Diddy Bopping Along

I don't know if I mentioned anything about this in any earlier posts, but if not, I'll drop this tidbit on you now then.

I'm playing online with a few other people gathered together by another blogster here and we're trying to collaborate and put together a novel.

Sound exciting? Sound like fun? I thought it might be that when I decided to take this plunge. At the least, I figured it might help me begin to learn a little bit perhaps about writing dialogue - something I've never had to conjure up before in any pieces I've ever written. I knew there was a darned good reason I liked writing articles and essays!

I HATE trying to write dialogue! I SUCK at that too! Trust me, I really do!

I don't have that much problem finding words to pull together in the other type of stuff I've been writing but tell me to put something together that indicates a conversation and I am dead in the water!

I suppose a lot of that stems too from the fact although, in general conversation, I can pretty well hold my own, but that is also very dependant on the circumstances too. How well I know the person I'm conversing with is a big factor. And, if we are just "gabbing" - talking about bits and pieces of things weighs in too. Often, my conversations have a tendency to go off in several different directions and rapidly too. And sometimes, some folks I end up talking too can get me off course quickly as well simply by interrupting when I am in the process of speaking, asking a question or in some instances, several rapid-fire questions and poof - my train of thought immediately flies out the window! Frustrates the living daylights out of me that does!

And, heaven forbid that my conversation be with a male, especially one I'm maybe just trying to get acquainted with! Talk about dullsville! You got it for sure then and there, baby! I may as well crawl into a cave, curl up and write that off as a dismal failure then.

Ok, now that we know if I ever should seriously try my hand at writing fiction, it sure as hell isn't going to be one with any potential for romance. That's totally out of my league since I can't even, in my real life, carry on a worthwhile conversation with men, you know damned well I'd never be able to write any wild, steamy prose of bedroom activities now don't you? And, isn't that often the big draw to fiction anyway? Ok, so there's no steamy sex going on in "To Kill A Mockingbird" - probably not in many other great novels that have been written too but that one comes immediately to my mind. But, I also don't have the imagination needed to think of characters, plot, conversations these folks would have to drive my plot - all that good stuff.

So, just so you are aware of it right now, we can rule out that I will never achieve a high faluting goal of writing the Great American Romance Novel - or probably any other piece of fiction either for that matter!

Is this writing project fun though? Well, yes and no. It's fun in a way after I do manage to struggle - and boy, I do mean struggle too - to get my segment completed when it comes around to me.

Is it exciting? Yes, that I have to say it is. It's exciting to me to see what other people can pull together from maybe a few tiny things I tossed out there or someone else put into play. It's exciting, even though we are really early on in this project - only into Chapter 2 right now - to watch things surface and to be a part of this.

When it came back to me today that I was up, my turn to write, you know, I'd been thinking about this off and on all this past week, knowing it was around the corner but I figured I'd have a bit more time as there was a lady ahead of me. However, as circumstances often happen, her computer fritzed out on her yesterday - damn, how convenient was that to have happened? and it bounced down to me. Yeah and here I was totally unprepared, actually totally BRAINDEAD, I think!

But, I managed to insert six pages into that chapter tonight. Took me roughly seven hours - give or take having to stop and feed my grandson, get Maya ready for bed, try to convince Maya to pick up her toys and a phone call from a distant cousin that took me away from my trying to concentrate and write this bit.

However, once I got through a pretty drawn out dialogue that I felt was pretty dead and dull on my part too for much of it, I saw something else coming through. I think I may have succeeded in laying down some seeds for those picking up after me to be able to swing this project out in a couple different directions for future events. I didn't speak out directly on anything - just alluded to some stuff so now it's up to the next couple of folks to see if they pick up on any of that and where they take it from there.

Here's hoping by the time it comes back my way, I'll have my head working a little clearer and maybe someone else will insert some little tidbits too - pave the way for me then to roll a little better with the flow as time - and chapters - continue to roll by me!

Wish me luck in this endeaver please! Actually, you better wish Gene, Marva, Sarge, and the others in this group - sorry but my brain just went back to sleep on me on the names there - lots and lots of luck in trying to figure out what the hell did she just say you see!

And now Gene - back to you for the rest of the story!

Busy and Dizzy!

Boy, what a day!

Mandy worked today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. so I was the babysitter du jour. Not a problem, as both little ones were relatively cooperative with what I wanted and needed to do today. However, the older child - 15-year-old - woke up late, so she missed the bus. Mandy told her she could either go in late (having Mandy drive her to school) but she would also get detention then too since she has done this too many times this year or she could stay home but she would have to be the one actually "babysitting" the kids. Now, I wasn't aware of that deal having been struck till about 4 p.m. today - after the teenager had spent roughly 90 minutes or more in the bathroom curling her hair from about 11 a.m till 1 p.m. and then she disappeared upstairs to her room and didn't resurface till about 4 p.m. Meanwhile, I'm here, taking care of the two children same as usual. But, when she slipped up and told me about the deal Mandy had made with her, I was more than slightly ticked off and asked her if she considered her methods of babysitting to be the way Mandy had expected her to perform. We won't delve into the rest of the discussion cause I wasn't very pleased with her responses or her actions of the day!

But, since the kids were, as I said, being relatively cooperative with me, allowing me to mess with the computer a lot, I started to try to figure out what exactly I need to do for my part in a little experimental writing project I volunteered for online this week. This involves several other bloggers (and me) and we will be writing a "pull-it-together-novel" written by the group. Each person takes a turn at writing part of the story.

Now, this is a totally new thing for me! I've written a goodly number of small articles that have been published in the local monthly publication, but none of them were fiction, none required dialogue and sure as heck, none of them needed any "character" much less "development" of said characters!

So, from a couple ideas I did finally acquire, I started to try to list some characters I could perhaps foresee as being part of this story line. Naming the people was a huge problem as my mind, of course, went completely braindead! I finally resorted (since I couldn't find Mandy's copy of the book "What to Name Your Baby") to going through a notebook in which I had logged the names on tombstones in our local cemetery as part of a walk-through recording geneology project I began almost two years ago! Eventually, I ended up with several pages in a Word document of given names as well as many surnames too - at least something I can draw from there now.

Character development though - wow! But I did manage to come up with names and some sort of descriptions for five women school teachers, a "lunch lady" person and her brother, school janitorial person, a minister and his wife! Yippy skippy! Now how to fit them into this story and what roles they will play there remains to be seen too. So many unknowns there that I wish were posted - like more information about WHERE this fictitious town is located, geographically speaking and what genre this will actually be -a romantic piece, mystery, comedy - you get the drift there of my mental quandry, I'm sure! And, I suppose soon enough that type of information will be given to us but I'm just a bit impatient about wanting to know that so I can try to dredge characters up in my mind from bits and pieces about people I have known over my many years on earth!

HOpefully this whole little project will be fun to do, challenging (oh, of that I am sure it will be a major challenge for ME) and that I will perhaps learn a lot of things about writing, particularly writing fiction and using dialogue!

Wish me luck in this endeavor and pray for the poor folks I will be "working" with that I don't drive them all completely bonkers!