Transitions, Ink

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Revising with a New Narrator

I'm back from a short trip where I had the great pleasure of meeting up with Writerbug and RB for dinner at an oo-la-la French bistro (good pick, Bug!). Now, it's time to hit the keyboard. I had a long layover at the airport yesterday, long enough to find an ac outlet, plug in the laptop, and try a whole new approach to the pieces I'm revising. I've got three separate but linked pieces and I'm going to try to unify them into one long story. Last semester, I wrote something else in which I landed on a narrative voice that I feel good about. I'm going to try to have the new narrator tell the old stories and see how they change. Wish me luck -- it's an experiment for which I have high hopes.

Since the other part of my trip involved a somewhat demoralizing experience which I've had three days to revise my perspective about, it was on balance a combination of highs and lows. You could say I broke even.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Sunday Scribblings: Fellow Travelers

I like the literalness of today's prompt. Fellow travelers has come to mean almost anything but fellow travelers these days, that most people's first thought is about those who are on the same life path as them. For example, my fellow-writers, especially those whom I've met through the MFA, were the first to come into my mind when I saw the prompt.

Twenty-five years ago I went to Switzerland with a bunch of kids from local high schools to do five weeks of French Immersion in a small Alpine village built high on the side of a mountain. They tossed us in five to a room, and on the bunk opposite mine was a girl named Karen. She and I turned out to be kindred spirits. We liked getting into exactly the same kind of trouble, the same kids got on our nerves, we supported each other in our crushes on different boys without ever having a crush on the same boy, we had up-market tastes in champagne and chocolate (particularly for sixteen year-olds), and, finally, we swore we would return the next summer. Which we did. Together.

Over the next eighteen months, Karen and I had an idiosyncratic tour of Europe. We went to Athens without seeing the Parthenon, went to Amsterdam without seeing the Van Gogh Museum, and zipped through Italy without stopping in Rome, Florence, or Venice. We made our way to Crete, where that first time, staying there for three months, I didn't visit Knossos (I would see it later). It was the itinerary of two seventeen year-olds with no interest in anything but bars, boys, and beaches. Priding ourselves on travelling light, we hardly even shopped.

After three months in Crete, living on opposite sides of the Island (I in Agia Galini, Karen in Iraklion), I chose to return to Canada to attend University. Karen stayed. She's been living in Crete since 1983. I've been back to see her a couple of times (that's when I saw Knossos, and of course, I've since been to the Acropolis site and seen the Parthenon more than once).

Karen just visited Canada in December. She's thinking of moving back but is worried about culture shock. I can't imagine what I'd be like today if I'd followed her lead and stayed in Crete. But when we see one another, we're as close as we ever were. We were fellow-travelers, embarked on the adventure of our lives. It took us in two different directions, but there is something about being on the road together when you're young that creates an unbreakable bond no matter what other paths you might ultimately take.
For more fellow-travelers' stories, go here.
Photo credit to Wikipedia.

How Slow Can You Go?

Something tells me I've had this title before. In any case, I'm sure I've had this thought before. I'm revising. Why is revising so SLOW? Writing is the strangest endeavor you can imagine. Here I am, I want to write more than anything else. And today I had a whole day stretching out before me, a nice blank page, if you will, for writing and nothing but writing. I've been kicking away at this revision, or at least at trying to envision the revision, for the whole week. All I've come up with is that pretty much everything in the original needs to be scrapped.

The piece is called "Finishing the Story," and an underlying theme is the way we complete our parents' stories. This one focuses on my mother, whom I, of course, love. Suddenly, I have no idea how to write about people I love and know. As a writer of memoir-style non-fiction, I know that writing about her is really (or at least also) writing about me. Anyway, I'm having the opposite of an aha moment. I'm having a "huh?" moment instead. And it's painful. And so the day has been somewhat tortured as I try to figure out what matters in this piece.

What do you do when you're stuck?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

On Track, Sort of

I kind of slacked yesterday on the writing, but I made it to yoga and even had a brisk walk later in the day. Today I managed to get in some work on my thesis and on my book revisions, wrote a few letters that needed to be written, spent 20 minutes on the elliptical machine AND did 30 crunches, and stuck to my healthy eating plan.

I think the exercise and smart eating are really important. When I do that, I feel better. When I feel better, I'm more energetic. When I'm more energetic, I have an easier time writing. And when I write, I feel best of all! I'm also giving myself a break by having very low expectations. As long as I do something in each category (a page here, 30 minutes on revision there, a little turn around the campus before lunch, a couple of yoga asanas) I'm satisfied.

Anyway, I'll definitely try to branch out a bit in blog topics, but in the "as long as I do something" lifestyle, I can't promise it'll be much more interesting!

Monday, January 14, 2008

Objective #1: Shake the cold!

My main objective today is to shake this darn cold I picked up at the residency. So I am not doing the 5 a.m. thing quite yet. Bug has already started posting her schedule. That impresses me and makes me feel as if I should have one, too. Okay, here goes:

Monday night: Go to bed early to sleep off last bit of cold

Tuesday:
6:30 Yoga class
8:15 Breakfast
9:00 Morning pages
10:00 Academic book revisions (work on chapter two)
12:30 Lunch with a friend
2-5 Meetings
Evening Work on "Finishing the Story" revision and order books for the semester

We'll see how Tuesday goes before making any plans for Wednesday.

As you can see, the blog is going to be super-gripping for the next little while!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Still Here

Just before the end of the MFA residency, which ended today, Bug, RB, and I re-committed to the blogs. In just six short months, it will be our turn to read at the graduate student readings, teach our own graduating student seminars, and walk the stage at graduation.

As usual, the residency inspired me to throw myself into the writing with all I have to give it. If it's going to work this semester, the 5 a.m. starts need to be reinstated.

Ready, set, ....