Author in Training
By Laurie Larsen
For the last six months I’ve been
making my oldest dream come true. In
the midst of this activity, I’ve learned two things about dreams:
1)
Dreams
have an uncanny sense of timing. Dreams
don’t come true before you’re ready for them.
You need to prepare yourself for the day when your dream makes its crash
landing in your life.
2)
Dreams
only materialize after a great deal of hard work. They don’t just bestow themselves on you with an effortless
wave of the wand like they do in fairy tales.
So
what is the dream-in-action in my life? I
didn’t win the lottery. I
didn’t take a cruise around the world. I
didn’t strike it rich with fame or fortune. But it’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was a little
girl. It’s something I’ve
dabbled in my whole life, and led me to my choice of college major (Written
Communication) and my first job after graduation (assistant editor).
I’m
writing a novel.
I’ve
always been interested in writing. I
wrote numerous stories as a child. I
wrote plays that my best friend, Lynn and I performed for our families and
neighborhood friends. I began a
novel after college graduation. It
was the perfect time to do it; I had plenty of free time. I had no children. No
spouse. No home to take care of.
No responsibilities other than my 8-hour workday.
But
it died. I wrote three or four
chapters and it had no direction. I
hadn’t developed the characters enough so I didn’t feel like I was
acquainted with them as people. When
they slipped away, I didn’t even throw them a life preserver.
I
wasn’t ready yet for my dream to come true.
I had so much more to learn, and the timing wasn’t right.
Over
the years I continued to think about writing a novel. I thought about how cool it would be to create a new world,
straight from my imagination onto paper. But
I didn’t do it . . . until six months ago.
I
was on a business trip in Atlanta, Georgia.
I had a free weekend there and I pulled out the Tourist Guide in my hotel
room to figure out how to fill two days with sightseeing.
On a whim, I took the subway to the Margaret Mitchell House, a museum
located in the actual apartment building where Margaret wrote 80% of her epic
Civil War novel, Gone With the Wind.
During the tour I learned that Margaret took ten years to write the book,
that it was her first major creative effort, and whenever people asked her how
the book was coming along, she said, “Oh, it’s lousy.
It’s horrid. I don’t
know why I’m wasting my time.” But
she persevered, and the world has an American literary treasure to show for it.
Margaret’s
story inspired me. Motivated me to
get off my duff and start writing my own treasure.
A week after my trip to Atlanta I traveled to Salem, Oregon, again a
business trip, and I spent the five hours of airtime, and every evening in my
hotel room writing a detailed outline of my new novel.
I knew all my characters, who they were, what they did and what conflicts
they would face. I knew their feelings and emotions. And I knew how it would all end.
I lived the entire story in my outline.
Now
my biggest job: making the characters live on paper. And making them seem like real people to my (hopefully)
eventual readers.
A
dedicated work schedule is vital to writers.
But where do I fit in writing – solid dedicated writing time – in my
already-strained agenda? Each week
I spend 40 hours a week at work and another 4 hours traveling to and from work.
I spend ten hours a week taxiing my children and watching them in their
activities. Write off about seven weekly hours doing laundry, folding it
and putting it away. And easily
another ten in other types of housework, cooking and cleaning. About 4 hours a week for church, 5 hours for supervising
homework and a few hours for exercise. And
a whopping 50 hours a week between the sheets.
So
when do I write? My answer: I have
no idea. I don’t analyze it; I
just do it. All I know is it’s
one of my favorite activities of my day so I find little snippets of time here
and there. At this writing I’ve
completed the first draft of my novel. I’m
fairly pleased with my first stab. But
there is so much work to be done!
To
improve my writing style I’ve been reading articles about the art of writing
by famous authors. This educational
process taught me what to do next with my first draft: rewrite it!
I
need to go back through and cut out whole paragraphs where I’m drearily telling
the story. Instead, I need to
close my eyes and visualize the scene, and then show
the reader what I’m talking about. I
need to add more dialogue and I need to make the dialogue more realistic, as if
I captured an exchange while I was eavesdropping in a mall or coffeeshop
(something I do frequently!). I
need to add more depth to my characters so the reader actually misses them when
they’re done with the book, like a best friend who moves away and leaves a
void. And what happens after my
second draft is finished? Write it
again! Polish and rub and smooth
until it’s a gleaming stone, a beautiful work of art.
Making
my dream come true consumes me and excites me.
I can’t wait to finish it, yet I love the actual work of it so much I
don’t want it to end. Another
thing the famous authors stress is: once you think it’s perfect, push it out
of the nest and let it fly on its own. Persevere
and don’t lose hope, even if 20 editors reject it. But that will be another article for a future edition of
ALERT!
What
is your dream? Is the time right to
start making it come true?