I think I forgot to mention that One Shoe Highway was rejected by Clarkesworld. It was, and I subsequently sent it out again. I got a rejection from The Pedestal as well, but it was one of the nice kinds — they enjoyed the story, they only decided to pass after “careful consideration”, and please send more.
This morning I was thinking about a new short story I’m working on, and it occurred to me that I have an obsession with missing persons. People are always disappearing in my stories. I wonder why that is?
On a completely unrelated note, I came across this photo I took almost exactly one year ago. This is what PEI beaches look like in the wintertime. Desolate, no? It reminded me how much different last February was for me. Oh, how glad I am to be back on the West Coast.
Weeks like this are a challenge: warm weather, cloudless skies, cherry trees in bloom and my city alive with wild Olympic energy. It’s extremely hard to remain disciplined, stay indoors and work. The only way I can manage it is by bribing myself with a tea latte at the Corner Cup Cafe and the promise of an afternoon walk on the beach with Cassandra.
The 2010 Winter Olympics begin in two days in Vancouver. It’s impossible to ignore them if you live here. See, for example, the enormous beacon of light over our downtown skyline. No, we’re not trying to call Batman (and yes, I’ve heard that joke from every person who’s seen this photo). That’s Vectorial Elevation, an interactive artwork. Go to the webpage, design your own light sculpture and you can watch it come to life in the sky.
I’ve spent hours thinking about the first draft I wrote and how to turn it into something beautiful. I’ve written a synopsis. I’ve drawn maps. I’ve outlined all my scenes. I’ve deleted 35,000 words and now I’m staring at half a novel. There’s nothing left to do but start writing again.
Writing is always scary for me, but now I’m terrified in a new way, because now it’s for real. I’m using half my family’s productive work time to write this novel. Time that could be spent bringing in actual income so we can keep this lovely roof over our heads.
I don’t want to waste my family’s time.
It’s been a month since Shane and I both started working from home and splitting the child care duties. So far it’s been fantastic for both of us. It took a couple weeks to work out the kinks. Shane had to get used to a shorter work day and to working through the distractions of home life. Because sometimes there’s no stopping your two year-old from running into Daddy’s office to get a high-five for going pee on the potty.
As for me, I had to adjust to having a lot more writing time and a lot more freedom. No, I’m not complaining. It’s just that with so much extra time it’s easy to get distracted by fun stuff on the Internet, or shopping trips, or sunny days that beg for beach walks. I had to re-discipline myself.
Things are very, very good for us right now. One of us works in the morning while the other takes care of Cass. We meet for lunch and then switch until dinner. Every day, we both get to create stuff that excites us. And every day, we both get to spend quality one-on-one time with our amazing little girl. On Sundays, nobody works and we spend time as a family. It’s a perfect balance.
Now, if we can just make some money so we can afford to continue living this beautiful life…
I’m deep into the revision process, to the point where I want to spend every possible minute immersed in the world I’ve created. I’m falling behind on things like laundry and blog updates. Just wanted to say it’s going well and I’m having fun.
My novel finally has a working title. Up until now I’ve been referring to it as “the Fairyland novel” (a reference to the fictional theme park in which the story is set). From now on it will be known as “The Glass Doll”.
This week I’m going to do something I’ve never done before, something that I think means I’ve reached a whole new level of nerdiness: I’m gonna draw maps of my fantasy world. I can’t wait!
There are bunnies living in the park where I go for walks. They make me happy.
Also, One Shoe Highway was rejected by OSC’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. Next stop, Clarkesworld.
Happy New Year. Since the year began, I’ve been reading through the novel I finished in November. I got to the end yesterday, and since then have come to some conclusions about my NaNoWriMo experience.
To recap, my novel is 75,000 words. I wrote the first 25K over September and October, and the final 50K in a mad rush in November. (My reasons for doing this are explained here.)
I thought, considering the speed at which I poured the words out, I might be surprised at what I’d written. Not so. The novel reads exactly as I expected. It looks, approximately, like this:
I knew while I was in the middle that I was descending into crapdom, writing scenes that I’d have to cut later. I kept telling Shane, “I’m so bored writing these scenes,” and he’d say, “Then don’t write them.” But I wrote them anyway; I couldn’t stop myself.
Why? Maybe that was my process. Maybe I needed to write all that crap to get to the heart of the story. Maybe, but I don’t think so. I have to be honest and guess that 1) I was just getting through the words in order to meet my daily quota, and 2) I felt compelled to stick to the stupid outline I threw together just before I headed into NaNoWriMo.
I’m just glad that near the end I figured it out, and abandoned the outline and let my characters go do what they needed to do. (Incidentally, I knew, too, when I stopped writing crap. I knew because writing ceased to be a chore. I was having fun again.)
So would I do NaNoWriMo again? I don’t think so. The experience reaffirmed my stance against outlining. I know it works for lots of writers. I’m not one of them. And my brain’s just not quick enough to write that many words in such a short time without a plan. I need time for contemplation. Next time, I’ll take it slower.
For now, my path is clear. As soon as I post this, I’m going in and cutting the entire middle out. About half the novel, I’d guess. That’s a lot of lost words, but I’m not sad to see them go. Really, they’re so painful to read I can’t wait to get rid of them. I suspect that once the excess verbiage is gone I’ll actually have a decent story to work with.
Although a lot of good stuff came out of 2009, I have to say I’m glad to leave this year behind. It was a tough one for me. I won’t get into it other than to say that a long Canadian winter (which I’d never experienced before, having spent my entire life in and around Vancouver, where the temperature rarely dips below zero), plus the isolation and boredom of playing the role of small-town housewife, did not suit me one bit. The second half of the year, thankfully, was much better than the first. Summer arrived, we sold our house, I wrote a novel, we moved West.
Our new life in Vancouver is the culmination of everything Shane and I have worked toward over the last decade. Way back in 2002, Shane was making BMX videos for a living, I was writing my first clumsy short stories and we were drowning in debt. We made some decisions – to clean up our finances, take our relationship seriously and build a family. Once we accomplished those things, we began to dream of a life where both of us could spend our days following our passions. For me, of course, that meant writing. For Shane, it ultimately meant making games on his own.
We’re there. Both of us working from home, creating things we’re passionate about, raising our daughter together, surrounded by an incredible network of friends and family.
2010 can only be amazing.