Last I left you, dear reader, I had submitted my first fifty pages, query and synopsis for critique, to a NYTimes bestselling author and I was awaiting her notes. In the meantime, my husband had knee replacement surgery and I lost what was to be my bountiful writing time. But hey, life happens…
Sound familiar? That was how my blog opened on November 27th and finished up like this:
Now I’m energized to go back to my old novel and fix the beginning, hone in on my climax, and then finish fixing the writing…And to top it off, my husband’s knee is on the mend and he’s back to driving which means I now have the writing time I was craving. But of course, Christmas is coming…
But then, life happened–again. On December 4th, playing hockey, I injured my knee. Now it was my turn on the couch. In some ways, the timing was good, we had all the equipment at home: ice packs, walker, cane. And my husband was now well enough to take care of me.
That first week, I didn’t write much, focusing all my energy on being able to get up off the couch to get to the washroom. I journaled and read “how-to” books on writing. That inspired me to work on my new novel. It became a bit of a dream-time, lying on that couch, icing and fleshing out more ideas for my new novel.
But I also had to get some work done. Both my office, where I do accounting, and my library, where I write, are in the basement of our house, down a flight of very steep stairs. This was not an option. It was at that moment I became very thankful for all the technology upgrading I had done in the last year.
To make my writing more portable, I’d bought myself a MacBookAir–making the switch from Windows. I’d also upgraded my iMac for work and my printer. It was then easy to connect from my couch though my MacBookAir to my work computer downstairs. And I could print from anywhere in the house.
I stayed caught-up with writing through my online writer’s groups. I could still attend zoom meetings and workshops. This kept me in the game. (Although I did miss a wonderful opportunity for a mini-writing retreat because I couldn’t get off my couch.) By Christmas, I was able to walk and even made it to Toronto, though shopping was with a walker and stairs were still a bit of a challenge.
The biggest problem with being confined to the living room couch was, I was in the middle of everything and everybody. I like to be by myself when I write. So I just gave in to Christmas and being with family and caught up on my reading. (That trip to Toronto involved a shopping-stop at Indigo!)
My youngest daughter went back to university on January 6th. On January 7th, I was finally back in my library and office. Ah, routine. How I missed you. But it was only a week to go before a workshop I’d signed up for through the Women’s Fiction Writers Assocation (WFWA): Grabbing the Reader, Your First 500 words. Back to fixing the beginning of my old novel. But I was really busy catching up on work and getting organized, so the pressure was on. Nothing like a deadline!
I also attended the most fascinating workshop through my other Writers’ Group at Centered. It was presented by Henry Lien and Jerry Lee Davis entitled, Prosthetic Dreaming: How to use ChatGPT, Meditation and Surrealism to Unlock Your Creativity. It was wild, to say the least. This was my first time using it, and was a beautiful introduction. Henry is not only a writer, but he is also a copyright lawyer, so he was able to advise on the ins and outs of using ChatGPT and any copyright issues. Meanwhile, Jerry Lee led us on creative meditations—sparking ideas in our brains.
Then we had time to play. I’ve been struggling with a title for my novel and thought I’d brainstorm a little with that. Henry had shown us different methods of guiding ChatGPT to refine your answers. It felt weird, maybe even wrong, like I was cheating. When we reconvened, Henry made us clear our “chats” and told us it was to spark our own ideas, as opposed to giving us ideas.
But I also thought about it in another way. If you were brainstorming with a friend, and they gave you an idea, would that feel like cheating? And of course, writing a novel is much more than one small answer.
Later, for fun, I put in my first 500 words I would be submitting for the upcoming workshop, to get a initial critique from ChatGPT. It picked up all my themes and liked my writing, so I submitted to the “real people”. The human critiques were unanimous, I was doing too much telling in that brief opening. I wasn’t grabbing the reader; I needed to get into scene quicker. ChatGPT did not pick up on that!
I rewrote my opening, making it more active. I wanted her to receive a letter from France in the 1990s, but needed to know if they were still using Air Mail stamps on international letters. I asked ChatGPT and got an answer far quicker than I would have from google. I would say it’s like a search engine on steroids.
As with all things on the internet, double-check your facts. And I did find the real people gave a better critique. But it’s certainly a fun tool to brainstorm with, especially when you don’t have anyone around.
I submitted my revisions to the group and got a great response, a few things to fix which I will be working on. And I’ve now signed up for the second week, working with a book coach on these first 500 words. This has been a great exercise in learning to “hook the reader”. Being signed-up for workshops has kept me writing even when life has gotten busy. Now, only 82,500 words left to edit…
