Work-in-Progress Wednesday #024

There is still a bit of Wednesday left.

I didn't post last week because I was up in the north woods of Wisconsin, and I stayed off the Internet entirely, and it was so wonderful! I could've brought my eeePC into town to the Java Lodge and used their wifi, but I resisted, and I know I made the right choice.

My family (as in parents, siblings, nieces and nephew--my husband stayed home for school) and I were in Crivitz on Lake Noquebay, where my mom's family has been vacationing for 49 years! I've been there 10-15 times, as it's far from Indiana where I grew up, and it's amazing because it's remote and wilderness-y, and it never seems to change, even though it is a different experience each time.


I didn't write last week, but I got to know my nieces (4 years and 14 months old) and nephew (18 months old) a lot better, which was awesome, and we had lots of campfires and boat rides and just sitting on the grass and staring at the lake. And a big thing I took away from the trip is that I don't need to read all the web sites I read all day, like CNN and Slate, that just depress me and make me feel helpless. No matter what I think about those stories, I can't change them, so why worry? Why waste all that time and mental power?

As a result of my Internet realizations, I've done lots of writing this week! Like, real honest-to-God writing, and it feels so nice. The last three nights each I've written for an hour, working on Outlaw Song and writing odds and ends in my notebook. I never feel like I want to write, at the beginning of the session, but once I get into it, it's enjoyable, and then I'm really proud of myself after I'm done.

Right now I'm slicing and dicing Outlaw Song. I've deleted 12,000 words in the last three days, 16,000 total since I started chopping away a few weeks ago. This was a 2-year NaNo project, so there is excessive crap.

One thing I've noticed is that during NaNoWriMo my writing is very wordy (huh) and repetitive, and I'm always throwing all these stupid roundabout phrases in. I was reading it yesterday, just slogging through, listening to the voice of my writer self from 4 years ago, and I just wanted to scream at the novel, "SHUT UP!" There is a lot of blabbering being fed to the delete key.

But then tonight I read a scene that I just loved, and it even made me sad (it's a sad scene), and I was almost on the edge of my seat. So, the whole novel isn't a bust.

Anyway, that's my week! Please share your progress, too!

Blog Chain: I Have This Great Idea, But Is It Really Mine?

The blog chain is back, and this time it's my turn to pick the topic. Argh! I'm so nervous! I know what I want to say, but I don't know how to say it. Hmm, sounds like writing.

But first! Please welcome back two people to the chain who have been away for a while. They are Senshi and Terri, and it's nice to have them here again. I'm new to Senshi's blog, and I read some of Terri's when I first joined the chain, so I'm looking forward to getting to know them both better.

Okay, what I want to talk about has a bit to do with inspiration and a bit to do with research. Kat started a chain on research not too long ago which is what got me all worried about my worries. These include:

Do you ever get inspired by a real-life event or news story and fear you're ripping off the story too much? Do you ever get inspired by a song or poem or line from a book and worry you're stealing that original person's idea? What if your research is overtaking your originality?



Okay, maybe I am projecting worries into my future, and if I just kept going with a story, it would develop into it's own thing, and all my worries would become unnecessary.

But maybe I really have something to worry about! Like ending a sentence with a preposition!

Anyway, some examples may help. I started my novel Outlaw Song from a song I heard, called "Outlaw Song." (Mind-blowing, isn't it.) I'm not going to really title my novel that, when it's done, and my novel is not about the story of the song, but I feel very inspired by the song, and other songs on the album, and sometimes when I'm stuck I will start writing around lyrics in the song, and then I AM just writing what is happening in the song (when I'm stuck), and I worry, is that a kind of plagiarism? Does this mean I have no creativity? Will anyone even notice anyway? Am I supposed to contact this band (which is no more), and ask them if I can quote, if it comes to that, their music?

Or, I was watching a show on Food Network one night, and they were talking about this restaurant somewhere, and I thought the story behind the restaurant's creation was interesting, and then I started thinking what about the restaurant owner's life made him open this place, and my mind was coming up with all this morbid stuff. I was just joking around with my husband about it, and he said I should write a story about it, but immediately I felt I wasn't allowed to do that. Is that original enough, to make up the first half of this guy's story? I mean, I can change the name of the restaurant, but what if someone else saw this episode on Food Network, and they call me out on it? Or what if the restaurant owner finds out, and he doesn't like what I made up about him, and sues me?

Again, all these fears are probably unfounded. I know writers get inspired by everything all the time: stories in the news, conversations overheard, family stories, other books, movies, songs... I'm sure the list is endless. I guess my problem is, where does inspiration end and originality begin? Do you have to credit your sources of inspiration? How do you do that?

And, if you are inspired by something, a news or historical story, maybe, and you go researching it more, where does that end? What if the more you research, the more trapped you feel? Maybe I wouldn't worry about this if I actually researched a novel one day, but what if??? How many questions can I ask in one blog post?

I need your advice. I think this has a lot to do with confidence, maybe with voice, with knowing yourself as a writer. Knowing your story well enough that it actually becomes yours, separate from whatever inspired it. Probably I should just keep writing, and all this will iron itself out. But I have to admit my worries of ripping off someone else's idea stops me a lot from writing.

I know that if I put a song lyric up and asked 20 people to write a story inspired by it, I'd get 20 different stories. But I guess I'm just afraid, for me, that maybe I will accidentally plagiarize and write the story too close to the song. Kind of like when I was little and writing stories, and only when I was older did I realize that I was pretty much writing exact copies of my favorite stories. I didn't know it at the time, and it was an honest mistake, but still.

So, yeah. Help! How do you know your stories are your own?

Please see Sandra's answer to this question, as she's going right after I am. (Sorry, Sandra!)

*I know "plagerism" is misspelled on the poster. I don't know how to fix it.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday #022

It's Wednesday, that day of progress and the works being, uh, progressed on. (what?)

Sorry, I am currently sitting in a storm of layoffs, and I have no idea how the day will end, but I look to writing to distract me and cheer me up.

So, this past week I have continued to be generous with the delete key on my novel. That's pretty much it. Still deleting. Still figuring out the story. I'll let you know when that changes.

But, in other writing progress news, I want to introduce my dear (and real-life!) friend Indigo Girl of the blogs Word Gypsy and Blue Agate. She has just pulled off every writer's dream of quitting her corporate job so she can devote her life to writing. Way to go! She now has more time and energy to focus on her writing dreams, and in only a few short weeks she has made some major progress on her short stories and even a play! Her dedication to writing and willingness to take risks have really inspired me lately to get more serious about my own writing. I mean, what am I waiting for, right? So, check out Word Gypsy which is mostly about her writing journey and Blue Agate which showcases her stories and poems.

In other happy writing news, I got an award from Kate! (She started the WiP Wednesdays, for anyone who doesn't know that.)

Thanks, Kate! I love your blog, and it was one of the first I started following.

Now for the blog award rules:

1. Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

3. Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

4. Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

5. Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

The 5 people I'm passing this award on to are:

1. Michelle at The Innocent Flower. She has been another huge help to me and my novel these past few weeks, and I can't thank her enough!

2. Carolyn of Archetype Writing Blog. She got me into this whole blogging thing and out of the no-writing wasteland.

3. Elana of Mindless Musings. Each of her posts is more hilarious than the last, and I love her attitude and insights.

4. Davin, Scott, and Michelle at The Literary Lab. These three are so smart, and the conversations that continue in the comments field are often as good as any writing book.

5. Robin of My Two Blessings. Robin was one of the first who started commenting on my blog, and I've enjoyed getting to know her through her blog. And, she is the most voracious reader I've ever heard of.

Lots of links today to lots of great blogs. If you have time, check them out. And, if I lose my job, you know my Wednesdays will be full of more progress.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday #021

Omigosh! It's WiP Wednesday! I almost forgot!
This week, I don't have to write a long, whiny gripe about not writing because... I have been writing!


Yes, last night and the night before, I've been working on Outlaw Song. I am going through the first draft, which is two NaNo's worth of writing, and I'm cutting out all the horribleness. I started with 101,365 words, and as of now, I have 98,795 words. I'm thinking by the time the read-through is over, it might be closer to 50K. That's fine, though, as I have been spinning my wheels with this novel. I am really excited about it, but truthfully, I still don't even know what the story is about. I'm figuring that out. As I go through the draft, I'm going to write down all the major scenes/events that I want to keep.

Today I did a bit of research on the setting and time period. And, by a bit of research, I mean I looked up Wikipedia pages and bookmarked them for later reading. I also requested a book from the library that I think might help. I know, all this is a small start, but I'm excited! I feel like this novel will take me forever to write, like years, but I'm really fired up about it.

Also, I forgot to write last week about my newest (and hopefully last-purchased for a while) writing toy: the eee PC! I bought this on Woot! last month, and I'm pretty excited about it. I already have a laptop, but these are sooo cute. And, it's more portable than my laptop, as my laptop is currently hooked up to all kinds of stuff, and it's heavier. This thing weighs like 3 or 4 pounds, and the battery life is longer.

It did come installed with Xandros (Linux), but I put Easy Peasy on it (also Linux, but somehow better for netbooks). So, I need to learn a bit of that operating system. I got a book from the library for that, too. The eee PC also only has a 4GB hard drive, which is very small, so pretty much all I can do on it is run a word processor and surf the Internet. This is fine with me. Oh, and the keyboard takes some getting used to. As you can see, it's very small.

But, now I can carry my manuscript all over the house, and out of the house. I mean, this thing fits in my purse.

Well, that is the progress! Writing and eee PCs! How are your projects coming along?

Blog Chain: Feel This Post

Can you feel that? It's blog chain time again. This round was started by Christine, and she wants to know how you're handling your emotional writing. She asks,

How do you add emotional depth to your stories? How do you know when you have enough emotional content? And how do you keep it authentic?

These are good questions and ones I don't think I've consciously thought about before. Well, maybe a little bit I have. Whenever I read a short story by Lorrie Moore, I think how can I write a story that is both funny and sad? How can I bring my reader down to feelings of hopelessness yet also have him or her experience the funny subtleties of life?


I haven't found the answers to those questions, except for maybe: I try. Honestly, a lot of times I'm not thinking about emotional writing. I'm just trying to tell the freaking story. But if I've just come off reading something great, then I'm reminded about the emotions. So, I try to think how I would feel in the situations my characters are experiencing. And I feel like I've nailed the emotion when I go back and read the scene and feel what the character is feeling. But, it's hard to tell. I mean, I wrote the thing, so I know where the emotions are coming from. And that's why critique groups are helpful, as others have mentioned. I can get comments back on a story and tell immediately if my reader came away with what I was trying to describe. I guess having crit buddies is how I know if I have enough emotional content and if it's authentic.

I do hate inauthentic emotions, though. I hate when I'm reading something and the characters are freaking out over nothing. I guess I'm more a fan of the dialed-down emotions. Or maybe the slowly-built-up emotions. Or an emotion that is running steadily beneath the surface for the whole book, and that is part of the tension, and then when the emotion breaks, I'm either crying or really happy for the characters. When I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road, I thought it was very dark and depressing and just full of despair. But there were lots of hopeful moments, hoping for the characters, and that's what brought all the suspense. I mean, I wasn't like crying through the whole thing or hyperventilating with anticipation. But it was a persistent feeling, the sadness and despair, and the feeling stayed with me even when I wasn't reading the book, and that is the kind of emotion I like best.

If I'm going to be writing those kinds of emotions in my stories, I think it will take lots of revisions and reworking the story and stepping back and thinking about how I feel about everything.

Um, emotional writing is hard. You certainly don't want to hit your readers over the head with feelings, but you can't leave the story barren, either.

Hmm... I don't know if I've done this chain justice. Clearly I have more writing to do so that I can figure out my process and actually be able to explain it.

For more coherent discussions on emotional writing, please visit Elana's and Sandra's blogs. I know they'll have helpful advice.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday #020

It's WiP Wed number 20! Oh my gosh! I think for the past 10 weeks I have done, like, nothing. Except maybe talk in circles. You know, it's what I do.

Let's see... last week... Well, I went to Cedar Point on Saturday and lost my glasses! I don't even know how, either. I was taking them on and off for the rides, and then for about a two-hour period I had them stowed in a locker (I can see without them. I use them for reading and distance. No, they're not bifocals. They have prism), and I think getting used to not wearing them made me confused. I'm pretty sure I lost them on Disaster Transport (what a disast!), as that ride is all in the dark, so maybe that made me less aware of them falling off my face? That ride doesn't go upside down, though, so it's odd. Or maybe I put them on top of my head? I just don't know! I was so clueless about losing them that it was 2 or 3 more rides before I noticed, and I went to pull them out of my purse, and--GONE! I was shocked and sad. Oh, and my husband lost his cell phone on Maverick. Yeah, it was a great day for rollercoasters but not so for personal items.

But, today, a package arrived from Cedar Point, and inside were my glasses! Yay! I was bummed about replacing them because I didn't renew my vision insurance this year, having just bought new glasses and not planning on visiting the eye doctor. D'oh! So, I was either going to wear my old pair for the next six months or consider shelling out more bucks. But now I don't have to! See?


They look fine, no?

Anyway, on to writing, of which I have done none. I don't even think I wrote down a couple sentences in a notebook. I mean, maybe I did. Obviously, it was earth-shattering stuff.

I did think about writing, though, and had many great conversations about it.

It's coming, I promise! Just give me another week.