AFDOC 16

Thirty-two chapters and counting. Backstory and I have become the best of friends because I think I've figured out what to do with a lot of what I want to keep, how to express it and weave it and ignore it to make it work. I probably could have woven a rug with the amount of time I spent this week with backstory. I put aside the direct line to the end and went backwards, forwards and sideways - well you get the idea. I scanned the book from front to back with a somewhat jaded eye and found out the pacing and plot are moving forward in a somewhat logical manner. I've been so bogged down in the words and phrases and ideas of my critique buddies, I got lost.

High on my list of "thank my lucky stars" is Wanda, a member of my Wednesday Writers critique group. Wanda and I commiserated over being lost 3/4 of the way through the revisions of our novels, and I was reminded once again, that I'm normal {as normal as I get} and right on target with feeling frustration at this point. Thanks, Wanda. I was able to get in about eight hours of revisions after we talked. Up till then, I was ready to shove the whole thing under the bed, in the drawer, or maybe through the shredder, but I'm back on track now - a little wobbly but on the track headed towards the end of the first revision. Did I say FIRST?

David Madden's book on revising is chock full of examples of revisions made by some of the greats - Welty, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Joyce, Wolfe. It's so helpful to read what they orginally wrote and how they changed it and some of them kept making changes through the printing after printing. At least there's hope for me - if rewrites are what make you famous, I'm a shoo-in.

Everything I've said today makes about as much sense as this did, but what can I say? I'm living in the 50s for the time being. I've cautioned my family to watch me if I go into a carpet store. I might buy avocado shag carpet in this frame of mind.

Mahala

AFDOC 15

What a week this has been! Got 5 contest entries in and worked on AFDOC every day. I've always known I had a bit too much backstory, and I had moved some of it to active but didn't get the nod from my critique group, so I went back to the drawing board. Unfortunately, as in real life where I can't draw a stick figure, my writing drawing board was in a foul mood this week and all I produced was more backstory. I know how and why I want them to tie into the overall plot and drive the characters' personalities and decisions, but my brain wasn't in sort mode this week, so they're sitting on the page waiting for me to make a decision. Very painful to hit the now-what? wall so hard I couldn't even bounce but slid down it into a pile of pure-T frustration.


I pulled out David Madden's book Revising Fiction to get some serious studying done, but alas, it was not to be. I read the excellent passages and advice and repeatedly went outside and sat my not-so-usually-lazy butt down in spring fever mode and enjoyed all the green and pink and white in my yard while the cool breezes blew.




A 1950s reminder of what happened when the "tube" went to sleep for the night - apparently I'm in this mode because I can hear the humming in the background.

Mahala