I spent this week revising a chapter that was pretty bogged down with repetitious material. That's three days on a chapter as in one chapter. I eliminated around six pages out of seventeen. It's greatly improved. Unfortunately, I sent that entire manuscript out to a number of publishing professionals last year. Yes, people read that thing. Or tried to.
This is why it's so important to not dwell on the past. That chapter's good now!
Author Gail Gauthier's Reflections On Books, Writing, Humor, And Other Sometimes Random Things
Showing posts with label The Fletcher Farm Body. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Fletcher Farm Body. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
The Significance Of Finishing This Draft, And Why It Doesn't Signify Anything At All
At 5:02 this afternoon, I finished the last few sentences of the first entire draft of The Fletcher Farm Body. Many chapters don't have titles, and there's a long list of items I want to address in the next draft stuck into the beginning of Chapter One. But there is some kind of entire story completed, and now I can take a few weeks off to let it all rest while I work on other small projects.
The Fletcher Farm Body began on January 1, 2009 as the 365 Story Project. If you read that post, you'll see that I actually began working on it in 2008. I believe I was keeping a handwritten journal type of thing with the first drafts of the stories-a-day I originally saw this thing being. I actually began talking about that project back in December, 2005. But let's say that I've only been working on it for real since January 1, 2009.
That's a little over two and a half years.
In those two and a half years, I finished another book (somewhere, somehow) and spent a great deal of time submitting it to publishers and agents. I made six professional appearances (yes, I know, that's pathetic for two and a half years) that involved various amounts of preparation, and I attended seven literary events of one kind or another. I wrote and published one essay. I updated the website (though not recently), continued my flash nonfiction here at the blog, and joined Facebook.
I was also in a hospital emergency room at least three times with one family member and once with another. I made untold numbers of holiday meals and transported them to one family member's home. I had two family members in different nursing homes the same year, though not at the same time. The same two family members were hospitalized the same year, but not the same time. One family member had a knee injury with a two month wait for surgery, follow-up visits to the surgeon, trips to a podiatrist, and then cataract surgery twice. I planned both a funeral luncheon and a rehearsal dinner and attended same. We had two weddings. We have a relative in another part of the country dealing with work disabities who requires a lot of support. Since the fall of 2009, I've only been working three days a week, if that, because of the older family members who need support.
While I believe very strongly that in this life you'd best put one foot in front of the other and just do what you have to do, I can't say that I'm particularly good at it. I am easily distracted. It doesn't take a lot to overwhelm me. I hope I keep the griping to a minimum, but there's often a low-level hum in the back of my head that is my internal whimper. I do not define grace under pressure. I am ashamed that I can't cope better than I do when I know that there are people, like my friend Tom, who have sick, elderly family members living with them.
My biggest asset in life is perseverance. The fact that I slogged through to the end of this manuscript, no matter what its quality, is all about perseverance. Here is an analogy: I have been a martial arts student for nine years. In that time, a large percentage of the adult students I've encountered were younger, stronger, faster, and more flexible than I am. But here's the thing...they left. I stayed. And that's why I'm a third dan black belt, and they're not. I gritted my teeth and stuck with it.
That's pretty much how I wrote this manuscript. I gritted my teeth.
So finishing this freaking thing has great significance for me. On the other hand, though, it has no significance at all because I don't have a publisher lined up. I don't even have an editor I've been working with recently who knows I've been writing this thing and is interested in looking at it. I have nothing but the incredible relief I feel at having reached a milestone.
Hey, but that's good. For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be happy.
The Fletcher Farm Body began on January 1, 2009 as the 365 Story Project. If you read that post, you'll see that I actually began working on it in 2008. I believe I was keeping a handwritten journal type of thing with the first drafts of the stories-a-day I originally saw this thing being. I actually began talking about that project back in December, 2005. But let's say that I've only been working on it for real since January 1, 2009.
That's a little over two and a half years.
In those two and a half years, I finished another book (somewhere, somehow) and spent a great deal of time submitting it to publishers and agents. I made six professional appearances (yes, I know, that's pathetic for two and a half years) that involved various amounts of preparation, and I attended seven literary events of one kind or another. I wrote and published one essay. I updated the website (though not recently), continued my flash nonfiction here at the blog, and joined Facebook.
I was also in a hospital emergency room at least three times with one family member and once with another. I made untold numbers of holiday meals and transported them to one family member's home. I had two family members in different nursing homes the same year, though not at the same time. The same two family members were hospitalized the same year, but not the same time. One family member had a knee injury with a two month wait for surgery, follow-up visits to the surgeon, trips to a podiatrist, and then cataract surgery twice. I planned both a funeral luncheon and a rehearsal dinner and attended same. We had two weddings. We have a relative in another part of the country dealing with work disabities who requires a lot of support. Since the fall of 2009, I've only been working three days a week, if that, because of the older family members who need support.
While I believe very strongly that in this life you'd best put one foot in front of the other and just do what you have to do, I can't say that I'm particularly good at it. I am easily distracted. It doesn't take a lot to overwhelm me. I hope I keep the griping to a minimum, but there's often a low-level hum in the back of my head that is my internal whimper. I do not define grace under pressure. I am ashamed that I can't cope better than I do when I know that there are people, like my friend Tom, who have sick, elderly family members living with them.
My biggest asset in life is perseverance. The fact that I slogged through to the end of this manuscript, no matter what its quality, is all about perseverance. Here is an analogy: I have been a martial arts student for nine years. In that time, a large percentage of the adult students I've encountered were younger, stronger, faster, and more flexible than I am. But here's the thing...they left. I stayed. And that's why I'm a third dan black belt, and they're not. I gritted my teeth and stuck with it.
That's pretty much how I wrote this manuscript. I gritted my teeth.
So finishing this freaking thing has great significance for me. On the other hand, though, it has no significance at all because I don't have a publisher lined up. I don't even have an editor I've been working with recently who knows I've been writing this thing and is interested in looking at it. I have nothing but the incredible relief I feel at having reached a milestone.
Hey, but that's good. For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be happy.
Monday, July 11, 2011
I Just Love Getting Out Of The House
I don't know of anyone who appreciates a trip out for any kind of professional event as much as I do. I mean, any kind of event at all.
Today I went to what I guess I'd describe as an author luncheon/book talk at Bank Square Books in Mystic, Connecticut. Yeah, it's located at the corner after Mystic Pizza. Oh, my goodness! If you look at the store's page Author Events, you'll see a photo entitled "A store full of children's authors and illustrators." That's me right in front. Sigh. I think I've lost one of those bracelets. And it belonged to Grandma Gauthier, too. My father gave it to her. How awful is that?
Well, let's think about pleasanter things, shall we?
The author I had lunch with today was Dawn Tripp, and the book she has just published is Game of Secrets. I had never heard of Dawn before last week. I found out she was going to be at Bank Square Books because I'm on the store's e-mail list. I've been wanting to hit one of its author lunch events, Game of Secrets sounded interesting, and this week worked for me because by last night I was paragraphs...paragraphs, I tell you...from the end of a complete draft of The Fletcher Farm Body.
Clearly, this was one of those deals in which I was called to be in that store with that author. Dawn Tripp can speak about what she does in an informal situation with great ease and eloquence. Perhaps this is because she has experience teaching writing. I just know I would have been frantic in her situation because I didn't have a PowerPoint presentation with me.
What was so wonderful about hearing Dawn talk about her writing process was that she writes in a more leisurely manner than many of the writers I read about or hear speak. Perhaps it's because she comes from a more literary tradition or because she writes for adults. I do not know. I just know that she took five years on this book. It's not unheard of for her to stop working on a project for a month during which time she reads. She doesn't work through to the end of a draft without revising. She talked about sometimes starting with fragments, some of which she puts together, rather than with...I don't know...without whatever your strong plotting writers do. I can't even imagine what they do.
She was able to talk about a couple of different kinds of structure and give the name of an author who discusses them, which gives me something to look for and try to study.
I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be in the same room with another writer who doesn't work through to the end of a draft without revising. I keep reading and hearing that that's what writers ought to be doing. I can't. And while I'm accustomed to the outsider thing and even, to be perfectly honest, relish feeling a bit of a literary outsider, there's being an outsider and there's being someone who's working all wrong. I often worry that I'm more the latter than the former.
Today, not so much.
The lunch was good, too. I discovered very recently that wine goes really well with sandwiches. So there I was with a little wine, a sandwich, and this marvelous speaker just feet from me. Then I listened to Springsteen all the way there and back.
And then I got home and worked some more on that last chapter. Now I am just sentences...sentences, I tell you...from the end of that draft.
Today I went to what I guess I'd describe as an author luncheon/book talk at Bank Square Books in Mystic, Connecticut. Yeah, it's located at the corner after Mystic Pizza. Oh, my goodness! If you look at the store's page Author Events, you'll see a photo entitled "A store full of children's authors and illustrators." That's me right in front. Sigh. I think I've lost one of those bracelets. And it belonged to Grandma Gauthier, too. My father gave it to her. How awful is that?
Well, let's think about pleasanter things, shall we?
The author I had lunch with today was Dawn Tripp, and the book she has just published is Game of Secrets. I had never heard of Dawn before last week. I found out she was going to be at Bank Square Books because I'm on the store's e-mail list. I've been wanting to hit one of its author lunch events, Game of Secrets sounded interesting, and this week worked for me because by last night I was paragraphs...paragraphs, I tell you...from the end of a complete draft of The Fletcher Farm Body.
Clearly, this was one of those deals in which I was called to be in that store with that author. Dawn Tripp can speak about what she does in an informal situation with great ease and eloquence. Perhaps this is because she has experience teaching writing. I just know I would have been frantic in her situation because I didn't have a PowerPoint presentation with me.
What was so wonderful about hearing Dawn talk about her writing process was that she writes in a more leisurely manner than many of the writers I read about or hear speak. Perhaps it's because she comes from a more literary tradition or because she writes for adults. I do not know. I just know that she took five years on this book. It's not unheard of for her to stop working on a project for a month during which time she reads. She doesn't work through to the end of a draft without revising. She talked about sometimes starting with fragments, some of which she puts together, rather than with...I don't know...without whatever your strong plotting writers do. I can't even imagine what they do.
She was able to talk about a couple of different kinds of structure and give the name of an author who discusses them, which gives me something to look for and try to study.
I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be in the same room with another writer who doesn't work through to the end of a draft without revising. I keep reading and hearing that that's what writers ought to be doing. I can't. And while I'm accustomed to the outsider thing and even, to be perfectly honest, relish feeling a bit of a literary outsider, there's being an outsider and there's being someone who's working all wrong. I often worry that I'm more the latter than the former.
Today, not so much.
The lunch was good, too. I discovered very recently that wine goes really well with sandwiches. So there I was with a little wine, a sandwich, and this marvelous speaker just feet from me. Then I listened to Springsteen all the way there and back.
And then I got home and worked some more on that last chapter. Now I am just sentences...sentences, I tell you...from the end of that draft.
Friday, July 08, 2011
Closer...Closer
Now I am paragraphs...maybe pages, so a number of paragraphs...from the end. I must meditate a bit on this over the next day or so, because the trick is going to be to maintain the main character's voice while doing a mystery reveal that isn't too much of a eulogy.
I am going to go fold some clothes and wait for a breakout experience.
I am going to go fold some clothes and wait for a breakout experience.
Monday, April 18, 2011
One Ordeal Behind Me
I decided I needed to put some new material in the work in progress earlier on. So I've been working on an new Chapter Six for...I don't know...ten years? Twelve? I wish I had some idea when I started the thing. I'm guessing it only feels like ten or twelve years and that in reality it was more like five or six weeks. I did the chapter, and then immediately started writing it over again.
And I finished that rewrite less than five minutes ago.
One of the problems with a revision like that is that you can't just write an entire chapter of new material as a block and drop it into place. You have to do all kinds of things to the earlier chapters to lead up to the new material and to make sure that you aren't contradicting anything that came before.
I was on Chapter Fourteen (I think) when I decided to do this, so I'll need to go over all the material after the new Chapter Six, because the new material is sure to have an impact on everything that follows. But right now I believe that should be relatively easy, and I'm going to continue to believe that until I learn otherwise.
And I finished that rewrite less than five minutes ago.
One of the problems with a revision like that is that you can't just write an entire chapter of new material as a block and drop it into place. You have to do all kinds of things to the earlier chapters to lead up to the new material and to make sure that you aren't contradicting anything that came before.
I was on Chapter Fourteen (I think) when I decided to do this, so I'll need to go over all the material after the new Chapter Six, because the new material is sure to have an impact on everything that follows. But right now I believe that should be relatively easy, and I'm going to continue to believe that until I learn otherwise.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
So I Did Work This Weekend
Just yesterday I talked about trying to work on the weekends. Well, this morning, while working in a family member's yard, the brain was snapping away on The Fletcher Farm Body (or should I call it The Fletchers of Grand Mount?). I came up with a couple of ways for my main character to learn important information. I also realized that I need to dump another chapter.
Just about a month ago, I wrote here about having revised the first three chapters of the present project for the sixth time. Well, soon after that I realized that the third chapter had to go. It had to be replaced entirely. Why? Because I took my character away from his task so he could visit a place I like and I could write cool, amusing stuff about it. But I wasn't staying on task with my writing subject.
So, that wasn't too bad, but then last week I finally accepted something that I had been trying to avoid. A character needed to go. She was a very, very cool adult character. But her function was going to end up being providing information for the main character. No, no, no. It's about the kids, stupid. The task of a children's book is to be about kids. So I worked this week on getting rid of her.
This morning while I was doing yard work I also came up with some ideas for beefing up a teen character, who has not yet appeared in this draft, to take over some of the function of the adult character I eliminated last week.
The chapter I decided to eliminate this morning is going off to join other abandoned work because it doesn't get my main character any closer to accomplishing his task.
It's all about the task. Goals. Objectives. Stay...on...task.
Just about a month ago, I wrote here about having revised the first three chapters of the present project for the sixth time. Well, soon after that I realized that the third chapter had to go. It had to be replaced entirely. Why? Because I took my character away from his task so he could visit a place I like and I could write cool, amusing stuff about it. But I wasn't staying on task with my writing subject.
So, that wasn't too bad, but then last week I finally accepted something that I had been trying to avoid. A character needed to go. She was a very, very cool adult character. But her function was going to end up being providing information for the main character. No, no, no. It's about the kids, stupid. The task of a children's book is to be about kids. So I worked this week on getting rid of her.
This morning while I was doing yard work I also came up with some ideas for beefing up a teen character, who has not yet appeared in this draft, to take over some of the function of the adult character I eliminated last week.
The chapter I decided to eliminate this morning is going off to join other abandoned work because it doesn't get my main character any closer to accomplishing his task.
It's all about the task. Goals. Objectives. Stay...on...task.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Will There Be No End? Or Is There A Light At The End Of The Tunnel?
I've been revising the first three chapters of the new book over and over again these last few months. I've done about six revisions, I believe, but I gave up starting new folders for each draft and have just been sawing away at the first three chapters of the third draft, reworking them and reworking them.
Six revisions doesn't sound like much, but, remember, I work very slowly. There are many more chapters to revise or perhaps discard, and many chapters still to be written because I've never finished a complete draft.
Sometimes this past year I would think, the first draft will be done by summer. Or the first draft will be done by September. Then I'd do some more work on those first three chapters. Now I'm thinking maybe November or Christmas.
Today, I finished the sixth revision of Chapter Three, closed up the file, thought, That's done, and went upstairs. By the time I got there, I'd thought of some more things to do to Chapter One. Oddly enough, I didn't do those things, but I did a few others that I feel very good about.
Though I know I sound chronically depressed at this blog sometimes, I do feel that in the last week I've worked out some important backstory and a relationship. And about fifteen or twenty minutes ago I came up with a title.
The Fletcher Farm Body. For the time being, anyway, I'm feeling good about that.
So what I'm talking about here, folks, is what started out to be the 365 Story Project and has evolved into something else that I'm calling The Fletcher Farm Body.
Six revisions doesn't sound like much, but, remember, I work very slowly. There are many more chapters to revise or perhaps discard, and many chapters still to be written because I've never finished a complete draft.
Sometimes this past year I would think, the first draft will be done by summer. Or the first draft will be done by September. Then I'd do some more work on those first three chapters. Now I'm thinking maybe November or Christmas.
Today, I finished the sixth revision of Chapter Three, closed up the file, thought, That's done, and went upstairs. By the time I got there, I'd thought of some more things to do to Chapter One. Oddly enough, I didn't do those things, but I did a few others that I feel very good about.
Though I know I sound chronically depressed at this blog sometimes, I do feel that in the last week I've worked out some important backstory and a relationship. And about fifteen or twenty minutes ago I came up with a title.
The Fletcher Farm Body. For the time being, anyway, I'm feeling good about that.
So what I'm talking about here, folks, is what started out to be the 365 Story Project and has evolved into something else that I'm calling The Fletcher Farm Body.
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