June 15, 2009 at 5:53 pm (P/S Novel Contest, Random, editing, new york, travel, writing)
Tags: book lists, editing, family, friends, new york, novel, oklahoma, summer, writing
So I made it home okay and have been taking a few days to settle back in. It’s funny, because I wasn’t all that excited about leaving NYC, even though it meant that my relaxing summer was beginning. Then, as the plane was skimming down over OKC, I got this huge wash of emotion. I was happy to see things that felt familiar, and excited to see my family in the terminal, and even relieved to feel the long-lost pressure of humidity as we deplaned. I knew two things: It was good to be home, and this was going to be the setting of my next novel.
Since then, I’ve spent time cooking and visiting people and talking to my brother. And taking my dog on walks. And gathering books from my to-be-read list. Oklahoma really makes me appreciate the simple things.
I’ve also finished up edits and sent out copies to a bunch of friends. I need some time away from the novel, and I need a pool of feedback to draw from. I hope to get comments back by July so that I can rewrite again and send the second draft back to NY. Until then, I think that I’m going to take a few days off from writing to do things around the house and digest some new books. Then I may get started on my new next novel. Yes, that does mean that the last new novel is being put on hold. But that’s okay. I think that it’s one that deserves more tact and time than many.
So just a quick post to keep you updated on where I am. More news within the next few weeks, I’m sure.
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June 8, 2009 at 8:08 pm (P/S Novel Contest, editing, new york, writing)
Tags: editing, friends, hostel, new york, novel, scholastic, st. paul, writing
I’ve been posting more often than usual, but I suppose it can’t hurt since who knows whether or not I’ll go underground after getting home from New York? It looks like it’s going to be a pretty literary summer though, so maybe I’ll stick around.
Anyway, today after work I went to Chinatown to buy souvenirs and food, armed with a single dollar and a debit card, intending to withdraw from an ATM. And then Chase rejected me. What the hell, Chase? Not cool. So I bought a dollar’s worth of fried dumplings, which was actually a decent deal–they were good dumplings and surprisingly filling–and took the subway all the way back to Harlem. My hostel’s ATM machine didn’t reject me! Take that, Chase! But because I didn’t by the croissants I intended to, I decided to just give up on the tasty sandwich I was planning. So now I’m eating a pint of AmeriCone dream, trying to ignore the calorie count. For my stomach’s sake, it’s a good thing I’m leaving NY soon. I need green things. And natural sugar from fruit. And fish that isn’t canned in tomato sauce.
But the bigger news is that we went over another section today! About eighty pages. Most of the work I’m doing is on character development. Going deeper than before and filling in small plot holes. I’ve been getting into my characters’ heads in a more direct way, which is proving interesting. I’m glad, because the story is very character-driven and revealing more about them to the reader is giving the novel far more strength overall. Luckily, my muse seems very willing to rise to the occasion, so I’m trying to humor her. Hence the ice cream dinner. Or at least this is how I justify myself. To myself. Yes, I have issues, I know.
I’m also about 10,000 words into the project I have planned for this summer, which I’m super excited about. The first few pages don’t really match up with where I’m heading right now, but I can always go back and edit. I’ve decided to take notes on discrepancies and just focus on getting the thing on paper, since my goal is to have a workable draft by August. I have a few basic concerns, but we’ll see what happens. After all, things may get changed around a lot by the time I hit the gut of the story.
Also, when I get back to St. Paul for my fall semester, I may end up taking a day trip to Fort Snelling for research. Intriguing, I know.
Oh and I saw Up this weekend! So good! Big themes! I think that Disney is trying really hard to break from the criticisms that it’s received in the past, but I do believe that the break is good. They don’t have everything pinned down yet, but they’re working hard, and their stories are all the better for it. So kudos to Disney. And to Pixar, of course. Everyone is infatuated with Pixar.
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June 4, 2009 at 6:40 pm (Random, new york)
Tags: food, new york, Random
Why do I feel as if the weather gods are mocking me?
All last week it was beautiful out, but I took it for granted and carried an umbrella in my bag. Then on Sunday I finally bought sunglasses because reading in the park wasn’t working without them, and it immediately became dreary. Clouds and rain for days and though I keep the sunglasses with me in the hopes the weather will break, I seem to have misplaced my umbrella.
Leaving the office yesterday was a great experience:
Me:Oh no, it looks like rain! But I don’t feel like cooking eggs and spinach in the hostel again, so obviously I should wander around until I find a cheap pizza place.
Young comedian in SoHo, armed with a flier: DO YOU LIKE STAND-UP COMEDY?
Me, distracted: No thanks.
Comedian: Oh. Well how about Puerto Ricans?
Me: Annnnd now you’re creepy.
Comedian: I LOVE YOU.
I dash for the subway, get off at 96th, and try to find a pizza place. They’re all over NYC except, of course, when I’m looking for one. And then it starts to rain.
Me: Maybe I should just give up and eat eggs and spinach.
Pizza Craving: NO.
Me: It would be so much easier.
Craving: YOU NEED MOZZARELLA.
Me: Oh man, I really want mozzarella.
Weather Gods: BAHAHAHA.
I did find one eventually, thank God. But the rain had picked up by the time I left the shop, and the pizza was cold by the time I made it to Harlem. Oh the things I do for a New York slice.
Out of curiosity, what are the crazy things you’ve done for food?
3 Comments
June 2, 2009 at 7:51 pm (P/S Novel Contest, editing, new york, writing)
Tags: editing, internship, new york, poetry, scholastic, short story, subway, writing
Lost track of time a bit and so it’s been a while since my last post. Things are going well. The move was… interesting. But fairly smooth. No longer effectively in a single, but it isn’t bad. I’ve discovered through this trip that I’m perhaps a little too comfortable with being on my own, so maybe it’s good for be to be in contact with people outside of Scholastic again. It’s amazing how easy it is to slip into anonymity.
Speaking of Scholastic, I do believe we’ll be starting in on the next few chapters tomorrow morning. I’ve been working on finishing up some short stories that I began last semester, as well as starting in on a few new ones and knocking out a bit of poetry that’s been caught up in the rafters of my mind. And since I’ve become an office nomad once more (for “trimming” the internship program, Scholastic has certainly seen a burst of new ones–I’ve been switched out of a desk twice already haha. I think that at least five new people started this week.) I’ve found that writing on the patio upstairs frees up my muse much better anyhow. Yay for revelations!
To stymie this productivity (because productivity always needs stymieing), a friend from home challenged me to write something without a sad ending, and I plan to take her up on that. I’m not a depressing person, honestly, but I have noticed that depressing stories come to me more easily than happy ones. I’ve been asked more than once why the world makes me so sad.
Truth told, I usually just wait for a setting or character to come to me and then try and follow that thread through to its source and find the life that it’s trying to tell. I don’t actively control these threads, or at least I don’t feel that I do, so changing a story to make it happy or sad would kind of be like changing the ending of a film that I’m watching. When I write, it’s almost as if I’m pulling out something that has already been said–as if I’m piecing together something with a beginning, middle, and end already in place, if only I can find them. It’s common for me to make mistakes when I’m puzzling out how a story is supposed to be, but when I finally put it together correctly, it feels as if that’s the only way it could ever properly be told. I say “correctly” and “properly”, but of course those definitions change every time I run something through an edit. So, in the end, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Perhaps the other writers out there can put in their own two cents about finding stories.
As for me, a happy ending is in the works, even if it is a bit clumsy right now.
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May 27, 2009 at 7:57 pm (P/S Novel Contest, editing, writing)
Tags: collaboration, editing, internship, nanomachines, new york, novel, novel contest, packing, Publishing, short story, writing
Ah, Wednesday. So busy.
We were intending to start edits yesterday but it didn’t work out; this is such a busy month in publishing! My heart goes out to all the editors, agents, and authors who are scrambling to get everything to press on time. We did dive in today though, and it was a great experience.
My emotional state in regards to the contest is constantly in flux, though always on an upswing. Sometimes I’m going along just dandy and then someone says something or does something that makes me stop and think and realize what a complete honor this really is. And then I go back and look over the pages that I submitted last spring and wonder why in the world they picked me, and feel so utterly indebted and so pathetically shocked that I stare at my keyboard, frantic because I can’t possibly live up to all of the expectations.
Getting line edits from David is one such experience; knowing that he not only took the time to give my novel multiple reads, but is now taking the time to go through and tell me exactly what needs to be worked on, and why, exactly, each change needs to be made, is enough to make me both giddy and frantic for quite a while. We went over the first three chapters this morning and then I edited through the afternoon, and, when I finished, I reworked a short story that I wrote yesterday.
Most of the changes made on the novel were pretty basic–cutting and reworking scenes and tinkering with dialog and descriptions. I have a feeling that once we get into the heart of the plot, though, there will be a lot more overhauling to be done. I have to say that I’m looking forward to it. It was awesome to get critiques on issues that I hadn’t even considered before, and to hear the logic behind fixing scenes that I knew needed work, but was too close to to be able to say why.
Tomorrow is moving day! You can only stay in hostels for fourteen days so I have to move out of this one after tonight. After much deliberation, I decided to get some of my stuff over to the new place today so that I wouldn’t have to stress about it tomorrow, so I went after work to scout it out and ask whether that would be okay and then came back and picked up my big duffel bag. I considered taking the subway but once I realized that I couldn’t lift the thing higher than six inches for any extended period of time, I caved and hailed a cab. That’s what I get for trying to live out of one bag for four weeks I guess. But it wasn’t that expensive so I shouldn’t complain.
I also have a whole stack of postcards that I need to send out. On my to-do list for tomorrow, hopefully. Also on my to-do list? My brother and I decided last night/this morning to write a book together over the summer. Considering our sense of humor, you should probably be very, very afraid. I, on the other hand, am only very, very excited. We talked about it for three hours last night and decided that it should involve Wisconsin, nanomachines, titanium fangs, and possibly the letter Ø.
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May 20, 2009 at 11:57 pm (P/S Novel Contest, new york, travel, writing)
Tags: friends, internship, new york, scholastic, writing
It’s been a good week so far. I got to look around the office on Monday, which is much less corporate than I pictured, but I like it. Books everywhere. Posters. Harry Potter. It’s a good vibe.
After lunch and a quick tour of area eating places, I spent the rest of the day at my desk (I have a desk!). I’ll be doing a couple of days of free-writing before diving into the editing process, and although I set out hoping to get some short fiction written, my muse was just not wanting to go there. After struggling to force words through Monday and half of Tuesday, I decided to just go with it, since just going with it generally allows me to be most productive. And now I’m a couple thousand words into the fringes of a new novel that could either be pretty decent or tragically bad. It’s not what I expected, but I’m willing, for now at least, to just see where it ends up.
A friend from back home came up for an evening; we spent most of the time trying to track down a restaurant that apparently doesn’t exist, and then, for fun, we watched one of the most horribly frustrating and awkward movies that I’ve seen in a while. So bad, in fact, that it was more of an insult than entertainment, though I suspect there are quite a few people who would beg to differ. But I won’t name names; no point in sparking controversy. Though if I had to watch that movie with anyone (and I suppose that I had to, if only to say I survived), I’m glad it was with her. Making fun of movies is always easier when you’re with someone on the same wavelength. Really, it was fantastic to hang out with her—I hadn’t in more than a year, and she’s one of those people who helped me the most in my early writing stages, so it was fitting to come full circle and see her here.
Today I went to Chinatown again to buy some food. Man I love that place. I’m having a picnic dinner in Central Park tomorrow with a friend from college! Excitement abounds. Yep, it’s been a good week.
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May 15, 2009 at 6:26 pm (Random, new york, travel)
Tags: broadway, central park, chinatown, hostel, new york, travel
My first full day in NYC and I had to come back to the hostel because I’m simply too exhausted to walk any more. It’s been a busy two days. I checked in around three yesterday afternoon and went for a walk around the neighborhood and through Central Park. When I came back, my roommate had shown up and we talked for a bit. She and her friends were really great, and we ended up going to see Phantom of the Opera. Fantastic show! The sets were beautiful, the singing fantastic, the effects amazingly well done. I was very impressed.
Today has been lovely out, and was meant for exploration–I intended to go down and locate the Scholastic store, but I got distracted by the subway system and ended up spending a little while in Times Square before heading over to Grand Central Station and then down to the Brooklyn Bridge. I wandered around until I found Chinatown, where I bought some stuff for lunch and some excellent-looking fruit, and then headed back up to Central Park. I ate by a little creek, went back to my hostel for a few minutes, and then headed back out and spent the rest of my afternoon finding Strawberry Fields, watching performers in the park, and looking for the Jackie-O Reservoir. SoHo tomorrow and probably more exciting excursions. Internship starts Monday!
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April 29, 2009 at 1:05 am (P/S Novel Contest, editing, new york, q&a, writing)
Tags: copyright, editing, finals, gold key, how to, internship, new york, novel, novel contest, q&a, synopsis, writing
OhmyGodfinalsIhateyou. It’s crunch time people! Which means procrastination time, which means (drumroll) Question and Answer!
From Nicola:
I was hoping you could answer a question: the guidelines say that you need to submit an outline. How detailed does my outline need to be/how detailed was yours?
What they’re looking for is a standard synopsis, like any synopsis you would submit to an agent or editor. It seems that the judges don’t assume you’ve finished your novel, which makes it a little different from a normal pitch, but they do want to know where you’re going with it. I personally had finished my novel, so it was pretty easy to outline. Include all major characters, the setting and main plot points, and, if you have it, the ending. Mine was two pages exactly, double spaced. I don’t remember whether or not it said how long they wanted it, but two pages is a conservative standard so if they don’t specify I’d say go along those lines.
Here are a couple of resources:
How to Write a Synopsis (From Nathan Bransford, Literary Agent)
Workshop: Writing the Novel Synopsis
They can take a lot of work and honing, so don’t get frustrated if you find yourself slaving over writing and rewriting at this stage.
—
From T.K. Harpene
When did you find out that you were advancing on/receiving an award in the contest? What did you gain from it (awards, lessons, etc.)?
I heard back on April 30th. Since the novel side of the competition is through PUSH and is read over there, you don’t actually move from state to nationals like in other categories in the Art and Writing awards. The pieces are all read over and narrowed down, and then the gold key and silver key winners are announced. David told me that he normally puts in a call, but I happened to be at work when he called my house, so he left his number and sent me an email. We finally got a chance to talk on the phone a few days later and he went over some more of the specifics on what they’d decided on their end and how things were going to progress.
As far as what I gained, I’m sure you’ve read over the specifics of the contest as often as I did prior to submitting, because everyone deserves to be a little OCD sometime. The guidelines are pretty straightforward without being straightforward at all, which seems to be a special talent among contest developers. Basically, you get invited to the national awards ceremony in New York, which I wasn’t able to attend, unfortunately, because I was out of the country. If you do get to go, I’m pretty sure that they have workshops and general get-togethers for contest winners in all the different categories. They’ll give you a medallion and a certificate, or mail it to you if you can’t attend. Since I had a complete manuscript I went ahead and sent it to David, but I’m not sure what happens otherwise. Perhaps you send what you have so far? I couldn’t really say. You’re offered an internship in New York to work on editing the manuscript (or finishing the novel, as the case may be). It’s an offer that can’t expire, so since I couldn’t go last summer I’ll be going this year, but I could have put it off even longer if I’d needed to. I don’t know too much about the logistics of the internship, except that it’s paid, but considering cost of living in NY, and the plane ride out there, I’ll be lucky to break even. I think that they tailor what you work on with where your manuscript is at at the time of your arrival, so I’ll probably be doing heavy rewrites. The hope is to start the piece on its way to publication, but Scholastic never commits itself to actually publishing. If the board decides that it’s publishable and thinks that it will sell, then you’ll be offered a standard contract and they’ll begin that process. They do have first rights to the piece, so if you decide not to publish with Scholastic (for some insane, unknown reason) you can’t actually shop it out to anyone else.
Hope those answers were helpful! Everyone is invited to ask anything they want and aid my procrastination campaign!
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April 20, 2009 at 9:24 pm (Creative Writing Class, college, new york)
Tags: college, creative writing, edits, finals, new york, spring
The skies are opening up in Saint Paul, MN, but I can’t really complain. Well, actually that’s a lie. I can complain, and I do, but I shouldn’t. And why not? Because it’s not snowing. We’re coming into an early spring and everyone is all too ready for it. There’s no question why; seeing the new growth budding up is enough to erase anyone’s seasonal depression.
Unfortunate though it may be, this also means that finals are right around the corner. I realized today that I have about fifty pages in new writing to turn in before the end of the year, and another fifty pages in edits for my creative writing portfolio. Considering I have just sixteen days to do all that in, panic should be brewing. But it’s not because I’ve managed to convince myself that it’ll be done, and done decently well, no matter what. Not the best or most productive perspective to adopt, but at least I’m staying positive.
Following finals, it’ll be time for a brief leadership retreat and then New York will rise out of a muggy mid-May afternoon. I can’t say how much I’ll update until then, as I won’t have any writing news to report before the semester’s end. Much luck to everyone with finals, either way. I’ll be sending out good vibes.
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February 14, 2009 at 1:02 pm (college, new york, travel, writing)
Tags: aristotle, college, library, new york, prompt, short story, st. paul, valentine's day, weather
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
I woke up this morning to find that I was inside a snow globe. Honestly, the snow outside looks just like glitter.
After a brief warm spell, St. Paul is back to acting like winter. Too bad for the southern girl. But maybe this means I’ll actually get work done this weekend. It’s so easy to get distracted into taking a walk when it’s above freezing out, but a library day sound pretty tempting right about now. And I finally wrote a short story that I’m proud of! It needs work, but it’s nice to have broken through the block. I have all these other ideas now, which always happens when I first emerge from a non-writing slump, but I’m too preoccupied with trivial things like class readings and food. Oh Aristotle, why must you torture me?
But exciting news! Plane and hostels booked for the summer. After finals, New York, here I come!
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