I like history; I like to understand why the world is as it is. I like to make sense of things. I like to learn. I like to read. These times feel unprecedented and I’ve found myself caught up in the 24 hour news cycle. Before the internet and social media, I always read the letters to the editor, hoping it would shine a light on what my fellow Canadians were really thinking. Now this has exploded with facebook and twitter, where I can read what hordes of people think. Some of it scares me and some of it brings me comfort, but all of it is way too much distraction. I have to limit myself.
I’ve worked from home for a long time, so this new paradigm of social-isolating is not so strange to me. Saying that, I had a busy life with skating lessons, hockey, choir, writers group, book group—which are all things that feed my soul and exercise my body. In other words, necessary.
But everything has changed. We’re told to stay home. I even started early as my daughter had flu symptoms after attending a robotics conference. (She is fine now and it appears to have been the seasonal flu. None of the rest of us have caught it.)
But I digress, as I’m so wont to do. My brain likes to follow threads and learn more. It’s why I love being a writer. When I truly have time, which is not often, I love to follow a trail of my own thoughts and dive into the books I surround myself with. Whether it be a poem, a factual issue, or the way an author made me feel. I love the freedom to just go with where my mind wants to go. But this can make writing a novel take a looonnnng time.
And now we have time, though some times my work takes longer as I have to intercede in family dynamics, or discuss at length, why they can’t go anywhere. And I’m making more time to call my mom. I have a few aunts and uncles to think of two and a couple solitary friends who are older. And most of them don’t have the internet, so they’re completely cut off from friends and family.
But if I can just control my information overload, I can make great progress on my novel. I’ve finished my “first draft” and am now doing a read-through. I’m using a technique I learned in a class I took on editing, taught by Nancy Lee and Annabel Lyon: https://www.edx.org/course/how-to-write-a-novel-edit-revise I’ve gone back to the archive to follow-through on lessons learned.
Nancy and Annabel have us read through each scene and then write the following on the index card for the scene:
- A one-line description of what happens in the scene.
- A breakdown of each character and what they want in the scene.
- The emotional transition of each character in the scene
- The overall positive / negative shift of the scene.
- Whether the scene relates to a particular narrative line or subplot.
This has been a great exercise for me. It’s shown me where I can intensify the conflict in my scenes and create more compelling fiction. I’ve just finished the first section and I’m itching to re-write, my mind is full of ideas.
After the re-write of the first draft, but before I started the read-through, good old resistance reared its head: “But I’ve been creating. I don’t want to read all the bad stuff I’ve written.” As usual, if I just dig in and do the work, the ideas come. And they have, so many that I’m going to pause in my read-through to do a structural re-write on the first section. I want to do it while I can still hold it all in my head, with the help of the index cards I just made.
Will it ever be finished? Will all the work pay off some day? I hope so. But not doing the work would never have paid off. That I know.
I hope all my writer friends stay safe and well in these times. And I hope many of you can take advantage of the “social-distancing” to get your work done. Me, I’m going to have to set a strict schedule so I don’t get too distracted by the news cycle and end-up wasting this little gift of space.
I know we are fortunate, and my thanks go out to all the essential workers that don’t have the luxury of staying home, that are working hard to keep us safe and providing some infrastructure. And to all those worrying about how they will pay the rent, or the mortgage—I hope and trust that the government will do what’s best to meet everyone’s needs. And I also know, there are many countries in the world who will be devastated, as they already are by war or by politics. May this crisis help us recognize our common humanity and work toward a more peaceful and sustainable future for all. Blessings. Stay safe, stay well, stay home.
