Chop, Chop, Chop

I feel like an awful mother. I have to kill my baby.

It took me years to grow this one. It's not just a baby, it's practically a child already. It has a life of its own. This baby has been nurtured, coaxed, and bounced around plenty. This baby has been blessed by brilliant authors such as Marion Dane Bauer, Uma Krishnaswami, Jane Kurtz, Julie Larios, and Margaret Bechard. Jane Yolen loved this baby. I loved--still love--this baby. It pains me to think about hacking apart what Margaret not only blessed but practically baptized. It won an award and praise a'plenty. This is one beautiful baby.

The problem is that this baby won't grow up. It's eight years old and still in the toddler stage! It can't even stand on it's own yet. And as a writer, I have to admit: my story won't float.

There's a reason I can't get through a whole draft. There is a fatal flaw. I have a character who doesn't know what she wants. She knows what she doesn't want, but that's not enough to sustain the plot line. It just won't carry us through. And there are things in my story that just don't make sense. Maybe Margaret was too kind to tell me that during my last semester at VC. Maybe Margaret was so tired of reading it that it started to make sense.

This baby of mine, unlike my real children who I would never in a million years consider hacking apart, is well deserving of a good dissection. I tried to avoid it... I tried doing character sketches, synopses--both long and short, time lines, flap copy, everything. These are all tricks that writers can use to get to the heart of a story. If a writer can't summarize the story in a few sentences (jacket flap) or a few paragraphs (elevator pitch), then maybe the story needs a little trimming. Or, more accurately, honing. Get to the point. Find "the bottom line" of your story by summing it up. My story is about the daughter of a witch who... . She doesn't want to be a witch? She wants human friends? She doesn't fit in? Yes, all of those apply. But I need to take this story apart, bone by bone, to see what is at the very heart of it--which of those statements sum up my story the best.

Writers, don't be afraid to do this! How, you ask? How do you dissect your story? Cynthia Leitich Smith tells of a time that she wrote out a whole story--I think it was Tantalize. She finished the whole draft, and when it was done, she hit the delete button. I don't think I can bring myself to do that, nor do I feel the urge to purge the whole story. But I think picking apart your story is healthy. You learn not to get attached to those perfect sentences, those pristine paragraphs. Chop, chop, chop, and then write it again.

Here's what I'm doing: I am going through with a red pen and underlining what I find to be most pertinent to the story line. What actions does she take to move the story forward? What thoughts does she have that are absolutely necessary to understand her problem? What shows what this character really, really wants more than anything else? That can stay... but, here's the hard part: nothing else stays.

I'm cutting. Slashing, hacking, tearing it apart bit by bit, rather like an axe murderer. I'll see what's left and then rebuild from there. And then I'll write it again

This is a painful process, because I know there's good writing in there. Margaret told me so. But that's the beauty of being a writer: if you write it well once, you can write it again, better.

Because writers write, right?

-PLB

Ideas are Springing Up Everywhere!

Flowers blooming, birds singing, sun shining... aaahhh. Spring! It's my favorite time of year. I love to go barefoot in the warm grass. But this year, it's more like Spring! Aaahhh-choo! Pine pollen is everywhere. It comes in through my windows, covers the dashboard of my car, and gives everything a yellow tinge.

I don't like pollen, but I do like what pollen represents: productivity. The male flowers of the pine release the pollen into the air so it can find its way to the female cone for reproduction. (Figures, the males make all of this mess!) All over, nature is growing, producing, becoming. What a busy time of year! That's what I love about spring--everything comes alive.

I have a stack of projects piled up to be finished. My fantasy about the witch's daughter... always on my to-do list. (Maybe I'll actually finish it soon.) I have a ghost story, a fantasy about a mermaid in the woods, a new ghost story that I've sketched out, a screenplay, and more. I feel so alive, and ready to tackle all of these projects at once, along with my messy back yard, my window boxes, the back room walls, insulation and flooring, my downstairs bathroom... I am motivated to do it all. Whether writing projects or house projects, spring gives me that super-woman feeling: I can do it all! Bring on those projects!

Many of my writer friends work on more than one project at once. Some writers prefer to focus on one story at a time, devoting their creative energy to that one piece until it is done. Even then, most writers have other projects in some stage of development--outlined, an idea jotted in an idea book, or maybe even started.

Where do writers get their ideas? That's a question writers hear again and again. Honestly, ideas are about as common as the grains of pollen floating on the wind. Ideas are endless. You could probably come up with quite a few story ideas if you try. So how do we do it? How do we find a story to write?

Start with picking a subject. Who will your story be about? A dog? Okay, let's go with a dog.
Next: action. What happens to that dog? Or what does the dog do in your story? Let's say... he applies for a job.
Does he get the job? Well, if you say yes, you might not have much of a story unless you throw some twist in there. Let's say yes, he gets the job. He's a newspaper-delivering dog, and he brings home his pay to support his disabled owner. Plot twist: he gets kidnapped by the evil circus owner who wants him for the big top show.
What next? It's your turn to think of something crazy to happen to him. The monkeys help him escape, but the clowns catch him? Who knows. Be creative!

When you think of a story, make it unique. Make it your own. Make it different than other stories. Don't try to write a story that has already been written. Sure, you could write about a young girl who lives with her aunt and uncle who hate her, and one day she discovers she's a witch, and her name is Harriet Spotter. But hasn't that story been written already, only about a boy named... you get the idea. It was someone else's idea already.

You can find ideas everywhere. Just look around. You might have to dust some pollen off of them, but you'll find them, if you try...

Special "Industry Q&A" for my cousin:
-You're a writer! Can you help me get published? No. I can't even help me get published.
-You're a writer! I have a great idea for a book, can you write it for me? No. I have plenty of my own stories to write (see above). I can help you get started, point you in the right direction, critique your writing for you (I am a master in creative writing, after all), but I can't write your story for you. Only you can write your story.
-Do you have any contacts in the publishing industry? Well, yes, but none that could help you--sorry. (Sorry Mike, I can't help you win her over with my contact list... LOL!)
-I have a friend who published his own book. (Note: that isn't a question, but people say it to me all the time.) That's great for your friend. I hope to find other people to publish my books.
-When you get published, can I have a copy of your book? That's like asking a painter to give you one of their paintings, or a musician to write a song for you. Writers don't get boxes of their books to simply give away to people. You could help them out by buying one of their books, because the only way that a writer gets paid is if their book sells lots of copies--not by giving them away.

I hope you are not discouraged by these answers. You should not be. If you want to be a writer, you just have to give it a try. Look around for an idea, use your imagination, and write. Let your story come out!

-PLB