Category: philosophy

Pen Women

National League of American Pen Women

I recently joined the Pen Women. It’s an interesting organization where (mostly) you need to have earned money from your artistic creations to join. Men can join; I forget the name they’re given.

Most of the women are advanced in years- I’m the youngest by a long shot. It was nice to show off my twins (pictures of my new daughter and copies of my new novel). We listened to a singer – songwriter talk about her journey with music and a couple of her original songs. She expressed interest in joining, and I really hope she does. She’s pretty interesting and I enjoyed her work.

At first I didn’t know there were three branches of Pen Women: Art, Letters, and Music. I qualify under letters as an author. I’m one of the few prose authors in the group qualified under letters. Most are poets and we have a few musicians and artists. They’re all distinguished women, however, and I appreciate spending time with them.

Does that make me distinguished by association? Now that’s an interesting thought.

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Hiatus

Getting used to a new baby is a marathon event. Everything narrows in focus to sleep, eating, and the short periods where neither is going on.

Amazing the things you learn, the things you don’t think about, and the things no one tells you in case you’d change your mind before you begin. Luckily, I have help around here. I’ll be back as soon as I can, promoting the book.

Until then…

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Novel Outline Template

A friend was looking for a template to outline a novel. Made me really think about these, but I’ve never used one. I started looking for one, but I don’t see anything like it.

I saw something similar on the software I plugged last week – mynovel.biz. They had templates for everything, including one called Hero’s Journey that you can see without purchasing the thing.

Does it make you wonder about novels written off templates? Are they the same? It feels like they ought to be different because each novelist takes a different tactic. Or is it part of the outlining process that makes things unique for each project?

I suppose we ought to remember this quote from the one site I did skim, “novelists are 20 times more likely to finish a novel with an outline than without one.” It definitely makes me think that outlining is worth the effort.

I’m sure next time I start a project I’ll finish the outline first! (Did I just say that out loud?)

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On Naming, Con’t.

The other problem I run into with names, is I am so picky about naming my characters.

For characters I like, they have to have a name that sounds one way and very appealing to my ears. (I can’t speak for my readers, but I’m sure they’ll have their say at some point.) For characters I don’t like so much, there must be names with a slightly different sound, but generally not a name I hate.

I know other author friends of mine use different techniques from random name generators to asking others to setting up polls to see what a character would be like. I’m often one to pipe up with a random name idea, and sometimes I get to see my naming efforts put into action. Names are a hobby of mine, and I enjoy them.

Sometimes I wonder if I’ll run out of names. I don’t like to give main characters too similar of names. However, it is a great place to use all those possibilities that I might have named a child if only I could get it past my husband. It might be a personal thing for me, but I didn’t want to name a character in a book and then my child the same thing, so I keep certain names in reserve.

For my latest novel attempt, one of the protagonists is named Allegra. It’s a beautiful name; it’s even with the trends because of the Italian derivation, but my husband hates it – if only because it has an allergy medicine associate with it. Dang pharmaceutical commercials! If not for you – I could’ve had an Allegra! As with all compromises, we’re working toward something else. No one can stop me from having Allegra live on as a character in my book, though.

Well, perhaps a publisher if that were the only stumbling block!

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On Names

So many times I’ve been looking at names, and found a book at the library that showed a different perspective.

Beyond Jennifer and Jason, Madison and Montana

The authors go through several different ideas to show how names evolve into what’s hot and what’s not – and sometimes why. I’m starting the section on TV and how we use these names for our children- not that everyone does it, but it influences us. More likely Soap Opera Digest than the TV Guide to pull some random new name.

I find that fascinating. I don’t really watch soap operas, other than a short stint as a teenager when someone was buried alive on Days of Our Lives. It was the first time it had been done, and I was intrigued by it. Then they dug her out and it really just wasn’t as interesting.

Back to the names, though. It seems like it might be interesting to skim the names of Soap Opera Digest and TV Guide to figure out what will trickle down into the general population as the next trend. Makes me wonder what it would take to bring a name in from a character in a book (or even a book-made-into-a-movie) as well.

The main character in The Art of Science is named Janie. It’s not a common name at all right now and it’s supposedly staying out of the norm. At least one of the characters is on the up-and-coming list, guess you’ll just have to read it to figure out who.

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Reading

A lot of writers I know talk about how important it is to read. We don’t always make distinctions on whether it should be good or bad pieces, or in our genre or not.

One of my friends started a goal to read a book in print every day. Then it started catching, and we’re all trying to remember that reading is a great way to learn. It isn’t just about emulating an author – we all have our own styles. It’s also about being inspired to be better, and keeping an example around to remind us what we’re working toward. It just makes sense, because books are what led us to want to be writers anyway.

I’ve read there is a time where it isn’t the best idea to be reading, but it’s only during a certain time period when writing a novel. The point was not to get discouraged because someone else wrote something better (that’s always going to happen) and not to give up. I think everyone who’s attempted a novel knows that point, and if reading changes how you feel at that point you should definitely give it up for a time.

Sometimes, however, I feel we get too wrapped up in our own stuff and forget to read the other things out there. How do we stay in touch with our target audience if we don’t know what else they’re reading?

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On Rejection

Sometimes I wonder, when I get a piece back, whether I should rewrite it right away, or try again at another market first.

I think part of the issue is some editors give you some feedback and others don’t. The one today mostly said “thanks for sending, but we’re not interested.” The one I got before said “hey, I really liked this, but it didn’t quite fit because of…”

Most editors don’t have time to send that kind of information back, I’m sure. I’ll just be glad for the ones I impress enough to get that kind of a note.

Like all writers, I struggle with rejection. I may do better than some – but sometimes it really gets to me. One of my friends talked about wanting to be good enough to not be laughed at – because sometimes when he and I talk about writing we can see how bad others are. Does that mean we’re great? Nope. We just try everything we can to be better.

Easiest thing to figure out is how to get the best grammar and punctuation possible. The harder things- where it start and end, characterization and moving that plot and conflict ever forward- well, I don’t know because I’m still learning all of it.

I just need to figure out how to make a consistent choice between rewrites and resubmits.

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Using Your Words

That reminds me of some of those movies where a mother-figure attempts to teach the children about swearing so they use other ways to express themselves.

It means something different to me as a writer. The pursuit of words keeps me occupied for hours. Some of them are common. Others are overused (and I do my best to fix that when I find the little buggers). A few are oddities that I stretch to find the proper fit for the picture in my head.

I don’t think it matters if you write for adults or for children – the audience can still learn and grow with your words. The comment on some of the words I use in the critique. One man loved that I used the word ‘hied.’ Another didn’t understand my use of the word tattoo – not meaning the graphic art on skin, but the pulsating beat definition.

The meaning must be clear, but using unfamiliar words isn’t the most important thing to me. Why is it that most adult fiction books are written at an 8th grade level for vocabulary? It’s not like the majority of the audience hasn’t completed higher education…

Just another thing to ponder.

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Wanting…

Do you ever feel like you want something bad enough just to make it happen with the power of your will? I have a list of things I ought to be doing, but sometimes I just think it’d be nice to have the baby and not be quite so uncomfortable and forget about the rest of it.

I clean and I’m proofreading my manuscript. It doesn’t feel like a lot to do in the few days of this week so far, but it does add up to a lot of time. Running errands as well, of course. Can’t get by without that!

I suppose if I were to invent something, I’d make the housework do itself. We had a joke going on about that in college, where we had a robot that’d do dishes and laundry and take care of every need so we could do fun things with our lives. Our group of friends even had enough engineers to design it. It must have been a lot more fun to talk about than actually do, because we never got farther than detailing the specs.

But if i get ambitious one day, I’ll just will it into being. Wouldn’t it be nice?

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Proofreading

I read through my book another time. Did we catch them all? Time will tell.

Sometimes I just get the feeling there will be a glaring error that we don’t find until after it’s out. We’ve all put a lot of time and effort into it, but nobody’s perfect. It’s so much better than the first draft I put to paper, though sometimes it’s hard to remember back that far.

One day I’ll put together all the things I’ve learned writing novels and tell everyone what not to do.

I just hope people dig the story. I have the acknowledgment, dedication, discussion guide, copyright, and a story that wants to grab attention. The final cover is now available on the Art of Science page. I’m so excited! My proofread copy also has the ISBN numbers, so looks like I’m ready to finish up everything.

Wow. Where does the time go? It’s like it was just yesterday that I was amazed I finished a novel. Not really, but it does feel like this last little bit has just flown by.

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