In the mood to revise

On the heels of my latest rejections, I've been thinking a lot about my book. It's called Notches, in case I never mentioned it. It's a dilly of a pickle of a book. I'm going to imagine that it will be a hard sell for any publisher because it's as graphic as the day is long, and contains many things that make people feel squicky, like teenage sex, drinking, and drug use. Meh. I think the thing that also has agents running for the hills is the non-traditional structure of the story. But this is something that I'm rethinking right now.

In the original version, Natasha gets knocked down a few pegs, and her life definitely changes, but things stay mostly on an even keel. But after really thinking about it, I think that Tash needs to lose everything. You know, in the way that protags lose everything: i.e. friends stop talking to them, jobs are lost, they are utterly alone in the universe, etc. And while I don't think Tash is going to lose her job at the ice cream shop (unless...), I think she's definitely going to have to lose her support system for a bit.

I've figured out the cataclysmic event that sets the rest of it in motion, it's just...I'm going to end up rewriting the final third of the book.

I don't know if you've ever written a novel while holding down a full time job and a couple of part time ones, but it's difficult to find the kind of blocks of time you need to get back into the characters.

*sigh*

I don't know when I'm going to do it, especially because I have other writing projects on my mind right now. I have the other YA book I'm writing (needs chapter 5 and beyond), I have the adult novel (for which I have come up with a kickass first sentence), not to mention the OWC stuff (I'd give that up, but it's like eating candy and I ain't giving up candy). So, I'm a tad screwed.

This April, I will have been trying to get an agent for a solid year. M'not discouraged, though. No siree Bob. If anything, I'm more fired up than ever.

I'm also very sleepy.

*headdesk*

~Hero

Still Thinking

You know, the very best films are the ones that you keep thinking about long after you're done watching them. The first movie that really followed me around for days, got under my skin, was The Ice Storm. It's an Ang Lee film based on a fabulous book by Rick Moody. There was just something about that movie (and book) that keep my mind running for at least a week afterwards. Great score by Mychael Danna too. Anyhoo, I feel like Juno fits into this category of 'movie that gets under your skin.' And I had a really interesting conversation with my friend P over the weekend that actually made me reconsider my initial thoughts about the film.

So yeah, spoilers, ho!

P seemed to think that Bleeker's character was more a symbol than anything else. A symbol in almost a mythological way. You know, how the chicks in mythology are sort of idealized, but you don't get to know them that well. And you're thinking, what's so great about Penelope or Helen of Troy or whoever? Why bother coming back after so damn long? I'll tell you why, because those characters are symbols. You don't really need to see them being totally Supercool and awesome because they don't need to prove anything to you, thank you very much. I think this is a fascinating insight and I thank P for explaining it to me. Keep in mind, however, that I still disagree and think that Paulie should have been drawn more sharply, but that's my own humble opinion.

Also, congrats to Diablo Cody on her Oscar win, and Kudos to the tattoo artist who did the pinup girl on her shoulder. Hott.

A writer's perspective on Juno

Last week, J and I went to see Juno. This is a charming, delightful film that has gotten itself nominated for a bunch of things, including Academy Awards. And while I loved the film and would see it a dozen more times, I had a writerly (that's what J called it) problem with it.

Don't read any further if you haven't seen Juno and you really want to.

Because there are spoilers here.

Yes, that's right, spoilers.

Below here.

So stop reading.

You know, if you don't plan to see the movie.

Everyone okay? Good.

Juno is brilliantly acted and had some of the funniest dialogue since Superbad. Michael Cera, a Superbad alumnus, plays Paulie Bleeker, father of Juno's baby. He is an amazing actor and a superfunny one at that, but he wasn't in as much of the movie as I thought, and I was a bit disappointed by that. It turns out that his relative absence was not just a personal issue, I thought it really hurt the dramatic arc of the movie. The whole point is that Juno becomes disillusioned by stuff I won't go into here, and has an argument with Paulie so they're on the outs.

Rapidly losing faith in humanity and love, she has a heart-to-heart talk with her Dad--a staple of any girl coming-of-age film--wherein she asks him can love survive in this crazy-ass world. After the talk, Juno comes to realize that she loves Paulie. It's her big epiphany.

Problem is, Paulie hasn't been in the dramatic action all that much so we're left wondering why she loves him. I know, his distance is part of the point; Juno keeps him at an arm's length throughout the pregnancy. This is her journey alone. I get that. But then give me something to base this love on. A handful of scenes doesn't really do it for me. Give me a flashback, a memory, some more pictures, something else. Just because the best friend states Juno loves Paulie during a conversation early in the movie, it doesn't mean I believe it or her.

This is a topic that has come up among the members of my online writing circle (OWC). The idea that you can write a story in which two people declare love for each other at the end must have a build-up to show where the love comes from. Don't just let me assume that they're soul mates. Show me that they are.

I dunno. Maybe I just like Michael Cera a lot.

I don't want to take away from Diablo Cody's achievement either, which is pretty monumental. Hell, I'd like to be the next DC (but with novels, not scripts), but as a writer, I thought I needed to say something about it. Because, as a writer, I feel like I need to say SOMETHING all the damn time.

~Hero

In the thick of it

I'm trying this again, lads and lasses. My first attempt at legitimate blogging did not last for long, so here I go, here I go, here I go....*sings* here I go. Again. Yeah. So. ANY-way.

I should mention that since I started my first blog over here (the one that went the way of the Tippett*), I have actually begun a professional writing mini-career. I now have gigs writing program notes for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. I've also become quite adept at writing promotional blurbs, and I've been hired to blurb (it's a verb now, don't you know) for the SPCO and the San Francisco Symphony. I still have my blog over at the LACO website so that keeps me off the streets...sometimes. So yeah, I have a decent sideline writing musical stuff.

What I really want to do is direct. Not really. What I really want to do is write fiction and I've been writing it, but I haven't really found anyone to read it (except for my charming, beautiful, fun, smart friends who have, of course, been the best support system a gal could want). In fact, my first novel has now been rejected by about a dozen agents. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. The book is a hard sell: graphic sex and drug use and it all takes place in high school. Hmm. The bright side is that some agents have actually read the thing (or so they say), so I'm glad at least that it's not hidden under the bed. It's out there, scary as that may be. And mixed in with all the rejection, there have been some lovely compliments:

"I'm deeply impressed and would invite you to submit more writing."

"You have great range in your writing."

"I found the concept to be an interesting twist on the traditional teen drama, and the narrative voice was convincing."

Of course, the lovely compliments are followed by "but" or "however." Nevertheless, I am undaunted. I am four chapters into another novel which is less of a hard sell, but at least one agent who has seen it thinks it might be too much like other stuff out there.

I think this is probably like what screenwriters go through: you have to write a movie that's enough like other successful films in order to get the green light, but it has to be unique enough to be its own thing. Maybe I went too far for the first book and not far enough on the second.

I'm in the process of revising the first book for one agent who was very encouraging. I'm trying to make the story arc a bit more traditional. We shall see. It's taking me forever to do because in addition to my mini-career as a writer, I have a maxi-career as a college professor. I'm busy, you see. But that's fine. It's what I want. I'd rather be stretched thin and working like crazy than be worried about where next month's rent is coming from. I have this pipe dream about being so successful as a writer that I get to quit my day job and do nothing but write eight hours a day, but I know that its rather unlikely. A girl can dream, can't she?

~Hero

*"Way of the Tippett" is a phrase my sister and I developed. It refers to Phil Tippett, a special effects guy whose stop-motion animation process--Go-motion!--was subsumed in the 80s by other, more efficient methods of animation. When something dies out unceremoniously, it goes the way of the Tippett. My apologies to Phil, who I've met and who is a peach. He's doing quite well in the special effects world, so don't you worry about Mr. Tippett.