A Melodious Sonnet

Writing Journal Day 3: Focus on the Big Rocks

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Day 3: Monday, 28 February

Current Draft: Garland of Praise
Today’s starting word count: 46,366 words (added 62 words last session)
Time worked last session: 55 minutes (total time so far: 2 hours 6 minutes)
Today’s goal: Edit for 2 hours
Goal level achieved last session: Bronze (edited for nearly an hour)

I’m back at it this afternoon, with thankfully not as long of a break in between these last two sessions.

I worked for nearly an hour last time (over an hour, counting writing the journal entry), and that mostly involved reading through the text. I did pick up on a few textual changes to make—words to add or swap around, sentences or phrases that didn’t flow well that I could update, etc. As I read, I also tried to take notes. I wrote down a summary of what is in each scene, and I’ve also been trying to take notes on the bigger issues at play—some of the bigger plot points that I will need to pay attention to in order to deliver a better story.

Once again, as I’ve discovered when reading for other authors, I’m much more of a line editor than a plot editor! It’s easy to pick up on a few little tweaks, but looking at the big picture? That’s a different ballgame altogether! While I’m concerned that that limitation might make my task harder, I’m also cautiously optimistic. This is a good chance for me to try to hone my skills at looking for the bigger pieces first, and the fiddly bits later. Something along the lines of the big rocks and little rocks illustration. I think it may have come from Stephen Covey—get your big rocks in first, and then fit the little rocks in around it.

Anyway, building blocks. That’s what I’m trying to focus on in this round.

I’m just over one chapter into the book so far, and one of the biggest things I’ve realized already is that I need to rework one of the main antagonist’s ways of fighting against the characters in my story. Since this is a fantasy/allegory, I’ve made up all the rules for this universe, and although it made sense in my brain at the time, I’m realizing there will likely be questions in readers’ minds about how some aspects of this world work. Already I’ve got one glaring question in mind, and unfortunately, I don’t think I did a good job covering that.

It’s fine to leave the reader to fill in some of the answers themselves…but questions need to be answered.

Each scene I read through brings up more what-if or must-clarify notes. There are so many options for how this story could come together in the end!

Today, I’m planning on continuing through the read-through. It’s already fairly late in the day, so I doubt I’ll hit my stated time goal, but I’m planning to do what I can. I’ll continue taking notes and trying to focus on those big-picture things:

  • How does this push the story as a whole forward?
  • Does this tell me something more about the characters, plot, or setting, or is it extraneous fluff?
  • Is there a way I can combine the essence and purpose of this scene with another scene to create a tighter, stronger read?
  • Is this chapter/scene plausible in the story and setting?
  • Are the characters staying true to themselves and their individual (internal as well as external) goals?

That last one, especially, is a big one for me right now—I realized just a few days ago that I have NO idea what some of my characters really want out of life, and I also don’t know what they’re good or terrible at. The idea is frightening, honestly, because that means that I’ve got characters in here that are little more than puppets with a bit of emotion thrown in here and there. One thing I need to spend a lot more time on over the next while is getting to know my characters, so they shine the way they need to on the page.

Well, enough blathering on for now. I’ve got lots to think about and consider, and a story to read over.

Have you heard of the big rocks and little rocks illustration before? Where could you apply that on your own tasks?

Writing Journal: Day 2

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Day 2: Thursday, 24 February

Current draft: Garland of Praise
Today’s starting word count: 46,304 words
Time worked last session: 1 hour 10 minutes (total time so far: 1 hour 10 minutes)
Today’s goals:

  • Bronze: 1 hour editing
  • Silver: 1 1/2 hours editing
  • Gold: 2 hours editing

Goal level achieved last session: Silver (1 hour spent editing)

I had grand hopes for the last two weeks in the writing sphere. As far as I knew, they were mostly “blank” weeks—some garden work perhaps, but nothing too major. Even though it was the busiest part of summer, I thought I’d be able to squeeze a bit of time in, surely.

Well . . . that didn’t happen. We had company for a while (which I loved), and the tomato harvest started with a bang. Honestly, I’ve had to fight some discouragement over the distractions away from the computer. And the few times when I could have stolen half an hour or an hour to work on it, my brain refused to even try to cooperate. But despite the discouragement, I’m back. It wasn’t the time to be working on it then, but it is now.

On day one, I managed to find all the puzzle pieces of this story and get it compiled into one cohesive whole. I didn’t have time to go beyond that and actually start the editing process, but that will happen today, Lord willing. My plan at first—to ease myself into the editing process—is to read through the entire thing, and take as many notes as I possibly can.

This story is still little more than a short story in my mind, although judging by the word count above, it’s a full-length novella! I’ll be interested to watch that word count over the next few weeks, to get a feel for how much I add or take away from the story. If I were honest, I’d hope that it will go down. I know there’s some fluff in here—not nearly as much as in some of my other stories, thankfully, but still some. 

After I do the full read-through, I’ll probably take some time to go over all my brainstorming notes, and see if there’s anything I missed—anything that needs to be put back in here. But that time will come.

For now, I’ve been given the precious gift of a few hours this afternoon to get some work done on this long-overdue project, and I’m grateful. Two weeks off or no, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.

An Entry in my Writing Journal

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A number of years ago, I mentioned following along with Shawn Smucker’s The Making of a Story. I found his encouragement and honesty refreshing, and it inspired me in my own writing journey. This year, he’s doing something similar—but this time in video format. Again, I’m inspired.

Over the years, I’ve written a lot. Starting with short stories in my school years, I soon progressed to novels, and although I haven’t gotten a huge number of those under my belt (I think I’m up around five by now, including a collection of short stories), I feel like I’ve learned some of the necessary rules around how to write. How to take what’s in my head and put it onto paper, how to figure out my stories, and string them together to make some sense, and, perhaps, something about how to plan them. I’ve got heaps to learn there, but as far as writing goes—as far as getting the first draft down—I feel like I’ve made good progress learning the craft.

But editing. Oh, editing is my nemesis. Some people love it, and hate the first draft experience—give me a first draft any day, and I’ll happily plug away at that for months, or years, if need be!

So . . . I’ve decided to try to tackle this enemy of mine. I’m joining the Author Olympics again this year. They’ve been going for several years, and this group of writers is super encouraging and inspiring! My goal for these next two weeks is to try to make a significant dent in one of my first drafts.

Yesterday, I pulled out an old draft to begin working on it. And today, I thought it would be fun to share with you my writing journal entry from yesterday. Welcome to this writer’s life!

This picture was part of my inspiration for the story I’m now working on editing. Photo courtesy of Khanh Steven on Unsplash.

Monday, 8 February – Day 1

Current Draft: Garland of Praise
Starting word count: 46,304 words
Today’s Author Olympics Goals:

  • Bronze: spend 30 min. editing
  • Silver: spend 1 hr. editing (finished with silver)
  • Gold: spend 1 1/2 hr. editing

Up to this point, I have learned how to successfully write stories—what it takes to sit down, chase the muse, and find a way to put what’s in my head onto the page.

Today, and for the next month, I am attempting to do the opposite with God’s help—I will be practicing taking what has already been written, and polishing it up into something worthy of sharing with others.

To be honest, it’s a daunting process. I’m planning on only giving myself one day at a time to look at it—one moment at a time, if need be, otherwise I will get too bogged down in details and fear of what might happen if I don’t get it right. “There’s always a third and fourth draft,” I tell myself frequently. “You don’t have to get it absolutely perfect the first time.”

I think one thing I dread is getting to the point where I’ve seen other writers—ones who have not published much—get mired in drafts 16 or 17 layers deep. That seems like the worst of all possibilities to me. I don’t want to go there.

But I also dread not doing enough. Lord, give me wisdom.

Today, I’m going to be pulling all the old writings out of my folders, and compiling them into a new file dedicated to the project. Once done, I’ll update the current word count number at the top of this entry. While that isn’t a direct indication of what’s going on in the draft, in the longrung, I think it will be a helpful metric to see how I’m doing overall.

This story was written over a longer period than I remembered initially. I started writing in September 2018 and finished in July 2019. My impression of the work was that it took 3-4 months to complete, but obviously, I was wrong. I also believe this is one of the most-brainstormed stories I have ever written. Aside from perhaps my most recent novel, this short story had several weeks of preparation before I ever started writing the first draft. Due to the length of time from start to finish, and the fact that I typically wrote only 1-200 words per day on the project, I’m sure I’ll find plenty of loopholes, missing information, and scenes that don’t need to be there.

After collating all the different bits of this story, I’m planning to read through it in its entirety, taking notes as I go as to what I think needs to be done to it. If I have any ideas for how to improve or tighten the story, I’ll jot those down too. I’m expecting this process to take several days in and of itself.

So far, I’m feeling optimistic. From my memory, this is one of the better stories I’ve written—keeping my attention up until I got to the end—and it’s also one of the tighter ones I’ve done. We’ll see if memory holds true! If it does, this may not require as much work as some of the other drafts!

Well, we’ll see how it goes from here. I was hoping to get to editing today—and expected I would yesterday—but several unexpected things happened today, so that didn’t happen. And tomorrow, I’ve got work, with company coming in the evening, so we’ll see if I can squeeze any time in.

What creative pursuits are you trying to incorporate more into your life? What could you deliberately be working on practicing now, even if it’s hard?

January’s Book List + 2022 Reading Goals

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I thought it would be fun to share with you the books I’m planning to read this month! Unfortunately, the month is already partially over, so I guess I should probably name this post “January and February’s Book List”, but anyway. . . .

So far this year, I’ve finished reading two books (one shorter, one longer) and while that can often be the extent of my month’s reading, I’m expecting I’ll get another two or maybe even three in by the end of the month if I keep up my current pace. I’m delighted! I’m loving the extra time I’ve had to read lately!

My goals for the year are similar to last year’s, although I’ve tried to dream a little bigger this year. Last year at this time, I was worn out—physically and emotionally—and my reading suffered because of that, I believe. Still, the Lord was gracious, and I’m so thankful for the progress I saw last year!

This year’s reading goals:

  1. Read and review 50 books
  2. Read 20 physical books (I default to Kindle books FAR too easily!)
  3. Read 10 nonfiction books (this is a hard one for me, but I think audiobooks may be the way to go)
  4. Read 3 classical books

I think that the last one has me the most excited. There are so many excellent old books out there that I’d love to read, and it’s hard to know which one to pick first! Currently, my mental list includes Parnassus on Wheels (Anne Bogel recommended it, and it sounds fun), Gulliver’s Travels, and Persuasion (I’ve listened to the audiobook before, but want to read it again—it’s one of my favorite Austen titles!). I’d also love to read more Dickens, George MacDonald, and have always dreamed of reading more by Tolstoy. We’ll see. I’m only going to focus on getting in three books for now, and we’ll see how that goes!

My January Book List:

Focusing on my second goal, I gathered together the books I’d love to read in this next month plus. In no particular order. . . .

Fire in the Sky by Shirley Corlett: Mom read this to us years ago, and I found it to be a fascinating historical fiction retelling of a tragedy that struck the North Island in 1886, when a volcano erupted.

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis: I started reading this series over a year ago, but didn’t get past the first two books. I’m hoping to finish this year.

Lifting up the Downcast by Patrick Sookhdeo: A friend gave me this book, and I thought I should try to get through it. I’ve found it quite encouraging, and a surprisingly quick read!

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift: Since we have a copy in-print, I thought this would be a great one to start my classics list with. I’ve heard dramatized audio versions of it before, but have always wanted to actually read it.

Barefoot by Sharon Garlough Brown: This has been on my TBR list for almost a year now. I greatly appreciated the first two books, and just got her next release, which will be coming out in April. Before I read that, though, I want to get this one and the next one in the series read—so this will be a priority book for me.

The Authenticity of the Book of Genesis by Bill Cooper: A friend loaned me this book several years ago (gulp), and every time I’ve tried reading it, I’ve found myself bogged down taking notes because it’s just so interesting. This time, I’m planning to try to streamline the note-taking process, and hopefully, I will actually get through it! This will likely take longer than a month and a half to get through, but it is one I plan on starting to read soon.

And that’s what I have so far! If I get books coming in for review in the meantime, this list will likely change, but this is what I’m looking at at the moment. I know that at some stage, I’ll be working with an author on some of her books, but I don’t know when that will start. For the meanwhile, I’m enjoying being surrounded by good words.

What are you currently reading? What are you looking forward to reading?

Banana Passionfruit Jelly/Jam

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Last weekend, we had the delight of going over to the east coast to visit friends in Cheviot and Kaikoura—the areas I spent my eight most formulative years. It was so good to be back, to see all the familiar landscape that still feels like home even though it hasn’t been for nearly four years now.

I didn’t manage to take a single picture while we were there—just soaked up the time with friends who are almost family. But it was wonderful. God is so good!

We didn’t bring a lot back with us, aside from lovely memories and several chilly bins (coolers) of wild cherries that we picked one afternoon. But one thing my brothers did pick up while we were there was several bags of banana passionfruit!

Like most other passionfruit, I assume, banana passionfruit is a vine, and in this country, it tends to be something of an invasive weed, taking over large blocks of forestland where it grows wild. It’s illegal to distribute the plants, but if you happen to know where to go to get the fruits, they are quite a delight—as long as you don’t mind crunching on seeds with every bite!

By the time they got home, some were starting to spoil, but most were still in good enough condition to do something with them. And since we weren’t likely to eat them all raw, I decided to try my hand at making jelly! I’ve never made any before, so I thought this was a good thing to experiment on.

And since I may want to make it again, I thought I’d post the recipe here—perhaps it will inspire you to do something similar. It is fun to experiment in the kitchen, isn’t it?

Note: I used this recipe as my starting point, although some steps and ingredients were altered.

Banana Passionfruit Jelly/Jam

20 – 30 banana passionfruit, washed and trimmed*
6 – 8 Tbsp. lemon juice (~ the juice of 2 lemons)
1.1 kg sugar (can do less**)

Slice the banana passionfruit in half and scrape out the seeds (I used my thumbs) into a pot. Drop the skins in with the pulp. Put water in to just cover everything—I used 4 – 6 cups total, although that meant I had to reduce the juice afterward by quite a bit. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 – 45 min., stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving the juice, and press the pulp together to squeeze out as much juice as possible. Throw the skins and remaining seeds away.

Return the juice to a pot and add the lemon juice and sugar, boil until you get to the setting point (this was where it took me a while . . . maybe another 30 min. to reduce enough). Pour into clean jars, and water bath for 15 min. to seal them.

*I didn’t count how many passionfruits there were when I started, so this is the closest estimate I can do.

**My end product was quite sweet, so the amount of sugar can be reduced. However, you do need a certain amount of sugar to activate the pectin, so I don’t know how much you can reduce it while still getting a strong setting-point.

I left the skins with the pulp in the hopes that it would release pectin into the juice. Pectin, of course, is what makes jelly and jam set up, and according to the research I’ve done, it lives in the skins of fruit. If you don’t have organic fruit, you might not want to do that . . . but it worked for me this time! Apparently the lemon juice has something to do with helping with the pectin, but I think it’s also a nice addition on the flavor side.

The amount I made yielded around 6 half-pints, one of which has already disappeared. 🙂

If you aren’t familiar with banana passionfruit, here’s a picture I posted on my first-ever blog post on my first blog, when I was 12 years old and just learning to love writing. I was amused to find it today . . . out-of-focus picture, misspelled words, Comic Sans font, and all! These banana passionfruits aren’t quite ripe; when they are ripe, they turn a beautiful orangy-yellow color.

What was your last cooking adventure?