Writing Wrongs

March 02, 2005

The other day, I mentioned to my writing group about how The Boys Club, more than any other novel, isn�t coming in chronological order. Let me explain. I know what happens in chronological order. And in the past I�ve been known to post out of order. This had more to do with the �in-between scenes� (the ones I didn�t present for feedback) being pretty darn awful.

Sometimes pretty darn awful isn�t too awful a few months later--and sometimes it is. I don�t need someone telling me to fix the dialogue/scene setting/transition or whatever when I already know it needs fixing.

To keep things simple, I don�t post those scenes for feedback. This often drives my writing group crazy, but what can you do?

This novel is different. As I said to the group:

I slide along the timeline of the novel, stopping at different points, sometimes thinking, sometimes writing. I know what happens. I know what motivates this quartet. I don�t know if I�m missing an important ingredient, have a fear of commitment, or what.

I wonder if it�s because the timeline covers years instead of months. D. says she admires my ability to hold my stories in my head. To me, this is a no brainer (sorry, couldn�t resist).

Long before I ever wrote a story, I held them in my head. At night, I�d tell myself a story, in increments, as a way to fall asleep. I often revised �scenes� until they were perfect. When the story was done, I moved onto the next.

In college, a friend was having trouble sleeping and I suggested they do this. The look on their face made me realize that normal people don�t tell themselves stories in order to fall asleep. I didn�t mention it again until many years later.

A few weeks back, Andrew was plagued by scary thoughts at bedtime. I explained about the stories--it had been my coping technique for scary thoughts. �You imagine the story in your head,� I told him.

His face brightened. �Like when my teacher reads to the class.�

Exactly.

I still don�t have an answer to my patchwork novel, but I am glad I can hold it in my head.

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 3:32 p.m.

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