going for it

 

The London Bootblack, Jules Bastien-Lepage

Writer Cicily Janus has this great quote as an end-note to her e-mails, from Friedrich Nietzsche, “A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.”

So very true. Writing is a lonely endeavor and having the warm support of friends certainly brightens the path through the forest. I’m lucky to have such friends.

Thinking about what to do, how to best use my writing time, I realized I don’t really want to stop working on Sweet Taboo. I’m at a critical juncture with the story, writing the middle, and need to keep the momentum going, but also, I shouldn’t let Loose Daddy lie about any longer and lose its spark. Strike while the iron is hot. Since I’ve got to do some thinking and story planning for Loose Daddy anyway, I might as well continue rewriting Sweet Taboo until I reach the point where I must start rewriting Loose Daddy  too, then I’ll shift the bulk of my writing time to LD, applying a variation of your earlier suggestion, Devon.

I really, really want to be able to send both manuscripts out, although I’m not sure exactly when that’ll be. Steve’s comments made me realize that I must stop viewing my writing through a veil darkly.

need the sand shovel

Maternal Admiration, William Bouguereau

Got Loose Daddy back from the professional editor and it’s good news! I’m thrilled I took this step. It came via e-mail this morning, but I’ve not had a chance to print it out and review his comments–will do that tonight. The upshot–he thought it well written, good story, good quality work, and publishable–BUT it’s too short (yeah I knew that) so must expand the characters, develop more backstory, add more action–in short, give the story room to breathe, and Loose Daddy will be good to go.

This brings me to a new decision: set Sweet Taboo aside for a bit, say the month of May, and work on Loose Daddy. I need about 25,000 more words to grow the novel to maturity. One reason why the manuscript stayed in the file was ’cause I didn’t know what to do with it story-wise, but now I think I can dive in and get to work developing it some more. There is definitely room for growth in the narrative, and I’m thinking of a slew of material, story notes and scenes, in a box in the closet just waiting for me. That box has got the rest of Loose Daddy buried in half-written scenes and discarded sequences. Must find my sand shovel.

hot damn!

 

Iphigenia, Herbert Schmalz

Hey Lisa and Devon! (jumping up and down and waving maniacally). Another gloriously hot, Santa Ana-breezy day. I know this kind of superheated weather does not sit well with a good many folk, but I’m an unrepentant sunbunny and I love it when it’s hot! Love it! Summers don’t last long enough for me. I really should live in a place where winter never comes. So where’s my tropical island and whose buying it for me?

Now, mind you, I don’t hate winter, but it makes my bones hurt. Winter is a beautiful season–best observed from behind glass in a toasty room, for me. What it is–I don’t want to go out in it! Snow’s gorgeous, but I don’t want to be out in it doing something like getting to the day job, especially doing something like getting to the day job. It’s fun to watch boreal breezes toss the trees about and listen to it grumble and roar about the eaves–but I don’t want to walk in it. Rain is lovely! But I melt. 

So today, this very afternoon, I completed Chapter Six of Sweet Taboo! Kenny’s chapter. 2,848 words, bringing the count to 24,059. Me and Neo beneath the palm trees at Valparaiso Park, overlooking the ocean. I was struggling with the first scene and I thought that I wouldn’t get far ’cause it was like pulling La Muse’s teeth. I wrote the whole chapter! The whole chapter–printed out to fifteen pages! I’ve not done that in a sitting in a l-o-n-g time. I’m thrilled ’cause once I got going, after chasing down my gibbering monkey mind and corralling it with the songs I lined up on my Ipod Shuffle, I got into Kenny and we had a good time.

Michelle loaned me her set of Season 1 of WEST WING to help ease my wait for SUPERNATURAL, Season 3. And tonight I get to watch it guilt-free!

Excuse me while I swan about the living room with my new Chapter Six.

the winds are rose-scented

L’Aurore, William Bouguereau

Santa Anas blowing from land to sea all day, warm, dry, rose-scented, picking up the fragrance from blossom-filled neighborhood yards. I read a little over 5 pages of Chapter Two from Silk River at writer’s meeting this morning (the rest of Chapter Two is too incoherent to read); it went well. My group are all experienced writers and their comments reflect a better perception of the novel than I have. It’s difficult for me to see when I’m on the right track with something, even if inside I know I am. That little voice of affirmation often gets drowned.

After getting home I took a walk up to the bluff and sat gazing at the ocean for a while, gathering my thoughts about the scene I’m about to write in Sweet Taboo. Some distance from the pier, a gaggle of white-winged sailboats bobbled on the flat, slow-running sea. Must’ve been a sailing class because they all gradually turned until their sails were phantasmal white lines and floated off. 

I really like what I’ve written of Sweet Taboo so far. I’m trying to be linear now in this draft, get the structure in place so that when I read through it, the story flows, and I can feel it attaining dimension.

Last night I finished Season Two of SUPERNATURAL, episodes “What Is and What Should Never Be”, “All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 1,” and “All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2″ (and it’s a good thing these last two were on the same dvd ’cause a conniption was going to break loose if I had to wait until Season 3 comes available). All I can say about it is wow. The stakes have been upped significantly for Dean and I hope the writers have not written themselves into a corner with his character. This series continues to surprise and delight me. And I just discovered both seasons at Amazon–so guess what I did? You’re right! And I got to use my $40.00 gift certificate balance! SUPERNATURAL for free! Yay! Fangirl much? Umm, yeah.

poetical prose

A Sea Nymph, Sir Edward Burne-Jones

Well, having cut Sweet Taboo to shreds a couple weeks ago, I’m now rebuilding it page by page, and I feel like finally, after a long time of being lost in the woods, I’ve found the good witch’s cottage, meaning I’ve reached a good place in this particular novel’s path to completion. The path is still loopy, I’m not yet on eagle’s wings, but the story has smoothed out some and I’m feeling better about it.

Tomorrow is writer’s group, and I’m reading. Think I’ll read from Silk River. I’m not rewriting this one yet, but am giving it a rough reading among my peers as much to hear it myself as to get their opinions and criticisms.

I’ve taken another risky step, encouraged by Lisa and sent the novel I finished in 2004, Loose Daddy to a professional editor. I decided to do this because I don’t have the time to give to the book right now, nor the energy, and the frustration level ran high with this one. And every time I thought about it growing mold in the file cabinet, I got depressed. Somebody else’s level head and cooler eyes were needed ’cause I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

So glad the weekend is nigh!

dean and sam

SUPERNATURAL! As I mentioned in the previous post, I’ve fallen in love with this show. Last night I got disc 5 of Season 2, watched episodes “Roadkill”, “Heart”, and “Hollywood Babylon.” There’s one more but I had to go to sleep! All are good, but I loved “Heart”, a lycanthrope story. One of the things I really like about this series is the good writing that lock character arc and storyline together, and Dean and Sam are a delight to watch. Dean, especially, is a kick. Having spent his formative years demon-hunting, he’s confused when a girl gives him her myspace address; Dean asks Sam if it’s some kind of porn site. Sam laughs at him. Sam, too, has his moments. For me, this show keeps getting better and better, but I’ve got one more Season 2 dvd coming, then I’m SOL until Season 3 hits Netflix.  What am I gonna do!?

I used to write at night, but I finally stopped because, well, the brain was fried and as soon as I focused on the page and maybe got down a few lines, the synapses jumped to INSTA-DOZE, so I gave it up, changed my schedule to mornings and weekends, and now only write at night when something is hopping about and screaming at me and the brain is going DO IT NOW!

 

busy, busy

Morning Spring, Maxfield Parrish

Chapter Six of SWEET TABOO waits for my attention–things are simmering. Yesterday morning I pulled out LOOSE DADDY and gave it a quick read-through, finished the read-through this morning. Like the Velveteen Rabbit, I need to make this manuscript real.

A LAMENTATION OF SWANS is jumping up and down and waving, and I want to work on my untitled novella too.

All in good time. (sigh)

working sunday

Japonaise, Jules Joseph Lefebvre

4:40 pm Update

Oh my gosh! I’m at Chapter Six of the SWEET TABOO rewrite. Could it be I’ve finally gotten out of my own way?

I did take a walk through the neighborhood, greeted a calico cat on her morning outing, and sniffed the sugary bloom of white roses spilling over the picket fence of a bungalow. Cold winds, but sunny. It’s Grand Prix week in Long Beach; final race today. There are “Welcome, Race Fans” banners flapping in the wind here, there, and everywhere.

***

Met with Janet Saturday for our monthly lunch and writer’s meeting at El Torito. Despite my Cadillac margarita, we had a good brainstorming session for ideas for our respective Silhouette Nocturne novellas. I worked more on mine when I got home, but I’m thinking now that I may start by writing a scene between the two characters I’ve got in mind and see where it goes.

Silhouette Nocturne is looking to buy for its new eBook program. The guidelines are at paranormalromanceblog.wordpress.com, the February 8, 2008 post.  (Since WordPress’s recent  changes, inserting a link when I’m on the Mac has become problematic.)

Watched more SUPERNATURAL last night, my latest Netflix darling. I’ve finished Season 1, and disks 2, 3, and 4 of Season 2. I love the interaction between the brothers Sam and Dean. Both characters are great, and Sam, the younger brother, is a good example of how to write a beta male with alpha qualities. The contrasting characteristics in their personalities play well off each other. “Tall Tales,’ one of my favorite episodes illustrates this well. Dean and Sam encounter a trickster demon who manipulates them with highly amusing consequences.

Today I’ve got to write more of SWEET TABOO, continue revising the scene where Randall shows himself to Deidre and also continue writing the yard sale scene. Don’t think I’ll get outside today.

 

not so much a struggle

Song of a Slave Girl, Henryk Semiradsky

Unbidden, the title to an unwritten non-fiction book came to me: Sex, Servitude, and Reproduction: Women in Polygamy. Interesting. Perhaps I should see if someone has written such a book.

Began revising the scene in Sweet Taboo where Randall’s spirit returns to Deidre. The important beats are Deidre’s reaction and Randall’s explanation. Have to be careful how I write this one. It takes place after Randall has shown himself to Kenny, which happens at the yard sale. I’ve reached a good stage. Now I’m determining the heartbeat of the scenes, striking the stone that sparks the narrative.

It’s getting near time for me to return to A Lamentation of Swans. Working with Sweet Taboo helps me see how to write ALoS, where to find the words, the only words that will render ALoS the way it should be.  This is why I move between manuscripts. Each story is shrouded in the mystery of its own words, and the words must be sought out through the writing. It’s not so much a struggle as a seeking.

Oh how could I forget this–Adrian at Chronicling the Novel nominated pendrifter for an Excellence Award. Thank you, Adrian! And thank you all who peruse my scribblings.

slasher

Aurora Triumphans, Evelyn De Morgan

Went a bit psycho on Sweet Taboo, cutting and slashing, whole pages ripped away, words tumbling, blood everywhere, even the bones have nicks. Not a peep out of La Muse less the knife come her way. As for me, I’m blood-splattered and smiling.

The Neo is a big hit with my writer friends. Michelle recently received hers; I showed mine to another writer friend and she loved it, plans to order one. Michelle took hers to writer’s group and the poor thing got passed around, tapped on and poked so much she had to let it rest when she got it home. I guess AlphaSmart is about to get a few more orders from this corner of Southern California.

Weekend! Where the hell’s the weekend!? When’s it coming? What’s taking so long?