Toughing It Out

Today’s Word Count for the Novel: 115,027.
Page Count for the Novel: 414 pages. (No changes since last post.)

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

-- Douglas Adams

So I just met a major deadline. Yesterday I struggled toward that finish line, 12 hours spent in last efforts to edit a manuscript, the culmination of months of work. I felt so deeply for poor, dedicated me, slogging through the fields of footnotes and the no man’s land of Works Cited. I was such a trooper, soldiering on. I slaved.

Then I looked up the definition of deadline.

It was the name of a fence no prisoner would scale unless he wanted to be shot, that man being a prisoner taken by the Confederacy and kept at Andersonville prison during our Civil War. You would think a light pine fence would be no match for thousands of prisoners, but there were posted sentries ready to shoot any man who broke through. When this stockade famous for introducing “deadline” to our language swelled to 32,000 prisoners, far beyond what the acreage could contain, the story goes that the deadline became a simple white line. That and some guns kept the malnourished men in place, racked by disease and weakened by exposure. By the war’s end, nearly 13,000 men had perished.

Except for my ancestor, John Fairbairn. A Scottish immigrant appalled by the slavery he saw in Georgia, he volunteered for the Union Army. He was captured in Memphis and shipped off to Andersonville, landing right after overcrowding hit its peak. He emerged at the war’s end a mere 98 pounds. He had lost all his teeth. Yet he had the wisdom to make it a slow recovery, refraining from the gorging that killed many of his fellow inmates after release. He had the gumption and hope to become a brick layer and a stone mason, to take a soldier’s homestead, and to get married. He raised six children. Thanks to him, my great-grandfather was born. This is a man who persisted well beyond and despite deadlines.

And I thought I suffered so when it came to those…well…dates on the calendar.

It’s not about whether I make the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award deadline (I didn’t) or the NCTE deadline for Teaching Julius Caesar (I did). I am not the sum total of those accomplishments, no matter how much I define myself by them. And I am certainly no martyr for the cause. All that matters after I choose such challenges is whether I walk with gratitude through all the comforts and conveniences of my modern day -- into that hot shower, toward that sofa to watch the Super Bowl, along with family and friends who, like me, haven’t known hunger. That was the aftermath of my deadline. John Fairbairn’s life was about surviving a prison that became a concentration camp, and then about keeping the hope and faith to build a new life. I can look back to him and say, as Marc Antony does of Brutus, “This was a man!”

In his Inaugural Address, President Obama told us that “…our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America…For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.”

In the spirit of my ancestor who knew the value of tenacity, hard work, and a dollar, I vow an end to begrudging or bemoaning these deadlines. They are a fact of life, and I should be so lucky that the only kind that threaten me are numerical, calendar sort. In the spirit of my grandparents who struggled to feed a large family after the crash of ’29 and who rationed stockings and butter and anything that would support the war…in the spirit of all those ancestors with gumption, a word the Scots coined as a way of calling out courage, spunk, and guts…. I will get a perspective, a clue, and a clean attitude about just how hard my life is. If I were to listen to the 24-hour news cycle, I might otherwise think I’m at death’s door.

Nope. Just nearing a deadline is all, one of those lines we all have to cross, and not even one written in dirt. Just a phantom fence of this modern life I’m breezing through, carried on a gentle wind I only hope my ancestors sometimes felt.

Much love and thanks to my father, Stephen Fairchild, who hails from this long line of Fairbairns, call them fair-bearers of the tough tasks. He keeps our history alive.

Today's Writing Goal: Begin on page 414 and keep going. Stay under 530 pages. Send off that stopgap short story waiting in the wings.

Writing Prompts: Please note that writing prompts should always be pursued in emotionally-safe environments with the supervision of someone who interested in encouraging good writing, self-awareness, and reflection. A wonderful resource is Pat Schneider’s Writing Alone and With Others. © Lyn Hawks. Writing prompts for one-time classroom use only and not for publication in any form elsewhere without permission of this author. Elementary Tougher Than the RestWho do you know who is “tough”? By tough, we mean someone who is strong inside and out. They have what is called character. They can stand strong when difficulty strikes. They can pick themselves up when things are really unpleasant. For example: a person who loses their job and works hard to find another, or a person who is injured and keeps a good attitude in spite of all the pain.

Write a poem of admiration to the person who you see as a strong role model. You can spell out their name and write a name poem, one line for every letter in their name. You can list several examples of all the ways that this person shows toughness and strength. Or you can tell about one time when you saw this person show great toughness.

Thanks to My Family

Think about people in your family (and by family, it can be people you live with, friends, or any way you think of family) who have given you a lot of help in your life. Who’s been a really big help?

Maybe it was the person who taught you a sport or how to sing a song. Maybe it was the person who helped you up when you got hurt. It could be a person who made great sacrifices in order for you to have things you enjoy. Think of someone who has given a lot to you and who you appreciate.

Write an inscription for a thank you card. This should be a special thank you card, the kind you can’t find in a store. That’s because you will make this card very personal. Write the person an inscription that is one of two kinds:

A Complimentary List.

Title this card, The Top Ten Things I Like About You , and inside write your list, or

Metaphor Magic.

You are a/the _______________. Compare this person to something strong, beautiful, or impressive in nature (such as mountain, flower, sun, ocean, stars). List all the ways that this person is like this beautiful part of nature.

Telling Time

Are you usually on time? Or do you tend to run late? How do you and time get along?

Imagine that Time and you are having a conversation. Tell Time all about how easy or hard it is for you to be on time, and while you’re talking, let Time know anything else on your mind: whether you like having a clock or watch in your life, and if Time is going to change anything, you would recommend that s/he or it change ___________ first….


Secondary and Adult

A Time for Toughness
You have survived many different periods of your life. There were, as Charles Dickens writes, the best of times and the worst of times. Consider one of the worst of these moments in your history. What got you through it?

Write about the toughness in you that helped you survive it. You might not have thought yourself tough at the time, but you’re still here, aren’t you? What was the challenge, and how did you face it? Return to a moment where your toughness manifested.

Grandpa’s Gumption

Who is an ancestor you admire deeply or an older role model in your life, representing a particular kind of courage?

Define gumption as you have seen it in those you admire. Gumption – guts, spunk, courage – is the stuff of survival. Some also define it as shrewdness. Think how gumption has shown itself in those you respect.

Tell an anecdote that is one you could tell for many years and to future generations. Record a bit of history for posterity.

Deadlines and Me

What is your relationship with deadlines? Are they friend or foe? How often do you meet them?

Write a dialogue with Deadlines. Deadlines is the thing, entity, person, or whatever you wish it to be, as long as you have a conversation with it, and your only job is to have a conversation. The only rule is that Deadlines gets the last word.

Bonus Prompt: Tougher Than the Rest

Read the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen’s “Tougher Than the Rest,” and if you can, listen to his singing or a cover of this song.

What kind of a character does Springsteen paint for us? What does “tough” mean in this context?

Write the lyrics of a new version of “Tougher Than the Rest.” Take the first-person point of view of someone or something that believes s/he’s tougher than the rest.

Breakthrough

Today’s Word Count for the Novel: 115,027. That means 143, 357 words have been removed.

Page Count for the Novel: 414 pages. That means 502 pages have been removed.

Sit down, and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.
-- Colette


Sometimes all it takes is a couple words to spark a huge change. The magical words of a marriage proposal; the deal-breaking words hurled during a fight; even the seductions and offenses of billboard signs. For me, it was two words in Steve Almond’s “The Great Plot Test” in Writer’s Digest: “plot drift.”

My novel’s plot is drifting and dragging, caught in a wide sargasso sea. Time to pull the lengthy thing, slimy and dripping, from those deep and dark waters. Time to hose it off in the hot water of revision. To extend the metaphor in one last gasp of purple prose (please, let my blog be where I get to indulge): the slimy longboat is my manuscript, almost sinking my subconscious, which is those deep and dark waters. The first, second, and third drafts of my novel are nothing but therapeutic dumping grounds of subconscious. Thank goodness I’m at least a “writer” by Colette’s estimation.

But to be an author... I showed my courage and cut 502 pages. Give me not purple prose but a purple heart. These pages are now divvied up between two files: one called “killed_darlings” and the other called “put_back_in.”

(A brief nod to technology: when I was crossing out with pen on legal pads this novel began in 1993, such a cut might have been much harder. Now one click moves a whole ton of weight and I can see a new horizon.)

To be frank: these are temporary removals as I scrutinize each page for its purpose, thus the eagerly-awaiting “put_back_in” file. But I’m more serious than I’ve ever been about purpose and determined to only put back in the essential. Another helpful guide that took Almond’s advice to the next level -- ie, what is that said purpose -- is the article, “Your Novel Blueprint: Turn Your Dream Novel into a Reality by Taking Some Tips from the Worksite” by Karen S. Wiesner (Writer’s Digest). She speaks of “story sparks” and “character conflicts (internal)” versus “plot conflicts (external).” Her tips have helped me outline the bare bones of what this novel’s trying to say.

While reading Almond and Wiesner, I received an e-mail update from the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and that was the coup de grace, the third sign that this was meant to be. To enter the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, your novel needs to be 150,000 words, not 250-some. As I’m writing my pitch, which is a synopsis and the only submission allowed in the first round, I’ve been forced to ask myself who and what matters in this novel. Sure, I’ve written more than a dozen synopses before, both for querying and contests, but this time, Almond + Wiesner + Amazon equaled a neat little “Click!” The lightbulb click, and this time, the economizing kind. I had a breakthrough. This story can only be about a few things, not everything related to singlehood, education, and faith. If I insist on maintaining this trinity of themes, each one must sacrifice something to the gods of unity, clarity, and meaning.

Whether my novel is ready by the contest deadline doesn’t matter. I now see that if I want to stick with the traditional novel – what will fit in paper and binding rather than say, an electronic device -- then I need to get serious about slimming. It won’t be 2,000 words cut here or there every four weeks. It will be banning characters, cutting scenes, and linking what remains in a tight and seamless narrative sequence.

Right now, the toughest road is deciding whether or not to cut a secondary character who’s key to my protagonist’s evolution. If I keep her advent in chapter one, she slows the story down with many character development scenes thereafter. If I cut out her good scenes in the beginning (sob!), I lose elements of setting and character development affecting both the heroine and the villain. The gaps created by that change will need to be filled…but perhaps only by a line or scene, briefly stated, that can serve the same purpose. These are the tricky questions plaguing writers during revision.

As of this writing, I’ve decided to let her early scenes stay but cut school politics scenes that lead to the crisis. I’ve got less than 100 pages to wrap up the whole tale, miles of manuscript to cut before I sleep. But bearing this breakthrough in mind, each paragraph re-inserted or created from scratch will have to pass through of a security checkpoint that bellows: State your purpose.


Today's Writing Goal: Begin on page 385 and cut scenes with Sandra and Jerome. Stay under 530 pages.

Writing Prompts: Please note that writing prompts should always be pursued in emotionally-safe environments with the supervision of someone who interested in encouraging good writing, self-awareness, and reflection. A wonderful resource is Pat Schneider’s Writing Alone and With Others.

© Lyn Hawks. Writing prompts for one-time classroom use only and not for publication in any form elsewhere without permission of this author.

Elementary

A Big Lesson

Did you ever have a moment when you suddenly realized, I know something new! It could be learning how to write your name, tie your shoes, or ride a bike. It could be learning how to divide numbers or how to spell a word. It could be understanding something new about history that happened before you born, or playing music, or painting a picture. When you learned this new piece of information or a new skill, you suddenly changed.

Write the story of learning something new.

What happened?
Why did it happen?
How did it happen?
How did you feel?
How do you feel now?


Secondary, and Adult

Breakthrough

We call it a breakthrough when we undergo a transformation. You might be living your life one way, and suddenly, you have what’s called an epiphany. You decide you need to start making different choices. You know something new you didn’t know before – such as who your true friends are, or where you want to work, or how you wish to live. You make a change.

Write about a breakthrough you’ve had. Describe yourself before and after this change of mind or heart, and discuss how it’s impacted you since.