Confession

Confession

I must confess something
get this off my chest.

I'd like to say I wrote this story,

but it really wrote itself.

It demanded to go one way

when I wanted to go the other.

It was stubborn,

uncooperative

immovable.

If I didn't follow the story

then we never got anywhere.

It said things unexpected.

It did things I never thought of

and went in entirely different directions.

Maps were useless,

schedules ignored,

the story was in charge, not me.

Sometimes I couldn't figure out what

the story wanted,

nothing I tried worked.

But I kept trying.

I kept at it.

Early mornings, while eating lunch, after dinner, late into the night.

The story couldn't be left unfinished,

it needed an ending, of some sort.

Conversations needed to be spoken,

actions taken,

the end written at the end.

Now, it wants to be shown off,

copied, reproduced, distributed and read

It is very bossy, I know.

Would you like to see it?

Another thought about 'where my ideas come from' and Gooseyness Award Nominee

I found a wonderful post on-line about writing I wanted to share with you:

How to steal like an artist and 9 other things nobody told me.

The blog is by Austin Kleon, who has recently published a book of poems called Newspaper Blackout. His poems are created just like it sounds by taking a newspaper article and blacking out the other words around. It reminds me of a treasure hunt, or how a sculptor will take a block of marble/wood/soup and then carves out the excess to discover the beautiful sculpture inside.

Back to Kleon's advise list. I'm especially fond of the first one: "Steal like an Artist".  It really is a common question, one I ask myself, "Where do you get your ideas?" The truth is, not necessary that I steal them, steal is perhaps too harsh a word, but I collect them from everywhere and everything: the books I read, games I play, my dreams, walking around downtown, shopping, surfing on-line, vacations to Greece, Scotland, London, Italy.... and so much more.

Of course, since we are retelling fairy tales, the biggest influence on Goosey is the fairy tales they're based on. I love to think we take that basic story premise and run with it to crazy heights.

In other news, I have a new nomination for Gooseyness Award!! Yay! It is the beautiful, wonderful short video below called "Rain Town". I absolutely love this video. You have to watch it, then you will understand.

Re: Revising and When is it good enough?

I'm starting to hate the endless revisions. I'm feeling really frustrated with them. It's a really terrible attitude to take. I know. I know. So I'm trying to give myself a positive outlook in this post. I will try anyway.

Regarding (or Re:) Revisions. Revising. Rewriting. Reworking.

Writing, and rewriting, it can go on and on and on. What drives me to do this to myself? I found this article about rewriting, called Writers on Rewriting . It has a collection of quotes from different writers about the subject, everyone from Earnest Hemingway, E.B. White, Vladimir Nabokov, Dorothy Parker and many others. It makes me both encouraged and discouraged to read them over.

The Art of Imitation (Or maybe just bad writing?)

"There are no originals ideas, there are only original people." --Barbara Grizzuti Harrison.

I wanted to post Letter #5 here. I really did, I had ever intention of revising it over the weekend and then posting it Monday evening. That was my plan. But then . . . but then I read over letter five and I realized it's a mess. A sticky mess. Not to mention it has some huge plot holes. It needs some major reconstruction. I was particularly struck, not only by the bad writing, but some awfully familiar images. What's this about an elven ring?

Nano Week 4 : Is it over yet?

"So convenient thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do." -- Benjamin Franklin

I'm chiming in on my Nano project. Its almost over now. We have . . . seven days left. After a hugely enthusiastic first week I've been ahead of my word count. Last week I spent most of the time telling people that I'm ahead, so its okay that I haven't written anything today. Of course the guilt started to wear me down and then every day I didn't write I wasn't so far head.

I'm definitely on task to "win" Nano this year. I've written 44,000 words so far. I don't think I'll have any problems reaching 50,000, since I'm only a little over half way through my story. I'm on chapter 13. I have plenty more ideas. I've even got a general idea of the climax and how the story will end.

That's great, but is it really winning when my story isn't finished?

Torture? ( am I seriously considering this? Yes, yes I am)

NaNoWriMo--- November is National Novel Writing Month. The Official Link.

The goal is to write 50,000 word novel, about 176 pages in 30 days.

That's 1667 words per day. That's 12,500 words per week. In a good week I can write 10,000 words no sweat. (Mind you that's a good week)

Where do the ideas come from?

"I think most people have more ideas in their heads than they think they do. Its just that those of us in the fantastic fields - either we don't listen to our own filters, or we have a much high ridiculousness threshold."
   Interview with China Mieville, NY Times July 23rd, 2010

I've finally posted the 3rd letter from Ange. Yay! Go Ange!

It's not the most exciting action packed letter, but it does some important set-up stuff for later. I realized I went into this story assuming whoever reads it would know the fairy tale. That said, I've found the fairy tales on-line:

It's fascinating to read the different versions. So, I've got two for you:

From Andrew Lang's The Blue Book: The Goose Girl and from Andrew Lang's The Red Book:  The Golden Goose

Another source is available at SurLaLune Fairy Tales. Here's the main website: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/. SurLaLune has an extensive site all about fairy tales. They have annotated versions of the stories, as well as all the hundreds of retellings available from children books, novels and live action movies and cartoons. I remember reading the Goose Girl on SurLaLune when I was first beginning to write Goosey, to help get some ideas about how to proceed.

Mostly I think my ideas come from the same part of my brain that forms dreams.

So, here's Letter #3 for your critques, comments, questions, etc.
Happy dreaming. I mean reading.