Why hello there my lovely fellow story seekers!
It has now been just over two weeks since my last day working as a children’s bookseller at my local indie bookstore. I worked there over a year and adored it. I gave this job up in order to focus on moving onto a job that will allow me to move 1,000 miles away and have complete control over my schedule. But I was absolutely terrified. Why? Because change is scary and because this change involved testing the integrity of my newly developed self-discipline skills.
I know this about myself: I’m inclined towards laziness. And yet lack of productivity drives me crazy. Having a job outside my home was a perfect compromise and now that safety net was being removed. Could I create my own schedule and stick to it?
Two weeks into it and the answer is, surprisingly, yes.
But I can’t stop to congratulate myself now. I’ve got to keep my head down and power on.
I got my critiques back this week
Quick background info: I took every workshop available to me in undergrad and before that, I had a critique partner. The critique element of this MFA program is not unfamiliar to me. Personally, I’ve got a decently thick skin.
But critiques still kinda suck.
These in particular sucked because it reinforced everything I already knew was wrong with the chapter: which was, in fact, everything. (Okay, I’m being melodramatic.) After a year in this program, I’ve drafted the first two acts of my thesis novel, putting me at a pretty 75,000 words so far. My latest submission is the first chapter in act 3. An act 3 that I’m drawing a blank on.
My biggest storytelling fault right now? Creating meaningful tension that rolls from scene to scene to build to the climax.
The worst part about getting critiques is when you agree there’s something wrong, but you have no idea how to fix it.
How do I figure out act 3?
I’m seriously asking. I’ve got a stack of how-to writing books on my desk right now about plotting and I’m not convinced I’ll find an answer to my question in any of them.
My current plan of attack: phoning a friend. I’ve set up a Skype call with my old critique partner and we’re going to put our heads together over this issue I have with plotting out act 3.
I am a plotter. I enjoy plotting, but the ending of this novel has eluded me for years. This little issue of plot isn’t new; it’s been with me since inception of this idea five years ago.
How do you tackle tricky plot endings?
So many pages, time enough?
I’m contracted to only turn in 15 pages every month, but “with the expectation of 45.” Being a people-pleaser, it tore me up to only turn in 15 pages last month and I’m determined to hit that 45 for August.
What helps me with big deadlines like this is knowing what that looks like on a daily basis. So let’s bust out our calculators, shall we? Math actually CAN be useful, quelle surprise.
The deadline: 45 pages by August 30
45 pages = ~13,500 words
I only want to work Monday thru Friday. So that leaves 15 full days to work.
13,500 words/15 days = 900 words
900 words = ~3 pages
3 pages is a very manageable amount for me–so long as I know what I’m going to write. Perhaps this is being dramatic (plot twist: I am being dramatic), but I fear that the success of my 45-page goal hinges on this chat with my old critique partner because otherwise… (dun dun dunnnn)
Cross your fingers for me, fellow story seekers!
Blog recap
This week, I published six posts:
- The Merits of Picture Prompts (wherein I discuss how I tackle my daily writing)
- When You Find a Fairy Door, Take a Picture Dammit (how many photographers do you know carry their cameras around in the hopes of finding that fairy door again?)
- The Last Time Beneath the Arch (the moment before a starving boy turns you in for apples)
- Fresh Flowers for the Sting (how do you passive aggressively say ‘fuck you’ with flowers?)
- But for the Evil Black Mice (the wedding wouldn’t have been ruined otherwise)
- A Beast of Great Taste: That is to say, a great, big beast who likes to read (and is polite about it, too)
Currently Reading
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I had no business going to the library when my current tbr pile is literally too high to stack on my shelf. You hear that? I’m double-parking books now.
But I went to the library anyway.
Aaaaaand I may have gone to Half Price Books and picked up Three to Get Deadly, Four to Score, and The Heist by Janet Evanovich 👀
But I’m only actively reading a portion of my tbr stack. Here’s what I’m actively reading, the titles you’ll find on my currently reading shelf on Goodreads:
- Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (as astonishingly beautiful as Strange the Dreamer)
- The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (oof burglars are safe from this only because it’s too heavy to lift to smack them with)
- Seven Tears into the Sea by Terri Farley (a reread from ages ago, a perfect end of summer read, especially if you like selkie stories)
What I finished this week
On a whim, I read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt and I will most definitely write a post about it soon because it is incredibly well written and plotted and I can’t believe I didn’t like it much as a kid.
I also watched The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies and loved them. I’ve recently found myself a pretty decent Tolkien fan after reading The Hobbit for my Fantasy Classics class last semester and then Fellowship of the Ring on my own this summer.
