Ransom Noble's Blog, page 11

Project Cycle

Every project begins with an image in someone’s head. Sometimes it’s hard to know whether it’s going to be ten thousand or a hundred thousand when I begin.

The first step is to spew out the rough draft. Sometimes, and with more regularity, an outline takes shape before that. I’ve been learning to get better about running through a draft until it’s done. When I stop things in the middle, I lose my place. I can’t figure out where I’m going. It takes forever to build the momentum back up again.

There is a need to let a draft sit, but not for too long. That rough draft turns into a pile of words on pages. The half-edited bundle of papers becomes something I have to re-read to connect to each time a long break happens. Yet I also get little tidbits of ideas about projects I haven’t worked on for a couple months. Sometimes those bits fit and sometimes it takes a change in the entire project to encompass the new idea.

How do you overcome that distance? What do you do to make yourself get through to the end without those long, awkward pauses of, ‘oh, yeah, I’m working on that book’? I’m also working through my resistance to editing. Somehow I will make progress.

Run

When I used to think about running, I remembered gym in high school. l had one teacher who loved calisthenics, and in his health and gym class you had to run, outside, in late November. Every time we passed him, he yelled that we had to go faster, a certain pace, or we’d fail. My lungs burned from the cold air and the only thing that kept me on that track was that I couldn’t fail because I could not stand to be in class with that guy again.

Something changed, though. This year, many mornings, when I wake up early to write – I also wake up wanting to run. This winter has been so much colder than that long-ago November, so I know I don’t really want to go outside. Yet I have that image of lacing up my shoes and taking off for morning run.

This morning I dreamed about it. I woke up too early, stayed in bed, and just imagined the scenery going by. How did this become something that I want to do so much that I dream about it?

Writing is often a sedentary pursuit, as was engineering. Yoga, while a fitness discipline, is often practiced in my home or at the gym at a stately pace. That static nature allows a lot of work on form and strength and patience. Yoga definitely taught me patience.

I’ve been reading Writing Down the Bones, where I finally understood the idea of a walking meditation. One foot raises during the inhale, comes down during the exhale. This slow pace brings focus to both the small movements and the world around. Finally that made sense, especially after attending a Tai Chi class this week. The slow, measured pace matches with the breath. You can’t hurry it. You use your yoga breath with a slow inhale and a slow exhale, which draws out those movements even more. All of it intended to make you relax.

Every morning since November, I have programmed an alarm in my phone that says “Sprint!” While that has been turned to writing, to pouring out my thoughts while my brain is still putting them together and allowing that creativity to drive my words, rather than allowing my analytical mind to drive order during the draft. Something has turned this into a want to run. To not just sprint after one kid or the other to prevent mayhem, but to really run with no other purpose than to go running.

While part of me is still recalling the grueling trek around the track, the rest of me is thinking it isn’t complete insanity to run. Just – maybe not outside. It is February and below freezing. And there’s always the possibility that it will connect things in my head for writing. If nothing else, I can make my characters learn to run, too.

One Million Words

I’ve only been tracking it on 750words.com since I joined. It took 2 years and almost 8 months: 1 May 2011 to 29 Dec 2013. That also only counts rough words, because I take them out of there when I finish and edit, rewrite, tweak, whatever’s needed elsewhere.

One million words feels huge. But when I count all the writing I’ve done before I joined, there might be a million words there, too. I know it’s hard to translate words into pages, but it would be about 4000. It might be 10 books worth, if it could be organized that way and was worth throwing together.  

My longest streak is 384 days, spanning two moves and having a baby. I’m creeping up there again, currently at 307 days in a row.

I’ve been told that writing a million words is more like an apprenticeship in writing than anything else. That it takes ten years to get good at something, and putting the time in is the only way to get better. I’m not sure I can say I’ve put that time into anything else. But writing, that I do, and I continue to do, every day. I’ve been writing more than ten years- it can be traced back to elementary school, though as I get older I get more dedicated to my craft.

What will the third million teach me that the first two didn’t?

December Brings New Goals

Why? Because it’s just fun to start a new month with new things to do.

NaNoWriMo is always fun. I met new people with the Quad City Writing Guild. New name for them, too, because they’re simply trying to organize the WriMos around the area. They decided it was so much fun, they didn’t just want to meet during November.

I didn’t finish my November novel, and I knew I wouldn’t this year. That’s been a goal for a while, but I knew with that idea it wasn’t going to happen. It’s too big. I’m not sure I have it fully contained. I will keep working on it. Last night I tried to match up the pieces I wrote to the outline boxes. Got interrupted, too, but that just means I will finish it later today.

My new habit for November was getting up super early. Before 5am, local time. I have a writing buddy (in Eastern Time) who writes with me for half an hour, first thing in the morning. I made it every day but two in November. For December, we rolled the back half an hour. I already missed yesterday due to illness in the house, but it’s a nice thing to write when it’s quiet and I will continue the best I can.

For December, also, I’m editing, rewriting, whatever it takes to get some projects ready to be released into the world. Three days in, and I have done some work on Don’t Tell Your Mother each day. I’ve also been keeping up the 750words streak, and I have passed 970k on the site. Will definitely pass the one million words mark this month. I have a short story for an anthology with a deadline of 31 January.

One thing that really keeps me on my toes for DTYM: my main character loves food. Everything revolves around food, it seems, and I struggle with that because as long as I’m not hungry, I don’t think about it much. It’s one reason I have such trouble planning meals in advance. My nose doesn’t smell things the same way everyone else does, so describing the food aromas has been a big challenge. Remind me to try to rein in the next character that goes foodie on me.

Yeah, right, like that will work. Characters! They always have to have it their way.

Margaret Atwood, the CON, and NaNoWriMo

All good things come in November, right? Even my birthday is only two days away.

Margaret Atwood spoke at the Englert Theater in Iowa City last night, which also happened to be her 75th birthday. She’s clever, concise, and funny. I might even have an appreciation for zombies after listening to her. After she spoke, there was a Q&A, then she signed books.

The questions were decent, somewhat – I’m going to ignore the best hockey goalie question because the guy was hunting for something she didn’t want to give. Still. One (expected) question was about advice for aspiring writers. Maybe aspiring writer is a different term to everyone who labels oneself with the term. However, this woman was 53 and had not finished a manuscript. (Ms. Atwood asked.) Her advice? Finish it. Then do something with it. Then write something else. That is a writer. And she’s right, of course. She also said if the writer was an adolescent, wattpad was a good, free opportunity to get words out there. Because, sure, writing for an audience of your teacher about a summer vacation is one thing, but having a real audience to give comments and feedback, even if it is just ‘more, more!’ is something that will make that person dedicated to the craft.

When she signed my book, I said I was also an aspiring author. She asked if I’d finished a manuscript, and of course I said I had. And it has been published. And I keep writing. And she said I’m not aspiring - I’m already there. Again, she’s right. Except I might still be aspiring. I want to reach higher- to find more audiences- and to always, always do better. She has a wonderful attitude, and I’d like to be like her when I grow up: in that I want to write the stories, share them, and have a humorous outlook.

Last weekend was ICON. (I suppose in this way, I’m different than Ms. Atwood. I do mingle with the science fiction community. Whenever I can.) I was so excited to go to Paradise ICON, which was the writer’s workshop piece. I didn’t do much with the CON itself. I did see my band, Wylde Nept, and I’m glad. I caught up with old friends, made new friends, and learned a few things that are still rattling around in my head trying to makes sense of themselves.

I’m in the midst of making new goals, trying new schedules to be more productive, and getting “out there” more. I’ve told several friends my focus after November will switch to editing. I know I need to force myself to do it, and with constant prodding is the only way I know to start that. (December 1st, hear me people?! Eleven more days!) Going to Paradise ICON helped. I need to spend more time in serious critique mode, too. Luckily I may have a new friend (or more than one) who will allow me to work on that with them. 

And NaNoWriMo! I love the writer energy in the air around this time of year, and I like to take advantage of it to push out a bunch of words. Greg Frost called what I am doing something like a Zero Draft, and I think I love that term. Plus it only emphasizes the amount of work in the future to resurrect it into something usable, sharable, worthy of the original vision in my head. But you can’t fix it until you get it out. I’m not sure how to describe this project, but it’s big. So I’m going to the end, and then I’ll define it. Whether I finish or not by 1 Dec, I will use that date to start editing my lovely pile of projects.

The other thing I will do (but not as much as editing) is put together another new schedule. Self-imposed deadlines. These I will also share, so everyone can keep me on task to make them. When I dream, I dream big. And I know I won’t achieve those dreams if I allow myself to let the deadlines slide too far. Like they have been doing. So thanks in advance for gentle nudges when I stall and encouragement when I falter.

I can and do own the writer label, but there are so many other labels that must be applied before one can become a successful author. So right now I will dream, schedule, plot, and implement until I make it there.

The Trilogy… Progress and Goals

I’ve been working on Book 3 about a month. I’ve written 48,336 words. While I’d planned for 75k, I’m going to change the plan. It isn’t because there are 11 days until NaNoWriMo – or that isn’t the only reason.

The main reason I’m changing the plan is I changed the way I wrote this novel. I started at the end, which I thought was solid. The problem arose during the draft that I had a question that fit within the novel’s conflict that I hadn’t addressed at the end. It became more and more apparent as I continued writing.

Then I stopped writing from the back forward. I started at the beginning and wrote toward where I left off. This was both a blessing and a curse. The question that had been hovering around the narrative took over. Because I started at the end, I lost the feeling of where I was within the book. I feel like there are holes that I haven’t filled in yet. I know my end has changed, because jumping around the way I did brought different pieces to light that needed to be resolved in a little bit different way.

I learned a lot from this experiment. It doesn’t matter how many novels you write - each one teaches you something. My method of discovery works better with an outline, which I have had for each of these novels. I write better when I take a mostly-forward direction from the beginning to the end. I have this picture in my head that changes as I progress through my story world, and the holes become apparent as I near the end, then I skip around again and write the scenes that plug the holes. By the time I reach the end, I generally have to cut off the beginning to find where my story truly starts. But writing that false beginning also gets me within the world and it is real to me.

I wouldn’t know all of this if I hadn’t written so many drafts. I know that I need to print these things off to read them and start editing. If I try to do that digitally, I don’t get anywhere. Next month I’m excited to start a new project.

So my revised goal for the next 11 days is to put the novel in chronological order as it stands, read through it, write the revised ending that finishes the conflict that decided it was going to be the focus of the narrative, and to make notes about where I think the holes are to start editing in December. It’s respectable to say I wrote 113k toward two YA novels in 66 writing days.

Of Course, There’s an App for That, But Does It Help?

I have a Surface tablet. I still use my iPad. I have an Android phone. I’m often confused which platform I am using.

My husband wanted to get me a great gift with the Surface (RT). I had the touch keyboard at first, but it annoyed me that I couldn’t type more than 40 wpm. I broke that barrier once, with great concentration and pounding my fingers into the thing. He switched the cover with the typing cover – about three times the thickness but it has actual keys. I love actual keys. At least I no longer have to worry about the keyboard slowing me down.

My Android phone also has the hidden keyboard, rather than the touch screen. One of my friends always questions how I can text her so fast, and that’s the reason.

I can’t let go of my iPad, though. The Surface was meant to replace it. I keeping seeing those commercials where the Surface beats the iPad. I’m sure that depends on how you use it. If I’m using social media, I pretty much want my iPad. When I update Facebook, Twitter, anything that ought to scroll – the Microsoft version dumps it all in on top, so you have to go down to read the new stuff, then go back to the top, then do it again. The iPad and Android versions all give you a break, then put them on top so you can scroll through them at will in the same direction. It seems like such a small thing, but it annoys me enough to reach for another device.

My phone won’t let me send direct messages on Twitter. No idea why. Just another quirk. I’m trying not to worry about it too much. My son is about to enter his terrible twos. My last phone didn’t survive my daughter through that age.

My WordPress app on the Surface won’t let me schedule posts in advance. I can save them as drafts, but I can only access them from the app. So if I happen to be away when I remember I can send it, it won’t let me. That’s enough to remind me to log into the site instead of using the app.

There are a few apps I use that don’t annoy me, but it seems like I often reach for the iPad when I’m home and scrolling through something.

Typing, however, is wonderful on the Surface. So every time I do 750words or respond to an email or participate with my writing community – that’s all on the Surface. It’s pretty handy to not have to visit my desktop in my office.

That always reminds me I need to clean my office.

For the update on my book progress: I have managed 30k+ on book 3. I think I’ve given up for now on trying to write the novel backwards. I kept going forward from that last plot point to fill in the things I had left out when I jumped. I also realized I knew exactly where this novel started. I had trouble figuring out where I was in the plot when I tried from the end forward. It was still worth the effort, and I’m not done with this book yet. About 40k to go this month.

When the Writing Gets Tough

Once, not long ago, there were 100 days before NaNoWriMo started. Silly me, I thought, sure, I can double what I’m currently writing and crank out two novels before November, and then write this idea that is simply burning inside.

[Burning means all my "spare" notes and words are spent flopping around in this idea but I haven't made much progress understanding it yet. It simply takes over my brain with SHINY when I am not concentrating elsewhere.]

There are 36 writing days remaining. I wrote the second book to be 65k words, and I am about 21k into the third book. If I estimated it right and I don’t quit writing, I ought to make the goal. Scary, but possible.

However, I don’t feel like the words are flowing for book 3. Book 2 dumped out in nearly the same fashion as book 1 did last November. But I am always reading things about how to improve, and I tried writing this thing backward. I had the end from last November anyway, 892 words of it, and I wrote what came before that, and what came before that, and then I wrote what came in the middle, then I tried to write what came before.

I’m still trying. It’s difficult to envision where this thing is going when I feel like I’m doing it wrong. I know it isn’t wrong, but it feels off. Sometimes I feel like the whole book is right there, but because of how I chose to write this one, it’s all wonky. Today I ended up writing what came after what I wrote yesterday, because I wasn’t sure how that would fit if I didn’t put that scene in. And tomorrow’s writing might come after today’s. Which means I’m writing forward again instead of backward.

I keep wondering that If it feels so wrong, I ought to change it up, find the beginning, and start from there – except for one thing: I’ve never been good at finding the exact beginning of the story. I write backstory, then cut it off and find where the ‘real’ beginning is in almost every novel I’ve ever written. So I’m sticking with this method for now.

What do you do when the words aren’t flowing? When you feel a bit lost within the overall structure of your novel? Do you always use the same method to attack each novel you undertake? How do you write?

Writing Samples

Recently I was asked for a couple writing samples. Somehow this always becomes something of an info dump in my head. Questions: What do I send? What do I choose? Why didn’t I edit that other one into submission last week? How much time do I have? How much do I send?

Over the din in my head, I start sifting through the words. This one is too old. This one is too raw. This one is not indicative of my usual work.

Oh, but I like this one. But is it good enough? Nothing is above suspicion. I’ve started trying to uncover something that I might not remember so well. Part of me thinks it might be a great time to make notes about how to make these writings better. Sure, it’s published, but it could still improve. It could always improve.

I hope I find something that is good enough. More than that, I hope I can convince myself that it is the best of my work so far.

Life is what happens –

When you’re busy making other plans. (quote attributed to John Lennon)

The point is to keep making plans, right? The point is to figure out your direction and take steps toward it no matter what life throws at you.

I’m an optimist. I’ve learned to live with that.

My plan is to write. My plan is to keep telling stories. I’m often asked or told that no one knows how I do what I do, write with little kids. I don’t know how to answer. I simply do it when I have a moment. It’s not like I can turn off the characters in my head.

I learn by rolling with the things that come my way. Sometimes it is just about writing down goals and sticking to them. I love lists. But it’s also about when something happens and I forget to write, don’t accomplish anything, or completely become overwhelmed – I don’t stop. I am not afraid to give myself a pass for a day (or more) and try again tomorrow.

Then again, I’ve also been labeled as motivated, driven, determined, ambitious. I’m not sure any of us knows what we can accomplish until we make the attempt.

What have you attempted? What do you do to keep yourself motivated? I bet no one told the rocks they couldn’t stay there.

Garden of the Gods, CO