Ideas In Things

I really learned a lot from writing and revising my first YA novel.  Therefore I’m trying really hard not to make the same mistakes I made before…yeah, I want to make new mistakes.  Well mistakes are inevitable but I am trying to avoid too many of the same pitfalls.

One of these pitfalls has to do with listening to your gut.  My new WIP has a first person teenage boy as the narrator.  When I started writing I heard his voice very clearly and brightly in the present tense.  This seemed like a weird way to write, but when I reread what I wrote, it worked.  When I stepped away from the project and came back to it I started writing in the past tense.  But when I did a side by side comparison I found that the writing in the present tense was definitely stronger.  So I’ve continued with that, trying to avoid the voice in my head that says “You can’t write a novel in the present tense.  It’s too weird.”

Last night I made the mistake of googling “writing in the present tense” and reading all these people’s comments about how weird it is and what a turn off to the reader.  The one who stuck in my mind was the woman who compared reading something written in the present tense to being continually tapped on the head with a teaspoon.  Ugh.  I don’t want that.

I’m sticking with it for now and hoping I don’t regret the decision later.  Gut, you better be right! 🙂

This is a map of the first draft of my new writing project.  It’s a realistic fiction story with a first person male narrator.  I’m really excited about it.  I’ve written various chunks of it over the course of the last 9 months, with large lapses of time in between due to revision on other writing projects.  I decided I needed a way to keep track of what parts were written and what parts were just in my head.

Here is my very low-tech solution.  Each pink sticky has a brief synopsis of what happens in that chapter.  In the bottom left hand corner of the sticky is a series of initials that tells me which file I can find it in on my computer (due to serious computer failures, I have files all over the place in various word formats).  I also put whether the chapter is in past or present tense.  I went back and forth a little bit on this initially and now I need to correct it so it’s all the same.  Each orange sticky is an idea I have for a future chapter or a place that the story needs to go, even if I’m not sure how it’s going to get there.

I really should call it my “no excuses” map.  As in, I can no longer put off writing because I need to make the map.  And now that I’ve blogged about it….

2009 was an incredible year of writing for me.  Even though it makes me feel a little weird and self-conscious, I think it’s important to reflect on what I accomplished before 2010 really gets rolling.

I finished a first draft of my first YA novel

I queried and successfully acquired a literary agent

I revised my YA novel, not once, not twice, but really and truly about five times.  It needed it.  And in the process I was reminded of what a sucker I am for my own first drafts….always have been

I helped start and became part of a group of YA writers who live in Maine

I read a lot of great books and blogs; some writing related, some not

I started my second YA novel and have written about a third of the first draft

Finally, I’ve learned a lot about myself as a writer, about the publishing business and most importantly the patience required for all aspects of a fulfilling writing life.

Friends frequently ask me how things are going with my book.  I do like to share my writing world with them, but most of the time I don’t have any terribly exciting news to share.   Even if I try to make it sound exciting: “Holy shit!  I really edited the crap out of chapter 7 yesterday!”  I suppose what they’re really asking is “How’s the publishing going?”  There’s usually a lot less to share on that front.  Last week I turned in a revised version of my ms to my agent for her review.  I’m hoping this is the last draft before we submit to editors in the new year.  Since then I’ve taken a little break from writing, which has actually felt quite good.  I was really pushing to finish the draft by Thanksgiving and it feels nice to have a little break.  As much as I love my writing life, I don’t love it as much under a deadline; even a self-imposed one.

I have been really looking forward to going back to my new project.  And I will.  Hopefully with some renewed energy and excitement.  In the mean time, here’s a really good post about separating your writing life and your publishing goals that summarizes a lot of what I was trying to convey above.  Enjoy!

I recently started reading A Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank.  When this book first came out I poo-pooed it for its title despite a number of friends recommending it to me.  I’ve read the first 40 pages or so and I am really enjoying the way it’s written.  The author does so much with dialogue and action and the writing is really, really clean.  By this I mean there aren’t a lot of explanatory phrases or long dialogue tags or relentless adverbs.

Each word is carefully and specifically chosen and it shows.  Sometimes when people talk about the “craft” of writing I think it sounds really pretentious.  But that is how I would describe her writing; very well crafted.  It’s helpful to read and keep in mind as I hone and tweak my own writing.