I took last night off to spend hours moderating a mailing list I own: Child Protection Reform (at Yahoo Groups). I was about 350 messages behind and still have another 100+ messages to read. Eep!
These are the writing community dares I accepted for January and February:
1. Worldbuilding, Apprentice Level - 4000 words
2. Short Story Rewrites, Apprentice Level - Rewrite 4 stories and send them out
3. Novel Rewrite, Apprentice Level - One novel rewrite
4. Novel Writing, Journeyman Level - 6 chapters, 1000 words each
I had a hard time getting started. First, it started snowing. What does that have to do with writing? Well, it distracted me. This is the first good snow we've had in two years. Its been snowing all night and there's about four or five inches out there now.
I tried to settle into writing for several hours. I meditated. I worked on my calendar of Alyssa-related events. I worked out scene summaries for chapter 14 so I'd have some idea of what I might be writing. Finally I started a conversation between Alyssa and Vic, and eventually got to my goal... 1279 words tonight. Total word count now at 43,677.
I really wasn't in the mood to write tonight. I was feeling tired and emotionally drained. I gave it a try anyhow and ended up writing 1341 words without too much effort. The hard part was getting started. I just finished writing chapter 13 and now have 42,398 words in the manuscript.
I joined Holly Lisle's writing community earlier this month. Tonight Lazette posted the January/February dares and I've been looking them over. I will probably sign up for the beginner level rewriting dare, a worldbuilding dare, and a short story writing dare (since I'm doing those already). I never spent a lot of time doing worldbuilding before I wrote my two middle-grade novels (which take place in the same imaginary ancient civilization) and I'd like to work on developing the scenario before I do much more on the rewriting.
Tonight I met my goal (1200 words/day for this week, excluding Christmas Day).. I wrote 1245 words on The Alyssa Project bringing the total word count to 41,057.
I found this article at the Write4Kids site. My current work-in-progress is fairly controversial, about a teenage mother, age 15. What's even more controversial is her relationship with the child welfare system after her baby is picked up for supposed neglect.
Right now I'm not even thinking about how to sell it. I'd like to see a book (what writer wouldn't) but I want the information out there for kids to get to, so I'd consider an e-book if it doesn't sell right away. This is one novel I don't want to spend the rest of my life trying to sell.
I enjoyed reading this collection of short stories for middle-grade readers. There were seven stories about contemporary children. Since I'm writing short stories this year I want to read more of them. Any suggestions? These were good. Every one of them.
I just finished this a few days ago after languishing over the last few chapters for several weeks. They were about publishing rather than writing and though they contained vital information, they didn't keep me reading quickly like the earlier chapters did. The book covered many aspects of novel-writing, from the responsibilities of the writer toward the reader, to characterization, truth-telling and revision. I'm planning to get his earlier book, Stein on Writing. I probably should have read that one first.
...but I'm moving right along with The Alyssa Project. I took one night off this weekend to work on a revision project. Tonight I wrote another 1272 words for a total of 38537 words. I'm still writing on what I consider 'part 2' of a three-part book... but I'm in Chapter 12.
Earlier tonight I started another short story (I'm trying for one each week). I also added a small update to Happy Camp News tonight.
I've been having a terrible time with my child this week. Problems in school turn to problems at home. Maybe it works both ways. I'm glad winter break is starting so she can detach from school for two weeks.
I wrote for the last three days but didn't update here! I added just over 1000 words each day - as that's my goal for The Alyssa Project right now:
Wednesday: 1003 words
Thursday: 1278 words
Friday: 1021 words
... New total word count: 35858 ...
I haven't worked on my other projects much.. and plan to let the kids use the computer most of the time for the next week or so, but I'll still be doing my best to keep up with this novel writing project.
This was a good night. I printed out that first chapter of The Scribe of Irohila and edited on paper. It always seems to help with perspective - to alter the media (ie: screen v. paper). I'll put the changes into the computer document tomorrow and move on to chapter two.
I wrote 1079 more words on The Alyssa Project, bringing the total word count to 32,556. Not bad for a night's work. Its a section of the novel I'm enjoying and the writing is going quickly.
Good news! I finally started the revision of The Scribe of Irohila. It is my goal for the coming year to have two of my novels revised and ready for submissions by the end of 2003.
Tonight I read chapter one out loud to my twelve year old son (my ideal reader, for this novel) and did massive cuts and edits. It is so much better already. Every time I read through it I find more to change. Aaron made a few suggestions and I agreed with him, and made cuts based on that. I intend to make this read smooth.. so others, should they ever want to read it out loud, will have a good time of it.
As a homeschooling parent, I've read lots of middle grade novels out loud to my children. That's how I got interested in writing them.
I have to wait until late at night to be able to write, because most of the day this house is noisy - especially on the weekends when my daughter is home from school. She's a non-stop pop-music person these days... and then there's those arguments between her and her brother.
At night, the house is usually quiet enough for writing. Tonight at 9:40 the power went out. There's a heavy storm outside. My daughter came out of her bedroom with a loud yowling sound and woke up her brother who was sleeping near me on the couch. She refused to consider sleeping on the other couch and I thought my writing evening was shot until (by wonderful good luck) the power was restored about 10 minutes later. Yay! She went back to bed and I got my computer booted up... and then Keith wanted to talk.
I took good advantage of his friendliness by asking him how he thought I should write my upcoming love scene between Alyssa and her boyfriend. He gave me some good ideas. Then I explained in detail why I can't write my stories except at night (usually). He kindly put some soft, unobtrusive music [Direct TV's Soundscapes] on the stereo and went back to bed himself and left me to it.
Writing started out rough but after a few paragraphs I got into the scenes and wrote to my goal quickly - then added a little more because I was having fun. I stopped right before a scene that I know will be fun to write, so maybe that'll help get me going tomorrow. This is actually a technique suggested by Sol Stein in his book, How to Grow a Novel. Let's see if it works.
Tonight I wrote 1449 words on The Alyssa Project, bringing the total word count to 31477.
It is still "early" for me so I'm going to work on that revision of The Scribe of Irohila - something I've put off long enough.
I just couldn't make it to my goal of 1000 words today - I've had a bad headache for hours and couldn't shake it with ibuprofen. So... I got 326 words written, did some editing, and am calling it a night. I've written a total of 4109 words this week which isn't too shabby - and the manuscript now has 30,028 words. I know with steady progress this manuscript will continue to take shape.
I started my story for the week today. It's about an Irish girl visiting the town I live in - and having some fun with the kids here. I got 733 words done on the new manuscript.
I wrote 1232 words on The Alyssa Project and the new total wordcount is 29702.
It was so quiet here tonight. The rain is coming down steadily outside and it makes for a very cozy writing atmosphere. I've got a nearby window propped open so I can listen. When there's rain, it isn't nearly so cold. Everyone else is sleeping but occasionally the finches wake up and sing to me.
I'm planning a short story that includes a girl speaking in Irish brogue. I decided to research the dialect on the internet and found this website about Chiastic Quotes. Of course, I didn't know what they were, but the site gives this definition from the Oxford dictionary -- Chiasmus: "A grammatical figure by which the order of words in one of two of parallel clauses is inverted in the other." Anyhow, on the page I linked to (above) Finley Peter Dunneand is featured as the man who started the famous quote about newspapers - "To comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable." This original version is provided on the site:
"Th' newspaper does ivrything f'r us.
It runs th' polis foorce an' th' banks,
commands th' milishy, conthrols th' ligislachure,
baptizes th' young, marries th' foolish,
comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable,
buries th' dead an' roasts thim aftherward."
The expression has been borrowed and altered in many ways over the
years.
I finally got through all the old scenes I'd written for The Alyssa Project and have them arranged in a reasonable order now. I am so relieved to have this part of the writing project done. I consider that all to be "part one" of the novel and I've started writing "part two" - beginning with chapter nine. This is possibly going to be a lot longer than I'd first envisioned. My plan is to just write the story and not fret about the length. It is a young adult novel so 50,000 words would be plenty, but I'm at 28,470 words now with so much more territory to cover. I wrote 1184 new words tonight.
A few days ago I finished reading this book (written by Richard Peck):
The novel is written in a series of short stories, one for each year the two children go to visit their grandmother. It is entertaining enough, but I was not thrilled with some aspects of the stories... for example, the dead mouse in the milk. I can see where some kids might find that funny. The book was a Newbery Honor Book... so apparently some adults thought it had merit too. I look forward to reading the sequel, A Year Down Yonder - a Newbery Medal Winner.
I took Sunday off to have a day of rest... then had to take Monday off to travel into Yreka (2 hours down a long river highway). Today I got up early and wrote nearly 500 words. Late in the evening I wrote more.. ending the day after adding 1090 words to The Alyssa Project. There's now 27009 words in the manuscript. I added a chapter for legal documents. I think having the actual documents as an appendix to the book will make a nice reference area and will help me keep my story straight.
I was distracted by housework today. I didn't get to any of my other writing goals for the week: updating the news, writing a new short story, and revising one of my novels. I attended two writers' chats in the early evening, at AOL.
Today I got my NaNoWriMo t-shirt in the mail. "No Plot - No Problem!" ... I just love it.
I'm almost done reading A Long Way From Chicago and also nearly finished with How To Grow A Novel. I'll post comments here when I get to the end of the books.
Keith brought me flowers this week. I am so happy to have these on my desk while I'm writing.
Tonight I added 1154 words to The Alyssa Project - all in chapter five. There was no editing or re-arranging to do so the time flew by quickly... it took only sixty or ninety minutes. There are now 25,919 words in the manuscript.
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Researching the Markets
I'm making it a new goal to research the markets for short fiction and non-fiction. Today I looked at Jack and Jill Magazine. I was sorry to see there were no sample stories on their website to look at. This is a health oriented magazine published by the Children's Better Health Institute. Sample copies are only $1.25.
For research, I'm using the Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market 2002.
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Saturday, December 07, 2002 ( 5:34 AM )
Did you like Maniac Magee?
That was one of the best children's novels I've read... I loved it! Tonight I found an interview with Jerry Spinelli and his website.
I updated Happy Camp News with an article about our community Christmas tree lighting. I like the article - it started as a dry list of facts and then I just let loose and told the story the way I wanted to express it. That worked much better that the lifeless version.
I also got another 1014 words done on The Alyssa Project bringing the total to 24,765 words. I worked on chapter 5.
I got to my 1000-word goal last night but nearly fell asleep sitting up in the effort. I was finishing chapter 4 in The Alyssa Project with an argument between the protagonist and her sister. This kind of thing is ideal for when I'm too tired for anything more serious. The manuscript now has 23,751 words. It is complete through chapter 4 now and I've got another 9000 words written in scenes I need to find homes for as I work through the chapters, rebuilding this manuscript.
I got another 1011 words written on The Alyssa Project and did a lot of manuscript organization too. It took about three hours. The revision is what slows me down, but this manuscript got so picked apart a few months back that I can't continue the writing without straightening out the scene sequences in each chapter.
I also finished writing the rough draft of a short story tonight! It is between 800 and 900 words, inspired by Holly's suggestion to write about wedding mishaps. I don't know if I'll share it with the other writers, but it feels great to get a story written. Aaron (my son) helped with a few vicious ideas that I wouldn't have come up with on my own. I don't know if the story is something a children's magazine would want to publish. The child in the story isn't exactly behaving. LOL... but it was lots of fun to write. I plan to read it to my daughter and Keith tomorrow for their feedback.
It is time to get deeper into studying magazine markets for children's stories.
I made it a goal to add 1000 words to The Alyssa Project every day this week. Yesterday I added 1044 words. Today I did a lot of manuscript cleaning and managed to add 1025 words... so the goal is met - so far.
My other goals for this week are to write a short story and to revise one chapter in The Scribe of Irohila.
I wanted to rewrite this, using first person. Yesterday I got my start - doing all of chapter one in Alyssa's words. Well, today I looked at it and decided it just doesn't work so I'm cleaning up and reworking my third-person manuscript. I still have a lot of work to do on it.
I don't know if it was the end of NaNoWriMo or the beginning of December that did it to me. Maybe it was just not getting enough sleep last night. I was so depressed this morning when I woke up! I was so depressed I had to go back to bed and I hardly ever get that bad off. I'm going to have to ask my daughter to share that St. John's Wort I bought for her. I cannot believe these depressions are happening to me - that is so atypical! Today wasn't the first day - it was only the worst. After taking that nap I felt much better.
One thing that is contributing to my depression - is that last night I started getting a sense that I should change my name (again!) and I don't want to. My birth name is Linda Jo Martin and that's what I want to use, but since I write middle grade novels and since there's already a Linda Sue Park doing that and winning awards like the Newbery Medal, I wonder if that wouldn't be one too many Lindas using a middle name if I did it too.
I fully understand why Linda Sue Park uses her middle name for writing - probably for the same reason I decided to do it before I'd ever heard of her. You see, Linda is a very common name. During the year I was born (1952) the two most popular girl's names were Linda and Mary. Consequently there are dozens of Linda Martins around, and I'll bet there's lots of Linda Parks too. Having the Jo in there not only looks kinda cute - it helps to distinguish me from lots of other Linda Martins.
Anyhow, I was thinking about this last night and I guess I've decided - since I'm getting into this later than her, I'll change my name to something similar.. like Jolinda Martin. I always liked that name anyhow... but name changing is just so inconvenient.. like what about this website?? sheesh...
