Our House and Writing About Writing

Do you remember the '80s song with the line, "Our house/in the middle of the street"? That lyric has been in my head for days. Sad when bad '80s songs from your childhood inform your adult life. But we're buying a house! Not in the middle of a street, but rather, on a corner lot. A rather large one, about 1/4 of an acre. We close on Monday and start moving on Wednesday with a short break to eat some turkey for that little national holiday on Thursday. Nate and I are ready to go. We can't wait to be in our new place.

I'm going to write a little about writing, which is the time for most of you to go on your merry way. (I know how boring it is to read about writing. Unless you are a writer.) At the end of October, I finished the first draft of the novel I've been working on for about two years (longer if you count the time I was just thinking about the idea). Actually, this spring, it will be three years I've been working on the book. It would have taken me much longer to finish the draft if I hadn't been able to take off about two and a half months this summer. Writing full time for two months was HUGE (as Trump would say). I got more done in those 2.5 months than I did in the two years I spent working on it previously. Partly that was due to knowing the story pretty well at that point, but having hours and hours to do nothing but write was a huge luxury and benefit. There's no doubt that free time helped me finish.

Now, for the bad news. I emailed one of my old writing profs and told her I had finished a draft. She wrote: "Congratulations! You're more than halfway done." Halfway, people. Seriously.

And now I'm working full time again. No complaints about that. I like my job, and I especially like the money. I need the money since I am about to sell my soul on Monday to the mortgage company (maybe it just feels that way). But, working has definitely limited my writing time. So has looking for and buying a house. So will moving. So will settling in. So will life and all of its daily obstacles.

So I'm reverting to my old schedule of getting up at 5 am so I can write before work. Those pre-dawn hours are harsh. They force you to be a little more truthful with yourself because, for some reason, lies you tell yourself at noon or at midnight just don't hold up when you're prying your eyes open with your fingers and walking to the coffee maker like a zombie. And as I sat at my desk making notes this morning, I had to be honest with myself. I have no idea how long it will take me to rewrite this thing while I'm working full time. So I'm just going to start revising and do the best I can.

At this point, I'm doing what Carolyn See recommends in her book, Making a Literary Life. When you are ready to start revising, she suggests making a sort of map, a list of What You Have, next to a list of What You Need. So, for example, in my case, one thing would be, I HAVE a scene of the family at a New Year's Eve gathering. I NEED to add stuff from an earlier section about the father (the chapter is told from his point of view) so the readers will care about what he thinks and feels as you're introduced to the evening and the family.

I plan on doing at least three major revisions.

1. Take care of nagging decisions I couldn't make while I was writing. For instance, I have two characters, old childhood friends, who meet up on a night when both are feeling low and lonely and there's a lot of drinking involved. I always knew Eva would hit on David. But I wasn't sure if David would sleep with her or not. Those are the kinds of things I want to address in the the first revision go-around. Make the decisions I didn't make the first time and alter later chapters that those decisions affect.

Also, work on the sequential order of the novel. Oh, did I mention I don't tell the story chronologically? (At this point I'm thinking, what am I, an idiot? I have six major characters, a non-chronological plot, 400 pages (in a 10-point font), for a first novel? When I've never done this before! I've got to be crazy. Anyway.) See recommends revising for only two hours at a time, with a drink nearby if you need it. I do need the drink, as the previous thoughts suggest, but unfortunately, at 5 am, the only thing I'm drinking is coffee.

2. Round 2 will involve going through each character's chapters and trying to make them sound like that individual person. Really trying to make each character come through and making sure their chapters (since they aren't in sequential order!) make sense when you read them as a whole.

3. Tighten, tighten, tighten. Pay attention to the word and sentence level and try to make those sentences work.

4. Take a long-ass nap.

How long will this take? Your guess is as good as mine. I'll let you know when I've made substantial progress or when anything interesting comes up.

Writing Update

Well, since I finished my draft at the end of October, I haven't had any time or energy to start rewriting. Buying a house is a time-consuming process. And since we've never had a house before, we have to buy pretty much everything (refridgerator, washer/dryer, real furniture, etc.), and shopping for those things is taking some time, too.

Once we move in, we'll work on the yard, painting, the fireplace, etc. So when will I have time to begin rewriting? That's something I'm trying to figure out ... although I've also thought that perhaps the time away from the manuscript is a good thing. Maybe I'll come back to the story with fresh eyes. I'll let you know how the novel progresses.

I Feel a Little Better Today

Sort of like the day after a bad hangover.

I noticed that a lot of my co-workers came in late or not at all yesterday, which makes sense, seeing as how I work in the arts and there are likely more Democrats here than elsewhere. I live in what is widely considered the conservative/Republican city of Dallas. I've never lived in a city before where Democrats are "in the closet" or where sometimes they keep their opinions to themselves because it's just easier when you are in the minority. So even though there were late arrivals and no-shows, I didn't hear one person talk about the election. It's an interesting and saddening experience.

I've met a lot of Dems here, Texas Southern Dems, who many would have you believe are a dying breed. I don't think that's true. Outnumbered, yes, but not dead. And life goes on.

I'm going to Austin tonight to meet up with Nate, who had to travel there for work. Kinda funny that we had to be there last week for my job. This time I get to just have fun and drink and relax and recover. I hope you do the same, R, D, or L.

What Can I Say?

That these don't express more clearly?

Four more years. America will regret it. At least half of us will.