I’m a fan of the blog Writer Unboxed and when I read on the site that they had a FB community page, I knew I wanted to be part of it. During these past few weeks that I’ve participated in the threads, I’ve discovered several new resources, including  The Complete Handbook Of Novel Writing: Everything You Need to Know About Creating & Selling Your Work (Writers Digest). 

The book covers the basics from crafting a story and using descriptive language to breaking through writer’s block, mastering genres and getting an agent. It also addresses a number of issues that concern fiction writers. You’ll find essays from best-selling authors, including Janet Fitch, Terry Brooks, Sue Grafton, John Updike, Richard Russon, Evan Hunter, and J. A. Jance, and a bunch interviews with others, including Kurt Vonnegut and Margaret Atwood.

I’ve only read the first three chapters, but the first essay by N. M. Kelby described me writing Julius before my “Do-Over.” Whenever someone asked me what my book was about I was unable to give them a straight answer because it included too many things that I couldn’t clearly articulate; the story was too plugged up with ideas and themes that kept clogging its flow.

The point I’m trying to make—and hence the title of this post—is that even though every idea that splashes around in your head might be great, you need to restrain yourself from including them all in your WIP. Stick to one theme, one plot and one subplot. Leave the others for your next book and the one after that.

You might think that sneaking in just another concept will make the story better, but it won’t. It will be frustrating to write, your beta readers will be questioning what story you’re trying to tell, and you’ll keep clogging the drain in that kitchen sink. However, if you insist in adding just one more element, heed these words: remember to keep a plunger and some Drano nearby.

A recent discussion on the Internet Writing Workshop surfaced about writing routines and an IWW member passed along the following link, “How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day“  by Rachel Aaron.

Aaron is a science-fiction and fantasy writer. She admits to a geeky side and wanted to figure how she could increase her daily word count. She came up with a three-pronged method that involved time, enthusiasm and knowledge. For time, she kept track of the time she wrote without distractions and evaluated how she could use her time more effectively to write. Enthusiasm consisted of the material she was excited to write about. Scenes that were boring to her (and ultimately to readers) had a tendency to slow her down. But the one that intrigued me the most was knowledge and that essentially was to know her material so well that she could write a good chunk of it in a long writing session. To prepare for this, she gave herself five minutes and started writing notes to herself of what she wanted to accomplish in a particular chapter. In essence, it’s a long outlining method instead of a couple of bullet points or sentences. After those five minutes, she had  three or four pages that gave her a broad view of her chapter. During her writing sessions, she filled in the sections that needed more description and transitions, but the core of the scene was already worked out when she sat down to write it all out. Using this process enabled her to meet her deadlines early and to be ahead of her writing schedule.

Since taking on this new rewrite for Julius, I’ve been trying to write when I know I won’t get interrupted and that appears to be either very early in the morning–about 5:00 am or  in the evenings around 7:00 pm when dogs have had their last walk and have settled down. I’ve been writing a consistent 1500 words per day since the start of the new year. I’ve been relying more and more on outlining scenes/chapters and although I was pretty much converted that outlining was the best approach, now I’m 100 percent certain that I will always outline any story I want to tell. Now I also see the value of having a more detailed one instead of generalizations or a few bullet points. I don’t need to write 10,000 words a day, but it would be nice to be able to sit down for four hours and get in a good 2500 or 3000 words daily and to see the story move along. I’ll try Aron’s method and see how it works.

What’s your writing routine and how many words per day do you try to write?

Since working with the Mac version of Scrivener I have the dandy option of compiling my masterpiece and formatting it to .mobi so I can have the opportunity to upload it to my Kindle and see if it looks and feels like a “real novel.”

In terms of looking like a novel (albeit a digital version) there are some issues with formatting that with a little patience and practice I will nail down. As far as Julius having that “feel” of it becoming an honest to God book, it has a quite a bit to go. There are parts that, if I do say so myself, are pretty good and it reads the way a finished and well-edited book should read. And then…and here’s where I emit a deep sigh…there are parts that are dreadful.

What’s frustrating about this entire rewrite is that one day I’m satisfied by it and then the next day I’m horrified that I spent several hours spewing out effluvium. The frustration turns into excuses to edit more and write less and that in turns into getting so fed up with the entire story. I plan other projects to avoid writing and figuring out how I can make sense of all the nonsense. I rather take my recalcitrant Jack Russell terrier to the groomer to get his toenails clipped than face the mess of my manuscript.

Of course, I can just force myself to sit down, write, and stop agonizing but that’s too easy. I have to prolong the torture by wanting to write and rewrite it to near perfection. I’ve managed put so much pressure on myself and that it has turned into a self-defeating exercise. I want perfection and I want to accomplish it within a ridiculous amount of time.

If I know this why do I keep on doing it? I suppose a lot of it has to do with the way I was raised. In my family, and I think this comes more from my father’s side, you had to accomplish greatness at an early age like seven year old.

I wrote about my Aunt Mary Jane several months ago and how she would point out the flaws and never say anything positive. She would tell me when I was 21 that I had to hurry up and finish college, get a job, and find a husband before I became too old. Too old for Aunt Mary Jane was something in the neighborhood of 22 years.

Although I rarely took her very seriously, she knew how to push my buttons and when it came to age and accomplishments. I somehow managed to do everything too old or too late (finish grad school, start a career, romantic partnerships, and I failed miserably, in Aunt MJ’s eyes, as a woman because I am childless—by choice.)

So here I am at a milestone age and I’m wondering whether this book will ever be finished before another big birthday comes to remind me that I am no ingenue. Perhaps, I should apply the same doggedness I had when I was modeling while I in college. At the time I was obsessed with my smile. I’ve never liked it and smiling for the camera always looked insincere. However , in my typical obsessive-compulsive manner, I practiced my “model smile” a la Christy Brinkley, over and over in front of the mirror. I’d flash one to my mother and ask if it looked like a “model’s smile,” wanting to be reassured that, yes, it looked real, sincere, and gorgeous. I’m sure she must have reached a point that she wanted to throw a pie in my face and wipe that shit-eating grin, but I finally got it down with a lot of practice. So maybe I have to take that same determined approach and just sit down, forget these self-imposed deadlines (and Aunt Mary Jane), write, write, write and stop torturing myself if it looks and reads like a “real novel.”

The Perfected Smile Years Later

Before Perfecting the Smile

I’m currently working with two editing partners whom I met via the Margie Lawson online class. We are working together through another packet and we’re exchanging chapters. My two partners have completed their novels while I am still plugging away with new material and incorporating new concepts to keep the reader’s eyes on the page.

As part of our chapter exchanges, we’ve included a synopsis of our work and because the second part of Julius has been dramatically changed, I decided to overhaul my synopsis. As much as I hated writing it this time it was easier to draft. It’s still very rough, but the story seems to have more tension and conflict.

Right now the synopsis logs in at almost 1200 words, or three pages. Is it too short or too long? According to The Guide of Literary Agents a synopsis should be as short as possible. The average length is 7-8 pages. A general rule is to have one page of synopsis for every 25 pages of your work, but remember—the shorter the better. Writer’s Digest offers a similar rule, but this one varies to one page per every 35 pages of your novel. However, they note that it is better to write both a long and short version (one to two pages) because agents really don’t have time to read an eight page summary. So here I thought I could get away with three pages, and I see I’ll have to write several versions in varying lengths.

One blogger actually had a great exercise and that was to summarize each chapter in a paragraph and then tighten it down to down to a couple of sentences. This is where Scrivener’s index cards come into play (also the outliner). Assuming you’ve been summarizing each chapter, all you have to do is print out each index card or the outline and then start composing that dreaded synopsis.

I realize that once Julius has “THE END” written I’ll write one final synopsis, but this time the feeling of doom won’t be so bad since I’ll have all my versions to give one last tweak.

I’ve been thinking a lot about of where I write. I’ve been asked to keep it in one area of the house, because I tend to spread out like crawling ivy. I work in my study cum workout space cum bedroom. It’s not bad; it’s a sunny spot, and everything I need is all within reach. If I want a break, I walk over to the kitchen and get whatever I want.

Sometimes, though, I like a change of scenery. When I lived in the city, I could pack up the laptop or moleskin and just walk over to one of my favorite cafes and write. Not so on this tiny island. The one place that would qualify as a cafe isn’t very inspiring, and our little library is too, well, noisy.

But wherever I choose to write, at home or elsewhere, the point is to get the words down on paper or screen. And this brings me to a post that marketing guru and blogger Chris Brogan wrote for today, The Myth of the Work Environment. For the most part, I agree with him, but Brogan also comments about getting published and writes the following:

The best sentences don’t sell books (or magazines or whatever). A string of reasonably not bad sentences with useful and engaging information sells books. My books are NOT the best-written books out there on their topic. They’re well-marketed books that I put some soul and heart into. Is every sentence just so? Not even a little bit. But am I a New York Times bestselling author? Oh yes I am. Because I published.

That’s the only difference between where a lot of writers are and where I am: I published.

How? I write. I write all the time. I’m writing this at Walt Disney World, when I should be riding on the Tower of Terror or something. Yes, I do take time to stop and smell the roses, but I don’t neglect my duties. It’s part of what I do. Write. Get writing. Stop making excuses, and don’t look back.

Your successful writing future awaits. Just get publishing.

I take umbrage with this section. Getting published via the traditional manner is not as easy as Brogan makes it out to be, especially in fiction. There’s no question that if we’re serious writers we should write everyday and stop making excuses. The more time we spend writing, honing our craft, and creating a compelling story, the closer we might be to getting

I’ll spare you the soapbox rant about composing exquisite sentences that zing and sizzle versus churning out mediocre, hum-drum ones. But I think Brogan missed the mark here because it comes across that he’s not taking into account on the different types of writers, their styles, and the time it takes to write a book. Perfect sentences might not guarantee a best-seller, but I rather write nuanced and evocative sentences that will resonate with a minuscule group of discerning readers rather than settle for “reasonably not bad sentences” and hope for a best-seller.

Okay, I admit it, I get a kick when someone emails me and comments they liked one of the articles I wrote. So let me take this teeny, tiny opportunity to brag a little about the Paull McKee article I wrote last week for HAND/EYE Magazine.

Truth be told, I was sitting on this piece about Paull’s work for a while. For some reason I was having a difficult time piecing it all together. When I first contacted Paull  for an interview, and he wrote back immediately I was happy for the quick response.  But afterwards I scratched my head, wondering what the hell  I would ask him. There wasn’t  much information about him, and the typical questions I ask seemed…well, a bit canned. Somehow, though,I managed to pull some decent questions out of my ever-widening tuckus, and Paull sent five pages–that’s right five pages–of very, very, very loooong responses. When I first glanced at them I thought, okay, I’ll manage to get something, it’s a lot information, but I’ll make it into something.

The issue though was to fit him into a theme that would work and I decided I would use him and his information about male artisans working with very different medias, the behind the scene theme was titled “Da Boyz”  (Real title: The Gentlemen). Then I had to write it. When I reread his responses, and Paull tends to get very philosophical, I had to somehow shape all his musings into something that everyone could understand, plus weed out the history of the wagga since the beginning of time (okay, since the 1880s). After much hair-pulling, walking away from the laptop, a little bit of crying (not really), and some false-starts, the result was: Telling Stories: Paull McKee’s Vocal Textiles.

I’m sure it could be whittled down further and tightened, but it’s still a pretty good story. But the best part (and this is where the bragging comes in) I was contacted by another textile artist who wants Paull to teach a class! I must have written something that impressed her.That’s not too shoddy! And, she wants me to write about her. So I must have done something right!

So why the insecurity? Let me tell you a little secret. Since the age of 10, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. One day when I was in the sixth grade, I wrote a story that I was so proud of that I showed it to my Aunt Maryjane. While she read it, she tore it to ribbons. She complained about my comma usage, went on and on about my run-0n sentences, remarked on my misplaced modifiers, snickered at my subject-verb agreement, then she said, as an afterthought that at at least I knew how to spell.

I was upset, but I mustered the courage and asked, “But, Aunt Maryjane, did you like the story?”

Her response, “Well, I was too distracted by the grammatical and punctuation errors to really notice what it was all about.”

Well, you can probably guess how I felt.

DEMORALIZED. INCONSOLABLE. SHATTERED.

My father tried soothe my hurt feelings. He told me that to be a good writer took practice. If I wanted to write, I should write daily. I would learn the grammar and punctuation along the way and  with more practice.

But the damage was done. After that episode, I rarely wrote unless it was for a school assignment. Every time I sat down and tried to write a story, I  heard my aunt making her comments. Yet . . . years later, I got angry. I know my grammar is not great; and my punctuation isn’t perfect, but damn you Aunt Maryjane, I want to write.  And when I sit down to write whatever it is I’m working on, I will learn and I will improve as my father said so long ago.

And there you have it. Father did know best. So listen to your dad when he offers his sage advice.

Back to Paull McKee. Read the article. It’s pretty good, if I say so myself no matter what Aunt Mary Jane would say.

The last three weeks between work and NANO, I’ve been a writing dervish and I am dizzy with exhaustion. Today, I wrote a book review and edited four articles and it just about killed me. But I managed to do it all, and now what am I doing? Writing.

Let’s face it, I can’t get away from it. Writing has become a way of life for me. It earns my keep, it keeps my mind focused, it drives me crazy, it makes me insecure, I love it one minute and hate it the next. It’s one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had, one of the worst paying, but also one of the most comfortable (hey, I can stay in my pjs and in bed if I want to). Every time I write I see some sort of improvement, but I also have greater expectations. If I don’t write I feel guilty, and when I write I always want to be brilliant (hah!) I am my own worst critic, but I’m also my staunchest supporter.

But this writing dervish needs a break, and once NANO is over, I will breath one huge sigh of relief that it’s finito. And now I am making a promise to myself: I will never participate in this madness again. It’s just too much. Yes, I can write 50,000 words in a month; yes, I know all the pitfalls of racing to complete a novel in thirty days; yes, I know there is the danger that I’ve managed to burn myself out; and yes, I know that even though NANO is over, I can’t quit writing.

So what’s next? More of the same, but without the insanity.

Years ago, when I was living in Prague, a Canadian friend and I used to do this crazy routine and quip, “That’s a load of crap, Jimmy!” That punch line had to be delivered in a very thick Scottish accent and the key was to trill the “r.”  My significant other always tried to get in on the act, but failed miserably because he just couldn’t get “crap” right. It sounded more like “cwap” instead of “crrrrap!”

You can probably guess where this is leading. Now that I’ve reached 30,138 words, I have, without any doubt what so ever, written a HUGE, stinky, load of crrrrap! And just to let you know, I have no clue who the hell is Jimmy, but whoever he is, he dumped a nasty pile for me to clean up.

I confess the first 25,000 words were a thrill, but these last 5,138 felt like I was constipated and managed to give myself hemorrhoids and break a blood vessel with all the straining to get them out.

Okay, I think I’ll stop with the shit and ass analogy.

In any event, The Wilde Solution is bad. Real bad. Shockingly bad. Embarrassingly bad. Wicked Witch of the West Bad. Anton Chigurh bad. Okay, you get the idea. It sucks eggs.

The only consolation I have is that it’s a “shitty first draft.” This is Anne Lamott’s term and a chapter in her book Bird by Bird. The gist is that it’s okay that your first draft is nothing but rubbish. The second will be better and by your third draft the brilliance of your prose will blind you. In my case not the third, maybe the 10th, and I’ll settle for pretty good (well, no, not really.)

So even though I’m feeling sick to my stomach and I am writing what’s equivalent to diarrhea of words. It’s okay. It will get better. I’ll find that golden nugget among all the waste (that reminds me of the time my mother’s friend swallowed her gold crown on vacation in St. Croix. She called her doctor in New York and asked whether she should go to the hospital. His one word response, “Dig.” She found it.) So like my mother’s friend once The Wilde Solution is completed, I’ll print out the draft, and dig through the manure, and find something worth salvaging (by the way, my mother’s friend didn’t keep the crown.)

Back to shoveling some more crrrap, Jimmy!

On the IWW writing list one writer asked what we all thought about Priscilla Long’s The Writer’s Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life. Of course I had to look on Amazon, read the reviews,  and I was surprised that the all eleven reviews were five stars. Then to put the cherry on top of the cake, another member of the writing list saw several iterations of the book–from photocopies of the assignments to completed draft–and said that Priscilla’s workshops were incredible.

Well, if you read this blog often, you know that I had to plunk down my $12.00 and get a copy. Lucky for me I was able to preview a few pages before hitting the “proceed to checkout” button. The pages I read were from Amazon’s Look Inside feature and that’s exactly what I did. I went to the first chapter and the first sentence in boldface and in small caps says, “Writing every day is the key to becoming a writer.” I know that, you know that, right? And, I’m pleased to say that I write every day. I have to that’s what pays the bills.

BUT, I’m not writing FICTION every day, nor am I writing what Priscilla’s coins the “fifteen-minute write” or writing in a journal. Although I try to post here often, there are days I have nothing to say. Or maybe I’m just too busy with HAND/EYE writing assignments. Nevertheless, every time I read about morning pages, keeping a journal, stream of conscious writing, or working on daily on your WIP, it nags at me because I know it’s something I should do instead of putzing away the morning with nonsense. Yes, you’ve heard it all before, but it seems I’m not the only person who has this trouble. For instance, I’ve been trying to keep up with other writing blogs and what do I see this morning in my mailbox? Kathy Crowley’s post, “Getting it Done” in Beyond the Margins.

Kathy asked several authors and bloggers how they actually get the words on a page and complete their work. The tactics are different, but for the most part it’s sheer determination to finish. I know that feeling. I experience it every week with every online issue that we put out for HAND/EYE Magazine. So why not use that “Gotta get it done” attitude with Julius? That’s a question probably best set aside for the analyst’s couch.  However, I can say is that it feels like I’m doing a long calculus equation and somewhere along the line I realize that one of my variables is wrong. So I go back and try to find and fix it, but I simply don’t see it, and now I’ve reached this bottleneck of numbers and Greek symbols all falling into each other, getting tangled, and me getting increasingly frustrated because I can’t find the solution to the equation.

Sometimes it’s best to walk away, let it rest, and look at the problem refreshed, but fear usually gets in the way. You think, that you won’t be able to find the problem and fix it, and then the procrastination starts. Ultimately you discover that six months down the road you’re still battling the same mess. So what to do? Throw in the towel, start something new, or persevere? I’ve done both, but Julius deserves the “Gotta get it done” ‘tude.

So I’ll keep writing here and report on my progress, lament my bottlenecks, vent my frustrations of what’s not working, and rejoice over those aha moments because at the end of the day it boils down to one thing and that’s writers write, right?

So this is a  big deal! One hundred posts about my trials and tribulations about writing Julius, working as freelance writer, and an occasional post on whatever is top of mind.

I feel as if I should celebrate and have some cake. Wait, I can’t do that I am on a strict diet.  But I will write about some changes I’m making to Julius.

Have you ever read William Goldman’s The Princess Bride? Don’t cheat and say yes when you actually saw the movie, which was cute, but the book was much better. One of the gimmicks that Goldman used was that he interrupted the story with his own observations about his wife and kid, working in Hollywood, and  about life in general. I loved those sections because he really was reaching out to his audience  and confiding in them. Sort of what I do with these posts. I mean doesn’t it seem that I’m actually sitting next you, drinking a cup of coffee, shooting the shit, about what’s next for Julius or what recent software discovery I made. It’s personable, right?

Apart from adding more layers and depth to the scenes I have I thought it would be a neat little trick to have Corinne, the narrator,  step out of the frame of telling her story, and address her audience. John Burdett uses this in his Bangkok series. His narrator and hero, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, addresses his readers as farang, the Thai word for Westerner.  For Corinne, this would be her way of editorializing in her wry manner. I’m playing around with it and I have to send it to my workshop members and see if it works. One person likes the concept, but she hasn’t read it yet.

Other than that, I am adding more musculature to the story, trying to play around with metaphors, answering questions workshop members had about how the characters could afford to quit their jobs to run a literary magazine and be gilded bohemians. Lots to work to do for Part 1, and I have to get myself out of the corner for Part 2. That means reconsidering the role of three characters. These are the bad guys, and I need for each one to make sense of why they belong in the story. So it’s time to use the white board draw up a list of why they should be included and why they should.

[Insert BIG sigh]

It seems my work is never done. And let’s not talk about the paying job. That seems to have turned into a 24/7 job, and I’m behind. Very behind on writing lots and lots of articles!

Even though I have discussed time management numerous times, it still is an issue. And I don’t know what to do except get up earlier, go to bed later, cut out all socializing (off and online), and just be focused on one thing: Writing.

Speaking of which I have a story to write and a revised chapter to send to a workshop member. Off I go!