Revision Day 1

Ok, so I forgot that yesterday was our office holiday party and, therefore, I did not begin my edit as planned. I begin today, after spin class.

Despite my minor freak-out session on Monday, I do have a revision plan and one I think might actually work for me.

I am going to read the darn thing from start to finish, making notes as I go. I am going to break down my draft into scenes and, because I enjoy speaking back and forth to my 3rd person self, I am going to ask questions:

1. Why does this scene belong in the book?
2. What is it trying to accomplish?
3. Does it accomplish it?

Every time I introduce a character, I am going to make sure this character lives up to the Owen Meany First Sentence.

Once I finish all of this, I hope to have a better idea of the arc of the story and how to make it work better.

Then I shall prepare a list of To Do's. There will be many, that I can assure you.

I'm rather excited about this whole 'revision' thing. How different it is from sitting down to a very white, very blank first page.

Why did you eat the Flan?

Tomorrow I begin what I fondly call: 'the dreaded edit'.

I took one month off from the novel and spent my time being French for a week, then eating a lot of cheese, going to spin class and watching people die on Grey's Anatomy. It's been fun!

But now it's time to get back into the weeds and follow all of Tim Gunn's marvelous advice to 'make it work' so I don't get 'auf'ed by a tall, blond, literary agent wearing lederhosen. (Wait. What?)

Problem is, I don't exactly know what I'm doing and it's making me slightly nauseous. I just opened the document for the first time in 30 days and I literally wanted to puke. (I'm sure this has nothing to do with the 5 pounds of chorizo I just consumed at our office holiday lunch.)

A lot of things started running through my head:

Melissa! You don't even have real chapters! (I write scene by scene and I don't know how to slap numbers on them.)

Melissa! You don't even have a title! (Seriously, I can't even think of one. Can you pitch a book called 'Untitled'?)

Melissa! One of your characters has supposedly been dead for 20 years and he's in the first 3 alleged 'chapters' of your book. (I'm sorry! I didn't even know he was dead until 250 pages in.)

I could go on. But I won't. Because I've already started speaking back and forth to myself in 3rd person and it's only going to get worse from there.

Melissa! Why did you eat that flan today at lunch?! (I don't know. I just don't know.)

The Pioneer Woman Cooks! And she writes too!

Guess what?! Tonight I am going to see The Pioneer Woman! I have been reading her blog for about 2 years now and she is one of my favorite writers.

I know she's better known for her blog and cookbook than as a writer, but it takes a lot of skill to write a blog and I hope that is never lost on people. She writes with incredible wit, honesty, and humour. And, perhaps more importantly, she has such a distinct voice. I consider a unique voice one of the most essential qualities a writer must have and when you find that voice on a blog, you want to go back to it day after day. I'm incredibly impressed with her following but, not surprised, given how strong that narrative voice truly is.

So, tonight, maybe I'll get to hear her real voice! Sometimes I forget that I live in a city of 8 million people. Because in a city of 8 million people, there's always the possibility I may not even be able to step foot in that Border's tonight. In a city of 8 million people, even a wristband for an event might not allow me to step foot in that Border's tonight. This issue actually deserves another post all together (Can you tell the city crowds are getting me down?)

But I digress...

Here's hoping I get to see the Pioneer Woman tonight!

Oh, and if someone has any tips for how I can shower at the gym with the wristband, let me know. I didn't think of that when the nice man at Borders slapped it on my wrist...

Do Not Resuscitate

Since I finished the first draft of the novel on November 15th, I told myself that there would be a nice period of rest for exactly one month. The novel had to sit and soak for a bit. It had to breathe. Honestly, it had to be nearly forgotten so I could come back to it with fresh eyes.

Decompressing from the launch of a big project at work, I told myself this would be a period of pure relaxation. I would not let the constant, gnawing thought: 'I should be writing' creep into my brain. At first, I found it a bit difficult. For the past year my evenings centered around finding time to write. The first couple of days I came home from work or the gym and I did what I would always do: quickly calculate how long it would take to eat before I could sit at my desk and go at it. I really wasn't sure what I would do with all of this new-found time. Don't worry though. Slowly but surely, I found something to do. And that, my friends, was this:

Watch Grey's Anatomy.

Watch twenty-one back to back episodes of Grey's Anatomy. With Season 6 pending in the queue.

About 2 years ago, I completely gave up on this show, despite it being one of my favorites. Something had happened. Something had snapped. I found every character incredibly annoying. I wanted nothing to do with the tumultuous Shepard/Grey relationship. And I hated the formula: patients coding at the end of every frickin' episode, Bailey or the Chief's motivational speeches, Izzy's sunny, happy, knit-a-scarf, personality.

Now, I simply can't get enough. Every time that heart rate flat-lines, I squeal with delight. I root during a motivational speech by singing Queen's 'We Will Rock You'. Seattle Grace is now host to a grueling marathon and I want to run more miles. I'm holding picket signs outside of Shonda Rhimes' doorstep screaming: GIVE ME MORE! GIVE ME MORE!

Instead of wondering how much writing time I can fit in, I wonder how many episodes I can watch before bedtime. I have dreams about transferring to pediatric surgery and who the new chief of cardio is going to be. I wonder if Christina Yang wants to be my friend. Or if I have to settle for Lexi Grey. [gasp]

On Dec. 15th, it will all end. I realize this is just a fleeting fantasy. Just a fling in the on-call room. But for now, I am completely caught up in a new and exciting story-line. And as my little novel sits and breathes, I consider calling it: McSteamy. [sigh]

P.S. I am two years behind the rest of the world. If you even so much as breathe a word of what happens on this show to me: I will kill you. And forge the Do Not Resuscitate form. Don't mess with me people. I am a woman on a rampage.

In which I learn my numbers but let other logic slide...

I would like to tell you a few things today. I've numbered them. So at least you know I can count.

1. I wore suede black boots in the rain this morning.

2. Yes. They were suede. Yes. It was raining.

3. I am wearing fluorescent, striped rain boots in the office.

4. I also wore them for an hour long presentation to the VP of Design.

5. Let me re-iterate. Not only are they shockingly fluorescent. Just to add insult to injury: they are also striped.

6. I used a broken $5 umbrella from Filene's Basement on my 10 min. walk to the subway this morning.

7. Tyler's sturdy, massive, golf umbrella sits dryly in a corner.

8. There is a good explanation for all of this but I'm still deeming the whole situation ridiculous.

9. You can too. I won't judge.

Tuesday Books for Writers! The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Before I begin gushing over this book, I'd like to propose something: As a writer I'm always looking for book recommendations that will help me with my writing. I've been in many writer's workshops and critique groups where someone recommends a book to me that they think is relevant to my work.

Instead of saying: 'This [type of scene] isn't working for me and here's ways you can fix it' (which is certainly helpful but not always effective). They can say: 'This [type of scene] isn't working for me and you know who does [type of scene] really well?' and proceed with a book recommendation.

An active reader/writer can do so much more with that!


So I'm trying to figure out how to make 'Tuesday Books for Writers' into a larger resource for writers. If anyone wants to participate in a 'Tuesday Books for Writers' blog post on their own blogs, let me know! I know there's some way to link them together that I plan to figure out soon. The only qualifications are that you have to have read a book you think might be relevant to somebody writing and tell them why. And, well, to be honest, most books have something redeemable, however small, that can be useful to a writer. So basically...the only qualification is that you have to have read something, sometime in your entire life. Thanks bunches.



The Adoration of Jenna Fox
by Mary E. Pearson
Read this book if you're writing:
A YA Novel
About Ethics in Medicine
A slow, deliberate revelation
A book that plays lightly with structure (particularly poetry infused in a long work)


I have to start off by saying that I was fascinated and compelled by this story. And I have to thank Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? for recommending it. Wowsa. I could NOT put this book down.

Which brings me to why it was soooo helpful as a writer to read this book. This book has a nice, compelling, slow, deliberate reveal. This is hard for me to say. But I am just going to say it. I'm pretty sure the pacing in this novel is simply perfect.

It builds so remarkably well, that I was absolutely blown away. It slowly leaks information and yet it drives plot forward at lightening speed. And when you get to the reveal, it does not disappoint. It's a whopper. Then we experience the reveal with more and more depth as it gets bigger and bigger. And it doesn't end there, people. Oh no. Just when you think it's all out there on the table, just when you think there's no where else to go, you're still compelled to go on. Because lawsie me, you've got to figure out how to cope with the reveal. And that's what the novel is really about.

The reason I find this whole thing so mind-blowing in its simplicity is because every book has a reveal, no matter how minor. Characters are keeping secrets left and right. And they are discovering things about the world like it's going out of style. If you can build to each and every reveal with the kind of power and force that this novel does, I think you'll be in amazing shape. I hope to be in amazing shape now that I've seen how well it can be done and how I can use the same pace and build in my own novel. It's such an easy thing to say: build to a nice climax or reveal. It's another thing to see it done so amazingly well.

Oh. And please go read this book immediately. It's an order. I'd even give you a copy. If mine didn't belong to the New York Public Library.

The Lisle Inn

Last February, I posted my Ode to Small Towns and mentioned the town of Lisle:

It also reminded me how amazed I had always been driving up to Ithaca, NY revelling in the small town of Lisle on Rt. 79 which is completely run down with it's dilapidated, abandoned buildings on its tiny main street. And despite the vacant, grey vibe that town always gave me, I found it simply beautiful. It was fascinating that it could be so intimate and yet spacious and empty all at the same time.

Thanks to Lost City I learned a little bit more about why Lisle was in this condition: A series of floods back in the 30's and the movement of people down South as NY became too costly to do business in. I also learned that I am not the only one who had a soft spot in their heart for this place. But, most tragically, I learned that the Lisle Inn, which I always considered a landmark on my journey to and from Ithaca year after year, burnt down this past week.

The reason I bring it up is because one of the settings in my novel is actually based on the town of Lisle, so I feel I must pay homage to it. It amazes me that a town in such ruin was able to inspire me. So much so, that I was able to create an entire world for my characters to nestle inside of.

The Inn itself always stirred the imagination. Who lived there? Who kept it up? Who would have wanted to stay there? It always seemed the Inn represented a place that was holding on to a false hope. For someone to visit. Or return.

I think there are many stories about this place that are still left to be told...