Alisa M. Libby's Blog, page 10

pentimento

My creative writing professor at Emerson, Jessica Treadway, taught me this word when I was writing my senior thesis, a novel about a young artist:

pen•ti•men•to

[pen-tuh-men-toh]

Painting

the presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over.

It reminds me of canvases my Dad would use, streaked with black charcoal sketches before the paints were applied. Lines were changed, altered, erased. It's much the same with writing: I forge ahead, trying to figure out what the characters should be doing, discussing, discovering. I often discover the story along with them, adding new threads and discarding less interesting details as needed.

Sometimes, the canvas becomes muddy. Such is the case with one of my works-in-progress. There are so many overlapping threads to parse through that don't work for me anymore. Better to start with a clean canvas and start over, keeping only the promising bits from that draft. That leaves a lot of gaps that I can fill in with threads I find more interesting.

This isn't revising, this is rewriting. Daunting? Yes. Discouraging? Yes, that too. But necessary. The alternative would be, I suppose, to give up on this book altogether. But why do that if I'm still curious about these characters? If I can still sense some magic there, hidden beneath layers of bulky plot developments, why not mine those depths for something truly intriguing? I didn't feel so optimistic at first, no. In fact, I was quite depressed at the whole idea of starting over. But now the idea of a fresh sheet of paper seems filled with possibilities. I've talked about this before in posts about my "desperation documents" – when all seems lost, go back to what initially drew you to write this book. If you can tap into that early magic, you may be able to find the story you really want to tell.

Today, some encouragement from the lovely Tori Amos:

wake up, indeed

Happy MLK day to all.

I wrapped up my break by dancing and baking cookies (I missed adding the salt during "Golden Years"). Tomorrow I'm back to GSLIS – looking forward to seeing everyone, NOT looking forward to pulling myself out of bed in the wee hours of a cold, dark winter morning.

Will blog soon about my Reading Fiesta!

mfa

Yesterday, back to the MFA with my friend Beth to visit the new Art of the Americas wing. We started on the top floor – the modern art floor that I had missed last time. There was an arresting Mark Rothko up there (I was arrested, I'm not saying that I understood it). And we got to see some Georgia O'Keefe, including White Rose with Larkspur. Beautiful.

O'Keefe took an image – the rose – that people have seen a million times in nature and art, that would even be considered cliche. Then she depicted it in a fresh new way, as if we are seeing the rose for the first time. A fine artistic goal.

In other news, I'm back to work on Tuesday, and I'm officially taking a break from my revision. I was tempted to go back and just fix this one scene…but no. I have no perspective on the book, so I risk mucking things up if I go back. I'm not sure how I feel about the work I did during this break. I certainly put in the time and the effort, but due to my lack of perspective it's difficult to know whether the results are good or bad. Nevertheless, I have to ease into not-writing for a while. It will take some getting used to. Many books to read, movies to watch, music to listen to. New things to see in new ways.

emerging once again from the book vortex

On Monday, I was a terrible, hack writer. Tuesday evening, things were looking up, considerably. Wednesday, a few more changes (in the midst of a snow storm). Today, I'm weary, lacking objectivity. Is this book horrible, no good, a waste of time? I've spent three weeks doing nothing but revising this one book. The thought that it's no good is a terrible-horrible-no good-very bad feeling.

This happens. I feel down, and then I feel up again. Then down again. I'm not the only one – my writer friends all seem to suffer similar mental problems. It's difficult when this book-writing thing takes so much time and effort, and it's difficult not to attach your ego to a work in progress. Regardless of how it may be progressing.

The plan, now? Avoid further temptation to work on the book. It has weaknesses, but perhaps in a few weeks I will be a calmer, wiser person, capable of dealing with said weaknesses with a clear eye. For now, laundry beckons.

Today, for our viewing pleasure: Annie Lennox and David Bowie at the tribute concert for Freddie Mercury. I love Annie's dress. I don't know what to say about the mint green suit.

happy birthday, David. (And Elvis, too.)

It's David Bowie's birthday so I'm celebrating with "Heroes," "Loving the Alien," "Suffragette City" and Bowie at the Beeb.

As a writer jumping from historical fiction to contemporary fantasy, I admire Bowie's ability to transform. His willingness to take risks – from folk to rock to "plastic soul" to techno to pop to dancing around with a bunch of muppets. Sure, people weren't thrilled with all of his experiments – but you can't please everyone, certainly. And I don't think Bowie has had any intention of pleasing everyone. He just enjoys creating music and went wherever inspiration took him. We should all be so fearless in our creative endeavors; in our lives.

Here he is, complete with harem pants and high kicks:

never hurry, never rest

I tend to hurry.

I revised. Went back, re-read, revised some more. And more. And tweaked. And finally I decided I needed to keep my mitts off the book for a few days, before re-reading it again.

So, what do I do in the meantime? I'm considering looking at another project, but I'm not great at switching from one project to the next in such short time. But I have the time to work on something now, shouldn't I be as productive as possible?

That's the problem with being in a hurry. I have ideas that I really love, but an idea is just an idea. It lives in my head, not on the page. A lot of work exists between idea and words on the page. There is no hurrying through it, regardless of when I start writing.

Things were probably different for Mozart – just a bit of "scribbling and bibbling".

more ballet! more madness!

As you may know, I loved Adrienne Sharp's novel First Love, which featured the stories of ballerinas who set fire to the dance floor but were emotional wrecks off stage. (I realize that this isn't true for all dancers, but it does make for good reading.) Today I finally saw the new movie, Black Swan. It is certainly a horror movie and includes some of the ickyness that the genre implies. That said, there are few things I love more than artist-pushed-to-the-brink-by-their-craft stories, and it was all worth it for the thrill of seeing Natalie Portman dance with crazy eyes. Crazy eyes!

The fact that I'm so in the mood to watch movies about artists losing their minds might indicate that I needed a day off from my book. I'm back to it tomorrow, hopefully in a more balanced, non-crazy state of mind. In the past, I've had a more punishing approach to writing. There was a lot of "Sit down and figure it out!" screaming in my head. This didn't result in a lot of fantastic writing. Determination and discipline are requirements for writing a book, but I've learned that patience goes a long way, too. I'm sure I've already blogged about this, but I think it bears repeating – both to the writers out there, and to myself.

So, tomorrow: a fresh start. Reading the lastest section of my draft, working out the kinks. No crazy eyes.

cheers to the new year!

I've forgotten what a bad blogger I can be when I'm busy revising! Plus, the internet was down last night – I know, I'm full of excuses.

As for the draft, this week I managed to pull myself out of post-holiday stupor long enough to read the draft and come up with a plan for revision. As usual, I typed up notes, created an outline of the current draft, then inserted the notes as needed. By mid-week I started actually revising. I don't have any perspective on it right now, but at least I'm progressing through the draft. I'll judge it later on, after I've had a little break from it. It's so difficult to have a clear judgment of your own work!

That said, I want you all to have a happy and safe new year's eve – with designated drivers and all of that good stuff. I generally don't put much stock in new year's resolutions, but if that's your bag I've heard that it's better to keep your resolution secret. Then you might actually pursue it, instead of just talking about doing so. As the talking stage is as far as I usually get, I've made a resolution to not make any resolutions.

book winners and holiday inertia

Hello, readers! I'm sure many of you are still holiday-ing. I've sent emails to the winners of my book giveaway, but here is a list of books and winners in case the emails didn't reach you:

Nothing Like You – Jessica

The Forest of Hands and Teeth – Kat McConnell

The King's Rose – Lauren M

Bewitching Season – Beverly McClure

The Blood Confession – Dea Della Luna

Her and Me and You – Kathryn Hickle

Please do email me  at author@alisalibby.com with your mailing addresses so I can get your books in the mail!

In other news, I'm suffering post-holiday inertia and distraction, due largely to the mass amounts of chocolate-dipped goodies in our kitchen. I've got to read my draft and start my revision (taking careful consideration of my agent's notes). I'm just not in writer-mode just yet, but I've got to shape up quickly, as this break will be over before I know it.

no farmers were harmed in the writing of this blog

Growing up, my family ate a lot of turkey for the holidays. At least four turkey dinners per year, if not more. Did I get tired of all that turkey as a child? Certainly not! I have very fond memories: my small self in a striped dress and chestnut red mary jane shoes, walking into a warm house filled with turkey-smell. Another year, Dad left us directions in his artistic scrawl, which read (we were certain) "Put the farmer in the oven." But we don't roast farmers. We roast turkeys.

No doubt there are a lot of ornaments and wreaths and menorahs and fruit in many homes in December, but what else? A strange tradition that your family has created? As much as I dislike writing exercises, this could be a good one: start with what you did first thing on [insert holiday here] morning, and write from there. And if there's nothing, feel free to make stuff up. That's what fiction is all about.

Writing advice aside – it's present time! I've chosen a winner for my paperback copy of Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick. Congratulations, Jessica! Now I hope you all enjoy your week/weekend, holiday or no. I will get back to you next week with more posts, more writing updates, and more book winners!