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ROW80: Tryin’ To Get That Feeling Again

Yes, the title of today’s post is indeed a reference to Barry Manilow’s hit song, and yes, that’s a clip of him performing it in concert below. It is, I promise, relevant for today.

You see, I have hit the mid-month slump. My pretty NaNo novel, which seemed so sparkly and wonderful and exciting when I started it at the beginning of the month, now seems rather… lackluster. Insipid. Boring? Metaphors and figures of speech are unwieldy, not to mention a bit cliche, my characters are revealing some crazy inconsistencies, and I’m starting to see the holes in my lovely outline. One of the problems is that I’ve been working on the voyage sequence (where my main character has been sailing to the strange and frightening land of her birth) for over a week, and I think I am just sick and tired of talking about it. I need to get poor Liandre off the darn ship and onto solid land, so the rest of her journey can take place.

I can’t complain terribly about my NaNoWriMo progress. The beginning of the week was a challenge, but I’ve caught up with my word count. At the moment, I have 19,311 words, and by the time I finish writing tonight, I will have hopefully added on at least 2k more. When I sit and really think about this, I can hardly believe that I’ve written so much in such a short period of time. It’s not perfect — far from it — but I think by the end of the month there will be some salvageable bits that can be edited, polished up, and (maybe) turned into something real and substantial.

I think I’ve reached the mid-point blahs with everything, not just writing. Monday marks the beginning of Week 8 in our academic quarter (there are 10 in total), and oh god, I am just… squeaking… by. I spent the past couple of days laboring over a 5 page paper that I should’ve been able to write in a few hours. I can barely stand reading for class. That thesis thing that I’m supposed to be writing? Yeah, that’s not happening either. I’m a bit tired, a little low on energy, lacking in excitement, and all I really want to do is go home and see my family. Thanksgiving can’t come soon enough.

Pictures of kittens make everything better.

On the other hand, I will say that I’m surprised that I didn’t hit this bump earlier in the quarter. I’m tired, my desire to juggle is flagging, but I’m not unhappy, and that’s more than I can say for previous quarters. By week 5 of each quarter, I’m usually indulging in escape fantasies — you know, plans to drop out of grad school and join the circus, or become a makeup artist, or move to a commune in the forest. I’ve managed to avoid escape fantasies this quarter, which I count as progress. Things are getting done, just not necessarily in the time frame that I’ve intended. However, slow and steady wins the race, etc, etc.

Anyway, if I go a little quiet on the Twitter/blog/social media front, you’ll know why. We’re entering the stretch when I have to tackle the most immediate things first (i.e., all that stuff that I’m getting graded on). I’ve got plans for this week’s blog posts, and some drafts, but we’ll see if I can actually pull them together. I missed Friday’s post because I mistakenly thought that I should be responsible and take care of my 5 page paper before everything else. Had I realized that the dumb paper would’ve taken 2 days to write, I would’ve just gotten the blog post and my NaNo writing out of the way first. Juggling — it is a fine art, and one that I have yet to perfect.

So that’s where I am this week! Just as a reminder, Em and I are hosting another Fun Not Fear! check-in, which I highly encourage all WriMos, and WriMo cheerleaders, to visit. And don’t forget to swing by and wave hello to the rest of the ROW80 community.

Wicked Wednesdays: Literature and The Adventuring Academic

November 9, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 32 Comments

Today kicks off Wicked Wednesdays, which is much more tame than it might sound at first. Wednesdays will now be the day when I blab about guilty pleasures and oh-so-pleasant vices, broadly conceived.

Today’s topic: books about scholars!

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved books about intrepid academics who leave behind the dusty archives of the day-job, only to find themselves embroiled in the midst of heart-pounding adventure. It is, perhaps, wishful thinking on some level. As a PhD student in sociology with a (un?)healthy obsession with historical archives, I harbor the hope that one day, my pursuit of knowledge might take me on a voyage or two of my own.

When it comes to literature, I find that academics make wonderful protagonists. By nature, they’re curious, intelligent, and good at digging for clues. Better yet, they don’t quite know how to stay away from potentially dangerous objects, because, y’know, the drive for knowledge is all-consuming. They also have the potential for fish-out-of-water hilarity — just think of what happens when a staid and stodgy scholar is yanked out of her comfort zone (classroom, library, well-furnished office) and thrust into life-threatening danger.

Here are my top 5 favorite books starring academics:

5. A Wizard in Rhyme, Christopher Stasheff

Christopher Stasheff’s A Wizard in Rhyme series was one of my first books I read featuring a scholarly protagonist. The books fell into my hands during my freshman year of high school, passed along by my friend Ella once she learned that I was a fellow fantasy lover. The main character, Matt, is a English PhD student working his way through a thorny dissertation when a series of strange runes leads him into an alternate universe, where speaking in rhyme is the key to wielding magic. With a brain filled with poetry and verse, he finds himself an unlikely hero, inadvertently battling the forces of evil in order to free an imprisoned queen.

Stasheff’s novels are filled with humor and adventure, along with a dash of romance, which I love. My only regret is that Stasheff seems to have abandoned the series; the last book published was The Feline Wizard, in 2000.

4. Spell of the Highlander, Karen Marie Moning

Right, I admit it: I have a huge weak spot for romance novels involving harried, overworked academic gals (this has nothing, I repeat, nothing, of my own personal fantasies bound up in this, I swear). Moning, who writes some of the best bodice-rippers starring brawny, kilt-wearing, Scottish alpha men, earned my undying love and devotion when she wrote Spell of the Highlander, featuring anthropology PhD student Jessi St. James.

Jessi’s world changes when she accepts a package sent to her dissertation advisor: a strange mirror that just happens to house a ninth-century Scottish Druid who is, of course, sex on legs. This book is not about scholarly hunts for knowledge (unless, er, you count carnal knowledge?), but my list would be sadly incomplete without it. 😉

3. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, Katherine Howe

I stumbled upon this book in the bargain section of my local Borders during its going-out-of-business sale. I’d never heard of it before, but the blurb hooked me immediately with the magical words “Harvard graduate student,” “Salem witch trials,” and “unearth[ing] a rare artifact of singular power.”

Connie Goodwin, Harvard graduate student and main character, discovers a strange old key hidden in the bookshelf of her grandmother’s abandoned home. The key contains a slip of paper with the name “Deliverance Dane” written upon it, and Connie finds herself obsessed with uncovering this mysterious woman’s identity. Her search is ultimately bound up with her own family’s history and her identity, and involves plenty of digging about in archives, along with more than a few brushes with danger.

As an aspiring scholar-novelist, I was quite happy to learn that Howe, who has a PhD in American and New England Studies herself, began writing the book while studying for her doctoral qualifying exams. She also drew on her own family history for inspiration (her bio notes that she “is a descendant of Elizabeth Proctor, who survived the Salem witch trials, and Elizabeth Howe, who did not”).

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Monday Inspirations: “Still I Rise”

November 7, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 11 Comments

Today’s edition of Monday Inspirations is short but powerful. It comes in the form of one of my favorite poems: “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou.

Last week, I chatted a bit about the idea of the beginner’s challenge, the difficulty that novices face (especially when approaching creative endeavors) as we shake ourselves out of our ruts and comfort zones to pursue our dreams. The idea of perseverance, of “fighting through” both the highs and lows that come from going out on a limb, is one that remains on my mind.

Angelou has written extensively on these themes throughout her long and prolific literary career. No matter how many times I read “Still I Rise,” I can’t help but feel tingles shoot down my spine. Angelou’s words leave me feeling uplifted every time, like I can conquer the world and overcome any challenges that stand in my way. This is the ultimate battle song of survival, a declaration that surrender isn’t an option, that a strong, vital spirit cannot be squelched.

I’ve provided the text of the poem below, but if you can, check out the video. It’s always a treat to watch poets recite their own work, especially when they are as engaging and delightful as Angelou.

Are there stories or poems that you turn to when you need a bit of inspiration?

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ROW80: Buckling Up for a Bumpy Ride

November 6, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 16 Comments

First up, my ROW80 update, with the mix of highs and lows that have marked this week. Second, I (re)introduce my NaNoWriMo tale, PATH TO THE PEACOCK THRONE.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that November has always been a challenging month for me, between trying to balance school, health, and other challenges. We’re barely a week into the month, and I already feel like I’m on a rollercoaster. There have been a mix of highs and lows, and though my head is spinning, I’m trying to stay focused.

The Good: I’m meeting my exercise goals (4 times/week), and I almost succeeded in my MWF blogging schedule. One cool thing is that I hit my 100th post on Monday. I’m still a shocked that I’ve made it so far. Many, many thanks to everyone who reads and comments — you all keep me motivated!

Em and I have also posted the first Fun Not Fear! check-in, with the usual NaNo mashup. If you haven’t already, swing by to share your progress, or to cheer on the WriMos in the bunch.

The So-So: My NaNo word count started out strong, but I faltered on Saturday. I attended a local meetup of WriMos in the area, but didn’t get any writing done. And in terms of my thesis, I started out strong here as well, but life got wonky before I could finish the sections I had hoped to get done this week.

The Could-Be-Better: I received some unsettling news about an illness in the family last week, and it upset me more than I realized it would. I’m better now, but the couple of days I spent in the Depths of Despair have thrown my schedule off kilter.

At the moment, I’m also trying not to get sick. The temperature dropped suddenly, and my asthma is flaring. I ended up sitting outside for Saturday afternoon’s NaNo meet-up, and although I thought I’d be warm enough in my sweater (hey, it had sleeves, and it covered my chest), I was feeling pretty poorly by the time I got home, and didn’t get anything done.

The Bottom Line: I’m feeling better about things, though I’m slightly overwhelmed by everything that needs to get done this week. I’d usually pull a few all-nighters to get myself back on track, but given the health thing, I need all the sleep I can get. “One step at a time” will be my mantra for the next few days.

(Re)Introducing PATH TO THE PEACOCK THRONE

On Friday, as part of the Warm Fuzzies blogfest, I posted three songs that inspire my current WIP. I’ll be talking about this story for the rest of November as way to keep me motivated through NaNoWriMo. I’m terrible at synopses, but the one that I’ve drafted goes like this:

Liandre, a sheltered princess who dreams of adventure, gets her wish when the death of her father exposes the terrible secret of her origins, catapulting her into an unexpected world of danger and discovery. Along the way, she’ll cross paths with allies and adversaries, watch legends come to life, and find magic more powerful than any she’s ever encountered. Better yet, she might just uncover the threads of identity she thought lost.

If PPT sounds a little familiar to you ROWers who have been visiting me for a while, it’s because I was working on it during the end of Round 2 and beginning of Round 3. 25,000 words in, I abandoned it. My protagonist, Liandre, felt incredibly flat, and I had given away the identity of the ultimate villain within the first four chapters — a definite no-no, especially since his identity is key to a larger conflict that won’t be resolved until Book 2.

Taking time off to rethink my plot (which was pretty much nonexistent) has proven incredibly beneficial. I now have a better sense of where the novel is headed, the ultimate goals I need to achieve, and what has to be done in order to get there. Better yet, I decided to switch the POV from 3rd person to 1st person. Suddenly, my flat-as-cardboard protagonist came to life. She needed to be the one telling her story, without the filter of a narrator, and now that she has the mic, she has come to life. 😀

For NaNo, I’m bracketing the first 25k I wrote, and starting in the middle, hence my semi-rebel status. I don’t know if I’ll end up using any of that original material, but my goal right now is to just move forward, and worry about the beginning when I know exactly how the novel ends. 😀

Anyway, have a wee excerpt! This is taken from the very end of Part 1, where Liandre is “crossing the threshold” from her old life into a new world filled with danger and uncertainty.

Dawn came upon swift wings, the ebon sky yielding to the blush-and-gold of sunrise. Unlike Edric’s departure for Laehira the year before, there were no well-wishers assembled to see me off, no band playing jaunty farewell tunes, no father to bestow a formal blessing upon me. I was no longer sister of the newly-crowned king, but the scion of a land most believed to be little more than myth.

Even if Edric had been at liberty to tell our countrymen the truth of my origins, few would be able to comprehend it. To them, Vao Artan was a fable, a cautionary tale told to disobedient children. My own governess had recited the dreaded tale before bedtime when I was young, and it haunted me still.

“Beware the bird-women across the sea,” she always began, “for they feast on the flesh of naughty little children, and use their bones to line their nests.”

To think that I was now one of those frightful bird-women, that their blood, their magic, flowed through my veins, marked me as different was a fact that I could hardly bear. My skin prickled at the knowledge, as though it no longer belonged to me.

Not perfect, of course, but since it’s NaNo, that’s allowed. 😉

Fiction Fridays: Writing Soundtracks, the NaNoWriMo Edition

November 4, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 17 Comments

For today’s first edition of Fiction Fridays, I planned to write a bit about the music that is the inspiration for my NaNoWriMo novel. Coincidentally, the theme for Week 2 of the Warm Fuzzies blogfest is to share something that inspires our current WIPs, so I can kill two birds with one stone.

Having a soundtrack tailored to each WIP is incredibly important to me. Music fuels my mood as a writer, and it also helps me tap into the emotional tone that I want to evoke in my work. I spend far too much time pulling my playlists together — and yes, that is multiple playlists. I usually have a list for the WIP as a whole, plus songs tailored for individual characters, songs that reflect friendships and romances, and songs that inspire specific plot points and scenes (you know, battle scenes, sad moments, sappy moments).

Utilizing a musical soundtrack is also incredibly helpful when it comes to transitioning between projects. TELL ME NO LIES, the novel I most recently worked on (a steampunk murder mystery/romance), has a very distinctive vibe, with lots of folk and country music that remind me of 19th century San Francisco. Disentangling myself from that world and the incredibly vocal characters that inhabit it is a difficult process, but using music to ease that shift makes things a bit easier.

I’ve culled through the current playlist to find the three songs that I think are the most representative of the mood and tone of this novel. As per the rules for this week’s Warm Fuzzies challenge, I’m not going to tell you what the novel is about. Based on the songs I post, you get to guess exactly what this tale might be about. And I see you there, about to peek at my works in-progress page (I’m shaking a finger in admonition, I hope you know). We’re going for honest guesses, folks, so no cheating. 😀

Cara Dillon, “Black is the Colour” (Lyrics)

Cara Dillon is a contemporary Irish folk singer, and her ethereal voice always sends shivers down my spine. She released four studio albums between 2001 and 2009, all of which include a blend of traditional Irish ballads and original music. “Black is the Colour” comes from Cara Dillon, her first album.

Lisa Gerrard, “Sanvean”

Lisa Gerrard is an Australian singer, and former member of the band Dead Can Dance. If her voice sounds familiar, it may be because you recognize it from the Gladiator soundtrack, which she co-composed with Hans Zimmer (“Now We Are Free” is one of her most popular tracks from that album). If you’re wondering exactly what language she’s speaking in “Sanvean,” it turns out that she’s using an invented tongue, one that she created as a child to “talk to God.” She has employed it in a number of her songs over the years.

Loreena McKennitt, “The Old Ways” (Lyrics)

Loreena McKennitt is one of my all-time favorite singers. Her music is lush, evocative, and intricate, and always feels somewhat magical to me. She draws from a wide range of inspiration, from European literature (including Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” and Noyes’ “The Highwayman“) and traditional Celtic music, to broader Arabic and Mediterranean influences. McKennitt is an accomplished singer, songwriter, and musician. “The Old Ways” comes from her fourth album, The Visit.

And there we have it! Any inspired guesses about what my current WIP might be about?

As a sort of “preview of coming attractions,” I’ll be sharing more about the details of my project in my Sunday check-in for the A Round of Words in 80 Days writing challenge. Also, I’m cohosting a discussion about NaNoWriMo progress in today’s post over at Fun Not Fear! All WriMos are invited to pop over and chat about how the first few days of NaNo has gone; for those of you who aren’t participating, we can always use cheerleaders, so please feel free to stop by and say hello.

Ghouls Galore: Vampire

October 31, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 6 Comments

Eeep, I can’t believe I forgot about the final week of Lady Antimony’s Ghouls Galore October flash fiction event! The word of the week is “borborygmus,” and the overall theme is Pick-Your-Own-Creature. I’ve chosen the vampire, for old times’ sake. Back in the day, The Vampire Diaries by L.S. Smith and Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause were my books of choice (both of them are better than Twilight, IMO), both inspirations for the mediocre vampire fiction I loved to write.

As a Halloween treat, I give you both flash fiction and poetry. The poem was originally written in 2000, one of those things I scribbled in math class when I was 13, a silent protest against learning algebraic equations. 😉 I’ve tweaked it a bit, however.

David A. Ludwig has written a lovely summary of the challenge, along with links to the other participants’ work, so be sure to swing by and check it out.

And as a final fun note, this is my 100th post! It totally snuck up on me, too. 😀

-oOo-

“Midnight Walker”

Blood:
Source of life for all,
elixir of the chosen
drink of the Damned — those more-than-mortals,
the living dead.

Forced to forever stalk the living,
chained to the night,
without rest, without peace
Midnight Walkers forever.

It was a small thing, really: a single globule of blood, no larger than a dewdrop and just as delicate. If Alaric hadn’t been starving, his veins parched and dry, it would’ve been easy enough to ignore. Restraint and willpower had always been his strengths, even before he was reborn. But then again, he had never been deprived of sustenance for so long. There was no way he could withstand such temptation.

That drop of blood was a siren’s song of lust and desire, flooding his mouth with saliva, sharpening his gleaming fangs. It gleamed in the flickering glow of the streetlamp, adorning the whore’s neck like the most precious ruby.

She’d been bitten already — a sloppy kiss from a drunkard, for her intoxicating bouquet was tainted by the acrid, burnt smell of whiskey. With his preternatural senses, he could hear the beating of her heart, the borborygmic trembling of her stomach; she was hungry as well, her face pinched and pale beneath a heavy coating of rouge. It mattered little. By the time Alaric was through, food — or lack thereof — would be the least of her worries.

The whore turned limpid eyes upon him, lips parted in a drawl of invitation, and Alaric’s hands shook as his slid the coin into her hand. A thrill of delight coursed down his spine as he followed her into the dank alley nearby, even as his conscience uttered one final whimper of protest.

He would hate himself come morning, when the alleys would be strewn with evidence of his excesses, but the salt-sweet elixir on his tongue drove away all regret.

Monday Inspirations: The Beginner’s Challenge

October 31, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 14 Comments

Today, I relaunch my Monday Inspirations series and take it in a new direction. Rather than write about the things that inspire and shape the stories that I write, I’m focusing instead on inspiration in a broader sense. Love, fear, dreams, faith — all these and more are on the menu in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!

This week, I’m thinking about the challenges that we face when we embark on new paths and leave their “cozy comfort zone cabins,” to draw on C.M. Cipriani’s wonderful phrase. As Cipriani says, it’s easy to stay snug and bundled in our little comfort zone cabins, but if we want to make magic happen, we need to bundle up, abandon our comfy spots, and trudge outside.

Image: Kenneth Cratty / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Perhaps you’re like me, and you’ve harbored a dream of being a published writer for as long as you can remember. Maybe you’ve always wanted to paint, or dance, or play golf, or learn to cook. Leaping off into the unknown to tackle our goal is an incredible act of faith, but what we tend to not talk about is what happens when we reach the middle.

Many of us have been there, ruddy-cheeked and bright-eyed in the throes of creative passion, trying out our newfound skills and talents… only to get knocked flat by an unexpected moment of failure. The short story that you thought was amazing gets rejected, the sketch that you labored on for weeks just isn’t measuring up to the brilliant image that you had in your head at the start. For beginners, this middle point is treacherous, a morass of despair that can derail our attempts to achieve our most treasured dreams.

This is something that I’ve been contemplating as I venture further into the world of writing, blogging, and publishing. I’ve never finished a novel; it’s much easier for me to brainstorm and plan, to write the first chunk, and then to obsessively polish and tweak it before moving on to actually complete the darn project. I’ve been trapped by that nasty midpoint more times that I care to admit, so when I found this quote from Ira Glass, host and producer of radio and television show This American Life, I had to share it. Glass, I think, sums up the conundrum perfectly.

The video below has some cool animation, but it can be a little disorienting at times, so I’ve added the full quote below the clip.

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone had told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple of years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase; they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you finish one piece. It’s only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You just gotta fight your way through.

“You just gotta fight your way through” is going to be my new motto, my reminder that I won’t achieve my dreams without a lot of hard work and dedication. So roll up those shirtsleeves and commit yourself to the long haul. Creative brilliance is within your grasp, but you’ve gotta fight for it.

Have you ever struggled with the “treacherous mid-point”? How did you make your way through it?

ROW80: A Quickie Check-in

October 30, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 49 Comments

This is a quick check-in, as I’m getting ready to head out to a Halloween party. Yes, my friends talked me into abandoning my plans to watch scary movies and work on my NaNoWriMo outline, and I’ve somehow cobbled together a “costume.” I’m going as a high-glam version of myself. This involves a cocktail dress (the final decision on which cocktail dress to be made sometime in the next hour), my favorite pair of black patent leather platform heels, a mini top hat fascinator, and lace gloves and stockings. I’m currently grumbling about how this party better be worth my time, but I know that once I get there and fall into my “yay, people!” vibe, it’ll be grand.

As far as my goals go, I’m coming along fairly well. Here’s the breakdown:

Writing: Parts 2 and 3 of my NaNo novel are outlined, and I’ve identified the goals I need to reach for the climax and Part 4 to make sense. I’m hoping to take a little time in the next 2 days to finalize a list of characters and places, a family tree or two (why in the world I chose to write a sweeping fantasy novel that involves tons of royal families, I’ll never know), and to do a few last-minute character profiles.

Thesis: I’ve made a “battleplan” for finalizing my first draft by mid-December. I’ve started working on the outline, which is a ton of fun, and I’ve also given the thesis a temporary title: “‘Money Can’t Buy You Class’: Symbolic Capital, Etiquette, and the White Wedding.” Yes, that’s a reference to the absolutely horrible (but addicting) song from “Countess” Luann of Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York City, and yes, I am going to reference the song in the introduction. *snicker* Gotta make academic writing fun somehow.

Exercise: Ugggh, I’ve done so badly here. I worked out 2 times this week, which is nowhere near my goal of 4-5 times a week. I’d like to say that there’s a great excuse for why I wasn’t able to get this done, but it’s really just sheer laziness. :/

A preview of coming attractions:

As many of you know, I took a little time off from regular blog posts (beyond ROW80 checkins) to reevaluate my blogging strategy. I’m happy to say that I’ve landed on a schedule that I *think* will work well. I’ll be blogging on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with a single ROW80 check-in post on Sunday (unless I find a way to combo my Wedneday post with a check-in; we’ll see how that goes).

I’m still toying with theme days, but at the moment I think I’m going to return to the idea of Monday Inspirations. Instead of focusing on things that inspire my fiction (the original goal of Monday Inspirations), I’ll be talking about inspiration on a broader level. Wednesdays will involve some form of things I love/like/am currently obsessed with (right now I’ve dubbed them Wicked Wednesdays, in a ‘favorite vices’ sort of way), and Fridays will be Fiction Fridays, where I talk about my WIPs and other writing-related topics.

That’s my week in review! For those of you looking for posts about NaNoWriMo, I highly recommend checking out the latest mashup that Em and I have thrown together. Also, as a reminder, the first check-ins for our Fun Not Fear! gang will begin on Friday. Fellow WriMos, stop by and share your progress; cheerleaders and supporters, swing by and give us a wave. Finally, looks like the NaNo website has launched the “writing buddies” section. Feel free to friend me, and don’t forget to share yours on our Fun Not Fear! linky, if you so desire.

Warm Fuzzies, Everyone Needs ‘Em!

October 28, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 26 Comments

I’m delighted to be taking part in the Warm Fuzzies blogfest, the brainchild of Juliana Brandt. For the next four weeks, we’ll be blog-hopping like mad, making new friends and engaging in one of my favorite activities, community-building.

For this first post, Juliana’s asked us to consider one of the stickier questions that a writer faces: How do you broach the subject of being a writer to those who aren’t authors?

It’s strange, thinking back on my trajectory towards writer-dom. I’ve been scribbling stories for as long as I can remember, and when I was young, everyone knew that I was going to have a novel out one day. In junior high, my tome of fan fiction was circulated around the classroom each morning so everyone could read the latest chapter. Back then, the only question I received was, “So can I be in the story? Will you stick me in as a cameo somewhere?” As a result, my crazy, ridiculous, sprawling 350 page boy band fan fiction features bit walk-ons from roughly half the 8th grade class. 😛

Things shifted once I hit college, though, and I became focused on a career outside of writing, ‘cause everyone’s gotta have a day job, right? I discovered social justice and community organizing, the wonders of sociological theory, and the delights of research, and threw myself wholeheartedly into the fray. Oh, I still wrote — quite a bit, in fact — but it receded into the background, became the hobby I indulged in whenever I was struck by the muse, rather than one of my most defining attributes.

And then… graduate school happened. I found myself in a sociology PhD program at the ripe old age of 21, swamped and overwhelmed by the demands of coursework, my teaching assistantship, and my own ambitions for my research. I stopped writing. I stopped reading novels, swept up in this strange, bizarre, soul-deadening belief that all of my time should be spent working on Serious Matters — and novels, unless they are being dissected and ripped apart for sociological analysis, are most certainly not Serious Matters.

In a world dominated by such charming adages as “Publish or Perish” (and we’re talking scholarly, peer-reviewed articles here), one that is characterized by constant chatter about productivity and jumping crazy, flaming hoops in the hopes of one day earning a tenure-track position at a university, it is an understatement to say that graduate students learn quickly to feel an inordinate sense of guilt at pursuing things that won’t help them (1) finish their dissertations or (2) land a good job. Things, important things, those things that make us, y’know, human, fall by the wayside unless we’re careful.

I give you all this long, convoluted preface because I’m still on the fence about telling people that I’m working on a novel (well, 3, actually, with a novella waiting in the wings). I know there are plenty of people who will be dismissive (again, novel-writing, like reading, isn’t Serious Matters). And yet I do have a small group of friends who love books, and who understand the importance of having a life outside of the day-job. They’re the ones who have been the most supportive and enthusiastic, and who remind me that I can be both scholar and writer. They push me to keep going, and even though they think I’m slightly unhinged for deciding to juggle my MA thesis and a handful of novels, they encourage me to follow my passions.

So yay for community! Better yet, yay for the handful of folks to understand (or appreciate, at the very least) the strange combination of insanity, stubbornness, dedication, passion, masochism, and creativity required to pen a novel. Let the warm fuzzies begin!

There’s Something In the Air…

October 28, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 18 Comments

Can you feel it?

No, no, not the tummyache that you have from all the Halloween candy you’ve been eating! I’m talking about that impending sense of excitement and delight known as NaNoWriMo, thirty days of profligate literary abandon. WriMos (those who choose to follow the rules, that is) tear their way through 50,000 words by the end of the month, scribbling with fast and furious intensity. That’s roughly 1667 words each day, for those who like to think about goals in more manageable “chunks” — a bit daunting, but certainly not impossible.

I have to admit, I haven’t always been this enthusiastic about NaNo. My friends starting doing it in college, taking November to churn out cheesy Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fan fiction. Back then, I was a much less disciplined writer. I jotted down things when the muse struck, writing in long — but infrequent — chunks of time. I was also pretty skeptical of the idea that anyone could write a novel in a single month. However, since then, I’ve discovered useful things like “editing” and “drafting” (not part of my repertoire in my youth). Am I going to be able to write a perfect and complete novel in 30 days? Well, no, not unless it springs from my head armored and fully-formed. But I can write the draft of a novel that I’ll continue to develop and refine in the weeks and months to come, and that’s no small feat.

I won’t lie — I’m a teeny bit nervous about NaNo. November’s always felt like the month where things go wrong, when the dog doo hits the fan and life becomes more or less intolerable. This is probably because I’ve spent most of my life as a student, and November is the Month of Doom: mid-terms, projects, papers, prepping for final exams. November’s also when I get crazy attacks of allergies and/or the flu, brought on by lack of sleep and stress — not the best time to try my hand at writing a novel.

But for the first time ever, I have been plotting. I have a Scrivener file filled with notes and index cards and summaries of scenes and all sorts of wild stuff. I have a folder bulging with location descriptions and profiles, and lots of research to refer to when I get stuck. I have a story that’s unfolding before my very eyes, and the pure magic of it all is enough to leave me itching for the chance to write. I’ve been bouncing around like a 5 year old on a sugar rush, and all I want to squeal is, “Can I start writing now? Is it November 1st yet? Can’t I just, y’know, write the scene that won’t leave me alone??”

As Em and I have been saying for the past few weeks, NaNoWriMo should be about fun, not fear. This is about the delight of meeting new characters and learning their stories, and the utter joy of discovering new worlds. I don’t know if I’ll make 50k by the end of the month. With papers to grade, books to read for school, and a draft of my MA thesis to write, I’ll be pretty darn shocked if I can pull it off. Even if I don’t “win” (and as trite as it sounds, I think all WriMos are winners, whether or not they reach 50k), I’ll have a whole body of research under my belt, a kickass outline, and pages with words on them. I’ll have the beginning of something special, and the satisfaction of knowing that I took a chance and aimed for the impossible. As Les Brown said,

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

Those are pretty decent odds, if you ask me.

Lena Corazon

Flights of Fancy