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kidlit_kimin gratitude today.1. I got to spend the whole day doing research for two different projects (that might turn into more).
2. It was sunny while I was doing the research. This was terrific because part of the research was outdoors.
3. I got to eavesdrop on interesting conversations in a diner this noon.
4. I wrote for 15 minutes in the diner because I brought my notebook.
5. I have a family that is interested in my research and supportive of what I'm doing, even we'd be living higher on the hog if I worked 40 hours a week doing something else.
6. That I didn't hang any laundry out to dry, because even though the day was generally sunny, by the time I got home from my research trip, we were having our daily thunderstorm.
- Location:living room
- Mood:
creative - Music:rain dripping in the trees outside the French door
It was a quiet celebration--blueberry waffles made by HH for breakfast. Nice prezzies. A trip over to my hometown for a cookout at the log cabin my father built with his own hands (and some help from his tractor and a portable sawmill) about 15 years ago. It was just my parents and three of us, good food, and a lovely walk in the woods for HH and me, where we saw Indian pipes (take a look here if you want to see some. I didn't bring my camera). It's almost magical to be walking through the green woods and suddenly see these white plants.
BD drove home and once again did just fine. Not one scream from me in the back seat.
WFMAD - did it, even though I thought I might take the day off. Two poems by one character.
- Location:living room
- Mood:
thankful - Music:HH in the kitchen, making supper
The towels are hanging on the line. At this point I could go into a rant about people who don't like outdoor clotheslines [Marketplace story], but I won't.]
This afternoon I'm going to pick these:
and all their friends.I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet--not pickles, not today. Maybe one giant stir-fry with some home-dried hot red peppers. We'll see.
I've also got to pick blueberries.
halseanderson wfmad - 15 minutes. 1 poem. Even though it's sunny and breezy, I'm feeling slow and generally angsty. Erk. Maybe that's what keeps me writing for teens. I haven't outgrown the angst.- Location:livingroom
- Mood:
angsty - Music:breeze in the crabapple tree
This is what I came back with:
This is only the first picking. It's going to be a beaningful season.
halseanderson WFMAD - Spent an hour organizing and editing, some of which was spent creating a document for my wip.- Location:livingroom
- Mood:
braindrained
halseanderson asks, "what are your writing goals?"I'm going out on a limb by making this public (Saying something publicly has always meant I Have To Do It and If I Don't I'm a Failure. Like I said somewhere else, I'm a recovering type A+.). Anyway, here they are :
1. Finish a first draft of current wip by Halloween (pushing it, but feasible), but at any rate before the winter solstice. Defnitely have enough ready to go for the next Vermont Novel Writing Retreat (assuming there is one).
WFMAD has been a huge help. A little bit of time every day means that when I have more time I don't have to spend part of it trying to figure out where I was and get back into the world of the novel. I'm there already.
2. Research a non-fiction magazine articles before the end of the summer. This is the only time the research can be done.
WFMAD Sunday - one page. Today - two poems.
- Location:office
- Mood:
thoughtful
--an electronic kowtow to the first LJ friend to guess which operetta that's from ;}
But I am truly blissed out, because I spent the last 90 minutes mapping out the wip I've been working on during WFMAD. The more I do, the deeper I feel myself go into this world. I know my characters better and their relationships are becoming clearer.
This is PLEASURE!
And tomorrow is the Writers-Meet-Agents event.
So far, this has been a most excellent day.
- Location:Champlain College library
- Mood:
giddy - Music:a reminder that the library closes at 5
Summer is delicious.
The blues were picked by me (who was far from blue) at 6:30 this morning. Those in the bowl turned into
enjoyed by
booksareadrug and me for breakfast.
WFMAD - check. One more poem. With more work to come as I take myself into town early for some dedicated writing time before the LVW Writers-Meet-Agents event.
Interesting post on Neil Gaiman's Journal continuing the New Yorker discussion about "what children should read." NG says:
"I was interviewed in Locus this month (the one with Garth Nix on the cover), and tried to say something very much the same about Young Adult fiction: that young adults (and older kids) should be reading everything, relentlessly. They should be reading outside their comfort zones, because the training wheels have come off, and that's the only way they'll find out where their comfort zones are, reading everything."
I really like that the training wheels metaphor and it certainly applies to my experience. But now, I wonder. And I wonder even more about how we make that ok. And I think I'll go back to Octavian Nothing with fresh eyes. Because if a current book pushes the comfort zone, that's it.
A discussion I'd like to be in the audience for: Neil Gaiman and MT Anderson. Can I dream?
- Location:living room
- Mood: thoughtful
So that's how I spent my WFMAD this morning, while I was eating breakfast, scribbling notes in the journal for that work. If I have time at the end of the day, I'll get back to my multi-voiced novel.
Now I've had my walk and am ready to get on with the paying work.
48 hours until the League of Vermonters Writers Meet Agents day!
- Location:office
- Mood:
inspired
I've been thinking about it for almost a month, when I received my first invitation, but when two more came within the last two weeks, I knew I had to find the time. I'll build up the photo albums. However, I realize I'm much more apt to be behind the camera than in front of it.
15-minute challenge (WFMAD) - I got in a solid hour plus after yoga! I finished figuring out what my characters wear, except for the brand names of a few things. I then turned it over to BD who had previously agreed to make playlists for each of my six characters. She did a great! job.
One of the odd (in a good way) things that happened while I was doing this exercise is that I realized where the center of commerce is in my story. Setting my story in a particular geographical area means that shopping will be done in a specific non-fictitious location.
Aside from not being able to pick up a quarter of beef at my local market today (it wasn't quite ready), this turned out to be a satisfying day.
- Location:office
- Mood: creative
- Music:girls talking over Sims 2
This week I am free to consider the rest of the summer.
Children's writing goals:
Stick with WFMAD through July. Yesterday - check. Today - check, thanks to
halseanderson 's freewrite prompt.for the day. Realized two things--need to think about piercings and need to pay more attention to what teenage boys wear on their feet. Revise that picture book I drafted in June.
Research an article I've been thinking about for a couple of years, but which can only be researched in the summer.
Learn about nonfiction book proposals. Work on idea that has been percolating for several years.
General Writing goals:
Finish drafting profile for Vermont Magazine.
Research other feature I am writing for them.
Today:
Catch up on odds and ends.
- Location:office
- Mood: thoughtful
I promised I'd tell you about my class, and since it has taken over my brain, here it is.
Make Your Own Myth: Trickster Tales is a course I created. It's offered offered through Vermont's Talent Development Institute, two one-week programs for gifted children. We spend time talking about tricksters in different cultures and about similarities between tricksters. There is, of course, a creative writing component. Last year students created their own tricksters and then we created one as a group and wrote a group story. This year, with a more drama-oriented bunch, we've written a play. An hour and a half a day for four days scarcely seems like enough time, but I have to say the finished product looks more promising than I thought it would on Tuesday.
Last year's group project: How Bobbo the Wondertrickster got a Wife (Bobbo was a cheese puff)
This year's group project: The Trickster Competition, in which Fox and Squirrel have a contest, only to end up cooperating.
--15 minutes report: Yep. 2 poems.
- Location:office
- Mood:
busy
Until this morning. With a scorcher by our standards predicted for today, I got out for a walk before I even had my oj. Mostly I thought about how I was going to spend my 15 minutes. But about 3/4 of the way home, I got an idea. Enough to write it down in my notebook and put it on the list of future projects. I'll have to do some serious research, not in archives, but in a specific portion of the real world. Next summer.
Note to self: Don't slack off on the morning walks.
halseanderson15 minute test--Did 35! Not stuff that will make it into any drafts, but stuff that tells me more about my characters.Now to catch up on some of those itty-bitty writing tasks I've gotten myself into.
- Location:livingroom by the screen door
- Mood: creative
- Music:goldfinches
halseanderson, I squoozed it in! Out of 25 minutes for lunch, I got about 15 minutes of writing done and I set myself an exercise for tomorrow to tell me more about my characters.Being able to write in a book randomly is intriguing, since the two novels I've worked on were one where I had to figure out "what came next." This one, I have an overall arc that doesn't look anything like an outline, but gives me a framework to build on. (I'm a horrible outliner no matter whether it's for a lit class or for a novel. The finished product bears only the faintest resemblance to the outline.) I don't feel like I'm building the novel from the ground up--first pour the cement, then put on the sills, then the first floor, then the second floor. I feel like I'm putting together the components and will be able to assemble them later.
It's easier than thinking about it as a game of pick-up-sticks, anyway.
Now, on to planning tomorrow's lesson, which will take the place of the meeting I had written down for tonight, but which turned out to be last night.
- Location:livingroom, by an open screen door
- Mood: and sweaty
- Music:robins and a breeze
Not only my 15 minute commitment, but I got myself out the door and took a walk before I did.
Happy writing, LJ friends! --I'll spare you the rant about living where the ISP is like the girl with the curl. Love my rural life, but wish technology were more dependable in it.
- Location:office desktop
- Mood:
energetic
Did it. Half an hour, with interruptions, so 15 minutes it is. But another interesting subplot reared its head.
Thanks to
halseanderson for providing the opportunity. 15 minutes a day is definitely making for a richer story. At this point I'm ignoring how absolutely messy the revision process is going to be.It's kind of like how I started writing on a semi-regular basis. Rather than put the house in order before I wrote, I made myself walk right past the clutter the rest of my family is comfortable living with and straight up to my office.
First, do what matters.
- Location:office
- Mood: creative
Don't you love it when a character reveals something you didn't know about him or her? Something that wraps them tighter into the plot and is completely logical. It's like "of course!"
Back to the weeds.
- Location:office
- Mood:
surprised - Music:silence
Happy 4th, everyone. I'm off to the town parade. Photos later.
- Location:office
- Mood:
curious - Music:crows and traffic
- Location:office
- Mood: not in a bad way, silly smile
- Music:raindrops on the skylight
- Location:office
- Mood: artistic
- Music:miscellaneous birds
15 minutes is going to work well for this project, I think, because I have multiple heads to be in and it's hard to work from one to another for a lengthy period of time.
Now on to email and the day's paying work.
- Location:office
- Mood:
determined - Music:a crow and a yellow throat
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