IWSG - November

It's the first Wednesday in November, so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group! 

The awesome co-hosts for this month are PJ Colando, Jean Davis, Lisa Buie Collard, and Diedre Knight!

And this months's question?

 November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

Why, yes.  Yes I have.  I have participated several times.  NaNo suits the way I like to write - draft fast, edit slowly.  Many of my published books (and several unpublished ones) started their lives as NaNo projects. I love the time pressure and the fact that you basically have to live your November inside your story to be able to pump out 50,000 words in 30 days.

But I know that kind kind of writing doesn't suit everyone.  One of my critique partners couldn't even bear the thought of doing NaNo because she liked to get every chapter right before she moved on to the next one.  NaNo doesn't let you do that.  And to her credit, her first drafts were always a thing of beauty because of the way she polished each chapter as she went.  She also outlined extensively before she started writing, so she knew exactly what was going to happen in each chapter before she got there.

I don't usually even break my books into chapters until I'm right at the end of the editing process.

So NaNo isn't for everyone.  But if you can overcome that urge to go back over what you've written before you start, silence that inner editor and give yourself over to the restive process, then it's a really good way to get words on a page.  Get that story out of your head and into a form you can start working on it.

I like to think of a NaNo draft as a zero draft.  It's never going to be perfect or even very good.  But at the end of November you have something you didn't have at the start, and there's a lot to be said for that.  Even if you don't "win" you have more than the blank page you started with.

Have you ever done NaNo?  Love it?  Hate it?

Weekly Goals 30-10-23

 Can you believe it's the end of October?  Where the heck has the year gone?  The shops already have Christmas decorations up, for chrissakes!

The jazz festival finished last night and it looks like it was a success.  There were certainly a bunch of shows that had big numbers attending.  Now to do all the reporting that's required.  And get ready to go on sale for the big Festival in February/March.  All of which is happening in the next two weeks.

No rest for the wicked, eh?

So my goal this week is to try and take at least one day off work to try and get some writing done.  I had kind of hoped to do NaNo, but it has become abundantly clear that that's just not going to be possible.  Not without possibly killing myself.  Maybe next year...

And that's kind of it for goals.  I'm too tried to really think about anything else.  What are your plans for this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 27-10-23

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things...

What am I celebrating this week?

Jazz Festival!  That's what I'm working on this week and so far it's to be going really well. We've had our two big, international Headline acts (GoGo Penguin and Cécile McLorin Salvant) over the last two nights and the weekend Headliners are all great local musicians.  Plus there are gigs to go to all over town at the bars and cafes etc.  It's going to be a pumping weekend!

Which means, of course, not a lot of free time for me.  Especially since I'm also taking my son to a  film at the Italian Film Festival tomorrow.  He's been studying Pompeii in his Classics class, so we're going to go and see a doco about Pompeii.  Hopefully it will inspire him because he has to write a couple of extra paragraphs for his final essay to pass that assignment.

Hoping to be able to take a day off at the end of next week to recover and maybe get some writing work done.  Guide Us is certainly not editing itself while I'm ignoring it.  Wouldn't it be nice if books did do that?

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The Guncle

I really enjoyed this author's earlier book, Lily and the Octopus, so when I saw this at the library, I thought I'd give it a go.

It's about a lonely gay man who has to take in his young nephew and niece after their mother (who was once his best friend) dies and their father (who is his brother) goes to rehab to recover from a pill addiction.  Patrick is not a natural at being a surrogate parent.  He has cultivated an existence for himself in Palm Springs which relies very much on routine and self-imposed rules.  Children, especially children who are grieving and unpredictable don't really fit into this carefully constructed world.

But Patrick takes on the challenge and begins by developing new rules that will work for their new reality - Guncle rules.  And as the summer stretches on, he finds himself coming to life again, something he hasn't allowed himself to even consider since he lost his partner in a car crash several years earlier.

I enjoyed this one even though Patrick started off feeling a little like a gay best friend character in a sitcom.  As the story developed, I warmed to him more, even though he did continually toss out one-line witticisms like said sitcom character too often.  As I got to know him better, it became obvious that this was his way of keeping himself aloof from others while seeming both charming and friendly.

The kids were a delight too.  They weren't precocious sitcom kids, but real, hurting children whose lives had been turned upside down.  That it took them so long to adjust to Patrick's world just felt natural.

So I'd recommend this one.  It's funny and poignant and I enjoyed it.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is honestly a bit out of his league.

So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting—even if temporary—isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.

Weekly Goals 23-10-23

 It's going to be a super busy week so I'm not going to set myself any important goals.  The Jazz Festival starts on Wednesday so I'm working every night, and there is a ton of other work to do too, so I'll be working during the day too.  I might take a couple of late starts, though...  We'll see.

But since today is a holiday, I hope to get a few hours to write.  I changed my mind about a chapter I we-wrote earlier in my revising Guide Us, so now I'm having to go back and change it again.  I suspect I may do quite a bit of that, now that those revisions are a few months old.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 20-10-23

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things...

What am I celebrating this week?

It's a long weekend!  Yes, Monday is Labour Day for us here in New Zealand, so I have a three-day weekend to enjoy.  Which is great, because the Jazz Festival starts on Wednesday and that's going to take up a bunch of my time and energy for the five days it runs.  And then we have a big event two days later.  Plus a whole pile of funding rounds ending at the end of October that I need to get applications in for.

Phew!

So this weekend I'm going to rest.  And get a haircut.  And go and see the new Scorcese film (which is close to 4 hours long).  And maybe do a little writing too.  Definitely some reading.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: If Tomorrow Doesn't Come

 

This book was sad.  It was sad at the beginning and it was sad at the end.  But it didn't feel dour or overwrought.  It was kind of perfect for the subject matter.

At the start of the book Avery is about to kill herself.  She's depressed and has been for some time.  Darkness has been following her for years and she just can't see a way out other than to end it all.  Then her best friend calls.  The girl she's been secretly (and not so secretly) in love with for years. Cass tells her that scientists have discovered an asteroid hurtling toward earth.  The planet has nine days left until impact.  And Cass wants to be with Avery in that time.

The last time Cass and Avery spoke, they fought, so the knowledge that Cass still wants to see her is enough to spur Avery into action.  And not the action she left her dorm room to fulfil.  With panic rising everywhere, Avery, her roommate and her least favourite professor hit the road to try and get to the people they love.  

Once in the city, it becomes apparent that traveling anywhere far is not going to be possible.  Avery's roommate is not going to be able to get home to Nigeria.  The professor is probably not going to make it to Louisiana.  But by some miracle, Cass does manage to get back from New York, so in a stolen car, the group head to New Hampshire and Avery's family home.

With a finite time left to live, Avery fights to make it through these final days with the people she cares about.  But as time grows shorter, secrets come out and Avery finds that she not only has the strength to save the people she loves, she also has the strength to save herself.

This book depicts depression in a very real way.  That sense of hopelessness and dread permeates every page.  Yet the book doesn't feel too heavy.  I mean, it is heavy.  It's about the end of the world.  But Avery's depression doesn't drag the book down.  There are moments hope, sparks of light, and it is these things that keep people waking up day after day.  Even in a world days away from destruction.

Avery's family are a key part of this story and the clash between their values and Avery's go a long way to understanding Avery's fears and self doubt.  They have secrets and fears of their own, but have tried desperately to keep them from their children, to allow their kids to grow up without these shadows hanging over them.  

I'd recommend this one.  It's not a cheery number, but it's well written and opens the doors for some tough conversations about mental health, queer identity and more.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

We Are Okay meets They Both Die at the End in this YA debut about queer first love and mental health at the end of the world-and the importance of saving yourself, no matter what tomorrow may hold.

Avery Byrne has secrets. She's queer; she's in love with her best friend, Cass; and she's suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.

Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.

If Tomorrow Doesn't Come is a celebration of queer love, a gripping speculative narrative, and an urgent, conversation-starting book about depression, mental health, and shame.