Snow whirls from every direction. Lady Lake Superior conducts her frozen orchestra, each note a snowflake that adds to the howling concert. Snow is going to become an issue.
On the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan, snow removal becomes a big deal. We often get over 300 inches of the white stuff. Today was the first big dump and I was the first neighbor to start scooping. Ordinary snow shovels won’t do. We need Yooper Scoopers.
I opened the garage to find a smaller shovel and one fell into my arms. I laughed, thinking about Liz Husebye Hartmann’s rakish romance from the prompt Carry On. I was excited to grab the shovel to clear my steps. Except, it was the wrong shovel. I leaned the disappointed gardening shovel back against the wall and found the square shovel instead. I’ll dance with the digging shovel next spring.
The steel scoops and shovels clang against paved driveways and cement steps. It’s a distinct scraping sound that can be heard by neighbors. Once someone within hearing distance initiates snow removal, others want to join in. We each have our own tools and we shout to one another over the roar of wind, friendly banter that will continue all snow season.
Now, some of you better acquainted with snow might wonder why we are shoveling in the storm. Most people who live in snowy places shovel or blow driveways after a storm passes. We don’t get storms like that. We get a chugging snow machine who creates her own weather. I’ve seen months when the snow never ceases. It might lessen, but it doesn’t stop. Going into snow season, the lake effect storms putter like bad gas in a snowblower. We’ve had lots of puttering, but the system is now fully operational.
We make hills as high as we can push a Yooper Scooper. The bottom of the scoop is like a sled. You don’t lift snow with this tool, you push and scatter it, eventually building giant debris hills of white. If the accumulations are deep, we have to think about removal. One year, some neighbors hired a loader to remove snow so they could continue to scoop their driveways. We have an effective piling system, and as of yet, we have not required the services of a big tool like a loader.
The City of Hancock employs workers between 2:30-7:30 am to remove snow from streets. As a late-night writer, it’s one of my winter pleasures to watch the machinery and dump trucks parade up and down Roberts Street in the wee hours when no one else is awake. For now, they will plow and grade. By the New Year, I’ll have a front-row seat to all the snow removal tools.
And speaking of tools, it’s time to consider tools of revision.
Many writers confuse revision with editing. They are not the same thing and each requires different tools. A lot of writers skip revision because they don’t understand how to do it. Or, find the creation of a Revision Plan too difficult. It is a lot of work. Just like removing snow. But it comes with the territory of being a writer. As a reformed pantser, I discovered that I love the process of revision.
First, consider the work you are dreaming or drafting. I say dreaming in reference to pre-writing activities. Currently, I’m dreaming my next novel. I’m writing some flash fiction with a protagonist in mind, curious about her story. I’m exploring, hoping to learn more. My next novel is churning in my imagination. Pre-writing is dream-time. It’s also plotting, mapping a character arc, and planning.
You cannot jump from dreaming to revising. Revising requires that sloppy first draft. Whatever you want to call it — sloppy, shitty, ugly — be sure to respect it. Can we find a more accepting word to describe first drafts? We have to tell ourselves the story first (or let our characters or muses inform us). To me, that’s raw literature. It’s a body of writing at its freshest. It’s vulnerable. It’s lost. It’s brilliant. It’s not finished, yet.
In fact, it’s only just begun.
This is the kind of love we must have for our raw first drafts.
A Revision Plan acknowledges the hard work of dreaming and drafting coming together to produce this literary love child you proudly call your MS. Your manuscript. A Revision Plan sets out to feed, nurture, educate, and grow this bookchild to the best of our ability. Think of it as your toolbox to fix or keep the pages humming like a powerful engine.
The way I create a Revision Plan is in sections. There are four:
- Structure
- Content
- Research
- Correctness
Structure gives shape to all that draft material. Think of this — if your raw draft were kale, what is your intended dish? A hip kale salad with cherry vinaigrette? A kale frittata with lion’s mane mushrooms? Baked kale chips with curry powder? Kale stir fry with scallops and sesame seeds? Structure asks you to consider your genre, tropes, and audience as much as your plot points, paring back scenes to purpose, and changing the hair color of your character. You want to collect these sort of tools:
Content covers what goes into your structure. Be aware that content is layered. You need a variety of tools:
Research is anything you need to verify to create verisimilitude. When you invite readers into your story you want them to believe, to feel the tension, imagine the setting, and connect to the protagonist.
Correctness is part of editing, but more. It includes getting your genre right or meeting standards for manuscripts. Are your dialog tags and punctuation correct? Make a list of misspelled words, wobbly grammar rules, and any craft confusion that you need to double-check.
What goes into your Revision Plan is as unique as your style of writing, intended audience, publishing path, and the material you plan to revise. It’s multilayered and is a process that is repeated. Once you begin to make your own lists under each section, you can refine your tools.
Time to get dreaming about tools, any tools.
November 18, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write about tools. Whose tools are they and how do they fit into the story? What kind of tools? Go where the prompt leads!
Respond by November 30, 2021. Use the comment section below to share, read, and be social. You may leave a link, pingback, or story in the comments. If you want to be published in the weekly collection, please use the form. Rules & Guidelines.
Pike’s Peak or Bust by Charli Mills
Bertie packed her father’s carpentry tools along with her calico dresses. The rest of his estate she sold to buy passage on the Merry Rover, a flat-bottomed steamship of the Missouri River. Somewhere, out there, where the sun set in streaks of orange and pink was her destiny. She learned the trade of building boxes and houses from her father, although none of the locals would hire her on account that she wore a skirt. Out west, her skills were needed, and she reckoned convention of gender wouldn’t matter as much. Pike’s Peak was not a bust for Bertie.
🥕🥕🥕
I’ll be entering the world of revision soon, and I’m sure I’ll revisit this post to start compiling some tools of my own. Considering revision, perspective is a big component of structure and your world of snow is a vastly different perspective to mine. When you mentioned the New Year, I imagined heat and sun and BBQs at dusk, not a fleck of snow in sight. Perspective is powerful. A single word can craft an entirely different scene for our readers. I find that fascinating.
Thank you for sharing these tools, I wonder what tools my right-brain muse will conjure for me this week.
Beautifully put, Rebecca, and we make so many assumptions without always realising it. I love how this international community widens our perspectives.
Here’s mine: https://rebeccaglaessner.com/2021/11/21/free-for-all/
I am having WP troubles and can’t seem to like. Maybe your character can help me out? Take on the Happiness Engineers? Please?
Okay, now I can after commenting and jumping through hoops.
Sorry the system threw you some curveballs there! I’ve found commenting and liking can get muddled up sometimes.
Revision is where you put your raw material to work. It’s astounding how many layers go into crafting a novel. I’m going to imagine your New Year, Rebecca! Perspective is one of those layers. And yes, a powerful one. In sci-fi, you can use multiple perspectives to give readers a rounded view of the world, such as the contrast between humans and androids. You conjured up a fascinating story this week!
[…] Respond by November 30, 2021. Use the comment section below to share, read, and be social. You may leave a link, pingback, or story in the comments. If you want to be published in the weekly collection, please use the form. Rules & Guidelines.Submit a form. […]
Amazing how, once again, this prompt chimes with something I’ve been working on. I’m actually meant to be doing revisions, but a long-term project took over and had me researching a particular type of tool:
Last sacrament
As his hand disappears into his tool bag, I recall my boys’ toys: Joe had a carpentry set, Jim a doctor’s boxy case. Did they fight over the stethoscope and spirit level? Was there a rubber hammer in both?
My visitor spreads a white cloth across the table.
Continues:
https://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecdotal/dishonourable-histories-palace-of-the-peacock-the-bureau-of-past-management
Great take on the prompt, Anne, and delicious undercutting of religious paraphernalia.
Thanks, Doug, I enjoyed browsing the picnic sets for priests.
🙂
You pose an uneasy question.
Much appreciated.
Thanks, Liz, so many hidden histories coming to the surface.
This one is open to censer-ship.
We are syncing up, Anne! I’m curious where you go to research something like a tool? It’s a good day when you can follow up on a different project. It’s kind of like a break.
Plain old G**gle I’m afraid. Although the tools were secondary to researching the ritual. Like this story, it’s too long since I met those tools IRL.
[…] https://carrotranch.com/2021/11/19/november-18-flash-fiction-challenge-2/ […]
https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2021/11/19/tools-2/
Emotional tools can cut deep, pound others, and drain the batteries of the user.
You are so right. Thank you, Charli!
Reblogged this on Reena Saxena and commented:
A must-read for writers …. by Charli Mills
Thank you for sharing this post, Reena!
In the Time of the Beaver Moon
“Jeez, Kid. Look’t them big words up there. Verisimilitude? Cain’t believe Shorty spelt thet c’rectly.”
“True, Pal. But I ain’t got time fer all this talk a tinkerin’ an’ word wrenchin’.”
“Well yer workin’ on somethin’.”
“Yep. Curly’s ready ta come home!”
“Changed her mind ‘bout bein’ a beaver?”
“Yep.”
“So why d’ya have all thet grease?”
“Curly done overdid gittin’ ready fer winter. She cain’t git out through the openin’ a the beaver lodge. She’s stuck in there. I gotta git her out.”
“Plenny a tension in this story Kid, but d’ya really ‘spect folks ta believe it?”
XXX
“If folks has been readin’, the facts are all there, Pal. Curly, my pet puglet, ‘dennified as a beaver an’ has been livin’ with the ones thet dammed up the stream that flows through Carrot Ranch. An’ now she wants out but is stuck.”
“Hmmff. It’s true thet puglet never seems ta know if she’s comin’ or goin’. So, ya got a stuck pig and a slick idea fer gittin’ her out thet involves grease.”
“Yep. Hey! Here’s Curly! Reckon the beavers had all the tools needed ta git her freed up.”
“Unbelievable.”
“Beavers are smart Pal.”
“No Kidding.”
The Beatles had it right, Joe Cocker, too.
“I get by with a little help from my friends”
Wow, what a great video! Thanks for sharing.
As for Curly, I hope she gets her identity straightened out and continues on as a happy character always up to, in to, or down under some mischief.
I think Curly will become a well adjusted pig. Kid? Another story.
Beavers are the original loggers and water system managers. Like curly, I dream of lodges, too. But I don’t want to go into one, I want to climb over them with my kayak. I’m sure Curly will be better off for their experience.
Glad to hear Curly’s unstuck and has fast friends that can help.
Best batten down the hatches here (I know Shorty’s used to the snow),
but I’m not! The winds blown some snowflakes round these parts.
And on the highway my little car nearly got blowed over!
Hi Charli, this post made me smile. Only you could write all about the comradery of shovelings snow when you intended to get to writing tools. My first drafts are much better than they used to be. I don’t have to re-write the whole book any more. Not even most of it. That’s what I call progress, but my first drafts take much longer now.
That makes me smile, Robbie! I like it when you can follow me from one point to another and find the connection. Yes, we do become improved authors. I believe we get better at integrating all the layers. First we have to learn them one by one and the only way to do that is to write. You’ve made great progress!
Thank you, Charli, I work hard at it.
I laughed several times in reading this. It’s a wonderful outline for the revision process; you ought to post it in its own page.
I agree Chel. I advised my local group that it would be worth their time to investigate the links Charli shared.
In the works, Chel and Sue! The page will have layouts and examples, too.
There’s No Tool like an…
Harley’s first sight of Pine Point was disheartening. The Hay River bus had barely made it through the snowstorm.
“This is no place for a city kid,” he thought.
Harley had volunteered for a four-month tour with Frontier College. He’d work as a miner during the day and teach interested coworkers English at night.
The bus dropped him at the bunkhouse.
The next day, Hastings, the Manager, said, “I’ve assigned you to work at the company tool crib. That way you’ll meet everyone.”
The first day, he spent two hours looking for a left-handed wrench.
Never did find it.
http://www.engleson.ca
It was probably right next to the striped paint and the skyhooks. 😉
He needs to get himself a coffee mug for left handers…
Did things turn out all right?
As it turned out, a right-handed wrench did the trick just as well…
Sometimes it is the right tool. Sometimes you can flip it over use what’s left.
Reblogged this on OPENED HERE >> https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
Thanks for sharing, Michael!
Thank you for your efforts on bringing so much challenges up to pleasure, Charli! Happy Thanksgiving! xx Michael
Excellent prompt. Totally lets me run riot with the good citizens of Little Tittweaking
A Bit Of A Tool
Dumpling Pendulous ran the Little Tittweaking Tool Museum with the zealousness of a radical grammarian, leaving no semi-colon unturned. Spanner week, when all unattached males displayed their equipment was anticipated by the residents as a way of getting all spotty, beardless lumpen peri-menopausal adolescent males out of their respective caves. This year Dennis Fumble entered his nickel alloy double ringed with unexpected gusto while the normally reticent Godfrey Pricktingle made a show of displaying his antique iron clad single end. But everyone agreed nothing was quite as impressive as Kevin Largehampton’s freshly lubricated two-handed reciprocating adjustable.
Deliciously articulated piece of ribaldry.
Thanks Doug!
I need a “love” button for this one. Still chuckling.
Marvellous!
Quite a few tools there I think…..lol!
Fraid uts that sort of place
Such fom-toolery.
Ha. Exactly so.
A festival of tools, oh my! Wonderfully written, Geoff!
Thanks Charli. Have a splendidly enveloping thanksgiving.
Snow. Ugh. I’m at a point where I don’t shovel it anymore, but I still walk in it and drive in it and all I can say is ugh. As for kale, this will sound silly and bad to many, but I’ve enjoyed a kale and peanut butter sandwich with just a light sprinkle of onion powder.
Michael, I was almost curious enough to try your sandwich but you lost me at the onion powder! Now, I do like peanut butter and kale in a breakfast smoothie. Yeah. I hear you…ugh. Is that why those fancy snowboots are called Uggs?
[…] week’s #carrotranch prompt takes us back to Little Tittweaking and the latest cultural event, its spanner […]
[…] This was written with the prompt tools provided by the Carrot Ranch November 18 Flash Fiction Challenge. […]
Here’s mine: https://jedigirlblog.wordpress.com/2021/11/21/fixing-the-car-flash-fiction/
Car troubles on the farm!
[…] please write your poem in 99 syllables. //Ekphrastic poetry;Image Credit: Vincent van Gogh Carrot Ranch November 18, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write about tools. Whose tools are they […]
Charli,
You are a font of information. Stay safe and warm.
I smashed three prompts here:
Import Important
(99 word Double Ennead Ekphrastic Acrostic
of the split words of Import Important)
I empoy the rake to
manage the fall leaves
piling them high at the curb for picking up
or some are for my trees
raked round their bases
tender protection for
inclement weather
might damage the roots that are near the surface
perhaps when snow piles high
over the back yard…
rest well with slow sap, my
trees that shed their leaves
and know that I look for budding health come spring
now though brace for winter;
time for dreamings’ nigh
© JP/dh
That’s 99 syllables not words!!
I oops’ed again I did add a verse for 99 words here’s the whole she bang…
Import Important
(99 word Double Ennead Ekphrastic Acrostic
of the split words of Import Important and added verse for CR 99 words)
I empoy the rake to
manage the fall leaves
piling them high at the curb for picking up
or some are for my trees
raked round their bases
tender protection for
inclement weather
might damage the roots that are near the surface
perhaps when snow piles high
over the back yard…
rest well with slow sap, my
trees that shed their leaves
and know that I look for budding health come spring
now though brace for winter;
time for dreamings’ nigh
——-
If I too could sleep the winter through,
could I would I sleep thusly
under warm leaf quilts
© JP/dh
I’ll fix the link and the entry… Charli ignore the first entry.
(by the way this is my 400th Carrot Ranch post!)
That is quite the smash up, in fact it doesn’t seem smashed at all. Well done PL.
Keyboards a tool right? Sometimes all the gears jist fit right inta place 🙂 ~Thanks
Jules, your smashups are always well blended. I like the 99-word version with the addition of the leaf quilt. I’m all for hibernating.
As you may have gathered, language is an elastic entity and I am still getting my head around Charli’s description of northern States Americans scooping up their dumps in public.
The joys of elasticity are grist to the mill for this correspondent, so I give you:
Not The Sharpest Tool In The Shed
In Australia, ‘tool’, as elsewhere, refers to a useful implement, and we have some ironic references to particular tools e.g. a hammer being called a bush screwdriver.
However, in Australia ‘tool’ can also mean either a stupid male person who draws attention to himself or a euphemism for penis. (Astute readers will recognise there is some cross-over in these meanings.)
Hence I offer the following terms as potentially useful additions to the English slanguage.
Tool shed – House of Parliament or Congress
Tool box – Politician’s coffin
Power tool – Blind follower of politician
Web tool – Conspiracy theorist e.g. Q-anon supporter
Brilliant. The hammer as bush screw driver made me chuckle.
Doug, I’m laughing because I know Yoopers love wordplay like that! Bravo for the expanded use of tool words.
Thanks, Charli. And thanks for introducing me to Yoopers. Who knew? 🙂
[…] November 18: Flash Fiction Challenge « Carrot Ranch In 99 words (no more, no less), write about tools. Whose tools are they and how do they fit into the story? What kind of tools? Go where the prompt leads! […]
[…] From Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch is this week’s challenge. […]
Thanks, Michael!
[…] Carrot Ranch Prompt (11/18/2021): In 99 words (no more, no less), write about tools. Whose tools are they and how do they fit into the story? What kind of tools? Go where the prompt leads! […]
Tools of the trade, or maybe just a side job? May the things we can best use come at our times of greatest need. Here’s my attempt on a chilly afternoon:
https://valleyofthetrolls.blog/2021/11/21/the-throne/
Inspired take on the prompt, Liz. Loved the phrase ‘apricot sunrise honeying all’.
Led you down a different set of expectations, eh? (heh heh heh..)
More like plunged me. 🙂
Not the plunge I expected, but clever use of description to play with expectation and reality.
Thanks! I had fun with this one~~
First timer here at Carrot Ranch. Here is my submission…
The Lost Craft – https://gmg1968.wordpress.com/2021/11/22/the-lost-craft/
I enjoyed this story with the little girl learning to wrench and to finish a job. Welcome to Carrot Ranch!
Welcome to Carrot Ranch! If you’d like to include your story in our weekly collection, submit it to the form in the post. Great story!
Charli,
Your snow clearing shovel sounds like nothing I’m familiar with. I’ll have to see if I can find a youtube video from the Yupper.
Your revision articles are excellent. Thanks for sharing. I suggested to my local group they visit the Ranch and spend some time reading them. Maybe they’ll listen since they know who you are.
I wrote my flash while listening to a live Billy Joel cover band. It was a fun evening. Somehow I missed including “the miles of cord.” On to the prompt…
The Tools of the Band
Instruments, reeds, strings, sticks, picks, sheets of music, and lyrics. Reverb pedals, rugs, amplifiers, microphones, speakers, and drinks. Playlist on my cell. Straight-leg jeans, boots, hats, and jackets. Diamond studs shine from our ears. Big smiles are plastered for the fans. Damn, I forgot the words. The audience doesn’t seem to notice or care. We strum the guitars and cover with the snare. Get the crowd to clap in time. Hallelujah, the many tools of the band. Loudly blend the notes and words. It doesn’t pay a lot but makes me feel alive playing as the man I am.
Note: the band this refers to is The Band of Brothers, an all-veteran band in which Michael is a guitarist and lead singer.
Tools of the band and tricks of the trade for when you forget the lyrics. Well played.
That’s a fun way to get inspired, Sue! Listening to live rock. Have you thought of building Michael a playlist? It would be music to play while you write his story.
I’m glad you found the curated articles helpful. It was something I greatly appreciated in my MFA program, articles that my profs found useful. Revision Plans are more like the toolbox with lots of different tools to include!
As a former roadie, I loved this piece, Sue.
I can’t imagine living with snow as you describe it, Charli. It may look beautiful, but what a lot of work. And so cold.
Thank you for all the links to helpful resources. I know where to come back to for some writing advice (I haven’t had time to read all yet).
I love the unstoppable hero of your flash. It’s great to feel unrestricted by other-imposed limitations.
And here’s my story: Grandpa’s Tool Shed https://norahcolvin.com/2021/11/24/grandpas-tool-shed-flashfiction/
Grandpa’s Tool Shed
Jacob worked tirelessly alongside Grandpa. He loved the sweet scent of sawdust curls and the heady smell of fresh paint. He loved that ash from Grandpa’s cigarette fell unchecked into the shavings. He especially liked using Grandpa’s real tools. The plastic bench at Kindy was only a toy.
Jacob’s visits decreased but Grandpa never forgot. He left the house, the shed and all his tools to Jacob. Standing in the dark empty shed, Jacob tried to conjure the smells of Grandpa. There was nothing else to do. He rolled up his sleeves and started planing sawdust curls — in memory.
What a beautiful story, Norah. I especially like the imagery of the last line. I’ll be thinking of your warm-weather as I scoop!
I hope thinking of our warm weather warms you from the inside-out, Charli. Thanks for your kind words about my story.
[…] response to Charli Mills’ 99 Word Flash Fiction Challenge. In 99 words (no more, no less), write about tools. Whose tools are they and how do they fit into […]
Happy to be joining in this week!
https://gloriawriteshere.wordpress.com/2021/11/23/of-the-utmost-importance/
I believe most kitchens have one of these drawers. It’s all necessary “stuff.”
Thanks for the chuckles, Gloria!
[…] This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write about tools. Whose tools are they and how do they fit into the… […]