Friday, July 5th, 2013 I was talking to a friend earlier this week about secrets. Mostly, it was about family secrets: things that have been buried for years that suddenly come to light.
Oh, my! What a mess. The drama!
Sorry, I can’t spill the beans here.
But it got me thinking nonetheless.
Why are secrets kept? Why are things shared? What prompts people to share secrets after years, decades, of being mum?
Once, when I was visiting the cemetery with my Mom, she walked up to the edge of my great-great uncle’s grave and put her shoe on the corner. “His daughter’s buried right here,” my Mom said.
Revelation! There’s no tombstone but my uncle’s on the grave, and no indication that any other body might be buried there. I never even knew my G-G-uncle had a daughter! Why would she be buried in such mean conditions?
These are the things great stories are made of!
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write about what makes a thing secret. Then write what makes a thing shared. Experiment with writing each in two different ways: veiled language for secrets, open and direct language for shared things. Then, try it again and switch language.
- Write a story (or a poem) about a family revelation. Write it first by exposing the secret at the beginning. Write it again, leading up to the revelation and then a tell-all at the end. Which is more powerful?
- Write about a character who shares too much. Or, write about a character who doesn’t share enough.
- Lord Byron says, “No words suffice the secret soul to show, for truth denies all eloquence to woe.” True or False? Why? ~ From, The Corsair, Canto iii. Stanza 22. George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron.
- Story Starter: I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone, but I know I can trust you.
- If you journal, write about a family secret. You don’t need to reveal the secret if you don’t want to, just talk about what transpired between family members. Who knows and who doesn’t know? How has it changed relationships? Is keeping secrets worth it? How has the secret changed lives?
- “What magic shall solve us the secret of beauty that’s born for an hour?” said Madison Julius Cawein. Write what the secret of beauty is.
Good Luck!
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Have you read The Dragon’s Clause?
For hundreds of years, San Marino paid tribute to the dragon living beneath their mountain city. But no one alive remembers him. Despite the existence of a contract, the town refuses to pay this year. When the residents renege on the deal, they must face the wrath of the beast.
Amazon.com | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords
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Friday, June 28th, 2013  Most people work to earn a living.
So, unless you write about fabulously wealthy people all the time, I’m going to assume that your characters are working-class folk.
And even if you write fantasy, your character is going to have to make a living somehow–whether it be by herding sheep or in the castle guard–so I think you might find this useful.
For most people, work defines who they are. When you meet someone at a party, you’re inevitably asked, “What do you do?” We’re slotted into pigeonholes at first meet: he’s a computer programer, she’s a lawyer, he owns a plumbing and heating company…
This works for fabulously wealthy people who spend their time on good causes, too: She does books for a soup kitchen, he’s a doctor at a free clinic, she reads to the blind.
And like it or not, what we do for a living–or to fill the time–shapes us. We spend a huge amount of our time in pursuit of it: exposed to the politics, embroiled in projects, learning our pecking order, gaining experience both good and bad.
So knowing what your character does for a living is important–even if it’s never mentioned in the book. Because what he learned on the job is a takeaway to his life. Keep this in mind when creating new characters.
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write a scene or a story about an important event in a person’s life…but come at it from the perspective of work: you can only reveal things as they are happening on the job.
- Write a story about a person who keeps making the right decisions at work, but keeps landing in deeper and deeper trouble for them.
- Write the scene (or an entire story) about a bitter person who’s got the dream of a lifetime–her dream of a lifetime–and how it ruined her.
- Go large on the work idea: write a story that takes place at a business. The characters can only be seen as how they act on the job – no scenes away from the workplace.
- Write a story where your main character is having trouble keeping his job. This difficulty can be central to the story or not.
- If you Journal…
- Write about the loss of your job.
- Write about all the summer jobs you’ve had, or about your favorite summer job.
- Write about your Worst. Job. Ever. (Or worst boss!)
- Have you ever been profoundly effected by someone else’s job — or job loss? Write it.
Good Luck!
Friday, June 7th, 2013  It’s raining, it’s pouring
The old man is snoring
He went to bed and bumped his head
And didn’t get up until morning!
It’s raining today where I am, just hard enough for me to hear the commotion, but gentle enough to qualify it as a spring rain. It’s been raining for hours, too, watering my plants and greening things up all over the yard.
I love it when it rains on the days I’m able to sleep in. The room stays dark and cool, I hear the pattering of the rain on the eaves, and I can pull my feather pillow closer and snooze a little longer.
It’s apparently not bothering the birds, who are our in murders, chimes and parties (crows, wrens, and blue jays) searching for worms.
(Really, they ought to try the driveway, because that’s where all the worms hang out on rainy days. Up on the hill is so last week.)
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write about a group of employees stuck at work, because the rain (the storm) is so bad they can’t get home.
- Similarly, write about a group of people huddled together in a bus stop shelter. What happens when they’re there for an “extended” period of time.
- Write from the point of view of the storm: are you the tiny raindrop, the dark, thundering cloud, or the bolt of lightening? Are you something else?
- Write about the best time your were trapped out in the rain. Write about the worst.
- Write how you feel about rain. Do thunderstorms affect you more than gentle spring rains? Do you hate all rain? What would be better in your life without it? What would be worse?
- Consider:
Kase here am facts days mighty plain, An’ any time you sees ’em you kin look fuh rain… ~ James Weldon Johnson, ed. The Book of American Negro Poetry. 1922.
Do you (or your character) always look for rain? Write about a time you (or your character) were looking for rain–as usual–and were surprised not to find it.
- Re-write an important scene in your current work in progress so that it happens while it’s raining. How can the intrusion of rain make your scene more dramatic?
- Write about:
Dusk in the rain-soaked garden, And dark the house within. A door creaked: someone was early To watch the dawn begin. But he stole away like a thief in the chilly, star-bright air… ~ Siegfried Sassoon, The Dark House, 1920
- Write a story where record-breaking floods (caused by rain) destroy someone’s life. (This isn’t about killing a character, this is about the flood waters taking away the most important part of his or her life: his family, his lover, her livelihood, etc.)
Good Luck!
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Photo Copyright © Tiffany Toland | Dreamstime Stock Photos
Friday, May 31st, 2013  I attended Balticon this past weekend. (Had a terrific time, as usual.)
Balticon takes place at a hotel in Hunt Valley, Maryland and gets booked solid by the time the event rolls around. On the opening day, the hotel entrance is over-crowded by folks who come from all around loaded for bear with all the things they can’t live without for four days.
It’s amazing to see what folks travel with, and how they travel: like the eight folks that traveled together down from New York in a single car, but got separate rooms because they needed the space.
Then there’s the dichotomy of those who will travel as light as possible, forgoing even a change of clothes (I hope they brought their toothbrush!) so they’ll have room in the car for all the treasures they’ll take home; and those who travel with trunks filled with costuming gear, and you’ll see changed several times a day.
I’ve seen folks come in with several coolers and (little red) wagons loaded with food so they never have to leave the hotel in search of a less-expensive meal. (And NOT at Balticon, I’ve seen these same folks pull their wagons and coolers up to a gaming table so they can play all night without having to leave their chair!)
Here’s Your Prompt:
Good Luck!
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Photo Copyright: © Clarita | Dreamstime Stock Photos
Friday, May 24th, 2013  I’m heading over to Balticon later on today, and it’s been a frenetic week preparing. Not because I’ve got such a large schedule — I deliberately don’t have much of one at all this year — but because life just got in the way.
I’m sure there’s a blog post/writing prompt for “life getting in the way” but that seemed kind of vague to me this morning. Watch for it later, I’m certain.
So, today’s prompts are rather random. Just some ideas I’ve been playing with that haven’t gone together for one huge post…and they all start with the photo.
Your options: choose the photo for the prompt, one or some of the prompts, or all of them (that might prove interesting!) and write away.
The Random Prompts
- A woman on her honeymoon is shocked to learn a major secret from her husband’s past.
- “Uncle John, I don’t like this.”
- I loved her with all my heart – but every day she became more of a leech.
- While driving to work one day, you decide to drive by the office, and just keep going.
- A woman on her honeymoon is shocked to learn a major secret from her husband’s past.
Friday, May 17th, 2013 So the Husband-of-Awesome™ and I set about to grill chicken for dinner the other night.
Mr. Awesome went out to the grill and opened it up to find this:
Here’s a close-up. Turns out there were five little birdies plus mama nesting in the grill.
The really fortunate thing about the matter is that Mr. Awesome broke with habit when he found the birds. Usually, he fires up the grill willy-nilly without peeking inside, so that it’s pleasantly pre-heated before we cook.
(Don’t blame him, I do it, too.)
Imagine if he hadn’t broken his normal habit. Those birds don’t know how lucky they had it.
And us, too.
And so this unexpected discovery put paid to the grilling endeavor, not just for Wednesday night, but until the little guys decide to vacate the grill.
Here’s Your Prompt
- Write a scene in which either your protagonist or antagonist is unexpectedly surprised by something nice and cheerful which messes up their plans. Note: it’s got to cause your characters some consternation, because a story isn’t a good story without some drama!
- It could be argued that Mr. Awesome’s break with habit was due to ‘divine intervention’ of some sort*. Write a scene in which a similar serendipitous event wreaks havoc with your characters’ plans.
- Journal about a time when something strange happened (divine intervention?) — in the nick of time — to save you or a family member from peril.
Good Luck!
* Or maybe he just saw some straw sticking out of the bottom of the grill.
Friday, May 10th, 2013 I got sued this week for nearly $10,000.
I received two letters in the mail from attorney’s wishing to represent me.
The only problem is, I am not the Kelly Harmon that everyone’s looking for.
I phoned the attorney who represents the plaintiff, and his assistant apologized: they were certain I was the wrong person when they filed the paperwork with the courts, but they wanted to have something in the case files while the other Kelly Harmon is MIA.
(This raises my hackles on all kinds of levels, not withstanding the fact that it appears in public court documents that I skipped town after not paying rent for a few months. But why would an attorney knowingly put false information in court records?)
But we’re getting away from the topic here: mistaken identity.
If I hadn’t proactively called the attorney on the case, I would have been served with papers. (While I was chatting with the assistant, she put me on hold to call the process server and tell him not to drop by my house.)
Being served would have opened up a whole host of problems: all of which are fun to put your characters through…but no fun to live through in real life.
I got lucky. Here’s hoping that your character isn’t!
Here’s Your Prompt
- Imagine you’re approached on the street by a stranger who greets you as though he knows you. Instead of claiming mistaken identity, decide to continue the discussion to see where it leads. Write the dialogue and setting of such a situation.
- Write the story from the opposite point of view: you’re the man who greets the other as if he already knows him. The twist: you know you don’t know him, and you’re trying to scam him in some way. What’s the scam? What happens?
- Write about a character who gets in trouble because of mistaken identity (is sued, or caught by a bounty hunter and thrown in jail, or becomes the target of a smear campaign, or is beaten up by a raging family member hell bent on getting revenge for someone, etc). How does the character clear his name? How is the situation resolved?
Good luck!
Friday, May 3rd, 2013 I’m reading a book by a new-to-me author and I’m really enjoying it, despite my reluctance to start. It was one of these world-traveling books where the modern-day protagonist finds a magic item at a yard sale and is whisked to another world. Quite the trope set up.
But I read a blog post by the author (on something completely unrelated) and her voice caught my fancy.
The intriguing twist in the book is that when our lovely world-traveling protag ends up in her other world, she can tell the future of anyone she touches.
So, of course, my mind is on fortune-telling. Fortunes make wonderful leaping off points for story or scene starters. I imagine they’re great for jogging your memory if you’re writing your memoir.
With that in mind, your prompt today is set of “fortune-teller like” predictions.
Here’s Your Prompt
- “…it came to pass that…”
- You are in the woods. You must prepare a sacrifice.
- The architect of your destiny is…
- You are walking the city streets, randomly turning corners, when an animal approaches you and tells you something…
- You’re on a journey, between heaven and earth, approaching the sacred site. And the sacred site looks like a shiny diamond, protected by the worst of hell’s fatal traps…
- Down into the deepest depths you look…and see what?
- You have the opportunity to visit a seer. What is the one question you’re allowed to ask? What’s the answer?
- Stones by the road tell the future of what’s to come.
- You receive an invitation from a casual acquaintance, and find yourself at a party attended by hundreds in a large, elegant mansion in the ritzy part of a town. An hour after you arrive you receive another invitation — delivered by one of the caterer’s staff — to meet the Lady of All Wild Things on the balcony, overlooking the pool…
- A stranger approaches you in a grocery story and hands you something, saying, “Wear this for protection.”
If you don’t like my suggestions, try the on line Fortune Cookie. You can reload the page to find new suggestions.
Good Luck!
Friday, April 26th, 2013  I had lunch with a writer friend yesterday, and as usual, we talked shop.
I finally asked him if he wouldn’t mind looking over a short story I’m writing, because I seem to have written myself into a corner. It’s science fiction, which I love reading, but never seem to get around to writing.
Absolutely he said yes, but then he offered a nugget of advice while plotting: write the last line first.
His method is to write the last line, ask himself how the characters got to that point, then ask how they got to the point preceding that, and so on.
Brilliant!
I’ve never suffered from “writer’s block” because (as I tell anyone who asks) I always “know where I’m going” when I’m writing. How can you be blocked if you know what’s coming next?
Starting from the end is the nth-most point of this. Now, why didn’t I think of that?
(Thanks, Carl!)
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write a poem, a short story, a scene or vignette by writing the last line first. Think: how will this end? And start from there.
- Think of two story/scene/poem endings, then think of how they each begin. Switch the beginnings of each idea and then write one of these ‘twisted’ stories.
- If you’re having trouble thinking of endings, here are a few ideas you can steal (re-write them once you get to the end!):
- Like thee, may New Switzerland flourish and prosper–good happy and free! – Johann Wyss, Thw Swiss Family Robinson
- “Now, that’s something like! Why, it’s a million times better than pirating. I’ll stick to the widder till I rot, Tom: and if I git to be a reg’lar ripper of a robber, and everybody talking ’bout it, I reckon she’ll be proud she snaked me in out of the wet.” ~ Samuel Clemens, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Then he closed his eyes and humbly surrendered his vanquished throat to the comfort of the blade. Miguel Torga – The Bull, from Farrusco: The Blackbird and Other Stories
- I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before. ~ Samuel Clemens, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England, June 11, in the year 1687, having been 35 years absent. ~ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Good luck!
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Photo by | Dreamstime Photos
Friday, April 19th, 2013 I finished reading three stories this week in which the main character died. I didn’t plan it, it just happened.
In case you’re interested, the characters are:
- Lily Bart in Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth. She accidentally committed suicide by overdosing on a “sleeping aid,” conveniently tying up the unraveling strands of her life.
- Delilah in Jennifer Roberson’s Sword Singer. Tragic and abrupt, it probably couldn’t have been handled in any other way. (Spoiler Alert: Okay, she really doesn’t die. But Roberson leaves you hanging like she does: The sword fight ends with Tiger lamenting that Del paid a very high price…and the final chapter sees him in the graveyard riding off alone. Well, what are you supposed to think?)
- Benjamin Button in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. (I’m interpreting this as death, but Button’s unmaking could probably be described better in scientific terms. Maybe he was simply un-born.)
Frankly, I call bullshit on principal characters who die.
(Especially when the story is first person, and the person telling it dies. But that’s a topic for another day…)
That being said, there are a lot of reasons to kill off main characters: they deserve it, they’ve lost their usefulness as a story tool, or – the best reason, in my opinion– to yank the reader’s chain. There’s nothing better than building up an awesome character and cutting short his life. It just tugs at the heartstrings of readers.
(Hello Ms. Roberson? Brava!)
Still, a character shouldn’t be killed off without good reason. And when there’s not a good reason, I call bullshit.
Benjamin and Delilah’s ‘death’ are well-justified, but I feel Wharton took the easy way out by killing off Lily. It’s convenient for her, because the story was really dragging on, and double convenient for Lily who had been cut off socially by friends and faced a woeful future of penury.
(I couldn’t wait to finish the book. If poor Lily would have defended her social position – she had the means – and discarded a bit of her pride, she would have fared much better. I don’t mind when a character makes stupid mistakes, but I can’t stand it when they make them over and over and over again. Makes me spitting mad.)
Here’s Your Prompt
Good luck!
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Writers - Maryland Writer's Assn.
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