I'm using advice Madeleine L'Engle gave me. Personally.

You know those battered copies of her books like A WRINKLE IN TIME and/or A RING OF ENDLESS LIGHT that are falling apart and should be replaced? My copies can't be replaced because:


*happy sigh*

In 1995 I attended a 30-person writing retreat with Madeleine L'Engle in Racine, Wisconsin. It was at the DeKoven Foundation, which pre-dates the civil war. Early on it was a military academy.

Mary Todd Lincoln visited after President Lincoln's assassination, to enroll her son. She didn't like the bed he'd be assigned, so she changed her mind. It was less than a mile from my house and the other buildings and grounds are extensive and beautiful and historically protected.

In October of 1995, I attended a small writing conference there led by Madeleine L'Engle. I finally got the guts to ask Madeleine how she revised. Here was her answer:

"I print the whole thing up and set it next to the computer monitor. Then I put a new, blank disc in the computer and I start typing."
"You mean, the whole thing?" I asked, "You type the entire manuscript all over again?"
She smiled and nodded wisely.

Madeleine L'Engle was my favorite writer. The highlight of the conference was sitting right next to her in the circle around the library room when she suggested we all hold hands and sing the Tallis Canon. She was wonderful and amazing and so incredibly brilliant.

But not, I figured, terribly computer savvy. That's probably why she had to start over every time she wrote on the computer. I was signed up for another retreat at DeKoven in 2005 (I think). I was the first one to sign up. But she got sick, and had to cancel. And then the world lost a super bright star when she died.

I was in New York last October. I took the subway to the Cathedral of St. John The Divine at 110th St. and Amsterdam. It was a pilgrimage to a place that was really special to Madeleine. Several of the letters she wrote me were on the cathedral's stationery.

THE YOUNG UNICORNS and A SEVERED WASP are both set there. She loved that place. I lit a candle and really good things started to happen for my writing.

Until a month ago, when my manuscript was dead in the water. A manuscript, mind you, which had interest from an uber-awesome editor.

So two weeks ago I printed up the whole darn thing, set it next to my laptop computer, and started over.

She was right. 

I just weighed three drafts of my new manuscript.

1st draft: 2lbs, 7.9ozs


2nd draft: 2lbs, 4.1ozs


3rd draft: 2lbs, 4.4ozs, (but it had full one inch margins and twenty-three chapter breaks.)

The first draft was over 69,000 words, the third is 54,000.
First draft had 202 pages. Third draft, 183 pages.

The first draft was marked with pink ink the first time through, second pass in turquoise.
The second draft was edited with purple ink.
I'm trying to decide on a color for the third draft, any suggestions?


Check out the pens!
I found these awesome fountain pens thanks to Bruce Coville at Chautuaqua.


So, now I will return to revising, having demonstrated competence in complicated quantifiable manuscript evaluation procrastination.

Pushing through a first draft to find the ‘shape’ of the story. Here are the recent totals:

1 Feb 3,000+ words
2 Feb 1,651 words
3 Feb 2,400 words
4 Feb 2,066 words
5 Feb 628 words
6 Feb 2,000 words
7 Feb 2,716 words

Right now, the shape looks like this:


Just like in Star Wars, as work is feverishly completed by evil cliché wielding riveter drones and the Storm Troopers of run-on sentences, I’ll have a Jedi on my tail.

Not that one. The really awesome one.


Obi-wan McVeigh
Check out his terrific new blog: themcveighagency.blogspot.com/


Super agent Mark McVeigh would make that outfit look good.

His mission? Shoot down the bad prose, focus on what's important and shake up the literary universe. Mark's a Jedi master at that!

Back to work - where's my coffee droid?!

I'm supposed to be outputting brilliant prose, when I get distracted by awesome stuff like the OK Go/Notre Dame Marching Band video.

http://www.nd.edu/~ndband/news.html

After watching ten or so times, I MUST do something writerly. The new story is coming along, but I feel like I have to make big VISUAL progress. So I play with markers:



Color coding a single spaced 8pt draft by setting and character is hard work, people! All that capping and uncapping.

But it means I get to spend quality time with My Precious.



Yes, my markers.

Much thanks and luuuuurve to the awesomeness that is Darcy Pattison and her novel revision workshop! I mark sections by scene with the color I've assigned to that setting. I've made a separate spreadsheet to track characters and themes through the entire book. You can see that section at the bottom.

Each character has a color assigned. The ones I don't like get orange or brown. I block out where they do (and don't!) appear and then put circles over their sections in the shrunked draft.

NEXT: Why I'm most productive under tons of garbage. THIS WEEK'S COUNT: 5,500 words.

I've been bad, LJ. I've deserted you for the trendy but tasteful FaceBook and the fast moving shiny enigma we call Twitter. But I turn over a new leaf today. **Ooooo, pretty!**

I hereby swear to post weekly.
To post amusingly.
And to have at least one (1) contest by which winners will be sent chocolate.

There are vair, vair interesting things in the works. I hear tell the playground I call my brain will be adding a sandbox, some kind of pretend kitchen and a pet, either cyber, surreal or both.

I will do shout outs to my peeps who I will christen The Fabulistas. I will boost their books and offer my services as a big, scary book tour bodyguard. I coached co-ed high school cheerleading for five years and grade school cheerleading for ten. Yeah, like autograph hunters are going to scare me after that.

I lurve you all, MJ

I don't feel old. Or at least I didn't until my birthday last year when something horrifying happened. AARP cards began to mysteriously appear in my mailbox. WTF?

They offer...I don't know...stuff. Some kind of discounts. Not like I'm opening these things. It's the friggin' AARP. They may as well be posting prunes.

And yet the AARP cards keep piling up. I think "If I open one, will they know and stop sending them?" In my reality, I'm worried these cards are like Swiffer dust mops. Swipe a Swiffer across your floor and you collect dust. If I open one of these envelopes, they will catch wrinkles out of thin air and slam them onto my face. Not taking the chance.

DISCLAIMER: Whatever.