Dec 24 2012

Now that the kids are home for the winter break, not much writing is going to get done, so I’ve decided to use the time to read, read, read. After all, unlike writing, reading can be done in 10 minute snatches, and that’s the kind of leisure time I anticipate during the holidays if I’m to be a good mom and not let the kids veg out on TV the whole day. Plus, I figure it will be good for my plot to sit for a couple of weeks and see if any good bacteria grow.

Here is my reading list for the vacation –

On my Kindle: Discovering the Overdrive website where I can borrow ebooks from my local library has been one of the biggest thrills recently. The most recent titles are, of course, not available, but even a voracious reader like I have found several treasures.

– Gorky Park: I can’t believe I haven’t read this wickedly satirical police procedural by Martin Cruz Smith before. Set in post World War communist Soviet Union, the book’s take on corruption and petty power plays still feels fresh and relevant.

– Steve Jobs: The biography by Walter Isaacs has been lying unread for a while, but I think I will get to it while relaxing in Puerto Rico, where the family is going for a week next week.

– Oil on Water: This novel by Helon Habila is another literary murder mystery set in the Nigerian Delta (you can tell what my favorite genre is by now, can’t you?) Reading about an environment devastated by oil production is very sad and depressing, but the book is beautifully written. We know so little about the impact of modern colonization in Africa, a corporate colonization that is taking place with the complicity of native rulers, and this book is a real eye-opener.

– The Snowman: Jo Nesbo books ( thrillers again!) are surprisingly easily available on Overdrive. Harry Hole, his detective, is a recovering alcohlic with the kind of damaged life favored by Nordic writers.

– The Boy in the Suitcase: Another example of Nordic noir by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnette Friis… a new author for me, so I’m excited to find out how she compares to her peers.

– Shanghai Girls: Even though Lisa See’s books are all set in the Orient, the stories are amazingly different. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a charming story of friendship between two girls in nineteenth-century China; Peony in Love is a weird and weirdly entertaining ghost story set in the 17th century, and Shanghai Girls is about two sisters who come to America in the early years of the Depression. Of the three, I think I enjoyed Shanghai Girls the least, perhaps because some of the mystical and lyrical elements of See’s previous novels were missing here.

– 813: A tale of Arsene Lupin, gentleman thief, this classic my Maurice LeBlanc is one of the many free Kindle books available.

In my library bag: Despite having so many books on my Kindle, my greed always gets the better of me when I go to my local library. This time I decided to check out a couple of kidlit novels as well; jopefully, I’ll get some inspiration towards my own novel.

– Matched: This sci-fi YA novel by Ally Condie is the first of a trilogy that is sweeping the imagination of teen girls right now. I thought I would see what the fuss is all about.

– The Search for Wondla: Another sci-fi novel for middle graders, Tony DiTerlizzi’s creation is attention grabbing from the first paragraph – what a wonderful imagination. It is almost enough to give prospective writers the heebie-jeebies about the quality of their work.

– Beta: Random pick from the fantasy/sci-fi shelf at the library. This novel by Rachel Cohn is prompting me to consider setting my own fantasy novel in an alternate planet, so as not to get bogged down by reality.

– Death in August: A police procedural set in Florence by Marco Vichhi that I picked up because the font was nice and I liked the style of what I read while browsing

On my nightstand –

– A Murderous Procession: This book by Ariana Franklin is the little piece of gourmet chocolate that you save for a special day; I just love, love, love the Mistress of the Art of Death series about a female physician from Salerno who is forced to pretend to be the assistant of her servant to practice her skills during the reign of King Henry II.

– The Garlic Ballads: This depressing story about grinding poverty in the Chinese countryside is, perhaps, one of Nobel Laureate Mo Yan’s most readable books, but I cannot seem to get past the first few pages – it is so grim and unredemptive.

Well, there you have it. Hopefully, these books will inspire me rather than deter, and embolden, not discourage. Share your favorite reads of the holidays in the commenst and see you all in the New Year. Happy Holidays!

UPDATE: My friend and writer Jeanne Fredrisen has given me a (Drop)box of tips and pointers on writing kidlit. Also part of my reading list for the break. Thanks Jeanne!

Dec 21, 2012

Since the world didn’t end today, I guess I have no choice but to continue with the book.

The good news is that yesterday was an incredibly productive day; wrote the synopsis for the new project, which included background, setting, characters and a chapter by chapter breakdown. Also, I think this is a story I can share with my daughter at an early stage so she can tell me if it catches her fancy.

The bad news is manifold, and almost all of it has to do with uncertainty and inexperience. First, I ended up with eight chapters before the book took a natural break. It seems there’s at least a Part 2, if not a Part 3, waiting in the wings. So are eight chapters enough? I need to look over a few pre-teen books to see what kind of template is appropriate for this age.

Second, now that I have a plan, I feel the crushing need for someone experienced to look over the project and tell me if it is worth continuing. Here’s where I wish I was good friends with another kid-lit writer or publisher who could advise me. I consider myself a good judge and editor for other writers out there, but I cannot be objective about my own work. Anyone out there want to swap stories?

I think I will proceed with the story, but look seriously for writers’ workshops, classes and groups in the area.

Dec 20 2012

I’m embarrassed to say that I did not get a word written towards the book yesterday. Lots of errands and just a disinclination to write – I’m going to ascribe it to the grieving process 🙂

Today, instead of starting the first chapter, I plan to write a synopsis of the book. I’m thinking that putting my idea down in concrete terms will help me evaluate whether there is merit to it. Perhaps I should have done that from the get-go, but, what can I say, you write and learn.

Dec 19

The novel is dead. Long live the novel.

After much heartbreak, I’ve decided to completely rewrite the story, which means giving up every one of the painstakingly written 7000 words. Just the idea of it was so exhausting that I feel asleep during my rethink session (Note: Thinking and sleeping can look disturbingly similar) but I ended up with a much better plot before I did. This one seems to have everything the last one did not – a strong central conflict, a theme that stays much closer to my initial inspiration, and a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Now comes the hard part of beginning afresh. If I didn’t have this self-imposed writing schedule, I would find it so easy to give up, especially since there are days when there are a number of chores to be done and there’s an article for India Currents that I really should begin working on.

Luckily, the character of the heroine hasn’t changed much in this new iteration, so she continues to live in my mind. All the other characters have been scrapped, including one I really loved in the last version. I think one of the biggest temptations for a writer is to preserve the character and write the story around him or her but I think this particular one deserves a different home.

Dec 18 2012

Sitting down to think exclusively about one’s book is like meditating for the novice; the mind constantly wanders. Never having been good at meditation, I found the process of recreating the book’s plot extremely difficult. Finally, I gave up and went looking for the notebook where I had jotted down a tentative outline for the novel – and discovered that I had completely veered off course. The original plot had much more drama and conflict in it, and reading literature had completely diluted my writing.

So it is back to the drawing board now. After much thought, I rewrote the first chapter yesterday…not as much of an issue since the first chapter was all action to set up the plot. But now comes the hard part – cutting out nearly all of the rest of it. It is going to be painful. I’ve already started a new version of the book, opening a new file so I can remember I had got to 7000 words in the first try. But I am not going to proceed any further on the computer till I am absolutely clear about the plot from start to finish.

For now, it’s just me and my trusty notebook and pencil. I have a vague idea of where my story is going, but I want to get a lot of the structure down before I resume typing.

Dec 17 2012

Had a conversation about the book with a friend over the weekend. It was not easy since I was reluctant to share the plot of the book (less out of secrecy than lack of conviction) but I realized that I am really unhappy about the lack of conflict in the book. As it stands, the book reads mushy to me, and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt, kids’ books need a clear demarcation of right and wrong, good and evil. And I am not a writer of Henning Mankell’s caliber that I can write a meandering Kurt Wallander novel where several pages are devoted to the protagonist’s inner struggles and you can reach the end of the book without tying all the loose ends together. (Fans may have deduced that I have just finished reading “The Troubled Man” where -SPOILER ALERT- Mankell decides to end the series by giving Wallander Alzheimers.)

So this morning is going to be spent entirely in Internet-free reflection. Why couldn’t I have done that over the weekend, you ask? Nah, the weekend was for hiking, caroling, and watching the amazing Niners game (amazing since we won, depressing if we hadn’t).

The house is quiet, the dog is next to me, and I’m all set to work the plot around in my head and see if I can salvage something from the 6000 words written so far or if I have to scrap everything and start over. But first I have to figure out the central conflict.

Off to think. More tomorrow.

I wrote this post on Friday, but when I came out of my self-imposed Internet blockade, I was confronted with the tragedy in Connecticut and could not bring myself to post it. Most of Friday was spent in trying to channel my outrage and anger at the senseless killing of children into some meaningful action. I think if lay people like you and me cannot get rid of our apathy about the hijacking of the topic of gun control in this country, no change will happen.

Dec 14 2012

Gaurav Rastogi (published author himself!) points me to this great article about the writing habits of famous authors. One thing you learn from it is that every writer has their own recipe for getting it done, though I have to say Hemmingway had style when it came to his method, quite like his output.

“Hemingway stands when he writes. He stands in a pair of his oversized loafers on the worn skin of a lesser kudu—the typewriter and the reading board chest-high opposite him.”

Maya Angelou’s confession that she often writes nine pages and cuts out six is consoling.

Yesterday I got a fair ways into Chapter 6, but today I think I’m going to be going back and redoing most of it today, mostly because my characters got from point A to point B (literally) too quickly. Metaphorically, this has been always a problem for me; I can recall my 9th grade English teacher saying, “Vidya, your précis is too short, it leaves out too much.” At a writing class at Stanford, I got the same feedback – I was hurrying my characters’ lives along, not explaining enough.

So today is all rewriting, again. It is not fun; I want to know what happens to these characters, and it is frustrating to have to wait. I have to say I have so much more respect for people who complete novels, even those of the trashy kind. Even a bad novel has to have all the moving parts work and all the logic worked out. It is bloody hard work, so at this point you can imagine how awed I feel by the likes of Rowling and Tolkein, who construct complete worlds that are populated by multiple characters with unique traits, worlds that operate by a different yet cohesive set of rules. No wonder it took Rowling seven years to write the first book.

More next week.

Please leave comments here instead of FB so I can keep a record. Thanks!

Dec 13 2012

The world seems have to survived the mini-apocalyptic trifecta of 12s and I seemed to have survived my writer’s block from yesterday. After I was unable to make progress on the novel, I lay on the bed next to the desk and the dog obligingly curled up next to me. Forced to focus on the book, I finally came up with a plan for today by the time my writing period ran out.

What I am beginning to realize is that I am not going to be able to proceed in the neat, chronological, logical order that I had planned in my notes. Today is going to be devoted to revising some of the earlier chapters so my story can move forward. This is disappointing, because I had my heart set on beginning Chapter 6, but the reason Chapter 6 was not flowing out yesterday was because of some inconsistencies in the previous chapters, and I have to fix that if I want the story to make sense.

Random aside: The angle of light on my keyboard reveals that there are some keys that haven’t been getting much use. Just for that, someday I am going to name a character in one of my books Qxzj (pronounced Coczee!).

More tomorrow.

If you have some tips to share or experiences of your own, please leave them here in the comments instead of FB so I can keep a record.

Dec 12 2012

Has it happened to anyone else that you start writing one kind of book and it turns out to be something else? The core idea of my book was very clear in my mind before I began. I even bought a couple of non-fiction books, based on the idea, that I thought would be very helpful to me as research material. But now that the story has got going, I see that I am barely using the core idea. Will some part of it emerge in future chapters? Perhaps. But it is also very likely that the story will end up being very different from the one I envisaged before beginning the project. And the reason for that is that the core idea was not logical in the environment I placed my characters in and I just could not reconcile the two.

I think there may be another book in there, for another time.

Meanwhile, I am not getting anywhere with the writing today. I think I might have the first attack of writer’s block, after chugging away productively for a week. The biggest problem is that I haven’t really thought through what happens in the next chapter, so don’t know what to put down. Is it going to be a chapter on background? Is the present story going to move along? Is it okay to spend my writing hours thinking instead? Throw in an interrupted morning because of the teenager’s block schedule at school, and you have the recipe for unproductivity.

Sigh!

Dec 11, 2012

My writer friend wondered if writing this blog was taking me away from working on the book. I’ve come to realize that each day’s post acts as a warm-up exercise for the book. I am writing, but I don’t need to worry about structure or content too much, and this prepares me for the harder work of creating the novel. And whether I have progressed in the novel or not, I have put down some words in my allotted work time. This, I have come to realize, is important to me.

Today was a particularly difficult day to get going. First there were words with the teenager because he wouldn’t get up in time for school, then there were a couple of necessary phone calls to make and receive. If it wasn’t for the ease of writing the blog, I would find it hard to get into the mindset of working on the novel, especially since the next few chapters are completely unknown.

Finished Chapter 4 yesterday and hit a milestone of 5000 words (that took a paragraph in Chapter 5 to get to). Regardless of the quality of the words, this feels like a real achievement to me. I still can’t get over the feeling that this will end up as a pretty sub-par first book, but having seen plenty of those in the Kindle free section, I am okay with that for now!

More tomorrow.

If you have some tips to share or experiences of your own, please leave them here in the comments instead of FB so I can keep a record.