Funny Thing Happened on the Way to This Blog
I’ve been up since 4:30 am after going to bed at around 1:30, part of a nice cycle of nap-writing-edj-writing some more.
This is the routine so many of us find ourselves in when we’re chasing the tail of a hard and fast deadline (Can we say that I’m praying for the apocalypse to arrive before July 15th? Please and thank you, in advance).
There are lots of reasons why we find ourselves painted into a corner—the list would depress you, it depresses me, but my current problem is taking a big idea (the one I fell in love with in the beginning, the one I had plotted out in my head) and crushing it against its will, into a smaller frame.
I have a maximum of 50K words allocated for this one—with enough story to double that. It’s been one episode of beating it back with a whip and chair, after another. And when I’m not fighting my muse I’m despairing the loss: “Kill your darlings?”
I want to kill something, but not them.
There is, however, something to be said for the quality of a work ‘forged in the furnace of adversity.’ Every word must count; every thought must stand on its own, not supported on a rickety scaffold of patter and cliché.
I had another experience with a short contributed for a charity anthology—it was a fairly loose invitation open to all the authors with the same publisher—so when an apologetic email arrived, “We love the story. Do you think you can cut 4,000 words so it will fit?” I may have thrown up.
Probably not, but I definitely wanted to.
4,000 words meant I had to unwind a plot thread that ran through the entire story. It was like unraveling a finished sweater just to pick up a dropped stitch at the neck. It was brutal and took nineteen hours over one weekend.
After I’d sent my much leaner story, I sifted through all the debris (I always move the sections I cut to another document in case I need it later). I was shocked to discover there was nothing there; just odd words, fragments of sentences, phrases, and paragraphs full of air. The spartan narrative that remained fit the story, elevated the sentiments, made it much, much, better. It was a great lesson in editing.
So there is that—killing your darlings on the forge of adversity can ultimately make you a better writer…it just doesn’t take away the sting.
Fortunately, it’s not always this hard. Not every story engenders the same level of panic and profound loathing, (which is important since I don’t think I could keep this up week after week—eventually there must be sleep.)
My latest story—Of Nuts and Men (a short for Dreamspinners Daily Dose) was brilliant—the writing experience, that is; the story you’ll have to judge for yourselves.
This year’s theme was all about shifters, and when I saw a picture posted in my Facebook feed of a half naked guy in a tree, that was all it took. Instant plot. Of the small furry kind.
Yes. I got to put myself in the head of a squirrel.
I’m not sure I’ve ever had such pure pleasure in writing… The story was fun, putting myself in the protagonist’s tiny brain was a challenge, inventing the supernatural elements of shifting inspired creativity, describing a whole non-human state of being stretched my writing muscles—it felt good. Maybe too good.
Because on the heels of this wondrous experience I had another idea—which became my current project: The Art of Pie. I was convinced that I should create parallel storylines, bring them together, throw in a couple of mysteries, and have it all done by dinner, and in under 50K.
Don’t count me out; I can do this.
As for my shifters? I love these characters. I had such plans to write the morning after scene with the reappearance of Kevin the mountain lion—catalyst for this meet-cute. But with short stories, you have to draw a hard line in the sand.
That’s okay, there’s enough material swirling around in my head for a novel—it’s primed for a nice litter of…whatever sequels for squirrels are called. I’ll throw Kevin back in the mix, add a few other mountain lions, send them all to college in Berkeley…could be fun.
Some day.
If I survive.
I still have sixty-two hours to go.
About the Book
Summer break is a time to relax and reconnect at the family cabin in the Eastern Sierras. Unfortunately for squirrel shifter Jamie, his first day back is anything but restful. When his adoptive brothers can’t resist winding Jamie up and sending him on a wild squirrel chase for last season’s buried nuts, he finds himself diverted from his mission in the best possible way.
Sawyer is a man stuck in a tree with no way down, and things are about to get a little weird when one very inquisitive squirrel turns up to save the day. At least it’s not the mountain lion who chased him there to begin with. Still it takes a while before Sawyer’s convinced he’s not seeing things. By the time he’s got his feet back on the ground, it’s Jamie who needs a little TLC—fortunately for both of them, Sawyer’s tent is close by, and Sawyer has the perfect way to heat things up.
A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2016 Daily Dose package “A Walk on the Wild Side.”
Excerpt
Summer break is a time to relax and reconnect at the family cabin in the Eastern Sierras. Unfortunately for squirrel shifter Jamie, his first day back is anything but restful. When his adoptive brothers can’t resist winding Jamie up and sending him on a wild squirrel chase for last season’s buried nuts, he finds himself diverted from his mission in the best possible way.
Sawyer is a man stuck in a tree with no way down, and things are about to get a little weird when one very inquisitive squirrel turns up to save the day. At least it’s not the mountain lion who chased him there to begin with. Still it takes a while before Sawyer’s convinced he’s not seeing things. By the time he’s got his feet back on the ground, it’s Jamie who needs a little TLC—fortunately for both of them, Sawyer’s tent is close by, and Sawyer has the perfect way to heat things up.
About the Author
LE Franks lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, one teenager, and two cats bent on world domination while she writes about gay men in pursuit of love. Her stories are a unique mix of humor and drama with enough suspense to produce fast paced stories filled with emotion and passion, and featuring characters that are quirky and complicated and sometimes a little bit dark. LE is a best selling author and finalist for 2013 & 2014 Rainbow Awards, and contributing author to Semper Fidelis, 3rd place winner for Best LGBT Anthology 2015 from both Divine Magazine Awards and Goodreads MM Romance Group Members Choice Awards. Her books are available through her publishers at MLR Press, Dreamspinner Press, Wilde City Press, and Pride Publishing, and through online booksellers everywhere.
Check out LE’s books at her: Website, Blog
Contact LE: Email
Social Media: twitter: @boxtersushi || Facebook || FB Author Page || Instagram || Tumblr || Pinterest
What a fun (and nutty, lol) idea!