A friend e-mailed me and said that a week ago Thursday, when she listened to the show (Stefan Fatsis and Susan Straight were guests), she noticed that I was sighing a lot. She hoped everything was okay.

Oh, dear!

I didn’t mean to sigh so much. But it points to the fact that I need a lil break. Starting in May, for a couple of months, my guest host Debbie Keith said she’d take over some shows–maybe half, if it’s okay with the station.

So when I am there, hopefully I won’t sigh so much.

If there’s anyone you’d love to hear on the show, let me know. I’m open to suggestions (if they fall within the range of the types of guests I like to have on: literary and mainstream, suspense, poets, narrative nonfiction, agents).

Sigh…

A Very Well Known Writer was scheduled to come on my show. Her publicist contacted me, we went back and forth regarding dates, and settled on one. This was a couple months ago. The other day the publicist contacts me and says this Very Well Known Writer’s tour has changed and she can’t make it and can I reschedule?

I really did want to talk to this author; I’ve been a fan for years. But I told the publicist that unless she could promise that it wouldn’t happen again, I wouldn’t reschedule. I said I had sent releases out to the papers and that it makes me look incredibly flakey when someone cancels. Flaked on once because something better comes along, are you going to make a date again? Not without a ton of trepidation.

The publicist couldn’t promise. So she’s not coming on. But the publicist was profusely sorry, she said. Uh-huh.

This all is coming out because a friend and former student emailed me. Did you see Very Famous Writer on the ____ _____ Show the other night? he said.

No! I said. What were you going to tell me–that she was witty and charming? I said. If you were, it’s an act. She’s a flake.

I was going to ask you if you saw her shoes, he said.

I didn’t ask him about her shoes. Even though I am curious what it was about her shoes that interested him so. He doesn’t seem like one to notice a woman’s shoes.

I am not an outliner. I’ve said this before. But I want to tell you about a way I’ve found that helps me keep track of where I am in my novel that’s been in progress for a while now.

Joseph Wambaugh gave me the idea. He lines the walls of his office with butcher paper and goes around the room writing down what goes on in his novel (I’m not sure he does this for nonfiction, though I could be wrong).

I no longer work in a room of my own, (which is fine with me–I don’t miss it. Actually, the silence was distracting!) so I can’t line my walls with butcher paper.

What I did was take one of those big rollers of newsprint that my son used to draw on–and occasionally still does–and I went through my book through chapter 17 or so, and sketched out each chapter and the major occurrences within that chapter. I use a device of photographs throughout the book and I wrote those in red, so I can keep track of where the photos are. I wrote down when characters enter the story. Things that are so easy to lose track of when you’re writing a novel.

It’s not exactly an outline because it comes after the point. But it helps me to keep track.

Other writers–Anne Lamott for one–use 3×5 cards (I believe she strings hers up on a clothesline in her office).

Organization of your material has got to be one of the most difficult things in writing a novel. How do you keep track? I’m all ears.

I just started listening to Richard Ford’s Independence Day and before that, listened to Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer, which I also loved. (She reads it on CD, too.)

I read new books for my show but if I can, I listen to older books while I’m driving, washing dishes, knitting, walking, and I love it.

Anyone else read any older books that you love?

(Rosie, our younger cat, loves books, too….)

Kate Braverman was on my show the other day talking about her new book of essays, Frantic Transmissions to and from Los Angeles. She had something interesting to say about letting loose with your writing: Use commas. Whenever you feel like using a period, use a comma instead. Commas, she said, start a kind of alchemy and create magic in your writing.

(I’m going to post that show this week. The one up there now is Kate when she was on a couple of years ago.)

I love that, though: Commas…..! Reminded me of what I occasionally ask my students to do–and what they often lament–during a freewriting: Write all one sentence. Then I set the timer for ten or 15 minutes. It’s a great technique. It helps to break down the internal critic, to send that critic hobbling up the street for a coffee so you can be left alone to create.

I have been in a fiction frenzy of late. When it comes to writing, all I want to do is work on my fiction. Being a teacher of writing and the author of a book on writing, and a coach, too, who advises writers on ways to get through blocks and make headway on projects, I’m examining why it is that now I’m in a fiction frenzy as regards my novel.

I’ve been working on it for a long time. I did freewriting for a year and when I came to about page 270 of 300 pages of freewriting, I discovered my story. The rest, as it turns out, was backstory.

So a year ago January I started on the draft. Now I’m on page 251 of the first draft. Well, it’s not really the first draft. I do a draft and then I go back and tweak a little and then move on, go back a little, tweak, move on. Kind of a one step back, three steps forward dealybob.

I’ve passed the midpoint of the book–at page 251, one would hope I’ve passed the midpoint. And now my various subplots–and plot–seem to be coming into focus. The hardest part of the writing, for me, is figuring out what happens. I’m not an outliner or plotter. I tried once. I spent so much time on the outline and character biographies that when I was done, I no longer wanted to write the book. So I don’t do that anymore.

But now, all the pieces of the story are in motion and when I sit down to write, I can pick from a handful of plots/subplots/characters and begin with them, and progress the story.

Doesn’t hurt that the scenes I have been writing take place in Pennsylvania in the winter. In my book, it is snowing. Snow in winter is my favorite weather, so while I can’t have that here, by the beach in Orange County, California, I can have that when I work on my book. The other night on my show Kathryn Davis, author of The Thin Place (she was also an influential writing instructor of mine), said place is everything for her in her books. Without place, she’s unrooted, cannot go on. Now I see why. (By the way, that show will be podcast any day now–maybe even today. Go to http://writersonwriting.blogspot.com/ for updates.)

I had a deadline of April 1 but yeah, it’s not going to happen. Maybe I should have picked a day other than April Fool’s.

So, the point to all of this is, when you’re into a draft and find yourself dragging your feet, just keep going. Know that there will come a point when you will feel excited again, as you did when you were first starting your book, and you will feel as if you are flying. It’s like driving cross-country from coast to coast. If you’ve ever done this, you’ll know what I mean. You are just about to Kansas and you think, I can’t do this anymore. It’s too far. But you’ve come such a distance to turn back now. You’ve got to keep going forward. What’s the alternative? You’ve got to keep moving toward your destination, and soon the landscape picks up, there are mountains and interesting things to do and to look at. And then you are there.

It surely is about the journey, but you do want to get to your destination, too; to see your journey realized.