I went to Patry Francis’ blog yesterday. I enjoyed her voice, her authenticity and her use of details. Mainly, I enjoyed feeling, ‘Hey, I know Patry Francis.’ She shares a slice of her life.

My own blog is set up mainly for writing, and I feel embarrassment for adding me to it. In “So What’s Next?” I quickly skipped over what I did first with my manuscript. But “holding” it was important to me. Eric Maisel addresses holding our work in his book, Fearless Creating. Can you think of your painting, short story, sculpture, novel, book while you attend to your regular job, your kids, the cleaning, or being stuck in traffic? Staying connected with our work while we are working on it is important. A writer is always working, noticing things, taking in how people stand, talk, move, and how light bounces off a wall and obscures the texture, flattening it.

Thanking God for each page was important to me, also. When I lose track of gratitude, I lose the flow in my life. Everything seems chaotic again and meaningless. But when I take a moment to say, Wow, look at the indentations on this page. It looks like an arrow on a mission. Thank you, God for this page. I recognize that yes, this is something here. I also recognize that it isn’t about me, solely from me. As I go through and listen for the twangs, I recognize the what feels in harmony, what “thrummmmms” is where I have let go, allowed the piece to be itself.

Hold your art today, physically, emotionally, mentally. Feel a connection, even if it’s only to the idea of writing, or painting, or singing, or dancing.

Authors helping Authors

THE LIAR’S DIARY Blog Day – January 29

I stole this info from http://www.bksp.org/ Thank you, Backspace.

“Patry Francis is a talented author whose debut novel THE LIAR’S DIARY came out in hardcover from Dutton last spring. The trade paper release is January 29th, but a few weeks ago, Patry was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. She’s had several surgeries, and her prognosis is good, but given that Patry won’t have much energy for promoting, a number of bloggers are banding together to do it for her. ‘THE LIAR’S DIARY blog day’ is going to be held January 29th. Folks who wish to participate are asked to mention the book on their blog that day and link to Patry’s website (www.patryfrancis.com) and the book’s purchase page on Amazon.” http://www.amazon.com/Liars-Diary-Patry-Francis/dp/0452289157 I’m late, but sincere. If you enjoy Patry Francis’ page, link to it on yours. I haven’t read this novel yet, but there are some rave reviews on Amazon.com. I’ll read this during my “vacation” from my novel.

Backspace’s blog entry for the 29th shares even more info, including that Penguin Publishing company is offering a discount on Francis’ The Liar’s Diary. Also, the blog writer (I wish I knew who it was) speaks about something I’ve thought for a long time. We are not in competition with each other. Helping each other out only makes things better for all of us. That’s one of the reasons I have this blog.

Bless you Patry Francis.

So, What’s Next?

“Only the writers know how to rewrite. It is this ability alone that turns the amateur into a pro.” —William Knott

I did take a couple of days off from writing, but I practiced holding my work. I printed out the full manuscript and carried it around. I went through each page taking in the shape the sentences made on the page and thanking God for it.

So, what’s next? I’m taking my cue from So, Is It Done? Navigating the Revision Process, a DVD hosted by Janet Burroway. The DVD is full of “Methods, Strategies, Interviews, Exercises, and Stories to guide writers to their best work.” It’s full of advice and information from acclaimed authors who also teach or have taught creative writing.

First, I’ll get to know my book. Read it out loud and listen for, as Robert Olen Butler calls it, the “twang”, where the piece sounds out of tune.

Burroway says to mark the parts that make me unhappy or make me squirm and let myself fall in love with those rich passages.

I’ll search through and look for “just”, and those many other writing tics I have.

Elizabeth Dewberry recommends to you and me to ask “What’s this about?”

John McNally says he smooths out those transition sentences.

Patricia Foster says to go to a place you love and read it out loud.

Burroway says this next draft is for you to Respond to your story. What do you feel good about? What isn’t clear or makes you squirm? She suggests putting notes in the margin, writing out new ideas and reading the manuscript out loud to yourself more than once. She says, “Play.”

Have fun with it.

Have fun with it? Revision as fun?

Have fun with it.

“What I love about being in the revision stage of a novel is that it means you got it, it’s basically there.” –Rosellen Brown

I Finished !

I have finished the first draft of my novel!

I am coming up from feeling so very sad. It’s an odd mixture of sad and elated.

I am not done, yet. I still have plenty of blood and sweat left to shed during rewrites and revisioning (re-seeing).

I am so grateful.

Thank you for cheering me on. Use this as an excuse to celebrate. Grab some Champagne or Sparkling Juice, feel the bubbles on your lips and up your nose!! Hee hee. It tickles. Wrap your naked self in fine silk, and of course, eat some chocolate.

Dream about your art today. Ache to touch it in some way.

Laurie

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

Dear One,

Someone came to my site looking for the words to the “Auguries of Innocence.” If I call my blog “A World in a Grain of Sand,” then I should have it here somewhere.

I will definitely be writing more about William Blake, for he is one of my heroes.

For everyone, especially artists of all kinds, I recommend the book William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books.  This book doesn’t have the “Auguries of Innocence” in it, but it’s beautiful, passionate, and Divine.

So to all of you looking for this, here’s the first four lines of the “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour

I’m still working on it

Hi,

I sit up here on the black leather couch, legs folded in lotus, leaning forward over my laptop. This is not ergonomically correct.

Why do I do this?

When I write, I may sit like this, or with my laptop incorrectly high for my wrists and incorrectly low for my vision.

It’s on automatic. I don’t think about it, unless it hurts.

Will I be a blind humpback with deformed wrists and torn up knees?

In writing, what do I have on automatic pilot?

I know I overuse the word just. I also do what I just did. I write “I know I”, instead of just, (oops, there’s that just), instead of writing I (fill in the verb).

I write often in fragments. I put my modifier after my verb: see the last sentence.

I tend to use short sentences. I must remember to vary the length on rewrites.

Sometimes I write really long, convoluted sentences that go up, over to the left, down the hall, up into the attic, out on the roof, then, finally, hit the ground.

I’m sure I have (this “I’m sure I have” is similar to “I know I have”) many more automatic habits that I may not see until they hurt or unless I go looking for them. Discovering these will give me a good, detached way to go back through my novel and take care of some things before I put it (the novel) away for a few months. (Is that one of those convoluted sentences?)

Looks like I have to make sure it’s clear what or who my pronouns refer to, also.

I’m getting so close to the end of my novel that I’m skipping straight to editing without finishing her.

Yes, you heard right, I am still not finished. Clearly, I have a wonderful opportunity to set a new deadline. I will finish my novel by January 31st.

It’s not that I’m not working, it’s just that my novel is stretching longer as I write.

(There’s that just again.) I need to make a Dead Word Wall.

Do one thing for your creation today.

Smack, Ouch, Ahaaaa!

Welcome. Thank you for coming here.

If you’ve been following this blog, you know I set a goal to finish the first draft of this novel by the 18th.

I did not finish my first draft by the 18th, but I am happy. I wrote fifteen pages this week which is almost three times my normal amount per week.

I showed myself that I can carve more time out than I thought I had.

I showed myself that I can write upstairs with the television on, someone else in the room, and little Wise One noises coming out of a baby monitor.

The goal pressured me. I wrote more. I thought about my characters more. I had more details in my work, unexpected ones like a fedora and the clink of a wedding ring against glass.

I also felt more anxious.

The goal smacked me into walls and forced me to sit down and claw through them instead of giving myself a leisurely few days or a week to chisel through.

So would I do this again? Yes, but it’s hard. Whine whine. Boo hoo.

When I finish this first draft, I will have more time to write essays on writing, art, video, inspiration for you. I only know what I know, and I’ve only done what I’ve done, but if any of this can help you, I want to share it.

Even if coming to my page and laughing at how ridiculous I sound helps you in some small way, I have done something to serve.

Thank you.

Here’s more on setting goals from Coffee Break for Writers, a great e-zine.

Best wishes for your creations!!

The Eighteenth

Hi,

I set a goal to finish by the 18th. Will I make it by tomorrow night, 11:59 Central Time? I have handwritten pages to key in tonight, but they don’t contain the closing scene. They’re the pages before the climax.

I have a tough time amping myself up to type in handwritten pages. I’ve already been juiced up by experiencing the scene from before. Frankly, it feels like work when I think about putting in already written pages. But, whenever I do type in the words I scrawled across paper , I invariably modify them and add depth, creating something even better than what I had before.

I will type in these pages.

I will sleep.

I will wake and discover presents for my birthday.

Will I finish my first draft by tomorrow night? If not, at least the goal put a fire under my butt and pushed me to write more, more often. It pushed me to open the notebook on my bedside and put a ready to go pen nearby. It pushed me to get up in the night with my scene and write in my closet.

But for now, I’m sticking to my goal.

Have a wild thought today, and then, say it out loud.

P.S. Sundance started today: ! Over 3620 submissions, but only 121 made it in.

Also, new tech news I found out about creating your own book, even with pictures (from reading Businessweek January 21, 2008). Create your own bound book with Blurb.

YES

 

Your characters are larger than life.

They can say those things that you won’t. They talk back to people stronger than they are. They talk back to their spouses, their children, their bosses. They may risk getting punched or even thrown off a building. They can wear spiked heels, low cut blouses and dye their hair. They say who they’d vote for for president. (They don’t care that they wrote “for for” in a sentence.)

They can eat truffles and never worry about having to share.

They can carry guns, pick locks, and jump from airplanes.

They can show fear.

Sometimes, I wish I were a character.

“Take a risk a day–one small or bold stroke that will make you feel great once you have done it.” —-Susan Jeffers

One more

Yes, I wrote. (Yay!)

Some of it was sensual and in the moment.

Some of it was ungrounded dialogue.

And some of it was flotsam.

But I moved towards the end.

I thought today about writing in previous entries of how good it feels to finish. But I am not finishing to get that feeling. I didn’t even know that waited for me when I finished the first novel I wrote. (which ended up an “under the bed” novel)You will not finish for that feeling.Why will you finish?

Why do I know I will finish?

Because I have to tell this story. Because I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t find out what happens to them.

Because I know I will write one scene after another.

I am grateful to my writing friend Cindy for agreeing to be an accountability buddy for me. I will email her every night letting her know how many pages I wrote that day, even if it’s zero. She will not judge me, but I will.

What will support you to finish? Interesting characters? Support from others?

Why will you finish?

Maybe you know that you will just write word after word, sentence after sentence until you are done.

If you are working on a short story, a poem, a song, a book, a script… I encourage you to write one more word, or sentence, or scene today. In this moment, you don’t have to worry about finishing. Only move to write just that one more _______.