The Power of Negative Thinking

January 23, 2017 ~ Meg ~ 66 Comments

I woke this morning to howling winds. It’s dark and raining –perfect for staying in bed or for curling up with tea and a book. Or for writing. Usually this kind of weather lends itself to concentration and immersion in whatever project I’m working on. Recently, I’ve been struggling to write. It’s happened before but never for this long. I really haven’t put new ideas down on paper since before the holidays.

I’ve alluded to the stress I’m experiencing in my personal life –let’s just say that it is ongoing– and it’s had a dramatic impact on my ability to write. This too, is a new phenomenon. My best writing usually comes from that dark space inside. But this is different. And perhaps it has to do with the subject matter I’ve been working on. Without realizing it, I’ve given Maya –my main character– the same ‘kinds’ of issues that are troubling me as well. And maybe striking so close to home has stayed my hand. Because I can’t see the way forward personally, I can’t see the way forward fictionally.

However, the whole thing is tied up in a bundle together. If I can’t get the writing back on track, it will compound the rest of the stress I’m feeling. I have to act. If life would just imitate art, I could write myself a solution for my real problems and my fictional ones.

In Love With a Dead Man

January 19, 2017January 18, 2017 ~ Meg ~ 67 Comments

images — Photograph, WB Yeats, by Alice Boughton

William Butler Yeats, my current obsession. He’s been gone for nearly 80 years. I’m working diligently at reproducing this handsome portrait. Results will be posted upon completion. In the meantime, read the words he wrote as part of his introduction to Lady Philippa Gregory’s Book of Irish Mythology and see if you don’t fall in love with him, too.

“We do not know who at the foundation of the world made the banquet for the first time, or who put the pack of cards into rough hands; but we do know that, unless those that have made many inventions are about to change the nature of poetry, we may go where Homer went if we are to sing a new song. Is it because all that is under the moon thirsts to escape out of bounds, to lose itself in some unbounded tidal stream, that the songs of the folk are mournful … and …whenever queens lament their for lovers, reminds us of songs that are still sung in country places?”

“When we have drunk of the cold cup of the moon’s intoxication, we thirst for something beyond ourselves, and the mind flows outward to a natural immensity; but if we have drunk from the hot cup of the sun, our own fullness awakens, we desire little, for wherever one goes one’s heart goes too; and if any ask what music is the sweetest, we can but answer… ‘what happens’

This makes me want to write fairy tales, stories about love, with heroes and queens, gods and monsters… And it makes me wish I had lived in a different time, a time when poets were published and people knew their names.

Novel Writing Mistakes (2)

January 18, 2017 ~ Meg ~ 37 Comments

This is the post you hope to never have to write…

Rewind to the weeks leading up to November 1st, 2016. I was preparing to enter National Novel Writing Month with the outline of my fifth novel: Breaking Bread. I never have all the details worked out when I write, just character studies and a list of the major events that need to move the story from start to finish. This gives me, the writer, a lot of flexibility as the novel progresses.

Not every writer writes this way. There are “plotters” –who have all the entire story mapped out in exhaustive detail. There are “pantsers” — writers who “fly by the seat of their pants,” having only the major ideas of the story figured out. And of course there are all combinations of writers who fall in between. That would be me.

There is no right way to write. Whatever method works best for you, your style, your habits — it’s all good. Unless of course you are posting the novel to your blog for everyone to read… Which brings me to my problem. I have come to a point in the novel where I have changed my mind about how the story moves toward its climax. The new direction I want to go is in conflict with some details I wrote in previous chapters. In other words, I’ve painted myself into a corner. Nevertheless, I’m thrilled with the new idea and am determined to make it work. This isn’t the first, nor will it be the last time this happens.

I have two potential solutions:

Keep going with the draft the way it is and find a reasonable explanation for the part that doesn’t make sense. This is the less acceptable solution in my opinion. It feels like cheating. And I think on some level the reader can tell that you switched gears halfway through. I’ve only done this on one occasion and was happy with the end result. If I were only writing this as a serial piece and not as the draft of a book for publication, I would choose this alternative.
Return to the section of the story that interferes with the logical progression of the new idea and change it. This could be a major rewrite or it could be a matter of editing out a few strategic sentences or paragraphs. Sometimes even changing a few words can do the trick. This is all I will need to do to make my new plot point make sense.

The trouble is… I have already written and posted (and you have read) the part of the story I will need to change. It is entirely possible that I’m overthinking the importance of this particular incongruity and none of you will pay it any mind. However, that is the tangle that has prevented me from proceeding with the story. I feel like now that I have explained, I can move forward.

These are the issues you face in drafting the first version of your novel. Rewrites are inevitable and in this particular instance, when Breaking Bread is finished, it will give me an opportunity to explain how I edit and proof read. That was part of the reason for posting it all to the blog in the first place… to show the process from start to finish. So bear with me while I walk through the wet paint to the end.