Friday, February 17th, 2012
 I was running a few minutes late to work this morning.
This is a problem, because running even a few moments late can mean being a half-hour to forty minutes late overall.
Case in point:
First I had to wait through the traffic jam at the stop sign.
Yeah, I know that sounds funny. But, because I was late, I had to wait for three cars to go through the stop sign at the intersection onto a larger road. (Normally, I arrive alone, see no cross traffic, and pull out immediately.)
Three of us were waiting for cross traffic to pass. So that made me a few moments later.
Then I got behind the pokey driver (+ a few moments) and because we were pokey, the school bus pulled out in front of us (+ a few more minutes) and then we got stopped by the train (+ a lot more moments while we waited for I-stopped-counting-at-57-cars to go by.)
When I finally got to the highway, traffic was nearly bumper to bumper, and I lost my early morning commute advantage.
::: sigh :::
The inclination is to get in the hammer lane and speed along with all the other crazies so that I can make up some time. But I exercise patience, because as the billboard says, it’s better to arrive 6 minutes late, than six feet under.
(Although in my case, it’s about 35 minutes late. That’s still better than six feet under.)
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write a story, essay or scene where a character’s patience led him into trouble. For instance, due to patience, someone lost a career opportunity; or, someone watched a loved one die while they patiently waited for a quack doctor to affect some kind of cure.
- Write a story where not being patient brought on loads of trouble. (This one is almost too easy: impatient driving caused an accident, bailing out too soon meant taking hit in the stockmarket – but holding on a day could have meant making zillions, jumping to conclusions loses you the love of your life, etc.)
- How about a play on words? Use patience, patients or pay / shuns in a poem or essay.
- If you journal, write about a time you had to convince someone else to be patient…and you were wrong. What happened?
- And some obligatory quotes to stir the juices:
- Patience is the best remedy for every trouble. ~ Plautus
- Patience is a remedy for every sorrow. ~ Publius Syrus
- Patience, and shuffle the cards. ~ from Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
- Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius. ~ Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield Disraeli
- Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts. ~ James Russell Lowell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stop sign photo from UltimateImages.com.
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is one of those ‘famous’ books on writing that writer-type folks talk about whenever the subject of good-books-to-learn-writing-skills comes up. I’ve wanted to read it for a long time.
However, I found it very difficult to get through.
The premise of the book is based on a wonderful 30-year-old memory: Faced with the insurmountable problem of writing a book report on birds, Lamott’s 10-year-old brother is in tears and wondering how he’s going to get it all done. Their father puts an arm around his shoulder and says, “Bird by bird, Buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
Fabulous advice.
But I realized after reading the introduction the book was not for me. It’s written in a literary style, a bit verbose for my tastes, and the takeaways aren’t what I need in my writing life right now. In my mind, Lamott spends a lot of time rambling about she thinks about things, rather than adding any concrete “how to” to the information. And there are a few chapters where she talks about something that happened to her, and you’re sort of left to wonder what she wanted you to get from the aside.
In the first chapter, “Getting Started,” Lamott talks about writing the truth and writing what’s real. She advocates starting with writing down everything you remember from school and kindergarten and holidays and such, along with your feelings and what you knew at the time. If you keep hacking at it, you’ll find the truth, or what’s real to write about. And that’s where you should start writing.
As a writer of speculative fiction, this isn’t what I needed (or wanted) to hear. I make things up. And while my stories might contain a kernel of something that happened to me (or someone else I know) it’s not going to resemble anything in the way of this exercise. The feelings, the emotions, yes – else how could you identify with my characters? – but the rest doesn’t make sense for me.
(From a genealogical perspective, on the other hand, I find this chapter fascinating. And, I might have to give it a whirl when I find the time.)
Other chapters in the book offer sound advice for beginners:
- Start small. (Especially if you are easily overwhelmed by large projects.)
- It’s okay to write terrible first drafts.
- Stop being a perfectionist. Perfectionism is “the voice of the oppressor,” according to Lamott.
- Plot grows out of character.
- Care passionately about what you write.
- Trust what your inner voice – your intuition — is telling you about your writing.
Then there’s a chapter called, “School lunches,” where Lamottt talks about a writing exercise she uses in her classes. Everyone writes down what they remember about school lunches and then they compare. She says when they discuss the differences of lunches throughout the states, it’s where they “see in bolder relief what we have in common.”
She gives some examples of what she wrote, which seem over dramatic. I think they’re supposed to be funny, but aren’t to me. It’s like she’s trying too hard.
One section of the book is called, “Help Along the Way,” where I suspect Lamott meant to suggest some useful tools for writers. But she spends an entire chapter discussing index cards, where the advice amounts to “Always carry something to write on.”
In another chapter, “Calling Around,” Lamott advises, “There are an enormous number of people out there with invaluable information to share with you, and all you have to do is pick up the phone.” Again, good, but we don’t need entire chapters to get the point across.
Two chapters, “Writing Groups” and “Someone to Read Your Drafts” are all about finding critique partners and getting feedback on your work. These are the two best chapters in the book. They contain good information, especially for beginning writers, and I agree with most of what she says.
(Unlike Lamott, I don’t advocate getting feedback from relatives, because in most instances they’re too afraid to hurt your feelings to tell you what you need to hear.)
The chapter on writers block is encouraging, but not instructional. There are no suggestions for how to overcome it (although an earlier chapter on writing letters could be useful. Lamott does not tie the two together.)
If you want to learn more about the author Anne Lamott, read this book. There are long passages about what she thinks about the writing process and how she handles it. She’s admittedly neurotic about it, and makes the assumption that most writers are as well. I disagree.
If you’re looking for concrete examples on how to write, new tools for your toolbox, or tricks of the trade, I’d look elsewhere.
My rating:
Two chewed pencils.
Friday, February 10th, 2012
 February 10 is National Umbrella Day in the United States.
(I didn’t know this until I sat down to write this post.)
Seems kind of silly to me. (But fun, too. For some reason it makes me wish it were raining today.)
I suspect that “National Umbrella Day” must be the product of a greeting card company, because I can find no congressional evidence of a “national” day being declared for it.
Do you have a favorite bumbershoot? I have this wonderful golf-sized umbrella that I got free from drinking lots of Lipton Tea. It’s red-and-white-striped with the Lipton logo. It’s my go-to umbrella when it’s raining…and people laugh and laugh because it’s so huge. But it keeps me dry, so I’m keeping it.
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write a poem using the imagery of an umbrella. It can be any kind of umbrella: rain umbrella, beach umbrella, an umbrella in a mixed drink, one of those silly hat umbrellas, etc.
- If you journal, write a letter to your children (or nieces and nephews) about the time you needed an umbrella and didn’t have one.
- Consider the things that “umbrella” is a metaphor for: a shield for protection, something to hide behind, as a cover from risk, or a folded umbrella representing untapped potential, etc. Write about the time you or a character in one of your stories could have used an umbrella — metaphorically.
Friday, January 27th, 2012
 “Taking Our Geese to Market”1909 W. H. Martin Decades before the software program Photoshop was a gleam in anyone’s eye, photographer W.H. Martin was creating photo montages. Judging from the few postcards I’ve seen, his themes were mostly agricultural, with some based on “old wives tales.”
All the ones I’ve seen tell a tall tale.
According to Wikipedia:
“A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some such stories are exaggerations of actual events, for example fish stories (‘the fish that got away’) such as, “that fish was so big, why I tell ya’, it nearly sank the boat when I pulled it in!”
Other tall tales are completely fictional tales set in a familiar setting, such as the European countryside, the American Old West, the Canadian Northwest, or the beginning of the Industrial Age.
See Wikipedia for more information about tall tales.
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write a tall tale about what happened to you today.
- If today is too hum-drum
 , write a tall tale about another day in your life.
- Re-write a tall tale you already know with yourself as the main character, and using modern day events.
- Like Martin, create a visual pictorial of a tall tale: draw it, use photography software to create it, or tear pictures from a magazine to make a collage.
- Write an exaggerated poem about something that happened to you yesterday.
Friday, January 13th, 2012
 I was halfway home from work today when I realized I’d not scheduled the writing prompt for today.
Whoops!
I’ve had so much on my mind that I forgot.
So… in honor of forgetting, today’s prompt is about forgetfulness.
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Your character forgets something very important. What happens?
- One of your characters forgets something she thinks is no big deal, but her best friend/ significant other/ spouse completely disagrees. Write the argument that ensues.
- If you journal, use either of the two above prompts, only from your point of view.
- Write an acrostic poem using the word Forget or Forgetful.
- Here are some famous quotations about forgetfulness to spark you:
- It is the lot of man to suffer, it is also his fortune to forget. – Benjamin Disraeli
- Though the past haunt me as a spirit, I do not ask to forget. – Felicia Dorothea Browne Hermans
- There is a noble forgetfulness–that which does not remember injuries. – Charles Simmons
- When out of sight, quickly also out of mind. – Thomas a Kempis
Friday, January 6th, 2012
 I was heading to work Wednesday morning this week — my first day back in the office after a long Christmas Holiday — when I’d finally reached the exit for the highway.
The signs loomed above me: east in one direction, west in the other. Usually, I’m on autopilot at a little after 5 a.m. in the morning, and veer eastbound strictly out of habit.
But Wednesday I had the strongest — the strangest — urge to take the westbound ramp and just keep going.
The closer I got to the ramp, the stronger the urge grew, so much so that I had to grip the steering wheel hard and make a conscious effort to make the left hand turn instead of drifting into the right hand on-ramp.
Even after I made the turn and was heading east, something inside me cried out for a U-turn (impossible on this divided highway – I would have spent time playing the clover leaf should I have succumbed to my urges).
Urges are motivated by something, either conscious or unconscious, and I’ve yet to decipher what my motivation was.
We could argue that it was some ghostly pull inspiring the desire to drive westward, but it could have simply been that I had such a blast with family and friends over the holidays that I was reluctant to end that euphoria by schlepping back to work.
Another motivation could be that work is such a heinous place (yeah, it has its moments) that I didn’t want to go back. Somehow, I think my westward urge would have manifested before Wednesday morning if that were the case.
Whatever the reason, I managed to suppress the desire and arrive safely to toil at my workaday endeavors without further incident.
Here’s Your Prompt:
- If you’re a journal or diarist, write about the time you succumbed to the will of an urge. What was your motivation? Did you anticipate the action with glee only to end in despair? Did giving in prove wildly exciting? Do you have any regrets? Do you wish you’d given in to more urges?
- Write a story or a scene in which a character falls prey to an urge that is completely out of character for him. Why did he do it? What was the motivation? Did it end badly or well??
- Write a story or scene about a character who stands firm against an urge…something she’s not known for doing. Where did she find the power to resist? Does the scene end badly, or well? Does she regret not giving in, or feel self-righteous that she was able to stand firm?
- Some quick prompts:
- a friend urges another to rid herself of a (real or perhaps not) physical imperfection
- a wife urges her husband to overcome a sexual inhibition
- a psychologist urges his patient to face a truth
- a student urges another to deface a university building
- you feel the urge to tell a lie to someone close to you
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Photo obtained from NY Times Web site.
Friday, December 23rd, 2011
 So…
Things have been pretty quiet around the blog lately. I’ve been baking lots of cookies, and working more than I want to at the day job, but it’s been hard to concentrate on the writing stuff — mostly — because I was being sued and had to go to court.
In short: I was leaving a parking lot nearly three (3!) years ago when a man backed out of a parking space and struck my car. He brought suit against me this July. He claimed it was my fault, and he sought recompense for doctor’s bills, pain and suffering, damage to his car, etc.
The amount he sued me for elevated the case out of the lower court and we had to go to trial.
My lawyer successfully defended me, so all is well. (Now, maybe I can get back to the writing.)
A funny part of the story: I learned I was being sued by advertising. I received three letters in the mail, all from attorneys offering to represent me, before I’d even been served.
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Involve one of your characters with the law: have them be sued (or sue someone) and need to go to trial. Or, have them witness an event at which they have to testify. Worse, have him or her be held up at gunpoint, or be standing at the register when someone comes in to rob the establishment. Tell what happens.
- Create a fictional legal system to use in a short story or novel. Design the laws (and the reasons for them), how they are broken, and what the punishments are. If the punishment includes working off the debt, define how this is accomplished. If lawbreakers are punished with incarceration, design the jail system and holding cells. If punishment includes banishment, include information on where people are banished to (the living conditions, the environment, what they’re provided with, etc.). What other ways are people held accountable for their deeds in your world?
- Imagine a world where no laws exist. How does the world function? Is it a good or bad place to live in? How do people protect themselves against (human) predators? How could a legal system evolve? Would people want it to?
- Define our legal system as you would to a child.
- Write about the time you broke the law: Have you broken the speed limit? Ignored a ‘Do Not Litter’ sign? Walked off the path in a public park? Were you caught? What happened? Did you talk your way out of the situation? Did you have to pay a fine? Did you go to jail?
- Imagine being arrested for a crime you didn’t commit. The evidence against you looks bad. It’s so bad, that if you didn’t know you hadn’t done it, you would have thought you’d done it. Does the jury find for you or against you? Write how the trial proceeds.
- Imagine you are an attorney when “the case of the century” is handed to you to prosecute or defend. You know the outcome of the trail will change the world as you know it. What is this case? What is your argument as the prosecutor or defender? What will happen if you win or lose the trial?
Friday, December 16th, 2011
 Today is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a key event in the American Revolution.
On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of Colonists boarded the ships — some dressed as Mohawk Indians — and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor.
(Governing officials thought Colonists would give in, accept the tax, and purchase the tea. They had no idea that the burgeoning American Spirit would incite such rebellion.)
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write about rebellion: a time in the world’s history, or a time in your history. Have you ever gone against the establishment? Or fought for something for which you believed you were in the right?
- Write a rebellion into your current manuscript: it could be a tiny little thing (breaking a small infraction) or the telling of a war.
- Write about tea. Do you like or not? Do you drink it often? If not, when are you compelled to drink it? Are you a ‘ritual’ tea drinker…. following a precise set of rules for the heating of the water (and the teapot) and the correct timing of the brew? Or, are you a ‘boil a water and toss a bag into it’ kind of person?
- Do your characters drink tea? How about coffee? Beer? Soda, whiskey, wine? (Do you find your characters consume the same foods you do?) Write a scene where one of your characters drinks something other than what you have him normally drink. Do his actions change? His thoughts? Does this make the scene better or worse?
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
 December is “National Write to a Friend Month,” so I thought I’d do a prompt on writing letters.
With the advent of email, it seems that the “art” of letter writing has gone by the wayside, but it doesn’t have to. I like receiving personalized letters via snail mail (so I make sure to write some, so that people write me back).
Writing to a friend differs from writing to a business, but both include a salutation, a body, a closing and a signature. A friendly letter doesn’t need to have a date on it, but I’m partial to that method.
The facts:
- Salutation – The opening of the letter, for example, “Dear Mom”
- Body – The text of the letter. The body contains everything you say up to the closing.
- Closing – How you “sign off” from the body. It brings closure to what’s been said, and alerts the reader that the letter is ending. An example: Until next time…
- Signature – Your name (so that the recipient knows who the letter is from).
- Date – The date can go at the top of the page or the bottom. Your choice.
Letter writing is useful, even if you never mail it out. They can be cathartic — allowing you to get all your feelings down on paper. You can say all those things you want to say to someone, and then burn it up before anyone reads it.
You can write a letter to your children and tuck it away for them to find after you pass on.
You can write letters instead of diary entries.
Letters make a great memoir in place of a narrative.
Letters can be used in novels and stories to move the plot along. (Also very useful for figuring out what your characters want. If you don’t know where the story is going, have your main characters write letters to each other. Don’t censor your writing: just see what comes out of your brain as you’re writing.)
Here’s Your Prompt:
Write a letter!
Friday, November 25th, 2011
This idea will work if you’re blocked, or if you want to write, but don’t have any idea what you want to say.
It can work with a short story, a novel or a poem; anything, in fact.
I believe I first heard this method from author Bruce Holland Rogers, though I can’t be 100% certain. (Bruce, if you’re listening, please set me straight.)
What to do:
Take a book off your shelf and crack it open to the first page, or the first page of a chapter, or a poem at random.
Read the sentence, then write one very similar to it, changing the nouns and verbs and setting, etc. Then move on to the second and third, or as many will help you as a jumping off point. Then, continue on your own.
So, for example, from Chapter 2 of Anne Ursu’s book, Shadow Thieves, the second chapter begins:
Charlotte was one month into the school year at Hartnett Prepatory School, and thus far the year had proved to be just like all other years, except more so.
I might write something like this:
Mark had been in the sanitarium for eight weeks now. And it wasn’t quite living up to the standard of nuthouses he’d formed in his mind. It was worse.
We could go on…
Anne’s opening paragraph (in C2) continues:
Eight of the other girls in her class, whose names all begin with A, had left for the summer as brunettes and had come back as blonds.
So I write:
Three of the others in his “we see dead people” ward, had been treated to brain stimulation therapy that left them near comatose, until their bodies seemed to heal the damage. (And then, they didn’t see their dead relatives anymore.)
Mark sighed, glad he’d seen the first two come back looking like zombies after their treatment. He never would have known how to act otherwise. The treatment left him giddy, feeling free, and his Uncle Bob sounded even more clear than before. And if he wasn’t mistaken, his dead sister, Melissa, had something really important to tell to him.
He simply had to act like the others, so the docs wouldn’t catch on. Soon, he’d be out of here, too.
Didn’t take me long to go off on a tangent, eh? And I took an interesting YA sentence, and waltzed off into something supernatural. It doesn’t matter what you start with, your brain will engage with what you want to write.
Here’s Your Prompt:
Take a book off the shelf and open it to the beginning, the beginning of a random chapter, or anywhere, if it’s a poetry book.
Read the first few lines to see if the content is interesting to you. (If not, choose another spot.)
Write the first line exactly as written, skip a few lines on your page, and then start your own writing.
See where it leads you!
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