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Outline(ish), progress(ish)

June 14, 2018 Leave a Comment

Here’s the Book Seven progress report I sent my agent:

Horrible first draft – done

Holes (many, gaping) – identified

Outline (to address said holes) – roughed out

Rewrite – commenced. Happy writer!

So, as noted before, I do things backward: I write a draft first, then I make an outline by summarizing each chapter on an index card and lying the cards out in order. Then I shuffle them – and add new ones – until I come up with a structure that makes sense. Something about the physicality of it helps. At least, I hope it does.

As my wonderfully wise agent promised, the draft wasn’t nearly so horrible as it felt while I was writing it. Some chapters, especially as I figured out what the book was about, actually were not half bad. Now, to fill in those holes. That’s the happy writer part – knowing what needs to be done, having tripped over it in the stumbling-around process of the first draft.

Efficient? Not remotely.

But fun, in an effed-up kinda way.

Leave a Comment Tags: Writing

Buried Treasure

May 28, 2018 Leave a Comment

As in, very deeply buried. This weekend, the disaster that is my desk got to be too much even for me, so I hauled some file boxes into my office and began an excavation, purging old files, making room for new ones.

Deep within the old ones, I found one labeled “Agent Queries.”

“This should be good,” I thought. And it was, but not in the way I thought. I figured I’d get a belly laugh out of it, dating to the days when I was sending out my first manuscript, a book that (rightly) never found a publisher, and exists today only in a single cannibalized chapter that I rewrote and put into my third novel, Disgraced. These days, I’m embarrassed to think that I even sent it out.

But. But. Flipping through the file reminded me that Wind River, as I called that fumbling first novel, got a “very enthusiastic” first reading from a terrific agency, and made it to another round before being rejected with the standard “we are simply not enthusiastic enough.”

How had I forgotten this? I must have been over the moon when getting that first note, and probably hardly slept at all during the three weeks before the final rejection.

And there was a very encouraging note from another agent, praising specific parts and comparing one section to the writing of Rick Bass (!). At the time, I was probably crushed (except for the Rick Bass part);  now I see that sort of feedback as rare and valuable.

There was a letter from a respected literary magazine, rejecting a story, but again with specifics as to why, and asking that I resubmit after a rewrite. Did I do so? The files are a jumble, and I can’t find a second rejection. But I sure hope I did. Anyway, several years later, after extensive rewriting, that same story was published in a different magazine (and republished in two anthologies), won me at least two residencies and was nominated for a Pushcart.

My point? All during the years I felt so hopeless (and still do on about every third day), I was actually getting wonderful encouragement that I was on the right path. Wind River was roundly rejected in 2005; it would be another eight years before I published my first novel. But I’ve had one published nearly every year since, and two this year.

I’m belatedly but deeply grateful to the agents and editors who took the time to write such thoughtful notes, giving me just enough of a push to keep at it. If you’ve just started collecting rejections, hang onto the good ones and take their advice to heart. They mean you’re on to something.

 

 

Leave a Comment Tags: Rejection, Writing

Runaway manuscript

May 8, 2018 Leave a Comment

When I was a kid, I had a horse with a mouth like iron who, toward the end of a ride, would work at the bit until he got it between his teeth and then head for the barn at a full gallop, hoping to scrape me off under the overhang.

I perfected the emergency dismount, leaping from his back at the last minute and rolling away from his hooves. Once, I wasn’t quick enough and he clipped my head with his hoof, resulting in a bump that persists to this day.

Which has what to do with writing? For one thing, there’s a horse in the WIP, much as there was in my first novel. This one is the most minor of characters, but he’s satisfyingly ornery and I’m fond of him.

More to the point, as the first draft lurches toward its conclusion, it reaches a point that I’ve come to recognize. After floundering through tens of thousands of words, suddenly the book’s path becomes clear and it takes off, streaking toward The End, and all I can do is hang on and hope I don’t end up with another bump on my head.

After so many months of utter mystification—where the hell is this thing heading, anyway?—it’s gratifying to suddenly have some clarity, even though it means so much (so very much) will have to change in the rewrite.

Which is my favorite part. I just need to get to the barn.

Leave a Comment Tags: Writing

Some Sentences, January 2018 – Hamilton as inspiration

January 24, 2018 Leave a Comment

I’ve written before about liking to write to music. From the way-back machine, Nirvana Unplugged is a favorite. Even way-er back, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. I listened to the Navajo Nation’s KTNN while I was writing Reservations. Aimee Mann’s The Forgotten Arm was the soundtrack to a book that (deservedly) never got published – I’ll try not to hold that against her.

I also listen to music that inspires, and lately, Hamilton – pretty sure I’m the last person to jump on this particular bandwagon – fits the bill.

I can’t listen to it while writing; it’s too distracting. But it’s great for gearing up to write, or for when I’m stuck. I just plug in the earbuds and go for a walk as Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton declares, “I’m not throwing away my [beat] shot.”

No, sir, I am not. I am going to march back to that laptop and pound out that novel.

IMG_4944Another favorite: When Aaron Burr asks Hamilton, “Why do you write like you’re running out of time? Write day and night like you’re running out of time?”

Because writing is the most important thing?

Anyhow, because everything in the world lives on the internet, I found a necklace that there instructs me to “Write like you’re running out of time.”

Words to live, er, write by.

Leave a Comment Tags: Some Sentences January 2018, Writing

Some Sentences, July 2017 – An ending, and a beginning

July 10, 2017 Leave a Comment

Yesterday I sent Book 5 in the Lola Wicks series off to my editor at Midnight Ink. You know what that means – hamster dance!

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It also meant a lazy summer afternoon with my sweetie at a local cidery by way of celebration, sampling ciders with varying degrees of alcohol content, followed by astonishment that evening was upon us … funny how that works.

 

This morning brings only a wee headache, along with the sadness that accompanies the sendoff of any manuscript. The thing that I’ve cursed for so long for the way it’s dominated my mornings before work, chewed up my weekends and made me possibly not the most pleasant person to be around – gone.  What to do now? There’s only one thing.

FullSizeRender (12)

 

 

 

Leave a Comment Tags: Some Sentences July 2017, Writing

Some Sentences, June 2017 – Back to Lola

June 14, 2017 Leave a Comment

After weeks writing about Afghanistan, I’m back to Book 5 in the Lola Wicks series, which takes place in Utah.

Pause for whiplash.

But it’s good to be hanging with Lola again, a protagonist I’ve come to love. Lola the character is a major pain in the ass, but she’s a lot of fun to write, and I enjoy finding new ways to push her buttons. Over the years, people have asked me how I envision her – a question that usually takes the form of, “Who would play Lola in the movie?”

My first impulse: a major badass. Geena Davis as Thelma, getting ready to shoot the hell out of that semi.

thelma

Lola is indeed a badass. But her badassery is of the more covert variety. The woman’s a reporter, for heaven’s sake. A professional observer. So then I flash to Sigourney Weaver in The Year of Living Dangerously.

sigourney

She wasn’t a reporter in that movie, although she fell for one (what was she thinking?). But her wary demeanor in that role is perfect for Lola. The trick will be, as deadline barrels toward me, to keep from getting punchy and hearing “Zuuuuullllll” in my brain as I write.

sigourney.ghostbusters

Who ya gonna call? Manuscript busters!

Oops. Looks like the punchiness has already set in.

 

Leave a Comment Tags: lola wicks, Some Sentences June 2017, Writing

Some Sentences, May 2017 – A little kick in the aspiration

May 30, 2017 Leave a Comment

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When it comes to aspirational writing about writing, the incomparable Octavia Butler – “I shall be a bestselling writer. … I will find the way to do this! So be it! See to it!” – reigns supreme,

But some days, especially the overwhelming ones toward the end of a project (This thing is crap. This thing is crap. This thing is crap.) something a little less lofty is in order.

Someone thoughtfully compiled a list posted on FlavorWire of things writers tell themselves to get through that day, that page, that paragraph, maybe even that next sentence.

A sampling:

From Henry Miller – “When you can’t create, you can work.”

From Flaubert via Helen Simpson – “Faire et se taire” … “Shut up and get on with it.”

And, a version of everyone’s ultimate mantra, from Jennifer Weiner – “Butt in seat and words on the page.”

So be it! Get to it!

Leave a Comment Tags: Some Sentences May 2017, Writing

Some Sentences, May 2017 – Advice for writing, advice for life

May 18, 2017 Leave a Comment

 

clapperboardMay 18, 2017 – It’s May in Montana, which means there’s fresh snow on the daffodils. Good weather for writing, right? Or, these days, editing.

I’m deep in a ms. full of track changes from my editor, and one comment comes up over and over again:

“Stay in scene.”

Apparently my writing wanders off track as often as my thoughts. Anyhow, it’s a great reminder, one with applications well beyond writing.

Leave a Comment Tags: Editing, Kabul book, Some Sentences May 2017, Writing

Some Sentences, May 2017 – The graveyard of dead darlings

May 8, 2017 Leave a Comment

cemetery

May 8, 2017. Today I slew some of my dearest darlings, wielding the delete key like the villain in a slasher flick. Very satisfying. Backstory, begone! Blood on the floor, baby. That is all.

bloodyknife

 

Leave a Comment Tags: Some Sentences May 2017, Writing

Some Sentences, May 2017 – Two out of three

May 8, 2017 Leave a Comment

May 7, 2017 – I had three goals this weekend:

Draft a new chapter for Book 6 (check).

Finish reading the new Kate Shugak book by Dana Stabenow (check; highly recommended).

Run twenty miles (um).

The ego and I had a little tussle at mile twelve, when I wanted to quit. I made it another mile, by which point, I was limping. Time to declare defeat – for now.

White flag

Leave a Comment Tags: Running, Some Sentences May 2017, Writing

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