Jessica Ralston's Blog

When Dec. 1 came around, I promised myself I would give it until January to start the edits. The thing is a beast: it’s 237 pages and weighs about two pounds. It cost RMB100 to get it printed and bound, so about US$15. I have a feeling I would have paid a lot more at a Kinkos or an Office Max in the States, but it was still a shock when the printer told me RMB100. Yikes.

I settled in and started to read that night. My first reaction was, “Huh. This isn’t awful. It’s not good, but it’s not awful.” In other words, it can be made into something better, with a lot of work. There are some parts where I say to myself, “This is okay, this might work.” Then there are other parts where I hold my head in my hands and say, “Oh God, what were you thinking?” I try very hard not to draw a box around the block of offending text and black it out with a permanent marker.

As I read I tried to make notes, but I found that this took me out of the story and moved my train of thought from just reading, to actively looking for mistakes and plot holes.

My next pass will be for blocking and note-taking and judging. Lots of judging. Some things I noticed, though:

• There are a lot of subplots I set into motion but never followed through on. I suppose this comes with the territory of marathon novel writing; you forget what happened 10,000 words ago. I’ll make note of these on my second pass, pick the ones that seem worthy of expanding and go from there.
• The second half of the story makes a lot more sense than the first; it feels a lot more cohesive and there’s a definite voice. (Didn’t I read somewhere that the first chapters of a book are almost always the ones you have to rewrite to fit the ending of the story? Yeah.)
• I jump between what people are actually called, like if he’s a king or a lord, if he’s an uncle or a cousin. Also, my timeline seems to be a little wonky, so that will have to be established as well.

I blocked out all the scenes, and now have made a mess of my spare room floor. Every scene is on its own notecard so I can see how it flows together, and shuffle if I feel like it. It’s proven pretty useful so far, but that’s for another blog post.

I have a friend, who is also a co-worker, reading it over. She made notes as she read, but her she gave the whole thing a thumbs up. And said she wants to read it to her children. Whoa. I asked if she was absolutely sure she wanted to do that and she said yes.

I’m trying not to let myself get intimidated by the editing process. I suppose this is where a lot of amateur authors stop and convince themselves that there’s no way they can do this, it’s too big and demanding and sometimes gut-wrenching to carry on. But I’m going to power through, and try to build the best support system I can so I’m not tempted to throw in the towel.

Next week: notecard migration!

OK, the countdown begins!  It’s 9:50 p.m. over here in China land, which means I am anxiously watching the minutes to midnight tick by.

I’ve done all the preparing I feel like I can do. I even braved the masses of gawking, Hello!-shouting, Chinese people and went to the supermarket to stock up on the necessities, a.k.a. chocolate. I even found instant coffee, which I guess is a good alternative to the regular thing.

Also, my apartment is the cleanest it has EVER been, which is saying a lot because roommate neglects to clean his sunflower seed shells most of the time.

The plot cards are laid out on their temporary home (my bed) for easy access and reference. The chocolate is handy for the first 1667 reached, an episode of the West Wing is lined up for the second 1667 reached, and the coffee is there should I need it.

80,000 words and a first draft, here I come! (Yep, I set my goal high this year. I have the free time, I might as well make use of it.)

In my NaNoWriMo Google+ circle, there has been a lot of talk of plotting versus pantsing and it reminded me of my first foray into NaNoWriMo, as well as why I’m a plotter-pantser.

First off, NaNoWriMo writers usually fall into three categories:

• plotters – those whole plot their entire novel before the start of November
• pantsers – writers who don’t plot anything, but they might have a general idea and maybe some characters in mind, and therefore write by the seat of their pants
• plotter-pantsers – writers who don’t plot extensively, or only about halfway through, and pants their way through the rest, or let their tangents take them wherever they’re headed.

I have nothing but high fives for all the pantsers out there, because that takes a certain about of gumption, I feel. For everyone else, solidarity and fist bumps for you, because as I’ve grown as a writer, I’ve come to realize that I need some guidelines when I write. Read the rest of this entry »

I feel like I’m training for a marathon. And I’m totally not prepared. You really have to mentally prepare and not only make the time to do the training, but make yourself do it, too, just like with any other sport.

I remember when I was in high school and I joined the indoor track team. The first month/month and a half was brutal. I was sore all the time, I dreaded changing into my warm-up clothes and running shoes, but I had promised a friend, so I did. (OK, so peer pressure is involved in this now, as well. Nice, just what I want to happen.) But then I found that after I pushed through the burn, the pain and the “Oh god, not again, I don’t want to ruuuun,” I actually enjoyed track practice. I looked forward to the warm-up run, I looked forward to chatting with my teammates, I looked forward to lifting the weights with the other throwers. And, when I didn’t run for a few days in a row, I felt weird. I was restless, bored, and my appetite even changed a little. I missed running. My body missed it, my mind missed it.

So in my head now, I’ve talked myself into believing that I have to condition myself! I have to train myself to sit down and write every day. I have to start flexing my writing muscle, lifting small weights (750words and one post a day on the blog) to being the ultimate champion (750words, two posts a day, and NaNoWriMo, which I’ve set a daily word count goal of 2,000)! I’ve actually set an alarm to sound at nine at night to remind me to sit down and write. I figure it’s far enough away from midnight that I can successfully do all my required words before the clock strikes midnight. Also I’m a procrastinator of the most epic proportions, so that gives me time to dillydally before I absolutely must buckle down and write.

I’ll do it every day, because I have to. And slowly, I’ll push through whatever problems I have (writer’s block, no time, no motivation, whatever), and come through on the other side, enjoying writing, looking forward to the time I manage to carve out of my day to sit down and write and be with my thoughts and characters. And then, if I happen to miss a few days in a row, I’ll feel the “pain” of my writing muscle not being used after a few days. I’m hoping this is what writing will turn into for me.

On a lighter note, tomorrow is my day off! So I will be testing out a new way to outline/plot, while sucking down mugs of tea and exercising that writing muscle.

I took one look at the Add New Post page and I willfully ignored it. What did I do instead? I checked Google+. I checked Twitter. I checked Facebook. I trimmed my nails. I listened to a Nerdist podcast. Fired off an e-mail. I did some yoga. A little of this, a little of that. The Add New Post page stared back at me, the cursor blinking accusingly.

In college, I managed to turn procrastination into an art form. I would put off term papers and presentations until days (if not one day) before their due dates, then rush to the library to gather resources, then spend a sleepless night scouring the Internet and writing/preparing the paper. Hand it in the next day, get it back a few weeks later, a big, fat, red, A or A- on the front page. Jessica: 1, Doing things ahead of time: 0. (This talent used to confuse my mother in high school and she’s still baffled by it today.) My roommates were always astonished; they would practice and rehearse for days on end (they were all music majors) for the big performance as where for my big performance (a paper on the Electoral College, anyone?), I would take a quick trip to the library, write all night long, go to class and hand in the paper. No big deal.

Nothing like a deadline to get you going, right? As I type this it’s 11:50 p.m., and my fingers are literally flying over the keyboard to make sure I get everything I want to say down before the clock strikes midnight and I miss my Post A Day deadline.

I think that’s why people (including Wrimos) procrastinate: the adrenaline rush as you finish your projects, under the gun, wondering whether or not you’re going to make it in time. What would happen if you didn’t complete your task? For some people, that’s when they do their best work, right when the clock is ticking down. I was just listening to the most recent Nerdist podcast and they were talking with Ben Folds (pianist extraordinaire, also pretty humorous), who said that he writes most of his songs and records his albums within days of studio deadlines (“I have to get struck by the deadline”). Most of his albums are pretty phenomenal, so it seems as if there is some validity to putting things off until the very last moment. Sometimes it pays off.

So procrastinate away! Guilt free! (It’s now 11:56 p.m. Jessica 2 Doing things ahead of time 0. Still.)

Ben Folds on Nerdist

It’s an online writing community geared more towards critique, but they do have a good sense of community with forums and circles. You can’t post your work until you’ve built up enough karma points, which you earn by leaving critiques on other author’s works. I’ve built up enough to post some of my work, but man, it takes major cajones to do that. And I don’t know if I’m ready for that.

So I’m growing some cajones.

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Now playing: London Symphony Orchestra & Josef Krips – Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 “Pastoral”: III. Allegro (attaca) – IV. Allegro (attaca) – V. Allegretto
via FoxyTunes

• National Novel Writing Month is speeding right around the corner. I’m pretty excited, because I have the first full week of November off from work, and then plenty of days around Thanksgiving off, so hopefully I’ll be focused enough to buckle down and get good chunks written on those days. I’ve been lurking around the forums since OLL wiped them and put them back up. I keep telling myself to get off the boards and plot, but Bee says she knows me better and I’ll just keep lurking and bitching about the stupid people.
• I recently had a new hard drive put in my laptop, and I lost everything (pictures, music, word documents) so I have about 20 days to rebuild by music database to make appropriate playlists. I know people make playlists that somehow pertain to their novel, but I find it best to make playlists that encourage writing.
• I’m stuck on Module 8 in this TEFL course. I thoroughly dislike grammar, but I feel like I know more than my 10th grade English teacher knew, or ever bothered to teach us. However, I do know that when you learn a foreign language, you need to know the grammar in order to understand reading and to write coherently. I have until Dec. 21 to get it all done, and then I’ll be certified, but man, the grammar is kicking my ass.
• PopCap is offering Bejeweled2 for free until 10:10 PST, so go get it while it lasts. It’s my new favorite thing.

Also, hey to all the new NaNo friends who have stumbled to my blog!