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Azur
By this time, you have reasoned that none of it was rubbish, Azur. It may not be in the correct order, nor resonate with your present mood, but you created a character - and characters can be changed.
posted by
johnmacnab
on January 17, 2008 at 9:46 AM
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Re: Hi Azur
Mneme, lovely to see you again.
"A first chapter but doesn't have to be THE first chapter"
Very good point. No it's not a waste of time. Sometimes I try to work out everything before it's time.
posted by
Azur
on January 11, 2008 at 5:37 PM
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Re: azur, like reading Steve Martin's Shop Girl. It was a story but not gra
Benzinha,
It's funny how the easily written work is often the most remembered. I recall eating a cantee n lunch with a friend/colleague who upon hearing an account of my weekend said, you should write about that. I wrote the story and it appeared in the weekend edition of the paper, and months later people were still saying, "i loved your article," as if it was the only thing I had written. It was funny too because on the weekend that I wrote about, I ended up being filmed in a documentary, and that appeared some months later, and for ages people would say they saw me on TV.
It's funny too that now I have returned to writing about simple things, small events.
posted by
Azur
on January 11, 2008 at 2:23 PM
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azur, like reading Steve Martin's Shop Girl. It was a story but not grand.
It was just another book to read, but others got excited about it and wanted a movie of it, etc....and was I wrong to see it, feel it as a lightweight, simple thing??
Not every book can be an intricately woven tapestry, though those kinds of books can be such fun to read and wrap myself up inside of.....
We are snobs, or dreamers, in that we want our work to compare favorably with the best that we have ever read, even though it is our first time trying and we are comparing ourselves to our hero's fifth great novel.
Use different author's names for different styles and "A'ndale".
Some author's fear their most easily written work and are shocked to find it to be their most favored by the public at large.
Buena suerte and never stop, no matter what gets written upon the pages.
posted by
benzinha
on January 8, 2008 at 12:46 AM
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Azur, seem to recall one writer saying he or she was always working on two
projects at once. One was a story just for them and just to get warmed up and let out the stuff that would not fit into the book, the other was the work at hand.
Amateurs, we're full of advice.
posted by
majroj
on January 7, 2008 at 7:36 PM
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hagi, i thought this was a wonderful comment
Thank you. I admitted to my snobbih wish for my own story to match the good stories I read.
I think I am already into an internal dialogue for the woman character. I think it will become what it needs to be. I wrote that post after a day of being a little down on myself, and I have no regret because of the conversations that followed. I don't care if writers get grumpy with me but I do care that they think my work is good, even if it's not their cup of tea, but then if it's not their cup of tea, they won't read it. I think the stories that at first glance the stories
that seem frivolous have many layers. My readers will not scorn me if I digress in style. It it more a matter for me to get used to this different style, and I think that is what I am grappling with in this post.
posted by
Azur
on January 7, 2008 at 7:06 PM
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if it's there write it down and then leave it for awhile. When you get back
to rewrite it you may want to make big changes. Or maybe not. Relax and see what happens.
posted by
Kabu
on January 7, 2008 at 7:00 PM
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Re: Sometimesn frivolous isn't so frivolous if to look closely.
True whacky, there are layers to everything
posted by
Azur
on January 7, 2008 at 6:57 PM
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Re: Azur, Yes Taps, that is always a very good idea
Sometimes my journalist's mind nags my fiction mind
posted by
Azur
on January 7, 2008 at 6:56 PM
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Your meandering reminds me of some mystery novels. I wish I could turn this
Shakespeare book of mine into a mystery novel. Maybe I will, someday, try to write a mystery novel for kids based on my Shakespeare studies....
posted by
WindTapper
on January 7, 2008 at 5:53 PM
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Re: Azur You know what to do. Strip it back. What is it about? (majroj)
Hmmm. What is it about? I will tell you after I have finished. New themes and ideas
enter my head daily, well except on those days when I allow myself to get clogged up
with other thoughts.
I think because you give so much of yourself to these projects, occasionally you can fall
into the "pleasanter and pleasanter" trap. Thanks for the reminder.
posted by
Azur
on January 7, 2008 at 3:14 PM
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Re: HeLLo AZuR. MySTeRia,
The beginning is but a skeleton but at times it feels like a pile of old bones
posted by
Azur
on January 7, 2008 at 3:10 PM
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Re: Pat B You know what they say, a bad beginning makes for a good...
"The work needs to be done."
Indeed, for a day there, I was trying to sum up the work now.
On Friday I thought it seemed sappy and a cliche but that's as foolish and dangerous as
those occasional days when I think I am brilliant.
posted by
Azur
on January 7, 2008 at 3:07 PM
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Hi Azur
I think I follow the consensus of the comments - coming back after a gap might convince you it's not a waste of time (I don't think any writing is ever a waste of time, it always teaches in one way or another).. also it's A first chapter but doesn't have to be THE first chapter, necessarily. I was going to say, for my own two pennyworth, that an apparently lightweight character can reveal hidden depths; we all have psyches and issues, and it could be nice challenge to have the reader come to care about her. She sounds like someone who habitually wears a hair shirt and then one day throws it away :)
posted by
mneme
on January 7, 2008 at 2:20 PM
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Re: Azur LINDO
It is funny how we change over time isn't it. I am just finishing a course I started two years ago and it is strange because my interests have changed substantially since then. I love being in the creative flow. Some days we feel brilliant and other days it seems we will never get there. I think we must take the adrenalin from all.
posted by
Azur
on January 7, 2008 at 1:04 PM
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Re: Hi Azur, Hi Brisbane
Loved this comment. Yes I was being a bit impatient to try and define this new novel after
so few words. Probably a symptom of my journalism life.
Congratulations on getting your story into the competition. I looked at that competition too
but was ruled out by geography.
posted by
Azur
on January 7, 2008 at 1:01 PM
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I struggle with that too Azur...
...the fear that my novel is too 'light' but then I'll look at an excerpt and think it's pretty good so maybe it's the stepping back and looking at it another time. But anyhow, even lightweight attracts readers!
posted by
ginnieb
on January 7, 2008 at 8:51 AM
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posted by
lovelyladymonk
on January 6, 2008 at 4:31 PM
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I maybe am a different "kind" of writer althogether,
but I don't quite understand why are you trying to make the story "less frivolous". It seems to me like... well, arrogance towards in your novel to try to make it sound different than it does. Of course, you can ask pleasantly if the characters could be more serious and if the situations could just try to look like eternal dilemmas - and sometimes the writing turns around and becomes what you asked (in your case, maybe internal monologue of the woman would do the trick?) but more often the story coils and twists until you give up and understand you're there to help, not to force; to help growing, not make; to create, not to craft.
Again, maybe this is just a flaw of mine that I have a very low resistance to the will of story/characters and maybe I should be more strict - and make it serious if I want it serious, make it funny if I want to funny, and make it, damn, Stay Where I Put It along the lines of "main theme" or "what did I mean to tell". But actually the "letting the story to write itself" with just a mild corrections of the course from me (mainly I'm there just because I'm curious what'll happen next) is the only kind of writing that brings me satisfaction. Well, the readers are sometimes grumpy that I don't write exactly like I wrote before - but that's their problem, not mine.
So maybe you can see this "frivolous" beginning as an opportunity to try facing a new challenge - like writing a truly cool frivolous story or writing something serious in frivolous setup, or, well, writing whatever the woman has to say or do, stupid as it may feel at the first glance. I don't think that your readers will scorn you just because you digressed from your main style once.
posted by
hagi
on January 6, 2008 at 3:05 AM
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Sometimesn frivolous isn't so frivolous if to look closely.
A rose from me
and a smile
from that wonderfully goofy wonder dog =^..^= Bo!
posted by
Whacky
on January 5, 2008 at 10:22 PM
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Azur
Can you let it set for a time and then come back to it? Maybe that would give you some new insight.
posted by
TAPS.
on January 5, 2008 at 7:50 PM
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Azur You know what to do. Strip it back. What is it about? (majroj)
Is it a story like a contata that starts simply and builds (does that really work in literature?)?
Or the revelatory story (the hero dresses like a little boy because he was sent to prison at ten or whatever)?
Or the Steven King-ian "hard left turn" (the hero comes home to the spotless beautiful home, crockpot steaming, dishwasher running, but no onw home...and one neat bloody thumbprint on the clothes drier. The impeccable lady removes her long sleeve blouse to reveal the cigarette burns).
Just don't give us a pleasant story that gets "pleasanter and pleasanter"!
posted by
majroj
on January 5, 2008 at 1:59 PM
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HeLLo AZuR
Well if it does turn out to be junk...I am sure you will come away with good lessons learned, so actually the time spent is not in waste...Your ideas cumulate and become more lucid with all your efforts
posted by
mysteria
on January 5, 2008 at 12:45 PM
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Keep writing, Azur. Somewhere in the writing, you'll find what you're
looking for. Enhance it through rewrites and edits. And you may be too close to the source, so to speak. What you're seeing may not necessarily be what others see...
posted by
saul_relative
on January 5, 2008 at 11:09 AM
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You know what they say, a bad beginning makes for a good ending...
I don't know who says that except my ex mother-in-law the black widow spider, who had a saying to cover her ass in any eventuality that needed to prove her superior to me. But that's a subject for another rant...
I wrote this "serious" book about a woman of the old west who engineered a bank robbery. Each character was fully developed and interesting, the plot was intricate enough to be interesting and yet believable. She was a well rounded woman (schoolmarm by day, saloon gal on Saturday night) with brains and acting ability. I wrote it, researched the background, edited and revised, gave it a hopeful ending, and a few weeks later went back for a cold read. To my shock and horror, it turned out to be a damn historical romance novel! I'd spent all that time to create a serious bit, and it turned out sappy and cliche. Others who read it assured me I was wrong. They knew what I wanted to hear.
Which is a long way round the bush to tell you your light opening is only the first step. As you build your character and plot, you may decide to rearrange your chapters and we'll get to know your "serious" literary heroine in the best light before she does something uncharacteristically brainless. Keep going, it's going to teach you something even if you don't achieve "perfection." The work needs to be done.
posted by
Pat_B
on January 5, 2008 at 5:37 AM
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Azur
Like Jo I write and paint. but since i never have had anything published i don't think that my writing experince is of interest here. However, as a painter I relate all too well. when I had my first exhibiiton, i looked around the gallery surveying my work tat hung on the wall. wass shocked, all the paintings were jarringly geometrical, I had thought of myself as lyrical. The point is: if somethng is aching to come out of your head or making your fingers itch then it is true and you have to follow it to the end. We cannot catergorize ourselves right from the beginning and try to beat ourselves into shape, let the wrods flow and when it is finished give it to someone else to read it and judge it. Just be grateful that your creative juices are flowing.
posted by
lindo
on January 4, 2008 at 11:16 PM
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Hi Azur
I submitted a 6,000 word story to "One Book Many Brisbanes." It was a really hard write.
It was a day in my own life as a painter. I outlined why I do what I do and through it I show my work with Refugees and The Prison woven as a leitmotiff. Partly the story explains my motives but partly it is also a story that explains how I want things to continue to develop.
I am hoping that ..."What I write about I bring about." Something like "What you think about and thank about you bring about"
I wrote it in two days and then the work began. It was the hardest essay I have ever had to connect. Making it read smoothly was an onerous task because I had to find a way to make my thoughts flow and marry them to reality.
I had almost abandoned writing - just got too busy. This competition has woken me up to the passion again. I have rejoined the Writers Centre and I am going to the Romance Writers Conference this year I hope.
I think writing is much more difficult than painting. When I paint murals they more or less just happen along from an original design - but - with writing the crafting is full on - right up until the last spit and polish.
I taught a Cartooning Course in the Prison this Christmas and low and behold one of the prisoners had entered the competition too. She gave me her story to read and I quite enjoyed it.
Sorry if this was a long comment - I resonated. I think we are all harsh self critics. If it occurred to you tro write your novel stick at it until it is what you want it to be.
When my editor read my short piece she said it was good stuff. I was surprised because I had to ask - "How could one day in my life interest others?"
I enjoyed it.
Jo
posted by
brisbane_artist
on January 4, 2008 at 10:15 PM
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