Editing Schmediting

Writer Zen Garden Posted on by
Unless you’re lucky enough to write everything perfect the first time, or you have an editing slave at your beck and call, editing is a reality for every writer. For some people, editing comes naturally, for others, it doesn’t. I’ve figured out I’m one of the latter. I’m a writer. A prolific one. Give me a prompt or idea, and a keyboard, and . . . off I go!

But just because I can write and write and write, doesn’t mean it’s actually good. There has to be clean up, tightening, re-wording, re-structuring, clarification to make my writing read-worthy, just like anybody else (except for you annoying three people who get it exactly right the first time). I spent the better part of a week earlier this month doing nothing but editing, and here’s what I’ve determined: it’s no fun. XP

But I learned something else about myself: I can learn to edit. Really edit. And while it might not be as much fun as letting my imagination have free reign and letting my fingers fly over the keyboard – the results are very satisfying. It does require me to switch out the cogs in my head, and after a bout of editing like what I just went through, I think it will be some time before I can turn off that ‘internal’ editor and get back to writing smoothly. However, the next time I sit down and put on my ‘editor cap’, I’ll be better prepared because of the list of steps I’ve made for myself.

I thought I would share them here because, a) they are gathered from various well-trusted sources, b) I find them useful, c) I told you I’m sapped and I couldn’t think of anything else to post. =P

So, here’s my semi-gelatinous editing task list:

1. I edit for spelling, grammar and continuity as I go. In a novel, this means after I draft a scene, I read it again and edit. Sometimes more than once. If I go away for any length of time, when I get back I read the last scene or two again (and sometimes edit) before moving on. However, if you don’t do this, a spellcheck and grammar check are a good place to start. They won’t catch most homophones though, so watch out.

2. My next step is a simple cut/re-arrange. Basically, ignoring mechanics, does each scene move the story forward? Is there a message to take away from each scene, and what is it? This is the time for major cuts/re-writes and this is also where I take word count under strongest consideration. I’m sort of obsessive about having well-balanced chapters, meaning that they be a fairly consistent number of words. I know, I know . . . moving on.

3. Next, I do a search and highlight (in various colors) for the major ‘weak writing indicators’. Some of these are universal: was, were, have, and had can signal passive voice; began, started, almost, practically are stall/lessening phrases; something/anything/everything are vague; THAT – they aren’t lying when they say you can delete half of these with no effect. I also have a set more specific to me, words I know I overuse: look, shrug, grin, nod, eyes, dark, wanted, felt, etc. By the time I’m done with this – my manuscript looks like a laser light show.

4. Time for another read-through. Yep. From the beginning. The goal here is to lessen the color spectrum by re-phrasing, choosing stronger verbs, more exact nouns and or taking out unnecessary clauses. At the same time, on this read through I try to manage the flow of the narrative, make sure I have the emphasis in the right place, fiddle around with paragraph breaks, vary my punctuation, etc. I’m like a diva shoe-shopping with my word choices too – “Hmm… maybe this one. No, no . . . this one.”

5. If you’re doing it all by my lonesome, the last step is yet ANOTHER read-through. From the beginning, just for smoothing. This time, I try to focus on envisioning the story, feeling the characters. Did I get my point across? Is the story engaging? Does anything kick me out as a reader. It’s always better if you have someone else to do this step for you. But if you’re very prolific, sometimes this is difficult. So, taking a break from the steps above (when possible) is most advisable. Try to look at the story as if you’re a reader reading it for the first time.

As you can imagine, my eyes are still crossed. I read my novel about six times in a week. And now I’m sick of me.

For what it’s worth, though . . .

~Gwen

“Who We Are” by Lifehouse

Writer Zen Garden Posted on by

Review of the album “Who We Are” by Lifehouse

Everyone knows what a ‘chick flick’ is, right? Well this album, “Who We Are” by Lifehouse is the musical equivalent of that ‘girls’ night out’ staple. Lifehouse’s third album offers more of their signature style—upbeat, romantic, pop ballads full of jangling guitars and soulful lyrics.

These guys specialize in poetry set to music. For example, the track ‘Broken’:

‘I’m fallin’ apart, I’m barely breathing,
With a broken heart, that’s still beating,
In the pain there is healing,
In your name, I find healing,
So I’m holding on, holding on,
I’m barely holding on to you.”

This is the kind of music your mother would approve of, no sexual references, no drugs or suicidal thoughts. Just talk about relationships and being true to yourself and others. On ‘Easier to Be’ they sing:

“You make it easier to be,
Easier to be me, it’s hard to believe,
You didn’t give up on me, I let myself go,
You were still there, like coming up for air, yeah, yeah.”

I know, sappy and sweet. Almost too much so. My children refuse to listen to this CD with me, they find it boring. But it is a guilty pleasure of mine, soothing in a way previously only Enya could be. It makes a great contrast to my emo AFI music and the loud Linkin Park and NIckelback albums. It’s great stuff to listen to when I’m writing about Requiem, I can see him saying these kind of things to Regina.

By far, the best song of the batch is ‘First Time’. It’s already being used for a car commercial on television; it’s got a great hook and a catchy tune. I bet you’d recognize it if you heard it, even if you’re not familiar with Lifehouse.

“We’re both lookin’ for something, we’ve been afraid to find.
It’s easier to be broken, it’s easier to hide.
Lookin’ at you, holding my breath,
For once in my life, I’m scared to death,
I’m taking a chance, letting you inside.”

The lyrics in this song remind me of some of the things Julia Cameron says in her ‘Artist’s Way’ essays.

So there you have it. Would I recommend this album? Yes, as long as you know what you’re getting; you’re gonna love the sugar rush.

King Cassioux

Writer Zen Garden Posted on by

Mark sat at his computer silently studying the image on the screen. Cassioux, the character on the cover, had defeated evil and claimed the kingdom. He should be triumphant, even if he did have to sacrifice the woman. Women were a dime a dozen, he’d find another. He sighed as he pushed away from the desk, stood and crossed to the window. The problem was, he wouldn’t find another woman like Amy.

As he watched out the window a woman walked out of the shop across the street and looked up at him. They both just stood there and stared for a moment before she grabbed her keys and got in the car. His book was finished, and it would definitely be a best seller. So why did he feel like Cassioux and he had both lost? The women. They just didn’t understand that it had to be this way. He couldn’t settle down with Amy any more than Cassioux could make Quardidra his queen.

His computer beeped, signaling a new email. He walked over and seeing it was from his brother, he opened it immediately only to regret it. The nosey bastard wanted to know why the hell he’d let Amy get away. Why? Because he wasn’t ready for love and marriage and all that goopy shit he knew she deserved. It wasn’t for him, plain and simple. She needed some nice, considerate, town leader type guy to set up house with. The kind that would remember to bring her flowers on her birthday and take her to all those stupid town functions she loved so damn much. Not him, a roaming jackass more comfortable holed up in a hotel with his laptop than, well, anything really. She’d thank him one day. Really. Right?

He put his head in his hands and groaned. The thought of her with someone else damn near killed him. Hell, even if he thought he could try to be what she needed, she probably wouldn’t take him back now. He’d made sure of that days ago. She was sweet as could be, and it was hard to get her mad at you, but once she was mad…

He felt his jaw where she’d slugged him. He still couldn’t believe his sweet little Amy had that good of a punch, or that she’d used it on him. On second thought, a woman like that could probably handle a roaming jackass like himself just fine. He should at least give her a chance, right? He replied to his brothers email and left.

Bro,

Sorry, can’t talk. Gotta go get my woman back.

-M

Building A Goal Pyramid

Writer Zen Garden Posted on by

Last time I posted a long essay for Wiley Wednesday talking about motivation and dedication, following one on balance-point. I’ll finish this series with today’s post on GOALS.

If you missed the first two, you can find them here:

1. Balance-Point

2. Motivation + Reinforcement = Dedication

In quick review:

– It’s crucial to find your internal/external balance-point in any creative pursuit. You have to know your limits in order to set realistic goals.

– Your desires motivate your actions. The act of reinforcing your motivations is dedication. When you combine dedication and goal-setting, you get positive action – progress towards your ultimate desires.

DISCLAIMER: As per usual, this is just my opinion, and one of an infinite number of ways to attack the task of goal-setting. If it works for you, that makes me gleeful. If it doesn’t, don’t blame me!

Once you’ve gotten a handle on what motivates you, and you have your general compass-point (your desires/dreams) you are ready to set some goals. One method for doing this, is to think of your goal-plan like a pyramid.

Remember: Your dreams are the pinnacle of your ‘pyramid-o-happiness’, which you
are hopefully always building. Your goals are the bricks that, when stacked with care, will get you to the top. Sometimes they’re gritty and heavy, sometimes they’re fun and ornate. Positive action is the act of stacking your bricks. (And results from combining dedication with your goals.)

How many writers does it take to build a pyramid?

One.

Everything you need to get to that pinnacle is inside of you. And believing this is the key to ultimately achieving those dreams of yours. You can’t stand around waiting for someone else to pick up your bricks and start stacking. It’s up to you. You can recruit help from time to time,
borrow tools, rely on someone else’s strong back, consult other pyramid engineers – but if you aren’t dedicated to it, your pyramid will not get built.

Let’s assume that we all have dreams – that spot up in the clouds somewhere that we want to be. Maybe it’s being a NYT best-selling author, or a record-holding sword swallower, or just
managing to complete one novel on top of raising two stellar kids. Whatever it is, dream big. I’m a firm believer that aspirations are healthy, as long as you realize that until you take positive action towards them, that’s all they are.

Dream exercise:

Find a nice quite spot and set aside a good chunk of pressure-free time. Take out a blank piece of paper. At the top, write, “I want to be . . .” and then list off everything you can finish that sentence with. Now, these are dreams, so you’re allowed to be whimsical, of course. But, try to think of it in terms of WHO you want to be. Many of the things listed might be who you are, or strive to be, already.

Example:
I want to be . . . Able to run three miles in fifteen minutes. Someone who speaks three languages fluently. A published author. The first person my friends think to come to when they’re sad. A teacher. A good role model for my nieces and nephews.

You get the idea. This is a boundless exercises, aimed at getting you thinking about that pinnacle of your pyramid. What do you want to accomplish most? Who do you want to be? That is your pinnacle.

Now we’re back to the first part of our formula: Goals.

Goals are sorta like dreams – they are things that you want to accomplish, often as a means to obtaining said dreams. The difference is that goals are concrete. In our pyramid analogy, they are the concrete bricks we use to build the pyramid up towards our dreams. To work on goals, you need to pick one ‘aspiration’ or several that are tied together, and set that as a pinnacle to build towards.

Let’s take my ‘I want to be a published author’ aspiration and expand on that. We’ll ask questions and add details so that it can start to take solid form – so that it can morph from dream to goal. What type of author? What genre? What length? Published where, by who and for what audience?

Once I’ve determined that I want to be published in novel length fiction, in the paranormal romance genre, by a NY print house (maybe I have a top five list), then I’m almost there. Only one thing missing to make this goal solid by asking one question – when? You have to have something more definitive than ‘someday’. Someday is up in the clouds. We want to come down to earth. But we will answer this question after a little more self-exploration.

Your goals are very personal. Just as your list of ‘I want to be’s’ is personal. Some goals can remain more abstract and you can still reach them, some can be very detailed. The most important thing in setting your goals is that you do set constraints on them – give them a solid form. Don’t leave them wispy and unformed – these are still dreams. It’s OKAY to have those – have LOTS of them, but don’t mix them up with goals. Your goal needs to have a who/what/where and a when. The why is personal, and the how is . . . well, the how comes later. Keep reading.

So, have you built your top triangular brick – the pinnacle of this particular pyramid? Great! Now I’ve got news for you: goals come in multiples. Rather, they sort of spawn each other like rabbits. You have one main goal. Now we need all the other bricks that go underneath it – a wide foundation, growing smaller towards the top. You have two choices in planning your pyramid: top-down, or ground-up. It’s a matter of personal taste, so do what feels the most natural to you.

Pyramid planning exercise:

We have our main goal, and now we need to carve out the rest of our bricks. Using the back of the sheet of paper you wrote your dreams on (or a fresh one – or, heck, you can make this out of construction paper and glitter glue if you like – have fun), start like this:

Write your three-sided who/what/where goal at the top of the page. If you’re using top-down, think of two things you need that would be your last two steps towards that goal.

Example of the top-down:
I want to be published in novel length paranormal romance by publisher XYZ. I need:
1 polished manuscript worthy of print, and an agent to land me a deal.

(The ground-up method would start with basics and work up from there. You might start with: I need a computer/word processor, I need books on craft XYZ, and genre books, I need a basic
writing class, etc.)

Now, take each of those branches and think of (at least) two things you need in order to get them:

To get an agent, I need:
1. A list of agents and
2. A polished query

To get a print-worthy manuscript, I need:
1. A really great idea
2. Time to write said idea
3. Feedback to help polish the manuscript.

Note: If you have problems with this step, look at your top goal. It might be too general.

And so on. Do you see how your goals branch out and get wider at the bottom? Sort of like a pyramid? Well, use your imagination.

You can be as detailed or as vague as you want in this process, depending on how detail oriented you are. Some people will have 100 tiny bricks (steps) and some just need the 10 major ones to keep them on track. You might also find that some of your ‘bricks’ end up being the same, repeating, or inter-linking. That’s to be expected, if you’ve made your top brick concrete enough. Also, remember to make this subjective. They are always multiple ways of approaching a problem, and this is catered to you – what you need and want, what your strengths and weaknesses are.

The main purpose here is to start seeing the pyramid take form. Maybe some of the bricks you have handled already – that’s terrific. You still need to know what they are and where they go. Maybe there are big holes in your plan and you have no idea what step goes there? Write the question you need answered in its place and below it, put finding a resource to have that question answered. The other thing you will hopefully see is that when setting goals, you can make them tiny manageable pieces, or more general. (Hopefully both.) Just make them concrete.

Pyramids don’t get built overnight.

Once you have your pyramid outlined to a level of detail that is comfortable to you, you’re more than halfway there. Now we can ask ‘When?’

Guess what – the ‘How?’ has taken care of itself! Look at your pyramid again – the how is what you’ve just done. Pat yourself on the back.

The next step is where my previous post on Balance Point fits in. Be honest about your limits and knowing what you can accomplish. I’m not going to tell you: ‘if you really want to be a NYT best-selling author, you will take out a second mortgage on your house, quit your job and write the Great American Novel in the next year.’ Partially because I don’t believe that, and partially because I think that is a very unbalanced way of doing things. Whether your goal is to publish, or simply to complete a work, it shouldn’t come at the cost of other things and people important to you. KNOW YOUR LIMITS.

Now, keeping your limits in mind, write underneath each one of your ‘bricks’ how long you
estimate it will take you to accomplish each of them. Be realistic, and keep your balance point in mind. If you think you can read every how-to book on writing fiction in a year – you’re probably wrong. These estimates can be in rates: two books a month; but they must also
have a TOTAL time required: 12 books at two books a month = 6 months.

And remember, these are your best estimates and don’t have to be 100%. Many will be influenced by things out of your control. I guarantee they will ALL change. That’s okay.

Got that done? All except for the top one right? Here’s a trick – items on the same level of
your pyramid can generally be done concurrently. Add up the longest time frame of each level. This is the minimum amount of time you need to prepare to reach that pinnacle. It might take longer than you initially anticipate, but as long as you keep building, you’ll get there.

I’ll see you at the top.

Things Not Generally Known – 1859…continued

Writer Zen Garden Posted on by

Is it my turn again already? Yes it is, so I am adding to my last blog of ‘Things Not Generally Known’, with pictures of the book I took the information from. My husband and I love old books and occasionally he finds a treasure in one of his favorite haunts. We have two other books that sit by the computer, dictionaries dating from 1867 and 1845. They are quite tatty, but I love them.

The page on the left shows the actual date of the book, 1859. If you click on the pic it should enlarge so that you can read it clearly…I hope.

The cover is very plain, not leather, so I doubt it was an expensive book to begin with. It feels like textured paper. Whoever owned it must have not read it much because it is in very good condition for a book so old.

The spine is the most attractive part of the book. It has gold leaf lettering and a sweet little gold leaf impression under the title that looks like a vine leaf.

I have to include another interesting not generally known fact from the book, they are fascinating. At least I hope they are to all of you reading this blog.

“To Lay in Lavender.
The plant Lavender was formerly considered as an emblem of affection. Drayton, in one of his eclogues, sings:

Some of such flow’rs as to his hand doth pass,
Others such as a secret meaning bear;
He for his lass him lavender hath sent,
Showing his love, and doth requital crave:
His rosemary his sweetheart, whose intent
Is that he should her in remembrance have.

To Lay in Lavender was also a current phrase for to pawn; because things pawned are carefully laid by, like clothes which, to keep them sweet, have lavender scattered among them. Ben Johnson, in Every Man out of his Humour, refers to a black satin suit, which, “for the more sweet’ning, now lies in lavender.”

I love the poem in this quote. The language is so different from what we are used to, it is difficult to understand. But the meaning of the poem comes through anyway. I am very thankful to the people of past era’s who have taken such good care of their books, and that we can benefit from their gentle handling. It would be awful if all the ideas, and writings of the past were lost to us, very sad indeed.

P.S. Eclogue, ek’log, n. A picking out; that which is chosen out; a pastoral poem in which shepherds are introduced conversing with each other. (so the dictionary from 1867 says) 🙂

I Heart Wordle

Writer Zen Garden Posted on by

Yesterday I followed the crumbs from the Paperback Writer blog and discovered the joys of Wordle. It creates abstract word clouds out of a block of text. Now I have one more way to waste hours in cyber-land doing nothing productive, but having oh so much fun. *grin*

I played on that thing for about an hour. And, okay, ‘nothing productive’ isn’t entirely true either. If you’re a very right-brained type, or just a visual person like me, this might be a good tool to keep at hand.

Here’s one I made for my most recent project:

You can play with the font, color scheme, and orientation of the words too. What’s seriously cool is that Wordle takes into account how often a word is used and changes the size in accordance. So, with a quick glance, you can tell the emphasis of the text block you enter (it might be a good idea to take out words like a, the, he, she, etc.).

Looking at this one, it tells me my blurb is right on track: Scarlett-Zyne-witch-amulet, Rook-mission-book-life. The rest of the words are small, meaning I only used them once – as it should be for a blurb.

Review for the movie ‘Wanted’

Writer Zen Garden Posted on by

On Friday, ‘Wanted’ opened and I must tell you I was impressed with this movie. It has been a long time since I wanted to stand up and cheer during a movie. This show had me caught up in its unrelenting pace and breathtaking action sequences. I let it take me away and just enjoyed the ride.

Of course, I had to suspend a lot of belief as well, no matter how special these assassins are, there really is no way to make the path of a bullet curve… but once you get past that and immerse yourself in the ‘universe’ that the writer has created it’s a complete thrill.

The story centers around a boring and ‘insignificant’ man who is taken advantage of by everyone. His girlfriend cheats on him, his boss picks on him, basically he’s a doormat. He’s filling a prescription for depression of all things when beautiful Angelina Jolie shows up and ‘saves his life’ from a mysterious killer.

Once he’s ‘safe’, she tries to convince him he’s an assassin with ‘special talents’ and he’s of course less than accepting of her revelations. Frightening events do begin to happen and finally make him believe that he is the ‘one’ they have been looking for and he joins the fraternity of assassins.

The action sequences in this movie are over the top, especially the train episode at the movie’s climax. But that doesn’t make them unenjoyable, if anything, it adds to the comic book experience. If you don’t enjoy a bit of bloodshed, skip this flick. The violence is gratuitous- the movie is about a bunch of assassins- but is more about ambiance than splattered gore, though there is plenty of that too.

There are at least three ‘twists’ in the movie, they leave you wondering if you really know what’s real and what’s another lie. Paranoia and fear abound, and leave the audience unsure of who to trust, keeping us in the mindset of our hero who remains quite sympathetic throughout despite becoming a cold blooded killer.

I enjoyed watching the ‘adorable’ James McEvoy change from a ‘doormat’ complete with panicked eyes and a blank stare of apathy into a steely eyed killer with a conscience. His face became that of a different man, more attractive and with a purpose, his posture and gait more self-assured. I was also impressed with his ability to lose his Scottish accent and sound like a Midwestern American.

My favorite scenes were when our newly confident hero comes back to confront his cheating girlfriend, boss and best friend. All of these characters deserve their comeuppance and it’s satisfying to watch McEvoy give it to them in spades.

So, in summary, leave your thinking mind at home when you go to see this show. Enjoy it for what it is, a living, breathing comic book with little basis in reality. It’s escapism at its best, and isn’t that why we go to summer movies in the first place?

Things Not Generally Known – 1859

Writer Zen Garden Posted on by

This little book printed in 1859 is an interesting collection of historical and social facts, very pertinent to the times in which it was written. I thought it might be fun to take a look at how they wrote, seeing as we are into writing. Life was so amazingly different over 200 years ago, thoughts, attitudes, manners, inventions, science and medicine are absolutely nothing like today. I randomly chose snippets of information to compare with today’s grammar, spelling and punctuation.

 Wearing the Watch.

The Wearing of a Watch was, till late times, considered in some degree as a mark and proof of gentility; though the invention may be traced back to the 14th century. Watches were even worn ostentatiously hung round the neck to a chain; which fashion has been revived in female dress.

• I didn’t know the watch dated back to the 14th century.

 The Paschal Light.

This was an enormously thick wax-candle, which was lighted on the morning of Easter Day; the wax itself being curiously adorned with grains of incense, and inscribed with the epact, dominical letter, &c.; also the names of the reigning pope, king, and bishop of the diocese, and the date of the consecration of the church.-Hart’s Ecclesiastical Records, &c.

 The Dinner Hour.

The proper Hour for Dinner is laid down by Thomas Cogan, a physician, in a book entitled the Haven of Health, printed in 1584, as follows:
When foure hours bee past after breakfast, a man may safely take his dinner; and the most Convenient time for dinner is about eleven of the clocke before noone. The usuall time for dinner in the universities is at eleven, or elsewhere about noon.

 Juniper.

It was formerly supposed that the wood of Juniper, when once lighted, would remain on fire a whole year if covered with its own ashes. Hence Ben Johnson, in the Alchemist, talk s of the “coal of juniper,” which the tobacconist kept for his customers to light their pipes from.-Nares’s Glossary.

 The Days of the Week.

Ancient deeds are frequently dated the day of the week on which there were executed, e.g. Die Jovis, Die Mercurii, &c.; each day being dedicated to a heathen deity , as follows:

• Dies Solis………………..Sunday
• Dies Lunae……………..Monday
• Dies Martis…………….Tuesday
• Dies Mercurii…………Wednesday
• Dies Jovis……………..Thursday
• Dies Veneris…………Friday
• Dies Saturni………….Saturday

In some ancient deeds we find the equivalent terms Dies Dominica for Sunday, and Dies Sabbati for Saturday.

These Latin designations are also generally used in entries in the account-books of surgeons and apothecaries.

 March-Pane.

This, one of the glories of olden confectionery, is a sweet biscuit, composed of sugar and almonds, like those now called macaroons. It is also called massepain in some old books. The word March-pane exists, with little variation, in almost all the European languages; yet the derivation of it is uncertain. In the Latin of the Middle Ages, March-panes were called Martiipanes.

• In Australia this same sweet is called Marzipan, still made with sugar and almonds hundred of years later. Do you have this sweet in the U.S.? Does it have the same name and do you use it underneath the hard white icing on Wedding cakes?

 How To Avoid Sleepless Nights.

Mr. A. J. Ellis has announced to the Scottish Curative Mesmeric Association, that persons wishing to avoid sleepless nights should lie with their heads to the north, and not on any account lie with their heads to the west.

• I added this for my friend’s who suffer from insomnia. This may be valuable advice. Turn you bed around and see if you sleep better; let us all know if it works.

The language in this book is old fashioned, and the spelling is giving my Word Document software a fit with all the different spellings, there are little red squiggly lines littered all over the page. That alone makes this book very interesting, as the changes in the English language over hundreds of years are immense. The differences in punctuation are also quite remarkable. I wonder if the American form of English has changed so much in the last 200 years? I am interested to know how much it has changed and in what ways.

The example of English from the year 1584 reminds us that language is always evolving, changing to suit the times. It is interesting how language models itself around new inventions, scientific developments, economic and business prosperity and of course the social changes that are constantly occurring in our world.

Old books contain information that allows us to look back into a world we will never see again. I believe they give us much better insight into the past than modern day historians. We can never go back to living in those times, but we do write about them and original books of factual information are invaluable to us as writers.

Just Getting Started is the Hardest Part

Writer Zen Garden Posted on by

Well, it’s official. I am a triathlete. Two days ago I competed in the US Women’s Triathlon Series race in Illinois, and all in all, I had a wonderful experience. I’m not very fast, and I was racing with an injury, so I finished in the last third of the competitors. But I got something far more valuable than a win, I gained a great new perspective.

Everyone I’ve talked to in the past two days has congratulated me on finishing the triathlon, and even as I planned and trained for the race, finishing was my only goal. But Sunday morning, I learned that finishing isn’t really the hardest part of the race. Starting is. That morning, every possible excuse for not starting the race was running through my mind. I had an injury, my son was sick, the weather might not cooperate, and my stomach was upset. I had a million reasons why I didn’t want to start, and I know that no one would have blamed me if I backed out at the last minute. But I wasn’t doing this for anyone else, I was doing it for me.

I pushed all those excuses out of my mind, and I started the race. Once I got going, it was just a matter of doing what I had trained to do. Two hours later, I had done it. Finishing wasn’t nearly as hard as starting was.

So why am I blogging about this on the Writer’s Retreat? What does this have to do with writing? Well, for me this was an interesting revelation. I always tend to focus on the importance of finishing. If I don’t think I’ll be able to complete something, I tend to talk myself out of even trying. This has certainly always been true when I write and for that reason, I rarely start any writing projects. The problem with that theory, is that since I’m not starting, I have no chance whatsoever to finish anything.

So, I’m going to try to take this lesson from the triathlon and apply it to the other aspects of my life, especially writing. I need to shift my focus away from the all the reasons why I can’t do something and reward myself when I have the courage and determination to start projects that might be difficult to complete. After all, starting is the hardest part.

The Manuscript Graveyard

Writer Zen Garden Posted on by
My last post must have been a tad over the top, so in an effort to keep this blog rolling and not get it bogged down with the nonsense in my brain, this one is short and sweet.

Does anyone else fear the manuscript graveyard, or is it just me?

If you boil the journey to publication down to it’s barest bones, here’s how it goes: write, submit, repeat.

Simple, right?

Except . . . what happens when you get beyond that step? What do you do when one of your submissions comes back to you with a rejection letter (it DOES happen). Or worse, you get nothing back at all? It just got lost in the vacume of editor-space and the ghost is hovering on your hard drive . . .

How do you keep writing, keep submitting, keep repeating when the corpses of rejected stories keep piling up?

I mean, how sad is the thought that you just keep writing, pouring your blood, sweat and tears into these words, these bytes of consciousness, and they just come back to you to be buried?

Pretty fricking depressing, if you ask me. And my graveyard is growing . . .

So, I thought to myself, ‘this simply won’t do’.

Time to kick over those headstones, those mental blocks that tell me the story is pathetic and will never be published, and breathe some life back into these manuscripts.

If you’re thinking ‘I don’t want to spend time nursing a rejected story back to life, I just want to make the next one better’, trust me, I’m with you. BUT, there’s no reason that a little effort here and there won’t eventually cycle one of your older stories into the right hands, or effect just the right change to bring it back to life. Right? As writers, we have to have faith that we have something to say – something worth reading. Not everything will be our best, but it’s all worthwhile.

I haven’t tested this theory, but here is my plan:

In simple, baby steps, I’m going to convert my graveyard into a garden.

Now, a garden needs tending – pruning, weeding, watering – you get the idea.

The steps:

1. Open up your ‘dead’ manuscript and read it through once – not with an editing eye, but with a reader’s eye. Ask yourself – do you still enjoy this story? If you have no idea what you were on about, or you just cringe – it might be a weed. We’re all sure to have a few of those. Put it in a ‘weeds’ folder and move on. DO NOT beat yourself up about it.

2. If you enjoy the story, if you still feel it – maybe it just needs pruning or watering. And by that I mean – does it drag, or is it incomplete? Can you trim it down (FYI – the answer is yes – you can always trim it down) and make your message/theme clearer? Or, does it really beg for a deeper explanation? Pay attention to the feedback you’ve received on it, if any, and try to be objective. Design a designator, like P for pruning, or W for watering, or just move the files into their prospective folders.

3. For each of the non-weeds, come up with at least 3 places where you could possibly ‘plant’ the story after its revision. There are TONS of possible homes out there, and if you’re actively submitting, you know where they are. 😉

4. Commit some time to your good seeds. Prune, water. Do what you have to do. Don’t drop everything you’re doing, but get it rolling in the background at a reasonable rate – one piece a month, or whatever works for you.

5. Get them out there! You’re garden won’t grow if you never plant it! Again, find a comfortable rate and stick to it. If you’re going to have one or two or ten submissions out there at a time, do it. Don’t let those corpses pile up. Keep revising, keep submitting. Keep tending your garden.

And keep the faith that your sunshine is just around the corner!