Christina Cann

Well. This weekend has been incredibly productive. Using the comments from my readers, I’ve gone through and edited chapters 1-10 of le livre. Although it’s not nearly as much as I had hoped to get done, it’s about a third of it, and I’m happy. Maybe I’ll be able to get through the rest of it during the evenings this week and next weekend.

When I wasn’t revising, I read On Writing by Stephen King, despite the fact that I’ve never read any of his novels. I really enjoyed it, and if you’re interested in a really good book about writing, along the lines of Bird by Bird, you should pick it up.

Now off to grill some kielbasa, top it with sauerkraut, and have myself a good time.

Despite the fact that it was a long day at work and it’s ridiculously hot outside, I am feeling inspired to get some work done. Yesterday I had a long lunch with one of my readers and came out of it with a lot of ideas for ways to improve le livre, and I want to mull over them a little longer and maybe take another glance through it. I also want to write 1000 more words in the new story. So much to do, so little time!

Also — have you been reading Literary Rambles? You really should be.

Well, I decided to just start working on the other idea I had, the one that’s not centered around a high school athlete. Maybe after I finish working on this one, I’ll write about her, but so far I’m really enjoying getting to know the characters in the one I’m working on. They’re surprising me, turning out slightly different than I had envisioned them. Isn’t it funny how characters can do that? You think you’re totally in control of everything that goes on in a story, you start writing, and poof–they are like lovably insolent children, wielding their own way, refusing to fit into the narrow boundaries you had set for them.

But I haven’t forgotten my original manuscript! When I get more detailed feedback from my readers, I’ll work on le livre. My goal is to start querying agents in September, which feels very close.

I’ve been reading more writing blogs, and adding a few more links to the blogroll. In particular, I’ve discovered Write to Done, which I really love. It’s a great resource for writers who are dutifully working to achieve their dreams. This post in particular was very helpful – I am a huge “digital fiddler.” I’ve started disconnecting my laptop from the Internet each evening when I sit down to write now, which really does help enormously. And, in the new story, I’ve found that setting word count goals really helps a lot. If I write 500 words each session, I’m happy (and I’ve found that often I go over that goal, anyway, which helps even more).

So today my goals are to weed the yard, bake a cherry pie from scratch, and get 500 more words into the story. I won’t say any of them will be easy, but with some work and some inspiration, I know I’ll get them done.

June was a quiet writing month, as evidenced by my sheer lack of posting. I took my vacation (very lovely, thank you), watched my beloved Penguins win the Stanley Cup, and worked outside in the yard.

I also gave le livre to three people to read. When I handed it over to the first person, I felt really terrified for half a second, like, “No! My baby! Don’t take her away from me!” But then I got over it, and handed it over, and thought, “Well, that’s that. No more control.” And isn’t that the point of writing, anyway? To share it with the world, not hide it away in some desk drawer or, in this century, in some folder on a desktop?

I’ve gotten good preliminary feedback from them, and will be discussing it in more depth with them soon. But can I say that I breathed a huge sigh of relief that none of them – and all of them are smart, opinionated people – think that there are major problems with it? I know I still have work to do on it, and what they think will probably be different from what a prospective agent or editor thinks, but still. I’m feeling pretty good.

So good, in fact, that I have started inking out a few more ideas I’ve had for projects after this one. One of them is a story I originally started writing before le livre, then got so interested in one of the characters that I ended up switching and writing a whole book about her (the main character in le livre). The other one came to me a few months ago, and while I really like the story, I’m not sure about it. It centers around a female high school athlete, and I’m not sure if that’s marketable. I know you should write what you love and not worry about the market or popularity, but I have a couple ideas bouncing around in my head right now. If one is going to be less marketable, maybe it makes sense to focus on the other one?

Whatever feels right, I suppose. We’ll see where things lead.

I changed the quote in the sidebar to some lyrics from Joni Mitchell’s song “Woodstock.” They really sum up how I’ve been feeling lately. I’ve been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for my book club and gardening and doing work in my backyard, and maybe it’s very tree-huggerish of me, but I really feel a renewed connection to who I am, where I came from (American by way of Ireland and Poland, mostly), and what I want my life to be like.

All of this is making me want to really work on my book when I’m not in the garden gathering lettuce for my dinner salad or cooing over the marigold patch. Luckily for me, I have a six hour layover tomorrow in the lovely Philadelphia airport before I get on an overnight flight to Europe. And although I’m not going to the land of my ancestors, I am going to a country that has perfected food culture and literary culture. I’m sure it will be a wonderful incubator for everything that’s been bubbling under the surface, a chance to reconnect with dear old friends, and the perfect opportunity to get back to the garden, as Joni has encouraged me to do.

Figures. I go on and on about how much I’ve been thinking and musing and subconsciously crafting le livre, and then spring, well, springs and the whole thing goes down the toilet. Instead of being a dedicated writer, I’ve been a devoted gardener and general yard worker. The spouse and I have spent the entire Memorial Day weekend being outside, and, to my utter surprise, I have loved every second of it. We built three raised beds for vegetable gardening, planted marigolds by our porch, potted some bamboo shoots friends gave us awhile ago, and transplanted some tomato seedlings for spouse’s mother. I have a rockin’ farmer’s tan, more freckles on my face than I had on Friday, and utter contentment in my life. I’ve barely turned on my computer all weekend and when I did, it was just to look up gardening blogs and information about our hardiness zone. (I’m in Zone 6, if you’re interested.) This evening, when my outdoor work was done, I sat down at my desk to start writing and then popped back up, remembering that there were very mushy bananas in the kitchen that would be perfect in loaf form.

And instead of feeling the stress I usually do when I haven’t written for awhile, I feel very unconcerned. I think it’s because I know the book is getting close to done. Maybe I’m just trying to prolong it. Maybe I’m terrified of sending query letters and being rejected by agents.

But maybe it’s just because it’s a beautiful May evening and all I want to do is read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and eat banana bread and sip sweet iced tea. I’ll get back to writing tomorrow night…

How much of writing is subconscious?

I’ve been thinking and musing a lot about le livre recently, almost incessantly. I call the main character to me when I’m walking to the bus stop, washing the dishes, lying in bed waiting to fall asleep. When she comes and is in the mood to talk (she’s often a reticent little creature), I ask her gentle questions and store everything that she’s saying away, adding to the files I’ve kept on her since the day she walked into my head.

But lately it’s been more difficult than it ever was to start my writing for the day. Since Friday, I think I’ve only written about 4000 words, when I feel like I should be writing so much more. Or is the “should” too overrated? Should (ha) I just let the story come out as it will and trust that it will be in a presentable condition by the end of the month, when I’m hoping to hand it out to readers? Is the subconscious work I’m doing enough for now, until the words come pouring out?

I really, really hope so.

I’ve been reading a lot of really great blog posts recently about character, so I thought I’d share them here before I head back into the world of le livre.

First, Writer Unboxed is doing a second month devoted to one aspect of the craft. A few months ago, they focused on plot; during May they’re focusing on, you guessed it, character. This post from Therese Walsh really struck me, particularly when she talks about how pictures can solidify a character and her desires for an author. 

Months ago, I asked Caitlin, who posts her work on Flickr, if I could display some of her photos here. She graciously agreed. To me, her pictures conjure emotion. They inspire characters, too. This shot, for example, is one of the inspirational shots I’m using for book #2. Looking at it gave me an instant sense for a new lead character: quirky, dark, damaged, intuitive, naive. The model may very likely be none of those things, but for my purposes, it doesn’t matter; for me, Caitlin has captured these ideas using shading and contrasts, and by the placement of that flowering branch.

The second I read this, it clicked in my brain. I know exactly what my protagonist needs in le livre, and I had a clear image of how she would look at the end of the story. I’ve never been the type of writer who creates a collage of images before starting or working on a project, but I may have to rethink that policy in the future.

Other musings on character that have resonated with me are from this post at Jennifer Hubbard’s blog. In it, she talks about character motivation and this part in particular stuck with me:

The villain, if there is one, should have some motivation more complex than just, “He’s bad.”  Everyone’s life makes sense through his or her own eyes; we can all rationalize our actions even if they bother other people.  Why does the bad guy want to rule the world, or steal the main character’s love interest, or thwart the main character’s ambitions?

This is something I’ve been struggling with my wip. I have a bad guy, obviously, but I’ve been having problems making him more human. He’s not all bad, and I’ve introduced a subplot with him, but I’m not sure it’s working enough to make him a more sympathetic character. In fact, it might be making him worse. Sigh.

Okay, off to work some more on these issues…

I suspect this will be the first post of many about managing time demands and being a writer with a full-time day job, but I’m still going to write about it anyway. Just…what’s the best way to do it and not feel like you’re not doing enough? I get home around 5:30 or 6 every night and most of the time I do pretty well at balancing relaxation with working on le livre, but it can be really difficult.

Like tonight. There’s a Penguins game on (and I am a HUGE Penguins fan), and it’s a playoff game at that. It started at 7, and it won’t be over until 9:30 or 10, at which point I’ll be too sleepy to get into really working on my wip. Do I skip the third period? Do I duck out halfway into the second? I missed the whole game on Saturday because I was working on le livre, so is it fair to watch the entire game tonight?

I know it’s only going to get harder, and I have so much admiration for those writers who have full-time day jobs and little ones who take up so much of their time. The biggest aggravation I have in that department is that Moses wants to lay on my lap when I’m working on the couch, making it really hard to type without contracting carpal tunnel. Still…sigh.

I have been spending a lot of time writing and editing le livre over the past four days. I took Thursday and Friday off from my real life job (we had a huge event Tuesday night that I had been working really hard on, so it was nice to be able to take those few days off for a break!) and spent a lot of both of those days intensely working on le livre. In the past four days, I’ve written about 8,000 words. Insanity, but I really love it. I can feel myself getting deeper into the story and the characters and why they do the things they do. It’s pretty awesome.

One thing I’ve noticed is that after I’ve been writing for several hours and I’ve finished for the day, I have an intense need to be really loud and crazy, generally annoying my spouse and scaring my cats. I think that this is because so much of writing is solitary, quiet, taking place within my own head, that I have to let the wilder, crazier part of me burst out afterwards to make sure that I actually do exist in this world, that I’m not simply the background narrator in my book, that I actually have a VOICE and I must USE IT very LOUDLY. I’m happy my spouse is patient enough to put up with this.