I FINISHED MY NOVEL. NOW WHAT?

November is coming quick, and a November with COVID restrictions should be a great time to write a novel. My biggest problem is that I haven't finished the one I started last year, and I hardly remember the details!

So to review my current novel in hopes of finishing it for at least the two precious friends I would trust to share it with, and to get a leg up on my upcoming new November project, I am going through the NaNoWriMo workbook that are comprehensive and practical.

What you want your beta reader to do:

• Read through the draft once without writing comments
• Forget about grammar, spelling, and how you would say something. Focus on the content - characters, events, setting, writing devices used
• Highlight words, sentences, and sections that you really like. Annotate them.
• Ask questions, especially if something doesn't make sense
• Be kind, and specific, while you point out things that aren't working.
• Keep criticism private!

READER REVIEW WORKSHEET:
Novel title:

Author:

Based on the beginning, what do you think this novel is about?

Who is the most important character so far? Describe them.

What do you like most about the first line? paragraph? chapter?

What is the setting? What other details would you like to know?

List three parts where the story was working so well you couldn't stop reading.

Is there anything else you really love about the story so far?

List 3 parts that didn't work well.

List 3 big questions that you have about the story.

List any suggestions for the writer to try when they revise, especially character, plot, dialogue, or conflict.

Finish this sentence: This is a story about...

UNLEASH YOUR INNER EDITOR

What is the heart of the story? Does it keep things alive, strong, and moving forward?

• Change how your draft looks
• Read as fast as you can, like other books. Jot down notes and highlight what you like
• Write a 1-3 page synopsis
• Answer the revision questions
• REWRITE!

REVISION QUESTIONS:

ORGANISATION

Is it organized into chapters? If not, where can you make chapter breaks?

Are chapter transitions clear?

Name three places readers might be confused. Fix them.

CHARACTERS

Is it clear what the protagonist wants?

Will the reader root for them?

Are you characters flat or complex?

Change 3 things that would make them feel more real.

CONFLICT

Name the conflict

What will happen to the protagonist if they lose?

Can you foreshadow at the very beginning?

Is there anywhere the reader would lose interest? Revise.

Name three changes to keep the conflict present throughout (on every page?)

LANGUAGE AND LITERARY TECHNIQUES

Dialogue that moves the story forward, reveals things about your characters, and increases tension

Detailed settings that create moods and reinforces characters

Specific sensory details, including sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and sensations

A beginning that hooks the reader and introduces the main character

A climax that makes the read gasp "What's next?!"

An ending that resolves the conflict and shows how the character changed.

If your first draft doesn't contain these, try and add them to your second.

COPY EDITING

Use correct capitalization and end punctuation.

Check your spelling.

Pick and stick to one verb tense.

Use commas to combine.

Choose correct pronouns.

Use capital letters, quotation marks, and sometimes commas to make it clear where the dialogue is.

Indent new paragraphs.

Start a new paragraph each time the story moves to a new place, time, action, idea, speaker, or section.

PLOTTING

NANOWRIMO has a great workbook for novel writing 101. Here are a few useful ways to get started:

FOUR WAYS TO DEVELOP AN IDEA

1. Borrow a plot - write 3 summaries of stories (books or movies) that you love

                            -change around the elements 

2. Borrow a character - invent a history or future for someone you know

3. Use the news - Pick and event, and imagine the perspective of different people involved. Change the details and see where the story goes.

4.  Invent a whole new world

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT

Pick a model novel or more. Break it down and figure out what works and why it works. It works best if you have the book, or can access online. 

Similarly, think about books you disliked or couldn't finish. Analyze why you didn't like a book and why.

SPARK AN IDEA

Brainstorm thinks that excite, inspire or make you curious. Try to get at least 20. Circle 9 and and write novel ideas for each.

One author would often write short stories that would later become chapters in her book (Erin Morgenstern).

CREATE COMPLEX CHARACTERS

Protagonist

Supporting characters - how do they know the protagonist, love/hate, similarities/differences

Antagonist - how are they in the protagonist's way, are they likeable, weaknesses

CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRES

Name, age, height, eye, hair, and skin colour, other physical traits

Skills, abilities, passions

Family, where do they live, pets

Favourite music, movies, TV shows, books, food

Annoyances, secrets

Style, gestures, movements, things about themselves they would like to change, speaking style, happiest memory, insecurities, quirks, temperament, negative traits, embarrassments, fears, other's opinions, dreams

CONFLICTS

External - between protagonist and antagonist

Internal - fears and insecurities that a protagonist has to overcome to get what they want

PLOT

ROLLARCOASTER

1 set-up

2 inciting event

3 rising action

4 climax

5 falling action

6 resolution

JOT, BIN, PANTS

Jot every single scene that you can brainstorm (50-100). Index card could be used.

Sort them in to beginning, middle, and end. Don't through anything out yet, but you can make a "maybe not" pile.

Put the piles in a grand list order of the story

9 STEP 

1. ordinary world

2. inciting incident (call to adventure)

3. first plot point (point of no return)

4. first pinch point (first battle)

5. midpoint (victim to warrior)

6. second pinch point (second battle)

7. second plot point (dark night of the soul)

8. final battle (triumph!)

9. return to the ordinary world

SAVE THE CAT! (3 ACT SCREENPLAY)

I. 1. Opening image 0-1%

    2. Set-up 1-10%

    3. Theme stated

    4. Catalyst 10%

    5. Debate 11-20%

II. 1. Break into 2 (adventure/transformation/journey/new thing) 20%

    2. Promise of the Premise/Fun and Games 21-50%

    3. B story

    4. Midpoint 50%

    5. Bad guys close in 51-75%

    6. All is lost 75%

    7. Dark Night of the Soul 76-80%

III. 1. Break into 3 (aha! try againa) 80%

      2. Finale 81-99%

      3. Final image 99-100%

OUTLINE YOUR STORY LIKE A SUBWAY MAP - character -centred lines can be helpful

TANGENTIAL SPEECH AND BRILLIANT CONVERSATIONS

As with many things that I learned in medical school, tangents in speech were to be recorded as pathological, usually implying psychosis. As with all things, the extreme of anything can be illness, but I often find myself at home enjoying the tangents of my brain, and this morning I had a conversation (by Signal, apparently the safest videoconferencing modality, as promoted by Edward Snowden) that was more tangential than most!

We covered the economics of dictator leaders like Hitler and Stalin, philosopher groups from the communal to the individual, religions from reformed Mormonism to evangelical Christianity, conspiracies of COVID era and before, generic foods, debate sites like procon.org and kialo.com,  the paradoxes we humans have, Utopia experiments (a dystopian show I will likely never watch), what is a panopticon, local parks, population limits, GMOs, and grass fed cattle.

The privilege of reaching middle age is having enough general knowledge, that it bears synthesizing and propogating from time to time. Our conversation reminded me of the diverse topics that I am privileged to hear about on my current podcast playlist, and I thought I'd highlight a few to marvel at the diversity. 

One of the highlights of reviewing the podcasts I have listened to is the intensity of recollection in the place or time period where I  had listened to them.

I was painting in the backyard when I listened to the "upside" of the Black Plague, in After the Plague, by Planet Money. I was driving the Gaspé coast when I heard about the modern life of the truck driver, in Over the Road. I was weeding when I heard about the first ambulance service in the US (episode 405) how policing of us in our cars came to be (episode 410), and how franchises can reflect the injustice of race in economics (episode 406). I was on the commuter train when I heard about the Japanese mythical monster called the Yokai (episode 403).

My go-to listening favourites do nothing in retrospect but reinforce my love of their relevance.

Here are last shows I heard of 99PI (Ninety-nine Percent Invisible):

If you want to hear about when we became dependent on toilet paper, listen to Wipe Out, episode 397.

If you want to understand the seemingly ugly concrete architecture trend  called brutalism that is evident here in Montreal, listen to The Smell of Concrete After Rain, episode 400.

If you want to hear how the COVID stay-at-home orders afforded marine biologists an unprecedented opportunity to research whale communications, listen to episode 401.

If you want to know why we valued diamonds for engagement rings, listen to Article of interest #11.

If you want to hear how meta modern life has become, listen to Instant Gramification, episode 402.

WA SUN WARM MEMORIES

My grandma died on October 2nd, seven years ago. Each year I try and spend the day in nature, because it's a beautiful time of year, and eat chinese food, because that was what we always ate for celebrations.

She spend her Sundays at a Chinese Alliance Church, and we always went to a local restaurant called Wa Sun run by a family she knew from church. Inevitably, she would excuse herself to go to the bathroom, and pay the bill, until we got old enough, and liquid enough to do the same for her.

We sat around drinking tiny cups full of hot tea, and preferred white rice to fried. 

Princess Pirate and I had a celebration from a local place called Wok Express, finding it very hard these days with foot traffic so low in the mall. The leftovers, with extra tofu and rice lasted a good while. She is sorely missed, but a shared meal in celebration makes it worthwhile.

Green tea, wonton soup to start. Used to be eggrolls, but spring rolls will do!

Lemon chicken is the tradition, but orange chicken will do!

 Looking for ginger beef, but settled for broccoli beef.

Stir-fry vegetables, and lavender candies for dessert (because her parents were British, and we love them).. Hard to find covid appropriate fortunes! Life with restrictions were not in the cards.

PARC MAURICIE

 This summer, we visited this National park run by Canada Parks. We didn't have a reservation, and we stayed in Shawinigan at a hotel, but we did have a chance to visit.  We came in via the southeast entrance from Saint-Gerard-des-Laurentides and parked near Lac-à-la-Pêche at Saint-Gérard. We walked to the Parker waterfalls on the way to Parker lake. 

There are three drive-in campgrounds: Mistagance, Wapizagonke, and Rivière-de-la-Pêche. The most hikes seem to be near Rivière-de-la-Pêche, but there are trails that interest me across the park. It may be a mistake to follow the beach icons, as the campground Wapizagonke doesn't list one even though it seems to be along the shore of a lake, but I am going to book us at Mistagance and RdlP if I can. If I found a willing partner, it would be quite a feat to canoe/portage up Lake Wapizagonke to hike up to Waber falls some day too. 

Actually, there is a provincial trail in the Mauricie region that is 99 km long! It's part of a longer 1650 km network of trails called Le Sentier National, and it's free! It was a collaboration between 9 regions including the Mauricie organized by La Fédération Québécoise de la Marche. I am inspired, especially if visiting the US is a few years off still, with the longer hikes laid out in detail, like this weeklong intermediate hike (divided into sections or "troncons"), or a shorter 4 day version, complete with elevation maps and shelter photos. The only caution is to avoid it during hunting season, that tourists might be tempted as it coincides with autumn colours. . I might have to join a hiking club. A website called RandoQuebec might help! Years ago, the bus for the group called Randonnee Aventure came close to my apartment, and I went a few places because of it! Maybe one day again!

Within the park, there are 5 maps of trails. They all look tempting! To narrow it down, since the next visit will only be for 3 days, I found an article that lists a top five beautiful places within Mauricie Park. It may not be scientific, but it gives me a template. I always like to find the lookouts (eyeballs on a map), and hiking to get there makes it seem even more worthwhile. From the southwest around to the southeast, Sentiers les Cascades et Les Falaises (Falls and Cliffs starts at Shewenegan picnic spot), Belvédère de l'Ile-aux-pins (up a short path with stairs between km 52 and 53), Belvedere du passage (view of Wapizagonke lake),  Sentier du Lac-Solitaire (Pavillon RdlP, 3 hour loop, et Belvédère du Lac-Bouchard (between km 8-9 near Saint-Jean-des-Piles) 

SUMMER HARVEST TIME

Rapunzel corn doll

 

MASKS BY MOM/GRANDMA

 

MONT SAINT BRUNO

 

VIGNETTE: MINT TEA

 My garden is starting to look touched with the colour of the advancing autumn. A hausta has lost its colour on a cooler night, and my mint is colouring a deep burgundy. I have the mint growing in my garden, but as expected, it did not respect the raised bed perimeter, and grew across my path. It's annoying to some who probably try to walk around it, but I love the smell of spearmint that arises when I tromp right through, knowing no amount of trampling is going to control this heavenly weed. 

I have dried a bunch of stems, hanging them upside down in the kitchen, and tonight they were ready for removal. It's not cold yet, but the colours are warmer than the night when it falls, so it seemed like a good night for mint tea.

Mint tea always makes me think of my friend Uli, and the sugar I put in it is because of him. The tea is perfectly lovely without anything but time to cool, but Uli would always make it sweet, so tonight I drink it sweet in the memory of Austria.  It became a ritual at school to meet up with Uli and my roommate Sara to enjoy a cup of this aromatic tea together just before saying good-night, or Grüsti or Ciao. 

I still imagine Uli sitting, like this figure he gave me to remind me of him, presumably at a later date that we have arguable arrived at, sitting in a comfortable chair, now with reading glasses, reading a book and drinking a cup of piping hot mint tea with a little sugar stirred in. I am pretty sure Sara might be doing exactly the same thing, but she would be singing a song while she did it. So, while tonight I have only the company of a purring kitty on a pillow on the couch, always an arms-length away, I drink my garden mint tea, and am in good company.

MISPRONUNCIATION

WRONG

Di-gi-lent

Diligent

Pa-si-fic

Specific

Per-scrip-tion

Prescription

Sup-pose-a-by

Supposedly

Nu-clee-er

Nuclear

Ir-re-gard-less

Regardless (There is no irregardless!)

?RIGHT

Prob-ly

Probably

Close

Clothes

Ah-mund

Almond

Sked-je-wel

Schedule

Mis-che-vus

Mischievous

Tri-ath-a-lon

Triathlon

Kern-nel

Colonel

Lef-ten-it

Lieutenant 

War-ches-ter-shire

Worcestershire (Woostershwa)

CROSS-BORDER RELATIONSHIPS

Not as bad as the Berlin wall, but the repercussions are large.

 

WANTING THE IMPOSSIBLE

 Excerpt from my favourite back to school romcom, “You’ve Got Mail”:

BIRDIE: Yes. So, dearie, what have you decided to do?

KATHLEEN: Close. We're going to close.

BIRDIE: Close. Closing the store is the brave thing to do. 

KATHLEEN: You are such a liar. But thank you. 

BIRDIE: You are daring to imagine that you could have a different life. I know it doesn't feel like that. You feel like a big, fat failure now. But you're not. You are marching into the unknown, armed with...nothing.

SCOTT'S VACATION HOUSE RULES

 1. Do your research. What can you charge?

2. Plan your design.

3. Get noticed. Play to your strengths. Find your theme.

4. Sweat equity. If you can do it yourself, you will save yourself money.

5. Be your guest. Leave a gift to inspire reciprocity. 

QUEBEC BY CAR

On of the COVID gifts I have received was the gift of a 3 week summer vacation. Not since my maternity leave have I ever been allowed more than a two week vacation, and this was actually an unplanned event, as I had only intended to take one week, if that was even going to be possible. Months ago I had given away a week on the ward to free myself for emergency shifts, but instead our staffing in August was just fine. Also, I had asked Kelly, who kitty/housesat for me on March break if she would be interested, and she said she could! 

At first, the irony weighed heavy, as there was a travel ban still in place, and the safest form of travel, camping had no directives until the end of June. It was June 22 that the online sites were going to open, and I started planning a vacation that would hopefully finally get us past Charlesvoix and Bas St Laurent to the beautiful Gaspé peninsula. I worked out a route that would take us through Mauricie Park, and would be a trip of a lifetime for us, focusing on hiking and zoos. The first itinerary looked like this:

FRI SAT home to Canada Mauricie Park 193 k 

SUN MON via St Anne de Beaupre 196 k

TUE WED Sepaq Hautes Gorges 223 k  

hike l'Acropole and White Pine mountain

THU FRI Tadoussac 114 k 

Sepaq Marine Park

SAT SUN Metis-sur-mer 181 k 

Reford Gardens

Sepaq Gaspésie Park Hike Chic choc, Mont Jacques Cartier, Mont St. Albert

MON TUE WED Canada Park Forillon 328

THU Percé

Sepaq Ile Bonaventure (gannett colony) 104k

FRI SAT Sepaq Miguasha

Baie de Chaleur

SUN MON Sepaq Park Bic 251k

TUE La Poc 155k

WED Levis 126k

Quebec Aquarium

THU Sepaq Yamaska Park 214k

Granby zoo

FRI home 100k

I was starting to get excited and booked us two places: one was tiny cute chalet at the Petit Miami in Metis-sur-mer that we had driven by 2-3 times in the past, and the second was a beautiful park that I would have stayed the week but I could only get one day, called Bic Park near Rimouski (muskrat in French), and the furthest east we would had ever been to date. When Canada parks figured it out, I would book Forillon, at the so-called Landsend, for one night, but I was beginning to worry. Instead of travelling slowly around the coast, with short drives, and long stays in natural settings, we were going to have to go were I could find a place to sleep, and I would have to leave without having every night prebooked, knowing that we might have to sleep in the car or drive back to Montreal in the end. 

June 30th, we had hiked 15 k in a nearby park. We were going to be able to do some great hikes. Princess Pirate still had energy and went to get the mail. When she came to the back door, she burst into tears. She had twisted her ankle jumping off a construction gravel pile, and our trip was about to change. Four weeks in a walking boot and an ortho follow that was TBD. When we packed up the car, we had to debate whether or not to bring crutches, as she had not walked much beyond the perimeter of the yard by the day we left. PP insisted we take no ferries, and the time up the north coast of the peninsula was much faster than originally hoped, so it seemed that this trip was going to be up and around the coast for the first time. Cutting hikes and maybe having to return for an appointment in the middle made it clear that this was going to be more of driving vacation than a stay and play, so I started thinking about seeing some more details of the Bas St Laurent, with Kamouraska in mind from a book that had sat on my shelf for years that I took with me to read. The estuary islands looked interesting, but all required a ferry, so I had to put it on the backburner. Maybe Charlevoix could be possible if we had time after rounding the Gaspé, but we would have to backtrack to cross over at Quebec city to avoid the convenient ferry. On the Baie de Chaleur side, there was a Matapedia valley that was recommended, and if we had more time on the North shore, I wanted to show Rebecca La Malbaie and return to the detour route 362 through the picturesque Baie-St.-Paul.  

Now that the trip is done, I can share the final itinerary. It was far more than I expected, and with a televisit confirming the cast could come off early in the second week, we made it around the peninsula, hiked in the Charlevoix (carefully), drove the Saguenay to Lac Saint Jean, and made it to the Mauricie park. I fell in love with parts of the green route, highway 132, and the system of roadstops that were everywhere!

On average a year in my 2013 car, I have driven the same distance as we did in the last 3 weeks; just over 7000 km.

Instead of 12 places, averaging 2 nights a place, we averaged 1 night a place, and stayed in 16 places. We had three days were we didn't know we were going to stay that night, and they all worked out beautifully. My favourite was meeting neighbours at the beach in St. Irenée and by noon we were on their parents' back deck. We circled back to La Pocatière because we were so happy there, and we stayed 3 days in Shawinigan to explore the park and finally stop moving for while! 

We spent 9 days camping (4 days on a flat mattress, not recommended!, once on grass with a view of the St. Laurence), 5 in a hotel, 2 in a motel (so many look that they have gone under in COVID era) and 4 in tiny chalets (everything, from a shack to a mansion is called a chalet in the la belle province!).

We swam in 3 lakes, waded into the estuary, saw seals, whales, and porcupines, watched the tide come in and out, camped and hiked in some beautiful forests, and watched moonrises, planets, stars, comets and the milky way!

This is the food I packed to start:

SAT Sepaq Voltigeurs (Drummondville) for lunch

Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies

Auberge Cap Martin in La Pocatière

SUN Notre-Dame-du-Portage

Sepaq Bic Park

MON TUE Petit Miami chalet, Metis-sur-mer

Jardins des Metis/Reford Gardens

WED THU

Gaspé coast

Canada Forillon Park

Free from the walking cast by distance telemedicine with orthopedics! Such freedom, such flexibility.

FRI Chalet la Plage, Percé

SAT Auberge Coulée Douce Chalet, Causapscal

SUN Sepaq Lac Temiscouata

MON St Narcisse sur La Route des Monts Notre-Dame

Sepaq Bic Park bis

TUE Auberge Cap Martin in La Pocatière

WED lunch at Berthier-sur-mer

Chutes Chaudières

Chutes Montmorency

chez Charly, Beaupré

THU Sepaq Grands Jardins

FRI Camping on our friend's dad's lawn, St. Irenée

Beach, Moonrise, shooting stars, campfire

SAT Saint Simeon minke whales

Petit Saguenay lunch, Baie Eternite hike

Lac St. Jean

Jonquière Motel Princesse

SUN Camping St. Felicien

Zoo Saint Felicien

MON TUE WED Hotel des Gouverneurs, Shawinigan

Canada Park Mauricie

THU 

Nicolet boardwalk

 Sepaq Yamaska

Beach

On return to school September 9th , she was asked to give a short speech about our three week vacation. There was a list of some of the places we visited, a comment about not always knowing where we were going to sleep that night, and a lot about how much we loved the zoo, especially the safari train. I was able to hear the speech from the other room, but gave myself away laughing at her conclusion that loosely translated as : Three weeks in the same room as another person with no personal space can be pretty annoying!