Rethinking the Novel… Again

I’ve been working really hard on my novel all month - wrote almost fifty pages in just about three weeks!  But then I had a meeting with my advisor on Friday that brought it all to a halt.

Essentially, what she said was that my overarching plot didn’t really fit within the world I had created, and that it seemed more like a series of unrelated events than a coherent story (well, she said it a little more eloquently and politely than this, but I’m paraphrasing.)  And she was right.

Some of the things she mentioned I already knew were problems, but I was ignoring.  Because of my time crunch - I have am amazing work schedule this summer, which I cannot sustain into the fall - I was focusing entirely on page count, just wanting to get as much out as possible and worry about the consequences later.  But what’s the point of putting thousands upon thousands of words on paper if you know they’re not the right words?

I spent the weekend doing thinking-work (well, that and winning a chili cook off…) and I believe I now actually know where the story is going; all the little pieces are starting to fall into place.  Of course, this means major revision and tossing out a lot of the work I’ve done in the past six months.

I think what I’ve learned most from this whole experience is just how much you really do throw away in the writing process.  During the fall, I was working on an entirely different novel, which I got about 90 pages into and completely discarded.  I currently have 146 pages in this incarnation, and I think I’m going to be able to salvage about 50. With screenplays I’ve been lucky (or naive) enough to get the story pretty close to right the first time around.  Not that I haven’t had to rewrite, but neither have I had to throw dozens of pages out.  

But the thing that surprises me most is that I’m not all that bitter or sad about having to throw away all of this work.  There are a few elements in my current version that I really loved, but just aren’t going to work in the new storyline, and it’s a little heartbreaking to have to say goodbye to them.  But I also know I can just save those ideas and maybe be able to use them again in a future project.

I anticipate a long afternoon in the coffee shop today trying to chisel out the details of my new plot.  But that’s okay.  Still a pretty nice way to spend an afternoon.  The tea and oatmeal raisin cookie won’t hurt, either.

Writing: The Profession Most Likely to Accidentally Land You on a Terrorist Watch List?

Good writing is good because the conflicts are strong and the plots are intriguing.  Of course, this means it often has to include stuff that’s not part of the writer’s every day life.  And so to learn more about these exciting, obscure, dangerous things, we writers do what every lazy, red-blooded American would, we Google.  And this, of course, leads to an interesting cache of searches.  For me, these have included:

• The names of the clothing the Taliban required male citizens to wear after taking over Afghanistan
• Algerian methods of torture
• How to do a kidney transplant
• Photos of Jack the Ripper’s victims
• How to launder money
• Soviet Era weaponry

From talking to other writers, I know I am not alone in my clandestine searches… if I’m not on some sort of government watch list, the Patriot Act is failing us.

Today I Got Attacked By A Bird. Twice.

Today I had to tutor a client in the pacific palisades.  Since I got there about 45 minutes early, I decided to go to a Starbucks and do some reading.  As I was walking from my car into the restaurant, I saw a guy walking by the Bank of America towards me get whacked in the head by a small black bird.  He was mildly freaked out and we shared a moment of commiseration because he was glad someone saw it (me).  Seemed like just a strange fluke thing.  It was kind of breezy, maybe the bird just wasn’t paying attention.  

But then, as I passed under the same BoA awning to go to the Starbucks, I felt the same bird woosh past my head, only inches away from my ear.  That was freaky.  I didn’t know if it was the same individual animal or just a strange, palisadian species of dive-bombing fowl I’d never heard of before.  I made a note to be cautious on my way back out.

Forty minutes and 25 pages later, of course, I forgotten all about it.  So as I was walking back to my car, contemplating the use of footnotes in fiction, I was completely not expecting to have my head violently pecked and wing-thwaked by an angry avian.  But that’s what happened. It hurt.  And was kind of scary!

I don’t know if there’s a point or moral or lesson to all of this.  Just be cautious if your’e ever walking under this awning outside BoA.  There’s one crazy ass bird hanging out there.  Also, I hope I don’t have bird flu.  

And So It Begins… www.kellystorr.com

After finding out I was not going to be able to continue my job at the USC writing center this fall, I decided - in lieu of getting a “real job” - to start an online flash boutique (meaning it only lasts for a short time) selling hand-crafted jewelry and writerly items to support myself while I finish my thesis novel.

I’ve spent the past week making up prototypes and designing the website (so if you’ve talked to me this week and I mentioned that I was only sleeping 5-6 hours a night, now you know why) and today is official launch day!  Yay!

Some of my favorite things include: Googly eye cufflinks, hand painted laptop sleeves & ebook covers, and vintage key necklaces.

So check it out.  Buy something and help support one writer trying to do what she loves.  I’ll be blogging about my experiences throughout the month here, so keep an eye out and monitor how it’s going.

Thanks for your support!

www.kellystorr.com