Maybe Keep Going

This may be the end.

Well, of the whole National Blog Post Month is over for me. Whew. I tried this a couple of years ago and it may be a couple more years hence before I do it again. Maybe! You never know.

In the meantime, I’ll be hanging out at the roller rink because that is what I do.

my speed skater

There was a time when I thought the strangest place I’d ever written was in the car, sitting with my laptop on the way to Thanksgiving dinner. Now, I write at the roller rink while my son skates.

The first time he put on a pair of roller skates was at a birthday party. We rented the quad skates (you know, traditional skates), and he got on the rink and fell. He fell. He fell. He fell. He cried. He fell.

He wanted to go back. We went back, and eventually he managed to stay up all the way around the rink. Then he saw Rollerblades. We rented Rollerblades. He didn’t fall so much. He got faster. He began participating in the open session races–the races during regular public skates times, races that are just for fun, and where most participants stumble along and barely stay up. He began winning all those races–until speed skaters showed up.

“Mom, can I do that?”

I saw how fast the teenage speed skaters went around the rink. “You don’t really want to do that, do you?”

“Yes.”

Mr. Rollerskates (yes, that’s what all the kids call him and he gives skate lessons) encouraged my son to talk to the speed skate coach. The coach said he’d seen him skating during open session, and sure, he could come watch a practice any time.

I rather hoped that the first time my son saw a serious spill, he’d change his mind.

The coach lent us a pair of speed skates (because they are insanely expensive and you want to be sure you’re going to stick with it before spending that kind of money).

My son goes to every practice–4 days a week. Usually two hours at a time. Practices are boys, girls, women, and men. Ages 5 to 50. At meets you only get a medal if you place. Lots of kids and grownups go home without medals. They don’t give ribbons or anything for showing or participating or for being a good sport. If you win, you get your medal (sometimes trophy!). If you lose, then practice more.

racing

He has fallen and lost skin. He has fallen on his face. He has been kicked by skates. He has seen other skaters lose skin to the floor. Bloody patches the size of a baseball. Bruises. Twisted ankles. Pile ups. Crashes into walls.

My son is 8.

My nerves are getting stronger.

Speed skating is not a popular sport around here and most people have no idea what we’re talking about. My son is the only kid at his school who speed skates. Roller skate, sure. Other parents look at me as if I’m nuts. And there is no skate season. Skate practice is all year round.

But you can see the writing metaphor here, can’t you?

You start writing. Stories fail. You keep writing. You practice regularly! You might win–publication! You might (most likely) get nothing. Practice more! And other people will look at you as if you’re nuts. You may not literally bleed (should hope not!), but metaphorically you will. And it’s all year round.

What isn’t all year round (thank the merciful heavens) is Story-a-Day May. But that crazy month is over and I’ve written story 31! This doesn’t mean I’m done writing stories, of course. (Of course!) But tomorrow starts The Summer of Submission.

Write. Edit. Submit. Write. Edit. Submit. Write. Edit. Submit. Around and around we go.

What are you submitting these days? Come on. Put on your crash helmet and go!

Maybe You Can Blame Your Parents

Your parents may bequeath you many things… like brown eyes, a house, a fiery personality, an obsession for antiques.

My parents have not left me any of those particulars.

One thing about writing a separate story every day is that you notice what your repeat. In fact, I think I’m repeating that idea. Was that in an earlier post? Maybe. But this time I want to focus on a particular type of character of issue that keeps appearing in my stories. What you think of someone who kept writing stories about bankers? Or construction workers? Or nuns?

Literature students do this all the time, right? They look at a writer’s collection of works and they notice threads, themes, motifs…like bullfighters and rich men who throw too many parties. Next thing you know, you’ve got a thesis.

I noticed a lot of my stories have prostitutes in them.

Why the blue blazes is that?

Of course, marginal characters, people who live on the edge of society, who skirt danger, who make terrible choices, they are more interesting to write about. Sure. But I don’t write about homeless people much.

Sex sells. There is that. But I’m not sure I’ve ever written anything with a market in mind. And I’m not really writing stories like that even if there are prostitutes in them.

When I was 14, I was traveling alone on a plane for the first time. At the Houston airport my mother decided before sending me on my way to give me advice about how to stay out of harm’s way. Almost 30 years later and I can still remember the chairs we were sitting in when she explained to me how certain types of men and women trap girls into lives of prostitution. I’ll spare you the details. But not only did she give a deep fear of strangers, but she very likely if inadvertently ruined years of dating.

What character keeps appearing in your stories? Why is that do you think?

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And so I’ve got part of story number 23 posted. Make of it what you will.

Maybe Again and Again

I may beat my head against the wall before this is all said and written.

And you may wonder why anyone would try and write a story a day. What is the point? And you may have a point. Sure.

But at the very least, this exercise teaches me something about my writing… and maybe my own brain. Writing stories so close together reveals what images, phrases, objects, ideas you like a lot and repeat. For example, six stories in and I see that I like doors and things characters want but can’t have.

Really. The want-and-can’t-have thing may describe most every story I’ve ever written. With the want-and-is-sorry-to-get-it variation.

I’ll let the psychologists sort that out.

But it is good to know what phrases you over use, what gestures you keep giving your characters, what you keep going back to again and again.

What sorts of things do you repeat in your stories?

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So. Repeating myself with enthusiasm, for Story-a-Day I’ve got story number six posted. 25 stories left to go.