Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010  “Oh, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
that monthly changes in her circled orb –
Lest thy love prove likewise variable.”
Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet.
I learned this quote before I even knew who Shakespeare was. I found it in a scholastic book of superstitions that I’d purchased in grade school.
I read the quote, loved it, and committed it to memory, because even back then, I was fascinated by the moon.
There’s just something about that shiny spot in the sky that catches my fancy – so much so, that it lives in my writing, usually without any conscious effort on my part.
What lives in your writing? What fascinates you so much that it’s become a part of your writer’s tool kit?
Friday, November 19th, 2010  You’re dreading it: your review with your boss, a conversation with a best friend, or a conference with your teacher about your grades.
If you’re like me, you amplify those situations in your mind…giving voice and thoughts and mannerisms to your opponent, deciding what they will say, and how you will respond, building and building the encounter until it’s blown out of proportion…
This happened to me just last week. (And it was so anticlimactic when I got my way right out the starting gate and didn’t need to list all the reasons why I needed to do a certain something or use all the arguments against what I thought were going to be the obstacles in my way…)
Sigh. And I was so raring to go.
You’ve had moments like that, right?
Well, don’t let these thoughts go to waste! They make excellent fodder for writing.
Here’s Your Prompt: Think of a situation in which you have to confront someone and 1) ask for something you’re certain you’re not going to get, or 2) tell someone something you really don’t want to say because it will make them __________ (angry, sad, jealous, etc. You fill in the blank).
If you can’t think of a real-life situation, make one up.
Step 1: Just write the dialogue. How do you start off? Do you come right to the point and ask for something, or do you build up to the pitch? Do you try to be tactful and save someone’s hurt feelings? Or, do you give it to them straight knowing you’re going to get blasted with anger, but at least it will be over with quickly? Write from the beginning all the way to the last word of the conversation or argument.
Step 2: Go back to the beginning and 1) set the scene, and 2) add the action. Are you standing or sitting? Perhaps only one of you is standing. Who screams her words? Who cries and wrings his hands? Is it day or night, outside or inside, close to a holiday or an important (to you or your opponent) event?
Step 3: Once more, go to the beginning and start adding little details to give the scene some flavor: who’s wearing a red sweater and black loafers? Who’s long hair gets in the way? What kind of dog barked? Can you hear the sound of rain, a horn blowing, or a voice singing off key in the distance?
Finally: consider how this scene could be included in a story. Is it one of many arguments that two people have during the course of a novel? If so, think of other things these two can argue about, how could you build the plot around the theme of the argument/conversation? Or, could this be the culminating point of a short story? The highpoint? What events could have led up to this “blowout”? How could it be wrapped up?
Thursday, November 18th, 2010  Author Paul Evancoe spoke at at the Maryland Writer’s Association meeting last night. Paul’s a retired Navy SEAL with extensive combat experience as well as an former Director for Special Operations in the Office of the Coordinator for Counter-terrorism at the U.S. Department of State.
(Aren’t those awesome credentials? He’s also a very nice guy.)
Much of Paul’s SEAL experience is in Vietnam.
Sound familiar?
My character Cade Owen, Navy SEAL and Selkie aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Livingstone, in Selk-Skin Deep, served his time in Vietnam, too.
Nothing was going to keep me from the meeting last night.
Paul talked about the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the rebuilding of our military after World War II, Communism, the Cold War, Terrorists… He drew maps on the white board, penciled in bombing missions, showed us how to guard territories, etc. I was fascinated by his descriptions of how the shores of Korea are guarded.
I recommend his books based solely on hearing him speak. I haven’t read anything by Paul, but if his books are anything like his presentation, I can guarantee they’re fabulous. If you like military or historical fiction…if you want to learn about Navy SEALS…check out his stuff.
(Of course, I had another moratorium #fail. I’m now the proud owner of “Own the Night.” It’s sitting right here beside me, tempting me to pick it up…)
We had little time to talk about Paul’s writing process. But he did mention two interesting things:
1) he writes his books like a Hollywood movie “treatment.” That is, he writes the entire story, beginning to end, in about 40 pages, roughing in chapter breaks, but hitting all the major scenes. Once this is done, he goes back to flesh it out. If I can make it through my current “pantsing” style novel, I might give it a try.
2) He talked about the “subliminal” plot in writing: while building your major plot and storyline, be cognizant of the underlying layer of relationships among the players which denotes a subliminal message or story. Every story should have one, he said. This bears looking into, I’m certain.
I couldn’t find any info on “subliminal plots in writing” via web search, no matter how I twisted the phrase. If you’ve got info on subliminal plots, please pass it along.
Saturday, November 13th, 2010 Tangent posted an in-depth review of Bad Ass Fairies 3: In all Their Glory, and had some really nice things to say about my story, Selk-Skin Deep:
“Selk-Skin Deep” by Kelly A. Harmon is a very well-written, harrowing story of an accident that didn’t have to happen aboard an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam war. The selkie uses his advantage to try and save the ship and its crew. Ms. Harmon has written an action packed, suspenseful account of a naval battle with a poignant ending.
 I’m pleased to hear it. There have been a few other reviews, and they’ve been good, but no one’s singled out my story. Of course, the Tangent reviewer mentioned all the stories, but I can’t help feeling a happy glow from what she said.
If you’re interested, I’ve got permission to post the first five pages of the story. You can read it here. Warning: it ends abruptly in the middle of the scene!
 You can read the entire story in the anthology, which just happens to be an EPIC Finalist. (Winners will be announced in March. With a little luck, I’ll be changing this “finalist” icon to a “winner” icon some time in the next few months.)
If you’re at all curious about the Bad Ass Faeries™ series, you need to check out the new Bad Ass Fairies Web site. There’s an associated blog as well.
Friday, November 12th, 2010  Happy Birthday, Elizabeth Cady Stanton! She was born on November 12, 1815, and is often cited as initiating the first organized Women’s Rights Movement in the United States.
What’s special about Ms. Stanton is that she wanted more for women beyond the right to vote. Her concerns included women’s parental and custody rights, property rights, employment and income rights, divorce laws, the economic health of the family, and birth control.
Stanton’s outspokenness on many of these issues caused a split in the Women’s Rights Movement, especially after she and Susan B. Anthony declined to support the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. (The 14th broadened the definition of citizenship to include former slaves and the 15th provided the right to vote).
Her opposition was not a manifestation of racism, but of fairness. Despite their passage, the 14th and 15th Amendments did not give women (black, white or other) the right to vote.
Twenty years passed before the two groups were united again under the Presidency of Stanton. She fought for women’s rights her entire life, and died October 26, 1902 – nearly twenty years before women were granted the right to vote.
Here’s Your Prompt: Create a world in which there is inequality to a specific group of people and how rights are restored to all. (It’s too easy to make this schism based on race, religion or gender, so be more creative and try for something different. )
Pay more attention to the reasons why one group of people sees another group as a threat of some sort. Think about how people react to those who are different and incorporate these incidents into the theme. Who are the suffragettes in this instance? Are those looking out for the rights of others from the “normal” group or the “different” group? Or are they from both? Keep in mind this shouldn’t be a story celebrating the differences but one about the struggle to understand and embrace differences as well as to alleviate any injustices manifesting from them.
In other words, don’t write me a heart-warming story about “people with differences” with a little politics on the side… I want the story to be about the struggle.
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010  A plotter is someone who makes some sort of an outline of their story before he or she sits down to write it. Sometimes this is an exhaustive document, sometimes it’s just a list of scenes or major plot points.
A “pantser” is someone who gets an idea and runs with it: no idea where he’s going, but eventually, he’ll get to the end of the story. (This is writing by the seat of the pants, hence the name.)
I’m a plotter…usually. I like to know where I’m going. It saves me tons of re-writes and I never get writer’s block.
I say “usually” because I’ve just started a novel which I’m pantsing. And it’s killing me. I can’t stand not having an outline. (I don’t know how you pantsers do it.)
The reason I’m pantsing it this time around is because I’m writing a story which is a bit outside of my comfort zone: a contemporary urban fantasy which takes place in Baltimore. I’ve got (what I think is) a fantastic idea…and I’m running with it.
What I need to do is let the idea percolate in my mind for a while before I start to write, but I’m too excited about it. I just want to get it all down on paper…but I don’t know where it’s going to end.
And that’s the problem: if I don’t know how it’s going to end, I can’t plot it out.
I’ve recently signed up for an on-line plot class to see if that could help. Unfortunately, lesson one included writing the beginning of the story (no problem!) and the end (um, problem). The class is designed to fill in the middle.
Well, I could do that on my own…
I’m toying with S. Andrew Swann’s method right now:
A four step exercise in Plot development:
1. Create a character.
2. Give this character a problem to deal with.
3. Imagine at least three different ways this particular character might possibly deal with this particular problem.
4. Pick one (or more) of these options, and imagine at least three different ways it a) wouldn’t work, and b) would make the character’s situation worse. (Short of killing off the protagonist and ending the story.)
It’s promising, and might help me out with lesson one of my online class. With some luck, I’ll have an outline by this weekend.
In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you. Once you get an idea for a story, how do you manage the plotting through to the end? What do you do if you’re not quite sure how it will end? What are some strategies or exercises you employ to form a cohesive story?
Here are some fantastic resources on plotting I’ve found while trying to hammer out my plot:
* The Butterfly Story Plot Graphic is from Scholastic. It appears it’s no longer available for download from their sight. (Alas.) If anyone has the pdf, I’d love to have a copy!
Friday, November 5th, 2010  Have I told you I’m a genealogist? I am.
I absolutely love digging up dirt on all my relatives–the dead ones, anyway. (Who doesn’t love gossip, especially family gossip? Sadly, I think this tendency contributed to my wasted career in journalism…)
When I do my research, I want to know my ancestor’s stories more than I care about names and dates. Those things are important, of course, but I’d rather hear how someone did in school than know the dates they attended. It’s people’s actions and exploits which make them interesting.
My great-grandpa, for example, spent time in Leavenworth (a prison so infamous, I didn’t have to say “Leavenworth Penitentiary,” eh?).
He ran moonshine.
He was alerted when the revenuers were in the area and warned not to speak to them. But when the men in suits knocked on the front door, he offered to sell them some white lightning.
And then they took him away.
Here’s Your Prompt: Create a character using tales from your family history. If nothing seems “big” enough (surely, there must be at least one interesting character in your family…?) then combine the exploits of two or more to make composite. If you don’t know any stories, dig through some family papers that might be stashed somewhere. Call up an older relative who might have something to share. Go to your local library (or use a service on line) to find some archives of newspapers from the area of where your family is from. Try Google.
If all else fails: borrow someone else’s family history. There’s plenty enough to share.
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010  I love idea generators.
I get a kick out of seeing what other people make out of prompts as much as I enjoy trying them out myself. (That’s one reason I create a new writing prompt every Friday. Here’s the current list of them.)
Today I came across the Brainstormer. It’s been around for a while, but slid under my radar…probably because I tend to favor prompts with more meat.
The Brainstormer is definitely terse. And yet, I find it very appealing.
Andrew Bosley created the generator from lists he’d compiled while studying visual development and illustration. He’d choose random ideas from each list to prompt him to draw.
His original idea was to present these lists visually on his Web site and let folks cut and paste them together in a dial…but instead his friend John Michel programmed it in Flash.
(At first, I thought I would have loved to print it, cut it, paste it, etc. to have this nifty generator I could hold, but in hindsight I realize that for the cat waxing that it is…)
The flash is so much cooler. And faster.
My first spin of the wheel: Revenge Fairy Butcher
Sorry: You can’t have that idea. Get Your Own. I’m already brewing a story for that.
Monday, November 1st, 2010  It looks a little like Cindy Lou Who’s house around here tonight.
Intentionally.
The Husband of Awesome™ and I gave up our couch and loveseat a few weeks ago and have been sitting on lawn furniture ever since. Not the most comfortable arrangement.
But it had to be done.
I knew that if we didn’t get rid of the couches, it would be months — perhaps a year or more — before we actually shopped for replacements. Furniture shopping: not one of my favorite things.
By getting rid of the couches, we forced our own hands, so to speak. We had to go shopping immediately, or be resigned to sittting on lawn furniture for eternity.
But before there was lawn furniture, there was emptiness, and that space allowed us to consider all kinds of possibilities to fill it.
Inevitably, this got me to thinking about writing. (What doesn’t get me to think about writing?)
Is your writing stalled? Is there something just not working in your story?
What if you examine your work in progress for scenes which aren’t doing the best job they could be doing? Are your scenes advancing the story? Are they growing the tension? Even if they’re adding to the tale, are they written in such a way that they’re not killing the pace?
What would happen if you excised that scene entirely?
What could you fill the space with? Consider your options. If you remove a scene — or even an entire plot line — what kind of possibilities does that open up?
Monday, October 25th, 2010 I have to keep this short because it’s gotten so late…
Capclave was a blast this year.
I met a lot of nice people at my Submitting Short Fiction Seminar and had the opportunity to chat at length with 1632 author Iver P. Cooper. It’s got me thinking about writing some stories for the Grantville Gazette.
(Seminar attendees: look right for the link I mentioned I’d be putting up.)
I finally decided on reading from “The Dragon’s Clause” during the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. The reading was sparsely attended, but to be expected since it took place directly after the dinner hour. I suspect that many folks were still out socializing and touring the area. (Nonetheless, I think I read well. I’d practiced, because the few bits of Italian in the story can really trip up the tongue. I’m glad to say that I got through “Consiglio Grande e Generale Municipio” without effort.
The dealer’s room had only a few dealers, and I have to admit that I was disappointed. Nonetheless, I managed another Moratorium #fail by purchasing two books from C.J. Henderson, a fellow Bad Ass Fairies author. I’ll probably get to those books in June! Worse: he tossed in a free magazine….like I need another “something” to read. (Thanks, C.J.!) 😉
I caught up with some fellow knitters, and I’m kicking myself because I didn’t ask about a beautiful brownish-red scarf/caplet that I’d been admiring. I got caught up in the conversation and the moment was lost. (Hint, hint! If you’re reading….can you tell me where to get the pattern?)
Again, must run…but before sign off: Special thanks to Colleen Cahill, a Capclave organizer who is amazing at getting things done. Colleen asked me to attend and made certain I had a projector for my seminar….
More later!
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Writers - Maryland Writer's Assn.
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