June 3-1-1

3 updates, 1 useful tool, 1 impactful image

Lots has happened in the last few months, and I’ve been delinquent in my monthly updates, so this edition is packed!

Adulting is the worst part of getting older.

Let’s start with the personal stuff. In mid-April my family packed up and moved to a different house. We’re still in the Bay Area but now live closer to my husband’s job to ease his daily commute. My son transitioned to a new preschool (getting him into one was a whole ordeal), and I entered my third trimester of pregnancy. I’m getting pretty big, folks. Check it out.

I have been blessed with the double whammy of iron deficiency and low B12 so I’m tired and want to sleep all the time. Nevertheless, I’m busy trying to unpack our new place and make it habitable for me, my husband, and toddler, plus the rotation of family members who have flown in from Ohio to help us out. We need the help because my husband is suffering from a terrible back injury that makes lifting our toddler or sitting in one position for more than 20 minutes very painful.

My husband’s version of nesting is intense life admin, so last week we finally completed our estate planning. This way if something happened to one or both of us, our kids won’t be in a bind. (Well, other than the trauma of losing a parent or two). We also finally got a CPA (no more TurboTax for us!) and did a lot of financial planning and budgeting for the next five years.

Striving to Finish Draft 2 by August 1

All the life changes and personal challenges have impacted my writing productivity, but I’m trying to give myself some grace about it all. I’ve still managed to revise about 1/3 of my novel manuscript. In fact, I’ve made it a personal goal to finish draft two by August 1, about two weeks before baby #2 is due. In a sense, I’m birthing two babies in August.

To achieve this goal, I have to write/revise about 1,500 words every weekday—a seemingly impossible task for me right now. But I’m giving it a go anyway. I estimate the manuscript to be 110k words when complete. As you can see from below, making progress has been strikes and gutters so far. Some days I don’t manage to write at all. But other days I do.

I want Draft 2 finished so that I can distance myself from the manuscript for a few weeks. Draft 3 is going to be another total rewrite, and in that version, I want to bake in thematic writing, literary devices, and more specific language about technology and setting. It’s going to really push me as a writer, and I need time and space to prepare my brain for a lot of growing.

An Unfinished Manuscript Critique is Like Being Naked on Stage

Last month I received a full manuscript critique from my peers in the Writer House workshop. This is a year-long workshop where each month, one of eight participants has their whole manuscript read by the other writers who provide critiques during a 2-hour session the following month. I had to submit my WIP in April in order to have my live critique in May.

I did not have Draft 2 of my manuscript anywhere near done by April 9 when it was due. When I signed up for the workshop in December, I was confident I’d have a fully revised Draft 2 to share by April, but because of all the pregnancy illnesses and life stuff, it just wasn’t done. So, I had to submit my first draft and, if I’m being frank, it reads a lot like a zero draft in several sections. Sharing it felt a lot like showing up on stage with my pants down.

Despite it all, my peers were kind and offered me helpful feedback that persuaded me I need to really work on better integrating the two distinct chronologically separate stories of my two protagonists. Many even suggested that my novel ought to be two separate books. But I’m stubborn and refuse to break my book apart. I hope that better integrating their stories will make my vision for the novel more evident.

My peers were also really encouraging. They complimented me on my story’s setting, characters, plot, prose, and found the manuscript enjoyable to read. It’s really nice to get that affirmation. It helps quiet the self-doubt voice that makes writing feel like carrying a boulder up a mountain on so many days.

Milanote

My novel restructuring inspired me to make a detailed visual layout of my novel structure. It maps to the classic 3-Act story structure and the whole exercise helped me see visually if my pacing was off—like if I was spending too many words in Act 2, or if I was missing some key scenes, like a “dark night of the soul” moment about 75% into my novel.

After trying the grid/stack functions in Dabble and Trello, I ended up finding Milanote the best fit for what I was trying to achieve. Below is what my story map looks like. Green is for one protagonist, blue is for the other. It took me several hours to make this board, but I think it was well worth it for the mental clarity of understanding where my story stands in terms of plot and character development.

My Novel's Story Map on Milanote

Last month my dad stayed with us for a few weeks to help us out. As a thank you we took him to brunch at an ocean view restaurant in Outer Sunset. Afterwards Baba wanted to take a stroll along the beach. It was a crummy gray day, and I thought the walk would be gloomy and unpleasant.

But I underestimated the power of the ocean. Hearing the lapping waves rush along the shore, the low clouds swirling around us in a mist—I was soothed. I felt insignificant in the best way, like my problems were as tiny as I was. The ocean is vast, fathomless. That’s true even when the sun doesn’t shine. There’s a lesson in there somewhere, I think.