Get off yr Bum & Write!

It's National Novel Writing Month which means make it happen. I'm into getting a book done by November 30-anybody else? I'll be keeping tabs on my true progess. Time to fight and create something more than ever. Time to work!

Fight! Fight! Fight!

At the moment, I'm on working on the first draft of my novel. The paragraphs are being written slowly and its hard to find time to work.

Passion is what motivates my work. It is only that. I've may have received a few blows from agents in the form of rejection letters but that won't stop me from making it into the ring and slugging it out.

Rejection

I just need to drop a few sentences on rejection. In April, I submitted a nonfiction book to three agents. In all honesty, my query letter looked pretty but read like a typical query. What is technically supposed to be the smashing opening sentence of a query sucked in my query letter. But, the content of my book is perfect for its current market. Yes, actually, despite rejection, I'm confident that my book is rad! In fact, I know that the market is searching for a book of this nature.

I know my mistakes and how I got my rejection. Its like a man wearing a white suit and approaching a lady with his shirt unbutton and the hair on his chest sticking out. I understood my project's flaws. For example, it could only truly publish at one publishing house (a bad thing in probably the eye of every agents-Didn't hold me back, I saw the cup half full and my project as an agents delight in terms of a quick sell). I knew that might make it dead in the water but I sent it out. And yes, today after I did a three mile run with Adidas in Orange County, I came home and found my final rejection letter. Not that I'll be mourning the death of the projection, like I said, I knew of its flaws but I was hopeful that I'd find an agent that would look past it all. The agent and I could have a Maxwell Perkins and Thomas Wolfe affair.

Hello sister! I know its all 21st century and sh--! But the agent at this nice respected agency did take the time to pull out company letterhead to draft a specific message about my project and it being very interesting. Dah, I know it is!

Just to add a bit more to the backstory, I had a dream one month ago where I understood that I needed to make my nonfiction book a bit more traditional in nature and bam! Later that afternoon, I got the second rejection letter. Go figure?! I've got my own intuition telling me that I need to do more work to make this thing fly. Yet, at the same time, I'm thinking my big dream is to be known as a fiction writer. Do I take fold the project? Do I push ahead? Do I spend time on the second draft of my novel? Hmm...Questions everywhere!

Rejection isn't forever. I'm not in the ground. I've got at least that much on my side...Time is in my favor. I need to write a proposal that leaves no easy path to rejection, nonfiction or otherwise.

Miss Brunette will waive her nonfiction book rejection funeral services. No book of hers will be laid to rest!

Hey Batter Batter-Play Ball!

It was strike one from Artist & Artisans Agency. A crisp note written at the bottom of my query letter said it all: Thanks so much for your query, but I'll have to pass. Best wishes with your proposal!

I'm ready for the next pitch.

Non-Fiction Proposals & Baseball

Leaving the dug-out, I walked to the home plate. Life was pitching me the opportunity to write a book. I warmed my arms up and I swung a few times. The catcher behind me was nothing more than a word processing program waiting for me to strike or hit a home run. It was time. The pitcher pulled into the wind-up, I worked feverishly on my non-fiction proposal, and then I swung at the ball. I sent my non-fiction proposal out to agents.

After sending my proposal out, I felt like it was opening day at the ballpark. As I new player to the game, I measure time differently then some of the old timers. I can't help but wonder where my non-fiction proposal is actually going to land. I hope on the desk of the New York agents that I choose.



Now I wait.

I kind of felt empty at first sending my work out. I understand that I've only scratched at the surface and the game hasn't even started...It was one pitch and one swing in the midst of the beautiful stadium know as circumstance. I only hope that my timing is right and I hit a long and lean home run. The kind that slam out of the stadium. Dreams mean the world to me but I'm not expecting too much.

The Marvelous Focus of the Mind

I sat at my desk for a week. Like remote travelers to a foreign region, I found the unknown road leading into my body of experience. I had a goal: Craft a non-fiction proposal by the end of the week. Unrealistic as it may sound, I actually complete all of the necessary elements of the proposal. Most of the work was done for a New York agent that asks of all writers to submit a query letter, synopsis, biography, and a three chapter preview. In my case, I had to create everything from scratch. Late Sunday night, I found myself showing my work to my family, a demographic that consists of taste akin to most of modern pop culture, and got a response that what I had done was created something a wee-bit too academic. Yikes! I was hoping to create something entertaining that also provided a good lesson but it seems I missed my mark.

The mind can focus on a goal and work to achieve it. I had made my goal but I've been exhausted by the sheer creative force I had to exert in order to get it done. I pushed everything aside. I stopped eating, playing with the dog, going to the gym, talking to friends, and practically brushing my hair for the last week in order to get my non-fiction proposal sent out and off my shoulders.

My sister was the one kind enough to remark that perhaps its best to not push things and blow my chance. It reminded me of an studio manager that would creep up behind me as I worked to tell me: "Sometimes you have to slow down in order to go fast." His voice is consistently creeping up like he did that day and his words have never ceased to echo in the canyons, rivers, and mountains of my interior landscape.

Buddha meditates thoughtful somewhere I have always wanted to be. I don't know where this image is from or what land it rests in. But, I'm comforted knowing that a wondrous place exists like this. A place where life slows down and the rush of life isn't beckoning at your back reminding you that there will never be enough time to do all the things that you want to do.

Achieve focus within the mind and the serenity shall follow. Whoever said that is a liar. I've got nothing but re-writes ahead of me.

Hunting for an Agent

I've switched gears this week to my non-fiction book query letter & proposal. It's heavy on the design end so its a fine break from the world of fiction. It seems like I'm in the midst of making minor changes to the project each day. Since I've learned that the freelance writing life is 25% writing and 75% marketing, I have been spending time searching for agent. Its a tedious affair of browsing the Writer's Market Online & pulling out recommendations from non-fiction authors that I adore. Tedious & still a bit tiresome when you read tid-bits from the agencies like "ADVICE: Remember you are trying to sell your work, and it should be in its best condition" or "ADVICE: Be professional and be patient." Does it always have to be all work & no play? I want an agency of style & aspiration, not dowdy advice that puts me to sleep. It must be bad being a agent, young or not, reading lots of letters that are probably not worth anybodies time. Except, my letter, of course, it'll hit them like a Tab Energy Drink.

First Draft of Novel Complete!

Hand written in two moleskine notebooks, I have finished my newest novel at 330 pages.

Q & A

Where have the Notebooks have been?
The notebooks have been with through two jobs (design firm & the other big money ticket job-don't ask-I'm not telling you where t I strip-joking, alright!). The black moleskine notebooks played a significant role as I rode the Orange Country Metro & Transit line (majority of pages written on the 7:00am train to San Juan Capistrano). Actually, the notebooks traveled with me where I went. I meant to finish the book at the start of February but illness kept me from thinking clearly (I'm not Marcel Proust).

Where happens to the Notebooks now?
As soon as I complete the first draft on my computer, I'm burning the hand written notebooks. There will never be a reason to have any one witness my madness first hand.

Hey, what's the novel about?
I'll tell you when I'm done.

What are you going to do next?
The second draft will be more akin to a first draft. When I finished the book today, I hit an important psychological milestone: The first draft. Like finishing my first novel (unpublished and hidden in a storage unit), I felt ecstatic about just completing the novel. Today, however, I feel the burden of this novel and its work ahead of me. I can visualize the book complete and I understand the work that needs to be done to get it to the tier of writing that I expect of myself. First thing on the list of what I'm doing next so to pray for the patience and the stamina that I'll need to complete a true working draft.

In conjunction to finishing the next draft, I am drafting the query letter for the book. It provides a great means of focusing the work.



Okay, I'm taking a night off to watch a movie. I hope its good.

Letter to the Editor..

I placed the precious pages on the table and took a photo of what it is that I accomplished today. By some standards, not much, but to me, I hit a milestone by actually sending my work to the editor's desk of a local magazine. It was quite simple and I thought of the manner in which a child builds monsters in the dark closet of her bedroom. For too long, I've sat inside a still room locked by my own doing. I lament the time I've wasted like Francis Parkmen creating maladies of no worth or purpose. The writer's struggle is such a personal duel with the inner working of history, personal experience, and courage. I almost felt the Archangel Michel himself tap my shoulders to say, It's not that bad, just wait for a bit of reject. I can hear my own inner voice struggle to tell my consciousness that I have many more small child-like steps in the road ahead. I've found my fighting stance and a small saber sword so that I will fight myself from locked rooms and destroy my monsters.

Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it."
---- Lt. John B. Putnam Jr. (1921-1944)

I feel better when I tell you my secrets.

My last week of February should be wonderful. It's not that I've found a new lover or that I've recently visited the quiet little rooms found in the salons of Paris, but that I may just meet my meager writing goals. I have thirty pages of my novel left to write and I expect that to be done within three to four days. In addition, my query letter for a non-fiction book and an article have been received well by a few of my peers. Daunting as it seemed, the query letter leads to something bigger-the feature article itself. I've been reviewing leads from magazines to newspapers (though the NY Times is some hybrid of its own) in search for the irresistable lead. The leads at the top are just a few that have struck my fancy. Do these leads entice you to read? Do these articles make you search your own vault of locked secrets? Perhaps you might (or you have) been in a room watching three strangers have sex or maybe (or maybe you have) casually taken an artifact from an important archeological site and sent it to a friend for a little bit of cash or fame? I'll answer yes to one of those questions but I'll leave you wondering which it is that I have done...Some secrets are best left unsaid.

The Query Letter

Currently, I've been interested in expanding my horizon by studying freelance writing at UCLA. By next Tuesday, I have to have a query letter completed. It may sound like simple process. Send a letter to an editor and get them excited about what your article will be about. Yet, that's the problem. I'm sending a query letter out on an article that hasn't been written. I've been googling for resources for my article on the Desert for the last two days. I think that I've finally located all the items that I need but now I have to make a witty and sensible banter on a subject matter that I need more time with. The best professors that I've had were the ones that could take the subject matter at hand and simplify its content into a lecture worth listening to. I think that I will step away from my resources for the day, turn up some Chris Brown, and maybe even watch a movie. Stepping away from the material at hand contributes to a fresh perspective. I hope that my shower tomorrow morning is not only something that will wake me up but something that will bring me a sort of "a-ha moment."

Desk & Chair writes a letter to a young poet

Nothing can be worse to read than a sorry & give up blog. I stumbled across one this morning. Immediately, like the good-will ambassador that I am, I posted a comment telling the author to pull up her boot straps. If you want to read the blog that I stumbled across, then start with the post titled "WWTD" at closeclickcatch. Or read this opening blog post to get her point:

"In "Old times on the Mississippi" Twain laments that once you have learned the river it loses its beauty. In breaking down the science beneath every whirl and eddy, in processing the implications of dark stirs and a shifting sun, the mystery sinks, and you are left with an exhaustive outline.

What would twain say of the modern curriculum, where sixteen years are spent dissecting the mystery of every letter and the words they create, where our educational system is designed to make us sit for hours, meditating on rules and constructions and formalities, deciphering and memorizing the science and history behind our craft, Where we gain the tools to 'succeed' by having them repeated to us over and over... Where we are again and again told that there is nothing that cannot be learned? If nothing cannot be learned, then is there such thing as art? For what is art, if not mysterious inspiration?"

Oh, I feel like Rilke writing a letter to a young poet....But first...

Towards the end of the post she writes:

"I am no longer a poet. words fall apart on the screen. Sentences which I have studied so long to structure loses their shape and melt. Writing is not art, it is order. There is no more releasing a floodgate of words, now it is a carefully regulated trickle."

Blogs are real. People read them. I found her post because of a Neil Strauss search. Writers and poets must retain an inner sanctuary to write. Despite critics, educational systems, or your own inner devil, a writer can not allow negativity to reach into that place of creation. Writers are fighters and marathon runners that must be able to constantly fight to achieve the quality and results that they seek. I've have been in worse places than this young poet. I stopped writing for three years and I attempted to forge a new life to escape the weight and the responsibility of being a writer. Didn't work..

Find faith, my young poet. Be eager to fall and fight for words on a page. Read Philip Levine, listen to Mark Stand in Chicago talking about the Eros of love, or imagine the sort of nature that William Carlos Williams had in mind. But, don't despair-you don't have time for it. Read or Write. Those are your options.

I know that the young poet will be fine. She's reading Roughin It. Now there's a fine read....What Would Twain Do? I think I know the answer.

Welcome to My Writing Desk

Pull up a Chair and sit down at a Desk, you've just arrived at the newest resource for writers. In 2005, I spent most of my year conducting my own writing consultation business that included assisting clients in writing memoirs and book proposals. It's 2006-the year of me (and you). Currently, I'm only forty nail-biting pages away from completeing the first draft of my newest novel. Desk & Chair will not only document my process to publication, but it will also be a place for writers and readers to connect. I hope that people will take advantage of the comment box to post questions and responses. I also want to note that in my sidebar I have a link to the Desk and Chair Cheat Sheet, essentially the best of this website in terms of writing products, job listings, books and much more. Let's get back to the desk and keep the pages flying.