Shifting by Degrees

IMG_0933Last weekend, the temperature outside rose by 10 degrees, then almost 20. The sun hit the ground full force, shrinking ice and stretching puddles and filling the air with the start of a new season.

Like any good Wisconsinite on the first sunny, decent day, I got the car washed. I dragged the shop-vac out of the basement and sucked up all kinds of after-school snack crumbs from the back seat. I scrubbed the interior doors and center console to rid them of salt marks left behind by snow boots. I gave myself a workout sloughing off remnants from the last few months.

Then, I breathed a big sigh of relief and thought I just might make it.

The last several weeks have been hard. Not because I’ve been buried in mounds of snow like friends out east. Not even because I’ve had to shovel winter’s bounty more than once (though the last time I did felt like doing penance with its wet and heavy load). I hit a relative low in January, perhaps seasonal or cyclical or who-knows-what-sical, and it’s been tough pushing through to the other side.

ry=400But it’s shifted–like the temperature lifted–in a positive direction, and the newness in the air is a welcomed reprieve.

So it is with writing, too.

My schedule at work has changed such that, even though I’m in the office more, I’m finding more energy outside of work to pay attention to my novel, taking one afternoon a week to do nothing but work on the story.

I won’t say the words are coming easier or the revising is less painful, but the manuscript is improving inch by inch. And after sitting stale for a while, a story that grows even by small degrees is like Spring at full tilt.

Speaking of Spring and full tilt and writing, don’t forget to register for the Flash Nonfiction course I’m teaching that begins April 5th! Your house, my house, in your favorite cafe…it’s online and at your fingertips.

We all have stories. What’s yours?

IMG_1014

 

Redirect >> Flash Nonfiction: The Online Course

Qwert_getting-funky-300x300There are certain stories my gut wants me to put down on paper.

But, I’ve struggled to transform the power of certain memories into words on the page. My early drafts read long and convoluted and nothing like what I envisioned: a brief moment of connection, where I take the hand of the reader say, Let me tell you this one thing, and ask, Can you relate?

I’m on Cadmium Read today talking about the flash nonfiction course I will be teaching online.

Pop on over, read the introduction to the course, and find out what we’ll discuss during those four weeks. Then, register through the Cadmium Read shopping cart. The course begins April 5th, the fee is only $65, and the experience won’t be the same without YOU.

01CadHeader-1024x147

Revising Frank’s Story

IMG_0087I have a short story in my repertoire right now, which I call “Frank.” It’s been sent out several times and returned just as many. I like Frank. His story sticks with me. He’s a character who came out of the first novel I attempted, and though I didn’t like him much in the beginning (he was kind of a jerk, hard-headed and rude. Even scary), he softened up once I gave him his own story. I began to appreciate his flaws.

For a long time (and through several submissions), I thought his story was done. I was sure of it, figuring it just hadn’t hit the right editor’s eyes. On occasion I’d think, Okay, maybe tweak a word here or there just so it doesn’t grow stagnant. So I can send it out again right away. But the truth is, I was reluctant to look at it too deeply again.

Revisions are painful. Especially when it comes to a story I’ve worked on time and time (and time) again. Partly because I want the story to be done. Partly because I am  unsure of how to fix it. What’s worse, though, is letting a good story go simply because the work scares me.

It helps to read Jason Brown’s take on revisions:*

The long road from the first draft to the final draft is an epic journey through foreign lands with no Frodo to guide me. No, that’s not right. I can’t believe that line came out of my head. It did, though, and I just have to remember that more than 90 percent of what pops into my thoughts doesn’t belong on paper. So I try again: Revision is a month-long backpacking trip with a group of people I met in line at the DMV. No, no. Revision–it’s like driving cross-country in a Chevy Nova with my aunt and uncle and delinquent cousins from Buffalo. Everyone’s whining and my aunt yells, “What’s wrong with us?”

Brown is constantly revising through his whole essay on revision, and I love it. His humorous slant on the process pulls me out of what I sometimes see as the dire prospect of rewriting (oh, the agony). And, he offers several exercises at the end of his essay that are tailored to revision. Here’s one I intend to use:

When you reread your manuscript, start somewhere in the middle or near the end. Reread the story or chapter twice a day for six straight days, starting at a different point in the narrative each time. We all know the first paragraph and first page have to be great. Bring fresh scrutiny to all the subsequent paragraphs and pages.

Last time I opened Frank’s story, I got stuck on the first paragraph. The next time I open it, I’m going to start at the end.

Where do you begin when you revise?

IMG_0085* You can find Jason Brown’s essay in Naming the World (edited by Bret Anthony Johnston), an excellent resource for writers.