Yo, Flicker.
I get that you have a really pointy beak
and that you feel an incredible urge to utilize it.
But could you maybe focus your energy on this suet?
Or on this telephone pole that seems made-to-order for head-banging?
Just not here, okay?
Thanks so much for your understanding.
It’s time to face reality.
The Winter Olympics have come and gone,
and I did not win a medal.
The Academy Awards have come and gone,
and, to my dismay, I did not win an Oscar.
Which can only mean one thing:
this is my year to win a publishing contract.
Right? Right!
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So I’m at about the halfway mark in my revisions
and am very pleased with the changes I’ve made.
I met with Claudia the day before I left for Florida
and went over the chapters I’d revised plus
mapped out a strategy for the next chapters.
Claudia said many nice things about my work
and pumped up my enthusiasm for pushing ahead.
I took my trusty notebook and pages on the plane the next day,
and worked and worked from those notes
(plus had a delicious margarita with my pb & j sandwich).
And I realized something:
I wasn’t wrong to love CLOSE TO HOME as it was written before;
it’s a great story with complex characters.
I really had created a good picture.
The problem was, the picture was slightly off.
Blurry and confusing in places.
But with Claudia’s help, I’m bringing the picture/story into focus.
So my big epiphany is that we should never say our manuscripts suck
(I’ve said that and other awful things, and am going to try hard to never say such things again).
The truth is, when you write a book, you’ve created a unique word picture.
A picture that no one else in the whole wide world could paint.
And while it is possibly true that you could have employed better word choice,
or maybe used those same words in a different order,
or given more thought to how and when your characters speak their words,
that stuff is all fixable.
Writing novels isn’t like photography.
If part of our stories seem out of focus,
we can go back in there to bring clarity.
I’m really, really glad I didn’t give up on CLOSE TO HOME.
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1) March 5 . . . + 2 mins 35 secs
2) March 6 . . . + 2 mins 35 secs
3) March 7 . . . + 2 mins 36 secs
4) March 8 . . . + 2 mins 36 secs
5) March 9 . . . + 2 mins 36 secs
By my calculations, that’s roughly 13 minutes of additional daylight in the next five days!
If I still lived in Anchorage, I’d be gaining another 29 minutes of daylight.
But I’ll take the 13 since those minutes come without mosquitoes.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the longer days!
I’m a bit sad that most photos I took while in Florida
didn’t turn out too well because of my lens limitation.
But the images I captured are enough to revive memories.
They help me remember the laughter and oohs-and-ahhs
I shared with my sister, brother, and nephew.
As I look at this Great Blue Heron taking flight,
I’m not only grateful for the gift of Kapok Park and time spent with family
but am also inspired to get back to my CLOSE TO HOME revisions.
© 2010 Tracy Abell
I’m going to flap my wings and soar into literary greatness.
Or something like that.
Am back from Florida trip.
Was at mother’s along with three siblings and one nephew.
We had many nice moments including laughter and teamwork
as we sorted through years of stuff.
But we also experienced some nastiness and angst.
At some point during the weekend
my sister’s husband came upon this painting at MOMA,
FAMILY PICTURE by Max Beckmann,
and forwarded it to my sister.
He said it reminded him of us:
It’s true that the painting has the exact number of family members.
But the trouble is,
my siblings and I all laid claim
to the one member leaning on a hand.
Staring into the flames.
Just a quick note
to say I’m in Florida.
Rainy this morning but sunshine expected tomorrow.
Many cool bird pics, though.
Can’t wait to share.
Hope you’re all having a sun-shiny weekend.
Zebu had a game last night,
the first in the end-of-season tournament.
I did not go.
I am so glad I did not go.
Zebu’s team won but the opposing team and opposing team’s "grown-ups"
apparently behaved atrociously.
Blatant fouls.
Poor sportsmanship.
Shouts and jeers.
Taunting.
Pounding hands and stomping feet during free throws.
Overall ass-hattery.
As Zebu, Wildebeest, and Zippy described the game,
I kept saying, "No way. They did not do that."
Especially in regards to the parents’ behavior.
I’m not sure why I’m sharing these details.
Maybe I’m hoping one of you has a magic remedy for dealing with this stuff
since Zebu plans to play basketball in high school,
and I’ll undoubtedly be faced with more of the same.
Have you encountered this during your kids’ sporting events?
If so, how do you cope?
I checked the thermometer and it read 51 degrees.
So I stopped work on CLOSE TO HOME
and changed into my hooping togs.
There on my dry-concrete patio,
surrounded by snow piles,
beneath the blue sky,
bathed in sunshine,
I hooped.
As I gazed up into the sky,
I saw a red-tailed hawk soaring and gliding.
Instead of thinking "Oh no, it’s Claudia! She knows I’m not working on my chapters,"
I smiled and watched her until she was out of sight.
Then I finished my thirty minutes of hooping.
Now I’m ready to get back to those chapters.
This is a bit random, I know.
But Zippy brought home this coupon book several weeks ago.
And it’s now on my refrigerator
because I love this little boy.
His essence comes through his eyes and smile,
and I feel a lightness inside me every time I look at him.
I just wanted to share.
As I revise CLOSE TO HOME with Claudia’s help,
I’m grateful for her insights and encouragement,
But I’ve realized something else this mentor program gives me:
deadlines.
I’ve mentioned my aversion to adding new scenes.
My natural inclination in these situations is to
delay,
dawdle,
and defer.
I can be a world-class procrastinator.
But procrastination isn’t a great game plan for the mentor program.
I’m now accountable to Claudia Mills.
I’m not saying Claudia gives off this vibe:
© 2010 Tracy Abell
However, I did make an agreement with her to turn in a certain number
of chapters by this Wednesday.
And I don’t want to disappoint her.
Or ruffle her feathers.
She’s kind
but she’s also determined.
It’s best to honor our agreement.
© 2010 Tracy Abell
Okay, maybe not quite.
But close.
Have a great weekend, and run the other way if you see Boris and Natasha!
I spent the past thirty minutes putting together
an entry about today’s Denver Post editorial.
My head was about ready to pop off.
That wasn’t a good feeling.
So I went to the funny pages and found this:
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis
Have a nice, non-head-popping-off day!
Way back when in high school I tried out for the basketball team.
Despite being one of the tallest girls in the school and quite athletic,
I didn’t make the cut.
(Did I mention I also had a bit of an attitude and a big mouth?)
(This is the 2006 Canadian team)
So instead of basketball, I curled for two seasons.
And guess what?
I was really good.
I got to be the skip.
The skip tells the others where to throw their stones
and when to sweep.
In other words, I got to boss people around.
I like to point that out whenever I hear someone dissing shuffle board on ice.
I wrote a synopsis last fall
that ended up being two pages with 1.5 spacing.
I felt pretty good about it.
Just found out I need to make it a one-page synopsis.
And not only do I need to shrink it,
I need to rewrite much of it to reflect the revisions I made afterward.
Anyone have a few words of wisdom?
Or a magical shrinking device?
Bueller?…..Bueller?
After my initial meeting with my mentor, Claudia Mills,
I had to make a decision about my main character.
I needed to decide how "mean and rotten" I wanted her to be.
Claudia pointed out that as long as the reader
has a sense of the character’s pain,
they will accept less-than-loving attitudes and behaviors.
Some of the actions I brainstormed for my main character
were really and truly rotten.
Those actions would undoubtedly ramp up the story’s conflict
and create huge potential for dramatic pay-off.
I thought and thought about this girl and what she was about.
Then I read a middle-grade novel that’s received lots of buzz and an award.
The main character is mean.
Really mean.
And even though the author did reveal the main character’s pain,
the emotional scale felt way out of balance.
That character’s pain wasn’t enough for me
and I had no sympathy for her.
In fact, I was a wee bit pissed off when I finished that book.
Obviously, there are many, many people who love it.
I’m just one reader.
But that book helped me decide:
I do not want CLOSE TO HOME told in the voice of a mean and rotten character.
Will my main character be perfect?
Absolutely not.
Will she say and do some bad things?
Absolutely.
My job is to to do right by this character,
and I’m going to work hard to find the perfect balance for the emotional scale.
May your weekend hold much good stuff,
and go easy on the saliva.
© 2010 Tracy Abell
It’s official.
I simply loathe adding scenes during revision.
That’s what I’m working on now, and yesterday
it took The Grackle’s penetrating gaze to keep me on task.
I’ve been thinking about why writing new scenes is so hard for me,
and the best I can come up with is that this manuscript has already been worked so much,
the storyline and characterization feel set in stone. Solid.
(Note: solid does not preclude shitty-in-places).
So even though I know the story will be stronger with the additional scenes,
it still requires a huge shift in my writing brain to insert new stuff into my characters’ lives.
My friend, Pam Mingle, recently told me
she loves writing new scenes during revision.
And that she prefers new scenes to tinkering with what’s already there.
Clearly, opinions run the gamut from Loathe to Love.
Where do you fall on the spectrum?
Wasn’t on task as much as I would’ve liked yesterday.
Today will be different.
The Grackle will make sure of that.
© 2010 Tracy Abell
If you get stuck, feel free to stop by again for your own dose of Grackle Motivation . . .
Tara Grogan-Stivers, otherwise known as , is a breast cancer survivor.
You can read her story here.
Tara is raising money for the Susan G. Komen 3-day Breast Cancer Walk in Seattle.
Mandy Hubbard, otherwise known as , is helping Tara’s efforts
by auctioning off a full manuscript critique.
Full details on Mandy Hubbard’s fabulous critique offer.
Please check it out.
If you’re not interested in a critique, you may donate via Tara’s Fundraising Page.
Also, feel free to share this info and help spread the word.
Go, Tara!
Last week I promised to share some insights
from my mentor, Claudia Mills.
Claudia is helping me revise a middle-grade novel
about two girls, one homeless and the other, not.
The first time I met with Claudia, she praised my
"wonderful sense of the shifting terrain of interpersonal
dynamics and psychological nuance."
But, it turns out my sensitivity and attunement to my characters
is also the main stumbling block in my story.
Claudia went on to write in her comments:
"It’s that you are SO good at psychological nuance that I sometimes
felt as if I were watching a ping-pong match . . . feelings were shifting
back and forth with such frequency that I lost sense of where
we were in the overall shape of the story."
She was absolutely right.
And I have a feeling some of my earlier readers had that same issue
(whether or not they were able to articulate it that way).
So that’s what I worked on in my opening chapters
(plus some other issues regarding initial conflict).
I focused on the psychological dynamics in each scene,
watching for the ping-pong effect.
I wanted to build tension in each of my story’s relationships.
I worked and worked.
Last week I met with Claudia to discuss the revisions.
While I nailed the revisions of the initial conflicts,
it turns out I’d written some more emotional ping-pong.
I was frustrated with myself,
and as we talked, I wondered if I’d ever fully grasp what she was saying.
I mean, I’m a hyper-sensitive person and I feel lots of emotions all the time;
I wasn’t sure if I could write characters any other way.
And then Claudia said this:
Your task is to give yourself room to build.
Cue the epiphany music!
I cannot write scenes in which characters’ feelings
jump all over the spectrum from one moment to the next.
Even though they might feel that way inside,
I can only allow their emotions to move incrementally within each scene
so that there’s somewhere for them to go as the story progresses.
For example, if I write a character expressing full-blown anger
toward another character in the opening chapters,
there’s not a lot of room to maneuver the emotions of their relationship.
I need room to build.
It’s as simple as that.
(This was taken yesterday afternoon and somehow the imagery feels right for this post). © 2010 Tracy Abell
I met with my mentor yesterday.
The good news is, she loved what I did with the opening scene.
Bad news, I continued to make some of the same mistakes
she’d pointed out after the first read.
I’m going to share her insights with you next week.
For now, I just want to say I’m looking forward
to when all that sad, dead-looking foliage
outside my window comes back to life.
In the meanwhile, here’s a clematis from my patio last summer:
Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.
Five days ago I posted this photo of our brand-new yet lonely birdbath:
This morning, Carolyn asked via Facebook if we’d had any visitors yet.
I didn’t have time to respond in the negative since I had an appointment,
but when I got home I went to the window and checked out the situation.
The bird bath was empty.
Or was it?
Feathers!
I got my camera and was photographing the feathers
as proof of avian visitation,
when suddenly . . .
a bird appeared in the bath!
And here she is:
Our back yard is now officially a happenin’ place in the bird world!
Thanks for asking, Carolyn. I think you’re magic!
I’m messing with my LJ tags today
and am wondering if anyone
has a magic bullet.
You know, some sure-fire method
to consolidate and organize.
For instance, how do you handle
all your writing-related posts?
I’m breaking down my Writing tag
into more specific tags
(for instance, Writing – plot),
and so far like this approach.
But then there are posts
here and there I can’t quite categorize.
This LJ project is beginning to feel a bit like
cleaning papers off my kitchen counter:
I usually make decisions and take action on most everything,
but never quite make the entire pile disappear.
I fear it will be the same here on the blog.
(Which makes me want to sing "Home, home on the blog…")
While waiting for mentor feedback,
I have gone back to another project.
Not having much fun.
It’s hard getting back in this story’s flow.
I feel exceedingly rusty
and wonder if I need a jolt from the oil can,
a bit of courage,
or maybe just a little faith in the journey.
Tracy Abell 