Archive for June, 2011

Be Fearless

21
June
2011

I’m back from my writing retreat at Niagara-on-the-Lake! It was a wonderful experience and pretty much what I would hope a writing retreat might be: full of quiet time to think and imagine, excellent conversation, good food, and fun.

I didn’t end up doing a lot of actual writing myself (though some of the other writers produced some staggering amounts of prose, or revised great chunks of their WIPs). I was still on a vacation from my current project, not ready to start revising and really trying deliberately NOT to think about it. Instead I spent my time brainstorming a shiny new story (Literally shiny. It’s about robots). But really the BEST part of the retreat was just being able to hang out, in person, with other writers.

And while in Toronto, I also managed to visit an important tourist destination:

If you don’t understand this reference and you must go watch the Degrassi series! So. Good. (I wanted to be Caitlin, the activist!)

So now I’m back home, missing my writer-friends but happy to be back with my boys. And now, finally, I’m plunging into revisions on my current project. I’ve gotten some fantastic feedback from beta readers, and I’m still really in love with the world and the story. This is a more ambitious book than anything else I’ve written, which is a good thing. But also a scary thing, because I might fail.

I’ve spent the past several days obsessing over my characters– turning them inside out and figuring out their motivations and how they fit together. On Sunday my brain was mush and I was completely overwhelmed.

That’s when Dove Chocolate came to my rescue. Not the chocolates themselves. (Though they are indeed quite tasty. Especially the caramel ones, if you freeze them first. Yum!) But the silly little messages on the wrappers.

Three chocolates in a row. Every one had the same message:

Be Fearless

Okay then. The chocolates have spoken. Look out revision, here I come!

(The even weirder thing? The last time I got a chocolate with that message was the day before the Diversity in YA Cambridge event, when I was terrified of saying something stupid and looking like a dork up on a stage next to the other fabulous authors on the panel.)

Retreating

08
June
2011

Sometimes the hardest part of writing is the not-writing.

Right now I am still on an enforced vacation from my recently-completed draft, both to allow myself to gain some objectivity about the project and to let my revision thoughts brew and stew. And it feels weird. I’m a shameless wordcount addict. I love the external validation of seeing my daily wordage accumulate.

It’s hard to remember that these between-times, these thinking-times, are just as important to the process as the active work periods: that it can be just as much “work” to synthesize critique feedback into a revision plan as it is to actually carry OUT that revision. But I know my revision will be better and more successful if I wait and give my backbrain time to mull and ponder and work things out.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about a lot is something one of my beta readers (the very wise Megan Crewe) said: “You have to know that the character as they are at the beginning of the story could not at that point have done what they need to do to succeed at the end of the story. It’s only because of the growth they go through on the way there that they can.” (Edited to add: R. J. Anderson has some interesting comments about places where this rule might not apply, over on the LJ xpost. And indeed, I don’t think any writing rule is universal, though in this case this “rule” has been helping me focus on how to (I hope!) strengthen a particular character arc. Also, Megan says she picked this wisdom up somewhere else, but I will still give her the credit for introducing it to me!)

Right now, this is true (I think!) for one of my two POV characters. But for the other, not so much… Part of the problem is that I haven’t quite nailed down her character arc. I know her backstory and emotional damage, but I need to dig deeper into what she truly needs to grow, and what scares her, and how the events of the book can force that growth and change. The other issue is determining exactly what that “they need to do to succeed” moment is — I am not entirely sure it’s the obvious one. So perhaps I need to focus more on the true moment of success.

These are all things that need thought and reflection. And time. So it’s a good time to retreat and think, to read craft books (most recently Cheryl B. Klein’s fantastic SECOND SIGHT and Donald Maass’s THE FIRE IN FICTION, both highly recommended).

Conveniently, I’m actually going off on my first official writing retreat next week! I am SO looking forward to some dedicated time to consider my revision plans, new book ideas, and more general writing-life stuff! And to visit with some fantastic fellow writers!

Those of you who have gone on informal writing retreats: what do you work on while retreating? First drafts? Revisions? Play & exploration of new ideas? Do you find retreats are especially good for any particular part of the process?