Perspective//New Problems Are Good Problems

It's amazing how time and distance can grant perspective, especially when you're trying to revise a manuscript that's Just Not Working.

I'm the kind of person who struggles to accept anything that's Just Not Working. Call it hardheadedness, a stubborn streak several miles wide, whatever, but I'm a grit-my-teeth-til-it-gets-done sorta person. And for the most part, it's worked well for me.

But not lately. Not in my writing. I've been trying to get a choke-hold on some perspective for months now.

But the thing about perspective is you can't tackle it, pin it, make it tap. It yields to no one, no matter how ugly a face you make at it or what names you call its momma.

Lately the feelings of impatience and behindness (today a word) have been suffocating. Why can't I finish this manuscript? Why does this thing still stink to high heaven? Why can't I query yet? Why why why why followed by a thousand general internal boo-hoos and lamentations. My cousin's a psychologist, and after a very general Hi-how-are-you?-oh-I'm-frustrated conversation, she encouraged me to write down exactly what I thought my problem was in hopes it would spark a solution. It didn't take me long to come up with the following:

My problem is me and my manuscript that refuses to go all Handyman Dan and fix itself already.

Stubborn as I may be, actually writing and reading those words made me realized what was necessary. I needed perspective, and the only way to get that was through some time and distance. Both of which I hate. There's nothing worse than idle hands when you're trying to be productive. But then I finally realized something. Trying to fix my manuscript without knowing what, exactly the problem was (or which new direction to take) was about as productive as repeatedly running into the same wall. So I gave in. Stuck the story, which in a fit of temper frustration got renamed THAT DAMN BOOK, in the proverbial drawer and didn't even open the file for two months. Did my best to forget about the thing and anything associated with it. Piddled around and wrote something else for NaNo that hasn't really gone anywhere but that's okay.

A few days ago, I reopened THAT DAMN BOOK. Read a little, made a some notes. Realized where I went wrong, developed a couple potential solutions and decided to just start over from a clean slate. I'm about 10k in now and I can already see the improvement. I'll run into new problems I'm sure, but I can guarantee I won't have the same issues as I did with the first version. And that's learning for me: not screwing up the same way twice.

All it took was a lot of patience, a bit of time and some damned old perspective.

#

How's everybody else doing? How'd NaNo go? Hope it's all bueno :)


Currently listening to The Perishers//My Heart

Why I lack productivity.

 I have a good reason--I swear.

(Double swears!)

PUPPIES! :)

Get something done with these guys yipping and squirming around?

Right.

Puppy Jumble. :)



Since this photo, all their little noses have turned black.
In Rhodesian Ridgebacks, liver/brown noses are resultant of
a homozygous recessive pigment gene. The sire of this litter has a
brown nose, meaning he is homozygous recessive for that particular gene.
The dam has a black nose--meaning she could either* be homozygous
 dominant or a heterozygote (one 'brown copy' of the gene and one 'black copy').
However, given that all the puppies wound up having black noses, it's highly
likely that the dam is homozygous dominant (and therefore the puppies are heterozygotes).



She may seem content, but in reality she was growling at me the whole
time I was snapping these photos. Basically, the ideal momma dog.





Alas, even playing the puppy card has its limits. So now I'm back to work in this area.

(Is it any wonder I don't get much done?)

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday!

~l

*given that I don't remember what her parents were--otherwise the alleles would have been pretty easy to figure out, once you do all the probability stuff.

Oh, Amazon,

how you tease me. Look what showed up in my inbox today as a suggested purchase:
(You may need to click on it to read...the text is a little smallish.)

I think it is a sign.

Like, 'Hello, Lee. Get off blogger and go write. Right now.'

*Will not argue with the AmazonGods.*
*going*


Currently listening to Thought I'd Never Call? by James Newton Howard

What do you feel when

you come up with the perfect title for your manuscript?

Glee?

Elation?

Relief?

Me, well, I feel all of those. Especially because coming up with the perfect title* for my current project has been a long road, and I don't feel like I can really work on something unless it has a name beyond WIP1 or @)(*&Q#$)(*%)@#(*!!!!! (<---This is a common stand in.)

No title is like not naming your children until they are 18 and headed out the door.** Too late. I try and make my titles capture the essence of the book in question, so once I find a fitting one I hang onto it for dear life. It's my fall back when I lose my theme or core of my story.

So, yeah. Call me a big bundle of Gleelation (that's really happeh, people.) I found the one.

Relieved? You bet. Which is probably what Wendy Corsi Staub felt when her work finally got the go-ahead title:

along with Mr. Green

and George Pelecanos

The HELL TO PAY by Wendy Corsi Staub was the book that brought about this blog post. Hot off the gleelation of finding a title for my WIP, I was perusing the book aisle at walmart when I saw it. The sight prompted me to first burst out laughing and then to do a quick search on Amazon, which is what led me to the others. There's even a Hillary Clinton book with Hell to Pay in the title. Needless to say, this just reinforces the belief that creativity is unlimited, but ideas aren't.

Just when you go a'thinking you're somethin' speshul.... Yeah. Not so much.

Consolation: None of those books are anywhere near mine in terms of theme or plot. Hell, none of them are even the same genre. So no harm, no foul.

Have a great one, everybody :).

*Yes, I know that titles usually get changed, but com'on--this one's perfect. (because I'm the only one with a perfect title...LOL.)

**This is a bad metaphor, I know. Books aren't children. And the writers who treat them as such generally end up never getting them out the door. That's right, those bookbabies become 40 year-old stay-at-home children who crow about the glory days of high school and wipe potato chip grease on your recliners.

in which I bemoan my lack of progress.

NaNoWriMo is right around the corner. Upon us(me). Looming. Imminent.

Yikes.

There's so much for me to do between now and November 1st it's not funny. The Painted Queen is thisclose to being a completed first draft. It's sitting at 70k right now. I thought I could wrap up everything around 75k and expand through edits, but it looks like I was wrong-o. (insert le sigh here.) I've taken to writing short snippets (~500 words) that capture the bare bones of the scenes and can be fleshed out later. As is, I've got about 14 of them to write.

Probably time to get crackin'.

Beyond that, I'm really excited to begin the new WIP, tentatively titled Hell to Pay. Like I've said before, it's been driving me crazy. I'm so excited, in fact, I've forgotten how I wanted to open the damn thing. Openings are hard for me. Like many newish writers, my stories usually begin about three chapters beyond where I start them. I'm determined to begin Hell to Pay right where it needs to--only I'm not sure where that is anymore. #fail.

I downloaded a free trial of Scrivener software, mainly because they claim to make the first draft easier (which sounds like an impossibility to me, but I'll give it a go) and offer a discount on the full version if you 'win' NaNo. To be honest though, I'm not sure I'll figure out how to use the darn thing before Nov. 1, so I'll probably just stick to good old MS Word. The concept of Scrivener sounds fabulous, and I'm sure it works for many people, but I'm not sure I have enough patience to fiddle with it when I could be writing away on my normal word processor.

Although, with the new schedule I've set up for myself, I might actually have some free time to figure out Scrivener. Because I'm only writing my thesis and working this semester, I'm really having trouble getting in a routine and many things have suffered because of it. (My jeans, for instance. They seem to have shrank from the spite.) November is my opportunity to adopt a schedule, all while writing furiously.

Basically, in the next 35 hours I need to write 8-10k, figure out Scrivener software, grocery shop, grade 200 papers, do laundry, and drive back home. Not too bad, right?

Oh. Right.

And outline the novel I'm going to write like a madwoman, because it hasn't been done yet.

Crap.

What I'm Writing.

Yes, I am writing. (Not really blog posts, obviously. I'll do better. Promise.)

So. What am I writing? *DeepBreath*

My thesis.

(Yikes)

I'm about to be working on the the Discussion section.

(DoubleYIKES)

It is a scary thing, folks. And to give you an idea of how it's going, I leave you this:

Character Traits: The Baddest of the Bad.

this is mah worried face. im so cuute.

Meet Roo. (He's that adorable bugger on the left, pictured at 9 weeks old.) (Roughly 70lbs ago...eeee!)

Roo is adorable.

Roo is funny.

Roo is Bad.

Roo is, above all things, a character.

The Rundown.
Name/Aliases: Lord Remington LaRoo of Tsavo. Roo. Rooster. Rue. BadDog. MarleyWho? Torpe Torpedo. No (<--- this is the one he answers to most often.)

Puppy Group: Rhodesian Ridgeback

Character Traits

• Positive: Fun-loving, outgoing, energetic. Loves a good walk. Great companion. Excellent jogging buddy, crumb-picker-upper. Happy ALL THE TIME. Adorable. Good with kids and strangers. Low Key.
• Negative: (These are the faults, because every character needs them.) Demanding. Juvenile. Only barfs on the carpet, never the tile. Has terribly destructive affinity for cords of all colors and constitutions. Chases the DemonCat. Tail Wags at perfect height to clear coffee table in one swoop. Eats flipflops with unbounded passion. Enjoys un-potting grandma's flowers and other plantlife. Digs deep and random holes in the backyard, much to the chagrin of momma when she's walking around outside without the usual Constant Vigilance.

The Skinny: Roo is the happiest dog I've ever met. He also is the only dog I've ever wanted to strangle because he escaped and ran off for 4 hours while I was at home at my parents*. He has, in no uncertain terms, been the most destructive canine I have ever owned. However, all the negatives are off-set by his intense adorability (OH HAI, FAKE WORD!). Some days it's his only redeeming quality. (Well you know, besides being so happy all the time.) Even when he does something atrocious, like eat momma's netbook charger (the only one I have), his adorableness only decreases by two points for thirty seconds. That's the power of adorable, people.

In short, this is a fake blog post about characters. Okay, that's not true. This is a real blog post about (sorta) real characters. Make them real. Make them awesome. And make them adorable**.


hai. im bad.

*he returned unscathed, and (of course) happy as a lark.
**If they are villains, then this:

Hey, even villains need to be adora--erm...have redeeming qualities. Or at least a motive as to why they assassinate da flipfloppers. And when I did this in paint the ball and chain weren't floating, promise.

WordCountStuffs.

Short post here, as I don't have much to say (count yer blessings). Latest WIP busted into the 20k-ish range, which makes me pretty happy. I've seen on other blogs and AW that loads of writers reward themselves when that pesky word count reaches certain milestones: I think that's a wondiferous idea. I think a celebration every 10k is warranted, so obviously I get to have twice the party. :). Yes, I'm back-partying, cuz it's mah prerogative.

Anyway, whilst celebrating my two word count parties--I'm eating 2 cookies right now--I'm trying to remind myself not to enslave my person to that darn button, no matter how fun it is to click (sometimes). *Sigh*

It's hard being so complicated. I mean conflicted. I mean confused. Compulsive?

Anyways, I have a funny feeling that this rough draft is going to end up on the shorter side.

Tools --> Word Count sez so.

/writerfail.

*****

ps. Tell me I'm not the only one who struggles with the WC issue(s). Support group? Stepwise program? Something (besides more cookies)? (Ignore the last, more cookies is always a groovy idea.)