getting down to it

Today is one of these wonderful Saturdays alone at home when it seems possible to get everything done at a leisurely pace...until about four or five or whenever o'clock when I realize I need to scramble to order to get ready to go out.

For a few years now (five?), my friends and I have been going out for dinner to celebrate Lunar New Year. Traditions/superstitions passed along by J's mom and rigorously followed ever since dictate that the apartment needs to be scrubbed clean, the laundry must all be done (and dried), and, if possible, a bowl of eight oranges needs to be obtained and placed auspiciously on a newly tidy kitchen table. At least, this is what I do. Sometimes it takes the threat of a whole year of bad luck to really inspire a good deep clean, and that's what on today's agenda. Though I really ought to have started earlier! But there' s still Sunday night if I don't happen to finish.

The dishes have been done (does anyone else clean their apartment in a certain order?), coffee has been made and nearly finished (hence the blogging break), and laundry is about to be put on.

In other, actually more interesting news: I finally got my notes on the new draft of my novel yesterday! So once I've taken the time to reread the draft (a task I dread less than usual), I can dive back into revising. I've now spent even more time away from it than I spent on the revision itself (three months), and looking over the notes, a few things were even a little fuzzy in my memory. I'm happy to have something focused to dive into right at the start of the Year of the Dragon. New year, new work.

Before the day is over, I also have to track down something to wrap some little gifts before tonight. (I'm happy with what I managed to pick up on my way home...I'll post a photo if I have time.) I'm also behind schedule on picking up red envelopes for the children in my life, but I'm hoping the stores in Chinatown will be open late this time of year, so I can pick them up before dinner.

podcasts, Skype, tax fantasies

I’ve been listening to podcasts lately (finally). Radiolab is my current favourite. It’s probably a reflection on the sad, stale state of my music collection, but I’ve been having a great time putting them on while I’m cooking or doing the dishes. This month I’ve also Skyped for only the second time ever. I see more of both in my future.

These days one of my fantasies (hold onto your hats!) involves doing my taxes early and oh-so-leisurely. Ever since a procrastination-induced panic attack during my third year of university, I have been extremely careful not to cut things too close. In fact, starting a very short project only two or three days before a deadline is enough to almost make me nervous and uncomfortable at this point…even if it leaves me plenty of time to start and finish. It makes for some inefficient work -- there’s no doubt that deadline pressure is effective in getting things rolling, and I understand perfectly why people leave things to the last minute, as I relied on this method for virtually all of my undergraduate papers – but I’ll happily accept some inefficiency as the price of peace of mind. I like to do my taxes over a few evenings – it takes that long to organize all my receipts – with a glass of wine. It makes me feel wonderfully organized and competent, as well as a little buzzed.

Another daydream is that Instagram will hurry up and make an Android version of their app, which was one of my favourites before I ditched my iPhone (or rather, relegated it to the practical status of an iPod touch). I love the dreamy, retro style photos it makes, and there’s nothing else quite like it. I can still use it on my iPhone when I log into wireless, but it’s definitely less convenient. Hurry up, wonderful Instagram!

Also there has been a lot of this here lately:

A Monday Morning in Montréal from CloudRaker on Vimeo.

The good thing about a snowstorm is that it usually means it's (relatively) warm out. What a strange country we live in!

this and that

I’ve been slowly updating the list of links in the sidebar. Since becoming a blog slacker, I’ve been relying exclusively on my wildly disorganized (or formerly organized but now ossified and only marginally useful) set of folders on Google Reader. Meanwhile, check out the new additions!

Exchanged some more emails today re: a freelancing payment I am still waiting on from something I wrote back in August. In this case, and upon request, I had invoiced promptly – the very same day I filed the story. But such is the life of a freelancer. I am full of admiration for people who can survive on this kind of piecemeal salary, and no doubt those who are most successful at it have (one hopes) at least a few reliable gigs to bank on. But I am far too practical/anxiety-ridden when it comes to money matters to be able to try this at the moment.

The best thing I have read lately is a letter from John Steinbeck to his son on the subject of love. It has reminded me of grandness of Steinbeck’s heart, and it is good, warm, soul-expanding advice. I found it via the wonderful Classic Penguin tumblr, but it was originally posted on Letters of Note, a site I'm very happy to know about.

The best thing I saw earlier this week was the amazing Can Lit is Sexy tumblr. I hope whoever is doing it keeps it up!

And the last thing worth sharing is the great sale being run by ECW Press. Buy any Spring 2012 title and get the eBook for free. A terrific deal!

Taking stock on old resoutions

I was going to take stock of how well I achieved my 2011 New Year’s Resolutions, but then I saw that the last ones I posted were at the beginning of 2010. I also saw that I only posted three times in all of 2011…clearly a resolution waiting to happen right there.

So I’ve had two years to work on these goals:

Read more American fiction

I did this, a little, though less than I would have liked. (Then again, I would prefer to have read more of everything, in every category.) I read The Corrections (yes, finally), A Visit From the Goon Squad (really amazing), We Need To Talk About Kevin (really good…very curious to see the movie, especially as Tilda Swinton seems like perfect casting), Home (tremendous), The Human Stain (the only Philip Roth I’d read before was Portnoy’s Complaint…my, what I’ve been missing), and Mr. Peanut (a totally dark and amazingly clever novel about marriage and murder). This last one was recommended to me by another amazing American writer, Joanna Pearson, whose novel The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills is the perfect YA treat. (YA = Young Adult, for those of you who don’t occasionally take great pleasure in dipping into what’s available for the younger set.)

Read more British fiction Unless you count rereading Villette, the only British novel I’m sure I’ve read is The Little Stranger. It’s a great story – I got spooked reading it – and it was the perfect companion piece to Downton Abbey, which I got swept up in last January. Oh no, wait! At some point I also read Skippy Dies (solid, enjoyable).

Read more poetry Yes, I absolutely did! Not only did I read a fair bit from the library, but I'm also fortunate enough to know a number of amazing poets who've published books recently. I promise you will not be disappointed by any of the following: Hypotheticals by Leigh Kotsilidis, The Id Kid by Linda Besner, A Complete Encyclopedia of Different Types of People by Gabe Foreman, and All This Could Be Yours by Joshua Trotter. Now I just need people to do this all the time and I'll be totally covered on the poetry front.

Finish my novel Well, what does finish really mean? I finished and submitted the initial draft I’m sure I was referring to here. And then another. And…one more? And now I’m waiting for notes. That’s about as much as I feel like saying about this right now.

Write another one Hahaha, it is to laugh. Well, not really. I have two other serious projects underway, and a few other less ambitious things somewhat started/imagined/idly planned. But a lot of major work needs to happen before this gets crossed off the to-do list. 

Try writing something in another genre Yes! A little. Though I haven’t tried submitting anything yet.

Conclusion: Decent progress? Unless you consider the fact that I had two years to work on these. (Secondary conclusion: time to make some new goals.)

resolution

I am thinking about New Year’s Resolutions, as always. The gap between January 1^st and the Lunar New Year leaves a little room for resolution-tweaking or reaffirmations. Sometimes the goals I write down are too ambitious, or too amorphous to be useful. Be a better friend. What does that mean? What does it look like? (Probably: go out more. Check in on people you miss. Plan Skype dates with people who live far away. Don’t let emails languish in your inbox for too long without a response.)

Writing with a full-time job and any semblance of a social life is always something that requires heaps of resolve. I’m not sure whether this is ever something that can go on auto-pilot. In order to get anything done, I have to remind myself of what I want most of all and then set to work doing what I have to do in order to achieve that. Just about every day. And even then, I don’t always listen to my inner drill sergeant. It’s so hard when the diligence required to produce pages seems at odds with building and maintaining friendships and relationships – the things that, besides work, are supposed to make life worth living.

I wish “Just Do It” wasn’t so irrevocably linked to that all-too-successful advertising campaign. It really is a powerful little message/mantra.

Things you may observe about editing a novel

Dishes accumulate more quickly than can be accounted for. In fact, all dishes and cutlery are dirty, in spite of the cessation of all cooking. (The most alarming thing about this is how little you are inclined to care.)

Your stomach never stops growling in spite of heretofore-unheard-of (read: confessed) indulgences sanctioned due to state of grievous emergency. (May include but not limited to Chinese takeout, energy drinks, garlic crackers, stale Cadbury mini-eggs.)

Most novels you will think about or pick up are better than your novel in its current state. (Heart-rendingly, soul-crushingly better.) Nevertheless, any momentary self-doubt cannot be given free rein to disrupt your terrified output of what you fervently hope is some reasonable approximation of brilliance.

How to edit a novel

First: leave it alone. For a long time. In fact, if you don't look at it even once for almost eleven months, that's just about perfect.

Then think about all the parts you remember that make you cringe. Resolve to do away with them. Remember how you imagined your novel back when it was something you were excited to start working on.

Next, get notes from a careful reader or editor. Believe them. Compare them to what you already know about problems in the novel. Think carefully about possible solutions.

Last: cut ruthlessly. Experience elation.

I'm kidding about the list (although it doesn't strike me as bad advice), but in my case, this is more or less what has happened. I received my notes from my editor on July 15 (seven single-spaced, 10-point font pages of awesome insight), and after one week of mulling and strategizing here in the city, I took two weeks of vacation in which I planned to make a big push on the edits.

And last night I got home from two wonderful weeks in the country where I had planned to buckle down and edit edit edit like crazy. And editing in this case was going to mean writing whole new sections from scratch, since I decided I wanted to cut about a third of the existing text.

I did a fair chunk, but not enough. There were other commitments and distractions (mostly good ones), and the summer is so short here, I thought I ought to give it its due, which meant hiking up mountains, trips to the water park, stargazing, and cookouts down by the lake. No regrets, but I'm going to have to make a strict plan for how to get through the rest of it.

At the moment, I'm 28,000 words lighter (though this is likely to change), and the novel is finally beginning to be something closer to what I imagined it back in 2007...before I started writing it.