Older Writers discussion
Challenge: 50,000 words in March
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Dan
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Dec 22, 2008 10:34AM
The NaNoWriMo experience taught me a lot but the main lesson was that I need a definite goal and deadline in order to be productive. March seems like a good month to attempt 50,000 words. So, who's up for it?
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Okay, I'd do that. I don't yet have a project in mind, but I'll come up with something.
OK! I'm up to that! I'm working on my memoir, 16th edit, and I found an agent! Gotta get it out there.Beginning or end of March?
-Janice
50,000 words between March 1st and March 31st.
Hi Janice,I'm working on my memoir too. Congrats of finding an agent! I'd love to hear about your book and how it has felt to you to write about your life. My book is about my childhood-from 4-18, and it's in present tense.
Leslie! This is great! I've been hoping to talk to another writer going through the memoir process. I'm also writing in the present tense. But I worry about presenting my life in the order of actual events. So what I'm also doing is going forward a bit in time, writing about that period, which may remind me of a past frame (which I then write about in the past tense). I'm even winding in the future, though with caution. About reliving sometimes very difficult periods - I've had to work through that. Important to allow myself to return to a period, while knowing where I am present tense.
Update on my progress - I'm at a tough part in my writing, but I'm going at it sentence by sentence. March, you say!
One of my biggest struggles is hurting people's feelings--my family's. My mom and dad especially. They were really good parents and that's why I don't want to hurt them. But I can't write about my life without writing about the times we fought and my teenage years were very hard--I didn't get along at all with them. Now we're close, live in the same town, talk all the time, hang out. So, it's hard. Are you having a problem with that? What about what to reveal and what not to? Some memoirs are all out there, which I admire, actually. And others are very reticent about sexual matters or whatever. Which everyone has a right to be. What's your take on it? I'm more in the all out there school of thought. How far back does your book go? And it goes into the present and even the future--that is so cool!!! I have my book divided up by the houses we lived in, which makes four sections. We lived in one house in Georgia for 6 years. That was the longest we ever lived in one house. We lived in three houses in three different towns in New Jersey before that. So, it's pretty easy for me to keep track of what happened when, just have to know what house it happened in. I've been in therapy for a long time, dealing with the stuff that happens in the book and of course, stuff that happened afterwards. Religion and sexual abuse are two themes that run through out most of the book. And growing from 4 to 18. I'd love to hear more about your book. I've wanted--just like you--to find someone else who is writing a memoir. I love reading them by the way. Have you ever read Blackbird by Jennifer Lauck? Her book is present tense, from 4 to about 13 or 14. It blew my mind, it is so good. And it's also the book that opened my mind to writing my story in present tense instead of past tense. It's really worth reading!
Janice wrote: "Update on my progress - I'm at a tough part in my writing, but I'm going at it sentence by sentence. March, you say!"
Leslie, there is so much to address! Should we correspond through our profile mailboxes or are any members interested in the memoir process and wanting to share as well? What I'm wanting to know is post here or not, given the length posts?
And about memoirs - I'm putting it all out there even though I have two daughters. My main concern is to make sure other key characters are three-dimensional. I had to discover main themes and to see what to include/not based on these themes, as well as how to be selective/concise when relating various times in my life. The book goes all the way back to my grandparents, but focuses on the last twelve years. This was not easy as I have to edit the period prior which spans almost five decades (and more if I include my grandparents).
I am using more of a "show" than "tell" approach, but I do have to be present (selectively) almost in a narrative sense. I'm also trying to write scenes as one would view in a movie.
That's a good question--if other people are interested in the memoir process that we are doing, then I'm ok with talking on here, but if others aren't and the posts are long, then I'm ok with going through our profiles.What do the other members think?
By the way, the books sounds incredible!
How old are your daughters?
Good luck--if you're progressing sentence by sentence, then you are progressing--and that's what counts!
50K! I'm a NaNo person, too. love it -- but I'd like to start a group for people selecting a month AFTER the spring semester. So I'll pass on this one. Those who want a repeat, check for the Summer 50K!
to see my NaNo project:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/439669
Only five days until March. I hope all the participants are ready...
Anyone write 50,000 words in March? I tanked at around 30,000.
Yes, I finished on 57,000 or so. The next big task, starting today, is the Script Frenzy. Then produce the second draft of the novel I wrote the 57,000 words of.
57,466 words for the month of March for the Mock NanoWriMo we had over in 'Write in 2009', plus editing and rewrites for my editor and agent.
I'm off to Wales tomorrow for a week - no phones, no Internet - but we do have electricity. So, I'll take the laptop and write a full-length film script in a week! Do some general building and gardening in the afternoons. And some reviewing as well.Bliss! (But I'll miss you all.) I expect I'll have 9000 emails to page through when I get back ;)
