Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 6:56 AM
“Writing my Novel”
Well Audrey is proud of me. When she originally emailed me about novel-in-a-month I thanked her out of politeness. But she emailed back, “so are you going to do it?” And I think I left that email unanswered. Then she arrived with the book from Bookman’s (Bookman’s is our second-hand bookstore) by the founder of novel-in-a-month, on how to write a novel in a month. Audrey had read it and highly recommended it. I thanked her very much. But when she said “the sales slip is with it, in case you want to return it for another book,” my eyes gleamed. This was the week before the big election, my mind was totally taken up with that. I would just go on the computer to read election news, or talk about it with fellow posters on my news forum. However I had made the great discovery that the charity bookstore on way home from pool had used paperbacks for 50 cents. I hadn’t read a book in ages and ages because library is really out of our way, I was totally starved for reading. Without anything to read my whole life, when I was not on computer, was TV shows. Until I discovered there was a way for me to read books again, which was about a month before Audrey told me about novel in a month.
I began by buying every Agatha Christie they had, even tho I had read them all a long time ago, it was long enuf ago. O I loved them so much, reading was such a joy and those were the perfect books to read. I was so happy to be reading again. The first few times I only bought mysteries at the charity store, but the third time I went I noticed the paperback mysteries were in the same section as the classics and I bought Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin. And after I finished all the mysteries and there was nothing left to read, I opened up Sense and Sensibility and began to read that. At first I found it unreadable. I would try to read a little and then put it aside in frustration, “this is torture” I said. But then I got used to her writing and I got caught up in the story, and I enjoyed what I was reading, and sometimes it was very funny. I got completely addicted. I really loved that book. I am sorry it ended. And this is what I had just begun reading when the month of November arrived.
I was spending my mornings at computer with election news, and the afternoons and evenings with Sense and Sensibility, the story of Elinor and Maryanne, two sisters, when England was still very rural, it was how the gentry lived.
I had decided I would do Novel-in-a-month, why not! It would bring me back to writing again, and it was an unknown and an adventure. And I told Audrey I would start a day or two after the election. I couldn’t imagine starting before, my whole mind was on the election. Audrey tried to convince me to start on November first the way you are supposed to, “surely the election cannot take up the whole of your mind!” she emailed me. But I still had it in my mind the election was Tuesday, so I would start on Wednesday.
Meanwhile I guess Audrey decided to do it herself. She had read the book by the founder of Novel In A Month. She had always wanted to write. She was a painter and had been to art school but she always wanted to write. And the founder had explained this is a good way to start writing. And he is right about that. It’s a great way to start writing. This is a huge favor to anyone who has ever dreamed of becoming a writer.
That made it a whole lot more fun that Audrey and I were going to do it together. I never had a writing partner and companion in that way. I loved it. Audrey was doing it by the book. She had her outline prepared and the characters, and the day before it was to begin on October 31, she got out her outline and looked at it, and all her characters and emailed me “Ready! Set! Go!” And asked me if I had looked at the book she had given me.
I didn’t answer the part of her email where she said “have you read the book I gave you, it has so much helpful information in it.”
And then to my own huge surprise I did not wait till day after election or two days after that. The election was on Tuesday of course, and on Sunday I sat down to try to write my novel. I got exactly nowhere. I described what the weather was out my window and what my yard looked like, and hoped something would come into my mind to write about, but nothing came into my mind. “That’s OK” I said to myself, “at least you broke the ice with writing again.” I hadn’t written in 2 months, it was good to break the ice. And I clicked on my news forum and talked about the election with everyone. And then went back to reading Sense and Sensibility.
And the next morning, I guess it was Monday, I clicked on my machine to go back to writing my novel. And again I described the weather and my yard, but this time it worked, a story came. I decided to write about Ruthie’s new love affair. And whether it was because I was reading Sense and Sensibility, which is about the love affairs of each of the two sisters, or because it is something that everyone knows, I thought “what a perfect topic for a novel, my friend's love affair, this is the classic novel topic.” And I got totally excited. I was going to write a novel and it was going to be about Ruthie’s new love affair. And so I wrote about Ruthie’s whole life, and this was great, I actually had a chapter, Chapter 1.
And I said to myself “I am writing a novel, and it is called Ruthie Has a New Love” and I was so happy. And the next day in the pool I told everyone about it and suggested they write a novel too, after all it was just the beginning of the month.
But for some reason Chapter 2 did not take off where I left off. There was no long flow of narrative. The first chapter had been the whole background to the love affair, the second chapter was the love affair. And I don’t know why that one didn’t work. It was very short and I didn’t have very much to say. I realize now that was the morning of the election. I guess I forgot all about the election when I sat down to write my second chapter about her new love affair and wasn’t able to get it off the ground.
Then we voted and went swimming. And I came home and read Sense and Sensibility.
And then it was the 3rd morning. And there was just no way I could sit at my computer and not write about the election. I knew I was taking my novel off course, but what else could I do. I had a lot of feelings about the election, because on the local level I had lost big time. I hadn’t gotten what I wanted and I got what I didn’t want. But by the time I finished that chapter I was at peace with myself about it all, it helped me.
And the next morning I just wrote about my own life again, I wrote about my yesterday. Since all my short stories had been about my own life, about my yesterday, when I emailed Audrey (she had been emailing me every day to give me pep talk about my novel) I said “I started it, it was going great guns, I was writing about my friend’s love affair, but I got off course, and now I am just writing about my yesterday.” And she emailed back “you always write about your yesterday, here is your chance to write a novel, do it!” She was completely dismayed that I had gone back to writing what I always write. And she told me about their word count and I should go register at the site, and no one is allowed to talk about what they are writing, or to show their writing to anyone on the site, they can only say their word count. And she told me about her word count and her plot and her characters, and asked “did you read that book I gave you, it will help you.”
And I went over and registered at the site. They asked for a screen name, so I chose Desert Broom. Altho Audrey thinks it is Desert Bloom, which is a nice name too. And because I had registered there, I got the first week pep talk letter they sent out to everyone, which I didn’t read but I was very glad to get it. I liked being part of this thing and it really made me feel part of it that I got it.
On the 4th day I knew I was off course and would never get back on course. Unless Ruthie called me again with an update about her love affair, there was nothing I could say about it at all. And so I just cracked jokes about my novel. I said “my novel has a first chapter about Ruthie’s new love affair, and at the end of the month she will call with an update, so it will have a last chapter about it, and then there will be nothing in-between, I will write about my yesterday for the whole novel.”
But then to my surprise Ruthie called that evening. “O Anne so much is happening it could be a book,” she said. “A novel” I said. Altho I sure wasn’t going to tell Ruthie I was writing a novel about everything she told me on the phone. And she told me all about the developments in her new love affair, and all the new surprise developments with her boyfriend in college who she had never gotten over, they are now on email together. And when she talked about him, she said “this is all such a secret, what he confided to me in email, you must promise not to tell anyone, not even Bill.” And I promised. But when she opened up the conversation “there are so many new developments, this could be a book,” my first thought was “O good now I have a new chapter for my novel.” And I listened intently to everything she said.
And the next day it all went into my novel. “Ruthie will murder me” I thought “if she ever finds out, but Audrey will be so pleased I introduced new characters.” The college boyfriend who I was not to breathe a word about, was the new character in my novel. And that evening Ruthie and I had tête-à-tête with our Higher Selves on the phone about both these relationships and what they mean in Ruthie’s life now, and what Ruthie is supposed to be doing. And so I had another chapter, I said everything her Higher Self said about Ruthie and the two men.
I thought “Goody! it is a real novel again.”
But there were no more phone calls after that. And so it was back to writing my yesterday and of course there was a huge drama about buying new computer for Bill, that was a major event in my life. I wrote up the whole experience of being in Office Depot. It was such a big experience for me, buying this computer and monitor and printer, that the next day I wrote it all up. And the day after that I could not even write. I tried to force myself to do it, and one sentence eked out. And I shut down the machine and went in to read. I had exhausted myself buying the new computer and then writing it up the next day.
We must have bought the computer on a Friday. Saturday I wrote it up. And Sunday I could not write one word. I took a day off, it was my first day off in writing my novel. It was the climax of the Full Moon too I remember, that beautiful Full Moon. Alas for me all that full moon energy went into the new computer. If my novel has any crisis point that is it, and it is about going shopping. Such is my life, but I don’t know if a novel it makes. And then I went back to my daily life in a far more low-keyed way. Just short dreamy chapters about my morning and my yesterday. The teeny uneventful things which pass thru a day. Listening to an old friend’s message on my answering machine, feeding the cat. But I liked doing it. I liked waking up each morning and writing new chapter for my novel. It was such a pleasant way to start a day. It seemed so much easier than trying to write a brand new short story each morning when I woke up, because a story has to have so much life in it to stand on its own. And now that Sense and Sensibility was over, and I was going to see if I could enjoy the other books at the bottom of the pile, I realized I just wanted something to read. And I thought “maybe that is all a chapter has to do, give someone something to read.” It is like writing without a pressure, no pressure to deliver. All you want to do is give someone something so they can keep reading, and things could be as easy as pie for me. Maybe it is a lazy man’s solution to writing. But after all these years of trying to deliver something in a story, I liked just meandering down my life, and writing down whatever comes. It is like drifting down a big river. I might have my line out, but some of the time no fish bites. But I am still enjoying the ride. I love it, in fact. And that is the whole truth. I love writing a novel and I don’t know why. Just that it is relaxing and fun and easy and enjoyable.
And I found out from Audrey’s email the novel has to be 50,000 words, 170 pages, and we end on November 30th. And I was now getting regular pep talks from them, which I was not reading, but I was glad to be getting. And one of the pep talks I did read a little of and I liked. He said “this is just to serve you, to get you writing, and however it serves you, it is doing what it is supposed to be doing.” And Audrey was still telling me about her plot and her characters and how she has to make a graph on her hard drive to keep track of all of them, and am I doing that too? But she has fallen behind in word count and has to rush to keep up.
And I wrote back “we are both doing fine in our novels and that is great” and “O Audrey I thank you from the bottom of my heart for getting me into this, I love it.”
And Audrey said she had registered her word count on the site. And yesterday morning, after I wrote that totally loopy chapter-- never have I been more at odds and ends with myself and that chapter shows it; every instinct I have says “take it out,” but I will leave it in, maybe novels need a loopy chapter-- I did the word count on everything I had written and entered it on the site.
And they make you post it all to prove it is that many words. I had found out from Audrey that for November we are not supposed to edit. We are only supposed “to write like the wind” according to Audrey. And after November 30th we are given one month to edit what we have written. So I took the whole mish-mosh of what I had written, 9/10ths with uncorrected typos, and posted it. They said “our robot counter will just count the words to verify your word count and then delete it.” Which is what happened. And it turned out I have 47,000 words, which is very close to what they want. In fact with that loopy chapter which I wasn’t sure if I was going to include, it would have put me over. And then they had me write the name of my novel. And instead of calling it “Ruthie Has A New Love,” I decided to call it “Daddy-o,” which means something to me personally but doesn’t mean anything to anyone else. But I thought “no one pays attention to the meaning of novels’ names anyway.” And they wanted a description of my novel, so I wrote a description. And they wanted an extract, so I put in an extract from my first chapter about Ruthie because that is the only one which reads like a novel.
And then I wanted picture for my book cover. And I tried to upload the drawing Layla had done of the belly dancer dancing, but I couldn’t get it to upload. And then I emailed Audrey “what is your name there so I can put you on my buddy list?” And I told her my word count is 47,000 because I like to blab a lot when I write.
And because Audrey was at work last evening with nothing to do, she went over and looked at everything about my novel. She saw my verified word count and guess what? To my utter surprise and amazement, Audrey is impressed with me. I don’t think anyone has ever been impressed with me or proud of me in my whole life. It is such a totally new feeling. I am stunned. She said “you might be the winner!” I had no idea this thing was about winning, that there is anything to win. And she said I have more words than the founder. That is what really impressed Audrey, that the founder of National Write a Novel in a Month, the man who wrote that book on how to do it, I have more words than he does. Maybe it is silly to be happy that Audrey is impressed with me and proud of me just for a lot of words. But I’ve never had this experience before. Nothing I wrote has ever been published. Even Audrey who has read every single one of my short stories on email for past 3 years, has never been proud of me or impressed with me till I had lot of words. I am going to email my mother that I have a lot of words, so she can be proud of me and impressed with me too. Altho I will send Audrey’s email along with it, to give her the hint that she is supposed to be proud and impressed by this. She might not know that, only Audrey knows that because she is on this site. And Audrey said her novel ground to a halt because so many other things in her life came up. Audrey works at a tv station, plus she teaches art, she has classes. She said she will try again another time.
And I sent her the drawing of the belly dancer Layla did, on email. And I sent her my password and screen name there, and because Audrey was at work with nothing to do, she turned it into a book cover and posted it under my screen name. Along with my description of novel, extract from novel, and WORD COUNT!! It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. That drawing by Layla is so expressive and feelingful, and dreamy, when Audrey put in Daddy-o in huge big block letters it overwhelmed the drawing, it lost its feeling. I said “let’s change to one of your watercolors of the desert mountains.” But Audrey said “I like the dancer.” She has my name on it as Desert Bloom, instead of desert broom which is a weed in my backyard. But maybe I should go with that name instead. Altho maybe I will switch to Palo Verde. I think I would rather be Ms. Verde than Ms. Broom, and the palo verde is the tree out my window, it grows all over the desert wild.
Audrey emailed back “don’t think about your cover now, go back to writing like the wind.” She is concerned I won’t make the 50,000 and make it over the top. She wants me to be a winner. LOL she is my coach.
And it is very nice to have a coach. I don’t know which I have enjoyed more in writing my novel, writing my novel or having Audrey as my coach. She’s a wonderful coach. Even tho she was so disappointed in me at first, I now surpassed her wildest dreams because I have more words than the founder.
No comments:
Post a Comment