CSSF Novel Workshop

Earlier this month, I spent two weeks on the University of Kansas campus attending the beginning novel writing workshop at the Center for the Study of Science Fiction.

Lawrence is a lovely town, full of brightly painted houses and big trees.

There are also many brick sidewalks in various states of disrepair. Some stretches have all of the bricks in place, their interstices smoothed with grass. Others are buckled, bricks missing, with holes ready to suck in your foot and twist your ankle. 

 

Kij Johnson and Barbara J. Webb run the workshop, and they are amazingly welcoming, kind, and supportive. They made the transition into workshopping easy, and our group meeting room quickly became a safe place to brainstorm ideas and ask for help. 

From one to four each day we workshopped, with Kij and Barbara asking the author what they wanted from the story, calling on the group to offer up ideas and responses to help move the novel along. At six we met to walk down to dinner on Massachusetts Avenue, the main road at the bottom of the campus full of restaurants and shops. By eight or so we were back in the workshop room fishbowling. Sometimes fishbowling is talking out your characters to the room, or writing a bunch of ideas on Post-Its and rearranging them until the glue wears off. Sometimes it's staring at your sticky notes in despair until someone comes up and asks you one question about your story that makes the whole project make sense. 

Mainly, fishbowling is a way of figuring out your story so that you can write a better draft of your novel. One of my classmates had an amazingly detailed outline by the end of the workshop, others had clear sets of action through the first turn, and it seemed as though everyone walked away with a better sense of clarity in regards to their project. I finally met my protagonist and discovered her story and her core need that will push my story forward. It was fascinating to watch novels expand with ideas, try out different possibilities, and finally find their solid paths - friendly sidewalks with not quite so many bricks missing.

We shared the dorm with the short story writers workshop. In the evenings they watched movies on the 3rd floor of the dorm, with novel writers invited as well. Throughout the workshops there are also people in the dorm who are on retreat - they just come to be around other writers and write. There's an atmosphere of love for science fiction and fantasy, of engagement in the larger writing community, and of creative play. It's lovely.

At the end of the second week we attended the Campbell Conference, held in the swanky Oread Hotel, just down the street from the KU Student Union where we ate lunch everyday.

Campbell and Sturgeon Awards

Saturday was rainy and I wasn't feeling well, so I stayed in. But I wish I had pushed myself to go to the panels and signings. I heard that Andy Duncan's reading was fantastic, and from the very short reading he gave during the student readings on Thursday I have no doubt it was entertaining and lovely. If I'm ever lucky enough to attend the workshop again, I'm not going to miss the Saturday events of the Campbell Conference.

The beginning novel writer's workshop gave me the confidence and stubbornness I'll need to finish a full draft of my novel. My fellow workshoppers are writing so many amazing, beautifully told stories that I hope I will get to read as they grow into novels.

Origami flowers by Brooke Wonders

The best part of the workshop is that, unlike Clarion and Clarion West, you can go back. If you want to make the transition to writing novels, go to Lawrence for the summer. Take more clothes than you think you'll need (it is hot, you will walk everywhere, you will sweat), be ready to make big changes to your novel, and bring your favorite sticky notes and sharpies to grow and rearrange your story. 

Kij Johnson and Barbara J. Webb's
Class of 2013
The Marmosets

Tail twist! 

Big Ideas and Permissions

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. 

 You can only see as far as your headlights, 

but you can make the whole trip that way.” 

- E. L. Doctorow

I'm slowly growing more comfortable with the idea of stepping into a novel without a detailed outline. I've tried making an outline using the feminine journey in the back of 45 Master Characters, but I always get hung up. Why? Because I haven't spent enough time with my characters and their story to know who they are.

I've got three novel ideas, and I keep switching back and forth between them, unable to commit to pursuing just one. NaNoWriMo is about to start, and the days between me and the 10,000 word goal by November 15th are steadily disappearing. I'm kind of in novel freak out mode.

I have two wonderful writing friends to thank for pulling me out of my pre-novel funk.

Alisa Alering sent me a wonderful article by Bruce Holland Rogers about deciding on your Big Picture: why you are writing this novel. Each of my novel ideas has a different practical and creative purpose in my writerly big picture. One is a YA, one is literary/ experimental, one has a good feeling of forward motion. The YA would be writing for a great audience that I am eager to connect with, and would give me the satisfaction of finishing a story that I've been writing on and off for years. The literary one might never see the light of day, but it would give me the opportunity to unlock some stories and language I've been keeping stowed away. And the one with a good feeling of forward motion feels like one I could finish, that would prove to myself that I can write a novel, and would have enough of a structure to not melt into disparate parts after draft zero is done.

So what is most important to me in this first novel attempt?

My guideposts

With these in mind, my choice of which novel to write is much easier. I'm going to write the one with the sense of forward momentum, the short story idea my thesis advisor asked me about three years after it was workshopped in her class, about a body-modified raven and a lost girl searching for something that others are trying to hide.

The second writer push that happened this week was that Ashley Cowger gave me permission to write a crappy first draft. I'm constantly trying to persuade myself that it is ok to just write, get that first draft on paper, because I know I'm going to revise the story twenty or more times before I ever submit it anywhere. But the impact of having an accomplished writer whose work ethic and creative work I deeply admire tell me that it's ok to just follow the story where it wants to go the first time through is amazing. I really feel like a giant weight has been lifted off of my chest.

After all, one of my guideposts is to prove to myself that I can write a novel. It doesn't have to be the best novel in the world on the first draft, but it does need to be done. And if I'm not judging my writing every step of the way, then done is a goal I can accomplish.

So I'm going to pass this writing gift on to you, one day before the start of NaNoWriMo, in the almost November time when everyone's itching to write a long story.

It's okay to write a crappy first draft. 

I'm going to do it. Lots of writers do it. 

You have our permission. 

Now start writing. 

Novel Buddies & Goal Charts

Novel Buddies

My MFA friend, Ashley Cowger, and I have decided to become novel writing buddies this year. She's written a few novels before, and this is my first one. We're going to set word goals and hold each other accountable. Not in a threatening way, just in an "I know what your goals are - how's it coming along?" kind of way.

I've always kind of felt like writers go to some remote, secret space when they embark on a novel. So it's nice to have this mutual word playground. We're building our own castles, but we can talk to each other while we pat the sand into shape.


Commonplace Book

I still have my lovely notebook for keeping ideas, random journal entries, and bits of inspiration. But I wanted to get a notebook specific to my novel project. And I needed for it to be light, so that I would actually carry it around with me. I can't really take my laptop to work and write on my novel during my lunch break (I tried - too stressful). But I want this novel to be a part of my life for the time I'm working on it. I want to fall into the story and then write my way out.

So I did some browsing and found a great little journal :

         

It was super cheap ($3), has tight binding, good paper quality, and is small - not quite as wide as the tip of my forefinger. I can throw it in the back pocket of my purse and have it with me if inspiration strikes.

Here is my prediction: novels are like people. The more time you spend just hanging around, just being with them, the better you get to know them. Listening to their story before you tell yours is how you make a friend.

Taking this commonplace book with me reminds me to listen:

Researching, bringing words and themes from different sources together

Goal Charts
Here's our goal: 10,000 words by November 15th. I started out with a daily word goal of 150. I kept it up for two days.

Goal chart for the novel project's first deadline

But even though I stopped writing words on paper, I didn't stop writing. I've been twisting the story this way and that in my head, trying to find the angles that catch the most light. At one point I became so frustrated that I swore off this novel idea, started working on something else, and that's when the lightbulbs started going off.

All of those little X marks where I didn't write, they still kept my mind tethered to the story. And they made me honestly evaluate how I've been spending my time.

My daily word goal is up to 210. I'm getting a really good feel for how not terrifying writing a novel can be, at least, drafting a novel. And while I can't allow myself too many reverie breaks, I feel more centered and motivated now that I know my novel a little better.