How do I love thee, MIP? Let me count the ways . . .

As Jacqueline pointed out, Macy came up with the blog topic "things we love about our MIPs." Let me just say that the beginning of an extensive rewrite isn't necessarily when you're clearest about that, because you've just shined a bright, glaring light on your work and cranked the editor to high. Also, in my own way, I am a perfectionist. People often don't realize that about me because I'm spontaneous and impulsive. I ramble, say what I think and I try to be emotionally honest. Therefore, I let people in on all the up and down, around, under and back-- and all my imperfections and mistakes are highlighted in the process. Moreover, my personal fashion style is disheveled and I'm a terrible housekeeper, but I digress. He, he. Kinda.

When I was putting up sheers and window treatments, I called a few different people in for estimates. One of the women asked a lot of questions about our furniture, et cetera, and ultimately, asked if I was an artist. I laughed and said no. Her response was, "Are you sure? You mismatched everything perfectly. Most people are more matchy-matchy, and don't have the patience this would take." Of course, she got the job. (And I have to point out that I live in a small house, so I'm not saying "Hey, I have a really cool house with really cool furniture." I'm saying I was glad she noticed and that underlying all my boho, devil-may-care posturing there IS a perfectionistic artist--moi-- that, indeed, had a vision when she was buying a piece here, a piece there and making sure nothing was matchy-matchy.)

So, back to the point, my MIP. The things that I didn't like about my MIP were that I hit a couple of the low and high points in ways that struck me as a bit melodramatic and contrived. Too matchy-matchy. Not real. Truth didn't shine from them. I overdid some scenes, where I'd have preferred more minimalism. I went minimal where Paris Apartment style with it's luxurious textures might have been more appropriate. I got a little cheesy here and there. Is any of it beyond repair? Nope. But some of the pieces have to go back. New pieces have to be found.

What do I like about my MIP? Well, I have two in progress so I'm going to hit them both.

In both MIPs, I like the characters.I don't always get everything right about them, but it comes across that the good guys are fun, funny, and good, and doing the best they can with style and flair. And a certain bigness. They live life big with big coping mechanisms and big screw ups and big sex drives. Ha! I tend to think of them as normal, the people that could live next door, but I know they don't because they're amalgamations of the most alive and interesting people I've met and known, and my stamp has been put on them, my imprint, so they're also a bit of me. And most people I meet aren't like them ( my characters) or, actually, me, but somehow, my characters do have that essential humanness. People, readers, like them. So, I know that doesn't give you much, but I do very much like the characters I create. And, since I've let everybody and their uncle read my current works in progress as well as a couple of short stories I've written, I feel pretty confident in the character area-- even when I sometimes get motivations and what not wrong. I try not to label them too much as feisty or alpha because they're more imperfect and complex than that.

I like my settings. In Carly's Curse (working title cuz I'm bad at titles) most of the novel is set in Chicago. They also go to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for a wedding, Michigan, France and Tuscany. Diana Meets Nathaniel (another working title) is also set in Chicago, although she eventually travels back to nineteenth century and I'm not sure she's in Chicago when she does that. Probably not, but maybe, because the bottom line about setting is I'm a Chicago kind of girl-- not New York or LA or the deep South or the Southwest. Chicago.

Why Chicago? Well, in Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert writes about the secret to understanding a city-- the word on the street. What is the word on the street? According to the "word on the street" theory, every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. According to Gilbert and her friends, for Rome, it's Sex. In Vatican City, Power. In Naples, Fight. New York, Achieve. LA, Success. Stockholm, Conform. For me, Chicago's word is Scrappy. Sure, some here are trying to emulate New York or LA, and we have more than a few Romans and Swedes running around yelling sex! conform! sex! conform! but I like scrappy. I think it's the right word. Here's what I found when I googled "scrappy" --

The word scrappy is defined as a patchwork quilt or an appliqué quilt. It is done with many different kinds of fabrics. The scrappy usually consists of fabrics in smaller pieces. The pattern is usually a set of repeating blocks of fabric. These blocks are similar in colour and values in the same places in each block. However, the fabrics used to make different blocks are different. The word scrappy, when used as an adjective, is used to describe a person who is full of fighting spirit.

Yep, scrappy is the right word. Both meanings. Chicago is laid out in a grid pattern and if you visit the various 'hoods, you'll see the quilt-related thing. And fighting spirit? Absolutely!

Another thing I like about my MIPs is that they are about falling in love, finding love, and letting love shift your paradigm and jolt you out of the coping/thinking/dealing patterns that have become a stifling rut. At least for my main characters, Carly & Nick, and Diana & Nathaniel. Love is the elixir.

Hmmm. That's only three so far. Not sure I'm good at this self-promotion thing.

I like the friendships, the relationships between different characters and their friends and families.

I like the humor and irreverence and sense of fun in my stories, although I'm constantly afraid that I haven't hit the exact right notes.

I love my heroines' jobs. One is a sommelier and one is a women's lit professor. Cool jobs!

And lastly, I just love creating. I love that if you keep plugging away at it, as you you chip away at the slab of marble, a statue begins to appear. I'm not Michelangelo, but, heck, it amazes me that I'm sculpting, that the work resembles something human.

Biggest challenge? Getting it right. Getting what I see in my head on the paper so maybe the reader will see what I see. But that's okay because when I get it close enough, I'm going to be ELATED.

Cheers and happy writing,
Alyson