Just finished my second last session for the Edmonton Public Library. I was at Whitemud Crossing and the kids were awesome. Lots of keen kids who were eager to solve puzzles. Also, we had media show up. Check out Global, City TV and CTV tonight.
My favourite moment was after all was done, the staff set up a Wii Party for the kids. I had a chance to play Maria Kart on a huge projection screen. It was awesome!!!!!
Wow! I received two emails complimenting my writing on two very different projects. The first was from a mom who bought True Story for her son. Of all his story books, True Story is the only one that he demands to be read again and again and again. The other email is from a theatregoer who just saw the Vancouver preview of The Bone House and said it was the best theatre he's seen in Vancouver in the last 10 years.
The picture book and the thriller couldn't be more different from each other. I'm thrilled to get that kind of response for these two projects. It gives me inspiration to keep pushing the envelope and trying out genres I've never tackled before.
Just came back from another Code Breakers Club at the Edmonton Public Library. The kids were hilarious. I loved to see them spring into action to solve the various codes. As in previous clubs, some kids were great with alphabet codes and others were awesome with tangram messages. I loved seeing one mom trying to help her group, only to have the kids tell her what to do. Sessions like this one inspire me to get cracking on the novel. I've brainstormed enough ideas that I think I can actually start jotting down a rough outline. I'm going to get going next week (as soon as I get the first draft of Cyber Bully done). Anyway, this was an invigorating session.
Barely slept last night as well, and I had to get up early for the first day of a writing camp. Ouch. I felt rough this morning, but I'm feeling like everything will be slowly settling back into a normal rhythm. I wish the heat wave would break so that I could sleep upstairs again.
Anyway, today I'm feeling very much like the undead. I'm crawling at a snail's pace and I wish I could eat someone's brains so that I had enough mind juice to work on my thousand words. Rented a couple of movies. Might try to peck away 1,000 words while the movie is on. The great thing about having a laptop is I can work anywhere.
This is the weekend of the home invasion. Temperatures are about as hot as they were on the night of the attack. My wife and I are sleeping in the same room we were in when the home invader broke in. It's deja vu. Barely slept last night. I had a long nap in the afternoon so that I'm not a zombie today. Tonight is the official anniversary date of the attack, and I'm hyper-aware of every sound in the house. I can't believe that years later I can still feel like this. I'm trying to keep everything in perspective, but the fear still emerges and I keep expecting some other attack to come. It's irrational, but I still have the feeling of dread. I can't wait until this weekend is over.
I finished another 1,000 words on the novel, and I have some pleasant news. The Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher has made the shortlist for a book award. The Calgary Public Library has a new award for Alberta books, and my book is in the semi-final round. The finalists will be announced in the first week of September and the ultimate winner is announced at the end of September.
I don't know if my book has any shot of making the final three, but it's always nice to get some recognition for the work. Anyway, I'm shutting down the writing for the day so that I can do a session at the Edmonton Humane Society. It's an all cat weekend. Tomorrow, I'm signing books at the Cat Fanciers' Show. Come down to the Shaw Conference Centre and say hi. Or just come down and see the kitties.
Crank up the Ipod and play Beethoven's Ode to Joy... well, just the first half. I have officially reached the halfway point of The Mystery of the Cyber Bully. While I had a couple of false starts, the steady pace of 1,000 words per day has really helped me get back into the rhythm of writing. There have been a few days when I've pushed myself over the mark, but 1,000 is a reasonable word count on the days when I have workshops and author visits. I think I'll be able to up the word count when I get into revision, but for first drafts, I'm going to stick with a minimum of a 1,000 words per day.
The reason why I'm so thrilled with this milestone achievement is the fact that I've proven to myself that I can get half a y/a novel finished. That means I can do the other half in the same amount of time. It's like getting to the end of a Wednesday. Once you've hit the midpoint of a work week, you know you can go the rest of the way.
About 2,000 words and two chapters away from hitting the mid-point of the novel. I'm feeling pretty good about the general story and how it moves. I'm less in love with the specifics, as I still think there's way too much exposition. At least I know about the static scenes. When I do the rewrite, I'm going to go through with an eye to making the long exposition scenes a little more active. I need to build up some more tension in the scenes. I think there's potential in the last two chapters I worked on, but I needed to hammer out some important story and character beats first. I'm hoping to get to mid-point by the end of the week. I'd like to have a first draft finished before I go on vacation in mid-August. I think I can pull it off without having to work too hard. As long as I don't fall off my pace of 1,000 words a day, I should be fine.
I hit my quota for the day, and now I have to head off to run a workshop. After that, I'm going to swelter in the summer heat.
Ever have that feeling that you ordered the wrong meal at a restaurant? Through dinner, all you can do is stare across the table at your partner's plate and wish that you had ordered that instead.
That's exactly the reason why I avoid reading books in the same genre as the book I'm currently working on. Once my manuscript is finished, I'm happy to read anything I want, but during the creative process, there's nothing worse than reading some other author's brilliant take on a genre. Granted, the published book has gone through the editing process and is meant to be brilliant and my first draft is an ugly stab at an idea that needs refinement. Still, I feel horrible inadequate when I read something published and in the similar vein as my work.
I had a near miss when I picked up a young adult mystery novel this week. I was about a chapter in when I realized this was really going to be a great novel, and I was going to feel like a slug about my own manuscript. The novel went on a shelf to be read a later date. Now I have to find a replacement book. Any suggestions? No mysteries.
Despite having to wait around for an insurance adjuster who never showed up, I was able to make something of the day. I eked out 1,000 words of the novel, which were very expositional and static, but at least I recognize that so that I have a direction to go when I revise. Also, I started to brainstorm a new picture book idea. I'm thinking of an alphabet book story told from the perspective of a troublemaker. The working title? D is for Detention.
Today, the tree removal service workers are supposed to come by and clear the lawn. More waiting. Sigh.
I didn't do any writing yesterday, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do any work today other, but I have the mother of all excuses. Saturday's wind storm sent my blue spruce into my house. There's no way anyone can get to the front door, because the 40 foot tree is now sprawled across the entry.
I was at home when it happened. Luckily, I had moved to the basement about 15 minutes before the storm hit. I heard the roar of what sounded like a jet plane, and very quickly assumed a tornado was coming through, so I stayed downstairs until the storm subsided. I went upstairs to check on what happened, and I saw the tree on the ground.
I was very fortunate that the tree had deflected off the birch and fell sideways, clipping the corner of the roof and denting the awning over the picture window. If not for the birch, the spruce would have smashed right through the roof over the bedroom.
Both trees are toast. No way of saving them, but the damage to the house is not as bad as it could have been. Some eaves are wrecked. Shingles lost. Hopefully no structural damage to the roof. I won't know for sure until the insurance adjuster comes out.
My wife booked a tree removal service to clear the trees, but he can't get here until Tuesday. In the meanwhile, a swarm of opportunists have dropped by to offer to clear the tree for lots of cash. During times of disaster, true human nature emerges. Some people rise to the challenge; others rise to take advantage of other's misery.
Anyway, I'm waiting around today for an insurance adjuster, and I have to find a way to clear the pine cones and branches from the roof. Needless to say, the writing is going to be on hold for a day or two.
Yes, you guessed it. I wrote another 1,000 words on the novel. I'm now just over 13,000 words. As I look at my previous entries, I think that I have the most boring blog in the world. But this is a writer's life; sitting at a computer or at a desk and building, shaping, ripping apart a story that will eventually get into hands of readers who will love, hate, despise, and ignore it.
I keep thinking of a cooking analogy. I spend all this time putting together what I hope is a delicious meal, but it will be consumed in far less time than it took me to create it.
So, why do I do it? I could come up with the self-delusional answer that writing is fun; in the same way that punching myself in the head might be mildly amusing. I could say that writing is something that I must do, but that sounds terribly self important and pretentious. I think in the end, I'd say I write because I'm not qualified to do anything else, and I like the punishment.
Okay, enough naval gazing. Off to the St. Albert Chapters for a book signing.
I'm in a hotel in Cochrane writing another thousand words of the novel. I'm so proud of myself. It's been at least a year since I was able to work on the road. Yesterday, I was worried I wouldn't be able to get the word count for today, so I wrote an extra thousand words to cover off today. But for some reason, I was able to get up early today and get to work. Took me an hour, but I cracked off the word count and found some cool bits about the characters. Still a lot of work to do, but I'm at the one-third mark - 12,000 words. My target is about 35,000 words.
There's a part of me that wants to make this novel longer than the previous three because this one is the last in the series. There's another part that thinks that overwriting is just self-indulgent. The length of the story should be the length that the story needs and not what the writer wants.
Anyway, I have to hop in the shower and get ready for the drive back to Edmonton.
Oh, I forgot to say why I'm on the road. Last night, I did workshop for the students at Wordsworth, the writing camp run by the Young Alberta Book Society. The group was awesome. I've never seen a group of kids so excited about writing. Maybe that's why I felt so creative this morning.
Took a little longer than yesterday, but I eked out another 1,000 words of the novel. I'm into specific scenes, so it's a lot of simple grunt work where I have map out who is in the scene and where. It's not sparkling writing, but I'm getting through the draft with the full intention to punch it up on the next pass. I'm feeling good that I'm meeting my daily goal. I know it's a small goal, but the more I can build my confidence, the more I'll be able to push myself later.
I might keep working for another hour to get to the end of the chapter. I want to leave myself a cliffhanger so that I can pick things up easily the next day.
This morning I was able to crack off 1,000 words in an hour, which is great, because I really only had an hour to devote to the manuscript. I have to do a code breakers session today and I have a meeting in the afternoon. I'm really glad I set 1,000 words as the quota. I might keep it that way for the next month, because of all my workshops. It's manageable and I can make some good progress. The story is starting to come to life and I'm already expanding on the outline with character bits. Every day is a small victory. Let's see what happens when I get closer to the anniversary date of the home invasion. Restful sleep has been a rarity over the last week, and with the weather getting hotter later this week, I feel like deja vu is hitting me over the head.
Even though this is Monday, this is actually my second day of the work week. Yesterday, I cracked off 1,000 words on the novel. This morning, I added another 1,000 words. The weird thing is when I set goals of a chapter or 10 pages, it'd take me nearly six hours to eke out 1,000 words. Now that I've set a much smaller goal, I'm reaching it faster and with less stress.
The only explanation I have is that I've spent nearly 10 years writing short pieces for CBC Radio or the Edmonton Journal. Maybe I've been hardwired to be a sprinter rather than a marathon runner. All I have to do is keep sprinting just a little bit each day and within a month or so, I'll have a first draft. I'm not going to over-extend myself with word count this week, until I'm confident that I'm banging out 1,000 words consistently every day.
Next week, I might step up to 1,500 or 2,000 words to push myself a bit more, but I'm taking small steps now and celebrating the little victories. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, I'll have regained my discipline.
I'm still trying to find the discipline to sit down and write. New strategy this week is to set a lower bar of 1,000 words per day. If I do more, great, but I can't leave my computer until I have upped my word count by a grand. Let's see if that gets me back.
I finally figured out the source of my ennui. There are just under 3 weeks to the anniversary date of the home invasion. Every year around this time, I get antsy and out of whack. Lack of sleep. Hyper sensitive to noises in the house. A bit on edge. No wonder I can't concentrate. The thought of another midnight visitor is keeping me awake at night. I can't wait until this month is over. I seriously need to start thinking about planning to be away from the house in July.
It's always hard to write when I'm starting a new workshop project. I'm running a Code Breakers Club at the Edmonton Public Library, and my focus is way more on making sure the program runs smoothly than concentrating on my novel. I can tell that this is going to be a tough couple of weeks. I'm having a lot of fun with the Code Breakers Club... so much so, that I'm spending way too much time rehearsing the bits and streamlining the puzzles and too little time on my book.
When I was younger, I could multi-task and work 17 hour days. Now, I'm ready to call it a day around 5:00 pm every day; even sooner if I have a workshop that day. I think I have to adjust my writing schedule. Time to review my most creative time of the day. If I'm going to answer honestly... right now, it is no time of the day. Maybe it's summer. Maybe it's the fact that I have so much to do. Or maybe it's just Facebook! Curse you, Facebook and all your time-wasting status updates and word games!!!!
I'm off to another workshop this afternoon. I'm going to force myself to eke out 3,000 words when I get back and see if I can get back into some kind of real writing rhythm.
Ack! I'm so disappointed. I just heard from the Vancouver producer that their venue for the previews in July fell through. It looks like there may not be a preview for the show before the gang head to Edinburgh for their run. Sadly, this is the reality of theatre these days; hard working artists trying to put on a show and never having enough money to get the little extras. The previews weren't necessary, but they'd help give confidence to the cast and crew before they headed to the international festival. What was the sticking point? I heard the venue was charging more than the group could afford. Sigh... it's a recession, I know... but if sponsors aren't kicking up the money to pay for a venue's operating costs, why gouge poor artists who are just trying to put on a show? I'm cranky now.
Not a bad start this morning. I was able to get into the first chapter with not too much procrastination. I might have played a few too many games of Wordscraper on Facebook, but I did get a page done, and I have a pretty clear idea on how the action is going to unfold in the first chapter. The weird thing with my writing schedule this week is that I have a bunch of workshops to present at the Edmonton Humane Society and the Edmonton Public Library. That means I have to put my writing on hold in the middle of the day and recapture the momentum after my sessions. In a perfect world, I'd rather get the writing finished before the sessions. I might try to get up earlier tomorrow and see if I can carve out some extra writing time.
This morning, I received the best incentive to keep writing. Playwrights Canada Press sent my author copy of a play anthology, Love and RelAsianships: Volume 1. My play Maggie's Last Dance is part of a two-volume collection of plays by Asian Canadian playwrights.
What thrills me the most is that Maggie's Last Dance has nothing to do with my Chinese heritage. It's just a fun play about six people who attend their high school reunion and flashback to who they were in high school. It's a funny play by a Chinese-Canadian guy, and I'm thrilled that the editor chose my play without layering any socio-political agenda on it. I think the play represented my sensibilities in the mid-90s, and I'm thrilled that it was recognized. Yay!
After a relaxing Canada Day, I'm back to the novel. I think the outline is going to work. The benchmark that I use is how much I think about details to flesh out the chapters. That's what I'm doing right now, which means I'm able to have fun with the story rather than trying to just figure out what the story is. There are a couple of trouble spots in the middle, but I think I can fix them without ripping apart the entire story. I'm going to keep fleshing out bits and then I'll restart the first draft.
