Attempt No. 2

I’m on the NaBloPoMo March Blogroll, meaning I’m attempting the feat of blogging every day for the entire month, yet again. I know, I know. I said it didn’t work in the way I wanted it too when I did it back in January. But perhaps it was because I felt stuck with my novel, and had a really bad case of the writer’s block?

In any case, the writing floodgates have opened. Last night, I had my first late-night writing session since grad school—a good eight months or so ago—which is the longest I’ve been without one of those in quite some time. Ideas are flooding out at a pace that I feel like I can’t keep up with, which is more than invigorating. I seek out the keyboard, or the pen and notebook, rather than cringe at the thought of trying to come up with what comes next.

I figure that I can encourage these ideas, and keep them a’coming, if I keep posting to the blog. So, that’s my progress, and the blog is what holds me accountable.

Switching Focus Yet Again

I'm stuck on the script and don't know how to develop next.

So, I'm taking a break on that project and finally returning to my novel. I've officially spent a month away from it now, and, admittedly, that was beginning to irritate me. I hated feeling like I wasn't making any progress on it, that I had wasted a month on a side-project that really hasn't gotten very far.

But, last night I went to bed planning to work on my novel all weekend, and when I woke up, I finally felt ready to do so. I'm focusing on my main character's (Anne's) childhood, and how that drives her forward when she's 18-years-old to discover more about the life of her mother who died when Anne was eight.

Ideas are forming and I plan to get those all out on paper this weekend. Hurrah for killing off writer's block! I guess backing away from a piece of writing to see it through fresh eyes really does help - even if it kills you to put it away for a month!

Trying New Things: Classe française numéro un

I learned how to greet someone in French today. It was the basics of the basics in my first French class at Alliance Française de Chicago. I also learned the alphabet, the numbers one through twelve, and how to pronounce a few nationalities.

I’m somewhat less intimidated by French now, simply because I know a handful of words. At the same time, I know this is going to be difficult for me. Not only because—as I thought and as other blog posters have mentioned—knowing Spanish is both a bit of a curse and a bit of a blessing. “Spanish will help you identify what some French words are, but it will not help you in pronunciation,” said Professor Erwan Sorel.

Plus, this is the first language class that I’ve taken since high school, having fulfilled all the college requirements before getting to college. Meaning, it’s also the first time I’ve worked on learning a language in eight years. So, yeah, I admit, it’s still a bit intimidating.

But, it’s invigorating too.

Last night, I felt overwhelmed by my novel. I sat down to write and to move around a few scenes, and I felt utterly stuck. I felt like I wasn’t making progress. The scenes I was working on were stale and maybe even unnecessary. What am I doing? I asked myself. My writing stinks. There’s no drama, no tension. My thoughts dragged me under, as if I was being swallowed by quicksand. So, I stopped trying to write, and I picked up a large volume to brush up on the basics of the French Revolution.

Note to self: reading a detailed history doesn’t clear your head; rather it just fills your head up with even more information—information that you know you need to somehow touch on in your novel if you’re going to make the novel understandable to young-adult readers.

So, I admit. I gave up writing, and research, for the night. I felt, at the same time, drained of and overwhelmed by words and ideas. As I said, I was stuck.

French class started to change that. I realized that, by taking this French class, I’m approaching my novel in, well, a novel way. I’m learning the language that some, but not all, of my characters know. My main character isn’t fluent, but she wants to be. She tries studying it too, although in a totally different way than I do. But, nonetheless, by creating a different way to access my novel and my characters, by learning French, I feel like I’m making the first step towards making some real progress with my novel. That reassurance helps more than I’d ever expect.

Writing clearly is not just about writing. It’s also about doing research—but not just the research you discover within books. It’s about experiencing and trying new things, like taking a French class.

What new things have you tried or learned in order to access your writing in a different way?