Japan. . .

I am in Japan, which is why I haven't written anything in here this week. . . I have been writing all SORTS of stuff for my Japan travel weblog, but um, it turns out I am having catastrophic computer and internet failures, so will have to upload it en masse when I get home Wednesday. So stay tuned for tales of sushi, hot baths and $6.50/mile taxis!

Writing What You Know

I am paraphrasing substantially here, but I read a great line in a Herald Tribune book review this week:

"The problem with the admonition to write what you know is that in America what most people know is that adolescence leads to being cranky with your parents."

I have to agree that I am just numb with boredom by the amount of really-not-that-interesting memoirs and fictionalized-memoirs that abound lately.

(This has not stopped me from wanting to write my OWN memoirs of course. . . I mean I'm sure they'd be just a fantastic read! Really. At least for me.)

Rewrites

And another thing regarding the book . . . I have had this realization that I need to do some major changing with the point of view. "How to Write a Damn Good Novel" gave lengthy descriptions of different points of view -- stuff I learned in 8th grade, though it's always nice to hear it described again -- and then said "If you don't know what POV to use, try it from a few of them and see what works best."

I scoffed at this. I already knew what POV to use -- Shogun, the best historical fiction novel of ALL time -- laid the ground work. Third person objective -- but with different scenes from different characters' perspectives.

But see I've had this problem all along, where my voice isn't in there. I'm trying so hard to write this in a style that some of my favorite authors use and it's coming out stilted. I've been playing with this a lot, and have come up with a variety of decent solutions, but I think changing the point of view will make all the difference.

. . . which --and this is really the point -- is just damn scary. Not just that it involves major rewriting -- which it does, though no more than the major edits it needed anyway -- but it all becomes so much riskier. Taking a chance by doing it slightly differently, etc.

Writing Conflict

I've had a couple of fairly profound realizations re writing my novel recently. All of them writer's-book-driven. I swear, it's the one place where "self-help" books are really valuable. A good writing how-to can really galvanize me into action. The one I'm living by this week is "How to Write a Damn Good Novel" by James N. Frey. I bought it because the reviews on Amazon were so glowing, describing it as full of really concrete advice.

And I agree. . . the main epiphany I had last week from the book was regarding conflict. It described the problem of "static conflict," wherein a scene begins with two people who are frustrated and ends at the same level of frustration. The key point here being that conflict must evolve over the course of a novel, as well as in each individual scene. I new this was a problem in my own writing -- I kept saying that my characters were already "too cranky" going into certain scenes. I didn't realize that what this meant was that I had let them do all their getting annoyed with each other off-screen. Instead, the reader needs to witness them growing more frustrated in any given scenario -- start calm and reasonable, move towards conflict. Start placid, move towards joy. Start secure, move towards fear.

Like everything in writing, it's so obvious once you get it. But I totally needed someone to put it into words. . .

Kyoto!

So, here's the thing -- remember the story I sold to the big time editor? Well, we finally touched base about the story in detail last week. He was brusque and efficient, telling me what needed to be done, that he'd send me a contract, here was how best to put together my lede, and oh, yeah, was there a way I could go visit the researchers I'm interviewing?
"Sure," I said laughing. "But it's in Japan."

"Ok. Well if you can get there and back for $1000 that's fine."

Um, what??? My jaw literally bumped into the floor. Thank goodness we were on the phone instead of in person and I had the chance to recover before he realized what a complete and total amateur of a writer he'd hired who didn't even know such trip offers might ever happen to her.

So. . . I'm going to Japan at the end of the month. How cool is that?

Cleaning House

Happy New Year to you all! I have been offline for awhile -- not because things have been going badly, but because things have been going well. The writing is flowing and there's just been TONS to do . . .

I think partially this is because I actually cleaned up my house. It makes all the difference I tell you. A friend of mine who is a writing professor, and therefore instills me with the sense that he knows everything in the world about writing -- even though I know that he struggles with all the same B.S. I do -- recently saw my office. My office was crammed to overflowing with all the boxes, clothes-to-give-away, artwork, cookbooks, presents, and other detritus from the other rooms in the house that there was just enough room to walk to the computer desk, if you're willing to step on a lot of paper to do so. John took one look and said: "Do you write in here?"

Honestly, I don't even know if he meant it the way I heard it -- which was of course "How can you possibly write in this pigsty?" For all I know, he really meant "Lucky you, you get a whole extra room to write in, when I only live in a studio." But I don't think so.

I said: "Um, yeah, usually it's neater." Which is, of course, a total lie. But clearly the time had come to feng shui that place up.

It's much nicer now. . . and lo! I can write!