Step by Step

What to leave in, what to leave out...

Some parts of my novel are staying the same from the previous draft, but a lot is changing. Therefore, I have decided to do a complete rewrite and only copy over the scenes that work in this final revision. What's nice is having a blank slate to work with. What isn't nice is saying goodbye to the 73,000+ words I already wrote. Plus the over 100,000 words in the first two drafts (combined).

I suppose I resisted a complete rewrite because I was already on my third draft. And I asked myself, before starting a fourth draft, why I thought rewriting would be any easier than revising what I had. I couldn't come up with an answer, so I did what all writers do: I just started writing.

With any luck, I'm learning from this process and when I get back to the other two novels I've written, I'll be able to rewrite those with confidence, right?

Word count of Falling Short, take 4:
4795

NaNoWriMo

Best Stressed Woman
Internet Affair
Falling Short

Whatever I end up calling it, I'm going to be calling it finished by the end of 2007. Instead of waiting for NaNo, I'm starting right now. What if we're back to working full-tilt on the home addition by November? The timing is right. I have to strike while the story is rewriting itself in my head.

Word count today: 945

My goal is to write 1,000 words per day, give or take. At that rate, it will take me 75 days to complete my novel. A writing friend of mine made that her goal, and she had sound logic. Anything over 1,000, she said, and she started wandering aimlessly away from the plot. I've had some awesome 5,000 word days. I've loved those days. I've even written a few good scenes on those days. But without the word-count desperation of NaNo, I'm free to have 5,000 word days only when the story is coming down fast and furious.

30 Minutes

I am determined to get at least 500 words written in the next half hour. My characters have been hounding me for days. I can't seem to shut them up! In an ordinary world, I'd be locked up for saying that. In the world of writers, it's a good thing.

Saving draft of blog until I'm done with my half hour.... time, 2:36PM.

I'm back. It's 3:06PM and I reached 432 words. Not quite my goal, but it feels so good to be working on Falling Short again. I used to like these characters. Now I love them.

Off to take the kids to piano lessons, then it will be time to cook dinner. Maybe later tonight I'll get a chance to write a bit more.

I did! I was able to write at piano and then this evening and I ended up at over 1o00 words for the day. AND I finished chapter 1 which was all new material. I finally figured out where this story should start, which means I'll be revising much of the 73,000 words I already have, but that's okay. This is my third time through, I think. After this revision, I'll pass it by a trusted friend or two for feedback.

I started this novel in October of 2006. I outlined using Karen Wiesner's First Draft in 30 Days. It was my NaNo novel and it used to be titled Best Stressed Woman. Wow. It's come a long way in one short year.

No writing today. Or yesterday.

The water pump on my van broke yesterday, which caused the car to run out of water and overheat. Thankfully, it happened close enough to home that I didn't burn up the engine. While I was contacting my mechanic, I spent 4 hours on the phone with my ISP and the manufacturer of my wireless router because we couldn't get online. According to said personnel, both our modem AND our router quit working! Limped the van over to the mechanic and while my van was being fixed, I borrowed my mechanic's car and bought a new router/modem combo, which was hard to find because I'm on DSL, not broadband. Over $100 at Best Buy, but hey, it's Internet access we're talking about here.

The new router/modem would have fixed the problem. If my keyboard for the desktop hadn't chosen that moment to die. To further aggravate matters, my debit card was declined because the equipment rental company charged me for equipment that we still have in use for our remodel and, not being able to go online, I wasn't able to transfer funds to cover it.

As soon as my son was off to school this morning, I went to Staples and bought a new keyboard and saw that the price on the router/modem combo was $20 less. I hadn't even opened the box from Best Buy yet. Plus, with my contract discount through my husband's business, I was able to buy a cordless keyboard PLUS the router/modem for $10 more than I bought just the router/modem at Best Buy. Cool beans, right?

I got it all hooked up. It worked great. Got my funds transfer done. Problem solved. Or so you would think.

And then I noticed the router/modem from Staples wasn't wireless. Grrrrr!

Got the router/modem switched out with the wireless one, then spent all day on the phone with the router manufacturer, my ISP, and the print server manufacturer. Returned the non-wireless router to Staples. Everything is up and running, but the signal is weak on the wireless, rendering it practically useless.

Comcast, here we come.

Heidi and Dave

I spent a little while with my characters today. I only got 500 words written, but it felt good to be working with them again. Curiously, what I wrote longhand is not what ended up being typed in. I edited as I copied it over. It just didn't sound like the right narrator for Heidi and Dave. I think my editing got me closer, though. I know a lot of writers think editing while writing is taboo, but often I find that if I don't have the right voice, my inner editor actually blocks my path. I can't go on until I figure out what's wrong.

Heidi's loosened up a bit in the time I've been away. I think that will be good for the novel. She's more approachable.

Very, very short stories

Wow. I have renewed respect for writers of flash fiction. It's difficult to tell a complete story in 500 words or less. A beginning, a middle, and an end within the boundaries of an estimated 166.67 words per section. Without sounding choppy or abbreviated.

Since I love to read flash fiction, I thought I'd try it. I trimmed "The Painting" yesterday. At 1200 words, it seemed short to this writer who loves to indulge in a good, long chapter. But an interesting thing happened when I was trimming: I had to weigh every sentence against the major dramatic question. Yep, back to the basics.

I wrote "The Painting" from a contest prompt, so my first step was to eliminate the prompt but retain the story. It's amazing what happens when you get caught up in following a prompt. My next step was to dissect every sentence for the following:

1. Usefulness in moving the story forward
2. Mood
3. Aesthetics (how the words look, visually, on the page, and how it sounds to my ear)
4. Characterization. To me, a story is nothing without a strong character to pull me in.

Now I'm ready for the ultimate test: run it by a few brutally honest friends.

Not Your Average Joe

Joe didn't win the Lunch Hour Stories 2007 short story contest, but it was mentioned.

http://www.lunchhourstories.com/contest_winners.html

Of course, now I'm wondering a few things, such as how many entries there were. 10? :) (Hey, I'm being honest. My immediate reaction was to count the honorable mentions and notice "Joe" was at the bottom of the list.) Do I email the editor at Lunch Hour Stories and ask them to use my pseudonym on the website or just leave it? I'm free to send "Joe" elsewhere. So does it even matter that they used the wrong name?

The Dakota Family?

Most of you know my real name isn't Janelle Dakota. That's my pseudonym. But it's so much fun to have an online persona. Freedom! I can be Janelle, the author! I can indulge in my first love: writing.

But the majority of my heart belongs to my family: My husband of almost 19 years, my 12 year old son, my 9 year old daughter, and my old dog, Sadie. Of course, what person doesn't have extended family and the obligations therewith? And let's not forget to add homeschooling to the Dakota family recipe and the addition we're building on our house. All in all, I have the usual amount of distractions that any writer has to attend to.

My children love to write. They love to read. What more could a writing mom desire, besides a little writing time of her own? I am thrilled whenever I see my kids catch the writing buzz and really get into their stories. My children and I often read the same books and the discussions we have are enlightening for me as a writer.

But this year, I am missing my son. He started 7th grade at the local school. I know he is well-prepared and a great student (Honors! Proud Mom moment!) and my daughter and I are enjoying the one-on-one time, but...I miss homeschooling my son.

Lyrics

Where has the time gone? While I've been busy with renovations to the house, bloggers have been running circles around me. I can't possibly bore you with the details of my life since my last blog, so instead I'll offer up an exposition.

Music. Have you ever taken music lessons? My son is taking piano and my daughter is taking flute and piano. Weekly lessons, new songs, practice, practice, practice, right? I have never taken lessons for a musical instrument, but in my youth, I sang. I had voice class every weekday morning from the 4th grade to the 12th, vocal competitions, concerts, music camp, performances, even road trips with the jazz choir. As with playing an instrument, to achieve optimum performance, I had to practice daily. I had to warm up. I had to run through all the songs I was learning. I had to practice each song until I got it right. I had to work at it.

Why is it we writers expect to write a novel without daily practice? Shouldn't we warm up our instrument? Run through the scales, so to speak? But we don't: we sit down at the computer or with our pad and pen and expect an optimum performance of ourselves. We expect that if we start writing the lyrics, we'll find a song.

Just a thought.