WIP Progress Report: The Never Ending Second Draft

 © Tony Campbell / Dreamstime.com

Nearly halfway through August already and I'm still not finished revising the second draft of my novel, Ghazal. Some days I think this draft is going to last the rest of my life. The worst part is I truly th0ught Ghazal was going to be my "easy" book, you know, the one that would be finished in like, two months, ready to submit. Ha.

On the bright(er) side, as of today I am exactly halfway through this current draft. I guess I could look at it as the proverbial "half full" or "half empty" glass, but either way I feel as if I've been trekking through knee-deep mud for weeks to get to this point. In other words, get me out of here.

One thing that's saving my sanity has been keeping a writer's log. Similar to when I began this second draft, I made a couple of false starts regarding what kind of log I should use, and what needed to go into it. But recently I discovered the perfect notebook. It's called FocusNotes. It's spiral-bound at the top and each page is divided into sections for different kinds of notes. 

I especially like the heading section on each page with the labels: Date, followed by: Purpose. This way I can easily find not only the day I made my notes, but why. This has proved invaluable as I keep making new connections between my characters and their current actions and past mistakes, discovering all kinds of themes and metaphors that are helping me to enhance and deepen the entire story. The downside of all this of course is that for every new connection I make, I then have to discard pages of irrelevant work.

Which is precisely why I'm not a fan of second drafts. First drafts are my passion: give me a great pen, a nice notebook, and a prompt or two, and I'm out of the starting gate in record time. There isn't anything about first drafts I don't like: meeting new characters, inventing strange plot lines, traveling on paper to exotic locales and mysterious dimensions; I can handle it. 

I feel pretty much the same way about third drafts, too. Word-smithing, fine tuning, polishing, making sure it all flows the way I want it to. But second drafts? Yuk. They are in my opinion the absolute worst. 

Besides log-keeping, some more of my survival strategies include:

• Working to a timer in 20-mnute segments and staying completely focused during that time.
• Rewarding myself at the end of each segment with a short peek at social media, a cup of tea or iced lemon water, a walk or a simple household task.
• Working on only one chapter at a time until it is as finished as I can make it. Sometimes this means working on it for days and days, but I don't jump ahead.
• If I get any new ideas for a particular chapter after I've declared it officially "second draft complete" I put all of my notes in my log, never on the manuscript. That way it doesn't get all scribbled over and messy-looking, things that could make the manuscript appear too confusing, or make me feel I'm going backward rather than working toward reaching The End.
•  Taking serious sketching and art breaks every day. Sketching and free form watercolor painting are my favorite ways to step back, recharge, and gather my thoughts.  
• On the days I have a little extra time, I do allow myself to freewrite for fifteen minutes a day in a small composition book. When I do this though, I don't read any of it and just close the book when I'm finished. Reading the pages will be my big reward for completing my second draft!

Some days I wish there was a way somebody else could take over this second draft stage, leaving me free to start a brand new first version of a brand new novel. I'll happily take over at draft three, and I'll even make lunch. For now, though, the idea of a helper will just have to be a 15-minute free write about cloning in my composition book. After that, it's back to the real world of second drafts with no one to write them but me. Drat. 

 Tip of the Day: Buy shoes. Seriously. Or art supplies, or a new book or journal. The only trick is you have to wait until you're finished with--you guessed it--your second draft! Until then, it's stay-in-youf-chair barefoot all the way through.

Adventures in Metal Clay

First foray into metal clay!

I've just returned (recovered?) from a 2-day class working with metal clay. Never in my life would I have thought making little metal bits and pieces could be a) so messy, b) so labor intensive, and c) so totally addictive. I can't wait to make more!
 
I apologize for the quality of these terrible photos. I'm not a photographer and I snapped them very quickly in my studio without a light box or any other professional set-up. No matter what I did I couldn't capture the rich luster of the pieces (the largest is about 2" high) which in real life have a much stronger sheen and color than shown here, thanks to several hours of polishing with a small hand-held rotary tool.
 

Copper pendants for beading.

Prior to taking the class, the only clay I ever worked with was just your typical ceramic-type clay: stoneware, porcelain, and terra cotta. The first time I ever heard of metal clay was through Twitter. I asked a Scottish jewelry maker how she crafted the quite lovely pieces she displayed on her profile page and she replied that she used silver clay. I was dumbfounded--I'd never heard of such a thing. When I further investigated the subject, I discovered there were all kinds of metal clays including steel, copper, and bronze which were the materials we used in the workshop.

My goals for creating the pieces were two-fold: first, I wanted to learn to make pendants for my bead work, and second, I wanted to create items for pottery inlay. I first thought of doing this when I brought home some antique coins from Taiwan several years ago and made a series of Asian-inspired pots using the coins for decoration. I was pleased with the way the pots turned out, but as I was tying the coins to the pots with leather and raffia I kept thinking it would be far more original and fun to create my own metal work designs. Hence my need for a workshop.

Now that I've taken the class and gone through all the stages of "I'm never doing THAT again," to "Wow, I could spend the rest of my life doing this!" my next step is to buy a comprehensive how-to book and investigate starting out with silver clay, a much less-complicated medium than bronze and copper. With silver, you simply form a design, fire it with a butane torch for a few minutes, scrub off the residue with a soft-bristled wire brush and Bob's your uncle--pure silver jewelry. Steel, bronze, and copper on the other hand require a certain amount of clay preparation (we mixed our own using powdered metal and water), a somewhat lengthy kiln firing, and a lot of finishing work: sanding, filing, and polishing. Again and again.

Despite all the tedium, not to mention the rivers of olive oil required to keep the clay from sticking to any surfaces and tools while in the molding stage (on Day One I was covered in enough oil to qualify as a fritter), I was extremely happy with my initial results. Believe me, they look much better in person, and I was amazed at my patience in learning to use a Dremel rotary tool without harming myself or others. I am definitely going to continue with this medium, and in the meantime I have eight pieces of treasure to keep me occupied for months to come. A real win-win if you ask me!

Tip of the Day: The workshop I took was held in a private studio but offered through the University of New Mexico continuing education department. Taking a class in the middle of the work week was as good as going away to summer camp for a month. What have you always wanted to learn to do? I bet your local school or college has just the course to get you started. Sign up today!

How to Be Your Own Writer's Group

Photo © Creative Commons Zero (CCO)

After fifteen years, my writer's group has called it a day. The reasons are many: extensive travel plans; classes and life changes; projects and deadlines to meet. We just don't have the time any more for freewriting together on a bi-weekly basis. But that doesn't mean I'm going to abandon my own personal schedule of artist's dates and making time to sit down, slow down, and check-in with myself. (How's it going, Valerie? Well, I managed to revise twenty pages of Ghazal and three sketches on my picture book this week. Really? Great! Have a latte.)

It's going to be different, no two ways about it, but I've come up with a plan to ensure I still have a creative life beyond my desk or art table:

• Keep writing in cafes. I've always loved drinking a cup of tea or coffee while I scribbled in a spiral-bound notebook surrounded by a crowd of noisy strangers. The more chaotic the atmosphere, the better the writing seems to be! Although I'm no longer in a group, I still want to have cafe time to a) journal on my writing progress, b) create my synopses, query letters, and book descriptions, and c) work on a new project/challenge I'll be announcing in a couple of weeks!
  
• Watch YouTube.com videos on art and writing. Instead of watching the usual TV programs, I can set aside a dedicated half hour or so to learn a new creative technique or listen to an inspiring talk.
• Enroll in an online class. There are so many to choose from! I may not do this for a little while, but it might be fun for say, Inktober (an ink drawing a day challenge in October) to take an illustration class. Interacting with the teacher and other students might prove to be the most valuable part of the course.
• New supplies. There's nothing like a trip to the office supply or art store at least once a month. Gel pens, sketchbooks, brushes, color pencils . . . shopping for supplies is always the perfect artist date.
• Buy a new prompt or how-to book or magazine once a month (or so). Bookstores, yay! Need I say more?
• Cut out magazine photos, and rather than create new stories from the pictures, see if I can use them as reference photos to illustrate my WIP. Although Ghazal is a literary novel for adults, I enjoy designing illustrations to go with the plot. So far these have only been rough sketches, but I'd like to go deeper and create some solid artwork. And who knows? I might end up having an illustrated novel after all--a whole new genre!
  
• Pick a non-cafe writing spot to use on a regular basis. For most of our meetings as a group we needed to find a place that was good for everyone with good parking, wasn't too noisy (not many people share my ability to shut out distraction), and that provided privacy for reading our work aloud. Now that it's just me, I might go to a park, a business center, or a hotel lobby, places that might not welcome a group but are fine with a lone visitor. 
• Use social media to connect to other writers. I've been so busy with my book these last few months that I've let my tweeting and even my blogging slide a bit. Thinking up tips and motivations for fellow writers and artists is a great way to connect online without resorting to tweets such as: "I had a sandwich for lunch." (I still do that, but I do try to justify it by sharing a vegetarian sandwich ingredient or recipe others might like to try!)

I was lucky to have my group for so long, and the one thing that won't change is our friendship. We still plan to have lunch, visit galleries, and have some non-writing adventures together. In the meantime: happy trails, all. Thanks for hanging in there. 

Tip of the Day:  For most of my writing life, I've gravitated toward writing groups. The same with art. But now it's time to think outside of the box and explore something new: groups that focus on travel, beading, reading--they're all out there. But until then, I've got a book to finish . . . a never-ending book . . . Hello, manuscript. Have another latte.