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So now what happens next?
As with any good plot–there’s a desire to know what happens next. Now that you’ve completed 6 weeks of intense writing, what did you learn? Did you learn how to write fast? Did you learn how to give your writing an honoured place in your life? Did you plot better, build character better? What was the net effect on you? Did you just end up with a better product?
Tell us if you’d like–what your experience doing the Clarion Write-A-Thon was like!
Week 4: Eyes Forward, Don’t Look Back
Gang of writers! You are into Week 4 now! Do not give up. You will be tempted to read back through what you’ve already written, to see how you’ve been doing…. DON’T! There lies madness.
Hemingway used to have a practice that he would look back only at the last page he wrote before starting again the next day, just to give himself context, but he didn’t read back through the whole thing. You can’t really see the manuscript in the right light right now. It is something you’ve enjoyed writing and it kind of wavers in your mind as a beautiful dream. Let it. Don’t go back and see the typos, the run-ons, or any other flaws. It will just discourage you. All rough drafts, even all drafts, have their flaws—and that’s okay. But if we stop to correct all our flaws before moving forward we will be caught just correcting our mistakes, and editing.
This is not a time for editing. This is a time for creating (unless you are Jim and you have set out to edit!). Create the stories inside of you and damn what they look like.
I always think of Orpheus and Eurydice as a comment on the act of creation. As long as he believed he had Eurydice in the boat, he could make it–but as soon as he looked to make sure she was really there, then she disappeared from him forever.
This picture, in marble, I think, is the picture of Orpheus covering his eyes and walking foward. He’s got to believe it’s all good behind him. And you do too!
It actually WAS good behind him, but he messed it up by looking.
Your writing IS good behind you–but you’ll wreck it because you want to MAKE SURE it’s good. Don’t look. Just keep believing it is what it needs to be, and that your critical mind will only play havoc with your will to write.
Persevere! You can keep going till the end of the sixth week! I believe in you. Do not look back.
Everything you’ve written is behind you 100% and so are we.
CBC North interviews Karen Joy Fowler about the Clarion Write-a-thon!
Well, this is freakin’ cool! Dave White, one of the local broadcasting DJs here at CBC North, asked if he could interview Karen Joy Fowler about this write-a-thon–the VERY ONE YOU ARE DOING. Yep! Team Bears Discover Fire gets a shout out even!
And two of our writers, besides myself, are from Whitehorse, and this gave it its local component–but the talk with Karen is about the importance of Clarion, this write-a-thon, and your getting done with what you are doing!
If you’ve got a moment, here’s the full clip.
http://www.cbc.ca/airplay/episodes/2012/07/16/supporting-science-fiction/
She says I’m supposed to nag you more…. I need to nag you!
How are things going? How are you feeling? What are you doing? And most importantly, are you having fun yet?
Hey Teammates! …
Hey Teammates! Clarion is all about sharing stories and hearing what fellow writers think. Here’s a children’s Christmas story I wrote a couple of years ago. Still hunting for a publisher, but in the meantime, thought I’d share.
It’s formatted in the pages I envision for the images; when I send it to publishers, I send it as a story, but I prefer to think of it in this format!
Jim
==========================
SEYMOUR
THE CHRISTMAS BILLY-GOAT
1.
Seymour the Christmas Billy-goat was sad.
Looking out the window of the shack where he lived on the Christmas tree lot, he could see that all the Christmas trees were sold.
Except one.
2.
One last lonely Christmas tree.
3.
Seymour trotted over to the lonely tree.
It was his job to sell all the trees, but no one had bought this one yet.
And tomorrow was Christmas Day.
“You’re too far from the road,” Seymour told the tree. Lowering his horns, he butted the tree to push it forward.
4.
“HEY!” said a little voice.
Seymour stopped.
“HEY!” said another little voice.
5.
Seymour looked closely at the tree. He saw a mouse on one of the branches.
No, he thought, two mice.
“Who are you?” he asked.
6.
“I’m Hannah,” said one mouse.
“I’m Henrietta,” said the other.
“We’re mice,” said Hannah.
Henrietta rolled her eyes. “He knows that, silly.” To Seymour, she said, “We’re sisters.”
7.
“Why are you in my tree?” Seymour asked.
“It’s our tree,” Hannah said. “We live here.”
“But I have to sell it. It’s the last lonely Christmas tree, and it needs a home.
8.
Henrietta and Hannah looked at each other, their eyes big.
“We need a home,” Hannah said. “Besides, you have to find our mother. She’s lost.”
Seymour thought that maybe Henrietta and Hannah were lost. Mothers don’t get lost.
“She was in another tree when someone bought it,” Henrietta said. “They took her away.”
9.
“How will you find her?” Hannah asked.
“Me?” said Seymour.
Henrietta rolled her eyes again. “We’re too SMALL,” she said.
10.
Seymour looked around. There was no one else there to help.
“But anyone could have bought that tree,” he said.
He was thinking very hard, but didn’t know what to do.
11.
Then Seymour had an idea.
“Maybe if I look for a house with a pest control truck outside, it will be the house where your mother is.”
Hannah and Henrietta were horrified.
“Mice are NOT pests!” said Hannah.
Hennrietta put her tiny hands on her hips, and stared at Seymour. “Not pests at all!” she added.
12.
“I wasn’t calling you pests,” Seymour protested. “It’s just what it says on the truck.”
“Humph!” said Henrietta. She crossed her arms and turned away.
“Yes, well, humph!” said Hannah. She looked at Seymour, and then at Henrietta. Looking at Seymour again, she wrinkled her nose and asked, “Do you think it will work?”
13.
“I can try,” said Seymour.
He trotted back across the Christmas tree lot, and into the neighborhood.
“Her name’s Hermione,” Hannah called after him.
14.
First he went to Breck Hill Lane.
No truck there.
15.
Then he went to Shoestrap Road.
No truck there either.
16.
Then he went to Hilltop Drive.
There it was, a truck with ‘PEST CONTROL’ written in big letters on the side, outside 9 Hilltop Drive.
17.
“Mice are not pests,” Seymour mumbled to himself as he walked slowly across the lawn.
Standing on his hind legs, Seymour peered inside the window.
It was chaos.
18.
He could see a young boy and his little sister running around the room, laughing and screaming. Their mother was on a chair, while their dad held a broom firmly in his hands.
The pest control man had a net, and was closing in on a tiny mouse, trapped near the front door.
Seymour had to act fast.
19.
Seymour ran to the door and, lowering his head, banged his horns on the door as if he was knocking really loudly.
It got suddenly quiet inside, and the door opened.
20.
It was the dad, broom in hand. He stared down at Seymour.
The pest control man was staring at Seymour too, wondering what had made such a noise.
The little mouse saw her chance. She raced right out the door past Seymour and kept going.
21.
“Wait! Hermione!” cried Seymour, running after her. “Do you know Henrietta and Hannah?”
“My daughters!” she said, and ran back to Seymour.
“Climb up my beard,” he said, “and I’ll take you to them.” Lowering his chin, he felt a little tiny weight climbing through his beard, and then winced at the little tiny feet scratching across his face until Hermione settled in between his horns.
22.
When they got back to the Christmas tree lot, Hannah and Henrietta were waiting nervously. They cheered when they saw their mother. Seymour lowered his head just in time as Hermione ran down his face and jumped to the ground, giving both her girls a huge hug.
“Mommy, you got lost,” cried Hannah.
“Well, actually,” her mother replied, “you climbed into the wrong tree, young ladies. But it’s okay now, we’re back together for Christmas.”
23.
Hermione turned to Seymour. “Thank you, sir, for saving me and saving our Christmas.” She curtsied, and the girls chimed in with their thank-yous.
“You’re all welcome,” Seymour replied.
24.
Hermione turned to the children and said, “Now it’s time to go back to that tree you found.”
“But you can’t live in that tree,” said Seymour. “Someone might buy it.”
The three little mice stared up at Seymour, scared looks on their faces.
“You can’t live in a tree, anyway,” Seymour continued. “It’s too cold. You have to come live in my shack.”
25.
Hermione started to protest, but with two tiny shrieks of delight Henrietta and Hannah raced toward Seymour’s shack and, finding a narrow gap in the door, ran inside.
“I guess it’s settled,” Seymour told Hermione.
26.
A little while later, Hannah and Henrietta were drinking hot cocoa out of a small saucer Seymour had found. He didn’t have mouse-sized teacups yet, but the girls didn’t seem to mind.
There was a loud knock at the door.
Seymour opened the door to find the pest control man. For a moment, he felt afraid.
27.
Hearing a little tiny scream from behind him, Seymour knew he had to be brave.
He stood on his hind legs so the pest control man wouldn’t be able to see Hermione and her daughters. “May I help you?” he asked.
“Is that last Christmas tree for sale?” the pest control man asked. “Tomorrow’s Christmas, and I don’t have my tree yet.”
28.
So Seymour sold him the tree, and that’s how the last lonely Christmas tree found a home. It’s also how Hermione, Henrietta and Hannah found a new home too.
If you buy your Christmas tree from Seymour this year, make sure to ask him to say hello to them for you. They’ll be inside the hut, warm by the fire, trying to stay out of trouble.
It’s Tuesday, where have your words taken you?
Bloodroots Barter
Oh, I’m curious what’s been happening on your side of the screen! Where have your words taken you the first week? Inside the hull of a whaling ship? Across a beachhead in Southern France? to an island in the sky? into the future?
My words have taken me into the traveling bus of a bluegrass band, one with a secret that could get them off the tops of the charts if they don’t play their songs juuuust right.
Where have you been going, Bears?
Tell me by answering this post with a reply below.
* pic from Bloodroots Barter, a Kentucky Bluegrass band. While they themselves look fitting enough for a fantasy story, my story has nothing to do with this fabulous band. But check out their work here.
June 2011-Jeremiah S.Papineau
Team Bears Discover Fire 