Fall is my favorite season. My birthday is the day before Halloween.
I had to be a child of the corn on my second visit to Richardson's Adventure Farm, aka the World's LARGEST Corn Maze! This year's maze was Beatles themed. I think I'm somewhere in Ringo's nose. Oh, yeah, and did I mention the pig race? That's Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds right there.
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Aside from the picture of me reading from Don't Touch at the bottom of the post, this was originally posted on Quirk & Quill. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending--and reading at--Sarah Aronson's book launch for Believe. I haven't read my copy yet, but Believe promises to be an intriguing exploration of the unwanted celebrity our culture thrusts on the survivors of public tragedy. It's been named an ALAN Pick, and if the book is anything like the book LAUNCH, it's going to be amazing. Planning a book launch is a daunting task, but Sarah designed this event in a unique way that made it successful on multiple levels. First, the event took place at Curt's Cafe, a mission-based non-profit that trains at-risk youth in food-service and life skills. All the food for the book launch was donated, so attendees were encouraged to donate and to buy raffle tickets to support Curt's Cafe. Allowing the event to double as a fundraiser may have encouraged more people to come. And Sarah says, "The spirit of the event IS the spirit of Curt's! I hoped we could pack the house (we did!) and help them continue to make a difference in our community." Everybody wins. Second, Sarah invited a number of local authors to participate in a group reading including Penny Blubaugh, Carol Brendler,Ilene Cooper, Brenda A. Ferber, Ken Krimstein, Jenny Meyerhoff, Ellen Reagan, Laura Ruby, Natalie Wainwright, myself, and of course, Sarah! Sarah wanted "to honor the process of writing," to share that with her friends, and to "honor the VC and MFA experience." Many of the readers attended VCFA; Laura Ruby teaches in a similar program at Hamline. The event definitely took me back to the readings at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where students and faculty often read from works in progress. It was so exciting to hear snippets of books that are in various stages of the submission and publication process. And for Sarah, the callback to VCFA had extra meaning since the first version of Believe was her graduate reading. This group reading also cultivated a great sense of community. I've long admired some of these authors but never before met them in person. Now, I've not only met them, I've heard what they're working on. And it was great to see VCFA alums like Carolyn Crimi and Linda Washington in the audience. As Sarah says, "For me, writing is all community. Over the years, the readings I've participated in have made me feel like a writer, have helped me make amazing friends. What better way to celebrate?" This was originally posted on Quirk & Quill. Heat causes expansion. Cold, contraction. Fire behind a story gives it flesh. We find our spark. The story burns. The pages fill. And once the story's full, it's time for cold. Sharp. Reflection. Contraction. In my first revision of DON'T TOUCH for my editors, I had a lot of questions to answer, lots of backstory to clarify, characters to unfold. The novel grew. When I sat down with my line-edits, I needed to focus on pace. I needed to chill out, get analytical, and SLASH with an ICY BLADE. I wanted to see how all the characters, settings, and threads fit together, so I looked to the blog of fellow VCFA grad Ingrid Sundberg. She has many excellent posts on structure, but since my book deals with OCD, it's only fitting that a post called "Obsessed wtih Story Structure" spoke to me. I love that this post encourages flexibility in design. This is not a formula. Identifying what needs tracking for a particular story can be as instructive as creating the visual itself. I made a graph tracking four settings, five plot threads, two types of scenes (flashbacks and theater scenes), and nine characters. Along the top, I also used opposing colors for alternating sections and chapters (shown in the second picture). On a separate track, I outlined all the plot points and played with lines representing tension and desire. Then as I cut, I folded over the cut pages, accordion-style. As the graph contracted, the proportions began to look nicer, and the patterns pleased me. For other sections, I was able to visualize changes without manipulating the paper. It helped me identify sections that needed trimming or a change of pace. If you're considering trying this, here are some things I learned. I got super-specific -- one block on my graph equals two pages. I would suggest starting on a larger scale. The trends and proportions should still be clear, but it won't be as painstaking. I might also start with less characters or group those who almost always appear together. For me, mapping out the plot threads was most helpful. If I had a page or more with no plot threads represented, often, it could be cut. I also found it helpful to use a single color for both a character and a plot thread that featured him or her. In my graph, the hot pink color represents Caddie's friend Mandy, the thread of their friendship, and the setting of Mandy's house, and that consistency made it easier to connect the sections of the graph. Best of all, this graph gave me the courage to SLASH without worrying about what might be lost. If you aren't familiar with Write Club, it's Ian Belknap's version of "literature as blood sport," originating in Chicago but now in seven cities. In my first outing, the contest of BURN vs. SOOTHE, I represented BURN and emerged victorious. Which means I won a little bit of money for Barrel of Monkeys and got a tiny plastic trophy to treasure for evermore.
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Rachel's Blog
News, events, fun stuff, serious stuff, and online doings. I kept a personal blog for years at The Storybook Girl, and I'll slowly be migrating some of those posts to this blog. Archives
April 2016
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Copyright Rachel Wilson, 2015 Author Photos by Evan Hanover |