July 13-6: All Star Break

I've been so busy.

Most of my busy time was creative. I kept thinking of Neil Gaiman's annual New Year's instruction: "Don't forget to make some art." There may not be any words to report for the past few days, but art was made.

The stripes are gone.

The hallway was primed

and then painted feather gray.

The hallway looks enormous now - and I can decorate it for the first time.
That means shopping. Yes!

I like it. It's mellow.

The bathroom, a rich chocolate brown that borders on a deep #2, has been mocking me since I built this house. It will soon be wolf gray, two shades darker than the hallway's color. You can see a slice of the bathroom wall through the door on the right in the "after" picture. For me, my house is a palette. Rethinking and redecorating is art.

Also, I burned through a set of AA batteries in my mouse (recharged overnight) as I fulfilled a commitment for two other artsy projects. It was 13 hours over two days of hunching over the computer and right hand crampiness, but they're done. Shutterfly photobooks are on their way.

While busy with these other creative projects, I had time to think through two nagging Summer of Kings problems.

1

The first problem is romance.

Although there are lots of potential hook ups within my cadre of characters, I don't want this to be a "getting a boyfriend" story. Plus, I want to pass the Bechdel Test. Because real life.

So the question that swirled around in my head as I was rolling on paint and tearing off tape and making 6000 mouse clicks was this: Can a book about high school girls without romance as the central goal and driving force even exist?

I have little patience for Twilight-type stories which posit that life without "the one" is worthless. Not that Meyer invented the meme. And not that I don't enjoy romance. I adore Austen. I blissfully read an old Jude Devereaux paperback one afternoon last week. Romance is wonderful. Still, I do think books about teen girls (and even boys, thanks to John Green) lean toward "how to get a partner" overall and over all. Even when they deliberately present something else, here comes... Peeta. And Gale.

Teenage girls do have boys on the brain. It's a biological imperative. But I think a lot of those obsessive thoughts are also self-worth related (thanks to a culture of "life without 'the one' is worthless" on television, especially). Gals think, "Having a boyfriend proves I am worthy of love." And conversely, "Without a partner, I am rubbish."

Meanwhile, books about boys may have secondary plots that are romance related, but so many of them are allowed to be about other things. Friendship. Survival. Ethics. Following a dream. Success. Relationships with a parent. Their girls usually show up as tower princesses, mostly motive/prize. These are not new thoughts. I've read Campbell. I've read Woolf.

So...

As I was completing my art these past few days, I spent a lot of time thinking through the books I teach, the books I've read, and books being read by teens these days. I also spent a lot of time imagining different roles -- roles other than potential love interest -- for the main male characters in my story.

I finally figured out exactly who two of the main male characters need to be. They already had names. Now they have purpose. And that purpose is NOT to fall in love with Sarah.

I think.

2

The second problem I had was related to theme.

I'm in the writer zone. Everywhere I look, everything I do, it all seems symbolic.

e.g. Oh, I'm using my left hand to weed this garden plot. My left hand works better than my right, as it is weaker and pulls the weeds more slowly. I have a better chance of pulling up the weeds by the roots if I'm patient. Or slow. Or simply weak. That works with people, too. An older person (principal) who blusters into a situation and pulls at a problem (unruly student) with his or her "right hand" (yelling, punishment) will only break off the problem. It'll grow back. It is the softer, weaker "left-handed" solution (talking out why the misbehavior occurred, alternative punishments) that truly solves the problem.

This thinking is useful and entertaining. I enjoy making mental leaps. It is also dangerous. Without fetter, it leads to garbage. See: the stupid windblown plastic bag in American Beauty.

I have a long list of possible symbol and theme ideas. Until yesterday, I didn't know which one was dominant. I suspected none of them were. Most importantly, I didn't see how any of them related to my title. Once I figured out "V.S." and how he fits into the whole story, I found my thematic direction. It turns out he's the key to it all (the mystery, the rising conflict/complication, the climax of the story).

Drum roll...

This will be a book about power.

Side note: I'm currently reading Wolf Hall (about power in Henry VIII's England) and Brutal (about power in a high school). Accidental good timing.

July 12: Names

Sarah.
Ryann.
Alex.

I've known since early on that these were my three main characters. Each one is a combination of people I've known here in Monte, in college, and in my family. Plus a little of myself, I suppose. It's hard to avoid that.

They now have last names: Sarah Olson, Ryann James, and Alex Taylor. And they have coworkers, friends, and family members with names, as well. It was fun both surfing the internet with abandon and playing around with the ssa.gov database to find appealing, age-appropriate names for the characters.

There was one surprise.

As I filled out the work schedule on Friday, I realized that Sarah works about a third of her shifts with someone I haven't fully imagined yet. I only know that Sarah's new friend speaks Spanish. She's possibly from Honduras, like several of my students from last year. This was a surprise to me. One that I like very much.

On the homefront, I've decided to do a brown paint purge. That means goodbye, clever but impossible-to-decorate-around hallway stripes.

I almost to forgot to take the before picture!

Yes. I see that I have invoked the golden-throated James Taylor. I'm more than okay with that.

July 11: "Managing" King's

It was a productive day. I felt energized by my day off and inspired by Rowell's Eleanor & Park. However, as I spread out the plot, I realized I didn't know how many people worked at King's. I couldn't plan interactions well if I didn't know who was available for the interacting.

So I became King's manager and created a work schedule for the summer.

It's basically in code. Makes perfect sense to me.

One of my favorite tasks when directing the fall play (something is wrong with me)  is taking 30 kids' schedules (full of sports practices and events, pep band appearances, God-forbid-we-miss-it home football games, music lessons, private dance classes, part-time work, out-of-town field trips, etc.) and figuring out call for the first month's worth of practices, dividing and ordering the scenes so nothing conflicts. I can generally make everything fit except driver's ed. So, yeah, doing a work schedule? FUN.

Most important, I figured out how many employees I need. Ten.

Next up: Finding names for everyone.

July 10: A Day Off

Because

lunch with a friend

sunshine

nap

laundry

sunshine

eleanor and park.

July 9: Of Outlines

In high school, our College Prep Composition teacher, the legendary Jake Polta, required us to write outlines before composing our essays. I hated it. How could I know what I was going to write before I wrote it? The madness continued in college. To skirt this seemingly illogical mental task, I wrote papers, and then I reverse engineered the outlines.

But now?

Now I am an outline lover. And I have a new question: How will I know what to write without planning it beforehand?

So I spent my writing time Wednesday moving ideas from my mind and research notes into a grand Excel document. I have columns for main characters and their nicknames, minor characters/customers, general plot events (out of order so far), pranks, and theme topics. And I have columns for each chapter, where I can sketch outline the events and touchpoints for each chapter. The first five chapters are pretty set.

When I wrote SPOTD, I enjoyed plotting out the super powers and main plot events in this way. It was important to spread out the "good" and "bad" powers and hit the powers I needed at specific times over the course of the story. And I could easily add ideas to any day's outline. When writing, I picked up a chapter's outline and jumped in. Here's a look at an early version of the outline (sorry for the poor quality):

The colors mark my efforts to divide the story into three volumes in a logical way.

I still have serious thinking to do for Summer of Kings. Specifically, my brother Nate has requested scenes of valor, so I need more jeopardy. But the outline is coming together nicely. 

New prewriting: 1136 words

July 8: Yes, I Love Books

I finished reading The Great Santini. I cried. I transcribed half of my second interview. I went to book club. I laughed a little. I cried a little. I drank a little wine. I came home. I transcribed the second half of the interview.

Now begins the more challenging work of complicating my characters' lives, organizing the overall plot (big events and smaller, humorous moments), and WORDS.

When I wrote SPOTD, I started in the middle. Specifically, I wrote Chase's big crash in the barn on Flight Day. This time I suspect I will start at the beginning, as the first sentence is rolling around in my head, 90% ready to be recorded. Once that first sentence is digital pixels, I'll be off and running.

I received this gorgeous poster (which I had ordered) in the mail today:

NaNoWriMo's 2009 promotional poster.

It is currently being flattened on the largest, flattest surface in my library/office, the top of my whiteboard. The one with all my summer to-do jobs listed on it. So I can't see the jobs. So they don't exist. So I can't do them.

Right?

New prewriting: 2290 words

July 7: The Humble Surrender

Monday morning I interviewed the current Art's manager, she of the famed "perfectly beautiful banana split." We talked for a little over an hour. She had some pretty funny stories about working at the ice cream shop, and I intend to steal a few of them.

The most satisfying part of spending time with The Vet was knowing such a talented, patient, and kind person is headed into my world: education. I think she will be a fantastic elementary and/or special education teacher.

Later in the day, I transcribed the first interview (with Newbie). I would have continued with the second interview, but my wrist skin was starting to shine up in a precursor to callous. I love my desktop, but it takes a toll. Plus I needed to make progress on my bookclub book, due Tuesday night.

It has been twenty years since I read Conroy. I love him. Like Irving and Hassler, his prose is rich and lovely, his stories are delightfully place- and time-specific, and his characters have so much heart. They are three authors I rediscover again and again, thinking, "Oh, yeah. That's why I like his writing."

It's a little intimidating to read Conroy, to be honest. So I keep in mind Cheryl Strayed's comments on finishing her first book, from Tiny Beautiful Things page 57:

"I didn’t know if people would think my book was good or bad or horrible or beautiful and I didn’t care. I only knew I no longer had two hearts beating in my chest. I’d pulled one out with my own bare hands. I’d suffered. I’d given it everything I had. / I’d finally been able to give it because I’d let go of all the grandiose ideas I’d once had about myself and writing—so talented! so Young! I’d stopped being grandiose. I’d lowered myself to the notion that the absolute only thing that mattered was getting that extra beating heart out of my chest. Which meant I had to write my book. My very possibly mediocre book. My very possibly never-going-to-be-published book. My absolutely nowhere-in-league-with-the-writers-I’d-admired-so-much-that-I-practically-memorized-their-sentences book. It was 
only then, when I humbly surrendered, that I was able to do the work I needed to do."

New prewriting: 1699 words

July 4-6: My Weekend

Report: Lots of family time, boat rides, sunshine, and too much good food. The best sort of holiday.

No new words of prewriting or sentences. But I'm happy to share that I found a title. For the setting's title, as well as the novel's, I was searching for a connotation-rich, one syllable word that could be a person's last name. It came to me as I was driving to my sister's house: King.

The small dairy freeze will be King's.

The title will be Summer of King's or Summer of Kings.

It sounds a little George R. R. Martin, which I like, and its regality plays off Dairy Queen. Plus, I had a goofy study hall group last semester, the students in which took turns wearing my plastic crown (pictured below), drew crowns all over my white board, and made up silly catch-phrases such as "Do you even king, brah?" They wanted me to write a story about them. I took notes.

For Monday: An interview with the current Art's manager, a 9-year veteran of the place.

July 3: Rebel

I'm breaking the rules. I mostly don't care. Pat says it's okay, after all.

Yesterday I read my first pep talk form the NaNoWriMo website. I selected Patrick Rothfuss, since I just read The Name of the Wind and loved it. The first part of his message was to avoid doing other things and JUST WRITE. Specifically, don't read stuff.

Ironic, given that his 1107 page sequel is near the top of my summer reading pile... As soon as I finish e. lockhart's We Were Liars and my July bookclub book, I'll probably get sucked in.

I also tackled several minor projects (buying supplies to paint my master bathroom, finally weeding my back garden, getting my glasses and lawn mower fixed) and two major projects (reshingling the garage and putting up a decent bird feeder). I expect the rest of July will be just as full of distracting, yet satisfying, accomplishments.

The boys on the roof.

It took me three days to screw the post base into the ground. 

Rothfuss' second message was to break the rules. Specifically, he advised three places NaNoWriMo rules could be bent:

1) "You don't have to start from scratch."
Actually, I am starting from scratch. So I'm following that rule.

2) "Revise sometimes."
Since I haven't started writing sentences, I don't know if it will be hard for me to avoid revision. I suspect it will be nearly impossible. I like revising. Still, I'll try to minimize my revising overall.

3) "Follow your enthusiasm."
That's the one. NaNoWriMo pushes writers to set down at least 1667 words per day in order to reach the 50,000 word goal. I am already at the point where it may impossible to catch up. But I'm so excited about the project and making significant progress daily.

Yesterday I brainstormed for about 40 minutes into my phone's recorder and later typed up those ideas (more prewriting). A few ideas were off track, as happens with good brainstorming. Most ideas were good. A few ideas may be brilliant.

I also set up my interviews with Newbie and the Vet. In fact, Newbie came over for nearly two hours and downloaded her thoughts and emotions during a friendly and informative conversation about her first impressions and challenges working at the ice cream shop. Priceless. So much of her experience will be in the novel. Together we thought of ideas that would work in the story, and I am ready to start writing sentences even before the second interview.


New prewriting: 1257 words
Words: 16 (I have an opening sentence!)

July 2: Research

I love this NaNoWriMo poster.

My favorite quotes:

"The first step in writing a good book: giving yourself permission to write a bad book."
"You are part ninja, part monkey, part starmaster cyborg."
"Write first! Ask questions later!"

I will write a bad book.
I am a ninja monkey starmaster cyborg. NMSC.
I am... asking so many many many questions!

Summer of Art's (working title) happens at an ice cream shop, but I don't know anything about working at an ice cream shop. I am at a loss. I can write the characters, but not the action. So I don't have scene. And it all starts with scene. So yesterday I wrote over 500 words worth of questions about ice cream shops.

And fetched my lunch at the real Art's. (Can I write that off?) The food was good, but I was there to see if I recognized any of the workers -- who knew the answers to my questions.

Thankfully, a recently graduated student of mine whom I know well through extra-curricular activities was window-jockey. I asked for her help.

"Of course I'll help. But it's only my first day," she demured.

Enter another window-working former student, curious.

"How about you? First day?"

"I have nine years experience."

"I need to interview both of you."

My total word count is still nil. But I'm on my way.


BTW: At first I imagined the novel in rotating third-person limited POV. Now I'm pretty sure it's Sarah's story. I'll start with her. I don't think the others will pipe up, but you never know. Wonder paved the way for odd POV shifts.

Also, I ran an SSA list of popular baby names for 1997 and scrolled down to the bottom to find a name for my third character. Close but rejected names:
      999 Stormy (there will be storms of all kinds in the story, too on point)
      993 Elsa (I bet that'll make the top ten for 2014)
      978 Katerina (love the name, but I had a Kat in SPOTD)
      976 Devan (the right feel, but I taught a Devan and am searching for a new name)
      963 Quinn (too Glee)

      966 Ryann

I've never taught one.
I've never met one.
Perhaps a little indulgent, given my name is Ann. She's not based on me, though. And when you say the name, it just sounds like Ryan.
It has a familiarity and uniqueness at once.
Ryann it is.

New prewriting: 545 words
Novel: 0 words

July 1: It's a Start

So... this did not go in the direction I thought it would go.

A few weeks ago I turned my phone's recorder app and listed all the interesting "types" of students I knew. Not the Hollywood-typical "dumb jock" or "Cinderella girl" types that are overused on Disney channel and rarely seen in the real world. Real world kids are so much more complicated than those stereotypes, and most kids fit several of those pre-determined tropes at once. I listed real kids, by name, and tried to describe them on a deeper level.

My first NaNoWriMo-inspired step was to type up that rant (654 words) and see which characters would call me over to say hello.

Three gals did.

Each of them* is complicated in the most wonderful ways. I can't wait to get to know them better. Two of them now have names: Sarah and Alexis. The third is in search of a name. My book club friends, who requested that my next project be either about a girl (if I go the YA route) or a mystery (if I go the adult fiction route) will be happy. So you know, I was not expecting to write about teenage girl drama. But Sarah, Alexis, and No-name are dancing around in my head. There will be drama.

My next step was to decide which computer to use for the actual writing. I love my desktop mac but prefer to sprawl out in more comfortable chairs (and my bed) to write. I charged my Lenovo Yoga laptop and gave it a chance to replace my smaller, more lap-sized PowerBook G4. It won me over. It's not as bulky/awkward to hold as I thought it would be and the touch screen functions are working better than I remember. I just have to get used to the locations of the backspace, shift, and control function keys and remember to hit the "end" and "beginning" buttons instead of mac commands with arrows to maneuver quickly. Give me a few days.

The Lonovo Yoga, along with an accidental glimpse of my summer reading pile

I did (329 words) more prewriting (can't help myself) and fleshed out Sarah, Alexis, and No-name a bit. I added a setting -- one summer at a smalltown ice-cream shop like Art's Dairy Freeze -- and listed a few minor characters and plot complications. Then I paused to consider point of view before jumping in with actual sentences. SPOTD uses first person well enough, but I've known for a while now that my next novel would be in third person limited. I decided to rotate from character to character at chapter breaks.

Then my phone rang. That was the end of my writing for the day.

In my head, I have a fantastic conceit for a high school version of Slumdog Millionaire involving a fostered boy. It's not happening.

Prewriting word count: 988
Novel word count: 0



* the characters, who were inspired by kids I've known but not meant to BE those kids

July Challenge

Last November found me, as usual, in the throes of orchestrating final rehearsals, mounting our high school's fall play, and suffering the subsequent mental, physical, and emotional elation and exhaustion that follows intense art-making. Thanks to that, plus a good dose of Thanksgiving food stupor, I did not join the 563,484 amazing writers who participated in NaNoWriMo. 

But I wanted to. 

I really wanted to.

Crest of National Novel Writing Month (November)

July is my chance to give it a try.

My first novel, which turned into the SPOTD series, took six years to finish. How on earth can I do a 50,000 word novel in a month? I guess we'll find out.