Living in the Write Mind
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Living in the Write Mind
Completing a first draft
I finished the first draft of my YA novel Saturday evening with the feeling that this will be the one, certainly worth toasting myself over with a glass of affordable red wine. Now, like a bread dough manuscript, I'll let it rise over the holidays when I'll punch it down to its best consistency.
This isn't my first manuscript, but I do know more about the writing process than I did while writing the others and may go back some time and take another crack at them. I realized some interesting things with completing this draft:
- I love and already miss my characters
- I need them and their world to become a second novel
- I have much revision ahead of me
- I can't wait to get back to it, but will so I can read it with fresh eyes
Write on. 
With chocolate readily available.
Keeping Your Fiction Draft on Track
Head down, fingers on the key board, typing furiously to keep up with your mind. It's a good writing day. But wait, you think, looking the words over. So And So would never do this. Even if she tried to, she'd be running in circles and never get where she needs to be... Your story has taken the wrong train.
Making mistakes while learning how to navigate the Boston transit system and around Massachusetts on subway trains, buses, and commuter rails has taught me a few things that I can apply to my writing:
- Not paying attention will cause me to miss my stop. Yep. Every time.
- Taking the wrong train can take me far, really far from my destination.
- Asking for help from someone who nows the route saves time and sanity.
- If I just can't get it right, I can always return to the hub, be it South Station or the previous chapter, and start again.
Write on, and watch where you're going, my friends. 
Pen Names
Ever wonder why some writers publish under a different name? I'd imagine there are as many reasons are there are writers, ranging from witness protection to just feeling like it. I have two, myself, neither of which is especially bizarre.
I write fiction and nonfiction and decided to keep them separate. So, Maggie Goins is the name I use for articles, personal essays, etc.
My father, Al D'Amato, is the other reason. In the last years of his life we talked many things over, father and daughter, senior citizens at the same time. He was very pleased that I was writing, having done so when he was younger. I had only small successes to share with him before he had to go. I was his only child, and I often wished I'd kept my maiden name, so I'm doing the next best thing.
I write my young adult fiction as Maggie J D'Amato, and I hope, somewhere on the other side, that makes him smile.
Visit my new social media:
www.maggiejdamato.com
and
www.soultopage.blogspot.com
The Attack of the Cantankerous Cottonwood
It's still snowing when we wake up- that wet, heavy New England kind of snow.
In the early light, Husband dons boots and coveralls and ventures outside to assess the kingdom.
"It's really scary out there, ya know?" he asks on his return.
I nod and pull my quilt up higher around me.
"The creaking. The snapping..."
Who wouldn't feel a degree of unease seeing almost as many branches on the ground as there are leaves? Large trees still wearing their fall colors break under the snow's weight. Small trees bend and curl up in the fetal position, quickly covered with a blanket of snow.
I get up and head for the master bathroom. A huge crash on the other side of the closed door shakes the house. Husband runs to the bedroom yelling, "where are you?" I open the door a crack and peak into the bedroom, and seeing four walls still standing, come out.
"Look!"
I gasp and 'reet! reet! reet!' screams in my mind. A branch about 2" in diameter and over a foot long pokes through the ceiling into my bedroom. A layer of ceiling bits and pieces covers the floor and bed under it. How big of a branch needs to fall on a roof for an impalement through a roof, attic, and ceiling?
Really, a person should feel safe inside their house, especially where they sleep. But, the season is upon us, and anything can befall us in the midst of it, wherever we are.
Moohoowaahahaha...
Happy Halloween
and stay leery, my friends 
Writing Word Counts
I want to reach my goal of finishing the first draft of my novel by the end of November. That way I can set it aside and start my revisions after the holidays to get it ready to pitch at the Northern Colorado Writers Conference the end of March. I really, really want and need an agent to represent me.
A wise, experienced author told us recently in a class that once you reach the story's climax, the rest pretty much writes itself. I so want that to be true, because that's exactly where I am right now. NaNoWriMo is next month, when many writers commit to writing a novel in November. If they can do it, so can I. Especially since I'm not the speediest writer in the west and I'm more than half way through. I laugh at myself for feeling this is a daunting task. I've written for magazines with a word count. I can research a topic for an assignment and spit out the length they ask for without breaking a sweat. But, this is different.
In writing my novel, I have to create characters who find themselves in trouble, unable to get what they want or need, until they just can't go on unless something changes. They have to make the change and grow in some way to move forward or survive. And, in the end, all the dots must be connected to reveal a satisfying conclusion.
Sounds as if I'd better write on here...
Fiction's First Draft
When I write a novel's first draft, I just pour it out. For me, it's just a skeleton and maybe there's a leg where an arm should be, I don't know yet. Yes, it is just bare bones. Does it need to be 'fleshed out' as they say? Yes, and rearranged and details and description added. Maybe this is my version of an outline. I'm not sure. Every time I show these bare bones to a writer who doesn't write that way, I feel the weight of their critique to the extreme and regret sharing it.
Yeah, that's very much the personal problem it sounds like. Believe it or not, I have grown a thicker skin as a writer, but I still have my tender areas. I guess that I could compare showing some other writer my first draft in progress to the beginning of cooking a meal: the pot of water is on the stove and beginning to boil. A person in my kitchen says, "Wow. You need to add something to that water, pasta or potatoes..." Really?
That being ranted, each writer has his or her method of getting the story told. In the end, if the story is well constructed and compelling, the end has justified the writer's means, correct or not. Neurotic or not.
Write on.
Fall Days, Writing Ways
I love the beauty of fall, the cozy feel of the earlier sunset, the crisp coolness. Fall, to me, is the start of my new writing year.
I'm not sure when I started feeling that way or why. Maybe it has to do with the kids going back to school, starting their studies again, buying fresh school supplies. And really, what writer doesn't love the new notebook, the perfect pen or pencil just out of the package? These are symbols of another start and of time to set new goals.
Join me and take today to look at the goals you've set and evaluate how and what you're doing to make your dreams come true. Where can you make changes? What do you need to focus on right now? How can you make the best use of your time?
Happy Writing New Year.
Write on.
What Happens When a Writer Goes on a Retreat?
For me, complete writing focus. The Northern Colorado Writers Annual Retreat at Sylvan Dale Ranch this month was perfect. I would find it impossible to not feel focused in a beautiful, restful setting free from life's usual responsibilities. Maybe that would be enough for me, but it wasn't all.
As a group of writers housed in the same building, we were expected to write. For hours. And respect the atmosphere of quiet surrounding us. We had meals together and could socialize in the evenings, but we could just write away if we wanted, wherever we chose to: in our own room, by the river, on a couch, sitting on a porch... Ahh. If I could only have boxed up the focus, peace, and serenity and taken it home with me.
Wait. Maybe I did.
Critique groups and writing buddies
My critique group pretty much dissolved this week. We were together for 3 years, but it became a 'it's not you, it's me' type of break up for more than half of us. This is sad in some ways, but a relief in more ways. Some of us will keep in touch. So, what next, I ask?
I find I write much more and with more freedom on my own. I don't need to present a chapter to a group on a schedule so they can tell me what I need to do to fix it. Fixing will come later, lots and lots of fixing. Once the first draft is done and I've put it away for a while, I'll take it out and look it over, see what I think. Then it will be ready for others to see and comment on. This process feels somewhat like a pregnancy: personal and private while it's developing. Later, others will get to know my baby. After I do.
Without a group to hold me accountable, will I keep going? Yes, I really need to. Everything's about the story and the characters now. Day and night. Awake or asleep.
But, how about a writing buddy? One that writes young adult fiction. One that will get me and my writing. Someone to share the process with regularly, if in no other way than discussing it, online or in person... Sounds like a nice possibility. 
Great writers, heroes, mentors
The best way to learn how to write is from great writers. Here are some of my favorites.
I'm so excited about GLOW, coming out in September. Reading it now and loving it. Go Amy, author and new mother extraordinaire.
News:
Hurray! GLOW was mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article. Follow the link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903392904576512662132313674.html?KEYWORDS=glowTodd Mitchell's class yesterday, "Plotting and Shaping Compelling Stories," helped me gather the tools I need to build the first draft of my YA novel, KNOWERS. Read his award winning novel THE SECRET TO LYING. I hope for more opportunities to learn from him.
Kerrie Flanagan, Director of Northern Colorado Writers
She has made it her mission to help every writer who comes to her. Her classes at NCW, such as Mitchell's yesterday, Ryan's, and certainly those taught by her, are and will continue to be a lighthouse to help me find my way through my writer's fog.
Who are some of your writing mentors?
