Please hum the theme to the Rocky training montage as you read this
It’s crunch time. I’ve asked Hallie Lord to guest host 7 Quick Takes Friday for February 3, February 10, and February 17 so that I can make a huge final push on the book.
Some folks have asked if there is an email list they can get on to receive an update when I’m back to regular blogging, which is a polite way of saying “It’s really not worth the mental energy it would take to keep up with the intricacies of your writing schedule.” The answer is yes! Sort of! You can sign up to receive my blog’s content by email whenever I write a new post. It’s free, there’s no spam, and you can promptly unsubscribe in disgust if I ever turn this into a Justin Bieber fan blog:
Meanwhile, I have realized that the possibility of hitting this deadline is only barely within the realm of what is humanly possible. So if you want to know what the next three weeks will be like for me, just imagine the training montage from Rocky. It is going to be EXACTLY like that, only without physical activity, interacting with other people, or leaving the house. (Although I may punch some slabs of meat at some point.)
I feel weird asking for prayers, as if no one has anything better to pray for than my word count goals. But if you find yourself scraping the bottom of the barrel of your prayer intentions, getting to the point that you’re requesting God’s intervention with Facebook load times and the plot of Downton Abbey, it would be great if you could throw in a good word for my little project.
I’ll be back on February 21. See you then!
Partial blogging break – until February 21
Alas, God has not answered my prayers that I could have 40 hours in a day, so I guess that means that something has to give if I’m ever going to get this book finished. I’ve decided to take a partial break from this blog, so I’ll only be writing 7 Quick Takes Friday posts until Mardi Gras (February 21). I may occasionally pop in during the week if there’s something interesting to say, but for the most part I won’t be here Saturday through Thursday. I’ll still be writing for The Register, and will probably write tweets with embarrassing frequency.
Even though the break is longer than I’d like, I’m excited about the next three months. This is the final shot (seriously this time); of course I’ll revise this draft based on feedback from my agent and editors, but I’m not rewriting it again. They say that the first book you write is usually not the first book you get published, and now I understand why: It took two complete drafts for me to understand what it takes to write a book that people might actually want to read. And now, as I start this third total rewrite, I think I finally get it.
Unless you’re just an incredibly fascinating person, a good memoir has to be more than a retelling of the stuff you did during a certain time period. You have to carefully unearth the best story to tell, which may not be the same thing as the story you want to tell, and almost definitely won’t be the easiest story to tell. You have to understand what makes a “story” in the first place, and how that’s different than a chronicle of events. You have to find what’s universal about your experience, and use that as the thread that ties all the details together. You absolutely must understand the difference between scenes (bringing the reader into a specific moment) and exposition (glossing over events in a narrator voice), and know when to use which. And you have to feel comfortable enough with all of this that you can lighten up and have some fun.
I’ve been studying all of this since 2008. I’ve read over a thousand pages on the subject, and wrote another thousand pages testing out what I’d learned. I even convinced a couple of bestselling authors to talk to me on the phone so that I could ask them questions about the craft! I finally – finally! — feel like I understand it all well enough that I can stop thinking about the process, and just let the story flow. I’m fairly detached from how it does in terms of sales — I know enough about the publishing industry to realize how difficult it is out there. But I am confident that I can put together something that will achieve the most noble goal of any book: That when the reader finishes the last sentence on the last page, she’ll say, “I’m glad I read that.”
Any prayers you could send my way would be appreciated. I’ll be seeing you on Fridays, and will be back for good on February 21!
In praise of imperfect Thanksgivings (with Yaya stories!)
Today I’m over at the National Review, talking about what my recent lessons about gratitude have taught me about Thanksgiving. (And, naturally, any stories of holiday craziness wouldn’t be complete without a couple of Yaya references.) Comments are open over there. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Highlights from the Register
Here are six posts I’ve written over at my blog at the National Catholic Register that I thought might be of interest to readers here:
- What dressing up like a scorpion taught me about Halloween
- What would it take for Christianity to dominate the arts once again?
- 8 social media tips for increasing the turnout to your church event
- The apron: The ultimate symbol of a culture of life
- Why virginity matters
- What I learned from praying in front of an abortion clinic
To follow my posts over there, you can subscribe to that blog’s RSS feed here.