Brain Freeze on Editing

 Do you ever get brain freeze?  You get stuck on stupid and can't figure a way out of it?  That's how I feel in this editing process.  It feels like a mammoth project with no end in sight.  I realize that I am being a tad dramatic but that's how it feels.  I will get back to it and stop thinking about doing it and just do it.  That may work.

UPDATE:

It's now several hours later and with resolve I have edited 34 more pages. Only 167 pages still to edit before I start on read-thru number 3 for the novel. Hey, at least it's progress! :-)

Happy Easter everyone!

Book Review: Someone to Cherish by Kate Rothwell

 
The story began in the early 1900's and drew me in with the strong female lead of Callie Scott and her little hairless dog, Mauschen.  With pride, frank speech and an innocence that is almost otherworldly, Callie captures your heart and attention just as she captured Detective Cutter's.  He's the one copper in town that seems to give a hoot about Callie and her plight.  Through her naivety and ignorance, Callie was rounded up with an unsavory group and Society has written her off!

However, the division of classes is still extremely strong and is a deciding factor.  No matter their feelings for one another Society had to be appeased and the hive-mind Society's mandates had to be followed.  The noble Cutter finds Callie's family and off she goes back into its bosom.  Or, does she?

With a knack for getting into trouble, Callie falls victim to yet another unscrupulous scheme and Cutter makes it his business to get her out of harm's way.  When Callie's kidnapped, Cutter's not there to save her and her life and reputation are at stake.

Can Detective Cutter put the pieces of this latest puzzle together and find Callie before it's too late?  More importantly, can he find a way to be with the woman he loves without Society casting her aside?

Someone to Cherish by Kate Rothwell is beautifully written.  The characters are realistic and read true through and through.  If you love a good old-fashioned love story -- this one's for you!

4 1/2  Blogairy Notebooks

Food and Editing at Alma's

I have two major passions in life -- other than my children.  I love food and I love writing (editing, not so much).  While having brunch at Alma, my favorite rooftop dining spot in the Waterfront area of Brooklyn, I decided to marry my passions and eat while editing. :-)

I first fell in love with Alma Viva last summer when my guy and I went in search of something ecclectic, brunchy and special in Brooklyn.  After poring over dozens of Zagat reviews, we stumbled upon Alma and it's been our little hip spot ever since.  I even food blogged about it here.  Love the owner -- I call him Mr. Wonderful.  (He had a t-shirt on that said that too.)

But I digress, the topic here is food, writing and editing, right?  So, I finally completed my first draft of my National Novel Writing Month Novel (NaNoWriMo) a few weeks ago.  I let it rest for two weeks and then re-read it.  It didn't immediately suck to me and that's a big plus.  But, now what?

I went in search of things to help me understand how best to do this big job.  I figured I needed an editor.  Okay, found one (that's a WHOLE other blog post).  But, before I send off this little puppy, I need to make sure my editor will not crucify me and ban me to the imbecilic writer's club from the first page.

So, I blog about it (of course) and one of my blog readers, Leti Del Mar, came to the rescue and shared a recent blog post about her very intense and thorough method of editing her work.  Read her editing post here.  Then, if you are so inclined, read more of her Words with Leti Del Mar blog.

I shared Leti's blog post with my writing mentors Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah and they gave it a thumbs up! 

Between these two women, I've suffered literary growing pains and I'm so happy they kept the pressure up.  I recall one day breaking down into tears because I couldn't figure out the correct plotting sequence of a book they wanted me to deconstruct.  All this happened around 2003.

After a little over two years of working with them, I think I hit burnout.  I couldn't process anything.  Couldn't write anything.  That began ending in 2008/9.  Inklings of wanting to write began to bubble.  Then, in early 2009, my very first short story was published Chambray Curtains Blowing in the Wind by Bartleby-Snopes Literary magazine.  This story was edited over I don't know how many years.  Ms. Lichtenberg and Ms. Lorrah helped me with it and coaxed out the true plot (back then I didn't know what a plot was until it bit me and I was half-dead).  Then, editor Nathaniel Tower, pushed it to where he wanted it to be.  The ending had to change.  Everyone said it.  With reluctance, I changed it and it was published.  Lesson learned.

Anyway, all of this brings us to today and editing.  Back then, I had the help of my mentors who pushed and prodded me to go in a direction.  Today, I am standing on my own two feet and seeking to do what they did to me for myself.  It doesn't hurt as much as it did.  I know I'm a good writer or else my time with them would have been MUCH shorter. :-)

But now what?  Now, I shift through my 77,585 words and pull out structure, enhance characterization and embed sub-plots.  Don't know if I can get through four read-throughs Leti but I will try!

If I do something I truly love and add in the not so pleasant (editing), I will get it done.  I have to remember why I'm doing this and then maybe I can get through the task at hand.  I love writing and I've very rarely shared my work with people and I'm slowly beginning to unravel why.  You'll all be part of this wonderful journey if you so choose and understand it all, if you care to.

In the meantime, I'm going to get to doing the paper edits on the actual story.  On page 9 and have over 200 pages to go.  (I will not sigh!)

Editing Down to the Bone...

[A first draft is] just for size. That draft isn't any good; it isn't supposed to be; the whole purpose is to sketch out proportions. . . . I rarely have a very clear idea of where I'm going when I start. Just people and a situation. Then I fool around--writing and re-writing until the stuff gels.  -- (James Thurber - Interview with Robert Van Gelder. The New York Times Magazine, May 12, 1940)

I love this quote by humorist and author James Thurber.  I wish that one day I will be as prolific as he was.  He drew cartoons and wrote essays for The New Yorker.  (He wrote over 40 books!)  However, at the moment I am feeling very much like Thurber did regarding the first draft.  I have completed my first draft and I am working on editing it.

I had no idea it was so challenging! 

Isn't there a magic wand somewhere that I can wave and make it all turn into perfectly flawless prose that engages readers?  No, huh?

So, I couldn't figure out how to start so I figured I'd just read what I wrote -- all 230 something pages -- and then make the changes that seem 'logical' to me.  (Hopefully it will be logical to others as well!)

Then, I send it off to the editor for another round of edits.  Then?  Who knows.  Maybe more editing will be needed.

For all of you who have gone through this already please share your thoughts, insights and experience with me!  I'd love to know more about how other writers waddle through this marshy stage of the writing process!

Book Thoughts: A Star Called Henry – Roddy Doyle

A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle is a New York Times Editor’s Choice award winning book is a Penguin Classic that was published over 16 years ago and it still has cache today. 

Doyle has a voice that is compelling and draws you into the life of Melody and Henry Smart who live in Ireland.  Even through the vivid recounting of rough times, heart-wrenching miscarriages and stillborn children you root for this couple.  The reader is rewarded by the birth of baby Henry Smart who is the picture of health in all of the poverty artfully portrayed by Doyle in a colloquial, yet literary manner.

Young Henry Smart’s life parallels Ireland’s campaign for freedom from British rule and Henry is somehow a part of every important phase of the Revolution.  It reminded me of the movie Forrest Gump and how Forrest was inserted in all of the important movements and moments in American history in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.  However, A Star Called Henry is nowhere near the campiness of Gump.  It is at once surreal, poignant, literary and gritty due to the Irish brogue voice Doyle utilizes throughout the book.

There’s one passage on page 208 that gripped me and encapsulated the entire struggle for independence and the inner machinations of the British Empire at the time.  This one passage left a great impression on me.  It is:

“And the British would hit back; they’d over-react.  They always did.  Over the next four years, they never let us down.  It wasn’t that they made bad judgments, got the mood of the country wrong: they never judged at all.  They never considered the mood of the country worth judging.  They made rebels of thousands of quiet people who’d never thought beyond their garden gates.  They were always our greatest ally; we could never have done it without them.” – Roddy Doyle, A Star Called Henry

This is the type of book I read – one full of insight, humor, and the realities of life of those less than privileged.  It is definitely rough reading at times however there’s a wonderful payoff when you finish the book.

Rating: 5 Blogairy Notebooks

Creating a Life Worth Living By Slaying Your Depression Giant

Creating a life worth living is something that happens with each and every decision you make.  You can make your life more exciting -- or depressing -- if you choose to buy a pineapple passion smoothie, or pick up a can of V8.

Say you're trying to make a decision about what to read you pick up the popular book (50 Shades...???) instead of delving further into the genre you're crazy about.  What does that say about how you feel about yourself and your choices?  [Everyone else is more important than your own good opinion.]

What if you choose to do the breast-stroke, or the back-stroke when you do your laps in the pool instead of doing your regular ole stroke? 

Yes, shake it up!  Do something differently than you've been doing.  It doesn't have to be major it can be a small change.  Instead of watching the same programming you watch all the time why not try a new show, another type of movie, another gaming experience?  The only way to create a life worth living is by stepping outside of the box and doing something that -- gasp -- you may be afraid to do.  Okay, maybe not afraid but you are definitely uncomfortable trying the new/different thing.

What I'm getting at is uncovering your latent talents and gifts that are being hidden by whatever emotions you favor today/this month/this year/this decade.  Our inhibitions and phobias change as we experience new life situations.  Many times, our lives give us even more things to feel uncomfortable about but our job is really simple.  Don't try and head it off and chop off the head of the giant.  Instead, chip away at the gnarled toenails of said giant until those toenails are super-model gorgeous.  Once you see how silly this giant looks with buffed and fab toenails in hot pink you may start re-thinking some other things about your giant.

[Just in case you didn't get it, this 'giant' is whatever fear/phobia you're running away from.]

Here's a little secret, the talents you're given in this life are yours and yours alone.  If you don't dust them off/unearth them/excavate them -- NO ONE ELSE WILL.  You may feel like you're life is meaningless or that nothing you do matters (i.e. - you're depressed and you have no idea why!).

I'm not saying not to seek professional help if you're feeling blue but you've got to start looking at the less obvious to get to the root of the matter.

Here are some links to help you delve further into slaying your personal giant:

http://www.kristensguide.com/Happiness/Managing_Emotions/escaping_depression.asp

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/charting-the-depths/201106/why-do-depressed-people-lie-in-bed

http://www.depressedtest.com/

http://www.myrkothum.com/how-i-suffered-from-clinical-depression-and-came-back-from-it/

When Figments of Your Imagination Tell You What to Do

So the last 11 days have been dry for me in a writerly sense.  I have not been able to 'figure out' why one of my characters thrust themselves to the forefront.  He just pushed aside my pre-planned and pre-plotted story and made the announcement that he was the next chapter.  Why?  Because he is an integral part of the story.

So, yeah, this may sound decidedly odd that a character tells the writer what to do (you non-writers just don't understand), but trust me, this is normal. ;-)

What has to happen on the logistical writer end?  You have to figure out where the character fits in or else you have to start all over.  After over 70K words, I'm not starting over so I had to figure out where this character fit.  He was a throw-away character in my mind.  He was the one that was to be killed off much earlier in the book.  The very fact that he's still alive an the book's almost over is a problem and I was probably going to edit him out of the second-draft -- but NO!  He's made it clear he's a keeper.

I have an inkling of an idea of why he's a major part of the story but it's still sketchy.  I got down 291 words yesterday that pointed the direction to where the story goes next.  It actually is following what I wanted to do but now there will be an interesting twist!

I'm telling you, writing a novel is more exciting than watching a Speilberg movie!

Writer: It's a State of Mind

Writing a novel is hard work.  I never thought writing was easy, except for academic papers.  Those?  They're easy because it's straight-forward.  You have your plot, premise, thesis, points -- all of these things are laid out in a specific format that you have to follow.  Your instructor tells you which format to use -- Turabian, APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.

These formats are rigid and well-defined.  You simply put your topic (chosen generally by your professor) into the format.  Your biggest job?  To research and ensure that the details you enter into the said aforementioned topic are in line with the class, the instructor's preferred style and of course, make sure you do not plagarize others.

Writing a novel?  Much harder.  No one gives you the idea.  No one has a specific format for you to use (unless you're doing genre work which has very specific rules about how to do things including pacing), and there's no one there to give you guidance as to how it's coming along as you write. (Unless you're part of a robust writing group.)

Writing a novel is hard work.  You have to ensure that you keep yourself on target.  Make your own goals and KEEP to them!  Create your own tracking method for assessing your progress.  Toot your own horn when you meet goals.

You have to find others who have forged the path ahead of you and take heart and guidance from their leads.  One of my favorite quotes is this...

"Authors don't just write with no endpoint, they finish books, submit them, get rejected or accepted, and write some more." - Samantha Hunter, 2008 RITA finalist

I read this quote every day.  It motivates me to be a writer.   To me, being a writer is not just saying I've finished one complete book of over 70K words and have three others in the works.  Being a writer is realizing that these works-in-progress were the fledgling steps taken to get onto the path of being a writer.  Those works were not my work.  They were the baby steps taken to get me to the stage of walking and then on to running.

It is foolishness to think that just because you put words to a page that you are a writer.  It is foolishness to say that just because you have published that you are a writer.  You are a WRITER when you decide you are a WRITER.  It is your personal perspective that matters most.

Therefore, you are a writer even if you have not put words on the page as yet.  If you are still in the planning stages.  If you have notebooks with scribblings in them.  If you decide you are a writer then you ARE.

This is why writing is such hard work.  It takes place even before you put pen to page, fingers to keyboard.  Being a writer is a state of mind.

I love writing.  It's what I think I was born to do.  I'm middle-aged, have not had a book traditionally published but I feel it in my bones.  I am a writer.  I exist because I write.  I write to exist.

Okay. Done ranting now.

Book Thoughts: The Magick Host by Jacquie Gallo

The Magick Host by Jacquie Gallo centers around Skye Evans, a young man with purple hair and a big heart.  He's been in love with Amy Watson since they were in grade school but its been unrequited.  Why?  Because they're both so young and inexperienced they don't know how to proceed.  However, besides this, Skye is not your normal everyday young man.  He possesses magical powers that have left people...dead.


While he tries to control the destructive nature of his powers it is his emotions that truly control him.  This, of course, leads to trouble in the form of drawing the wrong type of attention -- vampiric attention.  Some of the vampires that are drawn to Skye and Amy are helpful, some not so much.

Skye and Jack (who is Amy's best friend and he also befriended Skye), must continually fight for their lives while realizing that there's something even more unnerving about the source of Skye's powers.

The premise of this vampire story was not clear initially.  It seemed as if one story was being told -- love conquers all.  Then, about halfway through there was an unfoldment that shifted the story's plot to -- revenge is sweet.  Ultimately, The Magick Host is a story with high ambitions that are not fully realized due to technical and grammatical missteps.  In three places, the characters are referred to by another name.

If you can overlook these things, and see the story as a whole, it does bring satisfaction in the end.

2.5 Blogairy Notebooks

4th Annual No KISS BLOGFEST

Straight from Plymouth Meeting, PA, Frankie Diane Mallis has a great blog idea that promises to make each and every one of us a bit hot under the collar throughout the year.  What am I speaking of?  The 4th Annual No-Kiss Blogfest, of course.

Frankie Diane Mallis

YA writer Mallis is getting writer-bloggers all worked up over the almost-kiss.  You know when your favorite on-screen couple have emotional angst going on and they're hot for one another but there's that one thing (or a couple of things...) keeping them apart?  Like Rhett Butler and Scarlet O'Hara?  Or, Beauty and the Beast?  You get the idea.


Here are the rules straight from Frankie's blog...

No Kiss Blogfest Jan 2, 2013! 

Things You Should Do To Prepare For The Ultimate Non-Kissage Festivities!

 

1) Sometime between now and Jan 2, 2013 write a post about the No Kiss Blogfest to let everyone know you are participating and that they should too. Why? Because it's awesome! (Please link back)

2) Sign up for the No Kiss Blogfest by filling in the Mr. Linky below.  Because Mr. Linky is awesome.

3)Tweet about No Kiss Blogfest, using the hash tag: #nokissblogfest because #hashtagsareawesome

4) After you've recovered from New Years Eve, write a blog sharing your Almost Kiss, No Kiss Blogfest entry (either one from your WIP, one you just wrote, one from a book, movie or tv show, or even a really hot almost-kiss picture)and post on January 2, 2013!!! Because reading your posts are awesome! (Don't forget to link back)

Get ready for the steamiest day of 2013! It's going to rule!

What's my entry for the almost-kiss?  Currently reading a fab Victorian romance story by C.J. Archer called The Medium.  In the story, Emily Chambers has the gift of sight and can communicate with the dearly departed.  She and her sister have no trouble sending the spirits back to the 'Waiting Area'...normally.  However, one distinctly handsome ghost is defying their every command to return to the holding area to wait for the Administrators' next command.  Jacob Beaufort is something of a rogue but one that excites Emily.  After only a few days of them being in acquaintance, things heat up!  Check this Victorian steamy scene out...

I stood and set my book down on the writing desk then sat beside him on the bed.  He lowered his gaze to our hands, inches apart on the bedcover.

And then something happened.  His fingers moved ever so slightly towards mine.  My breath caught in my chest and I watched, waiting for his fingers to move again, but they did not.  Nevertheless, they had moved.  Jacob was still looking down at them.

Silence enveloped us but id didn't feel awkward or heavy.  More...charged, thick with unspoken words and a thousand jumbled emotions.

All of a sudden I wanted to touch him.  I wanted to feel his skin against mine, explore the bruises of his knuckles, the smoothness of his fingernails.  I inched my fingers closer and his moved too, towards mine, as if we were two magnets drawn to each other.  Finally we touched, just our pinkies, but it felt like a spark jolted through me on contact.

"Emily," he whispered.  My name had never sounded so good, like a hust of a gentle breeze across a grassy meadow.  "Tell me what you'd been about to say."  His voice was buttery soft.

"What?"

"Why are you thanking me?"

"Oh.  For caring about my health of course."

His fingers recoiled and curled into a fist as if I'd slapped them away.  I felt the abrupt loss of his touch so keenly it hurt.

(This excerpt taken from C.J. Archer's The Medium which is book one of this trilogy.  It is available in the Amazon Kindle Store at no cost.)

So there you have it folks, my version of the age-old almost kiss, or the Victorian version of such!

Get all the juicy details of how you can participate in the 4th Annual No Kiss Blogfest here.  We'll all be looking forward to fanning ourselves throughout 2013...Happy New Year!!