HALLIE EPHRON: Welcome to our Jungle Reds What We're Writing
week. I call it Welcome to My Mess because I've hit the end of "Act One," a major turning point. With every manuscript, this is where
I hit the wall.
And here I am again. Spinning my wheels.
I can happily write along for about 80 pages, flying by the seat
of my pants. Then whammo. Full stop. I have some idea what's going to happen at
the end of the book (or I think I do). But the next page is a complete enigma.
At this point in writing, I usually change the book's title.
I change character names. Amy became Lindsay. Nan became Quinn. I hit a
speedbump when I changed Erin to Becca. Which turned "cluttering" into
"cluttbeccag." Which sounds like a disease.
I paint in more setting. Oops,
forgot about weather, and what are these
characters wearing? Print out the manuscript. Revise what I have. Again.
Then I go off and organize my T-shirts. Which, for this book, I can actually call research.
Because while I'm doing all this housekeeping (aka nitpicking), I'm
trying to envision what's going on in the book from each of the main
character's perspective. Who's got it right. Who's got it wrong. Who's lying. And
what's really going on here. To that end I outline what I wrote and what might come next.
Eventually the pieces will fall into place. I'll be surprised. Hopefully readers will be surprised. And I'll forget all about how hard it was to figure out what came after the end of Act One.
So you all will be the first to read it: the opening two paragraphs of Careful What You Wish For (previously titled Folding Frank.) This will probably be pretty close to what I end up with. Because I've revised it about 400 times.
Lindsay wasn’t sure that her sock drawer sparked joy. Once a jumbled pile, those pairs of socks that now stood at attention, folded and sorted by color, were pleasant enough to behold. She’d tried to follow the decluttering guru’s mantra, keeping only those socks that “spoke to her heart.”
With socks, that had been a tall order. Maybe on a raw wet day, a pair of fuzzy socks could bring warmth and comfort. Not so much on a muggy Saturday morning in early August as she stood in her sunlit bedroom in shorts, a tank top, and flip-flops. Instead, the message her sock drawer whispered to her heart was how privileged she was. Because who on earth needed that many pairs of socks?
HALLIE: I leave you with these wise words:
And if you have any tips on getting unstuck, let's hear 'em.
I wish I had the answer for getting unstuck; alas, I haven’t a clue but I have every confidence that you will figure it out.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been thinking lately that I’ve been missing “What We’re Writing,” so this post is a real treat.
And now I’m delightedly chuckling over sock drawers sparking joy and Lindsay thinking she needs to sort out her socks by color and then fold them . . . .
On the 'sparking joy' that's Marie Kondo (her tagline: Our mission is to organize the world and spark joy in people's lives." - She inspired me.
DeleteLove the opening! Someone asked me at an author event recently what the hardest part of writing a book was. I said, "The middle." So true! Right now I'm mired at the end of the middle. Must pick a villain. Must pick a villain (or two) out of the four I've set up. In this book when I was stuck earlier I killed off a second victim. Getting unstuck? A talk-out-loud-to-myself plotting walk. Plus the old butt in the chair, fingers on the keyboard. Good luck, Hallie!
ReplyDeleteButt in chair is my main issue. And I LOVE to hear that someone as prolific as you has the same problem, Edith! Because misery sure does love company.
DeleteHeck yes, Hallie. I'm on novel #17. Worse than ever!
DeleteI get stuck in my writing fairly often, but a lot of what I write is for business, so it's not hard to get unstuck. I just have to take a step back and ask myself why anyone should care enough to support a particular education program or learn about some composer's love life. Once I get my purpose back in focus, I can go forward.
ReplyDeleteWith fiction it's a little different, because I'm making it up as I go along, so its harder to find my focus. Usually I take my characters grocery shopping or out to do yard work, and get to know them better. I suspect this is what you're doing when you change their names as you rearrange your sock drawer. Once I get a stronger grip on who they are, I can focus on what they want to do next. Often I find myself thinking that they might do A, or they might do B, but they absolutely will not, cannot, no way ever do C. Because if they do C--say, one of them tells the other to have a nice life and walks out the door--then there would be no story.
Except . . . the more I think about it, the more I realize that there would just be a different story. A much more interesting story, because both characters are going to have to struggle with the consequences of that taboo decision. Any time my characters have to work harder to do what they need to do, there's more risk, and more emotion, and more tension for the reader. So off my characters go to do C, and the book is started again.
Good luck with your work in progress. If it makes any difference, remember that we all have faith in your ability to come up with a killer Act II.
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Gigi! And YES, writing (nonfiction) for hire is SO MUCH EASIER.
DeleteYou are so right! This always happens-- always always always happens. it's very difficult to make up a good story, you know! So I just try to see this as part of the process that always works. It has to work, right? But that does not make it fun.
ReplyDeleteMy method is to tell the story out loud to someone else. Just say here's what happened: and then tell the story. And often, by saying it, I get exactly the idea of what should happen next when I say the story out loud. For some reason, maybe because it makes it real? What happens next starts to make sense.
Cannot wait to read this! ( but, ridiculously, there is a main character named Quinn in my new book.... A 50-year-old defense attorney named Quinn McMorran. ( but more about that tomorrow! ). Her name used to be Margaret, so I hear you.
"My method is to tell the story out loud to someone else. " - I am SO FORTUNATE to have you for a friend, hank, because I've used this method telling my story to you and ... so helpful.
DeleteLet's have dinner!!!!! xoxoo
DeleteChanging character names is an element of getting unstuck for me, too. It hadn't occurred to me to sort my t-shirt drawer. I'll have to try it.
ReplyDeleteBeing stuck makes me feel impatient, which is the lesson, right? Patience is required to untangle the plot and sort the character interactions.
Slow down. Let it simmer. Sort the socks. Hard to do, but essential.
Yeah, slow down... but don't stop. And please, STOP GOING BACKWARD (I tell myself.)
DeleteLove it, Hallie. You clearly watched that video, too. =)
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to get unstuck. I just know that if I walk away and let things simmer it happens. I also find it helpful to ask "what is my villain doing?" - even if said villain doesn't quite have a name yet. LOL
Mary/Liz
All well and good... if you know who your villain is.
DeleteI find that even if I don't know WHO the villain is, I have a good idea WHAT he/she is doing.
DeleteMary/Liz
I do mindless physical labor (window washing, scrubbing grout, bush pruning) and manage to conjure an elegant solution. Plan your MC's Thanksgiving dinner. I always think about what my characters like to eat.
ReplyDeleteI can get into that... what a clever way to deepen character. I sometimes try to imagine what's in their fridge. On their desk. In their garbage...
DeleteI love to hear about this stuff! As a technical writer, I don't have the same issues--I rarely rename characters--but I'm looking forward to having them after I retire next month.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your impending retirement, Jim! I've started looking down that road, but don't have a clear destination yet.
DeleteJim, sTART NOW!
DeleteThanks, Gigi, and best wishes to you as you look that way.
DeleteHallie, thanks for the encouragement. I have started. I did nanowrimo and spewed out over 50K words. I suspect several dozen of them will make it into the second draft ;-)
Ah, the "spew" - that's a topic for another blog post.
DeleteSince I almost always have more than one book in the works, the easiest thing for me is to abandon the problem child for awhile and work on one of the others. By the time I hit the inevitable snag in #2 I've almost always figured out what comes next in #1. Of course those pesky deadlines can really screw up this system. That self-reminder that the story has always worked itself out before is what keeps me sane.
ReplyDeleteBowing down... I could not be writing two novels. Nope. Not now, not ever. Nonfiction and fiction, yes.
DeleteKathy, I wish that worked for me. I have three problem children in "process" right now, all slogged down.
ReplyDeleteThe word mess fits perfectly.
Good luck, Hallie.
Thanks, Karen! My problem is that if I it takes me time to get up to speed (again) with each manuscript.
DeleteI just decided to print out everything up to where I'm stuck (at 46k words) and read straight through - thanks for the idea, Hallie!
ReplyDeleteLet us know how it works out!
DeleteQuinn? Have you two been watching "Homeland" or what?
ReplyDeleteI'm so jealous of everyone here who writes books. If I had to list things I can't do but wish I could, that would be close to the top, right below opera singer. However I'm fascinated with all the processes described here, the different ways to cope with writer's block, how you each get unstuck, how you all seem to have similar problems. This is the second time recently that someone has talked about reading aloud to find out stuff about your own story. Wow. That seems brilliant to me. And now I'm visualizing Hallie reading to Hank and vice versa. Wow redux.
For me, secret yearning is to be a torch singer (can't stand opera). I think that bus has left the staton.
DeleteI love "What We Are Writing" week at JRW. Always something to get readers exciting for upcoming books. This week will clearly be no different and I am already interesting in Hallie's new novel. Both titles - Folding Frank and Careful What You Wish For - are intriguing without being obvious.
ReplyDeleteI have all the faith in the world that however you get out of this stuck moment, Hallie, it will be worth the effort. You have yet to let your fans down.
Do I get a vote? Def Folding Frank. What a visual
DeleteSo behind the scenes, why NOT Folding Frank: Loving Frank. "Nuff said. But also because it doesn't sound like one of my books. Building brand, here.
DeleteI'll spend all the rest of my life yearning to see Frank Folded
DeleteCareful What You Wish For does indeed sound like a Hallie Ephron book, so I can't disagree with the final decision. But Folding Frank it still intriguing.
DeleteOy, middles! Like you, Hallie, I find that tasks that keep my hands busy but mind free - hello, laundry!- are helpful when I am stuck. I belong to a writing group and talking over big roadblocks can be helpful too, but we don't meet often enough for me to count on it. But I do talk to myself. On paper. I ramble, write out what the problems are, ask myself my own questions. Eventually some "other" part of my brain starts answering! For a really major don't know where I am going, I remind myself words of Reed Farrel Coleman, a terrific mystery writer and experienced teacher. He tells his students being stuck is usually the result of a bad decision, and to back up to the last point where they did know where they were going...and then do something different.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I heard him say that, too. But how far, and how many times??
DeleteYes! Like trying to get out of an icy spot in the winter. Sometimes you make it way worse, the more times you rock your tires over the same spot.
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DeleteI don't write, but when I get stuck on things I back off for a while. I'm probably muttering to myself, but maybe I should be talking to my sock drawer or T-shirt drawer. I have complete faith you'll work your way through this road block, Hallie.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pat - I do too, actually. It's the *when* that worries me.
DeleteLOL, love the sock analogy of unfulfilling "plenty." As far as hitting the wall, it happens regularly here, too. My tricks: I make a short list of critical events that need to happen in next two or three chapters. Then I zero in on the very next chapter and do a scribble draft: a detailed list of scene events - one-liners - which are usually out of sequence. When I put them in chronological order, it usually triggers a writing frenzy. (It's what I'm doing today, so it better work.)
ReplyDeleteAh, but where is the Next Events Fairy?
DeleteThe best way to get unstuck is to come to my place and clean and organize. Trust me, you'll feel like writing to avoid the work. And if not, my place gets some much needed attention. Win/win!
ReplyDeleteLOL!!
DeleteI'm stuck in the middle, too, and it's not easy! I remind myself that I've been here before and made it through to the end. I also am grateful that I'm not at the "stuck before I've even written page one" stage. That's the worst! The upside, Hallie, to all the writing starts and stops is that your sock drawer (spice rack, laundry area, etc.) will look amazing!
ReplyDeleteI know. The silver lining!
DeleteI'm working on my first mystery novel. My problems is making myself write on a regular schedule. I teach college writing so I spend my days (and weekends) teaching, grading, and dealing with other people's writing. When I get a reasonable amount of work done each day I just want to get away from the computer and lose myself in reading a book. I guess what I'm saying is that Academia is a special kind of writer's block.
ReplyDeleteANY kind of day job is a special kind of writer's block. I had to cut back to part time, way back when I started writing. It was the only way because I can't write late in the day or at night.
DeleteWell, it may be writing about writer's block, Hallie, but you make that interesting. And, you've given us the treat of your first two paragraphs that already have me curious about the character of Lindsay. I agree with you that "Careful What You Wish For" is more in line with your "brand" of books, and for me, it's an enticing title. I'm definitely looking forward to reading it, and I am sure that you will be typing furiously away at any moment to finish this story and once again give your readers a favorite read.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathy! I sure hope you're right.
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ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, I un-stick myself by typing onto the page (whatever point I've arrived at) the following words: "What I want to say is...". Then I force myself to keep typing. As I type, my thoughts come clear(er) and then I (often, not always) realize that I do, actually, know where I'm going. I just needed to tell myself that. By reading the words on the page, I get myself moving again. The writing may not yet be stellar (it generally isn't), but at least I'm moving again. Good luck! And, Hallie: There are always tea towels to sort through if the sock and T-shirt drawers are already organized!
ReplyDeleteI do something similar which is brainstorm what could HAPPEN next, because I don't get writers' block so much as idea block. Sometimes it works.
DeleteHallie, I love the snippet and the title is terrific. I want to know more about Lindsay already. I've had a heck of time writing the my current WIP, so I can relate. I have not reorganized my socks but I have decided to resurface all of my kitchen cupboards. All 24 of them. Help me.
ReplyDeleteAs in YOU are doing it? TAKE PICTURES! We want to see how you do this.
DeleteA Stuck Haiku:
ReplyDeleteI'm so very stuck.
I'm so incredibly stuck.
Must have AD.... SQUIRL! ;)
I - am - so - stuck right now, Hallie. I have been trying to redo this #*$&! MS since you did that webinar for SinC Atlanta on revising back in July or whatever. I have great intentions, but I open it up and it's like... "Well, I could do *this* with the story, but that would mean rewriting *this,* and then this that or the other thing, and do I really want to do that?" And so nothing happens.
Sigh.
On the other hand, I'm recovering from that massive surgery and walking a lot, so that's good, and while I walk, I think about my Dead In The Water Manuscript and how to perform CPR on it or whether to just toss it overboard and start something else.
When do you do that? When do you just declare it dead and start on something new?
Sigh. Ppppthht.
Well, I'm looking forward to seeing you & Hank soon.
Take care,
Julie
Oh, Julie - this is so sad! I'm right there with you, if it makes you feel any better. My advice: Don't make any decisions now while you're still recovering and getting back up on your pins. Why not do research instead? On some aspect of the book you're writing. Let your body heal. And then come back to it refueled, as it were.
DeleteCall me! we can talk. oxo
DeleteOh my. I have this image in my head: Hallie in a glittery, slinky dress singing, "I'll Never Love This Way Again."
ReplyDelete