A few summers ago I wrote the entire first draft of a novel. Now I’m not saying this novel is perfected. It’s not. In fact, this particular book is filed on my computer until I come up with exactly the right hook for the opening—which would happen sooner if I spent more time thinking about who I really want that main character to be. But I still call this novel my miracle book because I was able to write the entire draft while babysitting a five-year-old.
My grandson Erik watched Wonder Pets every morning while I sat beside him on the couch and pounded the keyboard of my laptop until I wore the lettering off two of the keys. For those who don’t know, the wonder pets are a guinea pig named Linny, a turtle named Tuck, and a duckling named Ming Ming. These pets escape from their cages at a preschool every day after the humans go home. The escapees then rescue baby animals stuck in trees, wells, mud, or wherever else baby animals can get trapped. For some reason Wonder Pets and their cute little song about teamwork kept Erik quiet and kept me writing. I couldn’t write through Ben 10, or Jimmy Neutron, or especially not Fairly Oddparents. Too many explosions, magic gone terribly wrong, and parents who couldn’t put on their own shoes without consulting their children. But Wonder Pets kept me glued to my novel, entranced by my characters and their own fictional adventures until the book was complete.
Sadly, Erik has outgrown Wonder Pets. I’ve tried to keep steadily working at my computer in hopes of producing another book this summer. But I can’t come up with a decent murder scene while babysitting a child and four Chihuahua puppies to the background noise of cartoon children busily outsmarting the adults in their little cartoon lives.
I tried to entice Erik back to Wonder Pets by pointing out that teamwork is a great trait for him or any other smart kid to learn. And Linny, Tuck, and Ming Ming are so brave, so caring, exactly the right animals for him to emulate. My grandson was quick to tell me that eight-year-olds do not watch baby shows. Then he asked why I would think he could possibly be interested in stupid TV animals that travel around in a flying boat while they sing silly songs. In fact, he now believes my brain is too old for me to “think like normal people” and he knows he will soon have to take care of me. He suggested I call the driver license office to ask if there are emergency licenses for kids in his situation, kids who need to drive their really feeble grandmas to the hospital if their brains shut down.
Monday I am not babysitting. Monday I will have the house—and the TV—to myself. I can stay upstairs in my office and I can write anything I want without one single interruption. I’ll probably work on the latest book for a couple of hours. If the writing flows, I’ll rejoice. If it doesn’t—well, Wonder Pets might be on.
L.C. Evans
http://www.lcevans.com/
Showing posts with label Novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Novel. Show all posts
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
My Spell Checker
Here I am, writing another blog…what a word. Have you noticed that it is gets underlined in red every time you type it on your computer? Or, maybe my computer is just old and my stored dictionary is behind the times. Anyway when I type blog, I get suggestions to spell it as bog, bloc, blob, blot, blow. Of course, I can’t use any of these so blog it is. (I just took the time to add it to my dictionary because it looks as if it is going to become a part of my writing life from now on.) But, as the cliché goes, I digress.
I wanted to write about how helpful the sell checker is to me in my writing. You may be an A #1 speller and have won that dreaded class room spelling bee (or is it B?), but not me. I remember well when I was in third grade we often had to stand in two lines – one on each side of the classroom – and the teacher would call out the weekly list of spelling words. If a word was missed, the student sat down. The last one standing got some reward such as getting to be first in line for lunch. Believe it or not, one time I came close to being the winner. (I stress one time because it happened only once.) Kay, the smartest girl in class and I were left standing this particular Friday. We had been through the words several times and I was sure I could spell any of them that day. Miss Coles called out a word to Kay, I don’t remember what the word was, but Kay spelled it correctly. Then she said if I spelled my word correctly she was going to declare this contest a draw. I was excited. I knew that for the first time I would be a winner. Miss Coles turned to me and said, “Lynette, your word is City.” I knew it and deep down in my heart I knew that I knew it. Confidently, I spelled “S-i-t-y.” Now I’m digressing again.
Back to the spell checker. Most of us have seen the little poem that floats about the internet which ends with a line such as: you no what I right is write, cause my checker tolled me sew. It is true that if you spell a word correctly but have used the wrong word, the checker won’t pick it up. This happens to me, but I still wouldn’t take my checker away for anything. Having a touch of dyslexia, I often transpose letters in my words. My checker will catch them most every time. I also use it to spell a word when I just can’t come up with the right combination. It will often give me the correct word in its line of suggestions if I simply spell at the word. (It just did it for me with the word dyslexia.) I spelled it something like: dyslesica and it furnished me the right word.
Another way it helps me with my writing is with the names of my characters. In my yet unpublished book, MURDER IN SOUTH CAROLINA, I have a character named Bett. My computer didn’t want the name spelled that way and would underline it every time. To over come this, I added the name to the dictionary because Bett is one of the main characters and I knew I would be typing it a lot. In another novel waiting for a home, SETSON MOLD I have a character with the last name of Layhee. My computer doesn’t like this name either, but I didn’t add it to my dictionary. Though Mr. Layhee plays a vital role in the story, his last name only appears a few times.
My spell checker is just one of the many tools I use while writing. I would drive editors mad without it. They still chuckle at my spelling sometimes, but at least they have accepted my quirks. Maybe they just no my righting is great, no matter how it’s spelled. I like to think sew anyway.
I wanted to write about how helpful the sell checker is to me in my writing. You may be an A #1 speller and have won that dreaded class room spelling bee (or is it B?), but not me. I remember well when I was in third grade we often had to stand in two lines – one on each side of the classroom – and the teacher would call out the weekly list of spelling words. If a word was missed, the student sat down. The last one standing got some reward such as getting to be first in line for lunch. Believe it or not, one time I came close to being the winner. (I stress one time because it happened only once.) Kay, the smartest girl in class and I were left standing this particular Friday. We had been through the words several times and I was sure I could spell any of them that day. Miss Coles called out a word to Kay, I don’t remember what the word was, but Kay spelled it correctly. Then she said if I spelled my word correctly she was going to declare this contest a draw. I was excited. I knew that for the first time I would be a winner. Miss Coles turned to me and said, “Lynette, your word is City.” I knew it and deep down in my heart I knew that I knew it. Confidently, I spelled “S-i-t-y.” Now I’m digressing again.
Back to the spell checker. Most of us have seen the little poem that floats about the internet which ends with a line such as: you no what I right is write, cause my checker tolled me sew. It is true that if you spell a word correctly but have used the wrong word, the checker won’t pick it up. This happens to me, but I still wouldn’t take my checker away for anything. Having a touch of dyslexia, I often transpose letters in my words. My checker will catch them most every time. I also use it to spell a word when I just can’t come up with the right combination. It will often give me the correct word in its line of suggestions if I simply spell at the word. (It just did it for me with the word dyslexia.) I spelled it something like: dyslesica and it furnished me the right word.
Another way it helps me with my writing is with the names of my characters. In my yet unpublished book, MURDER IN SOUTH CAROLINA, I have a character named Bett. My computer didn’t want the name spelled that way and would underline it every time. To over come this, I added the name to the dictionary because Bett is one of the main characters and I knew I would be typing it a lot. In another novel waiting for a home, SETSON MOLD I have a character with the last name of Layhee. My computer doesn’t like this name either, but I didn’t add it to my dictionary. Though Mr. Layhee plays a vital role in the story, his last name only appears a few times.
My spell checker is just one of the many tools I use while writing. I would drive editors mad without it. They still chuckle at my spelling sometimes, but at least they have accepted my quirks. Maybe they just no my righting is great, no matter how it’s spelled. I like to think sew anyway.
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