One chapter, 2,400 words, done as of 11:10 a.m. and I am strangely hungry. Or perhaps not so strangely? I’m taking a break and may not resume writing until after lunch, but I’d like to get the next chapter under way, rather than risk freezing up. A version of the old <a href=”http://members.tripod.com/~greeneland/writing.htm//” target=”_blank”>Graham Greene</a> trick, if you will. Plus, I have to go downtown with the contractor and pull a permit and lord knows how long that will take. Then again, every foray into Baltimore’s municipal offices tends to provide material. I found Nancy Porter’s maiden name in a visit to the tax office, years ago.
Today, I’ve been thinking about weaving. For those of you who already know of my deep, deep, deep nerd<a href=”http://www.lauralippman.com//” target=”_blank”> credentials</a>, it will come as no surprise that I had a loom as a teenager; one of my oldest friends, in attendance at my stepson’s bar mitzvah this spring, took great delight in telling people how I showed up with my loom the first day of camp – and she liked me anyway. The loom was a wooden affair with posts, no treadles, and the pattern was actually established in setting up the warp threads. Once that was done, one simply had to pass the shuttle back and forth. (Oh, the resulting belts were STUNNING. I can’t believe I didn’t keep them all.) (By the way, a web search leads me to doubt my memory on this, and it’s possible that I did have to vary the thread colors on the shuttle. I can’t find any looms quite like the simple one I owned.) Toward the end, a novel isn’t quite that effortless, not at all, but opportunities narrow and there is the thrill of connecting disparate things, seeing the pattern emerge.
By the way, I would like to clarify my annual visual ritual. It’s not about seeing the novel’s action cinematically, although I certainly do that, too. It’s about creating a wordless depiction of the book, a composition that has to stand on its own as an aesthetic object. True, there are words and notes all over my storyboard, but if you stand far enough back, all you see is a pattern of blue, orange and green squares, with vari-colored lines running throughout, some solid, some dotted. What I’m looking for is a pleasing asymmetry. I also confess to believing in the three-act structure and I think the final act should move very briskly.
Back to work.
It was an inkle loom, and I think I Googled “inkel.”
Keith, remember that’s:
1 loom
1 year as captain of “It’s Academic” and we practiced regularly, with a buzzer system built by one of the team members. (That’s why we were so good in the lightning round.)
5 years at Harand Theater Camp
and
an ability to sing many, many Ethel Merman songs.
Update, 2:45 p.m: 3,800 words today. I’m hanging it up.
Cindy, Thanks for mentioning the Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum. Several years ago during a decades-delayed trip to Paris, I found I really like textile museums. I hadn’t learned about this one, and if traffic is good, it’s just under an hour away, so definitely now on my list to fill some time when I become an empty-nester next month.
How about:
- winning the Most Improved Player award in the rec center (read: everyone plays) baseball league, and believing it meant something.
- preferring jump rope with girls to football with guys (between ages 9-10).
- drama club
- and my first ever 45rpm purchase was AFTERNOON DELIGHT.
Laura said: “… a wordless depiction of the book, a composition that has to stand on its own as an aesthetic object.”
Brilliant! Thank you!
Well, from here, 2 years of ballroom dance camp equals 5 years of theater camp, but my tragic ability to sing every recorded Tom Lehrer song (including the part of New Math that’s in base 8) falls a little short of anything involving Ethel Merman.
I fold.
I think we pretty much have to hand the crown to the guy with the “Afternoon Delight” 45. Congratulations, John!
Wow. This actually made me remember the first 45 I ever bought. MASTER BLASTER, Stevie Wonder.
Which probably undoes a lot of the case I was building here.
My first 45 was Jimmie Rodgers’ <i>Honeycomb</i>, 50 years ago.
My college roomate had a loom that she brought to school with her and set up in our dorm room. You’re not so geeky! Time it was and what a time it was.
A loom… just another side of your creativity, Laura. I wove “placemats” out of bread wrappers in 4-H and thought they were very cool at the time. Good grief.
Good luck with your writing blitz! Sounds like it’s going very well.
I’ll see your loom and raise you two years of ballroom dance camp.
I’m a weaver -or used to be. Pretty much have given it up in favor of knitting. Much more portable and better for apartment/city living.
The loom you describe is called an inkle loom. Let me know if you’re hankering for one. I can hook you up. If you really want to go nuts I also have some four harness looms standing by….
I have some sort of simple loom- made in 1957- in my basement. It is not an inkle. I will look at it tonight and write to you about it- if you want it- it is yours. I found it in 1999- and speaking of bar mitzvahs- I had planned to make my daughter’s tallit on it(not that I had woven since summer camp in the 60s). I didn’t but did crochet 150 kippot(skullcaps) just I had for my son’s bar mitzvah 2 1/2 years earlier. I am currently crocheting water bottle holders for our trip to Israel. Nerds, unite!
I haven’t got a creative cell in my body-from here all the nerdiness mentioned above looks like enviable creativity.
I’m fascinated by this concept of visualizing the book. I’ve been reading another author’s blog and she talks often about doing a collage of the novel as she writes-I never got how it could be a help and now here you are talking about storyboards (another concept I never quite got). It’s like somebody is blowing a dog whistle, I just don’t hear the frequency.
Just further proof that I’m a reader and any writing is only in a fantasy life!
Um, er, thanks! I’m proud.
And ashamed.
My first album was <i>Tommy – The Who…</i>
<i>(I’m allowed to call you Beeg, right?)</i>
Yep, just not late for dinner!
OK, to really show I was a square (we didn’t use nerd, back in the day), if I was running a fever, I used to shake the thermometer down so I could go to school.
I don’t know my first 45 and my first album was one I purchased for my sister, a Sonny and Cher record. (I was 8!)
I’ve never met a man, however, who didn’t know his first album/first 45. Which isn’t to say that women don’t, as Beeg demonstrated above (I’m allowed to call you Beeg, right?), just that men always, always know.
By the way, what was the “afternoon delight”? I know it took its name from something on the menu at Clyde’s of Georgetown, but I’ve never known what the item was. Hmmm, I’m on one of my 1,000-word breaks, I guess I can check it out.
ETA: It was the afternoon appetizer menu, not a single item. I was hoping it would be mozzarella sticks.
My first 45 was (shudder) Hey Jude. I know, Beatles, BUT you had to turn it OVER to hear the entire song! Sigh…If only there’d been CDs back then!
Anyway, as for the visual thingee, I do that too, Laura, post it notes, time line, and something Christine Kling suggested that she does, a notebook with all the research in it, organized, maps, etc, time lines, back stories, so that if I get deep in the middle of the story and need to check a fact, I don’t stop, I just put *** in the spot where it needs to go, and when the day is done, and I’m done writing for that day, I go back and check the ***s I have, look it up in the notebook, insert the correct stuff, and go from there. Yes, it’s possible that in rewrite some of it is going to go into a dump file on my puter, but at least I had it to go by.
Laura, if you’re ever really rich as well as famous, maybe you should commission me to make a quilt out of one of your visual books. Could be very interesting.
Weaving, knitting, quilting are now chic – according to today’s NYT.
And just in case Lois wasn’t the only one making immediate plans for coming to the Lancaster Quilt Museum, it’s closed for construction until sometime this fall. (Sure isn’t going to be finished by the original September date!). If you don’t like quilts and textiles, come for the architecture – it’s a 1921 bank that’s flat out gorgeous. The construction is an expansion. The old vault is a special exhibit area, and the men’s cloak room has 1921 state of the art plumbing…
what, the NYT didn’t say crocheting is chic? So the loom I have is a Spears no. 4 from 1957- I doubt you want it although it does have an uncut pattern to make a man’s waistcoat- once you have woven enough fabric.
I definitely think I’m at least a contender in the nerdiness category-the first album I bought was The Partridge Family Album.
I’ll raise anyone when it comes to nerdyness. My first album and 45 were The Osmond Brothers and Donny Osmond respectively. My idea of a great summer afternoon was to ride my bike to the library, fill up the basket with books and stop at the Tastee Freeze on the way home. When I was a summer camp counselor, I taught archaeology.
In 1949 Syd bought his first 45 which was Frankie Laine’s version of “Mule Train.” He went on to acquire a total of six recordings of this song by different singers. He admits to his nerdyness.
By the way, Laura,including CDs, his record collection may equal or pass the total books he has read. I once tried to count and got tired of it. What does my wanting to count them say about me?
I’ll take my adolescent nerdyness one step further, the first concert I ever attended was the Osomond Brothers at Cobo Arena in Detroit. I wore navy blue hot pants. I was 13.
Osmonds?
Oh, my!
I used to love the Osmonds cartoon on TV, but I never bought any of their records.