Them Blues...Part IV

Them blues...them blues...

An Oldgirl and her blues.

I figure'd I'd finish up my blues isshas.

When we last talked about this, I was playing my violin very hard, talking about my writitng blues.

I miss the way I use to feel about writing.

Now, it seems I have to dissect every little thing. I can't think like a reader. I have to think like the writer I AM. Finding the fine line between the two has been like trying to find a needle in a haystack. No, like trying a needle in a landfill.

That was one of the reasons I started taking writing classes: I needed to learn to really edit and critique my own work. It is a MUST. But it tends to smother my inner fire... just completely wear me out.

These days, it is even rare for me to read book just for enjoyment or entertainment. I pick up QUICK on problems with whatever I'm reading. At the same time, I can really pinpoint what I do like about what I'm reading, and will even use some of the techniques in my own writing.

This is a good thing, and a bad thing at the same time. Let's just say, although I do read alot, my major form of entertainment these days is television.

Now, there's one thing I do enjoy, that has come away from this... Writing scripts. I've worked on something with Cheap Seats Terry in this past year, and he is simply MASTERFUL in his guidance of me in that respect. Dude is a walking book, I tell you. He has always loved my writing and has been able to pick apart in a great way, my own writing problems. I like the script thing a little better because it is a bit simpler. I've been working on it here and there, and I really need to pick that back up, because it made an Oldgirl happy.

But back to my own personal writing. It slowed down considerably.

Until someone stepped in... And she did some things that would help me look at this situation totally different.

You know who I'm talking about.

The Queen!!!!

No not THAT Queen. I don't want to deal with that Queen. Ya'll can have that.

No, I'm talking about the Queen... The baddest writing Diva in the Solar System.

Tayari Jones.



Author of the award winning novels Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling.

If you want to read something short by her, take a look at Some Thing Blue, which made this years editions of New Stories of the South.

If you've been hanging around the House of LadyLee for any length of time, you will know that she is my FAVORITE author and I'm her number one stalker, uh, I mean, I'm her number one fan.

I worship the ground she walks and spits upon. I truly do. I jock her relentlessly.

She is quite jockable, you see.

I affectionatley call her Miss Celie.

And she refers to me as Nettie...

(That completely baffles people on Facebook. I keep getting messages from people wondering what the hell we are talking about. Don't worry about it! It's secret code, lol).

I like ol' Tayari Jones. She's good peoples, just like Celie.

She got snatched up as a mentor and didn't even know it.

She's always been very helpful. I mean, I can be stuck on some particular writing issue, and I can send a message to the Queen, requesting a conversation about something as simple as the proper naming of characters, and we'd have a phone convo that completely clears everything up. She is a great teacher, and talks to me in a language that I can understand.

This type of thing has been going on for four years. And the more I talk to her, the more I like her. I told my best friend, "You know, that chick is just like us. Got the same thoughts, concerns, go through the same craziness. She NORMAL!"

I like that. She is the only celebrity I know, but she's normal. VERY nice and down to earth, even when she's walking around in her luxurious pink fur coat. (I constantly pick on her about this. I still think she needa to be careful where she wears that thing. She really needs to stay FAR away from the ho stroll when she wears it, lol).

I've learned sooooooo much from her on the writing tip. I owe her for her services. Hope she don't send me a bill.

She's been working on the manuscript for her third book for the last few years, and I have been lobbying HARD for just a page or two of it. 2 or 3 years ago I was over at her Mama and nem's house and an edited chapter was sitting on the dining room table. Tayari walked off, and it took ALLL the goodness in me NOT to steal that chapter. Ohhhh, I wanted to do it so bad, but I didn't.

Just continued to lobby for bits and pieces of this manuscript entitled The Outside Child or The Bigamists Daughters.

She just ignored me. She was being a Mean Celie.

LOL.

One day, in December of 2007, she and I were chatting on email, and out of the blue. I think I'd stop harrassing her so much. I mean, I didn't want her to think I was some strange stalker or worse...

She was like "I'm going to send you something."

She sent me the first hundred pages of that manuscript.

*Lee falls out in her cubicle*

No I didn't fall out of the cubicle. I remember my heart beating a hundred miles a minute. I remember almost tripping over my feet running to the printer at the end of our cubicle area.

Lawd have mercy! That was the BEST early christmas gift in the world. I read that what she gave me, and I remember reading the last page of it. I was sitting on the edge of my bed, shaking in my socks.

I sent her a text message of how wonderful it was... And it inspired me so much, that during my Christmas break that year, I made it a goal to spend at least 40 hours over those 2 weeks of vacation, just writing. I got SO much done during that time. So much...

Well, fast forward to June of this year (I think it was June). Tayari had finally finished her manuscript. Oh the joy we all felt!

And she asked me a most interesting question.

"Would you be one of my readers?"

*Crickets*

I had to go off on her for that one. I couldn't understand why she was asking. She was suppose to be like: "Look here, broad... I'm sending this 400 pages and you BETTER read it!!!!!"

She said she was trying to be polite.

What the HELL!??

I said, unceremoniously of course, that I would read it. (You piss me off with all that politeness, Celie. Really).

Now, I thought for a moment that she was just patronizing me. I mean, I'd been harrassing her for a long time over this. But I sent her 7 pages of notes on that 100 pages I read a back in 2007, and she actually read them and took them seriously. And we even talked about it. So I know she meant business, and wanted my thoughts on the entire project.

And it did something interesting for me. It was sort of like in the movie Karate Kid. You know, when Mr. Miagi tells the dude to go paint the fence and wax the car.

Now, every writer has a critique squad. I have my own, The Original Oldgirl Critique Team. I am proud of my team. I've been more interested in people who read for enjoyment, as some of them come back with a lot of uh, emotion. That let's me know I hit a nerve, and what I am writing is authentic. I'm not a literary writer, but I am more interesting in plot driven type stuff, more interested in shock and punch. I want to upset you, lol...

At the same time, I have the writing class for more technical critiquing. So, it's a one-two punch type of thing for me. I don't have the type of clout to have a team of writers to read my stuff. Hopefully someday I will.

But Tayari has her "Team T." And she allowed me to be on this very special team. She even posted her criteria for choosing those who would be on her critique team. (See "Assembling
Team T." )

And it was like her way of giving me a paint brush and telling me to go paint the fence.

All of it. Both sides.

Now, as a result of all this, I don't feel so bad about sitting down critiquing and editing my own work. I am MUCH more open to that. As a matter of fact, I do much more of that than writing. I am more open to stepping off my stringent path. My feelings about my own work are a bit more, I don't know... healthy.

So I thank you for that, Tayari. I thank you for allowing me to be on that first team of readers.

LOL...

I sat down, and I think over about 6 weeks times I read the whole manuscript and took copious notes. She wanted me to send her my notes, but I was hollering about how I wanted to type them up. I even rewrote certain sections, for my own learning purposes. (Man, I wouldn't DARE give that stuff to her. The horror, lol).

And it inadvertantly did something GRAND for me. I use to have an immense amount of trouble sitting down and reading and critiquing my own material. There was some block there. I would correct my own stuff, but I was upset about it.

After combing through 400 pages of Tayari's rough draft, and critically thinking about every word and idea she presented in her storyline AND having phone convos with her about certain parts really helped me with my own writing.

I have found that, after going through that process, I don't mind sitting down and reading my own work and making notes about it and making changes... to make it much better.

And I owe Tayari a load of gratitude for such.

Thank you very much, Miss Jones. Like I've always told you, you are my favorite writer in the whole wide world, and I am your number one fan. I can't really express how blessed I am to have open access to you, and for your willingness to help me freely and in any which way you can. Thanks for nurturing the writer in me, and doing all you can to help me with my confidence. And on top of that, you are a "normal" chick. That's a good thang!!

Thanks Celie, for doing something for me that at times I couldn't do for myself: believing in me as a writer, and encouraging me...

For I am the Speed Racer...



And it feels good to have my own Racer X...



And by the way... congratulations on that manuscript of yours, The Silver Girl. (I love that name. It is VERY appropriate).

It'll be published sometime next year through Algonquin books. Good for you, Celie!

Now, I'm still working through my issues... But I must tell you, I've made MUCH progress mentally. My mind is freer, and I can make it do what it do, lol.

Let's just say, I have several stories ready for submission... I hope for something interesting in the new year myself.

Ya'll have a great weekend... On purpose.