Well, I'm back after a long break for a vacation with my husband and daughter. We saw family in Pittsburgh and Florida. It was very relaxing to get away from the grind.
I had an opportunity to finish a short story while on vacation. I know this blog is about writing a novel, but this idea kept popping up in the back of my head with it's hand up in the air. "Pick me!" it kept saying. It was really quite insistent. So I spent some time writing it out. The seed was from a discussion about Christmas tree buying that I heard on the radio a few weeks ago. It reminded me of our family joke about Christmas tree shopping, which is that it was my parent's annual divorce. So the story is entitled "The Annual Divorce" and it does take place in a tree lot, but it is not about Christmas trees.
I admit that while I am writing pretty much anything, except maybe emails and blog posts, I am thinking at the same time "This SUCKS!" I read Elizabeth Gilbert's (Eat, Pray, Love) essay on writing and she feels the same way, so I guess I am in good company. I guess you have to power through the suckiness. Once I finished, I had Michael read it back to me, and it did, in fact, suck. So as with anything, it is back to the drawing board. I will let it ferment for a couple weeks and then present to the Novi Writers Group. Then revise, revise, revise.
As for the Novel (working title "Loss"), I have posted a synopsis on the blog. You might notice the ending is missing. That is deliberate, for one thing, that would be no fun. For another, I think I know where it is going, but even my limited experience has shown you really never know where the writing will end up until you get there. I do know where I have to start though, and that is establishing Claire and Frank's relationship. Unfortunately, I overslept today, so that will have to wait until later, or tomorrow. Such is the life of a working wife and mother.
Jeanne
ReplyDeleteWhen I read about your struggle I am reminded of a comic book creator's explanation, that I have also heard from other authors and artists, that you need to get the first 1000 pages of bad out of the way to get the really good creations. He wrote and drew 300 issues, almost 9000 pages, of the same title and it was very cool to watch his art and story telling mature and refine over time.