Tips on Revising

Here's a great interview with Jonathan Lethem. It's a little long but well worth it for the writers out there.

Sometimes a Writer Has to Plant

The other day, my little guy was taking a nap on the couch when my daughter arrived home from school. He'd been asleep less than ten minutes and it would have been the perfect moment to grab my laptop and head to my office for some quality writing but the outdoors beckoned.

Like the angel sitting on my shoulder, my daughter said, "Shouldn't you be taking this time to write?" She had a point. But another angel sat on the other shoulder pointing out the perfection of the day- not too hot, not too breezy, the ground was damp and I had seeds which needed to be in the ground.

As much as I enjoy writing, I enjoy getting my hands dirty. Plus, when I'm outside digging, planting, weeding and hauling the ideas sprout. Solutions to holes in my plot become apparent while transplanting. Relationships between characters become clearer when I'm deciding what vegetables compliment each other. Unnecessary scenes are easier to toss while on hands and knees weeding.

The best part is I get alone time and room to think because my family flees at the mere mention of yard work. I can barricade myself in my office threatening extreme torture to anyone daring to interrupt and I am assured of constant interruptions. Put me out in the yard clad in overalls, bandana, insect repellant and no one dares to intrude for fear I'll enlist them in weeding, clearing rocks, turning the compost or some equally terrifying task. I've devised dastardly yard chores designed to give me my creative solitude. That's why this writer just has to plant.

Character Playlist

I was tagged by Kim at The Unbearable Writeness of Being to create a play list for the characters in my novel. This was challenging but a lot of fun. I tried to give a little insight into my characters without giving too much away. My novels a mystery and I'm keeping the details pretty tight until I get through the first edit. So here it goes:

This would have to be Juanita's theme song: "I Won't Back Down"




"Goody Two Shoes" for Victoria


"Somebody" by Depeche Mode exemplifies the relationship between Juanita and her husband Jack


Our victim, Savannah Hartmann is most definitely a "Man Eater"


Dennis Hartmann could find an epiphany in "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want"


Jimmy Gastone is my "Luka"


The intense Detective Rick Devine is living "Every Breath You Take"


Matthew Cashman is "The Gambler"


And Angus Kerwin, I'm pretty sure "Rock Lobster" is playing around his head most days.

5 a Day Keeps the Manuscript in Play

Sorry for the bad rhyme but I'm trying to write with a toddler on my arm telling me what keys to press.

I've had a revelation, well more like a smack yourself on the forehead moment. Hey, why not give myself a writing quota of 5 pages a day. That's about 1500 words (more or less). During NANO I'm able to hit this mark pretty steadily but once December arrives I kind of squeeze the writing in where I can. On some days I've only managed a paragraph.

I know there's a woman out there who wrote a sentence each day (and would sometimes work up to a paragraph) and she eventually published her book years after starting it. Graham Greene followed a 500 a word regimen and he was incredibly prolific. I need more of a push or else the thread of emotions in a particular scene disappears from me.

I don't know why I didn't do this sooner. The idea has been playing around the edges of my thought process for a while but I've avoided it in the same way the revolutionary idea of eating less to lose weight fills the future dieter with dread.

The rule is 5 day, no excuses- except with a doctor's note. For the writers out there who read my blog, do you set up quotas for your writing? And for the non-writers have you established quotas in your life? Please tell.

In Praise of Crowded Places

I can write almost anywhere. I'm not one of those writers that requires silence or the comfort of the familiar. I have an office in my house but I find that the moment I go inside all hell breaks loose. I tend to roam all over the house with my laptop these days (thankfully my youngest has ended his rivalry with my computer realizing there is room in my heart for the both of them). No matter where I roam, I find home is where the interruptions are and I find myself itching to get out into the world.

Today I had one of my most productive days. I escaped to our locals Borders Books bringing along my trusty laptop. I love working in busy settings. When I decided to become serious about writing, I found this wonderful restaurant on Broadway and Mercer Streets in NYC. The food was tolerable, the service was slow but no one seemed to care if I sat there by the window for hours writing and watching people.

Soon VG's closed (due to the food and bad service no doubt). I continued to write where I could- subway, taxi's, park bench, etc, but these felt too temporary. Then I found my writing home when I stepped inside Pat's Jazz Bar in Chelsea.

A good PR person might have described it as an "intimate venue" which is the polite term for a classic "hole in the wall". Pat's had the best live music in the city. It was the place where musicians would come from gigs at more established clubs to jam into the wee hours of the morning. Pat's was more than just my NYC version of Cheers it was my writing studio.

When I'd find myself in that writing zone, Ralph, the manager, would know and make certain I was left alone. He'd tell people to wait until the book hit the stores. What can be better than this kind of support when you're a youngster in your 20s. People were interested in what I was writing and took my opinions seriously. I don't believe I've had better conversations on writing, literature, music, art and culture than in that place. Often those conversations would spill over into breakfast at the Chelsea Diner.

Borders is no Pat's but I'm able to write. Jen makes the best Caramel Lattes (she's definitely getting a heartfelt thanks in my book) and she always gives me an extra helping of caramel. The table by the window is always empty just waiting for me. I plug in my computer, sip my latte, write, and watch humanity pass around me. Sometimes they even play some good music that brings me back to my days at Pat's.

NANO Update- Day 1

So far, so good.

I usually get these grand ideas before I start any project. Unfortunately, they usually fizzle when they meet reality.

Today was no different. I decided I would wake up at 5am, head downstairs, make a nice cup of tea and then begin typing. I'd give myself a full three hours without interruption. Well, I did wake up at 5am and lingered in bed trying to convince my body it was a smart idea to leave the warm bed for the chilly, dark morning then I promptly fell back to sleep. With some disappointment, I crept out of bed around 6:45am where I did make that fabulous mug of tea and did begin typing at least an hour before interruptions started, so all was not lost.

I then spent the day fitting in writing wherever I could. While my son was at soccer practice, I was in the car typing away on Scene 28 which I'm hoping to complete tonight. (I need to finish at least a scene a day if I have any hope of completing this novel.) I escaped to my local Borders leaving my husband with a houseful of children- ours and a bunch of the neighbors- where I ordered a large Caramel Latte and wrote. More than two hours on interrupted writing, what a blessing.

Borders is only an option once a week so I'll have to go back to my grand scheme of waking at 5am (which will really be 4am when the time change kicks in-AAH!). Keep your fingers crossed.

NANOing Again

I'm doing it again. I'm NANOing. For those of you unfamiliar with this phenomenon, NANO stands for National Novel Writing Month. Thousands of insane people pledge to write 50,000 words or more in one month solely for bragging rights and a cool little 'winner' logo.

I've NANOed (yes, I have turned this into a verb) successfully for three years. One year I came up short discovering that nursing and NANOing don't mix. This year I've decided to put a different spin on the experience. Instead of starting a novel, I'm planning on finishing the extremely rough draft of my novel. I figure the excitement of a real deadline and the comraderie from the NANO community will get me to my goal.

Because I just love insane challenges, I will attempt to also blog about my experience during this month. Finishing a novel with three kids, a crazed dog and a very sick hamster; then blogging about it- what am I thinking? I apologize now for all incoherent ramblings.