JUMPSTARTING TODAY’S WRITING SECTION

 

When writing anything other than a blog post or a short picture book text, as the saying goes— it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

 

Beginnings are easier for me, because they come in as a sort of voice with sentences formed that have wind beneath their wings. Watching a helicopter lift off would be a good analogy to the experience.

 

Endings have their own energy. Everything that came before is adding up, and the reflection of the opening hovers over-- projecting the outline of the runway to landing.

 

It’s the long middle that looms over like a gray cloud every time. The feeling that I have no idea where to go and my mind feels empty. How will I get through today's section? I have nothing.

 

A few years ago, when I knew I’d be writing middle grade novels not as a one-off fluke (my first) but every year after that, I devised a technique that works for me during those seemingly endless middle of the story writing sessions.

 

I end each writing session with an evocative sentence. One that charms me. One that hopefully intrigues a reader. One that does the job the very next morning when I sit down feeling I have nothing to say.

 

The same words writers conjure to draw the reader in serve to pull this writer into the next chapter, and off we go.

 

I resolved never to end a day’s session in a static place, and this helped me get to the finish line one section at a time.

 

If your artwork seems to move in starts and stops, perhaps try this way. It takes self-discipline to halt the vehicle just as it moves into a higher gear. But then, it takes self-discipline to write a long story, paint an oil painting, or compose a symphony.

 

It’s all good. Happy navigating the middles to you.

HOW DO YOU COUNT THE YEARS?

 

For most, the Gregorian calendar is their year-counter.

The number changes, and with it come the New Year’s Resolutions, the taking-account of last year’s hits and misses, and the sense of a new beginning.

 

For me the year begins September first.

 

The Jewish New Year is somewhat responsible for this conditioning, but more than Rosh Hashanah (sometime in September) it is the start of a new school year where I grew up.

 

Later, my kids’ school year signified all the projects I have promised myself I’d tackle once I had my weekday mornings to plan as I wish.

 

September first had become the start of writing a new novel, first draft to be done before the Gregorian calendar chimes a new number. (The rest of the year until June will include at least five drafts, with a few short stories during breaks between them.)

 

So here I am, deep in, and feeling both the exhilaration and terror of draft #1, praying the muse will not leave before the clock chimes midnight on December 31^st

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Happy New Year

DESCRIPTION in MIDDLE-GRADE NOVELS

 

Those who write picture book texts know that descriptive passages are best left out for the art. But what about novels for middle grade readers? They are (usually) not illustrated. Surely, there’s room for descriptive passages telling of landscapes, indoor settings and physical details of characters.

Time was, there were ample spaces in the narration for such. Something happened to change this. Middle Grade books written today are better served keeping descriptions to a minimum.

In fact, the how-to mavens insist that these passages are too “telly," an anathema to the show-don’t-tell principle of strong writing.

Descriptions also slow the action, and if there’s anything more verboten, it’s slow-moving  plot.

Then, there’s the matter of descriptions tending to quiet the tone, and “too quiet” is another no-no.

 

But-but-but you say. How is a setting to come alive? How would a character be more than their dialogue words? Does the young reader ever gets to smell the roses?

It isn’t that novels for young readers are to be devoid of all description, say the mavens. Just be economical. Have setting or physical characteristics be inferred by actions of dialogue. By all means, insert a sentence here and there pertaining to a descriptive detail. What a writer should avoid is long, languid, lulling descriptions we all read if we read the classic books of yore. La-di-da and all that.

It’s a reminder that we’re competing for shorter attention spans conditioned by video games and motion pictures.

 

I know this is solid advice, but it makes me sad. Some of the best writing I’ve encountered in my life bore the vestments of detailed descriptions that went on for pages. But the world of literary commerce has moved on.

 

Some months back, I served as a beta reader to a talented writing friend’s middle grade story, whose descriptive paragraphs were beautifully done. In my humble opinion, her strongest writing lay in those paragraphs. It hurt to suggest she might consider cutting them out or changing the way the settings materialized on the page. But nineteenth-century writing does not work well in the twenty-first century.

 

A new era requires new skills. No use fuming or crying about it.

The Month of Changes

 

October, like its mirror April, is a month of changes.

Days turn from pleasantly moderate to cold, only to abruptly switch to oppressive heat and back again.

Still air yields to wind gusts, before they leave to wherever blustery winds retire to.

In the San Francisco Bay area where I live, October is the month of earthquakes and great firestorms.

When it comes to planning on what’s next, this is a time of not knowing.

Which is why it’s the best time to start contemplating a new novel, and marvel at where the emerging story may go.

Because you never know.

Revision Cave: Deep or Dainty?

 

I’m holed up in revision cave, per feedback aimed to make my WIP better.

Revision cave is a dark place, with a light shining from a distant opening. Every day, I crawl a few steps further and the light gets a wee bit larger.

 

This revision is a tricky one. On the surface, the suggestions are minor. The plot doesn’t change, the characters stay, and the theme is as in the original.

 

But here’s the kicker: as I change one pivotal aspect, in this case— the physical setting, all of a sudden every little detail needs tending and amending.

 

So as the light streaming from the cave’s opening illuminates more, the need for changes isn’t lessened, but grows.

 

What began as a less than deep overhaul, has now earned three “D”s : Deep, Detailed, and razor- cut Dainty.

 

Doing my best not to drown over here.