Asked and answered

Croatoan asked: How do you get into the mindset to write?

Depends how blocked I'm feeling.  Sometimes in the evening I can sit down and jam out pages and pages of words for hours.  Other times, I need music.  A handful of specific songs or a short album set on repeat.  Sometimes I have to go and find new music before I can settle down to write.

At my most desperate, though, I have to stand up from my computer and go to my bookshelf.  Pull my most loved books off the shelf (only stand-alones or the first in a series, though) and read the first line.  Just the first sentence, then move on to the next book.  Anthologies or short story collections are good for that.  Lots of firsts in a relatively short amount of space.

I think looking at the first sentence or first paragraph of stories you really love is crucial to figuring out how an author did what you want to do, anyway.  It's a good starting point.  Once I've already read a story or book I can go back to the beginning and not get (as) caught up in the emotional journey.  I can take a (small) step back and look at what the author does in terms of world- or character-building, how fast they do it, whether they start with description or dialogue, etc.

Last night as I was battling the blank page, I turned to "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown" by Holly Black. (I do own The Poison Eaters, but it's at my parents' house in San Diego at the moment.)

Juuuulyyy

I finished my story and got it in on time. :) It’s been about two weeks since the deadline came and went, but I’m still quite pleased with myself. I went to the gym in the morning, did a final read-through and edit, and then submitted it—all before I headed off to work. It was a good day (except for the work part).

Yesterday, I went down to La Jolla Shores and surfed for the first time in a year. Couldn’t find anyone to go with me, so I just went all by myself. I’m pretty terrible, but there were probably three different instances where I managed to stand up (crouch) before the wave ended. The first time I managed it, all I could think was, “Ahhh, so this is why surfers keep at it…”

And this morning, after I got back from the gym, my mom and I got all my housing for next year sorted out and paid off! I’m so glad that’s taken care of—one less thing to worry about, you know? I’ll be living in the largest of the res halls at U of Edinburgh, and will probably be surrounded by first years. It wasn’t my first choice—or second or third, really—but I’ve only heard one bad thing about it (that it’s noisy, since it’s next to a huge street full of bars and clubs). Everyone I’ve talked to who lived there last year had a really fantastic time, so I’m not real worried at all. Ear plugs are such a small investment. ;)

Le fin (almost!)

I’m SO close to finishing my latest short story!! I’m so pleased with it—I’m currently at thirty pages, and have only about a short scene and a half left. (Which is really, really good, since I’ve got fewer than two thousands words to go before I hit the max word count. =P) I’m calling it The Stiltskin Forest, and it’s based on—you guessed it!—Rumplestiltskin. It’s verrryy twisted when compared to the original Grimm story, though. There’s a curse that turns people into trees, and a Green Man (like in Celtic/Pictish/etc. mythology) and a sister that glows in the dark. :)

(I can’t remember how much of that I’ve said before. Bear with me if I’d already told it all.)

It’s a good thing I’m so close to finishing, too, because I plan on entering it in VCFA’s (Vermont College of Fine Arts) Katherine Paterson Prize for YA and Children’s Writing, and the deadline is Wednesday. The day after tomorrow. Gulp.

It’s okay, though, because the contest judge is HOLLY BLACK. ONE OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS. :) I wish I could participate in VCFA’s MFA summer residency program this year, because both Holly Black and Gregory Maguire (author of Wicked) are going to be the authors-in-residence.

I’m so starstruck just thinking about it, though, that it’s maybe a good thing I can’t afford to fly out to Vermont. =P HOLLY BLACK AND GREGORY MAGUIRE. Oh my gosh.

I only know about VCFA because I spent some time last summer looking at MFA programs, and they have a good YA and children’s lit program. It’s rather difficult to come by those. And so I requested some info, and now I’m on their mailing list. They’ve got Holly Black and Gregory Maguire coming out to be the authors-in-residence because the theme for this summer’s residency is FANTASY. Oh my goodness. VCFA is definitely sounding like my kind of program.

Is it really childish to just add that I really hope I win this contest? I probably won’t, but let’s just give me a moment to dream. First prize is a thousand bucks and publication. Ooohhhhh man, that sounds good.

To be honest, my biggest concern regarding my story is whether or not HB will fully consider it to be YA. There’s no cursing, violence, sex, or gore, but… well, most YA books have a teenage protagonist who’s dealing with growing-up stuff. And the miller’s daughter in Rumplestiltskin has a kid by the end of it. And yes, I loveloveLOVE coming of age stories—maybe because I’m the right age to relate?—but mine isn’t a coming of age story. It’s about struggling against the uncontrollable situations and circumstances that life throws at us. It’s about making the best of those situations, but also trying to change them for the better.

That’s important, too, and shows up in a lot of other literature. I think it’s an important lesson that demoralizes a lot of people as they go through the whole process of growing up, but even in real life, things don’t have to stay a tragic and disillusioned mess.