Pick a Story

A friend of mine suggested The Secret of the Pink Carnation as a good read.  Getting a little topped out on Y/A literature, I checked it out.  It’s a good read, but I’m not a chick lit kind of girl usually, which is what this is (I thought it was a mystery), especially when it gets explicit.  Not into reading about other people’s relations, you know?   However, I’m glad she suggested this book to me, because it had the format I had originally thought I wanted to use in my book.  First person for present day, third person for the past. I had never read a book with that format before, and thought I’d love it.  I was wrong.

Instead, I found myself gritting my teeth every time the author brought me back to the present.  How annoying – I wanted to go on with the REAL story – in the past!  Although I understood why she did it (and I must say she did it well), the point was I didn’t care about the present day story at all – I wanted the other one where the “mystery” was. That was the whole reason why I picked up her book in the first place.

That got me thinking about the reactions to my first two chapters at the writing conference.  There were those that were enthralled with the prologue, written in third person for the past, and others that were relieved when it was over so they could get on with the present day story – written in first.  I now recognize it all had to do with which story they were interested in. I appreciate Dave even more telling me to quit the first person and use only third – not because he liked my style better that way, but simply because we can’t get to know Inger in the past when we’re in first person with Joe.  Make sense?

Obviously the author of The Secret of the Pink Carnation doesn’t have that issue – she found a publisher who would print her piece anyway (I sure hope it doesn’t sound like I’m critiquing her work, because I’m not – I’m just learning from my own observations).  But as for me, I see now the wisdom that my mentor had inferred upon my work:

Pick a story!

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Vertigo

Tags

Writing process

ver·ti·go

1. 1. The sensation of dizziness.
   2. An instance of such a sensation.
2. A confused, disoriented state of mind

Whenever I try to take on all the things my life demands at once, I find myself in that state of vertigo.  The world seems to swim right before my eyes with the overwhelming amount of work that needs to be done.  What seems to work for me is taking action and spending a short amount of time on it daily until the task is done.   I can’t tell you how many people, including my husband, refuse to learn this principle.  They think if a little is good, a lot is better, but that’s not true.

Working on my manuscript a little at a time, consistently the same amount of time everyday, does more for me than emersing myself for a full day.  Why?  Because while I’m busy creating a world for characters, the world I physically live in spins out of control.  I may delegate some things, but mother’s attention is still needed.  The days I have allowed myself to focus like that, I find myself spending more time away from my work fixing the damage done by neglect in other life areas.  Compare that to a constant maintenance that *magically* yields extra pockets of time to use the way I need to – more time for plot, more time for character development, more time for beefing up dialogue and descriptions.

In essence, more time for writing.  =)

I also believe there are times when you just have to let everything go and get something over with.  That’s what I did this past week.  It had nothing to do with writing, or homeschooling, or even home maintenance (until the weekend anyway).   Life was purely about my husband’s new job, getting his blood pressure down (he’s now on a small dosage of meds), and helping the kids adjust to the fact that Dad wasn’t going to be there every single day.  Happily, he came home this weekend before leaving for a month, so they could see that even after long spells away from home, Daddy still comes back.  But now that the job thing is settling down, I am able to go back to reestablishing our family rhythms – which includes exercise for me.  More exercise means more oxygen to the brain….  and we all know what better brain power does for our typing fingers!

I think that’s what it all boils down to – the more balanced our lives are, the less we’re distracted by it.  Less distractions, more focus.  Better writing.  It’s the small things that enable the big things.  Here’s to saying no to vertigo!

Keeping Perspective

My family is going through a transition and has needed my full attention, which has left little time for writing.  I am reminded of Alane Ferguson, author of the Forensic Mystery series for teens (and many more), who taught us two years ago that her family was first.  She had a picture up of her family and told us that long after her books were a pile of dust, unread and forgotten, her legacy would be thriving, because her family was the legacy, not the books.

Well, this transition is pretty huge for our family – by Sunday evening though, we should be evened out somewhat.  I’m sure it will take awhile to fully adjust, but it won’t be as time consuming as right now in the thick of things.  I will share that some people see this as a negative, but I am happy, and so is my family.  We understand that sometimes you have to leap into the dark to get where you want to go – look at Indiana Jones (movie III).

The writer in me must admit, I wake up with my protagonist on my mind daily….  is that weird?

Til Sunday!