Category Archives: writing

Revision from the orchard tenders point of view

I have the wonderful luck to live in a historic home in Portland, Oregon. It’s the best preserved example of a gothic farmhouse in the area, and it has big yard which contains historic fruit trees. We have cherries, walnuts, apples, peaches, plums, and pears. I love working with trees that are probably more than 100 years old and I love having fresh fruit for pies and jams for my family. But to be honest, fruit trees are a lot of work.

aaadownloads 001When I’m taking a writing break in the summer I’ll often climb down from my treehouse and get out the old orchard ladder and spend some time on my back yard orchard. Because I don’t spray the fruit, I lose a substantial amount of the harvest to insect or disease damage. The sooner I get those blighted or undersized fruits off the tree the better. And then comes the harder task. I need to pick perfectly good fruit before it’s ripe and throw it away.

I know. My inner skin-flint cringes at the waste. But the truth is a tree will put out more fruit than it can ripen in a season. So I will go along the branches looking for clusters of 3 or more peaches, pears or apples and remove one or two from the cluster so that the remaining fruits get enough light and water and energy from the tree to ripen fully.Unknown   I hate to do it but when I’ve neglected this task I’ve come away with a crop of apples or pears that never fully ripens and the entire harvest is worthless.

This year I learned an even harder lesson. I only have 2 peach trees. It’s a challenge to grow peaches in Oregon’s cool climate, so some years I get no peaches at all or less than a dozen. But for some reason this year I got a bumper crop. I love peach pie. Lavender peach jam is a big favorite with my whole family. So I didn’t thin the peaches as aggressively as I should and my peach tree broke under the weight of the crop. The whole tree fell over–a complete loss.

imagesAnd what does this have to do with writing? I’ve learned the hard way that just because a section of my story is good and fun and beautiful doesn’t mean it belongs in the book.  My first pass in revising is of course like the first pass in orchard tending–get rid of the rotten. Cut what’s not working. I might need the help of my critique group or editor to recognize what’s not working, but once located it’s not hard to ditch spoiled fruit or lackluster prose. The tricky part is cutting what is beautiful and without fault in the service of the larger story.

Here’s an example from a story I’m still working on. It had two characters who were too strong to be in the same book. Both characters had and interesting arc and strong emotional pull. The voice of my main character at several points was overwhelmed by this second character. The result was that the book as a whole didn’t work. It was a fallen tree of a story and I didn’t know how to fix it. I pouted about this for a while. But I came to see that there was no way both of those characters would ripen on the same tree. And here is where writing books is better than tending an orchard. I wrote two books–started over with different settings and adjusted premises. I let each character develop without having to compete for reader loyalty in the same book. I’m still in the thick of working out these two stories but with a little luck and a lot of hard work, I hope to have two viable fully-ripened stories instead of one.

 

On Perseverance: my book birthday

Tusday is the on-sale date for my newest book from Random House, Written in Stone. I can’t help showing off, yet again, my beautiful cover art done by Richard Tuschman. Canoes are iconic to the tribes of the Northwest and I’m beyond thrilled to see them portrayed here so faithfully.

Written in Stone by Rosanne Parry

 

But what I find myself thinking about as this long awaited day approaches is how very long it took me to get here. This is the book I worked on longer than any other. I finished the first draft of this book when my youngest girl was a baby and my oldest had just finished third grade. My youngest girl will begin high school this fall and my oldest just graduated from college.  Now on the one hand that might be discouraging. Many times as I worked on this book I walked past this particular tree in the Arboretum in Portland and reflected on how much of the work of this book has been roots that will never see the light of the page.

20110411144611I didn’t keep count of revisions. I do know that this book started out in third person. It has been re-written both in present and past tense, in blank verse and prose, and now in first person narration. I researched a thousand things related to this story. Spoke to dozens of experts on everything from weaving to wildcatting. I developed an appreciation for reference librarians who have patience for my many obscure questions and for public universities who support the publication of such fascinating books as The Ethnobotony of Western Washington. It is a listing of every native plant in the region, it’s name in a dozen native languages, and its medicinal and practical uses. Fascinating!

And here’s what else I learned. EVERY revision made the book stronger. EVERY research source made the story richer. I could have self-published this book at any point in the last ten years. I probably could have sold it to a regional press at any time in the last five years. And yet I am grateful that both my agent and editor were willing to wait for a stronger book to emerge.

My agent Stephen Fraser of the Jennifer DiChiara Literary Agency, loved this story five revisions ago. It was the story for which he first offered me representation. He was more than happy to shop it around as a novel in verse, which is how he first came to know these characters. When the book didn’t get picked up in the first round of submissions, he continued to believe in Pearl and her family even as he sent around other manuscripts. When Heart of a Shepherd was picked up by Random House and made a very strong showing for a debut novel, Stephen resisted what might be a reasonable impulse to refashion Written in Stone more along the lines of Heart of a Shepherd. He was willing to wait for me to think through what the story needed rather than what the market might want. My editor (who also liked Pearl’s story from the start) was willing to wait for my Quinault and Makah sources to have time to read and respond to the story and offer me fuller resources for research. I am not a patient person by nature, but I am grateful to both of them for waiting long enough to get this story which is the one I was trying to write all along.

Here’s the thing about Twitter/Facebook/Youtube/Goodreads/blogs/and the whole social media juggernaut–they make it seem like all your favorite authors are releasing a new book at the rate of one every ten days.  If you are still in the pre-published phase of your writing career it can seem like your publication day will never come. And yet what I’ve heard over and over from readers that I trust and admire is this: “I’ll wait ten years for your next book if that’s what it takes to write a good one. Just don’t disappoint me.” Molly Gloss and Virginia Euwer Wolff are Portland writers that I admire very much. They take years with each book–not writing and teaching part time or writing and raising family. They just write. One novel. Over and over for 3 to 7 years or more. And guess what? Their books are worth waiting for!

So that is my new writing goal. Not the path to fame and fortune I am sure. But I hope the path to stories with staying power and books that I’m proud to have carry my name.

There is a summary of the book and some great reviews here including one by Mira a very articulate nine year old. It was sent by the owner of McNally Jackson Bookstore in New York. The page also has a link to Powells or your nearest Indy bookstore. I hope you will consider checking my book out at the library. Strong library circulation is just as important to me as strong sales. And if you’d like a chance to win a free copy there are giveaways this week at Literary Rambles and The Styling Librarian–both great book blogs that I’d recommend even if they weren’t giving away my book. Thanks to Natalie Arguilla and Debbie Alvarez for the beautiful blog posts for Written in Stone. I’ve also got a post up here at the Mixed Up Files on the topic of writing characters from a culture not your own.

If you’ve got a story of perseverance, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Last but not least, I hope you can come to my book party at the Cedar Hills Powells Friday night at 7pm. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. I’ll have treats and first foods, art and activities for kids and a special gift for teachers and librarians from the good folks at Random House School and Library. I hope to see you there!

Summer Writing

There are a thousand things to love about summer in Portland

Roses! Everywhere!

Free Shakespeare and symphony and opera in the Park

It finally stops raining, it’s never humid, and it always cools off nicely at night

And I get to move into my summer office.

My summer office is a tree house in the big douglas fir in my back yard. There’s a pirate ladder or a rock wall to climb up and a slide or a zip line to get down. It has a roof but no walls so I have an unbroken view and plenty of cool shade. I get lots of visits from squirrels and robins but also humming birds and crows and sparrows and flickers and once in a while a golden crowned kinglet which is a very majestic name for a bird no bigger than a pingpong ball.

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But here’s what I really love about the tree house. Because it’s open to the air and animals and birds wander through all the time, I can’t keep anything up there permanently except the folding potting bench I use as a desk and the exercise ball I use for a chair. There’s no food, no electricity, no laundry or kitchen distracting me from my work. And there’s plenty of fresh air and sunshine to keep me energized. I find that I’m almost always inspired to write something entirely new up there and this summer is no exception. I’m going to be spending the first part of the summer on writing a brand new series for younger middle grade readers. I hope to have more news about where they will be available and when by the fall, but in the mean time, I’m loving the daily climb to my office where I can spend the whole day just making things up.

I have another new venture this summer as well I’ll be teaching a course on writing realistic fiction for kids and teens called Vampire-Free Fiction! The course is offered through the Loft Literary center in Minneapolis, but here’s the good part, because it’s summer, you can do the work at your own pace. Take some time off if you have a family trip. Work ahead if you’ve got extra time on your hands. And even better than that, the Loft will offer a full scholarship to one lucky teacher or librarian who wants to take this course. There’s lots more information at the Loft. Classes start next week!

How about you? Do you have a favorite routine for your summer writing? Do you have a goal you want to accomplish in your writing? My short term goal is to finish the chapter book I’m working on by the end of the month. As I write this post I’m on chapter 5. I’ll let you know in the comments how far I got.