Kaylee Baldwin's Blog, page 10

Editing styles

A few weeks ago my husband stopped at Home Depot on the way home from our son's baseball game to get a weed burner. We've been having a huge weed problem in our backyard since I am usually the weed-puller, and I've been a little out of commission for the past nine months or so, and as a result, our backyard was starting to look like a desert jungle (trust me, they exist).

This is how my husband takes care of weeds:



Fast, all-encompassing, rip-the-bandaid off style. Since our garden is dead (thank you, desert rats) burning everything works for us.

We don't have a picture of how I take care of weeds because I do it the normal, non-Tim-the-tool-man Taylor way. Pulling each and every weed up by its root, slow but efficient. Precise.

I'm just getting ready to edit the first draft of my  current wip and I've been thinking about my editing style. I edit the same way I weed. Bit by bit, day by day over several weeks. I like to take my time with my editing, seriously thinking about every sentence. It blows my mind when people can edit their entire book in just a day or two. It takes me weeks to finish editing--longer if I'm doing major rewrites.

But just like my husband and the weeds, both ways get the job done--only he's watching the game in the air conditioned house after about fifteen minutes, while I'm out in the heat for hours. But at least the ground isn't charred when I finish.

What's your editing style?

Lessons from an a/c repairman

Our air conditioner broke this weekend--for the second time this year, by the way--which may not seem like a big deal to most of you, but we've been getting into the 90s down here in southern AZ. And I'm eight months pregnant (which kind of makes me a walking furnace.) Luckily, it broke in March this time and not in August like last time. That was miserable.

The service guy was able to come today to take a look at it, thank heavens. He pulled the thermostat away from the wall and eventually ended up climbing into the attic. He came down just ten minutes later, holding a blown fuse in his hand.

"Has anyone been hitting the thermostat or turning it off and on repeatedly?" he asked.

Almost on cue, my six year old started laughing* from where he was sitting at the base of the ladder.
He's got Down Syndrome and loves to laugh--in addition to hitting things and pushing buttons repeatedly. Culprit caught. So that was a quick $100 and a nice lecture from the service guy to "make sure to watch my children."

So, as a summary, things I've learned this year from the a/c guy:

1) I should watch my children
2) Repeatedly hitting/pushing buttons on the thermostat will blow a fuse so your a/c unit doesn't work
3) I should look into becoming an a/c repair person ($100 for 30 minutes of labor!)
4) Also, if you don't change your filters often enough, your circuit board will melt and make your a/c not work (that was my adventure in August)
5) I am willing to pay whatever they ask me without batting an eye, just to ensure I will have a/c for when it gets hot next week. I probably would have paid him double, which is why my haggle-em-down husband hates when he can't be home for these things.
6) Amazingly enough, this whole experience didn't even faze me. I am chill because I know...
7) that my son is worth all of the $ that we've had to pay (and will have to pay.) We love him and are so glad to have him, no matter what.

*As a side note, my 6yo most likely didn't understand what was going on or that his hitting the thermostat did any damage. He just really likes to laugh and sometimes has great comedic timing. Like at church when someone is telling a touching/tragic story and for some reason something strikes him as funny and he laughs his contagious, uncontrollable belly laugh for minutes while everyone else is crying. And the a/c guy didn't actually teach me #7--I've known that one his whole life.

Sprint writing

I've been sprint writing for the past few weeks, so things have been silent on my blog for a while. My baby is due in about six weeks and I am determined to have the first draft of my wip finished before then.

I am learning something interesting about myself while trying to write a story so fast. I've always been blown away by people who can put out multiple books a year, but it seems like the more time I spend writing, the more my ideas are flowing.

Last night I started to type one of my pivotal scenes for my wip, and by the time I finished my hands were swollen from typing so much, so fast. I've never typed so fast in my life. It was like I couldn't get words from my brain to my hands quick enough.

Let's pretend that my pregnancy had nothing to do with being swollen.

Every time I'm tempted to go back and edit, I remind myself of what Anne Lamott says in Bird by Bird (shamelessly paraphrasing because I don't want to stand up, walk to my shelf, and search out the quote. Just trust me that this book is worth reading.) Okay, Lamott basically gives authors permission--in fact encourages us--to write crappy first drafts. I don't think that she means that we should write crap and start sending it out when we're finished. She's just saying: don't stress over the first draft. Get your story out, see where it goes. There are going to be problems, yes, but that's what editing is for. Give yourself permission to just write.

Whenever I open my document and think: "I should reread through this last section and pretty it up," I tell myself that there will be time for that later. I just need to get the story down now while it's flying from my fingers and stop stalling. Usually I'm an edit as I go person, so this is new for me. And kind of fun.

Are you an edit as you go writer? Or do you hammer out a first draft and pretty it up later?

Persuasion: A Latter-Day Tale by Rebecca Jamison

I had the chance to read Persuasion: A Latter-Day Tale a few months ago and I loved it!

Here's the description:
When Anne broke off her engagement eight years ago, she thought she'd never see Neil Wentworth again. But when Neil's brother buys the house she grew up in, it seems fate has other plans in store, and Anne is woefully unprepared for the roller coaster of emotions that accompanies Neil's return. Fans of Persuasion will love this fast-paced, modern retelling of Jane Austen's most romantic novel.

My thoughts:
I have to admit that Persuasion isn't my favorite Jane Austen novel, so I was a little nervous about reading this book. But since I generally enjoy modern adaptations of classics, I decided to give it a try.
I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed reading this book.

Anne was written so great. There were so many parts that just had me laughing (Anne with the psycho/stalker guy for one) and the love interest was frustrating enough to make me want to smack the side of his head, but sweet enough that I had to keep reading to make sure he and Anne got together despite all of their misunderstandings and their pride.

It was the perfect blend of inspiration and fiction. I didn't feel preached to at all, just uplifting. It kept me reading long into the night.

I recommend this book if you are in the mood for a light-hearted romance, a modern adaptation of a Jane Austen, or if you just like LDS fiction.

Here are a few links to check out:

Author Website: http://www.rebeccahjamison.com  (if you only do one link, please use this one)
Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/RebeccaHJamison
Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKgM9tuCzSo
If you are in the SLC area, Rebecca would like to invite you to her Launch Party Feb. 18th from 11-1 at the Taylorsville Seagull Book (5720 S. Redwood Road, Taylorsville).

**I wanted to post a picture of the cover, but blogger is giving me issues today. Go here to check out the cover and read more reviews.

When Stories Fall Flat

I was reading the intro to Life of Pi and Martel talks about a manuscript he was working on that was well researched, he liked the characters, he even liked the story, but he just felt like it wasn't going anywhere. So, he decided he needed to cut his losses and move on. He says he mailed the manuscript to a fake address in another country so he'd never have to see it again.

I was relieved to hear that other people have stories they love, but can't make them work for one reason or another.

I have half of a book written--the first book I ever wrote actually. I love the characers. I love the story. I love the conflict. And yet, I can't seem to make it work.

I don't want to erase it, though, because I have dreams of going back and rewriting and revising and making it the novel I keep dreaming it could be.

What do you do when a wip just doesn't seem to be working for you? Do you give up? Trash it? Save it? Plow through? Or something uniquly you?

Dear Britta

A fellow blogger and writer friend of mine has a beautiful baby girl who has had a lot of unexpected health problems in her life--including a life-flight trip for an emergency heart surgery.

Steph is blogging about her daughter's journey here: http://dearbabybritta.blogspot.com/

Please take a few minutes to jump over there and read about beautiful baby Britta.

I Married a Crazy

Actually, I married a really great guy.

Look, here he is:
Note the strategically placed arm over my pregnant belly.
Also, we are not pained to be that close together, we are pained by
 the piercing AZ sun in our eyes.And here he is again...

This is Washington crossing the Deleware portrayed by Jeremy.

He's smart, good looking, fun, and super sweet. I seriously love this guy.
But he's still kind of crazy.
Tomorrow he's running in something called The Tough Mudder. Basically, it's a military style course that goes about 12 miles and includes various obsticals like walls to climb, ropes to cross, mud pits to jump into, tubes to crawl through, fire to run through, and live wires they have to run through and get mildly electrocted at the end. Fun, right?
Except, he keeps showing me these vidoes of the course and in the background, there're people being loaded onto stretchers or having medics attending them, or bleeding from various parts of their bodies. He thinks it's awesome. I think I'm going to start praying now.
You may or may not recall my 5K mud run (mis)adventure, so you can see why I don't get this. I had to sign a waiver just to be a spectator at the Tough Mudder!
I'm actually really proud of him and all of the hard work that's gone into him training for this race even if I am a little worried.
Wish him luck!

Kids Just Want To Have Fun

Here are some of the activities my creative children participated in while I was sick and mostly immoble during the first three months of my pregnancy.

Baking:


As a side note: The bottom shelf of the pantry is probably not the best place to keep flour.

Redecorating/ Painting murals:

Somehow the children found the crayons that up until this point were hidden in a drawer and I only pulled them out when I could sit and color with them. There is not one unmarked wall in my entire house. The kids' bedroom has so much crayon on the walls (basically an entire mural) that I know it was a combined effort of all three of them.
As a side note: Flat paint is impossible to clean. Never have white walls with flat paint in a house full of budding artist children.

Arts and Crafts:
My 4 year old had made a ghost in preschool using glue and cottonballs. They'd glued the cottonballs to the inside of the body of the ghost and he was very proud of it.

Later that day... he found the cottonballs in my bathroom and the bottle of tacky glue in my craft box and glued cotton balls all over the floor and walls of our play room.

As a side note: Glue does not wash out of carpet, even after multiple carpet shampooing attempts.

Arts and Crafts, Take II
The kids found a permanent marker.

I should probably just stop there, but I just can't.

My four year old drew all over himself and his two year old sister (they are always partners in crime, as pictured above). When I went into the playroom to check on their suspicious quietness, they both had almost completely black faces. Their noses were all the way colored in like little puppy dogs, my four year old had given himself a mustache, it was on their foreheads, cheeks, eye lids, arms, stomachs, legs, feet...

As a side note: Rubbing alcohol takes the worst of the permanant marker off of skin. The faint remains just have to wear off over time.

The Time I Lied to Christopher Paolini

About seven years ago, when Eragon first came out, Christopher Paolini did a book signing at the Phoenix Zoo. At the time, I was a student at ASU, majoring in Secondary Education to teach English, and taking a class called Young Adult Lit (the class where I discovered and fell in love with YA lit, btw, but that's a different story.) As an extra credit assignment, my professor encouraged us all to go to the book signing. Since I'd missed several days of class due to my son's unexpected health problems and several emergencies that put him in the hospital, I knew that I needed the extra credit. Plus, I've never been able to resist meeting an author. And I was doubly impressed when I learned how young Paolini was at the time, to have a book out with Knopf that was doing so well.I recruited my little sister to go with me, partly to keep me company and partly because I felt that, at 15 years old, she helped legitimize me among the teenage group. Okay, and I also wanted someone to help me watch my baby.Paolini spoke for a while about his journey to publication (a really interesting story that you should look up when you get the chance) and afterward offered to sign everyone's book.I'd taken my sister to Changing Hands bookstore just before the signing so we could purchase our books, and I'd cracked mine open and read a few pages while we were waiting for him to speak. I'll readily admit that fantasy is not my favorite genre to read and I was skeptical about liking the book. My 14 year old cousin (boy) had enjoyed it, but I was a 22 year old young woman. Married. With a kid. And, I'll admit, I like romance a lot (big surprise, seeing as how I wrote one and everything). I didn't see Paolini weaving a heart-stopping romance into his dragon book. Me and my sis got in line to have him sign our books. When it was our turn, he took my copy of Eragon and flipped it to the title page. I thought he might just sign it and move on like he had with most people, but I am not most people, apparently.He finished signing my copy, but held onto it for another second. "Have you read it?" he asked."I'm reading it right now," I replied, truthfully. But then I opened my big ole mouth and continued. "I'm about half-way through." Half-way? What now? I was about 12 pages in and had spent all of five minutes that day reading the book. How in any world is that half way through a 400 page book? I honestly have no idea why I even said it"Huh." He looked down at where my bookmark clearly stuck out in the very front pages. "Are you liking it so far?""I love it. It's so awesome. Really hard to put down." Someone needed to come shut me up right about then. Seriously.  I thought my sister might blow something from trying not to laugh.At that point, I was chanting in my brain: Please don't ask me any specific questions about the book that don't have to do with the first 12 pages.Paolini sat back a little in his seat. "I find that really interesting," he said. "When I started writing this book, I wrote it thinking that it would be guys like me reading it, not…" He kind of gestured toward me, and I knew he of course meant extremely good looking young women (with babies and tendencies to run off at the mouth when nervous). "I've been surprised at the different people who are enjoying it."He—thankfully—handed me my book back then and thanked me for coming, signed my sister's book with a nod, and we were out of there. I waved down my professor so that he could see I that I came, dragged my sister and the baby away from the signing area, and explained to her that I hadn't lied, I'd just exaggerated (I am supposed to be a role model to her and everything).For those who are curious, I did in fact finish Eragon about four years later one Sunday (in my pre-Kindle days) when I was dying for something to read and it was the only unread book on my shelf. It really was a good read. It's not necessarily my flavor (I didn't finish out the series, even though I've recommended it to people who are into fantasy), but I'll bet my boys love it when they're a little older.

1984

I'm reading 1984 right now. I keep it next to my bed and I try to read a page or two before I go to sleep each night. I've read other things by Orwell (Animal Farm, many of his essays), I like his style, and have always wanted to read 1984. There are so many references to it in our culture—doublespeak and big brother just to name a few—and I wanted to see where they originated from.

But I am having the hardest time getting through it. I am on page 72 and I feel like Orwell is still world building. And maybe that's the point of 1984—building a world and society that's a chilling forecast of what could happen if we let government get out of control. But I'm craving more plot than a man writing in his journal.
I'm using the receipt from when I bought the book as my bookmark, so I know I purchased it May 4, 2011. Eight months and I'm only 72 pages in. Pathetic. (It's a good think I read like five books at a time.) The thing is I want to finish it. I keep a pencil by my bed and I underline things that really stand out or make me think. I've talked to my husband about points Orwell's made that are really interesting or profound. But I'm rarely in the mood for a book of exposition about a fictitious community.
I love the classics, but I am not clicking with this one.
And yet, I want to finish it. I only paid $4 for it (thank you, my local used bookstore)so it's not the money. Maybe it's the curiosity. Dystopian books are really big right now and I'm seeing a lot of parallels between 1984 and a lot of these books I've read. Maybe, despite my frustration with Orwell's main character, I'm more drawn in than I thought.
I started this post so that you could convince me to finish it, but I think I've convinced myself to keep chipping away at it.
I'll let you know in about five years (when I finally finish it) what I thought about the book.