The 777 challenge is when one author challenges others to post seven lines of text, seven lines down, on the seventh page of a work in progress. Early this morning I discovered I’d been tagged for a 777 post by my agent sister, the one and only Rachel Simon. I’m more than willing to participate and post my seven lines of text, because they turn out to be seven lines I really like.
In case you may have missed my several dozen earlier references to it here on the blog, Following Infinity is a literary-leaning contemporary middle grade novel I’m currently revising with the insightful guidance of my agent. In this scene, my main character, a thirteen-year-old girl named Molly, is attending the funeral of her younger brother, Michael.
**********
The pastor gave a sermon about Michael’s life that kind of annoyed me. You could tell he was probably reading from some pastor book like Things to Say at a Child’s Funeral and plugging in details about Michael along the way to make it sound like he knew him, like how much he liked roller coasters, or soccer, or collecting rocks. Sometimes he’d tell a funny Michael story or make a joke to break some of the tension, and everyone would laugh more than the joke deserved. I hated that. The laughter was a moment of relief, but it hurt even more when the relief passed.
Most of the crowd followed us to the cemetery when the service ended, an easy walk from the church. The afternoon sky was a deep blue, broken up by the kind of heavy clouds you see on a clear day in October.
**********
Hope you enjoyed that little sample of the manuscript. Thanks for tagging me and putting up your seven lines, Rachel! I'm really looking forward to the day I'll have all of our Team Howland titles sitting next to each other on a bookshelf in my house.
And now a brief update. If you had read my previous post about NaNoWriMo 2014, I’d outlined some plans I had coming together regarding my Following Infinity revisions, and how I planned to take advantage of all the work to be done during NaNo to help that cause. I think it’s now safe to say those plans have been shelved. In the time since I wrote that post, another project has crept to the Number One must-write spot, and it’s all the more likely that’s what I’ll be drafting in November. Which is all I will say about it now, because for all I know another pretty idea might come along between now and late at night on October 31st and I’ll change my mind yet again. Stay tuned....
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Friday, October 17, 2014
NaNoWriMo 2014
Back in 2008, a teacher friend of mine wanted to participate in National Novel Writing Month, a.k.a. NaNoWriMo, but didn’t want to do it alone. She knew writing was a hobby of mine and convinced me to sign up as well. If you aren’t familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s an organized event challenging people to write a complete novel during the month of November, with the benchmark of a complete novel being a written work of at least 50,000 words. Anyone and everyone who reaches that 50K mark wins the event, even if you don’t finish telling your entire story. The point isn’t to get everything perfect and polished, but to pound your way through that first draft. My results so far:
2008: Contemporary middle grade satire - Win. Good idea overall, but it started as one story and evolved into a different one halfway through. It remains in the vault.
2009: Literary-leaning contemporary middle grade - Win. Plus it got me an agent four and a half years later, so Win x 100.
2010: Literary-leaning middle grade contemporary fantasy - Win. I still love the concept behind this one, but the manuscript is a mess. Maybe someday it will get another shot.
2011: Middle grade horror - Win. That year I actually took an older manuscript and rewrote it from the ground up, then kept working on it to the point I queried it and even had a full request before I shelved it in favor of a manuscript I was more confident about. I LOVE this one. Now that I have representation, I have serious hopes it will see someday see the light of day.
2012: Contemporary science fiction young adult - Win. This one has a great concept, but is so freaking ambitious and complex I felt I was struggling to do it justice. The first draft remains only mostly finished at about 70,000 words, most of which will have to be rewritten in order for me to ever make it into something real. But the story...ooooh, man... I’m going to have to revisit it someday.
2013: Middle grade comedy - Win. Again, first draft unfinished, but at about 68,000 words. When I finish the revisions on my current project, this one is probably next in the queue.
So that catches us up to 2014, and into an autumn that I’ll openly admit has had more than its share of time demands and stress, not to mention finding me in a place where my writing time and energy would really be best served by working on my latest round of revisions. But does that mean I’m going sit out this year and rest on my winning streak?
Not a chance.
Instead I think I found a way to both work on revisions and aim for my 50,000 word win, which is a goal I have every intention of reaching. This year’s manuscript isn’t going to be one continuous story, but something I’m going to write just for me -- a collection of short stories featuring the characters from the manuscript I'm revising, FOLLOWING INFINITY. By doing this I hope to gain deeper insights about my characters and their relationships, especially as I’m preparing to build up some currently smaller roles into more significant ones. Since the stories I’m thinking about will take place both before and after the events in the story, and possibly even concurrently or from an alternate-timeline perspective, having those added events will give me better background material to work with when I get back to actual revising. It’s been forever since I’ve tried writing short stories and I’m excited about what this could help me discover. (EDIT -- It's a week and a half later. I had a conversation with my agent since writing this post, and consequently got so fired up about a different idea I changed my project over to that. So this whole paragraph? Yeah. Ignore it.)
To any and all writers reading this (especially Twitter folk, and of course anyone else from the greatness that is Team Howland): If you're planning on participating, go ahead and add me as a writing buddy when you sign in. You’ll find me under the username Hooshea (it’s a nonsense word created by a second grader; long story). Having gone from writing in isolation and existing in online anonymity for so many years, I’m looking forward to connecting with other participants. Everyone can be a winner in this, and it never hurts to have more people in your camp! You prod me along and I'll prod you right back.
And if you're one of my non-writer Facebook friends, I'll be posting frequent word count updates during November. Supportive comments along the way are always helpful and appreciated.
Wish me luck!
2008: Contemporary middle grade satire - Win. Good idea overall, but it started as one story and evolved into a different one halfway through. It remains in the vault.
2009: Literary-leaning contemporary middle grade - Win. Plus it got me an agent four and a half years later, so Win x 100.
2010: Literary-leaning middle grade contemporary fantasy - Win. I still love the concept behind this one, but the manuscript is a mess. Maybe someday it will get another shot.
2011: Middle grade horror - Win. That year I actually took an older manuscript and rewrote it from the ground up, then kept working on it to the point I queried it and even had a full request before I shelved it in favor of a manuscript I was more confident about. I LOVE this one. Now that I have representation, I have serious hopes it will see someday see the light of day.
2012: Contemporary science fiction young adult - Win. This one has a great concept, but is so freaking ambitious and complex I felt I was struggling to do it justice. The first draft remains only mostly finished at about 70,000 words, most of which will have to be rewritten in order for me to ever make it into something real. But the story...ooooh, man... I’m going to have to revisit it someday.
2013: Middle grade comedy - Win. Again, first draft unfinished, but at about 68,000 words. When I finish the revisions on my current project, this one is probably next in the queue.
So that catches us up to 2014, and into an autumn that I’ll openly admit has had more than its share of time demands and stress, not to mention finding me in a place where my writing time and energy would really be best served by working on my latest round of revisions. But does that mean I’m going sit out this year and rest on my winning streak?
Not a chance.
Instead I think I found a way to both work on revisions and aim for my 50,000 word win, which is a goal I have every intention of reaching. This year’s manuscript isn’t going to be one continuous story, but something I’m going to write just for me -- a collection of short stories featuring the characters from the manuscript I'm revising, FOLLOWING INFINITY. By doing this I hope to gain deeper insights about my characters and their relationships, especially as I’m preparing to build up some currently smaller roles into more significant ones. Since the stories I’m thinking about will take place both before and after the events in the story, and possibly even concurrently or from an alternate-timeline perspective, having those added events will give me better background material to work with when I get back to actual revising. It’s been forever since I’ve tried writing short stories and I’m excited about what this could help me discover. (EDIT -- It's a week and a half later. I had a conversation with my agent since writing this post, and consequently got so fired up about a different idea I changed my project over to that. So this whole paragraph? Yeah. Ignore it.)
To any and all writers reading this (especially Twitter folk, and of course anyone else from the greatness that is Team Howland): If you're planning on participating, go ahead and add me as a writing buddy when you sign in. You’ll find me under the username Hooshea (it’s a nonsense word created by a second grader; long story). Having gone from writing in isolation and existing in online anonymity for so many years, I’m looking forward to connecting with other participants. Everyone can be a winner in this, and it never hurts to have more people in your camp! You prod me along and I'll prod you right back.
And if you're one of my non-writer Facebook friends, I'll be posting frequent word count updates during November. Supportive comments along the way are always helpful and appreciated.
Wish me luck!
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Writing Process Blog Tour
A few months back I was invited to be a part of the Writing Process Blog Tour. If you aren’t familiar with this, it involves different writers responding to questions about their writing process, then passing the same questions to other writers, and so on. Back then I didn’t feel I had to the time to take it on, but a few weeks ago I luckily got a second chance. This time I was tagged by Melissa Gorzelancyzk. Her debut young adult novel ARROWS will be released by Random House / Delacorte Press in January of 2016. It’s the story of Aaryn, a wayward cupid, and Karma, a dance prodigy whose destiny is derailed by the power of a single arrow. You can find out more about Melissa on her website, and can add her book at Goodreads here. Melissa and I are both lucky enough to be represented by Carrie Howland of Donadio & Olson, Inc. Whew. Lot of links to navigate through in that paragraph. Here’s a nice picture to look at as a reward:
And here are the questions Melissa handed off to me, with my answers.
-- What are you working on?
In the big picture I’ve got four projects going right now, although one is by far getting the most attention. I’m currently working on the newest revision of my middle grade novel Following Infinity. It’s the story of how a thirteen-year-old named Molly struggles to cope with the death of her younger brother Michael. She takes a cross-country road trip with her cousin and grandfather to visit the dream roller coaster her brother never had the chance to ride, which leads her to unanticipated levels of self-discovery.
-- How does your work differ from others of its genre?
I always intended the story to deal with delicate subject matter in a way that doesn’t sugar-coat how rough Molly's experience is. I want it to reflect honest feeling, even when it gets dark and emotionally brutal, which I think it's safe to say it does at points. I also think that when compared to a lot of middle grade currently out there, my story leans in a more literary direction. At least that’s what I’m aiming for.
-- Why do you write what you do?
The short answer, since I just expounded on this not long ago on the Middle Grade Minded blog: I see myself as less of a middle grade writer and more of a writer living in a middle grade world. For me it’s always been more about what story needs to be told than anything intentionally directed toward or created for a specific audience. Writing was never as much of an active choice for me as something that organically began to happen when I needed it. I write middle grade now because that’s what I see in front of me every day, and that environment is rich with stories. But that doesn’t mean middle grade is all I’m ever going to write.
-- How does your writing process work?
It can all begin with a character or a setting or a premise that intrigues me enough to keep thinking about, and when that extra bit of something interesting arrives and kicks everything to a new level, the dam bursts wide open. The sitting down and typing business most people think of as writing happens in some form on most days, but the brainstorming and development and note-taking and character inventories and speculating and organizing and assembling is almost constant, from before I start the first draft until I think I’m done revising. When I am at the keyboard, I’m usually listening to a playlist that’s been carefully constructed to reflect the tone of whatever I’m working on, and if I’m in serious flow state writing mode I’ll have the music playing from another room so I can’t interrupt myself to change songs. I’m a pretty quick and adaptive thinker, so once I have an idea of where the story will be going I can often just start working and let it roll out in front of me, sometimes following what I had planned but sometimes pulling me in the direction of new discoveries. Often I’ll stand up and pace around the house, talking to myself to outline upcoming moments or to act out dialogue exchanges between characters. Once everything in a project starts coming together and I know I’ve got something serious on my hands, that backyard part of my writer brain will always have something going on related to that work in progress.
Afterward, the revision is hard, long, tedious work. It’s reading chapters forward and backward several times over to find typos and grammar fixes that can’t be excused in the name of voice. It’s searching for how many times I’ve overused my usual writing crutches and then rewriting around them. It’s running the story through several different filters, usually one at a time, trying to find the good bits in all the unnecessary. And then doing it all again and again.
My turn to tag: I’m passing on the fun to Lara Chapman and Daniel Kenney, two of my co-conspirators from the formidable Middle Grade Minded blog. You can find out more about them on their websites below, and look forward to their process posts coming in the next week or two.
Lara Chapman
Daniel Kenney
And here are the questions Melissa handed off to me, with my answers.
-- What are you working on?
In the big picture I’ve got four projects going right now, although one is by far getting the most attention. I’m currently working on the newest revision of my middle grade novel Following Infinity. It’s the story of how a thirteen-year-old named Molly struggles to cope with the death of her younger brother Michael. She takes a cross-country road trip with her cousin and grandfather to visit the dream roller coaster her brother never had the chance to ride, which leads her to unanticipated levels of self-discovery.
-- How does your work differ from others of its genre?
I always intended the story to deal with delicate subject matter in a way that doesn’t sugar-coat how rough Molly's experience is. I want it to reflect honest feeling, even when it gets dark and emotionally brutal, which I think it's safe to say it does at points. I also think that when compared to a lot of middle grade currently out there, my story leans in a more literary direction. At least that’s what I’m aiming for.
-- Why do you write what you do?
The short answer, since I just expounded on this not long ago on the Middle Grade Minded blog: I see myself as less of a middle grade writer and more of a writer living in a middle grade world. For me it’s always been more about what story needs to be told than anything intentionally directed toward or created for a specific audience. Writing was never as much of an active choice for me as something that organically began to happen when I needed it. I write middle grade now because that’s what I see in front of me every day, and that environment is rich with stories. But that doesn’t mean middle grade is all I’m ever going to write.
-- How does your writing process work?
It can all begin with a character or a setting or a premise that intrigues me enough to keep thinking about, and when that extra bit of something interesting arrives and kicks everything to a new level, the dam bursts wide open. The sitting down and typing business most people think of as writing happens in some form on most days, but the brainstorming and development and note-taking and character inventories and speculating and organizing and assembling is almost constant, from before I start the first draft until I think I’m done revising. When I am at the keyboard, I’m usually listening to a playlist that’s been carefully constructed to reflect the tone of whatever I’m working on, and if I’m in serious flow state writing mode I’ll have the music playing from another room so I can’t interrupt myself to change songs. I’m a pretty quick and adaptive thinker, so once I have an idea of where the story will be going I can often just start working and let it roll out in front of me, sometimes following what I had planned but sometimes pulling me in the direction of new discoveries. Often I’ll stand up and pace around the house, talking to myself to outline upcoming moments or to act out dialogue exchanges between characters. Once everything in a project starts coming together and I know I’ve got something serious on my hands, that backyard part of my writer brain will always have something going on related to that work in progress.
Afterward, the revision is hard, long, tedious work. It’s reading chapters forward and backward several times over to find typos and grammar fixes that can’t be excused in the name of voice. It’s searching for how many times I’ve overused my usual writing crutches and then rewriting around them. It’s running the story through several different filters, usually one at a time, trying to find the good bits in all the unnecessary. And then doing it all again and again.
My turn to tag: I’m passing on the fun to Lara Chapman and Daniel Kenney, two of my co-conspirators from the formidable Middle Grade Minded blog. You can find out more about them on their websites below, and look forward to their process posts coming in the next week or two.
Lara Chapman
Daniel Kenney
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