writing in place

Oh September, how I adore you!  The light, the ever so slight crispiness in the air, fresh notebook head, and so on.

Today is another meeting of the IWSG - and here from their sign-up page they say it best:

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!

The optional question this month is - If you could pick one place in the world to sit and write your next story, where would it be and why?

I oft fantasize of the best place to write - that magic place where I will sit down on a cloud of ease and the words  will flow out of my fingers - or better yet, I will merely need to think about the story and there it will be - with no carpal tunnel, no fricked up shoulder (don't get me started - going into the third month of rotator cuff shite), no blockages of either a spiritual or intestinal variety - just easy peasy sailing through the plot - imagine!

But when I get real with myself and think about those places that have worked I know - it wasn't the place. Sometimes it has become even a search in the home I'm currently living in. Should I write in the designated office space or on the dining room table (that's where I am right now). Maybe my shrine room? It's full of good vibes.

I've been writing for a long time, over fifty years, and I've lived or visited so many places in that time. I've gone on some glorious solitary writing retreats. The photo of the typewriter above I took in the childhood home of poet Elizabeth Bishop in Great Village, NS. I got lots of a story written there but no magic. Just bum glue. 

I've gone to friend's cabins in the woods or by the shore. I wrote most of the manuscript I'm currently working on in our little house on the beach in Labrador. I've written plays with fellow writers in scuzzy rooms with too many dirty cups sitting about. 

I wrote well at a group writers' retreat in Newfoundland. 

So my answer to the question today is :

The one place in the world I'd like to sit and write in is where I am. I'd like to write right here in Prospect Bay, Nova Scotia, in the house I share with my fella and the pooch. I'd like to push back the vase full of sunflowers and start in. I'd like to get up and wander into the kitchen and do the dishes when I get stuck. I'd like to share the table (which I will be doing as you read this) with my writing pal, Gwen - as I do every Wednesday. I'd like to remember that showing up for the muse is more likely to bring her along than any other temptation one might offer. Sure I liked working on one manuscript in Cuba - how Hemingway - but did I get lots done? No. I did not. I kept my oar in and that is important, but no place has been any better than another. It is down to me. 

Here's a wee cabin owned by a friend in Labrador. You have to take either a boat or skidoo to get there (depending on the time of year). I did NO WRITING in this place but it would be great. No electricity though. Have to use the quill pen.

How about you? Where would you write? Where DO you write?

PS - I have contracted an editor to work with me on my current story Crooked Knife.  I have a few months to get a proper draft completed. Now that's a great fire under my butt.

Where am I and where am I going?

As this year winds down and I am sixteen days from turning 60 - yep you read that right - my mind turns to what I've accomplished and what paths I still want to explore. I have found one of the most brilliant uses of blogging is for me to state my goals. I tend to like to do what I say I will even if I know that it would be very rare for any of my readers to remember what I said I would do, let alone bug me about it. Still - it seems to work and I like anything that works. I also find that organizing my thoughts and plans out loud helps me find out what exactly I've been formulating below the surface. Capeesh?

So, fresh from the inspiration of my fellow Burrower, the Water Tartlette, I am going to outline my writerly plans (for any other plans check my blog - Living the Complicated Simple Life - in the next little while).

TRUE - after my latest attack on it, True stands at 87 thousand. It is in fair shape having been gone over with a fine-tooth editorial comb by the editor I hired to do so. It is in third person now and many of the changes I desired to make have been made. I still have a couple of seemingly biggys to do. I want to rework the ending and also go through the editorial letter I wrote myself a few weeks back to make sure I've addressed everything in that. Am I going to have time to do this before the new year? I don't think so - I'm busy at work and have all the fun things (yep, even we Buddhists get ensnared in holiday madness) that go with the season. I'm going to say that I will be done all revising by January 16th. I will take the next two weeks of January to get my submission package together - including editor going over every piece of the thing and starting afresh with an edit of the big piece. For my submission package I will want two or three chapters polished to shiny goodness, the longish synopsis and the shortish one, a bio and a covering letter. I don't think my editor will be able to do a copy edit of the whole manuscript but I won't be sending the whole thing out anywhoozie so that should be fine. February 1st I start submitting to agents and publishers. I plan on sending at least four packages a month until I hear back from somebody in a positive way.

THE ROCK WALKER - this mystery has been done and dusted and read and reread but yet! Yep, back to the revising desk with it. I think it needs about a month's worth of revising, then it too will go to the editor for a hard look. So - February for TRW. Then probably March for rewrites from the editor's notes and then half of April to get the package ready for it. Then it too goes out the door - not to agents in this case - only to publishers.

EARTH BOUND - finish first draft by end of June. Then revise and work with editor. I'm thinking that this will be ready to send by September 1st.

Whew! Can I do it? Don't know but I do know it is do-able. The early part of the new year is my time to write. Biz is slow and snow days many - I should be able to hunker down and pitter-patter.

The year I turned fifty was a swell one. I met my sweet patootie, I did the Dublin Marathon and I started a novel. I plan on this upcoming year being equally exciting and enriching. I want some writing retreats scattered in there and hopefully a chance to attend a BIG writing conference. How about you all as the year winds down? Plans? Dreams? Let's make them realities.

Getting a Grip

Ah, Sunday, quiet walks in the woods with the dog, meditating on life's richness, catching up on reading the papers, a nice slow dinner cooking in the oven...
Nah.
I could paint that image but it would be false and I'm all about being true.
I'm in dirty jeans. I just planted the tomatoes, the basil, the red cabbage and the mystery vegetable (nope - not a clue - really). I planted one outdoor planter with geraniums and some other greenery. I got my other planters ready for something - we'll see. I planted the irises that floundered in a garbage bag ALL WINTER but still wished to be alive. I didn't weed. I can't. I really really can't. I did meditate - that is going well - I park my bum and my coffee every morning and do it before getting dressed.
The man has the German lad out in the car driving. Felix takes his test in two weeks or really less - I guess in one week - he took his driving instruction but he only has one kick at the can. If he doesn't pass the driving test he can't take another as his parents will be here to whisk him back to Berlin. Just not enough testers...if he fails, I'll take him to a small town to get it.
There is bread that the man made rising on the counter.

I've done almost everything on my to-do list but two things. One is to walk the dog and I will. The other is to GET A GRIP on my several writing projects. That's where you all come in. You know if I tell you I'm going to do something, I do it. I'm just like that. So I'm going to do my writing priority list with you as my witness. And you don't have to be a mute witness either - you can weigh in - tell me I'm mad - that I've chosen the wrong project to focus on - yep - you can. 
The first thing I'm going to do is go to Elizabeth Spann-Craig's Writers Knowledge newsletter (probably by now in my deleted file but still available) and find an article on having too many projects on the go - it was helpful - wait right here - I'll be back.
Yes, well, ehem, I thought it was there and I can't find it. Dang. I don't need to find it - just another way to avoid getting down to it. Think I'll just get down to it.
So - first I'll write down the projects I'm involved in - what I think needs to be done next and some sort of time-line.

True
True is done. I'm not sure what draft it is as I don't entirely work that way. I wrote a first-draft, cooled it off, revised and sent it to a few readers. I got info back on it and revised some more. Then I gave it to an editor a month or so ago. She's doing a balcony, floor edit (that's what I call it) or a macro/micro edit. What that means is that she is reading it slowly and making comments in a word program. We've gotten together once about the novel and will again in two weeks. At that time, she'll give me all the notes and the edited copy. So far, as I understand it, the micro-edits are the usual suspects - over-used words, bad comma use, passive words etc... not everywhere you understand but this is the micro edit. On the macro or balcony edit - she sees some things I could do to make the story stronger - tighter and brighter - and ways to make the main protagonist more convincing etc... so far, no big structural edits. It is a literary novel and so the plot isn't the same big deal it is in my mysteries. I think, once she gives it to me, I could have the revision done in a month. Then I want to start the query process. And I will want her help on my query letter too. I love working with her - we share a sensibility and passion but have essential differences that will really help me in this. She is kind, funny and DIRECT. Yay.  So - by August first I could have something to send out.

The Rock Walker
RW, my first Kitty Macdonald mystery, is finished all the way through. It has been revised a couple of times and been read by others. I've worked some of the changes that made sense to me BUT I have lots of structural stuff to do with this. I know the story and I'm happy with it. I'm happy with the characters and I'm happy with my writing but I'm not happy with the order in which it is told. So - I haven't been working with it since I sent out the first couple of chapters to the Debut Dagger. In fact, it was entering that contest that made me realize that the structure needed work. I have a new start but nothing else. This is like a major renovation and a bit frightening. I think that is why I haven't opened the file. So - what do I need to do and how long do I need to do it in? I think I could revise the structure in about a month - then I'd have a couple of months of back and forths with someone doing the same thing as my editor is doing with True - don't know if I could use the same person though...time wise that is. Then I'd be ready to query it in say three or four months.

Earth Bound

Earth Bound is the second Kitty MacDonald mystery. It is at 56 thousand words. I like it. It may be better than the first one which is something to consider. eek. It is funny and quick and has lots of great quirky characters. Plot wise - I'm feeling mental. I wrote the first 50 thou for NaNoWriMo in the fall of 2009. I stopped and worked on the other two books that were at various stages. Then I came back and did a lot of hard pruning. Now I'm stuck - I, ahem, am not sure who the murderer is. I know, I know, no one can help me with this but...well there are reasons. Stupid reasons but compelling all the same. So, realistically - I could - if I drove her - finish the first draft in a month. Then I could let her cool for a month or so (while doing some of the other stuff?). Then maybe two months of revisions, then a micro/macro edit and another draft - then out to the world.

So, now let's look at my time and what else I have planned within that time.
I have a sketchy schedule. My clients are down - normal for summer - and I have, for instance, a big empty week starting tomorrow. I will have to go in a few days but I could count on at least two days of full on writing a week if I wanted to and at least an hour or two a day. I won't get the True edit for two weeks. The smart thing for me to do, I think, would be to work on Earth Bound for the next two weeks. Then put it aside while I spend the month needed on True. Start the query process for True and spend two more weeks finishing the first draft of Earth Bound. Leave that to cool and go back to The Rock Walker. While EB is resting, and True is searching for a home, I could spend a month restructuring and then send it off to someone to do the micro/macro. Go back to EB and start the revision process. OK, this makes sense to me. Now I'm going to put it in a calendar form. You can have a snooze if you're still here or just go off to some site where they are talking about knitted lace patterns...or the new Woody Allen movie - gawd I cannot wait to see that!

OK - lucky for you it wouldn't copy the calendar I made up so I'll let you off the hook. I'll do it an easier way:

June 13 - 30th - work on finishing first draft of Earth Bound - between 70 and 90 thousand words. (up to 33thousand words but most likely 20 thousand) - so between 1 and two thousand words a day.

July - meet with editor - do final revision on True. write query - start query process by month's end.

August- go back at Rock Walker - do structural revision - take month to do it. See if editor will do same deal. If she will then give it to her by end of August.

September - Start revising Earth Bound.

October, November and December - continue with Earth Bound and the query process with other two. That should keep me busy. Be done all revisions of EB by end of year and have it sent out.

So - by the end of this year (six months hence) I will have three novels in query or perhaps even one or more will be picked up by then. Whew!

Story tellers and story receivers

As writers, we are expected to be story tellers. Maybe we tell our stories to our word processors first but eventually some version of sitting around the fire and holding forth on a captivating tale emerges. The brilliance of good writers is not neccessarily inherent in the story itself. Sure, we like a good plot with twists and turns, surprises and enchanting characters BUT like in ancient days we are willing to hear the same story we've heard many times before as long as the teller (writer) imparts a style that we can respond to. Think of telling stories to children - they don't mind hearing the same one over and over again. They know what is going to happen but they will happily suspend their knowing to be surprised, frightened and delighted all over again.

Yesterday the step-dot and I went off to a different farmer's market - it is in a small town down the south-shore and we go there every once in awhile to shake things up. It isn't open in the winter like our one in Halifax and it takes a bit longer to get to but it is all worth it when we do.

We decided we'd have a chocolate croissant or pain de chocolat with a cup of coffee. We took these treats out into the sunshine for to tell you the truth - the barn where the market is held, was a trifle cold so early in the day.
Sitting on one side of picnic table we took in the outdoor flower sellers and the chit chat of people coming down the road. Then we heard him.
    "Watch where you're going - you jaboney!"
It was an elderly man shaking his walking stick at the driver of a truck that was trying to back into a very tricky spot. He looked a bit uneasy on his pegs as he approached the table where we sat.
   "Do you mind if I join you lovely young ladies?"
I gestured to the seat across and told him we'd be happy to share our table with him.He commenced to chat to us. In short order we were told a wonderful story. It had everything I desire in a tale - a strong and interesting character, a surprising turn of events, wonderful and humorous details, big historical events as the background, forces of evil and good. And best of all it was all true.
No, I'm not going to tell you the story - not yet anyway. I'll just give a tidbit - it involved joining the Merchant Marines at the age of fifteen during WWII. And being torpedoed, taken prisoner and most importantly of all - losing his pay book.
Shortly after this adventure, Sarah and I met another elderly gent. This English chap owns a nursery and brings aquatic plants and heathers to sell at the market. I'd bought a 'red fred' heather last year and proceeded to kill it. I wanted to try again! So, I got to talking to him and told him that I had a victim die in the heather beds of the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens. He loved it and started telling me all sorts of true stories about the politics of that place and various head gardeners etc...who had worked there. Struck gold!

My writerly point in all this is that we writers need to be story receivers as well as story tellers. My life as a psychotherapist is very helpful for this. During the first encounter, our raconteur said "I have no idea why I am telling you all this!" I do. It's because I know how to listen and to ask just enough questions to keep the stories coming.
How are your story listening skills?