one day, i’d like to take a typewriter to the beach and write. #summerplans #craigslistcanyouhelp #wishlist
Tag Archives: writing
le sigh
it didn’t go as well as i hoped–today’s writing i mean. the trouble with having an outline is that i feel a bit “boxed in.” as if now there’s no room for creativity; i just need to check things off the list as i fill them into the story. technically everything i intended to put in chapter three is now done. the chapter is only about half as long as it should be… the fun words are left out, i suspect. i need to fill in some more details about characters, create the scene a little better, put in some red herrings, etc. my characters are coming along well, i suppose. my main two are going to be thrust into the role of amateur detectives soon…if i can ever get around to killing the victim off. still setting the stage for that. and trying to keep the writing real and the story engaging. i knew it was going to be a little difficult, but i’m finding it even trickier than that now that i made this outline. on the one hand, its a good thing. on the other hand, how can i get back into the fun groove of writing? when i wrote the first chapter, i was just having fun with it. now it feels more mechanical. also i have a headache. and i’m tired. so maybe that’s part of it. (i would complain that the weather is dreary, but i feel like those of you who don’t live in southern california have no sympathy for a complaint against mid-60s, only partially-sunny weather. #spoiledrotten #iknow :D)
here’s a picture of the car i am using in my book.
manifesto today
today i will write the second chapter of my murder mystery.
i will get off of facebook, twitter, flickr, wordpress, delicious, nytimes, etsy, and the national review online. i will not get distracted by pinterest, cool photo blogs, fun friendly blogs, or whatever is on dvr. today i will write. if i hit a wall, i will take a little break. perhaps i will bake a cherry pie to clear my head. and then i will come back to the keyboard, back to the plot. i will write a chapter.
and if i cannot do that, i will not get discouraged:
i will write the rest tomorrow, the next day, and the day after.
(feel free to harass me later to see if i actually followed through with this.)
win a prize!
yes, you! you can win a prize! (i mean if you want it. not that you would. but if you do.)
i’ve decided to give a prize to whoever submits the 1000th comment on this blog (spam excluded). based on currect statistics, i figure it will happen toward the end of the month. the prize is a framed scrabble sentence. in an ideal world, you will get brand-spanking-new sentence of your very own…but if creativity deserts me, you may end up with a copy of the free singing sparrow.
i thought about adding all kinds of restrictions to this contest (no more than 2 comments per post per person, no comments under 3 characters in length, no comments that are completely unrelated to the post, etc.), but then i felt like that wasn’t necessary. you guys are fun, and you’re great people; i trust you. just try to keep it legit, ok :) furthermore, you have no way of knowing if you’re the 1000th comment or not. you could write a ton on one post only, but that might not do the trick! (and that wouldn’t be legit. so you wouldn’t do it :)
wordpress counts all comments made on any page or post, so it’s all fair game. and don’t worry, i’ll try to post things that are worthy of comments with decent regularity.
the quest for the prize starts NOW.
bang.
swoosh
thanks to nike, my former roomie, and ken follett, i have completed the outline for my first full-length murder mystery. actually, my first murder mystery of any length. and, to be fair, my first outline for a full-length story of any kind. it’s a big day. i thank nike for that quote from earlier, my roomie for pinning it, and follett for this quote:
“The research is the easiest. The outline is the most fun. The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out. The rewrite is very satisfying.” Ken Follett
to be honest, i mis-remembered this quote all day while i slaved away over the outline. in my head, ken kept saying “the outline is the hardest,” and i kept thinking, “just get through this part; it’s the hardest. the rest will be super fun.” apparently not for ken. but i think for me the outline actually was the hardest. it certainly wasn’t the most fun. but i’m super glad i got it done; i feel confident now that i can crank out a first draft in the upcoming weeks. woot woot.
murder, she keeps trying to write
i feel like i’m fairly well-acquainted with the literary world of murder and crime. i’ve read (almost) everything by dame agatha, sir arthur conan, and carolyn keene/franklin w. dixon. i tried to get into sayers, but couldn’t handle her narrative style and pd james is sometimes too dark for me; georgette heyer is a nice medium between the two. i don’t like thrillers—i’m not reading for an adrenaline rush. i trapeze for that. or wash my dark clothes in hot water. i read mysteries because i like to think about things while i’m reading, to put pieces together, and so on. i want detail, and i want a story that’s meant for me to try and solve it. furthermore, i don’t want to read about sex crimes. i don’t want to read about anything that can give me nightmares. i just like clean, old-fashioned mysteries.
but it seems like i’ve read them all. (note: i just found out about a new series that might be right in line with my taste–ill keep you posted.) so, recently i decided that since there were no more mysteries to read, i should write my own. (i have to give a shout-out to toni morrison on this account; she is quoted as saying, “if there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”)
i had two characters in mind and they were easy and fun to put down on paper. i wrote a chapter just introducing them, getting the setting in place, and so on. the hard part was next: outlining the story. i’ve been trying to work on it for a while now. and sometimes putting it off, then picking it up, etc. but i’ve reached the point (at last) where the rubber must hit the road. im ready to piece the last bit of the plot together, finish the outline, and start writing–not just a fun first chapter, but the legit stuff. writing for realsies.
today my former roomie pinned an awesome poster (above), and while she is using those words to motivate her to work out, i’m using it to motivate me to write. yesterday i did say tomorrow. so today, i’m writing.
the art of communication (if not conversation)
Over the past few days I’ve been trying to resuscitate letter-writing in my own life–writing a note or card to friends as I think about them. No more than one a day, though, because otherwise I would overdo it and then neverdo it again :)
In the course of this attempt, I’ve been impressed with how HARD it is to write a real letter. When I first started, I would just grab paper and sit down and write out my babblings. It’s certainly the mode of communication that comes most naturally now; it’s basically handwriting an email. But I began to wonder last night if letter-writing isn’t quite the same as email. It seems like there might be something that’s very particular to composing a proper letter. I mean, clearly, you can send letters that are just babblings. I’ve sent a bunch this week :) So what’s the difference? Is there really a difference or am I over-thinking things again?
Ok, hold on to that thought. I’m going to come back to it.
Another thing I’ve been considering this week is how little I rely on my words. That sounds funny. I think of my friends who have children, who tell their child, “use your words” when the child tries to communicate with noises, grunts, screams, or pointing. “Use your words.” And I’ve been realizing how I sort of stopped using my words to communicate–oh, I use them in writing this blog, of course–but I mean in other things. In commenting on others’ blogs. Or when I post something on Fb (a link or whatever) and I’m supposed to write a description. “I love this” or “Lol” or whatever is my usual default. But what about considering why I love that person’s post, that link, that comment. What is the particular thing that made me want to reply, want to post it?
I feel like this kinda goes back to my talking + listening post. As if I have gotten so used to just throwing out words that now I’m not even throwing out words–I’m just throwing out pieces of a conversation, hoping someone else will take notice? I’m not really sure if I can pinpoint my exact feelings here. (#badmetaphysicalmetaphors)
All this made me want to be more effective with my words. Not to write better, per se, but to write so as to communicate. If I post a link on pinterest, I’d like to say what I like about it. When I post a link to Fb–why do I think you should read this? When I comment on your blog, what was it that really connected with me? I’d like to start thinking about these things when I write/post/reply. I thought about making a little poster design that said “Bring Words Back.” I want to bring words back into “fashion.” To write why I loved things instead of just that I did. To explain myself in words instead of just posting/liking/”lol”ing to indicate my approval. On the one hand, this takes more time–but maybe that’s a good thing for me. Maybe it would be good to slow down a little when “listening,” and that would help me in my “talking.” (I use those two words in quotes figuratively, in reference to yesterday’s post–where talking and listening include things like writing a blog and commenting on it, sending texts and answering them, etc.)
I think a lot my thoughts about this topic are due to the awesome comments I’ve gotten on this blog lately. I’ve appreciated them all so much; they’ve been weighty, which is to say, they’ve been thoughtful, even when they aren’t lengthy. They indicate that you read and thought about what I wrote. I would like to write such comments back. Your comments have prompted further thinking on my part, further considerations and new trains of thought. I know that writing such comments isn’t always easy; I speak from my own experience. I LOVE reading blogs, and i STRUGGLE with commenting. But I’d like to learn how. If this is one way our society is now using to communicate, I’d like it to be a two-way street (like a phone call :).
And I would like to write in that kind of way when I write letters. On the one hand, I am writing letters because I miss people, because I am thinking of them; on the other hand, if I’m going to spend the time to write a letter by hand, I’d like it to be because I have something I want to say. Maybe it won’t be eloquent and well-written in a formal way, and knowing me there will always be a lot of babblings involved :) — but I’d like to get to a point where I add thought to my words :) (Those of you who know me personally should mark that I said such a thing on your calendars. I’m definitely of the speak-first-think-later persuasion :p)
Again, please, no one take any of this the wrong way. As I’m re-reading it, I’m concerned that people might think I don’t like small comments or that they can’t write “LOL” on my blog. No, seriously, this egotist would LOVE LOVE LOVE to know that you LOL’d when you read something I wrote. This really is a post about my own approach to communicating via writing (versus creative writing, I guess, is what I’m trying to say by that). I do have this sort of urge to communicate with people; I’m a definite extrovert. But I don’t want to end up talking so much that I don’t listen (in the physical or figurative sense); and I don’t want to end up throwing out words so casually that people have nothing to “pick up” when they want to converse with me.
