Reinvent Your Writing

Today's guest-poster, the lovely Lynne Gentry, knows a thing or two about reinvention.  Her debut novel, Reinventing Leona,  is all about making changes for the better.

Also red lipstick.  But I'll let you discover that for yourself.  Here's Lynne!

Writing good stories is like raising good kids, they never happen by accident. Someone has to invest a lot of time and effort in the project to achieve an award-winning result.

How many times have you thought you’d written the next bestseller only to take it to your critique group meeting and have them mop the floor with you? I’ve done it more times than I can count. Yet, every Tuesday night I print out a chapter and set off for another grueling round of iron-sharpening-iron.

Why do I put myself through this torture?

Because these trusted friends have only my best interest at heart. I’d rather hear what’s NOT working with my story in the comfort of someone’s cozy living room than have the flaws plastered all over an Amazon review.

True writing friends are not here to tell me I’m wonderful. They’re job is to make me a better writer. I’ll admit, crits can sting. But I’ve learned to consider their points and to think through why something tripped them up. Their suggestions challenge me to ratchet up the tension here or find a fresh way to drive my point home there.

Are you writing in secret?

Don’t do what I did. I wrote my first 400 page novel without letting anyone take a peek. When I finally summoned enough courage to submit the book to an editor, I received this terse response eight minutes later: I’m sorry, your writing does not measure up to the standards of our publishing house.

Ouch!

What did I learn? Don’t submit another thing until you get some help. I needed a group that would challenge, yet encourage a pleaser like me to continue in this often brutal and solitary calling.

Fortunately, I found a constructive writing group. And humbly submitting to the process reinvented my writing.

When I consider what each of the members of our writing group bring to the table, I’m reminded of how women used to gather around a well or quilting frame. Together, they helped each other raise their families, withstand the hard times, and make the world a better place.

What if writers did the same today? 

About Lynne's novel, Reinventing Leona:

Leona Harper loves being a pastor's wife. Her impressive resumé touts thirty years of coaxing hot water from rusty parsonage plumbing, planning church potlucks, and standing beside her husband while members take potshots at his sermons. Except for the little tiff with her grown children, Leona feels her life is right on track with the wishes of the Almighty...until her husband drops dead in the pulpit.

When the church board decides to fill the Reverend's vacated position Leona is forced to find a paying job, mend her fractured family, and tackle her fears. With life spiraling out of control, Leona might find the church members antics comical if she weren't so completely panicked. Can the faith of an overwhelmed widow withstand the added heartache of two resentful children and several underhanded church members?

If Leona can't trust God, how will she learn to trust herself?

Don't miss it! Full of warmth and wit, I recommend reading with a glass of iced tea.

July?

I know. I'm sorry. My blogs have been down lately, but in all fairness, let's recap the last month:

July 3-9: Out of town on Anniversary trip with Danny, both Silverton and Black Butte

July 11: Attended baby shower

July 11-12: In-laws visiting

July 12: Threw bridal shower

July 17: Picked up Plain Jayne galleys for edits

July 17-22: Finish electronic changes to manuscript

July 23: Make hard-copy changes to entire manuscript.

July 24: Finalize hard-copy changes, email edit inserts to editor, drive finished product to Harvest.

July 25: Pick up Brother-in-Law in Corvallis; photograph Geoff's bachelor party

July 26: Teach Sunday School. Drive BIL back to Corvy, assist in the purchase of mounting equipment for his new/our old window A/C unit.

July 27: Drive up to OCW at 7:20am; return home 9:30pm.

July 28-29: Prepare to leave for Canada/Geoff's Wedding

July 30: Depart for Calgary, then drive to Three Hills. Rejoice that it's much, MUCH cooler outside.

I really ought to be packing, but it's hot. Really hot. And yes, we have A/C, but only for the north side of the apartment. The south side is about 15 degrees warmer, and behind the office door, 25.

Trouble is, the things to pack are mainly over north; the suitcase is south. We've had some late nights lately, mainly because it's fairly late before the concept of moving around sounds like a good idea. Tonight may be another one of those nights.

Suddenly feeling better about not posting regularly. Time flies when you don't hold still.

P.S. Posted on http://burnsidewriterscollective.blogspot.com/. Yes, mine is the zombie one.

P.S.S. The basil is still alive, by the way. A little toasty from hanging in my car between errands (I was dropping to off at my grandma's not showing it the sights), but otherwise very healthy.

Avoiding what we love

Last week, I was between projects. I had just finished throwing a bridal shower for my brother's fiancée, and knew I was facing Plain Jayne edits at the end of the week.

I felt like I should hunker down and relax, but I was bored. And I hate being bored - actually don't believe in it. I feel that if you're bored, you're doing something wrong.

In my case, my antipathy towards boredom began (and likely continues) as a fear. Even as a child, I packed for all occasions. I brought toys, books; more than what I'd ever need to help pass the time, should the opportunity arise. I left things at friends' houses often.

Even now, I'm happiest with a book, and/or knitting in my bag when I go places. And when I say "go places," I mean the grocery store. But I digress.

Last week I was cranky and listless. But I opened my document for the first chapter of Simply Sara and started writing. I felt better. My muscles relaxed. Life was once again worth living.

Late that day, I had a conversation with my best friend Kara. Turned out, Kara had been exhibiting the same symptoms I had earlier that morning. She too was in-between projects and avoiding writing.

One of the tricky things about being a working writer is that writing becomes not work, but drudgery. Sure, we have the happy serendipitous moments when the stars align and the words flow, but a lot of writing is plugging away when you'd rather be doing anything else. Like housecleaning.

At that point, writers associate writing with a lot of negative feelings and bad karma. You rarely see any writers update their facebook status with something cheery, like, "so delighted I get to write today!" or "the words, they are a-flowing." No, it's more like, "I haven't unloaded my dishwasher in two weeks, my children eat nothing but cheap pizza, my husband has no clean underwear, and I'm still 2,000 words behind my daily quota."

No wonder we're cranky.

But it shouldn't be that way. I think with this next project, not only do I need to be on a more realistic writing schedule (last January-March's death march was not much fun), but take the time with a few side projects to enjoy writing. After all, I started writing because I enjoyed writing, didn't I?

In all fairness, I've loaded/unloaded my dishwasher and run five loads of laundry because I'm avoiding editing. Procrastination has the power to make me a crackerjack housewife sometimes. And I'm only going to Costco this afternoon because we're nearly out of toilet paper.

Right?

Random on a Sunday

A few things...

I'm sorry to my subscription readers who received a short email post last night. There's some odd combination of keystrokes that makes a post publish, and when it publishes, it sends out automatically.

Those people already know some of the following information: the basil is still alive. It was the tiniest bit droopy when we got home last night, but after a watering it perked back up. Also found a tiny slug in the gerbera daisy pot. Probably the grossest thing I'll deal with for the rest of the month.

I spent Friday and Saturday at a marketing conference. We spent a lot of time talking about "brand." Thing is, the books I've got coming out in the near future are not the books I'll be writing in the slightly later future. We've decided not to worry about my brand until I've had a few books released and we get an idea of how things are working. I'm good with that.

Tomorrow morning, I get to sit down with my editor and edit through Plain Jayne. That's one of the happy things about living in the same city as your editor - you get to do these things in person! And while the drive time to her office is tax deductible, I don't know that I'll take it. It's just under a mile.

On tonight's schedule: going to my parents' house for dinner, Danny getting a haircut, and going to bed early! We're both still wiped after this weekend. We had to get up early. I hate getting up early. I became a writer so I wouldn't have to get up early.

Make sure to keep checking my posting places on AmishReader.com and Burnside Writers' Blog. There are new posts showing up from time to time!

Catching Up

I haven't been very good about blogging lately. At all. And that's really sad, because I had all these beautiful ideas about how I would do things differently this month and blog about the experiences, and now the month's a third over.

So.

First, and most importlantly, I turned in Plain Jayne. The bolt of fabric has been wound up and handed off.

Second, my editor likes it. She laughed. And she laughed at jokes I thought I might be asked to omit. So that's all very, very happy.

Third, without a book, I don't know what to do with myself, and throwing myself into tidying the apartment doesn't have the appeal you might think. Amazingly enough.

I have started strategizing about Simply Sara. Not quite writing yet, but I'm alright with that. I am enjoying not sharing my head with anyone else at the moment.

Here are some of the NEW and/or DIFFERENT things I've tried in the last month -

1. To celebrate the turning-in of the book, Danny and I went to Mazzi's on a date. It's kind of a Eugene classic, but I hadn't gone in my sentient adult life. We really enjoyed it, and especially our table next to the (fake) fireplace.

2. We've watched In Bruges, Rachel Getting Married, and Star Trek. We're also a disk and an episode away from watching all five seasons of House, M.D., which I'm quite addicted to. Sarcasm? Cynicism? Guitar kidnapping? So there.

3. I'm learning new piano music. I realized a few months ago I've been playing the same pieces since school, mainly because I haven't had time or piano access to learn anything new. Now I'm working on a few songs and really enjoying it.

4. While I haven't tried any new recipes (kinda ran out after last month), I did try a new technique. I knew the traditional Italian Ragu method called for cooking the meat with milk after it's browned. I tried it with sausage before I added the prepackaged sauce - wow! The milk tenderizes the meat, creating a really yummy sauce. I did get a really yummy-sounding new recipe from my friend Aimee today, so more on that later.

5. I'm drinking more water. Hydration is a happy thing.

So far, haven't found any fabric I've liked for throw pillows. But I'm hopeful that I'll find something in the coming months. With Sara (my character, not a real person) being a seamstress, I'm really looking forward to improving my almost-nonexistant sewing skills.

And let's hope I write another blog by the end of the month!

The Now

Editing a full-length manuscript is like having a bolt of hemmed fabric unwound around the block. At some point you realize you should tweak the hem at a certain point, but that point is, like, on the other side of the block. And it's by that house with the barky dog and you're just so fed up with that dog that you'd rather not walk all the way over there to change that little bit.

I'm kind of overwhelmed at the moment. I don't remember being this overwhelmed with Divine Discontent, but that may be because 1.) DD didn't have a deadline, and 2.) I procrastinated for quite a while before digging into DD.

There's an outstanding family conversation about who's genetically responsible for the procrastination tendencies, and so far no one's been willing to incriminate, whoops, I mean, "suggest," a parent. But I digress.

I had these really pretty ideas about how I would painstakingly go through the manuscript and make all sorts of changes. But you know what? I've been staring at this thing for nine months straight. I can't help but think of the character of E from The Incredibles - "I never look back, darling, it distracts from the now."

While I certainly wouldn't ignore the things to be tweaked, the Now is calling, and it looks like fun. Inspired by my friend Michelle, I'm planning on spending May challenging myself to shake things up and do things differently. For me, that will translate into trying new restaurants, new recipes, new routines, new crafts AND a new book.

Looking forward to that, and some new blogging material. According to the powers that be, true bloggers aren't supposed to post less than twice a week. Twice a week? Unless you want my laundry stats, I don't necessarily have much to say twice a week. Makes me think of this:




And you know, I'm going to be the one to say no. Excessive blogging distracts from the Now.

Glad Tidings

I've started this blog a few times and not gotten past the title. I finished Plain Jayne last Tuesday, after a marathon writing day that involved almost 3,000 words written in a single day.
Wednesday and Thursday I took my agent's advice and spent a couple days away from the book. Read Girls in Trucks, which made my brain melt a little. Friday I formatted the book into a single document (which is more time-consuming than it sounds) and learned that the official title for the next book is............

Simply Sara! Which I predicted, and is why when I requested information on the Art Institute of Portland, I listed Sara's name. At the time, I listed that I only wished to be reached by mail or email. So imagine my surprise when I get a call asking if I'm Sara Burke.

I had an entire conversation as Sara, and asked lots of questions that will prove useful in the next book.

Looking forward to doing the research for Simply Sara. After researching Plain Jayne, I made the decision as a writer that I wanted to learn something new for every book. For Plain Jayne, that meant learning to ride a motorcycle. For Simply Sara, I want to learn to sew. I tried last spring, with mixed results. Mixed, largely because I tend to get ambitious when it comes to textiles. When I knit, I can rip things out when they don't work. Sewing - it's a bit more complicated.

So - for the rest of the month, I have a LOT of editing to do! So far I'm on Chapter 4 of 38. Oh - I also have my first interview scheduled. In November I'll be interviewed over the phone by Christian Book Distributors, so that should be exciting.

Enough procrastinating - need to get back to the manuscript. Will update more later!

Self-Editing 101

I hate editing.

Let me rephrase that. I hate editing my stuff. I find great joy in editing other people's works. Something inside me has decided, I think, that once it's written down, my part is done.

Most writers will tell say you'll spend more time re-working than you will actually writing, and maybe that's true for them. They will also tell you not to edit while you write; there, I stand convicted. So yes, it can take me longer to actually get stuff out, but once it's there it's usually pretty good. That's me, that's how I write, but I wouldn't encourage anyone else to do it that way.

However, there isn't a human being alive who doesn't need to be edited. And if you learn how to do the preliminary stuff yourself before giving it to the powers that be, you'll save yourself some embarrassment.

1. Read it Backwards. Basically, reading backwards allows for you to be able to break up the "oh, I know this section" effect and analyze each sentence on its own merit. This technique works best for smaller pieces.

2. Read it aloud. After I finish a chapter, I usually read it aloud over the phone to Kara. When I read it aloud, I find those places where something is spelled oddly or words are missing or that sentence that doesn't really make much sense. Also, when I'm reading it to an interacting audience , I'll know which jokes played well and which got lost.

3. Love your printer. Editing onscreen really doesn't work that well. Yeah, you can catch some mistakes, but not as well as on the printed page. After I finished Divine Discontent, I had the entire book printed and bound at Kinko's. Note: for this kind of job, I highly recommend the spiral binding. I kept one copy and gave the other to my editorial assistant (read: mother). She went through one copy, I went through the other. Sometimes we found the same spots, there were others where I decided to rework entire sections. After we both finished, I had the enviable task of going, page by page, through the manuscript and making the changes on the computer.

4. Share with others. Editing things you wrote yourself gives you a kind of handicap. Letting others eyeball your work is good; just know that as the writer you have the final word. You only have to make the changes you decide are appropriate for your work. Granted, if your reader is an editor, give their words more weight.

5. Know the heart of your story. This has less to do with editing punctuation than it does with know what to take out - or what to leave. Decide what your story is really about, and what you want it to communicate. If you know what the heart is (or "nut" for anyone who studied journalism), then you can better defend it.

6. Be flexible. Yes, sometimes that scene/line/phrase/punctuation that lies near and dear to your heart really needs to go. Sometimes the story arc isn't really working. Maybe that side character is distracting from the protagonist. It's okay to be liberal with the red pen. Less really can be more. Just keep an open mind and focus on what the heart of the piece really is.

Because really, what editing is all about is protecting that heart and not letting unnecessary distractions get in the way.