If you didn't come to sweat--you need to leave right now!

by Michele Young-Stone

Roll!  Work!  Advice to all wannabe published novelists: SWEAT!  Don’t sell out!  SWEAT!  "Work!"  Don’t write something because you think it will make money.  This sounds like a no-brainer, right?  Not really.  Desperate times can call for desperate measures.  Be strong.   

After being rejected by every New York literary agent (accepting unsolicited queries) from A-W in The 2004 Writer’s Market, I tried to write a more “reader friendly novel.”  I tried to write linearly, which is all but impossible for me to manage because my brain simply does not work in a straight-line kind of way.  I can go back to a manuscript and move things around, but my mind translates to the page in images that connect, usually in subconscious ways.  The linear book SUCKED.  It is somewhere now, but I'm not sure where.  500 pages of "this is what I think people want to read..."  Not good.  

Whereas...

my latest novel, currently in the editorial process, the story of two women separated by oceans, generations and war, but connected by something much greater--the gift of wings, was not planned, not linear, not fathomed.  It is the tale of one woman born in 1925 in Lithuania, Europe, and the other woman born in 1973, northern Florida, in these United States.  This novel started with the image of a girl carrying handmade feather-pasted cardboard wings onto a bus, her boots on the black tread, the wings pressed against the metal bar, the bus driver telling her to hurry up, but she didn’t know where to sit. 

The question of where to sit and with whom is metaphorically at the core of this novel.

Excerpt:

My parents do not recall my birth as particularly pleasant.  As a matter of fact, I think that as a fetus and then a baby and then a human being, I came between them.  Before I emerged, they were in love, and they probably would’ve remained that way if it weren’t for me.  But it’s not my fault that they had unprotected sex.  It’s not my fault or my doing that they mixed this mad concoction that produced a Prudence Eleanor Vilkas.  That’s my name.  My father chose the first two and the last one is my surname, my Lithuanian birthright.  I am a Vilkas.

When I started, I imagined a sixteen year-old girl riding a bus.  Other factors at play, the death of two World War II survivors, one German and one Lithuanian, while I was pregnant with my son—factored into, and formed this novel.  Their voices spoke through me.  Strange coincidences kept happening.  For example, the German woman, Mac (Inge Rosemarie Kischel McGarrity) used to give me German marzipan every Christmas.  I was not particularly fond of marzipan, but she didn’t have to give me anything—so I bit my tongue.  Plus, my mother would’ve killed me if I was rude.  My mother and Mac were best friends. 

As an adult, I would give Mac jelly jars so that she would keep giving me some of her amazing blackberry preserves.  She was my surrogate grandmother, my oma.  Anyway, spinning round and round, while writing a scene in Germany for the novel, I wrote about a rose garden and marzipan.  I later found out that it is a custom to flavor marzipan/the almond paste with rose water.  Little things.  All the time.  Everywhere.  Things I couldn’t know about places I hadn’t been, but filled my head just the same.  And then, this year, just as I was finishing the novel, my pastry chef friend who made my son's birthday cake, made the decorations from marzipan.  I guess that when you are willing to see the incredible, it's there.  

I love this novel so much that even if no one buys it, I don’t care.  I am elated to have brought the characters and story into being.  It was a cathartic endeavor, a nearly three-year journey, excluding the life experiences that came to the forefront of the book.  I am grateful for the gift and pleasure of writing, and as one of my professors advised, “If you are writing to become rich or famous, stop now!"

As the rapper Lil' Jon would say (for all my Zumba buddies), “If you didn’t come to sweat, you need to leave right now!”  It’s true.  Like all great endeavors, writing is something that you have to do for the sheer joy of putting those words and ultimately that story on the page and into life.  If it’s good enough, someone will read it.  I promise you!

Michele Young-Stone is the author of the Target Book Club novel, The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors.  Her next two novels are under contract with Simon and Schuster.  When Michele is not writing, she is volunteering in her community, Zumba-ing and paddling around in her pink kayak.  She likes to bird watch and color outside the lines.

www.micheleyoung-stone.com, www.micheleyoung-stone.blogspot.com www.obxbird.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/michele.youngstonefanpage https://www.twitter.com/micheleyosto

     

Getting Stuck with a Sagging Middle – by Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

In the novel writing workshop I’m teaching this quarter, we’ve been focusing on the middle of novels. This is the place where a lot of writers get stuck. It’s pretty straightforward why we write the opening and climax of a novel, but the middle? How are we supposed to fill such a huge void?

I’m using a terrific book as the text for this course: Beginnings, Middles & Ends by Nancy Kress, which is great for novelists (and short story writers, too) at all levels. Even the most experienced writers can get stuck in the middle of their novel-in-progress (Yes, says this author, raising her hand), and reading or re-reading a practical craft book can often work as a nice reminder and give a needed kick in the butt.

Kress points out that there are several common reasons for getting stuck in the middle. Here are some examples:

Fear of Failing: This happens when a writer compares herself too much to other writers. Novels become half-finished and the writer runs out of steam because she’ll never be as good as _________ (fill in the blank). I remember being in a short story writing class years ago when a fellow student announced to me that she had just read Ethan Canin’s short story collection. “That’s it,” she said. “I give up. I’ll never write as well as him.” I’ve found it’s much better to try and be inspired by another writer rather than intimidated. Otherwise this can become a recipe for paralysis.

Fear of Being Successful: This also can result in the writer not finishing her novel and stopping in the middle. The line of thinking goes something like, “What happens if I finish this book? Then I’ll have to start another one and I don’t have any good ideas. And then I won’t be a real writer anymore and I’ll lose my identity. . .etc., etc.” So the writer keeps polishing and revising and can safely say that she’s working on the book, but becomes bogged down with “The Curse of the Novel that Wouldn’t End.”

Fear of Not Knowing What Happens Next: Bingo! This is the one I’m grappling with right now in my novel-in-progress. Kress calls this “literary fogginess,” which is often the result of not having worked out the complete plot of the story beforehand (or perhaps realizing the original plot won’t quite work) and hoping to discover what happens from simply diving in and writing.

I’ve taken Kress’ advice and started writing extensive notes as to what my characters want and whether there are things I’ve overlooked. I’m also working on other directions for them to take (even wild ones) that will hopefully excite me so I can get back on track. I’m making progress and am convinced that I will turn my stuck, sagging middle into something tight and taut, provided I do enough sit-ups!

How about you? What do you do if you’re stuck in the middle of your novel or story? Any craft books you recommend that can help come to the rescue?

Wendy Nelson Tokunaga is the author of the novels, "Midori by Moonlight" and "Love in Translation" (both published by St. Martin's Press), and the e-book novels, "Falling Uphill" and "His Wife and Daughters," and e-book short story, “The Girl in the Tapestry.” She's also the author of the nonfiction e-book, "Marriage in Translation: Foreign Wife, Japanese Husband." Her short story "Love Right on the Yesterday" appears in the anthology "Tomo," published by Stone Bridge Press, and her essay "Burning Up" is included in "Madonna and Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop." Wendy holds an MFA in Creative Writing from University of San Francisco and teaches for Stanford University's Online Writer's Studio Novel Certificate Program. She also does private manuscript consulting for novels and memoirs. Follow her on Twitter at @Wendy_Tokunaga, friend her on Facebook and visit her website at: www.WendyTokunaga.com

Threads between my toes, teeth and fingers

by Michele Young-Stone

author of The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors

Do you need a degree in creative writing to write and publish a novel?

Probably not. But I did. I’ve been writing stories since I was in the second grade, but quitting my full-time job as an English teacher and returning to school at age 31, was exactly what I needed. This was a huge risk. When I told people, “I’m going back to school full time so I can write and publish a novel,” they thought I was bonkers.

I thought I was bonkers! But I also thought, This is my dream. This has been my dream since I was in the second grade: to write and publish a novel. If I don’t go for it now, when am I going to do it?

I have endless ideas. My brain has always been wonky and wobbly and full of wonderful tangents and tendencies toward alliteration. What I lacked were craft basics and nuances. I knew well-enough how to put my ideas on paper. I just didn’t know how to keep going (faith) past page 100. I didn’t know how to set the tone of a work (practice) or how to examine each sentence and each word, line by line for effectiveness and aesthetics (more practice). Nor did I fully comprehend or execute the time-tested SHOW DON’T TELL (now permanently tattooed on my brain).

All that said, the best part about learning craft and learning rules is gaining the freedom to break those rules. It’s like painting. Picasso and Van Gogh had to learn form. They painted nudes, still-lifes and landscapes. They learned their craft. Only after learning craft were they free to experiment and find their own visions. It’s no different with writing.

You have to learn the rules, whether it’s through an MFA program or reading voraciously, before you can find your own style, which may or may not include breaking the rules. For example, I do not write linearly. It’s not how my brain works. It’s not how I perceive the world. It’s not my style. I write like a weaver. I have threads between my teeth, fingers and toes and then I have to figure out how they fit together. Time is not linear. It’s about relationships. Who do you tie yourself to? How do you fit?

I worked HARD when I was getting my MFA. The more criticism I received, the harder I worked. I listened; paid attention; volunteered to produce and critique whenever possible. In other words, I was not fucking around. I wasn't there to just get a degree. I was there to learn craft and discipline. And after school finished, I had my beautiful son. Well, I had my son in March, 2005 and graduated in May. I wore my baby Bjorn to graduation.

I spent the next four years raising my son and trying to publish The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, my debut novel. All that criticism from my MFA served me well.

When they knock you down, you get back up. You revise and revise and revise because it's never perfect. I revised and revised and revised. It will never be perfect. There will always be one line or one word or one brush stroke that can be better.

But that's enough about me! What’s your style? What have you learned about writing? Did you get an MFA? Did it serve you well? Are you self-taught? Are you happy, published or not, putting your ideas on paper?

That's the main thing: If you don't love the act of writing for the sake of doing it, you should find a new line of work. The glory is in the act.

Thank you for reading. Shout out to Bill Tester for helping me to understand the beauty of the act. There is nothing more important.

*My next two novels, Perfect Birds and The Saints of Los Vientos are under contract with Simon and Schuster.

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