I Read Banned Books

It's Banned Book week through the 2nd of October. I am a little late in posting this, but I have been busy reading a book and creating the added materials it offered in a convenient (for me) electronic format. So deal with it.

Every year, the American Library Association (ALA) sponsors Banned Book Week, where library patrons are encouraged to read one of the many, many books challenged in libraries around the country. Specifically, the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom puts this together. How awesome is it that they have an Office of Intellectual Freedom?
Lots of other organizations have gotten on board with Banned Book Week, and the names won't surprise you - the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, and National Association of College Stores. These are just the organizations that are officially sponsors of Banned Book Week on a national level. It is also endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

I live in a small town in Oregon, with a population between four and five thousand. The demographics skew older, as yours truly withstanding, Coquille is primarily a retirement community. Our local library has a large print section bigger than what I'm used to in Multnomah and Hennepin County libraries, but that seems reasonable, and I read a lot more because of it. (My peepers, they ain't what they used to be.) But, if you think that the size of the town and the age the library caters to would make Banned Book Week minor, or non-existant, you are very wrong.
I personally have felt that the community is fairly conservative - there are far more "Dudley" lawn-signs than "Kitzhaber" ones, and if at least two of your five cars aren't pick-ups, it better be because they are all fully restored classics. (Classic cars are a big deal on the Sourthern Oregon Coast.) Now, I'm willing to grant that library patrons are not a representational sub-grouping of the larger community, but how far off could it be? I hear politics talked about a lot by the octogenarian crowd, to which I've learned three things - Palin in 2012, don't touch our Social Security, and who would ban a book? Two out of three ain't bad.
The library started off the week with 100 "I read banned books" pins. When I finally grabbed mine yesterday, there were only seven left in the bowl. Plus, while I was at the desk working with a librarian to find me a banned book that was in large print, the lady behind confessed that she had just come in to pick-up a DVD she had on hold, but could she put a hold on one of the books that was suggested to me. That rocked. Good job Elizabeth, our enthusiastic and persuasive librarian.

This year I'm going to read two banned books. Well, I guess I should say two more banned books, as I just found out that the Harry Potter series had been challenged and banned in some places; which I guess doesn't surprise me since I knew that some religious groups were against the first book and also the films. The same goes for the "His Dark Materials" series, I'm guessing for the same reason as the Harry Potter books. I also read "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns", which I knew were banned in Afghanistan, but in the U.S.? And as soon as I can find a large print copy of "The Satanic Verses", I will reread that, not counting it towards my banned book quota. I'm picking two banned books to read because the ALA maintains a "classics" list and a "contemporary" list. I think one of each is appropriate, and the only other self-imposed stipulation is that they choices be something I haven't read before. For my classics choice, I've chosen Joseph Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness". I had a copy of this once, but never read it. Well, starting this evening I will be rectifying that, as I put "Contact" by Carl Sagan on hold for a couple of days. For my contemporary choice, I haven't decided yet, but it won't be one of the "Twilight" books. Interestingly, the top 10 challenged books for the last decade contain three classics ("To Kill a Mockingbird", "The Catcher in the Rye" and "The Color Purple") so I will eliminate them from my contemporary choices, not to mention I've already the first two, and there is no large print version of the third (but I've requested the library buy one). Without having seen the whole list with hundreds of choices, I'm leaning toward "The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things" or "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" but I don't know if they have these in large print (the library does have them though).

ALA's lists of challenged books~
Classics
PDFs of the last couple of year's lists

Review: First Draft in 30 Days by Karen S. Wiesner

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is just around the corner. only 32 more days to prepare. This will stab number seven at NaNoWriMo for me and I've met the 50 thousand word goal on four of my previous six attempts. But, I've been very unhappy with the end product for various reasons, some applicable to one attempt but not another, some for all attempts. The one over-riding problem with my NaNoWriMo attempts is that I meet the word number goal but the story isn't finished. Last year I came very close, as I did the year before, and in both cases jotted quick notes for scenes and chapters to be finished in December. Another issue that exists for each attempt in greater or lesser degrees is a lack of coherence of plot goals. This is directly related to how much time and effort I put into preparing before November 1st.

This year, I started preparation for NaNoWriMo on September 1st. I began by examining my top five story ideas and deciding upon what I thought was the strongest and most interesting to me, for I believe that will inevitably make it more interesting to my readers. Then I began a 3 week or so research period, based on the vague impressions of what I wanted this story to be about. Research guided character development, and character development guided research and just the last couple of days I've found myself looking at some very specific topics, like diachronic linguistics and effects of zero or low gravity on plant growth. My characters have names and goals and a bit of background. I'm ready to start outlining my story. Since I have past experience to help me judge whether I'm the kind of writer who works better from an outline or just keeping it all in his head and "exploring" as he goes, I know that a mix of the two, about 80%/20% is ideal.

I learned how to write an outline in High School. Then, I learned a better way to do it in college. I also learned to take good notes in college and in my junior year a study method that when combined with my outlining and note-taking skills, allows me to write fairly decent outlines. Honestly, the best outlining and note-taking skills I learned were do Forensics and Debate, so thanks Robert, Mike, Erik, Amanda, Wes and Rob; especially the first two.

Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo wrote a book that I mean to read every year, called "No Plot, No Problem", that is both about the NaNoWriMo experience and how to fix up stories that are, shall we say, lacking in some areas. This was going to be the year that I read it, I was so on top of the game, but it was not to be. I was thwarted by some jerk that stole the library's copy. They have plans to buy another copy to replace it, but they have higher priorities at the moment, like staying open. This latest recession has not done wonders for the Coos County Libraries' budget.

Undaunted, I went to book number two, which had not been stolen, but I'm still reading it, so you'll hear about it later. Book number three on my list is the actual topic of this review, "First Draft in 30 Days" by Karen S. Wiesner. Knowing nothing about the book except the summary on Amazon - conveniently linked to directly in the library's card catalog - I expected a book much in the same vein as Chris Baty's book. What a surprise upon reading Ms. Wiesner's book to find it was nothing at all like I was expecting, and a pleasant surprise at that.

I've been reading and writing long enough to realize that there is no "formula" for how to make a bad story into a good story. Heaven forbid that there is ever anything like this. What I thought I was going to be reading would be an upbeat attempt to guide a budding writer into creating a plot from an idea and following a complete story arc - in a month. It's not really what I need, and it's not what Wiesner had to offer.

The "first draft" referred to in the title of the book is not what I think of as a draft at all, but is instead a very thorough formatted outline, that while being created ends up generating a lot of documents to support the story. Wiesner's book turned out to be about workflow and creating a set of habits that will allow a writer to get from an idea in her head to a book in a very short amount of time. The length of time came as a bit of surprise to me, until I realize that this book is not really intended for the faint of heart, or hobbyist writer, but for a full-time would-be author that is willing to spend four or five hours minimum every day on the writing process, with no weekends off.

Ms. Wiesner is a published author, though I've never read any of her books. But, the fact that she is an author is important in how she wrote this book. This was not an intellectual proposal for how someone should write a book, based upon potentially outlandish notions of the importance, and thus how long should be spent, various parts of the story. It's written matter-of-factly, with a "this is what I do" attitude, that upon completion of the book makes it seem completely reasonable and more importantly something I am capable of doing. Well, I'll tell you on Halloween how that panned out.

Each of the chapters of the book is straight-forward and a bit formulaic, but I think that is a boon in this type of book. We're given an introductory thought, an outline of the goal for specific days in the process, and then explanations of each part with examples from famous modern fiction, almost none of it her books, though apparently she has written quite a few. I take this for modesty as much as for the fact that this process is not terribly hard to reverse engineer for already written books, that were not only good enough to be published, but good enough to be famous - I may not have read half of them, but I had heard of all them.

Wiesner start you off knowing that there are six parts to her program, which break down into: sketch out characters, setting and plot; research; evolve your story (she provides worksheets); write a formatted outline; evaluate your formatted outline; and revise your formatted outline. She breaks down what the writer should be doing on each day and why they are doing it then, and in most cases why there is the particular amount of time devoted to a step. It all sounds very rational and dare I say, "doable".

I'm particularly interested in a step she calls "Tagging and Tracing" (late in the 30 days), that has you following every plot and subplot thread through your entire outline to help you evaluate if it is strong enough and if the pacing is correct.

The second half of the book is largely devoted to her worksheets and an example of an actual formatted outline. She does include chapters for how to use this process on an already existing draft, which I skipped but will read if this works for me. After all, I do have four first drafts that are in need of some help, well three first drafts and one "first and nine-tenths" draft. There is also a chapter about using her principles to guide your career, which I skipped. I really don't need to worry about selling my manuscript at this point. That will come later, and when I'm ready, I will read her advice.

I quite liked how straight-forward and unmystical her writing was. I felt "First Draft in 30 Days" was one writer talking to another, albeit an experienced, successful writer talking to someone yet to attain those goals.

It's funny how sometimes in life you end up getting exactly what you need by accident. Just as I am getting ready to write a comprehensive outline for a writing project, I read a book that tells me how to do this. But, if the outline is my first draft, I guess when December rolls around, or maybe January, I can say that I definitely have at least one book that has a completed second draft.

Rainy days are here again...

It's only the start of September, but we're getting what seems to me like Autumn rains. Perhaps it is because school is back in, or the days are getting noticeably shorter, but it seems that Summer has said adieu.

Everybody I talk to is unhappy about the rain, but I always look forward to it. But, this year it felt like Summer never came - we only had 3 days where the temps got into the 80s. And they weren't even consecutive days, though two were in the same week.

One of aunt and uncle's cats died this morning. I didn't know it well, but I'm still bummed about it. I'm also glad it passed away, however, since it seemed to be in a great deal of discomfort. They're not sure how old it was, but they think at least 17. His brother died this Spring not too long after I had been down here. At the time I thought it would have been the other way around.

They still have one cat left, and she's relatively young, only 5 or 6.

Hmmm, grey thoughts on a grey day.

The First Hard Decision Made...

It's only the 8th of September, and I've already picked out the idea I'm going with in this years NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). This is either going to be the best attempt yet, or I will burn out before November even gets here. :)

I had 5 good ideas to choose from this time around, but there was only one that I wanted to write out or die trying. Interestingly enough, that is not the one I chose. I had done a little bit of research (at least) on all of the ideas and the one I really want to write about isn't a story at this time, it's a world that I've created. That tends to be the way that I write the vast majority of my fiction - I create a world or environment which completely and totally intrigues and in some cases captivates me. Story be damned. Okay, not really, but I often feel like I'm forcing it. And if there is one thing that a writer should know, it's that if something is obvious to you, it will likely be obvious to the reader.

Eliminating ideas without any story sparks took out three of my ideas for NaNoWriMo. Of the two that remained, one was a sci-fi setting (lots of world building, but weak story) and a fantasy story that would be equal parts historical fantasy and humorous (hopefully) commentary on popular culture - very little world building on this one, mostly story and character development ideas. You would think that I would choose the latter. But, of course, I chose the former. Why? The more I think about the fantasy, the more I think about it in terms of a movie. So, I'm not disposing of the idea, I'm saving it for next April and "Script Frenzy" - NaNoWriMo, only it's in April and you write a screenplay.

Now, I'm down to just one idea that had a weak story idea and it was only Saturday the 4th. The library was closed for the big Labor Day weekend, so I couldn't do any more research on my setting, instead I actually worked on themes and trying to strengthen the story idea. By last night, the old story, which was vaguely about vampires in outer space is a sub-plot at best, and the main storyline is about consumerism and class warfare.

I'm looking forward to starting the outline on this idea this afternoon and adding some characters. One part of writing fiction that I thoroughly enjoy is coming up with names for characters. I spend a lot of time making sure the names are either generic or specific enough depending on the use, that they don't match up with anyone I know and that they are not the same name as a similar character in another story or movie. I try to give fun names to fun characters, serious names to serious characters, etc. etc. I look at what other authors have done for motivation, both on what I can try and what I should avoid. I really enjoy the names that Salmon Rushdie gives his characters for example, and I really dislike the way the vast majority of pop fantasy novels name theirs - usually a mix of Tolkein, alternate spellings for normal names with a bunch of punctuation, especially apostrophes, thrown in.

Time to quit writing about working on this, and start working on it. I can't wait until I get some kind of title so I can stop referring to it, both in this blog and in my head, as "this" and "it". :)

Happy MoBeMoBeNaNoWriMo!

There are only 60 days until my favorite month of the year. I look forward to each November with a masochistic eagerness that surprises me. It's not like I don't write the rest of the year (not that you would know by looking at this pathetically infrequently updated blog)

November gives me 30 days of turning off the inner editor and just writing. Of course, starting about 12:01 am on December first, I wish that I would have let the editor at least peek in once and a while.

Thus far, I've managed to win the best of seven series with four "novels" coming out of seven attempts. It seems that I can only recall two of the failed attempts, however. That third one must have really been a stinker. Considering that I keep all of my attempts, I should be able to find it, but I see nothing in the correct folder... Could it be that I've only attempted NaNoWriMo 6 times, but its so much work as to seem like 7? Well, I'll be damned! I just went to the NaNo site, and I've only done this for six years. But, last year I wrote 97k words, so it's almost like two years in one. :) 4 out of 6 is a lot better than 4 out of 7, so I'll take those stats. And if I can make it 5 out of 7, I'll even have a passing grade.

In past years, I've started looking for ideas beginning around this time, but not this year. All summer I've been collecting things that are interesting enough to write a book on. I've got five good ideas with at least a half-page description of my story idea, and in 4 of the 5 cases, a lot of bookmarked web pages for research.

Based on my past experience, I have a decent idea of how I work, and without an outline is a sure recipe for disaster, so today I am officially starting the weeding process to get down to one idea, and I'm at least a full month ahead of schedule. I can measure out the pros and cons of each idea and still have a good six or seven weeks to construct an outline and start my research.

Research? You betcha. I don't just want to say, "Bob stepped through the arch." I want to know that the arch is the Roman cantilevered style, which is prevalent in this region of the country, and when it came into prevalence and why. If I write, "Suzi fires up the plasma torch." I need to know the theory behind it so I can explain why she wouldn't use a plasma torch to light her cigarette. I guess I don't really need to know all of this stuff, I can just make it up as I go, but that is so much harder to keep consistent, and more importantly to keep interesting. If I know how plasma torches work, at least a theory put forth, I can explain the intricacies of the device, who first came up with the idea, who first implemented the idea, etc. etc.

I'm going to come right out and say it - I am setting a personal goal of 100,000 words for the month of November. I reserve the right to lower this if I am to go somewhere for Thanksgiving, though. :) I mean, it is only fair.

My five ideas roughly break down into 3 sci-fi and 2 fantasy ideas. What no horror option this year? One of the sci-fi has horror elements, while another is near-future and very dark, while one of the fantasy ideas is intended to be a little on the humorous side and will make fun of the horror genre a bit, particularly vampires. :D

I like all five ideas, and have put a bit of time into flushing them out already, as what else am I going to do on my hour walk each morning and my two 15 minute walks in the afternoon, pay attention to traffic? P-shaw. ;)