Who do you depend on?

Our five-year-old granddaughter wanted to go for a family walk last night. It might have been a bedtime delay tactic, but in the end we agreed. She was determined we should go down the trail “through the forest to the pond,” so we did, and discovered a few inhabitants who haven’t been around for the past couple years.

You have to look carefully to see my favourite…

Yes, it’s a Canada Goose nesting on top of the beaver lodge. For years we had two pair of geese in the marsh each spring, and one goose always returned to patch up her old nest and settle in until her brood hatched, confident that few predators could bother her. Then one summer a few years ago, after a group of homes went in on the other side of the marsh, the water level dropped. The beaver did their best to dam up the creek, but in the end they abandoned the lodge. After that the geese nested elsewhere, out of sight in the tall grasses.

Now they’re back. I don’t know if their presence indicates the beaver have also returned, but the lodge has again found favour as a secure nesting locale. Nearby, the gander patrols, ensuring the ducks, hawks and coyotes keep their distance.

It’s fascinating to see the interdependence of the wildlife. The beaver’s home provides security for the goose, while the gander’s honking and squawking warn her and the beaver of anything intruding into their space.

There’s a parallel of sorts in the writer’s world. Each of us has a job to do as we nurture and deliver our stories. As much as writing is a solitary task, we’re dependent upon others for critiques, editing and publication, to help us reach our goal of providing a good story for readers. At the same time, those same people, including the readers, need writers to keep writing if there are going to be books to produce. There’s interdependence in the industry but there is also interdependence at the grass roots level.

Who do you depend upon when you need story advice, editing assistance, agent recommendations and the like? Or are you a true loner?

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Revisions: How complicated can they be?

A cedar arbour has stood in our back yard for some fifteen years, supporting a climbing white hydrangea for the past ten. The hydrangea wasn’t blooming, but I was told it could take many years to get started. Finally, two years ago, the first couple blooms appeared, and then last year there were a half dozen. Halleluia!

Last summer we noticed the arbour was listing to starboard, and by fall it was threatening to fall over. The wood was rotten and the hydrangea pushed vigorously from the one side. My hubby nailed supports on to prop it in place over the winter and last week we began the task of replacing it. We didn’t expect it to be much of a challenge. Just get a new arbour ready, ease the hydrangea branches off the old one and take it out, slide the new one into place, anchor it, and presto… replacement complete. Except I wanted to salvage that hydrangea, and we discovered its woody stems were tightly entwined through the latticework. Thus we had to undertake the huge job of cutting the lattice on either side of every branch, and wiggling the loose pieces free. It ended up taking the better part of three days.

I don’t know if we stressed the hydrangea so it won’t bloom this year, but we’ve done our best to save it and (I think) it’s still alive. I did some judicious pruning, also trimming the rhododendron beside it to give it some room, and cutting back hemlock branches that wanted to rest across the top. All we can do now is wait to see what happens this summer.

The process reminded me a little of manuscript revisions. The hardest part of writing a novel is getting the first draft in place, right? The revisions just require some reorganizing, checking for continuity, maybe shifting the occasional scene, and, of course, fixing lots of typos and grammatical errors. That’s what I thought until I began revising my first novel. How could it take me so long? Every slight change I made required subsequent changes somewhere else. The main character was wimpy; the antagonist was unbelievable; there was too much backstory. I cut, changed and corrected, but the resulting narrative was choppy, and I ended up doing a total rewrite from the beginning. A year later it still didn’t feel right.

That manuscript has long since been shelved and I’ve learned a lot as I’ve written my way through several more. I enjoy doing revisions, but I understand now that there is much more to them than implementing a few quick changes. As we gain experience and knowledge some of how we write becomes instinctive, but a good revision checklist is still desirable. I keep one handy that I found years ago on Nathan Bransford’s site. It’s still there if you’d like to check it out. There are undoubtedly lots of others.

Getting it right the first time would be nice. If I were a planner and plotted out the story in detail before starting, I would undoubtedly cut down on the amount of time I spend on revisions, but I don’t think I will ever be one those writers who thinks everything out first, ponders the words as they hit the paper, and never has to look at them again after typing ‘The End’.

Revisions shouldn’t be complicated, and if we have the basics right, they won’t be. I highly recommend reading PLOT AND STRUCTURE by James Scott Bell, and WRITING 21st CENTURY FICTION by Donald Maass for an understanding of what good writing is all about… and the groundwork that goes along with the gruntwork.

Do you delight in revisions, or dread them, or do you sit somewhere in between? How do you tackle them?

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Looking for Perfection

Some of our family members will be moving soon. Others are hoping to. Over the past year we’ve helped both families scour real estate advertisements and follow umpteen For Sale signs in the hope of finding the perfect new home — the perfect location, the perfect condition, and the perfect features at the perfect price. Apparently it doesn’t exist.

My hubby and I have moved many times during our years serving in different churches. Often we lived in manses — houses provided by the church — but in the latter years we bought our own homes. Price was always a determining factor, but except for when I was running a business and the space had to accommodate my equipment, we didn’t have a lot of requirements. We needed three bedrooms, one of which would be used as an office. With four children an ensuite bathroom was desirable, as was a fenced yard for the dogs. We ended up with some less-than-perfect houses, but we moved right in and made ourselves comfortable anyway.

I’m sure our families will eventually find the houses that are right for them, too. They won’t likely be perfect, but they’ll meet the necessary criteria and will quickly evolve into comfortable ‘home central’ sanctuaries .

I thought of all this after reading DD Shari Green‘s blog post yesterday. The question was asked, “In your writing life, and in particular your efforts to reach your March Madness goals, what’s your Biff?” The reference will be familiar to those who are “Back to the Future” fans, but if it’s not, feel free to stop reading and whip over to Shari’s blog to discover its background. Go ahead. I don’t mind waiting….

Did you notice all the “Biffs” people mentioned in their comments — obstacles such as rambling writing, health issues, perfectionism, self-doubt, tiredness, guilt, fear of failure, procrastination and lack of initiative. A few even mentioned their children! So many things stand in the way of creating the perfect book.

In a perfect writer’s world there would be limitless story ideas, uninterrupted blocks of time to develop them, a driving desire to write, and a lucrative publishing contract plus oodles of readers waiting when we’ve completed our perfectly written book. That’s in the perfect world. The one that doesn’t exist for us any more than the perfect house does for my family.

Instead, we may have to compromise a little and recognize that while perfection is beyond our reach, producing a well written story isn’t. We have to write (and finish) it, improve it with revisions, get it thoroughly critiqued, revise it some more, then, even if it’s not quite perfect (and it won’t be), send it out into the world. Omitting any of the necessary steps dooms us to the rank of real estate ‘looky-loos’, ever dreaming, but never taking action to help the dreams become reality.

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What do you do with used books?

That’s my question of the day. I seldom read novels a second time. Some I may want to refer to while doing writing research — i.e., why was the opening effective or ineffective, or how did the author make the protagonist so real? Those books stay in my office. But most other books, secular or Christian, end up stored on the shelves of an empty bookcase upstairs in the guest room.

At one time, just prior to summer vacations, we would gather up all the paperbacks and head for a secondhand bookstore to trade them for fresh holiday reading. I’m not sure when that habit fell by the wayside, but it got harder to part with volumes. Now the shelves are nearing capacity and I realize I’ve become a book hoarder. It doesn’t seem to matter if I loved or hated the stories. The books have taken up permanent residence here.

Oh, I’ve donated a few duplicate volumes to our church library… reluctantly. God may love a cheerful giver, but when it comes to handing over my books I mumble a lot… even grumble a little. Besides, our church library’s shelves are pretty well filled already.

I like sharing a good book, but I’d much rather stick a nameplate inside and lend it out myself. That way I can stare deep into the eyes of the borrower and make sure I’m acknowledged as the rightful owner to whom it will dutifully be returned. Very ungracious of me, isn’t it?

As the bookcases around my house begin to bulge, however, I’m either going to have to cull books or buy a bigger house, and the latter isn’t going to happen. My hubby assures me our next move will involve downsizing.

Do you have any advice or innovative suggestions for me? What do you do with your used books?

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A Sense of Home… in life and writing

Home. It means different things to different people. For some the word brings a building to mind, or perhaps a country. For others maybe it’s more abstract… a yearning for the place of a childhood long past.

For many more it’s a refuge from the demands of the world… somewhere to retreat at the end of the busy workday.

That’s my house up there on the left in the ‘Google Earth’ screenshot. I admit it doesn’t look like much from this perspective – a blob in a clearing carved out of our two-and-a-quarter acres of woods and marsh – but it’s our little sanctuary.

Last week my hubby was in hospital, and after a “Code Blue” episode I recall a moment when I prayed, “Please let him come home.”  For me, home meant safely back within the security of our family unit. God could have interpreted that request quite differently. I’m very glad he didn’t ( ! ) and hubby is now here at home with us and recovering well.

We’ve lived in fourteen different places during our 50+ years of marriage – in an assortment of apartments, church manses, and houses that we’ve owned. Each one became our home.  People like to say, “Home is where your heart is,” or “Home is where you hang your hat.” Personally, I think home is anywhere that God is a welcomed presence within the family, as he is here.

For those of you who are writers, whether you’re writing Christian fiction or not, what part does home play in your stories? Is it just a generic backdrop or have you established a personal sense of home for your characters?

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Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.
My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

John 14:23 - NIV

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Different Reflections

With sunshine comes shadows, but today I also noticed reflections. The leaded glass in the front door sent rainbow bits skittering across the wall.

When I pulled out the camera to capture them, I realized there were several surfaces reflecting other things — the trees beyond the deck reflected in its puddles; a corner of the livingroom reflected in the foyer mirror; the room itself, reflected in the windows.

Reflections, whether visual or thoughtful, give us a new and different perspective of familiar things. I’m not the introspective type, but recently have had reason to spend more time in reflection. Life is a mixture of sunshine and shadows. We can mutter about the dark parts, or we can search for the rainbow bits.

That’s true for our fictional characters, too. In my first novel (one that will never emerge from the dusty depths of my closet) the protagonist suffered life setbacks that drove her into depression. She spent most of the story trying to find a way to overcome her difficulties, but her efforts were overshadowed by negativity and it was a gloomy read. After scanning its back cover blurb, even I wouldn’t be likely to pick up such a book.

In a blog post two years ago I mentioned that shadows enhance the highlights. (If you didn’t read that post you can find it here.) I’m not suggesting we should enjoy the shadows, but it helps to appreciate what they can accomplish. So, too, with reflections. They help us see things in ways that may change our outlook.

I try to remember that when I’m suddenly dropped into the shadows, and also when developing characters in my stories. They need both sunlight and shadows to give depth to their personalities and to their perception of situations. None of us lives constantly on a single bright (or dark) plane, and neither can our characters.

How do you balance sunlight and shadows in your writing?

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Baseboards and Oversights

Our house has baseboards, and today my hubby is taping above them in preparation for repainting. Baseboards are one of those things I’ve always taken for granted. Don’t they just run around rooms in straight lines to tidy up where walls meet flooring? Who knew they have to fit around so many corners and into so many out-of-the-way nooks and crannies to do so?

It’s a little like all the details that go into polishing a story. Inconspicuous but essential items that pull everything together, tidying up fictional versions of jagged gyproc edges and stray carpet fibers.

I’m surprised at how many messy bits I catch during revisions – the obvious discrepancies like the protagonist who has copper-coloured hair in one chapter and burnished blonde in another, or the child who can’t reach an item on a kitchen counter but has no trouble using the sustain pedal at his piano lesson. Obscure references to distances and time can blow your credibility, too. I had a character taking a flight from Vancouver to Toronto. She had a leisurely breakfast with her husband before leaving for the airport, and she miraculously arrived at her destination in time for a mid-morning meeting! (It’s a five-hour flight.)

Messy bits detract from a good impression of an otherwise well constructed story, just as much as dented, paint-spattered baseboards do from an otherwise tastefully decorated room.

Have you discovered any messy mazes in your current WIP that would have confused a reader, or has a critique partner or editor ever pointed out an embarrassing oversight?

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The Squirrel Saga Continues (aka Knowing when to quit)

There are times in this life as a writer when I want to toss the manuscript into the trash and stomp away. But I don’t. Not literally, anyway. I’ve been well warned about those moments, so I dutifully ‘save’, ‘close’, ‘quit’, and then stomp away. You know those times, don’t you? Please tell me you do — those write-for-an-hour-and-delete, write-for-another-hour-and-delete-again days when you’ve tried every approach you can think of and nothing works.

Our squirrel was back this morning… the one I mentioned last Friday. My hubby had put up another bird feeder so the bigger birds could more easily access the seed. We figured it would satisfy the squirrel, too. Not so.

Hey, this is new… but the other feeder still looks more intriguing.
If it’s that hard to get at, it must be really good.

There has to be a way to reach it!

Whoops!!! I just about hit the ground again!

Hang on a minute. I’m getting an idea.

I’ll call in a favour and get her to try. Surely she won’t slide off it like I always do… oops!

Well, that’s it then. I know when it’s time to call it quits.
Maybe I’ll go look for a pine cone peace offering instead.

Sheesh! What knuckleheads! All that work and then they discarded this good stuff.

So no, I’m not going to toss out those hard-won words. But I might need to think them over for a bit… maybe ask a critique partner for advice. Or just give it some time and work on something else. What do you think?

What do you do when nothing seems to be working… when the right words won’t come and the wrong words drive you to exasperation?

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Wednesday’s Words of Worship: Life Shadows

Writers know a lot about insecurity, rejection, disappointment and discouragement, but I don’t suppose there is anyone whose life at some time hasn’t dipped into the shadows. The reassurance and confidence expressed in this hymn remind us of God’s promises. He said he would always be here for us even when shadows make it difficult for us to see him. We can depend on that. Great is his faithfulness!

 His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness. 

Lamentations 3:22-23

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How’s your week going? Some of you have been particularly on my mind, so this is just a bit of mid-week encouragement to keep you going until Sunday rolls around again.

Great Is thy Faithfulness
(Chisholm / Runyan – 1923)

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Squirrel! Squirrel!

I sometimes wonder at a squirrel’s mentality. Does he think at all, or simply react to survival needs? The Douglas squirrel is a regular around here… one or two of them come by periodically to investigate the state of our birdfeeder.

Last spring the bears demolished the feeder that had attracted a good variety of birds as well as fed our squirrels, so this winter my hubby replaced it. The one he chose is touted to be squirrel-proof, and for the most part, it is, but it’s almost bird-proof, too. It lacks the surrounding cage that would provide a toe-hold and has much smaller perches, large enough only for chickadees and juncos. They reach into the tiny openings to extract their morsels and there is virtually no spillage for those who normally would forage for leftovers on the ground below.

Was our squirrel deterred? Of course not. He leapt from the railing, only to find nothing to grasp and thus fell back to the deck. He climbed the side of the house and jumped across to the rounded and slippery plastic top. When he reached over the side, he slid off and landed several feet below, on the ground.

He came via the roof next time. He disappeared briefly into the gutter and reappeared right over the birdfeeder. He leaned precariously out towards it, but it was still out of reach. So he readjusted his position and instead, clinging to the plastic edge of the gutter with his feet, grabbed a chunk of the nearby suet and clambered back into the gutter to enjoy his snack.

There’s a writing application here.

Determination coupled with persistence pays off. You may not always get what you originally hoped for, but if you keep trying, success in a different form may be within reach. Give up and you’ll get nothing.

My ‘One Word’ for 2013 is DETERMINATION. I will be reminded of it every time the squirrel comes to visit!

Have you chosen a special word for this year? What will it take to motivate you when you need renewed effort to reach your goals? 

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You might enjoy this YouTube video. It’s one in a series of four which provide a fascinating study of a very determined (or perhaps just very motivated) squirrel.

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And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap,
if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

 
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction,
that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures
we might have hope.

Romans 15:4

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