Nothing New Under the Sun

How am I supposed to create unique characters when I'm not even sure I know unique people?

Seriously, in my brief and all but halted experimentation with facebook, that was my take away lesson. None of us are unique. Everyone (mostly) works so hard to craft the most clever status updates, charming list of interests, and surreal photos, and yet each one has a twin even in my meager friend list.

Blogging generally gives me that feeling too. Hundreds of thousands of us would-be writers out here toiling away into the ether, pulling up the same ideas, same struggles, same issues. Each mom blog churns out variations on the same mom observations of the same classic kid foibles and fun.

If actual people are this predictable, how can I possible create charactes that are outstanding? Fact is supposed to be stranger than fiction, right?

Whoa. I'm really not trying to be a downer here. I'm feeling practically jubilant about the cast of Upturned Stones. I've spent significant time with each of them over the past couple of weeks, and three of the four biggies are alive enough to push back when I try to cram them into subplots or situations that don't fit.

I'm hopeful that they are not two-dimensional cliches. My vision of them certainly isn't. I'm not sure how to convey it on the page. I imagine the very thing that disturbs me about the facebook/blogger/twitter portrayal of humanity offers a lesson.

The common bits, those things that keep reappearing in everyone's status updates and blog posts, exist because people within one culture share many experiences, and social networks are disgned to share those common experiences. Everything else, the detail that isn't showy enough to list under interests, the inner turmoil that isn't suitable for a status update, that is where real life is lived, and that is where an interesting charater starts from. The details beneath the window dressing. And from what I can see, internet personas, sadly even mine, are just that, window dressing.

Wish me luck as I furnish the complete houses of my characters. An at home mom, an out of work engineer, a feminist icon, and a retired sorceress with a dark secret all need my full attention.

Upturned Stones & Summer Break

Have you noticed the Work in Progress gadget on my sidebar? Well, my poor writer's blog has been silent for a while, but my writing, thankfully, has not.

I've been giving myself as much time as possible for both writing and daydreaming. In the past, I've sat down at the keyboard during my allotted (read: stolen from my real life) writing time with a frenzy of ideas, but no unscheduled, wandering, thinking time to draw them all together.

I think I expected journals full of random notes, snippets of dialogue, and flashes of insight to weave themselves into a story as I typed.

I'm having much more success daydreaming first. Lately, my mornings have all featured long walks with the little ones munching apples in the stroller while my mind was a million miles away. It is so absolutely effective! I realize I learned this lesson a while ago while running, but all my company caused some brief amnesia... oh but I'm back!

I haven't added to the official word count of Upturned Stones, but I have come up with a decent and very brief summary and a few pages of notes on the characters, key settings, and key plot points of the book. Over the next two weeks, I hope to finesse these notes a bit more and conduct a little research on stone and crystal enchantments (you'll see), and then dive in with a Nano style first draft to be edited later.

So that's the plan.

And here's the summary:

Evelyn Butler-Lydell, daughter of a late feminist icon and an at home mother of two, is struggling to decide on her next step now that the children are off to school. Swept away by her audacious neighbor Greyson Roy, an out of work engineer on his own quest for answers, she begins a meandering exercise in self-discovery.

As a first step, Evelyn dredges up her skills as an urban landscape designer, volunteering as a gardening assistant for the elderly. There she meets Abigail Giltch, an aging and self-proclaimed sorceress whose charming obsession with Evelyn draws her, and Greyson along with her, into the strange world of stone magic.

Suddenly Evelyn sees magic everywhere, most prominently in the sudden animation of her mother’s belongings. They seem to appear with alarming consistency just as the need for them arises. In this effort to leave no stone unturned in her search for self, Evelyn instead uncovers the truth about the lurking stranger from her childhood, the full force of her mother’s love, and her own unexpected capacity for magic… and murder!

Now I know

Last week was my first full week without writing in more than a year and a half, and it's official. I'm a writer. One who writes. Published or not. Good or not.

I need to write.

My sanity swung shakily on rusty hinges all week. By Friday, I was teary at the drop of a hat and seriously plotting an escape from my life. Not permanently... of course. I love my girls and hubby and much of my life too much for that.

But last week, every spare second was swallowed up. Nap times, post bedtimes, and even Cassie's cleverly effective dinner time escape. Every second was just gone, and I was beat. Without any time to siphon off a few words or thoughts or scenes, I was much worse off than I should have been.

Only a few days after my breakdown, after a few days of focused writing sessions and a little daydreaming, I feel fine again. Centered. Happy, even.

And now that I've reconnected with my story, the words are flying again. It's fabulous. The writing may not be any good at all, but now I know that doesn't matter as much as the fact that the words are flowing, the ideas are coming, and somehow, that is keeping me sane.

So I write.

Not Really a Flow

The words aren't flowing like the Vinyasa Flow yoga I've been thoroughly enjoying once a week. The story, Upturned Stones, is moving ahead, though.

It isn't planned out at all, which is unlike me, but it is still marching forward as if the plot has somewhere to go. I'll follow along, take good notes on the questions to be answered later, and see where I come out. The characters, at least the two main ones, feel really knowable, really solid already. I'm hoping this is because I've been pondering them, percolating them for a good month or two now and NOT because they are based too heavily on real life people. We'll see, I guess.

I've allowed a little of my free time this week to divert to yoga instead of writing. The Vinyasa Flow feels so comfortable, yet challenging, that when I'm finished, I'm just full of words. Energized, and full of words.

I only added another 1,000 words to Upturned Stones in the last two days, but it is still progress. And the story has me entranced... I can't wait to find out what happens next!

1,000 Words on Upturned Stones

Yea for progress!

It was painful, I'll admit. I finally had the time to write, and nothing came. Even when I forced it, the result was gibberish.

Of course, I then did what every self-respecting amateur writer would do... or wait... I found my hubby and ranted a while. We have no time. When I have time, I'm too tired to write. Blah, blah, blegh....

Then, I went back in the yard, found myself a comfy chair in the sun, and I sat. While I sat there, my newly planted garden grew a bit. Puffs of cotton seeds from my neighbors oh-so-annoying cottonwood tree flew through the air at surprising heights. The effect of that white cotton zooming this way and that against a strikingly blue sky was strangely similar to the effect of snow in front of a car's headlights on a dark winter night. The wind blew cool, almost chilly air through our too tall grass while the warm spring sun threatened to burn my too pale, Minnesotan skin, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The sitting. With no paper or pen, no computer, no kids, no book...

no multitasking.

After a mere 15 minutes, I was inside once again, typing away on Ruby.

Upturned Stones is now officially In Progress. It's opening was really quite surprising... exciting too.

With luck, and maybe a little sitting, I'll have no problem getting back into it tomorrow.

Again I say, yea for progress!

Sputtering

You may have guessed....

I haven't posted in ages. Just as I bragged that my company was worn out by my girls, I realized that I was worn out by my company.

I accomplished almost nothing in the past few weeks. Well, I outlined a few key scenes and stole some good dialogue from my guests. Beyond that, though, nothing.

Time to get that A## In Seat time. The next few weeks are free, my garden is planted, and the days are long. Whether I'm "in the mood" or not, I'm going to make some real progress before this "work in progress" ends up next gathering dust with my tennis rackets and calligraphy kit.

Not to Worry

In my last post, I fretted about the parade of out of town company that could very easily derail my writing progress. Now that Well Beyond Waiting has regained a starring role in my writing time, it has a momentum of its own. I hope to see it through.

My worries completely overlooked the fact that constant toddler activity easily wears out unpracticed visitors. Somehow, the two main attractions that pull me away from writing, my busy kids and frequent overnight guests, effectively neutralize each other.

By noon, they all fall into a pile for nap time, giving me a little space to write.

Unfortunately, I'm struggling with the dialogue. For now I'm just putting down the core of what the character's are trying to say, but it doesn't sound "right" yet when I reread the material aloud. I'm a researcher... a studier... so I'm tempted to chase down the highest reviewed "how to write dialogue" book out there. Spend a few weeks studying up.

But no. Then the momentum would be lost and I'd be out of touch again, just as it has finally taken off. I'll save the research for the next lull in writers energy.