God, Mark, and Writing

Mark: "To days of inspiration playing hooky, making something out of nothing. The need to express, to communicate, to going against the grain, going insane, going mad..." From Rent, “La Vie Boheme”

It’s a pretty appropriate quote for an English major blogger, don’t you think? I love the idea that you can start with nothing, think of a character, an event, a setting, a plot and write them all down then end up with a story. Making stories fascinates me, especially at times when I read or watch one that sticks in my head for days/weeks afterward. To think, if that person, say Jonathan Larson, never wrote it all down, I would have missed out.

That’s why I write. Not so much for any grand philosophical reason, but because I like the idea that if I do my job well enough, I can entertain people. Last May I started writing a novel. It’s called Oracle. Working on this novel has been like running a marathon, and I’m not even half finished yet. The experience has been very educational. Before last year, I had never written a novel. I was strictly a short stories kind of gal.

I handed in my first submission to my writers’ group and waited nervously until the next month when we’d have another meeting and I’d get my critiques. The consensus: “I’m interested in what you’re doing, but you need to write it like a novel, not a short story.” My pacing was way off and my world-building needed work, and I had to spend more time with my characters so people could actually get a feel for them. Okay, it needed work. Okay, it needed a lot of work. The last submission I handed in got few major critiques. It only took me a year to get to that point.

Maybe you’re curious, now, about my novel. Let me explain it a bit. It’s a fantasy set in a world that is somewhat similar to what it would be like in the late 1800s if there were mystical happenings and no gun powder. I have a handful of main characters who all end up getting together to fight off the “big bad.” They’ve all got their own problems, and they all decide to fight the good fight for very personal reasons. That part is the most important part to me because I got kind of fed up reading books/watching movies where the hero saves the world just because he/she is the hero. Come on! People are selfish. I don’t buy “I have to save my country because I love my country.”

Another important thing in Oracle is religion. I’m struggling to flesh it out in the story without just info-dumping, and I need to figure out some way to make it happen because it’s the basis for the plot. So, kind of essential that I write it so people can understand it. I’ve got a big To-Do list for this book. The good news is that Jayne is supportive. I first met her when we took the same classes, and she’s the leader of the writer’s group and a writer I admire so when she said “If you die, can I finish the book?” it gave me a fuzzy feeling. I’m a dork, I’ll admit it right now.