Mad Woman in the Forest

ANA and MIA and ED want to kill you – an overdue post

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 11:32:03 GMT

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had a lot of interaction, via social media and email, with people who are struggling with eating disorders.

The time has come for us all to get righteously angry.

Myself, I have moved past anger to that steel-eyed, axe-sharpening, calm place of volcanic rage.

I am NOT angry at the girls and boys and women and men who are waging daily battle against the eating disorders which are trying to destroy them. I love those folks. I want to help strengthen them and offer whatever support I can, both to them and to their families.

(Why photos of babies? See the bottom of the post.)

No, my fury is leveled at the industries that make money off of vulnerable people by promoting unhealthy, unrealistic, Photoshopped body images. And I am hereby calling out everyone who thinks that promoting pro-ana (pro-anorexic), pro-mia (pro-bulimic), and thinspiration sites and behaviors is a good thing.

Borrowing a quote from Mamavision’s wonderful site, “Anorexia is a disease, not a fricking lifestyle.” (Learn who ANA and MIA and ED are, if you haven’t heard about them before.)

It is time to speak some hard truth. Are you listening?

ANA wants to kill you.

MIA wants to kill you.

ED wants you to die.

I am not exaggerating. Not even a little bit. More people die from eating disorders than from any psychiatric illness. (Sullivan, P.(1995). American Journal of Psychiatry, 152 (7), 1073-1074.) Want to learn more? NEDA has a great collection of statistics.

People struggling with eating disorders (ED) spend a lot of energy convincing themselves and others that ANA and MIA are enchanted phantoms or fairy godsisters who will help them lose weight and then – magically – everything will be better. They will feel beautiful. Accepted. Loved. Worthy. Accomplished. Important. Cherished. Happy. They starve themselves because they are starving for the powerful sense of security and belonging that every human being deserves.

How does this happen?

It often starts when kids stumble into the howling desert wasteland we call adolescence. Her (his) body changes. Hormones start to drive the brain train. Insecurities fester. Pressure and stress boil. Kids look around for guidance. Advertising hammers home the bullshit message that if they just lose some weight, all of their problems will disappear.

It’s a lie. An evil, obscene lie. Advertisers want to make you feel worse, not better, because if you are feeling kind of crappy, it’s easier for them to con you into buying stuff. They hire genetically thin models, pressure them to drug and starve themselves to emaciation, and THEN they Photoshop the images of these models until they resemble aliens.

Starting to understand my wrath?

People suffering from eating disorders are often malnourished. The chemicals in their bodies are all messed up from starvation and/or purging. Their brains don’t have enough fuel to run on, which makes thinking clearly and making smart decisions even harder. This is why they need our loving support, not our criticism or disdain.

I reserve a nuclear fireball of hatred for the tabloid asshats who fetishize the supposed weight losses and gains of celebrities, and thus, help fuel the eating disorders of millions. Burn, you toxic scum. Burn slowly. Burn and then heal a little bit, and then remember all the lives you screwed up and the pain you caused and rip your scabs open so you can burn anew. Until the end of time.

Yeah, I’m pissed.

Getting angry is a good start. Being proactive is the next step. What can you do?

* Share this blog post.

* Check out proud2Bme.

* When you hear people talking about their love for ANA or MIA, don’t judge. Just quietly say (or write) “ANA is lying. MIA is lying. Don’t let them hurt you.”

* Consider the Body Beautiful app.

* Get more information at the National Eating Disorders Association’s website. They are doing the work of the angels there and can provide you with all kinds of resources. Their PARENT TOOLKIT is especially helpful.)

* Read and share “I Am Not My Eating Disorder,” on the To Write Love On Her Arms website.

Please keep speaking up about real beauty and strength, and our responsibility to be caring and compassionate with each other, so that we can help all the wintergirls and winterboys thaw and start truly living again.

Why the photos of cute babies in this post? Because that’s how we started out. That’s how you started out. No one would judge, belittle, or criticize a newborn about her appearance. We all deserve to be loved for who we are, not how we measure up to some imaginary standard. Love yourself and love the people around you.

** All images in this post were purchased and licensed from the photographers via istockphoto.com. Do not use them for commercial purposes, please.

David Milch on writing and God

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:41:09 GMT

“When you are not writing, you’re going to be sad. You are going to feel inadequate. You are going to feel untalented. You are going to feel incompetent. It’s crucially important to understand that the impulse to write is a reaching out to God.”

—David Milch, creator of Deadwood and so much more, in a presentation at the WGA Theater, 2001

Best Advice for Survivors of Sexual Assault

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:07 GMT

This is the best advice I have ever read for survivors of sexual assault. It is for everyone who has struggled to come to terms what happened and everyone who loves them. That means everyone needs to read it.

Doctors, an ambulance, & a big confession

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:25:17 GMT

Sooo…. yeah, you haven’t seen much of me lately. This post will explain why. I feel that so many of you are my friends, and you share the good and the not-so-good with friends, right?

Some of you know that the last 18 months have been a struggle for me. The doctor couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I was able to exercise*, but I couldn’t concentrate on anything. Even reading was a challenge. I tried and tried to write, but the pages I composed weren’t even worthy of the compost bin. There were other weird symptoms that I won’t bore you with. Bottom line? I was confused and tired and scared and sad. And sick.

Everything came to a head at the ALAN conference in Chicago last November. I hadn’t been feeling great that afternoon, but assumed I was picking up one of those conference viruses. All I had to do was to give the Monday keynote speech and then I could crawl off to my hotel room.

Two seconds into the speech I knew I was in trouble. The room started to close in on me and everything turned gray. I sat down, sipped water, and tried to keep going. Not. Possible. Gary Salver (who is a super-nice guy to have around when you are passing out in front of hundreds of teachers) helped me lie down. Other friendly people raised my legs, put a cloth on my head, and made those soft, worried noises you usually hear coming from the mouths of frowning grandmothers.

Laying down with my feet up made me feel better. Not good enough to dance, mind you, but good enough to try and finish my speech**. So I asked for the microphone and I gave the rest of my presentation on the floor. Because I am from the North Country and unless you are spurting blood from an artery up here, you get the job done before you pass out.

This is what it looked like. (If you watch the entire video you won’t see me (thank heavens!), but you will get to hear a small portion of my speech.)

I finished the speech. The very patient and generous audience clapped. I crawled to a sitting position and asked the audience not to tell my husband what had just transpired.

And then I crashed. Big Time.

I don’t remember much of the next few hours. They took me by ambulance to the ER at Mercy Hospital. The hospital report says I didn’t really have a blood pressure reading, but whatever the docs did fixed that. After a couple of hours of treatment, I was good enough to be released. (This meant that instead of feeling like I was dead, I was simply wishing that I would die.) Thanks to Scottie Bowditch, of Penguin, and lots of behind-the-scenes work by the good people at Macmillan and Simon & Schuster, I had a place to stay that night and was very well taken care of.

I didn’t make it home for another 48 hours. Even then, I wasn’t what you call “healthy.” Our Thanksgiving plans were cancelled and the day after Thanksgiving, I dragged myself to the doctor’s. There have been several consults and tests since then. Clearly I had a bout of food poisoning in Chicago. But there was something other than food poisoning at work.

The votes have now been tallied….and… ::pauses for drum roll…

The docs say I have Addison’s disease, also known as adrenal insufficiency, likely caused by an autoimmune attack.

Doesn’t that sound Victorian? I was hoping that it meant I had permission to wear hats like this

and gloves like this

But alas, this does not appear to be the case.

There is more good news than bad in this diagnosis. 1. This condition is slightly life-altering, but not life threatening, if I take my medicine and follow doctor’s orders. 2. That medicine TOTALLY makes me feel better. It replaces the chemicals that my body doesn’t make anymore, so there are few side effects. 3. The medicine is helping my brain work again. 4. There are very few things about my life that have to change as a result of this diagnosis.

It seems like I will still be able to travel and give speeches (standing up!), though my book tours will probably not be as intense as they’ve been in the past, and I’m not allowed to travel abroad without a companion. I can still run and swim and chop wood. In fact, the healthier and stronger I am, the better I’ll be able to cope with crisis situations, like the one that occurred in Chicago.

I’m going to be around for a long time, writing books, pestering my family, tweeting and blogging, racking up overdue library book fines, and eating superhuman amounts of popcorn for a very long time. But – BIG CONFESSION HERE – I am woefully behind on my next two books, ASHES and The YA That Shall Be Named Later. In fact, I can’t say for certain when they will be finished. (Soon, I hope!)

Can you forgive me?

I am back scribbling and having fun doing it. I won’t be blogging and tweeting quite as much as I was pre-Addison’s because I need that focus, energy, and time to go into the stories I’m working on. (Plus, two of our four kids are getting married in the next four months.) But don’t worry. I’m here. My characters are here. We’ve got enough wood to see us through this winter and spring will be here before you know it.

*Doctor’s explanation: all the running I’ve been doing helped me to survive both the Chicago collapse in 2011 and another collapse in 2010 that I won’t bore you with.

**Doctor’s explanation: my blood pressure was plummeting, but my adrenaline was cranked. As long as my feet were higher than my head, I was OK. When I tried to sit up, things got icky.

Whoopi Goldberg Reads Banned Books

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:33:13 GMT

Whoopi Goldberg and Shel Silverstein – what a wonderful combination!!!!

Penguin Authors Stand Up for Free Speech

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:57:23 GMT

What do you think? Let me know in Comments or be a part of the conversation on Twitter.

CATALYST!

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:56:35 GMT

The wonderful, wonderful people at Penguin (actually, the Puffin imprint) have come up with a new cover for CATALYST. What do you think? Will teens reach for it?

Birthdays, Marathon Running, and Life

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:52:19 GMT

This time last year I turned 49 years old – a few weeks after our youngest kid went to college and in the middle of the FORGE book tour. Immediately I started to think about what it would mean to turn 50.

In the decade between my 40th and 50th birthdays, I wrote and published six novels and three picture books. I also spent roughly one thousand days – 2.7 years travelling to schools, conferences, and on book tour. And I got divorced, remarried, moved twice, took care of dying parents, cheered from the sidelines as our first three kids navigated the shoals of high school and college, survived cancer, and read a lot of books.

I was tired.

As I hurtled towards my 50th, it was time to recover, reevaluate, and regroup. One of the first things I did was to give myself permission to exercise as much as I wanted. Shortly after that, I signed up for a marathon, something that I’ve always wanted to do.

My Beloved Husband is a born runner; he nearly qualified for States in high school, and is not all that much slower at age 53. Me? Not so much. I am a turtle. The back-of-the-pack runner. When God was handing out speed, I was in the library reading. But running does not have to be about winning. Running is best enjoyed when you stay in the moment, the child-like moment of play, heart pounding strong, hair flying, grinning from ear to ear. Zen running. It’s much like writing, when it works.

BH and I decided that we had two marathon goals: 1) to complete the darn thing, and 2) to complete it without needing medical intervention. We decided to try to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC.

We headed down to DC well before dawn last Friday. I was nervous. I had trained hard this summer, but had it been enough? I was so nervous, I ordered a big plate of fettucini Alfredo for dinner the night before the race.

I also forgot to eat or drink anything between my 3am breakfast and the 8 am start of the race. I was nervous about everything, but I was super-nervous about the Beat The Bridge rule. Anyone who didn’t make it to the bridge at Mile 20 by the cut-off time would suffer the heartbreak of having to ride the Straggler’s Bus to the finish line.

Given my natural lack of speed, this was a distinct possibility.

And of course, I was nervous about the notion of running 26.2 FREAKING MILES!

Thankfully, the race started before I collapsed from anxiety. It was cool, crisp, and sunny, perfect running weather. The first seven miles flew by, then the fettucini Alfredo kicked in. I will spare you the graphic details. Let’s just say I now hold the record for Number Of Panicked Port-A-Potty Stops During A Marathon.

But racing alongside so many soldiers and veterans, in the capital of the United States, kept my belly woes in perspective. I was surrounded by people who sacrificed more than I could even imagine. It was an honor to run alongside them.

One of the best parts of the day for me was that we shared it with two of our daughters and their partners. This is me catching my first glimpse of the whole crew around Mile 9 in Georgetown.

I ran into my family a few times on the course, which was a much-needed boost, especially between Miles 15 and 19.95 when I was having serious doubts about my ability to Beat the Bridge. But I had no idea what they had prepared for me. They had changed into these shirts….

…..pointing out that 26.2 Is The New 50. I did not start crying until I was past them. I cried because I was so happy. My blessings overflow my cup; love, family, friends, health, country, the chance to do good work, the joy of being very, very alive. I was, and am, deeply grateful.

We made it! Both my husband and I finished the race and neither of us needed medical intervention. The sight of him running down the hill to greet me as I crossed the finish line will stay with me forever.

Running a marathon felt exactly like writing a novel. I was scared. I was exhilarated. I doubted myself. I had supreme confidence. I cursed myself for a blind, arrogant fool. I leaned on my family for encouragement. I whined. I dreamed. I struggled. I took inspiration from the people around me. I laughed. I sang. I prayed. And I celebrated.

Here’s to the next fifty years!!

Buy Art! Help a Good Cause!

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:40:21 GMT

Start your holiday shopping early! Bid on a piece of original art by some of the best illustrators out there!

Details:

“The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the bookseller’s voice in the fight against censorship, is conducting an online auction featuring over 70 pieces by leading artists in the children’s book industry, including Peter Brown, Susan Jeffers, Wendell Minor, Adam Rex and Paul O. Zelinsky.

The eBay auction will culminate during Banned Books Week (Sept. 24-Oct. 1), the only national celebration of the freedom to read. One-third of the art will be auctioned each week with new works posted on Fridays. Items can be located on ABFFE’s eBay page.

In addition to sponsoring Banned Books Week, ABFFE co-sponsors the Kids Right to Read Project with the National Coalition Against Censorship. ABFFE has created a flyer for the Banned Books Week auction that it hopes booksellers will download and distribute to their customers.”

The Last Day of WFMAD 2011

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:43:38 GMT

It’s a celebration!!!!!

You made it! Thirty-one days in a row of writing at least fifteen minutes a day!

::dances with abandon, horrifying everyone in the room and embarrassing the dogs::

Wait.

Why aren’t you dancing? Why are you looking at me like that? I know that I dance like Dorkasaurus Rex, but I have fun while I’m doing it, so it’s all good. ::resumes ghastly dance moves::

::stops dancing::

You mean you didn’t write for fifteen minutes every day during the month of August?

::Kool and The Gang stop playing and stare. A waiter drops of tray full of champagne glasses::

So?

I’m not going to scold you, silly. (You’re already doing a good job of that.) Besides, scolding has never turned anyone’s mood from anxious to creative. Listen up. You tried. That’s all any of us can do. I bet that if you’ve been (more or less) following these blog posts this month, that you’ve written more than usual, and you’ve thought about writing more than usual. And I bet that there are few of you (Carrie?) who managed to write every single day, or something close to that goal.

WFMAD is the time for us to come together and commiserate about the missteps we make with time management. When the self-flaggellation ends, I hope we can get down to the business at hand; restoring creativity to our lives, in whatever form feels right and good.

I’m not going to give you advice today. Or a quote. Or a prompt.

OK, I lied. I’ll give a little advice.

Life is short, my friends. Way too short. There’s not nearly enough time to love as much as we want and laugh and watch the stars and hold babies and eat good food and hang out with friends and express the creativity that God put in our hearts. So get to it.

If you want to write, make the time to do it. It’s as easy and as hard as that. When you’re done writing, I hope you’ll come back and dance with me. And with these two guys…

WFMAD Day Almost The Last

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:18:26 GMT

First things, first. As I post this, Muslims on the other side of the world are waking up and celebrating the end of Ramadan. Eid Sa‘eed!

If you are celebrating the Eid, I hope you have a blessed day. I also hope (if you’ve been following this blog for the past month), you’re able to take fifteen minutes to write. That goes for all of you who are not celebrating the Eid, too!

Indonesian Muslim children in a parade celebrating Eid al-Fitr in Jakarta. Photo credit Dita Alangkara/AP

OK, time to change the topic and think about writing.

I live in a rural, poor area that has been hit incredibly hard by the last couple of years. I find myself thinking about poverty, and its causes and effects, a lot. One of the frustrating things about the state of literature (at least in the United States) is that it is largely a product of the middle or upper class. Working people; farmers, carpenters, factory workers – not to mention the chronically unemployed generally have bigger issues to deal with than “My Muse is being a bitch and won’t talk to me.”

Maybe this doesn’t frustrate you. But it frustrates the hell out of me. Hence, today’s prompt.

Ready… If you need some hard numbers to help you think about the class structure in America, check this out. Or read about what America’s economic crisis looks like from England.

Set… “I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.” Richard Wright

Today’s prompt: Either write about your character coming in contact (and/or conflict) with someone who is from a different economic class than he is, or write about your own class experience. Can you remember the first time you realized that some people have more money than others? Class differences can spark strong emotions, but we are often taught to suppress these feelings and to guard our behavior in these situations. The strong emotional currents this creates provides the writer with a wealth (ahem) of material.

Write about what you don’t know about a social or economic class, or a lifestyle that is completely different than yours.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

WFMAD Day 29 – Slaying Demons of Doubt

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:20:00 GMT

I’ve heard from a number of you recently about the struggle to maintain your confidence during the writing process. Many (all?) of you are beset by doubts about your talent, your current project, the competition, the marketplace, your future, and pretty much everything related to being a writer.

So am I.

Frankly, it’s amazing any of us manage to get out of bed in the morning.

I think that being plagued by the Demons of Doubt is the hardest part of being a writer. (Please note – if you are writing, you are a writer. It doesn’t matter if you are published or not.)

So what are we supposed to do?

Ready… We’re just about at the end of the 2011 WFMAD Challenge. If you’re looking for a writing buddy to help you keep up your writing momentum until next year, post your email address and name in the Comments section. Get yourself a new, writing-only Hotmail or other address if you don’t want to publicize your real one.

Set… “It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.” Virginia Woolf

Today’s prompt: The Demons of Doubt will always sit on your shoulders. Sorry. It’s a law of writing physics.

You cannot banish them, but you can defang them.

Think about the best day writing you ever had; that perfect storm of creation during which you lost track of where you were and the passage of time – the best day when you lost yourself in the world of your novel. Write about that day in beautiful, loving detail.

That is your shield. You will wave this in the face of the demons when they rise up and try to infect you with their bile. To hell with them!

Stop thinking about the marketplace. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are. It doesn’t matter if you have an MFA or not. It certainly does not matter if you think what you are writing is any good yet. (You are a WRITER, for the love of Pete! That means you’ll be REVISING. A LOT!!! Stop wasting energy judging your work and then beating the crap out of yourself because it sucks. Instead, use that energy to lift up the shield you just wrote. Fasten onto the memory of your best writing day. Then summon another day like that and get to work.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

WFMAD Day 28 – Back in the Saddle

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 01:13:36 GMT

I received this terrific set of questions a few days ago: “How do you start again after stopping for a few years? In writing three novels, I built skill upon skill and felt pretty good about the third. Now I am petrified to write again. I start, the writing is horrible, I stop. I’m not even sure I can write a blog anymore. Could you address starting over after taking a long break?”

Every writer can pose the same question. They just have to substitute the length of their own dry spell for “a few years.” For some it will be “while my kids were little” or “until we paid the house off” or “when school visits had to pay the bills and I traveled so much I forgot my home address.”

How long have you been off track? How long was your worst dry spell?

It’s different for everyone. Sometimes, the same person goes through years with no break in the flow of creativity or the flow of words, then – suddenly – whammo! Dry spell. Block. Or the constant intervention of real life that seems to sidetrack every attempt at getting back to writing.

Do not despair. You have more control over this situation than you realize.

Ready… If Aerosmith isn’t your cup of tea, select a piece of music that is and play it obscenely loud while you write today. Extra points if you find a way to throw in a couple of Steven Tyler screams.

Set… “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” Stephen King

Today’s prompt: If you are having a hard time getting back in the saddle again, this prompt is for you. Write down all the nasty thoughts that go through your head when you think about writing, or you try to write. Everything. All of it. Then write down all the specific behaviors (i.e. sites you waste time on) you engage in when you start to hear the stream of negativity in your mind. Then sign up for web-blocking tools that will limit or eliminate your access to those sites.

And if you wind up with extra time today, write the list of things that you want to write about. Post that list where you will see it many times a day.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

WFMAD Day 27 – Go Bag

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:15:38 GMT

I think the most striking statistic about Hurricane Irene so far is CNN’s statement that the storm will affect 1 in 6 Americans. (I’m still trying to wrap my head around this.) We are far away from the danger; might get some wind and a little rain. We’re used to losing power frequently, so that’s not a problem. I sure hope those of you who are in Irene’s path stay safe, snug, and dry.

image credit Associated Press

In case your power is about to go out, let’s get busy right away with tonight’s Irene-inspired prompt.

Ready… Make sure that you pack a notebook (the kind made out of paper) and sharpened pencils in your go bag. Natural disasters provide all kinds of inspiration and you need your tools! (It’s easier to write in the rain with pencils than pens.)

Set… “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.” Maya Angelou

Today’s prompt: Your character has five minutes to throw his most important possessions into a backpack, because the hurricane has changed course and he and his family must flee. What goes in the bag? Why? And what is hidden in that small wooden box that he pulls down from the top shelf of his closet when no one is looking? Be as detailed as possible. This is a chance to show character by the decisions he makes.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

WFMAD Day 26 – Permission to write suckaously

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 00:08:28 GMT

Several of you asked me to address the universal discomfort of sucky early drafts.

Given the barn floor quality of my early drafts, I consider myself an expert in this area. “Queen of Awful Early Drafts,” that’s what you can inscribe on my crown.

Here’s the thing they probably don’t tell you in MFA school: writing a book that is good enough to be published will always take longer than you want it to. Much longer. As in, it could take years longer.

So what?

You haven’t bet the mortgage payment on being published in the next six months. The health of your children or partner doesn’t depend on how many words you wrote today. And no matter how hard you try, your writing will not change the path of Hurricane Irene.

One of the best things I ever did to help my career was to pay a visit to the Cornell University Library. There, in the third sub-basement, and after surrendering my driver’s license and kidneys to the gorgon guarding the door, I went into a hermetically sealed room, and pawed through the papers of E. B. White.

Guess what? He wrote some HORRIBLE pages in the early drafts of Charlotte’s Web. Stanky! He rewrote the opening chapter something like eight times!!!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that my writing talent and skills even come close to those of E. B. White. So if he needed time and space to write suckaously in order to find his path to his clear writing and brilliant storytelling, then I sure as hell have permission to muddle and muck around as much as I need.

You have permission to write sucky.

You do not have permission to submit sucky writing.

You have permission to write as many drafts as required to bust out of suckaiousness and into something that readers will enjoy.

You do not have permission to whine because the process takes longer than you want.

Ready… Make sure you have stored one gallon of water for each person in your house for the next seven days. Plus water for your pets. And realize that if the hurricane does mess up your life this weekend, there’s a chance that you might not be able to flush your toilet for a while. (Hurricanes give writers such good material to work with!!!)

Set… “Be obscure clearly.” E. B. White

Today’s prompt: Write yourself a permission note to write less than Newbery- or Pulitzer quality in early drafts. Be sure to note things like the fact that you are not a demi-god, and that demi-gods are crappy writers anyway, and if it were easy, you wouldn’t be challenged and you’d be trying to do something else, like composing duets for harpsichord and spoon. Heap it on. Shovel hard. Try to fill two pages in fifteen minutes.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

WFMAD Day 25 – Dive in

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:45:34 GMT

(PSSSSST! BE SURE TO SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF TODAY”S POST! I HAVE TO ASK YOU SOMETHING!)

One of the differences (for me) between an early and a late draft is that as I revise, I trim or cut the opening chapters. I have a bad habit of frontloading too much information in early drafts. I see this when I do manuscript critiques, too. The author goes on a long-winded explanation of the culture of the world where the story is set, or they give every detail about the night the main character’s grandparents met, etc. These chapters have a great deal of “telling,” usually in the narrator’s omniscient voice, and not much in the way of “showing,” i.e. action or dialog.

If you are feeling a little guilty after reading the paragraph above, knock it off. This doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. It means you’re still arm-wrestling an early draft.

But at some point, you need to take a deep breath, cut out all the fluff, and dive in to your story.

We shove all that background stuff into the front of the book where it doesn’t belong, because WE, that is, the author, are still figuring out the world of the story. The trick is once you’ve figured out all the background and the situations that led up to your opening dramatic scene, to cut out most or all of it. (The Latin for this is in media res.) You’ll find ways to subtly weave in the information as the story unfolds. If you absolutely, positively cannot bring yourself to cut out the four pages of chapter one in which you explain why all the characters have one foot, and the etiquette of how a left-foot person asks a right-foot person to dance, and the overthrow of the government that was the direct result of the covert importation of the first sneakers ever seen in this distant land, then I have news for you.

You might want to find a different opening scene, one that is so compelling, you don’t drown your reader in backstory.

Ready… Clear your throat. For real. You sound like you’re coming down with something. Do you want a lemon drop?

Set… “Finally, I try to work slow. I plod, double-check, and triple-check and then check a couple more times. If I go slow enough, I can hopefully craft something that the reader will fly through in a straight rush. That’s the goal, anyway.” Joe Hill

Today’s prompt: Write “Once upon a time,” and then complete the sentence. BUT! Make it an action-packed sentence. No background. No explanation. All showing, no telling. Make it the kind of sentence that will put your reader on the edge of his seat and beg you for the rest of the story. See if you can write at least fifteen of these sentences in the next fifteen minutes.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

WAIT!! DON’T START WRITING YET! I HAVE A QUESTION!

Thank you.

The 4th Annual WFMAD Challenge is almost over. What would you like me to discuss in the days we have left? Any burning questions? Pet peeves? Ponderous problems? Tell me all about them and I’ll see what I can do to help.

OK. Now go do that scribble thing.

WFMAD Day 24 – Overcoming the pain

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:54:48 GMT

No earthquakes up here on the tundra today, so I’ll write yesterday’s original blog idea.

The idea came from my right knee. The right knee that started acting up at mile 13 during yesterday’s run, and forced me to stop many, many times to stretch. (Because it’s not really my knee that is the issue. My right ITB has a tendency to tighten up, which pulls the knee a bit out of alignment.)

Yesterday’s run was supposed to be my first attempt at 20 miles as I continue with my training for my first marathon this fall. I was nervous. My husband couldn’t come with me. I got started later than I wanted. But mostly I was nervous because what kind of idiot thinks they can run 20 miles? Or 26.2? That is insane.

The knee pain I was fighting seemed the best confirmation of my worst fears; that I’m not really a runner, that I’ll never be a runner, that I was born without the talent or the knees to run serious distances, that I’ve been deluding myself all year, that people are laughing about me behind my back, that I’m wasting my time, energy, and money, that I should be sensible and stick to 5Ks.

Sound familiar?

When you are pain, the whispers of doubt start to shout. It happens to everyone who is trying to express themselves creatively. The discomfort and confusion of trying to figure out a first draft leads you to doubt yourself, then get angry and criticize yourself, then come up with a bogus reason to procrastinate.

I did not quit yesterday. I slowed down, stretched a lot, walked a bit, and kept going. By mile 18, I started singing. Because I was going to make it. Not fast, not pretty, but who cares? I was running farther than I had ever run before. The sun was shining, birds singing, and I was joyous. I ran 21 miles yesterday. I did not let the fear and pain conquer me. They ran alongside me for a while, but I found the courage to wave good-bye to them and go off on my own path.

Ready… Take a minute to dream your secret dream of artistic or athletic triumph.

Set… “We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot.” Eleanor Roosevelt

Today’s prompt: Write about a moment when you or your main character had to face a fear.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

WFMAD Day 23 – Earthquake edition

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:54:49 GMT

I had a great run today. On that great run, I thought of the PERFECT WFMAD blog post. I shuffled home, ate, showered, and headed out to run a few errands before I sat down to write. Somewhere in the middle of the errands, there was an earthquake. No, I did not feel it, though several people in my area said they did. (For the record, my kid in Brooklyn, and my kid outside of Philly both felt it rather dramatically.)

As I write this, damage and injury caused by the earthquake seem to be minimal. Since that’s the case, I’m using it.

(I’ll write the blog post I thought up while running tomorrow, as long as there is not another earthquake.)

image from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

Ready… Make sure you have a clear path to the doorway, in case another earthquake hits and you need to flee. You can finish your fifteen minutes as soon as you are safely settled outside.

Set… “I by no means rank poetry high in the scale of intelligence – this may look like affectation but it is my real opinion. It is the lava of the imagination whose eruption prevents an earthquake.” Lord Byron

Today’s prompt: Does your story have any earthquakes; some huge, unexpected, and potentially devastating? If not, brainstorm a list of potential earthquakes; a car accident, a divorce, cancer diagnosis, etc. that mght completely upend your character’s life. You probably won’t use this in your book, but it is a useful exercise for getting to know your character’s inner life better.

OR What kinds of emotional or physical earthquakes have you survived? How does the way you feel about it today differ from your reaction when it happened?

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

WFMAD Day 22 – Habit-trails

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:19:44 GMT

We are gerbils.

We have our paths that we run daily; kitchen, car, office, school, work. We pause at regular intervals to eat and to (ahem) get rid of what we’ve eaten. Most of us bathe regularly and brush our teeth.

We are the products of our habits. Only problem is, when not enough of our habits feed our souls, we get cranky, gloomy, cantankerous, spiteful, melancholy, and we eat vats of ice cream. Life has turned into a giant Habitrail. We press our paws and nose against the plastic walls, but if feels like there is no way out.

One of the more painful (and useful) lessons in life is realizing that people can say anything, and that what they say can be hot, smelly air. If you really want to understand someone, or you’re trying to figure out what kind of person they are, observe what they do. Actions do, indeed, speak much louder than words.

What do your habits say about the kind of person you are? Is that who you want to be right now?

Ready… Not that I want you to waste anymore time on the Internet, but one of my favorite blogs, Zen Habits, is sure to help if you are trying to reorient your life. Also, Lifehack has 6 Ways To Make New Habits Stick.

Set… “The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” Samuel Johnson

Today’s prompt: Make a list of habits that either you or your main character has. If you’re writing about your character, make a note of which habits he is aware of, and which ones he doesn’t realize that he does. Which of these habits (yours or your character’s) have begun to stand in the way of obtaining a desire or fulfilling a dream? How? Why?

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

WFMAD Day 21 – The Calm Center of Chaos

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:32:06 GMT

Ready for week three?

I’m not. I’m stuck back in the middle of March. Every time I see a calender, I break down in hysterical sobs. So much yet undone, so much more being piled on my plate, and I’m supposed to be writing a book in the middle of this chaos?

Do you know the feeling?

Ready… Take a look at your schedule for September – December. What weeks will be crazier than most? What can you do ahead of time to avoid extra craziness?

Set… “It’s a lack of clarity that creates chaos and frustration. Those emotions are poison to any living goal.” Steve Maraboli

Today’s prompt: The key to staying focused on your writing when you are living in the middle of a sea of swirling blender blades is to stay focused on one aspect of your story.

Make a list of 10 or so critical statements about your story, such as “The main character wants (fill in the blank, because I have no idea what your main character wants), but (fill in this blank too) keeps getting in the way.”

Or “The central image to the story is (blank) because (blank.)

Or “The most significant relationship in the book is (blank) because (blank)>”

If you know you’re going to have one of those days, consult your list, pick a statement and refer to it all day. Tape it to the dashboard. Record it on your phone and turn it into a ringtone. Sing it while stuck in traffic. Turn it into a mantra so that your subconscious can work on uncovering ways to further this aspect of your story and will have them all lined up and ready when you sit down to write.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

WFMAD Day 20 – Stuck in a rut?

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:53:04 GMT

Is your writing stuck?

Maybe not. Maybe the ideas are sputtering along. But you’re not happy, because you know (down deep inside) that what you are writing is a bit mechanical. Bloodless. DOA.

If you have the kind of busy life that makes it hard to develop a consistent writing routine (hence your presence on my blog this month), then it’s a safe bet to say that you don’t have many opportunities to do, see, or experience something new. You work, go to school, take care of the family, make sure the car has oil, deflea the cats, pay the bills, do the laundry, volunteer too much because you are too exhausted to say no, go to church, buy the groceries, negotiate world peace, and put out bird seed.

And you wonder why your writing feels stale?

Ready… Get out your calendar.

Set… “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Anaïs Nin

Today’s prompt: Everyone has a few things that they’ve been wanting to do…. for fun. I’ve been wanting to visit the Canal Museum in Syracuse, and an SU basketball game, and go for a run at Green Lakes. But those things are WAAAAAY outside my daily routine, which always feels overloaded as it is, so they remain only fond desires.

You have a few items on your list, too. Fun experiences. Out-of-the-ordinary adventures. Indulgences. You need to go on them. So do I.

In your fifteen minutes, write a short list of four or five easy, local adventures you’ve been wanting to take. Then commit to taking them. Write down on your calender when you will do it (in the next 30 days, please) and commit to taking someone you care about with you. Make a date.

If you have time left over, write why you haven’t given yourself permission to take these adventures yet. You can also write about the adventures that your character secretly wants to take, but for (fill in the blank) reason, she won’t make it happen.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

WFMAD Day 19 – Anger is a writer’s best friend

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:37:10 GMT

If you haven’t read the post I wrote at 4 am this morning about the lawsuit recently filed that accuses authorities at a Republic, MO middle school of covering up the alleged rapes of a special needs student, please do so now.

We do not have a word in English that adequately expresses how angry I am about this.

But this is a WFMAD post. It is not the place for me to go all fire-and-brimstone on the hindquarters of adults who epically fail in their responsibilities to the children in their care.

One of the tricks to being a balanced, productive writer is to take the emotional fastballs that life hurtles toward your head and transform them into something you can use in your writing. If you want to write for teens and kids, the chances are almost 100% that you care deeply about them. This means you are going to spend a lot of time being upset at the way they are treated.

Anger, stoked in a righteous fire and smoothed with the hammer of integrity, becomes narrative energy.

Ready… Don’t take any time to be ready. Tell the people around you to leave you alone for 15 minutes. Put on head phones. Make the stupid world go away. And don’t give me any back-talk, OK?

Set… “Everywhere, everywhere, children are the scorned people of the earth.” AND “I get angry about things, then go on and work.” both quotes from Toni Morrison

Today’s prompt: What pisses you off? What action, person, offense, crime, indignity, injustice, horror scratches your soul like a sulphur-tipped match on sandpaper? I’m not talking about the jerk who cuts you off in traffic, or a parking ticket, or a partner who leaves socks on the living room floor. I’m talking about dangerous anger. World-changing anger. Revolutionary rage.

Write about what makes you that angry. I double-dog dare you.

Extra bonus points if you get so fired up that you write about what makes your character that angry, too.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

District that tried to ban SPEAK accused of covering up rapes

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:00:30 GMT

I was planning on writing an update about the book banning efforts of Wesley Scroggins in Republic, MO next month. The school board finally made its decision about which books it would remove, and since we are so close to the one-year anniversary of the mess, I had decided to write about it then.

But then I found out that the mother of a special needs girl has filed suit against same school district in which she claims her daughter suffered “multiple sexual assaults” and was raped by a classmate in school in seventh grade. The suit claims that the daughter told school personnel, who did not report the accusations to authorities, that her daughter was shamed into recanting and forced to write a letter of apology to the rapist, then was RAPED AGAIN by the same boy in same school the following year.

So I am writing about the Republic School District a little earlier than I had planned to.

(I have linked to the original complaint, the district’s responses and other news coverage at the end of this post.)

The outrages pile up one atop the other. According to the complaint filed by the mother, this girl (then in seventh grade) suffered from repeated sexual harassment from the boy in question. When he finally raped her, she went to school officials. They told her mother that they did not think the girl’s accusations were credible. After that, they met with the girl a number of times, without the mother being present, to discuss her claims.

Apparently no one at the school contacted the police.

If I had written this storyline in a novel, my editor would have dismissed it as ridiculous. She’d say something like, “That would never happen in America today. School officials know that they are mandated reporters. They would have called the police the first time the girl spoke up.”

They didn’t. Instead, they made the girl write an apology letter to the boy she accused of raping her. Then they made her deliver it to him.

And then? They referred her to juvenile authorities for making up the whole story and suspended her for the rest of the school year.

(There is a big unanswered question here: did the police, acting on that referral from the school for false accusation, investigate? What did they find?)

When the girl started eighth grade the following September (2009), the lawsuit claims she was the victim of “repeated sexual assaults” for the entire school year. In February of 2010, the suit alleges that the boy took her to a secluded corner of the library and raped her.

The girl immediately spoke up again. School officials were skeptical and did not take any action. The girl was taken (by her mother, I believe) to the Child Advocacy Center for a SAFE exam (Sexual Assault Forensic Exam). The exam showed a “positive finding for sexual assault.” Semen collected in the the exam was found to be a DNA match for the boy in question.

The boy was arrested and pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him. (The lawsuit does not the specify the exact charges or his sentence.)

What did the school do? The lawsuit says it suspended THE GIRL again for “Disrespectful Conduct” and “Public Display of Affection.”

According to the local county prosecutor, Missouri state law lets the school officials off the hook for not reporting the incidents because the boy was not an adult. (The age of consent in Missouri is 17, but if the perpetrator is under 21, it appears that there is rarely prosecution. If any of you are trained in the nuances of Missouri sexual assault law, I’d love some more information about this.) But he also said the school should have erred on the side of caution and allowed a trained forensic professional to interview the girl and decide about her credibility.

I have no information about the kind of “special needs” the girl has. I believe that her disabilities, in there are any, would even further enhance the need of the school officials to bring in law enforcement the first time she spoke up.

What do you think?

1. Initial coverage of the lawsuit in the local newspaper

2. Excellent coverage of the story at Boing Boing.

3. PDF of the lawsuit against the Republic, MO school district, and the principal, counselor, and school resources officer of the middle school filed with the US district court.

4. PDF of the school district’s response to the mother’s lawsuit.

5. PDF of the Republic School District’s public statement, issued Wednesday, on the matter.

6. CBS News weighed in on the matter, too.

7. Local television coverage.

WFMAD Day 18 – Getting By With a Little Help

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:54:25 GMT

In my humble opinion, Joe Cocker’s version of this song is way better than the Beatles.

What does Joe Cocker have to do with your writing?

Your character needs some friends. We are often so focused on developing our main character and The Forces Of Evil Who Rally Against Her, that we neglect to use the vast potential that a friend can bring to our story. You can tell a lot about a person by the friends they keep, can’t you?’

Ready… Your character is not the only person who needs friends. If you don’t have someone you can trust (and to whom you are NOT related by blood or marriage) enough to share your writing with, now is the time to figure out how you are going to find that person. (If you are writing for children or teens, your best bet is to join SCBWI. If you’re writing for adults, I don’t have a clue. Sorry.) Once you figure out who that person is, schedule some meetings over coffee, or Skype, or on the phone so the two of you can commiserate and cheer each other on as you push forward on the writing path.

Set… “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” Ernest Hemingway

Today’s prompt: Develop a friend for your main character. Make sure that she’s not a cliche; no “trusty side-kicks” please. How are they different? What irritates them about each other? Why are they loyal to each other? What secret do they know? How did they meet? Don’t worry about how this friend is going to fit into your plot. The answer to that problem will come to you as soon as you’ve developed the character well enough.

Write about the person who was your closest friend in elementary school. Open up the floodgates and let the memories flow.

Scribble…. Scribble… Scribble…

WFMAD Day 17 – Classical borrowings

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:45:51 GMT

Welcome to a blast from my past.

Fractured Fairy Tales was a feature on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, a cartoon that ran in the early 1960′s (and is now available on Hulu).

Aside from being stupid-funny and guaranteeing that your children will regard you as ancient if you go all nostalgic as soon as you hear the theme song, they offer a wonderful structural device for writers.

Ready… If character comes easy to you, but devising plot is a problem, look to the classics of storytelling for a little help. One of the reasons that classics endure is because they resonate so deeply with readers they survive the tests of age. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the structure of a known tale as you are trying to figure out your own plot. Adapt the elements to the needs of the character, instead of stealing and reproducing the story. It will be much more satisfying to put your own spin on the story.

Set… “Write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you are writing, and aren’t writing particularly well.” Agatha Christie

Today’s prompt: Choose a fairy tale from this list. (Reread the tale quickly if you don’t remember the story clearly.)

Now fracture the fairy tale. Insert a new main character; you, a character from your work in progress, a new character you just dreamed up, or a friend, neighbor, child or dog you know. Rewrite the tale quickly, but make the reactions of the main character true to who he is instead of making him simply be a puppet to voice the original text. Allow your story to drive off the map and head for destinations unknown. Have fun with this!!

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…