Good Morning, 2012!

I am a fan of round numbers (like zeros and eights with their lovely shapes). I am also a fan of even numbers (2,4,6,8 who do we appreciate? Even numbers!) Maybe this is why (along with a Mayan predicted Apocalypse) I have been so looking forward to the start of 2012. It's one of those years that stands out in the progression of time. Like 1994 (high school graduation) and 1998 (college). 2000 was another such year with all its pretty zeros and the pending doom of Y2K.

It was in the fall of 2000 I went to Guatemala for two weeks. While I was there I visited the Mayan Ruins at Tikal and learned, for the first time about the Mayan calendar. I was fascinated. I spent a few years doing bits of research here and there, but was surprised that there wasn't more mainstream attention/interest. A few years later, that all changed and before I knew it I was seeing book displays for 2012 and movies and horrible documentaries. Has anyone written a song yet? We really should party like it's 2012...and now that I've got my ukulele (and maybe 3-4 chords nailed) I'll get on that.

I'm happy right now. What a lucky place to be. I am looking forward to this year...personally, professionally, hopefully. I started out this day with what I'm thinking will be a new annual tradition (this was year two). David Levithan (editor, writer, inspire-er) takes a photograph every day and then on New Year's he sets the photos to music and puts together a lovely video slideshow (viewed here). I could watch it over and over again. It inspires me.

I've never been one to keep a list of books I've read. I guess I've always felt like that's what my library is for (but then again, I do borrow ever so many books from work). Over the past month, I've been contemplating starting a list of books for 2012, but thinking about the photo diary that David Levithan keeps, I think, instead, I will photograph each book I read and then at the end of the year, I will put together some kind of photo collage/video to celebrate it. What fun! And way cooler than a boring old list...

This past week, I finally had a day (and a half) off. I spent it catching up on life's business (cleaning, laundry, bills, groceries) and I savored it reading and editing. I read an absolutely brilliant book by Portlander Laini Taylor called Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It is honestly, one of the most thrilling (for its language, its characters, its plot) that I have read in a really long time. Though classified by its publishers as Teen/Young Adult, the book transcends such labels (for a variety of reasons). I fell head over heels in love with this book.

"For the way loneliness is worse when you return to it after a reprieve--like the soul's version of putting on a wet bathing suit, clammy and miserable."

The book is just filled with these wonderful thoughts, ideas, feelings, phrasings. I didn't want it to end! And because it literally ends with "To be continued..." it hasn't. Warning: Next book isn't out until the fall of 2012.

2011 wasn't so bad, looking back. Three highlights I saw/did/loved from various categories:

Live Music: Neil Gaiman/Amanda Palmer, TMBG, Josh Ritter
Bookish Events: Neil Gaiman/Amanda Palmer, Josh Ritter, David Levithan
Television: Doctor Who (seriously, what took me so long!), Downton Abbey, Glee
Books: Domestic Violets, The Night Circus, Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Albums: Iron & Wine's Kiss Each Other Clean, My Morning Jacket's Circuital and The Decemberists The King is Dead

Lucky for me, 2012 has some things I'm very much looking forward to and fortunately, I don't have to wait long for them...January is already filled with such wonderful things! What I'm looking forward to most? My extended weekend (in one week!) to my most favorite place on the Oregon Coast, John Green's new book on the 10th (officially) The Fault in Our Stars, Thanksgiving in January, and getting to see John Green on the 29th!

More than anything though, what I'm appreciating most about this new month in this new year, is time. 2011 taught me a very important lesson in how much can be done with the time you have. In 2012 I hope to put that lesson into practice. I am looking forward to seeing all that I can accomplish.

The first book I will finish in 2012

Occupy NaNoWriMo 2011 (Day 21, 42339 Words)

This morning there is an aggressive wind whipping the trees and the wind chimes. Occasionally it picks up some rain and slaps it against the windows. I feel lucky to be inside, where it is warm and dry and I am wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by books and music. I have a hot cup of coffee and my stomach isn't hungry. I recognize how fortunate I am. I have much to be thankful for.

I read an article that Neil Gaiman had linked on twitter earlier this morning regarding the recent confrontation between the police and the students at UC Davis. (find it here) Regardless of where you stand on the Occupy Movement, it is a smart article that brings up some interesting points about how the protesters are being treated by the police and how this is different than what has worked for decades. I am left wondering what the hell is going on and why.

This has caused me to think a great deal about my book. I already have a pretty big social/political issue that has worked its way into this draft (and will have to be integrated into the first part from last year), but as I think about my characters, who they are, where they are, when they are, and how old they are...well, I am finding it harder and harder to imagine that they wouldn't at least be talking about what's going on in the world and on campuses nationwide.

I think about Matthew Norman's Domestic Violets (just buy it already) and how the economic crisis wasn't in the first draft. I think about how much it shaped the story, how different it would have been without it. The book would have been completely different and well, frankly, not as good.

There is much that comes out of the editing process (the ever lovely Maureen Johnson has a few words to say about this) and I am really looking forward to January, after some time away, to really sit down and see what comes of the next draft.

"One day I left my room, in the evening. It was freezing, the sidewalk shining. But it was okay. I wasn't lonely. I wasn't no one. I was just hoping for a bookstore like the one I prayed for and the music they play there would be Dinosaur Jr. and the people who worked there would be super skinny and super unfriendly and that would make me happy. That would make me happy."

          from Myopic Books by American Music Club

NaNoWriMo 2011 The Work That Goes In (Day 6, 12,000+)

I have had many conversations with customers, friends, enemies, dogs, etc., about books that we've enjoyed and how wonderful it would have been to be able to write something even close to that. I've had those moments myself, when I'm reading a particularly amazing sentence or turn of phrase and I wish desperately that I could have thought of it and I feel jealous that I haven't. I've heard myself think, "It's so unfair how easy it is for so and so to write like this!"

I recently stopped in on a book group that meets in our store and they were talking about Diane Setterfield's novel The Thirteenth Tale. They had previously read Matthew Norman's Domestic Violets, and not long before that had read Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. What do all three of these novelists and novels have in common? They are the author's only published work. 

Sometimes, I fear, there is the misconception out there that when an author, such as those mentioned, has only one book published, that it is their only work. Knowing what I know from my own writing experience, I've come to realize that this is highly unlikely. There are probably drawers/files/trash bins filled with abandoned projects, first drafts that knew better than to see the light of day, and (likely) years of work that went into the final draft (unless you're James Patterson).

Out of curiosity, I asked Matthew Norman recently what his experience was. Domestic Violets was published this past September (and I was so very, very fortunate to have an Advance Reading Copy come across my desk). Below is my question "Me", followed by his (MN) response:

 Me: Out of curiosity, was Domestic Violets: a) the first novel you ever wrote, b) the first novel you ever finished, c) the first novel you had published, or d) something else entirely.

MN: DV is my first published novel. I wrote a novel in graduate school for my MFA thesis that was never published. I believe it lives on a library shelf somewhere at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA though. So...if you're ever in the neighborhood.

Me: Thanks! I can't tell you how many conversations I have with people where they say something like, "I just can't believe this is {insert name of brilliant author here}'s first novel! It's so good!" In reality, there is usually a lot of hard work and abandoned projects or bad books that come before. But then, I suppose, there must be some assholes out there who just get it right (without any real effort) on the first go. It's good to know you're not one of them.

MN: Nope, not me. There are also 3 or 4 abandoned projects buried in the dark recesses of my computer. I call it "wrong direction writing." Sigh.  

I also recently learned that Erin Morgenstern's first published novel, The Night Circus, began in 2005 as part of her NaNoWriMo project. She continued working on it in both 2006 and 2007. It's a delightfully fun and interesting tale and I recommend it to people who like to read delightful, interesting, lovely, magical books. 

What's my point to all this? I guess that I have hope. Hope that what I'm doing isn't a lost cause. Hope that when I read some bad dialogue that I've written, hope that when I cringe at the language I've used, hope that when I get lost in my own plot, hope that when it's all said and done something great will come out of it all, something that I can be proud of.

"I don't know you, but I want you, all the more for that. Words fall through me, and always fool me, and I can't react."

                          from Falling Slowly by The Swell Season

Very much looking forward to this weekend...

Surprises in Editing

When I'm writing, I always listen to music. Sometimes I'll put the iPod (or iPhone) on shuffle and just see where the music takes me. Other times I'll make a choice and listen to one particular artist (to be honest, Josh Ritter and Iron & Wine get the most play time). The music helps keep things flowing, it gives my brain something to hold onto in the background to block out all those other things, other possible distractions. This need began in college and to this time I have a hard time listening to Mazzy Star or Portishead without thinking about writing major papers my senior year. I'm completely serious.

Sometimes the music will help draw me into an emotional place that suits the writing and other times it will draw me out of an emotional place that contradicts the work.

But either way, I find it incredibly difficult to write without music.

I thought the same would be true when it came to serious editing. I was wrong.

I sat down at the end of last week to begin editing in earnest the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year. I had a great deal of work to do on it after November and I hadn't fleshed out the entire story arc until July (I had written out where the Point A to Point B, I just needed to expand). For August and most of September I have let it sit. I haven't read it, I haven't written more, I haven't touched it.

But lately, the characters have been hanging out more (not unlike Matthew Norman describes "the men upstairs" in his quite wonderful novel Domestic Violets). I've run into them while walking about town, they've wandered into my dreams, filled my thoughts, invaded my little world. I knew it was time to get back to work.

I sat down in my office this time instead of the library where I'll normally do my writing at home. I opened up my fancypants new writing software to utilize some of the character/places/research options, a highlighter, a pen, some liquid paper, and the printed copy of the 200+ manuscript I had labored over for so long. (It's always been an easier experience for me to edit pen to paper, especially on a first draft edit.)

Sitting down at my desk, the first thing I did was open up iTunes and began a shuffling playlist. Three paragraphs in, I had to turn it off. I couldn't concentrate. I required absolute silence.

Editing is a completely different beast, at least for me, than writing. I know that, but somehow I needed to be reminded. After 20 some pages, I started to see new things about my writing, things I've never noticed before. Apparently I have a tendency (especially in dialogue) to being with the word "so." Who knew?

I've gotten through the first 50 pages by now and it's shown me a great deal. I'm using this as an opportunity to clean up the text, really flesh out the character notes, identify any inconsistencies, look for any themes I didn't know were in there as I plowed through the first 50,000+ words in November.

One of my favorite things about editing? The time disappears in a different way than it does when you're writing. Hours vanished in the space it took to get through only a few pages.

Another really awesome thing were those times where I would write down something I wanted to see next (a line of dialogue, an observation) and then, when I actually got to the next line, I would discover the previous me had already put those exact same words down. That was incredibly cool.

My goal is to get through a major edit by the end of October and then take November to write something completely new.

It's going to be an exciting fall!