Yes, none other than yours truly. Suffice to say, I am glad that week is over and that a new one has begun. I had gotten to the point where I was literally falling asleep on my feet behind the cash registers, and my boss kept having to wave at me over the bins of 50% off products to snap me out of my reverie.
I do not know how working people do it. I will either have to shape up, or write this novel quickly and pray its sales give me enough for food and an apartment and a sheepdog.
This week the first chapter of my novel was due. I have already skated on to chapter seven, which is not required for the class at all, and is probably ruining my editing for the first three chapters that ARE due. Anyway, I turned in my first chapter, and almost a full week later, I have only received one review. It was a very helpful review, but I am still rather aggravated, because I can't find any other proofers I trust.
I would proofread my own work, but I lost faith in my ability to proofread my own works aeons ago, when I ripped a short story I had written to pieces in front of my friends and obsessively-compulsively went through the leftover snowflakes to rip apart the words that had survived my massacre. Not a single "a" or "the" escaped my wrath. Since then I have to be gentler with myself, and humbly ask for help.
So far two people have read pieces of this story: My friend Brooke, and Rachel-from-class. My mother volunteered very bravely to read it after I ranted at her for an hour, but I know better than to give her anything I write, if only because she doesn't understand what I write at all, and because when she gives me constructive criticism I get mad. However, I anticipate and appreciate other people's criticism. Oddly.
I have figured out a psychological reason for this: The little demon editor in my mind has my mother's voice. This is the voice Anne Lamott tells her readers in Bird By Bird that we are to put in soundproof mayonnaise jars.
Besides, my characters swear, and if my mom found out I think she might kill me.
Anyway, in terms of my own edits, things are going okay-ish. I had some difficulty with tenses last week, and I decided to stick to present tense, after a heavy amount of influence from Lauren Oliver, and the fact that past tense just wasn't working for me. My characters are completely and totally set in the now. Originally I wanted to tell their story from diaries and blogs, which is day-to-day, but that didn't work, so the only alternative is present tense.
I am also trying something new. When I write, I tend to rely very, very heavily on dialogue. And, more than that, inflection. Like, there will be pages of stuff like this:
"What do you think we should do?"
She thought for a moment. "Go ask Dan."
"Of course! Dan. He'll have the parts we need to fix this machine!"
It's dull. I cut most of it out. Then I'm left with nothing. But luckily I remembered something my friend Shelley taught me. You cannot write a story completely using dialogue; you cannot write a story without it. There must be perfect balance.
I have been working on this balance. It's a bit like tightrope walking over Niagara Falls, but as long as I don't fall off the effect is brilliant, and I get an amazing adrenaline rush.
***Interested in Shelley's Writing Lesson?***
This was how Shelley taught me to balance dialogue appropriately.
Prompt: Two mortal enemies are trapped in an elevator together. For ten minutes,have the students write how the characters treat each other and react to their situation without the use of dialogue.
Give the students ten minutes.
When ten minutes are up, get the group back together. Ask them what they thought, but don't get too in-depth. Now tell them to write for another ten minutes with the same prompt, using only dialogue.
Give the students ten minutes.
When the students finish, let them get together. Maybe let them read some of their work out loud. Ask them: Which was hardest? Which was easiest? Is it possible to write a story with or without dialogue? How much detail can you get across about your character? How much action is possible?
The result of the lesson should be that your students now see how important both dialogue and description are to the story, and hopefully, they'll work harder at balancing them out.
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