Hello Revision, My Old Friend

....I've come to talk with you again.

[cue music of The Sound of Silence here in case you're confused.]

Hooray!!!

So much more fun to look at a page with words vs a blank page!

*Dives in head first*

Island of Time

I had a super busy school year with school visits and conferences and such. 

After that I hit the ground running, or rather sitting, pen and paper in hand. (Yes, I write longhand.)

I had a wonderful jumpstart at a writers retreat with my home girls.

(l to r) Kirby Larson, Winston the Wonder Dog, Susan Hill Long, Augusta Scattergood, me)

Came home and stayed focused despite the gorgeous New England summer weather and my gardens and other distractions calling to me.

My only breaks have been a stroll at beach or bog with the dogs. 

But today I'm floating on a little island of time.

I have no idea exactly what that phrase means, but I like it, so I'm using it.

My work-in-progress is temporarily simmering on the back burner, ready to be buffed and polished and Bo-toxed into shape.

So today I'm free floating and it's been bliss.

Started the day with a 5:30 bog walk. (I have to time my visits so there aren't any other dogs for my shelter dog to fist fight with. She sometimes has, um, issues.)

Then I came back and picked fresh flowers from the garden (which look a little limp now but, oh well).

And THEN, I've been hunkered down with this all day.

Song Writers on Song Writing by Paul Zollo

Writers, songwriters, readers, music lovers, and anyone who isn't dead would love this.

It's a big fat book full of interviews with the BEST songwriters.

Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Carole King, Paul Simon, Brian Wilson, Randy Newman, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Frank Zappa, Carlos Santana, Lou Reed, k.d. lang, Merle Haggard.....on and on and on.

I find myself whipping out the yellow highlighter every few minutes.

Feeling even more inspired to get back to my simmering word pot.

Signing off from my Island of Time

Two Things on Tuesday

Thing One

Received from a teacher:

My 3rd grade students made cards for you after we finished reading aloud your fabulous book, The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis...  

I admire your writing very much and thank you so much for hooking my reluctant boy readers. That Spit and Swear Club was their favorite!   

Love that!!!

Thing Two

Word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page....it's growing

Progress Report

What I started with:

Um, nothing

 

What I have now:

Light at the end of the tunnel

How come?

Why is it that I have to read a manuscript 89 times before I notice this:

Three little dogs yipped and yapped and raced in circles and threw themselves against the door, snapping at the air and scratching at the screen.

"Stop it, y'all!" Tiny's mother snapped from somewhere inside the house.

Two words: FRESH EYES

Go ahead....

...ask me how my work-in-progress is going.

 

Breaking News

You read it HOW many times?

I read my work-in-progress 5,499 times today.

How I feel about first drafts

A big mess

This looks like a big mess.

But by Friday, it will be in the mail.

It will be in the mail.

And it will not be a big mess.

Points of View

My work-in-progress has eight points-of-view.

Yes, you heard me correctly.

EIGHT.

A tad challenging to keep track of.

Where did I leave off with that character? What is the setting? What time of day is it? etc etc

Then there was the problem of spacing them out. Were they balanced enough?

Being a visual person, I devised several ways to do that.

First, I have my beautiful color-coded outline in Scrivener:

Then I have my little color-coded index cards:

Then I have these awesome folders called "Collections." I can see all of the chapters of one point of view consecutively:

Then there's the more archaic devise of a chart showing the point of view of all 56 chapters:

Stop squinting

I used the word "squinted" 39 times in my manuscript.

I wish I were kidding....

....but I'm not.

Work in Progress Check-In

Work in Progress Check-In

How I love you, Scrivener

Why I Love Scrivener, Reason #578

My work-in-progress has multiple points-of-view (point-of-views?).

It's getting complicated to ensure that they flow correctly along the timeline of the story.

In Scrivener, I can make "collections" - inserting each POV into a separate folder.

Then I can see how that POV reads on its own, without the others.

(Does that make sense?)

Work in Progress Check-In

Look at my pretty outline!

Work in Progress Check-In

The journey continues

I've gotten all tangled up in my work in progress and found myself spinning my wheels.

I like the writing.

But it's just that: writing that I like.

It doesn't feel like I'm writing to a goal.

And actually I'm not. I don't have an ending and it's becoming obvious in the writing.

So I spent a day trying to sort out the plot by making a chart. I've NEVER done that before!

The problem is that I have multiple viewpoints and they weave in and out, so I was losing track of what was going where.

There's still one element of the story that has me stumped:

I even drew a little map of the setting. (Good artist, huh?)

Murder your darlings

One of the hardest things to do during the process of writing is to murder your darlings, i.e., erase, eliminate, annihilate words that you like and that you think sound good - but that:

1. Do not move the story forward.
2. Do not reveal any new information.
3. Contribute nothing to the story but words that sound good.

I hate that.

But I did it.

Work in Progress Check-In

On the Road to Mr. Mineo's so far.