Sara's Best

Woo Woo Moment

I have a friend who's into a lot of heavy spiritual, self-help, new age stuff.  Whenever she's about to do a blog entry that includes some story about an experience with her life coach or her chakra alligner she always warns her readers by titling it "Woo Woo Post."

Well, I had a Woo Woo moment today at the bookstore.  I recently read this lovely essay by novelist Alexander Chee about his time studying under Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard at Wesleyan University.  He recalled how she told her students to "Go up to the place in the bookstore where your books will go. Walk right up and find your place on the shelf. Put your finger there, and then go every time."

Well, when I found myself in the bookstore today I couldn't resist. 

I snuck over to the "B" shelf in the fiction section, found where Best would fit and shoved my finger in.  I have to admit, it made me smile to think of a book spine sitting there with my name on it.  But then, the Woo Woo moment hit when I heard the sweet sound of Michael Buble singing "Georgia On My Mind" over the store's speaker.  For those of you who don't know, my novel is set in Georgia, one of it's main characters is named Georgia, and it was at one time called GEORGIA.  As a result, that song carries a great deal of meaning for me.

So there I stood, holding my finger in the magic spot, listening to that song and feeling a whole lot of Woo Woo.

Back to the Drawing Board

I wrote a book.  It took me about three years from first idea to finished first draft.  Now I'm pretty much chucking it out and starting again.

Why?  Well, I gave it to a couple of people whose opinions I trust immensely and they gave me some excellent feedback about some serious flaws in my story structure.  When I listened to what they were saying I could see it as plain as day.  But, the funny thing was that, despite all the work that I put into that draft, the idea of completely guttting it and starting again didn't honestly bother me that much.  I was excited by the new ideas that had been suggested, eager to take my characters and start writing a better story for them, and energized by the idea of the work ahead.  Crazy, right?

Anyway, I've gone back to the outline stage with the same characters but a very different story structure for them.  It's going to be a better book, I know that.  I don't regret those three years that I spent on the original draft.  I learned a lot about how to write a book and I got to know my characters really well.  They say that writing is really rewriting and boy, they weren't kidding!

Opening the Door

In his book, ON WRITING, Stephen King talks about the important difference between "closed door writing" and "open door writing." Closed door writing is what you do at the beginning of the process when it's just you and your ideas and the page.  The door is closed so no one is watching and you're free to do whatever comes to mind without having to worry about the opinion or judgment of others.

But, there comes a time when you've cut and pasted and re-worked and rearranged and you have something that resembles a beginning, middle and end and then the time has come. Books are meant to be read and, at some point, that closed door needs to open and others must be allowed to join you in your make believe world.  You hope they like it.  You hope they don't look around and say, "This is what you've been up to for the past three years?"

Until now my door has been closed and only a handful of chapters have been allowed out to meet the world.  But, today I opened the door and gave my husband my book to read.  I really hope he likes it in here.

Learn From the Best

Sorry I've been away for so long.  I've been deep in edits trying to get draft number three done.  I've now gone through the entire ms and, if my kids ever stop asking for snacks or trying to kill one another, I will soon be able to sit down and start entering my edits. 

In the meantime, Nathan Bransford posted a query letter he received that sent him "into a partial requesting frenzy." The query was from from Lisa Brackmann who's novel ROCK, PAPER, TIGER (great title) will be published in 2010.  Check out her letter.

Second Draft

The second draft of GEORGIA is done.  Phew! 

It took me three months to do the second draft and I'm happy with how things are shaping up.  I feel a bit like I'm on a trek from Toronto to Florida and have made it to Buffalo so far.  But, progress is still progress and, as someone recently reminded me, Georgia is considerably north of Florida so I'm closer than I think ;)

Still a lot of work to be done to get a third draft finished but once the third draft is done my plan is to ask a few friends - whose opinion I trust - to act as beta-readers.  Then I'll take that feedback and come up with a fourth draft which I will give to my parents who are editors extraordinaire.  Draft five and perhaps six will come out of that and then I think this baby will be ready to push out of the nest.

My goal is to reach that point by December 31, 2009.

The Middle Bit

I went to my son's school's monthly award ceremony yesterday - or what my husband likes to refer to as the "Celebration of Mediocrity." 

Basically one morning each month all the primary grades file into the gym and a handful of kids are given awards for no apparent reason other than the fact that they're enrolled in the school.  They spread it out so that every kid gets a chance to get an award.  They don't do it alphabetically - that would be too obvious - but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some eeny-meeny-miney-moe going on.

Their names are called out and the Principal gives them a certificate and their parents all elbow each other out of the way to capture the moment on film.  My son is four and a half and when he got his certificate he called out to me in the audience, "Mommy, what's this for?"

A very good question.  The school is clearly going through this exercise as a way of building self esteem and making all the kids feel good as award winners.  But what's the point if you don't even know what you won the award for?  Can the effect be faked?  Can you make someone feel good about doing something they never did?  I don't think so.

You can't get past the fact that, no matter how hard the school system or management in the workplace might try, people need to do the hard work in order to really feel proud at the end.  You have to do the middle bit.

It's like writing my novel.  I want to get "the call" from an agent who wants to represent me.  I want to sell my book to an editor.  I want to see it on the shelf in the bookstore.  But I can't get there without doing all the hard work in between wanting it and getting it.  I could stop editing now and just self-publish it and throw myself a little book launch party here at the house but that wouldn't work.  It wouldn't scratch the itch that I have to succeed in this business because I would know it was fake. 

There's just no getting around it - you have to do the middle bit.

Infuriating

This makes me crazy! 

Being on a reality show does not mean you can write a novel! 

I'll admit it, I watched The Hills off and on over the years and, unless she's been hiding the hours and hours of writing and editing and reading and attending writer's groups that she's been doing over the years, this girl has never even thought about writing beyond the signing of credit card receipts. 

And this morning she was on The Early Show pushing her debut novel.

It's so wrong.

I guess I should look on the bright side. She appeals to a young audience that may not have been big readers in the past and they may actually buy this book and some of them may decide that they like reading and try something else, and then something else, and then you have more people buying books which is good for all of us, right?

Still makes me crazy though.

Ah, that's better

I got my fix today.  Spent the whole day (minus time to pick up the car from the shop and get a few groceries) working on the book.  I didn't make a whole lot of headway as I've reached a section that has required a lot of work and even two brand new chapters, but it was great just to be back into the story.  I'm hoping to do it again tomorrow.

Separation Anxiety

This is the fourth day in a row that I have been unable to find the time to continue on with my second draft of "Georgia." It's left me grumpy and stressed and no fun for my family to live with.

Between work and family I have a limited amount of time that I get to use for the book and when it gets taken away by the car that needs to be taken to the shop or the grocery shopping that needs to be done or the hair that needs to be cut or the birthday party that needs to be planned, it leaves me feeling very unsettled and out of sorts.  There is so much work to be done on the book and it's not getting done and that's pushing me ever further away from reaching my goal of seeing this book published one day.

I need more hours in the day!!

Progress

I'm making good progress in my edits this week.  I got through chapters five and six today and I'm quite happy with the changes I've made.  One of the things I've been concerned about with this book is pacing and I feel like I've really improved that as I've been editing.  Onto chapter seven tomorrow!

Some great links to share:

One from Nathan Bransford who offers a very helpful list to use when doing revisions (I may tack it up on my wall for the next couple of months).

The other from Tess Gerritsen about the importance of listening to critique and taking advice.

Now it's time to switch from writer-mode to mommy-mode.  I'm off to pick up the kids from the bus, tidy up the house and get dinner ready.