Monday Moans: Paper, Paper, Everywhere and Not a Page to Ink!

East as A, B, C . . . from BB

I can’t find any paper clips. Well, to be honest there are a couple of those little ones lying around, but I like the nice big ones better. Not that I’m usually clipping together pages and pages of materials, but I just like the longer length of them. I feel my papers are more . . . secure?

And why this seeming paucity of paper clips? Well, they’re holding together the multiple copies of the pages I took to my Friday critique group: the Wasatch Mountain Fiction Writers (WMFW]. And they’re holding together the pages I took to the ABC Writers Guild critique session on Sunday night. And some are still clipped to the critiques I got at WIFYR [Writing and Illustrating for Young Writers]. Last June! And I’m afraid to admit that I have some groups of papers still clipped together from much longer ago that those.

I’ve got paper clips on groups of papers from last year. And the year before that. And . . . well, you’ve probably got the idea. Mind you, I heard and/or read all the critiques. But you never know when you might want to look them over again. I’ll stop wanting that last, fond look (because some of them did point out some of the positive things about my writing) when the book(s) is/are published. Until then, you never can tell . . .

And what about the paper itself? If it still has a clean side, I could reuse it. I believe in saving paper. So I’d have to take the paper clips off, sort through them. I’m getting more and more paranoid about my garbage having identifying information in it, so I’d have to take the time to shred them. And my shredder is jammed. Again. Maybe I could use a paper clip to unjam it. Oh, wait. I haven’t got a nice, long paper clip anywhere around.

All right, back to the “paper itself” thing. Some of those pages were used on both sides, but some of them might have had a half sheet that was still white. I could tear them in half (or even use my paper cutter), tear the half in half, giving me some nice little quarter sheets, convenient for writing down plot ideas, snatches of conversation, telephone messages, phone numbers, etc., etc., etc.

But, again, I’d have to sort through it all.

Admittedly I need to sort through it all. I have paper grocery bags around my desk: papers to shred (once I unjam the shredder); papers to sort; papers to add to the recyclables (after I’ve sorted through for re‑usable sheets . . . and half sheets . . . and quarter sheets). (And sorted through for paper clips!)

But right now, I have to run off some copies for my next critique session. If only I had some half‑used sheets of paper, so I don’t have to break into another clean ream. But if I find some paper, then I’ll need to find some paper clips!

Help! I’m drowning in paper. And not an unused paper clip in sight!

See you day-after-tomorrow for Wednesday’s WIPs!

Tuesday’s Tutor: Whose Voice IS This, Anyway?

EASY AS A, B, C . . . from BB

At our marvelous, week-LONG workshop, Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers, WIFYR, the teacher whose class I was in—the marvelous Cheri Pray Earl—challenged us at the very beginning of the week to rewrite one scene from a different Point of View (POV).  I think that was on Monday—by Thursday night, fighting through the deluge of assignments (thanks for pushing, Cheri!), I realized I still had not tried that particular challenge.

Every day, we were supposed to rewrite 5 to 7 pages of our manuscript.  I had another one due the next morning.  By Thursday, I was so dead tired, there was no way I could write anything more.  Well, I could if I put it off until Friday.  So I went to bed, got up at 5:00am and gave it a whirl until time to leave for class.

The evening before, I’d tried to imagine whether to change from a more-or-less omnipotent “narrator” to first or third person.  Or I could try writing from a specific character.  Whom would I choose?  I thought about an interesting, fun, but minor character—a witchy character—who would be probably the most difficult to write for.  And there was no way I could write the whole book in her POV—she wasn’t enough of a character.  But at five in the morning, everyone’s a little crazy, so I gave it a whirl.  I wrote in Olde Elli’s 1^st person voice.  A bit of old-time dialect crept in—just a little—and a lot of quirkiness.  It was fun!  I hurriedly ran off copies for class.  When it was my turn to read, that morning, I nearly rebelled.

“I just wrote this today today at five a.m.  I’m not even sure it makes sense.”

But, my darling class mates loved it.  So did Cheri.

As I went through it with the class, listening to their helpful critiques, I realized I had further enhanced an already interesting character—and she was changing my story.  For “the good”!  She carved out a more important part for herself, and melded with another almost nonentity in the story who needed some buttressing herself.  She, amazingly, has turned out to be related to some of the other characters, and is almost a lynch pin within the tale.  Who knew?

If you’re getting bored with a story you’re working on, or feel it needs a little sprucing up, try it.  Write from a different character’s point of view.  Or change the voice from 1^st to 3^rd.  Or 3^rd to 1^st.  Or try writing in 2^nd person—now that’s a challenge, and few books have been written in 2^nd person.  I wrote a very short story/essay years ago in 2^nd person . . . and won prizes with it!

Come on, what have you got to lose?  You may not have located your story’s voice yet.  Find out Whose Voice This IS, Anyway!

See you day-after-tomorrow for “Thursday’s 13″

Have questions about writing (grammar, punctuation, getting published, etc.)?  Brenda Bensch, M.A., a teacher of multiple decades’ experience in Utah’s university/high school/community ed. classrooms (English, fiction/non-fiction writing, study skills, drama, humanities, debate, etc.), invites you to “Ask The Teacher” at  http://BenschWensch.wordpress.com

Wednesday’s WIPs: Better Late Than Never!

Easy as A, B, C . . .  from HA

When last I wrote of the progress on A Hint of Forever, I had reached 138 pages… I’m now at 141.

Yep, just tearing right along.

Here’s the thing: the story has changed a great deal since its inception over a decade ago. The original 40 pages no longer support the added characters and plot twists which have evolved as the story has grown. Several references in the last hundred pages refer to events that should have occurred in the first fifty, but were never presented. These and myriad other problems have required me to go back to the beginning.

I have several critiques of that section as well and will be fixing some of the problems that were found.

There are 1.5 pages redone.

Next month should have more progress… of course, to have more progress, there must be more work. With the air in the Valley the way it’s been for the last month, I’ve been very sick and have had severe breathing issues since after the first of the year… but, then, there’s been a lot of that going around.

See you day-after-tomorrow for Friday’s Friends