Abstract Thinking vs. Knowing

This summer I read, back to back, two books that made me rethink my writing practice and how I teach writing.

The first is Tara Westover's brilliant Educated. She is a thoughtful, wonderful writer.

The second is Range, David Epstein. I can't stop thinking and talking about this book.

One of Epstein's propositions is that we too often teach and test concrete, knowledge-based skills (well) to the detriment of abstract thinking skills that would be more useful throughout one's life. Not new, as an idea. I remember particularly the "Dimensions of Learning" trend that pushed for teaching HOTS: Higher Order Thinking Skills. That was one education trend I really liked and continue to consider as I plan lessons. I especially like the author's insistence that better learning is SLOW and looks like poor learning (in the immediate). Which leads me back to Tara Westover.

Tara's elementary and secondary education experiences were extremely limited. She mostly learned what she was curious enough about to explore on her own, which led to a narrow understanding of what most Americans would deem "general knowledge". But she was a reader, and her mind is able to make fascinating, imaginative leaps. She learned the skills that Range's author deemed essential. She is able to transfer knowledge and make connections.

In the long run, teachers who lead students toward the right answers and reward them are less effective than teachers who allow students to be wrong and struggle toward true understanding. As I start a new school year, I plan to keep these truths in mind.

Facebook Revelations

What does my personal Facebook page say about me?

I recently did a quick data analysis on the types of posts and topics posted on my Facebook page so far (2019). Here's what I found:

Topics*:

0% Political
2% each: Current events, Weather, Local interest, Travel, and College
6.5% Shakespeare related
6.5% Movies/Television
9% Events
11% Poems/Poetry 
13% Humorous
13% Education
17% Books

35% Family

Genre:
2% each: Announcements, Advertising, Graphic, Invitation
4% Shopping related
9% Memes
11% Text
13% Articles
17% Videos
37% Photos

Posters:

35% Shared by someone else

65% Posted by me

My most common post is family photos posted by me. In my opinion, that's Facebook's most convenient use.

If someone were trying to figure out my interests, they would have a pretty good snapshot based on these results.

Though I do hit the like button on others' partisan political posts, I consciously refuse to post political content (articles/memes). I acknowledge this is a matter of privilege. It's a choice I make to safeguard my mental health. Still, would someone be able to guess my political affiliation based on Facebook posts? Probably. My focus on public education and intellectual pursuits probably give it away. It's not that I'm a Democrat, so I have certain interests. It's the other way around. I care about all Americans doing well, not just myself, and actively work to raise the "least" to their best lives, rather than focusing on what's merely best or most profitable for me. A focus on the group over the individual often marks the difference between Democrat and Republican. I think it's particularly sad that the highly educated in our nation are now considered "elite" to be trashed rather than exemplars to be revered.

The same is true for religion. I don't post my religious beliefs or link to articles that are particularly religious, though my faith is an important part of who I am. Again, I think it's sad that one party considers itself the "religious" one, assuming that all members of the opposite party are Godless heathens. It is my Christian faith, above all, that leads me most of my political beliefs. Especially Jesus' call to live humbly, love my neighbor, and be a servant to others.

What surprised me? I think movies and television take up more of my daily life than this shows, as does travel. I had no idea that a third of the content on my page was posted by friends and relatives, although that doesn't surprise me.

I have posted 15 times to this blog in 2019. Had I linked to each blog, about a quarter of my posts would have been about writing. That's more than my percentages for books or education. I sometimes flirt with the idea of transitioning to a full-time writing career. This data analysis is a bit of an eye-opener. Retiring from teaching is not just a fleeting thought. It's born out by the numbers.


* Some topics comprised more than one topic

Breaking the Rules

I've probably posted about this before. It's a problem I have that is not going away with experience. I am the master of making stupid (cliched) plot decisions that cannot be undone.

First example: In SPOTD, each day starts at the start. For 30 days in May, Chase Cooper 's alarm rings and he wakes up with a new superpower. Because the new powers kick in overnight, there wasn't a way around this problem. And it IS a problem.

I tell my writing students all the time, "Start in the middle of things. Start with action. Don't start at the start."

The only way I could have solved this was to make his powers kick in either at a fixed time during the day (I can't imagine all the rewriting that would have entailed) or randomly (kind of kills the whole SPOTD premise). So I just embraced my faux pas and made it work. It became the story.

Second example: In SPOTD, I needed a more exciting start. I added a dream scene. It showed Chase's inner desires (to be a hero) and allowed me to write a huge action sequence. And although the diminishing of Chase's superhero dreams is important to his character arc, they were definitely a ploy on my part.

I don't allow my students to write stories where the main character wakes up at the end. It's too overdone. I tell them to just make the plot really happen. The problem with "It was all a dream" is that it robs the main character of agency. Once they wake up, readers realize the characters they were so worried about were mere bystanders all along. The danger of the dream plot wasn't real danger after all. It says to the reader, "Haha! Gotcha. You felt the feels, but it wasn't even real!" That's pretty rude. It makes the reader disconnect in the future, not wanting to be fooled into caring twice. And although the character may wake having learned a lesson, if the story ends there, the reader doesn't get to see the change/growth in action.

The kicker: When I am reading stories where characters dream, I hate it. I usually skim over those paragraphs.

And does this stop me from having characters dream in my new series? Nope. I keep their dreams as short as possible. But I have no excuse for not cutting them.

Last example: Who on earth wants to read an action-packed adventure story starring... a shy, not-that-attractive pregnant girl? And then, a formerly pregnant girl on the run. With babies. And her grandpa. Seriously? Adventure stories are supposed to be centered on young heroes. Teenagers. Maybe they age into their twenties, but rarely past that.

I never pitch that angle when people ask what my new series is about. I don't talk about the escape/pursuit plot of book 1, I talk about book 3, which is basically Agatha Christie in a castle. THAT they "get."

And what is book 1 except another case of me starting at the start? Like, THE START. I skipped a conception scene, but just barely.

In any case, I wonder what other cliches and bad plot turn offenses I have committed or risk committing in the near future...

* Hero evades certain death
* Villain is actually good
* Actual villain was pretending to be a good guy
* Dead character is miraculously alive
* Deus ex machina ending

I have no plans to incorporate any of those, but my track record says otherwise.

Note: As a writer who prides herself in smart, tight plotting, I do work especially hard to specifically avoid the last one. I think I'm quite good at subtle foreshadowing and building to an ending that is logical.

Cutting My Darlings

The more I write, the more I grow as a writer. Duh.

Lately, I've been thinking about a piece of advice that made no sense to me in 2006. I was at the Iowa Summer Writer's Conference, and Sandra Scofield was my teacher/mentor. Anytime a writer complained about a piece of story that wasn't working, Sandra said, "Cut it."

She said it was even feasible that an entire text might need to be cut. The writer would then start over. I was SHOCKED.

I thought, "There is no way."
I thought, "I write well enough. I won't ever have to cut so drastically."
I thought, "I will not take this advice."

I was wrong.

I have blogged about this before. I remember trashing an entire chapter of SPOTD (the fishing chapter) and later recreating it. That was the right move. Though I struggled a lot with the chapter, more than one reader has mentioned that chapter as a favorite.

As I am writing Lio and Lamb, I find myself revising and cutting in equal measure. My touchstone questions are, "Do I need this information?" and "Can this be said more simply?" If the answers are no and yes, respectively, I cut.

It's not hard. I put all "my darlings" in a doc called "cut lines," so I'm really not getting rid of them. I'm just shuffling them away. Like my old tee shirts, piled in the hall closet, waiting to go to the thrift store. But not yet. Not until I realize I don't really need them.

Matt Bird gives the same advice in The Secrets of Story. In his chapter on revision, he shares several notable drafts of movies that were drastically changed, for the better. I will note, however, that his advice is to set aside a draft for a week to let it settle, then to go back and fix it. My drafts settle for months at a time. A lot of the drastic changes and fixes that he advocates do happen over time, without having to scrap much.

A New (Laser) Printer

I like to revise on paper.

Here's why:

1. It's easy to see typing and grammar mistakes and easy to mark them for editing.
2. There is plenty of white space in the page margins for brainstorming and multiple, recorded efforts at new approaches to problem sentences.
3. Words, sentences, or even whole sections can simply be marked for later revision, especially if I don't see/hear an immediate solution.
4. Physically, I can see more of the text more quickly, moving my eyes and not the mouse cursor or screen.
5. Reading on paper can be done while sitting outside in the sun. For someone who lives in the North, where half the year is spent indoors, getting outside in the summer is essential. Very few things in life bring me as much joy as sitting in the sun, reading.

This past year I have printed the various pieces of Lio and Lamb twice: once just before Christmas in preparation for submission to agent Matt Bialer and once this summer as lead-in work to finishing the two drafts.

I could have printed them on my home/office inkjet printer. However, that machine was on its last leg. What should have been printed in crisp, black ink was instead gray and blurry. Every tenth line or so was so blurry as to be unreadable.

I tried cleaning the printer heads, replacing the ink with new cartridges (official brand, not "refilled"), and using better quality paper. Each "fix" bumped the quality of the printing, but only marginally and temporarily. So...

Each time I printed the Lio and Lamb texts, I drove 50 miles to access an affordable same-day printer/binder. Though not terribly expensive, adding up what I have spent so far plus another printing would equal the cost of a new printer.

I bought a new printer.

After an entire morning of setup, including 57 minutes on the phone/online with hp customer support, it's ready to go.

PS
Truthfully, this summer's writing and revising has been the most intense since I was actively drafting SPOTD, ten years ago. I feel like my revision game has stepped up. I am seeing better digitally. If only computer screens worked well in the sunshine.