A Victory of Sorts

First let me confess that I’ll be posting ahead for a few days due to those computer problems. If my entire system collapses, at least my blog can go on temporarily without me.

So, the month of November is over, which means that National Novel Writing Month has ended. I just wanted to look back on it to see if there are any lasting impressions.

After 30 days, which included 2 complete rewrites, a full day dedicated to closet cleaning, a holiday, a half day of watching talking-dog videos on youtube, hundreds of hours of television, short bursts of sewing, 11 migraines, and 43 haiku, I did finally managed to get slightly past the 50,000 word minimum.

It surprised me a bit that I had so much trouble forcing the words out, since in the past I’ve had trouble stopping them. I’ve always been excessively verbose in my writing. In writing classes I was always the one having to pare down the 17 pages I wrote for a ten-page assignment. The first novel I wrote started out around 121,000 words and I finally got it down to about 95,000 after months of editing. I usually just have so much to say that I can’t stop.

In this case, I’m afraid I didn’t really have much to say. I had the idea of the story rolling around for a few years, but as I mentioned a few days ago, it was really only a short-story-like glimpse into a person’s life. I tried to help it along by adding a lot of backstory, an additional character, and just generally embellishing everything, but it’s still as flat and lifeless as one of my uninspired collages.

The good part is that since I’ve got it all out of my head, this particular character should go away now and stop taking up space in my head. Maybe someone new and much more interesting will move in! We’ll see. I have a good start if I ever want to make it into a short story, so I don’t feel that my time was entirely wasted. Plus I’ve documented much of my writing excitement-waning-into-disillusionment here on the blog, so if I ever get tempted to do something this silly again, I can remind myself why it didn’t work out.

On the global level, the end of NaNoWriMo is actually very exciting. While I seem to be genetically predisposed to a lack of enthusiasm about my own accomplishment, the fact that approximately 2.9 billion words were written by something like 270,000 people in one month is beyond impressive; it gives me a lot of hope. Literacy is clearly not dead yet, and books (in whatever form: paper, digital, as yet unimagined) will be with us for some time. It is an encouraging sign that that many millions of individuals around the globe felt strongly enough about their own vision, their own message, or their own story, to temporarily turn their lives upside down and tell it.

Well, that’s that. Next, resolving the computer problem is an unavoidable priority. Sewing’s up after that, and holiday preparations. I still haven’t mailed those cards out!

Hope to be back in blogland with you all soon,
Katrina

When your novel finally admits it was a short story all along

Yes, it happens. What do you do when you realize that you’ve taken a decent short story idea and stretched it to the breaking point in trying to force it to be a novel?

Actually I came to this conclusion around the 20th of November. I wasn’t completely finished with the narrative of my main character but I knew I had little left to write and forcing more words out would just be a waste of time. I stopped writing for a few days, thinking about the story and writing in general. I considered various alternatives for amplifying the story, even going so far as the possibility of writing a completely new story and adding it in – two 30,000-word works would certainly exceed the 50,000 word minimum. There is no rule that says you can’t do that (in fact there aren’t really any rules at all about what you write). But that led me to the next thought – what if it was the same story told by another person? It’s been done before in books, and more popularly in movies. How interesting to view the same things through different eyes!

So I started writing about another, previously secondary, character in the story. Her personal history and how she experienced the main character’s story, and the later events that befell them together and separately, made up the rest of the book.

I was also wondering about novellas. Whatever happened to the novella? I don’t usually rely on Wikipedia as a primary source, but it does provide a good composite definition of the genre:

A novella has generally fewer conflicts than a novel, yet more complicated ones than a short story. The conflicts also have more time to develop than in short stories. They have endings that are located at the brink of change. Unlike novels, they are not divided into chapters, and are often intended to be read at a single sitting, as the short story, although white space is often used to divide the sections. They maintain, therefore, a single effect.

I like this definition, as opposed to simply applying a random word count to differentiate the shorter novella to the novel.

Judging by Wikipedia’s list of notable novellas, the genre hit its peak in the late 1800s – early 1900s. Famous books include Animal Farm, A Christmas Carol, Heart of Darkness, Of Mice and Men, The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde.

There are several modern books on the notable novella list, but they are only an imperceptible fraction of the total works of fiction published in the last 30 years.

Why? Is it because of book prices? I suppose if I’m going to pay $25.95 for a hardcover (or whatever they’re going for these days) I would like it to be a hefty tome of at least 500 pages. Short stories are okay, but there’d better be a lot of them for the price.

Or maybe it’s the cost of printing? Or a marketing challenge – which bookstore shelf would feature something that isn’t a full-length novel?

Or is it just that readers don’t know what the novella is and so shy away from it unless it’s from a highly popular, productive author. I may be part of the problem rather than the solution. I don’t think I have ever bought a novella, and if I did, it was because I thought it was a novel.

So, my story is finished, at least for NaNoWriMo purposes, and it's a bit over 50,000 words, before editing. Too long to be read in a single sitting, so it doesn’t meet that criterion for a novella. Plus, it does have chapters. On the other hand, the conflicts are few and complex, and the story ends as the characters are on the brink of change.

I think it is a novella. And I’m glad it's done! Sort of. I think I'll have a few more comments on the topic when I get some distance from it. Soon I’ll be back to happy, crafty, lightweight things.

Katrina

Virtual Visit to the New York Public Library

I might have a bit of a slow blogging week coming up here - unless something leaps out and demands a commentary from me, I think I need to focus on my so-called writing.

However, I thought I would share one of my favorite places with you today before I disappear into the cold garret.


Have you ever been to the New York Public Library? I have not, and I regret that.

I must have passed the lions at least a dozen times on my way to do other things. I always thought there would be another opportunity, and I suppose maybe one day I will get a chance to go back.


In any case, I found the NYPL online while trolling around for images of vintage fashion, and what a trove of treasure this is!

There is a blog, which is not just for book nerds like me. The contributors cover everything from the arts to nature to history and society. You can view or download ebooks, scanned books, music, and other media. And, what is most exciting for me, you can see hundreds of thousands of images that the library has scanned from their collections in the digital gallery. The images are all scanned from books, and can be anything from a line drawing to a painting to a photo. The scans are clear and great for viewing online or printing at home. You can also order prints or high-resolution files from the library.

So far I’ve not come up empty on any of my searches. I got 11 hits on my search for “cairn terrier”, 182 hits for “India clothing”, 31 on “men’s bowler”, and 668 on “women’s fashion 1930s.”

I spent hours ogling at the details of the 1930s fashion illustrations:

The NYPL digital library is worth a visit for any type of research, but I especially recommend it if you’re interested in fashion history.


Enjoy!


Katrina

The Story of the Story

Woo-hoo, the word watch widget is up and running at NaNoWriMo! I added it to my right margin.

I am still writing, and keeping up with the daily minimums to make it to 50,000 words. But I’m reaching that point where I’m starting to wonder what I’m writing. And why. This is a point that I expected to hit around day 15, but here it is, only day 10.

The story is about a man who is secretly living in the basement of a family home on a quiet suburban street. This is based on an actual person who was living in my actual house (completely unbeknownst to me) in the late 80s – early 90s. We found his sleeping bag and a bunch of stuff in the crawlspace under our house one day. It was weird! Our neighbor told me later the guy had been living there for a while. Gee, thanks, neighbor!

Anyway, I never got to learn this man’s personal story, so I’m writing one for him. In the story, flashbacks show how he got into the situation, and the story moves forward as he tries to survive.

So far, I’ve kind of written a lot of separate scenes with no continuity and no end, and I’m running out of steam. NaNoWriMo suggests that when you hit the wall like this, you can do something unexpected like add ninjas, drop a bomb, send your characters to the circus, among other story-enlivening ideas. My favorite was to have your main character write a novel (novel in a novel!). Or you can go to a write-in with others in the area. Or you can look for inspiration or rescue on the NaNo forums.

I am mulling the Ninja/bomb/circus idea, not literally, but literarily. Something’s got to shake the story up. I am not a write-in person: it’s way too distracting to be in a room full of noisy people. But I will be trolling the forums for inspiration. Yesterday I found a whole string on “Is your main character depressed?” Perfect!

What do you when you get stuck on a project?

Katrina

An Itty Bitty Update

Just thought I'd pop in and give an update on the writing project. First, thank you so much to my dear readers who have offered encouragement! You are wonderful!

It is going quite well so far, in spite of headaches, procrastination, and my refusal to follow any sort of process. No plan, no outline, no research, nothing.

source

I just sit down each morning and poke away at the keyboard for 2 to 3 hours, end up with 1800 to 1900 words, and post it to the NaNo site. It's a little too easy, really, which makes me think I must be missing something! It's only the third day, so I'd better keep my eyes open for obstacles down the road.

Actually I think all the excitement and anxiety about writing for 30 days straight is that hardly anyone has the luxury to do that - we're all working, going to school, raising families, or a combination. I can see that it would be difficult if not impossible for someone in those situations to sit down for 2 to 3 straight hours after a long tiring day. And how would they find that much uninterrupted time?

It just reminds me of how incredibly fortunate I am: my parental units find themselves in a rare period of concurrent wellness, my partner carries on his day to day activities with or without me, I have no job or coursework demanding my attention, so you could say I've got it made! I have to take care of the plants and the animals, and myself, and that's it! I can write for two hours a day or twelve, or not at all. It took some work and some difficult times to get to this point in my life, and I sure do appreciate it while I'm here.

Enough procrastinating, now I have to go create another 1667 words!

Tomorrow I'll have more to talk about; in the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Katrina

Not the Most Auspicious Start

I spend most of Monday in bed with a lethal headache, so I had to pretty much write the whole day off. We had no little monsters at the door, so it wasn't even much of a Halloween.
Therefore, I've decided to just pretend the week is starting today, Tuesday, and that Monday never happened. Easy enough, since today is the beginning of a new month, and also the first day of NaNoWriMo. In case you're already sick and tired of hearing about it, I'll just say that I did get started, right on schedule (although not at 12:01 AM) and am busily tapping away to meet my word quota for the day.
Apparently the almighty powers who somehow manage to keep NaNoWriMo up and running are human after all, as several of the promised functionalities are still "pending." Well, I guess that's none of my business, since my job is just to write.
I'll be posting a few things later in the week, until then, hope you're having an excellent start to your month!
Katrina

Countdown to NaNoWriMo

It’s only four days away! National Novel Writing Month is when you finally take pen in hand (figuratively) and pour out that novel that’s been in your head or your heart for so many years. Start at 12:01 a.m. (if you really want to) on Nov. 1st, and keep writing until midnight on the 30th.

If you’ve always wanted to write but could not get started, use this campaign to give you the push you need. Even if you’re not interested in writing, it’s worth reading a bit about the background of the program because it really is amazing that so many people can write an entire novel in one month. The event started as a combination write-in and block party with only 21 participants in 1999. Through the magic of digital word-of-mouth, the number of participants has increased exponentially each year until there were more than 200,000 people writing in NaNoWriMo last year. A lot of camaraderie will develop builds up during a month when that many people are feverishly working on the same thing at the same time. I expect hilarity to ensue, along with sleep deprivation, inability to recognize loved ones, and glossolalia.

Of course at the completion of NaNoWriMo, you have to deal with what you’ve written, which will probably be 90% incomprehensible crap and 10% good story. But many people do go on to edit their NaNoWriMo works and get published. So that possibility is always out there. I will do it for the enjoyment of writing and the excitement of knowing there’s a huge community of people out there doing the same thing.

And, since I will be writing for six to eight hours each day, I may not be blogging quite as regularly. I hope to give you some sort of update at least three times a week. Plus my word tracking widget will show on the right side of the blog, to keep me honest. (That's if the administrators get the widget working.)

Are you a writer? Are you going to participate in NaNoWriMo? Think about it!

Katrina

Writing By The Seat Of My Pants

Where does that saying come from, "by the seat of my pants"? So silly! Apparently it does have its origin in aviation, and I suppose it's better than saying "I'm navigating this aircraft according to the sensations in my derriere" or similar.

Anyway.

Are you a planner or a pantser? It’s a popular question in any writing class, and has come up a lot in the past few weeks among those preparing for NaNoWriMo.

Planners plan, obviously. They outline, create character sketches, and complete their research prior to penning the first word of the novel. Pantsers leap in and start writing, and see where the story takes them.

The same generalizations apply to life. I’m a planner, have always been a planner, and will probably always be a planner. All my life I’ve made lists, detailed agendas, 1-year, 10-year, and 30-year plans. These natural tendencies served me well in my many careers, which included scientific research, accounting, auditing, and more research. Nothing in science or finance gets done, or even started, without an extensive detailed plan thoroughly illustrated with graphs and backed up with pages of references.

Thinking creatively is not expressly forbidden, it’s just irrelevant. What would be the point? Results of a strictly controlled experiment either prove or disprove a hypothesis. Financial results are either correctly or incorrectly reported. These are worlds of yes and no, right and wrong, and staying inside the lines with your single-color crayon.

Even though my left brain was able to excel at these rigid requirements, my right brain chafed. Why is it this way and only this way? Why can’t I just observe nature instead of subjecting it to a series of tests? Why does every corporate filing have to be done at the last minute? Why can’t I have a plant on my desk?

I always had some creative outlet – collage, cardmaking, sewing. I took classes in everything - languages, mathematics, ethics, sciences, writing - to keep my creativity alive. But these short bursts were the gateway drug to an entire life of thinking and acting outside the corporate box. I eventually left the mind-numbing monotony of corporate finance, and soon after that I left the rigid structure of university research.

It was funny, then, that when I started writing, I applied the same structured, regimented approach. Each novel had a detailed outline, chapter by chapter, scene by scene. I charted the high points on wall calendars to track the pacing. Each character had a life history outside of the story, some of them several pages long. It was very effective, and after that much planning, the stories almost wrote themselves.

But, in recent months, I’ve been practicing flexibility and spontaneity. I get up in the morning and do whatever feels right, whether that is cleaning out all the kitchen cabinets, or sewing up another new dress, or sitting on the couch reading all day. Why not try being spontaneous in my writing?

I’m ready to go entirely plan-free, fly by the seat of my pants, and write an entire novel completely without a plan. I’ve stubbornly refused to create an outline, timeline, character sketch, or any other type of plan. I’m trying to become a true pantser, even if it’s only temporary.

I do have the central idea of the story – it’s been nagging at me for years. So it’s not as though I’m starting with a completely blank slate. And admittedly I’ve jotted down a few ideas here and there. With a memory like mine, I have to write reminders to myself or that ingenious idea will disappear in moments. But I don’t think that counts as a plan, so I’m still 100% pantsing it!

Any pantsers out there?

Katrina

P.s. And is there a smidgen of irony in my planning not to plan?

Comments About Blog Comments

Do you ever feel too shy to comment on a blog you like, so you lurk and keep all your witty responses to yourself? Maybe you think no one will see your comment way down at number 35 or 82 on the list. Or maybe someone else just said exactly what you wanted to say but got there just ahead of you. Possibly you are bursting with clever, insightful comments but you’re afraid of getting rejected by the cool kids, those commenters who are always there first and sometimes even get responses back from the blogger?

Left out of the fun

I have certainly done all those things in the past, and it turns out that my worries are not completely unfounded, according to a post by Nathan Bransford earlier this year. I follow Nathan’s blog because he’s a literary agent and published author himself, so he has a lot of insights into the publishing world that I can certainly use. Here are some of the highlights from his blog post, "How to write a good blog comment" that resonated with me.

“Get there early”: That is one thing I strive for but it seems that most of the blogs I follow originate on the East Coast. I’m in the Mountain Standard Time zone which is either 2 (winter) or 3 hours (summer) later than the Eastern. Even if I get out of bed at 6AM and go straight to Google Reader, by the time my brain is up and running, most of the day’s entries have been up for an hour or more, and the comment tally has topped 30. Bransford recommends trying to get your comment into the first five or ten “to get noticed.”

A race to get there first

“Scan the other comments”: I agree with this one, even if it is one of the things that prevents us wallflowers from joining the dance. When reading a popular blog, I do find it rather silly when eighteen comments say exactly the same thing. Unless the blogger is surveying the readers on a particular question, in which case they want to know how many people have the same response.

“Read the post”: Well, that makes sense. Why would you comment if you haven’t read the post? Apparently lots of people forget that step, or they read it so carelessly that they miss the answer to their question, or completely miss the point. Along the same lines is Bransford’s exhortation to “Give the blogger the benefit of the doubt”. So often a writer has an idea clearly in mind, but their words miss the mark or even say the exact opposite of what they intended. Don't jump to conclusions or create unnecessary squabbles.

There are several other suggestions in Bransford’s list, but I thought the most relevant and scary part was “consider a blog comment an audition to show off your own personal awesomeness.” If you’re a new blogger aspiring to grow a career from it, that’s good advice. But for the rest of us, the pressure to be awesome every time we set finger to keyboard is too intimidating. It would be nice if we could just enjoy reading blogs and commenting on them as a way to have conversations about the things that interest us.

I’ll also add one more: “Be civil!” Most blog comment fields have a request from the blogger to please be polite, etc. But I do see insults and attacks, not only against the blogger, but even between the commenters! On one style blog I used to like, the comments became so alarming that I just stopped following after a while.

Where do you place yourself on the blog-comment continuum? Bold first responder, shy follower, or somewhere in between? Or no comment?

Katrina

Mid-October Round Up

It’s a mixed bag of good news and bad on various parts of my life. I always like to get the bad news first, and then ease the pain with the good news.

1. Blog! Bad news is I am not very tech-savvy (being from the age of manual typewriters), and when Blogger goes wacko on me I never know whether it’s just one of their endless glitches or if it’s actually user error. I love that Blogger is free and it’s easy to use in so many ways, but whenever I have to go into their help page I just get discouraged. Good news: I’ve managed to keep up a blog for more than a month now, with relatively regular entries. And it’s fun!

2. Pies! Pies are never bad news. Good news is we had these pies recently.

recipe here

I had never heard of buttermilk pie before two weeks ago, but now I’m a huge fan. They might not look like much but they are delicious – the closest description I can come up with is a combination between lemon meringue and vanilla pudding. So good!

We also had this, another amazing find in Southern Living Magazine.

The cake was gone before I could photograph it, so you'll have to settle for the magazine photo.

Apple-Cream Cheese Bundt Cake with Praline Icing? Yes! Actually the cake and filling are so moist and rich that it doesn't even need the icing, but I ate it anyway.

And soon we’re heading into pie season! (Although… if I eat pie every single day, is there really such a thing as pie season?)


3. Health! Bad news is I still haven’t gotten on anything resembling a regular exercise program. And hello-oo? Pies? My summer heat excuse for not exercising is gone; I need to get out there and get moving. Good news is that the headache frequency has decreased somewhat. More on that topic next week.


4. Stash! Bad news is I made two fabric-related purchases already this month! First, I somehow found myself in Goodwill in the material section, and could not believe there was 5 yards of 60” wool-blend suiting in a dark taupe. It reminded me of a delicious café mocha, and it was only $4.99. So I bought it. Of course that commits me to making something out of wool, but it’s good for me to have a challenge. The second incident was when I bought the 60+ yards of lingerie ribbon and elastic, but that could also be considered good news since I managed to walk by miles of fabric and not buy even a scrap.

The big good news is I’ve already used 23 more yards from the stash, not counting linings and trim. So at least I’ve accomplished a net decrease.


5. Garden! Bad news is the weeds are already coming up, right in the middle of the seeded areas. That always makes it impossible to pull the weeds without harming the seedlings.

Good news is there are lots and LOTS of sprouts – parsley, cilantro, radishes, beets, beans and lettuce so far.


6. Writing! No bad news on that front. The good news is I’m still planning on doing NaNoWriMo, and once they get the word count widgets working, I’ll post one here so we can all follow my progress. There are regional chapters of “Wrimos” all over the world, and the one in Phoenix will be having a few write-ins during November. I haven’t been to one of these before but I think it will be inspiring to meet some of the other wacky writers who like to do this sort of thing.

I hope you are having a wonderful month with lots of Good News!

Katrina

Feeling Optimistic About October

I can NOT believe it is October already. There is a lot to do this month, in fact for the rest of the year!

First item of note: Some people are really nice.

I may have mentioned that I donated a lot of my fabrics recently, and one of the recipients happened to be a wonderful woman named Vicki.

Vicki lives here in the Phoenix metropolitan area, and she sews quilts for pet shelters. Like so many people in the current economy, she’s recently found herself with a lot of time on her hands. She loves animals and wanted to do something to help all the shelters in the area, so she started crocheting blankets and sewing quilts.

Some cities have charitable groups that coordinate donations and distribution of blankets and towels and such, but after a long search, Vicki learned that there is no one organization here that supplies shelters with bedding. So she’s taken that project on as well.

Currently she’s looking for donations of blankets, sheets, and towels, plus donations of all fabric and supplies (thread and batting can be expensive!) to make quilts, plus volunteers who would also like to make quilts for the shelters. She has asked some of the large fabric stores for donations but they would like her to establish a presence with the shelters before they donate to her. It’s sort of a catch-22 for someone who’s just begun.

Vicki’s starting small and has not yet established a 501c(3) organization with all the attendant filings and tax requirements, so she can’t, as yet, provide donors with tax deductible receipts. She hopes to be able to undertake the paperwork in the near future if she can establish enough of a presence to make it worthwhile.

I dropped off a big box of quilting fabric with her, and afterwards I wished I had more to give her. If you’re anywhere in or around the Phoenix area, please consider donating sewing supplies, fabric, and your old blankets, sheets and towels to Vicki so she can get it to the shelters.

I meet many caring and generous people every day on the Internet, but it’s nice once in a while to meet a genuinely wonderful individual in person!

Speaking of very nice people, on Friday I was presented with this:

A German chocolate cake made by my partner, aka The Piemaker, in thanks for altering his shirts. He was inspired by the mouthwatering photos in this month's Southern Living. It's one of those magazines I don't remember subscribing to, but now I'm glad to see it every month because the recipes are soooo good!

Next, I tried to plant all the winter garden seeds by the end of September as planned, but it was not to be. Can you believe it FINALLY cooled down to 97 or so on Sunday? But at this point I only have the beans, beets, herbs, and the first round of lettuce seeded. The temperatures really need to drop at least another 10 degrees before I can put in the carrots, spinach, and peas.

In sewing news, I’m working on a pair of men’s boxers.

This may appear to be out of character for me since I generally refuse to sew for anyone else, including my partner. However, due to recent events (see above), I am wavering somewhat in my usual stance. Also, this sew-along has several benefits that convinced me to participate: it will use up some of that burgeoning stash that threatens my sanity, it will answer the annual Christmas present dilemma, and I’ll use the first pair (for him) as the practice run so I can make other, more elegant and well-made boxers (for myself)!

I also started sewing something that will break me out of the blue-green dress rut – it’s a purple skirt. I’m going to focus on separates and try to knock out some tops and sweaters in the next month or so. Pants might have to wait.

Next on our agenda is a non-sewing project I’m thinking seriously about: writing another novel! You might be aware that I’ve written three novels, none of which have been published (or even read by more than two people). This is because all the effort involved in dealing with editors, agents, publishers, etc. is exhausting and discouraging, and it undermines my enjoyment of writing. In fact, I haven’t written anything for more than a year because I became so frustrated with the process.

But I’ve had a story in my head for the last several months, and it’s gone from gently prodding at me to furiously screaming to be let out. That’s usually a sign that it’s time to write. Coincidentally, the National Novel Writing Month is starting in four weeks.

If you are not familiar with NaNoWriMo, you should check it out. More on that in the coming weeks!

That’s it for today!

Katrina