My Big Fat Patchwork Novel

We've heard a quilt is a metaphor for life so many times that it's become cliché. And I try to avoid using clichés...so I'll put on it my own twist and use it anyways to explain why I'm struggling so much with my WIP.

This quilt was the first I'd ever attempted, my debut textile project. As you can see, I didn't start out sewing a small, crib-size quilt with a simple four-block pattern. Instead, I chose a complicated nine-patch block, of which five patches were constructed from tiny triangles. I never considered a crib quilt -- I skipped right to queen size. And, I added to the original pattern, creating two additional borders (the skinny yellow border and the border that's a single row of stars were my ideas). As I struggled with my WIP outline this week, I realized that my creative methods are the same, regardless of the medium I'm working with. It's surely a mild form of arrogance, or perhaps an inability to know my own boundaries, but I've never been able to accept myself as a novice.


Short stories are easier for me to write. I'm comfortable dealing with one significant moment in time. Transitioning to the format of a novel is brand new territory for me. But like my big fat first quilt project, I've thrown myself into the deep end of the creative pool.

Rather than construct a linear plot that fits into a basic three act formula, I'm working with two distinct storylines. Two strangers, dealing with the conflicts in their lives, are fated to cross paths after a computer-generated phone call puts them on a collision course. Their lives don't intersect until midway through the book. Until then, chapters go back and forth, sometimes narrated by one character in one part of the country, and other times narrated by the other in a different city, so that the reader understands and sympathizes with both by the time they arrive at their crossroad.

I've struggled with tying their two separate experiences together. I'm worried the book will come across fractual, with odd patchwork pieces that don't fit together. My answer to this quandary is theme. Both characters, as different as their circumstances and as polar opposite as they are on the morality scale, are connected by the theme(s) I'm exploring throughout the book.

A novice novelist? Me? (*chuckles condescendingly, as if to herself*) You must have me confused with someone who doesn't know what she's doing.


Do you ever feel like your creative ideas exceed your skills? Do you think big and then scale down? Or does your confidence grow as you write, so that your end result is more successful than you imagined it'd be?

Cool Contest @ Ramblings of a Wannabe Scribe!

Shannon Messenger at Ramblings of a Wannabe Scribe has surpassed the 400 follower mark! To celebrate, she's running a cool contest that you are going to want in on!!

Listen to the prize...a SIGNED copy of Becca Fitzpatrick's New York Times bestseller Hush, Hush

The drawing will be on March 26th -- SIGN UP TODAY BY CLICKING HERE

And now, because I'm so happy to have made progress on my WIP, after weeks of agonizing writer's block, I want to share this goofy-ass pic with you! Anne at Piedmont Writer was my inspiration, after writing a post yesterday about the tremendous creative gush she enjoyed while working on her new WIP. Something about what she shared struck a chord with me, doors in my head swung open, the fear was dispelled, and IT FELT GREAT!!

[Update: Anne let me know that Sarah over at Falen Formulates Fiction inspired her with the idea to spread out scene cards across her table and plot out some of her novel. I've been reading Sarah's awesome blog for months, and I love her quick wit and creative voice. Especially fun are her Friday posts, when she makes up words and defines them for us. Hilarious! If you don't follow Sarah yet, shoot over there and say hello!]

Award, Award, and Award

Thank you Julie at Silver Lining for the Sunshine Award! Julie's blog is one of my favorite to read. There's something fluid and engaging in her style of writing that is going to take her FAR in the literary world. If you don't follow her, I hope you sign on today. You'll be happy you did!Thanks, Abby Annis and DL Hammon at Cruising Altitude, for this beautiful award! I love Abby's energy, and her blog posts are always awesome. Stop by her blog and say "hi!" And DL is a fantastic writer and a great blogger. His commentaries are insightful and often humorous. Visit him today, too!


Here are the Rules to Accept the Award:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
2. Pass the award to 5 bloggers.
3. Link the nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.
6. Share 5 things about yourself.


Let's see...five things about myself...all right:

1. I have a brand new nephew! Derek James made his appearance late on March 12th -- and by late I don't mean past his due date! I mean, he was born at 11:41 p.m. after sis was in labor for fifteen hours. Ugh!

2. I take a large freezer bag into the grocery store when I do my weekly shopping. I ask the baggers to put my cold stuff in the bag, which is like a big, soft cooler. That way, when I get home I drag all the groceries from the car to the entryway and then check my email/blog...sometimes taking up to an hour before I put my food away. (Does anyone else have crazy, computer-addicted behavior??)

3. My favorite ice cream flavor is Ben and Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk.

4. While researching for my WIP, I recently called a local funeral home and asked for a behind-the-scenes tour. I haven't heard back from them. I suspect they didn't take me seriously, or considered me a crack pot.

5. I prefer plain M&Ms over peanut. However, if they are served in the same bowl, I eat two plain and one peanut at the same time. The chocolate to peanut ration is perfect that way. You should try it.




Thank you, E. Elle over at The Writer's Funhouse, for this totally awesome award! Elle's smart and inspiring posts make her blog a must-read, so be sure to visit her today! I love the inscription that comes with this award: "By definition, a Prolific Blogger 'is one who is intellectually productive...keeping up an active blog that is filled with enjoyable content.'" How uplifting is that?




I'd like to pass these awards on to some of my most prolific blogging peeps. Choose the one you'd like! The following are all fantabulous writers, some of whom I've just met and others who I have grown most fond of! I hope you'll visit their blogs today. If you're meeting someone for the first time, sign on as their follower! Spread the joy :))

Annika @ A Swede Abroad
Hilary Wagner
Julie @ Silver Lining
Kristin Rae @ Kristin Creative
Kat O'keefe @ Words, Etc.
Meika @ Waiting on the Muse
Susan Fields
Steph @ Steph in the City
Amy Holder @ Written in Lipstick
Jade @ Chasing Empty Pavements

Tuesday Teaser

Although the book I'm writing falls in the literary fiction genre, some scenes will require the characteristics of other genres. It will include, for example, suspenseful scenes with a lot of action. Over the past two years, I practiced my hand at different genres through short stories, working on the skills I'd need when I wrote my novels. The following excerpt is from one of them, an action/adventure piece entitled "The Way Forward."



They made their way to the head of the trail in high spirits. "White rectangular blazes mark the trail over the entire 2100 miles from Georgia to Maine," Michael read from the trail map. "Turns are marked with double blazes and side trails and approaches use blue." Michael stopped. Kaitlyn was no longer walking beside him. Turning, he spotted her heading off the path into the woods.


"Kait, honey, you're not supposed to leave the trail. Hon?"


Kaitlyn put her finger to her lips and looked back into the woods. A moment later she rejoined him.


"I thought I heard an animal, but it must have gotten scared and scurried off." Her flushed cheeks glowed with excitement.


"You never know what could be hiding in these woods, babe. There are snakes and bears living up here with the bunnies and squirrels." Michael wasn't sure if the look on Kaitlyn's face said his concern endeared him to her or simply amused her.


Kaitlyn's suppressed smile lingered in her eyes. "Tag! You're it!" she suddenly shouted, taking off down the trail.


Kaitlyn's playfulness infected Michael, and they made their way through the quiet woods, talking and joking. By noontime, they had hiked into Sosebee Cove, a remote nook protected by a wall of rock and ablaze with the colors of flourishing springtime bloomers.


"Do you hear water?" Kaitlyn asked.


Michael consulted the map. "It looks like DeSoto Falls is about a quarter mile from here." He looked to the left. "There, see that tree with the blue blaze on it? That trail will take us to it."


Ten minutes later they were heading down the side trail. It was harder to follow than the first one. The woods were thick with forbidding underbrush. The din of rushing water grew louder with each step, until its source came into view.


Melted snow from higher elevations had swelled the river to twice its normal size. Above them, raging water rushed over a promontory and crashed in billows of roiling white foam fifteen feet below. The noise was deafening. Kaitlyn pulled her camera from her pack and began snapping pictures. The air was much cooler here, and after a few minutes they turned to go.


"God! It's beautiful here," Kaitlyn sighed when they could hear each other again. Then, she sucked in her breath.


Following Kaitlyn's gaze, Michael saw the brightly colored butterfly she had spotted. She raised the camera to her eye as it settled on a trillium bush. No sooner had she focused the lens than the butterfly took flight again. Kaitlyn stepped off the path in pursuit of it.


Closer and closer to the river, the insect flitted from one blossom to the next. Finally, it alit on a branch at the water's edge. Looking through the lens of the camera, Kaitlyn edged closer. Michael called out, "That's close enough, Kait," but his voice was lost to the river. As she snapped the picture, her foot slipped on the moist embankment. She let out a high-pitched yelp that never made it to Michael's ears. All he saw was one of Kaitlyn's arms shoot out awkwardly before she disappeared below the bank.


Michael sprang into action even before his mind had time to process what had happened. He sprinted toward the river, ploughing through branches that tore at his face, shouting Kaitlyn's name. She was nowhere to be seen. He searched the white water churning with the vengeance of a stampede of beasts, mirroring the panic coursing through his body. Suddenly, Kaitlyn's head broke the surface of the water several yards away. There was an outcropping of rock visible further downstream, and Michael bolted for it.


"Swim for me!" he shouted as he ran, never taking his eyes off her. He threw himself onto the rock's edge, yelling, "Kaitlyn! Grab my hand!" He was flat on his stomach, reaching as far out over the water as he could manage, as the fast-paced current carried Kaitlyn toward him.


Terror was etched in every furrow of her contorted face. She could see Michael's hand but she was powerless over the current dictating her trajectory. The river slammed her like a rag doll against a rock, pitching her violently under the water. When she resurfaced moments later, she was heading straight for Michael.


Kaitlyn was floating impotently past Michael, but she managed to stretch her hand out. With astonishing timing, Michael heaved his weight forward and caught her firmly around the wrist. She dangled heavily there, her frightened eyes locked with his. The nightmare from years ago was brutally triggered, and fear threatened to rob him of brawn and confidence. He forced the old memory out of his mind and his resolution stoked his strength. "I've got you, baby! I've got you!" he gasped. Fighting the current and the water-logged weight of her pack, he struggled to pull her in. It wasn't until he got his hand around the back of her belt, that he realized he had denied the arrogating river of its quarry.

And the Winner is...

Shelley, I'll contact you via email to get your mailing 411!

To all my blog followers and new friends, thank you so much for your warm welcome into the world of blogging. I look forward each day to reading what you have to say on your blogs and drawing inspiration from your comments on my posts. You guys are the best!

In particular, let me say thank you to those who have reached out to me since Friday. I'm crossing one of life's rough patches and your words of encouragement have eased the heaviness in my heart more than you know. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

Here's to a GREAT week, for everyone!

Life (In)Balance

The duality of life is inescapable. There is nothing that's all good or all bad. As a Libra, I appreciate the light and the dark, the joy and the sadness, life and death. I'm earthbound, unable to focus on only one side of the scales. Some days, finding the sacred balances in life prove more challenging.

One sister, bursting with joy, lies in hospital today awaiting the arrival of her first baby. I wish I was there with her.

One sister, her heart in ribbons, checks into hospital this morning, her first baby now nine years old, taken from her. If only I could be there, too.

Angels and demons teeter totter on my scales.

Writing soothes my conflicted soul. Today, I'll remember each character has in her both good and bad, the capacity to succeed and the ability to fail, talents and shortcomings. But above all else, they need love in their lives. No matter what they've done or what they plan to do. All of Life's characters, fictional and real, need love.

Saluting Capote's Descriptive Voice

For me, the characteristic that sets an author's writing above the others is a strong descriptive voice. Descriptions captivate me when they flow like water down the riverbed of a story. I want to be pulled into the characters' world through all five of my senses, until my imagination is alive in their reality.

I aspire to write what I'd want to read.

One of the masters of literary fiction was Truman Capote. His penchant for prolific prose was astounding, and his rich descriptions permeate his short stories, novellas, and novels. I'd looked forward to reading Breakfast at Tiffany's this week (the local library's copy was checked out), but settled on a collection of short stories based on Capote's childhood. Here is an excerpt from A Christmas Memory that illustrates perfectly why I admire Capote's descriptive genuis:

Silently, wallowing in the pleasures of conspiracy, we take the bead purse from its secret place and spill its contents on the scrap quilt. Dollar bills, tightly rolled and green as May buds. Somber fifty-cent pieces, heavy enough to weight a dead man's eyes. Lovely dimes, the liveliest coin, the one that really jingles. Nickels and quarters, worn smooth as creek pebbles. Bost mostly a hateful heap of bitter-odored pennies. Last summer, others in the house contracted us a penny for every twenty-five flies we killed. Oh, the carnage of August: the flies that flew to heaven! Yet it was not work in which we took pride. And, as we sit counting pennies, it is as though we were back tabulating dead flies. (Truman Capote, A Christmas Memory, page 10)

The poetic descriptions for the various pieces of money not only held my attention, but they brought the narrating character into sharper focus. Clearly, the narrator was not a city dweller. Only a country boy would see springtime buds in rolled dollar bills or equate worn coins with the smoothness of water-eroded stones. The narrator was not wealthy in the traditional sense, otherwise he wouldn't have kept coins hidden in a beaded purse, had a scrap quilt on the bed, or accepted a job paying only a penny per twenty-five dead flies. We're shown so much in such a short paragraph.

When I read his work, I glean a lesson in creative writing in every paragraph of a Capote story.


Who are your author champions, the writers who exemplify what you'd like to achieve in your own work?