Tag: me

Imagine with me that you are at a beautiful mountain lake. (Yes, I realize that my picture is of a river – that is the ‘imagine’ part of this exercise)

Anyway- back to our imagination. You are standing on a small outcrop of rocks that juts out from the shoreline. You are thinking of jumping in the lake. You are in fact, planning on it and looking forward to it. And yet – you hesitate.

Why?

You know that the water is cold. Each of your friends that has jumped in has reemerged screaming and gasping for breath because of the abrupt chill. But now they are swimming happily, yelling for you to join them, claiming that it is ‘not so bad’. It looks fun and it even looks refreshing. It would feel good on your sunburned skin.

Maybe it has been a long time since you have been swimming. Maybe you are worried that it has been too long. Do people forget how? Is it like riding a bike? But, you also remember loving swimming

Maybe you remember very clearly the last time you did it. Floating in the water, the top layer warmed slightly by the sun, you could feel where the sun’s influence ended. There was a spot about half way down your leg that the water temperature changed and became colder. It felt darker, deeper, and maybe it even seemed thicker. Images of monstrous prehistoric fish nibbling on your toes flitted through your mind. Perhaps being unsure of the exact depth of your plunge has you a bit unnerved.

Or a combination of it all. . .

I am feeling this right now. My post-pregnancy brain is starting to feel like it is returning and I am ready to plunge back into my book. Only I hesitate.

Why?  There are a lot of other people swimming around in their writing right now. Saying that the ‘water is fine’. I should be able to join them, right?

It has been a long time since I was able to work on my writing. Have I forgotten everything? I do remember really enjoying it though.

Or maybe it is that I know how deep the lake really is. I can see that prehistoric fish waiting for me.

I think I am looking a a major rewrite. I have been trying to figure out how to put a complicated back-story in without an ‘info-dump’. I am realizing that perhaps my main character doesn’t even need the complicated back-story.

Does it really add to the story? Not just that, but is it essential to the story?

If not, then the whole purpose behind her being where she is changes. And that, changes everything.

So I stand perched on my cliff, ready to dive in and join the swimmers.

My question for you is: What thing are you wanting to do in your life and yet you hesitate? What is keeping you from plunging in?

So I took the plunge and signed up for the LDStorymakers writing conference. It was last week and it was phenomenal!

I decided if I was going to go, I might as well get the whole experience. I signed up for the boot camp.

*Cue the scary music*

Boot camp consisted of taking your first 15 pages of your work in progress (WIP) and work-shopping it with a small group.

My group had four of us attendees, and one “Sergeant”. Our Sergeant was Becca Whilite. She has two awesome books (contemporary young adult) out with a regional publisher.

I was the only one that hadn’t attended the conference before.  True confession time. . .

The night before I was so anxious about the whole thing I was a nervous wreck. I will, of course, blame some of it on exhaustion and some of it on pregnancy hormones, but the rest was all me. I was really asking myself  ‘what am I doing?’

I didn’t have anything to worry about. Everyone was fabulous. We took turns reading, or having our story read out loud. Then we all had comments and suggestions. I learned so much from the process of discussing everyone’s work. I will really be watching for Gail’s, Ashley’s, and Kenneth’s books to come out – they were that good.

When I read mine, they were really good at helping me figure out the rough parts. There was a large paragraph that made me cringe every time I saw it because it mostly seemed like info-dump (yuck). They helped me talk through suggestions to fix and integrate the information elsewhere. Yay! I am thinking I should look in to a writing group of some kind so that I can get more feedback, more often.

It was fun to see other peoples’ responses to my story. I know what I can do now with pacing and increasing the tension in a couple of spots. The whole process made me excited to dig back in and work on the story.

I would highly recommend the experience to anyone.

The rest of the weekend was also fabulous. I will post about the classes I was able to attend next time!

Well, I explained the craziness I was taking on in NaNoWriMo (writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November) and then I haven’t checked in since November started.

I’m sure that all of you had images of me sweating over my keyboard, pounding out thousands of perfect phrases destined to become the next ‘take-your-breath-away’ novel. Right?  Anyone???

Well, it’s funny how things actually work. My grand total for words written on my novel. . . (are you sure you are ready for this?)  289!

Wow.

Not only did I not get that done, but I also missed out on the Alphabe-Thursday for G,H,I,and J. I will be making those up before this week’s edition.

It is strange. I don’t feel too bad about not getting more fun writing done. November wasn’t completely lost to the writing vacuum.  I did get non-writing things done. Or I should say non-fun writing things done. I finished several major projects for work that required a lot of writing. I did get all my grapes picked and the juice bottled (yum!). Unfortunately we had a  funeral too. And while it was really hard to lose my husband’s grandmother (she is an amazing woman), it was also really nice to see all the family that came in and play hostess to those who dared to stay with us.  Also, my husband decided that he would like a Tom Baker “Dr. Who scarf” for Christmas. For those of you not familiar with the scarf, here is an image.

Yes, it really is that long. And my husband is 6’ 4’’. So that is a LOT of scarf. I did get a start on that in November.

As I was writing I discovered a few things. It may have been an idea that had been kicking around in my head for a while. An idea that still intrigues me, but I hadn’t fleshed it out enough.

I need a few things to write a story:

When I write I need to have a solid “Who.” That was problem number one. My main character wasn’t whole. I didn’t really know her, or what her situation was. Without knowing her, it is really hard to care about what is happening or going to happen to her.

I need a concrete “What.” I need to know what my main character (MC) has been thrust into and how it will be fixed.

I also need a definite “Why.” Why does she care? Why does the conflict matter to her and thereby matter to me? What is at risk?

The “How” is something I can figure out as I go. But without having those other questions answered – Nothing happens.

So now I will set to work on answering those questions, playing with it in my head. Meanwhile I will be attempting a major overhaul on my ‘already written’ story. I am excited about the revisions and how it will make the story in my head come to life on the paper.

November is quickly approaching.

With that, also comes the beginning of NaNoWriMo.

What is this NaNoWriMo that I speak of?

Well, I’m glad you asked.

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month.

It is a particular and crazy experience. In one month you write a 50,000 word novel.

Of course that is really fast and you will end up with a lot of garbage, but that is kind of the point. The idea is to get the writing flowing without worrying about editing everything as you go. There will be terrible writing, but there will also be ‘a-ha’ moments that will be golden. At the end of November you will have a beginning, something to work from, expand, and polish.

I had two main story ideas bouncing around in my head lately. One I used for a short-story contest on NPR so I can’t use any of it for anything else at the moment. So, I guess it will be the other one. It is a concept that has intrigued me for a while and I’m excited.

My problem is my preparation is behind. The rules for the month state that you can’t have anything actually ‘written’ of the story, but you can outline and plan before hand.

I don’t have an outline yet. I have a vague overall story arc, but nothing concrete.

For work I have been having to rewrite a manual for one lab, and update another one. So, I’ve been trying to get it done before November rolls around and it hasn’t left much time for planning. Perhaps I will be a ‘pantser’ (you know, just write ‘by the seat of your pants’ and see where the story takes you rather than plan) this time and just write it as I go.

So. . . do you NaNo?