Lost in Plot

 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. (link in blue)

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

The awesome co-hosts for the March 1 posting of the IWSG are Diedre Knight, Tonya Drecker, Bish Denham, Olga Godim, and JQ Rose!

Yes - it's another meeting of my favourite group. I'm not answering this month's question, which is - Have you ever read a line in novel or a clever plot twist that caused you to have author envy? Because the answer is too short. Yes. Yes, all the time. I read many many books. I read very good books. I'm an author because I have author envy. If I didn't have author envy I would not work so hard at what I do. The end of that.

So what can I talk about at today's meeting. Um...I'm still working on my next Nell Munro novel tentatively called Butter & Snow. My goal for March is to finish a proper first draft. I have the words but truly I do not have an ending. Last month I went through and wrote a synopsis of what I had. That was a great exercise - I've used it before. Whether you are a pantser or a plotter, the same work will have to be done. I write without an idea of where I'm going - just tooling around in the bush seeing where I end up. Then I realize that I have a lot of characters in search of a plot. So.. I wrote the synopsis up to where my ending wasn't. Now I've been working on that. Once that is done and not a moment before I'll go back in with my synopsis and write out the story again with my synopsis notes - because I changed a lot with that. Then I'll have a first draft. I'll go through this draft and make a beat sheet (see Roz Morris - who's book Nail Your Novel - is invaluable to me). The beat sheet briefly summarizes every scene in the book and I get to use different coloured pens and make squiggles and other hieroglyphics in order to see what is going on in about five pages of teeny tiny writing. I love doing that, but I can't do it until I have an ending. I may change the ending - I undoubtedly will - but I cannot change or improve on nothing. 

I'm just glad I'm not a house builder. "Uh no. I really don't want the staircase there after all, but I had to put it in to realize that."

Therefore my goal for March - for the whole month - is just to finish the ending. I'm doing that by writing in longhand while I stare at our woodstove. Seems a good idea. During my writing times I'm allowed to do nothing or write. I'm not allowed to do something but nothing is fine. Thank you Neil Gaiman for that stellar tip.

What are your goals for the month? How do you deal with plot and structure? Do you ever write by hand?

Now to take the girl out for a walk. 

Trust

 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!


Yay! It's another meeting of my favourite group! And I'm on time and everything. To sign up go here IWSG.


The awesome co-hosts for the February 1 posting of the IWSG are Jacqui Murray, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, and Gwen Gardner!

I'm not that interested in today's topic as I am traditionally published so I get some input into my cover but ultimately it is up to the publisher. I am lucky that I totally loved the cover for The Crooked Knife.  You can see it here on the left of the book signing poster. The crooked knife in the photo belonged to my father-in-law - we have three of them from various places and I took the photo so...

So what do I want to talk about? Trust. I want to talk about trust when it comes to writing, or probably any venture. The kind of trust I want to explore is self-trust. I lost that for awhile in the fall. I love all the to-do with having a book published but it ate up a lot of time. Constantly being on the hunt for ways to promote a book is extremely exhausting and although it can be a real adrenaline rush from time to time it isn't the same as writing. By November I had about fifty thousand words on the new book, tentatively named Butter & Snow but I was unhappy. The story wasn't exactly there yet. It was just a bunch of folks in a situation and I wasn't sure where it was going. So I started thinking it wasn't going anywhere. I started to believe my monkey mind. That I was a one book person and that if I thought I could do another I was crazy. That I only had the one story to tell. I went so far as to turn my writing space into my painting space. Made my desk the holder for my pastels and did any writing I felt like out on the kitchen table. Demoted my writer self and promoted my artist self. Told everyone I was now an artist and not a writer anymore - mostly facetiously, but with a kernel of truth. Then I stopped wanting to paint. Oh oh. 

In the turmoil of that tiny room one thing arose that saved my writing bacon. I had to organize the room and we'd painted the living room before installing a wood stove so there was a lot of decluttering and shifting of books and papers going on (still actually!). When I was organizing my office bookcase I came upon a journal I kept for part of my revising process of The Crooked Knife. What do you imagine I discovered there? I discovered that even when my book was accepted by the publisher I didn't have a proper ending - in fact I had to rewrite the last couple of chapters before they'd send me the contract. I found that a couple of years before that I didn't have a story. I was reminded that actually that is my process and while it might make some people crazy (for instance I know it makes Elizabeth George out of her mind) it is how I roll and I know it works because I have a book that has a complete story and a plot too. A pastel teacher I follow says that every painting has its ugly adolescent phase and that about covers it. After I woke up with this reminder I did another thing (besides reinstate my writing space as ...well...my writing space).  I got out the book Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and read a chapter a day until I finished it. When I set up my bullet journal for the year (no fancy illustrations - just a system that works for me) I wrote that my writing goal for January was to have 80,000 words for Butter & Snow by the end of the month. I hit that three days ago. Every time my conviction faded I read my journal or Lamott's book and then went back in. It is a hot mess but I know I can wrestle a novel out of it. I have to trust my process. It isn't blind trust, but a measured and well considered trust.

This month for me will entail going into my manuscript and using tools like mindmaps, beat sheets and character studies. My achievable goal is to have a good enough second draft by the end of March. I will also write a plot treatment that is sort of like when you ask a teenager how a movie is that they saw and they tell you the whole movie in mind-numbing detail. That.

Hope your writing is going well and would love to know how you deal with moments of doubt.

p.s. Butter & Snow is the name of a tiny settlement near North West River in Labrador where the Nell Munro mysteries are set. It is a real place.

Light

                        

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! 

The awesome co-hosts for the January 4 posting of the IWSG are Jemima Pett, Debs Carey, Kim Lajevardi, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and T. Powell Coltrin!

January 4 question - Do you have a word of the year? Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year? 

Yes, I do have a word of the year. Not just for my writing but as a gentle reminder of how I wish to comport myself in every realm. My word this year is light. In choosing it I did not consider how many meanings there were in total. The word light is a noun, an adverb, an adjective and a verb. That about covers it! So I'll talk about how I wish the word to inspire me during this year.

First of all I want it to inspire me to take things lightly - not be so reactive to things that occur in life. Last year was both intense in joy and grief for me. I want things to be a little lighter in both departments. More peaceful and less roller coasterly. I also want to remember that human existence is full of comedy and though I don't wish to laugh at sorrowful predicaments, I want to be light-hearted. Merry even.

The second meaning of light that I wish to employ is as a verb - to ignite, to light a fire. I want to feel my creativity ignited. That means I must find the kindling to help that be so. I will do that by reading broadly, by remembering my purpose and why I write, or paint, or in fact, live, in the first place. To enlighten. 

In the area of my writing - I definitely write because I want to illuminate or shine a light on various conditions and situations that I would like  to know more about and once knowing want to share with others. I write about Labrador and its indigenous and settler people because I think most folk know nothing about this vulnerable and beautiful wild part of the world. I write about the predicaments that beleaguer the Indigenous of Canada because I think the first step those of us who live lives of relative privilege can take is to be informed of the reality of the world we live in. I write poetry to explore the basic impermanence that everyone lives in. I paint to find out what beauty means to me and then share it with those around me.

One of the adjective meanings is to exert a gentle or light touch. I would like to employ that in my relationships with others. I would like to be more gentle with my views and opinions and generally have a softer approach to life. When I combine this with the others I realize they may be somewhat at odds. If I get all lit up about social injustice, and fired up to let others know or do something about some of them, then I may go against my desire for a light touch.

The light from the sun nourishes all life, but when the light is low and days are short in the northern hemisphere this time of year, it is a good time to rest, move gently, feed our roots rather than stretching out our branches. It is good to remember that light is needed, like everything, in balance with its opposite.

Hope all of you had a restful, nourishing holiday and are ready to leap back into the writing world. Or gently step...

IWSG late meeting!

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. 

connect here: Sign up page

Hi all you insecure writers! It's that day again - where we gather together to celebrate the highs and bemoan the lows of this crazy writing life.  I'm late today and trying to do this on my tablet so although I'm officially here I'll be swooping in tomorrow to really write my post. On my laptop. Or edit this one.

I did write today. I'm just about at 60 thousand words but this part of the process is very slow for me. I put some in and take some out. It is the hokey-pokey part of the first draft. I'm trying to be patient with myself. I'm also doing a few signing and reading gigs this month which I really enjoy. 

So all and all I'm in an okay place with the writing life. The holidays don't truly impact my writing that much. Maybe I spend extra time making cookies but we do a pretty chill time here. All my kids and my partner's kids and their partners and a couple of grandkids will be here on the 30th for a feast but everyone will pitch in. And we're getting a wood stove in January!  Yay!

I'm making a lot of art so that is fun too.

NaNoWriMo:  just a short note on my recent NaNoWriMo activity. I'm a hundred percent successful when I start the month with a brand new story, and I'm a hundred percent failing when I think I can form the month to suit revision or getting a newish but not new draft on the go. This last NaNo was the latter and I hardly did a thing. Oh well. Still plugging away however and will continue to do so. 

 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. 

connect here: Sign up page

The awesome co-hosts for the November 2 posting of the IWSG are Diedre Knight, Douglas Thomas Greening, Nick Wilford, and Diane Burton!

November 2 question - November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

NaNoWriMo - have I ever participated? Hell yes. Many times. I don`t even know how many times. Let me think...well, at least four successfully - meaning I did my 50 thousand words in the month. Three of them went on to become completed novels - and one of them - The Crooked Knife was published this year. I started it in November of 2016.  One thing that I did with that one is make the novel start November 1st so I have to not do that again! Dead give away. 

I hope to get another one of the ones I wrote for the challenge published - that is Bright Angel. It has been looking for a home for awhile. Or rather I've been looking for it's home. It nearly found one last year but fate stepped in and the publisher stopped publishing - at least for awhile. NaNoWriMo is a great way to get a little fire going in your writing life. I'm pretty good at sticking to challenges that I've taken up. As a true pantser however, it means that at the end of the month I have fifty thousand words but a great need for revising. There is a strong community, but it isn't as good as this one (IWSG) is for me. There are many participants who are quite young and into epic fantasy writing - that being said - you can find your crew if you spend a bit of time. For me it is the buttons that work a magic. Entering my word count daily is such a boost. So when I've tried alternative ways to do the challenge it has not worked. 

Back many years there was a great alternative to NaNoWriMo that took place at a better time of year for many folks - that was BuNoWriMo - the Burrow Novel Writing Month in June. That was instigated in part by the terrific Tami Hart (Hart Johnson, Alyse Carlson and other aliases too many to mention) writer of the terrific blog Confessions of a Watery Tart and her intrepid writing group The Burrow (of which I was blessed to be included). 

So...do I recommend month long challenges? No, because I don't think everyone is the same as me. Pretty sure they aren't. I can only say they have worked for my particular sort of wiring and they might for you too. However many words you write you cannot fail at it though - if you weren't writing any words before. I have a second Nell Munro mystery that I'm writing - have forty thousand words. I might do the challenge but don't want fifty thousand more words - maybe I'll enter it with my goal to write another thirty thousand. That would work. And seventy thousand would give me a good solid first draft to completely re-write! 

See! Now I'm all excited. Yay for challenges. How about you? What makes your engine run? Your socks go up and down?