Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
October 31, 2013

“First drafts are for learning what your novel or story is about.” – Bernard Malamud

Notes from 10/29/2013
Lisa reads from Chapter Seven of The Tebow Family Secret. Pat was confused as to why one character’s friend was there and how she got in. Andy liked the content of the chapter but he had a question about the wedding and what the dance was for. Jerry says this is a talking scene, which makes it a sleeper unless there’s something physical going on. Pat says there’s a lot of information and some tension, which is good, but there could be more. Jerry didn’t think the scene in the bleachers was believable partly because he didn’t think the bleachers are a place to discuss medical diagnosis. Andy felt the word ‘just’ was overused.

Pat shares her poem Instruments of Flight. Judith loved it. Lisa really liked it. Andy liked that every stanza was different. Bob liked there was a nice establishment and at the end it felt a little up in the air, no pun intended. The mystery almost overshadows the poem itself for Bob.

Ruth reads from Chapter four point two, part one (no kidding) if Motto of the Hound. Lisa thinks she’s missing something and Ruth explains she’s submitted some work to second and forth. Andy thought a lot of things were weird in this chapter and suggests switching some things around. Pat followed everything and liked the magic, but she wondered why the character had to run across the rooftops in the middle of the afternoon. The group suggests describing some of the landscape including the buildings. Jerry had a more mundane question about using a male name for a female and suggests she revisit the issue. He also thinks a lot of the speech tags could be replaced with action tags.

Amber shares a couple of chapters from Noble. Pat likes the inner, sarcastic dialogue. Andy notes she spelled one character’s surname two different ways. Lisa asks if one character is supposed to be getting smarter. Pat points out that Amber likes to write about facial expressions, but she wonders if one character would have any.

Jarry (I guess Amber wanted the East coast pronunciation, lol) shares Chapters Fourteen through Sixteen of Capital Crimes. Andy thought it was an entertaining read even though it didn’t go so well for some of the characters. Lisa says she’s disappointed the story hasn’t gotten back to the murders the book started off with. Pat is still looking for a flaw in the main character.

Other Odds and Ends
From Pat: if this spoken poetry doesn’t inspire you today, nothing will!
https://www.upworthy.com/hes-speaking-shes-playing-and-im-just-over-here-trying-to-pick-my-jaw-up-off-the-floor?c=upw1

Jammin’ with the TWS greats . . .
We return to Mystery To Me 10 days later, on the evening of November 14 – that’s a Thursday evening – for the TWS writers jam.

Eight of our writers will be doing 15-minute presentations, reading something they’ve written, then taking questions from the audience. Plan to be there and bring family and friends. Let’s pack the place.

Here’s the order of the jammers: Lisa McDougal (6:30), Alicia Connolly-Lohr (6:45), Millie Mader (7:00), Carol Hornung (7:15), Kashmira Sheth (7:45), Terry Hoffman (8:00), Bob Kralapp (8:15), and Pat Edwards (8:30).

Catching an idea for a novel . . .
NaNoWroMo starts Friday.

Ruth Imhoff has signed up. She intends to write 2,000 words a day during November. “It will probably be a lousy novel, but I’ll bring it to you when I rewrite it,” she told the first-and-third group the other evening.

Alicia Connolly-Lohr also has signed up

Carol Hornung is a past participant. So is Jerry Peterson and several others of our present and past members. You, too, can and should sign up. Even if you can’t do 2,000 words a day, even if you only do 15,000 word in the month, or 10,000 or 5,000, you will have made progress on your novel.

But you have to have an idea for this masterpiece before you can start writing. YA author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford wrote about that in his new book, How to Write a Novel: 47 Rules for Writing a Stupendously Awesome Novel That You Will Love Forever.
Here’s an excerpt:

Rule #2: Think of an idea you love enough to neglect everything else you enjoy in life
The first step in writing a novel is deciding what in the heck you’re going to write about.
There are many horrible reasons for choosing what you’re going to write about, and only one correct reason.
The horrible reasons are almost always variations of one basic and colossal mistake, which is that you are choosing a particular idea because you think it will make you mountains of money.
Visions of endless mahogany bookshelves, of sparkling blingety bling, and of being featured in the New York Times Book Review with the headline “Wunderkind” motivates writers to do many ill-advised things, but perhaps the worst is when they cause writers to chase trends. Take this one to heart: if you’re chasing a trend (vampires! post-apocalyptic!), you’re already too late.
Avarice is what motivates people to write in genres they don’t particularly like. It pushes them to choose ideas that they don’t love enough to make it all the way through the writing of the novel. It’s what makes an already difficult process completely impossible.
Let’s get this out of the way: you’re not going to make mountains of money writing books.
You’re not.
You’re really, really not.
Okay. Well. Some of you will make mountains of money, but you’re most certainly not going to make mountains of money if you are setting out to try and make mountains of money.
The only reason for choosing something to write about is because you love the crap out of the idea.
When you’re choosing an idea for a novel, you’re choosing something you are going to be spending more time with than many of your best friends and your most demanding family members. You’re choosing an idea that will render your bathing habits irregular and your sanity patchy. You’re making a terrifically important decision that will shape the next six months to seventeen years of your life. You have to choose wisely.

In other words, it can’t be an idea you merely like.

Liking an idea will get you to page fifty. It will give you an initial burst of enthusiasm— a dawning feeling of “Hemingway’s daiquiri, I can do this!”—before you inevitably lose interest, your attention wanders, and you find yourself with an unfinished novel that you feel vaguely embarrassed about.

Liking is not enough.

You have to love the idea of your novel. Or if not your plot idea, then your main character, your setting, or some part of your novel that will sustain you through painful bouts of self-doubt and distraction.

How do you get to love?

Well, it’s tricky. . .

*Want to read the rest of Bransford’s book? It’s available as a Kindle book and all other e-book formats for $4.99.

Coming Soon. . .
November 5: Fifth Tuesday – really – at Mystery To Me Bookstore.
November 12: Carol (Ghost of Heffron College, Scene 11), Holly (Coming Up For Air, Chapter 4), Deb, Karen
November 19: November 19: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Bob Kralapp (???), Aaron Boehm (???), Andy Pfeiffer (chapter, The Void), Judith McNeil (chapter 7, My Mother, Savior of Men), and Jerry Peterson (chapters 17-18, Capitol Crimes).
December 3: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Millie Mader (chapter 48, Life on Hold), Clayton Gill (chapter, Fishing Derby), Cindi Dykes (chapter 2, North Road), Amber Boudreau (chapter 23, Noble), and Jerry Peterson (chapter 19, Capitol Crimes).

A Fifth Tuesday . . .
Got your Fifth Tuesday challenge story written? Please send it both to Carol Hornung and Jerry Peterson. Jerry will forward his set of stories to our judge, Joanne Berg.

WRITING CHALLENGE: A 250 word (or less) story or poem about one of these three images below. Since it will be shortly after Halloween a spooky theme is encouraged, but not required.
Please send your pieces to Carol Hornung.
It’s also time to make your reservations. Send Carol a note telling her you are coming and whether you are bringing a guest. We want to be sure we have enough chairs for everyone. Also tell Carol what you are planning to bring for the feasting table. Finger food is the order for this potluck. If everyone brings frozen bananas on a stick and chocolate-dipped grape tomatoes, that could be interesting.
Date: November 5.
Place: Mystery To Me Bookstore -1863 Monroe Street, across the street from Trader Joe’s.
Time: 7 p.m.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!