Reader Request

Hi all,

Reader Sparky has asked me to talk about "Deus ex Machina," and I am happy to oblige.

It literally means "God from the Machine." It used to be used in Greek plays, when there was an unsolvable problem: a God would appear on stage and save the day! Now, it's a literary device consisting of a surprise solution or ending, used mostly when the author can't figure out how to finish the story. So, it could be a new character that appears at the end with the missing clue that solves the mystery. Or a character suddenly says, "Oh, I already called the police before the robbers took our phones. Here they come now!"

OR like in one of those Jurassic Park movies (okay, I looked it up and it's #3), when the paleontologist who I thought was Jeff Goldblum, but imdb tells me that it was Sam Neill) tries to call Laura Dern and tell her that the dinosaurs are loose and trying to eat the people, but he drops the satellite phone (or the dinosaurs take it or something). They're all doomed. Then, what do you know? Here comes the freaking Coast Guard! Laura found out that he called, assumed the dinosaurs had evolved and were more intelligent than previously believed, and were in fact communicating amongst themselves and working together to kill the humans. And she just made a call.

It's often kind of annoying, and it sometimes feels like the author cheated. But, sometimes you want a surprise at the end, and if you give away too many clues earlier on, everyone will guess the ending.

Reading Update

Well, this challenge is really affecting the way I read. For the past few years, the books I have chosen to read have been mostly for entertainment and pleasure. I read quickly, without stopping much to think about the themes or the probable influences of the writers, and I certainly haven't been taking any notes. But this challenge has made me think more while reading, since I will have to report on each book. So, while I'm reading quickly to try to keep up the pace, I'm also slowing down sometimes, to notice things that I want to tell you about.

Some ways that my reading is being affected:

1. Choosing books. I am less likely to choose LONG books, or books that will be tedious. They will simply take too long to read.

2. I feel like I should read "better" books for you, my 3 readers. Like you will be disappointed if I only read mysteries and don't read at least a little Russian Literature.

3. Like I said above, I'm really trying to be more aware of what I'm reading. I'm reading more as a critic, as opposed to just being entertained. I'm discerning more precisely what I do and don't like about the books. I suspect that this will increase and improve as the year goes on.

This critical reading is helpful, as I am writing some books myself. Since last summer, I have been working on a novel, and at that point I started paying more attention to how novelists craft their books. Who tells the story, and what is the perspective? If the perspective shifts, is it confusing, annoying, or enjoyable? If there are time shifts, do they make the story confusing? Is it best if the story is just told straight through, without flashbacks?

There are some things that are perfectly acceptable in genre fiction that would simply be seen as cheating in General Fiction. What I am writing is somewhat a mystery, but I want it to be classified as General Fiction. So, I need to minimize cliffhangers and sudden plot twists and Deus ex Machina. But it might be more fun to go all-out with a mystery-genre book and have more rein to use the tricks of the trade.

I'm still not very far in my first draft, so I can still change my mind about what kind of book I'm writing. I'll see how it unfolds and see if I need to rely on mystery tricks or if I can pull it off without them.

I'm promising you here, today, that within the next 7 days I will write 5 more pages of my novel. I've gotten out of the habit of writing again, even though I keep getting ideas, and I need to get those ideas down on paper while I'm still excited about them.

Update on the Writing Commitment

Well, I did a great job for a few days, and wrote quite a bit. Then, on Thursday, I worked from about 10AM until 4AM, and I forgot to write. And now it's Monday, and I still haven't written since Wednesday. It's only one sentence that I'm expecting of myself, so there's really no excuse.

I am interested in becoming a more committed person, like I used to be. I used to decide to do something, and then I just did it. I didn't argue with myself and make excuses for why I didn't really have to do it, or I didn't have to do it NOW. Okay, maybe I did, but it seems like it's a lot worse now. I didn't used to be aware of it, so it couldn't have been this much of a struggle.

So, I have to realize that life is going to keep getting in the way of the things I want to do, and I have to do it anyway. I have to shut down that Monkey Mind that keeps messing around and making rationalizations, and saying, "this is stupid. I'm above this." (Whatever "this" may be, Monkey Mind will think it's dumb.) (Monkey Mind is an idea that I've read about in terms of meditation. You try to meditate, but your darn Monkey Mind keeps saying, "I should do XYZ. I don't have time for this. This is so stupid. My butt hurts from all this sitting." But my Monkey Mind messes with me about all kinds of commitments.)

I really want to prove to myself that I can disciplined and decide to do something and then just freaking DO IT! But, I will cut myself this much slack, my friends:
Since this week is the busiest week of this season for my work, and I will probably have at least two days of working 12 hours or more, I will begin again with my writing commitment on Saturday the 8th. The rest of this month, my work hours will be much more reasonable and I WILL be able to spend a few minutes working on my novel.

This month is the month when bloggers are supposed to blog every day. Just so you know, I won't be doing that. I already missed two days, so it shouldn't be a surprise to you. I may post 30 entries, but they won't be One-A-Day. Okay?

A Commitment to Writing

I have promised myself that I will write at least ONE SENTENCE of my novel every day. Yesterday was the first day and I ended up writing a chapter. I still have to do my sentence today.

So far, the book pretty much sucks. But, I'm going to force myself to finish it anyway. For one thing, the plot is good, the characters are good, and I can fix the rest in revision. For another thing, even if it turns out terribly, I still want to accomplish this thing, and take this risk at failing. I can't keep hiding out from doing things just because I might fail.

Hopefully the one sentence will often lead to more each day and maybe I could finish it by 1/01/09! I won't make any promises about that, but I am going to write ONE SENTENCE per day indefinitely.


LATER: I wrote about a page, and now I have to go watch "Weeds." Jason has borrowed season 3 from his co-worker, so we can finally find out what happened! We've seen seasons 1, 2, and 4 already.

Now I'm 32

It's a new year for me! I'm now 32, and I feel exactly like I did when I was 31, only much happier since I'm a year further away from law school. I have a little self-confidence coming back. I'm rediscovering things I have enjoyed doing for most of my life, like sewing and making things and painting and taking photographs. There are so many things I like doing, and for the last few years, I have been missing out on doing them. At the moment, I probably have too many hobbies going at once, but that's okay.

*I made a batch of soap last weekend and milled it this week. The base soap is olive oil, cocoa butter, and mango butter with lye. I made four varieties of milled soap: coffee (odor-eating, helpful when you've been cutting onions or garlic) with hazelnut fragrance; extra mango butter with cucumber-melon fragrance; extra mango butter with satsuma orange fragrance; extra cocoa butter with violet fragrance. They are curing now. I think it takes a couple of months before they're dry enough to use (if you tried to use them now, they'd just dissolve really quickly).

* I am going to make a couple of A-line skirts, based on a jean skirt that I really like. I will make up the pattern myself. The two tricky parts are: putting in the zippers and putting in the linings. I haven't sewed clothes since an unfortunate pants incident in 1997. I made this great pair of pants from a pattern, and I loved them, and I fitted them just right. At work, I squatted down to pick up a box from the floor, and the pants split open, horizontally, across the butt! I had to wrap my jacket around my waist and walk home to change. I never made pants again.

* I still have that novel going, which I occasionally think about, so that counts as actively writing in my book (HA! a writing pun for a nice Sunday).

* I have made 3 amigurumi animals in my quest to create enough to have a book and be a published crochet author.

I think there are a few more things, but that's enough for now, I guess.

What are the neighbors building?

Most afternoons, a banging starts. What could they be building next door that they've been working on for 9 months? Is it a carpentry project, or are they finishing their basement? She is a mom and part time social worker and part time accountant. He goes to the seminary and has some full time job. So, no clues there. I might try to find a way to ask them.

I now have 5 pages of writing done!

Sparky, I'm so glad that can proofread my spelling for me. I am writing as fast as I can to get some ideas down, so it might be pretty crappy in content, grammar, and spelling! Thanks for telling me about the Poisonwood Bible. I have read some books by Barbara Kingsolver, but I am not sure if I have ever read that one. Maybe I'll see what I have of hers if I need a mentor for switching narrators.

Memorial Day Weekend

I didn't do anything! I'm still only at 2.5 pages. I'll try to add to it today. I'm trying to figure out how to narrate it. It starts, so far, with one character's diary. But I think I'm going to jump around to tell it from several different characters' perspectives. That can get annoying, and I don't think I've tried it before. So, it's an experiment!

Today I might only have one assignment for work, so I should have time to write after I'm done and no excuses not to do it.

Tonya

2.5

You'll be very impressed to know that I have now written 2.5 pages of a book. Only 300 left to go.

What I did so far

This week, I started writing a book. I don't have much yet, but taking that first step is a milestone. The book has some mystery in it. I hope I can figure out how to do it well. I've read enough books, now to simply emulate the good ones....

I'm also crocheting some dolls for the babies I know. I'm not that great at it, so they end up kind of wonky and out of proportion. That's okay with me, since I think that's cute.

I'm also trying to take good care of myself, like eating well and flossing, since I don't have the excuse of No Time. And I'm trying to keep our house cleaner.

We decided to stay living where we are, and buy a portable air conditioner to make it livable this summer. I believe Jason bought one last night, and we should get it in a week or two. That should help A LOT. The portable kind doesn't have to stick out the window, but just has a hose that goes out the window. I don't think the HOA will have a problem with that. The picture shows the one that we got, but we will put it in our bedroom, not the dining room. Good thing, because our dining room doesn't have any windows!

TTFN, Tonya