Away from the story - day 11

But how about dopamine and/or serotonin? Cocaine works by blocking dopamine reuptake process, so the synapses are flooding with dopamine and the person feels the constant high. But I don't think Jason is that stupid to use cocaine. Well, maybe eventually, giving his bitter childhood. But I'm thinking about an invention for controlling lucid dreams to be always happy.

What can make the same happy memory comes back again and again?

Away from the story - day 7

Glutamate: the neurotransmitter that is related to learning and memory. It's the most abundant neurotransmitter in the brain, and can be very toxic when the level is too high. It's also a food seasoning called MSG.

It helps neurons to form new connections. Maybe this is a good candidate for my story.

Away from the story - day 2

Yesterday I was thinking about the story. Lucid dream is still my idea, but I'm not sure if I have to talk further about erasing memory and reoccurring memory. First, I'm not a biopsychologist, I don't fully understand the whole thing; second, I guess what I really want to talk about is reoccurring dreams. Maybe just let it happen instead of explaining the cause.

I've been working hard on my dissertation. Now maybe I should take some time on this story.

Day 63 & 64

Day 63: Print out your book.
Day 64: Place the book in a safe place and leave it alone for two weeks.

Yesterday I was very emotionally agitated, plus I knew all I was asked to do was to print out the story, so I didn't come back.

Something very disturbing to me happened. Maybe it's just me, but I almost want to conclude that there's no one I can rely. No real friendship. Except family. But enough of that.

I'm not sure if I have to print out my story. I just started it and work on it bit by bit. Progression is slow; sometimes I just do revisions. Sometimes I just think about the plot. But it's in my mind everyday.

And I don't understand about the leaving it alone for 2 weeks thing. Because in day 65 the guide says to edit the book.

Now, I guess when the guide says "How to write a novel in 100 days," it doesn't mean "within 100 days," but "100 writing days." That's the only explanation.

I think during these two weeks, I still will come back everyday and say something or do something and report. I still will work on the story. Because I think my story is still too young to leave it alone.


http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

36 days.

Day 62: Do a spell check of your book.

Done.

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

38 days.

Day 61: Do they have a beginning, a middle, and an end?

"Re-read your novel and ask yourself: Have I raised a question or presented a puzzle, and then solved it?
If you can give a satisfactory answer to this question, then continue."

I guess I raise a question: Is Jason going to have an affair?

But I'm more concerned about whether I have made readers to care about Jason.

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

39 days.

Day 60: If you have written five pages a day...

"...for the last 60 days, you have written about 90,000 words. It is time to begin to rewrite and edit your novel."

Nope...

And I remember he said 4 pages a day? Or 300 words? That doesn't add up. 90,000/60 = 1,500.

Weird.

But no, I probably just barely start it. Working on my dissertation takes too much time. Sigh.

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

40 days.

Day 59: “Don’t tell, show.”

"There’s an old adage in writing: “Don’t tell, show.” It means, don’t tell us about anger, show us. We then will read and feel the anger. Don’t tell the reader what to feel. Show the reader the characters and situation, and that feeling of anger (or sorrow, love, honesty, justice, etc.) will awaken in them."

So, show the actions.

"She was sad" vs. "She sobbed" vs. "'My world comes to an end,' she said."

Which one is better?

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

41 days.

Day 58: Remember...

"...that novels can be light on plot and short on style, but flesh-and-blood characters with believable traits and motivations can save any book by gaining the reader’s sympathy."

Yes... again, it's all about the people in your story. Believable traits and motivations.

I better take a good look at my characters. They seem to be... lame?

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

42 days.

Day 57: Take a break

"Take a break from your novel. Take either a day off, or a week. After this period, you’ll see your work with a fresh eye."

I've been writing some stories. In fact, there are tons of unfinished stories. I haven't read most of those stories for a long time. Sometimes when I read them, I can see some mistakes and therefore get some motivations to go on.

But I think I need some other people's opinions too, b/c I still will have bias; after all, they are my own stories.

Anyway, will take a break...

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

43 days.

Day 55 & 56

Yesterday I was in scout camp out w/ my 2 boys, so I didn't have time to write. I thought of something for the story though.

Day 55:
"Select your details. As Mark Twain said: “Use the right word, not its second cousin.” Remember that verbs are the strongest parts of any sentences. As Rita Mae Brown puts it, “Verbs blast you down the highway.”"

Hmm...verbs? So...actions are the key?

Day 56:
"Strunk and White in The Elements of Style make this point: “If those who have studied the art of writing are in accord on one point it is on this: The surest way to arouse and hold the reader is to be specific, definite, and concrete.”"

Ok.... specific, definite, and concrete. Let people see and touch.

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

44 days.

Day 54: Good description observes all the senses

"Go to the library and browse through books on food and gardening. Authors of these books describe smells, tastes, touches, and even sounds in precise detail. When writing, always mention scents and tactile sensations. Good description observes all the senses."

I read the magazine: Cooking Light. This is one of the paragraph I read:

Remember how great a snow cone tasted when you were a kid--how the frozen sweetness cooled you down and perked you up on a hot summer day? Those bubblegum and blue raspberry, sugarcoated ice flakes are still fine for kids. And with flavors fit for an adult, frozen ice is a great summer dessert.

Then it continues:

"Water ices," or granitas in Italian, are flavorful, coarsely textured ice crystals. Stirred while freezing, the "ice"--often little more than fruit juice and sugar--develops into a refreshing, flaky slush. Ices are pretty to look at and a delight to eat, especially after dinner on a warm evening.

Well, in my opinion it describes a bit of "scents and tactile sensations," but mostly it's talking about how to do it. I'll probably read much more. So far what I've read is pretty much the same. The gardening books are about the same; I have no luck on finding the rich descriptions of scents and/or colors. Anyway, will keep looking.

Here is my try:

You have been working outside, or maybe playing basketball, in a hot summer day. You're thirsty and your sweat like rain. Then you see the tall glass of golden sweetness; the ice crystals clinking like wind chimes in a gentle breeze. You take a big slurp, then another, and another. The coldness flows down into your every bone and every pore until your hot body is totally chilled. Each cell in your body is alive again.

Some more revisions:

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

46 days.

Day 53: creating tension

"During the making of the film "Friendly Persuasion" — from a novel by Jessamyn West, West remembers director William Wyler, saying, "We’ve got to get one more ‘Will he? Won’t he?" into this." As a writer, West tended not to do enough of creating that tension, which is what readers want."

So again, creating tension. Sometimes in order to do that you've got to be ruthless. Make your characters suffer. Let bad things happen to them. Or let them do bad things. Then see what will come out.

Some more revisions:

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

47 days.

Day 52: “Character is action.”

"F. Scott Fitzgerald said: “Character is action.”
Characters do not operate in a vacuum. Their actions usually involve other people, and these interactions are what make up scenes. Full scenes, half scenes, and narrative passages are the building blocks for constructing a unified story line."

Ok, I guess he means that we are describing characters, and all characters have their actions and the motives behind the actions. What we need to do is making the characters and their motives "relatable" or "care-able," so when readers read they will find they care about these people and want to find out what happen next.

Easier to say than done.

Some more revisions:

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

48 days.

Day 51: Most successful writers have had unhappy childhoods...

"Dean Koontz, for example, was the only child of a physically frail mother and a violent, alcoholic father who twice tried to kill himself and was eventually committed to an institution. Instability was a constant in his family. This terrible childhood stirred a passion for books in Koontz.
One of his very first memories stemmed from a period when his mother was hospitalized for several months. At the age of 3 or 4, Koontz was kept by one of her friends, who, every night, would tuck the little boy into bed, give him an ice cream soda and read him a book. Koontz connected these sensations of safety and happiness with storytelling. This has stayed with him.
Koontz has read The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame at least 50 times, relishing the theme of “friends pulling together to overcome the bad guys.” Koontz credits books for showing him at the age of 9 that not all families were like his.
“I am a driven adult child of an alcoholic,” says Koontz. Today he works six days a week, arriving at his desk by 7:30 a.m. He writes until dinner, skipping lunch.
But what does one do who hasn’t had an unhappy childhood? Ernest Hemingway once said that writers have to have had a terrible childhood, or at least think that they did."

By that unhappy-childhood definition, I should be a pretty successful writer. But I guess either I don't have the talent or I must work way much harder.

Kind of depressed today. Dissertation is such a big problem. I can't think of more things to write. I don't have time. And this weekend I have to go camping with my 2 boys; scout activity. I almost want to give up this writing.

Today I hate many things. I will not say everything, but it seems pretty close.

Some more revisions:

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

49 days... over half way now.

Day 50: We are the masters of the superior secret...

"The novelist and poet James Dickey, talking to students near the end of his life, said, “I don’t mean to sell the poet so long or at such great length, but I do this principally because the world doesn’t esteem the poet very much. They don’t understand where we are coming from. They don’t understand the use for us. They don’t understand if there is any use. We are the masters of the superior secret, not they. Not they. Remember that when you write.”"

I guess I like that. "People might not esteem my work very much. That's because they just don't understand." At least that makes me feel better.

Some more revisions:

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

50 days... wow, come to the mid-point of the whole thing.

Day 49: "Writers should have a physical hobby"

"The gifted writer Jo-Ann Mapson, who has published a half dozen novels, believes that writers should have a physical hobby. “Something that takes you away from books and criticism, because it teaches you, it informs you, and it changes your writing.”"

I play basketball. The problem is I am way too much into it, every time I lose a game I feel very bad about myself. Also, when the team I support lose the game, I feel super-bad.

Don't know how to fix this problem!

I sometimes also swim. Should I just change to swimming instead? But I know it's impossible.

But the point is to have something else to take away the attention, to distract ourselves from all the writing and negativism. Then when we come back we have a fresh start. Hopefully.

Some more revisions:

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

51 days...

Day 48: Persistence is what is required.

"Novelist Harlan Ellison once said that if anybody can stop you from being a writer, then don’t be one."

Good say. In fact, these days I was thinking about (just a little bit though...) giving up. I'm too busy: my dissertation just seems so damn difficult to write more--I just have to put a lot more things that I don't think is so necessary. I have to look for a job this fall and if I don't have data that probably is not good for job hunting. Time seems to be running out.

And I guess nobody is reading my story...

But I have to be persistent, I guess. I have to finish this thing from beginning to end. As I said, I probably can't finish this one in 100 days. But I can have another 100 days. The important thing is I have to write everyday.

Some more revisions:

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

52 days...

Day 47: In 1979...

"...at the age of 80, Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux began to write the story of her life. She wrote innocent tales of her past, tales of her grandmother and of a distant Aunt Clara who chewed tobacco and could spit in a cat’s eye.
Every morning she went into the kitchen of her white two-bedroom house in Manhattan, Kansas, where she had raised eight children. She sat down at the table and, aided by scrapbooks, letters and photographs, she wrote. Day after day, week after week, she wrote in longhand the story of her life, noting down the watershed events: births, deaths, one marriage, three wars, one flood, as well as the things that just struck her fancy, like the first time she saw Lawrence Welk. Having told the events of her life, she began then to write about the world that she never spoke of. Her feelings and thoughts.
Jessie Lee wrote all of this for a teacher, Charley Kempthorne, at his Harvest of Age, a program for senior citizens. Her writings were published by the local college and entitled The Life of Jessie Lee Brown From Birth Up to 80 Years. About 30 copies were printed for her family and friends. That was 20 years ago. Family, friends, and strangers are still reading her 208-page book now entitled Any Given Day: The Life and Times of Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux: A Memoir of Twentieth Century America [Warner Books, 1997].
Since writing her first memoir, Jessie Lee has written two more books. The latest, Granny’s Ramblings of This and That Two, was published in 1993. That year she wrote to the teacher who encouraged her to tell her story, “Thank you so much for not giving up on me,” she wrote. “I am not a writer, but my poor efforts have made a great difference in my life.”
If Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux isn’t a writer, who is? Everyone’s life is a book. Jessie Lee told her story. And Warner bought her story for one million dollars."

In the age of 80! And it's in Manhattan, Kansas! What a co-incidence!

Now that's persistence, keeping hope, and optimism!

Some more revisions:

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1655035-An-endless-failing-pursuit-temp-title1

Don't forget my other short story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1567145-Prince-Vingo-Imperfect-love

53 days...