August Turns Into September

And the weather goes from summer to fall over the weekend. That's usually a good thing for me. My energy level increases with the waning of the heat. And this summer was weird for me anyway.

Let's look at the month just past, shall we? My goals were:

--Finish rewrite of MMG. (Not even close again)
--Write 62 pages of Vesta or 2 pages a day. (Made it to 31)
--Complete CWC critiques. (Did do both of them)

So what to do about September? I have to get to at least 50 pages on Vesta or face the wrath of the group. And that ain't pretty, let me tell ya. And MMG deserves to be finished and let loose. Work-work isn't giving me much free time these days so it's all evenings and weekends with some extra-tired in the evenings. [I know, whinging doesn't get it done.] So, given all that, I've still got to push myself.

--Rewrite 200 pages of MMG.
--Write 31 pages of Vesta.
--Quick polish of Vesta for CWC.
--Complete CWC critiques.

Here's the thought process. If I get to 200 pages of MMG rewrites, I'm hoping that I'll either be so caught up at that point that I'll push through or the instinct to 'just do it' will kick in and I'll finish. But even if neither happens, I'll be 200 pages closer to done. Since I managed 31 pages in about 10 days last month, I should be able to do the same this month. And have time left over to pretty it up a little for the group. And there is no negotiating on CWC critiques. Those just get done.

And I may come up with a self-challenge for Ali. But not right now. I have an appointment to make with a plumber, a deposit to take to the bank and about 50 customers to call so I can verify shipping addresses.

Cliches

We had another great CWC meeting the other night. It was interesting to get feedback on Vesta, aka SW, so soon after hearing what the Icon judges had to say. Not surprisingly, it was quite different. Of course, to be fair, the CWCers have had about 148 or so more pages to go by. In some ways this was good for them and in others, not so much. As I suspected, two of my characters have the same argument over and over and never ever resolve anything. That will be fixed in the second pass.

Mary had some different comments to make this time around. She's been reading a book by a famous author whose name totally escapes me this morning. But it's about cliches in writing. Now, I know that I tend to hone in on the things I'm working on or reading about when I'm doing critiques so it isn't surprising that a lot of Mary's comments for both Ali and me (and I'm sure for Fleur who couldn't be there) were about cliches. They can be a very lazy way to write. And I don't think any of us want to be lazy writers. If we did, we wouldn't be subjecting ourselves to the CWC.

Anyway, here's my question: When is something a cliche' and when is it just the way things are? One cliche listed for Ali was the way the waitress greeted a customer. And I guess Ali could come up with a unique way that the people working at the bar welcome a customer. But, really, how many places actually do that? One of my characters is an old Southern woman who says something about a storm "fixin' to come". Now, I'll admit a lot of her dialogue is cliche' ridden--and I'll be fixing that. But in that area of Florida, people say "fixin' ta". Nothing ever happens, it's always fixin' ta happen. So using that phrase helps set the scene. In only two words.

I guess it's more about being aware of when you are using a cliche' and then making an informed decision to go with it. Because even if you make up your own mannerisms, they can become cliches unique to you. Think about the Buffy-verse. How shocking and interesting and different they way the characters talked was in the first season. And fun to revisit in the second and third. But by the seventh? Weren't they becoming cliches for those characters? And then Firefly and Serenity had the same kind of quippage (which is a Whedonesque word). And I'm sure The Doll House will as well. Fun to listen to. Easily identifiable as a Joss Whedon world. But now somewhat cliche' for him. So should he go back to straight, boring dialogue? I don't think so, but where's the line?

The cliches that bother me most are the character cliches. The hooker with the heart of gold. The assassin trying to get out of the game but being pursued by the new killer in town (looks like Nic Cage's new movie falls into that one). The divorcee who finds herself by getting lost somewhere exotic. Or the writer-only cliches. "Shots rang out." And, of course, I can't think of any more right now. But you get the idea.

So, where do you stand on this? I don't think Mary was wrong. But I may make an informed decision to stick with some of my cliches anyway.

I Survived American Icon

Barely. It was a nerve-wracking evening to say the least.

I arrive, turn in my form with the title (now Swamp Witch) and logline and pick up my program and name tag. Sit down with my buds and open the program. It still says "Vesta" as the title and I'm #13 in the line up. That means I'm after the intermission. Great. Lots of time to worry.

More people show up. At the cool kids' table, we have Jenny, Shane, Ali, Nicole, Fleur, John and me from the Pirates plus another John, Joe and Iron John's folks. Cool, indeed. I listen to the other people reading. Some are excellent. Some, not so much. Listen to the feedback. Don't agree with all of it, but then you never do. It's a subjective business.

Intermission. Time for a trip to the bar so I can have a nice cold glass of pinot grigio waiting when I come off stage. It'll go nicely with the two petit fours (would that be a petit eight then?) saved as a reward. And, of course, a visit to the ladies room.

First person after the break gets up and reads. I sort of hear it. Sip some water. Then the one before me. I stand up and move into position. Feel for a moment like I'm going to pass out. Breathe. Again. People applaud. I climb the three steps. Put my paper on the podium (plexiglass so I can't really hide behind it-damn!). Hang on to the podium so I don't fall over. Start to read. My voice is shaking so I take a deeper breath and speak louder. Seems to have steadied. Keep reading. Look up. So many people out there. First page done. Do the voice. Do the voice. Okay, that sounded deeper to me. Different. Did anyone else catch it? "finds it hard to ignore." Done. Applause. Smile. Turn to judges. They're applauding. Seems geniune. Feedback starts. "Great premise." blah blah blah "Backstory bad." blah blah "Good metaphors. Nice description." blah "Backstory really bad." blah "Wanted some religious symbols after hearing the logline." Huh? More applause. Return to seat. Don't trip. Congratulations from the table. Where's the wine?

Then it was Fleur's turn. She rocked the house and ended up winning for Best Tension. Abso-freakin'-lutely. John followed her with his fabulous reading. I'd heard it before and was still on the edge of my seat and laughing at the same time. Hard to pull off. But he did, and should have won for Best Thriller.

I know the person who won the Audience Favorite and Best Overall. I almost voted for her for Audience Favorite because her writing and reading were great. How can you go wrong with a woman's reaction to being next to the stage at a strip club watching another woman dance?

I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed that I didn't win. Especially when one of the categories was "Best Premise". But the feedback about not going into back story on page two might very well be valid. It doesn't really need to be there. It's only two sentences, but still. The religious symbols? Not so much. She's going home to have dinner with the preacher, for pity sakes. Two more pages and we'd be there. But I got up and read and survived. I'm glad I did it for that reason. I don't have to do it again. And I doubt I will. At least in that setting.

Oh, I won a fabulous door prize. So between that, overcoming one of my big fears for a few minutes, seeing a couple friends win big and hanging out with my buds (who were so greatly supportive and I can't ever thank them enough for that), it was in the end a great evening.

Do You Believe In Magic?

Okay, I totally ripped off Kristin's blog rather than come up with something original for my own. But it made me laugh.

And I'll try to post this one only once.

Olympic Inspiration

And a bit of distraction, truth be told. I've always loved watching the Olympic Games. Then I went to work for the USOC when I first moved to Colorado Springs, and I really got hooked. My first week there, I met the guys from the 1984 Men's Gymnastic Team, the ones who won the gold medal in Los Angeles. Tim Daggett, Bart Conner, Scott Johnson and the rest. Later in the week, I met Scott Hamilton, who is a very nice and quite funny guy. Throughout the years, I met many athletes. Some more names you might recognize (Janet Evans, Bob Seagren, Al Orter, Rowdy Gaines) and many, many more that you wouldn't. But every one of them had a dedication to their sport, to sport in general.

For every Scott Hamilton or Janet Evans or Michael Phelps there are hundreds of others who train just as hard and sacrifice just as much, if not more, to work toward that dream of competing in the Olympics. Notice the word I used: competing. Not winning. Not even medaling. Just competing. There is a rule at the Olympic Committee. Well, there are lots of rules, but the one I'm thinking of is that you never refer to someone as "former Olympian." Once an Olympian, always an Olympian. Because just getting there is such a huge accomplishment that it cannot be taken away ever.

Several of the resident athletes worked for me in data processing. I can't count the number of times one or the other of them came to work with an ice pack to put on an injury while they worked. I learned a lot about dedication, hard work and pure guts from these young people. And watching this latest crop compete in Beijing, I'm humbled. And a little ashamed of myself.

There are correlations that you've no doubt noticed between the quest of the athletes and the quest of writers. You may toil in obscurity for years only to achieve your goal and then remain unknown to the vast majority of people. You may not even reach that goal at all no matter how talented you are or how much you work at it. A select few will reach Michael Phelps-like status.

I've been known to whine and complain about how hard this writing gig is. (Quel surprize!) I'm not out running in rain and snow to achieve my goal. I'm not getting up at four o'clock in the morning so I can get on the ice to practice before school or work. And I'm not in a pool or on a track so many hours a day that I don't have time to work a regular job. There aren't long hours of physical therapy to correct whatever injuries I've inflicted on myself in the pursuit of perfection. So far I've had hand cramps from writing longhand and a bruised ego from rejection notices. No surguries or therapy required. Yet.

So the lesson here, for me, is to quit whining. To just do it, as the ad says. Now we all know it won't stick. I'll be complaining again soon enough. But for now I'm going to take a page from these incredible men and women. Do the work.

How Cute Is This?

Yes, I'm doing this instead of increasing my page count. So sue me.

Twitter-pated

Crazy girl. Another distraction.

I actually signed up for Twitter a few months ago. Sean McCann of Great Big Sea has a Twitter account--GreatBigSean. It was fun to read his snippets about the band, being on the road and especially about being a mostly stay-at-home dad of a two-year-old. Amy's on Twitter because of work, so she says. ;-) But neither of them post very often so I'd only check it once or twice a week online. I don't have it set up to go to my cell phone.

Then yesterday, I got a note that someone named BigDaddyMe is "following" me. You can follow people, like I do Sean and Amy, and they can follow you if they'd like, like Amy but not Sean. More's the pity. Anyway, I clicked on his profile and can't tell if I know this person or not. Now here's where you can fall down the rabbit hole. You can see who someone is following. On BigDaddyMe's list was Peter Hilleren, one of my old MSTie pals. So I decided to follow Peter. Now Peter is following Courtney (who has commented here and is linked at the right). Then I started searching for names from my past. And I found Cheryl. Someone I've been out of touch with since I lost my old Yahoo! account. Groovy, huh?

So now I have to check it a bit more often. Maybe see if I can figure out how to get them to show up on the dreaded, not yet loved, cell phone.

Anyone else here tweeting? Yes, that's what they call it.