I have a 280 page manuscript due in a little over seven weeks and I am on page…drum roll please….80.In other words, I am up against a wall and if I think about it too long, I will hyperventilate and cut my wrists and shoot myself and take sleeping pills and drive off a cliff…after I drink myself into a coma.
It's not that I haven't spent the past couple of weeks trying to get further than page eighty, it's just that I couldn't. And that changed this morning when I was talking to my daughter and she asked what was wrong.
Well, let me use my instant replay brain to tell you how it went:
Jen: "What's wrong?"
Me: "It's this book."
Jen: "I know it's worrying you. Talk about it."
Me: "Well---"
And then I told her the first three chapters are a beginning, a middle and an end unto themselves leaving chapter four a let down, a transition chapter, a housekeeping chapter (I have a million theories on this). When you sell on three chapters, you tend to write a rousing start, a move the book along second chapter, and an exciting climax for chapter three. Or at least I do. But as I was talking, I realized that all the things I was waiting to have happen after I established the groundwork didn't have to wait. Why did the first murder have to get sandwiched between this and that, why couldn't it come the first night? Why did the pools have to get filled with water in a week, hey, they're my pools, I can fill them whenever I want. Why did the heroine have to start questioning the bad guy a chapter from now, why couldn't she question him on the plane and grow suspicious, why couldn't she arrive already primed to go for it?
No reason. It's my world. I can change the time line.
Light bulb moment.
Now, I imagine you have no idea what I am talking about in these particulars because you haven't read the chapters or the synopsis. My daughter hasn't read the synopsis either. She didn't offer a thing in this conversation except the occasional, "But--" which I rudely cut off. She didn't have to say anything, I just needed to talk and I needed to talk to someone who had read enough to know a little of what I was saying, and I needed to talk to someone I trusted and whom I knew could offer help if I ever shut up long enough to let her.
And it worked. And because I have no memory span, it amazes me it worked even though it's worked a dozen, two dozen, times before.
Try it. Find someone who fits the above criteria and when you get stuck, when you spend way too much time identifying why something isn't working instead of figuring out a way to make it work, call them, talk to them, let it all out and see if you don't accidentally come up with the answer you need more or less by yourself with just the right amount of prompting by them.
Let me know if this works for you in the future or if you have used it in the past. I'm back to my book….
15 comments:
Yes and Yes! I have used this as a way to figure out where I'm going and what I'm doing and yes, it has worked.
Some times I just start tapping out my frustrations in an e-mail to a CP or my SIL and by the end of the typing I've figured out the problem. LOL
Or I'll instant message a CP and we'll chat either about my block or hers and by the end one of us has had a break through. I think talking it out is the best way to get through a tough spot in a manuscript.
I also have a good friend who is an avid reader. She's called me a couple of times and asked how's it going and I'm sure she was sorry she did! LOL But by the time we hand up the phones, I've talked myself out of my writing problem.
You go, Alice! Glad you got that figured out and are slapping those words on paper! I know you'll pull this off!
Paty--Thanks for the faith in my ability to get this done--I hope you are right! Words of encouragement are always welcome!
I've done the email thing, too, with great results. I don't have a CP as such, but there is one person who has helped me over and over again in this way. Thanks, Eli and I hope I can return the favor.
Anybody else have a different way of brainstorming? I used to have a friend I saw often and she and I would do this along with some of those exercises conference workshops teach you about character motivation and such. I always felt so energized afterwards. We ought to have a meeting where we do some of this stuff, where we all share methods and results of things that have helped us out of a pit.
Alice
Yes, Alice. Talking things out can be very helpful. I have also gotten some wonderful, useful feedback from my daughter with the book I'm working on. She loves the idea of this book anyway, so she's very supportive.
For plain, old-fashioned support, I send chapters to my motherly, maternal aunt to read. She says things like "Who's Stephen King?" And "Deta Betts (nickname since childhood, don't ask)I couldn't put it down! This is the sort of book I'd take everywhere, even into the bathroom. (Maybe too much information there, sorry) Your chapter endings are great. If I was reading the book I'd have to read a few lines into the next chapter to see what happens." Although this may not be all that helpful in fixing problems in the manuscript, it does stroke my writer's fragile ego, in a wonderful, deep-muscle massaging way.
But I digress, where were we? Ah, yes, talking about talking it out. This is espcially helpful in those everyday, life-is-kinda-kicking-at-you problems. Especally helpful to talk it out with another woman. Women listen, nod, try to interupt, but they don't feel like they have to fix everything. Sometimes the thing can't be fixed, you just have to talk about it and move on. (Again, I'm really talking life here and not writing). Women were given the gift of gab for a reason. We may as well use it to our advantage, right?.
Thanks for a timely blog, Alice, and thanks for listening. Appreciated more than you may know.
Alice, I thought there was a blog about a movie in the works? Saving it, I hope, for later. I want to read that one too.
Yes, Alice, I'm with Paty. You can do it, girl. And you will. You always do.
Good luck writing like the wind's at your back.
Thanks Danita--I know what you mean about talking things out in real life as well as fiction. It's the same concept though--when something troubles us, either real or not real--it chases its tail around in our head and heart and getting the words out, receiving even a minimum of feedback, sometimes helps cut the chase, like kicking the dog (forgive me all dog lovers, and no, I don't kick dogs either) to get it to stop.
Have a good writing day!
Alice
Seven weeks? You'll do it. :) And have some hair and sanity left to spare too :) :)
Talking doesn't always help me--I often talk myself into a hole or into something I'm not prepared to tackle. Plus, I think I may suck at talking about my book. :) :) IM has worked before, a few times.
I'm glad talking worked for you and that you feel right on track. Perhaps I need to try talking more often too.
Yeah, Wavy, give it a try. Pick someone who knows a little about you and your book and someone you trust, even if that someone is not a writer. And listen to yourself as you say what's wrong because so often the answer is buried right there in your own words.
Hope you try it sometime. I'm only a phone call away if you want to give it a try!
Alice
Who, by the way, thought you looked positively glowing last night. Pregnancy agrees with you.
Wow! I didn't realize your deadline was coming up so fast. I'd be a bundle of nerves. Of course, I've never been through it and this is old hat to you. Out of curiosity...what's the fastest you've ever whipped a book out?
I love listening to you talk your book out, Alice (or read about in email. LOL). I think you're right...sometimes just getting it out gives you that aha moment. And the more I do it, the more I see this as a tool I can use when I'm stuck.
Great post! Add loved seeing you last night!
Eli--I wrote my second book in three weeks but before you spit coffee all over the keyboard, keep in mind that I used some ideas from a former work that I hadn't tried to sell plus the book was about half as long as those I write now. Still, when I think back to the more than a dozen books I wrote with no real synopsis of any kind, I am boggled. To think I once had a brain that could do that!
On the other hand, thinking about a book beforehand and making a decent synopsis is when I finally started selling to better paying markets, so there you are.
Alice
Wavy, you'll get to the point where it becomes second nature to talk to your book to someone you trust and like Alice says, it isn't so much the telling as listening to what your saying and figuring out on your own the "aha" moment.
Wow, Alice three weeks! I'm going for that record with my next book! Not! LOL But I do want to have it written and ready to submit to TWRP by the end of the summer. Since it is the next in the Petticoat series.
I think getting it all settled in your head and on paper before you start can make the writing go a whole lot faster.
Great Blog Post Alice!
Talking it out is so needful, whether it's writing, or just girl stuff, it helps every time. I think that's why the retreats are so important.
The last retreat we did at the beach Eli, Lisa, and I played ping-pong in the freezing basement/garage and Eli talked about her "stuckness". I don't know if it helped at all, but it was fun to brainstorm together and laugh and try to work out the bugs.
Believe it or not, my dh is a total talker. He talks waaay more than me. I always tell him he's very in touch with his feminine side. LOL He doesn't think that's too funny, but he does accomplish a lot and he has great ideas and shares them with me all the time. He says it's very motivating to be able to do this. Now most men do that whole "offer to fix it" thing that doesn't help anyone, but he likes to talk with me so he can figure it out on his own like you did with your daughter.
And Alice, I know you'll make your deadline cause you're awesome at this writing gig. So don't stress, unless it helps, LOL, and you know we're all here for you to cheer you on. You're such an inspiration and so full of great help and advice all the time. Thanks for being so awesome!
All you girls are the best!
I'm awesome AND an inspiration?
ROTFLOL
Thanks, Piper and thanks everyone else who has such faith in my abilities to write, write, write. I'm thinking extension--like until July.
Alice
No, Alice you won't need an extension because you are so awesome and an inspiration to us all.
But if you do, you do. The world won't come to an end and I'm sure you'd be forgiven.
I spent all morning cleaning the house (company coming) and didn't even start up the computer to keep from tempting me to look - and there isn't a new blog! At least I got the house done! LOL
Hope everyone is writing like crazy. It has been snowing here all day. And sort of sticking.
Post a Comment