Kate DiCamillo Marathon

The "you have eight books to pick up" from the local library message on my answering machine made me laugh. As if I'd have time for the luxury of reading eight books on a whim the same week that semester one grades were due. But when the eight books turn out to be, as expected, as delightful as Ms. DiCamillo's are, I'll make time for the distraction.

I was particularly enchanted by Gollie and Bink.

Here's what I love about DiCamillo's work:

     1. Little details that repeat meaningfully.
     2. Musical language that rarely speaks down to younger readers.
     3. Characters that aren't explained; they just are.
     4. Visuals.

Although the characters in my next project won't be modern gal pals (see above), nor a chicken who adventures around the world (Louise), nor a pig who eats buttered toast (Mercy Watson), I plan to write with meaningful details, musical language, and characters that need no explanation.

And someday, Publishing Gods willing, my next story may include visuals, like those in Gaiman's Fortunately, the Milk or Patrick Rothfuss' The Slow Regard of Silent Things. I just love the back and white sketches in such novels, how they add a layer to the enchantment and accessibility of the stories. Even as an adult reader, the thoughtful design of such visual pages draws me in.

July to January

Longest all-star break in history, eh?

My blog post title sounds like the name of a new indie duo. Or a Taylor Swift album. Or a short story collection short-listed for the National Book Award. Or names from a Larry McMurtry epic. All much more romantic ideas than the truth: my day job has been overwhelming and exhausting this year. Teaching a new class, assembling a huge cast and crew for a blow-out of a fall play, etc., has left little time for writing.

I suppose there are sneaky minutes here and there, even blocks of time when a novel could have been assembled between last summer and this midwinter. But I'm not a William Kent Krueger stalwart who can wake up early and plug away a little each day. I excel at working hard with focus on one project at a time, and I'm even better at collapsing into the evening or weekend, spent and gladly cocooning.

On my nightstand at the moment.

From time to time, I admit, new project ideas slide themselves into my thoughts. My little iPhone is filled with random notes on this or that. I imagine it'll be summer again before they are considered and shuffled to stories where they belong.

Next fall will see a schedule of classes I've taught before (because I've taught pretty much everything we offer at this point), a new fall play director, and (hopefully) time of my own to devote to a new project. In passing the directing baton especially, I'm opening space for a new adventure, whatever that might be. I'm unbolting the door. We'll see what walks through.

In the meantime, I'm rethinking SPOTD's next move and reconsidering my jump into YA fiction. I suspect my heart may still lie with the little ones.

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