A blog beginning with "I"

I have not been reading much lately but am enjoying the edit I am doing. It is simply, checking tense and cutting deadwood. It is relaxing and I can focus. I do it in between working on my web page. (YES, I am still working on that, eternally.)

I was in the library recently and happened by a poster of the Newbery winners. When the boys were little, I used to check out Caldecott winners, etc all the time. We spent a great deal of time reading together. And, here, on the poster were two books by Lois Lowry on the top row. How could I resist?

I do not know how I have missed Lois Lowry before. I checked-out Number the Stars from the library. I read it through and I am awed by the story, characters, and beauty of the book, and I realized how much I have missed lately, with my head buried in my own book. One part of the beauty of this books is that it is based on one of the true stories of people saving lives during the Holocaust.

I have a weak spot for anything to do with the holocaust. The horrors of the Nuremberg trial were one of the first things I remember watching on television. My boys are used to me talking about those years, when they come home with history assignments, with tears streaming down my face. It is the unspeakable.

I think next time an adult says to me, “Oh, I don’t have time to read.” I will tell them to go to the middle grade section and find a little treasure there.

Characters, names, stupidity and Cultural Diversity

I’m going along just fine. Going over the end of the book for an edit and then along comes Master’s Daughter with a question. Well, a comment really. She’s my eyes and ears on the youth and little things that just seem to go right over my head, like a character with the name of Dama Gazelle.

Okay, it’s a fantasy, just accept the name. But, Master’s Daughter points out to me that the children are going to be calling her, “Damn a Gazelle.” Gee, duh, I never thought of that. Therein leads to days, the last three at least, of going over the names I have.

And, as long as I am doing that, I have some cultural diversity but not as much as I would like. One thing leads to another and, I have to admit, it just makes the book that much better. Of course, at this rate, I may be seventy by the time I am done.

Is it good enough to make me cry?

Actually, the answer to my title is, "It doesn't take much." But, good paintings move people’s emotions. I have always been fascinated with Picasso’s Guernica and it’s agony of war. Good books have the same effect. They move me to experience their world.

I wish I did not cry so easily. It can get darn embarrassing actually. I cry over books and movies, parades and flags, babies and old people. I can see a little old stooped guy with saggy pants and my eyes fill with tears. Of course, it usually reminds me of my dad. I had to turn the Cancer telethon off last night because I was bawling too hard to watch it. Which was perhaps not the effect they hoped for? But then again, I have lost seven relatives and several friends to cancer, so there is that too.

And, that is the thing with a good book or a good movie or a good painting; they are all something to touch memories we have. They should open up our hearts, even if it is to some past pain. We need to identify with the protagonist and live the experience, feeling their emotions and let our own emotions out.

I have heard people who comment that they cannot feel what other people experience and I am sorry for them. The one person I know who has stated this a few times is an avid reader. I think he must miss an awful lot of the essence of a book when he cannot feel the emotion. I know he is a bear to watch a movie with as he likes to point out all the “things” that are not possible. I so want to say, “For crying out loud, this is fantasy. It’s a movie. It’s not life, just shut up and get lost in it, or just pretend.”

I may not be enjoying the made up words so much in Terry Pratchett’s “The Color of Magic”, but I sure do enjoy his world. It has its laws too but they do not intrude on the wonderful story. He takes you off on an adventure, where chests have legs and run away, cameras have little painters in them and giant turtles “with geological slowness” and "hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs” and “sea-sized eyes…crusted with reum and asteroid dust” live. Yes, I am wearing those lines out but I love them.

These are the items that move my emotions and memories. They help me visualize his world with things I can see, and even though I cannot see sea-sized eyes, I can see what they would look like.

Looking at Guernica, I can see the agony of a people being bombed out. Just as I can see the Star studded night sky dancing in VanGogh’s Starry Night. And, cry my eyes out when Dumbledore dies or when Harry is so bravely walking to his death. And, cry over the Ghost and Mrs. Muir, even though I have seen this movie more times than I can count.

I think of this each day as I do my final edit and go over each sentence. Is it good enough to make someone visualize this world? Is it good enough to make someone laugh, or cry? If not, is it necessary? If yes, reword it. If no, cut it.

Don't make it harder than it has to be

I am a person who tends to make things harder than they should be. I am rather easy going but hard on myself, I guess. Not hard enough in some areas. I am still not back to my Body for Life program, which I know works for me, and yet my weights sit there staring at me and making me feel guilty. But, what I am talking about today is my book and the ways I deal with things I need to do.

A while ago, I posted about a method I was using to keep track of facts. Since I am envisioning this novel as a five part series, I need to make sure I have laid a foundation in book one for things that happen in other books. That is in addition, to the plot and subplot of book one and wrapping those items up in that book.

It was not working as it was just too complicated. So, I started over and am working with three files open in Word. First, is my book. I have it all formatted now to send, as a Word document, to my Master’s daughter for her edit. She is in charge of catching those things you can read over and over, and since you know what it is supposed to say, you don’t catch the mistake it happens to have in it. That is in addition to: punctuation, tense, and just anything wrong. A big job, I’m sure, for someone who has a full time teaching job. And, she’s not even getting paid for editing either.

Second, I have a document open called outline. In this I place just one liners of the chapter I am editing/reviewing. I will need this when I send in Query letters and am asked for an outline. When Master’s daughter is doing her edit, I will be polishing this outline so it is ready to go out to agent/editor.

The third and final document I have open is titled “Follow up and List-Magic words.” In this I have items I need to remember to reuse/wrap up/etc. This is for this book and the whole series. It includes a list of Magic words used, which are very nominal actually for a fantasy. The reason for that is probably because I am not a “word” person. I do not delight in words for words sake. I love them only when they are put together and form a great story.

Knowing my propensity for charts, I will most likely go back and chart this file also so that I know what I need to put into book two, three, four and five from this book. It's all rather in my head but I really do not trust my memory.

So, while you need to do what works for you. You also need to find out what isn’t working for you and let go of it. Happy Labor Day!

Keeping track of facts in your novel

I am an organizer. You would not believe it if you visited me right now, but in my working environment, I want everything in it's place and, I want the elements of working on my novel to be organized so I can go right to what file I need, when I need it, to check a fact. I have created files and charts, by the dozens, in an effort to find a method that works.

Now, I'm in what is turning out to be my second, but not last, final edit of my young adult novel. In looking for more reassurance on plotting (I have a fear of plotting that transcends all rationality), I have found Beverly Brandt's 12 steps to Plotting; which I highly recommend. http://www.beverlybrandt.com/spreadsheet.htm and which I will go over, as how it pertains to me, in a future post.

Beverly Brandt got me thinking about this whole spread sheet thing as a way to organize my novel. I now have a six column chart, in MS Word, that is my salvation to organization. I do realize that a spreadsheet might actually make more sense, but my comfort zone is in word processing. I would not even begin to try to count how many files and charts I have started and found too cumbersome to track my work. But, this one does what I need, at this time.

Column one is for Scene: I put the chapter number/the scene number (that would be 2/13 - as in chapter 2/scene 13, then the chapter title and the page the scene starts on. Because. I am focusing on scene, in this edit, to ensure that every scene has a purpose, knowing what page a scene starts on is a real time saver.

Column two is for the date and day this scene takes place. A word here about scene: It takes place in one location, in one time. So, when the day ends, you move on to another scene. When they change locations, you move on to another scene. It's just life-little chunks of life on paper. And, in creating this chart, I have found dates out of order and even foggy winter breathing in July.

Column three is for Plot Category: is it part of your main plot or a sub-plot and which one?

Column four is for Scene Description. At 60,000 words plus, I need reminders.

Column five is for Purpose of the scene. It MUST have a purpose. Today, I cut out a scene I really wanted but, in examining it, it served no purpose.

Column six is for things I have to follow-up on: foreshadowing, explaining, don't forget to wrap all those lose ends up. As I am nearing the end of the book, I am going back and striking out those things that are wrapped up.

AND, I have also added a row every time I have hit one of Beverly's twelve Plot Points. I was proud to be right on until Plot Point 9, when I had to add to a scene to hit that point. It has made the book much better, and now I'm back on track. YIPEEE!

This chart has been a great help to my not-so final edit. It takes a lot of the fear of failure out of the equation when you are able to see that it is all coming together