September 2014
September 1, 2014
The hero of my novel is really, really short
Check out my latest blog post about Alexandre Jean Noël, the 16-year-old French draftsman who went to Baja California in 1769. He's the hero of the novel I'm working on now, The Vermillion Sea. Turns out that Noël, at sixteen, was not just the youngest in the expedition; he was probably also one of the "little people."
This discovery was a huge surprise for me. When I first began writing the novel, I pictured him as tall. He was THE HERO, after all. Then I found a painting that blew apart that image. Noël's oil painting was made in 1778, nine years after he'd watched his mentor Chappe die of typhus in far off San Jose del Cabo. Nevertheless, the painting arrived at the perfect time: I now know exactly how my characters looked. I didn't have to imagine them into existence. My character was, indeed, "le petit Noël," as the astronomer Chappe referred to him. Learn more about him at my site at the Authors Guild.
Now, about your novels
As busy as we all are with our lives, you may think it's hopeless to ever write the book that's burning inside you. Distance learning programs are a great solution. You don't have to add a commute to your already busy day, and you can get solid advice for the next steps in your writing career. Most important, a distance learning program structures your time. You have weekly assignments. They're targeted to teach new skills. You get an immediate M&M of positive reinforcement from your peers. Some of my favorites are the Granta novel workshops, the UCLA extension writing programs, and the BBC Maestro's writing workshops.
Are you a reporter or PR person, trained like Pavlov's dog to respond to the jingle of a deadline-bell? If you can't sit down to write without a deadline, then try a distance learning program and see if it helps.
Remember, "Life is a box of chocolates." Take a bite. You can always put one back and take another.
Marylee MacDonald
My Authors Guild website