Monday, September 29, 2008

Labor Pains

Still need three more comments. Sheesh. And I was going to wax on and on about tattoos today, too.

I have been giving birth for two weeks and this stubborn baby will not come out. I feel like I started this delivery all set to roll with an epidural and then found out my insurance won't cover it and I have to push it out the old-fashioned way or some nonsense like that.

See, I started a new manuscript. I forgot that it's hard to start. It's because I finished my first one in August and by the last month of writing it, I could barely stem the tide of the words. The only reason I didn't do more than 1,500 words a day is because that's as fast as I could type while baby G slept.

I guess I forgot how hard that one was to start, too. Between January and May, I wrote about 32,000 words and in the next two months knocked out about 50,000 more. But that's because I knew my characters. I understood their motivations and exactly how they would react in any situation. I knew what my protagonist needed to experience growth and how her friends and family would contribute to that growth.

But this new baby...you'd think I didn't already have two kids and know to expect the unexpected. My first human baby came two weeks early. My water broke but he didn't want to come out, so after copious amounts of pitocin and about 24 hours, he finally showed up. With a little help from the forceps. Second babies, are so much easier, though. Right? The labor is supposed to be faster, blah blah blah.

Ha.

Baby #2 came five weeks early and gallons of pitocin and 27 hours later, with the midwife tugging like crazy on his head, decided he would come out, too.

Kind of like my manuscripts. This second one has its own distinct personality and even though I thought I had my writing groove down with Click, I am learning this baby has a mind of its own. I started it in first person, tortured out my first two thousand words, and now have discovered that it needs to be third person. This is the, "Ha, ha you have to push this sucker out the hard way" part of the metaphor.

Grr.

I am clinging to the naive hope that it will get easier faster than it did with the first manuscript, but I feel like I'm starting out for the first time again.

In other writing news....this is a picture of me with author Kate Jacobs, author of The Friday Night Knitting Club and a new release, Comfort Food. She came to our local library (which is a kick butt library) and did an author talk. My friend Gina (in the green dress) got Kate to agree to call into our book club next week to talk to us about the book. (We did it for our RS book club this month). And I got a picture with author Jane Porter but I look stupid so I'm not sharing.

And in other other news, a blog update: due to an astonishing number of comments and emails on the subject, I'm reinstituting the seven comment rule. Kind of. There's some stuff that I write (oh, soooooo rarely) that comes from a totally deep and honest place inside me somewhere that I stumble across every now and then, and I would never want to coerce comments on those posts. There's also some really stupid stuff I write about that just can't be commented on unless you live inside my head and understand my fixation on things like goat-riding monkeys. And I won't make you comment on that. But there's a ton of stuff that falls in between and I'll stick to the seven comment rule on those things before I move on. Fair warning...

Also, I'm going to change the color of my blog (maybe green? The pepto bismol pink was a total aberration for me) and maybe the name. I originally wanted to call my blog "No Arithmetic" and I think Write Stuff sounds like I couldn't think of anything else because I started my blog late at night one night when I was out of good ideas and it sounds like that because that's exactly what happened and this is a really long run-on sentence. Any opinions? (Not about the run-on sentence).

Seven comment rule in full effect, y'all.

9 comments:

LisAway said...

Oh! I've been planning to change my color as well. You change yours first and I'll be sure not to copy you. Just don't choose a pale, warm yellow, plummy purple, or greyish-blue, as those are the colors I've been thinking of for mine. :) Or we can switch colors. I'll take your pink and you can have my green! (but I'll have to tone down the pink a tiny bit).

I wish you the best with birthing this manuscript! I hope it is a shorter labor than you've been lead to expect thus far.

Heather of the EO said...

I do like the blog title. (the current one) I don't know how to describe what it is that I like, so I'm not about to try.

But i also really like the arithmetic one too, so if you change it I won't stop reading :)
Mostly because I hate math...

I'm sure you'll power through this birthing experience and come out with a masterpiece - just like in real life birthing experiences. You'll get there. Just power up on the pitocin now and get pushing. Easy for me to say.

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

I've always been a bit surprised by the pink, to be honest. I picture you more as the deep red or chocolate brown type.

I normally love coming up with blog titles but I'm not feeling all that creative today.

How about, Writing Tastes Better than Chocolate. Shades of Gray. Birthing Brilliance (ha).

I'd suggest taking a peek at www.wordie.org for a kick of inspiration. Many fabulous words there that could set off an idea.

Alison Wonderland said...

I feel you on the birthing the MS thing. My first MS nearly wrote itself, the dang thing was happening in my mind all I had to do was try to keep up. The next started out the same way and them I couldn't figure out how it ended and since I really needed to be moving in that direction I took a break so I could figure it out. It's been a long break.
The one I'm working on now is much more difficult. I have several theories as to why that is. some that I can do something about and some that, alas, I can't.
So I have no advice but I feel your pain.

Aubrey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aubrey said...

I completely understand what you're saying. I'm probably a month into a new idea for a book, and I've managed to come up with...five pages. And every time I convince myself to just put it away for a while, I'll think I've had a breakthrough and bust out another pitiful paragraph before I'm stuck again. I'm starting to hate the very sight of the notebook I've been writing in.

Besides, you're already way ahead of me. There was a year between my first book and the second where I couldn't write anything at all. So try not to beat yourself up too much- you'll get there! :)

Janette Rallison said...

You usually write how many words a day? 1,500? Man. Can you finish my book for me?

Anonymous said...

Does that make me the birthing coach?

Push 'em out!
Shove 'em out!
Waaaaaay Out!

Dedee said...

For those of us not in the know, what is the 7 comment rule?

Good luck in getting that baby out. Pitocin is our friend.