Less than 24...

...hours till nanowrimo.

The introductory sentence is swimming in my head.

I can't believe

It's almost November!

Last night while winding down, I was able to catch most of an interview with Jodi Picoult on New Hampshire Outlook. She is so amazing. It seems like every time I hear her talk, she gives me some tidbit that makes me believe I can do this. She pulls no punches and doesn't make it out like anyone can do this, but there is something about her style of creating things that is very much like mine. Last night her comment that really stuck with me was something like, I knew I was a writer long before anyone else was convinced of that. Another point she made was that after all the research and the characters have formed themselves in her head, she waits until she has that great introduction sentence. Something that will really grab a reader. Then she knows she can start writing the book.

Last time she spoke at our library, she said she doesn't always know where the plot of her book is going. She just has an idea and the information to write it and maybe some strong characters and she begins writing. In one book she said she was surprised when a character ended up pregnant. I can't remember which book it was in, but the point was that she doesn't always carefully craft the plotline and then fit into that line. That really helped me because sometimes I find the idea of writing an entire book to be daunting. It is part of my personality to change things as I am creating and I need the freedom of my characters sometimes leading me around instead of me trying to control them rigidly.

However, for this book, much of it is very crafted. There is a place I want to end up and in order to get there, I needed to weave and bend things very carefully. There is a message here and it may be lost if certain aspects of it's consideration are lost. So we will see how well I can control the plot and characters for this month.

I'm not sure if I have what it takes to sell my work or even if I believe in my end product, but I do know I can perform the exercise of writing. We will see how I feel about the end product after I complete it.

At the same time, Paperback Writer has entered a great post on writing the scene with links to notes on scene writing by other authors. Very timely.

Men's Choice

I've been avoiding really talking about the how men view abortion because I want to avoid drawing a picture with a very wide brushstroke. But in searching on reproductive rights in hopes of finding current articles on how Roe v. Wade is in jeopardy, I came across this questionable national organization. The http://www.nationalcenterformen.org/ is leading efforts for "men's choice." From their website:

OUR PHILOSOPHY. Our philosophy has always amounted to this: We believe that men should enjoy the same choices, freedoms and privileges in their lives that women now take for granted in theirs. It is just that simple and that basic and that important to us.

OK. So let's take a look at what this would mean in reality.

• You want a 25 percent reduction in pay.
• You want your sexual partner to leave you with the entire decision about whether to abort, adopt, or have the financial and social stigma of raising a child.
• You want to be looked over for employment because in the future you may have a child and therefore be less dedicated.
• When your partner does get pregnant, you will be forced to gain the weight, experience the hormone fluctuations and lack of sleep, and experience the very painful act of childbirth. And let's not let that work suffer while your spouse is pregnant.
• Your sexual partner will refuse to use any form of contraception leaving you to take the responsibility yourself. You see, all forms of contraception that women can take reduce her ability to feel an orgasm. So, therefore, she should not have to use them.
• And if your method of birth control fails, it must be that you were trying to trick her and leave her with the financial responsibility of a child.

There's one right we will not give you guys though. You will never have the right for your sexual partner to deny her maternity and just walk away from the situation leaving you with the child to care for and the social stigma of being a "loose hussey who sleeps around and falsely accuses women of being the mother of his child."

Nope! We're not going to share that one guys. That's a privilege that we will not give up.

A little humor

to offset the seriousness of the last post.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/openletters/2.html

He. He.

If you are pro-life, please read this

Are you pro life or pro choice? Think about that question. An anonymous friend was called today by an automated telephone poll and asked that question. Most of my friends, when pressed, will have a really hard time answering that question. Some will choose a side, but then have a very hard time with their choice.

You see, most of us sit somewhere in the middle and we really struggle with the debate that is raging in this country. Some of us respond to our gut feeling or the teachings of the church. Many of us respond to what the media has sold. We may not do so knowingly, but we do. Countless dramas on TV seem to sell the idea of early viability, the rightness of choosing life, the idea that promiscuity leads to pregnancy and that those who end up wanting an abortion are there solely because of bad choices.

The realities are very different. As I have researched this book and shared my findings with friends, I have been surprised at the number of women who have told me that they had abortions. They had them for many reasons; all of them compelling. All of these women went on to be wonderful loving mothers. Some of the best mothers I have ever met. They are intelligent, educated women who were faced with a decision that was bigger than any many of us will ever have to face. Certainly bigger than any I ever had to face. None of the women I spoke to felt that the choice was the wrong one. This doesn't mean they don't regret having had to make that choice just that they didn't regret the choice they made. This doesn't mean that these women are not haunted by the choice they had to make. It doesn't mean that they made the choice and then forgot about it completely because they were happy with this choice. It just means that it was the right choice for them and their family.

But is it really a choice? I don't believe that a woman chooses abortion unless she feels that it is the only real choice she has. It's not like choosing beer. It's not like deciding whether you want steak or fish at a fancy restaurant. It's a choice between economic devastation or the possibility of waiting a bit longer and being able to provide a future for a child. For some women, it's the choice between life and death.

We have seen that the frequencies of abortions have gone down since roe v. wade. So it seems to me that to try to overturn roe v. wade is not really in support of pro-life. And that's not even taking into consideration the number of lives that were lost due to botched abortions when abortion was illegal.

See, the point of the phone survey today was to find people who would classify themselves as pro-life and then let them know that we are on the verge of being able to overturn roe v. wade and we should galvanize this year to make that happen.

But in fact, overturning roe v. wade would not be in support of pro-life. It's in support of anti sex. Because the legalization of abortion has in fact reduced the number of abortions performed in this country by 1) taking away the novelty of doing something illegal and 2) forcing pro-lifers to make the choice of abortion a lesser choice for more women by making it possible economically to have an unplanned child and 3) putting greater pressure on insurance carriers and the governments to make contraception both available and economically feasible.

There are those who believe that God is calling them to stop abortion by illegalizing it. Personally, I don't believe that God has ever asked us to use politics to solve moral issues. I think He expects more of us. He has given us free will and asked us to take care of each other. The problem of abortion can only be solved by taking away the need. Some of those needs are economic. We can solve those. Some of those needs are medical. Those are harder to solve. Some of those needs are societal. We don't like to change those.

So it seems that to be truly pro-life, one must spend tireless hours fighting for pay parity and job security for women, fighting for protections against child abandonment by men, reducing the stigma faced by single mothers, providing good government supported child care and health care for all families, making contraception available to all and educating on its responsible use, determining core factors in teen pregnancy, and most of all acknowledging equal responsibility between a man and a woman in the creation of a child.

You see, I don't know a single person who would not be tickled pink if there were no more need for abortion. So everyone I know if pro-life. But I really hope they don't do anything to overturn roe v. wade.

You can't be in my club!

My older son is in 3rd grade. Ever since he was in second grade, he has had to deal with kids making clubs and not letting certain students in. At first, he was not excluded, but I made it clear that under no circumstances was he to participate in a club that did not allow everyone. I explained to him how hurtful it was to the children who were excluded. He followed my instructions to the best of my knowledge, and never participated in excluding anyone. This year, he is being excluded. I can see him struggle with it. I don't see him deciding that the problem is the club. Instead, he trys to be included.

What can I say. I think I was in Jr. high or high school before I figured out that I didn't need the club. I finally figured out that I didn't need anyone to make me feel badly about myself and that even if I were accepted into whatever clique was the latest trend, that I wouldn't feel good about excluding anyone anyway. So why bother.

Some kids take longer to figure it out. In Colleges each year, thousands of freshmen, far from home for the first time and feeling very insecure about their ability to fit in, will rush sororities and fraternities putting themselves through tests to be accepted by the Greek clubs. The Greeks set their standards and choose applicants without fear of hurting feelings. The unworthy are left out of yet another club and maybe they start to see the absurdity of it all, but chances are good that those who were chosen still don't get it.

You see that's the thing about being in an exclusive club is that we don't see the side of one who is kept out of the club. At any age, exclusive clubs are mean. I can understand the dilemma of my son's 3rd grade counterparts. After all, they are young and performing new and exciting experiments. But at what age are we all supposed to get it. At what point does the learning curve dictate that remedial social skills services will be provided for the socially clueless who still think the world is a catty sorority where only we should have access to that experience of life or that social class.

So what brings this on? Mayakda shared this article with me.

You see, conservatives have started an exclusive club in this country. It all started with "only we have the key to heaven." And most of us responded with, "OK, if you feel that way. Just leave me alone because I think differently." But this doesn't seem to have gone far enough for them. Now they want to think they have exclusive rights over parenthood too. And marriage and family and community and just about anything.

Don't get me wrong, there are lots of things we need to look at when we explore the ethics of reproductive technologies. But whether the mother and father are married? Come On! If you haven't figured it out yet, this bill is for one purpose only. That is to control women. Notice the lack of reference to the father. No penalty for the sperm donor. No reference to men being responsible for babies out of wedlock. It's as if they don't know how babies are made.

And let's not forget the impact on lesbians. Many turn to IVF and donor sperm to start families. This bill is especially geared toward stopping that. Conservative women don't want lesbians in their exclusive club. Oh no. That would not be OK. And conservative men don't like lesbian women because they point out the fact that women don't need men. If women don't need men, then men lose power. And that cannot be.

So we hear about protecting the American family and we hear statistics about how children need a father and a mother (I'd like to know how many who are quoting that statistic are actually doing something about the thousands of children without functional parents of any kind).

OK folks, we're not in 3rd grade any more. It's time to get with the program. Unless you have a bill that will actually do some good in this country, keep it to yourself. We don't have the time or energy for the bigotry.

NaNoWriMo

Well, I have officially signed on to NaNoWriMo for another year.

Given that I'm starting a new job on November 7th, this will be an interesting challenge. But I figure if I work really hard from the 1st to the 7th, I will be able to get far enough ahead to be able to keep up the rest of the month.

For those of you who might not be familiar with NaNoWriMo, the idea is to write a novel in one month. In reality, they are looking for 50000 words which is more like a novella, but the idea is to get writers past the production hump that stymies most of them. During that month, you don't worry about editing. You just allow yourself to write. Most writers tend to perfect more than they write and they never complete their work. Last year, I was keeping up pretty well until my mother's death on the 14th. Obviously, I missed a few days of writing then and the whole thing kind of fizzled out as I had other things on my mind.

At the same time, the novel I was working on was heading in its own direction. Towards the one I'm working on now. But it wasn't working as it took that path. So I decided that this year I will let this novel out. I've been researching the topic, outlining and writing bios for my characters. I'm really glad I did. Now I have all this material to review and use whenever I'm stuck. I'll be posting my progress.

The plan--

Well it started with the research, the character bios, and the outline. I wrote a timeline too so that I can ensure that my pop-culture references fit properly.

To write 50000 words in November, I need to write 1667/day. I will double that the first week to get ahead. That allows me to have a bad day here or there. After the 7th, I will be writing at least that many words most days at work.

I've known few technical writers who could write for fun outside of the work-world. Something about the structure and the basic boring nature of what we are writing about makes it hard to be creative when you come home.

One of my biggest regrets about being a tech writer when I was working before was that I gave up my recreational reading. I read and write all day. Even recreational reading became work. I'm hoping that my 5 year hiatus has broken that cycle and I can write recreationally for a month.