QOTW: Novels are Hard.

In response to Ann's question: All of the above.

But to be more specific, of the choices given, I pick middle. The middle is hard because usually when you begin a novel you have an idea about the premise, which gives you a clue how to start the thing. Like a lot of people I tend to start too soon, but it isn't hard--wrong? Yes. Hard? Not so much. Same for the ending. If you tend to write mostly chronologically (as I tend to so far), by the time you've muddled through the middle, the ending is less difficult, at least, in terms of HOW it happens.

But the middle. It's the bridge. It's the juicy filling. It's the part between slices of bread. And it's hard because this is where I tend to wander off into the desert and take detours and forget that I'm supposed to be going THERE. So the middle ends up being a huge mess, mostly, for many drafts. At it's best, it is an exploration of themes with some good stuff to keep for the later drafts (only to throw it out later because you realize it really really really doesn't belong after all, but I digress--see? I'm bad at this). At its worst, the middle is a convoluted, disorganized, wretched annihilation of things like character development, through lines, and yes, the English language itself. Me no like middle. Me afraid of middle.

My solution is to write a novel with no middle. Yep, just a really long beginning attached to an equally long ending. Now that was easy. Endings I can do.

Question of the Week

When writing a novel, which part do you find the most difficult: the beginning, the middle, or the end? Why?

Summer Goals, Schmoals by april

I'm writing my fingers to the bones so far this summer (given I've got skeletal fingers, anyway, I suppose that's not sooo bad...), but let me just say right now: my writing is under the Gun! Forced, I tell you! Debbie and I are collaborating on a book about AGING (as if...look at us, people: are we not Youth on a cracker?) Anyway, Debbie will not let me rest. She may look all innocent and sweet, but under all those freckles lies a chariot driver with a whip-pen. (I'm the tarred-and-feathered one being pulled behind)
Somebody!
anybody.
please...
help

Goal-Setting, Summer Edition

--Debbie's View

Generally speaking, I'm more Eeyore than Pollyanna. But for some reason, when I sit down to set goals, my dormant inner optimist comes to life and takes over. She has a tendency to craft grandiose plans formatted with headings, subheadings, and sub-subheadings. Little surprise that I never make it even half way through these unachievable checklists of delusion.

So, for my summer goal-setting, I've given my inner optimist a wallop. While she's out cold, here's my pragmatic side setting some simple, do-able goals:

1. By the end of July, finish a first draft of Face It, a project I'm working on with April.
2. In the waning days of July, blow the dust off Grand Canyon, my YA novel manuscript. Work on this manuscript during our August writing group retreat. Continue to work on it during August.
3. Finish and revise Gonna Make It Through, a rhyming picture book manuscript I'm currently working on.

That's it. Now I'm off to wave the smelling salts under Pollyanna's nose.

Getting Around to Goals

Lori's

Here are my summer goals, in no particular order:

1. Get a handle on WIP revisions

2. Begin those revisions

3. Declutter finished portion of basement (Paint?)

4. Read The Taming of the Shrew

5. Read a few grown-up books (maybe even a classic?)

The progress on one and two will significantly influence the progress on the rest. A friend of mine says, "Motivation doesn't exist." For a want-to-be-lazy person like myself, this is a helpful philosophy to live by. It takes a certain mysticism out of the accomplishment equation.

Once, when I was on vacation as a kid, we went to one of these souvenir shops where they sell all kinds of useless things including "Round Tuits." These were wooden coins with the words "Round Tuit," printed on them. The joke was, if you're a person who's planning on doing something "when you get around to it," well, here's one for you. No excuses now, by golly, you've got yourself a one hundred percent authentic wooden Round Tuit! I remember the elderly man who sold them getting a real kick out of explaining these valuable "coins" to the unenlightened.

I didn't find it very funny as a child, probably because there wasn't anything I was particularly trying to get around to doing. But now, I kind of wish I'd kept one of those Round Tuits. You know, just in case it would be helpful.

Summer Goals

by Ann

I was just about to write about my summer goals on my own blog. Great minds think alike, Lori. :-) I might as well post them here instead.

1. Find a way to like my W.I.P. again.
2. If successful, go to goal 3; if unsuccessful, go to goal 5. (I wish I could make a flow chart in Blogger.)
3. Finish the 5th draft of my W.I.P.
4. Work through Darcy Pattison’s Novel Metamorphosis book.
or
5. Work through Darcy’s book with my former W.I.P., a multiply-rejected, upper-midgrade novel.

Question of The Week

This week's question is: what are your goals for the summer? What do you want to accomplish, writing or otherwise? Post it here now--in August we'll do an "update week" so you can let us know how you did.

The Zero Draft

by Kay

It isn’t a rough draft I’m writing. It’s barely in this reality from some twilight place downstream of dreaming, waking, and hysteria. If I call it a zero draft and keep saying “Just get it down, you can fix it later” over and over, I have a fighting chance. I find drafts excruciatingly easy to abandon when the fear factor rises.

The people in McDonalds think I’m pretty strange. They also claim that some day my table will be famous. More likely it than me, probably.

The astute reader will notice that my posts are lagging behind the official QOTW posting "Week" but I won't use that famous quote as my comeback. Better. Never.

The Best Summer Ever

Kay’s view

When I was twelve, we lived for the entire summer on a 31 ft cabin cruiser. The marina was on an island in the middle of the St Lawrence River. I read books all day from one of the best kids libraries ever by riding the launch over to exchange books several times each week. To this day, a vacation of reading is still my favorite!

That same summer I also received a scholarship to attend a week-long painting class in town. My parents had planned to drive home for that week and could not change their plans. I don’t remember what I had to promise, but the upshot was that I spent a week on my own (the first ever!) with no more than a friendly neighbor’s occasional check up. I cooked, cleaned, took myself across the channel to class, painted a number of canvasses and tried hard to stay up past my bedtime (too tired!).

It was a glorious summer before seventh grade, when who you knew and who knew you, who spoke to whom, and peer pressure changed my world forever.

Twisted: A Learning Experience

Book Review by Ann

Twisted

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Viking (2007)

I enjoyed Twisted as a reader and as a writer. Laurie Halse Anderson tells an exciting, moving story. Her novel is a model for character development and plotting.

I don’t want to give too much away, but here is the basic premise. Tyler was a nobody at his high school until he defaced the school with graffiti – and got caught. His summer of public service has turned him into a tan, buff guy. Now people treat him differently and new opportunities arise, especially with the most popular girl in his school. Tyler also becomes the favorite suspect when other crimes are committed.

The characters are multifaceted. Tyler, Hannah (Tyler’s younger sister), Yoda (Tyler’s best friend) and Bethany (Tyler’s heart throb) each bear analysis. The voices ring true.

The plot is a great example of the chain reaction. The protagonist makes a decision, and other events unfold as a direct consequence of this action. Tyler spends the beginning of the book buffeted by fate until he decides to fix the situation for himself. A character who wants the job of protagonist must take charge.

I learned much from this book and highly recommend it.

P.S. The cover is terrific. Who could object to that dramatic right-handed helix?