I used to love to collect things. Lots and lots of things. I've never been a hoarder, but I had things I collected, and I would collect anything that pertain to it. Like coins. I have a huge coin collection. And Beanie Babies. And collector's editions of magazines.
In the last ten years, I've moved a lot. Most things have stayed in my parents' basement, because there was room for it there. I've done without a lot of things while I moved to and from England several times. And it's amazing what you don't miss. I didn't miss any of that stuff I'd collected. I collected a few other things, but each time I moved back to Canada I got rid of a lot of stuff. My goal was if it didn't fit in two book boxes and two suitcases, it wasn't coming back with me. And I was pretty good about that (I was better the second time around).
But since I've been back I've been purging. And I realise this comes from the time I lived in England and the travelling I've done. You learn to live without a lot of things. But in England, I learned to give stuff away. Charity donations of stuff is big over there, and nearly every month I made a trip to one of the shops to hand over a bag, and most people I knew did the same. It became a thing: the seasonal purge of stuff for the donation box. And as time went by, I got more selective about what I bought or acquired. I started to judge things by whether I actually needed them or not.
That has continued. I have no money now, so not buying stuff is rather a necessity. But even if I did have money, I've become more deserving about asking 'want or need?' And if it's want, it almost always goes back on the shelf.
It feels great to get rid of things. I've got boxes of stuff in the basement I haven't looked at in 10 years. That's a long time to go without something, so out it goes. It feels good to donate. It feels even better to purge. A lot of people collect stuff, or keep stuff they don't need, because they have space or because they think 'I'll need it one day'. But we hold on to a lot of things and things take the place of people. Or happiness. Or whatever you feel you're missing in life.
Getting rid of almost everything has taught me that there are things missing in my life. Important things. And stuff will not replace those empty spaces. I need to fill them with love, with a partner, with a career I adore, with close friends I love. Stuff won't fill them up, and it's only been a bandaid over the years.
But getting rid of stuff? It just feels good. I've always loved spring cleaning, and doing it every week of the year is liberating! Freeing! It feels amazing to rid myself of baggage and start fresh.
There's a world out there and I want to see it and live in it. And now I can, with just a couple of suitcases. The nice thing about that? I can take them with me on the plane. No more shipping internationally. No more boxes and boxes of crap I don't need living 3000 miles from me. Just my clothes, my dearest possessions, and people. And those you can take anywhere.
Monday, March 21, 2016
Monday, March 14, 2016
Who Is Halton?
I live in the Halton region of Ontario. It's one of the oldest counties in the province and it has quite an interesting history, at least by Canadian standards. I've been learning a lot about its history lately, because I'm working on a research project for an exhibition that will open in the autumn called Who Is Halton? about the people of the region, past and present.
We're lucky enough to have a map that dates to 1858 of the Halton region. On it is every land owner in the community in that year. There's quite literally hundreds of names, some so small and badly faded they're impossible to read. But quite a lot of them are clear, and I've been researching each name in turn and finding some incredibly interesting individuals! There's the owner of a shipyard who built ships for his brother, the captain. There's the doctor who devoted his life to helping the sick. There's the founding families of Oakville, Burlington, Georgetown and half a dozen other towns. There's just so much history here, and I think we often forget that, because Canada is so 'new', but Halton is 50 years older, and there are counties here twenty years older than that and that date back to the American War of Independence, which is the founding of America, after all, so pretty old. And there's a lot of history tied up between the two countries back then, and it's kind of interesting to see how many people settled in this region from the States, or from the UK via the States.
But I think it's the really personal stories I've been finding that are really the most interesting. There was the gentleman who's first wife died in childbirth and he remarried so his children would have a mother. And there's the guy that had two different mills burn down. And there's the Chisholm family, who is confusing enough I had to actually look up the family tree to figure out who everyone was, but it was worth it because I've been obsessed with the Erchless Estate since I was little. And I really liked learning about all the men who were the first postmasters in their respective communities and I spend a lot of time envisioning life a la Lark Rise to Candleford.
I'm having a lot of fun, anyways, researching all of this, but we've also been doing a lot of talking with people in the current community, to get their stories. It's so interesting to research these 'original inhabitants' and then contrast them with the current people who live there. I can say my own family has been here for 84 years, and I've been here for 32. That's a huge amount of history. But my favourite thing has been meeting people who have only been here a few years and finding out what brought them to Halton. Those are the truly amazing stories I'm looking forward to telling in this exhibition. Stay tuned for more!
We're lucky enough to have a map that dates to 1858 of the Halton region. On it is every land owner in the community in that year. There's quite literally hundreds of names, some so small and badly faded they're impossible to read. But quite a lot of them are clear, and I've been researching each name in turn and finding some incredibly interesting individuals! There's the owner of a shipyard who built ships for his brother, the captain. There's the doctor who devoted his life to helping the sick. There's the founding families of Oakville, Burlington, Georgetown and half a dozen other towns. There's just so much history here, and I think we often forget that, because Canada is so 'new', but Halton is 50 years older, and there are counties here twenty years older than that and that date back to the American War of Independence, which is the founding of America, after all, so pretty old. And there's a lot of history tied up between the two countries back then, and it's kind of interesting to see how many people settled in this region from the States, or from the UK via the States.
But I think it's the really personal stories I've been finding that are really the most interesting. There was the gentleman who's first wife died in childbirth and he remarried so his children would have a mother. And there's the guy that had two different mills burn down. And there's the Chisholm family, who is confusing enough I had to actually look up the family tree to figure out who everyone was, but it was worth it because I've been obsessed with the Erchless Estate since I was little. And I really liked learning about all the men who were the first postmasters in their respective communities and I spend a lot of time envisioning life a la Lark Rise to Candleford.
I'm having a lot of fun, anyways, researching all of this, but we've also been doing a lot of talking with people in the current community, to get their stories. It's so interesting to research these 'original inhabitants' and then contrast them with the current people who live there. I can say my own family has been here for 84 years, and I've been here for 32. That's a huge amount of history. But my favourite thing has been meeting people who have only been here a few years and finding out what brought them to Halton. Those are the truly amazing stories I'm looking forward to telling in this exhibition. Stay tuned for more!
Saturday, February 27, 2016
How to Write a Synopsis
Here's the thing, after a great deal of research, it seems that a lot of agents still ask for a synopsis and not just a query letter (or actual pages). So, as well as working on editing and editing and re-editing the query letter (and still editing the novel), I'm also writing a synopsis.
Google was particularly unhelpful when I asked it how to do this. It was super helpful with the query letter, so I was rather disappointed by this. Most of the links that came up said things like 'there's not one way to write a synopsis' or 'everyone has a different way to do this' or 'it's hard to give advise on the dreaded synopsis'.
None of those filled me with much confidence. But after a bunch of sites, it became apparent that even if there is not 'one way', there is a bunch of things NOT to do, and there's a few things that YOU MUST do. Unsurprisingly, neither of these lists were as clear-cut as the query letter ones. Are you getting a theme here?
One of my favourite things on the NOT to do list was: don't make it sound like a story. And for a while that confused me a lot, because it's the synopsis of a story, how can it not sound like a story? But after reading a bunch of sample synopses online, I realized what they were getting at. It's supposed to be boring. It's supposed to be 'this is what happens' and then 'this is what happened afterwards'.
That doesn't mean it has to be dry as dust or just a statement of events. One of the best pieces of advice Google gave me was to remember to put emotion into the synopsis. The story is all about how the characters feel and react to the events that happen, and the synopsis has to convey that. So it can't just be all 'Character X goes to a party and meets character Y.' 'Character Y is a bad boy and isn't good for her'. 'Character X falls in love with character Y.' OMG I'm bored already. There's no emotion in that. There's no story in that. It shouldn't sound like a story, but it should clearly show that you've written a story. A story is not just a bunch of things happening. It has to have emotion.
Now how to show that in the synopsis. Well, I'll get back to you, shall I, because I'm still writing it. Like the query letter, it's a work in progress. It takes time. It takes a lot of rewriting and reworking. It takes a lot of editing. And a lot of having other people read it and tell me how wrong it is. I'm not sure I'll ever be 'happy' with it, but I will reach the stage that I have to let it go. And hopefully, at the end of the day, the query will make the first impression...and the synopsis won't blow it too badly.
Google was particularly unhelpful when I asked it how to do this. It was super helpful with the query letter, so I was rather disappointed by this. Most of the links that came up said things like 'there's not one way to write a synopsis' or 'everyone has a different way to do this' or 'it's hard to give advise on the dreaded synopsis'.
None of those filled me with much confidence. But after a bunch of sites, it became apparent that even if there is not 'one way', there is a bunch of things NOT to do, and there's a few things that YOU MUST do. Unsurprisingly, neither of these lists were as clear-cut as the query letter ones. Are you getting a theme here?
One of my favourite things on the NOT to do list was: don't make it sound like a story. And for a while that confused me a lot, because it's the synopsis of a story, how can it not sound like a story? But after reading a bunch of sample synopses online, I realized what they were getting at. It's supposed to be boring. It's supposed to be 'this is what happens' and then 'this is what happened afterwards'.
That doesn't mean it has to be dry as dust or just a statement of events. One of the best pieces of advice Google gave me was to remember to put emotion into the synopsis. The story is all about how the characters feel and react to the events that happen, and the synopsis has to convey that. So it can't just be all 'Character X goes to a party and meets character Y.' 'Character Y is a bad boy and isn't good for her'. 'Character X falls in love with character Y.' OMG I'm bored already. There's no emotion in that. There's no story in that. It shouldn't sound like a story, but it should clearly show that you've written a story. A story is not just a bunch of things happening. It has to have emotion.
Now how to show that in the synopsis. Well, I'll get back to you, shall I, because I'm still writing it. Like the query letter, it's a work in progress. It takes time. It takes a lot of rewriting and reworking. It takes a lot of editing. And a lot of having other people read it and tell me how wrong it is. I'm not sure I'll ever be 'happy' with it, but I will reach the stage that I have to let it go. And hopefully, at the end of the day, the query will make the first impression...and the synopsis won't blow it too badly.
Monday, February 15, 2016
The Dreaded Query Letter
I've been clandestinely working on a query letter for months now. Perhaps even since I first started writing the novel. For purposes of being mysterious, I'm going to call that novel Jordan Valley in these blog posts, but that is only its working title. I have a secret one I prefer and hope ends up being the published title.
After I had the novel written (which was by last spring) I started crafting a pitch for it. I kept it to 200 words, even though I know a pitch is often only a 100. I re-wrote it several times, then had a friend review it, then worked on it again. A few weeks ago, I took that pitch and started to write it into a query letter.
Janet Reid suggests a good query letter will take about two months to write, with several iterations. I guess one could say I've been working on this one for about that long, if you count the number of times I re-wrote the pitch. I've used most of that pitch in the query, but restructured it to fit the format Reid suggests.
If you haven't encountered Janet Reid, and are attempting to query a novel, I don't know where you've been. Her blog Query Shark is indispensable. There is a lot of information online about how to write a query. Reid offers a lot of information of how not to, and that's actually more useful. There are hundreds of queries she's critiqued, and also many of them give multiple iterations, so you can see how the author evolved the query with Reid's help. A lot of it may seem like common sense, but obviously there are a lot of people out there writing bad queries. And although a good query doesn't guarantee a book deal...it certainly helps a great deal.
I'm still working on it, and then it's going to go to a lot of people before it goes anywhere near an agent. Because that is how you do it.
[Also, because that's how long it's going to take me to work up the courage to actually send the damn thing out to anyone.]
After I had the novel written (which was by last spring) I started crafting a pitch for it. I kept it to 200 words, even though I know a pitch is often only a 100. I re-wrote it several times, then had a friend review it, then worked on it again. A few weeks ago, I took that pitch and started to write it into a query letter.
Janet Reid suggests a good query letter will take about two months to write, with several iterations. I guess one could say I've been working on this one for about that long, if you count the number of times I re-wrote the pitch. I've used most of that pitch in the query, but restructured it to fit the format Reid suggests.
If you haven't encountered Janet Reid, and are attempting to query a novel, I don't know where you've been. Her blog Query Shark is indispensable. There is a lot of information online about how to write a query. Reid offers a lot of information of how not to, and that's actually more useful. There are hundreds of queries she's critiqued, and also many of them give multiple iterations, so you can see how the author evolved the query with Reid's help. A lot of it may seem like common sense, but obviously there are a lot of people out there writing bad queries. And although a good query doesn't guarantee a book deal...it certainly helps a great deal.
I'm still working on it, and then it's going to go to a lot of people before it goes anywhere near an agent. Because that is how you do it.
[Also, because that's how long it's going to take me to work up the courage to actually send the damn thing out to anyone.]
Saturday, February 13, 2016
What Happens After NaNo
I talk a lot about NaNo, but beyond complaining about editing, I haven't really talked about the afterwards. Often, there isn't an afterwards. Half-finished or un-edited novels languish on hard drives the world over and no one ever gives them a second glance.
That is what happened with my first two novels. I finished them, but I never edited them. Mostly, I thought they were crap and might as well be rewritten from scratch than edited.
But in 2014 I wrote a novel for NaNo that I didn't think was an utter waste of words. I spent all of last year editing it, and even had it test read. I'm still polishing up the last few things on my long list of 'issues', but at least those are the little things like continuity of hair colour and making sure the calendar is right (there are a lot of events that happen in a very few number of days - and there are still only 24 hours in a day in this world).
Editing was not fun. There were times it was, but overall it was as hard work as writing the novel had been, and that hadn't been easy. This was not one of those 'words flowed onto the page' novels. This was a lot of work to outline, plot, world build, and then write. And it was just as hard to edit afterwards. It was scary as anything to have test read, because I've offered up plenty of my writing for public consumption, but never let a single person near my novels. Asking people to 'please read this and give me your brutally honest opinion' is terrifying. There's no way to do it without thinking 'what if they say it's awful and I should just delete it?'
They didn't, thankfully. They were actually very supportive and very helpful, and found issues I hadn't noticed. One of them was especially excited, because it was exactly her sort of genre and she fell in love with the story. Which is always a nice pick-me-up. That didn't mean she didn't send me a long list of questions, though, but at least I know what I have now is something she'd pick up off a book shelf. So I have a reading audience of one. It's a start.
Now I'm struggling with the next big thing: building an audience and a brand. I have no desire to self-publish (unless I exhaust every other avenue), but I still want to position myself in a way that will appeal to agents. I don't have a website (well, not one that's public anymore - thankfully), but I do have this blog. And so it's going to become much more writing focused in the coming weeks. And I'm going to be much more honest about the nitty-gritty. This is just the introduction post.
That is what happened with my first two novels. I finished them, but I never edited them. Mostly, I thought they were crap and might as well be rewritten from scratch than edited.
But in 2014 I wrote a novel for NaNo that I didn't think was an utter waste of words. I spent all of last year editing it, and even had it test read. I'm still polishing up the last few things on my long list of 'issues', but at least those are the little things like continuity of hair colour and making sure the calendar is right (there are a lot of events that happen in a very few number of days - and there are still only 24 hours in a day in this world).
Editing was not fun. There were times it was, but overall it was as hard work as writing the novel had been, and that hadn't been easy. This was not one of those 'words flowed onto the page' novels. This was a lot of work to outline, plot, world build, and then write. And it was just as hard to edit afterwards. It was scary as anything to have test read, because I've offered up plenty of my writing for public consumption, but never let a single person near my novels. Asking people to 'please read this and give me your brutally honest opinion' is terrifying. There's no way to do it without thinking 'what if they say it's awful and I should just delete it?'
They didn't, thankfully. They were actually very supportive and very helpful, and found issues I hadn't noticed. One of them was especially excited, because it was exactly her sort of genre and she fell in love with the story. Which is always a nice pick-me-up. That didn't mean she didn't send me a long list of questions, though, but at least I know what I have now is something she'd pick up off a book shelf. So I have a reading audience of one. It's a start.
Now I'm struggling with the next big thing: building an audience and a brand. I have no desire to self-publish (unless I exhaust every other avenue), but I still want to position myself in a way that will appeal to agents. I don't have a website (well, not one that's public anymore - thankfully), but I do have this blog. And so it's going to become much more writing focused in the coming weeks. And I'm going to be much more honest about the nitty-gritty. This is just the introduction post.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
10 Things About Iceland
[Well, Reykjavik, specifically.]
There was a lot to like about Iceland, even in January. More than enough for me to want to go back (even in January!).
1. Icelanders are unfailingly polite and very kind. And they all speak better English than many native English speakers, which I always find impressive.
2. Barren landscapes are stunningly beautiful, especially when the weather is awful. There is just something about deserts and tundras that are so very simple, and so very beautiful because of it. And Iceland has a lot of barren landscapes.
3. Reykjavik is so small it's the easiest European capital to get around I've ever visited. Even in winter weather, walking to everything was super easy and nothing was further than 15 minutes away.
4. It doesn't take long to hit wilderness. Everywhere outside the city offers something for nature lovers. In fact, it might just offer everything for nature lovers. I didn't find anything that isn't available in some part of the island! That's not bad for such a small country.
5. If you love fish, you'll love Iceland. Everything is very expensive there, but fish is actually decently priced and ALWAYS fresh. How can you go wrong?
6. The tea options are good, but the coffee is even better.
7. It's really close to Europe. Comparatively. And cheap to fly there.
8. There are dozens and dozens of museums and they are all worth a visit.
9. It's very expensive, but like most places that are expensive, it's also exceedingly safe. You can walk down a city street at 2am and not worry and I appreciate that in a travel destination.
10. This country is worth a visit 365 days a year, and it's hard to say which of those days would be better than others. I think they'd all be brilliant.
There was a lot to like about Iceland, even in January. More than enough for me to want to go back (even in January!).
1. Icelanders are unfailingly polite and very kind. And they all speak better English than many native English speakers, which I always find impressive.
2. Barren landscapes are stunningly beautiful, especially when the weather is awful. There is just something about deserts and tundras that are so very simple, and so very beautiful because of it. And Iceland has a lot of barren landscapes.
3. Reykjavik is so small it's the easiest European capital to get around I've ever visited. Even in winter weather, walking to everything was super easy and nothing was further than 15 minutes away.
4. It doesn't take long to hit wilderness. Everywhere outside the city offers something for nature lovers. In fact, it might just offer everything for nature lovers. I didn't find anything that isn't available in some part of the island! That's not bad for such a small country.
5. If you love fish, you'll love Iceland. Everything is very expensive there, but fish is actually decently priced and ALWAYS fresh. How can you go wrong?
6. The tea options are good, but the coffee is even better.
7. It's really close to Europe. Comparatively. And cheap to fly there.
8. There are dozens and dozens of museums and they are all worth a visit.
9. It's very expensive, but like most places that are expensive, it's also exceedingly safe. You can walk down a city street at 2am and not worry and I appreciate that in a travel destination.
10. This country is worth a visit 365 days a year, and it's hard to say which of those days would be better than others. I think they'd all be brilliant.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Plans within Plans
So it's 2016. Last year was going to be my Year of Awesomeness, but then my viva happened and it ended up just being another year of my PhD. Whatever. I'm over it.
[I'm not.]
Instead, I shall move on to 2016 being my Year of Awesome Things. It's looking good so far. There's quite a bit of travelling planned, including to new places. There's scuba diving again, and hiking, both things I've missed. There's a museum internship and potential for research projects. There's a book review and peer review for academic journals. There is one novel finished, and two more to complete this year. There's the very scary process of finding an agent (next step!) and hopefully getting a book contract. There is a definitive plan to move into my own place (or at the worst, move in with a friend). There is also a still dream-like plan to get out of dodge completely and jump ship to another continent. This probably will not happen until 2017, but if it does, I'll be planning and setting the stage this year.
There are also the less tangible things, like stop apologizing so much. Stop regretting things and go out and do them instead. Stop feeling guilty for having bad days. Get my mental health into a much better place (I feel this will probably always be a work in progress, but making progress this year would be a good thing). Being better at seeing friends (and new friends!). Socializing more, but not so much it makes me miserable. Enjoy winter more (and get outside in it). Stop feeling ashamed of many things that are not my fault and that I in no way should apologize for, because they are not my fault. Embrace a new lifestyle and stop living like a student.
Take each day as it comes - and if something happens I didn't expect, go with it - be spontaneous, break the mould (and the schedule), try new things, meet new people (and don't freak out), love life a bit more.
[I'm not.]
Instead, I shall move on to 2016 being my Year of Awesome Things. It's looking good so far. There's quite a bit of travelling planned, including to new places. There's scuba diving again, and hiking, both things I've missed. There's a museum internship and potential for research projects. There's a book review and peer review for academic journals. There is one novel finished, and two more to complete this year. There's the very scary process of finding an agent (next step!) and hopefully getting a book contract. There is a definitive plan to move into my own place (or at the worst, move in with a friend). There is also a still dream-like plan to get out of dodge completely and jump ship to another continent. This probably will not happen until 2017, but if it does, I'll be planning and setting the stage this year.
There are also the less tangible things, like stop apologizing so much. Stop regretting things and go out and do them instead. Stop feeling guilty for having bad days. Get my mental health into a much better place (I feel this will probably always be a work in progress, but making progress this year would be a good thing). Being better at seeing friends (and new friends!). Socializing more, but not so much it makes me miserable. Enjoy winter more (and get outside in it). Stop feeling ashamed of many things that are not my fault and that I in no way should apologize for, because they are not my fault. Embrace a new lifestyle and stop living like a student.
Take each day as it comes - and if something happens I didn't expect, go with it - be spontaneous, break the mould (and the schedule), try new things, meet new people (and don't freak out), love life a bit more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)