This Much is True

There’s lots of these going around but you know my ears perk up when it has anything to do with writing and publishing so here’s the latest (that I’ve seen) Sh*t such and such say. This time with extra funny for me.

I like to think that I ask people to read my manuscript because I want to make it better. Of course, the part of me that loves the book, wants them to love it too and to just say, “oh, but it’s perfect the way it is”. That’s the part you have to let go of because your manuscript is not perfect. It is not perfect and you want to make it better. You have to remind yourself of that. Read the rest of this entry »

Besides your first reader, you also need other trusted readers to look at your work. At least that’s what works for me. First reader then two (or more) other people who have become trusted readers for me. Maybe you want to have them all do it at once or maybe you think your first reader is enough. That’s great. For me, like I said in part 1, my first reader is also my cheerleader. My other trusted readers are too and I trust that they want to help me make my book better. They are writers who I trust and whose opinions matter a lot to me. They are more critical and I am, quite frankly, more scared of them because they throw the book at me. Figuratively, of course. They look for details writers should notice like point of view or tense problems, plot holes, fake sounding dialogue, description problems, and character motivation and consistency.
Read the rest of this entry »

Stephen King and I have a couple of things in common. Unfortunately my books don’t immediately (or ever, so far) hit the bestsellers list but we do both have thick glasses and our spouses are the first ones to read our books once we’ve finished writing them. Stephen’s wife, Tabitha, is the person he always looks to for that important first opinion and so it is with me and my husband. You don’t need a spouse to be a first reader but you do need someone you trust to be that first reader. And not someone who will just say he or she loves it because they love you. A first reader needs to be honest as well as critical.

Like I said, my husband is always my first reader. I pass him a manuscript when  Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, so I’m going to have to put TiNoWriMo down as a fail. Obviously, I don’t do well without a solid goal, a challenge and a number I can see and measure. Of course, I did give myself the general goal to write more this month and I have but, as I told you in the last post, that’s not saying much. I think I was a bit burned out from writing a first draft of a novel in less than five months. Yes, I know I did one last year in one month but that one wasn’t as good a complete draft (but is a great idea and a book with real potential I need to find the time to get at since it is very timely and, as far as I know, has never been done before anywhere). The draft I finished in early September was much better and it should be because I got a grant from the lovely and fabulous Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council to write that draft and now, I am pleased to say, just received another grant to complete the novel. This is a real show of faith when they give you money and think your project is worth funding. It is quite the morale boost for me and I am tickled and thankful. As for writing more, I know this will happen now because I have had a break away for a bit and been picking at Unnamed Fun Novel so getting back to work on Rewriting History will be great. I have a renewed passion for it.

My second goal for TiNoWriMo was writing every day and that has been an epic fail. Completely measurable and for sure I didn’t do it. What else is there to say? Excuses, yeah, I have them but so does everyone and I had way worse get in my way last year during NaNoWriMo and succeeded so excuses don’t matter now.

I hope all the NaNoers out there are doing better than I’ve been doing and, if you’re behind, don’t give up. Now is the time to change your main character’s name to something long and unwieldy. The longest name ever, according to the websites I searched this morning, is Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Jack Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorft Senior. If you really need it to catch up, take it and run. And if people say you’re not playing fair, ask them where their novel is.  Write on!

Last year this time, I was starting NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) as thousands of others are this year. I made it clear last year that I didn’t think I’d ever do it again. Not that it wasn’t a great thing to challenge myself and to force all my writing muscles to work hard but it just didn’t seem the best use of my time. This may change if I ever get around to editing the book I wrote then and it goes anywhere but for this year, I am content to not paricipate in NaNoWriMo. But, I have decided to start my own writing goal this year and it’s TiNoWriMo–Tina’s November Write More. I gave myself a goal of writing every day in November and writing a lot more than I have been of late (which, quite frankly, wouldn’t take much). I was going to give myself the goal of writing 50,000 words this month in my various works in progress but decided against it. A word count goal means typing which takes away time from writing or means I have to type while I write which stifles me. I could count all the words I write in longhand but that seems a giant waste of time. This writing every day thing works for me as I would usually write a couple of thousand words at a setting anyway so it should work out. Finding extra time to write is my goal and also getting those writing muscles built up again. So if you’re doing NaNoWriMo, good luck and don’t give up. You can do it! And if you just would like to write more, feel free to join up for TiNoWriMo. Or make your own NoWriMo. It’s about what works best for you so get at it!

I am so excited that I’ll be off to Halifax this weekend to take part in the Word on the Street Book and Magazine Festival in Halifax. I’ll be flying in on Saturday and then taking part in the festival on Sunday. I’ll be on the Nova Scotia Main Stage at 12:30 on Sunday, September 26th and am thrilled to be sharing the stage with Russell Wangersky and Darren Hynes. Of course, you know me, I’m already nervous too but strangely a panel situation makes me feel a little less nervous than just straight standing up and reading. I’ll be terrified on Sunday, I know, but once it gets going, I’ll be fine. I know Russell and just his being there will probably make me feel more relaxed (one can only hope). Plus, my husband is going with me too and he’s the best in the world at calming me down when I’m nervous. So, if you’re in the Halifax area, come on by and say hi. I’ll be signing copies of A Few Kinds of Wrong (and this much is true, I assume) after the event as well.

I’ve always written with music in mind, even if I don’t always write to music. All my books have soundtracks full of songs that inspire me or make me understand a scene or character. Early ones were on mixed tapes, then CDs and now there is the oh so easy to change, iPod (Touch) playlist. One of the novels I’m writing now has become firmly planted in my soul now because I have a playlist for it. That’s how I usually know that a novel is working for me–when I find myself hearing music and thinking of the characters and can then make a playlist.

Last week we were listening to music over supper preparation and eating and I put my new novel’s playlist on shuffle. My husband listened and, after keeping quiet for a while (we’ve had many discussions over my odd and varied tastes in music over the years, some out loud and some said with surly looks at me), he finally said, “what is this?” I told him it was the playlist for Rewriting History and he seemed satisfied with that. A few songs later though, he spoke up again. “Um,. I don’t get this playlist at all. The songs don’t really seem to have anything in common.” I smiled and told him he didn’t understand how I make playlists.

As I’ve explained here before, I often write internally, frequently while on a treadmill or elliptical machine while listening to music. Many scenes, and almost all pivotal scenes, have a song or two associated with them, almost a music video that I can picture while I listen. But some songs on a playlist are more about a mood. They are sad and I can feel my character being sad through them, even if the lyrics don’t match a scene. Or they are upbeat and I can think of my character driving too fast while listening to them on a sunny day. Rewriting History has three main characters and the story is told through each of them so the Rewriting History soundtrack also includes songs I think each of them would like. Since the main characters are quite a bit older than me, they are not necessarily the songs I’d like but I think I can imagine my characters listening to them so that lets me understand them more. So, you can see how listening to a playlist that includes The All-American Rejects, Kris Kristofferson, Cher, the Tragically Hip, the Dixie Chicks, The Killers, and Billy Idol, (to name a few) might be confusing to my husband but for me, and for the people who live inside Rewriting History, it makes perfect sense. I just wish one of them didn’t like the Beatles so much. Maybe she’ll force me to become a fan yet if I listen to them enough. Maybe you will find that creating a playlist like this for your writing will help bring your characters new life.

The thing about blogs is that the more you post, the more you think of to post but the reverse is also true and most days I can’t think of much to say. Well, okay, I can but usually they would include long, rambling rants about things in the news or things that annoy me. And most of them probably annoy you too so you’d agree. Like the slaps on the wrists people are getting for everything from sexual assault to drunk driving to abusing children and animals.  So it becomes  kind of like the inane facebook groups I see all the time. Do I really need to publicly tell you I’m against the abuse of animals or cancer? Do you really want to hear my ranting about these subjects? Do you?

But it’s just a matter of getting back in the habit and I will definitely be blogging more because I have something to procrastinate and you know that writing blog posts is one of my favourite forms of procrastination. Much, much better than procrastinating by cleaning the toilet or deciding to gut out the toy box (which I just did). So what, you may ask, do I have to procrastinate? Well, I’m very pleased to say that the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council has kindly given me another grant. This time it’s for a new novel tentatively called Rewriting History (see, that’s where the title of this post comes from–I knew you were wondering).  And it’s not that I’m not enjoying writing this book. You know that. I just procrastinate the writing. Like if I let it stew longer and wait to put pen to paper, it will come out in a great flood of words, easy as rolling balls down a hill. And it does.

This new book is as much fun as I’ve had writing. There are three main characters whose lives are entangled in complicated and not nice ways. It is full of black humour so far and that will continue. But that’s about all I’m willing to say about it now. I hate talking about things like that when they’re new which is one of the disadvantages of applying for grants. In order to apply, you have to tell the Arts Council about your project and even include a writing sample, preferably from the book you want to write. You have to think ahead a bit and figure out what the book will be about. And I like to just have an idea and then see where the idea takes me. No plotting or mapping or anything. But I looked ahead, saw, in broad strokes, where the book would be going and worked hard on a writing sample. And now I have something to procrastinate.

I am also, perhaps as another form of procrastination, still revising my mystery/thriller novel which I first finished in 1997 and needed a good overhaul. And now is the time. It’s just one of those books that I had to hone the craft of writing a bit before I could go back and make it what it needs to be. But it’s very different, in tone and content than anything I’ve had published or the other book I’m writing so it’s an excellent form of procrastination for me.

So, that’s what I’m doing and that’s what I will be doing for the next while. And wrangling Ben, who really requires complete wrangling concentration (I had to stop writing this post so I could get him out of a dangerous situation AKA he was standing on his tippy toes on the edge of a chair saying “tada”). And helping Sam with homework, swimming , Tae Kwon Do and all the many other parts of his life. And  all the other stuff that I can either procrastinate or use as a form of procrastination, depending on the day and the mood. Like laundry. That’s measurable and I can definitely tell you I’m procrastinating that. Oh, and I’m reading an amazingly fantastic book but I’ll tell you about that on another day. For now, I have to go wrangle and procrastinate something. The one consistency in life is that there’s always something to do and always something to put off doing.

I’ve said here before that I like reading about the process of other writers. So, buying a book about writing or writers is always a safe bet for a gift for me, (you know, if you’re wondering) and my husband was certainly well aware of that. I usually give him lists of possible books I’d like and he can pick but one Christmas, after Sam was born, he gave me one I didn’t ask for, one that, the truth is, I was a bit taken aback to receive. It was one of a series of books I had kind of rallied against, had definitely ranted against. He bought me Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul. Now, I had nothing against the Chicken Soup for the Soul books when they started. Good bathroom book, probably, although I didn’t read them. Little stories, inspiring stuff, how could it be a bad thing? But then I started to see more and more of them and soon I felt my soul sucked away a little every time I saw a new one. There was something to soothe every soul. I think Chicken Soup for the Golfer’s Soul put me over the edge. I just googled and found titles like Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul and Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul. All souls, it seems, seek inspiration and the creators of the Chicken Soup series have really taken that to heart and maybe over the top.

So I took the book my husband had kindly bought for me and put it away, feeling a bit lesser for owning a Chicken Soup for the Soul book. But, as is often the case, my close-minded opinions are usually turned around to show me how wrong I can be and such was the case when I needed a book to read in the bath and there, in the pile was Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul. I was in the mood to read about writing so I picked it up. And I enjoyed the stories. But there was one in particular that changed things for me. Me, who at the time, had two novels completed and safely in a drawer, another two well on the way to getting finished and portions of more in boxes and drawers and shelves all over the place. Me, who had never tried to get any of them published. I read the story of Dierdre W. Honnold and her mother. Honnold’s mother wanted to write her own story, a novel, and it would sell big and they would be rich and famous, at least that’s what she kept telling her children. But as she got older, Honnold began to get impatient with her mother because she knew that in order to be a writer, you had to write. Talking about it wouldn’t do the trick. When her mother died, on a snowy night surrounded by family, Honnold wrote, “her book died too”. Her mother never followed her own dream to write that novel, and this inspired Honnold to write and to ensure that her children could read their mother’s stories.

So, there I was in the bathtub, tears rolling down my face as I read, and while some of my stories were no longer inside me, they’d made it onto the page, but they weren’t doing much in my drawer. And I was doing nothing to get them out in the universe. I knew that I didn’t want the little napping baby in the next room to ever think I had let the things I wanted to do, craved to do, die with me. And I started to write more and work harder on stories I liked. When my friend Kathy called me, later that year, to tell me I should pitch one of my books at the Pitch to the Publisher event at the Word on the Rock Literary Festival, I at first dismissed it outright. The thought terrified me. But Honnold’s story about her mom had stuck with me and inspired me to actually do it. The idea of my child not knowing my stories or that I’d even tried to follow my dream of having them published made me draft a pitch. And although threats from Kathy and my friend Pam to physically drag me to the Pitch to the Publisher were very inspriring and immediate, down deep the thoughts of having my books die with me someday, having never tried, was the real impetus to stand in front of four publishers and tell them about a partially finished novel called this much is true.

So, with book number two out there now, my youngest child points and says “Mama” when he sees the cover of A Few Kinds of Wrong. At almost two years old, he knows now, even before he has the words to understand it, that this is my story I wrote. And recently at school, that baby who’d been napping when I first read Honnold’s inspiring story, had a chance, during literacy week at his school, to write the name of his favourite author on a big piece of paper in the school hall. Two teachers–one who didn’t know me or Sam–contacted me to tell me how this sweet, six-year-old boy wrote “Tina Chaulk” on the wall.

So, don’t let your story, or the painting you’ve been dreaming of trying, or the poem you imagine writing for your child, die when you do. I really do know how easy it is to procrastinate, and I certainly know how hard and scary it is to try, but isn’t it scarier to have your story or your painting or whatever it is you want to do or create, die still inside of you? It was to me. I hope the idea gives you a kick in the pants to get going on your dream. Or maybe you’ve set about doing it already. If you have, what has inspired you to follow your dreams?