Another Momentum Update: First I’m just going to allow a self-congratulatory moment for sticking with this “month at a time” deal up until now. This doesn’t mean that my life has changed in any significant long-term way as a result, but at least I’ve managed to keep the goal alive.
My most recent goal was to finish revising one of my older manuscripts, Following Infinity. Did I finish it? No! But I have no problem with this because even if I didn’t get all the way through, I have gotten a significant amount of work done on it so far. In fact, I plan on having the revision work (including one quick pass at proofreading) finished within the week. And I could not be any happier with how well it’s going, so I still consider July a big success.
It was hard to get into a regular schedule as the month began since it was an unusually busy July for me this year. I started out forcing myself to get a certain number of pages done or to work for a certain amount of time, just to make sure I accomplished something. I’d start with a very broad overview to determine what I didn’t think was working and then tried to isolate the problems down to different parts of the manuscript, or what happened in which chapters, or which characters needed work, or what scenes were completely unnecessary, or so on. There was a lot to do, and in the beginning that can be overwhelming.
As the month went on, I started to notice the story working its way into my divergent thinking. I worked on mental outlines while on the treadmill. I started digging out music to listen to that I thought captured a certain tone I was going for and would let that steer me. I started walking around the house talking to myself when I was trying to work through a section of dialogue I wanted to add or change. Eventually sitting down at the computer to work became less of a chore and more of a release. It was something I looked forward to doing and made the time to do. My favorite days of the week became the days off I had from my workout schedule, because on those days I’d be able to start working two hours earlier than usual. When I reached the point where I had boxed myself into five or six or seven hour days of working, I knew it was paying off.
Revision is really hard work, but when it’s going well it feels great. The whole writing process is a lot like a jigsaw puzzle, when you start with an overall idea of what you’re trying to accomplish but you’ve got two thousand tiny pieces you somehow have to fit together perfectly. What plot scenes don’t work, or aren’t necessary, and what needs to be done to fix them? Who are the characters at their core, and are they consistently who they need to be? Do they progress through an arc that the readers will be able to follow? Are there continuity problems or chronology gaps in the story? Can specific sentences be better, or is good enough really good enough in some cases? Am I using words that would sound natural coming from my narrator? Am I achieving a balance between my narrator’s (hopefully) subtle exposition and giving the readers opportunities to fill in some of the story blanks themselves? Knowing that these issues have been identified and addressed and knowing the overall story has been significantly improved as a result is a huge, huge rush.
Sometime in the coming days I’ll be posting here again, as well on Facebook I’m sure, to recruit an opening round of volunteers interested in reading the revised manuscript when it’s done. I know I have a small, faithful group of beta readers who will be ready and willing to step up for me -- and they all know how much I appreciate their help -- but I hope this one gets to go a little wider.
Which brings us to August. School will be coming back to life by the end of the month so of course it’s going to be a presence again soon. I have a variety of significant challenges waiting for me this school year, but fortunately I’ve found reasons to be more at peace, if not slightly optimistic with them than I was even a month ago, but I’m not all the way there yet. So even though it isn’t the most tangible of goals, I have one pinned down for August: Get myself mentally ready for the school year. I see a pathway on how to get there now and I hope it will work, but a lot of whether or not it will falls back on the whole concept behind this Momentum project: Not just knowing what needs to be done, but following through and doing it.
And speaking of doing, I think I still have a little fuel left in the tank tonight, and some revising that needs to be done....
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Literary Pathways
I already did a Facebook link about this, but I thought I would put up a Summer Vacation post as well for good measure. My friend Betsy, whom I've taught with for about twenty years, started working on her own blog this past month. She's spent the last few weeks getting the appearance of it and the voice of the writing nailed down the way she wants before turning it loose on the Internet, and just this past week she finally took it public.
Her reason for starting a blog was simple: As a writing teacher, she felt it was important to develop the habit of actively writing. The most effective teachers are, I tend to believe, the ones who are well-versed in the content areas they teach, and for her to be writing will give her more common ground with her students during the year as they write. Since she has too much common sense to spend her summer chained to a desktop computer working on a novel, a blog seems like a perfect way for her to get that writing practice done.
Now, as for this blog: Instead of just spouting off whatever self-indulgent ramblings happen to cross her mind at any given moment like *ahem* some people do, she went into creating a blog that was much more practical and directly related to her teaching. Each of her posts will somehow relate to the umbrella topic of language arts instruction: Strategies she's tried while teaching reading or writing, things that she has picked up in classes, ideas collected from articles or books she's read, and so on.
She has always been very active in developing her craft as a teacher, and I think it's fair to say she is perceived, both at our school and in the wider district, as a professional worthy of emulation. So if you're a teacher, or you're in the process of becoming one, or you're thinking about becoming one someday, or if you're just curious to see what kind of work goes into being one, I recommend that you check out her blog. Her first posts have it off to a strong start, and should give anyone reading it in these early stages a good idea of what to expect in the coming weeks and months.
Click the link below and you'll see what I mean.
LITERARY PATHWAYS
Her reason for starting a blog was simple: As a writing teacher, she felt it was important to develop the habit of actively writing. The most effective teachers are, I tend to believe, the ones who are well-versed in the content areas they teach, and for her to be writing will give her more common ground with her students during the year as they write. Since she has too much common sense to spend her summer chained to a desktop computer working on a novel, a blog seems like a perfect way for her to get that writing practice done.
Now, as for this blog: Instead of just spouting off whatever self-indulgent ramblings happen to cross her mind at any given moment like *ahem* some people do, she went into creating a blog that was much more practical and directly related to her teaching. Each of her posts will somehow relate to the umbrella topic of language arts instruction: Strategies she's tried while teaching reading or writing, things that she has picked up in classes, ideas collected from articles or books she's read, and so on.
She has always been very active in developing her craft as a teacher, and I think it's fair to say she is perceived, both at our school and in the wider district, as a professional worthy of emulation. So if you're a teacher, or you're in the process of becoming one, or you're thinking about becoming one someday, or if you're just curious to see what kind of work goes into being one, I recommend that you check out her blog. Her first posts have it off to a strong start, and should give anyone reading it in these early stages a good idea of what to expect in the coming weeks and months.
Click the link below and you'll see what I mean.
LITERARY PATHWAYS
Friday, July 26, 2013
Hollywood Moments
I’ve been a big fan of movies most of my life, probably dating back to the first time I saw Star Wars in fourth grade. And I’m still a fan now. But I think, at least to a certain degree, some of what draws me to the movies must be changing.
I can think of several examples in just the past few months when I’ve seen moments in movies that are so ridiculous they border on self-parody. You know somebody somewhere in the creative process of bringing these movies to the screen thought these moments were good ideas, but I can’t believe these decisions were motivated by any kind of creative integrity. And I know, it's business, and movies are usually made to the point of making money. But I think we'd all benefit from the movie makers of the world taking an occasional pause and giving a second thought to some of the things they're doing.
I’m not about to get going on a rant of how unrealistic these moments are -- I’ve always been an advocate for the suspension of disbelief; that's usually half the fun. If you’re the kind of person who is going to sit down in the theater and think, “Oh, come on!! So that push cart that Indiana Jones and his friends are in JUST HAPPENED to jump off the rails and sail over that big open space and then PERFECTLY LANDED right on the other side with no problem at all? Like that would ever happen in a million years!” That’s not necessarily the kind of moment I’m thinking of. I’m thinking more moments that would fit perfectly into a satire about Hollywood. I don’t know how many people saw it, but there was a movie back in the 80s or 90s called “The Player,” which was exactly the kind of Hollywood satire I’m talking about. In it these Hollywood producer types are involved in twisting deals about a movie they’re trying to make. At the end we get to see a quick moment of how that movie resolves, when Bruce Willis (in a cameo) blasts his way through a wall to save Julia Roberts (also in a cameo). As he picks her up and lovingly carries her through the debris, she smiles and says, “What took you so long?” He smirks in reply, and says “Traffic was a bitch.”
That's the kind of ridiculous moment that could plausibly turn in a big-budget blockbuster Hollywood movie for sure. And the moments I’ve noticed this summer have all come from those same kind of big budget movies. Any of them would have been perfectly at home taking the place of the Bruce/Julia conclusion in “The Player.”
Here’s some of what I’ve seen so far:
** Today I saw “The Wolverine.” Not bad, but not a life-changer either. There was a conversation taking place between two life-long friends about how one of them about was to take over the largest corporation in all of Asia, while at the same time she’s being pursued by the Japanese mafia and a variety of super mutants. I would have loved it if one of them had said to the other, “Can you believe this #&*%! is really happening to us?!”
** “Grown Ups 2” got several eye rolls out of me, but none were bigger than this: Somehow in the course of one day, somebody suggests having a party at Adam Sandler’s house. Then it gets an “80s” theme, so of course EVERY PERSON IN TOWN is able to put together perfect 80s costumes at a moment’s notice. And if that can happen, well, why not have the J. Geils Band show up and play a set? Hey, look! There they are!
** “White House Down” was a movie I really liked. But when “wrong place at the wrong time” D.C. cop Channing Tatum stood there barking into a satellite phone, telling some military general or the Speaker of the House or whomever wasn’t listening to him that they couldn’t order a bombing strike or whatever because he had to save the President of the United States, all while wearing the sleeveless t-shirt he borrowed from Bruce Willis's character in “Die Hard?” I hope Channing Tatum is a smart enough guy to have thought "Am I really saying these words?" while shooting that scene.
** My absolute favorite of these moments so far was in “Red 2,” another movie that I really liked, maybe one of my favorites of the summer. But the image of Helen Mirren calmly spraying machine gun fire at two dozen bad guys while the Lotus she’s riding in goes into a slow-motion spin, and all the while the music of Linkin Park pounds through the soundtrack?
I had to laugh.
I can think of several examples in just the past few months when I’ve seen moments in movies that are so ridiculous they border on self-parody. You know somebody somewhere in the creative process of bringing these movies to the screen thought these moments were good ideas, but I can’t believe these decisions were motivated by any kind of creative integrity. And I know, it's business, and movies are usually made to the point of making money. But I think we'd all benefit from the movie makers of the world taking an occasional pause and giving a second thought to some of the things they're doing.
I’m not about to get going on a rant of how unrealistic these moments are -- I’ve always been an advocate for the suspension of disbelief; that's usually half the fun. If you’re the kind of person who is going to sit down in the theater and think, “Oh, come on!! So that push cart that Indiana Jones and his friends are in JUST HAPPENED to jump off the rails and sail over that big open space and then PERFECTLY LANDED right on the other side with no problem at all? Like that would ever happen in a million years!” That’s not necessarily the kind of moment I’m thinking of. I’m thinking more moments that would fit perfectly into a satire about Hollywood. I don’t know how many people saw it, but there was a movie back in the 80s or 90s called “The Player,” which was exactly the kind of Hollywood satire I’m talking about. In it these Hollywood producer types are involved in twisting deals about a movie they’re trying to make. At the end we get to see a quick moment of how that movie resolves, when Bruce Willis (in a cameo) blasts his way through a wall to save Julia Roberts (also in a cameo). As he picks her up and lovingly carries her through the debris, she smiles and says, “What took you so long?” He smirks in reply, and says “Traffic was a bitch.”
That's the kind of ridiculous moment that could plausibly turn in a big-budget blockbuster Hollywood movie for sure. And the moments I’ve noticed this summer have all come from those same kind of big budget movies. Any of them would have been perfectly at home taking the place of the Bruce/Julia conclusion in “The Player.”
Here’s some of what I’ve seen so far:
** Today I saw “The Wolverine.” Not bad, but not a life-changer either. There was a conversation taking place between two life-long friends about how one of them about was to take over the largest corporation in all of Asia, while at the same time she’s being pursued by the Japanese mafia and a variety of super mutants. I would have loved it if one of them had said to the other, “Can you believe this #&*%! is really happening to us?!”
** “Grown Ups 2” got several eye rolls out of me, but none were bigger than this: Somehow in the course of one day, somebody suggests having a party at Adam Sandler’s house. Then it gets an “80s” theme, so of course EVERY PERSON IN TOWN is able to put together perfect 80s costumes at a moment’s notice. And if that can happen, well, why not have the J. Geils Band show up and play a set? Hey, look! There they are!
** “White House Down” was a movie I really liked. But when “wrong place at the wrong time” D.C. cop Channing Tatum stood there barking into a satellite phone, telling some military general or the Speaker of the House or whomever wasn’t listening to him that they couldn’t order a bombing strike or whatever because he had to save the President of the United States, all while wearing the sleeveless t-shirt he borrowed from Bruce Willis's character in “Die Hard?” I hope Channing Tatum is a smart enough guy to have thought "Am I really saying these words?" while shooting that scene.
** My absolute favorite of these moments so far was in “Red 2,” another movie that I really liked, maybe one of my favorites of the summer. But the image of Helen Mirren calmly spraying machine gun fire at two dozen bad guys while the Lotus she’s riding in goes into a slow-motion spin, and all the while the music of Linkin Park pounds through the soundtrack?
I had to laugh.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
The Flipside of Progress
We're about halfway through July now, which means we are WAY closer to the beginning of the school year than I care to think about. So let's all agree to just not think about it....
The first half of July has been unusually busy for me. I've spent a lot of time with my unusually close extended family, which has been great. Almost every person in my circle of close friends has something going on this summer, ranging from small projects to major life-altering events, and I've found myself at least peripherally involved in many of them, which has also been great in different ways and different definitions. I have regular workouts going on, a lot of reading, some binge TV watching, occasional movies to see, and let's face it: Those naps don't take themselves. I've even started getting caught up in a game that I've been anxious to play since it was released in March, and yet as engaging as that game it is, it hasn't come close to taking over my life like so many games of summers past have. This can be attributed to a mostly welcome return to a strong, regular and productive writing habit.
I started the summer with big ambitions, as I always do, and I knew from the onset that not all of those goals would be reached. But if you read my last momentum post at the end of June, you might remember that I set a July goal to finish revising the manuscript that was my top priority for the summer. I'm mostly happy to say that project feels like it's going extremely well so far. The revisions I'm doing are making a world of difference in characterization, story depth, continuity, subtext and just overall quality. This one (Following Infinity, for anyone who knows it) was divided up into three parts, and I'm now within spitting distance of finishing the work on Part 1, which is the longest part of the three -- or at least it used to be. If the other two parts come together as well as the first one has so far, I see myself desperately hoping to recruit volunteer readers by summer's end in the hopes of collecting a variety of opinions.
But as well as the work is flowing right now, it is not coming easy. If you don't know this story... I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who might read it someday soon, but I think I can safely say the story has a certain emotional weight to it, and many of the people who've read it have had strong reactions. Without giving it away, I can say that my main character is a thirteen-year-old girl who has just experienced some major upheaval in her life and is caught up in a depressive spiral as she tries to cope with what's happened. Since the story is told in the first person, that means I have to write it by channeling her depression. I can assure you that while this hopefully will produce a much-improved story by the time I'm done, it's no ride around the lake in the meantime. It's been a good thing that I've been kept so busy this July and have seen my family as much as I have these past few weeks, because without those interruptions I would not be the happiest of campers right now. But hey - suffering for the art and all. If it means I wind up with a manuscript that gets a shot at representation or even publication someday, I'll muddle through the self-generated grey skies for a bit. Which kind of explains why I'm taking time to write what now feels like a fairly unnecessary post tonight -- just giving myself a little time to pull back and regain perspective.
So half of July to go. I'm predicting right now that I will NOT be done with the work by the end of the month, but I will have made some significant progress, and I'll be really, really close. And if you're one of my usual first round of readers -- get ready. The day is coming soon.
The first half of July has been unusually busy for me. I've spent a lot of time with my unusually close extended family, which has been great. Almost every person in my circle of close friends has something going on this summer, ranging from small projects to major life-altering events, and I've found myself at least peripherally involved in many of them, which has also been great in different ways and different definitions. I have regular workouts going on, a lot of reading, some binge TV watching, occasional movies to see, and let's face it: Those naps don't take themselves. I've even started getting caught up in a game that I've been anxious to play since it was released in March, and yet as engaging as that game it is, it hasn't come close to taking over my life like so many games of summers past have. This can be attributed to a mostly welcome return to a strong, regular and productive writing habit.
I started the summer with big ambitions, as I always do, and I knew from the onset that not all of those goals would be reached. But if you read my last momentum post at the end of June, you might remember that I set a July goal to finish revising the manuscript that was my top priority for the summer. I'm mostly happy to say that project feels like it's going extremely well so far. The revisions I'm doing are making a world of difference in characterization, story depth, continuity, subtext and just overall quality. This one (Following Infinity, for anyone who knows it) was divided up into three parts, and I'm now within spitting distance of finishing the work on Part 1, which is the longest part of the three -- or at least it used to be. If the other two parts come together as well as the first one has so far, I see myself desperately hoping to recruit volunteer readers by summer's end in the hopes of collecting a variety of opinions.
But as well as the work is flowing right now, it is not coming easy. If you don't know this story... I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who might read it someday soon, but I think I can safely say the story has a certain emotional weight to it, and many of the people who've read it have had strong reactions. Without giving it away, I can say that my main character is a thirteen-year-old girl who has just experienced some major upheaval in her life and is caught up in a depressive spiral as she tries to cope with what's happened. Since the story is told in the first person, that means I have to write it by channeling her depression. I can assure you that while this hopefully will produce a much-improved story by the time I'm done, it's no ride around the lake in the meantime. It's been a good thing that I've been kept so busy this July and have seen my family as much as I have these past few weeks, because without those interruptions I would not be the happiest of campers right now. But hey - suffering for the art and all. If it means I wind up with a manuscript that gets a shot at representation or even publication someday, I'll muddle through the self-generated grey skies for a bit. Which kind of explains why I'm taking time to write what now feels like a fairly unnecessary post tonight -- just giving myself a little time to pull back and regain perspective.
So half of July to go. I'm predicting right now that I will NOT be done with the work by the end of the month, but I will have made some significant progress, and I'll be really, really close. And if you're one of my usual first round of readers -- get ready. The day is coming soon.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Breaking all Illusions
How's your morning? Kind of relaxed? Maybe a little slow? The calm before the storm of what will likely be a busy holiday weekend? Maybe you'd like to participate in a quick little low-impact social experiment.
I noticed this morning that Summer Vacation's hit count had gone up overnight to just a little south of 5,000. This number would be a serious benchmark for me, and one that I decided I'd like to reach today. The problem is I don't really have anything interesting to say right now that would inspire the comments and likes it would take to get people curious about what's on this end of the link. I've learned that responses are part of the pattern: The posts that get the most individual hits are the ones that have a lot of people liking them or commenting on them.
For my end of this experiment, I'm going to pretend that I wrote something either very funny or touching or personally revealing, then published the post and put up a link. If you, the person reading this right now, is willing to participate in this experiment, I'm asking you to either Like the post where you found this link, or -- even better -- comment on it. But for this to work your comments would have to be some variety of fiction that would make people think there is something so interesting here that they would be compelled to click the link and find out what it is. Comments shouldn't be overly specific, but more along the lines of "I never would have guessed that" / "I kind of suspected you felt that way, but I wasn't sure" / "Don't worry -- I've done the same thing many times and everything turned out all right!" / "I think it's great you can share something that personal and still joke about it" or whatever might come to mind for you. Have some fun with it. (For the record, I borrowed the title of the post from a song. It seemed appropriate for this ruse, and appropriately vague.)
The only reason I think this might work is because I suspect many people would agree that one of my defining qualities is an acutely introverted personality, and if they think I'm letting people see something behind that mask they might become curious to find out what it is. Of course it's equally possible that this is going to sail right off the radar for everyone and my hit count will barely move. It is the day before a national holiday after all, so this could be a bad day to try this. And it's more than possible that I find the things I write about on Summer Vacation much more intriguing than anyone else does, so few people will bother following the link anyway. I guess that's why I see this as an experiment.
So. If you did click the link and read this, I hope you'll at least go back and like it just to perpetuate the gag. I also hope some people will invent comments to write in response that won't give away what's happening here. I fully understand that leaving a comment does make you complicit in what is really just a silly "Made you look!" prank, but I don't think it will work as well without that element, so I hope at least a few people are game. If it makes any difference, as a way of showing my appreciation to anyone leaving a comment, I promise to truthfully answer any question you ask at a later time, whether it's something you think actually would be a deep and dark secret or it's just something you're curious to know; I fully acknowledge that being so introverted I don't often let my guard down. So if there's something you've ever wondered about, here's your chance. (Disclaimer: Any questions would have to go through private messages or be asked in the real world - this is a question you earned with a comment, so the answer isn't going out to the public domain.)
So to anyone who has bothered to read this far: If you plan on helping the cause with a like or a comment, thanks! And to anyone who doesn't usually read Summer Vacation posts but read this because you fell victim to a harmless little prank, well - gotcha! I hope you aren't upset that I used up seven minutes of your day. And hey, now that you've found the place, why not look at that archive list over on the right side of your screen and see of there are older posts you might find interesting enough to read someday? I promise all of the others are real.
Suddenly this whole idea seems ridiculous and self-indulgent, but as long as nobody's getting hurt, what's wrong with a little ridiculous once in awhile? Now to hit "publish" and see what happens....
Have a great Independence Day weekend! And thanks for visiting.
I noticed this morning that Summer Vacation's hit count had gone up overnight to just a little south of 5,000. This number would be a serious benchmark for me, and one that I decided I'd like to reach today. The problem is I don't really have anything interesting to say right now that would inspire the comments and likes it would take to get people curious about what's on this end of the link. I've learned that responses are part of the pattern: The posts that get the most individual hits are the ones that have a lot of people liking them or commenting on them.
For my end of this experiment, I'm going to pretend that I wrote something either very funny or touching or personally revealing, then published the post and put up a link. If you, the person reading this right now, is willing to participate in this experiment, I'm asking you to either Like the post where you found this link, or -- even better -- comment on it. But for this to work your comments would have to be some variety of fiction that would make people think there is something so interesting here that they would be compelled to click the link and find out what it is. Comments shouldn't be overly specific, but more along the lines of "I never would have guessed that" / "I kind of suspected you felt that way, but I wasn't sure" / "Don't worry -- I've done the same thing many times and everything turned out all right!" / "I think it's great you can share something that personal and still joke about it" or whatever might come to mind for you. Have some fun with it. (For the record, I borrowed the title of the post from a song. It seemed appropriate for this ruse, and appropriately vague.)
The only reason I think this might work is because I suspect many people would agree that one of my defining qualities is an acutely introverted personality, and if they think I'm letting people see something behind that mask they might become curious to find out what it is. Of course it's equally possible that this is going to sail right off the radar for everyone and my hit count will barely move. It is the day before a national holiday after all, so this could be a bad day to try this. And it's more than possible that I find the things I write about on Summer Vacation much more intriguing than anyone else does, so few people will bother following the link anyway. I guess that's why I see this as an experiment.
So. If you did click the link and read this, I hope you'll at least go back and like it just to perpetuate the gag. I also hope some people will invent comments to write in response that won't give away what's happening here. I fully understand that leaving a comment does make you complicit in what is really just a silly "Made you look!" prank, but I don't think it will work as well without that element, so I hope at least a few people are game. If it makes any difference, as a way of showing my appreciation to anyone leaving a comment, I promise to truthfully answer any question you ask at a later time, whether it's something you think actually would be a deep and dark secret or it's just something you're curious to know; I fully acknowledge that being so introverted I don't often let my guard down. So if there's something you've ever wondered about, here's your chance. (Disclaimer: Any questions would have to go through private messages or be asked in the real world - this is a question you earned with a comment, so the answer isn't going out to the public domain.)
So to anyone who has bothered to read this far: If you plan on helping the cause with a like or a comment, thanks! And to anyone who doesn't usually read Summer Vacation posts but read this because you fell victim to a harmless little prank, well - gotcha! I hope you aren't upset that I used up seven minutes of your day. And hey, now that you've found the place, why not look at that archive list over on the right side of your screen and see of there are older posts you might find interesting enough to read someday? I promise all of the others are real.
Suddenly this whole idea seems ridiculous and self-indulgent, but as long as nobody's getting hurt, what's wrong with a little ridiculous once in awhile? Now to hit "publish" and see what happens....
Have a great Independence Day weekend! And thanks for visiting.
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