Writing and Kids

Half done with the novel edits, and it’s clear to me that I’m holding back when I’m writing. This is showing up in two ways, which are really one way when you look at it.

First, there isn’t nearly enough setting and description in the novel. I’m not fully immersed in the vision of my novel – there’s always a bit of me keeping my ear on the kids in the other room, or waiting for dinner to be ready, or any of a million other mom-related tasks. So I get down the dialog and some action so I don’t loose my entire train of thought before I’m inevitably disturbed and never get back to the setting.

The second problem is that all my characters sound somewhat alike. All the characters from one town sound like one person, characters from the Waste sound like a second person, and I presume all the characters from my third town will sound like each other as well. This stems from the same distraction problem – not concentrating enough on each individual person.

The good news is this can be fixed – the bad news is the fix. I could get up shockingly early (3:30 this morning, because my brain said it was time to get up. Stupid brain.), working for a few hours, napping and then starting the day with the kids when they get up. I could work late into the night, but by then my brain really doesn’t want to deal with it, and other people are clamoring for my attention as well.

If the stupid brain keeps up the early morning thing, I guess I’ll go with that. It does feel really nice to be done working at 9 am and then just have the regular homeschooling/mom type stuff to do for the rest of the day.

I have been the queen of diligence today – mostly planning the next novel (working title: Darcy and Olivia #1) because that’s way more fun than finishing the edits on The Waste.  I did take another stab at the query letter for The Waste, but it still isn’t right.  It’s getting there, and as it’s my first query letter ever, I’m cutting myself some slack for not getting it right the first time.  I’ll cry if I have to write a synopsis.  Well, maybe not, but I’ll at least whine a little first.

I also delivered the homeschool documentation to my school department, so we’re all set for another year of fun and brilliance here at the Shalek School for the Gifted.

Went grocery shopping for yummy snacks, milk and eggs and somehow came home with a bottle of watermelon vodka as well. I wonder how well I can knit and drink at the same time? I’m done with the tricky parts of the sock and I’m moving on to the really simple ribbing part. I shouldn’t make too many mistakes…

This is the world’s fastest drive-by posting to talk about what I’m doing this week.

I’m working on my nephew’s wedding quilt (pretty sure he doesn’t read my blog)

Writing, of course. It’s the novel that just won’t end…

I’m working through a class in Python Programming to teach Ben in the Fall

Reading and trying to fathom structure of The Dresden Files series

And knitting the Mystic Star Shawl

I think I have looked at this novel, scene by scene, from every possible direction and I’m still not done!

This is my course novel for How To Revise Your Novel with Holly Lisle. I love this class, but it’s not a simple walk in the park.

The good news is that I am thinking much more like a novelist than I ever have before. The bad news is that I started this course in December (I think) and I’m only half done! I’ll be finishing up Week 12 tomorrow.

I can’t suggest it enough for a beginning writer. I don’t know how helpful it would be for a person who has written (and published) several novels because, presumably, you would know all this stuff already.

So, I’m very far behind in my Escape Pod listening but I’ve recently listened to Greg van Eekhout’s story “Will You be an Astronaut” and I loved it.

Will You be an Astronaut

It starts off rather innocently and gets dark and creepy. By the end of the story you completely understand why Steve Ely warns that it is not a story for children even though it sounds like one.

Start a book and realize it was not very good, but not want to put it down anyway? I’m there right now. I’m listening to a book at http://www.podiobooks.com (no, I’m not saying which one) and it’s been very mediocre all along but last night there was a sex scene that was actually painful to listen to.

The thing is, if I don’t finish the last 8 hours of the book I’ll wonder about it and wish I had.

Should I cut bait and just stop listening or should I look for a good lesson in how not to write?

I think I’ll just keep on listening, using the book as entertainment when I am doing housework because anything that distracts me from mopping floors or washing dishes is a good thing.

I was there only for Saturday (budgetary considerations) but still managed to have a good time. Here’s a video of one of the panels on The Singularity:

Enjoy!

My plow guy has a commendable work ethic for an 18-year-old. He was here at 2:45 this morning, shoveling us out. One of the reasons we hired him was because he was about to become an Eagle Scout and we thought that kind of character development would show in his work.

Unfortunately, he woke me up. As I lay in the dark, listening to him shovel I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep until he was done, so I got up and read through Chapter 6. I think the novel is starting to pick up in terms of the action and excitement. This is good, but it means everything before this point is on the dull side.

After I finished the chapter, I went back to sleep and dreamed that I was the person who let Benjamin Linus out of jail and I was responsible for all the people he killed.

Then my mother called (it was 9:30) and woke me up. I may never have the chance to fix the Ben Linus problem…

40 more pages read through between last night and this morning. I am taking notes in hot pink pen, to cheer me up and I’m on my second pen. That’s a lot of notes.

I’d like to be done with this tomorrow night, but I think that’s a bit over-enthusiastic as I still have 73 pages to go.

Why yes, it’s a short novel, mostly because I don’t have nearly enough setting and character description. Whole pages have nothing but dialog, and not even dialog tags. I think the next time I edit a Nanowrimo novel I should go back and add in everything I missed first and then worry about fixing it up. Even though it’s only at 54k now, I think it will wind up growing to 75 to 80k by the time I’m done with it.

And did I mention that I know the ending is weak? That will be lots and lots of words added in.

Onward!

I’m starting the revisions to my novel. I’m calling it The Waste for now although I’m not fond of that title.

I’ve read through the first 3 chapters making notes on everything that isn’t working and any place I have contradicted myself.

This is not a pretty process. In fact, after the last chapter I decided to take a snuggle break with Josh just to soothe my soul a bit. This is a seriously flawed novel but I am encouraged to find bits of my characters’ personalities shining through.

7 more chapters to go and the last one is very short so I’m planning to do 3 more today and the last 4 tomorrow. I think it’s best to get it done quickly so I can hold on to the feeling that it can all be fixed up.