Writing with Your Gluteus Maximus

     It's Monday. It's raining. I left the windows down in my car last night.  Does it get any better than this?

      What I really want to do is curl up in front of the fire with my dog, a comforter and a supremely scary book I started Friday and didn't have time to read over the weekend. I left the two main characters stranded in the desert with two creepy teens that I just know are going to turn out to be serial killers.

     Instead, I am writing. That's what I do. There are writers like Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates who I suspect are married to their computers, their output is so prodigious. I just know they arise every morning, a song in their hearts and the next chapter bursting from their fingertips.

    I am not one of those people.

    For one thing, I am not a morning person. I literally walk into walls until noon. Not a good trait if you are a teacher or a mother, and I am both. I am a night writer. My creative mind doesn't kick into gear until about three in the afternoon---about the same time I pick up my daughter from school, and my second job kicks in--mother to a high maintenance sixteen-year-old. (For those of you who are trying to write with toddlers at home, I hate to tell you this but writing-mothering never gets easier.) By midnight, my creative mind has turned to mush.  So, like it or not, I have become a daytime writer. My work day is 8 am to 3 pm, pretty much the same hours I taught.

   When I taught, I had a forty five minute drive to turn my brain on (listening to NPR helped a lot).  Now, I have to hit the ground running morning at 5:45, to get my daughter (also not a morning person) going. Fortunately I have a husband who can save the world by 9 am or no one would ever accomplish anything before noon.

   With them gone, my brain in neutral, I listen to a half hour of NPR (my mental jumper cables), take my cup of coffee, and plunk my gluteus maximus in front of the computer. (This is known as BIC---butt in chair.) My mind protesting all the way, I start writing. I promise myself to write for 15 minutes, even if I am only typing "I can't think. I want to go back to bed. I want to take the dog for a walk."

    A more disciplined person than I could probably do all those things, and still have a productive writing day. But I am a Master Procrastinator. Going back to bed will lead to reading in bed, which will lead to reading until the book is done....and so is my writing day. So it's BIC for fifteen minutes.

     Most days, in those fifteen minutes, my brain turns on and picks up where I left off yesterday. Or it comes up with something that has been percolating on the back burner for awhile. Before I know it, three or four hours are gone (that's as long as my fingers can work even on the best of days). Three or four hours are up, and now I can take the dog for a walk (where I will probably going on thinking, planning tomorrow's work.)

    Some days, however, are total duds. Fifteen minutes of BIC, and I still have nothing to show for it. I used to make myself stare at a blank computer screen for hours, waiting for the Muse to arrive. I don't know about you, but staring at a blank screen for hours will eventually lead to a "quick" game of solitaire or Boggle, to "stimulate" my brain. Who am I kidding? And of course, the longer I Boggle, the guiltier I feel about not writing....and well, the beat goes on. Eventually I had to accept that there are going to be days when fifteen minutes is all that is going to happen. Sometimes I write something really great in those fifteen minutes....and can't go any further. It's a relief to know I have fulfilled my personal commitment, even if it didn't have the results I want.

     As writers, I am sure you have at least three people a month ask you how they can "write their story."
(Or sometimes it's "how can I get my book published?" only to learn that "the book" has not been written.)

     "Here is the secret to writing," I say in a mysterious voice.  The would-be-writer leans toward me, ready to drink in my literary wisdom.

     "B-I-C," I say. Sometimes the other person actually writes this down. Mostly they blink and ask "Un- BIC? Like you use a Bic pen?"

     "No, it means Butt-in-Chair. Lots of Butt-in-Chair. You could write standing up; I hear Thomas Wolfe did. But most of us write better sitting. For long periods of time. Day after day."

     And now, having applied my gluteus maximus to couch for an hour and a half (there are variations), I will go wipe the rain off my car seats.

     Does it get any better than this?

     Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Adventures on a YALSA Poetry Panel in Albuquerque for Poetry Friday!

xxx

Howdy!  I was all set to write a whole post about the best advice I found on writing an acceptance speech.  It’s in an article by Thomas Murrell:  Speech Tips: Ten Things to Remember When Accepting an Award. The one that particularly struck me was:

“End With a Call To Action. What is it that you want the audience to do? You are the role model - inspire them to greater heights!”

It’s terrific advice.  It jump-started my stalled writing of the five-minute award acceptance speech I gave in Seattle this summer.

And if you’ll stay with me, I promise I’ll show you how that’s connected to what we TeachingAuthors call an Out and About:

This past weekend I was Out and About at the YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) Symposium in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I should have known it was going to be a good conference from the start.  On the shuttle from the airport, I met two wonderful women: Natashya Wilson, Senior Editor at Harlequin TEEN, and Jacque Alberta, editor at Zonderkidz (she’s the editor of Nikki Grimes’ forthcoming book, A Girl Named Mister.)

I was on a panel called THE FORMS AND FACES OF POETRY FOR TEENS created by (bowing low to the ground now) the woman behind the go-to-blog for children’s poetry, Sylvia Vardell. 

Author and poet Janet Wong introduced me to Sylvia many years ago, and boy, am I glad she did.

Sylvia Vardell, Ph.D: author, speaker, Texas Woman's University Professor and SO MUCH MORE!

Besides being smart, classy, funny and generous, Sylvia is also a professor of School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman's University, AND the author of: POETRY ALOUD HERE, and POETRY PEOPLE, and CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN ACTION, and co-editor of BOOKBIRD, the journal of international children's literature,
and the annual review guide, LIBRARIANS' CHOICES; whew!

It was fabulous to be included as one of the five poets on Sylvia’s panel.  The others were: Jen Bryant, Ann Burg, Margarita Engle, and Pat Mora. (Sylvia wrote, “Betsy Franco had hoped to be part of our panel, but had to be in NYC to act in her son, James Franco's movie! Cool, huh?”)

Our poems, personalities, and backgrounds were all very different—that’s what made this panel so interesting.  And Sylvia sure knows how to build a cozy community between the speakers and the attendees in a session.

The panel began with a Poets’ Q & A and ended with Poetry Improv Prompts. I loved the way her original format encouraged us to play off each other, like jazz improv—lots of fun!

Sylvia’s spells out the format in this post and shows you how this format can be used with teens.

I waited about a gazillion hours for lunch along with my tablemates YALSA president Kimberly Patton, two fabulous librarians whose names I've forgotten (someone please remind me!), author/poet Ellen Hopkins, and Albuquerque's own author, Carolee Dean, who has also posted about the YALSA Symposium 

Author Carolee Dean lives in Albuquerque!

Oft-censored author / poet Ellen Hopkins

Also at the conference was my friend and fellow Southern California poet extraordinaire Nikki Grimes who gave a terrific session called OPEN MIKE: REACHING TEENS AT RISK THROUGH POETRY.

Nikki Grimes, Ann Burg and me, April Halprin Wayland,

                                                   at the YALSA Symposium

The best thing about the authors and editors and librarians I met at this conference was their generosity of spirit.

Authors Ellen Hopkins and Lauren Myracle spoke at the closing session about intellectual freedom and the banning of their books. Lauren quoted Judy Blume who has said that censorship is “Fear disguised as moral outrage.”

Author Lauren Myracle spoke without notes--
as if she were speaking to a just a few special friends. 

 Lauren also said, "Authors are freedom fighters...fighters for intellectual freedom."

Ellen and Lauren made us laugh, made us squirm, made us well up with tears, and, finally, their stories from the trenches of intellectual freedom were a call to action—they inspired us to greater heights. 

So, inhale that inspiration--go out there and write what you need to write.  Some reader, somewhere will need to read exactly that.

 drawings (c) by April Halprin Wayland

A Savage-soothing Tip for Novelists Pseudo, Real and/or Lost

I know first-hand: writing a novel can easily overwhelm – both the writer and the writer’s life.
I liken the experience to Alice’s, when she fell down that hole and left behind the world she knew.
By necessity, the writer becomes schizophrenic, a citizen of two countries – one fictive, one real.
Advil helps.
A lot.
The best cure for me, though, to keep me present to both worlds?
Hands down, it’s music.
It soothes the savage beast.

Your writer’s circumstances matter little.
You could be lost, like Mary Ann, in the fog with faulty headlights.
You could be over-tasked like Jeanne Marie or time-strapped like Carmela.
If you surround yourself with music that sings of your story - its heart, its soul, the characters who grabbed yours - you’ll be living your story 24-7.
Driving the carpool.
Shopping for groceries.
Washing dishes or scrubbing the bathtub.

I discovered this cure when writing my first novel,When They Only Had ‘til Monday, a never-sold middle grade – one part historical fiction, one part mystery - set in 1897 in St. Charles, Missouri. My peripatetic orphaned characters had but three days to uncover their beloved patriotic benefactor’s will or else... all six would be sent down river!

Reading about composer Scott Joplin’s Missouri hometown had indirectly led me to the story line. It seemed natural to surround myself with Joplin’s rags and operas.

Before long, I was assigning each Chapter a particular Joplin rag. An action-packed scene? "Cascades." A moment of poignancy? "Bethena." For the glorious resolution I chose the "Gladiolus Rag." 

The syncopation. The thrumping base line. The flurrying high notes.

Each time I listened I was scoring my novel.

Ironically, Joplin composed his rags in 4 prescribed movements, utilizing variations on a theme. Soon the scenes of my chapters mimicked Joplin’s style.

I played two Patti Page songs – “How Much is That Doggie in the Window?” and “The Tennessee Waltz” – while writing my middle grade novel The Confe$$ion$ and $ecret$ of Howard J. Fingerhut. Both 1950’s songs captured Howie’s earnestness, his ingenuousness, his yearning to win The H. Marian Muckley Junior Business Person of the Year Contest.

To me, the Yiddish folksong “Tum Balalaika” and my picture book Chicken Soup by Heart are one in the same, variations on a theme – i.e. the reciprocity of friendship.

To my surprise, the riddle nature of the song led to the back-and-forth dialogue between my character Rudie Dinkins and his afterschool babysitter Mrs. Gittel.

So,

once you’ve written your first draft and told yourself the story,

think about your character, your setting, your story’s time, your story’s heart.

What piece of music sounds like your story?

[Note: if stuck, think what songs your characters might purchase for their Ipods were they living in today's world.]

In many ways, that piece of music might serve as your GPS from first draft to last, a handy tool to help you carry on should your headlights fail, time make itself scarce and/or your Life overwhelms.

Keep writing.  Keep whistling. (Or is it the other way around?!)

Esther Hershenhorn

Falling Back

If you allow me to slip into "teacher mode" for a moment, let's have a show of hands.  How many here are participating in National Novel Writing Month?  Good luck, and happy writing to all!

I did consider signing up this year -- for all of two minutes.  Who am I kidding?  My writing ADD is at least as bad as my reading ADD.  Just as I tend to read a dozen books simultaneously, I am working on at least half a dozen writing projects at once.  In fact, I am finally discovering my natural pattern, and I can't say it pleases me. My habit is to complete a draft through chapter three, and then...  I send it off to my agent; he reads it, offers notes, and I revise; then he says he is sending out the proposal and the chapters to a variety of publishers, and then I never hear from anyone again.  Does this sound familiar to a single one of you? 

I suspect that the "real writer" in me should be so compelled by my characters that I absolutely must, must finish a draft.  On the other hand, I have other characters and stories clamoring loudly to be told, and extremely limited "spare" time in which to do so.  Do I finish a draft that apparently has little prospect of being sold?  (Especially if my agent is not actually sending it out!)  Or do I move on to the next one?  What would you do?

To illustrate my dilemma more clearly, these were my obligations of the past week:
1) Write outlines for two 60-minute TV shows (20 pages each) with two days spent in meetings discussing said shows.
2) Entertain my five-year-old, who had no school on two days this week.  (I have discovered that each week seems to bring at least one day on which one child has no school.)
3) Grade definition essays for my community college class -- for which, by the way, I spend more time driving to and fro than I do actually teaching.
4) Grade annotated bibliographies for my online class and moderate the week's discussion.
5) Write an article for a local publication.

Like sands through the hourglass...

I'm sure many of you can relate to the feeling of being generally overwhelmed.  (We Teaching Authors are hyphenate multi-taskers by definition, after all.)

In lieu of enrolling in NaNoWriMo, I signed up at onepageperday.com to receive "gentle reminders" of encouragment toward the simple goal of writing one page a day.  I have yet to post a page.  (DAYS OF OUR LIVES, alas, does not count.)

Meanwhile, my Gruve exercise monitor has been blinking at me, telling me I have failed to have a "green day" (adequate calories burned) all week. 

I was exceedingly happy to crack open a book last night in bed, making the absolute most of my extra hour (until my five-year-old threw up in her bed, anyway). 

Today I hope to spend a few minutes with my adult mystery novel (!).  Small steps, baby!

Last weekend at church, my daughter almost poked out my son's eyes with a pencil in the middle of the Transubstantiation.  This week, a kind stranger from across the sanctuary came up to me and said, "I know you don't know me, but would your kids like to sit with ours?"  Then the priest went on to deliver one of those homilies that I desperately needed to hear today.  His advice, in a nutshell:

1) Live deliberately.
2) Live authentically.
3) Live as a brother or sister of the world.
4) Live fully in moment.

It occurs to me that substituting the word 'write' for 'live' in all these cases also works brilliantly.
Wishing everyone lots of good living and writing! -- Jeanne Marie

Poetry Friday Roundup and a Couple of Dog Poems

The Teaching Authors are so excited to host Poetry Friday today! What is Poetry Friday? A weekly celebration of poetry on the Web. Bloggers from all over share their favorite poems, review poetry books, and contribute their thoughts on poetic topics. One blog rounds up all the posts each week so poetry lovers can find and enjoy them all. Welcome to the roundup!

In honor of Poetry Friday, we have two poems today. By happy coincidence (or maybe ESP), April and I both wrote poems about our dogs. Here's mine. Enjoy!

What Is She?
by JoAnn Early Macken

With her black and white speckles
and her stubborn streak,
Bea leads the way,
jangling as she trots,
tail unflagging,
always on her toes.
She plows headfirst into each moment,
black patches covering both eyes and ears,
sniffing every splotch on the sidewalk.

When people ask, "What is she?",
we tell them what the shelter said, but nobody believes it.
They can’t resist a guess: "Maybe pointer?"

When she meets another dog,
she plops to the ground, tail a metronome,
waits for the signal it’s okay to play,
takes the first step in the introduction dance,
risks a quick pounce, feet splayed, head down,
woofs, and bounces.

What is she? We don’t know.
She’s a mutt.
     She’s Bea.
          She’s ours.

Here is April's dog Eli and her poem, which originally appeared on an NPR bulletin board.

HALLOWEEN AT THE DOG PARK
by April Halprin Wayland

The dog park
is dog dark.
It can haunt you
like the hooting of something you can’t see.

There is no moon.

You’re both loners.
No dogs, no other owners.
Mostly it’s ghostly.

No owl, mouse or moon
can chase this ghoulish feeling.
Your dog finds a bone.
At night it’s not stealing.
He knows: it’s his alone.

Then—the double clink
of the double dog park gate.
Must be fate.

Two forms
one four-legged,
one hard to discern, not howling, probably human
walking towards you
a fellow dark dog park devotee.
Probably not a parolee.
Still.

And then a kind of thrill:
An all-white dog,
convenient on a black night.

Though you hear two dogs
swirling in large circles in the damp dirt
you see only one blinking by.
The other, yours, is invisible
in the dog dark.

If you have a link to share for Poetry Friday, please leave it in the comments. I'll update this blog throughout the day. New to Poetry Friday? Here's what you do:

1. Leave the exact link to your Poetry Friday blog post (not your generic blog address).
2. Say a little something about your post.
3. Link back to this page within your post.

Happy reading!

JoAnn Early Macken

Morning Roundup

• Diane Mayr has three Poetry Friday posts today: a Poem a Day blog from a fellow NE librarian at Random Noodling, a look at the anthology Songs of Myself at Kurious Kitty, and a P.F. quote by Don Marquis, accompanied by an awesome travel poster of the Grand Canyon, at Kurious K's Kwotes.

• Andromeda Jazmon has original haiku and photos up at A Wrung Sponge.

• laurasalas is in for Poetry Friday with the cover of her next poetry picture book at http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/245774.html. (Congratulations, Laura!) And 15 Words or Less poems are at http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/245665.html.

• Amy LV has a post about how poems can heal us along with #23 in her series of poems about poems: http://bit.ly/avh9MJ.

• The Write Sisters are in this week with The Hay Rake by Kate Barnes at www.thewritesisters@blogspot.com.

• Author Amok has a lesson in concrete poetry that includes a fun craft and model poems by Betsy Franco. http://authoramok.blogspot.com/2010/11/concrete-poetry-friday.html.

• Tabatha has The Finest Hour.

• Sally Thomas is sharing a self-imposed animal-poem assignment at Castle in the Sea: Poetry Friday.

• Shelley's poems are about a young farm wife and her husband and son and the last Great Depression. http://dustbowlpoetry.wordpress.com.

• Mary Lee is in with a October mosaic of photos she took last month and part of a Linda Pastan poem: http://readingyear.blogspot.com/2010/11/poetry-friday-change-of-seasons.html.

• Christine Marciniak is in at Simply Put with an original poem by her teenager.

• The Stenhouse Blog has a student poem titled "Comida."

• Susan Thomsen is in with a found poem based on a passage from Spilling Ink (Roaring Brook, 2010) about finding your voice: http://bit.ly/cILiLZ.

• Debbie Diller has a poem by Valerie Worth called "Acorn."

• jama is sharing "Eating Together" by Kim Addonizio and some thoughts about saying goodbye at http://jamarattigan.livejournal.com/480809.html.

• Ruth has a Longfellow poem about building a ship and a link to her found poem using words from tap-taps in Port-au-Prince: http://thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com/2010/11/poetry-friday-longfellow.html.

• Toby Speed is in with some tea and T and poetry at The Writer's Armchair.

• Sally at PaperTigers is in with a post on the poetic origins of Diwali: http://www.papertigers.org/wordpress/about-diwali/

• maclibrary has a poem for Veteran's Day: http://maclibrary.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/poetry-friday-in-flanders-fields/.

• At Wild Rose Reader, Elaine Magliaro has a poem titled "The Anthologist" for Lee Bennett Hopkins and links to all of Tricia Stohr-Hunt's and Sylvia Vardell's NCTE Poetry Posts: http://wildrosereader.blogspot.com/2010/11/anthologist-poem-for-lee-bennett.html.

• Melissa Wiley is in with a new poem and some sound advice from Sara Teasdale: http://melissawiley.com/blog/2010/11/05/spend-all-you-have-for-loveliness/.

More at Midday

• Gregory K. (Woof!!!!) is up with a seasonal original at Too Much, Too Soon.

• Maria has Poetry Friday is Delicious! at http://teachingin21.blogspot.com/2010/11/poetry-friday-is-delicious.html.

• Elaine Magliaro is a guest blogger at the blog of law professor and legal scholar Jonathan Turley this week. Her post is titled Poetry, Politics, and War and includes three poetry videos produced by the Favorite Poem Project: http://jonathanturley.org/2010/11/05/poetry-politics-and-war/.

• Charles Ghigna (Father Goose) has Echoes from a whippoorwill at The FATHER GOOSE Blog and a Peek inside The Art Gallery at The BALD EGO Blog.

• Sylvia Vardell posted a third installment in her look at poet Pat Mora and her work as part of a project to make her NCTE conference presentation (Nov. 19) accessible to all: http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/2010/11/pat-mora-on-web-and-in-print.html.

• Liz in Ink posted about swimming and writing and sticking with it: http://liz-scanlon.livejournal.com/161602.html.

• Blythe Woolston shares two translations of one poem by Shuntaro Tanikawa on the Squat All Blog: http://blythewoolston.blogspot.com/2010/11/one-poem-two-translations.html.

• Karen E. is in this week with "In the Middle" by Barbara Crooker, here.

• Anastasia Suen is sharing the picture book poem I’m a Truck Driver by Jonathan London (Author) and David Parkins (Illustrator).

• Jeni has written an original poem, "When Pigs Fly," inspired by a photo Laura Salas posted on her blog yesterday: http://jeniwrites.livejournal.com/34727.html.

• david elzey's poem is a bit of an update on "for he's a jolly good fellow" at http://fomagrams.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/poetryfriday-three-cheers/. He's also got a "when pigs fly" poem up over at laura salas's place.

Evening Additions

• Anticipating Veteran's Day, Julie Larios posted a love poem written by Edward Thomas, a Welsh poet killed in WWI, at The Drift Record.

• Heidi Mordhorst is in with a fine example of "soscientry" and some Little Red Hen.

• Caryl couldn't resist posting some Shel Silverstein:
  http://leaningtowerofbooks.blogspot.com/2010/11/poetry-friday-runny-babbit.html.

Bedtime Bonus

• Janet Squires has 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving, written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey.

• AnneShirley is in at Everyday Readers/Writers Workshop with a poem (appropriately) about a teacher by New Zealander Janet Charman: http://readerswritersworkshop.blogspot.com/2010/11/poetry-friday.html.

Thanks for all the woofs, comments, and dog pictures! Next week's Poetry Friday roundup (Friday, November 12) is at Liz in Ink.

JoAnn

My Pseudo-NaNoWriMo Project

I'm hoping to make this post quick. You see, I'm working on my own novel writing challenge this month. As JoAnn and Mary Ann have mentioned, November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. Writers from all over the world attempt to complete a 50,000-word first draft during the month of November.

Back in 2008, I had an idea for an historical young adult novel that I wanted to write, but I kept getting bogged down by research. I decided it would make the perfect NaNoWriMo project. The daily word-count quota would force me to stick to the story instead of agonizing over what kind of glassware my character drank from. The only problem: November is a bad month for me, due to family commitments. So I brainstormed with members of my critique group and we decided the best month for a NaNoWriMo-type project was January. Here in the Midwest, January is a great month to hunker down indoors and write like crazy. And, since January is the season of resolutions, what better resolution than to write a new novel? Plus, January has one more day than November. When you're counting words, every day helps. :-)

So, in January, 2009, I banned together with a group of other SCBWI members to work on what we called our New Year/New Novel project, or NYNN (which rhymes with "win"). We called ourselves NYNNies, or writing "fools," and set up a Yahoo group to support each other in our endeavor. We shared tips from a variety of writing books, including No Plot! No Problem, written by NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty. As facilitator, I also periodically sent links to the NaNoWriMo pep talks from the previous November.

Thanks to the support of the NYNNies, I managed to write (a pretty horrible) first draft of my novel that January. I learned so much about my writing process and how to quiet the internal critic. But perhaps the most important thing I learned is that when I make writing a priority and keep "butt in chair," I can accomplish amazing things.

Unfortunately, when it came to revising the draft of my NYNN novel, I allowed myself to get bogged down in research all over again. I also struggled to find some sort of a plot in the mess that was my first draft. Yet I kept procrastinating. After months of work, I'd managed to eek out little over 30,000 words of a second draft. A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to end the procrastination. I came up with a plan for my own pseudo-NaNoWriMo project. I calculated that I need to add about 37,000 words to finish this draft, and I'd really like to finish it before Christmas. Looking at my calendar, I counted up 36 days (not counting holidays and weekends) that I could commit to working on the draft, beginning October 25. That comes out to about 1050 words/day to reach my target. Having lived through the mad crush of producing 1667 words per day for my original NYNN draft, I knew 1050 words/day was a feasible, though aggressive, goal.

I've been at my pseudo-NaNoWriMo project for a week and a half now. It's actually been harder than I expected to reach my 1050 words/day goal. I think that's due, in part, to still struggling with some plot issues.What's really helped me stick with it is the tremendous support I've received on Facebook. Since I started early and will continue this project through December 15, I didn't feel right signing up as an official NaNoWriMo participant, which means I can't take advantage of all the NaNoWriMo support. So instead, I've been posting my daily goals and accomplishments on my Facebook status. Knowing that my friends (and family!) will be checking on my progress has really helped me persevere, even on bad days. (If you'd like to be one of my Facebook friends, you can find me at http://www.facebook.com/carmelamartino, but if you send me a friend request, be sure to mention you read this blog. I don't "friend" just anyone. :-) )

If any of you are participating in NaNoWriMo, you're probably too busy writing to read this. And that's as it should be. But if you do have a moment, stop by and let us know how it's going for you.

And for those of you who think NaNoWriMo is a ridiculous idea, you're not alone. See this blog post by author Tayari Jones. 

Whether you are a NaNoWriMo writer or not, happy writing!
Carmela

Night Driving

     It's like driving a car at night.  You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.--E. L. Doctorow


     Welcome to National Novel Writing Month. This is the month when I drag out my favorite Doctorow quote about novel writing, and sticky note it to my computer screen.

     I hate driving at night. I have terrible night vision. I hate driving in Atlanta, where the street lighting is bad and a street can change names several times, for no good reason. I absolutely refuse to drive at night unless the route is so familiar, I can put my brain on autopilot.

     A couple of weeks ago I drove my daughter to the Regional Skating Competition in Raleigh, North Carolina. I had driven this road exactly once before.  In daylight. It's pretty much a straight shot from Atlanta to Raleigh, seven hours according to a certain Online Mapping Site. This time, however, we couldn't start until school was out. Trying to leave Atlanta any time after three can take up to two hours.

    It took two hours. By the time we got to the Raleigh-Durham area it was well after eleven. And that's when we got into trouble. My Internet Directions were more than a little ambiguous. Forking left instead of right left me driving in an endless loop for three hours. Three hours of driving through what could have been the set for The Blair Witch Project.  No towns, no signs, no lights, and only occasional traffic lines. Lots of deer and spooky looking trees.

   The rest of the world has GPS in their car. I don't. Or at least a road atlas. I didn't. All I knew was that I started in Atlanta and needed to get to Raleigh. Finally I found that wrong fork-in-the-road and made the correct turn. But even the "right" road looked unfamiliar because my directions send me a different way from my previous trip. Go figure. At one thirty in the morning, after a lot of U-turns and squinting at at unlit street signs, we arrived, exhausted at our motel.

    You can see why I like that Doctorow quote. Beginning a novel is easy; first chapters are a cinch. You know where you are; here are the main characters and setting. Here is the set up for the conflict.

     Then you hit chapter two. Suddenly you find yourself driving in the dark, with unclear instructions, and only your literary headlights to guide you.  For years, at this point, I would noodle around for a couple of more pages (usually, description....I love description), and then my headlights would go out. Or I would hit a dead end road, with nowhere to turn around. I have more Chapter Ones with no Chapter Twos in my files than I care to admit.

     I can't/don't outline. The few times I've tried, the story sounded forced, my characters unhappily moving around at my direction. Unhappy characters are not interesting people to spend time with. Some people can write an outline and wham-bam-thank-you-Sam, they have the first draft of a novel. Lots of people use this method for NaNoWriMo.

     I am not one of those people.

      Some people have an internal GPS that just tells them where to turn and stop. I really don't like those people. The ideas just flow right along, beginning to end. They always pull into the Driveway of the Last Chapter before dark. Boo! Hiss! No fair.

      Then there is me. The one thing I have learned about writing novels is that when you have to have some notion of where this story is going to end. Why start a journey if you don't have a destination? So after Chapter One, I make a lot of notes as to how I think the story will end.

     So now I have a beginning, and a possible destination. I assemble as much information as I can as to how to get there. I get to know my characters (which I have written about earlier), and my setting. I try to anticipate any specialized information I might need. Then ever so slowly, I creep along from Point A to Point B. Only moving as quickly as my headlights allow.

      NaNoWriMo encourages setting a goal of so many words per day, every day. I've never really had much luck with that. When I have written say 1500 words per day, every day, by the end of the month, I find I have about 200 pages of some pretty funny characters and description, but no story. No end in sight.

      NaNoWriMo discourages revising as you go. I'm all for that. I could spend Eternity polishing that perfect first chapter. I do make a lot of "pit stops" to make sure I am still heading towards my last chapter. I do have a compass in my car,(and head) so I can tell if I am heading north or south) Or. . .


     I may discover that I don't want to go to Raleigh after all(although in the case of Regional Skating, I didn't have much choice....I had to find Raleigh!).  Sometimes my characters start telling me where they are going. I always let them. As I've said, forcing characters is like forcing my size 8 foot into a size 6 shoe, just because I like the shoes.  It can be done, but not for long, and the result is not pretty.

     In both Yankee Girl and Jimmy's Stars, my characters bumped me out of the driver's seat for the last third of the book. I am embarrassed to remember how I thought those books were going to end. I think that by the time you are two thirds of the way through, you know your characters so well, that they just hijack your mind and finish the story for you. At least that's what's happened for me so far. It was if I started out for San Francisco and wound up in Omaha. And discovered that Omaha was exactly the right place to be.

     Writing novels is hard. I am constantly driving up dead-ends...but I've learned to find a place to turn around and re-group. I hit roadblocks; I suddenly discover I absolutely need to know something like World War I field medical procedures. (No kidding....this is my current roadblock.) Eventually I decide that I can go another route, or I find the necessary information.

    Sometimes I discover a character in the backseat who hasn't spoken in a long time. I stop the car and see what the problem is. Are they still part of the story, or do they need to be left by the side of the road? (I know it sounds ruthless, but your novel can't drag around dead weight.)

     Right now I am working on two novels, simultaneously, since they have the same settings and characters, albeit the time frames are different. I have been switching off every time I hit a roadblock. The result is I have 2/3 of two novels. I am putting pedal to the metal now on only one now(having removed a roadblock last week). I know where I am going, but I am still driving at night. Cautiously, and focusing only what I can see in my headlights.

     Maybe I can NaNo that last third this month. Now that is a possibility. . .

     Happy NaNoWriMo, fellow writers. Keep your headlights on.

     P.S.  My daughter won silver in her competition level.
 
      Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Windy Weather, Poetry Friday, and November Writing Challenges

Inspired by this week's blustery autumn weather and Poetry Friday, I wrote a windy weather poem.

Wind grabs the bird feeder,

tosses it next door,

giving hungry birds

a new yard to explore.

Wind grabs the garbage can,

turns it upside down,

blocking the alley

on our way out of town.

Wind grabs the wind chime,

carries it along,

clinking and clanking—

wind must like its song!

We are so excited! Next Friday, November 5, the Teaching Authors host Poetry Friday! Be sure to take a peek! Today's Poetry Friday host is Toby Speed at The Writer's Armchair. Hi, Toby!

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) begins on November 1! The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Picture book writers can take part in their own challenge in November. The goal of PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) is to create 30 picture book ideas in 30 days.

Good luck! Have fun! Keep writing!

JoAnn Early Macken

Why I/We Write: Last But Not Least

I’m a veritable caboose today, bringing up the rear: the last TeachingAuthor to close out our two weeks’ worth of Why We Write posts.
Learning where my fellow TeachingAuthors’ hearts lie didn’t surprise me.
At the end of each post, I found myself borrowing Leslie Helakoski’s delicious Big Chickens (Dutton, 2006) refrain, declaring,
“Me too!”
“Me three!”
“Me four!”

Like JoAnn, I think better with a pen.
Like Mary Ann, I write to figure out life.
Writing serves as my life preserver, as it does for Carmela.
April’s “What if’s?” and Jeanne Marie’s need to remember are staples stored in my writer’s cupboard.

I can’t imagine a day in which I don’t write something – a letter, a blog post, manuscript comments, a grocery list.

Years of writing across all formats, across all genres, enabled me to uncover and recover the first person singular pronoun “I.”
I found me….and the voice I’d closeted long-ago.
Now I speak loud and clear, on the page, often to the world.
My ordered words express a mind-set, a heart-set, a viewpoint – all mine.
Sometimes, I am the only one listening.
Other times, listeners come a-knockin’ at my door.

This past week, children’s book author Jacqueline Jules, the Coordinator of North Arlington, Virginia’s Nottingham Elementary School’s Exemplary Project, emailed to share her students’ S is for Story-based stories posted to the National Gallery of Writing on October 20.
The principal, Ms. Pelosky, with the help of Exemplary Project PTA funds, had purchased my book as a welcome back gift for every K-5 Nottingham student as a way to commemorate a new year of the Exemplary Writing project.

Could there be a better closing to end our Why We Write posts?

The Nottingham’s students’ National Gallery of Writing stories offer Show, Don’t Tell proof of why we six TeachingAuthors choose to write.

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.
Hurrah!  We have two (count 'em) Show, Don't Tell items of proof.  Sit A While blogger and TeachingAuthor reader Callie Feyen emailed to thank us for inspiring her Why I Write post and pass along the link.