Amateur Writer

At Saturday's writing seminar, The Cracker Queen suggested I tie some of my blog's content to my manuscript. While this idea thrills me and makes it all seem so much more real, I'm a bit flummoxed as to where to start. I mean, will it be the fast cars, the loose men or the espionage? There's so much to choose from! Kinky sex, recipes for fabric softener, ritual burnings or the random dream sequence....

You're just dying to know more about this story, aren't you?

To be honest with you, this first book may never have its moment with the printing press. It might be the one I write and put away without ever having issued a single query to potential agents. Okay, I lie. I'm going to query the stink off this thing and then? Well, I have a box to keep it in, if necessary.

One of the story's underlying themes is coincidence. For a skeptic like me, the very idea is a conundrum. To even consider the notion feels hypocritical. That broad cliche that things happen for a reason, the concept of destiny or an invisible guide positioning us to be in the right place at the right time? They all seem absurd. And still....

I finished Chabon's book yesterday and it was that which got me to thinking again about coincidence. In one of his last chapters titled Amateur Family, Chabon, a self-proclaimed sci-fi fan(atic), touches on a segment of cultural geekdom that I know a few of you share. It involves Daleks and Cybermen and the planet Gallifrey. Chabon was writing about Dr. Who! And wouldn't you know it? After not having seen it for a couple of months, I just happened to have watched a couple of episodes on BBC America on Monday evening. Coincidence?

Of course, not, right? Completely random.

Anyway, there I was watching Dr. Who and thinking about character development. While movies, plays and television have the advantage of an actor to bring a character to life, it's my job as a writer to create characters that live multi-dimensionally in the reader's head. The idea of what makes a character "good" has as much to do with the reader as it does with the character development. Whether readers take to your characters has as much to do with their value systems and secret desires as it does with your character's background, habits and human frailties.

Of course there are mechanics to character development and all kinds of webpages and books devoted to telling writers how to do so, but it would be far too much trouble for me to actually google them. Google is for finding things like Dave Grohl's birthday so I can settle a bet with Nathan.

When I think about the Dr. Who characters, it's hard to separate them from the actors who play them, but actually, Dr. Who is a perfect example of a character who has outlasted, by design, the actors in the role. And I love him. I love him when he's Jon Pertwee with his lisp or when he's Tom Baker with his scarf or Peter Davison with his leading actor good looks. I was crazy for Dr. Who as played by Christopher Eccleston. I am crazy mad gaga for him in his David Tennant incarnation. Each actor makes him his own, and yet, there are many qualities to the character that thread through each casting.

I mean, I love The Doctor because he does the right thing because it's the right thing to do. He isn't motivated by reward and punishment. He's a Time Lord, for goodness sake. His planet has been destroyed and there is no one else like him (except The Master) and still he carries on, saving planets and sometimes the universe. I love how The Doctor loves we silly humans, even though we are so terribly unlovable at times. I love his inquisitiveness, his way with words and the fact that he seems to enjoy life, even as he carries the weight of all knowledge on his (currently) skinny shoulders. No matter who plays The Doctor, those traits remain constant.

Notice that I'm not inviting too much debate here. I'm going to stay away from the discussion of The Doctor's companions. I mean I like Martha, adore and still miss Rose Tyler, but I L*O*V*E Donna Noble. And her grandad. But I know that passions can ignite when discussing those companions so I'm moving on.

So the challenge for me is to write people without the help of the David Tennants or the Catherine Tates to make them real. My current manuscript is a bit like cheating. Some of the characters in it will be immediately recognized by anyone who has read this blog or my earlier blogs. There's a challenge there, too, in making sure that I'm giving these characters enough life to make them real. Just because I know them, doesn't mean that anyone else will know them if I don't do a good job with my writing.

Which brings me back to my original thought - this book may or may not ever be published. I'm working on it under the assumption that it will. (I have to assume or else why bother?) But it's important for me to recognize that I had to get through this story before I could write any other. I had to address some of my dreams and nightmares so that I can (hopefully) leave them behind and move on to some of the other stories I'm itching to write.

In fact, it might be safe to say that in writing this story of coincidence or random encounters, I'm writing the story of how I finally learned to call myself a writer. Maybe it wasn't an accident that brought me to this place in my life where I would finally cry uncle and admit that I write not for fun or for release or maybe it's for both those things? But ultimately, I write because I have to. It's what I do.

And as if that wasn't all just enough to twist my knickers into confused knots, I sit down at my computer to check my email and a song from the Rushmore Soundtrack comes up on my itunes shuffle. In one of his last chapters, Chabon mentioned the movie Rushmore.

Coincidence?

Booked

Thank you all for your comments yesterday. I love finding out what you read. Right now I seem to be reading the dictionary. The further I go in this Michael Chabon book, the more I need it. When I'm finished with it, I think I'll move on to something with simpler language. All the sudden, I feel really, really stupid.

Not much time for any kind of writing today. We're driving Chloe back to her school. Break is over. Ahem.

Before I go, I should tell you that yesterday's workshop was full of great info about publishing and Lauretta spent some time talking to us about what keeps us from actually writing and how to remove those blocks. It was the boost I needed.

So here's the deal - I'm going to put myself on a schedule. I'm going to continue to blog, but only in the afternoon after I've done some work on my manuscript. That writing must come first. In fact, I'm going to keep myself offline altogether until 11am everyday. It will be like coming off a drug, I think, but it's time.

I heard today on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me about how the Chicago Public School's District HQ now has a shaming device on its computer system. If you log onto any of a list of verboten websites, this mad shrieking alarm goes off. It doesn't stop until you've closed the offending website's window. If this catches on, we all might consider investing in stocks of companies that produce hearing aids. I have to keep this info from MathMan as long as I can. I mean, he's already threatened to strip me of my USB thingy that connects me to our home network until the manuscript is ready to be submitted to agents. Something about being tired of hearing about it.....

I must show some self-discipline, I suppose.

Now I must go. Everyone is medicated and the car is packed with Chloe's things. Five Goldens in a car for a few hours? What could possibly go wrong?


P.S. The Pussies for Peace are decked out as Attack Cats. And they haven't been fed....so.....

Going to School. The Down Home Writing School.

As Dr. Zaius says, no time for blogging today. I'm attending my first ever writers' workshop with The Cracker Queen Lauretta Hannon.

People of the internets, I've been looking forward to this since August. I can barely contain myself.

When I get back, maybe I'll tell you about the awful way I fell off the food wagon last night.....oh shoot, here it is in code:

Let's just say if I were a Republican politician, y'all would be scheudenfreud city over my anti-chocolate ice cream agenda.

And dang, I'd been doing so well. Thank goodness for my elliptical who loves me, even though I won't give him the reverse Olivia Newton John.....not even on his birthday.

Here's your assignment for comments. Tell us your favorite type of thing to read - a sports column, a magazine, what genre of novel, non-fiction, graphic novels, the back of a cereal box? Let's have it.

Until next time,

Lisa

A Writer Writes Always....

Quiz: Who can tell me the name of the movie that line comes from?
Here's a hint.

Okay, so here's what I'm learning so far about this "writing for a living" thing. Well, okay, perhaps calling it "writing for a living" is putting the cart three miles before the horse, but a girl can dream, yo.

Lessons learned thus far:

1. When the words hit me, I am sometimes not in a position to stop everything and write. For example, a kid's chorus concert, riding in the car to run some errand, in the middle of a classic film, or when my hands are covered in flour because the baking bug has bitten me. I do, as suggested by The Cracker Queen, carry around writing implements and a notebook to capture lines, ideas, whatnot for later, but damn it all, it does irritate me when all the sudden I feel inspired or need to write and I can't.

2. The story comes to me in fits and starts, but the best part is when I am writing it with a general idea, but the details start flowing and dots start connecting as I write and I don't feel like I actually planned it out, but it works.

3. I am still not sure if the novel is two stories or one. It's semi-autobiographical and I wonder if I should pull some pieces out for some kind of nonfiction work later. It's making me a little crazier than usual and sometimes I just have to set it aside and think. And that's just dangerous.

MathMan has continued to encourage me to finish it first, then tinker. I agree. As I near the end, I find the self-doubt more troublesome, but not insurmountable.

4. I am often more in the mood to read than write. Carol of Kimonomomo had the pleasure of meeting the author Julie Powell a couple of weeks ago. She went to a reading and book signing for Ms. Powell's newest book Cleaving. I was touched when she sent me the book with high praise. "I thought of you immediately." I think is pretty much what she said. Now, I am torn, torn, torn because I want to finish my novel and I want to read Cleaving straight through.

Ah, to be troubled by such trivial matters when the world is exploding around us.....

Commute Chat 8 - Season Two Begins

Dear You:

Hello, again.

Today (Monday) marked day one of Season Two of Commute Chat. I can't believe that summer is essentially over for the Goldens. This past weekend was a perfect ending to the season of fun, a term which I use lightly here. On Friday night, we attended a book signing and reading and recording of the Georgia Public Broadcasting program Cover to Cover at our local library. While there, I met author Lauretta Hannon aka The Cracker Queen.

Garbo also pushed her way to the front and had her picture taken with Lauretta. Garbo is a CQ in training.

Later, she tried to read The Cracker Queen while Georgia author Terry Kay spoke about his writing career and his various novels.

But Mr. Kay proved just a bit too interesting for her. She gave up trying to read during the event and listened instead. At the end of the taping, Lauretta drew the name for the winner of the Georgia Public Broadcasting raffle. And what do you know? She drew my name. I responded with a very clever "No Way!"

But it was true and I have the swag to prove it. See?


After the event, we hung around for a while because Lauretta had a special goody bag for me. It was full of some really cool things. (See top picture.) I was especially grateful for the nerve pills. I can use them these days! (Thank you, Lauretta! You are too kind!)

While we milled around, nibbling on cookies and sucking the cream out of petit fours, I spied John Sepulvado. I sidled up next to him and purred "I take a shower with you every day."

What a smoothie. He simply smiled indulgently at me. I realize that this wasn't the first time he'd heard this line. "Well, my girlfriend is in there so don't let her hear that."

John later introduced us to Suzanne Capelouto, another GPB staffer. They wanted to talk to to MathMan about his connection to Torey Malatia, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Radio. It's an interesting story about how MathMan knows the Man Who is the Model Public Radio CEO, but let's just say that the conversation included a moment where we actually got MathMan to sing a song once crooned by Mr. Malatia in the dark days before he got on the staff of WBEZ in Chicago.

One of the evening's highlights was having Lauretta brag on my writing. I knew she read the blog some, but when she met my husband and said in her perfect Southern drawl, "You must be MathMan," it was clear that she had, in fact, read it and remembered some of it. That was a very cool moment for me. And for MathMan, too.

And as if that weren't enough, MathMan, The Dancer and I finished off the weekend by having dinner? breakfast? hot fudge sundaes? with some complete strangers we found sitting in some rocking chairs along I20.

But you know all this already, don't you?
Because the first thing you did was click on the video, that's why.

With fond fondles of fondling,

Lisa

Cracker? I Don't Even Know Her! (But I'm Going to Email Her Anyway)

Last week, MathMan and I popped in to our local library to borrow some dvds to watch as we drift off to sleep. Nothing soothes the savage beast of my inner voices like a good British murder mystery. I'm trying to learn to go to sleep to the calming sounds of babbling brooks and panflutes via the Spa Channel on Sirius/XM, but I'm like an addict. I need my Brits bonking one another over the head with random objects or pushing each other down ancient wells.

MathMan and I are currently working our way through the Rosemary and Thyme series, having viewed all the available Poirot, Hetty Wainthrop, Mrs. Bradley Mysteries and Midsomer Murder collections available in the library. And although PBS has been kind enough to provide us with a couple of new Poirots and Miss Marples (delights each), they are not enough to chase away the nightly parade of hobgoblins and worries so that I can finally escape into my dreamworld.

So there we were, whispering our way through the stacks when a book title struck me and I just had to pick it up. I'm very predictable in how I select books to read. I read the first page first, then I flip around for some dialogue. Bad dialogue will chase me away in no time flat. To me, bad dialogue is like watching a bad performance. I'm embarrassed for the writer.

Never mind that I'd just told MathMan that I wasn't going to check out another book. I had a stack of them already waiting to be read and I was finishing up the Wolitzer book I told you about last week that irritated me for reasons hard to explain.

None of that mattered after I read the title of the first chapter and started laughing. "Everything You Need to Know, I Learned in a Single Wide." A few paragraphs in and I was hooked. Now I didn't grow up in a trailer, nor did I grow up in the south, but a three bedroom brick ranch on the edge of a southeastern Indiana river town is pretty dang close. There's a reason why I've found it easy to blend in here in Georgia.

In her book, The Cracker Queen, Lauretta Hannon, describes her roots, her life, and the lessons she learned along the way to becoming what she calls a Cracker Queen. I'd never considered the idea of being a Cracker, much less a Cracker Queen, but by Hannon's description, it's quite possible that I have the makings of being one.

Hannon writes in a way that made me just gobble the book up like a grilled cheese sandwich. I do not nibble grilled cheese sandwiches at the edges. I take big bites and enjoy the heck out of them because they are a rare, simple treat that remind me of my own childhood. Although Hannon's story isn't reflective of my own, I grew up in the same timeframe, in a place not unlike where Lauretta came up. Through her writing, it's easy to feel like you know her.

When I picked up the book that day at the library, I expected to be entertained and perhaps touched, but I didn't expect to be inspired. But let me tell you, as I've been dinking around with this blog and it's earlier incarnations for a few years now, kept journals and started doing some memoir-writing exercises, I never really thought that the stories I tell here could make a book. I just thought of them as my stories.

But reading Hannon's wonderful work has made me look again at the things I write. Last week, I wrote this lament and my friend Utah Savage left a comment that sent a shiver up my spine:

Here's what I think. I think you're writing the book right now. THIS IS THE BOOK! Yes, it's that good.

Now, I'm not one to take compliments well, but this compliment from Utah was just what I needed to hear. I connected that with the stirrings of inspiration I was feeling from Hannon's book. Then last Sunday I was lolling about on the deck with MathMan and The Dancer, having breakfast and reading the last chapters of The Cracker Queen. When I came to the section where Hannon listed the reasons why she'd never let herself quit her day job to be a full-time writer, I read the list aloud. There was much fingerpointing and guffawing. It was all too familiar.

In the book, Hannon quotes Eleanor Roosevelt. "Do one thing every day that scares you." I read this aloud, too, because this is something that The Dancer needs to hear and often. Like her mother, she's a bit of recluse in her own comfort zone.

So I did something that scared me. Something I have never before done. I emailed Lauretta Hannon and told her how much I enjoyed her book. To share your happiness and gratitude with someone who has given their art and story to the world seems like such a simple gesture, but I have never been one to be a screaming fangirl. Now, all bets are off.

I've embraced, as Lauretta says, my inner Cracker Queen. To continue to laugh with my mouth wide open, to go for what I want and to do what scares me, at least once a day. No one but me could tell Lauretta how her book touched and inspired me and so I wrote. And she wrote me back and I was the screaming fangirl all over again. Okay, so I didn't scream, but I whooped and called MathMan in from the other room so he could read the message and validate that I wasn't seeing things.

You're laughing at me right now, aren't you? That's okay. I don't blame you. What a simple thing to do and what results I got in Hannon's lovely, encouraging message back to me. And how silly the me of a week ago would have been to hold back from emailing an author of a book I enjoyed because I felt inadequate or inconsequential or .......heaven forbid....like a fan? How many times did I not get an autograph or share my pleasure about something becase doing so, scared me?

So now I'm going to go buy this book because (1) I have to have it and (2) I want to see if Lauretta will sign it for me when she comes to an event at our local library next Friday. I'll try to not act too goofy, but I make no promises.

Read the book, y'all. Be entertained, touched, inspired. And whatever you do, be sure to do something that scares you. And then come back and tell us about it.