Archive for the ‘writing’ category
You can’t finish book without cover
August 3, 2011Blocking Writer’s Block With Derek Jeter
July 10, 2011
Yes, I know. It doesn't really look like him.
Followers of this blog know that I am in the final stages of finishing a manuscript for a novel. (I really am almost there now.)
It is difficult. I am a pretty fast writer, but a terribly slow re-writer. It takes me drafts and drafts and drafts, with additions, deletions, re-additions, re=deletions, corrections and missed corrections, and corrections of the corrections. While revising and copy-editing can sometimes have an engaging aspect, they can also be soul-wrenching.
I don’t want to sound too whiney, but it can be hard not to be overwhelmed by the question: “is it worth it?” “It” being the manuscript, even the whole endeavor of writing. And then there are all the related inquiries; most of which begin with “why,” many of which include “bother.”
The answer, I guess, is that you just have to do the things that make you you, even when they are difficult. Translation: if you are a writer, or even if you just want to be a writer, you have to write. And if you want any kind of an audience, and have any kind of pride, you have to re-write. (And re-write again.)
Even so, as you get towards an end of a project, it is hard not to grow increasingly self-critical, a mind-state that can be paralyzing.
This weekend, I’ve looked for inspiration in one of my all-time heroes–Derek Jeter!
I call Derek a hero with some trepidation–maybe Jeter is not as nice as his public persona. But no one can fault his determination, focus and drive. His at-bat on his 3000th hit was a great example. The count was 3-2. Then he kept hitting fouls, one after another until he got a pitch he could slam. As he said afterwards, he was not trying for a home run, he was just trying to hit the ball. Hard.
Of course, one could argue that baseball is kind of a silly game; even if you like it, a game. All this effort–all this focus–all this attention–all this money–for what?
I, for one, right now, just choose to admire. And to make myself get back to my own work with some of that determination, focus, élan.
Blocking Writer’s Block – Tired of Editing? Next Step (If You Dare.)
June 20, 2011
Pearl is really really tired of editing.
I am still working on finishing the manuscript of a novel that I thought was just about finished ages ago.
By finishing, I mean editing, and re-editing. Cutting and cutting more, adding teeny bits.
I am not changing the plot at this point, even though it’s a bit silly. I am just honing. This needn’t be such a long process, except that, unfortunately, I am not somewhat who carves, but rather, someone who whittles. Meaning that I have to go over the same surface again and again and again, smoothing and chipping rather than making decisive definitive cuts.
The big problem with whittling is that it feels endless. (If every time you go through the manuscript, you find more to change, it’s hard to ever feel “finished.”)
Though I am quite sure that at a certain point, I’ll feel pretty certain that I am finished. This will undoubtedly be before I truly am finished. It will still feel good.
I am not there yet.
My next step is to read the whole thing aloud. I shudder at the thought, but reading aloud is truly a great way to edit, especially when you are sick and tired of editing. When you read a manuscript aloud, all of the habitual acceptance disappears, and you immediately understand that that part you always liked is simply boring, or redundant, or run-on, or (if you are lucky), pretty good.
You can see why I shudder!
Pearl just wants me to get on with it.
(For more on writer’s block, see multiple other posts in this category.)
Finishing Manuscript/Formatting/Pains of Self-Publishing/Pearl Gets Bored
June 5, 2011
Pearl Doesn't Really Like Formatting Either
I trying today to finish a novel. Unfortunately, I am not working on the fun part of finishing a novel–i.e. coming up with the last sentence and going “ah” at the end.
No, I’m in the ‘trying to fix all the formatting’ stage of finishing a novel. This stage has a lot more ‘dammits” than ‘ahs.’
I like to think that my curses are directed at glitches in computer software, but the fact is that most of the glitches are being made by me personally; that is me pressing the wrong key and suddenly undoing everything I’ve done in the previous five minutes.
These glitches bring me to the wonders and head-aches of self-publishing.
I am planning to self-publish this novel. I will use my own little publishing company, BackStroke Books. (Yes, it even has a fledgling website–http://backstrokebooks.com/.)
The novel will be called Nose Dive. It may not be a great novel, but it’s pretty good–funny, cute, readable. And it will have some really great illustrations, done by a fledgling but wonderful illustrator, named Jonathan Segal.
Now, I could (and should) send the novel around and around to independent agents and publishers instead of publishing it through BackStroke Books.
The problem is that route just feels impossible these days. Especially for a funny, cute, readable–but possibly not absolutely great or super-commercial–novel that is written by someone (i.e. me,) who is not a film star, fashion model, or reality show denizen, who does not have a billionaire politician father, and who has not been able to fabricate a history of drug addiction.
The up-side of self-publishing is that there is something very satisfying about ‘taking the bull by the horns,’ ‘not waiting for the machine,’ ‘plowing ahead.’
The bad side is, well… true publishers have distribution networks, publicity people, etc. etc. And, of course, staff that know about formatting.
I have, thankfully, managed to commandeer some extremely good help in the copy-editing area. But, still, I have to be somewhat involved, especially at this hopefully near-final stage. (Dammit.)
“Scribbling Women” – Marthe Jocelyn – Tales of Extraordinary Women Before the Age of the Blog
March 28, 2011
“Don’t know much about history,” sings Sam Cooke at the beginning of his 1959 song, “Wonderful World.”
My admirable friend and Canadian author, Marthe Jocelyn, in contrast, knows quite a lot about history, and, in her new book “Scribbling Women” True Tales From Astonishing Lives, does her best to impart its wonders.
“Scribbling Women,” published by Tundra Books, outlines the lives of eleven extremely different yet remarkable women, each of whom set pen to paper (or fingers to typewriter) in ways that literally made history–their lives defying the boundaries of their circumstances, their writings serving as actual historical records of their times. In this series of short and insightful biographies, Jocelyn includes hefty, but digestible, chunks of these records–that is, the actual writing of each of her subjects–allowing readers to savor each woman’s unique voice.
The “scribbles”–ranging fromThe Pillow Book of Sei Shonagan, written in Imperial Japan, to Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, a 1112 page tome by Isabella Beeton of Victorian England, to the diary of Ada Blackjack, written on Wrangel Island, in the Eastern Cape of Siberia, in 1923–cover a vast range of time, geography, and style. Some of the texts were originally intended for publication, others, such as the diary of South Vietnamese physician, Dr. Dong Thuy Tram, seem to have been written simply to relieve an overburdened heart. To accommodate this range, Jocelyn deftly provides a context for each tale, inserting brief and friendly asides that explain important bits of political and social history, and also past cultural norms and vocabulary. In an age in which some would opt to bowdlerize Mark Twain rather than deal with historic complexity, her matter-of-fact approach to difficult and outmoded tags is incredibly refreshing.
Jocelyn writes primarily for the young adult reader, but the book is great for anyone interested in writing, women and writing women. Despite their “astonishing lives”, many of these women have received little popular attention (at least I hadn’t heard much of them): there is Margaret Catchpole, transported from England to New South Wales for horsestealing and prison escape; her letters now provide one of the few written records of early colony life; Harriet Ann Jacobs, author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, who spent seven years living in an attic cupboard at the edge of her master’s plantation; Nelly Bly, American jounalist, who, with (dare I say it?) crazy bravura, arranged a confinement an 1880‘s women’s insane asylum in order to get the inside story. (Nelly’s findings were reported in two articles in Joseph Pultizer’s The World, and later in the book, Ten Days in a Madhouse.)
Some of the women are more directly involved with the act of writing than others. (Sei Shonagon, for example, worries terribly about coming up with quick poetic responses.) The life of each, however, is fundamentally marked by her womanhood, in terms of both the dangers that threaten her and the opportunities that may avail. The particularly feminine suffering of some of the women, such as slave Harriet Jacobs, and aborigine Doris Pilkington Garimara, is sobering. But Scribbling Women offers lighter moments too, as when Mary Kingsley, English adventurer of the mid-19th century, writes of walking through West Africa:
“…the next news was I was in a heap, on a lot of spikes, some fifteen feet or so below ground level, at the bottom of a bag-shaped game pit. It is at these times you realize the blessing of a good thick skirt. Had I paid heed to the advice of many people in England…and adopted masculine garments, I should have been spiked to the bone and done for. Whereas, save for a good many bruises, here I was with the fullness of my skirt tucked under me, sitting on nine ebony spikes some twelve inches long, in comparative comfort, howling lustily to be hauled out.” From Mary Kingsley, author of Travels in West Africa, as quoted by Marthe Jocelyn, a scribbling woman.
Get your copy today!
Mary Kingsley, 1862-1900
(For more about Scribbling Women, Martha Jocelyn, the blog tour for Scribbling Women, and Tundra Books, check out Tundra’s website and Marthe’s website. )
Blocking Writer’s Block – Swallowing Rejection (With Bhavana)
March 22, 2011
Rejection- Hurts Going Down
Today, I thought I’d focus on one of the biggest blocks to a struggling writer: rejection.
Rejection feels awful to anyone, whether it arrives in one’s personal or professional life, but it presents a double-whammy for a writer, perhaps because it automatically hits on both the personal and professional level.
Hard for anyone to swallow, it is an especially stony lump for someone who regularly focuses on “voice.”
It doesn’t help much to hear about the zillions of rejection letters received by famous writers.
For one thing, those famous writers are not you (and they were eventually famous.)
For another, writing is hard work; it takes time and has significant opportunity costs. While success/acknowledgement may not make the work fundamentally easier, it does seem to offer the struggling writer more time to write. It also offers a channel, a place and encouragement for “flow.” And a sense of respect. It can be easy to feel stopped up without those things.
What to do?
I am reminded of a yoga teacher who talked about the distinction between the sanskrit terms “bhava” and “bhavana.” He described Bhava as a state of spiritual ecstasy; bhavana as the cultivation of spirituality, the actual practices of devotion.
The fact is, he said, that you cannot force bhava–you can’t even be sure whether spiritual practice or any particular effort will induce it. But, while you are waiting and hoping (uncertainly) for enlightenment, you can at least go through some set of motions. You can, in other words, cultivate a discipline that feels like the groundwork for ecstasy, even understanding the quantum leap between discipline and ecstasy, and in that practice, you can, perhaps, achieve at least a certain contentment.
So (I tell myself), you cannot force success in the writing world, no matter how hard you work and scheme and (literally) plot.
But you can take steps to grant yourself some of the benefits you think that success would give.
More time? To the extent practicable, allow yourself to take that time.
A channel? At least get a writing-minded friend.
Respect is harder to come by, but at least try to respect yourself enough to finish what you begin.
Most importantly, keep in mind what started you writing to begin with; that you enjoy saying things. In print.
Bad News, Writing, The Warm Fuzzy Blanket
March 16, 2011
I am so distressed by the situation in Japan that I am finding it difficult to think about other things.
The heartbreaking loss, the continuing catastrophes, the overload of uncertain information–all make the situation completely torturous.
Then again, torturous situations seem to abound these days–the onslaught of pro-Khadafi forces in Libya; the onslaught of the Republican Congress at home; the never-ending winter in Battery Park City.
I am not saying that these onslaughts are in any way similar; only that their combined force makes me feel like crawling under a blanket.
Which brings me to the subject of escapism.
And, since I am on the subject of escapism, writing.
How do you keep going as a writer when you feel like just crawling under a blanket?
In the face of terrible events in the world, in the face of personal obscurity, there can be an extremely strong sense that one’s writing really is pretty trivial.
This is an especial problem when your writing really is pretty trivial. There is a big part of me that would like to write profound, thought-provoking, English-language-expanding books. But the fact is that my mind tends towards the silly. (The verbal equivalent of cute little elephants.)
Right now, I am in the midst of a final, or next to final, draft of an extremely silly novel, a teen novel, no less.
I have given up at about this stage on other manuscripts. What’s different this time is I’ve enlisted the help of others–a young illustrator, and a young editor (more on them another time.)
Involving other people makes it a whole lot harder to just bunk off.
Still, that blanket lures me like a woolen Siren. What I’m trying to do at the moment is to just put it over my legs (a layer beneath my laptop) and not completely succumb.
Re-Kindling a love for books/ Resisting the Inner Polar Bear
March 3, 2011
Speaking of gadgets (yesterday was the iPad2), I have been a victim of the Amazon Kindle of late.
Aging/sore eyes are difficult. I had not realized until receiving a Kindle for Christmas how my ocular limitations had inhibited my enjoyment of reading of printed matter. That and a relatively recent addiction to electronic screens had really limited my span.
I spend my work day in front of a computer; and yet I still couldn’t turn away from the screen–not before work, not after work, not in the middle of the night. I seemed to be like the polar bear at the Central Park zoo–you know the one who swims back and forth and back and forth and back and forth–determinedly submerging myself in a groove that ran through a small reflective surface.
With Kindle in hand, however, and my need for connection with the digital world somehow satisfied, I find myself reading constantly – not scanning bits of newspapers, blogs, videos, my own manuscripts–but reading. In an extended fashion. Books.
The only problem is that there’s so much ease in downloading a book (you can do it from thin air), that I hardly feel like trying to write one anymore.
But reading is good for writing, right?
Sure, but writing is necessary for writing.
Agh.
“Going On Somewhere” For Valentine’s Day
January 30, 2011
"Side" by Diana Barco (From "Going on Somewhere")
This is a flat-out sales plea! For Valentine’s Day!
Yes, I know that it is two weeks away. And that it should be about love not buying.
But in our culture, love and holidays, tend to translate into buying. So! If you would like to buy something about love for Valentine’s Day (whether to give or keep for yourself), I encourage you to consider the poetry book, Going on Somewhere, written by yours truly, illustrated by Diana Barco, cover by Jason Martin.
While I hesitate to call it a book of love poetry, it does, in fact, have enough love poetry to make certain people who have read parts of it embarrassed to look me in the eye afterwards.
Which has got to mean something good! (Errr…..right?)
Apologies. Breakthrough? Push through.
January 24, 2011
Pearl Does Not Believe in Contests
My apologies for a somewhat desultory blog of late!
I have been working on entering a novel contest. It is one of those sort-of-hopeless endeavors that one tells one’s self is nonetheless worth doing.
In this case, it’s the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest (called ABNA Contest.) I have been busy (among other things) revising an old novel that was written during another sort of contest–Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month. This was not the novel I wrote this past November (which needs more than revision), but an older one, which I have been working on sporadically for some time.
The odd thing here is that over the last year or so I spent a great deal of time cutting the novel to streamline it. I had gotten it down from 52,000 words to less than 42,000.
Then I realized that ABNA contest rules require a novel of over 50,000 words.
When you cut things, you really can’t just add them back in. It’s a bit like hair. You can grow new, but you can’t somehow just paste the old back on. Even in the age of computers. It doesn’t somehow work that way. You made the cuts because you thought the stuff should be cut.
So now… so now….I had to figure out what was missing.
Yes, I could just have kept the novel short and not entered the contest, but things were, in fact, missing from the novel.
At any rate, I have more or less finished it now, at least gotten the book to the necessary word count.
I’m not sure I can yet call it polished, but the entry got in on time.
Silly! (Probably.) Unlikely to be a commercially successful endeavor. (Who knows?) But doing this type of thing offers a deadline, a standard, a goal. It gets one moving, forces one to push through obstacles, burn the midnight oil. Right now, for example, it is past 1:30 AM on a work night.
What?!!!!
(P.S. – if you are interested in writing, check out “Going on Somewhere” by Karin Gustafson, Diana Barco and Jason Martin on Amazon!)
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