Rules are over-rated (mostly)

Anytime you try a new recipe or pattern or piece of music, the rule is the same: stick to the words on the page. The general wisdom is that you may want to change things the next time through, but on your maiden voyage, you DO NOT DEVIATE unless you want DISASTEROUS THINGS TO HAPPEN.

I’m really bad with rules.

Not the big ones. I’m good with stoplights and airport security. But when it comes to creative endeavors, I always, always deviate from the plan. I have an inability to trust that the person who put the pattern or recipe together, or who made interpretive changes to the sheet of music I’m about to try knew what they were doing. Or, maybe they knew what they were doing, but they didn’t know me. So, instead of following these things to a T, I look them over a few times, hold the idea of the thing in my head, and trundle forth into some state of semi-disaster or moderate success.

I make changes to and substitutions in recipes. I only refer to a pattern if I can no longer see through my tears. And I don’t have time to worry about crescendos and perfect trills in music.

Of course, it’s never perfect the first time through, because that’s when I’m learning. Perfection only gets in the way.

Turns out, I write the same way I do all of these other things. The difference in writing is that I have to make up the pattern I intend to deviate from. You might think that this means I’m more likely to stick to it, but that’s just not true. Apparently, I don’t trust myself to know the ins and outs of a story any more than I trust the folks at Vogue to know what I need in a jacket pattern (my shoulders are not Vogue shoulders).

At one point, I was afraid that writing multiple drafts of the same story meant I was doing it wrong. Friends shudder every time I tell them I’ve started over or that I’ve tossed another 20k into the “bits and bobs” file. But I think I’m going to start using different words for this process. I think it might be better to say that I’ve started again and that drafts are rehearsals for the real thing.

It’s good to have a plan or a guide or an outline. I like having the shape of the thing in mind before I begin, but I also like taking off into the unknown. It’s in the telling of it that the story is born. At least, that’s true for me.

So! It’s the New Year and that sounds like a fine time to pick up a new project. I’ve got two vying for dominance, both with very loud voices. I don’t know which to dive into first. So, if I were to tell you that one of these ideas looked like this….



And that the other looked like this...



Which would you vote for? Tryptic 1 or 2?

***
All photos found via Flickr Creative Commons.

Two Plunges: Tumblr & Guest Posts

I've resisted Tumblr for a long while. The same way I resisted Twitter until everyone in the known universe had an account except for me (there may be exceptions to this; please, allow me my hyperbole). But the time has come. A name too perfect to pass up arose from an exchange between Tessa and myself and therefore, my Tumblr was born. Once something has a name, it exists, you know.

If you're curious to see what I'll Tumble (and believe me, I am), you can find me here: Obviously Parker.

The other new experience was a guest post that went up about a week ago over at the Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing blog.  This is a fantastic blog, run by people engaged with the publishing work at every level. It is full of excellent resources and advice for writers. In addition every month, they run a workshop on the 1st 5 pages of works in progress. This is one of the best (not to mention generous!) ongoing workshop offers I've seen. Find more details by clicking here.

My guest post is here: The Anatomy of a Good Hook. In which, I use fishing hooks to talk about writing.

Hope you're all off to a grand start this 2012!

Queries and Cappuccinos

There's something about winter that makes a cappuccino at any hour of the day sound like a good idea. (Okay, in all honesty, there's also something about any month ending in y that makes cappuccinos sound good, but that's beside the point. Winter is the point.) I find winter drinks irresistibly cozy. Triple-y so if I'm traveling. Which means that I've spent most of December Highly Caffeinated. Also, at zero risk for developing a calcium deficiency anytime soon. This is a good thing as I've also spent a good portion of December doing revisions and critiquing three full manuscripts.

(As an aside, I found the most amazing cappuccino I've ever tasted/seen while in Merida, Mexico. DO YOU SEE THE FOAM? HAVE YOU EVER SEEN ANYTHING SO DIVINE? There was no other way to drink this than to sacrifice all dignity and give yourself over to a cinnamon face-plant. I, for one, didn't hesitate to toss my dignity out the front door.)

I'm approximately seven cappuccinos away from finishing this round of revision. It's timely, I think, to be wrapping up at the new year. I've seen a number of people in the writing community doing similar things like brushing up queries and pitches and since I probably didn't get you anything for the holidays, I'm going to give away a few query crits. This isn't totally selfless. I'll treat myself to one cappuccino per query I crit, so really, I'm enabling myself to stay caffeinated.

Okay! So! Have a query? Want my eyes? Here are the rules:

1.  Your query should look like a cappuccino! By which I mean, in the subject line of your email to nataliecparker AT gmail DOT com, please include: CAPPUCCINO QUERY!  
2. Your query should taste like a cappuccino! By which I mean, it should include the component pieces of any query: the intro, the pitch, the closing remarks. It should be polished and pretty!
3. Your query should smell like a cappuccino! ... /metaphor Please copy and paste your query into the body of your email. No attachements. 

That's it. First five emails to hit my inbox get my eyes. 

Happy winter, everyone. I hope you'll treat yourself to a cappuccino (or bubble tea.....I don't really know what tea drinkers do for a treat) and feel a little extra cozy.    

UPDATE - I've got my 5 queries, so this offer is closed. Give me another few months, though, and there'll be another.

A town called Campeche

For most of our trip, we stayed in a town called Campeche. It's south of Merida and a good middle point for exploring mangroves and petenes, but I could have spent days just walking through the colorful streets of this city.

And by colorful, I mean this place has ALL of the colors. This was what I saw when I stepped through the doors of my hotel:


We were told that it was a real "Pirates of the Caribbean" type town (and it has all the Renaissance Festival style pirate themed pubs, restaurants, and knick-knacks to prove it). Back in the days of yore, the place was so put upon by pirates that they protected themselves from invasion by surrounding the bulk of the town in battlements. Many of these battlements still stand tall, which gave the town a very European feel - castles and churros are a delightful combination, I tell you.



Campeche is also something of an uneven city. The ground wasn't scaled when the buildings went up, which seemed to be a point of frustration to those who built the sidewalks. They, at least, are level, which was a sometimes a challenge...


From the top of the battlements we could also see that many of these lovely buildings were not all that they seemed to be. They hide a wilderness inside....I wanted to explore them.


There was a secret place inside one of the battlements with recreation musket rifles and halberds. So, of course, this happened:


And finally, Campeche is home to a cathedral I could not capture well enough with my lens. On our first night in the city, I watched a group of women bless and carry a tall statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe around the square and into the church. She was dressed in blue and waiting inside to receive the many pilgrimaging Guadalupanos.

Uxmal Ruins

I've been a horrible blogger during this trip to Mexico. Not because what I'm doing isn't blog-worthy, but I've been critiquing manuscripts and writing for and getting lost in the week long celebration that is the Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. But tonight, it's raining and the festivities are quiet.

I'm staying in an 1800 barracks-turned-hotel in Campeche, Mexico, a World Heritage site. We're leaving tomorrow and I'll be sad to see it go, but I'm looking forward to exploring Merida.

But to backtrack a bit. Here is a photo-essay of my first full day in Mexico, exploring the ruins of Uxmal, a Mayan complex built beginning in 850AD.






Are you kidding? OF COURSE I crawled through that hole. What would Indian Jones do? (PS - There were lots of iguanas in there. Heads poking out of walls four feet above me. Watching me. Creepy is the word you're looking for.)





This is in Campeche, not Uxmal. About thirty yards from the front door of my hotel and no, it didn't look any more real standing right in front of it. 

When dogs listen

At some point this afternoon, Victoria Schwab posted the following video on Twitter:





And while we watched, we noticed Grendel doing this:

November round-up

November certainly has a way of skating out from under me. Everything happens at this time of year. Elections, pumpkin pies, 65% of the people in my life were born in November (including myself), and 82% of the people I know give themselves over to novel-writing fury! It's a wonderfully creative month and I can't love it enough. And then it's gone. *dramatic sigh*

I spent my November tagging along with the NaNo folks, finishing a re-draft of a novel I already loved and needed to love more. Now that it's in the hands of my terribly clever crit partner, I'm reading for several other people and letting myself enjoy the energy of a new idea.

For anyone wondering how my month of no sugar went, I am happy to report it was a complete success. No particulars here, but I am extremely pleased with the experiment. Not only do I feel better now than I did at the beginning (both physically and emotionally), but I came away from it with a much better understanding of how sneaky sugars can be. Seriously, refined and cane sugars are pervasive. It's disturbing, but not insurmountable. To anyone struggling with feeling happy in their bodies, I cannot recommend this experiment enough. More details are in the post I linked to above.

Next week, I'll be off on another day-job adventure. This time we're heading south to the Yucatan Peninsula for 10 days where we'll explore ancient Mayan ruins and tromp through mangrove forests. I'll report as I go, but I've been told that the mangrove forests are the one place on earth anyone recommends wearing 100% DEET.

O_O

Also, I need scuba booties.

I say again, O_O.

Even so, I'm excited. These trips have a way of being utterly amazing (see tag: I love my job for more trips!). These trips also have a way of making me thankful when we return with the same number of people we departed with...

And in other completely unrelated news, I'm still struggling with the idea of mirroring my blog on another platform given LJ's consistent hankiness. I've worked with Blogger before, but didn't fall in love. So, I'm considering WordPress. Anyone have any thoughts about this? Strong opinions welcome.