just a bunch of things that happen.” I went back, read the article again and mapped my protagonist’s inner journey. Yes, she does change. As I revise, I can strengthen that.  

LaurieHalse Anderson’s post called Revision Roadmap is my next project. Anderson describes how to make a scene-by-scene roadmap of a novel, and ways to detect problems like unnecessary scenes, excessive dialog, misplaced subplots and pacing problems. My novel has already experienced a lot of cutting and significant expansion. Perhaps it’s time to see if it works.

Overheard #265

"It's hard to learn anything by doing the right thing."

Asymptote Anecdote

During a discussion of science jokes with a group of friends, I mentioned that the asymptote is the mathematical model for my writing career. It’s a joke many people don’t get. 

Merriam Webster’s definition of asymptote is "a straight line associated with a curve such that as a point moves along an infinite branch of the curve the distance from the point to the line approaches zero and the slope of the curve at the point approaches the slope of the line," 

In other words, the curve approaches the line, gets infinitely close to it, yet never crosses it.  

One person asked about the origin of the word. Asymptote likely comes from Greek asymptōtos not meeting, from a- + sympiptein to meet.” (also Merriam Webster) 

To my surprise, I discovered Merriam Webster lists rhyming words. I don’t write in rhyme, but consider the possibilities of billy goat, sticky note, or even quarter note. Here’s Merriam Webster’s list: 

anecdote, antidote, assault boat, billy goat, Capriote, cashmere goat, casting vote, Corfiote, creosote, dead man's float, entrecôte, ferryboat, flying boat, get one's goat, Huhehot, locomote, matelote, miss the boat, morning coat, motorboat, mountain goat, nanny goat, overcoat, paddleboat, papillote, passing note, pedal-note, petticoat, picketboat, polo coat, powerboat, quarter note, redingote, riverboat, rock the boat, rubythroat, Shabuoth, Sialkot, sixteenth note, sticky note, sugarcoat, symbiote, table d'hôte, undercoat, yellowthroat

Value Added

I promised to post about the Value Added aspect of going through Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. First let me say the exercises are extremely useful. They also require thought, time and hard work. 

Between the exercises, Maass includes a page or two of explanatory material in which he explains his ideas and illustrates them with passages from novels. Usually when reading these passages, I realize that my novel could use a passage that is similar in some way. Character B never explains exactly how Character D makes him feel, or Character A needs a stronger reaction to [plot event], or Characters A and E need to have a bigger argument. I write all these ideas on a separate page, and when the exercises get too challenging, I go back and write these scenes. 

It’s working so far.

Sunday

I bet somebody will tell me what kind of frog this is. 
(northern leopard frog)

First fall colors

Snowy egret. (And no, I don't have the right lens for this shot.) 
Correction: great egret. 

Hodgepodge

We’re home from Boston and adjusting to a quieter lifestyle. A metal band no longer rehearses in our basement. 

I’ve started a revision-read-aloud of my work-in-progress to improve voice and writing flow. When I’m done, I’ll do the exercises in Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass. These exercises are useful for increasing tension and developing character. The value added part is going through the workbook often generates additional, unrelated ideas. I hope next week, I’ll share some of that in this blog. 

In a moment of weakness, I ordered 400 bulbs for my garden. To prepare the beds for ipheion, chionodoxa and anemones, I sprinkle a dried blood product that is supposed to deter voles and mice then add generous amounts of crushed oyster shells to provide calcium and make tunneling unpleasant. After I bury the bulbs, I cover the beds with hardware cloth to keep squirrels from digging. It might work. I’m also planting allium which is related to garlic. Wild creatures aren’t supposed to like the flowers or the bulbs. 

To finish, I’ll share a cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody" that explains string theory. 

 

Overheard #264

“Sleeping cats are sometimes better.”

The Quest

One of the local chipmunks likes to perch on our solar lights. I've been trying to get a good picture, but it's difficult because I have to shoot through a window, and the subject is shy. Here's my best attempt so far. I'll keep trying to get a better face profile. 

If I straightened the solar light poles, he'd have a more comfortable seat.

Overheard #263

"I have an unaccompanied negative charge right by the phosphate backbone."

Packing the Car for Boston

seems like a long way from here
seems like a big city
seems like a demanding curriculum 
seems like he's ready to go

I Took A Lot of Pictures of This Butterfly

And this is only a few of my collection.

Sunday

Stay tuned for pictures of butterflies in the next couple days.

Pass the Mustard

Here’s an addition to my ancient pottery series. (link, link, link) 

Archaeologists analyzing food remains on the inside of ancient pottery discovered that 6000 years ago humans seasoned their food with mustard seeds (article). From other food remains in the pottery shards, they can tell that the mustard was added to meat from land animals and marine life as well as starchy plants. Mustard is not a significant source of calories or nutrients, so the seeds were probably a flavor enhancer. Previously, the earliest known use of seasoning was 4500 years ago in Northern India where turmeric and ginger were used. 

No actual mustard can be found in the pottery after 6000 years. Scientists studied phytoliths, silica crystals that remain when plants decay, and determined the phytoliths are characteristic of mustard plants.

A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words

Last week, I blogged about my protagonist’s decision making process. I noted the passages that referred to the decision and assigned them a numerical ranking ranging from -10 = pretending the problem doesn’t exist to +10 = sealing the bargain. That means, the lower the number, the more negative my protagonist is, and the higher the number, the more positive she is.

Today, I graphed the numerical ranking vs. line number. Deciding to embark on the hero’s journey was neither straightforward nor easy. 

Since my numerical analyses make some you crazy, here’s Herbie Mann covering If (a Picture Paints a Thousand Words) by Bread.

Speaking of pictures, that album cover was ranked one of the worst of all time.

In Case You Were Worried About Running Out of Insects

Adventures in YA Publishing has a great post by Sonya Sones on writing dialog.

Yellow

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Sunday

Overheard #262

"We can be sensible later."

Big Decisions

Commitments are tough, especially for protagonists who are faced with embarking on the hero’s journey. My main character is no different. A recent critique of my novel mentioned my protagonist’s inner debate was too short. 

After revising, I created a table to track my main character’s state of mind. I copied every passage that dealt directly this decision and pasted the quote into my table along with the chapter and page. Then I invented a scoring scale to monitor her feelings about the decision.  

0 = neutral
-4 = avoidance
-7 = saying no outright
-10 = pretending the problem never existed
+4 = waffling, but in a positive way
+7 = saying yes out loud
+10 = sealing the bargain. 

Of course some passages fell between these markers.  

I learned she spends over 1000 words considering the problem. (I’m still waffling about whether this is enough.) Originally, her decision was postponed twice by interruptions. (I got rid of one interruption to reduce scene similarity.) The table allows me to see how she makes up her mind. Often it’s one step forward, two steps back. Perhaps that’s normal, or maybe she’s doing the cha-cha.

Sunday

birthday roses

Overheard #261

"Celebrate extravagantly."

Of Mice and Music

Today Jeremy was replacing guitar strings in the basement when a mouse ran across his guitar case and disappeared. When Jeremy came upstairs to tell me about it, I reminded him that his father is the mouse-control parent. Living in the woods as we do, discovering a mouse in the house is not uncommon. My husband catches them in Havaheart traps then releases them many miles from here, first providing a muffin for the mouse’s first meal away from home. 

Once the guitar strings were replaced and Jeremy started practicing, the mouse came out again. At first, the little creature panicked and ran straight into Jeremy’s foot. After a while, the mouse got used to the music and sat listening. The mouse did not toss a sunflower seed into the guitar case and make a request, although that might happen at any time.  

I know this isn’t a plot. There isn’t a problem. The mouse doesn’t try three times to solve it. 

But isn’t there a picture book here somewhere? 

Go ahead. Write it. Be my guest.

Sunday

At the MSU gardens

 bumblebee

 sharing a flower

 Japanese beetle

 proboscis

pollen sacs

Overheard #260

"You can't ignore  the Universe when it offers you a gift."

Lawn Alternatives

Our backyard has no lawn whatsoever. Thanks to our giant oaks and a medley of smaller trees, there isn’t enough sunlight to support grass. I like it that way. Recently I’ve embarked on a project to create a woodland environment of ferns, brunnera, lily of the valley, astilbe, rhododendron, etc. 

We do have a lawn in the front, but it suffers. Tannic acid from fallen oak leaves and acorns make the ground acidic, and lawns prefer a basic environment. Our large maple, with its abundant surface roots, steals water and nutrients from the surrounding grass. I’ve been threatening to take out the front lawn too. This article presents a convincing argument and beautiful alternatives to grassy yards.

Writing Retreats and Inertia

At last weekend’s writing retreat, I made huge progress on my novel. Since I returned, my revisions have ground to a halt. This brings me to the concept of inertia. 

Inertia: a body at rest tends to stay at rest, and a body in motion tends to stay in motion, unless acted on by an external force.  

At a writing retreat, revisions are in motion. Everyone was pushing their projects forward, all day long and into the evening. At every retreat, I relearn that immersing myself in a project leads to clearer thinking about it. This year, I discovered that solving problems in early chapters hinted at ways to fix the metaphorical train wreck near the end. 

On Sunday afternoon, when I left the retreat, I’d only started to clean up that daunting train wreck. Household chores and daily activities are significant external forces that shift my revisions into resting mode. Frustration over the train wreck was another inhibitory external force. 

If I want to finish this draft, I must become the external force that kicks revisions into gear again.   

Overheard #259

"Their capitalist interests are bumping up against my capitalist interests."

Writing Retreat

The World’s Greatest Critique Group heads out tomorrow for our annual retreat. I’ve just received thoughtful comments on my manuscript, and I’m looking forward to digging into my revisions. A big part of the plot needs to be rerouted and several characters need rebuilding. While I’ve done very little writing in the past couple weeks, I’ve been pondering these changes and hope I’ll be ready to revise. 

I’ve also been thinking about attitude. Athletes and writers tend to have the same creed: Work hard and success will be yours. As an athlete and a writer, I became the Energizer Bunny. Recently I’ve been considering the benefits of accepting with grace the things that are out of my reach. I may never finish this project. I may never submit it. The important thing is focusing on the joy of creating it.