I've come to realize that creating a good book takes master planning. Before, I tried outlining the novel according to ideas I visualized as being an integral part of the story, but when I tested some of those outlined segments against the litmus test of whether micro-tension occurs, or that definite things and countering obstacles are happening (beats and swings), they fizzled out by the time they got onto paper.
I decided scene cards are the way to go. I had already started cards, but they weren't helping me enough--they're were simply mini-synopses of each chapter. I'm methodical by nature, and after scouring for a way to get swiftly and effectively from point A to point B, I came across an email from an editor that attended my Chicago writing workshop last year. In this email, she provided a scene card template about the size of an index card that has the following information on it:
Scene synopsis:
Time / place:
Viewpoint character:
Inciting incident:
Goal:
Opposition:
Strategy:
Beats / Swings:
1.
2.
3.
Outcome:
Images / Notes / Dialogue:
What makes this scene important / critical:
This new way of writing scene cards has been revolutionary for me; it really forces me to integrate my thoughts revolving around a number of fiction writing components It was not only painless, but fun to write my first new scene card yesterday, and I came up with new and interesting ideas that I would not have come up with otherwise had I only wrote a mini-synopsis as before.
I tend to write a multi-sentence synopsis, so I wrote my synopsis on the back of the card. As for the beats, those are pieces of action with a goal in mind, whereas a swing is a change in strategy toward a goal, or denotes that the goal has changed. i've just started understanding this concept. I'll think about a good example in the coming days to add to this post, but if you have an example, would you post it in a comment? That would be really helpful.
As I've already said, I have about 70,000 words, many embedded in passages which need to be rearranged elsewhere in the form of flashbacks, or thrown out completely.
Still, I'm shooting for a total of 100,000 because it's a nice neat word count target. I'm going to divide the book into approximately 50 scenes, again because it's a nice neat way of dividing up a book since that equates to about 2,000 words per scene. About 20 scenes will be part of the historical storyline, and about 30 scenes will constitute the modern storyline. Since I'm going to start flat out writing on November 1st, for the next seven days until that date I'm going to write about 7 scenes a day in the format I've listed above.
It's the only way to make sure l get it done fast.
Whee! Here we go. It's been a little over a year since I've last written on my novel. The past year, I've been reading *closely* so that I can see what constitutes great novels. One book that has helped get me excited again about reading and writing is Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. It talks about reading closely for the sheer pleasure of it, rather than speedreading to tear through to the end. I can imagine this works best when the writing is eloquent. Here is what this wonderful book looks like:
Whether you love reading, or wish to write an eloquent novel, Reading Like a Writer is a gem. One underlying rule: pay close attention to details. We learn things by general rules, but remember things with details that stand out.
One book that made me want to lurch to the floor and vomit all over myself is The Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, set in England at the time of the plague. I'll post its image here because it deserves the attention:
What a beautifully written book! It's the first time I've ever felt utterly jealous of another writer's writing style. Currently I'm reading a literary mystery titled Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, the latter of which I'm finding the characters to be flat, the dialogue forced, and the romance unconvincing.
I have 70K words of which I need to rip out the first few chapters like old linoleum and place them in the form of flashback snippets in their more proper place throughout the story. I need to write about 30K-40K more words. I must complete the historical storyline, which is going to take some heavy duty right brain revving, and create the remaining two characters my main modern storyline character meets on the pilgrimage route to Santiago.
See the cute countdown clock for finishing the novel at the bottom right column? New target date: June 21st, 2010 at high noon.
I guess I should feel crazy for continuing to pursue novel writing. This sounds pretentious when I say there's no way around it, other than writing it. I still feel bound to finish it with a drive I haven't experienced before, except the time I had to get my son out of me when the OB-gyn threatened me with an epesiotomy knife.
This past year, I've read several fiction and nonfiction. Fiction includes The Shadow of the Wind; a rereading of The Steppenwolf; Girl With a Pearl Earring; Eat, Pray, Love; and poetry by Rosalia de Castro. Nonfiction includes The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I've also listened to a lot of Julia Cameron's The Artist Way, the audiotape version of her book that I had made copies from the library in Pacific Grove, CA years ago. I found them in a box here in Al-Ain started listening to them again and again. Now that I've created a little and have been wanting to return to my novel manuscript but know that I'm afraid of beginning the whole process again, I've learned so much about myself and my fears by listening to her wise words. Audio version is nice because she has a gentle yet stern voice to put you in your place while you make your commute to work every day. Anyone whose fear of making mistakes is preventing them from creating should read or listen to her book. Immediately. For your sake and ours.
Maybe you thought I forgot about this blog? Or even the novel? Well, not entirely.
In May, I submitted my pages to the writing workshop, then decided to take a rest from writing and editing. In June, we took off for Mexico, and the beginning of a wonderful and fun-filled summer vacation began. Then July rolled around, and I attended Donald Maass' Intensive Writing Workshop. I haven't been the same since then (in a mostly good way, though:). I learned so much in his workshop, grew so much, came to realize my strengths and weaknesses. I have a lot of strengths in my writing, thank God, at least enough to make me want to continue writing. My main weakness was that I included too much backstory and did not start the action soon enough. Too chronological. Too linear. As I sat there day after day, getting wonderful feedback reports and strutting back to my hotel room, all glowing and self-content, it began to dawn on me how much more work was in front of me. I thought I was going to be finished by the end of this year. Now that I believe it will be two more years, maybe more, to ensure it's loaded with the kind of impact I want it to have. Sigh.
That's okay. After the workshop, I got a little depressed about the idea of requiring many years to complete my novel. But now that I've had some time away from writing it, I'm looking forward to giving another crack at it. First I want to continue with the reading program I've imposed upon myself. I got the idea to do this from the writing guidebook Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell. In it, he says to read 6 books similar to the type you want to write, whether genre, plot type, setting, or character. You're supposed to read each one once for pleasure, then reread each of them again with a set of index cards in front of you. This time, make notes on what's happening, scribble down what works for you as well as what you don't like in the story your reading. I will probably only do 3 because I have small children, but so far this idea seems to be helpful. I'm almost finished reading Eat, Pray, Love. I like a lot of things Elizabeth Gilbert does, and have already made some mental notes of things I would have done differently.
It's the end of May and in a couple days I'll send out the first 50 pages of my manuscript to the person coordinating an intensive writing workshop in Chicago in July. It's been a rough month. Three of the four weeks I've been sick with cold or flu. I'm so burned out from writing as well as frustration from lack of writing. It's also the end of the semester at the university where I teach. Exams are coming up, meaning hours of proctoring and exam marking coming up. Lovely.
Due to all the editing and cutting, I'm still hovering at 70K words. Once I get these so-called polished first fifty out, I'll begin concentrating on the rest. It's really getting scary how little time goes by before I look at a piece of writing that I once thought was good, and now think is horrid. Last year, it would take months for me to recognize a piece of my own crap.
I really need to start exercising again. My joints feel stiff when I stand up from my desk. Next week, after I send off those pages, I'll start the treadmill and yoga again. We're leaving for Mexico in less than 2 weeks to visit my mom and stepdad, so I need to be in shape for that. And then it's Pittsburgh for the rest of the summer.
I imagine my writing pace is going to slow down for a while. With that in mind, and knowing that I still need to write about 5-8 more good chapters, I won't be finished until the end of this year. I never would have guessed how much energy and effort writing requires!
In the next couple of days, I'll post my one-page synopsis here.
I'm hovering at 70,000 words. This past month, I've written two new chapters: a historical storyline prologue, and a current day storyline prologue. I think they're turning out very nicely, especially since my three main proofreaders have made profound (as usual) editing suggestions. These prologues will in turn allow me to ease up on the exposition that was weighing down my dialogues and narration.
Once they are completed, I can sit down to write the five-page synopsis that's needed for the writing workshop I'm attending this summer. Once I get that going, I'm going to comb through my first 50 pages again (which the literary agent Mr. Maass will evaluate), then try to finish up my final 3 or 4 chapters that I've left hanging.
Today I feel optimistic about this novel. After brewing inside me for years, I feel that the story is just now beginning to match the mood and ideas I originally intended for it. But on some days, I just hate the whole thing, and wish that I had taken up painting or guitar lessons--at least the reward would be more certain and immediate. I guess I'm just super stubborn, but I've been obsessed with it for so long that I can't put it down now.
I've come to realize that a creation must become monstrously ugly before its true beauty can be realized.
This past month I've been working on a prologue scene that will relieve me of all the exposition that's been weighing down my dialogue in one of my chapters. My word count would be over 70,000, but because I've been paring dialogue and narrative, my word count has hovered at 65,000 for about a month. It's like my work was ballooning outward, crammed with ideas, and I had to get in there with a knife to give it shape.
I recently registered for a week-long intensive writing workshop in Chicago this coming July with literary agent Donald Maass. I'm very excited about it since aside from daily instruction, he and his staff will critique the first 50 pages of the manuscript. I have two months to prepare my manuscript and synopsis before sending it to his agency.
Novel mini-synopsis
This past year I've been writing a novel that entwines the lives of two women through historical and current day storylines. The current day story starts in Puebla, Mexico where the young heroine is spending a week with her professor mother and sister. The protagonist is going through a life crisis after her romantic relationship abruptly ends, and she is pressured by her mother to do the pilgrimage to Santiago to collect a valuable literary diary for her mother's research. Her journey across northern Spain in the dead of winter takes the form of self-discovery, as she is forced to reflect on the direction her life has taken, her relationship with her loved ones, and the people she meets along the way on the Camino.
The historical day story is set in Galicia, Spain during the late 19th century. When the historical heroine discovers that the overbearing woman who has been raising her is not her biological mother, she sets out on a quest to find her true mother.
Themes for both storylines involve self-discovery, self-identity, forgiveness, love, and explore relationship dynamics between mother and daughter, sisters, and man and woman.
Father passed away
I haven't gotten beyond my 85% mark (65,000 words). The day after I returned from Spain I learned that my father had suddenly died of a heart attack, so I flew to Arizona to help my brothers clean out my Dad's cottage and give a memorial service. Ever since then, I've felt disoriented. Writing was the main connection I shared with my dad, and so it has been hard to get back into it. Also, many of the things that happened in my novel paralleled with the way my dad died--kind of unsettling. I'm hoping to ease myself back into writing this coming week.
Research diary in northern Spain in January 2008:
Wednesday, January 9: Exhaustion
I missed a connecting flight to León from Zurich, so I edited my novel while waiting for the next flight. I also discovered that I left my jump drive at home. I was fighting off a cold and already feeling homesick.
I felt better once I arrived in León. The historic area is small but pretty and was lit up with little golden lights. My hotel, Hotel Paris, was very close to the cathedral and the San Isodoro monastery.
Thursday, January 10: Some disappointment
The sun rose at 8:15 am. I searched for something to eat, but found out that the Spanish idea of breakfast consists of bread and coffee. This poses a big problem for me since I’ve been avoiding wheat this past year. Good thing I bought candied almonds yesterday.
The Cathedral was closed for renovation, so I checked out the frescos at the San Isodoro Monastery.
After having Caldo Gallego soup for lunch, I took a bus to a town called Hospital de Orbigo. The bus drives along the old highway that parallels the Camino, so I could keep track of the sights the Camino passed. I saw a couple pilgrims walking on the dirt path, but they were walking toward toward Leon. I assumed they were returning to their starting point by foot, as some pilgrims have started to do in past years.
Hospital del Orbigo is a tiny sleepy town. Most window shutters were closed. I walked around the outskirts of Orbigo looking for the long medieval bridge. First I walked away from the town down a dirt road toward the countryside because I saw a sign with a symbol of a bridge pointing that way. I walked through some leafless forests and found the refugio by chance. After taking a closer look at what I thought was a cottage, I read a plaque saying it was a refugio. An elderly man pointed me the way toward the bridge. It was an incredibly long, beautiful Romanesque bridge as far as bridges go. I can't imagine jousting on that bridge as knights once did, including Don Suero de Quiñones who was the main character in Cervantes’ novel Don Qixote. A restaurant I had wanted to use in my novel for one of my settings is closed in the winter. The refugio looked closed for winter, too.
Around 5 p.m. I considered taking another bus onward toward Astorga, but got tired and hungry so I returned to León instead and found a large, crowded cafeteria near my hotel that served a chicken and vegetable paella, called Paella Valenciana. I was the only person eating dinner, as all the other 50 customers were drinking coffee and socializing. Restaurants don't serve dinner until 8 p.m.
People here work until 5 or 6 in the evening, shop for a couple hours (end of season sales), then eat out at a restaurant. I like watching the three-generation families dine interact as they dined and walked around town. I also like it that Spanish fathers kiss and hold their sons a lot.
I studied the map of Asturias to decide whether I want to take a bus tomorrow to Astorga and beyond, or rent a car and try to visit a lot of towns in one shot before returning for another night in León. I'll play it by ear and see what the weather holds for me.
Slow down!
I just realized I've been pushing too hard to finish writing my novel at the expense of my health and family. I’ve been missing out on quality moments I could have been having fun with my sons. As I walked through Hospital del Orbigo, I began to realize that my novel is going to require many more months of rewriting to get it up to the level of quality it deserves. This coming year, I'm going to simplify my life by slowing down my writing pace and spending more time with my family. Also, I am going to eat better and work out to gain weight and muscle. Making these changes will hopefully put my life in balance.
Friday, January 11: Snow blizzard
I am so glad today is over with. The gates to the Gothic cathedral in León were finally opened this morning so I took a stroll around inside. The stained glass windows were long and massive.
This morning I rented a car and drove to Astorga in heavy rain. To be honest, I felt nervous about driving to Astorga and beyond because I hate the idea of getting lost in a foreign country, especially in bad weather. But I didn't want to think that I had come all the way to Spain only to chicken out. My first stop was Astorga. I drove up the hill the old city sets on while listening to a song from the album “Lunas Rotas” by Rosana. I saw the cathedral and Episcopal church as well as one of the albergues then grabbed a cup of hot tea to warm up. At one point the cold rain turned into snow.
After a couple hours in Astorga, I drove beyond the city to places my main character passes through. I hurried
before because I didn't want to drive back to León in the dark. As I drove on, it started snowing hard! I was nervous because I’ve never driven through snow before. I drove through El Ganso and saw that the Cowboy Bar she is supposed to visit was closed for winter. Next I drove through Rabanal del Camino and Foncebadon.
By then it was snowing very hard and I had to drive at a snail's pace. I had to drive up a mountain toward Cruz de Ferro (Iron Cross), but the snowstorm got out of control and the snow got so deep I felt the tires sinking into the snow and mud. No one was around except for a few poor pilgrims several miles down the mountain standing around in the snow waiting for an albergue to open. The snowstorm forced me to turn around on the
narrow road, armpits sweating, though I was only a few kilometers away from the top. I was just glad to get out of there in one piece and find my way back to León before it got dark.
I miss my family so much it hurts. I want time to pass so that I can get back to them. I've been questioning why I chose to take so many days to do this research.
I'm exhausted and disappointed to find out how little the reality of the setting here matches my expectations. I'm going to have to rewrite a lot of chapters. Now I wish I would have heeded Tracy Chevalier's (via her secretary) advice to focus more on the story than historical and setting accuracy.
Of course, I'm grateful to find out now rather than later what must be changed in the story. And I'm also grateful for discovering how important my family is to me. Maybe the time and money I've spent here so far make it all worth it in the end?
My 2008 resolutions:
-
Spend more quality time with family
-
Slow my writing and editing pace
-
Exercise more and gain weight
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Study more Spanish
Friday, January 11: Arrival in Santiago
Today I took a bus from Lugo and arrived in Santiago late at night and took a taxi to the historic quarter where the Santo Grial was located. My hotel room was very nice. The owners renovated it so that the architectural integrity was kept intact. It had free Wi-Fi in the rooms, a large flat-screen TV, and a balcony that overlooks the narrow street Rua Franco. The whole city is car-free, so I there shouldn't be much traffic noise.
I felt so much better once I got to Santiago. I feel so connected to it. One-third of its 90K population consists of students, so it is quite lively. It has so much to offer any curious tourist: art, music, history, cuisine, etc.
Saturday, January 12: Santiago
Santiago is such a pretty old city despite its wet, gray skies. This morning I attended mass and walked all over. I'm going to take a guided city tour around 4 p.m, then record mass vespers.
I met a very sweet informative guy named Fernando who studies English philology and works at the tourist center who answered a lot of my research questions about architecture and history.
Sunday, January 13: Santiago
Today I attended noon mass after eating a large plate of jamón serrano and tortilla España. I thought I had asked for a piece of tortilla, but got a whole pie plate of it. Then I only had 20 minutes to scarf it all down before the pilgrim's noon mass began. At the cathedral, it was fun to watch the religious rituals being played out. The priest and a nun took turns giving the sermon, and there was a young altar boy who stood behind the priest, preparing the holy water. He looked kind of sleepy and kept yawning. I walked around the interior of the cathedral to etch a mental image of how the pews were arranged and other details, and hugged the St. James statue.
I took a guided tour with Diego around the city in the afternoon. I was the only person that showed up, maybe b/c it was raining. Diego knew so much about architecture, the cathedral, the history of the city, the pilgrimage, cuisine and folklore. He finished his PhD in Galician history, but hasn't gotten around to doing his thesis. He also had lots of interesting personal stories about witches and ghosts that his grandmother had told him. We had to take occasional walking breaks due to the weather. At one point when we were standing outside it started raining so hard then a strong gust of wind blew in and broke my new large umbrella.
I've been doing a lot of walking here. Yesterday I probably walked around for 5 or 6 hours. I feel invigorated from all the cold weather walking. Maybe exercise is helping me keep my food tolerances at bay. I don't seem to need as much sleep either. Or maybe it's that I'm sleeping more soundly so I don't need as much sleep.
Monday, January 14 Santiago
Today the storm shattered the umbrella I bought only a few days ago. I was going down to the train station during the storm when my umbrella blew to pieces. So I took a picture of it then threw it away in the trash can. The train to Padron left too late, so I went to the music store nearby to listen to Galician vocalists. I didn't find anything good, though.
Today I walked through the park and around the outskirts of the city. I was thinking that this was the last time I'll probably ever return to Santiago. Then I thought that if I have the success I'm striving for, I'll probably return again within a few years.
This afternoon I visited the Pobo Galego Museum. I took a lot of pictures of things regarding how people looked and lived in the 19th century that might help me with my writing.
At night, I bought ten semi-precious stones from a woman at a very small unique shop last night. The shopowner was very mystical about the purchase and educated me about the stones I was buying. She told me that citroen quartz aids creativity and restores the immune system (perfect!). She told me how to care for the stones. She said I should wash the stones in a fountain, river, or in the sea to wash off other people's energies. If I lose one of the stones, that means I didn't need it. If a stone breaks by chance, then that brings me good luck. That night I washed my stones in the Toural fountain near my hotel.
Tuesday, January 15 Santiago
For dinner I returned to a tavern called Maria Castañia. I had a Caldo Gallego soup again and a glass of Albariño wine that is so smooth I could drink it every day. For dessert I had a hot tea and castañias in some kind of fruit juice. I also asked if I could have a small taste of their Galician soft cheese with marmalade. The waiter was so nice. He brought me out a small plate of three slabs of cheese and a firm slab of their honey-like marmalade.
I've been so lucky with the people here. I reach out a lot more to others when I travel alone. In this way, I like myself better when I'm on my own. I've talked to so many interesting people and have had some nice exchanges. People here have been very helpful and patient with my low Spanish/Galician proficiency.
Wednesday, January 16 Santiago
According to my mom’s suggestion, I’m thinking about starting my book from the historical storyline with the main character’s diary entry. It’s a powerful passage and a good place to start reading. I used to worry about it sounding too poetic and was afraid of turning off readers who would then think the entire book is like that. If it were at all possible to express in words, I would like to create a prologue in which the aged literary diary moves through time to the past, generation by generation, held by a woman's pair of hands who is holding or repacking the book into another box. Time passing backwards would be shown by change of dress and furniture and lighting, until the diary ends up in its author's hands.
I haven't been writing much since I've been in Santiago--have been trying to soak everything in for now. But I think I have only 4 more current day chapters, and then 3 or 5 more historical chapters. That sounds about right considering word and page count. I'm finally feeling hopeful and interested again in continuing the novel. When I first got to León, I hated everything I had written thus far.
I took a short train ride out to Padron by train this morning. Rosalia de Castro lived in quite a large house near the train station the last years of her life. The exhibits in each room of her house were all pretty interesting. I think you know she had a scandalous birth right? Her father was a priest and her mother was of lower nobility, and so her birth certificate stated neither parent's name and she was raised by her paternal aunt. She was brave, too. At a time when it was frowned upon to write in any language other than Castillian Spanish, she wrote a book of poems "Cantares Galegas," which helped spur on the Galician revival in the late 1860s. Her husband encouraged her to write in Galician and publish her stuff. One sad thing is that she outlived all seven of her children. Even so, she seemed to love life and her homeland, and her poems and novels reflected her passion for life, family, nature, and Galicia. I felt honored to visit her place and see all of her things.
Afterwards, I walked to the Padron's historic quarter, but shops were closing up for the afternoon and it started raining hard. I got drenched on my way back to the train station. Earlier this evening I visited a chocolateria and ordered a cup of hot chocolate with churros. Talk about rich! Then I went down to the music store and bought a CD by a Galician folk music band called Berrogüetto. I put one of their more recent songs titled "Un Volta e unha Poema" on my blog a while back.
I'm leaving my hotel early Friday morning to return to León via train. It's a 5-hour train ride, but it should be very pretty.
Thursday, January 17 Santiago
It's 8 p.m. and Paloma, her husband Miguel, and their 3-year-old son Andres just returned home. They arrived in town around 1:30 p.m. and after we had a tea at the nearby cafe, we went to a good restaurant where we ate a long lunch. From the time we met until the time they left, we talked the whole time about so many things, mainly music, the music industry and medieval poetry, but many other things as well such as literature and her family history and how her great uncle was a friend of President Franco. We walked all through the city, through the park and to another cafe for a cup of that rich hot chocolate and churros.
Before she arrived, I became a little nervous. I meditated on us having a very interesting and exciting time together as two women who have a passion for creating art, and so it happened the way I had envisioned it, much to my amazement. We talked about music, art, business, child-rearing, Rosalia de Castro, Galicia, and so many other things.She teaches music in an elementary school. Her husband Miguel makes a variety of wooden instruments such as the Galician bagpipe in their home. Their 3-year-old son Andres is a great kid--well-behaved, intelligent, funny, and fun to be around. Meeting Paloma and her family made today fantastic for me.
Friday, January 18 Santiago
I left Santiago by train at 9 am this morning and just arrived into León this afternoon. It's now about 4 pm. It's a chilly sunny day, so I'm going to step out and enjoy a short walk to the chocolate store:) Tomorrow Saturday afternoon I take a train down to Madrid and stay the night at a hotel near the airport. Then early Sunday morning I begin my flight back towards Zurich and Dubai. I just pray that I make the connecting flight this time. Tomorrow I take a train down to Madrid and stay the night at an airport hotel. Then Sunday morning I begin my flight back towards Zurich and Dubai. I just pray that I make the connecting flight this time.
