Thursday, January 31, 2008

Beginnings

I'm just finishing Mary Buckham's online class on beginnings. This is the third online class that I've done--the other two were "Writing a Synopsis" and "The Hero's Journey," which was about using classical archetypes to make your writing stronger.

All of these classes just emphasize how much I have to learn about writing, and even why the agents and publishers haven't been knocking down my door. It will be instructive to apply the beginnings and archetype advice to the California book. Prepare to hear a lot of kvetching about Such Stuff As Dreams.

I've been going back through Festival Madness, checking the chapter endings and beginnings for "hooks." A few changes are in order. Trying, as always to decrease the word count. It's 102,000, not too bad, but I would like more in the way of 100,000.

Donald Maass says that a "breakout novel" can be long, but so far tmine do not seem to be breakout novels, no matter how much I would like them to be. I am working on craft and thinking about craft--all to the good.

Yesterday (?) the NYTimes really trashed a novel, brutally, a well-known writer whose name has flown right out of my head. Russell Bank's The Reserve. Totally trashed. Yikes.

I made Soup from A Nail yesterday--a few bits of beef, pork and duck, onion, garlic, carrots, herbs, peas and tomatoes and some barley and I had vegetable barley soup. Originally, I thought I had more beef, but when I defrosted the "beef" it turned out to be chicken giblets, yuck, which I put down the disposal since the trash truck had come and gone. Do you remember the soup from a nail story? I don't know if our kids are being taught that "olde" stuff. Someone I spoke with this week said that none of the schools are teaching Dickens anymore. That means teenagers aren't reading A Tale of Two Cities. Such an exciting book. Too bad.

Off to get ready for Toastmasters and to take sustenance to the cows. Two plastic bags of fruit and vegetable scraps. Just what a Highland cow hankers for.

Grapeshot

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